Worth Defending

Transcript

JR 35
07/14/2024
Worth Defending
Selected Verses
Jesse Randolph


If you were to try to put your finger on the ever moving lines of moral relativism in our day, all you would have to do is walk into a public gathering somewhere, whether that be a high school graduation or a music festival or a Husker tailgate party, and ask this question: What would you say is most worth defending? Just ask that question, what would you say is most worth defending and see the answers you get. With such a broadly-phrased question the range of responses you'd receive would be wide and far ranging. Within a matter of minutes you'd hear from one concerned citizen who would mention the importance of defending our borders. And then you'd hear from a goatee-stroking deadhead about how it's all about defending mountain gorillas and preventing the melting of the polar icecaps. After that encounter you'd bump into a concerned father who, when he hears that question, would mention defending his home against intruders. And right after that there would be some young parents who would defend their right to home school or otherwise educate their children without governmental overstepping or interference. Next up would be the Fox News watching Libertarian who would say that what she finds most worth defending is her right to be left alone. She would be followed by the MSNBC-watching liberal who would defend the right of the government to guilt its citizens into double masking and quadruple jabbing and what other hoop jumping they mandate, all for the sake of public safety. After that would be the guy with the “Blue Lives Matter” hat who would answer your question by bringing up the importance of defending the Second Amendment right to bear arms. After him would come the white woman in the “Black Lives Matter” shirt who would speak of defending historically oppressed communities against biases which are rooted in historically white male oppression. Then within spitting distance of each other would be two pregnant women, both in their late 20s, one of whom swears that once her soon-to-be child is born, she would be willing to jump into the middle of a busy intersection to protect that child's life and the other vehemently defending what she calls a constitutional right to end the life of the child that she is now carrying in her womb.

See, we are living in some pretty wild and crazy times, times in which black and white have not just been blurred into gray, but now an altogether different question is being asked which is whether we can even use terms like black anymore because those terms speak of objective truth. And truth is no longer objective but is considered subjective, and if you dare say that you believe in such a thing—a singular, objective truth—well, you're just ignorant or arrogant or both. Now some of you might be thinking, why is he talking that way? Praise the Lord, we're here in the church and that's all for the world, that happens in the world, that doesn't happen here in the church. Thank the Lord that He has insulated Christians from all that nonsense. We don't have to think of those things. Well, I'm sorry to say that more and more things aren't looking so great across the landscape of evangelicalism either.

As just one example, it was just a couple months ago that the United Methodist Church held this general conference and I will mercifully spare you all the details of what was decided at that conference theologically. But let's just say that the United Methodist Church with roots going back to very godly men like John and Charles Wesley is an organization, is an institution, broadly speaking that is no longer Christian. Rather this so-called church is now openly promoting universalism which was highlighted at this convention. And it was highlighted in a hymn that was sung at this convention. The hymn is titled “Creator of the Intertwined.” Andrew, don't add this to your song list, please. It goes like this:
Creator of the intertwined, you made us all unique,
Each one with ears to hear faith's call, each one with voice to speak.
Each worships where the call is heard, in forest, temple dome,
On mountaintop, in upper room, each one must find a home.

This song of peace is sung by all, strength grows from unity.
In harmony we celebrate your gift—diversity.
Can we not sing each other's songs, speak unfamiliar prayer,
Rejoicing in the riches found in differences we share?

In evil's wake we all are hurt, when pricked all humans bleed,
With common wounds and shared despair we seek the balm we need.
We do not ask before we reach to offer our embrace.
We do not ask, how do you pray? We reach with arms of grace.

It goes on and on, I'll spare you the rest of it. But the United Methodist Church and churches like it have given up any notion of what it means to defend what really matters. They've given up the defense of the gospel. They've given up defense of sound doctrine. Churches like these, biblically speaking and theologically speaking, have fallen off a cliff and I don't think they can accurately be called churches anymore. The Lord has long since snuffed out their wick and they are full of dead men's bones.

And then there are the churches that sit kind of in the squishy center of modern day evangelicalism. This is the easy-believism crowd. In these churches it is not that they have cut loose from the dock of biblical orthodoxy, it's not that they are teaching universalism like the Methodist church is or other heresy. They are just spiritually malnourished and they are spiritually weak. Because the only spiritual sustenance they have received over the years is some watered down wishy washy creed which goes something like attend church, be a good person, be nice, keep my nose clean, don't judge anything, welcome everything, tolerate everything, give a decent offering, live free and easy, wait for heaven, the end.

All this to say, whether it is out there in the world or inside in churches, whether truly apostate churches or the milquetoast, seeker friendly churches, what we are seeing these days are these increasingly slippery notions of what if anything is worth defending anymore. It is truly a sad and disturbing state of affairs which is why this morning I have chosen to take this one-week break in our study of Luke to take on an important topic. And our topic is this—what does it mean and what does it look like today to defend that which is ultimate. What does it look like to defend that which is ultimate. What does it look like to be a people of faith, a gathering of Christ followers who are committed to and do what Jude says in Jude 3 which is “defend the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints.” This will be a topical message which is not what we typically do on Sunday mornings, but it's an important message that I think will equip us to navigate the waters that we find ourselves sailing today.

Now to give you a sense of where we will be headed this morning, you're actually going to get three mini-sermons in one. That doesn't mean it will be three times as long, don't worry, but we're going to take three different texts to look at three different aspects of what it means to defend the faith. First we're going to look at “The Primacy of Defending,” second we'll look at “The Portion of Defending” and then last we'll consider “The Price of Defending.” That will be our outline for this morning, we'll attach a specific passage of Scripture to each of those and work through those one by one. Starting with “The Primacy of Defending.”

To get us started why don't you turn with me to Philippians, and we'll start in Philippians 1. And as you're turning there, Philippians of course is Paul's epistle of joy, it's a prison epistle which Paul wrote during his first period of imprisonment somewhere between 60-62 A.D. And Philippians begins, as many of Paul's letters do, with these profound words of thanks and gratitude for the believers to whom he was writing. So that takes us to Philippians 1, we'll start right there in verse 1 where it says, “Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi with the overseers and deacons. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my prayer for you all because of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Then look at this in verse 7, he says, “For it is only right for me to think this way about you all because I have you in my heart since both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel you all are fellow partakers with me in this grace.”

Now usually when we work our way through this passage, Philippians specifically, verse by verse, our focus rightly is on the gratitude that this great apostle had for these dear people there in Philippi. But note that important detail from verse 7. As Paul writes to the Philippian believers, he is imprisoned, it says he is wearing chains. And for what? Failing to disclose capital gains on his income tax forms? Watering on non-watering day? No. He was imprisoned for his defense and confirmation of the gospel. Paul was willing to lose his liberty because of the freedom he now had in Christ. He was willing to wear chains because his Savior had set him free from the shackles of sin. He was willing to forsake it all and lose all and give up all for the sake of the One who had bled and suffered and died for him. Paul, in other words, knew which hills to die on and in his case quite literally. He knew what was of primary importance, of central importance, that being the gospel message itself. I highlight this because when it comes to the responsibility that we've been given in our day to defend the faith, it starts with, as Paul did in his context, defending the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's our primary line of defense—the gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to be willing at all times, in all circumstances, whatever the cost, to be willing to defend the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And why? Well, it starts with obedience to God. Simply put it is obedience to God who has entrusted us with that gospel to proclaim. But it's also a matter of being burdened with the eternal nature of the stakes that are involved. See, we are to be committed to the defense of the gospel because we are always and ever aware of the reality that we are surrounded in all places that we go by fellow image-bearers, people who are not merely a composition of flesh and bone, but people who are souls who have been created for eternity. And every single one of those souls, think of the crowd there in Pennsylvania yesterday, every single one of those souls faces the reality that without fail when they die they are going to cross over that threshold into their eternal state. And as they cross over that threshold, whether their body goes into the ground or into an urn on the mantle or into their favorite lake or ocean or their high school football field, their soul is going to live on.

And their soul will go to one of two places. It will either go on to heaven which is God's eternal abode. That's the place from which He places His feet on the earth. The earth is His footstool, Isaiah 66:1. It's the place where the saints in glory worship around His throne as we see in Revelation 4. They'll either go there, to heaven, or they'll go to hell, the place where those who have not trusted in Jesus Christ will spend an eternity, the place where those who have not trusted in Jesus Christ will face eternal, conscious torment. This is not the type of black and white truth that the world likes to hear anymore, or ever did, frankly. This is not the type of black and white truth that pastors and churches are proclaiming anymore. But the fact of the matter is this is black and white truth that needs to be proclaimed, and we all need to be reminded of.

John Bunyan very famously wrote the “Pilgrim's Progress” in the late 1600s. It's that wonderfully rich, allegorical tale of the Christian's pilgrimage to the celestial city, to heaven. Bunyan, fun fact, wrote that despite having I think upwards of a third-grade education. That might have been where he topped out, and up until the days of “Harry Potter’ that was the second greatest selling book of all time, outside of the Bible, of course. Over 250 million copies of that book have been sold. Well, twenty years before he wrote “Pilgrim's Progress” Bunyan wrote a book that was titled “The Groans of a Damned Soul.” They don't title them like they used to. That book, though, it's an exposition of Luke 16, the account of the rich man and Lazarus.

And in that book Bunyan gives as candid and terrifying assessment of what lost souls will experience when they are in hell. He writes this, he says, “Oh what a condition you will fall into when you depart from this world. If you depart unconverted and not born again, you would be better off to have been smothered the first hour you were born. You would have been better off to have been plucked one limb from another. You would have been better off to have been made a dog, a toad, a serpent, nay, any other creature in the visible world than to die unconverted. You will find this to be true when in hell you lift up your eyes and cry.” He then goes on to describe the types of cries or groans that will be offered in hell. He says, “They will cry to think that they should be cut off from the land of the living nevermore to have any footing therein. They will cry to think that the gospel of Christ should be so often offered to them and yet they are not profited by it. They will cry to think that now, though they would never so willingly repent and be saved, they are past all recovery. They will cry to think that when the judgment is over and others are taken into the everlasting kingdom of glory then they must depart back again into that dungeon of darkness from whence they came to appear before the terrible tribunal. There they shall be tormented as long as eternity lasts without the least intermission or ease.” That is really heavy truth. But do you know what? That is objective truth, that is biblically derived truth, that is black and white truth that nobody likes to hear anymore and nobody likes to talk about anymore. But that is needed truth.

Now here is what concerns me, especially if we've been attending church for some time. We can, if we're not careful, become enslaved by what we perceive to be the urgent—the busy family schedule, the crammed church calendar, the ever so important Netflix and YouTube viewing routine. We can become so crowded out with those matters that we lose our sense of urgency about what we are here to do, which is to proclaim the gospel of grace. Don't do it. Don't lose that sense of urgency. By all means enjoy your family, by all means enjoy the benefits of being a part of a faithful church body, by all means enjoy the freedoms that you have been given in Christ. But don't lose that sense of the urgency of the gospel message and don't lose that sense of the urgency that we all need to have of being proclaimers of Jesus' saving gospel. Maintain that right evaluation of things temporal and things eternal and maintain that sense of brokenheartedness over those who will one day groan in the fires of hell if they don't repent and believe in the world's one Savior.

If you are having a hard time developing or maintaining that sense of urgency, here is my counsel to you. Think of yourself more. You might be thinking, that is terrible counsel. I'm always told to think of myself less or think less of myself or one or the other. But think of myself more, what are you talking about? Here is what I mean. Think of who you once were, think of what you deserve, think of what God did to rescue you, think about the fact that you are a blood-bought sinner who is as desperately in need of the mercy and forgiveness than anyone in the world. Think about the fact that you were once gorging yourself on the slop and the filth and the muck and the mire of this world until God grabbed you and saved you -- even if you were a church kid, even if you were married in this church, even if you've served thirty years straight at VBS, even if you've built and led ministries here at the church.

Think about the fact that you were chosen by God, Ephesians 1:4, “before the foundation of the world.” Think about the fact that as it says in Ephesians 2:5-6 that you were the recipient of God's free grace in the form of salvation through Christ Jesus. Think about the fact that your sins, though once scarlet, are, Isaiah 1:18, now washed “as white as snow.” Think about the fact that you now have the Spirit of God indwelling you and filling you and controlling you and sanctifying you and molding you into the image of your dear Savior. Think about the fact that now as a child of God you have no fear of death and you have no fear of man. Think about the fact that nothing can separate you, Romans 8:38-39, from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Think about the fact that though you were once His enemy, you are now Christ's ambassador. He has dragged you across enemy lines and conscripted you into His service and the thing He has called you to do is go, be an ambassador and a proclaimer of His saving gospel. That's glorious news, glorious good news. That's the very meaning of that word “gospel.” So we dare not throw it into the junk drawer of our minds or toss it into the attic of our hearts or file it away with the loose scraps of our affections, rarely to be thought of ever again.

Getting back to our first text, our sermon this morning, Philippians 1:7, we are to be diligent in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. We are to be ready and willing to defend the truth that Jesus Christ came to save sinners and that Jesus is the only way and that no deeds or righteous acts could ever make us right in the eyes of a perfectly holy God. We are to be ready and willing to defend the truth that it is God's grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone that anyone can be saved. We are to be ready to stand up for the exclusivity of the gospel in all situations and in all circumstances. So when sweet and precious Aunt Edna suggests at this year's Thanksgiving dinner with that twinkle in her eye that all roads leads to heaven, don't be Midwest nice and just kind of ignore it. Speak up, lovingly pull Aunt Edna aside and correct her in the kitchen. Rewire the steps that she laid out and correct everybody around the table and say, actually Jesus said in John 14:6 He is the way, He is the truth, He is the life; no one comes to the Father but through Him. Don't be afraid to do it, defend and contend for the exclusivity of the gospel.

So that's our first item for this morning, “The Primacy of Defending.” Our first line of defense is the defense of the gospel. The next matter we have to consider is “The Portion of our Defending.” And what is meant by that, “The Portion of our Defending”? By that I mean while the gospel is primary and the gospel is at the very core of who we are as followers of Christ (that's what makes us a Christian - is the power of the gospel), it's not exclusivity of the gospel that we have been charged with defending. No, as I mentioned in a recent Sunday evening sermon, there are circumstances in which the gospel is not enough and that's because we have been charged with defending all that God has given us in His timeless, perfect, sufficient Word. So while the gospel certainly is a focus of what God has revealed to us, it's not the only matter He has charged us with defending. He has commissioned us to defend all of sound doctrine. That's our portion of defending. That's the second big idea here and I'm going to take us over to the book of Titus to further explain what I mean by that.

As we turn to the book of Titus we're going from Philippi to Crete. Crete was this sun-splashed island sitting right in the heart of the Mediterranean, just north of Africa and southeast of Greece. And when Paul wrote this letter to Titus, Crete was a busy, bustling seaport. And Crete was, and even today is, this naturally beautiful location. It is surrounded by these crystal blue waters, it's a very mountainous island, it has many valleys and gorges and land bridges. It is something to behold. But as externally beautiful as this island was during the apostolic era, morally it was rotten. See, because of the location of the isle of Crete right there in the heart of the Mediterranean Sea, this area had been exposed to secular Greek culture and then after that secular Roman culture. And while the Greeks and the Romans during this time were known for turning out beautiful art and literature and poetry and philosophy and all the rest, morally speaking these civilizations were absolutely putrid. They were steeped in idolatry and greed and overindulgence and lust and homosexuality and all other forms of immorality. Well, in the decades that followed our Lord's ascension into heaven, this island of Crete was home to a group of early Christian churches and Paul had sent Titus, one of his proteges to Crete, the island of Crete, to minister there.

And for context we'll pick it up in Titus 1:7-8, and here Paul is laying out the moral qualifications not only for Titus, but for any elders he would eventually appoint to minister there on this island. And by the way, these are qualifications which in many ways parallel the standards that all Christians are called to embody as Spirit-indwelt followers of Christ. But look at Titus 1:7, he says, “For the overseer must be beyond reproach as God's steward. Not self-willed, not quick tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of dishonest gain, but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, righteous, holy, self-controlled.” And then look at what comes next in verse 9, he says, “holding fast the faithful Word which is in accordance with the teaching so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to reprove those who contradict.” Now note the two-fold nature of that charge there, it is exhort in sound doctrine and then it's reprove those who contradict. Who contradict what? Who contradict sound doctrine.

We're going to focus this morning more on that second part of that verse, “reprove those who contradict,” since that really ties in to the responsibility we each have as Jude 3 would say “to defend the faith.” But before we get there we need to define our terms. What is sound doctrine as it is used there in Titus 1:9? What does Paul mean by sound doctrine? Well, the word “sound” there is “hugiaino” which is the word from which we get our English word hygiene, like healthy, clean, wholesome. These would be derivative terms of that word “hugiaino.” Doctrine is the word “didaskalia” which comes from the Greek word “didasko” which means to teach. So this is referring to teaching, when it says doctrine. Sound doctrine then literally could be rendered something like healthy teaching or right teaching, clean teaching. To borrow from 2 Timothy 1:13, sound words. And where does sound doctrine come from? Where do we get sound doctrine? Where do we get theology? Does it just fall out of the sky like manna from heaven like in the days of Moses? No. Doctrine if sound and theology if correct ultimately are sourced from Scripture, from the Bible. Look at the first few words there again in verse 9. It says, “holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching.” Those words, “faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching,” they are referring to Scripture. All theology, at least all sound theology, all sound doctrine comes from Scripture. Not Scripture plus tradition, not Scripture plus confessions, not Scripture plus creeds or Scripture plus catechisms or Scripture plus our favorite commentaries. From Scripture alone.

There is this story about an old English poet, his name was Walter Scott and he lived in the early 1800s. He was on his deathbed in 1832 and he had this unnamed companion nearby as the dew was forming on his forehead, as he is lying there in bed ready to meet the Lord. The companion is unnamed and that's probably good because Scott, as he is getting ready to die, says to this companion standing next to him, “Bring me the book.” This companion is like looking around, “Which book?” he asks. And Scott says, “There is only one book, man, bring me the Bible.” That's the attitude everyone of us is called to have, not only on our deathbeds when the dew is forming on the forehead, but all throughout our lives, that there is only one book. If we're going to be prolific defenders of sound doctrine, we're not going to be able to do so without bathing ourselves in and responding with the truths of this book, the holy Scriptures. See, those who we face who are doubters of or detractors from sound doctrine, those who we face who are critics of or opponents to sound doctrine, they don't need to hear what Grudem or MacArthur or Ryrie have to say. They need to hear what Genesis and Matthew and Revelation say. They need to hear from this book. 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All Scripture.” It doesn't say my favorite theologian or all catchy sayings from my favorite pastor. It says all Scripture is profitable. “All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for correction, for reproof, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be equipped, adequate for every good work.”

Getting back to the big idea here of defending the faith, back to Titus, Paul charges Titus not only to give instruction in sound doctrine, but we see here in verse 9 to reprove or “refute those who contradict it.” That word “reprove” there or “refute” in some translations means to scrutinize, to bring to light, to disapprove of, specifically to disapprove of those who contradict sound doctrine. To defend sound doctrine then means to speak openly and directly and boldly against those who might seek to pollute the purity of sound, biblical doctrine. In Titus' context we see what that looked like right in the next couple of verses in Titus 1:10-11, he says, “For there are many rebellious men.” This is what was happening on Crete. “There are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision who must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of dishonest gain.”

And of course it wasn't only Titus in his day who was charged with defending sound doctrine. No, this was a matter that was clearly front and center in the minds of various New Testament writers as they were moved by the Holy Spirit to write what they wrote. In fact, listen to some of these sharp and penetrating words from various biblical authors who were calling out tares and driving out wolves as they were seeking to scare off those who would seek to pollute the purity of doctrine in early church life. Here is 2 Timothy 3:8, Paul calls out “men of depraved mind who are disqualified in regard to faith.” Later in Titus, Titus 3:11, he calls out those who are perverted in terms of their doctrine and “sinning, being self-condemned.” Peter in 2 Peter 2:1 calls out false teachers who “secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them.” And then we think of the words of Jude in Jude 12-13 who call out “men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves, clouds without water carried along by winds, autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted, wild waves of the sea casting up their own shame like foam, wandering stars for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”

In our defense of sound doctrine here is the big idea, the main point. We are called to be brave and bold in speaking openly against false teaching and false teachers. We're not called to shrink back or bury our head in the sand or operate from fear or worry about cancel culture. We're not charged to be worried about backlash from political interest groups or to be put in twitter jail or to be arrested by the tone police. No, we're called to speak up against and step in the way of and step up to peddlers of error and proponents of false teaching and those who would seek to promote false doctrine. We're called to go toe-to-toe with those who would dare lead our precious brothers and sisters in Christ astray. Now of course we don't need to be pugnacious, we don't need to be rude or unchained or full of ourselves. I had a friend recently remind me that we don't need to be jerks for Jesus. At the same time, though, we do need to speak up and we need to speak the truth. Again, going back to the beginning of the message, the drift from sound doctrine in churches today has been rapid and it has been undeniable. So there is no more important time than now to double-down first and foremost on our commitment to defending the gospel like we just looked at in Philippians, but also to double-down like we're seeing here in Titus our defense of sound doctrine, to defend the truth, to defend the faith, all of it.

That takes us to our third and final point for this morning. We've considered “The Primacy of Defending,” that's the gospel. We've looked at “The Portion of Defending” that entire body of sound doctrine. Next, and here is our third heading, we are called to remember “The Price of Defending.” What I mean by that is in our day and in our time to defend the gospel and to defend sound doctrine, to defend the faith is going to come at a cost. There will be a price to pay. As we consider the price of defending, we're going to turn to another Scripture where we're going to encounter another group of believers who knew what it meant to pay the price for defending the truth.

Turn with me if you would to the book of Revelation, and specifically Revelation 2 and we're going to start in verse 8, Revelation 2:8. This starts the letter that the ascended and glorified Lord of all, Jesus Christ, through the Apostle John while John was imprisoned on the isle of Patmos, sent to a church in Smyrna. So we've gone from Philippi to Crete and now we're in Smyrna. We went over this a few years ago or a couple years ago when we went through Revelation 1-3. But Smyrna was this large, thriving coastal metropolis in Asia Minor and we will see in a moment that it had some very interesting cultural dynamics going on. There was this contingency of Roman opposition to the Christian church and a contingency of Jewish opposition, and it all converged here in Smyrna. And right in the middle of it was this church, a church in this city and it was a faithful church, it was a devoted church, it was a doctrinally sound group of believers who were committed to defending the faith. And what was their earthly reward? Well, this text will tell us. We'll pick it up in verse 8, the text begins with these words, it says, “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write.” That word “angel” there, we covered this a couple years ago, is “angelos” and it just means messenger, which I take to mean not like one of Isaiah 6 kind of angels that we picture in that heavenly scene. But rather this is an earthly messenger who I would take to be actually the pastor as that mouthpiece to these people there in Smyrna.

And then we see that Christ identifies Himself. This is what “the first and the last Who was dead and has come to life,” that's a reference to the resurrected, ascended Lord, “says,” verse 9, “ ‘I know your tribulation and your poverty but you are rich, and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan.’ ” Note, all that came there to the Christians in Smyrna on account of the defense of their faith. First Jesus says there, verse 9, “I know your tribulation.” That word “tribulation” is “thlipsis” and it connotes severe pressure, it means severe pressure. And what was the tribulation, the severe pressure the church at Smyrna was facing? Well, the pressure that this community of believers was facing again was #1, the Roman rulers of this day.

See, at this time that Christ addresses this letter to Smyrna, the Roman emperor was a man named Domitian, and during Domitian's reign emperor worship, worship of Caesar, was no longer considered an option, it was now mandatory for each and every citizen. And under Domitian's reign if you didn't worship the Roman emperor as God it was a capital offense. You could be put to death for it. So think of the situation that these early Christians there in Smyrna were in. Think of the great pressure or tribulation that they faced as they had to come up with a choice, or make their choice—either worship Caesar and live but in doing so betray and renounce Christ, or worship Christ and get ready to say good-bye to mom and dad and all your friends as you got ready to meet the blade of that executioner. They could either, in other words, defend the faith or they could drop their profession of faith like a hot potato in order to save their skin. Well, they made their choice. They couldn't comply with Domitian's imperial edict. They couldn't on the one hand declare that Jesus is Lord as we are all called to do, and out of the other side of their mouth say that Caesar is lord. So they refused to worship Caesar, they were firm in their resolve to worship Christ alone, they defended the faith. And many of them ultimately paid the price up to the very price of their lives.

Well, it wasn't just tribulation that the Christians at Smyrna faced. As we read on the Lord also says He knows their poverty. “I know your tribulation and your poverty.” So the tribulation, the pressure that the church at Smyrna faced was only compounded by the fact that they were poor. And when Jesus here says that they are poor, He means that they are poor. We went over this a couple years ago, but there are only two options for that word poverty in Greek in this day and age as Jesus gave them these words. One would be a poverty that speaks of what we would think of as first world poverty—not being able to meet basic needs. Maybe a more extreme example would be instead of being able to get the 58” TV we can only get the 28” TV. First world problems, right? There is another term though, and this is one that speaks of poverty in terms of third world poverty. This describes being a beggar, living completely and entirely on the good graces of others, having nothing at all. That's the word that Jesus uses here when He speaks of the poverty that the Smyrna Christians had experienced. They were completely impoverished, they were living from hand to mouth.

Now Smyrna was this otherwise prosperous city that is historically verifiable. So why were these people, these Christians, in this city living in such awful squalid conditions? The answer is for no other reason than that they were Christians. They were open in their devotion to Christ and because of that, tying it back to the theme of the message this morning, because they had defended the faith they had been black listed. They had been black listed from business deals and employment opportunities so they were now no longer able to put food on the table and stay alive. And just when it seems like it couldn't get any worse our Lord says something so important. It's in the parenthetical there, right in the middle of verse 9. He says, “But you are rich.” Though the Christians there in Smyrna were dirt poor economically, they were abundantly rich in other ways. They may have been wearing tattered clothing on the outside but they had these rich storehouses and treasures to look forward to in glory. They were, to use the words of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 6:20, storing up for themselves “treasures in heaven.” They might not ever own anything in this life but they already had everything they needed. They were, as James 2:5 says, “poor of this world” but “rich in faith,” rich in the things of eternity, rich in the things that will last.

And there is obvious application for us on that point today, right? As Christians walking through this world in our time it is absolute foolishness to ground our sense of richness or wealth or success in what we own. It is absolutely irrational to ground our sense of richness or wealth or success on what we possess and what we park in our garage and what we've financed and what we've mortgaged and what we rent. As Christians it is absolutely senseless to measure ourselves against the one who has season tickets on the 50-yard line or has the ornately finished basement or who is able to snowbird. Because if you put your trust in Jesus Christ to save you, the reality is you already are eminently rich. That's what 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, it says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though being rich yet for your sake He became poor,” that's an incarnational verse, “so that you through His poverty might become rich.” That's not an Osteen verse, that's an eternal truth.

So Christ, back to our text here in Revelation 2, through John here, was saying that He knew the church at Smyrna was facing tribulation, He knew that they were facing crippling poverty. And next look at the next part of verse 9, He says He knew the blasphemy they were facing “by those who say they are Jews and are not but are a synagogue of Satan.” The Christians there in Smyrna like Christians all over the ancient world faced these blasphemous, slanderous accusations of various types. There was the blasphemous accusation that Christians were atheists because they didn't worship the pantheon of Roman gods. There was the blasphemous accusation that Christians were cannibals because they ate the Lord's body and drank His blood. There was the blasphemous accusation that they were incestuous because a husband would call his wife his sister and the wife would call her husband her brother. And with no spiritual reference point for that, the Romans thought, wow, they are sleeping with their sister or their brother. So they faced blasphemous accusations.

But there in Smyrna there was one charge in particular that was sure to get a Christian locked up and eventually killed, and that was the charge of political disloyalty. And here is what was happening, I mentioned this a little earlier, that there was this large Roman contingency that the Christians had to face there in Smyrna, but there was also a Jewish contingent. And there was a large Jewish population in Smyrna, and this is historically verifiable, who were well aware of Domitian's law that all bow down to the emperor and they were well aware of the Christians in Smyrna refusing to bow down to the Emperor Domitian. So what happened was the Jews in Smyrna joined forces with the civil authorities from Rome by becoming informants against the Christians. As they had done in the events leading up to the crucifixion of our Lord, the early Jewish population here in Smyrna was now aiding and abetting the early persecution of the Smyrna church.

These were shameful acts and as we are about to see, our Lord had some strong words for them. Look what He says, He says, “They say they are Jews and are not.” These persecutors of the Christians there in Smyrna undoubtedly were Jewish racially speaking, they undoubtedly were affiliated with one of the twelve tribes of Israel, but they were not true Jews. Which reminds us of the words of Paul in Romans 9:6 where he says, “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel.” Jesus goes even further, though. Look what He calls the Jewish people at this time that are in Smyrna who are persecuting the Christian church there. He says they “are a synagogue of Satan.” Now in terms of shock value, those are off the chart, but seeing as those words left the lips of our Lord, the very Lord who created the entire universe and has given us His Word, we can't deny that those words are true. At that time that pocket of Jewish people there in Smyrna were considered by our Lord to be a synagogue of Satan.

Carrying that over to today we do know and we can say that there are only two types of assemblies that gather for worship in the world. There are assemblies of Christ, those who worship Christ as He has revealed Himself in Scripture, by worshiping Him in Spirit and in truth. And then there are those who are assemblies of Satan. And to be considered an assembly of Satan they don't have to have the words “Assembly of Satan” on the marquee out front, they don't have to have a pentagram on the door, they don't have to have an obsession with the occult necessarily. A mosque is an assembly of Satan, a Kingdom Hall is an assembly of Satan. And sadly when there has been an abandonment of biblical truth, even physical buildings that call themselves churches are assemblies of Satan.

So Jesus here, back to our text, is encouraging the church at Smyrna. He is telling them, I know, I know your tribulation and your poverty and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not. And for the church at Smyrna those words must have given them a degree of comfort, but at the same time Jesus was in heaven and they were still on earth. So what could they anticipate happening next? Well, He tells them in verse 10. He says, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison so that you will be tested and you will have tribulation for ten days.” This church had already been through so much—tribulation, poverty, slander—and as we are about to see here in verse 10 even greater difficulties were about to come their way. He says, “Do not fear what you are about to suffer.” Our Lord gives them, this church, through John's pen, some of these details about what was coming next in terms of their suffering.

First he tells them where the suffering was going to come from. He says, “Behold the devil is about to cast some of you into prison.” So on an earthly plane the persecution that was happening in this church, in this city, was on account of the Roman rulers who were now having Jewish help. But behind the scenes we see that it was the old enemy of the Lord's true followers, the devil, Satan, the father of lies, who is behind it all as he has been for a long time. We think of Job, the book of Job, and how Satan takes Job's family and his possessions and his physical health. We think of Paul's words in Ephesians 6:12 where he says, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, instead it's against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” And here in Smyrna, Satan and his forces of evil were attempting to do all that they could do to stamp out the advance of the gospel in this corner of the world.

And then we see in the next part of verse 10 he had a specific plan, Satan did, about where he was going to apply the pressure. It says, “The devil is about to cast some of you into prison.” Now prison, we see that word, we might be thinking maybe like a minimum security kind of country club type prison. That's not the kind of prison that's in view here. This is a small, dark, dank room with no restroom, no ventilation, no windows, cooking in the Mediterranean sun. Think rats and flies and vermin, that's the kind of prison we're talking about here. And why prison? Well, he tells them. “So that you may be tested,” it says right there in the middle of verse 10. See, suffering as a Christian is never meaningless. Suffering, as the Smyrnans learned here, is never purposeless. Rather, God always has a purpose in the suffering that He allows us to go through this side of glory. And there was a purpose to the suffering that the Christians at Smyrna there were about to experience, namely the purifying of this people, the deepening of their faith and the sharpening of their resolve to live devotedly for Him as He prepared them for spending eternity with Him. That's James 1 and 1 Peter 1 type truth.

Jesus then said to the church at Smyrna, “And you will have tribulation for ten days.” What does that mean, ten days? Is that symbolic? Some have said that must mean ten waves of persecution by successive Roman rulers. I don't take it that way. Just like I take Genesis 1 to be speaking of creation over six literal days, and I take Revelation 20 to be speaking of a literal 1000 year millennium, I'm taking this to be ten literal days that the Christians in Smyrna would be imprisoned, likely so they could be tortured, likely so that the persecutors could get names and locations of other Christians so that they could then persecute them. But don't miss the big point here, which is that the suffering they would face over this intense period of persecution for ten days would be brief. It wouldn't last forever.

Now I see out there, I see some of the blank looks and the blank stares. I see the sense of wonderment, like why in the world have we gone down this long road into Smyrna. What's the point here? Wrap it up, we have five minutes to go. Why? I'm glad you asked. I've taken us to Smyrna to bring us face to face with this truth that there is always a price to pay for defending the faith. Our defense of the gospel, our defense of sound doctrine will inevitably and always come with a cost. The price in Smyrna obviously was steep, it was the price of persecution as we've just walked through. In our day of course in the pampered USA with our first amendment protection which we are all very grateful for, we tend to overuse that word “persecution.” We tend to confuse or conflate inconvenience with persecution or discomfort with suffering for the gospel. But the reality is the vast majority of us here this morning have not suffered anything close to suffering or persecution for the sake of Christ.

But even so and even then, though we haven't had our Bibles taken away and though they haven't locked the doors of the churches just yet and we haven't been thrown into prison, that's not to say that we won't or haven't experienced pain and discomfort and angst and anguish for being unashamed in our defense of the faith. The reality is, and this takes us back to the beginning of the message, we do live in a time which is resistant to anyone making absolute truth claims. And we do live in a time in which there is a very low threshold for the exclusive message of the gospel of grace. And we do live in a time in which autonomy abounds and choices abound so for you to defend the message of Jesus being the only way for a person to be saved is going to make you very unpopular in certain circles. Ironically in the tolerance culture in which we live they will be very intolerant of you.

And as it relates to your defense not only of the gospel, that first line of defense, but all other matters of sound doctrine, it will also cost you. And for many here, I'm sure, it has already cost you. It will cost you friendships, it will cost you relationships, it will cost you partnerships. When your neighbors learn that your wife submits to your leadership, when you discipline your children or when you forsake Sunday sports for church, those invitations to the neighborhood barbecue won't be as often coming. When visitors to our church learn that we stand firm on the inerrancy of Scripture or on a literal six-day creation or on the pre-tribulational rapture of the church or the reality of the future kingly reign of Jesus Christ on this earth, they may never come back. Is that persecution? Is that suffering like the saints at Smyrna experienced? No. But is there a cost, is there a price for defending the faith? There absolutely is, the answer is yes.

If you noticed I didn't get us all the way to the end of verse 10, I saved it for the end here because with these next words of our Lord we're going to see that there is not only a price associated with defending the faith, but a prize. Look at the last few words of verse 10. He says, “But be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life.” For the one who is faithful until death, literally faithful even to the point of death, even to the point of persecution leading to death, he or she is promised something right here from the Lord of the church. They will receive, you see it there at the end of verse 10, “the crown of life.” In context, that's referring to a wreath or garland which would have been awarded to the victor of the athletic games in these days. And that reference would have made a ton of sense to the church at Smyrna because the games that were played or done in Asia Minor were hosted in Smyrna. Smyrna was the city in which the games were hosted.

So they would have understood that reference that if they persevered in their faith, if they contended for the faith, if they defended their doctrine, their sound doctrine, the truth of the gospel, they would receive the crown of life or as Paul calls it in 1 Corinthians 9:25, the incorruptible crown, the imperishable wreath, and in 2 Timothy calls it the crown of righteousness, as 1 Peter 5:4 speaks of it as the unfading crown of glory. The faithful witness of the suffering church at Smyrna, then, it gives us such a simple but important lesson. It teaches us that as followers of Christ, for those who defend what is primary, the gospel, for those who defend our portion, that being the whole body of sound doctrine as given to us in the Scriptures, we will not only pay a price for that, whatever price that looks like today, but will receive a prize. We'll receive that crown, the crown of life.

So as we wrap up here one more word of exhortation. Defend the gospel, don't ever tire of defending the gospel. Defend sound doctrine, all of it, every jot and tittle revealed to us in God's precious and inerrant Word. Defend the faith, stay the course, stand strong, walk in faith, and as you do so, keep at the forefront of your mind these words from Jude 24-25. “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, might and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

Father, we thank You for the time together this morning. We thank You for the chance to look at various different facets of what it means to defend truth, to defend the faith. We know that we live in a world that has gone from black and white to gray to not even gray, just to questioning whether colors exist. There is no room for objective truth in our world and sadly churches are losing their grip on objective truth. God, I pray that we would remain strong and steadfast in our defense of the gospel, the exclusive message of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for sinners like us -- we would remain steadfast in our defense of sound doctrine, all aspects of it -- that we would recall and remember that there will be a price, maybe it's just the price of unpopularity in our day, but we have to be prepared to face the ultimate price that the Smyrnans faced. But we remember that there is a prize, too, that being the crown of life, the unfading crown of glory, the crown of righteousness that we all look forward to. God, thank You for this time together. May You be honored the rest of this day. In Jesus' name, amen.