Word of Salvation – Vol. 40 No.44 – November 1995

 

The Church That Tolerated Worldliness

 

Sermon by Rev. P. Kossen on Revelation 2:12-17

 

Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,

1.  The Lord knows their situation.

It is increasingly difficult to be a church of Jesus Christ today, and especially, may I say, for the younger generations who face so much increased pressure from the world.  There have been times in history where the church had much higher prestige and influence and voice, and even when it was much easier to be a Christian.  We might often long for those days, not so long ago even, when our country was guided more by a Christian conscience.  But those days are gone.  And now as church, we know we are well and truly swimming against the tide of evil.

When we try to work in a country like ours, we can become terribly disillusioned.  It is so hard to communicate the Gospel to those who have no interest.  It is so hard to stand against the way our country goes, and shake our fellow man by the neck and say, this is the wrong way, the way we choose as a nation is the way of death.  We can see it so clearly where the country is headed.  But we are a voice in the wilderness.  We are well and truly swimming against the tide of our country.  And with this constant and increasing pressure of worldliness and secularism, as the Lord predicted, the love of many grows cold, and they turn around and begin to swirl with the tide.

Sometimes we can be very frustrated as Christians, as we feel a little bit helpless in the face of all this secular humanism.  How can we stop the onslaught?  How can we continue together, standing firm, not only today, but for the generations to come?

And then I find a great deal of comfort in this letter to Pergamum.  The Lord begins with those beautiful words, "I know where you live, where Satan has his throne."  And that's how we may feel today – as though Satan has his throne of darkness right here in our land, in our city.  His influence and power over our fellow countrymen is frightful.  That's what it was like in Pergamum, too.  Pergamum was a very religious place.  In fact, it was the religious centre of Asia at that time.  But it was all false religion.  And the strongest of these false religions, like we saw also in Smyrna last week, was the cult of emperor worship.  Bow before Caesar, or suffer the consequences.

And for the people of Pergamum, too, it wasn't easy to be a Christian.  They, too, were completely swimming against the tide of evil.  And in the face of this, they, too, must have sometimes felt pretty hopeless and vulnerable, and weak, and powerless, and frustrated.  But the Lord comforts them with these words.  "I know where you live, yes, where Satan has his throne."  And at times, when we might be discouraged, and frustrated, and feel so powerless, we ought to lift our eyes to the Lord, who has given us this situation to live in.  His promise continues to stand.  On this rock of Jesus Christ I will build my church.  And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

Then in this letter, there is a second note of encouragement, and that is when...

2.  The Lord commends them for their faithfulness to Him.

He says to Pergamum, "and yet, you remain true to My Name.  You did not renounce your faith in me even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city – where Satan lives."  Our country may seem to be in a terrible spiritual state, and Satan may seem to rule so powerfully – and yet, we are reminded, that though the wrong seem oft so strong, yet, our God reigns.

Satan, with his deluding power, may seem so strong – but remember the wilderness.  Three times Satan came to tempt and delude Christ also.  And three times, Christ raised up the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit which He now holds, and three times he dealt the devil a mortal blow.

In Colossians 2, we read that Christ disarmed the powers and authorities.  He made a public spectacle of them, and triumphed over them by the cross.  And because Christ reigns, it is completely possible for His Church to live in His strength, next door to the throne of Satan – even in the gates of hell – and triumph over it.

And that is what happened in Pergamum.  "You live in the heart of the enemy's land, and yet, you remain true to my Name."  Christ commends them for their continued faithfulness to Him, despite the opposition and despite even some very difficult persecutions which they were undergoing.  Antipas, like Polycarp in Smyrna, had paid for his faith with his life.

Brothers and sisters, may this also be of encouragement to us.  The world may become one hundred times more powerful and deluding and attractive and seductive than it is today.  And yet, the church, which lives in the strength of its Saviour, and under the authority of His Word – and I say that again – the Church which lives in the strength of its Saviour, and under the complete authority of His all-powerful Word, has nothing to fear.  For the gates of hell will not, and cannot, prevail against it.

The nations conspire, the peoples plot in vain, the kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers, yes, even the spiritual rulers and authorities and powers of this dark world, they all gather together against the Lord and against His anointed One.  But the One enthroned in heaven laughs.  And we may laugh with Him at their foolishness.  For our God reigns forever and ever, and all His enemies will be made a footstool for His feet.

The Lord commends the church in Pergamum for their faithfulness.  And yet, in the next breath, the Lord rebukes them.  They were doing well standing up to dangers coming from the outside, but...

3.  The Lord rebukes them for allowing evil influences inside the church.

He speaks here of people in the church of Pergamum who hold to the teaching of Balaam, and those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Boys and girls, you probably remember Balaam best as the man who was told off by his own donkey.  It's quite a story, that of Balaam, taking up a large part of Numbers 22-31.

Balak, the king of Moab, wanted Balaam to curse Israel.  But God would not allow Balaam to curse Israel.  So when he saw that he couldn't destroy Israel this way, he tried to do it another way.  He advised Balak to go through the back door, and defeat them by moral corruption, by enticing the Israelite men to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women.  These Moabite women enticed the men, and when they had thein in their grips, invited them to the sacrifices of their gods.  In this way, Israel was turned away from the true God.  They bowed down and worshiped the Baal of Peor.

If you like, it was a more subtle form of satanic influence.  Satan couldn't break into the Pergamum church through the front door, so he goes around the back and begins to work through some of the members.  In those days, the whole of the social structure was built up around the gods, the heathen feasts and festivals.  If you wanted a place in society, and even sometimes, if you wanted to keep a certain job, you were required to go with the crowd to all those festivals.  You would need to join in the feasts, partake of the food offered to idols, and everything that went with it.  And if you didn't join in, you were virtually a social outcast.  And so, some of the members of the church were enticed to join in all of this.

Now we must understand that these members were not denying faith in God.  They were sucked into serving the gods of this world, and they tried to justify their actions.  They said, these things are not gods to us, they are nothing, they are neutral, we are not serving them like the others do.  And so in this way, they tried to break down the barriers between the church and the world, they tried to have one foot in the church, and one foot in the world at the same time – compromising with the world, trying to have the best of both.

And that was the same with the error of the Nicolaitans.  The Nicolaitans also wanted the best of both worlds, and they stressed that as Christians we are not bound by God's law.  The Lord knows, however, that you cannot serve two masters.  As with Israel in Balaam's day, one step always leads to another, till there is no room for God anymore.

Now I think it is necessary to stress here, that the problem in Pergamum was not these worldly members.  The real problem was that the church tolerated these members.  You see, the Lord does not rebuke those members in the first place.  There will always be such members who try to gain a hearing within the church.  But the Lord rebukes the whole congregation: "You have people there who hold to these things.  You tolerate those who go along with all this."

It was just like in Corinth.  You may recall in 1Corinthians 5 there was the immoral man.  And the problem was not the immoral man, but the congregation's attitude towards him.  They were proud.  They should have been filled with grief and put such a person outside their fellowship.  Paul goes on to say, "a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.  Get rid of the old yeast."

And when the Lord calls them to repent in verse 16, it is a call to the Congregation of Pergamum to repent.  They are not allowed to tolerate evil and compromise with evil in their midst because a practice which is tolerated today, receives full acceptance tomorrow.  And the leadership of the church always needs to be on guard against the yeast of worldliness and deal with it immediately.  And if they do not do this, the whole spiritual well-being of the congregation is at stake.

If the Church refuses to apply the Word of God, and uphold it with godly discipline, then the Lord Himself will come and fight against them with the sword of His mouth.  Those who advocate worldliness must be rebuked, and if they persist in their worldliness, cut off from the body of Christ.

Now today, of course, in our secular world, we don't have much idol worship as it was practiced in Pergamum.  We do not pray to the moon or to the stars.  But let's dig a little deeper.  What are the things which capture and control the hearts and minds of our nation today?

 – The god Bacchus is forgotten, but what he stood for – strong drink – is still worshiped, and many make their weekly or daily pilgrimage to the pub or the nightclub.

 – The god Venus is long gone, but the cult of the female body and of immorality is still worshipped by many.

 – Mammon is long forgotten as an idol, but he still has a strong hold on the majority of hearts as they live for money and material goods.

 – The god Zeus is also long forgotten.  But the Olympic Games, held in his honour, have continued again in this day.  In fact, all the ancient sporting games were held in honour of the gods.  And today, still, sport is the religion of many.

 – And who can deny that many rock stars today have a cult following.  And television.  And movies.  And books.  And gossip magazines about all the celebrities.

 – Then there is also the celebration of the human body.  All of these things are things which the world holds precious.

Yes, who can deny the whole of our social structure is still built up around the gods, around the heathen festivals and feasts.  And if you want a place in society, you need to hold hands with the world, and join them in their pilgrimage to their gods, and everything that goes with it.  And if you don't join in, you are virtually a social outcast.

The Lord knows however that you cannot serve two masters.  As with Israel in Balaam's day, one step always leads to another, till there is no room for God anymore.  And He warns His congregation to be on guard against the subtle yeast of worldliness.

So often Satan has successfully attacked the Church from within.  Many are the churches who began in faithfulness to the Word of God, but who have slowly given way to the world in doctrine and in moral purity.  But this doesn't just happen overnight.  It is a long process as here and there, false leaven is introduced and not confronted by the Church.

The Church which fails to uphold the Word of God and exercise discipline according to that Word, slowly caves in to this satanic attack from within and falls under the judgement of the Lord.

Conclusion.

Brothers and sisters, may we all today again hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  The world is strong.  And we, today, live where Satan has his throne.  He will do everything to destroy the church.  He has many arrows in his quiver.  And yet, I repeat what I said before, our God reigns.  And the Church which lives in the strength of its Saviour, and under the complete authority of His all-powerful Word, has nothing to fear.  For the gates of hell will not and cannot prevail against it.

The nations conspire, the peoples plot in vain, the kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers, yes, even the spiritual rulers and authorities and powers of this dark world, they all gather together against the Lord and against His anointed one.  But the One enthroned in heaven laughs.  And we may laugh with Him at their foolishness.  For our God reigns forever and ever.

And we will reign with Him.  To him who overcomes, says the Lord, I will give some of the hidden manna.  I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.

We may feel as though we miss out when we do not partake of the food offered to the idols of our age.  But he who overcomes shall be fed by the Lord Himself with the bread from heaven.  He will fill us inwardly with His grace till we are full and overflowing.  And we will know the privilege of living with Him eternally, in righteousness.

May God, by His Spirit, apply this message to our hearts, so that abiding in His Spirit and in His Word, we may continue forever in His service.

Amen.