Before we get right into the text, I was paid possibly one of the biggest compliments of my, I guess, of my calling as a pastor this week. Someone mentioned to me, they don't happen to be here so it won't embarrass them, she said, And if I can get the quote right, and it might be just a little off on my remembrance of it, but she said, it's hard to conceive of another pastor coming who loves this church as much as you do. And that probably is the best compliment a pastor can have. I've loved every church of the five churches I pastored. You know, we're looking at the seven churches of Asia Minor these last several weeks. All of them, there are different things about every one of them that I absolutely love, but I don't love them with any love less than what Christ has given me. And that's the whole thing. When you have, when you call another pastor to this congregation, if he loves Jesus, he will love you. That's the open secret to this. If he loves Jesus, he will love you. And that's why I love you all. You are Christ's bride. And to not love Christ's bride is to not love Christ. And so I have every confidence that if I'm hearing from the Lord, and I believe that I am, which is the number one reason for our leaving, It's because it's the Lord Jesus' will. And that's what you'd want in a pastor. You want someone that's hearing from the Lord. is sometimes a struggle for me because my flesh, which you don't see so often, you just see the ailments of what I have to deal with, but in the deep inside of me, how sometimes it's a struggle every week. Lord, what is it that we need as a church? And sometimes I want to preach something that's not what the Lord wants me to preach or teach something that the Lord doesn't, He wants something else to be a focus. And I think, well, this should be the focus. No, it's not. And so that's every week for the last seven years and three months now. And because if I'm not hearing from the Lord, and I wrote this in the email so many of you have read that, if I'm not hearing from the Lord then you wouldn't want that for, you wouldn't want me preaching to you, to your children, and to your children's children. That would not be acceptable. So if I'm not hearing from the Lord, good riddance, right? And I don't mean to make light of it, but if I am hearing from the Lord, the Lord has something wonderful for you. Because I know how much he loves you all. I see it every single week. One of the things that I prayed for for the last 15 years is I didn't want to be a hanger-on-er. That's what I call it, a hanger-on-er. At my last church, where we lived before, and at my last pastorate, we had a retired pastor, a pastor for 30 years. He had a tracheostomy. if I have that correct. I think the tracheotomy is the emergency hole in the throat. The tracheostomy is actually the surgery that makes it permanent. And he taught with one of those voice boxes. And half the congregation, including my lovely wife, couldn't understand it because English isn't her first language. And then to hear something that mechanical with a southern accent. because he was from Southern Georgia, Macon County. I could understand him fine, plus he stuck to the scriptures, but he was a hanger-on-er. And I prayed, as soon as I met him and I loved him, I not only did his funeral when he passed away, but I changed his diapers when he was having dementia. And so I loved him because he was Christ's. And, but I didn't want to do that because preaching doesn't define me. This is something that we see in the seven churches of Revelation, the Lord's care. And when he ministers to the ungloss, the messengers or the angels of the churches, those ministers, there's no difference in my pastoring and you being a believer. Because every Christian, every Christian is defined by the grace of God and everything that you do in Christ and everything that I do in Christ should spring forth from Ephesians 6.10, right? That we do it in the strength of the Lord Jesus and the power of his might. So therefore, there's no difference. That's why, Lord willing, before I leave, that we might get to chapter four. And when we see in chapter four them casting down their crowns, that's why they're casting down their crowns. They earned nothing themselves. Those are Christ's crowns by right. We did what was our duty to do. And it profited him nothing for us to gain those crowns. So that's the worship that we give to the Lord. To hang on is to imply God's grace is insufficient. So to do that is a poor witness. And I don't want to be a poor witness to Christ. I want to go out with a bang and not a whimper. I'm blessed that the Lord gave me 25 years in the pulpit as a pastor. What a privilege. And that now I'll be able to take those same energies, what is left, and be able to minister to my lovely wife, whom by God's grace stuck with me for 25, you know, 35 years, but 25 years of pastoring, and I know that was not easy for her. That was not easy for her. She had a great struggle of inferiority, of a lot of things. I won't embarrass her with all the stuff that comes with being a pastor's wife and the difficulties therein. So I'm looking forward to being able to take long walks with her, et cetera. But the love and service you give to your family, I did write this down, I just want to stress it. It's what Spurgeon calls all of grace. Everything is all of grace from that book, that little book, that precious book with the greatest title, it's all of grace. So the love and service you give to your family, your work, and your general witness is no different from what I've done as a pastor because it all requires the strength of the Lord Jesus and the power of his might. The last thing is someone has actually asked me, he says, well, why not retire here? And that person isn't here either, so I'm not going to embarrass them. Well, I honestly, I had a tough time last winter, but that wasn't really the thing. The mostly what it is, is this, since I've been your pastor for seven years, we've grown close. I know that we have. I love you as my, I love this, the members of this congregation, the attenders of this congregation. I love this congregation with the love of Christ and I'm closer to all of you than even my own flesh and blood and even some of them who are my flesh and blood who are Christians. That's how the Lord had knit my heart together with yours. Lisa's too. This is the one church where Lisa actually had such close, you know, feminine relationships, dear friends for her, because typically we were in churches that were very small and very old, much older than we were. And so there wasn't, we're a little closer to age with in between, I guess, for both of them. And, but all of you were Lisa's friends and the men. You men, man, I have, we're brothers in the Lord and what a blessing that is. But if I stay here, I don't want to make it difficult for your next pastor, you know, because since we have a relationship of seven years, the moment he's not available, I might get a call. I recognize that. And I would, I would take it too, because I love you. So I don't want to make it difficult or create anything uncomfortable for your next pastor. Plus, you know, I don't want him to have to deal with the comparisons. He'll deal with them anyway. And I'm letting you know that I'm not as holy as you think I am. Or maybe I am as unholy as you think I am. Because if I stay, the comparisons might put me in a lesser light. And I don't want that. I don't want that for you. I don't want that. And I'm not sure I could handle that either. And so I just removed myself from that. But know this, this final thing, that wherever we are, until the Lord returns, Lisa's and my love for you is unspeakable. It cannot be defined because it's eternal and it's heavenly and it goes deeper. It goes so much deeper than I could ever express with a multitude of words. I can't say it any other way. I want you to know that. No matter where we are, our prayers are with you. Our hearts will never leave you nor forsake you because that's the promise of the Lord. And if the Lord's in me, the Lord's in you. And with this privilege that Lisa and I have had to know you and love you for all these years, don't think that that's eternal and it'll never go away. So, I didn't mean to make you all weepy, or maybe you're not, but I know Rachel is, and Lisa is, and I am, because that's the love of the Lord. And I know that Sister B has had to deal with that, get up and leave because the Lord is calling you elsewhere. Sister Vicki and others who have been a pastoral family, you just go where the Lord is sending you. And thankfully, even Brother Wyatt, what a servant that, well he can hear me, but we can't see how embarrassed he is right now, but what a servant that young man is. He's over there and he's, you know. He led the worship and then he's going over there and he's keeping an eye on that door to secure the security for our children and Sister Vicki in the Sunday school and He's the future of this church. If the Lord should tarry, he's the next generation. So thank the Lord for him every day. And thank the Lord for Brother Mike noticing that and saying, why are you saying, come on, get up here. And he is so willing to help. He sees it as service to the Lord in everything that he does, and so I'd love to see that young man in even more ministry. He actually is, he's preaching on August 3rd, the worship service, so I'm grateful. I'm looking forward to hearing that. So, any questions before we start? Now we'll get a little bit more sober. We'll go to Sardis, those rascals there. You know, Jesus starts out in chapter 3 in the English Standard Version and says, "...and to the angel of the church in Sardis write the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you're dead." Or, you are dead. Yeah. So the church in Sardis, the first thing, you know, is he writes, well, to the angel of the church, that's why he gave you that long introduction, since I dropped the bombshell on you last week that I'm retiring. But we see in the Lord's pronunciation of his, of being a possessor of the Holy Spirit, of the seven spirits of God that we saw in Revelation chapter one. And by possessor, not taking an ownership in that, it uses the singular word to define both, but both of the words from Greek, or the singular word in Greek can mean, take on different meanings. For example, if we have to understand this context, If the Holy Spirit is God, equal with the Father and the Son, the same in essence, and equal in power and glory, then Jesus can't possess him as an ownership as if he is subservient as God. He can't, that can't happen. However, when we see that he's a possessor, where it says that he has the seven spirits of God, we know that in his earthly ministry, Jesus was actually submissive to the Holy Spirit as a man, and that's how he was led or even driven into the wilderness for his temptations, or he was led in the ministry step by step, ever submissive to the Father's will through the Holy Spirit. But now, as crucified, risen, and ascended God, revealing his will to John for the seven churches, and to Sardis in particular, he's a possessor. In other words, he has the Holy Spirit, and it is he who gives. It's he who asks the Father. or he who gives, because he says that in two different ways. I will ask the father, I will pray the father, and he'll send the spirit. But he also says in another place, I will send the spirit. This is before he is crucified. Now, being eternal God, still being fully man and fully God, a man reigns upon the throne of heaven, but he is eternal God. Being he who has the Holy Spirit, it is to Jesus that we must go to receive the Holy Spirit. Continue to ask so that we might be, as it says in Ephesians, continue to be filled. Be ye being filled would be a good King James rendering of that, Ephesians chapter four. Be not drunk with wine, but we're in his excess, but be. filled with the Spirit, continually, constantly being filled. Jesus has the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit's job is to point to Jesus, glorify John chapter 14, John chapter 15, John chapter 16, that he will testify of me, he will glorify me, he will teach you all things whatsoever I've said, he will bring all things into remembrance. And all those things that he does, convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, he has them and so he gives that gift. He has the seven spirits. And also he has, using the same word but in a different context, he is Lord and Master of all his church leadership. He has the seven stars that are in his right hand, as Revelation 1.20 says. They're in his hand. He has them. He has every Christian, but he's making an emphatic, I have the seven stars. They're not doing anything that I don't want them to do. those that are my stars, that are my evangelists, my ministers that are ministering under those seven churches, to each one. And so we have a blessedness, a blessed understanding of that, that since he is sovereign God, he's one in control, they're in his hand, And not only are they in his hand, but his ministers, especially those that he's speaking of here, are in that nail-pierced hand. Now certainly we know physiologically and even grammatically that Jesus was crucified more than likely in the wrist. We see that archaeologically. That's how crucifixion worked. The palm doesn't have enough. It could not keep him up unless you roped up the wrist anyway. But we know that the six-inch nail that went into the wrist of those that were crucified in the Roman Empire, it was in the wrist, but the word for hand in both Greek and in Hebrew, Hebrew yad, it means anything from just above the elbow all the way to the fingertips. And that's where the minister of a church should be. He should be right in the truth of Christ's work and Christ's ultimate work, his nail-pierced hand. Most important thing. That's how you, whether he's young or old, a minister that keeps himself tied to the truth of Christ and him crucified will always be a blessing to Christ's church. Whenever he departs from that, that's when he's in the flesh and not ministering to Christ's beloved bride, but Christ will discipline him. And we have many scriptures that present that, and I can tell you that from experience. That second part there of verse one, I know your works, you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Now that is a much abused portion of a verse. I have heard that the reputation, or you have a name, but you don't live up to that name. That name is a living name, but you're dead. You're Christians, but There's no life in you. But I've heard it applied to all kinds of things, all kinds of denominations, if you will. And I'll just leave it at that without getting too particular. As the King James Version again, let me read that first part. I know thy works that thou hast the name that thou livest and art dead. And then the English Standard Version, I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you're dead. But you are dead. Jesus does not command the church or does not command the church because which is, I'm just reading off of what's in your notes. Jesus does not commend the church because, like the Pharisees of Christ's earthly ministry, they possessed an external piety without unregenerate souls. And I gave you the reference there, Matthew chapter 23 in verse 27, where he says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness." Now, first the historical context of this. Remember that we recognize that we need to read this historically. That's the initial context of it, but we also want to see it ecclesiastically. It ministers unto all the churches, including us, even though we're not named among the seven. It should be taken personally because he who has an ear let him hear. And because it begins and ends with Jesus Christ, he introduces himself, I'm the one who has the seven spirits and I have the seven stars in my right hand. And then he ends with something that he does. This is what the overcomer gets. something that he is. This is the reward for those who overcome, those who are more than conquerors. And so it should be seen prophetically. But in this case, the first thing that we see historically, that Sardis still exists as a city. It's a village called Sart in Turkey. And the ruins of the ancient city of Sardis are about a kilometer away from where the downtown area of Sart is. And it's just a little village. The next major city in Turkey is, I think it's Izmir. It's like 45 miles away. You know, it has a train station and a lot of public, a lot of modern conveniences and stuff, but it's a very old-style village in Sart today. There is zero, zero Christian presence in Sart. And Sardis, historically, was the capital of that little portion of Asia Minor, which included Ephesus and some of the other villages, some of the other cities, major cities. Ephesus was huge. I think they had nearly a million people as a population in Ephesus. But Sardis was the capital of Lydia. That little section there of real estate was an empire And it was the Lydian Empire. Lydia was that little province. It was in Asia Minor, but that was called Lydia, that butted right up against southern Galatia, the Galatian province. So Lydia is a province, but as an empire, Sardis was the capital of it. And this is one of the things that we see historically. This is why it has a reputation. It has a name, Sardis. But they're dead. They have a name that's alive, but it's dead. Sardis was a powerful city being the capital. And that's an interesting name, too, because I think that there is a city in Alabama and one in Tennessee named Sardis. I mean, if you're going to name your city, something. I would have chosen Smyrna or Philadelphia. I think there's a Smyrna in Alabama, too. But I would have chosen Philadelphia, personally. If I was one of the leaders of a city, hey, let's incorporate this as a city. What kind of Christian name would we give it? I'd probably be leaning more toward, let's be a city of brotherly love. But, you know, when you pass by, I think in Alabama, Sardis is there. There's First Baptist Church of Sardis. Okay. If you're thinking of calling me to that pastorate, what other candidates do you have? Don't really want to be a part of that. work there. But if the Lord's sending me there, I would go, but thankfully I'm at the end of my road, so I don't have to worry about being called there. Yeah. So no Christian presence in Sartre. The ruins are there. It is a place where Christians will go. But if they happen to go on a weekend, you're going to have to find another place to worship because there's not even a church building in Sartre. as far as I could find. No Christian presence whatsoever. Maybe there's a little house study, Bible study group there, possibly. And I have a friend, Brent King, who ministers in Turkey. He's married to a, I think she's Ukrainian. I thought she was Russian, but he and his wife, she's from that area. They minister in Ukraine and other places. And I just got an email from him but they minister in Turkey quite a bit. And I should have asked him, but he's busy with his own ministry. However, I would take it in its general context, too, that because of its repercussions, there's no longer a Christian presence there. I would suggest that the name that they have is they're called Christians because they were called Christians first in Antioch and that really spread. Every name that we kind of take upon ourselves was actually an insult. You know, the Puritans were called Puritans because they lived such a puritanical life. Those Puritans. It was an insult. Christian too. Christ-like people, those followers of Jesus. Okay, Christian. That was an insult to be called a Christian. And then we just took it on. So here by this time in 90, about 40 years after they first started being called Christians, so they have a name that is alive. Because Christ was crucified, but he is risen forevermore. So that's a living name. and yet they're dead inside. And I suggest to you that even if it is not that it's works-oriented, the Pharisees actually took on that name themselves. A hundred years before Christ, it's the word prushim. the Hebrew word prushim, that's where Pharisee comes from, and from phares, which means to divide or to separate. We're the separate ones. We have separated ourselves from all those ungodly people. They were, in fact, a hundred years before the Lord Jesus arrived on the scene. The Pharisees were the back to the Bible group. We want to read the scriptures, the Hebrew scriptures, and we want to seek the Messiah. They were seeking the Messiah for 150 years and when he arrived, it was 150 years I think, About 100, 150 years is when they came on the scene. And so when the Messiah arrived, in their desire to study the scriptures, to know the scriptures, to be separate from those worldlings, the worldlings that were out there, when Messiah came, they, along with the chief priests, sent him off to his death. And that's the mark of this, this church here. They had a name that was a live Christian, but they were killing Christ by their works. Jesus doesn't have a commendation for them. The only commendation, which is kind of sideways, is a little bit later on when he says, there are those who haven't sold their garments. In verses two and three, Wake up. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die. For I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God." Obviously, if you could wake up, that term for waking up comes from sleep. In other words, they are dozing off asleep at the wheel. They're not paying attention. And in verse three, which should be connected with that, remember then what you received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief. And you will not know what hour I will come against you. So what I wrote in your notes was that the Lord Jesus warns that the church must repent and be watchful, that particular church, in their doings, they must be watchful, for he would come like hos cleptes." Excuse me, hos cleptes. That little W thing is a long O sound. And because it's written the way that it is, it has a... the breath of the H in front of it, hos cleptes. In other words, they would be, his coming would be unnoticed and when they least expect it You know what word comes from, English word comes from that, right? Kleptomaniac, right? Somebody who's so compulsive in stealing that he has to steal something but that has mania along with it and that's the, the mania is the compulsion that overrides everything. So obviously Jesus isn't a kleptomaniac, but kleptes, which is the key on there, thief, as opposed to another Greek word which would mean robber. Jesus doesn't plunder. He's not using that. The Church of God in Sardis? That's okay. It's 2025. Folks have their Bibles on a phone. That's probably one of the best uses of a phone these days anyway. Having your Bible on the phone. Oh, yeah. Hos cleptes, that he'll come like a thief, or as a, like a thief. And so Hos is a indefinite article. Yes, brother? Back in verse 2 where it refers to works, obviously it's not works meriting salvation. What works is it? These are non-gospel works. These are works that don't, since they have a name that's alive, but they're dead, or they have a reputation, but... a reputation that is like being alive but is dead, then the works that he's speaking of, since he doesn't condemn them or doesn't commend them, are works that spring forth from the flesh. As no work from the flesh will be left to remain, because our God is a consuming fire and that His presence will consume those things. They won't be tried and refined and be left like as in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 that says that a man will build upon on the foundation of Jesus Christ, there will be those who will build with gold, silver, and precious gems, but then there's those who will build with wood, hay, and stubble, and the wood, hay, and stubble will not be able to withstand the fiery presence. of the Lord. And so all that will remain are those things that were done in Christ through the strength of the Lord Jesus and the power of his might. And so those, yeah, those works. So that's why I equated the pharisaical, made the pharisaical illustration externally they did many things that were according to the letter of the law. They tied their mint and cumin and dill. They, like Jesus told in, was it Luke 16, where there was the, you know, or 18, where he was telling of the, I think it's Luke 18, where there was a tax collector and a Pharisee. And the Pharisee was up there praying, Lord, I thank you that you've made me a Pharisee, that I tithe every week of my even to my littlest seed. I tithe every week and that I do good works and all these things and that I'm not like this tax collector over here." And then the tax collector beat on his chest, couldn't even look up to heaven and said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. Jesus said that the one man, the repentant man, went down, went home justified. The other one was lifting up all the things that he did. So the external works, you know, this is the thing that concerns me about a push in this country to make people look like Christians but are dead inside. Let's make everything moral. Well, that's kind of good, but that's temporal. That's temporary. It's not eternal. We stand for the gospel. And I would rather die, and I would rather have others die, saved, than to live in a moral place, but they're going to be spoken to by Jesus, what he said in Matthew 7. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Because their external works are not going to save them whatsoever. I can appear, that's what it was, that's why you said the whited sepulcher. It was whitewashed, the painted tombs that are, they look so pretty and monumental, but inside it's dead men's bones. no regenerate life, nothing that exalts Christ within. Because it's an internal transformation that makes the outside, though it's falling apart, though we're dying daily, or even as one Puritan had put it, I preach as a dying man to dying men. doomed to die. We're falling apart, yet so are they. And the only thing that will last is Jesus Christ in them, and not the works that they do apart from Christ. But great question, Brother Steve. Here, John uses the term, or at least Jesus uses the term as John pens this to Sardis. And using that word thief, kleptes, or a thief, hos kleptes, it's an indefinite article, and a definite article would be the, but hos is a indefinite article, like a or an in our English. And it'll be unnoticed. Jesus used this term two other times in Matthew 24, verse 43. You know, I come as a thief. And Luke 12 39 even our understanding today of a kleptomaniac that Some kid running along in the store sees a little Toy, and it's a small one. I kind of like that and grab it next thing. You know he's outside following mom outside and the reason why I could speak so vividly about that because when I was four years old apparently five years old I did that and picked up a matchbox, little matchbox, it wasn't even a, it was a trailer. And it's not that I had this compulsive urge, I just saw something, I'd like it, and I picked it up, had it in my hand, I walked out of the store, and my mom said, where did you get that? I said, in the store. I didn't pay for that, she walked me back in there. I had to give it, found the manager so I could hand him this, and she said, I'm so sorry, I didn't even see that he picked that up. Okay. They didn't even notice that when Jesus comes, this is why when I've been talking about Revelation for these last 36 weeks, I tell you that if we keep our eyes on Jesus, we'll see when he comes because this one right here, they're not even gonna notice that he's come. They have no relationship with him in the first place, by and large with this church. There are those that are faithful within it. Paul uses the same term in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 2 that Jesus will come like a thief. Come like a thief. He'll come, it'll be unnoticed. I heard one time, a long time ago, that they use this word as like an embezzler. only in its unnoticed thing, little by little. Jesus is going to come at once. There's not parts of Jesus that's going to come. He's going to come at once, but it'll be unnoticed. in his coming to those that don't believe. To us it won't be unnoticed. If we are in Christ we'll see him when he comes. And Peter uses it as well. 2 Peter 3 verse 10. So you have the three major apostles as far as the writing of the New Testament because I would suggest that John writes it too because he's using it what Jesus is saying and he writes it down. So you have John, Peter and Paul using the term and then Jesus using it twice also in the Gospels. This thief. He comes like a thief. Verse 4 in the English Standard Version he says, Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. So He makes a promise here. Even the worst of churches has faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus knows which sheep are his. And I believe this even as a young Christian, long ago, 40 years ago, and I believe it today, that in some of these churches, in the Roman Catholic Church, there are many who don't know the doctrine in Rome and the false doctrines that are coming out of Rome, don't know that when they're taking the mass that's there they believe in Jesus and that by God's grace they have been saved. And so I believe that there are, you know, there's some that are there that that are attending, that's all they know, that's what they've grown up in. Some of those places, like for example, the Petersons ministering in Poland. Predominantly, any Christianity that they know is Western Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism. However, as the Petersons have been ministering out there for what, 25 years now? that they're ministering to people who have a Catholic background, but when they hear of Jesus, well, that's the Jesus that we were taught. But here's the twist. They were taught that by doing all these other things, they're now coming to the knowledge of God's grace, that it's by what Christ has done and not what you do that get you to heaven, and taking away some of those other false doctrines like purgatory, that they just learn from tradition and not even from the priest. The Church of Christ. I believe that there are probably people in the Church of Christ, more than likely, that are saved and will see in heaven, but by their doctrine, They say that the cross of Christ is insufficient because by their actual doctrine as a denomination, they were Baptists to begin with in the early 1800s, Baptists that have split off, had become the Church of Christ and they have applied to add to Christ that you must be baptized in the Church of Christ. A confession of faith won't do it. So the thief on the cross in their theology is dead. and going to hell, even though he said, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That's all you're gonna get, thief. You're a thief, you didn't get baptized, so all you're gonna get is that I'll remember you. That's it. Live with that. But the doctrine that they have as a denomination, if you make a confession, today at three bears, and then you don't make it to be baptized in the church of Christ in their baptismal font, and you get in a car accident right up here at the dump before you make it to the church of Christ to be baptized, you're going to hell. because they take, they twist, they take instead of the full counsel scripture, they take a verse in Acts chapter two and say that baptism must be added to repentance. They turn repentance into a work too, by the way, but that's getting on and on with things. Must be in Christ alone. We believe in baptism by a believer because it is one of our first acts of obedience that something actually happened inside. When I was baptized the first time I was 12 years old at Trinity Baptist Church in Glen Avon, California. And I only went up because my brother went up on one of those silly altar calls. And then I was baptized at 12 years old. All I did was get wet because there wasn't anything that happened inside. I believed in Jesus. I believed in Jesus all my life. I didn't follow him till the Lord saved me by his grace when I was just before my 25th birthday. So, Yeah, so even the worst. And notice here, and this is where we go into 4B and 5A, and I should probably leave these two. I'll touch on it, and then we'll close in prayer because it's almost time. 4B, the last part of 4, where it says that they have not soiled their garments, but they will walk with me. in white. Now, in the Greek it seems to apply to the white being the garments, but it doesn't say it particularly, for they are worthy. Verse 5, the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments. Now white garments are spoken of, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels." And that's where we'll pick it up next week, but what I've written here is those who walk in the imputed righteousness of Christ, they're walking in, the word that's used there is Lucos, which can mean translucent or even luminescent. You can even apply that to the word to light. But it's also white as opposed to black. It would be light or luminescent as opposed to darkness. It could be used both those ways, but the most common way that it is translated would be white as opposed to black. And so those who walk in the imputed righteousness of Christ, Christ's righteousness is applied to our account when we believe by faith. We're promised by the Lord Jesus that we will walk with him, oh there it is, en lukois, we will walk with him in white, and that he would clothe us in heretois, lechois, that's in the first part of verse five, that he will clothe us with white garments or translucent garments, or if you will, bright garments. This is the same word that's used when Jesus was transfigured on the mount in Matthew 17, and Peter, James, and John woke up and saw him talking with Moses and Elijah concerning what he would suffer when he goes to Jerusalem. and he was dressed in white garments. This is the picture that we get. It was bright. It wasn't blinding so they couldn't see, but it was bright so that they knew there was a difference. But there's too much to talk about it. There are other scriptures that we could go to, even in the Old Testament, that we can see and dig into it a little bit more as far as for a reward. Any questions or comments? All right. Let's pray. Our most blessed and gracious God and Father. Thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, for his living the righteous life that we can't live, that imputed righteousness that we have since we have believed, and that we have of his, for the Holy Spirit and for, you know, those who have ministered to us over the years and will continue to minister to us, we thank you, Lord Jesus, for your sacrifice and for the work you continue to do to intercede on our behalf. We ask you to give us illumination from the scriptures that we've read today and that we may meditate upon them all through the week. that when we come back, we may learn more of you, that we may worship you in spirit and in truth. We love you, Heavenly Father. In Jesus' name we do pray, amen.