On one hand, there is revival—praise the Lord! On the other hand, it must be rebuked before the Lord because it is never returned to the beginning. The Protestant churches have revivals continuously, but the Lord says they are not perfect, they have not gone back to the beginning. We must remember what was in the beginning. The problem is not how we receive and hear now; the problem is how we received and heard in the beginning. In Acts 2 many were saved, and the Lord said they continued steadfastly in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in the breaking of bread and the prayers. It does not say that they continued in the apostles’ breaking of bread and the prayers, but in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles. The fellowship of Christ is the fellowship of the apostles; the teaching of Christ is the teaching of the apostles. God only counts the fellowship of the apostles as fellowship; He only counts the teaching of the apostles as teaching. We cannot invent a fellowship; neither can we invent a teaching. The mistake of Thyatira was that she manufactured her own teaching, since Jezebel was there. God does not want us to invent; He just wants us to receive. In the twentieth century anything can be invented, but not the teaching. In the Spirit we may talk about discovery, but in teaching there cannot be any invention. We must examine what we have received, what we have heard, and hold fast and repent.

“I will come as a thief, and you shall by no means know at what hour I will come upon you” (v. 3). “Come” is to come by descending. “Upon” in Greek is epi, which means I will descend by your side, not come upon you, but apart from you. The coming of the thief is a coming of epi. We are here, and he prowls up by our side. The Lord’s use of words is very ingenious. We can translate it as, “I will come and pass by you, yet you will not know it.”

The thief does not come to steal the cheap things; he always steals the best. The Lord will also steal the best from the earth. The best are in His hands, not outside of Him. We are in the house: one will be raptured, and one will be left. So the Lord says that if you will not watch, He will come. The Lord Jesus is coming back soon. The day is getting closer. May we be precious enough to be “stolen” by the Lord.

“But you have a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments, and they will walk with Me in white because they are worthy” (v. 4). Jacob brought seventy souls into Egypt (Exo. 1:5). Ordinarily the Scriptures say so many men, so many souls. But the Lord says here that there are a few names; the Lord pays special attention to our names. He says that there are a few names who have not defiled their garments. These garments are our righteous deeds. When we stand before God, we put on Christ, for Christ is our white garment. However, we are not standing before God here, but before Christ, before the judgment seat (Rom. 14:10). We do not put on Christ here; rather, we put on “fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the saints” (Rev. 19:8). There are a few names which have not defiled their garments; that is to say, their behavior is clean. They will walk with the Lord, for they are worthy.

“He who overcomes will be clothed thus, in white garments, and I shall by no means erase his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels” (3:5). The matter here does not involve whether the name is recorded, but whether the name will be confessed. Those whom the Lord confesses will participate in something; those whom the Lord does not confess will not participate. All the names are recorded in the book of life, but he who is not confessed by the Lord is like one who is marked out with a circle. He will not participate. Here the problem is not related to eternal life in eternity, but to whether or not you can reign with the Lord. It is an unfortunate thing to be recorded and yet not be able to participate. May the Lord be gracious to us so that we may wear the white garment before the Lord. We have the white garment to put on before God, but what about before the Lord?