Dearest Lord Jesus, bless us as we hear Your Word today, kind of a challenging hard Word. Bless me as I talk about these things, and bless us in our hearing, that we would get more serious about these kinds of temptations that so come into our lives and into our world today. Bless us by Your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Today we talk about the church in Pergamum, the third that John lists in his Book of Revelation.

Chad Walsh wrote a very thought-provoking book called Early Christians of the 21st Century [Harper, 1950]. He provokes our thinking with words like these: "Millions of Christians live in a sentimental haze of vague piety, with soft organ music trembling in the lowly light from stained glass windows. Their religion is a pleasant thing of emotional quiver, divorced from the intellect, divorced from the will, and demanding little lip service to a few harmless platitudes." "I suspect," he goes on to say, "that Satan has called off his attempt to convert people to atheism or agnosticism. It's much safer, from Satan's point of view, to vaccinate a person with a mild case of Christianity so as to protect him from the real disease." It's much easier for Satan to vaccinate all of Christians with "a mild case of Christianity" rather than to give them a real disease. And I think that's what was happening in the church of Pergamum, and I believe that that's what's happening in our church today. You know if Satan comes right after us and he tells us not to believe in Jesus, if he tells us that we should not believe in Jesus as Lord, we would push back. Instead, Satan uses other devices to creep in, to introduce stuff into our lives that weakens us.

We're talking today about the church in Pergamum. You remember this map [displayed on PowerPoint slide], that whole peninsula on the right side, which is modern-day Turkey. We're talking about the churches of Asia Minor. Jesus came to the various churches in Asia Minor and sent a word to these churches. He says, with each church, "To the angel of the church in Ephesus ..." [Revelation 2:1], or "To the angel of the church in Smyrna ..." [Revelation 2:8], or "To the angel of the church in Pergamum ..." [Revelation 2:12], and so on. So you can see [on the next slide] the Aegean Sea and then these various communities. We're right up at the top there, the northeastern part of Asia Minor, the church in Pergamum.

Let me tell you a little bit about the church in Pergamum. Pergamum was an imperial city of Rome, which meant, people of God, that the Christians there were particularly tried and tested over this whole thing about emperor worship. I think I mentioned to you that the Roman emperors, starting with Julius Caesar, introduced emperor worship. They demanded that all Christians would bow down and worship Caesar as dominus et deos, as "lord and god." All the succeeding emperors, like Caesar Augustus, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, became more strident, enforcing that the Christians had to bow down and worship Caesar as god. Now in an imperial city, the capital city of Asia Minor like Pergamum, this was particularly difficult and Christians lived a very precarious existence. They were under pressure three hundred sixty-five days a year to bow down and worship Caesar. They built temples to Caesar, and they wanted you to go in an worship Caesar in their pagan rites. Christians were constantly being testing and tempted to do this.

Pergamum was a city dedicated to glorifying Caesar. It was a city that accepted Satan's lie that Caesar is really god. Because of all these pagan practices, there was a great amount of degeneracy there, of lewdness, of sexual immorality, and Christians were under tremendous pressure to involve themselves in pagan feasts. Jesus sums it up very well when He comes to the angel of the church in Pergamum and He says, "I know where you live — where Satan has his throne." [Revelation 2:13] There are not too many places in the world that we would actually say, "This is a city where Satan lives." Imagine the city of Elgin — you drive in and it says, "Elgin. 65,000 People," or whatever it is, and it says, "The place where Satan dwells."

Do you remember the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? You can read about them in Genesis, chapters eighteen and nineteen. In that story, God sends two visitors to this very decadent, sexually immoral and degenerate city. Two visitors come to Lot. Lot invites them in because he doesn't want them to stay out. They wanted to stay out and live in the square. Remember, all the townspeople came because they wanted to have sex with the two visitors. Do you remember this story? Lot gets them to come in and stay with him, and he says, "Stay here," and these people came and they wanted to have sex with these two visitors, and Lot says, "No, you cannot do that! Here, take my daughters." Do you remember the story? That's how sick this place was. Do you remember, God destroyed that city. Someone has said that today in America we're slouching toward Gomorrah, the place where Satan dwells.

That's just a little background about what we're going to talk about today.

The formula in every one of the letters [to the churches] is always the same: there's a commendation, and then there's some criticism, and then there's a promise at the end. So first we start with a commendation: God's people in Pergamum remained true to the Christian faith. Jesus says, "I know where you live — where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city — where Satan lives." [Revelation 2:13] So first of all, these Christians held fast, the word kratayis in Greek; they "held fast" to Christ's name. I like that better than the translation of the New International Version, which says they "remain true." No, they "held fast." Think of hanging on. Everything in that city was pushing them to deny Jesus, to take them away from Jesus, but they held on, these Christians in this pagan city.

They did not denounce Jesus even in the face of persecution. The Greek translation would suggest that maybe they had gone through a particularly difficult time of crisis but they did not give in, they held on. They did not renounce Jesus, they did not disavow Jesus. You need to understand, people of God, that many of the Christians who lived in Rome disavowed Jesus to save their lives. They were called the lopsi, lapsed Christians. How would you feel about that? Some people lost their lives, family members lost their lives, but others didn't because they disavowed Jesus. That didn't make for harmony in the congregation, let me tell you.

Antipas, the faithful witness — the word for "witness" in Greek is martus, which is the word from which we get "martyr"; the faithful witness was one whose faithfulness led to death. Tertullian says that he was killed in a red-hot cauldron in the shape of a brazen ox. They got this thing going to red-hot and they threw him in there; that's how he died. Imagine living in a world in which if you confess Jesus you could lose your life. I had a member say to me after the eight o'clock service that some of the stuff we deal with in our world today is like standing up and fighting for your life, because there is so much that wants to destroy our faith.

So the first thing is that they held on, many of them held on, against tremendous pressure and alienation and being ostracized and punishment and so on for the Christian. Yet, Christ criticized the people of Pergamum because they allowed Satan to sneak in through the back door of accommodation and compromise. They allowed Satan to get in through all kinds of immoral practices that got in to God's people. He says, "Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: There are some among you" — key phrase, "among you," because they were allowing this to be taught in the church — "who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality." [Revelation 2:14] I don't know if you know the story of Balaam. He was asked by Balak to curse the Israelites. He didn't do a good job with that, but he did lead the children of Israel into all kinds of immoral practices; they began to worship the gods of the Midianites and so on, and they got involved in pagan priests.

In this congregation there were evidently teachers who said, "It's okay to go to those pagan festivals and go to those pagan parties and to participate in those things." There were teachers who said it was okay. They accommodated themselves to people who compromised the truth. They embraced that stuff. They allowed teachers in their midst to encourage Christians to eat food that had been sacrificed to idols, and to participate in these pagan parties or pagan feasts. For the early Christian church, this problem of eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols was a big social issue for Christians in the first century. Let me explain that a little bit to you, because it's going on again today.

When you worshiped in a pagan temple, you would sacrifice animals to the pagan gods — Zeus, Dionysius, and so on. But not all of the animal would be burned up on that altar to these gods; some of the meat would be given back to the worshiper or to the priests, and they would have these pagan feasts that were laced with sexual immorality and degeneracy of every lewd immoral kind that you could ever come up with; it was all ack. Now you may know that today you can go to the meat market and buy meat that is labeled "halal," which is meat which has been taken by a Moslem priest and offered to Allah. Have you see this meat? Well, you'd better wake up. Costco is under a lot of fire right now because there is this meat in their meat markets. They should label it; it has "halal" on it. Moslem priests will take the meat, they'll face Mecca, they'll slaughter it, they'll say words over the meat like this: "Allah is greater than all other gods!" Then they sell it in the meat market. Because we have followers of Islam in our country today, you can buy meat in the meat market labeled "halal." How do you feel about that? Nothing is every new under the sun, so we're kind of back there again. We have meat that can be offered to idols and you can buy it in the meat market. The hue and cry today, and why it's getting so much press, is because a lot of the meat is not marked. Don't you like that thought? Some of these things that are going on in the meat market are not under the FDA regulations, this meat that's been offered to Allah, and it's a mess.

[The congregation at Pergamum] also allowed teachers in their midst to encourage Christians to engage in sexual immorality. Dave read to you [earlier] about the Nicolaitans; they were kind of libertarians who said that believing in Jesus is a spiritual thing, you can do anything you want to do with your bodies. So they were involved in every form of degeneracy — sodomy, pedophilia, bestiality. I don't know how far I should go with that — bad, alright? Ugly. If you were a Christian living in those days, your neighbors, who are under pressure to worship Caesar, would say to you, "Come to the party. Come to the feast. We're offering this animal to this god, and we'd like you to come. Come on, Donna! Come on, Bonnie! You come. Come to the party! Come on!" There was tremendous pressure on them to be a part of all that. As you went in to be part of it, it involved all kinds of sexual deviancy and degeneracy and all this stuff. In this congregation they were allowing teachers to teach this stuff, and the Christians were involved in sexual degeneracy of different kinds.

I believe that today we live in a sex-crazed, sex-obsessed culture, just like the first century. There are things going on in our world today that would make my grandfather weep. I believe that it's come into our congregations, and I believe that Christians — I'm not talking today about people "out there," I'm talking about people right here, I'm talking about pastors, I'm talking about musicians and people who are involved and have allowed these things to get into their life. What am I talking about? I'm talking about fornication. I'm talking about sex before marriage. I'm talking about hooking up. I'm talking about friends with benefits. I'm talking about sexting, and a million other things that are going on out there. I'm talking about adultery. I'm talking about pornography. I'm talking about sexual deviancy. I'm talking about pedophilia. Our world is laced with this stuff. Let me give you some statistics: Every second, every second in America, thirty-seven thousand Internet users view pornography. Every second in America — how many seconds do I preach? You say, "too many" — every second, thirty-seven thousand people view pornography. Every thirty-nine minutes in America, a new video on pornography is put out. Forty-six percent of fifteen-year-old girls and forty-seven percent of fifteen-year-old boys have engaged in sexual intercourse last year.

We are so laced with this sexual stuff in our culture that it's leaked into our congregations and into our people and we have Christians who are viewing these kinds of things every day. Talking to one counselor, an article about this that I saved a couple of years ago said, "Counseling these young people, for whom the doors to sexuality have been swung wide open since puberty, is like being an emergency-room physician with the survivors of a school-bus wreck. Losses that used to take four or five decades to accumulate are now packed into the short life of those who put their childhood toys in the attic just a few years back" [Paula Rinehart, "Losing Our Promiscuity," Christianity Today, July 10 2000, Vol. 44, No. 8]. Lucinda Franks, who wrote this book called The Sex Lives of Your Children, "chronicled dozens of teenagers, mostly middle-schoolers, again affluent and well-educated [families], who've created a social universe with entirely new rules. They pursue random sex that is casual, mechanical, something to escape to on weekends when, as one 14-year-old boy explained, 'the games begin,' while their parents avoid seeming 'uncool' [never] interfering [by] asking too many questions. Gone is the timid, tentative innocence that used to come with being 13 or 14, when the world is there to be explored and one's personality takes shape." [Ibid.] What I would say to you as we involve ourselves in these things, as we take on those images in our lives through pornography, as our kids are getting involved in this, we're breaking their lives, and we're losing, people of God, we're drawing away spiritual vitality in our churches. And it's rampant.

I was in southern Indiana last week for my brother's retirement from the government; I celebrate when anybody retires from the government. I was reading in USA Today about our Super Bowl. Did you see the words? "Super Sexy." Of course, we can't just watch football any more; we've got to watch sex. Here's Danica Patrick — she's going to be painted like a nude body so that she's going to be in these Go Daddy commercials with four-and-a-half-inch stilettos. Sexy ads are slinking back into the Super Bowl. At stake: the eyeballs of a hundred million viewers. And we love it! Some of the biggest Super Bowl advertisers spend millions on ads that exude sexual imagery. The more you put sex in the ad, the more they like it. There are signs that they and society have moved beyond the prudishness that followed Janet Jackson's 2004 "wardrobe malfunction." Go Daddy's second spot features the rebirth of a group called Pussycat Dolls, whose member dress more like exotic dancers and pop singers. Beyond Go Daddy's ads, sexy model Adriana Lima will appear scantily clad in a Kia spot, and also in an ad for another Super Bowl advertiser yet to be determined. All I'm saying to you, people of God, is that we're kidding ourselves if we think that what was going on in the first century is not happening all around us here today. When you talk about a world in which Satan rules, I think you're talking about America in 2012.

Do you remember a guy by the name of Ted Bundy? He murdered twenty women. Did you ever listen to James Dobson? James Dobson interviewed him two hours before he died, and this is what he said. "I grew up in a wonderful home," Ted Bundy said, "with two dedicated and loving parents. I'm one of five brothers and sisters. It was a home where we, as children, were the focus of my parent's lives. We regularly attended church. I had two Christian parents who did not drink, did not smoke, there was no gambling. There was no physical abuse or fighting in the home. I'm not saying it was 'Leave it to Beaver'," he says, "There is no perfect home. But I want you to know that I was raised in a wonderful home." Dobson asked him, "How did you get into all that stuff?" He said, "When I was a boy of twelve or thirteen, I encountered sex outside the home, in the local grocery and the local drug stores. I started with softcore pornography at a young age. As young boys do, we explored the back roads and side ways and byways of our neighborhoods." [Dr. James Dobson, Life on the Edge, Nashville TN: Word Publishing, 1995; paraphrased].

As we rub shoulders with people of the world, as we get cozy with these kinds of things, as we let down our defenses and dabble in the sins of the flesh, as we continue to experiment, we lower our standards and become vulnerable to sin's mastery in our lives. We compromise, people of God. We say things like, "It isn't all that bad," and we get involved in that. Come with me! Come with me to visit the pastors who are into this stuff. Come with me and visit pastors, Lutheran pastors, who are in prison because of sexual pedophilia. We think this stuff doesn't happen. How many people in this group today are involved in some kind of pornography? It happens, people of God. It's right here. I'm not talking about people "out there" — I'm talking about us. I'm talking about you and me and the struggles that we have to stand strong in a world that is so laced with all of this stuff. I'm talking about Dennis Perryman. I know you thought I was born on a cloud and don't have any sexual lust, but it's in my life, too. We've got to be careful about this stuff.

Paul says, "Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were" — past tense. "But you were washed ..." Do you want me to get some water and throw it on you guys? "You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Sprit of our God." He goes on to say, " 'Everything is permissible for me' — but not everything is beneficial. 'Everything is permissible for me' — but I will not be mastered by anything" [1 Corinthians 6:9-12]. You see, it's a very short leap from dabbling in this, flirting with this stuff, getting cozy with this stuff, and then ultimately being mastered by it. It gets into our lives and into our homes. As sins of the flesh gain influence in our lives, our spiritual vitality wanes. You can't really be looking at pornography and have a close walk with Jesus. You can't be committing adultery, you can't be involved in some of these things and still have a close walk with Jesus. Remember in the garden, when they sinned? They lost fellowship with God; they hid in the bushes. That's what happens as we get involved in these kinds of things.

Christ calls us to repent and get back to the Bible. "These are the words of Him who has the sharp, double edged-sword. To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ... Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth" [Revelation 2:12,16]. I think what Jesus is saying is, "I'm going to come with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and I'm going to fight against this thing." The "sword of the Spirit" is a reference to the Word of God. Remember how Paul says, "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" [Ephesians 6:17]. I think Jesus is saying that the prescription against these kinds of things, so that we can stand strong against these kinds of things, is really the Bible. We need to get back to the Word, we need to listen to that Word, we need to be here regularly. We need to have strong pastors who will courageously talk against these things, because we need to get back to it. We get sloppy. We go off in directions that aren't helpful. Our "true north" for the journey of life is the Bible. "Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee" [Psalm 119:11]. Remember how travelers used to follow the stars and they'd find Polaris to find where north was and they'd get their bearings? Our true north is the Scriptures. We water it down, we get used to things. We have Lutheran denominations that ordain homosexual pastors. It's getting so messed up, people of God, that it's hard to see your way clear.

Turn away and denounce the sin. Don't rationalize about it if you're dabbling in some of this stuff. Get away, get out of there — it's ack! Like I told the kids, throw the clothes in the dirty laundry. "Put off the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness" [Ephesians 4:22,24]. Look, you're baptized. We still have this old nature which shows itself, but take that off. "I'm sorry, Lord!" Get out of that, and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. He loves you. He died on the cross for you. He was obedient in your place. He will help you. "The fruit of the spirit is ... self-control" [Galatians 5:22-23]. You can't do it on your own; He can help you with this. Listen to the Spirit's prompting. "Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh" [Galatians 5:16]. The Holy Spirit convicts me. It guides me in my life. It tells me, "That's ack! Get out of there!"

And then the promise. "Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it" [Revelation 2:17]. What does that mean? "Eat of the hidden manna" — I think He's talking about that if we would forego some of this feasting on all this stuff that isn't right, we'll eat and feast on the food of paradise. The Bible says, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies" [Psalm 23:5], through God's grace we will enjoy feasting with the Lord forever. He'll also give us a gift of "white stone," which we think means acquittal and welcome into God's house. In those days in courts, if you were acquitted they would use a white stone; if you were judged guilty they would use a black stone. When He says you're going to get a white stone, He says that you're going to be acquitted, you're going to be declared not guilty through the blood of the Lamb one day, and you'll be given a new name. You know, Glyn got a new name today; she's now God's child, she's the beloved of the Lord, she's a child of the heavenly Father, she's been given a new name. I know you guys think she's yours, but she's really the Lord's. She was the Lord's before you ever met her in your home, Becky, and she's the Lord's today in a new way. Now she's challenged, and you're challenged to help her live in this world that's gotten so far away from God.

Let me close with this. In the beginning of this sermon I said the way that the devil is beating us is not by coming right at us, but he comes at us from the back door. He waters down our standards and our values in our churches, he waters down our values in our homes, and our lifestyle gets sloppy. Then it detracts and it draws away from the vitality that we can have in Jesus Christ. We need to stay close to Jesus. We need to stay close to His Word. We need to stay close to one another. It's ugly out there. It's challenging. May God help us to live to His glory. And when we stumble and fall, may we always remember His grace and His love in Jesus. Amen.