In the sermon titled 'Compromisers in the Church,' Scott Brown addresses the church's struggle with compromise, drawing from Revelation 2:12-17. The sermon highlights the message to the church of Pergamos, where believers are commended for their faithfulness despite residing where 'Satan's throne is.' However, some members are criticized for adhering to the doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, which promote idolatry and sexual immorality. Brown emphasizes the importance of holiness, urging believers to examine their lives for compromises and corrupting influences. The speaker warns that Christ, with His sharp two-edged sword, will confront and discipline unrepentant sinners within the church. The sermon concludes by offering hope through repentance, promising blessings such as hidden manna, a white stone, and a new name to those who overcome.

Please open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 2 verse 12. We'll be reading through verse 17. I thank the Lord for an inerrant, a sufficient, life-giving Word of Truth before our eyes today. Verse 12, and to the angel of the church of Pergamos write these things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword I know your works and where you dwell where Satan's throne is and You hold fast to my name and did not deny my faith even in the days in which antipas Was my faithful martyr who was killed among you where Satan dwells? But I have a few things against you, because you have those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality.

Thus, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat and I will give him a white stone and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it. Let's pray.

Oh Father come and feed your flock, equip the saints, put the devil to flight, Make us a holy people. Oh Lord make us a church in which you are pleased. We thank you for the beautiful ways that you lure us into your kingdom for such goodnesses and to turn us away from everything that would harm us. We praise you Lord for that. We thank you for your words to this church in Pergamos for us today.

Amen. Be seated. This passage is such a precious text. You find the Lord Jesus Christ doing what he always does he always speaks the truth in love you get both you get the truth and you also get the love he speaks a word of correction to people within this church of Pergamas. As you know, this is the third church in Revelation that we have been dealing with in our study in the book of Revelation.

And what's so wonderful here in this passage is first of all the disclosure of the truth but also you find the heart of the love of God for his people and He's always luring us with good things. He's, here in this passage, he's luring us to holiness by the hidden manna and by a white stone and by a new name. And so the Lord always, when he has correction, he holds out his hand to extend his mercy toward us and to show us what good plans he has. Now this church, this local church was being threatened from unholiness within the church. Now this is a passage of course all of these letters to the churches are for our benefit as a local church but what we learn here is that in establishing the church God is establishing a holy people for his own possession.

And the church is composed of those people who've been made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ and who are progressing in holiness through the process of sanctification. And there, a holy church is a church that's turning away from everything that's unholy. R.B. Kuyper puts it in these words, Holiness is the very essence of the church. The church is synonymous with holiness.

Holiness is not a mere armament that adds to its glory, as a sparkling necklace may enhance the beauty of a fair woman, no. Holiness is its very essence. And so this passage of Scripture is calling us to ask ourselves about our own personal holiness and so I come today with this text to play a role and it's a role that the Lord has appointed me to as a result of these words that are before us and so the this church in Pergamos and what the Lord Jesus Christ says to her compels me to ask all of us what you do when you are not in church. Are there compromises that you're making? Are there any corrupting influences in the backdrop of your life?

You know, what are you entertaining? What is entertaining you? And are there any unprofitable entertainments that are entertaining you in your life, in the background of your life? And so I'm here today to ask you to examine yourselves, to examine everything in your life, and to ask the question, is it holiness to the Lord? Think through the various categories and activities of your life, the things you like the things you're attracted to and I'm here to ask you is it holiness to the Lord or is it of the world and In in some ways I'm really here this morning to ask us all to remove the leaven from our homes.

The Jews had a practice, they would sprinkle leaven all over their house, all over the floor. And they did this symbolically, the leavens standing for anything that's evil anything unholy and then they would symbolically sweep up the leaven and they would take it outside and they would burn it and they by this action would be conveying their desire to remove everything unholy from their home And so that's really what this passage brings us to today. Now, we should always be very careful, particularly with the message about holiness and the removal of anything that's unholy, of taking such an action like this. Remember the Ephesian Church. The Ephesian Church did all the right things.

The Ephesian Church had all the right beliefs. But the Ephesian Church was doing what they were doing without love for the Lord. They were going through the motions. You know the Ephesian church was characterized by a dead orthodoxy. The next church that we handled, the church in Smyrna, was the persecuted church, and now we have a compromised church.

We need to recognize that we can fix things on the outside without love for the Lord, and that always should be before us. But in this passage the Lord is exposing a sickness in this church. You know we've been running around using the word comorbidity all the time here in this in this season that we're in. You know a comorbidity is a sickness that accompanies another sickness. And you might have one sickness but that there are others that could kill you.

And so there are sicknesses that exist in a church and This is the sickness of compromise. Compromise in the secret places. I'm going to give you an illustration out of the Old Testament of how this can work. In Ezekiel chapter 8 and in the following chapters, Ezekiel explains What's going on in the dark in the lives of 70 of the elders of Israel? These 70 elders have little apartments in the temple and What's concerning Ezekiel what he's revealing is that they're doing things in the dark Ezekiel 8 12 then he said to me son of man have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark?

Every man in the room of his idols. For they say the Lord does not see us. Well, the Lord did see them. And Ezekiel spent several chapters explaining in detail what they were doing in the dark. And in their rooms were pictures.

The word he uses can be translated idols and that's the truth about idols. They are images that draw us in. It's no different than the internet today. It's no different than pornography today. It's no different than Hollywood today.

It's no different from the images that grip us and attract our eyes into our phones and into our computers. Paul speaks of this kind of thing when he says, for it's shameful even to speak of these things which they do in secret. You know, we men have always lived in a cultures in cultures where it's easy to hide Their compromise and so that's what I'm here to ask us today is to examine ourselves Let me characterize the problem that existed in this church by using some single words. Infiltration. Syncretism.

Accommodation. Toleration. Those I think grasp what was happening here in this church. And so at Pergamos, Satan had infiltrated the church, not the whole church. There were many faithful there, it's very clear, but some were being seduced by their friendship with the world and they were inappropriately and they were dangerously involved in the normal culture of Pergamos and perhaps it could have been a misapplication of grace could have been a misapplication of love.

It could be most likely a desire to be included in the culture, to be engaged in the guilds and the success that existed when you embraced the gods of Pergamos. And Jesus calls this church to repent that's in verse 16 and for us I think we should just recognize what the Apostle Paul said that that the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he might whom he might devour so be sober and so this letter is Christ's concern for this local church and the problem in Pergamum or Pergamos however you want to refer to it, is that they refuse to discipline for the syncretism that existed. They let it go on. And so the Lord Jesus Christ tells them that if they don't repent, he himself is going to come into that church and he's going to personally discipline the persons who are syncretized. It's a tremendous warning.

He will come and discipline you personally. He will go after you. He will take you on and he will slay you with his sword. That's the message that's here. By the way, there's very interestingly similar language in the language of the Lord's Supper, of taking the Lord's Supper in vain.

And Paul tells us that he has, the Lord has killed some and some have gotten sick. That's an example of this in a New Testament church. So let's begin with the text with that lengthy introduction. In verse 12 we see Christ's approach to the church and he's approaching the church with a two-edged sword and to the angel of the church of Pergamos right these things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword now the Lord Jesus has already described himself in that way that he he has a sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth. We should always remember who's speaking these things.

This is the son of man. This is the one whose head and hair are white like wool. His eyes are like a flame of fire. He's unstoppable. His feet are like fine brass.

And so this is who is speaking. And here His approach is as one who has a two-edged sword coming out of his mouth and He's coming to cut out the compromisers of the church. Now he's calling for the compromisers to repent so he doesn't have to cut them out, but he will cut them out if they don't repent. And you know Pergamon was a remarkable city. It was a beautiful city.

It was a city of high population at that time, around 200, 000 people. And It was a city that was built on a hill 800 or a thousand feet above sea level. It was inland a little bit and it was a city that boasted of one of the greatest libraries in the world. Imagine 200, 000 handwritten volumes in this library. And in fact, the library of Alexandria in Egypt became jealous of the stature of this library and so they cut off supply of papyrus to the library so that they couldn't grow their library anymore.

But that didn't help because the the scientists in Pergamon developed a different material to write on called vellum. I actually have some books that have pages made of vellum. It's a very durable substance. But you know, hardship is the mother of invention, so they invented their own paper. And they continued with their library.

This vellum, you know, made from sheepskin was called Pergamenta or parchment and this is where the city got its name. So there at the same time you know perched in this plateau 800 feet above sea level were many temples to Roman gods. Nearly every major Greek and Roman deity was represented there. If you wanted power, Zeus and his temple were there. You could go get it and pray for power from Zeus.

If you if you wanted to justify your sexual pleasures, the temple of Dionysius was there. The god of pleasure would offer you your pleasures and drunken orgies if you wanted to stoke your pleasure in the abundance of food then you you could justify it by going to the goddess of Demeter and if you were sick you would go to the temple of Asclepion the god of healing this which was represented by the statue of the snake still used in in medical medicine today to represent healing. People would come from all over the world, Galen and Hippocrates practiced medicine there in the temple of Asclepius. And What would happen in that temple is that you would be promised healing. You would go and you would lie down on the ground and go to sleep and snakes would crawl all over you.

They told you, they told you that you'd be healed. And of course the secular state is always lying to her people about almost everything And if you wanted wisdom, then you could find it in the temple of Athena Go cry out to wisdom there. You could get your business strategies, right? You could get your love life, right? You know, you could get your military strategy from the wisdom of Athena go to the gods If you wanted favor from the government, you'd go to the temple of Trajan and there you'd find your way to legally navigate your pagan society by publicly offering your devotion, getting all kinds of freedom, freedom to work, freedom to move, and all the praises and accolades of the secular state.

You only had to do it once a year. All you had to do was go and offer a little bit of incense and say, Caesar is Lord. And then they would give you a certificate, And the certificate would confirm that you made your pledge. And the certificate would give you freedom to work and it would give you freedom to buy and sell and do and worship the gods. It would give you the favor.

All you had to do is show the card in the temple of Trajan. In other words if you were a Christian in Pergamas you could kind of separate your physical life from your beliefs and you know you could go into the temple and make your offerings and be done with it you don't really believe this stuff. But your physical life would be separated from your spiritual life, which is something that the devil is always wanting to do is to separate your life into two quadrants rather than one, one holy quadrant. Now this is common, I mean this happens in every religion. This was happening in program house.

People would come to church, they would participate in everything, they seem to have sound doctrine, but on the side they were going for wisdom somewhere else. They were going for healing somewhere else. They were going for power somewhere else. They were going for social acceptability by the secular state somewhere else. They weren't going to God.

You know, well, now, I mean, this happens all over the world. I mean, Muslims do this. They go and they perform the five pillars and everything is golded. They do the profession, the prayer, the alms, the fasting, and the pilgrim. It's just five things.

That's all you have to do. And you find this in Protestant churches, you find this in Roman Catholic churches. You know, when I was a teenager growing up, I had friends going to the Roman Catholic Church and we always cracked up when we drove by the Catholic Church because we could see skid marks coming out of the driveway you know the people and we just laughed every time because we knew our friends were doing that they were they were burning out to get out of there as fast as they could they did their stuff but now they're going to go live. Well that's what was happening in Pergamos and there really are only two places you can turn in this world for your wisdom and for your healing and for your laughter and for your satisfaction. You're going to turn to one throne or another and that's what we see here.

The Lord Jesus Christ comes with a particular disposition toward all of this and I just want us to understand the disposition it's the disposition of one that has a sharp two-edged sword and the sword was a symbol of power and authority and In Revelation chapter 19 verse 15 this sword is used to destroy Christ's enemies. Christ is coming with this sword to kill. So this is a very sobering passage in so many ways. Swords separate one thing from another and that's exactly what this is all about. Here in this passage Jesus is not coming to this church as gentle Jesus meek and mild.

He's coming as one with a sharp two-edged sword out of his mouth and he's promising that he is going to do business with the fakers in his church. So he has authority to do whatever he pleases, but a sword exposes, it cuts, it kills, and it reveals the secret thoughts and motives of the heart. So that's the disposition that Jesus comes with. So that's the first point you're outlining. Here's the second thing that we notice in verse 13.

Christ's knowledge of the situation. Christ knows. He knows everything. He sees everything. Of course we've already been told he has eyes like a flame of fire.

He says I know where you dwell and the Lord is acknowledging that he knows of the evil but he also understands the pressures that they're facing. Now, I think we should just pause on this and see what the Lord is saying here to all of those who gather in his local churches. And I think you can take this individually and we can take it corporately as a church. He's saying I know what you're facing. He knows what it's like to live in a secular state with all the pressures that are there.

He knows the challenges that are before them. He knows the situation. He knows the situations in their homes. He knows their situations with their friends, he knows what's happening in their work, he knows what's happening in their finances, he knows, he knows everything, he sees, he knows, and while that's a comfort, that's a comfort to so many of you. It wouldn't be a comfort to everyone in the meeting of that church.

Because he's saying, I know some of you are being seduced by friendship with the world. I know that some of you are inappropriately involved in your culture. I know that some of you are being entertained by things that are not entertaining to Christ. And he hates them. Now this this should just remind us of one of the great doctrines of the Bible.

It is one of the sweetest doctrines of the Bible and that is God's omniscience. He knows everything. Aren't you glad that he knows everything? Well, he says, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Astounding, really.

And I take this to mean that they were living in a city and in that city you had the grip of the devil on the cumulative culture of the ethics of Zeus and Dionysius and Asclepion and Athena and the great learning centers. By the way, it's always been true. The great learning centers are always the great defilement centers as they are in our day. They were on Satan's turf. Now this is this is an example of something that we already know.

Some places are worse than others. And there can be localized concentrations of evil people and evil propositions. This is why when the apostle Paul went into Athens, he says that his spirit was disturbed because it was a city full of idols I mean he could just feel the darkness when he walked in into Athens and you know here this is the place where Satan's throne is you know all the institutions are just saturated with darkness, with lies. And this is true in America. I mean, if you go to Santa Cruz, California, you'll see, I've been there a long time ago, you'll see demonized people all over the place.

You go to Salem, Massachusetts, you know, this is a town of about 40, 000 people. There are two or three thousand witches that live in Salem, Massachusetts. And you don't want to go there on Halloween. So there are places in the world that have greater concentrations of evil and evil people and evil propositions. And you've seen this in different places.

It's interesting though, I think we should note this, the Lord Jesus doesn't tell these believers to flee the city. Not at all. To flee the worldliness, but not the city. But by every indication they should stay in the city and you see all kinds of examples of this in the Bible. We have a tendency to want to get out of the bad cities and I think it may be reasonable from time to time to do that but that's not what Jesus is telling these people to do.

You know same thing was happening in Rome I mean you had think about this you have you have Nero the Roman Emperor and you have Christians in his household. And they're thriving there. Paul writes to them. They didn't flee Rome. They were in Caesar's household, praising God, living holy lives.

And the apostle writes to them to encourage them. He praises God for them that they are in Caesar's household. So this isn't an appeal to leave the city you know at all but I think what we find here in the sort of the disclosure of this of this city is is that Christ understands what's going on here He he said something like this John did in first John 519 we know that we are of God and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one and we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding that we may know him who is true and we are in him who is true in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and eternal life little children keep yourselves from idols and so so the Lord the Lord has knowledge of these things. And he's calling the church to keep themselves from idols. Is there anything unholy that you're entertaining?

Is there anything that is unholy that's entertaining you? That's really the question. The Apostle made it clear what is happening in Ephesians 6-12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand.

So all of these temples, all of these Accessible places to get your wisdom and your pleasure and your food and everything You know all of all of those places are really being driven by powers and principalities where Satan's throne is Now in the afternoon message, I'm gonna. I'm gonna give a message on Satan's throne. What what does this mean that Satan has a throne? It's a message really about demonology and it's a message about What what is the power of the devil? How much power does he have?

I'm gonna try to answer that question this afternoon I hope you can be here with us But the Lord is saying I know I know where you live You're living right on the foot of Satan's throne, where he dwells. You're living in a difficult place. You know, Robert Murray McShane visited this city in 1820. He said there were two churches left by then and here's what he writes about this text do you live in an ungodly family a lily among the thorns Christ says to you I know where thou dwellest Do you live in an ungodly neighborhood? Christ says to you, I know where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.

And I think we should just recognize the omniscience of Jesus Christ. He knows everything about your situation. Some of you have some really tough situations at home, I know that. Some of you have tough situations at work, I know that. And there are many, many, many things I don't know.

Difficult situations that are facing you. The Lord says, I know. I know you live where Satan's throne is now what so at the same time hey by the way there were faithful people in this church look at verse 13 and you hold fast to my name now hold fast it's the language that the Lord Jesus uses is a language, I mean the holding fast is a strong grip steadfastly. There were many there in that church who had, well I'm just going to call it a death grip on Jesus Christ, they would not let him go. And the majority in this church were strong.

I hope that's true here in this church. But it would be foolish to think that nobody here is being compromised, that no one here is being entertained by ungodly entertainments. It would be foolish to think that. So they're holding fast. They're not getting lured in, they're not capitulating.

By the way, the persecutions didn't work. They didn't work at all. Not with most of them. And they didn't deny the Lord Jesus in time of danger. And you did not deny my faith even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr who was killed among you where Satan dwells." How about that?

So one of their members was killed, probably by the Roman governor, probably by his sword because the government did not appreciate Christianity. It was terribly distracting to their agendas. Now just think about that for a minute. What if one of us had been killed? You know by the government.

What if? Well if one of us had been killed, and by the way, some believe that Antipas was their pastor, no way to know that. We don't know anything about Antipas. Nothing is ever said about him. He's just a faithful witness.

He's just a faithful martyr. But he's dead. And you might just think about that for a minute if someone in our church was dead because they would not participate in the entertainments on the hill, the entertainments in the computer, the acceptability gained by compromise on the street, and they were killed. And in this church it didn't sway them. It didn't make them more afraid.

The persecution didn't have any negative effect on this church at all. They stood fast. They stood with their brother who was a faithful witness. A faithful witness. That's all we know about this man.

One of the commentators I read, Bill Mounts, he has a great commentary on the book of Revelation. And I'll just quote from his commentary. Christian stonecutters working in the quarries refused to carve an image of a Scepulus and were put to death for being followers of Antipas. So you had stonecutters who refused to carve the image of the snake and they were killed because they refused to carve the image of the snake. They wouldn't promote the gods.

Which is very interesting and over the last few years you know we've had Christian bakers and florists you know losing really everything because they didn't wouldn't bake a cake or they wouldn't make flowers for a homosexual wedding. They weren't killed. They were just fined, that's it. So you had a church here that had a burden, the burden of their dead brother who was killed because he was a witness for Jesus Christ. But it didn't scare them.

They held fast. Praise the Lord. I mean this was a great church, but boy there was a great problem In it. So what was the issue? Well, it's described in verse 14.

Are you with me verse 14? Christ explains he explains the infiltration He tells what was happening, but I have a few things against you because you have there who hold the doctrine of Balaam. So it was a teaching, it was a teaching of Balaam. It was a false teaching in the church about how you how you can live. Who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality So the devil the devil couldn't scare this church into into oblivion through persecution But Satan attacks in a lot of different ways.

And Satan was attacking this church through compromise. So there's this reference to Balak and Balaam and the children of Israel. So what's that all about? Well, you should read this. It's just astoundingly interesting and in some places very, very funny.

You have a donkey talking. And you have a man talking back to the donkey that's one of the most bizarre parts of it but you have Balak the king of Moab he's scared because the children of Israel can't lose in battle and he's terrified that if they show up on his doorstep he's dead and his kingdom is over so he hires a great communicator he's called a prophet He's a prophet for hire This is what you do you get the guy with a big platform who has a lot of influence you get an influencer to scare everybody You get an influencer to you know spin out your message. That's exactly what Balaam was. He was a prophet, he was a communicator, he was known as a prophet of God. This is what, I mean, he was a remarkable communicator.

That's what, you know, if you're a remarkable communicator, you can do a lot of stuff on the side. I think we've seen that in modern evangelicalism. But Balaam was was hired to go out and curse Israel. Every time he went out to curse Israel, he would open up his mouth and he would bless Israel and bless God and even prophesy the Messiah. It was amazing.

He just couldn't get it right. And so Bala came back and said, hey, no, no, no, no. I offer you more money. We have to do another. We have to do something different here.

And so Balaam, he's a pretty smart guy. He knows the communication system. He knows how it works. He says, OK. So I won't curse them outrightly, but here's what I can do.

I can corrupt them from within. Let's go get some of those beautiful Midianite women and send them in there here's what will happen this is Balaam story you know here's what will happen the men of Israel will marry these corrupt, beautiful, scantily clad women and then God will come in and destroy the nation because of their immorality because that's what God does. God comes in with a sharp two-edged sword, and he cuts out the poison. That's what he does. So that was Balaam's pitch to Balak, and that's exactly what happened.

So they brought in the women, they got married, and the whole nation was corrupted, and God judged them, and even in the near term 24, 000 of them died in a plague, a plague. Mark that in your doctrine of plagues. Why do plagues come? We've walked through the doctrine of plagues, you know, what we did a while back to try to understand why plagues come and how they start and how they end. They always start from the hand of God, they always end by the repentance of the people of God.

That's how it works. That's what the Bible says. So anyway, Balaam did this thing and well okay, so Neither are we unaware of Satan's devices. The corrupting compromising influences that exist all around us, perhaps the most prominent corrupting compromising influence that exists in your life and my life is your computer. And it's your phone and your access to the worldwide web of Satan to lure you in to get you looking at those pictures, to inflame your idolatry and to finally destroy you and he might bring a plague on you.

He might make you sick like he did in Corinth And you might die because he comes with a sharp two-edged sword But but this is a doctrine okay This was but but this was the doctrine of Balaam The doctrine of Balaam is you're free, you're saved, you're an Israelite, you're circumcised, you can do whatever you want. You're free in Christ. Be open-minded. You've got liberty, Christian liberty. Push it to the limit.

Go for it. Don't let anybody judge you. That's Balaam's doctrine. That's the false doctrine. And I just want to say, you know, as a warning be on guard for any church member who's losing his hatred for the world and the flesh and the devil.

Be on guard because it doesn't it doesn't end well. You know, have you been loose in bringing Hollywood into your homes? Have you been embraced? Have you been entertained by the ungodly entertainers and the ungodly stories where Jesus Christ is not Lord and you saturate your children's minds with that and everything they see Jesus Christ is not even there and he's not Lord if he is there he's belittled are you bringing those in be very careful there's nothing different than going to go get your power from Zeus and your healing from Ascopius and your wisdom from Athena and your pleasure from Dionysius. It's no different.

The high places are nothing different than the allurements that exist around us today. They're nothing different at all. Why did people go to the high places? Well they went to the high places because there were naked people there. That's why they went there.

They didn't go there to bow down before a rock. They went down there to see things and to do things. That's what they did. We shouldn't be deceived about what this, what idolatry is. It's being allured by things that are impure.

Now, you see the word stumbling block in here? This is a really important word, stumbling block. There are things that make people stumble. He refers to them there. Maybe some of you have been to my property.

If you look around you'll see four millstones on my property. They came from old mills really close to where I live and They're there for a reason and they're there to remind of stumbling blocks. And the next time you see a millstone, remember what Jesus said in Matthew 18, 6 through 9, whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes if your hand causes you to sin cut it off and cast it from you It is better for you to enter life lame or maimed rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the everlasting fire.

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell." You know, just this morning, somebody in our church had their leg amputated at 7 o'clock this morning and that leg was amputated for one single reason, to save his life. And that's what Jesus is saying. It's better for you to lose all your social acceptability. It's better for you to lose all your favor in the marketplace.

It's better for you to lose anything and everything so that you don't lose heaven. But their doctrine, hey their doctrine was the doctrine of Balaam. What's the doctrine of Balaam? The doctrine of Balaam is we can go to the temple. We can hang out there and keep up our church attendance We can keep doing the things in the dark We can keep things going there.

We can live our Christian life publicly and have this other stuff happening in the dark of night What do you do at night? You know men when your wife goes to bed, are you looking at things on your computer? You know or at work you have find ways to hide it. And then in verse 15 we get kind of a connection here, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, thus you also have those who hold to the doctrine of Nicolaitans which I hate. I think there's a connection between what was happening in Pergamos and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and this toleration of the Greek pantheon.

It's the here's their doctrine. You can have it all. You can have both and you can keep your church attendance up and you can go get your social acceptability same time and follow the philosophies of the pagans around you. So The problem in Pergamos is not that there was a church where Satan's throne is, but rather is that Satan had worked its way into the lives of the people of the church. That was the problem.

You know I was reading, I read an article several years ago, I thought it was very profound. Eight sins you commit when you look at pornography. I'll just list them. Eight sins you commit when you look at pornography. You commit the sin of idolatry, number one, number two, analyze the withdrawal from enjoyables.

You commit the sin of adultery, number three, you commit the sin of deceit. Number four, you commit the sin of theft. Number five, you commit the sin of greed. Number six, you commit the sin of sloth. Number seven, you commit the sin of sexual assault.

Number eight, you commit the sin of ignoring the Holy Spirit. Well, the Lord gives a remedy in verse 16. What do you do? What do you do? You know, the Lord never just kind of leaves you hanging.

He always, He always shows you the way out. This is the way out. Repent. But, repent or else, repent or else. I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

In other words, the Lord is promising that He's going to come into that church and He's going to fight against specific people in that church and He's going to use his sword and it's not going to be pretty. So repent. Repent while there's time. Repent before before God destroys your life. Repent before it all comes out.

You know calls to repentance are always protective actions. You know, when our children run into the street, You know, we run after them and we raise our hands and our voices and we say, stop, stop before you get hit. That's what this is here. Stop before you get run over. And frankly, run through.

What is repentance? Repentance is first of all grief over sin, second of all is turning around and running in the other direction. And thirdly, it is experiencing the fruit of the changed life. That's what repentance is. And then Christ's promise.

This is so wonderful. Verse 17, to him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat and I will give him a white stone and on the stone a new name which no one knows except him who receives it. There are There are three blessings promised to those who repent. It's not over if you repent. It is over if you don't.

It's not over. This is the loving kindness of God. He holds his hand open and he makes these promises of blessing, three specific promises of blessing to those who would turn and repent. Remember he's speaking to the ones who've been compromising that's who he's talking to you know he's he's holding out mercy to a compromiser that's what he's doing he's not destroying the compromiser he's calling the compromiser to turn And so there are three elements here. The first is manna, the hidden manna.

You know manna and bread is a theme that runs across the old and the New Testament and What what is this manna it's bread from heaven it's Jesus Christ Jesus Christ is bread from heaven He is the manna from heaven And what he's saying is that if you repent, you get Christ. You, by faith, will feed upon Christ. And you'll quit feeding on Zeus and Athena and Dionysius and Asclepius and all those gods. They've only hurt you. Christ never hurts you.

He feeds you. Bread from heaven. Jesus said, Most assuredly I say to you, Moses did not give you bread from heaven, but my Father gives you true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world and then The disciples said to him Lord give us this bread. Is that you?

You've been compromising But now you're saying Lord give us this bread Jesus said to them I am the bread of life He who comes to me shall never hunger and he who believes in me shall never thirst. All that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will by no means cast out. This is the call of the gospel. And then a white stone, not just hidden manna. There's a lot to say about why he's hidden why I say it's hidden I think there are different ways you could explain it, but I think he's talking about this invisible spiritual food from heaven that you're always fed by no matter where you are or what you do and then a white stone A white stone with a name that no one else knows.

Now what's the white stone? We don't know. White stones were used for all kinds of things. If you were guilty in court, they'd give you a black stone. If not, they'd give you a white stone.

If there was a party going on, you'd get an invitation on a white stone and that was your calling card to get in kind of like you know a card on a table you know that you have a seat at the table it was a symbol of admittance to a feast you've heard of being blackballed okay this is not being blackballed. This is being included and accepted. You know, in the 18th century, secret ballots were taken for admittance into Masonic lodges and fraternities and gentlemen's clubs and everybody in the club would vote with a stone either a white or a black stone. It was a private anonymous vote And if you got too many black stones, you couldn't join the fraternity. But here, I believe it has to do with access and acceptance into the kingdom.

You're given a white stone, come on in. Let the spirit and the bride say come. Let him who's thirsty, come, come on in. Here's your white stone, come on in. And then a new name.

You're given a new name what's that that's a changed life you're given a changed life You know the Bible lots of lots of people get new names Abraham to Abraham Sarai to Sarah Simon to Peter Saul to Paul God changes people's names he gives him a whole new identity a whole new life a whole new way of operating in the world, and a whole new way of being known. You were known as outcast, Now you're known as in the family. So you get a new name. So the Lord gives these three great motivations to repent. That you would have the hidden manna, bread from heaven, that you would have the white stone access into his presence and that you would have a new name, a changed life.

So is there leaven in the house? Is there leaven in this church? Are there things happening in the darkness that need to be repented of and renounced and turned away from forever? The Lord is luring His people in with these wonderful things. And maybe today is the day that you make a final decision to amputate.

You're going to amputate that diseased member out of your life.