Sardis, The Dead Church - Revelation 3:1-6

Good morning, everyone. Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland,

Amen. Thank you so much for everyone

being here today. We, our sister, gave us a very,

very gracious welcome to everybody, including those who

are behind prison walls. So we don't have to repeat that

this morning. So we can just get ready to go

into the word of God. Thank you so much just to Karen

for doing that. So let's just get ready to go

into the word of God. Let's pray, Father, once again

we come before your presence, Lord, just asking for what only

you can give, looking to hear what only you can say, and

looking to be done what only you can do.

Father, we need you this morning.

We don't even need me to be here this morning, Father, and it

means nothing if you don't show up, Father.

We pray this morning that You would open our eyes to hear

these precious things, Lord, that are written in Your word,

not only for our encouragement, but to warn us, to exhort us,

and to cause us, O God, to be more like You.

Father, I pray that You would bless everyone that's here even

now. Open each and every one of our

hearts so that we can receive Your word and that it would

bring forth fruit. Lord, that would be pleasing to

you. Now, Father, hide me behind the

cross. No one needs to see me, no one

needs to hear me. But I pray God that Your voice

will come through with power, with articulation and clarity

and authority and that we receive it as it is.

And that is the word of God. In Jesus holy name we pray,

Amen. So this morning we are going to

start in the 3rd chapter. We start the 3rd chapter.

We've finished the first of the first two chapters and we're now

at the Church of Sardis. I'm going to read through these

six scriptures and then we'll go back and we'll make comment

where the Lord says this and to the Angel of the church and

Sardis write these things, says he who has A7 spirits of God and

the seven stars. I know your works, that you have

a name, that you are alive, but you are dead.

Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are

ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before

God. Remember, therefore, how you

have received and heard. Hold fast and repent.

Therefore, if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a

thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

You have a few names even in Sardis, who have not defiled

their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they

are worthy. He who overcomes shall be

clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from

the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before my

Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear

what the Spirit says to the churches.

Thank you, Jesus, for that word. AW Tozer once said this.

Churches can be busy, active and well organized while being

spiritually dead. The activity of programs, the

busyness of the people with the multiple ministries without

fruit can have the appearance of life while being flat lined and

be dead. If you remember, Jesus cursed

the fig tree not just because it didn't have fruit, but because

it gave the appearance that it had fruit.

There are only two churches that's in this whole 7 churches

that he writes letters to, that he gives absolutely no

commendation to, gives no praise report for.

One of them is the Church of Laodicean and we'll talk about

later, and the other is this church, the Church of Sardis.

Well, please let me warn you before we go into talking about

the Church of Sardis. And I've always said, if you've

ever heard me say this, that when we come to the Word of God,

there's two things that we can bring to the Word.

We can either bring a rake, which rake things to us, or we

can bring a pitchfork that throws things away from us,

throws us elsewhere. I pray that when we go before

the word of God, we come into the word of God for all of these

churches, although there are things that are marked as not

praise reports for these churches, but things that the

Lord has condemned them for. Let us not look at these

churches like, oh boy, those poor people, those terrible

people, those dishonest people, those loveless people, those

corrupt people. But let's look at each and every

one of those churches and cause us, may cause us to examine

ourselves, not just as a church as a whole, not just as Calvary

Chapel Westmoreland, but let us examine ourselves as a church,

ourselves individually. What am I hearing in this that I

myself need to be alert to, that I need to repent for, that I

need to turn for? What is the Holy Spirit saying

to me in addition to what He's saying to the churches?

What is He saying to me? I pray that you that we all will

do that because as we go through these, we find plenty that the

Holy Spirit will find in our own lives or in our own hearts that

He can warn us about and cause us to be able to turn from those

things. Because we serve a loving God.

We serve a caring God, we serve a merciful God that it doesn't

matter what we've been doing or how long we've been doing it, We

can turn from those things. We can repent and turn from

those things. His arms are always open wide

for us to come back to Him, just like a parent.

So we needed to hear that this morning as we go through this

because it can be very tempting to look at that church as being

isolated from ourselves. But actually he's speaking to

each and every one of us as we go through this.

So just to give a little background about this church,

Sardis that was mentioned to be a, a dead church.

And we don't have to go far by when we're, you know, to, to

hear why this church is considered dead.

We won't have to go for we won't have to go beyond the first

verse. But the background of Sardis is

that it is located 30 miles South of Authoritaria for

defense. For defense purposes.

Sardis is built on a hill about 1500 feet on top of a hill.

And it had suffered, but after it suffered an earthquake back

in AD 17, the city was completely destroyed.

It was later rebuilt by Rome, the Roman Empire, Tiberius

Caesar, for whom a temple was actually built there in his

honor. And of course, they did Pagan

worship there in that temple to the the emperor Caesar.

It was once the capital of the Kingdom of Lydia.

Sardis was a wealthy and powerful, but a sinful city.

It was well known for its textile industry.

It was well known for gold and, and, and silver.

There was a river that ran through Sardis that had silver,

that had gold in that particular river and, and it was known for

that. In fact, coinage itself was said

to be invented there in Sardis. But like just about all the

other Asian, those Asian minor cities that we looked at and the

ones that we will look at, they had their issues with idolatry,

they had their issues with sexual immorality.

And of course, Sardis was no different than those.

No different. Now in Sardis, they did worship

a particular goddess or goddesses.

They worship the goddess of Artemis.

And if I think, if I'm not mistaken, wasn't there recently

an aircraft or some kind of space capsule that's been

launched from here named Artemis?

Very interesting name. And the other is, is Sybil or

Sibeli, that the goddess, the God, the God, the goddess called

Sibeli. Now being surrounded by these

pagans, by being surrounded by all this idolatry, the Church of

Sardis failed to let their light shine in this dark place.

They failed to allow the salt to keep its flavor.

In fact, their salt had lost their flavor.

And as we look at verse one, we kind of see what the problem was

with this church. Verse one says into the Angel of

the Church of and Sardis write these things says who is coming

from. Remember we said last week who

said, who said? Well, the one who's speaking

here is the one who has the seven spirits of God and the one

who has the seven stars in his hand, the seven spirits of God.

Now we hear the name, the word 7 mentioned quite a bit in the

word of God. The word actually there is a if

those of you who are in the numbers and things like that

word, the number 7 actually is symbolic for completion,

symbolic for perfection finished.

But here the the the seven spirits that he's talking about

here is Speaking of the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

It's a description taken from from John's vision, you know,

back in one and four, you know, back in Revelations chapter 1

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

and verse four, he talks about the seven spirits of God and he

talks about it again over in the verse 20 of chapter 1.

It's a complete character of God, the fullness of all of His

power through the Holy Spirit. This reference of the Holy, of

the Holy Spirit is of the Messiah, and it's explained over

in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah Chapter 11.

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

It talks about the Messiah and how he'll come filled with the

Holy Spirit. He'll come filled with the

Spirit of God, and he mentions the sevenfold Spirit there in

Isaiah Chapter 11. He says this, the Spirit of the

Isaiah 11 · chapter mention

Lord, and this is the spirit that has fallen upon them.

It's the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and

understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of

knowledge and the fear of the Lord, the honest, the reverence

of the Lord. What?

These are the things that we're missing in the Church of Sardis

that caused them to be considered dead and in our own

lives that we don't have the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Our walk in Christ can be dead. Our experience can have a dead

experience. You know, James said that the,

the, the body without the Spirit is dead.

Well, the body of Christ without the Spirit of Christ is dead.

We need the Holy Spirit. You know, I can understand why

when the disciples were with Jesus on that last day, when

they watched him ascend, I can understand how their hearts

could have could drop. But because he said to them

prior to that, he says, I'm going to go.

But when I go, I am going to send you another helper who was

with you and shall be in you. Oh, thank God for the Holy

Spirit because he is the one who stayed.

He's the one who's ever with us because he's ever in us.

But what happens when that Spirit is quenched?

What happens when that spirit is grieved and there's no

manifestation of the Spirit working in our lives?

We become like dead man. It's almost like Ezekiel.

The bones that he preached to were dead until the Spirit

entered those bones. We need the Holy Spirit in our

own lives, and I pray that we acknowledge the fact that every

single day we should be asking for a fresh feeling, a fresh

feeling of the Holy Spirit, a newness of the Holy Spirit in

our lives every single day to help us with the knowledge, to

help us with counsel and might, to help us have the fear of the

Lord to obey His word. Every day.

We need the power of the Holy Spirit working inside of us to

help us to walk out this Christian life.

We can't do it without it. We can't do it without it.

So in so in Sardis, the, the church had basically ceased to

function under the power and the fullness of the spirit.

But then it also says that he's a, that the seven stars he

mentions the seven stars he needs in this case is the 7

angels. He's talk, you know, he's

talking about the, the, the, the, he's talking about the,

the, the messengers of the church.

He has the pastors and the elders of the church under his

authority. He has them.

These are the, the ruling elders of the church.

As is mentioned over in chapter one verse and verse 16.

It's important that the church leaders are filled with the

power of the Holy Spirit. And we, we should serve, always

serve under the power and being led by the Holy Spirit.

It's the only way that we can do this ministry or do anything in

this ministry, the only way that this ministry can be fruitful,

as if we are led by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So it was the fullness of the Holy Spirit who fell upon the

apostles on the day of Pentecost.

And, and the New Testament churches were born out of the

Spirit, but this church, this church had a reputation for

being alive based on the past, but it was dead.

Look at what what he says here in verse, in verse 2 with a

bottom of verse 1, he says, I know your works, that you have a

name. This is the bottom of verse one

that you have a name, that you have a name that you are alive,

but you are dead. And then he says here that you

know well if you have a reputation.

And sometimes we see people who have a reputation in the faith,

they have a reputation in the church, they have a reputation

and and and ministry. We can see that and we can just

assume that those people are alive in the spirit.

But just for reputation does not mean life does not mean life

doesn't matter what our reputation is.

The truth of the matter is, what's working in our hearts?

What's really working in my heart?

What's working in my heart When I come here on a Sunday or a

Wednesday? What's working in my heart When

I leave my home every day and I'm out among other people,

What's in my heart? What's leading me?

Am I being led by the Spirit or am I being led by my flesh?

Do I respond to things based on the Spirit or do I respond to

things based on my flesh, my own understanding, leaning on my own

understanding? Those are things that as a

Christian that we have, we have access to this power, this power

that dwells in us. We have access to it.

So why not call on that power, be led by that power, so this

church have that reputation. What's really important for a

church? They probably had it.

They looked that way from the outside.

You know, it was a church that looked like it was alive.

It was probably a church that was polished, had a polished

praise and worship ban. It was probably a church that

had a pastor that was charismatic or progressive

preaching, secret friendly messages, or because there was

such a massive group of attendees for that church.

And you can go on TikTok and you can go on X or you can go on

Facebook and you can see all these churches that look like

they're so popular, just so happening.

And people were just like flogging to these churches

because of the marketing that these churches do.

But what's really leading that church?

Is it the Holy Spirit or is it the flesh of someone with good

eye, with good marketing ideas? Because the Spirit is

everlasting, but the flesh dies. The flesh dies Lord Jesus, but

without the power and the anointing of the life given

Spirit. It's just going through the

motions. There's no real life, no real

life. So Jesus addresses this issue of

this dead church, and he also did it with the Pharisees.

If you remember, he talked about how the Pharisees over in

Matthew 2023, he talked about how the Pharisees look so good

on the outside. He talked about how they were

like whitewashed tombs or they shined.

And, and I'll never forget Pastor Clark's description of

when he was in Israel. And excuse me, he's in.

He saw the tombs, he was on the hill and he saw the tombs parts,

the clock. Where was that?

Where you saw the tombs? And you look down and you saw

the tombs on the, from the hill and how they were glistening.

You're on the Mount of Olives. And he saw the he, he could look

down and, and into Jerusalem and he saw the, the tombs and how

they were glistening and how they were white.

But meanwhile, the Bible says that inside they were full of

dead men's bones, full of corruption, full of deceit, full

of defilement, the good on the outside, but on the inside it

was nothing but dead. And then in verse 2, he says

here, so he kind of gives a a way to deal with these issues.

He says be watchful and strengthen the things which

remain, things that are ready to die for.

I have not found your works to be perfect before God.

When a church is dead, spiritual activity ceases.

The work is not perfect. That means that the work is not

complete. The work is unfulfilled.

It's not it's it's unfinished work.

Maybe this was a a church who at at one point was very zealous

about getting out and sharing the gospel, very zealous about

rendering social service help to to people, very zealous about

reaching the lost. But as a spirit is no longer

functioning within these people, it's not manifested.

Those things don't become important anymore.

They lose the the desire to go out and share the gospel.

They lose the boldness to stand in front of someone who's

opposing them and to stand and talk on, to stand on the Word of

God. You lose the boldness for you

lose the enthusiasm. You lose the energy to want to

go out and just do a work that the Lord initially gave you the

zeal to do. Now those things start to wane.

Church becomes slothful, it's not move to go out and do those

things anymore. No longer seeks holiness when

the Spirit of the Lord is not active.

Holiness is not something that that the church will pursue.

So we always have to check ourselves to see where are we at

in terms of seeking holiness. Where are we at with that.

But he says be watchful. That means wake up, wake up,

wake up, become aware, become alive, wake up in the spirit,

wake up to what the Lord is saying to you, wake up, he said.

Be watchful and wake up from that slumber.

The worst thing that can happen to a church is that it loses his

life or its power and no one is even aware and no one is even

aware. I was talking with Pastor Clark

the other day and and then we were praying together and

talking and, and I was just reminded as I was studying

through this that one of the saddest statements in the Bible

is over in the book of Judges, chapter 16, verse 20, and Bible

Judges 16:20

is speaking is speaking about Solomon, Samson speaking about

Samson who had lost his way, who had fallen into sin.

But he was strong. But after he allowed this woman

to cut his hair, he lost his power, He lost the presence of

the Holy Spirit. And the Bible says this, the

Bible says this, that after he had lost that power, he was

sleep. And when the enemy came in upon

him, he thought that he could still do what he had done

before. When the presence of God was

with him, he thought he could still get up, and he can shake

and, and he can go and destroy and, and, and, and still defend

himself. The saddest statement in the

Bible was this. But he did not know that the

Lord had departed from him, did not know.

If we don't know that the Holy Spirit is not functioning in US,

temptation can take us. The enemy can send attacks

against us and overtake us, because we can't defeat those

things in our flesh. And that's why we have to always

be aware. So we have to always seek the

the power of the Holy Spirit before anyone comes up here and

teaches anything out of the word of God.

We're back there praying and asking the Lord to please Holy

Spirit, manifest yourself. Holy Spirit, you be the one to

do this. You teach this, lead us, guide

us through the Scriptures. It doesn't matter who's there's.

There's seminaries that are full of people who can study this

word and be able to give a good interpretation of what this

means. But without the Holy Spirit, it

means nothing to the here. The Holy Spirit is the teacher.

The Holy Spirit is the one that reveals knowledge and truth.

We need the Holy Spirit always. Always.

Sardis was asleep and had become complacent.

That means they became satisfied, content with routine.

I always tell when I, when I train people in basketball,

always tell them there are four enemies that every athlete has,

but they're also four enemies. These are the same 4 enemies

that every church has, which are the same 4 enemies that every

Christian has. And I've committed this and,

and, and I've worked on this with kids all the time because

you need to know when one of these enemies are attacking

them. And the enemies are as follows.

First of all, the enemy of fear. You cannot play basketball being

afraid. You can't participate in it.

You can't participate in any sport being afraid, but neither

can the church function in fear, unless it's the fear of the

Lord. Laziness.

Any athlete that's lazy will not grow.

A church that's lazy will not grow.

A Christian that is slothful will not grow.

Pride. Pride is that thing that you

have that you don't even know that the other things aren't

there. You're so prideful you don't

even know that you're lazy. You're so prideful that you

don't even know that you're afraid.

You're so prideful you don't even realize that things have

been have been changed and you have dropped.

You have not grown. You have not been that person

who runs after holiness anymore because you become prideful.

You don't even pray because we we become prideful and we can

all fall into these things, be too prideful to pray, too

prideful to seek God. And then the 4th, 1 And this is

the one where the Church of Sardis fell into which many of

us fall into. I have fallen into this

complacency that means you're satisfied with where you are.

If there's one thing that any of us as a Christian have to be

aware of, it's being complacent. To ever get to a point where

we're complacent, we feel we don't have room to grow anymore.

I don't have to come to service that much anymore.

I've already read that I don't have to listen to it again.

I'm already comfortable with exactly where I'm at in my

faith. I don't have to grow anymore

complacency, being satisfied with just the way things are.

And that's how this church was and didn't even know that it was

under the attack of a vicious enemy.

Didn't even know. Unfortunately, many of us, many

churches, many Christians, become victims of complacency.

It comes upon you so fast, but it also comes subtle, and we

don't even realize that we're dealing with these things.

But when a church is only concerned with reputation, or

they're only concerned with filling seats and only concerned

with popularity, when that happens spiritually, they die.

They no longer seek souls, they just seek members.

They no longer desire to grow spiritually, but just seeking to

grow financially. They are no longer seeking the

things that are above, but they're now.

It's just seeking the things that are upon the earth.

Desire to be friends with the world instead of being the

servants of Jesus Christ. When we seek to please men, then

we're no longer the servants of Christ.

We're no longer the servants of Christ.

And then he tells us, he says, straighten the things he says

strengthen, I'm sorry, strengthen the things which

remain that are ready to die. We got to do an inventory of

ourselves, do a thorough inventory of ourselves and, and

find out what's there that remains.

What are the things that are still good?

Do I still like to go to Bible study?

Do I still like to pray? You know, do I still have this

love for, for for the Lord and for other people?

What's in me that I can strengthen?

Do I have a desire for for for souls that I need to strengthen

it? Do I have a desire to study the

word? I need to strengthen it,

Strengthen those things that remain.

And he says, I found that your works before God we're not found

to be perfect. They were not found to be

complete. And then he says, remember

therefore how you have received. Now some versions may say, and

this is in verse 3. Some versions may say, remember,

or you know, it may say, remember therefore how you have

received and heard, or remember what you have received and

heard. Either way, it's that deposit of

truth that was deposited into you that you once heard, that

you once believed, and you received it with a manner that

was of great zeal and great all and reverence for the Lord.

You received it with enthusiasm and faith.

Need to go back to that and remember that time that we we

that we received the word of God every time we had an

opportunity. We received it with this

enthusiasm. We received it with this all

that is coming from the mouth of God.

When we lose that all, when we lose that zeal, when we lose

that enthusiasm, eventually we lose our desire for the word all

together. So he says, remember therefore

how you've received it or what you've received and heard.

And then he says, hold fast. Once you remember how you

received that word of God, once you remember what you received,

grab onto it. Grab onto it tightly and hold on

to it tightly. You know no, no be.

Have a firm grip on it, guard it, guard it and continue to

obey those things. Even though apathy was all

around this church and apathy was, was, was penetrating the

walls of this church just like it could be here.

You know, there could be apathy here as well as enthusiasm here.

But the but but when we are able to grab hold firmly on the word

of God and we're able to guard those things that we've heard

and continue to obey those things regardless of what's

going on around us, we can continue to grow and be a

blessing to somebody else and be a blessing to someone else.

In other words, he's saying to this church and he's saying to

us, be steadfast, be unmovable and always abounding in the work

of the Lord because any work that we do in the Lord is never

in vain. There's always fruit.

A dead church or a dead Christian must realize that a

change is necessary. So we must examine ourselves and

see what it is that we've become complacent.

Where have we become complacent? Where have we become lazy?

Where have we become fearful? Where are we with those things?

What is leading? What are we doing that we're

leading it with our flesh instead of leading it by the

Spirit or being led by the Spirit of God?

Where are those things? We have to be aware because

sometimes the appearance of the church becomes more important

than other things. The the the appearance of the

building, the tradition, the way things used to be.

That's one of the things that can kill a church.

Well, this is just the way we always done it.

This is what we've always did. You know, we'll when those

things start to override what the scripture says, that's a

problem. That's a problem.

Be overly involved in divisive political parties or material

gain or blending, just wanting to blend with the culture.

Having more concern about those things than the concern to stand

on God's Word, sharing the gospel, winning souls, and

growing and holiness. That's when there's a danger of

a church dying, when it no longer seeks holiness, no longer

has a desire to seek holiness. And then over here in verse 4,

I'm sorry, Let's look at the bottom of verse 3.

It says, therefore, if you will not watch, if you will not

watch, if you will not hold fast, OK, It says that they He

will come upon you quickly as a thief.

He will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know the

hour that I will come upon you. But the grace of our God tells

us that we can repent. That's what he tells us.

We can repent even if we're in these areas of lack, these areas

that have become dead or become cold in our Christian walk.

When we concentrate, we meditate on those on on the word of God

and the Holy Spirit then touches our hearts and let us know, you

know, you have backed off from this or you don't pray as much

as you used to, or you don't read your word as much as you

used to, or you don't, you know, allow or or or or or appreciate

the fellowship with like minded people the way you used to.

Your, your group has changed. Your influence has changed.

When you realize those things, the Lord says repent, repent.

This is awesome because see, there are some things in the

world that you can be associated with.

And the moment you do something that's contrary to what they

like or what they believe or what they think, you're done.

You're done. You're gone.

Your name is off the road. You're no longer invited to the

socials. You're no longer getting called

to the picnics. I've experienced that with some

family members. You know, you're done.

But Jesus says repent as a church or individually, we can

repent. That means we can turn from

those things. We can change your minds and we

can change our directions. I love what David says to us in

in, in, in in Psalm 119 and, and and 59, he says, I thought about

my ways. I thought about what I was doing

and I turn my feet toward your testimonies.

But then over in Psalm 51, he says, Lord, do not take your

Holy Spirit from me. David knew he sinned.

He knew he had blown it. He knew he messed up, and he

knew that there was going to be a consequence for the things

that he's done. There was going to be judgment

for those things, David said. Lord, I can deal with anything

else that you want to do to me, but please don't take your

spirit from me in church. I would say that's the way we

should value the Spirit of God. It's precious.

It's precious the fact that we as believers have the Holy

Spirit living in us. The Bible says that the moment

that you believe the Spirit of His Son came into your heart.

The moment we believed, we have that and it should be precious

to us. It should be sought after.

It should be our relationship with the Holy Spirit should be

strengthened. He says, if you don't, then he's

coming quickly and he's bringing judgment.

This is not this judgment that's going to happen at the last day.

We're talking about a judgment that he will bring as a

chastisement. And thank God that he loves us

enough that he wants to chastise us when we're wrong, when we're

off. And then in verse four, he says,

I have a few things. He said there's a few names even

in Sardis who are not defiled, who have not defiled their

garments. I have a few.

There's a few people there that have not defiled their garments,

he said. And they shall walk with me in

white, for they are worthy Jesus.

Jesus always has a remnant. There's always a remnant of God,

no matter where we go, no matter who we're with.

There's always a remnant of God in Christ.

Even if we do sin, we can be cleansed.

Even if we do defile our garment, we can be cleansed

again. I love the fact that we have

first John 1:00 and 9:00. That tells us basically that if

we confess, if we humble ourselves and confess that this

is where we are, this is the sin we've committed, we are in

agreement with God that we're off.

He says if we do that, He says He all we have to do is confess

it. Repent, confess it.

He said that He will forgive and He will cleanse.

He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness because He is

just and He is righteous. So he's admonishing these, these

few who have not defiled their garments, He's who have not

soiled their garments. He's encouraging them to remain

faithful, that the church could be revived.

See, the church could be revived with just a few people.

You all remember back in the Old Testament in in Genesis, how,

how, how Abraham basically bartered with the Lord and said

Lord, if there's 10 that's in this city that will pray, will

you not destroy it for 10 people?

And he said, I will not destroy it for 10 people.

He was talking about destroying Sodom and Gomorrah for their

sexual immorality. Even as bad as that was, if

there were 10 people there that would have prayed, that city

could have been spared. I totally I I personal

personally believe that the reason why our country has not

been just totally destroyed is because of churches and people

and Christians that are praying got a president that's reading

the Bible. You have Congress people that's

reading the Bible. You have personalities that's

reading the word of God. If it wasn't for people who were

praying, I believe this country will probably have been already

destroyed. 10 people serious could have saved Sodom and

Gomorrah, but there wasn't 10 that pray.

God can always use even a small remnant, even a small remnant.

And then we go to verse 5. We're about to come in praise

and worship team, please come forward.

In verse 5, He says he who overcomes shall be clothed with

white garments. That's awesome.

He'll be clothed with white garments.

And I will not blot out His name from the book of life, but I

will confess His name before my Father and before his angels.

So here in verse 5 we see that Jesus gives this church, and He

gives us 3 promises. Those who overcome, those who

are victorious, those who are conquerors of Christ, He gives

us 3 promises. And the first promises is he

says that he will, He will give us a white garment.

We will be clothed in white garments.

Garment always has to do with our character.

Garment always deals with the character of God.

So he says, I'll give you the, I'll give you a white garment,

meaning that he will give us a garment of purity, a garment of

righteousness, a garment of glory.

It denotes the fact that we are the redeemed.

And if we're already redeemed, then we should say so.

The Bible says, let the redeemed that the Lord say so, right?

So we shouldn't be ashamed of being the redeemed of the Lord,

but we should be bold about it and we should say so.

Isaiah 61 and 10 says, For he has clothed me with the garments

of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,

and then he gives a second promise over in he he gives

second promise. He says He will not blot out the

overcomers name from the book of life.

Now this does not mean that one can not.

This isn't saying here that one can lose their salvation that he

will blotch some names out. No, but he's actually talking

about what he says over here in in chapter 20 of Revelations

verses 20, verses 12 through 15, he says, and I saw the dead,

small and great standing before God and books were open and

another book was open, which is the book of life.

And the dead were judged according to their works by the

things that were written in the books.

The sea gave up its dead who were in it.

And death in Hades delivered up the dead who were in them and

they and they were judged each one according to his works.

Then death in Hades were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death, and anyone not found written in the

Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.

So he's telling us, he's telling us that there is a list that we

can be on, that we will never be erased from.

We can never be erased from that book.

Your name is in it. It's there.

It's there for eternity, and that is the Book of Life.

He told his disciples when he gave them power to cast out

devils and to heal, and they came back and they were talking

about how much authority they had over the demons.

And Jesus said, no, don't rejoice because you have some

authority over some demons, He said, but rejoice because your

name is written in heaven. We have a lot of things that we

may have accumulated here on this earth.

We may have had a lot of accomplishments, whether it's in

the faith or otherwise, but the truth of the matter is the most

valuable thing that we have is the fact that our names are

written in the book of life and no one can erase it.

They will never be erased. And then the third thing, the

third thing, he says he will confess the overcomers name

before his Father and before his angels.

These are heavenly angels that he's talking about, these spirit

beings, the celestial beings. But what an encouraging thought

it is that Jesus Christ, the King of glory, the one who

created heaven and earth and the end of the earth, He Himself, He

said one day that he will acknowledge and announce our

names before His Father and before the angels, that we,

bold, overcoming, enduring, faithful conquerors belong to

Him. What an encouraging thing.

That's what we have to look forward to.

We are on a list that we can never be taken off of, and we

are loved by a God who will never turn His back on us.

Jesus says that he will never leave us nor forsake us if we're

not ashamed to confess Him before men.

He will not be ashamed to confess us before his Father and

before his angels. And then just simply says in

verse 6, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to

the to the churches. If you've heard it, let it get

into your heart, believe it, obey it, take it with you, seek

the Holy Spirit, the help of the Holy Spirit.

Value the power, the presence of the Holy Spirit, a valued

anointing of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom that we get by

listening and being led by the Holy Spirit.

But maybe there's areas in our lives that we have allowed

ourselves to become complacent in.

Maybe there's areas of our lives that we have allowed to almost

die. Maybe there's things that we've

kind of walked away from in our lives and we have not been as

zealous and the Holy Spirit has been trying to talk with us

about this to kind of point those things out.

I definitely have one that the Lord talked with me about

myself. So I'm asking that if that is

you as the praise and worship team, we'll play the last song

after communion. I pray that as you sit, as you

sit there or stand there, that you take that time to repent.

Once the Lord brings it to your attention, you know what it is,

just like I know how my what mine is.

Take that time to repent. So Father, we do thank you for

your word, we thank you for your message.

We thank you for your truth. We thank you, Lord, that you

love us so much that you would give us these things in your

word and talk to us. These are real things that

happens to real churches just like it can happen to us.

Father, I pray that as you sent Jesus Christ your Son, to be our

sacrifice, and that as He ascended back to be with you,

Lord, He left with us His Holy Spirit, who indwells us, who

keeps us, who walks with us, who teaches us.

I pray that we never grieve Him or that we never quench it, so

that He will always be active, manifested in our lives, and

that we will seek the holiness, Lord, that the holiness that you

give us opportunity, Lord, to walk in as Christians because we

know that the Holy Spirit comes to give witness to You and to

Your Word. The truth is open by way and

revealed through your Holy Spirit, Lord, and we thank you

for that. On the night in which Jesus was

betrayed, he took the bread, and after he gave thanks, he broke

it. And he said, take and eat.

This is my body which is broken for you.

Eat this as often as you eat it. Eat it in remembrance of me.

And then he took the cup and he said, this is the cup in the new

of my blood in a new covenant. And it was shed for the sins of

many. We are still cleansed by the

blood that was shared, that was shed by Jesus Christ.

Those who are new Christians and new believers, their sins are

washed clean by the blood that was shed 2000 years ago.

Our sins that we commit from time to time, that stains our

garments are still cleansed by the blood that was shed by Jesus

Christ. He said drink this and as often

as you drink it, drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you do.

Show the Lords death until he comes.

Amen. The Lord bless you all.