Before the Lord was pleased to
save me, laboring under the burden of guilt and sin, I never dreamed
that it would be possible for a saved sinner, one forgiven
of all sin, accepted in Christ, justified freely by God's grace,
washed in his blood. I never dreamed it would be possible
for such a man to have lusts so strong as the lusts of my
own heart are this day. I never dreamed it'd be possible
for a sinner, aware so much of his debt to the grace of God,
to have so little loyalty to the God of all grace as I do
at heart. I never dreamed it'd be possible
that a man who has new life in Christ We find that life so often
languishing as I find mine so often languishing. I never dreamed it'd be possible
for a man who loves Christ, really loves him, to love him so little. And as Rex pointed out in his
reading a little bit ago, I know that it is my responsibility
to do something about it. I know that. It is my responsibility
to repent and to turn again to my God. I know that if I do repent, he
will be gracious to me. I know that, but I find it utterly
impossible to do so. I struggle with this matter of
spiritual declension in my soul all the time, and I would, if
I could, revive my spirit, but I can't. I would if I could immediately
every time I find this declension of spirit and life of love creeping
over my soul to turn again to my Lord. But I don't find within
me the ability to do so. Now we have a word from our Savior
tonight for his church in just such a time of spiritual deadness. Revelation chapter 3 and verse
1. Stardust was the capital city
of Lydia, a small but very wealthy, very prosperous people. Being
such, it was a proud, overconfident city. It was situated on what
was thought to be an inaccessible hill. It was protected by what
they considered to be an impregnable fortress. But there was one small
little place, one small point of weakness, one crack in the
wall that went unobserved by the inhabitants of the city,
but the enemy found it. And one night, the enemy sneaked
into the city like a thief in the night, and Charter was destroyed. Later, the city was utterly destroyed
with an earthquake. In that unguarded spot, On an
unguarded night, the city was brought to ruin. The condition
of the city was a vivid picture of the spiritual condition of
God's church in Sardis. Proud, but decaying. That was the physical condition
of the city in John's day, and it was the condition of the church
when our Lord addresses this church in Sardis. Let's begin
reading at verse one. unto the angel of the church
in Sardis writes, these things saith he that hath the seven
spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works that
thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Be watchful and
strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I
have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore
how thou hast received, and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch,
I will come on thee as a thief in the night, as a thief, and
thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast
a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments,
and they shall walk with me in white but they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same
shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name
out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before
my Father and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. This church is was declining and nearly dead. She existed in peace. Neither
the Jews nor the Gentiles bothered her, because she didn't bother
them. There was no persecution in Sardis.
The church at Sardis got along fine. There was no difficulty. It lived in perfect peace. But
it was the peace of a cemetery, because the church was dead.
Here our Lord calls for this church to remember, to remember
the past, to recall their former vitality, their former faith,
their former obedience, and their former zeal. And he calls for
them to return, to strengthen the things that remain and hold
fast those things which they had. In short, he calls for the
church to repent. If they refused, he said, I'll
come on you like a thief without warning, a thief to destroy you. How descriptive this letter is.
of the condition of God's church in this hour. Remember, this is a message to
us, a message to you and to me this day and this hour. It is
a letter of reproof and warning. Let it be read with weeping eyes. Receive with broken hearts and
stir our hearts to repentance. He that hath an ear to hear Let
him hear what the Spirit says. Spiritual decay is the forerunner
of total apostasy, which is the forerunner of eternal ruin. Rex prayed in his prayer that
we must never, let us never by God's grace presume upon his
goodness. Let us never presume that everything
will always be well in this place, in this church. let us never
presume personally upon God's goodness, nor as a congregation.
Now I want to present our Lord's message to us in these few verses
of scripture with four statements, actually just four words. First,
our text contains a reproach. A reproach that we must all acknowledge
applies to ourselves. Then the text gives us a requirement.
what the Lord requires of each of us. And then the text speaks
of a remnant and finally of a reward. First, our Lord here rebukes
us and lays at our door the charge of a serious fourfold reproach. The corruption at Sardis was
a general corruption. In Pergamos there were a few
names in the congregation that had followed the doctrine of
Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. In Thyatira there
were a few who had followed Jezebel, but in Sardis there were only
a few who had not yet defiled their names, only a few who were
faithful unto the Lord God. This church was sinking into
a spiritual stupor. Therefore, the Lord Jesus describes
himself as he that hath the seven spirits of God. Speaking of the
perfection of God's spirit, speaking of the perfection of grace, the
perfection of his power, and he tells us being such, that
one who has the seven spirits, who holds the seven stars, he
says, I am able yet to revive this church. I am able yet to
revive you in your state of languishing. He's able to revive the dead
church. He's able to cause his servant
to preach the gospel in power. He's able to speak even through
these lips of clay to the hearts of his people. Now he gives us
here a fourfold description of our fault. And I apply it to
ourselves. And I apply it more than anybody
else to me. To me. The church had a name. Verse
one, he says, thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead. Everybody knew them. They were
big on profession, but little in possession. They were long
in ceremony, but little in commitment. They were precise in doctrine,
but negligent in devotion. They had great activity, but
when all was said and done, little worship. I hope I'm not overstating, and
I hope that I'm not viewing things negatively. I hope I'm stating
exactly the truth. This is what I perceive to be
the condition of God's church in this day. A name that we live, but death
is everywhere. In God's good providence, I travel
somewhere almost every week up and down the length and breadth
of this country. I preach somewhere nearly every night. And as I do, I observe in the
churches a name, a name of life, a name of vitality, a lot of
talk, but death everywhere. And Lindsay, these are the best
of churches. These are the most orthodox. These are the most
well-instructed, the most well-disciplined of churches. God have mercy on
us when it must be said of such churches, thou hast to name that
thou livest and art dead. For the most part, the religion
and the religious activity seems to me just to be a form of I seldom ever meet with a man
or a woman who's not religious. I meet with very few. I seldom
ever meet with someone who doesn't profess to be a Christian. But
I'll tell you what else I seldom ever meet. I seldom ever meet
anybody who seems to just be over head over heels committed
to and in love with the Son of God. I seldom meet anybody who's
just bubbling over with excitement about the good news of God's
grace. I seldom meet anybody whose hearts are just utterly
overwhelmed by God's goodness. By and large, most places our meetings are
poorly attended. The Word of God goes begging
for a hearing. It's seldom studied or even read. Real prayer? I sometimes wonder if I ever
have known what it's all about. Now, I say a lot of things to
God in prayer. In our home, we never have a
meal without prayer. We never have a day without prayer. I never go any time without a
season of prayer through the day. My heart goes out to God
often with various requests. But I don't know whether I know
anything at all about prayer. Most of what I hear seems to
me to be so mechanical, so repetitious. Religion for most people seems to be a matter of convenience
rather than a matter of necessity for most people. I try to be
honest with myself. I wonder, Bobby, how faithful
I would be if I were sitting where you are rather than me
standing here where I am. I try to be honest about that. But
for most people, religion seems to be a matter of convenience.
If something else comes up, that's Something else comes along, well,
church is always there, God's always there, throne of grace
is always there, we don't have to be too concerned about that.
The fact is Ichabod might well be written over the doors of
most of our church buildings, for the glory of God has long
since departed. There's another character of
this reproof. In verse 2, our Lord said, be
watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to
die, for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Sardis
was negligent about the most important matters. Like others, this letter was
addressed first and foremost to the pastor, the angel of the
And usually, not always, but usually, the church is just a
reflection of her pastor. That's usually the case. In most
cases, the pulpit is the greatest strength or the greatest weakness
of a congregation. Here in Sardis, the pastor, the
elders, the deacons, the teachers, the people, they were all negligent. No one was watchful for the faith,
earnestly contending for it. No one was wrestling against
the wicked one, laboring for the souls of men, laboring for
the gospel. Christ saw in this church nothing
but slothfulness, coldness, lethargy, and death. I read the book of Acts and I
ask myself, where are those men like the apostles whom Peter
described as men who have hazarded their lives for gospel? Where
is the man who counts his life nothing but dung, counts his
life not to be dear unto himself for the furtherance of the gospel?
Where is the man whose heart just flat burns with love for
the Son of God? Truth has fallen in the streets.
Besardus doesn't care. Christ's land was starving for
bread. Besardus didn't care. And the
same I fear is too much true of you and me. In this day of
apostate religion, in this day of darkness and delusion, the
truth of God has fallen in the streets, but nobody seems much
to care. We talk about it, but do nothing.
The lambs of Christ starve and we talk about it but do nothing.
And then our Lord charges us with formality, ritualism, ceremonialism,
and no more. As I found your works are not
perfect before God. Their forms were there, religious
customs were plentiful, ceremonies were kept up, traditions were
maintained, services were attended. But the essence was lacking.
There was no sincerity of love, faith, and hope. Lots of activity, but no faith. Lots of parade, but no power. In the sight of other people,
folks would hear about Sardis. Boy, that's somebody else over
there. That's some remarkable group
of folks over there. They're in Sardis. They're some
folks who are zealous for Christ. But the Lord looked on them and
said, you have a name and nothing else, just a name. And then in
verse three, our Lord speaks of this church and tells them
that they were careless about the things they'd heard. He says,
remember therefore how thou hast received and heard. The greatest evil in this church,
in the greatest evil in the church today, is impurity of doctrine. That impurity and laxity of doctrine
and commitment to the truth of God which accepts any religion
as long as it has the appearance of sincerity. These days we're
supposed to believe that everyone is right and no one is wrong,
no matter what they believe. If someone dares assert that
there's a real difference between truth and error, if someone dares
assert there's a real difference between the truth of God and
the lie of Satan, that person is looked at as a bigot, a fanatic,
one who is narrow-minded, one who's hard-hearted, an instigator
of strife, a divider of men. But my friends, there simply
cannot be any alliance between truth and error. This cannot
be. Those who preach divine sovereignty
And those who deny it are not brethren. Those who preach electing
love and those who denounce it are not companions. Those who
preach the effectual redemption of Christ and those who despise
it are not friends. Those who preach salvation by
grace and those who preach salvation by works are not the children
of the same household and of the same family. That just isn't
so. I hear folks all the time say,
well, you know, he says some good things. I guess it's impossible
for a fellow to read this book and not say something good about
God. It's just impossible. Even a blind squirrel finds a
net once in a while. And a fellow who's just blind
spiritually doesn't find something good once in a while to say.
But I'm telling you, those who deny the gospel of God's grace
are not companions in the kingdom of grace. And we must never bring
the truth of God down so that men everywhere accept the truth
and acknowledge the truth while altogether denying the truth.
They say, yeah, we all believe the same thing. We're all, we're
all breathing, we're all getting along. We cannot, we cannot,
we cannot walk with Babylon without partaking of Babylon's sins and
of God's judgment upon her. All right, now that's the reproach.
The reproach is a laxity of truth. The reproach is a matter of formality.
The reproach is a name of life while there's nothing but death.
The reproach is altogether acceptable and applicable rather to you
and me and to the Church of God in this day. But what's the requirement? Our Lord says in verses two and
three, these things. Number one, be watchful. How often, Rex, did our Lord
repeat that word to his disciples? Watch, watch, watch, watch, watch. The religious world around us
has watched other folks. Our Lord said, you watch out
for yourself. You watch out for yourself. Watch and pray that
you enter not into temptation. Be watchful over your own souls. Strengthen the things that remain. Strengthen God's people. Strengthen
one another. Help folks along the way. Encourage
one another's faith. Encourage one another's commitment. Encourage one another's love.
Encourage one another's zeal. Encourage folks in the way of
life. Remember, oh God help me to remember the
hold of the pit from which I have been dug. Help me to remember
the rock from which I've been hewn. Help me to remember your
grace and mercy toward me. Let me never, never, never get
over the wonder of the fact that God in heaven reached down with
the long arm of his omnipotent grace to this poor, helpless,
hell-bent, hell-deserving sinner and snatched me from the jaws
of destruction. Remember. Go fast. You, men and women, young and
old, listen to me. Every temptation that comes to
compromise the truth of God, every temptation that comes...
Buddy met me at the door after one of the services just recently
and said, you know, just constantly, constantly, our minds, our flesh,
our heart, the world around us, we constantly are pressuring
ourselves and being pressured by others to... Don't be so strict
with this thing now. Hold fast the truth. Hold it
fast. Walk in the old paths. Don't
bend God's truth one inch for anybody, for any reason. Don't
do it. Don't budge from it. And so shall
you have rest. Our Lord says, repent. Turn to me. I was thinking about how I'm
going to deal with this thing before the message this evening,
just before I got up here to preach and Ruth sang that song,
and I thought that's the way to deal with it. Just as I am, I come to thee. With all my deadness, with all
my and languishing with all my sin, with all my carnal care,
Lord God, I come to you. And yet I recognize that I cannot,
I cannot, I cannot revive my languishing heart except you
turn me. And so my prayer is turn us,
oh God, we shall be turned. Draw us and we will run after
you. And so we wait upon him. If therefore thou shalt not watch,
our Lord warns, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt
not know what hour I will come upon thee. What does that mean? Dare we
take the warning seriously? Dare we not take it seriously?
This is what it's saying, Larry Chris, to you and me, this is
what it's saying. You will either turn to me. You will either follow me. You
will either continue seeking me or I'll turn on you in judgment
because you never knew me. That's exactly what it's saying.
That's exactly what it's saying. All right, now then, in verse
four, the Lord speaks of a remnant. Thou hast a few names even in
Sardis which have not defiled their garments. Blessed be God, there's always
a remnant, according to the election of grace. Always a remnant. God will not leave himself without
a witness, no matter how dark the day appears, God has his
people scattered around the world. They were few, but they were
known of God. And they had not defiled their
garments by departing from Christ. They had not defiled their garments
with licentious behavior. They had not defiled their garments
by embracing false doctrine. And then finally, in verses four
and five, our Lord gives us a promised reward. To those few who persevere
in the faith, To those few who continue in the gospel, to those
few who hold fast the truth delivered to them, Christ will give a promised
reward. Here it is. They shall walk with
me in white. They shall walk with me now and
forever. You cling to him and he'll own
you. You own him and he'll own you. You hold him and he'll hold you. They'll walk with me in communion,
walk with me in white being justified, walk with me in white accepting
of me, walk with me in white in joy because their garments
are white by his grace and through his atonement. For they are worthy. My soul, can that be said of me? Blessed be his name. Yes, sir.
Yes, sir. Said a man. Not in myself. Oh, no. Bob and ourselves, we're
not worth anything. We're worthy of hell and nothing
else. But in him, this is what he says, we're made need to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. Worthy
because he's made us worthy. He's robed us in his righteousness,
washed us in his blood, and now we stand before God accepted
in the beloved. Those that persevere and overcome
at the last shall live forever. This is what the book says. They
shall be clothed with white raiment. They'll stand before me forever
perfect. I will not blot out their name.
I will not blot out his name out of the book of life. That
is, I'll keep them forever preserved. I will confess his name before
my father and before his angels. I'll present you holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable before God. Now hold fast those things that
remain. Strengthen those things that
remain. Let us turn and turn and turn and turn and turn to
our God. I'm convinced that our Lord would
have us ever aware of our sin, of our depravity, of our utter
helplessness. And one reason why he leaves
us in this warfare, in this struggle with the lust of our flesh, in
this struggle with our own sin, with our own corruption, is to
make us aware that we are saved entirely by his grace. If we
believe, it's because he gives us faith. If we repent, it's
because he grants us repentance. If we persevere, it's because
he holds us by his grace. And our acceptance, our salvation,
all together is by his free grace. Now, God, give us grace that
we may indeed persevere. If we're his, we will. That's just truth, Paul. If you're
his, you'll be found walking with him when you draw your last
breath. If I'm his, I will too. And if we don't walk with him,
it's because we don't know him. If we don't continue in the faith,
it's because we never were in the faith. And he'll turn like
a thief in the hour when you think not and turn to destroy
you. Our Father, bless now your word
to the hearts of these, your people. Lord God, we acknowledge our
sin, our corruption, our guilt, the depravity of our hearts. We ask that you will be pleased
to save us from ourselves. We pray for our friends here, men and women in this congregation,
your children. For those who are aging and their
health fails, we ask that you'll make their spirits and their
hearts strong. For those undergoing hard trials,
Lord God, uphold and sustain them. We pray for your blessings upon
our brethren, our sister churches around the world, faithfully
being, proclaiming the gospel of your grace together. Lord,
keep us from the languishing to which we are ever prone. Bless the labors of our hands. Oh God, grant a little reviving. Pour out your spirit. Wherever
the gospel is preached upon your people, gather sinners to our
Redeemer. We ask for our missionaries,
those faithful, faithful servants of our God to uphold and strengthen
them, bless them in their labors. These things we ask for Christ's
sake, for his glory. Amen. Then shall let's sing Fade, Fade,
Eternal Joy.