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The 7 churches of the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ to St. John. Today we are doing Pergamos. We are going to start with a recap of Chapter 2 verses 8 to 11 which is the church of Smyrna.
John 2:8-11
Verse 8: Write to the many membered spiritual man in the church of Smyrna. The original source and ultimate end of mankind, the one who died when He gave His life to the earth, and the one whom God the Father raised from the dead, says the following things to you.
Verse 9: I know how hard you work to exist in this realm of death, and the pressure and affliction you endure because you are reaping what you have sown, and your lack of spiritual life, but you are still rich because of your inheritance in Christ. I know the evil speaking of those which say they are servants of God and are not, but who in their hearts are a part of this world system. Do not be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Be aware I will permit your carnal mind to throw you into prison so that your spirit can be tested as to how mature it is, and you shall suffer anguish and be subjected to a process which will strip your souls of the things which do not glorify God. In the day that Christ is revealed in your flesh, simultaneously with the law of sin and death, join with God in your mind, while your soul dies, by acknowledging His law, and I will raise your soul from the dead by intertwining myself with it.
Verse 11: Those who have the ability to hear with spiritual ears, listen to what the Spirit of God is saying unto the called out ones. The spiritual man that overcomes his own soul shall keep his soul and body alive when death or existence on the soul realm is destroyed.
Now as I mentioned on just about each tape in this series, I have not done all 7 churches, and then backtracked to do 1, 2, 3 for you. So we are going to have to make corrections in what we are teaching as we go along. It appears to me that I was a little off on Smyrna. Let me see the scripture in verse 9. I did believe that the Lord was saying this. I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan. I thought that was what God had against Smyrna, but if you recall there was no judgment for not heeding what God had against Smyrna. God said I have something against you. Then He says repent, and if you do not repent, there is a judgment that comes upon you.
But unto the church of Smyrna, God did not say I have anything against you. I drew the conclusion that this comment about the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not was against Smyrna. At this point in our study, I have changed my mind. I believe that what God was saying is that there is a group of believers. Now this is not a denomination. They are not Baptists. They are not Methodists. It is a spiritual category, a group of believers. God calls them believers because He is speaking to the spiritual man in this church. So there are people in the world that, at the very least, have the root of Christ. Now after we do all six churches, we are going to draw final conclusions.
So there is a group of people in the world that, at the very least, have the root of Christ. At the very most, at this point I am not even going to guess, because I was off last week. He has not really given them anything spiritual. He says they are poverty stricken. They do not have the word, and they do not have the Spirit, and somewhere there are people that blaspheme and say they are Jews and are not. This week we are going to do Pergamos. It appears that the church at Pergamos are the ones who are living in Satan's seat. What I believe at this moment is that there are a group of believers that love God, but they are not moving in the Spirit, and have no knowledge. There are other believers that are condemning them.
Jesus said to Smyrna, I know the blasphemy of those that say they are Jews and they are not. What He was saying was you cannot have more because I did not give you more. You cannot have the Spirit because I did not give it to you. You cannot have the word because I did not give it to you, and I know that there are a group of people out there calling themselves believers, that have the nerve to say that you are not saved. That is the reason why there was no judgment for disobedience in Smyrna because God did not require anything of them. He did not give them anything, and He did not require anything of them. What is really interesting is He said they are going to be saved.
He promises them that they are going to go through the tribulation and that they are not going to be hurt of the second death. That means when death dies, they are still going to live. The only way that could happen is that Christ is going to appear in them. So there is a group of people that are not going to go through all of the stages, line upon line, precept upon precept. They may never get the baptism with the Holy Spirit. They may never move in powerful outpourings of the Spirit of God, but Christ is going to appear in them also. This is where I am now. We are going to keep on plodding through this and when we get through the seventh church, we are going to draw final conclusions. Did I make myself clear? Is everybody okay? Praise the Lord.
We are starting with the church of Pergamos and will start with verse 12. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos, write these things sayeth He, which hath the sharp sword with two edges. I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. Thou holdest fast my name and has not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate. Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches. To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Glory to God. Alleluia.
Pergamos is Strong's # 4010 and it is from a root # 4444 that means a tower or castle. We are talking about a defensed city. The question is whom are they defensed against? The promise of God is that we shall be a defensed city with Christ inside and Satan outside, but apparently from what we just heard about Pergamos, they are defending Satan and refusing to let Christ in. Unger's Bible Dictionary tells us about Pergamos, sometimes called Pergamum, a city of Mysia in Asia Minor, about three miles north of the river Bakyrtchai, the ancient Caicus and about twenty miles from the sea, so it is not a seaport. It had a vast library of 200,000 volumes, which was removed by Anthony and sent to Cleopatra.
They were intelligent, intellectual people. In this town was first discovered the art of making parchment, which was called pervaneeda or parchment. In case you do not know, parchment was what they wrote on in those days. So they are talking about a city that is highly educated for the time in which they existed. They had books, writings, and intellect. The city was greatly addicted to idolatry. That sounds familiar. Wherever you find intellectuals, it is just loaded with idolatry. I see it today.
Its grove, which was one of the wonders of the place, was filled with statues and altars. Antipas met martyrdom here, and here was one of the seven churches of Asia. The sumptuousness of the idyllic princess had raised Pergamos to the rank of the first city in Asia as regard splendor, where the assorted union of a pagan cathedral city, a university town, and a royal residence embellished during a succession of years by kings who all had a passion for expenditure and ample means of gratifying it. They had a lot of money.
That is what that means, and a lot of possessions, things that could be bought by money. Under the idyllic kings, Pergamos became a city of temples devoted to a sensuous worship, and being in its origin, according to pagan notion, a sacred place. It was a pagan sacred city. It might not unnaturally be viewed by Jews and Jewish Christians as where the throne of Satan was. We know that things manifest spiritually and they manifest naturally. This sounds just like New York to me.
Verse 12: And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges. There are two words translated sword in the Greek. The first one and the one used here and associated with the Lord Jesus Christ consistently is Strong's # 4501 and it is a Sabre, a long broad cutlass, a long threshing javelin. Also a kind of long sword worn on the right shoulder. It is a weapon of war. It is never used in cooking. It is never used in slaughter. It is a weapon of war. The second word, sword, is a knife, and it is used in slaughtering and butchering animals, and not necessarily in cooking. The sword that is associated with Jesus Christ is never used in that way. It is a weapon of war. Webster tells us that sword means a weapon with a long blade, often used as a symbol of honor and authority, an instrument of destruction or combat, the use of force as in war.
You may recall that I just said with regard to the Greek word translated sword, Sabre, the kind that Jesus wears. Another translation is a broad cutlass. Webster tells us that cutlass is a plowshare. That is so interesting. It is part of the plow that cuts the furrow. We all know that Jesus Christ is the blade that is cutting into our soul. He is plowing our soul. When He plows us, all the rocks and the weeds, which are the demons and the curses, come out. The reason that He is plowing us is that He wants Christ to appear in the earth of our soul. The sword that Jesus carries is a plowshare. I found that very interesting. Glory to God.
The smaller sword is Strong's # 3162 and it means small sword as distinguished from large sword, and curved for a cutting stroke, used to cut up flesh and distinct from a straight sword which is used for thrusting. It is also called a knife. The equivalent Hebrew word is used to describe the sword which David used to cut off Goliath's head. Jesus' sword is never used for that kind of purpose. It is strictly a warfare sword in battle in the field. Glory to God.
We have the word two edged. The fact that the sword is two edged refers to judgment. In Judges Chapter 3 in verse 16 we are told; But Ehud made him a dagger which had two edges, and he did gird it under his raiment upon his right thigh. In verse 21; And Ehud put forth his left hand, and took the dagger from his right thigh, and thrust it into Eglon's belly. Eglon was the oppressor that was tormenting Israel in that hour.
Psalm 149 verses 6 and 7; Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand, for the purpose of executing vengeance upon the heathen and punishment on the people. A two edged sword is a sword of judgment.
Alternate translation of Revelation, Chapter 2 Verse 12; And write to the spiritual man of the church that is in Pergamos. He who has the power to execute judgment upon you says, Verse 13; I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. Thou holdest fast my name and has not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, and where Satan dwelleth. Glory to God.
The word, holdest fast, is Strong's # 2902. It refers to using strength to lay hold of something, to seize it or to retain it. The word denied means rejected or refused. The word, faith, is Strong's # 4102 and it refers to reliance upon Christ for salvation. Faith is reliance upon Christ for salvation. Now this word, Antipas, is spoken of here as if you were a man, and it is Strong's # 493 which is just the proper name. They get the name from two words, Strong's # 473 and # 3962. 473 means anti. We have that in English. It does not necessarily mean against. It can mean instead of or in place of. Strong's # 3962 means father, parent, nourisher, protector, upholder, male, ancestor. Antipas; instead of your male protector, instead of your male ancestor. Glory to God.
The word, martyr, is Strong's # 3144 and it is translated or means martyr, record or witness. It is translated martyr only three times in the Scripture. It is translated witness, applying to a man six times. It is used as a noun. The word, witness, is used as a noun referring to the thing that is the witness, eleven times. It is used as the verb, witness, twenty six times. I would venture to say that the word, martyr, is not an accurate translation of the word. We are going to go with witness.
Revelation 1:5. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness. Revelation 3:14. And unto the angel of the church of Laodicea write; these things saith the Amen, the faithful, and the true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. The witness, brethren, is Jesus Christ. I am suggesting to you that Antipas is someone who is there instead of Christ. Glory to God.
Alternate translation of Revelation Chapter 2 verse 13; I know how you labor to survive in the soul realm and I also know from where your thoughts, words, and deeds are coming, even your carnal mind, over which Satan is Lord. Satan's seat is your carnal mind. Remember that teaching that we had? Where does Satan fit in with the carnal mind? Does anybody remember? At the board: We have the soul over here and our human soul has fornicated with the spirit of Satan. She has produced the carnal mind. Remember that teaching? Eve is up here. She has fornicated with Satan and produced the carnal mind, who is Satan in the flesh. Satan is up here ruling as God. This is the relationship between Satan and the carnal mind. In the realm of appearance, the man or the woman, whose mind is ruled by the carnal mind, whose God is Satan, is called a daughter of Babylon. Remember that teaching?
On the other hand, we have the mind of man, whose human spirit has married the Spirit of God, and she has produced Christ. She has not fornicated. She is copulating with the Spirit of God, and she has produced Christ. Christ is God in the flesh, and the ruling Spirit is God the Father. In the realm of appearance, the man that has this mind is called a son of God. Note that it has nothing to do with your human genitals. If the mind ruling you is the carnal mind, whose boss is Satan, you are female, and you are a daughter of Babylon. If it is Christ ruling you, who is ruled by the Spirit of God the Father, you are male, and you are a son of God.
Let us start from the beginning. Alternate translation: The Book of Revelation, Chapter 2 verse 13; I know how you labor to survive on this soul realm, and I also know from where your thoughts, words and deeds are coming, even your carnal mind, over which Satan is Lord. You are Satan's seat, and you have held on to my Spirit and not rejected my promise of salvation, even in those days when the seed of Christ in your own hearts, my faithful witness in you, was tread under the feet of your carnal mind, and slain in the temple of your body where Satan rules. I want to take that a little bit at a time. I know how you labor to survive on this soul realm. I know your works. I know thy works and where thou dwellest. I know where you dwell.
Remember that scripture in one of the gospels when Jesus was calling the apostles and they said, Lord, where do you dwell? They followed Him and they dwelt with Him until the next day. I hope you do not think they went to His house. They did not want to find out where His house was. They wanted to know where He dwelt spiritually. Did He dwell in the soul realm or did He dwell in the realm of the Spirit. In our modern lingo today, we would say they wanted to know where He was at. They wanted to know where He was coming from. He was coming from the realm of God the Father. Jesus says in verse 13; I know thy works and where thou dwellest. I know how you labor to survive on the soul realm, and I also know from where your thoughts, words, and deeds are coming. They are coming from your carnal mind, over which Satan is Lord. Glory to God.
The next phrase is thou holdest fast my name, and has not denied my faith. Do you hear this? You have my Spirit. Names represent Spirit in the Scripture. You have held fast, you laid hold, you seized my Spirit, and you have not let it go. You have not denied my faith. You believe me to save your soul, but every thought, word and deed coming out of you is from Satan. Do you hear this? Glory to God.
Even in those days, wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr. Now Antipas, we just established it means instead of the ancestor, instead of your protector, instead of your upholder. He is there. Christ in you is the representative of Christ in you. He is the representative of God the Father. The seed of Christ, the spiritual man, the seed of the spiritual man that is fighting to overcome your soul, is going to appear in you. He is there in place of God the Father. He has put the seed of His Son in your heart.
We know that the Father still reigns in heaven. We know that Jesus Christ has ascended on high and He is in heaven, but there is someone inside of you that is taking His place in you, and He wants to reproduce Himself in you. He ultimately wants that seed that is in you to be just where He is, at the right hand of the Father. So He says that He had a faithful martyr. His name was Antipas. He was faithful, a faithful witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now we just read two scriptures that Jesus Christ is the witness. And from Jesus Christ who is the faithful witness. These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. Jesus Christ is the witness. He was there instead of Jesus. He is the seed of Jesus Christ in you. Is that clear? Anybody having a problem with that? There is someone in your heart that is there instead of Jesus. Jesus has not appeared yet. It is the seed of His life. Jesus says, even in those days wherein Antipas, my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan sitteth. He was there instead of Jesus and he was slain.
Now do you think that if Jesus was in your heart, He could have been slain? If Jesus was appearing in you, He cannot be slain. To appear in you, He has appeared in full stature. He cannot be slain, but there is a son in you that has not risen up to full stature yet. He is weak. Sometimes he has not even sprouted. He is telling us here that he can be slain, that the seed of the Son of God in you can be slain. Who is going to slay him? If the seed of Christ is in your heart, who is going to slay him? The carnal mind is going to slay him. Glory to God.
Let us read that again. I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. Nevertheless, you have my Spirit, and you still believe in me for salvation, but you are speaking and living totally out of Satan's mind. Even in those days wherein Antipas, the one who was there instead of the ancestor, was my faithful witness. There is a witness of Jesus Christ in the heart of everyone in this category, and he was slain. He was slain because the believers that fall into this category fornicated with the carnal mind.
We know that we are involved in a warfare right now where God is requiring us to join with Him in our minds. We know that the carnal mind has power. We know that Christ is not in full stature yet, but we are suppose to join with Him in our mind, in our thinking. As we go out to commit the sin, we are suppose to be saying, God, help me, I cannot help myself, and I acknowledge that it is wrong. That is what He is requiring of us, brethren. As the hand is on the doorknob to enter into the sin, you need to be saying, Jesus, this thing is overtaking me, but I acknowledge it is wrong. Well, the people typified by the church of Pergamos did not do this. They did not even resist and therefore they slew the Spirit of God, the seed of the Spirit of God that was trying to sprout and come forth in them. Glory to God.
I know how you labor to survive on the soul realm. I also know from where your thoughts, words and deeds are coming, even your carnal mind, over which Satan is Lord. But nevertheless, you have held on to my Spirit, and you have not rejected my promise of salvation, even in those days when the seed of Christ in your own hearts, even my faithful witness in you, was tread under the feet of your carnal mind, and slain in the temple of your body, where Satan rules. In the temple of your body is where Satan rules, and in your mind, in your bodies, yes, in your minds and in your bodies. Glory to God.
2 Thessalonians 2: 2 thru 4. Be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Apparently I am going past because I did not write it down. Let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there be a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
Verse 8: And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Verse 9; Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. Whose coming is after the power of Satan? Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying wonders. Does anyone know who that is. It is the carnal mind. His power is Satan. He is empowered by Satan.
Verse 10: And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Verse 11; And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. Verse 12; That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Verse 13; But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
Brethren, in the Church of Pergamos, the Lord is telling us that He has a group of believers that have His Spirit, that believe Him for salvation, and are living totally out of the carnal mind. Now the verses that I just read to you are making a very strong statement, but the Holy Spirit stops to describe the son of perdition. I want to leave those verses out which describe the son of perdition and I want to read this statement to you. It is going to be verse 3 and 11 and 12 of 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 2. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, the day of the Lord. What is the day of the Lord? Anybody? It is Christ appearing in you. Let no man deceive you by any means. Christ shall not appear in you unless there come a falling away for us, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Verse 11-12; For this cause shall God send them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
God is saying there is a group of believers that He came to with the truth, and they refused to believe it. Can you hear what I am saying? I am being hit with a block tonight. What God is saying is that the carnal mind is ruling in the minds of these believers. They do not even know that it is Him, because they have such a love of unrighteousness that they do not even recognize that it is the carnal mind. They are saying that it is God, and they are giving him the authority to sit in the temple of God as if he is God. The reason this is happening in believers is that in the deepest realm of their heart they love unrighteousness. 12. That they all might be damned who believed not the truth. Well, we know God is not going to condemn them if He did not come to them with the truth. Do you know anybody today that you have gone to with the truth and they have blasphemed you and prayed psychic prayers against you, and they have hated you? Do you know anybody like that, and they called themself a Christian? I know a few.
12; That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. They liked it the way it was. They have the Spirit of God. They danced in the Spirit and prophesied, but they did not want to give way. They did not want their carnal mind to die so that Christ could appear in them. That is what this is saying. This is the condition of the people at the church of Pergamos. They had the Spirit of God. They had the promise of salvation, and what was living in their mind, what was living out of their being, what was talking out of their mouth, what was living out of their heart, despite this glorious inheritance that they had, was this one and this is what he did. He opposed it. Verse 4; He opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped. Now that is within him, in his own being, and it is within the person, the prophet that God sends to you. Glory to God.
4; So that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself as God. Do not tell me you are born again and tell me He is manifesting in your mind, and out of your mouth, and out of your being. Do not show me your pin with the dove wings on it. I do not want to see it. It does not mean a thing to me. Verse 8: And then shall that wicked one be revealed. God is going to reveal him. You are not going to pull this off forever. You are not going to go around to the world condemning everybody, promising them hell fire and brimstone, lying about God, and not being revealed. God is going to show the world and the innocent in the Church who you are. Then shall that Wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightness of his coming.
Brethren, even though God is very angry at these people, they are going to manifest Christ too. See, they would not lay down their carnal mind. They would not do it willingly. They would not receive the love of the truth, so He is coming in anger, and what is the anger of the Lord? It is judgment. He is coming in anger and judgment. The result of that, all it means is that they are coming the hard way because it says, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. What is He going to consume with the Spirit of His mouth? Your human spirit. He is going to join with the human spirit. When you eat something, you join with it. Amen.
He is going to join with the human spirit, and what He is going to destroy is that pride, of which is your soul. He is going to nail it to the wall. He is going to nail it to the wall, which is Him. He is going to nail it to himself. Everybody is getting saved, brethren, even the people that God is angry at. Alleluia. Glory to God.
Verse 9; Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders. They are standing in the Church. They are casting out demons. They are healing the sick. They are prophesying, and they are singing praises unto God. Glory to God. The Spirit of God is in their vessel along with the carnal mind.
Verse 10; And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. Did you hear that? They are not saved. They are redeemed. They are purchased and called, but they are not saved. They are manifesting Satan, and they are in the Church, and they are on the television, and they have got all the spotlight, and they are utterly blocking out the true believers from the world. They are, indeed, sitting in the temple of God as God, calling themselves God. The judgment upon them, brethren, is that they shall receive a strong delusion. You have to get spiritual. God says He is going to save them, anyway. It could be a long time. The natural Jew has been under a delusion for two thousand years. Glory to God. Alleluia.
I am suggesting to you, as I mentioned earlier, that it is this group of self righteous people that are going to the Church of Smyrna. He is saying to them, you are not moving in the Spirit, and you do not have the word. What do you mean you do not believe in the Rapture? There are people in the major denominations that do not believe in the Rapture? Do you know that? We are going in and threatening them and telling them they are going to burn in hell forever. Jesus is saying to these people that they are not spiritual because He has not given it to them.
I know lots of us know people that have been going to Church for years. They have had everybody they can to pray for them. I prayed for a man once. He was the most beautiful man who knew the word of God. He read and knew the Bible, the written word. He read it backwards and forwards. He was saved for thirty years. Everybody and their Aunt Tessie prayed for the baptism with the Holy Spirit for him. He could not get it. The man was wounded. He was hurt. He did not understand why God would reject him like that. I declare unto you that the category of believers described as the Church of Smyrna, Jesus Christ is about to appear in them without them going by that route. Alleluia.
Revelation, Chapter 2:14; But I have a few things against thee, Pergamos, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. When we talked about the church at Ephesus, I told you that there was a comment in Thayer's Lexicon that Balaam is the Hebrew translation of Nicolaitanes and that they were the same. But when I did the church at Pergamos, I ran into a problem. I just read you verse 14 which says you have the doctrine of Balaam and in verse 15 it says So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes. They are not the same doctrine. They are not the same doctrine.
Even though the word Balaam is the Hebrew of the Nicolaitanes, there is two separate and distinct doctrines. We are going to get to that in a minute. We are on verse 14; But I have a few things against you, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, which doctrine teaches that they taught Balac to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel. You want to destroy Israel, then cast a stumbling block before them. How do you destroy Israel? Get them to fornicate and get them to practice idolatry. You cannot curse Israel. You are right, but you sure can trip them up.
Book of Numbers, Chapter 25 Verses 1 thru 4 and 6 thru 9. I want to put this on the tape. Anybody that does not know the account of Balaam and Balac, if you would like to study that out for yourself, it is in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 22 verse 5 thru the end of Chapter 24 of that book. I am not going to take the time on this tape to go over it. In a nutshell, what happened was this. Balac, an enemy of Israel came to a spiritual man, a prophet, and said to him, curse Israel for me. The prophet said I will seek God and see if He lets me do this thing. Now that may sound very funny to us, but brethren, first of all let me tell you that Balaam was not a Hebrew prophet. He was not a Hebrew prophet. This may come as a shock to a lot of people, but there were men on the face of the earth in Bible times that were spiritual, that had contact with God, that were not Hebrews.
Second of all, the whole world may not have had a knowledge as we do today, that Israel was the chosen of God. Maybe he did not know or maybe he had heard a rumor somewhere that they were the children of God. Maybe he was not sure. He said let me check it out. I am going to ask Jehovah if I could curse them. It took me a long time to get that understanding. I used to think what a stupid thing it was to say. Maybe he did not know. Do you know that there are people right here in this country that are not aware that there is a meeting like this going on today? Do you know that I live my life and you live your lives, and people curse you every day of your life and they do not know who you are? They do not know that the wrath of God could fall on them because they have cursed you. It is the same thing.
So Balaam went before the Lord God, and he said can I curse Israel? God said no. Balaam did not like the answer because Balac had offered him money. So they waited a day and he said I am going to ask God again. He asked God three times. Because why? Because he did not get the answer he wanted. How many times or how many people do you know that go before God and keep praying until they get the answer they want? It is because they believe that anything you ask of God, He has to give you. What a lie. What a lie. First of all, He does not have to give you anything. He owes you nothing. Second of all, the true scripture is everything you ask in accordance with His will, you shall receive.
Third of all, He does not tell you when. It could be twenty years later. Do not go and buy your airplane ticket and fly to South America. You could wind up in trouble. You want to go to South America, and zip, you go down to the airport and buy a ticket. You may be in a lot of trouble if you go ahead with the name it and claim it practice.
Balaam was told by the Lord that he could not curse Israel. Because he was tempted by monetary gain by King Balac, he said to King Balac I cannot curse you. The Lord will judge me, but I am going to tell you how to get around their protection. The way you do it is to get Israel to sin and then God will curse them. I do not have to do it. God will do it. The two things that God hates are idolatry and fornication. That is how we do it.
On verse 14: But I have a few things against thee, because you have taught the doctrine of Balaam. There are those among you that teach the doctrine of Balaam. There are Christians among you who have the Spirit of God, who believe in Christ for salvation, and who are teaching things that are causing Christians to stumble. Now that does not mean that they necessarily know in a conscious way what they are doing, but they are practicing this doctrine.
I just want to read you a few verses on how this works. How do you destroy a Christian in two simple lessons? The Book of Numbers, Chapter 25 Verses 1 to 4 and 61. And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. 2. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. First they got involved with the women. They fornicate with the women. The next thing you know they were attending their church services. They called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods. 3. And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.
Now this is a very important point. It was not everybody in Israel that was fornicating and attending these ungodly services. It was not everybody. We are going to read in a few verses further on that someone who was faithful to God executed a man who was involved in this. Nevertheless, the Scripture lumps everybody together and He says and Israel abode in Shittim. And Israel joined himself to Baalpeor. Brethren, we are one body of Christ. If there is one idolater amongst you, the whole body of Christ is joined. Can you hear that? Can you hear that?
Verse 4: And the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the people. He said cut their heads off and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. Brethren, you better not be deceived into thinking that God has transmuted, from this God who is described in the Scripture, to some namby-pamby weak God that is going to let you get away with anything. I declare to you He is just as fierce and He is just as vengeful in this hour, except that He is moving in the realm of the Spirit. That is what He is going to do if you knowingly and deliberately break the law of God. You are going to lose your spiritual head.
Now I am not trying to scare you. I am trying to counteract this ridiculous doctrine that is in the Church today, that you cannot do anything wrong and that the judgments of God are not going to fall on you. Glory to God.
Do not believe it for a second. Your spiritual life is on the line. This is a very serious business. Spiritual things are a very serious business and we are in the hour that Christ is about to appear. Hallelujah. God is not playing games.
Verse 6: And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. First of all, the guy had the nerve to bring his harlot in amongst Godly people, and second of all, the people were weeping. Why were they weeping? Because the wrath of God was upon all of Israel, including the innocent.
Verse 7: And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose up from among the congregation, and took a javelin in his hand; Verse 8; And he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. Now how did God save Israel from pollution? He identified the Israelite, the spiritual man that was fornicating despite his instructions from God. Your spirit man, the seed of Christ that is in you, if he is fornicating with the woman; who is the woman? Anybody? Who is the woman? She is your carnal mind. She is your soul.
If your spiritual man is fornicating with your carnal mind without restraint, if he is actually coming into the congregation of Israel saying this is wonderful, God is going to raise up a son of God who, by the power of the Spirit of God under the anointing, is going to slay your spiritual man and pierce your soul through her belly, the place of reproduction. She will not produce demons anymore, but your spiritual man is going to be slain and your soul's ability to continue to produce ungodly offspring is going to be destroyed. God is not kidding. God is not mocked. God is not mocked. Glory to God.
The two things that are different between the old covenant and this covenant. Number 1; The Lord and His power and His love and everything that He offers is available to the whole world instead of just Israel. Number 2; He is no longer manifesting in the natural. He is manifesting in the spiritual in the realm of the Spirit. He is doing the same things. You want to know why you cannot hold that job? You want to know why you cannot get up on your feet? You want to know why you are divorced five times? Because God has probably cursed you for idolatry and fornication, or one of your ancestors all the way back.
Do not tell me that God does not do that. He is a righteous God. You cannot go around sinning and doing anything you want without restraint. The tragedy in the Church today, in the whole world today, is that the people cannot relate their problem to the judgments of God. They are blaming Satan. Yes, Satan is in it. Who sent him? Who set him on you? God sets him on you. Why? Because you sinned. You cannot do that. Do not tell me you can do that because you are under grace and you are not under the law. Glory to God. God will remove the plague from Israel, and He is going to do whatever He has to do to do it, brethren. Your spiritual man could die as a result of the judgments of God.
We are in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 2 and we are talking about the doctrine of Balaam, which involves fornication, and eating things sacrificed to idols. Alternate translation of verse 14. But I have a few things against you, because there are those amongst you who as the prophet Balaam taught Balac, the enemy of Israel, how to destroy the chosen of God by encouraging fornication with pagan women and participation in their pagan religious rituals. There are those among you who are teaching God's people to fornicate with their carnal minds, and worship and sacrifice their own souls to the demonic offspring of that fornication, even the false doctrines, which come forth from the minds of natural man. They say there is no suffering in Christ. Go out and get your Cadillac. There is no judgment for sin. It is just some red freak out there named Satan. Get it together, brethren. We are living in a very serious hour.
Verse 15. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which things I hate. Unger's Bible Dictionary says about the Nicolaitanes, they were a sect or party which arose in the apostolic period of the Church. They are mentioned twice by name and once in the epistle to Ephesus and once in the epistle to Pergamos. The general voice of antiquity, and that means undocumented history, accuses them of holding the lawlessness of eating things offered to idols, and of mixing in and encouraging idolatrous worship. They are charged with denying God to be the Creator of the world.
They deny that God is the Creator of the world, and they attribute its existence to other powers. They could unquestionably on such grounds permit themselves so to act. That means being involved in adulterous fornication and idolatry. Thus it is probable that the accusation is nil unfounded. So Unger is saying I cannot prove it to you. I do not have any documents, but the Nicolaitanes are accused of fornication and idolatry, and it is probably true because they were so reprobate that they deny that God is the Creator of the universe and believe that another power created the world. Glory to God.
They also believe in the community of women. This is Unger's, it is not me. The community of women was another doctrine which they are said to have adopted and their conduct seems to have been in the highest degree licentious. That means illegally sexual. The real origin of the sect will perhaps never be ascertained for certainty. So we see that the Nicolaitanes shared the doctrines of the Balaamites. The doctrine of Balaam followers I am calling the Balaamites. That is what God called them. The Nicolaitanes shared in that doctrine in that they both believed in fornication and they believed in sacrificing unto idols. Did anybody here not understand when I say to you that when we fornicate with our carnal minds, that we are sacrificing to idols. Does anybody not understand that?
When you fornicate with your carnal mind, when you receive a false doctrine, spiritually what you are doing is bowing down to a god, a demon, and believing his lies. Spiritually, that is what you are doing. When you receive a false doctrine, when you perpetrate it, when you go out preaching the Rapture, it is a fable. I do not want to zero in on the Rapture. When you zero in on any untruth, and go out to the world and try to force it down people's throats, or even when you just believe it powerfully in your own mind, you are serving another god, and that is the god that has impulsed that doctrine into your mind. He is a demon and you are offering him a sacrifice when you believe it, and the sacrifice is your own soul.
Remember the teachings on Mystery Babylon? The sacrifice under the old covenant are just typifying the true sacrifice which is our own soul. When we receive Jesus Christ, at that point, our soul can start to die because we know that when our soul dies, we are going to live in Him. What God wants is your soul. Israel was allowed to sacrifice animals temporarily. Why? Because if they sacrificed their own soul they would have died. The provision for Christ to be in them and sustain them had not yet been made available. That provision is now available, so God is not interested in animal sacrifices. He wants you, brethren. He wants your soul. He wants it to die because when it dies, He is going to appear in you. He is not a blood thirsty animal. He wants to appear in you. It is a blessing and it will bring you life.
We got all carried away. Where are we? We are talking about the difference between the Nicolaitanes and Balaamites. The Nicolaitanes and the Balaamites all believe in fornication and sacrificing to idols. The Nicolaitanes have an additional belief that the Balaamites do not have. They do not believe that God is the Creator of the universe. They believe another power created it, and they also believe in the community of women. Everybody hear what I am saying?
The Nicolaitanes in addition to the doctrines of the Balaamites believe that God did not create the world, and another power created it, and they believe in the community of women. There is a denomination in the earth today, brethren, that believe in the community of women. They house women in communities and they say this is my religion. That is what they do. I am not saying there is anything inherently evil in it, but we are told here that it is a practice that was carried over from pagan religions, and it had no place in Christianity. I am sorry. Glory to God.
Now this is what I want to suggest to you is the situation with the Nicolaitanes and the Balaamites. The name Balaam is a Hebrew name that has been carried over into the New Testament. I believe I have taught here about transliteration and translation. I will just review it. A translation is when you have a word in one language and it says, for example, it is a word that means man, and when you say it in another language it sounds completely unintelligible. Let us say you have two people, a French man here and a Spanish speaking man here. We want to find out how they both say man, so we stand a man up in front of the church and we say how do you say this? The Spanish man says hombre and the French man says monsieur, whatever he says. We know to translate from French to Spanish, the French word is monsieur and the Spanish word is hombre, and the English word is man. That is a translation. A transliteration is when you take the word in its native language and bring it into your own language.
This man is Balaam. The translation of his name into Greek is Nicolaitanes. The transliteration of his name into Greek is Balaam. You make it a Greek word. We have that in English all the time. It is very common in Spanish. You just take the word, especially if it is modern terms like computers or jet planes, you find these same words in English, in Spanish and in French too. How do you say computer in Spanish? I do not know if it it true about the word computer, but it is true with a lot of words. They just carry the word over. They do not make up a special Spanish word that means computer. It is a computer.
It is a computer in English. It is a computer in Spanish. It is a computer in French. That is a transliteration. You carry the word over into your other language. Balaam and the Nicolaitanes. Balaam is the transliteration and Nicolaitanes is the translation. It is the same word. One has been translated and the other has been transliterated. Why would God do this? He did the same thing in the Book of Revelation in Chapter 12 where He talks about the devil, even Satan. What I am going to suggest to you is that He is talking about two shades of difference in the living soul. Both Satan and Adam are in the living soul. How am I going to explain this, Lord? Everybody is looking at me.
At the board: We have the living soul, and we know that there is Satan in there, and there is Adam in there. In the conditions of the living soul right now, Satan is in a position of power and he is ruling. Adam is the beast. We know that they are all one. There is just a shade of a difference in the way that Adam manifests and the way that Satan manifests. When God is talking about the living soul it is because when the living soul is acting this way, it is really Satan manifesting. When the living soul is acting that way, it is really adam manifesting. Am I making any sense at all? It is the same living soul. You can even say there is two of me. There is the nice Sheila and there is the not so nice Sheila. One day Sheila is acting nice and the next day she is acting mad. There is two natures of God.
There is the loving God we know about and there is the God that gives judgment. We know that in the Scriptures God has many different names. There is one name for the God that reigns judgment. There is one name for the God that has mercy. There is another name for the God that nourishes and brings up young. So what I am suggesting to you, is that the Nicolaitanes and Balaam is two different names for the living soul. It is two different names for the satanic realm of the living soul. What it is referring to is Satan and Adam. Balaam could be two different manifestations of one apostasy. We have an apostasy here. Are you all with me? It is a falling away from the faith of God.
For example, one manifestation causes Israel to stumble. The manifestation of the living soul, I do not care whether you call it Satan or you can call it the carnal mind. You can call it the living soul. I do not care what you call it. What are we talking about? We are talking about natural man. There is one manifestation of natural man that causes Israel to stumble. There is another manifestation of natural man that causes the soul man to stumble. When you want to cleanse the soul of man, how do you cleanse the human spirit? You do it with fire. How do you cleanse the human soul? It has to be washed. You cannot put it through the fire. It is not going to live. There is one manifestation of the living soul that is going to cause your spirit man to fall. He is called Balaam. There is a manifestation of the living soul that is going to cause your soul man to fall. It is called the Nicolaitanes. Can you understand that?
We deal with different problems in different ways. This carnal mind, this satanic realm, the natural man in you, when he wants to bring down your spiritual man, he manifests the doctrine of Balaam. He tempts you to fornicate and to sacrifice to idols. When your natural man, when your carnal mind, when your satanic realm wants your soul to be destroyed, he tells you lies like God is not the Creator of the universe. He gets you involved in communities of women. There are all kinds of false doctrines. I hope I made that clear to you. It really is not that important of a point, but I just wanted to put that in. So the Nicolaitanes and the Balaam are two manifestations of the same apostasy. One is directed to destroy your spiritual man, and the other one is directed to destroy your soul realm. Okay, we will go on.
Alternate translation of Revelation, Chapter 2 Verse 15; And there are those amongst you who believe that God is not the Creator of the world and you have adopted the pagan practice of maintaining communities of women, which things I hate. Now you take a Jew or a Christian that is really serving God, they are not going to be able to convince them that God did not create the world. They are going to be wasting your time. Are you going to believe that God did not create the world? You cannot destroy a spiritual man by telling him God did not create the world, so you are going to go to the soul realm and bring forth the false doctrine. The soul realm brings forth the false doctrine. To destroy the spiritual man you have to get him to fornicate, to worship idols, and eat things sacrificed to other idols.
Verse 16: Repent or else I will come unto you quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Repent or else I will come against thee quickly, and fight against them; those that have these doctrines, with the sword of my mouth.
Alternate translation: Revelation, Chapter 2, Verse 16; Repent or I will come to you, to the whole Church, with speed and strength, and I will make war against those within you, with the spiritual power and authority which I speak through the mouth of my servant. Repent or I will come to you with speed and strength, and I will make war against them with the spiritual power and authority which I speak through the mouth of my servant. Now if God is making war against your soul realm, you are going to feel it. He is making war against your soul realm, and He is making war against your spiritual man, and all of you are going to feel it. The Scripture says, repent, I will come to you with speed and strength and make war against them. They are inside of you. Glory to God.
Verse 17: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches; To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. The word, hidden, is Strong's # 2928 and it means to conceal by a covering, to keep secret. I have something very interesting here for you. The word, manna, is Strong's # 3131 and Strong's says it is an edible gum. The Hebrew equivalent of this word is Strong's # 4478 and the definition of that word is a whatness. I know this is strange. I will put it on the board for you. A Whatness; so called from the question about it, what is it? What is it? We call it a whatness. It is the Hebrew. Glory to God.
The Hebrew word is pronounced mawn, for manna. So manna is really a transliteration into the English. Mawn or manna, that is what it is, a transliteration. The word mawn comes from the Hebrew root # 4100 which means what, how or why. It is a whatness. What in heaven's name is it? Now about ten years ago, I thought I was going to study the Zohar, which is part of the Hebrew Kabbalah. I bought the books, chipped in with a sister who never looked at the books at all, and I got through about ten pages. The Lord quickened this to my mind, when I was in this study, that the Kabbalah teaches about the name.
First of all, it teaches that there is an extremity of heaven and there is a lower extremity. The Father and the Son is an extremity of heaven. The highest point of heaven is the Father and there is a point of heaven lower than Him, the Son. The extremity of heaven is called Me. It means who. What do you think the lower extremity is called? It is called What. I have the book if anybody wants to see. It is in the Zohar. You can check it out in any library. I quote it here for you in the Zohar. The extremity of heaven is called me, who with a question mark, who in the world is it? But there is another lower extremity, which is called mah, and it means what? What in the world is he? He is the Son of God. Manna, the Son of God. Hallelujah. That really blessed me. I hope it blessed you.
Let me read you verse 17 before I go on. He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches. To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the hidden manna. Who knows what you are overcoming? What are the people overcoming? Anybody? It is your carnal mind, your soul. The spiritual man in you has to overcome your own soul. The first thing that they are going to get is the hidden manna.
I Peter: Chapter 1, Verses 9 thru 10; The end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls is the salvation the prophets have enquired about and searched for diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. Now I took out that scripture with regard to the fact that the manna is hidden. The end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, is the salvation the prophets have enquired about. It has been hidden. They searched for it diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. What has been hidden for centuries is the understanding of the grace that should come unto you. Even the prophets that wrote it down did not understand it.
Still in Revelation 2:17; He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna. So we dealt with hidden and we dealt with manna, and now we are talking about the fact that it is going to be eaten. In the gospel of John, Chapter 6 Verses 53 thru 56; Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat, indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him.
So He said that the manna is the Son of God, that it has been hidden, and here we have a witness that Jesus expects us to eat Him, to eat His flesh and drink His blood. I am suggesting to you that the hidden manna is the life of God that is hidden and is concealed within your own hearts. When Jesus says we have to eat His flesh and drink His blood, it means that there is a joining taking place. We talked about this here. There is a joining taking place. We are not saved until the joining is complete. Salvation is a process. We have a living soul, and hopefully it will progress to the point where Christ is on top and Satan is underfoot in your life. Your soul is being ruled by God the Father. Your human spirit is hid in Christ, but you are still a natural man.
What is happening is that Christ, who is married to Eve; God married Eve and produced Christ. This is the ultimate end. I am sorry. Okay, let us start from the beginning. I seem to be hitting some opposition here tonight.
This is the condition that we were in when Christ came to us. We were the living soul. Satan is ruling in our life, and the carnal mind, his offspring, is responsible for our mind, thoughts and deeds. What happens is that the Holy Spirit attacks the soul. He separates Eve out from the carnal mind, our human spirit, and brings her down here to be joined to Him, married to Him, and the offspring is Christ. So there is a joining coming without our body dying. Our human spirit is being separated out from the carnal mind, marrying the Holy Spirit, that has been sent to us, and producing Christ. That is what we are talking about here.
Let me read it to you again. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the Churches. To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden manna. When Eve joins to the Spirit of God, she is eating of Him. When you eat something it becomes part of you. If you eat a steak, it becomes joined to you. It becomes part of you. We just read some scriptures that said Jesus expects us to eat His flesh and drink His blood. What He is talking about is that we have to become one with Him. There is a scripture in the Book of Revelation that says if you are neither hot nor cold, if you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth. Jesus is consuming us, brethren. He is consuming us. He is joining to us, and that joining is taking place in the Spirit. Then everything else is going to follow. I am really hitting opposition tonight. Just help us, Father.
He that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden manna. The hidden manna is Christ in you. It is hidden because it is concealed within you. The manna is Christ and you are going to eat of it. You are going to be joined to it. Anybody have a question on that right now? You are going to be joined to the Christ that is coming forth in you. I left something out. This is the living soul, and the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is marrying our human spirit. It is producing the offspring of Christ, and when Christ comes forth, He is going to join to our human spirit. The Holy Spirit is not joining to the human spirit. He is fertilizing the human spirit. When Christ comes forth, Christ is going to join to the human spirit, to Eve.
When we eat of the hidden manna, we are going to be eating of our own fruit. Remember we talked in this ministry a lot about certain things being legal for God, and being illegal in the soul realm. You are not allowed to consume your own children. Are you allowed to consume the fruit of your womb? You are not allowed to consume the fruit of your womb. We know that when Israel was under siege, the women were consuming the fruit of their own womb. It is an abomination before the Lord to consume the fruit of your own womb, but in the realm of the spirit, when we bring forth spiritual offspring, we are going to be consumed and consume the fruit of our womb. Spiritually, in the realm of God it is legal. Can you hear that?
In the natural realm it is illegal and it is an abomination, but spiritually, we are bringing forth spiritual offspring and we are going to consume it. We are going to become one with it. So the hidden manna that we are going to be given to eat is that Christ is going to come forth in us, and we are going to be joined to Him. That is what the eating means. The Scripture that I just read you, where Jesus told us we had to eat His flesh and drink His blood, it said hundreds of His disciples left Him. They were so horrified at the thought that He said to them you have to eat my flesh and drink my blood, that they left Him because they could not understand it. This was what He was talking about. Jesus was crucified, He was resurrected, He ascended, He has returned to the earth by His Spirit. His Spirit is fertilizing your spirit and bringing forth Christ. When Christ comes forth, we are going to partake of the fruit of our spiritual womb. In the realm of God's Spirit, it is legal. Can you hear that? Anybody have a question on that right now? We will go on. Alleluia.
I will give you to eat of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone. I will give him a white stone. In the Scripture, we have had many teachings on stones. I am not going to take the time to go over it. Stones refer to spirits. Anybody have a problem with that here? We have talked a lot about it. White typifies clean. I am going to give him a clean spirit. I am going to give him a clean spirit. Before Christ starts working in your life, your spirit is joined to the carnal mind. It is unclean, brethren. We are now in the process of having our spirit cleansed. To have a clean spirit means we are going to be completely cleansed of the carnal mind. Our spirit should be completely cleansed of the carnal mind. I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name is written. We are going to have a cleansed spirit. Our human spirit is going to be clean, but it is going to get a new name. What is the name it is going to get?
I made this point a few weeks ago. We had someone here and he touched on this. I do not know if any of you heard it. He strengthened something that I had taught you several weeks ago. He said that it is a whole new thing, that it is not you anymore. When the Holy Spirit comes into your life, it is not you anymore, and it is not the Holy Spirit anymore. It is a whole new creature, a new creation. Do you remember him saying that? That is what we have been teaching here.
So we have the human spirit, and we have the Holy Spirit, and they are going to join together. It is no longer going to be your human spirit, and it is no longer going to be the Holy Spirit of God. It is going to be a brand new entity. What is it going to be called? Christ. It is going to be called Christ. No more Holy Spirit in you. No more human spirit in you. The example that we gave, that in human biology, when a female egg is fertilized, you have a female egg and you have a male sperm, two cells, and when they join together in fertilization, science tells us they become one cell. It is called a zygote. They join together so completely that where they were once two cells, they become one cell.
That one cell is the beginning of your baby. Then it embarks on a process of cell division which results in the production of the embryo which would be your baby, but there are two cells. Science confesses they are two cells and they become one cell called a zygote. Well, we have two cells, the human spirit and the Holy Spirit, and they become one cell. That one cell eventually emerges forth as the Christ. No more human spirit in your heart. No more Holy Spirit in your heart. It is the Christ. We have a new clean spirit. Your spirit is clean, and on top of it being clean, it has got a new name. You are not the human spirit anymore. You are Christ. Your spirit is called Christ. Your spirit is called Christ. Glory to God.
And I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. That word knoweth is a spiritual word. It means to discern, to understand. I suggest to you what the scripture is saying is that no man is going to know that you have a new spirit. No man is going to know that you have Christ except for men who have Christ. You are going to walk down the street, brethren, and nobody is going to know who you are except someone else that has Christ.
Alternate translation of the Book of Revelation, Chapter 2:17; Those of you that have spiritual ears listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to the men in whom His Spirit lives. I will permit the one who overcomes his own soul to become joined to the spiritual life of God which is within him, concealed by the natural man which he is. And I will cleanse his human spirit and I will join my Holy Spirit to it changing its name and nature to Christ. The only men who will be able to recognize Christ in him are those men who will have received the Christ nature also. Glory to God.
Recap of the Book of Revelation, Chapter 2 Verses 12 thru 17: Write to the spiritual man of the church that is in Pergamos. He who has the power to execute judgment upon you says, I know how you labor to survive on the soul realm and I also know from where your thoughts, words and deeds are coming, even your carnal mind, over which Satan is lord. And you have held on to my Spirit and not rejected my promise of salvation, even in those days when the seed of Christ in your own hearts, my own faithful witness in you, was tread under the feet of your carnal mind, and slain in the temple of your body where Satan rules. But I have a few things against you because there are those amongst you who as the prophet Balaam taught Balac the enemy of Israel, how to destroy the chosen of God by encouraging fornication with pagan women and participation in their pagan religious rituals.
In the Church today there are people that are teaching God's people to fornicate with their carnal minds, and worship and sacrifice their own souls to the demonic offspring of that fornication, even the false doctrines which come forth from the minds of natural man. There are also those amongst you who believe that God is not the Creator of the world, and who have adopted the pagan practice of maintaining communities of women, which things I hate. Repent or I will come to you with speed and strength, and will make war against them or I will come to you, Pergamos, and make war with them with the spiritual power and authority which I speak through the mouth of my servants. He is going to do it through a man. He is not going to drop a bomb out of heaven. He is going to execute the judgments through a prophet or a son of God.
Verse 17: Those of you that have spiritual ears, listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to the men in whom His Spirit lives. I will permit the one who overcomes his own soul to become joined to the spiritual life of God, which is within him, concealed by the natural man which he is, and I will cleanse his human spirit and I will join my Holy Spirit to it, changing its name and nature to Christ. The only men who will be able to recognize Christ in him are those men who will have received Christ's nature also.
I am going to take just a couple of minutes here to briefly go through what we did at the last meeting. The first category is the description of Jesus. Ephesus is the one who He is manifesting in and sustaining the church. Smyrna is the one to whom He is declaring He is alive. He is telling Smyrna He is alive. In Pergamos, Jesus is the one who will bring judgment or tribulation upon the spiritual man, who after all the ministry Jesus gives him, still fails to overcome his soul and he continues his liaison with the harlot. So in Pergamos, He is judgment. That is number one.
Number two is relationship to tribulation. Ephesus has cheerfully endured the tribulation that will reveal Christ. Smyrna has two kinds of tribulation. She is sowing what she reaps, and she has the kind that will reveal Christ. Pergamos has a third kind of tribulation, and that tribulation is judgment because the tribulation that is suppose to bring forth Christ has not done it. So it is a severe tribulation because the tribulation that Ephesus has gone through and that Smyrna has gone through has not brought forth Christ. They are still manifesting the carnal mind. So it is a judgment. It is a tribulation that is called judgment. It is very severe.
Number three is where we are talking about the spirituality of the churches. Ephesus is very spiritual. Smyrna is carnal and Pergamos have the gifts of the Spirit and a knowledge of the promise of salvation. So they are not as spiritual as Ephesus, but they do have a knowledge of the spiritual things of God. They do have a knowledge of it.
Number four is what Jesus has against the church. Ephesus has pride. I am going to make it real simple. Ephesus has pride. This is my correction here for Smyrna. Jesus has nothing against Smyrna. They are the victims of the carnal Christians dwelling in Pergamos, that out of their carnal mind is going to Smyrna and saying you are not even saved. I have the Holy Spirit. We have the promise of salvation. You are just out there not doing anything. They are the victims of the church at Pergamos. Jesus has nothing against Smyrna.
Number five is Jesus' warning to Ephesus. He tells them to repent of pride and to confess that they are not yet glorified. To Smyrna He says do not be afraid. It is just a loving admonition. To Pergamos He says repent. Jesus does not state what from. Now if you remember, in Ephesus, He says repent and do the first works. He is giving them information to help them repent, but with regard to Pergamos, He gives them no information. He has come to them time, and time, and time again, and they will not lay it down, and He is not telling them anymore. He just says repent, and if you do not know what you have to repent from, you are going into judgment. There is nothing I could do for you.
Number six. The judgment for not heeding the warning, Ephesus is a loss of a spiritual moral order. Remember, they are going to go back. Their spiritual order is going to change if they will not repent and Satan is going to have dominion over them again. With Smyrna there is no judgment because there was no warning. With regard to Pergamos, Jesus said He is going to reign down judgment, the third kind of judgment, the one which is necessary when all the other processing still did not produce Christ. This is the kind of judgment that we talk about in the Book of Hebrews, where it says if you have tasted of the good things of God, and of the miracles of the world to come, and you still choose to sin, there is nothing left for you but judgment. There is nothing left for you but judgment. There is nothing I could do for you. I have to continue to beat you.
Number seven. He that overcometh. To Ephesus, he is going to get the fullness of the promises. To Smyrna, he is not going to die. He will not die. He is promised eternal life. He is promised eternal life. To Pergamos, Christ is still going to appear in them. He is going to appear in them. It is not the fullness, but it says I am going to give you to eat of the hidden manna. I am going to give you a new spirit. Right? Christ is going to appear in you. Pergamos is a rebellious church. So even though we had a rebellious church here, God is judging them, judging them, telling them to repent, judging them, but He is still going to appear in them. Glory to God.
CONGREGATION: When you were talking about Balaam, you said that he was not a Hebrew. I wanted to know if he was a pagan person. Does a pagan person interact with God and talk to Him?
PASTOR VITALE: Apparently that seems to be the case. That is my understanding. I used to know what nationality he was, but I do not recall what it was. He was not a Hebrew. He was a spiritual man. He was a prophet and he knew God. We also know that God spoke to Pharaoh, and He said to him, you have Abraham's wife. We know that God has spoken to pagans, and apparently there were prophets in the earth that knew God who were not Hebrew. I do not have any more information for you at this time, but that seems to be the case.
The question I am answering is, do I feel today that God speaks to non Christians. Absolutely. Absolutely, He speaks to orthodox Jews. He speaks to the Hasidim. He speaks to Catholics that worship Mary. He speaks to Buddhists. He speaks to Hindus. You had better believe it. He is the God of all flesh. You had better get Him out of that box because you are going to lose. You cannot keep Him in there. Anybody else? Okay.
4-18-11mjs
