Possibly it was founded by Paul on his way to Troas. You will see there on the map. It was located just outside of Mycenae. Paul wanted to go up into Asia. The Holy Spirit forbid him and said go to Europe. He ended up in Troas, then up into Philippi, over into Macedonia. So it's possible the church was founded then. It's also possible it might have been founded later. The church in Ephesus, the word was spreading in Acts 19, spreading all throughout this Asian area. And it's possible that that was founded there. We do not know. Those are just suggestions. But outside of that, we know nothing really about this congregation other than what's written here in these verses. It was in this city. Pergamum was a very magnificent capital city. The historians describe it as such. It was not really a commercial center like some of the other seacoast cities. It was more of a center of politics, education, medicine, fine arts, and religion, much like most capital cities would be. And it is from this person. He is the one who has the sharp two edged sword. The fact that he has a sharp two edged sword indicates that he is coming in confrontation. He is challenging this congregation. Then we turned our attention to verses 13 through 15. He started the evaluation of this church. And like always, the first thing we see, verse 13, are words of commendation. And the Lord has much to say that's good about this congregation. He says in verse 13, He says, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And then at the end of the verse, it says where Satan dwells. So you have a church here that is maintaining a testimony in very hostile conditions. and so I say number of the first thing I see in letter a under number one here in the words of commendation is that they have a steadfast testimony they are staying faithful where Satan dwells. They were the recipients of continual hostility. They were tempted to renounce the name of Christ, and they did not. It was a very hostile persecution, even to the death of one of their members, a man named Antipas. And we described that tortuous death. If tradition is right, if what we know is correct and we don't know, then he suffered a very violent, tortuous death. Letter B, they were holding fast to God's name. And again, they were these recipients of these persecutions, but they did not deny the name of Christ. And then letter C, they did not deny his faith. Look at the middle of verse 13, and you did not deny my faith. What a wonderful thing to say about this church. They had a great testimony. They held fast to God's name. They did not deny his faith. Tradition says, and again, we talked about Antipas and all of that. Now, two weeks ago. We began a brief look at the Lord's words of correction to the church. We had a short lesson two weeks ago after our video, and we began this lesson that we have tonight here with this evaluation versus 13 through 15, the words of commendation. We began with verses 14 and 15, the words of correction. And I began to just describe some of that. Let me read those verses again versus 14 and 15. He says, 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. Now it would appear that there are at least two areas of contention going on here. The teaching of Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans. The problem was not external, it was internal. This was going on inside the church. There were these teachings inside the assembly and they were being tolerated. Grant Osborne says it this way, that they were allowing certain heretical groups to flourish in their midst thereby endangering the whole church. So it's not that they were facing heresy outside the church. It was that it was inside the church and being tolerated by at least by the leadership, if not a large group in the church, at least some in the church were tolerating this. Those that should not have been. God is chastening them. It's the sword. He is challenging them. He is confronting them. He is chastening them for their indiscriminate tolerance of doctrinal and practical error that's being taught in the assembly. Now, why do I say doctrinal error and practical error? Well, it says that there are two different things going on. There is the teaching. That would be doctrinal compromise. And I know that there is discussion among the commentators about what's going on with these teachings of Balaam, teachings of the Nicolaitans. Is it the same teaching by two different groups? Is it two different groups with two different teachings? Is it two different groups, two different teachings, but the same outcome? I'll leave that to your personal study. If you would like to read all of that, it is up to you. I don't want to spend a lot of time dealing with that. I do know that from the wording of the text, it says there is a teaching of those who are teaching the teachings of Balaam. And it's also the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Both times you see that in those verses. If you have a King James Bible in front of you, it uses the word doctrine, the doctrine of Balaam. and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. So I know that there is false teaching going on. It has to be some kind of false teaching. I know that it's leading to something else, and it's leading to practical compromise. What's practical compromise? Well, we know a doctrinal compromise is when you believe something that's in error. What's practical compromise? Anyone? Will you practice what's inherent? You're doing things that are contrary to what the Bible teaches. And so that's what they were doing. It says, look at the end of verse 14. They were believing these things so that in order that right, here's your purpose clause in order that they might do two things, eat food, sacrifice to idols and practice sexual immorality. And so it would appear that the emphasis is not so much on the teaching, but what that teaching leads to. And we always want to be careful because we want to make sure we believe the right thing. Why do we want to believe the right thing? Because if you believe the right thing, you'll end up doing the right thing. You believe the wrong thing, you end up doing the wrong thing. You believe the wrong thing, you end up doing the wrong thing. So, and I think that's about as far as we got last week. We started talking about this Balaam character, and I asked you for a little bit of personal homework. You've had two weeks now. I gave you some homework to read Numbers chapters 22 through 25. I won't ask for a raising of hands for those of you that did that, but I hope you had a chance to look at those chapters and get yourself refreshed a little bit with the teaching here of Balaam and what he did. I think most of us remember the stories from Sunday school lessons and whatnot. We know the stories of Balaam. It says there in these verses, in verse 14, that there were some who were holding to the teaching of Balaam. Now, what is that? Well, you have it briefly described in verse 14. It says this, who taught Balak. Now here's the teaching of Balaam. Balaam 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. Now, what's all of that about? What's going on here? Well, again, this is an allusion to that narrative in the Old Testament in numbers, beginning with about 22 up to 25, and then some later verses that give us some descriptions of what's going on there. Balak was the king of the Moabites. All of this took place during the wilderness wanderings. You can imagine this large group of, you know, anywhere upwards to a couple of million people, you know, tramping about in the Sinai Peninsula in this wilderness area. And this large group, and every time that pillar of fire lifted and moved, every time that pillar of smoke lifted and moved, what did this group of probably two million people do? They all herded in that direction. And sometimes they'd try to get through various areas, and sometimes they met with opposition. Well, one of those groups where there was opposition was these groups, the group known as the Moabites. Balak was the king of this group. He saw what happened to the Amorites when they opposed the Israelites and God brought judgment on the Amorites. Well, Balak did not want judgment on himself when he saw this large group of people not knowing exactly who they were, maybe knowing a little bit, don't know how much he knew, but afraid of them. So he hires a man by the name of Balaam. Now Balaam is a figure that kind of pops into the Old Testament like other figures, like Melchizedek. Where did he come from? Why is he such a prominent figure? What is his history? Well, he had the same thing with this Balaam. He apparently was a prophet, a prophet who spoke for Jehovah. He says a prophet of the Lord Jehovah, a very bad prophet, however he was, but a prophet. He was a mercenary prophet. What does that mean? You could buy him. He was a prophet for hire, one pastor said. So he is a mercenary prophet on three occasions. Balaam was. Let me go back a little bit. Balak wanted to hire Balaam. So he sent a group of guys to get Balaam. Balaam wouldn't come. He said I'm only going to say what God tells me to say. That's all he would do. You know the story. So Balaam finally is on his way to see Balak. You know the story. He's on his donkey and there's an angel appears. Balaam doesn't see the donkey, the angel, but the donkey does. Donkey stops. Balaam gets out, you know, yells at his donkey for stopping. The donkey stops and talks back to him and says, have I ever failed you yet? You know, in this kind of talk. And finally, Balaam's eyes are open. He sees the angel and the angel has in his hand, above all things, what? a sword. How does Jesus come to this assembly with what a sword? I think you can see the connection there. So, Balaam finally makes his way to Balak. Balak hires him to curse the people of God. Balaam tries to do this three times to curse them. Every time he curses, he tries to curse them what comes out of his mouth. Blessing. He blesses them. Balak is now angry because I hired you to curse them. He said I told you I can only say what Jehovah tells me to say. I will only do that. So on three occasions Balaam attempted to bless the people of God but he failed. Balaam could only say what God told him to say and that was to bless the Israelites. So he was never able to curse them. So you can imagine this pretty much infuriated King Balak of the Moabites. So Balaam devised a different approach to this problem. He told Balak, if you can't curse the Israelites, I know a way that you can get them to curse themselves. He said, you get your Moabite girls to go down there with these and meet up with these Israelite boys and they will be seduced. They will marry them and then God will curse them. So in Revelation 2, the order is reversed. You'll see there in Revelation 2 and verse 14, it says Balak put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might do two things. You see, eat food, sacrifice to idols and then practice sexual immorality. Well, what happened was the other way around. They practiced sexual immorality with these Moabite girls. And then what do the Moabite girls invite them to do? Come to their feasts, to their gods, and eat meat sacrificed to these idols and worship in their temples. So that's what happened. It says that Balaam taught Balak to put a stumbling block. What's a stumbling block? We've seen that word before. It's the Greek word skandalon. What does that mean? We've seen this many times. Scandal on is what? It's a trap, right? Literally, it's that stick that's in a trap. But the idea is there that you've laid a trap for this person. And so that's what Balaam did. He laid a trap. He put these Moabite women right in the midst of these Israelite boys. And that's a trap. And they took the bait. They fell. over the stumbling block, as it were, that scandal on that trap, that stick, and get these Moabite women to seduce the boys, marry them, and then they would be just a very short step that they would follow them to their very idolatrous practices of the Moabites. And folks, really, discretion would forbid us to really describe what goes on in those temple feasts to these idols with the Moabites. It was a vile, debauched practice that just goes beyond really decent description. The Israelites would quickly learn these religious practices. And in essence, the Israelites, they would not deny their faith in Jehovah, but what did they do? They didn't deny their belief in Jehovah, but what did they do? What? Adopted other practices, didn't they? I heard you use the word adopted, but added, OK, they would add to. And this is why we are so very careful and we take criticism from people who don't understand, especially in regards to our worship service, because we want to be careful about our worship service. and doing what God has asked. Right. And you say, well, Lord didn't say you couldn't do that. Well, you want to be careful about bringing in other things. And I want to get into a whole other discussion about this. But that's what's going on here in numbers with Balaam and Balak, the Moabites and the Israelites. They didn't deny God, but they added other things to his worship. They brought in other practices and they behaved in ungodly ways. They would introduce other things to their belief system. That's exactly what happened. You don't need to turn. I have it on the board for us. But in Numbers 25 verses 1 through 3, here's what you have. The sad tale of this plague that was given to them by God, brought upon them by God, said while Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These, who are the these? Those daughters of Moab, the daughters of Moab, these invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. Well, sure, sure they would do that. That's what they do. And the people ate and bowed down to their gods. Why did they do that? Well, because they've made this alliance, they they have gotten their affections and their emotions and their lust and their flesh tied up with these women. And now they're bonded to them. And so they're now invited. Well, you just you come with me to our feast now. So they're led away. They're led astray, tripping right over that stumbling block. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. Now, whose idea was this? How do we know this was Balaam's idea? How do we know that it was bailout that got these mobile women to seduce these Israelite men. Well that's in numbers 31 for 16. It said behold these those mobile women on Balaam's advice. Balaam's counsel caused the people of Israel to act treacherously against the Lord in the incident of Peor. And so the play came among the congregation of the Lord, this description of this plague. I think I said it in chapter 25. I was mistaken. It's chapter 31. And Scripture says that 24000 Israelites died in that plague. What do you call that when you introduce godless doctrine, godless practice, into the worship of the church, into the practice and doctrine of the church, what do we call that? Well, HIV. What? Syncretism. I'm a simpler person. Compromise is the word I have. Compromise. That's what's going on. That's what's going on. A mixture, a mixing of these things. So what we have described in Pergamum with this teaching of Balaam, And we'll look a little bit about the teaching of the Nicolaitans, because we've already discussed them earlier. So I'm not going to spend much time with them. We have described in Pergamum a church that needed correcting for its religious compromise. It was compromising. And I think, again, I say there are two things going on. The first has to do with doctrine. The second has to do with lifestyle. Probably a good deal of overlapping going on between those two things, because false doctrine of necessity forms the foundation for ungodly behavior. I thought I have in my notes that I had put new new slides in on this, but I didn't. So my apologies. Let me let me share a few things before we get to the solution. The church is indicted for harboring a group of compromisers. And you can easily see how the episode in numbers is applied to a group of false teachers in Pergamon because there is a theological continuity between the two situations. I know that Mike asked a question a couple of weeks ago if I thought that there was actually a body of doctrine. I'm going to reword your question. Correct me if I misunderstand your question. Was there a body of doctrine taught by these people known as the teachings of Balaam? Was this an actual group that taught some kind of teachings of Balaam? Was that your question? Yes, I believe it's. I believe it's somewhat idiomatic. I don't think there was actually a group that had a body of doctrine that was known as the doctrine of Balaam teaching this heresy in the church. I think you've got this condition in numbers where a person brought mixture and compromise into the church taught people to do that. All right. And that theological association, that theological continuity is what we see in Pergamum. And so you've got these people in Pergamum who are doing the same thing. And so they are saying, so the Lord is saying they hold the teachings of Balaam, the idea of mixture. Are we good, clear, disagree, agree? Are we good on that? I'm not sure. Alright, we'll talk about it later. The false teachers in Pergamum were advocating a closer relationship with pagan culture and institutions and religion than were scripturally proper. It appears that the main point of compromise had to do with participation in the pagan feasts where there was the recognition of deities other than Christ. We know that that's what they did in those cities. They would recognize deities, go to these feasts, and eat this meat that's offered there to those idols. The worship of the pagan gods in Pergamum involved all kinds of hedonistic behavior at the gluttonous feasts that were dedicated to their idols. Now, this is a, in my estimation, again, and I know there's discussion among the commentators, but in my estimation, this is different from what Paul was teaching in 1 Corinthians 8. Paul was addressing those areas of life that are indifferent, those things that are a matter of Christian liberty. Was it all right for a person to eat meat that he knew had been sacrificed to an idol, or thought might have been sacrificed to an idol? The idea, I think you all know this situation, the pagans offered meat to their gods. Not all of it. Just like in Israel, not all the meat was offered. The priests were able to enjoy fine cuts of meat that were not actually offered. Same in the pagan worship. Meat that was left over, not eaten, not sacrificed, was done with. What did they do with that? They took it to the marketplace and sold it. And it was usually at a discount rate. At least that's what the historians say. I wasn't there, I don't know. But you could buy this meat in the marketplace. So you go down, you buy this and you say, well, you know, that's a good price on that. I wonder if it's an offer to an idol. Well, you did. Paul said, don't ask. You know, you know that an idol is nothing. I know an idol is nothing. Don't ask questions. All right. It's a matter of Christian liberty. Now, if you have a brother who has a weaker conscience and he says, look, that's been offered to an idol, I'm not touching it. His conscience would convict him of that and his conscience would kind of prick his heart. And you do it anyway. And you don't care about your brother. You're sitting against your brother. Because you're going to cause him to do something that is not in faith. Anyway, we'll go a long story on that. So that's what's going on in Corinth. Paul had no objection to this unless a weaker brother was witness to it. In that case, Paul encouraged believers to refrain from doing that for the sake of the weaker brother. Paul is saying this in First Corinthians, he is saying, yes, you have liberty, but you ought to do what you ought to limit that liberty. You say, yes, I have the liberty to do this, but I should limit that liberty. All things are lawful, but all things are not profitable. Our King James uses what word? Those of you that memorize that expedient. It's not expedient. So just because it's lawful doesn't mean you should just We'll talk about Christian liberty in another moment. However, in the case of the church in Pergamon, the issue involved the actual feasting with the idolaters. It's actually being with them and worshiping their God. There were people in the church who were teaching that this was acceptable. That is, it's not just a matter of eating meat off the idols, but, you know, they and they might have even used the they might have even used Paul's writing by this time and said, you know, Paul said you can eat meat off the idols. So that means you could go right in there to the temple with these pagans. And, you know, we're going to be there as ambassadors for Jesus, anyway, for Christ. We we love the Lord. They know we love the Lord. We're going to eat with them in their temples. And so what if they say worship to a God? We know it's not really a God. So we'll just throw a little incense down there and say, hey, you know, we appreciate this God. And we know that that's not real, but it's OK. It's not going to hurt anything. You see, you see the doctrine of Balaam, you get mixed in this, yes. Yes, we're going to talk more about that when we get to the church in Thyatira, because the church in Thyatira seems to have gone even further than Pergamon in this. But Margo's right. Associated with these feasts. After those feasts were orgies, there would be a lot of gluttony going on. Gluttony has nothing to do with just eating too much pie. There's more to it in these feasts than that. I won't even describe how vile it was. But this gluttony, and the drinking and that would lead to practicing sexual immorality. These temples had priests and priestesses. And as part of the worship, you would engage in sexual immorality with these male and female prostitutes. But that is exactly right. And so you can see exactly what's going on in Pergamum. It is exactly what happened in numbers with the children of Israel. Balaam said, you just get those girls with those boys and they will curse. God will curse them. And so what's going on in the church here is that there are people teaching this is OK. It's all right. Don't worry about it. Get as close to the world as you want. Don't worry about this. And you mix this in and it ends up in what? The practice? of eating this meat, sacrifice to idols and sexual immorality. It's exactly what happened in Pergamum. And it would appear that the elders were not stopping them from teaching this, that the elders did not call them aside and and correct them, rebuke them, exhort them. And they just let this go and fester in the church. That brings us to verse 15. It says you also have the teaching of the Nicolaitans. We've talked about that with the church in Ephesus. I talked a little bit about the Nicolaitans. Not exactly sure where they came from. Not exactly sure how it started. But it seems that the premise of this group was an indulgence in lifestyle. That we were not under the law anymore. No law. And so because we're not under any law, We can do what we want. And so that is this teaching of the Nicolaitans involved with the teaching of Balaam, that there is no law, no, no, no straps on you, no fetters. Do what you want. While the Ephesian church had was commanded for identifying and opposing the Nicolaitan heresy, the church in Pergamon tolerated it. And so it was castigated for its weakness, quote from Grant Osborne. Some believe that this has reference to an abuse of the doctrine of Christian liberty. I just mentioned that. These taught that it was acceptable for Christians to behave in any way they desire, and so that's what they were teaching. Now, here's where we want to be a little careful about Christian liberty and doing what we desire and having a limit on it. Some of us, I don't know how many of us, I did, some of you may have grown up in system, in church, doctrine, theology, fundamentalism. This is my background. It's fundamentalism. And when I say the word fundamentalism, I know that that probably conjured up images all over the room. I don't know what kind of images you have of what a fundamentalist Christian is. I'm not a fundamentalist of some other religion, but a fundamentalist Christian. And just like any other sect, be it an evangelical or a neo-orthodox or whatever name you want to put on a person that calls himself a Christian, involved in broader evangelicalism or a fundamentalist, there are gradations. There are extremes in every camp. And there are some in the fundamentals camp and it would seem to be an overarching characteristic that they seek to mandate just about every aspect of Christian conduct and that spirituality is judged on how you dress, how you wear your hair, where you go, where you don't go. Much, much, at least in my small sphere of experience has tended to be you could tell if you're a fundamentalist by what you didn't do. I don't do that. I don't go there. I don't say this. I don't. And that's how you know that you're a good Christian by what you don't do. And I know that's maybe a caricature of some position but there are some in an extreme camp that hold that. And I want to be careful. I don't want to go there because we are people that are in the world. Christ in his high priestly prayer did not pray, Lord, I pray that you'll take them out of the world, put them someplace in a bubble where they won't have to associate with godless people. Give them jobs so that they don't have to worry about godless employers. They don't have to worry about godless people around them. They don't have to worry about listening to vile language. They don't have to worry about watching vile things. They won't be tempted by doing things that are unethical. Lord, put them somewhere in a bubble so that they only they have a Christian community and a Christian school and a Christian doctor and a Christian barber and Christian nail person will trim their nails. And maybe I know I'm getting silly, but I hope you see the point. You know, we are to enjoy things of the world. Yeah, I mean, how many of you don't like to go to a ball game or to go to a ball game? I love to go to a ball game. My wife takes me to ball games, baseball games all the time. She loves to. But, you know, there are aspects of going to a baseball game that are just a little unsavory. But I love to go. I love to watch. Y'all like to go to the Bass Hall and watch a concert? Hear beautiful music? You don't care for the... Jim doesn't like the Bass Hall. I like to go. I like to listen to concerts and some of their series. Some of the stuff's a little heavy for me. I like maybe more of their pop stuff I enjoy. Is that wrong? Is that falling on the area of Christian liberty or is that... You know, so we want to be very careful in this regard. I don't want to, you know, land us in this area where you, you know, you've got to be very careful. Don't do that. Don't wear that. Don't, you know, your hair has to be a certain length and your dress has to be a certain length. It's just, it gets a bit silly. And, but I don't want us to be careless in our behavior either. You see the fine line I'm walking here and I've said, I've been speaking now for about eight or 10 minutes on this. And the fine line I'm trying to walk is that I don't want to come across sounding like some fanatical fundamentalist on the fringe of, you can't do this, can't do that, you have to watch this and don't listen to that. But on the other hand, I want us to be cautious. I think the fundamentalists have it right in this regard, that the desire to walk circumspectly and to keep themselves unspotted from the world. I think that's a worthy thing, a very worthy thing. I think it would behoove all of us to consider that as well. But what's going on in Pergamum is that some in the church in Pergamum were advocating that Christians were free to participate in all manner of behavior. And that led to this sexual immorality and the worshiping of idols in these temples. I know I've said a lot. Did I spur any thoughts or anything you want to discuss before we do move on to letter C? I would have to agree with that. It is incumbent upon those leaders, you know, Paul even said, you know, we know that Paul on his way to Jerusalem, stopping off in, you know, that very tender moment, an emotional moment with those Ephesian elders on the way and said, be careful, there will be grievous wolves that will crop up from where not just the outside, but from where inside. And you watch. He gave them that charge, you be careful. And this is why it is incumbent upon the elders of an assembly to keep watch and to look and to know if there is false teaching, some kind of a heresy or something that would lead people to false behavior as well. And so God, yes, I agree entirely that these elders were remiss in their responsibilities and God is challenging them for that. Anything else? Getting to verse 16 and the solution. Verse 16 says, therefore, repent, if not, I will come to you soon in war against them with the sword of my mouth. And number one is the admonition, and that is simply repent. This is a sin, metanoeo in the Greek, it's a change of mind that results in a change of behavior to turn 180 degrees, turn the other direction, repent of this. Tolerance may be a commendable virtue in our modern culture. In fact, it seems to be the only commendable virtue in our culture today. If you want to even call it if you can even use the word virtue. If you've got tolerance, it doesn't matter who you are, you could be the worst sinner on the planet as long as you're tolerant. It seems to be a very commendable virtue in our modern culture. But toleration of heresy or sinful behavior in the church is a sin. And they must repent. Number two is the warning. He says, I will come to you soon and war against them is serious. God takes this seriously. This is a dire situation that brings us back to that original description of Jesus. He has the two edged sword. Literally, it says he has the sword, the two edged one, the sharp one. And it just it just divides that up that way so that it's emphasized about Christ in this challenge to this church. There is no room for compromise. It is a corruption. And if it's left unchecked, it will spread to the whole body. It must be cut out. It's like a cancerous tumor. If you have a cancerous tumor and it is operable and you can cut it out, what do you do? You cut it out, use a sharp, instrument and you cut it from the rest of the body. I know that runs contrary to our secret, sensitive mentality of church growth. Because we want to talk, we don't want to offend anyone, right? We want them to feel comfortable. No, we don't want them to feel comfortable. No, no. When they come, we want them to know they are loved. We want them to know that there's good news. But if there's good news, what do they need to know that there is there's bad news and that must make them uncomfortable. It must prick their hearts so that they can say, sirs, what must we do to be saved? So I don't need to get into all that. That's something you've heard from this pulpit for years. So. Letter D, the exhortation, verse 17. Verse 17, the exhortation. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who has an ear, we've seen that exhortation so far in every letter, we'll see it in every letter, every church letter ends with these words. It stresses the vital importance of Christ's words and believers responsibility to hear and heed them. Two promises are made to the conqueror or our Greek, our King James uses the word overcomer. Number one is this hidden manna. What's manna? I think we all know what manna is. Manna is a small, sweet-tasting substance which could be made into bread. I'm smiling because most people think that's grits. That would be manna is grits. Well, maybe so. I love grits. It was furnished by God for the Israelites during the wilderness and the wanderings prior to their entering into Canaan, Exodus 16. You know the story of the manna. It came every day, twice as much on the day before the Sabbath, so that on the Sabbath day, they didn't have to go out and collect it. They'd go out and collect it. It was enough for their families. It would last a day. The next day, if it was left over, it was rancid. So they had enough for a day's provision. So they had this manna. A jar of that manna was placed in the Ark of the Covenant. And it stayed there unspoiled for many years. What's the connection there? Well, what's the connection between this man? And when God says those conquerors, those overcomers are going to be given, I will give them some of this hidden manna. What does that mean? I don't know. I don't know. I'm going to give you what Mike knows. Well, we're going to see that we're going to. That's an option. That's an option. And now I know where you land. All right. Let me just give you some of these options. Number one, it could refer to this, the manna that was hidden and revealed, and it'll be revealed in the new temple. Number A, manna that was previously hidden and will be revealed. The idea there is that, you know, that pot of manna was in the Ark of the Covenant. Jeremiah, our tradition says that it was Jeremiah, an angel, hid that under Mount Nebo. Mount Sinai someplace and that in the new Jerusalem and in the new temple this man will be provided and it will be revealed. That's that's that man. They'll be given to conquerors will be given to eat of that old man. Right. That hidden man. There's there's one option. Let it be. Man is symbolic of the bread of the Lord's Supper. Paul refers to it in 1 Corinthians 10, and he equates it with the bread eaten at the Lord's Supper. So maybe it has that kind of a connection that it's like bread eaten at the Lord's Supper. Conquerors eat manna that's hidden. That's manna from the bread of the Lord's Supper. There's an option. I'm just giving you some of this. I have six of these that were given to me by various commentators. Let us see. It could be spiritual food. All right. Celestial food. It's hidden to the lost, but it's available to the saved. Now, John Walvoord is the one I got that one from. Here's what he says. Just as Israel received manna from heaven as its food in the wilderness, replacing the onions and the garlic of Egypt. So for the true believer in the Lord Jesus, there is the hidden manna that bread from heaven, which the world does not know or see, which is the present spiritual food of the saints as well as a part of their future heritage. This seems to refer to the benefits of fellowship with Christ and the spiritual strength that is offered by that experience. So it's like all those benefits you have in Christ that your spiritual food. That's the old was the old Egypt. Now we have new food in Christ. So that's like those benefits of him. Right. Letter D. Christ himself as the bread of life in John 6 35 where Jesus says I am what the bread of life that manner. So let me let me read you what John MacArthur says on this one. He he's really close to all over but there seems to be a little variation. MacArthur says the hidden man represents Jesus Christ the bread of life who came down from heaven. John 6 verses 48 to 51. He provides spiritual sustenance for those who put their faith in him. And then, listen to this, he says, the hidden manna symbolizes all the blessings and benefits of knowing Christ. Well, that sounds like what Walvord just said. So there might be a little overlapping there, but it's either Christ or the benefits of Christ or maybe both there. And then five, letter E, food that will be eaten in the Messianic kingdom, that final kingdom that if you hold to a thousand year reign, that final Messianic kingdom, that's what we will eat will be manna during that time. Manna is from Psalm 75, 25. It is angels food. And so that's what saints will eat during this kingdom. Angels eat angels food, which is manna. We will become angels. That's a heresy. But we will be in the messianic kingdom and we will eat the same thing. We'll eat hidden manna. And so you've got the idea there that God is telling his saints in Pergamum not to eat meat offered in idolatrous feasts, but wait to eat of the manna in heaven. Contrast to that meat offered to those temple gods. So, Mike, maybe, I don't know if you hold that, but that's at least what's going on there. Letter F, this is a little bit obscure. I don't know if you want to hold this or not, but this is an obscure one. Granules of incense burned on altars. One person said the hidden manna was identified with those granules of incense that were offered to idols. A fellow by the name of Gerhardt Cadell wrote a book on Revelation, sharing different thoughts. He says this, he says, I'm sorry, I didn't leave it up long enough. I thought it wasn't up there yet. I'm sorry. Manna in a Hellenistic setting could refer to the granules of frankincense used on pagan altars in the imperial cult. And in this sense, here's how we connect it with Pergamon. In this sense, those who refused to participate in emperor worship, Satan's throne, would be given heavenly frankincense when they reigned with Christ in the messianic kingdom. So there is there is that the connection is saying we're still going to have that messianic kingdom eating man and the messianic kingdom. But it's not because it's associated with the other but it's associated with incense offered to these idols. So whatever it is and you can pick whichever one of those you like. Whatever it is it must have something to do with feeding God's people in a severe environment. And that it's something that's not given to the world is something that nourishes the soul. And it's not given to the world. It's hidden to them, but revealed to believers. So whatever that may be, I leave it to you. Let me move on. And if we have any more thoughts or discussions, we'll move on. The second thing they're given is a white stone. What's that white stone represent? What's the symbology of that word? What's the source of that imagery of that white stone? Lots of options. I've got, I think I've got one, two, three, four, five, six, I have seven of these, so I'm going to go through them quickly. Several options for these. Number one, it could be, or letter A, a jewel in the breastplate of the high priest. One of those jewels was a white stone, maybe a diamond, a white stone, one of those. And so the source of this imagery would be, for Israel, this church, the people of Israel in the Old Testament, the priest representing all 12 tribes represented on this ephod, by the high priest, one of those stones was white. Probably the white stone here is not, don't think of it like just white, but clear, see-through, like a diamond. So that might be the source of the imagery there. Letter B, a white stone is used by jurors in a trial. In this case, it is just a white stone, not a diamond, just a stone that's clear. A jury in casting its vote, yea or nay, would go by this jar and throw in a white stone for innocence, black stone for guilt. So that's what you have. So you have this idea of innocence in the white stone. Letter C, this is an interesting one, and a lot of the commentators kind of fall on this one. It could be represented as a ticket as admission to feasts at the athletic games. When you would go to these athletic games, if you paid a certain price, or if you were an athlete, you would get this white stone, and that gave you admittance into the area where there was food. I don't know how many of you have ever been involved in any endurance races or not, but one thing you do in some of the larger endurance races, at the end, they give you a little medal to wear, You also have a little ticket along with that, and you can go into this area that's all fenced off where there's all this wonderful food to eat after your long run. You get bagels and yogurt and bananas and oranges. I know you're all just salivating now at all that wonderful stuff. But if you have a ticket, you can get in there. If you don't, you don't get in. This goes all the way back to Greece, and that's Whitestone via ticket to get in. So maybe that's the source of the imagery. could be a good luck charm. Sometimes those white stones were nothing more than you have a certain kind of a stone, and to you there was fortune in that. It was a lucky stone. Just like you say, well, that's stupid. Well, you have a lucky, I hope you don't. I was gonna say, well, how many of you have a rabbit's foot? I hope nobody has one. Or a lucky penny you carry around. I hope you don't have anything that you think is a good luck charm. All right? But a lot of people do. It could be that. A stone indicating freedom from the gladiatorial service. If you were set free from being a gladiator, you'd be given this white stone. And that meant you were free from that service. Letter F, a stone given to the worshippers of Asclepius. We talked about him. You'd worship him. They would give you a white stone. And markings, of course, indicating you were a worshipper of Asclepius, who was this serpent god in those days. Letter G. A stone which is permanent as opposed to parchment which is impermanent. Why parchment? Well, parchment was a major manufacturing item in Pergamum. Pergamum gets its name from the Greek word for that, for parchment. And so a white stone with this writing on it would be permanent rather than temporary, which would be just from parchment. All right. I went through all of those very quickly. I went four minutes and went through all seven of those. So you take your pick what that white stone is. I don't have a clue. I don't have a clue. I think the idea, let me share a couple of last words. Let me share these last words. We don't know if any of these suggestions truly pinpoint the source of the imagery. I don't know if any one of these is right. Or maybe it's a combination of several. I don't know what the source of the imagery was there that the Lord is intending for that white stone with a new name on it. I don't know. We do know that the conqueror will receive something. And it's pictured as a white stone. And there's a new name written on it that no one knows, but the recipient of that stone. And this is the Lord's in this business, isn't he, of giving people different names. He gave Abram a new name. He gave Paul a new name, Saul a new name. He gave he gave Sarah a new name. He gave Jacob a new name. He gave Simon Peter a new name. We have a new name. And I think that somehow that that indicates our walk with him somehow. And it pictures something of our relationship to Christ. And so no one will know that. But the recipient who receives that. So whatever that is, I think that's what it is. The Lord seems to be promising that these overcomers will receive in eternity, whatever it is that there may have been any loss at all in this life, that they will be given this manna for sustenance and this new name representing their character before him. So again, and I leave it to you. Any thoughts? I know that it's just about eight o'clock, but any. Maybe we didn't cover enough to have lots of stuff going on there that we really don't know. You can. I'm sorry, I don't have an answer. Gesundheit. Bless you. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you. We pray that you would help us to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. And I pray that we would be careful to walk circumspectly. And that we would look into your faithful word, that mirror, that perfect law of liberty. And that we would have our entire lives regulated by that very word. That we would not try to equate spirituality with certain behaviors, certain mannerisms and stylistic approaches to Christianity, dress and culture. While at the same time, we would be careful to redeem the time because these days are evil and this world is evil and there's an evil spirit in this world. And we can easily be lured away into idolatrous practices. And so I pray that we would be led by the spirit. And walk circumspectly in this world. knowing that there is a personal devil who walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Bless, we pray in our time of prayer, we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.