Take your Bibles, if you will, and turn to Revelation 2 once again. Tonight we'll be looking at verses 12-17 as we continue to study the letters to the seven churches. We'll be looking tonight at the letter to the third church, the church in Pergamum. And as we look at this passage tonight, Remember the things that we've learned in previous weeks about the letters that Jesus wrote to the first two churches, Ephesus and Smyrna. Ephesus was the church that was sound in doctrine. They were theologically correct. They were good at taking a stand for truth and against false teaching. They did not tolerate false teachers. They did not tolerate false apostles, people who claim to be apostles and bring false gospels. They put them to the test. by the word of God and by the preaching of the apostles that were genuine. And they dismissed those false apostles. They removed them from their midst. So they were good at taking a stand for truth and for the right teaching of God's word. They understood its value and they were very discerning in terms of that. But the danger that they lived in was having their lampstand removed because of their failure to continue on in the deeds that they had done at first, the deeds that were characteristic of their ministry when they were first organized as a church. And those deeds are identified in terms of their love. They've lost their first love, the love that they had at first. that once marked them and characterized them is now gone. They've become prone to bickering and infighting. They've become prone to being critical of one another and judgmental of one another's motives. And they've become prone to making mountains out of molehills and crucifying one another and disfellowshipping one another over minor issues. And Jesus says, if you continue in this way, then I will remove your lampstand. That's a very serious imprecation, a very serious danger that they stand in. And the lampstands, remember, symbolize two things. First of all, Christ's presence with his churches, because Christ is seen in that vision in chapter one is standing in the midst of the seven lampstands, which are the seven churches. But the lampstands also harkening back to the Zechariah prophecies, Zechariah chapter four, where the lampstand, of course, the menorah in the temple was used to shed light upon the priestly work. And in Zechariah's vision, that lampstand is being continually fed. by these olive trees that grow up on either side of it and supply it continuously and automatically with oil. The message being that you never have to fill that lamp in Zechariah's vision. It is always perpetually burning, always perpetually doing its work. And the meaning of the message in Zechariah's words is, this is so that you will know that it is not by might and not by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord, that you will endure, that you will persevere, that you will continue to be faithful to God If you're going to do that, you will need to rely not upon your own strength, but upon the Holy Spirit of God. And so in the New Testament now and in the book of Revelation, the lampstands not only indicate and symbolize Christ's presence with the church, they indicate and symbolize the Spirit's power through the church. And that is threatened to be removed if Ephesus doesn't repent of its lovelessness. They're in great danger there. Their ministry, even if they are theologically accurate, is going to be reduced to nothing if they continue to live in a way that is lacking love. And then we looked last week at the letter to the Church of Smyrna. And Smyrna, as we saw, is one of the two churches for which there is no condemnation. There's no criticism given to the church in Smyrna. That doesn't mean they're perfect. It just means that there's no big glaring defect in their ministry, nothing that Christ would specifically and intentionally isolate and point out to them. The reality in Smyrna was a reality of suffering, suffering at the hands of the Romans and suffering at the hands of the Jews. The Jewish people there were keen to make sure that the Romans understood that the Christians were not a sect of Judaism and that they should be persecuted and that they should not be tolerated in order that the Jews themselves might receive tolerance from the Romans. And so the Christians there are suffering at the hands of the Jews. Jesus calls them a synagogue of Satan, not even worthy of wearing the name Jew. They're not even worthy of being called Jews because the true Jews are those who are Christians, right? We read in Romans chapter two, he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, but only he who is one inwardly. And of course, Romans chapter nine, Galatians chapter three, those who are descendants of Abraham are the ones who have faith in Jesus Christ. So if these Christians in Smyrna will continue to be faithful in the midst of persecution and martyrdom. They will be given the crown of life that that wreath that the athletes would wear if they were victorious in the Olympic Games is used symbolically to speak of the inheritance that will be the Christians if they are faithful until the end if they endure and if they persevere through the power of the spirit. They will be given the crown. They will be given, in other words, eternal life in heaven. And they will be spared from the second death, which is, of course, spiritual death and eternal condemnation. So great encouragement and admonition for them to continue to persevere in the midst of suffering. And I want you to notice, too, how as we go through these letters, There is something in common to each of them. We've been talking a little bit each time about the things that are that are common to all of the letters. One of the things that is common to them is that as as Christ addresses each of the churches, he takes an aspect of that vision that was. back in chapter 1 of Him with the white hair and the flaming eyes and the brazen feet and the priestly robes with the sword coming out of His mouth. That vision of Christ that taught us so much about His character, His holiness, His omniscience, His purity, all of that. There is an aspect of that vision that is found at the beginning of each of these letters to each of the seven churches. Notice, for instance, The letter to the church in Ephesus, chapter 2 and verse 1, to the angel of the church in Ephesus write the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands. That aspect of Christ among the lampstands from the vision in chapter 1 is highlighted in the letter to the church of Ephesus. Why? Why do you suppose that is? What is that aspect of Christ being among the lampstands symbolize or indicate? What's the intention of that imagery? OK, he has the power to give, he has the power to take away, he is present among his people always, he is present among his church, it's the the symbolic equivalent of the Matthew 28 promise that as you go and make disciples of all the nations and baptize them and teach them to obey, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. And that's a big, important promise, given that all power in heaven and on earth has been granted to Christ. And see, it's very appropriate that Christ would remind them by way of that imagery that he is present with them because it is the loss of that privilege that is mentioned at the end of the letter. Their lampstand will be removed. Christ's presence in that church will be removed. The Holy Spirit's influence through their ministry will be removed. if they continue to live in faithlessness, if they continue to live according to the flesh. And so there's an appropriateness, there's a linkage to the aspect of the vision in chapter one that is utilized at the beginning of the letter there. And also in Smyrna, Jesus identifies himself in verse eight to the angel of the church in Smyrna, write the words of the first and the last who died and who came to life. That's the aspect. of the vision now that is highlighted. Why is that important in the letter of Smyrna for Jesus to identify himself that way first, last and the one who was dead, but who has come to life? Yeah, they're suffering, right? You're going to be imprisoned for 10 days. And that was the that that was the death row sentence. If you get thrown in jail for 10 days, it's because they're holding you until they have time to execute you. They're not just containing you. They're not just imposing a long term sentence. They're holding you and containing you in order to to execute you, to put you to death. And so Jesus is saying that as you're faithful to my gospel and faithful not to become stained by the world, you're going to suffer, many of you, to the point of death. But if you endure and persevere even until the point of death, you will be given the crown of life. And what better encouragement than that Jesus Christ, who has conquered death, is the one making that promise to them? that even if they kill your body, I will guarantee you that you will be spared from the second death. I will be guaranteeing you the crown of life. And so there's an appropriate connection there between the theme of the letter and the aspect of that vision in chapter 1 that is used at the beginning of the letter. In Pergamum, now as we get into our passage tonight, verse 12 of chapter 2, and to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword. It's the sword protruding out of Jesus' mouth back in chapter one that is emphasized now in this letter to the church in Pergamum. And as we'll see, that aspect of Christ, the power of his word, especially in terms of judgment, is going to be of central importance to the message here. Let's go ahead and read this letter, verses 12 through 17, and then we'll talk a little bit about the background of Pergamum. Verse 12, And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And yet you hold fast my name, you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols, and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans therefore repent. If not I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the church. to the churches to the one who conquers, I will give him some of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. A little bit of mystery there at the end in terms of what that stone is, what that imagery has to do with, what the hidden manna refers to. We'll get to that. But a little bit about the city of Pergamum first. Pergamum is sort of a sister city to the city of Smyrna that we talked about last week. You remember Smyrna being on the west coast of Asia Minor, a port city, a city of great influence, a city of many temples, a city of about 250,000 people, a beautiful city full of libraries and culture. Smyrna was a city that was sort of, in fact, called the crown of that part of the world. And not only because of its beauty and its prestige, but also because of its geography and the appearance from the port side of the city, of the city itself, with those great temples flanking it on either side. And then the landscape, the cityscape in between, it looked like a crown. And it was called for that reason, as well as its prestige, the crown of Smyrna. Pergamum is a sister city. It's 60 miles about to the north of Smyrna and about 15 miles inland of Smyrna. And it's one of the first stops on the trade routes that will emanate from Smyrna. So as the ships come into port in Smyrna and unload all of their wares and bring all of their passengers and bring the culture and all of the things that they bring, it is through Pergamum first that they will pass as they go into the various parts of the Mediterranean world that they will be traveling to to sell those wares. So Pergamum is also an important commercial center. And it's well known for a good many things from its production of this fine animal skin parchment that it was famous for, writing parchment, vellum type parchment that it was famous for. It was also famous for its many libraries and also for its many temples that were dedicated to the Greek and Roman gods. There were temples in in Pergamum that were dedicated to Zeus and to Athena and to Dionysius and to the Greek god of Asclepius, who we'll talk about a little later with reference to that white stone at the end. We'll find out what that means. Asclepius was the Greek god of healing. He was worshipped as the saviour of the body, the saviour of physical life. If you had an ailment or a malady, if you were sick or had some disease and you were invited to come and to participate in the rituals that were going on in the temple that worshipped Asclepius, then it was thought that he would heal you of those diseases if you offered him proper homage, proper service, proper worship. And that was big business, as you can imagine, in the city of Pergamum. Getting into the Temple of Asclepius wasn't cheap, in other words. You didn't get the healing for free. You didn't get the healing for nothing. Now, it's the symbol of Asclepius that we still use in the medical profession today, by the way, the serpent wrapped around the staff. is the symbol that was all over the temple of Asclepius in Pergamum and all of the other cities in ancient Mediterranean world where he was worshipped. It's not a reference back to Exodus and the golden serpents that were lifted up on the staff that Jesus references in John chapter 3. Remember the plague of the serpents and they were biting people in the heels, biting them in the ankles, making them sick and causing them to die because they had been sinful against the Lord. And so the The cure for this was that God told Aaron to create these serpents and to lift them up on a staff and that the people would gaze upon the serpent in trust of God and that if they would gaze upon the serpents, then they would not be bitten. By the way, it seems like that's a little bit of an arbitrary thing for God to do, but understand how difficult it would be if you were in the camp of the Israelites with a bunch of serpents biting your ankles to say, OK, I won't look at my ankles anymore. I won't worry about the snakes anymore. I won't try to do what I can do to keep them from biting me. I will stand in my place without any regard to my feet and look to the provision that God has made. And that's the point of that story in Exodus is It's a way for the people to take their eyes off of their own means and put their trust in God to save them. And Jesus, of course, in John chapter 3 saying, just as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that all who believe in him, not in the work that you can do, not in the things that you can do to secure your life or your righteousness or your salvation. It's only when you look to Christ and put your trust in his provision that you will be saved. Well, that's not where we get the medical symbol. That's not where we get the serpent wrapped around the staff. It was in fact the the emblem of the Temple of Asclepius. And so that was that was big business and a well-known a well-known idolatry in the days that John is writing here. Also, just as was true as in Smyrna, emperor worship was a big deal in the city of Pergamon. We talked about that last time that by the time John is writing here, this trend is on the rise. The imperial cult where the emperor is holding himself up to be God and demanding worship from the subjects from the citizens, and if the citizens would refuse to give worship to the emperor, then they were subject to persecution, death, even. About 35 years after the writing of the Book of Revelation, there were built in the city of Pergamum temples to the emperors Trajan and Severus, temples, not just monuments, but temples where they could come and be worshiped in their homage. So even in John's time, As a reward for the city's devotion to the emperor, Pergamum was given the seat of the local governments in that region. So in other words, Rome obviously being the seat of the empire, but the seat of the local government in Asia Minor was installed in Pergamum because Pergamum was full of people who were very keen to worship the emperor. And as a reward, they were given great political clout and a great place of political prestige Pergamum was also dominated by various forms of paganism. We already talked about the temples there to Zeus and Athena and Dionysus and Asclepius. Zeus, of course, being one of the primary gods in the Greek pantheon, offering spiritual salvation and Asclepius offering physical salvation. You could get whatever you needed in Pergamum for the right price, not only monetarily, but of course, Jesus's is calling this false worship the worship of Satan here. He pulls no punches. I know where you dwell where Satan's throne is. That's a reference in some cultural way to specifically to the worship of Zeus. But In general, of course, all false teaching, all idolatry, and the worship of any of the false gods in any of these cities would be tantamount to the worship of Satan, the worship of demons, as we would see in 1 Corinthians 10. If you sit down and participate in these ritual sacrifices, then you are consuming the food of demons, and you can't do that at the same time that you're consuming the food of Christ at the Lord's Supper. You can't mix the two. So Jesus attributes all of the idolatry to Satan himself. And so there's a large demonic spiritual warfare aspect going on in the city of Pergamon and a lot of paganism a lot of idolatry. And so all of that together with the emperor worship that's on the rise together with all of the culture and all of the distractions of the world and all of the things that Pergamon isn't a poor place to live. Pergamon is a place where you can have pretty much anything you want in abundance, where you can indulge the flesh, and all of that made it a place that was very difficult for Christians to remain faithful. There was a lot of temptations, and it also made it very difficult for Christians to profess that Jesus was Lord and God, because there were all of these false gods around, and there was also the emperor demanding worship, And so for the Christians to say that Jesus is Lord and God and that his name is the only name under heaven by which men may be saved is a direct assault on the the idolatry of the city and the idolatry of the city was very much tied into. the commerce of the city, as you could expect in that kind of a day and age. There were privileges given to all of those who would give themselves to the worship of the gods that the Greeks and the Romans determined were the right gods to be worshiping. And anybody who refused to do that, especially in terms of worshiping the emperor, was seen as divisive and a threat to the peace of the empire and was persecuted sometimes even to death. So there's There's something good in the midst of all of that, and in light of all that, that Christ has to say to the church in Pergamum, and it's in verse 13 of chapter 2. He says, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. In other words, you're in the midst of the most serious and intense spiritual warfare on the face of the planet. It doesn't get more concentrated than it is in Pergamum. Pergamum is one of those cities where Satan's influence is unchecked and is running rampant, and you live right in the middle of it, he says, yet you hold fast my name. And you did not deny My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My faithful witness who was killed among you." So, under the pressure, under the persecution, under the martyrdom, under the temptations and everything that was going on in Pergamum around them, they remained faithful to Christ's name. They did not explicitly deny Him, even when people of their flock, people of their congregation were being martyred like this man Antipas. They held fast to the name of Christ. They didn't deny it. So the picture of the church as a whole there is that they were known for remaining faithful to Christ. They were known for their refusal to deny Christ explicitly. to say, we no longer want to call ourselves Christians, so please stop persecuting us. If that's what it takes, we'll do that. They weren't willing to do that. They weren't willing to go that far, even when it meant the threat of death, which was a very real possibility, given that it was already happening, at least in the case of this person Antipas that we know of. So what was true of them as a whole was, in general, the church was faithful to the worship of Christ in the sense of not denying him. But what was true of them as a whole was not true of every Christian in the church. There were some who, even though they didn't deny Christ outright, were being led astray to engage in the immorality that was around them in the city and also the idolatry that was around them in the city. And they were doing that at the same time that they worshipped Christ. And that was the unique problem that Christ isolates here in Pergamum, that the problem wasn't that they were denying Christ. The problem was that while they were worshipping Christ, they were also worshipping the idols. They were also worshiping the false Greek and Roman gods participating in those rituals and ceremonies, oftentimes which led to immorality. For instance, the the immorality that would be associated with temple prostitution. They were engaging in these things, these cultural, demonic, satanic, wicked, immoral, idolatrous acts at the same time that they were professing faith in Christ and on the Lord's Day coming to worship him. The other days they would give themselves to the cultural expressions of idolatry and immorality. That's spelled out in verses 14 and 15. Look how Jesus describes it. He says, I have a few things against you. You have some there, some in the church, some in Pergamum, who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also, you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. The teaching of this group, the Nicolaitans, we talked about back with the letter to the church in Ephesus. is not really well known. We don't know too much about them. These are the only two places in the New Testament where the group, the Nicolaitans, is mentioned. And historically, there aren't very many references to them. But what we do know about them is what Jesus says here, that the intrinsic teaching that was characteristic of the Nicolaitans was similar to that which Balaam was guilty of. And that which Balaam was guilty of was what we call syncretism. Let's turn back to Numbers chapter 25 in your Old Testament to see the story of Balaam. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, chapter 25, and then we'll look at verses 1 through 9. Now, while Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. They were intermarrying with the Moabite women who were, of course, not covenant women. This was forbidden for them. And these invited the people, the Moabite women invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. And so Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And the Lord said to Moses, take all of the chiefs and the people and hang them in the sun before the Lord that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel. And Moses said to the judges of Israel, each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor. And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family in the sight of Moses in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting. And when Phineas, the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them. The men of Israel and the women threw her belly, and thus the plague of the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were 24,000." Now, that's the stumbling block that Balaam laid in front of Israel. It's OK to engage the culture. It's OK to worship the dolls. It's OK to intermarry with the Moabite women. And as they do the worship of the Moabites comes in to pollute the true worship of Yahweh the true worship of Israel. And what happens as a result of that is tragic. God inflicts this. He calls it a plague. this scourge of judgment upon the people, whereby 24,000 Israelite people are put to death. 24,000 people who engaged in this, this harlotry as God calls it, by intermarrying with the Moabitess women and then worshiping their gods. And if we were to look over, for example, in chapter 31 and verse 16 of Numbers, We see that the connection to Balaam is made. Behold, these on Balaam's advice, talking about the ones who were killed, the 24,000, these on Balaam's advice caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor. And so the plague came among the congregation of the Lord. That's what happened in the Old Testament times. That was the kind of of mixing and blending. We call it syncretism of that which is sacred with that which is wicked. that was going on in the days of Israel, and that is how God's wrath burned against Israel because of their sin, because of their pollution of true religion, their pollution of true worship. And Jesus is saying to these people now back in Revelation chapter two, who are living in the city of Pergamum, that they're guilty of the same thing. And the implication, of course, as Jesus talks about coming against them with a sword of judgment, the implication, of course, is that they're subject to the same judgment. They're subject to the same wrath. They're subject to the same punishment of God if they do not repent. So the judgment that God is speaking of is symbolically portrayed as this sharp, double edged sword that comes out of the mouth of Jesus Christ. He's coming to his church in his kingly office as a warrior sort of a king for the purpose of bringing judgment on his enemies and not only on his enemies but those who have consorted with the enemy those who have given themselves over to the worship of the false gods in Pergamon. So it's not enough is it to say well at least we're worshiping the true God and we got a few things wrong and but we but we didn't deny Christ altogether. We gave ourselves to some of the worship and some of the cultural aspects, but we didn't deny Christ altogether. And so we're not that bad off. The letter of the Church of Pergamum demonstrates that God is content with nothing short of absolute purity for his church. He does not tolerate the commingling of holiness with wickedness, of true worship with false worship. Yeah. What's kind of noticeable to me, too, is the two things that they said, you know, not to eat things sacrificed, and commit acts of immorality, are the things that the Jerusalem Council told Paul to take back to the Gentiles. And what did, that's interesting, because what did, what did Paul tell, what was the conclusion of the council in Acts chapter 15? These were the two things that, the only two things that they have to, Right. Okay. So similar list, in other words. The same admonition given to the Gentiles, because the Gentiles are the ones who are coming up in these societies, who are used to and accustomed to this kind of idolatry and these kinds of pagan practices and rituals. And they are admonished not to participate in them if they are going to be engrafted into the Church of Jesus Christ. John. There's this notion here about the temple is the oldest one in Asia Minor. Which one? OK, the Temple of Zeus, probably. Well, right, what they were doing was worshiping Christ in their church setting, wherever it was underground in somebody's home, they were worshiping Christ on the Lord's Day. Not in that particular place, but then in other days during the week, they felt the freedom because the Nicolaitans were coming and telling them that they had the freedom. to go on the other days that weren't the Lord's Day and engage in those practices and participate in the idolatry. Now, it's not just the eating of meat. that sacrifice to idols. You remember we could take the time which we want to go all the way back to first Corinthians chapter 8 and chapter 10 where Paul talks about eating the meat that has been sacrificed to the idols. And the reality really in the city of Corinth for example was that you could hardly go to the marketplace and buy meat that had not been sacrificed to an idol. It was such a big business to sacrifice his meat and then and then sell it in the marketplace. The problem wasn't eating the meat by itself. See Paul says, in fact, that the meat is nothing. You can eat the meat. It's okay. And the idol itself is nothing. It's the worship of the idol. and participating in those pagan rituals and pagan ceremonies, that is the problem. And so if you're eating the meat as a part of that ceremony, as a part of that ritual, if you're sitting down to one of the feasts unto Zeus or Asclepius or Athena or whoever, then you're guilty of idolatry at the same time that you're trying to worship Christ. But if you're simply buying the meat in the marketplace and eating it apart from participation in that ceremony, that's not where the problem lies. And also the immorality probably was not just general licentiousness or general fornication, it was specifically probably linked to the rituals of these pagan temples, whereby money would be given to the prostitutes and the prostitutes would obviously perform their services and that way the temples were funded in the commerce and the city was funded. So it's a, association with those idolatrous practices that Jesus is specifically targeting as being antithetical to the true worship of Christ. Steve. given that you could eat the meat that had been sacrificed at the temple, perhaps. I think it's possible also revelation, depending on how you date it. I take the dating to be 90, 95, 96 AD, again, after the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. That's a good question. Anybody remember? Yeah. Yeah, he did. 62, actually, I think, right? So this puts it at 55. I don't know how... Okay, it says, at least in the Reformation, it says, Paul makes it clear in 68 that he writes this letter from Ephesus during his third missionary journey. So that's pretty conclusive then. So I don't know how you would do that then, being that the temple obviously would still be standing in the principles there. So I think that it's a matter of distinguishing between simply eating the meat that you buy in the marketplace and eating the meat as a part of the pagan ceremonies, the pagan rituals. It's the ritualism, it's the participation in idolatry that God is against, not the idea that the meat somehow has become contaminated with an evil spirit so that when it's left the ritual and come to the marketplace, if you eat it without knowing that you're going to somehow ingest an evil spirit and that will pollute you somehow. That's not Paul's point. Can you give a contemporary example of what might Since we don't have big pagan temples in which these explicit rituals are going on at least as commonly as they were in in these cities. Right. But but there certainly is paganism around us isn't there. There certainly is idolatry around us. Our hearts are factories of idols and the world is full of wickedness no less now than it was then. In fact it's even more dangerous now because it's a little less subtle or a little more subtle and a little less explicit. It's a little more hard to identify. what the things that are pure and impure are. But I do think that. Well, and there's a conscience issue, right? The same argument could have been made in the marketplaces in Corinth that you're funding, you know, you can't eat any of the meat because you're funding the temple by, you know, even if you're not participating in the in the rituals by giving the money for the purchase of the meat, you're funding the rituals. And Paul doesn't make that case. He says it's OK to do that, to eat that meat. So I think that would be a conscience matter. And all of those discussions in First Corinthians are couched in terms of the the conversation that Paul is having with them about conscience matters. If one brother says he doesn't want to eat that meat, then don't teach him to violate his conscience in that area. And don't flaunt the freedom that you have to eat that meat in front of him so that you might lead him to violate his own conscience. So we have to be savvy about how we deal with the differences of opinion there, the differences of conscience there with those kinds of issues. And there are a lot of them regarding Christmas trees and dressing up children on certain days in the fall and sending them out to get bags of candy. Where do we say that that's a participation in paganism versus meat sacrifice to idols versus just kids getting candy versus just putting up ornaments in a house and all of those kinds of things. Different consciences are going to respond differently to those different questions and we've got to be careful. Yeah. Very bad. Right. Right. And of course, the famous statement that sums that up so succinctly in First Corinthians 10, where that whole discussion is being had is whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do, do it under the glory of God. Right. That's the principle that we live our lives by. Is it honoring and glorifying God determines our freedoms, not what do I feel like doing? Was there another, Ruth? Right. Right. Some people might have a problem with that. But is the house contaminated? Is the presence of the Holy Spirit capable of expelling whatever other spirits may be in the house? Should we choose to worship there? And he kind of floats around with different churches that have problems. And I've invited him to ours several times. He always forgets. Where do you go to church again? I've got to explain. We rent from an SDA church because they're not there on Sundays. So it looks like we're good. As soon as I tell him that, he remembers, oh, I picketed that building. Exactly. Exactly. So it's important to have rightly informed consciences. But it's also important for us to remember that where people have weak or more sensitive consciences that we be sensitive to that and not cause them to stumble by ourselves. flaunting our freedoms in front of them and causing them to not listen to their consciences. Dr. MacArthur has that wonderful illustration of the pilot in some South American country, true story, flying along and his airplane, passenger plane flies straight into the side of a mountain. And when they recover the wreckage, they find the black box, the voice recorder box. And on the voice recorder box, you can hear a little audio warning come on and say, pull up, pull up, pull up. And the pilot says, oh, shut up, and he clicks it off, doesn't listen to it, and thought he was higher in altitude, obviously, than he was, and should have listened to the instrumentation that was designed to tell him that he wasn't, but he didn't. And the illustration, of course, is listen to your conscience. Don't train yourself to turn off your conscience, because even if it's an area that's not exactly sin, right, even if you eat that meat and say, well, I violated my conscience, but so-and-so is saying it wasn't really sin, and if it's not objectively sin, then you're not judged for it, You've trained your conscience, though, or you've trained yourself to ignore your conscience. And it's going to be that much easier to do that when it comes to an actual sin issue, something more morally objective. Yeah, well, and so we want to be careful not to do that if we think that it's OK to put Christmas trees up or to take our kids trick or treating, not to do that if that's going to be an offense or a problem for for other Christians in that kind of a way. All right. And I'm not advocating either one of those things, by the way. For the sake of the tape, but for the sake of the discussion, I think those are common themes. Yeah, that's right. And it's good for them to put a distance between themselves and certain forms of sinfulness that may be greater than other people do. Sure. Different people have different proclivities, different weaknesses. If somebody's prone to alcoholism, it's wise not to invite them over for drinks, even if you don't believe that drinks are sinful intrinsically in and of themselves. That's what Christ is dealing with and proclaiming here to the church in Pergamum and admonishing them in terms of the acts of immorality. Again, people engaging in temple prostitution and then the other things that they were doing, participating perhaps in these feasts to the pagan gods, drunken feasts, oftentimes orgies, oftentimes just rank and wrote licentiousness. And the idolatry was directly tied, as I said to you before, to the the commercial life of the city such that conducting business in the city required submission to the emperor and participation in the religious ceremonies that were in the city was also expected because it was through those ceremonies that the Romans thought their gods would be appeased and would be pleased and would shower their blessings on the city. And so if you refuse to pay homage to their gods they saw you as incurring the wrath of their gods and they thought that they would get to it quick and punish you before the gods punish them for tolerating you. See, so some of the Christians in Pergamum were succumbing to that pressure, the temptation around them, the false teaching of the Nicolaitans, and also the pressures of probably the Roman government who were saying, you must bow down to the emperor and you must pay homage to these gods. They were succumbing. They were allowing the wicked and the godless practices of the pagans to sort of co-mingle in their lives as they worshiped God in the person of Jesus Christ. And that is what Christ is reacting against. As he said back in the letter to Ephesus, he hates that. He despises that, that syncretism. He demands purity in his worship and purity in his church, purity in his people. He does not want the truth mixed with error, and he does not want his worship mixed with the world. James and John say that if you're the friend of the world, you're the enemy of God. There's no neutral territory there. There's no common ground there between the God hating world and the God who sent his son to die for us. No, he didn't tell him to move to another city. He told him to stay right there and be lampstands, lights in the darkness, but to not become stained by the world, to borrow from James' language. So impurity that is not burned away by Christ with the refiner's fire will ultimately be judged as he comes against them with the sword of judgment. So the promise then, At the end here, therefore, repent. If not, I will come against you and war against them with the sword of my mouth. But the promise for 17, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches, to the one who conquers. I will give some of the hidden manna and I will give to him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Two things, the manna that is promised. and the stone. The manna, of course, is a reference back to the book of Exodus, chapter 25, where the people, as they were wandering through the wilderness, were given provision from God miraculously in the form of this flaky bread that came down and formed on the ground like dew. And they could sustain themselves on this bread indefinitely. They lived on it until they died of old age, wandering around in the wilderness when God wouldn't let them into the promised land. So the manna represents every time it's mentioned in the New Testament, God's miraculous provision, God's sustenance for his people, God's supply for his people beyond what they could provide for themselves. As they're living in the dry wilderness where there's nothing growing that they could eat, no animals scurrying around that they could kill in enough numbers to feed the population of the nation that comes out of Egypt there, God supplies enough food. And we're talking probably about two to two and a half million people coming out of the exodus, wandering around in the Sinai desert, being fed by all of this manna that comes down out of heaven, right? I mean, it's a pretty miraculous deal. And so Christ saying that if you repent, if you endure, if you persevere, if you don't cave into the pressure of the world, if you worship God in spirit and in truth and in purity, then I will give you some of this manna is a reference to what? What is God saying to his people? I'm wondering if maybe this isn't in some way a reference back to John chapter Sure, I think it would be a great mistake to try to read Jesus' statement here without tying it to his clear statements. in John chapter six. Remember in John chapter six we've been studying it on Thursday night's Bible study. It's this remarkable testimony of unbelief on the part of the Jews and even many of his disciples where Jesus takes the loaves and the fish this this little tiny lunch that this little boy had brought and he multiplies it miraculously into a meal that can feed probably upwards of 20,000 people 5,000 men not counting women and children. So a lot of people And after he does that, they go across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and a lot of the crowd that had seen him do that follow him, and they say when they get over there, give us a sign to prove to us that you are who you say you are. It's remarkable hardness of heart. What has he just done? He has just given them a sign. But then what they say to him is essentially, well, you fed us lunch for an afternoon, but God caused man to come down out of heaven in for the Israelites and they lived on it for 40 years. So it's basically a top that Jesus kind of a statement kind of arrogance that they have. And my favorite part is when Jesus says yes God did that and all of the people that ate that man died. Right. But I am the bread of God that comes down out of heaven. And if you eat me, if you literally eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not die. You will have eternal life. And he's not speaking as a Roman Catholic or a Lutheran there. He's not talking about a physical consumption of his physical body and blood. He's talking about spiritually consuming him, being spiritually nourished by him. He's saying that your spirit, your soul, will receive eternal life as you consume me and are fed by me, as you receive me as the divine miraculous supply of God that can meet your greatest needs. And so that's the message that's being given here again in Pergamum, that if you have an ear, let him hear. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will sustain you. I will give you life eternal. I will give you everything that Zeus is promising but cannot deliver. Everything even that Asclepius is promising but cannot deliver because your physical body even is going to be raised from the dead at the last day and will live eternally with Christ in heaven. So everything that the false gods can't offer you Christ will offer you and will grant you and will guarantee you if you have faith in him. OK. And the hidden manna the word hidden there probably a reference to the fact that some of that manna that was in the wilderness was stored in a pot and kept in the tabernacle and then in the temple as the worship of Israel went along. So a contrast between entering into the temples of the false gods versus dwelling in the temple of the true God, not not a physical building, of course, but the church is the temple dwelling in the in the temple of Christ that the church is will will give you the blessings of Christ that are unto eternal life. All right. What about this white stone? Not only will they get this manna, in other words, the provision of God that will lead to their eternal life, he says, I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Mitch already knows the answer because he came to Thursday night Bible study. Anybody else have an idea? It does ultimately, but he is again contrasting himself. God is, Christ is. with an aspect that was true and intrinsic to and characteristic of the worship of Asclepius in the city of Pergamum. Do you know? I'm not sure exactly what you have in mind, but this refers to a very specific, very personal, very individual, very intimate relationship that God has with an individual person that nobody else recognizes, but it's all one-on-one. False religion, right? Right. You're part of just a mantra chanting mass, right? And you're not really receiving anything except the hope that fire doesn't rain down upon you. What the contrast specifically has to do with is that in the worship of Asclepius in the ancient world, the god again of healing, the serpent wrapped around the staff, the medical god, in the worship of Asclepius, If you were somebody who supported the worship and tithe to the temple and gave yourself to the devotion to the rituals in the temple and even to the prostitutes of the temple, if you were somebody who was known as a supporter of the false worship of the worship of Asclepius, and you had a physical ailment, then you could basically put your name in for special healing by Asclepius. And the way that you were selected was it was sort of this mystical, sort of ritualistic tradition that they would have, where they would send messengers out from the temple in the middle of the night with these little baskets that had white rocks in them. And on the white rock that had been bleached white or painted white with a special paint so that it was unique to the temple, on that white rock would be written your name, literally. And if you woke up in the morning and you found this sitting on your doorstep and it had your name on it, it meant that you were invited to come the following night to the temple of Asclepius and present your rock with your name written on it, right? Nobody else knows about it. And then you could gain entrance into that temple and they would pray over you and perform whatever rituals over you. And the idea then was that Asclepius had shown his favor to you and you could be healed from whatever malady or illness or disease that you had. And so Jesus is again contrasting himself to that. He's not speaking about a literal rock, but what he is saying is that I will call you by name. Right. Like Mary Beth was saying, I will call you by name personally, individually. I will save you from your sins and I will offer you entrance into the Holy of Holies, the temple, the presence of the one living God in which you can find eternal life and a healing that cannot ever be diminished, an ultimate healing that cannot ever be diminished. in the Book of Life, for example, right? As we'll see the connection to that down in chapters 19 and 20. No, I think the new name is a reference to Christ that I think if we were to really look as we get along into chapter 19 and 20 the names written in the book of life are the ones who have the name of Christ written upon them. So I think there's a combination of those kinds of themes there where the idea is and throughout Revelation we're going to see this where God says that he emblazons his seal upon us or he emblazons his name upon our forehead and our right hand in contrast to the mark of the beast for example. Ownership, in other words. Mm hmm. I think that was a sort of a foreshadowing of this, right, that our identity will be marked by Christ, not by our own flesh and our own previous identity. The actual tangible name isn't the isn't the issue. The issue is that we belong to Christ. We have his seal upon us and his name upon us. When when we are presented before God, God sees Christ and accepts us in light of Christ. And that's sort of what's being related to here. So what the Christians were doing in Pergamum was sacrificing this truth and sacrificing the spiritual food, sacrificing the blessings of Christ for the sake of being able to conduct business in the earthly city. The persecution and the pressure was unless you pay homage to the gods, you can't conduct business here. And they were caving under that pressure. And so we need to, of course, be reminded of Jesus words What does it gain a man to, or what does it profit a man rather to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul? There's no commingling of God and mammon. And so the promise here is of ultimate salvation, ultimate provision, eternal life in the kingdom of heaven if we will persevere, if we will endure. And how do we persevere? How do we endure? Bootstrap theology, right? Grit your teeth and bear your knuckles around the reins of life. No, it's as we look to Christ in faith and as He forms within us His presence, His life, His person, and the fruit of the Spirit is born within us that we are given the ability to follow Him and to remain faithful even in the midst of persecution. So, it's an admonition to that in the midst of a world that is purveying all kinds of paganism. And the roots of it are deep and the roots of it are growing more and more subtle. The church was good in the early days of the church, got better and better at identifying like the Ephesians, like the Bereans, at identifying the explicit forms of paganism and rejecting them. And so Satan's new strategy and new ploy is to hide them and to cover them up and to act more covertly. It's sort of like the difference between the type of warfare that used to get waged in the Revolutionary War, right, where you stand in a straight line with your muskets, and they stand 100 yards away in a straight line with their muskets, and you charge and shoot at each other. There's the enemy. There's no denying him. Versus the sort of covert special operations warfare that goes on today, where suddenly a building explodes and nobody ever knew that there was a soldier around to blow it up. Satan's getting very, very good at hiding his ploys. And we have to be very, very discerning and very, very careful to to keep the worship of God pure and to not allow the wickedness of the world to permeate even in subtle ways. And that's the admonition here, because God demands nothing short of purity. All right. Any last questions? Next Sunday night is the first Sunday. And so on the first Sunday we've been doing our fellowship potluck up in the fellowship hall. So that's what we'll be doing. I won't be here. And then the following Sunday there will be evening service. But again I won't be here. So we'll pick up again with the church in Thyatira the week after that three weeks down the road. That's right. Chris is resuming adult Sunday school Sunday morning 9 a.m. taking up the topic of Sola Fide, the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Please be there for that. Number one, obviously, because we can't get too much of that. We can't have our thinking refined enough on that topic in a world where that topic is that subject is being debated and the truth is being chiseled away. And number two, as an encouragement to Chris, It's always no fun at all to stand up in your first day of Sunday school on a particular topic and have nobody show up. So please try to come because it will be a blessing to him as well as to you, as well as to us all. Let's close with a word of prayer and then we'll sing to God in response to his word. Father, we do thank you for your word and thank you that it is not just a source of information for us, that it transcends that and goes so much deeper than that, that it is the tool, that your Holy Spirit is using to soften our hearts and to change us to put our flesh to death father and to cause the fruit of your Holy Spirit to grow within us. And so we pray tonight that as we have heard the admonition of your own son to remain pure and to remain steadfast and to persevere in the truth. and in pure worship Lord that you would give us the ability to do that not only in our discernment and in our thinking but in our courage. Father as we are surrounded by a world that would that would classify us as being intolerant and bigoted and close minded and foolish. Father we just ask that we would stand against that and seek to please you and not seek to please them that we would live according to the fear of God and not according to the fear of man and that father even as churches around us go the way of the world in varying degrees that we would not be tempted to follow in lockstep. We ask for your blessing upon the ministry here your blessing upon each of our lives and ask that you would keep us safe and protect us and bring us back together to worship you soon. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Let's look, as we think about what is necessary in order to persevere, in order to be faithful to God, at number 108, a wonderful psalm about the sovereignty of God. I think there is no one single truth that we could meditate on that gives us a better confidence, that leads to perseverance and that leads to comfort in the midst of trials and tribulations. and the ability to endure through those things than the fact that God is sovereign. Whatever God does and whatever God ordains is right, and His holy will abideth. So, let's stand together tonight.