Word of Salvation – Vol.41 No.08 – February 1996

 

The Church That Was Dead (2)

(those who were worthy)

 

Sermon by Rev. P. Kossen on Revelation 3:4 and Lord’s Day 24

 

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,

Can you imagine if Jesus Himself stood up and read this letter to our church here in [____________]!  “To the whole church in [____________] I say.  ‘These are the words of Him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars.  I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive but you are dead’.”  And then He goes on a few verses later: “Yet you have a few people in [____________] who have not soiled their clothes.  They will walk with Me dressed in white, for they are worthy.”

If Jesus wrote that to us, what would you think?  One question which I think would cross your mind is, ‘To which group do I belong?  To those who are dead, or those who are worthy?’

What is the difference between the two?  Well, in this letter Jesus is very clear about what the difference is between the two groups.  Jesus measures them by their works, by their deeds, by the way they are living their Christian life.

You see that, first of all, in verses 1 and 2.  The congregation as a whole was a busy, active church, and from the outside she had a very good reputation.  But Jesus looks beyond the surface activities, and He looks down at the hearts, and He says, “although you have this good reputation, I’m sorry to tell you, you are dead.”

And then He goes on in verse 2, “I have not found your deeds, your works, complete in the sight of My God.”  In other words, Jesus is saying, “although you are doing lots of good works, they are not good enough.  They are not complete.  There is something missing in them.”  And unless they change something, Jesus will come, and destroy them.

And then you see it again in verse 4 where He talks about the other group.  “A few people among you have not soiled their clothes.  They are worthy.”  And in the Bible, clean clothes are a sign of a spotless perfection.  And so the people in this group, are seen as people who have lived a pure, holy, upright life.  And because of the way they have lived their lives, they are considered worthy.  And because they are worthy, they will walk with Christ forever.

And so, again, what is the difference between these two groups?  Well it’s obvious.  Jesus measures them by the way they live their Christian life.

Now that raises a very interesting question.  And that is about the place of good works in the life of a Christian.  I mean, we have always believed, that a man is saved by faith alone, without works.  And here, the Lord Himself judges between them on the basis of their works.  Does this letter mean, then, that the good works we do earn us into God’s favour?  And if the works you do are not enough, or not up to scratch, then you will come under His judgment?  That is also the question the Catechism deals with.  And to begin answering this question, I want to emphasise again that important Biblical principle, that:

1. All the good works in the world cannot make us right with God.

Now this is a truth we know very well.  And yet it needs to be underlined again, because this is one of the most common misunderstanding that people have in their walk with God.  Many people have an idea of God that He has some kind of a grading system.

And so, if a person seems to be doing really well in good works, God might give him 90% and he will pass into heaven with flying colours.  Someone else will be doing quite bad, and he might get 20%, and so he will, finally, fail to make the grade.  And someone else is a borderline case, and this side of heaven we are not really sure if this person will finally make the grade or not.

If we apply these categories to Sardis, most of the congregation is at the moment in the failure zone, 10-20%; and the few extraordinary ones, are high up in the eighties or nineties.  And if someone with 20% in Sardis listens to what Jesus is saying, and really pulls his socks up, he will improve his standing with God, and will join the club with those who are dressed in white.  And the question then becomes, will I or will I not, finally, make the grade?  Have I done enough?  What more can I do to be sure that I make the grade?

Now we know that this is a major mistake, because if God would ever begin grading us, we would all fail the grade.  God doesn’t require a pass mark.  He, in accordance with who He is, requires absolute, perfect obedience.  And we know that even the best things we do in this life are imperfect, stained with sin, and far short of His standard.

And we also know, that the only righteousness which is acceptable to God is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  And we also know that the only way for us, today, to be accepted by God, is to have our old garments of the old sinful nature completely stripped away, and to be clothed only in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

And we also know that if, through faith, we belong to Jesus, then through Him, we have made the grade and we stand 100% right with God.  And there is nothing at all you can add to that.  And not all the good works in the world can make us more or less right with God.  Our good works have nothing to do with our standing before God.  Our only hope is the grace of God, in Christ Jesus.

And this gives us our security as Christians.  It doesn’t depend on me at all.  I change: up one day, down the next; more obedient one day, less the next.  No, it doesn’t depend on me; but it depends on what Jesus Christ has done for me.  That is all what counts.

But having said that, we come back to the letter to Sardis.  And there, Jesus Himself accuses them: “I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of My God.  Repent, or I will come and destroy you.”  And that leads us to our second point:

2. The vital necessity of good works.

And first of all, we need to remember who this letter is written to.  It is not written to the people of Asia Minor.  It is not written to the city of Sardis.  But it is a letter written to the CHURCH in Sardis.  And what does it mean to be a member of the church?

Well, you don’t become a full confessing member of a church until you confess your faith in Jesus Christ alone as your Saviour and your Lord.  You are asked, “Who is Jesus Christ to you?”  And you answer, with your heart, “He is my Saviour and my Lord.”

And so, all these people in Sardis were people who confessed faith in Jesus, and thus were clothed in the garments of His righteousness.  And we saw that in the parable of the wedding banquet.  Many were invited – few were chosen.  And all those who came into the wedding hall were wearing wedding clothes.  And when one man snuck in without these garments of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, he was thrown outside into the darkness.  He didn’t belong.

Being a member of the church means that we are people who confess that Jesus Christ alone is our Saviour; we are clothed in His garments of righteousness, and we believe that, as a result, we can stand right, we can stand in peace, in the presence of God.  We are reminded of the joy of singing, “Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul.”

But the problem which Jesus addresses in Sardis is that most of the congregation had soiled their clothes.  You read that in verse 4: “Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes.”  This implies that the others had.

Boys and girls, you know what it is to get your clothes dirty don’t you?  Mum gives you some new clothes, you go outside, and you get them all dirty playing in the backyard, and you get mum all upset.  “Look at what you’ve done to your nice new clothes.”  And that’s exactly what the people of Sardis were doing.  They claimed to be wearing the robes of righteousness of Jesus Christ.  And yet they went back to their old, sinful way of life.  As we saw this morning, they knew the Gospel, but it only went skin deep.  They didn’t walk with Jesus as their Lord.  Well could Jesus have asked them that penetrating question: “Why do you call me Lord if you do not do what I say?  You say you are Christians.  But why doesn’t it show in your life?”

And that is also a question we must face, congregation.  Are we walking in a way which is consistent with our calling?  We know why Jesus came.  He came to rescue us from this present evil age.  He came to rescue us from the clutches of sin.  He came to purify for Himself a people who are His very own, who are eager to do what is good.  And so, faith in Jesus goes hand in hand with repentance.

Repentance simply means, turning around.  Before you come to Christ, you are under the control of the devil, the world, and your own flesh.  And when you come to Christ, you turn away from all this and come under His control instead, the control of the Spirit of Life.  The people in Sardis were like the dogs Jesus talks about, who turned to Him for a little while and then turned around and went back to their own vomit.

And the point is, brothers and sisters, if we are living in a living relationship with Christ, that is, if we live in communion with Him, if we have taken hold of Him and don’t want to let Him go, if we seek Him day by day and if His Spirit is living in our hearts, it will show in our lives.  And you know, as Christians, we don’t even have to think about good works.  We don’t and we should not think, ‘Well, now I am going to do something good.’  No, if we are living with Jesus, there will necessarily be a big change going on in our lives.

It’s just like the spring of water which James speaks about.  If you make the fountain pure, the water which comes from the fountain will be pure.  And if we are living with Christ, and living in His righteousness and living as people who know and rejoice in the fact that we have peace with God through Jesus Christ, the goodness of Jesus Christ will automatically begin to flow from us.

And that is the people of verse 4, who did not soil their clothes.  It doesn’t mean they never failed.  They did.  They often also sinned, and even the best things they did, like us, were stained with sin.  And yet, they knew how precious it was to be washed, day by day, in the blood of the lamb.

The people of verse 2, however, they had many deeds.  They performed many of the outward forms of religion and church life.  But they had lost connection with the Head, and the actions they did which should have flowed naturally out of deep gratitude, were instead done formalistically, coldly, legally.  There was no warmth in their service.  It was a ritual, a tradition.  Although they had a reputation of being alive, yet they were dead.  And that is why Jesus accuses them of deeds which He did not find complete in the sight of God.  Because all these deeds did not come from pure motives, from a pure heart.

And again, we are reminded, brothers and sisters, that unless Jesus, personally, is at the heart of our faith, and at the heart of all we do, our faith is dead.

Yes, good works are vitally important.  Not of themselves.  But the way we live our Christian lives demonstrates who Jesus Christ is to us.

As Jesus says, “by their fruits you will know them.”  As the Catechism also points out, it is impossible for those who are grafted into Christ by a true faith, not to produce fruits of gratitude.  Impossible!  If Christ is in you, your life is being transformed, miraculously, day by day.

The amazing thing is – our third point – that…..

3. These good works are rewarded.

Jesus looks at those who follow Him, who do not soil their clothes.  He sees their lives, the evidence of true faith, and He says.  “They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy.”  And He goes on to tell how He will never blot their name out of the book of life, but will acknowledge them before His Father and before the angels.

This is so beautifully illustrated in the Gospel of Matthew, which speaks several times about the judgment day.  In Matthew 7 Jesus talks about many who will come to Him on judgment day.  And they will say, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in your name, did we not drive out demons and perform many miracles?”  And they will have a whole list of the good works which they have done.  “Lord, doesn’t all this count for something?”  And this self-righteousness is something which the Lord detests.  He will have nothing to do with all the lists of the good things we might think we have done.  And in answer to these people, He will say plainly, “But I never knew you.  Away from Me, you evil doers.”

But then, on the other hand, we get the picture of Matthew 25.  Jesus will call to His people on His right hand.  “Come, all you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”  And Jesus goes on: “For, I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat.  I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink.  I was a stranger and you invited me in.  I needed clothes and you clothed me.  I was sick and you looked after me.  I was in prison, and you came to visit me.”

And the righteous will deny any merit or any self-righteousness on their own part.  Their only hope is built on the righteousness and sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And they will say, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick and in prison, and go and visit you?”

Yes, the Lord is extremely pleased with those who come like this, who trust only in Him.  And the Lord graciously keeps a record of the things that they do, and rewards them.  “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.” I took note of it.  And great is your reward.

Today we have looked at the church in Sardis.  We started off last week looking at the people of the city.  They were so proud of their security that they didn’t even bother to post a guard.  And the church in Sardis had become like that, too.

And, brothers and sisters, if there is one lesson the Lord teaches us in this letter, it is this: the Lord always wants His Church to have a humble and contrite spirit before Him.  The Lord detests pride.  If we dare to stand before God, all boasting is excluded.  And we must unreservedly throw ourselves upon His grace alone.

Not what my hands have done, can save my guilty soul.
Thy Grace alone, O God, to me can pardon speak.
Nothing in my hand I bring.  Simply to Thy cross I cling.
Naked come to Thee for dress.  Helpless look to Thee for grace.
Foul I to the fountain fly.  Wash me Saviour, or I die.

And these, and these alone, will walk with Him, dressed in white.  For they are worthy.

Let us hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.

Amen.