 So beginning at verse 12 reading to verse 17 Revelation chapter 2 and to the angel of the church in Pergamos, right, 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 Balaak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. And thus you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaotans, 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. Father we ask that as we look at your word that your word would speak to our hearts and that you Lord would be glorified and that your word would be rightly divided may it be applied as we receive and as we apply it in faith may you show up in Jesus name. Amen. And so let me give you an introduction and then we'll move into the message. Let me remind you of a few things. We've been going through the book of Revelation. We've entered into chapter two and in chapter two we've already had an opportunity to look at two churches that received letters from Jesus Christ. We've looked at the church of Ephesus as well as the church in Smyrna. Now as we began and I introduced our study I told you that each letter has three ways that it can be applied you have the primary meaning that the letter has direct bearing on churches that are being addressed. You have the personal because each church had people at that time who needed to hear what was being said that's what it means when it says he who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says and then you had the third application which we'll see at the conclusion of every one of our studies of each one of these churches and that is the prophetic because it represents seven stages of the life of the church throughout its history. So I mentioned to you that Ephesus represented what is called the apostolic age from Pentecost to AD 160. It was busy in its infancy. It was active. It had the appearance of spirituality and Jesus began by giving five commendations but then he gave them a strong warning. He said you've left your first love and if you don't repent and return I will remove my presence. We looked at Smyrna. Smyrna represents the church under persecution from AD 64 to AD 312. That would overlap what is called the apostolic age but persecution had already begun while John was alive. So this covers from Nero the Caesar to Diocletian. Now they received Jesus's commendation for the works their tribulation as well as their poverty. Jesus had said that they endured these things but he also said though you are called poor you are really rich. That was to prepare them for persecution and so he gave them encouragement and told them that they would receive the crown of life. When we look at verses 12 through 17 this brings us to Pergamos called the compromising church. So Pergamos would represent the church from 313 to around 600 AD. When you look at a map you see that Pergamos was 60 miles north of Smyrna. It was 20 miles inland from the Aegean. It's situated in an area that in ancient times was called Missia located on a hill that was a thousand feet high and it was in a broad fertile plain. Now when you look at Ephesus and Smyrna both of those cities were famous for their commerce. But Pergamos was famous for its religion and education. So the combination of its idolatry and educational system had produced educated pagans. It's interesting how Jesus speaks of it as being where Satan's throne is. You see Pergamos was the first city in Asia to build a temple to Caesar. It became the center of Caesar worship in the region and there were various cults in the city of Pergamos. The cult of Athena was in Pergamos as well as the cult of Asclepius. Now Athena was a goddess who presided over the security and defense of towns and cities. She was also a goddess of the crafts such as pottery, sculptor, weaving as well as the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law, justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength and strategy. Asclepius was associated with medicine and healing. In honor of Asclepius a particular type of non-venomous snake was often used in healing rituals and these snakes crawled around freely on the ground in dormitories where the sick and the injured slept. There was a tunnel where priests whispered to the ill who were placed above them. What happened? The priests were placed above the ill. I've been in that tunnel. I've been in this particular city, the ruins of it. And what would happen is you would be led through a tunnel and we went through this tunnel and it would go into a particular area and as you were going through the tunnel there were holes that were cut out above you. You didn't notice them but there were holes there and the priests of Asclepius would actually be over the hole when you walked underneath and they would whisper to you when you went through. And so some friends of mine and I, we had gone with Pastor Chuck to the seven churches and we were walking and as we were walking I heard someone saying, David, you're going to be okay. And I looked up, it was Raul Rees, a pagan priest, Raul Rees. Hey, that man makes me laugh, I'm going to take it aside, just an aside. But I think of him because he's so silly. He called me up and he tried to imitate Pastor Chuck Smith. He tried to make his voice sound like Chuck and it's funny because he's got that thick accent and so, and he calls me, he doesn't call me David. He calls me David, David. And so I get, the secretary says, Pastor Chuck's on the line, this is obviously a few years ago, Pastor Chuck's on the line, I pick up the phone and then I say, hello, and I hear, hello, David, like that. Hello, David, this is Pastor Chuck. That's how I'll stop it, Raul, stop it. I don't know why I'm telling you that but we've been in that tunnel and they would walk through the tunnel and the priests would be whispering to them and so I've been in that tunnel before and that's what they would do and they would go into this particular area and all. Well, Asclepius, Asclepius remains a symbol associated with medicine. All of you are familiar with Asclepius, some of you are familiar with him by knowledge others are just because you'll know what I'm saying once I finish saying this. The symbol of Asclepius is a snake entwined on a staff and that's what is remaining the symbol of medicine to this day here in the United States. Think about it, you've seen that yourself. That is the symbol of Asclepius. They also worshiped Zeus. You see Zeus for the Greeks was the king of the gods. He's the one who oversaw the universe. Zeus's altar was the largest in the world. One of the seven wonders of the world and it was there. You also have Dionysus. Again, you know who Dionysus is. Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semile, a human woman. He was the god of fertility and wine and spread the art of tending grapes. He had a dual nature. He was able to bring joy as well as rage, a symbol of wine. Dionysus wandered the world actively encouraging his cult. He was accompanied by the Maynads, wild women, flush with wine, shoulders draped with a fond skin, carrying rods tipped with pine cones. While the other gods had temples, the followers of Dionysus worshiped him in the woods. We still have that. He's also Bacchus. And that is a symbol that you see every year in Mardi Gras. That is the worship of Bacchus. Continues to this day. It was an educational center. It had the second largest library next to Alexandria. The library had 200,000 volumes. Mark Anthony sent the library to Egypt as a gift to Cleopatra. The church's origin is unknown. Paul may have founded it on his first missionary journey, because Luke may have referred to it in the Book of Acts when he spoke in Acts 16, verse 7, and it was speaking of a missionary team coming to Missia, which is where this church would have been located. Missia was in Asia Minor, the shore of the Jain. The church was in the middle of Hal and under incredible pressure to compromise. Religion, science, intellectual pressure, and debauchery all existed unchecked. And under this pressure, evil influences had made an inroad into the church. You see, under such pressure to compromise, Jesus had a letter for this church. And he begins it here in verse 12 by simply saying, to the angel, to the pastor of the church in Pergamus, write, these things says he who has a sharp two-edged sword. So notice how he begins. He's beginning by referring to his own description that you saw in chapter one, verse 16. And it says, out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. This sword cuts both ways, is the picture. It speaks of Messiah, this sword, this two-edged sword. It speaks of Messiah, the word made flesh in Isaiah 49, 2, where it says he made and he has made my mouth like a sharp sword. This is the Messiah speaking in the shadow of his hand. He has hidden me and made me a polished shaft in his quiver. He has hidden me. So this speaks of Messiah, but the sword also refers to his word. When you read the word of God, Ephesians 6, 17 speaks of the sword of the Spirit, which is a word of God in Hebrews 4, verse 12. It says the word of God is living in powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So the picture is God's word piercing the heart of the unbeliever as well as the disobedient. God's word is intended to bring them to God, that they might be forgiven of their sins and it awakens us to do what is right and what is wrong when it is shared with us. You see, before God tells you what is right or wrong, you basically are what the Scripture calls spiritually blind. You don't understand. We did not understand what truth is. We didn't know what is right. We didn't know what is wrong. We did that which was right in our own sight. Paul in Romans 7, verses 7 through 9 said, well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is evil? Of course not. The law is not sinful, but it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, do not covet. But sin took advantage of this law and aroused all kinds of forbidden desires within me. If there were no law, sin would not have that power. I felt fine when I did not understand what the law demanded. When I learned the truth, I realized I had broken the law and was a sinner doomed to die. So God's word exposes sin, but God's word also gives us its remedy. The word that exposes me also heals me. You see, salvation is revealed in the gospel as coming through faith in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 1, 18, it says the message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction. But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. So the same word that cuts also heals. The scalpel surgeon removes what is bad and provides healing once it's removed. The word of God is that way. You see, it's God's word that distinguishes what is true and what is false. And his word reveals the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. And in the day of judgment, his word lays bare every heart and reveals its content. In John 12, 48, he who rejects me and receives not my words as one that judges him. The word that I have spoken the same shall judge him in the last day. The more I know, the more I'm responsible for. I hear the word of God, it teaches me certain things. I either resist or accept and that is the standard that God uses in judgment. And so Jesus is speaking and refers to himself in verse 12 as he who has a sharp two-edged sword. And then he says in verse 13, 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. I'm well aware that you're in the center of satanic opposition. Ancient religious tradition and education combined to harden people to the gospel. You know, there are those today and I'll make this applicable to us even the moment we're living. There are those today who say that we who are Christian and believe the Bible that were anti-science. I hear that all the time. It's been for the last several months, that's all I hear. Well, the Christians are anti-science and Christians are afraid of advanced education. So they're just, you know, like it was said, you know, we cling to our God and our guns. There's this attitude that we are just intellectual bumpkins. We don't have an understanding of the world, how sophisticated it is and how deep knowledge truly is. Well, we're not afraid of advanced education because we profit from it just like anybody else does. We're not anti-science and we're not anti-education. But we need to know our beliefs well enough to discern when they're being undermined. C.S. Lewis said education without values as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil. And that's true. There's a ministry called campus renewal. It's a college campus ministry. And it reported studies have shown that somewhere between 60% and 80% of previously engaged Christian youth become disengaged with their faith as they transition into college. This drop-off has been credited to high school seniors leaving home for college, unprepared for campus life and vulnerable to its secular influences. And that's absolutely, absolutely true. Children leave the covering of their home. They go into a dorm. They live there for four years. Not always are the kids who are there rooming with them. Not always are they believers. Most of the time they're not. And when a kid shows up in the dorm for the first time and begins to be around the atmosphere of secularism within a very short time, many of those kids, according to their research, 60 to 80% of them turn away from their faith because they have, and some of you know this by experience. I know it from experience. Some of you know that there are professors that they will sit under that are evangelists. Not Christian evangelists, but secular evangelists. And I was in classes in secular college more than once. Cal Poly as well as Cal State Fullerton. When the professors intent and they were open about it was to undermine your faith. They were open about it. They weren't hiding it. They said it. And I still remember one professor who in the very first day of class, it was marriage in the family or a marriage class. And the professor asked the question of us, how many of you in this room, he said, are evangelical Christians? And there were two or three of us that raised our hands. First day, first lecture, his introduction. I'm sitting there at Cal Poly. I raised my hand and he says, I feel sorry for you because you believe truth is found in that little black book. That was our introduction. I've had other professors like that who wanted to undermine. Why? That's up to them to decide, but they did. They tried to undermine. And if you aren't prepared, if you don't go in prepared for a battle, then you're gonna be undermined. And a lot of Christians, 60 to 80% by one study, they'll go in, they're unprepared, and they get ripped because my professor, this one who said, I feel sorry for you. That professor said to me, said to us in class, he said, you know, there are those who say that there is a correlation between smoking cigarettes and lung cancer. He says, on my desk, I have a pile of studies that prove there is no correlation. That's the first thing he says. One of the first things he said in our class, he died of lung cancer. So these are people, he told us, I feel sorry for you who believe in Jesus Christ. And this was a man who had three marriages. He couldn't stay with one woman. And these are the people that are influencing, not all of them, but these are the kinds of people I've been influenced by or who have attempted to undermine my faith. And so that's what takes place. You have to be ready for the battle. You have to be going in, if you're in college now or taking classes, you have to be ready for the battle because it's on. And what was taking place here in Pergamos was a combination of intellectualism and pagan religion. And it was opposing those things that were taught in the word of God. Well, in spite of all of this, they maintained the faith. They remained faithful. In spite of the pressure to conform, he said, you have not completely denied my name or my faith. In verse 13, he says, you hold fast to my name. When he says you hold fast to my name, that speaks of you're holding fast to a personal loyalty to me. You have openly, you've strongly confessed me before men, even under this pressure, even under the pressure to compromise, you have held fast. In Matthew 10, 32 and 33, Jesus said, whoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also, before my father who's in heaven. But whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my father who's in heaven. When I was in class in secular classes, I held fast to the name of Christ. No, I was no PhD, THD. No, I didn't have a master's, even a bachelor's. But I knew what truth was. One of my friends, I was sharing with him, I had a particular literature professor who had earned two PhDs and a master's degree. And I was telling a friend of mine, I said, you know, I'm sitting under the teachings of a literature professor who just really, she was a very brilliant woman. I said, and really intimidates me, really intimidates me with her brilliance. And he said this to me as a Christian friend of mine. He said to me, he says, I guarantee you, she hasn't read the word of God. I said, she's a literature professor. He says, I guarantee she hasn't read the Bible. Guarantee. He said, ask her. And so I walked up to her after class and I said, you know, in the book of Job, it says, and I quoted something to her and she looks at me. She says, you know, I've never read the Bible. I said, really, gotcha. And so we had a conversation because it was true. You know, this is a woman who reads all kinds of books but hasn't read the greatest book. So you speak to him like that. You know, have you ever heard this? Do you ever hear of that? I had a homosexual professor in marriage and the family at Cal Poly Pomona. And I wrote a letter, I wrote a paper on the place of the man in the Christian home from a biblical perspective. And I wrote and I said, a man is the priest of the home. And I shared the things that men are supposed to do in the home. This was in the 70s. And the professor graded my paper. I got an A, he, I brag about that. But I got an A, but he wrote, I have never heard this before. I have never. This is a PhD teaching marriage and family and never had heard that. So I waited after class and walked with him to his car and shared the gospel, what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. You have to put your gear on when you go to school. You have to put your helmet on for salvation. And you need to wear that armor, the breastplate and the sword. You need to be ready. And then you go into battle because it is a battle. And the church of Pergmus is under attack. It's being infiltrated. But he says you're holding fast. You've held fast to the truth. You haven't denied it. You're prepared for what you're enduring. It's like what Jesus said in Luke 21, 17, you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. Listen Christian, if you live for Jesus Christ, that's a promise. You can't go in trying to make everybody happy. I realize that what we want to do today is be friends with everybody. I realize that people are gonna vote in their elections. They vote for the likable candidate. It's not a high school election. It's not a high school election. What it is, is the principles, it's the things that being said, the things that you agree with, the things that you see in scripture. That's how you vote. It's not whether I like this guy or not. And the fact is, we need to expect to be hated, not because I say, oh boy, Jesus please, make people hate me today. No, they'll do it anyway. But it says, you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. For standing up for truth, for sharing what is true. In Hebrews 10, 23, let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. We don't wanna compromise. We don't wanna give the enemy any territory. So we realize we're in a battle. He said, you didn't deny my faith, even in the days which Antibus was my faith a martyr. Now, Antibus may have been the pastor of a church or a church there, but he's unknown. What is important is though he's unknown to us, he was well known to Jesus. He mentions him by name. No books were written concerning him. No great exploits were recorded about him. He simply referred to by Jesus as my faithful witness. The word witness there or faithful martyr is the same word as witness, marturus. He was my faithful martyr, my faithful witness. Though unknown to us, he's known to Christ. You read your Bible and we all are familiar with some of the names of the apostles, Peter and John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Matthew, Judas. They're familiar names, but there are some that are relatively unknown to us. Thaddeus, Bartholomew, Simon Zalotus, James of Alphaeus. We don't know much about these people. There are those who get limelight and there are those who are hidden in the shadow. But it doesn't matter if people know who you are, if Jesus does. If Jesus knows your name, that's all that matters. And to hear the well done from him is what should motivate every believer. You see, in the case of Anabas, he was martyred for his faith in Jesus. He's still unknown to us, but he was known by the Lord. And in John 10, 14, I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep. My sheep know me. So under the most intense persecution, he's saying you have remained faithful to me. So he's given them some commendation, but now verse 14, he gives condemnation. I have a few things against you. Now persecution normally strengthens the church. So how is Satan going to undermine it? If he comes against the church, it has a way of strengthening it. How can he undermine a church? Well, he does so through bad doctrine and through its fruit, undisciplined living. Notice he says you have there those who hold the doctrines, the teachings of Balaam. Now this man Balaam is mentioned three times in the New Testament. He's associated with bad doctrine, error with greed. In second Peter 2.15, Peter speaks of those who have forsaken the right way are gone astray. And he says, following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor who loved the wages of unrighteousness. He was greedy. In Jude 11, it says, woe to them, for they've gone in the way of Cain and have run greedily in the error of Balaam for profit, perished in the rebellion of Korah. The Old Testament records that Balaak, there was a king named Balaak, he was the king of the Moabites. And he had hired him to curse the children of Israel. God intended to bless the nation. Balaam was unable to curse them. Every time he went to curse them, instead of cursing them, he had to pronounce a blessing and he did that four times. And that infuriated this king named Balaak. But then Balaam gave him a way to bring calamity upon the nation. And he did it by advising Balaak to entice Israel to sin against God. If they could do so, Israel would be judged by God for their sin. So what did he do to have him do that? What did he do? Well, he advised Balaak to use Moabite women to seduce Jewish men. See, in both the Old and New Testaments, God strictly forbids marrying unbelievers. In Deuteronomy chapter seven, verse three, nor shall you make marriages with them, you shall not give your daughter to their son nor take their daughter for your son. Balaak introduced the Moabite women to the Jewish men and the men were taken by them and married them. And in doing so, he introduced idolatry through the inner marriage. He introduced idolatry through marrying unbelievers. In the book of Numbers 25, one through three, it says, Israel remained in acacia grove and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor and the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel. What was the doctrine of Baalom? What was taking place in Pergamos? Seduction, seduction to disobedience and compromise. Believers were marrying unbelievers and God's word was no longer guiding the church. Compromise infected the church. God's word was no longer being honored. In Deuteronomy 1228, it says, observe and obey all these words which I command you that it may go well with you and your children after you forever when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God. And Jesus said it in a very simple way in John 14, 15. If you love me, keep my commandments. Well, somebody says, yeah, well, I know, but man, there's their heart. I mean, these are attractive, these pagans. If they weren't attractive, they wouldn't be temptations. You see, if you are attracted to someone who doesn't know Jesus, it's a good way for your own walk with Christ to be revealed. Why would God forbid believers from being with unbelievers? I had people say that to me. They've said to me, well, I date them because I'm really a missionary, a missionary dating. I'll lead them to faith in Christ. I've heard that more than once. I'll lead them to faith in Christ. That's why I date them. You know, if I stood on the edge of this platform, it would be easier for you to pull me off than for me to pull you on to this platform. Compromise begins in those kinds of ways. God forbids us from being with unbelievers because the result is turning from him. In 1 Kings chapter 11, we read of King Solomon. All of us know King Solomon as the wisest man on the face of the earth. I was reading to my children when they were small. My daughter Anna probably was around four years old at the time. And we would have family devotions every night of the week that we weren't in church. And we had gotten to the portion of scripture where God says to Solomon, he says, ask for me, ask for me anything you desire as high as the heavens are. It can be the hardest request you've ever made. Ask and I'll give it to you. So I turned to my children and I asked the oldest, I asked her in, I said, baby, don't, what would you ask for if God said anything? She says, whatever, you know, to love him or something. You know, she gave a spiritual answer. And then my David gave a little spiritual answer. Then my Joseph gave a little spiritual answer. Then I look at my four year old, my Anna, and I said, baby girl, if you could have anything from God, anything in this whole universe, what would you ask for without a skipping a beat? She goes, gum. She loved gum, but the Lord spoke to my heart through that a long time ago and that's you son, that's you. You want something like that. You never ask high enough. You never want what is really there for you. You always have a desire for less. So you might have it for your own pleasure. You know, Solomon said, I want wisdom. This is a mighty people that I might be able to rule them righteously. I want wisdom. And God said, you didn't ask for your enemies and you didn't ask for riches. I'll give you that plus wisdom. And that's what he gained. Well, in first Kings chapter 11, as Solomon had grown older, it says in verses one through four, Solomon loved many foreign women as well as the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites, Uptites, out of Sites and cellulites from the nations of the... Anyway, that always makes me laugh. And Hittites, from the nations of whom the Lord has said to the children of Israel, you shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. He had 700 wives. Yeah, I'll let that set for a while. Princesses and 300 concubines and his wives turned away his heart. For it was so when Solomon was old that his wives turned his heart after other gods. His heart was not loyal to the Lord his God as was the heart of his father, David, the wisest man on the face of the earth and his heart was turned away from God for his intermarriages, the influence. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6, 14 and 15, do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? What fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial, Belial Satan? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? So he says in verse 15, you also have those who hold the doctrine of the Nicolaotans, which is the thing I hate. Now remember the Nicolaotans, we already looked at them, I'll just touch this for a moment, remind you. In verse 6, Jesus spoke of the deeds of the Nicolaotans, but now he speaks of the doctrine. I mentioned to you that the church historian, Irenaeus spoke of Nicholas as the founder of the Nicolaotans. When you read the book of Acts in chapter 6, you see that he was one of the first deacons, but it's believed that he became an apostate. He walked away. And that he led people into immorality and self-indulgence. He introduced sexual sin as permissible and in doing so perverted the doctrine of grace. There are believers today who are subscribing to the doctrine of the Nicolaotans that sexual sin is permissible. What do I mean by that? Not just that they go out and sleep around, but some of them are living together and they're not married. And that is sexual immorality, strictly forbidden by scripture and yet being practiced by members of the church, those who believe themselves to be Christians. They're following that doctrine even to this day. You see the doctrine of the Nicolaotans replaced liberty in Jesus with license. There's a difference. Liberty gives me freedom to obey God, license gives me the chance to express whatever fleshly thing I desire and say, I'm still saved because I live by the grace of God. In fact, what I'm doing is I'm sinning against the light and I'm rejecting what God would have for me to do. So they were introducing sexual immorality into the church, but the doctrine of the Nicolaotans would include also the priesthood over the believer. Now looking at the prophetic, as I mentioned to you, the three different ways to be looking at this, the prophetic being the third, that would represent the error in the church of the priesthood over the believer. Shortly after the death of Diocletian, Constantine became emperor. Contending for the throne against Maxentius, Constantine prayed for victory. Tradition holds that he saw a vision in the sky in the shape of a cross. Bearing the inscription by this sign conquer. After the battle, he declared himself Christian. Ultimately, the Catholic church became the religion of Rome. And so when there became a state religion, over time, certain traditions seeped in. Now this is again the prophetic application of this. Began seeping in to the church. Remember that Jesus in verse 12 is the one who has a sharp two-edged sword. Remember that the sword represents Messiah and his word. And also when you read in verse 16, repent or else I will come to you quickly and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He's gonna expose their error because of the bad doctrine that they have allowed to seep in over time. So when you look at the history of the church and you look at the error that this would be representing from the fourth century on, what you see is error creeping in. Now, for those who are online right now, I'm possibly gonna offend some of you. And for those of you in this room, I may very well offend some of you too. But remember, you stood up and you said you love me. Don't be liars. But I wanna share some things with you that are practically true. Practical in the sense of being practical true. What kind of errors has crept in to the church in the priesthood over the believer doctrine? When Constantine professed to be a Christian and the Roman church began to be the center of Christianity, that's the origin of Roman Catholicism. That's the origin. Now, I was raised in the Catholic church. I received sacraments of baptism, communion, confirmation and knew enough of my doctrine to be able to speak of it with experience. And so just for you to know, I'm not bashing that way hopefully, hopefully you'll understand my hardiness. I'm trying to teach you what to be aware of and what has happened. Because Catholic error did creep into the church. Many of the things I was taught in Catechism and believed until I was 20 actually did not find their origin in Scripture. There were traditions. Praying for the dead was something that was recognized and that's what the church quote unquote was doing, but that didn't start until the fourth century. Worship of saints and angels. That didn't begin until AD 394, the Roman Catholic mass. And I don't know how many of you may remember, but it's not the mass. I mean, a lot of us who were raised in the Catholic church, we know actually what it was called. It's the sacrifice of the mass. It's not the mass. We simply just shortened it to going to mass. It's the sacrifice of the mass. Why is it called the sacrifice? Because during the communion service, the Eucharist service, there is a belief that the host, the wafer, becomes the actual body of Christ. And the chalice holding the wine is the actual blood of Christ. So I share with you a little bit about that in just a moment. And as a re-crucifixion of Christ, if you will, every mass, it's called the sacrifice for that reason. The Roman Catholic mass, AD 431. Worship of Mary. That hasn't always been in the church. That came in AD 500. The doctrine of purgatory, where you go to a waiting place where your residual effects of temple sin is purged from you, that found its way into the church in AD 600. We have purgatory here, but we call it junior high ministry. The canonization of dead saints was by John the 15th in AD 995. The sale of indulgences where you get out of purgatory by giving a gift, AD 1190. The doctrine of transubstantiation didn't find its way into the church until AD 1215. Transubstantiation is the belief that the bread, called the host, and the juice becomes the actual body and blood of Christ. We understand what scripture says when Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me, that is a memorial service celebrating what Christ did. But I was raised in the Catholic church and I was taught that that wafer became the actual presence of God, the actual body of Christ, and that the juice, the wine, became the actual blood of Christ. Now, I wanted to make sure that I wouldn't teach in error. That's what I was taught, but I wanted to make sure. So I called a priest and I spoke to him and I said, may I ask you a question? Because I'm willing to discuss these things. And I asked him, I said, may I ask you a question? Of course, he said. I said, is it true that the doctrine of transubstantiation actually came out of Greek philosophy? Because I had read, I believe it was Aristotle, had a theory of transubstantiation where he said a dog has the nature of dog and that means he has dog-ness and a cat has the nature of a cat, which is cat-ness. And that transubstantiation is that the dog could have the cat's nature, so it would be a dog with cat-ness. Now, the priest knew exactly what I was speaking about because that's ancient Greek philosophy. So I said, is it true that this was taken from Greek thinkers and dog-ness and cat-ness went through and he said, yes, that's true. I said, and so in transubstantiation, you believe that bread becomes the actual body of Christ and that wine becomes the actual blood of Christ, yes. So it isn't symbolic or memorial, what it is is actual, yes. And I said, and that is the doctrine of transubstantiation and he said, yes. Sadly, that's not what the Bible teaches, but that's what we were taught, that's what I was taught, that the bread and the juice becomes that. There were people who were persecuted, sometimes beaten terribly for what they called host desecrations. If they took that host and they didn't treat it properly, they were beaten up. And I remember we're martyred because that's how strongly they believed this, but it's not in scripture. Only the priest could read the Bible, AD 1229. When I went through, at Catechism, they said, you can't read and understand it. The priest has to interpret it for you, which takes the place of the Holy Spirit, who is the teacher. Catholic tradition was granted equal authority with the Bible in AD 1545. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, Jesus' mother Mary being without sin, original sin, that became doctrine in AD 1854, even though she said, God has been merciful and he is her savior. The infallibility of the Pope was declared in 1870 and the assumption of the Virgin Mary body and soul into heaven, that became doctrine in AD 1950. So this is all crept into the church and this is a picture of you getting away from my word. So there is no priesthood over the believer in 1 Peter 2.5, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And so we are that, I don't need an intermediary, I have Jesus Christ, who is? And Jesus warns in verse 16, he says, repent or else I'll come to you quickly and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says of the churches, let him who overcomes. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna to eat and I'll give him a white stone and of the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it. And so Jesus says, repent or I'll fight against you, stop compromising, doctrine is important, whole fast to truth, error is not to be tolerated nor is it to be compromised with. So to him who overcomes, he says, I'll give I will give spiritual nourishment through fellowship with the true bread from heaven. I will give the white stone in the court of law, white stone represented not guilty. It was also a symbol of blessings and prosperity. John MacArthur said, a white stone inscribed with the athlete's name served as his ticket to a special awards banquet. In this view, Christ promises the overcomers entrance to the eternal victory celebration in heaven. And then he says, and I will give you a new name. We don't know what this name is until we receive it but it serves as our entrance to heaven and the glory that will come. The new name will be a special indication of fellowship that is personal and deep. And the new name will speak of God's love for us in a personal and unique way. I'll close with the thought. I have a lot of friends who have nicknames. My dad had a nickname. My dad, all his friends called him Pancho. I had uncles with nicknames, almost all of them, my uncle Guero, you know. His name was Guero and that was his nickname because he had blue eyes and light skin, uncle Guero. My father-in-law, Marie's daddy called them, they called them Indio. Everybody, lots of people have nicknames. I grew up with nicknames. My uncle gave me a nickname, I won't tell you what it was. We all had nicknames, it's just the way it is. All of my children have nicknames, every one of them. I call them by their name. It's their name that they are known by their father. I gave them nicknames. All my grandchildren have nicknames. Every one of them has a name that I call them, that's special, that's special between us. It's the bond between a father or a grandfather. It's a name that speaks of us. I don't know what you may be called by your friends. I don't want to know. I don't know what you may be called by your friends or your family, but God has a name for you. That's cool. God's cholo, no, God, that's, Jesus is chewy. No, that, see I told you I have a dumb sense of humor. It comes out, I'm sorry. But God, that was a good one. They call you giggles, hey, giggles. God has a name for you. It's going to be precious. It's going to be cool when he calls you by that name. It's going to be cool. He has a new name for you. One of these days when you stand before me, it's going to speak of his love for you, his relationship with you, and it's going to be special to you. The new name speaks of a personal love in a personal way. That's how much he knows you. That's how much he loves you. Closing, they did not listen. And the church no longer exists in Perchemist. We need to hear what the spirit says to the church.