Welcome to you, O Lord, again with thanksgiving that we have this confidence to know that you have spoken, that you have given and preserved your word for us, and that you speak to us as your people. We ask, O Lord, that as we now have read and prepare to read once again and hear your word expounded, that you will grant us the light of your countenance, the illumination of your spirit, And as we hear difficult things spoken to the church in Pergamum, that we'll remember Paul's own attitude as he spoke to the church in Corinth, that the things he had written to them had made them grieve. But it was a letter that produced a good grief, a grief that was a godly sorrow that brought forth repentance. And so, O Lord, as we hear The words of Christ to the church in Pergamum tonight, we ask, O Lord, that if Christ would have an indictment against us, that we would be willing to say, Go on, Lord, that we might hear with an ear what the Spirit says to the churches. So we pray for your help and blessing in Jesus name. Amen. Revelation chapter two. Revelation 2, we'll pick up there with a third of the seven letters. This is to the church in Pergamum. We find that in the verses 12 to 17, Revelation 2, verses 12 to 17. And let's stand for this reading of God's word. Again, this is the word of God, let us give our ear to it. 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 in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. But I 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 name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it." As far as God's holy word, you can be seated. Well, as most of you know, before our family moved to Jacksonville, we were part of a church plant, a PCA plant in southeast Georgia. And there were a number of reasons that made that location a strategic place for planting a mission church. Even though it was a small town, there was a healthy population there of about 40,000 people with zero Reformed Presbyterian churches. There were people who were residents, generational residents, settled, rooted people in the community. They were the type of rural blue-collar folks that I was very familiar with and thought I could relate to and understand. But there was also an influx, a continuous influx of people from all over the country because there was a presence of a naval base there. People drove either into Florida or farther north into Georgia to find the closest Reformed confessional Presbyterian congregation. And then it just so happened that the Presbytery of that region had a building they owned. It was paid for and it was a suitable house for worship. So there were a number of factors that said this is a strategic location. to start a mission church and some of you know the details and for the rest of you I'll spare those for now but let me suffice it to say the church plant never really got off the ground and though it did relatively well for a while, it didn't last. Well then if you move some 45 minutes west and just to the south, there was a place where it didn't appear that this would be a strategic place at all to plant a mission church for the PCA. This was a very small town of less than 3,000 people. One red light. Zero history of any reform presence there. And that church was planted and is still thriving today. And of course, in both of these circumstances, we're reminded that the Lord does as he pleases. And sometimes it's the total opposite of what we would think would happen and where with all of our strategic planning. Now, when it comes to planting churches, when it comes to doing mission work, Of course, some strategy is involved, always. We don't just put a dot on the, you know, a pin on the map and decide to go there. There is strategy. I think we can even see strategy in the missionary journeys, you know, of the Apostle Paul, and not only the places he went, but also what he did when he got there. There has to be some strategy, some places seem to have more fertile ground than others in which a work can begin and be watered and cultivated so that the Lord might grow it. But not only do we consider those things, before you were to go somewhere to be a part of a work or to begin a mission work, you'd also consider potential dangers. Especially in hostile cultures, we have known folks who and supported missions in very difficult places. There's a couple we knew who were serving in Yemen. Can you imagine being Christians or trying to do a missionary work in Yemen? And then we even have conversations with some now who are beginning works in places where they can't share that information publicly because it's dangerous to people who were there. Even in our own land, Christians contemplate, have been, are, and continue to even move from states where the cultures and governments are becoming less and less hospitable to Christians. Of course, the church is needed there as well. If you consider those factors that we've been speaking of, especially the dangers, it doesn't seem that Pergamum would be the place where you would want to plant a church. Not because of those population, those sort of growth factors and what would be a good place in a thriving community to plant a church, a place like where Kevin preached this morning in Nocatee. No, but this is because of the dangers and because of the description that Jesus himself gives to the church in Pergamum. As he says in verse 13, I know where you dwell, he says to his church, where Satan's throne is. If you were looking at places to relocate, it's probably not where you would want to go, is it? Given our Lord's description and probably not the place. Can you imagine ministering or even being a Christian in a place like this? To say it would be difficult would be an understatement. Pergamum. was about 70 miles north of Smyrna. It was next in line for our courier who would go to Ephesus and Smyrna and now northward to Pergamum. And it is said that as you approached Pergamum from the south, coming from Smyrna, that the hill of the city rose above the plain and it looked like a giant throne. It was a lot like what we've read so far in Smyrna and Ephesus. It was devoted, the city was, to idolatrous pagan worship. In Pergamum there were all of the Greek gods but they had also resurrected many of the Egyptian gods and they were thoroughly devoted to the Roman imperial cult. And so we can see with this description, the physical description of the city, as well as the spiritual reality here, it should be no surprise to us, if we put those together, why Jesus would refer to it as the place where Satan's throne is. This is not to say that this is his capital city, or necessarily, or even to say this is the only place that he's working, but it is a place where Satan's work is very prominent. And so it would not likely be a place strategically where we would want to begin a mission work for the PCA, is it? And yet our Lord Jesus plants his people, plants his church, he plants an embassy of his kingdom right in the heart of the kingdom of darkness. Now the Lord writes to this church and he follows the typical pattern that we see in these letters. He has a word of commendation for them. There's something good to say, but there's also a rebuke, and in that rebuke, of course, as always, he calls him to repentance. The church in Pergamum had threats that were both external and internal, threats that we will call both open and insidious. There was an obvious threat that was external, but there was also one inside that was sort of like leaven permeating the loaf. And they were both, though one was obvious and the other was more subtle and crafty, they were both threats. And in the middle of those, with the consideration of those threats, the church must keep her eyes on Christ. And so Christ is depicted to her as the judge, the judge who speaks and they are to hear. The mouth has the two-edged sword and we're to hear what he says to the churches. And then the promise of blessing comes to the repentants, to those who overcome. So with that, let's look together at the church in Pergamum, and we'll do so under this theme, that with her eyes on the true sovereign, the church is to remain faithful in the midst of threats, both open and insidious. With her eyes on the true sovereign, of course, a throne above Satan's throne, the church is to remain faithful in the midst of threats. Threats that are both open, as we'll see the first one, and then insidious, as we'll see the second one. So let's look first at the open threat. We see this in verse 13. We mentioned in the introduction that the city of Pergamum was entirely devoted to pagan idolatry. They considered the city as the temple warden of the imperial cult dedicated to Caesar. They actually were the first city in all of Asia Minor to build a temple for the emperor. Among other things, on that hill of the city, there was a throne-like altar. Again, we have this imagery, a throne-like altar that was dedicated to Zeus. There were many other gods that they worshipped, of course, and one of them was Asclepius. Some of you might know that name. If you don't, you certainly know his symbol. Asclepius was the god of healing and medicine. He was depicted as a serpent that was wrapped around a staff. It's the same symbol we still see today used for medicine, the god Asclepius. With all of this, again, it's not hard to imagine why Christ referred to this city as the seat of Satan's throne. We see in Revelation 13 that Satan gave to the beast his power and throne, the power of his throne, and so we have often how Satan is working through the beast, the tyrannical governmental ungodly powers to persecute the people of God. And this is what we find going on here in Pergamum. This is the open threat that the spiritual power of Satan is being exercised through the state and it has been costly for the church. citizens of the city would have been expected, of course, to worship the gods. Christians, if you remember the Roman culture, they early on were called atheists because they didn't worship the gods of Rome. And so if they were refusing to worship the gods of Rome, then there would be this suspicion that they were seditious. And so then they would be called to account by seeing whether or not they were guilty of treason. If they were traitors to the state, come and offer a sacrifice to the emperor. To show you're patriotic, to show you're not a traitor. It's in the midst of this that we find the church in Pergamum where he says, Despite all of this pressure, They held to the name of Christ and to the faith of Christ. All which encompasses the Christian faith is God's name, declaring the revelation about him, his word, his worship, his attributes, his works. And so they held fast to his name. Instead of declaring that Caesar is Lord, they refused. They said Jesus is Lord. And they did not deny Christ, holding fast to his name and not denying his faith, even in the days of Antipas, faithful witness. Antipas is one that is unknown to us. Certainly he would have been known to the church in Pergamum. And Christ says he was a faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells. A faithful witness. And he was a faithful witness all the way to the end. Many of you know that the term witness, the Greek word, is martous. And that came to be used for those who would give witness to Christ, even to the death, even giving their lives as a faithful witness. And they came to be known through that word martous as martyrs. for the faith. Antipas was a faithful martyr, a faithful witness to Christ, even to death. And Christ says, even in that, even with the threat of death, even with one of you being put to death, you did not deny my faith, but you held fast my name. And so the Lord commends them for this. This is the open threat, right? This is obvious, external. It's persecution. It's explicit. It's easy to see. And they remain faithful in it. You know, at times, of course, I can't imagine how difficult it may be to have the threat of this persecution, but it seems sometimes that when the enemy is very clear and we know what we're battling against, that it is easier to fight. Sometimes it's more difficult when it is much more subtle. And so here we have them remaining faithful. commended for this, but there was another threat that was not so explicit. It wasn't as external. It was more within. It was subtle. It was crafty. It was permeating the church. It was insidious. So we've seen the open threat. Now we see in verses 14 and 15 the insidious threat. We've seen the word of commendation but now Christ does say he has a few things against them. He's going to rebuke them now. He says those in the church, verse 14, you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam. And then in verse 15, so also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Now I'm of the opinion as most commentators are that these two aren't really separate things. They're the same error at different times. In other words, what happened to ancient Israel in the wilderness in the book of Numbers through the false prophet Balaam is now in a sense being replayed through the doctrine of the Nicolaitans in the church in Pergamum. Now as far as the Nicolaitans go, we encounter them in the first letter to the church in Ephesus and the church in Ephesus were those who did not tolerate the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Christ said he hated it and they hated their works as well. The Nicolaitans, we don't know a lot about them but what we do know about them is that they were believed to be compromisers. In the letter to the church at Ephesus, we use the word syncretist. They taught that dabbling with pagan worship wasn't so bad. They had a position of that one could be faithful to Christ and also participate in the pagan idolatry of the culture. But part of the, again, the commendation was that the church at Ephesus hated it. But in the church in Pergamum, there were those who were holding to it. Now think back to Balaam. Who was he? He was that false prophet. He's in the book of Numbers, Numbers 21 to 24. And then we see the result of his failed teaching in Numbers 25. That's alluded to here in verse 14. He was hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to curse the Israelites. But each time, if you remember, Balaam tried to curse Israel, and he couldn't because God had blessed them. Instead, a curse would be pronounced upon the Moabites, upon the enemies of God's people. The Lord, through Abraham, promised, remember, to bless all who bless you and curse all who curse you. And Balaam, of course, is most famous for the Lord putting words into the mouth of his donkey. and speaking to him. But Balaam could not curse Israel, though he tried. And so he comes up with a more subtle plan to infiltrate Israel with women from the Moabites. And so this is what is meant here, where it says, Balaam, he taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel. We find this in Numbers chapter 25. And so the women, the Moabite and Midianite women came into Israel, they began to fornicate with the men, and then the men began to partake, participate with the gods and the worship of the pagan practices of these women. And so this is what is happening in the church in Pergamum. It's that error of Balaam that is now infiltrating the church through the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. And so he couldn't pronounce a curse externally, Balaam couldn't. Instead, he introduces compromise within the camp, internally. Persecution externally was not working, but the infiltration of compromise within is. Greg Beal commenting on this passage says that the Christians in Pergamum staunchly withstood external pressures to compromise from pagan government and religious authorities, but had permitted an apparently subtle form of compromise to develop internally. He mentions here in verse 14 the eating of food sacrificed to idols. This is probably not what Paul is referring to when he speaks to the Corinthians about that case of conscience. You know, can we eat food sacrificed to idols or not? And he says, well, of course, it's an idol is nothing. They offer it to the God and they sell it in the market. You can eat it. But he said, that's not all you are to consider. You're also to consider your brother. Is this going to put a stumbling block before him? Is it going to cause him to believe that it's OK to partake in pagan worship? That was a case of conscience, a case that required wisdom. This seems to be an explicit participation in idolatry. This is what was happening in ancient Israel. They began to eat the food sacrificed to idols. They were practicing sexual immorality. This is what was going on in the camp. And now this is what is going on in the church. And so the external pressure to compromise was obvious. It was explicit. But this is a less obvious, insidious threat. And yet it is a threat nonetheless. So the Lord has commended them. The Lord has rebuked them. Now what are they to do? This is where he calls them to repentance. And this is where we see that they are to keep their eyes on the true sovereign. We've seen the open threat, the insidious threat. Now we look at the true sovereign. You know, as we've seen in the previous letters, Christ opens this letter with a description of himself. And it's a description that we find from the vision in chapter 1. He says, to the angel of the church in Pergamum write the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. That's what John saw when he saw the exalted Christ in chapter 1 verse 16. In his right hand he held seven stars from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. The sword, it proceeds from his mouth. Of course, we might recall Hebrews 4.12. It speaks of the word of God being a sharp two-edged sword. This is from Christ's mouth. It is his tongue, the sword of the Spirit is. And it is the words of the Spirit that those who have an ear are to hear in verse 17. They're to hear what the sword of the Spirit proclaims as it proceeds from the mouth of Christ. Of course, the idea of a sword also denotes authority to judge. That's the imagery of the one who has the sword. And Christ says that he will come and war. We have this idea of a depiction of a warrior here who is coming to judge. And so they need to understand that though they may dwell in Pergamum where Satan's throne is, there is a higher throne above the idolatrous hill there in Pergamum. That Christ is the true sovereign, the true judge of heaven and earth. It's interesting in the book of Numbers that Balaam was forced to hear the word of God from the mouth of his beast. And now the church is being told that they are to listen to the word of God from Christ himself. Balaam was also threatened with the sword. And now those at Pergamum are threatened. In verse 16, therefore, I will come if you do not repent, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. Remember the church in Ephesus, the Lord threatened to come and visit them and remove their lampstand if they failed to repent. Well, here the church in Pergamum is threatened with a similar unpleasant visitation. If they don't discipline, if they don't take care of those who are in error, They allow it, permit it to continue in their church. The Lord is going to come and it won't be a pleasant visit. It will be with the sword of his mouth. And so, yes, as we've seen that they must do as they've done in the past. In verse 13, they must hold fast to his name and to his faith. But they also must repent of this internal, insidious infiltration of compromise that is within their midst. If you remember in the book of Numbers in that Balaam episode where this very thing happened in Numbers 25 where the Midianite women came in, there was a priest by the name of Phinehas. And Phinehas saw all of this going on and he took up a spear and he followed an Israelite man who was taking with him this woman into his tent. He followed them in the tent and he put the spear through both of them. And in doing so, he assuaged the wrath of God. This is to be our attitude against sinful compromise, against idolatrous compromise, that it is not to be tolerated. It's only to be killed. This is what repentance looks like. It's cutting it off entirely. And that is the path, Christ says, to avoid the threat of His sword. Therefore repent, because if you do not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. See, the path to compromise, it leads to ruin. There is self-harm, of course, self-destruction, but even more, it incurs the judgment of God. And we can't excuse compromise just because of the things we have right. We might be persuaded that we should give them a little, be a little more patient with them, right? I mean, after all, they did stand fast in persecution and someone even lost his life. Well, if you remember, the church in Ephesus, they were those who had all of their doctrinal ducks in a row. The external seemed great, but internally they had left their first love. And that's not to say that we should be overly suspicious as we come to the church in Pergamum and we find compromise within. But it is to say that within and without, there is to be faithfulness. The Lord expects that from us. Faithfulness to his name, also faithfulness in the upholding. a true biblical teaching, a refusal to compromise and that we must deal with error. But the Lord not only lays out the consequences if they fail to repent, he also holds up to them, holds forth to them blessings that will be theirs through repentance. That if they follow this path that he is setting before them, there is blessing. Again, in verse 17, as we've seen with the other letters, it's to the one who conquers, to the one who overcomes this through repentance, he promises these blessings. This is what he has in store for them. He says, I will give him some of the hidden manna. I will give him a white stone with a new name written on it that no one knows except the one who receives it. Surely that's the question tonight, isn't it? Get us there. What does that mean? What is that about? And let me, in the spirit of what I said this morning regarding Charles Hodge, I don't know. I start to say, if you want to know, I guess you have to find someone with the stone because it says that only the one who receives it knows what the name is. But all of that is to say, of course, this is cryptic symbolism in a highly symbolic book. So there is mystery here. It was likely known to those who, the original audience, but there certainly are things that are very clear. Let's speak to these just for a moment. When it comes to the hidden manna, there was apparently a Jewish tradition that said Jeremiah had hidden some of the original manna. He was going to bring it out at the time of the Messiah. And that might sound silly to us, but it may not be that far from the truth because what did Christ declare himself to be but the bread of life? Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but my father has sent to you the bread from heaven. He's the true bread. And no doubt the Lord is comforting his people here to know that despite what they face from ungodly persecution, he is going to sustain them in the wilderness. God's people, Israel, should have been content with the manna that he was giving to them. But no, they were eating the food sacrificed to idols and practicing sexual immorality through the Midianites, through that suggestion from Balaam. But the Lord was going to sustain them despite that. And this is what the church in Pergamum must do. They must not partake in these idolatrous festivals, but rather trust that the Lord is going to feed them. He is going to sustain them. We also have here a a white stone mentioned and from what we know there was not just one single use of a white stone, it was a varied use and there's likely here also a multifaceted meaning. You know anything about the Greek games, they were given a crown, a wreath, but there was also with that sometimes a white marble stone that was given to the one who came in first place. It also invokes the imagery of the court of law because a black stone would declare that one was guilty But a white stone that all charges were dropped, that one was acquitted. And then we have a new name. That too, of course, is mysterious, as only the one who receives it knows what it is. Some have imagined that this is perhaps the name of Christ himself, because his is the name, as Paul says, above every name. And later in Revelation, I think it's in chapter 14, we read that God will write his name upon the foreheads of his people. Again, however mysterious these things are, we know at least this, that they indicate that those who receive these things from Christ, they have conquered, they have overcome, of course, through repentance, that they are his own and the Lord marks them as such by giving to them these tokens. And so with her eyes on the true sovereign, The church is to remain faithful in the midst of threats, open threats as well as the insidious threats. So we're told here that we're to hold fast, hold fast in the face of external threats, in the face of persecution, to hold fast to Christ's name, to his faith. But we also have to be aware of those threats that creep in. The ones that have a way of infiltrating the church and leading her to compromise, and particularly here, and there are all sorts of things we can think of, right? Doctrines, pseudo doctrines, or things that are difficult to discern, twisted words. Certainly all of that is applicable, but here in particular, to the church in Pergamum, it was cultural accommodation that was tempting. And that is so often tempting for the church and it's often cloaked in terms of being winsome, being evangelistic, of winning our neighbors, being missional. Of course, we want to be winsome, we want to be evangelistic, we want to be missional, but not at the expense of truth. This is not to say that we're to be jerks. It's simply to say we're to be faithful. That we're to be faithful and we're to reject accommodations that would lead us to compromise. We might think that compromise would bring others, draw them into Christ, but actually what we're doing is severing ourselves from Christ. And truly, as I was talking to one of you a couple of weeks ago, we often think that if we could compromise a little, we could get closer. to the world and perhaps win them over, and we fail to see that this thing that we're trying to get close to is a ferocious beast that's going to devour us in the end. And it is true that compromise to worldly standards and practices are more often a threat to the church, especially in recent generations, have been more often a threat to the church than persecution. Now that might change going forward. But there are two threats here, and we have to be wary of both of them. Tolerating compromise leads us away from Christ, but repentance leads us back to him. And if you don't leave with anything else, leave with this. That is his goal. His goal is not to crush his church under the burden of his judgment here. His goal is to lead them to what is truly good for them, to lead them in the path of repentance back to himself. How do we do this? How do we repent? How do we remain faithful? Well, we keep our eyes on who he is. He is the one with the sharp two-edged sword proceeding from his mouth. Above all of the cultural idols and the spiritual thrones and principalities and powers, Christ is supreme. We remember who he is to keep our eyes on him. This sword, this sword is a threat of judgment to those who depart, but it's also, it's also a wonderful comfort to, of gospel comfort to those who trust in him. And so he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Let's pray. O Lord, we thank you for the faithful words of Christ, the one who is faithful and true. We thank you for that sword that proceeds from his mouth. We know, O Lord, it is a sword that often cuts, but it wounds in order to heal. And so we pray, O Lord, if you have cut us, that you would give us the grace to know that you do so for our good. in order that you might bind up those wounds with your comforting words, with your promises. We know, O Lord, as we consider this overcoming, this conquering, this repenting, we know that it is nothing that we can do in and of ourselves. And so we pray that by the same Spirit who has spoken to the churches, that you would so empower us that we might do all that you require as we look to Christ our Lord and our Savior. And we pray in his name. Amen.