Let's get started with a word of prayer. Father, we're just grateful to be here and to know the love that you have given us for each other and that the Lord comes from you and we're thankful for that. What a blessing it is to just fellowship together. A lot of talking, a lot of just enjoying each other's company. That's great. Lord, we're just thankful for that. Father, I just, as we look here at some more on the Church of Pergamum tonight, just for wisdom and understanding as we go through these few verses, to better know who you are and what some of the things you tell us to look out for, and things that we are encouraged to do as well. So we're grateful for your written word. We pray this now in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so we're at Pergamum, and we got partway through it, but I think we'll just, let's just read the text of Pergamum again, and then we'll get, jump into verse 14, I think is where we're at. We are there. So, Revelation chapter two. All right, Revelation chapter two and verse 12. 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 firmly to 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 some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who keep teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. So you too have some who in the same way hold to the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent or else I am coming to you quickly and I will wage war against them with the sword of my mouth The one who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches to the one who overcomes 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 except the one who receives it OK, I realized halfway through I was in the NASB. I'm an ESV guy. I'm sorry. The rest of it's coming in ESV. Not that that matters much, but I just so you know. I like the English standard version. And I said this before, but I like Linton's in NASB. And I think that's a great effect. I think it's probably one of the most technically correct translations we have today. But I like the stereo, is how I put it, that I get by listening in another translation, because I often get two words that are very similar. It's like, OK, that gives me a little greater understanding of what he means. Sometimes the sentence structure is switched, OK? And that makes it a little more difficult to follow and understand that. That's what we're doing. OK, so we are in verse 14. And this is where we get to, let me just do a little review. Pergamum, it's the third church. The Ephesian church was the political, Royal City, as they call these three cities. Smyrna was a commercial center, okay, and then Prym was the religious, religious center. These three cities kind of competed a little bit, and they were fairly close together, relatively close. And clear on the western end of Turkey, up against the Aegean Sea. The salutation is, Christ is a two-edged sword, and we looked at that last week, which really is the word of God, comes out of his mouth, but he just speaks and things happen, okay. And then Pergamum was the place of Satan's throne, we looked at that, and where Satan dwells. And it was a big place for Caesar worship in that town. And so as Christians worshiping the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, God Almighty, they're not worshiping Caesar, and that's a bit of a problem. So it was just a tough environment for Christians. to be there. So that's kind of where we were looking at as far as the salutation, which as we've met, the salutations really give us a picture of the authority of God. Each and each salutation, he mentions something about himself, and there's always a reference out of chapter one of some form, but it's really his authority to speak to them, and he is the one who has the sword in this church. Okay, so now we get to verse 14, And it's a commendation, okay? Things they're doing right in the church. He says, but I have a few things, I'm sorry, condemnation. We'll get to the condemnation when we do that. Sorry, those two words, commendation and condemnation, are too close together. And I've listened to pastors on some of this stuff and they mix them up too, so I'm in good company, okay? Verse 14, condemnation. But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teachings of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality. So the teaching of Balaam. Now, if you remember that story, Balak looks out, and he sees the children of Israel coming up out of the desert. And there's a lot of them. The count that Israel did of military men was 600,000 military men. And so generally, in a population, if you've got 50 men, you've got 50 women. Actually, typically, it's 49 men and 51 women, or somewhere in that. You usually have a few more women than men, actually. So that would put you at 1.2 million people, if you just count those guys. And they had huge families. So throw in two kids. I'm not saying they're all married or anything like that, but you could easily be at over 2 million. It's a big group of people, and Balak looks out and goes, this is no good. This is going to overrun me. This is a problem. So he essentially hires Balaam to curse him. Remember this story? And Balaam gets there to curse him, and the Lord won't let him curse him. He tries three times, and a donkey talks to him, and that. And that's mostly what we get out of that. And we never find out in numbers, this all takes place in numbers like 22 through 25, But it's not till we get to this verse, and you can see little bits of Balaam all around the Bible, but it's not till you get to this verse that you find out what Balaam really winded up doing that hurt so much, okay? And that he put this stumbling block, he taught them to have your daughters go after these guys, okay? So let's go back to Numbers 25, we'll see this. But we find out in our verse here that it's Balaam that taught Balak this. Numbers 25, verse one. So Balaam devised a plot to have the Moabite women seduce Israelite men into intermarriage through idol worship. Okay, and that's the long and short. We get to Numbers 25, verse one. It says, while Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These, the daughters, invited the people to the sacrifice of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to the gods. So Israel yoked himself to Bel of Peor. Peor is just a mountain. So it's in that area of the mountain of Peor. Bel of Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. And get somewhere down the end of the chapter, some 24,000 died in a plague there. So they're just inviting him to their festivals. Well, their festivals were? Terrible, okay? I mean, they partied, they sacrificed animals, they ate the food sacrificed to animals, and then they had this licentious dancing and things, and the men went for it, and probably the women both ways. But it was a bad thing for the people of Israel. And so we relate that to Pergamum as the great religious center had, many pagan cults with similar types of practices as what Baal of Peor and the people that worship that, the Midianites there, are mowed by each other. So we have idolatry going on. They're worshiping an idol. I mean, they just fall right into it because of the women and the intermarrying that began to go on. So regarding idolatry, let's Let's go over to 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 14. Let's take a look at that. The Lord gives us a bunch of contrasts, and we're taking off of verse 3 out of numbers. He says, so Israel yoked himself. Yoked himself, and we don't use that word much, but you think of a yoke of oxen, and not many of us, how many hooked up their oxen this morning? But it ties the two animals together, so they pull together and work together. And when you're in a yoke, you're tied in. You're not getting away from that. So when we get over to 2 Corinthians 6, the Lord, through Paul, talks about this. 2 Corinthians 6, 14. Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership, and he's got five contrasts here, has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Bilal, which is Satan? It's the Old Testament Satan. Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? I'll just tell you a little story here. My dad took a church back in Kansas, and he inherited some deacons there when he got there. And one deacon came to him and said, well, my daughter wants to marry this young man. And so dad was starting to talk to him and this and that. Well, the young man was clearly not saved. I'm sure the girl was, but she professed Christ. And dad said, well, I can't marry these two because he's clearly not a believer. She says she is, but I would be unequally yoking them. And he read some of this passage. And the guy, he says, well, that doesn't say anything about marriage. He couldn't say it. But I mean, if you're not yoked in marriage, when are you yoked? There's all kinds of ways you could be yoked to someone. You could sign a business contract to work together and be yoked to them. So it's something we need to think about in a lot of areas of our life. Who are we yoking up with? And is it someone that the Lord would think that's a good idea or not? And we see all these contrasts. He gives us five of them, righteousness and lawlessness, light and darkness, Christ and Satan, believers and unbelievers. What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of God. He makes that point of the living gods. As God said, I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them. be in the world and not of the world." And then He says, I will be their God and they will be My people, verse 17. Therefore, go out from their midst and be separate from them. Okay, and that's, you know the Lord caused this plague of 24,000. Okay, He took this pretty seriously. And remember this is where Phineas comes in and Phineas sees this couple go wandering by when they're at the temple, or not temple, tabernacle praying. And he grabs the spirit, goes in there, and the Lord praises Phineas for, zealous for my namesake, as I think he puts it. So, therefore go out from their midst and be separate from them, says the Lord. Touch no unclean things. So it's for us today as well. Then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty. So today, I don't have too many idols around. I mean, it's much in our culture. Not as likely to be carved images or anything that comes between us and Christ in that way that we're bowing down to. I mean, it's, how many times have you gone into a Chinese restaurant and they got a little thing something like this? And there's a little Buddha sitting there and some little flowers or this or that. You know, they're idols. I mean, people worship that kind of stuff. Not so much in the United States, but our idols tend to be money and pleasure, fame, material items. If we're the temple of the living God, what are we filling our temple with? What consumes us? Let's put it this way. What occupies our time, our talents, and our treasures? That's kind of a way of thinking about, what are my idols? Time, treasures, or talents. What occupies those? What am I filling, if I'm a temple of the Holy Spirit, the Lord, what am I putting in there? That's something to think about. The teaching of Balaam taught that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and to practice sexual immorality. They just cut loose. Satan would say you can have it both ways, okay? You can be a Christian and still live as the pagans around you. That's essentially what he would say, okay? The Lord says, go out from their midst and be separate from them and touch no unclean thing. Then I will welcome you. Something to just kinda, always gotta look at ourselves, what we're like, how we're walking. Okay, then back in our texts of 214, He says, I have a few things against you. You have some that hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality. Regarding sexual immorality, here's something I got from a guy named Barclay. He says this. Sexual immorality marked the whole culture of the ancient Roman Empire. It was simply taken for granted, and the person who lived by biblical standards of purity was considered strange. And I put this verse in here because I think this is what he's talking about, 1 Peter 4, 4. They think it's strange that you do not run with them into the same flood of dissipation. That's probably the verse he's thinking about when he said that. Barclay goes on. To paraphrase the Roman statesman Cicero, And here's the quote, it's a paraphrase of the quote, but, if there is anyone who thinks that young men should not be allowed to love the love of many women, okay, get that? Open season for young men, okay. He is extremely severe. I am not able to deny the principles he stands on, but he counterdicts not only with the freedom our age allows, but also with the customs and allowances of our ancestors. So it's been going on a while. When indeed was this not done? When did anyone find fault with it? When was such permission denied? When was it that what is now allowed was not allowed? And he just can't think back of any time in our history where this just wasn't the way it was. Men saw women, they took them. Open season on gals, basically, for the young men. Okay. Let's think about this a little bit. The Reformation, the great preachers of Europe, the printing press, getting the word of God to the average man, many other things, helped our founding fathers here in America who were God-fearing men, they used scripture as their guide in forming this nation's laws and rights. The Ten Commandments were everywhere in American culture back in the day. It was like a great reset, not the one that we're currently looking at. We who are of the boomer generation, I'm right at the tail end of that, cannot say with Cicero when indeed was this not done. We didn't, that just wasn't the America I grew up in, okay? It just was not. But generations are alive that will be able to say that. I really believe that. I mean, you just see that where we're going sexually, and then all the other perversions that bounce off of that. We're in a bad state. The Lord takes us very seriously. It's a fearful thing for the generations coming. Our Lord says through Paul, Ephesians 5, 3, but among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality or of any kind of impurity or greed because these are improper for God's holy people. Remember, he says, I am holy, be holy, or be holy because I am holy. It comes out of Leviticus, but it's repeated somewhere in the epistles, can't remember. That holiness is a big thing. Never want to forget that God is holy, and it's our sin that separates us from him. It's like he's in this big room, and you can't go in that door with sin on you. You'll just vaporize, whatever. I don't know. But you just can't get near God. He won't allow holiness in his presence. But he's provided a way through his son, Jesus Christ. And once that sin's been taken care of, then we can go in boldly. to him, but until we've repented and trusted Christ as Lord and Savior, that barrier is there. He's holy and we cannot approach, but he's done everything for us, praise the Lord. Jude says this, for certain people have crept in unnoticed, this is into the church, who long ago were designated for this condemnation. The scripture warned about these kinds of people. ungodly people who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. So the teachings of Balaam really have not gone away. It's still something that we need to deal with, and it can creep into the church. Okay, next verse in our text is verse 15. So some of you hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Okay, now we've gone over this, back in verse six of this chapter, but we gotta look at it a little bit more. So we're gonna, a little review here. So there's two positions, two main positions, let's put it that way, on who the Nicolaitans are. We're not positive, okay? Some think they were the followers of Nicholas, who was one of the deacons that was brought on in Acts chapter six with Stephen and those other guys, okay? It's believed that Nicholas got into asceticism And his followers later perverted that into the body and the spirit are separate. So you could go mess around all week in the body. It doesn't really have any effect on your spirit. And a little bit of a narcissism in there, too. Some of the Gnostics went that way. And it led to a very licentious behavior. That's one of the things that they think it is. And the second one, I'll just say this. I'm not as inclined to hold to that position. And we'll see some of that as we go through. As both the teachings of Balaam and the teachings of Nicolaitans led to the same problem, which is sexual freedom and lysaceous type of a behavior. But I will make this argument. Jesus, he may be doubling down on the problem and saying, The teachings of Balaam led to that, and the teaching of the Nicolaitans led to that. So maybe he's doubling down on the same problem. I tend to think he's addressing two separate problems. But it doesn't matter. They're all problems for us. Whichever it is, they're all problems that we have to guard against. So the second position points out that the name means to rule over laity. Nicolaitans, it's a two-part word, rule over laity. And we looked at this a couple weeks ago. with a reference to the clerical system, the rise of a clerical system, and we talked about the Catholic Church, because they have the popes and the bishops and the cardinals and priests and the whole hierarchy there. We also looked at the New Apostolic Reformation, which is something that's current today, but they are somehow choosing new apostles and new prophets that must be obeyed, okay? Modern day church, essentially. And I briefly mentioned that, because it's current today, the World Economic Forum, which is just finished up yesterday, today, whatever, in Davos, Switzerland, where all the elites of the world go over there and decide how they're going to take care of us plebes. I mean, that's essentially what they're doing. And they're working on this great reset, they call it, and wanting to revamp the world, whatever. It's globalism is what it is. And we know, the Bible says, we're headed to globalism. And it's very clear that that's what's going on as we get to continue in Revelation. So in that scenario, you either wind up being a prince or a plebe. And there's a whole lot more plebes than there are princes. So don't have a whole lot of hope for being a prince. But anyway, it's a similar type of situation. It's socialism. I mentioned in the introduction that some scholars see a timeline or an epic in the history of the church when I was doing my initial introduction on chapter one. And as an example, I used the Laodicean church, which is the last church. And a lot of people think that would be in the last days. And it does fit for us here in America because it talks about, I know your works, and you're neither hot nor cold. Okay. And it's like, that is a picture of a lot of the American church, but that that's a myopic view because the underground churches in China and India and you know, places like that, you wouldn't say that of them. They're going through some difficult times, but we need to always remember as well that, um, probably remind you of this a couple of times, but in every one of these letters to the churches, He has the same verbiage. He says, he who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Plural, he's saying, every one of these letters can apply to every one of you. And so, now, let me just talk about this timeline, or periods. And a number of people hold to this. Ironside, McGee, and I'm gonna quote from McDonald. And this is McDonald's little sheet here. But he says, the epics in the history of the church are generally listed as follows. He says Ephesus, the church of the first century, was generally praiseworthy, but it had already left its first love in the first century. Then Smyrna, the next church, he says, that goes from the first to the fourth century, basically, timeline-wise. and suffered persecution under the Roman Empires. And we know that in history. And when we studied through Smyrna, there was no condemnation for that church. And it was just, be faithful, hang on, even unto death. Tough times under those Caesars, or emperors, whatever, both. And then now we're in Pergamos. During the fourth and fifth centuries, Christianity was regarded as an official religion through Constantine's patronage, I guess I would put it. And we know in 313, Constantine had a vision, and he saw a cross, and he had a big battle coming up, and it said, conquer in the name of the Lord, basically, to him is how he took it. And he did, and it said he became a Christian, and you could argue that. He did a lot of things for the church, and I think he was honestly trying to help, but whether he knew the Lord, that's the Lord's business. But he made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. And it just totally changed what the church was. And that's the Catholic Church comes out of that, which went its own paths and went ways that we know were problematic. Then it goes on with Thyatira. It was the 6th to 15th century. where the Roman Catholic Church largely held sway over Western Christianism until the Reformation, which was 1500, 1517. Luther is kind of considered the guy who... There was others, but... Okay, and then he has Sardis, the 16th to 17th centuries, and I'm not going to go through all that, but... Philadelphia is the 18th and 19th, and then Laodicea is the last, where it's lukewarm. So there may be some credibility to this, but we always have to keep in mind that all letters are for all people. It's for all of us throughout all times. So I mention all that because it fits with the Nicolaitans. that they may have gotten to a time period where the church started, where Constantine brought in this hierarchy. I mean, he helped the church get going. The church just blossomed into the pope and the cardinals and all that type of thing. So that may be exactly what was going on there. Let me read what MacDonald says here. The epics in church history, which I just kind of went through that outline, this puts Pergamum in the fourth and fifth century. Historically, this church probably represents the time soon after Constantine, when the church was thoroughly married to the state. And he says, as thousands became nominal Christians, and the church tolerated pagan practices in its midst, and the works of the Nicolaitans had become doctrine. Now, go back and look at verse six. Okay, chapter two. And you say, he says, I don't like the works of the Nicolaitans. Okay. So back in verse six, he says, I don't like the works of the Nicolaitans. We get down to this verse we're in. He says, I don't like the teaching or the doctrine, depends on your translation there, of the Nicolaitans. So it had gone from works, to doctrine or teaching, okay, it got more serious. So that really sort of fits with, okay, maybe this timeline thing works and that when Constantine, you know, married the state and the church married together, you know, that that really fits with that timeline. It says, when that took place, and I'm still reading McDonald, thousands became nominal Christians. That's a horrible thing for the church. OK, that's the way we're going. So I want to go along to get along. I've had two or three guys that I worked with that worked in Saudi Arabia. One worked for Boeing as a contractor, and the other was with McDonnell Douglas. He was doing mods on F-15s and stuff. Both of them told me the same thing. Most of the Muslims, they do the works, but not the doctrine. They go along to get along. They're raised in that culture. They just do it. These guys lived over there for like a year or two at a time doing different things. They just saw it every day. It says most of them just do what you're supposed to do. But they do. Here's a good example. Okay, so an American contractor, he brought in some videos that were not, you know, socially acceptable even here, and they all watched them. And they have these like, I don't know what they call them, political guys that watch to make sure everyone's, you know, toeing the mark. Well, that guy watched the videos too, and then he reports them, and the American guy got kicked out of the country. But I mean, if you're really that serious about it, you wouldn't have watched that stuff. But no, he watched the whole enchilada and then he turned them in. Anyway, a lot of hypocrisy. Nominal Christians in the church is a bad thing. It pollutes the church. It's not a good thing. It does seem like it's the difference between works and doctrine. If you hold to the doctrine, that stuff is anathema to you. It's like, no, I don't want to see that. I don't want to hear it. I don't want anything to do with it. That's a little song we used to sing, little eyes only see little ears. We should be that way. We should be as simple as a little child. It's like, no, keep that from me. Don't let me see that. All right. Okay, verse 16 in our text now. Therefore, repent. If not, I'll come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. So, he's talking about repentance again. The second time we're told to repent. And repentance, of course, means turning in mind and deed. You recognize you're going down a wrong path. It's like, that's not a good place to be going, I need to take care of that. And we repent once for salvation, but many times for sanctification, okay? Because we should be repenting often when we're reading God's word and we see something in there that pricks our heart and it's like, I'm headed on a wrong path in that area. We should turn from it in both our mind and our deed, repent, tell the Lord I'm sorry, change our direction. Speaking about repentance, and you can turn here if you'd like, it's Acts 17. It's Paul in Athens and he's at this place where everyone goes to hear the latest Whatever, political statement, religious statement, whatever. And he's talking to the Athenians. But he makes this statement in Acts 17 verse 30. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he, strong word, commands all people everywhere to repent. Because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. It's almost a little picture of the gospel here. Got everything in there? I mean, as much as maybe to make it clear, totally. But sinful men need to repent. And the one who's going to judge us is our Savior. raised from the dead. And when they said raised from the dead, that was the end of Paul speaking because they couldn't handle that. He said, I'll come back another day. But looking at church history, those disciples never backed off on that resurrection and went to their death for that. As near as we can tell, all of them did. Some of the history is a little shaky on exactly how they died or where they died, but they just never backed off of that. Most people back off at death, you know, if they're telling a lie. These guys didn't. Resurrection is something we never need to leave out of our gospel. He says, I will come to you soon and war against them, okay, and read our verse, I guess, 16, therefore repent Therefore, he's referring back to the people who went after, the Nicolaitans and the people who went after, followed Baal, or Balaam. That's who he's talking about. I will come to you soon and war against them, those two groups, with the sword of my mouth. Of course, we know that the sword of his mouth is his word, the word of God. Jesus comes against those who hold to the doctrines of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans. He will confront them with his word, with the sword of his mouth. Jesus confronted Satan in the wilderness with scripture, the word, the sword of his mouth. He confronted the Pharisees with the word. He confronted the scribes and the chief priests with His Word. He confronted the Sadducees with His Word. He's quoting Scripture all the time. This is why we need to be in the Word. The more we're in the Word, the less confrontation we're going to have with the Lord. As we know the Word, the more we're conformed to Him and His image, and the less confrontation. Let's turn over to Joshua 1.8. Joshua 1.8, this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success. Less confrontation with the Lord when we know his word. And then let me read this to you, Colossians 3.16, that the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom. Can't stress, I guess, how important it is to have daily devos, and to not just get through, Clinton said this last week, didn't he? Don't just get through the three chapters. Study them, understand them, read them. I mean, it's a good thing to read the Bible in a year. That's a good thing. I have to race to do it, and I tend to be a studier. I struggle to do that. I'd say, what does that mean? And then I don't get through two paragraphs because I, But both are necessary. We need to study, and it's good for us to know the whole Bible to just get through it too. You're gonna have to work that out on your own, but we need to be in the God's word. We need to know his word. All right, Revelation chapter two, our text, verse 17. So here's our statement that we get in every letter. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. It's to all of us, down through all of time, in the church age. To the one who conquers, or overcomes, in opinion or translation, I will give, and that word some is added, okay, I will give of the hidden manna, and let's just quit there. Looking at overcomes, I just want to keep looking at overcomes from a different light as much as I can, as many of these verses I can find on it. So let's turn over to this one, 1 John 4. Another aspect of overcoming that we haven't looked at yet. Probably running out of verses to look at, I guess, maybe before I get to the Seventh Church. But we're going to keep trying. 1 John 4, verse 1. And this is kind of a test that John puts out there for cults and things like that that would come to you and proclaim things that aren't right. This is how you can kind of know whether they're in the right or the wrong. You think about some of the cults that you know of. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is clear back, we're in the first century here. By this you'll know the Spirit of God. Okay, he's going to tell us. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And you know, we've got a religion to say, well, he's not really deity. Okay. He's this or that or whatever. And they get mixed up, you know, what they believe who Jesus is. Well, that's a problem. And he's making it clear here. That's an issue. Okay. Verse three, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already. Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. And that's just a blessing to know that. I'm gonna read verse five. They that are from the world, therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. The world knows its own language. Have you ever talked to an unbeliever and you're trying to share the gospel with them and it's like it just sails right by them? It's like they're not your, You not communicating? Well, they're of the world, okay? And unless the Spirit's moving on them, they can't understand these things. And it just like it doesn't penetrate, it bounces off. I'm not sure what, okay? But we are from God, verse six, whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So another picture of being an overcomer. Little children, you are from God and have overcome men, for he who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. That's a good thing to know. And then he says this, out of our text, verse 17. I will give of the hidden manna. What's that mean? There's a number of ideas. Most of the commentaries I read fall down in this camp here. Israel received physical food, manna, and the church receives spiritual food. The hidden manna may refer to the manna preserved in the Ark of the Covenant. Remember, they put some in a jar and put it in the Ark of the Covenant, which pictured the one who was the bread of God. Let's go over to John 6. Take a look at that. John chapter 6, verse 32. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, whenever he says that, he's trying to get our attention. Truly, truly, I say to you, It was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. Now this is Jesus speaking. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. He's talking about himself, isn't he? So God promises to give the true believer the spiritual bread the unbelieving world can't see. Jesus Christ is that bread and is also the Word of God, which we need daily to feed on. John 6, 27, back up just a little bit, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him, God the Father has set his seal. It appears that the manna is the word of God that we have. And we need to eat it on a regular basis. We need to consume it. Again, we need to be in God's word. And then he says this back in our text, I will give him a white stone. What's that? So here's what McDonald says on this, and others pretty similar. The White Stone has been explained in many ways. It was a token of acquittal in a legal case. It was a symbol of victory in an athletic contest or sometimes. It was an expression of welcome given by a host to his guest. It seems clear that it is a reward given by the Lord to the overcomer expressing individual approval of him. And it says, with a new name in our text written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. So it would seem that it's personal, and only the person who receives it will know what it is or what it means, that name. What is the name that's written on the stone? No one knows. But here's what McGee says, and we'll end with this. And this is an interesting thought. He may be right. I don't know. And the commentaries you read are just, no one is sure of this. But I like McGee's thought here. I do not believe that it will be a new name for you and me, but that it will be a new name for him. It's interesting because he is eternal. Everything about him is eternal. I believe that each name will be different because he means something different to each one of us. It will be his personal and intimate name to each of us. That's an interesting thought, could be. Could be it's a new name that he names us, he gives us a personal name. It could be it's something between us and him that, how we think of him, and he knows how we think, he knows every thought, does he not? He knows how we think of him, so maybe he's right. Don't know. All right, so summary. Pergamum was a great religious center. Jesus has a sharp two-edged sword. He is the Word of God and he speaks and it happens. Pergamum was the place of Satan's throne and where Satan dwelled. Home of Caesar worship. Pergamum was a tough neighborhood for Christians. They held fast to his name. and did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, who was a faithful witness, is what we're called to be, who was killed among them. So we can say they persevered. The teaching of Balaam taught them they might eat food, sacrifice idols, and practice sexual immorality. The teaching of the Nicolaitans meant to rule over laity. Both teachings or doctrines are problematic for Christians. There's a call to repentance. For the overcomer, or conqueror, he who is in them is greater than he who is in the world. And Jesus will bless them with his word in a personalized white stone. That's kind of a summary of Pergamum, we'll end there. Father, we're thankful for what we see out of this Church of Pergamum, and Lord, just to call, I think, Probably the biggest thing in my mind is to be holy. You asked us to be holy, to be in your word, and to be separate, to come out from among them. When you spoke about the unequally yoked, and there's lots of problems that creep into the church, or there's people that are there just because, as we saw with Constantine, they just joined up, go along, get along, and weren't really True believers, as you call out in your lesson on the sower, where you've got the four soils and three of them don't know you, Lord. And that's in our church today. We need to guard against that and be careful. We still need to share the gospel with those people and others. And we're just thankful for the insights that you give us when we look at these churches. Bless us, we pray now this day, in Jesus' name, amen.