Living with Conviction in a Compromising World | Tony Evans Sermon
Living with Conviction in a Compromising World | Tony Evans Sermon
Dr. Tony Evans delves into the authoritative nature of Jesus Christ, symbolized by a sharp two-edged sword that brings both blessings and corrections. By examining the church at Pergamon, he cautions against compromising core values and accepting false teachings of the world we live in.
Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.
God’s word, a chopped 2 edged sword is there to cut on your behalf and against that, which is against you.
But god’s word will not cut when it’s been dulled by compromise.
You might get acceptance from the culture but what you won’t get is a 2 edged sword for you.
Word of god is not open for negotiation.
Not when god has spoken clearly on a Let me tell you a little bit about Pergamon.
Pergamon was a city, some forty five miles north of Ephasis, a very wealthy city, but a city controlled by the devil, a very progressive city, a very, uh, noted city but it was won a city run by hell.
Jesus starts and he speaks the 1st and the last which he said about himself in Sperna now says in verse 12, the one who has the sharp 2 edged sword says this.
The one who has the sharp 2 edged sword says this.
The one who has the shot, 2 edged sword says this.
So Jesus Christ is talking, but he describes himself as the possessor of the 2 edged sword.
This is not the first time we’ve seen that phrase chapter 1 verse 16 of Revelation in his right hand.
He held the 7 stars and out of his mouth came a sharp 2 edged sword.
In chapter 19, of Revelation.
Verse 15 from his mouth came a sharp sword, verse 21.
And the rest were killed with the sword which came from his mouth.
It says out of the lord Jesus Christ mouth, comes a very sharp 2 edged sword.
This is spoken by the risen Christ after he rose from the dead and ascended up to heaven, and now he speaks back to his church Not as a baby in a manger, nor as a a man walking the streets of Galilee, but now as the risen lord, and he says, how I’m operating right now is with a sharp sword with double edges coming out of my mouth.
The sword has two edges, both sides of the shop.
Uh, that can cut you going and coming.
It’s sharp for blessings and it’s sharp for judgment.
It’s sharp for help, but it’s sharp for correction.
It’s it’s shop for your benefit, but it’s also shop.
To deal with you if you need to be dealt with. Right.
So when you read about Jesus having the sword He is speaking about the authority.
Matthew 28 verses 1920. Jesus says all authority blown to me in heaven and on earth.
Translation, I’m in charge now. So when Jesus says, a sword is coming out of my mouth.
He is laying claim to authority from heaven to history, from eternity, to time, from heaven to earth.
So Jesus Christ sits as the risen lord has send it on the right hand of the father, speaking to his people, the church at Pergamon, and he says, I’m in charge here.
And I have a sword where where is the source coming out of my mouth?
Hebrews 4 12 says, that the word of god is sharper than in a 2 edged sword.
It is piercing and penetrating in its ability and power to affect change for good or for judgment.
Now the problem today is that we and by we, I mean, any men even many Christians have lost faith in the power of the sword that comes out of Jesus’s mouth.
We have lost faith in the power of the word Christians, in particular, and certainly the society at large, have lost confidence in god’s word they are going to every other word.
They may sprinkle a little Bible on it to make it sound good, but they’re going to every word, and they’re wondering why the word is not working because the word that works must be the word coming out of his mouth, not the word coming out of your mouth.
But see what we have today are folk changing books or dumbing down the book to please other books dulling the sword from being able to cut anything.
He says the sword from my mouth is sharp.
And if you’re uncut, it can’t be coming from my mouth.
You you follow the logic.
If you’re unaffected, unchanged, because the way you know you’re affected is you’re changing.
So if there’s no change, you’ve not been affected no matter how much you enjoy the word you heard.
Because if you cut, you bleed.
He says to the church at Pergamon, the sword that comes out of my mouth, my word, is sharp.
It cuts. It has authority.
Having said that, he now commends them in verse 14, I know where you dwell.
I know where you live. I know where you have church. I know the community you’re in.
He says that to pergamum Bible Fellowship.
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 My witness, my faithful one who was killed among you where Satan dwells.
You and I are living in a time in a post Christian era where identification with Jesus Christ is increasingly becoming a negative.
As you’re seeing this onslaught of the rejection of the Christian faith as as as it is now, becomes to be a Christian and to hold his word is now being called hate speech.
That you are now living in a world and a society that now is antagonistic to the claims of Christ, where it’s not some easy thing anymore in increasingly large places to be identified with the 2nd member of the Trinity, the lord Jesus Christ.
But he wants you to know before he gets any deeper into this, I got the sword in my mouth.
And it’s sharp, but he compliments them, and he says, you’re doing this where Satan dwells you’re living in a hostile environment.
But now he comes to verse 14.
He says, but I have a few things against you. Okay?
Now I like I like the fact that you’re still claiming me you claiming my name.
You’re claiming Christianity in a hostile environment, but I have a problem.
Because you have there some who hold the teachings of Baelum who kept teaching ballot to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.
He says, here’s my problem.
While you still claim me, you compromise.
You still will say, I’m a Christian, but you will tolerate compromise.
So the issue with this church is a lack of conviction.
You will compromise, like, Bailey.
Now the story of Balum is found in numbers, chapters 22 to chapters 25.
So let me summarize the story of Balham. Balham is a prophet.
Israel is on to March.
Belec, not bail on Belec, who’s the king of Moab, He’s a he’s a little scared because Israel’s gotten so large and so powerful.
He’s gotta do something. So He contacts bailum. Baillet contacts bailum. Baillet says bailum.
I want you to curse god’s people and we’re gonna give you some change to do it.
We’re gonna give profit for the profit.
We will pay you to curse god’s people.
Consult with god, and god tells them you can’t curse my people and my people.
Balam, Balac, ups the price. That we we pay you a little more.
If you will curse god’s people, bail um gets on a donkey.
Baelum is riding this donkey to meet with Bay Lake.
On the way the angel of the lord stands in front of the donkey.
So the donkey starts backing up. The donkey, bailum, hits the donkey.
Says, get him up because Battle doesn’t see the angel of the lord.
He just sees the donkeys backing up. Bam.
It says, the donkey sees the angel of the lord again. And moves over to the side.
Balum, wham, wax it. Get going.
Dunke gets going again, sees the age of the lord, then falls down.
Bay alum, wax it for a third time.
This time, the donkey is tired of getting hit.
So according to numbers chapter 22, the donkey looks back at bail and says, why you keep hitting me?
So we got a talking, donkey. Alright? It gets even worse.
Because bail um talks back to the donkey.
So the donkey’s talking to bail him, and bail him is talking to the donkey.
And he says, why are you not taking me where I need to go?
Then all of a sudden, the angel of the lord appears to bail him.
It says god was behind this. Because I don’t have one donkey.
I have 2 if I if that’s the word we wanna use.
And I can say that and still be christian because it’s in the Bible.
Okay? Alright. Belum can’t curse the people of god.
God keeps blocking the curse. So balum tells Balick, I’m not gonna be able to curse him.
I I I know you offer me a lot of money, but god blocking this thing.
So if you wanna get them, here’s how you gotta get Israel. Make them compromise.
Says, intermix them with your women.
Get them to marry they will adopt your gods if you would just get them to compromise then god will curse them for you.
Oh, so much theology there. I I can’t curse them because they’re god’s people.
But god’s character can’t stand compromise.
So if we can get them to compromise, because god’s character won’t accept compromise, god himself will do for you what you’re asking me to do that I can’t do god will interject because god won’t accept compromise.
And so that’s exactly what Balick did He got them to interconnect.
He calls it immorality leading to idolatry, which brought god’s judgment on Israel.
So that god was no longer operating for the people.
What’s that got to do with you and me? And why is he telling that to them?
Guess what he’s telling them. Compromise will keep god’s word from cutting anything in your life.
So many Christians wonder why god is not moving because of compromise.
You compromise spiritual value. You compromise with other gods. You compromise. We compromise with lifestyle.
We compromise in so many ways.
What you need to understand Once you do that, the god who is for you can no longer be for you.
He says in verse 15, So you also have some when the same way hold the teachings of the Nicholas The nickeletons were doing the teachings of bala.
So here’s that problem. They tolerated compromise.
He says you have some in your midst who are teaching this and you’re not saying anything.
So, wait a minute.
Even if you are not compromising, but you tolerate compromising, you tolerate the Nicholas that is infecting the church by saying it’s okay to compromise your standards, compromise your morals, compromise your your deities.
You you can compromise and god understands. Let let me say it another way.
They misunderstood grace. One of the greatest words the greatest word in the Christian language is grace.
It means unmerited favor. But they did not use graves properly.
They were using it like Romans chapter 6 verse 1. Shall we send that grace may abound?
Let’s put it another way. Shall we send just because we know god will forgive me?
And you’ve heard people say that. Oh, oh, god. God will forgive me. Right. K.
So they were using grace as an excuse to sin.
That is both a misunderstanding and misuse of the greatest word in the Christian language.
Here’s how you know you are using grace properly.
You are using grace properly, not when frees you to sin, but when it is so powerful, it’s freeing you from sin.
Shall we send that grace may abound? He says, God forbid.
He says at the end of Titus chapter 2, grace teaches us to deny ungodliness, not be comfortable in it.
That’s called having the grace of god in vain.
The grace of god is designed to free us from compromise, not make us comfortable in compromise.
Refusal to compromise can cost your money. Refusal to compromise can cost your relationships.
Refusal to compromise can cost you position. Refusal to compromise can cost you notoriety.
Uh, so I don’t want to stand up here and tell you that if you don’t compromise, it’s all gonna work out right then and there.
And there will be no price. It costs anthropus’ life.
But if you wanna see the 2 edged sword, You don’t just wanna have church.
You don’t just wanna wanna be, you know, be sing songs and and clap your hands. You want the sword.
And not dull, then he says it can’t be with compromise.
He says, and you tolerate the teachings of the Nicola attends.
That’s why whether it’s a pool pit up here, or whether it’s a Sunday school class, or whether it’s a small group, false teaching that contradicts the word of god is not to be accepted.
Nor does god want a little bit of his word and a little bit of the world stirred together to make the word more palatable, like putting 10% poison arsenic in food to kill rats.
All you need is 10%.
The rest of the food can be solid, but that 10% will do them in.
We’re living in a day when more and more churches are compromising to please the world.
They’re compromising on biblical standards as though god is open for negotiation.
The word of god is not open for negotiation.
Not when god has spoken clearly on a subject. That 2 answers to every question.
God’s answer and everybody else is and everybody else is wrong.
He has spoken, and he has not stuttered.
So he says to them, I have this against you, and it’s such a big issue compromise is.
It’s such a whopping issue, he says.
Therefore, repent or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war with them with the word of my mouth.
And he’s talking to his church. I will make war with them. Who’s the them?
The nickeletons who were teaching the false doctrine.
So if you care about them, you better go talk to them.
And then he comes to the great verse. Verse 17.
He who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
To him who overcomes, to him, I will give some of a hidden manner, and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone which no one knows, but he who receives it.
Okay. He even half an ear, let him hear.
Because just because you can you can have an ear doesn’t mean you’re here.
We’ve all talked to people who can repeat what you said, but you know they weren’t paying attention.
So that means pay attention. This is big. He did half an ear.
So now while he’s talking to the churches, he says I’m speaking to every individual. So now it’s self examination.
To the one who overcomes. That’s our word. Nikkei, overcomes what?
Overcomes the temptation to compromise. Or to tolerate compromising.
To the one who overcomes, to the one who operates by divine conviction, particularly among believers because he’s talking to what was happening in the church.
You can’t control what non believers do.
But in the family of god, the care for one another means that we need to correct help challenge one another when we are compromising.
On biblical principles. To the one who overcomes is what I’m going to do I’m going to give him first hidden manner.
Hidden manner. Okay.
Remember, some things god does, some things god does, some of it is in time, and some of it is in eternity.
K? We don’t get it all now. We can sum up it now, some of it later. Okay?
But if you overcome, what I will give you is hidden Mana. So let’s talk about Mana.
Matter was coinflakes from above. K? When Israel was going through the wilderness, and they ran out of food.
God rained down cornflakes from above or Mana. Uh, the Hebrew word Mana means is a question. What is it?
Okay? That’s what the that’s what the word matter means. What is it? Okay.
Why would he call a food a question? Because he wanted him to answer the question.
What is it? Well, it was a supernatural provision of god that stayed hidden until god was ready to release it.
When they went through the wilderness, that was the arc of the covenant.
That was a little chest where the law was in it, and there was a jar with manner in it.
With with some these cornflakes in it.
The reason he put the jar in the box was so that they would remember that god was their provider.
Just as he supplied manner, he will be your provider. K?
The manner was hidden because it was up in heaven until he was ready to release it.
To the one who overcomes I will give him or her hidden manner.
What that means is God’s got some stuff he wants to do.
He ain’t ready to show yet. It’s hidden. He’s not ready to show it yet.
He’s not ready to let you see it. At, and it won’t be released until he sees an overcoming.
So if you’re compromising, you could be holding back something god wants to release but he can’t release because it’s hidden because you haven’t given them freedom to release it because of compromise.
And to those who overcome, when they stand before the lord, they will get the reward of special provision not available.
To every Christian. Saint John chapter 2, at the end of the chapter, it says, and many believed on him.
Many got saved, but it says, but he would not commit himself to them.
Because even though they were saved, they weren’t committed.
And what god has today are a lot of saved uncommitted people.
A lot of Christians who love the lord on Sunday and compromise on Monday, who love Jesus in the praise service, but love the world.
In their weekly activity, who if they were accused of being a Christian on their job, there would not be enough evidence to convict them.
Because they compromise it like everybody else on the job.
And he says, for that, the man of stays hidden.
There will be some things when you get to heaven.
God will say I would have done, but there was too much compromise. So I I wasn’t free.
And these are the rewards you lose out even then.
He says, and then I’m gonna give the one who overcomes. The temptation to compromise.
I’m a give him a white stone. That’s what he says in verse 17.
I’m a give him a white stone. Okay. So are you married ladies?
You got you have a wedding ring on.
You got a diamond on your finger, or if he was cheap, cut glass that looks like a diamond.
Okay? But you you you have a stone on your finger.
That stone means you’re special. Okay? St1 means you’re not just one of the crowd.
There’s a special relationship.
On the stone, he says, I’m going to write a name nobody else knows.
For 17 says. A secret name.
And how special you are will determine some of what you get now and some of your rewards then predicated on how you view your commitment of compromising.
So you carry my name. I like that, but you compromise and tolerate compromising.
Now none of us is perfect, but he’s talking about the a toleration of it rather than a resistance to it.
One day, the king of kings and lord of lords is gonna step forward.
And when he steps forward, all of the believers will be around the floor.
But don’t you wanna be one of the folk? You know, oh, Billy.
I I I see you over there, Billy. Uh, you you walk with me during your life.
Ruth, I see you over there, Ruth. You are a faithful servant of mine.
Betty, I see you over there, Betty. Girl, you hung in there for me.
Daniel, I see you over there, Daniel, I thank you for hanging in there with me.
All of us will be a court part of the crowd who know Jesus Christ but only some will get their names called because they refused to compromise and stood up for the values of the kingdom of god.
