Simple Faith

Bill Henry: Do we have to wait until heaven to walk with Jesus? Here's Pastor Bill Henry. There was a pastor and he says, "You know, I just hate when people say 'How's your walk? How's your walk with Jesus?'" And I'm like, why would you hate that? Because it's totally biblical, talking about your walk.

You see, even though it's one day we're going to be walking with Jesus, we will walk with him in white for they are worthy. Let's today be those who are walking in the Spirit of God as the word tells us to, to be walking in white. Because remember, white basically is a representation of righteousness, of perfection, of holiness.

Guest (Male): We're back in the book of Revelation today on Simple Faith. And again, we're looking at the letter that Jesus wrote to the church in Sardis in Revelation chapter 3. Now, this was a church that had the appearance of a lively and vibrant church, but actually, according to Jesus, it was dead. They had all the trappings of life, but the one thing lacking was spiritual life itself.

Pastor Bill has some words for you and me as well as you might find some of these symptoms in your own life. This is Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry. Welcome to the broadcast. Let's eliminate any whiff of spiritual deadness from our lives. Here's Pastor Bill to tell us how.

Bill Henry: Revelation 3 verse 1: "And to the angel of the church in Sardis, write: These things says He who has 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. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are all ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.

Remember then what you received and heard. Keep it and repent. 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. You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments and I will not blot out his name from the book of life. But 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."

So again, by way of reminder, Jesus is having John write seven letters to seven different churches and we're in the midst of the fifth letter, the letter to Sardis. Remember the first letter to Ephesus, where they called Ephesus the loveless church. And then the next church was Smyrna, called the persecuted church. And then Pergamum, they called that the compromising church. Thyatira was the corrupt church. And now Sardis here is called the dead church.

And we studied this last week, the main reason. But what's also interesting is there is also a prophetical view. So I believe these letters were written to these seven different churches that were there in Asia at the time and delivered there and said, "Hey, this is from Jesus for you." And so delivered to the churches. But also there's many different other applications. There's the prophetical view that each letter represents a certain portion of church history.

And it's interesting because if you take it that way, remember in Thyatira back in chapter 2, that known as the corrupt church, that would have been the period of church history where the Roman Catholic Church came into its power and its being and also a lot of its corruption as we see. And so according to this same view, then the church in Sardis, the dead church, would actually be the Protestant church.

And so it's quite an interesting thing to look at. A lot of times people will say, "Well, how can the Protestants be called the dead church? Look around the world today." Well, I do invite you to actually do that. If you've been to England, if you've been to Scotland, if you've been to France or Germany, you will see that most of the Protestant churches are closed down. They're dead. They're dying. Even in Canada and even many parts of the United States, you see churches, these Protestant churches now they're turning into homes or they're being made coffee shops or all these different things.

And so we see that this was a prophetical view of the Protestant church having this reputation of being alive, but they were basically dead. Now, but because God always keeps a remnant, we see that clearly throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. We come to verse 4. He says, "You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy."

I remember a time years ago when I first heard about the Rapture. When I was brought up in a church, I never heard about a thing called the Rapture of the church. I never heard about a tribulation or even really the thousand-year reign of Christ. And I went to religious schools most of my young life. And what's interesting though is when I started reading guys like Hal Lindsey or Chuck Smith or others, I started to hear this thing about a Rapture of the church.

And it was interesting because back then, oh, just wait until hundreds of millions if not a billion people just disappear in this great Rapture. Yet what's interesting is as I've studied my Bible over the years, notice here it says you have a few names. It doesn't say you have many names or even some, it says you have a few. And this is great news that there is a remnant, but what a sad thing to see how small that remnant actually is.

You have a few names. Turn with me please to Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7 in your Bible. Again, very familiar verses to us all here this morning, but always good to be reminded and even warned here once again. Matthew chapter 7 starting in verse 21. This is Jesus speaking towards the end of the sermon what we call the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 7:21, Jesus speaking: "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.'"

It's an interesting thing. Even if you're there, just glance back at verse 13 with me. It says, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it." Now, sadly, it would seem from what we're reading here that most of the church there in Sardis, even though they had a reputation of being alive, even though people looked at them and said, "Dude, these guys are on fire. Look at how full their church is. Look at how we hear the worship is awesome or they're doing all this stuff in the community." But they were mostly spiritually dead.

So most of them would have went to heaven and say, "Hey, Lord, Lord, didn't I do this in your name? And do that? And cast out demons? Do all these wonders?" And Jesus looked at them, most of the church in Sardis, and said, "Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. I never knew you."

Years ago, probably 15 or so years ago, I heard a message from a fellow named Paul Washer. Now he's a hyper-Calvinist, and so just be a little careful if you go look up his stuff, but most of the stuff he's right on. Now, Paul Washer had been a missionary abroad in the world. He was from America. For many years he'd been in the mission field and when he came back to America and specifically back to the church in America, and saw just how godless and how worldly the church was.

He'd been asked to give this message to these teens at a teen retreat. And there was, I think, thousands of teens at this retreat, many adults as well. And as he was standing there, he's looking at all these late teenagers and saying basically that they needed to repent, they needed to check their faith, that many of them would one day cry out, "Lord, Lord," and hear the words, "I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness."

And in the tape, you can hear the crowd begin to, they're all cheering, "That's right, that's right." And then he looked at the crowd and said, "I'm not sure why you're cheering. I'm talking about you!" And there was almost dead silence.

Beloved in Christ, where are you today with Jesus? What is your walk with Jesus like? Are you alive on the outside? Does your family think you're doing pretty good? Do the people at church think you're doing pretty good? But inside you're really dead? You're just faking it? You're being religious? Maybe it's fire insurance for you to come to church. You just want to make sure that you don't go to hell, so hey, I got this insurance card. Look, I got my insurance card. I was in church every Sunday.

Lord's like, no, that's not going to do it. But Lord, I did all these things for your name. I went to do the new church at Simple Faith and I donated extra money and I donated time. And that's not going to get you in. And there was many, most of the people there were in Sardis, they were going to be going to hell. He said, "You have a few names even in Sardis." The rest of the church had defiled their garments.

The rest of the church had become so enamored with the world, even as professing Christians. And remember what Jesus said a moment ago, "Look, there are many; wide is that path of that road that leads to destruction. Narrow is that way." And hard, by the way, he goes on to say it's a hard path, too. But these are those who are not defiled. Notice there in verse 4: "You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments."

So again, defiled their garments would basically represent their lives. It's not literally they're walking around with stains on their shirts, dirty pants. I remember when I was single and you wear those same pair of jeans for 15 weeks where you could just stand them in the corner and throw them back on. Amen, remember those days?

But these defiled garments basically represented their lives, their inner selves, what was they were really like. And so this would, as we even see he goes on to say, "They shall walk with me in white for they are worthy." And so these are those that are not defiled.

Defiled here in the Greek is in the ESV it's translated soiled. The Greek word is molunó and it literally means to soil, to defile, to pollute, to stain, to contaminate. The antonym of this word or the opposite of this word is to cleanse. Remember what John said in 1 John chapter 1, basically he says, look, if you sin, confess your sins. He's faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins and what? Cleanse us from all unrighteousness, cleanse us from all defilements.

We're to be those as Christians who are walking after Christ, who are not walking in the defilement of the world. These are those basically who were not defiled. They were not stained. They were not living in sin within their lives, accepting sin within their lives. Turn with me please to Revelation chapter 14. We see this word defiled used again. And we kind of see a little better the context, what does it actually mean to be defiled?

Revelation 14 starting in verse 4. Now, these are being described here, the 144,000 Jews who would be set apart to go into witness to all the world. And in verse 4 they're being described. It says, "These are the ones who are not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of God."

Now, verse 4 there in the New Living, it's translated this way: "They have kept themselves as pure virgins, following the Lamb wherever He goes." In a paraphrase it says: "These are those who lived without compromise, virgin fresh before God. Wherever the Lamb went, they followed."

Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow, ready? Everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go. You see, these were those who were not defiled with women, basically meaning not that they weren't married and had sex within the confines of marriage, but these were those, they were virgins, but they hadn't committed fornication.

But it goes on to say if you look at verse 4 in Revelation 14: "These are the ones that follow the Lamb wherever He goes." Just like Mary's little lambs. You know, I don't know about you, but a lot of times as Christians we have a tendency as sheep, we like to go our own way. I love to see those videos on the those little reels or whatever you watch.

And they have, I remember this one guy says, "For those of you who think I'm being abusive to my dog by letting him help me herd the sheep, watch this." And he had two dogs and all of a sudden he opens the gate and they just run, dude, they are so excited. And they go get these sheep who are just all over the place. And all of a sudden they go in this way and herding the sheep that way and going in this way and there's some that are trying to get back and here's these dogs, "Oh no, you're not going there. Come on," and keep following what? Keep following the shepherd.

You see, these 144,000, those who weren't defiled, they followed the Lamb wherever He goes. Do you and I follow the Lamb wherever He goes? Or are we following the world a little bit too much, a little bit too closely, and getting defiled in that time? We don't realize it sometimes. "Well, Lord, you know, I got it kind under control. I don't need to really follow you in accordance to your word. I know a lot of it, but I don't need to be so legalistic." And so we kind start to go our own way.

But what we don't understand when we start to go our own way or we start to go in the ways of the world, we start to also become defiled because we start to live in rebellion to God. And even that little bit is a little bit of defilement. A lot of times we'll defile ourselves with a lot of the movies that we'll watch or some of the music that we'll listen to, maybe some of the books that we read.

Think about television today and movies today. I was watching a movie several years ago and it was on a regular channel and all of a sudden and I wasn't paying attention, I think I was reading while it was on the background, all of a sudden I heard the F-word. At least I thought I did. I'm like, there's no way. I checked the channel. No, this is regular thing. And all of a sudden 30 seconds later I heard it again.

So I turned it off and I started wash my ears out with soap—no, just kidding. But I was shocked. But you see, it's coming in more and more, this foul language, this stuff, and it's all around us. Things that used to shock us as a society are being more and more accepted. Remember as it was in the days of Noah, men and women are on wickedness continually.

And again, but a lot of us, "Well, this is a good movie, so I'm going to watch it anyway. I'm old enough and mature enough, I'll just kind of filter it out in my brain. And then oh, these sex scenes come up, I'll just close my eyes and I just won't look because this movie, I really want to see this movie. Everybody's talking about it." And yet without realizing it, I'm defiling myself. I'm defiling the Spirit of God.

I remember years ago back in the '60s and '70s, and yes, I'm that old, my mom and dad used to get this newspaper from the Catholic Church every week. And part of what it had in there was the movies and it would give them a rating, it would have a review and a rating. And if the movie was condemned, you couldn't go see it. It was a sin according to the church to go see this movie.

And you know what today? I know many of those same people who would never go to those, they're now they're watching movies they never would have watched because again, it's like that frog in the boiling water. And yet many of us are being defiled, even as a church and even within our own lives. We're listening to that music, "Oh, this rapper's so cool. Man, they got some stuff they're throwing down that are just it's awesome. I can tune out some of the stuff." And then the person says they're a Christian even.

It's like, well, the Bible says my Bible says let no corrupt communication proceed from your mouth. Now for me, when I first read that, I used to curse like a sailor even as a professing Christian. I didn't know that, but when I read that, I didn't go, "Oh, bummer, I can't curse anymore." There was something in me and nobody taught me, I just read it and I go, "I don't have to cuss anymore. Wow, praise you, Lord, I'm set free from that."

And you see, that's the thing. That's we need to be those who are not living in defilement and not being defiled, but also being aware of it. And again, the world, dude, it is getting further and further into defilement. It is getting, and it's calling each one of us, "Come on, compromise. Come on. Just give in. Don't be so stuck to this thing."

So many even professing Christians today, most churches today they look at the Bible, most pastors, most seminaries, don't teach the Bible as the complete word of God without error in the original languages. It's crazy.

So look at verse 4 again. "So you have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments." And notice they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. So again, one day they're going to walk with the Lord and you and I will walk with the Lord in white. Because remember, he that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says. This is also applicable to each one of us here today, those listening or watching.

Listen to this today. So one day we will walk with Jesus in white for they are worthy. What a great reminder to be aware of our walks with Jesus Christ. There was a pastor and he hated, he says, "You know, I just hate when people say 'How's your walk? How's your walk with Jesus?'" And I'm like, why would you hate that? Because it's totally biblical, talking about your walk.

Galatians 5:16: "I say this, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh." You see, even though it's one day we're going to be walking with Jesus and we will walk with him in white for they are worthy, let's today be those who are walking in the Spirit of God as the word tells us to, to be walking in white. Because remember, white basically is a representation of righteousness, of perfection, of holiness.

Because again, notice it says, "For they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy." Again, white here is symbolic for God's righteousness. And this is how, by the way, we're made worthy too. It's through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. It's not because for they are worthy because they did all these works and they became worthy. They denied themselves, they did all these things, they did all these works and by their good works they were saved. They finally outdid the scales of balance.

There are many who profess Christ today, that's how you're getting into heaven. "Well, I've talked to guys and gals, well, you know, when I was younger I did a lot of stuff, but I think I've made up for it. I've been a pretty good husband and a pretty good father and been real faithful in this and that." It's like, well, good for you, but you're not getting to heaven on that, bro. It doesn't say anything about getting to heaven by good works.

So notice, these are those who are made worthy through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. We're never made worthy on our own. You see, as Christians, it's our job to abide in Christ, working out our own salvation with fear and trembling we're told in Philippians, right? And also, though, we will then be bearing fruit in keeping with our professed repentance.

So as we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we're then going to be bearing fruit worthy of our repentance, and God Himself will be working in and through us for His good pleasure. In other words, look, we don't just simply say a prayer one time in our life and then go off and live however we want to and just imagine that we're saved. There's nothing like that in the Bible.

And to be honest, I don't want to go live without God, just how I think I should live. Anybody here? Dude, I did that before I got saved and that led me to darkness and despair and fear and grief. But now with my new Master, oh, He loves me, man. And He knows what's right. He knows what's righteous. He knows what's good for us.

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've heard from Pastor Bill today.

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