Revelation 3. We are at our fifth
church and consideration thereof. And let me remind you that, and
I think I did this last week, that to be given the privilege
to hear our Master speak for Himself to His seven churches,
which He purchased with His own blood, is a grand privilege for
every child of God. to hear his concern and his regard
with regards to the nature and the condition and the purpose
of the church is a blessing to every believer. There's all sorts
of biblical truth that we have contained in the whole of the
Word of God, and they are all relevant as Scripture so clearly
sets forth. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God and is profitable. We believe that, don't we? What
I'm trying to press on as we are perusing through the book
of the Revelation, more particularly the seven churches, I want you
here at Grace to realize and appreciate this series that we
are engaging in whereby you get to hear from the Lord directly
concerning His view of His church which he has purchased by his
own blood, by which he is redeeming sinners out of the world to himself
by means of the church. As we reflect upon the seven
churches, I kind of want to lay a foundation for our first message
in the book to the church at Sardis. I want to give a framework
to help us go a little bit deeper into an understanding. We have seven churches that are
given to us in chapters 2 and 3. In these seven churches, what
I see is a series of connections that are tied to all seven churches. In other words, while they are
individual churches, they are not disjointed from each other. There's kind of a relationship
that I wanna expose you to as a foundation for understanding
what God is up to. In other words, there's some
connections that are taking place between the first church all
the way through the last church. There are seven churches, right?
And so there's a particular device in linguistics that we observe,
and they just have to do with models and structures of how
to see a format or an idea inherent in a body of writing. And this
format that I see in front of us has to do with the connection
between Three sets in these seven churches. I'll begin first of
all with the first church, which is the church at Ephesus. It's
actually tied to both prophetically and theologically to the fifth
church that we are dealing with right now. I'll demonstrate that
as we unpack the Sardis church for the first time today. Ephesus
and Sardis are related. Much like Smyrna, The second
church is related to Philadelphia, the sixth church. So church one
and five are related. Churches two and six are related. And then finally, as a connecting
structure, churches three, four, and seven are connected. The
church at Pergamos and the church at Thyatira are connected. And then finally, they also are
connected to the last church we will be dealing with in a
few weeks, the church at Laodicea. So there is a, they call it a
ki-ism or a chi-ism, a connection between two points. They create
bookends. If you follow the church at Smyrna,
you will see that the church at Smyrna has the same structural
format Addressed by Christ to her as does the church at Philadelphia
Neither one of those churches were admonished neither one of
those churches were warned neither one of those churches were were
reproved by Christ for having done something wrong and both
of those churches the church at Smyrna and as well as the
church at Philadelphia, were dealing with some of the same
challenges. However, they were faithful churches.
And so our Lord admonishes, or rather, he encourages Smyrna
to be faithful unto death, and you will receive a crown of life.
When we move to the church of Philadelphia, he says to her
as well, you have been faithful, and because of it, I have given
you an open door that no man can shut. And both Smyrna and
Philadelphia deals with the same enemies, these false apostles
and false Jews who have come into that church to try to tell
them that they do not have the true gospel. And so you have
not only a connection between Smyrna and Philadelphia, but
we have what is considered an advancement or a progression.
the church remains faithful to the gospel God will always use
that church as a means by which that gospel is spread through
all the world if Our church remains faithful like Smyrna over time
We will become like Philadelphia where God will open doors for
us to share the gospel everywhere in the world then we move to
Pergamos and Thyatira, of which we have just done three messages
on and we could have really done about five messages in that very,
very complicated church called Thyatira. But Pergamos and Thyatira
are very similar in that they were growing churches, very active
in terms of their works. Remember, Christ commended them
for the good works that they performed. both Pergamos as well
as Thyatira, and their good works are something with which we all
want to adorn the gospel. Is that not right? Let your light
so shine that men may see your what? Good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven. But you and I learned also that
the danger of an emphasis of good works, not rooted in a foundation
of gospel truth, is that your faith will shift from Christ
to works. And you will look up and before
long your church is nothing but a social gospel church given
over to a bunch of social good works, anthropology and all sorts
of altruistic activities. And you will have a list of ministries
as long as the block your church is on with everybody all engaged
in it. But the church will become undiscerning
without critical thinking skills and as a consequence become porous
and allow false doctrine and heresy to enter into the church
because you are now more committed to making people feel good and
meeting felt needs than biblical truth and the glory of God and
the preaching of Christ which is essential to your calling
and we saw that occur the church at Thyatira, insomuch that they
had a woman emerge who dominated the whole church, of which church
Christ gave the severest warning of destruction as we saw. Well I would submit to you that
that church, if it sustains its existence, would ultimately be
like Laodicea. I'll tell you briefly about that
before we go back to our text. Laodicea is the church that is
wealthy, prosperous, and in need of nothing. Laodicea is a post-social
gospel church where all of its theologians and pastors and leaders
are progressive, liberal, anti-biblical, post-biblical in their understanding,
and are merely given over to the accolades of what they do
in culture. The Laodicean church is settled
on its leaves because it assumes that it has no needs. It has
acquired great wealth. It is in favor with the government. In fact, in the Laodicean church,
your politicians come up in those churches all the time, as it
were, catering to the people, because in those churches, you
have your who's who's and your what what's in them. This is
the Laodicean Church, and it's presently dominating much of
our Western Christianity today, where men have departed from
biblical theology, and a crystal-centric message, and a call to men and
women to recognize their sinnerhood status. The Laodicean Church
will be the last church that you and I will engage our thoughts
on. But there's certainly a connection
between it, Pergamos, Thyatira and Laodicea. Which brings me
to my final consideration and the kheism of the connection
between the church at Ephesus and the church here at Sardis. What is the connection between
the two churches? Well, there are many in all reality,
many, many connections between the two churches. One is, is
that the church in Ephesus was confronted or revealed by Christ
in the placard and expression of Him who holds the seven stars
in His right hand and who also walks in the midst of the seven
golden candlesticks. This is how Christ came to the
church at Ephesus. Do you remember that? It's chapter
2, verse 1. who holds the seven stars in
his right hand and walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
And you remember, I told you that Christ reveals himself to
every local church according to an attribute or a characteristic
of his office and role as mediator and high priest over his church,
consistent with the needs of that church. So he reveals himself
with an attribute or a characteristic consistent with the needs of
that church. So the placard raised and the emblem raised in Ephesus
was this, I am he who has absolute authority and control over the
seven stars. Who are the seven stars? They
are the leaders of the church. They are the rulers of the church.
They are the angels of the church They are the means instrumental
means by which the Word of God is communicated if you will and
what Christ was saying to the church at Ephesus was I Control
the leadership you don't And what Christ was saying to the
seven churches was this rather Ephesus was this you are in trouble
because you have what left your first love and And you and I
worked through that language and we understood clearly that
what Christ was concerned about was a passion on the part of
the church at Ephesus to remain so committed to the glory of
God in Christ that they did not lose their zeal to win souls
to Christ. And I told you that losing one's
first love is not an idea of having a bunch of loves. And
there's a one that's at the top and then there's a secondary
love or tertiary love or remote loves. But the first love is
the primary love that expresses who we are in our relationship
to Christ. He loved us and gave himself
for us. We are to love him back. And
the primary manifestation of our love return to Christ is
devotion to him and a commitment to seeing sinners come to know
Christ. You guys understand what I'm
getting at there. We're talking about the real objective of the
local church. And I'll show you the danger
of allowing a coldness to steal over your heart at length, so
that over time, rather than you being known for being ready to
give an answer to every man that asks you of the hope of the calling,
which is in you with meekness and fear, you are ambivalent,
indecisive, And the last time you even remember talking about
telling somebody about Jesus was maybe a year or two ago.
That's dreadful. Is it not? When God has allowed
you and I to walk through and be part of the thoroughfare of
life every day. And we are dealing with people
every day, are we not? So Ephesus was told, you better remember
where you have fallen. Remember that? That's the same
admonishment he's given to the church at Sardis. Remember! Remember,
the construction is the same. Why? Because the church at Sardis
that you and I are about to deal with is now in an advanced stage
of coldness in relationship to their love for Christ. In fact,
the church at Sardis has become so perfunctory, so formal, so
religious in its expression of life that for all intents and
purposes, the church at Sardis has now given itself over to
enjoying the history and legacy of its ministry over against
a present vital work of grace right now in the church. Let's
see if I can help you with that. The most dangerous place a church
could be is living on mere reputation. The notion that we are fine as
long as people know us for what we stand for and what we have
done past tense. This is called your legacy church.
And you've got legacy Christians. People who are living on the
fumes of their past zeal, passion and communion with Christ. And
the church it started presently is now more adopted to the idea
of helping people look through their photo book about their
love for Jesus. Do you understand what I'm getting
at? A sense of we have a history of preacher after preacher after
preacher who has preached Christ in this church for the last 25,
30 years. Yeah, but what about today? And
see, so what's taking place in the church at Sardis is really,
in my observation, an advanced condition that was clearly seen
in the church at Ephesus, where we had waxed cold and distant
from our commitment to Jesus Christ. And so the church at
Sardis now is much more given over to image rather than substance. Again, a legacy of what they've
done over a present abiding reality of grace. They're living on the
fumes of reputation. It's amazing, isn't it? This
is the church whose history has become a facade of things now,
just an appearance of things. Have you ever gone from a place
that you really enjoyed, you loved it, it was a wonderful
experience, and there are all kinds of fond memories you have
about that place, and you go away for a year or two. or maybe
quite a few years. All of you remember having grown
up in an area of the world or a part of the neighborhood or
city which you really enjoyed as a child. And in your mind
you have these picturesque images of beautiful homes and well-kept
lawns and very active neighborhoods and clean parks only to go back
10 years later and it's a ghost town. Am I making some sense? So stay with me for a moment.
We've also had those occasions where we have been part of institutions,
and part of assemblies, or part of ministries, or part of programs
that were known for being very popular, very successful, and
known everywhere. And having departed, we come
back five years later, 10 years later, or more, and the thing
is nothing but a shell of what it used to be. Stay with me for
a moment because I'm just laying a foundation for what I need
to talk to us about and that's this It doesn't matter at all. What a thing was 24 hours ago
It only matters what a thing is right now There are lots of
churches of which 10 years ago. I They had all kinds of promise
of life, promise of ministry, promise of blessing, which are
nothing but ghost tales now, shells of the truth now. They
are emasculated, if you will, decimated of any substance whatsoever. What happened? There was the
subtle, imperceptive infiltration of a coldness that set on them
and destroyed the vitality of the Spirit of God in the midst.
Now what I'm saying I know alarms you because you're a Christian.
And you and I know that we are to take this very personally.
Because in relationships the same thing happens. Over time
the relationship between a husband and a wife can become very cold,
very stagnant. And the separation is not visible,
but it's as thick as can be and can be cut with a knife, where
the two are separating in spirit because they have not sustained
the priority of a vital, authentic love relationship between the
two. Am I making some sense? And the two have struggled with
how to deal with the issue. Well, let me say this as I am
laying this visual foundation for you. This is what's remarkable
to me about our master's efforts at writing to his church. In
this given context, the church at Sardis doesn't have a doctrinal
issue. Our master's not concerned with
whether or not she is heterodoxical in her thinking and in her theology. No, it's not a matter of erroneous
doctrine here. It's not even a matter of them
engaging in a lack of discernment by which heretics are coming
in the church. Sardis is not suffering from
a era of doctrine or as it were infiltration of heretics nor
is Sardis suffering from persecution by which Christ would have to
comfort her and encourage her and tell her he is present. He
is the ever-present landlord always ready to protect his own.
You see Sardis is going through no troubles at all externally. All of their problems are internal. This is a unique difference.
And this is the similarity also between Sardis and the church
at Ephesus. So there's some things that you
and I need to work through the day to acquire the lesson. And
isn't the master good? Doesn't he love his church? See
if he loves you he's gonna come to you even before any external
problems occur and let you know This is a heart matter. I love
my wife and I want my wife to love me back Are you following me are you
following me see our Lord the Lord Jesus Christ I don't know
if you know it, but he is a jealous God I remember Oprah going apostate
publicly when she read that. She said, I read that in the
book of Exodus somewhere. And when I read that, I thought,
my God, why would God be jealous? Because you don't know him. That's
why you said that, because you don't know God. Because you don't
know the love of God. You don't know the grace of God.
You don't know the sacrifice of Christ. You don't know what
God did when he gave his darling son. You have no idea of the
infinite nature of the love of God in Christ Jesus by which
he has a right to be jealous for every blood-vowed, chosen
sinner in Christ. You just don't know. See, if
you knew, you would know that not only is it appropriate for
him to be jealous, he must be jealous. It's in his nature. Like I've told all the men in
this place, if you're not jealous for your wife, you do not love
her. Jealous for your wife. Jealous for you. Your wife has
to keep you back from killing anything coming close to the
house. Keep you back. Jealous. for the bride of his
youth, for the woman of his covenant, jealous for her. So is Christ
for his church. And when we know something's
going on wrong in the house, aren't we going to talk to our
wife about it? Aren't we going to talk to our husband about
it? Now, everything looks well on the outside. But sweetheart,
you didn't move a little bit further from my seat where you
used to be 10 years ago. Why are you way over there? Why are you way over there? Am
I making some sense? The Christ is saying, hey, I
don't want no room between you and me. Sit right next to me. OK, so I'm trying to drive home a
point before we get to the difficult work of his deconstruction of
their errors. Because all whom the Lord loves,
he what? Chastens. That's right. So if
you've been thinking that the series in the book of Revelation
is too tough, that's too tough. I don't I don't care. I don't
care. This is a season where the master
is real nigh to us and letting us know specifically what's on
his mind. Now, if you've been born again, you have the mind
of Christ and you're glad to be able to think his thoughts
after him for a season. Okay, so let's go to work now.
This is so very critical. In the opening of our text in
Revelation chapter 3, he says in verse 1, unto the angel of
the church in Sardis write, these things saith he that hath the
seven spirits of God and the what? Seven stars. See the connection
to Ephesus? In Ephesus, it was just the stars.
In Sardis, it's both the stars and the what? In my second message,
I'm gonna go deeper into the implications of that statement. I know your works, that you have
a name, that you live, and you are dead. Do you notice how immediately
he goes into the problem? He doesn't enumerate a list of
good things and virtues in the area of good works like he did
with Pergamos, like he did with Thyatira, like he did with others.
He immediately goes to the problem. He says, I know your works. And
here's the main problem with your works. Everybody thinks
you're all right, but I know better. Do you see it? See, everybody thinks you're
alive and you are living under the comfort of that reputation. You know people are talking about
you from the standpoint of what you used to do. But they don't
have any idea what's really going on. And the form of the language
in which our Lord is speaking here, He's plainly saying, you
are presently dead. That's amazing because you know
what that means? You and I can think exactly opposite
of what's going on. Terms of seeing it from our viewpoint
versus seeing it from God's viewpoint That's why I want to see things
the way God sees it because I will call a thing alive when he'll
say it's dead And I'll call a thing dead when he says oh no, there's
life there. There's life there. It just doesn't
appear that way There's a root there. It's been cut off at the
start, but give it a little water It'll sprout back again, but
only Christ can see that and So we call certain things that
are dead, dead that are alive. And we call other things that
are alive. And in fact, they are dead, dried up, withered
at the root. Only God knows, which calls us
to our first point in our outline, the unacceptable work of mere
reputation. Do you see that? The unacceptable
work of mere reputation, I extract that from verse one. Why do I
say that? I know your works, that you have a name, reputation,
that you're alive, but you're dead. It's merely a reputation. Under that, four things I want
you to consider. And we're going to run through
these quickly because they basically speak for themselves. You ready?
Point number one, the past is what? The past. That does not really need developing. The past is the past. For a man
or a woman to live in the past is for them to deny the reality
of the moment and all the challenges that it brings because there
are some things that they're not really willing to face. Have
you met people like that? Who live in the past. They live
in the past. You catch up with them and you're
hoping to have a nice conversation about things recent and more
contemporary and they quickly go back to 20 years ago. And
you can't wait to get out of their presence, because it's
like, where are you at? Don't you know you're getting
older, sister, brother? Don't you see the hair falling
out on your head? Listen, we ain't balling no more.
I've had people come to me. I am not kidding. Jess, you still
dancing? Man, will you look at me? Still
dancing. Will you look at me? Oh man,
I remember how we used to get down in high school. Man, I've
been out of high school for 30 years. What's with all that? Stuck in the past. Stuck in the
past. The past is the past. Learn from
it, but don't live by it. And certainly don't live in it.
You're in denial if you do. Point number B, the past is often
glorified and distorted. Can I get one honest sinner in
the house to tell the truth? Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse
10. Let me give you a verse to hang
on for the rest of your life. When you sit there and listen
to your husband embellish the story year after year after year,
make that fish bigger, better, make the struggle to catch that
fish longer, more exciting. You know it was only a one foot
trout. Now you turned it into a 10 foot marlin. It didn't take
you but 10 minutes to catch it and you swore it was an hour
and a half. Yeah, we have those situations
where, you know, as couples, this is a strange dynamic as
couples, isn't it? That as we get older, the one
spouse sees it radically different than the other spouse. I'm always
tickled when I come into contact with couples. The husband will
say it was this way. The wife will say, no, no, no,
it wasn't that way at all. And nine times out of 10, she's
right. I'm just telling the truth. So
we got a little bit of glossing going on, don't we? Living in
the past, trying to acquire a reputation from the past rather than telling
the truth. Hey, man, you caught a fish.
That's a 12 inch trout. Count your blessings. I'm going
out there and caught nothing. In other words, don't fall prey
to what the preacher said in Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Verse
10, here it is. Say not thou, what is the cause
that the former days were better than these? For, watch this,
you do not inquire wisely concerning this. To cry, yesterday was better
than today. Yesterday, you know, it was,
remember the good old days? No. No, I don't remember the
good old days. It was just as bad 20 years ago
as it is today. No, isn't that true? You know
how people talk about how great it was back in the pre-40s era. I wouldn't want to live in the
pre-40s era for nothing in the world. In other words, we distort
history. We paint a picture of what things
used to be that are not consistent with reality. At that point,
we're perpetrating a fraud. We are establishing a facade
that's not based on the truth. And it implies there's a struggle
going on within with a sense of, at least a sense of low self-esteem. You know what I'm getting at?
A real struggle here. So listen, as a principle, don't
get locked into the past. Point number three in our PowerPoint.
When we see the past, learn from it, don't live in it. The past
is often glorified and distorted. I know that. You know that. Get
over it. Communion with God is never a
past tense matter. Did you get that? Communion with
God is never a past tense issue. In other words, We never are
right when we say we had fellowship with God. Either you have present
tense fellowship with God or you don't. Either you are in
permanent continuous communion with him because of your relationship
with him in Christ or you're not. There's no such thing as
used to be saved then got lost again and need to be saved all
over. No, if you're lost now, you were
lost then. If you're separated from God
now, you were separated then. So I'm not speaking to the subtle
and sensitive issue of a broken fellowship with God in terms
of sin in our life. I'm talking about the notion
that somehow there was a vital communion with God on a saving
level, and then today it's not. It cannot be. More than that,
what I want to say to you is, if you and I are living under
the notion that I'm all right, I'm not as close to God as I
want to be, you are in danger. You are in danger. And this is exactly what our
master is saying to the church at Sardis. Communion with God
is never a past tense matter. Matthew 22, 32, you know what
it says there? He says, have you not heard that
God, is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's the God of the
living, not of the dead. He is the living God. Do you
remember the Tetragrammaton of Exodus 3.14? When Moses said,
who shall I tell Pharaoh sent me? Not I was that I was, will
be that I will be I am that I am I am the ever-present reality
it's a stated verb which means he always exists in the moment
this is what we understand about God are you ready he that comes
unto God must believe that he is is is the present tense verb
you don't believe that he was or will be He is. And this is what God is getting
across to us in our text. If I have a vital relationship
with God, it's based upon the reality that he exists and I
exist with him right now. Finally, our last point under
our first heading, dead things, dead things. Because our master
simply said, you have a name that you're alive, but you are
actually dead. You're in a state of death. What
he's telling them, there were things going on in the church
that produce that death and they are a consequence of what? Always. Sin results in death on every
level. On a sociological level, on a
psychological level, on a domestic level, on a spiritual level,
on all levels. Whenever sin enters into the
equation, something dies. Are you hearing me? So like when
we offend one another and we allow it to bear the fruit of
the offense, guess what happens to the relationship? A break,
a breach, a death takes place. And unless you and I don't seek,
unless you and I seek a recovery, a retrieval of that relationship,
it will sustain that death consequence until the relationship is irreparable. This is why our Lord is doing
what he's doing. coming to the church, letting
her know, if you really truly believe in all of this chatter
you hear about how lively you are as a church, let me help
you understand, church, you are dead. That's a good word to ignorant
people, isn't it? Let's go back to our second point,
the importance of maturing words. And I want you to see our master
on this. This is something that I, marveled at maybe about 12
or 15 years ago when I went through the book of Revelation maybe
for the second time here at grace the way our Lord constructs this
in Revelation chapter 3 verse 2 listen to what he says he says
after he says you have a name that you're alive but you're
dead he says be watchful and strengthen the things which remain
that are ready to die for I have not found your words perfect
before God. Do you see that? So he explains
to the church a present reality of a spiritual deadness that
had already captured many in the church. Now he gives us insight
into a hopeful situation, but it's right now a pretty ominous
one. You know what that is? Things are dying. Did you notice
that? He says strengthen those things
that remain that are ready to what? What a good physician What
a good shepherd. In other words, he's not taking
absolutely everyone per capita and saying, y'all all dead. Do
you know what that means, child of God? Watch this now. Do you
know what that means? Even when you are a part of the
large number, God knows you personally. He sees you personally. He knows
your condition all by itself. And though folks around you may
be already rotting as corpses, He knows whether or not you have
simply been weakened by your environment versus you being
dead too And he's all ready to do something about making sure
you don't die Look at Christ Look at him. So what he says
to the leadership in the church is this he says wake up That's
our first line be watchful. Do you see that? I Be watchful. He tells her to wake up. Now,
I know that that becomes one of the underlying problems by
which a relationship dies, by which the church starts to experience
decay and corruption. Again, if we take the personal
relationship, this makes it a little bit more easy to handle, in a
personal relationship between two people. One of the things
that is remarkable, that is, if you and I don't pay attention
to each other, husband and wife, We can kind of become what presumptuous
that the relationship is all right. We can become careless. We actually can fall asleep emotionally
and psychologically to the needs of each other. And the next thing
you know, there is a real problem taking place. Am I making some
sense? And thus is the case with the
church of the living God. What our master said to the leadership
was, you guys need to wake up, wake up. Wake up, you got issues
in the church that you need to deal with because we've got two
categories of people those who are already dead Very much comfortable
with their history. They don't want to be moved.
They don't want to be touched They don't even want to change seats.
Remember we talked about that They didn't purchase their seat They'd be just fine to stay right
there even when the church service is over You get up and leave,
they stay right there. They're there next week when
you come back, right in that same seat, looking straight ahead.
They're not smiling. They're not mad or anything.
I can't make them smile. I can't make them mad. They're
just there, dead. And so the point is, is that
relationships as our Lord, this is what's so fascinating to me,
that our master is being so involved with this church. at a level
of intimacy that is to be marked by every child of God, let alone
every man and woman. Our master is that concerned. He says, wake up, wake up, literally
begin to come to a place of awareness. It's a very urgent term. Wake
up, be on the alert. In fact, it's the same word as
used in Acts chapter 20, verse 31, where Paul had told the elders
at Ephesus, listen, when I depart, grievous wolves are coming in,
not sparing the flock, also from among yourselves, there shall
rise up those speaking perverse things, seeking to lead away
a group of people to themselves. Then he says, watch, watch. And that's our word there. Our
master is saying the same thing. And what that means, saints,
is there are all kinds of ways the enemy comes in. All kinds
of ways. And sometimes you and I may be
proficient at seeing one way, but very deficient at seeing
other ways. There may be doors in our lives
that we have not entered into to examine the condition of those
aspects of our walk and our life with Christ for a long time.
And it's dying. Same thing in relationships.
So our master is saying very clearly that it is important
for us to understand that if we don't do diligence, there's
no way the local church can be vital, healthy, strong, vibrant
in its walk with Christ without diligence. Let me go on. Point
number, the second point of point A is not only wake up, but strengthen. Listen to what he says. Be watchful. and do what? Strengthen the things
which remain. That makes all kind of practical
sense to me, doesn't it? Doesn't it make sense that if
you discover that you have a plant that is weak now in its condition,
and it's not bearing the fruit that it ought to, shouldn't you
strengthen that plant? Shouldn't you go and nurture
that plant, cultivate that plant, irrigate that plant, water that
plant, irrigate that plant, do what's necessary to instill in
it the nutrients necessary for it to bear fruit? Place sticks
on the side of it, prop it up, give it more sunlight, do everything
necessary for it to bear fruit. Is that true? That's exactly
what he's saying there. Actually, he's using the metaphor
of a physical body. And I've used this term with
you many times, because as we're learning in our Greek class,
many of our English words are derived from the Greek language. And again, the word therefore
strengthened is the Greek word steros, from which we get the
term what? Steroids. Steroids and so we
are to infuse into the muscle mass those natural natural Enzymes
and natural elements to build vigor and build strength. That
means you got to go to work That means you got to go to work when
a relationship is fledgling Let me just talk for just a second
on the covenant level between husband and wife You are both
obligated on both sides to make that thing work You are obligated
to make it work Your job is to make it work. Strengthen those
things that remain so that it does not die. And that's what
our master is saying to the leadership in the church. Be watchful and
strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die. For I
have not found your works. See the word perfect. Now let's
overcome that because this will cause you to stumble if you don't.
And this is the this word I'm going to lift out and I'm going
to kind of leave it in suspended animation till our second message
so that when we come back you have a fuller understanding why
our Lord is using this phrase. The term perfect here in our
text does not mean perfect in some type of impeccable quintessential
sense. It's not the word for flawless
or spotless or sinless. That Greek term telos or telios
from which we get the word perfect speaks to blamelessness or without
reproach or without any flaw whatsoever. Christ is not calling
us nor has he ever called us to the kind of works on our part
that require perfection, that require flawlessness, that require
impeccability. He has never called you nor me
to an impeccable work. That would be an impossibility
on our part. Everything we do is flawed. Are you guys hearing me? Here's
the other thing you husbands and wives need to get. When you
married him, you married a flawed man. He ain't gonna never be
unflawed till he gets the glory. And fellas, when you married
that woman, you married a very flawed sister. Beautiful as she
is, flawed. And she will never reach perfection
until she gets to glory. Pastor, what do I do? Live with
it. Live with it. That's right. Live with it. There are qualities
and virtues in both persons by which we can enjoy life if we
continue to strengthen and nurture, right? Qualities and virtues
in both persons, but it ain't gonna never bear 100% fruit.
Call it a wrap. Because there are these unreal
expectations on the part of couples thinking that somehow they ought
to get more out of that tree than they can. You ain't getting
no more out of that tree. Well, Pastor, why am I all I'm
getting is just that? Because all the Lord wants you
to have is that. When he says, I have not found
your works perfect, what he is saying is you have not completed
your task. You guys can write that down
as a alternative. You have not completed your task. This is gonna be unpacked and
developed more fully next time. Be watchful, strengthen the things
which remain that are ready to die because you have not completed
your task. So now this actually really does
kind of shift us into a greater clarity of his concern, particularly
on a more ecclesiastical level. So pull up the PowerPoint again.
Let's work through this. Let me see if I can make this
come home to us. Wouldn't you be a poor employee
if you signed a contract to work for someone and they gave you
specific duties to do every day? Let's say you had 10 duties to
do every day and they needed you to do those duties. And you
came in boasting about how hard you work and how well you pay
attention. But every day when you punched
out out of the 10 duties that you were supposed to do, you
only did seven. I mean, every day, all you did
was seven. And then you left like it was
cool. I'm cool. I'm cool. You didn't sign a contract for
10 specific duties that this institution needs you to do.
In order for this company to function at full capacity, you
need to do all 10 duties. Is that company going to be pleased
with you? Is the boss going to be smiling upon you when you
come in? Is he going to give you a gold
watch? Is he going to give you a new car? Are you going to be
the employee of the year? Do you already see yourself halfway
out the door because of a deficiency on your part with keeping up
with the contractual agreement? Do you guys see that? This is
an analogy and we'll deal with it more fully next week. Let
me see if I can throw this into your head so you can get it before
I go back. When you became a Christian, when you became a child of God,
guess what you did? You actually bought into God's company. Listen to me. When you became
a Christian, you actually bought into God's company. You now work
for God. And God expects dividends from
your works. Does he have a right to? Are
you guys seeing what I'm getting at? We'll unpack that more fully
next week. So our master says to the church at Sardis, here's
my problem with you guys. You guys have not understood
the importance of fulfilling your duties. Point number two,
fulfilling the call, fulfilling the call. The Bible is very clear,
ladies and gentlemen, that God has called us to a task for which
we are called upon to fulfill that task on minor levels and
on major levels. 2 Corinthians 10.6 uses this
same word, not the same complete form, but in 2 Corinthians 10.6,
the Apostle Paul speaks to the mind of the believer when it
comes to obedience to Christ. And you guys have heard this
before, but I want you to see it again. He says over in 2 Corinthians
10 verse 4 concerning the warfare. He says, for though we walk,
verse 3, in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but what? Mighty
through God to the pulling down of what? You understand what
strongholds are? They're prisons. They're entrapments. These are strongholds or barriers
or hindrances, constraints that keep the people of God from doing
what they're called to do. And these are strategically set
up by the enemy to keep you from advancing. Right? He's using
the metaphor of a war. And here's what he says in verse
5. We are about the business of
casting down what? throwing down ideas, throwing
down worldviews, throwing down doctrines and teachings, throwing
down notions, concepts, watch this, and every high thing that
exalts itself against the knowledge of what? So when we teach, you'll
hear our teachers, you guys heard it this morning, the kind of
uncomfortable teaching that our elder yielded around the idea
that people ought to feel like babies that die automatically
go to heaven. I was praying for y'all. I mean,
because it's a difficult thing to conceptualize. I will not
develop it here at all. But the notion that somehow babies
are innocent is unbiblical. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. The wicked go astray from the
womb as soon as they be born. Not a week later. As soon as
they be born. Speaking live. Do you know everything
that is conceived and brought into existence is worthy by nature
of sin of perishing under the wrath of God? That God saves
any of us is owing to one thing. the mercy that's found in Christ
alone. Are you ready? Whether that's
a baby or a grown person, the only reason babies enter into
heaven is because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ and his
righteousness imputed to them, having chosen them in Christ
from before the foundation of the world. Y'all got that? That's
the only reason for which children or grown people go into heaven. That's a hard teaching, isn't
it? What were we doing? We were casting down faulty notions,
faulty ideas that somehow when we're born, we're born not sinners. But by the time we get 12 or
13 years old, now all of a sudden we become a sinner. No, you were
always a sinner. God said it in Isaiah. Listen,
you were a sinner from the womb. Very clear. And I won't even
get into the other implications or inferences drawn out of that
concerning God's justice. God will be just on the last
day when he punishes sin, will he not? And no one will go to
hell that does not justly deserve to go to hell. Humans are babies. Don't read into that more than
it says. Only understand this, that your cute little bitty baby
that died didn't go to heaven because he or she was innocent.
They went to heaven because they were chosen in Christ. And if
you are ever going to make heaven, you better be found to have been
chosen in Christ too. Tough, isn't it? But this is
what we mean by casting down imaginations and everything that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Pastor, what's the practical
benefit of what you just said? You better teach your kids the
gospel. You better raise them up under the fear and the nurture
of the Lord. You better bring them into an environment, a body
of people who don't mind telling them the truth. who don't mind
sowing into their hearts the truth of the gospel. See, it's
so very important for us to know that, you know, the idea that
somehow they're saved because they're little. That's your delusion
in mind. God tells you to train them up. I told you, you speak to them
about Christ while they're in that woman's belly. Listen to what he goes on to
say. Now, this really gets to our point. I got about 10 more
minutes. Listen. Casting down imagination, everything that
exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the what? So on a practical level, just
in case you didn't get it, it's this. Every idea that you have,
because you are the Lord's servant, you have to weigh that idea over
against what the Word of God says. Now, a lot of you are God's
servants, but you're doing whatever you want. You're not serving
God. I mean, a lot of you have said
you were God's servants. And you don't spend any time
asking the question, is what I'm about to do in accord with
God's word? You just do what you wanna do.
Am I making some sense? Now, what the apostle just said
was this, listen to it. You and I are to bring into captivity
every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ.
Verse six, after having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when
your own obedience is what? See it? That's our word there.
So let me just share with you that caveat that's going to bring
us back to our text. Yes, we are called to evangelism,
but only after we have evangelized ourselves. Only after we have brought our
own souls, our own minds into subjection to biblical truth.
Only after we have led captivity, captive our own spirit and brought
it into captivity to Christ. Then and then only do we go to
seek to avenge error elsewhere. For God is far more concerned
with your obedience to Him than you telling others to be obedient
to Him. By the way, you know this. I
had two sisters, two people come to me over the last couple of
days because we've been dealing with evangelism in terms of Acts
chapter 5, Acts chapter 8, where Philip has just demonstrated
himself to be a magnificent evangelist, right? He evangelizes the Samaritans. Now he's headed down the Gaza
Strip. He's going to meet an Ethiopian by which the gospel
is going into Africa, which was one of the early missionary works
by which our African culture heard the gospel, all because
of the obedience of one man who was willing to do God's will
without question. So as we were working that into
our soul, one brother came to me and said, man, Pastor, I feel
so bad. I was out on some work and an
opportunity came up for me to share the gospel with somebody
and I missed it. Now, do you know in most churches
you wouldn't even hear folks having that kind of conversation?
At least my brother was aware that his job wasn't to simply
run around the world, have fun while eternity bound souls perish
all around him. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? He knew that a door was open for him to share the Word
of God. Freely you have received, freely what? You give. A sister
came to me with the same exact scenario. She said, I missed
the assignment, Pastor. The Spirit of God was kicking
my butt all over the place. I said, that's cool, that's cool.
Here, let me help you. Tomorrow is another day. Be ready
tomorrow. And I was so thankful when they
both came to me with that concern. Do you know why? Because the
average Christian, and I am sure that many in here are this way,
you don't care about people whom you come across
every day. Whether or not a door opens for
you to share the gospel. This is exactly what our text
is talking about. Go back there. I want to begin to move forward
and close out on my final point. He says be watchful and strengthen
the things that remain that are ready to die For I have not found
your works mature Mature, that's what he's really talking about
fulfill brought to fulfillment now ladies and gentlemen You
have discovered as a Christian if you don't give yourself over
to Having the mind of Christ when it comes to serving God
on a daily basis. It's not just gonna happen by
accident. Is it? You and I don't go deep in God's Word We're not
going to go bright broad and we're not going to be influential
in people's lives Are we to the degree that you and I neglect
God's Word? Guess what? Our mouth is mute To the degree
that we don't commit ourselves To growing in the knowledge of
Christ and having that work impact us in such a way that our soul
says I'm ready Lord I'm ready. I'm ready to tell somebody about
Jesus. We will not tell them Am I telling
the truth? And see, this is what our Lord
is getting at. So now watch the picture. I'm almost going to
stop it right here. Watch the picture that he's painting.
Here's what he's saying. He said, I've come up in the
church and I've seen that you guys got good doctrines on your
books. And I hear the rumors in the
neighborhood all throughout the city of Sardis, that grace of
Sardis is a kicking church. Boy, they really know the gospel. But I have not seen in months
anyone sitting on the side of you by whom or for whom you have
labored to bring to a knowledge of Christ. Are you guys hearing what I'm
getting at? See, as a church collectively, Our job is to be
a witness. And when we are living in vital
communion with Christ ourself, can I tell you what happens?
God allows you to be a magnet. And you attract people. When
your communion with Christ is full, and you are walking in
the joy of the gospel, He's going to allow you many doors to talk
to people about Christ. And if you have the mind of Christ,
and Christ was the evangelist par excellence, he was the quintessential
witness, was he not? If you have the heart of Christ,
the mind of Christ, you're going to be always ready, always ready
to tell somebody or peel off a track, peel off a CD, peel
off a card. In fact, if you really understand
the privilege of your calling right now, you won't leave this
place without material. Am I telling the truth? See,
because you know, sometimes you don't get a chance to talk to
him at length, but you can hit him with something. Just hit
him with something. Hit him with something. Hit him.
Here, take this. Here, here, take this. Here. Right? And listen, God knows the heart.
He knows that all the opportunities to talk it through and elaborate
on the gospel are not gonna be there, but he knows how to hook
them when our desires are right. But more to the point, ladies
and gentlemen, you and me, I'm talking about me now, I better
not die having not been the means by which souls are saved. When
the very same gospel that saved me It's deposited in my heart
and all I've got to do is open my mouth. I better not be comfortable
with looking up year after year after year and it's the same
people that I've influenced. When I live in a neighborhood
of 7 million people, I better not, I better not be, listen,
I better not be content with not having my brother saved,
my cousin saved, My uncles and my aunts say, I better not be
content. I better not. I am not evangelical. I know
nothing about the reason he saved me and left me here. If my heart
is not passionate to pray for them and look for opportunities
to let them know, I have no love for Christ on that level. It's
tough, isn't it? But it's the truth. See, because
the only thing we're doing when we fail to understand this admonition
is we're simply defaulting to religion. Is that right? We're defaulting to religion.
So, just to give you something to put your arms around so we
can leave, it starts with your own Jerusalem. Because, you know, you'll argue
that I don't have the gift of evangelism. That's a bunch of
crap. That's a bunch of crap. I bet you evangelize in all these
other areas that you have the greatest interest in. I bet you can tell people about
this event and that activity and this thing all day long.
I bet you can read a thousand books on it and get super knowledgeable
about it and be more than ready to talk to people about it. What
about Christ? What about the glory of God?
What about the salvation of sinners? What about the restoration of
broken sinners? What about that? What about our
sons and our daughters? When you drive into the store
and the Spirit of God is nudging you, say something to them. You haven't talked to them about
God in a long time. Are you hearing what I'm saying,
child of God? So the Spirit of God is speaking to you. and me. And we are privileged
to hear from him because we know he's right anyway. All we want is grace to actually
be able to move in obedience to it. I don't want a reputation. I don't want a reputation that
I was alive. In fact, while I'm living, I
don't want a reputation. I'll take one when I'm dead.
But like right now, I don't want a reputation. I want a life committed
to the glory of God. And I want my mouth to be with
all fitted with the word of God. And I want to be able to tell
people upon notice about Christ. I want to be cocked and loaded.
I want to be engaged, ready to go. I want the spirit of God
to just be able to pull the trigger like this. Boom! And I take off
on him. That's what I want. That's what
I want. I want to be ready to cause heaven
to rejoice at one sinner that repents. And I want that for
you too. Because you and I will not escape
if we neglect so great a salvation. Amen. Amen.