Lord in prayer. Gracious God and Father, you speak to us through your word in living tones of life and grace. We are grateful for that in the midst of a dying and dead world. Indeed, O heavenly God and Father, as you have sent your prophet of old to say, All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of the Lord blows on it, surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. May we know that now, in Jesus' name. Amen. Turn with me in your Bibles to Revelation 3. We're going to read the first six verses. Revelation chapter 3. For those guests among us, we are in the midst of a revelation series. We are just over halfway through the churches, the seven churches in Asia Minor. We have made it to Sardis, have been through Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, and now Sardis, Revelation 3, page 1220 in your Pew Bible. And as you have that open in front of you, let me just, for a moment, Note that I believe many of our young people have received their report cards recently. And in those report cards, you get not only the grades, you get comments. And the comments, at least as a parent, were always more important to us than anything else. And those comments are almost always very positive. Teachers are very kind people, Christian school teachers especially. Very lovely people and they don't generally say difficult things to us, do they? You can note, you can sense sometimes that there is a bit of a difficult thing to say in the way that they frame the comment. They say it very kindly. They say things, you know, like they used to say about me, you know, Joel is a pleasure to have in class, but should focus a little more on his work. And that's a bit of a critique, isn't it? That's a negative comment, but it's said in a very nice way. So can you imagine now, if you came home with your report card and in the comment section, the teacher said, Joel is a terrible student. and should no longer be in this class. What would your parents say? What would your parents think? What would you think if a teacher who normally says very kind things, even when they have to say heavy things, they say it in a kind way. What would you think if the teacher said nothing good about you? Now let's read Revelation 3. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember then when you receive what you received and heard. Keep it and repent. If you will not wake up I will come like a thief and you will not know what hour I will come against you. There are still a few names in Sardis. People 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. Did you hear that? Maybe you didn't hear it, and that's the point, isn't it? Jesus, who presents himself to this church as the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. That's a description of Jesus taken from Revelation chapter one, but with a bit of a twist. And that twist concerns the seven spirits and the seven stars. The imagery here is of Jesus's great sovereign power. He holds in His hand the churches. He holds in the hand all of His people. And in His sovereign power, He blesses them. He pours out His grace upon them. He sends forth His Spirit to enliven them. So that this is the powerful, mighty, awesome Jesus who stands before his church holding their life in his hands. And he now says this, Jesus, who is so mighty and glorious, Church in Sardis, be warned, be warned. drawn from the opening description in verses 12 through 16 of chapter 1, but with a twist, the added seven spirits, which are mentioned in verse 14. Jesus says to the church, essentially this, you desperately need me, you need my grace, and you need my spirit to be at work among you. You need the saving work of Jesus to flow over you. Because there is nothing good about you. For the first time in the seven churches in Asia Minor, Jesus says nothing good about a church. Ephesus, you'll remember, had problems with their witnessing, but they were doctrinally faithful. Smyrna had nothing bad to say about it. Smyrna stood fast against the tides of the world. Pergamum They had issues too, but they were willing to do tough things before the world's opposition. And most recently, as we saw with Thyatira, they were passionate about witnessing to the world, even though they were doctrinally weak. So there was always something good to say, though not always something bad to say. And yet here, in Sardis, nothing good. No commendation. No word that says, Church, you at least are theologically clear. No encouragement for being steadfast in the face of the world. No encouragement for standing up against the tides of the culture. What in the world could be wrong with this church? What is the problem with Sardis? What could be so wrong with any congregation that the sovereign king and judge of his people who holds the church in the palm of his hand would say nothing good about her. There's actually a hint to the answer in its history, in Sardis' history. Sardis was first founded in 1200 BC, and it was a place of profound wealth. In fact, it's the place where we get the legend of the Midas touch from, for King Midas was there, and everything he did was golden. Indeed, gold flowed down onto the shores of the river that the city was located on, so that you could literally scoop it up off the banks of the river. So this city was fabulously, profoundly wealthy. And they used that wealth to convert into trade and to various industries. They had a very flourishing clothing industry, a very flourishing wool trade. Indeed, in the book of Acts, we meet one very famous citizen of Sardis, Lydia, the seller of purple cloth, whom Paul meets in the book of Acts and who comes to faith under the ministry of Paul. However, by the time Lydia meets Paul, Sardis is a shell of its former self. It no longer has such easy access to wealth, and it no longer is a place of great trade. It's living off of its reputation. It still presents itself. It still declares to the world, we are Sardis, the very big and powerful city. But it was no longer, and it was no longer for one very simple reason. A reason that we as Canadians are probably familiar with if we remember our history in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham between Wolfe and Montcalm. The same thing happened to Sardis. This was a city situated in such a way that it was essentially impregnable. You could not attack and defeat this city. The natural conditions of their geography made attack of this city possible only in one direction. There was only one way you could get into that city. So they built very powerful gates, very powerful walls there. They guarded that way day and night because they knew nobody could get into the city any other way. That wasn't entirely true. Sardis was so confident that they were guarding the one place that they could get that could be accessed by the enemy that they guarded no other place. They offered no other protection in their city. They didn't need to. The geography protected them. They didn't need any other protection. It was impossible for anyone to defeat them. So then Cyrus, you remember Cyrus, sent a soldier to climb up One of the walls of the backside of Sardis and climbing up entered the city unknown and unlocked the gates and Cyrus defeated and destroyed Sardis. Then again Alexander the Great when he came along had his men do the same thing. climb up an impregnable wall into an impregnable city and defeat it without their ever knowing. Thus twice this totally secure city was in its history was conquered and was conquered because they were self-assured, because they were self-confident, because they were believed they could not be conquered, that no one could come in and defeat them. They were asleep because they thought no one would be able to creep into their city. Now Jesus seems to make reference to this historical connection to Sardis in his words to the congregation in this same city. Like the city, Sardis as a congregation or as a group of congregations had a reputation of being alive but were dead. Sardis was once a great city but now was a shell of what it used to be. Jesus says of the church, you're the same thing. You used to look like a vibrant church and now you are a dead church. Now just pause there for a moment and ask yourself, is there any more cutting word that the Savior could say about a congregation then You are dead. The resurrected Lord, the life-renewing God, the Spirit-giving Savior says of a congregation, you are dead. Their beginning in the Christian life had been filled with great energy and excitement, but these congregations no longer pursued the way of the Lord, no longer drank deeply of His life-giving grace. like the seed sown on rocky ground or the seed sown on thorny ground. There was an initial beginning, but it didn't amount to much. The cares of this world and the culture around them overwhelmed them. So Jesus says, wake up and strengthen what remains. Wake up is a good translation and with good eschatological connections Remember Jesus, how often he said in his ministry on this earth, things like this, keep watch for you do not know what day or hour the Lord will come. Keep awake for when Jesus returns. Think of the parable of the foolish virgins. Think of those passages where Jesus warns his people that he will come like a thief in the night. Here Jesus says, wake up. But you can also translate this same word as show yourself to be watchful. Show yourself to be watchful, which is a hint at the history of Sardises, the city now, not being watchful. They were a self-confident, self-assured, self-contained community. Nothing can harm us. And Jesus says to the church now, wait, wait, wait, you'd better be watchful. Just like your city could be destroyed, so you too can be destroyed. You who believe that everything is okay. The church was saying, look, we're saved, aren't we? We're the redeemed, right? We don't need to get excited about anything. We don't need to get bothered by anything. We're secure. Nothing can touch us. I always say, Jesus, that's not the case at all. For I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Jesus says, you have not considered me and you have not considered my judgment. You have not considered my command. You are content with yourself, but you are not devoted to me. And you are not serving me the way that you ought. Oh, this church had all kinds of ministries, all kinds of activities, all kinds of programs. But they had none of the power, none of the piety, none of the presence of the Spirit in their work. For they had become complacent, self-assured, unreliant, and independent. People of God, we need to ask ourselves as we listen to this, again, is there any more devastating a word that you can hear from the Lord than this? Whatever congregation you're in now, as member or guest, Is there anything more devastating than to hear God say to you, your church, oh it's got members, it's got activities, it's got the appearance of something, but is nothing, is dead. I think we can see this, can't we? In the culture in which we live we have no problem identifying other congregations in this respect. We can talk about large congregations in our world with tens of thousands of members. There's a church that gathers today and 31,000 people will worship in it today. There's another that will worship with 28,000 members. One congregation, we speak about size, we have no idea about size. There is a basketball stadium that will be filled today with some 20 some odd thousand worshipers. But are they spirit filled? Are they vibrant? Consider how often these churches appear alive. But when you test them, when you look below the surface, too often you see what is missing, a genuine reliance, a total dependence upon the life-giving grace of God. You don't see members' lives transformed so that they are radical lights in a dark world. You see them simply convinced that they're good enough, that they're saved enough, that they're secure enough, that they're blessed enough. This is true as we survey the landscape of the modern church world and as we see franchise congregations planted here, there, and everywhere. And it seems as though those congregations are doing just great, those ministries are growing and expanding, but soon a dark truth comes to light, a documentary gets made, and the lamp goes out. Because not everything is as it seems. How many churches in our community once filled with many are now empty and darkened, the lights literally turned out, the congregations literally dead and dying. We can see it with other congregations, but can we not see it with our own? Here's a warning for our congregation. If Sardis, why not Wellenport? If believers in that congregation, why not believers in this one? Are we alive? Are we awake? Are we alert to the challenges and temptations of this fallen world? Are we fighting the good fight of the faith? Are we drinking deeply of the grace of God? Are we surrendering our lives to the Lord each day? Are we offering ourselves to serve God? Or do we just look like a Christian? Do we just look like a church? Some of us have to wrestle with that, all of us have to wrestle with that. Some of us as members, as individuals need to ask ourselves, am I really a Christian? I go to church, I sound good, but you know the truth, you know the truth. And as a congregation, we must always fight against complacency. We must always fight against self-congratulatoryness, against feeling good about ourselves as though somehow or another we are successful. We are not successful. Jesus Christ is, but only insofar as we depend upon him. Are we a living church? How do we know? What should we look for? What marks a healthy congregation? Jesus tells us, remember, he says in verse three, what you received and heard, keep it and repent. The word here, remember, has a persistence to it. When he says, remember what you received, he says, go back to the beginning. Remember what you were taught and accepted at the first when the gospel came to you as a congregation. Remember that foundation upon which your faith was rested, the need of grace, the greatness of your Savior's love, the depths of your Father's goodness, the power of the Spirit's work. Go back to that. They had lost touch as a congregation with their foundations of the faith. They had lost touch with where they had begun. They had gotten self-congratulatory. They had gotten big and bloated. And they had gotten self-reliance, no longer dependent upon the Lord. Jesus, through John, says, go back. Go back to the beginning. In your worship services, get back to the basics. Hear the truth of the gospel regularly and faithfully proclaimed, even though you think you know better, you don't know better. Remember what you received, he says. Received is almost a technical term here. It means that which was handed down to you, as the writer Jude describes it, a tradition or teaching given by Jesus to the apostles, to the church. That is to say the truth that we confess and hold dear that we proclaim and that we demand be preached is not a truth that we define or decide on. It's a revelation from God. It's a word from the Lord. The church needs to return to what God says to what Jesus says to be governed by his word and will and not to be governed by their own desires, their own tastes, their own itching ears. Indeed, remember what you received and heard, says Jesus." It's a reminder that they had not come to the faith on their own, but had been brought to a knowledge of God by the ministry of others. They had been preached to. They had been told about Jesus. They wouldn't have known about him otherwise. They had heard the good news of the gospel and that good news had come by men who had been appointed for the task with a message given them by Jesus. that they were to receive, that they were to embrace, that they were to remember. Whoever had taught them about the Lord had taught them in the light of what Jesus revealed. The church should not decide what it wants to hear. The church should hear, should remember, should receive what Jesus has proclaimed to it. And that can be a very difficult thing. The reason why that's hard for churches, the reason why churches go off the deep end is precisely because that word from Jesus is inevitably painful. It's painful, at least from a human perspective. It is precious, powerful, and good for the believer who embraces it. But initially, when we hear that gospel come to us, I think we understand that to embrace it requires a radical reformation, requires a turning away from priorities and practices that we hold dear, that requires a change of lifestyle that we think is actually pretty good. But Jesus doesn't. He says, remember what you have received and heard. Keep it and repent. Keep it as the sense of doing it, living it out, of putting into practice what Jesus has taught you about his saving grace, about his work in your life. Repent. Well, that hardly needs defining, surely. The church needed to realize that they had lost sight of Christ and were no longer living for him. The realization had practical consequences. The church had to turn itself around, had to stop in the way that they were going and go in the exact opposite direction in the way of life and of liberty and of the love of God in Jesus Christ. The church was to stop and say, we need Jesus. We need Jesus. We need Jesus. They needed to start living the genuine Christian life. They needed to start worshiping with greater devotion. They needed to start putting their faith into practice as difficult as that was. And indeed, I think that even as we hear this, this is for us, understandably, as church and as Christian. the hardest of all paths to walk. We love being Christian if that means we're told we're saved. We love being Christian if that means we have a community that will support us. We love being Christian if that means that we're told we're good enough. But a word like this is a demanding word, a tough word. And it's one we don't like because we think we know better. That's the danger. You know that second year university students are called sophomores? We call freshmen first years, juniors third years, seniors fourth years. Where does this weird word sophomore come from for second year students? Sophomore? What is that? It's actually a compound word of two Greek words, sophos. Sophia, wisdom, wise, and Moros, moron, idiot, a wise fool. Why do we call second year students, university students, wise fools? Because they think they know something and they don't know anything. They come home from school. Maybe you've had that experience. They come home from university and they think, Mom and Dad, Mom and Dad, you don't know what you're talking about. I've been schooled. I know some things. They don't know anything. They're wise fools. You know how many Christians fit that category? They think they know a thing or two. They can say a thing or two about theology. They can say a thing or two about the Word of God. But in the end, their passion, their zeal, their devotion, their dedication is absent. As Christians, we too often, especially in multigenerational churches, think that we know enough. We have the basics. We have the general thrust, the outline. And too often in a congregation like ours, spirituality is more cultural than anything else. We're just living the way dad and mom have. We're just living the way grandma and grandpa have. We're just living the way our friends have. And then suddenly something goes wrong. Maybe we go to university, a secular university. Maybe we face a particular trial, a grievous and painful one. Maybe we experience what we do not understand or expect. And in that existential crisis, in that moment of grief and pain, it becomes apparent that we have not dug deep enough to the solid rock of Christ to build our foundation. We have built our foundation on sand. And our faith, which we thought we'd all sorted out, was just in the end a collection of empty phrases and pious drivel. We wasted our time in catechism. We didn't attend Bible study. We really don't know who God is or what he's doing. And the hardest truth to discover is that that is true of us. The humble depend deeply upon the Lord and draw the more intimate fellowship with him by this warning from Christ. But the self-assured and the lifeless, the spiritually dead can't wait for this service to get over. It's already taken too long. For some, the solution to the problem of spiritual apathy is to change the church, to change the message, to revamp the spiritual lives of the members by new worship styles, new ways of presenting the gospel, new ways of approaching the ministry. Our worship is too tired, we say. My son or daughter, my own spiritual growth is lacking because our worship is too old school. The problem with spiritual apathy is never the tired ministry, though a tired ministry is a problem. Let's not deny that. But the problem with spiritual apathy is not the ministry, it is that we have forgotten the first things. We have failed to remember, receive, and hear what God has done in Jesus Christ. We have forgotten the first things, forgotten just how good God is towards us in Jesus Christ, forgotten the joy of living the praise of his name, forgotten the purpose of our existence. It's too easy to be content in the form of our faith. which is deadly and against the Lord. Indeed, Jesus issues to all such a strong warning, the strongest of warning. You are dead. Wake up. Wake up, O sleeper. The call of the Lord is to return to the meaning, truth, and power of the gospel to remember what God has done and that Jesus Christ, who holds the seven spirits in his hand, can blow new life into your midst, fanning into flames the dying embers of your faith so that you are on fire for the Lord. Now that renewal does require drinking deeply of God's grace like we've seen in baptism, like we'll experience this afternoon in the Lord's Supper, like we have every Sunday when the Word of God is preached. This renewal requires a desire to be in His Word. to see Jesus's goodness, to glory more and more in his goodness and grace towards us, to give ourselves more challengingly, more painfully, more difficultly to serving Christ. Those things that make us a little uncomfortable. Even sometimes talking about the faith with our friends. Or maybe having a difficult word with a brother or sister that says, your lifestyle isn't good. That's not right. You shouldn't do that. Those are things that make us uncomfortable. Those are things that Christ demands us to do that show that we're alive, that we're awake, that we struggle to do, that we need to challenge ourselves to do more fully. For this renewal requires recognizing that the greatest threat that we faith in the Christian life is the thing that we are most self-confident in. We think we're saved. Listen to the words of Christ to Sardis. There were some still members of that congregation that were not so apathetic. Jesus speaks in the verses four through six, an encouraging word to them. They were striving in that congregation of those congregations to be godly and righteous. Jesus tells us their garments were not soiled. Remember that Sardis was known for its wool trade. It was known for its clothing. And so Jesus plays upon that and he says, You're not like the rest who think their clothing is exceptional but who is dirty. Your clothing may be humble but it is clean. Indeed the Lord continues to borrow this concept of clothing by saying to those who walk in a living relationship with him, will walk in white for they are worthy. They will be clothed in white garments and their names will never be blotted out of the book of life. The white garments, I think we don't misunderstand, we understand rather quickly. The white garments is a connection, isn't it, with the doctrine of justification, that those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ are made to be righteous. So as our catechism says, it is as though we have never sinned, nor been a sinner, as though we were as perfectly righteous as Christ is righteous for us. In fact, when it comes to understanding the doctrine of justification, we sometimes talk about how Jesus took off our dirty clothes and wore those clothes to the cross. He was before God a sinner, and then he took off his righteous robes, his pure white clothing, and he gave it to us so that we now stand before God, perfectly obedient as Jesus was for us. When God looks upon us, he sees the perfect righteousness of Jesus. When he looked upon Jesus on the cross, he saw the perfect sin that covered us. Jesus says here, those who live by faith, genuinely trusting in the Lord, not being perfect, not accomplishing great things, their worthiness is not in their doing but in their trusting. Those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and work out that trust in their daily lives will be clothed in white before the Lord and will be saved eternally. They will enter into life with Christ. There is no greater comfort, no greater joy, no greater blessing than to know that you are clothed in the white of Christ and have his grace. But then he says, and they will not have their names written or blotted out of the book of life. That is, of course, a rather implied threat. If you don't Trust in me if you don't wake up if you don't come to faith and living fellowship with me your name will be blotted out of the book of life. And now that gets us as reformed Christians a little nervous. What does the book of life refer to? From chapter 20 verse 15 in the book of Revelation we know that whosoever name is in that book is saved. And in Psalm 69, in verse 28, the king asked, or the psalmist rather, asks that the enemies of the king be blotted out of the book of the living. And then in Daniel 12, in the verses 1 through 2, we read that the names of the redeemed are written in a book. So it seems as though in the context of scripture, the book of life, this book that is referenced here is a book with the names of those that are redeemed, with those that inherit eternal life on the day of Christ's return, the ones who will finally at the end enter into eternal bliss. Or to put it another way, what we can say at least is this about this book of which Jesus refers, that it records the names of all of those who belong to his company, all of those upon whom he blesses with salvation by his grace. And what he's saying then to the church in Sardis, what he's saying to us, what he may be saying to some of us here today very personally and very directly, is that if you don't wake up, your name won't be in that book. You may go to church all your life, you may sit in the pew, but if you do not live for me, your name is going to be blotted out. And when the names are read, when the role is called, your name will not be called. That's a serious and severe warning. The serious warning of Jesus to all of us here today is that those who refuse to genuinely love and serve him will be blotted out of this book. A word, by the way, blotted, that is used to describe the Lord's judgment against the people of Noah's day. What is Jesus going to do if you don't wake up? He's going to do what he did to the world in Noah's day. He's going to destroy you. That ought to motivate us, that ought to move us, that ought to encourage us to lay hold of Jesus Christ in light of his promise and in light of his warning. We ought to fear and tremble. It is not enough for us as second, third, fourth generation Christians to be able to say, I've belonged to this church all my life. I go to church every Sunday. I'm a Christian by default. That's not enough. It's never been enough. It'll never be enough. The Lord warns us and he calls us and he commands us. Wake up. Embrace faith. Embrace Christ. Embrace Christianity. Embrace living for the Lord, for that is the way of life, and that is the way of eternity, Jesus says. Those who walk that way falteringly, failingly, with all sorts of flaws. None of you is going to be good at this, but when you crawl, when you scrimp, when you try to make some headway up the way of life towards the Lord, Then Jesus will say of you, well done, good and faithful servant. He will clothe you in white and you will enter into eternal rest, enjoying eternal fellowship with God and his people. There is nothing better than to know that you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And you must heed the warning, the warning is real. As a congregation, we must heed this warning lest we become complacent, lest we become self-reliant, lest we become self-assured. Look at us. We're good. We are not good. Jesus is good. There's a difference. There is no greater gift than the righteousness of God in Christ. And there is no greater warning than the wrath of God in Christ. So as a church knowing this, as individuals knowing this, how should we respond? Should we not just flee into the arms of the Savior who welcomes us willingly? This is how churches should respond. This is how we should respond is increasing our dependence, driving more dependence upon the Lord in our fellowship, ministry and work. We should seek ways to drink more deeply of God's grace. Indeed, as individuals, the same. Here is a word to motivate all Christians. Be warned and be welcomed. Why would you die? Your Savior will receive you. So that even now, today, if you are complacent in your spirituality, if you know in your heart that this is a word to you, That Jesus knows the truth of your pious veneer, but your dead spirituality. Know that he will still receive you. Wake up and come. Come to him who will welcome you. Come to him who will lift you up. Come to him who will bless you. Jesus is a kind and gracious king, the kindest of all. And he welcomes all who trust in him, but he is the most fearful, the most awesome, the most terrifying Lord. And he will destroy all those who rebel against him. So let's heed the word of Sardis, a word where there is no commendation. And let us earnestly pray that the Lord will never say that against us, either as a congregation or as Christians. Let's ask him for that in prayer. Shall we pray? Gracious God and Father, we pray that you would emblazon upon our hearts the warning of Sardis. It's easy for us to think that's not us. What was wrong with those people? Why didn't they figure it out? But such complacency is the beginning of the road to death, Lord. So help us to see that we desperately need your will. We need your word. We need your grace. We need your spirit. We need your sovereign power. You who hold the seven stars in your hand, who holds the seven spirits. You who gives life to the dead, for you are the resurrected Lord, give life to us and keep us from self-reliance, self-confidence. May we not, Lord, think that we are secure, but having been made to stand, help us to depend upon you each and every day. Help us to remember, to receive and hear What it is that you have given us that we might never stray from the path, but stand always in your grace, for we pray it in Jesus name. Amen.