No Excuses Today's Three-minute Bible Study Print, Study and Apply Title: No Excuses------------------------------------------ Date: 05/17/2000 Keywords:    "false teaching" "Satan" Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation. Intro: In each of these studies (May 15-21), we will be looking at one of the seven letters to the seven churches of Revelation. These are actually letters written by Jesus to churches that existed in the first century. The letters have great application, though, for Christians today. They point out what Jesus commends in a Christian and what He wants to see changed in a Christian. There is even helpful application for people who are struggling with chronic temptation to destructive habits like porn. Read on - and God bless you! Passage: Revelation 2:12-17* “And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this: [13] ‘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 Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. [14] ‘But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality. [15] ‘Thus you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. [16] ‘Repent therefore; or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth. [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 the hidden manna, 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.’ Questions 1. The Christians at Pergamum had a tough time of it. Where did they dwell? (v. 13)   2. Still, Jesus had a few things against them? What are those things?   3. What does He tell these Christians to do?   Practical help Whatever else might be true, the Pergamum Christians had a tough life. They were living where Satan’s throne was located. While we don’t know exactly what that means, it probably had something to do with Pergamum being a major seat of pagan idolatry in the first century. Despite this, Jesus still expected these Christians to keep themselves morally pure. He calls them on the carpet for immorality as well as for false teaching. If they thought their difficult living situation would take them off the hook of responsibility for needing to live a clean life, they were sadly mistaken. Do men (and women) sometimes seek to justify immorality today because they live under difficult circumstances? Do you sometimes run to pornography after a difficult day, somehow feeling that a challenging life justifies a little smut? That is not the way Jesus sees it. Instead of running to Internet porn after a challenging situation, run to the Lord. Only He can really satisfy. eXXit homepage Index of three-minute studies Copyright 2000 by eXXit *"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."