Seven | Pergamum - Revelation 2:12-17 | August 30

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Go ahead and pray. God, as we've already done, we recognize your presence.

So we say these words that don't make any sense, but we invite you in here today.

And I suppose what we're really saying with that is, we invite you to invade

us, for your spirit to invade our spirits,

that we may hear what your word is for us, that we may receive it,

that we might have hearts that understand.

We might have minds that comprehend, that hearts that believe,

that we might have the desire to follow you at your word and not to be slow

about it, to not delay in it, Lord, but that we would obey your word as you speak it to us.

And so I know that you have more for us here in this letter,

this ancient letter written to an

ancient place, but still has so much relevance to us in our modern time.

And your word, all of your word, the fullness of your word speaks so intently

into our current situations.

And we believe that and we receive it. Amen.

So, again, as a reminder, we're going to read a letter to a church,

as we talked about in Ephesians and also, not Ephesians, but in the letter to Ephesus.

These are letters written to individual churches.

The one who walks amongst these churches and holds them in his hands, Jesus.

He cares about each one of these individual churches.

So we're going to read a letter to a church. But this is also a letter to all

of these churches. It's a letter to us.

Again, Revelation, I think this is just so important to point out.

And I'm going to keep saying it until somebody corrects me if I should be wrong.

But it is the only book of the Bible that invites a blessing on those who read

it, who hear it, and who do what it says.

I think that's such a powerful thing to realize that all of these 20,

what, 28 chapters? Is that how much of Revelation?

All of these 20-something chapters were one long letter written to these churches.

Not just these three or four verses that we get.

So they were reading all of them. And as a whole, it's written to them,

but it's also written to us who would hear it in our modern time,

who would listen to it, who would believe it, and who would do what it says.

So stand with me. Sorry to make you be all Catholic this morning and sit and

stand. And we're going to have kneeling rows installed for the last four weeks so we can kneel also.

See the word of the Lord to the angel of the church in Pergamum, right?

These are the words of him who has the sharp double-edged sword.

I know where you live, where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name.

You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas,

my faithful witness who was put to death in your city where Satan lives.

Nevertheless, I have these few things against you.

There are some among you who hold to the teachings of Balaam,

who taught Balak how to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed

to idols and committed sexual immorality.

Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Repent, therefore, otherwise I will soon come to you and will fight against

them with the sword of my mouth.

Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna.

I will also give that person a white stone with his new name written on it,

known only to the one who receives it.

Amen. The Lord bless the reading of His Word, all the people said.

I think I was supposed to say, this is the word of the Lord for the people,

Lord of God for the people of God.

Ginny wants to make sure that we declare that truth as we read His Word.

We're going to continue to follow in this sort of formula of how these churches were addressed.

So they have this introduction to the angel of the church, and they have a bit

about the Messiah, which is a small section of a larger part that was in Revelation chapter 1.

Revelation 1 · chapter mention

And it's specific to their particular situation, but together they hold some

of the fullness of who Jesus is. And then it goes into a praise.

Then it goes into a judgment depending on the church there are two who don't

get judgments and then usually it follows up by another commendation in this

case there's no second commendation there's no second praise,

and it goes right into those to the one who is victorious and to whom who has

ears to hear let him hear which again is this imprecatory not just like I hope

that y'all are listening but,

those of us who are hearing must do this that's what it's really saying However,

typically we would start with a little bit about Pergamum in this case.

I'm going to hold that for just a second, because it's going to be really relevant

when we talk about this idea, where Satan has his throne, what is that all about?

But first, let's start with this. These are the words of him who has the sharp

double-edged sword. What a picture of Jesus.

This is not something that is out of left field, as we've seen it before.

We saw in chapter one, we see it later as he rides in on judgment and he has

the sword of his mouth. I think later on, it talks about him coming and fighting

against those with the sword of his mouth.

So we get a clear picture of what it is.

But of course, we have this picture in Hebrews, very famous passage,

probably one of the most taught on passages that I've ever encountered in my life.

In Hebrews 4, we have this passage that talks about the sword of Jesus' mouth,

the sword of judgment, if you will, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

He says in Hebrews chapter four, verse 12, for the word of God is alive and

active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It penetrates even to dividing

soul and spirit, joints and marrow.

It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

Nothing in all of creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered

and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.

So we see this picture of this double-edged sword, this Roman dagger that they

would have been familiar with.

And here it tells us that the word of God is the sword, the double-edged sword.

In this picture of Revelation, we get that idea as well, that this is the judgment,

the final swift judgment of Christ according to his word.

We get the fuller picture. Sometimes it's really helpful as we study the Bible,

we'll get pieces of things here and there, but we really have to kind of look

at the fullness of what is said.

So when we look at the picture of this double-edged sword, the fullness that

we get, it is the swift judgment of Jesus at His Word.

In Hebrews, this last couple of chapters of, or first couple of chapters of

Hebrews 3 and 4, is the author is imploring those he's writing to.

The diaspora of Israel, to not be like their forefathers in the wilderness,

to not be like their forefathers in the time of the judges and the kings,

to not be like all of the Israelites who have gone before them.

So he writes just a verse before this, Let's make every effort to enter into

that rest so that no one will perish,

because the Israelites grumbled and complained and they didn't enter into it

because the Israelites turned away from God and they served other gods and they

delighted in other things.

And so they were turned over into exile.

So this author, which I like to think is Paul, I know that that's not like the

most popular opinion anymore, but I still like to think that Paul wrote this,

is begging his fellow Jews,

to not be like those in the past, to not be like their ancestors,

but to listen and receive the word of God.

And to live their lives on it.

All throughout the scriptures, all throughout the Old Testament,

the one thing God says over and over again through his prophets,

whether it be in a imploring them to listen or a judgment against them is that

you turned away from my word, or you turned away from me.

Or if you don't turn away, then I will bless you. If you don't do that time and time again.

So this author is picking that up, that the word of God is not just,

again, we can extrapolate the full identity of the word of God throughout scripture.

The word of God is not just a book.

It's not just words on a page. I've always wanted to have a sermon where I'd

like take a Bible and like throw it in a trash can or like rip it up.

Just to demonstrate that it's not this physical printed thing that deserves

to be worshiped or praised or uninhibitedly followed. It is the words that they contain.

It is the truth of God. It is Jesus Himself, the Word of God made flesh.

That is where the power is. That's where the life is.

And these words, they divide us, they pierce us, they expose the deepest parts,

of who we are, and as a result, demand a response.

And this is how Jesus chooses to introduce himself to the church at Pergamum.

It's really important to know that there is a purpose behind that,

because what we're going to talk about in a little bit, his charges against

them is that they have drifted in their doctrine, that they have drifted in

their conviction, that they have drifted in,

their wholeheartedness towards him. Not all of them, but some of them.

So it's really important that he introduces himself as the one who holds this

sharp two-edged sword, the sword of his word,

which exposes the depths of who we are, our desires, is our deepest convictions,

whether we really believe what we say we believe or not.

And I think it's always interesting that the Lord really meets me as I'm reading

through these scriptures.

And I hope that y'all are reading through and this is confirming and meeting

some of what he's been speaking to you throughout the weeks as well.

But I was just reading in Jeremiah a couple of weeks ago, last week,

maybe in Jeremiah chapter 48, this verse 10 stuck out to me.

Jeremiah 48 · chapter mention

In my translation, it says, a curse on anyone who is lax in doing the Lord's work.

Now, the context is about Moab and it's a judgment against them.

And the next part of that verse talks about curse being the one who withholds

the sword of bloodshed. Again, speaking against Moab and their evil and the

judgment that's coming against them.

But the truth that I received in that moment is just this powerful idea,

that God is pronouncing a curse on the people who are slow in keeping His command,

who are lax in keeping His command, who don't pursue it with mindfulness,

who treat it as it's insignificant, as if it's unworthy of attention.

This curse on those who are lax in doing the Lord's work. And it reminded me

of a parable in Matthew 21.

Amongst all of these parables, some of them get hidden sometimes.

And this is one I feel like that gets hidden because it's just a few verses.

But Jesus tells the parable of a father who had two sons.

And he tells the first son, go and work in my vineyard. And the son says, no.

But eventually he goes anyway. And the second son, he says, go and work in the vineyard.

And he never goes. And I know that the verse in Jeremiah is telling us that

there's this curse on those who are lax in doing the word of God.

But I just feel like in context with that parable, the Lord is saying,

hey, whatever's happened before this moment, whether you've been lax or not,

it's better late than never.

It's better to have been lax before and now say, you know what?

I'm going to go and I'm going to do it than to say, yes, eagerly, but to never show up.

For our lives to be shaped in such a way that over time, we are increasing.

And this is what these letters, the general theme, and even more specifically

to one church, these letters in Revelation are commending and teaching us more and more.

And again, it'll be very more apparent in a couple of weeks,

but that we would have an increased faithfulness over time, that we would have

an increased righteousness over time, that we would increasingly look like Jesus over time.

As it says in Romans chapter eight, that he has chosen and predestined us to

be conformed into the image of his son.

And that happens much to our dismay over time often.

We have not yet arrived. Paul writes about that too, right? Not that I've already

attained it, but I take hold, I press in so that I can take hold of it.

And so we walk into this increased faithfulness that we would be more and more

that our lives would reflect what James writes in his book, that more and more

we would be doers of the word and not hearers only.

At some point in our life, we're all going to be hearers, but the hope is that

we would become doers of the word.

So more and more that we would walk in faithfulness, that we would walk as doers

of the word and not just hearers only who look intently into it,

but keep it from our practice in our actual lives.

And so as we get into the further verses, I want to pause for a second.

I was going to say this at the beginning, but,

I kind of see this letter. I'm going to summarize it in sort of the alliteration

of some C's or is that alliteration? I don't know.

I'm going to go like the old Baptist preacher route and give you some C words,

that I feel like summarize what we're looking at here. And those words are comfort.

That word is complacency, comfort. You can like interchange those.

Those are kind of the same word. So comfort is one of them.

Or if you want to write slash complacency, comfort, complacency.

I'm blanking on what the C words are. The whole point of making them all C's

is so that you remember them, isn't it?

Just education in our country failing me.

The good ones are calling and courage. There's another bad one I forgot.

Compromise. That's what it is. Compromise.

Comfort, compromise, calling, courage.

And so when Jesus, he's about to compliment them in just another verse,

that really speaks to their courage and what they've been facing.

Last week, we talked about Smyrna and Jesus was talking about what they were about to face,

and that he, as the one who knew it all and who was in charge,

was going to be with them as they faced it, not as he delivered them from it,

but that as they met tribulation.

This is a church that has been in their tribulation and he gives them,

commends their courage.

But first he says this, he says, I know where you live.

This isn't even the strangest part of this letter.

I know where you live, where Satan has his throne.

I think it's just comforting, first of all, for us to realize that God knows where we are.

Not only that, that he is concerned with where we live.

It's not that just he's aware of it, but that in his knowledge,

he is concerned with where we are.

In Acts chapter 17, one of my favorite chapters in Acts, Paul is in Athens and

Acts 17 · chapter mention

he is preaching and teaching to this very religious city.

Even they have this shrine to an unnamed God, right? And he uses that as a pivotal

moment to say, what you worship as unknown, let me reveal to you.

And in that, he says this beautiful phrase in 24 to 27, that the God who made

the world and everything in it, that's the God we met last week,

the Lord of heaven and earth does not live in temples built by human hands.

He's not served by human hands as if he needed anything.

Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything.

From one man, he made all nations that they should inhabit the whole earth.

And he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.

God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out to find him,

though he is not far from any of us.

And so Paul has this very marked moment of these kind of things that he is teaching

the Athenians at this moment about

the God, the most high God who created all things, that he has carved out appropriate

times for them to be there.

We talk about Jesus is coming to earth. Why did he come in the time that he came?

And theologians will use this fancy Greek word that they call kairos,

which is at the right time. He came at the right time.

We can maybe borrow from Lord of the Rings and say the wizard Gandalf,

he says, right? A wizard is never late.

He rises precisely when he means to.

J.R.R. Tolkien took that from Jesus. Jesus arrived at the right time.

So God has marked out these appointed times for us. He has set these boundaries

on where we live. He knows and he is concerned with where we live.

Not just we, but where nations dwell.

And we can think about that as well with regard to Joseph. At the end of Genesis,

the confession that Joseph makes to his brothers is that you meant this for

harm, but God meant it for good.

God purposed for Joseph to be in Egypt in that time.

He was not just aware that where he was going, but he had ordained it for his

will, that God is concerned with where we are.

And I would even say it to this point, and this is where the word comfort comes

in, even though we haven't started talking about those Pacific people in Pergamum yet.

Whenever we desire to make a life change, to move somewhere.

Maybe we're feeling unfulfilled in our work, whatever it may be.

We've all been in these moments as adults where we have made a change.

The thing that I have heard often from Christians, and perhaps they're borrowing

from the words where it's like, instead of saying, I'm going to do this and

that, we should say, if the Lord wills.

They borrow from that and then they still say, well, I'm going to make my plans.

And because God is sovereign, I know that he's going to meet me there.

So I hear from Christians often that, well, I'm going to move here with my family and.

And this is what we feel like we want to do, but God's sovereign.

So he's going to make sure that that's what he wanted anyway,

instead of spending agonizing months, right?

Saying, God, what do you want for us? Where do you want us to be?

Because the thing is, is we will always follow our path of comfort to make the

decision that we want to, if we are not seeking the Lord.

And sometimes, sometimes God wants

us to live places that we would never choose if it were up to us alone.

In this church in Pergamum, he just read, I know where you live,

where Satan's throne is.

I don't know about you, but I'm not signing up to live and move my family to

wherever Satan's throne is on this earth.

My comfort doesn't want me to do that. and he's not telling them to move and leave.

He's telling them, I know that you're there.

I am aware and I am concerned and I have purposed your existence there.

So this is where that comfort is going to come in. I'm probably going to repeat

myself, but I wanted to make sure to say that.

And I think it's also important as well for us to recognize that,

It's good for us to not always have the answers for the whys,

why we end up places that we end up.

We're reading, Brent and I, in discipleship group in 2 Corinthians,

2 Corinthians for y'all who've been around for a while.

And there's this weird part where Paul is writing about how he knew a guy who

was called up to the third heaven.

And twice in that little weird story that he's telling to the Corinthians in

this letter, He says, whether it was while he was awake or asleep,

I don't know, but God knows.

And so we have this disclaimer twice in Paul's letter. But I think that that

phrase is such a powerful phrase for us as we continue this morning.

I don't know, but God knows. And what a comfort it is that God knows where we

dwell, even if it should be at the same place that Satan has set up his throne.

That we don't have to know, but what a comfort it is that God does,

what a relief it is that God knows.

I was going to say that other part now. I'll read ahead, but what a mistake

it is for us to make our decisions casually without considering.

What God would want for our lives. And just assuming the more and more this

past six months, I feel like the word the Lord has given to me,

He's just continuing to develop my understanding of what sin is in our lives.

And the last iteration of what that is, the words that come up most often is

our assumptions and presumptions.

When we assume, oh, God will just be there rather than actually following in

line with what He wants in His will.

And we presume grace.

These are like my current iterations of what sin is.

When we just assume that wherever we go, God's going to be in it.

Instead of seeking where he wants us to go. And at the best of our understanding

to follow in line with his bill.

Because again, we would not normally choose to settle down where Satan lives.

So Satan has set his throne up here.

Just as God cares about locations, we learn that Satan also cares about locations. Pergamum.

Last week in Smyrna, we talked about how Smyrna was this sort of seat of the

Roman cult. It could have been a place that it started.

That claim could even be more legitimate for Pergamum.

They had more temples for Caesar than any other place.

It could have been also where this Roman cult started.

So their pagan worship was all over the place in this particular city.

They had temples everywhere.

It was the center of political and sort of education pursuits in that area of

these seven churches, of these places in Asia Minor.

It was the seat. They had the largest library that existed second only to that

that we know of what was in Alexandria, the second largest library.

It was a seat of political power, had a temple to Zeus.

It was the one time the capital of that region.

This is what Pergamum was in that place.

And while when we talked about Ephesus, I felt like there's a lot of correlations

in Ephesus to where we are at.

I feel like of the three churches or cities we've talked about,

Pergamum describes most accurately the place that we all exist in Boone,

North Carolina, in the high country.

And it's not just exclusive to us, but it feels like Satan tends to set up his

throne amongst those who reckon themselves educated.

And so wherever there is a university, wherever there is a center of education,

I saw a billboard that said something about like number two public school in

North Carolina, it's App State, that's crazy.

Chapel Hill or State is above them and then one of them is below them.

So y'all based on your own allegiances determine which one you think should be above and below.

But I feel like there is something about the educated world that so believes,

that God and education, God and being intelligent, God and,

thinking logically can't coexist together.

And so Satan sets up his thrones in these places that have this learning and

this education, these universities.

But we know from scriptures that Paul says in 1 Corinthians that God has chosen

purposefully what is foolish in this world to shame that which is wise.

So it's also no wonder that we find these places to be very important battlegrounds,

beachheads for the gospel as well.

That Satan purposefully sets up his thrones in regions like this because they

become influences to the rest of the area. From here, it spreads.

But just as Paul, when he was writing, I think he was writing either to the

Corinthians about being in Ephesus, he wrote that he was going to stay there longer.

And he gave two reasons. And the two reasons were one, because that he's experienced

great gospel movement, that the gospel was spreading in that place.

So he was going to stay longer.

And then the second reason he gave is, and because also there was great opposition.

So wherever there is great opposition to the gospel externally,

the gospel also spreads crazy fast.

So this is where Satan chooses to set up his throne.

Making sort of Pergamum his residence, if you will, which is important for us to understand.

Satan is not omnipresent. He's not everywhere like God is, but he does have

a lot of little minions that go everywhere.

So to say that Satan's throne is, there's a lot of reasons that people give

for this because maybe the temple of Zeus, maybe there's this other temple that

was based on the God of healing, which in resurrection, so like a direct confrontation to Jesus.

So there's other reasons that people give of why they say this is where Satan's throne is.

But to say that Satan set up his residence, his throne there,

is to say that he has to exist in a place and not all places at all times.

Satan is not omnipresent. Satan

is not omniscient. He doesn't know everything, but he's a good student.

Satan is not omnipotent, but he is deceptive enough to fool a lot of people that he's in control.

If we look at the scriptures, he fools himself a couple times.

But maybe Satan dwells today in a place similar to where we live.

I'm not going to be so bold to say that Satan set us thrown up here, but...

Satan is also concerned with blocations. Yet you remain true to my name,

and you did not renounce your faith, not even in the days of Antipas,

my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city where Satan lives.

They had courage. They stood fast. They were living in tribulation.

They were living in difficulty. They were living in...

Conflict, and they were holding fast to Jesus's name. They did not deny him in faith.

Even when Antipas, potentially one of their leaders, pastor of the church,

was put to death, they had courage. And so Jesus commends them.

Nevertheless, he says, I have a few things against you.

So when we read that, a few things, we can think of two ways.

We can think of it, well, Ephesus, he had one thing against them,

and it seemed pretty serious.

So if he has a few things against this church, it could be even worse.

There's also this idea that a few things means, yes, more than one,

but we could read it more like a few small matters.

That's probably the more accurate thing.

So in Ephesus, we had this charge that their love had gone cold, and.

And what we see in the letter to Ephesus, what we see in this church in Ephesus

is that they had drifted more to this realm of self-righteousness,

to judgment, to isolation, insular community that didn't reach out,

that they had experienced and drifted into self-righteousness.

What we experience here in Smyrna, or sorry, Pergamum, is that they were drifting into worldliness.

They were in danger of false teaching. They were in danger of adopting cultural beliefs.

They were a danger of doctrine drifting and compromise with the world.

There's the other C, compromise.

Comfort, that we would follow God wherever He leads, even that be to the gates of hell.

And we would not choose for ourselves our own comfort.

Courage, that they were still holding fast to Jesus, even in the midst of great difficulty.

Compromise. Unfortunately, what was happening is that some teachers had come

in and they were drifting some

of them, taking some of them away into this compromise with the world.

We have the understanding here that doctrine matters.

And this is part of what's so important about the church and gathering as the

church, is that doctrine matters.

Holding fast to it. the Bible calls the church a pillar of the truth,

that we would stand against the enemy and we would fight the enemy with truth.

And so we must uphold that truth alone by ourselves. It's easy for us to drift

and to compromise and to justify.

So we stand together to hold on to right doctrine, because right doctrine follows

into right belief, which follows necessarily into right action.

They were being taught falsely. So they were becoming false.

There's a homework for y'all. There's a verse somewhere in the Bible that says,

that you had followed into falsehood and therefore yourselves have become false.

So y'all can figure out where that is and tell me where it is.

And I guess you can use Google to do that, but there's a verse that talks about that.

So they were following into these false teachings. One of them is called the

false teaching of Balaam, who led Balak to entice the Israelites into sexual

immorality, into disbelief.

And so if y'all are familiar with the story of Balaam, it is in Numbers 25.

Also, I think Numbers 31, it is one of the strangest stories in the Old Testament,

mostly because, well, because the talking donkey, that helps.

But for me, mostly because if you were to just read Numbers 25 in isolation,

you kind of walk away going, Balaam was the good guy.

He could only speak what the Lord told him to speak. But then like four chapters

later, he gets killed because of disobedience. You're like, what is happening?

So you have to look again at the whole wealth of scripture to understand what's happening.

Every time Balak hired Balaam to put a curse on Israel because he was afraid

that this great nation was coming to attack him.

And every time, three times, Balaam comes, he does his little ritual thing.

And then Then he comes to Balak and said, I cannot bless a curse.

I have to bless them. The Lord, I can only say what the Lord says.

What we don't infer in that moment, except for the wealth of scripture,

is that his little ritual thing he was doing was pronouncing a curse that the

Lord then reversed and turned into a blessing.

And so we see this weird picture of a man who was surprised that the Lord is speaking to him.

He was surprised by a talking donkey, but we would all be.

Who pronounces curses, but the Lord turns into blessings, but we don't get that in Numbers 25.

Who, upon being unsuccessful in what he was paid to do, as we put the rest of

these chapters into place, we see this other experience where these...

A plague comes through Israel because these Midianite or Moabite women come

and seduce these Israelite men and lead them into idolatry.

And what we can infer from Numbers 31, what we can see here in Revelation 2 is this sorcerer guy.

Upon being unsuccessful about pronouncing a curse, circles his wagons back up

with Balak and says, I actually know and I can teach you how to get these people Israel.

Since we can't curse them because God is turning those into blessings,

what we need to do is separate them from God.

So he teaches Balak how to do that. Let's send in some very attractive young ladies.

We'll go and seduce these men, lead them astray, teach them idolatry,

teach them, trap them with sexual morality so that they are brought into a different

culture, into the culture of the day.

And to idol worship and lead them away from their God, which we said at the

beginning is one of the most prolific things that happens in the Old Testament.

God says, if you don't turn away.

So Balaam says, I know how to get them to turn away.

And so he teaches Balak how to get the Israelites to become unfaithful,

to entice them into unfaithfulness against the Lord. This is in Numbers chapter 31. You can look that up.

Numbers 31 · chapter mention

And that's what he's talking about here. This idea of compromise with the cultures around.

The thing that God tells them over and over again not to do.

The same thing that happens with us today.

In other parts of the world where missions exist more obviously than it does

in the US, missions exist in the US. But when we talk about going on mission

trips, we're usually talking about going to other places, right?

This word that we use called syncretism. When people bring in other beliefs,

into their Christianity, or it's every religion.

In Islam, we see the Shiites and the Sunnis and all those people.

One of those, like, let's do drugs and have these experiences.

That's not okay in Islam, but they've brought in syncretized tribal religions with Islam.

Happens in Christianity a lot as well. We do this in the U.S.

Let us bring in our culture.

Let us bring in these compromises that we must make or that we feel we should

make because we're receiving this pressure on the outside or because we're not

protecting our doctrine so that we're falling in and drifting.

And that influences from our culture. And so many of what we experience today in the church,

we experience as a result, this conflict as a result of compromising with our culture over,

all of the things that are already going through your head about the way we

divide publicly and politically, over gender identification,

over sexuality, over all of these things,

that we would not let our culture compromise us. Now.

Jesus's pronouncement against complacency of comfort is for them to repent.

But he says, otherwise I will soon come to you and I will fight against you

with the sword of, or I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

So the reason we can maybe think that Pergamum is not as bad off as Ephesus,

because it wasn't the entirety of the church, but it was groups of people who

were following in line with this teaching of Balaam, with the Nicolaitans,

which really don't know what they taught.

But if it has to do with this, it probably is some sort of cultural Christianity,

sexuality thing where back in that day, if you wanted to have a business and be a business person,

all of the trade organizations usually happened around idol sacrifice and worship.

So it's a culture that said, you know what, you have to have a living.

So God probably will be okay if you go to this thing. Then it turns in,

God probably doesn't care if you eat that meat, that's sacrificed to idols.

Then it turns into, I know there's prostitutes at the temple.

God's probably okay with you being involved. It's for your business.

It's for your family. So this compromise that drifts us over time.

But this letter is for all of us and not just for them who had fallen into it.

So we too have a responsibility, even if we should not be considered among them,

that we who are in the church are able to speak truth into these moments and uphold doctrine.

Not ourselves, just allow things and compromises to continue.

One of Paul's charges against the church in Corinth was that they were actually

proud of the grace that they showed those who were committing atrocious sins in their church.

And he was like, you're proud of it. Like not even the pagans do these things.

And yet you're happy and that you are spiritual people that are showing grace in these moments.

But we too, that we would have a responsibility to uphold truth because that

is what we've been called to.

And the reward, as we finish up, he says two things, right?

He has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To the one who is victorious, it's possible to have victory.

That's always how these letters end. You are not too far gone.

I will give some of the hidden manna and I will give that person a white stone

with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.

Manna in the wilderness, God provided this bread in direct correlation to what

we were just talking about with Balaam.

They were drifting into cultural, culturalism, materialism. They were drifting

into these things, deriving and seeking pleasure and gratification and other

things that weren't Jesus.

And Jesus pronounces to them that there is a better manna. There is a better food.

There is something that satisfies completely and sustains you completely.

To the one who overcomes, I will give to them the thing that is most satisfying.

John chapter six, it talks about how.

Moses, through Moses, God gave manna from heaven, but it is my father who gives

the true bread from heaven.

And Jesus says, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry. And whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

That Jesus supplies and satisfies over and above any cultural and worldly pursuit that we can make.

The hidden manna. He says, I will give you a white stone.

What is the white stone? Nobody knows.

That's the answer. Nobody knows. But here's the beautiful thing.

It says, I will give to the one who overcomes, the one who is victorious,

a white stone with a name written on it that only they know.

So what Jesus has for you, as you endure, as you persevere, as you are victorious,

as you uphold the truth in a culture that wants to say, what is truth?

Like Pontius Pilate did in a culture that says, you live your own truth to those

of us who are victorious.

Refuse to compromise, who stand in courage, who reject our comforts and hold

fast to the calling that God has for us.

He's going to give you, each of you, something very personal to you.

I asked you all once, months and months ago, I don't know when I asked you this,

if Jesus were here in the flesh, or if he just appeared apparitionally, I suppose,

and he stood up here and he introduced every single one of you individually,

I asked you before, what would he say about you?

I think we're getting close to what this white stone is about as we think about that.

He's not going to get up here and say all of the sins and faults and shames

that you probably replay in your head day after day.

He's also probably going to say something very specifically tailored to you,

and not just a generic, this is my beloved son, which that's pretty awesome

too, my beloved daughter. That's pretty cool.

But God has something so unique for you because he knows you intimately.

He knows where you live. He knows why you're here.

And that is a reward that we're waiting for. A new name that holds new meaning.

And that if you heard it in this moment would probably just like bring you to

your knees and tears and happiness.

And you'd be ugly crying and everybody, all the kids would be concerned,

but you just be like, I'm just so happy.

Has something so special for you. The lesson I want to leave us with, with Pergamum is this,

it matters more who the one who has called us and who is faithful is than the trouble that we face.

It matters more that Jesus knows where we are and ordains our steps that we

may reject comfort and follow in His will for our lives wherever He's leading.

It matters more than what that will bring along.

It matters more that the one who is faithful and the one who holds power and

is honorable in glory, the one who has the double-edged sword of judgment that

is bringing against the world, it matters more who He is,

than anything that we'll face in His life, any place that will be,

any difficulty, any hardship.

And so that is what makes it possible for us to push in against our comforts,

to push in according to our calling, to push in.

And not follow into compromise when everything else around us tells us to.

To not drift into worldliness, to not drift into self-righteousness,

but in humility, stand with the one who's in control of it all.