Church at Sardis - Revelation 3:1-6

Well, good morning everyone. So here we are looking at the fifth or sixth church? Sixth? Fifth. Right, we've got two more after this, right. So the fifth church of seven in the Seven Churches of Revelation. We'll be looking at the church at Sardis this morning. The verses are Revelation 3, chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. Only six verses for this one. I think last week we had like eight or ten. So a lot of verses last week and then just a couple this week. Right. Yeah. Yeah. So kind of interesting how this one will work. But it's interesting.

A couple of things to note about the city of Sardisim before we jump into it is there's no Most of the other churches have a, you're doing this good or that good sort of thing. Sardis doesn't really get that. They don't get to be told they're good. They just get to be told they're bad kids.

The city of Sardis was established about 1200 BC, so right around the time that Israel was going through the events that were described in the Book of Judges. The city of Sardis was established and it was the capital of the Lydian Empire. But it didn't really have any major development until about 700 BC. And I left the letter off there. It just says 700 B, but there should be a C there. And then it was conquered by the Persians in about, I think it was 536. Conquered by the Persians. And then Alexander the Great came in and conquered it as well in the 300s.

But I have this picture up here and I had a really hard time finding a picture that just demonstrated what the plateau was. So what we have here is we've got these columns that were actually part of the lower city. And then up on the top there you can see there's kind of a remnant of a building there between these two columns here. up on the plateau. And so the city of Sardis was kind of split up like that. And initially the original settlement was up on the hill up there, was up on that plateau.

And it's hard to see on the picture here. You can see it pretty well. I mean it's just like straight cliffs around it, all around it. But there's one narrow pathway that kind of leads up to that main plateau. Now as the city started to grow, they had to move down to the lower area because there's just not a lot of room up there. But that's one of the things that made Sardis very easy to defend.

It also ended up giving them this feeling of nobody can touch us. We've got this thing so well situated that nobody can touch us. We've got this thing nailed. But as we just said, the Persians and the Greeks both ended up conquering that city. But they really had this feeling of invincibility up on their plateau. So that's something that's kind of interesting to note and that will play into what we look at this morning. And then, so this is another view of that same kind of area there.

You can see the same columns again. Picture's a little bit smaller here. But, you know, this is the lower area here. And then in the background there, you can kind of see the mountain, Mount Tomlas, I believe is how it's pronounced. You can see in the background there. But they kind of had that lower city as it grew and got bigger. They had this lower area, but then they also had that high plateau as well.

And then this is a picture of a bathhouse in Sardis. Very big city. Very, very big. Not as big as some of the other cities that we've talked about so far, but a big city for that era. Very well established city. and the bathhouses were something that were obviously very common in the Greek cities. Another thing to kind of know about the city, and we have talked about this in previous weeks, but the three satanic strategies, and one that Satan was using in this time period was the worship of the Roman emperors.

So Augustus Caesar here, Sardis had a priesthood dedicated to the goddess Roma by 100 BC, In 27 BC, Sardis tried to establish Asia's first temple to Caesar Augustus, eventually building a local temple to Augustus by 5 BC. To show their devotion to the imperial family, the city also consecrated a cult statue to Augustus' son, Gaius. And then just to kind of show how the Romans responded to them, after an earthquake in 17 AD, which kind of really took the city apart, the Emperor Tiberius donated lots of aid to the people of Sardis to rebuild the city and other areas around Sardis. Sardis competed among 11 cities for the honor of building a temple to Emperor Tiberius and Titus Aene. But it ended up being given to Smyrna. And then for a while the city even called itself Caesarea Sard, I'm probably gonna butcher that. But basically it means Caesar's Sardis. and attempted to become the regional head of the Cold Emperor.

So one of these strategies is real big for these people that Satan is using to kind of get them away from the gospel and turn them towards something else. So this is the first of the three satanic strategies, the worship of the Roman emperors, and it's very prevalent in this city. It's big. Another one of the three strategies is the Greek mystery religions.

And there was a really big temple built to Artemis. And I think, that's the synagogue. These columns are actually part of the temple to Artemis. Now, I found a picture online of a gentleman standing next to these columns. They are very tall. You don't really have any perspective until somebody's standing next to them, but it's about, you know, it was three or four times as high as this guy's height. So these are big columns, big temple. built for Artemis. And that was built for Sybil. Sybil and Artemis were kind of the same god, just different names. But that was built in the 4th century BC. Let's see. One of the things that they would do for the god was offerings were made at a large altar where the priest would slaughter a bull and then the pagan worshippers would bathe in the bull's hot blood.

Gross. Yeah, really gross. And I think, when I was going through Vern's notes, there was kind of a good joke in there. Have you guys ever played the game Would You Rather? It's always two things that are just like, one, they're both very ridiculous. So it's like, would you rather bathe in a bull's blood or something else ridiculous. If you've played it, I guess you'd get that joke. If not, you don't.

That was one of the things that they would do. They also had a temple to the goddess Hera, the wife of Zeus. Multiple temples built for Greek gods there. They also had a temple to Zeus, which Alexander had them build when he took the place over after he defeated the Persians. The first one was the Versaceanic strategy there, the worship of Roman emperors. The second one is the Greek mystery religions.

And then we've also talked about this one previously where really Satan was using the synagogues of the time. to get people turned away from God and get people turned away from the Gospel as well. And the Jewish community in Sardis had been in the city for generations by the time Revelation was written.

Some of these Jews were apparently Roman citizens. And then letters that we have outside of Scripture from the first century BC stipulated that the Jews in Sardis were to have their own association A place to offer prayers and officials were to make food suitable for the Jews available in the market. So kosher foods had to be available for the Jewish people there in the market. So that gives you an example of how established they were and how much the culture around them had really made a place to fit them in. So some obvious impact that the Jews would have had in the area there.

And they had a very large synagogue. There we go. This is a picture of what's left of the synagogue. We get to see all these ruins because the Muslims came in in about 1280, I believe, and just totally tore Sardis apart. But we do still have some ruins left over, and this is a picture of what's left standing from the Jewish synagogue in the town. So the three satanic strategies were strong in this town.

The worship of Roman emperors, the Greek mystery of religions, and then Satan using the synagogues, the Jewish people, to kind of turn people away from hearing the gospel, turn them away from living their life in Christ and getting them to move into different things in their lives. All right, so we've got a little background on the city.

Let's take a look at the verses here this morning. And if I kneel up and down here a couple of times, it's because I print out my notes usually, and then I go back and forth between them, and then I end up throwing the notes away. And I figure, why throw them away? I've got them on the computer here. So anyway, Revelation 3, 1 through 6.

So, to the angel of the church of Sardis write, He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this, I know your deeds and that you have a name that you are alive. but you are dead. Wake up and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my God. So remember what you have received and heard, and keep it and repent. 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.

But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and they walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and 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. Alright, so let's hop into these verses a little bit. And the first one there, on page two, To the angel of the church of Sardis write, He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. Does anybody know what the seven spirits are? Let me hop in here.

So Isaiah 11.2 tells us what the seven spirits are. It's the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge, and fear of the Lord. So that's what he's talking about here with the seven spirits. It's the seven-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit.

So don't turn that into some weird, you know, there's a spirit here and a spirit there. No, it's the seven-fold ministry of the Holy Spirit. And then another thing to kind of look at this morning is the similarity between the church at Ephesus and the church of Sardis.

And we'll dig into that a little bit more. And I actually... Did we get the... Oh, we didn't. I had a supplemental handout as well. Is it? Oh, okay. I just didn't get it. Cool. Good. All right. Excellent. This didn't come out too well on the overhead, so let's focus on the one you got in your hand there.

Both of these churches are going to experience loss, and actually when we look at Laodicea, we'll see this as well, but we'll focus on Ephesus and Sardis this morning. They both experienced loss, so the Ephesians had left their first love. lost their first love, and in Sardis we're going to see that they've got a loss of life. And then Christ gives both of them an assessment, having left their first love, becoming dead, and then his counsel to them, his counsel and warning are exactly the same to both churches, repent and remember. So you have the same two counsel and warning to both of them. And then a similarity for the Overcomers is in Ephesus they have the Tree of Life. In Sardis their name will be in the Book of Life.

So some good similarities between those two churches there. And we'll look at those a little bit more as the class goes by here. That's just distracting for me that it came out that poorly on the overhead. Anyway. And then the seven stars we have talked about before, obviously the seven stars are the whom Christ holds in his right hand are the seven messengers to the churches, each of whom was to carry this message and the rest of the book, the rest of the book of Revelation to the seven churches. So those are two things we get out of that verse. We kind of see some similarities between Ephesus and Sardis and the things that go through here. You learn about the seven-fold ministry there as well.

And then in the end of the verse there it says, you know, when Christ is saying this, Christ says this, I know your deeds and that you have a name that you are alive but you are dead. Christ says He knows their deed. We see this, that word know is something that He says to all the churches.

He knows. He's actively involved. He knows what's going on in their lives. And really when we look at kind of the situation that Sardis had gone through, the history of Sardis, he just, the message that he tailors to fit to their situation is, it really shows his knowledge of what's going on with these people. Their history, their culture, he really uses it to drive a message across to them, and we'll see that a little bit farther as we go through these.

But, and then, Like we talked about, Christ neither commends nor elaborates on the deeds specifically. I know your deeds. He doesn't really specifically say what these deeds are. So he's not elaborating on them very much and there's no, you guys are doing this real good for the church at Sardis.

He tells them that they have a name, that they are alive. Now, something to just kind of go through in the Hebrew mindset, a name communicated depth of meaning. You know, like we're going through Genesis and we see multiple times where God changes someone's name to give very specific meaning to that person. So that's kind of the Hebrew mindset behind a name, communicating depth of meaning so that we find value in studying. For example, another example would be the names of God. explaining the depth of his character. Also, we pray in the name of Christ on the basis of the depth of who he is and our deep and eternal identity in him. So that's kind of the Hebrew mindset. The name has deep meaning and great application for that person.

Where in the Greek mindset, It's more of a superficial something on the surface. It sounds pretty, so we name somebody something. Now some of us may not always think that way, but for the most part, I think if you looked up the meaning to some of your names, you'd go, that doesn't fit me at all. I think my name, Kurt, is Bold Counsel. I don't know if that really fits me or not. I guess maybe it could. My name is Green. Right, Vern is Green. I don't see anything green on Vern right now. So make of that what you will.

And that's kind of our mindset with names. It's more of a superficial, it sounds pretty, so we'll use it. Actually, my niece is named Lydia. And for the life of me, I can't even find a meaning for Lydia. I've searched up and down to find something for it, and all it means is from Lydia. That's all I can come up with.

So that's kind of our mindset. It's just a superficial, on the surface. And in this case, having a name does not describe the deep character of the church, but rather the superficial reputation. What they appear to be like outside to everyone else. You have to excuse me this morning, my stomach's a little bugging me.

But, you know, they have a name that they're alive, but they are dead. And I think we could view this in a lot of churches right now. They have a name that they are alive. Maybe they're growing their numbers. People like to go. They feel good when they go there. It's a nice place. It's happy. Whatever the case may be.

But the actual life of Christ isn't there. The actual life of Christ in the body of those believers isn't there. And that's what Christ is saying with these people here in Sardis. They have a name that they're alive. People may be going, they may be growing numbers, they may be going out into the community and doing things that look good to the people in Sardis, but the actual life of Christ is not there. And that's what Jesus is saying to them.

Superficially, you might look like you're representing me. But deep down, my life is not there with you. And that's what Christ is saying to these believers in Sardis. He's just told them that you might think you're there with me, but you're not. So his next words are, wake up and strengthen the things that remain. Let's go. Wake up. Strengthen the things that remain. which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my God."

So in spite of this characterization that the Church of Sardis is being dead, that it's without his life, there were apparently a few individual saints who had not folded to the pressure. And that pressure we were talking about was those three strategies, among other things. But those were the three big ones. that were pushing people away from life in Christ and really, instead of life in Christ, they're experiencing their old life. They're experiencing things that they were doing before they became Christians, before they knew who Christ was. Kind of going back to those things. So this is a, you know, wake up, let's get back to where we started here.

So wake up and strengthen the things that remain which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my God. So there was still a chance for the faithful believers in there to get this church going back again, get it going back in the direction that it was headed originally. And then in verse 3 there, So remember what you have received and heard, and keep it, and repent. Therefore, if you do not wake up, I will come to you like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I come." So here's our counsel again, the same counsel that was given to the Ephesians.

Remember and repent. Remember what you have received and heard, and keep it, and repent. We were having a conversation yesterday and how do you come to faith? How do you come to faith in Christ? You hear and you believe. And so what he's telling these people is remember what you have received and heard. So remember these things. Your initial faith. And keep it and repent. So repent, get back to the things that your faith is established on.

And then he says, Therefore, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I come. Now this thief, we shouldn't view Christ as somebody who's stealing something. He's not coming like a thief to take something away from them. He's coming like a thief in the fact that they have no idea when he's going to come. A thief doesn't announce before he comes. I'm going to be at your house about 3 o'clock and I'm going to take some stuff. The idea here is that. Not that he's coming to take stuff, but that you have no idea when he's going to come.

The thing like we were talking about here earlier with this church, well actually not the church, but the city itself, where they've got this up on the hill here and they really think they're invincible up there. There's nobody that's going to overtake this fortress up on the hill. And they were so arrogant about it that the pathway up to the top, everybody would go to sleep at night and they would have one guy at the top making sure the pathway was okay. Which would work, really, if you think about it. If he saw somebody coming, he starts yelling and everybody wakes up and they defend the pathway. Makes sense. It would work.

But what ended up happening in one particular instance is what they would do from up there is any trash that they had or anything, they would just chuck it over the edge. They would just chuck it over the edge. It was common for birds to come and grab what was there, or other animals as well, grab what was there and get a meal.

It was also common for the birds to perch on the wall up there. They were coming to take the city and they said, look at the birds sitting on the wall. Nobody's watching this wall. The birds wouldn't sit there if there was somebody watching the wall. So what they did was instead of coming up the main pathway, they scaled up the wall and came over the edge and took them that way.

So their kind of arrogance, and you could kind of apply that to this church as well, that they really think they've got it. They think they've got it nailed, but they don't. They think they're alive, but they're dead. And kind of the same idea applies here. The same mentality that the people defending this city had of We've got this. No worries. We've got this. Nobody's going to do anything to take this from us. The same mentality was kind of there in the church that we've got this. And so, you know, kind of like a thief. You have no idea when he's going to come or where he's going to come for that matter. You might think he's going to come up the path here. No, he's going to hop over the wall.

This is a little bit more of that know that we see from Christ. He's using the history, the culture of these people, and he's really making what he's saying to them very relevant. The mentality that was common for this city and also for these believers, he's using it and he knows them and he's tailoring something right to them. Something that's really going to hit home. The phrasing here in this verse and even the choice of words are very similar to what Paul wrote 45 years earlier to the Philippians.

And he says, the things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. So remember what you have received and heard, keep it and repent. Very similar words that Paul used in Philippians 4 and 9 there. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things and the God of peace will be with you.

Like Paul's urging to the Philippians to practice these things, Christ was urging the church of Sardis to keep what they had received and heard. A couple differences from what Paul said. Christ called for the church of Sardis to repent. We don't see that here in the Philippians. And also, unlike Paul's urging to the Church of Philippi, Christ warned them that he would come unexpectedly in judgment.

And we've already talked about the phrase, like a thief in the night, not viewing that as something where Christ is going to come in and steal from them, but rather they just have no idea when he's going to come. So if you don't have any idea when he's going to come, you better do it now, right? If you don't know when he's going to come, you can't plan on, well, we'll get to that. He's going to come next Thursday, and we'll deal with it on Wednesday. Kind of like you get a term paper due or something, and you do it the night before. But that's not the idea here. It's do it now. Live in me now. Don't put it off. Don't wait. Do it now. Hey, Kurt.

When he talks about how he's going to come like a thief, he's not referring to Christ returning from the rapture. It doesn't seem like he's referring to that. It seems like Jesus is saying, look, judgment is going to come upon you if you don't put your act together. My judgment could come at any time. It could come now. And I think that's a really good point to make. Yeah, that's a really good point to make.

This phrase is used In similarity for the rapture, we don't know when the rapture is going to happen. And in the same idea, you shouldn't wait to come to faith because the rapture is going to happen on Thursday, I'll believe in Jesus on Wednesday. So same idea, but this does have specific judgment for the church at Sardis rather than believers as a whole. Temple judgment.

Right. Absolutely. That's a good point to make. Thank you. Alright, any questions so far? Anything we need to address? So in verse 4 there, But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. Now this soiling of garments is actually something that if we read Zechariah 3, verses 3-7, we get an idea of what's this garment thing all about.

And I've got it here. Now Joshua, the high priest, was clothed in filthy garments and standing before the angel. He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, Remove the filthy garments from him. And again he said to him, see I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festival robes. Then I said, let him put on clean turban on his head. So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments while the angel of the Lord was standing by. And the angel of the Lord admonished Joshua saying, thus the Lord of hosts, if you will walk in my ways, and if you will perform my service, then you will also govern my house and also have charge over my courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here."

But the idea of the white garments is taking away the inequity, taking away sin, being in a position of righteousness. And so that's what these white garments represent. White is commonly used in literature and things like that. The white is the good and the black is the bad. But here in these circumstances, the white garments represent righteousness, being in a position of righteousness. You have a few in Sardis who have not sold their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. Now, where do these believers get their worthiness? Is it something that they've done? Is it the deeds they're going out in their community and doing? No, we've already talked about that.

It's not about having a name that says you're alive. It's about being in a position that demonstrates that you are alive. It's being in Christ that the life comes from, that the worthiness, the righteousness comes from. It's not from you. So though the church was overall spiritually dead, in spite of the church's significantly high level of activity, there were still a few saints who were dependent upon the life of Christ.

The Greek here, by the way, actually says names rather than people. You have a few names in Sardis. It's a small difference to make there between you have a few people. And it kind of goes in line with, you know, he's already used this name thing in the verses here. And I think you could almost display a little bit more of a Hebrew mindset on that one of name worthiness, you know, although their name may not have actually been that. But, you know, there are a few names in Sardis that walk with me in white.

And then another thing where we see that these verses are really tailored to the church at Sardis. Sardis had a luxury garment industry, so garments were foremost in the minds of Sardis. And then another thing, those who came into the Temple of Artemis, had to wear white clothes. So now this is something that the people in Sardis would have understood.

We have to wear these white clothes to be in the presence of Artemis. And he's kind of drawing a conclusion. Well, the presence of Artemis is ridiculous because it's a made-up god. But being the temple of Artemis. kind of drawing a picture between these two things. Just like your culture where, you know, clothed in white equals you can go into this temple. These white garments are obviously a very good parallel for me to draw between what you have going on there in your city and my relationship with you.

Unclean clothes were not acceptable and were considered an insult to the goddess. Spiritually foul and polluting. So the problem is not just that their clothes are dirty, but that they're spiritually repulsive to Christ. They're not walking in white. Their garments are filthy. their actions, their way of life is not righteous because it's not in Him.

Alright, and then verse 5 here. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments and I will not erase his name from the book of life and I will confess his name before my Father and the angels. So in this verse, as in all the seven, as in the messages to all the seven churches, a promise for the overcomers, a message which applies to all who have placed their faith in Christ for salvation, and for the church in Sardis is threefold. They're going to be clothed in white garments, which represents righteousness. They will not have their name erased from the Book of Life, and their name will be confessed before my Father and before His angels.

So let's step through these one by one. White garments. We know that Sardis had the luxury garment industry and we know that clean white garments were required for pagan worshippers to enter the Temple of Artemis. Aside from that, white garments are written about repeatedly the rest of Revelation, which we'll look at a little bit more. So these white garments are Righteousness. They are your position in Christ.

And then the promise to not erase the Overcoverer's name from the Book of Life. So something that is interesting about the city of Sardis is that they actually had a scroll of the citizens there in the city. And if you committed a crime, your name got struck out. So if you passed away, or if you were a criminal, they strike your name out. You are no longer a citizen of that city as far as this list is concerned. So another instance of where the people in Sardis would have really had a good parallel between what's Christ saying and what's this in our city. So really the culture in these verses is pretty amazing how it lines up with stuff that they had going on in their lives at that time or history of their city and Christ really tailors these verses to really make sense to them.

But like we said, they were erased and they were no longer in the book of rule of living citizens in Sardis. And then something that's interesting, among criminal acts which would get one's name erased from the rule of the cities of Sardis, was entering the pagan temple with soiled garments, soiled clothes, or refusing to acknowledge the Roman Emperor as a deity. So those are a couple of things that would get them erased from this citizenship. You lose your citizenship in Sardis if you do one of these two things. And what Christ is saying to them is, Never mind all that stuff. Who cares if you get erased from the book or from this list of the citizens in Sardis. You're in my book of life for all eternity and you're going to walk with me in white garments for all eternity.

These are the pressures that you have and I'm telling you they're nonsense. One of the things that's interesting is a lot of time the penalty for these things were death. Not only are you going to get your name marked out, but it's going to be marked out because you're not alive anymore. They're going to kill you. So, kind of immense pressure to fall into these things and fall into these pressures that Satan is using around you. But Christ is saying, never mind them. Even if they kill you, you're going to walk with me for eternity. You're going to be on my book of life for all eternity.

And then actually, Something that's interesting in these verses is the Greek word here. How do you pronounce this one, Vern? Which one is that? Well, the Greek word which is used for will not erase. The figure of speech, litotes. It's like something like we would say, you know, my mom is not a bad cook. She's not a bad cook, which means she's a good cook. Ferrari is not a cheap car. It means it's an expensive car. Peter is not a slow cyclist. Peter is a fast cyclist. So, I mean, these are the things that it's equaling. And this is the same type of figure of speech that Christ uses here when he says, he who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments and I will not erase his name from the book of life.

So it's not only will I not erase it, but there's no way I'm going to do it. One other neat little insight there is that will not is the strongest way it can be stated in Greek. Kind of a double negative, right? Absolutely not. We wouldn't use a double negative in English, but in the Greek it's the strongest way that they can say it. Never, not ever, basically. Is what the what it would kind of translate to is never not ever which doesn't make sense, we wouldn't talk like that, but in the Greek it's the strongest what they can use. Yeah?

Psalms 69-28 also has a very similar passage about being blotted out of the book of life for reference. 69-28. What is that? It just says that, it talks about the evil people and says, may they be blotted out of the book of life and may they not be recorded with righteous which I thought was a very interesting reference in the Old Testament to that. It's interesting, when we look at these verses, he who overcomes, who's overcome? Who are the overcomers? We've talked about this before. Who are the overcomers?

Believers. Anybody who has placed their faith in Christ. So, he who overcomes, will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life." Well, Stan, are you a believer? Your name's in the book of life, and Christ will never, not ever erase it. Does that mean that everyone's name is in that book of life to begin with? because Christ died for all, right? So when you choose not to become a believer, then your name is erased.

I'm just curious. Yeah, that's an interesting way to put it. We'll actually get to a study of the whole Book of Life thing, because it shows up from the Old Testament all the way towards the end of the last few chapters. So we'll kind of cover that as a big study later on. Anyway, what's the answer?

If you have believed you have already overcome Absolutely. I think it is all seven of them. He who overcomes will be given this or that or the other thing. And this is something I talked about, and maybe you'll correct me, but the way that I think I would look at that is he who overcomes will thus be given whatever. Well, if you've already overcome, this is an encouragement to remember and repent. These things are already true of you, do them. I've already made this true of you, but you need to remember and repent and live that life.

A lot of these letters are all about their condition. Right. And what he does, he finishes each one about their position. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Isn't it possible that he's talking about overcoming the works of the flesh? You know, Christ said, if you'd be my disciple, you'd pick up your cross daily and follow me. So there's the idea of progressive sanctification in the New Testament. Why can't that be what he's talking about?

1 John 5. Yeah, it's 1 John 5. I don't remember. Eight, I want to say. Five-four. Five-five. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God? I think the other aspect of this fits in with what Mike had asked about earlier, and that's what's the issue with all these churches? The issue with all these churches is the church is In most cases, allowing the world to seep in. Right. And this passage on overcoming is overcoming the world. Right. And how does that happen? Believing. Right. Well, and I mean, progressive sanctification like you're talking about, we just said, he starts off with condition and then he reminds them of position.

Well, that's something that I need all the time because My condition might be anger at somebody while I'm on the road or who knows what. Your condition can be any number of things. But the reminding of your eternal position gives you the mindset of, what am I doing right now? My eternal position is life in Christ. I should be living it out right now. If I'm allowing the world to distract me from that, That's not where I should be.

So, to a degree, yes, progressive sanctification. As you grow in life, as you grow as a Christian, the things of the world are going to distract you less. So, to a degree, yes, you could say he was talking about that. Isn't it sort of like grace? You can't. get more grace, you've been given the whole package deal right up front, but you can grow in grace. Right. Absolutely.

Yeah, I mean, we do see that with all seven churches, the overcomers and that verse, 1 John 5, 5, who is he who overcomes the world, but who believes in the Son of God? Jesus is the Son of God. We see that in all the verses, and absolutely, you see an issue with their condition. Christ's, especially with these three churches, I mean, just like we have here, the issue with their condition is loss of love, or with the case of Sardis, life.

And then Christ counsels them and says, remember and repent. And then he reminds them of their position. So here's how you're going to deal with these things. Dan? Going back to that progressive sanctification, to me, the picture that I think probably defines that best is a martyr going to the guillotine or to the stake to be burned alive or whatever. That's what you would truly call living out your faith. And I think that really out and act in faith in your life to a particular point. Well, and I think Christ's point here is if you've overcome, you will be doing that.

Yeah. Right. And I mean, you know, your example of, you know, a martyr is maybe the ultimate example, but an example could be something as small as, you know, you're ticked off at how things are at work, and instead of lashing out, you rest in Christ. That's a great example.

Are we saying then that people that don't do that, people that don't live out their faith like you mentioned, are we saying that people that don't do that aren't overcomers? I would say that they are spiritually dead. Right, but they still have eternal life. They still have their position in Christ, but they are spiritually dead just like these people inside us.

Yeah, eternal life doesn't come by living out our faith. Eternal life comes by having faith in Christ. But if you have faith in Christ, you will live it out. You can, but not every believer necessarily perseveres in faith and good works all of his life. It's possible for believers to fail. We're safe because of the quality of our faith. We're safe because of the object of our faith.

Because we've put our faith in Christ. It's always been that way. And it always will be. Absolutely. The righteous are saved by faith. Absolutely. And it's not a faith that ultimately has to produce good works or has to produce fruit or necessarily perseveres. Christ's point here is that it should. It should and we're called to and if we don't then there's serious consequences which is what he's talking about here. Exactly.

But he's not saying that they don't have eternal life because they're not filling up their faith, because they're not walking out their faith. And that's a good point, and that's something that most of these verses are used in certain places, and we've talked about this in different weeks.

These verses have been used to say you can lose your salvation. You can lose your eternal life. And our point here is, no you can't. You cannot lose your salvation. We've talked about that in other weeks. It's not consistent with God's character. It's not consistent with his message of salvation. And if you try and use these verses to twist them into saying that, then you're doing the wrong thing. The other mistake that can be made here is saying, well, yeah, well, these verses can't be used to say you can't lose your salvation. But there's some that would say, yeah, but you can prove you never had in the beginning. And that's also fallacious. Yeah, absolutely.

I would just comment that, at least in my own experience, when I became a Christian, that's when I became aware of my need to become an overcomer. And what I overcome daily is the works of the flesh. Right. And how do you do that? I do it through faith. You do it by resting, abiding. So without the saving faith, I couldn't have started this struggle. but it's a struggle nonetheless. The flesh is still here, it's still powerful and you still have to overcome.

The last verse there, which is one that Christ uses in all the messages, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the seven churches. Now we've got a couple minutes if you guys want to do this. What I was going to have you do this morning is here's an invitation to apply these verses to your life. Please take a minute or two and write down something that God is teaching you or reminding of you with these verses. Now if you guys want to do that, take a couple minutes and do that. And then just pair up with somebody and share. I will end this in prayer and then I'll let you guys do that and we'll be done for the day here.

Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to meet and study your Word. Good reminders here that it's all, the life that we have, it's all because of you and all we've done is say thank you and believe you that what you've done is true and who you are is true. And that we see the world getting in the way here with these people in Sardis and we see it with all the churches.

But the world getting in the way and them being distracted from you. And you admonishing them, come back to me. Live your life in me. Because that's the only place where life is really found. I thank you for the verses. I thank you for your time this morning. And we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.