THIS MORNING:
1. Identified the third church that Jesus spoke to in Rev 2-3.
2. Identified the changing strategy of Satan against the body of Christ. He moved from the strategy of intimidation in Smyrna to a strategy of inticement in Pergamum.
3. Jesus warns this church that although the basic foundation of their doctrine is strong yet there are areas where they have given in and fallen prey to the pressures that surround them.
House in KC began to settle with time: cracks appeared in the walls and ceiling. Jesus is showing us areas that need repair although the foundation(diety of Jesus) is still strong.
4. TONIGHT: Problem - Prescription - Possibilities(beginning in verse 14)
POPULAR WORD IN OUR CULTURE: DÉTENTE: Term used when heads of state meet and discuss important issues. Is means ’an easing of friction between two parties’ and it is based upon such things as tolerance & compromise. Each brings to the table different concessions asked of by the other. We live in a culture which is demanding a DÉTENTE with the body of Christ. It is demanding of us that we bring to the table matters of our faith and calling upon us to become tolerant of sin and to compromise the truth of the Word of God.
TODAY: Surrounded by pressures to compromise. Name of Jesus is under constant fire. Things like Zoning Laws, privacy rights, tolerance pressures, and political correctness are all used by some as new weapons in an old war. An attack on the person of Jesus Christ by the one who hates Him the most and any who would be willing accomplises.
THE PROBLEM - (14) But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. (15) So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.(Had ’this’ against Ephesus but a ’few things’ against here)
1. Twin Heresies which were a problem in the church: Balaanism and Nicolaitanism.
a. Balaam is the Hebrew word meaning ’lord of the people’ and Nicolaitan is a combination of two words ’to conquer’(NIKE) and ’the people’. To conquer the people.
2. Balaam was an actual OT figure who used a position of leadership to lead astray the people of God.
1) NUM 22-25: he was hired by Balak, king of Moab to come and curse Israel. God told him not to go and do but because of money he persisted in going. God stopped him along the way by speaking through his own donkey(Dog suddenly said ____ you need to stop doing that and get your life right). Yet Balaam went on. To Balak disappointment Balaam could not curse God’s people but he did provide Balak with a strategy of destruction.
a) Stedman writes that he paid beautiful women from Midian and Moab to parade before the young men of Israel and tempt them into sexual immorality. To corrupt and intice into sin.
b) Balaam counseled Balak how to bring God’s people down. IF I CAN’T CURSE THEM THEN I WILL CORRUPT THEM.
Kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel.
c) stumbling block ’scandelon’ It was the trapstick used when you set a trap. Pulled it when victim was fully caught up and ready to be captured.
d) Idolatry & Immorality were used. Modern equivolents of materialism & sensuality. World is constantly attacking the church with these weapons of mass destruction. Age old counsel meant to bring the church down.
e) Num 25 describes how this act led to a plague by which 24,000 died and it did not end until Phineas the priest took a spear and pierced both a man of Israel and a Midianite woman.
NUM 31:8 adds that when the people of Israel exacted punishment upon Midian that one of the ones killed was Balaam.
3. Nicolaitans are similar but different and it is not as clear as to what this ’teaching of the nicolaitans’ is. ’Conquerers of the people’ who were also a concern in Ephesus. ’you hate the deeds of the…’
a) Center around a teaching of there being a distinction in the body of Christ. Some claimed to have a special relationship with God, more intimate revelations, the inside track with God. They took advantage of people because of personal ambition.
b) Idea’s that developed out of the Jewish priesthood that is was necessary to have special people pray for you, that there was a need for individuals to set themselves up between God and the people.
Friend in TULSA: Lived as a roommate with a man who worked with at this time Oral Roberts ministries regarding schemes and ideas for appealing for people to give funds. Ideas such as having people send in money for prayer cloths, holy land oil, letters to say how their letters were part of those being constantly prayed for. Lived in a large 4 story Condo overlooking a lake. Years later I would be watching 20-20 or something that was Checking out a TV preacher who had supposedly gotten letters, taken out the checks, and trashed the prayer requests in a dumpster. The hidden camera captured this same man describing how they used various trinkets and schemes and how successful it was in increasing the giving. NICOTILAITANISM
Tim Lehaye: Coin in British Museum stamped during the days of Constantine. One side are Christian emblems and on other side are heathen gods. Early church tradition suggests that when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire that large heathen temples overnight were made Christian meeting places, pagan names were chiselled off idols and Christian saints were inscribed, even pagan ’ministers’ were redirected to become leaders in the Chrisitan faith.
Taught by many that from this point many before pagan practices creeped into Christian experience: 300 - Prayers for the dead / 375 - Worship of Saints / 431 - Worship of Mary / 500 Priestly garments / 543 - Doctrine of Purgatory / 600 - worship in latin / 600 - prayers to Mary
THE PRESCRIPTION - (16) Therefore repent;
1. One word: REPENT. Stop it now. No formula, no three points,
THE POSSIBILITIES or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. (17) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.
1. TERRIBLE STATEMENT: I am coming to you…make war against them.
a. Fact that God’s people would be harboring heaven’s enemies and that Jesus would have to come to us to fight them. We are so intertwined with them in our lives.
1) Passages of Christ’s return when one is taken and the other left. Like Lot who was found at the gates of Sodom
Jms 4:4 Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility to God and whoever wishes(attitude) to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God?
b. How much damage has the church sustained, how much has our walk with Christ been damaged, but an unwillingness to separate ourselves from the false things of the world. That when the fire of judgment fell we were standing right next to the target. All that we are is burned up except for our salvation.
2. Fight against them with the sword of My mouth. Heaven’s truth with expose earthly lies. Truth will expose all compromise in the end.
1 Cor 4:5 but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each mans praise will come to him from God.(can fool the world but never God)
3. REWARDS FOR FAITHFULNESS: three-fold expression of the intimacy the come from an uncompromising life.
a. Hidden Manna - a special spiritual nourishment that the world does not have access to. If I don’t compromise how will I survive. If they cross that wilderness how will they(we) make it. God has promised and has even staked His own reputation upon meeting the needs of those who take up their cross and deny self and follow Him. Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. Jesus said, I am the bread sent down from heaven.
1) Hidden manna is only for those who refuse the riches of Egypt.
b. White Stone A well known item in ancient times. It served as a proof of admission to a banquet. It was given to a victor in certain games. It was given to a gladiator when he retired from combat. It was also used in court cases: a white stone would be dropped in a urn by a judge after hearing the case resulting in an aquittal but if a black stone(blackballed) was dropped it meant condemnation.
Rom 8:1 There is therefore now no more condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
c. New Name - Some of these stones were given with the name of the recipient engraved upon them. Sometimes it meant that they would be provided for at public expense for the rest of the lives.
1) New names: Paul/Peter/Abraham/Sarah/Israel -
What is God’s new name for you and me?
Elizabeth Elliot: Came to speak at a particular church a number of times. The Pastor there had gotten to know her well and knew that she had often referred to herself as Betty in many of her book. He began to use that name in speaking with her. One day she corrected him: You know my name is not Betty, it is Elizabeth, Betty was Jim’s private name for me’.
2) The more intimate the relationship the more intimate the name: Mr. McGraw - Rev. McGraw - Pastor - Bro. Guy - Guy(family) - Daddy -________
3) Darling/Turtledove/buttercup/syriplips - What will the One who knows me better than I know myself call me on that day? I earn that name every day of this life as I make the tough choices to not compromise with a lost world but to keep life lived out in God’s truth.
