Rev. 3:1-6
"Sardis'' means
"the remains.'' The church in Sardis is
God's reaction to Thyatira. The history
of revival in the churches throughout
the entire world indicates divine
reactions. Whenever the Lord begins a
revival work, He is reacting. God's
reaction is man's recovery. I would
like you to keep this principle firmly in
mind. Sardis appears because the
Lord has seen the condition of
Thyatira.
In Revelation several churches are in
pairs. Sardis is connected with
Ephesus. Philadelphia is connected
with Smyrna, and Laodicea is
connected with Pergamos. Only
Thyatira stands alone. In Sardis the
Lord says that His name is "He who
has the seven Spirits of God and the
seven stars: I know your works, that
you have a name that you are living,
and yet you are dead'' (Rev. 3:1). The
epistle to Ephesus says that His right
hand holds seven stars, while the
epistle to Sardis says that He has the
seven stars. Ephesus is the slackening
after the apostles, that is, the
changing from something good to
bad; Sardis is the recovery from
Thyatira, that is, the changing from
something bad to good. Having works
but no love is Ephesus; living in name
but dead in reality is Sardis. So these
two are a pair. The Lord manifests
Himself as He who has the seven
Spirits. The seven Spirits of God are
sent of God to the world to work, and
this refers to the work of life. The
seven stars in Ephesus refer to the
messengers; here they refer to the
illumination. The work of recovery is
half in the Spirit and half in the light.
Sardis is similar to Thyatira in that she
includes a long period of time, from
the reformed churches until the Lord
comes back again. Although the time
of Sardis is not as long as Thyatira,
she refers not only to the church
during the Reformation, but also to
church history following the
Reformation.
"I know your works, that you have a
name that you are living, and yet you
are dead.'' I believe no one will doubt
that Martin Luther was a servant of
the Lord and the Reformation was the
work of God. The Reformation was a
great work, and it was a divine
reaction. Surely the Lord used Luther
as a mouthpiece; he was a man
especially chosen by God. When
Luther first started, the Reformation
was entirely Sardis. His purpose was
solely for recovery. The Lord does not
say that the work of Luther was not
good; rather, He says it was not
complete. It was good, but not good
enough. In the eyes of the Lord, He
has not found anything complete—
everything was a beginning without an
end. The Lord is a Lord of completion;
therefore, He requires completion. For
this reason, we must ask Him that we
may see.
The problem of justification was
solved following Luther. Justification is
by faith, and having peace before the
Lord is by faith. Luther not only gave
us justification by faith; he also gave
us an open Bible. In Thyatira the
authority is in the hands of Jezebel—
in other words, in the hands of the
church. It is a matter of what the
church says, not what the Lord says. It
is all a matter of what the mother
church says: All the people of the
Roman Catholic Church listen to the
mother church. So the Lord says He
will kill her "children.'' You say the
mother, but the Lord says the
children. Luther showed us what the
Lord says and what the Bible says.
Men can read God's Word, and men
can see for themselves what God
actually says, not what Rome says.
When the open Bible comes, the
whole church is enlightened.
However, a problem arises:
Protestantism did not give us a proper
church. As a result, wherever the
doctrine of justification by faith and
the open Bible went, a state church
was established. The Lutheran sect
became the state church in many
countries. Later, in England the
Anglican Church came into being,
which is also a state church.
Beginning with Rome, the nature of
the church was changed. By the time
of justification by faith and the return
of the open Bible, the Protestant
churches had not yet seen what the
church should be. Although there
were justification by faith and the
open Bible, the Protestant churches
still followed the example of Rome
and did not return to the church in
the beginning. During the
Reformation the problem of the
church was not solved. Luther did not
reform the church. Luther himself
said that we should not think
"justification by faith'' is enough; there
are many more things to be changed.
Yet the people in the Protestant
churches stopped right there. Luther
did not stop, but they stopped and
said that it was good enough.
Although they went back to the faith
of the beginning, the church herself
remained unchanged. Formerly, there
was the international church of Rome;
now it is the state church of England
or the state church of Germany—that
is all.......

ok, nothing wrong with that.

The
Reformation did not bring the church
back to the condition of the
beginning; it only caused the world
church to become state churches.
Thyatira is condemned for putting the
church in the world; likewise, Sardis is
condemned for putting the church in
the states. "You have a name that you
are living, and yet you are dead.'' The
Reformation was living, but there
were still many dead things.
Later, many "dissenters'' developed,
such as the Presbyterian Church, etc.
On one hand, there is the Roman
Catholic Church; on the other hand,
there are the Protestant churches.
Among the Protestant churches, aside
from those established according to
states, there are also churches set up
according to different opinions and
doctrines. The dissenters do not take
the state as the boundary but their
doctrine as the boundary. Therefore,
there are two kinds of churches
among the Protestant churches: one
is state and the other is private. Today
we see the union of the state and the
church in Germany, Great Britain, and
so forth. Rome has the world church,
while Great Britain and Germany, etc.,
have the state church. The kings and
chiefs of the states do not want to
listen to the pope, yet they want
others to listen to them. In politics
they want to be the kings; in religion
they also want to be the kings. As a
result, the state churches came into
existence. People never raised the
question as to what the church is like
in the Bible. People did not go back to
the Bible to see whether it is proper
to have state churches. Later, the
private churches came into being also.
The establishment of the private
churches was due to the exalting of a
certain doctrine; thus, they separated
themselves from those who did not
have the same doctrine. The Baptist
Church was established because
someone saw baptism; the
Presbyterian Church was established
because someone saw the presbytery
system in the church. The church was
established not because someone
knew what the church is; rather, the
church was established according to a
system. These two kinds of Protestant
churches—the state and the private—
the Lord says, have not gone back to
the purpose in the beginning. This
statement is most significant.
"Become watchful and establish the
things which remain, which were
about to die'' (v. 2). This refers to
justification by faith and the open
Bible and the life that is gained from
them. In the whole history of Sardis,
these were about to die; therefore,
the Lord said, "Establish the things
which remain, which were about to
die.'' Today in the Protestant
churches, the regulations of men are
still in force, even though the Bible is
already opened. Therefore, the Lord
said, "I have found none of your
works completed before My God'' (v.
2). Even what they already have is not
complete. Some of their things are not
complete; they were not complete
from the very start. "Remember
therefore how you have received and
heard, and keep it and repent'' (v. 3).....

Does the history of the Protestant
churches end this way? No! The
history of the Protestant churches is a
history of revivals. When Luther first
started, many were saved, revived,
and greatly recovered. One
characteristic of the Protestant
churches is "recovery.'' We do not
know to what extent the Holy Spirit
will work. Luther reformed something;
thus, the Lutheran Church came out.
The truth of the presbytery was seen;
thus, the Presbyterian Church was
organized. Wesley appeared;
therefore, the Methodist Church was
established. Today in the world there
are still many smaller churches. In
1914 there were already more than
1500 churches.
Thank the Lord, Sardis was often
blessed by God. But once there was
the blessing of the Lord, men
organized something to contain the
blessing. Although the Lord's blessing
is still there, the sphere remains only
that big. The Protestant churches are
like a cup. At the beginning of revival,
people will go wherever there is living
water. Wherever the Spirit of God is
moving, people will go in that
direction. Men used a cup with the
hope of preserving the living water
without loss. The advantage of doing
this is that it keeps the grace, and the
disadvantage is that there is just one
cup of blessing. In the first generation
the cup was full. By the second
generation the cup was only half filled,
and the nebulousness began. By the
third or fifth generation, the water was
gone and only an empty cup was left.
Then they began to argue with other
denominations as to whose cup was
better, though all the cups were
worthless for drinking. What was the
result? God reacted again, and in
came another Sardis. This is the
whole history of revival. When the
grace of God comes, men
immediately set up an organization to
keep it. The organization remains, but
the content is lost. However, the cup
cannot be broken; there are always
those who are zealous to maintain the
cup continuously. Here is a matter of
principle: The students of Wesley
could never be equal to Wesley, nor
could the students of Calvin match
Calvin. The schools of the prophets
seldom produced prophets—all the
great prophets were chosen by God
from the wilderness. The Spirit of God
descends upon whomsoever He will.
He is the Head of the church, not we.
Men always think the living water is
valuable and must be kept by
organization, but it gradually declines
through the generations until it
completely dries up. After it dries up,
the Lord gives us living water again in
the wilderness.

On one hand, there is revival—praise
the Lord! On the other hand, it must
be rebuked before the Lord because it
is never returned to the beginning.
The Protestant churches have revivals
continuously, but the Lord says they
are not perfect, they have not gone
back to the beginning. We must
remember what was in the beginning.
The problem is not how we receive
and hear now; the problem is how we
received and heard in the beginning.
In Acts 2 many were saved, and the
Lord said they continued steadfastly in
the teaching and fellowship of the
apostles, in the breaking of bread and
the prayers. It does not say that they
continued in the apostles' breaking of
bread and the prayers, but in the
teaching and fellowship of the
apostles. The fellowship of Christ is
the fellowship of the apostles; the
teaching of Christ is the teaching of
the apostles. God only counts the
fellowship of the apostles as
fellowship; He only counts the
teaching of the apostles as teaching.
We cannot invent a fellowship; neither
can we invent a teaching. The mistake
of Thyatira was that she manufactured
her own teaching, since Jezebel was
there. God does not want us to
invent; He just wants us to receive. In
the twentieth century anything can be
invented, but not the teaching. In the
Spirit we may talk about discovery, but
in teaching there cannot be any
invention. We must examine what we
have received, what we have heard,
and hold fast and repent.
"I will come as a thief, and you shall
by no means know at what hour I will
come upon you'' (v. 3). "Come'' is to
come by descending. "Upon'' in Greek
is epi, which means I will descend by
your side, not come upon you, but
apart from you. The coming of the
thief is a coming of epi. We are here,
and he prowls up by our side. The
Lord's use of words is very ingenious.
We can translate it as, "I will come and
pass by you, yet you will not know it.''
The thief does not come to steal the
cheap things; he always steals the
best. The Lord will also steal the best
from the earth. The best are in His
hands, not outside of Him. We are in
the house: one will be raptured, and
one will be left. So the Lord says that if
you will not watch, He will come. The
Lord Jesus is coming back soon. The
day is getting closer. May we be
precious enough to be "stolen'' by the
Lord.

"But you have a few names in Sardis
who have not defiled their garments,
and they will walk with Me in white
because they are worthy'' (v. 4). Jacob
brought seventy souls into Egypt (Exo.
1:5). Ordinarily the Scriptures say so
many men, so many souls. But the
Lord says here that there are a few
names; the Lord pays special
attention to our names. He says that
there are a few names who have not
defiled their garments. These
garments are our righteous deeds.
When we stand before God, we put
on Christ, for Christ is our white
garment. However, we are not
standing before God here, but before
Christ, before the judgment seat
(Rom. 14:10). We do not put on Christ
here; rather, we put on "fine linen,
bright and clean; for the fine linen is
the righteousnesses of the
saints'' (Rev. 19:. There are a few
names which have not defiled their
garments; that is to say, their behavior
is clean. They will walk with the Lord,
for they are worthy.
"He who overcomes will be clothed
thus, in white garments, and I shall by
no means erase his name out of the
book of life, and I will confess his
name before My Father and before
His angels'' (3:5). The matter here
does not involve whether the name is
recorded, but whether the name will
be confessed. Those whom the Lord
confesses will participate in
something; those whom the Lord
does not confess will not participate.
All the names are recorded in the
book of life, but he who is not
confessed by the Lord is like one who
is marked out with a circle. He will not
participate. Here the problem is not
related to eternal life in eternity, but to
whether or not you can reign with the
Lord. It is an unfortunate thing to be
recorded and yet not be able to
participate. May the Lord be gracious
to us so that we may wear the white
garment before the Lord. We have the
white garment to put on before God,
but what about before the Lord?