Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2007
Delivered on Lord’s Day Morning, February 5, 1888
“And to the angel of the Church in Pergamos write: These things says He which has the sharp sword with two edges. I know your works and where you dwell, even where Satan’s seat is: and you holdfast My name and ha ve not denied My faith.” Revelation 2:12,13.
YOUR attention will be principally asked to these words—“You hold fast My name and have not denied My faith.”
Specially note, dear Friends, at the opening of this morning’s meditation the character under which the Lord Jesus Christ presents Himself to the Church at Pergamos. “These things says He which has the sharp sword with two edges.” Does the Lord Jesus come to His Church in that way? Does He, at the door of the Church, bear a sword? A sword unsheathed? A sharp sword? A sharp sword with two edges? Yes, even to His visible Church this is how our Lord Jesus Christ appears. To His own spiritual and faithful ones He is to each one a husband full of unutterable tenderness and love.
But to the visible Church, which at its best estate is never altogether pure, He appears in severer form. To a Church He comes as Captain of the Lord’s host and He wields a sharp sword with two edges. It is the parallel of that passage where John the Baptist says of Him—“His fan is in His hand and He will thoroughly purge His floor and He will gather His wheat into His garner. But He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” That winnowing fan is never out of His hand for it is always needed. Even though our Lord is full of Divine Grace, He is also full of Truth. His love to His servants manifests itself in a burning jealousy which will not endure evil.
“He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver.” We think of the coming of our Lord as a joy and a blessing. But, oh, remember that question, “But who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appears?” The Lord bears the sword and He bears it not in vain. Time has not blunted its edge, it is “sharp.” And it has two edges, as of old. But what will He do with that sword in reference to a Church? We are not left in any doubt upon that point. Having mentioned some whose doctrines and lives were unclean, the Lord says, “Repent. Or else I will come unto you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth.”
He turns the sword against those within the Church who have no right to be there. It is no trifling thing to be a Church member. I could earnestly wish that certain professors had never been members of a Church at all. For if they had been outside the Church, they might have been in far less peril than they are within its bounds. Outside, their conduct might have been tolerated. But it is not consistent with an avowal of discipleship towards Jesus. I say this with deep sorrow. O false Professors, you may go down to Hell readily enough without increasing your damnation by coming into Christ’s Church with a lie in your right hand. Alas for those who are not Christians in heart and yet profess to be so!
Such ought to be startled by the vision of the Lord Himself drawing near to a Church with a sharp sword in His hand. Surely, “The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness has surprised the hypocrites.” Yet is there comfort to the sincere in this glorious Man of War? He will smite those who are the enemies of His holy cause but He will also beat off those who attack His people from without. His sword is for the defense of the faithful. It is drawn from its sheath to protect the timid and the trembling. Jesus is come as our Joshua, to chase the enemy before us and lead us onward, conquering and to conquer. The sword with two edges is the defender of the least of those whose hearts are right before the Lord.
I introduce the subject as the Spirit Himself introduces it. I would make the sermon sweet to the saints but the preface needs to be sharp lest any seize upon comforts to which they have no right. The Paschal Lamb is always to be eaten with bitter herbs—those bitter herbs I have set upon the table. The name of Jesus, which is the song of angels and the treasure of saints, has terror in it to those who refuse Him. For He who bears that name shall judge the quick and dead
and pronounce condemnation on the unrighteous. Notice that this blessed Savior watches His Church with an observant eye. He looks at the Church in Pergamos and He says, “I know your works and where you dwell, even where Satan’s seat
is.”
The Lord sees the position and the peril of the Church at Pergamos, “where Satan dwells.” Probably there were horrible idolatries with obscene orgies in the city or it may have been a place of peculiar licentiousness—or of special persecution. We cannot, at this distance, of time tell exactly what it was. But the Lord regarded it as the citadel of Satan. There are places in the world at this day where sin has so much the upper hand or where error and unbelief reign so supreme that the devil would seem to have there taken up his residence and to have made it his capital city. This is a trying neighborhood for a Church of Christ and yet it is the place where it is most wanted.