Revelation 3:1–8

With Sardis, again, both characters are mentioned. He has the "seven Spirits of God" — the perfection of spiritual discernment. So He is well able to look past the good reputation and the outward show, and to see spiritual death. He has "the seven stars," so He can keep even a few in Sardis alive.

The seven Spirits of God refer to the Holy Spirit of God, seen in His many perfections and in the ways He works. And this is not so much within the church as towards the world... It is the Spirit expressed in full quality and power, to carry out God's will on earth.

Christ also has the seven stars. They are His, though the words no longer say, as at Ephesus, that they are in His right hand. In practice man has seized them for himself.

All the stars belong to Him. He is the One Who meets and makes up for all that His church lacks. If Sardis, with all its failures, would only look at Him walking among the churches, it would find that every failure and weakness is provided for in Him and by Him. Then its light would shine more and more.

Wherever "angel" is not used of a heavenly being or a human messenger, it stands for the mystical representative of someone not actually seen... The angel represents the assembly. It stands above all for those Christ looks to for the state of His assembly in His sight — those who are near Him and in communion with Him, or who carry responsibility for the assembly through the working of His Spirit in them for His service.

There is none of the gross evil and corruption seen in Thyatira. But here, for the first time, the Lord finds nothing to praise... It was not shocking wickedness, but respectable death. The form was kept, the heart was gone. Christ was owned in word and ignored in deed. Creeds were correct, conduct was proper, life had gone.

Mere profession may make a name before people, who only look at the outside. It is not life before Christ, who reads the heart.

The works are general, and "knowing" them simply states that nothing escapes the Lord's notice, that He is aware of the whole condition of His people. Then, as the result of His examination — for He walks among the seven golden lampstands — He gives His verdict, His infallible verdict... And this state of things also represents Protestantism as it was after the days of Luther; and, remember, as it will be found until the coming of the Lord.

We must not think we can escape the edge of that word by saying we are not in Sardis. It applies to us one by one as well as together. It may be true of some of us that we have a name to live but are dead.

The words "be watchful" really mean become watchful. This shows that at the time they were not watching at all, for, as we have seen, it was a time of spiritual death. Because they had not watched, the things that remained were drooping and ready to die. These things had once been channels of energy, full of life. Now they were fading for lack of spiritual power. The forms of life were still there, but they were only forms. The life that first produced them had faded, if it had not gone altogether.

Since the whole condition was one of death, the Church's spiritual representatives had to rouse themselves. They were told to watch because of that state, and they were to stay watchful from then on. Watching and praying go together (Mark 13:33) in the light of the Lord's return. Praying and watching go together in keeping up the Christian conflict (Eph. 6:18).

The fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) was still there, though small in measure and weak in expression. Whatever life and grace remained, they were to build up, cherish and strengthen. Hold fast to whatever is of God, all the more as practical religion dies out in these Christian lands. The call was never more needed than now. The sword and the trowel are always in demand, but the wise and careful use of the trowel is what the Church badly needs.

Exposing and condemning what is wrong is of small value. Get the truth, buy it, don't sell it, be it. Get it, keep it, let it shape you, and show it. The Christian is called to that... But there are always smouldering embers of life in Protestantism that may be fanned into a flame, as in times of revival, here and there.

"I have not found your works perfect (pepleromena) before God." (Rev. 3:2) English readers should know that the word translated "perfect" here is not the same word used in the three passages we looked at earlier. It is usually translated "fulfilled" — "finished" — "accomplished." Its use about the works of the church of Sardis teaches us a solemn lesson that searches the heart. There was a name to live, but the works were not finished under the direct eye of God. Nothing is more dangerous to a Christian than to have "a name." It is a real snare of the devil.

The Lord had not found their works complete. Something was failing, something was missing. There was much of man in them. Christ had not found them complete before His God. The problem was not corruption or superstition. It lay in the character and the motive of the works. There was activity, but not the kind that matched Christ's own relationship with God on earth. They were not Christian enough.

God does not lower His standard because of the decline in the spiritual condition of the professing mass. The works He looks for are still measured by His perfect standard. The love was not perfect in Ephesus; the works were not perfect in Sardis.

The works of faith and of obedience were not complete — that is, they were not filled up. The public fight with Rome almost crowded out the soul's practical dealings with God. Personal godliness and Church life were at their lowest point... The Reformers put nearly all their effort into one great struggle: to win back for themselves, their children and the generations after them the truth of justification by faith. Even that truth is not set out in their writings in its full scriptural measure.

To remember "how" they had received and heard would bring back the earnest state of soul in which they first received the truth. It would also open their eyes to the deadness they had now sunk into... To "hold fast" would encourage them to cling to the great truths they were letting slip without realising it. To "repent" would involve self-judgment for their low spiritual condition and poor walk.

The call to "remember" here is in the light of what God had recovered for them... the gospel, the Word of God, and liberty of conscience. Judgment is always according to the measure of responsibility. That measure is greater or smaller depending on what God has given and where He has placed a person. They had both "received" and "heard"... The truths recovered and the gospel heard to the joy of thousands were fading from memory and conscience. So came the command to "keep" and "repent" — to keep what they had, and to repent of the poor use they had made of their blessings.

The Lord must judge the church not by a lifeless system, but by the resources it has in Christ the Head. He recalls the church to these two great points — grace received, truth heard.

After conflict, Christians come out into the light of truth. Then comes the danger of thinking they may now take a rest and go to sleep. They have the form of truth and think that is enough. This is the danger when the Spirit works a revival or recovery... But then comes the call to "remember" — remember what? "How you received and heard, and" — give up? — no, "hold fast, and repent."

When He comes, He raises the dead saints and changes the living ones. That is not "the day of the Lord," and Scripture never calls it that... Scripture never pictures the Lord coming like a thief by night except when judgment is clearly in view, as to Sardis (Rev. 3:3). In 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4 the Spirit brings in the comparison of the thief when He speaks of the day of the Lord coming upon the world. He does not use it of the saints, who wait for Christ and are not in darkness, so that the day should overtake them as a thief.

He calls them to remember the past. Have they declined in conduct from those early days when the truth was first received? Then He recalls them to watchfulness. Let them not only look back, but look on, for He is coming. Are they in a state suited for His coming? If not, His coming would mean judgment rather than blessing. In the day of Sardis the professing church had ceased to watch, and was falling fast into darkness and deadness. Having appealed to the world for its patronage and power, the professing church had become like the world, and is in danger of sharing the world's judgment.

Apply the Lord's words to Sardis to ourselves today. How searching is the call to remember how we have received and heard, and to hold fast and repent! How much precious ministry we have heard over the years! Do we prize and value the truth of God made known to us, and do we hold it fast? Or do we prefer earthly and temporal things above the revelation of Christ and His Word?

In Sardis the "few names" undefiled formed a company in whom the Lord could delight. In principle and in practice they were separate from the evil they grieved over. They walked apart from it. The weight of influence and numbers was with the popular side. The mass had a name in the world. The "few" were unknown, and had no official standing. But the Lord knew each one of them personally — He "calls His own sheep by name."

These "names" here mean people whom the Lord had counted up and knew each one by name. These are the ones "who have not soiled their garments." They had not gone on with the world, now that the professing church had defiled their garments. Sardis may not be charged with the seductions of Balaam or the corruptions of Jezebel. But her mind is set on earthly things, and she glories in her shame. ... What He speaks of here is the spirit of the world filling the heart as an accepted object, and the conformity to the world that follows, so that a person can walk with it.

Not defiling their garments means that they had been kept untainted by the evils around them. James speaks of keeping oneself unstained from the world (James 1:27). Here it would not only be from the world. It would also be from the corruption inside the circle of God's professing people.

The Lord says of such, "They will walk with Me in white." Separation from the world has its blessed outcome in a walk with Christ. Still, the walk is a personal one. The Lord does not say they will know the blessing of that word, "Where two or three are gathered in My name, there am I among them." He says, "they will walk with Me." Whatever their church connections, their practical ways suit the Lord.

The promise is of white robes. Everyone else around me may be spotted, but I have a clean one. I have one on, because I have put on Christ. But what is this distinctive mark? Will not all be white? He says, "They will walk with Me in white." This is His perfect approval of them in the glory. It recognises them as keeping themselves unspotted now in the wilderness.

They had kept their integrity here; they would walk with Him there, in robes made white in the blood of the Lamb. That coming day will be a day of full reward, and of holy companionship with our ever blessed Lord. No thought of personal unworthiness, such as we feel now, will ever cast a shadow across the soul. For the Lord adds in His wonderful grace, "They are worthy." It is grace that reckons it so. Each one of this distinguished and honoured company is in himself worth no more than a "brand plucked out of the fire" — someone rescued from a judgment he deserved.

The overcomer stands in contrast to the assembly at each point. The assembly had become a worldly mass; he had kept himself unstained by the world. So the promise is that he will be clothed in white garments. The assembly had a name to live but was dead; the overcomer really was entitled to a place in "the book of life." So the promise is that his name will not be blotted out. Again, those at Sardis who merely professed faith had a form of godliness but denied its power. The overcomer had truly confessed Christ in the middle of the general apathy.

A few in Sardis had not defiled their garments. They had walked in practical separation from the evils around them. The Lord encourages them with the promise that their walk will have its fitting reward in a day to come. They will be clothed in white in the day of glory. The robes they wear in glory are woven in the path that leads to glory.

In Revelation 4 and Revelation 19 the elders and the Lamb's wife appear clothed in white garments. In Revelation 19 the Holy Spirit gives His own interpretation: "the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." That gives the clue to the white garments of our passage, since the promise points to a future heavenly condition. So the Lord promises that the fruit of overcoming will be shown and enjoyed in heaven.

"The book of life" here is not the same as that of Revelation 13:8. In Revelation 3:5 it is profession, which may or may not be real. The end would show. Some names would stand, others be erased. In chapter 13:8 every name recorded was that of a true believer, because those names were written from the foundation of the world, before human responsibility began. So chapter 3:5 gives the record of Christian profession; chapter 13:8 gives the record of reality.

Under law a name could be blotted out of God's book (Exodus 32:33). Sometimes a person has his name struck off a church register because of his faithfulness to God. But the book of life is a different matter. No name in this book will ever be blotted out, for only the elect are written there. Overcoming, by faith alone, would prove one to be elect of God. This promise is meant for the comfort and encouragement of faith.

How many names held in high honour by Sardis, and written in its registers, would turn out to be mere lifeless professors, while the few names of those who had not defiled their garments were thought little of by Sardis, and even struck off its lists. Even so — whatever men might do — the Lord says, "I will not blot out his name out of the book of life."

Does not this high honour imply that before men the overcomer's name had been of little account, if not laughed at? And does it not show how great the Lord's approval is of one who boldly confesses His name in the middle of a lifeless profession?

It is worth noting that the message, though spoken by "One like a son of man," is also "what the Spirit says." What the Lord says, the Spirit says. The Lord spoke to John from outside him, and the Spirit spoke through him from within, for he was "in the Spirit" at the time. It was all "the word of God." So the unity of the Divine Persons is clear.

It is the Lord's desire that we should listen to the Spirit and so profit by the Lord's words to each Church. Throughout the ages He takes the things of Christ and shows them to us.

This appeal to the individual ear shows the intense longing of the Lord over His saints. His eager desire is that His words of warning, reproof and exhortation might find a way into their hearts and produce a full response to His faithful love… All have ears that can hear, but who has an ear to hear and heed what the Lord has to say?

When a servant whose time of service had ended chose to stay with his master, saying, "I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free," his master pierced his ear to the door post with an awl. From then on his ear belonged to his master: he was to hear that one master only… The Lord said "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" to His hearers, and to each of the seven churches in Asia… showing that the hearer needed spiritual discernment to catch the meaning of what was said.

In the first three churches the call to the hearing ear goes to the whole Church. But in Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea the Lord speaks to the overcomer first, which means there is a remnant of true believers that overcomes… This marks out the position of the remnant in these last four churches as separate from the general body of the church. The call to hear goes especially to the overcomers, for only they will hear the voice of the Lord by His Spirit.

It is not said "to the church," but "to the churches." So the one who has an ear must weigh not only what the Spirit says to his own church, but what He says to all the others. The exhortation is therefore general, and meant for all believers.

We are capable of every evil and corruption found in any phase, or any period, of the Church's history. Whatever time we live in, we do well to pay heed to what the Spirit says to every one of the churches.

In the church of Sardis the remnant is called "a few names"; in Laodicea there is an "if" as to one. But even if there is a single hearing ear, if there is one to open the door, that one is assured of the high privilege, the immense favour, of sharing a meal with Christ… When the shared witness of the church has sunk to its very lowest point, Christ rewards individual faithfulness with intimate fellowship with His own heart.

The Lord presents Himself to this assembly in a way that is quite different from His approach to all the other churches of Asia. To Ephesus He comes as the One who holds the seven stars in His right hand and walks among the seven golden lampstands. To Smyrna He speaks as "the first and the last, who died and came to life"... In these presentations what the Lord has stands out most. But in His presentation to Philadelphia what stands out is what He is in His own blessed Person — "the holy one, the true one." What He is in Himself is always greater and more precious than what He has.

Here, then, we have Christ in personal character — what He is in Himself. He is the holy, He is the true. Others may be holy and true in a limited degree, so saying that much hardly gives the force of the words "the holy, the true." He is both in His own Person, and always the embodiment of holiness and truth. In themselves these are divine attributes... People and things are called holy and true, but no created being has the essential moral glory of being The Holy One and The True One. As used in our text they are really divine titles.

This word is not always the true as opposed to the false. Very often it means the substantial as opposed to the shadowy outline. So in Hebrews 8:2 we have the "true tabernacle," which our great High Priest entered. That implies that the tabernacle in the wilderness was only an earthly copy of what had a most real existence in heaven. So too Christ is called "the true light" (John 1:9), though John the Baptist was also "a burning and shining lamp" (John 5:35).

Here is His own Person judging according to the truth. He reveals Himself in a way that works in practice. He insists on what is genuine. He no longer allows a mere acknowledgment of truth that is not carried out. He will have moral reality.

In these words and in those that follow the reference is to Isaiah 22:22. Shebna is removed from office and disgraced. Then the prophet announced the appointment of Eliakim to the administration of the royal authority. In depth and fullness the terms of the prophecy are Messianic. They go far beyond what happened in the days of Hezekiah. Isaiah's announcement and the words here are almost the same, and both imply administrative authority: Isaiah's in connection with royalty in Judah, and this one in connection with grace to the Church. The "key" as a symbol means undisputed right to enter and exercise all needful authority.

We also find Him arranging things in favour of the church. If He opens a door, no one can shut it. If He shuts a door, no one can open it. So there are two things. He is the holy and the true to those who trust in Him. And He also has, not the display of power here, but the key of power... Let all the power of man or Satan do their worst. If I am resting in Christ, who is perfectly true, and He has opened a door, neither man nor devil can shut it.

Holiness will not do without the truth, nor the truth without holiness. The absence of either is not of the Spirit of God.

The Lord presents Himself as having the key of David. So they ought not to look to the power of the world, nor to man; for if He had the key, that was the very thing they wanted. Human energy might be at work all around — Jezebel, false prophets, and the rest. But there was this blessed One, the Holy and the True. They were weak, so they needed Him all the more. They had so little strength that perhaps they could not even open the door; but He says He had opened it for them. He had brought them into a large place where there was no bondage or constraint... They valued Christ. They wanted to know more of Him, and He knew their heart.

We gather from this that wherever the condition described here is found, the Lord opens a door for His servants. It is a door for His testimony and service. He will keep it open, whatever hostile efforts men make to close it. It is not a door standing open, but one that the Lord has opened. It was so in the Lord's own service among Israel. To the outward eye He had only a little strength. He was crucified in weakness. He lived by every word that came out of the mouth of God. He did not deny His Father's name. Men were full of cunning, malice, and hostility, yet there was always an open door before Him. To Him the doorkeeper opened, and so it is now for all who have the moral marks given here. So we never need to be anxious about open doors for service. Our only concern should be to be in a fit state for His use. Then a door will always open, even though there are many adversaries.

First, the Lord says, "You have but little power." This church is not marked by any display of power that would attract the notice of the world. ... The world delights in a strong man; God delights to carry out His work through weak vessels... Their wisdom, then, is not to claim power they do not have, nor to covet gifts that have passed away. Instead they own their true condition — they have only a little strength. So they find the support of the Lord, the One who has all power, who holds the key, and whom no one can resist.

Yet the very expression "a little strength" assumes they had some strength. That is more than could be said of Sardis or Laodicea... Philadelphia has only a little strength. But it is enough to rise above the deadness of Sardis and the self-sufficiency of Laodicea. In doing so it had the Lord's approval.

Not simply the Word as a whole, however true that may be of the Philadelphians, but Christ's word... His word covers the whole circle of Christian truth... Further, "keeping" the word implies that it is treasured in the heart and obeyed in the life. The Lord does not say you have expounded or taught the word, though that may be true. He puts the emphasis on the great fact that His word is kept. Those with little strength may have little gift. But something far more valuable in the Lord's eyes can mark them — obedience to His word.

The Word and the Name go together... All the heresies that have come into the world have always had their root in the abuse of the name of Christ... The great assault of Satan is against the Person of Christ, and your safeguard is holding fast that name.

No one need look for great attainments, in themselves or in others, for Philadelphia is marked by "little strength." But there is the keeping of Christ's word and not denying His name. May these features mark each one of us. To be governed by these marks is to be Philadelphian in character. But to claim the name of Philadelphia is the sure road to the state of Laodicea. Any assumption on our part is fatal to true spiritual progress.