I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to the book of Revelation chapter 2, Revelation chapter
2, if you will. If you have been going through
the book of the Revelation with me, the seven churches that we
are examining, and you have a sensitivity to the manner in which our Lord
is unfolding each book, you will see the progression. You'll see
the increasing tension in the seven churches where our Lord's
flock is increasing and it's being confronted with trials
and sufferings. There's a progression here. With
Ephesus, it was a call, as you remember, the first church that
we dealt with a few weeks ago It was a call to a loving public
stance with an evangelical optimism, which comes with certain pushbacks
by people who would simply want you and me to be quiet about
Christ and our love for him. And our master urged the church
at Ephesus not to cease to be evangelical because that is for
him the ultimate expression of our love for him. is to tell
men and women about Christ because we know that the real answer
to humanity's needs is Jesus Christ. And it's really possible
to start falling away from that sort of assertive disposition
of sharing the gospel with people. And so he told them that they
must return back to that former state of being optimistic and
also proactive about telling men and women about Christ. Indication
of the fervor and the passion of your love for Jesus Christ
you and I know that's the case and then he moves on to the church
at Smyrna and it was there that he gave a confirmation to them
a Confirmation of that which would soon enter into their life. He told them in chapter 2 that
the enemy would soon cast some of you into prison and and you
would be there for 10 days, verse 10, and you shall go through
much tribulation. And then he exhorted them to
be faithful even unto what? Death. And then as he does with
all of his churches, he lays out promises that more than meets
the challenge of the suffering that we go through in this life.
And when he encouraged Smyrna to be faithful unto death, it
was a precursor for us to where we are now in the book of, in
the church at Pergamos, because certainly what Smyrna was warned
about, the church at Pergamos is now experiencing. And if you'll
note, our master opens up in chapter two, verse 18, this way,
and unto the church in Thyatira write, these things Sorry, not
verse 18, but verse 12. And to the angel of the church
in Pergamos write, these things said he that hath the sharp two-edged
sword, I know your works and where you dwell, even where Satan's
seat is. And you hold fast my name, and
you have not denied my faith, even in those days where in Antipas
my faithful martyr. who was slain among you where
Satan dwells. See, what Smyrna was told, Pergamos
experienced. The persecution that would come
to Smyrna, which would result in some dying, Pergamos is now
experiencing. So we see a gradual increase
of the persecution in the early church moving from Ephesus to
Smyrna and now to Pergamos and the title of our message as you
see in your outline the church at Pergamos my faithful martyr
You can title this part one because there's two parts to this So
we'll begin to contemplate the church at Pergamos today in its
relationship to you and I I think I stated last time that when
Christ was wrote letters to these churches through his apostle
John. Each church received a certain image or insignia of the character
and nature of Christ as the mediator of the church, appropriate to
their needs. If I said that to you, it's important
for you to grasp it. Remember in the church at Ephesus,
he told them very plainly, he was the one that held the seven
stars in his right hand. and walked in the midst of the
seven golden candlesticks? Well, if you will, you can view
this as a kind of placard or picture that was given to that
church alone, along with the letter. So the letter is a message
to them, and the picture is designed for them to see Christ in a certain
light. He was the one that was walking
in the midst of the seven churches. Ephesus needed to know that.
He was the one also upholding the seven stars. Now we've learned
that the seven stars represented the angels of the church or the
messengers or the leaders in the church. Now all believers
are angels. I know you have to receive that
by faith, but all believers are angels. In the ultimate sense
we are messengers of God are we not and yet then the leadership
in the church the mouthpiece in the church serves as a unique
mode of Messenger calling that is we are called to be messengers
in that we preach and that we teach and that we explain and
that we enforce the Word of God amongst God's people so that
you can hear the voice of Christ and the exposition of the word
and our master told the church at Ephesus do not presume upon
your role in the society I am the one upholding the churches
I can uphold you and I can let you go I can trim your candles
so that you shine brighter and brighter or I can snuff your
candle out If you presume upon your relationship with me, I
can make your ministry of non effect. Remember, I uphold you. You don't uphold me. Now, that's
a good word, because sometimes the church can think that its
job is to uphold Jesus. But we don't uphold Christ. He
upholds us. Do you remember other? He was
the priest in the Old Testament walking with David as they were
headed back to Jerusalem, having recovered the Ark of the Covenant,
and it was on a couple of oxen, and the ox started to stumble,
and the Ark of the Covenant waffled a little bit, and Uzzah thought
it was his job to try to uphold the Ark before it fell. You guys
remember that? He was under the foolish notion
that he had the capacity to sustain and protect the ark. Now the
ark is a great type of Jesus Christ, our propitiation. But Uzzah does not uphold the
ark. The ark upholds us. And when
Uzzah touched that ark, what happened? He died. And so sometimes
the church can get it twisted. Sometimes we can think we uphold
Christ, but he upholds us. And so our walk with him is very
important. It's very important. And I told
you last week, if you don't understand what the letter to the seven
churches are all about, here is the essential purpose. First assurance, assurance. These are his churches. That's
a great word of assurance. And by the way, if you look at
the title of our message, my faithful martyr, isn't that a
good word? that personal pronoun, possessive
pronoun, my, my, my, I will build my church and the gates of hell
will not prevail. So his presence in the churches
and these letters to the churches are words of assurance that he's
present and that he knows, does Christ know what's going on in
the church? Certainly he does. The other
thing that I want to remind you, therefore, of these seven letters
is that not only are they designed to give us assurance, but they
are to remind us that we are accountable. You and I are accountable,
child of God, to be the church that he has called us to be.
You're accountable. And so that's what these letters
are about. He's doing some housecleaning, isn't he? He's doing some analysis,
some examination. He's weeding out the problems
in the church. He's affirming the good things,
is he not? We need that, don't we? Come on, tell the truth.
If you was the one that was given the chart to actually gauge how
well you're doing, you give yourself an A every time. Yes, you would. And so we need an honest evaluation
from the Lord whose eyes are like a flame of fire, who can
see everything exactly like it is. Tell me the truth, Lord. And then when you show it to
me, like David said, remove it far from me so I can live for
your glory. And for your honor, the second
church to which he spoke was the church at Smyrna. And if you recall, when he spoke
to the church at Smyrna, he said over in verse eight, I am he,
I am the first and the last, which was dead and am alive,
emphasis forevermore. That was a placard. That was
a card, that was a big three by five card that he gave to
the church at Smyrna along with the letter to remind them that
he had triumphed over death. That death has no power over
the people of God. To remind them that he was the
one that possesses life and that life was secure for the people
of God so long as they were trusting Christ. That placard and then
the letter was given to them that they might endure the sufferings
that were coming. So let me say this to you. When
we have a God who sees all things, and he knows the end from the
beginning, and he understands the troubles that are coming
our way, and he takes the time to let us know that they are
coming, isn't it worth our time to market and position ourselves
to be ready for that trouble that's coming? Well, we've got
trouble coming in America. We've got trouble coming in our
present generation. You and I know this intuitively.
We know it theologically. We know it historically. We know
it experientially. We've got troubles coming. And
how will the church at this present time deal with the troubles that
are coming in their life? If we're going to deal with the
troubles right, we better start paying attention to the word
of God. We better stop playing church. We better stop wasting
our time. Because a lot of Christians are
wasting their time. You're going to see a little
bit of that today as we open up and unpack this third church
to whom our Master is writing. And remember what I said in the
opening. There is a gradual and increasing reality of the suffering
and persecution coming to the churches as the letters go from
Ephesus to Smyrna to Pergamos. By the time we get to Thyatira,
the churches all tore up. By the time we get to Laodicea,
Christ is on the outside of the church. And so it's important
for you and I to know that God's Word does not speak in vain.
It's prophetic edge is important for you and me. He doesn't do
anything but that He first let His servants know. And does He
not warn us? And so we are to be encouraged
as well as accountable for the things that are before us. He
opens up to the church at Smyrna, Pergamos, with this phraseology,
verse 12, These things said He which hath the sharp, Sword With
two edges. That's our first point I want
you to consider the image of this placard this picture that
he sends along with this letter This is the big portfolio the
big picture that Pergamos gets to see of the Savior Remember
the Savior has not spoken to the church for some 60 years
Personally now he's speaking again. And here's the picture
the one who has the sharp sword with two edges. Now there's a
couple of points I want to raise with that in order for us to
understand the context. Point number one, the idea of
a sharp two-edged sword being in the possession of Jesus Christ
is a messianic insignia. In other words, this is a terminology
that goes back to the Old Testament that basically underscores the
nature of the power of Christ's word as it rules over the world. The sword in the scripture, not
exclusively but primarily points to the Word of God. Is that true?
Is not the Word of God God's sword? Is that what Hebrews chapter
4 verse 12 says? I want you to see it for a moment.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. I want you to understand the
image on this placard, this picture that the church at Pergamos is
receiving. The Hebrew writer underscores
this image in verse 12 when he urges the Christians Hebrew letter
to pay attention to Jesus Christ who is our great high priest
who presently is in the midst of the churches Speaking here's
what we are told in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. He says for the Word
of God is Alive, you see that word quick you guys see that
that's not the word fast This is work alive We're talking about
being accurate these days in our understanding of languages
and Utilizing them properly if someone has ever depicted the
Word of God as being quick like fast That's not what that word
means. It means alive when we use the
old King James term to quicken It means to bring to life to
be alive. It means it's vital. It's not
dormant. It's not dead. It's alive It's
not the Word of God alive The Word of God is alive and it is
powerful. Powerful. And then it's sharper
than any what? Two-edged sword. And he speaks
to the efficacy of it being able to pierce even to the dividing
center of soul and spirit. Joints and marrow and is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart worthy of its own study
If you want a message on that we preached on that last year
Yet the Hebrew writers telling us about the power of God's Word
is like a sword go with me now in your Bible to Isaiah chapter
11 where we receive one of the messianic expressions of our
Lord Jesus Christ I'm gonna I want to make sure I press this image
home to you because the image in our Revelation chapter 2 concerning
the church at Pergamos will be seen to be relevant for us in
a moment Why would I want a picture of my Savior? My husband if you
will of whom I have not seen for years Attached to a letter
specifically written to me. Why would I want a picture with
him possessing a sword? Well, he sends me a picture possessing
a sword and to help me understand who he is in relationship to
the issues I am going through. Now, if he's writing to comfort
me, I need to find the comfort in this sword, don't you? I want
to find the comfort in this sword. And Isaiah chapter 11 describes
for us messianic language with regards to our Savior's coming.
We are told in verse 1, and there shall come forth a rod out of
the stem of Jesse. That rod is Christ. A branch
shall grow out of its roots, that branch is Christ, and the
Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him. Did He not? This was
at His baptism. John said, And I saw the Spirit
of God descend like a dove, and it rested upon Him, and it remained
upon Him. The Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit
of understanding, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of might,
the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of the fear of the
Lord. This is the sevenfold spirit, you guys, of which Revelation
talks about. And shall make him of what? Vital
understanding. See, again, the word quick doesn't
mean fast. It means lively understanding, rich, deep knowledge of the fear
of God. And he shall not judge after
the sight of his eyes. Isn't that what our master says?
Do not judge according to the appearance. neither reprove after
the hearing of the ear, but with righteousness shall he judge
the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth." Now
verse 4 is describing Christ's role, watch this now, in taking
vengeance for his people. For the text says, with righteousness
shall he judge the what? Poor. And reprove with equity
for the what? Meek of the earth. These are
titles for God's people. We are poor and we are meek. We are poor in spirit. Blessed
are they that are poor in spirit. And we are meek in that we trust
Christ completely. And his judgment for us largely
lie in his atoning work at Calvary, was it not? In order to provide
for us an inheritance with which you and I are to enjoy a walk
with him forever. Now mark what he says. then with
equity for the meek of the earth and he shall what smite the earth
with the rod of his what oh with the rod of his mouth what's coming
out of his mouth a rod what does it describe it describes the
power the breaking power of God's Word against his foes the breaking
power of his word against his foes. In other words, the judgment
that Christ, the son of the living God, the second person of the
blessed triune Godhead, that man, that God-man exercises authority
over men and women all over the world by his word. His word brings
men and women into judgment. His word brings men and women
out of judgment. His word subdues. His word liberates. His word empowers. His word controls. And that's the picture image
that we see here. Now turn with me in your Bible
to 2 Thessalonians 2, because I want you to see it again. Right
into the church at Pergamos, he's encouraging them to understand
that the things that they are going through will be dealt with
decisively by a sovereign lord whose word is so powerful that
it's depicted as a rod, a rod of iron. Iron is the symbol of
force and power that cannot be broken. They had metal early
metal war instruments in the old times that often were made
out of sort of hybrid metals that weren't as firm as iron.
At best, they were able to develop in the early, early stages of
old ancient Israel's history, brass or bronze material by which
they would fight wars. But when they came to the iron,
The iron demonstrated itself or proved itself to be the most
forceful metal to fight wars. And ladies and gentlemen, we
are still using iron today. Iron planes and iron tanks and
iron weapons. When the idea speaks of an iron
rod, it means that his rod cannot be broken by any resisting force. 2 Thessalonians 2 moves us closer
to the image that I'm trying to paint around the sword that
Christ has to your benefit and mine. In 2 Thessalonians 2, we
are here having described for us the Antichrist and Antichrist
system of which the people of God are to always be warned.
I'll talk more about that as we move into our text. But we
are told over in verse 3, here's what he says, let no man deceive
you by any means. For that day shall not come,
except there come first a what? Falling away. What do we call
that in the Greek? Apostasia. And that man of sin
be revealed the son of perdition. Now we know this nomenclature,
son of perdition, has everything to do with Judas Iscariot being
one of the ostensive leaders who himself what? Fell away.
It's called apostasy. It's starting off with the truth
and then departing from the truth and then opposing that truth.
You once were with it, then you drifted away and then ultimately
you stand against it. And so the son of perdition really
is a term and phrase for the devil himself who fell from heaven,
correct? who opposes and exalts himself
above all that is called God. I want you to mark that because
this is one of the insignias of all Antichrist system. It
exalts itself above God. It eclipses the glory of God.
It stands in front of God to block your view of God so that
you worship it instead of God. I want you to mark now all Antichrist
systems do that. All Antichrist institutions do
that. All Antichrist institutions do
that. Whether it be education, whether
it be entertainment, whether it be business, or whether it
be churches. Antichrist systems ultimately
enlarge themselves so as to obscure the Lordship in Jesus Christ
from your visible view. So that you are now hard-pressed
to maintain a fix on Christ. It wants you to bow to it and
that system operates presently in our world and mark what he
says I told you who he was Now mark this and not only does he
exalt himself against everything that's called god or that is
worshiped So that he as god sits in the temple of god showing
himself that he is what? This is what we call the pseudo
christ Remember ye not that when I was with you I told you these
things and now you know what is holding him back Until the
time be revealed or what is holding back rather literally until the
time may be revealed for the mystery of what? Iniquity is
already working He's speaking to, Paul is speaking to the constant
tensions and battles and conflicts and apostasies and infiltrations
of wickedness in the church where little antichrists have risen
up all throughout history to cause men and women to depart
from the faith. Only he who is now restraining
will until he be taken out of the way, or it, as the language
argues. And then shall that wicked one
be what? Revealed. whom the Lord shall
consume with what? The spirit of His mouth and shall
destroy with the brightness of His coming. You see that word
spirit? That's a synonym for the sword. Go with me back to Revelation
chapter 1, so you can see it again in Revelation chapter 1,
where we have the whole composite of the image of Jesus Christ
given to us in Revelation chapter 1, where He is described by John
Verse 16 after we start looking upon him in chapter 1 verses
14 15, and then we read in verse 16 Are you at verse 16 with me?
Listen to what it says and he had in his right hand what? That's
to the church at home Ephesus and out of his mouth Know the
Saints went that's the verb form. So what's proceeding out of his
mouth. I A sharp, two-edged sword. Now watch this. It's not in his
mouth. It's proceeding out of his mouth.
The vision that John is receiving here is Christ speaking his word
in power and in authority, executing judgment against his foes as
a two-edged sword. Do you see the picture? For my
cosmic fans, isn't this an image? I told you, intrinsic. No outward
guard this stuff coming on the outside from the inside of a
glorious Savior who is speaking his word to stop his foes a sharp
two-edged sword Proceeding out of his mouth. That sword is the
Word of God And that's the message that he's bringing to the church
at Smyrna. I'm sorry Pergamus because Pergamus
has issues Relative to this image. Let's talk about them. Let's
go back to our text Let's talk about them. You can pull the
PowerPoint back up. Our master said over in verse 11 or 12,
to the angel of the church at Pergamos, these things said he
which hath the sharp sword with two edges, that means he possesses
full authority over his word. Remember, I have it. He says,
I know your words. You know what he says? I know
your words. That's point number two in our
outline. And it's very important for me to emphasize this again.
If my walk with Christ is not close or comfortable. If it's
not right for me to know that he knows is an uncomfortable
feeling. It's so important for you to
get this. There's so many people profess to be Christians and
it's important for you to know whether or not your relationship
is secure with him because if it's secure, you want him to
know everything about you. This stuff about you, you don't
even know about yourself. You need somebody that knows
you better than yourself. And actually, actually you need
to be able to trust someone over against yourself, because if
you live long enough, you really can't trust yourself. Do you
understand that you will betray yourself? That if God lets you
go, you will send yourself to hell. Do you understand that? Do you understand how blessed
it is then to have a Savior who not only has your eternal interest
in view, but He sees everything about you? We don't like to go
to the doctor and be examined. We don't want these EKGs and
these exams. We don't want them scanning our
whole body. We don't want a person to be able to see us through
and through. Why? Because we don't want to be told
the bad news. That's true. But we need to be
told the bad news. when the news is bad. Now when
someone loves you, you should be able to trust them when they
tell you this is your issue. You need to work on this. That's
what our Master is doing here. You understand what I'm getting
at. It's very critical when he says, I know. This is not the
term gnosis. This is not the phrase of him
having an intimate experiential relationship with you in terms
of a loving regard for your issues. It means that he is fully aware
of, widow is our Greek term. It means that he's knowledgeable
of, he's interested in, and he's inclined to solve the problem.
This is a person who actually has your best interest in view. I know you better than you know
yourself. And here's how he describes to them how much he knows them.
And I want you to see this. I know you're what? And see,
he will say this to all seven churches. And let me just repeat
it again to you. The idea of him knowing our works
means that he knows our life. And for those of us who are Christians,
what that means is he knows your response to him in the daily
goings of your life. over against your professing
to be a Christian. I know what you're doing. I know
whether or not your works are works that are rooted in love
and operating by faith. I know whether or not you are
operating out of a sense of merit and seeking to Uh, get right
with me by something you do. I know whether or not your works
are really, uh, false works, works of iniquity, where you're
putting on a front that you're a Christian, but in reality,
you spend no real substantive time with me. I know that's what
he's saying. I know, I know where you are. I know your works because
every man's works shall follow. Is that true? I mean, they will.
And so when we become a visible public church, like we are, um,
our works are manifest. to him most definitely, but to
everyone else as well. And all he's saying is, I know
what you're up to, and I know your situation. And so it's incumbent
upon you and me to determine by our relationship with him,
our mutual relationship with him, whether or not we know our
words the way he knows our words. Because every man will proclaim
his own what? Goodness. But a faithful man who can find.
And so I want to be able to say, I know my words the way my master
knows my words. I don't want to say that my works
were right today and then face him on the last day and he says
to me I never knew you depart from me ye worker of iniquity
See, I don't want to be playing games with God like that I just
I just don't and so when he says I know your works it then again
is an assurance that he's present to help you get on the right
track if you're on the wrong track straighten up I'm here
I can help you So what our master is saying, and then he's speaking
to the particular issue at hand. And I think this is the most
important part. The particular issue at hand is that the church
of Pergamos was planted by the Lord in his sovereign strategic
purpose in the midst of Satan's throne. When you look at verse
13, I know your words and where you dwell, where you live, where
you do ministry, where you serve. Even where Satan's what seat
is that's the word thrown us and it means thrown. It's his
place of dominion Christ recognizes that presently in Pergamos Satan
has a stronghold over the whole city of in such a stronghold
that it has actual visible, demonstrative affirmation that he rules in
that city. Well, let's talk about that a
little bit, because I think this is fascinating for me. I love
it because here's what our master has already told his disciples.
I send you, I send you as sheep into the midst of wolves. That's
where I send you. So what you and I are dealing
with here is not something unusual. It's the people of God being
placed in a world where Satan rules. Many of you are like that
on your jobs. Come on now. This is a normative
experience. When you get out of your car
in the parking lot and you start headed towards your office, you
got to pray. Because you know the battle you're
getting ready to go into. And if we were to pull back the
curtains, we would know that the devil has a complete foothold
in that place from the top down And you are being attacked on
every side The joyful truth is your master knows He puts you
there. Whoa So in your outline point
number two, I know satan's seat that's the terminology he uses
here in verse, uh 13 of our text and did he says we have he not
only knows his seat. He knows his synagogue We described
that back up in Smyrna. Did we not? He said to the church
at Smyrna with regards to the synagogue of Satan verse 9 I
know your works in tribulation and poverty you're rich and I
know the blasphemy of them would say they are Jews but are not
but are the synagogue of what so we have the synagogue of Satan
now we have the throne of Satan don't we and And then our master
says over in chapter 3 verse 9 concerning concerning the church
at Philadelphia these words I want to talk to you about him observing
and warning about the presence of Satan. This is critical over
against the issue and calling and mission of the church. Chapter
3 verse 9. As he speaks to the church at Philadelphia, he says,
behold, I will make them of the synagogue of what Satan would
say they are Jews and or not, but do lie. Behold, I will make
them to come and worship before your feet and know that I have
loved you. Woo. Go back to our text. In point number two, he knows
Satan's seat. He knows Satan's synagogues.
And then we also see described in verse 24 these words. Listen to what he says as he
speaks to the church at Thyatira, of which we'll get to in two
weeks. As he warns the church at Thyatira in verse 24, but
I say unto you and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have
not held to these compromising doctrines, of which we'll see
a little taste today, in which have not known the depths of
Satan. Do you see that? The depths of
Satan as they speak. I will put no other burden on
you. So our master is acknowledging the presence of Satan's throne,
the presence of Satan's synagogues, and the presence of Satan's depths. What are the depths of Satan?
They are dark, demonic doctrines that have within them all of
the necessary elements of demonism, and control, and manipulation,
and deception, and seduction, and power to deceive the masses. The depths of Satan. Now, I park
your thoughts on that for this. I want you to ask the question
before we begin to work through this. Do you hold a biblical
worldview? Or are you secular in your thinking? Do you hold, because I'm here
to tell you there are lots of Christians who call themselves
Christians, but really do not believe the Bible. You say you
do, but you don't. Do you really believe in the
personage of the devil? Do you believe he's real? Do
you believe he has the kind of authority over unsaved men that
the Bible accrues to him? Do you believe that he is the
prince of the power of the air? Do you believe that he is the
Antichrist, the false light that controls hordes of demons and
masses of mankind, deceiving them as an army of opposition
over against Christ? If you don't, you don't have
a biblical worldview. I'm sorry. And here's the reality. Every day you are confronted
by one of his emissaries and you don't know it. My question
is, do you believe what Jesus believes? Because as he's seeking
to correct his church, he's giving them the kind of clarity that
a Christian has to have to deal with this warfare. As I worked
through this text last week, I was thinking about two or three
occasions of which over the last week I was engaged with some
of the devil's adversaries. As I worked through this text,
even this morning, even as As recent as this morning, I had
to write a two-page or give a two-page argument for a certain institution
that I know is demonically controlled and warned a friend of mine to
be very careful about his affiliation with them because of the clear
history of apostasy. And it reminded me of one of
the emissaries of this apostate system of which I was engaged
with last week, face to face. The devil is never coming after
you with horns and a pitchfork and bad breath. Never. Here's the reality. The devil
is the nicest person in the world. They are so nice. They are so, you can, if it comes
to like just decorum and ethical behavior and kindness and just
politenesses, just the ability to just be kind, you won't detect
any offensive thing on a human level. But if you are pursuing,
determining whether or not an individual is saved, lost, hell
bound, demonically controlled or not by how nice they are,
you are savoring the things of men and not the things of God.
You have no judgment by your simply sin. They're a nice person.
They cannot be of the devil. Most of the devil's emissaries
are nicer than Christians. This is what sucks you in, which
begins to now bring me to my point. See, this is why if you're
not sound in doctrine and committed to the glory of God and the exclusivity
of the gospel, You're going to be sucked in, you're going to
compromise the gospel, you're going to be hogtied by those
systems, institutions, structures, and people, and made to be inefficacious
when it comes to the gospel. Because you're operating out
of feelings and not facts. Our master's letter to the church
at Pergamos, his interest is, he owns that church, he paid
for it, and he loves that church because that church has borne
a remarkable witness to his glory. Let's spend a little time with
that. And when he says that, I know where you dwell, where
Satan's seat is. Ladies and gentlemen, let me just spend just a minute
painting the picture of Pergamos for you. Not long, because I
want to get to the last couple of points for us today. Who was
Pergamos? Well, again, up on the trail
of Asia Minor over there in Turkey, in the area where the seven churches
are, Pergamos would have been that third church passed Smyrna
headed back down sort of towards um Northeast and Pergamum was
one of the oldest cities in Asia mine It goes back 500 years before
Christ six seven hundred years before Christ has a long history
I don't want to get into it But by the time we reached the Christian
era here are some of the descriptions that I want to paint of it for
you Pergamus had become the chief center of the Roman Emperor worship
Pergamus had become the chief center of Roman emperor worship. Now, we already started talking
about that the last couple of weeks, right? That in the cities that
Rome occupied and ruled, they set up statues to the Caesars.
Caesar Augustus, Caesar Tiberius. and other Caesars and these,
the citizens of the Roman Empire were obliged to bow down and
worship these Caesars as if they were gods, burn incense to them,
pay a little fine and receive a receipt in order for them to
continue commerce and business and working. In Pergamos, they
had what would be considered a sort of grand scale of emperor
worship. no less than three temples were
erected there to Roman emperors. And then there were other temples
besides the three Roman emperor temples where all of your Greek
gods, you guys remember the Greek god Zeus, Athena, Dionysius,
this is the god, the pagan god, the cult god, the female fertility
god of Ephesus. And then there was another god
uniquely to Pergamos called Asclepius. The pagan god that symbolizes
your pharmaceutical industry and your medical industry with
the pole and the serpent going up, Asclepius is the god of healing. The God of healing. Now, Asclepius
was worshipped by everybody in Pergamos who were not Christians. And in that temple, they had
a living serpent, like a python, that they fed and bowed down
and worshipped as the God Asclepius. No doubt our master is asserting
in a very ironical way the presence of Satan in the Asclepian temple
where they are bowing down to a serpent. Are you hearing me? Because our master uses words
like that. He uses those words in order
to cudgel his people and to mock the ungodly when they bow down
in their reprobate minds and worship the creature rather than
the creator who is blessed overall and forever. And so our master
is saying, I know where Satan's seat is. Emperor worship was
rampant. And ladies and gentlemen, this
was an area that we would call a massive, secular, ecumenical,
syncretistic sort of hodgepodge of religious worship. I call
it major idolatrous emperor worship. You guys know what syncretism
is, right? The merging of different religious views and ideas, you
know, kind of like a, kind of like a, uh, uh, you know how
we go to the, you know, of poor folks when we go to the flea
market and cause we buy stuff at the flea market for a good
price, but you got all these different business stands there.
Well, syncretism is when all of the compromising religious
groups come together and try to be one. So you have like this
mall and metropolis of different religions, a smogger's board,
if you will. When you go into the temple,
five feet over, you can worship this God. Ten feet over, you
can worship the other God. Down the street, you can worship
the other God. You know what we call that in Christianity?
Apostasy. That's the present apostate condition
of the Christian church. where it has opened the doors
wide to all of the pagan concepts and pagan ideas of the secular
world and has watered down the word of God and watered down
the gospel and has made every way right in the sight of man.
All roads lead to God. Now let me share something with
you. When you do not have Jesus Christ as your ultimate objective,
that road feels good because it's a broad road with little
conflict. Everyone gets alone because no
one is willing to die for their own God. Are you hearing me? And it's the context that's increasingly
growing in our culture. You guys are knowing this. Your
jobs are forcing you to buy into syncretism. This kind of what
we call it the diabolical diaprax of emerging ideas until we can
come up with a consensus where we're all walking in unity. Don't
no one person now stand up and talk about him or her absolutely
knowing the truth. Oh, no, we're going to get rid
of you. How dare you say you have the truth? See, these environments
are truth free zones. Now understand, in first century
Rome, not only did Pergamos have all of these syncretistic pagan
gods and ecumenical movements, and they worshiped these gods
massively. There were great celebrations.
This was the center of Roman emperor worship. Rome was proud
of Pergamos. And God planted a church there.
Isn't that good? He planted a church here. But
now watch, what if God told you to go be part of the Pergamos
church? But see, you got to work in one of these structures. Because
see, you got to leave the church after 1230. We're out of here.
You have to go back to the culture, right? You have to go back to
the world and you have to live in those environments. Now you
have the decision to make whether or not you're going to be a Christian
in those environments or whether or not you're going to collapse
into, when in Rome, do as the Romans. Are you following me
so far? Do I have your attention for
a minute? Because the path of least resistance will keep you
out of trouble with the world, but not with God. And so much
of the Pergamos culture was rampant with idol worship, devil worship,
and Satan's throne was more particularly, not so much in the sense of religious,
but authoritative on a civil level, because Pergamos was given
by Rome the right of capital punishment. Now capital punishment
was the right for the government to execute the death penalty
upon anyone who had violated any of their laws that they thought
were worthy of the death penalty. Now follow this. Capital punishment
is always depicted in the New Testament by the kind of sword
that Christ is possessing. There are two swords in the New
Testament, the Makkari sword and then the Rumphai sword. This
Rumphai sword is the long sword of capital punishment. This is
the sword you see Christ wielding in Revelation 1, possessing in
Revelation 2, and executing in Revelation 19. When he comes
back on a white horse, he has a sword drawn. He's executing
judgment upon his enemies, capital punishment upon every person.
Why? Because he's Lord of lords. And
he's king of kings. And he's the ultimate judge,
is he not? Isn't it good to know that your Savior, the ruler of
the church, is the ultimate judge? When the Roman Empire has given
your city the right to execute judgment and punishment on you
when you hold to the claims of the gospel? Can you see why now
they must have a picture of the master with a sword in his hand?
Because when you held to Christ alone, guess what your end was? Listen to what the text says.
Verse 13, I know your words. And I know where you dwell, even
where Satan's seat is, and you hold fast my name, and you have
not denied my faith. Do you see that? You hold fast
my name, and you have not denied my faith, even in those days
where in Antipas, my faithful martyr, who was slain among you,
where Satan dwells. Do you see that? Our Lord uses
the word slain, not killed, slain. Thank you, Lord. Teach your people
something. He uses three possessive pronouns
here. He says, you have kept my name.
Is that right? And you have not denied my faith
even in those days, which means those days were really difficult
days. They were so difficult. They were days in which my faithful
martyr Antipas was killed. So there's a commendation yielded
here, isn't it, that they have kept His name, they have not
denied His faith. And that brings us to our third
point. My name, my faith, my faithful
martyr. I like the way our master puts
it. He says, you hold fast my name. See it? You have not denied
my faith. Even in those days where an antipas,
my faithful martyr, who was slain among you. And then he emphasizes,
watch this, where Satan dwells. Didn't we learn in the Friday
night study that one of the resume, one of the insignia and resume
of Satan is that he comes to what? Steal, kill and destroy. So our master affirms this. His
job is to kill. The word slain here really can
be understood as more of a sacerdotal term. That our servant here,
Antipas, of whom I'm going to talk about here briefly in a
moment, he was not just killed, he was offered up. a sacrifice
because you see lambs are slain are they not and Antipas now
takes on a great type of our Lord Jesus Christ as all martyrs
do when we die for Christ we are slain and this is what Romans
chapter 8 verse 36 says all we like sheep are led to the slaughter
isn't that what it says Slain under the hand of the wicked
one according to the sovereign power of God because that's part
of God's purpose of witnessing to the world Sometimes we have
to lay down our life for the gospel. Is that true in our being
slain as it were? It's us being little lambs in
the world slaughtered by the hatred and the enmity of an ungodly
world that cannot stand for the truth that I'm getting ready
to share with you before we close and And before I share with you
those basic points, my name, my faith, let me say something
else about my faithful martyr. Isn't that what you want God
to call you? My faithful, the word mature
is actually our word for what saints witness, right? Witness. Don't you and I want
to be faithful witnesses. Now we got Jehovah witnesses,
but they're not faithful. Okay. See, true Christians are
Jehovah's Witnesses. Did you get that? Every true
Bible-based Christian who understands the gospel aright is a Jehovah's
Witness. Where you deny the proper claims
of Jesus Christ in terms of his deity and the work of Christ,
you are not a faithful witness. Every true Christian is a faithful
Jehovah's Witness and so was Antipas. Who was Antipas? Well, I can tell you who he was.
He was simply a Christian that actually believed in the Bible.
He believed in a biblical worldview. You know what he believed? He
believed that one God made the heavens and the earth. He believed
that all men were made by that one God, creating man out of
the dust of the ground and breathing into his nostrils the breath
of life. That's what he believed. He didn't believe that we came
from an amoeba, a protozoa, that we evolved into some higher species
form from a lower form. He did not believe that. He didn't
even try to correlate that hypothesis with the biblical testimony.
What Antipas said when he walked through all of the schools of
thought in that day was, the Bible says, Six days the Lord
created the heavens and the earth and on the seventh day God rested
The Bible says that mankind was created by God as his image bearer
That's what the Bible said. The Bible also says that mankind
by nature is a sinner That's where he started getting in trouble.
See he was cool While he talked about his God creating us in
his image, but then when he began to give us a clear anthropology
that the state of all men is that they are sinners. And we
are not ascending on some type of scale to Godhood as we bow
and worship these pagan gods. We are all hell-bound sinners. So my brother Antipas is now
getting into a little trouble because his theology is coming
out. But I've told you before, after all, his mama named him
Antipas, which when you break the word down etymologically,
you know what that means? Against everything. Antipas is
our little word for all against all. Isn't that something? Now think about that for a moment.
Just think about that. Here you are in the whole city
where everybody's agreeing with everything, even though it contradicts
itself. You know, I didn't quite make any sense, but you know,
your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth. We all
just, Antipas will say no. Everywhere he went, he said no.
He just said no. He took Nancy Reagan's advice.
No. No. No, that's wrong. That's wrong. That's wrong. The book says this.
The word of God says this. The word of God says it's about
man and about woman. The word of God says it's about
sex and about sexuality. The word of God says this about
this and that. The Bible is clear. That's how
Antipas talked. He went around telling people
what the truth was. Are you hearing me? He declared
the truth everywhere. And what did he get? Did he get
him a reward? An award? Did he get put on TV? It got him slain. It got him
slain. Do you know why? Because he had
a biblical worldview. Do you also know why? Because
he was Christ's servant. That's what Christians are supposed
to be. Christ's servants. Antipas was slain because he
actually was a true believer. We can learn a lot from Antipas.
Did Christ honor Antipas? Remember what our master said?
He that honors me, my father will honor him. If you deny me,
I will deny you. If you honor me, I will honor
you. Is he honoring Antipas? It's amazing. Now Antipas was
not the only one in the Pergamos era at that time who died. There
were several other men along with Antipas who were martyred.
But God decides to actually highlight Antipas to let you and me know
we never suffer for Christ in vain. We never suffer in vain. You and I know the strategy of
the devil is to kill the head so the sheep can scatter. Is
that right? And our Master writes this letter strategically at
the right time to say this. I want you to understand I own Antipas. Because he owned me, I own him.
Because he did not deny me, I'm not denying him. Because he stood
for my cause, I'm standing for his cause. Do you see that? My faithful martyr Antipas. Saints, that's something that
you and I have to reckon with, especially in our present culture of paganism
and secularism and an extremely apostate condition that feels
so good. This is a thing I've been warning
us for 19 years, haven't I? You saints who have been with
me here at Grace all these years, have we not been warning about
the encroaching and growing, constant, pervasive, deceptive,
seductive nature of apostasy? We've been seeing it. I'm seeing
people drifting away, not physically, spiritually. I'm seeing people
depart. I'm seeing people not standing for the truth. I'm seeing
it everywhere, even close by. I'm seeing the incremental departure
from commitment to Christ, the cooling down of Ephesians, of
the Ephesus church. The failure to stand on the claims
of the gospel, even if it costs you. The need to be ready to
just tell people, hey, you know what? I respect the fact that
you have your view, but this is what I believe. This is what
I believe. Do you understand what I'm getting
at? So critical. This is his faithful. So I want
to nail this home. You're going to die. You are
going to die. If the Lord takes my beloved
sister, Ms. Banks, home, she's going to pass
away. Her husband left her about a
year ago. We know the normative process
when people have lived and been married together and actually
like each other. It's a whole other issue. When that spouse dies, the other
spouse doesn't lag behind long, and especially if they knew the
Lord. And I'll tell you, Ms. Banks has blessed me ever since
she's been here. 87 years old with that cane,
just coming on in, smiling. Powerful praying woman. If she
had her way at grace, she'd be praying for three hours all by
herself, wearing out the saints. People scared of her. Pastor, why don't you tell her
to cut it down? I ain't telling her to cut it down. I know I'm
not going to have my sister long. I want all of my sister I can
get. We're going to let me get started
there. See, she came up in the old school
where people actually believed in prayer. We don't. I'm helping
folks all over the place start churches, right? And I never
hear them say, pastor, you know, we want to start this ministry,
that ministry, that ministry, other ministry. I never hear
them say, well, what about prayer? Do you know I have to almost
every time tell them, you better start a prayer ministry. We are
so lost in the Western church around the notion that we can
get the job done without getting on our knees. Somehow we can
do Christianity without praying. It can't be done. I'm sorry your
Christianity is impotent and weak if you don't have a vital
prayer life. And the only reason you haven't
toppled over yet is because God has been gracious to you not
to bring a trial to show you that you're too weak. He's good to us, isn't he? Even
when we don't deserve it, he's good to us. Let your lazy butt
sleep, eat, drink, breathe his air, live in his world, eat his
food, drive his car, live in his house, tag his name, and
you don't even holler at him with any reasonable degree of
frequency. God is good to you. Can I tell
the truth today? That's the other thing we've
been mourning. These days, as I am working with
our young men about ministry, we live in a church age where
telling the truth is just not popular. Like I should have been
done in most churches 25 minutes ago. Right? But you know, I hold
you for one hour. I believe in at least one hour
preaching. Because see, I'm contending with
those movies y'all watch for two hours. I'm contending with
those movies. If you can watch those movies
for two hours without going to the bathroom, you can listen
to me for one hour. Listen, people be having fits and shakes
and going on. We're going to start having oxygen
tanks in the back of the room. The altitude too high for you,
air getting thin after 45 minutes because you can't handle the
preaching. Long ago, preaching was the center of worship. It was the center of worship. It's the thing that saves you.
It's the thing that tells you, listen, wake up, wake up, wake
up, wake up. So then in our final point, just
dealing with this very factually, my name is what our master said
we kept. What name? The name of Jesus
Christ. He held fast to my name, critical
to our testimony to the world. There is no other name given
among men under heaven by which we must be saved, but the name
of Jesus Christ. Now I know there are multiple
Jesuses. There is another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel
according to 2 Corinthians chapter 11. I know that in the book of
Acts, as we're going through the book of Acts, there are all
kinds of Jesus, bar Jesus, this Jesus, that Jesus, right? But
there's only one jesus of whom god the father acknowledges and
according to philippians chapter 2 this jesus He hath highly exalted
and given a name above every name every name every name that
at the name of jesus christ every knee should bow in heaven on
earth under the earth and every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's gonna
happen. That's going to happen. But see,
that very name will get you in trouble in apostate situations,
in ecumenical situations, syncretistic situations. Most of us are being
told in the civil environment, in apostate churches, you can
pray, don't use his name. Am I telling the truth? I'd go
to graduations two or three times a year. I'm talking about the
elite graduations. And if I could, I would sleep
through the whole ceremony. I would sleep. I'm trying to
figure out a visor that can just go down so I can go to sleep. And I'll tell you exactly why.
Because the keynote speaker, very often professing to be a
Christian, preaches a Christless message. to a Christless people
and he ends with a Christless prayer calling himself a Christian. How abominable in a free country
where we get to still preach Christ and we're not going to
jail yet. Happens everywhere. Listen, you
can't spend five minutes persuading me that somehow that's a tactful
evangelical method. Are you hearing me? What it indicates
to me is that you're scared to death of losing your check at
the end of that little message. Are you hearing me? It's incredible. And yet, you know what? All the
other religions, I guarantee you, you let a mullah go up there,
he'll finish with Allah and start with Allah and they won't do
nothing about it. And so we're being pushed back everywhere
we go. because we're wimps in the present
Christian age. You ask me to pray? I'm going
to start with Jesus. I'm going to talk to Jesus in
the prayer. I'm going to close with Jesus. And I'm going to
invite you to come to Jesus, bow the knee to Jesus, trust
Jesus as your savior. He did not deny my name, nor
did he deny my faith. Antipas did not gut the gospel.
He didn't gut the gospel. We gut the gospel today. Not
me, not us, this generation. We gut the gospel. What are you
talking about, Pastor? That's a whole bunch of pretending
Christians who profess to believe the doctrines of the Bible. Gut
them. They gut the spiritual condition
of man. He's dead, spiritually. You can't gut that. How are you
going to make a corpse be anything other than a corpse? How are
you going to make a dead man be anything other than dead?
See, that's strategic. That's strategic. See, because
for the most part, we're just misguided today. You understand
that? You just need a little data. Your problem is you have failed
to understand the love of God. This is the bastardizing of the
love of God going on today. If you just get touched by the
love of God, just immerse... I don't care if it is the love
of God. While you're dead, the love of God does you no good.
You can pour all kind of love on a dead carcass. It's dead,
drowned in love. Are you hearing me? Dead, drowned
in love. And our present generation doesn't
like the implications of being dead because the implications
of being dead means you're a sinner. The wages of sin is death. And we don't like that because
that makes God a lawgiver. And we don't want a God who has
inflexible rules of right and wrong because that means we have
a light by which we can examine our deeds and we come to discover
that what God says is right. I'm doing the wrong thing, but
I don't want to be weighed over against that light. So give me
a God without rules. Do you hear what I'm saying?
This is why they say we love Jesus because Jesus, he's not
like Paul. Paul too mean. Paul had too much
to say about everything. But you know, Jesus, he just
went around saying, love your neighbor as yourself. No, he
didn't. He went around saying a whole lot more than that. I
beg to differ with you. I just don't have time to help
you understand. He said a whole lot. Not one jot nor tittle of
the law will pass away. He says, I did not come to destroy
it. I affirm, I am the author of, I fulfill, I confirm the
whole book. Isn't that what he said? Every
word of God. to this reprobate generation
that I'm a part of. I like Jesus. I just don't like
Peter. I like Jesus. I don't like the disciples. Ain't
that crazy? Because the disciples, they extrapolated
on Jesus. They did more than extrapolate
on Jesus. They mimicked Jesus. If that's
extrapolation, that's what I want to do. See, he held to not only
his name, but his faith. Men are dead in trespasses and
sins. Men are dead spiritually. And unless God, in a sovereign
act of grace, enter into your life and do something for you
men or women that you cannot do for yourself, you will remain
dead Do you understand that? Unless God infuses His Spirit
into your heart by the preaching of His Word, convict you of your
sin, bring you to a knowledge of Christ in all of His atoning
glory, you will perish under the wrath of God. See, Antipas
did not deny the necessity of the God-man assuming a human
nature, the incarnation, which we love. He did not deny the
necessity of his death on Calvary Street to deal with sin. How's
a man gonna go to heaven unless he has a mediator, a representative,
a substitute to die in his behalf and bear the wrath of God for
him? We believe in penal justice,
don't we? We believe in the punishment of sin in the person of Christ.
We believe in the vicarious atonement of Jesus Christ as the sinner's
substitute. Do we believe it? We believe
that Christ died for his people. That's what we believe. He died
for all of his elect. And he's hunting them down as
we speak by the preaching of the gospel. Some of you are God's
elect who have yet to come to know Christ through the true
gospel. You are hearing it right now. You are hearing it right
now. The hour is coming and now is
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they
that hear shall live. He will raise you from the dead.
He will give you eyes to see, ears to hear. He will point you
to the glorious Savior, shut you up to Jesus Christ. You will
fall in love with him and you'll stand up like Antipas and say,
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus alone is all my salvation. And he'll grow
you up and prepare you to die for Christ. That's what he'll
do for you. That's what he'll do for you.
And he'll give you an inheritance that's undefiled. Reserved for
you in heaven and he'll give you the confidence of his spirit
and tell you to preach my name Everywhere in this reprobate
age and don't fear the faces of men Don't fear him that can
kill the body but fear him that can kill both body and soul in
hell He'll give you the grace to tell men and women. There's
a day of judgment coming and God will judge the world by that
very man that he raised from the dead, sat at his own right
hand. He will judge all men. Are you guys hearing me? That's
a day coming for judgment. This is the gospel. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. If you do not believe
on Christ, you remain in your sins and you will perish under
the wrath of God. What a gracious God we have to
give us a savior like Jesus Christ. Don't we love him? Because we
need him. Don't we need him? And not only
do we need him, we want him. Don't we want him? We want him. We want him. We want him. I want him. I want him. Don't you? We're going to have
the offering in the Lord's table right now. Amen. Amen.