In this sermon, the preacher shares a story about a condemned man who refused to see a chaplain. Despite the man's resistance, one persistent preacher stayed and told him the old, old story of God's grace and love in Jesus Christ. The man was deeply moved by the story and acknowledged its truth, expressing that it was the most wonderful thing he had ever heard. The preacher then emphasizes the importance of watching one's faith, hope, and love, as these are essential for a genuine relationship with God. He warns against letting the truth of Scripture become mere words in our memory, and urges listeners to keep their hearts devoted to loving and glorifying God.

Now we'll turn directly to the Word, the victor's life power, the Church at Sardis, as this begins the third chapter of Revelation. We shall consider this evening verses 1 through 6 in this third chapter. I shall read it, that we might all hear it and familiarize ourself with it, and then we shall immediately consider how it applies to the Church today, as well as to the Church to which it was written. And unto the angel of the Church, and by the way, when we use that word angel, we have reference to the messenger, the one who stands there before the Lord as carrying the message to the Church. Unto the angel of the Church in Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars, I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received, and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments, and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life. But I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Smyrna and Philadelphia were churches that received letters from our wonderful Lord in which there was absolutely no blame. See, the Lord isn't always finding fault with the church. He wrote to these two and he said, there's nothing to which I should chide you or condemn you. But Sardis and Laodicea received no praise from the Lord. He dealt with them exactly as they were. Back in the first verse we find that he says, he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. The word seven in the scripture is the number of perfection. And we would well read this, he that hath the Spirit of God who is perfect in all of his ministries, complete. This number seven has reference to wholeness, fullness, perfection, and completeness. And thus the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the church and behalf of the church is a complete ministry. And there is nothing that's going to be overlooked or omitted either for the good of the church or for the discipline of the church, for the accomplishing of the full purpose of Christ for it. The seven stars refer, as we've seen, we've accepted this as the common typological association, to the messengers. These were those that stood before the people in these various churches, local churches, we're viewing them, and ministered to them as teachers or prophets or pastors, whatever the responsibility would have been. But they were there held in the hand of the Lord to speak for him. And so he is saying, I am the one that's speaking to you that have the perfect ministry of the Holy Ghost from me, and I have these who serve me who are conscious of what the Spirit of God is saying. Now, the Lord Jesus has spoken to John as the one whose eyes are as a flame of fire. We've seen that. He penetrates just as fire will go into the iron. I suppose the best analogy we could use, but there was no frame of reference for John, we would have to say x-ray. The flame of fire would be best, I am sure, that if there was this being written today, that the analogy would have been taken from fire to x-ray. And it would say, he that hath eyes that see right through, for we know full well that you put the metal into the iron, into the fire, the next thing you know, the fire goes into the metal. And there's this penetration so that what is in the heart of it is found out. And our Lord Jesus is the one who doesn't look on the outward appearance, but who looks upon the heart. And therefore, the first thing we see in this church is that Christ's knowledge is complete and inerrant. Complete in that he knows everything, inerrant in that he knows it perfectly. We see so little perfectly. It's so very hard for us to judge. Perhaps that's the reason why he has said that when it comes to the matter of motives, we are never to judge, never to judge why people do what they do. What they do, we must, of course. If something is untrue, it's untrue. But you don't know why. This is the point where human wisdom has to stand outside the mysterious depths of the human spirit and say, well, I can't go any further. I just don't know. And the Lord has reserved this privilege to himself. It's his. He is the one that in that day is going to judge the secrets of the heart. Now, by their fruits you shall know them. And we shall see in a moment that it's not necessary to accept the profession of everyone that claims to be a Christian. But when it comes to the matter of judging motives, now, this church at Sardis, for instance, he says, I know thy works. Apparently they were continuing in many activities, ministries, outward expressions of their faith. And looking at the church from the outside, you would say, well, here is a successful, affluent church. Sardis was no mean city at this time. It was a city famous in history. At the time that it was taken by one of the conquerors, they found over $600 million worth of treasures, gold and silver and precious stones, which were removed when the city was razed and sacked. But it's still a city of great importance, a cultural center, an educational center, an entertainment center. In fact, it is one of the most notorious of the cities in terms of profligacy and iniquity and immorality. And apparently this church is standing there in such a way that viewed from the outside, everyone would say, well, look at what an active, thriving, busy church this is. But the Lord Jesus said, I know thy works. And he knows what's being done, and above all, he knows why it is being done. You see, he knows the profession on the one hand and the true state of the heart on the other. And we're dealing now with a church that might have a profession indeed as he's writing to the church. But then we come back to the fact that a church is not a building nor an organization. It's a company of people. And so when the Lord Jesus looks upon the heart, he goes down below the profession through the true heart attitude. We discover early that profession is no proof of life. I'm confident that Ananias and Sapphira knew the apostles' creed or its equivalent for that day, and they could have given you a good reason for their being included in the number. But God knew their heart. The Lord Jesus knew it. Have you ever been to the Africa Room at the Museum of Natural History? Every once in a while, I suffer from great lonesomeness for Africa. You know, once a missionary, always a missionary. There are times when I just put my hat and coat on and jump on the subway and get off at 82nd Street and go back to Africa. And it's an exciting thing. Some of you have never been there. Well, they'll see you there soon, I hope, because it is, it's interesting. But I'll stand there and look at scenes similar to those where I've been, where I've walked and hunted, and it all looks so lifelike. The antelopes stand there not just with glassy eyes, but somehow in the art of the ones that have established these beautiful windows and life situations, they seem to have the fright that you would expect being startled by your walking down from the next window, you know. And it's a very lifelike situation. But it hasn't fooled me any. The profession that they have is these folks are alive in here, but I know better than that. They look like it. Everything outwardly there, the grass is there. They brought that from Africa. The leaves from the trees have been brought. The weeds have been brought. The little bugs and ants that crawl in the ground and in the slime of the waterhole are all there just as they were, but they're not alive. They have a profession to be, but it doesn't take a great deal of insight to realize that there's a difference between that and this great heart of beast out on the veld, out on the field, bounding away with those mammoth strides that just eat up the field. No, they're not alive. And so it is that profession doesn't prove life. I suppose you could educate a parrot to repeat the plan of salvation, and it wouldn't prove anything except that you were a good teacher. It wouldn't prove that he had what he was talking about. It's no more proof of salvation for a person to recite the plan of salvation than it is to name a ship the safeguard, for instance, and thereby conclude that it'll never be sunk. It's good to have a name like that. I just as soon go on a ship where the builder had said safeguard or good speed or some other encouraging name, but the fact that they so christened the ship and painted the name on the front of it does not mean it's going to make the harbor. And because someone can recite the plan of salvation and the scriptures that prove it does not prove that they have life. Now we are not able, always by any means, to ascertain this. Perhaps this is why the Lord said the chaff and the wheat will have to grow together, the tares and the wheat rather, and that he would have to separate them in his own day. I'm sure that in Matthew 7 he sets that as a great surprise when people will come and knock on the door and say, good Lord, we preached in the streets, we cast out devils in your name, we did miracles in your name. And he said, I will say unto them from within, away with you, I never knew you. I think those are the saddest words in the New Testament, that they had known the right things about him, you see, the right things to do and the right places to go, even the right things to say, but they didn't have him. They didn't have life. They didn't have Christ. And two houses, you know, in that same Matthew 7, both outwardly the same appearance. It looked just like some of these houses in the additions around the metropolitan area. Everyone's the same for blocks. The only difference, said the Lord, the outward appearance is the same, the windows set the same, doors the same, everything about, same material in fact. But if you go inside, you'll discover that one's just sitting on sand. They didn't bother to dig a foundation, they didn't bother to excavate what was standing in the way, they didn't bother to anchor it and put in a foundation, didn't go down the rock. And so it's all right, no problem at all, until the flood comes, till the judgment comes. And then the one who's known all the time, which one was anchored to the rock and which was just built on the sand, he will not be surprised, but the occupants will. Because they thought perhaps that since they could fool themselves and fool their fellows, they could fool the Lord. But the Lord says, no, I know, I know thy works. I know all about it. I know that thou hast a name, that thou livest and art dead. Our Lord Jesus has spoken out in no uncertain terms about hypocritical professors. We need remind our hearts about it because constantly we're meeting those around us on every side. You see, everybody has a plan of salvation. Did you know that? If you've done much personal work around New York, you'll discover almost everybody has some kind of a plan of salvation, some religion, some sect, or maybe they've gotten around the problem by saying there's no God. But you see, their whole plan of salvation depends upon the fact that they prove to themselves there's no God. And so consequently, this becomes their religion. They've just destroyed the source of their trouble in their own thinking and thought, by this means, to escape. But it's their plan of salvation. Now, our Lord spoke very, very carefully, and we need to see it to remind our hearts. If you would turn to Matthew chapter 23, we would let him speak his mind here, the one who says, in gentleness and love, for that's the way he speaks in this verse, I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest and art dead. But here, in Matthew 23, 13, his words are so different. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. And again, in verse 25 through 28, woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind, Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and the platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Christ's knowledge, therefore, is complete and inerrant. He knew the Pharisees, he knew the scribes. He needed no man, should tell him. And now when he speaks to John, he says, I know the church at Sardis, I know their works, I know their name, and I know their hearts. And as he looks at us tonight here, he knows you, he knows your name, he knows your works, and he knows your heart. He knows me, he knows my profession, he knows my name, he knows my heart. I probably will never know you, and you will probably never know me, but we know that we are both known fully and completely and perfectly by our wonderful Lord, for his knowledge is complete and inerrant. The next thing we need to see in this portion of Scripture is that Christ's warning is both appropriate and necessary. Notice now, in this second verse he begins, Be watchful, don't be deceived, don't be careless, keep watching, lest you should be overtaken, and because he knows. There's a personal commandment in this, do you see it? It's in the imperative mood, who's the subject of such a statement? Wouldn't you make it personal? If you were to read it, wouldn't you say, you be watchful, of course. And so, he's talking to us, as well as to the church, to those to whom he wrote at that time. And so, this is a matter that I must take to myself. What must I watch? Well, first I must watch faith, and so must you. Because, you see, faith is a substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen. It's so easy to let the truth of the Scripture become words in our memory, rather than faith in our hearts. This is why so many are going to miss heaven. This is why they have a name to live and are dead. They have the plan of salvation in their intellects, in their memories, but not in their hearts. And this is why we must be watchful, lest we should make the sad mistake of confusing what our intellects see and perceive with what our hearts experience. It's tremendously important, therefore, that you should take constant inventory of your own experience and see to it that you are living what you believe. For instance, do you believe in hell? Do you believe that if men and women die without Jesus Christ, they're going to be forever in that dark place that he has called hell, where there's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth? Now, this church believes in hell. The statement of our society is that we believe in hell. And this pulpit has, through all the decades, since first there was a man to stand behind it, has preached that there's a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. But is this just a phrase that you've racked somewhere in your memory, or is this a truth which you believe? I've told you in the past, and repeat it now, that you could see the implications of it in the minds of the unsaved. The man sentenced to die for the crime of murder in England refused to see a chaplain. Man after man would come to speak with him at the request of the bailiff and the judge, and he'd curse them all away until one man came and put a chair there and said, I'm going to stay. At length, the condemned man was so exhausted and weary that the preacher could get in a word. And he began quietly, not to ask questions or to make statements, but to tell a story. It was the old, old story of God's grace and of God's love in Jesus Christ. And he told it as though he were telling it to a little boy sitting at his feet, and the culprit inside the bars couldn't help but listen. And after it was finished, the man came to the bars with tears in his eyes, and he said, that is the most wonderful thing I've ever heard. That was the first words he said, the most wonderful thing I ever heard. And the preacher said, I'm so glad. And the man looked at him and said, I only wish it were true. Oh, but it is true. I believe it. Ah, yes, perchance you think you do, but you don't believe it. You're here because you're the only man that's gotten to speak to the fellow that's cursed out all the chaplains that have come to see him. And they're going to write you up in the paper, and they're going to talk about you, but you don't believe it. He said, none of you believe it. He said, I was reared here in East London under the shadow of some of these cathedrals. As a boy, I would come, and the people coming out of church would ask me to hold their horses and threaten to cuff me if I didn't do it right. He said, never once did anyone take me over in the shadow of the building and sit down and tell me this, that God loved me and Christ died for me. He said, no, I'm notorious now, and you all want to get a chance to talk to me just because I'm notorious, but not because you care for me. He said, you don't really believe what you're saying. He said, but I do. No, man, you don't. And then the culprit looked at him and put his hand through the bars and said, listen, if I believed what you say you believe, that there's a heaven for those who will trust in Jesus Christ and a hell for those that don't receive him or reject him, why, man, I'd crawl, if necessary, on my hands and knees across every cinder path in Britain to warn men to flee from such an awful fate and to receive such a gracious gift. Do you believe? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is coming? Do you believe that he could cleave the sky tonight and come? Do you believe? Oh, you ought to look. Be watchful of your faith, lest these ancient verities, these glorious truths, the very beams upon which our faith, our confidence rests, become all dust-covered and cobwebbed, and they're just left and not taken for granted. Do you really believe? Watch your faith. And then you're to examine and watch your hope. Hope lives in constant expectancy. Despair is another form of unbelief. I've spoken to you in the past, some years ago and not repeated, perhaps annually, about the five deadly deeds. You know what they are. If you don't, you better write them down quickly, though I can't enlarge on them tonight. The first deadly deed is disappointment, and no Christian ever has a right to be disappointed about anything. The second deadly deed is discouragement, because when you've once been disappointed, the heart of your courage is gone and there's no use trying again. And discouragement then moves into disillusionment, and what seemed to be a bright, shining city is nothing more than a mirage. And disillusionment then moves into depression, and the clouds settle down upon the heart and one can't throw them off or escape. And then depression moves into defeat, disintegration of morale. And it all began back there with the sin of disappointment. You remember what happened to Pilgrim, why he was hindered in his journey? He fell into the slough of despond. And Evangelist said, I see by the mud dobs on you that you've been in the slough of despond. Didn't you know that there was a path through? Ah, yes, but in my haste I didn't look for a path. I just plunged in. And how many times it is in your experience, perhaps, when hope gives way to despondency and despair and disappointment. And it's wrong. We'll have to deal with it as a sin. The sin that it is. Confess it as a sin. Because just as the opposite of faith is unbelief, which is a sin, the opposite of hope is despair and despondency. Oh no, look well, be watchful of your hope. The hope not just of his coming, but we ought to awaken in the morning saying today could be the day when he cleaves the skies and comes back again. But in terms of your total life, what are you hoping for? What are you looking for? What are your goals? There's only one goal worthy of an intelligently taught and committed Christian. What is your goal in life? Well, there's only one goal. That's the glory of God in Jesus Christ through your life. Don't you see? And you don't know how to map out the way to that city. Only he can. And consequently, there ought to be this constant rising of hope. Perhaps one of our great heartaches is we set goals that aren't in the will of God. And then we achieve them. But in so doing, we've had to detour from his purpose for us. And if you can commit yourself to the one goal and the one purpose, the glory of God, you'll live for it, you'll die for it. Can you bring yourself to say, I want God to be glorified by whatever means he chooses. If I can glorify God more by my being dead than alive, I choose to die. Can you say that? Or is life so sweet that you'd rather live at the expense of the glory of God? Can you come to the place where you say, if I can glorify God more by being unknown than known, I choose to remain anonymous and hidden and unknown. Can you say, if I can glorify God more by being failure than being a success, I want to be a failure. Well, Noah was, you know. From every standpoint, Noah was a failure. And Jeremiah was. And Ezekiel was. Everything Ezekiel preached about and preached for turned out absolutely contrary to what he wanted. But all he asked was, Lord, I want to glorify you. Can you come to the place where you sing it in the hymn book, ready to go, ready to stay, ready thy will to do, ready for service, lowly or great, ready thy will to do. This is where he brings us and this is the hope. What is the hope that is to be primary in your life? What is this thing that in every day, in every circumstance, in every situation, God in his sovereign love is going to use my life to bring glory to his son? You see, the moment that you lose sight of that, then you begin to look at your feet like Peter did, and the waves, and down you go. So, you've got to be watchful of your faith and be watchful of your hope, and then, of course, the most important thing is to be watchful of your love. Because just as faith appropriates and hope receives, so love creates the climate for both. To love God. Now, how do you want to love him? Well, I've spoken of it. To love him because you want to glorify him, because he's worthy to be worshipped, because he's worthy to be served. I think of our Lord Jesus as he loved the Father and did only those things that pleased the Father. And you should watch your heart. There's a thermometer, you know, in your heart. You can tell whether your heart's affections and your heart's devotion and your heart's love is where it used to be. Watch, be watchful, said the Lord, and strengthen the things which remain. They haven't been taken away yet. They aren't gone yet. Strengthen them. Watch over them. Because if you don't, you'll find that they wither and fade and fall from the vine and they just pass away. And thus our Lord has established for us now that there's a responsibility for you that he is fixing, and he's telling you that it's great blessing if you obey and great loss if you don't. Remember, be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die. Here he looks at this church, and they didn't know it. They thought everything was going on beautifully, but they didn't realize the heart was out of it. And the consequence of that was, it was ready to die. So he said, be watchful. Do again your first works and see that the matter of the inside is what it ought to be. How can you know that you are in need, that you have been overtaken, and that you have come to the place where difficulty is impending? For that's what he's saying. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief in the night. How can you know that you are in the place where he's going to come on you as a thief in the night? Well, the first thing I would suggest is this, that when sins over which you've had victory at one time begin to assume ascendancy in your life again, then you know that watchfulness is gone and you've been overtaken. This was the church at Sardis. And you know full well that when things over which once you had victory are beginning to creep back in your life, that you're in dangerous ground. The place where you'd gone to the Lord for help, I would be so bold as to say this, that in my experience and possibly in yours, that my inner heart life and the temptations that come and assail and assault are linked together. And when your eye is focused on him and you're occupied with him and you're filled with faith and hope and love, these things aren't the problem they once were. But when you get your eye off of him, it's like Peter looking down from the face of the Lord to those waves, and they begin to mount up and pull and suck and draw and sink into them. And so you know that you're in the place of the church at Sardis when besetting sins begin to assume ascendancy in your heart and life again. I don't know what your besetting sin would be. To some, it's probably immoral imaginations. To some other, it may be reading. It may be a temptation to read things which are wrong. To some other, it may be a worldly pleasure. To somebody else, it may be just to exaggerate and to enlarge. Someone else, it may be to get things and take things that don't belong to them. I don't know what your besetting sin is. But I know this, that when that begins to rise in your life, it's evidence that you've ceased being watchful. You've ceased to strengthen, that you've come into the state of the church at Sardis. And then you'll know another evidence that the Lord is about to come as a thief in judgment. It's when you find the natural hardness and lovelessness of your heart returning. Let's not deceive ourselves. By nature, we weren't very nice people. We were the kind of people that nailed Jesus Christ to the cross. Did you know that? It was just folks like us, as nice as we are, that did that terrible thing. Hard-hearted. We're the kind of people that came before Moses. We'd have been right there, probably, with Korah and the gainsayers. No, our hearts naturally were proud and arrogant and angry and selfish. And when you begin to find the tenderness and the gentleness that always comes from the Spirit of God moving, and criticism coming in and hardness coming in and sharpness coming in, you know full well that He is about to come as a thief in judgment. Then the third thing that you'll be sure of is evidence that the Lord is just standing on the threshold to come. And you're to be watchful and to remember the third evidence is this, when you find you're unwilling to be reclaimed, when you're unwilling to do anything about it. You know, there was a time when you were so sensitive that if you listened to something that wasn't right, you went to the Lord and asked His forgiveness. But it just kind of crept up. And you're not as sensitive anymore, perhaps. Well, it's what He said. Listen to it, be watchful, strengthen the things which remain, that it are ready to die. For I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. You know this when you're unwilling to give it up because, first, you feel averse to instruction. When something comes from anybody, loved ones, family, friends, that touch the point of issue, you don't like it. And then you hate to be told of your faults. If this comes, you know it's just on the threshold. I know it. There are times when I'm not speaking down to you, I'm speaking to my own heart. I'm pointing at you. I don't want it to be impersonal. But I've got three fingers pointed at me. This is a very personal thing we're talking about tonight because he's talking to the Church. And I'm just sharing with you. Don't mistake that. But when we're unwilling to be reclaimed, it's when we're averse to instruction and we don't want to be told of our faults. And then we take offense at reproof and reprovers, those that come to us. And then, you know, when love is doing its work, it's easy to be entreated. Easy to be entreated. And then, of course, when we turn from the light to go in the unspiritual and worldly people for consolation. You know, there's nothing that a person that the Lord is about to deal with likes any more than self-pity and justification. And there's no place better to get it than from the unsaved. If you want to really get the fur petted the way it lies, you go to some unsaved person and tell them how bad the Church is. And they'll agree with you. Everything, they'll agree with every word you say. You see, this is the evidence of it. When you discover that this is the hardest state of heart. This is the thing the Lord has seen. Here are the people, they have a name, they're active, they're busy. But deep within them, there's no shame, there's no scandal. They haven't the sin of the Nicolaitans. They haven't the sin of Balaam. These are people whose reputations are intact and perfect, but only the Lord sees it. And that's why I apply it to my own heart and to yours. Now, if anyone persists in this state and continues in it, then it is evidence that they're unregenerate, regardless of their profession. The works of the unregenerate are dead and utterly deficient. Those who are dead are utterly unresponsive to the truth of God. But one thing that you'll have to recognize is standard equipment with the child of God is a hatred of sin. And therefore, when the Spirit of God finds us in the state of the Church at Sarnas, then we're reclaimable. We want to do something about it. Anybody can fall into it. The loveliest lamb with the whitest wool can fall into the pond where the sow has been wallowing. But I'll tell you something about it. It isn't going to stay there because it has a new heart, a different heart. And so this is what we find. The person that stays there is given testimony by the rebellion that they do not know the Lord. Remember, therefore, says our wonderful Lord, how thou hast received and heard. Let the Word do its work in our lives. Pray it in. I think of how Aline instructed the sinners of his day. When you hear the Word, go home and pray it in. Well, whenever God speaks to us, whether it's from our daily devotion or from a Scripture text on the sidewalk or in the subway, or from a verse that he flashes to our memory, we ought to pray it in, lest we should let it slip and it should fail to do its work in our life. When the Lord begins to put the knife in, don't draw back from it, but run into it. Do you know the greatest curse that you could possibly have? Would be to have a conscience that wasn't stirred by the Spirit of God any longer. You say, oh, I wish I wasn't troubled. Don't say that. Maybe the Lord would let you be in that state. I think it would be far more disastrous to you to have your conscience not troubled by the Spirit of God, your heart not stirred by Him, both with longing for Him and with concern for yourself. I say it would be a far greater horror to have that happen to your spirit than to lose your nerves, the sense of feeling. Can you imagine what would happen if there were no nerves in your hands? Be bruised and broken and cut off and burned away? No, it can't be. Let's rejoice that the Spirit of God has done it and move in to meet Him and let Him fulfill His work. Hold fast and repent. Hold fast the knife if the Lord begins to bring it. Because He's dealing with things. He's dealing with carelessness or indifference or sleep and sloth, the forgetting and neglecting of the truth. Perhaps a failure to continue in repentance. These are the things with which He is dealing. And then He says, if you don't hold fast and you don't repent, then I'm going to come as a thief. You know, there are two kinds of judgment. We need to understand this. There's the lion and the moth. Have you ever read that in the Old Testament? The lion and the moth. The lion comes with its claws out, prancing and its mouth open, roaring, and it seizes its prey and drags him off. Well, that's the way most people expect, you know. Some people have sinned and they really thought that lightning would come from heaven if they did something. And nothing happened. The sky was without lightning bolts and not a thing fell. And they thought, well, now the Lord didn't mind that very much. But there's two kinds of judgment. There's the lion and the moth. You know what the moth does, don't you? He gets into your winter suit in the summer. And there's no noise. You don't hear him gnawing or chawing. No noise, except when you go to take it up. It's ruined. And this is what He says, I'll come as a thief. The thief doesn't advertise his presence. He just comes in and takes what's of value to you. And when you go to get it, it's gone. Oh, sometimes, I suppose, the clumsy one might make a lot of mess. And you say, well, somebody's rifled my drawers. But the one that's really clever would probably go in and take what he wanted. Unless you took an inventory, you wouldn't even know it was gone. And the Lord says, I'm going to come as a thief. And I'm going to quietly steal it away. And you won't even know it's gone until you look for it. How important it is. Well, what does He promise? We've seen His judgments are appropriate and necessary for our well-being as well as for His glory. But His promise is certain and encouraging. The undefiled ones, even if they're few, are never forgotten by the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou hast a few names in verse 4, even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. He knew every one of them. Our Lord searches them out. I'm sure that He knows tonight those here that have not defiled their garments. He knows. Now, I don't know. You don't know me. I don't know you. But He knows. And He's looking them out. He's searching them out for the one that has not defiled their garments. For the one that's clean in the midst of that. And you see, this proves that you can be right even if nobody else is. Oh, I'm so glad that you don't have to be dragged down into the quicksand by anything around you. And the evidence of character and the evidence of God's working in your life is that you don't let yourself be influenced by untoward and evil associations. It's so easy to be a member of a crowd. All you have to do is go. It's so easy to be a chip going downstream. All you have to do. It's the live fish that's willing to jump the falls and go up to the place which its nature calls. And the dead one just can ride with it. And here were some in this city of Sardis that had life, divine life. And the evidence of that life was that in spite of the fact that they were defiled on every hand, the Lord says, I have here a few that have not defiled their garments. Oh, that this might be true of you. And the Lord is looking for you. He's searching out, trying to find everyone, will find everyone whose garments are stainless. What do you mean, stainless? They've never sinned, no, but that they have held fast and strengthened and been watchful and have repented. And when there has come into their life that which grieved God, they've dealt with it and confessed it and forsaken it and known the cleansing of the blood. And with such, he shares his life. What did he say? And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. One of the great losses of sin in the life of a child of God is broken fellowship with God. You see, one can walk where he walked and talk what he, speak what he has been told to speak and not have the Lord with him. We ought to treasure more than anything else in all the world the consciousness of the presence of God. And he said, I will walk only with those who have not defiled their garments. They shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy. What means this? Does it mean that somehow, even by the firmest purpose of heart, that you have not sinned? Or if you have, there's no possibility of your walking with him in white? No. It doesn't mean that. Perhaps it means that the worst ones are the ones that are there closest to him. Because in the discovery of their need and their brokenness, they've come for cleansing. And they've stayed low before him. And thus, he says, I'll share my life with those whose garments are white. White through his blood, through his cleansing. Oh, how we need thee. I never knew thee. We entreat thee, we beseech thee tonight, our Father, by the Holy Ghost's gracious ministry, expose each of our hearts that we may know and be certain of the genuineness of thy supernatural work of grace in saving us. Then, our Father, those who would know of a certainty they're born again, yet are still subject to all the sins that overtook the church at Sardis, going through the motions, losing the keenness of their faith and the joy of hope and the thrill of their love for thee. Father, we've spoken to our own hearts tonight. Thou knowest each of us. We're here, a company of people that have nothing to hide and everything to gain by being transparent with the living God. Lord, let there come tonight that sweet sense that thou art on our side. Thou art on the side of the weak one and the erring one and the fallen one and the sinful one to forgive, to cleanse, to purge, yes, to strengthen. Thou art asking us to be transparently honest with thee and face just what thou dost see, the weary one, Lord, the one who may be discouraged, the one whose heart may be heavy, the one who's filled with joy and satisfaction for every blessing thou hast given. Whatever our state, whatever our condition, Lord, thou art there willing to meet us in it and bring us to be all we ought to be. So help us to see the Lord Jesus as he sees this church, not to condemn it, to bruise it, to hurt it, but that by virtue of the door being opened and the heart being yielded, he could come to bless. We believe tonight, our Father, that he wants to bless each of us. And so gladly we take thy word. We clasp it to us. We hold it there. We say, Father, do not let it be taken from us. Help us to take our minds so frivolous and light and so easily wafted away to the inconsequential and bind our minds in solid meditation and contemplation upon the truth until it shall have done its work. We ask thee, Father, now to fit blessing to every heart, every life. With our eyes closed, our heads bowed, just this moment. Are there those who would say God has been and is speaking to my heart? I have seen myself, my need. And I want to testify tonight by raised hand that God is dealing and I'm responding. And I want God's people to pray for me. I need prayer. Would you put your hand up? Anyone anywhere, God bless you, I see it, yes. Yes. Anyone else? For these three, our Father, whose hands so quickly, so readily raised, we pray. We thank thee, our Father, that the heart is known, the life is known, the provisions of grace thou hast made for such. And by this testimony, O thou God of grace, wilt thou work in all thy delivering love, new ways, to bring whatever victory and deliverance and strength and power is needed. We pray for these. And for others whose hands ought have been raised, whose hearts thou dost know. In Jesus name. May I say this, anyone that would like to remain to pray, I'll be so glad to talk with you. Let us stand for the benediction. Know me, the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep. Through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make us perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, to whom be the glory, now and forever. Amen.