Come down on me, come down and
see. Lean on me like a child in a
mother's womb. You can be turning your Bible
revelation chapter two. Revelation chapter two. Let's
read verses twelve and thirteen. Revelation two. This is third
letter in this series of letters or seven letters to the churches. Verse twelve, And to the angel
of the church in Pergamos write, These things saith he which hath
the sharp sword with two edges. I know thy works, and where thou
dwellest, even where Satan's seat is, 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." Now, the Apostle Peter in his
letter, in 1 Peter, his letter which was written Just before
the revelation was written. He said this in chapter four
verse seventeen he said the time is come. That judgment must begin. At the house of God. Christ's fan is in his hand. Do you remember when John the
Baptist said that. His fan. is in his hand. Speaking of a farmer with a wheat
rake in his hand who's sifting wheat, separating the wheat from
the chaff. And Christ said his fan is in
his hand, even now. And Christ began as soon as he
left the earth. Well, while he was here, but
as soon as he left the earth as well, to winnow his church. That means to sift his church,
to separate false from the true, to separate sheep from the goats,
to separate the wheat from the chaff. Because as soon as Christ
left, as soon as he left the church, he left the earth, false prophets crept in by the
score. He said this would happen, didn't
he? He said, as soon as I leave, many false prophets shall be
among you. And even false brethren, false
brethren, many professing believers joined themselves, I choose my
words carefully, joined themselves to his church. Now, God added
daily such as should be saying that many join themselves to
his church for various reasons chiefly I believe. Because of
the earthly benefits which the church enjoyed at that time that
is communal living with all of the provisions that the church
had food and shelter and so forth you know. Now what you turn over
to exit is chapter thirty four with And now, even today, because
the land is so full of so-called churches, and I advise you once again not
to use that term so lightly in reference to any, especially
don't use it in reference to a building. A church is not a
building. It is a building, but it's a
spiritual one. But because the land is so full
of so-called churches and so many people profess faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, these letters were written. And in
these letters, the Lord describes his true and faithful church
members. And our Lord strongly warns his
people to not tolerate false gospel. To not tolerate false
doctrine. To beware of false prophets and
even to beware of false disciples. He talks about no room for compromise
in this next letter we're going to look at no compromise to be
tolerated. And there's to be no fellowship
of sons of God with the sons of Baal. You remember that don't
you? It is to be no fellowship, there
can be no fellowship of light with darkness. We'll look at
Exodus chapter 34 here. Our Lord, who is the Word, who
never changes, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and
forever, says the very same thing a long time ago. In Exodus 34,
in speaking to the early church, which was known as Jews then,
or Israelites, many of which were truly the early church.
They're a type of the true church, but in Exodus 34, look at verses
11 through 16 with me. Look at our Lord's plain warnings
to the people, his people, concerning their dealings with other people. And the coast, Exodus 34, verse
11. I'm sorry, I was looking at the
wrong passage. There we are. I turned to the
wrong book. Verse eleven, Observe thou this
which I command thee this day. Behold, I drive out before thee
the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites,
and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take heed to thyself, lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land whither thou goest,
lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee. But you shall
destroy their altars. break their images, and cut down
their groves, that is, idols. Thou shalt worship no other god,
for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. And lest thou
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a-whoring
after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call
thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice, and thou take of their daughters
unto thy sons, and thy daughters go a-whoring after their gods,
and make thy sons go a-whoring after their gods. Thou shalt
make thee no molten god." So is that clear to you there? The
Lord's warning even to the early church to beware of mingling
with those who love not and worship not their God. Now to the world It's going to
be a very strong message because this letter to the turn back
to the tape. Very strong message because this
letter is a very strong. It's a message of comfort, but
yet it's a message of great warning. To the world, we are considered
bigoted. Or we are accused of being hateful,
not having a spirit of charity. or love for fellow man. But to Christ, to Christ, a stern and strong
and unbending, unmoving stand for the truth of the gospel is
commended, commended, commended. And this is the love. This is
that love to him first, a love for the truth, which Paul warned
the people of the second Thessalonians that some do not have it. Some
do not have this love of truth, and because they receive not
the love of the truth, you remember the text? He said, God shall
send them strong delusions that they believe a lie. God sends
them many miracles and wonderful works and so forth. to such a
point that they themselves are so convinced that they're children
of God, they're going to stand before God someday and say, hey,
we did all these things. We experienced these things.
He said, I never knew you. You believed an illusion. You
didn't love the truth. You didn't love my word. You
heart, you were a gainsayer. But to God Almighty, you know,
bigotry is required concerning his truth. Man called me. I've received
a great deal of response from that letter, more so than anything
I've ever written. One of our ladies was concerned
that, and I was too when it was first printed, I wanted it printed
in the religious section of that big, you know, big large print
section of full page section of the Friday paper, but it wasn't.
They misconstrued where I wanted it and put it in the letter section.
And I told one of our ladies who was also concerned that they
put it in the wrong place. I said, well, God's in control
of the editor, too. And as it turned out, there were
more people who read it that way than they would have otherwise. Now, I know that it wasn't as
full as I would have liked it to be, but I do have a responsibility As Ezekiel was told, you warn
the people of their sin. If you fail to warn the people
of their sin, I'm going to fire their blood at your hands. If
you tell them where their sin is, tell them what sin is, then
I'll not require their blood. And one lady did call me and
say, well, the blood of the people is not on your hands. I said,
thank you for telling me that. But one man called, and another
called, and I received some opposition, some hateful opposition. He called
me a bigot. He called me a bigot for insisting
upon God's word rather than popular opinion. Now listen, you know
where the term bigot came from? I hadn't noticed, but Joe Terrell
used this and Spurgeon, he got it from Spurgeon, and I looked
it up, and it's true. The word bigot comes from two words, by
and got, and that came from back in many centuries ago, where
there was a man who was supposedly a believer, a Protestant, in
the face of Roman Catholicism, and he was being forced to bow
to this pope and to their pagan religion. He was being forced
to bow or else give up his home and his family and everything.
And here's what the man said, and he said it in Latin, by God
I will not. And they called him from that
day forward a bigot, a bigot. He said, by God, I will not bow
before man. I'll bow to God. And everybody
who truly stands up for the truth, as opposed to everything else
that is false, is a bigot. He's a bigot. He says, I refuse
to bow. By God, I'm not going to bow
to anyone but God. by God's grace, and I'm not going
to believe or trust or look to or believe anything except that
which is written and revealed by God. I'm a bigot. That's exactly what I am. I don't
hesitate to take that term to me if improperly understood.
Now, the Lord Jesus Christ here in this letter, these letters,
He commends this firm and resolute, bigoted stand for his name and
his truth. Let the world call it what they
may. I prefer to take what the Lord
says about it. Now, you can love people. Don't
misunderstand me. You can love people, yet hate
the thing that corrupts them. I've said so many times, we do
not hate Roman Catholics, but by God's I hate Roman Catholicism,
don't you? By God's name, by God's glory,
by God's mercy, by God's grace, by God's Son, whom they usurp. I hate Roman Catholicism and
every other false religion and false way. And we can say with
David, I hate every false way. I hate it. After I steam all
that he precepts all of your word concerning all things to
be right and therefore I hate every false one. And you can
also say with David concerning those who are obstinate and rebel
and who are. Wholly given over to blaspheme
your first love and your Christ and your God then. You can say
with David do not I hate them which hate me. Right. And they would say that. All right now Christ the word
and here in chapter two verse twelve Christ the word says in
verse twelve. To the church in Pergamos right
these things say if he which have the sharp sword with two
edges Do you remember when he described himself in Revelation
1 as having a sharp two-edged sword proceeding from his mouth? Now, the Word of God is interchangeable. The written Word and the incarnate
Word is interchangeable. You can't separate the two. You
cannot separate God's spoken word, which was written down,
from Christ, who is the incarnate or the word made flesh. Right? You can't separate them. God
even said, I've magnified what? Above even my name. What? I've
magnified my word. You know, man's only as good
as his word. Right? You cannot separate the
written word from Christ, who is the incarnate word. This is
the reason every true believer must bow to and submit to and
believe every word of this book. Every word. Right? This is the word of his power.
This is the word of Christ himself who cannot lie. This is not the
words of men. This is not of any private interpretation,
as Peter said in 2 Peter 1, 20 and 21. No prophecy of scripture
was of any private interpretation, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God. It is truly, indeed,
the word of God, the word of Christ himself. It is the word
of his power. It's able to wound. It's able
to heal. It's a sharp, two-edged sword. In the hands of the Holy
Spirit, who alone can really wield it. It's too big a sword.
It's too big a sword. It's like that ancient fable,
remember? The sword in the stone, and only
a man who was powerful could take it out and wield it. Well,
only the Holy Spirit can wield or handle this sword. It's able
to wound. It's able to heal, which it's
done to every true believer. It's wounded them, but right
on the back of it, it's healed. It's able to kill, and it'll
kill everybody who stands before. Ready to receive it'll kill first
thing word of God does. Kill. But then right on the back
of killing it it makes a lot. It's able to break it's able
to discern it's able to pierce even the hardest part. He who
has the sharp two edged sword said that and also he who knows
Christ. He who has Christ has a knowledge
of this word And you can use it. And one of those men, I may
have already told you this, but one of those gang sayers said
to me, he said, all you want to do is quote scripture. I said,
you got that right. That's all I want to do. That's
all I want to do. They said the same thing to Brother
Daniel Parks recently, the so-called Jehovah's Witnesses, Russell
Ives. They warned all of their followers. not to go and listen
to Daniel Parks, because all he does, all he wants to do is
quote Scripture. Well, he that hath the sword
at his disposal keeps his words and he uses it. He dare not use
anything yet. All right, he says in verse 13,
now, he which hath the sharp two-edged sword says this, I
know your words. Now, once again, Christ commends
their stand for him, and he is conscious of their service to
him and their works, and he is observant of Christ. Once again,
let me remind you that he is not oblivious to what we do. He is observant of what we do.
So therefore, this, as well as all the other letters, place
great importance upon what the believer does, right? He said,
I know your works. And he says this too, I know
thy works, and where thou dwellest. We'll go on, I've already dealt
with the works part. And where thou dwellest, I know where you
dwell, even where Satan's seat is. In the midst of a God-hating
world. Now this man, one of these men said to me, when I began
quoting him verses like from Hebrews 12 to 29, I believe it
is, our God is a consuming fire. And he would, he would, he just
didn't like that. I remember one time, Bernard,
one time was talking to a man about the sovereignty of God
and the holiness of God. And, you know, we looked last
week at the dreadfulness of God and the terribleness of God.
These are scriptural terms, aren't they, to describe our holy God.
We don't, we love those terms. It describes his magnificent
character. One man who was Talking to Barnard,
listening to Barnard, he said, well, your God's a monster. And
Barnard said, well, you better prepare to be a monster then.
Because that's the God of the Bible. Ain't no apology for God's
Word. We don't attempt to explain it
away, do we? Huh? Not at all. And this is a God-hating
world. He said that. He said that all
through his gospel of John. He said, they don't hate you,
they hate me. He said, if you go out and just
dare to stand and tell the truth of who God is, and that he alone
must save, and he can save whom he will. They hated Moses for
that, and they hated every other prophet for saying that, for
merely telling men who God was. He's God. He's God. Nobody else. Not even the devil.
Certainly not man. He can do with his own what he
will. Men don't like that. And all of God's people have
dwelt from the beginning in the midst of a God-hating world,
and such were some of you who, when you first heard the gospel
of God's sovereign grace, his character, you rose up in opposition
to it. But God, this same God whom men
call a monster, is full of mercy and grace and love and condescended
to you to reveal the truth to you, to show you that he is terrible.
but he's also merciful. That he is to be feared, but
he's also to be worshipped and thanked and loved. And we dwell in Satan's seat,
amidst of a God-hating world, amidst of Satan's domain. Christ
himself called it Satan's world, didn't he? A god of this world,
Satan. And he said there, as we read
in Matthew 10, that we're a sheep among wolves. And didn't he say
in another place that his angels or his ministers have transformed
themselves into angels of light, ministers of righteousness, wolves
in sheep's clothing? But he says here, and he commends
the church in verse 13, he said, I know where you dwell. I know
where you are. I know what you're in the midst
of. You're in the midst of a God-hating, perverse, wicked society which
calls good evil and evil good, which calls God man and man God. He says, I know that. God's well
aware of what's going on today, well aware of it. I like that. I like that thought.
He said to Elijah, well, you're not the only one, Elijah. I got
7,000, buddy, who haven't bowed the knee to Baal, who believe
the same God you do. And I'll reveal myself to whom
I will. But he says here, I know where
you dwell, Satan's seat, and you hold fast my name. What else are we going to hold
on to, John? I like this. Listen, you hold
fast my name. What is his name? Christ's name. You will forgive me if I try
to get through this, won't you? We haven't been here in a while. I've got four messages ready.
Christ's name is his person, his character, his work. It's all that he is, it's all
that he does. It's his glory, isn't it? His name, it's his
glory. He's called the Lord Jesus Christ. And we hold fast. We need to hold fast to this,
believer. We hold fast to his name, which is the Lord. The Lord, the true Church, holds
fast to the belief that Jesus Christ is Lord, Supreme, Sovereign,
Creator, Ruler, Controller over all. He was made so by God, not
men. Made so by God, not men. He is
the Lord for whom, of whom, to whom, through whom, by whom,
in whom, are all things. By him all things consist. He's
Lord over all. There's nothing that, as Barnard
would say, neither writhes nor wriggles that's not under his
sovereign direction and domain. He's Lord, and that certainly
includes salvation. He's Lord. We hold fast to that
name. Hold fast to it. Don't let anybody
pervert or corrupt that name. Don't tolerate it for a minute.
Well, you make him Lord. No, we don't make him Lord. He
wouldn't be Lord if men made Him so, would He? He wouldn't
be Lord of lords. He'd be a Lord among lords if
men made Him so, wouldn't He? But if He's Lord of lords, that
means somebody else made Him so. Am I splitting hairs here? No, we're divided. There is a line
drawn, isn't there? Jesus. You hold fast His name. Now, hold fast to that name,
Jesus. Now, it doesn't mean what men
say it means. The angels described it when they first gave it. Call
his name Jesus, because he's going to try to do all he can.
He's going to try to save you, and he will if you'll let him.
If you'll let him, he'll stand at your heart's door, and if
you'll let him in, he'll come in and he'll save you. Call his
name Jesus, because he's such a good man. Call his name Jesus. Why? What's his name mean? Savior. You hold fast to that. Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. Did he do it? Your salvation
hinges on it. All of your salvation depends
upon the worth of that name. Am I splitting hairs here? The
Lord God commends his people for holding fast to that name.
I hate to see it abused. You will pardon me tonight if
the zeal of that name eats me up. Jesus means Savior. And he saves everybody that he
came to save. Not one hair will fall to the
ground of his people. Not one person will fall. Jesus
means Savior, and I hold fast to that. I insist upon it. He insists upon it. He'll not
tolerate believing in any other name. At the name of Jesus, Savior,
every knee will bow and every tongue will confess his Lord.
He didn't make an attemptment. He made an at-one-ment, didn't
he? Jesus. It says when he had by himself
purged our sin. It says this man, by his own
precious blood entered into the Holy of Holies, having obtained.
I know anything about English grammar. That means it got the
job done. Having obtained. He got what
he came for. Having obtained eternal redemption
for us. And we call his name Jesus, and
we mean it, and we'll hold fast to that till our dying breath.
Insist upon the name Jesus, meaning exactly what it means. And this is what the Lord is
commending his people for here. You've got the name, and you
hold fast to it. Don't tolerate any abuse of it.
Christ. Christ. Hold fast to that, believer,
because there's only one mediator. What the name Christ means is
mediator. It means Messiah. It means Redeemer. It means the
only one that can stand between you and Desmond. That's what
Christ means. There's only one Christ. You
hold fast to that. There's only one mediator. Why
do we stand in the face of people and say, you don't pray to a
man, you don't pray to a woman? Not even the mother of the man
named Jesus. You pray to one. Why? Because
there's only one Christ. And we don't beg to differ, we
obstinately differ with those who call themselves the bicker
of Christ, namely the Pope, because he's the only blessed and most
high potentate. He is the Christ. He is the only
one that men come to to have their sins absolved, removed. You hold fast to that name. Don't
let go of it. Your salvation depends upon it.
That's his name. That's what he did. And all his
people hold fast upon it. Yea, they insist upon it. They
insist upon it. All right, he goes on here to
commend his people. And I commend you all. I commend
you all for holding fast to his name. And you haven't denied
my faith. Every word is significant here.
My faith. You see that, John? Did you see
that? You haven't denied your faith. Keep the faith, brother. Now, if you'll stay faithful,
and I won't. But he abided faithfully. He
says, it's my faith. Where'd you get your faith? Charles
Ross, where'd you get your faith? Several years ago, did you come
down and accept Jesus as your personal Savior? Decided to let
him into your heart? Is that the faith you're dependent upon? It's a gift of God, isn't it? God says it's my faith. I give
it to whomsoever I will. And the gates of hell will not
stand against it. My faith. You better have God's
faith and not your own. My faith. My faith. It's his
gift and it's about him. It's all about him. Paul said,
The gospel which I preached was not after men, neither received
I it of man, neither was I taught it. but of Jesus Christ. There's no will of man, but God.
It's his faith, right? And it's his faith in that it's
the faith of Christ. It's his person, his work. He's
merely the object of this thing. It's him. It's who he is and
what he did alone. It's not a cooperative effort.
It's not if you'll accept him. It's not even if you'll believe
on him. Come on now. Is that what saved me? Me believing
on Jesus? One day I do, one day I don't. Huh? Yes, we must believe. Yes, we
must. Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Whosoever believes on him shall not perish. Right? But I can't
believe in and of myself. Without him I can do nothing.
I believe one day, one day I think, oh I believe beyond a shadow
of a doubt. The next day I think, I don't know if I believe or
not. So where does my hope stand? My hope is built on nothing less
than the object of my faith. Not my faith, but his faithfulness. The reason that song, Great is
Thy Faithfulness, is one of my favorite hymns. Bad is my faithfulness. Great is his favor, and all of
my salvation depends upon it. Listen to this. Listen to this.
It's not a cooperative effort. This is the work of Christ alone. Christ said, I'm the good shepherd.
I know my sheep. I'm known of mine. As the Father
knoweth me, even so I know the Father, and I lay down my life
for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this
fold, them also I must bring. Now, to his name, now, is he
going to get, is he the good shepherd? Is he the chief shepherd?
Is he the great shepherd? You ought to look up all the
names of shepherd in the scripture. Good, chief, great. I must bring
and they shall hear my voice. And there shall be one foe and
one shepherd. One shepherd. And they shall
all be taught of God. Every last one of them. Who he
is, what he did. And he says this to the church,
you hold fast my name, you have not denied my faith, even in
those days where in Antipas, Antipas was my faithful martyr
who was slain among you where Satan dwelt. Evidently this fellow
named Antipas was the second martyr next to Stephen, second
New Testament martyr anyway, Antipas. Not much is written
about him in the scriptures, but he was martyred. obviously
from this passage of Scripture and he was a member of this church
of Pergamos. And Christ commends these people for standing up
under persecution or martyrdom. And I highly advise, I highly
counsel all of you to at times read Fox's Book of Martyrs or
other books of the martyrdom. You know that in centuries gone
by the people only had basically two books to read, and this was
before Pilgrim's Problem. They basically had the Bible,
if they had a Bible, and the only other English version of
a book they had was Fox's Book of Martyrs. You know that? And you'll greatly benefit from
reading that book to see the faith of God's elect. All it
is is a carryover from Hebrews 11. That's what it is. If you
don't have Foxe's Book of Martyrs, read Hebrews 11. But in the face of persecution,
which all of God's church has experienced and will experience
until the day that he comes again, they stand up under it. And you
have been, either have been called to do so or will be. Count on
it. We're not his church. It's as
plain as that. We read that in Matthew 10, didn't
we? He said, you'll be hated of all men for my name's sake.
He said that if you deny me, I'll deny you. Confess me, I'll
confess you. All right, he says in verse 14
now, now, I know where you dwell, verse 13, Satan's And you've
kept fast my name, did not deny my faith, and you've had a fellow
even martyred in your midst, but yet you still hold fast to
the gospel. Verse fourteen, but I have a
few things against thee, and I'll hurry. I have a few things
against thee, because thou hast them there, thou hast there them
that hold the doctrine of Balaam. They hold the doctrine of Balaam. Do you know who Balaam was? If
you ever want to read his story, it's found over in Numbers 22
through 24. You need to read it. It's absolutely essential that
everyone who calls himself a believer understand who Balaam is, because
he's mentioned quite often in the New Testament Scriptures,
isn't he? And I'll tell you in short who Balaam was. Balaam
was a man who appeared, for all practical purposes, appeared
to be one of God's people. But he was a hypocrite of the
worst sort. Balaam looked real good on the outside, even sounded
good. You know, Balaam even talked like a good Calvinist. Balaam even did some preaching. Balaam blessed God, blessed the
people. Balaam looked like a good Christian. But Balaam was a double-minded
man. Balaam was a son of Satan. Balaam was a hypocrite of the
worst sort. And there are them, he says here,
that hold the doctrine of Balaam. There are those who appear to be true
believers. My soul, people, listen to this. Don't let your own judgment be
read in your very hearing, and you don't hear it. This is what
he said to the churches, didn't he, seven times. He didn't have
to hear, oh, let him hear this. And we need to say this, and
as we read this, Lord God, I don't want to be a Balaam. Now then, he says, there are
those in your midst who appear to be true believers, yet they
hold the doctrine of Balaam. or rather, or who are a constant
source of trouble to the true people of God. Now, this is what
Balaam was. Balaam was a constant source
of trouble to God's true people. And our Lord said over there
in Exodus 34, you remember when he said that they shall be as
pricks in your eyes, thorns in your side, and vex you in the
land? It was said that of Israel's
enemies, that they would be like a prick in the eye. You ever
got something in your eye and couldn't get it out? I mean,
you couldn't do anything. You couldn't see clearly. It
made your eyes red. It made you cry. It impeded your
vision. It irritated you. Have you ever
done that? God says there's some people like that. Some people are so full of complaints and
worries and this and that and the other, they prevent other
people from seeing clearly, other people from worshipping well.
Seeing clearly God's hand and God's providence and God's goodness
and all, but hearing the complaint. That's the reason I said so many
times before, don't let it be heard murmuring, complaining.
God judged Israel every time. You know why God judged Israel?
Every time, look it up, every time, is basically for murmuring
and complaining. Look it up. Every time Israel
began to murmur and complain, God sent judgment. Why? Because they had nothing to murmur
and complain about, except for lusts, wanting more. And there's some who Every time
you approach them, all they do is, ah, I'm not doing too good.
That is a speck in the eye to God's people. That's irritating. You can't come in here and worship. People like that bring you down,
you know. You come in, somebody may be happy and ready to worship,
and come in, how you doing? Oh, not so good. Well, and you
bring them down, and finally they're moping around. He said they're like thorns in
the side, splinters. I had a thorn, and all of you
have had splinters. I still got one in there. I tried
my best to dig it out. I tried my best. It's still in
there. It's still sore. It's still tender.
It causes me trouble. And I try, if you try to get
it out, you try to extricate it, and you can't, and it's just
a constant source of trouble. And there's some people, God
says there's some people. And what he says, the Pergamos
is no different than here. There's some people who are a
constant source of trouble. I don't know who they are, really.
I'm not directing this at anybody in particular, but God did. And
he says, he's out of here, better hear this, because there's some
people in there. And I'm not so naive or quite
so presumptuous to think that everybody in this room out here
is a saved person. Oh, no, I wouldn't think that
for a minute. And we need to hear this. The
preacher needs it worse than anybody. There are those who
never allow A pain-free worship service, and a vexation in the
Lamb. All right, well, we ought to
be compassionate and tender with people, considering our own selves,
especially me. I need this word of exhortation. Serving the Lord is not to strive,
but to be gentle and so forth. And we're to restore our brethren
who's overtaken in a fault, considering our own self, restore them in
a spirit of meekness, and so forth. But yet surely, in the
face of this scripture right here, yet surely there needs
to be a strong hand to prevent evil communication from corrupting
good manner. And as much as life within me,
the grace of God, as a faithful watchman, if indeed I be a faithful
watchman, If you are going to be a source of trouble at this
church, I'm not going to allow it. I'm not going to allow it. I've not seen this happen
very much. I'm not seeing a true pastor
or preacher confront people about various things very often, but
I've seen it. I've seen it at times when it
absolutely was absolutely unavoidable, when it had to be done for the
sake of the body as a whole. It's just like a family. You
know, it's just like a family when the father finally tells
the child, that wayward child, and there's so many others trying
to enjoy a meal, when he finally has to tell that one, you get
up from the table and you get out of here, and you don't come
back until you straighten up. Right? That hasn't yet had to
happen here. I hope it never does. But I'm
saying this right now in the face of God's word, if you, if
I, am a source of trouble among God's sheep, we need to be removed,
don't we? God hates those who stir strife
and discord among the brethren, doesn't he? God has ordained
peace in his kingdom. He'll not have anybody disturbing
the peace, including the preacher, especially the preacher. He will corrupt communications,
corrupt good manners, and I've said this before, your private
conversation among yourselves is oh so important to the well-being
of this church. You be careful who or what you
talk about among yourselves, and make sure, by God's grace,
make sure it's nothing in Nothing to. Against this church or its pastor
its people or anything like nothing derogatory or nothing. In. Opposition to you make absolutely
certain of that. If something's wrong with the
preacher of the people God will deal with it. If something's
wrong and you take it upon yourself God will deal with you even if
Didn't David even refuse to slay King Saul, who was God's anointed? Didn't he? Do you remember that?
David said, I'm not going to do it, and God will handle him
in his good time. I like that. It's not left up
to me. It's not left up to the deacon.
And it sure isn't left up to you as a member. We're all to
be submissive one to another, endeavoring to keep the unity
of the Spirit. And that endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
means to watch on your lips. And that's what he says here.
He upbraids the people there for having those among in their
midst that are like that. Balaam. Look at what he says.
Go on. Balaam, in verse fourteen, taught
Balaam to cast a stumbling block before the people for the children
of Israel to eat things sacrificed under idols and to commit fornication.
Now what Balaam did basically was mix their religion, kind
of perverted a little bit. Balaam was the ultimate compromiser. This is what our Lord's dealing
with here, compromise. Balaam said we need to be tolerant
of other religions. This is how he weaseled his way
into the church. He said now we need to be tolerant
of other religions. Balaam, all these people are
sincere. and they need to allow them to worship bail and you
worship Jehovah and you can get together you can have a spirit
of unity and fellowship. It's exactly what they did exactly
so we can have fellowship we can join together sister churches
they just worship a different God. And the people fell for
it. That's exactly what bail did
or Balaam did. Compromise. You know, compromise
is the way of least resistance, and everybody likes that. Nobody
likes a fight. I especially don't. I don't like
those bad phone calls, and I feel like giving them your number. I feel like saying, they say,
is this Reverend Paul Maynard? I say, no, because it isn't.
Not Reverend. No, call 489, call 365-2200. 334-2207. Is that it? 2007. Close. Look it up. Call
there. Talk to him. I do. I feel like
that at times. That's part of the job, though.
The way of least resistance is—everybody likes a way of least resistance.
Don't you? And what is the way of least
resistance? middle of the road. Right? In the middle of the road. If you don't, you know, you don't
be a Republican, don't be a Democrat, be a Redemocrat. A Demopublican. Be a Calvininian. Armonistic. Armonist. You know, be a closet
Calvinist. You know what I'm saying, don't
you? Exactly what I'm saying. Middle of the road. You know somebody
said that 95% of all car crashes are in the middle of the road? the middle of the road. Compromise
the way of least resistance. Christ said, don't do it. There's
a right way, and there's a left, and there's a wrong. Right? Stay
on the right way. The old paths. A fellow told
me, you're old-fashioned. And I quoted to him from Jeremiah
6. Yes, Scripture says, search ye and find out the old paths
and walk therein. You shall find rest for your
soul. People say, we don't like it. That's old-fashioned. That's
bigoted. By God, I will walk in the old way. It's God's way.
It's his old way. It's as old as God himself. It's just as right as God himself.
It's the way of least resistance, though compromise is. Don't do
it for a minute. That's what God said. Don't do
it for a minute. Malum did, and consequently the people did.
Some call for a compromise in the form of unity. Like I just
mentioned, love and charity. God hates it. God hates it. He hates it. He said he hates
all workers of iniquity. And who did he clarify were workers
of iniquity? Those that said they were good
Christians. Right? Isn't that right? Is that what
he called them? When they came up to him and said, we preach
in your name, prophesy in your name, cast out death. What did
he say to them? Apart from me, you workers of what? Iniquity. Compromise leads to open sin
and denial of faith. This is what happened. The people
began, they listened, they heeded Balaam's counsel, and they began
to sacrifice unto idols and commit fornication. And we began to
buddy-buddy and rub shoulders with people who hate the God
of the Bible. The only God there is, the God
who is God. but who parry the corners of
the gospel, and like one fellow said to me, I'm not interested
in attributes of God. It's not important. I quoted him, John 17, 3. This
is eternal life, that they know thee, the only true God. How
are you going to know God apart from his attributes, huh? You're
not interested in his holiness? You're not interested in his
righteousness, his justice? Ah, boy. And you rub shoulders
with people like that and you begin to say, what is this? Maybe
we aren't being too hard. Maybe we are being bigoted. Maybe
we are being unloving. Maybe we ought to do this. Maybe
we ought to nothing. Maybe we ought to give all glory
to God and quit pussyfooting around, as somebody would say.
Huh? People die for the cause of the truth. People died left and right for
absolutely refusing to say that Christ's body was not in the
wafer in a while. Now, is that a big thing? Everybody murdered by the early
Roman Catholic so-called church was murdered for that reason,
transubstantiation. If you mention the word today,
nobody will know what it means. People died for that, went to
the stake. I mean children. I just read
the account of a 19-year-old blind girl. who said, the Catholic
priest said, if you'll denounce, if you'll say that Christ's body
is actually in the blood, or in the wine and the wafer, we'll
let you go. She said, I won't do it. She
said, you're unchristened Christ. You're making the priest the
one to administer salvation. That's not so. We've got one
high priest who has laid down his life once, and there remains
no more sacrifice for sin. It's been accomplished forever.
He's not in that. We partake of that by faith. And they burned her body alive. Nineteen-year-old girl, blinded.
And on and on the story goes. Is that such a big thing to get
excited about? To stand up against? To risk
your life about? Yes, it is. Hold fast to the
name of Christ. Christ. Beware of any doctor. that makes salvation conditioned
on and it's so subtle. Beware of any doctrine that makes
salvation conditioned on anything other than the sovereign grace
of God alone through Jesus Christ alone. Beware of it. Denounce it. Don't have anything
to do with it. Don't receive it. Don't bid on
God's Am I being too hard? I'm being
just as hard as the Bible here. I'm being just as narrow as God's
word puts it. Right? And he says here also,
verse 15, You have them that hold the doctrine of Nicolation.
Now this is antinomianism. And we're just as swift to denounce
that. Just as swift. God hates it. He said, This thing
I hate. He said this two or three times,
Terry, in these letters. the doctor the Nicolaitans. I hate it. But you know every true
preacher of the God like it is true like Brother Scott said
if you preach the gospel clearly enough justification of faith
clearly enough so much will call you. You haven't preached the
gospel clearly enough unless somebody's called you an antinomian. I'll say that again. You have
not preached or told somebody clearly enough the gospel unless
somebody has accused you of believing. Well, it's just seeing that grace
may abound. That's what they said to the Apostle Paul. That's
what they said to Christ. That's what they said to Christ.
They accused him of being one. God hates it, doesn't He? God
hates this antinomianism. True preaching will surely bring
this charge, but Antinomianism means lawlessness. God's people
are not lawless. We're not without law. It's just
not—our rule of life is just not to decalogue the moral law,
the Ten Commandments. Christ is our law. He built upon
those laws, though. He magnified those laws. He built
upon them. Tithing, is that such a big issue?
Well, tithing, and we say this, tithing, the Old Testament teaches
tithing. There's no doubt about that.
Malachi chapter 3 teaches tithing, and so does all through the Old
Testament. It's mentioned seven times in the New Testament Scriptures.
The word tithing is mentioned seven times. It is in the New
Testament. Four times. Four times our Lord uses it in
the Gospels in a derogatory manner. Four times, he talks about the
Pharisees tithing. He talks about the Pharisee in
the temple saying, I tithe, and all of this. Four times, it's
used in a derogatory fashion. Three times, it's used in Hebrews
7, talking about Melchizedek giving tithes to Abraham. Nowhere
is it commanded of believers to tithe, but you know you are
supposed to tithe. I got you by surprise, didn't
I? plus, ten percent plus the other ninety. Not just ten percent. In other words, that wasn't absolved. The New Testament teaches more
than that. More than tithing, you see. Giving. If tithing was practiced here,
we wouldn't pay our bills. But give him, you see, the New
Testament. Christ says, I say unto you,
give. Don't just tithe. He said, remember
he told the Pharisees, he said, you ought to have done this.
Tithe meant add some common, so but not omit the other. Didn't
he? Remember that? And then he said,
do that, but give more than that now. Yeah, the firstfruits of
God's everything. Firstfruits belong to God, but
do more than that. Don't stop there. This is the New Testament. How'd they get off on that? Lawlessness.
We have a law. Christ is our law. Christ is
our law. We're not without law to God.
We're under law to Christ, the Scripture says. We don't go back
and consult the Old Testament Scriptures. We do, but that's
not our rule of life, per se. We go to Christ and say how he
built upon that, how he magnified it, what more is required of
me, but not for salvation. not for salvation, not conditioned
upon our keeping the law. All right, antinomianism. We're
not lawless, but we're lawbreakers. There's a difference. God's people
are lawbreakers, but they're not lawless. They don't live
in lawlessness. They're lawbreakers. All right?
And God hates this attitude, though. Anyone who says it doesn't
matter how you live, we're saved by grace, is a Nicolaitan, and
God hates it. You're reading the same Bible
I am, he does. God hates it, and he tells them to repent.
He says, if you don't repent, I'm going to come with my sword,
and I'm going to humiliate you. Verse 16, repent, or else I will
come unto thee quickly, and be sure your sins will find you
out. How? By the word of God. Let me put it this way. He says,
I'll come with my sword and fight against them. Not against you,
but against these people who are living this way or against
hypocrites, doctrine of Balaam, Nicolaitans, all that. I'll fight
against them. I'll remove them by the word. This is another
thing, Brother Stan. The word of God win us. The word of God will do the work. The word of God. And it'll be
a painful extricating process, painful. Many have been found
out by God's word and then humiliated by it, many. And what we need
to say is, may God humiliate us privately and restore us publicly
instead of vice versa. Right? Instead of making us feel
good privately but then humiliate us later on, our sins find us
out publicly. Let us all pray to that in verse
seventeen and I'll quit. He that hath an ear to hear,
let him hear. I know thy works, he said. I
know where you dwell, Satan's seat. Be patient though, I'm
with you. I know you hold fast my name,
he said, you better. He gives no other name. Given
unto me among men whereby you must be saved. You better hold
fast, you better insist upon it. It's my glory. Don't think
you're being too hard. Don't think you're being too
dogmatic. Don't think you're being a bigot.
You better be a bigot. For my name's sake. Right? My
God. Remember that. You hold fast
to my name. He says, I like that. What man
wouldn't? Huh? What man wouldn't like somebody
who stood up for his name's sake? I knew a preacher one time, isn't
it? I knew a preacher. I'm not going to mention his
name. I knew a preacher one time who was out on the job. He worked
a job all his life. The church couldn't support him.
Either that or they wouldn't. But anyway, he was a sovereign
grace preacher and he worked in a mill. You know what mills
are like. He got in a fight one day, a
fist fight. A man, a man, he was talking
to a fellow about the scriptures, about the gospel, and the man
was saying some rank Arminian, you know, saying something about
it, and he hauled off and hit him in the mouth. Now you may
be critics, somebody may, some pious fellow who may be real
critical of that, I like that. I wasn't there, I didn't hear
the man, but I know this man, I know he's a gentle, loving,
you know who he is, don't you? Well, he's a gentle, you couldn't
find a more gentle, loving, sweet, Christ-like man. Whatever it
was that made him hit that man, he had it coming. I like that. Don't you know,
the Lord didn't reprove Peter for wanting to cut that, for
cutting that. He did, he cut, he didn't reprove him, he didn't
say, don't, what's wrong with you? No, he didn't, he said,
put up your sword. Don't you know I could call twelve
legions of angels? Huh? He didn't approve it. Not
at all. According to these scriptures,
the Lord likes that attitude. For his namesake. Stand up for
his namesake. I'm not telling us all to go
out and get in a fight. You know I'm not saying that. Be compassionate. Be kind. Consider one another.
You know, be tender. As much as possible. Live peaceably. But there's some Jokers, you
can't live peacefully. Some of them, you're going to
have to say, like I said to one fellow, well, the scripture says,
go from the presence of a fool when you cannot perceive in him
the words of understanding. He called me a fool. I said,
no, the Bible did. You're going to have to come
to that conclusion at some time. Christ finally said to the fellow,
leave them alone. They're blind. Can't you see
that? But we need to exercise great
restraint and have a great amount of understanding. And their mouths
certainly need to condemn them a great deal before we exercise
that amount of judgment. But judge righteous judgment.
Don't judge according to the appearance, our Lord said. But
our Lord likes that attitude. For His name. He said, He that hath forsaken
mother and father and houses and land, laid down their lives
for my sake, going to rule with me. Didn't He? He read that in Matthew 10.