Good morning. I'd like to draw your attention back to Revelation. We have made our way to the fifth letter in Revelation. We'll be in Revelation chapter 3, verse 1 through 6 this morning. Revelation 3, 1 through 6. And to the angel in 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 are dead. 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. 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 at what hour I will come against you. 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. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, 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. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious and heavenly Father, we ask that your presence would be known here with us this morning, that the Holy Spirit would make his presence known through your word, through the preaching of your word. Lord, we pray that you would feed us from your word here this morning, that you might open our eyes, open our hearts, that we might see what you'd have for us in this text this morning. Lord, I pray that you would raise up men to proclaim your truth, Lord, set watchmen on the walls, that they might cry out, that they might warn of the danger that is to come. They might warn of the wrath of God against unrighteousness, against sin, and against those who are unregenerate, those that are lost, those that are not united to Christ in faith. Lord speak to us. Your name we pray. Amen. Let me go ahead and plug this in because it is not wanting to stay on in its low powered state. We'll just have to make do somehow this morning. Let me turn it off of low power mode and see if that helps. Well, Charles Spurgeon, many of you know who Charles Spurgeon is, one of the greatest ministers that England ever produced, let alone that God has placed in the pulpit period. He once stated in reference to this scripture here, of different states through which the Church of God shall pass until it comes into the Philadelphia state, the state of love, in which Jesus Christ shall reign in its midst and afterwards, as he thinks, as Gil thinks, shall pass into the state of Laodicea, in which condition it shall be when suddenly the Son of Man shall come to judge the world in righteousness and people in equity. Spurgeon says, I do not go with him in all his suppositions with regard to these seven churches as following each other in seven periods of time. But I do think he was correct when he declared that the church in Sardis was a most fitting emblem of the church in his days as also in these. The good old doctor says, when shall we find any period in which the church was more like the state of Sardis as described here than it is now? And he points out the different particulars in which the church of his day, and Spurgeon says, I am sure it is yet more true of the church at this present day, was exactly like the church in Sardis. And he went on to say, how is it that professors, professors of Christ, professors of those that profess the word of God to be their authority? How is it that professors can live like other men? How is it that there is so little distinction between the church and the world? or that if there is any difference, you are frequently safer in dealing with an ungodly man than with one who is professedly righteous. How is it that men who make high professions can live in worldly conformity, indulge in the same pleasures, live in the same style, act from the same motives, deal in the same manner as other people do? Are not these days when the sons of God have made affinity with the sons of men? And may we not fear that something terrible may yet occur unless God shall send a voice which shall say, come out of them, my people, lest ye be partakers of their plagues. Take our churches at large. There is no lack of names, but there is a lack of life. I saw a video clip yesterday of a man who professes himself to be a preacher, a pastor. He was speaking on gluttony. And he had surrounded himself, sitting on a stage, Stage is aptly the word for this. He sat on a stage with a table behind him and four or five different staff members coming and bringing him McDonald's. Starbursts. all just one after another, different types of candy and sweets and snacks. And he would rip them open and talk about how amazing they would be and how he just, even using words that are used in place of slang words and cuss words, and using the Lord's name in vain twice as he was preaching a message. He has a name to be a Christian. He has a reputation of being a Christian, but there is a lot of deadness in that place. Making a mockery of God's word. The professing church today is sadly a worldly church. largely unable to be distinguished from the world. We can turn on the TV or go to many churches and see the same things we see at a concert. We can hear the same things we would hear if we tuned into a TED Talk or to Oprah or Dr. Phil or Joe Rogan or Jordan Peterson. And I say that as those individuals being on opposite ends of some spectrums here. But the truth is that if they're not preaching a teaching, what is true in the word of God, it is of no lasting impact to anyone. There's no eternal value to what they're saying. There may be some philosophical or ideological differences between those individuals and what they teach and what they talk about. But they are still self-help, man-derived solutions to a problem that can't be solved apart from divine intercession. There is no true and eternal help from man, none from the flesh, and no help from worldly psychology. It's important as we look at this text here this morning, For us to remember, as we look at these letters to the seven churches that are recorded for us by John from Christ in Revelation 2 and 3, that these are not merely history lessons or valuable teaching from a bygone era, but these are life-giving, immensely valuable words from our Lord to the church in every era. They're used to warn, to enlighten, to strengthen, to reprove error. These words are most beneficial to us, even in our high-minded scientific understanding of the world in which we live. All the so-called advancements in society have done nothing to truly improve life, nothing. We still deal with the same problems, the same sins that were dealt with when John recorded these words from Christ when it was sent out to the original churches, and in this particular case to the church at Sardis. The truths we find in our text are the truths that we need, truths given by an all-knowing Savior Truths that are no less true today than they were when they were originally recorded some 2,000 years ago now. They are truth, and truth is, by its definition, unchanging. They are from an unchanging God sent to a people who are always beset by sin. May God grant us this morning His Spirit to enlighten our understanding and feed us from this text. and that which he would have us to hear this morning. So in our text we find in verse one, and to the angel of the church in Sardis write. Now we're gonna follow some of the same outline that we followed in all of our others. So we'll first look at who it was that he was writing to here, this city, this church within the city of Sardis. What is left of the city of Sardis is now the modern city of Sart. And it's located about 50 or 60 miles east of where Smyrna is. and about 30 miles southeast of Thyatira. So we've gone along this postal route that John had sent the letter of revelation to these churches. And it's going along this postal route. And we started with Ephesus and then went up to Smyrna. then to Pergamum and then Thyatira, and now we come to Sardis, which is about 30 miles southeast along that postal route of Thyatira. The ancient city of Sardis was situated on a high hill, an acropolis, and it was at the junction of five roads, and it was in a commanding position within that Hermus Valley where these five roads converged. It made it a very important city for trade, and it was a very, very wealthy city, and it had easy connection to those cities around it via those five roads. The city, like I said, was very wealthy, due mostly to the abundance of gold discovered in the Pactolus River, which was a tributary of that Hermes River that made the Hermes River Valley. Gold was abundant and it added a significant amount of wealth to the Lydian Empire, which Sardis was the capital at one time of. It was, like I said, it was situated on this Acropolis, this high hill. And it was on a very thin strip of land up on top of this high hill. And there was only one way that it could be reached from the south, along a very narrow pathway, and the rest of the city was encompassed by high, steep cliffs, which made it virtually impenetrable to an enemy trying to conquer Sardis. In 546 BC, The king of the Lydian empire was a man named Croesus, King Croesus. And he is one of the richest men to ever live. As he mined the gold out of this river and the area around this river, he became vastly wealthy. And we have a saying, though it's not real common in today's language, but we have a saying that a person is rich as Croesus. And that's where this comes from. Croesus is often given credit for being the first one to actually mint gold and silver coins to be used in trade and commerce. In this year of 1546 BC, Croesus observed the enemy, a threat to him, from the Persian Empire. And that caused him some angst, and so he went to the oracle at Delphi, which if you know much about the Greco-Roman history, the oracle of Delphi plays into a lot of this. I won't go into what all it was. If you have questions about that, we can look at it sometime. But he went to this oracle, and the oracle told him that if he went out to war against the Persians, He would destroy a great empire. Well, Croesus believed that the Oracle of Delphi was talking about the Persian Empire that would be destroyed. So he went out and met on the battlefield a king that we should all be familiar with, King Cyrus of Persia. This is the same King Cyrus who freed Israel from the Babylonian captivity and gave them leave to go back to Jerusalem and even to begin rebuilding the temple. This is that same King Cyrus. So he met Cyrus on the battlefield And the battle did not go the way that he wanted it to. He came back to Sardis, and remember this impregnable city, right? He holed up in this impregnable city, and Cyrus, if I didn't make that clear, Croesus went back to Sardis and holed up in his city. Cyrus came and surrounded the city, but the city was extremely defensible. And so they just laid siege to it, and by that we mean they surrounded it and kept things from going back and forth. Well, he offered money, Cyrus did, offered money to his soldiers that the first one that could find a way into Sardis, he would make vastly wealthy. And so some of the soldiers had observed these rock cliffs, and I believe it was in this instance, there's two instances when Sardis was defeated. and I believe it was in this one if I remember correctly, that there was a soldier up on the top of the wall that we have a cliff and then a wall built on top of the cliff and there was a soldier up above and he bent over too far and lost his helmet over the side. And some of the Persian soldiers had tried to climb up this cliff but never made it because they were trying to get the money that Cyrus promised them. Well, when that helmet rolled down, they observed this soldier come over the wall and the route that he took down to get his helmet, and then went back up. And after that was done, those soldiers left that area and left that wall undefended. And the Persian soldiers went up into the city, over that wall, and defeated Sardis, and defeated Croesus. This happened again in 218 BC. Same exact thing happened. The city and its leaders believed they had no reason to be watchful. They had no reason to stay alert because they were so well fortified and well protected. They figured that they were fortified beyond defeat on their secure tower. And there's a phrase that is often used in some ancient military writings and things that they gave their back to the enemy. You never want to turn your back to your enemy because that is undefendable. You can't see what's going on. Well, Sardis turned their back to the enemy. In our text here, the imagery used by our Lord in the vision given to John, I believe pulled from the history of the city itself. Like the city, the church had fallen into spiritual stupor and had become close with the world around it. and it was left without a watchman to warn of danger." Well, we don't know how the church at Sardis was formed. Once again, probably in Acts 19 is our best guess at this. When Paul spoke for two years in Ephesus, Acts 19.10 says, and we've quoted this before, this continued for two years, Paul's preaching, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. It is in this city that this church was founded and eventually received this letter from our Lord. Our first verse goes on to say, The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Once again, as is the case in each letter, Jesus Christ directs us back to what he's already revealed of himself to John in this vision that is recorded in Revelation. This vision, Christ showed his power, his being, his authority. And he directs us back in this letter in chapter 3 verse 1, back to Revelation 1-4. In Revelation 1-4 we read, John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. And Revelation 1-16 records for us, in his right hand he held seven stars. And then we have an explanation for these seven stars in Revelation 1.20, where it says, As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, the messengers, the pastors of the seven churches, and the seven golden lampstands are the seven churches. So we have a reference back to the seven stars that are held in Christ's right hand, and we have a reference back to earlier in chapter one of this seven spirits of God. We clearly understand, I think, at this point, as we've looked at our texts that we've gone through before this, that the seven stars are the seven ministers, and how Christ holds his ministers in his hand, It's his authority, his right to remove or replace, and he has the authority over them to do with them as he pleases. To place one in this church, to place another over here, to withdraw the minister from this church and place another star, another messenger, another pastor there. But what about these seven spirits? We touched on this previously in an earlier message, but let's look at this a little bit more in detail this morning, because I think that this has great bearing to the letter here. We obviously have come to realize at this point that the number seven has meaning within Scripture, within Revelation. It's repeated numerous times throughout Revelation, and it represents fullness or completeness. There is a passage that relates to, which is often referred to as the sevenfold spirit of God. This is a passage from the Old Testament, and as we know, John, in a lot of his imagery that he uses to record what he saw in this vision, comes back to things that John knew. John knew the Old Testament scripture. And so I think it is natural for John, when he sees this vision, for him to recall things, for him to understand things, and to proclaim to us or to show to us in a way that has a reference back to something that we can look at in scripture. If we turn to Isaiah 11, and if you turn with me to Isaiah 11, we'll real briefly look at this. I don't want to spend much time on it, but I want you to see this. In Isaiah 11, this is a prophecy about Christ, the righteous branch, Verse 1 of Isaiah 11, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse. That's an offspring from Jesse. Jesse was who? Jesse was David's father. And over and over again, we read in scripture about Jesus being the son of David. Matthew's genealogy starts with, you know, Abraham and David. Son of David, son of Abraham. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. Now here we have what is often referred to as the sevenfold ministry of the Spirit. The seven Spirits of God. What it means is the completeness or the fullness of the work of the Spirit of God. He rests upon the Lord. He is the spirit of wisdom. He is the spirit of understanding. He is the spirit of counsel. He is the spirit of might. He is the spirit of knowledge. And he is the fear of the Lord. So we have in this the completeness or the fullness of the work that John, I think, is referencing here when he references the sevenfold spirit of God or the seven spirits of God. This is a look back to Isaiah when Isaiah prophesied the spirit of the Lord being upon the Christ, this root from Jesse, this branch that would bear fruit. The spirit of the Lord would be upon him. So this is a reference to the Holy Spirit in all of the Holy Spirit's fullness. This is the third person of the triune Godhead that John sees in his vision and describes for us as the seven spirits of God. It's very fitting to have these words describing Christ, which are relayed to a dead and dying church. This is the character, these are the attributes that Christ wants this particular church to see. This is the very thing that our Lord told John to record for us in this letter to a dead and dying church. John, this is how I want you to describe me to them. This completeness, this fullness of the Spirit of God is what Christ has. It's what He issues forth, this Spirit that He issues forth from before the throne of God to accomplish what He desires in His people and in His churches. It is the fullness in all His work, His completeness and His sufficiency. This is exactly what a dead or dying church needs. John 3, 6-8 says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. This is when Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus in John three. And he, this ruler of the Jews, may be the teacher of all Israel. And he's meeting with him and he can't understand what Christ is talking about here. I must be born again. What do you mean? He goes on to say, the wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. You must be made alive by the work and the power of the Holy Spirit that is with Christ and Christ issues forth to visit his people with salvation as he pleases. John 6, 63, it is the spirit who gives life. What does a dying church need to hear? What does it need to receive? It needs to receive the spirit of God who gives life. It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you, Christ said, are spirit and life. Titus 3, 3-7, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. Is that not a picture of our world? But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Lord, Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The Spirit is the giver of life coming from Jesus Christ to those who the Father gave to Christ in eternity past. And if that is not convincing enough, regarding the work of the Spirit of God, Let's turn really quickly to Ezekiel. It's a couple of my favorite passages. Ezekiel 36 and 37, I wish we had time to read all of them. I'm gonna try and find the verses here real quick that I want to look at. We remember in this passage where the Lord is calling out the deadness of the people of Israel, just like he called out the deadness of the people in the church at Sardis. But he decides to act for his own name's sake. In Ezekiel 36, I believe down around verse 24, I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. Now listen, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean. From all your uncleanness and from all your idols, I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove your heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. And then in chapter 37, we have a vision, a vision of God. a retelling of what God is speaking through the prophet Ezekiel here in chapter 36. He's gonna tell him what he's gonna do here about making them alive. And then he's gonna show him what that looks like in Ezekiel 37. And this is a pretty famous passage. It's pretty well known. It's the Valley of the Dry Bones, where he takes Ezekiel and he puts him in this valley, and it's just full of scattered, dry, dead bones. And then he says, but let's just read one through 14. I know this takes some time, but the hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, you know. And then he said to me, Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live. And you shall know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, there were sinews upon them, and flesh had come upon them, and the skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God, Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet an exceedingly great army. Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, we are indeed cut off. Therefore, prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel and you shall know that I am the Lord when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will put my spirit within you and you shall live. The Spirit is the giver of life. What does a dead and dying church need? They need the Spirit of God, and Christ is telling this church at Sardis, I have that Spirit. I can send that Spirit. You can't do it for yourself, but I can send it to you just like I did to Israel in Ezekiel 36 and Ezekiel 37. And then he says, I know your works. Second part of verse one, I know your works. You have a reputation for being alive, but are dead. Christ in only two letters to the churches, here into the church in Laodicea, breaks with his normal pattern. Here he finds nothing to commend in the church. Nothing. They're dead. Instead, he jumps right into the condemnation on the church. The church in Sardis was known as being alive, they had a reputation for being alive, and may have appeared so to those who looked on the outside, but Christ, who has eyes like a flame of fire, from previous letter. sees inside. It cuts through, his eyes cut through the facade, the masks, the barrier that we put up to those who look at us with physical eyes. He sees on the inside Nothing is hidden. And he says, but you are dead. We don't know exactly why this church had become dead or dying, but I think we may have some inferences that we can make here. Sardis was home to a very large Jewish synagogue, one of the largest Jewish synagogues ever excavated. And it happened to be sitting, which is very odd, right next to a Roman gymnasium. where sporting events took place and where they met for their baths and all this stuff that took part in the Roman culture. And this was extremely rare and it gives us a little bit of a hint to the peace and the prosperity that was taking place in Sardis, that the Jews and the Romans were getting along so well. We see over and over again in scripture, Jews and Gentiles, don't have communion with each other. This was a problem within the early church, was it not? When the gospel was given to the Gentiles, the Jews did not like that. And there was conflict between them. That Paul had to write, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, had to write letters to them to tell them to knock it off. You're one. That middle wall of separation has been broken down. Well, we see here in Sardis that there seems to be some very odd things taking place with this. That there was a, in this time of wealth and prosperity that Sardis had, there seemed to be a doing away with those things, the truths that were being proclaimed by the individuals here, that caused conflict between them. And it led, may have led to a general apathy among the Romans, the Jews, and the Christians. There is no mention here at all. Now remember what we've already dealt with in our previous four letters to the churches. There's always mention of what? Persecution, tribulation, trials, hardships. We find none of that. in the letter to Sardis. No mention of the church holding fast, which we have seen in other letters, and it leads me to believe that they had not only compromised, but completely capitulated with the society around them. Remember what caused the problems. We talked about this last time. What caused the problems for the Christians? It wasn't just a belief in Christ. It was a belief and a proclamation of the exclusivity of salvation through Christ. There's no other name that whereby you can be saved. Christ alone is your salvation. That's what caused conflict with Rome and the Jews. And even with the Jews were given a kind of a pass because they took part in offering sacrifices and alms and money to the emperor. The Christians wouldn't do that because Christ is Lord. And he's not only Lord, he is the only Lord. It's Christ alone. So this could have been what led to the lack of any mention of persecution, tribulation, trials. There's no mention of false doctrine being preached here. In our previous letters, we have a warning of those who held the teachings of Balaam, those who held the teachings of the Nicolaitans, those who followed Jezebel. No mention of those things here. They had no real difficulties with the world or the worldly because it appears that they had grown to not stand for anything at all. And they weren't standing against the world. And later, Christ tells them that there are a few names which have not soiled their garments. Which leads us to believe that most in the church most in the church had fallen into pretty severe sins. You know, in our previous letters, we have some within the church who were following the teachings of Balaam, or the teachings of the Nicolaitans, or some who were following Jezebel. But here it seems like the whole of the church, except for just these few names, had fallen victim to this. So we have part of the church in Pergamum and Thyatira. We have almost the whole of the church here in Sardis. So Christ tells them in verse 2 to wake up and strengthen what remains. Got to hurry here. Christ tells them to wake up, to rise from sleep before time is up. You are dead spiritually, but you are not yet dead physically. Don't wait. until time has passed up. Remember how Christ gave Jezebel time to repent, but she would not? Don't be unrepentant, he tells the church here. Wake up, stay alert. Literally what this is saying is be watchful. Set a watchman on the wall to call out the threats and alert you of possible destruction by the ideology, by the worldly religions, by their way of doing things. Call those things out. Call them for what they are, sinful, idolatrous, wicked ways. And call them back to the truth of God's word. Hendrickson says, they were enjoying peace, but it was the peace of a cemetery. Now think about those words. They were enjoying a peace, but it was the peace of a cemetery. And he says, strengthen what remains. You know, you can't build up upon a structure that is dilapidated. You can't do it. You have to first strengthen from the foundation. You have to strengthen from the foundation up if the structure is to be lasting. And he says, if you don't do that, this church is ready to die. Have you ever seen a diseased or an unwatered plant that just, you just know, listen, this is just about to die. Just about to die. Strengthen what remains. Get down to what that plant needs. He's telling the church here, get rid of the disease, strengthen what remains, repent, hold fast to truth. And Christ tells them something interesting here. He says, He has not found their works to be complete. Beaky, in reference to this, Joel Beaky, says that in the original, I would love to read Greek. Working on that, but it's a long process. But he says in the original language, it's much stronger. It's not just that Christ has found their works to be incomplete. He's literally saying, nothing you do pleases me. Nothing you do pleases me. Why is nothing that they do pleasing to Christ? Why are these works incomplete? Well, it's because they're not fruits of the Spirit. They are dead works that come from not walking in the Spirit. They are a cistern, a well without water. They're an empty shell of works, works that are displeasing to Christ. Nothing you do pleases me. All our righteousnesses without faith and without the Spirit are nothing but filthy racks. They are unpleasing to God, and they are sinful because they are born from a dead heart or a heart that is walking after the flesh, not the Spirit. Romans 8, 5-8 says, For those who live according to the flesh set their mind on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death. but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. I don't find your works pleasing. They're hostile to me because they're born from the flesh. In verse 3 he tells them to remember then what you heard, keep it and repent. Remember the words of life that you once heard, the scriptures which you have heard, the gospel of Jesus Christ which at one time you listened to and heard with your own ears. They may have had in this time some of what we refer to as the New Testament Gospels. They may have had many of the epistles that were written in the New Testament. We're blessed to have them in fullness. During this time, as the church was still forming and letters were being sent and being copied, some had more than others of our canon. But they had Ezekiel 36 and 37, didn't they? Surely they did. They had Numbers 21. where the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness and they were murmuring and complaining. And God sent a serpent, serpents to bite them, poisonous serpents that led to death. And Moses went to the Lord and the Lord told him to make a bronze serpent and lift it up on a pole. And if anyone is bitten, there to go to that serpent, one serpent, one, lift it up. Go to that one serpent and look on that serpent and live. And Christ says He is lifted up as the bronze serpent was lifted up. He was pointing out what they should have known. The bronze serpent was a type or a picture, a foreshadowing of Christ who is the only sacrifice for sin. He says, remember those things which you have heard and repent, turn from your evil ways, turn from compromise, turn from capitulation, turn from the love of the world and the fleshly pleasures and desires of the world and their schemes and turn to Christ, repent, turn and live. Turn, turn from it. Keep these things before you. No longer give in to the passions of your flesh, the lusts of your eyes, the pride of life. Don't love the world and give the world your back. Because it will seduce you and it will seduce you unto death. Don't be Lot's wife. Don't be Lot's wife. who for love of the world turned when they were fleeing Sodom, turned away and turned into a pillar of salt, turned back to that wicked city and turned to a pillar of salt. He says, if you don't wake up, if you don't wake up, I will come as a thief. You will not know when I come to bring judgment, final judgment before you. Christ has warned this church in Sardis. He warns you. He warns the church today who has a reputation for being alive and is dead. Long-suffering as our Lord is, He has commanded repentance and will not hold off His judgment and wrath forever. he will come as a thief in the night. And we will not know the hour of his coming, and woe to those who he comes against." Coming against them, not like he comes to bring his people to glory. Repent now, turn now if you are dead in trespasses and sins, turn now if you are dying or are about to die. And he says in verse four, yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not spoiled their garments and will walk with me in white for they are worthy. He is saying that there are a few out of the many that are known by him, known by name. He's written their names in the book of life, which he mentions in the next verse. These are like those we find in Hebrews 11, 15 through 16. If they had been thinking of the land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. These who have not spoiled their garments have not spoiled their garments because they're looking forward to that which is to come. that which is to come. And then again in Hebrews 11, 36 through 38, said, others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy. Now, what does he mean by that? Well, it's not that they are worthy in and of themselves. Joel Beeky again states in reference to this passage, but only, they're worthy only insofar as they are in Christ. That is, joined to Him by a true faith. God gives His gifts in Christ to His people and calls those gifts theirs. Jesus once said to blind Bartimaeus, thy faith hath made thee whole. We know it was Christ's faith that healed the blind man. But Christ gave that faith to blind Bartimaeus. All that belongs to Christ is conferred on the believer. Thus God can say by the worthiness of Christ, I give worthiness to all my people. That does not mean that the believer can do one worthy act or pray one worthy prayer in his own merit or power. But it means that in Christ, he can do all things. In Christ, this one is worthy. Well, how can it be that their robes have remained white and pure? It is said from historical accounts that Sardis was a town where dyeing of fabric took place, and if that is so, the people of Sardis would have understood about soiling garments. You could probably have dyed a soiled garment a number of colors to hide the stains of the world, but I doubt you could dye it white and cover those up. There is something miraculous about the whiteness of the garments. And what we're saying here, we're not saying that they're without sin. We're not saying that they had an inherent righteousness. Turn with me real quick over a couple chapters in Revelation 7. We have the answer to this question here. It's a beautiful passage. Revelation 7, nine through 14. After this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, and peoples, and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, Who are these clothed in white robes and from where have they come? I said to him, Sir, you know. And he said to me, these are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. How can you make a soiled garment white? You wash it in Christ's blood. miracle of miracles that something may be washed with blood and made pure. But this is the blood of God incarnate, blood of the Savior, blood of the only acceptable sacrifice, blood with true merit, blood which washes away sins and which cleanses his people from all unrighteousness. Praise God for the blood of Jesus Christ. and he will never blot their names out of the book of life. He died for them and he keeps them. I'm going to skip over a little bit here. John in John 10 records the words of Jesus, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. I and the father are one. His people will never be blotted from the book of life. And he will confess his name He will confess these people's names who have not defiled their garments, not polluted their garments before his father and his angels. When Satan makes an accusation against those who Christ died for, Christ will stand before his father and all the angels and say unto them, they are mine. I have died. I have paid the debt. I have redeemed these for my own purchase. You will lay no charge against them. I have died. I have borne the wages of their sin. I have clothed them in my own righteousness. My own stripes have healed them. And the devil and his hosts will have no claim over those for whom Christ has died. and he will confess their names before God the Father and his holy angels. He who has an ear, let him hear." Not just the church in Sardis, but the church in our day. There is much, much more that we could say here this morning, but we must move on. But I pray you will continue to read over this passage and meditate on it throughout the week. There is so much profit from this word, especially in the time in which we live. Do you not see the reputation of many a church in this world today? They have a reputation for being alive. They look alive. They meet together. Oh, but they're dead. They are known as churches, but they are indistinguishable from the world. We need an outpouring of God's life-giving spirit to lead our world to repentance and faith. We can't look to the world to do this. We can't conjure it up out of worldly ideology or worldly systems and motives. Christ rightly addresses the church. It came from Christ, of course it's right. But he addresses this church as being the one with the seven spirits of God. The one who has the right and authority and the power to accomplish regeneration in dead and dying hearts. What about you here this morning? Are you dead to God? Are you devoid of life? There's only one place we can find it. One, only through union with Christ, being born again by the Spirit, being washed in the blood, it's the only way to have life. Repent, turn to Christ, see Christ, see His death, see His resurrection, see His ascension, see His victory over death and sin. He's the way, the truth, and the life. What about those who have tasted the graciousness of the Lord? Who have been made alive? You have a watchman on your wall? Do you? Are you friendly with the world? Have you turned your back? Have you given your back to the world? Have you turned away from truth and away from Christ? Christ says, if that's the case, repent. Set yourself, set yourself on the wall. It's Father's Day. Fathers have been given a unique job by our God to shepherd and lead their families in the things of righteousness. In the truth of his word, be a watchman on the wall to your families. to your kids, to your grandkids, to your friends, to your families, your family members. We need people to stand and say, thus saith the Lord. I don't care what the world wants to say. It leads to death. We've got the words of life. Cry out to them to look away from the world, to turn from it and look to Christ and look back no more. See Christ and look to him, the author and the finisher of our faith. Let's pray. Lord God and heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the spirit We thank you for his work, for his regenerating power, for this life-giving power to bring that which is dead to life. We thank you for the work of Christ on the cross, that we might have righteous robes that have been given to us to wear. We thank you for forgiveness of sin and forgive us for being so easily led astray, for entangling ourselves with the world. Lord, give us boldness, give us strength to stand, to hold fast, to take heed that we might not drift away. Be with us throughout this week. Lord, may we meditate on your word. In your name we pray, amen.