The Lord's Message to Sardis

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3, as we continue to look at the the ministry and message of Christ to his churches.

We are looking at seven churches in the book of Revelation. We've already looked at four of them. Today we look at the fifth church, the church at Sardis, and we've examined each of them as the Lord has spoken to them concerning what is happening in their lives.

And as a prelude to that, I want to take you back to the Old Testament to show you a character in the Old Testament that is very similar to the church at Sardis. You know him well, especially if you're with us on Wednesday evenings and studying the life of Samson. Samson's life centers around three different women. Okay, because he had a fixation on women. And Samson was one of Israel's judges. He was that charming, lovable hero of Israel. His name is synonymous with strength. He had taken a Nazarite vow, and that Nazarite vow consisted of two things.

One, self-denial, and the other, submission. He was one of just a few men in scripture that took a Nazarite vow for life. It was self-denial when it came to worldly pleasures, and it was submission to the word of God and all that it says. And yet he had a weakness for women. And there was one woman that truly conquered him. You know her name. Her name was Delilah. Everything centered around her teasing him, and he teasing her about the source of his strength. And finally, he said, if my hair is cut, I will lose my strength.

And so when he slept, she cut his hair. And when the Philistines came in, she said, awake, for the Philistines are upon you. And Samson awoke and said, I will go out as I have always gone before, except for one major problem. And it records for us probably the saddest verse in all of scripture. Judges chapter 16, verse number 20, for it says, but he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. How tragic is that? He did not know that the Lord had departed from him. Same Samson, same name, synonymous with strength, but one problem.

God was gone. His hair really did not give him strength. His hair was symbolic of his willingness to obey the Lord in all that he said. And so when his hair was cut, he showed an unwillingness to obey all that God said. And therefore, he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. And so this strong man, this hero of Israel was imprisoned. His eyes were gouged out, and he found himself grinding between two brass chains in a mill in Gaza. Imprisonment, blindness, defeat, and inevitable death.

Sardis, the church of Sardis is similar to that. Sardis was once a virile, strong, splendid city. And yet, because of its desire to sin, and fall deep into sin, it found itself grinding at the millstone of sin's imprisonment. And unfortunately for Sardis, they too did not know that the Lord had departed. They did not know that they were in fact dead. So what is God's message to the dead church? What does God have to say to the church that is no longer alive? Now you must remember that Christianity is about life.

It's about eternal life. It's about the kind of life that only God himself can give. For he said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. He is the life giver. He's called the living God, and we in the church are called living stones. So everything about Christianity is about life, and yet Sardis was a dead church. That's what happens when you grow cold and calloused like those in Ephesus. Because you see, once you become cold and callous, because God is not the central figure of your life, like he wasn't in Ephesus, there was something more important than the Lord.

Oh, they loved the work of the Lord. They just didn't love the Lord of the work. And so their ministry became more important to them than their master did. And they became cold and calloused. The result of that is that you will inevitably compromise the truth. And that's what happened to the church of Pergamum. They compromised the truth of God's word. And then once you compromise the truth, you will eventually be corrupted by that sin. And that was a church of Thyatira. We saw where Pergamum flirted with the world.

Thyatira then was married to the world. And then the only result of that is you become a corpse. And that was the church of Sardis. It's the corpse church. It's the dead church. There is no life. Why? Because they didn't just flirt with the world. They just weren't married to the world. They had actually become the world. That's why they're called dead. Let's read what the Lord says to the church at Sardis. Chapter three, verse number one, to the angel of the church in Sardis write, excuse me, he who adds the seven spirits of God, excuse me, and the seven stars says this, I know, I'm going to get it here in a second.

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 where you have received or 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. So let's pretend we're in the church of Sardis and that letter has just been read to us. How do you respond? What do you do? Our outlines are the same. It's the analyzation of the church. It's then the affirmation to the church, the accusation against the church, the admonition for the church, and the application for the church.

So the outline doesn't change. Let's begin with the analyzation of the church. What does Christ say to the dead church? How does Christ introduce himself to the dead church? It is something other than what we would think he would say. He says very clearly, he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this. There is no rebuke in that. There is no indictment against him in that title, but it does speak volumes to the dead church because he is the one who has the seven spirits. And of course you must ask yourself, what are the seven spirits?

Well that's taken from Revelation 1 verse number 4 where it says, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you in peace from him who is and who was and who is to come and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. So the question comes, who are, what are the seven spirits? That simply is the sevenfold ministry, the completed ministry of the spirit himself. It's taken from Isaiah 11 verse number 2 where these words are recorded. Isaiah 11 verse number 2, verse number 1 says, then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit, speaking of the Messiah, and the spirit of the Lord will rest on him.

The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. In other words, a sevenfold ministry of the spirit of God. He's called the spirit of the Lord, spirit of wisdom, spirit of understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. In other words, Christ represents himself in the church through the spirit of God. The complete ministry of the spirit of God. It's the spirit of God that convicts. It's the spirit of God that calls men to himself.

It's the spirit of God that comforts. It's the spirit of God that operates in the life of the church. And he operates through the leaders in the church. So he says, the one who has the seven spirits and holds the seven stars in his hands, that's taken, of course, from Revelation 1 verse number 16, the seven stars represent the seven angels or the seven messengers or the seven leaders of the churches. And so he holds them in his hands. In other words, he's in charge of the leadership of the church.

And here's the indictment. Because the leadership compromises the truth and no longer is led by the spirit of God, they can no longer lead the people through the power of the spirit of God toward a deeper understanding and knowledge of God. And so he comes to him and says this, this is how he introduces himself. Because the leadership, the people follow the leadership of the church. And because the leaders are not led by the spirit, neither are the people. That's why the Bible says in the book of Zechariah to Zerubbabel, it's not by might, it's not by my power, but by my spirit, says the Lord.

I think Paul said in Galatians chapter three to those in Galatia, he said, oh foolish Galatians, why is it having begun the spirit you're now trying to be perfected in the flesh? When the spirit of God is not operating, the flesh is operating. It was that old country preacher, Vance Havner, who said years ago that the spirit of God was taken out of the church, 95% of what happens in the church would continue as is. That's an indictment against the church itself, because we are to be led and operate under the power of the spirit of God.

And so that's how the Lord introduces himself. He's the correspondent. And the city, Sardis, was known for two things. Primarily, one, its luxury. Two, its security. 700 years before the birth of Christ, the Bible tells us, not the Bible, the historians tell us that Sardis was the glory of the Lydian empire. Historians tell us that this was the first place that gold was mined and silver was mined.

And they tell us that this is the place where gold was first minted and silver also. It was a city rich. It was based in the fertile valley of the Hermus Valley with the Hermus River that would flow beneath it. And the city itself was up on an Acropolis, high up, about 1,500 feet. It was an impregnable city. It was a city that was to be a fortress. But the problem with that city was that on two different occasions, once in 549 BC by Cyrus and once in 214 BC by Antiochus the Great, the city was conquered.

It was conquered in the same way both times, that the enemy found a way to get up the hill and to capture the city when the city itself was asleep. It was asleep because it felt secure. It was asleep because it didn't feel like it needed to be vigilant. And that's one of the reasons Christ says you better wake up.

You better wake up. He plays on the history of the city to help them to understand that they need to be vigilant. They need to be awake. They need to wake out of their slumber. And of course, throughout the Bible, we know the scriptures speak about being alert and vigilant and awake. Peter would say in 1 Peter 5, 8, be sober, be vigilant for your adversary, the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking who may devour. And then you have over in the book of Matthew where Christ said, awake, stay awake for the Son of Man comes in an hour which you do not know he's coming.

And so vigilance is a part of the life of the church. And this church was no longer vigilant. How did the church begin? We don't know. Who was the pastor of the church? We don't know. But what we do know is what we've told you in the weeks past in Acts 19 verse number 10, that the word of the Lord spread all throughout Asia. So some way, somehow through the ministry of the apostle Paul, that that gospel would spread and there would be a church that would start in this city called Sardis. And there would be believers who would begin in this city, this church.

But we know from what Christ says that by this time, there are only a few believers in the church. Not a lot. Because he says there are a few that have not soiled their garments. We'll talk about that in a moment. But it's a reminder to all of us that remember Christ said in Matthew chapter seven, narrow is the way and straight is the gate and few there be that find it. And then later in Luke chapter 16, I believe it is, I'm sorry, Luke chapter 13. Someone asked Christ, are there just a few who are being saved?

And here Christ says, there are a few in your assembly that have not soiled their garments. You see, when we study the churches, we have to realize that the churches are made up of people in those churches. And so we have to examine our lives individually as we look at what the word of God says to see whether or not we are characterized by the church of Sardis, Ephesus, Laodicea, Pergamon, Thyatira, Smyrna.

We examine our life in light of what the Bible says. And all throughout the scripture, it always emphasizes a few who are being saved. Not a lot, always a few. And so like any church, there's always a few, a remnant that are saved. There might be some churches that have a lot of people that are saved in them. There might be some churches that have nobody saved in them because like Sardis, it becomes the first church of the tares.

There's just a few wheat in the church. It's mostly made up of tares. How does that happen? How did the church get to that place where there are more tares than wheat? How did the church come to a place where it is so corrupt it's now labeled dead by Christ? It's one thing for another person to say your church is dead, but for Christ to say your church is dead and he knows the heart of every man and every woman that he knows and speaks truth, what he says applies to all of our lives. So we need to understand exactly what Christ is saying to the church.

And this church thought it was alive. In fact, it was alive. Christ said, you're alive, but you are dead. You have some semblance of life, not true life, not God-like life. In other words, you have a reputation in the community. Others around see you as a church. There are people in the pews. There's a pastor in the pulpit. There's music that happens. And maybe Sardis had the best music of all the churches. Maybe Sardis had the biggest church of all the churches. Maybe there were four and five services a Sunday at Sardis because they had a reputation that they were alive.

In other words, they had a reputation among the community, but they had no reputation with the Christ. You see, everybody knew that there was a church in Sardis and everybody knew that there was happenings in Sardis. Maybe Sardis, the church of Sardis, had so many programs that everybody felt that they could be a part of those programs. Maybe they had all kinds of support groups. If you were divorced, they had a support group for you. If you were single, they had a support group for you. If you were homeless, support group, food bank, had everything.

If you had this issue, they had a support group for you. If you had an issue that nobody knew about, they probably had a support group for that too, just so you could go and feel the love and the support of the church. They were alive in the community. But Christ says, you're dead.

You're dead. So everybody who saw the church thought it was alive. But Christ, who is the Lord of the church, said, you're dead. What an indictment. What an indictment against the church at Sardis. They're like Israel. They're a tree with all kinds of leaves, but no fruit. It's like a church with all kinds of programs for everybody around, but there is no fruit. Or like the Pharisees, where Christ said, on the outside, you look good, but on the inside, you're filled with dead man's bones. He told the religious establishment, on the outside, you look alive, but on the inside, you're dead.

You're dead. That was the church at Sardis. How does it get there? You know how it gets there? Whenever you begin to tolerate sin in the teaching and living of the church, you end up dead, dead. And what happened is that Sardis just wasn't cold to Christ, callous toward the Christ. They had gone way beyond compromising the truth, way beyond corrupting their lives, that now they have people in the church. And that's why Christ introduces himself as the one who has the seven spirits and who holds the seven stars in his hands, because evidently leadership, there had been those who rose to a place of prominence in the church who had no spiritual life at all.

And if you don't think that happens today, you were sadly mistaken. People rise to leadership in churches because they're rich, because they hold a certain job or a certain office in the community. They think that they, because they do in the community, they can lead the church. That's exactly what happened in Sardis. And therefore they were into, they were into flash. Whenever you operate in the flesh, you're into flash. You love the show. You love for everybody to see the show. It's all about a show.

And it's all about how everybody is, is entertained by the show, enamored with the show. And therefore you have a name that you're alive. Christ says, but I want to tell you, you're dead.

And so we go to point number two, the affirmation. Most commentators don't tell you there's an affirmation, but I believe there is an affirmation. And that affirmation is given to the few. Let's know what he says. He says verse four, 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. Wow. What an affirmation. You, you have a few, not a lot. There's not a lot of them, but there is a few of them, a few who have not soiled their garments.

Now remember garments in scripture are equivalent to character in scripture. That's why Isaiah 64 talks about the fact that all your righteousness is as filthy rags. That's why when God saves you, he clothes you with the robes of righteousness, the garments of God, your character changes. That's why the Bible says over in the book of Jude, that we are to hate the garments spotted by the flesh over in revelation 19 verse number eight, it says this for seven, let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him for the marriage of the lamb has come and his brightest made herself ready.

It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. So you see garments are associated with character. And Christ says, let me affirm this.

There are a few in your assembly that have not soiled or polluted or stained their garments. There are a few among you that truly have remained true and pure and Holy to me. They are truly born again. They are, they are truly saved. He says, he also tells them they will walk with me in white. White is the color of heaven because white is equivalent to righteousness. If you read over in revelation chapter four, the elders are clothed in white robes in revelation six, a white robe is given to each soul that is martyred in the tribulation in revelation check to seven.

There's a great multitude that come out of the tribulation and they are clothed in white robes. And when we come back in revelation 19, we are clothed in white linen. See, so Christ says, there are a few who have been clothed in white linen.

That is they have received the righteousness of Christ. They are pure before me. They are holding before me and they are worthy. They're not worthy because of what they did. They are worthy because of what Christ did to them. He graced them and he saved them. So here comes this, this affirmation that Christ gives because there are few in the assembly. You say, well, why don't they leave? Where are they going to go? Remember I told you last week, there's only one church in Sardis. There's one church in Laodicea, one church in Thessalonica, one church in Jerusalem.

There's only one church. Where else are they going to go? If there was another church they could go to, Christ would have said, you better go to a different church. There's only one church. And so Christ affirms those that are there. And then we move from the affirmation from the annihilation to the accusation. And that's what Christ says when he says, I know your deeds that you have a name that you were alive, but you are dead.

He says, for I've not found your deeds completed in the sight of my God. Now, isn't it interesting that Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and Thyatira were all commended because of their deeds to some degree. But Sardis could not be commended because of their deeds because they were incomplete. They were not completed. They did not meet the standard of God. Why? Because they operated in the flesh. They didn't operate in the spirit. They operated from a fleshy carnal base. They did it for their own selves.

They didn't do it for the glory of God. See, it was all about them. It was all about the flesh. It was all about the show. It was all about how they were perceived in the community. They tolerated everybody who came into the church so everybody would be a part of the church. So Christ can't commend them because their deeds are extremely defective. They're incomplete. They do not meet the righteous standard of God. They are not complete. They are dead spiritually. He tells them their works were incomplete because they did not meet my standard.

He says, your deeds are not completed in the sight of my God. God is the standard. Whatever you do in the church, another church is not your standard. God is the standard. God is always the standard. And what is the standard? Be perfect for your father in heaven is perfect. Be holy for your father in heaven is holy. So whatever work you do in the church, whatever ministry you have in the church, it must be the standard of holiness and Christ likeness and godliness. That's the standard. And Christ says, your deeds are not completed before me.

They are incomplete because they're done in the energy of the flesh. He tells them, tells them your name, your works are defective, and your name is deceptive because you have a name in the community, but you don't have a name before me because you're dead. And when Christ says you're dead, he's talking about not physical death.

He's talking about spiritual death. Remember Ephesians 2.1? You were dead in your trespasses and in your sin. He says over in Colossians chapter three, verse, I'm sorry, Colossians chapter two, verse number 13. He says, but you were dead in your transgressions and he made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all of our transgressions. So when, when Christ says that you're dead, he's telling them that they are spiritually dead.

They are spiritually separated from the one true God. It's not that they're physically dead. They're spiritually dead. So what does the living God say to a spiritually dead church? You've got to wake up. You've got to realize what's happening. You've got to repent from your sin. You've got to turn from your ways. It's imperative that you follow what I say. They couldn't operate the spirit. And the Bible tells us over in the book of Jude that we are to pray in the spirit. It tells us that we are to preach in the spirit in first Thessalonians.

We are to worship in the spirit, John four, we had to live in the spirit in Galatians five, and we are to walk in the spirit, but they had rejected the spirit. They had grieved the spirit. They had lusted against the spirit of God. And so the spirit of God was not operating in the church. The church was dead. Ichabod had been written across the church. The glory of the Lord has departed. It's not that God is no longer there. God's everywhere. He's on the present, but his beauty, the presence of his glory is no longer seen in the church.

So they were deceptive. Christ says, Oh, you have a name. You have a reputation in the community, but I will let you know you're dead. You are spiritually dead. This is the dead church. So what does Christ say the dead church must do? He tells us, wake up, wake up. He tells them, if you don't wake up, I will come to you for three, like a thief. And you will not know at what hour I will come to you. Now listen in scripture, Christ never comes as a thief to the believer, only the unbeliever, only the unbeliever.

He comes like a thief in the night. As he says over in, um, uh, later on in the book of revelation says the same thing in the book of Matthew. Also in the book of first Thessalonians.

So Christ says several times, he's going to come like a thief, but he only says that to the unbeliever.

So the phrase wake up has to primarily deal with the unbelievers in the church. You guys are asleep and he, and he, and he plays on the history of Sardis, the city that once they fell asleep and were no longer vigilant and on guard, they were captured and destroyed. So he plays on that and says, you better wake up, you better wake up and realize what you need to do because you're spiritually dead. And if you don't wake up, you will die. I will come to you like a thief in the night. I will come to you unexpectedly.

I will come to bring harm to you. I will come to destroy you. So you better wake up, better wake up because the church of Sardis was the dead church. Now here, here you are thinking everything is going good. I mean, after all you got four or five, six, maybe seven services every Sunday, right? Your place is packed. You got programs for kids. You got programs for adults. You got support groups for everybody who has any kind of physical ailment or spiritual ailment that there is. You have all this going on, all these leaves, but no fruit.

So you look like a good tree because you have leaves, but you have no fruit. And so you're listening to this and the leader of the church gets up and reads this to you. What's your response? You're like, how could that be? All these people are here. All these things are happening. In fact, not only are all these people are here, we're thinking about having a new building project because our building is not big enough for the ones we have. So now the Lord says we're dead and we have all these people and all these programs and all these things happening.

We must be doing something right. We must be good at something. Christ says, give a name that you're alive, but you are dead.

What an indictment. Oh, by the way, this is the majority of churches in America, the church of Sardis. They think they're alive, but they're dead. They'll have a few in them that have not soiled their garments, but they think they're alive. They have a great reputation in the community. The community loves them. And yet Christ says they're dead.

So he says, wake up. You're asleep. See the light. Know the truth. And then he says, and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die. Wow. In other words, there's some things that could be strengthened or they will end up dead. Okay. Now remember, he's talking to the church. So he's talking to the unbeliever in the church, which is the majority of people. He's also talking to the few that are there. And the few that are there have the opportunity to strengthen the things that remain so that they don't die.

And how would you strengthen the things that remain unless you were able to impart to them the truth of the living God. And then he says, so remember what you have received and heard, what did they receive and heard? The word. Remember what you have received and heard and keep it, hold on to it, retain it, hold fast to it. Remember it says about the church in Philadelphia, it says these words, it says, you have kept my word. Revelation chapter three, verse number eight, you have kept my word. So remember the things that you have heard and keep it, keep it and repent.

Wow. Again, the church is told to repent because the message to the church in any age is always the same. You need to repent, turn from the error of your way, turn from your sin to follow the true and living God, 180 degree turnabout. You need to repent of your sin because if you don't, I'm coming to you and you won't know when I'm coming. You won't know how I'm coming, but I'm coming to you like a thief. I don't believe that's talking about the second coming.

I believe that's talking about the church of stardust and specifically coming to the church that thinks it's alive, but it's dead. And what James said, this is similar to what James said in James five, verse number 19. My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. So if I'm among the few in stardust, I'm thinking that I can, I can turn a sinner from the error of his way and save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

I'm thinking that and probably the majority of people in stardust are thinking the Lord doesn't know what he's talking about. How can something so big and so famous be dead? But remember, it's the Lord who is the only one who could make a proper assessment on the condition of your church. He's the one who does that. And that's why we examine our lives in light of what God says in his word that surely we might understand how we measure up to where God is.

And so then comes the application. First five, he overcomes, will thus be clothed in white garments. And I will not erase his name for the book of life. And I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Wow. He says, here's the application. It refers to one's garments, which refer to his character and refers to one guarantee. Now, remember the overcomer, first John five verses four and five is the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God.

So to the church of stardust, he says to the one who overcomes to the one who believes that Jesus truly is a son of God. And if you go on to read first John five versus three, four, five, and six, you realize that the overcomer, not just believes that Jesus is a son of God, but he loves God enough to obey everything that God says he's obedient to God.

That's the overcomer. That's the victorious warrior to the one who was ultimately victorious to the great warrior in my kingdom. I say this, he says, he overcomes will be clothed in white garments. Listen, there are a few here that I've not yet soiled the garments. And for the rest of you who want to be clothed in the garments of God, the white garments that I will give you in white was a symbol of purity victory because whenever they want to battle, they clothed the victorious warrior in white. So festivity, victory, purity, and glory.

That's what white represents in scripture. And if you want to be glorious, if you want to be festive, if you want true life, because you're dead, if you want true victory in life, because right now you defeated in life, he overcomes to the one who believes that Jesus is a son of God. I will clothe you in white garments. I will change your character. I will change your life. On top of that, I give you this guarantee. I will not blot your name out of the book of life. Now, listen, I know some people believe that that means that your name could be blotted out of the book of life because Christ says, I won't blot your name out of the book of life.

But the problem with that is you can't turn a promise into a threat. It's a promise. In other words, Christ says, not only would I not blot your name out of the book of life, I will confess you before my father who is in heaven, right?

And what did Christ say in Matthew 10? He who confesses me before man, I will confess before my father who is in heaven. So he doubles the guarantee. Not only would I not blot your name out of the book of life. Now remember, every city had a registry. It was called the book of the living. Every city had a registry. When you died, your name was erased out of the book of the living. Why? Because you were dead. You no longer were there, right? So in the registry, they would take and blot your name out of that book.

If you committed a heinous crime, they would do the same. They would erase your name from the book of the living in that registry. Christ says, the king may erase your name because you're dead, but I will let you know that if you're an overcomer, you're in the book of life and I will never erase your name out of the book of life.

We know from the book of revelation, the book of life was written. Our names are written in the book of life before the foundation of the world. See, now someone will say, well, what about Moses and the book of numbers? When he said, blot my name out of the book. Oh, that's the book of the living. That refers to an untimely death. That's not the book of life. That's a different book. Moses says, look, if you're not going to forgive these people, kill me now.

It's all Moses is saying. So it's not the book of life. The book of life is the book that records all the names of those from eternity past that have been called and chosen by God to inherit the kingdom of God. God says, if you're an overcomer, if you're clothed in white garments, you'll never be blotted out of my book.

And I will confess you before my father who is in heaven. Wow. What a great, great application. And then he says, as he always says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Are you listening? Have you listened to what the spirit says to the churches? Listen, not everybody who thinks they're saved are. There are a lot of people in the church today that are self-deceived. Self-deceived. That is, they think they're on their way to heaven. They think that when they die, they will end up in the presence of God.

But they have been self-deceived. And the church of Sardis was self-deceived. Except for a few who had not stained their garments, who walk in white raiment, whose names will not be blotted out of the book of life because they are overcomers. The church of Sardis and the letter to that church is a wake-up call to every person in the church, whether you're among the few who are saved or among the many who are not saved. Because if you're among the few, you want to make sure that those around you in your church truly know the Lord, truly know the Lord.

And those who are among the many in the churches across our country who somehow think that they're on their way to heaven because of the bigness of their ministry or because of the popularity of their ministry or because the community says you have a name. Just because the world says you have a name. If the world says you have a name, you probably don't have a name with Christ. See? And so you need to understand, do I know the true and living God? Am I really born again? Am I an overcomer? Do I love the Lord?

Do I obey the Lord? Do I serve the Lord? Am I one who truly is committed to following everything that God says?

Oh, the Bible has said many times over, many are called, few are chosen. The emphasis in the Bible is only a few are saved, not a lot. I know the book of Revelation says there's a great multitude around the throne of God, but there's a reason there's a great multitude around the throne of God. It's because there are so many babies that have died and already gone to heaven. There are so many people who died before the age of accountability and are gone. That's the multitude in heaven. It's not the many who make a profession of faith because Jesus made it very clear that only a few find the gate.

And then he says, once they get to the gate, even fewer get in because the demands of heaven are great. Phidimea kimitimilem, deny himself, take up his cross and follow me, Christ says.

You see, it's imperative. Ask yourself this question. Do I have real life? Am I existing from day to day or do I have life? I talk about eternal life, not just longevity, because listen, everybody has an eternal life. Everybody lives forever, right? So when we speak about eternal life, we're talking about John 17, verse number three.

This is eternal life that you know God, because you see, that's the quality of life that God gives. You obtain his life, Christ in you, the hope of glory. Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet not I, but Christ lives in me. So in other words, you have Christ's life in you. That's life. You have that life. Are you living Christ's life or are you living your life? There's a difference because the overcomer lives Christ's life. He understands who Jesus Christ is. He understands the power of the gospel.

He understands the power of the life of God in him to accomplish great things for the kingdom of God. My prayer for you and me for our church is that we would not be deceived into thinking because we have a name, we've arrived. What does Christ say about your life? What would Christ assessment be of your spiritual condition? What would he say in light of what his word says? That's the standard. God's word is the standard, nothing else. And may God give us the grace to examine our lives and to live our lives in the light of his glorious word.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for today, the chance to study your word. And we thank you, Lord, for what you said to the church of Sardis. And our prayer, Lord, is that we would examine our lives in light of that. If there'd be one person among us today that doesn't know you, may today be the day of their salvation. May they understand how to be clothed in white raiment, that they might be a true overcomer, a victorious warrior when it comes to following Jesus Christ as Lord of their life, that they might truly have the assurance their name will never be blotted out of the book of life.

And you will confess them before your father in heaven. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus name. Amen.