Mike Bickle addresses the church of Pergamos in Revelation 2:12-17, emphasizing the dangers of compromise within the church. He highlights three groups: those who are faithful, those who compromise, and those who tolerate the compromise without taking a stand. The Lord calls for repentance from all groups, warning that He will act decisively against those who embrace false teachings that promote sin under the guise of grace. Bickle encourages believers to remain steadfast in their faith and to confront false doctrines that lead to spiritual compromise, reminding them of the promises given to those who overcome.

Look at Revelation chapter 2 if you want to open your Bibles. Follow along with your, a different translation. Father, we ask you that you'd release the spirit of inspiration, the spirit of impartation upon our minds, upon our hearts. Lord, we open our spirit to you right now. We say, come Holy Spirit, come and release your presence upon our heart. Even now, we thank you in Jesus' name, amen and amen. Well, we're continuing on Friday night through the seven churches of the book of Revelation with a view towards intimacy with God. And we're on the church of Pergamos, the third church, a church that the Lord was beckoning and calling out of compromise. There were a number that were faithful in their midst, but there were some that were compromising blatantly, and then others that were tolerating the compromise. And so the Lord was correcting those two groups, the group that were compromising and the group that didn't care that the others were compromising, though they themselves were living a clean life. But they were passive and tolerant about wrong ideas being proclaimed in their community that empowered other people to walk in sin. It's a standard that is unusual in the church today. It's understandable to confront people in compromise, but the Lord's confronting the group that were silent and tolerating the compromise as well. And so as I read this letter from the Lord's heart, I feel the challenge of the Lord in a new way. I mean, just to see a different facet of his heart that we don't think on that much. Let's read it. Revelation chapter 2, verse 12, to the angel of the church at Pergamos, he says this, the Lord speaking, write these things, says, he who has the sharp two-edged sword, so the Lord's describing himself as the one with the sharp two-edged sword because he's going to show forth his sword to this church. In each of the descriptions that the Lord gives of himself, it's an indicator of what he's going to magnify in his character and his ministry to that church. And he's going to show himself as the zealous one against his enemies. That's the part of his personality he's going to magnify. And then in terms of his ministry, he's going to show that he acts decisively and he intervenes against his enemies. So he shows himself as the God who has the sharp two-edged sword. He says in verse 13, I know your works and I know where you dwell. You dwell where Satan's throne is. He says, you hold fast to my name and you do not deny the faith. So that's a one facet of one group of the church. There's three actual groups. He's confronting or I mean he's speaking to the group that's compromising, that I already mentioned, the group that's tolerating the compromise, and then the group that is faithful to his name that will not deny the Lord under pressure. He says, you hold fast to my name. You did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful martyr, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. So he says it's Satan's throne and it's where Satan dwells or where he manifests his activity is what it means that he dwells. Verse 14, but I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam. So that's that category I was talking about. You have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam. Those were teachers in the body of Christ at Pergamos, the city of Pergamos, that taught the doctrine of Balaam. And he goes on to describe it, and we'll break it down in a few minutes. Balaam is the one, and this is from Numbers chapter 22 to 25. It's a well-known passage of scripture. He goes, Balaam was the one who taught Balak, who was a king, to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things, sacrifice to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus, you also have those, this is the second category of the compromisers, who hold to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. So those, there were teachers who taught the doctrine of Balaam and those that taught the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Two different groups of people numbered among the compromisers and also among the compromisers are the members of the body who actually participated and accepted these teachings. He says in verse 15, you have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate, I hate these things. Now he says in verse 16, repent or I will come to you quickly and I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Now he's talking about those that hold to the doctrine of Balaam, those that hold to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, two different subcategories of the compromisers, those who embrace the teaching and their lifestyle, but he's also talking about the people who allow it. Those that aren't participating in it, they don't teach it, but it doesn't trouble them that this doctrine is being taught. They don't stand up against it. And he says in verse 16, repent. Now he's telling all these different groups to repent or else I will come to you and I will come to you quickly. Now this is not a passage right here about the second coming. He's not talking about the second coming. He's talking about coming to them in a manifestation of his discipline in the church. He says verse 16, repent or I'll come to you quickly and I will fight against those with the sword of my mouth. With the sword of my mouth, I will fight against them. Verse 17, he that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, now he's gonna give three promises to the person who overcomes. Number one, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. He says, I'm gonna give you a taste of it now and I'm gonna give you some more in the age to come. This is a twofold promise. They're gonna enter into some of this now and they're gonna enter into some of it in the age to come. Number two, I will give them, him, a white stone and number three, on that stone, I will give that person a new name that's written on the stone which nobody knows except for the person who receives it. Okay, the primary message to this church from the Lord, he's encouraging their faithfulness. We don't wanna lose sight of that. He's talking, he's telling those that are holding to his name faithfully in the midst of this demonic city. I mean, some cities have greater manifestations of darkness and evil and they were at the epicenter of darkness in terms of an earthly city. He goes, I understand that and I honor you for the stand you take. He goes, even in the face of martyrdom, there are those of you that in the midst of evil, you're not yielding to sin and in the midst of evil, you're not yielding to the fear of martyrdom. You're not yielding to fear nor are you being pulled by the sin of that city. Now, the sin of that city, as I mentioned, as you can see, was immorality, flagrant immorality. Now, there's immorality in every city but some cities are known for it meaning because there's such a measure of it that's distinct from other wicked cities. They stand above the other dark cities of the earth and this was one of those cities and that's what he's going to now give the second part of the message. He's going to call them to stand against the false teachings as well as the deeds themselves. He's calling the people that are yielding to the compromise to repent but he's calling for the people to stand up against the false teachings that's happening in the body of Christ in their city. Now, these teachings were specifically teachings that tolerated compromise. I mean, there's many differences in the body of Christ among different denominations and groups in the body of Christ. There are the major doctrines of Scripture, the deity of Jesus, the infallibility of Scripture, the resurrection, things like that. And we can't tolerate that. Then there are important but the minor doctrines of Scripture you know, about things relating to baptism, you know, how do you baptize in communion, many different things. There's many of those. Now, we're not supposed to stand up against one another in the minor doctrines. They are important but he's talking so I'm not wanting to fuel people's zeal up that if anything they think is wrong anywhere, they're going to go take it on in the name of Revelation 2, verse 12 to 17. But this is particularly talking about the issue of compromise. It was a city of feasts. Now, the feast of the ancient world would be very parallel to the party of the present world. Now, there was an added dimension because the idolatrous feast of the ancient world in Asia here there was a social pressure to attend them. But the majority, once they were at them, they really engaged in the party spirit. But there was a social pressure because attending these idolatrous feasts was connected to being loyal to the Roman Empire. To not go to these feasts and worship these idols was the same as saying, I'm not loyal to Caesar or the Roman Empire which means you might be a traitor. Now, in that time of the world, so many nations were invading one another. You could not tolerate somebody that was not loyal to your city. It's a far greater consequence than today because there was so much military attack from one city to another, one region to another. But having made this point about the pressure, the social pressure that they felt, they had to go to these feasts or they would actually lose their jobs. And the Lord held the line that they could not go and participate. Even if they lost their lives, let alone their jobs, the Lord said, you must not go. Now, we don't have anything of that level in our society. But the second dimension of this, we know about the party. We know about, these were idolaters. They were actually worshiping false gods. That was one part of the feast. But an equally dominant part of the feast was the immorality and the drunkenness. And that's why the people liked it. They had to go from the state requirement and in most cases, they had to go occasionally. But the problem is, is that once they've fulfilled the state requirement, many of them, even believers, were going for the drunkenness and the immorality as well. And the Lord says, you can't do this. This is wrong. This grieves my heart. And he said, I want you to break free of that. I want you to take a stand, not only against doing it yourself, against the teaching, the doctrine that allows that to happen. There's a lot of this teaching in the body of Christ today that allows compromise. It's always under the banner of liberty and grace. But it's false teaching. Because grace that empowers people to sin with confidence is a false teaching of grace. And there's much of it going around the body of Christ. Much of it. Undoubtedly, many of you have been, ran into it here or there at different times of your life. Okay, let's look at Roman numeral three. Jesus' revelation of Himself in this wicked city. He says, He declared, He revealed Himself, His personality and His ministry is the one with a sharp two-edged sword. In other words, He had zeal. He was a warrior. He had zeal against darkness, against that which declared war on Him. But He had more than zeal. He was actually going to take action and intervene into people's lives. Often the Lord's zeal, He restrains it. And then at a distant time, He intervenes. He says, The time has come where my restraint is over. The Lord gives time for people to repent. He says, Tell them that soon I'm going to intervene. My zeal's been burning for some time, but soon I'm going to intervene in that very generation. Paragraph A, the sword from Jesus' mouth releases judgment on His enemies and it reveals the zeal of His heart. Now, several times in the book of Revelation, I think it's actually nine times, the word sword is mentioned in the book of Revelation. And many of those is speaking of the sword that Jesus uses with His hand or the sword that comes out of His mouth. And that would be the same thing. Because the sword that comes out of His mouth means when He speaks it, the power of God hits His enemy like a sword. The sword that proceeds from His mouth is the word of God. It's not a metal sword coming out of His mouth. What it is, He speaks the word and the Holy Spirit moves with the same power as if a metal sword broke in and crashed in against the enemies of God. So that's what He means by the sword of His mouth. He speaks and the Holy Spirit is so quick to do what He says with exact precision that it is the very sword of God. He doesn't have to do anything but speak it. Although the scripture makes clear, He actually swings the sword as well with His hand when He comes back. So there's scriptures that indicate that as well. So the sword is found in two places. But the sword of His mouth is the sword, it's the power He releases when He speaks in judgment. Now He's, paragraph B, this is a very powerful evil city and the state was killing the Christians. It was legalized murder against the Christians and the sword of His mouth first, its first application was to encourage them, that He had more power than the Roman Empire. His sword was actually mightier than the sword of Rome. So the first application of the sword of His mouth was against the persecution. But the second application, we'll look at in a minute, of the sword of His mouth was against sin in His church. Because His sword strikes against His enemies and sin is His enemy. And if sin is being invited and promoted in the church, then the enemy is inside the church. When sin, there's a difference between a person who's struggling in sin and they declare war on the sin, they stumble, they sincerely repent, they set their heart against it, that's called immaturity. And you have every reason to have confidence in the grace of God while you're maturing. But the believer who says, you know what? Nobody's catching me, I'm just going to give myself to my drunkenness and immorality or whatever it was, that's what it was in this case. And they decide that is going to be their lifestyle for a season, that is declaring war against the Lord. Does it mean He doesn't love them? Matter of fact, He loves them so much, His sword that He is aiming against the Roman Empire, He is going to use it to deliver His people from compromise. Not because He doesn't love them, but precisely because He does. And He told the church at Pergamos, He says, in a moment, we already read it, He said, I'm coming after everywhere in my church that is declaring itself in agreement with sin. Again, you know, guy A is committing the sin and guy B is committing maybe the same sin, but guy A is declaring war against it, he hates it, he's seeking to get free, he's fasting and praying to break free, but he's confessing it. Guy B is planning more ways to get away, more times to do it and boasting about it, wherever he's comfortable to boast. And so both of them are in the church. One of them is in big trouble with the Lord. The other one, the Lord gives His mercy to. Well, He gives mercy to both of them because the sword of the Lord is His mercy to wake them up because they wanna be woken up before they meet Him face-to-face. Now, the sword of the Lord using the first application against the Roman Empire, this is going to be a very important passage that we are gonna draw from, we are gonna confess it, we're gonna pray it. In the generation the Lord returns, when the literal Antichrist government is far more powerful than the Roman Empire and is bearing the sword against the end-time church, we will call on He whose mouth is like a two-edged sword to speak on our behalf against the enemy. So this will be a very important passage, Revelation 2, verse 12. It's a passage that the saints can use in intercession in a place of persecution. Lord, release your sword against the enemies. In other words, stop them, intervene in power. Top of page two, He says, verse 13, I know your works, in other words, I know your ministry, I know the labor you're doing for me, which is important because they are ministering, they're true to serve in the midst of such darkness. I mean, some folks, if the darkness is really intense, they just draw back and quit. They think it's enough just if I don't deny the Lord. But this group, there was an element in this group, I mean, a portion of the church of Pergamos, they were, it was more than maintaining, they were actually serving and ministering to others and leading people to the Lord in the midst of this kind of danger and peril. They were standing up and they were going forward. I know your works, the Lord says, I've noticed them, I see them, I'm writing them in my book. I haven't forgotten it. I know how hard it is to maintain your ministry assignment in this environment. Because not only did they minister to the saints, but they were ministering to unbelievers as well. He says, I know that you dwell where Satan's throne is. And I know that you're holding fast to my name. You did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful martyr. The word martyr, by the way, is the same word often as witness. A martyr and a witness is the same word often. There are some times where it can be a different word, translated martyr, witness, but my martyr, my witness is an interchangeable word. My faithful witness is really what he's saying about Antipas, which is interesting, which I mentioned in the notes, that Jesus called himself the faithful witness back in chapter one, verse five. And now he's calling Antipas the faithful witness. He's giving his own, one of his own names to this martyr. What a precious reality. He was killed among you. Now he's going to say it again where Satan dwells. So it's where Satan's throne is, that's his authority. But where he dwells, it speaks of the manifest activity. The activity is openly manifest. Because wherever there's a dwelling of darkness or a dwelling of light, it's talking about a manifestation of it in that city. Paragraph A, number one. Now he says, I know that you dwell where Satan's throne is. Now it's important to know that Satan has several places that would be epicenters, unusual manifestations of his authority and power. There's a number of cities in the earth. It's not every city, but there's several of them. And nobody's sure if this is the sense of Satan's throne in the singular sense or in the rare sense. My guess, it's in the rare sense, but I don't know for sure. Meaning their Rome surely was as wicked and evil as Pergamos was and had as much idolatry, as much persecution, as much just dark activity going on. So I think of Rome as being Satan's throne in the West and Pergamos as being his throne or a city of unusual display of demonic authority and activity as being the throne in the East. Now that might not be true. It might be that there's one city in the singular sense of which Satan's throne is at. But again, just by history, like surely Rome was equally, even more wicked than Pergamos was. And so I would assume that where there are, it says in Ephesians 6, 11, the demons are called powers and principalities, thrones and dominions. And so thinking of the phrase from Ephesians 6, 12, that thrones and he also Ephesians 1 verse 21 or 22, where Jesus is above all thrones, demonic and angelic. So I think of the word throne as being an unusual place of Satan's activity, but not the only one, but one of very few in the world. But either way, it's a very intense environment and that's what we care about. They had an unusual number of false gods being worshiped in that city. Four major Greek gods had a center there of activity. Then they had the murder and the persecution. I mean, whenever blood is shed, there's always demonic activity when blood is shed with injustice. Then they had the teachings of Balaam and the Nicolaitans that the church was buying into. The combination of those three dimensions, the false gods, the spirit of murder and persecution, and then the stronghold of false teaching in the church that was promoting compromise, the three elements together combined to make Pergamos a city of unusual satanic authority and activity. Paragraph two, I assume this, that Rome was a center of Satan's activity of this same level, as my point, in the West as Pergamos was in the East. Okay, paragraph D, he says, you hold fast to my name, you did not deny it. He watched, he watches the faithfulness in character as well as in the risk of danger of persecution. Two total different issues. He watches faithfulness to his name when people are in the presence of darkness and in a city that's so steeped in darkness. They did not deny the Lord under the pain of persecution, the threat of it, nor under the weight of the immorality. They held true and they would not deny the Lord's name. So they held the Lord's name in terms of doctrinal purity, in terms of faithfulness to stand true even to the death. Now the Lord will give us power to hold true to his name. Every command in the Bible is a promise of enabling. Every command is. It's a promise of enabling. So when the Lord tells us to hold true to his word, he will help us. The very fact that he tells us to, now we're not having to hold true in persecution much. There are times we take a stand and it's uncomfortable, the stand we take even among the church, but more at this hour of most of our lives, it's staying true in the realm of purity in the midst of an evil city. But the Lord will give us power to do that. Paragraph E. One of the ways that we will stay true to his name is by speaking the sword of his word. By speaking the word of the Lord as a sword that goes forth. Meaning when Jesus was attacked by the, by a Satan in Matthew chapter 4, he spoke the word of God and that's the same thing we do. We speak the word of God. Now many believers don't do that when they're under attack. They just kind of hang in there and hope they get through it. We need to speak the sword of the word of God because when we speak the word of God in the name of Jesus against attack and it's the confession of our soul of obedience and the confession of our authority against darkness, it is like a sword that strikes against the kingdom of darkness. Notice in Revelation chapter 12 verse 11 that it's the word of their testimony. The word of our testimony, when we speak the word of God, that's our testimony. What we believe and what we're taking a stand, that is like a sword that's liberating us and freeing us from the powers of darkness. But I just have, having pastored over the years, most believers grit their teeth. They don't speak the word. We need to speak the word. Jesus had to speak the word against Satan. I mean, if Jesus had to in Matthew 4, how much more do we have to speak the word when our soul is being pulled by darkness? Top of page three. He said, a few things I have against you. Because there are those who hold the doctrine of Balaam. He's going to now describe it. Balaam was a prophet who taught King Balak. Balak is a king and Balaam is a prophet. It might take you a minute if you're not familiar with those names to kind of get your mind around them. To put a stumbling block before the children of Israel. And he did this by getting the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. And I'll explain that in a minute. I'll break that down. Thus, I also have against you, you have people in your congregation, teachers, not just folks that privately hold it, they teach it openly. The doctrine of the Nicolaitans, he goes, I hate this. Here's the Lord, I hate this. I tell you, whatever the Lord hates, we want to line up and hate. Paragraph A, he goes, a few things I have against you. Now, he's talking to the church that he loves. And the Lord says, I have this against you. He goes, I'm not against you as people, but I have this issue against you. The Lord can be for you as a person, but against an issue that you're compromising within your life. So the Lord's correction is not rejection. And the Lord corrects us, he's not rejecting us. So he's telling them, I'm for you, but I'm against this dimension of your church life. And to the guys that were teaching it, I'm against this particular thing you're doing. Now, there's two different groups. The Balaamites and the Nicolaitans, they were similar, but they were two distinct groups. Some commentaries will say, he's just saying the same thing twice. No, it's clearly two different groups. But for our purposes, they have the same bottom line issue. That they allowed people, they taught the doctrine of liberty and grace in a false way. They said it's okay to participate in the partying, in the immorality. It's okay to engage because the grace of God freely gives you salvation anyway, and the grace of God will cover you, it doesn't matter. And Jesus said, I hate that teaching. I hate it. It's not true. This teaching is so prevalent in the church today. I'm telling you, it's all over the church. The church of America. Youth groups and old groups alike. New category, old groups. Some of my buddies, you know. Both groups, they teach this. And it's enticing and even winsome because who doesn't want grace? Who doesn't want to teach grace? Everybody wants grace. So they just mask the deception under the title of grace, and then they run with it. The Lord says, I don't buy it, and I don't like it. And I don't like that you're silent about it. I don't like that you tolerate it. Not just, it's not enough just to stay away from it. I want you to stand against it. He says, certain men, look at Jude chapter 4, Jude verse 4. He goes, certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation. They were ungodly men. They turned the grace of God into lewdness. They turned the grace of God into lewdness. What that means is they turned the teaching of grace into the teaching of grace. The liberty to live lewd, lewd is immoral. It's more than sexual immoral. It would involve any kind of indulgence in the flesh. Licentiousness is what some translations say. They turn the grace, they turn the teaching of grace, they twist it to where people have confidence to live in lewdness. They don't have to repent because salvation is a gift anyway. Paragraph C, he says, you have those who hold to the doctrine of Balaam. Now, again, the doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans boils down in our context to the same thing. It gave people the confidence to participate in these temple feasts, which were big parties, as we call them. That's what they were. If it was at the university, it would be the fraternity party is what it is. And they would go, and they would say, hey, the grace of God's keeping me clean. And they would end up compromising in the midst of it. And some of the leaders taught the people it was okay to do that. The guy says, I'm only witnessing at the party. Witness to them, and you know what? They're delirious. They're not paying attention to you. Their spirit isn't sober, and neither is the rest of them. If you really want to witness to them, witness to them in another setting. Don't play games with the grace of God and with your own soul. Been a pastor for 30 years. 99% of the witnessing that happens there is really a failure. I mean, really is bad. Because what happens is the witnessing goes the other way, and the believer yields. Watch this for years and years and years. Start off with a good, I'm going to go there and witness. No, find a guy or gal you're going to witness to. Witness to them in a different setting. They're alive 24 hours a day. That's not the only time you have a chance. They'll be alive tomorrow. Go talk to them in a different setting. Well, here's what, paragraph D, here's what Balaam did. He taught King Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel. Now, here's what happened. Balaam's the prophet. So, King Balak, he's of the King of Moab, of the Moabites. It's a neighboring nation right next door. So, this foreign king says, hey, Balaam, the God of Israel, can you give a curse against Israel so they won't be power and blessing on them, so I can go in and fight them and beat them? And the guy goes, now what? He goes, you're a prophet. You have power. Why don't you curse Israel before I attack them, and maybe I'll beat them then? Curse Israel? Wait, it doesn't work that way. I just can't curse Israel so you can beat them in war? He goes, I'll tell you what, I'll give you a lot of money. I'll give you a million dollars. Made up number. I'll give you a lot of money. So, he goes, okay. So, he went to kind of get all ready to get a word to curse Israel, and God said, gave a blessing to Israel. So, Balaam came back and said, yeah, I will bless Israel. Balak goes, the King Balak goes, what? He goes, I paid you good money to curse Israel. He goes, every time I get in a spirit of prophecy, the truth comes out. He didn't exactly say that, but that's four times he tried it. Four times. Every time he tried to curse Israel, yeah, I bless thee, Israel. And it just came out the wrong way for the deal he was getting the money for from this evil King Balak. So, Balak is depressed. He goes, man, this is not working. I paid you well. Balaam said, I'll tell you what to do. He goes, I know how this works. He goes, you send your ungodly women over the line. There's their state line. You send them over and invite them over to the party. They'll come. He goes, I know those Israel guys. They'll come. They'll get involved in immorality and idolatry. Then God will have to judge them. He says, get them to sin to where God becomes their enemy. There you have it. Balaam goes, Balak, the king goes, that's brilliant. I never thought about that. Get the covenant people to agree with darkness, and then God has to attack darkness. So, King Balak, he got the gals to cross over state line, so to speak. Hey, guys, come on over to the party. The guys went over. They got involved in the idolatrous feats, which always had drunkenness in them. They stumbled into immorality, and the judgment of God came on them. And then Balaam got his money. And so what the Lord is saying, Jesus, he says, teachers in the body of Christ, you're doing the same thing that Balaam did. You're empowering the people of God to come under judgment, instead of empowering them to walk in light and liberty. You're doing the same thing Balaam did. You're getting the people of God crosswise with God, so God has to judge them, because God is committed to judging darkness. He is. Darkness is not repented of. God is committed to judging. He's at war with darkness, and that's good news for us. And if we decide to camp out in darkness, we put ourself in harm's way with the Lord. Not that he doesn't love us, but he will wake us up and get our attention, because God cannot change. He is light. He cannot change. Paragraph E, what they did is that Balaam taught Balak to put a stumbling block. A stumbling block is the same word as a trap, that they would, you know, the trap would spring, the trap would spring, and the animal would be captured. A stumbling block is a trap that gets triggered, and then the person's caught in bondage. And these teachers, by their, what seemingly was well-meaning liberty, was actually putting the people of God in the position to get trapped, to spring the trap, so that they were ensnared like an animal, and they would be caught captive to sin. He goes, you put a stumbling block there. You set a trap by, you know, regardless what age we're talking about, but by teaching the young people it's okay to live in their drunkenness and immorality. It's not going to go too far. It's setting a trap. They will get snared by it, and the devil will get them in the discipline, and even the judgment of God will come on those very people that the Lord targeted for blessing. That's the stumbling block he's talking about. And Jesus said, tell the leaders at Pergamos, I hate it when they teach that. I hate it. And I hate it when you tolerate them teaching it. It's ruining my people who I love, and you think you're liberating them. You're bringing them into slavery to darkness and demons, under the message of the grace of God. Paragraph F. He goes, I also, there's another group that holds to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. It's the same thing in essence, so I'm not going to go through that. You can read a little bit of it there. Let's go to the top of page four. He says in Revelation 2, verse 16, tell them to repent. Repent of the doctrine of the Balaam, the Balaamite teachers. And we're talking about these are teachers, recognized teachers in the body of Christ. These are not guys on the outside. They're in the church. Second group, the Nicolaitans. Third group, the people that are actually engaging in the, not just hearing the teaching, they're actually walking it out. And then the fourth group is the people in the church that are quiet about it, particularly the leadership, particularly the leadership. He says, you repent, all four groups, all four of you need to repent. And if you don't, I will come to you quickly. This is not the second coming he's talking about. I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Some will be more severe than others. I will fight against them. Can you imagine Jesus fighting against you? Can you imagine having a ministry and Jesus is fighting against you in the ministry, the whole ministry? You know, Jesus is the one shutting the door and we're on the other side. In the name of Jesus, I command that door to open. The Lord says, you can't use the name of Jesus and move me. I'm Jesus. Doesn't work that way. I'm the one resisting you because I love you. I'm fighting against you because I'm fighting for you. That's why I'm fighting against you. I'm frustrating you because I love you. I'm fighting against you because I'm so for you. And I'm trying to wake you up before your time is over on the earth. Because I'll come quickly to them. Because his zeal, he gives time, his zeal stirred up the whole time. But he says, the time is up and now I'm coming. Sometimes there's a verse, I don't have it written here, Ecclesiastes 8, 11, where it says, because the sentence of judgment is not executed quickly, the foolish person doesn't take it to heart. Because the Lord's kind in his patience and he gives time to repent, the foolish man doesn't take it to heart. He goes, well, I guess God's sleeping. He doesn't care. I guess it's okay. And Ecclesiastes 8, 11 says, no, no, take it to heart. Romans chapter 2, verse 4, let the kindness of God lead you to repent. Don't let the kindness of God convince you it's okay to stay sinning because he's been nice to you. Some people, they interpret God's patience. They go, I guess it's okay to keep sinning. Romans 2, 4, God says, no, interpret it different. Interpret it that I'm kind to you and I'm giving you as much time as possible to understand my kindness so that you will repent. Because there's a time where he comes to a church and he comes to a family. He comes to individuals with the sword of his mouth. He hadn't given up on him. It's when he doesn't, we're in trouble when he doesn't come after us. That's when we're in big trouble. As long as the Lord is speaking and correcting, that means he's committed to us still. If he's silent, it's trouble. It's trouble when he's silent. We want the Lord's correction. Paragraph D, it's interesting that in the Balaam story, Balaam was actually eventually killed by a sword. And it's also interesting that years earlier before he died by a sword, an angel appeared with a sword to kill him for disobedience and his donkey spoke. You know, Balaam's hitting his donkey and the donkey says, hey, the angel's got a sword, he's going to kill you. I'm not going to walk you right into it. But here's the point, and that's another story. The strangest part about that story is not that the donkey talked to Balaam, but Balaam answered him. He goes, well, you know what? I mean, that's a whole other level. Because the donkey saw the angel, but my point is the sword was coming on Balaam and God in his mercy stopped it and said, no, no. He supernaturally opened the mouth of the donkey and the eyes. God says, no, the sword, Balaam, I'm going to give you another chance. I tell you, the Lord has lifted his sword to get our attention, and he's given us a chance in mercy. And Balaam didn't take it, he ended up dying by the sword. And it's not an accident that the very imagery of the sword of Jesus' mouth, because the sword of his mouth just means he speaks it, and the activity, the disciplining activity of God, the negative activity happens in the person's life. Let's look in closing at the promises here, three promises. He says in verse 17, He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church. To him who overcomes, I will give him some of the hidden manna. I'll give him a white stone, and on the stone, I'll write a new name. Nobody will know the name but the person that I write it. Okay, just real brief. Now, these are all promises. These are not promises of salvation, of justification by faith. I've read a number of commentaries, and the promises in the seven churches, they reduce them to the promises everybody has, whether they repent of those trends or not. These are not promises that equal the promises of the seven churches. The introduction, the salvation that everybody has, they're all in addition to the free gift of grace. They're given as incentives to get the church to be diligent. The church doesn't earn these things by their diligence. We are given, I mean, we don't earn our salvation by diligence, but we are rewarded according to diligence. Number one, he goes, I'll give them some of the hidden manna. Now, manna, most of you know, was the breads that came from heaven, appeared every single day, six days a week, on the ground. When the children of Israel came out of Egyptian slavery, and God gave them bread every day, and they picked the bread up, it was the manna. But what happened is when they were done with the 40 years in the wilderness, and they went into the land, they took some of the manna, and they put it in the Ark of the Covenant by God's instruction. And then the Ark of the Covenant, it ended up in the Holy of Holies. The point of it is the hidden manna was the manna that was hidden in the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies. That was the hidden manna. All of Israel knew what the hidden manna, it was the manna that only one person could see one time a year, and that would be the high priest. It was the manna that was out of sight. It's the manna that's in the Holy of Holies. So what the Lord is saying, I'm going to give you manna that is out of reach, except for I give it to you supernaturally. Now that, it's an increased capacity to receive the Word of God, to receive revelation. Now that manna, we can have hidden manna in this age. We can have a greater capacity to receive things that are out of reach, things that are the holiest things on God's heart. Because this manna was in the Holy of Holies, the highest things God has to give. And so in a limited way, we can receive some of the highest things He has for His church in this age by pressing in. But in the age to come, those that were faithful will receive, I mean really diligent, they will have a greater capacity to receive from God in the age to come. All of us in the age to come, the resurrected bodies, we will all have different capacities and different degrees of the glory of God in our experience. The idea that we'll all be equal is a completely not biblical idea. It's not biblical that we're all equal. That's absolutely not true. We're all equally loved, but we'll have different measures and degrees and capacities in the glory of God in our resurrected bodies forever. We'll all be different forever. It does matter what we do. He says, tell them I'll give them that. Number two, I'll give them a white stone. Now there's several different views of what the white stone might be. Because nowhere in the Bible does the Bible tell us what the white stone is. And so the, because all the other promises, it's clear the Bible interprets the Bible. But in the culture of that day, with very prominent practice in the culture of the ancient world, is when a person would do a valiant deed, whether for the community or in battle. Maybe they would do a special service to the city, or they would do a special service in battle to save the city. Men or women, old or young, they would be awarded for this special service a white stone. And they'd have their name on the stone. And that white stone, they would use it like we would think of as a ticket. It would be, it would give them admission to places of privilege, particularly in the feasts. And they would have seats of honor. So it was like a badge. It was like an all-access pass when the big feasts came. They could sit by the king or, you know, if they did something really good, or by all the those in positions of authority. And so that was a common thing in that day. And what I believe it means, the Lord is saying, I think it has a parallel to that custom that was well known in that day. You are faithful and valiant in your obedience. You obey me. You resist immorality. You resist the fearfulness that makes you compromise under pressure. And I will give you the white stone. I will give you the all-access pass, so to speak, at my feast. And I will give you greater privileges. I am convinced it means greater privileges and honor in the great messianic feasts, the marriage supper of the Lamb, which I believe goes for a thousand years. I believe that the feast continues for literally a thousand years. I can't prove it, but I believe it. And I believe that we will participate in that feast throughout the entire millennial kingdom in different dimensions of it. And I believe this white stone is talking about our place of status and privilege beyond our initial salvation. These rewards are being offered to motivate diligence to people already born again. It's not calling them to be born again so they get the gift of righteousness. They're already born again. It's calling them to press on to the end at a high level of maturity. Then he says, paragraph E, he goes, I'll put a new name on it. Now, the name that's put on that ticket, so to speak, it's not a ticket, of course, because the word actually for stone, white stone, is a brilliant stone. It could speak of a diamond, of a radiant, brilliant stone. Just don't think of a little boring dead rock. The stone the Lord gives, they will all be different. And there will be light and glory and probably have fragrance and color and all kinds of dimensions to it that we're not immediately thinking of. And the Lord gives a reward to the people that loved Him. You can be sure that reward is thought through and it's a worthy award or reward. But anyway, he's going to put a name on it. And when I believe that name on it, as all through the Bible, God gives people new names, I think that name indicates the quality of our character and our obedience to the Lord. The Lord will have a name that is unique to you that describes the way you loved Him. You know, like in a family, mother or father will have a special name for one of the children. It's a name of an endearment. Or they'll have a special name for each other, a name of endearment. There's names of endearment. So there's an endearment dimension and element to this. But I also believe that name will also indicate their role. It will indicate you'll have an endearment issue. It will indicate their role and their privilege and their authority. And it will indicate dimensions of their personality that touch the Lord. He will write that name and it'll be part of their intimacy with the Lord. Amen.