Revelation, Part 2

The book of Revelation were located in Revelation 2 and 3 at that time in the first century.

Hopefully we've got most of those out now. Okay. Two weeks ago, we had a sermon on the first chapter of the book of Revelation as I laid out the purpose for the book. And we covered visions. We covered symbols. We covered to whom the book was written and why it was written. So today we're going to look at some letters. Now why are we doing this? Well, basically when I asked what you would like sermons about, prophecy in the book of Revelation was mentioned quite often. So I decided that before we have the Feast of Trumpets, which pictures the return of Jesus Christ. We're going to lead right up to that with four sermons telling us and hopefully teaching you and explaining to you as I did last week, two weeks ago, why and what the book is all about. In the second third chapter of Revelation, we find seven letters written to seven different churches in Asia Minor. That's what this little drawing is about. It kind of shows you where the churches are located. Now, seven churches. Why those seven churches? Have you ever asked yourself why? In Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, hopefully you've read those things. We're going to go through a little bit of it today. But hopefully if you have not read those in a while, you will read those verses about the seven churches.

There were churches in Antioch, Thessalonica, Corinth. As a matter of fact, in Asia Minor, there was said to be at the time of the first century somewhere between a thousand and twelve hundred cities and towns and villages. There were many, many churches of God at that time.

But yet, when this was written, it only addressed seven of the churches.

The interesting part to me is that the letters are multi-dimensional. First, each church needed a particular message addressing the spiritual state of the church and of its members. That's why the book was written.

Many theologians and historians, such as John Wolford, in fact, he quoted in his book, The Revelation of Christ, on pages 51 and 52. You find this written by many historians.

He said, I believe that in addition to the obvious implications of the messages, these letters written to these churches in Revelation 2 and 3, the seven churches represent the chronological development of church history viewed spiritually. They note that Ephesus seems to be characteristic, which Ephesus is the very first book, of the apostolic period, a few years, from 31 AD to around 130 to 150 AD.

And the progression of evil climaxing in Laodicea seems to indicate the final state of the apostasy of the church. I know most people, if you were to ask them what the most famous number in the book of Revelation, they would say what? 666, right? You're going to have people that have it on a license plate and they go back because they're so superstitious, they go back and get another license plate. You have actual people who will not buy a house if its address is 666. It's just something that is thought and feared in the world. But I'd like to tell you that the most prolific and most used number in the book of Revelation is the number 7.

And if you have to think of a prolific number, I would like for you to think more of the number 777, as we will go through next week of how powerful and dynamic the number 7. Because besides 7 seals and 7 trumpets and 7 trumpet plagues, 7 golden lampstands, 7 spirits, 7 stars, 7 bowls, 7 angels, 7 horns, and 7 thunders, that does not even account for all the other 7s mentioned in the book of Revelation. Do you think the number 7 is important to God? It is His number of completion, as written by most theologians.

I recognize that. But yet they can't tell you why you have all these 7s, and so then it's okay for the church to worship on the first day of the week. It does not really make sense, does it? Scripture gives us 7 churches symbolically pictured in Chapter 1 by the 7 lampstands, as we went through last time. So if you missed the very sermon 2 weeks ago on the golden lampstands, you can check that out.

Hopefully we'll have it online here pretty soon. But the 7 lampstands seem to portray the 7 churches, a composite picture of the church of God. And the 7 specific assemblies of believers appear to represent the totality of the church down through the years. So we have here, and that's what makes it interesting to me and hopefully to you, we have 7 churches, as we've seen in Asia Minor.

Right? You have the maps tell you where the 7 churches are. 7 churches in Asia Minor. 7 eras. Okay? Or church ages down through the time. As so many historians, not just us. Good morning. Nice to have you here. I like a man who's not afraid to go to the front row. But 7 churches that existed at the time, 7 symbolic church ages down through the time, from the beginning of the church in 31 A.D. to the return of Jesus Christ.

It's what these ages and churches represent. But it also, as I mentioned, 7-7-7, it also instructs us that in the church of God, church is of God, there are 7 attitudes of people or spiritual states. If I can say that. I'm responsible for 7 churches now. Fort Lauderdale, Kingston, Ocho Reyes, Montego Bay, St.

Lucia, Bahamas, and Trinidad. Of these 7 churches, none of them are the same. They're all different. And if you go, as a lot of you have been to different churches, you'll realize that each church kind of has its own personality. And the reason the churches have their personality is because of the people that make up that church. And we can see that these 7 churches that God chose to represent the totality of His church at that time, being they were not the only churches, they also represent the church down through the ages and the attitude or spiritual state of the churches.

There's different spiritual aptitudes and attitudes in all the churches, in all of God's churches today. All are so different. The people are different. But all have a predominant spiritual characteristic, just like the 7 churches listed here, in Revelation 2 and 3. So I asked the question, in what spiritual state is our church here in Fort Lauderdale?

Another question, does it really matter? Do you care? To which I ask the question, what is your spiritual state? What is your spiritual state? You know, the condition of a church is usually in direct proportion to the condition of the majority of its people. So let's go backward and forward and turn to Revelation 2 and verse 3. And I bring that up because we can look back, but we can also look forward as these churches and their attitudes and their condition before God is representative of all of us.

Because even in Revelation 1.19 that we covered last time, he told John, he said, write the things which you have seen, the things which are, that was the church then, and the things which will take place after this. So he's saying, not only what you've seen, but what they are now and then what they will be.

Multidimensional. Where these churches. So let's go back and see what condition your condition is in, as the old song said. Let's ask that question. What condition is your condition in? Your spiritual condition. Which of these churches represent you? Which of these churches and their attitudes represent your spiritual life? Because as you can see from the seven churches, it's a very important message. And can you imagine that it starts with a letter to Ephesus. If you look at your little map there, for those who didn't carry theirs back, if you've got any others, you've got any more, or you hand them all out, they're all out.

You realize that Ephesus was the beginning, the very first church. It starts with Ephesus and ends with Laodicea, and they were on a Roman mail route, as this mail was delivered. With Ephesus at the start and Laodicea at the end. Two different churches, separated by distance, but also having definite, dominant spiritual characteristics. So they were separated by distance, they were separated by time, if we look at the flow down through the ages, the eras, and they're separated by attitudes. The very first church we see listed, and I won't go into the introduction to each one of them in the Bible, but the very first church is the church of Ephesus.

Now, what's interesting, if we read there in Revelation 2, verse 2, there's actually only six verses that tell the state of this church. So it's not a lot of verses that tell the spiritual state of the church and the spiritual state of the era in which it is in. And obviously, the spiritual state of the individuals in that church.

It says in verse 2, I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil, and you have tested those who say they are the apostles and are not, and have found them liars. It's interesting that this era is actually called the Apostolic Age by historians, theologians, because it was the age from 31 A.D. to about 150 A.D. where the last of the apostles addressed and lived to the churches. And it says you have tested those who say they were apostles because apostasy had come into the church after the apostles had died, so many. And others came in saying they were now the leaders of the church, of God's church.

And they weren't. They were false apostles, false ministers as you have today. And verse 3, it says, You have persevered and have patience and have labored for my name's sake and have become very weary. Nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love, agape. You have left that first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works.

Or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Remember the lampstands were before God and Jesus Christ? And Jesus Christ walked before the lampstands, saying He was going to be with them. He was going to look over them. They had angels. But unless they changed and changed their attitude and repent, He's liable to remove that lampstand. He's liable to take them out.

They will no longer exist. Move on to a different era, a different church. But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. We'll go through that a little bit later. Hopefully I have time. And in verse 7, He said, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

To Him who overcomes, I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Now, what's interesting, of all the churches listed, the seven churches, we know the most about Ephesus. If you turn over and read your Bible to the letter written to the Ephesians.

This revelation was written somewhere about 90 AD.

John had been on the island of Patmos, as we talked about last time, a prison island, for anywhere between 15 and 25 years.

So he wrote this about 90 AD, from 90 to 95, even to 100 AD. John, when he got out of the penal island, he went and lived in Ephesus. He wrote this letter from Ephesus and it's believed he died in Ephesus.

But it's so interesting that here we have not only him talking about Ephesus, where he is writing this from, but also we have the book of Ephesians, don't we? And we saw the state of the church, this church, as we can see no other in the Bible, because of all the evidence that's laid out before us.

So if you look and go back to the book of Ephesians, written about 30 years before, somewhere between 60 and 62 AD, written by Paul to the church there. And you see something very interesting to me, because even the sermonette touched on it. But as you go through the book of Ephesians, you can see that there are problems, as there are in every church.

But you see, in the fourth chapter, as he said, you need a walk worthy of your calling.

And then Paul admonishes them to not grieve the Holy Spirit.

And then he goes to the fifth chapter, and he says, But fornication should not even be named among you. And he drops down a few verses more and says, No fornicator or idolater will inherit the kingdom of God.

And then he drops down in six and says, What? Husband, love your wives.

And then he told them all to put on the armor of God.

So what was going on? Well, I'd like you to turn back to Acts, if you will.

Turn to the book of Acts, chapter 19, if you will.

Chapter 19.

Here we have Paul at Ephesus when he first got there, as he was beginning to set up a church.

And you can see Paul had a problem because of the paganism that existed.

Because they worshiped not only the pagans, but they worshiped the occult, they worshiped Diana, they worshiped all these other gods. And it said it was so much that even verse 10 of chapter 19 said, and as he talked about Paul, was teaching and preaching daily in the schools of Tyranus, in verse 9.

And this continued for two years so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. So here he stood for two years as one ancient manuscript said, actually said that he stayed for five hours a day, every day, for two years, preaching to all those that went through Ephesus because there's a big trading town. And so you can see how powerful it is that all who dwelt in Asia.

Now that's a pretty powerful statement.

We're so affected by this teaching of Paul.

And it actually mentioned in verse 11, now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so even the handkerchiefs or aprons that were brought to him as a second disease were healed by just handkerchiefs that he had. He was doing incredible work in this pagan city.

And then verse 13, he said, some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call on the name of the Lord. Here some Jews were there and said, hey, Paul's doing all these great works, why don't we do this?

Why, if he can do this, why can't we?

So he even talks to the sons of Sceva, seven sons of this Jewish priest who thought they could cast out demons.

So they ran into one that says, Paul, I know. He's glad I know, but I don't know you.

Stripped him naked and beat the daylights out of him. And he said, everybody heard about that.

And then it said in verse 18, And many who had believed came confessing and telling of their deeds. Why? Because in 17 it said, this became known both to Jews and the Greeks dwelling in Ephesus. And fear fell upon all, and the name of the Lord was magnified. So he was doing an incredible work in this pagan town.

And said in verse 19, Also many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, these books, and it totaled 50,000 pieces of silver. Several millions of our dollars. Think that was a serious book burning? Think so. Can you imagine millions of dollars of books being burnt?

Think that didn't make an impact? So verse 20 says, So the word of God grew mightily and prevailed as this church was being built. Now what was it like? Ephesus was a dominant church and city until around 135 AD.

And in John's time, the city of Ephesus, around 90 AD, had a population of about 300,000 people. Pretty good-sized city. It was an important trade center, but it was famous because it was the site of one of the seven wonders of the world. You remember what that was? The Temple of Diana. The Temple of Diana was there. One of the seven wonders of the world, so people came from all over to come and worship at this pagan temple.

And God was doing a great work right in that city. You can see what happened back here in about 50 AD, about eight years before He wrote the letter to them.

And it was full of paganism and idolatry. That was the status of the church. If you're not careful, you're going to be influenced, isn't it? Now, I want to move this forward if I can. I want you to remember the first church, right? Everybody always says, well, I can't ever remember all of the churches in the order. Well, you can, because it's easy to start out, just do ESP. Ephesians, Smyrna, Pergamos, ESP, and then you've got to have a T in the middle to tie them all together. That's tie a tie. So just remember ESP, it'll get you started, and you can have these. Remember the churches. But I give you Ephesus from 31 AD to around 150 AD is when this era, most theologians believed, the church took on this personality. Now, what I'd like to do, if you don't mind, because I'd like you to remember, is I would like to hand this to Lily. Do you mind? Would you mind holding this or just putting it in your chair right beside you? And Lily has now become missentous. Okay? We're going to have a... You can walk around, hold that. Yes. Now, why did I pick Lily? Well, I just picked Lily because she's closest. I didn't pick her because I think her attitude is what the attitude of Ephesus is. But you have to remember, there are so many symbols in the Bible. That's what Revelation is all about. That's what ties it together. For most people, they don't understand the symbolism. And the symbol God uses for a church is what? A woman. That's why I didn't give it to our men. We must realize that God pictures a symbol of a church as a woman, not a man. And so now, Lillian is not Ephesus, but she is a symbol of Ephesus. Okay? Now, when we look back at the letter, we'll go back to Revelation. Go back to Revelation 2. So let's look, as we've already read this, as we have Miss Ephesus here. And what's Miss Ephesus all about? Well, the bad thing you can say about her, if we are to grade it, just like your Miss America, because they have this grading scale of this and this and this, and they have the good and they have the bad. Well, God does the same things with the churches. He does the same thing with Ephesus. The bad is they've lost your first love. How about you? As we look at the first century church, what happened? Ephesus is symbolic. They lost their first love. First, they were on fire. You remember here, they had to be, because here people brought millions of dollars of bucks and burned them up. Joshua got the church started. But you can see they were beginning by eight years later when the book of Ephesus was written. Ephesians was written. What happened? Paul was trying to tell them, stay away from fornication. What was the temple of Diana all about? Saks! Fornication! The temple prostitutes, male and female, both. And they came and worshiped. When they did, they would ring a bell, just like you did in Corinth at those temples. Can you imagine having a service here where we're worshiping God, and all of a sudden we hear a bell? Boom! Boom! Boom! And we know what it is. Somebody just went and worshiped. I can use that word in the temple of Diana. You can see how powerful it was, this influence, this pagan and carnal influence on the church at Ephesus. And as time went on, they began to lose it. They lost their first love. But the good about Lillian and Ephesus is their patience.

They said they were patient. How about you? Does that describe you in your spiritual life? It cannot bear evil. You don't like looking at evil. You're going to turn it off if it's on TV. Tested. False apostles. Do you? Make sure? Do you read your Bibles? And say, yeah, that Pastor Smith, he said something I wasn't right today. That's part of your job!

Find the truth. Be like a Berean who studied the Scriptures daily. Why? To prove if it was so. What they were being told was so. That's what we need to do. Is that the state of the church? Can you imagine how strong the church would be if everyone did this?

We wouldn't have the divisions and splits we've had in the past because they said, no, it's not in the book! You're not preaching the truth! But his final words were, repent. Repent and do the first works. What are the first works? Being on fire. Having that first love, do you remember? Remember when you first fell in love with God's truth? You remember how you'd stay up late at night and read and you were just so excited?

You'd go to a Feast of Tabernacles, you'd just share this with people, you'd stay up till late at night discussing Scriptures daily. Till late at night discussing Scriptures. Yeah! Can't get enough. And now, the church of Ephesus. Second church discussed is actually in Revelation 2 and verse 9. It just has three verses here that describe the church.

Verse 9 says, I know your works, your tribulation and poverty, but you are rich. And I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison. Who's behind it?

The devil. You may be tested and you will have tribulation for ten days, or in other words, a short amount of time. But be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes shall not be hurt by the second death.

Interesting here, because his second church was about 25 miles north of Ephesus. It was the closest church to Ephesus, but about 25 miles north of Ephesus. And what's interesting is the Christians there lived with two hostile forces in that area. The Jews who opposed Christianity were all over the city of Smyrna. And they didn't want to see Christianity come in. So you can imagine, they put up a fuss. And then the Gentiles, loyal to Rome and its paganism and idolatry, also had a problem with the church.

So they were getting it on both sides. And I think it's interesting there, and I want to touch on. I don't know how much time I'll have. I don't know how far I'll get along today. I think it's interesting because if you study each of the churches and what's written to each of the churches, it says what? In each one. To him who what? Overcomes. To him who overcomes. Now most of us, when we think of overcoming, we're like, phew, barely made that.

Man, I just survived that trial. I overcame my temper and was able to control myself. Well, sometimes I really feel like this word was not translated right in the Greek. Because of what the original Greek word meant. The original Greek word for overcome was it meant to conquer. It meant to conquer.

It meant to get the victory. It meant not just barely doing it, it meant conquer. And when we think of that, we think of a decisive victory, don't we? This is what Jesus Christ is telling the churches. He's telling us that no matter what you have to do, conquer it. Don't just try to overcome it. Oh, well, you know, I have this weakness. Don't just try to just get by, but conquer it. That's what's powerful. That He's going to give us the power to conquer it. As long as we stay close to Him. The second church. The church of Smythe. The era, time sequence down through the ages, as most theologians talk about. They may vary from 20 to 30, 40 years even.

Time, but most of them see it the same way. It started in about 130 AD and went to 320 AD, the second church era. If I could have Fernanda, do you mind being Mrs. Smythe? Mrs. Smythe. Because she's a woman, pictures a church, symbolic. So, Fernanda is not Smythe. She's symbolic of Smythe. And what did it have to say about Smythe? You know, there were good and bad. Well, here, on most churches, there's good and there's bad, right? Well, guess what? Smythe, there's no bad! Listen, read it and read it again. There's nothing bad about them. The good endure tribulation.

So the church at that time, during that era of 130 to 320, they endured tribulation, poverty. He said, you are poor, but in God's eyes, He said, what? You're rich. You're rich because of spiritual wealth. That's what's most important to God. We saw a lot of people killed during that time. In fact, there was a 10-year period of time between 303 and 313 when Diocletian wiped out a lot of people.

There was also the time when Polycarp, any of you want to dig something up on Google sometime? Google Polycarp. He was actually the last person to spend time with John when John died. He was a disciple of John, spent time with him, and he was also known as the bishop. You will find him the bishop of our leader of Smyrna. He was burned at the stake in 155 A.D. He was a martyr for God. He went away in such strength, Fox's Book of Martyrs and various Lives of the Saints books I've read, actually said that when they took him, they came and got him.

He made the statement that all they asked was him to denounce Jesus Christ and give homage to the emperor. He said, well, no, in my 69 years, I think it was 68, 69 years, Christ has never let me down. Why would I let him down? Something paraphrases those words.

They took him and they turned him and they burned him. At the stake. And his strength and courage turned even to the guards that went and got him. And they later became members of the church. Those who put him to death. But it said they had good works. And it said, be faithful unto death. Don't fear. Be faithful. How does that describe us? Wouldn't it be great if this was one of the seven churches and God was describing the characteristics, the character, the personality of this church and He had nothing bad to say?

Wouldn't it be great if He had nothing bad to say about you? If that was your personality. What an example that church was. That's why the Scripture comes to mind. Endure to the end. Endure to the end. The third church. Mentioned here is the church of Pergamos. And five verses in Revelation 2. And starting in verse 13. He said, these things He who has a sharp edge, two-edged sword says, Jesus Christ, I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan's throne is.

And you hold fast to My name and deny My name. Even in the days 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, and look at that word, those. Okay, can you look at that? Those. So here He's describing the church, and He has those who hold strong, but then you have those. Didn't say most, but you have those. People in the congregation, who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things, sacrifice the animals, 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 hasn't here, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manatee, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.

Each of the promises to this church, each of the churches, have a chance to be in God's kingdom, have a chance to live with God in His kingdom. But they must overcome, just like us.

If we want to be in the kingdom, don't you think some things are going to be necessary for us, do we? Overcoming ourselves? Church of Pergamos. Church of Pergamos, around 320 AD, and went to about 490 AD. 320 AD to 490 AD. Look at the ages. Tanya, do you mind being Miss Pergamos today?

She is not Pergamos. She is a symbol of Pergamos. Just like a woman is a symbol of the church, I'm just bringing in for you to truly understand revelation. You must understand symbolism and not be afraid of it, but grasp it, study it, and let the Spirit guide you. What's interesting is that Pergamos, and it talks, we just read here, that they were good and they remained loyal. He said, hold on to those names, but he said, some of you are those of you who hold the doctrine of Balaam and the Kaleidot. It's interesting because Pergamos was the capital of the Roman province in Asia.

So they were like the Rome, but in Asia Minor. They were the capital of the Roman Empire in Asia Minor, not in Italy. And they were the first site of the cult worship of the Emperor. It's the very first place where you came in and had to worship the Emperor. Before they had all their pagan temples, you would just worship the gods. Now, at this time, we've come down to the 300s. What happens? The Emperor is now a god.

As a matter of fact, it even talked about Antipas. Antipas, according to historians around the 30-40 years from 60 AD to 90 AD. Antipas was actually a leader in the church who stood up and said, no, I will not worship.

I will not worship the Emperor to which he was taken out and killed. But he held strong. It is interesting because during this time, this 300-490 AD, you see the time of Constantine, the Council of Niacia, where Saturday was basically banished as a time of worship, and that Sunday was called the time of worship.

But it is interesting because it was a very prosperous city, and that parchment was actually invented there. And that's what they began to write on, where it used to be papyrus from Egypt. They had a battle and were fighting with Egypt, and they couldn't get ships in. There was nothing to write on, and this was a major city. So they invented themselves parchment. And it was so much so that in that city, before it was destroyed later on, there was a 200,000-book library. 200,000 books. It was quite a few books for a time back then. But the most interesting part of Pergamos was that it was a center of four cults, and there was a great pressure to compromise, because these four cults were in there, why he said it was Satan's throne, is they had a temple to Zeus, and there was a great worship of Zeus. And then there was Diocese, another God, and there was another temple to him. And then there was Ascalopoeus, and there was a temple to him, and he had followers there. And then there was the great God, Athene. Most people have not even heard of, but in the city it was the great God. It was the chief God whose symbol was a serpent, and it was the God of healing. So people came from miles around to this temple to worship Athene, so they could be healed. All this while the church of Pergamos was trying to exist. And what happened? It talks about Balaam. Do you remember the story of Balaam? Hopefully you do. Balaam? How Balaam was paid to curse God, the children of Israel way back. And he wouldn't do it because God told him he couldn't, even though he was paid to do it. But he wanted the money so bad. So finally he just said he couldn't do it. I can't curse them, but I can tell you how you can get God to curse them.

To which the king goes, great, tell me! And you know it worked. Let's turn back to Numbers 25. Numbers 25, three verses. Here are the children of Israel. The children of Israel were heading out there, and they came into an area in Acacia Grove.

Numbers 25 and verse 1. Then Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. This is what Balaam told him. I can't curse them, but I can tell you a way that you can entice them, and God will curse them. Okay? Sounds good. What do I need to do? Bring those good-looking women from Moab up, and have a big worship ceremony. And these men, they've been traveling with these Israelite women all this time, and you get some good-looking Moab women, and guess what? You can get them to do anything they want. Oh, that's great! So what did he do? He brought some of these women around to Acacia Grove. And in verse 2, it says, "...they invited the people to the sacrifice of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was joined to Baal a Beor, and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel." So this is what Balaam did. This was a doctrine of Balaam. They still worshiped God. Right? These were some of the leaders of Israel at the time. But they went over, and they started what? Talking to the women. Eating with the women. Having fornication with the women. And then they went right back, over, back with the tribe of Israel, and go, Okay, you see something wrong with that? God did. That's a doctrine of Balaam. The doctrine of Balaam is that you can have one foot here and one foot here. You can have one foot in the world, and you can have one foot in God's church. That's a lie. Can't happen. You've got to make a decision. So as you can see, it talked about those who hold the doctrine of Balaam in the church and the Nicolaitans the same way. As most theologians believe, historians that it came from the actual deacon, Nicholas, one of the seven deacons. And I'll go into that next week a little more if I have time. The only thing was, he brought the doctrine of Balaam to a different level, to a new level, where he actually taught. Because you can see, he was a proselyte, as it says there, which means he was not Jewish. He was Greek when he started out, and he became a Jew. In name. And so then he went from paganism to there, and then later on, he was a Jew, and he left and became a Christian. He became a leader in the church, as we found out from different historians.

Later on, he became such a leader in the church that he decided that you could bring a lot of the pagan stuff. You could still worship God, but still have some of the stuff from the outside world into the church. And he drug a lot of people with him. That if you were spiritual enough, no matter what you physically did, you would not be okay as long as you were spiritual enough. Deeds of the Nicolaitans all ties together. Because you see, this eating of the food offered to idols that was way back in Acacia Grove, it's part of their worship. That's why you even see it in Acts 15, what they wanted to tell the Gentiles not to do, is don't eat food offered to idols. Why? Because it's one step closer to worshiping the gods that the foods have been offered to.

So, it's Botanians. It says that the bad from the Pergamos is the people actually compromise. Compromise. They did in that church, they did through the time of the 320 to 490, to exist in a pagan society. It's okay if you just mingle just a little bit. It's okay if just a little bit comes into the church. You tolerate paganism in the church. You tolerate worldliness in the church. That's what that church did. It had a nature of its own, didn't it? As we have a nature of our own. Now, the good about it is you remain loyal, as I said. It held on to the name. But He also said, repent or else. So as we've looked at these churches, we've looked at three churches today. Which church are we closer to? Which attitude are you, as an individual in this church, closer to? Do you tolerate the world? Do you have to compromise? Does a church compromise? That's something we cannot do, brother. As long as I'm here, we're going to do everything we can not to compromise. We don't want to be Pergamos, do we? We are affected by this society in this city called Miami. I so remember the last time I walked on South Beach. Even before I moved here, when I was walking, we always heard South Beach. Oh, wow! Some of them are great, yeah! We were walking down the beach. You had topless women there. And then you had a whole group of guys, men, laying there with each other, kissing each other, holding hands on the beach in South Beach. Scores of them. I remember telling her, we're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. Because we didn't have that in Tennessee. But you see how a society can be affected? You see how a church can be affected by the place around it? So we have to make sure. It starts with us individually, and it starts with us as a church. We have to make sure. We look at these examples of these churches. Next week, we'll go into the final four churches. Which one are you? Have you examined yourself? We talk about examination before the spring holy days. Well, before the fall holy days get here, we need to see how much of the world. Because the fall holy days picture the return of Jesus Christ. And guess what? If we don't have our act together when Jesus Christ gets back, we will be conquered. We will be wiped out. We will be gone. It's not to scare you. That's just to say. Repent. Look at yourselves. I need to look at myself. We need to look at this church. Are we on fire? Or have we lost our first love? We like Smyrna. We don't have any millionaires in here, I know. They do let me know. But it won't change anything. We're not rich. Most of us just get by. That's Smyrna. We had great things to say about them. Because they were rich. Rich in here. Rich in here. And Pergamos. You've got to make sure we don't compromise with the world. Brethren, I'd like you to study. I'd like you to look at the final four churches. We need to see where we're at. We need to see where we're going. Because for us, there's only one place to go. And that is the Kingdom of God.