The Church in Sardis

Prophecy note, 1 January 2017
As a sign,
the church in Sardis
prefigures the Protestant church,
from the time of the Reformation
to the second coming of Christ:

When the church,
in her continuous fall,
came to the stage of Jezebel,
God could no longer tolerate it;
the church in Sardis
is God’s reaction to Thyatira.

Sardis emerges
because the Lord
has seen
the condition of Thyatira;
in Greek
Sardis means
“the remains,”
“the remainder,”
or “the restoration.”

“I know your works,
that you have a name
that you are living,
and yet you are dead” (3:1):

Many have considered
the reformed Protestant church
to be living,
but the Lord says
that she is dead;
she has lost
the vitality of life
and is living in name only.

The frequent revivals
in the history of the Protestant denominations
are a proof
that they are dead.

We surely do not want
to be in the condition of
the church in Sardis;
we want
to be living and active
in gospel preaching,
in nourishing the new ones,
in perfecting the saints,
and in prophesying
to build up the Body of Christ.

“These things
says He
who has
the seven Spirits of God
and the seven stars”
(Rev. 3:1):

The seven Spirits
enable the church
to be intensely living,
and the seven stars
enable her
to be intensely shining.

The dead, reformed church
needs the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God
and the shining leaders.

The sevenfold intensified Spirit
can never be replaced
by the dead letters of knowledge.

The seven Spirits
correspond to the seven stars:

A star is
a messenger of a church,
a leading one in a local church;
such a messenger
should be one with
the seven Spirits of God.

The stars
are those
who shine in the darkness
and turn people
from the wrong way
to the right way.

Revelation 1:20 and 3:1
show that the stars
are linked
not only to the Spirit
but also to the churches;
if we would have
the living star
or the living stars,
we need
the Spirit and the church.

“I have found
none of your works completed
before My God”
(v. 2):

In the eyes of God
there is nothing completed
in the so-called reformed churches;
everything has
a beginning without an end.

Nothing
begun in the Reformation
has ever been completed
by the Protestant churches;
therefore,
the church in Philadelphia,
signifying the church in recovery,
is needed
for the completion.

The Reformation
did not bring the church
back to the beginning;
it only caused the world church
to become the state churches.

The Lord is
a Lord of completion;
therefore,
He requires completion.

“If therefore you
will not watch,
I will come
as a thief,
and you
shall by no means know
at what hour
I will come upon you”
(Rev. 3:3):

This verse
indicates that Christ
is the One
who will come
as a thief
to steal away
His treasures, His precious seekers.

Since many believers
are spiritually dead,
they will be unaware of
the Lord’s coming
as a thief
in His secret appearing
to His seekers.

Only those
who are matured in life
and transformed in their soul
will be precious enough
for the Lord
to steal.

We must be
thoroughly prepared for
the time of the Lord’s secret coming;
therefore,
we must be
ready and watchful.

“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”
(Rev. 3:4):

Garments in the Bible
signify what we are
in our walk and living.

To defile one’s garments
means particularly to stain them
with deadness;
the defiled garments
indicate the presence of death
or the absence of life:

Death is more defiling
before God
than sin.

In Revelation 3:4
defilement denotes
anything of the death nature.

The defilement in Sardis
was not the defilement of sin
but the defilement of death.

Those
who have not defiled their garments
will walk
with the Lord
in white:

White signifies
not only purity
but also approvedness.

White garments
in Revelation 3:4
signify the walk and living
that are unspotted by death
and that will be approved
by the Lord;
this is a qualification
for walking with the Lord,
especially in the coming kingdom.

To walk in white garments
is to have a living
that is unspotted by death
and approved in life
by the Lord.

“He who overcomes
will be clothed thus,
in white garments”
(v. 5a):

To overcome here
is to overcome
the deadness of the Protestant churches,
that is,
to overcome dead Protestantism.

Christ is
the white garments
to clothe the overcomers:

White garments
refers to livingness;
to be living
is to wear the white garments.

If we are spiritually dead,
we are dirty;
such a dead person
is the dirtiest one;
also if we are dead,
we are naked.

We need
the living garment
to cover us;
this living garment
is Christ Himself
wrought into us
by the life-giving Spirit;
the only way
to have this garment
is to turn to the spirit
and live in the mingled spirit.

Being clothed in white garments,
as promised in Revelation 3:5,
will be a prize
to the overcomers
in the millennial kingdom;
what they
have been walking in
during this age
will be a prize to them
in the coming age.

Every Christian
needs two garments:

The first garment
is the garment of salvation,
signifying Christ
as our righteousness objectively:

In Luke 15:22,
when the prodigal son
returned home,
the first thing
that the father did
was to have the best robe
placed upon him.

Wearing the best robe,
he was justified
and approved;
this means
that he was justified in Christ
and that Christ
became his justifying covering.

He was covered with
Christ as his righteousness;
thus,
the garment of justification
is for salvation.

In addition to
the garment of justification,
we need another garment
to make us
approved
and well pleasing to the Lord:

This is
the garment of approvedness
for our acceptance,
signifying the Christ
whom we live out
as our subjective righteousness:

(1)  The “fine linen,
bright and clean”
in Revelation 19:8
denotes this second garment.

(2)  According to typology,
the queen in Psalm 45
has two garments:
one for salvation
and the other
for her
to be with the King
in His reign.

We have been saved and justified
and have the first garment
—Christ
as our objective righteousness—
for our salvation;
now we need to go on
to experience Christ
as our subjective righteousness
so that we
may have
the second garment.

Christ
as our objective righteousness
has been put upon us,
whereas Christ
as our subjective righteousness
comes out of us.

The white garments
in Revelation 3:5
refer to the second garment,
which is needed
for us
to receive the reward
and enter into the kingdom
to walk with the Lord,
that is,
to reign with Him.

We all
should overcome
the dead situation
in religion,
conquer all kinds of death,
and wear the white garments.

Day 5
Rev. 3:4
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.

Rev. 7:9
After these things
I saw,
and behold,
there was
a great multitude
which no one could number,
out of every nation and all tribes
and peoples and tongues,
standing before the throne
and before the Lamb,
clothed in white robes
and palm branches in their hands.

Garments in the Bible
signify what we are
in our walk and living.
To defile the garments
means particularly to stain them
with deadness.
Death is more defiling
before God
than sin.
In Revelation 3:4,
the defilement
denotes anything of the death nature.
The defilement in Sardis
was not the defilement of sin;
it was
the defilement of death.
Death is dirtier than sin.
According to the Old Testament,
if anyone sinned,
he could be forgiven
simply by offering the sin offering.
However, anyone
who touched the dead body of a man
had to wait seven days
before he could be cleansed.

If you go to Las Vegas
to gamble in a casino,
you will sense
that you have sinned.
But if you
came to a meeting
in a dead way,
you may not sense
the seriousness of it.
But in the eyes of God,
this death situation
is more serious
than gambling in a Las Vegas casino.
Although Christians condemn sin,
they do not condemn deadness.
People sit in the meetings
like corpses
and they see
nothing wrong with it.
I do not like
to be near anything dead.
…If your dear wife
would dirty herself
while doing something for you,
you would love her
more than ever before.
But if she were to die,
you would not want
to be near her dead body.
The Lord
hates death.
However,
most Christians
in the reformed churches
do not have
this concept of death.
They may say,
“What is wrong
with the denominational churches?”
They are
not only wrong
—they are filled with death.
Though there
may be nothing wrong
with the corpses in a mortuary,
they are full of death.
Death is
the greatest problem.
How ugly it is!
It is
a stench to God,
and He
cannot tolerate it.

In the local churches,
we all
must hate death.
I would rather see
the people in the churches
wrong
than to see them
dead.
Many times
I have asked
the brothers and sisters
why they do not function
in the meetings.
Often their reply was,
“I’m afraid of
making a mistake.”
To this,
I responded,
“The more mistakes you make,
the better.
Living children
make many mistakes.
But the dead children
in the cemeteries
make no mistakes at all.”
If you simply sit
in the meeting
without doing anything,
you will never be wrong.
Although you may be right,
you will be dead right.
I would rather be livingly wrong
than dead right.
I may make mistakes,
but everyone will know
how living I am.
Which do you prefer
—to be dead right
or livingly wrong?

Speaking of these
who have not defiled their garments,
the Lord says
that “they will walk with Me
in white
because they are worthy”
(Rev. 3:4).
White not only signifies purity,
but also approvedness.
…It is
a qualification
for walking with the Lord,
especially in the coming kingdom.
…If you read
the context of Revelation 2 and 3,
you will see
that every time
the Lord gives a promise
in these seven epistles,
strictly speaking
it refers to
the coming kingdom.
It never refers to eternity,
to our eternal destiny.
Rather,
it refers to
our future in the coming kingdom.
This is
the basic and governing principle
in understanding all the promises
in these seven epistles.
In 3:4
the Lord promises
that the living ones,
those who have not defiled their garments,
will walk with Him
in white.
When will this be?
In the wedding day of Christ
which will last
for a thousand years.
To walk with the Lord
in white
means to walk with Him
during these thousand years.
In principle,
this must also be applied
to our walk with the Lord today.

Day 3
Rev. 3:2
Become watchful
and establish the things
which remain,
which were about to die;
for I have found
none of your works completed
before My God.

Phil. 1:6
Being confident
of this very thing,
that He
who has begun in you a good work
will complete it
until the day of Christ Jesus.

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.

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.
…Luther’s 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 Lord
…said,
“I have found
none of your works completed
before My God”
[Rev. 3:2].
Nothing begun in the Reformation
has ever been completed.
Therefore,
the church in Philadelphia
is needed
for the completion.
…Do not think
that justification by faith
is completed among them.
If you
have the inner sight,
you will see
that the justification by faith
recovered by Martin Luther
was quite shallow,
for Luther
did not touch justification very much
in the way of life,
but mainly in the way of doctrine,
in a superficial way.
We thank the Lord
for this great servant of God,
but he was not perfect.
None of the work
under his hand
was completed.
The things
recovered in the days of Luther
have been dying
and are still about to die.
This is
why so many Protestant churches
have frequent revivals.

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.

Brothers,
do you see?
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.

Day 1
Rev. 3:1
And to the messenger
of the church in Sardis
write:
These things
says 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.

John 15:16
You did not choose Me,
but I chose you,
and I set you
that you should go forth
and bear fruit
and that your fruit should remain,
that whatever you ask the Father
in My name,
He may give you.

The history of the church
from the first century
to the present
is clearly divided
into seven stages:
the initial stage,
the suffering stage,
the worldly stage,
the apostate stage,
the stage of Reformation,
the stage of the recovered church,
and the stage of the degradation
of the recovered church.
In this message
we must consider
the church in Sardis,
the church in reformation.

Sardis in Greek
means “the remains,”
“the remainder,”
or “the restoration.”
As a sign,
the church in Sardis
prefigures the Protestant Church
from the time of the Reformation
to the second coming of Christ.
The Reformation
was God’s reaction
to the apostate Roman Catholic Church,
signified by
the degraded church in Thyatira.
It was accomplished
by a minority of the believers,
the remainder.
Hence,
it was the restoration
by the remainder.

During the time of the apostles
there was
the behavior of the Nicolaitans.
After the behavior of the Nicolaitans,
…Pergamos
sinned greatly
by bringing the world into the church.
After the Nicolaitans
came Jezebel,
and at the same time
idols were brought
into the church.
But there is
a good point
here:
In Thyatira
we see
the judgment of Jezebel,
the casting of her into a bed
that she may not move;
we also see
that her followers
will one day be killed.
These prophecies
have not yet been fulfilled;
they will be fulfilled
at the time of Babylon’s fall
in Revelation 17.
…When the church,
in her continuous fall
from the Nicolaitans,
comes to the stage of Jezebel,
God can no longer tolerate it.
Then
Sardis emerges.
…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.

The Lord
said to the messenger
of the church in Sardis,
“I know
your works,
that you have a name
that you are living,
and yet you are dead”
(Rev. 3:1).
The Reformation
was the direct work
of the Holy Spirit,
but the Protestant church
after the Reformation
is a human organization.
The Protestant church
is considered by many
to be living,
but the Lord says
that she is dead.
Hence,
she needs
the living seven Spirits
and the shining seven stars
to recover from
the condition of
having lost
her power and life.
The Protestant denominations
seem to be better than
the Roman Catholic Church
prefigured by
the church in Thyatira,
but they have lost
the vitality of life
and are living in name only.
The frequent revivals
in the history of
the Protestant denominations
are a proof of
their being dead.

We surely do not want
to be in the condition of
the church in Sardis.
We want to be
living and active
in gospel preaching,
in nourishing the new ones,
in perfecting the saints,
and in prophesying
to build up
the Body of Christ.
We need
the new ones
in the church life.
We need
to nourish the new ones
until they become
remaining fruit
in the church life.
Then
we should speak
in the meetings,
to set up a pattern
for all the young ones
to follow.
Children learn
how to speak
from their parents.
The church
must be like this.
Then
from generation to generation
all the young ones
will grow
and be perfected
to do the work of
the apostles, prophets, evangelists,
and shepherds and teachers.
This will make the church
very living, active,
functioning, and working
according to the Lord’s desire.