Sardis: Being made righteous by faith is being made worthy by works

[robert derrick]

The church at Sardis had some righteous Christian saints:

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.

Imputed righteousness is made and kept righteous with a purified heart and cleansed conscience from all past sins, by forsaking all unrighteous works of the flesh, while doing the faithful works of righteousness spiritually within and bodily without.

Being made spiritually righteous is being made worthy to walk bodily with Jesus in white.

If we are not justified to walk worthily in white with Him bodily, it is because we are not allowing Him to make us righteous as He is righteous spiritually within.

There is no spiritual righteousness, while walking unworthily in unrighteousness.

Like faith and works, so is being made righteous and worthy to walk with Him in white: there is not one without the other.

 

[Wynona]

Very good. It's a battle to be righteous every day but it's worth it. The prize for denying ourselves and taking up our cross is eternity with Jesus in a beautiful city.

 

[robert derrick]

The church at Sardis also had many unrighteous Christian sinners:

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.

Living faith alone without works ends in imputed righteousness and cleanness of conscience, becoming defiled and dead by continuing in sinful works of the flesh.

And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

Faith alone salvationism never yields the perfect fruit of the Spirit, because it rejects perfecting the faith by works.

Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock.

For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.

The fruit of the Spirit is yielded only in all righteousness, not in some righteousness and some unrighteousness: All the thorns must be purged at some point for the ground to become honest and good, and producing fruit of the Spirit unto everlasting life.

 

[robert derrick]

Sardis had many Christians double hearted toward God, and those who repented to become Christians saints, went on to the perfectness of walking in white with Jesus, with pure hearts kept from lust of the world.

But those trusting in faith alone, while working both righteousness and unrighteousness, without purging all thorns, died in Christ, and left only with names and dead faith alone.

We are imputed and made righteous in a moment of honest faith toward God, but we are only kept righteous and made worthy to walk with Him in white by works of faith through the same eternal Spirit in which He offered Himself without spot to God:

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

We are made righteous and clean and pure, that we too may offer up ourselves to Christ on our own cross, and so be made worthy to walk with Him in white.

If not, then what was once made righteous dies, and is never made worthy to live with Him forever and ever.

 

[robert derrick]

Very good. It's a battle to be righteous every day but it's worth it. The prize for denying ourselves and taking up our cross is eternity with Jesus in a beautiful city.

And the neither the prize nor the crown is obtained in eternal salvation with Jesus, until the end of the race, not at the start, nor in the middle.

Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.

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.

Those who trust in their own faith alone, and never believe to have power to walk with Him in white, where there is no darkness at all, will be the wicked servants cut asunder at His coming, and will not be resurrected into the air with Him.

They will find themselves naked and unclothed with the goats on the left, and not even counted worthy as sheep among the heathen on the right.

We Christians will either be saints worthy to walk with Him in all white at His appearing, or we will be cast away with the unbelieving goats at the start of His reign. There will not be any hold-over Christians hiding out among the sheep, during His reign with His resurrected saints on earth.

It will be another new start on earth once again, as after the flood, but better. There will only with neighborly sinners alive on earth, and no Ham hold-overs to immediately begin corrupting the faith of the Lord and Christ on earth.

There will be no OSAS preaching dead faith alone with good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness, fruit and thorns at all.

 

[mailmandan]

The church at Sardis also had many unrighteous Christian sinners:

Unrighteous "Christisn" sinners is an oxymoron.

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.

Jesus points out the lifeless state of the church in Sardis - "..you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead." This church may have had a name of being alive, but they were spiritually lifeless. In other words, the church was filled with unsaved people going through the motions of religion who needed to wake up and repent IN CONTRAST with a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Jesus in white.

*White garments are mentioned elsewhere in Revelation. The church at Laodicea mentions white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. (Revelation 3:18). The 24 elders wear white garments (Revelation 4:4). The martyrs waiting for God’s judgment are given white robes to wear (Revelation 6:11). The armies appearing with the Messiah also wear white and clean linen (Revelation 19:14). The great multitude of the saved in Revelation 7:14 wear robes made white in the red blood of the Lamb. The color paradox makes the point and implies that the color white stands for God’s people made spiritually pure and justified by Jesus’ blood. That means the few in Sardis who were given white robes had been made right and just before God.

In Revelation 3:5, we read - "He who overcomes I will never blot out his name from the book of life." The "overcomer" mentioned in this letter to Sardis is the Believer/Christian. Compare this with 1 John 5:4: "Everyone who is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.

Living faith alone without works ends in imputed righteousness and cleanness of conscience, becoming defiled and dead by continuing in sinful works of the flesh.

This makes no sense. Living faith does not remain alone "apart from the presence of works" (James 2:14-24) yet living faith alone is apart from the merit of works. (Romans 4:2-6)

And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

Faith alone salvationism never yields the perfect fruit of the Spirit, because it rejects perfecting the faith by works.

Faith that remains alone "barren of works" is not living faith in the first place but is an empty profession of faith/dead faith. (James 2:14) Unlike saving belief, temporary, shallow belief is not rooted in a regenerate heart. How can no depth of earth, no root, no moisture, no fruit, represent saving belief? It doesn't.

Not all belief is the same. Even though this shallow ground hearer in Luke 8:13 is said to have "believed," yet he is never said to have been "saved." How do we know that the shallow ground hearer was never actually "saved"? I will explain the reasons.

First, his heart condition is contrasted with that of the "good ground" hearer in the 4th soil, who's heart was "good" and "honest." Thus, his heart was not "good," being like the soil to which it corresponds, being "shallow" or "rocky," lacking sufficient depth. Such soil represents a sinner not properly prepared in heart. People who "believe" and "rejoice" at the preaching of the gospel without a prepared heart, and without a good and honest heart, and without having "root" in themselves, do not experience real salvation.

Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock.

For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.

The fruit of the Spirit is yielded only in all righteousness, not in some righteousness and some unrighteousness: All the thorns must be purged at some point for the ground to become honest and good, and producing fruit of the Spirit unto everlasting life.

IN CONTRAST TO - Mark 4:8 - But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred. Luke 8:15 says, But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. So, the rocky soil represents a person not properly prepared in heart and the seed planted ends up with a lack of "root" (lack of being firmly planted or established) and good soil represents a person properly prepared in heart who having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keeps it and bears fruit with patience.