Revelation 3:1-6
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Good Morning,
Were looking at the letters to the seven churches and in these letters are some things the Lord Jesus Christ wanted to say to those who were members of these churches.
for years it has been easy to see that the church is not perfect but these churches in some cases have gone beyond imperfect, they have slipped into spiritual decay and in some cases even worse.
We have said that this is not just true for churches as organisms but are true of the people who make them up.
What is true about these bodies of believers can also be true in your own life as well. The book of Revelation is really a vision of Christ and His church this is really about the present.
Christ in His church, Christ speaking to His church.
In Asia minor there were 7 churches that were in 7 cities, and basically when Paul started the church in Ephesus that church became a storng church and took the gospel throughout all the rest of Asia minor.
And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.
After this churches were built in 7 different cities.
As we have already said these churches has slipped into decay and they began to differ from each others and God points out the flaws in their conduct and spiritual standing before Him.
Each of these churches are real churches in real places.
5 of them were in some serious trouble only two of them are commended by the Lord.
The other 5 were condemned in some way.
We have already learned that it wasn’t easy to preach the gospel and live the gospel in thier day, Christ was rejected the apostles had been killed. John was the only apostle left and exiled on the Isle of Patmos.
The church was being persecuted and it was fierce.
These letters addressed how they were doing. Some stood in the face of persecution and ridicule while others caved into the culture around them.
Churches who struggle with these things in every generation and will continue struggling with these issues until the Lord returns.
This morning were visiting Sardis Baptist church.
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
I read an article that spoke of how there are some stars that shine but it takes longer for thier light to reach Earth. The article even said that these stars or one in particular took 33 years before it would be visible on Earth.
That if these stars would die and burn out we would still see thier light for 33 years before we even knew it had died.
So this particular star mentioned in the article kept on shining even though it was dead.
The church in Sardis was kind of like that.
It was dead but it was still shining bc it had once shined so brightly.
It was a dead church
Man thats the worst thing that could be said about a church… that its dead.
the church is supposed to be alive it is the place where God lives, where Christ lives and believers are alive the church holds the light and life of Jesus Christ.
Bc His life is supposed to dwell in us
Not this church this church is dead
Spiritually dead.
Leaves but no fruit, songs but no worship, deeds but no depth
dead
this church was the reverse of the church in SMyrna SMyrna was being put to death and yet called alive, Sardis was thought to be alive but from Gods point of view was dead.
A fake church living a fake life
So what does the Lord say to a dead church who has buckled under the pressure of the world that has let the world in adopted the world.
Eft its first church like Ephesus cuddled the world like Pergamum tolerated sin and advocated it like Thyatira and now sin has taken over and its full of deadness.
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
7 spirits of God what do you mean?
What does he mean there is only one Holy SPirit?
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
This is talking about the 7fold work of the Holy SPirit
The one writing this letter was the one who possesed the SPirit JEsus Christ.
So here Jesus who has the fullness of the Holy Spirit and who holds in His hand the seven stars.
Jesus is depicted in chapter 1 holding seven stars in His hand which are the ministers to the seven churches.
So JESUS HAS THE FULLNESS OF THE SPIRIT AND HE POSSESSES THE MINISTERS OF THE CHURCHES
The Lord Calls and holds and Soverignly leads pastors
Why would he identify Himself this way?
Here is a church who has pastors who are not faithful who do not belong to the Lord. I want you to hear me this morning there are churches with pastors who will wake up one day to find they are not saved they have never been saved and yet they continued on in ministry and they will be caught unaware on the day of Christs return.
If this is true for people in the pulpit it can certainly be true of anyone of us.
Unless we have experienced the power the life changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ
this was true at Sardis
What is Sardis?
What was it like?
Sardis is rich and sinful rich in gold and silver and it might have been the first place where gold and silver were minted into coins.
Because they were so rich the city had endured many wars they were usually victorious they became a center for wool and dye things that were common in the ancient world
This city was so well known that when it fell to a little podunk kingdom the other cities didnt believe it
it was conquered twice
They had a temple to Ceasar
They had idolatry there
This was one of the greatest cities in the world but if you go there today you will find nothing but a pile of ruins and a village called sart
This was a great city and yet it plunged into the depths and if you study the history of the place you will find it only went down.
We dont know anything about the church in Sadis we dont know who started it we dont have names associated with it at all.
We dont even get a glimpse of what they were doing wrong but they had to have false teachers, they had to be engaging in sin on a high level because they were dead and they had no spiritual life.
The church had a reputation but had no life
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.
“ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
I know your works but your works are incomplete in the sight of my God.
The Lord sees everything he misses nothing and there is nothing that he can say that a boy about it is dry rotted
it is like any liberal church that denies the Bible denies Jesus
Now why were their works incomplete in the sight of God?
Because even though you do what is right it doesnt mean that you have spiritual life. Listen to me there are people who can spend enough time around this book and people who read this book that they can learn enough about what God likes and dislikes that they can have the appearance that they are spiritually alive but they are dead.
I mean if there are pastors who are able to preach this book without people even knowing they are unsaved then there has to be people who are members of churches, deacons, sunday school teachers, etc....
That do not know they Lord and have decieved themselves.
Is that possible to decieve yourself into believing you are saved whenin fact you are not?
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
This scripture references those who hear the word only without doing what it says and the scripture records they are decieving themselves into thinking they have right standing before God but they dont
But this passage this morning teaches us that you can know what is right and dfo what is right and deceive yourself as welll.
From Gods perspective I could stay here at this church for 50 years. But If I do not have life through the shed blood of Jesus then nothing I ever accomplish matters it is incomplete it lacks fullness that only comes from obeying the Holy Spirit.
There are churches who are lead by dead leaders who have spiritually dead members and they don’t even know it.
You can tell a dead church it is concerned with tradition, its concerned with form and appearance it is concerned with social problems in the world
It is concerned with material things it is not concerned about spiritual things
(Baseball/mind)
The same is true for a person who is concerned with doing all the right things without focusing on the main thing, being in right relationship to the Lord
Doing the righteous thing becomes the most joyful thing when Jesus is your master
What kills a church?
sin kills a church, compromise, focusing on the wrong thing kills a church.
Sardis went through the motions, He says I know your deeds they were enough to give them a name among men maybe they helped in the world around them.
Maybe they did some philanthropy there but whatever they did they were not born out of spiritual conviction and desire to honor God they did whatever benefitted them
What God is doing in you is much more important than what God is doing through you.
Because if God is doing nothing in you or has done nothing in you then He will not be doing anything through you at all!
Samson fell remember him He lost the source of his strength his hair only symbolized the fact that God was His strength when He forgot that and disobeyed God he lost his strength and the Bible said that he didn’t know the Lord had departed from Him.
Same old Samson same living name but the strength was gone
this is a picture of Sardis it began alive powerful and they began to fall into sin and fell into death
The church in America has so many like this who are trying to coast off the fumes of a past testimony of the Lord but they are filled with people and pastors who are blind and dead.
He says strengthen what remains essentially the Lord was telling them that if they would take the time they had left and repent that he might prevent them from plunging into total death.
But there is hope for this church and if you are here this morning and this message is for you then know there is hope for you too
While there are true believers there there is always the hope that anyone at anytime can call upon the Lord in repentance and be brougt to life through the blood of the Lord JEsus Christ.
Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
DONT MAKE THE MISTAKE
“ILL GET THIS RIGHT SOME OTHER TIME”
“ILL PRAY WHEN I GET HOME”
“ILL DO BETTER FOR THE LORD TOMORROW”
THERE IS NO TOMORROW!!! WAKE UP!!! REPENT WHILE YOU STILL CAN THIS IS WHY WE PREACH THE GOSPEL TO CHURCH PEOPLE THIS IS WHY WE CRY OUT BE SAVED TODAY FOR THE TIME IS DRAWING NIGH!
IF YOU KNEW SOMEONE HAD YOUR BANK ACCOUNT INFORMATION YOU WOULDNT WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT DAY TO MAKE SURE THEY DID NOT HAVE ACCESS NO YOU WOULD DO IT IMMEDIATELY
FOLKS THIS IS YOUR ETERNITY WE ARE TALKING ABOUT
HOLD YOUR BIBLE STUDIES SING YOUR CHRISTIAN MUSIC PREACH YOUR SERMONS BUT IF YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN BORN AGAIN NONE OF IT MATTERS!!!
(Chad)
WE DONT KNOW CHURCH!!
Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
The word defile is talking about staining something
They havent polluted their garments
Garments often refer to character even in pagan worship pagans were supposed to come to their pagan worship only when they had cleaned their clothes
IT wa sa symbol of thier cleaness
They wanted to present themselves to their idols as clean
But there were some there who had not been stained by the world
These had not fallen prey of the wicked in their church and they were there and surely there are many who are in dead churches who were walking in rightesouness with Him
WAKE UP!
Asses where you are and be alert watch
Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
He is coming like a thief
HE SAYS WAKE UP BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!!
The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’