One of the challenges I face every week, in fact, somebody asked me this, “You have to prepare a message every single week,” and even though there's only 66 books in the Bible and they haven't changed, we change. We constantly change and so it is a challenge every week and I'm always grateful that I have the opportunity to be here with you. My lament, and I was expressing this last week if you were listening on Festival, is the difficulty that some of the folks here, not all of you, but some of you have in understanding the responsibility. And it's a great responsibility that we have when it comes to the stewardship of this church. I think, for many years, this church existed somewhat on autopilot. You know, you did what you had to do when there was a crisis and everybody would get very motivated━come on, how many of you know what I'm talking about? See, almost all the hands went up, so you know you're guilty. You'd get very motivated when there was a crisis. And I've told you that, you know, there's, this is a double-edged sword. Half of this is good because the worst offenders left many years ago; those people who would never listen to the root of the problem. And I'll keep saying it until some of you really get it in your bone marrow. There are a lot of churches out there. There's churches on every street corner. If you go through this neighborhood, I'm sure you'll find churches of many different denominations, but in, in the Protestant vein or in the nondenominational vein, there's probably many choices, many places you can go to and I, I'm not saying, I do not stand here and say, “Nobody's preaching the word of God.” There are different things out there and if you want to go out and try and find them, good luck to you. Good luck finding someone who, whose motivation is to do one thing and one thing alone, which is what I come every single week to do without any other strings attached. But I've told you the danger. In fact, this is the blessing of this teaching through Revelation; the danger is that people take it very lightly. The words of John Wright Follette and others, especially in referencing how━I think it was probably maybe Bond Bowman in Dr. Scott's past that spoke to him directly, and then of course, through the pages of John Follette, Wright Follette's writing of how difficult it is and how lightly people take it, the church, the stewardship, the responsibility. Unlike other churches, I don't tell you, “Go out and witness and go and win somebody to Christ.” And I do not tell you that for a reason, because there would be no amount of witnessing, 30 years ago had somebody approached me, there would have been no amount of witnessing, no amount of coercion, free dinners; whatever you want to say you might have baited me with that would have made me want to come into the church. It just wasn't my time, and that's what prevenient grace is: the Lord is busy working on the hearts of people. It's the Lord who opens up the eyes and the ears at His time. Maybe His time is one day before your eightieth birthday and that one day before you take the step onto that ship bound for eternity. I don't know. That's His timing, it's not mine. My job is to stand and preach. And yours is to listen and to be a conduit and that means, the conduit is much different than a witness. A witness goes out and tried to, as I said, “win people to the Lord.” The only problem with that is, as I said, 30 years ago when people were approaching me and asking me if I knew the Lord━I told you the story, going into the grocery store, or coming out of the grocery store. It annoyed me more than anything, because why? It wasn't my time. It wasn't God's doing. This was the work of men and women who thought they were doing the Lord's work, working for the Lord rather than letting the Lord do His work. His work through them might have been me sitting on a plane or being in some place somewhere where naturally a conversation might have been started, and usually by the one who's the one seeking, not the one who's trying to search out those “needing to be saved.” But I tell you to be a light. That's scriptural. There's plenty of Bible that says, “Let your light shine,” you go out into public places, don't conceal who you are. It doesn't mean you make it a spectacle of yourself, “I'm a Christian; now look at me!” Man, if some people saw the way I live my life as a Christian, they'd say, “That's not a Christian!” They're busy, you know, with their catalog of what is and what isn't. But the witness, the actual witness is the light that shines that cannot be hid, Christ said. So the danger is always people sitting back and doing nothing and that can, you know, people say, “Well, you know, how━what's the line? What's the boundary?” And I'd say pray, ask the Lord for help and guidance that the Lord might put people in your pathway, who, they themselves are seeking, not you trying to hunt down and put somebody on a belt and say, “I got another one, another scalp for the Lord; another scalp for Jesus.” But if you're vigilant in your faith and your light shines, believe me, the light does two things. It's very attractive to some and very repulsive to others. Some people will be drawn towards you and they can't explain why. Others, they can't stand you, and people say, “How, Pastor, do you deal with people who cannot stand you?” I say because they're repulsed by the light, they are repulsed by Christ in me, not by Melissa Scott. Melissa Scott out in the world, man; success! Right, yeah; no, don't clap for that. What I'm saying to you is we, we need to be vigilant about this work. Now many of you have stepped up to the plate and you're volunteering and you're helping and you're doing, but I want you to remember also to keep praying and keep this in your mind that bringing a guest, which is a great challenge, by the way, isn't a one-time event. It's something that over the course of your lifetime, the Lord will give you abundant opportunities. And if you'll seize those opportunities, it's then His business. It's not yours to try and get that person to think and, you know, do this, think this; that, that's God. And maybe you'll bring 100 people over the course of your lifetime. Maybe none of them will stay. That's not your problem, much like I tell you I have to look at you and I see what's in front of me. I cannot see the internet; I cannot see the radio people, so I only know what's going on in the sanctuary. That's the pulse of the ministry in the sanctuary. So I'm asking you to keep that concept always at the forefront because there are two things that the church wrestles with, this church wrestles with; it's always the same thing: attendance, people being here present in the church. You don't need to come to church to be saved; you don't need to be here at Faith Center or at any other church to be saved. I want to make sure that somebody's very━somebody listening for the first time is very clear about this. You don't come in to the church and because you're in this building━there are other faiths that tell you if you come into their sanctuary you're safe and you're saved. You come in here to encourage me and to receive something out of God's book to equip you, as the book of Ephesians says, for a specific purpose, guiding, directed towards the ministry, not even for yourself. If you really go back and read what it says in Ephesians about God giving gifts to the ministry, those gift ministers are given to equip the saints for a purpose, not for individual profiting, but for the building up of the body. So if you think about that, right there it says it pretty plain: you're being equipped to help build up the body. Now not everybody is called to preach. I know there's a lot of people that think they should preach and those people should go either on a street corner where there's very few cars and very few foot, very few, very little foot traffic, or you know, go do it in the shower and preach to your cat or your dog. They'll appreciate it. But there's many people who want to preach, they're not called, they are not called to preach, they're not called to the ministry; they just don't want to have other responsibilities and they think their version of being called to the ministry is lording it over people. I've told you if somebody says they want to be in ministry, we need to sit down and talk and I, I need to ask you a couple of questions here, because if you really want that, understand what comes with the calling of being called to preach and to be in ministry is a great responsibility. It's a great burden to care for people, not because I care for you, but because the Lord cares for you to be diligent to keep telling you things that aren't popular. They're not the popular truths, they're not the truths that most people want to hear, but they are the saving truths of God's word. So with that being said, I'm asking you to please be vigilant and don't stop praying and really asking the Lord for this, this help. This body needs to stay strong and that strong doesn't mean mega-church busting out at the seams, it just means strong where we understand we have a responsibility and we're not treating it lightly. And I'm counting on you to be faithful in what only you can do. You got it? Good. (Applause) Now here we are back on what I did not intend to be this long of a journey, but, hey, now you're a captive audience, right? All right. We looked at Thyatira last week and we went through the different sections of the board as we're looking at the linear breakdown of the seven churches. And I've told you and I'll keep repeating it because these messages, I pray, will be part of series, obviously, but also that they can stand independently, so if I repeat certain things, it's for the benefit of those units that will stay as independent. I've told you that although the traditional approach to interpreting the seven churches is to depict them as church ages through time; the church at Ephesus beginning with the apostolic age and progressing on through to the church of Laodicea, which essentially is the church of the last days, where Christ is outside the door. That's the traditional interpretation. In fact, we're going to be looking at the church in Sardis this morning, and one of the interesting things, for those people who like to go down those, those pathways of interpretation is it is considered by most, this church could be the church of a gap of Reformation giants. I'm, as I've told you, I've stayed away from that this particular time because I'm more interested in the essence of what's being said. As I study these churches more and more, I realize perhaps the greatest error that's made is using the church ages takes the emphasis off what we should be vigilant about in our time. Each one of these churches begins with a description of Christ and a commendation of some sorts. And I, when I did this I, I put under the church of Sardis, I put that there was a commendation, but technically, as we're going to see, not really. It probably is the greatest shift in the body of these seven letters, the greatest shift to really not a word of commendation, but actually a word of condemnation, a word of rebuke beginning. So let's first talk about this. We have the, the description of Christ here, “the seven Spirits of God, and seven stars.” And━you know, actually, before I do that I'm going to give you some background to this church, historical background. I've done that with every single lesson, so I might as well keep the pattern the same and then I'll come back to the description. This church most famed for Cybele worship, mother god worship; second to that, most famed for king━as I've taught on this before, I've pronounced his name Croesus, some say Croesus, who essentially is the epitome of riches. It is, it is said, historically, that coins, silver and gold coins were first minted at Sardis and the legendary spin on this is that a famous king, we know, we hear, you know, someone, the king who had “the Midas touch.” Apparently King Midas went to wash his hands in the Pactolus River to stop the process that everything that he touched turned to gold. He went to wash his hands in that river and by virtue of washing his hands in the river he enriched the sand and the banks became full of gold and this is the gold that King Croesus, or Croesus took up to achieve his wealth. And a lot of that wealth, by the way, was put in to temples. The most famous of them, obviously, is the temple Artemis. And when people debate whether King Croesus actually existed, you only have to look at what the British museum has so nicely preserved in their museum. It is the base of a pillar with, I'm not sure that it's his signature per se, but it is a description. It dates from that time, really confirming that he built this structure, and the remains of course, some of the remains still scatter the landscape today. Now this church, the letter to this church, and the history actually have somewhat of an interesting tie or, if you want to call it a coincidence, I'm not quite sure. As I just described, King Croesus was considered the epitome of riches and wealth. There are two things noteworthy about this king that happened to him that essentially could maybe double in with the letter. You'll find the bulk of the writing on this person, King Croesus or Croesus, and Sardis in Herodotus' The Histories. And a famous lawgiver, by the name of Solon, left his home country to travel during the period of 10 years and ended up visiting with the king. And there's an interesting story that Herodotus records that tells you a little bit about this king. It gives you a little bit of his personality. He actually asked Solon after touring all of his vast treasures and riches, he says, “Who do you think the happiest man on earth is?” And he was fully expecting Solon to say, “You, king.” But instead, after asking him this question, I'll say, I'll read exactly what it says. “Croesus asked him, 'Athenian guest, we've heard a lot about you, both in regard to your intelligence and your wanderings, how in your search for intelligence you have traversed many lands to see them. Now therefore, I desire to ask you whether, whether yet you have seen the man who is the most happy?'” I'm sure he said it like━on radio that looked really good, but you get the point. “He asked, supposing that he himself was the happiest of men, but Solon, using no flattery but the truth only, said, 'Yes, O king: Tellos, the Athenian. He is the happiest man I've met.' Croesus, marveling at that asked him earnestly, 'How do you judge Tellos to be the most happy?' And he said, 'Tellos, in the first place, living while in his native state, was prosperous, had sons fair and good, and saw all of them children begotten and living to grow up. Secondly, he had what is with us accounted wealth, and after his life the most━a most glorious end. When a battle was fought by the Athenians as Eleusis against neighboring people, he brought up supports and routed the foe and there died a most fair death.'” So therefore, he would be the happiest man. He had wealth, he had good family, he died in battle. “When Solon had moved Croesus to inquire further, by the story of Tellos, recounting him how many points of happiness he had, the king asked again whom he had seen proper to be placed next, supposing that he himself would certainly be at least in second place. Solon however replied, 'Kleobis and Biton, since these are two of the Argos race, possessed by a sufficiency of wealth and in addition to this, great strength of body.'” They were Olympiads. So you know, you can tell that this king is a little bit puffed up and full of himself, right? Anyway, he basically, Solon tells him, he explains that happiness cannot be reduced down merely to wealth and family. He said, essentially, a man can only be judged if he is happy after he dies; essentially, in the method, in the way he dies. And he goes on to explain his understanding of life and death, which is not biblical, but nevertheless. So it's an interesting exchange that happens. Now that's one of the most famous exchanges between the king and Solon that gives you an idea of how the king was very puffed up in his spirit. The second one is, which is also in this, but I won't read it, I'll just give you the synopsis, is there would be a battle between King Croesus and Cyrus; King Cyrus, whom we formally studied in our studies in Nehemiah and so forth; Ezra, Nehemiah, Chronicles, that Cyrus. And these two kings were going to go out to war together. It was during the wintertime, and as Croesus, or Croesus approached, these two went to battle and the battle was a draw. Croesus returned back to his homeland for the winter, thinking that they would put away their, all of their artillery and every man would go back respectively to peace until after winter. But Cyrus, he didn't do that. He basically attacked Croesus, seized Sardis. In the process, Croesus' wife commits suicide. Croesus is hauled off, or Croesus is hauled off to be a prisoner of Cyrus. And all this happened because King Croesus consulted the oracles and it was the answer that the oracles gave to the king, which he could not understand were; it was an oracle against him. The oracles said, “Yes, go into battle and this battle will destroy a great nation.” And unbeknownst to him, he was the great nation that was going to be destroyed. While he was a prisoner of Cyrus, he essentially endeared himself to Cyrus and Cyrus said, “Why don't you go inquire again of the oracle why the oracle was dishonest with you,” kind of interesting, only to find out that it was revealed to him that it was against him. There was no dishonesty; he just didn't interpret what was being said to him. So, in this particular letter, where there is a parallel is━and I'll read the letter and then I'll point out the parallel if it's not self-evident immediately. “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 hear, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” And I stop there for a minute because the premise of the king's problem was he was not watchful, he was slack concerning his kingdom thinking that he, essentially, possessed the wisdom and did not need to be vigilant, which obviously worked against him. And of course, lived during his reign as though he was the most happy, prominent, greatest individual, and he was not, “thou hast a name thou livest, but thou art dead.” So let me begin now into the book here, into the letter and let's take a look and see what we can see, glean some things that will help us. We'll start first with the description of Christ; in each of these letters we have a description. From the One that “hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars,” and there's been great debate over how one should interpret these, but I think if we search the Scriptures carefully, we can find through Scripture, even in the Old Testament, we can find places where we can understand what the seven Spirits of God, seven is the number of complete or wholeness, and you'll find for example in Isaiah 11, there's a mention of, it says “the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of understanding,” essentially, it's not an exhaustive catalog, but it talks about the Spirit of the Lord, referencing in Isaiah's day towards Christ, essentially, talking about the Spirit of the Lord. Some of you are looking at me like, “Wow, okay.” Let's go there and I'll read that passage real quickly so that we can all be on the same understanding of what I'm referencing. I believe that very clearly, and there are many different references in the Bible like this, in Isaiah 11, beginning at verse 2, and this is, by the way, speaking of Christ because if you read the first verse, “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots,” and here, “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 of the fear of the LORD.” And if you were to combine the rest of what is in the next few verses, we might also include a concept which is wrapped up in one word referencing “righteousness.” And it's not a “spirit of righteousness,” but it's His righteousness. So we could talk about that and I could give you different biblical examples to say when we talk about the seven Spirits of God, we're not talking about something that is unique to Revelation, to the book of Revelation, we're talking about things that have been unfolded through the Bible repeatedly. If you read in the New Testament, specifically in the Gospel records, you'll find references to that same Spirit or Spirits going back to the One who is essentially the possessor of them while on earth to be able to discern men's thoughts, to see into men's hearts and so forth. So you get the idea, but definitely giving you and me the idea of completion. And “the seven stars” and this again has been open to great controversy whether these are referencing seven messengers, seven angels; regardless, what we're talking about is a description that leads us back to the Lord in my chart here. So seven Spirits of God and seven stars, whether that's Christ in those seven representatives or not, this I'm not even going to try and interpret. And as every letter, “I know thy works,” and let's get into the body here, because this is probably the most important statement that's being said “that thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead”" Now I know, I know what the temptation is. The temptation is to merely put it at this church and say, “That's that,” but I'd like to, I'd like to show you the difference in what's happening with this church, for example, and the description of Christ, which is back there in 1:18, when He says, “I am he that liveth,” the same words, “was dead,” same word, “and, behold, I am alive for evermore.” And there's a big difference between the One that liveth, was dead and is alive, versus these people who have a name, live and are dead. And that's pretty scary. Now I was really tempted to just make the bulk of my message on just these few words “that thou livest, and are dead.” And the reason for that is very simple, because I believe that describes a lot of churches today: alive, thriving, growing, but dead. Now the word in the Greek here, “dead” is being used as an adjective, so it's, it's a description. It's not a noun describing a state, it's an adjective describing━it's descriptive of the people. And you know, you could, you and I could probably comb and I could comb the Scripture and give some references in 2 Timothy. I know chapter 3 and verse 5, it talks about those people who have the form of godliness, but deny the power. They have the look, but they deny the power. In other places there are admonitions given to us, but probably the most clear explanation of the reverse of this passage is Ephesians 2 and I'd like you to turn there so you can see what the reverse is of what's being said here. Sometimes the only way to explain things is Scripture with Scripture. So Ephesians 2 begins by telling us, “And you,” I'll read the italics even, “hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation,” our behavior “in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us,” hath livened us, hath raised us “together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) hath raised us up together, made us to sit” in the heavenlies, “in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus.” Now if you keep reading, you'll━the same pattern in the later part of the second chapter of Ephesians; but you get it: we were dead and then we were quickened and made alive. The reverse is happening at this church, so when you read about these people, they have a name. Do it this way, instead of saying “the church at Sardis,” the church being called Christians; they had a name, they were called Christians, they're alive, but they're dead. They are walking dead men, they are walking dead people; they have the name, “I'm a Christian,” but there's nothing inside. Now there were other admonitions if you remember, in, at the church of Ephesus to beware, otherwise Christ would come and take away the candlestick. Do you remember that? And I want you to really think about this because I didn't want to make this illustration until I got to this church to connect some dots. You know, we talk about the candlestick, the light or the life of a church, but what is the light or the life of the church but the Holy Spirit, and even if you go back to the Old Testament and the furniture that was within the tabernacle, we talk about the candlestick and the, the typical form of the menorah, which is the base and what flows out from the base and the oil that needs to be added as a type of the Holy Spirit and the light that is burning in a dark place. If you think about it, the removal of the candlestick is a threat, essentially, to take away the life and light of the church, which would be, essentially, the embodiment of the Spirit. Here it's as if these people, essentially, are walking around saying, “I'm a Christian,” but whatever was in them except for a few people; whatever was in them has been already taken away. They're like empty containers. And I think, that's why I said it's really important for us to not get into this mode of saying “historical” or looking at this and saying “the church through the ages,” but rather let's look at it today, because I think it's very plausible. I see it all the time, churches that engage in mandatory works where people have to go out and do things, they must do something and that is the display of their salvation, but by as much as they do, versus you keep teaching people and preaching the word. And I've said faith comes when the word is being preached and we know that without faith, it's impossible to please God. And if God should, God forbid━we're talking about people who they don't even care about God or God's word anymore━beyond backslidden. They're turned over and they believe a lie, they're not interested; they may still be walking around saying, “Well, I'm a believer,” and yet, they're dead. And I want you to know this; I've met people like that. I meet people like that, unfortunately, the last at least 10 years of my life have been filled with many of those people. Those are the people, by the way, that are filled with such angst, hatred, vitriol; those are the people that claim they're Christians, but you and I both know we're not looking at “Hey, I'm a fruit inspector,” we're talking about what flows out of them. And what flows out of them is poison, it's acts of the flesh, carnality; we're talking about a specific group of people, perhaps, but I'm trying to tell you that if a person studies this book, you're going to find that there's some━this is pretty heart-wrenching, like going through life and like you remember that play with━what was it called? Sunset Strip, Sunset Boulevard━Norma Desmond, they thought that they were coming; she was coming━Hollywood was coming back for her, but they were coming for her old car; so unaware that she was so past her prime, they thought, “Well, Hollywood will come back to their senses.” Kind of like that, these people walked around, “Well, we're the church of So-and-so.” This is the danger━you know, this is going to be a very practical message for us today; this is the danger of any church. You can come into the church, let's, let's take a step further, you have people that come in and they, they love the church and they love the work of the church and they come and they begin to work in the church and they cease and stop reading their Bible and they stop praying and they stop doing the things that brought them in, in the first place, because now they're working for the Lord and that essentially is the substitute for the things that got them where they were in the first place. And that, by the way, it's very easy to become a walking dead person; you're, you're alive, you've got all the form, but what's inside, the fire that burnt inside, the grief that struck you when you first heard. If you know what I'm talking about there's, there's a sense that should never leave you that, you know, you can be a believer, I think, for 30, 40, 50 years, your whole life, and there'll be a sense of something that never leaves you. It's that sense of where you were, the reality is no one is born in that condition like people say, “Well, of course, everybody is born, you know, in a good state.” No, you're born in the condition of fallen man and just as Ephesians 2 describes, we were all dead in trespasses and sins. The fact of the matter is that He quickened us; He put His life in us. I referenced last week the earnest of our inheritance, depositing that nature. Now Christ, who knows the thoughts, He knows the heart, He knows the mind, He sees; His eyes, previous description, “a flame of fire” look through and can penetrate and see what no other can see. And He says, “You're alive, but you're dead.” I wonder, you know, when I see people talk about━here come the air quotes, “their church,” and the programs they have and the things that they're caught up in doing. And they may have great success according to the world. Look at the largest Protestant movement; there are actually two of, two different large Protestant movements in America; one is a transplant and one was started, unfortunately, here in America, and you'll find that there's a lot of that; a lack of, of the knowledge of God's word, a lack of understanding that we need the Spirit of God to inhabit us that comes by faith. This is what John 3 talks about; you must be born again from above. No man can see and no man can enter in, or woman, without being born from above. That talk, that talk between Nicodemus and Jesus is straight talk about how a believer connects with God; and it's not through all of these different hoops that you jump through and all the different things you've got to accomplish. By faith. I've said it again. So very easy to see, and the same word, by the way, that's being described as “living” and “dead” interestingly enough, you'll find this peppered throughout, but the description obviously of Christ when it talks about “he” and it obviously comes back to “and is alive.” Here, these people, they're not, it's not like, you know, it's a lost cause here, but He, now here comes the admonition here: “Be watchful.” I love the Greek word here. The Greek word is gregoron. We get the “Gregoria”" sounding words from that, but to, “to be alert, to be on guard, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.” Can you imagine the Lord saying, “Strengthen the things which remain, shore up the things that remain”? This is why I started this morning's service by telling you, you be vigilant, because it's so easy to not, to just sit back in complacency and if we're, we're even going to be remotely honest with ourselves, there is a good stern warning for us from this particular letter. “Be watchful, strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die.” The Lord's saying there's going to be a terminus here, there's going to be an end here, “for I have not found thy works perfect before God.” If you want to do something in your Bible, in the margin, “perfect” is probably the worst word they could have used, and the reason is because it sounds like “Now we're going to engage in perfectionism like your works weren't perfect, therefore you can't come in.” But essentially, they were not fulfilled, they were not full, they were not completed. That's a much better word. “Perfect” is, it's the worst word they could have picked. It makes it sound like somehow you must live up to something and nobody can live up. There is only one standard of perfection: that's Christ and He and He alone was perfect. We can't be perfect; we're not perfect. Just scratch that out and put in your margin somewhere: “I have not found thy works complete or fulfilled before God.” It means there was something lacking with this church. Now if you notice thus far, in all of the churches, there was something, at least something good somewhere being said about each one of these. The most that could be said here is that they had works and a name, but the name didn't mean anything if it was an empty container walking around, which leads me back to another statement I made about light. You know, I've met people, and probably the easiest way to describe this is I've met people who will talk about their, their desire to be, to be more healthy or to do, to adapt certain behaviors that will help them be healthy or whatever it is that they're trying to achieve, and yet they never change their behavior, so they like to talk about━you know, you know what I'm talking about. Come on, we've all met people like that, they talk about it. It's like the people that say, “Oh, I wish I could stop smoking,” right. “Oh, I looked at the new patch. I've looked at the new” and there's always something, but there's never an action. And maybe one day there comes an action, but they're the people that are perpetually talking about something and never doing anything. So keep that in mind. It's kind of like these people were walking around, perhaps they were walking around talking about how great their church was and back in the day, back in this particular junction or crossroads in Asia Minor, maybe they had the best fishing line. I don't know; we have to find something of the day━there was no internet, you know, there was no facebook. They had the best fishing line exhibit or something. I don't know. “Come see our fishing line exhibit. Come see our hooks.” I don't know. But the rest of it was empty. “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, hold fast, and repent.” So if you want to do something, you've got, and you've got and imperative command here; I'll go back to my Greek for second. You've got an imperative command here to remember. You know, when the Lord gives a something that's an imperative, He's not saying, “Hey, would you? Would you just think about it, brothers and sisters?” Right? No. He says, “Remember! Come on,” like snap to! “Remember!” It's an imperative, “Remember!” And this is important: “Remember therefore how thou hast received.” How did you receive the word of God? How did you receive? This is exactly as I referenced about Galatians, “Who hath bewitched you?” “Remember how thou hast received and heard.” How did you get to where were in the first place? You know, so many people talk about when they feel like they've been backsliding or they are backsliding or they're out of touch with God, and the thing that must━every single person will go through this as long as you are alive. It's called the ebb and flow of faith. Is there anybody here in the sound of my voice, listen carefully to the question, who has not experienced the ebb and flow of faith? It means sometimes great faith and other times it's like it's gone. Anybody here who has not experienced that? My question was clear then, because not one hand went up, which makes you human, it makes you normal. There's nothing abnormal about that. Some people will tell you their, their faith is always up here and it's never wavering and they're, they're the same people that, you know, they're on some cloud somewhere. They've got some special gas that they float on, right? And maybe, and maybe they do. “You remember how you received and how you heard, hold on to that”" And that specific word for “hold fast” the Greek word, terei is another imperative, sometimes used “to hold on tightly, to guard, to garrison, to protect, to watch with eyes wide open, and repent.” And we'll go back to this word again, “and repent.” “Remember and repent.” And I've done this before. You who've been here for many years, this should be second in your brain and you who are just beginning, coming along, “repent,” metanoia, “with the mind.” That is to change from the direction, your thought process, from your way simply to turn back to Him and His way, to following after Him. “If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief”" and many people have interpreted this as, as the Lord will come in referencing to the second coming. That's not what this is. Be clear that this “I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee,” has nothing to do with the Lord's second coming. This has everything to do with the Lord saying, “You will not know━I've already warned you now. Now you've heard it from My mouth: you will not know the hour that I come.” That's always used in Scripture, “coming like a thief in the night,” and sometimes used about the second coming. Right here, it's essentially used to wake these people up to get back, to get real with God. “You don't know in what hour I will come upon you as thief.” Well, no. Now here's, there's just a little bit of a silver lining here, “Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.” And this can only be understood in light of what I referenced about Cybele, at the very beginning, which is why sometimes I weave history in. To appear before the pagan gods or goddesses in dirty or defiled clothes was considered an abomination. So there, there could be the potential of a tie in, in the same language for those people of that day; remember the social setting in which this was written, “who have not defiled their garments,” which is a truism in the sense of those who have stayed true to the message that they have received. They have stayed true to following the doctrine of Christ, they have stayed true in the faith, “and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy.” Now please don't get the idea as some have in this world, in this lifetime, that wearing white from head to toe makes you worthy. I have nothing against people wearing white from head to toe if that's what you want to do, but don't think it makes you worthy and makes you pure. The picture that's being given here, always, because it's going to be referenced again, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment.” The white, “walk with me in white, for they are worthy,” and the “being clothed in white raimen”" is always symbolic of the victorious life that is having crossed the finish line, “those that overcome” that's the eternal perspective and also ties in directly with Christ's righteousness. Being clothed with His righteousness, symbolic with white, purity, righteousness, what is what can only come of Him. We do not possess it on our own. So, He says, “And I will not blot out his name out of the book of life.” Somewhat interesting to say “the one that overcomes, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; 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.” And I stop right there to tell you interesting that this particular type of speech that's being given right here is exactly what is being said in Matthew 10, and I believe it's verse 32, when Jesus says, “If you confess me before men; if you deny me before men,” and I taught on this. And the word is homologia. And I taught on that as in where behavior and belief meet; the action of which that comes forth. The confession is not like some people say, “Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord”━they think that's the confession, or “I accept Jesus as Lord.” That's not the confession; otherwise, Christ cannot confess that person before His Father. But essentially, for the one that overcomes, Christ will not essentially deny, He will not be ashamed, He will not deny, He will not refuse; the person's name will not be blotted out of the book of life and “the name being declared before my Father, and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Now what's so mind boggling about this is this is the first time, there's really nothing that Christ has said about this church, versus these other churches that perhaps had something that was noteworthy and good. He says essentially, “You're walking around like empty containers.” Now, you'll understand why I said to you the most important thing that we can do is glean for ourselves and we can glean something that I think is very important. That is wake up, a wake-up call. It's easy to just kind of treat the church as a place that you come on Sunday, some place you come when, you know, everything's going to hell in a hand-basket. You'll find people come into the church, I have no problem with that, because they're searching for something that they can't find out in the world and I get that. But to be vigilant about not succumbing to just going through the motions, which is what happens many times. And I love that this word is a description, it's an━when it says, “And thou art dead,” it is a adjective describing the people. Nothing could be worse than hearing from our Lord's lips, you know, “You're alive, but you're really dead. There's nothing in you.” It's like, you know, BB King's The Thrill Is Gone. There's nothing left in your anymore. Now no one wants, you know, no one wants to hear that. Do you want to hear there's nothing left in you anymore? No one wants to hear that, but that's the harsh reality of Christ's love for His church. Just the fact that He would say, “This is where you're at; now listen. Be vigilant, watch, fight, hold on to the things that are about to die,” essentially warning them there's not going to be anything left here, this particular church, there's not going to be anything left. And that's why I said we need to be very vigilant, like these folks here. The fact that they were given a warning, the fact that Christ said, and let's just say that there's a few people, much like in Elijah's day, when Elijah thought he was the only one and God says, “I'll show you 7,000 that haven't bowed their knee to Baal.” I believe, even in this LA basin, there are men and women who have not sold out to the idea that the church is a playground or the church is entertainment or that every pastor is a shyster and a charlatan. I believe that there are people still today who desperately would like to learn about the Bible; they just don't even know where to look. So when I say, like this letter here, there's “a few names that have not defiled their garments,” there's a few people yet in Los Angeles still looking. There's a few people who are genuine and sincere in their commitment to Christ who earnestly desired that the church should remain as a beacon of light, as a lighthouse. Now it's criminal if we just read this letter and say, “Okay, we, we know we're headed towards prophecy, we know we're headed towards the culmination of all these churches and then, boom, we don't hear anymore about the church anymore, we don't hear anymore about the Spirit until the last chapter,” but we can glean from this. Historically, if you've ever traveled to this land, you'll see a trace remain of a church that once existed there. Some of you have traveled there; some of you go online and do a little virtual tour. There's scant remains of a church that was unearthed many, many years ago and it sits right beside the temple. I think it's the temple to Artemis or it could be some other god or goddess, and that's all that remains. And I'm thinking to myself the words still echo in my mind that if Christ gave a warning from His lips, this letter, “Write to this church,” get out of thinking these are seven little pockets in a book. “Write and send this off.” Which we know happened because these letters were preserved and there were preserved in this book that circulated. And they did not heed the warning. We have to be vigilant to not just say, “Oh, yeah, but that's, that's in the past and that's somebody else,” because this is exactly what I believe the potential even in this church, it can happen anywhere, not just to walk around and say, “We, we're not like these other people.” No, but you become dead anyway if you stop, if you stop thinking about the people that you or I may know who you want desperately, you would pray, you'd probably do anything in your power to try and get them to hear the message, but I told you that's the Lord's responsibility. But you're not relieved of praying, you're not released from doing your part; being vigilant! Part of being vigilant is to really have a burden and when you have a burden━I've told you my burden is not just for this church, I have a burden for the incarcerated. I for many years have had that burden. I go when people have said, “Why do you go?” And you know, it's a lot tougher for me as I get older to keep going. That's a lot of wear and tear on somebody who's already kind of feeling a load here, but I have a burden for those people. I want to go minister to them. Now that's my burden, but if you boil down that burden, it's still a burden for people who really need God's word. And I can go and I can preach and I can deliver a great message and think, “This will help people and they'll”━what? Only if the Lord opens up their heart and fills them with His Spirit and they begin to walk exactly how Paul describes, as I covered this in Ephesians 2, “We were dead in trespasses and sins, but he has quickened us,” made us alive, given us this life! And this is why I believe Paul talks elsewhere and he says “garrison” and even Peter talks about this “guard, garrison your heart, be vigilant, protect,” because it's so easy for the world to encroach in. And I'll tell you what happens. When you were out in the world and when I was out in the world, I never thought of it this way. Now I'm in the church and I realize that the world will suck the life out of you. And we're talking about the spiritual life. It's so easy to fall back into the trap. And why do you think what Jesus said is so staggering? He talked about the one who was demon possessed and out of him the demons were cast and because he was not vigilant, seven more came back. What do you think happens when you come into the realm of walking in God's light? This is not like you can never fall down and you can never make a mistake, but what do you think happens when you get sucked back into the world? Again, Paul's words in Romans 12, “Be not conformed, but be ye metamorphosed, be ye changed, transformed not unto the world”" So this is a call for each and every one of us and instead of reading this letter and just saying, “Okay, you know, I see it linear,” I see, you know, there's a degradation that's happening at least here. These folks here, at least the rebuke was they had something, they lost it; “Remember, repent, go back and do your first works over again. Get it back, or else!” And there's still a promise, but these folks here, very little to talk about: walking dead people, their works are not fulfilled or complete. We've got a kind of a similar “Remember and repent,” but now take a look here, just simple. There's still a promise, but it says there's just a few. I'm asking you today to consider not this hour, as “Okay, I've done my part,” I'm asking you to consider what it should mean for you in your life, your faith walk. No one, listen, let's just dispel of this; no one is perfect, we all fall down, we all make mistakes. Anyone who says that they don't is a liar. Stay away from that. We all have issues, we all grapple with things. Some of us fight over spirit and flesh matters more than others. Some of us walk around and it's a battle just to hang on by just a thread of what remains as faith that somehow, either the events of life, the devil; whatever you want to call it, are wearing you down. That's a call for more vigilance. That's a call to stop in your tracks, read this letter and recognize that out of Christ's mouth, He gave a clear instruction: Remember what you've received and how, how you heard; how you received, how you hear, hold onto that. Be vigilant, be watchful, eyes open, on guard and turn, I'm going to say it as if Christ was speaking, “And turn back to Me”" The hardest thing to do is to get people to turn back and recognize they have actually stopped following, and this is the embodiment of this church right here in Sardis, and could be any single person until the day they recognize, “I need to, I need to turn around again. I'm not following the Lord; I'm not listening to the call.” Christ said, “Follow me. Follow Me. Get behind me. Follow Me.” His words should still be echoing today. Now we are fortunate to have these instructions, so let me just finish with what verse 6 says, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” And only the Spirit can bear witness in your heart, can bring that recognition that maybe in part, this message actually applies more to you and me, not some other church, not some other individual; applies more to you and me today than at any other time. And perhaps by some degree, small or large, we may all profit from this admonition and receive what the Spirit is saying to be watchful, to strengthen, to remember, to hear what we've━to retain what we've heard and to not be slack concerning those things which we have received which we are stewards of. I am an ambassador for Christ; you are stewards for Christ's sake. That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com
