The Bible reveals how the early church experienced and gracefully endured severe persecutions, and today we're also seeing a growing wave of hostility against Christians. In his new book God's Final Call, Dr Michael Youssef takes you to the compelling and comforting words of Jesus in the book of Revelation. You'll be challenged to faithfully run the race of faith, reclaim and renew your first love, and follow Jesus more closely and faithfully. He who has ear, let him hear. It means that Jesus' message is for all, all who hear it.
It's meant not only for the members of those seven churches, but it's meant for everyone who reads the Word of God in the book of Revelation, in those seven letters. Be one of the first to get a copy of God's Final Call when it's released. Pre-order your copy today and learn more about the content when you go to ltw.org.
It'll be shipped to you the moment it's released, when you give a gift of any amount to the ongoing ministry of leading the way. Ltw.org. Hello and welcome to Leading the Way with Atlanta Pastor and the author of more than 50 spiritual challenging books, Dr Michael Youssef. God's Final Call is the title of Dr Youssef's current audio series, also his newest book.
It's pointed teaching about living a Spirit-led, Spirit-filled life via a deep dive into the words that Jesus spoke to seven churches of his day in Revelation. Stay with Dr Youssef for this life-changing message from God's Word. Now, if you're not able to hear all of this episode, or maybe you want to listen to additional content from Dr Youssef, try ltw.org. All of our messages are archived right there. Just follow the Listen link, or you can get details about Dr Youssef's new book covering more of the content from this series, and it's called God's Final Call.
Also, be sure to remember that Leading the Way is listener supported. You can use that same website, ltw.org, to learn how to pray for and stand with Dr Youssef and the teams across six continents. Right now, listen with me to God's Final Call. The first thing you notice here, that the great physician gives him a diagnosis. He's a great diagnostician. And secondly, he gives his disappointment, the source of his disappointment. And thirdly, he makes a decision, or give them the opportunity to make a decision.
So here you get it, diagnosis, disappointment, and decision. Easy for you to remember, right? Starts with D. Write him down. First thing you notice is our glorified Jesus' diagnosis of the condition of the church in Pergamum. Pergamum, it's about a hundred miles from Ephesus, and fifty miles from Smyrna. Pergamum was a city that was built one thousand feet above the plain. That's where the city was built. It contained the second largest library in the world at that time.
The first of the largest was the famed Library of Alexandria. In the Library of Pergamum, there were two hundred thousand volumes, handwritten volumes. Above all, Pergamum became the center of emperor worship. Just to give you an idea of the pressure that these believers in Pergamum, that church in Pergamum were under, in the average region they were offered a sacrifice to the emperor, whom they worshiped, Lord Caesar, once a year.
In Pergamum, they were offering daily sacrifice to the emperor, just to understand the pressure. See, without understanding all of this, there's just another letter, and you say, well, you know, our Lord Jesus is just telling them some things. No, no, no, you have to understand that he knows, he knows everything.
Imagine with me, imagine with the incredible pressure, the daily pressure, that these believers were under in this town. And that is why the glorified Jesus said, I know where you live. I know where you live. This is not a threat, like sometimes you say, I know where you live, you know.
No, this is a loving statement. I know where you live, meaning, I know your circumstances, I know your constant temptation, I know that Satan is in total control of your city, I know that Satan's headquarter is right next door to where you live. Question, why is Jesus saying this? Because Pergamum was not only the center of emperor worship, but also was the center of the worship of the god Iskallapios. He was called the god of healing. Iskallapios, of course, is a satanic manifestation, was viewed as the son of Apollo, and he was depicted as a snake. As a matter of fact, some pharmaceutical companies use that snake as an emblem. The god Iskallapios, represented by a snake, was a constant reminder for them, the believers in Pergamum, of Satan in the garden of Eden and the temptation.
It was a constant reminder. In fact, in the temple of Iskallapios, they had a bunch of non-poisonous snakes all over the temple. I mean, they were roaming freely, and they would dare not kill it, because that's their god. And the poor saps, that's the best way I can describe them, the poor saps traveled from all over the world to come to the temple of Iskallapios, and they would lie on the ground and hoping that the snake will touch them, because they believed that Iskallapios himself was touching them, and they believed that's where their healing is. So you have to understand, these poor believers in that area, and that is why Jesus called their city where the throne of Satan is.
It's the headquarters. And yet, in the middle of trying circumstances, in the middle of these trying situations, the believers continued to hold onto the essence of the gospel. There are some faithful believers in that church who continued to believe that Christ died for their sin and rose again. They continued to hold fast in the name of Christ. They never denied the name of Christ. They never denied the faith altogether, as you see in some of the mainline denominations today.
They abandoned the gospel altogether, so much so that one of the church leaders, by the name of Antipas, was martyred, and Jesus make a reference to him. The faithful believers in that church remained true to Christ in a very difficult circumstance, and that is why the resurrected, glorified Jesus commends them for it. He commends them for it. He praises them for it. He praises them for their faithfulness to the gospel under the most difficult circumstances.
Beloved, listen to me. Our God never takes anything we do in His service for granted. Our God always points out to our faithfulness when we are. Which brings me, secondly, to His disappointment with His servants in that church. What is the source of Jesus' disappointment? Very simply put, they were falling in the same trap that many a mega church in America today is falling into.
They were falling in the same trap that so many churches have fallen into. Ooh, we cannot sit in judgment on anyone. We should not be judgmentalists. Oh, we should not judge anybody's sin, even if that sin is so blatant and totally against the Word of God. Even if that sin is called by another name. Even if that sin is called alternative lifestyle by some members of that church. Now, let me share something with you.
Now, I'm coming close now to half a century in ministry, half a century of serving God. What I have learned through these years is that when a pastor or a church leader says, we should not be judgmentalists of sin, or the sin of others, it is dead giveaway that that person is not judging sin in his or her own life. Whenever they are afraid to call sin, sin, it's because ten out of ten times they have never learned to judge sin in their personal life. Whenever there is a hidden sin, whenever there is an unconfessed sin, whenever there is a cherished sin, whenever there is a rationalized sin, or covered up sin, oh, we shouldn't be judging others.
It's a cover-up. Judging sin must begin by judging myself. It must begin by judging ourselves first.
We must begin by examining, and judging, and confessing, and repenting of our own sins in our lives. Only then are we in a position to call sin, sin. In the church of Pergamum, there was tolerance of sexual immorality. Oh, it did not affect their faith of the faithful members of the church. No, it did not affect their loyalty to Christ. It did not affect their belief in Christ. Oh, but the risen, glorified, great physician and his diagnosis said, I have few things against you.
What are they? Jesus said, you are winking at sin in your midst. You're winking at it. You're accepting people into membership, even in leadership, who are living in blatant sin. They were knee-deep in sexual immorality, and yet they are serving in the church. Under the guise of being a welcoming church, there's nothing wrong with that, but under the guise of being a welcoming church, they turn a blind eye to some of their membership who turn the grace of God into license.
They call it hyper-grace. Jesus does not say that. Jesus does not say. He said this type of sin that Balaam in the Old Testament book of Numbers chapter 22 to 24, Balaam introduced that sin to the people of God. In the same way, in the New Testament, there was a false prophet by the name of Nicholas. He introduced that to the church of Jesus Christ.
I'm going to explain all that. Nicholas was one of the seven deacons. Remember, the apostles said we must give ourselves to preaching of the gospel and prayer and ministering, so they chose seven deacons. Wonderful man, the first martyr. Stephen was one of them.
Well, there's always one bad in the bunch. Even Jesus had one out of twelve. Nicholas was one of those deacons. Both Balaam in the New Testament and Nicholas in the New Testament have promoted the same sexual immorality. I know most of you have heard of Balaam's ass. I know you've heard that, and that's why I always say, don't be too stubborn.
Don't be too stubborn and be careful because your spiritual stubbornness may make the donkey speak. Just let me refresh your memories about Balaam. The people of God were redeemed from the slavery of Egypt, and they were on their way to the Promised Land, and the king of the Moabites didn't want this to happen.
He wanted to stop them from going into the Promised Land, so what did he do? He looked around and he found Balaam. Balaam was a prophet for hire. Balaam would do anything and say anything if the price was right. Balaam was a prophet who was available to the highest bidder, and so the king of Moab hires him. God told him not to go, but the money was so good. So he goes along, and then he was asked by king to curse the people of God, to curse them so they don't go to the Promised Land. Balaam, he looks at this pile of money on the table, and he said, man, that's a lot of money, even though God has been telling me not to do it. And it's just too much money on the table to leave it there.
You've got to do something about it. And God says, don't do it, Balaam. Don't do it, Balaam. And every time the king of Moab hears him say, I can't do it, I won't do it, he just thinks that this is Balaam's way of being coy and wants more money.
And he passed more money on the table, more money on the table. And Balaam wanted to curse him so badly because of the money. But God says, you can't do it. And every time he opens his mouth to curse him, he blesses him. Every time he tried to curse him, he ends up blessing them.
Every time he says no, the king of Moab adds a zero to the check. And finally, he failed to curse the people of God because God wouldn't let him. Balaam did not want to walk away from that pile of money.
I mean, it's just too much money, and it looked so good. So he came up with a diabolical plan, really diabolical. Only the devil himself, Lucifer, who served at the throne room of God before he was thrown out of heaven, would have come up with that plan. And it worked. It worked. Because Balaam knew, like Satan knows, that God is a righteous God. And his righteousness would not allow sin to run rampant in his body, in his church, in his kingdom, the people of Israel at the time. And God's righteous anger, sure enough, burned against Israel because of that diabolical plan, and the 24,000 men died.
What was the plan? Entice them sexually. Entice them sexually. Get some loose more about women that would entice the Israelite men, and they will not only commit adultery with them, they will actually bow to their gods.
They're going to bow to their idols. And that brought God's judgment on Israel. I told you diabolical, diabolical. What the false prophet of the Old Testament, Balaam, was to Israel was the false prophet in the New Testament Nicholas brought to the church.
And it was running rampant. Question, what was the Lord saying to them, and to us, and to us? Those are so hung up on not being judgmental. Don't judge sexual immorality. Here's what he says, be forewarned. Be forewarned.
Can you say that with me? Be forewarned. When somebody says, I just can't help it, be forewarned. When somebody says, I'm just born that way, be forewarned.
When somebody says, I don't have strength to resist, be forewarned. When somebody says, grace will cover it all, send to your hearts content because grace will take care of it. They are bringing Balaam and Nicholas sin into the church. What Balaam in the Old Testament and Nicholas in the New Testament said is this, listen carefully, oh it's just a little bit of idolatry, not much, it's just a little bit of adultery, it's not much, but just a little bit. Still love your wives, and you can tell, yeah I love you, you're my wife, these are girlfriends, they're just, they don't mean much to me, you know. A little bit of drunkenness goes a long way, just bow the knee a little bit to Lord Caesar.
A little bit of grain of incense is not going to harm me. We are free, we are free in Christ. We're not under legalism and all this law stuff in the Old Testament. No, we are free now in the New Testament. Don't be an extremist like that Yusuf guy.
I actually heard that with my own ears. We're all human? Surely God understands this. He does not expect us to be perfect.
Don't be unreasonable, don't be unreasonable. Well, my beloved friends, Christ happened to disagree with this. He happened to disagree with this false reasoning, false reasoning. In fact, Jesus commended the church of Ephesus for hating the work of these Nicolites for not tolerating the sin of Nicholas.
He commended the church in Ephesus. He is condemning the church in Pergamum for tolerating it, for tolerating it. So I come to the third, the great physician's verdict of decision.
Let me remind you, it's diagnosis, disappointment, decision. Jesus said to them, the only remedy that is acceptable to him, the only remedy that is acceptable to him, the only remedy of any, any, any, any, any sinful behavior. It is not to discuss it. It is not to explain it away.
It is not to rationalize it. It must be repented of. And the gracious, merciful King Jesus invites them to repent.
Isn't the Lord gracious? Then he gives them a choice. But before they make a choice, he reminds them that choices have consequences. Choices have consequences.
Can you say that with me? If they refuse to repent, then the surgeons couple. The word of his mouth will be penetrating deep into their lives because Jesus will not allow falsehood to permeate his bride. Jesus will not allow cancer to infest his body, the church. No wonder the apostle Paul warned us. He said don't confuse God's patience with his acquiescence. Because he's so patient, because he wants to lead us to repentance, don't think that he's winking at yourself.
Don't think he's going to forget about it. So the first choice he gives them is to repent. If they repented, there are two major rewards. The first is the hidden manna, and the second is the white stone. The hidden manna was a reference to the jar of manna that God told them to save when they were supernaturally fed in the wilderness. In fact, the box, which is called the Ark of the Covenant, had the staff of Moses, the Ten Commandments, and a jar of the manna.
God asked him to do this in order to remind them of his grace of redeeming them from Egypt. Oh, but the real manna, the real manna, the real manna from heaven is Jesus himself. And he said so in John chapter 6.
And so my beloved friends, listen to me. When we repent and stop rationalizing, we are going to get no less than Jesus. And the white stone is what every winning athlete received after a game when they win in the games. And they have a little white stone with their name written on it. And when God had a special calling on someone's life, he changed their name. Abram became Abraham, Sarai became Sarah, Jacob became Israel, Simon became Peter, and Saul became Paul. God has a new spiritual name for you when you repent and lean on his strength alone. God has a new identity for every repentant sinner. And that name is engraved on the heart of the cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Do you want to give him glory?
626-4356. And while you're there, at ltw.org that is, you might want to browse the digital resources section in the online store. There are several items that you'll find valuable for living a faithful Christian life.
One is from valley to victory. In it, Dr. Yusef challenges you to drink deeply from the words of Paul in the book of Romans. Another is the prayer that God answers.
You'll see how the Lord's prayer can radically impact your life, leading you to experience power in living like never before. The website again is ltw.org. Just look for the store link, it's right there near the top, and then click on digital resources.
The entire library of available items will populate the page. Well, remember that the invitation is always open for you to join Dr. Michael Yusef right here next time when he passionately proclaims uncompromising truth on Leading the Way Audio. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef. Connect further with audio and video content at ltw.org.
