Revelation chapter 2 in verse 12, and to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, My faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells, 14. 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, 15. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans, 16. Therefore repent, if not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. Verse 17, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone. with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it." Now, as we looked at last time, we saw that Jesus addressed the evangelists of Pergamum and indicating that he was the Christ of the word using the sharp two-edged sword and that he possessed it. It not only came forth from his mouth as in chapter one, verse 16, but he possessed it. It was his. He has the sharp two-edged sword. Okay. So, and then verse 13, we saw that Jesus is intimately aware of the deceitful and destructive place where they live. You're also aware of their strong grip upon his name and his faith. And that was rooted in that Greek root word, krateo, which means the seas retained with a strong grip. And that's their faith in Christ. It was many there who had a faith in his name and faith in who he was. And also, faith in his faith, in Christ's faith, imputed righteousness, that's important. That also is an important portion of that verse. And one of the things that I didn't talk about so very much last week is that they were faithful, Jesus encouraged them to be faithful unto death. even as Antipas was. There are some that believe that it might have been some commentators that make mention that possibly it was Antipater. I don't believe that. If we take his name from the Greek Antipas, might have been, and I could be wrong on this, is anti means in place of and pos means all in Greek, so possibly in place of all. He was one of the pastors at the time and he was maybe executed rather than executing the entire congregation of believers. But anyway, he was faithful to the end, and so that is really even the most important portion of that, and that's what Jesus encourages the believers to do, to be faithful to the end. In verses 14 to 15, we should be against whatever Jesus is against. As in Ephesus, he hated the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Ephesians hated the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which Jesus also hated. But the deeds of the Nicolaitans, the deeds came forth more than likely from the doctrines. So these deeds coming forth from the doctrines and also the doctrine of Balaam undermining the faith of God's people for selfish gain as well as the, you know, causing them to eat food sacrificed to idols and to sexual immorality. And they held to it. They were holding to those doctrines using the same Greek root word kroteo and we looked at that last time. they gripped it with a strong grip, just as strong as what we should be faithful in and holding to his name and to Christ's faith. Verse 16, we saw the reward for failing the the repercussions and the recompense for failing to repent is that we lose our stewardship and responsibility of exercising discernment and uncovering the deception of these doctrines. And so Jesus will have to take, will have to, you know, to take care of that. And so the question I ask that is, who is this addressed to? The messenger of the church or to the churches? And the answer is, of course, yes. It's to the messenger, it's to the churches, it's to every individual that may help Christ's church. And to the other churches. Verse 17, which is where we left off, which we're picking up in, I'll ask you to turn to, well, I read it again from the King James Version, but I ask you to turn to Exodus Chapter 16, and we'll look at the origin of manna itself, but it says in the King James Version, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, to him that overcometh Will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone? Verse 17, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches, to him that overcometh will I give the eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. And so basically the King James Version and the English Standard Version, except for the THs at the end of some of the words, it's pretty much the same. So as we look at chapter 16 of Exodus, This is where we encounter the manna for the first time. Children of Israel were grumbling, complaining, wishing they went back to Egypt. And God, Jehovah God, not only is going to give them manna to eat, and we'll pick it up in verse 13, but he's going to give them quail to eat in the evening as well. In the evening, it says in verse 13, quail came up and covered the camp. And in the morning dew lay around the camp, verse 14. And when the dew had gone up, there was on the face of the wilderness a fine flake like thing, fine as frost on the ground, verse 15. When the people of Jethreel saw it, they said to one another, what is it? For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, it is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat. And the word, when they said, what is it? They said, manhu. So the word for mana is, what is it? Manhu. And interestingly, see man means what, ma actually means what. And man taking on the subject form as opposed to an interrogative or a question, instead of being ma, which is what, by taking the subject form, nun is the letter that's used instead of he, so instead of ma it becomes man. And it has taken on a masculine. It's who means either he, or it masculine. He means either she or it feminine because we have feminine subjects in Hebrew and we have masculine subjects in Hebrew. Just like the Spanish language, just like several languages around the world, there's masculine and feminine. So the word for manna is, what is it in Hebrew? And we get our word manna from the Greek. It's manna in Greek in John chapter 6 and also in Revelation. And that's why we call it manna, it's because of the Greek. And so in verse 16 it says, this is what the Lord has commanded, gather of it, each one of you, as much as he can eat. You shall take an omer according to the number of the persons that each of you has in his tent. Verse 17, and the people of Yisrael did so. They gathered some more, some less. But when, in verse 18, when they measured it with an omer, Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Each of them gathered as much as he could eat. Verse 19. And Moses said to them, let no one leave of it over till the morning. Verse 20. But they did not listen to Moses. Some left part of it till the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was angry with them. Morning by morning they gathered it. In verse 21, they gathered it, each of as much as he could eat. But when the sun grew hot, it melted. Verse 6, or verse 22. On the sixth day, they gathered twice as much bread. Two omers each. And when all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, he said to them, this is what the Lord has commanded. Tomorrow is a day of solemn rest. a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake, and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over lay aside to be kept till the morning. So they laid it aside till the morning, as Moses commanded them, and it did not stink, and there were no worms in it. Moses said, eat it today, for today is the Sabbath. to the Lord. Today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it. It says in verse 26, but on the seventh day, which is a Sabbath, there will be none. Verse 27, on the seventh day, Some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, how long will you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws? See, the Lord, verse 29, see the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, on the sixth day, he gives you bread for two days. remain each of you in place, let no one go out of his place on the seventh day." So the people rested on the seventh day. And this is before it was actually codified, if you will, because Moses wouldn't receive, the people wouldn't receive the Sabbath day as one of the Ten Commandments until Exodus 20. However, what this does show is that the commandments of God are eternal. that even though they weren't given on the tablets of stone until that time, until a little bit later, that it still exists. So verse 31, now the house of Yisrael called its name Manah or Manhu. What is it? They called it, what is it? And it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Moses said, this is what the Lord has commanded. Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generation so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt. And so they put it into a jar and so forth, put it into the ark of the testimony. And so it was hidden, covered under the mercy seat that was made with pure gold. But what we get from this is, I'm going to ask you to turn to John chapter 6, that the manna, the manna is an exercise in, it shows several things, and I'm going to try to keep it short here so that we can get to the hidden manna, but it is an example of of our nourishment and even our work for being nourished once we are saved as God's people. We are saved and it is like as in I've mentioned before that our stewardship with money, for example, money is just a value marker. It has no intrinsic value in it whatsoever. It represents the value of things that have worth or value. But the stewardship isn't in the money itself or even in, say, the cattle that one owns or whatever is of value or the gold or the silver or anything like that. Those are only tools that God has provided And so that in the practice of using it to pay our bills and to buy the things that we need, etc. and to budget our money, that we can be good stewards of what is most valuable, the gospel. And likewise, so is food. Though it has a secondary, you know, the money has a secondary value of being able to pay our bills, etc. That's actually secondary because it teaches us to be better stewards of that which is most valuable, and that's Christ. That's the gospel. Likewise, food. It has a secondary value of nourishing us that we eat, but we can go 40 days without food. We're commanded to fast. That's why sandwiched in between commanding us to fast when Jesus says, when you fast, And then he says that the heathen look after all these things, what you'll eat, what you'll wear, et cetera. And he says in Matthew 6 verse 33, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. That's what's most important. So the daily bread, we recognize is three things that we need daily. Obviously I don't need food daily because if I'm fasting, I don't need the food. But when I'm not fasting, then I'll have food, but it wouldn't be daily then, would it? I might fast for a week. But what I can't live without as a Christian, I can't live without Christ. I can't live without His Word. I can't live without His Holy Spirit. I need to be nourished daily by That's what I need. In fact, I need more than just one time daily. I need Christ's Word constantly. I need to remember that Jesus quotes Deuteronomy in the Temptations and he says, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So God's Word is my spiritual food. Christ himself is why I ask you to turn to John chapter 6 is our spiritual food and then likewise is the Holy Spirit because when he teaches us to pray, when he teaches the disciples to pray in Luke chapter 11 In making a commentary on the need of the Holy Spirit, he says that a visitor comes to the house and the man gets up and he goes to the neighbor's house and knocks on the neighbor's door and says, hey, get up. I know it's late, but I have a visitor and I need bread. I need bread. And the guy says, look, I remember my children, my family were in bed. I don't, you know, don't make me get out of bed. He says, please, please. And he keeps on knocking until the guy says he's not going to stop knocking until I get up and give him bread. And so he gives him bread. And Jesus says, how much more will the heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask? And so we see the bread. Bread is the Holy Spirit as well. And those are most needed. Those are most needful. So Jesus explains, after he has broken the bread for the 5,000, he's 5,000 men, women and children too, 15 or 20,000 people, he's probably fed with the miracle fish and the wonder bread. and then he walks on water after he's dismissed everybody, he walks on water, gets into the boat with the disciples, and then the next day when he's in Capernaum, all the people come to him on the next day, and they ask him, Rabbi, when did you come here, in verse 25, and verse 26 is where we'll pick it up, and he says, Jesus said, truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate, your fill of the loaves. Verse 27, do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal." Again, Jesus is saying the same thing that he said that he presents in the Sermon on the Mount. The food is not what's most important. The truth of the gospel is. Eternal salvation is more important. Christ is the treasurer of heaven. Verse 28, then they said to him, what must we do to be doing the work of God, the works of God? Verse 29, Jesus answered them, this is the work of God that you believe in him whom he has sent. Verse 30, so they said to him, then what sign do you do 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 from heaven to eat. And verse 32, Jesus said, then said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. The manna was only an expressive picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the supply. and God's constant supply. He supplied them and they ate of it. But how much more should we eat of the Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. How blessed is the man who trusts in him. In verse 33, for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. Verse 34, they said to him, sir, give us this bread always. Give us this bread constantly. Verse 35, Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I've come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And verses 39, And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of the Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life. Then I will raise him up on the last day. Now, Jesus said he would give them hidden manna. And what is that hidden manna? When we see it's the supply of Christ from his word. It's a supply of His Word. It's hidden manna. It's something that even in our most digging, we can't get up. It's hidden because the regular manna was a supply. They just went out and gathered it, and that's what we do. He's given us His Word, the 66 books that we know as our Bible, written over 1,500 years by over 40 authors or so. That Word speaks of Christ, as Jesus said, You search the Scriptures, you think you have eternal life in there, they testify of me in John 5.39. So in verse 17 of chapter 2, remember, it says that I will give some of the hidden manna to the one who conquers. I will give some of the hidden manna. The nourishment of Christ, the problem that they had in Pergamos, in Pergamum, the problem in Pergamum was that there were those who were going off and seizing doctrines that were not, that was not faith in his name. They did not hold fast to his name and hold fast to his faith, the imputed righteousness of Christ, the imputed faith of Christ. Christ's faithful walk was what was most important for us. They were going on to do other things with the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and with these two things and gripping them and seizing them. One objection might come up with the hidden man and well if I start digging in and getting this or if I get these I might interpret it any which way I We might have a free-for-all. For one thing, the context. We have to remember the context. They were already digging into doctrines they shouldn't be digging into. So the hidden manna wasn't the cause of it. That's the solution. For us to have discernment, we need to see Christ. Remember like the counterfeit, the illustration of the counterfeit money. You don't look at counterfeits to recognize counterfeit money. You look at the real thing. The more you look at the real thing, the more you'll recognize a counterfeit when it comes along. The false doctrines are easily discernible, much more easily discernible and understood as being false. When we look at Christ, when we see Christ and Christ will give us, it says, I will give some of the hidden manna. He's not going to give all of it, but he'll give us enough to discern so that we could be stewards and responsible, have stewardship and responsibility of exercising discernment and uncovering deception. And that was what was needed. That's the first part. However, so that we don't get, when we start getting an understanding of things that people, other people might not see, the corruption that still remain in our mortal flesh will cause us to not be so loving. And this is what the White Stone is about, I believe. I think a reference for that, if you'll turn with me to Galatians chapter 4, this has to do with adoption and acquittal and so forth. Why? Well, let me read it again. Verse 17 from the King James Version, to him that overcometh. Remember now, this is given to him who overcomes. This is the ones who would stay steadfast. upon who have seized grip on his name and on his faith, Christ's name and on Christ's faith. So those are overcomers, or he that overcometh, or as the English Standard Version says, we're conquerors. And so he gives us the manna because we're faithful to him, we are steadfast upon him. And so to be able to discern and help a brother out that might be erring and moving into that area, that's why we get hidden manna. We will be given a white stone also because this will be needed so that we don't get a big head, we don't get puffed up with pride or even start becoming a little bit legalistic with others, with brothers and sisters. So with Galatians chapter 4, one of the things that we look at here is from verses 4 through 7, it says, But when the fullness of the time had come, Galatians 4 and verse 4, when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son born of a woman, born under the law. verse five, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons, verse six. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, verse seven. So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. You see, this white stone, we have two words here. We have Lucas, Lukas which means light or white. There are some that believe that Lukas might be almost translucent. But it also means white. And then stone, which is sephos, sephos. It's very close and similar to Peter's name, stone. It's a little stone, like a pebble. And Peter's name from 1 Corinthians 1, verse 12, even from where he's called, even actually in Matthew, where it uses the Greek, Petras. Petras is the equivalent of Cephas. Cephas is Simon Peter's name in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 12, and it means little stone or a pebble. This may be a sign of is the sign of acquittal for the Roman Empire. Because John Gill states this in his commentary, is that the Romans in judgment, here's the quote, quote, the Romans in judgment used to give their suffrages for condemnation by casting black stones into the urn and for absolution, white stones, end quote. So for acquittal or condemnation, it was white stone for acquittal or absolution, and it was a black stone for being guilty or condemnation. Now, if that's what it's talking about, which it might seem to be, it would present the truth of our salvation. But he gives to us a white stone. He gives to us who hold fast a white stone that has a name, a new name written, which no man knows, saving he that receives it. Now that's the little mystery here that's going on. At first, I believe that this is reflective of adoptive sons. He's not going to give it to somebody who's not saved. This is a representation, but we see the name changes even with Cephas by the white stone. All the way back in John chapter 1, that when Andrew and John went to get Simon, he was called Peter from that point. And then, you know, he reinforces it later in Matthew 16, I call you Peter. And upon this rock, Petra, a large immovable rock, I will build my church." So we see that. We see name changes in Paul. Paulus means small or insignificant, but it means small in Greek. He takes on a Greek name, Paulus. And then we see Abraham going all the way back to Abraham. His name was Abraham, or his name was Avram, and his name was changed to Avraham, from mighty father to father of many nations or father of multitudes. We see name changes with Jacob, Yaakov, which means heel catcher. or supplanter, his name was changed to Yisrael, which means governed by God. And we see many different types of name changes throughout the Scriptures. And likewise, for us to have a name change that only we know Why is it that no man knows except for us? It teaches us there that we should be gracious and that only the person—let me back it up with this. Whereas I've said time and again, if somebody has a confession of faith, I take it at face value, you know, unless they give me any other evidence otherwise that they're not saved, just like those holding to the doctrines of Balaam or the doctrines of the Nicolaitans. But they say they're saved and I take it at face value so that I may extend grace to them. When I recognize that I don't know your assurance of salvation, Remember 1 John 5.12, whoever has a son has life. If you have the Son, you have life. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. But see, if Christ has saved you, only you can be assured of your salvation. I can't be assured for you. and you can't be assured for me. So having this hidden manna to be able to discern and understand and seeing Christ more and more here and there as he gives it to us so that we can discern, we can know him more and recognize that which is false. But it also walks hand in hand with with grace and fellowship and loving the brethren. And so somebody with a confession of faith is the grace that we receive from Christ to help us to know our assurance in salvation, that he's given us a white stone with a name that only I know, that he calls me by name. And that's figurative because, you know, my name hasn't changed or anything that I know of, but I do know that I have the Son. And so this is reflective of that. I do know that I am saved and I see my assurance of salvation in the Scripture. But likewise for somebody else now, if they're starting to be moved along with You know, as the hidden manna is given to me by God's grace, the Lord Jesus gives us some hidden manna so that we may be able to discern correctly and so forth, that we recognize also that we don't lord it over anyone. We are not given that liberty. In fact, we're actually told not to. The kings of the earth lord it over others. It's not so with us. And so here is a place of grace within that. So that's all we have in finishing this up. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Most blessed and gracious God and Father in Jesus' name and for his sake, we thank you for the opportunity that we can look at the seven churches in Revelation and the lessons that there are there. And that we ask that we may see Christ always from all of Scripture. And though there are elements of the gospel that speak of his soon coming and our eyes should be on Christ so that we'll know when he comes, may we see Christ more than trying to see when he's coming and just trust that he is going to come and that it's going to be soon. We love you, Lord, and thank you for all you've given us and ask that we can hide these treasures in our heart. And like the hidden manna, I look forward to you giving that to us in Jesus' name. For his sake, amen.