The Problem Most Pastors Ignore — Revelation 3:1–6

Name: The Problem Most Pastors Ignore — Revelation 3:1–6
Uploaded: 2026-09-28T21:00:36+00:00
Duration: 33 min 27 s
Channel: Medical Lake Community Church

00:00So many of you have probably heard the name of Jonathan Edwards before.

00:03He was a pastor during the time prior to the Revolutionary War in the early 1700s.

00:10I think he came to the church in 1736, Northampton, up in the New England area, or 1738, right

00:16around that time.

00:17And he began noticing something in the church, in the people that are attending his church

00:21on a regular basis, Sunday in and Sunday out.

00:23In fact, he noticed it in the churches in the whole area.

00:27And on July 8th, 1741, he preached that famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry

00:34God.

00:36Now, imagine sitting there that day, and here's what he had to say to the people in his church

00:43on that Sunday.

00:45Quote,

00:46The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider or some loathsome

00:52insect over the fire, abhors you and is dreadfully provoked.

00:56His wrath towards you burns like fire.

01:00He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire.

01:04You are 10,000 times so abominable in his eyes as the most hateful and venomous serpent is

01:10in ours.

01:11And you're thinking, wait, this is not an evangelistic event outside of the church.

01:15This is in his church.

01:18And it goes on.

01:20Almost every natural man that hears of hell flatters himself that he shall escape it.

01:26He depends upon himself for his own security.

01:29He flatters himself in what he has done and what he is now doing or what he intends to do.

01:35Hoping that by works one merits God's favor.

01:40And then, again, these are not in necessarily in particular order, and this is not the whole

01:43sermon.

01:44But another thing he said is, I would, it would be a wonder.

01:48Now he's talking to his church.

01:50It would be a wonder if some that are now present should not be in hell in a very short

01:55time.

01:57Whoa!

01:58Before this year is out.

02:00And it would be no wonder if some persons that now sit here in this meeting house and

02:05health and quiet and secure should be there before tomorrow morning.

02:10And you're kind of going, why would he preach kind of sermon like this in his church?

02:15This is a church.

02:17Certainly, everyone that goes to church must be a Christian, right?

02:24Why did he preach this famous sermon?

02:26He preached this sermon because he realized by talking to the people in his congregation

02:31and the churches around that many in his congregation were not saved.

02:35They weren't redeemed.

02:37They weren't born again.

02:38They had never, they don't have the life of God in them or all.

02:40Their congregation was full of people who were not Christians.

02:44They were all show.

02:46They would come every Sunday, Sunday in, Sunday out.

02:48I mean, they'd be very faithful in their attendance.

02:50They were all show.

02:51They had no inner life.

02:54They did not know God.

02:57And you kind of go, how could, how could the church of that day, the church that came out

03:01of the Puritans, how could the church of that day become filled with so many unsaved people?

03:11The church in Sardis was suffering from a very similar problem.

03:17There was an ember of gospel truth still in the church.

03:21It just is, the church had been founded and there's this ember of the gospel truth still

03:24in the church, but many in the church were more concerned with the reputation,

03:31the worldly comfort, and that ember was about to die out.

03:36The gospel, the truth of the gospel was flickering.

03:39It needed to be blown, fanned into flame before it went out forever.

03:45In the Revelation chapter three, we're coming to this church, the church in Sardis.

03:51It's a sad church.

03:52I mean, I was, by the time Monday when I'm studying this, I'm, I'm not depressed, but

03:57I'm just bummed out at this church.

04:00All of the other churches had something at least that Jesus was thankful for in the church.

04:06This church is different than the rest of them.

04:09What we're going to see is that the complacent and content church cannot glorify God for its

04:15eyes are on itself rather than God.

04:20So what's the answer to a church like Jonathan Edwards' church?

04:23What's the answer to a church that is faithfully attending every Sunday, but three quarters of the

04:29congregation's not even saved.

04:31They've never been born again.

04:32They've never been redeemed.

04:33They do not have the life of God in them.

04:35What do you say to a church like Jonathan Edwards' church?

04:38Well, Jesus is going to speak to the church at Sardis and tell them exactly what they need

04:42to hear.

04:44Sardis was the capital city of the old kingdom of Lydia, which is interesting because remember

04:49we met in the book of Acts, a woman named Lydia from Thyatira, Lydia.

04:53So that whole general reason up there.

04:55So we've got Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, like that.

05:00Yeah, finally, after a week and a half, I got it right.

05:03Okay.

05:04Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.

05:06So you can see that it's moving around in this and they're moving down this direction

05:09right here.

05:10So Sardis was a capital city, the old kingdom, ancient kingdom of Lydia.

05:15It was a center of trade with a junction of five main roads.

05:19So it was an economic hub.

05:20So you got these five main roads coming into the city, very wealthy economic hub.

05:25It was a major worship for the god, small g goddess Artemis.

05:29Remember in Ephesus, they cried for two long hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

05:34So it's the same Artemis from Ephesus is here in Sardis as well.

05:39John wrote this letter to the city.

05:41The city of Sardis was past its glory.

05:44It had reached its pinnacle of its glory and it's waning down now.

05:47It's not waxing anymore into glory.

05:49It's waning down.

05:49It already had its glory time and now it's waning down.

05:53One of the major businesses in Sardis was taking care of wool, purifying it, making clothing,

05:59garments out of the wool.

06:00And I don't know how that we don't know how the church came to Sardis.

06:03If you see there, Paul was in Ephesus for three years, perhaps an evangelistic team went

06:09out to Sardis.

06:09I don't know.

06:10We don't know how the church was started in Sardis.

06:13However, we do know where the state of the church is when John writes this letter at the

06:17end of the first century.

06:20So look at verse number one.

06:22Now verse number one is actually, if your Bible is kind of broken, at least in my Bible, my

06:25translation is broken into two sections, 1A and 1B.

06:27So 1A is the destination, 1B goes into the next, the rebuke basically of what he's going

06:33to say.

06:34So here's where it's going.

06:35Here's the destination.

06:37And to the angel of the church in Sardis, so the messenger, the pastor of the church in

06:41Sardis, write the words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, seven

06:48stars, the messengers in his right hand.

06:53And the seven spirits, it comes up often or a couple of times here in the book of the

06:57Revelation and maybe some other times in the Old Testament, you kind of see allusions to

07:01it.

07:01The idea is probably the overall comprehensive ministry of the Holy Spirit, the seven spirits

07:07of God, this Holy Spirit.

07:09Jesus is the one who gives us from the Father, the Holy Spirit.

07:13The Spirit is the one who gives life to the church.

07:15So here's the one who has life in his hands and now he's going to be speaking to the church.

07:20So most likely these seven spirits were spiraled to the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father

07:25and the Son.

07:26John 15, but when the helper comes, whom I will, Jesus is speaking, whom I will send you

07:31from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness

07:36about me.

07:36So it's probably speaking about the Holy Spirit and he has the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit

07:42is at work in this church.

07:43He's trying to wake the church up.

07:48The Holy Spirit is the one who gives prophecy and makes alive the dead and they were not

07:52paying attention to the Holy Spirit.

07:54John 6, Jesus is speaking, it is the Spirit who gives life.

07:58The flesh is no help at all.

08:00The words that I have spoken to are spirit and life and they needed to listen to the Holy

08:04Spirit.

08:06He's giving a prophetic warning to them that the Holy Spirit would make alive this church

08:11that had a reputation, but wasn't what it seemed.

08:15The church needed the life-giving Holy Spirit to blow life into the church.

08:21So this church that had been started with the gospel message years ago, now it's probably

08:25into its second generation of Christians right now, is it needs the Spirit to breathe into

08:31it.

08:31This ember of the gospel is fading and it needs to be fanned into flame before it dies out

08:37completely.

08:39Jesus has very little good to say about this church, if anything at all.

08:44He simply says, I know your works.

08:46Look at verse 1b and 2.

08:481b and 2.

08:49He says, I know your works and that's it.

08:52He doesn't even say what they are.

08:53He just says, I know them.

08:55You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.

09:00Wake up and strengthen what remains and is about to die.

09:04That ember of the gospel, the truth of the gospel that you had from the very beginning

09:08is about ready to fade out in your church.

09:11For I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.

09:16Whatever those works were, we don't know, but they're not complete in the sight of God.

09:22See, their reputation did not match reality.

09:26They had a reputation of being alive, but the text says that they were dead.

09:29They weren't alive.

09:30They were dead.

09:31Jesus nowhere speaks about believers as being dead.

09:34We are alive in Christ Jesus.

09:37When he speaks of believers, he speaks of the life that we have in him.

09:41They had a reputation of being alive, but they were dead.

09:45Reputation is what others think about you.

09:48So someone on the outside was, and I'm thinking, okay, who's the reputation?

09:51Is it other churches in the area that they think they're alive?

09:54Or is it the people in Sardis that they have that reputation of being alive, but they're truly dead?

10:00Most likely, probably the people, the city itself was looking on the church and saying, oh yeah, they're a very

10:06active church.

10:07They're doing a lot of things in our community.

10:10Yeah.

10:11The world would not even call this a dead church.

10:13City thought it was alive.

10:14I have a lot of activities always, and even some we may deem good activities, good works were going on.

10:22Busy with activities, whatever they were, but those activities, Neonis, did not please God.

10:28He says, I don't find them complete in the sight of my God.

10:33Sardis viewed the church as a respectable group of people who are neither dangerous nor desirable.

10:43Now think about that statement.

10:45When I say dangerous, I don't mean violent.

10:47I mean dangerous in preaching the truth of the gospel that upsets people's worldview.

10:54That's dangerous.

10:55They were neither dangerous nor desirable.

10:58The card says, why did both Jews and Romans leave this church undisturbed, unlike some of its neighbors?

11:06The answer may well be its lack of aggressive and positive Christianity.

11:11Content with mediocrity, lacking both the enthusiasm to entertain a heresy and the depth of conviction which provokes intolerance,

11:20it was too obnoxious to be worth persecuting.

11:23So the city left them alone.

11:25Didn't touch them.

11:28The outward appearance of the church was good.

11:30The city thought it was good, but the inward state was bad.

11:34You have a reputation to be alive, but truly you're dead.

11:40The church itself is not even aware of her true spiritual state.

11:43She doesn't even know where she stands with the Lord.

11:47I mean, it sounds familiar, this idea of having an appearance on the outside,

11:52but the truth of the reality on the inside.

11:54You'll recognize that when we read it, you've gone through the gospels enough time.

11:58Matthew 23.

12:00Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

12:04For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all

12:12uncleanness.

12:13So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

12:20That's the church.

12:21Reputation for being alive?

12:23In reality, they're dead.

12:27Alive and dead are referring to their spiritual state.

12:31The church, like the city of Sardis, lived in its past splendor, but could not see its present deadness.

12:37It appeared alive, but it was truly dead.

12:42One day, a lady was looking outside her kitchen window, and she looked into her backyard,

12:46and her German shepherd was mauling the neighbor's rabbit in the backyard.

12:52Chewing on it, throwing it up in the air, dropping it down.

12:55She's terror.

12:56She's furious, number one, but she's angry because she's in a fight with her neighbor,

13:01and she doesn't want anything else to contribute to the fact that her neighbor and her are fighting.

13:05So she grabs her broom, runs out to the backyard, whacks her dog,

13:10said, what am I going to do with this rabbit?

13:11So she picks up the rabbit with the broom, and you can imagine, carrying it at a distance like that,

13:16drops it into her bathtub, full of dog spit and dirt all over it.

13:20So she washes off one side, put soap in there, lathered it up, flipped it over on the other

13:24side, lathered it up, got it all nice and clean, took her blow dryer around, fluffed it all up,

13:31and then she took this rabbit and went over next door to the neighbor's cage and put the rabbit

13:36right in the cage, looked alive.

13:40She thought, okay, I got it.

13:42About an hour later, she heard this blood-curdling scream, and she's thinking, okay, you know,

13:48I'm not going to, I'm going to play like I don't know what's going on.

13:50So she goes, what happened?

13:51What happened?

13:52Her neighbor came running to the fence, and all the blood had drained out of her face.

13:57She said, oh, rabbit, oh, rabbit, she will have heard.

14:00He died two weeks ago, but now he's in his cage.

14:06He looked alive, but he was dead.

14:15John and Edward's church, the church at Sardis, there are churches just like that in America

14:22across our country today.

14:23People come faithfully to a church service, but they are dead inside.

14:27They are not alive in Christ Jesus.

14:29They appear to be living.

14:31They may even be doing good things in the city, but they're dead.

14:36For what they're doing, the works that they're doing, even though we don't know what they

14:41are, it's not pleasing God.

14:44The majority of the church needed to wake up, to be strengthened.

14:48Remember that gospel, Ember, it needed to be fanned into flame by the Spirit.

14:511 Corinthians 15, Paul told the church, wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and

14:57do not go on sinning.

14:58For some have no knowledge of God.

15:00I say this to your shame.

15:01This is a wake-up call for the church.

15:02Wake up.

15:03It's not as it appears to be.

15:06The church may be pleasing people, but they're not pleasing God at all.

15:11They did not bring their works to completion.

15:13I thought, what is that?

15:15It means they started a work and didn't finish it?

15:17Is that probably what?

15:18Well, the idea of the word completion means to bring to its intended end, to bring something

15:24to its intended goal.

15:26So, the works that they were doing, whatever they were, did not fulfill, did not meet its

15:31goal in doing.

15:32And what is the goal of all human activity?

15:34Actually, all believers, actually all human activity.

15:37What is the goal of all of humanity?

15:39What should we be doing?

15:40Glorifying God.

15:43Glorifying God.

15:44So, they're doing these works, but apparently, God's not pleased with these things.

15:48They're not bringing their works to a completion, to the purpose of glorifying.

15:52You remember Matthew 5, 16?

15:55The end goal of all Christian activity is to glorify God.

15:58Jesus said,

15:59In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works

16:04and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

16:07The idea of works is not to glorify ourselves, but to glorify God.

16:12So, they're doing works, but they're not bringing it to the completion or bringing glory to God.

16:16Perhaps they're bringing glory to the church itself or to the people in the church, but

16:20not God, I don't find your works complete in the sight of my God.

16:26In Sardis, you notice there's no mention of trouble within or without of the church.

16:32No mention of any kind of persecution.

16:34They're neither dangerous nor desirable.

16:39Perhaps there was no persecution because the enemy was not concerned about the witness of the church.

16:43He didn't care.

16:44He didn't care.

16:48You know, we pray every week around the world for hostile and restricted nations.

16:53And I was wondering this morning,

16:56how many people in America would stop attending church if we were in Libya?

17:11How many people say, I'm not, I'm not associating with that group of people who's a persecuted group of people.

17:16I'd rather stay away from them.

17:17How many people in America would stop attending church if persecution was in America?

17:24Michael Wilcox said,

17:25Sardis, secure, complacent, like the city she lived in.

17:29Untroubled by persecution of heresy,

17:31She set herself the task of avoiding hardship by pursuing a policy based on convenience and circumspection rather than wholehearted

17:40zeal.

17:41Zeal for God.

17:42How many people would stop coming to church if we could expect someone to come through that door with automatic

17:48weapons and harm us?

17:53They're to remember what they had forgotten.

17:56Look at verse number three.

17:58The gospel message had been there.

18:00It came at the beginning.

18:02That's how the church got started.

18:03Look at verse number three, this exhortation.

18:07Remember, remember then what you received and heard.

18:12Keep it and repent.

18:14If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour

18:19I will come against you.

18:21Here's the exhortation is remember.

18:23How many times does the Bible tell us to remember?

18:26You know why?

18:26Because we forget.

18:28We forget.

18:30Remember.

18:31Remember.

18:31I think Del Tuckett, Dr. Del Tuckett, and the truth positive says we remember what we ought to forget and

18:36we forget what we ought to remember.

18:39Remember.

18:40Remember that gospel message that came years ago?

18:43Your families, when you were just a child and the gospel came to your city.

18:46Remember that gospel message.

18:48Don't forget that.

18:50Repent and the remember, keep it, and repent are all commands.

18:53They're all commands.

18:54They're not like, hey, I think this would be a good idea if you did this.

18:57No, he's telling them as an apostle of Jesus Christ, this is what you need to do.

19:01It's what you need to do.

19:02You need to remember.

19:03You need to keep it and you need to repent.

19:05See, the first step in renewing a dying church is the honest recognition that something is wrong.

19:12It's not okay.

19:14We're not content sitting here living in a deadness.

19:17Things aren't good.

19:20They received the true gospel message.

19:22You know, again, you know I'm a grammar guy.

19:24The idea that they received is in a perfect sense, which means they got it at one point in time

19:27and it's still, the effects are still there on the church today.

19:30However small it may be and the embers about ready to die out.

19:33However, that came to them in truth.

19:35Remember that.

19:37And if they don't bear in mind what God expects for them as a church, he's going to come as

19:41a thief, which means he's going to come unexpectedly.

19:44Jesus is not a thief.

19:45He's just using it as a metaphor.

19:47In fact, he did that in Matthew 24.

19:49But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief

19:54was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.

19:58So this idea of being awake and the thief coming is not the second coming because he's going to come

20:04whether they're expecting him or not.

20:05It has the idea of him coming in judgment on the church.

20:08In some form or another, I don't know, but in some form or another, he's going to come on judgment

20:13like a thief in the middle of the night when you're not expecting it.

20:16When and how is undefined in the text?

20:19We don't know.

20:21These people in Sardis, these unbelievers, mingled pagan practices with a Christian profession, defiling themselves, signifying a spiritual deadness in

20:31themselves.

20:32They're not alive.

20:34James 1, James says to us,

20:49That's not Sardis.

20:52They let the world creep into them and they're content with where they're at and complacent with where they're at

20:56and professing one thing and not having the life in Christ.

21:02They were to wake up and to watch.

21:05Watch.

21:06Pay attention.

21:07So that Jesus doesn't have to come in judgment.

21:09Wake up and pay attention.

21:11We're told that the city of Sardis was captured twice because the watchman of the city failed to pay attention

21:17that the enemy was coming.

21:19Twice.

21:22The pastor, because it's written to the angel of the churches, the pastor as a watchman should be paying attention

21:28to what's going on in the church.

21:29He had failed to do his job and the church had grown complacent and content in herself.

21:36So Jesus now is dividing the sheep and the goats.

21:40Not all who sent in church service were saved.

21:43John Woolworth said,

21:57You know, I've told you I scroll on X occasionally, probably daily to pick up on my news.

22:03But I see stuff about what's being preached in churches today that will literally make you angry.

22:10It will make you angry, what's being preached in churches today that are not true, not true statements at all.

22:17They lack any evidence of eternal life in them.

22:21How can a church be like, how can a church be like the church of Jonathan Edwards?

22:25How can a church be like Sardis?

22:27How can that possibly happen?

22:29Listen, this is a hard truth, but it's the same thing today.

22:35It is the exact thing today.

22:42Remember, I love you.

22:44Not everyone sitting here today is saved.

22:50You've not been redeemed.

22:52You've never been born again.

22:54For whatever reason, you think this is a good idea coming together and you have a reputation of being alive,

22:59but you are dead in your trespasses and sins.

23:01You have never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

23:05And they're sitting in churches today and they're sitting in medical aid community church today.

23:10God wants us to know that we have eternal life.

23:13He even wrote to John.

23:14He said, John, tell them that they need to know that they have eternal life.

23:17That the life is in his son and he's given us his spirit to confirm to us that we are

23:22the children of God.

23:24He wants you to know you're saved.

23:27So let me ask you, are you?

23:30Are you saved?

23:32Have you been redeemed?

23:33Have you seen your sinfulness in front of a holy God and been prompted to repent of your sin and

23:40believe the gospel message

23:41and confess Jesus Christ and be born again?

23:44If not, please do not leave this building today without seeing me or one of the elders.

23:51Come talk to us.

23:52It was in Jonathan Edwards day.

23:54It's in the church in America today.

23:55It's even in our church.

23:59However, there are promises to those who are true believers.

24:04I love these promises.

24:06Look at verses four through six.

24:10Yet, you still have a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments.

24:17Remember, garments are metaphors of holiness, justification.

24:21So they haven't, they're walking in holiness.

24:24People who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.

24:31The one who conquers, or the conquering one, will be clothed thus in white garments.

24:37And I will never blot his name out of the book of life.

24:41I will confess his name before my father and before his angels.

24:45He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

24:50What he's saying to Medical Lake Community Church.

24:52He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to us today.

24:56See, the remnant had not compromised with the pagan culture, nor had they grown complacent.

25:03They were alive.

25:06They had clothes, like the wool that's manufactured in that city.

25:11You can imagine white wool, wool manufactured in that city.

25:14Clothes are a metaphor for a person's moral and spiritual position before the Lord.

25:19It's often we see it in the New Testament.

25:20We've seen it in the Old Testament.

25:22There's an example in Zechariah with a high priest, Joshua, talking about clothing, spiritual

25:27position before the Lord.

25:28Look at Zechariah 3.

25:30Now, Joshua was standing for the angel clothed with filthy garments.

25:34And the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from

25:39him.

25:39And to him, he said, behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you

25:44with pure vestments.

25:46And I said, let them put a clean turban on his head.

25:49So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments.

25:53And the angel of the Lord was standing by us.

25:55A picture, a spiritual metaphor of spiritual position before the Lord.

25:59In fact, we were even told that they dug up some inscriptions in Sardis.

26:03And apparently in Sardis, if you wanted to go visit a pagan temple, you had to wear appropriate

26:08clothing.

26:09There was clothing restrictions for visits.

26:11You couldn't go into temples with dirty clothing.

26:13So even they understood in the pagan temples this idea of clothing.

26:18Those will walk with Jesus, they will be in a close relationship with him, in purity and

26:24holiness justified before him.

26:26And wearing white is also a symbol associated with festivity and victory.

26:32Festivity, a festival, a party, and victory.

26:36When we get to the end of the Revelation, chapter 19, we see this exact thing.

26:40There's a party going on.

26:42Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come.

26:48And it's a party.

26:49It's a festivity.

26:51And his bride has made herself ready.

26:53It was granted her.

26:55Now, it was given to her.

26:56It didn't come from her.

26:57It came from outside her.

26:57It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.

27:02For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

27:07And he says they are worthy.

27:08They're not worthy in and of themselves.

27:10They're worthy because Jesus made them worthy.

27:12They didn't make themselves worthy.

27:14Jesus made them worthy.

27:17And the conquering one remains redeemed because God wrote their names in the book of life.

27:22And here, he promises never to remove them.

27:25Never to remove them.

27:28In fact, there's no mention anywhere in the New Testament or Old Testament about a believer's

27:32name being removed from the book of life.

27:33It doesn't exist.

27:34He will never remove them.

27:38God has our names enrolled in heaven.

27:43Think about that, believer.

27:44Your name is enrolled in heaven.

27:46When we get to Hebrews chapter 12,

27:48but you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to

27:56innumerable angels and festal gathering and to the assembly, the church of the firstborn who are

28:03enrolled in heaven and to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect.

28:08When you belong to a city, you were on the city roster, enrolled on the city roster.

28:12Guess what?

28:13There is a city that's coming.

28:14And believer, you're enrolled in that city in heaven.

28:17Your name is there.

28:21James Black in 1893, on that thought, wrote this hymn.

28:25When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound and time shall be no more, and the morning breaks

28:30eternal bright and fair, when the saved of earth shall gather over on the other shore

28:36and the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.

28:40I'll be there.

28:41Why?

28:42Because my name is enrolled in heaven.

28:43God wrote it in heaven.

28:45It's not based on my worth or how much great things I can do in this life.

28:49No, it's based upon the worth of Jesus Christ and the salvation that he has given to me.

28:53My name is enrolled in heaven.

28:56You are known by name to the Lord, believer.

28:59By name.

29:01You're not just some, oh yeah, here's my child over medical.

29:03He knows you by name.

29:07And he wrote your name in the book of life before the foundation of the world, before he

29:12created anything.

29:13He wrote your name in the book of life, believer.

29:16How do you know that?

29:17Because he told us in the revelation.

29:19The beast that you saw was and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and

29:25go to destruction.

29:26And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the

29:31foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast because it was and is as is to come.

29:37Before he created everything, believer, he wrote your name in the book of life.

29:42And he says, I will never, I will never take it out.

29:47Remember I told you in Greek, you can put a lot of negatives together in a sentence.

29:50You can't do that in English.

29:51In Greek, you can't.

29:52There are two negatives in this sentence.

29:54It's like, I will not know ever, never erase you from the book of life.

29:59That's how certain it is.

30:01Kenneth Weiss in his expanded translation said it like this.

30:04Your names have been written in heaven and are on permanent record up there.

30:10You notice also not just enrolled in heaven.

30:12One day, believer, you will stand before the father and Jesus will confess your name to the

30:21father.

30:22Has idea profess to declare your name before the father and his angels.

30:29So one day, believer, you'll be standing up in heaven.

30:34And Jesus goes, father, this is Mark.

30:40He's one of ours.

30:41I bought him with my blood.

30:43Father, here's Teresa.

30:46She's your daughter and I bought her with my blood.

30:49She's one of yours.

30:50He's going to confess your name to the father.

30:53That day, when all of this life that we've experienced in this world,

30:59that is so not the real world to live in that day, he will confess.

31:04He will declare your name.

31:10And to all believers, I know this comes out of Isaiah and it's specifically speaking to

31:16Israel.

31:16I understand that.

31:17I want to put it in a context.

31:18However, the truth is in the new Testament as well.

31:21Isaiah 43, fear not for I have redeemed you.

31:26I have called you by name.

31:28You are mine.

31:34It ends with hope and encouragement.

31:36As bad as this church is, there's still hope and encouragement.

31:41So what can we take?

31:44Number one, reputation is what others say about you.

31:48Character is what God says about you.

31:52Perfect your character.

31:53Reputation, perfect your character.

31:58Second, glorify God, not yourself by your works.

32:02The whole end of man is to glorify God.

32:08Third, keep the gospel message in the forefront.

32:11Lest we forget why we're here as a church.

32:15Cannot ever forget why we're here.

32:16We're not here just to sing songs and have fun with each other.

32:18We're here to advance the kingdom of God on this earth, starting in medical ache.

32:24And lastly, believer, one day Jesus will confess your name before the father and his angels.

32:31Fix your eyes on that day because it will change the way you live.

32:36Let's pray.

32:38Father, I thank you.

32:42As sad as the state is, this church is, there were still believers there.

32:47And you made wonderful promises to them.

32:53In this world, no one may ever know my name other than my family or a few close friends around

32:58me.

32:58But you know my name, and you'll confess it before your father in heaven and before his angels.

33:06And you will say, you are mine.

33:08I bought you with a price.

33:12Thank you, Father, for the promises.

33:15May we be a church that never lets the gospel embers die out.

33:20But may it always be front and center in our thought.

33:23We pray in Jesus' name.

33:25Amen.

33:26Amen.

The Problem Most Pastors Ignore — Revelation 3:1–6

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