Compromise: Hell’s Trojan Horse
3/12/2008
Rev 2:12-17
12 And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges;
13 I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.
14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
16 Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
(KJV)
Intro.
• In 1871, an American named Heinrich Schliemann began excavating an ancient city in Turkey.
• To the amazement of many, this retired businessman had discovered the lost city of Troy.
• Today, you can still see the ruins of its towers and its walls, which were 16 feet thick.
• According to the Homer’s Illiad, the Greeks besieged Troy for ten years without success.
• After the death of the warrior Achilles, many wanted to give up the fight.
• But the king of Ithaca, Odysseus, came up with a plan to get the Greek army into Troy.
• Odysseus built an immense wooden horse. He and his warriors hid inside it.
• After leaving the horse at the gates of Troy, the Greek army sailed away.
• The Trojans thinking the Greeks had given up and had left the horse as a gift, brought it inside the gates.
• That night, while the Trojans were sleeping, the Greek ships quietly returned.
• The soldiers in the horse slipped out and opened the city gates.
• The Greek army quietly entered Troy and started fires all over the city.
• The Trojans awoke to find their city in flames.
• As they tried to flee, they were killed by the waiting Greeks.
• The story of the Trojan Horse and the fall of Troy have come to represent the subversion of anything from within.
• That is what was happening to the church at Pergamos.
• Whereas Satan was trying to crush the Smyrnan church by persecution from without, he was trying to collapse the Pergamos congregation through corruption from within.
• That is the way our enemy operates. He either tries to crush us with hardship and hostility or corrupt us with compromise.
• And we need to take heed to the fact that what ten years of outward assault on Troy was unable to accomplish was done in one night when the enemy was brought within the city.
• The Trojan Horse at Pergamos was what Jesus called the doctrine of Balaam.
• It became a stumbling block to the believers, leading them to accept idolatry and immorality while trying to maintain their distinctiveness as Christians.
• As we see from Scripture, the danger of the doctrine of Balaam is that it tries to wed the people of God to the ways of the world, and that is something that has never worked and will never work.
• God’s people are to be a peculiar people. God’s people are to be a distinct people.
1 Pet 2:9
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
(KJV)
2 Cor 6:17
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
(KJV)
2 Cor 7:1
1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
(KJV)
Eph 4:24
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
(KJV)
1Thes 4:7
7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
(KJV)
Heb 12:14
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
(KJV)
• God’s people are to be a separate people. Friendship with the world is not an option.
• John 15:19
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
(KJV)
• John 17:14-16
14 I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
(KJV)
• I Jn 5:19
19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
(KJV)
• Rom 12:2
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
(KJV)
• 1 Cor 2:12
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
(KJV)
• 1 Cor 8:4
4 As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
(KJV)
• Col 2:8
8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
(KJV)
• Col 2:20
20 Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
(KJV)
• 2 Tim 4:10
10 For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
(KJV)
• Titus 2:12
12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
(KJV)
• I Jn 2:15
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
(KJV)
• I Jn 4:3
3 And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.
(KJV)
• I Jn 4:4
4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
(KJV)
• I Jn 5:4
4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
(KJV)
• We are not to worship at its altars. We are not to learn its ways. We must not be pressed into its mold.
• Yet, that is what was happening in the church at Pergamos.
• And it continues to happen in churches today. The doctrine of Balaam is still finding its way into modern congregations, opening the way for worldliness to destroy the people of God.
• It’s Location: "where thou dwellest." Pergamos was primarily known for one thing: religion.
• On a hillside overlooking the city was the giant altar of Zeus a throne of stone rising 40 feet into the air.
• On every corner, instead of finding a church, you would find a temple or altar to a pagan God.
• It was a primary center for the worship of the Emperors.
• Religions of all kinds thrived in Pergamos. In fact, there is an ancient saying that whenever any weird religious idea was expelled from some part of the world, it would find a place in Pergamos.
• Something we must understand about ancient religions is that they were usually associated with immorality: prostitution, sodomy, orgies, and lewd entertainment.
• Thus, Pergamos was not only a religious city. It was a wicked city.
• And, according to Jesus, it was the capital of Satan’s kingdom.
• It was the location of his seat, or throne. It was the place he dwelleth - the place he called home.
• But God had a light in the heart of Satan’s kingdom. And to that congregation, he said, I know thy works, and where thou dwellest
1. He knew what opportunities they had.
2. He knew what obstacles they had to overcome the culture, the false religions.
3. He knew the kind of opposition they faced.
• He wanted the church at Pergamos to have the assurance that He knew where they were and what they were up against.
A. Their Loyalty: They were firm in their devotion: "holdest fast my Name."
1. In their personal lives and in their public ministry, the Name of Jesus was lifted high.
2. Everything they did was identified with Jesus Christ.
B. They maintained sound doctrine: "hast not denied my faith."
• This was a church that clung to the fundamentals of the faith and would not compromise one precious doctrine of the Word of God, even when public opposition and Satanic oppression joined together to bring about the martyrdom of one of their faithful members.
• What we see in Pergamos is a church that was unashamed of their Christianity and unwavering in their doctrine.
• If you had attended one of their services, you would have sung songs of praise and worship, heard genuine prayer that sprung from the heart, and heard teaching that was doctrinally sound.
• They were preaching the Gospel and worshipping Jesus, but they were in need of repentance because they had compromised with the world.
C. Their Error: The doctrine of Balaam. Balaam was an Old Testament prophet.
• His story begins in Numbers 22. The Israelites, in their wilderness wanderings, had come to the borders of Moab.
• They had just conquered the Amorites, and it looked like Moab was their next target.
• So, the king of Moab sent messengers to Balaam to hire him to curse the Israelites.
• To his credit, before Balaam answered the messengers, he prayed and asked God what he should do.
• God told him that he could not go with them or curse the Israelites.
• And that is what Balaam told the messengers. He refused to go with them.
• But they didn’t want to take no for an answer. So, they upped the price.
• Balaam went. Along the way, God sent a messenger to Balaam the angel of the Lord. As a result of that encounter, Balaam confessed his sin and offered to return home.
• Instead, the Angel of the Lord told him to go with Moabites, but only to speak the words that God gave him to say.
• Balaam obeyed. Instead of cursing Israel, he blessed them. Four times he blessed them.
• And throughout the process, he up-held the Name of the Lord and refused to deny the Word of God. That is the condensed version of Numbers 22-24.
(READ NUMBERS 25:1-3)
• The Trojan Horse of Moab was their daughters. They came into the camp of the Israelites and caught the eyes of their men.
• They invited them to their sacrifices feasts full of immorality and idolatry.
• Soon, the men are eating at the tables of false gods, sleeping in the beds of pagan women, and bowing themselves down to worthless idols.
• How did it happen?
(READ NUMBERS 31:13-16)
• The counsel of Balaam: Balaam held fast the Name of the Lord. He would not deny the word of God.
• But he taught Balak (the King of Moab) to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel.
• To keep from losing the reward he had been offered, He counseled Balak to send his women to seduce the men of Israel to make marriages with them and blend with them.
• It was a teaching that attacked the separation and sanctification that God expects His people to maintain.
• That is the doctrine of Balaam. It is the teaching that God’s people can mix with the world while maintaining their Christian distinctiveness and it is widespread in our churches today.
• We are being taught that we can take the music, fads and fashion of the world and mix it with Bible truths and that will make it Christian.
• That is the doctrine of Balaam. It attempts to wed the people of God to the ways of the world.
• And God calls it whoredom and fornication an unholy alliance.
• And just as Moab corrupted Israel, so the world is corrupting Christianity.
• Our churches are full of people who hold the values of the world, find their pleasure in the world, and take their priorities from the world.
• The doctrine of the Nicolaitanes: Neither the identity nor the teaching of the Nicolaitanes has been preserved for us today.
• Although the word itself means to conquer the people, the Bible doesn’t tell us what the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes was.
• All we know for sure is that God hated it.
• However, I think there may be a reason why God has left the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes a mystery: as a reminder to us that many false doctrines can creep into the church, doctrines hated and despised by God.
• We must guard against every false doctrine and prove every teaching and principle by a clear and correct interpretation of the Word of God.
• God told this church to repent to change its mind about its worldly ways or to face the discipline of God.
• Since at the heart of their error was false doctrine, God points them to the sharp two-edged sword of His mouth the Word of God.
• That is the only way to correct error, is through the teaching and preaching of a rightly divided Scripture.
If they repented, he promised them two things:
1. If they quit eating at the table of the world things sacrificed to idols they would be fed with hidden manna. God would satisfy them in ways that the world could not.
2. If they broke off their relationship with the world, God would give them a white stone engraved with a new name.
a. In that day, special stones were given to people that entitled them to special privileges of friendship.
b. By showing the stone, they could expect to be received and be given friendship and hospitality.
c. What Jesus was telling us is that the person who rejects the friendship of the world will enjoy the unique friendship of God.
d. What Pergamos teaches us is that we can boldly call ourselves Christians and hold to the fundamentals of the faith, the inspiration of Scripture, the deity of Christ, the Virgin birth and lose the blessings and friendship of God by refusing to maintain our separation from the world and its ways.
