1 00:00:04,690 --> 00:00:10,310 Greetings, this is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment 2 00:00:10,310 --> 00:00:15,529 of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, 3 00:00:15,769 --> 00:00:24,070 I want to challenge you to ask, what do the somnambulant saints in Sardis? From the book 4 00:00:24,070 --> 00:00:32,009 of Revelation, from the book of the Apocalypse in the Bible, what do the somnambulant saints 5 00:00:32,009 --> 00:00:39,229 in Sardis have to tell us about the sleepwalking church of today? Somnambulants is sleepwalking, 6 00:00:39,369 --> 00:00:47,590 the tendency to sleepwalk. And as we saw last week, Sardis was a town in Asia to whom our Lord 7 00:00:47,590 --> 00:00:54,689 addresses a letter to the church. And Sardis had twice been conquered. We reviewed this 8 00:00:54,689 --> 00:01:00,969 historical background, so important to understanding the book of Revelation. We saw in historical 9 00:01:00,969 --> 00:01:10,409 background that Sardis had twice been conquered by being sleepily unaware of the enemy and letting 10 00:01:10,409 --> 00:01:15,890 their guard down. Now, the same can happen to the church, and the same can happen to us. And 11 00:01:15,890 --> 00:01:23,209 our Lord warns them that don't be like your political leaders, like your historical past. Don't be a 12 00:01:23,209 --> 00:01:30,450 church sleepwalking, even as the city has been sleepwalking in the past, sleepily unaware of 13 00:01:30,450 --> 00:01:38,549 the enemy at their gates. Before we unpack what we have yet to cover, and we went about halfway 14 00:01:38,549 --> 00:01:43,189 through the letter last week. We'll get to the other half this week. Let's refresh our memories 15 00:01:43,189 --> 00:01:51,109 as to what this letter tells us by reading this letter then. It is found in the book of Revelation, 16 00:01:51,109 --> 00:02:00,489 chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. This is the letter to the church in Sardis. To the angel of the church 17 00:02:00,489 --> 00:02:07,129 in Sardis, write, these are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. 18 00:02:07,450 --> 00:02:15,030 I know your deeds. You have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead. Wake up. Strengthen what 19 00:02:15,030 --> 00:02:22,289 remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, 20 00:02:22,449 --> 00:02:28,389 therefore, what you have received and heard. Obey it and repent. But if you do not wake up, 21 00:02:28,490 --> 00:02:35,129 I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Yet you have a few 22 00:02:35,129 --> 00:02:41,569 people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me dressed in white, 23 00:02:41,569 --> 00:02:48,689 for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out 24 00:02:48,689 --> 00:02:54,990 his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. He who has 25 00:02:54,990 --> 00:03:02,669 an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. This is the letter to the church in 26 00:03:02,669 --> 00:03:10,689 Sardis that we find in chapter 3 of the book of Revelation. Now, last week, you may remember that 27 00:03:10,689 --> 00:03:22,330 we covered first the condemnation. Just about every letter here to the churches has both a commendation 28 00:03:22,330 --> 00:03:30,750 and a condemnation to present to those churches, except for two churches, Philadelphia and Laodicea, 29 00:03:30,750 --> 00:03:39,729 and we'll unpack those in days to come. But in the meantime, we saw last week that the large part 30 00:03:39,729 --> 00:03:46,710 of the church in Sardis had fallen prey to the criticisms brought to the other churches that 31 00:03:46,710 --> 00:03:52,389 they were tolerating Jezebel, that they were tolerating two things, primarily. They were 32 00:03:52,389 --> 00:03:59,689 tolerating idolatry and sexual immorality. That idolatry took the form, as we've seen throughout 33 00:03:59,689 --> 00:04:06,650 these letters, that idolatry took the form of eating food sacrificed to idols and participating in the 34 00:04:06,650 --> 00:04:17,730 ceremonies and worship and culture of the respective pagan gods, which oftentimes were headed up by 35 00:04:17,730 --> 00:04:27,529 trade guilds. Each pagan trade guild had its own patron god, and those gods then were celebrated 36 00:04:27,529 --> 00:04:36,230 and worshiped in order to bring blessing and benefit then to the tradesmen. If you were a merchant 37 00:04:36,230 --> 00:04:45,310 merchant, for example, as Lydia was from Thyatira, then your patron god was Mercury, which was the god of 38 00:04:45,310 --> 00:04:53,569 merchants. And you worshipped Mercury. You celebrated his rites that he prescribed. You ate food sacrificed 39 00:04:53,569 --> 00:05:00,389 to him. And if you didn't participate in the culture of the trade guilds, the trade unions of your 40 00:05:00,389 --> 00:05:06,389 particular city, then you didn't work. You were a marked man. You had to bear the mark of the beast 41 00:05:06,389 --> 00:05:13,189 in your thoughts and in your deeds. That's the idea of bearing the mark of the beast on the forehead and 42 00:05:13,189 --> 00:05:18,910 on the hand, is that what you did with your hands, that is everything you did, and what you thought with 43 00:05:18,910 --> 00:05:25,610 your mind, that is everything you thought in your head, had to bear a mark of Mercury, had to bear the 44 00:05:25,610 --> 00:05:34,810 mark of the beast. That's the sense. Not barcodes or chips under the skin on your forehead and hands. 45 00:05:35,129 --> 00:05:41,970 No, it was true in their day. The mark of the beast was very real in the days of the church in Sardis, 46 00:05:42,209 --> 00:05:48,170 even as the mark of the beast has been throughout Christian history. And you miss this if you cast 47 00:05:48,170 --> 00:05:54,589 everything into the future. You must have historical context and historical background if you're going to 48 00:05:54,589 --> 00:05:59,610 understand the apocalypse, if you're going to understand Revelation. Otherwise, you're spinning 49 00:05:59,610 --> 00:06:07,529 fantasies. You're spinning future fantasies when you do this. Cast everything into the future. That 50 00:06:07,529 --> 00:06:13,329 is, the mark of the beast has yet to come. Ha! You're missing it because it has been here in the first 51 00:06:13,329 --> 00:06:20,029 century, and it has been there ever since, brother and sister. And you miss a lot if you don't understand 52 00:06:20,029 --> 00:06:26,949 the historical background and context for these letters. Well, let's continue then, um, beginning at verse 53 00:06:26,949 --> 00:06:34,290 four, which reads, uh, you, yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. That is, 54 00:06:34,290 --> 00:06:40,250 they haven't participated in these trade guild ceremonies, the food sacrifice to idols, and the cultural 55 00:06:40,250 --> 00:06:48,810 practices of sexual immorality to which many of these trade guilds had descended, uh, in those days. You were 56 00:06:48,810 --> 00:06:57,769 expected, uh, to not only, um, as Tertullian says, not only, um, share your meals, but share your wives, 57 00:06:57,769 --> 00:07:04,990 uh, which the Christians did not do. Well, in any case, let's look then at verse four, where we see 58 00:07:04,990 --> 00:07:12,029 Sardis in the church in Sardis, in contrast to the somnambulant saints in Sardis, the Lord commends 59 00:07:12,029 --> 00:07:18,910 those who refuse to compromise with their culture. In contrast to the sleepwalking saints in Sardis, 60 00:07:19,250 --> 00:07:28,250 there are a few yet who refuse to compromise with their culture. Now in verse four, seven times the 61 00:07:28,250 --> 00:07:34,310 saints, or some of them at least are said to be adorned in white garments in the book of Revelation, seven 62 00:07:34,310 --> 00:07:43,089 times. And this is now the second time that saints in white garments are mentioned. First was our Lord 63 00:07:43,089 --> 00:07:50,750 back in chapter one. In addition to our immediate context in these verses, speaking of works, you 64 00:07:50,750 --> 00:07:57,470 remember, um, back in the earlier verses, our Lord says, I know your works and I have not found your 65 00:07:57,470 --> 00:08:03,649 works complete, right? Most of the church in Sardis was like this. John explains here the figure of 66 00:08:03,649 --> 00:08:10,930 speech that we'll encounter then again in chapter 19, verse eight, for the fine linen are the righteous 67 00:08:10,930 --> 00:08:20,029 deeds of the saints. Yes. The fine linen is symbolic of the righteous deeds of the saints. That's explained 68 00:08:20,029 --> 00:08:27,389 for us, um, ahead of us in chapter 19. In every letter, but the last two, Philadelphia and Laodicea, 69 00:08:27,389 --> 00:08:33,110 the Lord finds both commendation and condemnation in the life of each church with bare 70 00:08:33,110 --> 00:08:38,950 commendation here in Sardis. There's only a few. The church in Sardis has a few names that have not 71 00:08:38,950 --> 00:08:44,110 soiled their garments. That is, as we know from previous letters, that this constitutes two things, 72 00:08:44,230 --> 00:08:51,330 idolatry, participating in the idolatrous guild life, trade guild life of the city, complete with 73 00:08:51,330 --> 00:08:57,649 eating food sacrificed to idols. And they were participating in sexual immorality, that those 74 00:08:57,649 --> 00:09:05,309 guild ceremonies often descended into debauched sexual rights. We have seen this manifest, haven't we? 75 00:09:06,350 --> 00:09:15,190 But according to our Lord, there was nevertheless a remnant in Sardis who did not succumb to a 76 00:09:15,190 --> 00:09:22,350 compromise with their culture in this fashion. Now, this is a strong motif throughout Scripture that 77 00:09:22,350 --> 00:09:30,909 is the remnant motif. That is, howsoever corrupt and decadent his people may be, howsoever thoroughly 78 00:09:30,909 --> 00:09:36,250 and completely he may judge his people. And he's done this throughout redemptive history, hasn't he? 79 00:09:36,649 --> 00:09:43,110 Nevertheless, God will always save for himself a righteous remnant. Oh, what a blessing that is. 80 00:09:43,309 --> 00:09:49,090 Where would we be without this mercy? Dear listener, God always preserves, no matter how harsh 81 00:09:49,090 --> 00:09:55,230 his judgment, no matter how thorough and complete his wrath, he will preserve a remnant. We see this, 82 00:09:55,450 --> 00:10:01,870 for example, in the book of Micah. Micah is strong on this remnant motif. And he says in chapter 7, 83 00:10:01,929 --> 00:10:08,570 verse 18, for example, from Micah, who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over 84 00:10:08,570 --> 00:10:16,330 transgression for the remnant of his inheritance. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights 85 00:10:16,330 --> 00:10:26,210 in covenant love. Unquote. From Micah chapter 7, verse 18. Oh, and so we have here, then, the idea 86 00:10:26,210 --> 00:10:32,750 of the remnant motif here in the apocalypse, in the book of Revelation. There is indeed a remnant in 87 00:10:32,750 --> 00:10:39,649 this town, in Sardis, who are strong. They see clearly, and they refuse to compromise with 88 00:10:39,649 --> 00:10:48,710 their culture. And that's a motif that we should embrace as well. What is exemplified here should be 89 00:10:48,710 --> 00:10:56,029 modeled by us. And another motif in Revelation is that of walking with Christ in white. Walking with 90 00:10:56,029 --> 00:11:02,669 Christ in white that we see here, too. That is, participating in holy worship with him. Already, 91 00:11:02,669 --> 00:11:10,250 we have seen him walking among the lampstands. Our Lord, dressed in white, pure and holy, symbolic of 92 00:11:10,250 --> 00:11:19,169 his purity and his holiness. And the lampstands, of course, are the churches. And we'll see our Lord 93 00:11:19,169 --> 00:11:25,769 with the church in white subsequently in days to come, too. This beautiful, beautiful picture of being 94 00:11:25,769 --> 00:11:32,669 dressed in white, the good works of the church, the righteousness of Christ also. We'll see white 95 00:11:32,669 --> 00:11:38,230 garments, white robes endowed with the saints, the church endowed with white robes, the righteousness 96 00:11:38,230 --> 00:11:46,850 of Christ imputed to us. So we'll see this again and again. And it means pureness and holiness. It 97 00:11:46,850 --> 00:11:52,909 means worship as well. The idea of worshiping this Lord, not just walking with him in discipleship, 98 00:11:52,909 --> 00:11:58,490 but also worship. Worship is a strong theme throughout the book of Revelation, too. And we 99 00:11:58,490 --> 00:12:03,690 need to take cues for our worship from the worship that we see participating in heaven. 100 00:12:04,330 --> 00:12:09,590 Our worship on earth should reflect the worship that we find in the book of Revelation transpiring 101 00:12:09,590 --> 00:12:16,889 even now in heaven. So the early church, too, then, and we see this in the life of the early church. 102 00:12:16,889 --> 00:12:22,110 I've been learning so much about this in my treatment of Revelation this time around. 103 00:12:22,110 --> 00:12:29,830 I'm seeing how the early church modeled its worship from the book of Revelation, as well as other 104 00:12:29,830 --> 00:12:35,929 sources, not just Revelation, but Revelation was a go-to source for the early church in the opening 105 00:12:35,929 --> 00:12:41,210 centuries of the life of the church, which the reformers sought to go back to, by the way. 106 00:12:41,909 --> 00:12:49,450 The reformers sought not only to reform Roman Catholic doctrine, but also to reform Roman Catholic 107 00:12:49,450 --> 00:12:57,769 worship, and by going back to the roots, by going back to sources, by reforming worship as well. And we 108 00:12:57,769 --> 00:13:03,110 often neglect this. If you think you're so hot on Reformation doctrine, well, you should be hot for 109 00:13:03,110 --> 00:13:09,590 Reformation worship, too, as well, dear listener, because the early church reformed worship. You'll see 110 00:13:09,590 --> 00:13:16,809 this in the writings of Calvin, and it was a big theme in Luther's understanding as well. And, of course, 111 00:13:16,809 --> 00:13:24,549 John Knox completely overhauled, completely reformed, almost single-handedly the worship of the 112 00:13:24,549 --> 00:13:30,850 Presbyterian churches in Scotland, too. And these things are often neglected, and I wish to bring 113 00:13:30,850 --> 00:13:37,590 them forward here because Revelation is indeed a book of worship as well as doctrine, as well as last 114 00:13:37,590 --> 00:13:45,309 things. Stop galloping and giddy-opping than to the good stuff, as you may call it, with the rapture, 115 00:13:45,669 --> 00:13:51,830 and the 666, and the Great Tribulation, and all of that stuff. No, there's rich things to mine from 116 00:13:51,830 --> 00:13:59,389 the book of Revelation here. And the early church sought to capture this picture of walking with 117 00:13:59,389 --> 00:14:05,769 Christ in worship in worship. The early church sought to capture this in her covenant renewal worship 118 00:14:05,769 --> 00:14:12,590 services, with the acolytes in the worship service dressed in white robes, accompanying the priests as 119 00:14:12,590 --> 00:14:19,309 they accessed and egressed the service. And this became a picture of the saints bedecked in fine linen, 120 00:14:19,809 --> 00:14:26,009 the righteous deeds of the saints, as we see in chapter 19, which finds warrant here in Revelation. 121 00:14:26,009 --> 00:14:32,929 But, of course, the promise does not stop there. And that brings us to point three. Sardis, and this 122 00:14:32,929 --> 00:14:41,029 encompasses verses five through six. Sardis, in contrast to the somnambulant saints in Sardis, 123 00:14:41,710 --> 00:14:48,009 the Lord promises life and vindication in the age to come. That encompasses verses five through six. 124 00:14:48,250 --> 00:14:55,509 If you have your text before you, verses five through six, he who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in 125 00:14:55,509 --> 00:15:02,009 white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my 126 00:15:02,009 --> 00:15:07,570 father and his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. These are 127 00:15:07,570 --> 00:15:14,009 verses five and six, chapter three of the book of Revelation in the church to Sardis. The theme of 128 00:15:14,009 --> 00:15:19,850 conquering is here again, isn't it? The theme of conquering is reiterated again for us. The one who 129 00:15:19,850 --> 00:15:26,850 conquers will be clothed thus in white garments. You neglect this, and the passive loser church of 130 00:15:26,850 --> 00:15:32,529 today neglects the idea that we should be about conquering. And we'll see in chapters to come 131 00:15:32,529 --> 00:15:40,409 that the new Joshua is picking up the theme of the conquest from the book of Joshua, too. 132 00:15:41,929 --> 00:15:48,450 Dominion is our destiny. And the book of Joshua is the new paradigm now for the book of Revelation. 133 00:15:48,450 --> 00:15:54,850 And this idea of conquering is laced throughout these letters, laced throughout the book of Revelation. 134 00:15:55,070 --> 00:16:01,590 Wake up, church in America. Stop being passive. We are to be aggressive. We are to be on the offense, 135 00:16:01,870 --> 00:16:10,950 cleansing Christ's inheritance of its interlopers and conquering in his name. So this idea of conquering 136 00:16:10,950 --> 00:16:16,870 is reiterated for us. The one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments. 137 00:16:16,870 --> 00:16:24,090 Has this stone splashed in the bottom of your well yet? Listener, are you convinced yet that dominion 138 00:16:24,090 --> 00:16:31,009 is our destiny and that we are called to conquer? Or is that reserved for the pie in the sky when you 139 00:16:31,009 --> 00:16:35,710 die days, when the Lord returns and the literal thousand year reign of Christ, is that what conquering 140 00:16:35,710 --> 00:16:42,970 is reserved for? Oh, church, wake up. There can be no dominion until Christ returns. Oh, dominion is 141 00:16:42,970 --> 00:16:47,970 heresy. And all we are supposed to do is win souls and wait for the rapture. That's the line of the 142 00:16:47,970 --> 00:16:54,509 contemporary evangelical church. And it's false. They say, oh, the world is going to hell in a handbasket. 143 00:16:54,629 --> 00:16:59,950 And as far as I'm concerned, we might as well have a ministry of handing out handbaskets. Right? The sooner 144 00:16:59,950 --> 00:17:05,529 Antichrist arrives, many of the reasoning goes, the sooner the Antichrist arrives, the sooner the end will come 145 00:17:05,529 --> 00:17:12,190 and the rapture will come. Amen? Oh, dear listener, this is wrongheaded thinking. It's the lullaby of last 146 00:17:12,190 --> 00:17:20,630 things that dispensationalism sings. Dispensational pre-millennialism has a lullaby of last things, 147 00:17:20,630 --> 00:17:29,430 and it puts saints to sleep. The church in America is like the church in Sardis in that it is filled 148 00:17:29,430 --> 00:17:38,890 with somnambulant saints. Instead, dominion in revelation. When I say dominion is our destiny, 149 00:17:39,289 --> 00:17:45,710 I'm not saying that dominion is a matter of political parties, like the Christian Democrats, 150 00:17:45,890 --> 00:17:54,150 as they're called in Europe, right? And dominion is not a matter of blue laws, like a closure store on 151 00:17:54,150 --> 00:18:00,930 Sunday. And dominion is not a matter of crusading armies, like the hospitaliers back in the Middle 152 00:18:00,930 --> 00:18:10,029 Ages. Rather, dominion is what our text tells us it is, that is conquering by bleeding in affliction 153 00:18:10,029 --> 00:18:20,069 and martyrdom. Conquering by doing good works in righteousness and overcoming evil by our good 154 00:18:20,069 --> 00:18:29,109 works. This is dominion. Dominion is conquering by proclaiming the gospel in word and then in 155 00:18:29,109 --> 00:18:38,509 sacrament and then in our worship. Oh, the sacraments, the word of God, and our worship is the tools, 156 00:18:38,650 --> 00:18:43,849 the means by which we take dominion, and the book of Revelation bears this out for us time and time 157 00:18:43,849 --> 00:18:51,009 again. These are the weapons of our warfare. They're mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. And it's 158 00:18:51,009 --> 00:19:01,890 how we take dominion, dear listener. The great tyrant Mao Zedong said political power comes out of the 159 00:19:01,890 --> 00:19:08,630 barrel of the gun. We Christians say spiritual power comes out of the blood of the cross, and this is by 160 00:19:08,630 --> 00:19:15,549 which we conquer. We fatally underestimate the power of these weapons and their power to conquer when we 161 00:19:15,549 --> 00:19:24,089 push everything into the future. To those who conquer, then, to those who conquer in this fashion, 162 00:19:24,710 --> 00:19:34,150 three blessings accrue. First of all, we will shine like the sun. What a beautiful image that is, right? 163 00:19:34,750 --> 00:19:39,890 We will shine like the sun. We will be clothed in the beauty of holiness, in other words, 164 00:19:39,890 --> 00:19:46,769 in the righteous deeds of the saints. Jesus promises that we, the righteous, will shine like the sun 165 00:19:46,769 --> 00:19:52,910 in the kingdom of our Father, too, back in Matthew chapter 13. All brothers and sisters, this is true 166 00:19:52,910 --> 00:19:59,269 glory. That is, we will be shining like the sun. Three blessings accrue. The second blessing is our 167 00:19:59,269 --> 00:20:06,369 names are written in ink in the book of life. Now, we have an expression for a conditional appointment 168 00:20:06,369 --> 00:20:12,410 or a conditional situation, don't we? I'll pencil you in. That is, we're good unless something more 169 00:20:12,410 --> 00:20:19,029 important comes along. Well, in that case, I'll have to erase you from my book of life, right? My 170 00:20:19,029 --> 00:20:26,329 appointment calendar. No, not so with God's book of life. Our names are not written in pencil. They're 171 00:20:26,329 --> 00:20:32,430 written in ink. We are inked in. It's one of the beautiful metaphors for God's sovereign certain 172 00:20:32,430 --> 00:20:38,369 election of his own. And if you don't believe in election, you don't believe in the five points 173 00:20:38,369 --> 00:20:42,750 of Calvinism. By the time you're done with the book of Revelation, then you're reading with your eyes 174 00:20:42,750 --> 00:20:50,509 closed. Because this is one of those beautiful metaphors for election, for the doctrine of 175 00:20:50,509 --> 00:20:56,450 predestination. That is, we are, our names are written in the book of life from before the foundation 176 00:20:56,450 --> 00:21:03,930 of the world. And there's a certainty as well that you will persevere to the end, because your name 177 00:21:03,930 --> 00:21:10,910 is written in the book of life. Written in ink, not pencil. Well, the third blessing that our Lord 178 00:21:10,910 --> 00:21:19,990 promises us then is that Christ will own us as his before all of creation. Yes, the Lord will own us 179 00:21:19,990 --> 00:21:29,250 before him and before all of creation. Yes, we will be acknowledged. Our name will be acknowledged 180 00:21:29,250 --> 00:21:36,809 before the Father and his angels, right? That's that sense of Christ will own us as his before all 181 00:21:36,809 --> 00:21:44,230 of creation. As a groom owns his bride at his wedding. As a father owns his child at his baptism. 182 00:21:44,230 --> 00:21:52,990 As a youth owns his faith and Savior as his own at his first communion. And you're exhorted as you're 183 00:21:52,990 --> 00:21:59,109 baptized as an infant to make good your baptism. Well then, so Christ will own us at the renewal of 184 00:21:59,109 --> 00:22:05,750 all things. Think of him confessing your name in glory, just as you have confessed his in the dust 185 00:22:05,750 --> 00:22:11,970 of this age. Oh, what a blessing that would be. At that time, all of the shame that is heaped upon you 186 00:22:11,970 --> 00:22:20,670 by lost creatures who despise your Savior. All of that shame will be turned to glory. 187 00:22:21,349 --> 00:22:28,569 Oh, at that time, when Christ acknowledges you as his before the Father and his angels, 188 00:22:28,849 --> 00:22:34,630 all of the obscurity and the insignificance of your faith and your confession in the world's eyes 189 00:22:34,630 --> 00:22:41,890 will be magnified by Christ himself. What a glorious thing. At that time, your audience will change. 190 00:22:41,970 --> 00:22:49,369 From lost, scoffing demons to the angels of heaven. Oh, what a blessing that will be, dear listener. 191 00:22:49,849 --> 00:22:56,730 Long for this. Work for this. Because God will reward you thusly when you do. 192 00:22:58,109 --> 00:23:07,430 This is our task, then, for the days ahead. Is to labor for these rewards. And to conquer. 193 00:23:07,430 --> 00:23:16,329 Yes, to conquer, dear listener. Don't despise this. And don't say that's not our task. Our task is not 194 00:23:16,329 --> 00:23:24,230 just to run around saving souls waiting for the rapture and being pessimistic about what the world 195 00:23:24,230 --> 00:23:31,410 will turn into. No, we are to conquer on behalf of Christ and labor to transform the earth and the 196 00:23:31,410 --> 00:23:37,329 world around us, even as the church has for centuries past. You're blind to this if you cast 197 00:23:37,329 --> 00:23:42,750 everything into the future. Look what the church has done to transform culture, to transform the way 198 00:23:42,750 --> 00:23:49,690 we live, to transform every institution of the world, and to make us not only a prosperous Christian 199 00:23:49,690 --> 00:23:57,869 culture as that happens, but also a blessed one, a peaceful one, a safe one, a one in which things are 200 00:23:57,869 --> 00:24:05,730 created and invented, a one in which new discoveries are made all the time. Christian culture is based 201 00:24:05,730 --> 00:24:11,890 on biblical principles. If we just look through our history and look to how the world has been 202 00:24:11,890 --> 00:24:19,490 transformed already by the gospel, by the church, dominion is our mandate. Dominion is our destiny 203 00:24:19,490 --> 00:24:27,890 and conquering is in our future. So, um, if you don't do it, if you continue to buy the pessimistic 204 00:24:27,890 --> 00:24:36,329 dispensational pre-millennial, uh, line of things, um, where, uh, there is only dominion in the thousand 205 00:24:36,329 --> 00:24:42,589 year reign of Christ on the earth, uh, then you will not participate in this. You will be left behind. 206 00:24:42,589 --> 00:24:47,549 But those of us who understand what true dominion is, those of us who understand what it means to 207 00:24:47,549 --> 00:24:53,470 conquer, uh, we'll be out doing what our forefathers have done. And that is conquering, uh, so that, uh, 208 00:24:53,470 --> 00:25:00,450 we use the tools before us. We use the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper. We use suffering 209 00:25:00,450 --> 00:25:06,250 and martyrdom and bleeding as Christ bled, uh, to take dominion, even as we see those who 210 00:25:06,250 --> 00:25:12,430 persecute the church, uh, coming to Christ in places like Syria and Iran. The more Christians 211 00:25:12,430 --> 00:25:17,250 are butchered, the more those butcherers see the grace and the love and the peace with which 212 00:25:17,250 --> 00:25:26,450 they die. And we see conversions behind, um, uh, Muslim, uh, nations, Muslim veiled nations like Syria 213 00:25:26,450 --> 00:25:34,130 and like, uh, Iran, uh, where there's revival going on, even as the blood of the saints become the seed 214 00:25:34,130 --> 00:25:38,849 of the church in places like that. This is how we conquer brothers and sisters. We conquer in our 215 00:25:38,849 --> 00:25:43,750 worship. Every time you go to a worship service and participate in living worship of the living 216 00:25:43,750 --> 00:25:50,630 Christ, you take a little more ground from the evil one. These are the way we conquer. And, uh, 217 00:25:50,630 --> 00:25:57,309 I love them and I embrace them. This has been pastor David Bass at new Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian 218 00:25:57,309 --> 00:26:03,369 church with a moment of truth. And I pray that you would be able to join us as we unpack the book 219 00:26:03,369 --> 00:26:07,430 of revelation in our worship services. We're preaching through the book of revelation. Even 220 00:26:07,430 --> 00:26:13,569 now, I invite you to join us in our worship services and they transpire at 10 AM on Sunday 221 00:26:13,569 --> 00:26:20,410 morning at one on one four street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. Um, join us. Uh, maybe you've 222 00:26:20,410 --> 00:26:26,289 been contemplating crossing our threshold. Uh, do so at new Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian church. 223 00:26:26,289 --> 00:26:32,309 Come visit us this Sunday at 10 AM at one Oh one fourth street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. 224 00:26:32,470 --> 00:26:39,210 And you can call us for more information, perhaps some feedback or comment too at area code 208 225 00:26:39,210 --> 00:26:49,789 5 2 3 0 1 9 6 2 0 8 5 2 3 0 1 9 6 2 0 8 5 2 3 0 1 9 6.