Pergamum Part 2

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Andy, will you open us up with a word of prayer? Sure. Our Father God, again, we thank you for this day, we thank you for who you are, and who we are because of what
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Christ has done for us, Lord, we pray this morning as we open your word and give you a blessing, you and Brother Mike, help us,
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Lord, help us to see things that we haven't seen, help us to be strengthened in the things that we have already seen, and Lord, just guide our thoughts, guide our minds, guide our thoughts, in Jesus' name, amen.
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Amen. Alright. Revelation, chapter 2, and I had a number of questions concerning the
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Lucifer statement, so let me make some clarifications before we go any further.
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A little housekeeping. If anybody wants to open their Bible to Isaiah 14, that is where Lucifer's is put into the
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Scriptures, but only, if I remember correctly, it's going to be in the New King James and the King James.
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So if somebody wants to, yeah, if you read
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Isaiah 14, verse 12, it's the son of the morning star, that in the
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Latin Vulgate, that was translated to Lucifer. Lucifer is a word, and it means morning star.
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That's just what it means. Now, there are other places where that word is used.
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It's used, I don't know if Andy addressed any of this when he did Job, but it's used a couple of times in Job.
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It's used in chapter 11, I think verse 17, and y 'all can fact check me if you want, and Job chapter 38, verse 32.
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In the Latin Vulgate, they took the word morning star, star of the day, and they translate that to Lucifer.
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That's the word. That's what it means, okay? When the King James translators translated that with capital, they carried it over to capital
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L, caused all kinds of issues down the road. This now becomes
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Lucifer. Lucifer becomes Satan's proper name, and that's just, factually, that's not right.
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Okay? Mike? Yes? But in Greek or Hebrew, what is it? Hebrew would have been
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Hillel. Greek has a variation, because the Septuagint uses one word, and the word for day star or morning star is phosphorus?
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I think it is, and the reason being is because in 2
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Peter 1... Here, just turn over to 2 Peter 1 .19. You're just a few pages over. Pretty sure,
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I think it's 2 Peter 1 .19. Yeah, it is. 2 Peter 1 .19 says this.
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It says, we have a prophetic word made more sure to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.
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See the word morning star? Morning star is the word in Greek, because the
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New Testament is written in Greek, isn't your question? It's phosphorus. The Latin Vulgate translated that very word.
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Right there. Morning star. Lucifer. So, from an interpretive, there is a major issue from Isaiah 14 .12,
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and then dealing with 2 Peter 1 .19, one saying it's Lucifer, Satan, and then the other one saying, who's the morning star who will dawn in our heart?
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Who is that? Christ. Do you see the huge problem? Okay, there's a huge problem there.
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So, Lucifer is the word for morning star, day star, meaning the word.
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When they put the capital L, rabbit trails everywhere. Okay? Now, the question was, another one, is
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Isaiah 14 speaking of the fall of Satan? And many of you know that I do not believe that.
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There's just no exegetical proof of that. There has been many sermons preached on that.
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There has been many books written, papers. It is not, in its context, is not talking about the fall of Satan.
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All you need to do is just read chapter 14. It's talking about a prophecy for the rise and fall of the king of Babylon, whom
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I believe he is specifically speaking of the fall of Nebuchadnezzar.
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Now, contextually, there's nobody that's going to disagree with that, because it plainly says this.
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This is an oracle concerning the king of Babylon. The question then is, well, then how did they come to those conclusions?
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How did somebody come to the conclusion that Isaiah 14 was talking about the fall of Satan, and it comes from a man by the name of Origen, who was in the 2nd and 3rd century, end of the 2nd, middle to the 3rd, which would have been around,
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I think he was born in 185, died around 253. And he is considered a church father, but he was a heretic.
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I'm just going to be honest. He had a view of the atonement that was not
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God's wrath being satisfied. He had a view of the atonement that Satan was being paid.
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The ransom price to have humanity back. Okay, he's the one that came up with that idea.
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He's the one that says, and that is the allegorical interpretation. He says, no, no, no, no, no. I know what it says here, it's about Babylon, but if you look a little deeper and look for the spiritual, this is what it's saying.
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That ain't what it's saying. That then caught feet, and other men down the road says, that sounds like a good idea.
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That sounds like that's logical. And it caught on not only with Augustine, he held that position, but that's not contextual, that's not what it's saying.
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It's not saying that and that or Ezekiel 28. They take those two passages together, and they try to give you an idea of what happened with the fall of Satan, and none of them are talking about that.
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Just go home, read the chapters in their context, you're not going to come to that conclusion.
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You have to read that into the text. Ezekiel 28 has to deal with the fall of the king of Tyre, and it talks about, and I know, because I already got this question last week, or in the middle of the week.
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Well, it says it's talking about the cherub, and in the garden of God, in the garden of Eden. Well, it's in poetry.
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And, if you understand what a cherub's purpose was, it was to guard. Who was guarding the throne of the king of Tyre?
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Well, it was none other than the king of Tyre himself. And the person then said to me, well, what about being in the garden of God?
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And all I would ask you to do is just continue to read him. When you don't understand, the best way to get biblical interpretation is just keep reading.
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You keep reading, you're going to get to chapter 31. The same thing is talked about of the king of Assyria.
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And he says, hey, you are a strong, mighty cedar tree in the garden of Eden with God, whom all the other trees were envious of.
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So you understand what he is saying. He's talking specifically in poetic terms about these kings.
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And all of this is prophecy. So you would have to take these two passages that are prophetic in nature and say somehow in the middle of it, we're going to say this is speaking about something in the past.
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That's a problem. You're reading, you're taking something and saying this is specifically speaking about something in the past when it's not.
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It's a prophecy about something that's going to take place in the future. The fall of Nebuchadnezzar and the fall of the king of Tyre, and actually the fall of the king of Tyre didn't happen until, and I think
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I went through this a little bit when we were talking about Alexander the Great. The fall of Tyre didn't happen until around 330,
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I think it was, B .C. with Alexander the
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Great. So that's how long that prophecy was. Some 400 years before it actually took place.
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So if there's any questions before I move on about Lucifer, Satan, any of those other confusing things that I may have said last week, let me know now.
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Is Satan his title? Most definitely. And it's used in the Old Testament.
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When Andy taught through Job, it's used a few times in Job.
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It's used one time in 2
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Chronicles when it says that Satan incited David to take a census.
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And it's also used in Zechariah where it says that Satan stood up to accuse
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Joshua the high priest. Those were, yes, but it just means adversary.
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That's all it means. That Satan is now the adversary towards God's people.
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That is his title. I was asked this week, well then do you, who do you, do you believe that Satan's proper name, his name is in Scripture?
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And I said, yes I do. I believe, and I will make this argument the further we get on in the book, that it is
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Apollyon and it is Abaddon, the chapter 12. And I will make that argument very, very clear because, charismatic or a question?
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No, I couldn't hear your previous statement. We didn't kind of know that. What were the names you gave?
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It's in chapter 9 of Revelation. It's Abaddon in Hebrew and Apollyon in Greek.
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And if you just go home and, is anybody reading through Revelation during their week, anybody? If you are, you will have come across that.
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And it's clearly a reference to Satan.
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He is the king of the demons. Who's king of the demons? Apollyon. That's what it says.
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We'll make that argument when we get there. Who's ruler over the prince of the power of the air?
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Who? Satan. Yes, I mean these explicit things, and it talks about this star, this angel has fallen.
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Well, who is the fallen angel? None other than Satan himself. And it gets very clear when you get to chapter 9.
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This means Lucifer is not. Lucifer is a translational variant by taking an actual
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Latin Vulgate word and just moving it over into the
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English language with a capital L, and it has caused much confusion. It just means day star.
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That's all it means. I mean, if you wanted to look up what in the
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Latin, what is day star, morning star, star of the morning, star of the day, the word is Lucifer, luciferium.
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That's it. That is the word. But when the translators decided to carry that over, why in the world did they not just translate it back into an
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English word? No idea. We don't have those answers. But modern translations fixed that.
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That's why your ESV, any of your modern translations don't have that.
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Yes, sir? So not until Revelation do we get like a full scope of Satan's rebellion? Satan's rebellion?
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Not until Revelation do we get the full scope of Satan's rebellion? Yeah. Was there a rebellion in heaven before the fall of Adam and Eve?
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Yes. Okay. This will answer your question because I think you're asking was the rebellion.
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Are you asking? No, no, no, no. I said in Scripture because when you said about Ezekiel. Yes, sir? I always thought that was like that kind of always not threw me off, but led me to think that they were talking about, you know, when they talk about the king of Tyre, you know, he was in the garden of Eden.
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That would lead you to believe like, okay, well, they're not talking about it. But are you saying that not until Revelation do we get a record in Scripture of the fall?
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No. We actually don't really have a record of the fall that happened before Adam and Eve fell.
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We really don't have a record of that. What we do have in Revelation, I think the passage you're talking about, maybe in chapter 12 where it says there was a war in heaven between Michael and the devil and his angels.
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Understand that when that war took place, you have to just go back and read it.
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That took place at Christ's coming, death, burial, and resurrection.
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That is when Satan's cast out. Look, Satan has the ability to go back and forth up until that time to the throne room of God.
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Right, Andy? I mean, think of, go ahead. That was Job. That was the central part of the whole thing.
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Yeah, so he had whatever this ability to come and go and be the accuser of the brethren, the accuser of God's people, that happened.
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But at the time when Jesus comes onto the scene and begins his messianic work, okay, he's baptized by John the
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Baptist, comes up, he is perfect man now, empowered by the Holy Spirit. You've got to remember that.
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That is what happened at his baptism. It wasn't just Jesus being baptized.
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What descended on the perfect man? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit anointing him for what?
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The purpose of going out and proving that he was the Messiah. So at that point, Jesus now filled with the power of the
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Spirit, he goes out. Man, he's casting out demons everywhere. I mean, he goes into some city and just, he healed everybody and cast out all the demons.
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Well, then he commissions others to go out and they come back to him after he has, he gives the scenario about him binding the strong man.
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You remember that passage? He must first bind the strong man before you can go and plunder his goods. That's what
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Jesus said. And they said, well, man, we were out and we were in your name casting out all these demons.
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And Jesus makes this statement. I think it's in Matthew 12. He says, I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven.
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That's what he said. He was showing that he was binding Satan and his authority and his power over men.
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It's in the prophetic perfect, meaning Jesus is saying, this is what's going to happen, just as well it is because it's in the prophetic perfect.
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Meaning, he is making a prophetic statement as if it is happening now, like some of the Old Testament prophets spoke, okay?
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I saw Satan falling like lightning from heaven. When does that actually take place?
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Jesus tells us on the night in which he was betrayed. He says the son of darkness or the prince of darkness is about to be cast out.
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Satan at that time, however we understand that, we don't have all those details, but we know at that point he was able to come and go in some form or fashion into heaven.
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So a record of the fall of Satan before the beguile of Eve and the fall of Adam, we have no record of that.
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You would have to understand the stars as being angels. If you understand that as being angels, that would be a logical conclusion.
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But if you take the rest of Scripture and say that the dragon then swiped those stars, and we understand because of the
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Old Testament imagery that's all in Revelation, who were the stars in the
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Old Testament? Stars were the people of God. I mean, what bowed down, what got
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Joseph thrown in a hole? But what were the stars? His parents.
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Yeah. So if we see it that way and we understand it that way, I do understand how people come to that conclusion, but there's nowhere in Scripture where it says, hey, a third of the angels fell.
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No, it doesn't say a third of the angels fell with Satan. It says that dragon, and it's in that same passage you're talking about where there's a war in heaven, that war in heaven, that's in Chapter 12, what you're talking about.
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It's in Chapter 12. That war in heaven took place, and then now that woman that was birthing the son, that then was
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Christ. It says that he was taken up. Then as he was taken up, that would be the ascension, and it says that then the dragon made war with the saints.
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Well, I mean, if the dragon makes war with the saints, who is he punishing? The stars.
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And we'll get to all of that. Because you've got to remember, the last couple of verses of 10 and 13, that is a section, and it tells
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John, hey, I know basically, I know you've been prophesying, but now I want you to prophesy again.
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Remember, there's a little book. Remember, I wrote on the board here all of these things, how the revelation broke down by chapter in sections.
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You get from Chapter 11 through 13. It actually begins at the end of Chapter 10.
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It says this is a little book. So there's a prophecy within a prophecy. I mean, it plainly says that. Hey, I want you to prophesy again.
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This is going to be different. This is not only going to deal with what's fixed to take place in the fall of Jerusalem. This is going to be taking place over the course of the interadvent time.
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How do we know that? Because Chapter 11 and 12 tell us this is the interadvent time. It talks about Jesus' being taken up to heaven and the dragon making war with the saints.
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So that's how we know. We've got all the time.
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I don't want somebody to leave confused, or when I walk out the door, y 'all grab a steak and some pitch and try to fire me at the stake.
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Accuser is Diabla. That's his title.
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Title and name. What's that? I'm sorry? Well, Satan is the
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Old Testament Greek word for Satan. That's it.
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Adversary. Let's check something a little crazy. Take your Bible and turn it over to Numbers Chapter 22.
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Chapter 22. Let's see. I think it's in verse 34.
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Hang on just one second. No, verse 32. He says, we'll begin in verse 31.
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Remember, this is Balaam. He's on his donkey. He's already talked to the donkey. The angel of the
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Lord is there with a sword about to strike him. He says, And the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the
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Lord standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed all the way down to the ground.
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And the angel of the Lord said to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary.
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You know what that word adversary is in Hebrew? Satan. Satan.
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So, the Old Testament definition of who
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Satan was in the Old Testament was the adversary. He is the adversary.
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I think that is the only time that it's used when it's not pertaining to a proper name pointing to Satan.
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Meaning, Satan. Okay? All right. So, in the
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Old, when we get to the New Testament, he is the accuser of the brethren, the devil, the accuser.
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He is one that accuses the brethren, and he's only able to do that, okay, at the throne room of God, per se, until the death, burial, resurrection, exaltation,
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Satan is then cast down, and he has no more access to the people of God. No more like that.
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Not in the throne room. Answer? No. Sufficient or non -sufficient? Sufficient.
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Okay. Back to the other matters at hand. Revelation chapter 2. 2. 2.
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And I'll read verse 12 through 17, and then we'll pick up where we left off.
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And to the angel of the church of Pergamum write, The one who has a sharp two -edged sword says this,
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I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name and did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells.
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But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching
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Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things, sacrifice to idols, and to commit acts of immorality.
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So also have some of you who, in the same way, they hold to the teachings of the Nicolaitans. Therefore, repent, or else
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I'm coming to you quickly, and I will make war against you with the sword of my mouth. And he who has an ear, let him hear what the
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Spirit says to the churches, and to him who overcomes, I will give him some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name will be written on that stone, which no one knows but he who receives it.
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So last week, we learned that this church was a little different than Ephesus, because member
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Smyrna had no condemnation.
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Smyrna was actually praised for their faithfulness. Well, Pergamum, you get to that church, you're a little different than Ephesus.
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Ephesus had one thing. This one he says you've got a few. And a few of those things was, one, there were some there that were eating food, sacrifice to idols, and they were involved in sexual immorality.
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And we know that Pergamum was a place where immorality, idolatry, all of those things was just in full force.
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You could have any type of immorality, idolatry that you wanted. And it is like we spoke briefly about this last week, that it's interesting, this is where Satan's throne is, and this is where Satan dwells.
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Remember, Satan's desire, he doesn't care what you worship. He just doesn't want you worshiping
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Christ. And I shocked some of you all that week. If you ever read the
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Satanic Bible, that's what it's about. It's not about bowing down to a man with a pitchfork and forked tail and he's wearing a red suit.
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It's not about that. Even the Bibliae Satanae, which is a more expansion of the things of Satan and what he wants you to do, has to do, honestly, with worshiping of the free will, man's autonomy, man being able to do whatever he wants.
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If he wants to go do this, he can do that. He should not be held accountable to what the
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Satanic Bible calls God the usurper. The usurper. He usurped your authority over yourself.
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That's what it talks about. Well, in this place, where Satan dwells in Pergamum, where his desire is you have any type of sexual pleasure, any type of idolatry you want, you can have it there in Pergamum.
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Why? Because that's where Satan dwells. And Satan wants you to do anything but follow Christ. And he said there were some that were also following the teachings of the
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Nicolaitans, and I do believe that the Nicolaitans, because where it says in the same way they hold that, that's the teaching of the
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Nicolaitans, led to immorality, meat sacrifice to idols.
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And remember, there was nothing wrong with eating the meat. What was wrong with eating food offered to idols?
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What was the problem? It's because they were doing it in the temple. And when you go in and you eat in the temple, not only do you eat the food that was offered to the idol there, what took place with the men consistently with eating food offered to idols in the temple?
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Immorality. Sexual prostitutes. That's right. And it was as an act of worship. Correct. I mean, we often forget that you had these people that would travel all over the
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Roman Empire to get to one of these places. Okay? They would travel one of these places to get to one of these temples.
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Remember, temples everywhere. So they would do these pilgrimages. These people come to whatever pagan god that they worship.
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They travel all this way. Part of the right of that is to, you have to eat something, you have to offer something to that idol, and sexual immorality.
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So they travel all that way. There's two things that they're going to do because their soul depends on it.
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They're going to sacrifice this meat, and they're going to have sex with a sexual prostitute as showing oblation to those deities.
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I think if I said this last week, I'm not comfortable saying that the
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Nicolaitans was Nicholas of chapter 6 of Acts. I'm not comfortable saying that. It would be awful to say something about a man who can't defend himself.
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We don't know. I know what the church fathers said. I know the church fathers, a lot of them hold that. But those church fathers that begin to say that were nearly 160 plus years down the road.
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So it makes it difficult to say, hey, we don't have any evidence closer. But whoever this person was, he was leading
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God's people off into idolatry, and Jesus said, I hate him and I hate his teachings.
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Ephesus did a very good job of weeding them out with his pergama.
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They were a little loosey -goosey. They kept them around. They said, hey, it ain't that bad. We'll let these people engage in that type of immorality.
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Don't think that that's not in churches today. Me and Sybil, when
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I had first gotten saved, I almost said the name of that church just now. We were going to a certain church.
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We had been there maybe six months, and there was sexual immorality going on within, they were called life groups, basically
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Sunday school. Dude, I didn't know.
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No filter at that time in my life. I just, this is wrong.
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Something's got to be done about it. I went to the pastor, met with him and the two. This is a large church, probably 1 ,200 people.
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What's that? Somebody said something? Met with him, met with the two associates, and a friend of mine went.
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He said, we know, we know it's wrong. He said, we're just not going to do anything about it.
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They were having swinger parties. It was bad.
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I just remember sitting in there, and I told him, I said, look him straight in his face.
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I said, you're not scared of God? You're not scared of what God says?
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He said, I know what the word says. I know what it says, but Mike, we're just not going to handle that.
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I appreciate your zeal. I was like, dude, you've got no backbone. I left, and we never returned.
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He did call me a year later, asking if we would come back. Why would
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I do that? Don't think that sexual immorality is not in the churches today and that the leaders there don't know.
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I mean, that was, he knew and didn't care. I'd rather have them here than not here at all.
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I said, well, that's not what the word says. Now, I probably would have handled it differently today than I would when that was nearly 20 years ago.
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But regardless, he was a coward. So it says here, verse 16, therefore repent or else
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I am coming to you quickly and will make war with them. I'm sorry. I am coming to make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
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Look, there is a, it's very clear. This is what Jesus is saying to this church.
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If you do not repent, I'm not coming to pat you on the hind end and try to direct you the other way.
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The staff of correction that's going to put you back on the straight and narrow, it's over.
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He says he's coming with a sword. You've not done what I've asked you to do. Now, I'm coming to you with the sword.
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Hey, we just talked about Balaam back up in that same passage. He had already told Balaam, just think about the use of the word sword here and even in the narrative with Balaam.
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He told Balaam to do a certain thing. Balaam did it. Balaam says, look,
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I can't do anything, Balak, but say what's good. But then when he had determined in his heart he was going to collect the money, he was going to go and he was going to curse the people of God.
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What did God do? The angel of the Lord stood up and pulled a sword and says, you, I'm going to strike you dead.
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If you don't do what I tell you to do, I'm going to strike you dead. So Balaam goes in there. He does what he's supposed to do.
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He then finds a loophole to get his money. And once he finds that loophole to get his money, what does
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God do with the people of Israel? The people of Israel sends him in there and says that Moses sent him in there and struck him down with the sword.
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Balaam did not obey the word of God. He did not repent. What did God do? God struck him down with the sword. What is he saying here?
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This church who is following those same teachings, going down that same way, going down that same path, if you don't listen to what
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I'm telling you, I will strike you down with the sword the same way I struck down Balaam.
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And he goes on to say here, he who has ear, once again we've heard this how many times, he said, him who has an ear, let him hear what the
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Spirit says to the churches. Does this mean somebody who has a digit kind of hung off their head?
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No, no, no. It's those who have the ability to hear the Spirit of God. Jesus himself said this.
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Even when he was giving his parables, let him who has an ear, let him hear. Let him hear what
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I'm saying. And then he says, to him who overcomes, to him
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I will give some of the hidden manna. This has a threefold promise.
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The others, hey, I will give to eat of the tree of life. Him who has an ear, let him hear.
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He will be an overcomer, and I will give him this. Here's threefold. He said, to him who overcomes,
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I will give him hidden manna. What in the world is hidden manna?
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What's manna? What's manna?
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Isn't that what God sent as this like frost -like stuff that landed on the ground, that fed
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God's people and gave them sustenance? Yeah, but what's hidden manna? Well, don't know.
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We can try to draw some conclusions. We can say, all right, is this a reference to the manna that was, remember what
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God told them to do? I want you to scrape this stuff up. I want you to put it in a jar, and I want you to put it inside or in front of, depending on how you understand that, in front or inside the
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Ark of the Covenant. And what was the reason for that? The reason was a reminder of the people that God had sustained them through the wilderness with food.
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Remember also, what else did he have put in the Ark of the Covenant? Obviously, the Covenant. And what else? Aaron's rod.
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These were to set before them as a testimony of God, one, his provision, and the other is that, hey, you don't mess with God's man.
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Remember the rod? Aaron's rod popped out blossoms of almonds, and God says, hey, this is my guy.
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Sorry. Is the hidden manna that which was put in the Ark of the Covenant that eventually disappeared in the time of the seas of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar?
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Don't know. We know that what is not listed in the implements that were taken at the time of when
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Nebuchadnezzar went into the temple, ransacked it, burnt it to the ground, you know it's not listed as the articles taken, the
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Ark of the Covenant. So where did it go? Well, the biblical narrative doesn't tell us.
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The book of Maccabees, which is a, it's not authoritative, it's not inspired, but it is a record of what men had wrote down had taken place, and they said that Jeremiah received a vision and that he had hid it in the mountains of Nebo.
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Anybody remember what happened to Jeremiah? He was kidnapped by his countrymen, and he was taken to Egypt.
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That's in Jeremiah, okay? He was taken, and on his way they believed that he had hid the
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Ark of the Covenant so that it would not be captured by Nebuchadnezzar like it was in the time of Samuel.
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I don't know if you remember the hot potato that ran around, but it got tumors and hemorrhoids, whatever you want to call it, so that that wouldn't be taken and desecrated.
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Another historical fact from the biblical narrative, we never see that thing come back, you know?
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We never see when Zerubbabel comes back and he lays the temple foundation, he sets up the new altar, in four or five years it's built up, finished by 516.
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We never see the Ark of the Covenant come back in. We never see the
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Ark of the Covenant again. Do I believe there was one in the Holy of Holies? Yes, I do.
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Am I confident that it was the one that was in the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the fall of Jerusalem?
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I'm not confident of that. We do know that there was one there, because when the temple was torn from top to bottom, that was opening the way, meaning the
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Holy of Holies, so there was something there. Was it a new one? Was it one that had been rebuilt?
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Was it one that had been refashioned? That we don't know. We know what Jeremiah says in chapter 3.
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I think it's between verses 16 and 19. It says that it would never be remade or refashioned again once it was destroyed.
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So what is the hidden manna? Don't know. We can only draw conclusions based on an inference.
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Is that hidden manna some of the food that we would eat at the marriage supper of the
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Lamb? I think that's likely. I think that is a good understanding because to take some of the hidden manna would be in contrast with eating of the food offered to idols in contrast to being in some type of pagan worship.
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So if you say, okay, here it is, those that eat in pagan worship, which involved eating meat offered to idols and then sexual immorality, and you take what
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Jesus says, hey, if you keep following me, I'm going to give you some of my feast. And I'll continue to point out how
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I understand it that way as well. It says here, and then I will give them a white stone. But what is a white stone?
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Well, there was two ways of understanding the white stone. The white stone, if you were on trial in ancient
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Middle Eastern time, if you were on trial and they could not come to a conclusion, there was sometimes dice.
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You had a black and you had a white. Cast it, whichever one flipped up on the other side, whatever it was, that's what you got.
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And if it's black, you were put to death. You were not acquitted. If it's on the white, you were acquitted.
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Is that what it's talking about? Is it talking about giving them a white stone of acquittal?
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It could be. But there was also a given of a white stone with an insignia on it in ancient times, which offered people like a ticket, okay?
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It was like a head of stones. It had a special engraving on it, and whoever had that was able to get into, basically you were a
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VIP to any type of place in the city, any type of place into the feasts.
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And if that is what that's talking about, that would be consistent with eating of the hidden manna, meaning, hey, if you want to come to the eating of the hidden manna offered by God, you're going to have to have a ticket.
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You're going to have to have something that shows your entrance into that. That could be that stone. Then it says, and a new name will be written on that stone which no one knows but he who receives it.
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There it is. That name would show you who you are, who that stone is referring to, and how you get entrance into what
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I would say this is in reference to the marriage supper of the lamb. But I could be wrong.
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Actually, we don't have enough evidence to say it's either one of those, but that is my conclusion.
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Why would we have something written on a name with a new name? What do we know about new names in Scripture?
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We've got just a couple more minutes. What do we know about having a new name? They generally symbolize some sort of redemption.
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Yeah, or change, change of status. Heck, we just talked about it a minute ago. How did Satan get from having whatever his name is to having this new title of being an adversary?
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Because he was a jerk, and he tricked Eve. And then Eve offered that to Adam, and Adam was a coward and ate it.
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Okay? Abram to Abraham. Sarah to Sarah.
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Saul to Paul. Correct. Jacob turns to? Israel. Yeah. What about Solomon?
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Zedediah. His name is Zedediah. God says his name will be Zedediah.
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There was others. What about... Yeah, you said Paul from Saul to Paul, but what about Peter?
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What's that? That's when he went... That is a good point, though.
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That was not God giving him that name. That was these pagan people trying to change his identity. But yes, there is an identity change.
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They were trying to change Daniel's identity and made it Bel to Shazer, just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
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So those are changes of status, therefore a change of name. But in Peter's case, he said your name is now
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Rock. Right? Change of name, change of status, change of your position before God and His way of using you.
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So that's what we do know about what it means to have a name written on there which no one knows. We also...
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That same name that I believe that's written on that stone that no one knows will be the same one that's written on Jesus.
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You remember when you get to Revelation 19, it says there's a name written on Him that no one knows but Him.
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No one knows but Him. If that's what's on this stone, this certainly is the entrance to that which
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Christ has provided for us at the marriage supper of the Lamb. That feast in which
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Jesus said, I will not eat of this bread nor drink of this cup until I eat it with you when you come into my kingdom.
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That could very well be what it is. Am I willing to die on that hill?
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No. This is my conclusion. If you have another conclusion, that's fine. If you want to talk about your conclusion or how you came to it,
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I'd be open to that. Any questions before we wrap up? Mike, would you say that this would be like a double -minded church?
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Because they start off well in their description and they end up...
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Double -minded, yes. Compromised. Certainly compromised.
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I would say, because he doesn't say all of them in the church are that way. There is some that are faithful.
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I mean, look at Antipas. He was faithful. So there were faithful people within that church.
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Compromised, yes. Did they... I often think of Pergamum a lot like the
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Church of Corinth. Okay? Church of Corinth had probably tons of cash.
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Pergamum was in a well -established place, very affluent. Remember, these first three churches were very affluent.
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They would have had lots of cash. They would have had lots of affluent. And they would have had people that would have come in, just like Corinth, that had these ideas that they let come in and say, you know what?
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They're growing. We're going to let it stay. What did Paul say to the
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Church of Corinth? You can't have that stuff up in here. You've got to fix it. As a matter of fact, I'm going to send
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Timothy. And when Timothy went, he's like, y 'all are going to be rough on Timothy, so I'm going to send
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Titus. Barrel -chested, square -jawed. And when I send Titus, he's going to fix you rascals.
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And that's what happened. But they did not listen, nor did they heed what
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Paul's words were. So Paul even, we just did second... What did he say? Hey man, if I come, and you've still got this foolishness, man,
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I've got to come with the rod. Well, Jesus said here the same thing. Look, you guys have not got this out of here.
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Y 'all have been a little too loosey. You've let these people stay in. So when I'm coming, I'm going to make war with them.
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I think that's what it says there. Hang on. Yeah. I will make war. Remember, he's talking, you, you, you, you.
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Then he makes a change. I'm going to make war with them. Them.
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Who's he going to make war with? Everybody in the Church? No. Those who were holding to the doctrine of Balaam and those who were holding to the doctrine of the
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Nicolaitans. That's who he was coming to make war with. But yeah, double -minded? Certainly.
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Compromised? Very compromised. Very compromised. Yes, sir. And when you get finished, you can pray.
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I know you're quite a student of history. Is it kind of lost to history what happened to this
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Church? We don't know. Actually, when I got to the end of Thyatira, I was going to bring this up because it would finish this chapter.
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You have, you have writings from the apostles to the
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Church of Ephesus. Remember, Paul, Timothy, and Paul, Timothy, Polycarp, and Ignatius.
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You had those same people. John in Ephesus. You had John, Polycarp in Smyrna.
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Ignatius to Smyrna. When you get to Pergamum, we don't have any writings of these apostles or any apostolic writings to those churches.
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I mean, this was not an underprivileged church, but not nearly as privileged, okay, from these others.
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Hey, you'll pray for us? Heavenly Father, thank you for this time that we can be in your
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Word and be instructed and taught and have it open to us. God, I just ask that you would keep our church holy, keep us dedicated to you and your
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Word. I pray that what is written to some of these churches in the negative would not be said about us, and that we would honor and glorify you as a body.
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We pray as we move into our time of worship that you would just prepare our hearts to sing with joy and with gladness and to be instructed in the
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Word. We ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.