Alright, Revelation chapter 2.
Basically, I'm going to be reading one verse of Scripture this morning.
But I don't have a word of prayer. Father, we thank You today for
Your Son Jesus Christ. We thank You for the Word of
God that's given to us, preserved, given to us to be able to behold
God in the face of Jesus Christ through the pages of Scripture.
We know that everything from Genesis to the Revelation is
all written. The volume of the book is written
of Christ. Father, as we open these pages
each week or as in our homes each day to study them, I pray,
Father, that you might continue to help us to learn of Christ,
to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
that's no different this morning. We pray that you might meet with
us this morning and that you might show us Christ. May we
honor him and glorify him as we have gathered here this morning
to worship him for the life that he has given for us, the death
that he has taken for us, the obedience that he has made On
our behalf, the righteousness that has been imputed to us that
is His. All these things, Father, the
glorious nuggets of the gospel. What beautiful things that they
are to the child of grace and to the ears of those who are
quickened. And so, Father Lord, we are thankful today that we
are here today gathered in your name. We just pray, Lord, that
you would honor your son by helping us by the Spirit to worship you,
to put forth truth, help me from error, to give understanding
to these brethren, and may it feed their soul. And again, we
pray that Christ will be honored and glorified in all that we
do. In Jesus' name that we pray, amen. All right, Revelation chapter
I'm only going to read one verse of scripture here, and as I just
mentioned it before we went live on the live stream, this book
is called Revelation, The Revelation. It's not Revelations, plural,
it's The Revelation. Now the headings in your Bible,
you know, I don't think that the headings were necessarily
inspired. by God. I think those were just
added by the publishers because sometimes we'll see different
headings at the top of our Bibles or anything. Mine happens to
say, The Revelation of St. John the Divine. I don't think that that was necessarily
how John actually wrote that out when he wrote the letters.
But it does begin with the inspired scripture at the first part where
it says, The Revelation of Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation,
or the Revelation, the Revelation, is not plural because it's not
revelations over and over, excuse me, it's not revelations that
are different things that is happening over a long period
of time, but this is speaking of the revelation of Jesus Christ. The book is written not as a
apocalyptic book to tell some futuristic story of what's going
to happen in some anti-Christ dominated, you know, 1978's Thief
in the Night movie type world. The Revelation was written as
a comfort, as a warning, as an instruction for the churches
at that time that John wrote them was instructions for them. And it was a revelation of Jesus
Christ. It's a revelation of the work
of Jesus Christ and the people of Jesus Christ. It's the revelation
of Jesus Christ. If you notice in the first verse
of chapter one, it says, excuse me, It says, the revelation of
Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants
things which must shortly come to pass, and he sent and signified
it by his angel unto his servant John, who bear record of the
word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things
he saw. Blessed is he that readeth and
they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things
which are written therein for the time is at hand. So we see
that this letter is written for a specific group of people at
a specific time and it is, you know, for them, for their comfort.
Now we receive comfort from this. We glean information about Jesus
Christ and about his work and Is there future things in this?
I think there might be some future things in here as it pertains
to the eternal state. However, I believe that the majority
of what we see here are things that were about to take place
as it sits here. Things that were close at hand,
the time is at hand. But anyway, I didn't mean to
really get into all that other than the fact that this is the
revelation of Jesus Christ. So as we go into this, we have
to understand that, and I would say this is for all the book
of the revelation, is it's primarily about Jesus Christ. We've seen
this before. We've talked about this. The
Bible says that in the volume of the book, the whole thing
of Genesis, the revelation that I just was praying about, is
about Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke to the disciples
on the road to Emmaus and the Bible said that he opened up
and from Moses and the prophets he spoke to them and he told
them that these things were about him. All that stuff was about
Jesus Christ. So whenever we look, the book
of Revelation is no different. It is a revelation of who Jesus
is. And so as we go into this, let's
not overlook some of the little simplistic things that a lot
of people like to jump over. Number one, it's a revelation
of Jesus Christ. But the other thing that we need
to pay close attention to here, and I think a lot of people miss
this, is it says, and he sent and signified it by his angel
unto his servant John. So what John is writing down
that he saw in this whole time in the spirit On the Lord's day,
writing these things down was signified to him. Now it means
that it was given to him in symbols, in foreshadows, or in shadows. It was given to him in types.
It was given to him in symbolic language. And so many people
want to just take literally everything that is in here. It wasn't intended
to be literal. because it was given to John
in a signified way, in a symbolic way. And so that's why whenever
you look into Revelation, you see all this wild imagery of
things and how things are described and how things are talked about
in this apocalyptic language. It's because that was the intent. It was given to him in a signified
way. And so whenever we approach the
Word of God, and it blatantly tells us at the very beginning
that these things is the revelation of Jesus Christ given to us in
a signified way, meaning in symbols, symbology here, then we need
to, as we go into interpreting the scriptures, as we go into
our hermeneutics of preaching what is here, looking for Christ,
through the symbols, right? And so that's kind of what I'd
like us to look at here this morning in verse 17 of chapter
2. Now, my intent this morning is
not to back up and go through the history of what this particular
verse itself is in context two, necessarily. You know, it's in
a letter to the Church of Pergamos, we know that. But I'm not going
to go back, I'm not dealing with who all Pergamos was, I'm not
dealing with all the stuff about the Nicolaitans and the Baalimites
and all this kind of stuff. I'm not going through that. I
just want to look at verse 17 and let's find Jesus there today,
if the Lord wills. Let's look and see what it speaks
about Christ and His people there. So let's look at verse 17. It
says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith
unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I
give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone,
and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth, saving
he that receiveth it. Let's kind of just break this
verse down and begin to think about these things again. Our
minds going to this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And it's the
revelation of not only who Jesus Christ is, but the work of Jesus
Christ. And so as we enter into this
verse, let's look and see. some of these nuggets that we
can pull out of here. The first thing that kind of
is very evident to me is number one, is that it says that it
is the Spirit that is saying these things to the churches.
This is a teaching of the Spirit. This is something that only the
Spirit is bringing to the churches. It's bringing it on behalf of
God. God is bringing and having the Spirit come and teach. We've
dealt with this a lot over the years, and you know my position
on things. I believe that the Holy Spirit
is the teacher. It is the Spirit of God who teaches
the heart of man. I'm up here preaching to you.
I am conveying words to you. I am conveying, if I am speaking
according to the truth, I'm speaking truth. Okay. And if I'm speaking
those things, then I am speaking the things that God has said,
because the Bible says that this is the inspired word. This is
the words breathed out by God. So I'm speaking the words of
God, but brethren, unless the spirit takes and gives to you
in your heart, the teaching of what these things are saying,
then we can just amass head knowledge and with man's wisdom try to
figure things out. It is the Spirit that says the
things to His people. It is the Spirit that comes and
takes the things of God and makes them real in the experience of
the heart of the child of grace. And so we see here that it is
the Spirit. John was the one who wrote the
message, right? He's the one that penned this
letter. But John writing the thing doesn't have any weight
at all. Paul writing the letter, as good
as Paul was and as great as Paul was as an apostle, it wasn't
Paul. Paul wasn't inspired. The words
of God are inspired. And Paul wrote those words down.
A lot of times we say the inspired apostle. Well, that's not true.
The Bible says that these are the inspired words of God. that
all scripture is given by inspiration. They were breathed out by God. They were given by God. Paul
wrote them down. Peter wrote them down. John wrote
them down. Matthew, Mark, Luke, they wrote
these things down. But the inspiration, the words
were God's. They weren't Paul's. They weren't
anybody else's. I hear often that we should throw weight on
the actual writer or the translator in that fact. That the translators
were inspired. The translators weren't inspired.
The Word is inspired. The Scripture is inspired. The
translation is only as inspired as it is faithfully translated
as God-given. It's God's Word and it's preserved
for us, but it is the Spirit of God that teaches that Word. And so we see here, he that hath
an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Now, I notice here it says churches,
plural, not church, singular. These were written to local congregations. And we, a few years ago, we went
and had a study. Matter of fact, it was a long
study. I think we had like, I think 80 messages or something in there
on the, on the church. If you remember back in that
study, I hope you remember, we see that the biblical definition
of church is not the universal body of Christ or all the elect
of God. That's not what the church is. The church is a local assembly. And when I mean local assembly,
I mean a gathered assembly. OK, I'm not meaning that we all
have to be from the same town, the same neighborhood. I'm saying
local. in the fact that they are gathered
together. They're not universal. They're
not invisible. They're local. So whether it's
somebody driving from Fairland or whether they're driving from
Kansas or whether they're driving from Springfield or wherever
to come to meet with us, the issue is that we are a gathered
assembly. And you can't get something other
than that from the Scriptures. The word church means a gathered
assembly. It's a body that comes together.
And I'm going to go into all that more in depth than that.
But it is, if you notice here, it's what the Spirit saved through
the churches. And the churches, plural, are
getting the same doctrine. Jesus gave to the church once,
the one that he started, the New Testament church that he
began, he gave them his doctrine, his ordinances. And he is perpetuating
that throughout all the years. He has perpetuated that. And
in every generation and in every age, we have had those New Testament
churches that have been in existence. They never did go out of existence.
They never did go underground and cease to exist. Became some
apostate church in the Catholics, and then all of a sudden, the
good old Reformation guys saved the day by bringing us out of
the Catholic apostasy. That is not what happened. The
Lord has always had His churches, and those churches have always
held to the doctrine of Christ and His ordinances. And those
have been passed down from generation to generation to generation,
and the Spirit speaks to those churches because He only meets
with those types of churches. He only meets with the church
of Jesus Christ. He doesn't meet with other things
that are false gospels and false churches. If they are not the
church that Jesus built, then they are not His church. Now
why do I say that? Because there is a certain group
of people that are found in this church. These people are God's
people. These people are the ones who
God has born from above. Churches are made up of not just
everybody that comes and attends. The church is actually those
who are born from above, Those who have been given faith in
Christ Jesus, who in that profession of faith in Christ Jesus, underneath
that gospel of Jesus Christ, are then baptized by immersion
in water. Then they are gathered together
and added to the membership of that church. And in covenant
with that church, they meet together for worship, and they meet together
for the declaration of the gospel. The church that the Spirit comes
to teach is the church of Jesus Christ. So all these churches
that are written about in Revelation were churches, were Christ's
church. They all had problems, as we
all have problems in all of our churches. We have things that
are lacking. But they were churches nonetheless.
And so the Spirit has come, and the Spirit is saying something
to the churches. Brethren, I pray that the Spirit
continues. to come and teach us here that
we never will have our candlestick removed as some of these churches
have. I pray that the Lord would keep
us faithful, that He would keep us in the faith as it's said. So it's the Spirit that teaches. He comes and teaches to the churches. The Bible says that the church
is the pillar and the ground of truth. That's the gathered
body, the elect of God who have gathered together. How does God
preserve His words? He does that through the local
churches. He does that through the saints
of God who gather together, who God gives gifts to those churches
in the form of pastors and teachers, who God gives an enabling or
a gifting to preach the gospel, and that through their worship
and through their gathering together, they hold the faith of Christ. And that has been given once
for all to the saints. And like I said, it's been perpetuated
through all the years. And the Spirit doesn't teach
other things other than the truth of what Christ is. He isn't teaching
that Christ died for everybody and that anybody can come if
they'll just choose to come. and that if they sin too much,
then God's going to be angry with them, and they might lose
their salvation, or that Christ died and it's all by grace, but
you still have to continue to keep up all these works to be
pleasing to God. He's not going to speak out of
two voices. He's not going to be speaking
one thing over here. And so all these churches that
are preaching all these things over here are saying, hey, listen,
Jesus loves everybody. If you're in one of those churches,
you are not in a New Testament church. The Spirit is not speaking
over there. And all the people that's out
here today are talking about how the revivals that's going
on and the Spirit of God is moving in all these places. Brethren,
that is a work of Satan in all those places. Because if the
truth is not there, If the doctrine is not there, the ordinances
of God are not there, that is not the church of God. It is
not the pillar and the ground of truth. Therefore, the Spirit
is not speaking to them. Now, does that mean that there's
not people of God that might be in them? There might be, and
we know that to be true. Jesus says in Revelation, Come
out from among them, my people, out of the harlot. Them are harlot
churches. Now, that's not Mike being harsh
and calling everybody's church besides our church. harlots,
that's the word of God saying that if you're not a New Testament
church, if you're not a church that is based upon the doctrine
of Jesus Christ, and that means the gospel of sovereign grace,
that means the gospel of imputed righteousness alone, without
words, without any contribution on your behalf, the gospel of
eternal election, the gospel of overcoming grace, the gospel
of effectual atonement, The gospel of perseverance by the Spirit
of God. Whenever you preach those things,
you're preaching the gospel and the doctrine of Christ. Whenever
you preach those things. But if it's not that gospel,
you're in another gospel church. And it's not a gospel. It's not
a church. And the Spirit isn't there preaching.
And that's why God is calling His people whenever He gives
them the truth and grants them the repentance, they come out
of those churches and they find and they locate and they begin
to gather with people that believe the truth of Jesus Christ. Now,
are there going to be nitpicky little things that we're going
to disagree with? Yes, there are. Not all of us agree on doctrine,
okay? On everything. Some of us disagree
on eschatology. Some of us disagree on Adam and
how he was made. Some of us disagree with with several other things, but not
to get into all that either, but it is the churches that the
Spirit comes and speaks to. And that's why he says, he that
hath an ear, let him hear. Remember that phrase was often
used by Jesus. The only ones who have an ear
to hear are those who have been made spiritual, right? He who hath an ear to hear. Jesus
spoke to the crowd and whenever he spoke there were some that
believed and there were some that didn't believe. The ones
who believed, believed and Jesus said the reason that they believe
are because they are my sheep. You believe not because you are
not my sheep. He also told them you believe
me not because you are not of God. If you're not of God, if
you're not my sheep, you cannot hear what I say. The world cannot
receive the things of the Spirit. The only one that can hear the
things that the Spirit says are those who are born of God, born
of the Spirit, taught of the Spirit. The sheep of God, the
people of God, those who are born of above. They are the ones
who have an ear to hear. So who is Jesus speaking to here?
Whoever just can read this passage and say, You know, I'm hearing
this because there was a lot of people that heard Jesus, but
they didn't believe. There was a lot of people that
heard Jesus and Jesus said that he didn't entrust himself to
them. Jesus preached and there was
a bunch of people that didn't believe it. And Jesus even prayed
to the Father. He said, Father, I thank you
that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, but
have revealed them unto babes. See, Jesus is speaking to His
people and His people only. That's why it's important to
be part of a local church. That's why it's important together
with brothers and sisters in Christ to be under the gospel
ministry. Because it is a place where Christ
has put His doctrine and put His ordinances of remembrance
so that we might remember what Christ has done for us. and that
through those things, and through that fellowship, we are built
up into a holy, righteous, and beautiful building. Now, he says
here, he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I
give of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone.
To him that overcometh. Now, there's a lot of people
that's going to look at that and say, there you go. Pull yourself
up by your bootstraps and get on out there. Put on that full
armor of God and get to fighting Satan. Get to fighting the world
system. Get out there and start fighting
because You've got to get out there and overcome. If you don't
overcome, you're not going to be given the hidden manna. You're
not going to be given this stone. We'll talk about those in a minute,
but they look at this as the duty that we must do to him that
overcometh. But brethren, who is the one
who overcomes? Who does the Bible tell us are
the overcomers? And how are they overcomers?
Well, look with me if you would, and I want us to notice a couple
of things here. But turn with me to John chapter
16. We need to let the Bible interpret itself. John chapter
16. And look with me, if you will,
at verse 33. John 16 and verse 33. Now this is Jesus speaking
here. Now, in fact, I'll just back
up to verse 31. Jesus answered them, do ye now
believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea,
is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own,
and shall leave me alone, and yet I am not alone, because the
Father is with me. These things I have spoken unto
you, that in me ye might have peace in the world. Ye have peace,
excuse me, in the world, ye shall have tribulation. But be of good
cheer, I have overcome the world." Now first and foremost we see
the overcomer is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is He who has overcome
the world. It is He who has overcome Satan.
It is He who has overcome our sin. Sin, death, The world, Satan, our nature,
everything that hinders us, everything that plagues us, everything that
is against the child of grace, Christ has overcome. He has put down Satan. He has put down sin. He has put
down death. He has put down the world. He
is the King of Kings. There is nothing in this world
that is over Him. He has bound Satan hand and foot. Nobody can
do anything that God has not predestined or made to do, caused
to do. Everything that happens in this
world happens because of the governorship of Jesus Christ. He has overcome Everything. Nothing has defeated Him. Nothing
can defeat Him. Nothing bewilders Him. Nothing
catches Him off guard. Nothing has sidetracked Him.
Nothing has kept Him from doing His obedience to the Father. All those things that we see
that Christ was given to do, He came and completed. He said
it is finished. And whenever He said it is finished,
He not only said it was finished because it was accomplished,
He said it is a finish. All things have been put under
my feet, and I rule and reign. The Bible says that whenever
he rose from the grave and that he ascended upon high, it said
he sat down at the right hand of God. It means that he is at
God's right arm. That means that he is God's power.
He is God's strong hand. He is the messenger of God. He
is the actor of God. He is the one who does all the
work of God. It is God indwelling the man,
Jesus Christ, all the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form,
everything that God is, the fullness of Him, all the work of God is
through Jesus Christ. And that's to His people because
Christ is the mediator between God and man. Anything that we
have in our experience and relationship to God, we have it because of
Jesus Christ. And everything that we know of
God and learn of God and experience of Him and His blessings upon
us as His people is because of the mediator, Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ is the overcomer. He has overcome the problem between
us and God. He has bridged the gap of that.
He has brought peace and reconciliation to God. There is no more division. There is no more enmity with
us and God because Jesus Christ has overcome the problem of sinful
man and God who is holy. He's overcome that for us. Jesus
is the overcomer of all things. He says, Be of good cheer, I
have overcome But notice if you would there, he said, these things
I've spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. See, brethren, because we are
in Christ Jesus, we too have been made overcomers. Because we are in Him, because
we are His children, because we are owned by Him, because
He is our substitute, we are overcomers. We have overcome
the world. We have overcome sin. We have
overcome Satan. We have overcome our flesh. We
have overcome the problem in this world, which is we are sinners,
God is holy, we can't get to God because we have no holiness,
but we do it all because we are in Christ Jesus, not because
we are in and of ourselves. We are overcomers because we
are united to Christ himself. Christ is the chief overcomer.
And we are overcomers by airship. We are overcomers by substitute. See, I can't go out there and
obey enough to overcome the world. I can't overcome Satan. I can't
overcome my sin. I can't overcome this flesh and
cease to sin. But Christ has overcome all that.
And because we are in Christ, we too have overcome that. There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Sin has been overcome. The law and its thundering demands against
us, it's all overcome. Death. O death, where is thy
sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin. If Christ has taken away our
sin, the sting of death is gone. He has given us eternal life. We shall never perish. Death
is no longer a problem to the child of grace. We have overcome
death. But it's not because we chose
it. It's not because we have done enough to merit it. It's not because we have done
enough that God says, okay, enter in and here's your... It's all
because Jesus did it and the only reason we got it is because
God gave us to Jesus and united us to Him and we are His. That's
the only reason. That's the only reason. Look
with me if you would now at 1 John. 1 John chapter 5. See, we see that Jesus was the
overcomer, and we are overcomers because we are born from Him. We are His seed. Like begets
like, right? That principle that we always
talk about back in Genesis, that everything was created with its
seed in itself and it reproduced after its kind? We are the seed
of Christ. We are His generation. We are
His progeny. We are His lineage. Therefore,
we are made after His likeness. Right? Look at 1 John 5 and verse
4, it says, For whatsoever is born of God, and that's all the
people of God, overcometh the world. And this is the victory
that overcometh the world, even our faith. Now is that talking
about our faith that we exercise? No, who's our faith? Jesus Christ. He's our faith. Jesus Christ is our faith. See, our faith can't do anything.
Our faith is small. If our faith was the faith of
a mustard seed, we could move mountains, but our faith is nothing.
We have nothing. We can't do anything. Why? Because not all men have faith.
And faith that we have is only given by measure. But Christ,
He has the Spirit without measure. And He was our faith on our behalf
before God. His faith, His faithfulness is
what gives us everything. Our justification is by His faith.
Our sanctification was by His faith. Everything that we have
is because of the faith of Jesus Christ. It is the faith of Jesus
Christ, not faith in Jesus Christ, that we have been given all these
promises, that we have received of all these things. And it says,
whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God
and everyone that loveth Him that begat loveth Him also that
is begotten. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is born of God is that Christ is born of God.
For whoever is born of God overcometh the world. Who are the ones that
overcometh the world? Not the ones who work hard, but
the ones who have been born of God. Is it because they work
hard? No, it's because they are born
of God. Because they have the Overcomer
as their Father. Who is He that overcometh the world?
but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God." Not because
he believeth. Who is he that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God.
Not because. He isn't an overcomer because
he believed that Jesus is the Son of God. The one who believed
that Jesus is the Son of God is the description of who the
overcomer is. The believers. The believers
are the overcomers. Not because they believe, but
because they were born of the one who has faith. They are children
of faith. That's why there is this example,
this symbol of Abraham as our father in the faith. That's a
picture of Christ and his children. Who had faith? Abraham had faith. All His children, if you're a
child of Abraham, you will have faith. Why? Because your father
had faith. And if you're a child of your
father, you will have the likeness of your father. It's a picture
of Christ. Christ has faith. And we have
faith because He has faith. It's a description. That's why
we are called the faithful. Are we actually faithful? No. We sin. We lose faith. I may get up in the morning,
as I did this morning, and the Word of God was just teeming
in my head. I was excited about coming to
preach this morning. I was ready to speak about these
things that the Lord had laid upon my mind. And listen, everything
was great, but you know what this afternoon? That faith may
be like this. I may feel like... Next week,
I may get up and I'm like, it's just going to be duty for me
to get up here to say something because I really don't feel like
being here. We are not faithful. The only one that's faithful
is Christ. So who are the overcomers? The
overcomers are the ones who are born of God, born of the faithful,
who is Christ. Now turn back to Revelation chapter
2 verse 17. So who's the Spirit speaking
to? He's speaking to the churches. Who are the ones in the churches?
The ones who overcome. Who are the ones who overcome? The ones
who have been born of God, who are the children of the overcomer,
who is faithful. It says, "...to him that overcometh
will I give to eat of the hidden manna." What is the hidden manna? We're
here today gathered as a church. What's the hidden manna? It's what's been dishing out to y'all
this morning. The hidden manna is Christ himself.
The hidden manna, who is it that Jesus feeds his people with? Now again, this is an illusion
that goes all the way back to the Old Testament whenever God
fed Israel as they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years,
God fed them on manna. God rained bread out of heaven.
And they were to gather this bread and they were to gather
just enough for them to eat for that day and no more. If they
gathered any more than what they needed for that day, it would
go bad on them. It would go putrid. And that illusion or the illustration
of that is to teach us that God gives us every day that we are
to live on Christ every day. See, they wanted to work and
store up for themselves. And that's exactly what happened.
The people got afraid that, is this enough? I don't know if
this is enough. So let me grab more. So by their
labor, they went out and got more. And they tried to store
it up. So just in case that what God
said is true, isn't going to take place, I'll have some here
and my family will be secured. We'll have something to eat tomorrow
just in case God doesn't do it tomorrow. If God doesn't rain
it down tomorrow, everybody's going to be hungry except for
us. See, they, by their own works, try to provide for themselves. the age old story of the warfare
between the flesh and the spirit. The flesh is always wanting to
provide a righteousness that God is going to accept, is going
to provide for himself. I can do it myself. I can be
like God. But see, God said, only take
enough for today. I will provide everything that
you need. I will give you everything that
you need. I don't have to buck up and say I'm determined that
I'm going to be I'm going to be faithful, I'm going to be
dutious, I'm going to overcome, I'm going to do all these things.
I don't have to do that. God is going to supply everything.
His mercies are new every day. He renews the mind every day.
Every day He supplies everything that we have need of. Not just
in the physical material things, but in the spiritual realm. Everything
that we have need of, He provides. And that hidden manna is not
food that we eat like breakfast and lunch and dinner. It is a
spiritual food. It is the food for the soul.
He gives himself. He is that hidden manna. In Exodus,
whenever we read of all this going on with the manna, we see
that's a picture of Jesus. He said, I am all that you need. And brethren, listen, when it
comes to the gospel, Jesus is all we need. We feast upon the
finished work of Jesus Christ, not the commands of the law.
not the duties given to man, whether they're Old Testament
or New Testament. That is not the rule of life
that we live by. We live by the faith of Jesus
Christ, what He has done for us. Now, with that being said,
I'm not saying that the Spirit isn't going to do works in us.
He's going to do the spiritual works that God has ordained for
us to do in us. But it is not my place or responsibility
to pressure or push or say, this is what the Spirit's going to
do in my life. He's going to do it in His timing.
He's going to do it His way. He's going to do it as He sees
fit, as God has purposed for me to experience. Some days I
will experience fruitfulness. Some days I might not experience
fruitfulness so that I might be humbled by the fact that I
cannot do anything for God and once again be reminded to look. Thankfully Christ has done it
all for me. Looking unto Jesus, the author, the finisher of our
faith, but also the one who has done it all, our substitute. That's the hidden manna. The
hidden manna is Jesus. Now, just to show that the scripture
teaches us that Jesus is this manna, we see very well in John
chapter 6, if you want to turn to John chapter 6. which is a
very famous chapter of John. John chapter 6, look at verse
26. It says, Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say
unto you, ye seek me not because ye saw the miracles, but because
ye did eat the loaves and were filled. See, they were following
Jesus because Jesus fed 5,000 people. He ate the loaves and
fed them all. They were following Him because
of that. He says, labor not for the meat which perisheth. Now,
what is he talking about there? Well, he could also be talking
about physical food, okay? You guys are worried about these
physical miracles, but those physical miracles are going to
fade away. That's not the important thing here. The miracles are
to testify of who I am, but the whole purpose is, who am I? Who do you say I am? Do you believe
that I am the Christ? The ones who believed were of
God. The ones who didn't were not
of God. But again, the meat that perisheth, not just the physical,
but the spiritual as well. Remember the manna? If they gathered
too much by the hands of their own effort, what happened? But
if they gathered just enough as God provided for them that
day, it didn't go bad. See, Jesus is
comparing himself to that illusion. He says, See? Scriptures are
consistent. It's Christ. And who does Christ give? He
gives Himself to His people. If you look down a little bit
further, Jesus said in verse 32, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but My Father
giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God
is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the
world. See, the bread that comes down
from heaven, the manna, the hidden manna, is Christ. Jesus said, I am the bread of
life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth
on me shall never thirst. Verse 41, the Jews then murmured
at him, because he said, I am the bread which came down from
heaven. And they said, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph,
whose father and mother we know? How is it that he saith, I came
down from heaven? Jesus, therefore, answered and
said unto them, murmur not amongst yourselves. No man can come to
me except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him, and I'll raise
him up to the last day. It is written in the prophets,
they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the
Father, save he which is of God. He hath seen the Father. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting
life. I am the bread of life. Your
fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This
is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat
thereof and not die. I am the living bread which come
down from heaven. If any man eateth this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Jesus
said, verse 53, Verily, verily, I said unto you, Except ye eat
the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life
in you. Whosoever eateth my flesh, and
drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up
the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink. Indeed, he that eateth my flesh,
and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living
Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth
me, and even he shall live by me. This is the bread which come
down from heaven, Not as your fathers did eat manna and are
dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. So we see that Jesus is the manna
that is spoken of here. But since it's the hidden manna,
why is it the hidden manna? Well, as we've just seen in that
chapter right there, that this manna is not revealed to everybody. For one, it is in heaven. And
it is come down and it is given for his people. But we also see
that it is hidden in the aspect that the natural man cannot perceive
these things. See, they cannot perceive the
spiritual food that comes from Christ alone. Christ alone. See, the preaching that we preach
here of Christ alone without works, imputed righteousness
alone, sovereign grace, this is not sustenance. And listen,
go into the churches that are out there. Well, look at our
church, for example. Look how many people have come
and gone. Look how many people have come, and it's not satisfying. We don't have a basketball gym.
We don't have an entertainment center. We don't have a big screen. We don't have rock and roll music. We don't have lights, and we
don't have fog, and we don't have different colored tapestries,
and we don't have a steeple, and we don't have crosses, and
we don't have pictures of Jesus, and we don't have all this. See,
Christ isn't enough. They don't want to hear him come
and hear Christ only. And whenever you begin to preach
this doctrine of Christ, what happens? Immediately, they don't
like to hear that. They don't want to hear that.
They want to gather around them teachers that their itching ears want
to say, pick yourself up by your bootstraps, get out there and
work for Jesus. Do your best. Increase your faith. Show your faith to the world.
Show everybody how good you are, how great you are, how faithful
you are to your Lord. Wear it on your shirt, wear it
on your hat, on your wrist, wherever you can wear it. Put it on the
bumper sticker on your car. Get out there and tell everybody
how great you are. Declare your alms before men.
But Jesus said, this man is hidden.
Not everybody is going to see it. Not everybody is going to
find nourishment from it. Jesus said, This is the true
bread from heaven. You ate the bread and are eating
the bread that perishes. See, the brethren of Christ that
come out are coming out of those churches because just like us,
we're not being fed with the gospel. We're not being fed by
the words of Christ that says it's finished. Everything has
been done for you. The people that are in there
that want to hear, you still got to do this, you still got
to do that, keep up good deals and keep up good works and keep
up faithfulness and all that kind of stuff, they're in there
for religion. Pride is popping up. Boasting
is able to be done because they are accomplishing what they think
is righteousness. but they have not submitted to
the righteousness of God. They are feeding off of something
that is not the true bread of heaven. But the people of God,
they desire the true bread from heaven, and whenever they are
in those types of churches, they are being fed. And they begin
to spiritually feel agitated in the soul because they're hungry. You know, whenever you get hungry
and your stomach starts to growl and everything, you can get a
little agitated. Man, I'm hungry. I want something to eat. Whenever somebody is spiritually
hungry, sometimes they get a little spiritually agitated. I can't
stand this no more. I gotta get out of here. I can't
eat this. I can't eat this. This ain't food. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith. Unto the church and to him that
overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. Oh, brethren,
if you're not eating on the hidden manna, you're eating food that
perishes. and will give him a white stone."
What's this mean? Now, if you look up this in all
the commentaries, there's a lot of things that are being said
about this. Giving him a white stone. One of the most prevailing
things that is found in this is that this stone was something
that they used to give people in the games whenever they would
win a tournament or win something They would give them a white
stone and they would engrave their name on that stone and
they would give that to them. And that stone that they were
given, that they could take that and go around to that town and
that city and that stone was their ticket to get in to whatever
they wanted to get into. If you wanted to get into some
fancy feast that was going on, you showed them that, they would
let you in. If you wanted to come to some theatrical thing
to watch, they would give you that stone, you could, or they
would show you that stone, they would let you in. Why? Because
that stone showed everybody who you were. Okay? And so that was their entrance
in to fellowships, into parties, into dinners. And specifically
it was given to show entrance into a banquet. Now I thought
that was quite amazing when I read that because we know that the
children of God have been invited to a what? Marriage supper. A marriage supper of the Lamb.
A banquet. And what does it take to get
into that banquet? In the story of the marriage
supper there were people that was invited whenever they come
there was a man who showed up and he came And he did not have
a garment. He did not have a banquet garment.
And they tossed him out and they said, you can't come in, you
don't have a garment on. Now, what was that garment representing? He didn't have a righteous robe.
He didn't have a robe that was white. See, to get in, you have
to have a marriage garment. The marriage garment is the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. The marriage garment is Christ.
We put on Christ. His righteousness is our robe. Now, here it's called the stone. What is our entrance into the
banquet? The righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of
Christ is our banquet. or excuse me, is our entrance
into the banquet. How do we get in? We get in because
we have that righteousness. It's not ours. It's His. But we have been clothed with
that. Well, looky here. The other reason that that stone
was given or was signified in old days was that stone was given
there was a black stone or there was a white stone. You were given
a white stone in a court of law if the charges that were brought
against you and before the court of law, you were found acquitted.
If you were found acquitted, they give you a white stone.
Whenever you went out, everybody knew I was acquitted of all my
crimes, of everything that was against me. I was acquitted.
The black stone was you were guilty and that you were blackballed,
you were blacklisted, you were given judgment. But the white
stone represented acquittal. It represented acceptance back
into the society. It represented justification. Well, brethren, you only get
justification because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The white representing the righteousness
of Christ the stone representing the justification, the righteousness
of Jesus Christ giving to us justification. He that hath an
ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and
will give him my righteous justification. My righteousness, so thereby
you will be justified before men. The stone was the symbol
that I have been acquitted. The Bible says that in that day
that all creation will be standing there and that those who are
on the right hand will be cast into everlasting darkness because
they will be judged because they tried to provide their own righteousness
and always fell short. But on the other, the Bible says
that these have overcome by the blood of the lamb. They have
overcome sin and death. That is going to be the fate
of all these people over here is eternal death. But these have
overcome death. Why? By the blood of the Lamb,
by the righteousness of Christ Jesus on their behalf. And they
stand there robed, not in their own robes, not holding a stone
that they earned, but a stone that was given to them. And that
stone of white represents that they have been acquitted. Yes,
they were just like every one of these by nature. But they
have been acquitted of all these crimes because this mediator
has robed them in his righteousness, has died for their sins and paid
for their penalties, and has obeyed the fullest of the law
for them. Therefore, they are called the
righteous. You say, well, I don't know about
that. Are we called the righteous? Well, look at the next part of
the verse. He says, I will give him a white stone and in the
stone a new name written which no man knoweth, saving he that
receiveth." Now, there's a lot of speculation about what that
new name written means, and I may be wrong about this. There is
a place that speaks of Jesus Christ, and He had a name written
that no man knew except Him. But here, this is speaking of
Jesus giving us something, and that the one who is receiving
it receives the stone with a name that no one knows. And if it's keeping in connection
with the imagery of that stone in the past that was given as
an entrance that had their name written on it to give them entrance
into the banquets, if it's in connection with the stone that
was given to them as a signification that they have been acquitted
of their crimes, then I would hearken back to this passage.
Turn with me if you would. to Jeremiah 33. Jeremiah 33, and look with me
if you would, verse 16, or excuse me, verse 14. It says, Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have
promised unto the house of Israel, unto the house of Judah, speaking
of God's people, in those days and at that time will I cause
the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David. Now the branch
of righteousness, the branch of David is speaking of Jesus
Christ, okay? So the branch of righteousness
is Jesus Christ. I will cause the branch of righteousness
to grow up unto David and he shall execute judgment and righteousness
in the land. In those days shall Judah be
saved. And Jerusalem, another name for
the people of God. Jerusalem is another name. Zion,
Jerusalem, that's all Judah. Israel, this is all names that
are given to illustrate spiritually the people of God, the elect
of God. In those days shall Judah be
saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely And now listen to this. Pay close attention to what is
said here. And this is the name wherewith
she shall be called. Not Jesus be called. Now Jesus definitely is called
the righteous branch here, right? He's called the righteous one.
He is righteous. That is his name. But it says
here that She, speaking of Jerusalem, the people of God. And this is
the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. See, this is the name that she
shall be called, the Lord our righteousness. We have been given
a new name. We have been given righteous, but not because we've been righteous. See, it's His name, but it's
written on us because God doesn't accept anything but what His
Son does. See, God doesn't accept us as
we are. You hear that in churches all the time. God won't accept
you any way that you are. Well, God doesn't save you on
you cleaning up your lifestyle or cleaning up your stuff. God
doesn't save you on merits of that, but God is not looking
at you and determining whether or not, you know, I am going
to save this person because they're so good or this person because
they're, you know, faithful or anything. I think God doesn't,
doesn't do, doesn't do that. He doesn't accept you as you
are. He doesn't save you as you are. He saves you on the account of
Christ. See, that's why we say it doesn't matter how bad you
are or how good you are, it doesn't matter, because your good or
bad doesn't determine whether or not you're the elect of God
and are the recipients of Christ's death. That's why Romans 9 said
to boys, whether or not they've done anything good or bad, that
the purpose of God, according to election, might stand. He
said unto Jacob, I have loved you, and Esau, I have not loved
you. What was it? Was it because Jacob was Jacob?
No, Jacob was a surplanter. Jacob was just as sinful as Esau. It had nothing to do whether
they were good or bad. It had to do with God's choice. God chose Jacob. God loved Jacob. Jacob was loved because of Christ. We are loved because of Christ. And so our name, whenever we
come before God, the robe that is there that God sees and accepts
is a robe that is not our robe. Adam came with his own fig leaves
and God didn't accept that. He came robed with the robe that
God gave him. We come robed in a robe that
was given to us. We come with a name that is given
to us that is not our name. Our name is not righteousness,
but our name has been made righteousness. We have taken on that name. My
thought goes back to adoption. The Bible speaks that we are
adopted sons of God, right? We are adopted. Well, what happens
in adoption? Adoption is when someone else's
kid is abandoned by their family and has no parents and some other
parents come and say I want to adopt you I want to bring you
home and you will be my son now even though you're not really
my son I want to bring you home and make you my son and whenever
they do that they go to the legal proceedings that allow them to
change that kid's name to whatever the parent is that adopted them.
That child now takes on the name of the one who adopted them. Well, brethren, if we are the
adopted of God, God has given us His name, the Lord, our righteousness. He's given us this name. Another
verse that kind of comes to my mind about the name being written
on us is in, turn with me quickly to Revelation 14. Revelation
14, just a couple of things here and I'll be done. Revelation
chapter 14. Look at verse 1, it says, And
I look, and lo, a lamb stood on the Mount Zion, and with him
a hundred 40 and 4,000 having his father's name written in
their foreheads. Their father's name was written
in their foreheads. Now, I know this isn't a stone
unless we're talking about, you know, I'm hard-headed or whatever,
but I know this isn't, but look again at the imagery. The name
was written on them. They were marked gods. They were marked righteous. They
were marked the one of God. This is my possession. See, this
is in contrast to the mark of the beast. Those who worship
the beast and the beast's system, they have his mark. Now, everybody
in the world, for some reason, because of all the stupid prophecy
teachers that are out there thinks that this mark is a physical
mark on the right hand or a physical mark on the forehead that they're
going to take by some antichrist that's going to come and force
everybody to get a computer chip in their hand or a computer chip
on their forehead or some tattoo. Back in the 70s it was a tattoo.
There's going to be a tattoo on your forehead and a tattoo
on your hand. Now in this day and age it's an electronic device
that they're putting out now that has all your information
that you can scan and buy your food and you can sell stuff and
buy stuff and just like all the stuff in Revelation tells them,
you can't buy and sell without that chip and everything, but
that's the mark of the beast. Brethren, the mark of the beast
is allegiance to Satan and his system. It's allegiance to the
world. It's anti-Christ. The beast and
the beast system The mark of the beast is this is the children
of Satan and this is the children of God. Jesus, whenever he looked,
he knew those who were his and those who were not his. He knew
those who would believe him and who would not believe him. Why?
Because these are my sheep. These are the children of Satan.
He knew that. Why? Because his name is written
in their foreheads. My name is written in their foreheads.
What does that mean? We honor and praise and worship
and believe upon Christ. Those who don't are not Christ. They don't have Christ written
in their forehead. They don't have Christ in their heart. They
don't have Christ given to them with ears to hear. That's the
mark of the beast. The mark of the beast is those
who are going to follow after the non-gospel, the anti-gospel.
Listen, it's happening today in droves. I mean, look at this
supposed revival thing that swept this world out of this stupid
thing in Kentucky that wasn't even a real revival. I know that
there's a problem. People are going to dog me about
that all day long, but there was no gospel there. They were
performing things in that meeting that was against the biblical
mandate for how church service should be run. There were women
preachers. There was all kinds of Stuff
that was going on that shouldn't, they had homosexuals leading
in the worship. It's not a revival or work or
move of God, as far as the salvific thing that's taken place. They don't have God's name written
in their heart. They have Satan's, who comes
disguised as a messenger of light. And see, I think a lot of the
elect of God sometimes will get wrapped up in these things that
we see like that because our heart yearns to see stuff like
that. We yearn to see our country turn
to God. We yearn to see that our leaders
lead under the influence of God's Word. We desire to see those
types of things. And so whenever we see what looks
to be maybe God doing a work here or like We so badly would
like to see that. But brethren, it doesn't happen
whenever it's lies about Christ. It doesn't happen whenever it
is something that is going on that is anti-Christ. The people that have the name,
the white stone, the ones that receive the hidden manna, they
are the ones who have been born of God, the overcomers. Now,
lastly, it says, which no man knoweth except him that receiveth. Now, what does that mean? Which
no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth. Now, I was talking
with another brother about this a couple of days ago, actually,
and why the Lord kind of spurred me to speak about this. That
word he there is not talking about a specific person. That
he refers back to the overcomer at the beginning of the verse.
That word he is generic. It's just talking about the person
that is the overcomer who eats of the hidden manna, who receives
the white stone with the written name. That's the he that's in
view here. Now look with me there. Which
no man knoweth, this name, this stone, this hidden manna, all
these things, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. You notice it said that he received
it. He didn't buy it. He didn't go work for it. So
he didn't earn it. He received it. It was given
to him freely. It was given to him without him
asking. It was given to him undeserving. Which no man knoweth, saving
he. That word knoweth is not talking
about cognitive understanding. Why is, and this goes back to
where I started at the very beginning, and hopefully everybody's followed
me from that. At the very beginning, remember what we talked about?
Who is the one who hears? The one that has the Spirit.
The one who the Spirit of God is in. The one who has a relationship
in Christ Jesus united to Christ. The one united to Christ. We
have a relationship. That word knoweth there throughout
the scriptures is often used to speak of an intimate relationship. We hear in the Bible that Mary
knew not a man. She was found with child even
though she knew not a man. What does that mean? It means
that she had not had an intimate sexual relationship with a man. Jesus said in Matthew 7, you
know, depart from me you workers of iniquity for I never knew
you. Jesus knew them. He created them, right? Jesus
knew them because he knows all things. He's omniscient. He's
God. But what did Jesus mean? Jesus meant I never knew you.
I never set my love upon you. I never united you to myself. There's not this familial family,
relationship between me and you. You are not my seed. I never
knew you. I never had relationship with
you. And see, we don't make relationship with God, okay? Everyone always
talks about how Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship.
Well, I agree in the fact that it's a relationship. We have
to be related to Him. We have to be His seed. If you're
not His seed, it's about seed. It's not about how we act. It's
not about how we interact with Him. It's not about how devoted
we get to Him in our relationship. And everyone is always talking
about this relationship, relationship. You've got to read your Bible.
You've got to pray. You've got to study. You've got to obey.
You've got to do all these things to enhance your relationship
with Jesus Christ. It doesn't come down to that.
It comes down to relationship in its most simple form. Are
you a child of God? If you're a child of God, you
have the faith of God. If you have the faith of God,
the faith of God will trust Christ always for their salvation. They will come to Christ. They
will believe upon Christ. They will find their food in
Christ. They will find that they, before
God, are only righteous because of Christ. They will wear the
robe and they will say the name, but it will be the name of their
Savior. The relationship is there. Those who know Him, we know Him,
not know of Him or know about Him, We know Him. We have an
intimate relationship that has been formed because the very
God of heaven is in us by His Spirit. We have a relationship
in the fact that we are His progeny. We are His children. Not somebody
who made a choice to give our allegiance to this guy. I know
a lot of men who gave their allegiance to the army Who in turn turned
around and went AWOL because they wanted to get out of that
place. Who got scared. Who turned around and didn't
want to have part of it. Or maybe saw corruption in it and got
out of it. But brethren, we don't join ourselves
and give allegiance to Jesus just because we want to join
the army. No. We are a family. We are His seed. We are His children. and we know
Him and He knows us. Last verse, Luke 10, verse 22. Luke 10, verse 22. It says, "...all things are delivered
to me of my Father, And no man knoweth who the Son is. Here
we go, here we're speaking about this. No one know who the Son
is but the Father, and who the Father is but the Son, and He
to whom the Son will reveal Him. Is that what Revelation is saying?
Isn't that what the book of Revelation says? the ones who overcome, the ones
who eat of the hidden manna, the ones who are given a white
stone, the ones who know the name that has been written, no
man knoweth except he that receiveth it. And who do they receive it
from? They receive it from Him, the one whose name is written,
the Lord our righteousness. All right, does anybody have
any questions, comments? Father, once again, we are overwhelmed
by the validity of the Scriptures and the testimony that it speaks
of who Christ Jesus is and who we are in Him and the glorious
gospel of the salvation that we have in and through Him. And
Father, thank you for once again giving us your Word. We pray
that your Spirit has been with us and taught us today. I pray
that this has been edifying to your people. And Father Lord,
we are so grateful once again for all the blessings of life
that you've given to us, for that white robe, for that white
stone, for that hidden manna, for that name that no man can
know except those to whom has received it. And Lord, we are
thankful that we have received it by your hand if we be yours. So Father Lord, we just are again,
once again humbled by your grace. And we pray today, Lord, that
you'd be with us as we leave, that we might continue to feast
upon these things. For it's in Christ's name that
we pray. Amen.