The Church: Its Meaning - The Playground for the Enemy of God, Part 2

The church is the playground of the enemy of God. We began this last Sunday and we'll continue it today and into next week to help you understand that the church is in imminent danger. And I'm afraid that for many of us, we have forgotten about that. That's because we have become unaware or ignorant of Satan's devices, according to Paul's admonition in 2 Corinthians 2, verse number 11. We need to understand that Satan has a plan. He cannot destroy God, so he tries to destroy the plan of God, the plan God has for his church and through his church.

And he is doing a marvelous job at that. So let me introduce it to you this way by taking you back to the book of Leviticus, the 18th chapter.

Leviticus chapter 18. The Lord has a plan for his people. Always the people of God must be uniquely and distinctly separate from the world. So the Lord, having redeemed Israel from Egyptian bondage, and they had been in that bondage for 430 years, they were two years removed from their Exodus, and they're at the base of Mount Sinai. And the Lord is gonna give Moses instructions about how they are to live their lives. And so in Luke chapter 18, verse number one, these words are spoken.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, "'Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, "'I am the Lord your God. "'You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt "'where you lived, nor are you to do what is done "'in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you. "'You shall not walk in their statutes. "'You are to perform my judgments and keep my statutes "'to live in accord with them. "'I am the Lord your God, so you shall keep my statutes "'and my judgments by which a man may live "'if he does them.

"'I am the Lord.'" In other words, our Lord emphasizes that he is the sovereign ruler of the universe, that he is the Lord God of Israel. Because I am your Lord, there is a way you are to live your life in the land that you're going to possess. You're not to live like you did in Egypt. You're not to live like those who live in Canaan. Your lives must be distinctly separate from them. And then later on in chapter 18, verse number 22, he says, you shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female.

It is an abomination. Also, you should not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with it, nor shall any woman stand before an animal to mate with it. It is a perversion. Do not defile yourselves by any of these things, for by all the nations which I am casting out before you have become defiled. Verse 24, excuse me, 26. But as for you, you are to keep my statutes and my judgments and shall not do any of these abominations, neither the native nor the alien who sojourns among you. Verse 29, for whoever does any of these abominations, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people.

Thus you are to keep my charge that you do not practice any of the abominable customs which have been practiced before you so as to not defile yourselves with them. I am the Lord, your God. Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, you shall be holy for I, the Lord, your God am holy. Our Lord gives instructions to a nation that they are to be holy as God himself is holy. And over the years, we've talked to you about what that holiness looks like.

For God is holy, that is he is separate from his creation as well as separate from corruption. In other words, he is not like us. He is completely different than us and he is separate from creation. He expects his people to be separate from creation as well because we are aliens and strangers in a foreign land. We're just passing through. We're not like to be like those in the land of Canaan or in the land of Egypt or in any land for that matter. We are to be like those in a heavenly land. We are also to be separate from corruption as he is.

He is holy, holy, holy and he is completely and uniquely separate from all corruption. So too should you and I be separate from all corruption. So he tells Israel, you're not to engage in these abominations, they are a perversion. You are to be distinct, you are to be holy for I, the Lord, your God am holy. Peter would quote that in 1 Peter 1, verse number 16. He would tell those Christians who were scattered abroad that they were to be holy as God himself is holy. James said in James 1, verse number 27, that pure religion and undefiled before our father is this, to visit the widows and orphans in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

He goes on to say in James 4, verse number four, that do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? We are told in 1 John 2, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, they're of the world. And if any man loves the world, he does not love the father. So the admonition for Israel in the Old Testament is the same admonition for the church in the New Testament. We are to be a holy kind of people, a uniquely different kind of people.

Well, Satan is our adversary. He goes about like a roaring lion seeking who may be devoured. So he seeks to do that. He seeks to destroy the church. And he has a plan. In fact, he has a very effective plan as to the condition of the church today, as was the condition of the church even 2,000 years ago. Because whatever the Lord builds, Satan wants to destroy. Now we know that the Bible says that the Lord's gonna build the church and the gates of hell should not prevail against it.

We know that. That's the assurance that God is building his church. At the same time, we also know that the Lord said in Matthew 13 that there are gonna be tares that are sown alongside of the wheat and they will grow together in the kingdom age. And he can't tell the difference between the two until the harvest time. And so Satan is trying to deceive and trying to distract and move the church away from the Lord. He has a plan. It's a five-step plan. Our Lord has given us that plan in Scripture so we are aware of that, so we understand it, so we are not caught off guard, so we know how to prepare for it.

And that five-step plan is seen in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter two and chapter three, by looking at the five of the seven churches that are told to repent. Two of them are not told to repent. Only five of them are. And those five show us the downgrade of the church. They show us Satan's plan to destroy and infiltrate the church. Satan doesn't wanna just neutralize the church. He wants to overrun the church. And the book of Revelation tells us how he does that. In each letter, there's given an affirmation.

With that affirmation, five of the seven churches receive an accusation. As a result of that accusation, they are given an admonition to turn around. And in each of those letters, the Lord describes Himself in a particular way to each of them. There are seven letters given to John on the island of Patmos. It's a rocky place in the Aegean Sea. It was a penal colony. And John was shipped there under the reign of Domitian, who reigned between 81 and 96 AD. So that's why we believe in a later writing of the book of Revelation instead of an earlier writing of the book of Revelation.

So John is on the island of Patmos, and God is going to give him a vision of the future. And within that vision of the future, there are seven churches that need to receive a letter from the Lord, a letter given to the angel of the church or the messenger of the church or the pastor of the church to be read to that church. These are seven literal churches that truly existed. They're on the postal route in Asia Minor, beginning in Ephesus all the way to Laodicea. And yet these seven churches are representative of every church that's ever existed in the church age.

They become a symbol of what the church looks like. And so these seven churches play a vital role, not just for today, but for the end before the Lord returns again. And so we're gonna see in these churches, five of the seven, how it is that Satan wants to overrun the church. He begins by making the church cold. Once a church becomes cold, it compromises. Once it compromises, it's corrupted. Once it's corrupted, it becomes a corpse. Church of Sardis, they're called the dead church. And once the church becomes the corpse, the church then becomes the ultimate counterfeit for Satan to use for his purposes.

That's the downgrade of the church. That's why the church is called the playground of the enemy of God. And the Lord wants us to know that as Satan works, he works with an individual people in the church. He causes their love to grow cold. That's where it begins. So if you have your Bible, turn to the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter two, and we'll begin with the church at Ephesus. Revelation chapter two, verse number one, the church at Ephesus.

To the angel of the church at Ephesus, right? The one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands says this. Now, what does that mean? What are seven stars and seven golden lampstands? The unique thing about the book of Revelation is that there's something that's said, it's defined for you within the book. For instance, if you go back up to chapter one, verse number 20, it says these words, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

So the Lord holds in his hand, the seven leaders, the seven pastors, the seven elders, the seven messengers, he holds them in his hand. And he walks among the seven golden lampstands. In other words, he walks among the church. He walks in and through the church. He's ever present, always aware of what's going on in the church. That's why he says in verse two of chapter two, I know your deeds. Verse nine, chapter two, I know your tribulation. Verse 13 of chapter two, I know where you dwell. Chapter three, verse number one, I know your deeds.

Verse eight, I know your deeds. Verse 15, I know your deeds. In other words, the Lord knows. He knows everything. Not because he walks among the seven golden lampstands and sees, but because he automatically always knows because he's omniscient. He lets you know that he sees everything, but he knows everything as well. And because he knows it, he knows it intimately. He is the only one who can pass judgment on the church. In fact, Peter says in 1 Peter 4, 17, that if judgment's going to begin, let it begin in the house of God.

Let it begin within the church, for our God sees all and our God knows all. So with the church of Ephesus, he begins and says, I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men. And you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not. And you found them to be false. And you have perseverance and have endured for my name's sake and have not grown weary. Then you read that affirmation. You think, wow, what a great place to be. They test that which is false.

They are able not to grow weary in doing good. They do what they do for the sake of God's name. They put to test those apostles who claim to be apostles and are not, heeding the warning that Paul gave them in Acts chapter 20, that false teachers will rise from within, right? And so this affirmation comes at a proper time, at a good time. And if you're in the church of Ephesus, you hear this and you're thinking pretty good about yourselves. Thinking, wow, this is what the Lord says about our church.

This is great. But then he says, but. And the but-ologies of scripture are huge. They're the biggest buts in the world. The but-ologies. And so what does he say? He says this, but I have this against you. It's never good when God has something against your church. It's never good. So the Lord says, but I have this against you. What's he say? This is his accusation against the church. That you have left your first love.

How could that be? You no longer have passion for me. You once did, but now no longer. Your love for me has grown cold. And listen, this is Satan's first step in the downward spiral of the church.

He steals your passion. He steals your passion. So your love for Christ begins to grow cold. There once was a church with a lot of heat, a lot of fire, a lot of excitement. But the joy is gone, the thrill is gone. And now they're just going through the motions. Now it's become mechanical. Now they're in a rut. Now everything is routine. Yes, there are deeds that they are doing that are very admirable. And God affirms that in them. Yet, yet they've lost their love for Christ. Interesting that Paul in Ephesians chapter three prayed for their love for the Lord.

He prayed in Ephesians chapter three, verse number 17, said Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. I want you to know the love of Christ because if you do, you'll be filled up to all the fullness of God. So Paul writes this letter to the church at Ephesus to let them know he's praying for their love life with the Lord.

But this church pastored by Paul, then by Timothy, some believe that even the apostle John had been instrumental in the church at Ephesus before he was exiled to Patmos, has gotten to a point now where their passion for Christ or love for Christ has diminished and they've grown cold in their relationship with the Lord. See, this is how Satan begins. He wants your love for Christ to be cold. Same way is true, by the way, in your marriage, right? Think about it. You had this marriage and marriage is a picture of what?

Christ's relationship to the church. Well, Satan wants to destroy your marriage. Go back to Genesis chapter three. He's always trying to destroy the marriage of a man and a woman because it's a testimony to the grace of God. It's an institution that God created. Well, he wants to destroy it. So how does he begin to destroy your marriage? By getting your love to grow cold toward one another. It grows cold toward one another because your love for Christ has grown cold. And if he can get you to become icy in your marriage, he can begin to have a foothold in your relationship.

When you were first married, things were great. You were excited. You were in love. Passion was fiery. You were so enamored one with another. As a husband, you couldn't wait to get home from work. In fact, you'd even leave early to get home from work because you wanted to be with your wife. You'd surprise her. You'd even bring home dinner so she wouldn't have to cook it anymore. You'd leave those sticky notes on the door, on the mirror, at different locations in the house. You'd leave little gifts around so she could open it up while you were gone.

You'd send her cards and letters at specific times. You'd text her throughout the day. Why? Because you were passionate about your wife. You were in love with your wife. But over time, you started staying a little bit later at work, a little bit longer at work. You became busy at work. Texts didn't come as frequently as they used to come. You stopped bringing dinner home, wondering why dinner wasn't on the table when you got home. You stopped putting sticky notes on the mirror, on the windows. Stopped sending cards, flowers, gifts.

It became routine, the marriage life. You got in a rut. You became stagnant. Why? Because you lost your first love with your spouse.

You began to grow cold. This was the church at Ephesus. And the church, remember, is the bride of Christ. And the bride has grown cold toward the bridegroom. Christ says, I know your deeds.

But guess what? I know your love for me. Has grown cold. Remember Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5.14? The love of Christ compels me. It's my love for Christ, his love for me, that moves me, that energizes me, that fires me up to serve the Lord. So that's what I do. So the Lord says, as he gives the accusation, after giving them the affirmation, gives them the admonition. He says this. Therefore, remember from where you've fallen and repent. And do the deeds you did at first, or else I'm coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent.

In other words, I'm going to remove your church because the church is one of the seven golden lampstands. I'm going to remove your church unless you remember the way it was when you first began.

Then repent, turn around, go the opposite direction. Don't keep going the same direction you are going because that's not getting you anywhere. Turn around, repent, and when you do, repeat the first deeds that you did at first.

This is the admonition. Remember from where you've fallen. Remember how it was when you first began your walk with me, when the church was birthed, and you were born again, and you were sharing your faith with the unbeliever, and you were in the word, and you were with the people of God, and you couldn't wait to talk about God with others.

You couldn't wait to pray to God and commune with him. Everything about your relationship with the Lord was a thrill. It was exciting. It was stimulating, but it is no longer. Or you still do some good deeds, but you're just going through the motions. I need you to rekindle your love for me. So go back and do your first deeds.

Why? Because before there's delight, there's always duty. But before duty, there's always discipline. A disciplined life becomes a dutiful life, and a dutiful life becomes a delight. So he knows that if you go back and do the first deeds, that's why in a marriage, right?

Your marriage has grown cold. What do you do? You go back and do the first deeds. Do the things you did when you were first married.

That's right. Go back and do those things once again. It's gonna take discipline. You gotta be dutiful in your responsibilities. But when you go back and repeat the first deeds, having repented that you're going the wrong direction, all of a sudden, you'll begin to ignite the flame once again.

Satan wants you cold. He wants your marriage cold. He wants your church to be cold. And so therefore, this is where it begins. It begins with Satan stealing your passion because if he steals your passion, number two, he can supplant your devotion.

And that's the church. At Pergamon. The church at Pergamon. Now listen carefully. We're gonna skip over the church of Sardis because the church of Sardis has no accusation against it. So listen, once Satan steals your passion, he wants to suppress you with persecution. That's the church of Smyrna. But Satan's not on a mission. So he doesn't know that he can't suppress the church with persecution. He only stimulates the church through persecution. Read the book of Acts in the early church. In the church of Smyrna, they were the persecuted church.

They were a pure church. See, a persecuted church weeds out all the tears. It gets rid of the tears. It gets rid of the tears. Because if you're an unbeliever and you're pretending to be a believer, you're not gonna stand for the persecution that's gonna come with the church. So you run and hide and leave. So Satan, his idea was to suppress the church through persecution, but he could not do that. So once he steals your passion, then he very simply will supplant your devotion. How does he do that?

Through compromise. See, the cold church becomes a compromising church. And that's the church of Pergamum. So it says in verse 12 of chapter two, and to the angel of the church in Pergamum, right? The one who has a sharp two-edged sword says this. So again, the Lord describes himself as the one with the sharp two-edged sword. What is that? Well, you go back to chapter one. It says in verse number 16, that in his right hand he held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. In Revelation 19, when our Lord returns, there was a sword that protrudes from his mouth.

So why is it a sharp two-edged sword? Simply because it has a twofold responsibility. One is conversion and the other is condemnation. We know that because how was man born again? By the living and abiding word of God. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by a word concerning the Christ, Romans 10, 17. So it's a two-edged sword because one edge is the edge of conversion and the other edge is the edge of condemnation. Because God himself, Christ himself is the judge. So he says, the one with a sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth has this to say to the church at Pergamum.

In other words, if you're not converted, you will be condemned. So listen carefully to what he has to say. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast my name and did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. Twice he says, this is the place where Satan dwells. Listen, you think you live in a place where Satan dwells. I will let you know something. It's nothing like the place Pergamum. I love to talk to those people who say, well, you know, the world is so bad and it's the worst it's ever been.

And I always say, no, it's not. You haven't read your Bible. Because the book of Genesis, the Lord destroyed the whole world because it was so bad. He hasn't done that yet. So it can't be that bad as it was in Genesis chapter six. And number two, Pergamum was a church where Satan dwelled.

And so he says that twice to emphasize the fact that they live in a realm where Satan rules. Now, Pergamum was the ancient capital of Asia Minor. It was the capital for 250 years. And it was a city built around and with all kinds of pagan temples. The temple to Asclepius, the temple to Dionysus, the temple to Zeus, the temple to Athena. But the most prominent one was the temple built for emperor worship. That's why Antipas died. History tells us that Antipas died because he was boiled alive in a brazen bowl.

What a way to go. He wasn't burned to death. He was boiled to death. Wow, what a way to go. But he never denied the faith. See, that's why he's in the scriptures. My faithful witness, Antipas, which means against all, right? That's what his name means. Antipas was against everything that opposed God. And he became the leader of the Christians in this church, Pergamum. And this is the affirmation that the Lord gives. I know where you dwell. I know where you live. God knows where you live. He knows you live in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago or wherever.

He knows where you live. And because I know where you live and I know that's where Satan's throne is, I wanna affirm the fact that you haven't denied my faith. But, but here comes the accusation. I have a few things against you. A few? Yep. To emphasis, I have one thing against you. But for Pergamum, I have a few things against you. Why? Because once your love grows cold, you begin to compromise. And you don't compromise in one area, you compromise in a lot of areas. And so once Satan can steal your passion, he will now supplant your devotion to Christ.

So he says, I have a few things against you because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, to commit acts of immorality. So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. You have in the church of Pergamum, those who hold to the teaching of Balaam. So what is that? You have to go all the way back to the book of Numbers, Numbers chapter 22 through Numbers chapter 25 to understand that Balaam was a prophet.

He was a prophet that could be bought. And Balak was the king of Moab. And so he gave money to Balaam to curse Israel as a prophet. And Balaam tried three times, unsuccessful all three times. So Balaam comes up with the idea, look, I'll tell you what we can do. I can't curse them, so let's corrupt them. Let's get the women of Moab to seduce the men of Israel so that they will compromise the holiness of God. And that's what he did. And God was so angry, he killed 24,000 Israelites because they compromised the purity of their lives.

He says, some of you are following the teaching of Balaam. Others, the teaching of Nicholas, the Nicolaitans. He was the leader of an antinomian sect that truly deals with a group of people who don't believe in the law. There is no law. He lived a licentious lifestyle as if there was no law. There was no parameters placed upon you. You could live any way you wanted because God's got a grace, he'll forgive you, it's okay. You can commit immorality, you can commit idolatry. It's okay. And so people follow that teaching because it was convenient and easy.

So he said, my accusation is this. You have people in your church that are following the teaching of Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans. So he says, here's your admonition, verse 16, therefore repent or else I am coming to you quickly and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. The you is the church that's defending you and trusting the faith and living well, honoring the Lord. I'm coming to you unless you deal with them, those who follow the teaching of Balaam and Nicolaitans, because if you don't, I'm coming to them.

I'm gonna deal with them with the sword of my mouth. That's the admonition. So important. Why? Because they've compromised. They've compromised. They've turned away from the truth. Their devotion to God has been supplanted by idolatry and immorality. And the Lord says, I will have no rival for my affection. So you need to deal with them because if you don't, I'm coming to you. I'm gonna deal with the church and I'm gonna deal with those who are involved in sinful behavior. So what happened? Well, when Satan steals your passion, next thing he does is supplant your devotion.

Once he supplants your devotion, he then subverts your affection. And that's the church of Thyatira. The church of Thyatira. If he can get your love to grow cold, he'll get you to compromise. Once you compromise, you're corrupted. And that's the church of Thyatira, the corrupt church. If Pergamum flirted with the world, Thyatira was married to the world. And this is the downward spiral of the church. You know, over the years, I've been asked by parents, what do you think about missionary dating? In fact, that was one of the questions for Wednesday night.

I was gonna answer it this week, but I thought I'd answer it this morning. What do you think of missionary dating? What do you think about my son or daughter dating the unbeliever? The answer is always no. Never maybe, it's never yes, it's always never. And I always take parents to the church of Pergamum and the teaching of Balaam. Why? Because he was able to get the nation of Israel to intermarry and to have relations with the unbeliever, the pagan Moabites. And when you let your son or daughter date the unbeliever, you're only asking for trouble because Satan doesn't want you devoted to Christ.

So he's going to supplant that devotion by stealing your passion. I tell parents, you need to take a strong stand and say no. Because you know, believe it or not, your years of experience outweigh your son or daughter's emotions. They think they know what's best for them, but they have no idea. Why? They've never been married. You have. So you're able to speak to them from years of experience because you have a marital life. You know the ups and downs of a marital life. You know how hard it is to live with two believers in the same house.

How hard is it to live with an unbeliever and a believer in the same house? It's very, very difficult. And so you stop it before it gets emotionally involved because once it's emotionally driven, it's hard to pull back. I can give you oodles of illustrations of parents who let their children date the unbeliever. They fell in love, got married. Then what happens when you have children and you as a wife or husband want to take your children to church and the other spouse says no? I'm not a believer.

I don't want my kids in church. You're only opening the door for all kinds of issues and problems. And you always take them to the church at Pergamon because in that church, they were flirting with the world and it caused all kinds of problems. And so if Satan can steal your passion, he will supplant your devotion. Once he supplants your devotion, he will subvert your affection and you will become corrupted. And that was a church at Thyatira. And once the church becomes corrupted, it becomes a corpse.

It dies. That's the church of Sardis. He says, I know you think you're a church because you are alive, but in reality, you are dead. You're a dead church, you're a corpse. And the only other thing to do for Satan is to make that dead church a counterfeit church. Make it so people who come will never hear the truth. There'll be pretenders in the pulpit. There'll be pretenders in the pew. And those who go to that church will never hear the truth because it's a counterfeit church. And that is Satan's downward spiral for the church.

Next week, we'll pick up the church of Thyatira, show you what happened as those followed the teaching of a prophetess named Jezebel, how it leads to the church of Sardis that caused your church to die. And once the church dies, it becomes the ultimate counterfeit for Satan. Satan has a plan. It's alive and well on planet Earth. The good news is this, that Jesus Christ has a greater plan. And the plan is He will build this church. The gates of hell should never prevail against it. Interesting that even in the church of Sardis, the dead church, there was a remnant of believers.

A remnant. You say, well, why did they just go to another church? Because there wasn't another church. There was only one church in each city, only one. And yet God had a remnant even in the church at Sardis, the dead church. Because God always has a remnant to speak and stand for truth. There's always those who truly love Him. And want to serve Him. And so while Satan has a plan to destroy the church, God has a plan to build His church, to purify His bride. And while the tares grow alongside the wheat through the kingdom age, and you really can't tell the difference between those who pretend and those who truly contend for the faith, the Lord knows those who are His, right?

That's why He says, let all those who name the name of Christ, Second Timothy chapter two, yeah, chapter two, depart from iniquity.

Turn your back on it, run away. Stay true to the Lord because He wants to honor and glorify His name in and through you. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you, Lord, for today and the chance we have to spend some time in your word. We're grateful, Lord, that you brought us together. Our prayer, Lord, is that you'd help our love for you not to grow cold. If it has, our prayer, Father, is that we would reflect on where we have been. Remember what it was like. Repent and repeat those first deeds.

That we might rekindle that relationship with you. That we might be the people you want us to be. Protect our church, Lord. Protect it from the evil one. Protect it from those who would come against it to try to defame it. Our prayer, Father, is that you protect your people. Keep us true to your word. Keep us loving, serving, and honoring you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.