7 Churches: Sardis, the lifeless assembly; the recorder and his future

Now we are turning our attention now to the fifth of the seven churches. We will look at the letter to the church at Sardis in chapter three of the book of Revelation. Revelation 3 and verse number 1. Unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.

I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and are dead. Be watchful, strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. For I have not found my works perfect or as most of your margins will give, I have not found my works complete before my God.

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief. Thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment.

I will not blot out his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches.

Now we trust that God will add his blessing to the reading of his word. We have done a lot of touring today. We have traveled from Ephesus and in a somewhat northern and then eastern route and now perhaps heading a little bit south we have traversed Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamos and Thyatira and now we have arrived at the assembly in Sardis.

A number of things stamped themselves as we would begin to look at this letter to this church, six verses that express something of the interest of Christ in an assembly that was marked by being lifeless, an assembly that was lifeless. We see as well the importance that was being placed by this assembly upon the external. Thou sayest or rather here thou hast a name that thou livest, something that they profess, something that they took pride in and yet the Lord Jesus gives his assessment.

I would take it that as we look at this assembly we will see the infiltration of the assembly by those who are not genuine, those who do not have divine life and tragically the influence that they will have upon the genuine, upon the true believers. The great difficulty seemed to be that of incomplete works. I have not found my works complete before God and the Lord Jesus signals the imminent demise of this assembly and the tremendous tragedy to follow.

So in looking at this now as we have suggested from the outline to consider it the recorder and his fullness. Let me just say a word about the city of Sardis because it does have a bearing upon the character of the letter. If you or I were traveling actually from Thyatira and making our way the miles down to Sardis, as we approach Sardis we would be impressed.

If we were given to military thinking we would immediately think that here is a city that is marked by being impregnable, situated upon a the top of a bluff that seemed to be unscalable by men, easily defended by the inhabitants of the city. Here was a city that would seem to be absolutely impregnable. No one could possibly overcome this city.

And yet were we to look into the history of the city we would find that on three occasions the city was overrun. Antiochus and the Romans and another occasion, I forget who the other one was, but on three different occasions the city was overrun and the reality was that that impregnable rock was nothing more than mud that gave way when occasion was right for it and failed to hold up the city and failed to be as defensible as it seemed. Something of the mentality of the city was evident in the assembly.

Something of the sense of being impregnable, being absolutely sure of their defenses, being absolutely unassailable, something of that had worked its way into the mentality, into the thinking of the people. And so it reminds us at the very outset that what characterizes our society out there in the way it thinks can begin to affect us in the assembly in the way we think in very subtle and yet very, very dangerous ways. Whether we begin thinking the way the business world thinks of bigness and of success and of the veneer of the outward, whether we begin thinking the way the religious world thinks of a tolerance or an inclusiveness of everyone, whether we begin to adopt the lower moral standards of our society or whether it's pride and nationalism, whatever it is, we are reminded that we are vulnerable, very vulnerable to begin thinking the way society thinks and to bring that into God's assembly.

So let me then bring you, as we look at this letter, to the recorder of their condition. One thing about this recorder is he brings before us the standard of his assessment. He is not so much interested in what men think.

He is not judging by what the people in Sardis think of the assembly or what Laodicea, what Thyatira, what Pergamos thinks of the assembly. You notice what he says, I have not found my works perfect before, and you'll allow me to give you the revised reading as well as some other readings, manuscript readings. I have not found my works perfect before my God, my God.

In other words, the standard for assessment was the eye of God, not the eye of men. So the weight and value of the testimony you are linked with, the weight and value of the testimony I am linked with is not to be judged by what other assemblies think of you or what the world thinks of you. It is to be assessed by what God thinks.

Now you might say, well, how do we know we come to the word of God? To what degree do we conform to divine principles? To what degree do we manifest what God is looking for in his people? The Lord Jesus, it would seem by just the tone and by the words that he uses here, has a tremendous concern that the assembly be for God what God intends it to be. He jealously guards the assembly in its affections and its activity and its aims and its ambition. He jealously guards all of that that God might get from his tilled field, that God might get from his lampstand what he is desirous of getting.

And so we see here the standard of his assessment. We have the sovereignty of his authority. He is the one we read here who has the seven stars.

He is the one who provides the message. He is the one who sends the word of God to an assembly. He is the one that can raise up those voices, those messages to speak to consciences and hearts, not just to meet needs and comfort, but also to challenge and to correct.

We see as well the sufficiency of his ability. He is the one that has the seven spirits of God. Now, again, I think we touched on this last night in chapter one.

It is not the idea that there are seven different spirits of God, but it is rather the spirit of God in his fullness, all that is available for a local testimony. The spirit of God is available in all of his fullness to be able to supply for a lifeless assembly what is needed for blessing and for prosperity. So if you are going to ask me if an assembly is dead, if an assembly is marked by a lack of life, what does it need? Does it need better organization? Does it need more meetings? Does it need more entertainment, a social director, a young people's director? What I learned here very simply is this.

It needs ministry given from a risen Lord in the power of the spirit of God to the people of God. That is how the Lord Jesus presents himself, as the one who can provide what is needed for an assembly and give it in all the sufficiency and power of the spirit of God. That is what every assembly needs.

And the greater our dependence upon God is recognized, the greater we will recognize our need for it and call for it. And so here then is the remedy, if we can call it that, for an assembly that is marked by having a name to live and an assembly that yet the Lord Jesus Christ says is dead. The spirit of God is what is brought before us here primarily then in this letter to the church at Sardis and its need.

For those of you who just want to think about how this links with the dispensational view, this, of course, is the rise of Protestantism. This is the beginning of a tremendous movement towards God out of the Roman Catholic Church, the days of Luther and Swingle, the days of men like that that led the movement away from Rome. And yet the Lord says your works aren't complete.

You stop short of how far you should go. And so a Luther who rejected so much of the Romish system, yet he kept to certain things that we would find so unscriptural. And all of those men, while we prize their memory and value the liberty into which they brought us, yet they all stopped short.

And so if you look at this in light of the Reformation, in light of the beginning of Protestantism, it certainly fits very well the picture. And you can go to the fifth of the seven parables of Matthew 13 and find its correspondence there. And you can go to Paul's missionary, Paul's voyage in Acts 27 and find your link there as well.

And likewise, you can go to the book of the Kings and link this with Jehu, a man who seemed to start well, full of zeal and enthusiasm, but who finished so poorly, his works not complete. But let me just apply it to ourselves then relative to local assembly testimony. And I want to just mention here, as we have introduced it, what relationship does the Spirit of God have to a local testimony? I think there's a lot of, I'll use the word misunderstanding, maybe confusion of terms.

For example, I find when I come to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, that the Spirit of God is involved in the supply of gifts, distributing to every man severally as he will. So that the Spirit of God in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is the supplier of gifts. But when I come to chapter 14 and I see gift functioning in an assembly, you won't find a mention in chapter 14 of the Spirit of God.

What controls the use of gift in chapter 14 are Christian principles, humility, consideration, love, honoring another, deference to another, the edification of God's people, what's for their blessing. So he supplies gifts. But when I come to chapter 14, it's Christian character and Christian principles which control the use of gifts in an assembly.

So he is the supplier of gifts. When I come to Philippians chapter 3, I find there we worship by the Spirit. So he is the sphere by which we worship.

That of course agrees, doesn't it, with John chapter 4, they that worship the Father must worship in spirit, in contrast to Judaism, and in truth, in contrast to the Samaritans, we worship by the Spirit. So he is the supplier of gifts. He is the sphere in which we worship.

When I come to Galatians 5, he is the source of fruit, isn't he? The fruit of the Spirit is in the ninefold fruit of the Spirit. He is the source then of fruit developing in my life for God. And finally, then, he is the strength for our service as we seek to serve God in local assembly capacity.

So he is all of that for us in the local assembly. He is the supplier of gift. He is the sphere through which we worship.

He is the source of growth and of fruit being developed. And he is the strength for service for God. And so many times we leave, if I can use that word, we leave to the Spirit of God what really is our own responsibility.

Well, I'm not going to take part unless I am led by the Spirit of God to take part. It's not really a scriptural expression, is it? Spirit doesn't lead us to take part. The leading of the Spirit in its threefold occurrence in the New Testament has to do with the control of the Spirit of God for my whole life.

So in the measure in which he controls my whole life, I will be intelligent in my participation in local assembly meetings. But to try to say the Spirit of God just leads when we're together on a Sunday morning or leads when who gets, the Spirit of God is that strength by which we minister and by which we serve. But my responsibility is to come with an exercise.

My responsibility is to come prepared for God to use me, not to sit back and think that, well, maybe if he wants me to get up, I'll get some wonderful thoughts and get up on a Sunday morning. You should be coming, however young you are, if you're an assembly fellowship, you should be coming with something to offer, coming with an exercise, coming with something to give. And if it's the Bible reading, you should be coming with something from the passage to contribute.

It may just be a question. It may just be something you ask and try to bring something together and get the other brethren thinking. But you should come with something, not a matter of sitting back and waiting for the Spirit to come upon me.

And then I begin to take part. But it is coming prepared, exercised and recognizing that when I am there with something to give, then God can use it for the blessing and the good of others as we meet together as a company of believers. So here then was the recorder of their condition.

And he reminds them of who is the assessor it is before my God. He reminds them of the sovereignty of his authority. He controls.

He has in his hands, as we are reminded, the seven spirits of God and the seven stars that what this assembly needs, what every assembly needs is ministry that comes from a risen Lord in the power of the Spirit of God to meet every need of a local company and the sufficiency of that ability that there is no need. Can we learn that there is no need a local testimony has that the Spirit of God cannot meet lack of gift, no one in your assembly that can preach the gospel, no one in your assembly that can feed the people of God. Do you ever think of adding that to the list of things to pray about on a Wednesday night that God would raise up? I think that when Paul says in the end of First Corinthians chapter 12, but covet earnestly the best gifts yet showing unto you a more excellent way, I would take that's a collective coveting as an assembly, not each individual man covet the best gift.

I would take it collectively. The assembly should covet, should covet the best gifts that God would raise up in our midst gift that will meet the need of our day and the need of testimony for God, the need for leadership, the need for Sunday school teachers, the need for personal workers, the need for platform men, the need for those that can teach the word of God and feed the people of God. The assembly will get what it wants.

God gives assemblies what they want. And if all we want is a nice social club to come to a place where we can feel warm and fuzzy and we can come and go as we please and everything is fine and no one ever, if that's what we want, that's what we'll get. But if what we want is a testimony for God maintained as God intended to be, then we should be praying that God will raise up what is needed for testimony to be maintained and carried on in our own day.

The recorder and his fullness. I want you to think of their reputation, which characterized them. Thou hast a name that thou livest marked by self-confidence, self-assuredness, maybe even a tinge of, uh, of arrogance, a profession without reality.

Now, I am not for a moment going to take what is here and begin applying it to assemblies in Wisconsin and Illinois and Iowa, wherever you come from. Now, I've got to apply this to the assembly I bear responsibility with and linked with. But the tragic reality is it's possible for an assembly to to actually be as Sardis was to feel that everything is wonderful, that we are bearing testimony for God.

We are upholding the name of God. And yet the assessment of the Lord being you're dead, there's no life. I mean, this was this was a real assembly.

It's you know, it's nice. It's comfortable to apply this to Protestantism. But this was a real assembly that existed in the year 80, 90 in the city of Sardis that had a testimony.

And yet the Lord said, you have a name that you live, but but you're really dead. So that gets a bit more uncomfortable to realize that we can carry on. We can claim to be something.

We can have a reputation. And yet his assessment be totally in reverse. The reputation that characterized them.

What was the reality of their case? You will notice here, it says to them, be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. I have not found my works perfect. So let me first of all say what mark this assembly was.

They were blind. Now, I know we're going to come to that with Laodicea, but here was an assembly that was totally insensitive to their condition, just on a way of it, blissfully, ignorantly going on. I'm sure that they had a prayer meeting and they had a morning meeting and they had a missionary meeting and they probably had a gospel meeting and they may have had other meetings.

But the Lord says, you don't know that you're dead. An assembly that was blind to their own condition. Now, I know there is a danger, tremendous danger to self-occupation, just examining yourself constantly.

But that doesn't mean it doesn't have some value, both individually and collectively, to actually examine ourselves in the presence of God. To what extent is this true of the assembly I'm linked with? To what extent is this true of what I think is bearing testimony for God? Now, we'll see why this condition occurred, but the first thing is that here is an assembly that was marked as being blind. The second thing is, he says, you're dead.

You're dead. No life. How did that happen? I would take it tragically that there was the infiltration of unbelievers into the assembly.

The laxity that had marked Thyatira had allowed into assemblies those who were not genuine, those who were not real, those who were lifeless, and they were putting their stamp upon the assembly at Sardis. Now, some might suggest a different view of that. I would take it the idea to be watchful is that they had been lax.

They had dropped their guard. Standards had been lowered and others had been allowed in that did not have genuine life. Now, I know and I have done some sweating because it can be very difficult to know sometimes when someone's sitting before you if they're genuinely saved and asking first for baptism and then perhaps at a later date for assembly fellowship can be hard, especially those who have heard the gospel and been raised in it.

Sometimes they can have all the right answers, be able to dot the I's and cross the T's. And we sat with one person recently and it almost sounds like there was a collusion, like, you know, the person the week before had told them all the questions. They had memorized all the answers.

And so we began asking questions a little differently. And this blank stare of astonishment came on the face because we changed the words of the questions. You know, there can be that ability to answer the questions the way they think or the way they know you want it answered.

And it can be very difficult. I am not. We all make mistakes.

God does not expect us to be able to read hearts or to look at the book of life. We do the best we can. But there seemed to be here at this particular assembly a laxity when it came to who was received in and who became part of the assembly.

And the result is that they were marked by deadness. But the result of that deadness was what we have in verse number two, be watchful. The word really that he is using there is wake up.

You see, there were those who were dead in the assembly. And while they couldn't make true believers dead, they could make them the closest thing to dead, which was sleeping. You know what the result of unbelievers in the assembly is, then begins to affect true believers and they begin to sleep.

So while they couldn't bring about death, they could bring about the closest thing that resembles death, sleeping, just asleep to their own condition, to their own need. It really means that an assembly can be reduced, can be doesn't have to be, can be reduced to its lowest common denominator. You know what that means? That means that I cannot expect the assembly to be any more spiritual than I am, whoever I am.

I may just be a young Christian and I may think, well, you know, when you're young, it doesn't matter. No, no. I cannot expect the assembly I am linked with to be any more spiritual than I am myself.

So you see, being in an assembly, while it is the greatest honor we can have, irreplaceable upon earth, it is also one of the greatest responsibilities we can have upon earth because my spiritual condition can well affect everyone else in the assembly. See, there are no lone rangers. There are no free spirits that go their own way and don't affect everyone has a bearing upon everyone else in God's assembly.

So your spiritual condition can begin to affect others, not just your peers, not just people your age, but can begin to have an influence upon others. You could, we could take that a number of ways. Your casual attitude, the lack of exercise, the lack of preparedness, all of those things can begin to be contagious.

An assembly reduced to its lowest common denominator. Saints who were sleeping, but then not only were they blind and dead, sleeping, but they were forgetful. They were forgetful.

We read here, remember how, therefore, how thou hast received. They had forgotten, forgotten how they had received. Now we'll come to that in a moment and what that means, but it's interesting that amongst everything else they had forgotten the manner in which they had received divine truth.

What is striking here as we read this assessment, you don't read of any false doctrine, do you? There's no false doctrine mentioned. We're not introduced to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. There is no Jezebel who is up in preaching and misleading the people of God.

No Nicolaitans, no Jezebel, no satanic enemy who has come in and opposed the assembly. None of that. All of the things that were affecting some of the other assemblies, they're all absent here.

Sobering, sobering to realize that there's enough in any one of us to ruin God's assembly. We don't need Satan. We don't even need the world.

We don't need false doctrine. We don't need false teachers. There is enough in you, enough in me to ruin God's assembly and render it lifeless.

So in the absence of false teaching, in the absence of wrong teaching, in the absence of doctrinal error, in the absence of satanic opposition, in the absence of the fires of persecution, here was an assembly that in some ways is in almost the worst case of the seven. The Lord does have a few good things to say, air closing it, but just to recognize then something of what we are looking at and the solemnity of what we are looking at in this church at Sardis. But what of the recognition of the crisis they faced? Things ready to die.

There were those who were dead. They were rendering those who were real like they were dead. And the result of all that is that testimony was ready to die.

Testimony was ready to peter out. The lampstand of testimony about to be extinguished. So you will understand then that this is a crisis situation.

It is a crisis moment in the history of the assembly at Sardis. And almost like a 911 call, the Lord comes to this assembly to arouse them, to wake them, to stir them, to realize the tremendous danger in which they were in unless there was a change made in their thinking, in their behavior, and in their attitude. And so we see here then things that were ready to die.

But then he says with things ready to die were works that were not complete. An assembly that had begun well, but had failed to carry on and to carry out what God intended for it to do. A good beginning requires a constant exercise before God.

We are prone to ride on the crest of the wave, prone to live on our laurels, prone to live on the past. There were those whose works were not complete. Now you can think, your mind I'm sure will begin thinking of people whose works were not complete.

You can think of a Saul, can't you? The Lord said, go destroy Amalek and everything, spare nothing. And Saul and the people went and defeated Amalek. But when Samuel came, Samuel said to Saul, what's that bleeding of the sheep I hear? And Saul says, well, we have saved the best for the Lord.

And Samuel then gives that statement that we so often hear quoted, to obey is better than sacrifice, to hearken than the complete. You started well, you obeyed, you went out, you defeated the enemy, but didn't complete it. Something for self in the end.

Incomplete obedience. He speaks also of a Samson. And he reminds us that we are reminded of a Samson who began well.

We're told at the end, is it of judges 13, that the Lord began to move him, began to move Samson. You can hear them, can't you? And they're tense at night down in Dan. Let your imagination just go for a minute.

Think of them talking in their tents at night in Dan. Hey, have you heard about, have you heard about Manoah's son? There's something special there. God has raised that boy up and the spirit of God has begun to move him.

He could be our deliverer. He could be the one that God is going to use to deliver us from the oppression of the Philistines. He is the, he is the rising star of the next generation.

He is the man that God is pushing to the fore to serve him and to deliver us and to give us what we need. Think of the hopes of Israel rising on the shoulders of that young man. Only to be dashed, only to be dashed by the reality of a young man who did not live a life marked by separation.

Works that were incomplete. He began well. The spirit of God began to move him.

But soon he's turning aside to the vineyard and turning aside to the damsel of Timnath and turning aside to the harlots. Started well. Incomplete in his separation.

You can think, can't you, of a, of a Demas. Started well, but he turned back. Incomplete commitment.

Don't know what it was, whether it was the idea of going to Gentiles, whether it was the hardships of the journey, but there was commitment at the beginning, but there was reluctance at the end. You can think of an archivist who's mentioned in the book of Colossae, see that thou fulfill, see that you complete the ministry, which you've been given in the Lord. Now we don't know what it was, and it may not necessarily mean that he was failing to, it may have just been a word of encouragement to keep going, but there was at least the danger of a service that was incomplete.

Now, while this is collective to an assembly, have to apply it individually, don't we? What about, what about your obedience? What about your separation? What about your commitment? What about your service for God? If you have begun with obedience, obeyed him in baptism, obeyed him in gathering to his name. What about commitment? Willing to be committed to God's assembly, willing to put everything you have into seeking to uphold his honor, his name in a world where he's rejected. What about separation? Like those in Ephesus, the day you were saved, certain things were thrown out and gotten rid of, but they've gradually begin coming back.

What about separation? What about the service God gave you to do? And you once began with such enthusiasm and such an exercise and such a joy. It may have been a Sunday school class, it may have been visiting, it may have been just spreading the gospel in your own way and you began and not complete, left it go. I have not found my works perfect before my God, works that were not complete.

But what are the reasons that he cites? Sardis was a city whose, whose greatness was in the past. It had flourished. It had risen to great prominence, but that was all in the past.

Here were people who were living like the citizens of the, of the city, perhaps living in the past. The past should only be a stimulus to the presence. The past should only be that which enables us to live better in the present.

But tragically, many of us tend to live in the past, live in light, just live as though the past was the best. You know, the good men were then, the good meetings were then, the good times were then, the good gospel work was then, the good ministry was then, you know, and well, what are you going to do? Got to live with what we have today and make the best of it, you know? Well, maybe it was and maybe it wasn't so good in the past. That's not the issue.

The issue is that God has put into your hands and mine responsibility for testimony today, not the past. They serve their generation. Now we have to serve ours.

We have to move amongst our generation. The people you go to school with, the people you work with, the people you live amongst, that's your responsibility and mine, not the past generation and not the future generation. Here were people who are living in the past, people lacking in exercise.

They were asleep. He says, be watchful, wake up, be watchful and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to die. And I would gather as well a people who were limiting the sufficiency of the Lord by the very fact that he presents himself in that way to this assembly to recognize that the power to carry on testimony for God was in the power of the spirit of God.

There is a rebuke which challenges these people. Three things. Remember, hold fast and repent.

Let me put it like this. Wake up, look back, hold fast, move forward. Okay? Very simple.

First of all, wake up. It's almost like, you know, he's calling the assembly to the bedside of the dying assembly to do CPR. Wake up.

Don't you realize how bad things are? Things are dying. Things are about on the end of an extremis. Do something.

Recognize the need. Wake up. Now, while none of the assemblies represented here might be in sardis condition, it wouldn't hurt if we woke up a little bit.

It wouldn't hurt if we realized that testimony for God is not going to just continue because it always has. Testimony for God is my responsibility where I am and is your responsibility where you are. And it's not going to continue unless I make it the priority of my life.

We live in an area. I'm sorry. We live in an age where we kind of meter out commitment gradually.

You know, how much commitment do we want to make to this and how much commitment to that? And I'll make a little commitment to this and I'll make a little bit of commitment to that. And we do that with God's assembly. You know, I'll make a little bit of commitment as long as it doesn't interfere with this and as long as I can still do that.

And we fail to realize that God's assembly is only going to continue. Testimony for God is only going to continue if I recognize it's my responsibility, not just the overseers, not just the responsibility of the preachers and the teachers, but it's my responsibility as part of God's assembly to realize that testimony for God is on my shoulders in my generation. It's going to control how I live, how I act at school, how I act in the neighborhood, how I act in the home, how I act wherever I am.

I bear responsibility for upholding testimony for God in my own generation. Wake up. Then he says, look back.

Now this is a difficult expression. Remember how thou hast received and heard. Now that could refer, remember how thou hast received and heard, that could refer to the fact that they had received it with zeal and enthusiasm, that had received it with conviction and with love and were determined to live that truth for God.

Could mean that, and that may be the way it is, but it could also be that they needed to remember that when they were saved, it was a work of the spirit of God. And that from that moment on, everything that is going to be accomplished for God must be accomplished in the power of the spirit of God, that I begin a life that is marked by spiritual power, not by natural energy. So that what I learned about an assembly is that it takes spiritual men and women, I'm not, I'm using that word generically.

It takes spiritual men and women to carry out spiritual principles. Let me tell you something that was said to me years ago that was a rebuke and it was an eye-opener to me. A friend who was saved, brought out to meetings to see how the assembly functioned, how the assembly met and so on, said to me, if the assembly is the right place, the assembly is the right place, why is it so dead? Kind of a wake-up call.

If the assembly is the right place, why is it so dead? You know why? Because we have nothing to hide our deadness. We have no big choir to close the meeting with a nice, moving, emotional singing of a hymn. We have no nice organ to give us gentle, soft music that makes us feel good inside.

We have no big youth group to take the young people out on a big outing. We have nothing to hide our nakedness. If there is not spiritual life and spiritual power, there is nothing as dead as an assembly.

Our nakedness is exposed. It is only spiritual men carrying out spiritual principles with spiritual power that give life to an assembly. There is nothing as dead as an assembly that is no longer being controlled by spiritual people with spiritual principles and the power of the Spirit.

Our nakedness is obvious to everyone except ourselves. We think we can go to meeting, carry on meeting, go through the ritual, go through the routine, and that everything is fine. But just have someone come in.

I know that they're used to all the other things, the music and the motion, but you have an assembly that's functioning well and have a genuine believer come in. You know what they usually say? Who was in charge and how did all that happen? And I never heard preaching like that. I never heard teaching like that.

That's not a pat on the back. That's just a vast difference between someone who sees divine order being carried out as God intends and someone coming in and seeing people just going through the motions. Look back.

Remember that you began your life recognizing my flesh is absolutely useless. Only God can bring life. Only God can sustain spiritual life in an assembly.

Wake up, look back, hold fast. The truth they had was right. What they had was right.

They didn't need to change the truth so that when you find yourself in this situation where you have a right position but a wrong condition, don't change the position, change the condition. The position was right. The truth they held was right.

Hold fast, he says. But he says, change your mind about yourselves because I will come and discipline on the assembly and bring about correction. But then he reminds them of the remnant in which he delighted.

Thou hast a few names even in Saurus. As hard as it is, it's almost as though he's saying, I know it's hard to believe. I know you may find this amazing, but there's even a few names there that have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy.

So the size of the remnant is very small. Thou hast a few names even in Saurus. What does it mean they hadn't defiled their garments? Well, it could be that what he is saying is this.

There are those who are dead and contact with the dead brings defilement, but there are some that have managed to avoid being contaminated, being influenced by those who are dead. I don't think it means they had a self-righteous standoff kind of we're better than you kind of attitude, but I think it's they recognize that the need for personal godliness in a difficult assembly situation. That may be it.

That may rather be the thought just a people moving in separation, seeking to honor God. But whatever way we look at it, there's this truth to be emphasized that even in Sardis, there were those that recognized I need to be as spiritual as I can be if there's any hope for the assembly to be recovered. So there's never an excuse for just giving up, packing it in, but rather one a reason for further consecration and devotion to God amidst those types of circumstances.

They shall walk with me in white. Those who walked with him on earth will know what it is to walk with him in eternity for he says they are worthy. I think that's a tremendous thing.

His commendation that they are worthy. He that overcometh as I hurry down here in verses five and verse number five, three things about the reward that will compensate he that overcometh the same shall be clothed in white raiment. I will not blot his name out of the book of life and I will confess his name before my father.

So three things clothed in white, public vindication, public vindication. Now you can imagine what it would be like to be in an assembly like Sardis. And if you were trying to live for God, there will be some who would say, you're just trying to be a spiritual super person, putting the rest of us, making us look bad.

Wouldn't be easy to live for God in those kinds of circles. You know, all of us feel peer pressure. Don't kid yourself.

Peer pressure doesn't stop at the end of teenage years. Peer pressure continues the size of my house, the size of my car, the newness of my car, you know, where I go for a vacation, you know, peer pressure continues. Never get rid of it.

Have to deal with it all through life. And in an assembly where there was a dead atmosphere, you can imagine the peer pressure on someone who was trying to walk with God. Wouldn't be easy.

Probably come in for his share, her share of reproach, even from those within. The Lord says, I will bring public vindication. They'll be clothed in white for all to see.

Here are those that were marked by righteousness in a difficult day. Public vindication. It may also link itself with priestly service in eternity, but I would just take it public vindication as the thought.

Their names will not be blotted out. Now that does not suggest that God blots names out of the book of life. It does suggest that here were those who would be in the expression that is given to us here, there'd be a permanent commemoration of their value before God.

Names inscribed indelibly eternally for all to view, a permanent commemoration. And finally, personal identification. I will confess their names.

I will own that they have been faithful to me. I will confess their names. Public vindication, permanent commemoration, personal identification.

He says, as he says in the book of Malachi, it's almost the same idea, isn't it? These shall be mine. Who? Then they that fear the Lord speak often one to another, just a small weak remnant, a remnant that had an exercise to live for God and to move and walk with him. And he says, that little group, they're mine, just mine.

That's what he says here. Those who have walked with me, those who have honored me, those who have lived through me, they are mine. I will confess their name before my father, which is in heaven.

Personal identification, names confessed before the father. Let me just close by, I would love to be able to just stir my younger brethren and sisters here to the value of commitment, committing yourself to the honor of the Lord Jesus in assembly testimony, in our own day, in our own day. Come back with me to a little village in Judea.

It's called Bethlehem. Come back with me there and sit with me in the gate for just a minute. Watch as a man called Boaz comes and sits in the gate.

He calls to a kinsman and says, come here, sit by me. I thought to advertise to thee to buy of the hand of Naomi all that was a limilex, all that was Naomi's. And the kinsman said, good, I'll buy it.

No problem. Boaz says, one thing though, in the day you buy it of the hand of Naomi, you also take to wife Ruth, the Moabitess. Whoa, whoa.

That's going to mean I mar my own inheritance. What that means was simply this, that in taking Ruth, the Moabitess, he would raise up seed to his brother's name or rather to the kinsman's name, whose place he was taking to Malan and Kylan. Anyway, he didn't want to take that step.

I'll mar my own inheritance. I will, could I translate for you? I will lose my name in Israel. Okay.

Then she was drawn off and transaction done. And Boaz says, your witnesses, I have bought of the hand of Naomi, all that was a limilex and so on to raise up the name of the dead under his inheritance. So there was a man who was not willing to lose his name.

There was a man who was willing for the honor of God and for the sake of testimony to lose his name. Whose name do you know today? Do you know the name of the nameless redeemer who refused to redeem because he didn't want to lose his name? Or do you know the name of the man who was willing to lose his name to honor God? Can I just put that in 21st century real language? You will lose whatever you spend on yourself. You will gain eternally whatever you pour out for him.

There's no in between pathway, not a matter of living a little bit for God, a little bit for the world, a little bit for self, a little bit for others. No, you will gain eternally whatever you pour out and lose now for him. You will lose eternally whatever you keep for self.

The man that was willing to lose his name gained his name forever. In the genealogy of the Lord Jesus, his name is found. The mighty redeemer, Boaz.

May the Lord help us at whatever point in time we are in our testimony for God, whether advanced as I am or young like some of you are, whatever it may be to recognize, to give everything I have to uphold the honor of testimony for the Lord Jesus, that I might serve the will of God in my own generation and in that way bring honor and glory to his name. Shall we pray? Our father, we bow together before thee to thank thee for the day that has passed and to commend to thee the word of God and the people of God, to thank thee for the reverent way and patient way they have listened for several hours through the day to the word of God. We commit to thee then the messages we have listened to that we might learn from messages given from an exalted risen savior to varying churches and varying needs.

We might glean from it that which will be useful for us as we bear testimony in our day for thee to thy glory. Remember thy people, some will have to leave us, give them safety as they travel, grant the good hand of God upon them and grant thy blessing will follow them in their service for thee and in their testimony for thyself. Remember us in light of tomorrow, the Lord's day when we will gather to remember thy son.

We would remember amidst all of the testimony bearing of which we have been speaking, one who was the faithful and true witness. None ever was so faithful, none ever was so true as thy son. It meant that the reproaches of them that reproached thee fell upon him.

All the hatred in a human heart, the natural hatred of men against God found its visible, tangible target in thy son and he endured it all because he was faithful to thee and true to the display of God. We thank thee for him, thank thee it meant a cross and shame and death and bless thee that by it our redemption has been won. For him we give thanks as we own afresh the goodness of God to us in every way and thy gentleness to us amidst all of our failures.

We bless thee for thy kindness and return our thanks in our savior's worthy and precious name. Amen.