The Lord's Message to Pergamum

Chapter two, Revelation chapter two is where we're at this morning, looking at God's call upon the church to be a holy church, a separate church, a unique church, a distinct church. We are looking at the ministry and the message of Christ to his churches, looking at the state of the church, not only as it was when it began, but as it is today. By looking at seven churches in Asia Minor, seven churches that were literal churches that did exist, but are representative also of all the churches throughout the church age that have ever existed, as well as people in every church that have ever existed in the church age, because the church is made up of people and the people in those churches have the characteristics of those in Ephesus or Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Sardis, et cetera, et cetera.

So we need to understand what the spirit of the Lord says to us, because every one of us falls into different categories as mentioned in these churches. And so it's a self-examination for every one of us as we look at what Christ says to the churches.

That's why he began with the church of Ephesus. The church of Ephesus was the cold church. It was the calloused church. Then lastly, he talked about the church of Smyrna. Smyrna was the crushed church. The crushed church is a clean church. Today we look at church number three, the church of Pergamum, and it was the compromising church.

And all these churches are listed in the order in which the postal carrier would deliver the letters. That's how they are listed. And yet the five churches that are told to repent give us the direction of sliding out of God's plan for your life. And we will see that as we continue on. It begins with being cold and calloused. And once you're cold and calloused, you will begin to compromise the truth of God's holy word. And so we're going to look at this church this morning, the church of Pergamum, and we're going to follow the same outline we always follow.

It's the analyzation of the church. And then we look at the accusation or the affirmation of that church, the accusation toward that church, then the admonition that Christ gives and the application that he gives that we might come to understand exactly what God has for us as we sit and listen.

So let's imagine you're in the church of Pergamum this morning. You're an Asian minor in modern day Turkey, and the pastor gets up and reads these words to you. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum right, the one who has a sharp two edged sword says this, I know where you dwell and 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. 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.

So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans, therefore repent, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. 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. Let's begin with the analyzation. We'll analyze the correspondent, we'll analyze the city, and we'll analyze the church at Pergamum.

First of all, the correspondent to the angel write these words. It says, the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this. And who is that? That's Christ. Again, he describes himself as he's already been described in the first chapter because it would tell us about the ministry of Christ to the church.

Once you understand his ministry, you can begin to understand his message. To Ephesus, he was the one who dwelt in the midst of the seven churches because he was to be the central focus of your life. If not, you'll lose your first love, and Ephesus had lost their first love.

And then to the church of Smyrna, he said, very simply, I am the first and the last, the one who was dead has come to life.

Again, a phrase he used to describe himself to help you understand that he knows exactly where you're at. He's going to give you the hope that you need because he lives, you too will live, even amidst your persecution. And now he's described himself as the one with the two-edged sword. He is the one who says this. Why is it a two-edged sword? Well, the sword was used for conversion as well as condemnation. That's why it's called a two-edged sword. We know that we're born again by the word of God.

It's the word, it's the sword that comes out of his mouth. The mouth is a place of authority. And that double-edged sword is a side of conversion as well as a side of condemnation. We know that Hebrews 4.12 says that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. And it pierces to the depths of man's soul so as to divide even the soul and the spirit. It goes so deep into a man. And yet when Christ came, he came to convert men. And a sword is used to separate. And at conversion, we are separated from the world.

That's why he uses the phrase, the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this. Why? Because you have been cut off from the world. You have been separated from the world through conversion. That's why Christ said in Matthew 10, I came not to bring peace but a sword to separate a father from his children, a children from their parents, a husband from his wife, a wife from her husband. Why? Because when you are converted, when you are saved, you are cut off from those things that don't pertain to the kingdom of God.

And so therefore, you are separate. And the first side of the two-edged sword deals with man's conversion.

But the second side deals with his condemnation. Because the same word that converts is the same word that condemns. We know that from Revelation chapter 19. For when Jesus returns, it says, when I saw heaven opened up in verse number 11 of chapter 19, and behold a white horse, and he who sat on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. Verse 15, from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He is going to come in judgment. And so he tells the church at Pergamum, listen, the one with the sharp two-edged sword says this. Why? Because you have been converted, you have been separated from the world and its evil system. At the same time, I am coming to wage war against those who will not separate themselves and those who still want to be a part of that kingdom. So it's important to understand exactly what he is saying as he addresses the church. Today's church and the people in today's church love to compromise the truth.

That's unfortunate. And maybe you're here today and you're thinking about compromising your stand on the gospel. Maybe you've already compromised your stand on the gospel. Your stand for truth, your stand for purity and holiness. This letter is for you. Maybe you know those who have compromised the truth and you've done nothing about it. This letter is for you, and you will see what God has to say to the church. And so when we examine God's message, we are looking at this correspondent, this Christ who says, look, I am the one who has a sharp two edged sword that comes out of my mouth.

I have this to say to you. And the church, of course, is located in Pergamum. Pergamum, 70 miles from Smyrna, about 100 miles from Ephesus, not too far from the Aegean Sea. And it says this about Pergamum in 133 B.C. It was named the capital of Asia Minor and it was the official central part or city of Caesar worship. It was William Ramsey who said that beyond all the other cities in Asia Minor, it gives a traveler an impression of royalty and authority when you drive up into the city because it was such a plush place.

There on the Acropolis was an altar raised to Zeus as well as other altars that were raised. But one of the unique temples in Pergamum, this is very important to understand this, is was to the God Asclepius. Why? Because they believed in those days that when you were in the temple of Asclepius, there would be hundreds, literally thousands of non-poisonous snakes that you would go in, lie down in that temple, and those snakes, as they crawled over you, would provide you with healing over your disease.

And that's very important to understand the place where Satan dwells because we know that Satan is not omnipresent, right? Only God is. So he can only dwell in one place at a time. And so the letter says you live in a place where Satan lives, where Satan dwells. Twice it says this is Satan's home. This is Satan's place. And in this city was a little church in an island of sin, in an island of paganism, or a sea of paganism, was a little island of this church who lived there, who worshiped there, who came to saving grace and understood the truth of the gospel.

And there they were, the church of Pergamum. And it says you dwell where Satan's throne is. We know that Satan is the God of this world, 2 Corinthians 4.4. We know that 1 John 5.19 says the whole world lies in the lap of the evil one. We know the gospel of John says that that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. We understand that. But in particular, this is where Satan's throne is. This is where Satan is worshiped at his height. This is where Satan himself dwells, the text says. In this church had the opportunity to be supremely effective, but it had begun to compromise its stand on truth.

And therefore the word of the Lord comes to the church to tell them what needs to happen. So important to realize that the church, the modern day church, even today in the 21st century lives in a sea of paganism. And God has always called the church out of that. God is always determined to separate the church from the world. That's what it means to be holy, to be separate. And that was God's plan ever, always from the beginning. He never wanted Israel to be like the world. He never wanted the church to be like the world.

He called Israel out of Egypt. In fact, in Leviticus 18, some unique things are said to the nation of Israel in Leviticus. The nation of Israel is at the base of Mount Sinai, and they have just been delivered from Egyptian bondage. And the book of Leviticus is the way the nation is to worship their God, to honor their God and to live for their God. He's called them out of Egypt. He has called them as his people. He has separated them from the world. And Leviticus 18, the Lord God says this, as he spoke to Moses, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord, your God, you shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt, where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not walk in their statutes.

In other words, you have to be different from where you were, and you have to be different from the people you're going to associate in the land of Canaan, the place I'm calling you. You must be different. You must be distinct. You cannot be like them. And then he goes on to say this, you are to perform my judgments and keep my statutes to live in accord with them. I am the Lord, your God. So you shall keep my statutes and my judgments by which a man may live. If he does them, I am the Lord. And then he goes on and he says these words, none of you shall approach any blood relative of his to uncover nakedness.

And he uses the word nakedness over 23 times from verse 6 to verse 19. Why? Because the characteristic of paganism was nakedness. He says, you shall not uncover the nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness. You shall not uncover the nakedness over and over and over again. And then he says these words, verse 20, you shall not have intercourse with your neighbor's wife to be defiled by her. You can't commit adultery or immorality. You should not give any of your offspring to offer them to Moloch, nor shall you profane the name of your God.

I am the Lord. You should not lie with a male as one lies with a female. It is an abomination. So homosexuality is abomination. Also, you should not have intercourse with any animal to be defiled with what happened in Egypt was bestiality. What happened in Canaan is bestiality. They were having intercourse with animals. Don't think that things today are worse now than they were back then. That's not true. There's nothing that's changed under the sun. It's always been evil. It's always been depraved.

It's always been defiled. It will always be that way. So don't think because we live in the 21st century that we're cleaner than those in Canaan. No, we're not or those in Egypt. No, we're not. In fact, they were probably worse than we are. And the Lord says, look, you got to be different. I am the Lord, your God, Leviticus 19 one, be holy as I am holy. That is the call for the church. You got to be separate. You got to be different. You can't be like those in Canaan. You can't be like those in Egypt.

Well, same is true today. God calls us out for himself. We are the church. We are the bride. He wants to present the bride spotless and clean before his father in heaven, without spot, without wrinkle, blameless before his father in heaven. He wants us to be pure and holy before him. Yet the church has gone to great length to be like the world in order that it might win the world. The church has become sinner friendly instead of sinner frightening. That's an abomination to God. The, the, the, the term they use today is called seeker friendly.

It's really sinner friendly. We want to be friendly to sinners. Well, we're all for being loving and kind to people who are not believers, but the church is to be alien to sinners. The church is to be uniquely different. The church today is designed to make the sinner comfortable. Listen, if your church is making the sinner comfortable, you're in the wrong church that you're not in a church. You might be in the church of Sardis, the dead church, the church of Thyatira, the corrupt church, but you're not in God's true church because sinners were never made to feel comfortable in church.

It's where God himself is worshiped. They don't worship the one true God. They worship a different God, the God of this age, the God of the world. So we don't, we don't talk like they do. We don't, we don't act like they do. It's, it's a totally different environment. It's a holy environment, a place where God is honored and God has lifted up. The sinner should be uncomfortable in church so that the spirit of God would work in his heart, her heart and life and bring them to a place of repentance.

So the church has become unfortunately sinner friendly, not sinner frightening. The church has become affirming of sinners, not convicting of sinners. The church has become more sentimental than it is theological. The church has become more informal than solemn, more entertaining than edifying, more deceptive than honest, more frivolous than worshipful. Strategy has taken precedence over theology. Methodology has taken precedence over doctrine and the church has begun to compromise horrifically. And this is the word to the church that's compromising.

That's what God has to say to the church. He wants the church to be uniquely, distinctly different than the world. That's why we're called his special possession. That's why we're called a peculiar people. That's why we're called aliens and strangers in a foreign land. But yet the church today wants to be just like the world. If you want to read a good book, read a book written in 1993 by John MacArthur called Ashamed of the Gospel When the Church Becomes Like the World. It'll rock your world because it will help you understand where the church has gone.

So that's the analyzation. Let's look at the affirmation because there is an affirmation. Listen to what God says.

He says back in Revelation chapter 2, I know where you dwell. 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. I know where you live. He told Ephesus, I know your deeds. He told Smyrna, I know your persecution. I know your poverty. I know how you have been blasphemed. I know Oida. I know from experience. I don't know because I'm up in heaven looking down and I can see by way of observation what's happening.

He says, no, I know by personal experience because of Matthew chapter four, I know where Satan's throne is. I know you are in a place where Satan dwells and he was tempted by the devil for 40 days in the wilderness. I know what you're going through. I know that from experience. I know the pressure you're under, the temptation you are facing because I was tempted by Satan. I know. And I know also that you hold fast my name. Wow. What a testimony. You hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith.

The name, which is above every name, the name of Jesus, you hold fast to it. You do not deny my name. And you were led by Antipas and maybe Antipas was the pastor at the church of Pergamon. We don't know, but Antipas, his name means against all anti against pass. All Antipas means against all. I so badly wanted another boy to name him Antipas. You know, there was one of four choices, a leave Advil aspirin or Antipas. Those were my four choices left, but we had a, we had another girl. So we named her Avery, but if we had another boy, we named Antipas because Antipas was against all.

And listen, he is called my faithful witness. Can you imagine Antipas is named after Christ in revelation one five, who was called the faithful witness. Christ says, there's one who bears my name in your church.

There's one just like me in your church. His name is Antipas. He's against everything that I'm against. He's against all evil. He's against all compromise. He's against all sinful behavior. He's against everything that I'm against. He's for everything that I'm for my faithful witness who led you in the days of Antipas, who, by the way, historians tell us that he was put in a brazen bowl and he was boiled to death because of his faith. But yet he's listed in scripture with the name that Christ himself is characterized by my faithful witness.

Would it be that we'd have men and women in the church who could be called Antipas because they are the faithful witnesses of Christ? They will not deny the truth. They will not compromise in any part of their lives because they want to stand true to the word of God. And that's the way Antipas was. He says, I want to affirm this in you. You held fast my name. You did not deny the faith. You were strong in the word. You were strong with conviction. You had courage. You had commitment. And I want to affirm that in you because this was true about you.

So he gives this affirmation to the church of Pergamon. If you're sitting there, you're thinking, wow, this is pretty cool. He's affirming us because of our courage and our commitment, our consecration. He is affirming the things that we have done in his name. And we have followed Antipas, that faithful witness of his. But here comes the hammer. But here comes the accusation. So from the affirmation to the accusation, but I have a few things against you. Well, it's like you go to the doctor and the doctor says, well, hey, you look pretty good.

Uh, you're, you're talking good. You're walking good. You smell good. You look good, but, but there's something wrong. And you want to know what, what's wrong. If I look good, I smell good. I walk good. I talk good. I must be pretty good. And the doctor says, nah, there's something on the inside that you're going to have to deal with. Well, what is it? You want to know what it is because you want to live, right? So what is it that's wrong with me on the inside? So Christ says, I want to affirm the fact that you dwell where Satan dwells.

I know that. And I know it's hard for you, but you, you, you held fast my name. You did not deny my faith, but I do have a few things against you with emphasis. It was one thing. I have one thing against you. Now it's, I have a few things against you. Why? Because in your own spiritual condition, once you grow cold and callous toward the Christ, that's the one thing that's wrong. Many other things will follow after that. And you'll begin to compromise. And that's exactly what took place in the life of the church of Pergamum.

But I have a few things against you. And you can imagine the church. They're yours per cup. What could it possibly be? So he tells him, he says, because you have, there's some who hold the teaching of Baal, not all, some, because there's always tears among the wheat. There's always evil among the good. Not everybody in the church is at the same level spiritually. Not everybody in the church is saved. I mean, you attend the church, you might come to the church. It doesn't mean you're born again. And he goes, I don't even know where you live.

I know, I know that there are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Bailet to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things, sacrifice to idols, and to commit acts of immorality. So you also have some, not all, but some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Wow. Wow. I know what's going on in your church. So the question comes, what is the teaching of Balaam? And what is the teaching of the Nicolaitans? Because if you are characterized by the church of Pergamum, not only is that teaching prevalent then, it's prevalent even today.

So you must understand what the teaching of Balaam is. Well, to do that, you got to go back to Numbers chapter 22 to Numbers chapter 25 and realize that Balaam was a prophet of God. He was a false prophet and he was a prophet for profit. He was a P-R-O-P-H-E-T for P-R-O-F-I-T. He was a prophet for money. That's what he wanted. And Balak didn't want Israel to destroy Moab. He was the king of Moab. So what he did was he hired Balaam to curse Israel. So every time he did this three times, Balaam went to curse Israel.

Every time he opened his mouth, blessing came out, not cursing. And so Balaam was a little frustrated because he wanted to collect. He wanted his money, right? Well, he can't get it if he's blessing Israel. So he came up with a great idea to get the women of Moab to seduce the men of Israel that they might intermarry with the women of Moab and then engage in the pagan rituals of the Moabites. If I can't curse them, I will corrupt them. If I can't curse them, I will get them to compromise so that I can corrupt them.

And that's exactly what happened. That's exactly what happened. And Israel always had trouble staying out of pagan lives. It just did. And they were corrupted. And they married the unbeliever. Listen, you can't marry as a believer the unbeliever and expect it to work. It doesn't work. Every once in a while, there's a miracle of God that takes place. But if you as a believer willingly, knowingly marry an unbeliever, it's not going to work. The unbeliever will win every time because that company corrupts good morals.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Look at Solomon. Look at the nation of Israel. Just follow the history of Israel. Whenever they married the unbeliever, it destroyed them. It defiled them. It damaged them. It took them away from God. It didn't take them to God. Now, there are people who are unbelievers, and somebody gets saved, and God does a mighty work, and the next person gets saved. And then there is that marital union, that marital bliss, because two people come to know Christ. But for the most part, if you're a believer, and you willingly, knowingly marry an unbeliever, when God says, be not unequally together with the unbeliever, it will defile your life.

It will damage your life, won't help your life. And that was the teaching of Balaam. The teaching of Balaam was this. It walks softly on immorality, idolatry, and intermarriage with the unbeliever. That's the teaching of Balaam. So important. And the teaching of the Nicolaitans, remember Nicolau, which means to conquer, Laos, which means the people. The Nicolaitans were ones who set out to conquer the people. How did they conquer them? Through the classic antinomianism. They were a sect that had their roots in Nazism, where the flesh was sinful, but the spirit was good.

But whatever you do in the flesh, it's okay, because the grace of God will cover all of that. It's a classic antinomian lifestyle, where there is no law. There is nothing to hold you accountable. Therefore, you can do and sin any way you want. And it's okay, because you believed once, and the grace of God will cover everything. It's okay. Folks, that is prevalent in the church today. It's prevalent in every church that doesn't teach repentance as a necessary element of salvation. In every church, bar none, they are the church at Pergamum, because they've compromised the gospel, and they've compromised the truth of the gospel, and they allow people to go on sinning over and over and over again.

Let me give you an illustration. There's a church in our area, a large church, who in the month of August is going to offer everybody in their church, listen carefully, who is living together the opportunity to come together for one big ceremony that they might be united together before God and live now a right life. You say, well, what's wrong with that? Oh, there's so much wrong with that, because what they're doing is confirming that couple in their sinful lifestyle by allowing them not to deal with the consequences of sin.

They haven't been told, listen, you need to gather together. You need to repent of your sin. You're living together. First of all, if they're believers in the living together, maybe they're not even believers.

How do you know they're believers? If they're living together, there's a good chance they might not even be believers, right? Because that's what the world does. So they got to hear the gospel, but you're not going to share the gospel with them. You're going to bring them together and marry them. Or maybe one's a believer and one's not a believer. And so you're going to bring them together and marry them because they're living in a sinful union. Now you're going to marry an unbeliever to a believer.

There is so much wrong with that. That is the church of Pergamum. It's a large church in our area. It's doing that on August 6th, 2016. That is just so wrong. So wrong. You're living together. That's okay. Come, we'll marry you. We'll put you together. We'll unify you. Make it right before God. You can't be right before God unless you've repented of your sin. But they haven't repented of their sin. You've confirmed their sinful state. And what you've done is allow them to continue sitting down the road because they've never truly repented of their sin.

See that? It's a church of Pergamum. It's all over the place. You see, the unbeliever needs to be confronted on sin. And Christ says, I know where you live.

You live where Satan's throne is. You live where Satan dwells. But I also know that you don't deny the faith. I also know that you stand strong. But I also know this, there are some among you, listen carefully, there are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam that walks softly on intermarriage, that walks softly on idolatry, that walks softly on immorality. They don't deal with it. They don't confront it. And they allow the teaching of the Nicolaitans to continue that you can just do whatever you want.

It's okay. Don't worry. The grace of God covers it. The spirit is good, but the flesh is evil. It's okay. So what is Christ's admonition? Now this gets really personal. So listen to what he says. Therefore, repent, or else I am coming to you, Pergamum, quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. Did you get that? I am coming to you as a church, and I'm going to deal with them. Who's the them? That's the some involved in the teaching of Balaam and those involved in the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

I'm going to deal with them with the sword of my mouth, but I'm coming to you as a church. Why? Because you're allowing this to happen. You cannot allow that to happen in the church. And because you're not dealing with it as a church, I'm coming to you, and I'm going to deal with you as a church. I mean, that's a scary thing. And the church of Pergamum was allowing this teaching to permeate, this false teaching to permeate the church, and they did nothing about it. Christ says, I know it's there.

And if I know it's there, you know it's there. And if you don't deal with it, I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you, and I'm going to deal with them with the sword of my mouth, but I'm going to deal with you first.

See, why is it we as Christians think it's okay to allow other believers to live in sin and never confront them on their sin? That's a very dangerous place to be in the mind of God. Why is it we think, well, that's not my problem. That's their problem. Really? No, it's your problem because God's going to deal with you. He's going to deal with you because you don't have the same standard of holiness that he does. You don't have the same commitment to purity that he has. And he wants you to be as pure as he is pure, as holy as he is holy.

That means if you know someone who's living in sin, you got to go to that brother and you got to confront them on their sin because you care enough for their soul and you care enough for their spiritual condition that you're going to go to them and plead with them to get right with God, to repent, to repent. I like what Christ says.

He tells, remember he tells five churches, you got to repent. You got to repent because that's Christ's message to the church. But that's not the message of the church today. Have you heard of Reset 2016? Have you heard of Together 2016? It's going to happen on July 16th, 2016, this year, this week. It's going to happen on the mall in Washington DC where they're trying to get 1 million people together in the name of Jesus on the mall in Washington DC, listen, to reset their lives. What? I never read that in here.

Reset? What do you mean reset? The whole premise, listen to this, the whole premise is to set aside all doctrinal differences, bring a million people together in the name of Jesus to ask Jesus to reset their lives. In other words, they're going to all together push the reset button, the reset button on their bad marriage, the reset button on their bad lifestyle, the reset button on their priorities, the reset button on their goals. There's nothing about repentance. It's all about resetting. It's like you're a computer and you push the reset button, but you just go back to the way you were before or some kind of machine.

We're not machines. We're not computers. We're people. We've been called to repentance, but you're gathering together in the name of Jesus. My question is what Jesus? What Jesus? Because the Pope is going to be videotaped in. Really? Well, his Jesus was not sufficient enough to cover and die for your sins. That's his Jesus. He has a different Jesus than you and I have, or maybe it's a Jesus of Mormonism. That's a different Jesus than you and I have, or the Jesus of the Jehovah's witness. That's a different Jesus or, or the Jesus in the Quran worshiped by Islam, which is his name is Isa, which is just another prophet.

So what Jesus are they talking about? You got to define who Jesus is, who is Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, because you're going to gather all these people together in the name of Jesus, but probably not the Jesus of the Bible. And they're all going to push the reset button on their marriages and their lifestyle, on their goals and priorities and the things that they've done. And it's called, listen, the great awakening of the 21st century. What? I don't understand that. I just don't even begin to get that.

Boy, that's the big rage in the modern evangelical church today. Wow. And Jesus says, you need to repent.

You need to repent. You turn from your wicked ways. You don't need to restart up your wicked ways, reset the wicked button. You need to repent from your sin, turn around. You're going the wrong way. And as the church, we need to be concerned about people in the church who live sinful lifestyles, that we would go to them out of love and concern for them as individuals and ask and pray and plead with them to turn from their sin. And they may follow Christ and worship him and honor him. That's what we're supposed to do.

And Christ says, here's my admonition. You better repent. As a church, you better repent for allowing it to continue. Because if you allow it to continue, you are the church of Pergamum. If in your family you allow sin to continue, you are a member of the church of Pergamum. If you confront it, you're the overcomer. You receive the hidden manna. You understand the white stone and the new name. See, if you are engaged in those activities, allowing sin to happen, compromising my stand on the truth, living in sin, wanting to live in sin, wanting to go the way of the world.

Christ says, I'm coming to you with a sword in my mouth. I'm going to make war with you. Wow, that's just, I don't know about you, but I don't want to make the Lord Jesus Christ have war with me. See? And then he gives his application. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church. He's got to listen to him. Are you listening? Can you imagine being in the church of Pergamum? You're sitting there and you know of people who hold to the teaching of Balaam. You've done nothing about it.

Or maybe you're sitting there and you do hold to that teaching or to the teaching of the Nicolaitans, that Old Denomian lifestyle, that lasciviousness where there is no, no accountability. It's just a license to sin. Imagine being there and hearing that. Christ says, if you have an ear, listen.

Same phrase he uses at the end of each letter. To him who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. You need to listen.

You need to listen to him who overcomes. Who's that? 1 John 5, 3 and 4. The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. The one who lives by faith in the name of the Son of God. The one who lives in obedience to the Son of God, to the overcomer. Listen, we know the teaching of the Nicolaitans, that they want to conquer the people. But if you want to conquer the Nicolaitans, you must be an overcomer. You must be a victorious warrior in my kingdom and you will. You will. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna.

What is that? It's the manna the world has no idea of. No idea. Remember, Israel was fed by God manna from heaven. That was their sustenance. He took care of them for 40 years in the wilderness. He fed them manna from heaven. And when Christ showed up on the scene, John 6, Harold referred to this on Wednesday night. He says, I am the bread of life. I am the bread that's come down out of heaven. I am your sustenance. I am your Savior. I am your life. He who eats of my flesh and drinks of my blood will understand true conversion.

See? Christ says, to him who overcomes, I will grant him to eat of the hidden manna. In other words, you will have Christ in all of his glory. He'll be yours. And he says, I will give him a white stone. What's the significance of that? Well, when you were in a trial and the jury came back with the verdict, they came back with a white stone and a black stone. If the black stone was held up, guilty. If the white stone was held up, not guilty. Christ says, you're not guilty.

You get the white stone. And white is prevalent in the book of Revelation. You'll notice that the Bible says in Revelation three, five, that the saints wear white garments.

In Revelation seven, nine, we're clothed in white robes. In Revelation 19, we come back in white linen. And when it's all said and done, there is called a great white throne judgment where every unbeliever will stand before Jesus Christ, the judge, because it's a white throne. It is a righteous throne in white is symbolic of righteousness in the book of Revelation. You are declared right before me. And then it says, listen, listen, he says, and a new name, a new name written on the stone, which no one knows, but he receives it.

And people say, well, what's the name? I don't know. If I knew the name, that verse couldn't be in the Bible. You're going to receive a stone, a white stone, a stone that symbolizes the righteousness of Christ. And on that stone, a new name, which nobody knows except Christ himself and the one who receives it, a new identity. Oh, by the way, you know what that name is? That is the name that's already been written down in the lamb's book of life before the foundation of the world. Don't think that the Lord wrote down Lance in that book of life or Lori or Harold or Jack.

He wrote the new name in there. What is that? I don't know. Don't have it yet, but I'm going to get it. I'm going to get that new name. It's it deals with the identity and quality of life in the presence of God forever. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Listen, I want you to overcome temptation. I want you to be an overcomer. I want you to be a victorious warrior because if you are that, if you are someone who believes in Jesus Christ, the son of God, and has put your faith and trust in him, you will receive the hidden manna.

The world knows nothing about the life of Christ. They know nothing about the forgiveness of Christ. They know nothing about the mercy of Christ, but you get all of that. And on top of that, you are declared righteous before me. And I'm going to give you a name, a new name, one dealing with your identity and the quality of life forever and eternity. That's all going to be yours, but you got to listen to what the spirit says to the churches. Are you listening? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today and the chance to be in your word.

We thank you for the opportunity to study the gospel and understand the truth of Jesus Christ, our Lord. We pray that we would be a people committed to serving our King, that we would never compromise the truth of the word, that we'd stand strong for the name and glory of Christ. In Jesus name. Amen.