Church at Pergamum Rev, 2:12-17

Good morning. We'll be looking this morning in Revelation chapter 2 at the Church of Pergamum. And one of the things that I mentioned last week is that prior to each time I'd want to bring up some feature in which the events of September 11th and following, though I don't see those events as being directly fulfillment of Scripture, I think it is valuable for us to look at the trends that point towards the fulfillment of Scripture. And so last week, one of the things that I brought up was that the events of September 11th and following, since that time and as will continue to occur, will direct the world towards one world government. And we'll see that as we move ahead in the chapters in Revelation. The second thing that I bring up this week is it will point towards one world religion.

One of the things that we're seeing in this current conflict that's taking place is extremes of one religion are the thing that has brought about this very conflict that we've got going on now. And the main vocal perpetrator, Osama Bin Laden, keeps pointing us to Jews and the Christians. So what's going to happen is you're going to see the extremes of religion end up getting shoved out and pushed aside officially. And while it's not currently the focus in our country, at least to that extreme, the time will come when there will be more and more of a push towards one world religion.

And curiously enough, our current Attorney General, I had an interesting insight. Let me read it to you. John Ashcroft, the Attorney General of the United States, was recently quoted as saying, Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you. Get the distinction? Sharp contrast, isn't there? But extremes of religion will be seen as being unacceptable. and therefore legislated out, dictated out.

Let's turn to Revelation chapter 2, 12 through 17. We're going to be taking a look here. This is the third of the seven churches in Asia. And we have here this morning at least a few folks that I'm aware of that have actually been to one or more of these seven church sites. For them, perhaps this will be old home week as we look at this. This is Revelation 12-17. This is about the church at Pergamum. We're going to start by looking at some of the features of Pergamum at that time and getting a sense of the church that is being written to here.

Pergamum was one of the most prominent cities of Asia. It was located about 40,000 45 miles, rather, north of Smyrna that we studied last time, and 20 miles from the Aegean Sea. So now we're still at a coastal city, but it's starting to move inland a little bit.

This is from the hilltop. This is the theater in Pergamum. Various estimates as to how many people you can crowd into that theater, but somewhere around 10,000. A number of the buildings around it, not all of them, but a number of the buildings around it are temple buildings of various kinds. There is a village that you can see in the background. It's a modern village of Bergama. Sound similar? Okay.

Pergamum, Bergama. It now covers at least a part of the ancient city of Pergamum. Pergamum was a very wealthy city, but it was also extremely religious. Curiously, the name Pergamum means thoroughly married. Now, one of the temples that was there is important for us to note. This was a Roman emperor's temple. It was built in about 29 BC in honor of Rome and Augustus. Pergamum was the center of emperor worship and it had many temples devoted to idolatry.

Revelation 2.13 calls this place where Satan's throne is. And for the worship of the divine emperor, that's their term, not mine, Pergamum was made the center of loyalty to Emperor Domitian, the one who put John in exile.

Let me give you a different perspective on this hill that we've been looking from here. This is a look from the valley up to the hill. This is the scene that many of the people who lived at Pergamum would see as they looked up on this hill. The hill was crowned with these pagan temples. Then, the other thing that you don't see is the temples not only on the hill, but the ones that are down in the valley. One of them that's down in the valley, or a little farther down the hill anyway, is the temple to Asclepius. This was the god of healing. Fascinating.

The sick would come here for their cultic medical practitioners. During the day, the cultic medical practitioners would practice various kinds of combinations of magic and medicine upon these people. The people would come to seek guidance in dreams. See, there was a lot thought about having to do with sleep. And so here's the third thing. It may make your skin crawl.

People who were ill would spend the night in the dark in the temple. They deliberately put a bunch of snakes on the floor, and the hope was that these snakes would slither over you multiple times. The more times that you had this contact with the slithering snake, the more it was thought, anyway, that you would be healed. And so that was the god of the sleppiest touching you, see, through these snakes.

There were other things that they had. They had a library. They had the second largest library in the Roman Empire at the time. And it's interesting, they started collecting this library. The people down in Alexandria had the first largest library, and they didn't want that displaced.

When the people in Alexandria, which is where the papyrus came from, that they made the books, When they found out that the people in Pergamum were making a large library and it might surpass them, they quit selling them papyrus. So, it's just jealousy. So the people in Pergamum said, well, what we'll do is we'll take animal skins and scrape them really thin and we'll make parchment. So that's how parchment was invented here at Pergamum.

But one of the things you notice, here's the remains of the library, and right off to the side, Temple of Athena. You can't do without a temple, right? So they had temples for everything, temples everywhere. Now, that wasn't enough. They also had to have a temple to Zeus, the head of the gods. And here's the remains of that temple. That gives you kind of a general intro to Pergamum. lots of temples, lots of religion, any kind you'd like, as long as one of those includes the Emperor's temple. You're fine. Let's read. Revelation 2, 12-17, read it with me if you'd like.

And to the angel of the church of Pergamum write, the one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this, I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name, did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality. So you also have some who in the same way hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans, Therefore repent, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone, which no one knows but he who receives it." Okay, we're going to look at this passage verse by verse. And join with me as we dig out the rich nuggets that are contained in this passage. First, let's take a look at verse 12.

And to the angel of the church at Pergamum write, the one who has the sharp two-edged sword, says this. Now, this introduction format is one we've become familiar with, right? Having heard the introduction to the message to the church at Ephesus, and the introduction to the message to the church at Smyrna, and now for the third time here, introduction to the church at Pergamum. So it's got some similarities, but there's something different about it too. As we've noticed, what he does is after he says, to the church of, then he picks some aspect of what he has already used in chapter one to describe himself, to those seven churches.

Here, it's very simple. And I think the simplicity is deliberate. Here's what he says. The one who has the sharp two-edged sword says this. The one identifies Christ. It's singularly unique to him. It's his authority. The one who has that. It identifies him completely and solely.

Also remember that that word for sword, that sword that's coming out of his mouth, that's a unique word. It's the word Ramphaya. This is the five-foot-long barbarian sword. This is the one that they would take and swing overhead, and it's the one that signifies judgment coming out of the mouth of Christ. That's the word that he uses here.

By the way, it's a direct messianic fulfillment of Isaiah 49.2.

Believers who are familiar with Isaiah 49.2 would hear this and say, oh, I know what that means. This is the identity of Christ.

He has this sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth. My physical description sounds kind of strange, doesn't it? How would you like to have a five-foot sword coming out of your mouth? But what it's intending to convey, when He speaks, He is capable of immense judgment. When He speaks, He is capable of bringing out this judgment which is so momentous in its consequences.

Now one thing I have to tell you, for Pergamum to hear these words must have been chilling. You know, it's not mixed with anything else. He didn't say this and something else, just that. That must have just made their blood froze. It just must have been incredible.

Now, because it indicates The judgment is coming. Let's read verse 13. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name and do not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. See, in a form similar to the other churches, Christ states that He knows. That means He sees and perceives. He is not ignorant of what is happening in these churches. He knows precisely what is taking place. He says, those in Pergamum are those who are where Satan's throne is. They dwell there. Remember the handout of a couple of weeks ago. Satan's throne refers to the cult of emperor worship.

Everybody in the Roman Empire was required to go into these cults, these temples of emperor worship, and at least give their allegiance to the emperor. After that, they could do any other gods they wanted. But it was a problem with the Christians, wasn't it? Because the Christians could only acknowledge Christ. See, under pressure from the Roman Emperor, they had to acknowledge the Emperor that he was deity. The Christians couldn't do this. And those in Pergamum were standing fast, and Christ knew this. They would not acknowledge any but Christ as Lord. They would not place their faith in any but Christ.

Now, about Antipas, you know we have but no other record of Antipas anywhere else in Scripture. So we don't have any other passage we can turn to. Outside of Scripture, there's kind of an unconfirmed written tradition, but rather uncertain, that talks about Antipas, and this is a specific one, Antipas having been burned to death in a bronze bowl.

Rather strange. But we do have several points where we can get the message right out of this passage, and let's take a look at what that says. See, the Greek mystery religions and the Jewish synagogue religion, remember there were three, those first two, the Greek mystery religion and the Jewish synagogue religion did not have the right of capital punishment over those who refused to join. It was the third, the Roman Empire's imperial religion that did have the right of capital punishment. And since he's talking about this here with Antipas, we know that that was the case, that it was the Roman imperial religion that put him to death. You see, refusal to acknowledge the emperor as deity brought capital punishment. Antipas, we know, was from the Church of Pergamum.

He was a faithful witness. And by the way, that phrase or term is used elsewhere throughout the book of Revelation, including the first chapter, of Christ himself. Therefore, he reflected Christ's very character. He was a faithful witness. Also, we know that Antipas' testimony for the faith, his refusal to submit to the demands of the Roman Empire, that he declare the Roman Emperor a deity, cost him his life. We know that from the passage. It is likely that Antipas was either the first martyr, or somehow the most notable martyr. And he was apparently somebody they all knew about, because it was just mentioned, it was discussed here in brief, and they could say, oh yeah, we know about Antipas. So we know those things just from this passage alone.

Now, the next words of Christ are ominous. Verse 14, but I have a few things against you. You know, you wouldn't want to hear that, would you? You wouldn't like to have Christ say, but I have a few things against you. And we have a little bit of a contrast and comparison to make. The Church of Ephesus had but one thing against it. The Church of Smyrna had no things against it. this church a few things against it. Let's take a closer look at what those things were that Christ held against them.

Continuing on in verse 14, Because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality. So also have some of you, in the same way, hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans. So there are two focal points here in verses 14 and 15. One is Balaam, and two is the Nicolaitans. In each case, the problem was not that everyone in the church was off track. The problem is that there were some. Do you get that? Some. But he told the whole church, you have a problem. You all have a problem because there are some. That's an interesting thing, and we'll be wanting to take a look at that.

We know that the Church of Ephesus was commended for rejecting, even hating, the teachings of the Nicolaitans. This Church actually embraced and had some in the Church who held to the teachings of the Nicolaitans. What Christ had against the church at Pergamum was not just against those who held the false teachings.

What Christ had against them all was that they allowed the false teachers to be among them. You get the contrast? He didn't say, I have something against some of you. I have something against you all because there are some who hold the false teachings. The problem was that they allowed the false teachings to be perpetuated and remain among them.

That was the problem. Now, we're not talking about allowing variations in the color of the floor of the church or variations in taste in music. This was something far more serious. You see, there was a point of doctrine or morals for which the church was to draw the line. That's what they were supposed to be doing.

The elders of the church are supposed to be shepherding. Remember in Acts 20, we read that? Paul's warning to the elders of the church at Ephesus. There's going to be those who bring in the false teachings. I'm warning you ahead of time, you draw the line.

The wolves will come. There's no question about that. Your job, elders, is to take them on. Is to take them on. That wasn't happening here at Pergamum. Okay, next. One of the requirements for deacons is that they hold to the faith. The deacons had a job here too, didn't they? But notice, everyone here is included. Paul, in an instance, prayed for everyone at the Church of Philippi such that their love be abounding in real knowledge and all discernment. You get the distinction there? He ties in love with discernment. That wasn't happening here at the Church of Pergamum. Discernment was missing. and it was poisonous. It was toxic.

You see, there is a biblical process in which false teachers and the immoral and the divisive person must be warned, rebuked, and cast out. It's necessary. It's not biblical for Christians to be open-armed to everyone. Sometimes it's gotten around to various people who are supposed to just sort of love everybody, and it means it's embracing no matter what they teach, say or do, that we just sort of embrace it and accept it. That's not biblical.

See, the pattern here comes from an understanding. Rejecting false teaching and immorality is the loving thing to do. You get that? Remember when we studied Ephesians 4? It's truthing in love. Love and truth are not separate things. They are not things that are at odds with one another. they're together, one and the same. Rejecting the false teachings, rejecting the things that the false teachers brought about and what they were infecting and infesting the church with is the loving thing to do.

And that's a contrast that's important for us to fix in our minds because there may be a tendency to just allow that to come into the church and to embrace it, accept it, say, oh, it's just fine. And the picture we get from this passage here, it is definitely not.

He spoke to the church at Pergamum and he says, you all have a problem because there are some. You all have a problem because of the some that carry in the false teaching. You see, Christ hated the teachings of the Nicolaitans. The church at Ephesus was commended for hating the teachings. Notice I make the distinction. Not the people, the teachings of the Nicolaitans. And that was loving. Because false teaching is destructive to our fellowship with the Lord. False teaching is destructive to our fellowship with one another.

You see, that's why the Lord comes in and threatens this judgment. It's not that He's saying, boy, am I anxious to catch you doing something wrong. Then I can come in with the sword of my mouth and let you have it. That's not the Lord's point at all.

He longs for the intimacy of continued fellowship with Him. He longs for us to have the intimacy of continued fellowship. And false teaching and immorality gets in the way of that continued fellowship. That's why He wants us to deal with it. That's why He says, if you don't, I will. He wants that fellowship with Him to be continuing and continuous. He wants that intimacy, and he does not want anything to get in the way of it. Nothing. Now, next week we'll address this a little bit more. But, we looked at the Nicolaitans two weeks ago, now let's look at Balaam.

You have on your handout a goodly portion, I think one entire side, that addresses Balaam. Balaam is probably the most under-taught and under-addressed personality in scripture. After looking at it this week, I'm convinced of it. Balaam was a person that stretched throughout the Old Testament and well into the New. What you have on your handout looks something like this. The initial passage where it comes up is in Numbers 22-24. This gives the account of Balak. Balak, here's the king of Moab. By the way, Nancy and I were talking about this and trying to get a little history. Abraham had a nephew, Lot. Abraham's nephew, Lot, just kind of fell down and fell down and fell down morally and spiritually. He did make it out of Sodom.

But his daughters, by incest, bore sons, and that's Ammon and Moab, and this is the descendants of those people, currently modern Jordan. Modern Jordan, and actually many of the Palestinians, to whom we're trying to give a state, are descendants of Lot's sons by incestuous relationship with Lot's daughters. That's the guy we're talking about here. So here's Balak, king of the people that are descended from one of Lot's sons.

And he sees the children of Israel coming towards him. And while he should have looked at that as a blessing, he did not. And instead, he hires Balaam. He says, you've got to come and curse these people. I don't want to take them on militarily. I'll be a mess. If you curse these people, we'll just take them out and the magic will get rid of them.

And anyway, it's three chapters long, I won't take the time to go through it this morning, and you can read that yourself if you want to pick up the details. But what's interesting is that the scriptures do not let the subject go. Notice here, we've got Numbers 31, talks about the killing of Balaam, finally, and some chapters later. What's also interesting here is Numbers 22-24, the Israelites were not a party to all that conversation.

So this was kind of revealed to them afterwards. Continuing on in Deuteronomy, and these are like some of the last words that Moses has before the Israelites go into the Promised Land. So here it is brought up again. Joshua, after they're in the Promised Land, here it is brought up again. And then, Nehemiah, we're talking centuries later, it's brought up again in Micah. called to remembrance again. This is an important personage, not a minor personage. Something else to take a look at. How about these New Testament references? And you have this on your handout as well. Three things.

2 Peter 2.15 talks about the way of Balaam.

And this refers to one who hires himself out. He basically is a spiritual sellout. says, for financial gain, what do you want me to do? I'll sell spirituality for money. We got people who do that? Yeah, you bet. You'll find them on the boob tube. There are people who will sell whatever it is for money, because they're really just salesmen first, and what they're selling matters little to them.

That's the way of Balaam. The error of Balaam is thinking that you can get God to curse his people and forsake the covenants that he has made with them. That, by the way, if you read it in context, also brings up the money-making problem and brings up the financial gain and greed. But the error is thinking that you can get God to jump the rails on the covenants and promises that he has made. And we've got people that believe that to this day. It's called amillennialism. That is the error of Balaam. It's wrong. It is an error, and it's warned about in Jude 11. The last one is the doctrine of Balaam.

This is the one we're looking at here in Revelation 2.14. This is counseling Balak, saying, look, I don't need to curse these people. As a matter of fact, I can't. There's a whole story. You'll have to read that in the book of Numbers 22-24. Balaam got to the place God just stopped and said, look, I'm not cursing these people. Forget about it. It's not going to happen. So Balaam came along and said to Balak, look, you don't have to have me curse these people.

Let me help you. All you've got to do is get them to stumble, to compromise with the morality and spiritual separation that God intended for them. then they will stumble, and then you'll have them. That is the doctrine or teaching of Balaam. So there's three places that it's brought up. I want us to take a look here. Here is the timeline. I was impressed when I started taking a look at that. These passages we looked at here, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua, all take place over a matter of a few decades, roughly 1400 B.C. So you have those passages.

Now we move on here to Micah 6.5. Some centuries later, roughly prior to 700 BC, and now you have it mentioned again. And one of the things you'll find at the bottom of your handout, and I'll leave it to you to look at in detail on your own, there has been an archaeological find where they have found, it says, Balaam son of Beor, like four times. in this archaeological find.

So we know it's definitely the same guy. It's in the same exact geographical area where he was operating, and it describes him in the exact same terms, but it's written from the perspective of the other side, without a recognition of God. So here's archaeological confirmation happening at the same time. Then we go into Nehemiah. Here it is roughly just prior to the year 400. He's mentioned again, and now we have him mentioned in the first century AD, three times again.

Five times in the Old Testament, three times in the New. Eight different books of the Bible mentioning the person of Balaam. He's a much more important personage than is typically thought of. The key point here is Balaam was a false teacher, and he had three different ways he went off track, and scripture in the New Testament identifies what each of those three are. The one that we're looking at now, that last one here mentioned in Revelation, that was the key.

In the same way that Balaam counseled Balak and said, all you've got to do is to get him to fall for the idols you've got. All you've got to do is to get them to fall for the morality you've got. And you will stumble them. And then God will not shower His blessings on them. And that's how you'll get them. You don't have to lift the sword.

And what was happening, why would He bring this up except that the exact same thing was being done at the church at Pergamum? People were coming into the church and they were doing exactly as Balaam taught, or counseled, or the doctrine that he laid out. He said, if you just get these people in the church to fall back into the immorality that they grew up in, if you just get them to just sort of let that be within their midst, then you've got them. You see the picture there? They were letting this into the church, and that was the problem. That's why he would point all the way back and point to Balaam and say, This was counseled against 1,500 years ago. It's clearly wrong. It's clearly a problem. It's an age-old problem. Don't fall for it yourselves.

Now, let's take a look at what Christ says, because this is Christ speaking here to the church at Pergamum. In chapter 2, He talks about, "...you put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel." Well, that's what Balaam did. This is putting a stumbling block before the people in the church. This is going to cause them to stumble or fall. The things that he mentioned. They were eating things sacrificed to idols, and they were committing acts of immorality. And you know what?

The character of the culture in Pergamum, and virtually all Greek cities was of such a character, the people would not look at that as being anything unusual except in the church. Because it was the norm, as we saw in these pictures. There's temples all throughout the city. What kind of immorality do you want? Take your choice. There's all kinds. They've got it all. What kind of idolatry do you want? They've got that too.

All the meat around here has been sacrificed to idols. And the problem was not just that they were sacrificing meat to idols. We know from Paul's teachings that it wasn't just a matter of taking some meat that had been sacrificed to idols and then taking it somewhere else and selling it and buying it, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that the people at the Church of Pergamum were being pulled back into the temple religions with the idolatry, with the immorality that was going on in the temples, pulling back into that as a lifestyle. At least some of them were, and that was a problem. Now, to kind of give you a sense of what would this be like for these people, I'm going to give you sort of an example conversation.

First, somebody in the church says, Hey, Eutychus! Let's go up to the temple near my place and have a free lunch. You've been there before. And Eutychus says, Okay. I understand some other men in the church have been doing that. No harm in it, I suppose. They're doing it.

On arrival at the pagan temple, An old-timer at the temple who knows Eutychus from his earlier years at the temple says, Hey Eutychus! Man, I haven't seen you in a long time! Where you been? Hey, sit down! Have some wine! Have some meat! Have some more meat! Have some more wine! And by the way, have you been seeing your mistress, Junia, lately? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You get the point? They were getting sucked right back into the thing that they came out of. And what's the warning there for us? Do you see that? It's real easy for us to forget the distinctions that we as believers are to have. And to get sucked right back into whatever it is. Now some of you may be stumbled more by one thing than another. But the reality is, the reality is, the difficulty, the temptation to get sucked right back into the culture, is there for all of us in some way or another. It's important for us to get the point he's making here, to get the distinction. Do you see the problem? Do you see what's happening?

2 Corinthians 5.17 tells us that Christ has made every believer a new creation in Christ. Each believer has an eternal position in Christ, who God has made that believer in Christ, that is entirely and eternally untouchable. So far, not only so good, but real good.

But those presenting the teaching of Balaam were appealing to the believers at Pergamum to fall back into the slop, the filth, the slime that they had been living under, to fall back under the deadly ways of the old man. Their position was fixed. Their position was untouchable, but their current condition was where they were sliding. You see, there is no life in the old man, but that's the deceptive promise. There is life in the old man, and to get sucked back into the way things were is the temptation that was being dangled before them. You see, Christ is our life, but there is no life in falling back under the teachings of Balaam, and falling back under the ways of the old man. Christ is about who we are and will be.

Just to give you an illustration, in Nevada, where Nancy and I have spent slightly over half of our married life, most people are surprised to find that the state drains into itself, except for a small portion down near the southern end of the state. All of Nevada, with the exception of that small area next to the Colorado River, just drains into itself. There is no exit.

It doesn't drain to the ocean. And so you'll have rivers, even flowing, clear, beautiful rivers, that as they go out into the desert, just dissipate into nothing. This river at one place is flowing crystal clear, melting off the mountains and the Sierras, and as it heads toward the middle of the desert, It just dissipates into the dry sand. And so what'll happen is you'll have areas across much of Nevada where it's about two or three inches of rain a year, and that's an average, so some years, none. And it'll be dry.

During the summertime, those dry salt pans will get hot, and you'll get this mirage that will form. And this desert mirage looks like a lake. It looks like water. Matter of fact, it looks so inviting. And there have been many, many accounts of people who have been drawn by this mirage, drawn into the mirage to the place where, you know, there's water and they'll actually go running towards it. And all it is, is it looks good, but it's just an invitation to death. It gets them almost invariably farther away from the water they're so desperately seeking. The reason I bring this up, this is a very good parallel to what the teachings of Balaam were like. It looks good. Free meat, free wine, old friends. Sounds good.

But the problem is, it drew them back to a place that was no better than these mirages. What looks like a nice pond of beautiful, clear, clean water is nothing more than hot salt. It doesn't have the life in it that it pretends to offer. That's the problem.

He says, I want good things for you. I want you people at the Church of Pergamum to have all the marvelous blessings. But instead you've gone for the mirage. He says, I want the very best for you. And the mirage isn't the best. It's the worst. Do you get the contrast there?

That's why he would come to them and say this, as he does in verse 16. Therefore repent, or else I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth. You see, there are three key messages in this verse. One is repent or else. Two is I'm coming to you quickly. And interestingly, you see that? I'm coming to you all, the whole church, quickly. and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth." Those are the three messages that come out of there. Repent is a message that's now been given the second time in the passages we've been looking at. It means to totally change one's mind. See, it doesn't mean to just feel badly.

Ever seen somebody like that? Maybe it's a kid, maybe it's been yourself, I don't know. But something that you ought to be repenting about, and what really happens is you just kind of feel bad. but you don't really change direction. You know anybody that's like that?

They just feel bad about it, but that's as far as it goes. Sometimes people might just feel bad about the bad consequences. That's not what it's talking about either. It's not just feeling bad because you got caught. It's not just feeling bad because something bad is going to happen. That's not repenting. It doesn't mean, gosh, I better have some better self-esteem. I better feel better about myself.

That's not what it's talking about either. It does mean that you have God's perspective, that you understand the truth of that perspective, and that a different outcome and behavior results because you're depending on His light instead of your own. See the difference there? Sharp contrast.

Anything short of true repentance Maybe feeling bad about what you did. Maybe feeling bad about the consequences. But if it doesn't result in a new perspective and a different behavior outcome, it falls short of what true repentance is. You see, when I repent, I come to a recognition that my life will not do.

That's why Paul says, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. He comes to a recognition, the life I've been trying to live, the life on my own is not going to do it. The old man trying harder is not what he's asking for. He says, you've been taught about my life, now live by it, and not your own. That's what he's telling us.

Christ tells them that he's coming to them quickly. Now, this doesn't mean that the second coming of the Lord in the general terms is coming. there is going to be an explicit coming in judgment. It's a particular coming to you, not to everybody. It's, I am coming to you, this church, to deal with this. And lastly, notice where the judgment is directed. The sword of his mouth is directed to who? Look at the verse. It's directed to them. It says, I'm coming in judgment and they are going to be receiving it. No doubt it's going to be an uncomfortable time.

You see, what the Lord would rather have us do is to deal with things out of our own understanding that He has given us, and to deal with things that way, rather than to have the Lord have to come in an explicit judgment. This same truth was presented in 1 Corinthians 11, 31 and 32. And this is what he writes to the Corinthians.

Paul says this, But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged from the outside. If we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.

The Lord's desire is that we see what is wrong and deal with it then and there. If it comes to a place where the Lord has to come from the outside and deal with it, Then we've got a problem. It is more severe and there's going to be some consequences as a result of it. But the Lord's intent either way is for our betterment. The Lord's intent either way is for our betterment. These are not warnings of a Lord who is anxious to threaten us. These are warnings of a Lord who loves us and wants the best for us and wants to bless us and wants fellowship and wants that intimacy. That's what these warnings are about. Verse 17, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To him who overcomes, I will give him some of the hidden manna. I will give him a white stone and a new name written on the stone, which no one knows, but he receives it. So look at the three parts of the promise. I will give a hidden manna, a white stone, a name written on the stone. Those three things. A lot of folks look at that and they say, So we don't want to go, huh? So let's look at it and understand it, okay?

Notice, each of these is written in such a way the focus is on intimacy. There is something private about that. Do you notice that? Notice also that it is personal to him who does it. Each of it is individual. Christ to each individual. The Lord is looking for intimacy. This to me is a beautiful backdrop to the threats he has made. He's saying, I don't want to come to you in judgment. What I desire is intimacy with you personally. That's what he wants, is that fellowship with each of us individually. So let's take a look at what this means.

First, the hidden manna. Now, the manna was given to the Jews. The manna was given to the Jews out in the desert. For 40 years, they were given this manna. Nancy and I were looking at this passage this last week and thinking, can we make some of this stuff? Sort of. And it was kind of difficult, you know. It's kind of like bleached white cornflakes, as best we can tell.

And anyway, here you got this manna that they were given. And one of the things that Aaron was told to do is to take a day's ration. And a day's ration of this stuff was slightly over half a gallon. So you can imagine in the morning having slightly over half a gallon of cornflakes with water. That was kind of what it was.

And so they had this manna, but what Aaron was to do was take a day's ration and put it in the jar and put it in the Ark of the Covenant. He was to take this thing and keep it So the Jews throughout the generations would be able to look at this and see God's provision, even when they had passed into Canaan, where they no longer got the manna. Now, the manna that was in the jar was hidden, right? What was the Ark of the Covenant?

It was a symbol of the presence of the Lord. The Lord is coming to you and He says, I'll have this hidden manna. It's a symbol of the Lord's presence. It's a symbol of the Lord's provision. And I will provide for you personally, spiritually. The hidden manna. I'm going to feed you personally. I'm going to feed you privately. I'm going to feed you individually. That's what Christ is telling these people. Next, he says he's going to give them a white stone.

Now, a white stone was used for three different purposes in those days. The one thing is it was used for an acquittal in a crime. whether a jury would vote with white and black stones, and they would each put in their white and black stone, or a judge would make a decision by himself. He would just have one white stone. In either case, the person who was acquitted of the crime would be given a white stone, and that would indicate that, okay, you've been acquitted.

The next thing it was used for was, this is your pass for attendance at certain private events. or even the Greek mystery religions, so you can get in the temple to this private event we've got going. The third thing, and I think this is really what he's pointing to, the third thing is they would take a white stone and for those who were victors at the Olympic or other athletic games, the victors would be given a white stone with their name on it so that they could come to a feast. a special feast given for the victors.

How about that? I think that's what he's pointing to here, because of the fact that it has the name written on it. Isn't that neat? The Lord is saying, you believers, you who are the ones who have overcome, by me, by my righteousness, you have overcome and I'm going to give you a special invitation, because you're a victor, to a celebration feast, an event that will take place.

And we'll read in the weeks and months to come. We'll get more into the significance of that. But then the last thing, and I mentioned it briefly before, is the new name. Now, in the Old Testament there were examples of people who were given new names.

Jacob, for example, was called Israel, given a new name. Abram, his name was changed to Abraham. So this idea of being given a new name was an Old Testament pattern. Also in the New Testament, Saul, as we read originally in the book of Acts, his name was eventually called Paul.

And that's not all. Peter was a name given to him by Christ, otherwise known as Simon or Cephas. So this pattern of giving new names was something that was done at pivotal events and where people made a spiritual transition. And so this giving a new name has more significance than just an invitation to you, it's because you, through Christ, have a new identity. Isn't that neat?

And it says, and no one else knows that name, and that speaks to me of intimacy, because who knows that name but that person in Christ? You see, what Christ is focusing on here is the intimacy, the personal and individual relationship that he desires to have with every believer.

That's what he wants. That's what he's rewarding and that's why he's presenting this promise that at first blush, we look at it and we say, well, what's that talking about? But then when we understand it, we say, wow, the Lord wants to have a personal relationship with me. He wants fellowship with me continuously and he wants it individually, intimately. So you may come to church and just think, you know, all right, I'm coming to a church and we're inside this nice building and it's a gathering of people and they're awfully nice folks, you know. But what's happening is we're gathering together individual people with whom the Lord wants, desires a personal and intimate and individual relationship.

That's what He's focusing on here. That individual, personal and intimate relationship is His desire from ages past. He loves us. He paid the price. That is why in Hebrews when I say, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. What joy? He is looking for that relationship with you. He is looking for that fellowship with you.

Now, as we look at this, to me it just is stunning. Here is the Lord of the universe. Here is the Lord who would create these vast galaxies. Vin and I were looking at a a screensaver where we're looking at 1,500 galaxies all in one view. And that's galaxies. The Lord who created that, who created all these marvelous creatures, and here's this planet Earth, the Creator of the universe wants this intimate, personal, individual relationship with each of us. To me, that is just mind-boggling. That is just phenomenal. But I think as we look at that this morning, That's something we really ought to ponder. That's something we really ought to meditate on.

Because if we just leave it with the swords out of his mouth, if we just leave it with the problem with Balaam and Balak and the Nicolaitans, we will have missed the point. The Lord's ultimate desire is in fellowship with us, not to seek to find some way to strike us down, not some way to slay us. But He loves us. Let's go to Him now.

Lord, as we do go to You now, we are in awe how amazing it is that the Creator of this universe would personally desire a special relationship with each one of us here. And Lord, we pray as we go out of here this morning that we would be mindful of that. that as we talk with one another this morning and walk down the aisle and go out into the lobby that we would remember that that person that we're speaking with is one for whom Christ died and one with whom Christ is desiring to have an intimate personal and individual relationship with. Lord, what a tremendous thing this is as we think of eternity, as we think of the the tens of thousands of years that will roll by, and this will not change. And Lord, we just pray that you would bring this home to our hearts, that we would remember that in the midst of the temptations of the world out there. We bring this to you in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.