Revelation 2: Churches of Smyrna & Pergamum

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So, now we're going to talk about the church in Smyrna, and I'd like someone, is that big enough?

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Can everyone read that well in the back? Can we read it okay? I can expand it a little bit, or a lot.

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Someone want to read that for me? Verses 8 to 11, the church in Smyrna? Alex?

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In the angel of the church, into the angel of the church in Smyrna write the words of the first and the last who died and came to life.

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I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the slander of those who say that they are

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Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer.

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Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation.

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Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the

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Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

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Okay, thank you, amen. So what do we have here? What's Smyrna being told?

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Is this a good, is there a bad, is there both? I'm going to say that there are people holding on to their riches, in verse 9.

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In verse 9, I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich, and the slander of those who say that they are

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Jews and are not. Like, who profess faith, but are clearly, you know, outsiders.

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Uh, I don't think so here. When he goes,

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I know your tribulation and your poverty, he goes, but you are rich. If we consider later on what we read in the church, you know, the letter to the church at Laodicea, right?

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He goes, you're saying, I'm rich, I've prospered, I need nothing. He goes, but you're poor, and you're blind, and you're pitiable, you're a wretch.

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Right? Here he's saying the opposite. I know your poverty, but you're rich.

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Exactly, right? So here, we're seeing commendation. I know your tribulation, and I know your poverty, but you are rich.

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I know the slander of those that say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

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Here's a church that's doing well in the eyes of Christ, right? He knows what they're going through.

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He knows they're suffering, they're impoverished. And this is something that's a pattern throughout with a lot of these letters.

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This idea of where they're at spiritually, and how it's sometimes tied to their economics, right?

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Because you have to keep in mind that in those days, they had trade guilds.

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And they were often associated with a patron god. And so there was a temple and a god, and so they would give honor and glory to this false god.

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They would have feasts, they would have festivals, they would have immoral activity, orgies and whatnot.

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In celebration of their god. And this was like a big union thing. And if you didn't go, if you didn't pay homage to their patron god, well then you were out, you know?

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When he talks about taking the mark of the beast in Revelation, I mean, that's so much speculation given nowadays about what's that going to look like?

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Is it going to be 666 tattooed on my forehead or on my hand? Is it going to be that radio chip inserted in my skin?

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But if you think about what scripture says, comparing scripture to scripture, when he's giving the law to the people and he says, you have to have my law, bind it on your hand, on the frontlets between your eyes, the idea is what you think, what you do.

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My law should be sovereign over all of that. But the mark of the beast is you're thinking the way of the world, the way of the enemy.

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You're doing things according to his worldview. So you really could suffer financially, economically, socially, if you did not pay honor, whether it be to the state,

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Caesar, or to the gods. So he goes, I know your tribulation,

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I know your poverty. They're not honoring the gods, and they're poor. They're suffering economically because of it.

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And they're getting slandered on the other side from the Jews, who should know you shouldn't be doing anything to do with idols, and here they're proclaiming

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Christ, and he says the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Jews, but they're not. Because they're not the true

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Jews, right? Who's the true Israel? The church, right? The church can be

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Jew or a Gentile, your ethnicity doesn't matter. Do you have the faith of your father, Abraham, right?

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So he says, I know your tribulation, I know your poverty, but you are rich. In the eyes of God, you are rich.

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You know, a lot like the rich man who had all these extra crops, and he goes, what am I going to do?

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You're going to tear down my barns and build bigger ones? And then I'm going to eat and drink and say, soul, be merry. And he goes, this night, your soul is required of you, and who's going to enjoy all the things you've laid up?

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He was rich worldly wise, but poor towards God, right? So Jesus says, don't lay up your treasure here on earth, but lay up your treasure in heaven.

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So he goes, I know what you're going through. He goes, don't fear what you're about to suffer. The devil's about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested, and for 10 days you will have tribulation.

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I don't know if that's a specific timeframe. I don't know if that's a symbolic time period.

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You know, I think Daniel and his friend were tested for 10 days to see how they looked after not eating and drinking the king's delicacies, but rather eating those things.

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You're going to have to do that. He goes, be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

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He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death.

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So what are we seeing here? We're seeing commendation, right? We're seeing praise.

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What else are we seeing? Yeah. Yeah, encouragement.

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They're going to, encouragement, instruction. They're being warned, more is coming, you know.

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You're dealing with all this, and more is coming. And yet he doesn't give them any criticism.

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They've already been suffering loss. He offers them, he offers them no rebuke, right? They were suffering for their faith, and yet there's no doubt that their suffering had them pressing into their savior.

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You know, they weren't going the route of pragmatism. They weren't compromising. They were doing everything they were supposed to be doing, and Jesus says, hold on, you know.

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He tells them, more is coming, but he says, be faithful unto death, and I'll give you the crown of life.

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So he's not promising to take them out, you know. It's not like, hey, I got a bus coming, just make sure you get on it, you know.

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He's telling them, be faithful unto death, right, and I will give you the crown of life.

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The one who conquers. The one who conquers. I'm like, are we conquering, or are we getting murdered?

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It's hard to tell by what you're saying, because it seems like two different things. Well, which is it?

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I think they're going to conquer by means of their death. Yeah. How did Jesus conquer?

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His death and rising. Right. So here, remember what

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I told you last time, look at the description of Christ when he addresses the church.

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We read before this detailed description of Christ and what John saw, and then each letter has a snippet of that that pertains to that church.

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What's his word of comfort? What's his word of description to himself? The words of the first and last, who died and came to life.

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Guess what? That's what we get. We die, we come to life.

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And that's what he's encouraging them. You're poor, you're persecuted, you're slandered.

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Better days are coming. And it harkens back to when Jesus Christ rose Lazarus from the dead, and he asked

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Martha if she believes that he is the resurrection and the life, because whoever believes in Christ, though he die, yet he shall live.

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Amen. And so it's not just, do you know that? I mean, do you believe it?

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What you believe is what you will live out, right? And so if you're faithful unto death, you will overcome.

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You will conquer just as Christ conquered. He conquered by dying. He put the enemy to shame.

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He put the enemy to silent, right? And he overcame. And so this is what he's promising to them, that if they hold on, they will die.

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Some of them will die, but they will have eternal life. They will have the crown of life.

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So they will not be hurt by the second death. So it's a word of encouragement. Though we are being, we're not experiencing that here, but we do have brothers and sisters who are, right, who can't escape, who can't move to another state.

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You know, if you're in China or North Korea or one of these places, they're not giving out a lot of visas for you people just to go, like, no, you'll hang out here, all right?

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So there's persecution coming and there's times when you can escape the persecution. There's times when you can't escape the persecution, but you have to recognize that Christ is still sovereign and He's going to deliver us through that tribulation.

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Any questions or comments about that part? Overall, I was going to say, overall, this definitely flies in the face of the prosperity gospel.

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Even the contrast between what true richness is, you know, the whole message of them is that if you believe hard enough, you're going to get all these good things.

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Jesus is giving them the highest accommodation and there's no promise of earthly blessings.

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Earthly gains. Yeah. It's true. The only way to hold to the prosperity gospel is to not read much of the

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Bible. Just read a tiny little bit here and there. I like, obviously, when he says, do not fear what you're about to suffer, right?

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Because you're going to experience trials. So, you know, I look at our situation here in New York. This is a pressure cooker, right?

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The government just anti -church, trying to shut the churches down. This is our opportunity to be faithful, to stand up in the face of opposition and say,

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I'm not moving. I'll be faithful unto death. What am I going to lose? Really?

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Whatever I lose here now is going to be multiplied on the other side. So, we're living in a real crucial time right now.

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This is a turning point. America may not be here in 20, 50 years, right? But the church will.

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I want to be one of those people who establishes roots here. Long Island is

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Christ's island, and we're going to stand on it. I mean, Pastor said something, he just sort of touched it on Sunday.

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When he talked about, like, most of us could get by with far less than we actually have. It just touched him.

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I'm like, there's a whole sermon there that we could be talking about. It would take me a half a sermon to unfold and unpack that.

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We think, oh, we're so poor. Oh, we're just barely making it.

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And yet, we have riches compared to the rest of the world, compared to the people who survival was an everyday thing for them.

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We have so much, and it's just the standard of living that makes us think, oh, I'm this impoverished, poor soul.

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And we can do so much with less than what we have. And are we invested in Christ and his kingdom, or are we just trying to keep our standard of living?

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Pastor, having been overseas and, you know, in doing adoption and whatnot, and he was in the

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Ukraine, and asking them, like, with the idea of the Iron Curtain coming down and all this stuff, and, you know, what's the biggest need?

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He goes, they're worried about materialism. You know, for so long, they went by with so little, and yet the church was thriving, and now all this stuff was coming up.

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And as their economic status improved, their spiritual status declined.

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It's like God told the people going into the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, you're going to get to the point where you're going to be living in those houses you didn't build, and those vineyards you didn't plant, and you're going to forget about the

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God who gave you all of it. And that's so, when you have to pray, give us this day our daily bread, you're praying.

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You're not forgetting God, because you're like, Lord, I need my provision, I need my sustenance, you know, me, my family, you know, those

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I care about. You start praying when you have that need. When you have everything you need, oh,

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I got to remember to go back and thank him. Are we still thinking about how we need to grow, how we need to reach the world?

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Are we hungering and thirsting for righteousness? Do we want to see the gospel spread? Do we want to see his name hallowed?

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Do we want to see his kingdom come as will be done? The more we have, the less we think of God.

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It's not, there are exceptions, you know. There have been wealthy people in scripture and wealthy people in the world who have honored and glorified

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God with their wealth. But it is, as Jesus said, it is hard for the rich man to enter heaven.

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And even in Proverbs 32, verses 8 and 9, where, you know, it says,

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Remove far from me falsehood and lying, give me neither poverty nor riches, feed me with the food that is needful for me, lest I be full and deny you and say,

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Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal in profanity with my God. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

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The church in Pergamum, verses 12 to 17.

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Who would like to read? Rock, paper, scissors says.

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We got them over here. All right. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write, the words of him who has the sharp two -edged sword.

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I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.

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But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught

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Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols, and practice sexual immorality.

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So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans, therefore repent.

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If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the

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Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone, that no one knows except the one who receives it.

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Amen. So what do we have going on here? Good news, bad news.

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Not looking good. There's some praise, a little bit of a praise there.

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What does he say here? I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. That's a dubious distinction, isn't it?

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Who knows anything about the history of Pergamum? That's where the first Pergamum was built?

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Is Pergamum still around? A long time ago. Before Home Depot and Lowe's and all that.

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Rickles. The Temple of Zeus.

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The Temple of Zeus was in that city. It was in Pergamum. Also, it was the first city in Asia Minor.

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All these churches are in Asia Minor, which is modern day Turkey now. But they were the first city in Asia Minor to build a temple to the

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Roman ruler, Augustus, and proudly considered themselves temple wardens of a temple dedicated to Caesar worship.

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Again, that was Beale. Anything really smart I say, you probably got it from him.

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The Temple of Zeus is there. It was interesting. Who's heard of the podcast,

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The Haunted Cosmos? Yeah, that's right. Brian Sauve and his friend, what's his name?

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Ben Garrett. They have this little podcast on the Fight, Laugh, Feast network,

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I think. The Haunted Cosmos. It talks about all those strange, crazy tales you hear about of spooky things.

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And saying there's a lot of uniformity in some of these tales that can sometimes stretch for years.

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And different peoples and stuff like that. How is that? Basically, what it comes down to is it's demonic.

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There's spiritual warfare going on. There are demonic powers. There's rulers and authorities.

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And what's interesting is, I forget which one because I was on the plane and I was half asleep listening to the podcast.

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But he was talking about how the relationship with the heavenly creatures, the fallen creatures.

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How fallen angels have made themselves known to people. And what's behind...

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What does Paul say? An idol is nothing. But he says, what's behind that idol? Demonic power.

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He goes, you don't want to be partaking of the cup of demons. You can't partake of the cup of Christ and the cup of demons.

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Idols are nothing in and of themselves. They have no power in and of themselves. But those false gods, there's a reason they're praying to them.

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There's a reason they're offering sacrifice to them. Because they've seen them do things. If you hear about missionary stories from some third world countries, there's still some crazy things going on where there's a deep, dark presence.

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And there's a power to it. Not as powerful as Christ, not as powerful as the Spirit, not as powerful as our

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God. However, there's a power there. And it's a wonder if some of these

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Greek mythologies and the Roman mythologies, all these things are actually representative of demonic entities.

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And so Zeus is the top guy in that pantheon of gods.

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He's one of the top ones. So if he says, go ahead, Zeus could be representative of Satan.

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Yes. Or he could be like a really high, but he says there the Satan's throne is.

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So is he talking about the false gods? Is he talking about the state? Because how often do the state,

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I mean the emperors were saying that they were gods. The state that the emperors were demanding that they were worshipped.

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Here they had this temple dedicated to a Caesar. And they are dedicated to Caesar worship.

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And so how often does earthly rulers try to ascend, like Satan, to say that they're

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God? And so they're doing what Satan's doing. So how often is he behind that?

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We're like, oh, Satan made me do it. Satan's probably dealing with some bigger profile people than you. Could be one of his minions or something.

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But ultimately, we all have to deal with the world, the flesh, and the devil. So he says they dwell where Satan's throne is.

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So whether he's talking a reference to Zeus, he's referencing the worship of Caesar there, it's prominently against Christ.

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But they received some commendation that they hold fast to his name, and they didn't deny the faith, don't mind me, they did not deny the faith, even in the face of deadly persecution.

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There's a martyr, Antipas. I'm not sure if he was a pastor or what, but obviously a faithful witness who was put to death, and they held fast to the name of Christ.

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That's a good commendation, wouldn't you say? That's certainly a positive, but having some good things doesn't excuse how we can slide on the rest of this stuff.

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And so what does he say? I have a few things against you. You have some there, not all of them, but some of them, in their church, in their body, who hold to the teaching of Balaam.

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And I think he's actually referencing the Nicolaitans, because it was essentially the same thing.

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He says, Balaam taught Balak, the king of Moab, to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality.

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And that's basically what the Nicolaitans, from what we can gather from them, about them, about their teaching, from other early church fathers who referenced them, was essentially the same thing.

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That they could engage in the idolatry as far as eating that sacrificed food, they could engage in sexual immorality, and it was okay.

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They could mix that with their Christianity, and all was well. And so he goes, they're holding to this teaching, and I think

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I mentioned last time that in the Greek, there's like this redundancy saying, in the same way, likewise, you have people holding to the teachings of the

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Nicolaitans. Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon, and war against them with the sword of my mouth.

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He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So, they have people right there in their midst who are compromising, whether it was a means of social survival.

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You know, again, I just mentioned about the trade guilds, and how they have these patron gods, right?

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And if you don't honor them, you're out of the guild, and you're not going to get business. So whatever skill and ability you have to work, you're not going to get customers, you're not going to have people, you know, supplying you with the things that you need.

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You're on the outs. So were they doing this because, you know, were they giving that pinch of incense to Caesar?

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Were they honoring the feasts and the festivals to these false gods? And again, with the sexual morality that goes with it.

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So were they doing that for social survival? Or were they doing it as a way of enjoying both worlds? Here they heard, well, you can have

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Christ, and you can have this. You know, were they giving that easy -believism kind of thing?

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And without the lordship salvation, that debate still rages on today.

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Do they think that they could love Christ and love the world, that they could have Christ and have the world, and not have to commit themselves entirely to the holy requirement?

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So the question is, well, we don't have Nicolaitans today, and on my block there's no temple to Zeus, and so I guess that's not a thing

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I have to worry about. What do you think? This is not a problem for us today.

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This was just that poor church in Pergamum. What do we think?

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We think no. I have a feeling this is still an issue today.

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You've got people obviously affirming LGBTQ in the church, sleeping with people before marriage, encouraging that.

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As Pastor Anthony said, yes. There's still an issue today of sexual morality.

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There's still an issue of idolatry, bowing down to the gods of our culture.

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How do we know that we have idolatry? Anything that we elevate above God is an idol. And think about it, it's a religion, it's a worship system.

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So you have a god, you have priests, you have people who tell people what they ought to believe, and what they ought to do to honor that belief.

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They have their own written texts about what you're supposed to do, and what's right and what's wrong.

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And they have consequences if you should fail in your religious worship of this idol.

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Yes! We have many, many idols today.

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The state is an idol. Right? There's so many things.

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The sexual perversion of our society, we have made an idol.

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And these things, if you speak against them, you will be charged with blasphemy.

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They won't call it blasphemy. They'll call it hate speech.

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There you go, that's one. They'll call you a bigot instead of an apostate. Those are the terminologies.

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It's all the same thing, right? How do you want to get by in this culture and do well?

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You don't offend the idol. You don't have to believe in them in your heart.

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Just keep your mouth shut. Right? Is that still a temptation today?

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Yes, it is. The sexual immorality, again. Celebrating it, engaging in it, and still saying, but I still claim

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Christ. God understands. God will forgive. Nicolaitans, right?

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We're okay before God. We have it in our churches, being tolerated, being accepted, being celebrated.

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So on the point of people who hold to the teachings of the Nicolaitans, it personally confronts my flesh, which desires, in haste and out of anger, to want to cut people out of the kingdom who hold to these things even today.

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But the problem that Christ was addressing was within a body that he called his own church.

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And so it just reminds me to be, not so hasty, but to approach those kinds of confrontations and conversations with still coming from a place of love and desire for them to repent instead of wanting to say, no, you're not a

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Christian. Just sweep them under the rug, forget about this person. Keep in mind, what do we have here?

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We don't have a letter saying, line them up and shoot them, hang them.

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He's telling the church to repent. Later on, when he talks to the church at Laodicea, he says, the ones he loves, he reproves.

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Therefore be zealous and repent. So here, if they're professing Christ, if they're a professing church, he's saying, repent.

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We have, again, like I said, there's churches that accept these sexual perversions and say, love is love, and they'll hang a rainbow flag outside as a virtue signal to the world that they are a safe place.

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And yet, would they accept Christ if he would speak against them?

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Again, with the sexual immorality of our day, like we would never go to the orgy at the temple down the block, but how many

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Christians will go on their phones, will go on their computers and engage in sexual immorality and say,

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I'm okay. God is very serious about these things. Jesus says, if you do it in your heart, it's as if you've done it for real, right?

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Because it is real, and it's sinful. And I've told people, I've talked to guys and stuff like that, there's a demonic aspect to pornography.

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There's a reason why the holiness code included all these different prohibitions against all these sexual perversions.

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People say, well, that was actually because they had the people, the Canaanites and whatnot, all those different people groups, that was part of their religious worship, right?

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Like the temples and the orgies and stuff like that, they had those cult prostitutes, male and female, and all these different things, and they had all these different practices that if you engage in them, you would have the favor of the gods and get the rain, the crops, the victory, whatever it was, your prosperity.

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But I'm not engaging in false worship, but you are, right?

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And again, these were false gods with demonic entities behind them. And so when you're engaging in that, you're engaging of the world of demons, because they love the perversion of what

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God has called right and good. And so we must be on guard because that sexual morality still impacts us today, still infiltrates the church, weakens the church, is destroying bodies, right?

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So he says, repent. And the description of Christ is both a comfort and a warning, as we wrap this up.

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The words of him who has a sharp two -edged sword coming out of his mouth. What's comforting and terrifying about a two -edged sword, cuts both ways.

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Now on the one hand, if you're being persecuted, if your faithful brother,

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Antipas, and perhaps others, are being put to death by those who are acting with government authority, if this is because he wasn't worshipping

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Caesar, he was speaking of another king, or he was speaking out against the idols of the day, and the people who were faithful to those false gods mobbed him and put him to death, the sword of God's justice will cut down the enemies of Christ.

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Those who would persecute his bride will cut down authorities that raise themselves up and abuse the authority that he's given them.

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Kings, kiss the sun, lest his anger be quickly kindled, and you perish in the way.

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However, it also cuts down the apostates. It'll go to war against those who turn apostate.

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If not, I will come, he says, repent, or I will come to you soon and war against them.

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Against who? The people in that church who are holding to the teachings of the

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Nicolaitans. Christ is going to war against them. They're professing him, but they're denying him with their lives, and he's going to go to war against them.

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What impact will that have on the church, to have that sort of, you know, it's a mess.

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So what sort of impact, what sort of church will be remaining? And so he says, repent.

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He will personally deal with those apostates, but the church has an obligation to confront sin.

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I was just going to say to that point too, like, would you say that the Lord would use his church as the means, you know, to call out these apostate churches that we see here in the

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United States, you know, like as a way to pull them to repent? Because you're reminded of the language of, like,

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John the Baptist, you know, when the Pharisees are coming. And he says, you brood of vipers, and he calls them out.

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And even Jesus himself in Matthew 23, and how he calls out the people who profess to know better, who profess to herald the truth, but in actuality were dead.

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Yeah, it's one of those things where, what is our stance? How do we deal with those who are professing

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Christ, those who are churches, and yet they've gone astray? When we are aware of them, we should certainly be praying for them, praying for their repentance, praying that God would make himself clear and known to them that they would.

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If we have any sort of relationship with them, that might be an opportunity for us to speak to them on those things.

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Go ahead. Yes, and I think something to also keep in mind is that even though those kinds of institutions might keep up with the facade for a while, they eventually fizzle out.

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One of the great examples I can think of, especially recently, is Joshua Harris. He started apologizing to all these people for ruining their lives, and then started promoting homosexuality, and then eventually recanted it, the faith was settled.

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Because it's like, if sin isn't the thing that God is saving you from, you know.

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You have a lot of people who are deconstructing now, right? They're going apostate, is what the

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Bible says. So the question is, if we know people, we should be addressing them, calling them to repentance, if we know they specifically hold to a certain thing.

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When it comes to other churches and what they hold, it depends on how you go about that.

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I mean, here Jesus is talking to them, and he's going to deal with them. For us as a church, we have to recognize that we speak against false doctrines that are infiltrating our church or being pushed on us.

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We speak against them. If we see stuff that our people are dealing with, we're instructing them about what the word of God actually says.

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There might be times where there's interactions between believers of different churches.

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I know Jay Adams is talking about church discipline, that there's times where you have to, you know, you should be calling the other church to get involved if there's an offense, if there's a sin between believers, and if they're not hearing them and you've got to tell it to the church, well, you've got to tell it to their church so they know.

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But if their eldership, if those in authority don't want to deal with it, they're in sin, you know?

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And so you might have to get to the point where you disfellowship with them. But there's only so much you can do, you know?

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But it depends. If you have those opportunities, you might have to make the most of them.

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But it does depend on context. It depends on the context of the situation.

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So just to finish this because we're out of time, he says in terms of encouragement, so he gives some commendation, he gives some strong criticism, and then he gives the encouragement, you know, he says,

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He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will give him a white stone with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.

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That hidden manna, true and lasting sustenance. If these people are doing this as a pragmatic way of just surviving in that society, he goes,

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I'm going to give you what you really need to live. I'm going to give you myself, you know? It's far superior to the perishable food that's offered to idols.

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The white stone could be a vote. There's speculation on what that's referring to. Sometimes that could be a vote of acquittal as opposed to a black stone, that would be guilt.

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The idea of having a name on it, you know, a special pass of admission to the Lord's banquet as opposed to an invitation to the banquets of demons.

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But because they chose Christ, you know, instead of the demons, they have relationship.

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Whatever it is, I mean, there's different things that we can speculate that it is. Keeping a reminder that it's

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God who's giving it, it's Christ who's giving it, the new name written on the stone that no one else knows except the one who receives it.

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It's all about identifying with Christ, that Christ has named you as his own.

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Christ will provide for you what you need. So there are those there that are thinking that they can have both worlds, right?

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Thinking that they need to have both worlds because how are you going to survive, you know? Or why can't we live and enjoy ourselves at the same time?

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Christ says, you need me and only me and he will provide for you what you need.

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But he calls them to repent and so sometimes to repent means we have to repent of passivity in our own lives, in our own body.

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If there's sin going on, we must lovingly confront it. You have to do something. You can't just say, well, they're here, our numbers are great, the church is packed, and yet half of them are holding to the declarations.

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No, if you love them, you will confront them. And if they leave, then they needed to leave for the good of the church and for the glory of Christ.

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So, two churches done. So we have more and we'll see when that happens.

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But any questions or comments before we close? So the comfort is, though we are sinners and we sin against others and we've had people sin against us,

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Christ is able to heal, Christ is able to restore. So, that's what

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I would tell them in a nutshell. It's just speaking with them one -on -one with their specific situation and then bringing them to the

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Word of God because that's where the answers are. Christ has spoken. We don't have to say why.

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Gosh, I don't know. So, with that, we'll close and we'll go to our time of prayer.