Good morning, everyone. Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland,
Amen. Thank you so much for everyone
being here today. We, our sister, gave us a very,
very gracious welcome to everybody, including those who
are behind prison walls. So we don't have to repeat that
this morning. So we can just get ready to go
into the word of God. Thank you so much just to Karen
for doing that. So let's just get ready to go
into the word of God. Let's pray, Father, once again
we come before your presence, Lord, just asking for what only
you can give, looking to hear what only you can say, and
looking to be done what only you can do.
Father, we need you this morning.
We don't even need me to be here this morning, Father, and it
means nothing if you don't show up, Father.
We pray this morning that You would open our eyes to hear
these precious things, Lord, that are written in Your word,
not only for our encouragement, but to warn us, to exhort us,
and to cause us, O God, to be more like You.
Father, I pray that You would bless everyone that's here even
now. Open each and every one of our
hearts so that we can receive Your word and that it would
bring forth fruit. Lord, that would be pleasing to
you. Now, Father, hide me behind the
cross. No one needs to see me, no one
needs to hear me. But I pray God that Your voice
will come through with power, with articulation and clarity
and authority and that we receive it as it is.
And that is the word of God. In Jesus holy name we pray,
Amen. So this morning we are going to
start in the 3rd chapter. We start the 3rd chapter.
We've finished the first of the first two chapters and we're now
at the Church of Sardis. I'm going to read through these
six scriptures and then we'll go back and we'll make comment
where the Lord says this and to the Angel of the church and
Sardis write these things, says he who has A7 spirits of God and
the seven stars. I know your works, that you have
a name, that you are alive, but you are dead.
Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are
ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before
God. Remember, therefore, how you
have received and heard. Hold fast and repent.
Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a
thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.
You have a few names even in Sardis, who have not defiled
their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they
are worthy. He who overcomes shall be
clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from
the Book of Life, but 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.
Thank you, Jesus, for that word. AW Tozer once said this.
Churches can be busy, active and well organized while being
spiritually dead. The activity of programs, the
busyness of the people with the multiple ministries without
fruit can have the appearance of life while being flat lined and
be dead. If you remember, Jesus cursed
the fig tree not just because it didn't have fruit, but because
it gave the appearance that it had fruit.
There are only two churches that's in this whole 7 churches
that he writes letters to, that he gives absolutely no
commendation to, gives no praise report for.
One of them is the Church of Laodicean and we'll talk about
later, and the other is this church, the Church of Sardis.
Well, please let me warn you before we go into talking about
the Church of Sardis. And I've always said, if you've
ever heard me say this, that when we come to the Word of God,
there's two things that we can bring to the Word.
We can either bring a rake, which rake things to us, or we
can bring a pitchfork that throws things away from us,
throws us elsewhere. I pray that when we go before
the word of God, we come into the word of God for all of these
churches, although there are things that are marked as not
praise reports for these churches, but things that the
Lord has condemned them for. Let us not look at these
churches like, oh boy, those poor people, those terrible
people, those dishonest people, those loveless people, those
corrupt people. But let's look at each and every
one of those churches and cause us, may cause us to examine
ourselves, not just as a church as a whole, not just as Calvary
Chapel Westmoreland, but let us examine ourselves as a church,
ourselves individually. What am I hearing in this that I
myself need to be alert to, that I need to repent for, that I
need to turn for? What is the Holy Spirit saying
to me in addition to what He's saying to the churches?
What is He saying to me? I pray that you that we all will
do that because as we go through these, we find plenty that the
Holy Spirit will find in our own lives or in our own hearts that
He can warn us about and cause us to be able to turn from those
things. Because we serve a loving God.
We serve a caring God, we serve a merciful God that it doesn't
matter what we've been doing or how long we've been doing it, We
can turn from those things. We can repent and turn from
those things. His arms are always open wide
for us to come back to Him, just like a parent.
So we needed to hear that this morning as we go through this
because it can be very tempting to look at that church as being
isolated from ourselves. But actually he's speaking to
each and every one of us as we go through this.
So just to give a little background about this church,
Sardis that was mentioned to be a, a dead church.
And we don't have to go far by when we're, you know, to, to
hear why this church is considered dead.
We won't have to go for we won't have to go beyond the first
verse. But the background of Sardis is
that it is located 30 miles South of Authoritaria for
defense. For defense purposes.
Sardis is built on a hill about 1500 feet on top of a hill.
And it had suffered, but after it suffered an earthquake back
in AD 17, the city was completely destroyed.
It was later rebuilt by Rome, the Roman Empire, Tiberius
Caesar, for whom a temple was actually built there in his
honor. And of course, they did Pagan
worship there in that temple to the the emperor Caesar.
It was once the capital of the Kingdom of Lydia.
Sardis was a wealthy and powerful, but a sinful city.
It was well known for its textile industry.
It was well known for gold and, and, and silver.
There was a river that ran through Sardis that had silver,
that had gold in that particular river and, and it was known for
that. In fact, coinage itself was said
to be invented there in Sardis. But like just about all the
other Asian, those Asian minor cities that we looked at and the
ones that we will look at, they had their issues with idolatry,
they had their issues with sexual immorality.
And of course, Sardis was no different than those.
No different. Now in Sardis, they did worship
a particular goddess or goddesses.
They worship the goddess of Artemis.
And if I think, if I'm not mistaken, wasn't there recently
an aircraft or some kind of space capsule that's been
launched from here named Artemis?
Very interesting name. And the other is, is Sybil or
Sibeli, that the goddess, the God, the God, the goddess called
Sibeli. Now being surrounded by these
pagans, by being surrounded by all this idolatry, the Church of
Sardis failed to let their light shine in this dark place.
They failed to allow the salt to keep its flavor.
In fact, their salt had lost their flavor.
And as we look at verse one, we kind of see what the problem was
with this church. Verse one says into the Angel of
the Church of and Sardis write these things says who is coming
from. Remember we said last week who
said, who said? Well, the one who's speaking
here is the one who has the seven spirits of God and the one
who has the seven stars in his hand, the seven spirits of God.
Now we hear the name, the word 7 mentioned quite a bit in the
word of God. The word actually there is a if
those of you who are in the numbers and things like that
word, the number 7 actually is symbolic for completion,
symbolic for perfection finished.
But here the the the seven spirits that he's talking about
here is Speaking of the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
It's a description taken from from John's vision, you know,
back in one and four, you know, back in Revelations chapter 1
and verse four, he talks about the seven spirits of God and he
talks about it again over in the verse 20 of chapter 1.
It's a complete character of God, the fullness of all of His
power through the Holy Spirit. This reference of the Holy, of
the Holy Spirit is of the Messiah, and it's explained over
in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah Chapter 11.
It talks about the Messiah and how he'll come filled with the
Holy Spirit. He'll come filled with the
Spirit of God, and he mentions the sevenfold Spirit there in
Isaiah Chapter 11. He says this, the Spirit of the
Lord, and this is the spirit that has fallen upon them.
It's the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of
knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the honest, the reverence
of the Lord. What?
These are the things that we're missing in the Church of Sardis
that caused them to be considered dead and in our own
lives that we don't have the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Our walk in Christ can be dead. Our experience can have a dead
experience. You know, James said that the,
the, the body without the Spirit is dead.
Well, the body of Christ without the Spirit of Christ is dead.
We need the Holy Spirit. You know, I can understand why
when the disciples were with Jesus on that last day, when
they watched him ascend, I can understand how their hearts
could have could drop. But because he said to them
prior to that, he says, I'm going to go.
But when I go, I am going to send you another helper who was
with you and shall be in you. Oh, thank God for the Holy
Spirit because he is the one who stayed.
He's the one who's ever with us because he's ever in us.
But what happens when that Spirit is quenched?
What happens when that spirit is grieved and there's no
manifestation of the Spirit working in our lives?
We become like dead man. It's almost like Ezekiel.
The bones that he preached to were dead until the Spirit
entered those bones. We need the Holy Spirit in our
own lives, and I pray that we acknowledge the fact that every
single day we should be asking for a fresh feeling, a fresh
feeling of the Holy Spirit, a newness of the Holy Spirit in
our lives every single day to help us with the knowledge, to
help us with counsel and might, to help us have the fear of the
Lord to obey His word. Every day.
We need the power of the Holy Spirit working inside of us to
help us to walk out this Christian life.
We can't do it without it. We can't do it without it.
So in so in Sardis, the, the church had basically ceased to
function under the power and the fullness of the spirit.
But then it also says that he's a, that the seven stars he
mentions the seven stars he needs in this case is the 7
angels. He's talk, you know, he's
talking about the, the, the, the, he's talking about the,
the, the messengers of the church.
He has the pastors and the elders of the church under his
authority. He has them.
These are the, the ruling elders of the church.
As is mentioned over in chapter one verse and verse 16.
It's important that the church leaders are filled with the
power of the Holy Spirit. And we, we should serve, always
serve under the power and being led by the Holy Spirit.
It's the only way that we can do this ministry or do anything in
this ministry, the only way that this ministry can be fruitful,
as if we are led by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So it was the fullness of the Holy Spirit who fell upon the
apostles on the day of Pentecost.
And, and the New Testament churches were born out of the
Spirit, but this church, this church had a reputation for
being alive based on the past, but it was dead.
Look at what what he says here in verse, in verse 2 with a
bottom of verse 1, he says, I know your works, that you have a
name. This is the bottom of verse one
that you have a name, that you have a name that you are alive,
but you are dead. And then he says here that you
know well if you have a reputation.
And sometimes we see people who have a reputation in the faith,
they have a reputation in the church, they have a reputation
and and and ministry. We can see that and we can just
assume that those people are alive in the spirit.
But just for reputation does not mean life does not mean life
doesn't matter what our reputation is.
The truth of the matter is, what's working in our hearts?
What's really working in my heart?
What's working in my heart When I come here on a Sunday or a
Wednesday? What's working in my heart When
I leave my home every day and I'm out among other people,
What's in my heart? What's leading me?
Am I being led by the Spirit or am I being led by my flesh?
Do I respond to things based on the Spirit or do I respond to
things based on my flesh, my own understanding, leaning on my own
understanding? Those are things that as a
Christian that we have, we have access to this power, this power
that dwells in us. We have access to it.
So why not call on that power, be led by that power, so this
church have that reputation. What's really important for a
church? They probably had it.
They looked that way from the outside.
You know, it was a church that looked like it was alive.
It was probably a church that was polished, had a polished
praise and worship ban. It was probably a church that
had a pastor that was charismatic or progressive
preaching, secret friendly messages, or because there was
such a massive group of attendees for that church.
And you can go on TikTok and you can go on X or you can go on
Facebook and you can see all these churches that look like
they're so popular, just so happening.
And people were just like flogging to these churches
because of the marketing that these churches do.
But what's really leading that church?
Is it the Holy Spirit or is it the flesh of someone with good
eye, with good marketing ideas? Because the Spirit is
everlasting, but the flesh dies. The flesh dies Lord Jesus, but
without the power and the anointing of the life given
Spirit. It's just going through the
motions. There's no real life, no real
life. So Jesus addresses this issue of
this dead church, and he also did it with the Pharisees.
If you remember, he talked about how the Pharisees over in
Matthew 2023, he talked about how the Pharisees look so good
on the outside. He talked about how they were
like whitewashed tombs or they shined.
And, and I'll never forget Pastor Clark's description of
when he was in Israel. And excuse me, he's in.
He saw the tombs, he was on the hill and he saw the tombs parts,
the clock. Where was that?
Where you saw the tombs? And you look down and you saw
the tombs on the, from the hill and how they were glistening.
You're on the Mount of Olives. And he saw the he, he could look
down and, and into Jerusalem and he saw the, the tombs and how
they were glistening and how they were white.
But meanwhile, the Bible says that inside they were full of
dead men's bones, full of corruption, full of deceit, full
of defilement, the good on the outside, but on the inside it
was nothing but dead. And then in verse 2, he says
here, so he kind of gives a a way to deal with these issues.
He says be watchful and strengthen the things which
remain, things that are ready to die for.
I have not found your works to be perfect before God.
When a church is dead, spiritual activity ceases.
The work is not perfect. That means that the work is not
complete. The work is unfulfilled.
It's not it's it's unfinished work.
Maybe this was a a church who at at one point was very zealous
about getting out and sharing the gospel, very zealous about
rendering social service help to to people, very zealous about
reaching the lost. But as a spirit is no longer
functioning within these people, it's not manifested.
Those things don't become important anymore.
They lose the the desire to go out and share the gospel.
They lose the boldness to stand in front of someone who's
opposing them and to stand and talk on, to stand on the Word of
God. You lose the boldness for you
lose the enthusiasm. You lose the energy to want to
go out and just do a work that the Lord initially gave you the
zeal to do. Now those things start to wane.
Church becomes slothful, it's not move to go out and do those
things anymore. No longer seeks holiness when
the Spirit of the Lord is not active.
Holiness is not something that that the church will pursue.
So we always have to check ourselves to see where are we at
in terms of seeking holiness. Where are we at with that.
But he says be watchful. That means wake up, wake up,
wake up, become aware, become alive, wake up in the spirit,
wake up to what the Lord is saying to you, wake up, he said.
Be watchful and wake up from that slumber.
The worst thing that can happen to a church is that it loses his
life or its power and no one is even aware and no one is even
aware. I was talking with Pastor Clark
the other day and and then we were praying together and
talking and, and I was just reminded as I was studying
through this that one of the saddest statements in the Bible
is over in the book of Judges, chapter 16, verse 20, and Bible
is speaking is speaking about Solomon, Samson speaking about
Samson who had lost his way, who had fallen into sin.
But he was strong. But after he allowed this woman
to cut his hair, he lost his power, He lost the presence of
the Holy Spirit. And the Bible says this, the
Bible says this, that after he had lost that power, he was
sleep. And when the enemy came in upon
him, he thought that he could still do what he had done
before. When the presence of God was
with him, he thought he could still get up, and he can shake
and, and he can go and destroy and, and, and, and still defend
himself. The saddest statement in the
Bible was this. But he did not know that the
Lord had departed from him, did not know.
If we don't know that the Holy Spirit is not functioning in US,
temptation can take us. The enemy can send attacks
against us and overtake us, because we can't defeat those
things in our flesh. And that's why we have to always
be aware. So we have to always seek the
the power of the Holy Spirit before anyone comes up here and
teaches anything out of the word of God.
We're back there praying and asking the Lord to please Holy
Spirit, manifest yourself. Holy Spirit, you be the one to
do this. You teach this, lead us, guide
us through the Scriptures. It doesn't matter who's there's.
There's seminaries that are full of people who can study this
word and be able to give a good interpretation of what this
means. But without the Holy Spirit, it
means nothing to the here. The Holy Spirit is the teacher.
The Holy Spirit is the one that reveals knowledge and truth.
We need the Holy Spirit always. Always.
Sardis was asleep and had become complacent.
That means they became satisfied, content with routine.
I always tell when I, when I train people in basketball,
always tell them there are four enemies that every athlete has,
but they're also four enemies. These are the same 4 enemies
that every church has, which are the same 4 enemies that every
Christian has. And I've committed this and,
and, and I've worked on this with kids all the time because
you need to know when one of these enemies are attacking
them. And the enemies are as follows.
First of all, the enemy of fear. You cannot play basketball being
afraid. You can't participate in it.
You can't participate in any sport being afraid, but neither
can the church function in fear, unless it's the fear of the
Lord. Laziness.
Any athlete that's lazy will not grow.
A church that's lazy will not grow.
A Christian that is slothful will not grow.
Pride. Pride is that thing that you
have that you don't even know that the other things aren't
there. You're so prideful you don't
even know that you're lazy. You're so prideful that you
don't even know that you're afraid.
You're so prideful you don't even realize that things have
been have been changed and you have dropped.
You have not grown. You have not been that person
who runs after holiness anymore because you become prideful.
You don't even pray because we we become prideful and we can
all fall into these things, be too prideful to pray, too
prideful to seek God. And then the 4th, 1 And this is
the one where the Church of Sardis fell into which many of
us fall into. I have fallen into this
complacency that means you're satisfied with where you are.
If there's one thing that any of us as a Christian have to be
aware of, it's being complacent. To ever get to a point where
we're complacent, we feel we don't have room to grow anymore.
I don't have to come to service that much anymore.
I've already read that I don't have to listen to it again.
I'm already comfortable with exactly where I'm at in my
faith. I don't have to grow anymore
complacency, being satisfied with just the way things are.
And that's how this church was and didn't even know that it was
under the attack of a vicious enemy.
Didn't even know. Unfortunately, many of us, many
churches, many Christians, become victims of complacency.
It comes upon you so fast, but it also comes subtle, and we
don't even realize that we're dealing with these things.
But when a church is only concerned with reputation, or
they're only concerned with filling seats and only concerned
with popularity, when that happens spiritually, they die.
They no longer seek souls, they just seek members.
They no longer desire to grow spiritually, but just seeking to
grow financially. They are no longer seeking the
things that are above, but they're now.
It's just seeking the things that are upon the earth.
Desire to be friends with the world instead of being the
servants of Jesus Christ. When we seek to please men, then
we're no longer the servants of Christ.
We're no longer the servants of Christ.
And then he tells us, he says, straighten the things he says
strengthen, I'm sorry, strengthen the things which
remain that are ready to die. We got to do an inventory of
ourselves, do a thorough inventory of ourselves and, and
find out what's there that remains.
What are the things that are still good?
Do I still like to go to Bible study?
Do I still like to pray? You know, do I still have this
love for, for for the Lord and for other people?
What's in me that I can strengthen?
Do I have a desire for for for souls that I need to strengthen
it? Do I have a desire to study the
word? I need to strengthen it,
Strengthen those things that remain.
And he says, I found that your works before God we're not found
to be perfect. They were not found to be
complete. And then he says, remember
therefore how you have received. Now some versions may say, and
this is in verse 3. Some versions may say, remember,
or you know, it may say, remember therefore how you have
received and heard, or remember what you have received and
heard. Either way, it's that deposit of
truth that was deposited into you that you once heard, that
you once believed, and you received it with a manner that
was of great zeal and great all and reverence for the Lord.
You received it with enthusiasm and faith.
Need to go back to that and remember that time that we we
that we received the word of God every time we had an
opportunity. We received it with this
enthusiasm. We received it with this all
that is coming from the mouth of God.
When we lose that all, when we lose that zeal, when we lose
that enthusiasm, eventually we lose our desire for the word all
together. So he says, remember therefore
how you've received it or what you've received and heard.
And then he says, hold fast. Once you remember how you
received that word of God, once you remember what you received,
grab onto it. Grab onto it tightly and hold on
to it tightly. You know no, no be.
Have a firm grip on it, guard it, guard it and continue to
obey those things. Even though apathy was all
around this church and apathy was, was, was penetrating the
walls of this church just like it could be here.
You know, there could be apathy here as well as enthusiasm here.
But the but but when we are able to grab hold firmly on the word
of God and we're able to guard those things that we've heard
and continue to obey those things regardless of what's
going on around us, we can continue to grow and be a
blessing to somebody else and be a blessing to someone else.
In other words, he's saying to this church and he's saying to
us, be steadfast, be unmovable and always abounding in the work
of the Lord because any work that we do in the Lord is never
in vain. There's always fruit.
A dead church or a dead Christian must realize that a
change is necessary. So we must examine ourselves and
see what it is that we've become complacent.
Where have we become complacent? Where have we become lazy?
Where have we become fearful? Where are we with those things?
What is leading? What are we doing that we're
leading it with our flesh instead of leading it by the
Spirit or being led by the Spirit of God?
Where are those things? We have to be aware because
sometimes the appearance of the church becomes more important
than other things. The the the appearance of the
building, the tradition, the way things used to be.
That's one of the things that can kill a church.
Well, this is just the way we always done it.
This is what we've always did. You know, we'll when those
things start to override what the scripture says, that's a
problem. That's a problem.
Be overly involved in divisive political parties or material
gain or blending, just wanting to blend with the culture.
Having more concern about those things than the concern to stand
on God's Word, sharing the gospel, winning souls, and
growing and holiness. That's when there's a danger of
a church dying, when it no longer seeks holiness, no longer
has a desire to seek holiness. And then over here in verse 4,
I'm sorry, Let's look at the bottom of verse 3.
It says, therefore, if you will not watch, if you will not
watch, if you will not hold fast, OK, It says that they He
will come upon you quickly as a thief.
He will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know the
hour that I will come upon you. But the grace of our God tells
us that we can repent. That's what he tells us.
We can repent even if we're in these areas of lack, these areas
that have become dead or become cold in our Christian walk.
When we concentrate, we meditate on those on on the word of God
and the Holy Spirit then touches our hearts and let us know, you
know, you have backed off from this or you don't pray as much
as you used to, or you don't read your word as much as you
used to, or you don't, you know, allow or or or or or appreciate
the fellowship with like minded people the way you used to.
Your, your group has changed. Your influence has changed.
When you realize those things, the Lord says repent, repent.
This is awesome because see, there are some things in the
world that you can be associated with.
And the moment you do something that's contrary to what they
like or what they believe or what they think, you're done.
You're done. You're gone.
Your name is off the road. You're no longer invited to the
socials. You're no longer getting called
to the picnics. I've experienced that with some
family members. You know, you're done.
But Jesus says repent as a church or individually, we can
repent. That means we can turn from
those things. We can change your minds and we
can change our directions. I love what David says to us in
in, in, in in Psalm 119 and, and and 59, he says, I thought about
my ways. I thought about what I was doing
and I turn my feet toward your testimonies.
But then over in Psalm 51, he says, Lord, do not take your
Holy Spirit from me. David knew he sinned.
He knew he had blown it. He knew he messed up, and he
knew that there was going to be a consequence for the things
that he's done. There was going to be judgment
for those things, David said. Lord, I can deal with anything
else that you want to do to me, but please don't take your
spirit from me in church. I would say that's the way we
should value the Spirit of God. It's precious.
It's precious the fact that we as believers have the Holy
Spirit living in us. The Bible says that the moment
that you believe the Spirit of His Son came into your heart.
The moment we believed, we have that and it should be precious
to us. It should be sought after.
It should be our relationship with the Holy Spirit should be
strengthened. He says, if you don't, then he's
coming quickly and he's bringing judgment.
This is not this judgment that's going to happen at the last day.
We're talking about a judgment that he will bring as a
chastisement. And thank God that he loves us
enough that he wants to chastise us when we're wrong, when we're
off. And then in verse four, he says,
I have a few things. He said there's a few names even
in Sardis who are not defiled, who have not defiled their
garments. I have a few.
There's a few people there that have not defiled their garments,
he said. And they shall walk with me in
white, for they are worthy Jesus.
Jesus always has a remnant. There's always a remnant of God,
no matter where we go, no matter who we're with.
There's always a remnant of God in Christ.
Even if we do sin, we can be cleansed.
Even if we do defile our garment, we can be cleansed
again. I love the fact that we have
first John 1:00 and 9:00. That tells us basically that if
we confess, if we humble ourselves and confess that this
is where we are, this is the sin we've committed, we are in
agreement with God that we're off.
He says if we do that, He says He all we have to do is confess
it. Repent, confess it.
He said that He will forgive and He will cleanse.
He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness because He is
just and He is righteous. So he's admonishing these, these
few who have not defiled their garments, He's who have not
soiled their garments. He's encouraging them to remain
faithful, that the church could be revived.
See, the church could be revived with just a few people.
You all remember back in the Old Testament in in Genesis, how,
how, how Abraham basically bartered with the Lord and said
Lord, if there's 10 that's in this city that will pray, will
you not destroy it for 10 people?
And he said, I will not destroy it for 10 people.
He was talking about destroying Sodom and Gomorrah for their
sexual immorality. Even as bad as that was, if
there were 10 people there that would have prayed, that city
could have been spared. I totally I I personal
personally believe that the reason why our country has not
been just totally destroyed is because of churches and people
and Christians that are praying got a president that's reading
the Bible. You have Congress people that's
reading the Bible. You have personalities that's
reading the word of God. If it wasn't for people who were
praying, I believe this country will probably have been already
destroyed. 10 people serious could have saved Sodom and
Gomorrah, but there wasn't 10 that pray.
God can always use even a small remnant, even a small remnant.
And then we go to verse 5. We're about to come in praise
and worship team, please come forward.
In verse 5, He says he who overcomes shall be clothed with
white garments. That's awesome.
He'll be clothed with white garments.
And I will not blot out His name from the book of life, but I
will confess His name before my Father and before his angels.
So here in verse 5 we see that Jesus gives this church, and He
gives us 3 promises. Those who overcome, those who
are victorious, those who are conquerors of Christ, He gives
us 3 promises. And the first promises is he
says that he will, He will give us a white garment.
We will be clothed in white garments.
Garment always has to do with our character.
Garment always deals with the character of God.
So he says, I'll give you the, I'll give you a white garment,
meaning that he will give us a garment of purity, a garment of
righteousness, a garment of glory.
It denotes the fact that we are the redeemed.
And if we're already redeemed, then we should say so.
The Bible says, let the redeemed that the Lord say so, right?
So we shouldn't be ashamed of being the redeemed of the Lord,
but we should be bold about it and we should say so.
Isaiah 61 and 10 says, For he has clothed me with the garments
of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
and then he gives a second promise over in he he gives
second promise. He says He will not blot out the
overcomers name from the book of life.
Now this does not mean that one can not.
This isn't saying here that one can lose their salvation that he
will blotch some names out. No, but he's actually talking
about what he says over here in in chapter 20 of Revelations
verses 20, verses 12 through 15, he says, and I saw the dead,
small and great standing before God and books were open and
another book was open, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged according to their works by the
things that were written in the books.
The sea gave up its dead who were in it.
And death in Hades delivered up the dead who were in them and
they and they were judged each one according to his works.
Then death in Hades were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death, and anyone not found written in the
Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.
So he's telling us, he's telling us that there is a list that we
can be on, that we will never be erased from.
We can never be erased from that book.
Your name is in it. It's there.
It's there for eternity, and that is the Book of Life.
He told his disciples when he gave them power to cast out
devils and to heal, and they came back and they were talking
about how much authority they had over the demons.
And Jesus said, no, don't rejoice because you have some
authority over some demons, He said, but rejoice because your
name is written in heaven. We have a lot of things that we
may have accumulated here on this earth.
We may have had a lot of accomplishments, whether it's in
the faith or otherwise, but the truth of the matter is the most
valuable thing that we have is the fact that our names are
written in the book of life and no one can erase it.
They will never be erased. And then the third thing, the
third thing, he says he will confess the overcomers name
before his Father and before his angels.
These are heavenly angels that he's talking about, these spirit
beings, the celestial beings. But what an encouraging thought
it is that Jesus Christ, the King of glory, the one who
created heaven and earth and the end of the earth, He Himself, He
said one day that he will acknowledge and announce our
names before His Father and before the angels, that we,
bold, overcoming, enduring, faithful conquerors belong to
Him. What an encouraging thing.
That's what we have to look forward to.
We are on a list that we can never be taken off of, and we
are loved by a God who will never turn His back on us.
Jesus says that he will never leave us nor forsake us if we're
not ashamed to confess Him before men.
He will not be ashamed to confess us before his Father and
before his angels. And then just simply says in
verse 6, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to
the to the churches. If you've heard it, let it get
into your heart, believe it, obey it, take it with you, seek
the Holy Spirit, the help of the Holy Spirit.
Value the power, the presence of the Holy Spirit, a valued
anointing of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom that we get by
listening and being led by the Holy Spirit.
But maybe there's areas in our lives that we have allowed
ourselves to become complacent in.
Maybe there's areas of our lives that we have allowed to almost
die. Maybe there's things that we've
kind of walked away from in our lives and we have not been as
zealous and the Holy Spirit has been trying to talk with us
about this to kind of point those things out.
I definitely have one that the Lord talked with me about
myself. So I'm asking that if that is
you as the praise and worship team, we'll play the last song
after communion. I pray that as you sit, as you
sit there or stand there, that you take that time to repent.
Once the Lord brings it to your attention, you know what it is,
just like I know how my what mine is.
Take that time to repent. So Father, we do thank you for
your word, we thank you for your message.
We thank you for your truth. We thank you, Lord, that you
love us so much that you would give us these things in your
word and talk to us. These are real things that
happens to real churches just like it can happen to us.
Father, I pray that as you sent Jesus Christ your Son, to be our
sacrifice, and that as He ascended back to be with you,
Lord, He left with us His Holy Spirit, who indwells us, who
keeps us, who walks with us, who teaches us.
I pray that we never grieve Him or that we never quench it, so
that He will always be active, manifested in our lives, and
that we will seek the holiness, Lord, that the holiness that you
give us opportunity, Lord, to walk in as Christians because we
know that the Holy Spirit comes to give witness to You and to
Your Word. The truth is open by way and
revealed through your Holy Spirit, Lord, and we thank you
for that. On the night in which Jesus was
betrayed, he took the bread, and after he gave thanks, he broke
it. And he said, take and eat.
This is my body which is broken for you.
Eat this as often as you eat it. Eat it in remembrance of me.
And then he took the cup and he said, this is the cup in the new
of my blood in a new covenant. And it was shed for the sins of
many. We are still cleansed by the
blood that was shared, that was shed by Jesus Christ.
Those who are new Christians and new believers, their sins are
washed clean by the blood that was shed 2000 years ago.
Our sins that we commit from time to time, that stains our
garments are still cleansed by the blood that was shed by Jesus
Christ. He said drink this and as often
as you drink it, drink it in remembrance of me.
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do.
Show the Lords death until he comes.
Amen. The Lord bless you all.