Revelation 3 — Newell's Commentary on Romans, Hebrews and Revelation & KJV Study Bible

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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.

Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

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.

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.

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.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;

I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name.

Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.

Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

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, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Revelation 2 Revelation 4

Commentary

V. Sardis Dead-"Protestantism"

ADDRESS: These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars. This is the designation of the Spirit as before the throne in heaven (Revelation 1:4-5). We have noticed that it is not as the indwelling Comforter (although He is such to all believers), that He appears in Revelation. The Spirit is subordinate to the Son, as the Son to the Father, in the divine creative and redemptive arrangements, although all are equal in the fact of Deity. Christ now begins anew, as it were: He has the seven stars, as in Ephesus, but He has also the seven Spirits of God. There will be utter searching, which is here emphasized (Zechariah 4:6-10).

We have, in Sardis, what has often been called a new beginning. God leaves the Jezebel corruption and the ecclesiastical hierarchy behind, with Thyatira; and takes up what is known as "Christianity" since the Reformation.

CONDITION KNOWN: Thou hast a name that thou livest, and thou art dead. Nothing could describe "Protestantism" more accurately! As over against Romish night and ignorance, she has enlightenment and outward activity: the great "state churches," or "denominations," with creeds and histories, costly churches and cathedrals, universities and seminaries, "boards," bureaus of publication and propaganda, executors of organized activities, including home and foreign missions, even "lobby" men to "influence legislation" at court! You and I dare compare the Church with no other model than the Holy Spirit gave at Pentecost and in Paul's day! And compared to that-it has a name, but is dead-not to speak of being "filled with the Holy Spirit," "admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." Pass through the churches of Christendom and ask one question: Are you born again? Are you a new creature in Christ Jesus? Like the Philistine-yoked Jews of Nehemiah's day: "I saw the Jews that had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, of Moab: and their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people" (Nehemiah 13:23-24). So with church-membership of our day, yoked with the world by marriage, by lodge-fellowship, by narrow sectarian bigotry and crass ignorance of the Word of God and even of the gospel of salvation. "Thou art dead." Awful state! Given to recover the truth at the Reformation in the most mighty operation of the Spirit of God since the days of the Apostles, Christendom has sunk into spiritual death!

LOVING COUNSEL: Be thou watchful, and establish the things that remain, which were ready to die: for I have found no works of thine perfected before my God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent. Notice here first, "no works â€¦ perfected" Neither in doctrine nor in walk did the Reformation go back to the early days of the Church. In doctrine they did teach (thank God!) justification by faith apart from works. Luther's "Commentary on Galatians" is in many respects the most vigorous utterance of faith since Paul. Yet the Reformers did not teach Paul's doctrine of identification,-that the believer's history, as connected with Adam, ended at Calvary: that he died to sin, federally, with Christ; and died to the law, which gave sin its power. All the Reformation creeds kept the believer under the law as a rule of life; and "the law made nothing perfect." Whereas, Scripture speaks of a perfect conscience, through a perfect sacrifice; of faith being perfected; of being made perfect in love; of perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Of course, there is no perfection in the flesh, but Paul distinctly says concerning believers, "Ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you"; and, "if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law."

Furthermore, the Reformed creeds did not get free from Rome [J. A. Froude, the historian, says, "Protestantism has made no converts to speak of in Europe since the sixteenth century. It shot up in two generations to its full stature, and became an established creed with defined boundaries, and it has come about that the old enemies have become friends in the presence of a common foe (anti-churchism and atheism). Catholics speak tenderly of Protestants as keeping alive the belief in creeds, and look forward to their return to the sheepfold, while the scarlet woman on the seven hills, â€˜drunk with the blood of the saints,' is now treated by Protestantism as an older sister, and a valued ally in the great warfare with infidelity. The points of difference are forgotten; the points of union are passively dwelt upon; the remnant of idolatry, which the more ardent European Protestants once abhorred and denounced, are now regarded as having been providentially preserved, as a means of making up the quarrel and bringing back the churches into communion."] as regards what they still called "sacraments,"-a Babylonish term. For sacramentum was the Latin word for a mystery of the pagan religion. "The grand distinguishing feature of the ancient Babylonian system was the Chaldean mysteries, that formed so essential a part of that system" (Hislop, p. 4). "Even in the prayer-book of the Church of England, the Lord's Supper is called â€˜these holy mysteries'! But such a term for it is unknown in the New Testament, and was subsequently introduced merely because the initiates (of Babylonish idolatry) fixed upon the Memorial Supper as the one thing in Christianity which they could most easily metamorphose into a Mystery, or Sacrament. Then, associating Baptism with the bath which preceded (pagan) initiation, they called it, also, a Mystery, or Sacrament,-though they often dropped all disguise, and spoke of it plainly as initiation." (Pember)

Consequently neither is the walk perfected. Not knowing that they died with Christ and are risen ones, their walk is pitifully short of Paul's: some, worldly and wholly shallow; some, even sincere souls, using man-made prayers by rote, and even man-made festival days, which belong to Paganism or Judaism; regarding really devoted souls as fanatics,-especially those who live in view of, and speak of, the imminent return of the Lord, as did constantly the early Christians!

Note watchfulness, that hardest of spiritual tasks to a drowsy soul, is enjoined by the Lord that "the things that remain"-those few "fundamental" doctrines still known and preached, may not be wholly lost, but established. "Remember": like Ephesus, they must go back to the beginning. Protestantism did receive, and did hear. In the Reformation days, all Europe was stirred concerning divine truth. People crowded halls for four or five hours at a time to listen to discourses and debates upon Scripture. Alas, the deadness, the ignorance, the coldness and the carelessness today! "Keep it and repent": to recover truth once lost and especially the love of it, so as to hold the truth fast, is a deadly difficult task! Protestantism- Christendom-is giving it up.

PREDICTED ACTION: If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Notice three things: watchlessness, visitation, and ignorance. To the Sardis church, unheeding, the words, "I will come as a thief" meant, not our Lord's second coming, but visitation in judgment like that to Ephesus in Revelation 2:5, and Pergamum in Revelation 2:16. The processes of divine judgment we cannot by any faculties given us discover; the only thing for us to do is to receive divine warning. Now a thief takes away secretly our property-what belongs to us: so would Christ come suddenly, secretly, and remove everything of value from the Sardis assembly. So He did, for that assembly is gone-the very place of it!

But there is a wider application: to Protestantism, with its "name to live, but dead," Christ threatens that aspect of His coming which really belongs not to His saints but to the world. "Ye, brethren, are not in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief â€¦ ye are all sons â€¦ of the day" (1 Thessalonians 5:4-5). To be overtaken, then, and judged as the world, is the doom of dead Protestantism, just as the tribulation was the destiny of Romanism in Thyatira.

PROMISE TO OVERCOMERS: But thou hast a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments: and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy. Here we have the faithful remnant-"a few,"-like "the rest" in Thyatira. Faithful preachers know them in every assembly. They hearken. They are separate from the world. They pray, go to prayer meetings, work for their Lord, and love the Word.

Note that this remnant were not "defiled." "They are not in contact with the spiritual death around them which is here counted defilement, as in the Old Testament was considered the touch of a dead body." (Ottman.)

"With me in white." Here it represents manifested victorious righteousness. Compare the white robes of Revelation 6:11; and that public association with Christ of Revelation 19:14. Note rejection of defilement constitutes "worthiness," (Christ Himself of course being our only righteousness).

PROMISE TO OVERCOMER: He that over-cometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. These promises, of course, are all to be taken literally. "Thus" as befits Christ's presence,-"with me in white," they shall be arrayed and walk! Also, "in no wise blot out" releases from anxiety. "The Lord will deliver from every evil work, and will save â€¦ unto his heavenly kingdom" (2 Timothy 4:18). As to "book of life," see Revelation 20:12. "Will confess â€¦ before my Father and before his angels" (Revelation 3:5). What a day! As one very near to me said, after a meeting in which some had been urged not to be ashamed to confess Christ: "I am not ashamed to confess Christ, but my wonder is, how He can ever confess me!"

CALL TO HEAR: Again note that it is after the remnant has been addressed: for real saints only will truly give ear to the Lord by His Spirit,-in any age, but with peculiar difficulty when deadness holds most professors. He that hath an ear, LET HIM HEAR!