Turning Point - David Jeremiah

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Many churches look alive on the outside with lots of
events and programs, but are dead on the inside. Are
you aware of one worse yet? Are you a part
of one? Today? On turning point, Doctor David Jeremiah examines
a church in Revelation that fits that description, a church
about which Jesus had nothing positive to say from Escape

(00:28):
the Coming Night. Here's David to introduce the dead church Sardis.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
And as you know, the Book of Revelation in the
second and third chapters contains the letters that were written
by John under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to
seven churches that surrounded the Isle of Patmos where he
was captive. And these letters are very informative. They tell
us exactly what was going on in each of these

(00:56):
individual churches, but they also remind us of the many
things that can happen to a church and warns us
against those things happening to our church. Here is a
letter that was written to the Church of Sardis, and
the church was dead. Have you ever been in a

(01:16):
dead church? I mean a church where there is just
no life at all, where they're just going through the
motions and nothing is happening. That's what was going on
in this church. We'll learn about it in just a moment,
But first I want to remind you that Turning Point
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(01:36):
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(01:58):
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It will help you and keep you strong in your faith.
All right, here's part one of the Dead Church in Sardis.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
The greatest of the kings of Sardies was a man
whose name was Crisus. He is still remembered in cultured
circles because he was very wealthy and the culture to
have a saying as rich as Crisus. For he was
a wealthy man. Under the leadership of Cresus, the city

(02:39):
of Sardis flourished and achieved its greatest glory. But under
his leadership also Sardis plunged to disaster and was destroyed.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
Here's the story.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Although Cresus had been warned against the danger of over
confidence and the result in weakening of the nation, he
nevertheless embarked upon a war with Cyrus, king of Persia.
According to the story, in order to attack the armies
of Persia, Croesus had to cross the river Halees, and

(03:18):
in his pagan way, he took council concerning the war
at the famous oracle of Delphi, and he was told,
if you cross the river Hales, you will destroy a
great empire. Criesus thought that the oracle was prophesying his
success in defeating the Persians. It never dawned on him

(03:41):
in his own pride that the empire to be destroyed
was his own. When Creesus met Cyrus and the Persian
army on the other side of the Halees River, he
was badly defeated, and he was forced back into his
citadel up on top of that mountain spur the city
of Sardes. Still, his proud heart was unafraid and untroubled.

(04:07):
After all, was he not untouchable in that fortress city.
But Cyrus was a determined king, and he was absolutely
determined to finish the task of destroying the Sardian army.
He sieged the city with his army for fourteen days,
and he brought his men together and offered a large

(04:30):
reward for anyone who could figure out a way to
take the city captive and ultimately destroy it. During the
fourteen day siege, a Persian soldier named Herodes happened to
be watching the walls of the city that surrounded Sardes,

(04:53):
and as he watched, he saw a Sardian soldier walking
near the top of the wall, and to his amazement,
the soldier dropped his helmet and it fell down over
the wall. As Herodis watched this from his bandage point
in the Persian army, he noticed, to his amazement that

(05:14):
the Sardian soldier climbed down through the wall, apparently where
there was a crack in the wall, came all the
way down to where his helmet lay, picked up his helmet,
climbed back up, and then he saw him again at
the top of the city. That night, Herodes led a
party of Persian troops up the rocks, located the crack

(05:35):
in the precipice, found that the city was completely unguarded,
opened the gates for the rest of the army, and
they marched across the Isthmus right into the city.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
Everybody was asleep. The city was.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
So secure and so sure of itself, and had even
posted a night watch. And before the night was over,
Sardis was destroyed. Strange as it may seem, almost a
century later, under Antiochus, the exact same thing happened twice

(06:08):
in the history of the city of Sardis. It was
destroyed because of over confidence in its own security. With
that story in the back of our minds, we come
to this letter, which is the fifth letter written by
our Lord through John to the church which was located
in the citadel city of Sardes. The letter is written

(06:30):
to this church. The word Sardis itself means escaping ones
or those who have come out. Our Lord writes this
letter to the church in Sardes, and he designates himself
in this way. Verse one these things saith he that

(06:51):
hath the seven spirits of God and the seven Stars.
We explored in an earlier letter, then spirits of God,
and we looked at the Book of Isaiah, and I
pointed out to you that this is a reference to
the Holy Spirit in his perfect work, the sevenfold ministry
of the Holy Spirit, in all of his perfection. Seven

(07:14):
is the number of perfection. It is also interesting that
because it is a sevenfold spirit of God, it is
tangent to the seven churches. And so it's a reminder
that the Spirit of God was present in all of
the seven churches.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
And Christ comes.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
To this church and he says, I am the God
who has the Spirit. I am the God who has
the Holy Spirit, the sevenfold Spirit.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
And I am the.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
God also who holds in my hand the seven stars.
The seven stars, according to chapter one and verse twenty
are clearly understood. Flip back in your bibles to the
twentieth verse of the first chapter, the mystery of the
seven stars which thou saw in my right hand, and
the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels

(08:06):
or the ministers or the pastors of the seven churches.
So Jesus is saying to the church in Sardis, I
have the Holy Spirit and I have in my hands
control over the pastors of the seven churches. This letter, then,
is from the Lord who controls the seven churches. Now,

(08:27):
immediately as you begin to read this letter, you notice
that something is different about it. It begins the last
section of the seven Churches, and the letter is denunciatory
in its content. It is a letter that is very
sharp and a letter that is very very pointed concerning
the ills of the church. He says, I know thy

(08:50):
works that thou hast to name, that thou livest and
art dead, for I have not found thy works perfect
before me. This letter is different from all the rest
in that it is a letter of unmixed condemnation. There
is a mark changed from what has happened so far.

(09:10):
If you've been following along with us. For instance, for
the poor rich church in Smyrna, our Lord had nothing
to say but words of praise. There is not one
single word of condemnation given to the church in Smyrna.
For the churches of Ephesus and Pergamus in Thiatyra, the

(09:31):
Lord has words of warmest praise. And he also has
some things that these three churches needed to be concerned about,
and they're condemned for those things. So in the other
three churches there's a mixture of praise and condemnation. But
to the Church of Sardis, the Lord has no good
thing to say. There were a few in the church

(09:53):
who he commends, but to the church as a whole
he says nothing praiseworthy. And that is the most interesting thought,
because this is the church that, apparently, of all the
seven churches, had the greatest reputation. It was a church
that everybody knew about, and yet the Lord said nothing
good about the church at all. Now, if you follow

(10:16):
in your Bibles, you will discover that there are two
things which the Lord addresses to the Church for which
he is critical. He first of all denounces the church
for their outward profession and.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
Their inward deadness.

Speaker 3 (10:30):
He says, I know thy works, that thou hast to name,
that thou livest, but thou art dead. Basically, what he
means when he says that is that the church had
a good reputation, but it was dead. I couldn't help
but think that the Church and Sartists may have been
the first church in history to have in its membership

(10:53):
what we call today nominal Christians. A nominal Christian is
a Christian who is a Christian.

Speaker 4 (11:02):
Nominally or by name only.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
And the church in Sardis apparently was filled with people
who had the name of Christian, but they were dead.
It's interesting again as you compare the churches that Smyrna
was put to death literally, but it lived. Sardis had
a name that it lived, but it was dead. It's

(11:27):
a reminder to us, if we read it carefully, that
the Lord is never really too much impressed by the
outward attractiveness of a well kept mausoleum, knowing that inside
are the bones of dead men. The members of this
church were physically alive, but they were spiritually dead. Their

(11:47):
works were slick grave clothes, which they wore as a
disguise for the corpse. If you go back through the Bible,
you will find that this is an often addressed theme
in the scripture. For instance, in the courts of the
Old Testament temples which were filled with faithful worshipers who
brought their offerings and offered their sacrifices. There was a

(12:10):
word by Isaiah the Prophet on one occasion Isaiah twenty
nine thirteen, and he records this of the people who
were outwardly worshiping the Lord. He said this, people draws
near to me with their mouth and with their lips,
they do honor me, but they have removed their heart
far from me. Everything on the outside looked great, But

(12:35):
remember the Lord is the one who examines the church
with flaming eyes, and he sees past the out exterior
into the very heart of what's going on. Jesus saw
the same defect in the New Testament when he looked
at the Pharisees. According to his words, these Pharisees gave alms,
and they said prayers. They even disfigured their faces so

(12:58):
as everybody would know, oh how spiritually they were during
their fasting.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
But the Lord saw through it all, and he.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
Recognized that what they did they did to be seen
of men. And in Matthew he said this to them,
Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for you are
like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within you
are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. You

(13:29):
also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are
full of hypocrisy and iniquity. The church in Sardies was
like the people Paul described in his letter to Timothy
two Timothy three five. He wrote to Timothy, and he said,
they have a form of godliness, but they deny the

(13:51):
power thereof Moffatt, in his translation of that verse, says
it this way, though they keep up a form of relation,
they will have nothing to do with it as a
force in their life. Now, I need to pause for
just a moment and remind all of you that in
greater Christendom, in the churches that we include in greater Christendom,

(14:14):
the vast majority of churches today listen to me, now,
the vast majority are Sardian churches. Up and down the
streets are hundreds of church buildings, And in those church
buildings are people who gather every week, going through the
forms and the motions and the outward appreciation of religion,

(14:38):
who have no spiritual life in Jesus Christ. And the
words of our Lord to the church in Sardis are
words of pointed declaration to churches like that, it's possible
to look like a church, to act like a church,
to have people think you are a church, and to
be dead inside. The second thing our Lord said was

(15:01):
wrong with this church was that they were not only
outwardly religious, but inwardly dead. But the church is denounced
because even the things they did were incomplete. The church
is denounced for incomplete works. He says, I have not
found thy works perfect before God. The word perfect in
the text is the word finished, complete, or fulfilled. The

(15:24):
Christians in Sardis were physically alive, they were spiritually dead,
and there was nothing going on that was ever finished.
It was just sort of like incipient religion that never
grew very much. It was just sort of there in
its little infant stages. And so our Lord, on the
basis of his denunciation, gives some strong words of instruction.

Speaker 4 (15:46):
To the church.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
In the verse that follows our five exhortations given to
this dead church. Now, let me remind you that in
the Church of Sardis were three groups of people. There
were people who weren't even Christians at all, who weren't
even believers, unsaved people. Secondly, there were Christians who were

(16:10):
so carnal you couldn't tell the difference between them and
the unsaved people. And then thirdly, there was a little remnant,
a little small group of people who really loved God.
And were trying to keep the church going and wanted
the church to be.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
What it always was supposed to be.

Speaker 3 (16:26):
And so our Lord now speaks to the church as
a group, and in his instruction to the church as
a group are words for all three of these groups.
Notice the first thing he says to them is you,
as a church must become vigilant.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
Be watchful, he says.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
And Jesus is saying to the church, you are about
ready to lose everything you have. In my eyes, I've
already seen that you are dead. There's a little bit left,
but you're gonna lose at all if you don't wake up,
if you don't be I'm vigilant. In Paul's letter to
the Ephesians, he said something similar. He said, wherefore he saith, awake,

(17:07):
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
How does a church die?

Speaker 3 (17:14):
What happens to a church that once was vibrant and alive,
with the spirit of God at the center of its activities?
How does it die? It dies not only because death
is the ultimate end of all that we know today
apart from God, but it dies because Christians are not awake,

(17:34):
and they allow death to walk in the door and
began to spread its disease and its cancer among the members. Periodically,
I have people come to me and say, Pastor, I
don't believe in church membership. I don't think anybody should
have to answer any questions join any membership. Nobody should
have to ask them anything. If they want to be

(17:55):
a member of the church, Why shouldn't we just let
them come?

Speaker 4 (17:58):
After all? That seems right.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
Church membership, you see, is at least a human attempt
to make sure that individuals who do not know Jesus
Christ as their savior don't end up standing in front
of a class teaching children something that isn't true. The
leadership of the church is chosen from the membership of
the church, and the membership of the church is made

(18:23):
up of men and women who at least outwardly have
given a verbal testimony of their relationship to Jesus Christ
by saving faith. And the reason we do that is
because we don't want our church to die.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
It's amazing to me.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
I've known people who don't even know Christ at all,
and they tell me about going to churches, and the
second Sunday there there somebody puts the strong arm on
them and says, you're teaching the young people next week.
They don't know if they believe the Bible. They don't
know if they believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
And it doesn't make any difference. And so death perpetuates

(18:59):
death in the church dies, and finally there's no life
left at all. The generation of young people who get
teaching from those who are unsaved grow up to be
unsaved church members, who are the deacons and the trustees
and the leaders.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
In the church.

Speaker 3 (19:12):
And findingly the church is dead, and you just need
to have the funeral service. So the Lord said, you
need to be vigilant. Now, notice the second word, watch
what it says. He says, watch therefore, and strengthen the
things that remain. The second command is become vigorous. Not

(19:33):
only to become vigilant, but number two, to become vigorous.
He is talking here about the fact that those who
remain in the church, who are the believers, are to
become vigorous in building up that little remnant within the
church that is alive. Notice in the text, he says
that there are even a few insarties who have not

(19:55):
defiled their garments, look down in your bibles, and he
says there's still a little g a group of people
in this church who haven't walked the way of sin.
Now he's saying to the church, you be vigorous in
strengthening that little group of people, and you encourage them,
and you make them stronger than they are, you build
them up. The word few in the text is the

(20:18):
word which means small, slight, or little in essence. What
the Lord is saying is that in this dead church
in Sardis, there's just a handful of people who really
love the Lord and really care about the church. Have
you ever noticed that that's still going on today. I've
met with hundreds of people over the time that I've

(20:38):
been in the ministry who said, pastor, you know, we've
gone to that church all of our lives. Our parents
went there, grandparents went there, and we just hate to
leave the church because we have so many friends there.
But the word of God isn't taught, and there's not
much prayer, and there's just this little group and we
have a Bible study on Thursday night and we get
together and we try to keep.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
The thing going.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Isn't it interesting that God has always had his few
in every period of time, there has always been the
few that God has And Christ is literally saying to
this church, you have some who have not capitulated to
the times.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
They are the faithful remnant.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
And his instruction to the church is to strengthen these
faithful few and encourage them. So he says, first of all,
become vigilant. Secondly, become vigorous. Now notice thirdly, he says,
become victorious. He's talking again now to the Christians, and
he's saying, remember how thou hast received and heard? That

(21:35):
phrase takes us back to the designation of the Lord
in the first verse. How is he designated? He is
the Lord who has the Holy Spirit? What is death
in a church? Death in a church is the separation
of the spirit from the body. The best definition of

(21:55):
death you will ever find, either physically or spiritually, is this.
What happens when we die, is that our spirit is
separated from our body. When the spirit leaves the body,
you're dead in the body, which is the church. When
the spirit leaves the body, the church dies. And what

(22:18):
Jesus is saying to the church when he says, remember
how thou hast received? It is a veiled reference in
my estimation to the Holy Spirit and his ministry in
the church. The exhortation is that believers are to remember
how they received and heard. It is clearly a reference

(22:38):
to the manner of receiving and hearing, and in all
ages the Church has received and heard in the same way.
When somebody is born again, he receives the Holy Spirit.
He comes to dwell in the human heart, and the
receiving has to do with the person of God, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. When I became a Christian, the Holy

(23:00):
Spirit came to.

Speaker 4 (23:01):
Live within me. That's how I received.

Speaker 3 (23:04):
When a church is established, that is a church of
Jesus Christ in its truest form, the way it becomes
alive is the Spirit of God in the lives of
believers comes to live within the church. When the spirit
is gone, the church is dead. And so the Lord
says to the church, if you're going to have any

(23:24):
life left in your church, which I have already pronounced dead,
you first of all need to be vigilant. You need
to be vigorous and strength in what remains. And you
need to be victorious in the sense that you remember
how you received the Word, and you receive it through
the ministry of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit of
God leaves a church, the church has died.

Speaker 1 (23:47):
Well.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
That is the sad testimony of many churches today. You
probably know some, maybe you're in one, and this is
a reminder to you that if you're in a dead church,
you will not find life. You need to find a
place where God is at work, where his word is
being taught and people are coming to Christ and His
name is lifted up. Otherwise your church is dead. And

(24:11):
if you have a dead church, it's hard to find life.
We'll have more about this tomorrow here on turning point.
I hope you will listen for part two of the
Dead Church in sardis Hey. We have study guides for
all of these lessons. Believe it or not, there are
forty two major lessons on the Book of Revelation, and
we have condensed the material from these lessons into four

(24:33):
study guides. These study guides are one hundred and forty
pages in length, and they will take you through every
section of the Book of Revelation. If you want an
outline on every section of the Book of Revelation, here
it is and these four study guides. Find them at
our website, which is David Jeremiah dot org, and we'll
see you right here tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
For more information on doctor jeremiah series Escape the Coming Night,
please visit our website, where we also offer two free
ways to help you stay connected, our monthly magazine Turning
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David Jeremiah dot org slash Radio. That's David Jeremiah dot
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(25:17):
four seven nineteen ninety three. Ask for your copy of
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Bible in the English Standard, New International and New King
James versions, complete with notes and articles from doctor Jeremiah's

(25:39):
decades of study. Get all the details when you visit
our website David Jeremiah dot org slash Radio. This is
David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the
series Escape the Coming Night on Turning Point with Doctor
David Jeremiah