Well, good morning, church.
One of the practices here at Trinity is we have expositional preaching, which means the
main point of the text is the main point of the sermon as we walk chapter by chapter through
the Bible.
Well, today, we're going to jump ahead one chapter as we talk about the church at Sardis,
and Lord willing, we'll rewind and talk about the church at Thyatira and Pergamon.
So, let's go to the Lord in prayer together, family.
O Father, be Thou our vision.
As the psalmist prayed, revive us again, that we may rejoice in You, show us Your steadfast
love, and grant us Your salvation.
By the Spirit's power, would we fix our eyes upon You.
Would the light of Your Word shine into our hearts and minds?
Gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim the honor and glory of Christ's great name.
In His name we pray.
Amen.
What is the greatest lie that a church can believe?
What is the most dangerous lie this church can believe?
Well, depending on who you ask, you might get different answers.
Some might say the lie of the prosperity gospel.
Others, the lie of pragmatism, leading churches to brush sin under the rug.
Or the danger of churches being captive by secular worldviews.
These are all dangers, but there is an even greater one, a more dangerous one, a sinister
one.
And the lie is this.
When an entire church falsely believes they are going to heaven, but in reality, they
are hellbound.
A church full of goats who sincerely believe they are sheep, living in a delusion.
How do you wake up a dead church from this delusion?
Well, in the text before us, like an air raid siren, Christ trumpets a wake-up call to a
dead church.
Our text this morning is Revelation chapter 3, verses 1 to 6.
And while you are turning there, we will look at this text in three points.
Point number one is the rebuke that Jesus delivers to a dead church.
Point number two, the revival that is needed for a dead church.
And point number three, the reward for the faithful remnant.
So the rebuke, the revival, and the reward.
Let's read God's word together.
And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, the words of him who has the seven spirits of
God and the seven stars.
I know your works.
You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Wake up and strengthen what remains as 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.
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.
This is God's word.
Picture the scene in Sardis.
The anticipation and excitement has been building.
Word has spread that a letter will be delivered to your church.
And this letter is no ordinary letter.
This letter is written by the apostle John himself with the authority of the Lord Jesus.
Jesus.
And this letter has been delivered along a postal route in a circle, as it were.
And now the church at Sardis is next.
And you can feel the electricity.
You wonder to yourself, I wonder what Jesus thinks about my church.
The church has been growing, busy as usual.
Things are going pretty well.
And you enter into the bustling gathering.
There are some opening prayers.
You've sung some hymns.
And now the moment you've been waiting for.
But what you get is unexpected.
Like a wrecking ball, Jesus deals a scathing rebuke.
Instead of giving them a trophy, Jesus takes out a sledgehammer.
Jesus says to them at the end of verse 1, I know your works.
You have the reputation of being alive.
But you are dead.
What a devastating rebuke.
A dead church.
What a grim word.
Dead.
Is there a worse description Jesus can give a church?
What a sad, sobering thought.
In these seven letters, Jesus would begin with a commendation before getting into his concerns.
Here, there is none of that.
For most of them, there is nothing worth commending.
Whereas other churches were experiencing hardships for their faith, there is none of that here.
No mention of the thunderstorm of persecution.
No mention of an opposition to false teachers.
No mention of suffering.
This church is dead.
Jesus, the sovereign Lord, says, I know your works.
Jesus sees them and says, you are a church with a high reputation.
Literally, it had a high name.
But the reputation did not match the reality.
They are Christians in name only.
You can profess Christ, but never truly possess Christ.
It has been said that Sardis was a city of past glories.
In many ways, Sardis was a city on the decline, and so was this church.
Likewise, the church was living on past glories with no present reality.
Maybe what Jesus is telling this church describes you this morning.
You attend church.
You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.
Your reputation does not match the reality.
You know, it's easy to start off vibrantly, gain a reputation, and then fall away as time goes on.
To have memories of past faithfulness, but no present reality.
Consider, you and I can likewise be deceived.
Deceiving to think you have everything, but have nothing.
To think you're running the race, but you're not even in the race.
Appearances may deceive others, but God is not fooled by appearances.
Others see a living church, Christ sees a graveyard.
Like whitewashed tombs, outwardly beautiful, inwardly dead.
In Matthew 23, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees in the same way.
You who look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
Oh, this church looked beautiful on the outside.
I mean, they had a high reputation, commended and praised by others.
Other Christians may have asked, what church do you attend?
Oh, wow, you go to the church in Sardis?
That's a great church.
I mean, this is the kind of church you recommend to others.
This is the kind of church where the singing is loud.
Relevant Bible teaching.
A great fellowship hour.
A growing membership list.
A ballooning budget.
Humming with activity.
But there is no life.
This is a picture of nominal Christianity.
They are walking in a presumption of salvation.
This church had no discernment like Ephesus.
No perseverance through persecution like Smyrna.
No faithful witnesses like Pergamum.
No endurance like Thyatira.
There was no trusting in God's faithfulness.
No sweet communion with God.
No genuine humility.
No deadness to the world.
No contrite heart.
No true repentance.
And no love for God.
Sardis had none of these things.
Friends, you and I look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
He searches you out.
He knows you.
There is no hiding.
Now, one of the ways that we tend to be deceived about our spiritual condition
is we think our works are a good indicator about our relationship with God.
Someone could say, look here.
I give money.
I serve the poor.
Others have even said I've helped them in their walk with God.
Others may have said, I've prophesied in your name.
I've done mighty works in your name.
I've cast out demons in your name.
Don't these things prove that I am a Christian?
Well, this appears to be the situation in Sardis.
On the one hand, a heart of faith and repentance will produce good works.
Jesus said a good tree will bear good fruit.
But on the other hand, friend, there is a category called dead works in the New Testament.
Notice what Jesus says to the church at Sardis in verse 2.
Jesus tells them, I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.
Now, is this like bringing home your report card?
You get all A's, but there is only one C.
And your parents just begin to berate you.
You can never measure up.
Is God like that when he says, your works are not complete in the sight of my God?
Well, maybe you grew up with parents like that.
But understand, you are wrong if you think God is like that.
But understand, God will never be satisfied with those who merely go through the motions,
who mouth the words, but whose hearts are far from him.
He is saying some religious deeds may gain approval from others, but not in the sight of my father.
Their deeds were an empty shell.
Nothing inside of it.
This is just external religion, but no heart transformation.
These are dead works.
Know that God does not want your deeds or your words.
He wants your heart.
Christ has given me all of you.
No half measures.
No half-hearted obedience.
Christ will not tolerate no fly zones in your hearts.
He wants all of it.
He doesn't want to reorder the furniture in your living room.
He has come to knock the whole house down and to renovate something entirely new.
All of your desires, all of your dreams, all of your hopes must be in his hands.
You must give him all.
You know, the Bible doesn't present salvation as you make a decision for Jesus,
and he acts as kind of an insurance policy in your back pocket.
You never know bad things might happen to you after you die.
No, rather the true grace that saves is a grace that changes us.
True Christians are changed from the inside out.
Christians are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
The moment a person comes to know Christ,
the Spirit takes out the heart of stone and puts in a new heart of flesh.
Before your conversion, the darkness reigned in your life,
and we walked in darkness.
But after your conversion, the Spirit gives life,
and we now walk in the light.
True Christianity is about our hearts being flooded with the supernatural love of God.
True Christianity is about obedience to God and love for others,
about fruits of the Holy Spirit, of true heart and repentance.
Christianity is about life, of being truly alive.
Whoever has the Son has life, John would say.
I wonder if you are alive today.
Church, let there be no illusion that this can never happen to us.
You know, our hearts are prone to wonder, aren't they?
You know, in the book of Judges, the mighty Samson's hair was cut off,
and it says he did not know that the Lord had left him.
Likewise, churches never realize that the Lord has left the congregation.
Sadly, outwardly, you can run a church without God.
Let me ask you a question.
If the Lord left this church tomorrow, would anything change?
Would we sense anything has gone missing in our worship, in our life together?
Would we know that the Lord has left us?
You know, consider the nature of sin in this passage.
You know, sin is a spiritual disease that deadens your heart,
like frostbite, eating away and numbing your soul,
and you never realize your soul is dead.
These are nominal Christians in the first century in a church founded by the apostles.
And now these apostles were being executed.
In John's lifetime, this is a church filled with nominal Christians.
How much more do we need this warning?
By way of application, let me speak to you who are leaders in the church,
especially those of you who teach God's word or serve publicly,
where you might gain a reputation for being alive.
You know, teaching can be a great way to force you to meditate on God's word.
But friend, don't mistake exercising your gifts
to mean that you are personally experiencing God's grace.
Don't make that mistake.
It's very easy to make that mistake.
To go on astray on this point is how you end up dead when others think you are alive.
To think performing deeds for the Lord, effectively counseling others,
to mean that you are truly alive.
That is not so.
You might think you are exercising God's gifts,
and you never have God himself.
You can teach others what the house looks like
and never enter and go on yourself.
Consider, does teaching others make you want to pray with God,
to be with him, to praise him, to glorify him?
Does it give you a poverty of spirit before the omnipotent God,
to go deeper into his word?
Do you marvel at his mercies toward you?
Do you weep with joy at God's mercies in your life
as you held out this same mercy to others?
Or are you tempted to merely go through the motions?
How sad to be able to talk about the love of God
and never experience it yourself.
To have correct doctrine, you don't have Jesus.
You know, you can teach on the importance of forgiveness
and never actually forgive other Christians.
Don't be content with dead Christianity.
To have a reputation but not have the reality.
Notice there's one other thing ailing this church in Sardis
that Jesus rebukes.
You know, in this world,
a church is not meant to have home court advantage.
But our text hints that this church is right at home in the world.
And this is implied in verse 4,
where it says the faithful few had not soiled their garments.
Most of this church had in fact soiled themselves.
Now, not outwardly, inwardly.
The idea of soiling something is what it sounds like.
It's foul.
It's a picture of contamination from sin.
In this case, it seems this sin comes in the form of compromising.
Whereas Jesus, remember, commended the church in Smyrna
for confessing his name in a hostile culture,
in this case, it seemed they wanted to keep a low profile.
Rather than conforming to Christ,
they wanted to conform more to the world.
This is a church full of chameleons who camouflage themselves.
You know, wouldn't it be a sad thing
for someone to say at your funeral,
you know, I never knew he or she was a Christian.
I suspect many could say that of this church.
Jesus warned that a love for this world
and a true love for God cannot coexist.
A love for the world will choke the seeds that are planted.
Because of that, this church was dead.
What's a dead church supposed to do?
This leads to point number two,
the call to spiritual revival.
Jesus doesn't wipe his hands clean,
but dead church had soiled his garments.
I'm done with you.
He doesn't do that.
Instead, Jesus calls a dead church to spiritual revival.
Now, when I say revival,
I am not talking about an evangelism strategy.
You know, engineering it through our own efforts.
You can't put a revival on the calendar.
No, rather, revival is a supernatural, God-initiated work.
Now, where am I getting that from?
Now, remember, in each of these letters,
John points to an aspect of Christ's character
the church needs to recall.
The revival to this lifeless church
comes at the beginning of verse one.
And to the angel of the church in Sardis writes,
the words of him who has the seven spirits of God
and the seven stars.
This is a declaration of the sovereignty
and sufficiency of the Lord Jesus over the church.
In the one hand, he has the seven spirits.
He has the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
In his other hand, he has the seven stars.
Remember, we saw those seven stars in chapter one.
These are messengers.
Angelic or human messengers.
Either way, Jesus has authority over them.
In the one hand, Jesus has the Holy Spirit.
In his other hand, he has the church.
And according to this vision, this revival,
this spiritual awakening to the church
must come from Jesus himself,
by the Holy Spirit.
Christ alone has the infinite power
to save a church from a hollow profession.
In verse two, before giving his prescriptions
to this dead church,
we see the urgency of the situation in the church.
In verse two, he says,
wake up and strengthen what remains
and is about to die.
Jesus says you must do these things
and you must do them now.
But when he says you are about to die,
maybe there's some spark of life in the congregation.
I take it to mean that Jesus is highlighting
the urgency of this call.
This is a patient that slams into the ER
and their vitals are about to flatline.
That's how dire this is.
They are about to die.
It has to be fixed and it must be fixed now.
Today, not tomorrow.
And Jesus gives three remedies
to a church that is about to die.
The first is to wake up
at the beginning of verse two.
You can translate it as be alert,
to be watchful.
John shifts the metaphor from a dead church
and now it's a sleepy church.
They need the spirit to give an awakening,
to wake them up out of their spiritual slumber.
But these words would have been a thunderbolt
right into the heart of the church at Sardis.
Because you see, the city of Sardis
had been invaded and destroyed
because they fell asleep.
Not once, but twice.
The city was built on a plateau
1,500 feet high.
And it was said that a single soldier
could have kept an army from coming up.
But in both cases,
the guards and the city fell asleep.
And twice the city fell.
Jesus is saying,
if you don't wake up,
devastation will come on you
just like it came on Sardis.
You are more vulnerable
than you can ever realize.
Verse three goes on and says,
therefore, if you do not wake up,
I will come like a thief
and you will not know
at what hour I will come to you.
You know, thieves don't give notice.
See it to your place at 2 a.m.
Meet me there.
No, they come in an hour
you do not expect.
Suddenly and unexpectedly,
judgment will come
like a thief in the night.
And this is referring to a judgment
on this specific congregation,
but also the final judgment,
the second death.
In 1 Thessalonians 5,
that Anna read,
Paul writes,
for you yourselves are fully aware
that the day of the Lord
will come like a thief in the night.
Judgment will come
when you least expect it.
So today you must wake up
and not tomorrow.
Tomorrow may be too late.
If you don't turn for your sin,
Jesus will say,
enough is enough.
And he will unexpectedly
sweep in and destroy you.
Your house is built on sand
and the storm of judgment
will come for you.
That's what the church,
that's what he's saying
to the church at Sardis.
And he's telling us today.
And God is not coming
to take a city again.
He is coming for your soul.
So,
the first command is to wake up.
The second command
is to strengthen what remains.
So much has gone wrong.
But underneath all the rottenness
and decay,
there is something
that must be strengthened.
Something that must be preserved.
Now, what are they to strengthen?
Well, later in the text,
we see a remnant.
Maybe it's strengthening the remnant.
But I would suggest
that seeing this
as strengthening the things
of the remnant treasures.
Strengthening the things
that refresh the remnant.
This church had been
churning out toxic waste.
And John is saying,
strengthen the life-giving things
that will nourish the saints.
Strengthen things like
the means of grace,
like preaching,
Bible study,
and prayer,
and fellowship,
and the ordinances.
This is the water
that will nourish the saints.
Saturate yourself
with these things,
John is saying.
Paul and Romans would say,
faith comes from hearing,
and hearing through
the word of Christ.
Strengthen the hearing
of the word.
And we see the sufficiency
of God's word
for the life of the church here.
The word melts
the frozen heart,
breaks apart the rocky soil,
and steals the spine.
Strengthen those things.
By way of application,
not only should we be doing
this in the church,
but are we nourishing ourselves
in our homes?
Fathers,
let me address you
for a second.
Are you instructing
your family
in God's word
to strengthen them,
to encourage them,
to refresh them?
If you failed in this,
begin today.
Family worship
to strengthen your family
can be as simple
as reading a verse,
praying,
and singing together
as a family.
Strengthen your family.
Refresh them.
Encourage them.
But not only are they
to wake up
and strengthen
what remains.
Third,
to remember
what you received
and heard,
keep it and repent.
To be restored
as a church,
they have to remember
what they first received.
We see here
true supernatural revival
is done
through the normal
gospel ministry.
John isn't calling them
to something new.
No new evangelistic methods,
no new ministry strategy,
no new techniques.
John is saying,
go back to the very beginning.
Remember the apostolic teaching
that was delivered to you.
Not only the scriptures,
but the gospel itself.
The church had abandoned
the priority of the gospel.
And it's the gospel
that the Spirit uses
to give life to a church.
You're dead
because you have abandoned
the fountain of living water.
You know,
likewise,
in 2 Timothy,
Paul would tell Timothy
to endure in his ministry
by depending on
what he already has.
After telling Timothy
that the crowd does
what the crowd always does,
he says in chapter 3,
verse 14,
but as for you,
continue in what you have learned
and have firmly believed,
knowing from whom
you learned it.
Church,
we must never lose
the centrality
of the gospel.
Remember it.
Remember that there is
only one God
who is holy
and righteous.
He created you
and me
to bear his image,
to resemble him
by loving others
and to love him
above everything.
But you and I
have sinned
against this good God.
God is good
and righteous
and he cannot just
brush our sin
under the rug.
He will punish sin.
And because of our sin,
there is a collision course
with divine wrath
and judgments.
Think about it.
If there was a judge
on the bench
and he never pronounced
condemnation
against lawbreakers
who commit crimes
of bloodshed,
of sexual violence,
such a judge
is not good.
Know that God
will not only punish sin,
he must.
The judge of the earth
will always do
what is right.
And the bad news is this,
that apart from Christ,
you will not find God
to be your friends,
but your enemy.
Not because he is harsh,
but because he is good
and we are not.
He sees the stains
in our garments.
You know,
I wonder what stains
are in your garments
this morning.
Not the stuff
on the outside,
but on the inside of you.
Untold, buried secrets.
If people knew
what you had done,
what you said,
what you thought
in your mind,
that if others truly
knew,
you're afraid
they would reject you.
You've tried to wash out
these stains
in your own efforts,
but it's never enough.
You live in the shame
of what you've done.
Your own conscience
continually points
the finger
and accuses you.
How do we wash
our garments
and make them clean?
Revelation 7,
verse 14 tells us,
they have washed
their robes
and made them white
in the blood
of the Lamb.
Friends,
this is the good news,
is it not?
In his great sovereign love,
the Father sent his Son,
Jesus,
to rescue us.
Fully God
and fully man.
The Creator
stepped into the world,
one who is truly alive.
Christ's works
were complete
in the sight
of his Father.
By his perfect obedience,
his garments
were completely clean.
But despite never sinning,
he goes to a cross.
The one who is truly alive
was put to death,
not for his crimes,
but for the crimes
and for all
who had returned
from their sin
and put their trust
in him alone.
At the cross,
the Father pours out
his wrath
on his own Son
as our sin-bearing substitutes.
The one whose garments
were never stained
bore your stains
on the cross.
On the third day,
Christ rose again
and is now seated
at the right hand
of the Father
with the seven stars
and the seven spirits
in his hands.
The Lamb came,
the Lamb was slain,
but praise God,
the Lamb was raised
to new life.
And if you turn
from your sin
and look to him
by faith,
you can be truly alive
today.
If you are not
a Christian,
wake up.
Wake up from
the insanity of sin.
Make a U-turn.
Today,
the garments
of your soul
can be white
as snow.
Why would you die?
Come to this fountain
so rich and sweet
and cast yourself
at the Savior's feet.
It is there
you can be made clean.
Throw yourself
at the mercy
of the cross
and exchange
your filthy garments
for white garments
that Christ freely
offers you.
He's not only
holding out
his nail-scarred hands,
he promises
to take you
into his arms.
He will never
turn you away.
You must
turn from your sin.
You must repent.
And to repent
is to die to yourself,
to submit yourself
to the lordship
of Christ.
God,
his command
of repentance
implies that
he will receive you
if you just turn
to him.
If you are a Christian,
remember this good news.
Keep it
and repent.
Remember when you
were a brand new
Christian.
Do you remember
those days
when you were
given a new name
in Christ?
Remember when you
first believed
and mercy
was great
and grace
was free?
Remember when
you were given
new garments.
And keep the gospel
family.
Keep on guarding it.
Keep on reminding
each other of it.
Keep on obeying it.
You know,
some treat repentance
as some gross
cold medicine
that you take
only when you need it.
But the Christian life
is one of
constant repentance.
We are constantly
relying on the grace
of God.
You must constantly
be going back
to that well
of mercy
each day
and admitting
your need of him.
Unceasingly relying
upon his forgiveness.
Sardis stopped
repenting
and so they stopped
marveling
at the mercies
of God.
But senior saints,
let me encourage you
that your walk
now matters.
You can thank God
for his past
faithfulness to you,
but you cannot live
on manna you ate
20 years ago.
These last days
matter.
Make them count.
Continue to wage
war against sin.
Stay in the race.
I know many of you
experienced
many sorrows
in the Christian life.
Chronic fatigue
and you were tired.
But you must
finish the race.
By way of example,
in 1992
400 meter Olympics,
the favorite to win
the gold medal
was Derek Redmond.
near the end
of his sprint,
he ruptured
his hamstring,
causing him
to fall
in the track
in agony.
While other
athletes raced
by him,
he laid on the ground
in tears.
Finally,
he rose to his feet
and with pain,
he dogged
every step.
But suddenly,
a middle-aged man
wearing a T-shirt
and cap,
fought through security
and jumped
from the stand.
Arm in arm
and shoulder in shoulder,
the person carried
the sprinter
to the finish line.
As they took
the last step,
the crowd exploded
with tears of triumph.
It was the sprinter's
father
who helped him
to the finish line.
Senior saint,
let that be your story.
As you finish the race,
I solemnly charge you
in the presence
of God and his angels
that you must finish
the race.
There is a prize
at the finish line.
You must keep going.
And this is the last point,
the prize for those
who continue
to walk with Christ.
Point number three
is the reward
for the remnant
in verses four to six.
In verse four,
Christ includes
a commendation,
not for many,
but only a few,
a remnant.
Verse four,
you still have a few names
in Sardis.
People who have not
soiled their garments,
and they will walk
with me in whites,
for they are worthy.
These few are salt
that have not lost
their saltiness
in a decaying world.
God always keeps
a remnant,
does he not?
God told Elijah
during mass apostasy
in Israel
that he had a remnant
of seven thousand
who had not bowed
the knee to Baal.
A faithful remnant.
It's always been like that.
Whereas most of them
had soiled their garments,
a few people had not.
They had not compromised.
And these few Christians
were out of step
with their culture.
But they were so near
to God's heart.
Christ commends them
for their faithfulness.
Heaven was on their mind,
Christ in their heart,
and the world at their back.
Their hearts were set
on the things
where Christ is seated.
And how discouraged
these Christians
must have been.
One thing that struck me
is that you will find
the godliest Christians
in some of the worst churches.
I can't explain to you why.
I don't know.
But you will find
the best Christians
in some of the
most nominal churches.
They see the state
of the world
and the state
of their own church
and they are discouraged.
Maybe you felt that way.
Discouraged at the church
in the state of the world.
These discouraged saints
needed to hear
that Christ treasures them.
You are not lost
in the crowd.
Your heavenly father
sees you.
These few faithful ones,
the tenderness
he shows to them.
He says,
these few Christians
will walk with me
in white
for they are worthy.
Because of their refusal
to defile their garments
under pressure,
Christ says,
you are worthy.
Now this worthiness
is not their own.
This worthiness
means there is no gap
between their profession
and their walk.
As Paul would say,
they are walking
in a manner
worthy of the gospel.
Their righteousness
is not their own
but one that depends
on God from faith.
Now some of you
are discouraged
because you spend
too much time
watching the news
or scrolling social media.
Turn it off.
Christ wants the church
to look up.
Christ is making promises
to you to encourage you.
You will walk
with Christ in white.
You will be in heaven
and see him face to face.
You will be dressed
in glorious white garments.
You may have garments now
decked with diamonds
and precious stones.
That would be filthy rags
in comparison
to these white garments
that Christ is offering us.
These are more glorious.
And white
is a prominent color
in Revelation.
White robes,
white horses,
white clouds,
white stones,
a great white throne.
White not only stands
for conquering,
not only stands
for being pure
and forgiven before God,
white also stands
for conquering.
These few are called
conquerors.
In Rome,
all the citizens
would dress in white
as they celebrate
a great victory.
And the church here
is triumphant.
The church is dressed
in white
as the lamb
ultimately triumphs
over his enemies,
like a Roman general
returning from a victory.
And these trials
will give way to glory.
These in white garments
are called conquerors.
They have overcome.
Those who have victory
after their earthly struggle.
Church,
hold fast as conquerors.
Even in this war against sin,
keep repenting,
keep obeying,
keep remembering.
That's how you conquer.
Even though you go now
in rags,
then you will have
white robes in triumph.
Though you bear the cross now,
then you will be given
a crown.
Will the world
put a crown on your head?
Christ gives you
a better one.
After finishing the race,
there is laid for you
a crown of righteousness
laid up for you
in heaven.
The most glorious thing
you've ever experienced now
will be but a dim candle
before the brightness
of that sun.
This is Christ
in all his glory
coming to take you home.
And this hope of glory
is meant to produce joy
in the saints today.
And no one can take
this joy from you.
Christ is calling you
to faith.
Church,
don't settle for cheap fast food
when Christ offers you
a rich banquet
in his presence.
It's been written,
thy saints
in all this glorious war
shall conquer
though they die.
They see the triumph
from afar
and seize it
with their eye.
Christians,
seize this triumph
by faith.
Though the world
thought little
of these precious few saints,
they had a high reputation
in heaven.
Christian,
no one might know
your name in this life,
but the King of kings
and the Lord of lords
delights to honor
those who honor him.
He knows your name.
But amazingly,
Jesus gives a second promise.
He will never blot out
your name
from the book of life.
As Tom preached last week,
if you confess Christ,
many synagogues
would blot out your name
from the membership rolls.
and you would be killed.
Jesus is saying,
I will never,
no never,
blot you out of my book.
If you confess his name,
your name is written
in heaven.
And Jesus gives a third promise.
It's a climax
to this whole passage.
Jesus says,
I will confess his name
before my father
and before his angels.
Those who are faithful
until the end,
Christ will confess you
before his father.
You want the Lord
to confess your name.
The problem the Bible presents
isn't whether we are ashamed
to confess Christ.
No, it's not that.
It's how God can not be ashamed
to confess you and me.
That is our greatest need.
Who will confess us
before that great white throne?
Weak, vile, helpless,
soiling our garments,
contaminated by sin
and a righteous God.
Who will confess our names
when we approach
that final throne
on that final day?
We need Jesus
to confess our name.
The spotless lamb of God
to confess your name
and my name
before the father.
Those who confess Christ now,
those who live for his name,
Jesus will confess
before his father.
Church,
this is what the text
is saying to us this morning.
You can settle for a name
in New Haven
or you can settle
for a name in heaven.
You must make the choice.
Jesus says,
what would it profit a man
to gain the whole world
and forfeit his soul?
Friend,
what would it profit you
to have your name written
on a membership list
at a church
but excluded
in this book of life?
What would it profit you
to have your name
and acknowledge
and applaud by others
but Jesus does not confess
your name
before his father?
What would it profit you
to be clothed
in rich clothes
and have nice cars
but you stand naked
and exposed before God
on that final day
of judgment
where you are not given
a garment of white
but you will wear
eternal black garments
of judgment?
Friend,
run to the mercy
of the cross.
Run today
today and not tomorrow
for tomorrow
may be too late.
And we see the fruit
of this rebuke
in church history.
The church at Sardis
eventually did make
a U-turn
and became known
for a bastion
of bold witness
for the gospel
where it remained
for another thousand years.
And to close,
there is a story
of a young woman
from a wealthy family
who came to faith
during a revival.
She was scolded
by her father
and ridiculed
by her mother
for confessing Jesus.
Eventually told
she must renounce
her fanaticism
or her name
would be blotted out
forfeiting her inheritance.
She was given
several days
to think it over.
On that final day
she was told
to give her answer.
She replied
by sitting down
at a piano
where she played
a verse
of a well-known hymn.
Jesus,
I my cross
have taken
all to leave
and follow thee.
Destitute,
despised,
forsaken,
thou from hence
my all shalt be.
Perish every fond ambition,
all I've sought
or hoped
or known.
Yet how rich
is my condition.
God and heaven
are still my own.
She chose a name
in heaven
rather than a name
in this world.
And you know what?
Jesus will confess
her name
before his father.
Will he confess yours?
Let's pray.
Oh,
Father in heaven,
help us to wake up,
to wake up today
and not tomorrow.
Give us life
as a church.
Help us
not be content
with the form
and not the reality.
Oh God,
we pray your spirit
would bring a revival
to our church
where we feel like
brand new Christians again.
Father,
would you do this
for your honor
and praise
for your renown?
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.