癤?011 June 19th
Sunday Sermon at Yoido Full Gospel Church ??Seoul, Korea
Speaker: Senior Pastor Rev. Younghoon LEE
You Did Not Renounce Your Faith
(Rev 2:12-17)

We cannot trust those who constantly change for their own benefit. It is same with faith. Once we decide to believe, we must keep our faith to the end. I hope that you will hear the voice of God who is speaking to us through the Pergamum Church that kept their faith to the end even in the center of idolatry with all kinds of persecutions and temptations.

1. A church that kept its faith until the end
In those days, the governor of Pergamum received a sword from the Roman emperor and was able to judge anyone right away, and thus people were afraid of him. Right at that place, Jesus appeared with the sharp, double-edged sword and showed them the Lord alone is the true Judge. It is reported that Pergamum was the center of worship to the Roman emperor, where Antipas, an excellent stone-cutter and a Christian, was thrown onto the hot burning steel board and martyred after rejecting a command to make an image of the emperor. The saints of Pergamum kept their faith to the end without fearing death and were praised by the Lord. We should also keep our faith to the end and be praised by the Lord.

2. Things we have to repent for
The Lord rebuked some of the believers in the Pergamum church who held to the teachings of Balaam. Balaam was the prophet who received a lot of money from Balak the king of Moab who was going to curse Israel but the Holy Spirit stopped him and instead he blessed Israel. When he failed in this manner, he corrupted the Israelites through a Moabite women who worshipped idols, made them eat the offerings of idols and commit adultery so that they were punished by God and 24,000 of them died. Besides them, there were some people who held to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Their teachings were that there is no judgment from God because God is the God of grace. They taught that since they received salvation spiritually, they could commit sin physically. Our God is good, but He hates evil and punishes it. The Lord says that we should repent of sins like that. When we repent, the grace and the blessing of God comes on us. When we repent, this country will be blessed.

3. The reward given by Jesus
The Lord said that He would give manna that was hidden when the Pergamum church kept their faith to the end and turned back from the false way. This signifies the grace and the blessing of Jesus, the bread of life. In addition, the Lord would give white stone, which means that the people would triumph with the blood of Jesus and live a righteous life without sin. Moreover in those days white stone was used as the entrance ticket to the coliseum. The white stone can be understood as the symbol of giving the right to enter heaven. The Word, "New names are written on the stone" is that when we believe in Jesus we are saved and our names are written in the book of life. Therefore like this, when we keep our faith to the end, we will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Like the Pergamum church, we should all keep our faith to the end and live a victorious life.