Loyal Community (Part 2 of 3)

The exclusive claims of Christ offend a lot of people who suggest that many roads lead to heaven.

Tolerating such claims can erode the church's confidence and faithfulness. Today on Truth for Life, we'll see how Jesus reveals his supremacy and how he deals with disobedience and apathy. Alistair Begg is teaching from Revelation chapter 2, verses 12 through 19. So there was the loyalty of some, but as you read on, you will notice this, the second heading. We have to pay attention to the heresy of others. Verse 14, nevertheless, here it comes again, you see the pattern of these messages. Whenever he can say something commendatory, he does, but he also wants to identify the problem areas. In verses 14 and 15, if you allow your eyes just to look at it, this group of people had been successful in resisting the external threats, but they had failed to take care of their own internal problems.

They were culpable when it came to the charge of tolerating some who were clearly off the tracks. And the reference here is to the teaching of Balaam. We are not to think that this was some book or some particular body of doctrine, but rather it is descriptive of the activity of Balaam in advising in the Old Testament, and you need to do this for homework, in advising the Midianite women how to seduce the Israelites and thereby infiltrate and cause destruction amongst God's people. Professor Blaiklock notes that Balaam's clever idea was to break down Israel's power by an indirect attack on their morale. Quotes, pagan food and pagan women were his powerful tools against the rigidity of the Mosaic law. What is it they say that they weigh to a man's heart?

There is no question that men are particularly vulnerable when it comes to the issue of a tasty meal in front of them, whether that tasty meal involves fish and chips or whether it involves the lady up the street. Balaam understanding this says, I think that these people at Pergamum seem to be standing foursquare to the challenges of the external threat. And of course, he is simply the tool of Satan. The devices of Satan are so skillful, if he cannot bring havoc as a result of the external challenges, he may do so by the insidious work that is internal warfare, this kind of fifth column, as we've seen. And so Balaam, as he is referred to here, and you could read again of it at your leisure, but he serves as a kind of prototype of all the corrupt teachers who follow his example promulgating an antinomian approach to life.

Antinomian is simply from the Greek anti against and nomos law, against the law, the libertine licentious way of thinking, which says, you know, you don't really need to pay attention to all these things that the Bible has to say about holiness or purity or the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom. Don't believe all of that Old Testament nonsense. Rather, you come with me and I'll show you that it is perfectly possible for you to combine all of this with a little of this.

And the appeal is still out there. And it is a dreadfully enticing thing, idolatry mixed with immorality. We can please ourselves and indulge ourselves and be told by people whom we respect as spiritual guides that it's okay to combine the two.

And of course, if you begin to believe that, then you will live it, and once you begin to live it, your life will be so tied up by it that you will lose any kind of spiritual influence and witness at all. Now the fact is that some had embraced this teaching, but others within the fellowship had simply tolerated it. They were the kind of people who said, well, I don't actually do it. The kind of thing that I used to say as a teenage boy went on the way back from our football matches in Glasgow, suburban Glasgow, to my shame and to the shame of my friends. We used to get off the bus simply so that they could go into newsagent shops and steal anything they could. I was too scared and too affected by the influences of home and Bible to actually engage in the theft, but I never stayed on the bus. I got off with them. Well, I never reached forward and grabbed the big pens.

I never got the big Cadbury's fruit and nuts, but I tolerated it. And if they'd rounded us up, I was as culpable as the rest. Some of us have the spirit of the Pharisee within us dreadfully. We look across at people, we condemn them for activities in which they're engaging while at the same time secretly wishing that we had the courage to do the very things they've done.

The only thing that differentiates us from them is the fact that they've gone ahead and done it, but we've tolerated it. And there were a great company among them who were tolerating these things. And the concern of Jesus says, start, is with the waywardness of the majority and the nonchalance of the minority. The indifference of the church to these things is seen as a considerable problem. Pergamum had a problem in that their zeal to be rid of all of the weeds of heresy meant that they were in danger of uprooting everything that was there as a fledgling plant. Actually I don't mean Pergamum, I mean the church that we dealt with yesterday. Their zeal was such in Ephesus. They wouldn't tolerate it and so in seeking to deal with that, they dealt with the danger of uprooting that which was real.

Here in Pergamum, the fault is the opposite. And in failing to take action against the error that is among them, they make it possible for the obnoxious weeds to spread to the great harm of God's people. So we find that they are commended for holding fast to their right belief and they are understandably rebuked for failing to deal seriously with those who were guilty of wrong behavior. True Christianity not only believes correctly but behaves properly. True Christianity exalts Christ and promotes holiness.

And Pergamum was prepared, despite the loyalty of some, to tolerate the heresy of others. The third thing and the last thing in this section that I want you to notice is that in the midst of all of this, we are confronted once again by the supremacy of Christ, a supremacy that is seen as the issue as a call, a call to the believers to repent. Verse 26, repent, otherwise I will soon come to you and I'll fight against them with a sword of my mouth. He alone is the one who in his authority and supremacy can issue such a call.

He alone is the one who speaks the authoritative word. It's a dramatic picture, isn't it? The sword of his mouth. Now, if you've seen pictures of a short Roman sword, you will understand the metaphor because those short Roman swords were a bit like fruit knives in a canteen of cutlery, the little Y ones. And so they looked tongue-like. And Jesus says, my word is sharp like that.

Of course, we know that. The writer to the Hebrews says that the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. Paul says that the word of God which we should take into our hands in order to deal with the issues around us is nothing other than the sword of the spirit. It is this sword which pricks the consciences of men and women. It is this sword which wounds the sinner's pride.

It is this sword which cuts away all of our camouflages and pierces all of our defenses. It is, as Stott says that, which bears our sin and need and kills all false doctrine by its deft, sharp thrusts. Now there is a word of vital importance here concerning the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture for the people there in Pergamum as they live their lives and for us this morning as we live in the framework of an environment in which reading and history and convictions that have been long-held convictions have been shuddering and crumbling under the reconstructionist thinking of the intellectual elite and feeding its way down into the community in magazines and in different things so that out of that environment we find ourselves coming into the listening of the word of God. And we need to ask the Spirit of God to remind us again of the absolute supremacy of Jesus and the absolute authority and sufficiency of the Bible. Jesus in the face of temptation, you will remember, turned to the Bible to answer the evil one. In revitalizing the despondent duo on the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24, it struck me again in preparing for this this week that he turned them to the Scriptures, remember?

They were disconsolate. They thought the whole matter of redemptive history had been buried in a Palestinian grave. They said to this stranger, we thought that he was the one who was going to be the Redeemer of our people Israel, but it's all come to a dreadful grinding halt. Why did Jesus not at that moment simply say, guys, hang on a minute, let me show you a couple of things.

I've had my hands in my robe up until now, but look, and show them his nail-pierced hands. Or why didn't he just pull back something of his garments and show them his side? Why did he give them a Bible talk? Why did he give them a Bible exposition? Why did he begin with Moses and the prophets and show them everything in the Scriptures concerning himself, because he knew that the opportunity to see the wounds would be limited to a moment and to a few. But the necessity to convey from generation to generation the unerring truth of the sufficient Word of God would be the constant need in all times and in all places. And that's why when finally in the breaking of bread he makes himself known to them and then departs, they say to one another, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us? I hope you're not worshiping in a congregation that spends so much time creating the atmosphere by singing that there's no time left for listening to the Word of God in its preaching. The way that we apportion and proportion our time is a direct indication of the priorities that we give to certain aspects of our lives, and the place of the Bible is absolutely vital.

Let me give you one other indication of this. You remember the story that Jesus tells of the rich man who dies and he goes to hell? The beggar Lazarus who worked at his gate is now found in heaven. Looking across, and this is simply a metaphor in order to make points, surely, looking across, he sees Father Abraham and he says, Father Abraham, could you send Lazarus over here to give me basically just a sip of water because I am parched of thirst? No chance, says Abraham. Paul then says, the rich man, could you please send Lazarus to my brothers to warn them because I don't want them to come to this place? What does Abraham say? He says, they have Moses and the prophets, let them listen to them.

In other words, let them read their Bibles. Oh no, says the rich man by a recounter, if somebody will come from the dead and speak to them… In other words, if something really dramatic takes place, then I'm fairly convinced that they will then believe and they'll not end up in hell. And Abraham replies, if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.

Now, do you understand this, dear people? The confidence of heaven is in the Scriptures, and the erosion of confidence by whatever mechanism amongst the people of God in the authority and ultimately the sufficiency of the Scriptures to be able to accomplish the purposes for which God has ordained it is a significant erosion. It will not become apparent in one generation, but in subsequent generations, the declension, the rot, the misgivings, the disinterest, the wrongful preoccupations will in generations yet unborn of Christ's tares yield their bitter fruit. So I say to you, beware of everyone and everything that would ever make us waver on our convictions concerning the singular authority and the absolute sufficiency of Scripture. The supremacy of Christ is revealed in his call to repent. It is revealed in his authority by his Word. And it is revealed, as you will see, in the gifts that he is able to promise to the ones who overcome. I'll give him some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it. Now, at this point, Mr. Smith and his wife Ethel are getting edgy, you know. They're about to jump into the discussion with a comment on hidden manna and the white stones with a new name.

Just encourage them. Just sit there for a moment. We'll be okay. Don't worry.

Don't get too upset. You may want to go, Ethel, and just put the kettle on. We're getting ready. Now, we're drawing this to a close. Get her out in the kitchen.

This is the safest place for her just now. You say, well, I can feel your agnosticism about to kick in again. Yes, you're becoming very perceptive in such a short time, but that's no surprise.

You're a very bright group of people. So what am I going to say to you? Well, I'm going to tell you, go home and do your homework. Go home and read all the books I've read on the hidden manna and the white stone.

Go home and fall asleep listening to all these funny ideas. But as any good teacher would say, let me give you a start. I was always glad when they gave me a start. I tried to keep the teacher there for as long as she possibly could, giving me start after start after start until she finished the whole thing for me.

But they always caught on to me very quickly. But let me give you a start. What about this idea of hidden manna? Well, it'll take you back, some of you in your minds who know your Bible well, back into Exodus, to the Ark of the Covenant, to the golden urn and to the manna that was hidden away inside it. That manna, of course, which was pointing out, as it were, through time to Jesus Christ, who is the true bread from heaven, a Jesus who is presently hidden from us, the true manna hidden from us in the reality of heaven, enabling us then at our communion services to sing, we taste thee, O thou living bread, and long to feast upon thee still. We drink of thee the fountainhead and thirst our souls on thee to fill.

I think this is somewhere in the direction of how you get a handle on this, that in heaven we will enjoy all the reality of having eaten of the bread that comes down from heaven, which is his life for the world. As for the stone, I'm not so sure that the stone itself is significant other than it exists as an entity upon which can be carved or written this name. In other words, it's a vehicle for the giving of a name. But what of the name? Well, it would seem that you're going to get a new name in the new heaven and the new earth. So for example, if your name's Agnes and you never liked it, hold on. It's, you know, you'll be okay. Not that Agnes is a bad name. I just chose that.

It was the first one that came to mind, A being the first letter in the alphabet. I wish I'd said this, but I didn't. And I'll just give you the quote. And then we have to go to Thyatira very quickly. Some little boy's nudging his mother saying, oh, do we have to go to Thyatira, mom?

And we just go to the cafe. God does not view the multitude of the redeemed as a great undifferentiated mass of humanity. Have you ever thought about getting up to heaven and you think there's just going to be one big glob of something? It will all be lost in the crowd. It will all be strange, newly fashioned features and creatures. No, we will recognize one another. I don't think there's any doubt about that, even in our newness. Jesus, who calls a sheep by name, apparently has a promise for us, and that is that He's going to come to us. He's going to come to us individually, and He's going to slip a little stone into our hands, as it were, literally or metaphorically, and on that is our new name, identifying the uniqueness and the distinctiveness of the personal relationship that we will enjoy for all of eternity with He who is the Lord of glory. Write thy new name upon my heart, that new best name of love. Now that's the best I can do with it. Are you okay for Thyatira, 40 miles southeast of Pergamon?

The longest letter, funnily enough, is written to the least politically influential city of the group. If we had walked into Thyatira on a lovely morning like this, we would have discovered it was a thriving, bustling commercial community, a great place to go shopping. If you had a business in the outlying regions, you would go there and buy wholesale and take the stuff back and resell it. Something along those lines presumably had been part and parcel of the business established by Lydia, who of course you will remember came from Thyatira and was herself a seller of purple, part of the opportunistic entrepreneurial environment of Thyatira was seen in its manufacturing base, which it then matched with a marketing ability, so much so that it drew people from all around, and folks would be going there for a good day shopping. You could buy wool, you could buy wonderful linen, you could buy leather goods if you needed to add to some of your cooking utensils. They had a wonderful pottery place, and there were apparently excellent bakeries, which were in full swing, allowing the average husband to sit down and eat himself to death while his wife continued to run around buying linen, wool, and leather goods.

I do apologize for that dreadful stereotype, but anyway. And it was here in the midst of all of this activity that Jesus had said his church, in an environment that was peculiarly challenging as we're about to see, Jesus had prayed for the church that they wouldn't be, he prayed to his father that they would not be removed from the world, but that we would be kept from the evil one. These believers were, as we this morning, both in Christ and in Thyatira.

We are placed in Christ, but we also live in Clethorps, or we're in Christ and we also live in Bolton, and one day our in Christness will be caught up as we are in heaven with Christ, but for the time being, our experience of being in Christ is also mitigated and impinged upon by the fact that we're living in this very real world with all of the challenges and changes that it represents. Living false teaching is dangerous. When it comes to Christ's authority and supremacy, we need to stand firm.

You're listening to Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. The Bible should have a central and vital place in each one of our lives. Even Jesus turned to the Scriptures as he resisted temptation and as he conveyed truth to others. That's why our mission here at Truth for Life is to teach the Bible every day and in the process to encourage pastors to be committed to teaching the Bible as well. Sharing our faith with others isn't something that is reserved for pastors or for Bible study leaders.

All of us are expected to share the good news of Christ's gospel with others. And to help you do that, today we want to encourage you to request a book titled Mere Evangelism, 10 Insights from C.S. Lewis to help you share your faith.

In addition to being known for his writing, C.S. Lewis was used by God to lead many people to trust Jesus. In the book Mere Evangelism, you'll see how Lewis approached gospel conversations.

This book explores how Lewis responded to questions, how he handled objections, and how he appealed to people's love of imagery. By looking at 10 specific ways Lewis approached sharing his faith, we can draw from his strategies to freshen our own approach to evangelism. Request your copy of the book Mere Evangelism when you give a donation to support the biblical teaching you hear on this program. To give, click the image you see on the mobile app or visit us online at truthforlife.org slash donate. Or you can call us at 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lapine, hope you can join us tomorrow when we'll learn how moral compromise is like a poisonous weed. It can quickly and thoroughly mar everyone and everything it touches. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.