Thank you team for leading Us in worship through song in prayer and in giving may we never lose sight of the grace of God that’s so true it’s the grace of God that makes all of eternity possible for us to be with him and uh we never can
Stop telling that story and if you know if you know the grace of God it’s pretty precious to you well I love stories I like to tell you a little story right now story of this very large group of people that were wandering through the desert oh I’ve given it away
Already I’m sure Israel is wandering through the desert it’s in their last months before they move into the promised land and they’re on the borders of Moab and Midian and the Moab King balac is shaking in his boots can you imagine here is a mass of what they believed was 2 million people
Moving towards your country and they had been doing serious damage along the way uh and if anybody was threatening them they’d take care of them but Moab is going oh no or BAC the king of Moab is saying no what’s going to happen so what does he do what does any Pagan good
Pagan King do he goes and hires a prophet to to to curse the other uh the oncoming Nation to curse Israel and so he calls out to the most well-known prophet of the time balum and says balum I’ll pay you to come and curse this large group of people that are
Threatening us they really hadn’t yet threatened them but he thought that was going to happen so balum said you know yeah hey I could use a paycheck and as he’s thinking about going God comes to balum and says balum you will not do this and so
Bam sort of pulled back and uh as B and thought about he says I’m going to go make my paycheck and he goes on his way and as he’s on his way he’s riding his donkey as every good Prophet does and then all of a sudden the donkey
Stops in the roadway now you know some of us would at this point go is this a real story or is this a fable let me just tell you a little bit more of Story the donkey stops in the middle of the road and won’t go and
Balam’s kicking that donkey for all he’s worth still won’t go and he does this donkey does this three times and and then the donkey lies down on the on the road man that donkey’s glue in my books now and then bam starts to beat the donkey and
The donkey does this and this is where it becomes like is this real donkey starts to talk talk to balum God gave the donkey a voice now is that is God able to do that you know what I truly believe if God is God he can create this planet in
All the universe in seven days you know where I stand there he can he can do all kinds of miraculous things and he can make a donkey talk and the donkey says hey why are you beating me look over here and God open opens balam’s eyes to
This angel with this sword in his hands and he realizes that donkey kept him from being slayed and God says to him okay you can go but you are not allowed to curse Israel okay so balum continues on his way he gets to BAC the king of Moab and
He says BAC I cannot curse the people of Israel and baac is of course really upset he saysi not going to pay you any money for coming all this way if you don’t curse him he says no I can’t curse him but I can tell you what you should
Do so what he does he says what we want to do is get the the men of Israel to be enamored by all the temple prostitutes all these women giving their bodies for their pagan gods and if they will fall in love with them if they will be enamored with them
Guess what they’ll not only go to them which is by God’s standards not not proper they’re not to intermarriage no intermarriage to be happening but they will also follow their gods all their pagan gods and guess what it happened these women went and paraded themselves out before the men of Israel
And 20 I think it’s 27,000 men fell to a plague that came to them because they went and did this heinous thing what a story a prophet a king and a donkey God used all that to teach Israel to stay true to him to follow him okay
With that said let’s go to Revelation this is where we really are headed today Revelation we’ve been studying this book uh the first three chapters looking at the seven churches of Revelation and each of the churches have something to teach us they’re very important they learned some significant lessons as they
First heard this epistle but today what do we have to learn so let’s read it Revelation chap 2 and verse 12 and following to verse 17 and to the angel of the church in pergamum write the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword I know where you dwell where Satan’s Throne
Is yet you hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days of antipast my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells but I have a few things against you you have some there who hold the teaching of interesting who taught BAC to put
Stumbling block before the sons of Israel so that they might eat food sacrifice to idols and practice sexual immorality so also you have some who hold to the teaching of the nikans therefore repent if not I will come to you as soon to you soon and war
Against them with the sword of my mouth he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers I will give some of the Hidden mana and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the
Stone so that no one that on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it we thank the Lord for his word and what we’re going to learn today Holy Spirit we call upon you to touch each one of our lives would be easy for us and I know
From personal experience Lord how easy it would be for me to hear the story say yes yes yes that’s a great lesson and not let it really affect my heart affect my feet most importantly my mind and my heart together the way I think and the
Way I serve you so I pray holy spirit that you would touch each of our lives today with the truths of your word and may we leave this place ready to serve you more Faithfully than we’ve ever served you before in Jesus name we pray
Amen okay so we kind of know where we’re at here we know John is the ultimate recipient uh to give to the churches this epistle that has come from the father to the son through uh the angel right to John and John was the uh the
Apostle that was exiled to the island of Patmos which is about 40 miles off the coast uh of Asia Minor in the AGN sea and it’s a place it was a desolate place a place you did not want to go a place where it was a penal colony where they
Broke rocks and it was it was not a fun place but Paul or John went there happily and continued to serve God writing Epistles and while he’s there we have to be reminded that life kept going on and this letter was sent to seven churches
That were in a kind of a postal Arc that down on the bottom of Asia Minor here and right along the coastal Edge and up and around and each one of those churches that uh God sent a letter to had a very specific purpose commendations and warnings and
Praises and here we come to this third of the seven we come to uh a place where we find a church that has some commendations and some warnings again much like smea had some commendations and some warnings pergamum was an interesting place it was a place where uh this city
Had become a really significant City in the Roman expansion uh it is a place where the Imperial cult really took place in other words uh there was a time when uh Caesar began to be worshiped as a deity I always find that interesting uh the first Caesar Augustus Julius Caesar
Uh he was the one that really they implemented this this deification of the SE of Caesar he died how does that work if he’s de if he’s deity how does he die you you think through that but anyways Caesar is being woried and you know for for a Hebrew first of all
That’s a no no you know one God worship only one God for a Christian as well one God worship one God there is only one God the difference between uh the Hebrew and the Christian at this time was the Hebrews had a grandfather clause given to them by Rome they recognized the
Hebrews as a nation an ethnic nation and they said we know that you are a nation that worships uh one God and so we’re going to leave you alone we are your occupiers we don’t need to fight you over this but when it came to Christians they saw Christians as a a rival
Cult and so Christians began to be persecuted deeply intensely to the point of death and martyrdom at this time and so John is writing to the followers of Christ in pergamum urging them to stay faithful to the Lord guys we he’s saying I know you were in tough
Times I know that because of Emperor worship you are being asked pointedly will you worship the emperor stay true to the one true God and so they were they were struggling they were finding it very difficult a and for some they were like a man or a woman with one foot in their
Faith and struggling not to put another foot in the world and live this dualistic lifestyle it’s like I can imagine some of the family conversations were going on there so some of these Christians would have unsaved family and they’re going hey uh Christian son or daughter or mother or whatever whoever you know
Don’t fret just you know it’s only once a year just once a year you go you light a little incense and and you look like you’re praying to the Caesar go just do that it it’s nobody will be bothered by that except God who says there’s only
One God and I am that God the family might have said oh just do that you’re going to get ahead but if you don’t do that oh life is going to be too hard you don’t want to have a hard life do you you don’t want to be uh in a place where
You’re going to potentially get martyred that’s what they were dealing with at pergamum as CHR Christians and here we have an acknowledgement that for them and for us life can be difficult as a Christian no today we don’t have that same persecution here in Whit asua Durham region we don’t have
That but we’re still being called upon by God to stand firm for him and to have both feet firmly planted on the grounds of faith and living our life out in a way that demonstrates there is only one God he loved me and his grace has saved
Me let’s let’s get to know pergamum a little bit now third of the Seven Cities I said it’s famous uh for a variety of things one is pergamum uh is it actually means height or elevation so is uh on the coast but there is large hills
Around it where all these um uh places of worship had been built for the pagan gods it was the Roman capital of that area for uh province of Asia Minor what I found was interesting it was an intellectual Capital it was a place that had 200,000 parchment
Scrolls in that day and age you know those are books like today in my little phone here I can call up a thousand books without blinking and you may have a lot of books on your phone but to them 200,000 parchment scoll Scrolls indicated that they were at the epitome uh the Pinnacle
I should say of being an intellectual community at that time by the way a little historical note um most of anything was written on Papyrus Papyrus was known known uh because uh Egypt in Alexandria had developed this way of taking uh these reads and making paper out of them and
They were at at first wonderful but they didn’t last very long but the people at uh pergamum said we need to get H to know how to do that well they tried to hire literally in our common day terms they tried to hire the head librarian of the library at
Alexandria and so uh the uh I guess the king of Egypt of that time got wind of it put the guy in jail so he couldn’t leave and pergamum had to figure out how to create a writing um uh material to write on and so they took uh the skins of animals and
They started to write on what is it the necessity um is your best in there’s a saying isn’t there that when you have a problem and and you need to figure it out that’s when you figure it out and they had to figure that that uh problem out and they
Came up with parchment did I hear the word the phrase that’s my wife talking to me over in the corner why don’t I just ask her she knows so much necessity is a mother of invention and that’s what pergamum did so they put these all their writings on this
Parchment and of course today we’re thankful for that because all the Dead Sea Scrolls uh 80 plus% of all the scripture fragments that were found in the Dead Sea Scrolls were written on parchment and that’s why we have thousands and thousands of documents that we were able to put together a very verifiable
Trustworthy New Testament and we’re thankful for that okay so that’s pergamum you get the scene what about the spiritual state of Perma let’s develop that a little bit he says in verse 13 I know where you dwell where Satan’s Throne is and of course when we hear of Emperor
Worship as being prominent in this town the thought of calling this place Satan’s Throne we get that uh it’s safe to say that the pressure to conform to worship uh the emperor would have been absolutely uh significant and a variety of other gods of course we know that Zeus he was had a
Huge Temple there dionis the god of wine and drama Athena and as esculapius uh she was the god of healing and her simple was a snake all that just makes me think it’s it’s interesting of course we think of Satan in in a visual as a
Serpent one of the visuals we get and the medical fraternity took on the symbol of the snake in their uh in their symbol and today it remains a pro and not to say all doctors are devils don’t want to get that wrong there did you catch that you know who
I’m talking to the back right corner here doctors are great but this woman this this God this fake God this was her symbol I think symbols are important in the scripture we got to remember that and here we see the that this God uh really was a focus of the
Citizens of this area and so when he says uh that Satan’s Throne we see the symbol of the snake we know that this was going to be a problem for Christians Satan exercised what significant influence and real power in this town says I know where you dwell I
Again as in the first church we we love the fact that God knows about our lives we know where we he he knows where we live he knows under what circumstances we live he sympathizes with the struggles that we face and for those of us that are taking note
Today there may be that feeling that we live in a similar situation as do the Christians at smina and uh Ephesus and pergamum we live in difficult times no there are no Arenas where we are thrown to the Lions or that a sword comes and
Does away with us but we live in a world where Satan is in charge he’s really ruling this world he has great influence and in many ways Satan at this moment has the upper hand we know that in the end Christ wins but we know
Today that this world we live in is a place where the lines between good and evil are very blurred aren’t they note that the lines are blurred that that there is a a thing nowadays called while there’s your truth and there’s my truth and I say this as Frank
E gabeline years ago said all truth is God’s truth and today we say we want to live in a way that both feet are firmly planted un honoring God Christians I encourage you this morning develop an awareness or keep your awareness keen on the fact that the
The evil one Satan who who is is going around like a roaring lion is seeking to influence you more than you influence the world around you remember what uh Peter said in 1 Peter 58-9 be sober minded Be watchful just stop right there Peter the Great Apostle is saying keep keep your
Eyes open Be watchful your adversary the devil prows around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by our Brotherhood throughout the world and this has never changed as I said
Last week there are places in in this world where persecution is intense and lives are being lost for Christ’s sake for us today let us be aware let us be sober minded and Be watchful all right let’s let’s get to see Christ in the midst of this
Difficult situation it says in verse 12 the words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword what does that mean it it really is a fitting picture in this culture when Christians are being slain By The Sword and Jesus says yeah this this world that you’re living in is using the
Sword to take your life but I will do more than use the sword of my mouth to take a life I will judge a life By The Sword how do we know what this means let’s think of Hebrews 4:12 where it says for the word of God is a living and
Active sharper than any two-edged sword piercing to the division of soul and of spirit of joints and of marrow the Discerning the thoughts and the intentions of the heart God’s word becomes the instrument of judgment we need not fear the man’s instrument of judgment whatever that may be in our day
And age in their time it was a sword but today we we should be mindful that Christ The Living Word is his word that will convict us that will and should spur us on to living that life firmly as a life of Faith this letter to the Church of
Pergamum although it was written 2,000 years ago is for us really is for us it’s causing us I hope today to think Lord how am I living my life am I really living it out with both feet right planted firmly on faith in Christ and glorifying you let’s look at the church again
Pergamum what things were they doing right verse 13 uh even though everything around was evil uh Jesus says that the church was doing some right things it says in verse 13 yet you hold fast my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days of
Antipast my faithful witness who was killed among you where Satan dwells we we know it’s the Throne of Satan in there but he’s saying even again this is where Satan dwells he says I you hold fast my name in the original language means to be firmly committed
It’s like you’re out in the middle of the ocean and all you have is this life boy and you will not let go of that will you that’s how committed you are you know your life may depend will depend on holding on to that boy and keeping you
Afloat and he’s saying you’re acting like that as you keep my name the name of Jesus was precious to them they would not give up their their love for his name for him uh or or even s it by connecting ing it with any pagan gods of pergamum they
Love the name of Jesus I was thinking about this on Friday when uh I I overheard a conversation it was not difficult because they kept taking the name of Jesus in vain does it crush your spirit when people swear using the name of Christ or have you gotten so used to
It now that it’s like whatever let’s not get used to that we can’t go around being uh the police of those who use his name in vain but we we can remain in that place where we love his name it is so precious and when it
Was it is misused it affects us it touches us deeply because Jesus is everything to us and they didn’t they didn’t renounce their faith they stood firm they’re doing some things right even this man Antipas that’s mentioned here we really don’t know know who he was we do know
One thing and all of history will know antias stood faithful right until the death that he experienced for the sake of Christ for the name of Christ tradition has it that he was actually roasted to death in a a a a brass buf formed in the shape of a bull and they
Just they roasted him in that they had horrific ways to killr Christians and there are still horrific ways that they kill Christians in this world despite the evil times that they were living in and the evil times that we are live living in we have the opportunity every day to uphold the name
Of Jesus to uphold his standards for our lives are we committed to that as a church are we committed to that even more importantly individually just stop right now and think you know are there areas in in my life that I’ve sort of just let slip because it’s just
Easier and I need to I need to think about this I need to recommit my life to living it out so that when people think of me they think that person loves Jesus I may not agree with them but they are fully committed to their faith in Christ are we doing
This let’s get a picture now of what they did wrong remember uh a lot of these churches had things that were praised but also com uh things that were condemned look at verse 14 and 15 but I have a few things against you not just
One I have a few things against you you have some there who hold the teaching of balum who taught BAC to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel so they that they might eat food sacrificed to ults and practice sexual immorality so also you have some who hold the
Teaching of the nians so they have a couple teachings doctrinal positions that are being taught within the church the church of as a whole didn’t believe these things but there were some who were trying to press it onto the church and the first group that Jesus is
Talking about is it the those who hold to the teaching of bis that’s why I wanted to tell you the story of balum bellich and the donkey because it’s so important back in Numbers 22 to2 if you’re wondering where that came from we we see this story and that message and that teaching
Somehow was not being uh was or I should put it in a postive it was taking hold in pergamum and I think it took hold in many places uh in the early church I think it still takes hold today in that maybe it’s not about um Temple
Prostitutes and it it’s uh it’s not about eating food to the idols but it is a compromise to what is right we know what is right but slight compromises are offered so that life as a Christian becomes easier and so they were the Lord was actually saying yes you are
Christians in the fact that you trusted me but now you’re trying to trust something else as well as me it’s Faith plus and here’s a great uh kind of guideline to know is this the right Church to be in or not when the church say says yes Jesus
Christ is God and you can come and you can be sure of Heaven if you trust Jesus Christ but there’s other things you have to do it becomes Faith plus whenever you hear of anything else on top of the grace of God being added to that you
Know right away run from that church run from that belief system because all that is taught in the New Testament is by faith alone that’s what the great reformers went through they lost their lives when they said to that great church we will not follow you anymore because we believe in faith
Alone and so today I am encouraging us to be reminded May our walk with Jesus be all about faith by grace alone are we saved you know Romans 122 says it so clearly do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind
That by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect do not be conformed to this world how do we know what that really means unless we are aware unless we are thoughtful about what is this world like that we’re living in
And we say to God help me to be aware of that which is dishonoring to you and that which is honoring uh 1 John 5:19 says we know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one do we have that sense that we’re living it
This is not our home it is a place that we are dwelling in and if we go to other script rures we find out that we are ambassadors in this place that is not our home our home is with the father and in short time all of us will
Be with the Lord and we will realize how much this place was not our home but are we aware that we live in a place that is trying to draw Us in to their thinking to their ways which is opposed to God’s it’s the balite perspective this
ISS oh you can do this and still be a Hebrew you can still a good a god-honoring you can still do this and be a Christian and be a a Christ exalting Christian no we can’t and I’m not telling you what those things are today because we would be here for
Another hour but I’m going to say you figure that out know the word figure out what are those things that I know deep within that the spirit is talking to me about he’s saying to me that’s not what you should be involved in that’s not what you should be watching Listening
To We need to be aware of our own heart and our own lives that says aren we planted in one one in one one foot in one world in the world and one foot in in the world of Christ are we are we living as if Sunday’s great and then
Monday to Saturday we live the way we want to do you ever feel like sometimes you’ve done that so that’s the balum problem what about the nikans second group nikans is a group that we don’t know exactly the origin some would believe that uh Nicholas one
Of those six uh deacons that were first announced in in Acts chapter 6 may have gone apostate they think he might be the Nicholas that started a group that uh went away from the truth truth of God’s world word it was a her heretical sect
Um but we’re not 100% sure but we do know what they believed they believe that if you’re nickon that you were receiving special Revelation from God Only You how does how familiar does that sound eh lots of groups lots of individuals over the centuries have said
You got to come to me I’ve got the the skinny on what God is thinking I got this special Revelation and with this special Revelation they believed that it gave them freedom from the laws of God to participate in things that were not honoring to God remember I mentioned Alexandria the
Great place of the parchments or the the Papyrus uh notes well he said this about pergamum about these people he said they abandon themselves to pleasure like goats leading a life of self-indulgence the pastor of Alexandria was hearing how the some of the Christians were acting in pergamum
And he called them goats you know what goats are like if you ever been to a farm oh goats just go everywhere you know they if there’s food over here they’re over here even if they the the farmer tries to pen that off because it’s not good they still try to get at
It goats will eat anything they’ll eat your couch if you let them in the house and so it was getting around that some of the Christians were living a life that was opposed to God’s truth and the false teaching of balam and nians worked out evil purpos so well
In this town one appealed to physical lust the other appealed to spiritual ambition that that power of uh to to be over other Christians I mean we do need to appreciate and respect Christian leaders don’t we and those Christian leaders uh appreciate that so very much but there
Are far too many religious organizations in this world that have grown up over decades over over hundreds of years now where there’s a hierarchy we’ve talked about this there’s people in the Pew there’s priests there’s uh Bishops Cardinals and that that hierarchy was never is never seen in the scripture oh
People triy to say that they’re there but if you really study the word of God we are all equal in Christ we are all on the same level ground at the base of the cross saved by the same Grace serving by the same Grace yes different roles but equal in
The sight of God and so unfortunately there developed uh some Christians at the church of Perma who were being corrupted by this nikan false teaching and it was hurting the church deeply so I say again if we are not aware of Satan’s ways if we are not
Soaking in the truths of God’s word then we’re going to be uh the influenced rather than the influencers who do you want to be the influencers what a joy what a job that can be if you’re in school to be the the the young man or the young woman that
Influences your friends to check out Jesus because he loves them if you’re in that office and and all the of a sudden jesus’ name is taken in vain and you’re the one there they go oh you know so and so is a Christian I I don’t want to I don’t want to offend
Them at least you’re influencing maybe you can even speak for Christ and encourage that person who would take his name in vain to consider him as Savior in their life I want to have that kind of backbone and I found this quote I I had
I thought do I do I give you this quote or not it’s a great quote I put on the screen it’s from a Nazarene evangelist way long time ago he says oh Lord give me a backbone as big as a saw log and ribs like the sleepers under the church
Floor put iron shoes on my feet and Galvanize britches on my body give me a rhinoceros hide for skin and hang up a wagon load of determination in the Gable end of my soul help me to sign the contract to fight the devil as long as
I’ve got a tooth and and then gum him until he I die yeah we’ll put that out in the hallway I love that I I don’t know where that came from but it it gave me a sense of yeah that’s the kind of focus and and
Dedication that I want as a believer in love to stand firmly in the grace of God and to serve God so that he is always honored in this world that want only to bring dishonor to the name of Jesus so finally he gives a picture of the remedy to the pergamum
Church here’s what he says verse 16 therefore repent I could stop there we know what repent means but I’ll go on if not I will come to you and war against them in the with the the sword sword of my mouth again the sword the sword as that instrument of uh really
Judgment in their lives repent by the way that original word in the Greek has a a tense that says it is a command requiring immediate response when God lays in our heart to repent over some sin in our life he’s saying do it now don’t wait don’t try to fudge it out that
Maybe it’ll just go away it’ll never go away we got to deal with stuff that’s going on in our heart and lives I’ve tried to let it go under the carpet it’s always there and I trip over it every time that bump of sin that come
Sometimes it can it can grow so if you have anything in your life that you’re thinking about as we’re talking this morning and and it and the Lord is saying repent right now pray to the the Lord right where you are in that seat father forgive me I don’t want to I
Don’t want to live like that I don’t want to dishonor you I want to please you forgive me of this forgive me of maybe a sin of the bites or of the nikans something along those lines help me to live Faithfully for you and when God speaks his words are not
Suggestions when you hear God speaking to you do it then do it right away and he gives the the pergamum church a promise yeah he he shares with them uh you know what they need to do but with that repentance there is a promise don’t you
Love the promises of God you can spend a lifetime just looking up all the promises of God here’s the promise that he gives them he gives us verse 17 he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one
Who conquers I will give some of the Hidden mana and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives he gives them really two promises here in verse 17 he gives them the promise of hidden Mana you’ll
Remember back in the Old Testament in Exodus 16 the children of Israel were wandering through that desert and they were grumbling we don’t have the food back in Egypt we had a a bountiful table of food and they were they were getting really hungry and God says I will
Provide for you and from the skies came down this kind of bread-like substance that they were able to survive in the in the desert it was an amazing provision um and and they should never forget that and yet the nikans were arguing that because they were Hebrews and they were people of
God they could eat the food offered to the idols uh because if they didn’t they would have to pay double the price to find food that wasn’t offered to idols and they said you know as Hebrews no problem as Christians no problem God loves you he’ll never let you go you’re
Always his so you can do that and here Jesus is saying no I will provide for you I’ll provide the hidden Mana a a Mana that can’t be seen by man does it make you think of what Jesus said about himself in John chapter 6
47-51 he said truly truly I say to you whoever believes has eternal life do you believe if you believe in Christ you’ll have eternal life he says I am the bread of life your fathers ate the Mana in the wilderness and they died this is the bread that comes down from heaven so
That the one may eat of it and not die I am the living bread that came down from heaven if anyone eats of this bread he will live forever and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh Christ died for
Us have you put your faith in Christ and in essence you’ve eaten the bread of life stepping out in faith is saying Jesus is my Mana Jesus is my bread and that’s what he’s telling those at pergamum you don’t have to fudge your faith you don’t have to live with one
Foot here and another foot here you can trust me I will provide for you most importantly if your life is taken here you will be with me forever and that’s why he says to the one who conquers will be given the white stone and on the White Stone a new name
Will be written for us we’re not exactly sure what the white stone really is we do know that pergamum was a mining town as well one of their businesses was to mine this white stone that was around but apart from that we’re not totally sure we do know that some examples were
Given where black and white stones were given in the court system if you were found guilty you were given a Blackstone if you were found innocent you were given a white stone and and so we know that from their perspective it could be that a white stone reflected on
The their innocent status before God once we’re forgiven that could be one thing secondly I I found out that white stones were also used as medallions in Olympics as well as in uh some of of the other games that were just under the Olympics and the winner would be given a white
Stone as a it was a symbol of their Triumph and so as we’re given white stones hey I I could see how that correlates they could have understood the white stone meant as Believers we stay faithful to God we will Triumph and the truth is you will third option was white stones were
Also used as kind of tokens into Banquets or feast man you know going to the banquet going to going to the pergamum mandrin having a banquet I got in because I got my white stone now there is coming a day where Christians will enjoy the great feast in
Heaven and as Christians we have the white stone all of these maybe that’s what they thought of when they heard of the white stone you know what’s more important I think is that on the White Stone is a name that is our name given to us especially White Stone reminds us we are
Redeemed people that Christ has given us a new name like Abram became AB Abraham father of many nations Sarah his wife became Sarah mother of Nations Simon became The Rock Dwayne the Rock today you got nothing on Peter The Rock new name new name what does it mean what
Does it represent new nature in Christ we’re given a new nature we don’t have to live the same way that that old nature would have uh uh drawn us to to live we can take the foot out of the other part of the the world and have it
Firmly squarely planted together as one in this faith Act of living out this new nature the new nature is ours and in heaven we will get this new and unique name we will we will hear it I think it’s going to be devastating for all who will not put their trust in
Christ that in heaven they will not hear that new name but they’ll hear this as Matthew 7 records Jesus saying this not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but the one who does the will of my father who’s in heaven on
That day many will say to me Lord Lord did you not did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many works in your name and then I will declare to them Jesus says I never knew you depart from me you workers of lawlessness
Lawlessness they will not have been given this new name they will be cast out of the glories of the presence of God God in heaven forever and ever what a terrible time so bring this all together it’s evident that Jesus gave the church at pergamum some powerful
Incentives to repent to turn and uh from their compromising ways yet history tells me tells us that they really didn’t do that in a big way not much left of the city of pergamum today smina we know that smina the the the persecuted church still is is uh
Surviving and thriving and has a tremendous Christian population there but pergamus is just ruins maybe there’s some Christians there who who who heard from God in this letter and said I’m going to do what God wants me to do but it seems to me that many of them did not
Many of them chose to try to straddle Both Worlds how blessed is the soul who listens to the Lord I often tell you when you come in so good to see you be blessed this morning and I say that because when you come here I’m not looking for you to have a good
Time we’re not Here for a Good Time really are we we’re here to listen to God speak to our hearts and when we listen with Open Hearts guess what we get blessed so when you come each week and you hear me be B say be blessed that’s
What I’m talking about be blessed grow in your faith get focused in your faith and then take that out and bless others be the influence of Christ in the worlds in which we live beond that narrow path honor God and bless others living a compromized life never brings true
Blessing living a life that is fully focused heart focused mind focused on honoring God always will be blessed you may not understand where it’s coming from that blessing but it will be yours Focus have faith where are you at this morning where are we at is repentance required or is a prayer of
Encouragement being offered up Lord I’m doing that help me to keep on doing that whatever you have to pray remember what he said he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches
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