Hope From the Word

Guest (Male): The Church of the Living Dead. Today, on Hope from the Word.

Bill Luebkemann: The Church of Sardis was at peace, but it was the peace of the dead. It's also the kind of church, by the way, that would be well accepted in today's politically correct and charged climate here. Everything is fine. All religions are equal. You can't say anything bad about another religion. Just state to yourself, mind your own business, and above all, don't stand for anything. If all religions are equally good, then they're all equally wrong because most of them are contradictory. And if they're contradictory, they cannot all be right. So, what good is it to believe something if you don't believe that it's right?

These people had that great reputation, but they really stood for nothing. In other words, they were dead, and the Lord knew it. I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

Guest (Male): On the outside, the church at Sardis was a center of wealth and prosperity, a place where church seemed fun and the atmosphere felt alive. But Jesus said they were dead spiritually. This is Hope from the Word with Bill Lubkemann of Calvary Chapel of Marlton. We're continuing our Through the Bible series, and we've come to the seven letters to the seven churches that were dictated to the Apostle Paul by Jesus Christ himself. Today, we're going to wrap up our study of the church at Sardis. How can a church that seems so alive be dead? Here's Pastor Bill to tell us from Revelation chapter 3.

Bill Luebkemann: Now, these people had quite a reputation going for themselves. They had everybody else fooled about them. They were well-liked, they were looked up to, and they were respected. He said, you have a reputation of being alive. Their church was not some run-down building in a poor part of town. They had a whopping facility there, whatever that was in this time. They had a hopping place here. They had crowds coming out, services seven nights a week. They had boards and committees, probably. The whole nine yards. There was just one problem. They were dead. Another Calvary pastor that I know, he he described this church as the Holy Ghost baptized in the spirit, apostles and prophets, movers and shakers, congregation of what's happening now in Christ's humility, church of Sardis.

And that's what this place was. It was a hopping place on the outside because these people were all about external appearances. And they had lots of external appearances. If you drove by this church at night, the lights were always on, the parking lot was always filled. People were there. They were doing things and going places, but they weren't doing it for the Lord. They weren't doing it by his power. They weren't doing it for him. And this just proves the old saying, you can't judge a book by its cover. That's not in the Bible, you might say, but there are other things in the Bible that say exactly the same thing.

For example, over in 1 Samuel chapter 16 verse 7, when Samuel is uh looking for a king, Samuel wasn't too impressed with David. He wasn't impressed with others before him. And he saw Eliab. Samuel saw Eliab in verse 6. This was David's brother. And Samuel thought, wow, man, this guy's going to be the king. He's a tall, looking, handsome dude. He's well-built, and he's got muscles in the right places. Impressive. Samuel here, a prophet of God since he was a young boy. And yet, he was fooled. He saw this guy in verse 6. When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed stands here before the Lord.

But the Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. He looks at the inside. He doesn't care what's on the outside. He cares what's on the inside. Let's be completely honest here. Your reputation doesn't mean anything to God. It might get you uh good service at the local restaurant. You have a reputation. It might help you in all kinds of ways here on this life, but it means nothing to him.

There's nothing wrong with having a good reputation, by the way, but it's just if it's not real, then it's meaningless. And that was the problem these folks had. On the outside, they looked alive, but on the inside, they were dead. And the Lord knew they were dead. And that's a good thing because now he can warn them how they can get alive again. These people had this reputation for being alive when they were really not. It it brings to mind another verse. In Isaiah 29:13, the Lord says, these people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. When you're dead, you know, uh things aren't looking too positive for you. And the Lord told the church of Smyrna that they were about to be tested by the devil, and they should not be afraid of what they were going to suffer. We saw that a few weeks ago. He says um verse 10 of chapter 2, do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you. And you will suffer persecution for 10 days.

Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. He told the church of Smyrna, you're about to be tested. Don't be afraid of that. He didn't have to tell the church of Sardis that the devil doesn't bother testing people that aren't following the Lord. There's nothing there they had to worry about. He told the church in Pergamum that they had remained true to his name and they had not renounced their faith in him. You know, here in Sardis, even though they hadn't specifically renounced anything, they weren't living it either.

They were kind of just ho-hum, going along their own thing, not really renouncing it, not really living it. He complimented the Lord did. He complimented Thyatira on their good deeds, which must have been rightly motivated. We don't see that here either. The Lord says he knows their deeds. They have a reputation of being alive, so their deeds must have been good on the outside. When you saw what they were doing, you would say, wow, they are doing that for the Lord. Isn't that great? But on the inside, they were dead. The Lord tells told the church in Philadelphia that they had kept his word and not denied his name.

No such compliment rendered here for those in Sardis. This church had a great reputation, but no real commitment. They were what we would call the light church, you know, l i t e, like you see on TV, the light beer, the light this, the light church, everything you always wanted in a church and less. 1/3 less commitment, 1/3 shorter services, 1/3 off tithing. You could give a $10 contribution for only $6.66. Everybody loved them. Everybody thought they were great, except for the Lord, of course, who wasn't amused. Here's the way some different writers have described this church in Sardis.

One of them said, a perfect model of offensive Christianity. Another one said it was not scandalous wickedness, but decent death. The form retained the heart gone. Another one said, the church of Sardis was at peace, but it was the peace of the dead. It 's also the kind of church, by the way, that would be well accepted in today's politically correct and charged climate here. Everything is fine. All religions are equal. You know, you can't say anything bad about another religion. They're going to make try to make that illegal one of these days. Just state to yourself, mind your own business, and above all, don't stand for anything.

If all religions are equally good, then they're all equally wrong because most of them are contradictory. And and if they're contradictory, they cannot all be right. So, what good is it to believe something if you don't believe that it 's right? These people had that great reputation, but they really stood for nothing. In other words, they were dead, and the Lord knew it. I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Verse 2, wake up. Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God.

Now, the Lord begins to give him them advice, and the first advice here is wake up. It might sound odd telling someone who's dead to wake up, but remember the Lord is the one who raises the dead. And whether they're dead physically or whether these uh or whether these people are dead spiritually, but whether it's physical or spiritual, the Lord is able to revive either way. The fact that they were able to hear what he was saying, that they were able to receive it means that there was potential for them to respond. And there's some reason from church history, by the way, to believe that they did respond.

There must have been some small amount of life left in them, and that seems to confirm the next part of that verse, strengthen what remains and is about to die. So, they were half dead or something, and the Lord says, wake up and get your motor going and strengthen the part of you that's not dead yet. These folks, if you want, they they were stuck in the doldrums is what they were. You know what the doldrums is? An area near the equator where there's almost no wind and a sailing vessel would get stuck there, and there's there's almost no wind and they couldn't go north or south or east or west.

And they had they would wait there for days or months for a wind to blow so they could get out of there. Stuck in the doldrums was how these people were. They were bored with their faith, kind of on autopilot, going through all the motions. And the Lord says, it's time to get out of that catatonic state and pay attention to him. He says he's not found their deeds complete in the sight of his God. In other words, your reputation is great. Everyone else thinks you're fine, but the truth is otherwise. Remember what we said earlier about overconfidence and that this city had in prior times.

You can see the same kind of overconfidence here in their church, confident of who they were and what they were doing and falling short of what he wants. Their deeds have not measured up in God's plan here, even though they look great to the world. Look what the world sees is what's on the outside. And what God sees is what's on the inside. He sees the motivation and the reason that you do things. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard, obey it and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

These folks, at some point in the past, they had heard and accepted the true gospel message. They were just sliding down a slope away from the Lord. And the Lord tells them, remember what you received and heard. They need to think back. Think back to the beginning when you accepted Christ. Think back to how you had accepted the message with excitement and joy. Consider how excited you were in those days and how the Lord was no doubt working in your midst. I remember when I got saved, I remember laying on my bed at home in my parents' house one day, reading the Bible, thinking, man, if this if this was really true, this would be great.

This would be the greatest story ever told if only this could be true. And I remember when I got saved, how excited I was to be reading the scriptures and to be looking for God uh to speak to me. And when he did speak to me, you know, it was a jump up and down exciting time. And how we kind of slide away from those times and the Lord saying to them here, look back on that. Remember what you have received and heard. Obey it and repent. Turn around. Get back to where you were before.

Over in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13, it says something interesting. Now, this was not the same place. Thessalonica, Sardis were not even really near each other. But there's kind of a verse about looking back to those times, verse 13. And we also thank God continually because when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is the word of God, which is at work in you who believe. So, these Thessalonians were people who were excited when they heard the word of God preached to them.

And they accepted it, and they understood it wasn't coming from Paul. It was coming from God. And perhaps the church of Sardis was rather like that, perhaps. When they first got saved, wow, this is the word of God. We're excited. We're going to believe it, but now they slid off into this catatonic state, and they need to repent. And they need to turn back to the Lord, and they need to obey. And the alternative to that is not pleasant. He says if you don't wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what time I will come to you.

Look, when he comes like a thief, he that means he's going to show up suddenly, unannounced, when you're least expecting it. And maybe it might mean the rapture is going to happen suddenly or that they are going to die suddenly in a physical sense or or that something else drastic is going to happen in their life. They're going to experience some kind of judgment, and it'll be a surprise. So, it'll be better it's better if you listen up. Wake up. Repent and follow me. Verse 4, yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.

They will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy. Now, here's the opposite of what we saw in Pergamum and Thyatira. Look back. And Pergamum, which we did uh well a while ago, in verse uh 14 of chapter 2, nevertheless, I have a few things against you. You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam. Look, in Pergamum, they had mostly people who were doing the right thing, and they had a few that were not. Same in Thyatira over in verse 20 of chapter 2. Nevertheless, I have this against you. You tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess.

Pergamum and Thyatira were commended for doing most of the things right and a couple of things wrong, and most of the people were doing well with the Lord, and a couple were not. And here in Sardis, it's the opposite. They're doing most things wrong, just a couple of things right. And most of the people are messed up. There's a few that are not. Yet, you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy. It's amazing here, perhaps, that there could be anyone there.

With what this city had gone through and with all the money and how lax things were and the decadence and the pleasure and everything, it's amazing that anybody there was doing well with the Lord. And by the way, there was a thing about the pagan worship when they went to worship the pagan gods and all these different temples they had, they always had to have clean clothes. They weren't allowed to go worship the various gods in dirty clothes. So, it's interesting that the Lord kind of turns that around here and says you have a few people who have not soiled their clothes.

They haven't gotten them dirty by doing these other things. These few are worthy because they're true followers of the Lord, and they're going to be allowed to walk with the Lord. They will walk with me dressed in white, for they are worthy. They're going to be allowed to walk with him. That's what the reward is. It's walking with him. You know, heaven is not about stuff. It's not about money. It's not about getting more things. It's about walking with him. That's what heaven is. There's so many people today think, you know, we're going to they're going to go to heaven.

They have no interest in walking with the Lord. Well, that's what it's all about. Why would you want to go there if you don't want to walk with him? And if you don't want to walk with him here on earth, why would you want to go there and walk with him there? That doesn't make any sense. People want to go to heaven. Oh, we're going to heaven. Oh, we don't believe in Jesus. Well, that's what heaven's all about. There's nothing man-made in heaven. Well, there is one thing, the holes in Jesus' side and hands and feet.

But aside from that, there's nothing man-made in heaven. It's not about physical stuff. It's about walking with him and worshiping him and having a relationship with him. That is the reward that we get to walk with him. The reward is not what he's going to give us. Oh, I have all this stuff for you. He's going to give us plenty from what the scriptures say, by the way, but that's not what the real reward is. The real reward is walking with him. And we can do that now. It's going to be different when we can walk with him in person, but we can do that now if we put our faith and trust in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

If we ask him to forgive our sins and to come into our life and to make us a new creation, we have to get to the point, of course, where we realize that we're a sinner, where we realize that we're mixed up and confused and we don't know anything and we need a Savior. Maybe some of you are not at that point yet, but you will be soon because you cannot you cannot do everything on your own. We have to come to that point where we realize we're sinners, we're separated from God. When we get up in the morning, the only thing that we're going to do by our own natural instincts is going to be wrong.

That's all we know how to do. We get up and we do the wrong things. And we have to come to that point where we realize, hey, we're always doing the wrong things. We need a Savior to save us. Now, these people in this church who had this great reputation, they might have got up in the morning and thought they were doing the right things because they had such a great reputation. But the Lord said, you're dead. You're just as dead as a guy who's not doing anything at all. What matters is if you're walking with him, if you've accepted him, if you've asked him to come into your life, and I'd encourage you to do that today if you have never done that.

Yet, you have a few people who have not soiled their clothes. Sardis, they will walk with me dressed in white for they are worthy. White indicates cleanness, forgiveness of sin. The sin is washed away. What's left is clean and pure and white and brighter than the snow. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. Those who overcome, it says they're going to join the white robe crowd, like we said, redeemed and forgiven and set aside for him.

And if you do that, your name will not be blotted out of the book of life. Hey, what does this mean, blotted out of the book of life? What's that all about? Look, we we could start an argument here. We're not going to do that here. I think we need to remember a few things, though, that are absolutely true and everyone should agree on. There is a book of life. First of all, it's a real book. It really exists, and it's really really important. So, we we should all agree on that here. In Revelation 20 verse 12, it says, and I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.

Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. What is this book of life? Well, it's a real book, first of all, and it's going to get opened up someday. And other books are going to get opened up someday, by the way. It says the uh the book, which is the book of life, and it mentions other book, which I happen to think is a whole record of things that you've done in your life, perhaps. And the dead are going to be judged by this.

Your final destiny is going to be determined determined by what this book of life says about you. It's real important. Down in verse 15 of chapter 20, the last verse, it says, if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Not good. That's not what you want, okay? So, you want your name written in the book of life. Jesus said over in Luke chapter 10 and verse 20, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your name names are written in heaven.

That's what we need to be rejoicing about. Rejoice that your name is written in heaven. You know, we can know that our name is written in heaven if we've accepted Jesus Christ. Some people say, well, you can never know if you're going to heaven until you die, and hopefully when you die, hopefully your good deeds will outweigh your bad deeds and you get to heaven. Well, that can't be true because Jesus himself said, rejoice that your name is written in the book of life. So, it must be possible to know that your name's written in that book.

If it wasn't possible to know that, he couldn't be telling us to rejoice that our name was written there. We're not to rejoice that we have a lot of stuff here on earth, you know. We're not to rejoice that we can cast out demons. We're not to rejoice how much the Lord has given us. Those things maybe we can rejoice about at a secondary level, but the real thing that's real important about to rejoice in is to rejoice that our name is written in this book because this is the book that gives us the assurance that we will one day walk with him.

Like he says here, they will walk with me. Now, he says here, verse 5, he who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. Well, what's that all about? Can your name get blotted out? Can it get written in and then erased? There's a big divide here in the church and whether you can lose your salvation or not. You know, there's stories out there of people that were on fire for the Lord and then 10 or 20 or 30 years later, they're atheists.

You know, uh they were preaching the gospel and getting people saved, and now they're writing books saying there is no God, and uh I like to help the people who I mistakenly got saved become atheists. There are stories like that. And what's up with that? Were they really written in the book of life at one time and now they're not? And if they get saved again, can their name get put back in there? Or maybe it was never there to begin with. You know, he says here, if you do these things, he won't blot out your name.

Doesn't actually say anywhere that he's going to blot out anyone's name. You can have your own opinion on it. My opinion is those kind of people were never saved to begin with. I think once you're saved, you're always saved, but other people sincerely disagree with me and they know more about the Bible than I do. So, you can you can draw your own conclusion. It 's a i paradox. We may not be able to understand this side of heaven. And it doesn't matter, either, as you can send stand around all day arguing whether you can be saved, whether you can be unsaved at some point, whether you can lose your salvation.

If this book of life has is written in indelible ink or in pencil, which can be erased, you can argue all those things, but it really doesn't matter because the Bible calls us to be overcomers so that we can be dressed in white. And if we do these things, we never have to worry about our name being blotted out of that book.

Guest (Male): You've been listening to Hope from the Word. We're currently in Pastor Bill Lubkemann's Through the Bible series. If you'd like to hear this message again, you have several options. Visit our website at ccmarlton.org and download the Hope FM app to your smartphone or tablet or look for us wherever you find your podcasts. You can also request a CD copy by calling 856 983 1662. Again, that's 856 983 1662. If you've been thinking about visiting Calvary Chapel of Marlton where Bill serves as Pastor, we'd love to have you. Our service times are on Sunday mornings at 10:00.

We also meet midweek on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. You can also live stream from home when you visit our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton. For more information, go to ccmarlton.org. We hope to see you soon. Before the day is done, we'd like to connect with you, share a praise report, prayer request, or what you're learning from this series. You can easily email us from our website ccmarlton.org or just call us at 856 983 1662. There's more to come from Bill's Through the Bible series, and we'll have that for you next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Lubkemann.

This program is brought to you by Calvary Chapel of Marlton.