The Church of Endangered Loyalty - Revelation 2:12-17

1:30Beginning in verse 12. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum, write, the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name and did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. So you also have those in the same way who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore, repent, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war with them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone, which no one knows but he who receives it. Well, welcome to the church of endangered species.

2:53What is an endangered species? Well, let me ask it like this: what does the Christmas idol? Goshawk bird, the short-nosed sturgeon fish, the Oahu tree snail, the California tiger salamander, and the giant panda. What do they all have in common? Well, they are all considered to be endangered species and in need of governmental protection. There is concern that their environment is being wiped out and therefore the species itself cannot survive. And it is true that changes to a species environment do affect its ability to survive.

3:44One of the functions of our U.S. Wildlife and Fish and Wildlife Department is to protect endangered species by protecting the environment in which, or the critical habitat in which the species needs to survive. In fact, our reading from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's webpage, they task themselves with the job to conserve and recover endangered species by, number one, identifying endangered species by designating their critical habitats, understanding what they need to survive, developing protective Regulations and developing recovery plans, etc.

4:35But they know that radical changes to an environment can impact those who depend upon it. Same is true with the church. In Pergamum, we encounter another kind of endangered species, an endangered kind. I'm talking about a church. I'm talking about a people who are loyal to the Christ revealed in Scripture. They are endangered. They were endangered in Pergamum. They're endangered in our world today. Church that is truly loyal to the Christ revealed in Scripture. It's an endangered kind.

5:20And this church that we're going to be looking at here at Pergamum, they had already demonstrated a history of unusual loyalty, intense loyalty to Christ. But something had crept in. Something was being tolerated in their midst that, if left unchecked, it would create an environment hostile to true Christianity. And so Christ calls them to address it. And that is what we read in our text this morning. They are creating this. Unbiblical truths, these evil doctrines had crept in, and they were a threat to devotion to Christ.

6:13Let me tell you a little bit about this town, this city. It was the capital city of the Roman province of Asia. One of the kings gave it to Rome. The last king of Pergamum gave the city to Rome, became the capital city of Asia, the Roman province. It was noted for its library. It had a library that had been being built that actually rivaled the great ancient library at Alexandria. In fact, kind of a funny incident. One of the kings of Pergamum wanted the librarian from Alexandria, and it said that he approached him, tried to entice him to come up to Pergamum and be the librarian there. When the officials heard about it in Alexandria, they got angry with the king at Pergamum and said, okay, no more paper for you. No more papyrus for you. That's where they were using down in Egypt and down in northern Africa. They were using. Papyrus for writing materials. And so, what had happened is this little scuffle said, okay, no more paper for you.

7:41And so this leaves the librarian in a pinch. So Pergamum develops parchment made from skins. And the very word pergamum is known for the product that they produced. Parchment. Something that was better. So that's the name for what they produced. By the way, the library, Mark Antony, gave it to Cleopatra, and Cleopatra ended up giving it down to Alexandria. And there it stayed until the Arab conquest in the 600s, and the library was destroyed. Sad day in human history.

8:25But another aspect of this town is that it was known for its medical arts and worship center. Asclepsius, I can't even have a hard time saying this word. Asclepsius was the god you see with the snake. That still, many today say that the medical symbol is from Asclepsius. And somebody asked me, well, could it have come from Moses and the serpent lifted up? Yes, Moses, certainly, the serpent on the stick predates. Asclepius as Asclepius. And so it's very likely that the Greeks could have borrowed the idea. But certainly the Greco-Roman world, Asclepsius was the snake, or the god that was the god of healing. They had an asclepium. Asclepium. You wonder what that might be? Well, it's a healing center. And probably much of what happened there was snakes would roll over you and no poison and mud baths and that kind of things. But one of Asclepsius' daughters' name was Hygiene. Hygiene, the word we get hygiene from. She was the attendant. So you can kind of it was a it was a medical center. In fact, we could think of it as very much like a college town. And in fact, the second most renowned physician, Galen, was from there, second only to probably Hippocrates.

10:09But the king, Attalus III, gave the territory to Rome. Rome made it the capital city. And it was the first city to support the open worship of The Roman emperors. And in 29 BC, a temple was built at the top to the divine Augustus and also to the goddess Roma. But it is there. This place became the chief seat of emperor worship, which really became the testing grounds for loyalty to Rome and really the testing grounds for loyalty to Christ.

11:06Pergamum was also entrusted with the unusual power of the sword. They had the power to execute at will. And so, this city, what made it a very dangerous place for Christians, is that it took the lead in emperor worship. It took the lead in showing its loyalty to Rome. And if you were a nonconformist in that regard, you were dealt with severely because the one thing the city wanted to be known for was its loyalty to Rome. And so, this area, as we've already seen, was more dangerous to be a Christian than even in Rome itself.

11:49Well, just to give you a little quick overview of the area, we've already looked at Ephesus, Smyrna, and now we're coming to Pergamum. On a map. This is Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey. Also, just to give you a few, the ancient city, this is what it looks like today. And this is from the medical center there, the Asclepium, the ancient Ecclespium. And you can see several, you can see Trajan's temple way at the top. There's a theater, there's a library at the top, there's a temple of Dionysus and Athena. Here's another picture, another vantage point. It itself, the hill would come up about a thousand feet from the sea level there, and it itself looked like a throne, the whole top of the hill. There's another picture of it. You see the large temple up there to Trajan, which was there in Trajan's time. But you can see the center of the seat for emperor worship there. And I threw this picture in. This is what used to be the great altar to Zeus there on the top. It got taken down by the Germans and moved to a museum in Berlin. And some of you have been there, right? Some of you ever been there? Yes, to the museum. Well, that is Zeus's temple. I guess the Germans wanted to want it a temple and. Picked it up, looked like a Herculean event. Maybe I should say a Zeusian. Anyway, but that's where it is. You could go visit the great altar to Zeus there in Germany. It's been taken away from. But all that kind of background, let's come to the text.

13:54First, I want you to notice how Jesus refers to himself, how he characterizes himself. Look at verse 12. And to the angel of the church of Pergamum, write, the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this. Interesting, the way Jesus describes himself as the one who really wields the sword. Pergamum may have had the power of the sword, but Jesus had a bigger sword, a greater power. And what he is saying is more important than what the Roman authorities are saying.

14:36And so Jesus is going to go on to express what he likes about this church. And then he's going to go on to express his concern over the threat that they were facing. And then he's going to exhort them in that context. And so this morning, we're not going to make it through this whole section, but this morning I want you to see. What Jesus liked about this church. I want you to see the threat that they were facing so that you will know how Satan seeks to destroy a people, how he seeks to bring churches down so that we will not fall prey to his schemes. So we'll look at the first, look at verses 12 through 15.

15:28But first, I want to point out what Jesus liked about this church. What Jesus liked about this church. Two characteristics stand out. Well, in one word, what did he like? He liked their loyalty. He liked their loyalty. And two characteristics of their loyalty stand out in verse 13. First of all, the location of their loyalty, the location of their loyalty. Look at verse 13. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast my name and did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. An emphasis. I know where you are living. I know where you are residing. I know where your home is. I also know that that is also the place where Satan. Is living. Same word. Where he is dwelling, where he is inhabiting.

16:38I know where you are. And I know that you are there where Satan lives. Not only where Satan lives, but where he reigns, where Satan's throne is. Throne involves the seat of authority, the epicenter of his work, the dominion, the place of a dominion. A throne is the place where one extends his sovereignty. And so it's here. Even Rome didn't get such a distinguished or ominous or menacing title as Pergamum, where Satan's throne is. And this is Christ. He sees, he knows the churches. He knows where they live.

17:40He knows what they are facing. And it's here where this loyalty is being tested. Is the loyalty going to be to Rome or to Christ? So the location of their loyalty. Is very significant, and Christ liked their loyalty. Another characteristic of their loyalty stands out, and that's the intensity of their loyalty. Not just the location of their loyalty, but the intensity of their loyalty. Look back. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast. That is, you are holding fast my name and did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one who is killed among you.

18:35I know that you are holding fast. You have taken into possession. You own my name. Two things. You hold fast to my name and did not deny my faith. You didn't deny my name, nor did you deny the faith, that body of truth surrounding who Christ is, who is Christ has revealed Himself to be, and how we are to relate to Him. They were holding fast to Christ's name, and they did not deny the faith, the faith that Christ has given, my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one.

19:30Who was killed among you? Who is Antipas? Well, church tradition says that it was this Antipas who died under the reign of Emperor Domitian. In fact, you can go to some of the Greek churches there at this location and you will see pictures painted of Antipas, who was one who was leading the resistance against emperor worship, or certainly a notable figure, a leader in this resistance against emperor worship. And as a result, he died under the reign of Domitian, probably in the 90s, for refusing to offer the sacrifice to the emperors.

20:23It says he was slowly roasted in a bronze bull. That is how he died. Slowly roasted in a bronze bull. But they didn't deny the faith. Even in the days of such an intense persecution as the days of Antipas. Notice what he called Antipas, my witness, my faithful one. You know, there's only another person, there's one other person. That is called this. Look at chapter 1, verse 5. Greetings, grace to you, and peace from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness.

21:14Christ, just as Christ, that's his self-identification. Christ is the faithful witness. Christ gives the same title to Antipas. My faithful one, my faithful witness, the faithful witness. Both Antipas and Jesus are faithful witnesses. I hope we'll be the same. I hope we'll be the same. Well, that's what Jesus liked about this church. He liked their loyalty. He loved their loyalty. He didn't want that to change. But they were facing a threat. That's what I want to look at next: the threat that they were facing. Jesus loved their loyalty, but it was being threatened. And in verse 14 and 15, Jesus itemized two matters that he saw as a threat to their loyalty. Their loyalty was endangered. It was an endangered kind. Look at verse 14.

22:27But I have a few things against. You because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality. So the first matter is the teaching of Balaam, a threat that they were facing, the teaching of Balaam. There is perhaps no false teacher in the Bible like Balaam. How many of you have heard about Balaam? What do we know about Balaam?

23:13He was that quirky little prophet that had an episode with a donkey, and the donkey had to rebuke him, and he got into a tiff with the donkey and started going back and forth. The donkey talked to him, and Balaam amazingly talked back. And so we think of him as this quirky little prophet that had this strange encounter with the talking donkey. But we really miss the fact that this individual is probably one of the one prophets that most embodies the satanic persona. In all of Scripture, except for maybe when Judas had taken the morsel and Satan had entered him. But there is probably no individual that personifies Satan more than Balaam. Let me explain that. It is significant that where Satan's throne is, the teaching of Balaam also is.

24:30Do you know Balaam gets three to four chapters about him in the book of Numbers? When you look at just the volume of a writing, how much space is given to a certain subject, it tells you a little bit about how important it is. Three to four chapters in the book of Numbers given to Balaam. The New Testament writers refer to him frequently. So it is Balaam, perhaps above all the other prophets, that embodies the satanic persona. And the New Testament writers understood this. And so I want to take the next few moments, and I want you to encounter Balaam through the lens of the New Testament writers. And then we'll come back to this text for just a moment. But Balaam, you need to understand Balaam.

25:29First of all, The way of Balaam. I want to talk to you about the way of Balaam. Years earlier in this same region, Peter described the false teachers that were coming against the church that they had taken the way of Balaam. They had forsaken the right way for wages, for pay. In fact, 2 Peter 2:15, Peter says this: Forsaking the right way, speaking about these false teachers, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. In fact, I think you'd do us well to all turn to Numbers chapter 22, or certainly turn there. We'll come back to Revelation in a little bit. But just to give you a little bit of a background into this character, this individual, in Numbers 22, the sons of Israel had journeyed. Now, just keep in mind what has just happened in chapter 21. In chapter 21, you have the whole episode with the bronze serpent. What did the bronze serpent do? These people were having an issue with Israel.

26:50I mean, the people were having an issue with God. They were complaining against God. And so he sent a bunch of fiery serpents among them. The fiery serpents bit them. And those who got bit, guess what happened to them? Started dying, so they cried out to Moses, and Moses puts a serpent upon a stick, upon a standard. And those who looked upon the snake, the serpent, they were healed. Those who didn't, guess what happened? They died. So in chapter 21, a whole lot of unbelief is taken out of Israel. The Joshua generation is being groomed to go into the land. That faithful generation, where did they come from? Well, the serpent, the bronze serpent, weeds out a whole lot of unbelief. You get rid of the complainers. And those who then were bitten turned and looked, and they had faith. And so you get rid of a whole bunch of unbelief. And so in chapter 22, they're making their way to the land. They're about ready to go in. They're on the plains of Moab, about to go into the land of Israel. Balak sees this huge group of people, the Israelites. And then in the beginning in chapter 22 and verse 1, then the sons of Israel journeyed and camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan opposite Jericho. They're about to come into the land. So Moab, verse 3, was in great fear because of the people, for they were numerous, and Moab was in dread of the sons of Israel. And so Balak. Balak in verse 5 sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, said, Come over and curse these people.

28:40Curse these people. And so what happens in chapter in verse 12, God says to Balaam, Don't you dare go. Don't go with them. You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed. So Balak sends for Balaam, come and curse this people. And God says, Don't go with them. They are blessed. So you can think of Balaam seeing all of these people. And that should have been the end of the story. Balaam should have just said, that's it, no more. But then look what Balak says to Balaam in Numbers 22, 16. They came to Balaam and said, Thus says Balak, son of Zippor, let nothing, I beg you, hinder you from coming to me, for I will indeed honor you richly and will do whatever you say to me. Please come then, curse this people for me. Now, a prophet doesn't find himself in this situation routinely. Here's the king wanting him to come over and curse the people. People of Israel, and I will reward you richly. And so then look at what you can see what's going on in his heart. He wants to cash in on this. And then he says in verse 19, stay here a little bit. Let me go back and see what else the Lord might say. Let me go back, see what else the Lord might say. Well, it's clear that Balaam envied the righteousness, the righteous. And look at, so he Balak brings Balaam up to a high place to where he can look out and see Israel. And then in chapter 23, verse 7, Balaam speaks his first oracle about Israel. I'll just read it. He took up his discourse and said, From Aram Balak has brought me, Moad's king from the mountains of the east. Come, curse Jacob for me, and come denounce Israel. How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced? As I see him from the top of the rocks, and I look at him from the hills, behold, a people who dwells apart, and will not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob? Or number the fourth part of Israel. He's looking at this and he goes, look at this people who will not be reckoned among the nations. Balaam is taken with Israel, their strength. And then he says this, verse 10, Let me die the death of the upright. Let my end be like his.

31:54So it's clear that Balaam envied the reward of the righteous, but he didn't want to become righteous. This was the way of Balaam. The New Testament writers not only talk about the way of Balaam, they also talk about the error of Balaam, the error of Balaam. And this is mentioned by Jude. Jude 1, verse 11. Woe to them, for they have gone the way of Cain, and for pay they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam and perished in the rebellion of Korah. What do all these have in common? Well, Cain envied the righteous and sought to destroy him. Korah envied Moses' leadership, sought to exalt himself. And Balaam, what did Balaam, what was his error? Well, at least one thing you can say about it. Is that he thought he could get God to curse Israel? That was his error. He thought he could get God to curse Israel to do so by deceiving them, by deceiving them, to trick them. According to Numbers 25, 18, it was the tricks. I can read that to you. 25, 18. The Lord spoke to Moses in verse 16, Be hostile to the Midianites and strike them, for they have been hostile to you with their tricks, with which they have deceived you in the affair of Peor.

33:41They tricked them by deceiving them. Balaam thought he could get the people of Israel to trespass against the Lord and so bring down God's curse on them. Balaam knew he could not curse those whom God has blessed. He knew his blessing wasn't greater than God's blessing. This he knew. But he still wanted to bring Israel down. And so he knew he had to get God to curse them. And that's what he sought to do. If he could get Israel to sin against God, this is right after the bronze, you've got a strong people ready to come into the land, a believer. People. Now, Balaam's got to figure out how to counsel Balak to bring these people down. And he says there is no way to bring them down unless you can get them to sin against God and get God to curse them. That's the error of Balaam. And look at, you can just jot this down or I'll read it to you, but in Numbers 31, 16, this is made explicit. You don't read about it in Numbers 22, 23, 24, 25, but you do read about the situation in 31, verse 16.

35:09Behold, this is after all the aftermath that took place at the matter at Peor. Behold, verse 16, these caused, speaking of the women, these caused the sons of Israel through the counsel of Balaam to trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor. So the plague was among the congregation of Israel. Balaam's counsel, trespass against the Lord. Then the Lord will curse them. That's how you bring down a mighty people and get them to sin against God.

35:53And this episode brings to mind Satan's tactics in the Garden of Eden. Only there were two people involved: image-bearers, glorious, privileged. How do you bring down those whom God has blessed? How do you bring them down? Well, you bring them under God's curse. How do you get them to come under God's curse? You get them to trespass against God's ways. That's how you bring down a mighty people. Early part of Genesis, it involves two people. But here, on the verge of Israel going into the land, it involves a nation. How does Satan bring down a people? How does Satan's dominion spread? How does he bring down a church by enticing them to sin against God so that God will curse them? That's the satanic algorithm. And you see this really personified in Balaam. Balaam's error was that he thought he could get God to ultimately curse those he has blessed. That's the error of Balaam. Whether it involves Israel, whether it involves Christ, whether it involves the church, or whether it involves humanity.

37:30It's an error, because those who God has blessed cannot be ultimately cursed. Humanity will bear his image. Well, that's the way we looked at the way and the error of Balaam from the New Testament lens. Now go back to Revelation. I want to talk about this teaching of Balaam, the teaching of Balaam, because it is the specific teaching of Balaam that is in view in our text this morning. Look back at verse 14. But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam.

38:22Those who are holding on, those who are espousing this body of doctrine, this body of instruction that's coming from Balaam, or owes its source to Balaam. There is some who are espousing, who are holding the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of adultery. Balaam kept teaching, he kept instructing. Instructing Balaam kept instructing Balak how to bring down Israel. And the way you do it, throw stumbling blocks in their way. Now, what's the purpose of a stumbling block? If you're running by and I put my leg out like that, what's the goal?

39:22To get you to fall. To get you to fall. The purpose of a stumbling block. It's the word scandalize. It's the word we get scandal from. To bring down, to trap a stumbling block. The goal of a stumbling block is to cause a fall. In the Garden of Eden, Satan sought to murder the man and woman by enticing them to trespass against God's law. What did they ever do to him in the first place? Nothing. This is evil. This is what evil looks like.

39:59Why did Satan want to bring him down? What did they ever do to him? Nothing. He hates them. He hates those God has blessed. He hates God. Satan knew he couldn't curse those who God has blessed, so he sought to get God to curse humanity for their sins. Seems to be a jealousy, a hatred of those image-bearers. Satan. Hates the image-bearers of God because he hates God. Do you understand that? Do you understand you have a real enemy who despises who you are as an image-bearer of God, and he seeks to cut you off from union with God?

40:55And it's repeated action. Notice that this is something that Balaam kept doing. You think about the Midianite, the Midian women of Balaam's day. They are, the language is very, very straightforward. They were thrown into the way of Israel as a means to bring them down. And you can think about what that looked like. Find the women. This is the king saying, okay, find the women that are most likely to be able to seduce the men, send them out weapons of war, to get them to come and eat things sacrificed to idol and commit sexual immorality, enter into a union, a marriage union.

41:48They were counseled, they were seduced, they were counseled to seduce, intermarry, and get the children of Israel, the men of Israel, to worship their gods. This is satanic counsel. Very low view of their women, by the way. Go and get them to worship other gods. And it's not that they were just simply to go out and have one-night stands, but they were to go, they were to engage them, they were to cook for them. Some of that came from the sacrifices to their deities, to cook, and then to enter into a relationship and a union, sexual immorality, and then the union. It was through intermarriage. And starts with food. Now, keep in mind, they're still eating manna. They're still eating manna. And all of a sudden, this meat starts showing up. Fellowship, relationship, food, and then marriage. Food and then sexual immorality. But they counsel. In fact, the Jewish Midrash says this about Balaam. It says he is the father of religious syncretism. He's the father of religious syncretism. Take a little bit of this, take a little bit of this, marry them together and come up with some kind of offspring religion that takes both into account. Well, that's what they were doing. So.

43:30And these were the two prohibitions from the Jerusalem Council in Acts. You remember in Acts, there was this Acts 15, there was this question: what do we do with the Old Testament law and all these Gentiles? And the question was, are we under the Mosaic law? And the answer came back, no. But this is what they said. Acts 15, 28. Tell this to the Gentile churches. It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, things strangled, and from fornication, that is, sexual immorality. Paul doesn't soften these requirements. He says you are to eat.

44:21Idol is nothing, food is nothing, but for conscience's sake, if somebody is telling you this is sacrificed to idols, you don't eat it. For conscience's sake, for their conscience's sake. Actually, he goes on to say in 1 Corinthians 8:12, by sinning against the brother and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. So Paul doesn't lighten the standard, but you have this whole group teaching Balaam. Balaam ideology. And where Satan's throne is, you find Balaam's ideology, this syncretism, union, but you also find sexual immorality. Let me give you a little bit of a snapshot into the sexual culture of the Greco-Roman world at the time.

45:26Demosthenes, Greek orator, says this: Mistresses we keep for the sake of pleasure, concubines for the daily care of our persons, but wives to bear us legitimate children and to be faithful guardians of our own households. Very low view, women. Marcus Cicero says this, that orator. If there is anyone who thinks that youth should be forbidden, should be forbidden to take prostitutes, his view is contrary not only to the license of this age, but also to the custom and concessions of our ancestors. For when was this not a common practice? When was it blamed? When was it forbidden?

46:30When, in fact, was it that what is allowed was not allowed. So there were those, this was the charge, this was the culture. There were those in Pergamum who had a heart to entice people to participate in the temple feast. Come along with us, come on, there's nothing wrong. You should participate. Keep in mind, you have the temple of Dionysus there, God of drink, God of the party life. You can think about what's happening. They were wanting to participate, get people to participate in the temple feasts, the temple worship, the temple food, the temple party scene, the temple something-to-do scene, the temple celebrations, cookouts, social activities, tailgates. They didn't have tailgates.

47:29But all this, it was a place of interaction. It was a place of socially coming together. This is what you did on top of that mountain. And there was a sexually charged nature to all of these. And many of the Gentiles had come out of this lifestyle. And yet there is this persistent school of thought, this body of teaching that allowed and defended such participation. And Balaam's counsel involves. This relaxing of the standards of sexual marriage, sexual union, marriage relationships, relaxed standards to the party, participation, life associated with the temples. But it's important to note that the problem in Pergamum was not that the church had embraced Balaam's teaching, but that they did not rebuke it. They were tolerating it.

48:32They were indiscreet in their tolerance of evil doctrines. It was their indiscreet tolerance that was threatening their loyalty to Christ. It was this tolerating these evil teachings that would change the environment of the church and make loyalty to Christ something of the past. So their indiscreet tolerance is also seen in the way and the teaching of the Nicolaitans as well, verse 15. So you have also some who in the same way hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

49:26Skip that for right now. What does Jesus like about this church? He loves their loyalty. What was the threat they were facing? Indiscreet tolerance. We have a real enemy who hates loyalty to Christ. You have an enemy that wants to make an environment of nurturing loyalty to Christ impossible. Loyal churches, loyal individuals are more and more on the endangered list. Let us not grow in our tolerance of worldly teachings. Let us hate what Christ hates. Let us love what Christ loves.

50:30This is how Satan seeks to bring down a people. It involves celebrating what the world celebrates, sexual immorality, union, indiscriminate marriages, all of this, forming unions that make loyalty to Christ impossible. Well, I hope this will be a church as we journey together trying to understand the Christ of Scripture and conform our lives to Him more and more, that we'll be able to recognize these worldly teachings and develop a stance against them that will endure. That's what Christ is wanting from this church and from us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth as revealed.

51:41Father, we're thankful that you are looking out for us, that you give us this warning. Father, that lethargic acceptance, careless tolerance of certain things can completely destroy this church and other churches. Father, help us to be vigilant, like Phineas, who is zealous in bringing to an end those things that offend you. Father, we look to you for grace and mercy and guidance in all of these things. Father, help us as individuals, help us as a church to love you more supremely and to. Get rid of those things that compromise our loyalty to you. In Christ's name, amen.