Window Dressing (Sardis)

Revelation 3:1-6

Pastor Troy brings us another powerful word regarding the church from the book of Revelation! The church at Sardis was much like the city in which it dwelt. They appeared to be doing well on the outside, yet Jesus knew their hearts. See, we can fool others all day long, but Jesus has the perfect and all-knowing Spirit of God, who searches and knows the hearts of man. May we be individuals and a part of a collective body who are not just putting on a show, but are truly filled with the Spirit of God and on fire for Him.

Pastor Troy has been in a series series on Worship for a while, but says we will be taking an extended break as the Lord sees fit during the start of this new season. For January and beyond, we will be focusing on the Vision of the church, praying that God will help us to reach the Shumont community and to grow as a church. Pastor Cory is also making his way through the book of Ephesians in his messages, but is taking a break from that as well during this season. We at Bald Mountain Baptist Church are so glad you have joined us here, and our prayer is that you are blessed by this message!

The calling for every Christian is to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Well, where does the earth begin and where does it end? For us at Bald Mountain Baptist Church, the world begins in the Shumont Community on top of a little peak in Buncombe County, NC. Our prayer is that through this platform we might do our part in reaching the ends of the earth with the gospel!

Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains.

Isaiah 42:10-11

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Troy Westmoreland and Cory Martinez are the co-pastors of Bald Mountain Baptist Church. They alternate on a semi-regular basis, and our prayer is that their insights from the Word of God may richly bless all those who stop by our neck of the woods! 

Please feel free to reach out to us through their email if you have any questions, concerns, prayer requests, encouragements, etc.:

t.westmoreland22@fruitland.edu
c.martinez22@fruitland.edu

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:23

More technical difficulties. Everybody turn to Revelation chapter number Revelation chapter number three. The uh uh internet is now is what is fighting us. I want to thank everybody. We had a lot of people follow us as a as a church and everything like that, and I probably told everybody it's not a cash grab. We wanted to be able to go live, and I'm gonna be looking into some kind of some way that we can uh uh make that happen just so our internet um uh if it'll allow us to stream it and everything like that. I got like one bar of 4G. If I got to move it into that corner, I will. Whatever, whatever, uh, wherever we could get some uh decent service, but we'll we'll get it figured out. But in Revelation chapter number three this morning, I'd like to thank everybody that's here. Thank everybody that's come out this morning. Thank y'all for uh for for being here. I want to uh thank everybody who's joining us online, who is watching. I just uh it is it's a blessing just to be able to do uh our part as Bald Mountain Baptist Church, uh to just get the word out. Not our word, not our message, but Jesus' message, and I'm gonna talk a little bit about that today. But I'm glad to be here today, this morning, in the house of the Lord, gathered with the church of God, gathered with the the saints of God with Bald Mountain Baptist Church. Uh uh, we've been doing a series on the church, and and it's one thing I say it every Sunday that we are the church. It's not a it's not a building, it's not a place, it is the people. And I don't care if I'm preaching to five or five hundred, I don't care if I'm preaching even to one, or I'll preach to to the walls, if if uh if it means to to get the word out. Um but there's one thing that is when we think about being the church, you know, uh, and I've been doing this series on the church, is that uh these churches of Revelation, it's some heavy stuff, it is. I know that. It's a very challenging stuff, and it's gonna be more of that today as you get further and further on in these churches, it just seems like these situations are getting worse and worse, and and Jesus is having to admonish them and to reprove them more and more. But uh also he gives every one of them a promise that they can be with him in eternity if they will just overcome these attacks that the enemy is throwing against them. And so, uh Bald Mountain Baptist Church, I'm telling you, if we can overcome, and we are overcoming the attacks of the enemy and what whatever he wants to throw our way into this community. I don't care, we don't wage, I don't wage war against the uh any flesh and blood. I'm waging war against the enemy who has already been defeated uh 2,000 years ago on that cross, and he's now busy, he's being brought under the heel of of Jesus Christ, and every every uh enemy and every every uh pagan nation is being gonna be brought as a footstool uh as under the feet of Jesus, and and I believe that. I don't know if you believe it this morning, but I believe we win in the end, and I'm thankful for that. Today we're gonna be back in our series on the church. We're gonna be looking at the the church of Sardis. Uh we've looked at the church of Ephesus already. Ephesus, they had lost their first love. And Jesus says, You're doing a lot of good things, but your passion is gone. Your passion is gone from it. Smyrna uh was a was a poor church, but they were rich in faith. They were rich in faith in Ball Mountain. We don't have a lot here, but we are rich in the things of eternity. Um we were we were they were facing death and persecution, and and if if they could face death and hold on tightly there, I think we could face a couple people telling us no, or a couple people with some different uh beliefs and backgrounds than us. I believe we could face that. Uh the church of Pergamous was a church of compromise. They had not, they had a lot of believers there, but they were also letting in some false teachings that slip in the back door. And then that church of Fiatira, though, they had let the it come all the way in. They were blatantly allowing false doctrine to be preached from the pulpit and that woman Jezebel to usurp authority over the man uh of the of the church. And and now we're going to be looking at the first church of Revelation, chapter number three, is the the fifth church, the church of Sardis today, and we'll see what Sardis was facing, and we'll see how it can apply to us today. Just to give some background, the the apostle John was on the Isle of Patmos, and it says, for the for the word of the Lord and the testimony of Jesus Christ, he was being worked to death in a penal colony. He was literally being worked to the bone. He had been bored in oil, and that didn't help, and and he had been persecuted and all these things, and he's waiting on a word from the Lord. He's waiting on a on a vision from Jesus Christ, and when Jesus shows up, it's a lot more. The last time John saw Jesus, he was he was just a man in flesh and blood. And this time when he turns around, he sees one whose eyes are like a flame of fire and whose mouth that comes at the water, the a two-edged sword coming out of his mouth, and his voice is like the sound of many rushing waters, and and uh uh it's a totally different image of Jesus Christ. And there are some heavy things, there are some things that are hard to swallow, there are some challenging things, but there's also it's also meant to be an encouragement. Jesus comes and he says, Hey, I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen. We win. He said, He said, This is what the churches are facing. He says, But I'm facing, but I'm telling you, if you will believe in me and you will hold fast, then you can overcome. It's the same for us today, Bald Mountain Baptist Church. We are facing hard things. We've been facing decline, facing doubt, facing uh uh opposition from, like I said, different backgrounds, different beliefs. But Jesus Christ gives us a picture of himself, he gives us an image, then he gives us some recognition, he gives them some recognition, and then he reprimands them and gives them some reassurance and all of these things. We need to be reprimanded every once in a while. We need to be uh reassured. Uh, we need to to to to have our our our works recognized. But here at the church of Sardis, it's actually going to be flipped around. He he jumps right in and he he gives them the reprimand first, then he recognizes them a little bit and then he gives them some reassurance today. So just to follow our outline. The church of Sardis, if you if you this is why we need a a TV or or the with a projector or something, if you if you the churches of of the revelation, they followed the postal route. And so you have here you have the church of Ephesus and then the church of Smyrna and then the church of Pergamus, and then when you get to Thyatira, you you turn the corner and you come start coming back down, and you get to Thyatira, and then you go back down to Sardis, and it's really almost directly across from Smyrna. It's directly across from Smyrna in the postal route, but the letter would travel all the way around, and by the time it reached Smyrna, it would be heading back down uh towards the towards the sea and towards the water there and the Mediterranean. And uh Smyrna was not a port town, but it was still one of those very prominent. It was it was actually uh one of the wealthiest cities at this time, not not the largest, but it was uh known for its trade and and uh um uh its gold and silver. And it also had there a temple of Artemis, a temple of Artemis where people would go and worship all these pagan gods and and things like that. It was heavily fortified, and this is important for later, it was heavily fortified on top of a hill. It was it was a city set on a hill, and it and it thought it was safe. It was fortified, and it had all these fortifications and and all the surroundings, when any uh uh nation would come against it, everybody would pull back into the city, and they thought they were safe from all from all harm there. And uh it's actually uh tied here in the book of Revelation for the second shortest message tied with the the church of Pergamus. But don't fool you because it's gonna pack a punch for us this morning. And so without further ado, if everyone will stand, Revelation chapter number three, revelation chapter number three, starting in verse number one. Which you might want to stand for this text, tell them, Corey. You might want to stand for the reading of the of the word of God today, starting in verse number one of chapter three. 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. 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. Verse five. 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, uh, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. Verse six, and he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we come to you today just asking, Lord, asking for us to be encouraged by this word. Lord, I know it's one of those things where I know that I'm not getting better when I'm just getting patted on the back all the time. I know that I'm not getting better, Lord, when everything is just hunky dory, Lord. I grow and that we grow in the valley, Lord, we grow when we are corrected. Lord God, we grow. Lord Jesus, when you come and you deliver a word right at the right time in the right season, a word that might be hard to hear, but the word that we need to hear, and we pray this morning that you help us to hear the word that you have for Bald Mountain Baptist Church. It's in your name that we pray. Amen and amen. You may be seated. So to begin, Jesus, as always, beginning with the outline, he gives us an image, a picture of what he looks like. Look at verse number one. It says unto the angel of the church in Sardis, right? These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, and the seven stars. Now, I want you to turn back with me because I wanted to connect these things back to what Jesus has said and what he will say. Just flip back with me to chapter one, verse number twelve. Chapter one, verse twelve. When John turns around, he says, I turned and saw the void to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps, girt about his uh uh his waist with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, and his eyes were as snow and his uh his his and white as snow and his eyes were like a flame of fire, and his feet like undefined brass, as if they burned in the furnace, and his voice is the sound of many waters. And he had, listen to this, in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance, his face, was like the sun that shineth in his strength. Now turn to, I want you to turn to Revelation chapter four. Turn to Revelation chapter four. So if you see in his right hand, he has the seven stars. Now turn to Revelation chapter four, starting in verse number one. He says, John says, After this I look, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were like of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee these things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne, and he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone. That word sardine is sardis, is also reminiscent of the word sardis, uh like the church stone. Verse number three in the middle. And there was a rainbow round about the throne in the sight like unto emerald, just to pause there in that in that amazing that around God's throne is a rainbow. Around God's holy and perfect and precious. And I'm talking about undefiled throne is a rainbow of all the colors of all of his creation. It's amazing how how people want to take something that is of God and want to twist it into something that is evil and wicked. Well, there everyone one day is going to be standing before the throne of God and they're gonna see that rainbow, but it's gonna be something a whole lot different to some of them than it means than it means to others today. Um, but I did that's just a little aside, and I ain't got nothing. Well, what I'm talking about, that was free in case you were in case you were wondering. Y'all ain't got to pay a dime for that. Verse number four. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their head crowns of gold, and out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and there were set now. Listen to this, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God, which are the seven spirits of God. And so we see there in the Church of Revelation that Jesus Christ is walking in them and out of the midst of the candlesticks. But where is the fire? It says he's in the midst of the seven candlesticks, but but he doesn't talk about a flame, he just talks about thinking if you think of the picture there is of a menorah, a Jewish menorah. There are it's it's one stand, and there are seven candlesticks, and those seven candlesticks represent the churches. And then Jesus is walking in the midst of those candlesticks, and then in his right hand he's got seven stars, which represent the angels of the seven churches. But where is the fire? It says here at the end of verse 5 in Revelation 4, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. So Jesus is walking in the midst of these candlesticks, he's got the stars in his right hand, and then those lamps, they're burning, and it says the seven spirits of God. Now, I don't want you to get confused. The word seven is very highly symbolic. It means perfection, it means completeness. It is showing us, hey, Jesus has got the perfect, complete church in his hand. He has got the seven, he's got the perfect Holy Spirit of He's walking within the church, and he and He's got the He's got the seven uh spirits of God right there. Now, where would the fire be? Right over His head. It reminds me of when the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost, and what does it say? It appeared above their head, fire, cloven tongues of fire as an anointing of the Spirit. Jesus Christ is within the church, he's holding the angels and the messengers and the pastors of the church in his right hand, and he is anointed with the perfect spirit of God. It's resting upon him that he has sent and is within the church itself. And uh it's just a it's just a really beautiful, uh crazy vision there. But now think, he's in the midst of the candles, he's got the anointing of the Spirit of God, and he's got those stars in his right hand. I want you to look at Revelation chapter number one, look at verse number 20. Revelation 120. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. Now the stars are not the fire, the stars are the angels, and he's Jesus is holding them in his right hand. The fire is the spirit. The anointing is the spirit of God, and Jesus Christ is the one holding the pastors in his hands. But now it says that the stars they represent. Now look now. I want you to look at chapter number three again with me. Chapter three, verse one. I'm not, I know I'm going somewhere, but I'm setting it up. I'll I'm making a point that I want to been wanting to make, but I want to make as clear to you. Verse number one. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis right. That angel there, it means it means a pastor or a leader. It means a pastor or a leader. And another word for angel in the Greek there is messenger. It's a messenger. I want to tell you this morning, and I keep saying it, but I want to be clear. Jesus Christ, first and foremost, he's speaking to me, and he's speaking to Corey, the heads of this church. First and foremost, when we just stand up here and we deliver a message, it's not from us. When I come here and I have to deliver a message that's hard to hear, when we come here and we want to encourage you, when we come here, we have a word from the Lord. And I would not stand up, there's pulpits full, churches full of people who I believe standing up here delivering you man's message.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

And this church ain't one of them.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

You have pastors that meet with the Lord, that hear a word from God, and who deliver it to you. And I am nothing. Corey, we are nothing but a mouthpiece for the Lord Jesus Christ. When you look up, when God looks at me, he doesn't see Troy, he sees the blood of Jesus Christ, he sees his son cover me. And I pray, I'm not nothing, Cory is not nothing, but when you hear this word, our prayer is that you hear the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to you. Speaking to this church. As individuals and as us collectively. We take this seriously because we are accountable to God, not to man. We are all accountable to one another, obviously. But we're accountable to the Lord who is speaking through us, to you. Look at verse number six. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. I ask you to put your listening ears on. I I'm not gonna say this every Sunday, but I want to make this point today that Jesus Christ is holding us in his right hand. Me and Corey. And I pray that you'd have ears to hear this morning what he's saying to us as we move into our first point. When we look at the church of Sardis, like I said, he doesn't begin with a recognition, he jumps right in. Look at verse number one again. He jumps right in, he begins to reprimand them. Let's see, verse number one. He says, Unto the angel of the church in Sardis, right, these things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works, that thou hast the name that thou livest and art dead. Be watchful then, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die. Those things that remain, they're ready to die. For I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou shalt receive 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. Now look, I say it every every time we've been through these messages. Jesus says, I know thy works. And now, whereas before it has been maybe a little more comforting, he says, I see you, I'm there with you. Here at the church of Sardis, it's where comfort definitely turns to conviction. Where he says, You have you have these works, right? He says, but he goes right into the reprimand. He doesn't say, I know your works, you're doing this well, but do this. He says, I know you have a name that you're alive, but you're dead inside. I've not found your works perfect before God. In verse number two, there at the end, he said, For I have not found thy works perfect or complete before God. There is no question here at the Church of Sardis that they had more bad than good that was going on. They it was it's flipped compared to the others. He jumps right into the reprimand. He says, I know your works. And he says, I tell you what, you might look good from the outside, but on the on the inside you're dead. And I keep coming back to this. I keep coming back just about every Sunday that I preach these messages. They had works, they were doing something. And I say this all the time, Bald Mountain Baptist Church. It's not about just doing more. That's not what it's about. It's not about just saying, hey, uh, we're gonna bring back Sunday school, hey, we want to do prayer meeting now, hey, we want to do Sunday night, we want to, and and I and I do believe that that healthy churches have these things. But I don't believe just because you have these things, it means that you are a healthy church, if that makes any sense to anybody. Just because we have all this VBS we're about to do, I don't want to do it if it's just another thing to do. Just because, hey, oh hey, we haven't had VBS in a while, let's let's try it. Let's we want to, we you know, uh, or or or it's some of this like, oh well, I guess we're you know, we're growing a little bit, we should probably do VBS. That's not what we're doing, what we're doing. Everything we do in this church, from the time I come and we come up the steps and unlock this door, to the time that we're preparing our messages, even beforehand throughout the week, to the time when we're shaking hands and loving on one another, to when we're doing uh praise reports and prayer requests to singing, and everything is to be done in the worship and the admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not about just having the things, it's about the heart behind them. And here at Sardis, they had they he's Jesus says, I know your works, I know you're doing all this stuff. He said, You look alive on the outside, but you're dead on the inside. Look at verse number one at the end. I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead, but art dead. They looked alive according. To everyone else. They looked alive as far as everyone else's estimation. They looked at the church of Sardis and said, hey, that church is doing good. It's doing this. It had this community drive. It had this community potluck. It's having their vacation Bible school. It's looking all well from the outside. But Jesus knew their hearts. He knew the inside. He knew, and I don't want to compare them directly to us, but Jesus knows every single one of our hearts. And he knows when you're doing, when you're just going through the motions. He knows when you're just doing it because you have to do it. He knows if you're doing it begrudgingly or because you honestly and genuinely want to worship him and serve him and reach the community. Jesus Christ knows. Sardis was fooling everyone else, but they did not have Jesus fooled, the one who has the seven spirits, Holy Spirit anointing. You can't hide from the Spirit of God. Now, the church of Sardis is very important. I told you they were a fortified city and they were set on a hill, right? Jesus Christ said you're supposed to be like a city set on a hill which cannot hide its light. But Sardis said they were shining their own light. They thought they were all taken care of and everything like that. And nations would come up and they would siege them, and everyone would come into the city. Well, at one particular time in their history when a nation had come against them to siege them, I can't remember uh what exactly nation. It could have been the Persians, uh, or or it could have been, I'm trying to think of what nation exactly, because it was multiple times that they had been sieged and they would come in, and and at one of these times they were being sieged, and they the city was up on a hill, and they they looked like they were holding out, and they were saying from the walls, y'all ain't got us, we're alive, we're we're doing, we're y'all never meet us. And then they noticed the sieging army noticed the commander, noticed there were some vultures around the other side of the wall. And at one point, and the vultures weren't leaving, they were just standing there, and so then they sent some scouts out and they looked around, and there was just a pile of dead bodies where people in Sardis, they were starving, they were dying of disease because they're all holed up in city. They had circled the wagons and they weren't, they were only doing what they were doing for themselves. But you know what? They looked all good on the outside, they looked like they were holding out on the outside, but really they were rotting inside, they were dumping all these dead bodies over the edge. And you know what? From the outside looking in, it looked like the church was doing great. It looked like the church of starters. What Jesus is doing, he said, remember this in your history? He's saying, You're just like the city. You circle the wagons, everybody thinks you're doing well, but really on the inside, I know you're heart. I know you don't really worship me and love me. I know you don't really care about reaching this community. I know you don't have anything. I know that all these things you're doing, you're just going through the motions. You look like you're holding out, but you're really dead inside. There's a modern church today filled with they're they're filled with with uh uh the modern church in general, like the the whole Christianity, is filled with churches that look alive and they look like they're even thriving. But they're full of dead men's bones. They're full of the spiritual dead. They might look alive on the outside, but uh in the spirit they're dead. The word Sardis could be translated as a prince of joy. Prince of joy, yeah. But you ever know about somebody that puts on a good face, puts on a good act, puts on, look, acts like they're all right, and then you get them alone, and everything in the world is wrong, or or or or think about this. It the word could also mean as multiple different uh translations, could mean survivor, someone who survives. Well, think about who is attacking the church today. Who's attacking the church? The devil? The world? Our own we fight against our own flesh. And I'll tell you what, the world is getting into a lot of churches. They've become seeker friendly. Tell them about it, Corey. They got put all the lights and the smoke machines and they have everything going, and they have put your coffee bar out front so you can have your vanilla latte when you come in. They've got everything in the world. They send all the kids, they send all the kids out, even to the to they they don't they don't care enough. They just want it to be more accommodating for the people to come in. And they got preachers that are preaching, they got dead preachers preaching to dead people, just tickling the ears of everybody that wants to hear.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

I better not do that. My ears are big enough already. Better not for all their works and all their flash and all their growth, they're simply stacking up dead bodies. They got church, we got churches packed to the gills today. Full of dead men full of dead men and dead women and dead people.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Because you know what dead people love? They love dead things. They love things that make them feel comfortable. They love if you make it, if you make it easy, I'm gonna tell you this. This isn't happening at Ball Mountain Baptist Church. We I don't I I don't want you leaving here feeling comfortable. I'm sorry. I I would love you. We want you comfortable when you come in. We when you leave, and we want to be like, Lord, okay, help me. You know, that's how I want to leave church. Lord, I know that I have things I need to work on. And I know that you give me the strength to do it. Help me to change. I don't want a church where I can walk in and walk out the same. And there's there's a there's a modern church full of congregations today, just like that. Just like that. The title of today's message is window dressing. Oh, something a little cute. Window dressing. Y'all know anything about window dressing? It just it just it's just for show. It don't it literally don't do nothing. Don't cover the window, it's just it's just frillies around the outside.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

But it's empty, it's vain, you see right through it.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

What does Jesus see when he looks at our works, Paul Mountain Baptist Church? Does he see a church that's alive on the inside? Or a church that's just going through the motions? If we're trying to grow this church begrudgingly or doubtfully, we may as well just give up. We may as well, if we gotta drag you here, drag you there, drag you there, we might as well just give up. But what does Jesus tell them to do? Look at verse number two. Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain. There's always, I'm gonna I'm gonna just I'm gonna pause, I don't even have this in my notes, but I'm gonna tell you, there's always a little part of my flesh that does everything begrudgingly, right? Doubtfully. There's a fight that fight that flesh every day. But if it's a if if if it's just like I'm trying to pretend like everything's all well on the outside, and I and and and I and but but really I just hate what I'm doing, that's a whole different issue. That's I'm just doing it to try to try and please someone. I'm just doing it to try and get a pass. I'm just doing it to make this, we want this community to think we're doing well, but really we don't care about them. Hmm. Jesus knows our works, he knows our hearts. What does he tell them to do? Look at verse 2, be watchful, strengthen those things that remain, strengthen the good things that that if you're not careful, they'll die too. For I have not found thy works perfect or complete before God. Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard, hear this word today and repent. If therefore thou will not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. If you remember the quote by John MacArthur, he says, How can we expect the world to repent if we got a church full of people who won't repent? How can I expect you as as a congregation to try and work on the things that you need to work on if I am not daily walking a life of repentance? Trying to work on and let Jesus work in me.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

How can how can I do that?

SPEAKER_02 29:57

When uh another time that that the church of Sardis was being sieged, another time that the church of Sardis was being sieged, they were up there, and uh it was another army, another time, I think I think this one was Cyrus, the king of the Persians, and there was a guard there, and he was just you know lollygagging. He went and looked over at something, and his helmet fell off down the wall, and they were they were watching, people were watching, and the guard goes, he looks around, don't see no, gives a cursory look, don't see nobody, doesn't see the Persians out there watching him. He's not he's not watching, and he goes down in through the wall, comes out a secret door at the bottom, grabs his helmet, puts it on, runs back up, closes the door, runs back up, and Cyrus says, I got my way in now. All because this man wouldn't watch and wouldn't be clear. Yeah, I'll tell you what, if there's an army sieging me, I'm not opening up any doors, I'm not letting my guard down for a second. I'm not letting I'm telling you, church, we have got everything in the world against us. Literally, the world, the flesh, and the devil is trying to fight what we're doing here at Ball Mountain Baptist Church. He's trying to fight what you're trying to do in your own walk with the Lord. It's all everything is stacked against us except the one thing that matters. We are held in his hand. He is in the midst of us, and he's given us his spirit to watch, to be vigilant, to strengthen those things that remain, to allow us to overcome our own doubts and our own discouragements, our own begrudging attitudes sometimes, our own, our own uh uh uh arguments and strivings and my own mouth, my own, my own uh just I mean, my own pride. He's given us what we need. The idea of watching here, I want you to listen to Luke, the book of Luke. Don't turn there, just listen to what Jesus says, this idea of watching, then I'm gonna move on. My last two points are very quick. I just want to hit it cursory and we'll be gone. Listen to what Jesus says in Luke chapter 12, starting in verse 36. And ye yourselves, like unto men that wait for their Lord, we're talking to his disciples, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find them watching. Verily I say unto you that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch or in the third watch, and find them, so blessed are those servants who are always diligently watching. And this know, if the good man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and have not suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this peril to us or to everyone? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward whom the Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of their meat in the due season? Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find him so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But listen to this. But and if that servant say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, and shall begin to beat the men's servants and maidservants, and to eat and to drink, and to be drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. If your attitude is, oh Jesus Christ is coming back one day, let's eat, drink, and be merry. Tomorrow we die. You might not have what you think you got. Not only are we to watch against the enemy, we are to watch faithfully and to be stewards faithfully for our Lord's return. Now I want to jump in really quick. Look at verse number four. Let's see what he recognizes here at the church of Sardis. 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. The word Sardis, like I said, it means survivor, or maybe you could also look at it as remnant. There were a few left in Sardis. There were a remnant who had not strayed away. And notice if you see the recognition keeps getting smaller and smaller between the churches, there's really fewer and fewer things to recognize it now it's flipped to where he jumps right in to the to the bad before he even gets to the good. Church, I believe when I look out and I look at this congregation, I see a remnant here at Bald Mountain. There was many that have been here that have left. Some have had to leave, some have left. If you know 1 John 2, 19, it says they went out from us because they were not of us. I believe I'm looking at the faithful remnant here. I believe I really do. That doesn't give anybody a pass to say, okay, well, I'm good. I can keep doing what I'm doing. I don't have to change or anything like that. But I believe I'm looking out at the church that really wants to overcome and wants to reach this community and wants to, and I'm not saying we don't have problems in our heart, but I'm believing I'm looking at the church that has stayed. They went out from us because they were not of us. Jesus is not talking about here a works-based salvation. What he's talking about is that look at verse number five. Look how he reassures them. It really goes together. Verse number five, 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. Jesus is not saying that be if if you overcome, if but if you mess up, then you don't get to go to heaven. What he's saying, and I've said it every Sunday, is that he that overcomes, those that are faithful and those that truly believe, those who are not just going through the motions, but those whose works may not be perfect, but those who have a desire in their heart to worship and serve the Lord. It is those who are worthy, who have truly been washed in the blood. It is it's not about sitting in a seat Sunday by Sunday, it's about what the Lord is doing in your heart, in your families, in this church, in your home. It's about having a place in your heart, it's about having him in your heart. Kids, we learned about it today in Sunday school. If you don't have them in your heart and you just have them in your head, Jesus knows that. It's those who are willing to let me do the work, to let me be in their midst. He says, One day, if you have not defiled your garments now, he said, I will robe you in white. And again, it's not about being perfect. What it's about, it's a picture of the Levitical priesthood. If you know, you go all the way back to the book of Exodus, the book of Leviticus, and what they would do. They had all these garments, special garments, a hat, a circlet that went around their head. They had they had the breastplate of all the stones, all the beautiful things. They had everything they were wearing. And they went all the way down. They were girting about the paps with their with their girdle, and then they went all the way down. Every single thing that they wore, even their underwear, even their underwear, was holy. Was supposed to be. And everything had to be anointed and prayed over. Church, we believe, as Baptists, but here at Bald Mountain Church, we believe in the priesthood of the believer. Every single one of us is supposed to strive for a life of holiness. Not that we don't mess up, but that we trust that Jesus Christ and his blood will cover our sins. Now there are churches, there were priests back in the Old Testament who put on them robes, did all their duties at church, and then went out and lived like hell the rest of the week. Live like they wanted to, live life according to their terms. Those are the ones who've defiled their garments. Not the ones who are, and the ones who are going to be robed in white are not the ones who are perfect. But they are the ones that trust in the salvation and in the sanctification of the Lord Jesus Christ. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear what Jesus Christ says to the churches. The last point that I would like to make is that if you look here in verse number five, it says, in the middle, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life. This right here breaks down the Calvinist argument. Everybody's either elected to hell or elected to heaven, breaks it down. Because even the Calvinists believe you can't lose your salvation. And so if Jesus Christ would have to blot your name out of the book of life, then that must mean that you are already in the book of life. It is those who live their whole lives and reject God and reject Jesus. That when they get to that day and they stand and it's time to be judged, Jesus is going to take that pen, that ink. I ain't got one with me. Yes, I do. No, I don't.

SPEAKER_01 39:25

He's going to take that pen and blot out their name. Everyone on this God-given earth has a chance and has an opportunity to seek after the Lord. To find him. The Bible says, if you seek me, I shall be found. The question is today, when the role is called up yonder, will you be there? Or will your name be blotted out?

SPEAKER_02 40:00

I love that words there. Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. It's amazing that when crimson blood meets a crimson stain, what do you get? You get white as snow.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

You put your faith in Jesus, not in your own works, but in him. Where is the church of Sardis today? Eventually they fail. I'm here to tell you that if the church heeds the word of Christ, they will live. And if the church does not heed the word of Christ, they will die, whether it's tomorrow, a hundred years, or a thousand years from now.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

God will allow a church to die to prove his word.

SPEAKER_02 40:50

It's never God's desire for the church to die. Death has was never his desire for creation. But he gave us free will. And the question is, how will we use our free will today? How about you personally?

SPEAKER_01 41:06

You can fool everyone outside, but Jesus knows your heart. Are you doing all the things but with a begrudging heart? Do you have Jesus in your mind but not inside?

SPEAKER_02 41:23

Ephesus had lost their passion. Smyrna was a poor church, but they were rich in faith. Pergamus had compromised. Thyatire was blatantly allowing the enemy to preach in the pulpit. But Sardis was a hypocritical church.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

They were doing all the right things, but they were stacking up dead men's bodies. All of us look alive on the outside. But if we are not born again, one day our name will be blotted out of the book of life. What does it mean to be born again?

SPEAKER_02 41:58

It means to be born of the Spirit of God, to have Jesus living within you, to have a new life in him, with heads bowed and eyes closed today. Jesus Christ paid it all. And all to him we owe. Sin had left a crimson stain, but he washed it white as snow. Has Jesus washed your stains today?

SPEAKER_01 42:29

Does his blood cover your sins? Maybe you are saved this morning, but you need to repent of the doubt and the grudge in your heart. Do business today with the Lord Jesus Christ.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

Because my desire, our desire as your pastors, is that we want to be a church that is alive on the outside and on the inside.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Take just a moment and cry out to him. It's not even funny.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

For those of us who are saved and really know what it means to have eternal life, to have your spirit, all of us can wit bear witness to this fact that we're so unworthy. Yet we trust in your perfect cleansing blood and the sanctification of your spirit. Lord Jesus, we don't want to walk around with defiled garments. We come to you in repentance, asking that you would wash us clean and make us new. I pray for each one of these members as they walk out of here today, Lord Jesus, that they would be encouraged. Lord, not that they're doing everything right, but that you have given them the spirit to strengthen those things that remain. The strength to overcome and the strength, Lord Jesus, to do the gospel work here on this earth and now and to watch for your coming. We pray that you receive the glory out of our lives. For you are the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. It's in your name that we pray. Amen and amen. Today the Lord has just put it on my heart. We're going to end with number 119. We're going to end with number 119. Jesus paid it.