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Pergamos - Revelation 2:12-17 · Living Waters of Grace / Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland Sunday Services

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Good morning, Calvary Chapel, Good morning.
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It's a blessed morning today. Please turn in your Bibles to
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the second chapter of the Book of Revelation.
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Thank you so much, Sister, for that very warm greeting for our
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visitors and also for those who are here and also for all of our
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our announcements, which we have always have something going on
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here at Calvary Chapel while you're flipping.
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I just also want to send out a very warm welcome to those who
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do listen from behind prison walls.
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We never want them to think that we have forgotten them.
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We thank you for joining us every every week or every
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Tuesday or when or Wednesday, whenever it is that you are able
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to tune in. We thank you and we welcome you
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and we hope that you are blessed.
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We pray that you are blessed by the word of God.
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Please pray for our pastor Clark as he's on his way back from
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vacation. They were suffering down there
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at the beach. And yeah, I'm sure he was down
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there with fear and trembling down there on the shore.
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And he sends a picture every now and then, and it just looks very
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beautiful, very, very calm. I can understand why he find so
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much peace when he goes down to the beach.
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It's a beautiful area where they are.
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So please pray for them as they are on their way back and and
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pray for everyone that you are aware of who are dealing with
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any kind of infirmities, any kind of sicknesses, diseases or
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whatever the case may be. Please lift them up as you know
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who they are. Amen.
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So let's pray and let's go into the word of Godfather.
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We do thank you this morning once again as you tell us, Lord,
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in your word, that those who diligently seek you, you reward.
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And we thank you this morning, Lord, that we have come once
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again to seek you. Not to seek man, not to hear
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anything from me, but to seek You a Father.
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We desire to hear your voice. We want to hear you speak to us.
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You have the words of life, and we thank you, Father, that we
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have life in you. I pray this morning, Lord, that
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you have been satisfied. I've been pleased with our
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praise and our worship. And I pray now, Lord, as we
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worship you once again by the sitting under Your word, that we
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are doers of the Word and not hearers only.
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And we pray, Lord, that as we bring our weaknesses before you,
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those areas where we need you, I pray, Father, that you will hear
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us and meet us right where we are.
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So today, Father, we just pray that everything that we do today
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brings you glory. I pray that you manifest
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yourself, your presence today as you promised us in your word,
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Lord, that you are, You walk among the lamp stands which are
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the churches. So, Father, we thank you for
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your presence here with us today, and we ask that you would
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be manifested. Let your power, your teaching
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power, your hearing power, learning power, let it be
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manifested today. Lord, take the scales off our
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eyes that we may be able to see what it is that you're saying to
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us. So Lord, may we love you more
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dearly as a result of what we hear.
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Maybe walk with you more nearly and may we see you more clearly.
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We ask these things in the name of our Savior and our Lord.
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In Jesus name we pray, Amen. So please put your finger or a
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marker or something there. In the 2nd chapter of the Book
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of Revelation, verse 12 is where we're going to start.
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But I'm going to ask for your patience a little bit because
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before we go there, I would like to kind of set the table in
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another way. If we could go back to the Old
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Testament, let's do a historical perspective of what it is that
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we're looking to do or what we're looking to hear from
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Jesus. So let's go back to the book of
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Leviticus, and I want you to go please, to the 18th chapter of
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the book of Leviticus. It's in the book of Leviticus
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that we get the Levitical laws that we hear, the laws of
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cleanliness and those things that God was giving to the
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priests of Israel for sanctification, for cleanliness
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and for worship. And where we're going right now
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in the book of in the 18th chapter, it talks about worship
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in the way of sexual morality or what's or what is approved by
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God for sexual morality and what is not approved by God where
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sexual morality is, is concerning.
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And you ask, well, why is that important?
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And when we get to the to the Church of Pergamus, you're going
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to see why that's important. But right now, I just want to
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set the table for how God sees how we worship him versus how
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the Pagan societies worship their gods.
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And he warns us and he tells us, don't worship me the way they
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worship their gods. Don't be enmeshed in their way
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of doing things because that is not what I desire of you.
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So let's go to the 18th chapter, the book of Leviticus, and this
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is what we're going to find. I'm going to just read the first
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4 verses, 5 verses rather, and this is what it says.
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Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of
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Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God.
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That is important. I am the Lord your God, not
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their idols, not the gods that they serve.
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I am the Lord your God. According to the doings of the
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land of Egypt where you dwelt, you shall not do.
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And according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am
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bringing you, you shall not do, nor shall you walk in their
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ordinances. Sounds like today, doesn't it?
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Sounds so much like today, like he's talking to us right now.
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You shall observe my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk
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in them. I am the Lord your God.
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You shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which
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if a man does, he shall live by them.
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I am the Lord. So now he tells us and he sets
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this up and he says don't do the things that you saw in the place
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where I am delivering you from. I'm bringing you out of Egypt.
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And they saw a lot of Pagan worship in Egypt.
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And he said, and don't do the things in the place he's warning
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them before they get there. Don't do the things in the place
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where I am bringing you to. Don't do what they do either.
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All those things to him are an abomination.
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And then from verses 6 through 20, he uses the word uncover
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nakedness. He uses that phrase.
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In fact, between the verses of 6 and 20, he uses that phrase 20 *
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20 times. Do not uncover the nakedness of
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Do not uncover the nakedness of. Do not uncover the nakedness of.
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What does it mean to uncover the nakedness?
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Uncovering nakedness means to engage in forbidden sexual
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relations. And like I said, he mentions
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that 20 times between the verses of verse 6 and verse 20.
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And then the the sins that are mentioned in Leviticus verses 6
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to 23 include all of the things that we as his people should not
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engage in. But keep in mind, these are all
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the things that the that the the Egyptians participated in and
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these are all the things that the Canaanites are doing.
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So this isn't just him just throwing stuff out like his
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imagination. We're talking about things that
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people are doing. And he says, and This is why the
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lamb was so sick that it vomited you out.
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It vomited them out because of the sick things they were doing.
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And as soon as the sins were filled up, he made a decision to
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send the Israelites in to clean these people out.
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And he's saying I don't want you to make the same choices for
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worship that they did. Now, those sins that he
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mentioned between chapter verses 6 and 23, they include
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fornication, adultery, incest, homosexuality, even beastiality.
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And for those of you who don't know what beastiality is, it is
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sex with animals. Some of these people in Rome
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were marrying their animals. And then of course there was
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child sacrifice thrown in there as well.
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These were the sins and the worship of both the Egyptians
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and the Canaanites. And God is saying, but not so
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for you. So let's finish this now with
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verse 30 and I'll read that to you to, to hear his kind of the,
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the, the the cap on this to wrap this up.
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He says, therefore, you shall keep my ordinances so that you
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do not commit any of these abominable customs which were
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committed before you and that you do not defile yourself by
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them. I am the Lord your God.
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I'm the Lord your God. So now let's Fast forward and we
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get now to Pergamus and it's in pretty it won't take long for us
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to see exactly why that was relevant because it was already
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put in place back in the Old Testament of what is appropriate
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worship of our Lord and what is not.
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So here in the in the 2nd chapter of the Book of
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Revelation verse 12, he says this.
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In fact, I'm going to just read it all the way down and then
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I'll come back and make comment. He says into the Angel of the
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Church in Pergamus rite these things, says he who has A2 edged
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sword. I know your works and where you
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dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast to my name.
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And you did not deny my faith, even in the days in which
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Antipus, my faithful, was my faithful martyr, who was killed
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among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against
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you, because you have those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who
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taught Bailey to put a stumbling block before the children of
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Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual
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immorality. Thus you also have those who
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hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.
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Repent, or else I will come quickly.
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I will come to you quickly, and we'll fight against them with a
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sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear
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what the Spirit says to the churches.
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To him who overcomes. I will give him some of the
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hidden manner to eat, and I will give him a whitestone, and on a
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stone a name written which no one knows except him who
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receives it. Lord bless this word.
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So he says here in verse 12, he writes this letter to the per
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the Church of Pergamus, and just as he had with the Church of
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Ephesus and the Church of Smyrna, he writes it in
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correspondence to where they are located.
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Now I don't have a pointer or anything, but on the map here
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you can see where the where the Church of Patmos is located.
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OK, well where Patmos is located, but if you look, I wish
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I had a pointer. But if you look here where they
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start with Ephesus, you'll see that John had to travel in order
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to deliver these messages. He had to take the the post
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route to get to these churches and he had to go north, start N.
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So he went to Ephesus and then from Ephesus to Smyrna.
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OK. And then it will be the next
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church is going to be Pergamon, and that's where we are now.
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And then he will descend to come S to Fair Tyra and to Sardis and
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to Philadelphia and Laodicea. So that's the route, the postal
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route, if you will, that John had to take.
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But just like the other two churches, Christ identified
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himself using one of the terms that he actually used in the
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vision of John in chapter 1. Now in this in this particular
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chapter, he says that he is he who holds or who has the two
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edged sword. OK, so there's two edged sword.
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This is a it is symbolic for judgment.
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So let's talk a little bit about what what Pegamus, you know what
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this Pegamus city was? What's what are they about?
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What is what is Jesus saying to this church?
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Why is he addressing the church in this way?
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Well, Pergamus, or now it's modern day Bergamot, Turkey.
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It was a capital province in Asia Minor.
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It's a very wealthy and very powerful city actually, just
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like Ephesus and like Smyrna was.
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But it was known for its development of parchment, which
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is for writing. It's like paper.
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And this was after papyrus was banned from Egypt.
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They used to write with papyrus, but then after the the demand
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for for papyrus, after it declined, the Egyptians stopped
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importing it and exporting it. So that's why Pergamus came up
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with their own method for writing utensils or writing
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paper, which is with parchment. It's a Cultural Center.
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It's a Learning Center. And one of the things that they
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boasted is that they actually had a library of over 200,000
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documents. And all those documents, by the
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way, were handwritten. All of them were handwritten.
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They didn't have printing presses and typewriters and
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things like that back then. So all these documents were
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handwritten and they boasted about having all of this, this,
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these, these volumes. I mean, it was a, it was a city
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where it was universities. I mean, there was a cultural
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city, very upscale kind of a city, but it was also the Center
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for Pagan worship as well. So when Jesus says that I'm
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coming with the two edged sword or, or, or, you know, he who
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holds or who has A2 edged sword, he was basically saying that
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although there are some things that you've done that are very
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good, you have some there that I am coming to deal with.
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There's some things in your church that I'm coming to deal
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with. And, and I just wonder sometime
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if he was writing a letter to this church, what would he say?
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If he's writing a letter to the church today, what would he say?
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What would he want to deal with with us?
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And, and the way we must look at things is that we first examine
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ourselves. When we examine ourselves then
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as a body of believers, we become more, more like Jesus
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Christ. So this sharp 2 edged sword, it
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cuts both ways. As you know, as we know that
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swords can cut and the things about this, this, this sword,
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it's the mouth of God. It's the word of God that cuts
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and it goes in and it cuts. It cuts below the surface.
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It's below the surface. In other words, the things that
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we see of each other on the outside, the word of God goes
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deeper than that. I can fool with you.
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There was a actually a, a worldly term that says we can
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fool some of the people all the time.
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You know, some of the time we can fool some people or
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something like that. But see, we can't fool God at
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any time, whatever it is. I'm sure I messed that up.
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But we can't fool God at any time because God sees things
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that we don't see. So, you know, there's two edged
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swords that he wields and he uses the word sword here because
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even the Pagan nations, Rome and you know, Rome, the Roman
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government, they welded A swarm. They, you know, they had a sword
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that they would use for justice or a sword that they would use
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for to execute, execute, or a sword that they would use
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against those who were in rebellion.
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They used a sword to judge people.
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But Jesus is saying here, don't be afraid of that sword, Be
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afraid of my sword, because my sword not only will take your
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physical life, but it will also could take your soul.
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You can also take your soul. We know the scripture in Matthew
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10 and 28. Do not fear those who kill the
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body only, but all but those who can but but cannot kill the
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soul, but rather fear him who was able to destroy both soul
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and body in hell. So this sword is living, it's
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powerful and it's sharper than any other sword.
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The the word of God, it cuts deeper than anything else and it
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cuts both ways. I mean, it cuts to correct us
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and it also cuts to heal us. The word of God corrects us, but
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it also heals us. So it cuts both ways.
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Thank God for that, because we all you know, it, it it
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performs. It's almost like that swore
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performs surgery on our hearts when we need it most.
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The thing that it goes deep into US, the IT looks at the areas
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where we may not even be aware. You know, sometimes you can go
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to a doctor and he can tell you got a problem that you weren't
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even aware you had because it's happening so deep, may not have
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even been symptoms of that problem yet.
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But the Word of God is able to go in and be able to see those
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things. And not only can He correct it,
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but He can heal us. We all have things that we need
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to be healed of in our hearts, and the Word of God is able to
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do that. Thank you Jesus, for that.
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Most of us are here now as a result of that.
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Most of us follow Him because the result of what he's able to
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do with His Word. So Jesus was warning this church
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that, you know, judgment would be coming not only from the
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earthly judgment. Don't just be afraid of them.
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But the heavenly judgment is the is the one that would really be
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concerning. But first he gives them a
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condemnation. He gives a you know, he gives
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them a compliment and he says to them, but you hold fast, even
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though you are in the Satan's throne, you hold fast to my
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name. And you did not deny my faith.
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Even in the days in which Antipus was my faithful martyr,
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Jesus is saying, and he's the one that walks in the midst of
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the candles, candle stands, as we said earlier, he walks
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through the churches. So he sees everything.
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He says, I know your works. He sees everything.
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He sees what we do. He hears what we say, but he
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also knows our motives for why we're doing it or why we say it.
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He knows our motives. And he acknowledged the fact
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that even though you know, they have, you know, they live in
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this difficult area of what is called Satan's throne and also
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is called where Satan dwells. They live in this very, very
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area was very complicated and very difficult to be a
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Christian. But yet they held fast.
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They held fast. They didn't deny him, nor did
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they deny his faith. And he acknowledges that.
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But he says, but if there is something I hold against you,
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there's something I hold against you.
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And he said the thing that I hold against you is that you
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have hold to, you have held, you have some there who hold to the
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doctrine of Balaam, who taught Bailet to put a stumbling block
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before the children of Israel. Now, as we said before, Pergamus
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was a very religious, but a very Pagan city.
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So it expected, I mean, it had different gods and things of
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that nature. And they wanted the Christians
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to submit to these gods. I think we talked about back in
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the the Church of Smyrna how they wanted the Christians to,
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yeah, it's OK if you worship your God.
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But once a year, I want you to come and write just a pinch of
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incense to our gods. Just compromise.
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Once a year write that you know that, that that pinch of incense
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and all you got to do is just say Caesar is Lord and you're
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done and you're done. Nobody messes with you.
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You keep your life, we won't persecute you.
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Well, a lot of these people that were in the church would not do
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that. They would not submit.
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They would not submit, they would not compromise even that
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one time a year. Now there are many gods, many
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temples and pergamus that had that, that that served God.
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They were erected for the purpose of worshipping their
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gods. They had Greek and Roman gods,
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including Diagnosis, Athena, Demeter, and even Zeus who was
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the the chief of all Greek gods. He was the chief.
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In fact, he actually had a huge altar that was erected and
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worldwide, a world known altar that was erected just for him,
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for Zeus. In fact, that it's no longer
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there in Pergamos. It was torn down, but when they
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did is that they took the remains of that and they took it
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to Berlin, Berlin, Germany. And it's now in a museum there
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in Berlin. It's called the Pergamus Museum.
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So people can still go from all over to see.
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It's massive. And it was actually called one
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of the wonders of the ancient world, one of the seven wonders
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of the ancient world. It was huge and most people
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believe that. That's why they referred to
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Pergamus as Satan's throne. It was like that altar was the
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altar of Satan is where Satan dwelled.
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So Pergamus built all these different temples.
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Even they they even built a temple to to worship their
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emperor Caesar at that particular time.
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They're one of the only cities who did it, but Pergamus also
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had the temple of Askapalis. I'm sorry, wait a minute.
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Let me get it right. Askalapius.
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Askalapius is a very uncommon word to say, but Askalapius is
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one of the Greek gods there and he was the God of healing and
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the God of medicine. They actually had a university.
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They are named after him. And the weird where, I'm sorry,
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the different thing about this temple of Ascalapas, people will
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come from all over the world who are suffering from different
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diseases and different sicknesses.
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And they would come and they would be allowed to actually
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sleep on the floor of the temple.
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They would sleep on the floor of the temple all night long.
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And it would be sleeping total darkness.
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And then they would release non venomous snakes, non venomous
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snakes, these what they consider to be harmless snakes.
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And then the tradition was, or the belief was, is that if over
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the course of the night, if a snake would crawl on you or in
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some way rub up against you, they believed that that was the
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God Askalapius touching you and you would be healed.
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I'd rather have the disease. That's a bit much, but they
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believe that in fact, even today, even today, the sign for
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medic for the for medicine is a staff with a serpent wrapped
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around the staff. And the reason why is because
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that was the sign, that was the symbol at the University of
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Ascalapius. And we still have it today.
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We still have it today. So just shows you what kind of
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influence those kind of things have even on the world or even
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on the world today. We all know that Jesus is the
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true healer. We all know that he's the true
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healer. He's the great physician.
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He can do, you know, these folks can do all those things, but
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nobody heals like Jesus Christ because not only can he heal the
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body, he can heal the soul. He's a great physician, the
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great healer. And you know, it's interesting.
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They, they have all these idols that they have and they create
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all these idols. They give them mouths, but they
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can't speak. They give them ears, but they
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can't hear. They even give them feet, but
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they can't walk. They can't come to you if you
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call them. There's people that have called
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him all night long, cut themselves.
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You know the story with the prophet who had the prophets a
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bell on the mountain and he's they were calling on their gods
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all night long, cutting themselves and doing all kind of
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crazy that the guy couldn't come.
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Bell couldn't come. He couldn't show up because he's
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not real. He's not God at all.
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There's only one true God and that's our God, the one that we
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serve, the one that we worship, call him Jesus Christ, the one
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true God. Thank you, Jesus.
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So anyway, they they they they have this, you know, he says I
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have this against you have some there hold to the to the
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doctrine of Balaam. So what was the doctrine of
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Balaam basically? And we can go back and look at
28:15
the story. I'll just summarize that.
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There's no way I'm going back in the book of numbers and that's
28:18
where it is. And we can take a look at this
28:21
story of Balaam. But basically what he was saying
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there is in in the story is that the Israelites as they were on
28:30
their way, coming from Egypt on their way to Canaan, they came
28:34
across the came across the land of the Moabites in the Moabite.
28:38
The Moabite king Balik, who was the mobile king at that
28:41
particular time, he decided that he was going to curse these
28:47
people. He was afraid of them.
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He had heard about everything that the Lord had done for them.
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So he was going to curse them because he was afraid of them.
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And and, and as they were coming closer, he went out and he hired
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Balaam, who was a sorcerer basically, but he was called a
29:02
prophet and he wanted Balak Balaam to curse the children of
29:08
Israel. But the and he offered him a lot
29:10
of money in order to do it. And the word warned Balaam and
29:14
said don't go. But he ended up going anyway
29:17
because he was greedy. He had the the issue of greed.
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Money was his God, so he went anyway.
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And and of course we heard, we know about the, the story, how
29:27
the donkey spoke to him and tried to tell him that look man,
29:30
you in danger, you need not to, to do this.
29:33
But anyway, the Lord did let him go because God had a purpose.
29:38
He had a, he had a plan. He knew what was going on, but
29:41
he also knew Balaam's heart. So he let him go.
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And of course, Balaam tried to curse the children of Israel,
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but every time he would open his mouth to try to curse him, a
29:49
blessing will come out. And and, and Bailey quite often
29:53
was getting really frustrated about this.
29:55
So wait, wait, wait a minute. I hired you and I offered you
30:00
all this money for you to curse this people and all you're doing
30:04
is blessing them. Why?
30:06
What's, what's going on? And Balak said Balaam says,
30:10
look, I'm sorry, I can't do anything to these people.
30:13
Now I'm giving you the short version this please go back and
30:15
read it. It is in the book of numbers,
30:17
chapters 22 through 25. And you can also see the, the,
30:21
the end of it in chapter 31. So this is just a summary that
30:26
I'm giving. So Balaam said to them, look,
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I'm sorry, but I can't curse who the Lord blesses.
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He understood the power of God and he said you never, never,
30:38
never beat them this way. You won't destroy these people.
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Try to come against them in this way, but if you want to destroy
30:48
them, get them to destroy themselves.
30:51
So he convinced Balak basically to take the young Moabite women
30:57
and they will go and invite the young Israelite men to their
31:02
sacrifices and to their worships services.
31:07
And the one young women would tell them, they'd say, look, the
31:11
way we worship our gods is that we eat a bunch of foods that we
31:15
offer to them and we have sex. That's how we worship our gods.
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And of course these young men gave in and they went and they
31:27
got deceived and they ended up defiling, defiling themselves
31:33
with these Moabite women. And of course it angered God and
31:38
you know, he ended up putting a plague there and it and it
31:41
killed thousands. But this is the interesting
31:48
thing. Satan understood that
31:53
persecution and trying to take down the church by violence
31:58
never, never worked. The church always gets stronger
32:01
in persecution. The church grows in persecution.
32:06
It doesn't get weaker. It encourages us.
32:10
When people are faithful unto death, that encourages us.
32:15
It doesn't discourage us. So Satan understood we can't
32:21
beat them that way. We got to join the church.
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Let's join them. Let's join the church, and let's
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bring in a seductive doctrine to convince them to defile
32:33
themselves. Think about that.
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Think about that. So today we got churches that
32:43
look like the world because they've been convinced that it's
32:51
OK to sin, it's OK to do all these things as long as you
32:55
profess Jesus Christ and, and, and you call him your Lord, that
32:59
you agree that he is the Son of God, long as you say all those
33:03
things, you can live any way you want to.
33:09
And we see that happening. We see that happening.
33:13
But they understood that you can't beat them from without.
33:16
Isaiah said no weapon formed against you shall prosper, and
33:20
every tongue that rises up against you in judgment you
33:25
meaning God will condemn every tongue.
33:30
But if we allow ourselves to be deceived and to take on this
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doctrine of balaam, which is what Jesus saw in the church,
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there's some of you. He didn't say all of them.
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He said there's some of you who are holding to the doctrine of
33:46
Balaam and you're calling yourself Christians.
33:51
You're saying you believe, but yet your life is showing
33:54
something totally different and you think it's OK, You can sin
33:59
as much as you want as long as you think that you are
34:04
professing the right things. That's why Matthew 7 to 21,
34:10
Jesus said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will
34:13
shall enter the Kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will
34:17
of my Father, he who does the will of my Father.
34:22
Luke 6 and 46 says Jesus said, why do you call me Lord, Lord,
34:27
and do not do the things I say? You don't keep my commandments.
34:33
If you love me, you keep my commandments.
34:39
So this doctrine of Balaam is basically, it's a it's a
34:42
doctrine of compromise and assimilation with the world.
34:48
And he says some of you have gone with this.
34:52
So some of the members were being called out for this
34:55
difference between what they professed to believe and what
34:59
they know to be true and what they actually practically lived
35:04
out. Now let me say this.
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As Christians, as growing Christians in the Lord, none of
35:11
us are perfect. None of us have reached the
35:14
level of total sanctification. None of us are.
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We are not sinless. We're not that.
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We haven't reached that and we won't on this side of heaven.
35:27
We won't until Jesus come back. We're going to struggle, we're
35:32
going to fall, we are going to sin.
35:39
But that gap that we have of what we know to be true and what
35:45
we believe to be true and what we're practically living out as
35:50
a Christian, it should not be getting wider and it should not
35:56
stay the same over time. It should be getting smaller.
36:00
That's called the process of sanctification.
36:04
It gets smaller. We should we are, we are looking
36:07
to look more like Jesus Christ, look in the more like Jesus
36:12
Christ. If we have a picture of Jesus
36:14
Christ And you know, when you get a, some kind of a product
36:18
and, and you have all the pieces of that product laid out, you
36:21
got a picture of what the end result is supposed to look like.
36:25
But you looking at them pieces and it don't look like that.
36:27
So you have to go to the directions and allow the
36:32
directions to help you to build this thing.
36:34
And the more you follow the directions, the more it begins
36:38
to look like the picture. And that's us.
36:42
We are a bunch of broken pieces coming to Jesus.
36:47
We're a bunch of broken pieces. And daily, as we stay in the
36:51
Word of God, as we come and sit under his word, as we pray, as
36:56
we become disciples of Jesus Christ, eventually we should
37:01
look more like the picture Jesus Christ.
37:04
We should look more like Him, not less, shouldn't stay the
37:10
same, but that's the process of sanctification.
37:15
It should not get wired. That gap should not be wider.
37:18
It should be narrowing. But then he also said that you
37:22
also have the doctrine of the Nicolatans.
37:24
There in that place you got the doctrine of Nicolatans.
37:27
You now there's the deeds of the Nicolatans and there's the
37:31
doctrine of the Nicolatans Now the deeds of the Nicolaitans, he
37:35
says are are those that believe where they promote idolatrous
37:40
behavior, sexual immorality, self indulgent lifestyle is
37:46
basically what it promotes and it blends the Christian faith
37:51
with Prague with with Pagan worship and Pagan practices.
37:54
We just talked a lot about looks a lot like the doctrine of
37:57
Balaam, but the doctrine of the Nicolatans is something a little
38:03
different. And this is the thing that Jesus
38:06
said He hates the doctrine of the Nicolatans.
38:10
And in the doctrine of the Nicolatans, it is believed that
38:14
the Nicolatans have come in and introduced this ideology in the
38:18
church or this doctrine in the Church of hierarchy.
38:23
It's the doctrine of hierarchy where you have all these
38:27
branches of, you know, bishops and now they got people call
38:32
themselves apostles and bishops and then pastors.
38:36
I mean, it's just like a, a big, you know, branch of hierarchies,
38:40
like something you can put on the war chart or something.
38:45
So you got the clergy up here and the people down here, and
38:52
Jesus never meant it to ever be that way, never meant to be that
38:55
way. This shouldn't be a split
38:57
between purge, between clergy and the people.
39:00
Clergy are seen as being above the people.
39:03
Now here in our church, we have pastors or elders, we have
39:08
deacons, we have ministry leaders and we have ministry
39:12
volunteers or people who work in ministries, but no one is above
39:17
anyone. No one is above anyone.
39:21
We may have different functions, we may have different callings
39:24
which come with different responsibilities, but no one is
39:27
above anybody. In this church, the org chart is
39:31
Jesus Christ. And then all the rest of us.
39:35
That's the org chart in this church.
39:38
It's Jesus Christ that did this. All the rest of us, no one is
39:42
above anybody. No one is special.
39:44
We don't, you know, the, the, the leaders here don't sit up
39:47
here and look down on you. The leaders here aren't dressed
39:52
in garb that separate us and let people know that he's somebody
39:57
different. He's somebody special.
39:58
He's someone of authority. We don't have that here.
40:02
We don't have special seats. We don't look to be served.
40:07
We don't look to be served. We serve.
40:12
That's what that's what Jesus said.
40:14
I, you know, even the Son of Man.
40:17
Did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a
40:22
ransom for many. Jesus came to serve.
40:26
The disciples didn't wash his feet, He washed theirs.
40:30
The disciples didn't feed him, He fed them.
40:35
He came to serve. And that's what we should be
40:38
doing as a body of believers. We look to serve each other.
40:42
We look to be a blessing to each other.
40:46
Thank God for that. So that's the doctrine that they
40:50
hated. And he says here, you know, and
40:53
we have to be aware of something.
40:54
And this is, and this is one of the most important things in
40:57
this whole, in this whole passage is the fact that not
41:00
only should not only should the people be concerned who are, you
41:08
know, taking part or compromising in the doctrine of
41:10
Balaam or the doctrine of Nicolaitans, but he's also
41:14
speaking to the leadership here and saying you have them there.
41:18
That means you should be holding them accountable.
41:22
We can't tolerate sin. You can't tolerate sin in the
41:26
church. You can't allow, you can't turn
41:29
the deaf eye to sin. If you see it, you lovingly deal
41:32
with it. We're told in the word how
41:34
that's done. We lovingly deal with it.
41:37
We acknowledge it and lovingly deal with it.
41:40
When Paul saw sin in First Corinthians with the Corinthian
41:45
church, he told them, he said, look, you're just allowing this
41:49
thing to just happen and you're bragging about it, you're
41:52
boasting about it, but you need to deal with this.
41:57
This person is this person is sleeping.
41:59
This man is sleeping with his, with his stepmother, his wife's,
42:04
his father's wife. He's sleeping with her and you
42:08
guys aren't doing nothing about it.
42:11
He dealt with it. We have to lovingly hold each
42:15
other accountable. That's how we grow in Christ
42:19
Jesus. You know, it's not about just us
42:22
pointing fingers at you or you just pointing fingers at us.
42:25
We have to help each other. We don't judge people.
42:29
We judge conduct. We judge conduct.
42:34
The Lord is the one that judges people.
42:37
That's how we help each other. But so he says to you, repent.
42:40
He says to them, repent, repent. He said, well, I'm going to come
42:45
quickly and thank God for his repentance.
42:47
That's the grace, mercy and forgiveness of God is his repent
42:50
is when we, he offers us repentance, he gets that's his
42:55
mercy, his grace and his forgiveness.
42:57
It doesn't matter what we've been doing or how long we've
43:00
been doing it. You know, particularly for
43:03
people who have not given their hearts or their lives to Christ
43:05
Jesus. You may think, well, he don't
43:07
want me. He would never accept somebody
43:11
like me. It doesn't matter what you've
43:13
been doing or how long you've been doing it.
43:15
We can turn from it. We can repent.
43:19
And his arms are open to you just like He's open to anybody
43:23
else. He says, repent or I will come
43:28
quickly. He offers His grace and His
43:31
mercy, but he says if they don't repent and he's coming quickly
43:35
and he will judge them. And this is not that judgment at
43:39
the last day. This is judgment like I'm coming
43:42
now and I'm judging this. What I'm seeing.
43:45
I'm going to judge what I see. There's going to be
43:48
consequences. And again, you look at the
43:54
judgment of Roman, of the Roman sword versus the judgment of the
43:59
sword of Jesus Christ. But because of his love and
44:01
mercy, he gives us this word and tells us to examine ourselves
44:06
and repent. If we need to repent, repent.
44:12
That's the loving thing about the Savior that we serve.
44:16
And then he says here in verse 17, and we're coming in
44:18
foreclose. Praise and worship team, come
44:20
forward, please. We're coming in foreclose for
44:25
landing. I like to say we're coming in
44:27
for a landing. He who has an ear, let him hear
44:31
what the Spirit says to the churches, to him who overcomes
44:35
to him who overcomes, to him who overcomes, to him who you know,
44:38
hears this word allows that word to work in their heart.
44:42
They discern what it is that the Lord is saying to them, and then
44:46
they repent and they turn from that word.
44:49
They overcome He's. I'll give some of the hidden
44:52
manna. The hidden manna, we know them,
44:57
you know, as, as you know, at the time that the Israelites
45:00
were coming from Egypt and was going to Canaan, the Lord gave
45:05
them manna to eat, but that manna didn't sustain.
45:10
They couldn't sustain their life.
45:13
It was temporary. They ate it.
45:14
They were fine for a while, but then they had to eat again
45:17
because that manna didn't sustain their life.
45:19
But this manner that he's talking about, it's that
45:22
spiritual manner, this, that it's the food that comes down
45:27
from heaven. Jesus Christ is the bread of
45:28
heaven, and he's given to us for eternal life.
45:35
It doesn't just satisfy us for a minute.
45:38
You know, the world has nothing that satisfies us totally
45:42
nothing. Only momentary gaps of, you
45:46
know, satisfaction for a while, but then you're looking for it
45:48
again. And sin is insatiable, sin is
45:52
insatiable, lust is insatiable. All these things are insatiable.
45:56
You can't satisfy them. Only Jesus satisfies.
45:59
Only Jesus. I mean, think about it.
46:01
The things that we dealt with in our lives, the things that we
46:04
did in our lives never really satisfies.
46:08
But Jesus, he filled that void that was empty, that nothing
46:12
else could. And He still does it for us.
46:17
He still does it for you. So I'll give you that, that
46:19
hidden manner. And then he and then he says,
46:22
and not only will I give you the hidden manner that comes from on
46:25
high, he said, I will also give you a white stone.
46:29
Now in ancient times, the white stone had a couple different
46:33
meanings. One of the meanings was is that
46:35
in the ancient courts, they had stones, either whitestone or a
46:40
Blackstone. And if you were, whatever it is
46:44
you were accused of, when they went to determine your outcome
46:49
or determine the verdict, they would either give you a
46:52
Blackstone, which means you're guilty and you're going to be
46:56
sentenced, or Whitestone, which means you're acquitted.
47:00
Well, Jesus says I'm going to give you a whitestone.
47:03
So that means in heaven we're already acquitted of all the
47:06
sins that we've been accused of. We're not guilty of those
47:10
things. We've been justified just as
47:15
though we had not sinned. Those things are thrown into the
47:19
depths of the sea, the whitestone.
47:22
And then the other meaning of the whitestone is that it's a
47:26
victory. The victory, for example, back
47:29
in the ancient games, Roman and Greek ancient games, the victory
47:32
if you were a victor of these Olympic Games, or if you were,
47:36
you know, if you were considered a victor, they gave you a
47:39
whitestone. And that whitestone gave you
47:42
entrance into the victor's feast.
47:47
You were able to use that white stone like a pass that you could
47:50
use to get into the victor's feast.
47:52
It identified you as being a victor.
47:56
Well, Jesus said, I'll give you a whitestone.
47:59
And that whitestone that he's talking about giving acquits us
48:03
of all the sins that we have committed and we're no longer
48:07
seen as guilty. We have been acquitted and we
48:11
can come in to the feast, you know, the heavenly feast, which
48:16
is better than any feast that's here in the earth realm.
48:20
And then lastly, he says, I'm going to also, there's going to
48:25
be a name on that whitestone, a name that no one else knows but
48:30
you. This name's identify us
48:34
identifies us with the Savior. That name called that name
48:39
identifies us as going from earthly shame to heavenly honor.
48:44
I remember my neighborhood where I grew up and we all had
48:46
nicknames. I ain't telling you mine, but we
48:48
all had nicknames. And you know, nicknames were
48:52
cool because it, it meant that you were accepted in a lot of
48:56
the neighborhoods, you know, you know, acceptance was important
48:59
because it meant you having a good day or a bad or a lot of
49:01
bad days. But everybody had a nickname.
49:05
So, so Jesus is saying, along with the new heaven and the new
49:09
earth, you're going to have a new name.
49:12
Isaiah 62 and two said, you shall be called by a new name,
49:17
which the mouth of the Lord will name.
49:20
Now back in history and history of the of the Bible, we know
49:24
that once people had encounters with the Lord, they received a
49:28
new name. Abram who who whose name meant
49:31
the exotic father became Abraham meaning the father of nations.
49:36
Sarai Maine meant Princess, but it became Sarai which means
49:41
noble woman. Jacob it meant trickster or
49:45
supplanter, but his name became Israel, which means one who
49:48
struggles with God, Simon. He even got a new name the Simon
49:53
meant he who hears, but it became Peter, the rock or the
49:56
stone. And then of course Saul, whose
49:59
name meant asked or prayed for and it became Paul, which means
50:04
small, little or humble. So we all get a a new name when
50:10
we come into the Kingdom. So what would our name be?
50:17
Because see, this name is an identification of your character
50:20
in Christ Jesus, something in Christ Jesus that you display.
50:24
What would our name be? What would our name be?
50:29
And how do we, if you think about even now, you know, how do
50:34
we progress in our life in Christ?
50:39
How big is the gap between what we believe, what we know to be
50:43
true and what we're living practically?
50:45
And we all have to ask that question for ourselves.
50:50
And if we are not where we think we should be in Christ Jesus, we
50:56
can go deeper in Him. We can go deeper in Him.
50:59
Everybody is not going to be on the same level in Christ Jesus,
51:04
but we can go deeper in Him. We can become more like Him as
51:10
we seek Him more. And that's my prayer for me and
51:16
for the the body of believers in this house is that every day we
51:20
are seeking to go deeper in Christ Jesus to look more like
51:24
him that our that we would have. We would be examples in conduct,
51:30
we'd be examples and in Word, we'd be examples in faith and in
51:34
we'd be examples in purity. As we work, as we allow the Holy
51:41
Spirit to work in us, this can happen.
51:46
This can happen. So I just love it when I see
51:49
people praying with each other. I love it when I see people
51:51
encouraging each other. I love it when I see people
51:53
calling each other and hanging out with each other.
51:56
And you're talking about the things of the Kingdom because
52:00
you're sharpening iron and sharpening iron and we're
52:02
becoming to look more and more like Jesus.
52:05
You're helping me look more like Jesus, and I'm helping you look
52:08
more and more like Jesus Christ. What a blessing.
52:13
So as we prepare for our, our communion, we know that there
52:19
are things that have tried to come into the church and we as a
52:23
body of believers have to protect each other from
52:27
doctrines that are dangerous from people who would try to
52:32
come in and, and bring something ungodly into the body of Christ.
52:37
We all have to be men who are on the gate that are on the fence.
52:41
You know, we're looking, we're looking and, and, and watching
52:46
and listening for what we're hearing, what people are
52:49
speaking. And we have to be able to
52:52
determine what's of the Lord and what's not.
52:56
And we have to do this for ourselves.
52:58
We have to do it for our families.
52:59
We don't want to feed bad food because bad food makes you sick.
53:06
It's the good food that comes from Christ that heals, that
53:11
causes us to grow, that causes us to be more like Him.
53:17
So we must be vigilant first of all of ourselves, and then let's
53:22
be a blessing to other people. So, Father, we thank you for
53:26
this word and we pray, Lord, that it has came right into the
53:31
core of what it is that you want us to understand about it, Lord.
53:36
Father, we don't just want to be Christians in name only, but we
53:42
want to be Christians in the things that we do in our works,
53:46
in the way, in our thoughts. We want to be Christians in our
53:50
words that we speak, Lord, and we know, Father, that we have a
53:55
long way to go to reach the level of sinlessness.
53:59
We will never get there in this life.
54:01
We have a long way to go, Lord. We we have a long way to go to
54:04
look like You. We're dealing with our flesh
54:08
every single day. But we thank you that you came
54:12
to show us the way. You demonstrated what it is that
54:17
we should look like. So in the night in which Jesus
54:21
was betrayed, he took the bread, and after he gave thanks, he
54:26
broke it. And then he said, take this and
54:29
eat it, And as often as you eat it, eat it in remembrance of me.
54:35
Eat it in remembrance of My word and remembrance of what you saw
54:39
in my life, and remembrance of how I worshipped, eating in
54:45
remembrance of Me, eating remembrance of the sacrifice
54:48
that I made for you on Calvary. As often as you eat it, eat it
54:54
in remembrance of Me. And then he took the cup, and
55:05
after supper he said, this is My blood in the new covenants.
55:12
Mine is the new covenant in my blood.
55:15
So drink this. This blood is the blood that was
55:19
sacrificed. This is the blood that ran down
55:23
from Calvary, This is the blood that I shed for the sins of
55:29
many, for each and every one of us, and for those who will be
55:34
coming into the sheepfold. So as often as you drink this,
55:39
drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
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bread and drink this cup, we do show the Lord's death till he
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come. Amen.
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The author is open for anyone who would like to come up and
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pray. Lord bless you.