The Faithful Remnant

I. Introduction
 A. Revelation 3:1–6 “And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: ‘The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. “ ‘I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God. 3 Remember, then, what you received and heard. Keep it, and repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come against you. 4 Yet you have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’
 B. Theme: faithful remnant
  1. Leftover which remains
II. Remnant
 A. The theme of the faithful remnant in Scripture
  1. Elijah felt alone but the Lord told him there were “seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” – 1Kings 19:18
  2. Isaiah 1:4–9 “Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged. 5 ...The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 6 From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds... 7 Your country lies desolate, ... like a besieged city. 9 If the LORD of hosts had not left us a remnant, we should have been like Sodom and Gomorrah.”
  3. Is.10:22 “Though your people Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return.”
 B. Well, here we see that in certain churches which are NOT being faithful to the Lord, there is in the church a remnant of folks who ARE being faithful, a godly remnant in a not-so-godly church, ones who are not caving in to the world’s pressure.
 C. We are given here a sense of how precious people like this are to Jesus. “You have still a few names in Sardis, people who have not soiled their garments, and they will walk with me in white, for they are worthy. 5 The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels.”
 D. So, what made these folks so special? What did they do that was so great?
III. All we’re told is they didn’t soil their garments, implying that the others had indeed soiled their garments. So, how had the others soiled their garments?
 A. “You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”
  1. From the outside, they appeared to be a lively church, an exciting church, a place where things were really happening. But on the inside, it was a different story. 
  2. It says they were dead, but I think if we read carefully, we’ll see that they weren’t necessarily actually dead inside. He’s not saying that the church is filled with fake Christians.
  3. They were asleep. – v.2 “Wake up!”
  4. Their life from Christ was shriveling up — “strengthen what remains and is about to die.”
   a. “About to die” Perhaps only a few warm embers are left, but it is not completely dead.
  5. They weren’t fulfilling their calling: “I have not found your works complete in the sight of God.”
  6. They had forgotten what they’d received — 3 “Remember, then, what you received and heard.”
  7. They somehow had soiled their garments.
 B. What is this soiling of their garments?
  1. Revelation 19:8 “it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure — for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”
  2. These folks were impure, double-minded, polluted, an unholy mixture of love for Christ and love for the world. They were trying to do what Jesus said you can’t do: “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.” – Matthew 6:24
  3. They were trying to serve both God and man.
  4. They were trying to have the pleasures of heaven and the pleasures of earth.
  5. They were doing what is condemned repeated in the NT:
   a. James 4:4 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
   b. James 4:8 Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
IV. Let’s unpack a little more this idea that they had soiled their garments by pretending to be alive when inside their were actually dead.
 A. Their deadness was indicative of their lack of love for the Lord. And their appearing alive was indicative of their love of human approval.
 B. As humans, we’re not who we should be, but we sure try to come across as people who are what they should be.
  1. Layers of make-up to hide the real person who’s behind it all
   a. I am not criticizing the practices of beautification. But some people spend lots of time on beautification of the body and no time addressing the mess in their souls.
  2. More concerned about how others think of us than who we really are inside.
  3. More devoted to making our house look good than investing time and effort in what’s going on in the house.
  4. More interested in Facebook friends thinking we’re living a great life than tending to the daily duties which are the building blocks to a great life.
  5. Couples more interested in having their marriage look alive than investing enough in it to be alive.
  6. Today you hear a lot about people wanting to feel alive. But when you peel away the onion, many times they don’t really want to feel alive, they want others to think they’re alive.
 C. This is the way we humans are. It shouldn't surprise us that this happens with Christians/churches as well.
  1. We desire the approval of people. We desire to look alive. We desire to look godly.
  2. 1Peter 3:3-4 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious. (Cf. 1Tim.2:9-10) And though this is directed to women, it applies to all of us.
 D. When Jesus came, He confronted many were trying to look alive.
  1. Matt.6:1 Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.
  2. He referred to “hypocrites...love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others.” – Matt.6:5
  3. In Matthew 23:5–28 He confronted the Pharisees: “They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For ...they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others... 25 For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. 27 “Woe to you, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
  4. Isaiah 29:13 was one of His favorite OT verses to quote: “This people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me,”
 E. There are obviously dead churches. And there’s a legitimate reaction against dead church.
  1. We are repelled by what is dead, or close to being dead.
  2. It’s amazing how easy it is for deadness to set in.
  3. Rote prayers, just going through the motions, dead worship
  4. No reason for doing what they do except that they’ve always done it
  5. No meaningful fellowship, only superficial chatting
  6. Focus on outward aspects of church life: we do it this way but in my old church we did it that way
  7. No passionate seeking of Christ, no sense of His presence
  8. No tears, no laughter, no exuberance, no vulnerability.
 F. And not only dead churches, but dead Christians! How easy it is to shrivel up in your soul, to have lifeless devotions, if any devotions at all. How easy it is to drift far away from Jesus.
 G. We are drawn to what is alive, and people are drawn to you if you’re alive.
  1. And how we love people’s attention and adoration.
  2. How we love to be loved! How we love to be flattered! How we pastors love our churches full!
 H. But actually being alive means dying to worldly pleasures and human approval.
 I. And so, there is a real temptation to fake aliveness, to be more interested in looking godly than in being godly! You can’t fool God, but it’s not that hard to fool people.
 J. Instead of bearing fruit by abiding in Christ, we tape plastic fruit onto the dead tree of our lives.
  1. Instead of cultivating flowers by toil and attentiveness to our relationship with Christ, we stick plastic flowers into the dirt.
  2. We’re asked to pray in public and we pray long, lofty prayers which dwarf the prayers we actually pray when we’re with the Lord alone.
 K. How does a church wrongly get a reputation for being alive? How does a church come across as very much “with it” while actually being asleep?
  1. By conforming to the world, by having a style which impresses the world.
  2. You can see the tendency today, can’t you? Enthusiasm? Cool leaders? Upbeat music? Impressive building? Preacher eloquence? Cutting edge innovation? Clever marketing? Light shows and fog machines? Late night show TV-style format? Or worship styles which are more like pep rallies that worship? Striving to entertain, striving to stir up enthusiasm.
  3. There are so many churches today striving to look alive, pouring 1000s of dollars into looking alive, many times very successfully, from a business perspective.
 L. The question is, in their thirst to look alive, are they actually connecting to the true source of Life?
 M. Jesus said, “Seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added to you.” (Matt.6:33)
 N. So, what does a dead church do to become alive? Jesus tells us right here:
  1. Wake up, strengthen what remains, remember what you received and keep it, and repent.
  2. It seems to me that two of these things are especially relevant to the younger generation:
   a. Strengthen what remains: as opposed to burn it down and start over
   b. Remember what you received and keep it: this didn’t start with you, you’ve received it from others who came before you, you are part of a long chain. First you must receive it. Then you must keep it. And finally, you must pass it on to the next generation.
V. This is true of churches and of individuals.
 A. Three groups in the church at Sardis, it seems:
  1. There were those who were doing great and called worthy by Jesus.
  2. There were those who looked alive but were actually not, but would respond well to Jesus’ rebuke and repent of their sin and remember what they’d been taught and wake up.
  3. And then there were those who looked alive but weren’t, and who would not give heed to Jesus’ words and one day when they don’t expect it, Jesus will come against them.
   a. After a while, some conclude that it’s ALL fake.
 B. And I would suggest that most churches have those three groups in them.
 C. What about you? For most of you, everybody thinks you’re spiritually alive. Are you?
  1. Are you a Christ-lover or just a church goer?
  2. When’s the last time you got choked up over the privilege of just having Jesus?
 D. For some of you, it may be a sin which is draining the life from you, a lingering sin, an unconfessed sin, an unconfronted sin running rampant in your soul like an infection in the body. And instead of taking a spiritual shower to become clean, you put on deodorant or perfume to drown out the dead smell.
 E. Some of you are the faithful remnant Jesus speaks so fondly of, who will walk with Christ in white, for they are worthy. And the Lord will never blot your name out of the book of life, but will confess your name before His Father and before his angels.
 F. One last point: It is easy for us to think of these unsoiled ones as heroes from 2000 years away. But what would we have thought of them if we had been part of the church at Sardis? Or let me ask us this way? What do you think these people who appeared alive (but actually weren’t) thought of the people who hadn’t soiled their garments?
  1. I don’t think they were the popular ones in the church.
  2. Or think about this: Who was spiritually alive when Jesus came? Zacharias & Elizabeth, Joseph & Mary, Simeon & Anna. They weren’t the ones who necessarily looked cool/exciting, were they?
  3. But they were the ones who God was fond of, the ones His heart was drawn to, not the cool people, the strong people, the clever people.
  4. Luke 16:15 “What is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.”
  5. And the opposite is also often true: What is exalted before God is an abomination in man’s eyes.
 G. Recommended reading to follow up: The Courage to Be Protestant by David Wells