Well, good morning. It's a brand new day and another opportunity to be encouraged and challenged by the Word of God here this morning. I trust that the Lord has been doing a good work in your heart like He has been gracious to do in my own, and that as we go through the book of Revelation, He'll continue to do that, challenge us, confront us, encourage us, His word is a blessing and our food, our spiritual strength, and a transforming source that the Spirit uses to change our lives. We are in Revelation chapter 2, and we will look here today at verses 12 through 17, and I'll read those for us. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, The one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name, and do not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who is killed among you, where Satan dwells. 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 going or I'm 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 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. As we've been working our way through, I've been challenging yourself and myself to remember that the focus is on Christ. And Christ is challenging the churches to remember that He is their hope, He is their answer, He is what they need. And so each letter to each church, or each aspect to, this is actually technically just one letter, and each one has a section that addresses them in that letter, but you get the idea. Each new unit begins with some description of Christ. Christ is the hope. Christ is the one who will be what his church needs. the messenger of the church. So here's the, I would say, the pastor, the elder who would receive this, read it to the congregation, lead them in what the text says to do. The church is the believers who've been called to assemble, set apart from the city here of Pergamum around them, and made distinct by the saving work of God. and that distinction is to be played out as they gather to be God's dwelling place in the city of Pergamum. Pergamum was north and east of Smyrna. It was a wealthy city, a city that had great knowledge and They actually, outside of Alexandria, they had the second largest ancient library, over 200,000 volumes, which for us, that's like, I don't know how many volumes my library has, but I've checked out at least 100,000 of them, and they've all been overdue. No, not really. But for that day, remember, they were often writing on scrolls, and it was very expensive. They had a great commitment to learning. Medicine was predominant, but also there was pagan worship. Worship of Zeus, Athena, Dionysus, and Asclepius. In relationship to pagan worship was the emperor worship. They were predominant. They led in the emperor worship cult. They had actually three separate temples in which to participate in the emperor worship cult, in addition to the pagan worship of Zeus and Athena and Dionysus and Asclepius. John is the one who is writing humanly, but the letter comes from Christ who identifies himself as the one who has the sharp two-edged sword. We saw in the description of Christ that this is not referring to the scabbard, the closer short sword that they would carry and be able to pull out and close hand to hand. Combat, this is the big gladiator kind of sword, the Scythian sword. It's heavy, it's long, it's two-mouthed, meaning it devours whether you cut this way or backhand back this way, it bites deeply. It's decisive, it's destructive judgment, and the sword comes from Christ's mouth. In other words, it is his powerful word that can bring the destruction. And therefore the one who can destroy by his very word says this." And we've mentioned along the way that each time we come across that in the letters to the seven churches, it's only here in Acts 21. And it's a very strong, authoritative decree from the king. So the king speaks, and the king wants his church to hear. Well, it sounds kind of ominous. But, as again I mentioned on Monday, we are all or nothing. All good, all bad. That's not Pergamum. Who wouldn't want to go to a church as its praise describes it? He says, I know where you dwell. He has perfect, complete understanding, knowledge, awareness of where they are living. He knows, in other words, not just like, I can find you on the map if you think. He's saying, I know the conditions that you're in, and the conditions that they were facing, permanent conditions, while they lived on this earth. They didn't seek escape. This is where God had placed them, in a world of challenge and hostility, In fact, he says, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, where Satan dwells. So Satan, as we've seen, is the enemy, the adversary of God. What does it mean that his throne is there? If we were going to find this ancient city as some sort of movie, thriller, let's go attack Satan's throne. I don't think he's talking about geography. Some have associated it with the idea of pagan idolatry is so dominant there. Some would say, well, Zeus, who was worshipped there, uses snakes in the artwork, so does Asclepius. I think better is more so the connection that it makes to the emperor worship. Here, this is the place of authority. A throne is a place of authority. In other words, Satan is exercising his authority by means of the power of the emperor worship and the powerful impact that that had on the believers who would not participate in it. And to say that Satan dwells there then means that Satan is active in opposing this church. This is praise from God. I know Satan has his sights set on you to destroy you. Well, they must be walking away from the faith then, right? No. He says, I know exactly that you hold tight to my name. Emperor worship required an annual offering and a statement. Caesar is Lord. Caesar is my master. Well, what was the Christian confession? And I don't think it would have been lost on the Romans who received Paul's statement of it in Romans 10, 9, and 10. You confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, and in the heart you believe." The Christian confession is that Jesus, God's anointed, is my Lord. So when Jesus says, I know you hold fast, you remain committed You are grasping with all of your might to my name, that I am Lord, all that I stand for. In other words, Jesus is saying, I know you are loyal to me. And in fact, he doesn't leave it there. He acknowledges that the circumstances the believers were having to persevere in when he says, and you did not deny faithful trust in me. You didn't disclaim. You didn't disassociate yourself. You didn't repudiate your faith. You didn't disown me. He's not talking about signing a doctrinal statement. He's talking about, you kept trusting me, the me is Christ, their Lord, even though Satan is opposing them. I don't know what the strength of that opposition would be like. Even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one who was killed among you." This isn't some, you know, like, ah, well, you know, sorry, Billy, you're not going to get to have a promotion because you're a Christian. We don't like that you want to be at Churchill Wednesday night, so, you know, too bad, too bad for you. Antipas, we don't know a whole lot about it. of anything. But what we do know from the scripture here is that he witnessed to Christ. He was faithful through his words and actions to identify himself with Christ. Christ is my Lord, and I'm not going to deny that. So he persevered in trusting Christ. And that perseverance in trusting Christ allowed him to face violent termination of his life. He died. I mean, man, talk about Hero Baptist Church. I gotta get there. I want to be a part of Pergamum. Man, they're the best church ever. This is what Jesus says. He knows that Satan, I mean, he's so concerned about them that he's centered his attack. He's residing there to try and destroy these Christians. These must be the mighty ones. These are the awesome ones. Oh, they're faithful! But faithful people still have lots of room to grow, right? So, verse 14, "...but I have a few things against you." There are pitfalls, snares, hindrances, Things that hinder our ability to be set apart and to walk both corporately and personally. Yes, they were faithful amidst opposition, even if it cost them their life. But I have a few things. There are things that are out of place, more than one. They were They were remaining faithful to the Lord, but they were tolerating a fake view of Christianity. You become what you tolerate. You can say, I'm not X, Y, Z. But what Christ is saying is, you in allowing this, and we'll talk about what this is, but this fake Christianity to be comfortable, that's not good. I'm not happy about it. And if you're not careful, I'll come and I'll destroy the church. Christ is that serious about the set-apartness, the holiness of his church. He's got to be talking about skirt lengths. He's got to be talking about women not wearing pants, not going to movies. No. I'm not advocating short skirts or watching filth, and that's not my point. But when we talk about holiness, it's talking about actually being set apart to serve God positively. What do they do? You have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam. You kept teaching Balak to put stumbling blocks before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality. You have some there in the midst. They're allowed to maintain their membership in the church and to go about as Christians. And these people are not untrained, they're not unaware, they're not young Christians who could be influenced. No, these are ones who hold fast. They are clinging, they're committed, they are grasping tightly the teaching that is the doctrine of Balaam that Balak taught. And Balak taught this in Numbers 22-35. Numbers 31, verse 16 is referenced. It's also referenced in Deuteronomy 23, 3-5. A little bit later in Joshua 24, verses 9 and 10, it describes his demise. 2 Peter 2, 15, Jude 11 references. So Balaam was a Mesopotamian soothsayer who's employed by King Balak, the leader of the Moabites, to curse Israel. He wants the money, he's gonna go gladly do it. God almost kills him, and his donkey talks to him. And every time he opens his mouth, he can't curse, but can't help but bless. So he goes a different way at the end, and he confers with the king and says, look, you don't need to defeat them in a military war, you just want to get God angry with them. and what God's anger will take care of them. So what do I do? Have your beautiful women entice their men. Invite them to a feast. Bring their religion to your religion. Blend it all so it's hard to tell the difference between what is worldly and what is godly. Don't tell them to worship, let them worship God through your, yeah, blend it all together and God will take care of them. So, they eat things offered to idols, eat in the pagan temples, put a stumbling block as a death trap, not simply like, oops, oh well. No, this led to the apostasy. And it led to immorality. Temple prostitutes were a big thing in the practicing of these feasts. Balaam didn't care what happened to God's people as long as he got his money. And there were those in the congregation who were being accepted who were arguing, you know, we don't need to stand out. It's okay. We can worship. Look. Temple of Zeus. Emperor worship. They blend it together. We can do the same thing. We don't have to stand out. We don't have to be different. To be loyal to Christ doesn't mean you can't say... I mean, it's just words. You don't have to mean it. However, they were compromising it. They were willing to engage in the immorality and the idolatry. and to tear down the dividing wall between the called out people and all the rest of the people. We never do that today. I know I mentioned Sunday some disheartening things about business life in the church, and so when I was waiting hour upon hour for Lake Surgery, I read a book that I had started. It's just a small little book. Some books, you just have to finish it. There were some helpful things in it. The book is entitled, How to Be a Welcoming Church. You have to give people presents, give them mugs, give them this, give them that. What distinguishes the church? is their commitment to live for their Lord. Commitment to be holy. And anyone who wants to blend holiness, not blend holiness, blend the worship of God and the world. And that's just, that's not good. Well, it gives us more opportunities. I mean, there are people here and there are not people visiting your church, and therefore, okay, you know, I want, I pray, I try and invite. I want visitors, I want lost people to hear the gospel, and I'm not indifferent to that, but the church has to be the church. And when the world was seeping into Pergamon, Christ with the double-edged sword, spoke to them. And this is a group of people who had been willing to die, and yet they were tolerating professing believers who were corrupting with immorality and idolatry. Not only that, he says, you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. I'll spit it out. We've seen these from Nicholas. They were not motivated by acceptance and compromise and all of that. Instead, they were motivated to have freedom. God doesn't want to restrict you. No, no, no. God wants you to be able to do whatever you want to do. As long as you're doing it for God, it doesn't matter whether he actually wants you to do it. I mean, God just, you know, freedom, freedom, freedom. That's, that's never been an issue today. I'm free to do this. I'm free to do that. I can, you can't tell me I can't. You can't. Christian freedom, according to Paul, is the freedom to give up things to serve God's purposes. So, how do you handle this? What does Jesus say? Verse 16, Therefore repent. Turn to change of heart, change of mind, change of commitment, change your way of living. This is addressed to the whole church. Obviously, those who are apostates probably aren't going to repent. We pray that they would, but if they are truly apostate, they won't repent. That's what the New Testament would teach us. The Church's problem is that they were accepting this corrupting influence in their midst. So to repent meant to remove those who would corrupt the Church, to separate. Not to be, again, he's not talking about what separation had become, a list of things you can and cannot do, and there's reasons for things, and I'm not trying to get back into all that. He's talking about loyalty, fidelity, holiness, commitment to walk faithful. Repent, why? or I'm coming to you quickly, I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. At any moment I may just decide to engage in open warfare. The people who practice this stuff and who are aligned with them because they fail to separate, I will make distinct those of you who are real. Don't make me do it. I'll do it with the sword of my mouth, with my judgment. So, turn away. One of my favorite Old Testament stories actually comes from this. It's Phinehas, Numbers 25. God brought judgment. The people were engaging in sexual morality and idolatry and all of this. It never leads to a kind of co-equal blending of the two religions. One's the immoral, to say it in today's term, the church is much more worldly than it is godly. The world always overtakes. Phinehas, God has sent a destructive thousands upon thousands of Israelites because of their participation in all of this, have been killed by the Lord. Some sort of plague. Phinehas sees an Israelite take a Moabitess woman into a tent to engage in this immoral prostitution, et cetera. He takes out a long sword, spear, goes into that tent, boom, takes the one spear through the two, the Moabitess and the Israelite. He was zealous for the purity of God's people. That's what God wants us to do. Not for phony standards, fake things, but for the church to just be zealous, not to accept corrupting, evil, gossipy, slandering, destructive, whatever. It doesn't have to be some huge... The church is to remain faithful to her Lord. That was their positive. So what is the reward? He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. That's the call to wake up. Wake up. The church better be careful because the call to wake up is often sent to people who are asleep. And you may not hear it, and you may not care. Holiness may not be that big a deal to you. Who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit of God is saying to all of us churches. To him who overcomes, to those who spiritually endure, who find the victory by trusting God and his word, taking his truth as, you know what, this is the most important. Notice what he says. I will give to him some hidden manna and I'll give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but him who receives it." Augustine said, I'm going to modernize it, you have created us for yourself and our heart is not quiet until it rests in you. That made us for a relationship with him. We were made to pursue a person, not just a pathway or a thing. No, we're made to pursue a person. C.S. Lewis once said, the best safeguard against bad literature is a full experience of good. Just as a real and affectionate acquaintance with honest people gives a better protection against rogues than a habitual distrust of everyone. In other words, one of the best protections against loving worldliness is the power of a greater affection for the love of God. That's what the promise is for those who would overcome. I will give him some hidden manna. Christ. The manna is the miraculous provision God gave Israel for 40 years in the wilderness. It's found 15 times in the Bible, Exodus 16. Three of them, Numbers 11, there's complaining, Deuteronomy 8, verses 3 and 16, Joshua 15, Nehemiah 9, and Psalm 78, and John 6, 31, and Hebrews 9, 4. I think the most pertinent ones for us are Exodus 16, verse 33, and Hebrews 9, 4. Why are those the most helpful? Because they describe that there was a jar of manna hidden in the ark. I think that's the point. Where was the Ark? The Ark was the throne room of God. He who overcomes, God will allow you to come into his very presence and make provision for you there. Eternal life is life shared with God. The holy people of God, set apart by him, The promise is, those who overcome, you'll get to go into God's very throne room and experience life there. The second promised gift is, I will give them a white stone. Again, this is Christ. He'll give us a stone. You can guess with mana, you know, all the options. Is it a jewel? Did this fall with the mana? Or is this from the high priest's breastplate? Or is this a good luck charm? Or is this a discharged stone of the gladiator? Or is this a juror's stone? I think it's best to find the human analogy as a ticket. They would use various stones, like we would use tickets, or now we, I guess, use your phone if you're ever allowed to go to a sporting event again. It is a white stone, that is a stone for victory. In other words, Christ will allow the overcomer to partake of the victory feast of the King. He'll grant you entrance to enjoy the victory feast celebration of God's King. I don't know what the pleasures of heaven will be like. I know what the pleasures, the righteous pleasures of earth are very good. Pleasures of food or pleasures of relationship with your kids or your wife or the pleasures of a sunset. God's made us to enjoy. And so when we get to the victory feast, if we overcome by faith, we'll have pleasures at his right hand forever. He'll grant you entrance to the victory banquet. And there he'll give you a new name written on a stone which no one knows except for the one who receives it. You wanna know what your name will be written on there? I'll tell you. No, no one knows it. So what is the point? It's not new in time. It's new in quality, new in kind. You see, in biblical reality, a name is what the person stood for. It's his character. So when we talk about God's name, it's talking about God's character. Is this God's name written on me? No, everyone knows that name. It's pronounced loud and clear. Does this mean you'll receive a new name signifying your adoption, your new nature? I think that's closer to it. So we know Abram became Abraham because of his faith in God's promise. God making him the father of a multitude. So what's the significance of no one knowing it? No one can take it from you. It can't be changed. It's something between the believer and God alone. God will be your God personally. This isn't just like, well, I'm going to go to a big festival, you know, and there'll be hundreds of thousands, millions of people. No, you will personally. My mind can't, joyfully, can't wrap around, I mean, what is this going to be like to personally? be known and to know God. Christ will allow the overcomer to have a relationship with him whom to know is life eternal. So what's the question? The question is, are you going to be faithful to the end? not only faithful for yourself, but faithful for God's church. You're going to love commitment and be willing to say, no, we're not going to compromise. We're not going to blend our church and cave to the world and let the world tell us. If you're going to get us to come to your church, you're going to have to add a drama, and you're going to have to have a lady who is a pastor, and you're going to have to accept homosexuality, and you're going to have to do this, and you're going to have to water down that. If you want a church, you want to maintain. You're not going to face persecution if you're not going to we have to be willing to say, no, Jesus is my Lord. But we also have to be willing to say, Jesus is our Lord. So here's this unique interplay. The group of faithful people who were committed to the Lord, but were allowing others to be unfaithful, needed to challenge the unfaithful people, and if necessary, remove them from their church, depending on how that challenge went. but the promises that God will make it personally, then the blessing. God will let you personally participate in his very throne room, in his victory feast. He'll adopt you so that you know him like a father knows his son, or a son knows his father. Holiness isn't a bad thing. The older I get, the more I see holiness. It's really what I want to be about. I don't want any fake holiness. I don't want any pharisaical holiness. Oh, you took 17 steps more than you should have on the Sabbath day and you didn't leave a piece of food there so that you could call it your new home and all kinds of phony rules. We have all that kind of stuff today. I'm talking about really just being, I want to be loyal to my Lord and what he says in this book, I want to do. And I don't want that just for me. I want that for you. And as a church, lest we want Christ to come with the sword of his mouth to destroy any who would allow and participate in the compromise of his church and destroy them, whatever that means in present day terms. What I do know, I don't want Christ coming in judgment like that. I want to go into his throne room. I want to see the king and to know him and to be given a name, a character, whatever name that is for me or for you. Don't you want that? So how do you overcome? By faith. Trust God that holiness is better than capitulation, compromise, ease, comfort, and growth. Trust God. Blue Whelan, look forward to seeing you tonight. Have a great Wednesday. Bye bye.