Rev 3:1-6  "And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. 4 Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy. 5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. 6 He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

The situation with the church in Sardis was one of conflicting appearance and reality.  On the one hand the church had a perception of being a lively church.  This perception probably was both from within the body of the church and without to other churches looking on this church and thinking it was a lively church.  Church activity and being busy can bring about this perception.  A church with a lot of activities can bring about this appearance. 

I have seen churches that have had activities for the youth such as games and wiener roasts and hay rides and youth camps.  Also I have seen churches that have had weekly fellowship meetings and quilting circles and like activities.  I have also seen that people within those churches and without those churches look upon those so-called active churches and say that they were lively churches.  While the Lord's church is a social body and fellowship is important, there is nothing in the scriptures to indicate the church is primarily a social body and that social activities is to be the main thrust of the church's activities.  The church was designed by God to worship God, bear witness to his name, to promote spiritual growth in its members, and to feed the Lord's people with the truth.  When a church becomes known for its social activities it is reflecting the condition of the church in Sardis.  They had substituted social activities for the true worship of God, for spiritual growth, and for feeding the Lord's people with the truth. 

"These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars."  The Lord spoke to the church in Sardis on the basis of the completeness of the work of the Holy Spirit and the fact that he has the seven stars (messengers of the churches).  When a spirit arises in the church that is contrary to the work of the Holy Spirit, the one who knows all things and sees all things will make it manifest that such a spirit is wrong.  The Lord also holds the seven stars in his right hand and when a church begins to possess a spirit that is contrary to the Holy Spirit, it is imperative that the pastor or messenger of the church warn the church to repent of such a spirit.

The church in Sardis had a spirit of social activism and that was the driving spirit of the activities of most of its members.  Often such a spirit arises from the mistaken belief that the church must provide some activities to maintain interest in the church, especially interest by the young people.  How often I have heard the statement, "We need something for the young people."  The truth is the church has been provided by her master with everything she needs for people of all age groups including the young people.  For every one of God's people we need the gospel to be preached in power and demonstration of spirit, we need for God's people to repent and take up their crosses and follow Jesus, we need to be fed from the word of God, we need to read and study our bibles, we need to apply these precious truths to our lives, we need to grow spiritually, we need to use the gifts that God has given us to his name's honor and glory and to the benefit of his people, we need to worship God in Spirit and in truth. 

We also need for the gospel ministers to preach the whole counsel of God including warning the Lord's people about dangers and errors and sinful practices that should not be engaged in or tolerated by the church.  This applies to the young as well as the old and those in between.  Some things that are needed apply specifically for the young and that is that parents train up their children in the way that they should go and that fathers bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and that mothers guide the household and that children honor their father and mother.  Social activities should not be the main thrust of the church, but doing those things listed above should have far more importance.

 "I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God."  Reality can be quite different from perception.  The church in Sardis had a name among people that they were alive, yet God said that they were dead.  The reality is that they were dead.  The perception was that they were alive.  The church in Sardis because of their emphasis on social activism and substituting that for true spirituality had become dead to the true worship and service of God.  Excitement is often mistaken for spirituality.  People can become excited about social activities and think that what they are doing is so important, when there is no scriptural basis for their activities.  This excitement for social activities can blind them to their need for the true worship and service of God.  The church in Sardis had come to the point where there was little that remained to identify them as a true church of God and what little that remained was ready to die. 

When a church starts on the course of social activism as their main thrust, eventually they will lose their desire to maintain scriptural church government, scriptural church discipline, and the true gospel of Christ, doctrinal truths, and scriptural church practices.  If they continue along this course of social activism as their main thrust, then they will lose their identity as a true church of God.  It is imperative that every true church be watchful for such a spirit of social activism arising in her midst and to withdraw from it.  It is also important that we strengthen that which remains that we not lose the truly important things that pertain to the church and the worship and service of God.  Strengthening what remains begins with faithful ministers faithfully preaching the whole counsel of God and following the leadership of the Holy Spirit in that which they preach and teach and faithfully warning God's people when dangers arise.  It also includes a self-examination of each church member to see if they be in the faith or not.  It includes prayer and study on behalf of every member that God would guide their minds and hearts into that which is truly important in the worship and service of God.

"Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent."  The above sentence is striking in that it says "remember HOW thou hast received and heard," and doesn't say, "remember WHAT thou hast received and heard."  While it is no doubt important that we remember WHAT we have received and heard, yet it is even more important that we remember HOW we have received and heard.  First we wouldn't have heard anything spiritually except we had first been born of the spirit.  "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them for they are spiritually discerned."  In the new birth God has written his laws in our heart and mind and has pricked our heart to know and feel our own sin-guiltiness.  Next God sent a preacher to preach the gospel of the grace of Christ to declare unto us that Christ hath redeemed us from our sins.  Of course the preacher wouldn't have preached if he hadn't first been called of God and shown the truth of God's grace.  He wouldn't have had anything to preach except God had given us the scriptures.  When we began to see all the things that were necessary that God provided in order for us to be able to receive and hear, then we are led to give all the praise, honor, and glory to God for his glorious grace and love toward sinful creatures we know ourselves to be.  Once we know HOW we have received and heard, then we begin to focus on the WHAT we have received and heard.  It is important that we hold the HOW and WHAT fast and not let those precious things go.  It is when we forget the how and what that we get in trouble.  However, it is not enough to just know the HOW and WHAT and to HOLD FAST, but it is also needful that we REPENT.  Repentance is not just a one time activity, it is necessary throughout our lives.  When we see error or sin in our lives or in our doctrinal beliefs, or in our church practices, or in our priorities, then we need to repent.  To repent is to turn from that error and to turn to the truth.  The church in Sardis needed to repent from their emphasis upon social activism and to turn back to the emphasis on true worship and service of God.

"If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."  Watching is something the church and Lord's ministry are commanded to do in his word:

          1.  Acts 20:31 "Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears."

          2.  1 Cor. 16:13 "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong."

          3.  Col. 4:2 "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;"

          4.  1 Thes. 5:6 "Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober."

          5.  2 Tim. 4:5 "But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."

          6.  Heb. 13:17 "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you."

          7.  1 Pet. 4:7 "But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer."

When the ministry and the church watch, then they are able to take action before harm comes to the church.  A failure of the ministry and the church to watch will result in false teachers and designing men bringing in false doctrines and false practices into the church.  Also failing to watch will sometimes result in members going off into error or sinful practices and for evil spirits coming into the church such as the spirit of church activism.  The Lord said that if the church failed to watch that he would come on the church as a thief in the night.  A thief comes unexpectedly to take something away.  He comes in your most unguarded time and condition.  In this case the Lord is warning the church and ministry to watch or else He would come upon the church to take away the candlestick.  The church would lose its identity as a true church of God.  The light of the candlestick or true gospel would cease to shine in the church.  False practices and false doctrines would come in and replace the true.  True gospel peace and comfort and rest would be replaced with a works system of salvation and its subsequent bondage.  How many denominations of religion are present today because the Lord's churches and ministers failed to take heed and watch?

"Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy."  It is usually the case in every church that has been invaded with an evil spirit in its membership such as church activism that there are a few in that church that don't go along with the majority of the church knowing that the direction of the church is unscriptural.  Often they quietly protest the starting of the activities that excite the flesh, but are ignored by the majority who go along with and promote the new activities.  The Lord knows who these few are and how they have not defiled their garments with the unclean activities promoted by the majority.  These few in Sardis had continued and the Lord said would continue to walk with him in white.  White is associated with righteousness in the scriptures.  These few were continuing to tread the pathway of righteousness and walking uprightly with God and actually experiencing sweet fellowship with the Lord, while the majority had lost that sweet fellowship even though they probably didn't realize it because of the subtle change from true spirituality to excitement of the flesh.  Satan is a great deceiver. 

Just because a majority of the church goes along with an error doesn't excuse any of us with going along with that error.  We should do as the few and continue to walk with the Lord in the way of righteousness and protest solemnly to our brothers and sisters in the church that the direction of the church is wrong and that the church needs to repent of that direction.

"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment."  There is an aspect of every elect child of God that they are clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ: 2 Cor. 5:21 "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."  Every one, for whom Christ died, will stand before him in the resurrection clothed in Christ's righteousness.  However, sometimes we can walk in this life with defiled garments.  Our manner of living is sometimes not consistent with the fact that we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb and that we have committed ourselves to be his disciples.  We can sometimes walk without our wedding garment on.  We must be careful that we are not cast into outer darkness in lost fellowship with God and his church.  By overcoming the false spirits that sometimes come to abide in the Lord's church such as social activism, then we walk the pathway of holiness and are clothed with his righteousness in our walk of life.

"And I will not blot out his name out of the book of life."  We are told to "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."  Often when we read or think about the book of life our minds are focused on the Lamb's book of life and the fact that our names were written there before the foundation of the world.  We know that in the covenant of redemption that all that God foreknew will be glorified without the loss of a single one.  There is therefore no such thing as one of those whose name is written in the Lamb's book of life ever having their name blotted out of that book.  Yet there is an implied warning in the verse above that our names can be blotted out of the book of life.  This book of life must therefore be different from the Lamb's book of life.  As with most subjects in the scriptures there are eternal aspects and there are timely aspects.  The scriptures teach an eternal salvation and they teach a timely salvation.  They teach an eternal calling to glory and a timely calling to repentance.  They teach an election to eternal life and an election to church membership.  They teach an eternal justification by grace and timely justification by faith and works.  Thus there is an eternal book of life with those whose names were written there before the foundation of the world and permanently preserved there into the glory world.  There is also a timely book of life in which one can have part in here in time and can also lose his part in here in time based on his actions or inactions.  Rev. 22:19 tells us that we can lose our part in this timely book of life: "And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book."  We know that eternal salvation is based on grace and not works and that all the elect from before the foundation of the world will live in heaven's glory world, therefore, the elect can do nothing of themselves that would either secure that eternal salvation or cause them to lose that eternal salvation.  Contrariwise, God's people can live in the kingdom of God here in time and enjoy the fruits and benefits of that kingdom.  When they are living in the kingdom and enjoying the fruits and benefits of the kingdom they have their names in this timely book of life.  However, if they through their actions turn away from a godly walk or turn away from the true worship and service of God then their names will be removed from this timely book of life.  They will in essence be cast into outer darkness in this time world.

"But I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels."  Matt. 10:32 "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven."  When we overcome we are in a practical sense confessing the Lord before men.  To confess something means simply to acknowledge a truth.  Confessing or denying the truth doesn't change the truth.  Truth is truth whether we confess it or deny it.  When the Lord confesses us before the Father, he is simply acknowledging that we are his true disciples.  Likewise when he denies us before the Father, he is simply acknowledging that we are not walking as true disciples.  Thus to overcome the obstacles of true discipleship places us back into the pathway of true discipleship and also knowing that the Lord is acknowledging to the Father that we are true disciples.

 "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."  As with the letters to the previous churches, we once again see that the Lord speaks to the churches through the preaching of the gospel by his gospel messengers (angels=pastors).