"Eternal Security" The Church of Sardis - Audio
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Relating to you an experience that I had when I was in sixth grade, I don't remember a whole lot back in those days, but I do remember this one particular year in my elementary school life. I'd had a difficult first five years. Don't you laugh, Mom? It was difficult in the sense that socially, it seemed hard to adjust academically, I was sort of lazy, and it just seemed like those years went by without accomplishing a whole lot. Then when I got to sixth grade, it began to seem to be some signs of life, showed some real promise, had a real good teacher who took an interest in me, had a leading role in a school play and some things like that. It really looked super neat, but toward the end of the year, things begin to sour, and it sort of reverted back to some of the old ways and the old arch. I remember the last day of school in sixth grade, I got a note from a person whom I respected, a classmate, and they left this note on the feet of the car. And the note said, "I'm so disappointed in you. You showed so much promise of being a really neat person. What happened?" Well, that crushed me, it bothered me all summer long. Since committing my life to Jesus Christ as my Savior and Lord, I've enjoyed many exciting years of walking with the Lord. I can go back to those moments in my life in which He guided me through some very difficult waters. I've seen miracles, what I believe are miracles, and I believe definitely in miracles. I don't have the gift of miracles, but I believe that God can perform miracles. There are many times when I have felt God's power, it worked through me, leading me to others, that the gospel of Jesus Christ might be shared and that God may bring them to Christ through me. I've seen Him strengthen lies through the ministry He's given me. I have enjoyed His ministry of teaching me so much from the Word of God, and I can go on and on. But just one fear continually has haunted me through my life as a Christian, and it comes up every so often when I begin to sort of drift away. And that is that my God and Savior would send me a note, and the note would say, "I know your works, that you have a name that you liveest, yet you are dead." I fear that kind of note from God. Shall we pray together? Our gracious God and Father, we humbly admit that we have nothing at all to offer you in the way of power or strength to accomplish those things that would please you. But our Father, we have confidence that you are at work within us, both to will and to work for your own good pleasure. We stand in fear and trembling, anticipating Father that surely you will accomplish great things through us. And yet, Father, we pray that we would not lose sight of your power, your ministry in our life, and become dead. Nothing but a lifeless form of a Christian. Minister, to our hearts today, as we study your word, for we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Death is the final tragedy of life, but there is a sadder tragedy than death. It's the tragedy of giving every appearance of being alive and being vibrant and being strong. And yet, in reality, of actually being dead, crumbling, decaying, and in the process of eventual ruin. Our Lord accused the Pharisees, and he says, "You're nothing more than white-white suffocers full of dead-men's bonds." 30 miles southeast of Thyretira. As you walked across the range of mountains, you would come upon a fertile valley. And pairing across the valley, you would see a city rising 1,000 feet above the floor of the valley. On a steep precipice of a mountain where the walls were so sheer, it gave a very imposing, commanding sight. Seemingly impregnable, certainly no conqueror could defeat that city because it seemed so unreachable. No city had a more splendid past. As the ancient capital of Lydia, Sardis was the richest and most glorious of all the ancient cities, lived by great kings, filled with magnificent temples. But as one crossed the valley and moved closer to the great mountain on which the city stepped, another picture began to develop. Instead of a city standing on a mountain of granite, this was a city that was built on a mountain of mud. A mountain of slightly compacted conglomerate. I always eroding and never trustworthy. As you walked into the city, you were completely overwhelmed, thinking that you would see the glories of the past, but instead finding the influence of that city had eroded. The riches were gone, the kings had been defeated. The city lay basically and decay and ruin in comparison to what it once was. Sardis was a city of failure. A city that never got it together even though it showed such great promise. It was a city of pretense. From a distance it gave one impression, but when you really got into the heart of the city, you found that it was actually in the process of decaying and ruin. In the midst of Sardis, there was a church. And when men looked at the church, they thought of it as being a very great church. It was well known. You could ask any non-Christian on the street in Sardis, and they would have told you where the Christian church was.
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Series on the seven churches of Revelation. The church of Sardis.