Pergamum

Tom Shrader addresses the third letter to the seven churches, examining Jesus' message to Pergamum - a church that held fast to Christ's name but allowed compromise to creep in through false teaching. He emphasizes how the Word of God, described as sharper than any two-edged sword, is the answer to doctrinal compromise and spiritual drift that happens gradually in both churches and individual lives.

“There's no force on the planet more powerful than when the Word of God is applied by the Spirit of God to the heart and mind of a man or woman of God.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: The 7 Churches (2010)

Recorded: 2010 at Cannon Beach Conference Center

Duration: 51 min

Themes: compromise, faithfulness, false teaching, scripture, truth, holiness, perseverance, discernment, church leader, pastor, struggling with compromise, facing false teaching, new believer, elder, navigating doctrinal issues, spiritual drift

Scripture: Revelation 2:12-17, Hebrews 4:12, Numbers 22-25, 1 John 2:22, 1 John 4:2, Galatians 1:8, John 6, Ephesians 6

Theological Themes: biblical authority, doctrinal purity, ecclesiology, church health, spiritual warfare, sanctification, word of god, apostolic letters

Full Transcript

That is just really good. You know it's funny, I think in some instances, I don't know how different churches do it, at our place we don't ever try to coordinate the music and the message. I know a lot of churches spend literally hours planning that stuff and I have absolutely nothing wrong with that. We don't do that. And it's amazing how often God just kind of puts stuff together. And it feels to me like Mila just hit a chord, no pun intended, with the music in terms of there's a solemnness to it.

I told Susan when we were flying up, normally when you come to a conference, I'll just tell you this, I don't care who you are, when you're speaking you want to be light. And that's no flash photography. How many times are we going to go through this? Oh you weren't here. I explained all this once before. Okay, just teasing. But part of that is, in a situation like this, is just having fun and laughing and doing this. And you go, okay, I really like them on the last part. And I told Susan, this may be a series that I've done that has so few yucks in it, but yet it's so real too. So I'm really grateful for you hanging in with it, because this is kind of heavy sledding. I get it, you come here to have fun and to enjoy yourself and I just pray in the midst of it, God really blesses it and uses the time.

Conference Announcements and Encouragements

Let me add one thing to Jeff's announcements. How many of you have not seen the movie that kind of chronicles the finding and the establishment of Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center? Let me just, I'm going to, it's not necessarily, I don't mean this critically, it's not the greatest cinematography in the history of the planet. Okay, it's not the most professionally produced, but it is such a powerful story. I'll bet I've seen that movie a half a dozen times and read the book that corresponds with it as well. I doubt I'll see it tomorrow, but let me encourage you who haven't seen it to be in the room tomorrow. If you have children, you can drop them off at 9:45.

You need to see that movie just to be reminded how God works. I mean, it's just a wonderful story about how God uses really committed people. And every time we read the book, you listen to the movie, you're just stunned at how God provided this place for us to be here today. So let me really encourage you. I'll try to remember to remind you at the end of the night.

Then there's one other thing. I don't do it in any way to embarrass him, but Mila and I have worked together, I don't know, three, four, five times. I don't know. And I love to listen to him. I love the original stuff that he does. But the first time ever, Susan and I were sitting here, Mila was playing, and I said to Susan, this is driving me crazy. He reminds me of somebody. So do you mind coming up? And I mean, this was driving me nuts. And I mean, it's driving. I'm going, this guy reminds me. I know I know him. I know I can. I know it. I know it. I know it.

Finally, after the second session, I went up to him and I said, I know who you are. Okay, tell him. Just sing it. Just sing it. Have a holly jolly Christmas. It's the best time of the year. I love it. I just love it. And once he sang it for me, it was out of my mind and I could focus. But the first time we were together, I drove me crazy. And I kept saying, Susan, who does he remind you of? Who does he remind you of? So I love that. Thanks for doing that. I know. But doesn't that fit? And then when you did special music the first night here, the first song you sang, you sang very much like it, like Boyer lives. And I thought, oh my gosh, this is going to be great. So thanks for doing that for me. Even if they don't care, I loved it. So I put it all together.

Behind the Scenes

Open your Bibles, if you will. I'm going to, if you ever watch like a show, like behind the scenes on Disneyland or you see something, you've got all the characters and they never let them out from behind the screen unless they're in character. And when they're in character, they have to act. And you never get to see what goes on behind the scenes. I'm going to take you behind the scenes of this weekend for me.

And when I got here, like I said, I've been on vacation. And the girl that's my admin, she's just terrific, she's been on vacation too. So I had one of our other staff, kind of a volunteer type staff, and I said, listen, I'm going to Cannon Beach. I have these files on the seven churches because I'm going to teach the seven churches in the fall. So I've done a bunch of research and I've got these things in files. Will you copy those files for me, put them in, organize them in files, clip them together, and then I'll take them with me. So I just grabbed them and came up.

When I got here, what I discovered is I don't have any of the files that I need to teach four or five of the seven churches. So like today, when you were out on the beach having fun, eating taffy, taking a nap, I was working really hard to recreate some of these things. So I really appreciate your patience in the middle of this.

I'm going to tell you, here's my strategy always when I come to Cannon Beach. I try to make the morning session a little bit longer than the evening session. You're a little fresher in the morning than at night. We're a little tired. Kids are tired. You've eaten. So attention span tends to be a little more narrow. And then the other thing is on Sunday morning, Jeff and the staff invite the guests from all throughout the city here. So tomorrow morning there will be people who will just drop in for one session tomorrow. So we'll do a little bit more of kind of a review tomorrow. Also, we've got six sessions and seven churches, so I'm still trying to figure out exactly how that's going to work. So this is exciting, isn't it? I know, you're going, you didn't have to tell us that.

The Nature of Revelation

I can tell you don't know what you're doing up there. This is a special revelation. We saw that in chapter one, verse one, that Jesus gives to John. The word revelation means unveiling, disclosing. The primary character of the book of Revelation is Jesus Himself.

He's going to talk about His coming again and end times and the restoration, setting up the new kingdom. And that's what we wait for. We can't wait till this is redeemed and restored. This will be put in a place where sin no longer exists. There is no tear. And bigger than anything else, we'll be with Jesus and in His presence forever.

Living as Sinful People in a Fallen World

But till then we labor. Until then we live in a fallen world with fallen people. So even in an organization that's committed and devoted to Christ like the church, it's still led by, driven by sinful people. So I sin and our staff sins and the people in our church sin. And that makes for real difficulty.

We want to be in truth and we want to be in love and we're in grace. And yet we're dealing with sin. It's not a science. It's an art. And all of us are wounded in different ways.

I know people who just are every jot and every tittle. And what does it mean? And they'll spend hours and hours and hours unpacking and devoting one single verse. And then there's others who will go, I don't know. I love Jesus. Yes, I do. I love Jesus. How about you? Those are very frustrating people, by the way. But then there's that group of people too. And then they come together and there is this thing called the church.

The Dominant Tendencies in Churches

Here's my observation, though. Every church body has different types of people. There tends to be a dominant majority in a church. So either the grace people or the truth people tend to dominate within a body. The love people or the judgment people.

So what Jesus is doing is He addresses these seven churches. Again, remind you, we'll do it seven times. These are actual historic churches that He writes. He writes in that kind of general pattern. We saw it this morning. We see it in this case, in this letter that we had before. It's a perfect example where He identifies the recipient of strength, a weakness, an action, a promise.

The Church at Ephesus: Orthodox but Loveless

So He comes to the church at Ephesus and He says, here's the deal with you guys. It's really cool. You work hard. You persevere. You have discernment. But here's the problem. You lost your first love. You're orthodox. You're pit bulls orthodox. But you have no love.

Somebody came in this morning. And this is just a great illustration. The person was saying to me, you know, in the morning I like to do my reading. I have it set out. I have to get through this reading. And he said, I was just observing myself this morning. I was more driven by getting through the reading than understanding what the reading was saying to me.

So we can get that way, right? I'm going to do my daily devotion every day. By the way, Susan's not here tonight. So I have no problem talking about her. It's easier to talk about when she's not here. But she has stacks of devotionals, daily devotionals. And I'll be really honest. She would be too. She's never gotten into any until this year.

The Danger of Making Good Things into Idols

Somebody gave her a daily devotional titled Jesus Calling. Are you familiar with that? I'm telling you, whatever's in this thing has just lit her on fire. She got a copy for each of the girls. The girls are going through it not only on their own but with their husbands. I downloaded it onto my iPad. So every day I'll take a section and kind of... It's stupid. She's in the next room. I could talk to her. But I'll email her a section of this and go, what do you think of this? And it's just our way of... But whatever that devotional is, dozens of them. I have purchased unknowingly dozens of this Jesus Calling book.

But you can make that an idol. Just get through it. September 4th, here's what it says. I've got to get through it. And I want to be able to check it off even if I don't know exactly what it means.

We are incurably idol worshipers. We will take something, even something that's good, and turn it into an idol. And there's nothing that Satan would love more, we see that in the church at Ephesus, than to have us take the Bible and worship the Bible. We don't worship the Bible. We don't worship the Word of God. We worship the God of the Word. We're very grateful for the book. But the book can get in the way if we don't let it point us to Christ.

The Church at Smyrna: The Suffering Church

And then He goes to Smyrna. And we say that's the only church where He doesn't point out a weakness. And they're the suffering church. So we talked about suffering this morning. Talked about the inevitability of it. And God's provision for it. And He indeed is an everlasting God. He doesn't faint, He doesn't grow weary. We may tire, but He lifts us up.

The Church at Pergamum: The Compromised Church

Well, we look at the church at Pergamos, or Pergamum, tonight. And we're going to see that they are the compromised church. It is the, I think, this is the one that's the longest of the letters.

Let's look at it, verse 12: "To the angel of the church at Pergamos, write these things, says He." And always as Jesus identifies Himself, we get a little tip, or kind of a preview of what He's going to be talking about. What He's dealing with in terms of a weakness. "He who has the sharp two-edged sword."

"I know your works, and where you dwell is where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and do not deny My faith, even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where the devil or Satan dwells. Because I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold to the doctrine of Balaam." And just insert there, what He's saying is there's kind of a subset within the church that's compromised. And obviously the threat is the whole body becomes compromised.

"Who taught Balak, and put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and commit sexual

The Church at Pergamum

Verse 15: "Thus you also have those who hold to the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a name written, which no one knows except him who receives it."

The general patterns are followed perfectly in this letter. The recipient is the angel of the church at Pergamum. Again, that is the person, the lead elder, the teaching pastor. It's the person who would receive the letter, recite it, and read it to those that are there. We don't know exactly who that person is.

The Magnificent City of Pergamum

Let me tell you a little bit about this city. Pergamum was known for its natural beauty. It was seated on a hill and so it had natural defenses around it. It was a famous city and was the capital of Asia Minor. One of the old Greeks called it "the most illustrious city of Asia."

Sir William Ramsey wrote, "A royal city beyond all others in Asia Minor. It gives the traveler the impression of a royal city, the home of authority. The rocky hill on which it stands is so huge and dominates the plains and speaks so boldly and so proudly."

Pergamum had the second largest library in the world - 200,000 volumes. Think about that again, without a printing press, obviously. And something else: they didn't have papyrus. The Egyptians, for whatever reason, decided that they would not ship it to them anymore. So necessity being the mother of invention, they invented parchment. They had 200,000 volumes, until Mark Antony at one point took captive this library and presented it to Cleopatra.

A Wealthy Pagan Center

It was a wealthy city, second only in terms of wealth to Ephesus. It was a pagan city. It was the first province to build a temple to a living emperor, to Caesar in 29 BC. There were huge temples, including one to Asclepius, who was the god of medicine and cures.

This temple that was built to him had no furniture in it. It led down a hallway into a giant room with no furniture, but this is where you went to get cured. It was filled with snakes. I think the prospect of it cured a lot of people. What they would do is take you in and lay you on the ground, and as the snake bit you, that was considered a touch from God, and that was the healing. This god was called "the Savior."

It was a Greek city filled with culture and philosophy and music and arts and theater. But here's what we read: the challenge in this church was that it was compromised. The doctrine was compromised.

God's Sovereign Placement

"I know your works. I know where you dwell." That word in verse 13, "dwell," means to live permanently. I know where you reside. And He's not saying, by the way, that He wants to get you out of there. So often our prayer is, "God, get us out of here." And He's saying, "No, I know where you are. I have you there for a reason. I have you there for a purpose. I understand how difficult it is."

We talk a lot at our church about this thing called the sovereignty of God. We're big on the sovereignty of God, not just as it relates to our salvation - God bringing us into His kingdom - but God orchestrating our lives. He's sovereign in our lives. He put you in the family you're in. He made you and created you just the way you are.

You may not like it. You may wish you were six inches taller and 80 pounds lighter. You may wish you had beautiful red hair and white skin, or you may wish you were Asian, or you may wish you were African American. You may wish you had gifts and talents. It's impossible for me to sit there and watch Colleen play and Mila and to watch the musicians and not go, "I wish I could do that," but I can't. I can't sing. If I sat down and started to play, that would be great. If I had to practice, no, I'm not going to do that.

Contentment Where You Are

It might not be talent. It may be circumstances. It doesn't matter. We have this tendency to spend our life wishing we were something other than we are, wishing we were somewhere other than we are.

I watched a documentary not too long ago about Woody Allen. Woody Allen is a very good clarinet player, a jazz player, and he had his band, and he was taking his band through Europe. It was just a lot of Dixieland and a lot of jazz, but it was behind the scenes with Woody Allen. He's just kind of a mess. He's standing, I think it was in Venice, on the balcony of his hotel room, speaking to one of his friends, and he says, "It's funny, when I'm in New York, I want to be in Venice, and when I'm in Venice, I want to be in New York. It seems like I want to be wherever I'm not."

That's kind of how we are. And He says, "No, I know where you dwell. I know it may not have been the place you selected, but it's right where I want you."

Holding Fast to the Truth

Here's what I like. See two things in there? "You hold fast to My name, and you don't deny My faith." You hold fast to this. John writes these words - this same author of this letter - a little earlier in 1 John 2:22: "Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ?"

A little later, same book, chapter 4:2: "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus is the Christ, and He's come in flesh from God."

Paul's writing to the church at Galatia, and he makes an extraordinary statement. Here's what he says, Galatians 1:8: "And even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we've preached to you, he is accursed. As we have said before, so I say to you again, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you've received, he is accursed."

Here is the gospel of Christ. Be on the lookout. That's what He's saying.

I know your deeds. I know where you are. I know that you were faithful. I know you've hung in here. He mentions in chapter 2, verse 13, this guy Antipas that was martyred. We don't know anything about him. It's the only mention that we get here. Tradition says that he was a faithful witness. They put him inside of a brass calf and roasted him. But he was a faithful martyr, similar to what we looked at this morning with Polycarp.

The Two-Edged Sword

Now, when Jesus identifies Himself, and He's setting this up for this discussion with this church at Pergamon, He says in verse 12, "I'm the one who has the two-edged sword." When you hear that phrase, the two-edged sword, what do you think of? See, if you've been around for a while, your brain goes to Hebrews chapter 4, where the author of Hebrews says this: "The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword."

So here's what He's coming at them with. He said, "You have been faithful. You have held to the truth. You know My name. You don't deny faith." So that's good. But there's this group in there. We'll talk about them specifically in a minute in terms of what they're doing. But they're challenging. They're bringing in compromise.

So what's the answer to this? What's the answer to this false doctrine? What's the answer to this compromise? Well, it's the word of God.

The Power of God's Word

Here's what the Bible is. The word of God, Hebrews 4:12, "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing as far as the division of the soul and the spirit, joints and marrow, it's able to judge the intentions and the thoughts of your heart, and no creature is hidden from its sight, and all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." It's the word of God. You can't fool it. You can't hide from it. Sharper than any two-edged sword. It exposes you.

There is no force on the planet more powerful—not a tsunami, not a hurricane, not an army. There's no force on the planet more powerful than when the word of God is applied by the Spirit of God to the heart and mind of a man or woman of God. So what we come back to again and again and again is we want to have informed minds that lead to a transformed heart that produce a radical life. And the word of God does that.

We can fool each other, but we can't fool God. And when God's Spirit applies that word to your heart, isn't it amazing?

A Personal Encounter with God's Word

That was my first encounter really with the Spirit of God in a Bible. I walked into a Bible study, not a Christian at all. My friends from work went to the study, but none of them ever invited me to the study. I asked them afterwards, "Why did you not invite me?" And they said, "It never occurred to us that God would save a guy like you." That's what a mess I was.

And I sat down, and there was probably a room of about 30 men, and there was a guy by the name of Larry Wright who was teaching. Larry opened the Word and began to teach, and it's as though the 29 other guys faded away. If it was like a television show, I would have been really clear on this video. Everything else was fuzzy, and it's as though it was just Larry and me in this room, and he was talking to me, and the Spirit of God was applying that word to my heart.

I didn't know Christ. I went back to my office. I tell this story everywhere I go, so I'm sure I've told it every time I've been here. I went back to my office literally shaking. I got out the phone book. I went to the W's for Wright. There were Larry's and Lawrence's all over. I called the number. I said, "Is there any chance you either taught or know the guy that taught a Bible study this morning at Phoenix Country Club?" And he said, "Yeah, that's me."

That's that experience that you can have when that Word of God comes, and it just opens you, and you can't hide from it. I can hide from Jeff. I can hide from Mila. I can hide from Susan. I can't hide from God.

The Word Exposes Hearts

I'm teaching one Wednesday night. I've just always taught. Once God saved me, and then after about three and a half years, I started teaching in different settings. My philosophy was I went everywhere. I've spoken to groups. I was telling this story the other day. I got contacted by a church. They wanted to do an outreach dinner, and so I was going to be the outreach speaker. I got there, and the guy who called me, who was promoting the dinner, he and his son were there, and they were the only two that showed up. So I figured based on the fruit I'd seen, maybe they need to hear the gospel. So I just did it.

I'm teaching one Wednesday night, and room's pretty full. I know pretty much everybody in it. A girl comes in. She's got a friend with her, so I go and say, "Hey, how are you doing? I haven't seen you before. Glad you're here." Kind of like I try to do as I'm coming through the room and saying hi to a lot of you. I said, "I haven't seen you before," and she said, "This is my sister. She's here from out of town." I said, "All right."

Girl didn't have a Bible, but lots of Christians don't have Bibles, and she could have just not known she was coming, and so I don't know anything. So I start teaching, and the sister's sitting there, and I start, and she's kind of sitting there, and then pretty soon, and then pretty soon, she's almost in a fetal position. I'm going, "Wow, this just isn't going so well for her. She's having a bad night."

So I say amen, and the two of them are out of there like a shot. I'm walking to the car, so my car's over here, but the two of them are standing over here kind of going nose to nose. Though it's a little bit out of my way, I sensed an opportunity here, so I kind of sauntered over. I said, "Hey, girls, how you doing?"

And the one that's there all the time said, "Fine." The other one didn't say much, and the one that's there said, "Tell him what you're thinking," and she said, "Well, I'm not going to do that," and she goes, "Tell him what you're thinking." She doesn't know, and he goes, "Listen, he hears criticism."

all the time. Tell Him what you're thinking, and so the guest said this. I know what you did in there tonight. I said, really? What was that? I know what happened. What? She goes, my sister called you today, and she told you exactly what's going on in my life, and she told you exactly what to say, and that whole thing tonight was for me and about me.

I said, you know what, chick? That ain't true. What just happened to you is, when it happens, it's special. It's the Spirit of God applying the Word of God to your heart. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. Even for those of us who are followers of Christ, God continues to use His Word to sharpen us.

At the end of the book of Ephesians, Paul's writing to this church, and he's saying, prepare yourself for spiritual battle. Put on the full armor of God, and then he goes through the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation. The only offensive weapon we have, the sword of the Spirit, which Paul says is the sword of the Word of God. See, that's what we have.

The Power of God's Word

It's funny, I hadn't really thought about it as I was putting these seven lessons together, but I keep coming back to it again and again. It's what we talked about this morning. It's our GPS. It's what grounds us. It's what gives us God's perspective on this life.

He says, listen, I know you've held fast. I know you've kept the faith. I know you've hung in there. I've seen the martyr. I get it. But verse 14, I have these few things against you. Because in there, there are those of you, this subset, this small group, who hold to the doctrine and the belief of Balaam, who taught Balak.

The Doctrine of Balaam

Now, we can go back and read about that. It's Numbers 22, 23, 24, 25. Balak is afraid of the conquering Israelites. So he approaches Balaam. He wants Balaam to come and to teach. He wants this false doctrine to take place.

Balaam says no. Then he says, I'll give you some money. And so he becomes a prophet for profit. And he goes, and rather than false teaching, here's what they come up with. They decide that they're going to take pretty young girls, and they're going to intermingle them. It's going to take some time. They're going to intermingle them with the Israelites. They'll fall in love. They'll infiltrate the church, and they'll weaken the church that way.

See what He says back there in verse 14? He's going to encourage you, just like Balaam did. He's going to encourage you to sacrifice to idols and commit sexual immorality.

The Battle Over Freedom

Now, here's what's going on in that church is that you have people who are following Christ, who are saying, listen, we have freedom to do these things. We get into these discussions all the time. I don't know the old churches. I don't know denominations. God spared me from all of that. I wasn't in any of those fights. I don't know one from the other from nothing.

I talk to friends my age who were raised in some of those environments, and they talk about not being able to go to movies and not being able to play pinball and not being able to play cards. And then we were talking about at dinner and then how music comes in and then all of a sudden a certain style of music or just instruments themselves. All of a sudden you introduce this style, this beat, this rhythm, and it generates all this excitement in you and it must be of the devil. And then you have churches splitting over stupid things like music.

You are free. You have great freedom. Now understand this. You have an enemy who wants to infiltrate the world and all the things we talked about. The world hates you. Here's what Jesus says. If you are of the world, the world loves its own. Because you're not of the world, I chose you out of the world, the world hates you. James says it this way. If you make yourself a friend of the world, you're an enemy of God.

The Tension Between Freedom and License

So here is this cataclysmic battle. It's fought on all sorts of fronts. But on this it's on the front of freedom. Paul writes to the church of Galatia and Paul writes this. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore keep standing firm. Do not become subject to the yoke of slavery. Paul writes to the church at Corinth and it's very principle. He says, you were bought at a price. Now don't enslave yourself to men.

This is what's happening. There's compromise that's coming into this church of Pergamon. They're having this battle over truth. And there's some that are saying, listen. And you can feel the tension, hopefully. There's some that are saying, wait a minute. We were free from all of this. We can eat this meat. We can do these things. In fact, we have been forgiven.

And here's what's happened. This is the point that Paul's making. It's not that grace has become a source of joy for them. It's become a source of license for them.

The Question of Security

So by far the most frequent question I'll get when I'm out and we're having these discussions about Scripture. By far the most frequent question, unless it's end time stuff, is can I lose my salvation? So there's a book. I was in the lobby yesterday waiting for some of you to get your cookies so I could get mine and get out of there. And on the bookshelf, there's a book by Chuck Swindoll. It's not in the bookstore. It's in the bookshelf. It's called Grace Awakening.

And I happened to go through that book two or three times with Chuck Swindoll on tape or CD, listening to him read it. And I love that. I love book tapes, especially if you have a voice like Swindoll's or David McCullough, those kind of things.

There's this very interesting thing about grace. We are, by and large, very afraid of grace. Because we're afraid that if we really live in grace, we'll turn it into license.

Standing Firm in Truth

So these people were saying, wait a minute. I'm free. My salvation is secure. Their doctrine is sound. Jesus says, my sheep know my voice. They hear me. They follow me. No one can snatch them out of my hands. I and the Father are one. We're secure.

I believe the Bible teaches. I don't think it stutters. I think the Bible teaches that if I know

Christ, and I'm a follower of His today, I'm as certain of heaven as the saints that are already there. So what they're saying is, if I'm forgiven, why don't I go ahead and do it anyway? That's why we're afraid of grace.

The one thing, and that might be an overstatement—if it is, I'll apologize tomorrow morning—but the one thing that separates biblical Christianity from everything else on the planet is grace. This is my understanding of world religions. You've got biblical Christianity, and then you've got everything else. And everything else has a component of you doing something.

God's mad, and you have to appease Him. And you have to do something. And you don't just do it once. You keep doing it. And if you screw up some way, somehow, some amount, you're out.

The Power of Amazing Grace

Biblical Christianity says, Christ died for your sin. He paid the price once and for all. You're forgiven. You're redeemed. You're His. You're adopted. You're in a right relationship with Him. Nothing can sever that relationship. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Once was lost, but now I'm found. I'm there. I'm set free.

I'm in the process of reading a biography on John Newton right now. And it's talking about the slavery. It's talking about how that song—this is kind of cool—it's like a lot of things. When that song was written, in the hymnals of the day, it was not picked up. It was just like another hymn. It was like nothing. But it was big in the States. And it became now, literally, the most sung and published song—not just hymns, song—in the entire history of the world.

And it's a story of a man who was an evil man, slave trader. Talking about these six-week journeys with the slaves, and having sex with the different women, and the brutality of it all. Foul-mouthed sailor. And God reaches down and redeems him. And even as he's dying, paraphrasing his words, here's what I know: I am a great sinner, but He is a great Savior.

The Danger of Compromise in the Church

What's happening in this church, at Pergamos, it could happen in our church. And remember what we're saying, it's not just in the churches, it's in your life. You can go, you know what? I'm forgiven, so I'm going to go ahead and do it. And the compromise starts.

Aside from coming to Christ—and I don't know whether to go into this or not, there's always the risk of hurting or offending somebody, and I don't want to do that—but it's amazing, we see this frequently. Aside from coming to Christ in repentance and faith, probably the decision you make that has the most consequences, it seems to me, is who to marry. And the scripture is very clear on this. Don't be unequally yoked. Don't marry an unbeliever.

Marriage Wisdom for Singles

If you're here today, some of you are single. I want to give you a tip. This is worth a lot right here. If you're single girls, I'm going to tell you what to look for. You've got your own list. He's got to be cute, he's got to be cool, he's got to be like me, that kind of stuff. I got that. I got it.

I'm going to tell you girls, if you're single, I'm going to tell you what to put at the top of the list. This is A, 1, everything else is like P, Q, all that. This is the biggest thing. Girls, if you're single, find a guy who loves Jesus more than he loves you.

Guys. Get a real pretty one. But, but, but. I know. I always break down on this one. But guys, it's far more important for you to find a girl who loves Jesus more than she loves you.

The Pain of Unequal Yoking

I watch in our church so much hurt and pain in families, and when you unpack it so often you have someone, husband or wife, who's married to an unbeliever. Now that can happen in two ways. One is you can be unbelievers when you get married, and then God saves one of you, and it's just God doing what He's going to do.

The other is, and this is what I hear all the time: I knew better. But I thought, you know what? If he just saw how I really am. Evangelistic marriage. If he just saw what I'm really like. Well now he's seen it for 13 years. He doesn't like it. He doesn't like you. So it didn't work.

And this isn't even hard. This isn't even difficult. This isn't even really controversial. This is 101.

A Real-Life Example

We had a gal in our church, and she was dating this guy, and she came in and she said, he's asked me to marry him. Should I marry him? I said, well, tell me about him. She said, well, he's really cool. He's really handsome. He's really successful. Blah, blah, blah. You know, all this stuff.

I said, well, where does he go to church? Well, he doesn't go to church. I said, okay, can you be a Christian and not go to church? Yeah, but, you know, I mean, it's kind of a flag.

So I said, okay, well, tell me about, like, what's his relationship with Christ? Well, he doesn't know Christ. He's a wonderful guy. He's that close. And I said, well, you shouldn't marry him. She said, but do you want to meet him? I said, no, I'm sure I'd like him. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but you can't marry him. She said, all right.

So she leaves. About an hour later, the phone rings. Is this Tom Schrader? I said, yeah. Those are never good calls. It's never publisher clearinghouse with a million dollars when they say that. Is this Tom Schrader? Yes. This is so-and-so. I said, okay. And he said, did you tell her not to marry me? And I said, yeah, I did. And he said, I'd like to come over and talk to you. And I said, well, how big are you? Are you a big guy? Do you carry a firearm?

God's Surprising Work

And he came over, and he was exactly what I knew he'd be. He was a wonderful guy. A handsome guy. I would have gone out for coffee with the guy. He was a wonderful guy. He was a terrific guy. The problem was he hated Christ.

Let me get to the end of that story, by the way. She says no to him. God saves him. Remember, you've got to be careful. So she calls him. She said, Tom, something incredible has happened. He's come to Christ. I said, okay, that's really cool. She said, can

We get married now? And I said, well, it's a little risky because we don't know. Let's see the fruit. I can't remember—that was 10 or 15 years ago. They're engaged in a church today. They're a wonderful couple. But God honored that obedience.

Here's what happens. You think you're the exception. God writes this rule for our own good, our own protection. We say, yeah, I know that in most cases that's the situation, but not for me. I'm the exception. There aren't any exceptions.

The Call to Repentance

Well, what do you do if you're this person? What do you do if you're in this church? It's the remedy, the action in verse 16: "Repent, or else I'll come to you quickly and I'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth." Change your heart. Change your mind. Change your direction. Go the other way.

I know the battle cry. It's 96 A.D. they're saying. Come on, get with it. Get with it. It's 96. This was written 50 years ago. Well, if that's true then, it's really true now. This is 2010. This is 2,000 years ago.

Here's a tip for you: A timeless God does not produce dated material. He knows what we're like. He knows how we think. He knows how we operate. He knows you better than you know yourself. So if you find yourself in any of these—you can apply this really to any of this, but specifically in this situation—change your heart. Change your mind. Change your direction.

The Promise to the Overcomer

Here's the promise: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give him some of the hidden manna to eat." What is that hidden manna? Well, we think it's Christ Himself. In John 6, Jesus said, "I am the bread of life."

It's this physical picture. Again, as we talked about the other night, here's the nation of Israel. No food. Manna comes. God provides it. If I overcome, I come to Him, I experience Christ in a real way. He's a person that I can know that will impact my life, that will change my life. Not just getting to heaven, but change it here.

"And I will give him a white stone and on that stone a new name which no one knows except him who receives it." Let me give you some possibilities on this white stone thing. There's a lot of debate about what it really is. It's some sort of symbol, obviously, of good news.

One is to say that it's this idea of a jury that is in deliberation and they would cast a white stone for acquittal, a black stone for guilty. It may be that. There's another word called Tessera, T-E-S-S-E-R-A. It was a stone that people would carry in Smyrna at that time and it was almost like a platinum American Express card. It got you into certain places. It opened certain doors. It gave you certain privileges. It seems to me what He's saying one way or the other is that we are indeed and we'll be a new creation and the old things will pass away.

How Compromise Begins

Let me talk about compromise just a couple of things. Number one, these things always start slowly. It starts with a little compromise here, a little gesture there. It's the old idea of a frog in the kettle. The water's boiling and I throw the frog in, he hops out. But if I put him in just tepid water and slowly turn up the fire, that frog stays in there and is consumed by it.

That's how sin is. It always takes us a little further. You know the old saying: Takes us a little further than we want to go and keeps us a little longer than we want to stay and costs us a little more than we want to pay. That's what sin is. It's that thing that I do and I'm not even sure what it is.

It might just be a click on the computer and then a click on the computer and it says, now you have to be 18 to enter and you're nervous and you're not really sure and you give it one click and all of a sudden there's all this excitement and then you walk away and say I'll never do that again but then it happens again and again. It could be something like that. It's some sort of sin. Something you do. It's just slowly gradual. Something that leads us to a point of disobedience.

Cultural Compromise

It happens as a culture. Think about this. People will say all the time we've fallen a long way. We just saw it last weekend with Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck's on the mall and calling us back to our roots and all the stuff that goes with it. I'm making zero political statement here. I don't care about any of that stuff per se but all that stuff's going on. He's saying we've drifted so far. There's got to be some truth to that.

Here's how a society evolves. You develop a thesis and over a period of time an antithesis is developed and you have a compromise and you now form a new thesis and then a new antithesis and then a new thesis. Well you can see as you do that over a period of time this is where you were. This is where you are now and you don't even realize how you got there. That's how this compromise comes.

Jeb Stuart Magruder was a man who worked in the Nixon White House and he was talking about the Watergate scandal and he wrote this: "We had conned ourselves into thinking we weren't doing anything really wrong and by the time we were doing the things that were illegal we'd lost control. We had gone from poor ethical behavior into illegal activities without even realizing it."

The Mirror of Truth

That's what Jesus is writing about to this church. To you. To me. To hold this up like a mirror. To see if there's anything that's come into your life slowly, gradually where you started here and you just made a few small decisions and now you're over here.

He said listen I'm the one who has the two-edged sword. It's the warning to the church. It's the warning to us to cling to the truth. To be willing to fight that battle of grace and truth. Of love and being firm. It's a hard battle. Especially in the world we're in. It's hard even in dealing with your children, isn't it? You have this giant... We always talked about a generation gap with my dad and me. I'm 60. So that generation. Late

The Challenge of Compromise Across Generations

In the 60s and early 70s, we were hippies and individuals, rebelling against the establishment. But to prove we were individuals, we dressed alike, looked alike, and smelled alike. We did all of these things together while claiming independence.

There's always been a generation gap. If there was a generation gap between my dad and me, how big do you think the generation gap is between my kids and me? I'll have high school kids say to me, "Tom, we don't get the junior high kids." That's just a four-year gap.

The Warning Against Compromise

Watch out for the compromise. That's what He says. Watch out for the compromise, and here's the truth: it's the two-edged sword. It's not meant to be firm and harsh, but it is to be firm and loving.

The Consistent Answer

As we look at each one of these churches, it's kind of cool because the answer is always the same. It's always you, God. It's you, your Spirit, your Son, your Word. Whatever the situation is, the solution remains constant.

Tomorrow morning we will be here at 11 o'clock. Let me invite all of you who have not seen it to be here at 10 for that movie, and just ask God to show you how He works in an incredible way. He's an amazing God. He is. We sang about it, and we'll sing about it again. He's an everlasting God.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank you that indeed there is compromise. There is indeed this tension in our life to walk away from the truth. Father, thank you that you love us and you care for us and you've given us this Word.

God, whatever the situation is, as we look at each one of these churches, it's kind of cool because the answer is always the same. It's always you. It's you, your Spirit, your Son, your Word.

God, remind us and let us sing. Let us sing this song not just to get through it but as a true representation of the condition of our hearts. God, you are an everlasting God. We worship you in Christ's name. Amen.