Dr. Steve Price uses his medical knowledge to dramatic effect as he speaks on the “dead church” of Sardis in Revelation 3:1-6 and applies it to the local assembly.

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Quotes and Excerpts

25m:07s He’s saying, ‘You have an external veneer that you are alive, just like that gangrenous extremity. But if we were to merely make the slightest of spiritual incisions, what we would find is a whole slew of necrotic spiritual tissue.’

26m:24s Friends, my fellow brothers and sisters, this can easily be a malady of your own personal life, your own fatherhood, your own motherhood, and your own place and service in the local assembly, and anything else you touch. And yet you can fool yourself. This is kind of the beginning, in the letters, where we really fool ourselves, really blinded to our true condition. What amazed me about that patient with the diabetic extremity is that she thought everything was ok! She just thought that she would come in, maybe have me look at, and that she would be gone. Actually, what happened was that we had to amputate her extremity. It was that serious. And the same is true here, it’s that serious. That’s why the spiritual physician of the hour, he comes right to the issue. This is serious, it’s urgent, it’s emergent, and we must deal with it straight away. We have to cut through all the commendation and we have to go straight to evaluation. No time to waste, Christian, no time.

37m:10s Let me tell you, there are some things worth staying awake for. There are some things that are more valuable to deal with than attaining your sleep. And saints, this condition of spiritual deadness, with the name that you’re alive, is such an urgent situation that it will require all night spiritual surgery. And if that’s what you gotta do, that’s what you gotta do. That’s how important it is.

36m:16s This is what the Lord is saying: “I’m not ready to just end it. I’m ready, I want to count you, I want to bring back what’s nearly dead.” We have one chance, and let’s make the most of it. Have you ever said that in medicine, have you ever heard a patient say that? I have! And I know exactly what they mean. “Doctor, let’s not quit. There’s a chance.” And I think the Lord Jesus is saying, “There’s a chance! A good one! let’s get to it.” This text right here [Rev. 3:2] is what kept me at a place where I was going bonkers in there. It kept my feet to the fire. Many a saint came and left, and I fault them not, but I could not, I could not leave, because of this verse.

Verses

Revelation 3:1-6
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write, ‘These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: “I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

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

Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you.

You have a few names even in Sardis who have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white, for they are worthy.

He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”