So we're continuing this afternoon our sermon series in the book of Revelation. And we have seen, as we have been going through these first chapters, that how intimately connected Jesus our Lord is with every congregation of his people, as well as every individual. We were first shown this in chapter one, when John had that glorious vision of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It was especially showing him as the Son of God, his divine attributes. And John was so filled with awe when he saw his glory, that he who knew Jesus in the flesh so intimately, when he saw his glory revealed, he fell on his face before him like a dead man. And our Lord reached out a kind hand to him. And he said, do not be afraid. And he told him, I am the one who is dead and is alive. When he appeared in that way, he didn't look like the one who had died, because his glory was radiating all over that made John fall on his face. And yet he was that one who came and died. What a blessing it is to us to have such a one to care for us. In the vision, John had seen him among seven golden lampstands and holding seven stars in his hand. And Jesus explained to John that the seven stars in his hand were the angels of the churches, the messengers of the churches, the ones that bring God's word to them, ministers and also perhaps elders. and that he was also, that the churches, the lampstands, were the seven churches, and he was walking among them. And this tells us, this ought to grip our attention, because this tells us that Jesus was intimately involved with these seven churches and had their ministers in his hands. And that's to show us that every single congregation of his people, he walks among them. He knows all about them, just like these seven churches that are mentioned in Revelation and that their ministers are in his hands. That's us. He walks among us as a congregation. And he holds me as a minister in his hands. That's a shocking, not shocking, but an arresting thing. It grips the mind to think about that and what our Lord is like to us. It's just as true today as it was in John's day. These things are revealed for us, for our understanding and growth. This means that reading what our Lord has John to write to these seven churches, should be of great interest to us because what he says to them shows us the things that are important to him and the things that he's going to do for them and what he is to them. And it also shows us the things that he's very displeased with. And what he will do to those who do not repent. And so we need to take these things to heart as we consider them. We need to let them soak in and let it soak in that just as he walked among them and was acquainted with what every individual among them were doing. So he walks among us and is acquainted with what every individual does. caring for them as a gracious, gracious, sovereign Lord who would make us afraid to see His glory. And yet reaches out and touches us and says, do not be afraid. I'm the one who died for you. I'm the one who died and is alive again. So today we come to the third church that is written to you. Remember I said that this was done in the way that a messenger would go that was delivering the letters. And so around kind of a horseshoe shape in Asia Minor. So there was Ephesus and then Smyrna and now Pergamos is the one we come to today. This letter is found in Revelation 2. I would encourage you to follow along in the Word of God. Verses 12-17, not necessarily to the reading of the Word, but to the preaching. So here is the Word of God. Revelation 2, 12-17. What I meant by that, I need to clarify that. What I mean is sometimes when the reading of the Word is happening, it's better to just listen to the Word and not read. But then when the preaching is going, you look at the word and you evaluate whether the things are said are true to the word or not. So it's kind of a way of a distinction that's made between when we're listening to the reading and when we're actually listening to preaching. So here's Revelation 2, 12 through 17. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos, right? These things, says he who has the sharp two edged sword. I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to my name, and did not deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas, my faithful martyr, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone, a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it. May God add his blessing to the reading of his holy and infallible word. Pergamos. Pergamos was a city, of course, in Asia Minor. And it was about 100 miles to the north of Smyrna, the church we looked at last time. So about as far as it is from here to Truro. It was about 25 miles, or kilometers, rather, from the Aegean Sea, which is, of course, all this is in Turkey, but where the Aegean Sea is over on the west of Pergamos. When Jesus wrote to this church, Pergamos was the capital city in the Roman province of Asia, what we call Asia Minor. And it had been, it was the capital city for around 300 years until AD 130. Roman writer Pliny called it by far the most famous city in Asia. Marshall Neal, a commentator, says that Ephesus exceeded Pergamos in trade, but that Pergamos had much greater historical fame and political importance. This was the kingdom originally of the Attalids, but in 133 BC, King Attalus III willed his kingdom to the Romans. So that's kind of interesting. 133 years before Christ came, he just handed the kingdom over and said, Rome's doing well. Here, you guys, I'm going to give you my kingdom. It was beautifully situated, being built on a mountaintop 1,300 feet above the river valley that was below. So it was like this big mound in the middle of a river valley, beautiful river valley, that expanded very far. And it was a very regal kind of a city. It had a royal appearance. Somebody would look at it and say, that's a royal city. That's a king's kind of a place right there. It was very imposing. Sitting up on top of the mountain, they had all kinds of buildings up there. And they had some buildings that were kind of decorated around the edges. But most of it was right on top. And so a watchman in this, the watchman of the city had the advantage that they could see around in all directions. And so if anybody was ever going to mess with them, they would see them coming and they would be able to prepare. And then they had to climb this mountain to get up there. And it was, you know, it was a very well-situated kind of a city. I guess it was hard to to build because they had to carry all the things up there. But if anyone dared to attack, they would then have to climb up the mountain. So the culture was very highly developed here. They had a library that was second only to the library in Alexandria, Egypt at that time, the famous library that is renowned. They had over 200,000 volumes in this library. And because of, they asked for, At one point, the librarian in Alexandria would come and work for them. They tried to hire him out. And when the Egyptian king heard about it in Alexandria, he was offended, and he locked the librarian up in prison. And he told them that... And then he put an embargo on paper. because Egypt made paper out of papyrus. And so he said, he's going to punish this library that wanted to get their librarian. And so they didn't have any paper. So what they did is they figured out how to make paper out of animal skins and what we call parchment. That's where parchment came from, pergamos. And so that's kind of an interesting little fact that gives you a little bit of a picture into some of the culture of this city and that sort of thing. This was such an important thing to them. They had on the side of the big hill, there's an amphitheater. You may have seen pictures of it before. That's the ruins of it. And it looked over the whole city. It was situated on the side of the hill. It was just beautiful. Like you'd sit in that and you're looking over this whole river valley, this big expanse. And it would seat 20,000 people. So they had all kinds of cultural things going on here. The city was very beautiful. I'll have a little bit more to say about it as we proceed, but we need to get on now to looking at what we may learn from our Lord's letter to the church in this city. Some of the things I told you about are significant because how would you like to be a Christian in this city? Well, let's look and see what kind of things that the church there had to face. First, see how our Lord presents himself to them. as he, verse 12, he who has a sharp two-edged sword. The sword we are told is a sword of his mouth. When John saw the vision in chapter one in verse 16, he saw he said out of his mouth proceeds a sharp two edged sword. Now, I've told you this is not supposed to be how Jesus is going to show up to us with this sword hanging out of his mouth or something. This was a vision that was given to show characteristics that are true of him. And in this letter to Pergamos as well, Jesus refers to it as first of all, he says that he refers to himself as he who has a sharp two edged sword in verse 12. But then if you look down in verse 16, he speaks of the sword of my mouth. So it's a sword that and he says it's a sword that he uses against his enemies. So what does this mean? What are we supposed to learn from this? This is the only sword that could truly be called invincible. A sword that no one could deal with or stop. Because with His mouth, as the Son of God, He is able to speak whatever He will and it is done. No enemy. can deal with a sword like that. There is no way to stop his sword. He is the one who in the beginning said, let there be light, and there was light. He said, let the dry land appear, and it appeared. Let it bring forth life, and it brought forth life. Likewise, when he speaks a word of judgment, against his adversaries, then they will be utterly helpless before him. They can't defend themselves. They can't do anything because it is a decree of the word of God that comes forth. That is a powerful, invincible sword. All he had to say is, depart from me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And like that, it is done. And no one can do anything about it. This is who is revealed to the church, how he reveals himself to the church at Pergamos. No wonder that we are taught to sing about how his enemies cringe in fear before him when he is revealed to them. You who know Christ know something about the sword of this mouth of his mouth. you have heard his voice. If you know him in a saving way, you have heard his voice and that voice brought conviction to your heart so that you said, I am the sinner. I am not right with God. And you said, God have mercy on me, a sinner. The sword, it's spoken of in the Bible as cutting down to the very depth of us, down to the very heart, down to the very core, and dividing us from what we are and showing us the reality and the truth about us. But that same sword that penetrates right down to the depth of us and exposes all that we are, is also the one who spoke and said that your sins are forgiven you. And when the one with the sword in his mouth says that, what happens? your sins are forgiven. As soon as we repent, he convicts us of our sin, you see, by the sword of his mouth, and then he speaks mercy when we repent. And that word that would bring judgment and destruction also brings mercy and salvation. Our sins are forgiven forever because he who has a sword in his mouth has spoken. This sword also brings you comfort as a believer, because by it, it will destroy all of his and our enemies. Those who try to keep us from serving God will be brought to ruin and destruction. Satan will not be able to go on molesting the children of God. He will not be able to go on opposing the kingdom of God. Satan is powerless. before the one who has the sharp two-edged sword in his mouth. And so are all the principalities and powers in the heavenly places that we contend with. Not one will stand. And so also are the greatest rulers of the world. They can look so intimidating to us, but what are they before the sword of his power, before the one who has the sharp sword in his mouth? His decree is the only decree that will stand, no other king's decree will stand, but his decree and the other kings, if their decree lines up with his decrees. Worship this one then, as we hear of him, even as we hear of him right now, we need to be worshiping him and considering his greatness and being bringing praise and honor to his name in our hearts as we hear these things. Thus did the saints at Pergamos. How do we know that? Well, look what we see next. See how he commends them for their faithfulness to him under severe persecution. In verse 13, he says to all the churches, I know your works. That's what he talked about. He's intimately acquainted with each one of us, with each one of you. I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast to my name and do not deny my faith, even in the days in which Antipas, my faithful martyr, who is killed among you, where Satan dwells. What does he mean when he refers to Pergamos as where Satan's throne is and as the place where Satan dwells? What does he mean by that? Well, there are many things that contribute to that designation of Satan's throne being there. First, that it was the capital city, as I mentioned before, of the Roman province of Asia. As such, it was the throne city, you see, of the Roman emperor. who more or less ruled the world at that time. He was the ruler of the world, the emperor of Rome. The Roman emperor's throne was then also Satan's throne. The Roman emperor was the visible ruler, and Satan was the invisible ruler behind the Roman emperor, as he is of the rebellious kings of the world. That he is the prince of the power of the air, Satan is, the spirit that now works, and the sons of disobedience. So he's at work among those leaders that are in rebellion, leading them and guiding them in their ways. Emperor worship was very prevalent here at Pergamos. They had the largest and most important temple in Asia that was dedicated to the Roman emperor. I mean, they had many, most of them had temples that were dedicated to emperors, but they had the largest and most important one. And in fact, they had three different temples that were dedicated to emperors. There was There was one to Augustus, one to Trajan, and one to Severus. So this is one of the reasons that they would be called the throne of Satan, because that was where the throne of the Roman emperor was in Asia. Second, there was a temple to Zeus, the Greek god, who is called Soter, which means savior. This is Satan's version of Christ, Savior. And they had a temple to Zeus there. And third, it was called Satan's throne because there was the worship of Asclepius, the god of healing. Now this is a very interesting situation they had there. There was a famous temple hospital there. where patients would be admitted if they were approved. They would evaluate the patient before they admitted them to the hospital. That's an interesting way for a hospital to do, isn't it? And if they were really sick and about to die, then they wouldn't accept them. And also, if they had, like a pregnant woman, they wouldn't accept her, they wouldn't allow children, because it was also a temple, and children weren't allowed in the temple. So that was their kind of approach with this pagan temple hospital. Gifts, the way it worked is you would be admitted into your room, and at the hallway, there was an altar outside of your room, and you would go and put gifts on there. And interestingly, the people who gave the best gifts, that was the one the gods healed. They would come and treat them. And the treatment would happen at night. And so the patient would be there, and then the god would come at night, and he would give you medicine and different kinds of things like that, and give you even psychology. They used psychology, too, to help bring healing to people and that kind of thing. They did all kinds of things. And they also used superstitious rites that they employed. Maybe there was even some demonic power that was going on, probably so. That was the that those were the three things that were in the city that there's others that you could mention, too, but that would make it be called the throne of Satan because the Roman Emperor's throne was there in Asia Minor because of the the temple of Zeus. who is called Savior and because of the kind of priestly thing with the hospital that was also a temple was there. No wonder then Jesus referred to Pergamos as the place where Satan's throne was and where Satan did dwell. What did this mean for the church at Pergamos? It meant severe persecution. If you're where Satan's throne is, and you're a Christian, you're going to be persecuted. Jesus expresses his strong approval of the saints at Pergamos for holding to his name and for not denying his faith. No matter what these enemies of Christ and his gospel did, they held on to Christ. They could not shake them loose from Christ. They could do anything to them, and the saints at Pergamos continued to profess the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is delighted with that. Let it sink deeply into you, because we don't know what persecution may come to us, that the Lord approves of this. He didn't say, these foolish people, why don't they compromise? Why don't they yield and use a little bit of wisdom so that they won't be persecuted by these people? He doesn't say that. He rather commends them for their strong and unrelenting faithfulness to their profession. See how he commends them for holding on even when Antipas, one of their own, was killed on account of his faith. He shed his blood for his profession of faith. and they did not weaken their profession. Jesus is so pleased with these believers that even in that day that he was killed because they did not draw back in that day. See the title that Jesus gives to honor Antipas. He says Antipas. My faithful martyr. The one who gave his life for me. We need God's grace to be able to stand. We cannot do that on our own. The people of Pergamos could not do that on their own, but our Lord delights in it when we do. Jesus delights in unwavering boldness, not that we may not hide. Jesus himself hid sometimes when he saw hostile people and he avoided them. He didn't go to the temple right away for things like that at different times, or he avoided a crowd that was coming upon him. But under no circumstances whatsoever should we ever deny that we know him if we're called to give an account. Never should we do that. Dear believer, are you being oppressed? by unbelieving family, by ridicule for your faith at work perhaps, or maybe you're accused of sinful intolerance by the people around you because of the things that you believe that are true to God. Take delight in Jesus' words here if you're being opposed. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount to rejoice when you're persecuted for his sake. Let his smiling approval that you see here To the people at Pergamos, fill your heart with joy when the world frowns on you. Who needs the world's smiles when you have the smile of the one who has a sharp two-edged sword in his mouth? He delights in our love for him. We saw that in the Song of Solomon, didn't we? That he rejoices when he sees one look of our eyes. He says, I am overcome. A look of love and affection for him. But there is also something of which Jesus greatly disapproves about of this church at Pergamos. Though they stood firmly under persecution, they were soft on worldliness. His objection is gently yet firmly expressed in verse 14 and 15. But I have a few things against you, he says, Because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. This is not a rare thing. for churches to be strong in one area and to be weak in another area and even to be strong in standing against the enemies outside the church when they are persecuted and the church is knit together and they stand shoulder to shoulder and they defend the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, but then with each other to be too soft and too effeminate because here we are standing together for our lives and somebody's compromising with the world, but hey, we're brothers, and we don't want to say anything, we don't want to offend them, we don't want to, and so there's a, this is the kind of thing that we have here at Pergamos. Some of them held to the doctrine of Balaam. What is that, what is the doctrine of Balaam? Well, we read about, he was the prophet in the Old Testament that we read about in Numbers. Balak, the king of Moab, was worried about Israel at the time that they had come out of Egypt. I mean, who wouldn't be? Are they going to mess with us? You know, they had practically ruined Egypt and now they had gone and they had conquered Sion, the king of the Amorites, and Og, the king of Bashan, not to mention what they or rather God had done to the Egyptians. So King Balak hired the prophet Balaam to curse Israel for him. Balaam was a prophet that really seemed to have communication with God. He didn't use his communication the right way. You can have gifts and not have regeneration. And that would be the thing with Balaam. He really did have prophecies that he spoke from God, but he didn't know the Lord in a saving way. So Balak hired him, said, curse Israel for me. Like, I'm worried about these people. So three attempts were made, but each time, Balaam ended up saying, he said, I've got to speak what God says. And each time, blessing came out instead of a curse. And of course, Balak was getting irritated with him. He said, You're not going to get any pay from me. You did the opposite of what I asked you to do. And he sent them on his way. He couldn't understand. Balaam couldn't understand because his gods, who were demons, you know, idols that are demons, he could manipulate them. You know, you rub them the right way, you give them the right thing, and then they'll do what you want. They'll change their mind and do what you want. And God was not going to curse Israel because he had decreed blessing to them. So Balak didn't understand that, or he didn't care for that at all, and he was irritated with Balaam. But then Balaam got an idea. And this is the doctrine of Balaam. How can we get these people, we'll get them in trouble with God. That's what we'll do. will entice them because they're weak. He would now get paid handsomely by King Balak. So he counseled Balak to send his most beautiful temple prostitutes to visit the camp of Israel and to flirt with the men. And you know, the camps was nearby, they were near each other. He said, invite the men to come and feast at our idol feasts. And don't give yourself to them unless they come to the idol feasts. And then you can, as a temple prostitute, you know, ritual fertility rites, then they can enjoy the pleasure. Balaam knew that if he succeeded, it would bring God's displeasure upon his people, the Israelites, and that God would then chasten them. God himself would, in a sense, curse them and make them weak before their enemies, which is what God always did when Israel would turn away. They would become weak before their enemies and be overrun by them. Balak was very, I mean, Balaam was very clever. He knew how these things worked. He understood. He said, if I can corrupt these people, then yeah, they're going to be weak. You know, that's interesting because that's exactly the kind of thing that Margaret Sanger did with our culture, seeing many people that feared God. If we can corrupt them and get them involved in fornication, sexual immorality, break down the family, they'll become weak. And then we can control people and we can manipulate them and all this kind of stuff. And that was her agenda with other people. A spoken agenda. This isn't some secret agenda. This was their agenda. And what happened? They were able to entice men to all kinds of corruption and immorality. And so here we are, weak. We're powerless. We don't we can't stand up for anything because men think they get strong when they go and this woman over here and get this woman. They get weak when they do that. No, you need to be where we in God's way that a man takes a woman that he loves and cares for is his wife and builds a family with her. So Balak, you see, and now had a way to weaken the people. This is the doctrine of Balaam, what he taught. Well, at Pergamos, there are also some among them who are saying that there was no harm in believers going to feast with the pagans at the idol feast, because what is an idol? We've served the true God, so we can go in and feast with them, even though the decree at Jerusalem in Acts 15, they had said, don't do that. And they also even went further and said, we're being too hard. For young men about fornication, that kind of thing, we shouldn't be, so we should lighten up a little bit. Nobody's gonna wanna be in the church if we really uphold these standards. Perhaps they said that Christians would turn off their family from the gospel if there were too much severity, that they needed to show that Christians have fun. They also would warn against expecting men, you see, to be overly chaste. The prevailing custom in the culture was described by Demosthenes, who said, quote, we have courtesans, he's talking about men, we have courtesans for the sake of pleasure. We have concubines for the sake of daily copulation and we have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately and of having faithful guardians of our household affairs. That was the Greek philosophy. That was the prevailing cause. Nobody thought badly of that. This is just the understood way that even moralists among the Greeks would say, this is a good thing. Make sure you have your wife where you have legitimate, that's where the legitimate children comes in. We want to build family. They at least knew that. We don't know that in our society. But they at least knew that. But then you have these other ones that you have for pleasure. And this was the prevailing sentiment. So you think about that. We have a culture, you see, that comes from more of Christian roots. And so we have more, we have more opposition. But they didn't have that in their culture. So now they're Christians and they're told, you know, fornication is out of the question. Only marriage. This is a new thing. So the Nicolaitans were the group in the early church who taught what is here called the doctrine of Balaam. That was their teaching. that Christians must not be so severe, let people have some fun, let them live normal lives among the culture, among the people, let them enjoy themselves, let people eat things, sacrifice to idols, and let them have a little bit of laxity here with their morals. Jesus makes it clear, okay, what are we saying here? Jesus shows us what he thinks about this stuff. Jesus makes it clear that he does not at all approve of that doctrine. It can be painted in all kinds of colors and it's presented in all kinds of ways by church leaders and all kinds of people. We see it in our day and it is fluff. It is not pleasing to our Lord Jesus Christ. He rebukes the angel, the minister at Pergamos, those who ministered there for allowing people in the church that held to this teaching. Jesus tells them, as he told the Ephesians, that he hates the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. He doesn't say, I don't like it very much, or it's not very good. He says, I hate it. He commended the Ephesians for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which he said to them, I also hate. Remember that? We saw that back in the first letter. He does not want moral laxity and looseness in his church. We are a holy people. And the scriptures say, let not fornication be once named among you as the saints. We are a holy people and it is not acceptable to God. The doctrine of the Nicolaitans is alive and well in the churches of North America today. We run into it all the time. Believers who see nothing wrong. with getting drunk or getting high, nothing wrong with carousing, nothing wrong with having sex outside of marriage. They will speak of people being too prudish, of thinking that Christians should, acting like Christians should be monks and nuns and have no fun, that Christians are too uptight. They'll give you all the lines and make it sound plausible. But what happens to those who allow such things? Their faith grows cold. They grow indifferent to God or they embrace idle effeminate versions of God. They have no joy in the true living God, the one who has a sword coming out of his mouth. They have a God that doesn't have a sword. They have a different God that they worship. They lose their ability to stand for the truth and for their Lord. How many times do we see it repeated in history? How many times do we have to see it repeated in history to recognize that it's true? Every time that people follow the doctrine of Balaam, It weakens God's people. Every time that's happened in history, it's never an exception. The mainline denominations like I grew up in, what did they do? They became lax about marriage, allowing easy divorce. They became lax about fornication. It didn't matter if you had sex before you got married. They became lax about adultery. If you had an extra marital affair, it wasn't a big deal. Where are they now? Do they love the living God? They do not. They don't even have the gospel anymore. And it didn't even take that long for them to go down. You see, now they preach Jesus as only a man, not God. That ministers can be gay or straight, it doesn't matter. That all religions are essentially the same, there's no difference. And I agree with them, there's no difference between their religion and the other religions, only true Christianity is distinct from them. Jesus declares that He will deal with us according to what we do with the doctrine of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans. He tells them in us that if we tolerate this teaching that he hates, he will fight against us with the sword of his mouth, that invincible sword that I already spoke about. See verse 16. Repent or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them, people that hold the doctrine of Nicolaitans, with the sword of my mouth. In other words, He will decree chastisements and punishments upon them. Fornicators and adulterers God will judge, Hebrews 13 verse 4 says. These punishments can be quite severe, sickness and death. And even worse, for those who are not genuine believers, they can involve turning them over to idolatry, giving them up to a reprobate mind where they don't even know the difference between right and wrong. That is exactly what happened in United Church and to the mainline Presbyterian Church that I grew up in and we could name others. They have no discernment at all now. Worst of all, they have entirely lost the gospel, as I said. We need to stand together as a church against moral laxity, against fornication and idolatry. Do not let it be named among you. It will prove to be the ruin of us all if we tolerate it. We are to be holy because God is holy. We can only do that by continuing in his grace. See what Jesus promises to those who overcome. Verse 17. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it. What is this? What is this hidden manna? It is the bread of God. The bread of God that came down from heaven to give life to the world. To feed Israel in the wilderness was the type, and the Lord Jesus is the fulfillment of the type. It was Jesus, the true bread, that came down from heaven to give us eternal life. It is hidden because it is spiritual bread that cannot be seen with our eyes. The manna could be seen. The spiritual bread that we receive is bread that cannot be seen. We feed on Christ spiritually to give us eternal life. He gives us life by bringing us to God so that instead of growing cold and dead in our relationship with God, as we will if we feed at the world's altars, if we embrace the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, we grow vibrant. We grow full of joy in the Lord. We grow full of obedience. and courage before the Lord. The Nicolaitans doctrine is deceptive. It promises joy, but it ends up robbing those who embrace it of all joy. Satan constantly tries to dupe us with the thought that following Christ wholeheartedly will harm us, that it will kill us. And in fact, following Christ wholeheartedly is what will make you alive. What is this white stone? He mentions with our name on it, a new name written on it. Well, we don't know for sure. There's a number of ways that they used white stones in that day for different things, and there's different ideas about what it might be. But most likely, and at least this is consistent with the analogy of scripture, the analogy of faith, most likely the reference here is to the white stones that were given to people who are innocent. in court, in a trial. They would give them a white stone with their name on it to say this person was declared to be innocent. They could show their stone. And another use that's similar to that, but yeah, a different kind of situation, is a victor in the games. When you won, it was like a trophy. You would get a white stone with your name in it that declared you were the winner. So a person is given a new name, you see, when they marry, or when they're adopted. If you adopt children, they take your name. They're named by you. If you get married, then you take your husband's name. When we come to Christ, we are his betrothed bride and are adopted as sons of his father. We become known as Christians now. At the last day, there will be a great wedding. And all who have overcome will be presented to Christ as a bride without spot or blemish. What about the ones that didn't overcome? They will be cast out into the lake of fire. We will take His name and we will belong to Him forever and ever and live in His house of glory. The Lord tells us that we will be called by His name. Those who are cut off do not know this name. They don't understand this name. Only those who receive the name know what it is to be named by the true and living God. The world does not understand it, but we will cherish it forever and ever. Our maker is our husband. Already we are betrothed to him now in this life and on that day when he appears, that will be the day when the bride is presented and and we're brought to him forever and ever to live in his house. This is our reward. If we are a chaste virgin during this betrothal period, that means that we have eyes only for him. That means that our passion is to please him, our husband. That means that we lean on him to sustain us and to keep us and to bring us to glory. We do not rely on ourselves like we saw in the Song of Solomon. The bride leans on her beloved who brings her up out of the wilderness, out of the wilderness of this world to live in his house. He fetches her and he brings her back home with him to glory. Please stand and let's call in the name of the Lord. Oh Lord, our God, we come before you, oh Lord, with reverence. You are the Lord of glory, the one who has a sharp two-edged sword that comes out of your mouth, that judges your enemies and that decrees blessing to your people. We thank you, O Lord, that you have revealed yourself in this way to us so that we can know you as you are. We know, Lord, that we might be uncomfortable with some of these things. We might want you to be one that didn't have a sword in your mouth. But we praise you, O Lord, that you are not what we want. You are what you are. You are the glorious Lord. If we were to make you according to our desires, it would not be a God that anyone could worship, not a God that would be worthy of worship. But when we receive the revelation of the true God, then it is something that is very wonderful and marvelous and very glorious. And Lord, we pray that we would grow up into that appreciation of that glory. If we don't appreciate it, that we would grow to appreciate it. Father, for it is glorious. And if we don't recognize that there's something wrong with us, not something wrong with what you have revealed, not something wrong with what you are. So we pray, Lord, that you would help us to see that this is a marvelous thing, that you are such a God as you have shown yourself to be. We pray, Lord, that we would respond to you the way the people of Pergamos did when it came to persecution, that we would be bold and courageous for your name, that we would stand fast in the truth, that we would not waver in doubt and unbelief. That we would be bold as a lion. And Father, we pray that we would not deny our Savior, even when called to give an account before those who are powerful in this world, who are sitting on Satan's throne, who are empowered by the prince of the power of the air that works in the sons of disobedience. We pray that we would not. fear before them because we have at our side walking among us the one who has a sharp two-edged sword and who speaks a word and there they melt. Father, we pray though also that you would guard us from the way that the church has gone so much in our society. It seems like every generation there's another group of churches that once professed the truth that become soft and effeminate and began to go down the pathway of of compromise with the world and and began to embrace the things of the world and and become weak and and helpless before you and lose the gospel. We pray, Lord, that you would guard us, that we would not go in that direction, that we would stand for the truth and that we would uphold your standard of truth and righteousness. Lord, we need your grace to be able to do this. We also pray that you would have mercy on us, O Lord, for we know that we have sinned against you. And were it not for the Lord Jesus Christ and his saving work, we would be without hope. We would be those who would be doomed to destruction with no remedy. But we thank you that in him that we have been justified and declared righteous. Father, I'm sure that all of us can look at ourselves and we can see many ways that we are coming short and that we certainly have come short. Grant to us repentance, Lord. Grant to us the forgiveness of sins. Help us not to brush off the things that are wrong about us, but to embrace them, because only when we embrace them can we really confess them, and only when we really confess them can we find mercy and be forgiven. So we pray that you would help us, Lord, help us to come before you honestly and sincerely. And may we receive the blessing of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was alive and who died and who is now alive again, who has the keys of death and Hades, who will bring about judgment at the last day. And everyone will go the way that he has that he declares in that day. Oh, Lord Jesus, thank you that you have been merciful to us and that you have come to bring salvation to us. We honor you and we lift up your name. We pray in your name. Amen. Or. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.