151011 God Knows and Loves

Revelation 2:12-17  “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: ‘The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. ¹³ “ ‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. Yet 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. ¹⁴ But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. ¹⁵ So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. ¹⁶ Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. ¹⁷ He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’

Jesus, in dictating the letter to the church at Pergamum, gives these encouraging words, “I know where you dwell…”. One thing that seems to be easily forgotten is that God knows everything! You can fill in the blank with anything after those words “God knows”. Yet, we go about our day-to-day activity forgetting that truth. If we kept that truth on the top of our agenda we would be slower to take certain actions and quicker to repent when we step out of line. When Jesus tells the church that he knows he then goes on to speak of good and bad things that he knows about the church.

God’s knowledge about us and our activities is total! There is nothing hidden from him. From the time of our conception to eternity God knows us! The Bible says that he fit us together in our mother’s womb. I have heard prayers being offered asking God to come into our presence. Every moment of every day we are in his presence and we need to remember that. God knows…

Where we live. Listen while I read from Psalm 139:1-4. O Lord, you have searched me and known me! ² You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. ³ You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. ⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

 David knew how completely God knew him and since his song was included in the Bible it shows that God knows us.

God knows us completely because he has searched us. The prophet Hanani confronted Asa King of Judah and told him, “For the eyes of the Lord run to and from throughout the whole earth, to give strong support those whose heart is blameless toward him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9) This passage does not say that God is searching for something he has never known before it tells us that God is actively working on behalf of those who put their faith and trust in him.

When we wake in the morning God is there! As we get up and begin our day God is there! Whatever we think God already knows! Before we speak he knows our needs! At the same time he teaches us through his Word that he wants to hear our requests. The Bible says that we are “in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let (our) your requests be made known to God. (Philippians 4:6) God chooses to hear our requests even though he knows already what we need. The church in Pergamum needed to know that God had not forgotten them and that he knew where they lived. Friends, please remember, God knows where you are all the time. God also knows the struggle that we have because of our inherited sin. In every region God knows…

Where Satan’s throne is. Listen while I read Ephesians 2:1-3. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

We need to remember that Satan’s throne is not confined to first century Pergamum. Satan’s throne is everywhere people are. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience is the prince of the power of the air. Satan’s throne takes on many different forms and shapes. In our day and time it can be a false religion, or cult. His throne also can be a bar, or club, as easily as it is an apostate church. The many closed church buildings in our area are evidence of a great falling away from the faith that began about 100 years ago. Satan’s throne is in a dying church wherever it is.

However at Pergamum…

They held fast and did not deny. Listen while I read the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:28-33. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. ³⁰ But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. ³² So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, ³³ but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.

In a casual reading of this passage it is possible to think that the one we are to fear is Satan. That is not the case is all! Satan may be able to kill the body but he cannot kill the soul. That is the realm of our Heavenly Father God.

The church at Pergamum feared God more than Satan. Not a cringing fear but a fear filled with awe and reverential respect for our Lord. Because of that respect for God the church at Pergamum held fast and did not deny their faith in. They had already passed through a period of persecution in which one of their own was killed. We do not know anything else about Antipas since he is only mentioned this once in the Bible. The reference to him is very powerful. He is, according to Jesus, “my faithful witness”. Antipas would have, as Stephen did a couple of generations before, seen Jesus standing at the right hand of God the Father welcoming him into heaven. He would have been welcomed and honored as a martyr.

Even though they were under persecution, and one of their number had died for the faith, they still held fast to His Name and refused to deny the faith.

Today, across the Muslim world there are people who give their lives rather than denounce the Lord Jesus. In our own country as recently as the last two weeks one of the servants of Satan went into a community college and ordered Christians to stand and make themselves known. Then he shot them down. We are told that at Columbine high school, in April 1999, students refused to denounce Jesus before they were killed.

Yet the people at Pergamum were not perfect…

They tolerated wrongdoing. Listen while I read about a similar situation from 1 Corinthians 5:1-5. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. ² And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you. ³ For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. ⁴ When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, ⁵ you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

The church at Pergamum certainly knew about the discipline that needed to be done at the church in Corinth. They would have also known Jesus’ instruction in the case of one who needed discipline. None of this would have been strange to them because by the time Revelation was written the rest of the New Testament was pretty well known.

Jesus had taught that if someone sins against us we must go to him privately and if he refuses that, take someone as a witness, and if he refuses that, bring them before the church for discipline. In Corinth the sin was very similar to that in Pergamum. Jesus says that they were holding to the teaching of Balaam, the false prophet, who led the people of God to honor idols and practice sexual immorality. They also tolerated a group of people that is only referred to as “the Nicolaitans”. We do not know, in fact, what these people practiced except that it was in opposition to Christ. The church at Pergamum tolerated wrong. We need to examine ourselves from time to time to be certain we are not led into the same trap. Since they are guilty of such wrong…

They should repent. Listen while I read from 2 Corinthians 7:9-10. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. ¹⁰ For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

This passage refers to the same situation that the 1 Corinthians 5 passage referred to. The church had tolerated an egregious sin. A man had taken his father’s wife as his lover. Since she is not referred to as his mother we have to assume that she was his stepmother.

After Paul wrote the first letter to the Corinthians the church was grieved with a godly grief and their treatment of the situation led to repentance. A repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

Paul had felt grief over the sin that they publicly allowed to be in the church and he grieved over the fact that he had to speak to the church about it. But his grief was turned to joy when he found that they had also caught the grief and repented. The repentance was for the whole church and specifically for the man who had committed immorality. The result was God’s salvation rather than death!

The church at Pergamum needed to also repent of what it had tolerated and then put an end to such practice in their midst. We do not know what course the sin at Pergamum took only that it was idolatrous and sexually immoral.

If the church did not take the lead Jesus promised that he would soon come to them and war against the sinners in their midst with the sword of his mouth. The Bible teaches us that the sword of his mouth refers to the Bible itself.

The Bible is the guide as to how to deal with every problem. Now when Jesus says that he will come to them he’s not talking about the second coming in power. Here, Jesus is talking about visiting the church with the kind of discipline that needs to occur.

I spoke earlier of closed church buildings. I believe that many of them, if not all, were closed by Jesus himself as a result of leaving their first love or having tolerated obvious sin in their ranks. That being the condition does not preclude the idea that the church building that was once inhabited by godly people should not be brought back as a place of worship. They once represented springs of the water of life and might be restored again.

The conqueror will be rewarded. Listen while I read 1 Corinthians 15:56-58. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

The church at Pergamum joined with the other six that the letter of Revelation was written to in that they had in their midst conquerors. The victory does not come about by the faithfulness of the conqueror. The victory does not come about because of the generosity of the conqueror. The victory does not come about because of righteousness done by the individual who is called the conqueror.

The victory comes about through our Lord Jesus Christ! We are more than conquerors through him who loved us and gave himself for us! Sin brings death but righteousness brings life. We are not saved by any righteousness of our own but we are saved by everything he did, and does, for us. The Lord Jesus took our sins into his own body. He had no sin of his own that he should die for. And as a result of his act of substitutionary sacrifice we become the righteousness of God in him.

There are many who hold that the seven churches of Revelation represent seven periods of time in the life of the church. I believe every letter contains truths that apply to every church described in history as well as every church existing today. We need to recognize that like Pergamum Satan dwells today and will continue to do so until Christ comes again! Toleration of evil occurs in present-day churches and has occurred in the past. Repentance is not just a salvation experience it is a sanctification experience as well. We need to repent every time we fall short! Have you repeated today? The Bible tells us that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. When we call on the Lord he always hears us and will forgive us when we ask with a repentant heart.

All scriptures quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.