Pergamum: Courage Over Compromise

Go ahead and have a seat. It is good to see you um this Sunday on this Labor Day weekend. Uh be praying for our families that are traveling for the holiday weekend. And um for the rest of us that are here, um let's go ahead and grab our Bibles, open them up to Revelation chapter 2. We're in a series called Letters to the Church in America. And what the idea is behind the series is that Jesus is not a concept to consider, but he is a king to trust.

And so each of these letters that are written to these seven churches are preaching and proclaiming that very message. Jesus is not just a concept for you to consider, but he is a king for you to trust. And I want to give you a little bit of a a recap of kind of where we've been and and where these letters have have ultimately come from. If you remember back in Acts chapter 19 and 20, Acts chapter 19 and 20, there was the gospel that was planted in a city called Ephesus and it exploded there. So much so that there's a there's a verse in there that talks about from Ephesus the word went out and it spread throughout all of Asia. All of Asia so that all of Asia has heard the word of the uh the word of God.

And so what we see there is actually throughout Asia, Asia Minor particularly, there ends up being seven churches that are ultimately planted from the gospel work that that is happening here in Ephesus. Ephesus being one of those seven. And so then moving out of that seven churches that are planted, you fast forward to the Apostle John, the same John who again planted or was a pastor of the church in Ephesus. He's watching persecution sweep across the churches across Asia Minor. And one of the things that happens through that persecution is they're trying to get rid of all the leaders of these churches. And so John being one of the leaders of the church in Ephesus.

Rome tries to basically gives out a decree go and um get rid of all the apostles, get rid of all the leaders. And so they try to kill John a couple of times. One of the times literally just trying to boil him alive. And so when they're unsuccessful in killing him by bowling him alive, they end up exiling him to this rock called Patmos um to die alone. And it's there that Jesus shows up to John and he shows up to him in a vision and he gives John um essentially this word in order for him to write it down, for him to dictate it and then have this word, this letter go out to the seven churches that are being persecuted throughout Asia Minor. And so John does that and he writes down this letter and he sends it to these seven churches.

And essentially each of the letters have a similar structure to them. And it's the way that we've been structuring each of our messages. They have a commendation. They have a confrontation. And then they have a call to action. And that's the way that we've been ordering or kind of structuring each of these.

Now, I also give a bit of context before we dive into those three things, but they each of the letters do follow that. Now, there are two letters particularly that do not have a confrontation, and that's to Smyrna and Philadelphia. And last week we talked about Smyrna and the suffering that they were experiencing. But the rest of the letters do include a confrontation. And so far what we see what we've seen in each of the letters again we've only covered two so far. In Ephesus Jesus said this to them.

You've worked hard. You've endured. You've spotted false teachers. Those are things that I'm commending you of. You do a great job in regards to that. But here was the confrontation.

Here's what I have against you. You've abandoned your first love. which translation means don't love ministry more than you love me. That was the big idea in Ephesus. Don't love ministry more than you love me. And then in Smyrna, Smyrna, again, one of the ones that got the commendation, no confrontation.

Here's what he told them. Basically, hang in there. All right? You're going to experience a lot of suffering, but you have remained faithful in the suffering. Remain faithful until death. Like, I mean, what an encouragement.

Hey guys, it's going to be very very difficult for you, but hang in there. All right, I'm still holding you. I I still have you. And so there's um essentially fundamentalism in Ephesus. There was suffering in Smyrna. And then today we come to Pergamum.

Pergamum. And so this is Romans chapter 2 looking at verse 12. And here's kind of the the the deal that's going on in Pergamum. It looks in my opinion most like the church in America. I think Pergamum looks most like the church in America. Now I'm saying that in large.

All right. That is a big if I'm throwing all the churches in America into one singular category. I think Pergamum best represents what's going on or at least the sweeping of culture throughout church in America. So not all churches are going to be like this. I'm not even saying that our church is necessarily looking like this. But I'm saying I think this is the play that the enemy is running and also what the churches are experiencing and drift.

And so therefore the confrontation that he gives to them is a good one for us. And so again Jesus is not a concept to consider but a king to trust. And so whatever he says to them again it's written to them but it's also for us. We need to listen. We need to listen and we need to lean into what he's going to say. And here's going to be the kind of the catchphrase for you to take away from this message.

What we want is courage over compromise. We want courage over compromise. That's going to be the big idea for Pergamum. And so look at verse 12. Um I'll take it through kind of the first part of 13 to give you a bit of the context here. So Jesus again dictating to John.

John's writing the letter writing the letter to the angel of the church in Pergamum. Write this. the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. Again, Jesus does something unique in each of the letters. Whatever their commenation and confrontation is and in including a bit of the call to action, whatever he is calling them to, he is also representing of himself what he can provide for them in regards to whatever they're dealing with. Okay?

And so he he gives a bit of a different description of himself for each of the churches. And the description he gives of himself to Pergamum is um I'm a sharp two-edged sword. And even in the description that he gives of himself in chapter one talks about the fact that when he shows up again, he's got eyes that are blazing, burning. He's got feet that are like um uh burnished bronze that it says. It goes on to say that he has his mouth when it opens up is like a two-edged sword coming out of it. And so for this church, he's describing himself as that two-edged sword that we know elsewhere in scripture talks about the word of God being like a living double-edged sword ready to cut to the piercing of bone.

And so there's this idea here that he is coming with truth and that's going to be re really really really important for this church to understand that. All right. So let's talk a little bit of context here to the words of him who was the sharp two-edged sword. I know where you dwell where Satan's throne is. That's an interesting thing to say in Smyrna. What do we talk about?

The synagogue of Satan, right? He says, "I know where you guys are basically doing ministry, and I know that there's a synagogue of Satan there." I mean, that is not the the the nickname you want for your church is a synagogue of Satan. And so, here in in Pergamum, he says, "Not only was there a synagogue of Satan in Smyrna, but in Pergamum, this is where Satan lives." And so we need to know a little bit of the context of the city to be able to understand why Jesus is saying that in this city is where Satan dwells. And so to be able to give you a bit of the context, I want to take you on a bit of a journey here.

Not a long journey, but a quick journey to be able to see what he's meaning here. And so I want to share with you kind of two context of ancient history to show you why Jesus is ultimately saying that Satan dwells here. So I want to take you back to ancient Egypt. All right, we're going to go back about 4,000 years to the time of the Exodus. Okay, during the time of the Exodus, Pharaoh was considered Lord. The Pharaoh was considered Lord.

And the Pharaoh would put forth what everyone was to worship. And so, not only did u basically he rolled out every possible god and goddess that you could think of in ancient Egypt mythology, there were gods for everything. And so there was the Nile god, there was the sun god, there's the fertility god. You name it, they had it. And the interesting thing to see here is when it comes to the time of the plagues in Exodus, that wasn't God just showing off random power. It wasn't God showing off random power.

It was God bodies slamming Egypt's false gods. So whatever they were putting their hope in, God showed up and said, "I'm the Lord your God, not them. And I'm going to put them to shame. I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to prove time after time after time that I alone am Lord." But the culture and context in that day was that Pharaoh was Lord and that everything else had a god attached to it.

And that's what they were worshiping or providing sacrifice for or giving of their time, talent, and treasures to was whatever polytheism was established. Fast forward about 1500 to 2,000 years, you come to the time that this was written in ancient Rome. And no longer is Pharaoh Lord. No longer are they diving into Egyptian mythology. Now Caesar is Lord. And it is now Roman and Greek mythology.

And in that there are again polytheism. It's just the same play over and over again. So now there's instead of you know the the the Nile god or the sun god now you have Artemis and Zeus and Apollo and you have all these temples that are established to them. And all over it you also had emperor worship. Again pharaoh worship now you have emperor worship. And if you burn incense to Caesar, if you call him Lord and Savior, you're in.

If you don't, you're a traitor. And so religion wasn't private, what you do in your own home. It was public. It was patriotic. To say Jesus is Lord would actually mean that you were an atheist. We saw that last week.

And not only were you an atheist, but you were also in treason of state and country. You were going against what the Roman Empire had actually decreed. And so you can actually see a pattern throughout history. Team Satan runs the same play over and over and over again. In ancient Egypt, Pharaoh on the throne. In ancient Rome, Caesar is on the throne.

And underneath both of them is the same enemy, the ancient serpent. Revelation 12 calls him the devil himself, who is trying to set up his own throne. He doesn't want to worship God. He wants to be God. And that's why Jesus says, "This is where Satan's throne is. Satan is an antichrist."

He actually goes on, John says in a se in a separate passage, he talks about the idea that um you are to look for the antichrist. But when he says you are to look for the antichrist, which has so messed up every possible conspiracy theorist forever because this is what they're looking for, he says not only is there one to come, but there have been many who have already come. And the reason why he's saying that there are many who have already come is because he's saying the enemy has set it up this way. Pharaoh was an antichrist. Caesar is an antichrist because Satan is essentially saying I am coming to uh be against and replace whatever God is. So I am against God and I'm going to replace God.

And so because I don't want the people if I can't have his throne, I'm going to establish my throne on earth and I'm going to be pulling the strings from behind the scenes in order to get everyone to bow down to them, which in reality is actually them bowing down to me. And so if I can get them worshiping Pharaoh, they're actually worshiping me and not God. If I can get them worshiping Caesar, they're actually worshiping me and not God. This is the place Satan is running throughout all of history. And right now in our current day and age, which I'll get to it here in a moment, people are trying to figure out what's the current throne of the day. Is AI the Antichrist?

We don't know. We'll find out. They'll be maybe talking about it in the next 2,000 years. Back in ancient America, there was the throne AI. I'm not saying that's what it is, but but whether it was ancient Egypt or ancient Rome, God has responded the exact same way. Listen to how he responded to ancient Egypt in Leviticus 18:1-5.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. You shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt. Don't worship Pharaoh. Don't worship the polytheism of Egypt where you lived. And you shall not do as they do in the land of Canaan where I'm sending you in your future. Don't do as they are doing.

That's almost like God saying, "There's Antichrist that have already come and there's Antichrist that you're going to meet. Don't fall into it. Don't listen to them. You shall not walk in their statutes. You shall follow my rules and keep my statutes and walk in them because I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my rules.

If a person does them, he shall live by them for I am the Lord. Like you see that God is essentially showing up and telling the people as they're coming out of the Exodus saying if you follow Pharaoh and the the decrees that he established and set up, which is really Satan running the place. If you follow that, it leads to death and destruction. If you follow me, it leads to life. Follow my path. Follow my ways.

Fast forward to ancient Rome. This is again what Jesus reveals to John. John says this in Revelation 1 1-3. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which again I'm always going to go back to. Revelation is not meant to be a mystery. It's meant to be known.

He wants us to know what he is communicating to us, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. And here's the thing. He says, "Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and who keep what is written in it." So again, God is showing up and saying, "Don't believe in Caesar. Don't believe in what they're what they're ultimately establishing and decreeing.

Believe me, and keep what I command of you. Keep it." That's what leads to being blessed, which is just another way of saying congratulations. You receive life. You receive life. So in other words, forever God has been telling us to do what he says and not Satan.

Do what he says and not Satan. So when Christians in Pergamum refused to bow, refused to burn incense, refused to say Caesar is Lord, they weren't just rejecting idols. They're standing against Satan himself. We need to know this. We need to see this. And that's why Jesus says, "I know where you live, where Satan's throne is."

Because Jesus is saying, "I'm not an idiot. I know who's actually pulling the strings behind this emperor worship that you are experiencing in your town. Now, let me paint Pergamum for you. Imagine a city built around this giant hill. It's like a necropolis a thousand feet up in the air. And at the top, you've got all these massive temples.

You've got the temple to Zeus, the temple to Athena, the temple to Dionius. You have another temple called Aspius which is actually like their hospital. It was it was believed that she was the god of healing. Um and then you also have a temple to Caesar. It was their vision of or their version of the parthonon in Athens. You'd look up and you'd see just this massive altar underneath the temple to Zeus.

this altar to Zeus where people in the city would come and they would offer sacrifice to essentially what looked like to them a throne ruling over the city in the context. And so you can imagine when Jesus is showing up to John, he's saying write this letter to them so that when they read it, they say we know where Satan's throne is. They're looking up at this massive altar and saying, "Okay, maybe Zeus isn't real and it's just Satan." That's what he's wanting them to understand. He's wanting them to see this. And so that's why Jesus calls it his throne.

Satan has succeeded in deceiving the people to worship creation rather than creator. That's all it is. That's why when you go back to Egypt, there's the sun god. There's the Nile God. There's the fertility god. All of those things are versions of creation.

It's literally Romans 1 all throughout history. just deceive them to get them to worship creation rather than creator because that's all Satan has. He he he takes what God has created and counterfeits it. I don't want them to worship the creator. All I can offer them is creation. And so now I'm going to try and put in in front of it these false gods to make them believe that if you want the rivers to flow, you got to worship this ideology.

And instead it becomes idolatry. Living in Pergamum was like living in Washington DC plus Hollywood rolled into one. They had all the political power. They had all the cultural influence and they also had every temptation possible to compromise. And right in the middle of that you got this little group of Christians holding on to Jesus. The church in Pergamum was not a mega church like it was in Ephesus.

Again, Ephesus was kind of the mother church that helped establish the other six churches throughout Asia Minor. And so, in these areas, especially like Smyrna and Pergamum, where it's again, it's not um the work of the Lord hadn't caught up necessarily like what it did in Ephesus. I'll be honest with you, it's probably similar to what we're looking at in this room right now. It's a small group of believers who have lost access to being able to have business, have lost a lost access to be able to be a part of the guilds and the trades in their um in their region. And therefore, because of that and them not worshiping Caesar as Lord, but worshiping Jesus as Lord, they're considered outcasts. And so there this is not going to be something that's attractive.

There's there's no secret sensitive moment going on in Pergamum when it comes to drawing a crowd. And Jesus says to them in his commendation, "I see you. I know you. You're holding fast. You're holding fast." Again, imagine being the only Christian in your workplace.

Maybe some of you are. Imagine being the only believer in your family. Imagine being the only believer in your neighborhood. That's what they were experiencing. Being the only person that would say, "As for me in my house, we're going to serve the Lord when it's illegal to do so." That's Pergamum.

He says, "I know where you dwell." Look at verse 13. where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipus, my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells. Jesus says, "You hold fast my name." Here, here's what's wild.

In the middle of all of that cultural pressure, they had not let go of Jesus. They hadn't let go of Jesus. The word hold fast means to grip with everything you've got, even when something is trying to rip it away from you. That's what they were experiencing. And the Christians in Pergamum, they weren't popular. They they weren't powerful, but they were faithful.

They were faithful. Even when Antipus, it mentions, who was one of their pastors, their brother in Christ, was executed for refusing to deny Jesus publicly, the church didn't tap out when that happened. Here's why Antipus was murdered. I need you to remember something here. We're going to do a little bit of theology. God is the father.

Jesus is the son of God. And in Revelation 1, it says that Jesus holds the seven stars. That is the seven angels of the seven churches in Asia Minor. Meaning God is the father, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is the son of God, and the seven churches a aka the complete church. Jesus is ruling and re reigning as the son of God. All right?

So, it's essentially saying, I'm God and and I'm ruling and reigning the influence that I'm going to have all over the earth. If you want to be blessed, you have to come through me. Now, I want to show you a picture of a coin of the emperor of Rome during Pergamum's time and during Antipus's time because it's called the coin of dimmission. The coin of dimmission. And something that is absolutely fascinating uh regarding the mission is he decreed that he would be called Dominus at Deuce meaning lord and god. So what he declared during his reign as the emperor of Rome was for all of the Roman Empire subjects to refer to him as Lord and God.

And then what was common for them to do was to strike a coin during their reign in order for everyone to know who's who's king right now, who's emperor. And at the same time, it would tell a story essentially based on the the the the way they view their power. And so what you have on the left side is Deian and on the right side you have his son as the son sitting on the world. And if you count the stars that are around Dian's son, seven. I mean, you cannot get any clearer in blasphemy that he is referring to himself as the father with a son who is like a son of God ruling and reigning, the influence of the known world. So, if you've got a guy who's at the top believing that, and then you've got a guy who's pastoring a church in one of his provident cities, the one that's holding a lot of the political power, saying, "No, no, no, no.

Caesar is not Lord. Jesus is Lord." I think it's going to tick Dimmitian off. And that's exactly what it did. And so history tells us that what he did with Antipus, which is why Jesus Jesus rarely actually calls out by name a servant of someone who that that that was martyed. Um there's Steven where it shows that Jesus gets up at the right hand of God and stands as Jesus as as Steven is being martyed.

There's only about four um accounted for in scripture. This is one of them that Jesus calls out by name. And uh history tells us that the way in which they murdered Antipus was they created this brazen um bull, basically this big metal bully similar to the one that you've seen um on um the New York Stock Exchange right right outside of there. They would cut a hole in the side of it and then they would put a person inside it and then they would basically weld it back shut and then they would roast him alive. They'd put a fire underneath it and that's how history tells us that they killed Antipus. And again, that would be like if they brought a bull in and threw me inside it outside and then burnt me alive.

You know, Broadripple just said, "This is what we're going to do." The rest of you, what Jesus's commending of this church said, we're we're sticking with him. We're sticking with him. Do to us whatever you please, but we're sticking with Jesus. That's what he's commending them. You did not deny my faith.

Now, this is huge. He did not say, "You didn't deny your faith." He said, "You didn't deny my faith." Faith isn't primarily something we possess. Like, it's not something that you can just like muster up within you and say, "I just got to have enough. I got to have more faith."

Faith is something that we get to participate in. we get to participate in. It's his gospel. It's his kingdom. It's his truth. It's his message.

It's his faith. And it is a gift. Ephesians 2:8 tells us it is a gift of God that he provides to us that we hold on to that we participate in. And Jesus is telling and commending this church, good job. good job for hanging on to me. Similar to Smyrna telling them just hang in there.

Hang in there. Be faithful unto death. And when Antipus was was thrown into that bull and then roasted alive, Jesus is telling him on that very same day as he was faithful under pressure, he's also hearing those words, well done, good and faithful servant. And so they stood firm in their allegiance to Jesus when it cost them everything. However, there were some among the church that were not so courageous, but instead they were compromised. Let's keep reading.

Look at verses 14 and 15. He says, "I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balum, who taught Baleo 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 who hold the teaching of the nickelans. All right. What's that all about?

Pergamum wasn't outright denying Jesus. Okay. Again, they didn't swap Caesar for Christ, but they were still gathering as a church, still naming Jesus Lord. But here's the issue. Even though they were doing that and verbally saying Jesus is Lord and that's who we are trusting and believing in at the same time they were also tolerating compromise inside their walls. They were tolerating compromise inside their walls.

They were allowing people in the church who did who not only professed the worship of idols but also practiced it instead of repenting of it. And here's the thing. When there is no repentance, you're only left with tolerance. When there is no repentance, you're only left with tolerance. And Jesus says, I have this against you. I I don't just know what's going on.

I'm against what's going on inside your church. And so, what was going on inside the church? He mentions Balum and he mentions the nickelins. Balam goes all the way back to Numbers chapter 22- 25 where Balam was a prophet of God. And so as a prophet of God, what he is supposed to do is communicate with God and then communicate with the people of God and lead the people of God into the holiness of God. That's what the prophet is supposed to do.

That's not what Balam did. Balum instead did not listen to God and he did not lead the people to God but instead led the people to unholiness because what he was doing was he was whispering in Bailo's ear um our people are not willing to curse you right now and so instead of cursing God maybe another way is uh you can seduce them away from God that was Balam's whole idea he was ticked off and he wanted the people to curse God, but he could not figure out a way to get them to do that. And so he believed he could get them seduced. So he went to Bailo, who was the Moabitete king, and he said, "Why don't you send some women over and see if it might seduce them?" And that's exactly what happened. Moabitete women enticed Israel into eating food sacrificed to idols.

And they also entered into sexual immorality with them. Instead of leading toward holiness, Balum led them toward sin. And then he says of the nicicoatans in the same way in Rome they're doing the same thing. They're doing the same thing. So so vers so basically nic the nickelans were like Balum 2. 0.

Verse 15 can literally read in the original text in the same way as Balum. You have some, the nickelans, who hold this teaching that you are to offer or practice whatever the idolatry is and also engage in sexual immorality. They were doing what Balum had done, leading the church into compromise. And here's something fascinating. Again, the names themselves carry meaning. Balum means a destroyer of people.

and the nickelatans. Again, all all theologians, they don't know which specific Nicholas. Again, we don't know that it's the the Nicholas from the Acts 6 uh original seven deacons. If it's not him, we apologize when we get to heaven, but some believe it was him. Uh but here's what Nicholas means in its original language. It's spoken up into two different or broken up into two different things.

Nike and Laos. And so Nike is where we get literally Nike today. It's the idea of to conquer and then Laos people. And so Nicholas was a conqueror of people. Same thing. Why does this all make sense?

What is Satan doing? Running the same play. It's the same play over and over with what he was doing with Balum and what he's doing with Nicholas in this day. Get the people to worship idols and engage in sexual immorality. Get them to worship creation and get them to sacrifice their bodies. So you've got Balum in the Old Testament.

You got Nicholas in the New Testament. Both figures teaching destroys or conquers God's people leading them into idolatry and sexual sin. Again, different names, but same playbook. And in Pergamum, there was this pressure that the people were experiencing. So again, picture yourself living there. Say you you have a you're a craftsman, you have a trade guild.

the only way in which you could participate in the marketplace. All of the marketplace were attached to a festival within a temple. And so if you don't go into the temple and offer the sacrifice on the altar of that god, you could not have membership of that marketplace. And so you can only sell goods outside of it. Which is why again it would make them an outcast. they did not have the ability to run a business here if they did not offer a sacrifice to those gods.

And then another thing that would happen is at the end of those um guilds and at the end of those festivals, they would all engage in literally just public orgies. It was all out just sexual immorality. And again, this is common. This is the norm. This is what your friends would say. This is what just everybody's doing it.

So you're odd if you don't engage in their orgy. You're odd if you don't engage in their sexual immorality. And so imagine yourself living there. On top of those two things, you also have the decree. You are to refer to me as Lord and God. Caesar is Lord.

Caesar is God. Worship the emperor or you'll lose your life. And so you have what's going on here. This this idea of compromise and why it was so tempting. Why it was so tempting. Just a little idol.

A little bit of idolatry in order to keep my business. That's okay. Just a little bit of immorality in order to keep my friend group. Just a pinch of incense to Caesar in order to keep my life. I mean, just think about that pressure. Those three things.

You can't work. You're considered an outcast. You won't have any friends. And um you might die. And that's why they were compromising. That's why they were compromising.

Now, what's that look like for us today? Because we don't have temples to Zeus or Dionius here. Let's be honest. Idolatry and immorality uh are alive and well, right? It is alive and well. Same Satan, same place.

It's just our idols are money, success, politics, relationships, comfort, our immorality. Literally, when you look at sexual immorality, the original term in Greek is porna, which is pretty easy. What to connect that to hookup culture, cohabitation, churches affirming sexual ethics contrary to scripture. Again, this is the compromise in order for us to survive. We'll give ourselves over to the Are we on the right side of history? How many times have you heard that in the last decade?

Get yourself on the right side of history and you'll succeed. Don't and you'll be cancelled. And here's the piercing part. It's not just out there in culture. It's in the church. And Jesus is confronting this.

He's not first confronting Pergamum's city and the culture of the city. He's confronting Pergamum's church and the culture in it. Again, these letters are written to them, but they are also for us. Listen to what John MacArthur describes when he talks about the current modern-day church. This one's an ouch. The church today, the church of Jesus Christ, is working very hard to be as much like the culture as possible instead of fleeing those things.

For decades, it has been popular for church leaders to make people come to church and feel like they're at some worldly event. Church has become sinner friendly instead of sinner frightening. It's become affirming rather than convicting, sentimental, sentimental rather than theological. Informal rather than solemn, entertaining rather than edifying, deceptive rather than honest, frivolous rather than worshipful. Churches don't like the idea that they're an offense to the culture. And they think that if they can just get close to everything people enjoy in the culture, they can somehow win them over.

That's the church in Pergamum. That's what they were doing. Hey, we still love Jesus. It's still all about Jesus, but it's okay if you sacrifice a little bit to the idols in order to keep your business and sell out that way. It's okay if there's a bit of sexual immorality. Hey, we don't know what we're doing anyways.

God created male and female, but if a male wants to be a female, who are we to say that they can't do that? You're welcome here. We affirm your relativity. We affirm your truth rather than the truth. Hey guys, it's all right if you want to put all your eggs in the basket of a political party. If you want to worship that, if you feel like that's going to create the ideology for your worldview, whatever it looks like, it's all right.

We still love you. We're not going to we're not going to pick sides. That's not courage. That's compromise. Pergamum had courage to resist persecution, but they lacked conviction when it comes to compromise. And a compromised church might gain acceptance from culture, but it loses approval with Christ.

Look at it. Here's his call to action. Verse 16. Therefore, repent. Therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

Which is why he gives himself that description at the start of the letter. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give him some of the hidden mana, 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. Listen to this church. Repentance is urgent. Jesus is not passive about compromise.

He says he will come with the sword of his word. We tell our children every single day to repent. Literally, what we tell them is stop doing what you're doing and start doing what we tell you to do. We tell our kids that every single day. Jesus is telling us the same thing every single day. Stop what you're doing and do what I tell you to do.

And listen, that's not heavy-handed. It's heavy-hearted. It's not heavy-handed. He wants for us life and not death, flourishment and not destruction. It's what he wants for us. That's what repentance is.

Is when we hear it and we say, "You're right. I'm going to stop doing this thing and I'm going to start doing what you tell me to do." That's good. That's repentance. That's that is what brings us life. In other words, that's why he says, "Those who have ears to hear this and keep it."

So, you need to be able to hear and understand what I'm commending, keep doing that. And what I'm confronting, stop doing that so that you can keep it, obey it, and walk in it so that you'll be blessed. So that you'll be blessed. Again, there's no room for compromise. Think about it this way. Jesus refers to himself as the bridegroom of the church, his bride.

Think about it in regards to Jesus calling them to faithfulness. And the church is compromising a little bit. So, let's just put it into husband and wife terms. What if a wife were to tell her husband, "Okay, listen. Look, um, you want me to be faithful and I'm like 95% of the guys that are out there. I don't want anything to do with.

You don't have to worry about it. But there's going to be 5%. 5% that that I might be tempted that they might woo me away. Are you okay with that? I don't think that husband's going to be okay with that. Right.

And like that's what the church is experiencing in this moment. They're saying, "Hey, we're we're we you're our husband. Not Caesar, Jesus." But there's some things that we're allowing ourselves to be compromised in. It's all or like repentance is all or nothing. It's all or nothing.

Repentance is all or nothing. And he says to the one who repents, this is the promise. This is the grace. This is the mercy that he gives. To the one who repents and conquers their compromise by becoming courageous with conviction. Jesus gives them a promise.

I will give some of the hidden mana and I will give him a white stone. Here's what he means by that. You're like, "All right, I', you know, I've heard of mana. No idea what the white stone's talking about. What's what's he talking about?" Mana was described again.

It was that that weird stuff that fell from heaven, settled on the earth as they were wandering around in the desert. You know, this is the after the Exodus. And it even gave a description that it was this like uh small flaky substance um that looked like frost on the ground. Okay, so it's like literally the first frosted flakes. Um, and mana was this symbolic or symbolism of spiritual satisfaction in Christ. Essentially, Christ is looking out at the people.

He's saying, "I I can see that you're hungry." And as you're hungry, like when you go to the grocery store hungry, terrible idea. What do you do? You compromise. you you you go away from the list and you're like well that that you know those double chocolatecovered you know whatever they are look great let's throw those in like you you compromise from what you went for in the first place because you're hungry and what Jesus does with the mana is he gives it to the people and he says I'm going to always provide what you need what you need I'm always going to provide for you and so he's saying here to the church you don't need to engage in the idolatry in the temple to eat the meat that's sacrificed in those false temples and thrones. You don't need to engage in that.

I'm going to provide for you what you need. If you're hungry, don't go to the temple for that. I'm going to provide for you what you need. You also don't need to engage in the sexual immorality. I'm going to sustain you and satisfy you. You don't need to do that.

I'm always going to provide everything you need. And that's the hidden mana he's talking about with this church. You don't there there's no reason for compromise because in Christ you have everything you need. That's his point there. And then he talks about this white stone and when you were when I was looking through a lot of the commentaries and and just theologians um a lot of them agree on the same thing. They don't know which was pretty fantastic.

And so the one thing that was kind of a like a a a a thread kind of through a lot of their things was this idea that in the Roman court system when it came to a verdict, the way that they would kind of, you know, the the person on a jury that would stand up and say, "All right, we're going to read the verdict." Whether it was guilty or not guilty, they would put forward a black stone if it was guilty and a white stone if it was not guilty. And that's the only thing they can say is we think Jesus is saying that if you repent of the idolatry that you've been engaged in, if you repent of the sexual immorality that you've been compromised in, if you repent in worshiping Caesar as Lord, if you repent in those things and you're faithful to me, you're keeping my statutes, I'm going to give you a verdict, not guilty. I'm not going to hold any of that stuff against you. I'm not going to hold any of it against you.

That's the grace I'm going to give you. That's the mercy I'm going to give you. That's the forgiveness I'm going to give you. Is declaring to you, you are innocent. You're innocent. So, you have everything that you need.

And at the same time, you are welcome in the presence of God because I consider you holy. Holy. And so the big idea here is that if we choose compromise, we're going to face the sword of Christ. Not something you want to face. But if we choose Jesus and we receive then satisfaction of Christ. Church, the way forward isn't fear that leads to compromise.

It's repentance and a renewed dependence on Jesus who gives us courage and conviction which leads to life in victory. Again, team Satan, Team Satan wants you to compromise. Period. That's all he's after. Because compromise feels easier in the moment, but it costs us everything in the long run. Ultimately, death.

And that's what he wants for you. That's what Satan wants for you. In the moment, it's temporary satisfaction, but in the long term, it's death and destruction. Team Jesus wants you to have conviction, courage. Courage may cost you now, just like it cost Antipus. It may cost you now, but it crowns you forever.

It crowns you in eternity. And to have courage, you need conviction. That's why Jesus says, "Blessed are those who hear these words and keep them." And keep them. What is the Holy Spirit telling you this morning? Is there compromise in your life?

Jesus right now is inviting you to stop listening to Satan, to hear Jesus' call, and to do what he tells you to do. Kelsey, I want you go and come on up. First John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Church, that's the invitation that God gives us that every single day of our lives, team Satan wants us to compromise. team. Jesus is saying, "Hold firm.

Hold fast. Hang in there. Hang on to me. Have conviction that I provide for you everything you need and that with me there is no shame or guilt because I declare you innocent when I forgive you of your sins." But team Satan, I can see that you're hungry. I can see that you're weary.

Here's a here's a little bit of rest. Come get it this way. Here's a little bit of immorality. Come and get it this way. It'll make you feel good. Here's a little bit of compromise.

It's going to provide a little bit of satisfaction for you. It's going to provide some pleasure. And it's a hook ready to take in order for us to ultimately die. What do you believe? Who do you believe? I pray you believe in Jesus.

Come to him with what we've compromised in. And just know that he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us. Here's that white stone. To cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Father, we thank you so much this morning for your truth. We thank you for what you provide for us at the cross.

We thank you for your son Jesus and the death that he gave so that we might have life. It's in his name we pray. Amen.