1 And 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.
2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
3 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.
4 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.
5 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.
6 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
This epistle, dictated by the Glorified Lord has a disquieting tone to it. Imagine being the pastor [angel] of this assembly and having a runner come in and hand you just this short epistle, telling you that it is directly from the Glorified Lord Himself. The first thing you notice is that He claims to have the full authority of God [the seven Spirits of God] and that He also claims to have full authority over every assembly [seven stars]. Immediately, He says to you [the angel of the church at Sardis] the following words:
I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead…
In many assemblies, if a ‘church member’ were to say anything like this to the pastor, he/she would quickly be publicly castigated and possibly even cast out of the assembly. But this is no ‘church member’ accusing this ‘angel’ of being spiritually dead though he claims to be spiritually alive. It is the Glorified Lord. Furthermore, if one takes the position that the entire epistle is not only addressed to the ‘the angel of the church in Sardis,’ but to the entire assembly, then the Lord’s warning is even more compelling. How many such ‘dead churches’ are there in the world today?
2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
3 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.
Apparently, even those ‘things that remain…are ready to die.’ The Glorified Lord’s next statement, ‘I have not found thy works perfect before God,’ carries significant import if we recall the following stunning words of the Lord through Jude.
24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever.
It ought to shake every genuine believer that we are so prone to just tolerate a certain degree of ‘deadness’ to fall across our assemblies, all the while telling ourselves, ‘Well nobody’s perfect,’ or ‘There is no such thing as a perfect church.’ Is that how the Glorified Lord sees the churches?
In verse three He lays even greater emphasis upon His warning when He says:
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.
Once again, these are grave words, in view of the clear statement of Truth inspired by the Holy Spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5:4.
But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
What would happen in any assembly today if these words by the Glorified Lord here in The Revelation were openly preached and applied to those that customarily assembled there? Would the speaker be looked at askance, or even ostracized?
4 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.
5 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.
Even in such a church as this there are those that do not fall under this severe indictment [the believing remnant]. Twice the Glorified Lord emphasizes that they will [in the future state] be closely associated with Him, walking with Him clothed in white apparel.
His statement that He ‘will not blot out his [their] name[s] out of the book of life,’ needs to be taken in conjunction with His following statement, ‘but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels,’ if we are to rightly understand it.
On the one hand, the Glorified Lord will blot out the names of those He previously addressed as being dead though having a name that they live[d]. This is a figure of speech. They presumed that their names were written there, but they never truly were. In addressing the believing remnant, the Glorified Lord makes it very clear that not only need they have no fear that their eternal life is real, but that He will Himself confess their very names ‘before my Father, and before his angels.’
This is a stark difference. Many that presume that their names have been forever inscribed in the ‘book of life’ [that they have eternal life] are going to be shocked to find that such is not the case. All genuine remnant believers, however, will literally have their very names confessed by the Glorified Lord before God.
The Glorified Lord closes his epistle with the same invitation He has consistently given to every assembly, ‘He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.’ Those at Sardis had much to consider. Some of them, by the Lord’s own testimony, did likely hear and repent and are with Him now.