In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not being a worldly Christian and warns that aligning oneself with the world makes one an enemy of God. The sermon is based on the book of Revelation, specifically chapter 2, where Jesus addresses the seven churches. Jesus commends those who are faithful and through witnesses, but also warns about the dangers of compromise. The preacher encourages the congregation to keep their focus on Jesus and to overcome the challenges they face, promising that those who overcome will receive blessings such as eating from the hidden manna and receiving a white stone with a new name written on it.

Revelation just now, and we're up the second chapter, book of the Revelation, and up the second chapter. And we're going through from verse 12 this evening to the end of verse 17. Twelve to seventeen, just six verses this evening. And if you give me ten minutes of each verse, then it's sixty minutes, isn't it? And we might play overtime for much, you know, fifteen minutes each way after that. But it's all right. I think we need to keep in mind, as we come to this paragraph, that our Lord Jesus is walking in the midst of these seven churches in Asia. And as he walks in the midst of the churches, he's watching, and he's weighing everything that's going on in the churches. Looking at all the services, looking at all the servants, looking at all the sermons, looking at all the suffering, for that the Lord is in the midst of the churches. And as he walks through the midst of these churches, he's sending this letter, and it is his last letter to the church at Pergamos, sending it by John to the pastor of the church. Because I want you to get that absolutely correct first phrase said, the Lord is speaking to John the apostle on the isle of Patmos, and he's saying, unto the angel of the church in Pergamos write. And of course, I pointed out already as we commenced this chapter, that he is not commanding John to write to a shining angel. That would be nonsensical. Now, the word angel here is the old Greek word, and it means messenger. Of course, the angels are messengers of God. Well, then God has a lot of messengers. Sometimes God has a messenger in a local church, and he's responsible to receive the messages from God for the church. And he's responsible to outline them and get them across all that the people will understand. And so, it's through this responsible character in the church at Pergamos. Now, seven churches mentioned here, and there are seven angels. There was one in every church. And the Lord is sending this message to the church in Pergamos. That's a very interesting word. It was a very interesting place. Pergamos, according to the historians, was one of the most beautiful cities in Asia at that time. Finally, writing many hundreds of years ago, said it was one of the most beautiful and most illustrious cities in the world at that time. It's even an interesting word, because if you put a hyphen and say P-E-R and then hyphen, G-A-M-O-S. Now, the G-A-M-O-S. Gammas, as some of them say, or gammas, whatever way you want it. That's the old Greek word for marriage. G-A-M-O-S means marriage. So, if you're coming in one evening, and you're thinking about getting married, and you don't want the deacons to know what you're talking about, just say, I'm thinking about gammas. I'll get the message, all right. Yet, when you put the whole word together, in the Greek it means mixed marriage. Now, it seems that this very name came from things that were happening in the city, because while this place in Asia was a very beautiful place, history records that all the pleasures of the world had come to lodge there, and they were embraced by their city. So that this beautiful place had put its arms round all the sinful pleasures of the world. And maybe it was from that it got its name, mixed marriage. I carry the mask. We are not interested in the historical setting of the city, or even the meaning of the name. You know, we've learned this as we've gone through these churches here, that not only is the Lord speaking each time to an actual, literal church. The church of Ephesus was there, all right. The church of Smyrna was there, the church of Pergamos was there. These were actual, let's keep that clear, actual, literal churches, oracle churches, in these particular cities. But the word of God is always wonderful, and there are deep things of God there all the time. And not only do we hear the Lord's messages through these actual, literal churches, but I believe, as some prophetic scholars, that we have a prophetical outline of the whole church of Jesus Christ given to us in these seven churches. And if you remember, we looked at Ephesus, and the one thing the Lord had against this church of Ephesus was this, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. And I believe that this covers the history of the church of Jesus Christ for the first 100 years. You know, as you see about the Pentecost, and our members were filled with the Holy Ghost, and they stood up to preach Christ, and they lived Christ, and they honored Christ, and everything was Christ. They rejoiced, and thought they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christ. They were taken up with Christ. But towards the end of the first hundred years of church history, the church began to be taken up with its doctrines, and with its government, and with its elders, and deacons, and pastors, and teachers, and evangelists. And it began to leave its first love. And I think that that first hundred years of church history is outlined even in the letter to the church of Ephesus. Last week we were looking at the church of Smyrna, and the word comes from myrrh. And myrrh comes because the tree crushes this gum that's within, and oozes out like a rosin, and this myrrh is found. And we find that this church, this suffering church, it covers the next 200 years of church history, and that, remember, covers now 300 years of church history. A hundred years under the church of Ephesus, and then 200 years when the church was suffering, when Nero was on the throne at Rome, and this wicked Roman emperor was now against the church through a blaze with rage, throwing the Christians to the lions. And for ten periods of Roman governors, the church went through a time, a time of great suffering. And that's exactly what we found in the church, in the letter to the church of Smyrna last week. Now, I think that not only do we see those two periods, but there's another period that comes in this church this evening. I think from the 300 year mark of church history to well over the 600 year mark, from the next 300 years, the church had it comparatively easy. Because when you come down, these Roman emperors, from Nero right down to Diocletian, then step into the arena of Constantine. And you see, Constantine didn't punish the church at all. Constantine professed to be a Christian. He was never a Christian, but he professed to be a Christian. And the Christians gave in to this. It was easing up the suffering. And the state took over the church, and that was wrong. The state has no right to take over the church. My dear friends, we should always keep to what Peter said. When the state starts to dictate, we should say that we ought to obey God rather than men. The state has no right to dictate to the church. The church has got a leader of its own, its head, the Lord Jesus. And all the dictates that we need, and the expectations, and the directions are found in the book before me. Of course, on the other hand, while we are here as the church, we're in this little province tonight, and we belong to the state in a certain sense. Yes, we're members of the state, and we need to be subject to the powers that be. Even Peter teaches this in his epistle, that we should be submissive to the king, and to governors, and to all who are saved by the king for the punishment of evildoers. And of course, this we gladly submit to. We don't think that the church should rule the state either. Nor do we think that the state should rule the church. We think that they need to keep their own place, and we need to be submissive to the powers that be in whatever land we're from. You know, I think that sometimes we here in Ulster are so narrow-minded that we think that this is the whole world. And if you were in Russia tonight, you would have to be submissive to the powers that be, so long as the powers that be don't come to direct the church. Yes, riches swap to place, and this is why the Lord is writing, because there was a sort of mixed marriage here. All the word is well chosen, isn't it? Because the church almost married the state. And so the Lord's going to talk to it, because the world got into the church at that period. Now, watch very carefully what the Lord says. Verse 12. Unto the angel of the church in Pergamos writes, These things saith he, which hath the sharp sword with two edges. Now, this is his signature on the letter. In the other letters, you see verse 1 of this chapter, unto the angel of the church in Ephesus writes, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand. And last week, down at verse 8, these things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. And on each letter he puts a signature. And on this one he writes a signature like this, These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges. Because there is only one thing that can save the church when the world is creeping into it and taking it over. And that's the word of the Lord. And it's a sharp sword. And it's got two edges. And I assure you that he used it on the church at this time. And I assure you that as I use it this evening, maybe some of you are going to feel the weight of it. But I can't spare you. And I have no notion of doing it. And if you are a worldly Christian, the Lord's got something to say to you tonight. Because the Lord doesn't like it. James, who was a very practical teacher, said that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God, whether you like it or not. You can find out that maybe you're occupying the place this evening of being an enemy of God. So it's the Lord speaking, the Lord who hath his sharp sword with two edges. The first thing that he says to the church is, I know thy works. He begins to talk about their neighbours. You know, our Lord is the faithful and true witness, as we shall find as we go through the book of the Revelation. Capital F, capital P, faithful and true witness. And of course, in faithfulness, he will always commend what is commendable. He who teaches us to give honour where honour is due, he always did so himself. And although he had certain things to say to this church and waited tidings to bring them, he said, I know your works. He could see all the activities in the church that we would please to. And I think that if we followed our Lord in looking at one another, it would do us good. Because instead of trying to just outline the thoughts right away, I wonder can we not find in one another something that would commend and be commendable. And so he says right away, I know thy works. Certain activities down there please to. And then he followed it on and said, I know thy works and where thou wentest. He's talking about the lodgings now, where this church was placed, even where Satan's seat is. And the word seat there in some of the translations is translated by the word throne, where Satan's throne is. And I think it would be perfectly right to say that's about Pergamos at that time, because this great city, this beautiful city, had embraced with open arms all the sinful pleasures of a wicked world. And we must ever remember that Satan is called the god of this world. Sometimes I think that some folks have the idea, the old foolish idea, that Satan is in hell. Indeed he's not. The apostle Peter makes it clear that he's walking about, seeking whom he may desire. And some of us believe that he's certainly very much alive, and loose in answer at this time. Because some of the things that I see and hear and read, the devil must be at the back of them. So that looking at this statement from one angle, it was perfectly true that this little church was just placed where Satan's throne was. But I think there's more to it than that, because he says at the end of this verse, let's keep the middle bit just clear for a moment, I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. Even in those days wherein Antipas, my faithful martyr who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. You know, it seems that the old devil, through worldliness, I suppose because of the influence of Constantine, he was getting into the church. The world was getting into the church. And you know friends, that's something that we have to pay great attention to, because he comes in so subtly, you could hardly catch it on that the devil was coming in. You know, when I came to this church almost 20 years ago, and I remember the very first morning that I came onto this platform and stood up here, I remember counting the congregation, you know, as they sang the first hymn. Maybe they thought I was standing up here like a sort of contrary man, or thought of a dope, unfortunate than what you think I am. Because I just counted everybody in the church, and if I'm right now, there were 84 members. Maybe they weren't all members at all. But you see, God came in down through those first five or six years in a very wonderful way, and at the end of six years we had to tear the place down and build it over. It took a lot of money for that. And I said to the congregation one morning, you know, in my own style, I said, you know, there's a lot of young people here, there's a lot of old age pensioners, and the young of no money, and the old age pensioners of no money. There must be a hundred of you in the middle there, and you could give me twenty pounds today for the Lord's work. Two thousand pounds. I'll tell you how much I had at night. I had over three. Three thousand pounds. But you see, the people were giving willingly, and they were putting the annex on, and putting the walls back, and we bought the text three next door, and all that paid. Supposing I die, supposing our old elders and deacons go, supposing in a few years time you've got new leaders, and they begin to say, well, we'll shut the annex off and we'll play table tennis in there. That's not what the money was given for. You'll remember to tell them that if I'm not here. This church was built for God. It wasn't built for balls. It was built for Bible. It is not built for tennis. It is built for truth. It is not built for fun. It is built for fundamentals. It is not built for parties. It is built for prayer. You'll remember, because as long as I'm here, that's what it will be used for. And you never lost anything out of it, me keeping the world out. And you never will. And all my elders and deacons are just the type of man that I am. And there's not a fringe in one of us. No. We won't have balls. We won't have tennis. You get that in the world. There's a club down the street with that. God's house is to be a house of prayer. It's not for parties. You see, the world can come into the church all Saturday. And it can be put over that this is good for the young folks and all that, and it's the world that's coming in. And you'll have a next marriage in your hand before you're much older, and it won't work. Now, I want to point this out, and this is the heart of the message. Verse 13. I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan sitthest. And thy holdest hath my name, and hath not denied my faith. Now, although the world had crept in, and we're going to find that it crept in before we're through with the message. Although the world had crept in, you know there were believers in there who had not denied his name or denied his faith. And thou holdest fast my name. They loved his name. And the word the faith there doesn't mean the faith that you believe with. It's the faith. It's the whole body of truth that's committed to the church. It's called the faith. And they never denied the fundamentals in anything before. And you know, I can take you to places today where they love the name of Jesus, where they hold fast to the fundamentals, but the world is stuck in the church. I can teach you all that. You know, when I went to Canada first to preach, and landed in New Brunswick, and went up to Woodstock, and I was preaching at a tremendous church. And when I went into the prayer meeting on the first evening, there'd be crowds gathered. But you know, some of the ladies, they were painted like clowns. I hold tight because I'm getting a hold on the sword just now. You might get a smack or two before you're out, but you'll have to just take it. And this was the first time I'd seen this sort of thing. And I got down on my knees and wondered where I was. And the lady knelt beside me, all hat on. And her face was actually, I'd seen clowns in the circus like this. But when she started to pray, I've never had a woman pray like that since. She really prayed. And this really shocked me. And I could see that this woman loves his name. And she's definitely holding fast to the fundamentals. But somehow the world has got in. And I knew that there was a pragmatite at my side. Knew that. However, you know, I've got to take my time about things. So I preached that evening on the text, He Shall Not Fail. And I preached about the unfailingness of my Saviour, and on the faithfulness, and on the dependableness. And I felt that the Lord came in and moved the church. You know, at the end of the service, before I'd got praying at all, a man rose and walked off the island fears, and then a woman rose, and then another one. I never invited them, but God was moving, and it was safe. And I went home, and I was living in a motel on my own. And I had given instructions at the hotel for the waitress to bring my breakfast over in the morning, because I wasn't getting up to get my breakfast. I was having my breakfast in bed. Actually, it wasn't because I loved my breakfast in bed, for I never get my breakfast in bed. It was because I didn't want to go to the hotel to sit and talk to the folk. So I just gave instructions. And so she brought all the breakfast over in a tray, and I'm sitting in bed having my breakfast, when the pastor of the church came in, sat on the side of the bed. He said, well, that was a wonderful meeting. He said, did you see the wee woman that was beside you in the prayer meeting? He said, well, I could have missed her. He says, you know, that woman's father was an old preacher just like you. And she was on the phone this morning. She says, I've never heard anything like this in my life. This man is identical to my dad. And why was he telling me the story of the phone rings? And I said, left it. He left it. He said, hello, it's pastor so-and-so. And it was Mrs. Manning the caller. And he was so close with the phone that I could hear what she was saying. And she says, pastor, wasn't that wonderful last night? I've never heard anything like that in my whole life. I was stirred to my toes. He's a great character, isn't he? And he's a lovely looking man. Don't forget that bit. I had just about taken the knot of this and I just took the phone off of you, see. And I said, so-and-so, I couldn't help overhearing you. Oh, she said, Mrs. Moore, I'm very sorry. I didn't mean you to hear some of that. She said, no, I just rang up to tell you how thrilled I was with the meeting and how wonderful it was to hear the old things being preached again. And I said, you know, Mrs. Manning, you shouldn't praise me too much because you don't know me. Because one of these nights I'm going to preach on Jezebel, the first painted woman in this book. And it seems that a lot of you ladies are following her and you haven't got a good leader. Well, I thought she had died on the other end of the phone line. There wasn't a mute out on the other end at all. And after I waited for a moment or two, she said, you're shocking. I said, you're a Pergamosite. And I think she was talking, thought I was talking about some queer thing from the free state or something. And she didn't know what this was. So I began to tell her the story of Pergamos, how that it was possible to love the Lord's name and how it was possible to love the fundamentals and yet let the world in on you. You see what I'm getting to now? Because that's where the Lord was getting to. And I gave her this whole sort of lecture. And we put the phone down and it was all over. And I went to the meeting that night and got down on my knees at the prayer meeting and the lady came and knelt beside me. It was Mrs. Manning. And she just looked at me. There wasn't a drop of paint on me. And I nodded and she nodded. She said, nothing. You know, I've seen this all over the world. I went to Copenhagen to preach and was taken by the chief surgeon of the big hospital there at home, a lovely table, beautiful place, tons of money. And when the dinner came, he said, did you drink dinner or beer? I said, surely you're not having this corsage stuff in this house. He said to me, it's just the tradition of our country. We all do it. He said, you know, the day that I was convicted of my sin, the one thing that stood between me and the Savior was Guinness. And I had to be saved from this bottle. And the Holy Ghost convicted me that it was wrong. And don't try to tell me that the Holy Ghost changes his principles when I cross the North Sea. But he couldn't see that. So there was nothing for it but reach for the sword. Because when I get in the tight corner, I just take the sword. So I said, well, sit down before you pull it out and let's get the Bibles down. And this is what I did with them. Now you watch what I did. I turn to 1 Corinthians, chapter 6. 1 Corinthians, chapter 6, verse 9. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, said, Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor traffickers, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And I said to him, Do you believe that a man who has been a drunkard all through life and dies a drunkard, do you know that he won't go to heaven? He said, I know that. I said, did you ever think for a moment how a fellow becomes a drunkard? He said, I've never thought. Well, I said, it starts by him taking his first drink. And wouldn't it be a dreadful thing on your conscience if some young fellow came to lunch here and he got his first drink of Guinness at this table, and afterward became a drunkard and died and went to hell? And I assured you that shook him. But I went a little bit further with it. I took him on over to Proverbs chapter 20. Book of Proverbs chapter 20, in verse 1 says, Wine is a mocker, strong drink enraging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise. And I said, you know, you can see right well that Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, is using this metaphorical language. He says, man, wine mocks at you. It just mocks at you. And strong drink rages at you. It brawls at you. And the man that's deceived by it is a fool. And I said, you should never be deceived by that sort, because the Bible says you're a fool. And then I went from there. I went to Numbers chapter 6. I remembered these all in the spur of the moment. In Numbers chapter 6 says, And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves through a vow of the Nazarites, to separate themselves unto the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drinks. And I said, you know, sir, my Lord was a Nazarene. Yes, our Lord Jesus was called the lowly Nazarene. And you know, all through his ministry, he never touched strong drink. And that makes it absolutely sure that up a muddied feet he didn't make it. There's such a thing as squeezy fresh, fresh squeezed juice from the grapevine. It's called in the Bible, new wine. And when they were mocking the apostles on the day of Pentecost, they said, these men are full of new wine. Because you couldn't get drunk on new wine, but they were just making a mockery of it. I said, sir, I'm following Christ. I said, you're a Pergamosite, that's what you are. I said, you love Christ's name. You'll stand by the faith, but you let the world into your house. You know, it's so easy to just let the world in and get mixed up in this. My dear friends, you become a friend of the world. You're an enemy of God. That's what you are. You're an enemy of God. You touch these worldly things. You're an enemy of God. Good luck. Yes, the Lord was talking to him. Let's get back to this. Pergamos. Yes, I want you to notice that the Lord, first of all, talked about the neighbors. And talked about the lodges. Was good enough to talk about the loyalty, but all the time he was getting around to where we're going to get around to. We're back at Revelation 2, verse 14. Jesus speaking through John to the pastor of the church, and to the church, and to us. For we're to hear what the Spirit said unto the churches. But I have a few things against thee. You know, the Lord always come out into the open when he wanted to say something. Because thou hast there then that hold the doctrine of Balaam. Remember Balaam. Balaam the prophet. The man that the coat of the arse hath to speak through. Because thou hast there then that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Beric? Beric was the king of the Moabites. And old Balaam the prophet taught Beric, the king of the Moabites, to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to reap things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. You see the whole story of Balaam is this. The story is this. That Beric, the king of the Moabites, was afraid of Israel. He had seen what Israel had done unto the Amorites, and the Amalekites. And now he goes to the old prophet, and he asks him to curse the children of Israel. But God wouldn't allow him to curse the children of Israel. Actually the old prophet went to do it once or twice. That's the time the arse spoke to him. But when he found out that he couldn't curse the children of Israel, he went away quietly and secretly, and he told Beric what to do. He says, you let these Moabite women in among the Israelites, and these worldly women will destroy them. And they did. Because when worldly women get into the church, they'll destroy it. Yes they will. And you know they had worldly women in the church. Oh I know they loved the Savior's name. I know that they would stand up for the fundamentals, but they'd put up with this sort of thing. I assure you we wouldn't put up with it here, not for a moment. But the Lord went a little bit further than that. He says, but I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there men that hold the doctrine of Balaam. Verse 15, so hast thou also them which hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. There are certain things the Lord hates, and we hate them too. I won't have any hesitation about it. We were not the Nicolaitans when we were at the other, one of the other churches. I pointed out to you that this word Nicola, it's the word that means conqueror. And the end, at the end of the word means people. You know there were people in the church who were overriding, they were overlording the people. It was a sort of priest craft, it was the beginning of it anyway. And when you get worldly women and worldly men, you'll destroy the assembly. But we don't want any priests or books around here, not for a moment. I was going into the hospital once, and a wee nurse on the floor, she said to me, where are you going? I said, you're going to see Mr. Scott, it was at that time. She said, you haven't your own collar on. I said, do you think this is a square one? I didn't collar my foot. It's an old poppy's collar she was talking about. Once I said, from this platform, these old poppy's collars amuse me. You see them on the 12th of July, a poppy's collar and no one's sash, what not to say, they both go together. It's belonging you know, but you couldn't tell them anything. And one of the ministers in the town, you know, they listen in to the text, they're not big enough to come in here, but they listen to the text in the back room afterwards. And he said to me on the seat, you know you were talking about my collar the other night, he said it was an old poppy's collar. I said, I still say it is too. He said, it's nothing of the kind. I said, my hush hush, here's the Roman Catholic priest coming along, and father, whoever it was down there then, was just coming along. I said, have a good look at it as he goes by now. Have a good look at it. And when he went by, I said to the old minister who used to be in Hill Street, I said, are you copying him, or is he copying you? I tell him that. And he was an honest old creature then. He says, God knows right well that we're copying them. It's a poppy's collar, you know. They don't have any poppishness in here. See my nice shorts and my... Oh, but there's one thing sure, that if we get worldly women, or priest crowd men in the church, we'll do it no good. The Lord helps us, so do I. I haven't anything to be afraid of about that. Now, there's just one thing for this. There's only one sure, and it's the word repent. That's what it is. And that's what the woman did. She turned up with the paint of her face. She's getting away from the world. My dear sister, you don't need to follow the world. And I'll tell you once more, the surgeon took the bottles away from the table, and he says they'll never be on again. That's the way you do it. And if you're just a master of a world that's got a creep on you, then tonight, get away from us. That's what you do. You repent. The Lord talks so lowly, just like that. It doesn't sound horrible until you repent. And then he said this, and this is the bit that I'm thrilled about. He says, repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Because the only cure for the believer is repent, and the only answer to work is the word of God, the sword of his mouth. And on every occasion when I have used the sword, it has made a mark, and I don't mind doing it, because my Lord would do it. Now, just to show you the wonder of God's word, not only are these literal churches, not only are these messages prophetical of the whole course of the church, but there's always an individual promise. Verse 17. He that hath an ear, this goes to anybody, you see. Let them hear what the Spirit says unto the churches. Now, listen to this. For him that overcometh, and we're talking about worldliness tonight in the church. For him that overcometh will I give to each of thee hidden manner. Isn't that very wonderfully put? It shows me. Because I can tell you this, that when the Lord takes from all of us all the worldly things, and the whole bunch of us would get tarnished very quickly. When the Lord takes them away, you're in the wilderness. This world becomes your wilderness. He's looking back at Israel in the wilderness. You know what he gave them in the wilderness, don't you? He gave them manner. And I wouldn't have any problem preaching for an hour on the manner. It's the picture of Christ. Well, it came forth from the Father, didn't it? It came down from heaven, didn't it? It was the bread of life, wasn't it? So we'll see. It was found lying on the ground. It had to be lifted by the hand of faith, and appropriated, and made your very own. It came to save people who were perishing in the wilderness. It came to sustain. It came to strengthen. Oh, you can go on. It's a picture of Christ. But you know Christ left his own and went away. He said, a little while ye shall not see me. And in a sense, he said unto us, and you know if we're going to have all the worldly things taken away from us, we need to feast on something. I'll wear your feet on the hidden Christ. That's what you feast on, without revealing the hidden manner. We're in the wilderness. We're enjoying ourselves. Take the world, but take me, Jesus. All its joys are but a name. But this is the thing, appreciating the danger in the wilderness. I will give unto you the hidden manner. But you know, he said something more here. He said, wonderful this book. My Lord was a great preacher, and certainly these were great letters. If it doesn't mean to hear, let them hear what the Spirit said unto the churches. For him that overcometh would like us to eat of the hidden manner, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth save as he that receiveth it. You know, I think this is showing truth. Because when people were being selected and elected for different jobs and offices and places in the old economy, sometimes the lot was cast. And if you were one of the judges in the gates, you had black and white stones. And when the urn was put round, or we might call it the hat just now, you know the man that put a white stone in for you was on your side. He loved you. I'm not sure of this, but there are folks around me who are sure of it. This is done in the Masonic yet. Some of you know it now, of course. Yes, I'll not tell on you, don't worry. Yes, they do. They do it with black and white beans in the Masonic. And if somebody black beans you, you're out. It takes everybody to put a white one in to get you in. But a fellow that drops a black one in, you're finished. Now, you see what the Lord is saying here is, that if you repent and get away from worldliness, and you appreciate me in the wilderness, and I become your whole feasting, then I'll tell you this, I appreciate you. I'll vote for you. I'll give you a white stone. Oh, isn't that really thrilling? You see, the one thing is the saints appreciating Christ, and the other is Christ appreciating the saint. And there's another old Jewish custom attached to this here, that sometimes at a wedding feast, instead of sending out invitations the way we do, they sent an invitation, but they sent a white stone with a special affectionate name on it. Sometimes it was the word beloved. Sometimes it was dearly beloved. Sometimes it was my friend. But you would know what name was on it. And when you received the stone with the name on it, you knew you were welcome at the marriage feast. And you know you knew that the one that sent it to you really loved you. And so what he said to them is this, you know you're in the wilderness. There are worldly women in there. There are priest-shaft men in there. Repent! Stop to appreciate me in the wilderness. And I assure you that I'll not only appreciate you here, but I'll appreciate you in the hereafter at the marriage supper. God bless you. There'll be only two verses. 1045. Two verses. We'll sing the first two. Sing. No, we'll sing the first. Yes, the first two. 1045. Fed, fed, each earthly joy, Jesus is mine. First two verses for this. Not to say that there would be books at all the doors, and there's plenty of them. Just want to say to any of the preachers that are here, I see the major from the Salvation Army and different other preachers here, and all the old age pensioners. You folks don't pay for them. You just take them. Take as many as you want, too. So, Lord bless you. Last verse. Second verse. Dear Lord, help us constantly to turn our eyes upon thee, and look full in thy wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of thy glory and grace. Help us to run this race down here.