Strong
Church/Weak Church 16
The Greek gymnasium at Sardis |
Sardis, founded about eight centuries
before Christ as part of the Lydian empire, was located sixty miles east of the
coastal city of Smyrna at the nexus of an important road network. Conquered or
seized by all the usual suspects of the succeeding centuries – Greece, Rome,
Byzantium – it was also preyed on by a few too many earthquakes. By AD 1200 it
had largely vanished as an operating entity. Currently, a little village named
Sart is situated nearby, and operates mostly as a tourist trap for the nearby ruins
of Sardis.
Turning our attention to the church
specifically, we find that Sardis was a stronger church than many of the others
we have looked at. Its strength is singularly impressive and its weakness is
relatively minor, in my view, though perhaps not in John’s view. At any rate,
we will examine her strength today and her weakness next time.
What is that strength? The church at
Sardis was strong on personal righteousness, on holiness.
God often likens sin to dirty garments
and salvation to its beautiful white replacement. That begins in the
Tabernacle, where we see the courtyard was enclosed in fine twined linen. But explicit mention is made of this all through the Word of God.
Isaiah
64:6
6
But we are all as an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are as
filthy rags; And we all do fade as a leaf; And our iniquities, like the
wind, have taken us away.
Isaiah
61:10
10
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul shall be joyful in my God; For
he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the
robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, And
as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
Zechariah
3:3–5
3
Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.
4
And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away
the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine
iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.
5
And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre
upon his head, and clothed him with garments. And the angel of
the LORD stood by.
Revelation
7:14
14
And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they
which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them
white in the blood of the Lamb.
Revelation
19:8
8
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and
white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
We see from John’s last statement
above that in his understanding of this illustration these white garments
represented our righteousness. There are two kinds of righteousness. There is
positional righteousness, our standing as entirely holy before God on the basis
of Christ’s finished work. This cannot change. There is also personal
righteousness, our actual state at the moment, how close we are to the Lord
from day to day. This does change. Speaking in the personal (not the
positional) sense, our garments prior to salvation were uniformly filthy;
afterward they are varying shades of white and dark. The church at Sardis
excelled in this area. Some of their people had not defiled or made their robes
of personal righteousness filthy. In other words, they had lived an
exceptionally holy life post-salvation. 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 (Revelation 3.4). Needless to say, we do not obtain
entrance into eternity by living holy but we certainly do get complimented by
God this way.
This stands in direct contrast with
another church we will look at in just a few weeks. I counsel thee to buy of
me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou
mayest be clothed (Revelation 3.18). You do not get positional
righteousness (justification/salvation) by buying it, but you do get personal
righteousness that way. Holiness, sanctification in this life will always cost
you something.
At Sardis, they had not defiled their
garments. How does defilement come? One of the answers involves touching
something external that is dirty. If I am wearing a clean coat and I brush up
against a salt-encrusted car my coat is going to get defiled. We see this illustrated
in the life of Daniel. He purposed in his heart that he would not defile
himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank
(Daniel 1.8). So he requested and was granted permission to avoid those
things so that he might remain pure and clean. In this we see the personal
separation from the world that is necessary for a Christian to live a
sanctified life.
More often, however, defilement arises
from the sinful condition of our own heart. Jesus placed a huge emphasis on
this point throughout His ministry, as we see in these two sample passages:
Matthew
15:10–11
10
And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
11
Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out
of the mouth, this defileth a man.
Matthew
15:18–20
18
But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and
they defile the man.
19
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20
These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands
defileth not a man.
Christianity without separation from
the world will inevitably result in close contact with filth, and thus with our
own defilement. By the same token, a Christianity with separation from the
world but absent a constant emphasis on and watch over the condition of our
heart will result in the same defilement. The only difference is the latter will visibly
appear to be cleaner while being putrid on the inside.
This was precisely the problem of the
Pharisees, you will recall. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outwrd,
but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness (Matthew
23.27).
Apparently, to God’s everlasting
glory, there were some in Sardis that were holy. They had a strong personal
righteousness, and were thus given the incredible compliment of being called
worthy. Worthy of what? Worthy of being called His own.
Should not this be the aim of every
true child of God? That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God
(Colossians 1.10).
Beloved, let us on this day walk
worthy of Him. Visibly, externally, yes. But even more so invisibly,
internally.
Let us be holy.
Extremely well said Brother Brennan!
ReplyDeleteI love the practicality and application of the scriptures you have brought to light..