October 15, 2000

Sardis: The Remnant Church

Rev. 3:1

I guess that probably everybody in here, at some time or another, has gone to watch a horror movie, right? Have you ever noticed that almost every horror movie has some variation on the same theme in it? And it goes something like this: The girl, or the security guard, or whoever it is that is going to be destroyed sort of looks around, checks things out, and then relaxes, kicks back, satisfied that everything is just peachy keen. AAARRRGGGHHH!!! THEY'RE GONE! Wiped out while they thought every thing was just lovely.

The city of Sardis had problems like that. The city was strategically located out on a plateau, a finger off a mountain that stuck out off by itself, and it was surrounded by sheer cliffs on three sides. On the fourth side, there was a little narrow neck of land that could be defended by just a handful of men against a huge army, so the city felt they had nothing to worry about. Despite its apparently invincible location, the city of Sardis had been destroyed by invaders twice in its history before John wrote his letter. Both times were a result of overconfidence. Smugly dwelling in their fortress-like city, and relying on their past glories, the leaders and the citizens were too lazy to watch and defend themselves from possible enemies. Each time, they were so sure of themselves that they did not even post a night guard; and each time they fell captive without so much as a skirmish.

Jesus writes His letter here to a church that was comfortable, complacent, and self satisfied. They thought they had nothing to worry about, Strawberry Fields Forever. Jesus thinks different. If you have your Bibles with you today, and I hope you do, turn to Revelation 3 and verse 1:
"And 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 art dead.
:2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
:3 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, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.
:4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.
:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
:6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

In every letter to each church, Jesus starts off by identifying himself in some special way to that particular church. In this instance, he identifies Himself as the one that has the seven Spirits of God, the one that has the fullness of the Holy Spirit, because this is a church that is spiritually just about dead. More than anything else, it needs what Jesus is offering, a good dose of genuine Holy Spirit revival.

In every church up until this one, Jesus also starts off His letter by commending the church for what it's doing right, and then he admonishes them for what needs to change, if anything. Not this time. This church is not doing anything that He can praise, there is nothing praiseworthy here. He says, "I know your works, you have a name that you live, and you are dead."

What are dead works? Things that are done to gain salvation, but they don't; works can't do that. Things that are done because someone thinks that they are already saved, and that God will be pleased. But if they are not saved, then He isn't pleased, and their works are dead, useless. They thought they were saved, but they weren't. Could you imagine a more terrible situation to be in? God does not want us in that situation, and He always wants very much to get us out of that situation if we are in it. Just in the last couple months, a friend of this ministry, pastor Tom's wife -- obviously a lady who had been in his church for years, everybody knew her, wonderful lady -- realized that she had never received Christ for salvation. She got up and trusted Christ during a service. That is getting serious with God. That is listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit, and answering when you are called. That is setting aside all your old assumptions and accepting what God tells you when He speaks to you in conviction.
Our own beloved brother Matt ... he was asking God to show him anything he needed to be doing, he just wanted to be where God wanted him. And God answered his prayer in a way he didn't expect, God told him he needed to get saved. Praise God!

Is there any kind of prayer better than that? Can you do any better than to ask God that kind of question? The Psalmist said (Psa 139:23-24) "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting," which implies that you're planning to follow His leading.

The church at Sardis didn't ask those kind of questions anymore. Jesus warns them that they are living a dangerous life, He tells them; "Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God." Apparently there were a few in the church that were still alive, born again, otherwise it would not have been possible to strengthen any of the remaining things, you can't strengthen something that's completely dead. But what life that still flickered must have been pretty dim, because the rest of the sentence could also be translated; "I haven't been able to find any of your works perfect before God." He tells them: "You people are not doing much, and the little bit you are doing is incomplete." It has the idea of not living up to any of their potential, falling far short of what they could easily accomplish.

He tells them; "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, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." This would have really struck home with the people at Sardis, because when the city had been taken by invaders before, it was because they had posted no guards. They were not watching. The invaders had snuck in at night, some by the road, some by climbing the cliffs. The city was surprised and taken unexpectedly, without even a fight. Jesus tells them the cure for their problems; "Remember what you have received and heard, hold fast to it, and repent." A simple formula, it will work just as well for us today as it did for them back then.

When John wrote to this church, it had been there for a while. The Christians there were probably second or even third generation Christians. Their parents and grandparents had been the founders of the church, and they were probably the first generation of church people that were just nominal Christians. Hey, they had grown up in church, they knew all that Bible stuff, so they were Christians, right? When you spend all your life in church, doesn't that automatically make you a Christian? Well, if you spent all your life in a hospital, would that make you a doctor? Don't come doctorin' on me. You might be able to talk the talk, and even wear the jacket. But when it gets down to it, you are not the real deal; you can't do anything for me, and I'd be happier if you didn't try.

Jesus tells them to remember what they have received and heard, don't change anything, hold fast to it, and repent. They didn't need any new revelations, they just needed to get serious about what they already knew. It's like when we are driving our car and have an accident. If you are a new driver, there is probably something you don't know, you have an excuse. But after you have been through Knoxville, driven through Atlanta, driven through the snow and learned what to do when things get sideways, then there's not a lot left to learn, right? After we get a few years experience driving, it's not because we don't know how to drive that we have accidents, it's because we are not driving as well as we know how, we get sloppy, we get careless, we don't live up to what we know. It's not that our standards are too low; we are not living up to our own standards. What's the solution? More education? New revelations? No.
Quit goofing off. Repent. Turn around. Jesus tells them, and He tells us: "Quit going your way and go My way. Remember and think about what my Word says, and Do It. Quit doing things your way, and start doing things my way."

Let's take that idea into the realm of passing our faith on to others. Almost every expensive and valuable thing I have ever owned I have gotten second hand, and that's true of many of us, the more valuable and expensive something is, the more likely we are to get it second hand. These people in this church at Sardis had probably gotten their faith second hand, they probably got it passed down from their parents. Let me make something very clear; a hand-me-down faith is not a bad thing.

Everybody in here got their Christian faith second hand from somebody else. Somebody else had faith, and they told you the Gospel. Somebody else told you that Christ died for your sins, and the Holy Spirit used their words to bring you to Jesus. At that point, we are responsible to take that second hand faith, and convert it to a first hand faith. We have to get ahold of it, and make it ours, and make it first hand, or it profits us nothing. Now after we make it our own, make it first hand faith, then what will we do with it?
As parents, we want to give our faith second hand to our children, and have them make it their first hand faith. As they learn it from us, the way we act, the things we say, the way we show them how much we think it's worth, how well will they value what we give them? Maybe it's not our kids, maybe it's a friend, someone we work with, a neighbor, a relative. What value will they place on Christianity from being around us? Will they think that it is valuable, costly, worth more than anything else in life because of what we say, how we act, what we do? Will they want to make it a first hand faith of their own? Will they think it valuable? Or will we teach them that it is a cheap faith, it's not worth much, it really is a poor, sorry hand-me-down, because of how they see us treat it?

The story is told of a famous juggler that was emigrating from Europe to America, and he took all his wealth and invested it in a fabulous ruby, which he planned to sell after he got to America.
Crossing over on the ocean liner he was out on the deck, and just out of habit, he had taken the huge ruby out of his pocket and was tossing it up and catching it. One of the other passengers watched him for a bit, and then asked him, "Don't you think that is a foolish way to treat something so valuable?"
The juggler smiled, he had spent his whole life tossing things up and catching them, it was second nature to him, he never missed. Just then an odd wave hit the ship and it lurched, the juggler stumbled, he missed the ruby, and it fell overboard and was lost. His mistake was not in what he thought of his ability, his mistake was in not respecting the value of what he was treating so lightly. Sometimes I think maybe we treat our faith the same way, how valuable is it to us? How valuable do we present it to others? Are we inconsistent? Do we tell somebody how wonderful Jesus is one minute, and then an hour later we are telling some kind of inappropriate story, exhibiting an inappropriate behavior, and that person is thinking that Jesus hasn't changed us to be any different than anybody else. As it is written in James; "Such things ought not to be."

Verse 4: "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments." Let's stop right there. This church was like the other seven churches; its name had a special meaning that tied in with its character. The name Sardis means "a remnant", or "those escaping." And here Jesus speaks of a few names in Sardis, a remnant within a remnant, not very many. But Jesus knows who they are, just as He knows each one of us that belong to Him.

Then He says, "and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment."
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there are only two kinds of clothes that a Christian needs to be concerned with. If you have not been born again, then your only garment is your own righteousness, and Jesus says that garment is a filthy rag. You better not try to wear that before Him on judgement day, because His attitude toward those rags will be the same as it was toward Adam and Eve's fig leaves: a curse, and a casting out of His presence. On that occasion He will not give you a coat of skins like He did for them. But if you have received Jesus as Savior, then he gives you His righteousness, what the Bible calls a robe of righteousness, a garment of salvation. That's the one you want; you better be positive you have that one on.

The white robe had a special meaning to the Christians at Sardis. As as citizens of a Roman city, they got to participate in a special kind of parade. They had a holiday called the Day of Roman Triumph; every citizen got to put on a white toga and participate in a triumphal procession through the city. The procession on the Day of Roman Triumph would end up before the emperor and his court. At that time, the emperor would publicly acknowledge the worthiness of the marchers as faithful citizens of Rome, so the people at Sardis understood the symbolism of what Jesus is telling them here.

Jesus also tells the church at Sardis: "and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."
Something that was kept in the city was a registry of all the citizens. If one of the citizens was ever found guilty of disloyalty or treachery, treason, their name was publicly stricken from the registry, and they were publicly dishonored. On the other hand, if they had done some especially loyal or brave act, then their name was inscribed in golden letters so that it would stand out from all the rest.

Just in case maybe somebody is wondering if what Jesus is saying here might affect their eternal security, does this mean that if I fail to overcome, that Jesus will blot out my name from the book of life?
Requiring me to overcome in order to have my name in the book would make my salvation by works, wouldn't it? So that can't be what it means. I believe that everyone that is born into the world has their name written into the Lambs Book of Life, and they are safe in Him until they reach the age of accountability. After they become conscious that they are sinners, then their names become under probation, but those names are never actually blotted out of that book until they die without Christ, or until they have irrevocably rejected Christ, become reprobate, and no longer have the option to change.

Finally the Lord says the same thing to this church that he said to all the others, verse 6: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

How does this church fit in with our overview of the seven churches through history, where does this one go in our understanding of the church age? And what about the parables that Jesus tells in Matthew 13? Jesus said that His parables were the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Last week we said that the parables of the Sower and the Seed, the Wheat and the Tares, the Mustard Seed, and the Woman and the Leaven were the four new things, so this must be an old thing, but what is it?

Turn to Matthew 13:44, let's read the three other parables of the Mysteries of the Kingdom.
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
:45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
:46 Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
:47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:
:48 Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.
:49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just,
:50 And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

Three parables: the Hidden Treasure, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Dragnet. The church at Sardis is associated with the Hidden Treasure.

When I say the name "Martin Luther," what historical event do you normally associate with that time in history? The Reformation. That time in history when a large number of people broke away from the Catholic church and many of the great Protestant denominations were started. But how great were those denominations really? Were all those people in those Protestant churches really all that much more on fire for the Lord than the rest of the people in the Catholic church? Or was there really just a small minority, a remnant that were actually making a difference? Jesus said; "You have a name that you live, but you don't; actually there is just a remnant, a small number, the rest are as dead as four o'clock." I think that was a good description of the true situation.

The churches that came out of that time in history quickly became state churches, just like the church at Pergamos. They quickly became married to the world, and they tolerated no dissent. There was normally one denomination per country, and there was no more religious freedom under the new church than there was under the old one. It was their way, or no way. The Pilgrims who came to this country to escape religious persecution didn't always come to escape the Catholic church. Frequently they came to escape whichever Protestant church had taken the Catholic church's place.

The reason for this deadness was an enormous problem with the churches that came out of the Reformation: they did not fully return to an accurate understanding or interpretation of the Bible.
One of the biggest problems that the church had over the years was not taking the Bible at face value, letting it mean what it said, letting it explain itself. By the time of the Reformation, the church had gotten to the point that everything had some kind of mystical interpretation, or allegorical interpretation. There was no sound doctrine, and the Gospel got buried under a lot of man-made rubbish.

During the Reformation, there were many places where good progress was made in getting back to the basics; but in a couple areas the Protestant churches retained the Catholic, allegorical way of looking at things. One of those was in understanding prophecy. The other was in understanding God's covenant with Israel, and Israel's relationship to the church. The Catholic church taught that God was finished with Israel, that when Israel rejected Jesus as the Messiah, that God rejected them permanently, and that all the promises and covenants between God and Israel were now transferred to the church. In their way of looking at things, whenever you read the Bible, and God has a promise or plan for Israel in the future, you mentally erase "Israel" and write "Church" instead. Along with that, when you read through Revelation, or any other place where God is speaking of future or end times events, and it says "Israel", you are supposed to think that it is actually referring to the church instead.

When you do this, you make several major errors. First of all, you make God's promises not worth the paper they're written on, and you also have to do violence to what His word says. Because God said "forever" in His promises to Israel and David, then "forever" must only mean about 1,000 years, not forever, because Israel only lasted 1,000 years after David died; then the Romans destroyed it, and until my generation came along in the 1940's, there was no more "Israel." Now if God's promises are only good for 1,000 years, that's kind of serious, because now we are getting into the area of my eternal security, my future life with God. A thousand years is better than nothing, but it sure isn't "forever" the way I picture "forever."

Anyway, the result of mixing and exchanging Israel for the church in God's Word was that the Protestant churches of the Reformation had no better understanding of God's future plans for Israel, or the church's proper relationship to Israel than the Catholic church they'd just left.

Which brings us to the hidden treasure, Matthew 13:44: "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."
Jesus told his disciples that the householder was going to bring out of his treasure things new and old. Last week we saw the church, a new thing, described by the parables of the sower and the seed, the wheat and tares, the mustard seed, and the woman with the leaven. During this present age, Jesus is also in the business of acquiring an old thing that He has wanted for a long time: Israel. Jesus purchased the nation of Israel at the cross, just like He purchased every person that is born again into His church. During this present age, Jesus begins to come into possession of His kingdom, in and through the Church.
But there is a treasure that Jesus purchased that He postponed taking possession of during this time: Israel. It is currently revealed, after almost 2,000 years; we see it again, but Jesus has so far not taken possession of it. Israel had been hidden since 70 A.D., the time that Titus came and destroyed Jerusalem. The nation of Israel was scattered, it was not a nation. For 1900 years, the nation of Israel was hidden among all the people and nations of the world. It was not a nation at all, until my generation. People my age were the first people in 1900 years to see a nation of Israel again. Israel was the treasure valuable to God, because of His promises to the patriarchs and to David, but hidden from the sight of the world.

In this parable, Jesus tells us that it is His joy to go and sell all that He had, and purchase the property that enables Him to come into possession of where that treasure is hidden, and the property that He purchased is the whole world, that He purchased through His death on the cross. Obviously, Israel does not recognize or understand this. Most of the worlds Protestant churches do not understand, and neither do virtually all of the worlds Catholic and Orthodox churches. They think Israel is no longer important to God, because they think the Church has taken her place. So the parable is very accurate; the treasure is hidden from them as well as from the secular world.

Well, how about us? What do we most need to learn from the church at Sardis? A church's worst problems are seldom external, they're usually internal. History has shown that it is almost impossible to kill a church from without; the Church will thrive and grow when there's adversity, persecution.

Also, very few churches ever commit suicide, a church never dies on purpose. When have you ever heard of a church that got together and decided to renounce their faith in the Lord? It doesn't happen. A church lives and dies according to the life of its individual members. When a church's individual members are spiritually healthy, then that church will thrive and grow. Something that can kill a church is complacency. Just as Sardis was captured twice because no one was keeping watch, we can get tripped up if we feel that we are doing just fine, and we don't bother to step back from time to time and give our selves an objective check-up.

Sin in the church is a major cause of death. In verse 4 Jesus tells them: "You have a few that have not defiled your garments." The obvious implication is that there were many that had defiled their garments, and they were unconscious of the problem. That's like the preacher who asked one of his deacons if it was true that the two biggest problems in the church were ignorance and apathy. The deacon responded that he didn't know and he didn't care.

The last major problem at Sardis was being spiritually insensitive. They were in a terrible fix, and didn't even know it. They were like Samson after Delilah had cut his hair off. She woke him up saying, "Samson, the Philistines are upon you." Samson got up with the same overconfidence that he always had, and he said, "I will go out as before, at other times, and shake myself free." But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. That could very well be the epitaph written on the tombstone of the church at Sardis. And if we are spiritually apathetic, overconfident, and tolerant of sin in our lives, it will be written on our spiritual tombstones as well. If Jesus tarries, someday every one of us will have a tombstone, and then on the other side of this life, we will meet Jesus. Will He appear to us like He did to the church at Smyrna, as a great comfort? The one who is the first and the last, the one who was dead, and now is alive -- will He give to us a crown of eternal life, because we have on His robes of righteousness, and His garments of salvation?

Or will He appear to us as He did to the church at Sardis, as the One who has the seven spirits in His hand, because we needed to be born again of His Holy Spirit, because we had a name that we lived, when actually we were dead, we took our names in His book of life for granted, and we waited too long to make it good? Will He speak to us as He speaks to that remnant of a remnant; "Why did you not strengthen what little bit you had remaining? You had a few works here, and a few works there, and none of them were perfect, they were all flawed."

Even in Sardis there were a few which had not defiled their garments, they were faithful and worthy. Will we be numbered among those few? It is our choice. He calls on us just as He called on them. We have heard the word, we have received the invitation. Will we repent and then hold fast to His salvation? Or will we be comfortable and complacent, and ignore our true situation?

Jesus wrote to seven different churches for a reason: because there were all kinds of believers then just as there are now, and there was an appropriate message for each. It is not for me to say if this message to Sardis and the believers there is also the same message that we especially need to hear. But if it is, then by all means, please consider carefully what He tells us in the last verse of this particular message:
"He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches."