to turn back in your Bibles to
the book of Revelation chapter 3, if you will. Revelations chapter
3. And you can follow me in your
pastor's commentary. Your outline is there. We are
returning to our study in the seven churches of Asia Minor
after a small break, which was to our benefit to contemplate
our new baptismal recipients, which was an absolute joy to
our souls, was it not? And to be reminded once again
of the blessing of new faith and new confession of faith before
the world of the grace of God, the Son Jesus Christ. And now
we're back at that portion of Scripture where we are to be
reminded that we're being spoken to by the Master directly. So if there's any portion of
Scripture that I would encourage you to pay much attention to,
especially if you're a child of God, is the book of the Revelation,
and more particularly, these seven churches. The Master is
speaking to His churches. And I've shared with you before
the blessing of Him speaking directly to them, as we have
in the opening of every letter to the seven churches, is that
the Lord is present in His church. The Lord is present in His church. is a joy for every believer for
the last thing that we ever want is for the Lord to depart from
us. Is that not so? And so for the Lord to be in
the midst of those seven churches speaking to them in the first
person via his servant is itself a kind of assurance that the
Lord has his hand upon the people of God. And we might by application
say this, if you in your own walk with God are able to hear
the Lord Jesus speaking to your soul through the word of God,
particularly with regards to who you are and your needs and
his expectations of you, you ought to be thankful. You ought
to be thankful to hear the voice of God. You ought to be grateful
that God is still speaking to you because there are times when
he does not. And so the seven churches of
Asia Minor grip us because while they affirm the whole idea of
the assurance of the presence of the Lord among us, they also
affirm our accountability before Him as well, that the people
of God are accountable before Christ, are we not? Well, if
you don't believe that, why do you think our reading was in
Luke 19, where the master gave the analogy of owning a business,
and giving to his servants certain talents. Literally the word is
money. This is a commerce or a business
analogy of which the master has given into the hand every one
of his servants so much money with the objective of them doing
what with that money? Multiplying the money. And there was a certain time
when the master came back to find out whether or not there
was gain on the money that he had given them. Now ask the question,
pastor, how does that apply to me? Good question. It applies
this way. If you are a child of God, if
you are a believer in Christ, the Lord has deposited in your
life something very precious. of which he expects you and me
to actually serve him with. Do you know what that is? It's
the gospel. God has given us the gospel.
He has given you and me the commodity of faith in the gospel by which
he will be honored around the world as we serve him. Do you
believe that? In exchange for saving your soul,
what God calls you and me to do is serve Him in the cause
of the gospel. So if you want to make direct
application to Luke 19, the money is the gospel. It's not money. And neither is it particularly
the gifts that God gives us, i.e. the gift of teaching, the
gift of preaching, the gift of ministry, the gift of service,
the gift of singing. Often people really focus in
on those kinds of gifts, right? The Lord gave me the gift of
this, that, or the other thing. Now, if the Lord has given you
all these other gifts, but not given you the gospel, you have
no gift at all. If he hasn't given you the gospel,
you may be the greatest singer in the world. You may be the
most eloquent orator in the world. But if he hasn't given you the
gospel, he hasn't given you anything. Because the one thing that men
need in this world is the grace of God. And it only comes through
the gospel. So the sum total of the gift
is the gift of salvation and the message of the gospel that
he has given us. And didn't the parable plainly
say that those men were accountable to come to him and demonstrate
whether or not the gift of the gospel that he had given them
actually functioned to produce fruit. And if you notice the
context carefully, those who came before the master joyfully
said this, Lord, Your pound have gained five. Lord, your pound
has gained 10. You know what they didn't say?
Lord, my gifting caused your pound to gain. Lord, my skill
set, my wisdom, my abilities, my innovation, my techniques,
my mechanism caused your pound to gain. No, what caused the
pound to gain was inherent in the pound, not the person who
had the pound. That also speaks to us more particularly
then about the gospel itself. Because our master actually knows
that the gospel works. He knows that the gospel works.
He knows that the gospel will do what the gospel is designed
to do if we let the gospel do what it's supposed to do, if
we don't distort it, if we don't hinder it or hamper it. If we
don't confine it, if we don't restrain it or suppress it, let
the gospel go and the gospel will do what the gospel is called
to do. Now, I share that account with
you because in the book of Revelation, the seven churches of which our
master is the resident Lord, dealing with each one of those
churches, he's dealing with them on this principle. Every local
gospel church is to bear witness of Christ and to bring forth
fruit to his glory. Every local church, every believer
ought to be concerned with God's glory advancing around the world
near and far. We ought to be just as concerned
with the honor of Christ and the advance of the gospel as
he would be since he left heaven to come get you by that same
gospel. And so I want us to continue
to work through the book of Revelation. We've only got two other churches
to go. Today we're dealing with Sardis. This is our fifth church,
correct? And I told you last time that
Sardis is connected to Ephesus in that Sardis and Ephesus are
two sides of the same coin. Ephesus was reproved by God for
having left its first what? Its first love. And that diminishing
of love towards Christ was exhibited by a lack of zeal on the part
of the people of God to advance the gospel. And that's something
for all of us to be concerned about. Do I love him enough to
share the gospel with those with whom I come into contact? The
master is very much concerned that we understand the purpose
for why he left us in the world. He's very much concerned that
we are not idle, wasting our time. By the way, let me say
something about that last parable. Do you know before God called
you by his grace, you were broke and unemployed spiritually? You
were sitting on the sideline doing nothing. You had no work. You were unemployed. And God
in His grace chose you, picked you out, called you, and brought
you into His business, gave you the gift, and told you to go
to work for Him. So if you find yourself right
now in the blessed, blessed state of knowing the Lord Jesus and
having the Word of God fitted in your lips and having been
taught the truth, You are blessed, but you're also responsible.
So I wanted to come home to us today as we work through our
points. I want you to understand your responsibility before God.
We have the great assurance of his presence and that assurance
establishes a certain security among us, but we don't want that
security to turn into presumption. The title of our message today
is Sardis, presumption or what? Faith. Now, do you know there's
a distinction between the two? How do I know when I'm walking
in presumption? How do I know when I'm presuming
upon God? This is how you know. When nothing that you are doing
actually corresponds with what God has called you to do, and
you still think you're all right. That's called presumption. Did
you hear what I just said? Presumption is when we think
that we're all right, Though what we are doing is not what
God has called us to do. I think it's Deuteronomy around
chapter 29, 29. God had warned Israel. He said,
Israel, you better be careful that you observe to do all my
commandments and do not say in your heart, like the fool says
in his heart, I will live like I want to. I will add drunkenness
to thirst and I will still have peace. See, that's called presumption. You're presuming that you're
all right with God, but the evidence says otherwise. And the reason
why our Lord would come to us in the cause of the gospel in
a in a monetary way like Revelation 3 1 through 7 is to let us know. Hey, you might not be all right.
Look at the text again in Revelation chapter 3 1 unto the angel of
the church and Sardis writes these things saith he that hath
the seven spirits of God in the seven stars. I know you're what
remember we've been learning that the way he opens up is to
address our words right not our words. Our words, which means
the relationship between the church of Christ and Christ himself
revolves around our service towards him. That's the word service.
I know your service. I know the character of it. I know the scale
of it. I know the nature of it. I know
the shape of your words. He says, I know. Now that's good
because sometimes we don't assess our own works as we ought to.
And I'd rather have him whose eyes are like a flame of fire
and can see through things very clearly. Tell me where I am.
Wouldn't you want that? Because we lie to ourselves. We lie to ourselves and we talk
as if we are all right, when not necessarily is that the case.
So in the church at Sardis, there was a strange, strange, revelation
given to them about their condition and we saw this last time he
says I'm the one with the seven spirits of God in the seven stars
I know your words that you have a name that you're alive but
you are what and this is where our first message revolved around
the idea of living on what reputation where we're living on the basis
of things in the past not on things in the present and as
we were contemplating that what I shared with you was a The danger
of finding your confidence in something that took place yesterday
as if God is merely the God of yesterday and not today and forevermore. And the fallacy of resting on
creeds, confessions, resting on orthodoxy or resting on our
past works as a grounds for our confidence. When the relationship
between God and his people is an ongoing present relationship,
God is the God of the living, not the God of the what? And
so if in fact I am dead and God is the God of the living, I've
got a huge problem. And it's relational in nature. Meaning that God is telling me
that somehow, somewhere in my walk with God, I've gotten disconnected
with God. Is that true? It's the remarkable
warning that's said here, and I want to paint the picture for
us before we deal with our last four points. in this text. Now, I don't know if I'll get
done today. I probably won't. I'm compelled to recognize that
we really do need to deal with some very challenging language
in verse 5 and verse 6, more particularly verse 5. But I might
just leave it alone. It depends. We can touch on it
sufficiently today, but I do want us to Recognize that our
Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to his church about a severe
problem in their life He says you have a name that you're alive,
but you're dead. You need to be watchful verse
2.8. Do you see that? now that would
that would imply that they need to actually respond to his diagnosis
of their problem and And the word watchful there literally
means to come alive or wake up. You need to wake up. You are
in trouble. I was in New York two or three,
four or five weeks ago. I forget how long ago. You guys
remember. In any event, days go by quick when you're busy.
In any event, as we were in New York, we were traveling around
seeing some of the most famous sites and most notable sites,
things like the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and all of the
stuff that we know historically was part of the history and legacy
of America. But one area I was absolutely
intrigued by as we rode the tour bus was to pass by some of the
local cathedrals, some of the major cathedrals in New York
that go all the way back to almost the founding of our nation. We
went into one of these large Catholic cathedrals right by
the Twin Towers that had been destroyed, and they are rebuilding
it, turned it into a monument, a money-making thing. You know,
we turn everything into money here in America. And in that
cathedral, I was just amazed at the architect, the designs,
and the imagery. It tells you a lot, if you pay
attention to it, how Babylonian our churches are. That's a whole
other story. But as we drove further, we went
by another chapel, a very popular chapel. It was an Episcopal chapel.
And what I saw at the Episcopal chapel as we passed by was what
I considered a contradiction in terms. At the Episcopal chapel,
they had in the front of the chapel multiple graves with very
famous people whose names were on the tombstones in the front
of the church. And in fact, the church was filled
with tombstones all around it. And I'm saying to myself, don't
anybody see the contradiction here? How is this a graveyard
when it's supposed to be the body of Christ? And what I am
sharing with you is that that's exactly what we have in our account.
There was a famous necropolis in Sardis. A necropolis is a
site where they bury the dead. Very famous necropolis there
where prominent people have been buried and folks would come to
this necropolis. You know how we got these weird
fetishes where we like to go to very ornate cemeteries? That's weird, isn't it? We just
wanna go see the tombstones and the colors and the shapes and
the form. Isn't that weird? We wanna visit
the dead. And my point is this, is that
what our master's saying in our text is, you guys are building
a monument of tombs. People are dead here. You're dying. This is not my
church. And what a remarkable notion. Now, again, because Sardis had
in its city a necropolis that was famous for many dead people,
this teaches us another lesson of which I've shared with us
many times before. You and I are the products, good
or bad, of our culture. By and large, you and I can tell
what our battle is and our warfare is by understanding the culture
that we come out of. If you and I come out of a very
prominent, wealthy, well-to-do culture, you can bet that your
battle is against the presumption of wealth as the signal that
God has smiled upon you. If you come out of poverty, and
in the context of poverty, you are hooking and crooking like
a lot of us did growing up in the hood. I'll just use it like
that. You can bet that one of your challenges will be as you
come to Christ to kill, to mortify, to subdue the inclination to
work it in the kingdom of God. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
In other words, because we are a product of our culture, that
becomes a very Achilles heel for us. Now while we're supposed
to engage the culture, Preach to the culture and reach the
culture with the gospel. We are not to accommodate the
culture or Compromise to the culture or once again become
the culture the church is supposed to be other cultured Other cultured
not anti culture other culture if any man being Christ Jesus,
he's what a And that fundamental genus in us ought to move us
in a direction of dealing with our culture in a way by which
we are seeking to redeem sinners, not affirm the continual devolution
of our present culture, which is what's happening today. So
we get to examine ourselves on an individual and a collective
level this way. Am I in the church the walking
dead or the dying? Am I dying in the presence of
the living God. Is this exhortation to me to
wake up, to deal with those matters that are indicating a death process,
a germane and very relevant proposition? Is it possible for me to be in
the midst of the church and be dead? And the answer is yes.
Judas Iscariot was dead in the midst of the church. Ananias
and Sapphira were dead. in the midst of the church. Corinth,
Dathan, and Byron were dead in the midst of the church. And
so here comes our master telling us to wake up. And then also
he tells us to strengthen those things that are ready to die.
Look at verse two. Be watchful and strengthen those
things which remain that are ready to what? For I have not
found your works, what? Before God. So let's just understand
that briefly before we deal with our four points. Here's our master
giving us the diagnosis. Things are dead in your church.
even though you have a name that you're alive, and things are
dying in your church. And your job is to strengthen
the things that are dying. You know what that means? They
are on life support. The things that are dying are
on life support. Now, some of us have recently
had to deal with the dying of our loved ones. As a pastor,
I deal with the birth of children, the death of great-great grandmamas
and granddaddies, and the dying of the same in between, frequently.
The job of leadership is to comfort and encourage and edify. But
one of the areas where our weaknesses are so very evident, in fact,
not just our weakness, but our impotency, is when we see people
dying. And you can't do a thing about
it. It's just true. The Lord is telling us to do
the impossible when he says strengthen those things that remain. Now,
this is where we give great honor to doctors and nurses and physicians
because God has given them the skill set to address those maladies
when people's lives are at such low ebb that they are about to
die. Now we've seen revivals, have we not? We've seen people
brought back to a life of vitality and health by the expertise of
the doctors. And we thank God for it because
they have an extended life. They have a time where they live
another five or 10 years. And in some cases, and I've seen
this with my own relatives, Prior to their getting sick, they were
unsaved. God used that sickness, that
well-nigh death sickness, to bring them to Christ. In the
last few years of their life, they were devoted to the glory
of God, and I was so thankful. Then he took them home. Then
he took them home. He says, strengthen the things
that remain that are ready to die. Now, technically, in the
language, the things that remain are not persons, They are aspects
of ministry. So let's take it like this on
a very practical level. What is Christ saying to you
when he says strengthen the things that remain that are ready to
die because I have not seen your labors complete are fulfilled.
That's our word is not perfect in the impeccable sense. It's
simply completed like you have a job to raise your children
to a certain age. You have an occupation or a field
of income wherein you work and you are expected to do a certain
job a certain way until it is accomplished. And when we are
short of accomplishing our goal, our job is not perfect. Am I
making some sense? It's the same thing here. What
our master is saying is he has assigned to us Tasks and services
in the kingdom of god which are designed to aid and abet the
conversion of sinners the sanctification of his saints and the glory of
god But when you and I are in that ebb Where we are dying the
evidence is the diminishing of many of those gifts that he has
given us In your own life, you will begin to see a diminishing
of the gifts. Now, I'm not going to unpack
that fully now because we're going to deal with that when
we get to the takeaway principle. But you will know that once the
momentum and the zeal and the passion for Christ wanes, you
stop doing those things that he had initially called you to
do by which your fellowship with him was passionate. It was vital. It was strong. It was rich. and your service for him was
also significant, vital, passionate, and rich. When you are dying,
systematically, one by one, you stop doing those first works
that God called you by, by which you are brought into fellowship
with him and used. What are some of those things,
prayer? What are some of those things, devotion to God's word?
What are some of those things? Serious study of God's scripture.
What are some of those things? Having a heart for people. What are some of those things?
Sharing the gospel with people. What are some of those things?
Making sure you redeem the time because the days are evil. See,
all of these things start to go away when we are dying. And the next thing you know,
you are impotent spiritually. Somebody tell me I'm telling
the truth. So we don't tell the truth in the house today and
see here's the blessing God is telling us now Before those things
simply die and never revive again That you are to strengthen those
things which remain Strengthen those things which remain let's
look at a couple of Reflections. This is how he puts it in verse
3 remember therefore how you have received and heard and hold
fast and what I That's an amazing proposition. This is God's solution.
He says, your problem is you're dead and dying. You need to wake
up and start strengthening those things that remain. This is a
magnificent admonishment to any local church. Remember, therefore,
how you have received and heard and hope fast and repent. Point
number one, then, under four considerations, four major points
in our text. The admonition to remember. Now, ladies and gentlemen, you
and I know this. When we're not right with God,
we forget God. Is that true? When we're not
right with God, we forget God. And God tells us all the time,
do not forget the Lord your God. Do not forget him. Israel forgot
him, didn't they? They forgot the Lord. Now, how
do you forget the greatest person in your life? How do you forget
the one who upholds you by the word of his power, in whose breath
and nostril you are? How do you forget the one in
whom you live and move and have your being? You forget him by
not holding him first, by not regarding him as your all in
all, by not recognizing him as Lord. You forget him by doing
what you want to do instead of what he has called you to do.
I'm telling you the truth. I'm telling you the truth. And the
Lord says, don't forget me. But Israel forgot him over and
over and over and over again. Remember, remember I told you
that word remember is the Greek word memou and we get from that
term memou the word mnemonics and mnemonics is the methodology
or technique or strategy by which you learn how to memorize things,
right? We are learning the Greek alphabets and we do it in different
rhythm patterns in order for us to retain the memory of it,
right? You know what God says to you
and me to do? In order for us to be strong in the Lord and
to have a vital walk with Him, we have to have methods of memory. by which we retain a knowledge
of God, essential to our walk with God. In other words, we
have to operate out of fundamental, basic ABC principles like we
do in life, because you know the principles are what make
you strong. You do the principles over and over and over and over
again, and it makes you solid. And what the Lord is saying,
go back to first principles. Colossians chapter 1 verses 2
and 3, 3 and 4. Look at Colossians chapter 1.
Give me an example of what I'm talking about. Colossians 1,
4 and 5, by the way. This is a perfect example of the blessing
of the gospel in the local church of which you and I have experienced
this if we are a new creature in Christ. Whether it's still
true today, we don't know. We can examine ourselves. But
listen to what Paul said to the church at Colossae. When he says
over in verse three through five, we give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since
we heard of your faith in Christ, and of the love which you have
to all the saints. For the hope which is laid up
for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the word of the
truth of the gospel. Where does the hope of the believer
come from? Hearing the gospel. For the hope
which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the
word of the gospel. Now watch this, verse 6, which
is come unto you. Did you come to the gospel or
did the gospel come to you? The gospel came to you in the
preaching, in evangelism, through the word. It came unto you as
it does in all the world. And notice what it says. And
it brings forth what? Paul said the gospel made you
alive. It brought life to you. It came to you. You didn't come
to it. It brought life to you. You didn't give life to it. And
it brought you into a living hope that's reserved for you
in heaven. Once again, one of the fundamental
principles of the Christian faith is our hope is not in this world.
Our hope is in glory. And that ought to also frame
our life. Because a lot of times we are
not walking in the living hope of the gospel because we're wrapped
up in the hopes that are down here. Is that true? And so the
apostle says when the gospel is preached accurately, men's
hearts are set on heaven where Christ is, not on the things
that are in the earth. And so we live out of a hope
of seeing him one day. Do you? This is what you heard
last week in our baptismal conversation. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is Lord and Savior? Do you believe that he died for
all your sins past present and future? Do you believe in the
return of Jesus Christ? And are you looking for him to
come back and get you so that you can be where he is? That's
the hope of the believer. Now, when you don't live out
of that, out of that hope, your priorities are all jacked up.
And the evidence is a loss of those things that initially brought
you into a saving experience with Christ. And the apostle
here is speaking to the fruitfulness of the gospel of which our master
is speaking of in Revelation 3 when he says, I do not see
your works completed. My desire for you is to continue
to perpetuate the joy of the gospel and its power to convert
even as it was a power to convert you so that you would be a means
of blessing others. Look at what he says in verses
9 and 10 before we go to our next point. He says in verse
9, For this cause also, since the day that we heard of your
faith in Christ, do not cease to pray for you. You see how
somebody must pray for you? For this cause we also, since
the day we heard of it, do not cease to pray for you and to
desire, here's what God desires for you, that you might be filled
with the knowledge of His will. Do you see that? In all wisdom
and in spiritual understanding. Here is the foundation and preliminary
truth that you and I need in order to do the will of God.
We need to be filled with the knowledge of His will. in all
wisdom and spiritual understanding, in order that, see verse 10,
in order that you might what? Walk worthy of the Lord. Didn't
our Lord just talk about that in Revelation 3? These will walk
with me in white because they are what? Worthy. Now here's
what he's saying. Saints, As the gospel has brought
about the fruit of conversion in your life and the hope of
heaven in your life, you and I are to continue in the ministry
and business of the gospel so that we can see it spread everywhere.
But in order for that work individually and as a group, we must be filled
with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom. And what kind
of understanding? Spiritual. In order that we might
walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. And here's the last line before
we go on. Being fruitful in a few good works. Do you see it? Being fruitful in every good
work. Listen to the admonition of the Apostle Paul for those
who take God seriously. For those who take God seriously,
they will be filled with the knowledge of his will. Your cup
won't be half full. Listen, if you really love Christ,
you are not content with a half full cup of knowledge. until
that knowledge is filled to the brim and running over. You are
not content with Christ. Because you and I cannot do the
will of God as we ought to Until we are filled with the knowledge
of his will because what knowledge does is it blocks out? Every other passion every other
desire every other one We have to fight against the things we
want in order to do the things that God has called us to do
And it's the Word of God that's gonna push it out Is that true?
The Word of God is going to push out of us inclinations to do
things that don't honor Him. The two cannot coexist in the
same space. This is why when you get in trouble
with God, you don't want to hear His Word, because His Word will
push it out. It will bring it to the surface.
It will expose it It will tell you this is the problem and then
it will say you want me to kick it out I'll kick it out right
now and let the space that void be filled with the knowledge
of God So you can do the will of God Are you hearing me? Critical Listen to it That you
might be filled with the knowledge of his will and always the spiritual
understanding in order that you might walk worthy of the Lord
The danger in our text, as we'll get back and touch on, is that
there are people who are not walking worthy of the Lord. Unto
all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work. Don't you
want God to bless everything you touch? And increase in the knowledge
of God. Verse 10 is a wonderful contemplation all by itself.
Walk with God. Let Him bring forth fruit in
your life as you serve Him. And it will increase your knowledge
of God. Whoa! Walk with God. And it will increase
your service towards God. And it will also increase your
knowledge of God. What that means is there is, again, this kind
of symbiotic relationship between knowing God, serving God, and
knowing Him more. That the more I know of God,
I will serve Him more better. And I will come to know Him better
in my service. That's true. You will come to
know God more acutely, more definitely, more accurately when you're serving
God. See, a lot of us don't know God
real well. You just don't. Because you have
not entered into this relationship. Remember the analogy? He gave
you the commodity. What's the commodity? Your job
is to see to it that that gospel goes forth and bears forth fruit,
right? Gain. Do you know the more you
see the gospel gain in your life, the more you learn about God?
The more you see the gospel gain in your life, the more you learn
about God. Because God reveals himself to you in concert with
the work of the gospel. This is true. So to the degree,
as I was listening to that parable, Sister Nancy and Luke 19, this
one brother decided to put the gospel in a napkin. Do you remember that? Lord, listen,
I didn't get it dirty. It didn't drop. No cobwebs got
on. I put it in a napkin. Look, here
it is. It is nice and clean, impeccable,
just as you gave it to me. What idiocy! But the analogy
is not so absurd as not to be true in some cases. There will
be people who have been given the gospel with whom they have
done nothing with the gospel. And they'll have to give it back
to him. In fact, it's actually going to be taken from them.
That's what we're getting ready to get into. Do you want the
gospel taken from you? Then you better use the gospel.
Because God will take it from you. Because He means business
in His service. We're going to get to that in
a moment. But as we are dealing with right now this first point,
memory, memory, memory. Do those things that are effectual
to your remembering how the gospel came to you in power. The three
points under point number one. I'm just going to articulate
them to go to point number two. effective reflection for the
recovery or preservation of our walk with God. Isn't that important
for you and I to know how to keep short lists with God? Psalm
119 verse 59 and 60. I quote this all the time. You
can have this one. It's free. I thought on my ways. I thought on my ways. That's
what David said. Psalm 119 verse 59. Watch this. I thought on my ways. Do you?
See now if you're going to do it in a very serious fashion,
you're not only going to just look at him, you're going to
examine whether or not your ways are right with God. I thought
on my ways. Now watch this. And when I accurately
thought and I fully analyzed my ways, I turned my feet towards
his commandments. Now what are my feet symbolically?
My conduct. My conduct. My goings. my actions, my plans, my agenda. As I thought on my ways and I
considered them in light of God's word, I turned my feet towards
his commandments. Now watch what he says. I turned
my feet towards his commandments and I made haste. I hurry up
and delayed not to keep his commandments. See, that's effective memory.
Essentially what the Psalmist is saying here is I repented. The reason why things die is
because of a lack of repentance It is when we go on and on in
the same way and we have an uncanny ability to let things die Now
right now as I'm sharing with you you are struggling in the
area of a particular doctrinal truth I'll share that doctrinal
truth with you that you're struggling with. It's the doctrine of perseverance
of the Saints You're struggling right now with the doctrine of
eternal security You're struggling with the idea that once saved,
always what? That's right. Now, you know,
we believe that in a sense, right? We believe once saved, always
saved if God saved you. Now, but if you saved yourself,
ain't no guarantees. But we do know people who appear
to be saved, but are not. And over time, They demonstrate
that they're not saved by falling away from the gospel. Are you
hearing what I'm saying? These are very serious warnings
of which our master is speaking to. And those people who fall
away, fall all the way away because they have no repentance. And
repentance is a gift of God. Are you hearing me? Repentance
is a gift of God. They know they are drifting away.
I deal with them. in counsel all the time. They
are getting further and further from God, but they have no desire
to turn their feet to his commandments. That's a warning for all of us
who are professing believers in Christ. Whatever is necessary
to get you on the right page with God, to remember the Lord,
to remember your walk with God. Remember when you called on the
Lord Jesus Christ and made him your Lord and Savior, you remember
that? You had made a confession of faith that he would be lord
in your life. That means you would do what
he would say That's something that he's gonna hold you to child
of god So under the first four points effective reflection for
recovery of the preservation the blessing of the gospel's
impact in our life we saw that the increase it brings to the
souls of who attend to it, the gospel, and then the affirmation
of a vital communion with God. This is John chapter 15. Go with
me in John 15. Here's what Christ said to his
disciples right before he was crucified. He wanted to help
them understand that the foundation of their ministry, in order for
it to be successful, they would have to understand that the source
of their strength would be Christ and not themselves. So he gave
one of the analogies of the true vine. You remember the language.
Verse one, I am the what? True vine. And my father is the
what? Two persons. Every branch in
me, that's a third entity. Every branch in me that bears
not fruit, he does what? Do you see that last line? That's
our second point that we're gonna deal with here in a moment. It's
called the takeaway principle. It's called the takeaway principle.
And the Bible talks about the takeaway principle all through
scripture, the takeaway principle. When God gives people responsibility
and they fail to actually execute the responsibility, he takes
things away. This branch is about to be cut
off. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he does
what? I believe God's word, do you?
Therefore, because I'm not a fool, my mama didn't raise no fool.
Because I'm not a fool guess what I want God to do everything
necessary for me to bear fruit the last thing I want to do is
be cut off from God and If therefore fruit bearing is what God has
called me to God Grant me grace to bear fruit in the cause of
the gospel because according to verse 8 herein is my father
glorified and So the text goes on to tell us not only in in
verse One, notice what it says here also in verse 4, 5, 7, and
8. Verse 4. He says, Abide in me,
and I in you, as the branch, what? Cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine. No more can you except you abide
in me. Now we have the ultimate objective,
and that's fruit bearing, is it not? Now we have the grounds
upon which that fruit bearing is secured. What is it? Abiding
in Christ. He says if you abide in me and
I in you you will bear fruit because otherwise you cannot
Verse 4 tells us if we do not abide in him, we will not bear
fruit verse 5. I am the vine You are the branches
remarkable Can I turn that around? You are not the vine he is See a pastor why you say that
because you run your own life you do your own thing You make
your own decisions. You go your own way. You don't
tell God anything. You don't ask God anything. You
don't seek his counsel. You just do what you want. You
know what that means? You're divine. Am I telling the truth? You're
divine. Now he says he's divine. He's the source of your life.
He's the cause of your life. He's the grounds of your life.
He's the framework of your life. You don't look like nothing.
You don't act like nothing. You don't do anything without
him. So when you run your own life, you're telling everybody
you're divine. And he said, now if you're going
to do that, be sure of this. You're not abiding in me and
you cannot bear fruit. Is that clear, saints? Am I being
too convoluted? Is this clear? Let me go on a
little bit because it's very important for us to get this
because our Lord is about to give us a serious warning in
Revelation 3, verse 7 and 8. If you abide in me and my words
abide in you, You shall ask what you will and it shall be done
unto you. Amazing. Amazing. And I say another thing about
what happens when we start to diminish in our walk with God.
We don't ask. That's another thing that's taken
away. Am I telling the truth? When you get into that place
where you're not walking with God, where you're doing your
own thing, you don't even have the power to ask. See, asking
is a gift. The men and women that walk closest
with God are asking God all the time. Because we are very conscious
that we are dependent upon God for everything. Lord, help me
every second of the day. Help me in every aspect of my
life. Help me to think right. Help
me to act right. Help me to talk right. Help me
to live right. Help me to do right. Help me
to be right. I cannot be right on my own. And see, even to think like that
is thinking right, which is a gift of God, because most of us don't
even think right. And what I'm saying is when it
gets so bad in our life, we don't even have the ability to ask. We will not ask. We will not
ask. And so our master says you have
not. Because you're not asking. Stay with me a little bit. I
know I know I've got your attention now, and I'm so thankful. Lord,
speak to your people today. Herein is my father glorified,
that you bear much fruit. And in this way, you will demonstrate
that you are my what? Go back with me to Revelation
3. We're going to deal with our last point, just point number
two. Under point number two, we have the title, the warning
to remove. Now we've had first and foremost
the admonition to remember, right? Now we have the warning to remove. And next week we'll deal with
the recognition of those who remain. And we'll finish up with
the reward of grace promised. So we've just contemplated the
admonition to remember. Was that a good word, saints?
Is it important for us to understand the effective methods by which
we recover or preserve those things that God has given us?
Very much so. But you will hear another principle
here elucidated in our text, worthy of our consideration.
Point number three, point number two, rather, the warning to remove
verse three, part B. I'll read it through. Remember,
therefore, how you have received and heard. This is what we call
a very important construction of the language. The original
language, it would say it like this. Remember how you received
the gospel and how you heard the gospel and how you presently
possess the gospel. It's in what we call the perfect
tense. That means you have everything necessary for life and godliness.
He's not saying merely remember how you got it when you were
converted. Remember how you got it when you were converted and
remember that you have it now. Because presently, it's still
his church. Presently, it still has the gospel.
But they are in danger of losing it. Remember how you have received
and how you have heard. That's the primary devotion of
the believer. Receiving the Word of God, hearing
the Word of God. Receiving, hearing, receiving, hearing, hearing,
receiving. That's the primary work of the believer. To hear
from God and to receive from God. To receive from God and
to hear from God. Is that true? Faith comes by
what? and hearing by the word of God. And if we are hearing,
receiving, receiving, hearing, then our faith grows, it's vital,
and it serves God. What our master is saying, be
careful that you do not dislodge yourself from this process. Because
that's what people do. They get away from the hearing
and the receiving of it. He goes on to say in point B,
after he says, hold fast and repeat, if therefore you shall
not watch, I will come unto thee as a what? And you will not what? What hour I will come upon you.
Do you see that? So let me talk about that a little
bit. This is not the first time our Lord talked about being a
thief, is it? By the time we get to Revelation, He has talked
about being a thief both to His disciples, to the Jewish leaders,
and through several of the epistles of the New Testament. Our Lord
gave a parable in Luke chapter 12 about a servant who had become
slothful. in his dealings with the people
of God. He has said to himself, my Lord
is delaying his coming. I mean, you know, it's been 20
years I've been in the faith and I've been hearing all this
hoopla and zeal about the Lord coming. He hasn't come. I'm going
to do my own thing. That's where a lot of people
are today. They're just doing their own thing because deep
down inside, they're not living on the tiptoe of hope. They're
not living with a conscious awareness that Christ is already on his
way. Can I have your attention for
a few more minutes? Here, listen. Christ has been on his way ever
since he left. In fact, actually in the original
language, that's the way the verb form goes. I am presently
coming. Now, what people don't understand
is when Christ finally breaks the clouds and come in physical
person, it will have been after he has come hundreds of thousands
of times in providence, in power, judgment see he comes in Providence
when he cares about us ladies and gentlemen Christ came this
morning when he woke you up in God's Providence he kept you
in your right mind that's how God comes to us see he allowed
you one more time in spite of your insolence and rebellion
against him to come to church to hear the gospel One more time,
Christ came by his angels and his providence to wake you up
and say, go hear the word of the Lord. And see, right now
you are in the best place you could ever be at this moment
under the word of God. And that was Christ coming to
you, because some folk Christ didn't come to today. They did
not get up with their mind on the Lord, with their desire to
hear the word of God, to be reproved, corrected, instructed, and trained
in righteousness. And they are out there. Am I
making some sense? And then again, Christ did come
last night and some folk went home to glory and others went
to hell. Are you with me? See, so he comes
in a lot of ways. And I'll tell you, he came today
in many churches, cutting the lights off on some churches,
snuffing out the light. And he comes in the hearts of
men and women when they persist to deny him. And he takes away. And the language of coming as
a thief in the night means this. The only warning you get before
he starts taking things away is the warning that he's taking
things away. Did you get that? That's all
you get. So let me say this. under inspiration
of the Spirit of God. For some of us, He's taking things
away right now. He's taking things from us because
we have not done that which He has obligated us to do. We've
shared and articulated some of the things He's taken away. He's
taken away stuff from us now. And so the idea of coming as
a thief in the night means that you cannot know when He comes. You cannot know when He comes. What does our Lord do when He
removes things? He takes away. Luke chapter 8,
verse 18. You've heard it before. Luke
8, 18. I'm going to run through these verses and we're going
to close it down for today. The takeaway principle. Have
you heard that before? So you and I are in one or two conditions
when we're walking with the Lord. Either the Lord is blessing and
adding or the Lord is disciplining and taking away. You guys got
that? So you and I can look at our
life and we can ask or assess over time whether or not I'm
in a takeaway mode where God is taking things away or whether
or not God is adding. Is he adding to me faith? Is
he adding to me knowledge? Is He adding to me charity? Is
He adding to me zeal? Is He adding to me wisdom? Is
He adding to me service? Is God using me more? Am I understanding
more about God's will? Am I being more influential in
the cause of Christ? Or is He taking those things
away? You can really ask those questions and you can know. Am
I growing in grace or am I diminishing in grace? Am I growing in knowledge
or am I diminishing in knowledge? Am I growing in my hunger for
Christ or am I diminishing in my... You can know whether or
not you're in the takeaway mode or in the adding mode. You can
know that because God adds as well, does he not? Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and all of his righteousness and everything
will be what? Added to you. So in Luke chapter
8, verse 18, here's your principle. Take heed therefore how you what?
See, it all falls on the hearing. It all falls on the hearing.
Take heed how you hear for whosoever hath. See the half? The person
that hath, that means they're in the adding capacity. They
are in the receiving dimension. You're in the receiving season
where God is giving you some things. Take heed how you hear
for whosoever hath, to him shall be what? See, this is what we
mean by the nature of the compound interest of the gospel intrinsically,
that the gospel increases on its own. If you have the gospel
and you properly estimate, you value
the gospel, all you need to do is watch the gospel, do what
the gospel does. I'm here to tell you the gospel
adds. But if you only appear to have
the gospel, you don't have the gospel. And pastor, how do I
know I don't have it? Because it's not giving unto
you. It's not bearing fruit. The gospel,
the true gospel bears fruit. That's the nature of it. Watch
this. To him that hath, more shall be given. And to whosoever
that hath not, from him shall be what? There's our principle.
Now watch this. It shall be taken away from him,
even that which he what? Seems to have. You know what
that means? He only had an appearance of having. And you know what
God did? He removed the hypocrisy and
demonstrated that you didn't have it at all. Am I making some
sense? So then, looking again back at
Luke chapter 19, the text with the persons who were given the
pounds. One who had the pound saw the
pound multiply to five. The other saw it to multiply
to what? Ten. And the one brother who saw no
multiplication had that talent what? Taken away. Now in that
context, ladies and gentlemen, do you know who Christ was talking
to? He was talking to Israel. Remember what he said in that
account? He says now bring those miserable servants who did not
want me to have rule over them You remember that? No, you don't
let's go back there. I Got five minutes. I Know you
don't remember. I'm just I cannot be honest.
You don't remember We have to look at that go back to chapter
19. I just want you to see because
see here. Here's the situation We are not a biblically literate
culture anymore Even my church. We're not a biblically literate
culture. Do you know why? God has taken away. That's right. So you don't even remember Bible
verses anymore. Some of the stories that you
used to remember vividly are fading away even as we speak.
Pastor, there was a verse in the Bible. It said, For God so
loved the world." Something like that. What verse is that? Years ago you could quote it,
verse and chapter. Now you can't. Am I making some sense? They're
verses that you vaguely remember. They're passages that God would
bring to your remembrance years ago. You don't remember them
anymore because you're not using them. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? They're so critically important.
Take heed therefore how you hear for whatsoever whosoever hath
to him shall be given, whosoever hath not from him shall be taken
away even that which he has. In Luke 19, I want to start again
at verse 24 and go through verse 26. Here it is. He says, and he said unto them
that stood by, take from him, do you see it? The pound and
give it to him that hath ten. What did he do with the one that
produced more? Gave him more. What did he do with the one who
produced nothing? Took it away. Is that clear? And this is what
happens to churches who originally have the gospel and because they
do not preach the gospel and do not teach the gospel and do
not proclaim the gospel. and do not communicate the gospel
in all of the facets in which the gospel is to be communicated,
that church gradually diminishes in its possession of the gospel,
and eventually the gospel is taken away. No, there's still
a church, a bunch of religious folks. No gospel! Are you hearing
what I'm saying? Now watch the language. Here
it is, verse 25. And they said unto him, Lord,
he hath ten pounds. Why are you giving it to him?
Because to him that hath, more shall be given. See, what God
is saying is, when he saves us and brings us into a relationship
with him, he expects us to serve him so that he bears fruit through
your life. See, that's back at John 15.
The branch that does not bear fruit is taken away. Y'all got,
you see the application, right? Now follow this now, I want you
to see it. Now here it is, verse 26. For I say unto you, that
unto everyone which hath shall be given, and from him that hath
not, even that he hath shall be taken from him. That's the
principle. Verse 27, but those my enemies,
which would not that I should reign over them. Lord, who are
your enemies? Everyone who would not that I
reign over them. Did you get that? See, we love
to talk about the unbeliever on the outside of the church.
We love to talk about the unsaved out there who don't serve the
Lord. But our master's primary objective and target of his parables
and lessons are to the church folks, to so-called covenant
folks. And if you're not doing what
he's calling you to do, You don't desire that he rules over you.
You're in that condition. Saints, are you hearing me? See,
because I'm very, I'm very aware at this present time that in
our generation, we talk about serving God. We don't. We don't
serve him in all of the categories he's called us to. We don't serve
him individually. We don't serve him as husbands
and wives. We don't serve him as families. We don't serve him
as men. We don't serve him as women.
We don't serve him as churches. We talk. We don't serve. So then
when he comes, he comes and looks to see, because that gift, it'll
do what it's going to do on its own. I'm here to tell you. I'm
here to tell you the gospel produces fruit on its own. I've seen it,
even in our own fellowship. All I do is preach Christ. Do
I do anything else? I just preach Christ. We don't
have a bunch of plans going on here. No bunch of ministries. We don't have zip slotting ministries
for the folks who are outdoors Christians. We don't have swimming
ministries for the folks who are aqua Christians. We don't
have rocket ship ministries for the folks who want to go to the
moon. We don't have any of that. All we have is the gospel. and a few basic missionary tasks
locally and abroad to which God has called us to. And that's
all we need. For therein is Christ honored. But ladies and gentlemen, that's
because the gospel is for you first. You first. In your life. In your house. In your home. With your family. In your church. In the world. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
in the world, in the world. So now here's what he says, but
those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over
them, bring them hither and slay them before me. Do you know what
he was stating? That he was getting ready to
take the kingdom from Israel and give it to a nation bearing
the fruit thereof. Do you understand that? He was
taking the talent of the gospel from Israel to give it to the
church. And that's exactly what he did.
Here Israel was the steward of the gospel for 1,500 years till
Christ. Christ came and Christ discovered
that they didn't have the gospel. And he took it away from them
and gave it to the Gentiles. They are without service in the
kingdom. Are you guys hearing me? Now let me give you one promise.
Go back to Revelation. I'm done here. We'll go back
we'll go and look at this next week and unfold it next week
because as our lord assesses the church He assesses the church
properly And he assesses the church rightly and when we are
careful with the word of god and not jumping around verses
and jumping over verses and Running past scriptures because we don't
want to be hit with it Just let the scriptures say what they
say That's one way you let him rule over you you let the scriptures
say what they say and let the Spirit of God do its work. That's
how you know you want him to rule. But if you're running from
the Scripture, dodge in the Scripture. Is he done preaching yet? Like a lot of people do. You're
not running from me. You're running from God. Listen to it and we're done.
He says, In verse three, the latter part, if you do not watch,
wake up, strengthen those things that are ready to die, I will
come on you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will
come upon you. You have, however, a few names. Even in Sardis, that place that
lives on reputation, even in the place where there are dead
people, a necropolis, great for the dead, you have a few names.
You know what that means? Even when there are hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and even
thousands of people in the local assembly playing games with God,
He sees the one, the two, the few as serious about Christ. That's why we have to hear these
admonitions. And I just need to share this with you. The men
or the women that are serious about God, they're not going
to make excuses. They're not going to blame the
church. They're not going to blame their circumstance. They're
not going to blame their family. They're going to deal with God
on a one-on-one level. And they're going to be all right
with God when no one else is all right with God. Are you hearing
me? See, because the Lord is fair,
He's just, and He's good, is He not? And He sees every one
of us. So my encouragement to you, my
brothers and sisters, is to take God seriously and make your calling
in election sure. Amen.