What's good to be back with you again tonight. Some of you will recall about four years ago. I went through the seven churches of Asia Minor in these chapters and we went really verse by verse through each of the seven churches and I did two sometimes three messages on each of the seven churches. So we have all of those messages still online. You can hear any of those. So tonight, I want to approach the seven churches from a slightly different angle. My plan is to go through the seven churches in two groups. I want to break them up into the most compromised churches that we will cover in two messages beginning tonight, and then I want to look at the most faithful churches, and we will look at those over the other two messages. So four messages to cover seven churches is the goal. Now, the seven churches addressed by Jesus Christ in Revelation 2 and 3 were all surrounded by paganism. When you think about the culture of Asia Minor, the church was really like a small island in a sea of paganism. They were just drowning in paganism. The culture, if we speak of the culture, it was totally pagan, totally godless. It was full of idols, full of immorality. And it was really from the beginning of the early church that the church was born into that context. From the very birth of the church on the day of Pentecost, becoming a follower of Jesus meant lethal, deadly hostility from the world. Even decades after Pentecost, there was increasing hostility toward every true believer in Jesus Christ. And so into this pagan environment, seven churches had been established through the ministry of Paul in Asia Minor. And of those seven churches, only two of them refused to compromise in any way when John was given this revelation from Jesus Christ. Only two. Four of those seven churches had become so paganized that it eventually put them out of existence. They ceased to exist and they are no more. Reason? They didn't repent. They didn't heed the message that Jesus sent them through John. And then there was the most influential of the seven, which was a church that was magnificent on the surface. They appeared to be doing everything right on paper and externally. They were flawless. I mean, their doctrine was right. They had great teachers. They were doing the right things. I mean, they were going through the right motions. But Jesus said, here's the problem. it's that you've left your first love. That was the church at Ephesus. They were, on all the externals, a healthy church. So I want to include Ephesus when we look at the healthy churches for a good reason. I want to end by looking at Ephesus when we go through the whole study, because I think it's a very helpful warning for all churches that appear healthy, but might be missing the main ingredient at the bottom, which is the motivation. So we will save that for the end of our study. but this founding church, the church at Ephesus, it was the mother church of the other churches, it was such a strong church, it was doing so many things well, and we're going to see that this church is really emblematic of all the other churches, because as Ephesus went, so went the other churches in general. Ephesus had elders, the other churches had elders, a plurality of elders, and this great Ephesian church, I believe, serves as a needed warning. For all the churches that look like they're doing the right thing, that are externally pure, doctrinally pure, they believe the right things, but they're missing something that is a threat to any church, and I think it's good for us to note that. Now, in this message, I want to begin looking at the unhealthy traits of four of the most compromised churches. Now, that infamous distinction belongs to the churches at Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, and Laodicea. And when we consider these four worldly churches, sinful churches together, I think it gives us a compelling portrait of what happens when any church becomes so paganized by the world around it that it loses its distinction. Now, I've identified, as I've gone through these churches, I've identified at least seven distinct errors in these churches of Asia Minor. And if we remove Ephesus from the first round, since they abandoned their first love, we'll take that out So, we're talking about a lot of error in these four most compromised churches, and it's very important, I think, to see this in Scripture. Why? Because these same paganizing influences and these errors are still being more or less embraced by churches all around us today. Now we are in the portion of Revelation that covers the things that are. This is present tense. This is what's going on right now. These are, in other words, present realities in the church. Not just this church, but every true church. These are present realities around us. In other words, what was going on in the seven churches of Asia Minor then, when John wrote, is still going on in many ways today. It was relevant then. It is relevant now. The relevance remains. If you recall from our previous study on chapter 1, we considered John's inspired outline of Revelation recorded in Revelation 119, where Jesus told John to write, therefore, the things that you have seen, those things that are, and those things that are to take place after this. So everything in chapter one fits into that category of the things that John has seen. He's recording what Jesus has revealed in that vision of Christ. Then chapters two and three fall into the category of those things that are, that are present tense. In particular, it refers to the things that are in the church. And then from chapter 4 in heaven to the end of Revelation covers those things that are to take place after this. So beginning in heaven, chapters 4 and 5 show us both present as well as future realities. And then chapter 6 through 18 is all about the future distress on the earth known as the Tribulation and the Great Tribulation. Then chapters 19 through 22 are about the return of Christ, the final battle at Armageddon, the millennium, the new creation, and the eternal state of glory in Christ's presence. So that's where we are headed in the book of Revelation. Now this indicates for us, in terms of the outline, that the design for chapters 6 through 22 was always intended for a future time after John wrote this. It was always about something that was in the future. Of course, nobody knew how distant in the future, and we still don't know how distant in the future, but none of the prophetic events described in chapters 6 through 22 have taken place yet. None of them. Now, that's disputed, of course. Not everyone holds to that position. But I believe that it is the biblical position, and I'm going to speak in defense of that position. And I believe that it will be unmistakable when these events do take place for those who are alive at that time. Now, this further indicates that if that proposition is true, that the contents of Revelation with its present and future realities, therefore, has the same perennial relevance now as it had for the church to which it was written. The same relevance. The same binding influence. Because the fact that most of Revelation has yet to be fulfilled in the future makes it no more or less pertinent to us living now as it did to those Christians who first received it. And therefore, any interpretation of this book of Revelation that renders some aspect as irrelevant to any generation of Christians is not in keeping with the prophetic intention of our Lord. Now, in this way, the book of Revelation speaks, I believe, to every generation. This is not just a history lesson. We're not just studying something that took place in the past and it has nothing to do with us today. It is strikingly relevant today. The warnings and applications remain clear for every generation of the church until Christ returns. But now having said that, I do want to make this distinction for us. I want to suggest that there is something unique about this present generation of the church, especially in America, that's living right now as it relates to persecution. And here's where I believe this is so appropriate for us to discuss at a time like this. Ever since the founding of the American nation, no other generation of believers until now in America has ever been closer to the experience of the early church in terms of persecution from the pagan culture and the government surrounding it. Until these last few years in America, no single generation of Christians has ever experienced a more sudden loss of religious liberty and freedom of expression on moral and social issues than our generation is currently facing today. It is fast becoming illegal to publicly hold biblical convictions without serious repercussions. As we know, God is sovereign over the heat of growing persecution that ever rises against his people. We affirm that, we believe that, and our confidence is in that. That Jesus is no doubt using this affliction to produce in us that which ultimately brings him glory. but it's going to increase in the days ahead. I believe that these days of persecution are going to mount up. They're going to increase in waves. There will be moments where it seems to have gone backwards, gone down a little bit, and it's going to ramp up again. I believe that we are moving into those periods now. This is exactly what scripture tells us is going to happen. 2 Timothy 3 tells us that in the last days, which covers all of the first century until now, really, in these last days, there will be times of difficulty. All right, that's obvious. And evil men and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. And 2 Timothy 3.12 also tells us that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Now that's a promise. They will be persecuted. And as this takes place in our lives, we may be confident as believers that Jesus Christ is advancing his prophetic agenda in our day through everything that happens because the Word of God is being fulfilled in our midst. And now the current attacks against Christian doctrine that we've been reading about, seeing in the news, those may have begun over issues like abortion on demand and homosexual marriage, but I assure you they will not end there. They will escalate. They will go beyond that. Essential doctrines are going to be attacked. You know, I talked recently to a man who handles the insurance for over 200 churches in our region, and he shared with me that there are already active lawsuits being filed against churches around here in our region over the issue of homosexual marriage in the church. That's going on right now. These are tests that are being done, legal tests to put the church on notice. The Supreme Court ruling last year was just the beginning. There is now a planned escalation against the church on this issue. Make note of that. It is a planned thing. It will escalate. And now that another seat on the Supreme Court has opened up, the balance of power is shifting once again. So I want us to think tonight biblically about how the church is to live at this time in a pagan culture with rising persecution against everything that we stand for and how to be faithful. These days may indeed be very difficult for our nation. But in this difficulty, our faithfulness as Christians to the Lord Jesus Christ and his written word could result in one of the church's finest hours. Now in this message, I want to show you what happens when a church ignores the warnings. We're going to look at what happens when a church caves in and goes along with the pagan world in any way to get along. Going along to get along is never the way of Christ. This has been happening for decades in churches all around us. They are currently going along with the world's agenda, practicing the world's practices with the world's priorities, the world's entertainment, the world's music and language and everything else. There are many obvious threats to the health of any church and some of those are going to be covered in this study because they're directly related to the text. But I'm still convinced that some of the greatest threats to the church are the unrecognized threats. Those subtle threats that go under the radar, it's the subtle dangers that go unaddressed that often lead a church to its demise. Now as noted previously, there were four churches in Asia Minor that did compromise with paganism and it destroyed them. And I think it's going to help us if we understand the context of Asia Minor, because that's how we're going to apply this. If we understand what was going on then, it's going to help us to see how to apply this in our day. Understand that Asia Minor was a land of rampant paganism. They never had anything like what America had in terms of freedom of expression, in terms of any religious liberty. And in this, we will see aspects that are increasing now in our own nation as we go further into paganism. The culture then was idolatrous. The culture then was overrun with idols. They were polytheistic. Emperor worship was the norm for the Roman government. In fact, idolatry was a major industry. It was a major industry that fueled the economy of Asia Minor. This is why the Apostle Paul was arrested in Ephesus, recorded in Acts 19.23 and following. You may recall that story in Acts. It was because the gospel message that Paul was preaching was literally destroying the business of making idols for people to worship. And it cut in on their economy so much that they said, you must seize that man and arrest him. He's putting us out of business. That's the power of the gospel as Paul preached it. Now, in Asia Minor, there had never been a consensus of morality in that land. Never. And they even made their sexual perversions into sacraments of worship to their idols. It was built into the pagan religion. Infanticide was widely practiced throughout the pagan world, even as abortion on demand is currently practiced in our nation. And as we see in our own time, the culture of Asia Minor had also lost the distinctions between male and female. They had blurred the distinctions that separated men from women. According to one historian, little girls were encouraged to be rugged. Little boys were encouraged to grow long hair and to have it curled while cosmetics adorned their faces. Many of these same young boys were later emasculated and brought in to serve as homosexual prostitutes in the Temple of Artemis, also known as Diana of the Ephesians. That's history. Now, such blurring of the sexes always begins in subtleties. It never comes in just openly, broadly through the front door. It comes in in subtleties, as we have seen in America. The temperature is heating up because we have been trained by Hollywood to make light of homosexuality, to make light of things by getting us to be amused by it and to laugh at it and to think that it's polite and it's generous to go along with everyone. And then it escalates into brazen, genderless androgyny. Now this was the context into which the churches of Asia Minor came into being. The believers in these churches, think of this, they came out of that background. They were saved out of that dark pagan culture. And many of them were being faithful, at least in an external sense, for years. But then something happened. After they had been saved from this way of thinking and living, they believed the gospel, they at least professed faith in Christ, but now some of them were actually going back to their worldly way of thinking and living. Again, it's because they were going along to get along. They wanted to live at peace with their neighbors to such an extent that the baggage of Christian truth was too heavy to bear. And so they started to let it go. They blended in with the pagan world, and the church became more and more pagan, like the world. And so for the rest of our time, and into the next message, I want us to consider these sinful traits where once strong, healthy churches became paganized by the world around them. And I'm going to spend the rest of our time tonight just developing the first, really, of these traits in this message, and then I want to go into greater detail with the other traits in the next message. And really, the first trait opens the door for all of the other sinful traits. This is where many of the troubles began. It is this. The first area where paganism takes root in the church is in its tolerance of false teaching. It's tolerance of false teaching, tolerance of something other than biblical truth from the pulpit. That's where it begins. Most of the other sins in these churches flows from the tolerance of false teaching from false teachers in the church. And really, they're all related. The churches at Pergamum and Thyatira are the main offenders in this regard. Revelation 2 verses 14 and 15 refers to the false teaching of Balaam and the false teaching of the Nicolaitans. Now both of these led to the rise of sexual immorality in the church. The false teaching of Balaam refers back to Numbers 22 through 25. It was here that Balaam used his role as a prophet for hire to seduce Israel into sexual immorality and idolatry. Balaam was hired by the enemies of Israel to manipulate them and to lead them into sexual idolatry, which idolatry they entered into voluntarily. They went along with it. They were gullible. They allowed it to happen. Likewise, the false teaching of Nicolaitanism is also related to sexual immorality, sinful sexual temptations in the church. It was this teaching that led to the idea that grace equals license. Now that's going on really big in the church today. The idea that we don't really need to deal with sin, it's grace. We're all under grace, so we don't need to confront sin. We don't need to have church discipline that makes people uncomfortable, that might run people out of the church. We don't want to make anyone feel awkward or uncomfortable, so let's just let everything go. Let's just not even address sin. Let's not talk about it. Now, that's not grace. Grace is part of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ comes in. It says, follow Jesus Christ. He died for your sin. He forgives you. It's his righteousness in place of your sin. And he makes us new creations. And he calls us to live in repentance. And we follow him. And the gospel changes lives. And so the idea that grace equals license had crept into the church and they believed it. Now that's the false teaching that was going on in Pergamum. And then in Revelation 2 20, this is where Jesus says to the church at Thyatira, I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. Now the role of a prophet was to declare God's word to his people. And so by calling herself a prophetess, this woman called Jezebel, probably not her real name, it's what Jesus called her, it was a symbolic name, this woman was claiming to be a God-appointed teacher over the church at Thyatira. False teaching was directly mentioned in Pergamum and in Thyatira, and both of these churches were tolerating false teaching, and it was producing rampant immorality in the church. Listen, that is always the case. False teaching never remains in a static form. It never remains as merely intellectual, that it just corrupts your thinking without also corrupting your behavior. It always produces a false way of living. Wrong thinking always produces wrong living. Always. You can never separate those two. You can distinguish them, but you cannot separate them. Belief is always linked to behavior. Whatever you really believe is going to show up in how you behave, in what you tolerate, and in the priorities that govern your life. I've said this before, but I'll say it again. It's not what you say you believe that governs your life. It's what you really believe and what you truly believe that makes all the difference in your life. Now, ideally, those should be the same. What you say you believe should be what you really believe. And we even have a word for those where there's a gap between those two. They're called hypocrites. We all know that. When people say they believe one thing, but they don't really believe it, they're just saying it on the front. Well, if there's a gap between those two, you're not being honest. That's hypocritical. Now, in Pergamum and in Thyatira, there was no hypocrisy. They didn't even pretend to be going along with the right things. Their confession was wrong. They were openly in immorality, and Jesus confronted them. Their beliefs were directly related to their practice. The teaching of any church must be guarded by the pastors, by the elders of the church. They are the gatekeepers on what is taught in the church. Therefore, these must be men of biblical discernment. Now Thyatira had this woman, some woman who gained influence over the church as a prominent teacher. She called herself a prophetess. Jesus referred to her as that woman Jezebel. She was ruling over the church with her influence in the same way that Jezebel of old ruled over Israel through Ahab. And she led Israel into pagan idolatry and to the worship of Baal, in fact. She was the daughter of the high priest of Baal. She was raised in Baal worship. And so this Jezebel in Revelation was claiming to speak for God while seducing Christ's servants to practice sexual immorality. It was the belief giving rise to the practice. Now, how did that happen in a church that started strong, that was really influenced by the Apostle Paul through Ephesus? How did a church go so far wrong? Here's how it happened. False teaching begins whenever the church tolerates anything other than the preaching of Scripture from the pulpit. That is where it began. When the church tolerates anything other than biblical truth, when it tolerates something other than biblical roles for elders who lead the church, the church will move invariably to worldliness. That is the natural consequence of forsaking Scripture. When you leave the moorings of Holy Scripture, you go into uncharted waters that lead the church astray. Now, that may begin with a teaching where the scripture might be used. There's usually a progression. Here's how it progresses. It might start with teaching where scripture is used. In other words, there's a Bible verse, but then when you hear the teaching, there's an unbiblical interpretation that's attached to the verse so that a different meaning is given other than the intended meaning of scripture, which violates the plain teaching of other corresponding scriptures. That's usually the way it starts, and it's subtle. Most people even miss it, because it looks like they're teaching the Bible, because they're quoting the Bible. You know, all the major cults that presume to be Christian, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, they all want you to think that they're part of the body of Christ. They carry Bibles. They knock on your door. They can quote scripture. They've memorized more scripture than most Christians. And yet, their interpretation is where the poison is. It's how they twist the scriptures with misinterpretations, wrong interpretations that contradict other corresponding scriptures. That's where the danger is. Now this leads to the acceptance of diverse views on biblical doctrines where the biblical meaning is not unclear, not confusing, but it fosters the unbiblical notion that the truth is embodied in a wide diversity of opinions. That's a liberal mantra, by the way, that truth is embodied in a wide diversity of opinions. So we need many multiple opinions. Let's get as many opinions as possible. And the only one that's going to be discounted is orthodoxy. That's the opinion that is not tolerated in the liberal church, the churches of unbelief. They don't want the truth. They want a wide diversity of opinions. And so that view then embraces practical life teaching that appears helpful for the sermons on Sunday morning. I mean, it looks relevant, it sounds relevant, but it has no basis in Scripture. And it isn't God's word, it's man's word. And that in turn leads to teaching that appears helpful, but openly contradicts what the Bible has to say on those same subjects. And after that, it's just the message of paganism with some vague references to scripture that they try to make it sound Christian and look Christian. And by the way, that's exactly what you'll find in most of the messages of the prosperity teachers, Joel Osteen and his ilk. And so the slide downward into outright paganism begins with the toleration of false teaching in the church. And that is exactly what Pergamum and Thyatira did. Now that same error has been multiplied throughout the churches of our day. Churches need to repent of their tolerance of false teaching. They need to go back to the Bible. I say that to all the churches that have strayed from the truth. Repent. The time is at hand to repent today. Now this problem has been repeated in the absence of biblical teaching and in the disregard of biblical discernment. When a church and its leaders don't have biblical discernment, it's like a spiritual form of AIDS. In that, the church's immune system is gone. It allows every destroying influence in without a filter. There's nothing to attack false doctrine. There's nothing to say, no wait, this is wrong. We're not going to hear this. We're not going to believe that. A church that has no discernment just allows everything in. It allows everything to be open and see the church is killed with a thousand heresies that enter the doors of the church and the leadership with no discernment will let it happen. So we need biblical discernment. We need to hear the Word of God. Like so many other problems in life, the problem of false teaching in the church never remains static. I want to make that point because we're going to see this later on. It never remains static. It never remains merely intellectual. It always leads to other problems. It leads to practical problems, behavioral problems, life problems. False doctrine literally kills people. People literally die because of wrong beliefs. So we cannot discount this. Lives are at stake. Now, we're going to look at that more in our next message. And in the next study, I want to consider what resulted from the false teaching of these first two churches. And I also want to look at the sins of some of the other churches that compromised in Asia Minor. But until then, let's close in prayer. Lord, we are your people and we come to you tonight rejoicing that we belong to you, not only by virtue of creation, you made us, but also by virtue of redemption, that you have saved us through your blood. You have bought us with your own life for our sins and you've given us your righteousness and you have sanctified those of us who have trusted in your finished work. And I pray that we would heed these warnings that you've given to John in Revelation, that you would search us and reveal to us where we personally need to repent and reform as a church and as individuals. I pray that you would make yourself look glorious in our lives, and we ask this in your great name, O Lord. Amen.