Revelation chapter two. That's where we are camping today. Everyone has had a tense moment, a vulnerable moment, or what you might say is life's most embarrassing moment. I've had several. I can't tell you all of them but one happened this last time when we were in Israel. We were about to go out on a day of touring and I needed to use the restroom so one of the guys on the tour and myself went into the restroom. When we came out there was a woman coming inside and she politely said, 'I heard your voices and so I decided to wait until you came out.' And sure enough I looked on the door and it was the women's restroom that we were in. Now I can't read Hebrew that well, but there's still the international sign for a male and a female and I had neglected to see that. That was an embarrassing moment. A couple years ago at The Beach Water Park, I had my swimming suit split up the back. It was probably two hours before I discovered it. When I did, it was an embarrassing moment. Today I'm bringing two just in case--and a pair of blue jeans. And another pair of pants. You never know.

One time I remember in particular when I was at The Cove, the Billy Graham training center, and that day we had a lunch break and we were able to go to Billy and Ruth Graham's house for lunch, a couple of us, my wife and I and a couple others and we were there and it's tense just because it's Billy Graham. He's Billy Graham. And he said, 'I'm going to come and hear you preach tonight.' He said that to me and I thought, 'Oh, no.' I mean, I love Billy Graham but I don't want him to hear me preach. I like to hear him preach. And so sure enough, Bible study started and he slipped in the back and sat down and, to make it worse, the topic they assigned me at The Cove to speak on that night was evangelism. So I thought, 'Now this is ironic. I'm teaching on evangelism and the world's greatest evangelist is in the crowd. The one who led me to Christ. What's he gonna take notes on this or what?' As I was getting up to speak, one of the directors of The Cove said, 'Just because this is The Cove doesn't mean everybody that comes here has made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. So we would like you to address that and give an altar call at the end.' It made it even more ironic that I'm going to give an altar call, teaching on evangelism, and the world's greatest evangelist is there. It was just tense. It really blew my mind when he actually walked forward at the end--no, I'm just kidding. Just joking. But it was a tense moment.

Those kinds of moments can happen, not only to individuals, but to groups. It happens here to the church at Pergamos. I can't think of anything more embarrassing than Jesus handing a report card saying, 'I've got something against you.' That would be a tense moment. Here to this church, He says 'I have a few things against you.' Then He closes the letter, as He does every one of these postcards or letters, by saying, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." So all of us listening to this message, reading this little letter to the church at Pergamos, must not only think of them, but put ourselves in the place of applying it to our lives as Jesus would seek to speak something to us this morning.

The Titanic, they said it was unsinkable. When it sank it was discovered that prior to its sinking, several messages were given to it by several sources trying to avert it from the course it was on, because it was heading straight toward a group of icebergs. Message after message was ignored. Finally a ship that was in the vicinity tried to break in its signal saying, 'Change your course!' While that ship was trying to break in, the Titanic was busy about the next port called Cape Race, the port it was heading to. It was making contact with Cape Race; they were wondering about whether the chauffeurs would be there on time, what would the menus be like. As that ship tried to break through, the message the Titanic sent back was this: "Shut up. I'm talking to Cape Race. You're jamming my signals." They were preoccupied with the trivial while somebody was trying to save their lives. I wonder if sometimes God isn't trying to speak to us through the course of the day in a message, with a friend, by reading a book, but the signals get jammed. We're so preoccupied with so many other sources of information and entertainment that God can't break through.

Today we open up our hearts as we read this letter to the church at Pergamos. "And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, 'These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword: "I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come to you quickly and will fight against them with the sword of My mouth. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it."

Remember the church of Ephesus was the church that was active but had left the first love--the intimacy with Jesus Christ. The church of Smyrna was next on the list and that was the suffering church, under the anvil of persecution, being hammered by the world but staying faithful to Jesus Christ. Now the church at Pergamos is a church on a collision course, like the Titanic. The problem was compromise. That is, they were trying to fit in with the world. They were pressured to be like the world. I've got to say that compromise is not always bad. Sometimes it's good and it's even necessary. If you want to buy a house or businessmen want to negotiate a deal, they compromise on the terms of the agreement. The guy might want to sell a corporation for a certain amount but the guy who's buying it doesn't want to pay that amount. So they compromise. Nations that sit down over a peace treaty compromise for terms of peace. But there are times when compromise is not only dangerous, it is lethal. It can destroy and certainly in a spiritual sense, when we compromise with the world it can destroy us.

You've probably heard about the hunter who was in the woods. He had in his sights of his gun a huge brown bear and he was about to pull the trigger. This bear happened to be very articulate and said, 'Hold on just one minute. What is it you want?' The man said, 'I've got what I want in my sight. I want a fur coat.' He was about to pull the trigger and the bear said, 'Don't be so hasty. Because all I want is a meal. Let's negotiate; let's compromise. Let's talk it over.' So they went off into the woods to talk it over. Later on, the bear came back alone licking its chops because the negotiations were quite successful. The bear got his meal; the man got his fur coat.

There is an Arabian proverb that says, 'He who lives all of his life trying to please and appease everyone will die in sadness.' Pergamos was a church trying to appease the world by tolerating certain things within its ranks. Let's begin by looking at the author. We know it's Jesus, but He depicts Himself a certain way. In verse twelve: "And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, "These things says He who has the sharp two-edged sword." If you were to take a map and find Smyrna and go fifty miles north and fifteen miles inland from the Aegean Sea, you would find Pergamos. The modern city of Bergama, Turkey. Pergamos was a huge, spectacular city. Legend has it that one of the sons of Hercules built this town; that's just legend. History shows that it was a small town and it became famous during the reign of Lysimachus, one of the generals of Alexander the Great. It boasted of the world's second largest library. It had a library of 200,000 volumes. Now that ought to impress us because we're talking about an era where there was no word processing, no computers, no printing press. They had scrolls handwritten. And there were 200,000 of these volumes in the library at Pergamos.

The name Pergamos is the name where we get another term, parchment, comes from Pergamos. Parchment was animal skins that they used to write things on, make books out of. The reason we got parchment is because Egypt stopped the shipment of papyrus to Pergamos and they had to come up with some way of writing their doctrines, their books, their learnings. So they came up with animal skins called vellum or parchment. And even to this day, some college graduates will talk about getting their sheepskin--their diploma--their certificate of graduation. It all goes back to this ancient town of Pergamos.

So Pergamos had its books, its learning, its doctrines, all of which paints a background for Jesus depicting Himself like this. He has the sharp two-edged sword, we read in verse twelve. Now remember, every time Jesus introduces Himself to any of these seven churches, He takes the introduction out of the vision that He gave to John in chapter one. Last week, we read about Jesus holding the stars. Back in chapter one, look at verse sixteen: "He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength." What does the depiction mean? I think it means the written Word of God, the written Scriptures. For the Bible says in Ephesians six that we're to take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. It's described for us already. The author of Hebrews said the Word of God is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword; it has the ability to penetrate between the joints and the marrow, the soul and the spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. It's the Scripture.

Here's a church having problems with the right doctrine of Jesus Christ and lewd behavior. And because they have a problem with the truth, Jesus comes with the ultimate standard of the truth--the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. False doctrine is nothing to be toyed with; it's dangerous. False doctrine can destroy any church, any movement, any person for that matter. In a Sunday school class, the teacher was giving his students a test that Sunday and one of the questions, it was an oral exam, is what is false doctrine? A little boy's hand flew into the air and when he heard doctrine he confused that with our term doctoring. He said, 'I know what false doctoring is. That's when a doctor gives the wrong stuff to somebody who's sick.' You know, that's a good description of false doctrine. When somebody gives the wrong stuff to those who need the right stuff. Here's Jesus, the great Physician, observing how in Pergamos they're allowing false doctrine to infiltrate the church. He sees the spiritual quacks. He comes with the sword of the Spirit.

Let's look at the condition that is prevalent in this church. He says, "I know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. And you hold fast to My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days in which Antipas was My faithful martyr, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells. But I have a few things against you, because you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. Thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate." Please notice that Jesus doesn't come with an immediate slam. He recognizes some positive elements first of all. Now first He says, 'I know where you live.' That was meant to comfort them. I know that it could sound threatening, depending on who says it. The idea here is, 'I know, I observe, your condition--it's tough. You're light in a dark place. I know where you dwell. I dwelt among men once. I know personally how hard it is.' He mentions here that they stood firm. He said, "I know where you dwell.' The word 'dwell' means to dwell permanently, as opposed to leaving instantly. There's something to be said for somebody putting up with darkness. When everything says flee, there's something to be said for a person who says, 'No, I'm going to stay that I might shine the light brighter and brighter in this place.' I think of Paul the Apostle. He was in Derby and then in Listeria and while he was in Listeria proclaiming the gospel, they drug him out of the city and threw rocks at him. They stoned him. They thought he was dead.

When Paul regained consciousness, you know what he did? He went back! He went right back into Listeria, where he had been stoned and he shared the gospel again with this group. Jesus said, 'I know where you dwell permanently. Your roots are fixed there. You're standing firm.' Notice the description of their city, though. He says, "Where Satan's throne is." How would you like to live there? Where do you live? Oh, I live over here in Satan's throne. Before we remark on this, Satan is not in hell as some people would suppose. He's loose on the landscape. Hell will really be occupied in Revelation chapter twenty, but Peter said, 'The enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion walking around seeking whom he may devour.' He is called by Jesus 'the god of this world, the prince of this age.' He's very, very active: he's loose. 'I know where you dwell, I know where you are, where Satan's throne is.' That'd be a tough place to minister. The earth is Satan's domain. It's tough being a citizen of this earth. Once you're a Christian, you know, at first it's awesome, it still is awesome, but the young Christian comes to the realization, 'Hey, it's tough.' People don't want to hear the gospel. This is a tough place to hang around now. People are not sympathetic with this message. But there are certain places that are more difficult, I think, than others, in terms of spiritual stronghold. I think of being in Tehran, Iran or Iraq or Salt Lake City, perhaps. There are certain places that are just strongholds, bastions of false cults and false doctrine. It would be difficult to in.

So what does it refer to when Jesus said, 'I know where you live, where you dwell, where Satan's throne is'? There are a few things it could refer to. First of all, this place was dotted with temples, sort of like all of the other cities that we've talked about. Temple to this god, to this goddess, to this emperor, to that emperor. There was pagan worship going on all over the place. One particular temple was called the Temple to Dionysius, the god of wine, the god of alcohol. He was depicted as half-man on the upper body and half-goat on the lower body and he was depicted with horns coming out of his head and many people see this as sort of the modern idea of Satan with little horns coming out. It came from Dionysius, the god of wine. Then there was a temple to Ascolepeas, the god of medicine, who's depicted as a snake, a serpent, and some think, 'The throne of Satan, the seed of Satan, must be the temple of Ascolepias." Ascolepias was sort of like the superstitious Mayo Clinic of the ancient world. People came from all over to be healed. It was a round-shaped temple with long passageways. You would walk through a dark hallway, and there would be air holes above you at different places. Voices would come out as you would walk by, as people would say, 'You're going to get better. You are now healed.' And all sorts of positive messages would be given to them in this temple. If that didn't work, they would then get a healing massage, the muscles would be relaxed. If that didn't work, they would watch performances of people being healed--healing plays. The last resort is that you would lie in this temple at night on the slab, on the floor, and you would sleep. They had all sorts of snakes that they would release at night that would crawl over the bodies of those who needed healing. Now these were, of course, non-poisonous snakes. The idea is that if the snake crawled on you or made contact with you, then Ascolepias was having mercy and your body would be healed. All of it superstitious.

And the symbol of the snake could be the reference. I know that you live in Satan's throne. It could also refer to the Temple of Zeus, which was seen everywhere in that vicinity on the Acropolis, the high mountain in the city of Pergamos, was this huge altar to Zeus. The largest in the area. Forty feet tall, ninety feet square, and it looked like a throne from afar. Any number of those things Jesus could be referring to when He says, 'I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is.' So He's commending them. 'You're standing firm in a very, very tough place to minister.'

Then He says that they were loyal. Notice, "You hold fast to My name and did not deny My faith." The example that Jesus uses is Antipas, His faithful martyr. Who was he? We don't know. He's not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. I can only give you tradition. Tradition says that Antipas was faithful and he was martyred. He was placed in a hollow brass bowl and roasted alive until death. He was faithful and Jesus says, 'Here's your report card, Pergamos. I know you where you live. I know it's tough. I know that you have held fast to My name and you even have martyrdom in your history.' But beginning in verse fourteen through verse fifteen, He hands out the negative report. The problem with the Pergaminians, however you want to call them, living there, these who lived in Pergamos, was their belief and their behavior.

Not all of them. But they tolerated those who believed wrongly and behaved illicitly. Belief is important. What you believe will eventually determine how you behave. And they were allowing all sorts of false doctrine to come in the church and they were just, 'We welcome you. It's no big deal what you believe. Just come on in.' That was a problem. You see, Jesus Christ is not only interested that we should love Him like the church of Ephesus. He's not only interested that we ought to suffer faithfully for Him like in the church of Smyrna. But He's also interested that we believe the right things about Him. The right doctrine. Every now and then somebody will say, 'Who cares about doctrine? Why should we make a big stink about doctrine? It doesn't really matter. Doctrine is not that important.' Now if you think like that, take careful heed to this little letter because Jesus Christ disagrees with you.

He says, 'You are allowing those who hold,' and He mentions doctrine twice, 'The doctrine of Balaam and the doctrine of the Nicolaitans.' I'm always worried when some people try to drown doctrine in the ocean of brotherly love. As if truth really isn't important. The Bible says we ought to speak the truth in love. But also John writes to Gaius and he says, 'I love you in the truth.' You can't separate truth and love. Let's not try. Let's not say, 'Well, love is important. Truth isn't.' That's not real love. Nor should we say, 'Well, it's just truth, truth, truth--forget love.' We need both of them. You see, truth becomes hard unless it's softened by love. Love becomes sloppy and sentimental unless it's strengthened by the truth. And so need truth. Jesus said, 'I am the truth.' Jesus comes, 'I've come to bear witness to the truth.' He always spoke the truth. So who are we to say, 'I'm indifferent to the truth'? That was a problem that was going on at Pergamos.

The word mentioned in verse fourteen and fifteen, doctrine, is mentioned 37 times in the New Testament. I would say anything mentioned that often we ought to take heed to. The first church in Jerusalem continued steadfastly in what? The apostle's doctrine and fellowship, breaking bread and prayers. Paul said, 'Until I come, give attendance to reading, exhortation, and doctrine.' To Titus he said, 'Speak the things which become sound doctrine.' So doctrine is important. Not only that we love Jesus, not only that we suffer, but that we believe what is right. Right teaching, that's what doctrine means. Correct teaching. In fact, there are two places in the New Testament where Paul said we should divide over doctrine. Were you aware of that? One of them is Romans 16:17. Paul said, 'Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them.' The other is found in 1 Timothy 6 where Paul says, 'If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, from such withdraw yourself.'

'Ok, Pergamos, I know where you dwell. You are faithful, you have a track record of martyrdom, but I have something against you, as well. You are tolerant of false belief and behavior.' I have an article that was written in McCall's magazine some time ago, where 3,000 Protestant ministries were interviewed. The article says, "A considerable number of these ministries rejected altogether the idea of a personal God. God, they said, was the ground of being, the force of life, and the principle of love.' In other words, a non-personal, non-descript essence. 56% rejected the virgin birth taught in the New Testament. 71% rejected that there was life after death taught in the New Testament. 54% rejected the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ over and over again written in the New Testament. 98% rejected that there would be a personal return of Jesus Christ to the earth. Now I can say on pretty good authority, Jesus has something against those folks for that belief system. 'It really doesn't matter if you just lace a little air in truth.' Really? You know, there was a rancher who thought that way. He owned lots of livestock and he was kind of angry, ticked off, that the price of oats was raising so much. So he decided to take oats and mix a little sawdust with the food. And everything was good at first. He gradually substituted more sawdust for the oats until eventually, by the time the donkey was satisfied, he was dead. It matters what you feed on.

Spiritually, it's the same way. The changeover from spiritual truth to air may come slowly, it might be a slow process, and at first, people may not know the difference. But there will be spiritual anemia that will follow. The problem outlined in verse fourteen and fifteen is the doctrine, the teaching, of Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Balaam is the Old Testament example; Nicolaitanism was the New Testament stuff that they were into at this church, which was very similar to the doctrine of Balaam. If you remember Acts chapter six, one of the seven men that were chosen to serve as deacons in the early church was a guy by the name of Nicolas of Antioch. It is thought that kind of got nuts, spiritually. Went off the deep end and started perverting the idea of grace. Saying, 'It doesn't matter how you behave. You can have a little immorality on the side. As long as you come to church and say you love Jesus, it doesn't matter.' They were tolerating this doctrine and people who held to it. And Jesus comes against them.

Balaam is mentioned. We're not going to turn back to that Old Testament story, there are several chapters, but I've always been intrigued by Balaam. I don't quite understand the guy. On one hand, he's a prophet. He speaks some of the most beautiful prophecies about the nation of Israel and Messianic prophecies concerning Jesus Christ. But on the other hand, the guy's a flake, he's greedy, he compromises, he's covetous. William Gurnall once said, "None sink so far into hell as those who have come nearest heaven because they fall from the greatest height." What happened? Well there was a guy named Balak, king of Moab. He saw the children of Israel coming across the river, coming into his land. He thought, 'Uh-oh. We're next.' So he hired a guy by the name of Balaam to come and curse these people. To stand over them, to look down on them, and proclaim a curse, thinking if he curses them then God will honor that or whatever god they serve will curse them. Balaam comes there and overlooks the people and instead of cursing them, God puts blessing in his mouth and he blesses these people saying, 'They're gonna grow. They're gonna outnumber you, Balak, and they're gonna take over.' Balak said, 'That's not what I wanted to hear. I'm going to give you a lot of money, but I want you to say what I've called you to say.' Every time Balaam said something, it was a blessing. But because Balaam was so greedy for the money, the pay-off, he came up with an interesting strategy. He said, 'Look. I can't curse these people but if you would send your young Moabite women into the camp and if they went into the tents and seduced these men and had sex with them and part of their worship was to have sex and put up an idol, then God will be forced to pour His wrath on them. They'll curse themselves.' That's exactly what happened. Coming up with a greedy way to compromise, Balaam caused the children of Israel to fall into immorality and a curse.

Well, Balaam represents greed. He represents covetousness. He represents compromise. He represents the kind of a person who says, 'Oh, come on. Quit being so idealistic. Quit talking about holiness all the time. You know, we're humans. We can have a little fling on the side. It's no big deal.' It was a big deal to Jesus Christ because that doctrine of Nicolaitanism was infiltrating the church. Many of the temples during this time that this letter was written had also prostitutes for worship and it could be that some of these church members were attending Sunday service, but also attending temple services during the week in some of these temples. Sort of like a person who says, 'Listen, I go to the bar and I have a fling and I get drunk once in awhile. But I come to church on Sunday. Problem with that?' Yeah, there's a problem with that. Not that we don't want you to come to church on Sunday, we want you to be holy devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ and not compromise your walk.

Evidently their compromise, and I mean the church's compromise, not everybody in the church was doing this but they were letting lots of people in who were and opening the doors to anybody and everyone who said, 'I'm a Christian but I also have a little on the side.' This was causing others to slip. It was destroying them. Paul Harvey tells about how an Eskimo catches a wolf and it's very indicative of the church of Pergamos and their compromise. He said, "First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood, lets it freeze, adds another layer of blood and another, until the blade is completely concealed by the frozen blood. He then fixes the knife in the ground with the blade sticking up. When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh, frozen blood. He begins to lick faster and more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is now bare. Feverishly now, he licks harder and harder. So great becomes his craving for blood that the wolf doesn't notice the razor sharp sting of the naked blade on his tongue nor that his thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood. His appetite craves more and more until he is dead in the snow." It starts with a lick but it can end with death.

The word Pergamos--part of the word you recognize. When you hear words like polygamy or bigamy it has the same word in it. It means marriage. Pergamos means a mixed marriage. This church was being married to the world, lowering its standard, lowering its guard of holiness, being married, having a love affair, flirting with the things, the doctrines, the ideologies of the world. Jesus has a correction for the problem. In verse sixteen, there's an abrupt command that is given. "Repent or else." Don't you love that about God? He's always straightforward. At least you always know where He stands. He tells this church, His people, 'Repent or else.' That suggests urgency. It would be better translated, 'Stop right now and turn around and re-route your life. Do it now.'

Could it be that there is compromise in your life? Just a question. I'm not trying to indict. Could it be that there's an area God has been trying to tap you on the shoulder lately and say, 'I'm not pleased with this area. I want you to change. I want all of your heart.' If so, the worst thing to do is say, 'I'll handle it later.' The best thing to do is to stop right now, right here, and in your heart of hearts, re-route your life back to God. If you're tolerating something that shouldn't be there--an attitude, a relationship.

What about somebody else that you know? Maybe somebody else you know and love is tolerating something. Do you hate that person enough to say nothing or do you love that person enough to lovingly confront? If a brother be overtaken with a fault, said Paul, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Stop, Jesus is saying. Turn around; re-route your life. Sort of like the Titanic. Get the message across. Let's not say, 'Quiet. Quiet, Lord! I've got trivial things on my mind. You're jamming my signal.' The solution is to turn around. Notice the consequences if they don't. 'I will fight against them,' those who hold the false doctrine, the lewd behavior, 'I'll fight against them with the sword of My mouth.' Talk about one of life's most embarrassing moments. One would be to get a report card from Jesus that says, 'I've got something against you.' Another one would be, 'Now I'm against you. I'll fight against you. You've been hassled by the outside, you haven't seen anything yet. I have the standard of truth, the Word of God, and if you don't turn around, I'm going to come against them with the sword of My mouth.'

Jesus said to whom much is given, much is required. Required. Why is it that we always are concerned about the pygmy who's never heard the gospel when we've heard it all the time? What about us? We are so responsible for the amount of truth that goes to our ears and then our minds. And Jesus tells them to turn. There's an obvious fact here. This is the underlying truth to this church and maybe to us. God wants single-hearted devotion. He won't allow you to double-date. 'Well, I'm dating Jesus but I'm dating the world on the side. I've got a couple friends.' He wants single-hearted devotion--no rivals. Paul said, 'I've espoused you to one husband even Jesus Christ.' Perhaps you could hang this sign over the church of Pergamos. It was an inscription that was found at the church in Lubbock, Germany, the cathedral. It says: Thus speaketh Christ our Lord to us, You call Me Master and obey Me not. You call Me Light and you see Me not. You call Me the Way and you walk Me not. You call Me Life and you live Me not. You call Me Wise yet you follow Me not. You call Me Fair but you love Me not. You call Me Rich yet you ask Me not. You call Me Eternal yet you seek Me not. And if I condemn thee, then blame Me not.

To whom much is given, much is required. Here's the church. Here's the Judge coming to the church. 'I love you; I recognize it's been tough. I have something against you. Change now or I'll come against them.' Now He closes; He never ends like that. He closes with a positive note. He speaks to those who had overcome, those who would stop and re-route their life and say, 'Enough compromise! Enough false teaching! Enough false lifestyles!' And He speaks to them in verse seventeen. We'll close with this: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat.' When Israel was in the desert, they didn't have things like garlic and leeks and onions and meat and of course, they let God know about that, didn't they? By complaining over and over again. But what did God give to them? This stuff called manna. In fact, the word manna means 'what is it.' It fell from heaven and they looked on the ground and said, 'What is it?' Somebody must have said, 'Good name for it. We'll call it what is it.' And they had what is it every day for forty years. But it nourished them. There was no provision from the world, Egypt, but there was provision from God. They even kept a golden pot of manna hidden in the ark. Jesus said, I'll give you hidden manna. I think the message is this: Overcome this lifestyle, overcome this tolerance of false teaching. You may get hassled for it, but I will provide for you. My provision will be with you.

Then he says, 'I will give him a white stone.' Probably refers to a stone of acquittal. In Athens, on the Areopagis, if you were judged for a crime, the judges would have two stone, a white one and a black one. Black if they didn't like you or thought you were guilty; white if they thought you were not guilty. They would hear your case and the judges, and there were many of them, would walk by an urn and place in one of two stones. Black meant, 'You're toast.' White meant, 'You are acquitted.' It could mean that Jesus said, 'I'm voting for you. I will come against them, but if you overcome, I acquit you. I understand that not everybody in the church is exactly alike and you can overcome. So I will give you a stamp of approval: accepted by God.'

It could mean something else and I think it does. Because Jesus refers to manna, which is an Old Testament Jewish thing, I think that the stone refers to something in the tabernacle. Remember the high priest would come before God and he had a breastplate with twelve stones? And inscribed on the twelve stones were names of the twelve tribes of Israel. And on his shoulder he had two stones with six names on each. Then he would come before God with a little pouch and in the pouch there were two stones, an Urrim and a Thummin. The Urrim was white; a diamond-like stone. Clear, white stone. It was used to determine the will of God, for God to reveal Himself to man. So it could be, and if they were Jewish they would pick up on this, Jesus would say, 'I am representing you before the Father and I will reveal Myself more and more and My will more and more to you as you overcome.' That could be the idea here.

At any rate, God is speaking. God is speaking to our hearts. He's been speaking to my heart about an area of compromise lately. Will we be like the Titanic and say, 'Holy Spirit--sssh! You're jamming my signals. I'm listening to the trivia here.' Or will we stop and re-route our life in those areas that Jesus is holding us accountable to change? If you compromise, you will of course be less offensive. But Jesus would have you take the most obedient route to overcome. Do you ever evaluate your life from time to time? Look at it in a spiritual sense and think about your own life before God as if He would give you a report card? And evaluate and say, 'Ok. Am I further along in my relationship with Jesus Christ?'

In Switzerland there is a cemetery where a mountain climber died and has his name, date of his birth and death, and underneath it says, "He died climbing." I thought, 'That's what I like. That's what I want.' Not 'he died sliding' or 'he died vegging in the Spirit.' He died climbing. New heights. Further along. Not compromising. Growing in pleasing God. Don't you want that to be said of you? Let's pray for that.