Simple Faith

Bill Henry: Are you looking to get stronger in 2026? Here is a suggestion. As Christians, these need to be a part of our library and our brains, part of our vocabulary. Set ourselves to strengthen ourselves through the word of God, by the power of the Spirit of God.

Strengthen ourselves as we walk in loving obedience to the Lord. Strengthen ourselves as we are in our prayer closets every day, as we are fasting, as we are giving and tithing, as we are serving, as we are witnessing. All those things strengthen us as Christians. All those things that most Christians or professing Christians do not do.

Guest (Male): How concerned are you about your reputation? Are you glad when people have great thoughts about you, whether true or false? We may be able to fool some people about who we really are, but we cannot fool God. This is Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel.

In the third chapter of Revelation, we uncover the letter to the church in Sardis. Now, this church was riding on its reputation, but as we are going to see, Jesus saw through all of that and actually considered that church to be dead. What does that mean exactly and how does it apply to our lives? We are going to find out today. Open your Bible to Revelation chapter 3 as we join Pastor Bill Henry for a look at the letter to Sardis.

Bill Henry: As we come once again to this letter to the angel of the church of Sardis, just by way of reminder, Jesus is basically dictating to the Apostle John and telling him to write these seven letters to seven different churches there in the area of Asia Minor. There are seven letters and this is the fifth letter.

Just briefly to recap, Ephesus: the commentators basically say that was the letter to the loveless church. That is the first letter. The second one to Smyrna was basically to the persecuted church. The one to Pergamum they call the compromising church. Thyatira: the corrupt church. Now, this fifth letter they call the dead church.

Notice again at verse one with me: "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, 'These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: "I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead."'" Now, if you were here last week, we looked this verse over and dove into what it was saying there, what the Lord is saying.

Notice that Jesus knows their works and that you have a name, or in the Greek there, it is literally reputation for being alive. They were known for being alive, for being on fire. Maybe they were jam-packed every Sunday, maybe even throughout the week. But Jesus said, "You are dead." So, it was basically just doing all these works, these things for the Lord, but their faith was apparently dead or dying.

Notice in verse two, Jesus goes on, "Wake up! You are dead, but wake up and strengthen what remains and what is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent."

I love how Jesus basically tells the church there that is dead or almost dead, asleep, or whatever is going on, he tells them basically five things to do to get over this, to wake up. So, for us here this morning, we are going to see these things. He says, number one, to wake up; number two, to strengthen what remains; number three, to remember; number four, to hold fast; and number five, to repent. All this within a verse and a half.

As we go over these things that Jesus commanded the dead church what to do, what a great opportunity for us even here today, those watching or listening. If you feel dead in your faith this morning, if you feel kind of run down, maybe you are the prodigal son or daughter, maybe you have just kind of been feeling just out of it in your walk with Jesus. There is a deadness or you have been kind of sleeping, if you will. These are the same things that we can do, we can apply.

Remember later on here in the letter, Jesus is going to say, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says." So, this does not just apply to the church there in Sardis, although it did, it also applies to us. Notice again what our Master has prescribed for the ailing Christian heart.

Number one: first, they are commanded to wake up. They need to wake up. They need to, hey, it is time to wake up. There are two Greek words used here for wake up. The amplified version does a great job of translating them. It says, "Rouse yourselves and keep awake." So, they were to be rousing themselves, and not just rousing themselves, but also to stay awake, to keep awake.

Today it is interesting when we saw during COVID those three years, it was very interesting to see spiritually what was happening, not just within the church but around the world, but especially within the church. We saw this great falling away as many seemed to fall asleep. As so many seemed to kind of just go dead in their walks with the Lord. All of a sudden, they are allowing in all this weird doctrinal stuff that is unbiblical and even anti-biblical.

In others, though, it was interesting to see, and a lot less in number, but a lot of people also woke up within the church. All of a sudden, we see spiritually God moving in people who had just kind of been lukewarm, maybe kind of backslidden, maybe kind of just in their walks with Jesus.

But even like a lot of Christians, those that we saw wake up, I see a lot of them falling asleep again, kind of dozing off. There is not too much going on and so we start to doze and figure. Let's be honest, sometimes it is nicer to doze than it is to stay awake. It is a lot easier to fall asleep. It does not take any effort really except to fall asleep.

But it takes effort to rouse ourselves, as it says here, to keep awake. We need to be those who are rousing ourselves. I remember years ago a friend of mine, Paul Melton, we were roommates, and another guy named Rick. Paul's room was down the hall from me and he worked in construction. His alarm would go off at 4:00 every morning, 3:30.

A lot of times, I'm down the hallway, my door is closed, his door is closed, but all of a sudden at 3:30, 4:00, all of a sudden I hear this "Eh, eh, eh, eh." And then, "Hey, and welcome to Radio Live!" And all of a sudden this music because it was blaringly loud. I'm like, oh no, not again. I'd get out of bed, walk down the hallway, open Paul's door. "Wake up, you jerk!" Again!

Paul heard the music, he heard the alarm, but he just didn't want to rouse. He didn't want to wake up. That is what a lot of people in Christianity today do. They hear, they see what is going on, they hear from the pulpit, they hear from other places, perhaps friends or family, "Wake up!" And yet they don't. I don't want to wake up. I'm fine as a Christian. I don't want to wake up because if I wake up, then it's going to mean I'm going to have to start sacrificing.

It means I'm going to have to die to myself. I'm going to have to actually start doing what I say I believe. I don't want to go there, brother. I'll just stay asleep because it's all covered by grace, you know. Jesus says even here today: rouse yourselves. It is time to wake up. Wake up!

It is interesting, this word "wake up" in the Greek, "rouse yourself," is the same, it is used all throughout the New Testament. Jesus uses it in Matthew 24:42 where he says, "Watch therefore, for you know not at what hour your Lord doth come." By the way, this is a great application to the verses we're studying because at the end of verse three, we're going to see Jesus's warning about his return.

But there in Matthew 24:42, "Watch therefore" is the same Greek word. Watch, stay awake, rouse yourself. Matthew 24:43: "But know this, that if the master of the house had known what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake." Same Greek word.

Let's go to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus is getting ready to just pray and sweat as drops of blood. He was very sorrowful and troubled, we read in Matthew 26:37. We have Peter, James, and John were with him. He said to them in verse 38, "Hey, my soul is very sorrowful, even unto death. Remain here and watch with me." That is the same Greek word: watch, stay awake.

Stay awake! Then Jesus comes back, Matthew 26:40, and he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, "So you could not watch," again the same Greek word, with me for one hour? He goes on to say, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Anybody experienced that? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

We are to be those who are watching, those who are praying, those who are awake and staying awake. I love this: watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. In Acts chapter 20, Paul is addressing the Ephesian elders as he's heading off to prison and all this other stuff.

In verse 29 he says this: "For I know this, that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples, the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears."

So the word there in verse 31, "Therefore watch," is the same Greek word. Therefore stay awake, Paul is saying. Last week, we had to do church discipline. If you weren't here and you know some people in the church as a couple, a younger couple, probably around 30 years old, the guy is basically a false prophet.

He came into our church purposefully a year and a half ago, just as Paul described, not sparing the flock, speaking perverse things. So if you weren't here last week and you didn't hear what we had to say about this, and you know somebody that's been telling everybody that, for example, there's no such thing as sin once you're saved. You can no longer sin as a Christian. That's a false teaching. That is anti-biblical. That is not a biblical belief, but he stumbled a lot of people within the church.

But I think honestly what bothers me, and that bothers me by the way, it made me pretty upset, but here's the thing. Notice it says there in verse 31, Paul is saying therefore watch for people like this. This guy was in the church, our church, for a year and a half. How could he get by for that long? I think most of the time he had this little sheep's face on, and every once in a while you can kind of see the wolf kind of come up from underneath the wolf in sheep's clothing.

But watch. It doesn't really mean really watch out there. The context here is watching within the church. Be careful, be watchful, especially in what we believe. There are many other scriptures, by the way, with those words used. Just a great word study on to watch or to stay awake, to be watchful.

First thing that Jesus says to the one who is dead, the one who is asleep, is basically to wake up. Then notice he goes on here back in our text: you're to strengthen what remains. So you wake up, you strengthen what remains, and he goes on to say that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. You need to strengthen what is remaining.

That is what he is commanding the church. You need to strengthen what is remaining because they are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. As we go on in the letter, we're going to see that there are some who haven't given into this. They haven't all died. So they are to strengthen what remains, those spiritual things that do remain.

Notice Jesus says their works were not found to be perfect before God. The word "perfect" here in the Greek literally means to finish, to fulfill, to fill a vessel or hollow place. So their works before God weren't being filled with the Holy Spirit, but we can only assume with other things. Instead, we're to be those who are being filled continually with the Spirit of God.

Be not drunk on wine, the Bible says, which is debauchery, but be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Greek there in "be filled with the Holy Spirit" is "be ye continually filled with the Spirit of God." When our tanks are running on empty, it can be hard. But we need to be those who understand that our works are to be done by the power of the Spirit of God, but theirs were empty, they were hollow.

Notice he says here also: strengthen what remains. Now, "what remains" there in the Greek is the Greek word hoi loipoi. It literally means this: remains, residue, remnant, that which is left over. These Christians that are there that are left, they are running on fumes. Anybody feel like that today? Your Christianity, you're running on fumes. "I'm barely making it through, it's so rugged." And by the way, it is rugged out there.

It reminds me of the days of Lot and in the days of Noah, just as Jesus said it would be. Remember how Lot was? He was vexed. Two different words there used for a righteous Lot. By the way, we wouldn't know Lot was righteous unless Peter had told us. What's interesting there, one of those words literally means to torture. Anybody feel tortured today? How do you not look around and weep?

You see homeless people and you're just like, "Oh Lord," and you want to help them. Sometimes God will lead us in that way, but there are so many people in our society that just want to leave them in their squalor. They think that's what love is. The remains, the residue, the remnant that is left over. Again, we need to strengthen what remains. There is a little bit. So if you have a little bit left, I only got a little bit of faith left, here we go. Notice what it says to do with that. It says strengthen.

Strengthen that which does remain, he says. Strengthen that which remains. "Strengthen" here in the Greek is "sterizo." It literally means this: to set fast, to turn resolutely in a certain direction, to strengthen. In other words, let's pull up our bootstraps in the Holy Spirit of God. Let's set our minds resolute that we are going to be disciples of Jesus Christ.

Too many of us, we talked about this last week, we get this whole thing: "Well, I'm a Christian in my mind." I'm a Christian, but I'm not a disciple. See, we love the part about being a Christian because that means we're saved, right? We love the salvation, he's our savior, but we don't always like the disciple part. If we're honest, our flesh hates the disciple part and basically says, "No, you don't have to be a disciple. You just be saved." No, Jesus is our Savior and our Lord, or he's not either.

He is our Savior and our Lord or he's neither. We need to understand that we set fast, we turn resolutely in a certain direction, we strengthen. We do these things. We do them by the word of God. Resolute is a word we hardly hear today. Have you ever noticed all the words that are being taken out of the dictionary basically or hardly ever used? Fortitude, resolute, you're going to stand your ground, righteousness.

As Christians, though, these need to be a part of our library and our brains, part of our vocabulary. We then to set ourselves to strengthen ourselves, strengthen ourselves through the word of God, by the power of the Spirit of God. Strengthening ourselves as we walk in loving obedience to the Lord. Strengthening ourselves as we're in our prayer closets every day, as we're fasting, as we're giving and tithing, as we're serving, as we're witnessing. All those things strengthen us as Christians. All those things that most Christians or professing Christians don't do.

I can't tell you, Christian after Christian, professing Christian that comes into my office. "Are you reading your Bible every day? Are you fasting regularly? Do you have a prayer closet? Are you tithing, giving at least 10 percent to the church and on top of that? Are you serving at church? Are you witnessing?"

You know that most of the times those answers are no, no, no, no, and no. Oh, it could be a little bit here. I'm reading my Bible sometimes. I'm praying before I eat and sometimes when I wake up. But I don't have a prayer closet. Fasting? What's that? Giving? I might throw five bucks in the plate sometimes. No, I don't need to, I'm not going to sacrifice for that. Serving? Who has time for that? Witnessing? I'm too afraid to do that.

So again, what makes us a Christian? What makes us a disciple? We're not doing those things. But here's the caveat, here's the trick. It's not like, "Okay, Pastor Bill wants us to do these things." No, these are things as Christians, guess what they do? They strengthen us. But most of us won't do them, so we're weak Christians.

That's what happened in America, it happened in Europe and in England. We hear the word of God, but we don't heed the word of God. We know what we're supposed to do, but we're not strengthening ourselves, so we're weak. Then because we're weak, we don't want to do these things. There's this vicious cycle. What do they say? The definition of insanity is to do the same things and expect change.

Wake up, strengthen, those are the first two things. Look at the third thing: to remember. Remember what you have received and heard. They had received the word of God. In other words, they would study from the Old Testament. They had already received that. Even at this point around 90, 95 AD, they had received, this is the last letter, book, that is being added to the New Testament. So they'd already received a lot of even the New Testament at this point.

Remember what you've received. They'd received the word of God. Remember what you've heard. Now, he's not talking about silly things. Remember the word of God. Remember, remember what you've received. Remember what you have heard. Turn back to Revelation chapter 2 with me real quick, because Jesus says the same thing in a way to the church in Ephesus.

Church in Ephesus, he said this in verse four and five, chapter two: "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love." Then he says, "Remember," same Greek word, "therefore from whence you are fallen, repent and do the first works." Then back in our text, "Remember what you have received and heard." It's kind of the same thing and notice even there Jesus is tying it to them leaving their first love back in Ephesus.

Guys and girls, we need to remember from whence we have come. That's another thing to be restored, to grow and thrive in your relationship, is to remember the word of God. Remember what you've heard. Remember what you've received. Be those men and women who, as we're reading through the word of God, we know that He's going to speak to us.

We've received and both heard it. In Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1, it says this, "Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away." And that's what happened in Sardis. They drifted away. How many of us here, how many of us watching, you've been drifting away? In your Christianity, you came to that point, you're like click-click on the steering wheel, you turned on your cruise control in your Christianity. "I'm just going to let it go from here. I don't need to be involved anymore. It's all good for me."

You ever turned on your cruise control and all of a sudden you just let go with your feet on the gas? All of a sudden you're going for a bit because you're kind of going downhill, and all of a sudden you realize you're starting to slow down and slow down and slow down. Sometimes it's very gradual because it didn't engage, it didn't really turn on. Well, guess what? There is no such thing as cruise control in Christianity. We can't not do the things that we mentioned earlier, those basics of Christianity, and think that we're going to keep moving forward as a Christian. As a matter of fact, we're going to start going back. That's why the Bible talks about backsliding or a carnal Christian.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today. If you'd like to share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3.

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