Our God, our Father, we ask that You would send Your Holy Spirit to us now. That You would breathe life into us. We pray that You would send the Spirit to convict us of sin and righteousness and the coming judgment. We pray that You would send Your Spirit to illuminate and magnify Jesus Christ in our midst. We pray that you would send your Spirit to remake us after your image in true righteousness and holiness. We pray, O Lord, that you would hear the prayers of your church, that you would pour out your Spirit of blessing upon us. And we ask in the powerful name of Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen. At one point or another, we've probably all been to a church that seems to be dead. A dead church. Maybe they meet in a nice building, maybe they have a strong contingent committed to holding services week in and week out, but we go in, we visit, and we walk away thinking, that church just seems to be dead. On the flip side, we've also probably been to churches that also seem to be very much alive. We visit, we walk away thinking God is clearly among them. They are vibrant, they are full of life. And in fact, these experiences to us are so common that this term, these terms dead church, alive church, are really very common, we use them often. But today as we come to this passage in the letter to the church in Sardis, we're faced with a pressing question in this respect. What is it that defines whether a church is dead or alive? What is it? And before you answer, think about the fact that appearances can often be very deceiving. I mean, Jesus says right here in verse one, you have the reputation of being alive, but you were dead. Clearly, a reputation. They had a number of people, either in the community, among the other churches, or both, their reputation was that they were alive. People thought that that was a church that was alive. But Christ says, you know, appearances aren't often reality. So what is it that defines whether a church is dead or alive? Of course, it's probably no surprise to you that we find many different answers to this question in our culture, our society. A lot of these questions to this answer, a lot of these, the criteria for determining such are based upon personal preferences many times or superficial criteria. So often nowadays when people speak of a church being alive, it just means that the people are enthusiastic, that they have lively worship, emotional worship, energy in the building. I think other people define being alive as being sincere. The church is very sincere. Pushing aside the question of whether they're sincere over the right things or not, others look to social criteria to determine whether a church is alive. How much difference do they make out in the real world? Are they the frozen chosen? Are they navel gazers? All they care about is doctrine and singing and worship, and they're not making a difference out in the community? That's a dead church, people often say. Others look to how many people show up on Sunday, what kind of crowds they have, what kind of budget they have, what kind of staff they have, how many decisions they can count for Christ each week, how many ministries and programs that they offer. There's a variety of different opinions on what makes a church alive, and I'm not saying that we throw all those things out entirely, but I do want you to see that often the most common criteria, some of these things, the most common criteria used in our day is fraught with problems. Many base their evaluation on whether a church is dead or alive based upon their own personal preferences, whether they felt a connection, whether they got emotionally involved in the service, their idea of what a church should look like and do. But again, things aren't always what they seem. That's one of the main themes of the book of Revelation. The eye of sense and the eye of faith are often two very different things. That's like the thesis of the whole book. You think Rome is conquering the world. You don't see that Jesus is ruling and reigning. The same is true here as well. The church may be full of energy, teeming with people. They may be busting the budget, they may be beloved in their community, they may be sincere in their faith and practice, and yet still be a dead church. So again, I ask you, what is it that defines whether a church is dead or alive? Well, I believe we can start to answer that question or answer it in part from this passage before us today. The only thing ultimately that determines whether a church is dead or alive is the word of Jesus Christ. Not to be too simplistic. The Lord is the chief shepherd of the church. It is his evaluation of a church that ultimately matters. It doesn't matter what other people think. It doesn't matter what kind of reputation they or we might have. It doesn't matter what personal preferences are. It doesn't matter our limited perception of what's going on in a church, our sense of the kind of impact that they are having. We are to judge the deadness or the aliveness, for lack of a better term, of a church based upon the Word of Christ alone. The Word that has been, of course, preserved for us in the Holy Scriptures. And when we do that, brethren, what we find is that a church alive is a church that is filled with the Spirit of God. That's what we're gonna see here today. It's filled with the Spirit of God in the sense that the Holy Spirit is growing and producing fruit among the congregation, and it's a church that has sincere and regular fellowship, communion with the Lord Jesus Christ, and that has an effect on the church. It results in love for Him, love for others, and holiness of living. That's what the Lord Jesus points to here in this letter to Sardis. But the letter is a rebuke. It is negative. And so we're going to focus on the negative before concluding by considering the positive. And what I want to do is give you five marks of a dead or dying church that we see here. Five marks of a dead or dying church. I want us to see these marks so that we understand and can avoid the errors of such and may positively understand and seek the life that Christ offers here as well. First mark of a dead or dying church, spiritual slothfulness. Spiritual slothfulness. This is the most severe rebuke among the letters to the churches, alongside the letter of Laodicea, which is a rebuke as well. But here, the reason that Jesus rebukes here, it's not just because of their error. Some of the other churches, I think, had greater error in their midst. The reason for such a harsh rebuke in this letter is because they don't know their error. They think that they are alive. This is a church that thinks that they are doing well. It's kind of like the science fiction movie, The Sixth Sense. People who are dead don't know that they're dead. And that's a big problem. That's what's going on here. They did not know that they were dead. In this sense, perhaps they looked and said, well, we've got no Balaam in our midst, we've got no Jezebel in our midst, we've got no sexual immorality in our midst, we've got no pagan compromise in our midst, we're not undergoing persecution, we haven't lost our first love like those other churches, so we're good. And yet everybody would have been shocked to hear Jesus say, no, no, you are dead. It's a danger when we compare ourselves with other churches. Well, we're alive compared to them. Well, we're great compared to them. It's the word of Christ that is the ultimate standard. So Jesus says, okay, you think that you are alive, but you are dead. And so he says in verse two, wake up and strengthen what remains. Command to wake up is a term, is a phrase, an imperative that has military overtones to it. It's like be watchful or stay alert, like a guard standing alert at his post. And this is particularly important when we consider the history of Sardis. Sardis was known for having a military fortress that was seemingly impregnable. It was a fortress that was 1,500 feet or so up on a cliff face. It was backed by water, surrounded on three sides with steep cliffs, and it had a reputation as a fortress that was impossible to capture. They had a reputation of being strong, secure, alive. But historical records show that over time, the defenders of the city have become a little careless because of their strength. At one point, a soldier from Sardis accidentally dropped his helmet all the way down the cliff face from up in the fortress. And so what did he do? Well, he climbed down and retrieved it. The problem is that the enemy was sitting there watching. And they learned from his climbing down a possible way in which to scale the walls, the cliffs. And that's exactly what happened. One night, shortly thereafter, enemy soldiers scaled that place in the wall, and they did it by surprise. They came like a thief in the night. And the Sardis defenders were so confident, they didn't even have a command post on that section of the wall, of the fortress. Nobody was there when they scaled up, and so the city was captured. They were overthrown. Reflecting on this, ancient commentators wrote that the city was captured because of lack of vigilance. So when Jesus says, wake up, this would have resonated with him. Wake up, remember who you are. Remember your history. You think you're invincible. You think you're alive. You think that no one can capture you. You think that you are secure and all is well. But Proverbs 1.32 says that it's the complacency of fools that destroy them. Jesus calls them to wake up to the danger they face, and his words imply that they had become spiritually slothful, that they had become drowsy, that they had become sleepy, that they had become lazy. If we think about spiritual slothfulness, what is it? What is spiritual slothfulness? What is spiritual laziness? Well, just think of how you would describe laziness in life. Maybe some of the teenagers and college students can answer that for us today, right? It's just a joke. What is laziness? Laziness is when you sleep too much. Laziness is when you eat too much junk food. Maybe you drink too much. You don't properly watch your health. You don't properly care for your body. You waste time on pleasure, on trivial amusements, entertainment, video games, movies, TV. You focus too much on things that don't matter. Your duties and responsibilities get put to the back burner. That's a lazy person. Well, the same is true spiritually speaking as well. Being spiritually lazy, being spiritually slothful, rather than being on watch or on guard and walking circumspectly. Spiritually drowsiness is when you walk right into temptation. You live naive to Satan's schemes in the lives of this world. You're spiritually sleepwalking. Rather than feeding on the Word and worship, you binge on spiritual junk food, News, Netflix, friends. So your main course of consumption, rather than the nourishing bread of life, rather than drinking and eating in moderation, you fail to exercise self-control, you let yourself go, and the gifts that God has given for your enjoyment, you turn into crutches or idols or vices. You're more focused on pleasure. in the use of God's gifts rather than using them for the advancement of His glory. You don't properly care for your spiritual health. Worship really isn't a priority. Prayer, confession of sin, praise to God. Occasionally you might go through the motions, but essentially they fall by the wayside. You don't care for your spiritual body. The church holds a secondary, less important place in your life. You're just you and God, or you and your life, apart from the body of Christ and fellowship with Him, and one look at your personal calendar, or one look at your thanks statements reveal what you really value. Spiritual drowsiness is when you don't live consciously for God's glory and waiting the age to come, awaiting the second coming of Christ in your career or your possessions or your hobbies or your interests or your friends or even your family takes ultimate precedence. Spiritual drowsiness is not typically how we would describe somebody who overtly breaks God's law. but it does describe someone who regularly fails to positively fulfill God's law. The duties and responsibilities that God has set before you as a Christian are left undone, and you think you're okay because you're not off in some horrible sin. This is what characterizes spiritual slothfulness. Jesus says here this church is dead because they've become so comfortable, so secure, and lazy. They needed to wake up. The Scriptures say, take heed, ye who stand, lest you fall. The Scriptures say, let us not sleep as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. We must remember that the Christian life is a war. We must remember that the church is a fortress, as it were, and the enemy is constantly watching to see ways in which to infiltrate it. And all it takes is for us to fall into spiritual slothfulness, and we will go the way of the dead churches that we see out there in the world. So Jesus says in light of this, wake up, strengthen what remains. Strengthen that little bit of life that's still left in you. And what does He mean by that? I think it's explained when He says, I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. He's not talking about a quantity of works, like you're filling up a cup so that if you do enough, you complete it and you merit blessing or you merit eternal life. Always when we talk about good works, God cares about quality over quantity. Good works, he cares about quality over quantity. He wants good works that stem from a heart of faith. from a heart of love, with an eye to God's glory, out of gratitude, not out of desiring to earn or favor or get favor or merit, which is selfishness. And so to strengthen what remains and to bring your works to completion is a call to put off formalism, the lazy type of going through the motions of the Christian life It seems as though the church still said the right things. He doesn't say they had bad doctrine. It seems like the church still did a lot of the right things, but they didn't do it from a sincere heart of faith and love and for the glory of God. And so he says, strengthen what's remaining among you. Bring your works to completion. Wake up. Wake up to who you really are. and bring your works to completion in the sight of God. There's a second mark of a dead or dying church, spiritual amnesia. Spiritual amnesia, and we're gonna have to move a little quicker here. Verse three, he says, remember then what you received and heard, keep it and repent. All right, so they're sleepwalking, they're lazy, they're dead, Remember, remember. Well, what is it that they first received and heard? Well, received and heard is a phrase that's used very often in the New Testament, frequently refers to the hearing and receiving of the gospel in conversion. The implication is, for lack of a better term, the church had forgotten the gospel. Perhaps they became bored with the gospel. Like many churches nowadays, instead of preaching Christ and Him crucified, churches spend all their time on self-help, meeting the felt needs of the congregation, trying to get real practical and help people improve their lives. Keep them coming back for more. People get bored with hearing Christ and Him crucified every single week. That doesn't seem to make much of a difference in their lives. They come and they go and they come and they go and they never change. Well, we need to get more specific. We need to really bring the law. We need to bring in self-help. This is a forgetting of the gospel. Perhaps social action had replaced the gospel in this church. What we do is more important than what we believe. Perhaps they were bored with the Gospel. We need something that's more exciting, that brings in bigger crowds. Something more relevant to what we're living in right now. Perhaps they forgot that the Gospel is the power of God and the salvation. So Christ says, remember. Remember what you first received and heard. Remember that you received it as the Word of God, not the Word of man. Remember how the gospel came to you not in word only but in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. Remember when the basic truths of the gospel lit a fire in your heart and it stirred you up to love of God and neighbor. Remember, he says, Brethren, here, we need to take note. Don't equate a dead or dying church simply with churches that have denied the gospel or abandoned the gospel. A dead and dying church can also be a church that has the true gospel, but they've just put it on the back burner in favor of seemingly more important things. Just as we hear in life, you know, never forget where you came from, the same is true in terms of the gospel as well and the Christian life. So often our deadness, our slothfulness, our lifelessness, the key to it is not in progressing to new and different and greater things, so often it's just going back to the old paths. going back to how we were first brought to saving faith. The same gospel that brought you to new life is the same gospel that sanctifies you. And it's the same gospel that defines the mission and focus of the church as well. Just think about the Great Commission. What is a church called to do most fundamentally, most centrally, more important than anything else? What is a church called to do? Jesus was pretty clear. Go into all the world and preach the gospel. Baptize, make disciples, and teach and train them to obey everything that I commanded them. A church that forgets that mission, de-emphasizes that mission, neglects that mission, replaces that mission, alters that mission, is a dead or a dying church. So Jesus points out their spiritual amnesia and He says, go back to the old paths, the first things. Remember and repent. Start again that long road of obedience. Start it all over. Perhaps that's what the Lord is saying to you this morning as well. Look back to your conversion. Look at how far you've come. It might be time to throw in the towel. Don't factor in sunk costs. Start over. Begin again. Thirdly, another mark of a dead or dying church, spiritual unpreparedness. Spiritual unpreparedness, and what I mean by that is that they were not spiritually prepared. They were not prepared for the second coming of Christ. We know this because of what Jesus says at the end of verse three. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know what hour I come against you. Again, this would have struck a chord with the church there, given their history. They were overthrown at one point in their history by a surprise attack when they least expected it. So Jesus says, I will come like a thief. And he says that to emphasize how we are to live in constant expectation of his imminent return. We heard it earlier from Matthew chapter 24. It's a phrase that's common in the New Testament. Christ calls us to live in such a way so that we are not caught off guard at His appearance. And I've said it earlier, commenting from our reading of the Law and the Gospel, seeing Christ's promise to come again is to be an incentive to holy living. An incentive to us for zeal. An incentive to fight temptation and resist sin. The lack of living in a state of expectation is a mark of an unbeliever, 2 Peter 3. Jesus makes it clear as well, you're marrying, you're giving and marrying, you're just going on with life. It's a mark of an unbeliever and it's a mark of a dead church as well. And so this is a similar call to us to wake up and not be lazy. If all of our focus is on our job, our career, our education, our friends, our possessions, our hobbies, if all of our focus is on our family and our interests, if all of our focus is on these things, Christ warns us you're going to be caught off guard. Being unprepared is being too focused on this world and the things of this world. and that's a mark of a dead or a dying church. Brethren, we have to think a lot about the second coming of Christ. We ought to think a lot about it. We ought to consciously think about it and ask the Lord and prepare to live each and every day as though He will return and that we will be able to rejoice at His coming rather than shrink back in shame because of all the things we left undone. They were not prepared spiritually. Fourthly, another mark of a dead or dying church, spiritual defilement. Spiritual defilement. Another hint as to why this church was dead comes in verse four. Yet you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. I do want you to think for a moment about what Jesus says here. The beauty of His words. You still have a few names, He says. A few names in Sardis who are not defiled. Christ knows their names. John 10, 3, He calls His own sheep by name and He leads them. He knows their names. Jesus Christ knows your names. Jesus Christ is intimately aware with every name on our membership roll here at CRBC. He knows the name, the names of the people in this church. And although most of the church in Sardis was dead, he notices the faithful few and he cherishes them and he encourages them to keep going towards their reward. I can't help but think here of Abraham interceding for Sodom and Lot when he says, Lord, would you destroy a whole city if there are 10 righteous people found there? And the answer, of course, was no, he will not. Christ Jesus withholds judgment upon his church, the local church in this sense, even for the sake of a few. Such is his compassion. Such is His longsuffering. And what a beloved thing it is to hear the Lord Jesus Christ say your name and say you are worthy. This one is worthy. We ought to live as though you long to hear Christ name your name and say this one is worthy. Nevertheless, the emphasis is on the few that had, excuse me, not on the faithful few, but on the majority who had soiled their garments. They were spiritually defiled. They look great on the outside, great reputation, but like the Pharisees, they cleaned the inside of the cup while the inside, outside of the cup, excuse me, while the inside was filthy. This idea of soiled comes from when Jews would traverse into Gentile land and they would shake the dust off their feet when they came out. They would go through rites of purification and the washings to get the Gentile filth off of them. It's a metaphor for worldliness. It's a metaphor for compromise. The church here had become defiled with the pollution and the stink of the world. It was sticking to their garments. We considered this a little last week, but this means that this is a church that in some sense had given in to outside pressure, in some sense had conformed to the spirit of the age. This happens when a church loses the centrality of scripture because human opinions and cultural worldviews always quickly fill and take its place. This happens when the church compromises morally. They fail to call sin, sin. Perhaps because they're embarrassed or shamed and they don't wanna offend people. This happens when the church's morals, the church's ethics, even the church's mission is based upon cultural and popular opinion. Well, you gotta make a difference in the world no matter what you're doing. So the church, we judge whether you're making a difference or not. And the church adopts that worldview and lets the church, excuse me, the world pass judgment on the church and they adapt to it. Soiled their garments. This happens also when the church loses sight of justification by faith alone so that it's our good works, it's our action, it's our accomplishments, it's our agenda that takes center stage of the church's life. I could go on, but brethren, the church is called to adorn the Gospel with holy living. The church is called to live in such a manner that glorifies the robes of Christ's righteousness that we have by faith. The church is called to come out from the world, to be separate from the world and its lusts. And when we fail to do that, we are on the road to spiritual drift. Spiritual deadness. Fifth and finally, the last mark found here of a dead or dying church is that they were spiritually ashamed. It's related to the last point, spiritually ashamed. Notice one little remark at the end of verse five. To the one who conquers, I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. This echoes what Jesus says a few times throughout the Gospels. Remember where he says, if you acknowledge me before men, I will acknowledge you before the Father in heaven. But if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father in heaven. It's the same thing here. And the implication of Christ adding that here in this letter was that this church was failing or guilty of the failure to confess Christ before the world. That's why I put it essentially as, they were ashamed of the Gospel. It's another reason why Jesus tells them back in verse 3 to remember. Remember the Gospel they had received. They were ashamed by the Gospel. In some sense, they had become embarrassed by the Gospel. Perhaps the fact that the Gospel is an offense to the world bothered them too much. And you know, This might be the reason they had such a good reputation of being alive. Truthfully, we ought to desire and strive for a good reputation in our community and among unbelievers, if at all possible. That should be a noble and righteous goal of the church. We ought to be seen as friendly, as loving, as warm, as servant-minded, and receiving and welcoming. But sometimes a good reputation and sometimes the desire for a good reputation comes because the church compromises and they shrink back from declaring the whole counsel of God. In this case, the church might have had a good reputation because the world no longer saw them as a threat. The lusts of the world are no longer challenged by the church, and what does that mean? Well, legally, through our political system, legislatively, socially, unbelievers can fully indulge in their sin. We've seen that happen in our country. Abortion, gay marriage, transgenderism, all these things that have infiltrated not just our society, but even our courts and our legal system, Unbelievers lust after sin more and more and more. They want it not just to participate in it. That's not enough. They want everybody to encourage it and celebrate it. And so the church shrinking back allows them to fully and more manifestly fulfill their lust. No wonder then they have a good reputation. In some cases. Our calling, brethren, is to be a light and a witness. When we fail to call sin, sin, we're ashamed of the Gospel. And we're ashamed of Christ. When we are ashamed of the ethics and morals and teachings of Scripture, we are ashamed of Jesus Christ Himself. And in that, we undermine the very purpose and mission of the church, which is to be a light and a witness, which is why a church that is ashamed of the gospel is a church that is dying or dead. Thus, a dead or dying church is a church that has become ashamed of the gospel because ultimately they are in love with the world and they shrink back from confessing Him before men. So what have we seen in these points? A dead church is a church that is too secure, slothful, and lazy. A church that's neglected the centrality of the Gospel. A church that has forgotten and is spiritually unprepared for Christ's imminent return. A church that has become defiled by worldly compromise. And a church that has shrunk back from bearing witness to the Gospel before a lost and dying world. It doesn't take overt sin or overt false doctrine for a church to be dead or dying. All it takes is a formal, lazy, secure lack of vigilance, lack of positively fulfilling our calling as a church and a Christian to put us on the road to death. Well, as we bring all this to a conclusion, I wanna end by asking finally, what is the solution to this? We've seen a lot of negative things here What does Christ hold out positively to a church that is dead or dying? And this is important because no matter where we stand as a church, no matter where you stand as a Christian, there's an element of truth here regarding all of us. You can't go through those five distinctive marks and say, I have done this without fail. But here, I wanna leave you with some encouragement, with some hope. I want to leave you with how we see once again, as we've seen in each letter, Jesus holds out himself as the solution to whatever problem or issue the church's face. And it's in this description of Jesus here in verse one that gives us a hint of what this church needs. He says in verse one, he describes himself as the one who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. The seven stars are the seven churches. He is Lord of the church. He holds the church in his hand. He's saying, don't compare yourself with others. Don't look out to the government. Don't look out to society. Don't look out to culture. Don't judge based upon those around you, whether you are alive or dead. Look to me. Look to the first cause. Look to the Lord of the church. Listen to my word. But then he's described as the one who has the seven spirits of God. Numbers in Revelation, almost every time without exception, are symbolic. Seven is the number of perfection. This is a reference to God's one Holy Spirit, the God who is perfect, the God who is limitless, the God who is almighty. And the emphasis on Jesus saying this is that the Spirit is the fullness of God and the fountain and source of life. The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. Creation. The Spirit of God shone the light of the Gospel in our hearts. Spoke life into our hearts. Raised us from deadness to life. New creation. To a church that is dead, this is exactly what they need. They need the Spirit of life. Jesus says, look to Me. I'm the one who holds the Spirit. I'm the one who sends the Spirit. along with the Father, I'm the one who sends to refresh and regenerate and renew. And because He holds the Spirit, He can also hold out the promises of life. And we see two of them here. The first one is, to the one who conquers, they will be clothed in white garments. This refers to the perfect, immutable righteousness that will be given to us in eternity. We will be made new so as to never sin. Right now, our righteousness is credited to us, legally. Then, we will become righteous. We heard it earlier, when we see Him, we will be made like Him. Brethren, this shows us a link between purity in the present and purity in the future. Because of who we will be righteous, we are to pursue righteousness now. The metaphor is beautiful. He is the one who clothes us. We don't clothe ourselves. He is the one who clothes us. This isn't a call to personal merit or salvation or sanctification by works. We conquer by faith. He clothes us with His perfection. He grants to us His obedience and righteousness that He earned in His perfect life and death. And we will walk in that ultimately at the last day. So right now, we clothe ourselves with Christ. We put on the garment of Christ. We walk in his identity, in his righteousness, not because of who we are, but because of who he is and we are in him. But the second promise is I will never blot his name out of the book of life. In the Old Testament, this language is used to emphasize that not all who are of Israel are of Israel. You can be part of the visible people of God, you can have your name on the membership roll, you can be baptized, you can confess Him before the church, but apart from perseverance and faith, your name, though externally enrolled with the people of God, may be blotted out at the last day if you harbor unbelief. the one who conquers, the one who clings to Christ by faith. Your name is written on the palms of his hands. Your name is written from the foundation of the world in the book of life. And eternity will not erase, as we sang earlier, because impressed upon his heart it remains in marks of indelible grace. Brethren, it is the promises of God and Christ that are the ultimate incentive and motivation and power for us to walk in obedience to His commands. As we hear this rebuke and we examine ourselves, we take a look at ourselves, as Robert Murray McShane said, take one look at yourself and take 10 looks at Christ. It is because He descended and lived strict, perfect obedience. He died for our sin in our place. He was raised for our justification. It is on the basis of this He offers you pure, white garments of righteousness to be received by faith alone. and He promises you that you will forever live in eternity with Him. This is the motivation for us to stay alert. This is the motivation to anticipate His coming. This is the motivation to fulfill our calling to be a light and a witness from a heart of gratitude, given all the promises of God. I pray then that we too will wake up to these things. that we will listen to the word of Christ as the ultimate criteria for whether we are dead or alive, that we will strengthen what remains, that we will bring holiness to completion in the fear of God, and that we too will fulfill our calling and commission as a church to be a light and a witness to a lost and dying world. May God in his mercy and grace grant these things to us today, amen, let's pray.