the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 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 what you have received and heard, keep it and repent. If not, 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 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. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot out 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. Amen, this is God's word, may He write it on our hearts tonight. What does revival, what does it look like?
The Psalmist prayed, would you not revive us, O Lord, that your people would rejoice in you? Revival is when God refreshes his people with a sense of the glory of being loved by him, and they abound in joy and gratitude and thankfulness, and they're renewed in their zeal for him. Oh, don't we need that? Don't we want that Sardis was a church fast asleep?
They were dull to the Lord. We don't want to be like that. Why do we need revival? This is the first point we talked about last week.
I'll review it in five points tonight and get to questions two and three. But why do we need revival? Why did Sardis, we need revival? We were satisfied with our own works.
He says, I know your works. Now listen, the way they would have heard that is the way that they've begun to be trained to hear it by hearing the other letters, the first letters that Jesus said he would say, I know your works, and then he would commend them for their patience or their perseverance or their energy or their zeal. And you can imagine this church that's sitting on the edge of its seat. He knows our works, they might have said to one another.
Here it comes, here's the commendation. And can you imagine they're surprised when he says, I know your works, you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. It may just be that their reputation was killing them, all the activity, all the stuff that they were doing was actually the thing that was keeping them dull and dead. I've not found your works complete in the sight of my God, he says, and look, if you could contribute even one pebble to your salvation, you would spend the rest of your life wearing yourself out searching for that one pebble.
You can never find the right pebble to make you right with God. Christ must save you and Christ alone, but if you're relying on your dead works to save you, if you think you're right with God by your works, you're asleep, you're dull, you need to be revived. Second reason they need to be revived, they were just going through the motions. You've got a reputation for being alive, how do you have a reputation?
You get it by your activity, your words and your deeds and people observe and they think highly of you. Well, that's this church. And why we might ask, why would they be part of a church when there's no life in it? Well, maybe because of the glories of its past.
Maybe this church had a fabulous past, just like the city itself of Sardisai, told you last week that it's king, you know, if you know the expression rich as creases, you know the name of their king. This was a fabulously wealthy community in the past. Gold and silver were mined there and first made coins there. But by the time of Jesus, the river had a paned out and they had lost their former glory.
And maybe Jesus is saying, you understand that metaphor. The church has lost its former glory too. It had a reputation maybe once rightly, but now you've just been building a reputation for yourself and there's no life. Maybe rather they were involved in this church, not because of the glory of its past, because of family connections.
This is what people do. They participate in church with their families and it was old habit maybe. Or maybe because it was advantageous in business or in the social life of the community to belong to this church. Or maybe they were just part of this church because religion feels good.
It feeds our pride to be part of a congregation, doing good works. If we say to ourselves, well, God will take notice. God's gonna be really pleased with us. We're gonna be right with him by our works.
We're wrong. The problem here was there was no heart in it. It was the empty shell, like that beautiful red, delicious apple that sits on your windowsill. And when you pluck it off that sill that you shine it up on your dirt, you take that first bite thinking, this is gonna be bull, sweet, crisp.
And then it's mush. It's mealy. You just wanna throw it in the compost pile. Look good on the outside.
There was no life in it. Jesus is saying, that's you. He's asking us, is that us? We're just going through the motions.
We should ask ourselves. Always a temptation. Always a temptation. And the fourth or third reason we need to be revived.
We need to be revived and we don't think we need to be revived. If you're heart that said of these other people, I think some of those people need to be revived. You're the person he's talking to. If you don't think you need to be refreshed, you need refreshment more than anyone.
But why do I say that? He says that to wake up, stay alert. He says, now interestingly, right? When a man says I'm asleep, he's more than half awake.
It's the man who doesn't know he's sleeping, who's actually snoring along and doesn't respond when you say wake up and can't say I'm half asleep. So if you're awake, your heart is saying, I want refreshment, I need the Lord. But if your heart isn't saying that, it's because you're dull. And you've grown weary of sleepy and it could be a sign of death.
You need to be refreshed by the Lord. The refreshed heart is always saying Lord, I need you. I need more. Fourthly, you need to be revived when you're not feeding your soul on the gospel.
Jesus says wake up, strengthen what remains. And then he says, remember. And the language is in the present tense. Keep on remembering, oh, it is so easy for you.
And I forget. It's a loose side of the cross. To not remind ourselves of the glories we have in Jesus. And if we forget that we won't remember, and it is in remembering that we find refreshment, maybe they lost sight of the feast of the banquet of God's grace.
Maybe they lost sight of the Christmas story. That it took God becoming man to bring mankind back to God. Maybe they've lost sight of the fact that Jesus was born for us. He was weak for us.
We grew up to obey on our behalf. And he grew up to suffer on our behalf. And so in his death and in his life, we have life because he died the death that we deserve. And he lived the life that we ought to have lived in God.
God in his grace says, this is my beloved son. And with him I am well pleased. And God looks at all who believe in Jesus and says, with you, I am well pleased. I sought you.
I forgive you. Have we lost sight of that? Or are we trying to get to heaven, of offering to God our unrighteousness? You might as well climb to the moon on a rope of sand, Paul would say to you, you can't even get a leg off the earth.
Jesus is the only way. And he came for you. Have you quit saying to your soul, oh, as the Psalmist did, bless the Lord, oh, my soul, and forget not all his benefits? We said last week, this is why.
It's so vital that we participate in weekly public worship. What Christians gain from weekly public worship is not first of all new information. It's not first of all a lot of instruction about things you don't already know. What you gain is a community in which you hear again and again.
The good news of the gospel, explained to you, applied to your soul. Were you invited to remember that Jesus is good to you. This is why we need weekly public worship. This is why we need a frequent, a very regular participation in the Lord's Supper.
Because every time we take the Lord's Supper, we proclaim to the Lord's death. And as we eat and as we drink, we say in our hearts, in faith and Christ, you are mine. And I am yours. I feed on you.
I have life only in you. This is why it's so important. This is why Calvin argued for a weekly observance in the Lord's Supper. It's so vital for us friends that we remember and keep on remembering that God gave his son for us.
But if you've forgotten, you need to be refreshed and revived. And finally, you need to be revived when you have quit obeying Jesus. He doesn't just say, remember what you have heard. But he says, keep it.
Keep it, he says in verse 3. Keep on keeping it. Now there were some in Sardis who had actually done that. He says of them in verse 4 that there are a few embers alive in these coals of ash, aremid.
He says of them that you have a few names in Sardis. People who have not soiled their garments. Now he's changed the metaphor from being awake and asleep to being alive or dead, now being clean or unclean. These have not soiled their garments.
He says, why are their garments clean? Why are their garments clean? Because they were willing to have their garments clean. Revelation 7, if you want to turn there, in verse 9 and verse 14, it says this.
In a vision, the apostle sees a multitude that no one can number from every nation, from all tribes. Standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes. And they have it says, they have washed their robes. And made them white in the blood of the lamb.
That is the only way to get clean robes. But some people and Sardis have soiled garments. And the filth of their sins cleans to them because they won't come to Jesus for cleansing. That's why their garments are soiled.
Our garments are naturally soiled. Isaiah said it this way. All our righteousness is like a filthy rag. Even the best that we get offered to God is dirty in his presence.
And to keep what we have heard is to keep on coming back to Jesus. To be cleansed, we wash our robes white in the blood of the lamb. Now that will change you if that's happened to you. I told the story last week of the revival that broke out in Ulster, Ireland in the 1920s.
People were hearing the gospel preached at work on the shipyard dots. And they became renewed in the hope of the gospel and the grace of Jesus. And in response to being forgiven, they begin to go home and grab all the tools they had stolen from their employer and bring them back to the shipyard and the shipyard had to build new sheds, just to hold all the tools, being returned. Being forgiven will change you, friends.
But if you will not wake up, verse three, Jesus says, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come. Now that's a picture they understood. Sardis was built on a mountaintop 1500 feet in the air. Three sides of that mountain were sheer cliff.
And the south side was a very narrow, difficult passage and climb up 1500 feet, elevation. And so it got the name impregnable, because it was so easy to defend or so they thought. Twice in its history, guarding just the south side and neglecting the cliff walls, armies, once in 549 under the Persians. And again in 218 under Antiochus the great soldiers scaled those sheer cliff walls 1500 feet straight up and took the city.
And at a moment they least expected they were overrun. And Jesus is saying, if you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you won't even know at what hour because you're not awake. And so friends, we need to be revived. This is a warning to us.
We need to be revived when we're satisfied with our own works and not the work of Christ. When we're just going through the motions of Christianity, but there's no heart in it. We need to be revived when we don't think we need to be revived. We need to be revived when we aren't feeding our souls on the gospel.
And we need to be revived when we aren't hearing and keeping the gospel of Jesus. They need to be awakened. How does that happen? That's question too.
How does it happen? How do you get revival? You don't program it into the church calendar. We can't set a day and invite Brother Billy Bob to come and preach a revival and guarantee that it will happen.
Now you might from this passage think that's possible because on the one hand Jesus says, do all these things. Wake up, be vigilant. Keep on hearing the gospel. Strengthen each other in the love of God.
Keep on hearing and obeying and remembering. It all seems like an explosive combination. Let's all just go do that, right? And yet it's not up to us.
We can't find the strength within ourselves to do any of those things. It's not by nature. What we need is fuel for the fire. What we need is steam in the steam engine.
What we need is the Holy Spirit. And notice how Jesus begins this word to them when he says of himself, these are the words, verse one, of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Now what is that? The seven spirits of God and the seven fold spirit of God is a reference to, we believe, the Holy Spirit.
Seven is the number of fullness, the fullness of the spirit of God and the seven stars. We know the seven churches. What you have is Jesus saying in my hand is the Holy Spirit and my church and when I bring these two together, there is life. There is refreshment.
How do we get Jesus to bring them together in his sovereign? It is entirely up to him when he brings the Holy Spirit to bear on your life or on the life of a community. You cannot manipulate him. He is not a genie in the bottom.
You can't rub his belly to get him to do it. But he's gracious and he delights the answer prayer and he's told you pray. Ask and it shall be given to you. See, again, you will find.
Knock in the door will be open to you for everyone who asks, receives and he who seeks finds. And he will knock the door will be open to you. As he said, which of your fathers, if your son asked for this food, would give him a snake? Or if he offered bread, would give him a stone?
It looks like a loaf of bread, but you'll break your teeth on it. Jesus has met some surd and yet you, who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children? How much more? How much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
We are always in a position of dependency. Oh Lord, do what only you can do. Bring your church together with the Holy Spirit and make us come alive. Refresh us.
Only God can do it, but he delights to do it. And so let our prayer be the prayer of the psalmist. Will you not? Will you not revive us, O Lord?
That your people know rejoicing you. What do you gain when your heart is refreshed in the gospel? By the spirit? What do you gain?
You gain free things and this is where we close. Notice how Jesus closes in this passage. And when I say gain here, understand all these three things belong to all true Christians. But it is the refreshed Christian who gains confidence that this is in fact theirs.
Jesus will never leave us for forsake us. And all that we have will ever have, we have in Jesus, we have complete in Christ. But when you are refreshed, you have the confidence that it's yours, three things, confidence in, your final justification, your final right standing with God when you meet God in heaven. Why do I say you gain confidence in that?
Notice what Jesus says about these people in verse four, who have not soiled their garments, they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. You will stand before me and my presence, Jesus, saying everlasting, everlasting and you are right to be there. Why? Because you are dressed for the occasion.
Now my kids have heard this story, and some of you have heard it in other contexts. But you know Chick-fil-A has Cal Appreciation Day once a year. Cal Appreciation Day is the day that if you go to Chick-fil-A, dressed in some kind of cattle costume, they'll give you a free deluxe meal. The whole combo meal.
My kids are used to two bucks at the drive-through window to get two $1 items at some other fast food chain. But to get like a $6 or $7 combo meal with the drink and the fries and the sandwich, unbelievable. So we took part, all eight of us in Chick-fil-A. Oh, oh, you bet.
We met for lunch. I mean, I put the white t-shirt on. The letter had glued or stapled black things. And I wore the ears and they gave me a free meal.
They gave us all a free meal. We went there for lunch on six street and family. And for dinner, we went to the one at the mall. We did.
And when I left the mall, we went to Rogers. And I negotiated a milkshake for dessert in exchange for the combo meal. Oh, you bet. Oh, you bet.
And you know, I think we scored like $100 worth of free food. I'm a legal painter day in the life of the way. Your family trusts me. But you know what it took?
It just took being dressed in the proper clothing. That's all it took. What clothing must you wear to stand confident before God when you see Him face to face the same clothing you need right now? And Jesus puts it this way, verse five, you will be clothed thus in white garments.
And that is friends, passive voice. That is not you making your own clothing or clothing yourself. It is you being clothed in white garments that are given to you, the garments of Jesus, the worthiness of Christ, the spotlessness of the Lamb of God who takes away your sin. And you and I can be right with God and have the confidence that we will walk with Him in white as we look only under Jesus.
If your heart is revived, you'll find that confidence building. The second confidence you have is in a guaranteed citizenship. Notice in verse five that he says, I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life. Do you hear that promise?
Jesus is saying it's the promise of permanence. It's the promise of a secured future. Your name has been enrolled in heaven, Jesus is saying, written in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world. And I will never blot out your name from that book.
Now do not twist that word and draw a false inference from it that Jesus is somehow threatening you instead of promising something good to you. This is a promise that he will never, no, never remove your name from this book. It is not a veiled threat that he will, in fact, for some blot out their name. Why do we know that that is not the inference we should draw from this passage?
Because Jesus has promised that all that the Father gives me will come to me and whoever comes to me, I will never cast out John 633. Paul's confidence in Philippians 1. He who began a good work and he will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. You do not need to draw the false inference that Jesus is somehow saying he will blot your name out.
You understand that Jesus could not, in saying this, could not have used the language of, I will write your name into the Book of Life. He had to put it in a negative, I will never remove your name because your name is already written in the book from the foundation of the world. And so he had to put it in the negative, I simply will never take it away, Jesus is saying. And though we live in a world here where it can appear, it can appear in a church that it's filled with Christians and then they lose their salvation.
It can appear that way because they walk away from Christ. It can appear that way. But John assures us in 1 John that they went out from us because they were not of us and if they had been of us, they would have remained with us. God holds onto his own and he never lets them go.
That's our confidence. You may have a growing confidence in the permanence of your citizenship, the guaranteed citizenship. And finally, you may have confidence before the throne of God, even in the presence of his angels. He says, Jesus says, I will stand with you and I will confess your name before the Father and his angels.
What an honor. Our great hope is not that we build a name for ourselves but that our name is on the lip of Jesus before the throne. A few years ago, I heard of a woman in the news who had falsely accused a man of a terrible crime for which he had spent four years in prison. And then she began to acknowledge, even publicly, that she had made it all up.
But she refused to clear his name in a court of law, which is where it would have to be done. Without the promise of immunity from prosecution for a previously committing perjury. And so she did not clear it up. And so the man, to my knowledge, continues to sit in prison to this day.
The innocent man punished while the guilty to protect herself is reluctant to speak. Isn't that a striking reversal of what Jesus is saying here? Jesus, the only innocent one, eager to present the guilty, you, faultless before the presence of the judge and his angels, doesn't protect himself but suffers the just for the unjust to bring you to God. In our world, it's not like that.
The unjust harms another is reluctant to bring harm upon themselves in order to see the innocent freed in the courts of man but on the cross. The just one who harmed no one allows himself to be harmed to see the guilty freed in the courts of heaven. And so he says, I will confess your name and you were to build your confidence on his promise and it is the refreshed and revived heart that may do so. The revived heart anticipates to this.
Do you want this then? Oh, wake up. Let's pray. Oh Lord God, awaken us and be gracious to us.
Satisfy us with your unfailing love that we might sing for joy and be glad all our days. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We invite you to stand to him before we partake of the supper. We're going to sing the first three verses of O Breath of Life.
It's a bulletin, insert. Following the supper, we'll sing just the stands of four.