Praise the Lord for the privilege of being here today. We sang a moment ago this verse that says, inform the listening world how Jesus, when he fell, the powers of darkness hurled down to the depths of hell. And that's what we intend to do, is to inform the listening world. Now that doesn't mean that the world is listening, but it means that in the world, there are those whom the Lord gives ears to hear, and they're the listening world. And so that's what, you know, as we looked at each one of these churches in the book of the Revelation, he says, he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. And that's what we say today. We say to men, oh, hear the word of God. We desire for men to hear the word of God. We wish that we could somehow or other cause men to hear the word of God. But we know that only the Lord can.

But we know this, that he will. He has a people in the earth that will hear his voice. He said, my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. And so we rejoice in him today. And we look at the book of the Revelation. And we are in chapter two. And he's speaking to the church. in Pergamos, and I'm gonna read this message to the church at Pergamos. 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 seed 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. But I have a few things against thee. because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

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. Now the church in Pergamos, all of these churches, if you look at a map, they're all really pretty close in one another.

They were at that time in Greece. Now that area where they were is actually the country of Turkey, even though at that time it was part of Greece. And so that this city of Pergamos was even of these areas were until the Roman Empire fell. And so it is that Pergamos was a great city and it was a city that was set apart by the Romans as a capital city of the province where it was. So it was a, all of these cities really where these churches were, they weren't little small towns, they were generally all large areas. And Pergamos was especially noted among the Greeks at that time as a city which had many temples.

The main temple there was the Temple of Zeus, which was one of the central points of, as you've all probably studied in Greek mythology, their gods. Of course, all of their gods are myths. because there was no reality in them, but they, because they were a religious people and they had wanted something, and they, as Paul describes, that men have always made gods in their own image. That's just the nature of man. And so, men to fill up the religious nature that they have built all of these temples to Dionysus and I forget the Athena I think was another one that they had temples to.

And so when he's writing here to them And he says down here that Antipas, my faithful martyr, was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. I believe he has reference specifically to a great arena which was Just like in Rome where they had the Colosseum, all these cities had these arenas where people would come and watch sporting events and all of these things. And one of the sporting events that they had from time to time was to kill Christians. And so that was, I believe, what it has reference to, as he was one who was martyred for the cause of Christ. One of a few that's actually mentioned by name here, although there's been thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people who've laid down their lives over the time and been martyred for their faith in Christ.

And so it says the angel of the church in Pergamos write, these things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges. Now what is that sharp sword with two edges? It's the word of God. It's quick and powerful and sharper than any other two-edged sword. There's no two-edged sword alive or been made by men that's as sharp as this one because it divides to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit.

Now you'd be hard pressed to define the difference between the soul and the spirit. There is a difference in the scripture. I can't tell you what the difference is, but the word of God. is so sharp that it can define between that which to men is not even definable. Hard to comprehend. I know men give their differences of what these are, but I believe it's difficult for men to comprehend that.

But the two-edged sword of God, it's a blade that cuts both ways. In other words, it cuts against the enemies of God, and it cuts the people of God, not for the same reason. See, the sword of the Spirit pierces to the dividing asunder of the heart, and He does divide the hearts of men. He causes our heart to break. The Word of God comes as that sharp sword, and it cuts us open. He doesn't cut us open to kill us, but He cuts us open to cause us to see what we are by nature. And He destroys the enemies of God with that same sharp sword. And so it is that we rejoice in Him. He which hath the sharp sword with two edges, He's the one that's speaking to them.

It says here, I know thy works. and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. And so he's speaking about this place where they are. He's not saying that they are dwelling in Satan's seat or that they are embracing Satan's seat. He says you're right in the middle of Satan's work in all of this pagan worship. Any place where Christ is not worshiped, Satan is present. And anywhere where Christ is worshiped, he is present.

Because he would seek to overturn the people of God, but he already has those where Satan's seed is. You see, the house of God is not where Satan's seed is, it's where Satan would come to try to snatch away the people of God. But he can't do it. But there are certain places in the earth There are certain mindsets and avenues where he is. And that's wherever Christ is not. And that defines quite a large place, does it not? Even as he says here, even in Pergamos, he says you're here where Satan's seed is. He's right here in the midst of where you are. Just like Sodom was a place It was Satan's seat. Place where he was predominant. Now he's not predominant among the people of God. He would like to be. He would like to turn us aside. He would like to cause us to give him credence. But his seat is those places where Christ is rejected. And where the people of God gather together in the name of Christ, he's not rejected, he's worshiped.

Now that's not to say that everybody that claims to be a follower of Christ actually is. Nor that it's to say that everyone that calls himself a church is indeed a church of God. Because a church which is not giving Christ all glory is a place where Satan's seed is. A place where Christ is not worshiped, a place where Christ is not set forth as the only hope of men, as the only savior of sinners, as the one who has power to save. That's the place where Satan's seed is. Oh, that the Lord might give us a mind and heart to seek after him, that Satan might be cast out from among us, from around us, and that we be not carried off by that which he would set forth for us to.

And he's gonna get into some of these things here as he goes on to say, thou hast not denied my faith. These were people who were faithful unto death, even as Antipas was. And so he exhorts them You know, through the martyrs, the Lord doesn't call on all of God's people to lay down their lives in a literal fashion. That is unto blood, but he does call on all of us to lay down our lives unto him. He wouldn't call on all of us to die, but he does call on us to be ready to die, to be willing to die.

And no man can be. I mean, if somebody said, do you want to go out and die today? No, you'd say, no, I'll do whatever I can to avoid that. But if it comes down to denying Christ, what other choice do we have? I mean, could we deny Christ? I mean, him who has bought us with his own blood, brought us out of darkness and into the light. Can we deny him? Thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith, even in those days when Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth.

But, he says, I have a few things against thee. Now when he says he has a few things against thee, he's not saying I'm against thee. He says there are some things that you need to correct. He said there are some things that are not proper. He said there are some things even in your midst that are stumbling blocks unto you. And he's gonna tell them what these things are. He says, I am not against you, he says, but I have a few things against thee.

I think we might have used this same thought the other day where he said something very similar to this to one of the other churches. When he came to his disciples and they were asleep, when he told them to pray, he had somewhat against them, did he not, when he came back and he said, couldn't you Couldn't you abide with me? Now he didn't destroy them, he didn't let his anger be poured out on them, but he spoke to them, he exhorted them, he admonished them. The word of God is not meant to always be comforting. to our flesh, it's not gonna be comforting to the flesh.

It's comforting to the spirit when it's had its perfect work. No chastening for the present time seemeth to be joyous, but afterwards it yieldeth its fruit, its precious fruit, its blessed fruit. It's a fruit, the fruit of the spirit when the spirit of God has taken the word of God and shook us up and brought us out of that place where we were and shown us what we are by nature and shown us our errors and set our feet on the right path. That's a joyous thing. That's a blessing.

And so it is that he says, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. Now, You remember when Balaam tried to, when Balak hired Balaam, who was a prophet, a false prophet of course, but he hired him, he was a magician, a sorcerer, and so he was regarded as having some power, and Balak the king hired him to go and curse the children of Israel. And he wanted to do it, he wanted the money. But he couldn't. Remember, he tried to go and the old ass that he was riding on wouldn't go. And he beat on the ass and the ass turned to him and said, what are you beating on me for?

And the angel of the Lord was standing in their way. And the ass could see something that the false prophet couldn't. And that's true today. You know, the people of God, as weak and beggarly as they may be, they see the truth that those which would tell you a lie cannot see. But you can read the account of Balaam, how he failed to curse the children of God in a way or call down the curses of God upon them, because the Lord loved his people. And he couldn't curse them.

But he did cast a stumbling block before him, but you can't really, it's hard to determine what that stumbling block was until you read this passage of scripture right here. And then when you read this and you go back and look at that passage, you can see plainly what it was. That he brought these, he caused the children of Israel to look upon these pagan women. and they were led astray. He couldn't bring a curse upon them, but he put a stumbling block in their way, and they took these pagan women unto themselves, and by doing so, they brought trouble upon Israel. And so it is that he says the same thing here. He says, there are some among you that are as Balaam, who taught, who set a stumbling block before the people.

Now I believe that this is a true thing, that one of the great, this is a descriptive right here of something that permeates among the true churches of God, among all the people of God. In our society, has made these things that he's speaking of here, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, this stumbling block, to be just an acceptable thing. What am I talking about? I'm talking about sexual impropriety, sexual impurity. That's the thing today.

The idea is that if a person wants to do something, it's fine to do it. Now the Lord says in his word, that the sexual union of a man and a woman is to be in marriage. It's not to be, we're not to be like dogs going from one to the other on a whim. You know, not try this one out and try that one out and do all of this, but the Lord would have his people to be faithful one to another.

Why is that? Because he instituted marriage as a picture of the union between Christ and his church. And Christ is not a fornicator. He has union with his people, and that's it. He is married to his bride, and he's faithful to his bride, and he loves his bride. and to another he will not go." And that's the picture of marriage. And that's the error that happened here.

He taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication. Now you remember in Paul when he's talking to the Corinthians, he told them, you know, there's no great sin in eating something sacrificed to an idol. But the point he was making was as long as you don't have regard to that idol. But he says if you have regard to that idol, then don't eat it. I mean if you think this is somehow or other a good thing to worship these other gods, then don't do it.

If you think it's a good thing to follow the pathway of society, then you have erred. Now you see what society is doing. but you don't need to follow it. The one that we follow is the Lord. Whatever the Lord says is what's right. And he has set forth a pattern and a proper use of the union of a man and a woman. It's a good thing, a glorious thing, a blessed thing, but he has parameters. around which that is to be carried out. And so it is that he says here, he warns them about it.

He said, you have among you those that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, the things that I hate. Now we don't know specifically what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans but it appears to be in the things that he says having to do with this impropriety, which is common in our society. I mean, you know, it's not always been that way. I mean, men have always been rebels against God and they've always been fornicators, but today it's become acceptable.

And that's the difference. There's no societal pressure about these things because people have cast off any consideration. that what God says is right. I mean, what's wrong with all of this idea about this, the transgender stuff? What's the problem with that? Don't people have the right to do whatever they want? People don't have the right to do anything that God hasn't said you have a right to do. You don't decide those things. What's wrong with homosexuality? It's wrong because God said it was. But what if I can't help it? It's wrong because God said it was. Well, it doesn't become right because you think it's right.

And so that's what he says here to them. He said, watch out for this stuff because this stuff is in your midst. It's right around us. You know, there are those that might say, oh, it's okay. No, it's not okay. So thou hast them that hate the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, that hold the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and what does he say? I will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Now he didn't say, I'm going to come and destroy you. But he says, I'm going to destroy them. But he says, repent. Same thing he said, the same scenario that he gave to Job. Not Job. I might have said that a while ago. To Lot. Whenever he was in the city of Sodom.

I mean, Lord didn't destroy Lot, did he? Why? Because he saw Lot as a righteous man before him. Had Lot become righteous? Was Lot righteous in his deeds? No. Don't ever follow the way of Lot. I mean, as far as looking to him for an example. Lot was an ungodly man, committed ungodly sin, and yet the Lord saw him as righteous because he saw him in Christ. Now does that excuse what Lot did? Not at all. But we get the picture and we see that the Lord delivered, what does he say? Just Lot. He said he's just. How does a man get to be just before God? God makes him just. He doesn't do anything to get himself just.

Now a lot of people say that you can be justified by doing something. You can't be justified by doing something. You can be brought into the enjoyment and knowledge of justification through faith as the Lord gives it to a man. But Christ is the justifier. And if you're not justified in the blood of Christ as he hung on Calvary's cross, you can't be justified. Christ alone is the justifier.

And he is the one that determines if a man will be just or not. Oh, what a God of great salvation He is because otherwise how would we ever have become just if He didn't say, He's just. I love Him. I'm gonna die for Him because I love Him. He belongs to me. He says, repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly. Now, we are to repent. I believe the picture of Lot being taken out of Sodom is a picture of repentance. Now, we don't see anything that tells us Lot repented, but what did Lot do?

He left the city of Sodom, did he not? I mean, the Lord took him out of it, but he left it. His wife, however, what'd she do? She turned and looked back. The Lord said, man, put his hand to the plow and turn it and look his back. It's not fit for the kingdom of God. But you see, Job, even though he had no power in the whole thing, the Lord gave Job, gives us a lot as a picture of repentance. He brought him out. He caused him to turn his back on Sodom. He said, don't look back at it. That's what he's saying right here. Don't look at it. Don't embrace it. Turn from it. Because I will destroy it, repent of it.

And then he says, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Says that to every one of them, doesn't he? Do you have an ear? Are you listening to what I'm telling you? Do you think that you're different? Do you think that your case is different? Because society says something's okay, is it? No. They didn't hear what the Spirit said to the churches.

He's saying it. He's telling us. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. to him that overcometh. Now, we've talked about that a little bit. What is it to overcome? Well, there's only one way that a man overcomes anything, and that's in the blood of Jesus Christ. He overcame by the blood of the Lamb. But there is, in the same way in which there is an evidence of repentance, there's an evidence of overcoming. And overcoming is not being overcome. Now that doesn't mean that we don't fail.

The disciples, when they were there praying, and they went to sleep, they were overcome by sleep, were they not? But were they overcome? No, because the Lord came and he woke them up. See, they'd have kept on sleeping. He says, sleep on and take thy rest. But did they keep on sleeping? No, they got up. Why? Because the Lord woke them up. Had the Lord wake them up, He said, go on and sleep. And they said, we can't sleep. See, that's the mercy of God.

That He comes to a man and He says, don't do that. Does that mean that the man might not do it again? No, it means though that he's heard the word of the Lord and he knows good and well that that's not where he wants to be. See, he's not overcome by it.

He is in the process of overcoming through the blood of the lamb. Oh, what sometimes a slow process that is. that we learn, Paul said, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. Was he born that way? Did he just one day get that way? No, he learned it. See, it was a painful process, but the Lord taught it to him. And that's what he's saying here, listen to me.

Him that overcomes will I give to eat of the hidden manna. See in the overcoming as the Spirit of God works in the people of God, we feast on things that the world knows not of. This is hidden manna. Now the manna that fell out in the wilderness, it was just out there. People could go gather it up and they could see it. He says this is hidden manna. This is manna that nobody else can see but you.

And the Lord does that as he's working in us, both the will and to do of his good pleasure, he gives us. And who does he give it to? Him that overcometh. See, him that the Lord is working in, who's the man that's overcoming? It's the man that's in Christ. How'd he get there? Christ put him there. Can he get out?

Sometimes he thinks he might. Peter thought he had, didn't he? He thought, man, I've messed up now. Now Judas, he said, I've messed up, and he had. Because he didn't belong to the Lord. But Peter did. The Lord said, Peter, I've prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. And he said, there are some of you that he says, I have given to eat of the hidden manna, and they are those which are overcoming in the blood of the lamb. And I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. Now there's a couple of scriptures, I had jotted them down here so I wouldn't forget them that I wanted to read to you.

One of them's in Isaiah 56.5. Right over here.

Isaiah 56.5. Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. That's what he's saying that to them, isn't he not? He says, and I'm giving them a new name. He said, the man that overcomes, he says, I'm giving him a new name, which no man knows. except he that receives it. And then in Jeremiah 23 verse six. If I'd have been real organized, I would have marked these out, wouldn't I? But I didn't. Jeremiah 23, six. And this is what that name is. Go ahead, 23.6.

Well, we're going to be called by the same name in the Lord our God. You know, when the old priest went into the temple in the Holy of Holies, and he had a crown on him, and there was a brass plate on the front, or it might have been a gold plate, I don't remember, but anyway, it was a metal plate on the front of that. And it had the name of the Lord on it. And when that man, when that priest, went into the temple and into the place where the sacrifice was offered, he went there in the name of the Lord, Jehovah, the King, the Savior. See, it's not wrong to speak of Jehovah as the Savior, because when the Lord told Joseph what he was to call the Lord Jesus, he said, thou shalt call his name Jesus. That means Jehovah is salvation. He's the Savior. He's the one that saves men, and that's the name that's given. See, we have no other name whereby we can come into his presence. And no man knows that. See, I can't look into you and see that name written on you. You can't look into me, you don't know. See, you can't see that stone.

And how foolish is it for men to go around judging one another just to determine whether or not they belong to the Lord. I don't know who belongs to the Lord, but I know this, every one of them has his name written on them. He says, I know them. He says that because they belong to me. See, he put his stamp, you know, when back in the old west, when a man, when they had cows, they would put a brand on them. And if that brand was on that cow, the man knew that was his. The Lord said, I know them that are mine. They belong to me.

What a glorious God He is, the Savior of sinners. And He says, He's gonna give them to eat of the hidden manna, and will give them a white and a stone with a new name written, which no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. A white stone, a pure stone. See, our purity is not of ourselves, but it's of Christ. He's made us clean. That army that follows the Lord, as we read further on in the book of Revelation, they're clothed in white, in linen robes that says clean and white. That is the righteousness of Christ. He's clothed. We sang about it a moment ago, when we sang about that uniform that the Lord's given us.

No man can put it on. No man can buy it. But Christ can give it to a man. And He does. He gives it to His people. His people hear His voice. And they call upon Him. And they say, Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I have no righteousness except that which is of Thee. Oh, that He might give us a mind and heart. And they call upon Him. He saves those that call upon him. He saves sinners.