This evening, we'll be taking as our text Revelation chapter 3 and verse 4. So if you'll take your Bibles, please, and turn with me to the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation chapter 3. The focus of our attention this evening will be on the fourth verse. We'll read together from verse 1. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis, Write, these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars. I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest, and are dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received, and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. This evening we're turning our attention to this passage in part as a follow-up to our last sermon on the Sabbath and what I hope will be a help as well as exhortation to all of us. We'll be focusing on verse 4. Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The Lord Jesus Christ is set forth in verse 1, as the one who has the seven spirits. Now this beckons back to the description of him in chapter 1. And the reference to Christ as the one who has the seven spirits is an apocalyptic way of describing the fact that Jesus has the complete fullness of the spirit. as the ascended and exalted Lord. He's been given the fullness of the Spirit for his church. But I want you to notice especially that the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to us in terms of nearness, in terms of closeness. in terms of intimacy with his church on earth, though exalted as the great king. He's revealed in terms of nearness, closeness, and intimacy. Notice, if you remember what's said in chapter 1, he walks. in the midst of the candlesticks. So the candlesticks are a symbol of the churches. So Jesus is there. He's standing. He's walking among the churches. He is with them. He's near them. In fact, also it goes on to say that he holds in his right hand his ministers. They're described as stars and angels. But in his right hand are his ministers, picturing Christ's ability to give and to withhold, to make bright the work that he's carrying forward in the midst of his church. And of course, what does that leave us with? It leaves the churches looking to Christ's right hand, doesn't it? not looking first and foremost to the ministers, but ultimately through the ministers to Christ's own right hand. But the picture here is one of the Lord near his people. And so as you read chapters 2 and 3, here is Christ coming to these seven churches of Asia, and he's speaking directly to them. These are the words of Christ, the words of our text, or the words spoken from Christ directly to his people. But he is speaking to them as one who is among them, who is walking among them, who is near them, who is present with them. He is not looking as it were from far off and proclaiming something from far off. but it is the Lord near to his people. And I want us to note, especially now, we're narrowing our focus to Sardis, of course, and narrowing it further to the reference given to us in verse 4 of this undefiled remnant. We're going to especially focus our attention on what Jesus says to this undefiled remnant. I want us to notice three things. First of all, Christ's remnant. So first of all, Christ's remnant, thou hast, a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments." Now, for the children, Sardis was a city that now would be found in the western end of modern Turkey. nestled in a valley that is there. It was a very, very important city prior to the time of Paul's writing. In fact, it was one of the most significant cities of Persia in this region. And of course, Greece came after that and Rome, but it remained still something of a significant city, at least in the region of Lydia. And you know, of course, that this church, which is being described, is surrounded, indeed, it is engulfed by superstition and idolatry, right? You have the Roman religions with Pantheon and you have all of the the wickedness that was abounding among Roman religion and Roman culture, Roman society as a whole. So they're there as a candlestick, a light, a city on a hill, shining brightly in the midst of encroaching darkness. But Christ, of course, is directing his attention not to Sardis or the surrounding region. He is directing his gaze to the church. And he's speaking to the church in Sardis, because after all, the church is what is most important in any place, anywhere on earth. Wherever we find a candlestick, wherever we find the church, the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have what is most significant, most important in that place. in that region. It is the focus of the Lord's attention, the focus of divine activity, the focus of kingdom expansion, the apple of God's eye, and the delight of the Lord's own heart. And so Christ is directing his gaze to the church. And you see what is described here. It is not complementary by and large. And this is, in many ways, so parallel to our day, which is why I've chosen it. We live in a day surrounded by national sin and so on, but we also live in a day of spiritual declension within the Church. And if you look at the description given of Sardis, he says you have a name. You have a name to live. But he says, in fact, in truth, what I see, what is reality, is that there's deadness. You have a name to live, he says, but you are dead. In other words, there's a form of godliness, but you're denying the power thereof. There were plenty of people that were going to church. I mean, even in Sardis, there were people that were attending public worship, that were connected with the churches in that region. And yet, he says, there are those who, by and large, were, in one way or another, attached, but without living faith. Without living faith. There's a deadness, spiritual deadness. There's pretense, and there's profession, but there's no possession of a real saving faith, the reality of spiritual liveliness. Now, the Lord gives this direct and difficult verdict and assessment. But he follows it with very tender counsel notice. He comes to them to woo them. And he says in verse 2, you need to watch. You need to be alert. You need to wake up. You need to be vigilant. He says you need to strengthen that which does remain. You need to hold fast what's been given to you. And preeminently, you need to repent. You need to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And so it's a call to repentance. Now that's backed by a warning and a threat, which the Lord often brings. And this too is, in a way, is coming with tenderness. But he brings a threat. And he says to them, if not, if you won't watch, if you won't repent, I will come on thee as a thief. Thou shalt not know what hour I will come. And, of course, you have the recurring admonition about the danger of the candlestick being removed. And this, in fact, took place. I mean, this, what Jesus says, came to fulfillment. So the church eventually decayed, and it was around the year 400 that the Goths rolled in, sacked Sardis, reduced it to insignificant nothingness, where it remained for hundreds of years following that. And there was the erasure of a Christian light, no church, no testimony, no candlestick that was to be found there, nothing left but memory. You could go to that place, as some of the missionaries did in the 1800s, you could pass through that region and you would find nothing of spiritual life but the memory You could stand there, as it were, among rubble and perhaps where places used to be, and you could say, in this place, there was a church of the living God. The Lord Jesus Christ himself walked among his people here. Christ came with power. There were sinners converted. The people of God worshipped him in spirit and in truth. A testimony was born. There were wonderful things happening. But it's all memory. Nothing but memory. But that's not all that's said here. Because in every age of spiritual deadness, Whenever there's a departing, a declining, a deadening generation, the Lord Jesus Christ always reserves for himself a remnant. And that's what we see in verse four. He always reserves for himself a remnant. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. A few names in Sardis. as we say in the Psalms, a seed to serve him, still present, still there, still holding fast. Those who were purifying themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Those who were a truly holy people, a people devoted unto the Lord, who in secret and in public, in their life, in their days, In and out of all of their existence, they were living with the Lord, before the Lord, and for the glory of the Lord. There were a few names. Now there were many against the few. You not only have the paganism outside, you have the many, or the most, within the church who are characterized by a spiritual deadness. And yet he says there's a few here. Christ has a little flock within the flock. And the Lord is pleased with such. There were the equivalent, if you will, of the 7,000 who had not yet bowed their knee to Baal, but were still holding fast to the Lord. You see it in the days of Noah, an extreme example. You see it in the days of Lot, midst of Sodom. You see it even described apocalyptically in Revelation, with the two witnesses who picture the remnant that are bearing testimony when the whole world is going after the beast. You think of how this is true over and over again. Think of the Old Testament examples of declining generations, days of declension, Malachi at the end. In chapter 3, there are those who are like You know, what? It doesn't make any sense. It doesn't pay off to serve God. I mean, it's no sense doing it. There's no sense following, you know, what the Bible says. We may as well do as we wish and so on. But then you read in verse 16, Malachi 3, then they that feared the Lord, so there they are. the few names. They that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it. And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels." Similar picture, different, but You know, you have those few names who have not defiled themselves who will walk with the Lord in white. Here they're described as jewels. I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. So in that generation as well, Christ has his remnant. The Lord has his remnant. And you see here, too, the high value. There in Malachi 3, the value that Christ puts on them is described in terms of making them jewels. Here you see the high value that the Lord Jesus puts on these few names in Sardis. by saying, for they are worthy. Now, that language actually warrants a sermon or maybe a couple of sermons or more on itself, that whole concept of what does that mean, they are worthy, and how the Lord employs that language in the New Testament and the Old Testament. But you see the Lord's commendation of them. He's saying, these are gold among the draws. They are worthy to Christ. They are a delight to the Lord Jesus Christ, though the world's not worthy of them. So think of Hebrews 11, for example, where you have the description of those who are following the Lord in the midst of debauchery. They're being slaughtered and sawn asunder and so on. And you have this description. This is the Lord's description of his people in Hebrews 11, 38, of whom the world was not worthy. The world's not worthy of them. But the Lord says, and these all having obtained a good report, right, through faith. The Lord had given his spirit and his grace and faith, and he had given to them his word, and he had supplied them with all that was lacking. He had given them himself, and he had bountifully blessed them in their own souls. And here the Lord is rejoicing in the fruitfulness that he finds in them. My friends, we need to learn to esteem the smile of the Lord Jesus Christ above all else. If we, by the grace of God, are enabled to, from the depths of our souls, truly and sincerely esteem the smile of the Savior, how far that would take us, how much good that would do us, how much fruit that would bear in us, to esteem his smile above all else. Because what happens? Well, all sorts of things happen. When you're esteeming the smile of the Lord Jesus Christ, what happens? Well, for one thing, all of the frowns of the world become very insignificant to us. If we're not esteeming the smile of the world, we're getting the frowns from them, we're getting, you know, thumbs down, we're getting a sense of rejection or ridicule or whatever else that comes with that. What is that against the comparison to the smile of the Redeemer? To have the Lord's smile to be a delight to Him, to be honoring Him and pleasing Him and glorifying Him. and bringing him praise and bringing him glory. I mean, when these are the great things in the substance of our life, then what the world thinks, what worldlings, what insignificant specks of dust would think of us becomes ridiculously, ridiculously worthless to us. And this is why the fear of man bringeth a snare, whereas the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge and life and all sorts of other blessing. So we need to esteem the Lord's smile while we see Christ's remnant. Secondly, we see their record. Secondly, their record, or Christ's commendation of them. Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. Well, what's the description? The description is, which have not defiled their garments. So that's Christ's assessment. Here, the remnant is described as those who have not defiled their garments. Now, this language is used in lots and lots of places, as you'll know. We're going to sing one of those places in a few moments, the opening of Psalm 119. Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep his testimonies and that seek him, that is Christ, with the whole heart. They're undefiled, they're walking in the law of Jehovah. They are seeking Christ with their whole heart. And so these, this band, these few names in Sardis, they're adhering They're adhering to Christ. They're clinging to him. They're adhering to his word. They're walking in his ways. They're holding fast to his truth. They're seeking his glory. And they're described as those who are clothed. They're not naked. They're clothed. But in their clothing, spiritually speaking, they're undefiled. Now sin, of course, is what defiles. Sin is very defiling. Sin is polluting. Sin is described as mire. Sin is filth and filthiness. And so there are those who are not caving, acquiescing, giving way to the sin that is abounding. outside the church around them and the sin that is abounding in the church. They're undefiled. Remember the end of James 1? Pure religion and undefiled before God. And the Father is this, to visit the fatherless widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. They're unspotted or undefiled. So the point is that they're living amidst corruption, right? They're living in very dangerous times. They're living in spiritually perilous times. There are snares all around them. There are traps all around them. There are allurements all around them. There are many, many dangers. There are prevailing sins, prevailing sins outside the church. There are prevailing sins within the church. There are defections. Defections from the truth of God and of his word. There are defections that are specific to given eras and places and people. He says, there they are, they're undefiled by these things. I mean, sin, of course, comes gilded. Sin always comes gilded. It comes beautiful. It comes painted. It comes in order to ensnare. It's not as if it looks monstrous all the time or looks gruesome, but it may, in fact, look quite the opposite. But it is ensnaring, it is defiling, and it is polluting. It is descriptive of those who walk according to the course of this world. Who are walking according to the course of this world. And there were defections, even within Sardis, who were beginning to give way. And this is true, my friends, of our own generation. It's very descriptive of our own generation, the sensation and the defections within the church, the declension that seems to abounding. And I'm saying the church within these United States generally, the church, the professing church, the evangelical church, reformed churches included, within our own day. And the defections are of various types. There are errors in doctrine. People begin to be loosened from the moorings of sound doctrine. And people become innovative and creative and they tinker and they toy and they begin to entertain new ideas and new light as it's often called. And there are departures and people begin to change the way they think about what the Bible teaches and the doctrines that are found within the scriptures and codified within our confessions and so on. and there are defections, and it has an influence, and there's pressure, and people begin to think, well, maybe they have a point, and maybe they're correcting something that needs to be corrected, and there are people that are wooed, and there's sometimes pressure put on them to shift from off of the sound foundation of the Word of God. There are defections in terms of innovations in the worship of God. So innovations in worship, major, major biblical idea of spiritual declension, all through the Old Testament, as well as in the New Testament. And you look at the world and what they find enticing, what they find entertaining, what they find effective, what they find attractive, and the church feels like, well, we need some of this stuff. We need to make good use of what's proving effective, and we need to incorporate it, and we need to make it a part of us so that we can have better results, and so on and so forth. And there's 50 million other reasons, right? Just the carnality of the flesh, or unbelief with regards to the simplicity of the means that God has appointed, or a whole host of other things. And there are these defections in terms of innovation in worship. There are defections, of course, in terms of profane practice, in terms of loosening the standards of biblical piety and godliness. And again, the allurements come. And the church begins to love what the world loves, to find exciting what the world finds exciting. You say, look at their life, look at the lives of the professing people of God, what gets them excited, what they think about, what they talk about, what they focus on, what captivates their attention, their affection, their focus, and so on and so forth. Well, how is this? This doesn't look very different from the world at all. What's happening here? We're seeing departures. We're seeing, rather than a biblical and a Christ-centered and a God-glorifying piety, which is rooted in the depths of the truth of the Word of God, there is departure. And you have, therefore, the changing of the standards of godliness. And with that come the changing of the standards of what it means to be the professing people of God. And then to profess the Lord Jesus Christ becomes a hollow thing, an easy thing, an insignificant thing, a trite thing, a thing that anyone and everyone can do with the flip of a switch and so on. And before you know it, it's like Sardis. And the Lord is saying, you have a name to live. You have a name to live. You know, it all appears on the outward as if this is passable. And he says it's deadness. And this is a cause for lamentation. It's a cause for the Lord's people to be humbled. You know, we look at these United States of America, and there is much which, for the true Christian, grieves their soul. grieves their soul, not because of personal loss, not because of any difficulty that it causes to us, our comforts, our desires, our wishes, our ambitions, not because of discomfort and so on and so forth, but chiefly, there is a heaviness that comes out of sincere love for the glory of Christ. Where is the Savior in all these things? Where is the word of God in all these things? Where is the glory of God in all of these things? And that is what lays low the Lord's people. And you see how many, it seems, are indeed defiled, defiled with corruptions and pollutions, the corruptions and pollutions of our time. This is a risk, a danger. And of course, the counter is so often, well, you're too careful about these things, too particular about these things, too zealous, desiring to be too holy, right? It's what they said, of course, of our Reformed fathers in Puritan England. It's what they said in these United States during the Great Awakening. Well, we need a civil religion. We need a polite religion. We need a comfortable religion. Now, these firebrands, they're extremists. They're too careful, too earnest, too focused on the things of Christ, too zealous about the details of God's word, too concerned about holiness, too taken up with these things. But such could have been said, no doubt, of those. who were the few names even in Sardis which had not defiled their garments. That's the record the Lord Jesus Christ gives. Thirdly, we have their reward. Thirdly, their reward. And here is, I hope, motive, encouragement, and reinforcement of exhortation. Their reward. The passage goes on, thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white. And they shall walk with me in white. Now here, my friends, is the place of privilege. For the sincere Christian who has exercised and who is earnest and whose face is set like a flint toward the Lord, this is enough. This is far more than enough. For the Lord to have come to Sardis and all of their difficulty and departures, to have come to his people who are laboring, to walk with the Lord in sincerity, and to say to them, this is the reward, the promise, the blessing that you can anticipate. They shall walk with me in white. A place of privilege. Speaking, of course, of glory. Speaking of all that is to come. to walk with Christ in glory. Now, to walk with him, and this hardly needs to be expounded, doesn't it? To walk with Christ immediately communicates to us nearness to Christ. It's the opposite of distance. To walk with him is to be next to him, is to be near him. Now, this is the great reward that the Lord's people, by His grace, labor for. It's nearness to the Lord. I preached on the doctrine of rewards in recent history here. And we spoke about how there's a relationship between the work of God's grace and good works of His people here. And it corresponds to their reward in heaven. And there's a difference. And not everyone's the same in heaven. And some have a far greater reward. And we spelled out what that means, what that looks like, how that works, and so on and so forth. I'm not going to repeat any of that here. But let's never forget, when we think to ourselves, what's the greatest reward the Lord can give us? Mansions that are covered in gold, powerful positions, whatever, and whatever else heaven includes in terms of the Lord's provisions for us there. None of that can compare to the greatest gift. And the greatest gift is nearness to Christ. And so surely, in terms of disproportionate reward among the earnest, exercised, godly saints in this world, the height of all will be greater nearness, greater sight greater comprehension, greater knowledge, greater communion, greater enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's something of that here in this passage when it says, they shall walk with me in white. We'll be near him, intimate fellowship with him, the close sight of him. deep communion with Him. It's to describe for us the intensity of all intensities of pleasure and of satisfaction. And Thy presence is fullness of joy. At Thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. At Thy right hand, where are we in this text? We're at His right hand. We're walking with Him. It's Psalm 16 that's being described here, isn't it? And we're walking with Him in white. Now white, the significance of white is many fold. I mean, white obviously depicts purity. And of course, we're perfected in holiness in heaven. And so our communion with Christ is going to be sinless. White is also a picture of victory and of triumph. as well. It's a picture of honor. It's what angels are. Angels are clothed in white. The priests in the Old Testament were clothed in white. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is described as clothed in white, right, in Revelation 1. We're like him. We're going to look like him. We're going to be made like him. We're going to be more fully conformed to him. And so all of that is included in the reward of walking with him. You see, this is the reward for the Christian. This is the anticipation. And he says, amidst all the hubbub of a declining generation, and all the enticements of the world, and the defections of the Church, and so on and so forth, the Lord's people are able to live on this. All day long we can live on this. the anticipation of walking with Him in white, my friends. Now some, as we saw in Malachi 3, some are gonna say, it's unprofitable thing, it's an unprofitable thing to serve the Lord. If you serve the Lord, it's miserable, there's difficulties, there's trials, things don't go your way, it's not all joy and happiness and you're better than everybody else and you have everything go your way, unlike everybody else. That would pay, that would be worth it, but no, it's unprofitable. to be scrupulous about holiness, to be close in walking with the Lord, be serious about the Bible and sticking to it. No, it's an unprofitable thing to serve the Lord. Well, what, you know, what language can we use? I mean, what damning abominations can we pronounce against this? They hardly seem sufficient in light of the truth. The Lord says, those few names in Sardis are absolutely precious to me. I'm there. I'm walking in the midst of Sardis. He is already with his people in this world. It's not all anticipation, right? He's walking in the midst of Sardis there. They have fellowship with him now. But he's saying, no, no, there's a time coming. You're going to walk with me like you never could have anticipated in white, clothes with all the significance that that means. And he's saying to these souls in Sardis, it's the word of Christ's own mouth to them. You are precious to me. My friends, this ought to strengthen us. I mean, we have a sermon on national sin and we talk about the church's defections and so on and so forth, and we have to speak the word of God and not candy coat everything. But let's take heart in these things. Let's come under these things. Let this put steel in your bones. If you are a sincere Christian, may it put steel in your bones. May it elevate your heart to say, I want to speak much of Christ. I want, like Malachi 3, to think much of Christ. I want to be walking in the fear of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be numbered among the praying people of God. When everyone else has left the closet to stick their face perpetually in the computer, I will be in the closet, and I will be with my Lord, communing and wrestling with Him in the secret place. Prayer meeting, I'll be there. I want to be where Christ is, and I want to be seeking His glory, and seeking His face, and seeking His blessing. My friends, I don't want to stir us up to humility. I mean, you talk of a few names. It's Bible language, right? The language of the remnant. Well, that can feed all of the wrong people, all of the wrong things, can it? Because then there becomes a sense of elevated status and whatever else. And this is terrible, right? It's turning what's beautiful and turning it on its head. Let us walk humbly before the Lord. It has nothing to do with us, nothing to do with our own anything. It has to do with the Lord, it has to do with His glory, it has to do with the honor of Christ, it has to do with His word, it has to do with holding fast to His truth, it has to do with keeping the candlestick lit bright for the name of the Savior. And we're to walk humbly before Him, to humble ourselves day in and day out before Him, to see our sins and to see them bigger than the sins of others. To be walking with brokenness and contrition before the Lord. and to have a heart that says that's gonna be, you know what, there's the joy of the Lord is our strength, we saw it on Sabbath morning, all the blessings of justification, this is the strength of God's people is joy, but we will never ever in a declining age be able to eliminate mourning, will we? There'll always be a heaviness, a heavy heart for the things of the Lord. Psalm 137 will always be our song. As long as the church, as long as Zion is in a bad way, the Christian will never be able to say, celebrate, everything's great. Because it's not. We desire to see the Lord come and to make Zion a praise on all the earth as she ought to be. Let us be aroused to Christ-exalting lives, lives that desire to exalt the Savior in everything. It means, of course, we have to see the dangers. We have to see the dangers. There are dangers. I mean, to be undefiled is to avoid the dangers, right? To recognize that lukewarmness in my soul is a danger. The lukewarmness of my own soul can't be left unaddressed. One's love waxing cold is not to be tolerated. blunting the edge of biblical doctrine or piety has to be watched over. To remember that the great end of our redemption is holiness, likeness to the Savior. To remember that we are utterly unable in any way, shape, or form for any of this. And to live under the light of that inability. That without Christ we can do nothing. that indeed we have to be united to Christ by faith. And if you're not united to Christ, then of course, none of this would have any place whatsoever. It would be to be numbered among the dead, to be in the church, but to be characterized, as Jesus says, as dead. We have to be united to Christ. But having been united to Christ, for the Christian, it is daily faith in Christ. Right? Faith is... Well, we'll talk more about faith this Sabbath, if God spares us. But faith in Christ, daily faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Every day going out afresh, laying a hold of Him, looking to Him, building our life on the promises, trusting His Word, following His truth. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, coupled with prayer. Unless the Lord keeps the city, the watchmen watch in vain. We could watch our eyeballs out, but unless the Lord is keeping the city, we're finished. And it is not beyond the realm of possibility by any means For the city of Greenville with its thousand churches or however many churches we have. It's not beyond the possibility left to ourselves for people to be able to walk over the geographical real estate of this area and to say in centuries to come nothing left but a memory. I say that not to impart despair, but rather just to say we're to be called to prayer, we're called to arms, we're called to prayer, unless the Lord keep the city. We're conscious that we must be looking away to him. Christ is the one who has the fullness of the spirits. He has the seven spirits of God. He is the one present in the midst of the candlesticks. He is the one holding the ministers in his own right hand. Christ is the one to whom our eye is to be cast. We're to look to him, esteem him, exalt him, depend upon him, seek him, and exercise faith in him. You see here the undefiled remnant? Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. Let's stand for prayer. O Lord, our God in heaven, we confess that you are our light and our shield. O Lord, we confess that you are our all in all. We confess that you are the keeper of Israel. Your people are kept by the power of God. We pray, O Lord, that you would have mercy upon us, that you would grant in this generation, not just in this congregation, not just in this city amidst its many congregations, but in this generation, O Lord, that you would increase the number, strengthen the hearts, and bring forward, O Lord, names that have not defiled themselves, not defiled their garments. O Lord, grant that you would keep for yourself these things, and that you would be brought praise, glory, delight, honor. We ask it in Jesus' name.