In each one of the churches, Jesus lets the church know who is speaking to them. The first one in Ephesus, he says, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, walks among the seven golden lampstands. He's letting them know that his reign and rule is over all the churches and individual churches. In Smyrna, he says the words of the first and the last who died and came to life. And with these words, he's letting them know that he's the eternal son of God, the one who, according to John chapter 1, was with God and was God, and then the word became flesh and dwelt among us. He's letting them know that he was and is and always will be, and that he died for our sins and he's risen to life. And then we come to the church in Pergamum, and he says the one, the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. The sharp two-edged sword depicts Jesus' judge over all the earth, not just the church of Pergamum, but over all the earth. Hebrews chapter 4 tells us, verse 12, for the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. All of us will stand before our Savior. In the words of Revelation 19, we see the fullness of this image in verses 11 through 16. Then I saw heaven open and behold a white horse, and the one sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war, his eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the word of God. And the armies of heaven are rayed in fine linen, white and pure, or following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus could not be any clearer when he says that he has a sharp two-edged sword. He's saying I'm the judge. My word is the judge. It is the sword which will bring destruction to my enemies and salvation to my chosen. Then in verse 13 of our passage he says, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith. Even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. He says where Satan's throne is and where Satan dwells. And what could this mean? Well Pergamum had a high place, something similar to our citadel and Halifax. If you haven't been, you should go. I know there's some visitors. And on and around this area in Pergamum of this high place were many temples for the worship of the local gods. And for one, there was a shrine of the healing god Aslepius, whose symbol was a serpent. Now that serpent or a serpent is still used today in medical symbols. Maybe you've seen it, probably haven't given it much thought. But it's a staff with wings on the top and then two serpents intertwined. That's where it comes from. It comes from this ancient Roman healing god Aslepius. And the devil has been using Rome for his own malicious sins, especially to attack the church. And Jesus praises Pergamum, the church in Pergamum, because they have resisted to some extent and hold fast to the name of Christ. Even when one of their own named Antipas was killed for refusing to deny Christ and worship false gods. And that was just the beginning. History tells us that this church would face similar persecution in the days and months and years to come. And when they did, they would be tempted to compromise with the pagan culture. Which apparently they had to some extent because Jesus says, I have a few things against you. In verse 14, you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel. So they might eat food, sacrifice idols, and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Now who is Balaam? Balaam was a prophet. He wasn't a false prophet. He was a true prophet. And he was hired by the Moabite king to curse Israel. But he told the king, I can't do or say anything that God doesn't say first. He doesn't allow me to say. The Moabite king, Balak wanted Balaam to curse Israel for his own ends. Three different times he asked the prophet Balaam to curse Israel. And each time instead of giving a curse, he gave a blessing to Israel. Which infuriated the Moabite king. And he told Balaam, he said, just go home. If you're not going to do what I asked, just go home and you don't get the reward I promised. Balaam reminded Balak that he couldn't say any prophecy that God didn't give him. But Balaam wanted the reward. He wanted it anyway. So he figured out a way to get paid. Balaam advised the Moabites on how they could entice the people of Israel with prostitutes and idolatry. He couldn't curse Israel directly. So he came up with a plan, a subterfuge as you might say. A plan for Israel to bring a curse on themselves. So Balak followed at Balaam's advice and Israel fell into sin, worshipping Baal of Peor and committing fornication with the Midianite women for this God plagued them and 24,000 men died. Now part of Baal worship was burning children as a sacrifice. That just seems so awful because it is. And while fornication took place as part of the idolatry, the idolatry is what is in view here because the Bible over and over again from the Old Testament through the New Testament views idolatry, the worship of false gods as spiritual adultery. I think one of the applications of this should be obvious. We live in a culture which sanctions the sacrifice of unborn children. Millions of unborn babies have died because the parents of the doctor conspired in an act of idolatry to sacrifice them. Not on anything as obvious as altar of Baal of Peor. But I remember back when I was in university and this was longer ago than I want to say, a good friend of mine said that our culture, this is the US, our culture offers children on the altar of convenience. Our culture is idolatrous as surely as Pergamum. We're just more sophisticated about our idols. The late David Foster Wallace describes our Western idolatry like this. Here's something that's weird, he said, but true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there's actually no such thing as atheism. There's no such thing as not worshiping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for worshiping God is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap into the real meaning of life, then you never have enough. I remember an old movie called Wall Street. Michael Douglas played the Wall Street tycoon Gordon Gekko and his protege, Bud Fox, asked him one time, he said, when is it enough? Because he was the one who was raiding companies and taking them apart for profit. He said it's never enough. And that's the case with people for whom money and things are their idol. Never feel you have enough, it's the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, cliches, bromides, epigrams, parables, the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up front in our daily consciousness. Worship power and you will feel weak and afraid. And you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, be seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid or fraud and always on the verge of being found out and so on. This refers to Balaam and the Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans get their name from Nicolás and it means one who overcomes people. Balaam means one who consumes people. See idolatry is the sin of having another God, something or someone more important to you than Jesus. And the first of the 10 commandments is against idolatry. Maybe you remember in Exodus chapter 20, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. First Thessalonians chapter 1, for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. First Corinthians 10, Paul says, therefore my beloved, flee from idolatry. First John 5, 21, little children, keep yourselves from idols. Jesus here is warning the church of Pergamum and every church that the temptation to idolatry is ever present. He says, therefore repent, if not I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. Turn from your idols, Jesus is saying whatever they may be. Martin Luther, one of those most responsible for the reformation of the church, said this, what is it to have a God or what is one's God? To whatever we look for in any good thing and for refuge in every need, that is what is meant by God. Many a person imagines that he has God and everything he needs provided he has money and property. The evidence for this appears when people are arrogant and secure and proud because of such possessions but desperate when they lack them or lose them. I repeat, to have a God means to have something on which one's heart depends entirely. Tim Keller, the late Tim Keller wrote, what is an idol? It is anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give. How can you identify these insidious gods? How can you tell if you're worshiping a counterfeit God? A counterfeit God is anything so central and essential to your life that should you lose that your life would hardly be worth living. I think in your own heart what is that? For some of you it's a spouse. You can't imagine not having him or her and it would destroy you if you didn't. We have a friend, her name is Marnie. We've known her for what's 1987 till now? 38 years. Her and her husband are athletes. He's a triathlon participant and a few months ago he was out for an evening bike ride and he got run over by a pickup truck. She tells the story that as she was driving up to the accident scene, saw all the ambulances and the police, the thought that came to her was he's dead. And then the next thought that came to her, she said, you're not allowed to complain. You had 33 wonderful years with this man. You're not allowed to complain. Thankfully he survived and interestingly about two weeks ago he ran another triathlon. For a second and he was so upset about that because he always wins. But you see it takes somebody whose faith is completely in Christ for everything in their life, for the good and the bad and when something awful happens they can still say, I trust you. Churches are not exempt. Idolatry functions widely inside religious communities when doctrinal truth is elevated to the position of a false god. Their trust in the righteousness of their views makes them feel superior. Churches sometimes turn spiritual gifts and ministry success into a counterfeit god. If the church is full, we feel pride because that's our counterfeit god. If the church isn't quite doing so well, we feel devastated because that's a counterfeit god. Churches can make an idol out of doctrinal accuracy, ministry success, moral rectitude that leads to conflict, arrogance and self-righteousness and oppression of those whose views differ. So Jesus says therefore repent. How do you do that? Well the first thing you have to do is you have to admit your idolatry. You have to admit that there are things in your life that you hold so important that if you lost them you would be devastated. That doesn't mean that if you lose a spouse or a child or a job that you can't be hurt or you can't experience grief. Of course you can. But it's not the ultimate because Jesus is the ultimate for you. You have to admit your idolatry. That's the first thing. The second is you have to ask God to change your heart because repentance is a gift from him. And when he does change your heart you have to turn from your idol, whatever it is, to Christ fully. How do you stop from turning back? Because that's my problem. I have an idol. I really like it. God convicts me. I turn from it and I'm good for a while. But then I turn back. Repentance. All of life is repentance. Either Calvin or Luther said that. But one of the ways to guard against that is to fill your mind with scripture. Thomas Chalmers wrote a sermon called The Expulsive Power of a New Love. And what he meant by that is you can get rid of your idol, but if you don't replace it with Jesus, you're going to look for another idol. The parable Jesus told about the man who was demon possessed and was free to the demons but didn't embrace God, then seven more came in even stronger. So you have to have the expulsive power of a new love. People who are addicts often say, I couldn't give it up until there was something in my life more important to me than my addiction. How do you do that? Fill your mind with scripture. Philippians chapter four. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is anything excellent, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things and the God of peace will be with you. I think for a lot of us that's our problem. We watch TV and it's always bad. We're filling our mind with these things. It's not the TV itself is bad but we fill our mind with all the horrible things that are happening in the world instead of filling our mind with whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent. So you admit your idolatry, you ask God to change your heart, you turn away from it and you fill your mind with scripture. Then Jesus goes on to say that I will give him hidden manna. Part of what was going on in Pergamum was if you weren't part of the idolatrous community, if you didn't participate in the citywide feast which sacrificed their food to idols, if you didn't participate in the false worship, a lot of times you were left out of the commerce in the city and in some cases it was difficult to even obtain food. So God is promising them, I will feed you. Don't worship false gods for the sake of food, I will feed you. And then finally he says I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Now what's interesting is that black stone was what was prevalent in Pergamum. So if they wanted to have an inscription on a building or something they would use white marble. And some commentators say that's why he's talking about a white stone but other ones say and I think this is right that a white stone was what you had to give or a stone was what you had to give to enter one of these feasts. You were given the stone because you were deemed worthy by the idolatrous community and so Christians were left out. They didn't get a stone, they didn't get to go to the feast. But Jesus says I will give you a white stone with a new name for your entrance into the heavenly feast. And that stone figuratively was bought with the blood of Christ because he lived the life we should have lived, he died the death we deserved to die and he rose again from the dead so that we might have new life in him.