The Revelation 2:14-17 | Episode # 1018

September 3, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

The Revelation 2:14-17

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

If you would like to revisit today’s Bible study, please visit our website at https://hopealive.buzzsprout.com/ to download the transcript. 

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.

I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up his word to you and allow you to see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day,

especially today.

In Jesus name it says, but I.

Have a few things against you. Remember, he introduces himself in some aspect of himself.

He's got the sharp two edged sword.

He gives them a word of encouragement.

And then after he gives them the word of encouragement, what does he do?

He tells them what problems he might have. Now remember, he didn't do it with the last church because he just, they were in such bad shape. He just told them to hang on,

right?

You just hang in there. I'm not telling you anything's wrong. I'm not putting anything more on you. You just hang in there.

And some of us have been to that church. Am I right?

He says, but I have a few things against you because you have there those who hold to the doctrine of Balaam.

All right,

Y' all know Balaam,

he's the famous guy with the donkey,

okay. And the donkey started talking to him because the donkey was the only one God could get speak to him. Okay? If, if you're in a position, if you put your in the position yourself in a position that the only person that can speak to you is a donkey.

The only way God can get to you as a donkey, you in rough shape.

Okay? We're going to get to that story pretty soon, okay. In fact, it's not too far down the road in the morning in Bible study. Okay. Where it's in the book of numbers.

We're going to get it. It'll be fun. We'll have a good time with it. I'll explain it in detail.

But Balaam believed, I want you to listen. Balaam believed that you could peddle God's word for prophet.

So what he believed is you could tell people this is what God says and get paid for it. And God's people would listen and do what you said.

Well, he found out that didn't work and ultimately ended up costing him his life. Okay? He tell Israel Thus saith the Lord. Nay, didn't believe him.

Okay, it's a good story. We'll go into it. But the proposition of the doctrine of Balaam is the proposition that people,

more importantly men,

more importantly modern clergy,

would peddle God's word for profit.

Now, I'm gonna just leave it at that because I think it's important. He said. He said not. He says. He says, Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel,

which was false prophecy,

to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. Now, what he's saying is what. What he did was. He did two things. He taught them to. He taught.

He said that thus saith the Lord, which is blasphemy if it's not what God said.

Okay, I want you hear me? That is what blasphemy is. Scripturally.

Do y' all hear me?

Blasphemy is attributing either a word or a trait of God to Satan or.

Or attributing a word or a character to God that clearly God says is not.

Does that make sense?

Can do I need to explain that again,

Blasphemy is attributing a work or the word of God to Satan or to darkness,

or taking a word of darkness, not the word from God or a characteristic of darkness, and attribute it to God.

How many of y' all have heard the Bible says cleanliness is next to godliness?

Well, it don't say that.

It don't say that. All right? Now, if you did it out of ignorance, you're not blaspheming. You're just ignorant. Okay? All right, all right. But if you.

If you used it. If you used it and said, thus saith the Lord,

that's a little dangerous. Make sure if you say thus saith the Lord, you've read what the Lord said,

okay? And it's important that you do that.

It's real important.

Somebody,

while I was meeting with them yesterday, they quoted a passage. He said, I don't think it's in the Bible. And what he quoted, just straight from Scripture, straight from Proverbs.

I said, yeah, that's in the Bible. He said, well, he was so happy with himself. That was from the Bible.

That's fabulous.

Anyway, we're doing a wheel. It was fun.

I have fun at work. No matter what's going on. Sometimes I have fun when probably I shouldn't notice. He teaches them what is not God,

and then he marries them to the world by causing them to eat food, sacrifice to Idols, which would be to eat the food of paganism, the food of this world.

To take nourishment, spiritual and physical and, and. And. And soul nourishment from the world and then to commit sexual immorality. And remember, sexual immorality in scripture is a picture of false religion.

Okay? Remember in the Old Testament there's three archetypes of females, right? You've got the young female who is pure.

That is a picture of the church,

okay? It's a picture of God's people. You've got the older female who is virtuous,

okay? She's a picture of the Old Testament.

She's a picture of God, God's revelation in the Old Testament. And then you have the prostitute or the harlot, and she's a picture of false religion, okay? And so when you come across these three archetypes of women in scripture, that's what they are.

And so if sexual immorality,

when that is mentioned in scripture.

Sure. Does the Bible talk against sexual immorality? Yes. Okay, but we're not talking about that. What we're talking about is the church being married to false religion.

Does that make sense?

So you've got a priestly class who is sharing God's word for profit,

okay?

You've got a marrying of God's people to the world,

eating food, sacrifice to idols, and then you've got the marrying of God's people to false religion.

And that's what he's got against them.

So what he says is a problem,

okay? And during this time period, there is a rise in the priestly class. What did I tell you Constantine did? He took all these pagan priests and he made them what,

Christian priest?

Well, I don't know if you know this. You can't do that,

okay? Yeah, I mean, you can't do that. You can't go up to somebody with a sword and say, you name Jesus or I'm gonna kill you.

If they name Jesus, I'm gonna tell you that's not the biblical model for conversion,

okay? That's not how that works.

They gotta hear God's word. The Holy Spirit's gotta reveal God's word to them. They gotta be born again even before that happens.

And once they hear God's word and believe God's word, they got to repent and turn to God.

That can't be done with a sword. Okay?

It can be done with the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, but it can't be done with a real sword.

Okay? Those are. Those are not real conversions. And just because Constantine says you're now a Christian priest doesn't mean you're a Christian priest. Especially when you don't even know who Christ is.

Makes sense.

So there was a marrying of the world. And so what did the priests do? Well, they did several things.

There's a priestly class that they put over God's people, which did not exist until this time.

Are y' all listening to me?

There were leaders,

and there was a model of leadership. There were elders in every town and city, and they were leaders of God's people. And there was a way to lead them. And that was spelled out in three of the books.

First Timothy, second Timothy, and Titus. And there was a way to lead God's people, and God told them how to do it in his word.

But now you've got a priestly class that rules over them.

And that p. Priestly class had the power to forgive sins.

And we know that's the case, right?

Yeah. You go to them and forgive me for I have sinned. There's a lot of good jokes with that. I've got great ones. Can't tell any of them in church, but I've got some good ones with that.

Right?

You. You can't. You can't be forgiven by a man. You can only be forgiven by God.

Okay?

They. They.

They replaced ceremony and ritual for the work of the Holy Spirit.

Y' all hear me?

They replaced ceremony and ritual for the work of the Holy Spirit.

And they created the institutional church,

which existed for profit.

That's a problem.

And you can tell God don't like it because what does he say?

He says, thus you also have those who hold to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Remember, we're back to the Nicolaitans, Right?

Remember, Niko means to rule over laity, means the common people.

So you. You've got those who like the practice of a group of people ruling over God's people.

Now you. You need to understand that y' all do a great job of loving and honoring your pastors, Okay? I want you to hear me.

There's. I've never been a church that did a better job than this,

okay? Never been in a church, did a better job than this.

But that's not because we're your rulers. That's because we're your shepherds,

okay?

And those are two different jobs.

They ain't the same job.

Not my job to tell you how to live. It's my job to tell you who to live by.

So that's a leadership that's a. That's a shepherding you toward the. The. The good shepherd, the only real shepherd.

Yeah, the small gate. That's exactly right.

And so understanding, that's important.

But that wasn't. What's going on there.

You had the practice of the Nicolaitans. And I want you to notice he always says this after he mentions them,

which I hate.

That's Jesus.

And he done said it twice to the second and the fourth church.

No, the first and the third church.

Repent or else I will come to you quickly and will a fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Now what is he saying? I'm gonna use that sword to fix this problem.

Repent from it.

Don't do those things.

Do not do those things.

Now you go, Pastor. Well, how do you do it? Don't you. Aren't you supposed to tell me when I'm supposed to do and what I'm supposed to do? No, if I told you what to do, it would make you all upset and it would tear you all to pieces.

Okay?

I tried it when I was young, you know, when I was young and dumb and a pastor, okay? And any pastor that's under 35 is going to do some dumb stuff.

And a lot of them over 35, but most of them under 35, they are for sure. And I was one of them. And I was real passionate and sometimes not a great shepherd,

okay? And I told people, you ought not be doing that.

Well, that's not leading,

that's ruling,

okay?

Like the Nicolaitans. That's exactly right. So what I learned to do, well, I learned to teach people God's word,

teach them to listen to the Holy Spirit, teach them to walk by faith. And what will happen?

They'll figure it out.

And if they don't figure it out,

God must have been working on something else in their life more important. And so it ain't none of my business, okay? I'm not going to tell you how to do Christmas.

I ain't going to tell you how to do Easter,

resurrection, Sunday.

Not going to tell you how to get rid of all the paganism in your life. Because I'm quite sure if you went in to get rid of all the paganism in your life, you wouldn't get rid of it all.

And then you'd be all focused on paganism and not on God.

And you're far better just focusing on God and let God clean that stuff up if he needs to make sense.

Now, that's wisdom, and that's wisdom from a man Slamming his head into the wall several times. Okay,

just learn not to do it make sense.

He says, I'm going to come with my sword in my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches,

to him who overcomes.

I'll give you some of the hidden manna to eat.

Now, that's the good stuff.

That's the stuff you. When the Holy Spirit whispers something in your ear you never heard before,

y' all know what I'm talking about.

You might be in a worship service, you might be in a Sunday school class, you might be in a Bible study,

you might be online listening to some worship music, or you might be reading your word in the morning. All of a sudden, he whispers, you know, that's what's going on right there.

I don't know if you know that or not.

That's that hidden manna.

And what he says is, if you'll. If you'll. If you'll do your best not to be involved in this paganism,

they not telling you. Go out there, go on a paganism crusade.

I, I promise you I could go through every one of Yalls house and I could point to about 10 things that are pagan. Okay. I promise you I could.

I. I promise you I know I could.

Okay.

The TV's number one,

right?

But, but, but that's not how this is. That's not how this works.

Christianity has never worked that way. It's in relationship. It's led by the Holy Spirit. It's an allowance of God to teach you and guide you into some things. And if you don't teach God's people to do it, you're not doing it right.

That's okay.

And so when somebody, pastor tells you that you shouldn't do this, and that's, you know, this is absolutely wrong. And, and you look through scripture and you go, I don't see where that's in the Bible.

He's probably just coming up with some tradition that he had passed on to him. He's passing on his pagan rituals to you.

Are you following me?

Give him a little grace,

but don't listen.

Are you following me?

Just kind of leave it alone.

You ain't got to stand up. Say you, you heathen.

You don't have to do that.

Okay?

Just make a note of it and move on.

He says, I'll give you some of the hidden man at eat, and I'll give him a white stone. And. And on that stone a new name written, which no one knows except him who receives it.

So what is he saying? Well, he's saying, I'm going to give you. I'm going to give you a name that God.

You did. Y' all know y' all gonna get a pet name in heaven.

Well, there it is right there. You're gonna get a stone, and God's got a special name for you. Just you and him,

and only you and him gonna deal with it. And he. So what it's gonna call you by now, if you like that. That's pretty cool. Now, those who just barely get in, the Bible says those who get in by fire, they.

They might have some names they don't like, like cr.

You know, I'm talking about burnt toast,

you know, they might have some names that they don't like. But overdone.

If you've got that nickname, well, you earned it. You just barely got in. And some Bible says some get in by fire. I was even asked tonight by my mom, you know, do you think this?

Do you think that? And I've.

When I was young, I tried to figure out who ain't going to heaven. As I've gotten old, I've tried to figure out exactly how God's grace is, can reach the most number of people.

And you know what I've gotten? I figured out I'm way better at pastoring that way.

And kind of my relationship with God, I kind of know he's grace is more powerful than our sin or than Satan.

So there's probably going to be a lot more people in heaven than you think.

Okay?

Because remember, all you got to do is believe on a redeemer and you go, well, don't you have to know his name? Well, Job didn't.

He just knew his redeemer lived and he's looking for him.

So all if I. If all I have to do is trust in that, I can't get there myself, that God just sent a redeemer for me.

Well, you know, you can make an argument that they ain't going to heaven,

but you ain't going to get to decide.

You ain't getting to decide. God is.

He says nobody knows it except he receives it as you go. Today I pray that the Lord will.

Bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.