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Verse 18. Psalm 119.
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law as the Lord's blessing.
Revelation chapter 2.
Uh, verse 12.
And to the Angel of the Church in Pergamos right these things, saith he which hath a sharp sword with two edges.
I know thy work and where thou dwellest, even where faith and seedeth, and thou holdeth past my name, and hath not denied my faith, even in those days where an antipath with my faithful martyr who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because I'll have there then that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel.
To eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.
So half thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate, repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.
He that happened here, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and we'll give him a whitestone, and in a stone, and the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. And unto the Angel of the church in Thyatira right these things, the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works.
And alas, to be more than the 1St.
Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou suppress that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and then that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reigns and hearth. And I will give unto everyone of you, according to your work. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many have, have, have not this doctrine.
And which have not known the depths of Satan.
As they speak, I will put upon you none other burden but that which she already.
But that would she have already hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh and keepeth my works until the end. To him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a Potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I have received of my Father, and I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
We noticed the, uh, meaning of the names of the first two churches. Ephesus again means desirable.
And we've noticed how the failure begins with decline in affection for Christ. What a lesson, a practical lesson that is for us too, isn't it? And then, uh, we noticed the seeds in that. We didn't really notice it, but in verse six, it speaks about those that thou hateth the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Those seem to be more serious seeds of decline that come out later on.
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Smyrna then means Mer, as we noticed, or refers to suffering. And yet in that suffering there's great blessing.
Because the priorities were correct. But Even so, in verse nine we read about that counter element. Uh, I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are synagogue of Satan.
They're a formalized system which was perhaps originated by God at the first time, but they've combined with the world in some sense. And it seems then that though they, uh, they, uh.
Knew the blasphemy of those that nonetheless the seeds were in place. And so as we come down to Pergamus, it's well known that the meaning of Pergamus is marriage. And there the professing church as a whole seems to enter into that position, which was perhaps represented first by those that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. It was an earthly system combined with some Christian teaching, but it was unfortunately a marriage, an illicit marriage.
Between the true Church and the world.
It was in the time of Constantine, when he was emperor, as you mentioned. Apparently Constantine's mother was favorable toward Christianity. Whether she was a true believer or not, we don't know, but she somewhat influenced him and.
He allowed Christians to move around in his emperor a little bit more, uh, and as he saw them and became more acquainted with Christian principles and teachings, he could immediately identify that they were Christians were far better subjects in the Kingdom and in the empire than the, uh, the pagans who were always marked by uprisings and insurrections and, you know, this sort of thing. Christians were law binding citizens and they were, uh, quiet people and.
And so, uh.
To keep the Kingdom under himself and to establish his power, he put out an edict to, to force the, uh, the pagans to give up their Pagan religion and to become Christians. And so at gunpoint, or shall we say sword point, he forced all of those in his, in his, under his reign to take up with Christianity, whether they were real believers or not. And so the mass of profession began to really, uh.
Mushroom here, where many, many people took up the outward sign of religion, uh, over sign of Christianity, but there was no inward reality. And so it led to the much marriage that you speak of where the church really married the world and the Christian testimony became greatly marred at this point.
I used to puzzle at this expression in the 13th verse. Even where Satan's seed is. Thou dwellest even where Satan's seed is. But when you read the history that you're Speaking of, it's very interesting to see that when Constantine.
Brought these things into effect. He set himself up as the head of the Christian Church, but he never relinquished his being head of the Pagan church. And that's what this the really the import of this statement is. And so it became an unholy alliance where these two things were linked together. And we find from secular history too and there's even carries over of it today in so-called Christendom where there were practices and festivals and things brought in.
And introduced with the banner and guise of Christianity.
That we're really and still are Pagan in their origin. But it was a very serious thing. And so he refers to it as dwelling even where Satan's seed is. And so we need to be very careful, don't we? The origin of something is, is important. And we need to be careful that we don't get caught up with things that are not Christian or biblical in their origin at all, but that were introduced even back at this time that are Pagan and of the world.
Find confirmation of this So listen marriage and sporting as well. And umm comparing it to the doctrine of Balaam or what did Balaam do? Balum told the the enemies Bala of the children of Israel.
To give their daughters to the throne of Israel and thereby become one with them and destroy the Israelites, separation from their enemies. And that's exactly what happened in the time of Constantine. And one of the very, he, he did, uh, try to do it to some extent with the sword, but he found something that was much more effective than the sword. And that was to combine Chris, as you mentioned, Jim, Christian, uh, festivals with Pagan ones. And so even at this time of year, Easter, we think of this, this time of year as Easter as a Christian time.
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It's not really Christian at all. Uh, Easter is supposed supposedly linked with Passover, but it's not at all. The Passover is at least three weeks different from Easter. And so he used these different ways of joining the pagans with the church, thereby convincing the pagans to join the church and thereby bringing the church down to the Pagan level. Yes. They weren't asked to give up their, uh, their Pagan practices and their deities and so on. What they did was they Christianized them. They gave them some a Christian character to it. So the pagans were not so.
Torn from, been taken away from their idolatry and so on. And so this is where idolatry and Christian things were married together. And that's an abominable thing. So the Lord has much to say to thee, to the, uh, Angel of the Church in this, uh, address.
Good to point out too in this uh, umm, in connection with the Smyrna says in verse UH-10 right at the end of verse nine it says uh.
There at the synagogue of Satan. And then in verse 10 it says, behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison. And umm, I just go back and say this, that that the enemy of our souls is seen and is working in three different characters. One is Satan. He's the adversary. And so he's the adversary of the assembly because the assembly desires to honor the name of the Lord Jesus and only his name. And so he mounts up in opposition to that which names the name of Christ and would be for his glory. But then as the devil.
He's really the tempter. You see that in, uh, Matthew's Gospel chapter four. He came and the devil came to tempt the Lord Jesus. And so if there the adversary couldn't do his work, there was going to be a more subtle work. He was going to be act as a tempter to try to seduce the church into unfaithfulness. And then the final character you find even at the very beginning in, umm, Genesis, where the, it was the serpent, the, uh.
Deceiver, you know, he's he's the very subtle and as a deceiver. So we have Satan as the adversary, Satan as the umm tempter, and then Satan is a deceiver and in all three characters he shows himself in connection with the assembly and he wants to destroy that which has bears the name of Christ. But what a what a savior we have. He's over. We're able to overcome in all of those circumstances.
In a certain sense, now we come to Antipas.
It would be hard to be a martyr under these conditions, wouldn't it? You're dealing with such deceitfulness, and it looks like you're just in Smyrna. They said that the light was so bright that there were those that went to the state and they weren't sure that they were Christians at all. I believe they were, but still there was such brightness. But to lose your life under these circumstances, how difficult that would be.
The enemy, the enemy of our souls, wants us to think that we're out of step.
But if we're with Christ, we're not out of step.
But it cost him his life to be a witness.
It shows too in this portion that God is working amongst a difficult time. And we find at this time that Canon of Scripture is completed. You might say, uh, it's not that the books were not always always there, but we have them nowadays in the 66 books which they canonized at that time. And I believe that was a work of God during this time.
Would that be connected with what he commends them for? There thou holdest fast my name, and has not denied my faith. So there was something going on that was of God, even though much of it was negative as far as their testimony was concerned. It's nice that you point that out.
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The Lord does not present Himself to this church like He does in Smyrna.
As a comfort, these in verse 8 to Smyrna, these are the ones who are under the terrible, terrible persecution. And he says these things sayeth, uh, the 1St and the last which was dead and is alive. What a comfort for those who are facing martyrdom and death, uh, that the Lord communicates to them as one who's risen from the dead. What a great comfort that is. But how does he present himself to these ones? These things verse 12 Say, if he which half the sharp sword.
With two edges and so he is taking a position.
As judge, as we see, this is really the context of these chapters, uh, but sharply opposed to the position that they have taken and a as if to suggest that to his own people, you need to use this two edged sword. If you have the word of God canonized all in 66 books, then why don't you apply it and so.
Because there would be a a practical application for us here today then.
Is there a sharp distinction in your practice between you and this world, or are you mixed up with this Pagan world that we are part of that is around us now? Don't get the idea that this is a Christian nation or that the nation to the self-service is a Christian nation. If you think so, you're blind, very blind. This is not. We have a similar situation as they have here.
And there is. We need to be separate.
Uh, from this world, our, our path needs to be very, very separate. And the only way to do that is to have this sharp sword N is 2 edges. And it's often been said that that sharp sword with two edges can cut you and others. And these relationships that we have formed that trap us into, could we say Pagan, uh, relationships and, and practices and so on, things that dishonor the Lord. There needs to be that sharp distinction that comes in, will it hurt you? Will it hurt others? Yes.
Is it worth it? It's for his glory. And that's what we have in the Book of Revelation. It's his glory. And we're moving on toward that in this book. And so may this be a lesson here to us that that that Satan is seeking to draw us away from a position of being separated unto him.
To a mixture that is abominable and it will be formed into a doctrinal, umm, not so much a doctrinal thing, but into a systematized error, which is the Nicolette thing and which he said which thing I hate. And so Satan, if he can, will form a system to lock you down. And so may the Lord help us to verse 16 repent.
Find the Santan Holy Union creates a very quick degeneration from emphasis where we find, uh, commendation that they hated the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, as Resort himself did to verse 15 here and Pergamus where they had the doctrine of the mutilators, they no longer hated it. It was amongst them. So in other words, this union between the world and the church resulted in a loss of discernment.
It's the deeds of the Nicolaitans, isn't it? In verse seven, First there were the deeds that they hated. They were still recognized for what they were, but now it's been formalized into a system and uh, uh, and it, and it doesn't even say that they hate it there in verse 15. So hast thou also them that hold that not the deeds That was true, certainly, but it's gone beyond that and become systematized, hasn't it?
So that has cell also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Often times the deeds start 1St and we think maybe it's not such a bad thing, but then it's not long if it's not judged that it becomes a systematized doctrine. And that's exactly what happened here.
You might just mention too, it's been pointed out before, but it's been a help to me, uh, concerning Balum, there's three things that are mentioned in Balaam in the, in the second Peter, in Jude and also here. And each way he's mentioned a little differently. And second Peter, it's the way of Balaam. What is the way of Balaam? Well, the way of Balaam was that Balaam was simply a prophet.
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Who wanted to make uh, uh, make money out of his gift? so-called. He was actually a demon medium. We would say today he used the Lord's name as some people do, but it was connected with demonism. In fact, he was surprised when the Lord met him, wasn't he? So he was actually a demon medium. All he wanted to do was make a healthy living and get advancement for himself by the use of his so-called gift. That's the way of Balaam. And some people look at these things, even religious systems to get ahead.
That's their main purpose, perhaps to make money or at least to gain a place and position for themselves in society. That's the way of Baylor. When we get to Jude, we're warned, uh, about the uh, that we might just look at it verse 11 of June, the error of Balaam. Well, what's the difference between the way of Balaam, the error of Balaam and the doctrine of Balaam? Maybe some have clearer thoughts on this, but my understanding is that.
The error of Balaam was the fact that he could not reckon on the grace of God. He thought that if Israel's sin that God's purposes would be frustrated. He could not see how a holy God could bring a sinful people into the land of Canaan. And so his error was that he did not reco reckon on God's sovereignty and did not reckon on God's grace. That was a great error, wasn't it? Sometimes we do the same thing. We say how can there be blessing?
God is sovereign, brethren, isn't He? His purposes will not fail. He will have his purposes carried out in in the end. And so we cannot work against the truth because God will always, always end up on top, if we want to put it that way. And so the great error of Balaam was that he left out the grace and sovereignty of God. He reasoned for natural reasoning that this is the way it must sow. A sinful people cannot be blessed.
But God's purposes cannot be frustrated, though many failed, there were those who were faithful because God always preserves a remnant as we had this morning. And now in our chapter here we have a third thing regarding, uh, Balaam that our, our brother Andrew spoke about, and I think quite correctly, the doctrine of Balaam. And what is the doctrine of Balaam? Well, he mentioned it for us, but just again, the doctrine was that he, uh, taught the, taught Balaam to corrupt the people of Israel.
And thereby defile their separation. And he thought that that would be the end of Israel. Well, thank God, God's purpose is overruled, didn't they? But nonetheless, that's still the doctrine of Balaam that, uh, the people of God can be corrupted by, by, uh, falling in love with the, with the young ladies of Moab. That's what it came down to, didn't it? Uh, and thereby their separation was defiled and thereby they began to worship their gods. What a sad doctrine that is.
Nonetheless, there were those that held the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel. This was in the assembly, if we can put it that way. Remember, when we speak about the church here, we have to be so careful, don't we? It's not the body of Christ. The Spirit of God maintains that. It's the House of God or a candle holder. It's the House of God in the sense that it's been committed to man's responsibility.
There is an aspect in the Word of God where the House of God is preserved by God's sovereignty, and that of course, can never fail. But there's another aspect in Scripture, in First Corinthians 3, for instance, where the House of God has been been committed to man's responsibility. And in that sense their cannon is failure. That's the sense in which we have the churches brought out in chapters 2 and three, isn't it? It's important to make that distinction. The church per SE never fails.
But as committed demands responsibility. Indeed there can and will be failure, and we're called to be overcomers.
I enjoyed somebody saying that he counterfeited John 14 six Balaam dead where the Lord Jesus could say I am the way, the truth and the life. He counterfeited that there seems something so heartbreaking about this experience with the children of Israel and that they're in the last encampment. They've gone all the way in this last encampment. They can look across the Jordan and see that land.
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That was going to be theirs and to think of them falling into this trap, and I believe in the 1St Corinthians 10, it tells us that 23,000 fell in one day. Now there's 24,000 when you go back to the Book of Numbers. So there's 1000 that are unaccounted for. I don't know if anybody has a thought concerning that, but it's just an, it's not a discrepancy, but it's singled out 23,000 perished in one day.
But I would just suggest that perhaps there were those who had entered in and they didn't suffer the consequences. So what did they do? Separate. No, they just went on to see how far they could go.
And so the government fell and they did not get to go into that good land.
I think Antipas is his name means against everyone and I, I think that really characterizes the stand that he took in a very difficult day. So if he's against everyone, it means the movement that Christianity was going at that time. He stood against it and that the world was coming in amongst the believers. He stood against the world.
So he was against everyone and so you might say he was a ruler that had God's thoughts in a week and and and terrible day. And so he was martyred for what he stood for. Now these other ones too. We want to remember that again.
Uh, the the Spirit of God is addressing.
The angels, he's addressing those who were responsible to be an encouragement to the flock of God. And so they're really the ones who took up with the doctrine, doctrine of Balaam, isn't it? They're the ones that allowed the commingling instead of being like Antipas against everyone. And so he's really rebuking the angels here, isn't he, for what they've allowed to come in and.
And, and I believe it, it presents the responsibility.
To, uh, those who in an assembly have been given the care, the responsibility to nurture and help along the flock that these things that, that are being brought out in these three churches and in all the churches, umm, are really to speak to the conscience of.
Our inability to maintain what the Lord has given us in our responsibility to do has an effect on those around us, and so this carries on through a whole period of time because those in responsibility would not stand for the truth and would allow the doctrine of Balaam to come in.
That's part of the danger of the DOC doctrine of Balaam is that the teaching of the doctrine of Balaam is that it's OK.
It won't, won't cause any problems. It'll be OK. You can evangelize the world better in this way. You know, the arguments go on and on and on, but that's really what, uh, historically speaking, Constantine did is that he, just as a doctrine of Balaam here, he told the Christians, this will be good for you. This will be good for the church. You won't have this, uh, persecution that was taking place in Smyrna. You can join in with our society. It'll be good for you.
That's part of the doctrine available. It's alive.
The the church, rather the Angel of the church is uh, held responsible and guilty here of two things. And the first one is in verse 13, which we said, is this the tolerating of unjust treatment of the faithful?
We didn't, uh, defend the the individual.
And exonerate. And then the second thing is in verses 14 and 15, they tolerated evil doctrine.
And it's very interesting to see in this decline of the church and its testimony that in the first one, which we've already mentioned in verse six and the, uh, the Church of Ephesus, that they were such that they hated the deeds of the Nicolas.
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There was a, uh, a righteous indignation against that, which was, uh, creeping in. But here these, uh, what the ones who constituted the Angel at this period, they tolerated the doctrine of the Nicolas. They, uh, doesn't say that they hated him like the others. And I think this is important to see that if there isn't a righteous hatred against it, it'll come down tolerating it.
But notice it does not say that they they held it themselves. The Angel is not held at least pointed out as being guilty of holding the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, but rather allowing some in their midst to hold it.
So while they said, well, we don't hold it ourselves.
They did not speak out against and to silence those who did hold that kind of thing. So there is definitely a downward progression here.
It's interesting too, that in Ephesus, as was pointed out this morning when he speaks of coming to remove the Candlestick if they didn't repent, but the word quickly really doesn't belong in the fifth verse. And it was pointed out, and I think rightly so, that God is very gracious and bears with weakness and so on. And we know in Ephesus, as we've said to some at some length, there was a lack of affection and so on. But when it's the deeds of the Nicolaitans, he said he, he tells them to repent or he's gonna come. He doesn't say quickly.
But isn't it interesting in what we're considering now that as it had deteriorated to the seriousness of becoming a doctrine that he says, I will come quickly if you don't repent and I will deal with things. Just notice verse 16, repent or else I will come unto you quickly. And I believe Mr. Darby leaves that word quickly in showing the seriousness of what had taken place. And you know, false doctrine is so serious because it's often harder to take up.
It's often hard to detect, first of all. It's harder to take up and deal with. Sometimes those that propagate it propagate it in a way that it's very difficult to to take it up and deal with it or with the individuals who are propagating it. And it often defiles and does more damage to more than false practice. Not that false practice and false deeds are not serious. And we have certainly plenty of scripture that shows us when there are actions.
That are not right. They are to be taken up and judged for the Lord's glory. But when things become a doctrine then it becomes very difficult to take up and it defiles more and often in the end will lead more.
Away from the path and away from the truth. And so there's an added warning here, not just that he'll come, but that he'll come quickly because it had deteriorated from simply deeds to A to a doctrine.
Is there anyone here that can perhaps help out and explain to people that may not understand what the doctrine of the Nicolaitans were?
We've talked about Nicolette and says this evil doctrine, what is it? I'm not supposed to hold it. And if I'm supposed to hate it?
How do I know what it is?
Do not break down the word.
Break down the word into its two forms.
Where we have, I mean, I'm not a Greek scholar by any means, but I've read a pamphlet, I think it's called The Deeds of the Nicolaitans, the nickel. There's two words, nickel and leitens. I think I might get it wrong, but nickel means Lords and laity. As a pupil, there were those that were taking the position as Lords over the people. In other words, put putting themselves in a position where they were above.
The the assembly they were.
Taking the place of what we could look at today with all due respect to their work that they do so the clergy system they took a place usurping the Holy Spirit and usurping the the gifts given to the Church as people who were.
Were in the place of.
Of direction, or you know, they took the place upon themselves as as the Angel of the church, so to speak. They were they were the ones that were.
Doing ministry, clergy work, they separated themselves as a people more important than others in the work of the body of Christ. But it's and it's false, utterly false. There is no truth to that whatsoever. There isn't as there are people that are raised up that have gifts. There are people that are raised up because we know there's many gifts in the body, but there is nobody that is set up to.
00:35:15
To Lord over the people as a as you have in in Christianity Today we're one minister stands up and his responsibility is to the laity, the congregation he separates. His job is to minister well, we know that the truth of scripture that's not true at all. Every single blood bought believer has a right to be a priest.
And so that has someone to say that they're above you in that I just suggest that there's commentaries on this. And, uh, it would be it behoove us to recognize that that, umm, these things are, are scripturally wrong. The scriptures for that that you're Speaking of might, you might want to turn back to first Peter 5. And this is Peter speaking to that exactly issue, uh, first Peter 5 and verse one, the elders, which are among you, I exhort who I'm also an elder and a witness of the suffering of Christ.
Uh, verse two, feed the clock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but have already mined neither of being Lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock.
Verse six Humble yourselves therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Part of the uh, the evil and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans was exactly what you were Speaking of. To raise oneself above the flock, to put oneself in the place of.
Of authority, but also of power and, uh, respect, but taking a place that was not theirs to take. And so Peter's call and the call of these epistles, these short epistles in revelation over and over again, humility, humble yourself, uh, cast yourself upon the Lord. Uh, repent. In verse 16, as Bruce was mentioning, the Angel of this church was not guilty of the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, but they did allow.
The doctrine of the Nicolaitans among them. And because they did that, because they allowed it in, they too had to repent.
Our word Jesus have to say to them here, he's directly speaking to them. And he said that that, uh, in verse 14 now has there then that hold the doctrine of Balaam. And then in verse 15. Now, so hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. And so there was, uh, something, two things that they were holding that the Lord hadn't given them to hold. It wasn't of God at all. And so, you know, if we turn back to, uh, Second Thessalonians, I just wanna call to attention here. It says in, uh, Second Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 15.
Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions or the traditional teaching which we have been taught, whether by word or by our epistle. And so the apostle Paul had spoken, he had ministered the truth of God, and he had revealed that mystery which was given him to reveal that the Church was a heavenly body and that it was to be separated under Christ. And, uh, so they were to hold that doctrine.
And so whether by the word or by our epistle now we haven't heard, so to speak, we haven't heard the Apostle Paul directly. We've been able to hear an address this afternoon and we hear our brethren minister the truth of God. And we need to be very careful to take up and, uh, enjoy the word of God in connection with the traditional teaching of Scripture and don't go after strange things and try to develop strange new, uh, directions and try to dig up something out of the Scriptures that our brethren haven't taught. We're in the very last days and we have the revealed mind of God and we have very good ministry that we can read.
And So what these deer ones had here, they were holding something in their hands that God had not given them to hold. Let's not be guilty of that at all. It was adding to what God had given in Christ. And I believe that's why the over one of the reasons why the overcomer was to be one of the things he was given was to eat of the hidden manna. The manna speaks of the simplicity of Christ. It speaks of the the man Christ Jesus in this world, in the circumstances of life.
Passing through this world in separation, the manna fell on the dew. It never touched the earth. The Lord Jesus was a man, was here in the circumstances of life, but he walked through this world in the power of the Spirit and in separation from it. He was wholly harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. And it's interesting that the children of Israel, one of their great sins in the wilderness, was that they despised the simple manner that God gave for them in the way God gave it, in the simplicity in which God gave it. It was palatable.
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It tasted like honey and wafers. It was nutritious. It satisfied their their souls. It tells us he satisfied their souls with the bread of heaven. But when they tried to do other things with it, beat it in a mortar, bake it, put it in ovens and whatever what happened, why it tasted like fresh oil. It wasn't palatable and it was a great sin. God didn't look lightly on it, but he says if you just seek to go on not adding to what I've given to you, not adding to the the truth which is in Christ, he said I'll give you to eat of that simple manna, the person of the Lord Jesus. It's very personal here, isn't it? It's hidden manna.
It's personal communion and then this Whitestone speaks of the, uh, with this new name speaks of purity and this new name that no man knows saving he that gave it again, it's very personal. It's personal communion.
I sometimes illustrate it this way when I enter the homes of the Saints of God.
I find that often the man of the home has a little name that he uses to refer to his wife, something he calls her that would be very inappropriate for me or anyone else to use in addressing the woman of the house. It's something that's just shared between the husband and the wife, something that I say nobody else could could use in addressing the lady of the house. And I thought of it in connection with this new name, how personal it is.
Why, if I entered that home and addressed that man's wife in the way he addresses her with that little name of affection, it's why he'd say he'd, he'd tell me that's very wrong. That's something that's just shared between my wife and I because of relationship and because of our love for one another. Well, brethren, if we seek to go on, keep ourselves unspotted from the world, to not take up with that which is Co, which goes beyond what we have as to the doctrines of Scripture.
And go back to the simplicity which is in Christ. Why we can enjoy this too, this personal feeding and of on Christ, this personal enjoyment of communion as we walk through a very difficult world.
Another aspect of the overcomer in in this name that is given to them is that Nomad newest saving he himself. That's exactly the opposite to the doctrine of the nucleus. And Nicola, Lord of the people wants to have a name. He wants to be known as so and so by the people that the overcomer in this in Pergamus received a name from the Lord himself that no man would say. He himself and the Lord it was again, it was a place of humility. It was not a place of.
Of having a name amongst the people.
It says to him that overcometh verse 17, not to them that overcometh. The overcomer has always looked at it in, in that singular way. And so it's the idea of, uh, individual faithfulness in a time of failure and ruin and eating the man, the hidden manna is really in contrast to what the mass of the people were doing under the teachings of the doctrine of Balaam. And that was to eat things sacrificed to idols or I think it could be translated or, uh, to eat idle sacrifices.
And so while the masks were eating those things, the overcomer was enjoying sweet communion that the Lord would grant. Is it worth it to be an overcomer to stand for the Lord and faithfulness at a time when all are giving way to the sway of the things of the world that's flooding into the church? Indeed it is. And then also the Whitestone, I think that's taken from the court of law, is it not, Wayne, when they would give a Whitestone or a Blackstone as far as the judges, uh, uh, either approval or disapproval of the individual when the case was decided?
In any case, here the Lord pick, uh, at least the, yeah, the Lord picks up on this here and uses the whitestone that he gives to the overcomer. And it speaks to himself having a conscious sense of having the Lord's approval that you cannot trade or explain. And so the, although they're, uh, persecuted and, uh, reproached by the mass of those who have taken up with the name of Christ in the profession, there are those who are true to the Lord that were going on enjoying fellowship with him.
And had a sweet sense of his approval. And that was enough. Isn't that beautiful?
1516 it it says repent is that repent addressing umm the VM14 uh uh uh, I I have a few things against D those that allowed umm this error uh those those that that exercises air to come in or is it or is it re re reflecting to those who were practicing the air? Do you understand my question yes, the Angel.
00:45:15
Yeah, he's calling the Angel to repent. He addresses the Mass in verse 17. He that hath an ear that's going to change. And Eric will probably mention that to us when we come to it a little later in the progression of the churches. But right now we find that the, uh, the call to the overcomer is put after a call to repent. So, so somebody gave us a practical in the here we are, We're in this room, we're in the day we live in, We're not in this day, but it speaks to us.
What's the responsibility?
To the Angel, what he's he says repent. What what's he saying to repent? Is he saying that this this those who exercise this error, you need to deal with them. You need to you need to address that problem that you might correct it is that what would have happened if they would have corrected, if they would have heeded to the to the Lord's call to do this, umm, he wouldn't have removed the Candlestick.
I wonder if, uh, he is saying here that to the Angel that is the leadership in that gathering, Repent, or else I will come to thee quickly. That's that assembly and the leadership, and we'll fight against them with a sword of my mouth. He's gonna bring a controversy. He's gonna bring this to a climax, and it's not gonna be pretty. And so if we are as responsible persons in a local assembly are going to allow.
These things going on, could we say under our nose and acquiesce over these things and say, well, you know, we don't want to offend the young people, so we just let this go on?
He said, do you want me to come and fight against your children, against these persons in your gathering there? Uh, so how do you repent? It's gonna be hard because you've allowed it. And are you just going to read the riot act now? I don't think so. I, I, I bring this up because, umm, because I think it's important to recognize that the Lord has put those.
That would be referred to as the angels here, those who have a care and a love for the people of God. It's not always an easy path and, and sometimes it, it may even seem controversial. And and so there there are those I'm I'm speaking, I'm speaking to others who, who may look over and say, Oh, your brother is your legal or your or why do you, you know, it's not that big of a thing. It is a big thing. It is a big thing to the Lord And, and I, I think it's important to recognize that that sometimes that these, these.
These brothers in these different assemblies that have this responsibility and this care and a love for the Saints, sometimes the actions that they have to do are not easy to, umm, not easy to, to hear or not, not easy to see. But, but if one's gonna be faithful, if these brothers would have heeded and been faithful, it would have been a different story at the end, but it wouldn't have been pretty, as you said, it would have been difficult.
But I just think it's important to understand that that God the Father requires of us, the Lord Jesus requires of us, uh, of, of those who, who have this responsibility to be faithful. Holiness becomeeth thy house, O Lord God, forever. Is it not a matter of us and them, but it's a matter of the Lord and the midst, isn't it? And so it's been said sometimes that if I refuse to judge myself, the assembly may need to step in.
If the assembly refuses to judge sin, the Lord may well step in. And that's a serious thing, isn't it? And so in a sense, that's what we have here, isn't it? If the leadership refuses to step in, then the Lord will fight against them with the sort of of of my mouth. But notice, as we've been seeing, they are called to repent the leadership. It's not the leadership coming down with a heavy hand and forcing something through as such, but it's.
Them showing the place of those who have erred by taking the place themselves, that's such an important principle, isn't it? It's not by an iron fist. That's not Christianity. There is faithfulness indeed, but there's love. But I remember reading, I wish I could have quoted exactly. I think it was from Mr. Darby, but he makes that comment. He says the proper place for the leadership is to show those who have erred their proper place by taking it themselves. That's true repentance, isn't it? That's what they're called to do.
00:50:06
Well, I think that in the end of verse 17, we wanna move on. If I understand right, the hidden mana perhaps is a reference to that mana. That was that Omer of mana that was hidden in the ark. What a wonderful thing. And that's just what we were speaking about. It speaks of that individual communion with the Lord Himself. The Lord himself is the ark, as we well know from Scripture. The hidden man, it's not the manna that was open for everybody. We know that was true, but the hidden man is that.
That the secret in that sense, uh, that the, uh, the leadership particularly, or the rest here in this case were to enjoy that was hidden in the arc learned by communion with the Lord Jesus himself, The Whitestone, the same thing used in judgment, or I understand if I think I have this right, also used in elections. They would take a Whitestone and write a certain person's name on it. And, uh, that was a secret thing. The elections were secret until they were counted later on.
The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show him his covenant. Show them his covenant. What a wonderful truth it is, isn't it, brethren, We covet these things or ought to, but if we if we pronounce ourselves overcomers, we're about to fall, aren't we? But it's a secret. The secret is that we have that that secret between US and the Lord that we're walking in the pathway that pleases the Lord. That's a tremendous secret. And I think that's what's brought out in these two things. They hidden mana.
And the whitestone a secret between US and the Lord, that were we have his approval.
We have that in the deepest recesses of our heart, brethren. There's no pathway like that in all the earth. Well, then, the next church is Thyatira. The meaning, as I understand it, is burning incense. Incense was generally known as a Pagan thing. This is the triumph of the world over the outward church, if we can call it that. We see that the path of faithfulness has become narrower, narrower. The professing church has become more worldly.
Or someone has said about Pergamus, it's when the church became worldly and the world became churchy, and that's that illicit marriage we were speaking about. It's not a true marriage. It's an illicit marriage. That's why fornication is spoken of in the end of verse 14 with Thyatira. It reaches a low point, doesn't it? The triumph is so great that as we'll see at the end of this, that the word to the overcomer, uh, the, the word of uh, in verse 29, he that hath an ear, let him hear what the churches sayeth under the Spirit saith unto the churches.
It's no longer to all of the profession as it has been in the first three churches. It's only to those who have overcome. Look at verse 262728 are written specifically to the overcomer, the masses given up. This is what we call the fall of the church. This is the foundation for what we speak of as the remnant of the church, the remnant testimony which is so poorly understood.
But the remnant testimony comes in when the Lord can no longer go along with that which claims His name. And this is the very reason why Israel, for instance, the two tribes were rejected. Why is it, I used to often wonder, why was it that the Lord allowed the two tribes to be carried away? Why would He do that? That's where the temple was, that's where the priests were, that's where the Shekinah glory was. And as a brother, we were speaking this morning. The Lord doesn't leave that place quickly.
He, uh, he bore with a great deal for many, many years. And if we turn to the book of Ezekiel and we find, uh, that, that Shekinah glory, the Shekinah glory was the place where the Lord the, the evidence of the Lord's personal presence over the Tabernacle that leaves so slowly from that loved place in Jerusalem. But the time had come if we read that book carefully and read the book of Jeremiah, perhaps two of the most neglected books in the Bible.
But if we read those books carefully, we see that the reason the Lord had to leave that place was because that which had His name was no longer faithful to him. He could no longer have His name identified with it. That's what happens here. And we know that later on, after 70 years, there was a revival in Jerusalem, and the Lord identified Himself with that remnant. But this is the beginning of the remnant testimony from henceforth.
There's never the thought that the whole would be restored back to the pristine days of Acts. The Lord's coming is brought in now, and it's brought in for each of the last four assemblies. You notice that. Not to jump too far ahead, but our time is limited in verse UH-25. But that which ye have already.
00:55:20
Hold fast till I come. His coming is now mentioned in each of the last four assemblies. They look forward now to the Lord's return.
There's never a thought that all, all the profession would ever be back together again. That's man's thought. That's not God's thought. He separates out a remnant at this point, just as he separate out, separated out of remnant in Israel's day. Would that be in verse 24 when it says, But unto you I, I say, and unto the rest. And that word rest could be translated remnant exactly.
So what we have here is a further decline in the church's history in in testimony from what we had in Pergamos in Thyatira. We have a condition of things where the Angel of the church refused or did neglected to deal with the evil doctrines and practices that were going on. And so now what has happened is a system of things has risen up and he has.
The Angel has merited, you see that brought out in verse 20.
Thatwithstanding I have not a few things, those words, few things are not to be there, because he has a lot to say about this, uh, the evil that's here in this church, notwithstanding, I have against thee, because thou sufferers that woman, Jezebel. Those two words, that woman apparently have been translated in a number of other translations by wife.
Buy one. So here now, uh, the Angel of a church is held and is charged with having married this wicked system. So what? First, the Angel in the at the beginning. Now just to go back over this, in the first church, the Angela church hated the deed of the Nicolaus and the third church, we find that they tolerated it as far as a system being taught among them and not didn't do anything about it. Now they're married to the thing and takes on a different name.
Called that woman Jezebel, and of course that's taken from history of Israel.
When Israel was, uh, took on idolatry in a wholesale way, Jezebel is guilty, you see, of bringing into the, uh, the 10 tribes there, the, uh, idolatry in a, in a wholesale way. And Ahab, who was married to her, was held responsible and accused of such by the Apo, by the, uh, the profit, Elijah.
Just like to emphasize, I have great gravity against the not a few things great gravity. And so this woman, Jezebel, we say it carefully, but she was the most wicked woman in all the word of God and her system is well and healthy today. And we need to be aware, be aware of being drawn in to the the.
Fornication of this world and all its varied forms.
And the day is going to come when that system is going to be dealt with by God himself. But meanwhile.
Let us keep far away from this system of things and you can always identify it as that which is putting out the light. That's what she did. Anybody that showed a little light away with them. And Elijah knew the issues, that if she said his head was coming off, he didn't call that into question and ran for his life.
But it's scary if you want to look at it for what it is. But there is a path, is there not through this as an overcomer and to have his approbation in our lives and as you were mentioning, brother Bruce, to have a conscience that's void of offense toward God and man.
The religious side of the world is really the most wicked side there is because it propagates itself as being the truth. But we often think of the raw side of the way. We think of the political side of the world, the social side of the world, and the raw side of the world and so on. But I just repeat, the religious side of the world is the most dangerous and wicked side that there is, and that's what Jezebel represents to us.
01:00:14
So this is the period in the Church of history which we might call the Dark Ages and so on, or the Catholic Church.
Or, uh.
Put out all their influence. You know, it's interesting to see the contrast between Pergamus and Thyatira. And Pergamus the world ruled in the church, terrible state of things. But in Thyatira the church ruled the world. This is the place where or the time and the period when the church entered into the political arena and controlled kings all across Europe.
And so this woman as she controlled her husband.
I'm talking about in history now, Ahab. So what we have here in the Church is history, that there was a time when the Church and all of their wickedness entered into political sphere of things and controlled the governments across Europe and kings were at her beck and call. Incredible. The rise of poker, isn't it? It is. Potpourri has strength, isn't it? There's an important distinction now that we have to make, isn't there?
Think of a verse, uh, that's been helpful to me over in Matthew chapter 5, uh, distinction that Mister Kelly points out in his writings on these verses and, uh, Matthew chapter 5 and verse 13, Ye are the salt of the earth.
But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on the hill cannot be hit, neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a Candlestick, in a giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men.
That they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven. There's an important distinction between the word earth and world. The world is that general world we speak of, made-up of believers and unbelievers alike. And so we are indeed, as we often hear, we are the light of the world. We're to be a light to this Dark World. But what is the earth? Well, there's another term too, that's that's used in Scripture sometimes. That's the land, isn't it? The land is the land of Israel.
The earth is the prophetic earth. That's the place where God's testimony has been known. And the world is the whole world, everybody in the world. So there's those 3 distinctions. The land is Israel, the earth is the prophetic earth. As we read in prophecy about the revived Roman Empire and so on. That's the prophetic earth. And then we read about the world, which is the whole world. And so there's a distinction now.
Between being the light of the world, which is evangelical, and the salt of the earth. In other words, there must be that preserving element among the profession itself. Now we're called to be a preserved element among the Christian profession itself. That's the earth here in Matthew 5, verse 13. And so Jezebel, what we have in Thyatira.
This Christianized system has so taken over the world that it's indistinguishable from the world, and it becomes really what we call the camp, isn't it? Isn't that what it's become? And so we read in Hebrews 13. I know that the situation is a little different there. It's speaking about coming out of the formalized system of Judaism. But in our day now, it's a similar parallel thing. It's not a question of coming out of Judaism per Southeast.
But it's a, it's a question of coming out of that which has become Judaized, Christianity. Judaized. That's that system which we call the Catholic Church, of course, or the camp. And so we're called in Hebrews 13. Uh, let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. There's a distinction now between the camp and between the remnant. And brethren, these things are not well understood at all.
I think one of the greatest principles or greatest movements in Christendom is back to what's called the, the historic church. A coworker I work with who's a believer mentioned that to me, said, yes, we're trying to, trying to get back to the historic church. I said, what do you mean the historic church? Don't you mean the scriptural church? Oh, yeah. He said that's what I mean. He has a master's degree in Bible, but, uh, he didn't mean that really. He meant the historic church. And there's a lot of interest in reading the fathers and so on.
01:05:23
The Reformation is being reversed, let alone the, uh, restoration of 170 years ago. That's being all reversed now. And the great trend is back to this great system, which here is called Jezebel. What an awful thing. So the truth of Scripture is that with, with Thyatira now there's the church has fallen. That's an expression you'll see even, uh, John Wesley wrestled with that in his day. Should he leave the established church or not? He wrestled with that. Well, he died in Anglican, but.
He certainly was exercised about it. Mr. Darby and others in his writing speaks about the same thing. Are we to leave the professing church? And at least as far as the system goes, uh, what is the call of God? Well, the call of God now is distinct to a remnant apart from the professing church, because God can no longer be identified with that which is called by His name.
How Historically we've seen the first two searches, they have a stopping point, but then then tarot here we find that it goes all the way into the tribulation.
And so these next churches that we're gonna be looking at, we're in their day and age right now. That's correct.
In the first three churches, there could have been a restoration back to the days of Acts. With Thyatira, that's no longer true. And so the last four churches go forward to the Lord's coming, and the Lord's coming is brought out in each of those churches. But the message to he that hath an ear now is only to the overcomer for the last four churches.
It's no longer to the mask because that will not be restored.
It'll only be those that hear the call.
We've seen 22 in the appendix and #22 in the appendix.