Sardis: Dead Christianity | Tom Pennington | Revelation 3:1-6

well it is my joy tonight for us to return to our study of the book of revelation i took the summer off and i enjoyed the study of the psalms and appreciate the men serving us with the word of god but it is a joy for me to come back and to continue our journey through this magnificent book now i'm hoping that the fact that we are studying first john on sunday morning in revelation on sunday night will give you some context i mean think about it this way the the first letter of john was written somewhere in the first five years of the last decade of the first century 90 to 95 a.d i rehearsed with you this morning some of the things that were happening in the churches that john served and and there were some hard and difficult things that were happening fast forward just a few years domitian the great emperor of rome decides to persecute the christians john is taken from his home in ephesus and he is sent to a piece of rock out in the aegean sea the island patmos think about the the hard times that he and the churches that he served were suffering think about all that they were seeing and and then think about the state of the churches that we're encountering in the book of revelation and how that must have burdened john the apostle as he was so far away and unable to help unable to serve them think about the larger people of god under the reign of domitian it seems like the christian faith that once looked like it had such a bright future it doesn't seem that way anymore dark times difficult times it was into that context that the lord jesus christ arrived in a vision on the isle of patmos and gave the apostle john this book and how timely could it have been to say to john and to all the churches yes there are things that i want to address things i want to correct but i am still lord of my church i am still building the church and oh by the way i have history under my control and it's marching perfectly toward the end that i have determined i think today we need the same reminder so many believers some of us are really discouraged about the state of the world the state of the church it's easy to lose focus it's easy to forget that we're not in charge but that christ is this book is going to remind us of that so it's been a joy already to study it let me just remind you of of where we are in our study we looked at chapter one which is the things which you have seen using chapter 1 verse 19 is sort of our outline of the book the things which you have seen dealt with the prophets with the revelation rather of jesus there and the setting of his prophecy to the churches and to the rest of us in the rest of the book of revelation so the stage is set in chapter one that's the vision that john witnessed of the risen christ we are in the middle of the second part of the book of revelation which is the things which are this is describing the state of jesus church as it was in the first century and frankly as it usually is you see these these are seven letters from jesus christ addressed to seven churches but those churches are not only seven real literal first century churches located in seven cities in asia minor where paul planted and john later came and ministered but these seven churches are also representative of all churches that existed in the first century every church that existed in the first century can confined its counterpart or parts of its counterparts and in these seven churches and the same is true today these seven churches really represent the kinds of churches throughout all of church history we've rejected the idea that these churches represent stages in church history that's not what i'm talking about instead these churches find their counterparts in churches throughout the world and throughout the history of the church in other words there will always be churches like the church in ephesus there will always be churches like the church in sardis and so we have this this beautiful view of the church through the little microscope on these seven small little churches in asia minor now so far we have looked at these we looked at ephesus and i called it loveless fidelity smyrna faithful suffering pergamum undiscerning tolerance thyrotira extra biblical authority tonight we come to the fifth of the seven churches the church in sardis let me let me read for you jesus letter to this church revelation chapter three beginning in verse one these are literally our lord's words to that little church in sardis to the angel of the church in sardis right he who has the seven spirits of god and the seven stars says this i know your deeds that you have a name that you are alive but you are dead wake up and strengthen the things that remain which were about to die for i have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my god so remember what you have received and heard and keep it and repent therefore if you do not wake up i will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour i will come to you but you have a few people in sardis who have not soiled their garments and they will walk with me in white for they are worthy he who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments and i will not erase his name from the book of life and 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 in this letter to the church in sardis christ gives a message that we really could reduce to this christ warns his church not only that church but other churches like them of the danger of having the appearance of a living thriving church but in fact being spiritually dead sardis was characterized by dead christianity with each of the seven letters as we walk our way through them we're using the same basic outline that christ does he uses exactly the same structure in all seven letters so i'm just following christ's outline as we sort of work our way through each of these letters and we'll do the same tonight the letter begins with the introduction to the letter the command to write in verse 1. notice christ says to the angel of the church in sardis write now as we discovered these letters were intended for all the members of the church each of the members of each church but they were sent to and through the key leaders of the church that's the meaning of the expression the angel of the church the messenger of the church the the key leader probably the key elder the teaching elder perhaps in each church and that's the one to whom christ tells john to write now from this first line in christ's letter here we're reminded first of all of the character of the city notice he refers to the city as sardis now just to remind you the order in which these seven letters appear in revelation follows the natural route that a messenger who received this letter from john on the isle of patmos out in the aegean sea came back to port in ephesus which is where he would have initially landed he would have then worked his way north if you can track with me here you can you can see that here is ephesus and you move up to smyrna and then on up north to pergamum and then to thyatira and then back to sardis which is where we are tonight so that's how the messenger would have traveled from pergamum in the north he would have traveled south to thyatira and then about 30 miles south of thyatira was the city of sardis a city which was founded in a valley formed by the convergence of two rivers the earliest city of sardis was built on part of the range of the timeless mountains you can see the acropolis at sardis here now the pictures you're going to see just be aware that because of a major earthquake they estimate that only about a third of the acropolis still stands so the pictures you see it's not the total picture of of that acropolis in the days of paul and john but on top of that acropolis is where the original city was built and you can see just from the nature of things that the the three sides of this acropolis actually consisted at the time of 1500 foot cliffs that were nearly perpendicular to the valley floor there was access to the city only on the south side but even that was a steep winding treacherous trail that was easily defended it's said that a single soldier could have could have kept an army from coming up to the acropolis this made the ancient city nearly impregnable but as the city grew as its population grew the small area on the top of the acropolis could no longer hold the city so beneath the acropolis down on the valley floor they built the new city the old city they kept as a fortress a place of safety in the event that the city was attacked all of the residents living there in the valley could could go up to the acropolis and find that fortress a place of protection but the city began to sprawl across the valley below the acropolis this city began in 1200 bc about 700 bc the dominant power in asia minor modern turkey was the lydian kingdom and its capital was sardis the first king is actually credited with the one who started creating coins gold and silver coins from bullion so it started in sardis the most famous lydian king was a man whose name you might recognize it's crisis he was in the 500s bc and he was known for the gold that he panned from the nearby river it was in the 6th century during his reign sardis the city of sardis was one of the most powerful in the ancient world but things changed dramatically and don't miss this because this is going to factor into jesus letter to this church in the year 546 cyrus the persian captured sardis later the greeks captured it as well and then after the greeks of course the you remember the kingdom of alexander was split and the seleucids controlled this kingdom until the romans defeated the seleucids antiochus iii in 188 bc and the romans gave the city of sardis to pergamum but then in the year 133 bc the romans took permanent control of the city of sardis now sardis was at the junction of five ancient roads and it commanded the entire hermes valley below it so it became a very prosperous commercial city filled with gold filled with trade filled with wealth in fact it's important king crisis became associated as a sort of emblem of wealth it said that it was the result of midas and his touch that the city enjoyed the wealth that it had however the city was destroyed in ad-17 by a powerful earthquake along with about 11 other nearby cities thanks to the generosity of the emperor tiberius it was soon rebuilt and so it was a thriving city even in the days of of paul and later of john but it had begun its decline it was it really just had a shadow it's of its former glory what it had mostly was its memories of greatness but it had begun to decline this city was the home of solon the great legislator as well as thales the father of greek philosophy it's possible that that esop as in esop's fables was from this city today the modern city of sartre borrowing the name stands in the location of the lower city of sardis archaeologists have done a lot of excavations to the city and they've made a number of significant finds including a theater a roman theater that seats 20 000 people what about its religion well there was a there was a large jewish population at sardis there's been a large synagogue that was discovered there but by far the predominant religion was a pagan one it was the worship of sibelli there's some discussion about the pronunciation some say sybil some say sabelle but uh the sources i cited say it's sebeli some believe that sabelli is identical to artemis of ephesus others say no they're distinct but regardless they were both fertility mother goddesses and you can only imagine what the worship of these gods and god are these goddesses was like in sardis there was an unfinished temple dedicated to this goddess and that temple measures a hundred yards by 50 yards it's huge just to give you an idea of its scope there were 78 columns that held up the roof of this as you can see only two of them remain standing each of these 78 columns were 58 feet high it was huge just to give you an idea there's one of the columns this temple was begun by crisis but was never completed ironically and the an earthquake covered this temple with landslides and it's only in modern times been excavated there was also there a huge roman center you can see in the middle of the at the top of this slide a gymnasium with marble quartz here is a closer up picture of what that roman gymnasium looked like and in as part of it there was a marble court it was it was a magnificent city so that's the city but what about the history of the church there again notice verse 1 paul says to the angel of the church in sardis now the new testament doesn't record the founding of this church but it likely occurred the same time as the other churches in the area during the three-year ministry of paul in ephesus you remember acts chapter 19 verse 10 it says that paul was there in that area of ephesus for over two years so that all who lived in asia heard the word of the lord both jews and greeks so the ministry spread to that entire region that means this church was likely founded in the early 50s a.d but when christ dictated this letter to them through the apostle john it would have been about 40 to 45 years later let's move on then to the description of christ you remember that in each letter christ describes himself he borrows from the vision back in chapter one to describe something about himself that is pertinent to the message he's going to deliver to each church and so borrowing from that vision in his message to sardis christ describes himself in two ways first of all he describes himself this way through his spirit he sees all that happens in his church and at the same time he is the source of its life how do i get that well look at the first expression the first description verse 1 christ says tell them the one writing to them is he who has the seven spirits of god now we've met a similar expression before you remember back in chapter one verse four where it says the seven spirits who were before god's throne in both cases this description points to the third member of the trinity the holy spirit you say what what is the seven spirits i thought there was one holy spirit and the answer to that is there is in fact in revelation the holy spirit is referred to as one person at least 13 times so this is not saying that there are many spirits that's not the point so what is the point then well the spirit is not only referred to here as the seven spirits but as the seven lamps of fire in chapter four verse five pointing to his omniscience and seven eyes i'm sorry pointing to his omnipresence and seven eyes pointing to his omniscience in chapter five verse six so the holy spirit then is referred to as the seven spirits in a in a sort of symbolic way a picturesque way it really points back honestly this description to the menorah the lamp stand with seven lamps in zechariah chapter four verses one to ten we looked at it when we studied chapter one it refers to the holy spirit now why does christ use this expression here why is he talking about the holy spirit in reference to the church in sardis i think christ intends to remind the believers in sardis of two important spiritual realities by mentioning the spirit first of all as the spirit is represented by torches that which gives light and eyes that which sees and seven lights or lamps and torches and seven eyes the picture is that through his spirit christ illumines and sees everything that happens in every church including into the hearts of each of its members that's a that's an interesting thing to think about you know i think it's easy for us to think of ourselves as so far removed from the events that we're studying as if that doesn't happen here let me just tell you something christ is walking among the lampstands that represent his churches today including countryside and through his spirit he has turned on the light and through his spirit he sees everything that happens in this church he sees everything that happens in every member's life that's the point i think there's another reason he mentions the spirit here you remember the spirit is often called the spirit of life there are a number of references we could look at but i think the point he's making is this it is only through christ's spirit that this dead church that we're going to look at can come to life it's the spirit of life that can do this and only the spirit of life the second description of christ here is that he controls the church's leaders and will hold them accountable for their leadership notice what he says in verse 1 he who has the seven spirits of god and the seven stars again that's borrowed from chapter one and there christ described himself as or john saw him as holding these seven stars in his right hand and we're told in verse 20 of chapter one that they represent the the key leaders or the the leading elders one from each of the seven churches the point is jesus controls them and he will hold them accountable for the leadership they demonstrate as we will see sadly the leaders had failed the church in sardis and the outset of this letter christ reminds him reminds them that he will hold them responsible for that failure so that's the introduction to the letter we've seen the character of the city a brief history of the church and christ uniquely describes himself in a way that suits the message he's going to deliver to this church that brings us to the body of the letter the actual state of this church now what's interesting is our lord began his letters to the previous four churches with a commendation but not sardis he has nothing immediately good to say about this church there will be something it'll come but he begins immediately instead with a correction of the sin look at verse 1 i know your deeds that you have a name that you are alive but you are dead as with the other churches all seven of them our lord begins with these haunting words i know i know i know he knows the true state of this church regardless regardless of its appearance notice he says i know your deeds what does he mean well he goes on to explain what he means in the next phrase i know your deeds and here's what i mean by that you have a name that you are alive but you are dead our lord's diagnosis of the problem in this church is that it is spiritually dead although its members professed faith in him for most it was a lifeless profession this church had a name we could say a reputation that it was spiritually alive collectively they profess to be followers of christ i'm sure they met on the lord's day they had all kinds of social activities they sought to have a presence in their community people gave to support the ministries of the church and members gave of their time to serve if you had lived in sardis and past the place where this church met you would have seen what appeared to be a thriving community of faith but here's what the lord saw verse 1 i know your deeds that you have a name that you are alive but you are dead the church in sardis was like a a b-class horror movie it was the home of the walking dead this church was like the ship in the rhyme of the ancient mariner it was manned by the dead most of the members of this church were spiritually dead they were playing church now what makes this church remarkable is you remember back in the churches in pergamum and thyatira there were unbelievers but they were in the minority in sardis they were the majority that's jesus correction of what's going on in this church and in light of what he identifies there's a call for repentance beginning in verse 2. christ's prescription to bring this dead church to life includes five imperatives and those five imperatives mark out five steps on the path for this church to return to the spiritual life and health that it had enjoyed 45 years bego ago at its founding what are these imperatives what are these steps how does a dead church repent first of all jesus says wake up that's the first step wake up verse two wake up now it's probably better to translate this as show or prove yourself to be alert to be watchful so if we wanted to give it a paraphrase we could say it this way wake up and be alert and keep being alert be on guard now the moment christ said this and i should say the moment that this letter from christ was read in the church in sardis i can tell you that it resounded like a thunderbolt to the congregation there because of its history i've already marked out for you that the city had been built on what seemed like an invincible acropolis so the people became careless nobody can take us when the when the armies came they simply retreated in mass up to the acropolis sealed the gate put a guard at the one place that the hill could be accessed accessed and they were safe but on two separate occasions this invincible city had been taken because its military failed to be watchful in the year 546 bc cyrus the persian captured this city by stealth they had withdrawn into the city sealed the gate they had a guard on the south side the only place that was accessible with that treacherous little winding trail and they felt perfectly safe but one day 14 days into his siege only 14 days cyrus offered a reward for the soldier that could figure out how to take the city there was a soldier a seasoned veteran who who was watching and he knew the reality that the guards were posted only on the one side because that was the only accessible side and he thought surely there must be another way up to the city and so he watched and as he watched one of the soldiers of sardis dropped his helmet off the wall at one of the points where there was a sheer face of drop or it seemed to be he watched that soldier climb over the wall crawled down a crevice down to where his helmet had fallen and the soldier realized that the city was not as impregnable as it appeared to be and so that night he climbed that crevice up to the wall found it unguarded at that place and cyrus was able to take the city the invincible city of sardis fell after only a 14-day siege this was so shocking to the greeks that the phrase capturing sardis became a saying for achieving the impossible happened a second time in 218 bc antiochus iii or antiochus the great took the city in exactly the same way antiochus actually hired a climber from crete a man named legoros and ligoris discovered a route up the face of the cliff you see what happened over time is those seemingly impregnable cliffs became weathered and as they weathered there were cracks and crevices and hand holes for climbers and that's what antiochus took advantage of he hired this climber and the climber discovered a route up the face of the cliff and one night with 15 men he he made the daring climb up one of those sheer rock faces he opened the gates from within and antiochus armies overpowered the city in both cases a city which was so easily defended fell to its enemies because of the failure to stay alert to danger now do you see what christ was saying wake up and stay alert tragically the same thing was happening to the church jesus says you need you need to wake up you need to realize that you are more vulnerable than you realize you need to stay on your guard wake up secondly jesus says strengthen verse 2 says and strengthen the things that remain which were about to die the church as a whole was dead but there were still some spiritual activities wholesome right biblical spiritual activities that survived they were being done by dead people mostly but they were there they were happening but these things if left unaddressed they too would die soon verse 2 goes on to say for i have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my god notice that word found that verb in this context implies a judicial investigation of the facts after christ searched through all of their works as a church there were not found any that were completed in the sight of my god in other words there were none that met god's standard not primarily in quantity but in quality they didn't measure up their deeds looked good to their contemporaries but not to god they were like that fig tree you remember in mark 11 that jesus cursed when he saw that it had leaves and a tree in leaf like that shouldn't have had mature figs but it should have had those small little green figs that he could have eaten and it had none and jesus cursed it not because he was somehow given to fits of anger but because it was an object lesson the same thing was happening down on the temple mount where he was about to go that is the worship of god at the temple mount was all leaves but no fruit that's what was happening in the church in sardis their works didn't meet the standard the church in sardis like first century judaism was also all leaves all show and no fruit but jesus says strengthen strengthen those spiritual activities that remain and then he comes to the key challenge don't miss this one because this is the most important one he says remember verse 3 so remember what you have received and heard now the verb remember is a present imperative meaning keep on remembering specifically they were to remember certain truths truths that they had come to know in two ways notice what you have received that is a technical expression in the new testament that refers to the apostolic teaching that had been handed down you remember paul uses that expression in first corinthians chapter 15 when he's talking about the basic gospel and he says you know i'm just telling you the gospel which i have received that's the idea behind this expression in other words he's saying remember what you have received remember the scripture and then he says what you have heard that probably refers to the teaching the explanation of the scripture that they had heard in the church christ tells this church to intentionally remember collectively the truths that they had received through the scripture and through the teaching of the scripture in that church jesus says remember and believe and act on those truths now folks don't miss how crucial this instruction is this is the heart of jesus correction of a dead church and this third imperative remember explains how this became a dead church it's the same way that every church that was once evangelical dies the leaders gradually abandoned the priority of scripture in the life of the church and its careful teaching that's what happened in sardis that's why it was characterized as dead christianity because it had all the form it had all the leaves it had all the shape but there was no life why because it's the word of god that brings life that the spirit uses to bring life where there's there's no life christ tells this church that if it wants to have life again it needs to remember the scripture that it received in its early days and the priority of teaching that scripture to its members remember remember what used to be important to you as a church remember the scripture that's why you're dead it's because you've abandoned the word of god the fourth priority is keep and keep it this too is a present imperative demanding constant activity now notice there's no object the word it is added by the translators so it just says and keep there's no object to the verb but it's obvious that christ is referring back to the truths that they had received and heard keep the truths that you've you you received in the scripture and that you heard taught in explaining that scripture in your church keep them now the word keep has two nuances it means on the one hand to guard and on the other hand it means to obey and i think both of those are implied here together so what jesus is saying is once you remember once you recover the scripture in your church once you begin teaching the scripture again and you remember the treasure that you have received keep on guarding it and keep on obeying its truths the final imperative is repent verse 3 says and repent that really sums up the other four imperatives what jesus is saying is that this church must change its thinking and behavior by waking up strengthening the things that remain remembering the truth that they had received and guarding that truth and obeying it now those five imperatives explain how this church must change but next christ explains why and he does so by giving them a warning of coming judgment verse 3 goes on to say therefore if you do not wake up i will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour i will come to you if the church in sardis failed to repent and they failed to remain spiritually alert then christ threatened to come like a thief in the night suddenly unexpectedly devastatingly now some think that christ is referring here to the second coming but notice he says if you don't repent i will come now clearly the second coming would happen whether the church in sardis repented or not it's not tied to that and he also says something very interesting i will come to you seems to be more specific so the coming in this verse is more likely a sudden unexpected coming of christ in judgment to destroy this church it's just like what he said to the church in ephesus go back to chapter 2 verse 5. remember from where you've fallen and repent and do the deeds you did it first or else i am coming to you and and this is very specific i will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent in other words i'm gonna you're gonna cease to exist as a church the light is gonna be turned off i think that's exactly what he's saying to the church in sardis christ adds to this church notice and you will not know at what hour i come to you if this church failed to wake up the same thing think about this what jesus is really saying if you don't wake up if you don't get on your guard if you don't remember what you learned from the scripture before and start teaching it again and get back into those priorities then the same thing is going to happen to you as a church that happened to your city i'm going to come suddenly quietly in the night and you are going to be unexpectedly destroyed it's it's an amazing thing isn't it i mean here is a here is a church that jesus calls the church and yet it's mostly dead people spiritually dead people but christ includes in his letter a commendation of true believers finally we get a little breath of relief verse four but and and in greek that's a that's not the normal word for but it's a strong adversity he's saying but in contrast to the people in verse three you have a few people in sardis who have not soiled their garments in other words there were a few genuine believers in sardis notice christ describes them as those who have not soiled their garments this too is an interesting reference to the city i didn't mention it to you when i described the city but sardis was famous for its dying of wool in fact they claimed to have been the first to discover the art of dying wool they had a large garment manufacturing industry in the city of sardis so this image would have struck home with them but it also would have struck home in another way archaeologists have found inscriptions in asia minor where these churches were located that stress that when it came to the worship of the pagan gods dirty clothing dishonored the deity and disqualified the worshiper i think jesus is saying there are some there who are not dishonoring me and who are not disqualified to worship because the true believers in sardis have remained true to christ in the gospel they are described here as not having soiled their garments now there's a lot of debate about what these garments are but it seems to me since all the christians are described as not having soiled their garments i'm simply not convinced that christ is describing holiness or purity only that's possible and there are many commentators who take it that way but i think i have to agree with those who take this to mean that these true christians and sardis remained committed to the true gospel they were they were justified by the true biblical gospel they were dressed in white their garments were unsoiled in response christ promises these justified believers that they will one day be glorified verse 4 and they will walk with me in white i take this as referring to these believers who have already been justified and who have kept to the purity of the gospel being glorified and being with christ forever and he adds in verse 4 for they are worthy it doesn't mean these believers or any believers merit justification and glorification none of us do it's all grace from beginning to end rather he's simply saying they're worthy in the sense that they haven't abandoned their simple faith in jesus christ and his gospel the final part of this letter is the conclusion it's an exhortation to each believer first of all you have as you do in each of the letters a call to overcome verse 5 says he who overcomes now it's been a while since we studied revelation so let me just remind you if you are a christian if you're a true believer in jesus christ you are an overcomer overcomers are not some elite group sort of seal force of christians overcomers is every believer that's what john himself says back in 1st john chapter 5 look at it with me first john chapter 5 verse 4 for whatever is born of god notice that whatever or we could say whoever or whomever is born of god overcomes the world how how can puny me overcome the world this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith and who is the one who overcomes the world but he who believes that jesus is the son of god so get it in your head overcomers are not something if you're a christian you need to aspire to an overcomer is who you are by virtue of your faith in jesus christ every believer is an overcomer and every believer will endure and will inherit all of the promises made in all seven of these letters to those who overcome these are your rewards these are your gifts christian in this letter christ makes three promises to true believers to those who overcome first of all he tells us that he will give every believer his perfect righteousness and holiness look at verse 5 he who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments notice the word thus i think he's referring back to what he said a moment ago when he said they will walk with me in white he's talking about the same thing this isn't something different it's just made here in the in the context of the overcomer to say this is my promise to you this is going to happen those who wear the white robes of christ's righteousness today will one day be glorified and wear the white robes of his perfect holiness and purity you realize christian that someday not only will your moral character be like christ for a day for a year for a century for a millennium but you will be like christ forever and the beauty of that is it means he is not only going to save you from the penalty of sin from the power of sin but he's going to save you from the possibility of sin you won't be able to sin for all eternity he who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments secondly christ will give every believer's salvation we'll keep i should say every believer's salvation eternally safe and secure verse 5 goes on to say and i will not erase his name from the book of life now this picture of the book of life resonated with believers in the first century for two reasons first of all because it was something that happened in their contemporary culture first century cities kept written records of the citizens of that city when a person was convicted of serious crimes his name was removed erased from the record of the citizens of that city he lost his citizenship but i think this picture is even more profound because it's used in both the old and the new testaments here it is in the old testament the book of life it starts in exodus chapter 32 you remember after the golden calf incident moses says but now lord if you will forgive their sin and if not please blot me out from your book which you have written the lord said to moses i'm not going to do it whoever has sinned against me i will blot him out of my book now there's a lot of debate about what book this is some say this is not the lamb's book of life this is merely the book of physical life and the one who sins god says i'm going to deal with him and he's going to die physically that's possible but i think it's possible it has this larger context in view psalm 69 28 says may they be blotted out speaking of god's enemies may they be blotted out of the book of life and may they not be recorded with the righteous and then in daniel chapter 12 verse 1 there will be a time of distress such has never occurred since there was a nation until that time and at that time your people everyone who is found written in the book will be rescued speaking of the future salvation of israel at the end of the great tribulation here are the new testament references in luke 10 verse 20 you remember the the disciples came back so excited about all that they were able to accomplish on their ministry trip and jesus said don't rejoice that the demons are subject to you rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven philippians 4 3 paul says my fellow workers those two women you remember who were having trouble getting along they are my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life hebrews 12 23 speaks of of all believers in heaven the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven revelation 20 verse 15 describes eternal life or eternal death is based on whose name appears in the book of life and in revelation 21 27 it's actually called the lamb's book of life i think all of this becomes clearest in revelation 13 8 because revelation 13 8 explains how one comes to be written in the book of life look at what john writes all who dwell on the earth will worship him that is obviously the antichrist at the prompting of the false prophet who will everyone whose name has not been written notice this from the foundation of the world how do you get in the lamb's book of life you get in there by sovereign grace it happened before you were born before us to use romans chapter nine before you've done anything good or bad and notice we've not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the lamb who has been slain the only way anybody gets into the book of life is because of the sacrificial death of jesus christ so it's by sovereign grace alone through the work of christ alone and as we learn throughout the new testament it's by our faith in that work of christ alone sadly many read back to revelation chapter three verse five many are read revelation 3 5 and they argue you can read it pick up a commentary various things you'll read that they argue that this verse teaches exactly the opposite of what it says they say you can be erased from the book of life the very fact that he says i i won't blot these out of the book of life i won't erase them means he has the prerogative to erase others folks that's that's not what christ says he explicitly says that he will not erase the names of the overcomers those who keep on believing in him and the reason we keep on believing in him is because of god's sovereign choice by grace alone to write our names in the lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world be consistent with what the scripture teaches god ephesians 1 3 excuse me 1 4 says god the father chose us in christ before the foundation of the world in order that we might eventually enjoy adoption so understand you can't be erased from the lamb's book of life this is actually a figure of speech where you make the positive note by saying it negatively christ is personally guaranteeing that he will keep the salvation of every believer safe and secure forever i will never blot your name out of the lamb's book of life the third promise that jesus makes to true believers is that he will confess every believer as his own verse 5 says and i will confess his name before my father and before his angels you remember even during his ministry he said similar things and in matthew 10 32 therefore everyone who confesses me before men i also will confess him before my father who is in heaven luke chapter 12 verses 8 and 9 he says the same thing and he says the negative if you deny me then that is you not one time like peter or on one occasion but perpetually you deny the lord jesus christ then he will deny you before the angels of god he says but notice here he says specifically that he will confess that word confess in this context has a legal judicial sense he's talking about the judgment and at the judgment folks at the final judgment jesus is not a witness he's the judge and jury all judgment has been given to the son he said so what he's really saying here is he is promising on the day of judgment that he will confess every true believer to be his he'll do it to the angels and most importantly of all he'll do it to the father father that one that one's mine you gave him to me you gave her to me before the foundation of the world and i came into this world to redeem them and i promised i wouldn't lose one of them and i've guaranteed that those who overcome by their faith who continue to believe in me that every single one of them i will confess as mine before you father that one's mine christ concludes this letter with a call to listen verse 6 says he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches this is like our lord's common statement in the gospels it's a challenge to every person who hears or reads these letters this letter included to pay close attention to what the spirit is continually saying to all the churches through his word folks this is a call from christ to every christian and every church to hear every letter are you hearing are you hearing what christ is saying so what are the enduring lessons from sardis from this letter christ dictates to the church in sardis let me give you several as we conclude our time first of all there are still christian churches that appear to be spiritually alive but are dead don't be deceived don't be naive don't run past you know drive past the church and say wow look how many people are there look how busy they are look at all they're doing there are still churches like sardis it's just as real a problem today as in the first century one writer puts it this way many churches even entire denominations have so compromised their beliefs and practices by accommodating to the fads of the intelligentsia or the ways of the world that they have virtually ceased to be christian so don't be don't be naive don't be gullible secondly you can recognize spiritually dead churches by the fact that their leaders have allowed them to neglect and even forget the treasure received in the scripture and its teaching how do you know if a church is filled with a bunch of dead people look at how the word of god is handled because remember it's through the word of god that people are brought to spiritual life you see that in james 1 you see that in peter where there's where the word isn't handled and taught there's nothing there's there's no there's no seed for the spirit to use and so you end up with a church filled with dead people that's just playing church looks impressive but christ will hold the leaders personally responsible for the destruction of those churches thirdly there are individuals connected to christian churches who appear to be alive but are spiritually dead it saddens me to think about that it saddens me to think that that could be true right here it is it is true right here at countryside it's possible to believe the right facts and be dead it's possible to have made a profession of faith in christ and be dead tragically many have a name that they are alive but they're dead they attend christian churches they claim to be christians their friends think they're christians their parents think they're christians but they're spiritually dead they say well tom that's a little disconcerting how do i know number four you can recognize dead professions by the person's response to scripture it's very interesting i wish i had time and i've used my time i wish i had time to take you to matthew 7 because in matthew 7 jesus ends the sermon on the mount by saying look they're going to be many at the day of judgment who say well lord wait a minute let me in i know you and i'm going to say i never knew you and you know i used to live in fear of lord is it me is it i of course that's a normal concern for us to have lord could could i be one of those and the answer is jesus makes it very clear who they are keep reading in that passage because he goes on to say i will say to them depart from me you who work lawlessness that's right what we were learning out of 1st john this morning do you love christ and his word and do you obey it he goes on to tell those those the story you remember of the two men who built their houses differently same house looked like the same house but one was built on a rock and one was built on sand and of course the floods came in other words judgment came and one house one christian life stood and the other was destroyed you say what's the difference it's the rock so you tell me in that parable what's the rock nine people out of ten will say it's christ you're wrong christ is the rock in other places but not in that story read it jesus says the one who built his house on the rock was the one who heard who heard my words and did and the one who built his house on the sand was the one who heard my words and did not do them so you don't have to wonder whether or not you're going to be one of those of the judgment we're taking the test in first john one of those tests is do you obey jesus christ in his word that's what he says at the end of matthew 7. if you do then yours is not a dead profession if you don't it is and then finally there's hope for churches some of you will love this that are mostly dead not entirely dead but mostly dead about 90 years later after this letter to the church in sardis there was a man who was a famous a christian christian apologist that belonged to the church in sardis his name was milito molito even wrote the earliest known commentary on select passages from the book of revelation the fact that this man served in the church of sardis 80 years later 80 90 years later gives us great hope that this church responded to christ's call that it repented and it returned to the scripture this is christ's message to dead christianity remember the scripture remember the scripture let's pray together father thank you for our study tonight thank you for the incredible insight that you have given us into our own hearts and the hearts of those we know and love and into the church lord help us to be wise as serpents harmless as doves help us to understand these things and father don't let us be sucked in and be naive and think because a bunch of people are gathered supposedly in the name of christ that it's a living church father i pray you'd give us grace but also give us wisdom and lord help each of us to search our own hearts may we respond to the scripture and in so doing show the reality of our profession we pray in jesus name amen

Channel: Countryside Bible Church

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Length: 63min 0sec (3780 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021