Rev. 2 – Compromise
By Dr. Jeff Meyers
Preached On:
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Greenwell Springs Baptist Church
19421 Greenwell Springs Road
Greenwell Springs, LA. 70739
Website:
Online Sermons:
http://www.greenwellsprings.com
http://www.sermonaudio.com/jeffmeyers
This evening I would encourage you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Revelation 2. Many of you may
be familiar in chapter 2 and 3 in the book of Revelation there are seven churches that are mentioned
beginning with Ephesus and ending with what we know as Laodicea. Today, we come to the third church
and for those of you who were unable to attend our service this morning, today we remembered, we
acknowledged, we prayed for and we studied what we know as the persecuted church, those believers in
Jesus Christ that have been for 2,000 years but even particularly today in the 21 st century, who are
marginalized and martyred for their faith. And behind me, you'll see the stage is still set up as it was this
morning and, again, the Lord is demonstrating tonight his perfect timing, not only with the message today
from Joel 3 but the message tonight from Revelation 2 because some of you may remember a few weeks
ago that when we studied the churches in totality and we began to look at them in the specific messages,
one of the very interesting perspectives that people have noticed with these seven churches is that with the
privilege of what we know as hindsight, we're able to look back over the last 2,000 years of church history,
we're able to look back all the way to not only the death and resurrection, but the ascension of Jesus Christ
up until today, the 21st century, and see that there is an interesting pattern that has developed correlating
these churches specifically to time periods in life. For example, the early church was very faithful and
strong doctrinally but we understand that there was a time where they went somewhat wayward, they lost
their passion and their zeal, much like the church at Ephesus that says they lost their first love.
Last week, we studied the church of Smyrna, the red ones, the persecuted church. Remember this morning
we talked about those seven phases of persecution from what we know as the late first century up to the
early fourth century. Those of you that were in attendance this morning, you may remember that when I
gave a little history of persecution, I stopped in the fourth century and I picked it back up in about the 12th
or 13th century. Y'all remember that? That was very purposeful for when you begin to look at that period of
time known as the Middle or sometimes people say the Dark Ages, there is not a lot of "Christian
persecution." Why? Because unfortunately in what we know as the fourth century, the church and the
secular world decided to marry one another. The church came under the umbrella of the authority and the
power of the world powers and soon you have church leaders endorsing secular leaders and secular leaders
appointing church leaders and pretty soon we discover that they're together. They have married one another
and so thus what we know as persecution was not as rampant because it seemed as if the church as a whole
had gone wayward.
Interesting, tonight when we come to the church at Pergamos, the name Pergamos literally means "much
marriage." And so we find ourselves possibly in that same time period historically but tonight as we study
this local church, we're going to see what happens when an individual, what happens when a family, what
happens when a church, even a denomination or the church at large, what happens when the church decides
to compromise. Let me give you a definition of compromise: to trade an eternal truth for a temporary
blessing. When an individual who claims to believe in Jesus Christ, when a church collectively decides that
they would rather be empowered by the world or be gifted by the world than stand for the truth of Jesus
Christ, compromise settles in and the church at Pergamos was the compromised church. Their name simply
means "much marriage," and it's no wonder that as you look at what we know as the Middle or the Dark
Ages in history, there was a time period of great compromise within the body of Christ. That is why in
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what we know as 1517 we had what is called a Reformation. It was a cry to get back to what the Scripture
said; a cry to get back to what the church originally was intended to be.
So tonight in Revelation 2, we pick it up in verse 12. It says,
12 Unto the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he who has the
sharp sword with two edges; 13 I know thy works, and where you dwell, even where
Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and you have not denied my faith, even in
those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where
Satan dwelleth. 14 But I have a few things against thee, because you hast there them that
hold the doctrine of Balaam, which taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the
children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. 15 So
hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. 16
Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword
of my mouth. 17 He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the churches;
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white
stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that
receiveth it.
Again, the church of much marriage, the church of compromise trading eternal truth for temporary
blessings, much like the illustration that we'll delve into in a moment with Balaam and Balac where he
compromised the eternal truth of God's people for the temporary blessings of privilege of gold, silver and
position and authority. But when we talk about compromise, compromise always has an epicenter or a
central point from which it always comes from. The thing that I want to share with you tonight, that
compromise, whether the church at Pergamos, the church at large, or your individual life, it is influenced by
the outside but it always starts on the inside. Compromise is always an internal scenario. After all, it says
here, "I know where you sit, where Satan's seat is." You notice that the area of influence is the sacred not
the secular. You almost get the idea that the issues in the church at Pergamos though influenced from the
outside, there was an internal breakdown, there was internal compromise that then manifested itself on the
outside.
We also see when compromise occurs it's not always clear and evident. You know, one of the Scriptures
that so resonates with me about the enemy, the one whom we know as Satan or the devil, in 2 Corinthians
11:14, it says, "he appears as an angel of light." In other words, the devil rarely shows up to your house
wearing red Spandex, horns and a tail. Usually he shows up looking the way you want the answer to look,
sounding the way you want the words to sound. Oftentimes when compromise seeps into our lives, our
family's lives, even a church's life, rarely if ever do those who compromise sit down and say, "I'm going to
just defy God today." Usually what happens is they justify, they make excuses and they say, "Oh, but I
deserve this. This is owed to me. It won't hurt that bad. It won't hurt anybody but me. It's not that big a
deal." You see, those are the beginning words of compromise. Just like in the fourth century the church at
large who had gone through ten major series of persecutions, don't you think down deep they thought, "It
sure would be nice not to have to look over our shoulder again. It sure would be nice to finally have a sayso in the public square. It sure would be nice not to always wonder are they genuine or fake, are they trying
to infiltrate so they can investigate and incriminate. Wouldn't it be nice?" You see, sometimes we say,
"Wouldn't it be nice just to have a little this and a little that?" but what happens is compromise creeps in
and the same thing happened here in Pergamos when you have this idea of much marriage, there was
compromise.
Essentially, what you have when compromise begins, is you have the appearance of godliness but as the
Bible says, without the power thereof. Much like in the book of Genesis 3, when the old serpent presented
to Adam and Eve the temptation, the opportunity, you do remember the response of humanity, correct?
They said, "It looks good to the eye. It looks like it will be pleasant to eat and it will make us wise." You
notice that when humanity was tempted with the things of the devil, they never once said, "Oh, this is going
to be bad." They thought, "This will actually make us better." And therein lies the root of compromise, the
epicenter within us that says, "I will marry the things of the world because it will better me." However in
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Scripture, there is no evidence at all, particularly from the mouth of Jesus, that marrying the world would
ever benefit us spiritually, in fact, every time the Bible says it takes us down the wrong path.
Compromise is literally the transfer or, shall I say better yet, it is the exchange of one's convictions. You
say, "What are one's convictions?" Many of you have heard me display this before, it's what I call the
worldview pyramid. Very simply, everything that happens in your life starts with your belief system.
Everything. Whom you believe on. For a believer in Jesus Christ, he is your foundation. According to 1
Corinthians 3, there is no other foundation whereby men must build upon. Jesus taught us in Matthew 7,
there are two foundations: the rock of Christ Jesus Christ or the sand of this world. You pick. And so that is
our belief system, upon that we have convictions. Convictions are those truths that we hold dear in our life,
principles and concepts that we say, "These are how we will abide our life by." Those convictions breed
decisions and then those decisions ultimately manifest themselves in an outward expression.
So everything that we see manifested in what we would call compromise didn't just come that way in and
of its own, it was convictions in between our belief and our decisions that went wayward somehow, some
way. And we see the analogy given here to the church at Pergamos that the challenge of their convictions
begins in verse 14, "But I have a few things against thee," and the illustration is given of Balaam and Balac.
Now, for the sake of time tonight, I won't have you go back and we're not going to read nine chapters out of
the book of Numbers but the book of Numbers is one of those books of the Bible where we think,
"Well, I wasn't good in math. It's called Numbers, I’ll just skip that one." But the book of
Numbers is actually a fascinating story, in fact in the Hebrew Bible, it begins with the
word "bamidbar" which means "the wilderness." It's literally the story of how the people
of God lived through the wilderness experience that we're so familiar with.
Beginning in chapter 22 through chapter 31 of the book of Numbers is the story of
Balaam. Now, Balaam is most known for his family pet. Y'all remember that experience
one day where he was running from the Lord and not doing what the Lord asked him to
do and he was riding upon his donkey and his donkey would not go forward and his
donkey kept going different ways and he got upset, he got mad and he beat the donkey.
Y'all remember that story, right? Why? Because the donkey actually spoke and said,
"What are you doing this for? I'm not the one in error. You're the one with the problem."
It reminds me of a dear friend of mine who used to tell me this, he said, "Jeff, if the Lord
can speak through a donkey, then he can talk through you. It'll be okay." Something to
think about there. But that's what Balaam is most known for, however, what led to that
famous donkey experience, what led to his rebellion is what's mentioned here even in
Revelation 2, it says that they were falling into the same trap as Balaam.
Here's the synopsis of his story. Balaam was a prophet of God and a ruler of another land
came to him and said, "I need you to do me a favor. I need you to curse the Israelites."
Balaam was pretty wise and he said, "I cannot curse that which God has blessed. I cannot
bless that which God has cursed." You know, in the contemporary scene, maybe we
ought to take a lesson from Genesis 12 when it called out the Israelites through the person
of Abraham who the Lord said very clearly that those who bless Israel will be blessed,
those who curse Israel will be cursed. And yet Balaam said, "I cannot curse something
that God has blessed and I can't do the reverse." Balac came to him and he offered him
silver, he offered him gold, he offered him positions of authority and he still rejected it.
He said, "I can't do it. You don't understand. It's like calling something black white or
white black, up down, down up, you can't do it."
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That night the Lord came to Balaam, this is in chapter 22, this is the very beginning of the
story and he said, "Balaam, in the morning if they come and seek for you, I want you to
go with them." The next morning, Balaam went even though they did not come and seek
for him and so he began a journey of defying the things of God but because he could not
curse the Israelites, he taught their enemies how to trap them in sin. And it is mentioned
twice here in Revelation 2, it's all throughout the book of Numbers, there were two things
that the Israelites fell into the trap of: they committed worship unto idols and fornication.
Literally the thing that got Israel so sidetracked and if there is not a life lesson in this, I
don't know what is.
Balaam came to Balac and said, "Here's what you need to do." Now, this is the New
Revised Jeff version, are you all ready? He said, "The Israelites cannot be cursed. They're
always going to be blessed, however, the Lord has made it very clear that they're only to
marry of the Israelite faith. They're not to go outside of the Israelite faith. They're not to
go to your people so if you really want them tripped up, you need to go and find the best
looking daughters of the richest men and you need to entice them." Can you imagine
what he did? He literally set a trap for his own people. Knowing they could not be cursed
directly from God, he set up a trap that they would curse themselves by their own
behavior.
That's the picture of compromise. The picture of compromise isn't that we just go out and
blatantly do the things against God, but we participate or we entertain things that we
know with enough baby steps will get us to a position where we want to be that God said
you never have any business being in. And what is the lie of the devil? "Oh, it won't hurt
anybody. It won't be that big a deal. You're going to be fine." What ends up happening?
The same thing that happened to the Israelites: they found themselves in a huge mess.
Idolatry was everywhere. They defied the things of God and they found themselves
literally crying out to God, "Please, O God, forgive us for what we have done."
It's interesting to me that this is the same illustration used to the church at Pergamos, the
church of much marriage. The church of compromise had done the exact same thing.
Now, maybe it wasn't exactly like Balaam taught, not exactly idolatry and/or the
fornication route but they were abiding by the same principles. What's interesting to me is
the Bible speaks of this Balaam incident in three very specific ways: in fact, we hear
about the way of Balaam, we hear about the doctrine of Balaam, and we hear about the
error of Balaam. Now, I’ve got these on your outline for you tonight but the Bible
actually speaks to these three things, in fact, this is a message series in and of itself so
hold on. I'm going to give it to you, the whole thing in about three minutes. Are y'all
ready? Three things specifically that Balaam did that caused compromise among the
Israelites.
The first one was his error. Jude 11 reminds us of this, that they determined what they
knew best for God. One of the things that Balaam taught them is that they could pick
their own leaders, they didn't need who God had set up. They could choose their own
path, they didn't need to go necessarily the way that God had taught. Is that not the
message of compromise today in the 21st century? "We don't need to do it God's way. We
don't need to do it according to his word. After all, we're smart. We're intelligent. We're
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educated. We've got this." You know the last four words of a Cajun redneck, right? "Hey
guys, watch this." That's exactly what the Israelites were doing and that was the error that
was committed. His way is mentioned in 2 Peter 2:15, that they made good with the gain
of God by gifts. What that simply means is they compromised themselves by profiting off
the things of God. They did not discern if it was of God, if it was blessed by God, they
just said whatever the dollar value is, that must be the right thing to do. And what you see
is they said, "Well, our beliefs aren't that important if it will profit us this much. Oh, if
that meat has been offered up to idols, we're just going to pretend we didn't know that so
that we can get a good bargain." So, you see what was happening with the way and
eventually here in Revelation 2, it mentions the doctrine when one defiles the separation
that God has instituted for his people compared to the world.
Amazing that here you have this prophet of God who doesn't even have his own book of
the Bible, who is mentioned three other times in Scripture: his error, his way, and his
doctrine. Here in Revelation 2, the church of Pergamos had fallen into the trap of his
doctrine. They were no longer separated from the world. Now, Jesus made it very clear
that we're the light of the world, we're the salt of the earth. He said that we were to go
into all the world and preach the Gospel so I don't believe Jesus was saying go into a cave
and hide but at the same time, he never commanded us to "marry the world." We are the
bride of Christ, not the bride of the world.
So this compromise always begins to manifest when convictions are marginalized or
convictions are set aside. In order for an individual, in order for a church, in order for an
entity to fall into spiritual compromise, they have to say at some level that the truths and
the principles of God's word are not necessary to be followed because of what will either
be forsaken or not gained by doing so. So much so that I read an interview this week of a
very prominent best-selling Christian author and pastor was asked why does he never
mention the word "sin," I mean, after all, it's a pretty prolific concept in the Bible, is it
not? "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." I mean, Jesus said he
came not to condemn us but to save us. What does he need to save us from? He needs to
save us from our sin. The response of this "pastor/author" was simply he said, "Well, I
don't mention sin because people get enough negative news in the world. I don't want
them to come to church and get negative news as well."
Sometimes we need the negative. Sometimes we need the wake-up call to see what's
happening. In fact, I was listening to a sermon the other day and I know I tease y'all and
as many sermons as y'all have to sit under here, I sit under a lot more in my own world. I
was listening to a sermon that a man was doing dealing with the shepherd, the good
shepherd and sheep, and he was talking about how shepherds actually maintain their
sheep and one interesting thing about a shepherd is they have a staff, correct? And the
staff has two purposes: purpose 1 is to beat off the wolves, purpose 2 is to beat the sheep.
And the lesson he was sharing is that when there is a sheep which, by the way, Jesus
called us sheep; when there is a sheep that consistently is running from the pack,
consistently saying, "I don't want to be under the safety of the shepherd," consistently
saying, "I don't want," in our illustration, "God's direction for my life," that the shepherd
will purposefully break the front legs of the sheep and then drape the sheep over his neck
and carry him until he is healed. You know, sometimes God has to do that in our lives.
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He has to break our proverbial legs and carry us through situations because we keep
running from what he wants in our lives.
What we see here at the church of Pergamos is a group of believers who consistently
said, "But our way is better and we don't want to necessarily share negative news, but
we're intelligent and we're smart." At the end of this passage he says, "Repent or else I’ll
come unto thee quickly." What does he say he'll fight with? "I'll fight you with the word
of my mouth." So it's the convictions that they pursued.
You know, compromise always has consequences. There are two passages in your New
Testament that I placed on your outline tonight that I believe kind of give us color
commentary on the church of Pergamos. The first is found in 1 Corinthians 5, the second
is found in Matthew 18. 1 Corinthians 5 is the story of what we know as the former pagan
church at Corinth who now is believing upon Jesus Christ and one of the struggles they
were having is as full grown adults, people who had worshiped false gods for many years
of their lives, they were transferring their false worship into their "Jesus Christian"
worship and what was happening here is a common practice in the heathen temples was
the practice of spiritual gain by physical intimacy. Does that communicate? There were
temple harlots among the pagan faith. Their sole purpose was to help people experience a
spiritual reality through a physical exchange and here at the church of Corinth, not only
was that happening at some level but according to 1 Corinthians 5, there was a man who
was entertaining an illicit relationship with his step-mother, the woman who was married
to his dad. The Lord comes to the Apostle Paul and says, "This isn't even something he
would entertain in the pagan temples. I mean, you're even taking it a step further. What is
wrong?" And one of the things that is so interesting is that nobody said, "Well, you know
what we need to do is we just need to hold hands and sing Kumbaya and it's all going to
go away." What does the Apostle Paul say? He said, "In order for the spirit to be saved,
sometimes the flesh needs to be destroyed." And the man was removed from the
fellowship not because they wanted to punish him, but because it says they did not want
the body to be tainted by his sin and obviously his lack of repentance thereof. What's
interesting in that passage is you notice that the door was left open. Upon his repentance,
upon his willingness to do it God's way, he would be received back in. You see, I think
one of the reasons that Christians compromise is they think, "Well, if I take a hard stand
on this issue, I’ll lose friends. I may lose this. I may struggle with that." The last time I
checked, God always rewards those who are faithful to him and we suffer the negative
consequences when we do not.
The passage in Matthew 18 speaks of, and this is from the mouth of Jesus, when there is a
fellow believer who has sinned against you, that you don't go and put it on social media
and gossip around town, you go to them personally. You talk to them. If they don't hear
it, you take somebody else who has had the same situation and if that doesn't work, it
says it goes to the church and the body of Christ deals with it. You say, "Why is this so
significant?" Do you know how easy it is to say, "I just don't want to deal with this.
Maybe it'll go away." Let me ask you a very simple rhetorical question. Now, let's say
that tomorrow morning you wake up and because it happens living in the south, it's just a
part of life, you wake up and you notice that you have a spider bite on your ankle. How
many of you say, "Eh, who cares. It'll go away." What do you do with a spider bite? You
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treat it because you understand that if it's not treated properly it will continue to spread
and even though it is on your ankle, it has the capacity eventually if it is the right kind of
bite in the right place, it can literally stop your heart if not treated properly. And the exact
same thing happens with compromise. When we just say, "Well, it's not that big a deal.
Who cares if we don't talk about sin. Well, do we have to really talk about hell? I mean,
the word itself just makes me cringe." Yes, but Jesus talked about it twice as much as he
did heaven.
So compromise always has these consequences and what happens? Ultimately, the world,
secularism, creeps in and just like it did in Pergamos and just like it did in the Middle
Ages, it is the world when allowed to creep in that takes over the church. Remember what
Ephesians 4 teaches us: give no ground to the devil. None. You give him an inch, he'll
take a mile.
Finally, the illustration of Pergamos is that compromise brings casualties. I'm going to
make it real simple tonight before we have the privilege of not only having an invitation
but celebrating what we know as the Lord's Supper: every one of us is going to die,
you're either going to die to the world or you're going to die to Christ. There are no other
options. You can either say, "Okay, I’m going to buy into the world's system and do it
exactly the way they've told me, or I can buy into the way that the Lord has said." Adam
and Eve are the perfect example of dying to the world. They said, "Yup, this is good for
our eyes, it's good for what we sense. It's going to make us wise. Not doing it God's way,
doing it the world's way because it was the tempter that gave them the world's way. If we
do it the world's way, we're going to be better off." Yet in Galatians 2:20, the Apostle
Paul says that, "I die to Christ. I am crucified with Christ, no longer do I live to myself
but to him who gave himself for me." So, I see that we have two options: we can either
say, "I'm going to do it the world's way or I’m going to do it God's way."
Allow me to remind us tonight what we're celebrating with what we know as the Lord's
Supper. If we're just going to speak very pragmatically tonight, we are celebrating
through the bread and the juice, we are celebrating the death of, according to the world's
eyes, a rogue Jewish rabbi from the first century who the Roman saw fit that he no longer
needed to live. That's what the world sees Jesus as. You remember when Jesus comes to
Ceasarea-Philippi and he asked the apostles, "Who does the world say that I am?" "Well,
some people think you're a miracle worker. Some people think you're a prophet. Some
people think you're even possibly John the Baptist raised from the dead. I mean, there are
all kinds of wild stories going on out there." And he said, "But who do you say that I
am?" You see, the world at large, they're going to acknowledge the person of Jesus at
some level. Most people say he was probably a pretty decent person. A lot of people say
he was a teacher. Some people say he was controversial at best. But then Jesus turned the
tide and he said, "But who do you say that I am?" Remember, it was Simon Peter that
spoke up and he said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Jesus said, "Flesh
and blood did not reveal this to you, Simon Peter, but my Father which is in heaven."
Why is this so critical for tonight? Because the church at Pergamos had gotten so
interested in the accolades of the world, the recognition of the world, and the ways of the
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world, you get the picture that the things of God, the message of Jesus, the road of
salvation, was never mentioned or presented because they were just doing it the world's
way just like Balaam had taught the Israelites in the Old Testament and, dare I say, much
like we're seeing in our world today. You and I are living in a world of compromise, a
world of selling out, where we don't want to give up benefits or we don't want to give up
privileges, we don't want to give up pleasures of this world for the truth of God's word
because we might be considered insensitive. After all, we want to have an open mind
about issues, right? After all, we don't want to exclude anybody. After all, we want to
allow everybody at the table. So why would you keep somebody just because of their
choices or their lifestyle or their decision on this or that? It's real simple: because God
said, "Thus saith the Lord." I find it interesting that everybody says that everybody
should have an open mind except Bible believing Christians; that everybody is welcome
but Bible believing Christians; every opinion is welcome but Bible believing Christians.
Why is that? It's because it is the Bible of which you get the idea the church at Pergamos
had gone by the wayside because he said, "I will judge you by my word." You get the
picture that because Bible believing Christians are excluded, it's because they have the
only standard by which all must either conform to or be convicted by.
So in just a few moments when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, this isn't just something
that Christians have been doing for 2,000 years, this is an act if you'll allow me to say it,
this is an act of worldly defiance. We are declaring that Jesus Christ alone is the answer
to our sin problem; that the word of God is true from beginning to end and that it is better
to do it God's way than the world's way. This is not just a "religious" ceremony, this is a
proclamation of the convictions that we hold. In just a moment, we're going to have a
very simple time of invitation, in fact, much going with the set that you have around you,
no live instrumentations or personalities, just simple music being played. I just want to
allow you just to remain seated like we did this morning. I'm going to come down to the
front for just a moment. The song that you're going to be hearing played is one that we
played this morning called, "I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender." Maybe you're an
individual tonight who says, "You know, I need to make that decision for Christ." Let me
remind all of us the Lord's Supper isn't for Baptists, the Lord's Supper isn't for
Pentecostals, the Lord's Supper isn't for Catholics, Presbyterians or anybody else, the
Lord's Supper has nothing to do with a denominational affiliation. It has to do with
people who have been bought by the blood of Jesus Christ and are born again believers.
If that is something you are not as of yet but say, "I need to be," let me encourage you in
just a moment to meet me here at the front.
Let's pray.
Lord, as we come to this time of invitation, I want to pray for that person tonight who is
struggling, for that person who is dealing not only with their own sin but the reality of
your response to their sin. And Lord, I pray tonight that your Holy Spirit would show
them that you love them so much that you came into the world to condemn not them, but
the sin that they have committed. Lord, you made it very clear in John 3 that you so loved
us that you were willing to give your Son on our behalf. So Lord, I pray if there be one
tonight that you would let them know that they're loved; you would let them know that
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they are welcome; you would let them know that you are willing to save any and all who
would call on your name. Lord, I also pray at this time of invitation, that for those of us
who are already believers, you would again deal with us in our hearts so as to prepare us
to remember you through your Son. It is in the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.
I'll be at the front just for a few moments. Any decision, I’ll be here.
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