Scripture: Revelation 2:12-17, Romans 2:1-8
Today we will be considering God’s message to the
church at Pergamum, and it will be a message that every church and every
Christian should hear very clearly. The
Lord’s desire is, simply, that all would look to Him for guidance in their
life, that they would trust in His wisdom, His truth, His divine way, and His
hope. Unfortunately, many want to have
their own way, and don’t like the idea that they should have to follow God’s
directions regarding how to live a true and faithful life.
For some strange reason, those who choose to adhere
to a worldly vision of life, think that the Lord should be willing to accept
them as they are, without surrender, without submission, without conforming to
the word of God that is found in scripture.
But the truth is that God’s creation, whether that of heaven or earth,
is His to define and His to establish the way of access in any way He
desires. And just because we may
disagree with His purposes and ways, is no reason to think that we have the
right to change the Lord’s commandments.
Isaiah 55:6-9
tells us that even though we may not understand or agree with the ways of the
Lord, that is no excuse for thinking that our way is better! Because it isn’t!
The only way out of the mess that we create
is first of all, repentance, and secondly, through obedience to God’s will and word.
Read Revelation 2:12-17
God’s message to the church in Pergamum begins with a compliment, that most of the people have
managed to remain faithful, in spite of the presence of evil within the
city. But from a human viewpoint, it
always seems easier to follow the loudest voice, regardless of the message that
it carries! Volume can be intimidating
and even threatening at times. But
unfortunately, the “hearing impaired”, those who only pay attention to that
which is loudest, aren’t interested in the truth – only in the safest, the most
common, and the logical way. But we must
never believe that this could ever be the voice of God.
In 1 Kings 19:1-14,
we read that familiar passage in which Elijah has fled in fear from Queen Jezebel,
and is trying to hide inside a cave on Mount Horeb. The Lord came to the prophet and told him
that he was about to receive God’s response to the fear that had been driving
his life. First, though, there would be
three very “loud and powerful” events that would shake the very foundations of
the land, but God’s word wouldn’t be in any of them – not in the violent wind,
not in the earthquake, and not in the fire.
So where was the divine message that had been promised? It was in the fourth and final event
of that day – it was in the Lord’s “gentle whisper”. God will always come to us in a gentle and
loving way, while the ways of earth come violently, dangerously, harshly and
destructively.
“Loud” will never be the Lord’s way, but it will be
the means that evil uses to frighten us into submission to its way. The world uses persecution, and threats, and
embarrassment, and fear to make us abandon faith and trust in Christ, and
accept Satan’s evil in its place. But
the Lord will always have a word of encouragement for us that is anything but
loud, abrupt, or scary! But we have to
be ready to hear those loving and caring words that remind us that God’s desire
is to always be part of our lives.
We must always keep our hearing in focus with
God’s “whisper”, otherwise the noise of this world will drown out the true
words that will be our best and eternal hope.
That was Pergamum’s problem. Some
were focused on the evil noise that came from the world’s voice, and the church
never called them to account for the sin that they were living and
teaching. It appears that with God,
there no such thing as “good enough”!
For the Lord, it must be complete.
Luke 17:1 –
“Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to
anyone through whom they come. “
and in Matthew 15:14
“If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” When the church and its leadership know that
false teaching is being offered within its bounds, whether they are responsible
for it or not, and they do nothing to oppose it, or fail to call the false
teaching to account, the sin is just as much theirs as it is in those who are
living it.
Read Romans 2:1-8
This passage, at face value, is about our judgment
of others. But in the context of God’s
message to the church at Pergamum, it is also a judgment on those who know
God’s word but fail to proclaim it to those who walking in a totally different
direction! We don’t do the judging of what
is right or wrong, but we are to be decerning of what the Lord has given as His
word for our lives.
Verse 4 in this passage reminds us just what God’s
grace and mercy is all about – that it isn’t so much about the end result
of our reconciliation to God’s presence, but rather the first step –
that of repentance! But along with
repentance, there is also the issue of superiority, or the attitude that anyone
is better, or worse, than anyone else – Romans 3:22-24, “we have all sinned and fall short of the glory
of God”! No one is better than
anyone else! This also fits into our condemnation through
personal judgment toward others.
Judgment is for God alone. No one
is superior, except God. No one is
perfect, except God. No one restores us
to glory, except God. And it all comes
to us through the loving kindness of our precious, eternal, and Almighty God.
And the next verse, verse 5, confirms what Jesus
told us in John 3:16-17 –
that Jesus came into this plane of existence as Savior, not as Condemner. The first and primary condemnation that
becomes ours is through our own actions, attitudes and lives, and not by divine
judgment. So how do we find our way home
to glory if we have already been condemned, with practically nothing that we
can do to make it right? The only option
we have available is to confess our sin, to make a personal acknowledgement of
those acts we have committed against God, and repent of those ways through our
commitment to strive to put those attitudes and actions completely out of our
life.
So where was the church in Pergamum falling
short? First, they were failing to
follow Jesus’ 3rd aspect of discipleship – “teach others to obey
everything that I have commanded” (Matthew28:18-20). Second,
church leaders (the angel(s) who these words were addressed to), weren’t making
any effort to hold others accountable to true faith. And third, because of the failures that had
become so obvious in items 1 and 2, false teaching was growing stronger and
more common within the church.
And there was no one left to bring them back from the precipice of no
return – not even the limited expressions of faith that the Lord already knew existed
would help them one tiny bit!
That’s what will come our way, when we try to give
others room to do whatever they wish to do.
In Judges 2:1-3,
Israel was chastised for making covenants with other peoples, even after the
Lord told them to only be true to Him.
God knows that when we develop a relationship with others who follow
diverse ways, that it won’t be long before we begin to see their ways as being
acceptable for our own lives. The point
is that we must always make the way of Jesus Christ our first priority, as we
reach out into the world to share the word of God with those who have yet to
come to Christ for their salvation.
When we stay true to the teachings and commands of
Jesus, and repent of those things that aren’t of His way, it is then, and only
then, that the truth of the Lord will prevail within and through us, and the condemnation
of sin will be overthrown.
May the Christ be glorified through all that we give
for the lives of others.
