Since I read the text, I'm not
going to read it again. I'm just going to take up with
our divisions. Let me make a couple of statements
here. And this is the point of this
Revelation 2, verses 12 through 17. Faith in Christ is the only
thing that pleases God for His people. This is the work of God,
that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. This is the work
of God, that you believe on His Son. And this is what displeases
God, is for those who profess to know Christ to turn and compromise
with false doctrine, false preaching, that's false in its doctrine,
and to compromise in our living, to live in a manner that's ungodly
and unglorifying to God. Those things are displeasing
to God. And we're going to see here that our Lord encourages
us to persevere in the faith. And He tells us what awaits those
who, by His grace, by the Spirit sealing us and preserving us
unto the end, He shows us what we shall receive when we overcome
unto the end. And we only overcome through
faith, trusting Him to deliver us. That's the only way. Alright,
let's begin now in Revelation 2 and verse 12. The Word says,
"...and to the angel of the church in Pergamos write..." This is
who the Lord is writing to. He sent this by the angel of
the church, which in the Scriptures means His preacher that He sent
with the Word. And he sent this to Pergamos. This is where the church was,
Pergamos. And he said, and write these things. Now the first thing
I want to show you here is the character in which the Lord Jesus
manifests himself to the church at Pergamos. Look at verse 12
with me. He says, These things saith he
which hath the sharp sword with two edges. Have you noticed as
we've gone through this series of these letters to the churches,
how that Christ has manifest himself in a different character
to each church? He manifests himself in a different
character to each church that we've studied so far. The church
at Ephesus was losing that sweetheart love that they had for Christ
when they first believed. And so He appeared to them in
this way, as one very near to them, as one very close to them,
as one hold in them. Look at verse 1, Revelation 2,
1. To the angel of the church of
Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars
in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks. The stars, like the angel, are
a type of the preachers too. His preachers, his missionaries,
he says here, I hold them in my hand. I hold them in my hand. I'm very near to them. I'm holding
them. He sends them. He fixes them. They have no light
in themselves, just like the stars have no light in themselves.
They get their light from the sun. He's the son of righteousness
who shines and gives the light. through which He gives to His
people. And He says, and I hold them. I'm holding them. And He
says, not only that, I'm walking in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks. And the seven golden candlesticks
picture His churches. And He's saying, I'm near to
you. I'm walking right where you are. I'm right in your midst.
And I'm holding my faithful preachers, and I'm right there walking near
you. Then look to the church at Smyrna.
They were being greatly persecuted. They were facing imprisonment,
even death. And they needed to persevere
in the faith. They needed to be preserved to
persevere in the faith. So look how Christ manifests
Himself to them in verse 8. He says, These things saith the
first and the last, which was dead and is alive. Remember what
we saw Thursday night? He said, I'm the author and the
finisher of faith. He said, run the race that's
set before you, looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of your
faith. Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despised the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the
Father. He said that because He's the author and finisher.
He's the upholder of our faith. He's the strengthener. He's the
preserver of our faith. He's the keeper of our faith.
And that's how He appeared to them. He said to us, because
I live, thou shalt live also. Remember? Because I live, thou
shalt live also. We shall be saved by his life.
So he says, I'm he that was dead as your substitute, redeeming
you, paying your sins. But now I'm alive. I'm alive.
Now, here in Revelation 2.12, the church in Pergamos is doing
battle. with the false preachers who
are leading away some of those who profess Christ and leading
them away into false doctrine and into a way of ungodly living
by their false teaching. And so here Christ manifests
him in this character, verse 12, he which hath a sharp sword
with the two edges. The sharp sword is the gospel. It's the gospel. The gospel that
we preach. The spirit of the word of the
Lord. This is the sword with two edges. And it has two edges because
it does two things. This gospel destroys his enemies
and it heals his people. It cuts and it heals. It cuts
and it heals. It does this in His people. It
cuts us and cuts away that which is unprofitable for us and at
the same time His gospel heals us. It's a two-edged sword. That's
what it does. And Christ is always in the midst
of His church with His sword ready to do battle with His enemies.
That's the message He's conveying to us here. Now here's the lesson
from these things. When we see how He appeared in
these different characters to each of these churches, The churches
we read about here, in these seven churches, we're going to
go through each one of them, they represent us right here,
this one church. They represent problems and troubles
that you and I as a church body may have at any given time to
one degree or another as we go through this life together. But
when we see Christ appearing, in these various characters according
to the problem that that particular church was having, we see Christ
is our Savior. We see He's able. We see He's
all-sufficient in whatever need we have. He's all-sufficient
to provide and help us and protect us and keep us. That's the lesson
there. Alright, here's the second thing
I want you to see. Our Savior knows the conditions
where we live and He knows and commends the faithfulness of
His people. Look in verse 13. He says, I
know thy works and where thou dwellest. I know thy works, and
I know where thou dwellest." Even, and when it says even,
he's saying, this is where you're dwelling, even where Satan's
seat is. And he says it again, he says,
and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith,
even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was
slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. I've titled this message,
Faithful Where Satan Dwells. These were children of God faithful
right there where Satan was dwelling in his capital. Christ said,
I know thy works and where thou dwellest. He called this city
where this church was the seat of Satan and he called it where
Satan dwells because false doctrine was rampant there. False doctrine
was the primary thing that was being taught. The truth was not
in the majority there. False doctrine was in the majority
there. The doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans
was in the majority there. And so he says this place is
the seat of Satan. It's where Satan dwells, but
right there in that place. showing His power and showing
His effectual grace working in His people, He called out His
sheep. And He had assembled them and gathered them together and
fitly framed that body together. And there they were, faithful
in that midst of this place where Satan dwells. You and I can look
around where we live, brethren, and even in our country, for
that matter. And we live where Satan dwells.
We have to conclude that's the case. We live where Satan dwells.
But God, by His grace, has a people, and He's calling them. And He
has called some already, and He's gathered them together.
And where He's begun a good work, He'll perform it till the day
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then Christ says of these
brethren, He says, Thou hast held fast My name, and hast not
denied My faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was My faithful
martyr who was slain among you. One of their brethren, this man
named here, had suffered martyrdom, and he suffered martyrdom. He'd
been killed because he believed Christ, because he believed on
Christ. And whatever it was, whatever
conditions were given, that, you know, You have to deny Christ
or we're going to kill you. He wouldn't do it. He just wouldn't
do it. This man believed Christ and said, I'll die with Christ.
And he did. They slew him. But look, the Lord says, but
he's my faithful martyr. He's my faithful martyr. He's
my faithful witness. And Christ says of these saints,
he says, thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith
even in those days. Can you imagine living in some
place in this world today where trusting Christ meant being killed? Where it meant that you could
be killed for the sake of believing in the Lord Jesus? We ought to
thank our Lord every day that we have a place where we can
worship Him in peace and come in and sit down and worship Him
in peace. And I have to worry about hiding and going under
the cover of darkness to try to gather together or be thankful
for that. And then this verse shows us
this, that the name of Christ and the faith of Christ are one. He says, thou holdest fast my
name and has not denied my faith. The name of Christ includes His
person, His character, His work, His doctrine. And when we hold
fast the profession of our faith in Christ, which is my faith,
when we say our profession of faith or when we say that we
have faith in Christ, you know what we're saying? What we're
really saying is our faith is in His faith. He said, you've
held fast my faith. And what we're really saying
is, my faith is, I'm trusting His faith. My faith I'm not trusting
in. My faith wavers. My faith is
sometimes small and sometimes nothing at all. His faith is
constant, consistent faith. Perfect faith. And I trust, as
I've told you before, we trust the faithfulness of Christ to
keep us faithful. We're trusting Him for that.
That means we trust Him to keep us even when we don't feel like
we trust Him. And when we trust Him, we're holding fast His name. Because you don't trust somebody
that doesn't have a good name. And He's got a good name. He's
got a good name. You hear some folks say, well,
we have a Christ-centered ministry. We don't have a Christ-centered
ministry. Christ is all our ministry. That's all we got. And that's
what Paul was led by the Spirit of God to say, Christ is all,
in and all. He told the Corinthians, I was
determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. He said, if it wasn't for all
of these shenanigans that y'all are pulling and all of this mess
that y'all are wanting to be concerned about and bring up
and be talking about, we wouldn't even be talking about this stuff.
And he said, the only reason we're talking about it now is
to get you turned from all that junk back Christ. That's exactly
what He's saying. Because when I was among you,
I was determined to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. You preach Christ and you'll
find out that the Lord does the work in the heart that needs
to be done, that only He knows needs to be done. And the preacher
can spend a whole lot less time running around and trying to
correct everybody and corral everybody if you just stand up
and preach the truth. That's how God does the work
in the heart of His people, through the truth. I had some men come
to my door yesterday that told me they were Jehovah's Witnesses.
And they spent five minutes talking to me and never said the first
word about Jehovah. They were bearing witness of
the Jehovah's Witnesses. That's who they were bearing
witness of. They weren't bearing witness of Jehovah. And there
was a fellow there who seemed like... When I come, the one
who doesn't talk is always the one who's new. He's the one who's
new. And I thought, well, maybe the
Lord will do something. And I said, come here and sit
down. Let me tell you who Jehovah is. And they come in and sit
down and we talked for a little while. You can tell you who Jehovah
is? This is the name we hold to.
He's Jehovah Jireh. It means, I am the Lord, will
provide. I am the Lord. I am, will provide. I will provide. What do you need?
I'll provide it. You need justification? I'll
provide it. You need reconciliation? I'll provide it. You need righteousness,
the fulfillment of my law? I will provide it. You need sanctification
from sin and evil into my Son to come into my presence perfect
and holy and without blame? I will provide it. You need to
be called and saved and kept? I will provide it. Jehovah Jireh,
I will provide. Whenever Abraham went up that
mountain, Isaac was carrying the wood up the mountain, and
they had fire. And they're walking up that mountain, and Isaac said,
Father, now we're going to offer a burnt offering. And he said,
we got fire, we got wood. He said, where's the lamp? and Abraham trusting God. This is faith, brethren. This
is faith. Abraham going up that mountain
knowing in his heart he's going up that mountain to slay that
boy. He's going up that mountain to
lay that boy down and kill him and put a knife in his heart
and slay him because God told him to, to test him to see if
he really believed God or not. And he's going up that mountain
to do that. This is the boy that God has said He's going to bring,
that Christ the promised seed is coming through this boy, and
all those elect remnant that's going to be saved out of that
natural history are going to be saved through Him. And now
the Lord is saying, slay this boy. And he's the son Abraham
loved. This is his son. And Abraham's
going up that mountain, and he's intent on doing what the Lord
told him to do. And on the way up that mountain, he said, my
son, The Lord will provide Himself a Lamb. And the Lord is the Lamb. And the Lord has provided Himself.
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's that lamb. And He
did. He provided a lamb. They lurked,
turned around. There was a literal physical
ram caught in a thicket. And to take the place, to be
the substitute for Isaac, to take his place so Isaac wouldn't
die. He's Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. He's Jehovah
Rapha. I am the Lord that healeth thee.
They came to those bitter waters and they were murmuring and complaining
because they had nothing to drink. They had nothing to drink. He
said, there's a tree right there. He said, it's been there all
the time. It's been right there. All you need to do is cut it
down and throw it in the in the waters. And they cut it down
and threw it in the waters, and the waters was made sweet. And
He said, I am Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. That's
who He is. You need healing? I'm talking
about soul healing. I'm talking about you need to
be healed inwardly, spiritually. He's the one that does it. He's
Jehovah Nisi. I am the Lord, your banner. We're
fighting a warfare. We're going to battle in a warfare.
Whenever Moses held up the rod, the gospel of Christ, Christ
high and lifted up, Joshua, picture Christ out there on the battlefield,
he defeated the enemy. Whenever Moses' arms got tired
and he let his hands down, the enemy prevailed because Christ
wasn't being exalted. The only thing he's given us
to do is exalt Christ. Hold him up, declare him, cry
aloud, preach him. Set Him forth before everybody.
And He says, I'll go forth, your Joshua, your Savior, and I'll
defeat the enemy. I'll do the work. And when it
was all over with, He said, I'm Jehovah Nissi, the Lord your
banner. I'm the one you're fighting under,
your flag. Jehovah Sidkenu, I am the Lord your righteousness.
It says, in His days Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell
safely. And this is the name whereby
He shall be called. Now we're going to read this
in a little bit and it's going to say something else right there.
Right here it says, this is the name whereby he shall be called.
The Lord our righteousness, Jehovah our righteousness. Jehovah Shalom,
I am the Lord your peace. The Lord said unto Gideon, Peace
be unto thee, fear not, thou shalt not die. That's what it
means. I'm the Jehovah Shalom, the Lord
your peace. Jehovah Shema, I'm the Lord is
there, walking in the midst of the seven golden candlestick.
I'm the Lord that's there. This is the name that describes
the Lord in His church. His church is a guarded city.
He's the bulwark. He's the bulwark around His church.
He's the reason that the gates of hell shall not prevail against
His city. And He's Jehovah Shema, I am, the Lord is there. He's
Jehovah Raya, I am the Lord, your shepherd. We're walking
through a valley of a shadow of death. But we don't have to
fear, because there's not much to fear about a shadow. I must
fear about a shadow. That means the substance has
already been destroyed. And Christ has come. And He's destroyed
everything that would destroy us so that everything that appears
like it would destroy us is really just a shadow. It's just a shadow. And death itself is just a shadow
for the believer. You ever had trouble passing
through a shadow? Won't have trouble passing through that
shadow either. Why? Because of Jehovah. Jehovah Raya. I'm the Lord your
shepherd. That's why. And all these names
of covenant grace, they meet in one name. They meet in one
name. Jehovah Jesus, I am the Lord
your Savior. Look over at Isaiah 54. After that great declaration
of what Christ accomplished on the cross in Isaiah 53, Isaiah
54 opens up with, break forth into singing and spread your
stakes of your tent and get ready because my house is about to
expand. And then he says this, he makes
this declaration, he says, who has redeemed his people and who's
doing this work? Verse 5, he says, for thy maker
is thy husband. The Lord of hosts is His name,
Jehovah. Jehovah of hosts is His name,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth shall He be called. I asked those fellows yesterday
the first question I told you to ask them. I said, is Jesus
Christ God? And they said, well, we believe
He's the Son of God, and we believe He plays a very important part
in God's plan, but no, we don't believe He's equal with God.
I said, we worshiping a totally different God. One I'm worshiping,
everything's under His feet. He's got all power in heaven
and earth. He created everything. By Him were all things made.
He's ruling everything. He's redeemed His people. He's
calling out His people. He's going to bring His people
to the Father and present them to Him. And we're going to all
in that day bow the knee and praise Him. And we're going to
see the Triune God bodily in that day
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who we're going
to see. But then turn around and say
this, turn around and say that, I said, when sin entered this
world, God wasn't surprised by that. I said it was part of His
purpose to come forth and redeem His people. And I said, and it
wasn't out of his purpose. He's absolutely sovereign. And
they just about fell out of their chair when I said that. And I
said, well, if he's not, and if Satan did that without God's
permission, and he did that of his own accord, then he's equal
with God. And you just sat here and told
me God's own son's not equal with him. Now you're going to
sit here and tell me Satan's equal with him? I don't want a God
who's not God. I don't want a God who's not
in control of everything. That's who this one is. He's
in control of everything. He says, now you've held fast
my name. And he's our high priest who's
come and he's gone into the holiest of holies by himself with his
own blood and he's purged our sins and he's put away our sins
and he's sat down at the right hand of the Father which no other
high priest ever did. And unlike any other high priest,
this high priest is a king. after the order of Melchizedek,
a high priest after the order of Melchizedek who was a king
priest. And he is that Melchizedek. He's the king of his kingdom.
He's the head of his church. But in this context, when we're
dealing with all these false preachers and all this false
doctrine that's going on, you know where we're glad to hear
His name declared? He's our prophet. He's our prophet. He's the one holding the sword,
the two-edged sword, and He's the one accomplishing His work
in the midst of His people. When we hold fast the name of
Christ, we're holding fast faith in Christ because He's the author
and finisher of faith. He's the sum and substance of
faith. He's the alpha and omega of our faith. By His grace, believers
hold fast the name of Christ. By holding fast His name, we're
holding fast His faith. His faith. That's what we're
trusting in. His faith got the job done. That's what we're trusting.
How do we hold fast the name of Christ and the faith of the
gospel? It's not by simply understanding doctrine and learning doctrine.
Anybody can learn true doctrine. You can learn true doctrine just
like you can learn anything else. I did. I did. I learned it and
could argue it with anybody. But you remember we looked there
in Ephesians 1 and it said, after that you heard the Word of God. After that you heard the Word
of God. He's come and given us an understanding that we may
know God. Now, there's a difference between
knowing doctrine and knowing God. There's a difference between
knowing true doctrine and knowing Christ. A big difference. And
the difference is when you know Christ, or rather, as Paul said,
you're known of Him. That's how we know Him, being
known of Him. When we're known of Him, we receive
the love of the truth. There's a huge difference. We
receive the love of the truth. Then Christ becomes our Father. I mean, God becomes our Father. Christ becomes our everlasting
Father. And now the brethren are our
brethren. Now when you're speaking against
one of His people, you're speaking against my brother. When you're
speaking against something in error against Him, you're speaking
against my Father, my Savior, my God. And when you love somebody,
it makes all the difference in the world. When you hear somebody
speaking about my son, my daughter, You said in here that brothers
have brothers and sisters. It doesn't affect you as much.
But when they speak about your brother and your sister, it has
a whole different meaning because you love your brother and your
sister. This is how we hold fast his name. We love the truth.
We buy it and sell it not. We've got the thing to purchase
it with without money and it's Him. And we hold on to Him and
we don't let go of Him. And we love the truth. We hold
fast the truth that Christ has fully, finally, freely, forever
accomplished the redemption of His people and we shall not be
lost. We shall not be ashamed for putting
all our trust in Him. Never ever. We hold fast the
message of grace apart from works. You want to cut through all the
mumbo jumbo and all the dung that everybody wants to talk
about when they come to your door? Cut through it this way. There's
only two religions in the whole wide world. There's the religion
of works and the religion of grace. That's it. That's it. It doesn't matter what name it
flies under. It doesn't matter if it's here or if it's in the
Middle East. It don't matter if it's on Main Street or if
it's over in the back jungles of Africa. The thing is, It's
either cane worship, where you're coming with your best fruits
and your best works and something you've done, or it's coming,
like Abel did, with the blood of a lamb, confessing all your
sin, confessing you cannot approach God except you come in a Redeemer,
in a lamb that's been slain on your behalf and put away your
sin. I was speaking these things yesterday and one of these men,
he said, the man that wasn't speaking finally spoke up. And
he spoke up, and I don't know why he chose to say this, but
he spoke up and he said, well, surely a virtuous life counts
for something. And I said, well, if you have
a virtuous life, where'd it come from? Who gave it to you? Who sustains
it? The good works we walk in have
been before ordained. If we walk in a good work, God
ordained it, and God brought us to it, and God gave us the
grace to do it, and God brought us through it, so that if we
did anything virtuous in His life, we got to give Him all
the glory. Are we going to praise our law keeping? I asked this
fellow, I said, I said, not only not looking on a woman, I said,
but how about this? When you hear somebody sitting
there talking to you like I'm talking to you right now, and
telling you there's nothing you can do to save yourself, and
outwardly you're putting on this little nice exterior so that
you look so calm and collected, but inside you know right now
in your heart you're raging mad because I'm telling you you can't
do a thing to save yourself. I said that's unjust anger against
God. You just broke all the law. Now
what you gonna do? Now what you gonna do? Sinners
have got to be shut up to Christ. They've got to be shut up to
the fact that we're lost, we're dead, we're undone. And even
after God has called us, He doesn't call us and give us the Spirit
so that now we can fulfill the righteousness of the law. His
Son came to fulfill the righteousness of the law. By the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. And He came and condemned sin
in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. He
did that work. He did that work. He did that
work. The glory goes to Him for doing
that work. If we could do it, God wouldn't
have sent His Son. He wouldn't have sent His Son.
So we hold fast to grace, electing grace, redeeming grace, regenerating
grace, preserving grace, resurrecting grace, glorifying grace, the
grace of God that gets the job done. And sinners don't contribute
a thing. They don't contribute a thing.
Alright, let's move along here now. Let's move along. Thirdly, we see that in His church,
even amongst His faithful people, there are those who are not faithful.
He said, I have a few things against thee, verse 14, because
thou hast dared them that hold the doctrine of Balaam. who taught
Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel,
to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication."
That was his doctrine. Those things that represent false
doctrine. He told them, here you got these
children of Israel, they're walking, they're following the Lord. He
said, do something to put a stumbling block between them. Trip them
up somehow. Trip them up somehow. And he
said, and then you can bring them in and you can teach them
to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication. And
what they were trying to do was attract them. This is what Balaam
taught. He said, take some women, this
is literally what he said, take some women and use these women
to attract them to come. You know what churches are doing
today? Churches today are advertising to you. They got all teams. They got this humanitarian mission
going on, and they got this missionary endeavor going on. They're telling
you, you know, we got this service for if you're black and white,
and we got this service if you're married and unmarried. We got
this service for you if you like to stand on your head and read
the Scriptures, and this message for you if you like to stand
on one leg and read the Scriptures. Whatever you like, we got it.
And they use all those things to attract. They use a harlot
to attract. Not gospel, not the gospel. What
do you have? We got preaching of Christ and
crucified. That's not going to be very attractive to a natural
man. But that's what he used. And he put a stumbling block
before him. And then once he got them in there, they say,
now once we get them in here, we can teach them the truth.
Well, but once you get them in there that way, the only way
you can keep them in there that way is to keep doing those things.
And then if you don't keep doing those things, the preacher won't
get his paycheck and the building won't get paid for. And so you
got to keep on doing those things the way you're doing them. And
so you just keep teaching them to eat meat offered to idols. And in doing so, everybody's
committing spiritual fornication. That's what it is. Now, these
folks who had turned to this, what they were doing is they
were trying, for sake of not bearing persecution for the name
of Christ, they'd show up some days and they'd go to church
with the believers, and some days they'd go over here and
worship with Balaam. Balaam and the doctrine. Those folks. And
by that, they kind of kind of walked a tightrope and stayed
friendly with everybody, and they didn't have to bear persecution
from anybody. And the Lord said, the only thing
you're doing is denying Me. Flat out denying Me. You're denying
Me. You're trying to yoke together
a believer and an unbeliever so that they can try to pull
together. And that's an unequal yoke. And
when you have an unequal yoke, somebody's going to bear the
burden. And I'll tell you who's going to bear the burden. The
Lord is saying, that one who's left me is going to bear the
burden. And he's going to bear it at the Lord's hand, at the
Lord's hand. Trying to make righteousness and unrighteousness dwell in
the same ship, have fellowship. Trying to make light and darkness
dwell in the same room. That ain't even possible. That's
not possible. And that's what the Lord said,
these things are not possible. They're trying to make us say
that we got part with an infidel and infidels got part with us.
Peter told Simon Magnus, you got no part with us. You got
no part with us. But they were trying to ride
the fence on this thing. And they were doing it to avoid
persecution. What if Christ had done that? When Christ came,
what if he'd done that? If He just said, I'm going to
compromise a little and say there's something you can do to save
yourself. The offense of the cross would
have been gone. And when He did that, nobody
would have nailed Him to a tree. He would have never borne a cross.
And you and I would have never been saved. You see how important
it is to bear a cross? Now seeing that and seeing that
Christ bore that cross for us, that makes us willing to bear
the cross for Him. to hold to the truth. Others had another
problem. He says, verse 15, so hast thou
also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing
I hate. These heard the truth that where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. And so they said, well, if where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound, then let sin that
grace may abound. And Paul said their damnation
is just. It's not by committing sin that
the grace of God abounds. It's not. The grace of God abounded
by Christ putting away the sin of His elect people by shedding
His own blood in our place. The grace of God abounds by the
Spirit of God entering into a heart, creating a sinner anew and giving
them a new heart, making them a partaker of the divine nature
so that now Christ reigns in their heart rather than the dominion
of sin and Satan reigning in their heart and they have a new
master and a new ruler now so that sin doesn't reign like it
did before. That's grace abounding. But the man who says to be under
grace means let sin and sin and sin that grace may abound. That's
an evident case that grace don't even exist there. It don't even
exist there. Anywhere a man claims to believe
that, there's great error. But the fact of the matter is,
brethren, there's a lot of ways to deny the Lord. Some do it
by just keeping their mouth shut, never saying a word. They don't
want to bear persecution. But the Gospel is offensive.
When you tell somebody there's none good, no not one, it's going
to be offensive. But always remember this. Number
one, don't try to be offensive when you're saying it. But number
two, remember this, God just might use it to draw. He just might. If you don't say
it, you know, He's not. But if you say it, He might just
use it. He might just use it. When you tell sinners they can't
keep the law, when you tell them if there had been a law given
which could have given life, verily righteousness should have
been by the law, but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin,
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them to believe, you tell somebody that, they're going to be offended.
But when you tell them that, God might use it. He might use
it. When you tell them that the reason
their preacher's not preaching the gospel, the one and only
reason they're not preaching is the reason God gives. And
it's this, in Galatians 6, 12, he said, as many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh. They're showing out, that's what
they're doing, trying to show off. He said, this is what they
do, they constrain you to be circumcised. And you can put
anything in the place of circumcision, they're constraining you to do
something. They're constraining you. Only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. They don't keep the law
themselves. They're wanting to have somebody
else that they got to do something by their constraint so they can
say, well, I got him to do that. Lord, Lord, didn't I cast out
devils and do many wonderful works in your name? Look at what
I've done. Look at these people I've got
to march in line and duck and bob, stand up, sit down when
I tell them to. And the Lord said, that's a work
of iniquity. It's a work of iniquity. The Lord said, I came not to
send peace, but a sword. And he said, he that is not with
me is against me, and he that gathers not with me scattereth
abroad. And he said, and whosoever does
not bear his cross and come after me, he can't be my disciple.
Can't be my disciple. Others turn from Christ, denying
faith and embracing false doctrine, like these did. And that's an
out-and-out denial of the gospel. Others turn and go with the Nicolaitans,
like these did, and they live an ungodly life. And that's an
out-and-out denial of the gospel. Both of them are. That's who
Paul was talking about when he said, they profess that they
know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient,
and unto every good work reprobate. Now make sure you understand,
these men who were compromising with these fellows, they weren't
saying they didn't believe the gospel. And they were saying
it well enough that the brethren thought they did. I mean, they
could tell you the truth and say, and that's what I believe.
I'm just thinking I might do some good over here. I'm thinking
I can help these folks. No, that's not why. God says
that's not why. That's not why. You're denying
me. You don't want to suffer. You don't want to suffer. That's
the reason. That's the reason. Now, this is what I'm telling
you is practical preaching. This is practical preaching.
This stuff that passes for practical preaching in our day is nothing
but moralizing, legalistic, law preaching, workmonging, will
works religion. That's all it is. It's got to
be Christ from the beginning, Christ in the middle, Christ
in the end. We've got to be telling sinners
they can do nothing to save themselves, and the only thing we can do
to please God is cast all our care into the hand of Christ.
When the scripture, when Paul said, I declared to the Ephesians,
I shun not to declare unto you the whole counsel of God, he
preached Christ to them. You think he preached everything
in the scriptures in three years? I've been here for six and I
ain't even touched it. But he preached Christ to them
from the day one and Christ is the whole counsel of God. You
got Him, you got everything. You got Him, you know everybody.
Know all things. Alright, let me get down here
now to the to the last thing, first, or fourth thing. Christ
gives a command to repent, verse 16. He says, repent or else I'll
come unto thee quickly and fight against them with the sword of
my mouth. Now this is interesting. He says, I'm going to come fight
against them. He never fights against his people. He fights
against them. This is how he did it. I'm going to do it with
the sword of my mouth. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. This is what happens. This is what happens. It's a
very interesting thing that happens. But this is what happens. Nothing
changes. Nothing about the message changes.
Nobody in the congregation usually knows it's going on. Nobody has
a clue. But the Lord makes that man who's
denying Him feel like the preacher's been reading his mail and knows
everything about Him. But it ain't the preacher, it's
God doing it. Christ said, I'm going to do
it with the sword of my mouth, with the gospel. And while everybody
else in the congregation is saying, that was the most wonderful,
most comforting message, that Christ got all the glory, that
was exalting to Him, I'm rejoicing, that man's sitting there saying,
Now, God didn't have anything to do with that message. That
preacher's using a bully pulpit to try to hurt me, and he turns
and he leaves and runs away. And you know what happens? Christ
says, I fought against him with the sword of my mouth, and I
have fanned my threshing floor, and I've separated the wheat
from the chaff. And He did it with the Word.
He did it with the Word, with the sword of His mouth. The sword
of His mouth. That's why Paul said, we are
unto God a sweet savor to Christ, in them that are saved and in
them that perish. Because He's doing the work.
He's doing the work. And who's sufficient for that? Alright, lastly, this is a word
of comfort, verse 17. I encourage you to go back and
read the notes. I'm skipping over a lot of stuff
here, but verse 17. I do want to include this. He
that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the
churches. To him that overcometh, I'll give to eat of the hidden
manna, and I'll give him a white stone, and in the stone I'll
give him a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving
he that receiveth it. Now these are things that Christ
will give us in glory. When he says to them that overcome,
he said to them who believe on me to the end. John said we overcome
by faith. Trust in him. To them that overcome
to the end. Now these things he gives were
types in the old tabernacle, in the Old Testament. And he
said I'm going to give you the anti-type of those things. I'm
going to give you the substance of what those things pictured
if you endure to the end. So what are they? He says, I'm
going to give you the manna that's hidden. The manna that's hidden.
The manna came down in the wilderness. The Lord said, take some of that
and put it up in the tabernacle. And they put it up in the tabernacle.
And the only one that had access to that hidden manna in the sanctuary
was the high priest. The only one. Well, Christ is
the high priest. Christ said, and I'm the bread.
And He says, to you that overcome, I'm going to give you to eat
of the hidden manna. He's made us kings and priests
unto God. He's given us admittance into
glory by His work so that we can come into His presence and
feast upon Christ in person. That's what He's saying. And
then He tells us there, He says, and a white stone. The high priest
wore what was called the Urim. The Urim. They disappeared. Nobody knows what happened to
them. But it represented this. The Urim was a white rock, it
was a crystal, and it meant light. And it was used to give divine
revelation. That's what it was used for,
for the high priest. Well, those who endure in faith
to the end will be perfectly conformed to the image of Christ
our high priest, and we will be partakers of the inheritance
with the saints in light. And we will have a full revelation
of Christ Jesus. Because for now we see through
a glass darkly, but then face to face. Then we'll know Him
like He knows us now. And then these white stones were
also used in ancient days for absolution. And the person's
name was written on those stones. So it may mean that as well,
that in that day, this is certain though, the scripture says, in
those days, in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
will be sought for and none shall be found. and the sins of Judah,
and they shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I
reserve." In that day, in the day of judgment, Christ is going
to declare absolution. Full pardon of our sins. He's
going to say, I've redeemed them completely. That's the white
stone. That and the light of His revelation
and the full inheritance of the saints in light. That's what
He's talking about. And then, as for the new name
written on the stone, look at Jeremiah 33, 16. And we'll close
with this, Jeremiah 33, 16. That Urim that the high priest
wore in the old days, it had the name Jehovah written on it.
And at the time that it had the name Jehovah written on it, The
priest knew that name. He saw the name written on it.
And nobody else knew the name that was written on it, but nobody
knew the Lord by the name Jehovah in those days. And it was a name
nobody knew. Well, this is the name that he
says, you're going to have a name that nobody but you know. Nobody
but you know. Look at this. Jeremiah 33, 16,
In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell
safely. And this is the name wherewith
she shall be called. When we read that a while ago,
it said this is the name wherewith he shall be called. Now it says
this is the name wherewith she shall be called. Because he said
in Revelation 3, 12, I'm going to give you my new name. What
is it? The Lord our righteousness. Jehovah
our righteousness. That's the name we'll have. So,
I hope that's been a help to you. I've been rambling, I feel
like, but I pray that the Lord will be pleased to grant us repentance
and grant us faith to run this race looking only to Him and
trusting Him and hold us and keep us and endure firm until
the end. We'll be saved. We'll be saved. You sum it all up that way. We're
going to be saved. We'll be with Christ. Amen.