-
I know your works.
-
You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
-
Literally, this reads:
-
You have a name
-
that you are alive.
-
You have a name.
-
But the name you have isn't accurate.
-
That's what Jesus is saying.
-
You have a name.
-
You have a reputation.
-
But what is true does not square with that reputation.
-
Now brethren, I want you to just
-
feel the impact of this.
-
These people have souls.
-
You have a soul.
-
Isn't it amazing how flippant and trivial people are?
-
Isn't it amazing that when you come to people
-
with the Word of God, and you say,
-
"Sir, m'am, your life does not line up
-
with the Word of God."
-
How trivializing people are with regard to their soul.
-
"Oh, well, I think this."
-
"Yes, but God's Word says this."
-
"Yeah, but I don't believe that."
-
Isn't it amazing!
-
I mean people will look straight in the face
-
of God's Word, and their lives don't line up with it,
-
and oh well, I just take another name on myself.
-
I call myself a Christian.
-
Yeah, you don't call me one;
-
you say that the Bible doesn't say that I'm one,
-
but I call myself one and I think I'm ok.
-
And they just skip down the street.
-
And it's like,
-
do you not realize what you're doing here?
-
This is your soul!
-
Jesus came along, and He tries to convince men,
-
do you not realize that if you once lose your soul...
-
I mean, what would a man in hell give
-
in exchange for his soul?
-
Everything.
-
Everything.
-
Brethren, these are souls on the line.
-
Even if you gain the whole world, what is that,
-
compared to the value of your soul?
-
Jesus is threatening to come against
-
this church at Sardis, because they're living
-
behind a name that isn't real.
-
And is that true of anyone here?
-
Brethren, it is so easy for us to give ourselves names.
-
People in this world do it all the time.
-
They give themselves a name,
-
and then they think that that name is going to somehow protect them.
-
They think because they call themselves by
-
a certain title, by a certain description, by a certain name,
-
it therefore makes it true.
-
And people's souls, eternal souls, hinge on this.
-
It's like, well, that's what I think...
-
I'm not really interested in searching the Word of God
-
or really finding out if this is true or not.
-
I'm going to take my chances.
-
On judgement day, God will just understand.
-
I mean, brethren, do you hear people talk like that?
-
I do!
-
It's scary.
-
Jesus says to this church at Sardis,
-
"I'm going to come against you."
-
I have a reputation of being a Christian,
-
I go to church. That's what other people call me.
-
The thing that matters is not what you call yourself.
-
It's what Christ calls you!
-
Do you measure up in His eyes to bearing that name
-
and bearing that reputation?
-
And if you're wrong, it's going to cost you everything.
-
This is really serious, folks.
-
This is serious.
-
Can you imagine men and women at Sardis?
-
Or here?
-
In this room, heading for this state of hopelessness.
-
And they've propped up a reputation, a name.
-
As I'm trying to think, what can I liken this to?
-
It's almost like children playing in the sand,
-
and taking some twigs and setting them up,
-
and tanks are coming across the field,
-
and you know, they've got their little twigs.
-
And they hide behind it.
-
And here comes a great big tank.
-
It's like, ok, I'm going to be safe behind this.
-
I imagine, here comes a storm.
-
There's a storm out there on the horizon,
-
and it is black with the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty,
-
and it is coming against me for my sin,
-
and I prop up this little barricade,
-
it's a name,
-
and I hide behind it.
-
Ok, I'm going to be safe behind here.
-
I think on Wednesday, we heard about some young lady,
-
that somebody was preaching the Gospel to,
-
and they were talking to about hell,
-
and she said, "well, I don't know if I believe in hell."
-
You see what she's saying?
-
"Well, if I just basically give myself a name,
-
that I'm a disbeliever in hell,
-
I'm going to be ok. Right?
-
It doesn't matter that the Word of God says
-
that there's a hell.
-
I don't believe there is one."
-
You think that's a safe place to hide?
-
When that storm comes out, what good is her name,
-
"I'm a disbeliever in hell" going to do for her?
-
That storm is going to sweep that away
-
and crush it.
-
Many great houses are going to fall.
-
Do you think that little thing is
-
going to stand up in that day?
-
Brethren, no name will shelter you or me
-
from the coming wrath,
-
except the name of Jesus Christ itself.
-
None other.
-
Here these folks are at Sardis.
-
They're hiding behind a reputation.
-
I'll say this, brethren.
-
What mercy!
-
You picture it.
-
You have an enemy.
-
His troops are coming across the field.
-
The tanks are rolling in.
-
The artillary is rolling in.
-
You've got jets coming in fully armed.
-
And here you are totally exposed in the field,
-
you set up a few twigs and a little rotten cloth
-
and you hide behind it.
-
Oh, I'm going to be safe here.
-
For the general of those ranks,
-
who you have wronged badly,
-
he comes across the enemy lines,
-
and not as an enemy right at this point,
-
but he comes up beside you,
-
puts his arm around you
-
as you stand behind your little tattered barricade,
-
and he says, "Look.
-
That barricade isn't going to stand
-
when I come against you.
-
Make peace with me now and come join me.
-
And you'll be safe."
-
What mercy!
-
That he comes to them like that.
-
Because he's got every right
-
just to break forth against them. Right?
-
But to come and even bid them,
-
to encourage them, "Come."
-
The name you're hiding behind will give way.
-
Brethren, some of you, you're holding the title "Christian."
-
And I hope you'll wake up like He called Sardis to wake up.
-
Because all it is is a name.
-
The name of Christian without the reality of Christian,
-
it's going to be blown away by
-
the wrath of God in an instant.
-
It will not stand.
-
It cannot stand.
-
The most deadly, damning delusion
-
is not miscalculating somebody else's reputation.
-
You understand that?
-
I mean, I may look at you and I may have
-
a great estimation of you.
-
And be wrong.
-
But that in and of itself is not the determining factor.
-
Because you may look at me and say,
-
"he makes way too much of me,
-
I know my real state - it's bad."
-
And you may flee to Christ and all is well.
-
Or I may look at you and I may think evil of you,
-
and I may be dead wrong.
-
Really, things are well with you,
-
and Christ thinks well with you,
-
and everything is all right.
-
I mean, miscalculations about somebody else's
-
reputation are not necessarily the final word on the matter.
-
But I'll tell you this, brethren,
-
when you're wrong about yourself, you're wrong.
-
And if you stay on that course, it's damning.
-
It's serious.
-
You need to wake up!
-
That's what He's saying here,
-
"Wake up! Wake up!"
-
If you're not willing to repent, if you're not willing to wake up,
-
you should tremble.
-
The question of the hour is this:
-
is there any possibility...
-
and look, we all need to ask ourselves this.
-
I want to ask myself this. I want you to ask yourself this.
-
Is there any possibility that you may be dead
-
or that you may be dying?
-
And that if you continue on your present course,
-
you will lose your soul?
-
I'm just asking you to consider,
-
is there any possibility that that might be true?
-
Is there any of us that bear the name alive and well,
-
but if you basically look at the path that you're on
-
and you were to draw a line off of it
-
and project where it goes, it misses heaven.
-
Brethren, that's what we want to think about.
-
You know what Jesus says?
-
In Matthew 7, He says that there are few that have life,
-
but there are many who don't.
-
And He's talking to the religious crowd.
-
Look, He comes along and He says this,
-
He says, "On that day (on judgement day),
-
many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord,
-
did we not prophesy in Your name, cast out demons
-
in Your name, do many mighty works in Your name?'"
-
Do you hear what they're saying?
-
Lord, look how alive we were!
-
We had the name of "alive."
-
We sought out demons, we cast them out.
-
We prophesied, we used spiritual gifts,
-
we didn't do just a few works in Your name,
-
we did many, and they weren't just little works,
-
they were mighty works.
-
And we didn't just do them, we did them in Your name.
-
And they're saying, "Look how alive we were!"
-
"Look at the movement, Lord, look at the movement!"
-
And He said, "I never knew you."
-
"You're dead."
-
And this is exactly the picture.
-
All sorts of apparent motion
-
that made it look good,
-
so much so that these people,
-
they're hiding behind the name, right?
-
They're hiding behind a reputation
-
that had been created by all this movement.
-
But Jesus says, "You're lawless."
-
"You're not Mine. I don't know you."
-
"You're dead."
-
And the thing is, He says many, over against the few.
-
In other words, those in this world
-
that bear a good reputation and bear a good name
-
most, the reality is not behind the name.
-
Most religion in this world is false and empty.
-
Brethren, that ought to make us sit up and say, "Wow!"
-
Look. You don't want to have that name peeled away
-
like these people when it's too late.
-
I mean, they're saying,
-
"Lord, we're alive! We're alive! We're alive!"
-
And He says, "You're dead. Depart."
-
You don't want to find out then.
-
You know when you want to find out?
-
You want to find out today.
-
You want to be like the people at Sardis,
-
who heard the warning, and they responded
-
and they repented and Christ didn't come against them,
-
and they were worthy to walk in white.
-
That's who you want to be like.
-
You don't want to just say,
-
you know what? I've got my opinion,
-
and I'm going to bank my soul on it,
-
without any self-examination.
-
Brethren, don't do that.
-
Religiously, there can be a lot of movement.
-
But you know what?
-
It's no more than the twitching of a corpse.
-
That's all it is here.
-
When Jesus says people like this are many.
-
So here's what we have to ask.
-
How do I know if my life is the fruit of true,
-
real, God-breathed life, or if my life
-
is no more than the twitching of a corpse?
-
I mean, how can I know that?
-
The folks at Sardis believed they were alive.
-
I believe I'm alive.
-
They were very much mistaken.
-
Am I?
-
Brethren, let me tell you this,
-
if you have sin that you know is against the will of God,
-
and you can live in that state,
-
you're in trouble.
-
If you can live in a state where you've got something
-
you know you need to repent of, and you're not.
-
I don't mean you shed a casual tear,
-
and you get concerned once in a while,
-
but you let it exist and go on.
-
If there is not regular repentance,
-
where you're actually casting off in your life
-
what God hates.
-
If you're able to live with what God hates in your life,
-
brethren, again, He says you will not enter heaven.
-
You won't.
-
It doesn't matter what name you've given yourself,
-
or what reputation you hide behind.
-
If you are not a Christian in private,
-
and if you are not sold out to do God's will,
-
you are in trouble.
-
Don't rest in any name you've given yourself
-
or somebody else.
-
And I'll tell you this,
-
There are very well meaning Christians that will come along
-
and will call people "brother."
-
And I think rightly so.
-
But they'll call you, "brother."
-
They'll call you "sister."
-
They'll give you a name.
-
They'll embolden that reputation.
-
But if inside, you know these things aren't true,
-
don't let a man's word, a man's name,
-
a man's perception of your reputation
-
be any comfort to you, if inside you know
-
you are wrongly bearing the name.
-
Don't rest on that.
-
Don't rest on somebody else calling you a Christian.
-
Or calling you brother or sister,
-
if you know that according to Christ, I'm not well.
-
Wake up!
-
Don't lose your soul.
-
You see, brethren, we like to have a good reputation.
-
If I come clean,
-
I'm going to have a bad reputation.
-
Wouldn't it be better to have a bad reputation
-
and go to heaven,
-
than keep your good reputation and burn?
-
Brethren, don't waste your soul on the fact that
-
you might somehow now get a bad reputation with somebody.
-
They might think less of you.
-
Brethren, what really matters is what Christ thinks of you.
-
If you take a hyper-Calvinistic road on this,
-
and say well, I'm not going to burn bright,
-
I'm not going to have life,
-
I'm not going to be a raging fire again,
-
this thing isn't going to be recovered
-
unless God does it.
-
You will go to hell in your hyper-Calvinism.
-
What Christ is telling you to do is act on this.
-
Right now. Act on it.
-
Think about this: if you're in the wilderness,
-
and you had a fire, and you know
-
your life depends on that fire being kept lit,
-
if not you're going to die,
-
then suddenly, you look at the fire
-
and you come to realize, the flame is out.
-
There's a few glowing embers in there.
-
What are you going to do?
-
Take a cold cup of the water of television
-
and throw it on there?
-
Brethren, do you see this is real life?
-
This fire is you. It's your heart.
-
It's us.
-
I mean what are you going to do?
-
Are you going to throw blankets over the top of it?
-
The blankets of just fun and frivolity of this life.
-
Brethren, what you're going to do is
-
you're going to get down there and you're going
-
to blow on those coals.
-
You're going to find the driest kindling that you possibly can.
-
Brethren, I see this like blowing on it
-
with the breath of prayer.
-
You're going to blow on it.
-
Put the kindling of repentance on it.
-
If there's any sin in your life,
-
anything between you and Christ.
-
If there's bad things you've let into your life.
-
I mean, brethren, this is about getting that fire back up
-
because it's ready to go out and if it goes out
-
you die.
-
You say I don't know how this fits in with election.
-
I don't know how this fits in...
-
Don't concern yourself with that.
-
Christ is talking to people.
-
He's talking to real people just like you and me.
-
And He's saying you have a responsbility,
-
and if you are dying,
-
brethren, ask yourself.
-
Are there any signs that you're dying?
-
I mean, did you know conviction in the past
-
that you don't know today?
-
Did you know affection and feelings for Christ
-
that you don't feel today?
-
When you sang the songs of Zion in the past,
-
was there a joy and a delight
-
that you don't feel today?
-
Were you concerned about your soul in the past
-
in a way that you don't feel today?
-
Were you concerned about other's souls
-
in a way you don't feel today?
-
Brethren, that is a picture of spiritual decline,
-
and if it's true, brethren,
-
draw the line out from where you are.
-
That which is dying will die and the end is death.
-
You don't want that.
-
I mean, Christ told another church,
-
first love, intensity, increase,
-
if not, brethren, He removes candlesticks.
-
He responds.
-
If there's any kind of decline,
-
we need to jump on this fire,
-
we need to make sure that it comes back to a blaze.
-
And you know the things that put the fire out.
-
Worldliness puts the fire out.
-
The world comes at us in full force
-
on the computer and on the television
-
and on movies, on the news, and on radio.
-
Full force.
-
Having worldly friends and acquaintances,
-
they corrupt good morals.
-
They're this wet water on the fire.
-
Staying away from the Word,
-
Oh brethren, if there's anything to kindle the fire, it's the Word.
-
Anything to kindle faith.
-
Brethren, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God.
-
You look at your life, well, you know,
-
I'm kind of cold when I read the Scriptures.
-
Brethren, if there's any kind of disobedience,
-
disobedience - basically sin,
-
it separates between you and God and puts the fire out,
-
it quenches the Spirit,
-
quench, quench, quench...
-
You want to reverse everything in your life that is quenching.
-
Because that puts the fire out.
-
And brethren, Jesus is serious.
-
He's saying no activity, this is about to die.
-
And it's amazing - isn't it amazing?
-
I find this absolutely merciful
-
that Jesus would say,
-
you have had, you have received,
-
you have heard good things.
-
And now you're at this place.
-
And Jesus just doesn't pull His hand back
-
and say I gave them the truth,
-
they didn't respond,
-
let them be damned.
-
Even right at the end,
-
even before the flame,
-
the last vestige of that fire goes out,
-
He steps in one more time,
-
and He says, pull back. Pull back.
-
Stop putting the water on the fire.
-
I still bid you come.
-
I will still receive you.
-
Repent.
-
If you don't. It's going out. I'm going to come against you.
-
But even here at the end,
-
what a mercy! what a mercy!
-
Some of you have been drifting.
-
Some of you are way out there,
-
you're out there, and if you draw that line
-
from where you are on the path that you've been on,
-
it misses heaven.
-
It does.
-
You may not think so because you're hiding behind a name.
-
And you're hiding behind a past reputation.
-
And you're hiding behind these things.
-
But I'll guarantee you, based on what we've been seeing
-
in these letters, if you draw the line out, you miss it.
-
And even now, before you fully reach that place,
-
like Hebrews 6 talks about,
-
where there's a point of no return,
-
even before you get to the place of no return,
-
He comes up and He puts His arm around you,
-
and He bids you turn back.
-
I still bid you.
-
I would have you not perish.
-
I still would rather see you turn.
-
And brethren, the thing about this letter...
-
there is no guarantee from it
-
that these people turn back.
-
Your realize there is great possibility
-
that it will not turn out well.
-
You do not get an overly encouraging feeling here.
-
This is like the last word.
-
Turn back.
-
You're running suicidally towards a cliff,
-
and you're close to it even now.
-
Pull back. Repent. Come back.