Revelation 2:12-17
Let’s hear God’s word together.
This is Revelation 2, beginning at verse 12. It says, 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 to the teaching of Balaam,
who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel
so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols and practice
sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold
the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will
come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
to the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna,
and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the
stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.” Well, first, ARP Church, if you
go out on the front steps, you’ll see that our address is 2250.
2250 Saddle Club Road. We live in
a neighborhood, our church does, full of houses, probably thousands
of houses, middle class, upper middle class, depending on if
you’re on the backside of the church or this side of the church.
There’s the lone neighborhood gas station. There’s the haircut
joint, the sign shop, the daycare, the building that used to be
a pharmacy. There’s a school down the road. There’s the long-term
care facility and two major thoroughfares, Edgewood Avenue and Shadowbrook
Drive out here. And so if we were to do a threat
assessment, What threats do we have against us as a church? We would say we got it pretty
good. We’re in a quiet neighborhood. There’s not much around us to
threaten us. A couple of years ago when the
church on Mebane Street sold and it became a mosque, some
of us lost our wits and thought the world has come to an end.
The mosque has come to town. Isn’t there worse problems? Aren’t
there worse problems than the mosque? I mean, after all, maybe
on a day of their religious ceremonies, there’s 20 or 30 cars. What about the hundreds, maybe
if not thousands of cars, that today, instead of in church parking
lots, we’re at the shopping malls? Or what about all the cars at
the nearby university, the nearby secular university? The nearby
secular university that recently told the evangelical campus ministries,
you don’t belong here. At least you only partially do. Or what about the travel sports
leagues that have dragged so many families out of houses of
worship and out of, as our Heidelberg Catechism mentioned tonight,
out of church schools, out of religious observance, out of
Lord’s Day keeping, out of sacrament taking. You see our threat assessment
leads us to bigger problems. Or what about the pillow? The mattress. We stay in bed
instead of coming to church. Or what about the freeways just
a mile down the road that can take us any weekend anywhere
except to the Lord’s house? Or how about those fiber optic
wires that bring TV and internet and other content into our houses? What are the threats? Well, there
are lots of them. But there’s a threat tonight
in the church at Pergamum, this letter, and that threat is lurking
threat. It’s one we don’t think about
and it’s ourselves. Threat that is within the church. I remember as a kid loving Ronald
Reagan because my family loved Ronald Reagan and there was a
time in Ronald Reagan’s ministry where I believe Margaret Thatcher
in the UK leans over to Ronald Reagan when maybe it was the
Cold War era. There was a meeting with Mr. Gorbachev or something.
I can’t remember the context, but she leans over to Ronald
and says, don’t go wobbly on me. But the church can go wobbly. We have so many voices coming
into our ears, we have so many ideas coming our way, and false
teaching can come into our churches. We get worn down and we get wobbly. You’ve heard this saying before,
I’m sure. Vice is a monster of such frightful men as to be hated,
it needs but to be seen. Yet seen too often, we become
familiar with her faces. We first endure, then we pity,
and then we embrace. Apply that to any movement that
has popped in the church. Today, that movement is probably
the gender identity movement. First we’ll endure it, then we’ll
pity it, and then we’ll embrace it. Even one of our sister denominations
will consider this summer at their General Assembly how they
will view gender identity issues, but go back to any other issue,
back through the ages, back through the decades, back through the
centuries, It’s why that table talk issue that has come out
on the 19th century is so important. It shows you how in the 1800s,
we began to creep towards the progress, if you want to call
it that, of where we are today. And we see why the church is
the way the church is. But you say, oh, we’re reformed,
we’re conservative, we’re Bible believing. Well, within the reform
camp, in my lifetime, we have seen the new perspectives on
Paul. We have seen federal vision. We’ve seen women’s ordination.
We’re now experiencing the whole issue with gender identity and
sexuality. We’ve had the age old problem
of legalism. The reform faith birthed that
wonderful doctrine of sonship. We’ve had in recent years, the
false views of sanctification pop into the church. And these
have been little heel nipping works of Satan that have undermined
the church. But what about the reformed church
no longer keeping the Sabbath? What about the reformed and conservative
Bible-believing church no longer having a high view of worship
and desperate to keep people from leaving our doors and hoping
they will come in? We toss the regulative principle
over our shoulders and say, whatever it takes. Or where in the world
in the reformed church is the prayer meeting? And so our biggest
problem is ourselves. We get weak and we go wobbly. And Jesus says in our passage,
The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. I don’t know if y’all caught
it this morning, but when we read from, not from Zephaniah and the call
to worship, it was from Isaiah 49, I believe it was, or 47,
our Old Testament reading, it talked about the coming suffering
servant. And it said something about,
I have a sword. And I immediately thought of
Jesus in Revelation two and three. The one who has the sharp two-edged
sword, the double-edged sword, usually refers to the Bible,
the Old and New Testaments. It’s a double-bladed sword. The
book of Hebrews says the word of God is living and active.
It’s like a two-edged sword. It cuts or pierces to the joints
and marrows. It exposes who we really are. the words of him who has the
sharp two-edged sword, Jesus, who walks among the lampstands
or the churches. He says, I know where you dwell. And bookended around his accusation
about Balaam and the Nicolaitans, he
says, you dwell where Satan’s throne is, and on the back end,
he says, you dwell where Satan dwells. Every Sunday, When we
have our pastoral prayer, I usually say something like this. Let’s
look to God in prayer and ask for his help and grace, help
and blessing, as we live life in the midst of a dark and dying
world, in the midst of a crooked and depraved generation, and
sometimes we throw in where Satan dwells. because it’s a serious
predicament we’re in. We know the outcome, we know
the way, but there will be hardship, it will be fraught with difficulty.
Those of you who, a couple weeks back, watched Pilgrim’s Progress,
you saw, in at least film version or animation version, the serious
nature of the battle of the Christian life. And God is saying to us,
Christ is saying to us, I know where you dwell. I know 2250
Saddle Club Road. I know Pergamum. I know the influence
of the university. I know the influence of the shopping
mall. I know the call of the highway. I know there’s a mosque
up the road. I know there are apostate denominations
nearby you. I know, I know, I know God is
saying, Jesus is telling us, I know where you dwell. Yet you
hold fast my name. Do you ever think about how amazing
it is that you’re a Christian in this pagan world? because
the world has a lot to offer. If you can earn some money and
purchase the delights of this world, you can have it pretty
good. Life’s a beach. Life’s about a convertible. Life
is about a big 401k. Life’s about, you name it. We
can earn it. We can achieve it. This world
offers a lot. It’s shiny. It’s glitzy. Jesus is saying, I know where
you live. I know the competition. You hold fast my name, he says. You did not deny my faith even
in the days of Antipas, Antipas, obviously a martyr put to death
because he would not say instead of Jesus as Lord, Caesar is Lord. I know where you live. I know
you live in the days of persecution. Even Antipas, you hold fast my
name. You do not deny my faith, but he’s a little upset. I have
this against you. Some of you hold to the teachings
of Balaam. Some of you hold to the teachings of the Nicolaitans.
Two little problems in the church. No, not little problems, big
problems. The Nicolaitans we’ve already heard about. We don’t
know exactly what they believed, but it was probably some form
of early Gnosticism, early heresy that would become full-blown
maybe in the next century, but had its beginnings. And then
the teachings of Balaam probably related to Maybe something like
that came up in the Corinthian church, sexual immorality, but
in the name of God, that makes it all okay. And he’s saying,
I have this against you. You allow it, you’re putting
up with it. I want you to think about this
for a minute. Our theology has a high view of the ministry of
the word. Our theology, our faith, and our practice has a high view
of the ordained minister who’s been vetted by the Presbytery,
educated by the seminary. We have a high view of that person
teaching us the word of God, maybe Sunday morning, Sunday
night, and other places. We have a high view of the ministry
of the pastor, so much so that if we can afford it, we get a
second pastor. We get an associate pastor for families, or children,
or youth, The senior adults, we see these larger churches
that have multiple pastors on staff to do the heavy lifting
of teaching and discipling the church. And it’s good also to
have elders who are capable, capable to know the word, teach
the word. But what happens in a church? A little group pops
up. And in reality, this is what’s going on. Some of you probably
won’t like me saying this, but I’m going to say it anyway. I’m
the preacher, so I get to do this. But a little group pops
up. They really don’t want to be under the elders. That’s what’s
going on. And so a little group pops up and they say, well, we
got this video series. We’ve got this little teaching
series and we just want to go off and have a little fellowship. We want to do it ourselves. You
know, the elders, they’re fine. We love our elders. We don’t
want to ever say anything bad about our elders, but we just want
to go over here. and we want to watch our little video series,
would that be okay? And a lot of times they just
don’t ask, they do it. You hear about it later, and you hear
about it later when there’s a problem. It’s usually the way it goes. Oh, nothing harmful. Or how about
the preacher? He goes off to a conference because
he’s lost his edge, and he goes off to this conference tired.
The membership of the church has worn him down. The needs
of the ministry have burdened him, his shoulders are sagging,
and he needs a nudge, and so he signs up for a conference,
probably one he shouldn’t have gone to, but he went, and he
hears something that sounds right, and he’s either too tired to
discern the error, or he is incapable of discerning the error, he can’t
or he won’t, and so it seeps into his ministry. Or how about
this, a church, maybe it’s been on the downhill slide for a little
while, that’s desperate to get new members and they get one. And this new member comes in
and he can’t help but every single Sunday, every single opportunity,
he or she can’t help but tell everybody about their credentials
and their successes at their last church. And a wise person
says, well, why didn’t you stay there and glory in your successes?
Well, they’ve come here because God has sent them here. And they’re
gonna bless this church with their gift because they’re a
gift from God to us. Well, we’re desperate for members.
We’re desperate for Sunday school teachers. And so we let him or
her. the door. These are all three
examples of things that happen all the time in good even conservative
Reformed churches. Oh what’s wrong with a little
group having a little side thing with a video series? What’s what’s
wrong with the pastor going off to a conference and getting a
nudge or a sharper edge on his ministry sword? What’s wrong
with a new member coming in and within three months them becoming
a teacher. There’s a lot wrong with all
three of those things, because what happens is all of the sudden,
you’ve got aberrant teaching. Think about that word aberrant
for a moment. In the Latin, ab, the prefix, away from, and errant,
stray. You’re led astray. You’ve gotten
out from under the ministry of the word. You’ve gotten out from
under the ministry of the elders, and you say, oh, oh, oh, I hear
this from time to time. You’re just trying to control
things. Well, you really are. Because what happens when you
don’t control things? It gets out of control. What happens
when you have a little fire? I’ll just burn this little pile
of brush. I did that one time. And it was a windy day. And I
was a good boy scout. I had my bucket of water. But the wind
prevailed, and I set the entire woods on fire. The fire department
came. They thankfully put it out. But
we say, oh, there’s no harm in just a little. And it’s what
comes, it’s what falls on a congregation if we’re not careful. All of
a sudden we have aberrant teaching, there’s something new, someone
else to follow, a portion of the congregation goes after it.
And let me tell you this, in my pastoral experience, it’s
not very many years, but it’s enough. I can roll up my sleeves
and show you the wounds from it. It’s so hard to get it back. Because guess what we think?
Well, the little side group over here, we realize there’s something
wrong, and we decide we’re gonna go after it. I mean, after all,
Jesus says, I have this against you. Some in your church are
holding to this teaching or that teaching. And so the elders sit
down and they say, well, yes, it’s wrong, but we love Susie. Or it’s wrong and we love Joe.
And if we confirm, it’s not gonna go well, because they’ve already
got a little following, right? I mean, this is how it goes. Yes, we know, but. Yes, we know,
but. They’re givers, they’re tithers.
We don’t wanna upset them because we really need their tithe right
now. You see the way the thinking goes. Or they’re influencers.
If we confront them, they’re gonna use their influence and
it’s gonna really hurt the church. They might leave. They might
take other people with them. What do you think Jesus would
have to say about that? Well, he says it very clearly
in this passage. He says, repent, turn, stop it, quit going that
way, turn and go this way. If not, I will come to you soon
and I will war against them with the sword of my mouth. It’s a good thing to be in a
church with good elders, and elders can’t always be perfect,
but thanks be to God that Jesus says here, if you don’t do it,
I’ll step in. Isn’t that a comfort? If not,
I will come to you soon, and I will war against them with
the sword of my mouth. What’s he gonna do? He’s gonna
bring his word to bear. The word of God always fixes,
it always reforms, it always shapes. And so the call for us
as a church is to listen. It’s to listen to Jesus. And it’s even more so to listen
to Jesus when he says, I have this against you. I have this
against you. I wish I could be more candid
at some of the things I’ve experienced. And I would go back to other
churches. I wouldn’t say anything about my life and ministry experience
here, but it’s so easy now to spot it and to say, should have
done the Barney Fife thing and just nipped it in the bud. And instead of listening to Jesus,
we play church. Instead of listening to Jesus,
we play church. We keep people happy, we keep up the status
quo, and we don’t mind that termites are eating our foundation. And
then about 10 years later, 15 years later, 20 years later,
when we finally decide we’ve had enough and we’re gonna do
something about it, the termites have eaten so much. And so it’s
good for us to look often and say, are we word-centered? Are
we elder-led? Do we have good elders? Are we
part of a strong Presbytery? Because the influence of Balaam,
the influence of the Nicolaitans, the influence of, this is where
I wish I could be candid, but I won’t because this is recorded
and because some of you might come up and see me afterwards.
We may need to go through the church library and toss out some
of the old video series. We may need to go through the
church and say to some people, this little devotional you’re
reading, I know it’s sold a million copies, but it’s worthless. Just pick up your Bible, take
up and read. We should take it so seriously
because what is God saying to us? I know where you dwell. where
Satan’s throne is. I know where you dwell, where
Satan dwells. And so we need to be careful
to distinguish in the church between what is Christocentric
and what is Satanic, right? It’s either or. We need to decide
between what is word-centered and what is world-centered. And we need to decide between
a ministry that appeals to the flesh and a ministry that appeals
to the work of God’s Holy Spirit. For our ancient foe, Satan, what
does it say in that wonderful Martin Luther hymn we sing every
Reformation Sunday? For still our ancient foe doth
seek to work his woe. His craft and power are great,
he is armed with cruel hate. On earth is not his equal. And so play church if you wish.
play nice if you wish, play politics if you wish, worry about whether
someone will keep tithing and let their termites eat in the
church. Jesus says, no. He says, repent
or I’ll come take care of business. Well, what’s the remedy? What’s
the remedy when these kinds of things seep into the church?
Well, it’s the Bible. It’s Jesus and his two-edged
sword. It’s Jesus and his Old Covenant, Jesus and his New Covenant. It’s the Old Testament, the New
Testament. It’s the Word of God. After all, the church is the
pillar and the buttress of truth. And if we’re a pillar and buttress
of truth in the pulpit, and maybe a pillar and buttress of truth
on Sunday night, but we have this class and that class and
this thing and that thing, and maybe it’s a little iffy, we’re
not real sure what’s going on here and there, you’re sending
mixed signals. And so it’s good to be in a word-centered,
elder-led church with good elders and a strong Presbytery behind
you. What does Jesus promise to the
church at Pergamum? Well, he promises this, he who
has an ear, verse 17, let him hear what the Spirit says to
the churches, to the one who conquers, I will give some of
the hidden manna. He’ll sustain you just like he
did the Israelites in the wilderness. And I will give him a white stone
with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except
the one who receives it. I don’t know if any of you have
ever been in the situation where you’re voted on, but to be blackballed,
you’ve heard of that, I’m sure. You’re blackballed means you’re
not in, you’re out. Maybe with a fraternity, maybe
with partnership at your law firm, your CPA firm, or some
sort of place of business. To be blackballed means not measuring
up, you’re condemned. And in the case of these folks,
these Christians at Pergamum, they had been blackballed. They
had been given a black stone by those who were of this world,
even by Satan. And God says, you may get blackballed
in this world. but I will give you a new stone,
a white stone, a stone of approval, a stone of acquittal. And it will come from Jesus Christ,
the great judge, whose judgment of you is everlasting. And so the challenge for us,
First ARP Church, 2250 Saddle Club Road, connected to the beloved
ones at Pergamum from a time past. Let it be said of us by
Jesus, you hold fast to my name. You do not deny my faith, but
let it also be said of us, you also do not put up with any aberrant,
any wicked, any ungodly, unchristian, unscriptural teaching so that
we can walk faithfully for Christ. Let’s say a prayer together.
Our Lord and God, we thank you this night for your word, your
word of commendation, but also your word of warning. We pray
that you would help us to see how weighty, how serious it is
to know you, love you, walk with you and follow you and how serious
it is for us as a church to be a pillar and buttress of the
truth, to be pure in our doctrine, to be true to the scriptures,
to be centered in the theology of the saints who’ve gone before
us. Help us, help us to see, help
us to hold fast, and help us to love the truth, and help us
never to back down when there’s compromise that has come our
way. We ask all of this in the name of Christ, our Savior, who
is himself truth. Amen.