When Jesus Observes Our Reality

I have not found your works perfect before God.

Remember what you have received and heard. Obey it and repent. Strong words for a church. Words from Jesus himself, as recorded in Revelation chapter 3. What words would Jesus have for your church or mine? Today we'll learn what he said to the church at Sardis.

Stay with us. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly service of worship and teaching with Pastor Erwin Lutzer. Today, we'll hear another message on what Jesus thinks of his church. Later in our broadcast, Erwin Lutzer will speak on When Jesus Observes Our Reality. Pastor Lutzer comes now to open today's service. And we're so glad that you have joined us today. We hope that before you came here, you took out a moment at least to simply make your heart quiet in God's presence and invite the blessed Holy Spirit of God to direct us and to lead us today because we need that. We are totally dependent upon the Lord. If you take your bulletin, you'll notice that in a moment we're going to be singing together 767.

You may turn to that now if you would, please. 767 for all the saints. Our scripture reading today is by Tim Kurtz. Tim is a deacon here at The Moody Church and he serves the Lord as a computer analyst working with software and other computer related matters. We're glad that Tim is on board and he's going to be reading God's word and we'll participate.

As we sing 667, we're reminded of the fact that we stand in a continuum. There are saints who have gone before us. And when the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11 that we are encompassed with a great cloud of witnesses, it is not that the saints are looking at us. I'm sure that in heaven they have much better things to do, but rather we look to them. And we think about all that they accomplished and their faithfulness.

And that's a motivation for us as well as gratitude for their lives. The apostle Paul says that he gives thanks and bows his knees before the father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. There is a unity between the saints on earth and the saints who are in heaven, the saints triumphant, who are in glory. And so as we think about them as we sing, it is with gratitude to God and encouragement to our hearts to keep pressing on.

I shall pray and then after we have done that, we shall stand to sing. Our father, we thank you today that most of us as we look around this congregation, I'm sure, come from families that were greatly influenced by Jesus Christ, if not explicitly Christian. And we thank you for all those who knew you as savior, who've gone on before. Even as we pray, we're reminded of those who encouraged us while they were alive. And now they are in your presence as we sing, father. And as we give gratitude for lives that have been well spent, we ask that we shall be encouraged.

And above all, your name be honored in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Today's scripture reading comes from 1 Corinthians 15 verses 50 through 57. I'll read the standard print.

Please follow and read along in the bold print. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory?

Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Hear heaven's voices sing, their thunderous anthem rings through emerald oaks and sapphire skies. Their praises rise for glory, wisdom, power. Strength, thanks and honor are to God our King, who reigns on high forevermore. There is a higher throne than all this world and all the faithful ones from every town, till one day comes. Before the sun is set, great fathers through the land, believing hearts find promise praise, salvation comes. Hear heaven's voices sing, their thunderous anthem rings through emerald oaks and sapphire skies.

Their praises rise for glory, wisdom, power. Strength, thanks and honor are to God our King, who reigns on high forevermore. And there we'll find our home, our light before the throne.

We'll honor Him in perfect song, where we belong. In each tear-stained eye, as thirst and hunger die, the Lamb becomes our Shepherding. We'll reign within. Hear heaven's voices sing, their thunderous anthem rings through emerald oaks and sapphire skies. Their praises rise for glory, wisdom, power.

Strength, thanks and honor are to God our King, who reigns on high forevermore. And there we'll find our home, our light before the throne. Christ will come in splendor, our glorious light. He will come in majesty, in power and might. The heavens will be opened, which shows He will descend. Christ will come in splendor, our joy will never end. Come, faithful and true, He's sending from the sky.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. In the trickling of an eye. O sound of heavy thunder, a roaring waterfall. O sound of heaven's harvest, somehow I hear them all.

The sound of flowers singing, I look out with a hand. I hear the rules of heaven, praise the praise I have. Come, faithful and true, He's sending from the sky. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. In the trickling of an eye.

In the trickling of an eye. And that's exactly what the Bible teaches, that when Jesus returns to this earth, it will be in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise. And then we will rise also, and we will, if Jesus comes when we're still living, we will then join them in the sky. And if he comes after we have died, we'll be raised to join those who are living and transformed by Jesus. Do you actually believe that, by the way?

I hope you do. The Bible refers to that as what is known as the blessed hope, and that is a blessed hope. And our Father, we pray for all who are hurting. We pray for our members, some of whom are here, some of whom cannot be here. Those who are disappointed because of what happened this past week in their personal lives.

Those who are going through times of struggle, financial needs, relational breakups and needs. Father, this world is so broken. Would you look upon us in mercy, we pray? We thank you today, Lord, for the opportunity for Moody Church to be a light in this city. We ask, Lord, that the light might shine clearly and brightly, and that we might lead many to the warmth of the Savior, whom we have come to know. We pray for the many who are listening and watching, and they are doing so by the internet and radio. We pray for them as well. Then, Lord Jesus, we pray for the advance of the gospel around the world and in this community. Today we pray that Jesus shall be exalted, that many people will come to know him as Savior, and that your work might proceed with confidence and great might. Now, Lord, we do love you. We pray for those who have never come to know Christ as Savior. Today we ask that you shall reveal Jesus to them, and they will believe. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... I'm sure that all of us have met someone and afterwards we've said to a friend, he's the real deal. What do we mean by that?

We mean that what you see is what you get. He's a person of integrity. He can be trusted, and he's real. There's no pretense. He is who he says he is. He's the real deal. What we mean, I think, is that the inside of this person is essentially the same as the outside.

The heart matches the head, matches the performance. Jesus, when he looks at the church in the book of Revelation chapter 2, and you can turn to that, actually, chapter 3, I should say, he's speaking to a church here that is not the real deal. And what a message he gives to this church. Chapter 3, verse 1, this is the church at Sardis. You remember that the letters of the church of Revelation begin with Ephesus, and then they go counterclockwise, and eventually, if you were to do that in modern Turkey, you could come to these places.

It is the church that is in Sardis. Now, can you imagine being a member of a church, and you get a letter from Jesus, and could there be any person in all the universe whose opinion would be more important than his? You get this letter from Jesus, and it is a letter of strong, strong rebuke.

What would it sound like? Now, I decided to do this. What if I were to read this letter and then put Moody Church where Sardis occurs?

This is going to be very strong. I asked you to look at what church you think best represents Moody, and I have not chosen this church as best representing us. I would like to think that this isn't true of us, but let's just hear what this must have sounded like to the congregation at Sardis. And to the angel of the church at Moody, write the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. Remember, then, what you have received and heard.

Keep it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I have come against you. Yet I still have a few names at Moody, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot out his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Wow. What a strong letter. The letter begins by saying that I'm the one who has the seven stars and the seven spirits. The seven stars, of course, are the angels or the leaders of the seven churches. And then you also have the seven spirits of God.

What could that possibly be a reference to? There aren't seven independent spirits of God. It refers to the fullness of the Spirit. Jesus is saying that there are seven churches, and each one can have the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

I have the seven spirits in my other hand. Now, what we'd like to do for the next few moments is to walk through this passage with all of the sting that Jesus gave to this church, and to do so and to walk through it by pointing out, first of all, obviously, the strong rebuke. Then we'll get to the remedy, and then we'll get to the reward.

That's the agenda. This outline, by the way, is not mine. It comes from John Stott, who wrote a book on the seven churches, and I have benefited much from reading it. And today, his outline, I mean, excuse me, I should say my outline is essentially from his book. So let's walk through this passage of Scripture, and let's see what Jesus has to say to Sardis.

First of all, he says, there's the sharp rebuke. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. If you wanted to join a church, Sardis was the place to join. Sardis would have had ministries to the poor, ministries to widows, ministry in the community. It was an active beehive of activity.

It had a reputation that spread beyond its borders as a church that was constantly being involved and sacrificial. That's what everybody thought of Sardis. You have a name. You have a reputation that you are alive. But God comes along and says, my opinion is very different. You are dead, spiritually dead. The difference is between physical health and spiritual health, physical activity. But where is the Holy Spirit? Where are those ministries that are transforming because the gospel is a part of those ministries, and therefore you are doing something that bears much spiritual fruit that will last forever?

Where is that kind of activity? I don't find it, God says, in Sardis. Wow. You know, I'm reminded of Jesus when he was here on earth and spending time with the Pharisees. That's the way in which he looked at them as individuals. He said that you sing the right songs, you hear the right words, you honor me with your lips, but your heart is far from me. And God says, I'm looking at your heart and my opinion is different from yours. You think you're doing well. And I say that you are a lie.

You are a hypocrite. In fact, he made this astounding statement. He said that outwardly, you are like a tomb that has been adorned.

It's whitewashed. You know, an ossuary is basically a bone box. It's ossuaries that were found in that famous tomb in Jerusalem were supposedly the bones of Jesus were found. But now everybody, of course, denies that those are the bones of Jesus.

But an ossuary was this bone box, and sometimes they had all kinds of paint and ornamentation. And Jesus said that you are like that outwardly. You appear to be righteous. You say the right prayers.

You give the right gifts and you sing the right hymns and you go to the right church. But inwardly, you are like dead men's bones filled with rot. We've all met people like that.

Have we not? Jesus strongly rebukes this church. Well, what is the remedy? He gives five imperatives and we'll look at them very quickly. First of all, he says, wake up. Now, you can't tell dead people to wake up. I mean, you can tell them to wake up, but they probably won't. You can go into a funeral home and say, wake up.

And you know what? They just aren't going to wake. There must have been some people at Sardis who were not dead, but simply asleep. And so this may be an appeal to the Christians to say, wake up. Don't you see what's happening around you? Don't you see that your church has lost the gospel? Don't you see that your ministry is not permanently transforming? That people are not coming to Christ as Savior? Wake up. And that's maybe what God is saying to us as a church and as a nation. Don't you see where we are headed? Don't you see that your lives are full of pleasure and all kinds of recreation?

And you basically have squeezed me out. Wake up. When I was in Germany recently, I woke up at about six o'clock in the morning. It was a Sunday morning, and I heard some bells chiming at a church. And I knew I had missed the first few. And I wasn't going to count the number of bells that were ringing, but I thought, well, all right, the chimes, I should say. I'll begin counting.

Well, I counted fourteen. Six o'clock in the morning and you hear fourteen chimes. I told somebody in Germany, you know, it's later than it's ever been. Maybe that's what God is saying to us.

Folks, it is later in America than it has ever been. Wake up. And then the Lord says, strengthen what remains. You know, there are new believers that are wobbly. There are ministries that are transforming.

You strengthen those. You pray and you seek God and you work with others and you do all that you possibly can to rescue what you've got and to make it better. So the scripture says, wake up, strengthen what remains. And then notice Jesus throws this in. If you will not wake up, I'm still in verse three. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will know at what hour I will come against you. Would you like to be the member of a church where Jesus, when he comes, is against that church? I would not want to be a part of a fellowship like that.

Could you imagine it? This is the meek and the mild Jesus that most people know and think that that's all that there is to him. So what he says is, strengthen what remains and then we'll take imperative three and four together. Remember what you have received.

And number four is keep it. Remember what you've received, he says. What is it that they received? Well, certainly the gospel, which apparently had been lost in the church, but they had also received the Holy Spirit and the power of the Spirit. But they were quenching the Spirit. They were grieving the Spirit. Maybe that's why this letter begins with the words of Jesus, I am he who has the seven stars in my right hand.

And I suppose that the seven spirits are in his left hand. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the stars on this hand and the spirits in this hand were brought together and the church experienced again the transforming ministry of the Holy Spirit of God? You see, Christianity is a supernatural religion.

And if we can explain everything we do by some human explanation, we've not yet understood the fullness of the Spirit and the remarkable work that the Spirit can do among us. I've been a part of revival meetings, particularly in Western Canada in the early 70s, where the Holy Spirit did in an hour what sermons and programs could not do in 10 years. God began to break hearts. There was repentance, there was restoration between teenagers and their parents and people were making things right and builders who had cheated people in their building were going and spending a great deal of money, actually even mortgaging their houses to make things right and to pay people off.

The conviction of sin was so overwhelming. And so the text says remember, remember those days when sin troubled you, remember those days when you struggled against it, remember that and get back to what made your life transforming and great for the cause of the kingdom. And then he says repent and that can be applied to both the dead and the sleeping. Repent. Repent means that we change our mind, we're going in this direction and then we choose and we go in the other direction because we sincerely turn from our sins to God. Repentance, that's what it is. And Luther was right when he said it's the responsibility of the Christian to live a life of daily repentance. You repent today, I repented this morning, I repented yesterday morning and I will repent also tomorrow morning, God willing. When I again come before God, deal with the sin issues, turn from that sin to Jesus Christ. And so he says repent. And you know, you've often heard me say that when you're going to jump across a chasm, it is much better to do it in one long jump than in two short ones.

It really is. And when you repent, you might as well do it up right to get to the root, get to the thing that keeps causing you to stumble. And Jesus said if necessary, pluck out your eye or take off your hand. He's speaking symbolically, but he's saying whatever you need to do to leave your sin behind and serve Jesus, do it.

Do it. And that's the message that Jesus brings to this church. Well, we have looked very briefly at the strong rebuke. We've looked at the remedy, the very clear remedy that Jesus gives. What is now the reward? The reward is literally out of this world. You know, if you did nothing else but read, and I hope that you are reading and rereading the message to the seven churches, if you did nothing else but simply read all of the promises that are made to the overcomers, and if the Holy Spirit of God showed you actually what you were reading, you would absolutely, your mind would boggle because I can't get my mind around this. This series of messages, by the way, has done a whole lot more for me than I ever guessed it would because I want to be an overcomer.

I want to be among those who receive these rewards. But look at what it says. It says, but I still have some people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments. There are those who aren't into immorality and moral impurity and dishonesty and deceit, and you can still take their word to the bank, so to speak, and trust them. There are still some people who have not succumbed to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. There are some names. By the way, I should underline the use of the word name, yet you have a few names. God is interested in people.

He's interested in names. You'll notice that he does this, and Pastor Hertzberg would want me to tell you that it's very important for us to wear our name tags. By the way, they are a great blessing here at the church. I know more people's names now at Moody Church than I've ever known because I can read.

All right. You'll notice he says, I have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white. Ah, that's a sermon by itself. They will walk with me in white. I mean, imagine walking with Jesus. Right now, as I'm here, I'm remembering a Cub game that I attended, a Cubs game 25, 30 years ago, and afterwards, we were where the players were after the game.

I don't remember whether they won or lost, although we could all guess possibly, but I mean, this is 20 or 30 years ago. But I remember all these kids trying to get autographs, and they all wanted to take at least a few steps with their favorite hero, their favorite sports personality. Man, imagine walking with Jesus. Where did you walk today? You know, Jesus and I took a walk. I walked with him in white.

Imagine that. Now listen, he says that they will walk with me in white for they are worthy, and where does their worthiness come from? They're worthy because they have the right garment. There's no worthiness in the Bible of human beings that is a worthiness that separates us from the grace of God. It is always grace that makes us worthy.

But now look, three promises. First of all, the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and that garment is the righteousness of Jesus Christ, credited to us because Jesus died for sinners. And you see, when we go there, that's why we sing, clothed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne, because we stand in his righteousness, and we've got the right robes. But also, we don't soil those robes.

We don't take them for granted. We don't say, well, now that I'm a Christian, I can live however I want to live, because we don't want to be soiled, as the other figure of speech would indicate. So we are given white robes, and that's what makes us worthy to be in God's presence. I've said it a hundred times.

I hope to say it at least 300 times before I die. That's why Jesus is the only possible way to heaven. Nobody else out there has righteousness to credit to us that God will accept.

That takes care of all those arguments that take place in university. Oh, what's wrong with this person or this religion? Well, I'll tell you what's wrong.

They don't have the righteousness to give you so that you can get to heaven. That's one thing that's wrong, and it's the major thing that's wrong. And now we can move on.

Am I alone up here today, or is anybody else out there? And then he says, I will never blot out his name out of the book of life. Oh, that stopped many people. Is there a possibility of having our names blotted out of the book of life? Very quickly, in the Old Testament particularly, there's reference to the book of life, which is really the book of the living. When Moses said, either forgive these people or blot out my name from the book of life, he means the book of the living. He means kill me. But forgive these people.

By the way, think of the devotion that Moses had. He was willing to say, kill me. Blot my name out of the book. It had to do with the register, the town register. When somebody died, you erased their name. That's what David had in mind, I think, in Psalm 68 when he said, he said, blot out the wicked from the book of life. He's talking about the fact that these wicked people ought to die and God ought to take care of them. But when you get to the book of Revelation, what you find is now we're in talking about a different book. We're talking about a book that is really the book of life elsewhere called the Lamb's Book of Life. This is a book of not just those who are physically alive but spiritually alive who've actually been born again.

So the question is, can a name be blotted out from that book? That's the question. And some people on this basis and others have said that that means that a genuinely saved person can eventually be lost. And I suppose if you held that, this would be one text that you'd like to use.

Let's think about that a little bit. A lot of ink has been spilled discussing this phrase, so I shall summarize very briefly. It is interesting that in chapter 13 of Revelation, verse 9, it says this. All who dwell upon the face of the earth shall worship the beast except those whose names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the world. It's the book of the elect. If you believe in Jesus, your name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the world.

And some people think the world's been around a long time. Wow. Oh, you say, well, you know, that's not fair.

But, but, but, but, you know, the motor voters, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but, but. At the end of this message, I'll tell you how you can find out whether your name is there. So don't complain too much, okay? You can know whether your name is there, but I'm ahead of the story. Are you telling me that someone whose name has been in the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the world is going to be erased within God's purposes? I don't think so.

I don't think so. You'll notice that this promise does not say, I will erase his name from the Book of Life. This is a promise that he will not do it.

Nowhere do you ever read, I will blot out his name. It's a promise to the faithful. Hey, look, you're faithful.

You're going through a hard time. My promise to you is I won't blot your name out of the Book of Life. When you stand before me, all is going to be very well. Thank you. And so what we have is the three promises, the white garments, the Book of Life, and then he says, I will confess his name.

Do you notice there? Name, name, name, name, name. I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. I mean, I don't know what this is going to be like, but imagine now, and I'll use myself as an example.

I could choose anyone else whose name I know here, but I might as well pick on myself. Imagine being in the presence of the father and you have all of the holy angels. And then Jesus says to the father, this is Erwin Luther.

Can you even take that into your spirit? But I will confess his name to the father. Elsewhere Jesus says that if you're ashamed of me and my words in this sinful and adulterous generation, you know, those of you businessmen, nobody knows that you're a Christian because you're ashamed. I will be ashamed of him when my father comes. When I come, he says, with the holy angels.

Wow. But he says, I will confess his name before my father and before the holy angels. Nothing is private in heaven. This is not some little thing done off in a corner. The hosts of heaven are there and they're watching and they are amazed at God's infinite grace.

What's the bottom line? The bottom line is this, that when God sees you, he doesn't see all the good things that you do. He sees your heart.

That's what he's after. And you know, those of you who have never received Christ as savior, but people think you have because you're such a nice person, but you've never really been born again that day will declare it. I'll tell you. In fact, Jesus said that some people who did many miracles in my name and in my name cast out demons and did the miracles. I'm going to slam the door of heaven in their faces and say, I never knew you depart from me, you workers of iniquity. And they're going to say, iniquity, we served you. We preached in your name. We went to church in your name. We sang hymns in your name. We affirm things in your name.

And he'll say, I never knew you. I'm sorry, but you know what? You have a reputation that you're alive, but you are dead.

You are never regenerated by the Holy Spirit. So I have to ask you a question today. Let's suppose that this isn't a large congregation as it is, but let us suppose that you and I were having tea together and I looked you in the eye. You are two feet from me and asked you, have you been born of the spirit? Are you saved? Don't tell me the things that you've done. Are you saved? That's a good question because that's a biblical question. There was a $20 bill, bought some groceries. Eventually it cycled around and turned out in the life of a woman who used it to buy medicine for her sick child, but in the end was disqualified because it's counterfeit.

The fact is that you and I can do work and we can have the reputation that is sterling and inside be dead. I've known people who've assumed that they are Christians because they were brought up in a Christian home. They go to a Christian church, they sing Christian songs, but the reality is not there. And who are we looking at? We're looking at the Jesus about whom it says, I am the one that searches the hearts.

That's what the text says. The one who sees the hearts. That's who we're dealing with. This is a Jesus thing. Jesus' word to me and Jesus' word to you. Let us pray. Father, where do we go with this? What do we do in light of the fact that you have spoken? I think of the many people who are here today. We have a wonderful large congregation and I think of you going up and down the aisles and across the various places. I think of the many hundreds who are listening to this and seeing it on the internet around the world. And you're checking hearts and you know who we really are.

Who we really are. I pray that those who have never trusted Christ as Savior may do so right now. May they say, Lord Jesus, I have sinned. I have sinned. I am a sinner.

I'm spiritually dead. But at this moment, I trust Jesus to give me life, to forgive me, to make me a new person. Would you pray that prayer right where you are right now? And then, Father, we pray for those of us who do know you as Savior.

We discover that our names are written in the book of life when we come to Christ by faith and receive him and know that we have been received and we know that our names are in your book. We pray that all, Father, to whom you have spoken may know that and for those of us who do know you already, may we wake up. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Let's stand together and sing. Purify my heart, let me be as gold. And precious silver, purify my heart, let me be as gold.

Pure gold, refiner's fire. My heart's one desire is to live. On today's Moody Church Hour, Pastor Lutzer spoke on When Jesus Observes Our Reality, taken from Revelation chapter 3, another message on what Jesus thinks of his church. Next week we'll learn about a message to the church at Philadelphia as we hear Dr. Lutzer preach on When Jesus Observes Our Vision. What Jesus thinks of his church can be yours on CD for a gift of any amount to The Moody Church Hour. Call 1-800-215-5001. Let us know you'd like to support Moody Church's ministry.

Our thank you to you is a CD album with eight powerful messages you can hear and then pass on to others. Call 1-800-215-5001 or you can write to us at Moody Church Media, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. Online go to moodyoffer.com. That's moodyoffer.com. Join us next time for another Moody Church Hour with Pastor Erwin Lutzer and the Congregation of Historic Moody Church in Chicago. This broadcast is a ministry of The Moody Church.