The Church in Satan’s Neighborhood (#4) - September 9, 2020

from the time that i was a child i've always been intrigued by church all things related to church even before i was a christian even before i felt a calling to preach in the place where i grew up it was not uncommon to go traveling down narrow dirt roads and to see little white framed churches up on a hillside country churches where those who farmed the land would go on the lord's day to worship but i've always been intrigued as well by county seat churches the church is just a block or two from the courthouse on the main thoroughfare through the town and churches that have beautiful ornate historic buildings that tell a story in and of themselves and here in recent times now churches that look more like warehouses than than elaborate historic structures just a rectangular building with metal chairs on concrete floors and a band and people singing whether it's rural churches or county seat churches in small southern towns or whether it is the modern and contemporary church i'm just always intrigued by what god is doing through the church i'm also intrigued as to where churches are located our church is located very strategically we used to be downtown and years ago we moved out here to 285 and dunwoody to occupy what was formerly an avon cosmetics distribution center strategists in church talk about where church should be located in fact there's a science called church planting it's a strategy and missions and evangelism and people study maps to determine where it would be best to plant the church in what city or what neighborhood well what i want us to talk about tonight is another one of the churches that jesus addressed from heaven to john who was on the island of patmos it's one of the seven churches to whom the book of revelation was pinned and it's the third church in our study and it is a church that i'm calling the church that was in satan's neighborhood the church in satan's neighborhood and i want you to open to revelation chapter 2 as we think about the church in satan's neighborhood we're going to look at this third church in our study of the seven churches and i'm going to just take each verse one verse at a time and we're going to break down the message of jesus that was spoken to the apostle john to the church in pergamus so in revelation chapter 2 and verse 12 jesus says to john and to the angel of the church in pergamus and most likely angel means the spiritual leader of that church maybe the pastor of the church jesus says right these things says he who has the sharp two-edged sword so what i want us to do is to stop for a moment as he identifies the recipients of this third letter the church in the city of pergamos now pergamos is greek a latin word for the same city is pergamum so whether you say pergamum or pergamos they're both referring to the same city so some translations use a different word i'll probably refer to it as pergamum throughout my comments tonight pergamum was a very strategic city in roman history it was for over a century the capital of this region called asia minor which is modern-day turkey in case you're wondering the city of pergamum was built on top of this hill that was a thousand feet high and perched atop this hill which was called in in ancient times an acropolis it had the vantage point of being able to see in 360 degrees and it gave the inhabitants of that city the feeling of superiority because from the lofty heights a thousand feet in altitude they looked down on everything else and everyone else in the surrounding plains around pergamum and these citizens of pergamum had no fears to speak of what i want to show you is another layout of the map of the seven cities that the book of revelation jesus issuing these letters to the churches the first letter was to the church in the city of ephesus and then moving north to the city of smyrna the second letter and tonight we're focusing on the church in the third city there of pergamum which you can see and eventually we'll make the loop just in the exact order in which jesus gave these letters now the word pergamum literally means parchment and parchment is animal skin that has been conditioned and stretched to be used in the same way that we would use paper today historians tell us that it was here in pergamum that parchment was actually invented thus the city derived its name pergamum which means parchment there was also a university in pergamum and in addition to this scholarly center called a university there was a library in the city which housed over 200 000 volumes and according to history mark anthony seized all 200 000 volumes from the pergamum library and gifted them to his lover cleopatra who was down in egypt isn't that interesting when you think about it so pergamum has a place in history for a variety of reasons as jesus begins his letter to the church in pergamum he identifies himself the way he does in every one of the seven letters when we first started the study of the seven letters we looked at this formula that jesus uses which begins with him identifying himself usually reaching back into chapter one and referring to himself in some way reminiscent of how he was revealed to john in heaven in the first chapter here as jesus speaks of himself as the one out of whose mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword he's referring back to chapter 1 and verse 16 where john tells us when he saw christ in heaven in his right hand jesus held seven stars and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword so if that's how john saw him in chapter one it's interesting that jesus identifies himself to the pergamum church as he who has the sharp sword coming out of his mouth just as he appeared in the first chapter now i want you to think about it whether it's from the first chapter or here in pergamus in both references jesus has this sword coming out of his mouth why is that important because obviously if there's a sword coming out of his mouth remember revelation is given in symbols or signs that sword symbolizes jesus words words are what come out of our mouths so in symbolic form this sharp two-edged sword proceeds from his mouth and it symbolizes the words of jesus we could say the word of god if you're familiar with that passage in ephesians it talks about putting on the whole armor of god you know when it's talking about the peace pieces of armor one of the things paul writes in ephesians chapter 6 and verse 17 says and take the sword of the spirit which is the word of god see the connection between the imagery of a of a roman sword that a warrior would hold and what paul translates the sword as symbolizing the word of the living god another reference to god's word as a sword is found in hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12 where the writer says for the word of god is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword and that's the same expression two-edged sword in hebrews 4 12 that we see jesus referring to as coming out of his own mouth when he appears in revelation 1 and then when he identifies himself to the church at pergamum as the one who is sending this very specific message to this church this is a reminder to me by the way that the word of god cuts like a sword if you think about it in a positive way when we come to know jesus as our savior and he speaks his forgiveness over us his word severs our connection with all of our sins and guilt and shame and the sword cuts us loose from the chains of sin by which we are bound but the sword of god's word also cuts in such a way that it separates truth from lies that's an important function of the word of god that's why we want to measure everything we hear and everything we entertain for believing against scripture because scripture will divide truth from falsehood another way that god's word is like a sword is that god's word literally separates the saved from the lost the believers from the unbelievers and i also think about it this way god's word and specifically the words of jesus divide family members and close friends jesus said these words in matthew chapter 10 verse 34 he said do not think that i came to bring peace on the earth i didn't come to bring peace but what but what he said i came to bring a sword there's that word again for i have come to set a man against his father a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law which in some cases would not take a lot amen and in verse 36 he says and a man's enemies will be those of his own household what was jesus saying there jesus was saying that that when someone comes to know jesus in a personal way that by clinging to the words of christ and the identity of christ and becoming a new believer in christ relationships can be divided even with members of your own family because all of a sudden you become a different person sometimes a marriage gets divided when one member trusts in christ but the other does not parents can be divided from children and many times the closest of friends can be divided over one friend trusting in christ but the other choosing not to so it's just interesting for us to think about the dividing power of this sword that is coming out of jesus lips and even when you go towards the end of the book of revelation where john sees jesus coming down to the earth from heaven in final conquest in revelation 19 and verse 15 john describes it this way now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations so the sword coming out of his mouth in revelation 19 is a sword of wrath by which he slays and conquers all of rebellious mankind who are resisting him upon his return so i just wanted to call attention to the fact that for jesus to appear with a sword coming out of his mouth in chapter 1 then in chapter 19 and now he's speaking to the church at pergamum and he's using that very imagery by which to identify himself there's importance in relating and associating the word of christ the word of god with a sharp two-edged sword now here's some things i want you to write down about the message of jesus the one out of whose mouth comes a sharp two-edged sword the message of jesus to the church at pergamum and the first is this the church is in a demonic city now that's a powerful statement that the church is in a demonic city but i want to show you my basis for saying this remember the title of the sermon is the church in satan's neighborhood look with me in verse number 13. where jesus says to this church just as he says to all seven churches he says to pergamum i know your works and where you dwell or live comma where satan's throne is now that's what jesus said you live where satan's throne is and you hold fast to my name and you did not deny my faith even in the days in which antipas was my faithful martyr who was killed among you where satan dwells he emphasizes it by repeating it now let's talk about why in the world would jesus say to this church i know you live in satan's neighborhood well one of the reasons for which jesus would say such a thing i believe is because pergamum was a center of the worship of many pagan gods including the goddess called athena as well as the god esclepios who was the god of medicine and the god dionysius or dionysius however you want to pronounce it uh who was also called bacchus who was the god of drunkenness and do you know what drunkenness is drunkenness is inebriation it is intoxication it is when someone consumes too much alcohol and then to the pagan god zeus so think about it you had this cafeteria line of greek and roman gods of whom had had a temple a house of worship built there in the city of pergamum in fact the temple to zeus was built at the highest point on that hilltop where the city had been situated so um the the altar of zeus is was actually excavated from pergamum and is now housed as the most famous item on display in the berlin collection of classical antiquities in germany isn't that an interesting tidbit so you see pergamum has actually furnished for us some archaeological evidence of the types of pagan worship that happened there in that city but if you'll consider with me for a moment the fact that at the highest pinnacle of the city there was this temple to the god zeus that tells you what we're dealing with here now i mentioned a moment ago asclepius and the sclepius being the god of medicine caused the inhabitants of pergamum to construct adjacent to the temple of asclepius a medical school that's right a college of medicine if you will and asclepius was depicted as a serpent-like creature and this is the basis for the symbol of medicine that we still see today which you can see on the screen you see the intertwined serpents all of that is rooted in the history of the greek god asclepius who was the god of healing or medicine who was depicted as a serpent and you'll see you'll still see that today on paperwork and prescriptions and things of that nature as i know you you found that familiar in addition to this this same serpent image was also uh impressed upon the coinage of that was minted in pergamum so the serpent symbolized who they were now i just think it's interesting because if you will go back to the book of genesis you will find that it was a serpent that slithered into the garden of eden and beguiled adam and eve the sin against god so consider with me for a moment that this whole city being represented by one of these gods asclepius who is symbolized as a serpent even stamped on their coins and yet the serpent symbolizes satan and jesus says to this church i know that you live in the city where satan's throne is right there where satan himself has his house satan not only had one house he had many houses there i'd also like to throw this out for your consideration tonight pergamum was the first city in the region of asia region of asia minor to construct a temple for the worship of the roman emperor first city in which such a temple was constructed so think about pergamum i mean pergamon was not just a city that accommodated idolatry its entire identity was characterized by the worship of false gods now what did this mean it meant that if you lived in in pergamum you lived in a city whose entire economy was propped up on all of these pagan temples let that sink in for a moment the entire economy not only that but its entire social order was built around the worship of these different gods so if you wanted to have friends with your neighbors there in pergamum chances are they would they were frequenters of the different temples around there many of the social activities would be at one of these pagan houses of worship so it affected your social relationships with friends and neighbors not only that but the moral values in pergamum were defined by and we know this from history the sexual indulgences that were encouraged as part of the worship of all these false gods and the consumption of alcohol to the point of drunken drunkenness which was an essential part of many of the worship feasts that these temples would host and even just the consumption of food revolved around these temples because some historians say if you lived in pergamum it probably would have been impossible for you to buy a piece of meat to cook in your house that had not first been offered on one of the altars in one of these pagan temples paul even addresses this to the corinthians in the first corinthian letter when he talks about meat that's been offered to idols because these pagan temples throughout the roman empire they would sacrifice this meat and say pagan prayers and chants over this meat then they had a meat market on the back alley of the temple and you could go and get a good price on the meat price per pound if you didn't mind eating meat that had just been offered to idols i mean you know when you stop and think about it we're sitting here talking about how bad things are in our country and how things have never been this bad before we have no idea what first century christians had to endure in the cities where these churches were so when you consider what it would have been like to be a christian in a city called pergamum where jesus said satan's throne is jesus said in spite of the fact that you are in such a demonic stronghold a satanically controlled city whose entire existence and identity is propped up on the worship of false gods jesus says i want to thank you for being faithful to me he says in verse 13 i know your works and where you dwell where satan's throne is but look at what he says by way of commending them he says you hold fast to my name which means you're faithful and you did not even deny my faith in the days when antipas was my faithful martyr who was killed among you where satan dwelt so what i want to what i want us to focus on there is jesus saying you're in a horrible surrounding terrible environment but you have not denied my name now that's saying a lot isn't it and he said even in some time and we don't we're not exactly sure about this account we don't know a lot except what jesus tells us about the martyrdom or the murder of this man named antipas but jesus calls antipas my faithful martyr the one who gave his life because he refused to recant his faith and jesus says to the church you followed his example and you did not deny my faith you did not deny my name even when antipas was killed for refusing to deny my name i will tell you something interesting though the name antimus antipas there in verse number 13 means against all i want you to think about that for a moment against all maybe this name could be intended to describe this man's willingness to stand with christ even if it meant standing against all others some have suggested that antipas could have even been one of the pastors of this church prior to his martyrdom but but what i would want to challenge all of us with tonight is to think about the name antipas whose whose name is uttered from the lips of jesus in heaven to this church in pergamum would you and i be willing to be a modern day antipas meaning if required would we be willing to stand alone for jesus christ even if it means standing against all others who deny him and demand that we deny him antipas means against all i don't know about you but i want to be the kind of christian that antipas was and i want to be the kind of christian who can be commended by jesus as the church at pergamum had been for standing true and refusing to deny our faith in jesus christ no matter how severe the consequence may be so this church is in a demonic city here's a second thing that i want you to write down tonight this church is committing deadly compromise deadly compromise that too is strong language but it's deserving of our attention today i mean if you think about it he has really praised them in what he said in verse 13. but then he goes from praising them for being true and not denying the faith even when antipas lost his life for being true he said you're a great church staying true to your confession but he shifts to a complaint against this church and in verse number 14 he says i have a few things against you because you have there those who hold the doctrine of balaam who taught balak to put a stumbling block before the children of israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality and uh verse 15 says i also know that you have those there who hold the doctrine of the nicolaitans which thing i hate isn't it interesting by the way how in verse number 14 jesus mentions you eat meat sacrificed to idols you have people there who tolerate that and committing sexual immorality those are the two trademarks of the pagan temples sexual immorality and offering meat to idols and then marketing the meat for consumption by the citizens of the city and and what jesus is saying here is there are things that everybody else can do but when you are a christian you can't do those things there are things that everybody in your city can do but when you're a christian they're not for you there are things that many people in your neighborhood may feel free to do but jesus is saying just because they do it doesn't mean that you can do it and he he lists those things in his complaint against this church so what i want to do is just break it down let's talk about it first of all this doctrine of balaam you say well who in the world is balaam well let me tell you first of all he taught balak so who who is balaam and who is balak well this is another reason why we need to know our old testament because jesus refers to these two old testament characters and issuing his complaint against the church at pergamum now before we look at what the doctrine of balaam is i want to just point out something he jesus says i have this problem against you a few things against you you have there those who hold the doctrine of balaam why am i pointing this out because he says i'm addressing this to the whole church even though the whole church isn't guilty of embracing the doctrine of balaam he says you have there among you those who hold the doctrine of balaam which means it's just some in the church not everyone in the church and yet jesus gives the message to all when only a few are guilty that is good preaching by the way you you you you don't just exempt everyone from hearing the message just because everyone is not guilty of the sin sometimes something is addressed from god's word that doesn't apply to everyone else but jesus shows us that by speaking about the sins of a few it's okay to address it to the entire congregation which is what he's doing here well if you want to read a little bit more about balaam and balak you can find their stories in numbers chapters 22 through 25 but just to give you the cliff notes version balaam was a prophet who was actually gifted to be a prophet by god he was hired by the enemies of israel during the time when moses was actually leading israel and these enemies hired the prophet balaam in order for him to pronounce a curse because in that day a prophetic declaration would come to pass and he said and he had been bribed so to speak in order to speak a curse against the people of israel but no matter how often he tried to pronounce this curse using the prophetic gift god had given him god would never allow him to do that praise god for that that god can interrupt sin when he chooses to and he did in the case of balaam however seeing that he was unsuccessful in prostituting his gift out to the service of these enemy peoples he did whisper a secret into the ear of king balak who was the king of moab and he said well i am not allowed by god to pronounce a curse over god's people but i can tell you a way that you can get a victory over them now now i want you to think about this you want to go back read what i'm telling you happened numbers 22-25 the prophet balaam advised king balak to train the daughters the women of of moab and midian to entice and seduce the israelite men into intermarrying which was a violation of what god wanted for his people and what would happen then through intermarriage and this is one of the things you see over and over in the old testament is when an israelite would enter mary with a foreign woman and it's not so much a racial classification as it is a spiritual classification because by intermarrying with someone outside of the covenant that israel enjoyed with god that woman or if it were a woman intermarrying a jewish woman intermarrying with a with a pagan man whatever the case the intermarriage always meant compromise because the pagan member of the marriage would bring their beliefs into the marriage does everybody understand where where we're coming from with this and so if you want to know what the doctrine of of balaam is the doctrine of balaam is the teaching that the people of god can intermarry with pagans and therefore syncretize their religious systems and thereby compromise their faithfulness to god that's the doctrine of balaam and if you stop and think about it what happens when there is a commingling of religious belief of the truth of god's word with pagan philosophies and pagan pagan systems and even false religions not only is there confusion within the marriage but also you end up raising pagan children so think about satan's strategy here by attacking true worship and and which is built on true doctrinal beliefs from the word of god and then secondly coming against marriage which was intended to be a covenant relationship between a believing man and a believing woman for a lifetime well if you compromise your theology and worship and you compromise your doctrine of marriage the next casualty will be the children because the children will be brought up without knowing the truth can there be any better strategy this satan has not changed his strategies he is still attacking doctrinal beliefs and theological truth through compromise and watered-down teaching and preaching and he has pulled out the stops on his relentless lethal assault on the sacred institution of marriage and now it's just a cake walk for him to walk around and tap the shoulders of every baby every preschooler every elementary school kid every middle schooler every high schooler saying he's mine she's mine they're mine he is in every daycare center he is in every elementary school he is on every college campus capturing the hearts and the minds of future generations and what jesus is saying here remember this isn't me this is jesus saying jesus is saying you have people in your church not everybody but you have people in your church who've embraced the doctrine of balaam they are compromisers and satan's still doing it here's the second thing jesus mentions the doctrine of the nicolaitans now you may remember this because jesus called out the church at ephesus for accommodating the same the same system of thought and behavior the nicolaitans now we're not 100 sure what this embodied but we're fairly certain that the nicolaitans were those who condoned sexual immorality and welcomed sensual temptations into the life of the church so they redefined immorality and they brought sensual temptations into the life of the church now i just have to tell you something right here this is why it is so important to study these letters to the seven churches because although you can go another lifetime and never hear reference to balaam and balak and the doctrine of balaam being that of compromise through intermarriage watered down theology and eventually the casualty of our children as lost causes for the kingdom of god you may never hear that referred to until we study revelation again i can double dog bet you you're probably never going to hear about the nicolaitans again until we're back here in this passage we don't talk about the nicolaitans but i'm going to tell you something we may not call it the doctrine of the nicolaitans but by practice churches are guilty of this and one of the things i can't help but think is that god is allowing this to be a season when the church has to re-examine who it is when the church has to look deep into its heart with an open bible before a holy god and say we cannot tolerate among our ranks those who are willing to throw the bible in the trash can in order to be socially accepted so what jesus is saying here yes i'm proud of you as a church for not denying my name but here's the beef i have with you you are allowing among your church members who embrace doctrines and philosophies that trample under their feet the word of the living god and so i pray not only for our church but i pray for all churches that this would be a time of purifying that this would be a time of calling the body of christ back to jesus and back to the unadulterated truth of scripture third thing i want you to write down is this the church faces a definite choice church faces a definite choice you know jesus is all about choices not really he forces a decision whenever he speaks listen when i tell you this jesus christ the son of god never leaves room for indecision he always demands a decision that's why when he walked up to the guys who eventually became his disciples he said follow me there wasn't there wasn't a debate about it it wasn't well i don't know if i should or i shouldn't he just said you got to follow me one guy said can i go to my dad's funeral he said let the dead bury their dead jesus demands a decision he said you're either for me or you're against me but you can't have it both ways he said you'll either serve god or money but you can't serve both i mean go through his teachings he is the savior who demands a decision and so what i want us to do is look in verse 16 where he says to this church at pergama repent or else there's your choice repent or else you see that underline repent that's choice number one option number two is the or else what is the or else he says i will come to you quickly and i will fight against them with the sword of my mouth let's talk about the word repent in that word now it's not my word it's his word who's talking here jesus is speaking to john and john is most likely conveying this to a scribe who's writing it down and eventually this whole letter is going to be bound in a scroll sailed across the aegean and carried and hand delivered to all seven of these churches this is jesus talking to his people and would you agree with me that jesus christ with nail scarred hands and nail pierced feet and the visible sign of of a pierced side in his glorified body that we will see forever now would you not agree jesus has a right to say what he wants to to his people they are his people we are his people and jesus says repent you know repent means it means change repent means turn repent of what repent of not only the flirting with philosophies and systems of thought and pagan religions repent of of associating with all of that but repent of tolerating that in your church tolerating it and uh there's there's there's no room for middle ground it's just repent repent say it with me repent it means turn your back on sexual immorality turn your back on idolatry turn your back on worldly ways of thinking and living turn your back on all of that and look at me okay option number two number one is repent i want to choose that option ding ding ding right answer but here's option number two or else what what is the or else the or else is the consequence if you don't repent look what jesus says he says i will come to you quickly and i will fight against them now thank the lord jesus say i'm going to come to you and fight against all of you he says if you don't repent and repent means you've got a responsibility to address those among you who are errant and deviant in their views and lifestyle but he says if you don't repent as a church from tolerating those among you confronting those among you i will come to you and deal with those among you who are the problem let that sink in i mean you can look at it yourself right there he says i will come to you and fight them difference between you church and them the guilty ones the church is responsible to deal with those who are deviant and errant and misguided in their teaching rather than accommodating them and compromising and telling them what they're what they believe is okay because they don't want to be offensive they don't they want to they don't want to be insensitive jesus says if you don't take care of this i will come to the church and i will deal with them and how did he say he will deal with them he made it clear he said and we'll fight against them with what there's that sword again with the sword of my mouth now i want to take a moment and just clarify something if a church is a legitimate expression of the body of christ if a church is a legitimate expression of the body of christ if a local congregation is a legitimate expression of the body of christ i'm talking about a viable local new testament congregation if a church does not address the issues which need addressing jesus reminds us in the letter to the church at pergamum that he will come and correct it by the sword from his mouth see i don't believe this is just the letter for pergamum although it was originally intended for pergamum this is a letter for all churches jesus says you deal with it or i will but it will be dealt with another reminder here that when it comes to deviant doctrine and and wrong philosophies that are embraced in a church how did jesus say he would deal with it with the sword what is the sword his word the remedy for false teaching the remedy for sinful behavior is always the word of god this word is our remedy this word is our solution this word is our hope and as long as jesus leaves his church on the earth this is what must be our foundation not a system not a philosophy not a set of principles but the fixed unchanging word of god from genesis to revelation this word is our foundation it is the sword out of his mouth now i want us to look at the reward and we'll be finished here's the reward just as with each of the letters to the seven churches so this one closes with a promise to the overcomer in verse 17 jesus said he who has an ear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to him who overcomes i will give some of the hidden manna to eat and i will give him a white stone and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it so look at the promise to the overcomer and by the way the overcomer is the true believer it's not that there are christians who are overcomers and christians who are not it's that all christians are overcomers that's why jesus said he who endures to the end shall be saved because only those who endure to the end are saved he says i'm going to give you some hidden manna to eat now if you again this is reminiscent of the old testament isn't it do you remember in exodus 16 how god would uh let manna fall down on the ground and that was the sustenance for the children of israel they got tired of it they griped about it they complained about it but manna is the provision of god for his people and then i love the fact that when you flip over to the new testament in the sixth chapter of the book of john jesus refers to himself as the bread from heaven jesus says they picked up the bread off the ground to survive but i have come down from the skies from heaven to be your eternal bread and once you partake of me you will never hunger again he is the bread of life so this image of manna and the bread of life but here jesus is promising the hidden manna and i think what he's saying here is this hidden manna means it's a it's it's a provision that's not available for all it's only available to those who are pure in their lives true to the doctrines of the holy bible and who are faithful to upholding the name of jesus christ it's hidden manna oh it's not out on the shelves for everybody it's that special provision that jesus has set aside for those who are true to him i don't know about you but i want some of that hidden man amen and not only this he he says i'm going to give you a white stone now this is one of the most debated topics in this in the uh these seven letters to the churches what is the white stone promised to the overcomers of pergamon well there are all kinds of some some people have suggested the white stone could be a diamond uh there were times in in those days when a court would acquit someone who had been prosecuted for a crime and the white stone would be given as a symbol or token of their acquittal some have suggested that it was a white stone that was given to the winners in the athletic games and that white stone was like an admission ticket to the parties and festivities to celebrate their victory after the games had concluded one scholar said this the stone isn't as important as what's inscribed on it and it says i'm going to inscribe on that white stone says jesus a name that no one else knows and it could be that you know since the believers in pergamum standing against all because they were true to jesus it wouldn't go to this through this cafeteria line of gods and pagan temples it could be their names were so disparaged and maligned and so many accusations had been leveled against them jesus was saying here i'm going to write a name in this white stone that no one can ever disparage no one can ever issue an accusation or a false charge you're going to have a brand new name on this white stone that'll be your name forever and then some have said that with the white being symbolic of our cleansing from sin and a name being engraved maybe this lets us know that in heaven we're going to have a brand new name a name we didn't have here on the earth and when you stop and think about it all of us are sinners all of us are wicked we're all just as wicked as everybody who lived in pergamum and all of my sins that i've ever committed all of your sins are ever committed especially the ones people know about those things are associated with our name even though we've been forgiven people still know and have been hurt by us and have seen us disappoint them through our sin but wouldn't it be awesome if what this means is that to him who overcomes you're going to get a white stone with a brand new name no one knows maybe we're going to get a name in heaven that forever separates us from any sin we ever committed in this life under our earthly name i don't know what it means and i don't know that anybody else knows what it means but i can tell you whatever it means it means something good and it means that jesus promises a blessing for those who are true for those who do not tolerate compromise and for those who overcome to the very end may god help us to be overcomers father thank you for this study thank you for allowing us to walk through these letters to the seven churches may all that i share tonight be received from the heart out of which i spoke it heart of love and a fervent desire for all of us to adhere to the the sharp two-edged swords the words of jesus the holy scriptures and i pray this in his name amen you

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Length: 48min 51sec (2931 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020