They acknowledge that the name of the Lord is their name, and it is enough to have the name of the Lord. They call themselves Christians. They belong to Christ.
Although people call them many nicknames, they say, “We are nothing but Christians. We surrender under the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are following Christ. Christ is our life. Christ is all to us.”
You know where the word Christian comes from. If you read the book of Acts, these disciples of the Lord—those who believed in the Lord Jesus—were called “the people of the Way,” because they were walking on this way.
People did not know how to call them, and the disciples were called Christians. It started in Antioch. They did not call themselves by that name.
At that time, to be called a Christian was just a nickname: “You are the group of people who are obsessed with Christ. You open your mouth with Christ, and close your mouth with Christ. Whatever you want to speak, whatever you do, you live for Christ. All things are for Christ. Oh, Christ!”
Besides, you are people called Christians. You are Christians, brothers and sisters—the name of the Lord.
That is the reason they are against all things that are not of the Lord. Whatever is not of Christ, they are against. For this reason, they are martyrs.
You know the word martyr, and the word testimony, witness—in the original language, they are one word. If you want to be a faithful witness, what will you do?
So either you are a martyr unto death, or you are a martyr in life. You shall be faithful unto death, brothers and sisters.
You see the condition and the changes in the church. The teaching and doctrine of Balaam has come in.
If you read the book of Numbers, when God’s people were brought to the edge of Canaan, they were on the east side of the Jordan. They were ready to go into Canaan. The king of Moab was nervous.
He invited a Gentile prophet by the name of Balaam and asked him to curse God’s people. Because Balaam liked money, although the Lord forbade him from going, he still asked the Lord to go.
And the Lord said, “You go, but be careful when you speak.” So when he was brought before them, again and again—four times—he could only bless God’s people.
Finally, he did not get the money. But he knew the way of God, so he was highly punished. He told them, “There is only one way you can defeat the people: entice them to worship idols.”
Let them marry with Moab, and let them eat the things sacrificed to idols, because he knew that God is holy and God is righteous. When God’s people are not holy and not righteous, God has to judge His children.
So here Balaam sold out the truth of God for his own benefit. And the Israelites were actually enticed into it, and twenty thousand people died.
Brothers and sisters, this is the doctrine of Balaam. For his own benefit, he brought in the doctrine of being united with the world. “You do not have to separate yourself. Why do you have to be this kind of person? Only compromise, then you will not have persecution. And then you are welcome. Isn’t that good?”
Today, when we look at the condition, the church has been obedient to the doctrine of Balaam. The world has entered the church.
My brothers and sisters, the boat is on the surface of the water. But when the water enters the boat, the boat will sink.
The church is like a boat on a big ocean. If the water enters into the church, the church will sink, brothers and sisters.
This is the condition of the church today. The truth of God has been compromised. The church has been united with the world, using the measure of the world to attract men to the church.
And to govern the church is like managing a big operation. We see that this is to cater to the doctrine of Balaam.
If you are an Antipas, you cannot go along with all these things. Not only that, some of them hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
In the letter to the church of Ephesus, there were only the works of the Nicolaitans. Only a few had these works, but the works had not turned into a doctrine.
You know, when works become a doctrine, the doctrine will rule all things. But here, it became a doctrine.
There is the system of laity and clergy. Some are named pastors, and some are archbishops, apostles, and so on. They take control of all spiritual things.
All other people are laity. “You just come. Just come to listen. Just put your money in the box. The last opinion, you had better leave it to us. You just come, but you do not really need to understand. If you understand, you will have trouble. You do not understand?”
“We have some experts here. Let them manage the spiritual things.” This becomes the doctrine, and this doctrine prevails in the Christian world.
Brothers and sisters, the Lord says, “Repent.”
The Lord is the One who has the two-edged sword from His mouth. The Lord is going to use the word of His mouth to pierce and to separate, to separate soul from spirit.
What is of Him, and what is of man? What is of heaven, and what is of this world? What is of Himself, and what is not?
Whatever is not of Him has to be taken away. Whatever is of Him has to be accepted.
The Lord, in these two churches, is looking for those who are faithful unto death. He is looking for those who are faithful unto death to Him.
Because He is the Lord who is faithful unto death. Our Lord is faithful to His God and Father unto death. His name is Faithful.
When you read Revelation, you know that Faithful is His name. Today, the name of us Christians should be faithful. We should be faithful to our Lord. Hear, brothers and sisters?
Today, what should be separated, we unite with; and what should be united with, we separate. We see that we have deviated from the right path.
So the Lord today is looking in His church for those who can be faithful unto Him. We hope that the Lord will have mercy on us.
There are many things we should repent of, because many things are not of the Lord. They are things outside of the Lord. We are faithful to the wrong things.
Let us repent and be faithful to our Lord. Then we have the testimony of the church.
Our Lord, we fall down before You. We ask You to shine upon us with Your light.
We pray that You pierce our hearts and separate us with the two-edged sword in Your mouth. Whatever is not of You in us, we ask that You take away from us.
Lord, set Your light on it. We acknowledge that we thought we were faithful in the past, but what we were faithful to was men and their things. We were not faithful to You.
Lord, forgive us. We ask that You open our eyes, open our ears, so that we can understand in our hearts.
Only You are worthy of our being faithful. Only to You can we be faithful unto death, because You are so faithful to the Father and unto death.
Lord, we want to be faithful to You through our lives. We acknowledge that by ourselves, we cannot. But we know whom we believe, and we also know that You are able to keep that which we have entrusted to You until that day.
In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.