All right, well good evening. We are, we're gonna be in Revelation chapter two, verses 12 through 17. And the title of the message is The King Wages War. And so we're gonna see in the message, we're gonna see how the king wages war. That'll be part of it. But I'm gonna begin with a picture. that's not in Revelation chapter two. I'm gonna go to Revelation chapter 19, and I'm going to read verses 11 through 16 to you. John sees a vision, and he says, and I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations. and he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh he has the name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Last week, we looked at the Lord's message to the church in Smyrna. Smyrna was one of the two out of the seven churches that didn't receive a rebuke. Smyrna only received exhortation and encouragement and a challenge, but no rebuke. The church in Pergamum that we're going to look at this week received both rebuke and encouragement. Before we get into our text, though, we're gonna set the stage by looking at some contextual information about Pergamum that we wouldn't necessarily get from just a straight reading of the scripture. So, does anybody know anything about Pergamum except that it is in this chapter of Revelation and it was a church in Asia Minor that the Lord wrote a letter to? Probably not, most of us don't. But it helps if we do know something about Pergamum so that we can understand the letter. was a Greek city in Western Asia Minor, which is Turkey today. And it was located on the Caicos River. It was about 15 miles inland from the Aegean Sea, and that's the sea between Turkey and Greece, the Aegean Sea. And so about 15 miles, very similar to Lake Charles, about 15 miles inland from the sea on the river was this city of Pergamon. It was the capital of an ancient Greek kingdom until it became a Roman province in 133 BC. So it was originally established, Pergamum, by Greeks, although it was in Turkey, in Asia Minor. It was a city, and this Greek king came, and he conquered this territory, and he set up this kingdom, and Pergamum was the capital. Very similar to Ephesus, came about the same way. The name Pergamum actually means capital or citadel. It originates from the word Priam, which means primary or utmost. And so when you think about the imagery that's in this message, the name of the city, what it means, what it originated from, all is a factor in the letter that the Lord writes to the church there. Harbin was a wealthy city. It was a wealthy city. The population was somewhere over 200,000 people. So this is a big city, especially for the ancient world. I mean, that just blows me away when I think about a city of 200,000 people without electricity, without indoor plumbing. without running water and without grocery stores like we've got. There's markets and stuff like that, but you can't just run down to the corner and get a gallon of milk. But you've got a city of 200,000 people functioning and living day-to-day life in close proximity. It's no wonder that when the plagues happened that the diseases just swept through the cities and killed hundreds of thousands of people. Anyway, Pergamum was this huge city of about 200,000 people. It had a booming economy, exporting wheat, wool, livestock, silver, there was a local silver mine, and parchment. So everybody knows what parchment paper is. Well, parchment, original parchment was a material, and it was made from sheepskins, It was made from sheepskins that were really thin, and they were tanned, and they used them for scrolls, so they wrote on them. Scripture was written on parchment. And these sheepskins were written on them. Well, parchment came about. The scrolls were written on parchment. Instead of books in those days, they'd roll everything up in a scroll, and they would store it in the library on these scrolls. Pergamum had a massive library. And if you studied any history, Egypt, Alexandria, to be precise, in Egypt, the city of Alexandria, had a huge library. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. And they didn't like the fact that Pergamum's library rivaled the library in Alexandria, so they refused to sell the library in Pergamum papyrus, which was the Egyptian paper. They made it from papyrus. In response to Egypt refusing to sell the papyrus, the people in Pergamum developed parchment out of sheepskins and began writing on it and using them for their scrolls. And that's where the modern word came from. The skins, the ancient Greeks actually called them Pergamum skins, or parchment, that's where the word comes from. So in the middle of the city, Pergamum had a necropolis. And whenever I pull up my computer and you see my background page on there, it's actually Charlotte standing on the top of Mars Hill. And I'm behind her taking a picture of the cities behind her. is the Acropolis there in Athens. It's where all the temples are. It's where the Parthenon is, which is a temple to Athena. And there's other temples up there, lots of idols and lots of ancient architecture that's just amazing. Well, Pergamum had an Acropolis similar to the Acropolis in Athens. And the Acropolis in Pergamum was on a tall and a steep hill. It was the home of shrines and temples to Zeus, Dionysus, Athena, Demeter, and Hera, which were all Greek gods and goddesses. There were also temples in Pergamum dedicated to the kings of Pergamum, also the Roman emperors, Trajan and Augustus Caesar. So they were worshiping lots of different people, lots of different beings, lots of different, there was just lots and lots of different religion, and it's all on display. There was also a healing center, a medical school there that was dedicated to Asclepios, which was the Greek god of healing. And he borrowed his symbol from the book of Numbers because whenever the people were bitten by the fiery serpents, God told Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a standard and hold it up and everybody that looked to it would be made well. They wouldn't die from the snake bites. Of course, in John, we know Jesus said, well, that was actually about me. Whenever I'm lifted up and everybody looks to me, they won't die. They'll live and not die. I'm going to save them from the snake bite. And so anyway, well, Asclepius borrowed that symbol also. And the Greeks used a snake on a pole as a symbol for Asclepius. And it symbolized healing. And so now it's on a lot of pharmacies, the American Medical Association, and things like that. So all of this is in Pergamum. But the crowning jewel of all of these, and I'm gonna pull it back up and show you, the crowning jewel of all of these things, is this right here. And that is the altar of Zeus. It's not there anymore, it's been destroyed, but that's a replica of it. So I'm gonna give you the dimensions of the original Altar of Zeus that's sitting on top of this tall, steep hill among all of these temples and shrines there in the middle of Pergamum. So that thing was made of marble. If you're looking at it from the front, and you go from left to right, that's 117 feet. That's how wide that thing is from left to right, if you're looking at it from the front. It's 117 feet wide. And then if you look from the front to the back, it is 110 feet deep and 40 feet tall. So this structure is made of solid marble. It's 117 feet wide, 110 feet deep. 40 feet tall. To put some perspective on that, it's twice as tall as this church. And probably longer and wider. I know it's wider and probably significantly longer. The thing is huge. It's a massive, massive altar. And it's an altar. Does it not look something like a throne? And I think that that probably plays into the imagery The steps leading up to the top are 66 feet wide. Just the steps. So this is the altar of Zeus. And this is the environment that the church in Pergamum is in. At the time this was written, this was a booming metropolis. a center of commerce and education and religion, spirituality. It's very wealthy, very educated, very sophisticated, very worldly. It's kind of an awful lot like the environment that we live in, in our culture today. And actually the argument can be made and is made by a lot of historians, even historians that aren't Christians, I was a history major. A lot of them make the argument that our culture today is just a continuation of Rome, which was just a continuation of Greece, which was just a continuation of the culture that was dominant before them. And so nothing really changes. It just keeps it, there's a few tweaks, but it just continues on and on. So that's the background on Pergamum. That's the place where this church is that the Lord is writing this letter that we're gonna look at this evening. So with all that being said, I wanna read the letter to us, and then we'll pray. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name and do not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. So you have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Therefore repent, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone, which no one knows, but he who receives it. Father, we just come to you and we thank you for your word and we thank you for this word, this vision, this teaching that you have sent to us through your servant John. And we just ask that you open this text up to us this evening, that you help us to see the picture, that you help us to understand the message and help us to take heed, help us to enter into it, Lord, apply it to our hearts. We just thank you for these things in Jesus' name, amen. So, so just like we've done in the first two letters, we're gonna, to recognize the basic literary framework with which this letter to Pergamum was written. They're all written with basically the same outline, the same framework. And we're gonna just go through it using the outline and break the letter down into its parts using the outline and examine it that way. So the first component is the immediate audience. Every letter, the first component is the immediate audience. It says, to the angel, which is the congregation, people of the church in Pergamum. That's who the letter's to. And the second component is the command to John, write. Write this to the letter, or to the angel, to the people of the church in Pergamum. And the third component is, in every letter, it's either says this or thus says. Depending on which translation you're reading and it means the same thing It's like the prophets used to say thus says the Lord. That's what John is saying This is indicating to the churches that these aren't John's words in the greeting John says, you know to from John your and your fellow participant in the tribulation and all of these things, but when John gives these messages and he begins writing it, he says, thus says, or says this, and he's letting you know, this is not me. This message that I'm sending to you is coming from the Lord. Bodie Bauckham is a preacher that I like to listen to sometimes. He has an expression that he frequently uses when he says something in a sermon that might make people uncomfortable. I've borrowed it. I love the expression and I use it myself occasionally. And what he says is, I don't write the mail, I just deliver it. And that's what John is saying here. Essentially, he's saying, I didn't come up with this. This is what the And Peter actually says that about all the scriptures. In 2 Peter 1, verses 20 and 21, I wanna read it to you. Peter says, but know this, first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. What Peter is saying there is scripture, he's saying this letter, but he's writing there at 2 Peter chapter one, he's saying this is not for me. This letter is from God. The Holy Spirit is producing this letter. The letters that Paul wrote, those things were produced by the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul. It's not Paul's words, it's the Lord's words. And so that's what John is saying here. when he says this, or thus says the Lord. The fourth element in every letter, and in this one, is identification of the speaker. And in every occasion, it's identification by looking back to chapter one. And in this case, it's chapter one, verse 16. And what it says is the one who has the sharp two-edged sword, In chapter one, verse 16, what it says is, in his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength. So it's in the middle of a list of attributes describing the Lord, describing, in that vision in chapter one, John is describing the one who he sees, the one who he sees standing in the middle of the lampstands and holding the stars, holding the angels, the congregation of every church, he's holding it in his right hand. And every one of these things that he says there are just different things that he is describing the Lord. Well, in each one of these letters, this component that we're looking at right now, it is the one that is pulled up to describe the Lord, and it's relevant to the church that it's written to. So in the first two letters, the element that was pulled out of that vision in chapter one to describe the Lord, to identify him, was relevant to the circumstance of those churches. And this one is the same way. The one who has the sharp two-edged sword is directly applicable to the circumstance that the Lord is addressing there in Pergamum. The truth that we can get from that is the Lord always, always gives His people exactly what they need. Do you believe that? Just think about it. A lot of people don't believe that. When things happen in our lives that we don't like, or that make us uncomfortable, or hurt our feelings, Do we believe then that the Lord always gives us exactly what we need? See, it's not always what our flesh desires, but it's always what we need. It's not really hard to understand, but it's very hard personally to get a hold of sometimes. It's hard to swallow. But that is the truth. And so every one of these descriptors is directly related to the circumstances of the church. The next component, the fifth component, is a description of the church's circumstances, and it always begins with the words, I know. In the letter to Pergamum, he says, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name, and did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. But, see in this letter there's a but. There wasn't a but in the letter to Smyrna, but in this letter there's a but. But I have a few things against you. Because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality. So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. So that's the circumstances of the church, and that is what the Lord is writing to address. Then the sixth component of every letter is a call to repentance and or faithfulness. It's not always, not every church is called to repentance, but five of them are. There's a call to repentance and or faithfulness along with a warning and or a promise. And so in this letter, it is therefore repent, call to repentance or else I am coming to you quickly and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. So there's a warning and a promise. The seventh component is the command to everyone who hears. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. And as we've said and we've talked about it, he who has an ear means everyone who either hears or reads this letter understands it. And he says, let him hear. Let him hear means take the message to heart. If you hear it and you understand it, take it to heart. In other words, Be reproved. Be rebuked. Be exhorted. Be encouraged by these words because what the Spirit says to the churches, which is plural, means that this word is for you whether you live in Pergamum or not. So be reproved if you need reproof. Be rebuked. Be encouraged. because this is what the Lord is speaking to his churches, to his people. The eighth component is a promise to the one who does hear and take the message to heart and thus overcomes. This letter to him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna and a white stone and a new name written on the white stone. So, We said earlier, looking at that altar, it's pretty easy to see from a visual perspective, the physical imagery of this altar of Zeus, that it signifies Satan's throne. It's a visual image. Is Zeus literally Satan? No. But it's meant to signify Satan. It's meant to signify worship of idols, worship of things that aren't God. And so when you think about the general worldliness of Pergamum as well, with all of its wealth and its commerce and its library and its culture, it's also evident that the city would have been a stronghold of humanistic philosophy and thought. Not only are you a physical, you've got this physical picture of it, external perception, but you have the spiritual reality there. The temples, the shrines, the statues, and the altar are just visible physical representations of what was true about Pergamum on a spiritual level. And that is a big spiritual truth right there. When we look around at the world and we see things that are terrible, sometimes we see things that kind of make us sick because we know that they're an abomination to the Lord. The truth is, is those things are visual representations, is what they are. They're visual representations of spiritual reality, and it's the spiritual thing behind that that is the real enemy. It's the spiritual thought, the spiritual influence, the demonic spiritual influence that's driving all of that that you see. It's kind of like a cough. Well, a cough is a cough. It's just a symptom. It's a physical manifestation of something that's deeper than that, that's inward instead of outward that is the real problem. So that's about as far as I can take that. Jesus begins his message to the church at Pergamum with a commendation for their steadfastness in the faith of the gospel and loyalty to the name of Christ when outward persecution comes against them, even persecution leading to the death of one of their own members, Antipas. That's how he starts in. It starts in great, the one who has The sharp two-edged sword says this, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name. You did not deny my faith, even in the day of Antipas, my witness. My faithful one who was killed among you where Satan dwells. So this thing is starting off on a very positive note. The only information that we have about Antipas is that he was a member of the church at Pergamon. That's it, we don't know anything about him. We know that, though. We know he was a witness at the church, or we know he was a member of the church at Pergamum. We know he was a witness for Christ. That's what it says. Likely an evangelist, maybe even an elder in the church, because they would all know him, and he was a witness, a public witness for Christ. And we know he belonged to Jesus. The word says, my witness. Jesus says, my witness, my faithful one. I can't imagine having a better eulogy than Jesus saying that you belong to him, that you witnessed for him, and that you were faithful to him. If that's your eulogy, it doesn't get better than that. We don't know any of the exact details. We don't know the exact where, why, or how that Antipas died. But there are a couple of clues in this scripture that will probably give us a pretty good idea, even if it's not exact. First, Antipas was killed because of his witness for Christ. And second, he was killed where Satan dwells. And with these two facts in view, it's extremely likely that Antipas was in the Acropolis preaching the gospel. Just think about Paul's experience, everywhere he went. I could just see Paul going up there and climbing up on the steps of that altar and starting to preach and a riot breaking out. And that's very likely that that's what happened with Antipas. It's very likely he was in the Acropolis preaching the gospel, maybe even there, and a riot ensued and Antipas was killed in the riot. Can I say that for certain? No. But I do know that there wasn't an organized persecution of Christianity going on at that time. So it's not like Rome had not mandated a persecution of the Christians at that time. There wasn't anything like that. There was some of that going on in the area of Rome itself, but not out in the other places at that time. And so it's not likely that it was caused by an organized persecution, it's very likely that it was just a public negative reaction to his proclaiming Christ and probably some kind of a riot or something like that. We don't know that for sure. I can't say it for certain, but knowing that at that time there was not a organized persecution of Christianity going on, but that the scripture very plainly tells us that he was killed, and he was killed for his witness of the gospel, and he was killed where Satan was. All of those things lead me to believe that that's probably what happened to him. It's very likely. And his faithfulness in the face of direct opposition from a world full of idolatry and spiritual darkness is held up as a representation of the faithfulness to the gospel of the church there at Parkland. Now think about that. That's what the Lord says. He's telling, he's talking, he's commending them for their faithfulness. And the way that he commends them is just pulls up this example. You guys hold fast to the gospel and you hold fast to my name. And the perfect example of this is Antipas, my faithful witness. That's high praise, isn't it? But, there's that word, but. He says, I have a few things against you. On the other hand, see, the church was standing strong on the gospel and it was pointing people to Christ as a faithful witness to him. However, on the other hand, she was infected with a disease that would bring about great destruction if the Lord didn't address it. So he did address it. He always addresses it because he's faithful, even when it's painful for him to address it. Hebrews chapter 12. We're told that is what is going to happen and we should be happy about it because it's evidence that we belong to him. In Hebrews chapter 12, verses 5 through 11, he says, and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you're reproved by him. For those whom the Lord loves, he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time and seemed best to them. But he disciplines us for our good so that we may share in his holiness. All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful but sorrowful, yet to those who've been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. So the Lord does something about it. This disease that the Lord calls out that's crept into the church is the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Some of the church have adopted the teaching of the Nicolaitans. And the implication is that they are promoting this teaching to others in the church. It's implied, it's not overtly stated, but it is implied. You have some there that hold to this teaching. And it's been my experience in several different churches, and as an elder in a church back in Ada where we had four elders, and it was a pretty big church. We had a lot of people coming and going, and we had a lot of different viewpoints. But as our constitution says, that that church there, we also had in the membership agreement that if you come to join our church, you don't have to agree with everything that we believe. But you do have to agree not to promote something that opposes what we believe. And every church should have that. We have that here. And so anyway, it's implied that these folks not only hold to this false teaching, but they're promoting it. And it's a disease. The Lord describes this teaching by referring back to an incident that occurred in Numbers 22 through 25 and also It's referenced in Numbers 31, 16. And I'm just gonna tell you what happened. I told you where it's at if you wanna read about it. It's an interesting story. But Balak, the king of Moab, so the setting is the children of Israel are wandering through the wilderness trying to make their way to Canaan. And they're up close to Moab, the kingdom of Moab. And Balak, the king of Moab, hired Balaam, this prophet, not a prophet of the Lord, but he's a prophet. And the king of Moab hired him to curse Israel, to curse the people of God. Balaam told Balak that he couldn't go against the Lord, but anyway, there's a long story. The Lord said, well, you just go ahead and go, and you just say what I tell you to say. And so he did, and he ends up blessing the people of God instead. And that happens like three times. And Balak is having a fit. But he didn't listen. Balaam tried to tell him. But anyway, Balaam wasn't able to, from a frontal attack, curse the people of God. However, he did advise Balak that although that wouldn't work, that you couldn't attack the people of God from the front and be successful because God was fighting for them. What you could do would be entice them into sin through sexual immorality. Have your women go down there and seduce them. Get them to eat food sacrificed to idols and drink wine that's sacrificed to idols and get them to just go off into immorality and to basically get them to focus on pleasure and focus on things of this world rather than focusing on the Lord and you'll actually cause them to self-destruct. You can't beat them. But if you can distract them, they'll beat themselves. Well, Balak took his vice and it worked. It worked really well. Now the Lord raised somebody up to put a stop to it because he wasn't gonna let his purpose be defeated. But it worked, and it worked really well. And you know what? It was still working in Pergamum. And it also still works today. The teaching of the Nicolaitans, which was what was being promoted during Pergamum, was a form of Gnosticism that twisted a lot of true things to produce some false doctrine. And their reasoning was, since we're saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, not by our own righteousness, Purity and morality don't really matter. It's just the flesh. So it's okay to indulge the flesh. Actually, I think Paul addressed it. They were preaching what a lot of them accused Paul of, sin all the more that grace may abound. Today we call it easy-believism. And it's still out there. And the problem with that is not that a person drinks wine or eats food that might have been sacrificed to a God that doesn't even exist. Paul addressed that. He made it very clear. He said, we know that there's no such thing as an idol. None of those things mean anything. And if you're thankful for food that you get or wine that you drink and you partake of it and give thanks to God, it's fine. You've got the freedom to do that. That's not the problem. The problem is that by indulging the flesh through impurity and blotting, these things that God is clearly against, a person reveals that they're actually an idolater. They love pleasure, physical, emotional, psychological pleasure and comfort more than they love God. Or to put it another way, finding our joy in the Lord is the source of our strength. That's in Nehemiah. Chapter eight, verse 10. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Finding our joy in the Lord is our strength. Finding our joy anywhere else is a weakness that the enemy can exploit. That's what Balaam taught Balak. That's what the Nicolaitans were promoting in Pergamon. Well, this kind of thing can sneak in by a lot of different avenues. It never comes in the front door. It always bubbles up from within. And so I'm gonna use a little illustration from this movie that we went and watched last night. It's a Christmas movie. It's a great movie. It's called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Charlie and I and Russ and Lisa went and watched it. And so the plot is this church, And it's a pretty good-sized church. A lot of people in it. Seems like most of the people in the town go to this church. And they do a Christmas pageant every year. And they always do exactly the same thing. And it's just always the same thing over and over again. And it always goes pretty smooth. But everybody's kind of a ho-hum. It's the same as it was before. There's this group of kids. There's like six or seven kids. There's a couple of girls and four or five boys. And one of the girls is the oldest. But these kids are hooligans. I mean, they are terrible kids. Their parents are absentee parents. You don't see their parents in the movie. I'm not even sure that their dad is even there. They hint that maybe he ran off when the last one was born. And you never see the mom. The kids are raising themselves. They're in trouble at school all the time. They burn some buildings down. They're stealing from the other kids. I mean, they are just a mess. And it's so bad that there was one of the Sunday school teachers in the church one day asked the kids to write down what their favorite thing about coming to church was. And then they called the kids up to read it. You should never do something like that without checking those things before the kids come up to read them. So anyway, about the third kid comes up there, and the name of the bad kids was Herdemans. And the kid comes up there, and he said, well, what was your favorite thing about coming to church? He said, my favorite thing about coming to church is the Herdemans aren't here. And of course, there was awkward silence, because everybody kind of knows, well, that just doesn't sound right. But the whole point was, Somehow these kids, these wild kids got wind of the fact that there's candy and there's snacks and there's stuff like that at the Christmas program. And these kids are bullies. The oldest girl that runs everything, she is a big time bully. And they just march in and they say, we're gonna be in the Christmas pageant. She says, I'm gonna be married. And she told all the other kids, if you volunteer, I'm gonna whip you. So nobody else would volunteer. So they take over the Christmas pageant. And everybody in the church is aghast. They're distraught because here are these wild, hoodlum kids. This oldest girl smokes cigars. They just do all kinds of terrible things. And the whole church is just up in arms and aghast because they're gonna ruin the Christmas program. They're going to, what it boils down to, and I'm not gonna tell you the whole movie, make a long story short. What it boils down to is that this church was so focused on comfort and peace that they didn't even recognize the opportunity that they had to minister the gospel to these kids. And it was sin, it wasn't the same sin that the church of Pergamum was in, but it was sin that had crept into this church that they were just comfortable. And they, snooty, yeah, they were. I mean, it was something. And so many times we're like that. Well, that's the kind of thing that is going on here. It's a different kind of sin, but it's the kind of thing. So in verse 15, the Lord tells the church, in chapter two, verse 15, the Lord tells the church, so you have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. The word some is very important. This Nicolaitan position is not the position of the church. However, there are some in the church that hold to that position. And the Lord isn't happy about it because it will continue to spread if he doesn't do something about it. So right here you could say, well, wait a minute, the Lord tells them to do something about it. He says repent or else. Call on the church to repent, to think differently. Turn back to finding joy and pleasure in Christ instead of worldly pursuit. And definitely, worldly pursuit was readily available in a part of everyday life with all the temples and the shrines and all that stuff in Pergamum. It was just very, very much out there. The Lord's calling them to repentance is the Lord acting to do something about the problem. And even though he calls the whole church to repentance, and that I think has caused a lot of confusion at one time or another because people will say, well, some of the commentaries that I've read say, well, you know, the Lord is holding the church responsible for the sin of the others. Even though you're not in that sin, the Lord's holding you responsible for it. So you gotta do something about it. You know, you need to go over there and kick those guys out or do whatever. That's not what the Lord is saying here. He is addressing the whole church with a need to repent because the sick member of the church is a part of the whole. The church is a body, and it is one, it's a whole. So if your arm is infected, it affects all of you. You could say, I had an infection in my leg one time when I was roofing, and I stabbed my leg with a roofing shovel, not intentionally. And I got a bacterial infection from it. I'm going to tell you, if you don't think one part being sick affects the rest of it, I couldn't even get out of bed. I mean, I was so sick, I couldn't get up and walk. because the whole body is infected by what happens to one member. And so that's why the Lord addresses it to the whole church. He's calling to their attention through this word. I said this is Him doing something about it when He calls them to repent. He's calling their attention to the problem through this word that He's sending them in this letter. He's also calling our attention to it through the same word. Said, he who has an ear, let him hear. We see this kind of thing going on in the church today. Now, we don't have it going on in this church right now, but we could if we got big enough. If we just had a bunch of people coming in here, there'd be all kinds of different views and different things that people would think. So what do you do about that? Well, what he's doing is he's calling their attention to it, and then he's also promising that if they don't take the message to heart, and he means all of them, not just the ones that you expect to take it to heart, the ones that are already focused on him, but he's saying if the whole church doesn't take this to heart, if this continues in the church, And even if it's a small minority of the church that holds to these false teachings, he says, he's going to come to you, the church, quickly. And he's gonna wage war against them. You see that? I think most people who read that miss that. He's not telling, and if you notice, in Ephesus where they'd lost their love, the love that they had at the first, they'd lost their love for Christ and their love for each other. He says, I'm gonna come take your lampstand away because you may not be a church anymore. If you don't get this love back that is produced by the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, that's evidence that you don't belong to me at all. But he doesn't say anything like that to the church here in Pergamon. He says he's going to come to you, the church, quickly and wage war against them, those who are holding to and likely promoting the false doctrine. There's a difference. The whole church is affected by the sickness of the minority. So the whole church is called to repent. However, if the needed repentance doesn't occur, Jesus is coming to the faithful church. That's a promise, that's not a threat to them. It's not a warning. We want Jesus to come to us and teach us. Reprove us where we're off in the ditch and correct our course and put us going the direction we need to go. And then encourage us in the way and protect us from people that would bring in things that would corrupt. our church. So it's not a warning or a threat to the faithful, it's a promise. But he's coming also to make war against those who are harming the church and making her sick with their false teaching, that's a warning. So how's he gonna come against them? Is he gonna strike them with lightning? Is he gonna kill them with a plague or just make them sick with some disease? or stir up the authorities to remove them. You know, different places in Scripture, all those kind of things have been suggested. And truthfully, in other places in Scripture, the Lord does bring temporal judgments against people who are harming His church. But what does He promise here, specifically? How does He promise to make war against the people who are holding to the false teaching here. He says, by the sword of my mouth. I'm gonna war against them with the sword of my mouth. What does that mean? Well, do you remember what we just read in Revelation 19, verses 11 through 16 when we started? It's a picture of the Lord making war. And it says, from his mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it he may strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, and he treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God the Almighty. Now, what is the weapon that the Lord makes war with there? It's his word. It's this word, it's this scripture. In Hebrews chapter four, in verse 12. In Hebrews four, verse 12, it says, For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." That's how the Lord makes war. He makes war with the sword. the enemies of his people by coming to his people through his word and by coming against the false doctrine and refuting it by his word. How does he do that? I'm glad you asked. Jeremiah 23, verses one through eight, there's a promise, a new covenant promise of just how the Lord is gonna do that very thing. And he even is talking to those who are leading his people astray by teaching them wrong things at the beginning of it. He starts out, woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture, declares the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are attending my people. You've scattered my flock and driven them away and have not attended to them. Behold, I'm about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the Lord. Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I've driven them, bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. I will also raise up shepherds over them, and they will tend them, and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing, declares the Lord. And then he says, behold, The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely and this is his name by which he will be called the Lord our righteousness. Of course, that's Christ. And he's gonna raise up shepherds, his shepherds that will come to the people of God and that will speak his words to them. and the Lord speaking through his word slays his enemies. He changes hearts and minds by his word. He saves his people by applying his word to their hearts. He rebukes and disciplines his people by applying his word to their hearts. He drives away the goats and the wolves by a constant faithful outpouring of his word. So do you hear? His voice. Back in our text, Revelation 2, verse 17. He who has an ear, let him hear. Christ said, my sheep hear my voice. The author of Hebrews exhorts everyone today if you hear His voice, listen, take it to heart. Today is the day of salvation. Do not be disobedient. Do not harden your heart. And then he says, to him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I'm just gonna stop with that one. If you listen to him, he says he will feed you and sustain you with manna. What does that mean? Well, John, the fellow that was writing this down over in his gospel, in chapter six recorded a conversation where Jesus talks about manna. And in verses 29 through 35 it says, Jesus answered and said to them, this is the work of God that you believe in him who he has sent. So they said to him, what then do you do for a sign so that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness as it is written. He gave them bread out of heaven to eat. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it's not Moses that has given you the bread out of heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread out of heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world. Then they said to him, Lord, always give us this bread. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. And then on down in verse 47, he continues with it. He says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. So I'm gonna go ahead and stop right there. He says a little bit more about it, but I think you can get the point from that. He will give you manna. If you listen to him, if you take this to heart, he's gonna feed you with manna. And what did he say about that? He who eats this bread, that came down from heaven will live forever. That's his first promise, if you hear his voice. If you hear and listen to his voice, he's gonna give you a white stone. He'll give you a white stone. There's been a lot of different things said about that, but the ancient Greeks had a legal system that was very similar to ours. a predecessor to ours. Most of our ideas about those kind of things came to us from the Greeks through the Romans. They had trial by jury. And whenever the prosecution and the defense finished making their cases, there were receptacles. And each juror had two stones. They had a white stone and a dark stone. And if you were going to vote to acquit the defendant, you would put the white stone in the receptacle And if you were going to condemn the defendant, you would put the dark stone in the receptacle. That was how you cast your vote. The Lord is promising with this word picture that if you look to Him and trust in Him and find your joy in Him, that He's gonna give you a white stone. You will be found not guilty. before the bar of God's judgment. That's what he's saying. And then, if that's not enough, on top of that, the white stone that he gives you will have a name inscribed on it that no one knows except the one who receives it. Do you know who that is said of? Well, back in Revelation 19 again, in verse 12, Talking about the Lord, it says, his eyes are a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself. He's saying, not only are you gonna be acquitted, not only are you forgiven, declared not guilty. I'm giving you my own name. He's giving you his own name. And not only that, it's inscribed on the white stone that signifies your acquittal. Do you not think that is significant? Father, take all of the sin and brokenness of my people and put my name on it. Give it to me. One more piece of imagery and then we'll be done. Most of the buildings in Pergamum were constructed of pink granite. That is the very common prevalent stone and mineral in that area. It's pink granite. White stone was very rare and it had to be imported So it was very expensive. White stone was used just for the inscription stones on the buildings because it was so expensive. It was used on inscription stones. We've got one out here on the corner of this church. It's got the architect on it and the year it was built and all those things. Well, they had that thing too. They would have a white inscription stone on each building and it would have information on it like, the builder of the building, the ruler who was ruling when the building was built, and the deity that it was dedicated to. Very similar to these architect stones that we have today. So the stone that we are given has Jesus' name inscribed on it. It's a white stone, and it has his name inscribed on it. So by that, if you take that imagery to heart, he's saying, I'm the builder of this house. That stone represents me. I'm that living stone. And the Lord is saying, I'm the builder of this house. I ran over this house. And this house is holy. It's dedicated. It's set apart to me. And that is the message, the message of both warning and hope. Father, we thank you. We thank you for your word, and we thank you for these glorious pictures that you have painted for us in your word. And Lord, I just ask that you use these pictures to stir us up and to teach us more of you, to help us draw near, to help us see you more clearly, and to help us just Have you more and more as the forefront of our minds and our hearts and our focus as we go through each and every day. Lord, we thank you for all of these things in Jesus name, amen.