This sermon delves into the concept of the compromising silent church as depicted in Revelation 2. It challenges listeners to consider what Jesus would say about their worship, prayer life, and personal conduct if He visited their church. The sermon emphasizes the need to address compromise, remove destructive influences, and pursue purity to experience God's power. It highlights the importance of overcoming sin and embracing the new nature in Christ, symbolized by the white stone and new name. Ultimately, it underscores the transformative power of the blood of Jesus in cleansing and restoring believers.

We're going to be talking about the compromising silent church this morning. It's found in Revelation 2, the compromising silent church. And I began to think this week, what about if Jesus visited our church? That's what we're going through, the seven churches in the next month or so. What would He say about our worship? What would He say about the depth of our prayer time? What would He say about our own personal lives? Can you imagine Jesus visiting the church? Or coming and visiting our homes and just spending the week with us? And that's what He's doing basically with these churches. So fortunately, we do have a gauge to check the spiritual condition of our churches. But let's recap. What was the first church? That was Ephesus, right? They were unloving, unteachable, kind of a know-it-all church. They were into the works, the works, the works. And then last week, Smyrna, into the perseverance through persecution. And now we get into this church, Pergamos. And it is a silent compromising church. This reminds me of, do you remember Mr. Rogers? Okay, get that thought in you for this church. The Mr. Rogers church. It's a happy day in the neighborhood, right? It's just smiling, and it's that kind of church. But here's what happens. When you compromise in the area of sin, you're usually silent about it, aren't you? That's one thing that could be happening. The next thing that could be happening is being silent and compromising is often a sign or a lack of boldness. You know, I just hope these things work themselves out if you said that. I don't want to touch that one right now. Or it could be that you just want to take the simple, easy route. And this happens with parents. Can you relate? Is it easy to not compromise in your home and always be on the straight and narrow? Or it's like, you know what, just let them have their way this hour. I've got to relax. I've got to rest. It's an easier route often. And church is the same way. Sometimes there's an easier route. You know, let's just not say anything. Let's not confront. Let's just be silent about this whole matter. So this is the church that we're talking about. Let me move this away, see if that helps with the feedback. Like a thermostat, the pulpit affects the spiritual temperature of the church. Not a thermometer, right? You can put a thermometer in your turkey to tell you what the temperature is. But a thermostat regulates the temperature in your home. The same way, that's why Jesus is talking to the messenger often the pastor, the leader of this church because it sets the spiritual tone for the church. I'll show you how that works. If you go to the first church in Ephesus, the works church, and that person is all about works and dead works and they're just legalistic and they're cold and they're callous, those type of people will often stay. And then if you get to the church that we're in now talking about compromise and it's no big deal and those type of people will usually stay. You get to the lukewarm church later on in Laodicea. Lukewarm people love a lukewarm message. Don't they? God, he never challenges me about anything. I love this church. I can go as if I did God a favor. I can check it off my checklist. Every month I went to church, I'm a good person. So see, the pulpit can set the tone, the climate of that congregation often. The silent church allows for false teaching. That's what we're going to find out here. The pulpit may not be dead like we talked about in the first church, but it is misled. It's taking people in the wrong direction. Pastors of these churches are often cheerleaders, but never coaches. So you have to have a good balance. You have to have the cheerleader, right? Go, go, go, you can overcome, but then you better have the coach who's going to shoot them straight. Who's going to say, come on, get up. You're better than that. You don't allow this, and you have that, you'll see a mixture in a healthy church. And these types of churches encourage, but they rarely convict. Okay, so now you have the setting, right, of this church. And think about this. What about if God's word was silent? We've talked about this before, on all the difficult things. What if worship lyrics and preaching remained silent on the difficult things? Never upset, never got tough. What about if policemen just handed out donuts? You see where I'm going, right? What about if stop signs always said go? We don't want to step on toes, let's just everybody do whatever they want, go whatever direction they want. So that's the setting of this church, Revelation 2.12. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos, write, these things, again, this is Jesus, these things says, He who has the sharp two-edged sword. Now let's just remember this for a minute. What does the two-edged sword do? It cuts. It removes. So let the sword of God's word begin to cut out compromise in your life. I would say that this is probably the biggest issue, even in healthy churches, is we allow compromise to come in. And we begin to compromise on these things, and then we begin to compromise on more things, and before you know it, remember it's that analogy I've given before. The enemy takes you down one step at a time. Oh, that wasn't too bad. That didn't hurt. I didn't go to hell like they said. And then you take a step down. Oh, see, this is fine. It's no big deal. I didn't get in trouble. I still, everything's going great, and then the next step, and eventually what happens? You're down at the bottom thinking, how did I get here? Compromise. And just a real quick rabbit trail. How many of us are frustrated with the direction of our nation? Oh, come on. There's everybody who would be putting their hand up. Do you know that this began decades ago? 40s, 50s, 60s. Let's remove God from the schools. Let's remove prayer from the schools. Let's remove this from that. Let's take down the Ten Commandments, monuments, those are pretty offensive. And then you start to get people in positions of authority that we would have never allowed in positions of authority. Never, and they wouldn't even, it wouldn't even happen. And then they come in, and then they come in, and Hollywood begins to promote. You remember Leave it to Beaver? Right? Now there's shows, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and dating shows, reality shows that are just a parade of filth. Where did that come from? The compromise that lets in. That lets into the homes and to the churches. That's why this is very, the enemy will never show you the end result. He shows you the compromise. See, that's not that big a deal. Everybody's like, oh, Harvey Weinstein, look what's going on in Hollywood. Oh, that's been there for years. That's been there, these compromises that can happen in our own lives. So let's cut out the compromise with the double-edged sword. What do you say? Everybody on the same page? Are you still tired from all the tryptophan and turkey? Jesus encourages in verse 13, I know your works. I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. So they must not live too close from here. Right? And you hold fast to my name and did not deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas was my faithful martyr. He was killed among you where Satan dwells. So remember, we're talking about the seven churches, the seven regions in Asia Minor, way above Israel. Six, seven, 800 miles up there in Asia Minor. John is on the island of Patmos, probably looking out, can see that region, can see that area. In this church, Jesus says, I know your works, you dwell where Satan's throne is. Many were holding to the faith, even in the face of somebody being killed. So this is not necessarily a lukewarm church. This is actually a church who, and again, Mr. Rogers, right? They had the faith, they held their faith, because in a lukewarm church, you start to bring in persecution, they'll just run to the opposite direction. They'll go to a different church. So this church isn't necessarily a lukewarm church. It's a smiling, just allow whatever, but still holding to their faith. It was a center of political power and worship. The devil felt at home. I almost wanted to title this sermon that. The devil felt at home. Does the devil feel at home? So this was the place of, they would have the temple of Zeus, of Apollos, Apollos in this place, and this huge temple for worship was in Pergamos, in this area. It also had the god of healing in this area. Do you ever see the symbol for the medical industry now with the snake? Guess where that comes from? Pergamos. They would actually allow you to lay down in the temple and allow these snakes to go over your body because of the healing aspect of that, supposed healing aspect of that. So that's why when you look at the Bible and you can see even thousands of years, even before this time, how the Bible had it right in even areas of health and what the body would require and how to heal the body. But you have places like this where they allow snakes to go over your body and bring in this healing that supposedly took place. So this is the seat of Satan's throne. He felt welcome there. This was a huge place. New York maybe comes to mind. Los Angeles, San Francisco, right? It was a place like that. So Jesus encourages them, but then he convicts them. Here's verse 14. I'm gonna add the first part here. Mr. Rogers, you're a nice guy. You feed the homeless and paint homes for people, but I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold to the doctrine of Balaam. So there's people in the church who hold to the doctrine of Balaam. In other words, they're sitting in the pews, they're coming to church, and they hold to this doctrine. And Balaam taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. Read Numbers 20 through 24 when you get a chance. So in the church, it'd be like here, hey guys, there's people here who embrace the doctrine of Balaam and they're causing our people to kind of fall away. But it's okay, I'm not gonna say anything. It'll fix itself. It'll correct itself. Now, I'm sure many of you are thinking, what is the doctrine of Balaam? Some of you have heard me talk about it before and you know what I'm talking about. Others have studied this area. But for those of you who might not know because it's important, it's right here in the text. The doctrine of Balaam basically says this. You cannot curse what God has blessed unless you remove the people from that blessing. So in other words, God was leading this massive amount of people, couple million people out of Israel. Into, I'm sorry, out of Egypt into the Promised Land. And they're there in the wilderness. And this king, Balak, sees these people down below all without number. And he hires Balaam to go and curse this group of people. Three different times he tried to curse them. But what flowed from his mouth? Blessings. Only blessings from or to this group of people. So King Balak obviously is getting upset, right? Why are you blessing these people? Why are you blessing them? He said, I cannot go beyond what the Word of God tells me to go beyond. God has blessed these people. But then he said, here's the key. They're blessed. There's nothing you can do unless you bring in the women of the area and have them entice the men or women into sexual immorality. Bring in the meat, the things. Look, this meat is sacrificed tonight. I don't care, I'm hungry. So it's an interesting concept for us today. The doctrine of Balaam is you are in a very blessed place if you stay within the shelter of God's protection. But if you begin to compromise and the devil says, come on outside. No, I'm not coming outside. Come on. Come on, it's 80 degrees on Thanksgiving. Come on, come out, it's okay. And you remove yourself. See, I believe there's a blessing within the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman. I believe there's a blessing staying and obeying God's Word and wanting holiness and desiring prayer and worshiping. And you stay, oh, though the storms come against me, I will not fall because God is my shelter. He's my rock. Actually, the waters will come up and not overtake you because you're within that shelter, that blessing of God. But the enemy uses things, the doctrine of Balaam, for enticements to come and we remove ourselves from that place of blessing. So that's what the doctrine of Balaam is. There are people in the church that are teaching others basically to compromise. It's not that big deal. It's not a big deal, right? Have you ever said that? Don't leave me hanging, because I know we have. Because see, there's also a very troubling trend in the church. It began years ago. I even noticed that many of you have... I've seen, I've even witnessed softcore porn on Christian websites. I've seen pastors trying to be relevant, put up video clips of movies that were inappropriate to relate to the culture. We allow things, youth pastors talk about their favorite sexually charged movie all under the guise of relating to the culture. See, there's compromise. It's not standing, because when you get filled with God's Spirit and holiness is your goal, you will eat up compromise. You'll hate it. You'll say, I can't have this in my life. Even though the enemy's coming in and we're not perfect, there's a standard you put up and say, listen, I can't allow this compromise into my home. But then that person has to be careful because they'll fall into the Pharisee church when those become rules and standards by which now I judge others. And oh, you go to the movies? I would never. I would never do that. And see, a good thing maybe at first is to be selective in what we view because it affects the mind and our hearts and how we think can turn into a ritualistic form of pleasing God and I hold on to these rules. So we have to be careful in that area as well. But he put a stumbling block, which is an obstacle. A stumbling block is an obstacle to progress. If I'm walking along, I'm making progress and there's a stumbling block, what's gonna happen? Right into the pulpit, hit my head, see, there's something that Satan always puts in your way, often. That's why you can't say the devil made me do it. You can say he put a stumbling block in front of me, but you can't say he made me do it. So there's a stumbling block, they entice. See, they put the women of Moab, I think it was, don't quote me on that. They put these women down in the camp. Let's just go down into the camp. Right, walk around, oh, what are you guys doing here? We're just going to the Jordan River. Well, it's probably the Jordan River, it wasn't there, but we're just walking around and oh, Moabitess women, and here's what we do to our God. And they can be strong for a while, right, but the shirt starts to be down, cut a little bit on the women, their skirts are a little too, and they're going down there and they're enticing the people. They're calling them out of that covering in that shelter. So he says, you have there those who hold to. Hold to. So see, a church, we can know, you know what, he holds to that, he holds to this, and I know it's not good, but here's what we say, well, at least they're coming to church. Who am I to say anything? At least they're coming, Shane. I know it's probably not the best thing, but at least they're coming. It's interesting, meat sacrifice to idols is basically welcoming compromise. It doesn't happen, we can't really relate to then, to now, but back then, if hey, we just sacrificed this cow on the altar, instead of a child, we used the cow, we offered it to Molech, that that life of that cow would be now absorbed into us, and we bow down to Molech, and by the way, do you want some of the steak that we just offered this idol to Molech, or to whatever god they did? Even, I would even, I don't know. No, thank you. That just doesn't sound right, does it? There's something wrong with that, and that would be, when you hear something, it just doesn't sound right. I heard just recently a guy who, many years ago, was actually baptized for the dead in the Mormon church. He took on the position of this person who died 50, 60 years ago. Okay, you are now taking on this position of this person, and we are baptizing you for the dead that they may experience the eternal life. I don't know about you, but that just does not sit well with me at all. Right, amen, please. Oh my goodness, 9 a.m. That is just, that's just, there's something evil about that. That's just, that's demonic, but that's what the Mormon church does. They baptize for the dead, and so that would be the same thing as when you hear a meat sacrifice to idols, but once you say, you know what? I'm hungry, I've been out in the field all day. You ever smell tri-tip on the barbecue? And you, you know, it's not that big a deal. And then while you're eating, here comes the women to entice, and you see the picture, right? You see they're allowing this compromise. And it's interesting, he says food, right? The meat sacrifice to idols, and then sexual morality. Here's the interesting thing. Food lusts, sexual passions, those lusts, they're tied together. They're tied together. It's all that lust of the flesh. They're often interwoven. One appetite will feed the other. I've never met somebody who has, in the area of sexual sin and really in bondage, that he's got other areas under control. It's usually that whole, man, I eat too much. I drink too much. I'm given over in this area. My bodily appetites are controlling me because it's all interwoven. It's all connected together. This might help. You must see the death in something before you can begin to eradicate it and remove it from your life. Steve Schell gave an example I've always remembered. Well, it's been four or five years ago. I was listening to a series he was doing. And he said, what about if you see this gorgeous, do you like cake or pumpkin pie? Or whatever it is, you have this and you're hungry and you see it and you can't have it just yet. It's put into the refrigerator and you go to get it. And there's a little note there that says, oh, by the way, there's just a little bit of rat poisoning in this. Appetite's done. Is it not? Okay, I'm moving on to something else. Because see, they saw the death in it. They saw the toxicity in it. And that's what happens with sin. When we fail to stop seeing the death in it, when we fail to stop seeing what it's going to do to our families or our kids or ourselves, when we fail to see that death in it, then we fail, we give up to that power. Does that make sense? It's not a big deal. And they begin to compromise in this area. That's what they were doing. So we have this church here that's compromising. And here's what they were saying. I mean, all of us can be guilty of this, even this church. So when I'm preaching on these churches, I'm realizing that we can fall into a lot of these categories ourselves. Here's what we would say. It's not a big deal. It's not a big deal right now. And I've learned, I don't know about you, but I've learned that the little deals have become big problems. Right, the things we don't want to nip in the bud. It's just one drink. It's just a little flirting. It's a boy's night out. It's just a little glance. It's harmless fun. Well, we'll make a little bit of money on the side. No one will get hurt. It's just one more prescription so I can get through the week. You know what I'm saying? It's those little things, those little compromises. It's not a big deal. And by nature, we don't really like to confront, do we? Maybe some people do. But we really don't like to confront, so we allow and hoping it will fix itself. And what we've noticed here is it doesn't fix itself. It's usually like leaven that comes in. And well, I think let's just, that gossiper that's a slander and backbiter, let's just let it correct itself. I don't wanna talk to them. Does it? No. Eventually, it doesn't. Same thing with, well, I know there's some sin, but it'll hopefully correct itself. And often, God uses us to help correct that course. Those of you who are spiritual, go to the one who is in sin that you may be able to encourage them to turn back to God. So that's our biblical mandate is to go to those. He taught them to sin. And I wanna throw this question out there. Who is teaching you? See, we all have influencers in our lives, don't we? Who is influencing you? Blogs, articles, CDs, books you read. Who is influencing you? Somebody's influencing us. And then Jesus doesn't stop there in verse 15. He says, and one more thing. And one more thing. You also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. You have those who hold to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Last week, we talked about, there's three different scenarios here. Nobody knows exactly what this means. It was actually Clement of Alexander, one of the early church fathers. He said this about these followers of Nicholas. They abandoned themselves to pleasures like goats, leading a life of self-indulgence. So one thought is the Nicolaitans that word breaks up into against the laity. So it could have been a form of what we see of this hierarchy in the church, or it could be followers of a false teacher. Nicholas, whatever it is, I don't care. I know Jesus hated it. It reminds me, somebody just asked me this week, do you think hell will really be actual fire and brimstone? And I said, you know, I don't want to find out. Whatever it is, actual fire burning an actual body, whatever it is, I do not even want to find out. But see, we get caught up on do you really believe in them? They can excuse their actions, and I have to worry about it. It's the same thing here. Just know that there is compromise coming in. What did Jesus say? Would you consider removing them? No. He said repent. Repent what? Change the way you think. Change the way you're treating them, and deal with it, or else I will come to you quickly, and I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He understood, and we do too, if you allow one thing, you often allow something else. If a church allows one thing, they often allow other things. So here's the concern though. Jesus said I will remove them. I will fight for the health of the church. Could it be that we might find ourselves sometimes fighting against God? Jesus is wanting to remove things, remove people, and we're not going for or going with what he wants to do. I remember Pastor Chuck Smith. You've heard of him, I'm sure many of you. He said something called, or actually he encourages it sometimes. It's called blessed subtraction. When a church goes through blessed subtraction sometimes, it's healthy. What he means is when those who leave need to leave. When a cancer is uprooted and leaves, that can be a good thing. When those who are hurting the body leave, that can be a good thing. So there is something known as blessed subtraction where God will begin to remove hindrances, especially if it's a healthy church. If it's a healthy church, wants God's will, wants to follow him, but there's cancer there, God will begin to help us remove those things. If that cancer isn't wanting to change, if the chemotherapy isn't working, right, through the word of God, through the preaching, God will remove those people from the church, those influencers. Here's what a church can say as well in this area of compromise. I know they live together, but they make a great children's ministry team. Oh, here we go. You want some examples? I know he left his wife, but he makes a great usher out there. I mean, we laugh, but I've seen churches do this. I know churches not far from here, people will be partying at schooners Saturday night, drunk as a skunk, and then they'll be helping on worship Sunday morning. Who am I to say anything? See, at least they're coming to church. Well, they can be coming to church sitting there, not up here, leading and influencing and ushering people into God's presence. See, a church has to be loving, but yet hold a tight line. They have to be merciful, yet point out error. They have to be grace-filled, but not gullible. And we can think of other examples, right? Well, I know they're caught in this sin, but they make a great whatever. And we begin to compromise. And it's hard to do, right? Now, let me just throw this out there in case I start any of you thinking. If there are ever issues like this, that you have questions on or thoughts on, bring it to the leadership team, and we'll look at it. We take these things seriously. But on the other hand, there's a lot behind the scenes that people aren't aware of that are happening. And we want to jump to conclusions, not knowing that maybe God is doing something. For example, the big one out there is divorce. Somebody's going through divorce, and they're all in sin, obviously, right? That's what people think sometimes. But what about if the person is the victim of the divorce and doesn't want it? Not in sin, not doing anything wrong. And they want to help or serve in some aspect of ministry just to be built up and fed. But they're not in the wrong. But see, it's not just a blanket statement. You have to look at the situation, look at the heart of the person, because if a church just comes in here and goes, nope, you're going through a divorce, you cannot come in here unless you sit in the back pew. That's not going to minister to them. That's going to have them run to a different church and get out of here. So it has to be grace-filled, but also, Lord, what's your heart? And also, different capacities require different things. Leadership capacity, you'd have to, someone going through that would probably have to step down and have to reprioritize and reassess things. But if it's just, hey, can I greet people at the door? No. No. Your husband left you. I know it's not your fault and you're doing everything you can. You're praying and fasting, but you cannot greet anybody. Don't even say hi. You actually get here a half hour early, go sit at the front so we can keep an eye on you. But isn't that how some are judged? I mean, that's why you have to have all the information, the heart of God, and sometimes you have to make some hard-line decisions, some hard calls. Listen, there's things over the past seven years when we planned a church and I found out about something, it was true, and immediately, immediately, right now, step down immediately. So there can be healing and restoration and renewal. There's hard calls too. But see, that's the heart of God. Seeking him, Lord, what's your heart? Because see, the heart, the heart should be grace and mercy and restoration and love and compassion. That should be the heart. And then from that will come the hard truth of what needs to happen. But if the heart is the hard truth and the heart is, oh, I can't believe you, sinner. I can't wait. I'm gonna, oh, they can never allow it here. And that the heart's wrong, the heart's wrong from the get-go, and then we go to try to help, it won't come out right. It'll come out wrong, it's not the heart of God. So it's a very delicate thing on one hand, but on the other hand, we have to address as a church, because here Jesus is saying if you allow something, and you know it, it's one thing not to know it, I mean, but if you know something, you have there those who hold to this doctrine, those who have a life of compromise, they're infecting and affecting the church. Mr. Rogers is not gonna cut it in this case. He's saying they need to be removed. Avoiding is not loving, and these things do not work themselves out. I've rarely seen a person who's bringing in destructive teaching or has a bad attitude. I've rarely seen them change on their own. God can do it. Powerful worship service, they're broken, they're humble before Him, it can happen. But many times, He uses us to bring that double-edged sword, right, of the word of God. The word of God is like a double-edged sword. It pierces the joint and the marrow. It is a discerner in thoughts of the intents of man. So we bring that word, and we show it to them. Jesus says, if you don't remove them or deal with it, I will, and you may find yourself fighting against me. See, what He recognizes, clearly taught, I would love to do a whole sermon on this, purity in the church equals power in the church. Do you want spiritual power, to see lives changed, to be filled with the Spirit of God? Purity, purity equals power. Compromising church will not have power. They might have a lot of great worship. They might have a lot of books in their bookstore. Probably some you shouldn't be reading, right? They'll have, well, man, that church is alive. They've got a great children's ministry program. The parking lot is full, but do they have power? Are people coming to know the Lord? Are they weeping? Are they repenting? Are marriages being restored? Many cases, no, no. Listen, I've lived here all my life, and I know some of the churches I'm trying to talk about in this. Rarely will you hear people come to know the Lord. Rarely will you hear of people being broken before God. Their marriage is restored. You don't, it's just a cookie cutter Christianity, and they just go for the bells and the whistles, and the top performers, and the pastor who's not going to offend them. It's a scary spot to be because there's no power. And I know people who go to these churches sometimes, and they are starving, spiritually filled with God's Spirit. They're starving. One guy I ran into two weeks ago, he said he went and talked to the pastor even. He said, I haven't heard, when was the last time you used the word repentance? That's pretty bold. An excuse for something, well, we're trying to reach a lot of different people here, and Mr. Rogers. It's a compromising, silent church. Now, please understand, anytime I talk about this, it's not like, oh, there's Shane looking, pointing out all the different churches. Remember I said two weeks ago, we can slide right into the, we can slide right into Ephesus pretty easy. Right, Ephesus, works, no love. So we have our tendencies too. We can slide in these directions. A person by the name of Reader Harris once challenged a church in regard to power and purity. Like, it's what I would do to you, let's say. He once challenged a church. He said, those who want power, line up on my right. Those who want purity, line up on my left. And it was 10 to one. Did you catch that? 100 people on this line, 10 in this line. See, we want New Testament power, but we don't want New Testament purity. I want God to speak to me, but I don't wanna live a life that magnifies holiness. God, I want you to use me, but I don't wanna live like the New Testament disciples. Don't we want New Testament power? But do we want New Testament purity and holiness and removing compromise? Listen, this is a daily, sometimes weekly struggle. Don't look at me like, gosh, I bet Shane removed all the compromise out of his life. It never seeps in. No, it seeps in after Sunday afternoon when I'm home tired and my little four-year-old does whatever, wants to do whatever she wants to do and my other one, I'm like, oh, whatever. Yes, you can go climb on the roof. But see, and like, well, maybe, you know, and maybe we shouldn't be too, and compromise can enter in, but the closer we stay to Christ, the quicker we'll be able to discern that compromise. And your prayer time, that's why a carnal Christian, a compromising Christian, doesn't spend a lot of time in prayer because the facade is broken, the pride is crushed, the compromise is illuminated when you spend time with God. All these things begin to come out. That's why in verse 17, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. You're gonna find this in every church we read about. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear, it means open up your ear, listen what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Deep calls unto deep. You're not gonna be able to hear the spiritual things of God with a carnal mind. You're not going to be able to hear the deep things of God, the spiritual things of Christ unless you begin to remove those areas so you can hear clearly. To me, compromise is like cotton balls or earplugs. Have you ever used earplugs? It's funny, you can still hear some noise, but a lot of noise, you can't hear anything. You can hear things like this, but that people talk, and that's what compromise is, it's in earplugs. But Lord, I wanna hear, then take out your earplugs. No, I wanna hear from you, then take out your earplugs. I don't want it that bad. He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I will give him a white stone. And on the stone, a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it. Boy, that's interesting, right? Well, before I get to that, if anybody tells you they know exactly what the stone is, it's just, they're just reading commentaries. There's about seven good ideas out there. On these things, and I'm gonna get to that in a minute. And I will give him the white stone, and on that stone, he'll have a new name written. So will believers get a new name, or is your name the same in heaven? Another area of debate. But let's talk about this for a minute. Let him hear. How do we hear? How do we hear? I mean, I've got a whole list, but let me just, in regards to this church, remove compromise, in a nutshell, remove the destructive influence that has crept into your home, or into your life, or into your mind. In order to avoid compromise, we remove that destructive influence. We know what it is, don't we? It's the little thing we don't wanna let go. Now, he who overcomes, we see again in Revelation 21, way fast-forwarding ahead in the book, 21, seven through eight, he who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. Did you catch that? He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But, okay, I'm gonna read a difficult scripture. Can you handle it? Okay, this will be edited out of the compromising church. You ready for this? All right. The compromising church would have read the first part. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. He'd probably say, worship team, come on up. Let's just praise God the rest of the day. Amen, we're all overcomers. And assuming, right? Oh, yeah, I'm all over. It's like reading at a funeral. This bothers me, that's why I try to make it clear when I'm preaching at a funeral. When they say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Right? He makes me lie down in green pastures. He restores my, and you want, oh, and everybody leaves. Oh, that only applies if he's your shepherd. And most people attending memorial services or funerals do not know the shepherd. And you need to let them know. By the way, this is for those who know the shepherd. If you don't know him, you need to know the shepherd. Same thing here. Who overcomes shall inherit basically eternal life, but the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, not the snowman, right? The abominable is perverse, wretched, disgusting. It's this lifestyle that we're seeing unfold in the news. This word fits what you're seeing in the news. Murders, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So you just have to allow God's word to speak for itself. That's why I don't worry too much about it. People need to hear this, let them hear it. The Bible says it, I'm supposed to read it. Actually, earlier in Revelation, we hear, and I believe at the end too, if I remove or add anything to this book, the plagues that are in it will come upon me. Don't remove any, and that's the problem with compromise. See that, oh, I could stay here for a little bit. That's the problem with compromise in the compromising church is they remove certain things so it sounds, it tastes good. Right, it tastes good. That's why you have to dip sushi in things. Right, tastes good. You have to present this certain type of God. Well, Jesus didn't say, it's amazing how many people in the compromising church know the good things about Christ, know the glorious things, but when it comes to hell, of which He spoke of more than heaven, they seem to lose their mind. When it comes to repentance, no, we don't go there. The blood of Christ, can we take that out of our songs? There's a church in town who told his worship team to remove all mentions of the blood of Christ. Oh, my Lord, it's the blood, oh, the blood, that's what sets me free. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. See, but the, okay, hold on. I'm not done yet. I almost was, though. The compromising church, you see how important this is, right? But before we sit up on our high horse, we have to look in our own hearts. Where are we allowing compromise to come in? Well, Shane, I'm not sure. Does it benefit you and your walk with the Lord? Or does it draw you further and further and further away? Just personal experience. That's why I talk about entertainment. I can watch a movie, probably, that I shouldn't be watching, and I am not edified. I'm not built up. I don't love the Lord anymore, and I'm fearful, and all this stuff, and it just draws us away. Here's an interesting thing, though. When you hold the line on compromise, not everybody's gonna agree, are they? A couple years ago, I wrote in the Antelope Valley Press why it might not be a good idea to watch Harry Potter. Oh, you would have thought I shot the Pope. Emails, texts, oh, you're a legalist. Well, hey, it's just some witch that's doing good things, and it's disgusting, and God-honoring, and go ahead. But see, when you draw that line, draw that line, people are like, oh, no. So I'm gonna go to hell if I watch it. No, you're not, see, no. But why would you? Why would a child of God want to fill their heart with darkness? Somebody actually challenged me. They said, why don't you watch it before you comment? That's not a bad idea. Let's go to Redbox. And within 10 minutes, it's off. Back to Redbox. There's like this witch doing something, and they're levitating upside down. A snake is coming out of their mouth. I'm like, thank you very much. That's not, what do you? But see, it's the carnal, compromising Christian who's not filled with the Spirit of God who enjoys it. Oh, wow, you could hear a pin drop. But isn't that true? Listen, I'm just shooting you straight. I'm shooting you straight. When it comes to compromise, you have to remove things. You might not be able to drink with the buddies. Or do these things, because when you come out from among them, be separate, you don't look. You look like New Testament Christianity. You don't look like the world. And the closer you get to Christ, the more odd you might seem to the world. Isn't it true? I mean, to me, it's almost laughable how much flack Mike Pence is getting for saying he doesn't go to lunch or dinner by himself with a woman. I mean, Hollywood's eating him. They're laughing, they're mocking at him. You're supporting pedophiles in Hollywood, but you're going to, see, I could get on a long rabbit trail here, but see, they don't understand. That's weird, that's weird, right? Because you're not filled with the Spirit of God, that's weird. So compromise, when you say, now don't get weird when you do this, but I've got a different standard here. I can't live this way, I'm removing compromise. You will not look very appealing to your 900 friends on Facebook who say they're your friends. Right, there's a difference, there's a distinction. We want New Testament power, but not New Testament purity. But let me just, I don't know if it's encouraging or more convicting, but when he says, again, Shane Idleman interpretation here, there's different views, of course. He who overcomes shall inherit life. All overcomers are believers. If you're overcoming, you're a believer. If you know Christ, you will overcome. That's why we're called overcomers. So it's almost like saying he who overcomes is a believer, but those who are cowardly, unbelieving, sexually immoral, sorcerers, playing around with magic and witchcraft, idolatry, putting things before God, liars. Do you know, have you met people that's all, they're, boy, can they tell a lie? Every day, it's just something, just lie about everything. Lie about, they can't just say, no, I didn't run to the store. Oh, I got a flat tire. No, just say you didn't make it. I mean, there's this, now be careful. Here's the encouragement. Most people struggle with lying. Most struggle, most people sometimes are fearful and can become a coward in certain areas. Myself, I back down sometimes. See, it's not saying the person who struggles with this, it's saying the person who is actually led by this, they are a cowardly, unbelieving, blasphemer of God. Or the person is abominable, they're into sexual perversion, they don't care. They're not struggling. They've embraced it. It's who they are. It's the mark of their lifestyle. So that person is not a believer. And there is eternal separation. However you define this, you'd have to look up in the Greek and break it down, but the fire, brimstone, which is the second death, there's a place, wherever, when you're separated from God, I don't care if it's a real fire or a literal fire or whatever it is, you're separated from God. There's weeping, there's gnashing of teeth, there's torment because you're realizing that I didn't have that relationship with God. Or Tim Keller wrote a whole book on this. I won't even get into all that. But maybe those people stay mad at God. There's this gnashing of teeth. They still hate God even when they're separated from Him. Who wants to, don't live your life with a question mark there. But am I cowardly? Am I an unbeliever? Am I into all these things? Do I not know God? That's why it says he who overcomes will receive the hidden manna. There's nourishment that you're not aware. Spiritual nourishment that God will reveal to you and begin to heal you in certain areas. He who overcomes, the white stone. Well, most can agree that it was some type of victory stone. And in Rome, John MacArthur, I think in his study Bible you can find it, there's a custom in Rome where a white stone was given to the champions, much like a gold medal in the Olympics. His name was written on it, and he received all benefits that a winner would receive. So John is writing to these people that would understand this, right? They would understand, okay, this white stone, it's gonna have a new name on it, this is the same thing that God gives us. The new name comes with the new nature. The old name is associated with the old man, in my opinion. The new name is associated with our new nature. Why would we have our old name in heaven? I have no clue. If we will, I think what this says, there's some type of new name. I call you this. And you see people get all bent out of shape on this. No, it doesn't. It's just what it says. Whether it's allegory or true, whether it's a white stone or used as imagery, the bottom line is there is a reward, and there's a new name written that correspond with your new nature in Christ. See, my old name is associated with what? My old nature. Oh, you should hear people, oh, I remember Shane Idlin back in the 1990s. There's still people I run into, they bring that up. Oh, you? I can't believe. You? The party guy from high school? The old man, the old nature, the old name. But there's a new name written. And it does come up about rewards in heaven, different thing, and to me, the presence of God is my reward. The presence of God is my reward. That's why I said earlier, oh, the blood, what can wash away my sin? What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood. The blood of Jesus. You think of billions of people on the planet, right? And even now, I don't know what the number is. I don't know, six billion something out there. But how many have come before us? How many may come in the future? And if a person, do you think a person sins a million times in their lifetime? Let's just have fun here. Maybe quite a bit more, yeah. I mean, just do the math with a calculator. You know, once every 10 seconds. You know, because our thought life, our mental, you know, and everything. But that blood is so strong that the billions and the millions, I mean, if you times those, that's like 10th to the 33rd power. A number you can't use, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero. All those sins, when Christ died, future and going back past. The Old Testament saints, the New Testament saints. Oh, the blood, what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood. How powerful is that blood? I remember there was a church, he told their worship team, don't mention the blood of Christ in the songs. It's too offensive, and you just want to say, what? Are you kidding me? Nothing but the blood. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And I say that because so many people say, Shane, you don't know what I've done. You don't know what I've been through. God won't take me now. I've rejected him. I've, oh, you can't compare to the millions times billions, right? You can't compare to the millions times billions. It covers everything. That's how powerful that blood is. So the same voice that tells the sea no further and the wind to stop and walks on the ocean and says, peace, be still, and the entire storm has to silence. I would have loved to see the ocean that day, just crystal clear when Christ speaks in his blood. He said, I will shed my blood on the cross that whosoever believeth in me shall not perish but have everlasting life. Not just believe and receive. It's already been paid. It's been paid in full. That's why he said, it is finished. It is finished. Folks, I can't even make, I can't make this stuff up. I don't get all fired up like, oh, I'm gonna be an actor on stage Sunday. It just, it resonates deep in my heart because the closer you draw to Christ, we all need to go closer. But the closer that you draw them, the more you see the power in the blood. Every sin, every sin, every perversion. Have you ever thought, why do I think that way? God, why do I think that way? The shame, the guilt? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. I heard, I hope I get this right. Quoting somebody who quoted Jack Hayford. He said, what would you do to a friend who lies to you as much as your fear does? The fear that lies to us and the shame and the guilt and the fear and the trauma and the anxiety. The blood cleanses all of that, gets rid of all that. Yes, there's a fight. Yes, there's a battle. But this blood is so powerful that goats and oxen and sheep had to fight to be slaughtered, daily sometimes. Slaughtered, slaughtered, slaughtered. It was a temporary covering. And then Christ, the perfect lamb, bore the sins of the entire world, past, future, present. Took that sin, paid it in full to God. So you can stand before God someday with tears running down your face and say, I'm here because of what Christ did. Nothing but the blood. That might change your worship. You might not be able to sit there now and go, nothing but the blood, I'm hungry. Jack's place is gonna be busy. Is he really going that long? How many songs? See, that changes everything. When all the blood hits your prideful, arrogant heart and you begin to worship God, it becomes alive. It becomes alive. And you realize that it cleanses you from everything. If you walk in new power, new authority, you don't walk beaten up, you walk lifted up because of blood.