Perseverance & Permissiveness

Take your Bibles this morning and turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 2. Revelation, chapter 2, we'll begin reading in verse 12. 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 the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who has killed among you where Satan dwells, but 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. So also you have some 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. Let's pray. Guide us now, God, by your word. We pray that you would cause us, not just individually, but as a congregation to look at ourselves in light of your word.

We pray, Father, that this would be helpful to us, more than helpful, Father, that you would use it to help us to be faithful to you in good times and in times of persecution. We pray, Father, you would impress upon us the necessity of understanding the gospel and that we would be those who would be willing to stand for it. Now, Father, open our eyes to your word today.

We would hear it. We would obey it. we'd be a faithful congregation to our Lord Jesus. We ask this in his name. Amen. Where do you draw the line? It's a question you ask in a variety of situations.

You're putting on a conference. You've got to come up with a date where the registrations will be too late and have to pay the late fee, but where do you draw the line? You're putting together a baseball team, and you're only allowed to take the top 14 players, but where do you draw the line You need to solve some relational problems at work but you have to keep some information confidential You can tell everyone everything but the question is where do you draw the line?

Congregations at times need to draw the line to remain true to Christ, but they have a hard time figuring out exactly where to put that line. At least that's the case with the third church that's mentioned here in the book of Revelation, the church in the city of Pergamum. Here is a church that, when faced by the outside fires of persecution, held fast.

And yet, it struggled holding fast internally. It did not know where to draw the line when it came to the essentials of the gospel. But again, we need to be reminded that John didn't just pen these messages so that we would have a history lesson of churches from the past. That isn't why it's written. That isn't why God included it in his word. In fact, we know that because every single one of these seven messages has within it these words.

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So this is intended for us. Pergamum could be us. our Lord Jesus the one who walks among his congregations expects us to learn and to grow as a congregation by heeding the commendations and the warnings that he gave to those seven churches and that he intends for us to hear and for us to examine ourselves you see it is entirely possible that Pergamum's infection could be lurking within this body and so we have to give attention to the health of this body, and we need to use the diagnostic tools that Jesus has given us in this message to Pergamum.

It's all about drawing the line. Now, if you're going to draw the line on compromise, where do you start? Where do you start? First of all, you need to see the Lord of the congregation. See the Lord of the congregation. He is the one described as the one who has the sharp two sword Now in every one of these messages in every one of these seven messages Jesus presents himself in a particular way A particular attribute is emphasized And each of those attributes has already been given to us in chapter 1 If you've been with us over these several months, you know that in chapter 1, John has a vision of the Son of Man.

And the Son of Man has all these attributes that are displayed. And when we come to chapter 2, we find that for each church, a particular attribute is picked out and applied to that church. Jesus reveals to each church something of his attributes, something about him they need to know if they would respond to him, something suitable for each situation.

And here John emphasizes what he saw in chapter 1, verse 16. He says, to the church in Pergamum, or to Pergamum-like churches, what you need to see is the Lord with the double-edged sword proceeding out of his mouth. Now this image is drawn from Isaiah's visions concerning the Messiah that is to come. We find it in Isaiah chapter 11 and Isaiah chapter 49.

So turn back to Isaiah chapter 11 for a moment. 11th chapter of Isaiah. John is drawing on this vision or on this prophecy, Or should I say, the vision that God gives John draws, partially, part of that is drawn from Isaiah chapter 11. Note, verse 1. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see or decide disputes by what is here, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

Here is this rod that comes out of his mouth. John has put it as the sword that comes out of his mouth, but it's this idea of one who judges. Turn over to Isaiah 49. Again, speaking of this mysterious servant of the Lord, which we know now to be the Lord Jesus, but in Isaiah there was this mysterious servant of the Lord that is predicted And here we read in verses 1 and 2 of Isaiah 49 Listen to me O coastlands and give attention you peoples from afar The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.

He made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand he hid me, he made me a polished arrow. In his quiver he hid me away. Here is again that sword that comes from his mouth. Right? Here is this Messiah who will be a powerful last day judge.

He'll be this powerful last day judge who will see justice is served. And in fact, we see this again in chapter 19 of Revelation. Turn over to Revelation 19.15. In Revelation 19.15, we see this vision of Jesus coming from heaven. And it says in verse 15, from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. So here, John is speaking of this son of man, this last day, this eschatological judge who's going to come. And he's going to be like one who has a sword that comes out of his mouth, who's going to serve justice and mete out all this justice. and he's going to judge the nations of the earth.

But notice this, notice this, that this same judge is mentioned here with regard to this church. What does he mean? He's going to be a just judge even among his congregations. You know, when we're afraid to draw some lines and we don't want the accusations flying against us for the stand that we take, when we don't want to do the hard work of drawing lines, we must remember this picture of the Lord of the congregation.

He is the one who has a sharp double-edged sword coming out of his mouth. He is the one who will mete out justice. It does not mean, John is not implying here that if we fail that we lose our salvation. What he is saying here is that this one can unleash his justice against congregations that fail to obey his commands. congregations that refuse to heed the Lord of the church will see him as one who will judge them then he can remove their lampstand when they no longer serve the purpose of being lightbearers in the world If LaRue Baptist Church does not want to deal with the infection that may come or may be here, I don't know.

Guess what? Jesus will deal with it. That's the point. If we're going to draw lines, we have to see the Lord of the church. What is he like? He is a Lord of justice.

He is one who says that demands obedience, and disobedience will bring about his work of retribution. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of our congregation feeling the retribution of God, of the Lord Jesus, in terms of removing us as a lampstand. Ah, you must be seeing that on the screen. There it is. Now, you all got used to that anyway, didn't you?

So here's the point. If we're going to draw lines, we have to see the kind of Lord that we have. He is a just Lord. He is a Lord that says, I'm commanding you to do things, you must do them, or I will appear with the sword of my mouth. But you know what? Jesus is not all judgment and gloom, is he?

Jesus is not all judgment and gloom because he says to you, recall your steadfastness against persecution. In verse 13, and I want you to take note of this, because I really think this is important. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, yet you hold fast my name and you did not by my faith, even in the days of Anapis, my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

Here he commends them. Here he commends them for their faithfulness in the face of persecution. He recalls steadfastness against persecution. You dwell where Satan dwells, he says. Satan lives in Pergamum. Now, that doesn't mean now that if we would launch an archaeological expedition to that ancient site where Pergamum used to sit, that as we dig, we're going to find Satan's throne and say aha there where it is That isn what he saying here What does he mean when he says that What he saying here is there is an unusually strong presence of Satan and evil in this place They were a church in the place where Satan dwelled.

He's given the idea, here was a faithful witness for me in a place where it was extraordinarily difficult, where darkness was really present. Pergamum was the center of pagan cults for a number of deities. The cult of Asclepius, the serpent god of healing, was there. A temple for Athene was there. She was the goddess of war and wisdom. Demeter was worshipped there.

She was the goddess of fertility. And then Dionysus was worshipped there. There was a temple there for him. Dionysus is the god of wine. All right? It was the god of wine whose job was to make you forget all your cares and all your troubles.

And when you talk about Dionysian festivals, you're talking about festivals where people would get wildly drunk and engage in all kinds of sexual immorality. Dionysus was an incredibly immoral figure, if you will. And prominent among them all was up on a hill behind Pergamum, there was this hill. And up there was a throne-like altar to Zeus, who was considered the greatest of all the Greek gods.

And so there is this incredible atmosphere of pagan idolatry, along with a temple dedicated to Caesar. This was the first city to build a temple dedicated to a Roman emperor. Pergamum was the first city in Asia Minor to do that. Now remember, we've talked about that. The Christians face this incredible pressure to declare Caesar is Lord. And they refuse to do that because they continually said, No, no, Jesus is Lord and we're not going to acknowledge the Lordship of Caesar.

Because Jesus is Lord. And they lost their lives for that. They face hardship because of that. So there was tremendous pressure for Caesar worship in this city. This was a place of almost impenetrable darkness Now if you ever talked to people who have been in the mission field in places where idolatry is really heavy they will talk to you about just the incredible darkness that seems to accompany that.

So here is a place of almost impenetrable darkness, kind of like our Las Vegas and New York City and San Francisco and Seattle. very, very, very difficult places to stand for Christ. And he commends them for the fact that they stood. And this kind of darkness found great expression in the economic, social, and political life of the city. They had trade guilds.

And each trade guild had their own patron god or goddess, all right? A trade guild is roughly equivalent to like a union, let's say. They got you the work. You couldn't work unless you were part of it. All right? It'd be like a union that required you to participate in a banquet dedicated to the patron goddess before you got to the business meeting.

Okay? Or in the social setting, this whole, all of this was inescapable. It was like going to the company picnic with your family and standing out as you refuse to pay homage to Caesar as Lord. Or politically, your patriotism and your loyalty to your country was suspect if you did not declare Caesar as Lord. Now our Azeri brothers and sisters in Christ kind of know what this is like.

Here's what happens to them. This, for example, Azerbaijan is a Muslim country. And they are at war, they have been at war for the last 10 or more years with Armenia, which is a little bit further to the west from them. And right now, Armenia has cut off a bunch of Azerbaijan. Several years ago, they got a hunk of their land that was disputed between them.

And they have been sitting on the border looking down their guns at each other. But here's the thing. here's Armenia a Christian nation and Azerbaijan a Muslim nation and the Azeri Christians are suspect why because their blood enemies are Christians and so their loyalty to their country is always suspect because they claim to be Christians So you see, there's this social, economic, political pressure that's on all the time to conform in this dark, dark city. This, of course, led to the outside pressure of persecution.

And the persecution can take a variety of forms. As you stand out from the rest of your society, you arouse the interest of the political authorities and the bureaucrats can make life hard for you. For example, in Azerbaijan, they can't register their churches as legal entities. They refuse to recognize their churches. And when they say, we want to register our church, they say, no, we're not going to let you register it.

By the way, since you're not registered, this is an illegal assembly. You see? It's like going to the driver's license. It's like a Christian. You go to the DM, the BMV, and they find, oh, you're a Christian. We're not going to give you a driver's license.

What do you do? Right? Or someone doesn't give you a Social Security number. Why? Because you're a Christian. We're not going to give you one.

Oh, by the way, you haven't paid your Social Security taxes. You see? The persecution can come from these bureaucrats that just because you're standing out, they hate you. They make life hard for you. But it gets so intense that a mob is aroused, and they come down the street and kill you. That's what happened, maybe, to this man named Antipas who gave his life for the cause of Christ.

We don't know anything about him except that he's mentioned here. He's commended by the Lord Jesus as the one in their congregation who died for the cause of Christ in this very dark time. Isn't it interesting? Now, please note, to me it's interesting that Jesus encourages before he rebukes. Listen carefully. Do you know how you know that Jesus loves this congregation?

Because he says commendable things to them and about them. Now, I've said this before, but I'm going to repeat it. You know that a man loves his wife and his children because he doesn't just complain about their shortcomings. He also talks about what's good about them. you know what when someone in a church says oh our church man it's just not cutting the mustard people don't show up for church like they should people aren't doing this and they're not doing that and that's all I hear I doubt whether that person really loves me this congregation.

If that's all you see are the problems, you don't love them. And that's the way Jesus is. What a great example. Before he rebukes them, he says, look, I'm going to commend you for your faithfulness. It's like the Apostle Paul. You know, years ago, early in my ministry, this struck me.

I remember reading this passage from 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 4. Here's a Corinthian church, one of the worst churches in the history of the church, they've got problems that are just, ah. I'm thinking, if I was ever called to Corinth to preach and then they asked me to candidate, what would I do? I think I'd say, no way, man, no way. But you know how the Apostle Paul starts that epistle?

He says this to the Corinthian church, I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. Before he ever starts going after them, he says, you know what, I thank God for you. I don't know if I'd be, I know I wouldn't be tempted to write that way. I'd be saying, what's your problem? Man, you guys are, but Jesus doesn't do that here.

You know what he says? Before he rebukes them, he says, you know what, the grace of God is evident in your congregation. You stood faithful to me. Even when one of your own congregation lost his life, you didn't deny my name. You held fast to my name. But you will notice that Jesus does love them enough to tell them what they need to change.

And he says to them in verses 14 through 16, draw the line against compromise. draw the line against compromise the problem is this although you stood firm and you held fast the name of christ in the face of persecution you're denying him with your aberrant unorthodox and bad teaching He says, you held fast on the outside, but on the inside, you're losing. You're losing the battle on the inside. You're holding to some doctrine that is not orthodox.

It not good Now in their group within that congregation was a group evidently called the Nicolaitans And they were teaching something similar to what that old prophet or they were doing something similar like that of the old prophet Balaam. You read about Balaam in Numbers chapters 22 through 24. Now you remember the story. All of us remember the story of Balaam because he's the guy that's on the donkey, right?

And the angel stands before him and the donkey starts crushing Balaam's legs and he gets mad, starts beating his donkey and the donkey turns around, starts talking to him. Remember that story? Why you beat me? I've been a faithful servant of yours. I never could quite understand why Balaam didn't go a talking donkey instead of carrying out a conversation, be that as it may.

That's part of that story. Balaam, you remember, was hired by Balak, the king of Moab. Balak had looked out and saw Israel on his borders just as far as the eye could see, and he said, we're in trouble. So he called for this prophet by the name of Balaam, who evidently knew Jehovah in some fashion. And he said, I want you to come, and I want you to curse the people of God.

And Balaam's going, well, for that kind of money, sure. And so he comes, and instead of cursing, he blesses. Three times he tries to curse the people, but God prevents him and says, no, I'm only going to let you bless them. And so he blesses them, and Balaam's like going, what are you doing? I'm paying you good money here, and you go around blessing these people.

I paid you to curse them, not to bless them. All right? So that's the story of Balaam. So Balaam couldn't curse him, but he found a more subtle way of getting them. Now, the story of Balaam is Numbers 22 through 24. You heard this morning Numbers 25.

What happened? Moabite women came into the camp, started seducing the Israelite men to sexual immorality and idolatry. Now, you have to understand that in the ancient world, even the world of Revelation, idolatry and sexual immorality are like this. They're very, very, very closely connected because a lot of their idolatry is involved in fertility. You had to go to your fertility god or goddess.

Baal was the god of fertility. Well, in order to have fertility, you went to the temple and you had sexual relations with temple prostitutes It all about fertility And so sexual immorality was as common a practice of worship and idolatry as you pulling the hymn book out of the rack in front of you Okay So there's always this real close connection. So these Moabite women were seducing the men of Israel to idolatry and sexual immorality.

You read that in verse 25. Why is that coming right after the story about Balaam. Here's why. Let's turn back to the book of Numbers. Turn back to the book of Numbers for a moment. I want you to turn to Numbers 31.

In Numbers 31, verse 8, you read this. Okay, Israel now is going after Moab and Midian. They're the same. They're connected there. They're going after them. They're killing.

They're wiping them out. And in verse 8, it says, They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of their slain, Evirechem, Zor, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian, and they also killed Balaam, the son of Beor, with the sword. Balaam was still there. Now drop down to verse 16. Behold, these, on Balaam's advice, caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor, and so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.

You see what happened? Balaam could not curse them, but he wanted that money. So he said to Balak, okay, I can't curse them, so this is what you do. Here's what you do. Send your women in, seduce the men, and they'll become idolatrous, and that'll deal with them. That's what happened.

That's why Balaam is held up as this horrible example of a false prophet, because instead of cursing them, He came up with an idea of seducing them into sexual and marital idolatry and luring God's people into a defeat that was greater than Moab could ever have inflicted. That's what's happening in Pergamon. There's teaching going on, doctrine in that church that's leading those people into idolatry.

Go ahead and go to the union meeting. Just eating at a banquet dedicated to Athena is no big deal. I mean, it's not like you really believe in her anyway. It's just an idol. Go ahead. Just go ahead.

It's no big deal. Go to the banquet Right Look over at 1 Corinthians 10 for a moment Because this was a problem throughout the early church They were saved out of that And just like anything we saved out of, it's hard to cut the ties sometimes. In 1 Corinthians 10, the Apostle Paul is saying to these people, beginning in verse 14, therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Consider the people of Israel.

Are not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? What do I imply then? That food offered to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No. I imply that what pagans sacrifice, they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons.

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord in the cup of demons. You cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he? You know what he's saying here? Don't go to those idol feasts.

Certainly the idol is nothing. But when you go to that feast, you're participating with demons. Don't go to that table and then come to the Lord's table. See, that's what he's saying. So this teaching was bringing these Pergamites into idolatry as they participated in those idol feasts. This teaching of the Nicolaitans led to sexual immorality.

Listen, you can go to the feast. You don't have to participate in that sexual drunken stuff that always goes on there. Yeah, well, go there enough times and guess what happens? And again, back to 1 Corinthians. Back to 1 Corinthians, chapter 6. All right?

Very familiar verses, but what we all need to hear when he says this, flee from sexual, verse 18, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you whom you have from God you are not your own for you were bought with a price so glorify God in your body glorify God in your body you can't do with your body what you want well how does that look today How's that look today? It takes many forms, like, look, you know that what the company wants is wrong.

You know it's immoral. You know that it's wrong legally, and you as a Christian shouldn't do it. But look, if you say something, what's going to happen? You're going to lose your job. And besides that, they're telling you, they're the authority, you've got to do what they tell you to do. Right?

And they'll wrap it up in something like this. Remember what God says of being subject to the authorities above you. So just keep your mouth shut and go along. Or, look, as long as someone is involved in a monogamous homosexual relationship, it's not immoral. Come on. You've got two people who love one another.

That's not immoral. That's love. That's okay. Or you need to go to the company party. Sure, the boss hires some women to entertain. Okay, you know.

But look, if you're going to make any progress in this company, you can't ignore the social aspects of it. You've got to go, right? What's the issue? The issue is this. This is a teaching that leads you away from the gospel. That's the point.

This is a teaching that leads you away from the gospel. dabbling with sin denies that you belong to Jesus and he is a jealous husband and will tolerate no rivals don't go to the idol feast don't do those things that Jesus your Lord says are wrong because you're giving yourself to something someone else and not him and he's jealous He does not like his bride fooling around on the side with other people. I mean, he's serious about this. He is dead serious about this.

What is the gospel about anyway, folks? You know, we have so truncated the gospel to say this. Here's the gospel. I'm saved. I'm going to heaven. It's that much of the gospel.

The gospel is much more than that. The gospel is this. Well, let's look at it. Turn back to Romans 15 for a moment. I love this passage where Paul talks about his ministry of the gospel And he says this in Romans 15 verse 15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God, note, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

Here's what he says. The gospel goes out, I minister the gospel, and it makes holy a people for God. Those who believe are incorporated into a people that are called holy who are exclusively devoted to God. The gospel is about calling out a people from all the world that will be known as holy people, people that are entirely devoted to God. That's the gospel.

That's part of the gospel. And so what's happening here is this teaching is drawing people away from that gospel message that says, God saved you so that you'd be holy in a world of unholiness and unrighteousness, so that you would stand out as the people of God. And this teaching is leading you away from that. So what is he calling the church to do? He says, repent.

Repent. Now notice, the church is called to repent. What does that repentance involve? I think it's implied very strongly. Repent and start drawing the line. Draw the line.

Even though this teaching is promoted by just a segment of the congregation, notice, there are among you some who teach. This wasn't a congregation-wide thing. There were a group of people in that congregation, leading them away from the gospel, but he calls on the entire congregation to repent. Why? Because they had not exercised discipline. They had not disciplined those who promote gospel-destroying doctrine.

They had not done the hard work of saying, that is not acceptable. Either you change or you're out. The church has to draw the line where the gospel is compromised Now I going to say this very carefully because I know that in a public place like this public messages get outside these walls or at least I hope they do But when you look at the church-wide, what's going on church-wide in this country and in the world, this is what you're seeing.

When you have the United Methodist Church denomination and the Episcopal Church of the United States saying it's all right to ordain homosexual clergy or even debating it. What is that saying to you? It's saying these are people who are not true to the gospel. And we need to say it and we need to believe that. They're not true to the gospel. And where the gospel is not, you don't have a church.

And we need to forthrightly say it on the authority of the word of God. The Nicolaitans are widespread today, folks. Widespread. But you know what? Permissiveness is so seductive. Permissiveness is so seductive.

It seduces us by saying, discipline is hard. And is it really necessary in this case? Right? Is it really necessary? It's hard. Or it says to us this, taking such a stand is going to destroy the unity of the body.

And that's a terrible testimony. I've heard this over and over again. If you start doing this and you start disciplining people, you start saying, no, we're not going to allow that. You're done. you're out of here. That's just going to destroy. Didn't Jesus pray in John 17, oh Lord, make us all one so that the world will believe in you.

You know what you're doing by saying these things? You're destroying the unity of the body of Christ. You're going against the prayer of Jesus. You heard that argument? I hear it all the time. That's really seductive, isn't it?

I don't want to destroy the unity of the body of Christ. I don't want to do that. It's interesting, I came across an article this week by the Providence of God, I'm sure, about the Anglican Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola. He was. He retired in March. Let me tell you something You want to see some people who are standing for the gospel You look at the Anglicans in Africa Man they are going to war And here the Archbishop Peter Akinola Archbishop of Nigeria, who has led the battle in the Anglican Communion against this homosexual stuff and that's going on, ordaining that clergy.

And here's a statement he made. Unity at the expense of truth is not faith. Unity at the expense of truth is not faith. Don't talk to me about destroying the unity of the faith. There is no faith where there is no truth. It's seductive.

You know what? It seduces you by saying, well, you must not be for the freedom of expression. You don't believe in people having the right to say what they want to say. Guilty. I don't believe you have the right to say what you want in the church of Jesus Christ. You can only say what's in accord with what the Bible says.

And if you don't, then you don't belong as part of that church. That's what he's saying here. Here's another way permissiveness is seductive. You lose friends. Probably the most seductive of them all. You're going to lose friends.

That's hard. But the refusal to repent and draw the line and brings the Lord with the double-edged sword. And he wars against those who are not disciplined. Now, again, as I wrestled with this text, it says here that Jesus is going to come and to war against them. Who? The heretics, the Nicolaitans, the ones who are promoting gospel-destroying doctrine.

He's going to war against them. Not necessarily the congregation, but against them. Now, in Israel's situation, you know what God did? I think you heard it this morning. He unleashed a plague. He warred against his own people by unleashing a plague that killed 24,000 people.

All right? Listen, if any congregation refuses to draw the line at the gospel, Jesus is going to show up sooner or later to deal with the heretics. He will show up. He's not saying I'm going to come as in his second coming. He's saying, I'm going to arrive providentially, and I'm going to exercise judgment against those people whom you refuse to discipline.

If you don't discipline them, then I'm going to show you. up and I'll take care of it. Now, you say, then why discipline? Let's let Jesus take care of it. Let me tell you something. It's a lot worse when Jesus takes care of it, right? It hurts a lot more when he has to show up and do the job that you should have been doing to begin with.

It will affect the entire congregation. It's kind of like, you know, when you have to spank your children, right? You have to spank your children. You don't want to do it, and they should have obeyed, and then they do it defiantly. If they would have obeyed, it wouldn't be as bad, but they didn't. Or when they say to you, right, that didn't hurt. okay you remember what happened in Corinth in 1st Corinthians chapter 11 you remember that part of the Lord's table where the apostle Paul says to them because you've been disobedient with my instructions about the Lord's table a number of you have died right now let me ask you something There Jesus entered the picture, and he dealt with some disobedient people.

They died. Do you think that affected the congregation as a whole? Yeah, sure it did. What's the point? The point is, repent and deal with it now, or Jesus is going to show up and deal with it. Better to do it now than to wait until later.

Better do it now than to wait until later. All right, last thing here in verse 17. Drawing the line is a hard thing to do. And so Jesus encourages you by saying, you can draw the line if you believe the promise of God. You find those promises or that promise in verse 17. 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. Take note, if you listen to the Spirit and you conquer, and to conquer means overcoming your toleration of compromise and exercising discipline God gives you hope He says this you will eat hidden manna Wow in these symbolic books these things can really get hard can they? What in the world is hidden manna?

Well, I think the key is found by the writer of a different book, the same one who wrote this book, John the Apostle, as he writes in the Gospel of John, chapter 6. Gospel of John chapter 6. You remember Jesus had fed all those people. And so they're kind of clamoring for him to feed them, to be the king who now is going to feed them. And here's what he says, beginning in verse 25 of chapter 6.

When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, you're seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your full of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

For on him God the Father has set his seal. Then they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God? Jesus answered them, This is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. So they said to him, Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Jesus then said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. They said to him, sir, give us this bread always. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

What is he saying there? Jesus is our manna. He's hidden from the rest of the world, but he is our manna. Those who are intolerant of gospel-destroying doctrine will know the Christ of the gospel in an intimate way. The grace of Christ and all its joy will be yours. I mean, think about that.

When you've got gospel destroying people in your congregation, you're eating away at the gospel. You're eating at the very vehicle of the presence of Christ. The gospel is our hope The gospel brings us Jesus And we will know him This invisible spiritual hidden food the joys of fellowship with Jesus should far outweigh the seduction of permissiveness And there going to be an even greater intimacy at the marriage supper of the Lamb when we see him face to face and we enjoy fellowship together.

And notice this, that the ones who do not deny the name of Jesus through compromise will receive a white stone with a new name written on it. okay now in that part of the world when someone was tried they would vote by use of pebbles that's what he's referring to here or a stone and if they voted for acquittal it was a white stone if they voted to um if the jury for example would vote your guilt it would they would vote with a black stone. Okay? And so you see from God a vote of acquittal.

All of society may look at you and say, as these folks faced, you are wrong. Why do you want to make life so difficult for us? You and your contrary ways go along. They'll give us the black stone. Jesus gives us the white stone. And says, you're not wrong.

You are not wrong. In my eyes, you're acquitted of any wrongdoing because you've been faithful to me. And on that stone is written a new name. And I believe the name written on that stone is the name of Jesus himself. And here's why. This is kind of like the first time this is mentioned.

So it's like a pregnant phrase, which means it's going to give birth to more later on. So what is that name? Turn over to chapter 3, verse 12. Now, the church in Philadelphia and the church in Thyatira, both of which remain true to the name of Christ, both have this little section where they're talked about, you're going to get a new name. Verse 12, the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God.

Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. Okay? So that what written on the white stone The name of Jesus The name of our God is written on that stone Look over at chapter 22 We see it again Chapter 22 verse 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him.

They will see His face and His name on their foreheads. All right? His name on our foreheads. The name of Jesus. Well, someone says, yeah, but it's a name that no one else knows. It's a secret name.

It's not a secret name in the sense of you're the only one who knows it, but a name that the whole Christian community knows, but no one else outside does. Now, why do I say that? Because when you look at Revelation chapter 19, here's what you see. The same thing is said about Jesus in verse 12. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

He is clothed in a robe, dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God. Now, wait a minute. You just said he's the only one who knows it, and now you tell us what it is. That's the point. No one knows it but him and those who belong to him. All right?

So this white stone of acquittal has the name of Jesus written on it. We have his name. Now, in the ancient world, especially in the Old Testament, It's not meaning to know someone's name like, hey, I know what's on the stone. Uh-huh, I was right. It means more than that. It doesn't mean I acknowledge I can, oh, yeah, that's what I guessed.

It doesn't mean that. To know a name meant to enter into an intimate relationship with that person or to share in that person's character and power. To have the name of someone on you was to share in that person's character, to share in his power, to share in everything that he is and everything that he has. All right? So the name written there means that I've been given this vote of acquittal with the name of Jesus because I'm part of him.

All right? Everything that's true of him now is going to find its expression in me. Ladies, when you take that new name at your wedding, you enter into what? the most intimate of relationships in all of humanity, and you share in everything that your husband is and does. That's kind of the idea here. If you remain faithful to Jesus in the face of compromise, in the face of compromise, in the face of compromise, in the face of compromise, of the seduction of compromise, you will have this white stone with the name of Jesus on it.

You will be his possession. You share in him. So by standing for the gospel, Jesus promises that we will enter fully into this wonderful relationship that can only be had with him. We can draw the line because even though everyone hates us, and everyone looks at us and says you're nothing but intolerant bigots we have a stone with the name of jesus written on it and that's god's judgment we can draw the line because of what we're going to eat that hidden manna because of what we have now you might be asking this question is this larue baptist church are we a pergamum Maybe so, maybe not yet, but it could be.

There may be infection lurking in the body, I don't know. But our Lord Jesus certainly calls us to do certain things here. He calls us to know the gospel. We don't be able to draw the line if we don't know the gospel. We must know the gospel. We must stand for the gospel when it brings persecution.

We need to dare to draw the line when someone wants to compromise the gospel And we need to believe the promises that accompany that gospel That's what he calls us to do. May God help us to remain faithful in the face of external pressures and inside compromise. Let's pray. Father. Your son is the Lord of this congregation. He knows what is present here.

He knows what's going on better than we do. And yet he has given us this word from you in order that we will be able to remain faithful. Father, help us to remain faithful, we pray. Faithful in the face of persecution, faithful in the face of compromise. eyes. God, help us, we pray. We thank you for your word.

We thank you that it is ours. We thank you that you have been faithful to us. Now, God, again, we pray, help us to be faithful to you and to our Lord Jesus by the power of the spirit that you have given us. We pray this in the name of our King. Amen. Thank you.