In verse 2 the Lord says to “establish the things which remain, which were about to die.” “The things which remain” are the things lost and restored by the Reformation, such as justification by faith and the open Bible. Though these things were restored, they “were about to die.” Hence, the Protestant Church needs revivals to keep things alive. This is the actual situation of the Protestant churches.
The Lord also said, “I have not found your works completed before My God.” Nothing begun in the Reformation has ever been completed. Therefore, the church in Philadelphia is needed for the completion. In the eyes of God, there are no complete works in the so-called reformed churches. 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.
The crucial point about the fifth church is that it is dead and dying. While it has a name that it is living, actually it is dead. Many of us can testify that when we were saved, we were quite living. But after getting into a denominational church, we were put into the refrigerator and, after a few months, we cooled down and died. The reformed churches are deadening. I was raised in a so-called Protestant church and I know that there is absolutely no life there. In nearly every way, it is filled with death.
In verse 3 the Lord says, “Remember therefore how you have received and heard, and keep it and repent.” In both this verse and in verse 2, the Lord charges the church in Sardis to be watchful, to establish the things which remain and which are about to die, to keep what she has received and heard, and to repent.
In verse 3 the Lord also says, “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.” A thief comes to steal precious things at an unknown time. Since the reformed Protestant churches are dead, they will be unaware of the Lord’s coming as a thief in His secret appearing to His seekers. Hence, there is the need of watchfulness.
The revelation in the New Testament regarding the Lord’s second coming is not according to our natural understanding. According to our natural thought, the Lord will suddenly descend from the throne in the heavens to the earth. This thought has caused much difficulty to the students of the Bible, and we must drop it. In understanding anything found in the Bible, we should have no trust in our thoughts, and we should never apply our natural concepts. This is why we need a clear, renewed mind when we come to the Word of God. We must drop the colored eyeglasses of our concepts and come to the pure Word. The Lord’s coming back is a process. His coming back will begin from the throne and will pass through a process until He descends to fight the battle at Armageddon. As we have pointed out, the Lord will descend from the throne to the air where He will accomplish many things: the rapture of the majority of the saints, the judgment at the judgment seat, and the wedding of the Lamb. After all this has been accomplished in the air, the Lord will descend to the earth. The rapture of the early overcomers, including the man-child (ch. 12) and the firstfruits (ch. 14), will occur at the start of the process of the Lord’s coming back. In other words, when they are raptured, the process of the Lord’s coming back begins.
In 3:3 and Matthew 24:43 we are told that the Lord will come as a thief. Suddenly, some of the believers who are the early overcomers will be taken away. No one knows the time of the beginning of the process of the Lord’s coming back and of the rapture of the early overcomers. When it comes, there will be no time for you to prepare yourself. You must be thoroughly prepared before that time. Therefore, we must be prepared, ready, and watchful.