Here's Dr. Michael Yusef helping you understand details about the church in Sardis, a recipient of a letter Jesus wrote in Revelation. I want to give you a word picture of what's going on in that church in Sardis. Just try to imagine a smoldering fire. But at the bottom of that fire, there are a few coals that are still burning. And Jesus is saying, there is a small remnant that has some spark left. Let that remnant wake up and ignite the rest of the church. Wake up and see your true pathetic spiritual condition. Wake up and light up the flame for this dying church, spiritually dying church.
Wake up and go back to biblical truth. Thank you for making time for leading the way with pastor and international Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Yusef, heard and seen across six continents in 28 of the world's most spoken and understood languages. In Revelation chapter 3, Jesus writes to the church in Sardis, words to the faithful who had not yet fallen into deception. Words also applicable for the faithful in the church today, those who have not yielded to the massive cultural and faith shifts of recent years. So listen now as Dr. Michael Yusef begins a challenging leading the way audio.
But this quick reminder, if you ever want to connect with leading the way for any reason, the best place to start is ltw.org. Now let me encourage you to turn in your Bibles, Revelation chapter 3 verses 1 to 6. 700 years before this letter was sent by our Lord Jesus Christ to the church in Sardis, the resurrected glorified Jesus sending that church. 700 years before he did, Sardis was one of the great cities of the world actually. The wealth of Sardis was legendary. The reputation and their wealth and their power was all over the world, was renowned. But then two centuries later, that's the 5th century, if you're counting, history repeats itself.
It's amazing. The Persians from modern day Iran came and invaded Sardis, invaded that city. And after two centuries of being battered and battered by the Persians, Sardis was surrounded by Alexander the Great until they surrendered to him and Alexander the Great rebuilt it as a Greek city. Then history repeats itself.
As I said, after the death of Alexander the Great, it was defeated once more until it was taken over by the Romans. You say, Michael, why are you giving us this little history lesson? There's a reason for that. Just listen carefully. Because what our Lord Jesus does, we've been seeing this throughout the letters, he sees and he takes a cultural phenomena or a cultural characteristic of the city. And then he warns the church, his church, it is after all Jesus' church, he warns his church against adopting these cultural characteristics.
And he's doing the same thing here. He warns the Christian believers in Sardis of the pitfall of adopting those cultural characteristics of Sardis, the culture. What was Sardis' cultural characteristic? Well, it was they had the reputation of being lazy.
Lazy. The people of Sardis were known for relying on their past blessed reputation and wealth, and often they failed to protect their city. As soon as the foreign attackers come they surrendered.
A British cultural critic once said that the British Empire has ceased to exist, but there are some Brits who refuse to believe it. I think that can be said of many civilizations and many cultures. The people of Sardis had the reputation of preferring soft living than hard work. Soft living, easy-going lifestyle.
Just take it easy and let what happens, happens. And thus they became a prey to foreign invaders. Sardis, the characteristics of Sardis of being lazy is now adopted by the church of Jesus Christ in that city.
They too were taking it easy and let the world run roughshod over them. And my dear friends, that has deeply, deeply, deeply grieved the heart of Jesus. If you think the spiritual life is anything but a spiritual warfare, you are giving Satan the upper hand. If we live without being alert as to his deceptive tricks that he's constantly roaring around, not just in the individual lives and trying to absolutely zero in. He knows our hot buttons and our weaknesses, but he does that to churches as a whole. He does it to individuals, he does it to churches. And now Sardis is about to fall in that trap and Jesus is warning them before it's too late. Sardis was basically 30 miles southeast of Thyatira, which we looked at.
50 miles east, due east from Smyrna. Our Lord Jesus Christ is basically saying three things. The first thing he tells them is that he admonishes them about their obsession with reputation. Secondly, he gives them the antidote for a revival, an antidote for restoration. And thirdly, he assures the faithful ones, the few left, the faithful ones in the church of their rewards.
So you got it, admonition, but assurance. First, Christ's admonition about their reputation, a false reputation and they're sitting on the importance of their reputation, verse one. This is very important by the way, verse one of chapter three, Revelation, Jesus describes himself as the one who has the seven spirits and seven stars. This is important. What does it mean?
I mentioned that before, but let me just repeat it because it's very important. The number seven is the number of completion, seven letters. The seven spirits, what does that mean? It's a number of fullness and therefore Jesus is saying that his spirit, that is the Holy Spirit, and so Jesus is saying when you talk about the seven spirits, his Holy Spirit is complete. His Holy Spirit is perfect. His Holy Spirit is perfect in knowledge. His Holy Spirit sees what nobody else can see and he can see everything all the time, all the time, everywhere. And he sees through every one of us as believers. He sees on the inside. Himirat, this is important because people can misunderstand you. People can misjudge you.
People can mistreat you. People can be unfair, but not Jesus, never, never, never, never Jesus because he sees straight through us all the way in the depth of our hearts and that's why he's saying he has the complete authority over every one of his churches. That's why there's seven stars and that is why he's the only one who can expose the spiritual bankruptcy. He's the only one who can expose it.
Nobody else, everybody from the outside say, oh, this is not wonderful. This is not a great church. Jesus said, no, no, no, I can see through you. Listen to what Jesus said. He said, you have the reputation of being alive, but with reality you are spiritually dead.
Reputation, reputation. This church must have had a very large attendance. They were socially involved. There was a church was renowned throughout the region, maybe throughout the country, throughout Asia Minor as a relevant to the culture. This church must have been known as being accommodating to the pressure of culture. This church had young pastors coming from all over the country in order to learn how progressive they are. They even were teaching CRT in the Sunday school classes, as is happening now.
Yeah. In the church, non-believers were so comfortable in their non-belief. Proud sinners were proud of their sin displayed in the church. But in reality, they were a spiritual graveyard.
That's what they were, spiritual graveyard. All that hyperactivity is like God said this to Israel one time. He said, you like a vine.
It's full of green shoots, but no fruit. Hyperactivity, but no spiritual depth. Listen to me. Long time ago, my precious Lord taught me how deceptive appearances can be. And I have lived long enough, and I thank God for that, to realize how deadly it is when the world speaks well of you. It is the kiss of death when the secular media praises you.
It is devastating when you're liked by the anti-God forces. Long time ago, I've learned that when the world speaks well of you, God is not very happy. It's like the old timer who said, when your world becomes so churchy, it's because your church has become so worldly. Now beloved, it is your reputation with God.
It's our reputation with God that really matters in the end. Not the pagan culture. No matter what they call you, no matter what they say, no matter what they do, you know, and I know, that there are so many spiritual zombies walking around right now, all over this country. And let me tell you something, before I start condemning the culture and condemning all the stuff that's going on, I point my finger on the church. Because as goes the poop, it so goes the pew, and as goes the pew, so goes the culture. You see, the problem started in the church, not outside there.
It started in the church. Spiritual zombies are everywhere. But the all-seeing, the all-knowing, the all-searching eyes of Jesus, the seven spirits, is seeing straight through them.
He's saying, I'm seeing through you. I know what's going on on the inside of you. I know what you're thinking. I know your motives. I know your inward secrets. You have the reputation of being great. But I know better.
I know better. The one thing that drove the Pharisees crazy, it drove them nuts, is that Jesus exposed their hypocrisy. Where everybody in the Jewish culture at that time saying, oh, look at them, look at them. Aren't they holy?
Look at them. They're doing this and they're doing that, and they're fasting, and they're showing us how they're fasting. They're praying in public. They're doing this, and Jesus sees straight through them. Christ's admonition. Secondly, Christ's antidote for faith restoration. What is Jesus's antidote?
Wake up! I want to give you a word picture of what's going on in that church in Sardis. Just try to imagine a smoldering fire, a smoldering fire.
But at the bottom, at the bottom of that fire, there are few coals, pieces of coals that are still burning. And Jesus is saying, there is a small remnant that has some spark left. Let that remnant wake up and ignite the rest of the church. Wake up and see your true, pathetic, spiritual condition. Wake up and light up the flame for this dying church, spiritually dying church. Wake up and go back to biblical truth. Wake up and get on your knees on behalf of those who have become a dead would. Wake up and repent, and weep, and be in sorrow over the true spiritual condition of the church. And I was reading just the other day that in 1904, just remember that 1904, there was an awakening in Wales.
Wales that just have voted, the churches have voted to ordain practicing homosexuals now. 1904 was on fire for Christ. They had a great revival. During the 1904 awakening, shops closed in the middle of the day for prayer. And because of that revival spread all over the world, they came to Atlanta, Georgia believe it or not. And in November 2, 1904, in Atlanta, Georgia, a thousand businessmen gathered for prayer and repentance and asked for the power of the Holy Spirit.
By December of that year, newspaper in Wales were publishing the names of the new believers, 70,000 in two months. I wanted to cry. Actually, I did cry. I said, do it again, Lord.
Do it again. Reports back then told the results of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. They said all the broken marriages in Wales were restored. Restoration, making restitution for people who have been wronged was a common practice. In the coal mines of Wales, ponies could not move because the coal miners stopped cursing.
And that was the only language the ponies knew. Churches were open 24-7. Men and women, boys and girls came in weeping over their lost friends and family members. Oh, that God may visit us again and deliver us from churches that are living for their reputation. Now we know from history of all of revival and in every one of those awakenings or revivals that have taken place anywhere in the world, at the very center is when God's people themselves repented of their laziness and seek God with all of their hearts.
Then God acts. If Jesus has a message for the church in America today, I would venture to say, he would say, stop being deceived by the size of the Omega churches and the tolerance of sin. Stop being deceived and confusing large crowds with true revival.
It was Pastor Wilkins of New York. He went to be with the Lord and once said, there's so many people having emotional experience in big crowds and calling it revival. Stop going to church for entertainment purposes and getting your wheels tickled. That's Christ's antidote is this, wake up, remember, repent, receive the power of the Holy Spirit afresh. Jesus admonition, Jesus's antidote for faith restoration. And thirdly, Christ's assurance to the faithful remnant in the church for the few faithful ones were left in that church in Sardis. God has not forgotten them. He knows who are his faithful ones.
And he gave them twofold promises, twofold. First, he will close them with a white robe. Why white robe?
I have four reasons I'm going to share with you. First of all, white robe represents festivities. From the parable of the wedding feast, you remember that those who came to the wedding feast or invited to the wedding feast were handed robes, they were handed white robes and that beloved friends are going to be handed to us by the bridegroom himself, the Lord Jesus. Secondly, white robes are symbol of victory. In the Roman culture, whenever they had victory and they would have a big parade for that victory, they handed people white robes, they wore white robes and they called their cities white cities. But also white robes, a symbol of purity, a symbol of purity. Those who have kept themselves from the stain and the soil and the dirt of sin from the world, they would receive a white robe.
And he's talking not about perfection, listen carefully, he's not talking about perfection, but he's talking about those who hate sin and they cannot wait to repent when they fail and fall into sin, they will receive the white robes of the righteousness of Jesus. Not our own. We have none. But fourthly, white robe also stands for resurrection. These white robes are ours. They're ours. You cannot earn them in a million lifetimes. You cannot buy them with all the wealth of the world. They're a gift of Jesus' grace to every faithful believer. But that's not all. The second promise for Jesus, for those faithful ones who are left, their names will never, never, never, can you say that with me?
Never. Be blotted out of the book of life. But rather they will be acknowledged by Jesus before his father. In the ancient world, they kept a registry in the palace of the king. Every king, they have a registry office and then they have all the names of the citizens of that town. All the citizens' names are written in that registry. Only two conditions that removes those names from that registry, two conditions, two causes.
The first one is when that citizen commits a crime against the state. If that person commits a crime against the state, they remove his or her name. And the second cause for removing of the name is death. When a person dies, they remove it.
Death determines that your name in the registry of the palace of the king is to be removed from the royal registry. My faithful friend, in a far, far, far greater way, Jesus has a book in heaven. And in that book, all the names of his faithful children are written. And they are not written with a pencil in order they can be erased. But it's written by the blood of Jesus Christ himself, so it can never be removed. And the reason they are written by the blood of Jesus is because no one, no one, no one, say it with me, no one can remove them from the book of life.
No one, no one can wipe them out. And on that day, I'm going to hear my name called from that book. And when Jesus calls my name, when Jesus acknowledges me before his Father, I'm going to fall on my face and say, thank you Jesus. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for redeeming me. Thank you for sustaining me. Thank you for keeping me. Thank you for acknowledging me before your Father. I have acknowledged you before men.
Now you are true to your promise. And you're acknowledging me before your Father in heaven. Beloved, when the roll is called up yonder, when the roll is called up yonder, when the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there. I'll be there.
Will you be there? Is your name written in the book of life? If you sense any doubt about answering that question, consider speaking with a Leading the Way pastor or counselor.
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866-626-4356. Well, that's our broadcast for today, except for this quick invitation to dig into God's word further with Dr. Yousef on the radio, online with your Leading the Way app. You can learn more at ltw.org. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yousef.
