Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. Greetings from your brothers and sisters in Wayne, New Jersey. We are rejoicing with you at God's goodness and the things he's doing in your midst and raising up this work right in this heart of this needy city of Kearney. And we're praying with you for the Lord's blessing, granting you this building and that he would continue to supply all your needs according to his riches and glory. If you would turn with me to Revelation chapter two, Revelation chapter two. In Wayne for the past few months, we have been studying the letters written to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. These are letters that dictated by Jesus to his servant, John, that were to be delivered and read in each respective church. And then Jesus gives his evaluation of the spiritual condition of each church. So they contain commendations, encouragements, reproofs, exhortations, and promises of rewards to those who overcome. And all of them contain this exhortation, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, plural. So these letters were written to instruct the church in every age, in order for us to examine ourselves and to see if our life and doctrine are pleasing to the Lord. by way of general observation, the letters are bookended with the letter to Ephesus and the letter to Laodicea. And each of these, what's important for us to note is that the letter to Ephesus emphasizes love for Christ. And the letter to Laodicea emphasizes zeal for Christ. So what that tells us is that we must Everything we do in between, everything that the Lord requires of us, whether that be pursuing sound doctrine, holiness of life, persevering in the face of persecution, Our service, our love for the brethren, all must be, all must do, we must do all these things with the motive of fervent love for the Lord Jesus Christ. We can be busy. We can be busy for the Lord. We can have the right doctrine and everything. cross our T's, dot our I's, but miss a very foundational element, our sincere, fervent love for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we must keep those things in mind and zeal for Him. We must not lose sight of that or else we would lose the very heart of what it means to be Christian or to be a Christian church. The last few times I preached in Karni, we covered the letters to the churches of Ephesus and Smyrna. And today we will be looking at the church of Pergamon. From this letter, we learn that the church must wage the war on two fronts. It must wage the war on two fronts. One is it must face up to the opposition to all the persecution that this church was facing. It must face to it and remain steadfast in the faith. That's the one front on the outside. But there's another front that the church must fight, must wage a war. And that front was internal. And that was to maintain pure life and pure doctrine. Pure life and purity of life and doctrine. It is not either or, brothers and sisters. It is both and. This church was faithful in one, but as we see, they failed in the other. So let's read verses 12, chapter two, verses 12 to 17, chapter two of Revelation. 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. But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans, Therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you soon and 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 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." Amen. Let's pray. O Lord Jesus, we come desiring, Lord, to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church today. We desire, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts, you would expose where we are weak, where we need to be strengthened, where we need to be corrected. Help us to receive the correction by your grace. Help us to receive the encouragement as well from your word. I pray that this church, the church in Kearney, would wage the war, Lord, well and be faithful, Father, both in resisting the persecution that may come upon them as well as remain faithful in doctrine and purity of life. Bless this word to that end. For your name's sake, we pray. Amen. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, we'll begin with a brief historical sketch of the city to help us see what was the culture like where the church was. What was the culture like at the time where this was written, when the letter was written? Pergamum was about 40 to 55 miles northeast of Smyrna. Now, remember, this is kind of starts from Ephesus here, and it goes up to Smyrna, Pergamum, and then it cuts over. It's kind of like in a sort of a circle or fashion. It goes up and then it comes down, and then the Church of Laodicea is to the east, southeast of Ephesus. So it said that this was kind of like the postal route in which the postman would take the mail, it would go through that route. It was a city steeped in idolatry. It was full of temples and altars to various gods. We are told that Pergamum was considered the center of worship for four of the major cults of the day – Zeus, Athena, Dionysus, and Aeschylus. Askilpios. Askilpios. The shrine of Askilpios, the god of healing, also known as the Savior God and the Pergamon God, attracted people from all over the world. More importantly was the cult of Rome and Caesar, which seemed to thrive there. Back in 29 BC, a temple for Augustus was there, which was the first provincial temple built in honor of a living emperor. So you could see there, you know, when the Lord says you are where Satan's throne is, you see what he means now. We'll see how that plays out. In his address, Jesus identifies himself with these words. He says, the word of him who has the sharp, two-edged sword. This description of Christ comes right from the vision of Jesus that John saw in chapter 1, verse 16. In the scripture, the sword has two representations. One, it is the word of God. The two-edged sword that we read about in Hebrews 4.12, that examines the thoughts and intents of the heart and exposes our sins. Remember when Peter preached at Pentecost, and it says that they were pricked to the heart, like somebody took a sword and stabbed them in the heart. And they said, men and brethren, what shall we do to be saved? Secondly, it is a representation of judgment, as we read in Revelation 9, 15, and 21, how Christ will strike down the nations and slay them with the sword of His mouth. thus showing that Christ has power over life and death, not Caesar or the proconsul, which is meant to bring both comfort and warning to the believers in Pergamum and throughout the church age. As in other letters, Christ proceeds to give his assessment of the church based on his intimate knowledge. So here he begins to tell them things that he appreciates, that he loves about them, that he commends about what they're doing, and things that he is not happy with. So he begins his assessment at this point. He says, I know where you dwell. Where Satan's throne is. Verse 13, I know where you dwell. Jesus is intimately acquainted with all that we are going through, brothers and sisters. He knows where we live, meaning he knows the circumstances of our lives. What are you, what you are going through? In your mind, you may think nobody cares about what's going on in my life right now. Nobody even knows what's going on in my life right now. Where Jesus says, I know where you dwell. I know what's going on in your life. And I care. And I care. These words are meant to encourage these believers who are in the midst where Satan's throne is. And persecution. And they just lost Antipas, their fellow believer. They're discouraged. They're downcast. And Jesus comes in and He says, I know where you're going through. And I'm with you. I'm with you. Don't think that I don't know what's happening. Don't think that I've forsaken you. Don't let this shake you. I'm in control. The sword that you're fearful of is in my hand. Nothing can happen to you apart from my will. Be encouraged, believer. He's always ready to aid us and to minister to us. He is our high priest and is intimately acquainted with our lives. He's not sitting off in a distance. Yes, he's in heaven, but he is here amongst us. He's here amongst us. I will never leave you or forsake you, he says. And we need to take comfort. We don't see him physically, but he is very much in our midst. He knows we may be thinking, what's going to happen to this building? Oh, is our hope in the Lutheran council and what they decide? No, our hope is in the Lord. He's in control, brothers and sisters. He's not shaken. He's not worried, thinking, OK, I wonder what they're going to decide. No, no. The decision has already been made. You see, He knows the end from the beginning. So you can rest in Him and be assured. He knows your situation, fully aware of it. He's got it all under control. You just need to rest, wait upon Him for Him to accomplish His purposes. He says, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, where Satan dwells. Satan is not only inhabiting Pergamum, But He rules Pergamum. He rules Pergamum. Remember, He says where His throne is, where His rule is, where His dominion is. Now, Satan has thrones and kingdoms. or a kingdom. He's referred to as the prince of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air in Ephesians 2 to John 12 31. Under his command is an army of evil spirits described as the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realm. We see that in Ephesians 6 12. Now, of course, we know, brothers and sisters, that Satan himself is not ruling as he is a spirit being, but he is ruling vicariously through political and religious leaders, as we will see, God willing, when we get there in Revelation 12 and 13. So as Rome was the center of Satan's activity in the West, Pergamum was the center of his activity in the East. We also know brethren that Christ has defeated Satan and his host on the cross and made public show of them. That Satan has been cast down. Christ now reigns over every power and principality. But though defeated, though Satan is defeated, and knowing that his days are numbered, yet he is active in the world today, fighting against God and his people, and deceiving men to believe lies about themselves and about God. There are places in the world today, brothers and sisters, where Satan has set up his throne. When we see evil regimes, terror reigning like in North Korea, and dictators of all kinds, or systems of government that are atheistic like China and communist nations. or democratic systems of government which are led by non-God-fearing politicians, educators, judges, and entertainment industry like our own country here or other Western countries. Keep in mind who is the one empowering them. It is none other than Satan himself. Those anti-God laws that are passed are more from none other than the Prince of Darkness and Satan himself. In the same way that Satan has come to steal, to kill, and to destroy, they are doing his bidding by killing innocent children in the womb and legitimizing that which God has condemned. confusing children's minds and putting a stumbling block before them by destroying institutions of marriage and calling evil good and good evil. These are empowered by Satan himself. Don't let anyone fool you. And do you know, do you know what institution Satan hates the most? The church. Why? Why? Because the gospel is the most powerful tool against this enemy, and he knows it. That is why. So how did these believers do under Satan's rule? Did they live in fear? Did they go cower and go into hiding? Did they renounce Christ and give homage to Caesar? Look with me at verse 13 again. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet, 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. Praise God, these believers stood the test. They did not cave in. They did not just buckle down, go into fear, go into hiding, trepidation. No, he says, you kept the faith. You stayed strong. Praise God for these believers in Pergamum. He says, you hold fast to my name. His name here is a reference to his person and work as the incarnate son of God and savior of the world. So to hold fast to his name means to hold firm to our conviction as to who Christ is. Remember what they, you can imagine this is the scene. Antipas, this martyr, would have been brought right to the pro council. who is supposed to be the chief priest of the imperial court. And before the procouncil, there is a bust of Caesar, and there is an altar burning with incense. Antipas would be brought before the procouncil. The procouncil says, now Antipas, you know I have power to release you. All you need to do is sprinkle some incense on this altar and say that Caesar is Lord. That's all. And you can go home. You're free to go. That's all you need to do. But Antipas knew this. If he was to do that, he would be denying his Savior. And he would not. He said, Jesus is Lord. Christ is Kyrios. He is Lord. And of course, away with him. An example of these first century believers have been energizing the persecuted church for the past 19 centuries. Here are a couple of testimony of believers who are suffering at the hands of a militant Islamic group called Boka Haram in North Nigeria. Northern Nigeria, when a pastor says, I know that persecution is part of the Christian life. We who are Christians will suffer if this doesn't happen to us. The Bible is not fulfilled. Another pastor said, we've made up our minds that it is better to die in battle for God than to die as a coward. What courage, brothers and sisters. Praise God. There is a cost to be a follower of Christ. Are we willing to pay that cost? Or do we love our American freedom, our American comfort so much so that we're not willing to suffer for the cause of Christ? We become accustomed to this American way of life. And giving up these comforts is very costly to us. You see, our brothers and sisters have done it. They've given up. The world has nothing. They have nothing. So what is there to lose? They don't, it's not like they have all this, you know, their 401ks and they have their comfortable living and a nice house and a comfortable, and all the amenities and everything that they, you know, a fine car. No, no, no, no, no. They're living, you know, very, very rock bottom. Basic needs are being met. So what is there to lose? So they're willing to give up everything for the Lord. How can we be prepared here in the West? Let me just give you a couple of thoughts. One is live today with full dependence upon the Lord. Easier said than done. And not on your bank account, your retirement fund, your career, your home, your spouse, or your friends. Thank God for these gifts, but hold them with an open hand and let God be your refuge and your source of joy and delight. So if these things are taken from you, you have Him. He is all you need and no one can take him from you. And that's what these believers have learned. They know persecution is coming. These militant will come and sweep through the village. They come suddenly. You have no protection. They come with machine guns. They come and they devastate the area. They burn everything down. They molest the people. They kill these and they abduct those and that's how they operate. So these believers are living, and their question is, it's not the question of if, the question is of when. So they're saying, Lord, Help us to be ready. Help us to be ready. Secondly, read about and pray for the persecuted church today, those who are living where Satan's throne is. Get familiar with the plight of your brothers and sisters and let their courageous example at standing for the truth be a source of encouragement to you. Because as God supported them in the hour of need, he will support you and I. So we can take courage from them and then pray for them that they would hold fast to the name and not deny him under pressure. Pray for their protection and the protection of their loved ones. Pray for the grace to be able to forgive those who do them harm and pray for the Lord to save their persecutors like he did Saul of Tarsus. I don't know if you get voice of the martyrs that I get that and it's it's just really Encouraging and will help us to pray for them and learn about their needs You don't hear that in the news. You're not gonna get that on CNN. You're not gonna get that on probably not Fox News No, you have to it's a separate source altogether So the Lord commends the church in Pergamum for not denying the faith and holding fast to His name and paying the cost, but there was another cost they needed to pay. And that was the cost of separation from the world. And here's where Christ has a complaint against them. They were tolerating and harboring in their midst those who held to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Teaching of the Nicolaitans. Look with me at verses 14 and 15. But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. The Lord is not only concerned about holding fast to His name when challenged, but their purity as well. This is the second time the Nicolaitans are mentioned. They're also mentioned in chapter two, verse six, as those whose teaching the Lord hates. He says that He hates their teaching. We, yet in verse six, he says, yet this you have, you hate, you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, this is the Ephesian church, which I also hate. So he hates them. He hates their, not he hates them, he hates their works, it says. Now, not much is known about these Nicolaitans, other than the connection made here between their teaching and that of Balaam. We will look at this wicked prophet in a moment. Evidently, the same way that he caused Israel to sin, the Nicolaitans are causing the Church of Pergamum to sin. So who was Balaam? Who is this figure? This is the third time in the New Testament that his name is mentioned. The book of Revelation harkens back a lot to the Old Testament. So to understand the gravity of this sin, we need a little bit to know a little bit about the story of Balaam as found in Numbers 22, Numbers 25, and Numbers 31. Balaam was a wicked prophet, though he prophesied some truths, true things, but yet he caused the Israelites to commit sin of idolatry and sexual immorality with the women of Moab. which brought judgment on Israel. Here's the way this worked out. If you have read that story recently, I mentioned it, I think, in my devotional, and that is Balak was a king and the Israelites were coming through to go into the Canaan, into the Promised Land, and they were just on the outskirt of King Balak's dominion. He looks at them, and they're spread out, and he's heard about what they have done in the way they've crossed over, in the way they've overcome other kingdoms, and so he's fearful, so he sends for Balaam to come and to curse these people. Pronounce a curse upon them so God would destroy them for me. Three times, Balaam prays. God says, you shall not go with those. And finally he goes, and he comes, and every time he goes to seek to know what God says, comes back and he blesses them. Instead of cursing them, he blesses them. And Balak is furious. I brought you here, I'm gonna pay you all this money, and you're doing this to me? You know, you're worthless. He says, I told you, I can only do what God tells me. I can only say what God tells me to say. However, he comes up with a clever plan. So God is not going to judge them. I have this idea for you, Balak. Here's what you do. You get the women of Moab to entice the people. And when they go after them, when they go, the men of Israel go after them, they're going to bring judgment on themselves. And so that sure enough, the women of Moab enticed the men. They went after them and they started offering sacrifices to their god and committing sexual immorality. And so as a result, the Lord sends a plague. So he does curse them in a sense. He sends a plague. 24,000 of them die. So Balak's plan worked. So here, what we read is that these Nicolaitans are causing the Pergamum believers to commit sexual immorality and idolatry. Sexual immorality and idolatry, just like Balaam did. They were saying that you can be a Christian and still sacrifice to pagan gods and practice sexual immorality. Because a lot of times, the actual act of worship to these gods, there's temple prostitutes, you engage in sexual immorality with them. And so they were basically It was a compromise. You see, you want to stay in business. You want to be part of this union. You want to thrive in your business. Well, you got to partake of these ceremonies that they do every year when they worship this God or that God. And so it's a compromise. They say, you know, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. We have liberty in Christ, we have liberty. We know idols are nothing. We're no longer under the law, but under grace. So we can continue to sin that grace may abound. They were changing the grace of the Lord to license, as it tells us. Today, if you call people to live separate from the world, we're considered legalists and idealistic. Well, let's see what Christ thought of the teaching of the Nicolaitans. It says, he hated. I hate it, he said. I hate it. It's not that we're legalistic. We want to be obedient to Christ. The Church of Ephesus hated the works of the Nicolaitans, and Christ commended them for that. But we see here that the Church of Pergamum tolerated them. tolerated them. Brethren, there is nothing new under the sun. Satan has not changed his tactics because sinful man is fundamentally the same. We are driven by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. These same sins of sexual immorality and idolatry are prevalent today in our culture as they were in the first century. If the Church is going to remain pure, we must fight against these sins. I don't need to tell you this, but sexual immorality is rampant in our culture, to the point where people identify themselves by their sexual preference. Satan has enslaved millions to pornography, including those who named the name of Christ. He lies to them and he says that no one will see you. You can do this in privacy of your home. You're not harming anyone. You're just a man. You're just a woman. You can't help it. God will understand. You can always ask for forgiveness. So goes the lies. Friends, this will impact your fellowship with the Lord and His people. You will be grieving the Holy Spirit. You will bring chastisement on yourself. It will silence your witness to your family and friends because you will feel like a hypocrite, telling them to repent of their sin when yourself are engaged in it. Christ calls us to a life of radical holiness, just like we were just singing, and separation from the world. He says, if your eye and hand causes you to stumble, then cut it off and cast it from you, meaning dealing with sin. Dealing with sin in our lives is a painful, costly process. as painful as cutting your own arm, plucking your own eyes. It's a painful, costly process. You say that's too extreme. That's too extreme. Or is it? Is it? Do you understand the holiness of God? Do you understand what took place on that cross? You think that was not costly? Think again. Think again. We must hate sin in the same way that God hates it. Our lives are to show the transforming power of the gospel, that we have been translated from darkness to light, from living a life of sin to living a life of holiness. As we read in Colossians 3, 5 to 7, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these, you too once walked when you were living in them. Did you notice? You once walked in them. You're not to walk in them again. Those are not what is to mark you. You're to be marked by holiness as the people of God. Separated unto God, holiness unto the Lord. You are separate people. You are my people, took out of the world to redeem for myself. We're to represent Him. So this verse transitions us nicely to the second prevalent sin of our society, and that is idolatry. Now, of course, we're not talking about, at least not here in the West, we're not talking about bowing down to a physical idol. But modern idolatry is alive and well. Here's what Piper says about the definition of idolatry. He says, it starts in the heart, craving, wanting, enjoying, being satisfied by anything that you treasure more than God. That is an idol. Paul calls this covetousness, a disorderly love or desire, loving more than God what ought to be loved less than God. I looked up online and there was one blogger that kind of helped us, gave us a few points to identify idolatry in our lives. So I'm going to go through them. One, there's the idol of financial success. The idol of financial success. money, drawing comfort, satisfaction, security, stability from having it more than I do with God as my possession, trusting it to meet my needs more than I trust God. Secondly, under financial success, nice things, loving things that money can buy more than I love God. They bring me more joy than the things of the Lord. A third thing under financial success is career. Does my career bring me more satisfaction than my relationship with God? Do I identify more with being a child of God? Do I identify more with being a pastor than being a child of God? Do I trust my employer to provide for my needs more than I trust God? Secondly, the idol of personal identity. One, under personal identity, is weight and appearance. Weight, my weight, and appearance. Have we made reaching our personal goal in certain areas to be the end goal for our lives, like the number on the scale, or my Fitbit reading, like made 10,000 steps today? Woo! Benching, I can bench 300 pounds. Wanting your physical appearance to look a certain way. Have these become the end goal for our lives instead of helping others to know and follow Jesus? Hobbies under this personal identity. Hobbies. Are we finding our identities in our hobbies? I'm a marathon runner. I'm a gardener. I'm a reader. I'm a foodie. Whatever you insert in there, what do you like to do? Is that, do you identify more with any one of these than you do of saying, I'm a believer in Jesus Christ? That's what identifies me. Do I look forward to doing those things more than spending time with God? You want your hobbies, the time you spend with your hobbies. That gives you more pleasure, more joy than spending an hour in the Word and in prayer. Is that what gives you pleasure? Do I spend more time with these hobbies than I do with God? Thirdly, relationships. Relationships. It's another idol. Romantic. Whether it is a spouse or someone you're dating. Are you finding more satisfaction in your significant other than you are with God? If so, we're setting ourselves up for failure. Why? Because people change and eventually die. Children. Children can be an idol. It is easy to make them our entire identity, especially when they are completely dependent on us in the infant state. They are indeed precious, but they can't take the place of God in our hearts. We must please Him first and foremost. Thirdly, by way of relationships, is friendships and family relationships. We love spending time with close friends and family members. But we need to ask ourselves these questions. Am I seeking fulfillment from this relationship? Am I looking to them for things that I am supposed to be drawing from the Lord? This lady quotes a speaker who says, am I going to the phone first with my problems or to the throne first? So brothers and sisters, idolatry is alive and well in our day. And at the core of it, at the core of it, it can be identified as bowing down to the altar of the God of self. The altar of the God of self. Satan is deceiving people today by telling them that they can find their happiness and true satisfaction in these things. Money, entertainment, sex. things, recreation, getting likes on your social media. That's what gives you true happiness and satisfaction. Lies, lies, lies. Don't fall for it. We were not created for those things, brothers and sisters. We were created for God. Our true joy, our true peace, our true satisfaction can only be found in Him. These are gifts and we thank God for them, but they're never meant to fulfill us. They're never meant to take the place of God in our lives. And if you have allowed it, Then repent today, repent today and call upon the Lord and that he would change you. He would change you as he calls them to do here. If we fail to examine ourselves in these areas, then there will be consequences that we will face. Look with me in verse 16. Therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. If the church of Pergamum doesn't repent and deal with this error in their midst, then Christ himself will come against them with the sword of judgment. With the sword of judgment. As God judged his people of old in the wilderness, and 24,000 of them fell, in the same way he will judge this church. He will come with the sword of chastisement on the church of Pergamum. This is a sharp warning from the head of the church. Christ's church is to represent Him here on earth. We are to be light in a dark world, to expose the darkness and to shine the light of truth, both in word and in deed. He has spilt His blood to present us holy and blameless to the Father. This means we must deal with the sin of sexual immorality and idolatry both in our personal lives and in the church corporately. We do this by preaching against those sins and by exposing them and dealing with them by way of church discipline. This is going to be costly, brethren, if we do it corporately. How so? Well, if we exercise church discipline, if we deal with sin in our midst, it will cost us, first of all, the loss of members. The loss of members. One of the church discipline case, couple of years back, we lost nine people. Secondly, it keeps us as a church from growing at the same rate as other churches that have made compromises with the world. They'll baptize people upon the profession of their faith without seeing the fruit of repentance in their lives. Oh, you made a profession of faith? You're good to go. You don't doubt your profession? You just come right in. But this is exactly what the scripture says we are to be in Titus 2, 11 through 13. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness, worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Brothers and sisters, if there is ever a time that the church is feeling the pressure to be conformed to the world, it's today. We're told we need to be slick and cool and hip in our worship so that we can make people feel comfortable. We need to preach uplifting, feel-good, therapeutic messages filled with positive motivation and encouragement. Don't make anybody feel bad. No. It's all about making them feel good so they come back. You see, this is sin and repentance and dealing with area of sexual immorality and idolatry. Oh man, you're getting too close for comfort here, Pastor. Don't you understand this is how you're going to empty your church? You're going to talk about how God loves you and wants you to be happy in your life. That's why Jesus came, right? To make you happy. That's what you need to tell people. Brethren, there's only one person we need to make happy, and that's Jesus. Our concern is not whether or not people darken the door of our church, although we want people to come and hear the gospel and get saved. Our concern is to hear this word from Christ himself. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. That's our desire. That's our desire. We're not going to grow at a rate, you know, as some other churches are. But so be it. If we're few and faithful, that's all we need to be concerned about, being faithful to Christ. What is the promise that Christ gives to those who heed his warning? Look with me, 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. Again, this statement that we said in the beginning, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The Lord calls us to hear what the Spirit is saying, and that's not just to the Church of Pergamum, but to us as part of His Church. We need to heed the words. The sword first comes as a word of warning, but then it comes as a sword of judgment. As he says in John 12, he says this, verse 47, if anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge. The word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. So you see what he's saying? He's saying you can receive the warning, Be warned by it, correct it, restore it. or face the consequences. The word is then gonna serve as a sword, as a judgment. Now it's a warning, but then it will be the judgment against you. Now, what is the reward where he tells us? One who conquers, I will give him of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone. Christ promised here these two things, to the one who hears, One is hidden manna and the other is a white stone. What does that mean? As I said there's a lot of you know the lot of reference in the Old Testament and you read the book of Revelation if you're not familiar with your Old Testament you're going to be lost. There's a lot of imagery that is brought right from there. What is the hidden manna probably alludes to the jar of manna that was kept hidden in the Ark of the Covenant. In the New Testament, it is a reference to Christ. He is the bread that came down from heaven, as he told the Jews in John 6, 31. He is spiritual bread for our souls. It is hidden to the world, but Christ is revealed to us. We feed on him daily by faith and there is coming a day when we will feed upon him and we will see him face to face. Those who conquer by not participating in the heathen festivals and eat the sacrifices offered to idols shall be fed by the Lord himself. The grace of Christ in all of his fullness will satisfy their souls. Now what about the stone? This white stone with the name, new name, written on it that no one except the one who receives it knows it. Well, let me tell you, there's about a dozen possibilities. So even the commentators aren't certain. means. Hendrickson had a few, I thought, helpful explanations. He says, the stone represents the person who receives it. Just like, if you remember, the high priest going with Sue has on his breastplate, there was a stone for each of the tribe of Israel on his breastplate, and with the name, their name, the tribe's name, written on each stone. And so he was, as a representative, Christ is our representative and our names and he represents us in heaven. And so the stone is white showing that we are made pure in God's sight through the imputed righteousness of Christ. The new name written upon the stone is most likely his new name. which, if you look at Revelation 3, verse 12, he says, "...the one who conquers, I will make him a pillar and a temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it. And I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name." So, or it could be, Someone suggested that it could be this name that is characteristic of you. So you individually, the Lord knows you personally, and there's certain characteristics of faithfulness, of something that you have a connection with the Lord, that He writes that, and He gives you that. Only you know that name, and He knows that name. As a symbol of His affection and love for you individually. Not only are we gonna be corporately serving and loving our king in heaven, but there is an individual connection with him. And it says in Isaiah 62 too, the nation shall see your righteousness and all the kings your glory, and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. Isaiah 65 15, but his servants he will call by another name. So you decide which one you prefer. I have no preference. Whatever the Lord gives I'm pleased with I'm thankful for Anyway, that doesn't really make a break anything and he so the idea is there is an intimate relationship and the Lord will reveal more of himself to us the promise of the manna and the new name is a fuller revelation of Christ to those who conquer we will forever be feeding on the Lord and and grow in our understanding and appreciation of His new name. Our hearts and minds will be completely satisfied with Him. Those who hold fast to Christ's name now will receive a deeper revelation of His name coming forward. One day we will know Him as we are known. So let us then, brethren, fight the good fight of faith and live victoriously in the strength that Christ supplies. I'm going to close this with a word to those of you who are here who don't know the Lord. Let me just take a moment. and say to you, what Christ calls the church to do, He calls you. What is that? He says you need to repent of your idolatry. You need to receive His word. If you will not receive His word today, you will face His judgment tomorrow. And now you can be certain of it. If the Lord says that to His church, who professes faith in Christ, What does that mean to you who does not profess faith in Christ? There is a sure judgment coming upon those who reject the Lord Jesus from receiving him as Savior. I urge you today that you would see that you would recognize that you are a sinner and under God's wrath. It says the wrath of God abides upon the children of unrighteousness. And that unless you are saved and covered by the blood of Christ, you will face that judgment. So how do you do that? You go to Him by faith. And even today, today is a day of salvation. You don't need to go to a special place. Where you are, call upon the Lord to save you. He's come to save the lost. Every one of us, we're idolaters. You can ask anyone in the room, were you an idolater before you came to Christ? Every one of us will tell you, absolutely. Every one of us were sexually immoral. Every one of us, you can ask. So we're not trying to cast stones upon you. We're just calling you to escape from the wrath to come. Believe on Christ and be saved. If his blood covers you, then you're no longer under the wrath of God because he bore it for you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Amen. Let's pray.