I invite you to turn in your Bibles tonight to the last book of the Bible, chapter 2. As we continue our reflection tonight in the book of Revelation, we come to the church in Pergamons. Since everyone asked me this morning, Pastor, where are your glasses? I lost them. I don't know. But it's been kind of nice. I've seen nobody sleep today, so it's been really good. Tonight, we're going to consider verses 12 through 17. 12 through 17. This is the word of the Lord. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some of those who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers i will give some of the hidden manna and i will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it there is the reading of god's word tonight one of the real benefits to studying these letters that we have to the seven churches in the book of Revelation is to see and understand the ways in which the church is assaulted and attacked being in the world. And of course, how we are to respond to these attacks. We have to know the enemy, don't we? We have to understand his tactics. We have to understand what he does and what we're prone to. Paul said this about Satan, that we're not ignorant of Satan's devices, didn't he? He knows Satan's working. He knows that Satan is working overtime and he has many devices to tear down the church. Ephesus, looking at these churches as we've considered so far, Ephesus fought doctrinal battles, didn't they? But they had left their first love. Smyrna was a unique church to study, an encouraging church to study in many ways because the Lord had nothing negative to say of them, but he encouraged them knowing that they were a church soon to face persecution. And so we looked at the persecuted church last time. Well, tonight we come to the church in Pergamum. This church had not abandoned its commitment to Christ. This church, at first glance, is a somewhat faithful church. They had accepted and believed and held fast to the faith, the deposit of faith that was handed down to them, what Jude talks about, the faith once delivered to the saints. There's the faith when we talk about faith we have in embracing Christ. And then the faith that is a deposit that's handed to us, the baton of faith, the body of truth we confess and believe. They had held fast to those things. But it's interesting, as we read further about the church in Pergamum, that they had tolerated certain things that Christ is not happy about. So we're going to have to put that together a little bit to see and think about what exactly happened in this church that could bring this about because the consequence was very devastating. It was affecting the purity and the holiness of the body. This church will be good for us in our reflection on the seven churches. Remember as the Lord is giving the book of Revelation, John's writing it to help the church in struggle in this world to understand its place in in the midst of kings and kingdoms and how they are to respond as his people as a as a body let's begin tonight by by looking a bit at what this church was or the city was like in which pergamum dwelled i believe the background of these cities helps a lot since we have so much of this and people have done excellent work scholarly work to help us understand this you see what Jesus is saying when you understand the background where these churches were found. In verse 12, we read, And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. Remember what's happening in the beginning of each church here in this letter. Jesus is taking something from the first vision in chapter 1 and applying it to the church to say, i know your struggle i walk among the lampstands and these are things you need to think about and it's interesting that he raises a sharp two-edged sword in chapter one he said that it was out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword it's an important description a powerful description of something that in the scriptures is often given to describe the Word of God, isn't it? The church is governed by the Word of God. This is not our church. This is not anyone's church here. It is a church that is created by the Word. It is a church that is governed by that Word. It is the Word that drives the mission of the church. It's the Word that defines the mission of the church and what we are to do and who we are to be and christ is here raising this up front and setting this in front of them to think about the importance of listening to that word isn't he it's very important because he's going to say in in in a few moments here as we'll consider that if there is not repentance in this church he is going to come and fight against some of the people with the sword of his mouth remember uh in john's gospel jesus said that the one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge the word that i have spoken will judge him so this is uh this is jesus up front challenging and having this church think about who is in charge and what governs the body what governs the church now now that leads us to the question of what was happening in Pergamos. In verse 13, he says, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. That's quite a statement from our Lord looking at a city, isn't it? Looking at Pergamum. I know that where you are gathering, Satan has put his throne. What in the world was going on in Pergamum? Understanding them helps a little bit, the city. if you lived at that time and you had heard the name Pergamum, you would have immediately understood that as the city that was known as the capital of Roman Asia, if you will. But in a different way, not the way we think of capitals. For instance, we have Washington, D.C. But where do we look to as the sort of epicenter? Where do we look to as the city of greatness of the United States? Well, we look to New York, don't we? We look to Wall Street's there. It's a similar kind of thing with Pergamum. Pergamum was known as the capital of, and the place where the Roman cult was the most powerful, the worship of the emperor. This was the first city to build a temple on behalf of the emperor. It was referred to the city as the temple warden, where the people from the region would come and pay public honor to Caesar. As we looked at last time with Smyrna, this was a similar and very destructive problem here for the Christians of burning incense to Caesar's bust. If you didn't do it, you were committing treason. You see how this all ties to this morning and what Jesus was charged with. Further, a massive hill stood there outside the city and at the very peak was a great altar made to Zeus. Add to this, Asclepios, the deity was there. That was known, that name, and as it was designated in the day, he was known to be the Savior God or the God of healing. This God was in the form of a serpent. Interesting. You understand what Jesus is saying. I see Satan's throne. I see what he's done. I see that your church is put right in the epicenter of Satan's activity in a very destructive way. The influences and the wickedness in this city was a huge influence. And it was affecting the members of the church there. I know you. I walk among your churches. I see what you're dealing with, Pergamum. I see what you're facing there. I see what you're being exposed to. And he begins with a quite remarkable commendation, doesn't he? You hold fast to my name. You hold fast to my name and you didn't even deny my faith. There's that deposit. You didn't even deny my faith in the days of Antipas the martyr. who was killed among you where satan dwells interesting inclusion the situation like smyrna got so bad at one point it seems as it's general received that one of the members there faced martyrdom from the church he was probably a city elected official who wouldn't be involved in this cult worship of the emperor, the name that is chosen here for him means against all. Interesting. You can only imagine, maybe it was like Polycarp that we considered last time. They brought him in and said, look, all you have to do is sprinkle a few bits of incense on the throne and say Caesar is Lord. Nothing will happen and you'll be freed. But he didn't. how could a believer and guess what we're not told how but but he was martyred in this city now jesus is commending them notice the commendation notice notice how interesting this commendation is he says in this kind of pressure when one of your own elected officials and imagine if this was the mayor or somebody like that and the mayor is a part of your church and the mayor's out there doing his work and he takes this stand and he is put on the chopping block and he's killed for the faith. He commends the church because he says, in the midst of that kind of pressure, you didn't deny my faith. You stood with Antipas. You held fast my name. That's remarkable, isn't it? I mean, at first glance, this is a really remarkable church. You ever thought about it? If that had happened? If one of our elected officials in the Escondido United Reformed Church, let's just say, took a stance against abortion. And we got a letter from City Hall and it said, if your church continues to practice this, we're taking out your mayor and we're going to come after you next. We're coming after North Broadway. Threat came down the road. You had a series of churches that are fine with it. Right? You going to stand? I hope so. I trust you would. It's an amazing thing. Jesus is committing them. You stood. You stood. You didn't deny me. What in the world could go wrong in a church like that? I was thinking about this this week and one statement from a pastor I was reading. He said this, we don't have the privilege of fighting one front at a time. Satan attacks at the front door and the back. And that got me thinking. That really provoked me to think about exactly what that looks like. So at the front door, we could stand at the front door tonight, look out at all the stuff out there and say, ah, we are anti all that. Right? We are anti all that. We are going to keep the faith of Jesus. But then we never turn around, do we? And we never look down the hall. In other words, we have little energy to turn around and look inside the church to ask, what are the members holding? What are the members believing? What is the body holding on to? How is that going? See? Where do we rarely look? We're good at looking out. We're good at turning on the news and saying, oh, pagans. We're not so good about looking at what's springing up among us. we're not so good about looking carefully and helping the lives of the people among us. That's a challenge. What was then the problem in Pergamos? Well, it's the opposite of that of Ephesus, in a sense. Ephesus, remember God said, they fought all the doctrinal battles, they condemned the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, but there was no love. but here love seems to have become the excuse to allow the members themselves to hold anything they wanted to hold. That kind of now puts things in perspective and that might help us with some of the struggle today for this is what we always hear. It's all about love. And no one really knows really what love is. Love was being abused in the worst sort of way. What happened? Jesus says it. I have a few things against you. You'll notice that here. I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality. Wow. There it is defined. The church held fast. Think of this dilemma for a minute. The church held fast to the name of Jesus. The church was against all. Let me use the words of our Belgic introduction. King Philip II, together with an address in which the petitioners declared that they were ready to obey the government in all lawful things. They would offer their backs to stripes, their tongues to knives, their mouths to gags, and their whole bodies to the fire rather than deny the truth in this confession. Here it is. Let me toss it over the wall to you. Here we stand. Antipas. Genstall. Sounds like a great church. You didn't deny my faith. But you ever seen a church only about what it's against? Never what it's for? What kind of air develops in that environment? What kind of air? We know the problem. I was thinking of some examples to help you with this, and this is what I came up with. We know this problem on such a widespread level, it's almost scary. You have the best plumber in town, right? And you call the plumber, and this guy's really good at unclogging stuff. What happens in his own house? Things are clogged up. Does that work? What about a gardener? We know this problem. Gardeners can be the best gardener, but their own house can be in shambles. Their own gardens can look terrible. Boys and girls, teenagers, you go out and your best friends and the ones you are kind to, listen to, like, are the ones outside of your own home. Come back in the home and who do you treat terrible? Well, I know this. I see it all the time. Your sibling. I think of the problem with pastors. We're good at counseling everyone else. Do we counsel ourselves? The greatest neglect is where? Our own house. This is why we have the verse in the Scripture. This is a human nature problem on all levels. We have the verse. if your own house is not in order, how do you think you're going to care for the church? So we're against all. We're critiquing all except our house. We're good at fixing everyone else's problems except ours. We stand for Christianity. We stand for things before the world. We have confession in hand. But before our own, not as much. What a strange problem. What a strange problem. And it's just in us why. I was reading at Devotions I did and I did my test at the table. And my littlest said, why do we do that? Why are we neglect? And my littlest, my six-year-old says, dad, we're lazy. Huh, I think she got it. I think she got it. They were tolerant, compromising in their own house. Allowing views in contrary to the faith. With confession in hand to the world. See the dilemma? Christians could hold all kinds of things before the world with robust conviction, but if they don't put in practice what they preach, a terrible hypocrisy comes out. That's compromise, isn't it? That's why I titled this the compromising church. When you know the truth, you believe the truth, you understand the truth, you willingly stand on the truth, but are openly accepting in your own house of things that are contrary to the truth. That's the definition of compromise and hypocrisy, which go hand in hand. And what comes out here is that the doctrines some were holding, now we get to the specifics here a little bit, the doctrines some were holding, we could sum with the words of the Apostle Paul. It did not accord with godliness. Remember, Paul said that. If anyone teaches a different doctrine that does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness. In other words, what kind of fruit is it bearing in the lives of the people? What you're holding, what you're believing. And you had those who were holding the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Jesus had already said to the church in Ephesus, I hate that doctrine. I despise that doctrine. So it wasn't that they denied the truth. It was that they would not rise up against them, those in their own body, holding things contrary to it. And that led to the promotion and justification of all kinds of perverse practices. See how subtle the devil is, right? We're really standing for something here, are you? The way Christ explains this is to use the very familiar example that happened in Israel's history and something that really bothered our Lord in Israel's history. Remember what happened with the doctrine of Balaam. What are we dealing with? It was agreed that those holding the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans were the same people. That's generally the view. What interests me is that this was also a problem in Ephesus so that you see how Satan was spreading this doctrine throughout the churches. So the devil was taking this doctrine and spreading it into the churches. And Jesus is dealing with how the churches were handling it. What happened with Balaam in history? You remember, Balaam was the pagan prophet who lived and was hired by Balak of Moab to pronounce prophetic curses on Israel. Remember that story? And Balaam devised a plan. He tells Balak, go get all the beautiful women of Moab to seduce the children of Israel, to partake in their immoral feasts and commit sexual immorality with them. And so they were seduced into eating things offered to idols and they committed all kinds of indecent acts. You can kind of piece it together. What happened was none of the leaders of Israel rose up to stop Balaam's doctrine. That's how it was viewed. That's what it was called. And lo and behold, they fell into all kinds of practices that were directly contrary to their new status as a holy people, a set-apart people, a sanctified people. The people were saying, listen, in the first century, we're free in the gospel. Liberty means we don't have to distance ourselves from these pagan practices. We're saved by grace, they probably said. So we're going to, it's okay then that we get involved in the idolatry of these feasts. We dealt with this problem in Corinth, didn't we? With the idolatry and the foods offered to idols and being involved in the temple cults and all of that. Jude describes the problem as those who turn the grace of God into licentiousness, meaning they wreck the whole doctrine of the law and the gospel. And they destroyed the purpose of the law to justify loose behavior. So the church, against all, was actually against nothing when it came to themselves. All in the name of probably love, right? I guess that's why they sometimes say that the path, that conservatism is often the path to liberalism, isn't it? For the church in Pergamos, here, Pergamum, the path of dilution into the world was within the walls of the body. What really burdens me is that when a church is willing to compromise this way, what they're essentially saying is, and this is the big point that we get at tonight, What they're essentially saying is, we don't care about the souls of the people. This is why Jesus is strong here. So then that which often comes in the name of love, tolerating stuff, is not love at all, but it's a reckless abuse to the ministry of reconciling people to Jesus. If you can't manage your own church, How are you going to, you are going to manage yourself very hypocritically before the world if you're going to contend for the faith? So what then happens to that church? Well, not only does the truth matter, says Jesus, you'll notice that here, but it matters that the members of the church, it matters that the body of the church together hold tightly and as a body to what we believe. We're freelancers in our day. But that's not how the body works. That's not how a church works. It matters what we hold to, this deposit of truth that we agree on and believe, practice, and hold. This is why Paul's telling the pastors under inspiration, telling Timothy, guard two things, doctrine and life. So he gives a strong call in verse 16. Notice it. Therefore repent, if not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. Wow. Essentially what he said is, you need to repent for doing nothing about this. What an important message for the church, isn't it? You need to repent for doing nothing about false teaching that leads to practices out of cord godliness. I find it interesting. He's not going after the whole church saying he's going to fight it. What did he say he's going to do? Who's he coming after? I'm going to fight after them with the sword. Come after them with the sword of my mouth. I'm going to give you an example. I think I've told this story before, but it so fits here. I was in a church preparing for ministry and there was a sweet old couple there that had been in the church all their life. And they invited Darcy and I over for dinner and he was a very prosperous man in their wonderful, beautiful mansion. We went to dinner and after dinner he pulled me aside and he said, you don't believe in this thing called sin, do you? this is a guy who's been in the church his whole life. He then proceeded to deny that crucial article of the faith. We went upstairs. We talked about it further. And I saw that his wife was really struggling with her husband's position. She said, is he right? I mean, he's hitting me on this all the time. He's talking, and I'm really confused, Pastor. I'm really confused. And he was really influencing her. these were a sweet, dear, old, giving couple in the life of the church. What do you do with them? You don't mess with people like that, do you? I had to warn them. I went back to the elders. And I said, brothers, you've got to go after them. You've got to lovingly meet with them, talk to them, if needs be disciplined. You can't hold that. You can't believe that. Can you imagine where that's going to lead them? They did nothing. Nothing. It was effectively pastoral neglect of these people's souls. It was one of the most compromising churches I'd ever seen, by the way. Divided in every way, every kind of argument under the sun. Now they believed the orthodox doctrine. They had the three forms of unity. and tolerated everything else in their own house. I just heard. I remember hearing a few years ago that man took a gun to his head and killed himself. Killed himself. You know? Sad, isn't it? They should have loved him enough to discipline him. But he was the folk. He's always been there. We're good at shoving under the carpet. I know. I mean, trust me, I'm preaching this and I'm thinking, you know, these are the things I got to think about in my own house, right? It's a burden to me as a pastor that the Lord so protects and loves you as His flock that if there are people pulling us away or people doing things that are contrary to sound doctrine and holding things that are wrong, if you don't deal with them, I want you to listen to the Lord's Word. I will come and fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Dennis Johnson answers this beautifully when he says, if they won't confront the Nicolaitans in their body, he'll intervene in the life of the church through his providential control of events and the work of the Spirit and call the Nicolaitans to account. He'll do it. You ever see how all these things constantly get dealt with in the life of the church somehow, some way? Well, it's the Lord. Providence. He'll deal with it. But this is why we have shepherds. Remember in Corinth, the Lord's Supper, their abuse was totally unchecked. And what did the Lord say? This is why many among you are sick and some of you have died. It's the same thing. And the point about our ministries and our ministering of the Gospel is we have to minister this truth in love, love enough to care for the flock. And love is shown in this kind of way. But you're seeing Christ's love for the flock, aren't you? That's what I want you to see. You're seeing Jesus' love for the flock. He wants His truth proclaimed and He wants us to be unfearful of that. What good is a church that will stand and hold the confession and wave it out the door and not tell that truth to others? What good is a church that says we're against the culture? We're against the culture. We're against this, against this, against this. But it's not against false worship. It's not against false ideas and doctrines that are in conflict with the Word of God. What is that? So to encourage the church to remain strong tonight, he says two things that are very beautiful and powerful. Think of what he holds out to them. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I'll give him, notice this at the very end, a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Well, if in Pergamos they're dealing with food offered to idols and all the idolatry that comes to that, what is he saying? I'm going to give you confidence in something else. I'm going to give you manna. you know where that comes from. You know that comes from Exodus. Christ is saying, I'll satisfy you with me, my table. I'll give you, think of Psalm 121 tonight. Come up to the house of the Lord with joy. I'll give you a real feast. I'll give you a real feast. And I'll give you a name. And I was thinking about this in that culture. When you were set free, they'd give people a white stone. Well, Jesus is telling us everything we've ever learned about new names in the Scripture, from Abram to Abraham, from Saul to Paul, from Simon to Peter. I'll give you the identity you want. I'll give you confidence in your identity. See how that's tied to this morning? That cross that Simon carried? I'll give you that identity. I'll give you that name. I'll sustain you with me and you'll enjoy it. I thought about this this afternoon. All of this is a real struggle with identity, isn't it? It's a real struggle with identity this church has. And the Lord is encouraging them with the identity He has for them. Jesus promised that you will know Him personally. You will commune with Him as the body. And that you will enjoy manna intimately with the body. What a glorious promise. And I guess I say then tonight, until then, we as a church should labor to speak the truth. To speak the truth in love in our own house too. And may our lives as a body be consistent with what we confess, what we believe. And that way the church will be built up strong in this place and in a way that pleases the Lord. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word to us tonight. Thank You for what the Spirit says to the churches. May the Escondido United Reformed Church hear tonight. And we fully recognize we need this challenge. But we're grateful for it, Lord. We see Your love shining through in this. We see Your care shining through in this. We see You wanting to shepherd the flock and see it protected and preserved and cared for from wolves that want to destroy, as we read from John 10 this morning. and take people away from You. So give us to be faithful. May our doctrine accord with godliness. May we, Lord, not just hold our confession up to the world, but may we hold tight to what we believe ourselves, believing these things, trusting Your Word, and coming up joyfully to the house of the Lord as Your people to have a great witness. Remove all hypocrisy and keep this body pure by Your grace. For we realize that in everything we do, We cannot stand apart from Jesus for without Him we can do nothing. And we're glad to confess that tonight. Humility we confess it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.