Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

We're glad that you're here today.

It's good to get some rain.

So I don't mind the rain falling myself.

That's right.

That's right.

You do you Tomatoes, right?

well, we do tap mention this, but we, we do want to pray for all Of our young people that's going off to school.

I think Ethan, may be taking classes online out of love.

But Skyler and Kelsey of course or in Greensboro on Wilmington and we do need to pray for them that they'll make good decisions and that the Lord will lead them and guide them in the way that they should go.

Cuz it's very difficult.

a lot more difficult in college today than it was when maybe when we attended a lot more difficult, they have a lot, a lot greater challenges I believe.

Well, today we're going to continue in our series on the seven churches of Revelation.

And today we come to Revelation 2:12, through 17 in the title of this message today.

Is Christian Courage in a culture of compromise.

I think this is a very important message for the 21st century church, not just for the church at pergamum that we're going to read about today.

Are you going to see this church?

Had a lot of good things going on.

But they had one bad thing.

if you got the doctor and he says well your blood pressure is good, you lost weight and all your blood work looks good but you don't have about 6 months to live, that's not a good thing, you can have it, you can have three good things but one fatal thing And so what we going to see in this church today is they had three good things.

Very good thing, but they had one fatal thing and that is it was a church that had compromised, both morally and Theological and that is That's the death of a church when a church does that and the reason I think this is so important today is because there's so many churches in our miss that are compromising the word of God today.

And they have fallen into the Trap of the secular humanist that says, everything is okay, and you just need to love everyone and you need to be tolerant of everything.

That's the teaching today and a lot of churches have fallen into that Bo.

If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn to Revelation chapter 2 and we're going to read verses 12 through 17.

I will read that.

And then we will we will unpack this.

So he says until the angel of the church in pergamus.

Write these things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword.

I know your works and where you dwell For Satan's Throne is and you hold fast to my name and did not deny.

My face even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr who was killed among you where Satan dwells.

but I have a few things against you because you have there, are those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who talked, they like to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit, sexual immorality.

But you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate.

Repent or else.

I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

And that a terrible thing when the Lord has to fight his own church, You think he's fighting evil?

He's fighting Satan hear.

He says, repent or else.

I'm going to come quick and I'm going to fight against them.

That was in the church.

He's going to fight against his own church and not a terrible thing.

Verse 17, he who have his have a ear.

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 new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.

I just heard it.

Okay,

So this is a church that had a lot going for it, and then this is what I want you to understand.

Before we even unpack this, I want you to know this.

That all of these churches were in areas.

but it would be very hard to minister in because they had a lot of Pagan religion around them, even here in this section here, the Bible says that these people do Church Where Satan dwells, not think about this.

God is saying, pergament this city pergamum.

It's where Satan's Throne is.

How would you like to minister where Satan's home was?

Wouldn't that be awful and it was just a terrible terrible thing.

But here's what I want you to understand in, this goes for all the churches, everything that Christ talks about to these churches that what you're what I have against you.

None of it comes from outside the church.

All of it comes from inside.

You see when the Church of Christ is persecuted by the outside, you know, what happens to Church Groves.

but when a church compromises from the inside that church will die, And so what Christ is saying here is even those, you you do ministry for Satan sets up his home, you're right in the middle of ungodliness and Pagan religion.

The problem is something that's going on inside your church not outside and so as a church as new Grace Church, what we have to be.

Careful of is not what people think about us on the outside is what's going on on the inside.

We can't put up with ungodliness and sinfulness and all of that.

We have to, we can't, we have to have our convictions.

We cannot compromise.

This was a compromising church and although they had good works although they were faithful although they stood strong in the where Satan strong was They had compromised inside and I understand how hard that would be with all, just like today with the media and all telling us, missed that how to think what to do.

What church is off to do private?

I have religion.

Keep your church.

Keep your faith inside the fuse.

Don't bring it in the marketplace.

It's very easy to compromise.

I mean, if you just think about some of the things that's going on in the world today 10-15 years ago, we would have been appalled by.

But today it just kind of goes over the top of her head and we don't think a whole lot about it.

We just think that's the way it is.

You see.

So it's very subtle the way compromise comes to us.

Well, he says here, the city is where Satan dwells, you know, a lot of cities have names What's Chicago called?

The Windy City.

What's New York called?

The Big Y?

The Big Apple.

What's Durham called?

The Bull City, that's exactly the Bull City.

What's Detroit called?

The Motor City.

A lot of cities have names in here.

We see you dwell where Satan lives.

So, in this lesson, we going to read Christ words to the church in a city that he himself named.

And it's not a pretty name is Satan's City.

So as we usually do.

Number one, let's look at the destination of the letter and receive that.

In first part of verse 12, and to the angel of the church in pergamus, right?

When Revelation was written, pergamus was the capital of Rome's, government in Malaysia.

Now, this city was built on top of a large heal and the residents there, you could see the Mediterranean Sea to you can see the Mediterranean Sea 15 miles to the West.

so, if you was up there on that Hill, you could see the Mediterranean Sea, the city was a A cultural center.

It was famous for its Library, the library was located on top of what was called the Acropolis, and it was really second only to the library in Alexandria.

They had a reading room, they will call that that library.

That was 60 ft by 72 ft.

The reading room was it held over 200,000 volumes and when Mark Antony offered it to Cleopatra is when it had almost 200,000 volumes.

Now when Egypt at one point they they decided that they were not going to sell any Papyrus to the pergamon.

So what they did is they treated Sheep and goat skin.

And they produced what they called then and what we call today parchment, so it was invented there.

Matter of fact, the Latin word for parchment is Pergo mental because it comes from pergamus.