December 11, 2024 • 41 mins
Summary
In this conversation, Kathy Barnette explores the letter to the Church of Pergamum from the Book of Revelation, highlighting the themes of compromise and worldly influences on faith. She discusses the importance of the Word of God as a tool for spiritual warfare against the challenges faced by Christians in a secular culture. Barnette emphasizes the need for believers to remain faithful and vigilant in their faith, despite the pressures to conform to societal norms. The conversation also delves into the historical context of Pergamum, the nature of sin, and the promise of a new identity for those who overcome.
Takeaways
The Church of Pergamum represents a compromised faith.
Jesus acknowledges the struggles of the church amidst worldly influences.
The Word of God is essential for spiritual warfare.
Compromise can lead to a loss of identity in Christ.
Believers are called to remain faithful in a secular culture.
Historical context is crucial for understanding the challenges faced by early Christians.
The church must actively fight against the synchronization with the world.
Jesus promises a new identity to those who overcome.
The consequences of compromise can be severe.
Faithfulness requires vigilance and commitment to God's Word.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Church of Pergamum
03:09 The Nature of Compromise in Faith
06:06 The Role of the Word of God
08:49 Living in a Worldly Culture
12:08 The Historical Context of Pergamum
14:54 Challenges Faced by the First Century Church
17:47 The Call to Remain Faithful
21:10 The Consequences of Compromise
23:56 The Remedy: The Word of God
27:03 The Promise of Overcoming
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello everyone, welcome back.
Today we're going to start with chapter two in the book of Revelation, looking at thethird church that Jesus wrote a letter to.
Today we're gonna talk about Pergamum, the compromised church.
So let's get into it.
(00:21):
So if you've been walking with us through the Book of Revelation, again, you can look intothe show notes that should be below, and there are links that will take you back to our
initial overview of the Book of Revelation.
Then we moved right into Revelation chapter one.
Then we went on to talk about...
(00:43):
the letters that Jesus wrote to the seven churches, starting with Revelation chapter two,looking at the very first church of Ephesus.
Ephesus is the church who lost their joy because they lost their first love.
Then we moved swiftly into the second church Jesus wrote a letter to, which was the churchof Smyrna.
(01:08):
Smyrna is the persecuted church.
And there is no church that is so pure as the church that is under persecution becauseain't nobody got time to be playing around if they're not really committed to Christ when
persecution comes through those doors.
(01:28):
That applies to the church.
That applies to us as individuals as well.
Today, we're going to look at the third church.
Jesus wrote a letter to you.
That is the Church of Pergamum.
This is
the worldly church, the compromised church.
And Jesus has some favorable things to say about the church, but in each of the letters,he also says what he's warning them against.
(01:54):
There was only two churches out of the seven churches where Jesus had nothing critical tosay about them.
One of them was the persecuted church of Smyrna.
Today, we're gonna take a look at the church of Pergamum.
So let's start Revelation chapter two.
Let's start reading at verse 12.
And I am going to read it out of initially out of the amplified version because I justlike the emphasis that is being placed on some of the words here for us.
(02:25):
So let's start Revelation chapter two, verse 12.
This is Jesus' letter to the church of Pergamum.
And remember each of these letters, he starts off with, this is who I'm writing to.
This is who the letter is coming from, followed by what he finds favorable because beforeyou can start critiquing someone, find something favorable if you can.
(02:49):
And so Jesus uses that model, find something favorable about them, followed by, but thisis what I have a problem with, which then is followed by what causes this issue that he
has pointed out.
Swiftly going to what you need to do to change it.
(03:09):
ending with why you need to change it because he's coming, he's coming back soon.
And when he comes, he's coming with his rewards and you're gonna want those rewards.
So let's start with looking at who the letter is written to and from.
Revelation chapter two, starting at verse 12, then to the angel or messenger of theassembly or church and Pergamum, right, writing to Pergamum.
(03:36):
From.
These are the words of him who has and wells the sharp two edged sword.
So who is this letter going to?
Pergamum, who is it being written from?
It is being written from the one, let me read it over here in this, in the NewInternational.
(03:59):
These are the words of him who has the sharp double edged sword.
So it's coming from the one who has the
the sharp double-edged sword.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter four.
Hebrews chapter four, verse 12.
What do we mean?
(04:19):
What does he mean by the sharp double-edged sword?
Hebrews chapter four, verse 12.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.
So when Jesus introduces himself to the church of Pergamum as a double-edged sword, whatis he introducing himself as?
(04:47):
He's introducing himself in Hebrews chapter four, verse 12, as the word of God.
And he is active, he is alive, and he is sharper than any double-edged sword.
The word is sharper.
The word of God,
is alive, the word of God is active, the word of God is sharper than any double-edgedsword.
(05:14):
has the ability to cut straight to the quick.
He gets straight to the issue.
Turn with me one more time to John chapter one, verse one.
Who is the word?
So we know when he introduces himself as a double-edged sword, what he's really saying is,I am the word.
(05:36):
Let's reinforce who the Word is.
We're gonna create this whole circle.
Here's Jesus writing a letter to the Church of Pergamum.
He introduces himself as the double-edged sword.
We just found out that the double-edged sword means the Word.
Well, who is the Word?
Turn with me again to John chapter one, verse one.
(05:56):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God.
in the beginning, the word gives him a proper pronoun of he and that the word was with Godand the word was God.
(06:17):
Drop down to verse 14, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
Who is John talking about?
Jesus.
So here we have in the book of Revelation,
talking the letter being sent to the Church of Pergamum from the double-edged sword.
(06:39):
The double-edged sword means what?
Hebrews just told us that it means the word.
Well, who is the word?
The word is Jesus.
There's your full circle right there, okay?
So Jesus says, I'm writing this letter to Church of Pergamum and it's coming from theword.
(07:00):
What do you use the word for?
We're going to see, the word can be used for many things, but what we're going to see inhis letter to the church of Pergamum, the word here will fight false doctrine.
How do you stop the synchronization of the church with the world?
Because we're talking about the worldly church who is in sync with the world, thecompromised church.
(07:26):
How do you fight the synchronization of the church with the world?
Jesus gives us the answer, the word.
When Jesus spoke to Satan, he didn't say, well, I think I feel I believe.
He certainly could have done that.
He is God and he is the word.
But each time when you read the word of God as he is interacting with Satan,
(07:51):
He says, well, the word of God says doesn't the word of God say the word of God is sopowerful that even Satan quotes that there's not one place in the Bible where you will see
Satan ever speaking where he says, well, I think I feel I believe instead he always startswith the word.
(08:12):
Well, did God really say, well, does the word really tell us this?
That are the third.
Now, of course, Satan being Satan, he twists
some vital portion of the word, but the word is so powerful that even the demonsrecognizes it, right?
So in Pergamum, the devil exercised tremendous sway, but let's get back to Revelationchapter two.
(08:38):
Let's continue to read the letter to the church of Pergamum.
And I'm reading out of the NIV.
To the angel of the church in Pergamum write, these are the words of him.
who has the sharp double-edged sword, talking about Jesus, talking about the word.
I know where you live, where Satan has his throne, yet you remain true to my name.
(09:04):
I like how the Amplify says that part.
I know where you live, a place where Satan sits enthroned, yet you are clinging to andholding fast to my name.
And you did not deny my faith, even in the days of antipas, my witness, my faithful onewho was killed or martyred in your midst where Satan dwells." He keeps saying, you're
(09:33):
living in the midst of Satan.
You're living where Satan is enthroned.
You're living where Satan dwells.
So this is literally hell on earth right now.
And Jesus said, you are living in the midst of hell.
Yet you are clinging to.
And that get that word in that you are clinging to and holding fast to my name and youhave not denied my faith.
(10:02):
Nevertheless, he says, so he says something positive now to the critic, to the critique.
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you.
You have some people there, not all of you, but you have some people in your midst.
who are clinging to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap and a stumblingblock before the sons of Israel to entice them to eat food that had been sacrificed to
(10:32):
idols and to practice lewdness or sexual immorality among themselves.
You also have some who in a similar way are clinging to the teaching of Nicolaitans.
Those corruptors are the people which things I hate.
Repent then or else I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of mymouth.
(11:02):
That's the word.
He's going to fight with the word.
Clue, you and I are to fight with the word.
He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed.
what the Spirit says to the churches, to him who overcomes or conquers, I will give to eatof the manna that is hidden.
(11:26):
And I will give him a white stone with a new name, a new identity engraved on it, thestone which no one knows or understands except he who receives it.
That is the letter to the church of Pergamum.
So again, we've already talked about extensively who the double-edged sword is.
(11:50):
This letter is going to Pergamum from the double-edged sword.
Who's the double-edged sword or what is the double-edged sword?
It is the word of God.
Well, who is the word of God?
John chapter one makes it very plain to us.
It is Jesus.
Not only is it Jesus, but it starts off with.
The word was with God, the word is God.
(12:11):
Drop down to verse 14.
The word took on flesh is Jesus.
This is how you fight what the church of Pergamum is contending with.
And what are they contending with right now?
They are in the midst of hell.
They are living where Satan is enthroned.
(12:34):
Satan sits high.
in the city of Pergamum and Satan rules the city of Pergamum and in this city areChristians, first century Christians.
Isn't that something that God did not say, let me take you out of hell.
Let me take you out of the city where Satan dwells and let me put you over here in themeadows with a bunch of daisies and everybody is just just skipping along in life.
(13:02):
No, he's like.
I recognize where you're living.
I'm not gonna tell you to get out of this situation.
I'm not gonna tell you I'm gonna take you out of this situation.
Instead, what I'm gonna tell you that you need to fight and you need to fight with theword.
So let's talk about Pergamum.
Let's put a spotlight on Pergamum.
Pergamum was a city literally that sat on top of a hill.
(13:28):
Who else sits on top of a hill?
The word of God says you and I, the church.
is a light on top of a hill.
Well, Pergamum was also a city that sat on top of a hill and it was known as the city ofscience, the city of intellectuals and the city of Satan.
(13:51):
Now it was known as the city of Satan because of how many gods, little G gods they hadthere.
They had a.
almost every temple you can think of, there was a temple there in Pergamum.
They had the temple of Dionysus, the temple of Trajan.
Trajan was actually an emperor who deified himself and had these statues of him made allthroughout the city.
(14:18):
And so the first century church was surrounded by...
This emperor who had now deified himself, calling himself Lord and Master of Land and Sea,kind of the same titles that belong to God.
Now this man, this emperor who had deified himself is walking around and requiring thatpeople acknowledge him as Lord and Master, erecting statues of himself all across the
(14:50):
city.
And so the first century church would have
ran into all of this.
The first century church would not have, they would not have been able to ignore all ofthese gods.
Kind of like how you are not allowed to ignore a man who was wearing a dress and wants tobe addressed as a woman.
(15:15):
You can try.
How difficult is it?
Have you misgendered anyone lately?
How willing are you?
to misgender, not because you're being me, but just because you will not bow down to thisGod of our imagination that is being erected all around us.
(15:37):
Likewise, here you have first century Christians who are walking in the midst of all ofthese little G gods that are requiring of them to acknowledge them.
Even if you don't acknowledge them,
outwardly, you better keep your mouth shut and you better just mind your own business,right?
(15:58):
But it's kind of hard to just mind your own business because not only were they erectingstatues all over the place and requiring people to acknowledge them as Lord and master
over land and sea, but you had the temple of Athena who was the bringer of victory.
You had the altar of Zeus, which was an enormous
(16:22):
altar, it was extremely huge and there were active sacrifices.
There was smoke everywhere.
Everyone was sacrificing something to one of these temples or one of these gods andbecause there were so many of these gods and temples, there was sacrifices that were
(16:43):
taking place all over the city.
So you were walking in the midst of this thick clas-
out of smoke of sacrifices, but it didn't stop there because then the meat that was beingsacrificed was then being turned around and sold to the marketplace.
So imagine as a first century Christian walking around with all of these gods that you areto give deference to, reverence to, and if you mentioned their name, you had to mention
(17:16):
it.
from the position of acknowledging that they are Lord or God, even their name meant thatvictory.
And so you're acknowledging, you have to acknowledge all of this.
It's just vernacular.
It's your language that is being spoken.
But now you have to walk around, your children are walking around with all of thesesacrifices that are taking place.
(17:41):
But now you have to eat unless you're eating organically.
Can you afford to eat organically?
because it was a very wealthy city, but the money was, as we saw with the Church ofSmyrna, withheld from the first century Christians.
So now they have to go buy food, and the food that they are purchasing is food that hasbeen sacrificed to one of these gods.
(18:06):
So now you see this, you understand this, your innocence is being pricked, kind of liketurning on television today.
And the moment a girl and a boy meet,
and there's just a little bit of spark, suddenly next scene they're in bed with oneanother.
Your innocence is being pricked, pricked, pricked away, chipped, chipped, chipped away.
(18:30):
Your children are watching this, growing up in this culture thinking that, well, hey, ifyou have any tingle or any kind of butterflies in the stomach of the same sex, of the
opposite sex, the natural...
conclusion is that 30 seconds later, you're in bed with that person, right?
(18:51):
So you're fighting against the pervasiveness of the culture that is telling you to do thevery opposite of what your conscious tells you to be true.
If you are a Christian, your conscious says, need to practice modesty.
I don't need to show everyone what I'm working with.
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I don't need to show every curve of my body.
where you're working against that.
Or the Bible says, I need to save myself for marriage.
I don't need to sleep around with any and everything at the whim of a fleeting feeling.
Where you're fighting against a culture that in music and television and movies andwriting and reading is telling you it's all about what you think.
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It's all about the moment.
Go with the flow, right?
Don't be a prude.
Where you're fighting
against a little bit of all of that.
And this is the world in which the first century church is walking in.
And this is the world in which Jesus is saying, you have been compromised.
And I have a problem with that.
So the first century Christians were living in Satan's kingdom.
(20:00):
They were immersed in Satan's kingdom.
They were surrounded by these Hellenistic gods and their influence.
And yet God is calling them
even in the midst of hell, even in the midst of Satan, God is calling them and he iscalling you and I, and he is calling the church of today to remain faithful, to persevere,
(20:26):
to push back against the pervasiveness of this hellified culture, push back timidity, pushback weakness, push back cowardice and stand and remain
Faithful.
Now, not only was the city of Pergamum known as the city of Satan, where Satan dwells andis in full command of everything, but it is also known as the city of science.
(20:57):
Kind of similar to Dr.
Fauci's science, but this was real science.
The world surrounding the first century Christians flocked to the city of Pergamum.
They had a
famous Roman physician, Galen, who was born there in Pergamum.
He was highly accomplished, highly accomplished medical researcher within the Roman world.
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And some of his surgical procedures are still seen today.
Like he successfully conducted the first cataract surgery and his described methods ofpreparing a clean operating room revealed a keen awareness of contagion.
And so
People acknowledged that this was cutting edge science back then.
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And so the Roman world flocked to Pergamum and it was known as the city, not only the cityof Satan, but the city of science.
Pergamum was on the cutting edge, an impregnable city.
In fact, it was so impregnable, it sat up on a hill and many of the kings in the Romanworld initially,
(22:07):
used Pergamum as a treasury.
this was their Federal Reserve Bank because they saw it as this impregnable, it would notbe overtaken kind of city up on a hill, that many kings put their money, their wealth,
they stored it there in the bank of Pergamum.
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It was a strategic location along both land and sea trading routes.
They were prosperous.
They were seemingly immune from the cares of most of the world at that time.
They were rich.
They were popular.
They were serious people.
They were self reliant.
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Now, the Achilles heel of them is that they tied their fate to the Roman world.
So when Rome fell, they too fell.
But you get the sense of the challenge for the first century church.
And it mirrors a lot of what you and I are contending with today.
The Church of Pergamum is a church that is married to the world.
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The synchronization of the world and the church is in full swing here.
Pergamum is the worldly church, the compromised church.
This is the church that Jesus said, I am going to fight against you.
You don't want God fighting against you, but he says, I'm going to fight against you.
(23:35):
Now out of, know, sin is sin, right?
There's no necessarily, you know, like one sin is I think once some sins are worse thanother sins, the Bible clearly shows that.
But my point of bringing this up is that it gets even worse.
So this worldly church is bad.
(23:56):
So bad, Jesus said, I'm gonna fight against you.
But there is a church that we're going to get to very shortly where Jesus said, you makeme vomit.
And there is nothing good that he finds with this church.
All of the churches he introduces, he says who he's writing the letter to, he introduceswho the letter is coming from.
(24:19):
And then he immediately go into...
This is what I find favorable about you.
But there's one church that we're going to get to where Jesus said, I find nothingfavorable about you.
You are horrible.
You're so horrible.
You make me sick to my stomach.
I want to vomit the moment I think about you.
And this church is really because this church was not hot nor cold.
(24:41):
It was a lukewarm church.
We're going to get to that church in a minute.
But here we find ourselves with Pergamum, the Church of Pergamum.
And Jesus says,
You are compromised.
You are worldly.
And I am going to fight against you.
They tolerate sin for the sake of getting along because, you know, it requires too much todo the opposite, to stand up in a culture.
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Think about where we live today.
Many of you are have resigned yourself to play along with the pronoun game that he, she,her, him.
pro now game on your bio, on Twitter or X or your social media platform.
You go along with when your job says you need to go to sensitivity training and you goalong, you play along, you smile, you shake your head.
(25:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You call the man wearing a dress with red lipstick and a beard a woman because you just goalong, right?
Because it's too much.
It's, you you don't want to be uncouth.
You don't want to be labeled as radical or a right winger.
You don't want your job disturbed.
You got to think about your children and how they're going to be impacted at school.
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You got to worry about your job and how you're going to pay your bill.
So it's just too much to stand against a culture that is literal hell.
And that is
ramming their will, their way, regardless of what you think and feel.
It takes a lot to stand up, erect in a culture like that and say, I see where this isgoing.
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I want no part of it.
I'm not going to play the the pro now game.
I'm not going to say.
that racism is everywhere and everything I see is racist.
I'm not going to virtue state.
No, I'm not going to put a Black Lives Matter sign in my yard because all my otherneighbors have a Black Lives Matter sign in their yard if I disagree with what the content
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of that organization is going to take a lot.
Right.
It's going to take a lot not to put a Ukraine sign in your profile just because everyoneelse has a Ukraine profile pic on their social media.
It's going to take a lot.
to stand up and say, disagree with some things here and I'm not comfortable with movingalong.
(27:10):
But this particular church, the Church of Pergamum, as well as you can look around and seemany churches today and many quote unquote Christians today, going along with the flow
because we wanna be tolerant, tolerant.
We want to just get along, right?
we're going to tolerate this sin, like even the word sin, like how often do you hearpeople call anything today a sin?
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Because it's just, you know, it's just weird to call things a sin.
Like you're so weird, you're so outdated, you're so prudish is how you're felt.
And who wants to feel that way?
This is what...
that Jesus says, this is the sin that I find in you.
This is what I find wrong about who you are.
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I appreciate the fact that you're living in literal hell right now.
Many of you are remaining faithful to me, but this is what I find wrong.
I find that you are not only tolerating sin, but you are teaching the world what to do toinfluence
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your brothers and sisters who are trying to remain faithful.
That's the reason why he brings up Balaam.
Balaam, you know, for all practical purposes, I'm gonna ask you guys on your own time toread Numbers chapter 22 through 25.
It's a very, it's a, it's an interesting story.
The story of Balaam who is paid money.
(28:44):
by the enemy of Israel to come and put a curse on Israel.
Now, although Balaam says, well, listen, I can only do what God tells me to do, but I willtake your money and I will come and I will try to put a curse on God's people, but I'm
only gonna do what God tells me to do, come to find out he cannot put a curse on God'speople.
But he took the money and then he was like, I'm gonna go on back over here with my people.
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But first I'm gonna teach you how to weaken the people so that God
can curse them.
Right now, they are strong in God.
They are strong in their commitment to God.
But the way you can break their relationship with God is if you get them to compromisethemselves sexually, if you dangle the bait of sexual immorality in front of them, then
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they will begin to cave into that sexual immorality.
which then will weaken their relationship, their strong relationship with God, which thenwill allow you to be able to put a curse on them and to overtake them.
And that's exactly what happened to the people.
Now, how did that apply to us?
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Well, you know, can't get a strong man to leave his family or to watch pornography, butlet's put in media those women who have no problems showing
every curve of their body.
Let's put him up on billboards.
Let's put him up on his phone.
Let's put this image of this scantily dressed woman in front of him.
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Every time he listens to Apple podcasts, let's put some seductive ad that pops up thathe's forced to listen to if he doesn't want commercials every five songs.
So if you want to be able to listen without
any commercials for the next 15 minutes, you gotta listen to this particular ad.
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And let's make sure that there's something perverse in this ad, something that pulls onthat human side that is within all of us.
Then eventually he will give in and that will weaken his resolve to be a man committed toone woman or a young girl committed to her virginity or committed
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to living a modest life.
You just keep putting in front of them on the billboards, on the newspapers, every timethey check out at the grocery store, put it on the cover of every magazine.
They have to eventually look at it, listen to it, and we're planting seeds for the future.
Even in our schools right now, let's begin at five years of age, teaching them how to giveeffective blow jobs to men.
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I am telling you no lie, those are the books that are in many of your children's schoolsright now.
I have looked at the books myself and it is literally showing a little boy how to give aneffective blowjob.
Yes, that is in your child's school right now.
Maybe they don't look at it this year.
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Maybe they don't look at it next year.
But it's not just that, it's the constant drip, drip, drip.
drip, drip until eventually there's a flood in the heart of your child and they begin tolook and pay attention.
And if not them, then their friends who is also a part of the drip that is telling them,stop being a prude, don't be a racist, don't be phobic, love, God is love.
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This is the world the first century church is inundated in.
This is the world you and I are now living in and God is saying.
I have this against you.
You become very worldly.
Christians are not being persecuted because they are Christians.
Christians, people who have a standard, who raise up a standard, are being persecutedbecause they won't just shut up, sit down, and go along.
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And because I refuse to say that a man is a woman,
It makes them feel judged.
That is the reason why.
They want us to feel like certain words like sin and wait in chastity.
I'm gonna wait until I get married before I have sex.
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They want us to feel like those are outdated terms because to do anything other to saythere is a standard, there is such a thing as truth makes them
feel judged.
And that is the reason why Christians who are standing outside of organizations likePlanned Parenthood are being locked up for three years in federal prison right now.
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That is a true statement.
And they're not touching anyone.
They're just assembling.
And now they're being told you are assembling illegally.
And as a result, we're going to charge you with three years in federal prison.
And this literally happened to a young black woman who is married, has a two year oldchild with her husband.
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The lady's name is Bevelin Williams.
Her and her husband, or her husband drove her to where she had to surrender herself tostart her three year federal prison term.
From my understanding,
She was charged with an illegal assembly.
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And for that, she gets three years in federal prison.
Yeah.
Now, is she being persecuted because she is a Christian?
No.
Get that out of your mind.
Nobody cares if you run around talking about you are Christian.
What they care about is that you begin to live like you're a Christian.
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That you begin to live as if you are a Christian.
Because then that lifestyle judges their lifestyle.
I do not believe Christians own truth.
We do not have the market cornered on truth.
But what I do believe is that truth exists.
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And I believe that it is our responsibility to seek out that truth and then to run towhere that truth is and to put a stake in the ground where that truth is and to hold
our position until better information comes along and then we uproot our state and we runafter truth, determined to plant our stake in the ground and to hold fast.
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That kind of Christian judges the one who just wants to live however they want to live.
And that is the synchronization to the culture that the first century church was temptedwith.
and is the synchronization, us synchronizing ourselves, the church and the world so thateveryone feels comfortable.
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Jesus says, that is a sin.
I find fault in that and I'm going to fight against you.
If given the chance, we will all gravitate towards sin.
That's why we must actively fight against it.
Hebrews chapter 12, again, says the word of God is active.
We have to actively fight against.
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synchronizing with the world.
I think that's our natural position.
Our natural inclination as humans is to swim with the current.
It's very unnatural to go against the current.
Now, what caused this sin?
Again, wanting to fit in, wanting to be accepted, wanting to be everything to everyone,looking for the easy path.
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Life is hard.
And it requires work and it's so much easier to just go along to get along.
But don't estimate sin, even a little sin, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
You can't put a little bit in and think it's not going to permeate and go everywhere.
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Do not be unaware of Satan's scheme.
He walks about
to and fro looking for someone to devour.
The word is very clear.
You give sin an inch, it will take over your entire life, but not just your life, but thelife of your children and your husband, your marriage, your job, everything that's
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connected to you, your reputation, it will take it all.
So adopting the world's priorities and the world's standards with what causes us to beginto compromise.
So what's the remedy?
Jesus says the remedy and his introduction of himself.
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It is the word.
The word is the remedy.
Can you be faithful in Satan's city?
Yes, you can.
Can you be faithful in the culture in which we find ourselves in today?
Absolutely.
It is the word.
It is hard work.
Freedom.
To be free and all of this meaning takes work, takes vigilance.
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Place God's word as the standard of your life.
It is not God's word and my opinion.
It's not God's word and my feelings.
It is not God's word and my thoughts I believe I want.
I think it is God's word.
Whatever God's word is, I'm gonna plant my stake there.
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and I'm going to hold on.
It is God's word and as such, I will do this or that.
But here's the warning to the first century church, which is the same warning that Ibelieve applies to us today.
If you do not get yourself together, if you do not get yourself in the word and spendingtime in the word and recognize you've been compromised.
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Recognize that you become very tolerant of the very things God says you should not betolerant towards.
This is your warning.
I am coming and I am going to fight against you.
Literally, he will war against you.
But to those who overcome, he says, I will give you a new identity.
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Not only will I give you the hidden manna, which was the food that they ate.
which is the word, Israelites in the wilderness, it was their food.
Christ said, I will give you not only the hidden manna, which is the word, which is as wesaw in John chapter one, Jesus, Jesus said, if you overcome this, if you fight this with
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the word, I will give you myself.
I will give you me.
But he said, not only that, I will give you a new name.
I will give you a new identity.
Can you imagine some of us have gone through so much living in literal hell.
Can you imagine the stains that have stained your garment, have stained all of ourgarments, how our mind has been stained, how the images that flash in front of us have
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been stained because we've way to a temptation to something.
He said, I will wash you clean and I will give you a new identity.
God is showing us his intimacy.
This is the church of Pergamum, the compromise, the worldly church.
Hello everyone, welcome back.
Today we're going to start with chapter two in the book of Revelation, looking at thethird church that Jesus wrote a letter to.
Today we're gonna talk about Pergamum, the compromised church.
So let's get into it.
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So if you've been walking with us through the Book of Revelation, again, you can look intothe show notes that should be below, and there are links that will take you back to our
initial overview of the Book of Revelation.
Then we moved right into Revelation chapter one.
Then we went on to talk about...
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the letters that Jesus wrote to the seven churches, starting with Revelation chapter two,looking at the very first church of Ephesus.
Ephesus is the church who lost their joy because they lost their first love.
Then we moved swiftly into the second church Jesus wrote a letter to, which was the churchof Smyrna.
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Smyrna is the persecuted church.
And there is no church that is so pure as the church that is under persecution becauseain't nobody got time to be playing around if they're not really committed to Christ when
persecution comes through those doors.
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That applies to the church.
That applies to us as individuals as well.
Today, we're going to look at the third church.
Jesus wrote a letter to you.
That is the Church of Pergamum.
This is
the worldly church, the compromised church.
And Jesus has some favorable things to say about the church, but in each of the letters,he also says what he's warning them against.
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There was only two churches out of the seven churches where Jesus had nothing critical tosay about them.
One of them was the persecuted church of Smyrna.
Today, we're gonna take a look at the church of Pergamum.
So let's start Revelation chapter two.
Let's start reading at verse 12.
And I am going to read it out of initially out of the amplified version because I justlike the emphasis that is being placed on some of the words here for us.
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So let's start Revelation chapter two, verse 12.
This is Jesus' letter to the church of Pergamum.
And remember each of these letters, he starts off with, this is who I'm writing to.
This is who the letter is coming from, followed by what he finds favorable because beforeyou can start critiquing someone, find something favorable if you can.
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And so Jesus uses that model, find something favorable about them, followed by, but thisis what I have a problem with, which then is followed by what causes this issue that he
has pointed out.
Swiftly going to what you need to do to change it.
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ending with why you need to change it because he's coming, he's coming back soon.
And when he comes, he's coming with his rewards and you're gonna want those rewards.
So let's start with looking at who the letter is written to and from.
Revelation chapter two, starting at verse 12, then to the angel or messenger of theassembly or church and Pergamum, right, writing to Pergamum.
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From.
These are the words of him who has and wells the sharp two edged sword.
So who is this letter going to?
Pergamum, who is it being written from?
It is being written from the one, let me read it over here in this, in the NewInternational.
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These are the words of him who has the sharp double edged sword.
So it's coming from the one who has the
the sharp double-edged sword.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter four.
Hebrews chapter four, verse 12.
What do we mean?
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What does he mean by the sharp double-edged sword?
Hebrews chapter four, verse 12.
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.
So when Jesus introduces himself to the church of Pergamum as a double-edged sword, whatis he introducing himself as?
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He's introducing himself in Hebrews chapter four, verse 12, as the word of God.
And he is active, he is alive, and he is sharper than any double-edged sword.
The word is sharper.
The word of God,
is alive, the word of God is active, the word of God is sharper than any double-edgedsword.
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has the ability to cut straight to the quick.
He gets straight to the issue.
Turn with me one more time to John chapter one, verse one.
Who is the word?
So we know when he introduces himself as a double-edged sword, what he's really saying is,I am the word.
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Let's reinforce who the Word is.
We're gonna create this whole circle.
Here's Jesus writing a letter to the Church of Pergamum.
He introduces himself as the double-edged sword.
We just found out that the double-edged sword means the Word.
Well, who is the Word?
Turn with me again to John chapter one, verse one.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God.
in the beginning, the word gives him a proper pronoun of he and that the word was with Godand the word was God.
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Drop down to verse 14, the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
Who is John talking about?
Jesus.
So here we have in the book of Revelation,
talking the letter being sent to the Church of Pergamum from the double-edged sword.
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The double-edged sword means what?
Hebrews just told us that it means the word.
Well, who is the word?
The word is Jesus.
There's your full circle right there, okay?
So Jesus says, I'm writing this letter to Church of Pergamum and it's coming from theword.
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What do you use the word for?
We're going to see, the word can be used for many things, but what we're going to see inhis letter to the church of Pergamum, the word here will fight false doctrine.
How do you stop the synchronization of the church with the world?
Because we're talking about the worldly church who is in sync with the world, thecompromised church.
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How do you fight the synchronization of the church with the world?
Jesus gives us the answer, the word.
When Jesus spoke to Satan, he didn't say, well, I think I feel I believe.
He certainly could have done that.
He is God and he is the word.
But each time when you read the word of God as he is interacting with Satan,
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He says, well, the word of God says doesn't the word of God say the word of God is sopowerful that even Satan quotes that there's not one place in the Bible where you will see
Satan ever speaking where he says, well, I think I feel I believe instead he always startswith the word.
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Well, did God really say, well, does the word really tell us this?
That are the third.
Now, of course, Satan being Satan, he twists
some vital portion of the word, but the word is so powerful that even the demonsrecognizes it, right?
So in Pergamum, the devil exercised tremendous sway, but let's get back to Revelationchapter two.
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Let's continue to read the letter to the church of Pergamum.
And I'm reading out of the NIV.
To the angel of the church in Pergamum write, these are the words of him.
who has the sharp double-edged sword, talking about Jesus, talking about the word.
I know where you live, where Satan has his throne, yet you remain true to my name.
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I like how the Amplify says that part.
I know where you live, a place where Satan sits enthroned, yet you are clinging to andholding fast to my name.
And you did not deny my faith, even in the days of antipas, my witness, my faithful onewho was killed or martyred in your midst where Satan dwells." He keeps saying, you're
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living in the midst of Satan.
You're living where Satan is enthroned.
You're living where Satan dwells.
So this is literally hell on earth right now.
And Jesus said, you are living in the midst of hell.
Yet you are clinging to.
And that get that word in that you are clinging to and holding fast to my name and youhave not denied my faith.
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Nevertheless, he says, so he says something positive now to the critic, to the critique.
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you.
You have some people there, not all of you, but you have some people in your midst.
who are clinging to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to set a trap and a stumblingblock before the sons of Israel to entice them to eat food that had been sacrificed to
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idols and to practice lewdness or sexual immorality among themselves.
You also have some who in a similar way are clinging to the teaching of Nicolaitans.
Those corruptors are the people which things I hate.
Repent then or else I will come to you quickly and fight against them with the sword of mymouth.
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That's the word.
He's going to fight with the word.
Clue, you and I are to fight with the word.
He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed.
what the Spirit says to the churches, to him who overcomes or conquers, I will give to eatof the manna that is hidden.
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And I will give him a white stone with a new name, a new identity engraved on it, thestone which no one knows or understands except he who receives it.
That is the letter to the church of Pergamum.
So again, we've already talked about extensively who the double-edged sword is.
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This letter is going to Pergamum from the double-edged sword.
Who's the double-edged sword or what is the double-edged sword?
It is the word of God.
Well, who is the word of God?
John chapter one makes it very plain to us.
It is Jesus.
Not only is it Jesus, but it starts off with.
The word was with God, the word is God.
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Drop down to verse 14.
The word took on flesh is Jesus.
This is how you fight what the church of Pergamum is contending with.
And what are they contending with right now?
They are in the midst of hell.
They are living where Satan is enthroned.
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Satan sits high.
in the city of Pergamum and Satan rules the city of Pergamum and in this city areChristians, first century Christians.
Isn't that something that God did not say, let me take you out of hell.
Let me take you out of the city where Satan dwells and let me put you over here in themeadows with a bunch of daisies and everybody is just just skipping along in life.
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No, he's like.
I recognize where you're living.
I'm not gonna tell you to get out of this situation.
I'm not gonna tell you I'm gonna take you out of this situation.
Instead, what I'm gonna tell you that you need to fight and you need to fight with theword.
So let's talk about Pergamum.
Let's put a spotlight on Pergamum.
Pergamum was a city literally that sat on top of a hill.
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Who else sits on top of a hill?
The word of God says you and I, the church.
is a light on top of a hill.
Well, Pergamum was also a city that sat on top of a hill and it was known as the city ofscience, the city of intellectuals and the city of Satan.
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Now it was known as the city of Satan because of how many gods, little G gods they hadthere.
They had a.
almost every temple you can think of, there was a temple there in Pergamum.
They had the temple of Dionysus, the temple of Trajan.
Trajan was actually an emperor who deified himself and had these statues of him made allthroughout the city.
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And so the first century church was surrounded by...
This emperor who had now deified himself, calling himself Lord and Master of Land and Sea,kind of the same titles that belong to God.
Now this man, this emperor who had deified himself is walking around and requiring thatpeople acknowledge him as Lord and Master, erecting statues of himself all across the
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city.
And so the first century church would have
ran into all of this.
The first century church would not have, they would not have been able to ignore all ofthese gods.
Kind of like how you are not allowed to ignore a man who was wearing a dress and wants tobe addressed as a woman.
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You can try.
How difficult is it?
Have you misgendered anyone lately?
How willing are you?
to misgender, not because you're being me, but just because you will not bow down to thisGod of our imagination that is being erected all around us.
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Likewise, here you have first century Christians who are walking in the midst of all ofthese little G gods that are requiring of them to acknowledge them.
Even if you don't acknowledge them,
outwardly, you better keep your mouth shut and you better just mind your own business,right?
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But it's kind of hard to just mind your own business because not only were they erectingstatues all over the place and requiring people to acknowledge them as Lord and master
over land and sea, but you had the temple of Athena who was the bringer of victory.
You had the altar of Zeus, which was an enormous
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altar, it was extremely huge and there were active sacrifices.
There was smoke everywhere.
Everyone was sacrificing something to one of these temples or one of these gods andbecause there were so many of these gods and temples, there was sacrifices that were
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taking place all over the city.
So you were walking in the midst of this thick clas-
out of smoke of sacrifices, but it didn't stop there because then the meat that was beingsacrificed was then being turned around and sold to the marketplace.
So imagine as a first century Christian walking around with all of these gods that you areto give deference to, reverence to, and if you mentioned their name, you had to mention
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it.
from the position of acknowledging that they are Lord or God, even their name meant thatvictory.
And so you're acknowledging, you have to acknowledge all of this.
It's just vernacular.
It's your language that is being spoken.
But now you have to walk around, your children are walking around with all of thesesacrifices that are taking place.
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But now you have to eat unless you're eating organically.
Can you afford to eat organically?
because it was a very wealthy city, but the money was, as we saw with the Church ofSmyrna, withheld from the first century Christians.
So now they have to go buy food, and the food that they are purchasing is food that hasbeen sacrificed to one of these gods.
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So now you see this, you understand this, your innocence is being pricked, kind of liketurning on television today.
And the moment a girl and a boy meet,
and there's just a little bit of spark, suddenly next scene they're in bed with oneanother.
Your innocence is being pricked, pricked, pricked away, chipped, chipped, chipped away.
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Your children are watching this, growing up in this culture thinking that, well, hey, ifyou have any tingle or any kind of butterflies in the stomach of the same sex, of the
opposite sex, the natural...
conclusion is that 30 seconds later, you're in bed with that person, right?
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So you're fighting against the pervasiveness of the culture that is telling you to do thevery opposite of what your conscious tells you to be true.
If you are a Christian, your conscious says, need to practice modesty.
I don't need to show everyone what I'm working with.
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I don't need to show every curve of my body.
where you're working against that.
Or the Bible says, I need to save myself for marriage.
I don't need to sleep around with any and everything at the whim of a fleeting feeling.
Where you're fighting against a culture that in music and television and movies andwriting and reading is telling you it's all about what you think.
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It's all about the moment.
Go with the flow, right?
Don't be a prude.
Where you're fighting
against a little bit of all of that.
And this is the world in which the first century church is walking in.
And this is the world in which Jesus is saying, you have been compromised.
And I have a problem with that.
So the first century Christians were living in Satan's kingdom.
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They were immersed in Satan's kingdom.
They were surrounded by these Hellenistic gods and their influence.
And yet God is calling them
even in the midst of hell, even in the midst of Satan, God is calling them and he iscalling you and I, and he is calling the church of today to remain faithful, to persevere,
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to push back against the pervasiveness of this hellified culture, push back timidity, pushback weakness, push back cowardice and stand and remain
Faithful.
Now, not only was the city of Pergamum known as the city of Satan, where Satan dwells andis in full command of everything, but it is also known as the city of science.
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Kind of similar to Dr.
Fauci's science, but this was real science.
The world surrounding the first century Christians flocked to the city of Pergamum.
They had a
famous Roman physician, Galen, who was born there in Pergamum.
He was highly accomplished, highly accomplished medical researcher within the Roman world.
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And some of his surgical procedures are still seen today.
Like he successfully conducted the first cataract surgery and his described methods ofpreparing a clean operating room revealed a keen awareness of contagion.
And so
People acknowledged that this was cutting edge science back then.
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And so the Roman world flocked to Pergamum and it was known as the city, not only the cityof Satan, but the city of science.
Pergamum was on the cutting edge, an impregnable city.
In fact, it was so impregnable, it sat up on a hill and many of the kings in the Romanworld initially,
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used Pergamum as a treasury.
this was their Federal Reserve Bank because they saw it as this impregnable, it would notbe overtaken kind of city up on a hill, that many kings put their money, their wealth,
they stored it there in the bank of Pergamum.
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It was a strategic location along both land and sea trading routes.
They were prosperous.
They were seemingly immune from the cares of most of the world at that time.
They were rich.
They were popular.
They were serious people.
They were self reliant.
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Now, the Achilles heel of them is that they tied their fate to the Roman world.
So when Rome fell, they too fell.
But you get the sense of the challenge for the first century church.
And it mirrors a lot of what you and I are contending with today.
The Church of Pergamum is a church that is married to the world.
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The synchronization of the world and the church is in full swing here.
Pergamum is the worldly church, the compromised church.
This is the church that Jesus said, I am going to fight against you.
You don't want God fighting against you, but he says, I'm going to fight against you.
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Now out of, know, sin is sin, right?
There's no necessarily, you know, like one sin is I think once some sins are worse thanother sins, the Bible clearly shows that.
But my point of bringing this up is that it gets even worse.
So this worldly church is bad.
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So bad, Jesus said, I'm gonna fight against you.
But there is a church that we're going to get to very shortly where Jesus said, you makeme vomit.
And there is nothing good that he finds with this church.
All of the churches he introduces, he says who he's writing the letter to, he introduceswho the letter is coming from.
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And then he immediately go into...
This is what I find favorable about you.
But there's one church that we're going to get to where Jesus said, I find nothingfavorable about you.
You are horrible.
You're so horrible.
You make me sick to my stomach.
I want to vomit the moment I think about you.
And this church is really because this church was not hot nor cold.
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It was a lukewarm church.
We're going to get to that church in a minute.
But here we find ourselves with Pergamum, the Church of Pergamum.
And Jesus says,
You are compromised.
You are worldly.
And I am going to fight against you.
They tolerate sin for the sake of getting along because, you know, it requires too much todo the opposite, to stand up in a culture.
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Think about where we live today.
Many of you are have resigned yourself to play along with the pronoun game that he, she,her, him.
pro now game on your bio, on Twitter or X or your social media platform.
You go along with when your job says you need to go to sensitivity training and you goalong, you play along, you smile, you shake your head.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You call the man wearing a dress with red lipstick and a beard a woman because you just goalong, right?
Because it's too much.
It's, you you don't want to be uncouth.
You don't want to be labeled as radical or a right winger.
You don't want your job disturbed.
You got to think about your children and how they're going to be impacted at school.
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You got to worry about your job and how you're going to pay your bill.
So it's just too much to stand against a culture that is literal hell.
And that is
ramming their will, their way, regardless of what you think and feel.
It takes a lot to stand up, erect in a culture like that and say, I see where this isgoing.
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I want no part of it.
I'm not going to play the the pro now game.
I'm not going to say.
that racism is everywhere and everything I see is racist.
I'm not going to virtue state.
No, I'm not going to put a Black Lives Matter sign in my yard because all my otherneighbors have a Black Lives Matter sign in their yard if I disagree with what the content
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of that organization is going to take a lot.
Right.
It's going to take a lot not to put a Ukraine sign in your profile just because everyoneelse has a Ukraine profile pic on their social media.
It's going to take a lot.
to stand up and say, disagree with some things here and I'm not comfortable with movingalong.
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But this particular church, the Church of Pergamum, as well as you can look around and seemany churches today and many quote unquote Christians today, going along with the flow
because we wanna be tolerant, tolerant.
We want to just get along, right?
we're going to tolerate this sin, like even the word sin, like how often do you hearpeople call anything today a sin?
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Because it's just, you know, it's just weird to call things a sin.
Like you're so weird, you're so outdated, you're so prudish is how you're felt.
And who wants to feel that way?
This is what...
that Jesus says, this is the sin that I find in you.
This is what I find wrong about who you are.
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I appreciate the fact that you're living in literal hell right now.
Many of you are remaining faithful to me, but this is what I find wrong.
I find that you are not only tolerating sin, but you are teaching the world what to do toinfluence
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your brothers and sisters who are trying to remain faithful.
That's the reason why he brings up Balaam.
Balaam, you know, for all practical purposes, I'm gonna ask you guys on your own time toread Numbers chapter 22 through 25.
It's a very, it's a, it's an interesting story.
The story of Balaam who is paid money.
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by the enemy of Israel to come and put a curse on Israel.
Now, although Balaam says, well, listen, I can only do what God tells me to do, but I willtake your money and I will come and I will try to put a curse on God's people, but I'm
only gonna do what God tells me to do, come to find out he cannot put a curse on God'speople.
But he took the money and then he was like, I'm gonna go on back over here with my people.
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But first I'm gonna teach you how to weaken the people so that God
can curse them.
Right now, they are strong in God.
They are strong in their commitment to God.
But the way you can break their relationship with God is if you get them to compromisethemselves sexually, if you dangle the bait of sexual immorality in front of them, then
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they will begin to cave into that sexual immorality.
which then will weaken their relationship, their strong relationship with God, which thenwill allow you to be able to put a curse on them and to overtake them.
And that's exactly what happened to the people.
Now, how did that apply to us?
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Well, you know, can't get a strong man to leave his family or to watch pornography, butlet's put in media those women who have no problems showing
every curve of their body.
Let's put him up on billboards.
Let's put him up on his phone.
Let's put this image of this scantily dressed woman in front of him.
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Every time he listens to Apple podcasts, let's put some seductive ad that pops up thathe's forced to listen to if he doesn't want commercials every five songs.
So if you want to be able to listen without
any commercials for the next 15 minutes, you gotta listen to this particular ad.
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And let's make sure that there's something perverse in this ad, something that pulls onthat human side that is within all of us.
Then eventually he will give in and that will weaken his resolve to be a man committed toone woman or a young girl committed to her virginity or committed
(31:07):
to living a modest life.
You just keep putting in front of them on the billboards, on the newspapers, every timethey check out at the grocery store, put it on the cover of every magazine.
They have to eventually look at it, listen to it, and we're planting seeds for the future.
Even in our schools right now, let's begin at five years of age, teaching them how to giveeffective blow jobs to men.
(31:36):
I am telling you no lie, those are the books that are in many of your children's schoolsright now.
I have looked at the books myself and it is literally showing a little boy how to give aneffective blowjob.
Yes, that is in your child's school right now.
Maybe they don't look at it this year.
(31:56):
Maybe they don't look at it next year.
But it's not just that, it's the constant drip, drip, drip.
drip, drip until eventually there's a flood in the heart of your child and they begin tolook and pay attention.
And if not them, then their friends who is also a part of the drip that is telling them,stop being a prude, don't be a racist, don't be phobic, love, God is love.
(32:25):
This is the world the first century church is inundated in.
This is the world you and I are now living in and God is saying.
I have this against you.
You become very worldly.
Christians are not being persecuted because they are Christians.
Christians, people who have a standard, who raise up a standard, are being persecutedbecause they won't just shut up, sit down, and go along.
(32:58):
And because I refuse to say that a man is a woman,
It makes them feel judged.
That is the reason why.
They want us to feel like certain words like sin and wait in chastity.
I'm gonna wait until I get married before I have sex.
(33:20):
They want us to feel like those are outdated terms because to do anything other to saythere is a standard, there is such a thing as truth makes them
feel judged.
And that is the reason why Christians who are standing outside of organizations likePlanned Parenthood are being locked up for three years in federal prison right now.
(33:48):
That is a true statement.
And they're not touching anyone.
They're just assembling.
And now they're being told you are assembling illegally.
And as a result, we're going to charge you with three years in federal prison.
And this literally happened to a young black woman who is married, has a two year oldchild with her husband.
(34:12):
The lady's name is Bevelin Williams.
Her and her husband, or her husband drove her to where she had to surrender herself tostart her three year federal prison term.
From my understanding,
She was charged with an illegal assembly.
(34:35):
And for that, she gets three years in federal prison.
Yeah.
Now, is she being persecuted because she is a Christian?
No.
Get that out of your mind.
Nobody cares if you run around talking about you are Christian.
What they care about is that you begin to live like you're a Christian.
(34:57):
That you begin to live as if you are a Christian.
Because then that lifestyle judges their lifestyle.
I do not believe Christians own truth.
We do not have the market cornered on truth.
But what I do believe is that truth exists.
(35:17):
And I believe that it is our responsibility to seek out that truth and then to run towhere that truth is and to put a stake in the ground where that truth is and to hold
our position until better information comes along and then we uproot our state and we runafter truth, determined to plant our stake in the ground and to hold fast.
(35:42):
That kind of Christian judges the one who just wants to live however they want to live.
And that is the synchronization to the culture that the first century church was temptedwith.
and is the synchronization, us synchronizing ourselves, the church and the world so thateveryone feels comfortable.
(36:03):
Jesus says, that is a sin.
I find fault in that and I'm going to fight against you.
If given the chance, we will all gravitate towards sin.
That's why we must actively fight against it.
Hebrews chapter 12, again, says the word of God is active.
We have to actively fight against.
(36:25):
synchronizing with the world.
I think that's our natural position.
Our natural inclination as humans is to swim with the current.
It's very unnatural to go against the current.
Now, what caused this sin?
Again, wanting to fit in, wanting to be accepted, wanting to be everything to everyone,looking for the easy path.
(36:50):
Life is hard.
And it requires work and it's so much easier to just go along to get along.
But don't estimate sin, even a little sin, a little leaven leavens the whole lump.
You can't put a little bit in and think it's not going to permeate and go everywhere.
(37:16):
Do not be unaware of Satan's scheme.
He walks about
to and fro looking for someone to devour.
The word is very clear.
You give sin an inch, it will take over your entire life, but not just your life, but thelife of your children and your husband, your marriage, your job, everything that's
(37:38):
connected to you, your reputation, it will take it all.
So adopting the world's priorities and the world's standards with what causes us to beginto compromise.
So what's the remedy?
Jesus says the remedy and his introduction of himself.
(38:01):
It is the word.
The word is the remedy.
Can you be faithful in Satan's city?
Yes, you can.
Can you be faithful in the culture in which we find ourselves in today?
Absolutely.
It is the word.
It is hard work.
Freedom.
To be free and all of this meaning takes work, takes vigilance.
(38:28):
Place God's word as the standard of your life.
It is not God's word and my opinion.
It's not God's word and my feelings.
It is not God's word and my thoughts I believe I want.
I think it is God's word.
Whatever God's word is, I'm gonna plant my stake there.
(38:48):
and I'm going to hold on.
It is God's word and as such, I will do this or that.
But here's the warning to the first century church, which is the same warning that Ibelieve applies to us today.
If you do not get yourself together, if you do not get yourself in the word and spendingtime in the word and recognize you've been compromised.
(39:15):
Recognize that you become very tolerant of the very things God says you should not betolerant towards.
This is your warning.
I am coming and I am going to fight against you.
Literally, he will war against you.
But to those who overcome, he says, I will give you a new identity.
(39:38):
Not only will I give you the hidden manna, which was the food that they ate.
which is the word, Israelites in the wilderness, it was their food.
Christ said, I will give you not only the hidden manna, which is the word, which is as wesaw in John chapter one, Jesus, Jesus said, if you overcome this, if you fight this with
(40:03):
the word, I will give you myself.
I will give you me.
But he said, not only that, I will give you a new name.
I will give you a new identity.
Can you imagine some of us have gone through so much living in literal hell.
Can you imagine the stains that have stained your garment, have stained all of ourgarments, how our mind has been stained, how the images that flash in front of us have
(40:35):
been stained because we've way to a temptation to something.
He said, I will wash you clean and I will give you a new identity.
God is showing us his intimacy.
This is the church of Pergamum, the compromise, the worldly church.
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