Pastor Tim Brown, Calvary Chapel Fremont, Sunday August 22, 2010

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The Rats of Compromise

      Revelation 2:12-17

A few years ago, in New Hope, Minn., a 44 year old woman’s home was condemned by health officials who removed 450 rats from it & estimated that another 500 were hiding in the walls.  She originally purchased the white rats to save them from being fed to snakes.  She then purchased a few more/bred them/fed them/took them to the vet when ill.  About 100 paintings/pictures had been gnawed through.

Sin is like rats - when sin is entertained/given a place to breed/fed by tolerance, it will take over a life/gnaw it through.  This is true of an individual life/church.  We are going to look at a church/lives overran w/ the rats of sin.  There are rats gnawing away at the fabric of the church of Pergamum.

Pergamos = thoroughly married.  Here is a church that looks like it has two husbands – Christ/culture.  You can’t serve Christ/culture – won’t work - competing loyalties.  Danny thinking Howe twins were one w/ two girlfriends trying to keep one from the other.  Finally saw two together.

Pergamum demonstrates that intimacy w/ culture breeds the rats of compromise/mediocrity.  To buddy up w/ a Christ rejecting culture is to cold shoulder the KOG.  When the prince dressed in the rags of the pauper nobody believed him 2b the prince – heir to the throne.  When we wear the rags of a Christ rejecting culture no one will believe that our destiny is a shared authority w/ King of Universe.

A. JESUS COMES TO THE CHURCH   12

Unsheathed sword is for enemies.  If you come to my house w/ loaf of bread – friendly visit, but w/ drawn sword?     

      B. JESUS COMMENDS THE CHURCH   13

      1. Faithfulness before Satan’s throne

      a. Where you dwell: in oppression/persecution you are faithful!

      b. Suggestions: center of Babylon mystery religions/throne dedicated to Satan was there/filled w/ temples: Athena, Caesar Augustus, Dionysius, Asclepius…  

      c. Throne is headquarters.  This is where Satan dwells.  He is a limited creature and has to be somewhere.

      d. Not much time spent dealing with the spiritual climate of the city where Satan is said to dwell.  “But we’re the New Age capital of the world.”  Be faithful!!  Hold fast the name of Jesus.

    * Video Display Projectors – 2800/3500 lumens.  2800 shines brighter because of new bulb.  Lesser capacity shines brighter when refreshed/renewed.

      2. Faithfulness before fierce persecution

      a. My witness – wouldn’t stop confessing Christ in midst of a Christ-rejecting culture.  Opposite of deny is confess.  He wouldn’t allow the culture/city/state to shape/define him.  He wouldn’t allow the rats of compromise to gnaw through his soul.

      b. Antipas discovered something worth living/dying for.  He came to the Grand Conclusion (sinner)/made the Good Confession(Savior) /gave himself to the Great Commission.

      c. At the very gates of hell, where Satan’s throne was, where Satan was worshipped & breathing down their necks, Jesus was building this church/the gates of hell could not prevail against it.  

    * Antipas learned that greater is He who is nu than he who is in the world!  Here in the very city that Satan used as HQ he couldn’t silence the voice of the church confessing Jesus.
    * May Satan not be able to intimidate un2 silence.  Determine 2ba an Antipas’ who refuses to bow down to the gods of this culture – sex/money/power…  Antipas didn’t breed rats.
    * The Word of God is rat poison -

Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.  Psalm 119:11

      C. JESUS CORRECTS THE CHURCH   14-15

      1. Balaam = destroyer of the people - story

      a. Balaam’s attempted curse didn’t work, but his counsel did.  Israel couldn’t be cursed but they could be corrupted.  They were  under God’s protection until yielded temptation – let rats in.

      c. The curses of hell cannot prevail against the church, but the filth out of Hollywood has.  Not curses raining down upon our heads, but the ungodly counsel of the world seeping into our hearts…

      d. Counsel of Balaam today: ur#1 – nothing should stand in the way of your happiness.  Pregnant?  Dispose of him/her.  Married?  Divorce.  Desire?  Indulge.

    * There is enough corruption in those four words to keep a soul from heaven.

      e. Those who had stood against the persecution of the state had given way before the creeping filth of the culture.  

    * All I can say is ‘Rats’.

      2. Nicolaitans = conqueror of the people

      a. Some were swept away w/ worldly corruption and others were filled w/ spiritual pride.  The young/immature need someone over them to govern (not guide) them.  The party of the N sought to control the Christians of P and this brought Christ’s rebuke.

      b. The counsel of Balaam sought to corrupt God’s people and the party of the Nicolaitans sought to control God’s people.

    * It makes sense that the Nicolaitans would rise up at the same time that the counsel of Balaam was making its way through the church.  If we can control the people, we will control their passions.  Fat chance!  Formula: More law = less Jesus

3. Pergamum was overrun w/ rats.  Jesus saw an infestation.

D. JESUS COMMENDS THE CHURCH   16

      1. Pastor: repent and deal w/ them (Balaam/Nicolaitans).  God holds the pastor responsible for the spiritual health of the church.

2. If not: I will come to you and then I will deal w/ them.

    * Pastor, you’re the biggest problem here.

E. JESUS REWARDS THE CHURCH   17

1. Hidden manna  - Jesus is manna from heaven.  Jesus will not come w/ sword, but Bread!  Not make war, but share a meal.  The Word is a sword and it is bread.

2. White stone – a token of favor.

    * Name – character.  God is forging something new in you.

May it to be your heart to be an Antipas -  

    * Grand Conclusion – I am a sinner in need of a Savior
    * Good Confession – Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.  He is a Savior for sinners!

      3. Both teaching of B & N undermine work of the Holy Spirit.  

      a. Even as alcoholics/drug addicts stop maturing emotionally, so those who drink the wine of the world/take the drug of culture stop growing spiritually.  

      b. The Spirit wants to take me/make me – these teaching take/ make me something else.

    * N  spirit of religion   legalism  Pharisees
    * B  spirit of the world  liberalism  Sadducees

      c. The teaching of the Nicolaitans results in a spiritually oppressive atmosphere:

    * Power-posturing: forcing authority on others/reminding them of who you are.  Look more to man than to God.  ‘I will hear from God for you.’
    * Performance based spiritual system.  Time evaluation.  You’re saved – but you have to work real hard.  Jesus + anything is not Jesus.
    * Control and domination that leads to guilt and condemnation and confusion of the disciple (Jesus gives rest, not further weights)
    * Paranoia – can’t leave w/o serious repercussions
    * Misplaced loyalty – ‘We alone are right’.

      d. Those who would never give way before persecution or give in to fleshly indulgence, give way b4 spiritual pride of self or others.  Rats.  

A third suggestion is that the white stone is analogous to the Greco-Roman custom of the tessera,  a small object made of glass, marble, or precious stone that represented favor or other benefits. The tessera hospitalis, for example, was a token of mutual hospitality. The tessera frumertariae and nummariae were tokens that Roman magistrates gave to the needy to use to obtain money or grain. They also served as admission tickets to theaters. A tessera was awarded to an Olympic winner and was inscribed with a caption of his victory. The tessera, presented in the athlete’s home city, was also good for honors such as esteem, money, and other gifts.1