Book of Revelation - Ch. 2, Vs. 12-17 (04/08/2018)

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Bro. Bill Nichols

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The guy in Kansas City didn't know his own words. That's right. Revelation 2, verse 12.
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And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, these things saith he, which hath the sharp two -edged, the sharp sword with two edges.
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I know thy work and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.
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Let us pray. Most gracious heavenly father, thank you for this day. Thank you for giving us this place to come together to study your word.
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Thank you for giving us your word. And thank you for giving us the Holy Spirit to help us to understand the lessons, the messages, the words that you have for us.
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In Jesus' name we pray, amen. We're going to quickly get to Pergamos, but I'd like to take a couple of minutes first to discuss the location of Satan's seat.
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Look at the last verse 13. I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.
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Well, where is Satan's seat? In 1853, a man by the name of Alexander Hislop, who was a
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Scottish Presbyterian clergyman, wrote a pamphlet in which he introduced the notion of two
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Babylons. One, the original Babylon, Babel, and the second was
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Rome, and he associated that with the Roman Catholic Church, and you can imagine it was quite a controversial pamphlet.
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I'm going to suggest that maybe he was wrong, that maybe there was not two, there might have in fact been six.
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Six Babylons, six places where Satan's seat was, and maybe there'll even be more, but I thought it'd be really neat if it would end up on six, man's number, not seven,
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God's number. But that may be my hopeful thinking. Now, we're gonna flesh this out in great detail when we get to chapter 17, and the mystery
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Babylon is introduced, and the woman on the back of the beast, and all that.
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But we'll do that in chapter 17 after a little more coffee time, so that my understanding is more fleshed out itself.
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What I'm gonna do today with regard to the seats is just to kind of name them, and maybe make a couple of comments along the way.
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The first, Satan's first seat, the first Babylon, was Babel.
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It was founded by Nimrod. Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the
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Lord. What that really means is, the mighty hunter of men in the face of the
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Lord. In short, he was an enslaver of man. And we'll deal with that way more later.
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But you remember the Tower of Babel, and you remember what happened with the Tower of Babel, that the languages were confused, and the people were dispersed.
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Babylon was the mother of all false religion. All false religions began in Babylon.
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And most, if not all of the abominations of the earth. Babylon was more than just a city.
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It was an attitude. It was a world order. It was a false religion.
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It started in Babel, and it spread throughout the world.
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The story of Babylon begins with Babel and the rebellion led by Nimrod, in which man tried to make his own way to heaven.
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That's what the tower was all about. That is to say that man, inspired by Satan, attempted to reach
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God, and maybe even become a god by his own efforts.
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Turn to Ephesians chapter two, verse one. And I promise you, we'll get to Pergamos today.
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Chapter two, verse one. I'm sorry?
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Yes, the seat of Satan. Referring back to the second verse dealing with the church of Pergamos, I know where Satan's seat is.
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Like a point of emphasis or reference or dwelling place for Satan.
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Maybe you could say where Satan's dwelling place is. Not where he is at, like my dwelling place is in a little house down south of Corsicana, but that's not where I am all the time.
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I go to different places, but my dwelling place is there. And so at the time of John, Satan's dwelling place was in Pergamos.
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I'll give you an upfront view of where we're going. And this is
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Paul talking to the Ephesians, and he says, and you he hath quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past you walked according to the course of this world.
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According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.
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Now there's three phrases I want to focus on in that verse. The course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and the children of disobedience.
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So what is the course of the world, the course of this world? I'm sorry.
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Okay, you can say that. It's the world's order.
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It's humanity's standards and values derived apart from God.
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Not the world's standards and values that are derived from the word of God, but derived outside of the word of God.
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I can't create my own standards. What I think is the world's order. What I think is right is right.
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What I think is wrong is wrong. And what you think is right and wrong doesn't matter. That's where we are now.
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Nimrod's rebellion was a disaster. We all know that. The tower fell down.
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The people were scattered. But man, inspired by Satan, continues to chase the same folly.
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What began in Babylon, to steal a phrase from the TV, what began in Babylon didn't stay in Babylon.
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It passed through Pergamos, and is pursued by men even today.
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In the world today, people are still pursuing the idea of world standards derived out of my own intellect, not out of God's word.
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The power behind this Babylonian religion is Satan, the serpent, which, by the way, was the emblem of the city of Pergamos, the caducus, a stick with a two -headed serpent,
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I believe, wrapped around it. I believe it's still the two -headed serpent wrapped around the stick that is the symbol of the medical doctors.
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Is that correct? Is it a two -headed or a one -headed snake? What do you know? It thinks it's two -headed.
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I believe it is. It is, in effect,
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Satan worship. Now, most doctors don't have any idea what that has to deal with.
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They don't have any idea that it also has to do with the god of commerce, rather than the god of medicine.
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They had the wrong number of heads on the snake. But at the time of Pergamos, it was clear to them what it was.
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It was their symbol. In Babylon, there was a son of Nimrod named
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Tammuz. He is identified by the
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Pergamanians, by Pergamos, as Aescapolis.
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He was presumed to have been born supernaturally. He's associated with the sun god.
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He dies at the winter solstice. That's December the 22nd. He's resurrected as the days get longer.
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That event is celebrated by the burning of a yule log replaced by a trimmed tree the next day.
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You hear that sound familiar? Do you know what the yule log was in Babylon?
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An infant. That should give you pause.
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That's not the only thing that arrived from Babylon. Easter eggs and dying the
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Easter eggs originated in Babylon. Celibate priest derived from Babylon.
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The crucifix, purgatory, the infallibility of the church leaders, the yule log,
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I think I said that, the Christmas tree, mistletoe, all trace their origins from Babylon to Pergamos to Rome to us.
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Now, I could spend three or four days dealing with this, but I'm not going to. We will revisit this when we reach chapter 17 of Revelation where mystery
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Babylon is introduced. So we're going to go to the second of, in my view, the six seats of Satan.
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That would be Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah are remembered for three things.
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Thing number one, their false religion. They worshiped the moon god.
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It later became called Baal, B -A -A -L,
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Baal. That's the way I always said it. I think
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Raj and Jeffrey pronounce it Baal. So I'm trying.
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That's not what the Arabs call it. They call it Allah. And their flag, what does it have on it?
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The crescent moon. They're remembered for their false religion.
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They're remembered for the great abomination, homosexuality.
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And they're remembered for their destruction. Satan's third seat,
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Pergamos. Pergamos worshiped
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Ascapulas and they called him Ascapulas the Savior.
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At the time John wrote the book of Revelation, Ascapulas was worshiped as the god of the city of Pergamos, first as the god of healing, which then evolved into Ascapulas the
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Savior. And by the way, the word Ascapulas is the derivative from which the word scapel comes, the little knife that the physicians used to cut on you.
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The scapel, that is derived from the word Ascapulas. Although not a seat of imperial or judicial authority,
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Pergamos became the center of the official religion of emperor worship. Augustus inaugurated emperor worship in order to give the empire a bond of commonality.
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And the first temple to this cult was erected at Pergamos in 27
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BC. Under Vespasian and his successors, it became a test of one's faith to see if one would or would not offer incense to the statue of the emperor.
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We know what happened to Polycarp, don't we? Polycarp was burned at the stake because he refused to offer an incense to the statue.
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That was his big crime. In 1312
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AD, Constantine set out to defeat the forces of Maxinius, his rival, for power, for supreme power of the empire.
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His father had prospered when he prayed to the god of the Christians, and so Constantine did the same thing.
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It's said that the next day after he prayed, he saw a shining cross in the sky with the inscription above it,
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In hocus signos venison, in this sign thou shalt conquer. He defeated
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Maxinius at the Malavian Bridge and immediately declared his conversion to Christianity.
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He assumed the headship of the church. He repealed the persecution edicts of Diocletian and advanced
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Christians to the highest office in the state, thus ending the era of persecution of the church by the government, signified by the church of Smyrna, the church of the persecution, and beginning the era signified by the church at Pegasus.
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There's a couple of more seats. The fourth seat is Rome, which I'm not gonna go into. The fifth seat is back in Babylon, and the sixth seat, at least as I see it right now, is back in Jerusalem, not back in Jerusalem, in Jerusalem for the first time.
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That will happen when the Antichrist moves his seat of power from Babylon to Jerusalem and begins the
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Great Tribulation. Okay, I told you
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I'd get to Pergamus. And to the angel of the church of Pergamus write, these things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges,
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I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is.
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So what does the name Pergamus mean? It means mixed marriage, the marriage of the church to the world.
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It introduces in this passage something called the way of Babylon.
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We'll discuss both of those in just a minute. And to the church of Pergamus write, these things saith he which hath the two, which has the sharp sword with two edges.
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That's Christ's title in this book, in this letter. He that hath the sharp sword with two edges.
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The message is that Jesus is ready to judge this church. Turn to Hebrews 4, chapter 12.
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I'm sorry, I did that backward, didn't I? Hebrews 4, verse 12.
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One of the many blessings of Revelation is that you can't read Revelation for very long before it refers you to another place to read something new and exciting.
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So what's here in verse four, verse 12, is a sharp two -edged sword.
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And he identifies what it is. For the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two -edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit and the joints and the marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
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Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.
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So he is telling them, he is telling the church at Pergamos that he is ready to judge them.
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And how is he gonna judge them? According to his word. And then he starts the next verse with his commendation.
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I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seed is, and thou holdest fast to my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days where Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth.
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Now, that's a pretty good commendation. Even in spite of the martyrdom suffered by members of the church, these church members did not deny his faith.
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And by the way, whose faith did they not deny? Jesus's faith, not my faith.
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I didn't not deny my faith, didn't say that. Well, it does say that, doesn't it?
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But it's Jesus talking. It's Jesus's faith that's being held fast to and not denied, even in the face of death.
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Even when they were threatened to die, they held fast to his name. But the criticism,
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I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught
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Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.
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So what was the error of Balaam? Teaching or attempting to teach false doctrine or even true doctrine for the sake of money.
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The error of Balaam is trying to do the will of God for the reward of money.
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The same thing that goes on a lot of times today. And there are those people who have attempted to take every one of these churches and say this is a particular church in a particular time.
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I don't really think that that's so much the case as it is. These are characteristics of all churches of all times.
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And there are more aspects in some churches related to one of these churches as opposed to another.
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That all of these churches exist in every church that is in existence today.
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Except maybe this one. Oh, that is arrogant, isn't it? Jude chapter 11.
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Woe unto them, for they have gone the way of Cain and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward and perished in the gainsaying of Cor.
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These are spots in your feast of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear.
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Clouds they are without water carried about of winds. Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit.
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Twice dead, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.
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Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame. Wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
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Balaam was hired by the enemies of the people of God to curse the people of God.
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Balaam was warned by God not to do that. That was a sufficient answer and Balaam, had he had any real insight into who
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God was, would have responded to that warning.
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But Balaam did not have ears to hear. Oh, he heard the sound.
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He even could have told you the words, but he didn't know the meaning of the words.
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He didn't know what would happen. He wasn't satisfied with the answer that God gave him.
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So he asked again. God gives him permission in spite of the warning.
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But he says, whatever you say will not be a curse, it'll be a blessing.
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Every time he tried to curse Israel, a blessing came out. The king of Moab who had hired
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Balaam didn't like that. He wanted the
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Israelites to be cursed. Balaam couldn't curse them because God wouldn't let him.
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So Balaam conceived an evil thought. If he could counsel the women of Midian and Moab to tempt the
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Israelites and cause them to sin, God would have to punish his people. Balaam's purpose would be served and Balaam would become rich.
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Now the seduction worked. The women of the Moabites and the
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Midians did tempt the Israelites. The Israelites did succumb, but Balaam didn't understand the grace of God.
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Balaam assumed that God being a just God would have to punish the
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Israelites for sinning. He didn't understand that God was going to put a person in place of the
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Israelites, just like he is going to put a person in the place of you and of me.
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If it were my deeds that I was being judged for, I would have no path available to me other than to be led straight into hell and I would be cursed forever.
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That's what Balaam wanted. That's what Balaam thought he was going to provide. By the way, if you read more about Balaam, you will find that Balaam perished with the enemies of God in Joshua 13 at 27.
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I'll just read that. Balaam also, the son of Beor, the soothsayers, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them.
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So he made his destiny.
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Natural reasoning supposed that a righteous God had to curse the evident immorality in Israel.
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Okay, verse 15. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the
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Nicoladeans, which thing I hate. We dealt with the
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Nicoladeans earlier in the letter to the Ephesians at Ephesus by John, not to the letter to the
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Ephesians by Paul. The title Nicoladeans literally means to conquer the people, but the rebuke is not really so much to the
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Nicoladeans. Read that again. Verse 15, let's read it again and see who the condemnation is against or the criticism.
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Criticism, so hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the
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Nicoladeans, which thing I hate. Who's being criticized?
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It's them being criticized, not for holding these ideas, but for allowing those people that held those ideas to be in the church.
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Yes, sir. What about the thing is the doctrine? The thing is the, it's the doctrine that the
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Lord hates. Okay, the rebuke is not primarily against those who hold the doctrine, but the rebuke is more against those in the church who allow them to continue.
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Thou hast there them. That was the criticism. You're allowing this to be in your church. I'm sorry.
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I'm saying the church. You're seeing church discipline or a lack of it.
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Oh yeah, or being told to discipline. Now that's the one thing. If you remember back at the church at Ephesus, that's the one thing that they did well.
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I mean, they didn't tolerate the Nicoladeans and they were praised for that.
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They had another problem. They didn't love their first love, but they didn't have a problem kicking out the
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Nicoladeans. These guys have a problem. There's heresy in the church and they tolerate it.
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They don't partake of it. The next group will, but they don't.
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They just tolerate it. They're not stopping it. There's a lack of church discipline.
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And so what are they told to do? 16, repent or else
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I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
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And what is the sword of his mouth? The word of God. And then what do we get to?
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The key phrase. The phrase that every one of these books, letters hinge on.
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He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches.
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Now, which church is he speaking to? I'm sorry.
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Churches. The churches. He's talking to all of these churches that are listed and to all the other churches.
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He's talking to all of the true churches and all of the false ones. What's he telling the true church?
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Keep doing what you're doing and you'll be blessed. What's he telling the false churches?
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Keep doing what you're doing and you will pay a penalty for it. He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches.
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And what should those that have an ear to hear, what should they hear? The danger of false teaching and the danger of immoral conduct still face the churches of today.
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But so does the danger of allowing false teaching and immorality as was the problem with the
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Christians in Pergamos. To allow false teaching to mingle with the church inevitably leads to the same end as it did in Pergamos.
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So here's what happened in Pergamos. Heathenism was Christianized.
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Pagan temples became Christian churches. Heathen festivals were converted to Christian ones.
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Pagan priests didn't wanna give up their jobs as priests so they converted and became
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Christian priests. The change to the church was for the church fatal.
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The change to the heathen was mostly a change of names.
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They didn't change what they did, they just changed what they called it. And then we have the promise to the overcomers.
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To him that overcometh I will give to eat the hidden manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.
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Now, what is the hidden manna? Grace, I'm sorry, it could be grace, it could be the word of God.
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I think given to eat the word of God. Given the word of God to digest.
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I'm not sure, in the end, yes, in the end when they are dead and they're in heaven, they'll be given, actually, they'll be given hidden manna before they're dead.
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I'm sorry? Or will we still be learning in heaven? I think we'll still be learning in heaven but I think this, to him that overcometh, well,
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I guess you could take it either way. Certainly we'll continue to be learning in heaven. I don't have any doubt about that.
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Certainly we will be given God's word here on earth to read and digest and to help us to get to that place that will help you to be an overcomer.
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But I guess it says here that they've already overcome in this verse. And I will give to him a white stone and in the stone, a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it.
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Now here's what John MacArthur says about the white stone. He didn't say anything about the hidden manna or if he did,
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I skipped it. There has been much speculation about what the white stone symbolizes.
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Some link it with the Urim and the Thummim on the breast place of the high priest, two of the stones.
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These stones were used to determine God's will and represented the right of the high priest to request guidance from God for the leader who could not approach
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God directly but had to come through the priestly structure. So they had a process they had to go through in order to get the will of God transferred from God to them.
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And in this view, somehow these stones allowed
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God to disclose his will in a form beyond simply a yes or a no.
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According to this view, by this white stone, God promises to the overcomers knowledge of his will.
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Other people identify the white stone as a diamond, the most precious of stones, and that symbolizes
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God's precious gift banquet of eternal life to the believers. That's what two groups of people think is meant by this white stone.
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But what he says is, it seems best, however, to understand the white stone in light of the
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Roman custom of awarding white stones to the victors in athletic contests.
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A white stone inscribed with the athlete's name served as his ticket to the special awards banquet at the end of the games.
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In this view, Christ promises the overcomer entrance to his eternal victory celebration in heaven.
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There will be a new name written on the stone which no one knows, but he who receives it.
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And as is self -evident from that phrase, we cannot know what that new name is until we receive it.
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New does not mean new in contrast with old in time, but new in the sense of a qualitative difference.
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The new name will serve as each believer's admission pass into the eternal glory.
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It will uniquely reflect God's special love for and adoption of every true child of his.
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So every true child will get a white stone with his name engraved on it that says, you have admission to the feast.
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The Church of Pergamum faced the same choice that every church faces.
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It could repent and receive all the blessedness of eternal life in the glory of heaven.
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Or it could refuse to repent and face the terrifying reality of having the
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Lord Jesus Christ declare war on it. Maintaining the path of compromise is not a choice.
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It ultimately leads to judgment. Yes, sir?
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There is a passage later on in Revelation where his name is written on his thigh, and it's a name that no one knows.
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And I think that's referring to Jesus certainly, but I think this one, to him that overcometh.
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The people that repent and live through the end I think is who he's talking about.
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But I may be, I think that's right, but Brother David, do you?
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Yes, talk about that, please. That this is talking about Christians, and there is later a passage,
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I'm almost 99 % sure, where his name is written on his thigh, and it's a name that no man knoweth or no man can read or understand.
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Is that? I know that's there too. And that would be Jesus, and that would be very easy to link those two and let them kind of overlap.
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Well, in every one of these. Oh, absolutely.
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It is, it is, it is Jesus that overcometh and allows us to be overcomers as well.
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Anything else? Now, I went through pretty fast, and I did that on purpose because I knew
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I had a long way to go, and it's now, it's now 1056. So that's, Brother David's going to be signaling me in a second.
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Yes, sir? Tammuz is in Ezekiel chapter 8, but Ezekiel chapter 8, you know, the
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Lord's leading Ezekiel through the temple, maybe as a spirit, I don't know, but Ezekiel's seeing all the mess that goes on.
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This is where he sees the statues of other idols and other gods inside the temple.
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This is one of the two places. He said, I'm going to be turned to you again, and you can see greater abominations that they do.
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And he brought me to the door of the gate of the house of the Lord, towards the north, and he held there sat a woman weeping for Tammuz.
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Weeping for who? Tammuz. Okay. Who you were mentioning.
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And then in another place, a little bit around there, Tammuz, worshipping him as you said.
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It is, it is really, it is really intriguing, and we will, we will spend a day or two on this same passage when we get to chapter 17.
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That's where the Babylonians and the woman and the beast and all of that are more intertwined than here.
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I thought I needed to get through the churches eventually, and if I stay too long. In any case, anything else?
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Most gracious heavenly Father, thank you for this day, and thank you for all of our many blessings. Protect us and keep us and go through the rest of the services with us.
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Teach us those things you want us to hear. Keep from us evil teachers and evil thoughts.