October 26

Transcript

(Transcribed by TurboScribe.)

Lord, you know me. You see right through me. Whether I sit or whether I stand, you know that.

There is not a word on my mouth, so you already know the word that I'm going to say. Where can I go to flee from your presence? If I go to the heaven, you are there. If I go to the world under the world, you are there.

If I go east, you are there. If I go to the west, you are there. So, Lord, here we are.

Look at us and then test us, Lord, and test our hearts, and see if there is something that is compromising, something that is not what you want, and then change our hearts, Lord. We pray that with the psalmist as we read your words. In Jesus' name, amen.

So, number three of seven of the seven churches in the book of Revelation in Asia Minor. We are in the church of Pergamum, and Ted put up that first slide so we can see where we are. There we go.

Pergamum. So, it starts off and it says, as you know by now, to the angel of the church in Pergamum, right? Angel, we said last time we can translate that with leader or pastor, to the one who is there to walk with his church and teach them what God wants them to know. Pergamum was the capital city of Asia Minor.

It was also the capital city of idolatry. It was a horrible place, despite the fact that it was a beautiful place. Put up a slide there, Ted.

It was built on a hill. A hill is called in Greek, when they build a place like that on a hill, it's called Acropolis, or the Greek is Acropolis. Acro means high and polis means city.

When you hear Decapolis, Decapolis or Decapolis, whatever you say it in English, Decapolis, 10 cities. So, when you hear that word polis, always city. So, city on a hill.

It's built on a hill. Show us from the top. So, there's still the ruins of how it looked like, or looks like.

I'm going to show you a little bit of those in a second. This beautiful city was this jewel, but it was also the seat of Caesar worship. So, for the Christians, they always had this dichotomy.

There's the kingdom of God that they live in, and then there is Rome and the empire of Rome. For the Christians, they bow before Jesus as their Lord. Rome says, Caesar is Lord and King.

You bow before him. For the Christians, they follow God. The Romans say, you follow Rome and you follow the Roman rules.

This is the world in which they lived. Pergamon went a little further than this. Because of this beautiful city that it was, it had all of these different temples for these different gods, and if you switch that slide, then we'll see those temples.

So, the one you saw right at the top from the top is the Temple of Trajan, but it was actually the Temple of Zeus. Not only was Pergamon the seat of Caesar, but it was also the capital for worshipping Zeus, the main god. To your right, next to the Temple of Athena, which we can't see on this picture, there was actually this huge place.

I didn't bring you a picture of that, where there was an altar for Zeus. It's all gold. If you want to see a picture, go on Google and check it.

It's in the museum in Berlin. You can see this thing. It was all gold.

So, when the sun would shine, it would shine on this thing and it would just be gold, saying this is where Zeus lives and this is what place that belongs to Zeus. There was a temple for Athena. Athena was their protector god because Athena was the god of protection and also the god of victory.

Right there, you can see that temple thingamajig there. To the bottom, you'll see the Temple of Dionysus. Dionysus was their protector god and his symbol was a bull, and I'll get back to the symbol of the bull.

In the valley below, Ted, and you can go down to that one, there was another temple where they prayed to the god called Asclepius. Does anyone know the god Asclepius? Donna? She's doing this because she knows where I'm going with this. We'll get there in one second.

There was a temple for Asclepius, but also a medical centre because he was the god of healing and of medicine. Flip it for us, Ted, to the next slide, and now you'll see where I'm going with this. You remember the symbol modern day for medicine? It's the rod of Asclepius and the snakes because what they did in that place, they had a room full of snakes and people were put in that room, and if the snake touched them, they believed the person would be healed.

So to this day, we still have the rod and the snake. I hope you guys don't use snakes anymore because that would not heal me. That would put me somewhere else.

So a little bit of look where it still is today comes from that place called Pergamum. So now let's go right in to Pergamum. It says this, these are the words of him who has the sharp double-edged sword.

Jesus knows where they live and how difficult it is for them to live. So now he encourages them, and read into the lines in this a little bit. This is not the lamb that is speaking.

This is the lion from the tribe of Judah that's speaking. He says, I have the double-edged sword. It's not the Roman sword you think of.

This is a romphia. I don't know if you know what a romphia is. Those who like knives like me will know what that is.

It's a hybrid between a spear and a sickle. So it's this long, long pole, and at the top of the pole, there was this huge, big sickle, but it was edged on both sides. It was one of the most dangerous and feared weapons because they could hack at the opponent from a distance, and they would hack off limbs, and they would go through the armour.

It was a feared weapon. Look what Jesus says. These are the words of the one who has that double-edged sword.

You live in this world where Rome thinks it's got the sword, where Rome says, remember what they did with the gladiators? When the two gladiators fought and the one was lying on the ground, what would the emperor do? If he held up the sword, it was good. If he did this, he would kill them, right? This is the one who has the double-edged sword. I have life.

I have death in my hands, not the Caesar, not Rome, but me, not Zeus, who sits on that mountain, so he goes on. This is the words of him who has the double-edged sword. I know where you live, where Satan has his throne.

That's scary. I know where you live, where Satan has his throne. So when God looks at us, and God looks at the world around us, and what's going on in the world around us, and he sees how we struggle, how hard it is, he doesn't turn his back and say, well, I'll see if you can do this.

He says, I know. I know what's going on. I know what's going on in your world.

For them, he says, I know it's the throne of Satan because that's what they had to deal with. If you didn't bow before Caesar, you would be killed. If you didn't do what these other people did, worshipping these pagan gods, you would be killed for that.

I know. It's how Satan works. I get that.

But yet, he says, you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, not even in the days of Antipas. Despite this, they remain steadfast.

Despite this, they kept going with the word of the Lord. Despite this, they stayed. Even if they were taken into that amphitheatre and fed to the lions and killed by gladiators, they remained faithful.

They did not stand and say, because this is what they were asked, to stand there and say, Caesar is Lord and Caesar is King, and we will bow before him. They said, we will not do that, despite the fact that they would be killed. Someone said to me this morning, you should put this stuff a little more into our world.

Put that into your own world. When I live in this world and this world asks me to compromise, will I do that or will I be strong? Will I follow the rules of the world or do I follow the rules of the Lord? Antipas, some people say it wasn't a person, because antipas in Greek, anti means against and pass is everything, against everything. It was just a word used to say the Christians were against everything.

Antipas was a person. Josephus writes about him. Here's the sad thing.

I told you I'll come back to the bull. Antipas was martyred. They made a big bull, a brazen bull, huge, had a door on the side so you could open it and put someone inside.

Had these pipes that came out the eyes and the ears and the mouth, so if you made a loud noise in there, it sounded like the bull doing that. They put antipas in the bull, closed the door, and then lit a fire under this brazen bull. You remained faithful to my name and you did not renounce your faith even in the days of antipas.

You know what the pagans did when the person was dead? They would take those bones, polish them, and make jewellery and hang them around their necks. I know where you live, where Satan has his. So that's the stuff that they dealt with.

Things that we deal with are nothing in comparison with that, and my question is always when I look at myself and you, Aubrey, is that the kind of faith you live? Is that how faithful you are to the name of the Lord in everything you do, in everything you say, in the way in which you live in this world that often asks you to renounce or to live differently because that's what the world wants. It's kind of tough, isn't it? And yet the Lord says, despite that, and it goes on from antipas, who was put to death in your city where Satan lives. And then, then God's gonna have a little something against them.

He's just called them and he says, live differently. Live in a different way. Live in a different way, Cathy, here it comes, in your family, in your city, in your community, in your province, in your world.

Live differently so that I can be seen in all you do. Allow the Holy Spirit to be the one that takes hold of your life and guides you in everything you do. And that's what they did, yet.

And the Bible says, nevertheless, it's the Greek word, Allah, which means yet, but. So, but I have a few things against you and this is scary when God says that. There are some amongst you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality.

Likewise, you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Boy, there's a lot in here. Here comes 45 minutes.

No, no, no, no. There are those of you who hold on to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites. The Greek word for entice, you actually know in English, skandalon.

You've heard the word scandal. It comes from that. But a skandalon is a trap.

It's a bird trap. Remember when you were kids, when I was a kid, we did that. We had this, we took a bicycle wheel and we put chicken wire over that and then we'd put a little stick under that and put bird seed and the bird would come for the seed.

You pull the stick out and you catch the bird. That's exactly what a skandalon is that he's talking about there. It's a trap.

Balaam, who taught this king of Moab, Balak, to entice, to trap the Israelites. Do you know the story of that? Balak was the king of Moab. When the Israelites were coming to enter the promised land, they had to go through Moab.

So they were fighting against them. And the king of Moab was really very scared of the Israelites. So he called this so-called prophet, Balaam, to come and to curse the Israelites.

God tried to prevent him. Can you remember how? It's the guy who had the donkey that spoke to him. His donkey spoke to him and said, don't you do this.

Why are you hitting me? Can't you see the angel of the Lord standing there? And yet he went. And every time he tried to curse Israel, God prevented him. So Balaam devised his own little, I don't know what to call it, devilish scheme to help the king of Balak because there was this involved.

Book of Numbers. Did I give you that text? I think so, Ted. So while Israel was staying and shitting him, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifice to their gods.

The people ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods. And so Israel yoked themselves to the Baal. Baal means the Lord of Baor.

And the Lord's anger burnt against them. In the days of Balaam, when Balak enticed the Israelites, I have this against you, that some of you are doing exactly this and following the ways of the Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans were a group that said, come on, get with the times and get with the day.

Everything's okay. You can worship God, but it's okay to go to the temple of Zeus and put a little bit of incense on there and say, Zeus, that's for you. And then go to the temple of Dionysus and then pray a little bit to Zeus and put a little bit of stuff on there for Zeus and give him a sacrifice.

It's fine. You know that you're a Christian, but it's okay to do that too. We need to be more acceptable to the people around us.

We need to be more acceptable to the community. Come on, that's okay. I know where you live.

Some of you are good with my name, but yet I have this against you. There are some of you that compromise. Kathy, do I need to explain that one? Compromise.

How easy is that? Oh, come on. I know that's what the word says, but isn't that how Satan has always worked with us? Compromise. Didn't God say that you're not allowed to eat of all of the stuff? No, no, no.

He said just that. Oh, why do you think? There we go. And what does that do? It does the divide and conquer.

That's Spini's modus operandi all from the beginning. Divide and conquer. And how does he do that? Look at this world.

It's a compromising world. And in this compromising world, what happens? We are divided because of all of that. And what happens? We're falling apart.

When God looks at us, he says, that's not what I want. That's not what I called you to do. I have that against you when that is how you live.

Remember what I said last week about compromise and can I repeat myself? And I'm checking that thing. Can I repeat myself? When I said about the three chairs that I preached, if you put them in the three chairs and you started with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Abraham was a committed man. Isaac was a compromising man.

His son ended up being what? Conflicted man. David was a committed man. Solomon was a compromising man.

The two boys, Jeroboam and Rehoboam were conflicted. If we compromise, we end up conflicted and we do not do what the Lord is asking of us. And folks, I don't want to preach it here.

You can preach it yourself because the word says it itself. But boy, do we live in a compromising world. You know, we often put on the spot.

The question is, what am I going to do? There's a word that I've always carried in my heart forever because I hold it before me when I come in these situations. The Lord Jesus in the book of Matthew chapter 7 says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of my Father. But only those who do, who do, who do the work of my Father.

There will be many in those days who will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not preach in your name? And did we not get demons out of people, cast demons out of people in your name and heal people? And I will say to them, go away from me, those of you who work evil, for I do not know you. Compromise. I know the place where you live and I commend you for staying faithful to my name.

Yet there are some among you that compromise. I'm not preaching. I'm looking at myself in the mirror.

Verse 16, repent then. Otherwise, I will soon come to you and fight or to you and will fight against them with a sword of my mouth. The word repent in Greek and Lynn said, when I retire, all of you will speak fluent Greek and I'll be so happy.

The word repent in Greek is metanoia. Metanoia means to know and meta is kind of knowing something different. It means to change your mind or change your attitude or change your way in which you are living.

Does it make sense? Repent. Therefore, change the way in which you are living your life. There's a little bit of a difference between repentance and regret or remorse.

To repent means to look at what I'm doing and make a decision to change that and go in a different direction. To have remorse or regret is not an action. It's an emotion.

Judas, he had remorse, but he didn't repent. He went and put a noose around his neck, did it. To repent means to change the way in which I live.

So see where he starts. Thank you for staying faithful, but there are some of you who are messing this up, who think it's okay to compromise with the world. Change that.

Turn away from that. Go the right direction. Otherwise, I will soon come.

The Greek is again cool. I'm not going to say the word, but it actually says, I will come at you with a gallop. So it's again that war thing.

When the soldiers came on their horses and they were galloping, it meant you're in trouble so deep, they're coming at you real fast. I will soon come to you and I will fight against those who are compromising, who are compromising my people, who are compromising my name, and I will come at them with the sword of my mouth. I will not let that go.

It's not what I want. I want you to be faithful. I'm sorry.

It's a hard message I'm bringing this morning, but it's not mine. It's the word. I'm just breaking it open.

Whoever has ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches, to the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it. Do you know about hidden manna and white stones? It's interesting when we read this, and it's difficult because here's the thing.

We don't know exactly what the Lord is saying here. They would have understood it a little better. The manna is, I think, a little easier than the white stone, but let's try.

Do you know anything about manna? Where does manna come from? It comes from the time of the desert, right? When they were going through these difficult times of the desert, this was what God provided for them. Manna is a Hebrew name. Manna means, what is this? So we think manna means bread.

It means, what is this? It looked like bread, but they weren't sure what it was. But this is what God fed them with for 40 years going through the desert, through the difficult times, through all of these things. God was faithful.

Then God said to them, you need to take and put this manna in a container, and this manna you must put in the Ark of the Covenant. Where was the Ark of the Covenant kept? In the Holy of Holies. That's where God would sit and where he would meet the high priest.

Kept the manna in that. Jewish tradition says when the Messiah comes back, he'll come over Mount of Olives and go into Jerusalem, and he will settle the temple again there. They need something.

They'll need the Ark of the Covenant with all of the things that is in there. When Babylon came and they conquered Jerusalem, of course, everything was destroyed. To this day, we haven't found the Ark of the Covenant or the manna or the rod of Aaron or the 10 commandments that were all part of what was in the Ark of the Covenant.

However, Jewish tradition teaches us this. It comes from the Book of Maccabees. It's one of the Apocrypha.

The same document also tells how the prophet, in virtue of an oracle, that's Jeremiah that he's talking about, ordered that the tent, that's the tent of the covenant, and the Ark should accompany him and how he went to that very mountain that Moses climbed to behold God's inheritance. So, Jeremiah went to Mount Zion and took with him the Ark of the Covenant and the tent of the covenant, the tabernacle. When Jeremiah arrived there, he found a chamber in a cave in which he put the tent, the Ark, and the altar of incense, all that were in the Holy of Holies, and then he sealed the entrance.

Some of those who followed him came up intending to mark the path, but they could not find it. And when Jeremiah heard of this, he reproved them. Place is to remain unknown until God gathers his people together again and shows them mercy.

Then the Lord will disclose these things in the glory of the Lord, and the cloud will be seen just as they appeared in the time of Moses and Solomon when he prayed that the place might be sanctified. Ted, put that slide that I gave you this morning, sorry. That is the golden gate in Jerusalem.

It surrounds the temple area. It is the only gate that is sealed. All the other gates are open.

This gate faces east to the Mount of Olives. Tradition says when Messiah comes, his feet will land on Mount of Olives, Ezekiel tells us that, and from there he will enter through the golden gate, and then he will restore the temple and restore the kingdom. The other faiths decided we cannot let Messiah do that, so they closed the gate.

They also put their cemetery around there, because tradition says a holy one will never walk through a cemetery because they will be defiled. On the other hand, the whole Mount of Olives is filled with graves, because they believe that they will be the first to be seen, will see Messiah, and will rise with Messiah. So they got this kind of up and down in there.

But just to show you where this stuff comes from, the hidden manna, Maccabees helps us to understand. They have been trying to find that Ark of the Covenant. There are wonderful paths under the Jerusalem that we see there that they have discovered, but the other faiths have closed them up because they're afraid they're going to find that Ark of the Covenant, and when they find that and they bring this, Messiah is going to come and restore the kingdom.

To those who are victorious, I will give of the hidden manna. We're not sure whether that's the that he's talking about, or it's showing us back to the desert time, saying, like I did for Israel in their difficult times, and I fed them, or he's referring to what tradition says, when we, when Jesus comes, we will all sit at a feast in the table with him, and they say the feast will be, we will feast with the manna. We don't know.

But the one thing that comes out of all of this is, it is a image of God's provision, and of God's care, and of God saying, if you are victorious, you are going to be part of my victory. That's the best explanation we have for that. And I will also give them, thanks dead, a white stone with a name engraved on that, with a new name, that only the person who has that will know.

Again, we have no idea. We have a few ideas.