Talbot_Expositi_1937-WM.pdf

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The Revelation of Jesus Christ

tion begins to run its course. To them He says, "Hold fast till I come," and promises the millennial blessing, in that they will be "joint-heirs" with Him as He rules over the nations of the earth. Always God has "a faithful remnant" who "have not bowed the knee to Baal."

THE MESSAGE TO SARDIS-THE CHURCH OF THE

PROTESTANT REFORMATION

3: 1-6 To the church at Sardis our Lord sent this message, "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." What did He mean by that statement? What happened just after the Protestant Reformation? You will recall from your study of church history that, when the reformers went out to preach, their watchword was: "The just shall live by faith." They were called "Protestants," because they protested against the existing evils and corruption in the church. They threat­ ened to wipe everything represented by Thyatira from the face of the earth. But, strange to say. the Reformation sud­ denly came to a close. Why? Because the devil got the "Protest-ants" back into the old rut from which the early reformers had delivered them. The name they had was one which meant something, but spiritually they were dead. "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead." After the Reformation, the church went back to ordi­ nances, and form and ceremony took the place of regenera­ tion. I think those stalwart men of God would turn over in their graves if they knew the spiritual condition of many of the churches which bear their names! When a two hundred and fifty thousand-dollar church is equipped with rooms for card parties, smoking rooms, and dance halls, how could one expect conversions? Just recently I was shown over such a church. Such an organization finds no place for the Christ of the cross and the Christ of the empty tomb. So Sardis, whose name means "escaping," represents the period of reaction, when great men were used of God to bring about reform and "escape" from the evils of the papacy. But it also represents the time when the Reformation, which

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