[0:00] section of chapter 2. Look at this. We're moving right through. We're almost, we will, Lord willing, be finished with chapter 2 here. We come to Jesus addressing a church, a church called Thyatira, which perhaps in some ways is more like the modern church, at least a lot of modern churches, than any of these letters.
[0:41] We want to read the word, then ask the Lord to do the teaching through His Spirit and then we'll dig in. So if you're able, please stand as I read from Revelation chapter 2, beginning at verse 18.
[0:57] Revelation 2, verse 18, to the church of Thyatira. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, the words of the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.
[1:18] I know your works, your love, and faith, and service, and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.
[1:30] But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat foods sacrificed to idols.
[1:50] I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a bed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works.
[2:11] And I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each according to your works.
[2:29] But to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.
[2:44] Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and keeps my words until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken into pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.
[3:08] And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So reads his word.
[3:19] Let us pray for understanding. Father, we pray that you would grant us your Spirit to teach, to instruct, to comfort, to encourage.
[3:32] confront us, Father, with your Son's searching eyes, that we might be laid bare before you so that you might tell us what we need to hear.
[3:51] Grant us, Lord, to hear words today that encourage us and challenge us. help us to have teachable hearts.
[4:05] Not thinking, Father, that this doesn't apply to us, but let us, Lord, be willing to hear whatever you have for us. That you might be seen among all the churches as he who searches the hearts and minds of his people.
[4:22] This we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. So you ever seen those church signs?
[4:33] You know, you go by a church and they've got a sign and they've got a little saying on there, you know? Some goofball or serious persons writing things on their signs. So the Methodist church had one that said, what is hell like?
[4:53] Come hear our pastor. Right? A Baptist church had a sign that said the fact that there's a highway to hell and a stairway to heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic numbers.
[5:10] You guys are a thinker. The covenant church says don't give up. Moses was once a basket case. The Christian church said God shows no favoritism, but the sign guy does.
[5:25] Go Cubs! The Catholic church says Noah was a brave man to sail in a wooden boat with two termites.
[5:40] Those are church signs. I mean, this is meaningful stuff, isn't it? The Christian church said Jesus is coming, hopefully before the election. Catholic church said Lent is coming, get your ash in church.
[5:58] Ash. I said ash. The community church said now is a good time to visit our pastors on vacation. These are church signs.
[6:13] What would our church sign say? We don't have any clever sayings on ours. Ours says family worship, 1009, join us. nothing clever, just straightforward.
[6:27] Of course, we don't have a lot of room on our sign. What would ours say though if we could put a message on there? What would we want our community to think about us? Visit while the pastor's on vacation?
[6:42] Would we be doing that? Would it be all are welcome? Would we mean that? We love sinners?
[6:58] There are churches that call themselves welcoming churches that welcome each and all and every. And I think we are in that number.
[7:10] But there are churches that, or at least I want us to be a church in that number. There are other churches that go beyond that and say they are affirming churches. churches. There's a movement today among churches and it's been for some time but more and more that seeks to bring the reconciling message of God's love and reconciliation to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.
[7:39] What they mean by that is not just bring the message of love. I'm all for that. But affirming. affirming their life and practice as they see fit.
[7:56] A gospel without repentance. And an affirmation, they call themselves scribes reading one of the websites and it's quite involved.
[8:15] There's a lot of redefining going on, a lot of twisting of scripture. I think there's a lot of well-meaning stuff there. But they're avoiding certain terms and they're avoiding certain texts.
[8:33] The Bible is clear. All sexual practice outside of man-woman marriage is called immorality. the word is porneia in the Greek.
[8:47] God's truth has not changed. Jesus reminds us of this in this letter. Here is a church 60 years after Jesus died on the cross.
[9:03] Here's a church that has some people in it that are teaching and seducing other believers to practice immorality as well as conform to the cultural norm of eating food sacrificed to idols.
[9:25] Today the church is pressured to conform to the world. a lot of Christians are afraid to be considered intolerant, narrow-minded, judgmental.
[9:46] So if you don't agree with the world's changing of the moral line then you're called judgmental and intolerant. Well that's fine.
[9:58] call us whatever you want but we'll hold to what Jesus teaches. So here I think this is an important message for the church today because it isn't an issue of either or be loving church or be a truth church.
[10:22] It's be a loving church and be a truth church. Our first letter to the Ephesians was there's a truth church. They tested the prophets who were not and they tested people and they got their doctrine right but they had what?
[10:39] Abandoned their first love. They were not a loving church. We all know that kind of we don't want to be that. We want to be a truth church but we want to be a loving church as well.
[10:51] So here we have a loving church that compromises what's true perhaps out of fear perhaps out of lack of discernment but Jesus calls them the tolerant church.
[11:09] That's a buzzword today. Tolerant or intolerant which are you? And Jesus says I have this against you you're tolerant.
[11:21] Let's see if we can understand what he says why he says that and what he's doing here. So in Revelation we come to now at the end of chapter two the fourth church that Jesus is diagnosing.
[11:38] He's talking to seven churches here in the Asia Minor area churches that are not far from where John is is exiled on the island of Patmos started with Ephesus a very famous church a very famous city a huge city more than 250,000 people residing there with a huge auditorium a huge library museum all the they had everything.
[12:07] They were on the port they were a big import export city they were the gateway to Europe. then was Sardis the suffering church they also had a harbor they were also well known we come to Pergamum which was very well known for all of its temples it was the place to go if you needed something from a god if you needed healing you went to the god of healing if you needed wisdom you went to Athena if you needed better groceries you went to the you know I mean whatever they had a god for everything in Pergamum and it's what and that was the place Jesus called Satan's throne because it had so many and it was on a mountain side and actually the top of the Acropolis the top of the city was where they reserved the great huge throne one of the seven wonders of the ancient world the throne to
[13:14] Zeus the king the god of gods Zeus it looked like a throne on the top it could also be that they also had a god there that was the snake you know the god of healing it was the same same symbol as we have on medical you know you look at the doctor and they got the symbol with the snake on there same same thing it comes from there asclepius something like that no asclepius something like that thank you dad so there's a serpent and so Satan being a serpent maybe Jesus saying Satan's throne serpent image all of that so here now we come to a place called Thyatira not known for anything no famous temples no big library no big theater no no nothing that all the other towns had nothing to draw anyone they were more of an export town kind of in the middle of nowhere what was life like in this church so
[14:34] Thyatira was the least known of all seven cities it's the least important of all seven cities least remarkable of all seven cities it's an average city full of blue collar workers craftsmen merchants workers it was an economic hub it was the largest it had the largest number of trade guilds because this is where all the workers came they just lived there if you're a coppersmith you work there if you're a dyer of fabrics like Lydia remember Lydia from Acts 16 this is where she came from metal worker stone worker whatever they had all the all the trades were there and the trades were organized into guilds kind of like unions you had to pay your dues and you had to participate to be part of the guild and to be part of the guild meant you got good place in the marketplace to sell your wares to do your business if you did not participate in the guilds and their feast which included food sacrifice to idols and a party afterwards that ended in immorality you did not participate in those things you were ostracized you're outside of the you don't get a place in the marketplace you go out there in the desert and sell your stuff okay high pressure there to conform high pressure to participate in order to earn a living yeah we know anything like that today is there any pressure to conform to the standards of the world in order to make a profitable business make a profitable to do well of course there is so we can't relate to the food sacrifice to idols thing okay today idols are not little symbol things that we put power into there are things like money there are things like cars there are things like houses there are things like careers there are things whatever we invest value into and draw our life from that's our idol we serve that to get ahead we serve that to get meaning it's our replacement of God that's our idol so it could be our job it could be our work we're tempted in a lot of ways to conform to this society so that's how we relate to this church for them it was the guilds it was the festivals where you got to eat the food sacrifice to idols and not like Paul talks about in Corinthians where he says idols are nothing so it doesn't really matter if you buy the food in the market just don't ask where the meat came from right so it doesn't matter because the meat isn't there's no superstitious stuff going on in the meat this is different this isn't just buying meat in the market that might have been part of a sacrifice to idols this what he's talking about is actually sitting down at the feast where everybody knows the meat is sacrificed to the idol and you're honoring that idol you're honoring that goddess you're honoring that whatever okay this is what he's talking about this is a whole different level of stuff it's clearly conforming to that culture's idol okay that's what's happening here and the other thing that struck me here's
[18:22] Thyatira little Thyatira not a big famous place just a little town just a bunch of blue collar workers just they are not at Satan's throne remember the last city we looked at Pergamum was in Satan's throne because they had all the temples and all the stuff right that sounds like a scary place to be a Christian Satan's throne a stronghold and so here's a little here's a little Thyatira little ways away just kind of out in the middle of nowhere they're worse off than the church at Satan's throne so in other words you don't have to be in the stronghold of Satan to be seduced to do what displeases the eyes of Jesus you with me you don't have to you could just be in kind of the average little Palmer Lake you could just kind of be part of the Tri-Leaks community you know not a big whoo that place that's you know they talk about that like other cities we could name in Colorado or California by the way
[19:35] Californians are coming to Colorado aren't they there you go thank you I'm from California thank you so here the problem's actually deeper there the problem was there were some in the church at Pergamum that were holding to false teaching false teaching that had the same kind of results participating in the feast and immorality here it's actually more ingrained here there's somebody in the church teaching and seducing people to adopt this conformity it's deeper it's more it's more down the line it's worse so today part of my practical goal today is to ask to get us to think about how how do we be a church that is in the world but not of the world how can we be a church that's not standoffish and away from the world but engaged with the world because Jesus calls us to be engaged
[20:49] Jesus ate with sinners right Jesus loved sinners but he also called sinners to repent he also told them the truth he told them you're not okay living the way you're living you need new life you need me so how do we follow Jesus as a church in being one that is loving that is engaging with sinners not condemning but also telling the truth not tolerating I don't mean being judgmental but being honest being truthful we love them enough to tell them the truth so that they might escape so that's kind of the back of my mind the desire so here is a here is a laboring church that has been enticed pressured to conform to the society here also is a loving church a very loving working church that's tolerating deception in its midst this person
[22:08] Jezebel so Jesus we're breaking this down into two things each time we're looking at what Jesus says about the church that's good what he commends them he says I know I know this is you're doing great here and then I have this against you a confrontation so he does both with this church this is not an all bad church look at verse 19 well first we have 18 he says he tells them who's addressing them to the angel the church and thy tire write the words of the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze I know your works your love your faith your service patient endurance your latter works exceed the first he has good things to say about them his commendation is here is a church that's continuing to grow in works of love and faith it's a good church they are continuing they're growing their later works exceed their first so they're growing they're maturing they're getting stronger there are works of love and faith and service okay this is a real
[23:22] Christian church church is a real Christian church even though they're tolerating something Jesus says they need to stop tolerating okay so who's speaking to them how does Jesus emphasize himself what traits does he pick out from the vision of chapter one he says the words of the son of God who has eyes like flame of fire whose feet are like burnished bronze who's speaking the one with searching eyes it's kind of maybe of all the image of each of the images in that first chapter this might be the most startling most arresting eyes blazing like fire it's like okay Jesus that's my Jesus yeah it's not what he looks like but it is what he's like he has a searching gaze so why does Jesus emphasize these traits to this church he only says he only emphasized these traits to this church well there's something about this church that needs to meet the searching gaze of
[24:32] Jesus it's a clue that something's off for all the good that they're doing there's something not quite right because he's searching gaze so but first he commends them verse 19 there's much good here there's works of love and faith and service they're persevering they're not stagnant they're not fading Their love is not growing cold like Ephesus their love is growing their works are growing their service is growing it's a good church they're doing stuff they're serving they have faith okay so this isn't like you know!
[25:14] they've gone liberal they're still serving I mean we can do that right we can dismiss the church go oh see they've got that theology they're out no Jesus hasn't given up on them he's like man I want you to know there's some stuff you're doing is just awesome good you are loving you are serving so he doesn't I know I'm not going to pick on you for one thing I'm going to we'll get to that but I'm going to acknowledge what you are doing well okay so notice that and then notice too a little bit later verses 24 and 25 after he does the confrontation in verse 24 he says to the rest of you to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold to this false teaching who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan to you I say I do not hold lay any more burden on you just keep holding fast hold fast you're doing good you don't need to correct anything just keep doing the works of love and faith and service great your witness is good your faithfulness is good those to those of you doing that and by the way that's the majority of this church the rest because there's only some who are holding to the teaching of
[26:37] Jezebel okay there are faithful ones there they've not fallen for the deep things you ever heard Christian teachings that say oh you're missing something there's a secret you're missing there's a deeper thing that you need to get a part of you ever heard that I heard that a lot growing up it's like well I didn't read that oh you got to read it different I remember reading a book just a couple years ago that somebody had given me that was that whole thing you're missing part of the gospel like missing part of the gospel yeah and then I'd read and it's like I still don't get it what am I not seeing well because I read it this way I have deeper experiences good for me I feel joy more often I'm more I'm more victorious and I'm all that great that's great for you I still don't see what you're saying what am I missing guess I'm not spiritual enough
[27:38] Jesus gave us a clear gospel it's clear he's not hiding anything there are things God is not going to tell us there are things we're looking at in revelation even here he's going to unveil for us but in the plain gospel it's pretty you know okay trust in Jesus Christ he takes my sin he gives me his righteousness I keep walking in faith not a rocket science there are some things that are hard in life yeah okay gotta learn but as far as my experience with Christ well that's how God God doesn't treat us all the same does he not all of our journeys are the same some of us experience more outward joy some of us inward joy some of us depression some of us you know we're all different anyway that was my impression when we talk about these deep things and they probably didn't say deep things of
[28:40] Satan that's a little too obvious remember it's like Jesus said to one of the churches I know where you live it's the synagogue of Satan well I'm going to tell you the synagogue didn't say their name was synagogue of Satan okay it's a little obvious right there's their Jesus is unveiling right so so there probably were people teaching the deep things of God oh you're missing something you want to get in on this as if Jesus has been holding back for most of us what's good okay so so Jesus is saying they're saying deep things I'm saying the deep things are really satanic okay he's unveiling what's behind going on here so here here is a people church I think this is what I think of this church here's a people church here's a church that loves and serves it's a good church good church good church to be in it's a loving church here's the question can we love too far is there a limit to love it's unconditional right we love unconditional yes love all people absolutely we love everything they do no we don't we love the people we understand they're like us and they've gotten stuck and they've gotten they're they're broken right that's why we can love them because we know we gotta get it
[30:24] I didn't have that particular issue but I do have issues that I get that you have that are difficult in heart and Christ has set me free he's given me power to actually say no to that now or before I didn't do anything about it so here I want you to remember we were in Philippians not too long ago and in Philippians 1 Paul has a prayer he's praying for them and it's fascinating the way he prays for this church Philippians 1 Paul says it is my prayer that your love he's praying for their love that your love may abound more and more I want them to love more and more then watch what he says with knowledge and all discernment what's that mean I want your love to grow I want your love to abound I want you to love more and more people with knowledge and discernment there can be an undiscerning kind of love there can be an ignorant kind of love
[31:25] I want you to love with more and more knowledge and discernment why so that you may approve what is excellent remember when we looked at that it's a phrase describing what really matters so you might be able to know what really matters in other words if you're loving the right way you're going to come to understand the things that really matter and the things that don't matter I'm going to love people there's going to be things that don't matter I'm going to overlook those things love's going to bear right it's going to cover all kinds of and it's going to distinguish I'm going to love because here's the real core of what loving is that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ having been filled with the fruit of righteousness that it will purify us so love with knowledge and discernment recognize that there's distinctions when we love there are things that really matter love and discernment is loving people but not necessarily how they behave parents know this don't they parents know this your kids you're going to love your kid of course you're loving your kid but your kid doesn't always do things that you love right and so you're because you love them you're going to shepherd them and help you know okay we don't do that stop doing that right we're loving but we're loving them and you know we're training
[33:06] God does the same thing with us we do that same thing with one another we're brothers and sisters here to help each other and I can't see my flaws but you can she can right so so we have and some of those things we overlook it's like okay it's not the big deal so we think oh no we got to deal with that one okay that's we get that we love the people but not necessarily the sin and we all have that issue I'm not picking on any one group here today we're not picking on lesbian gay and I'm just saying that's a that's an obvious one for me of where our culture has gone and where churches have gone I want let me be clear I would love to have gays and lesbians and and transgender whatever come I would love for them to hear the gospel I have friends
[34:06] I love them but like me before I was converted that's where they're at well but it's okay because they're born with it well so was I I was born with stuff that Jesus says stop doesn't matter if you're born with it you're born naturally right we have a lot of natural things that Jesus says okay stop doing those natural things now you live supernaturally it's natural to get angry and let your anger get out of control it's natural to lust it's natural to what else what other sins can we pick on to lie to covet those are all natural and yet God says don't I'm sorry sorry Jimmy now you spoke up now everybody else in the world knows what I the world of five people out there whatever watching so yeah are you with me
[35:13] Delonda taught me this early on because we're all born with a handicap okay I have a tendency to sin in a certain way or certain ways I'm born with that and God has called me to work with that to learn to overcome that to learn to trust him with that but it's natural and it feels good it doesn't matter it's not what's best for you and it's not Christ like does that make any sense okay so he commands them they're a church that's continuing to grow in works of love and faith and service but Jesus says in verse 20 have something against you I have something against you you tolerate that woman
[36:14] Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat participate in idle sacrifice feasts I gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her immorality so so this the implication is this is somebody within the church they've already been confronted perhaps by the apostle John earlier this Jezebel person is already in the church it's not an outsider this is a person in the church saying I'm a prophetess so you have to listen to me okay so the confrontation is here is a church that is tolerating seductive teaching that leads to sinful acts a church that's tolerating the enticement the temptation the leading teaching that leads to clear sinful acts they're letting that go so he calls it the
[37:20] Jezebel seduction that woman Jezebel and what the church is doing what I want to focus on here first huh oh I'm sorry okay not for me silence that phone no sorry tolerate so he says tolerate what he means is to permit to let it go to yield to it it's fascinating it's actually the same word for forgive because to forgive is to let go it's also the same word for divorce because divorce means to let go see at the root this word means to let something go so you forgive a sin you let it go you you divorce you let them go right so so we think those are two radical different kind of things but it's the same action and so what this church is doing is they're letting this teaching is going on and they're letting it go they're not doing anything about it they're just permitting it unlike the church at
[38:27] Ephesus they're not testing she calls herself a prophet remember the church at Ephesus we test those they call themselves an apostle they call themselves a prophet well let's see if you are because there's a Jesus said there's a lot of people that will say they're prophets and messiahs and they're lying in fact one of the devil's ways is to right pretend so we will test that how do you test that well prophet tell me what the gospel is let's start there got the gospel okay let's go to who's the master what word do you follow prophet does your prophecies align with this because if they don't align with this then you're a false prophet if they're different from this which by the way when we did the final chapter that says if you take anything away from this last book written or if you add anything that this last book mentions then I'm getting away from you because all the plagues of this book will come toward you so so they're permitting it they're allowing this seductive teaching why are they doing that perhaps because they're love they are loving but they love without discernment they don't have those they're not loving with their love is just kind of yeah we love everybody and that can be well-meaning and I love those kind of people right they're loving but what's the discernment on this and if you love them all the way do you help them or hurt them if you love them in their sin now love them who are caught in sin yes love them like oh yeah it's something that
[40:21] Jesus doesn't care it doesn't matter what you do really okay maybe maybe they they do this because they fear to be a church that looks like it's unloving maybe the church fears being called narrow-minded or intolerant because those are the terms that will come to the church that says Jesus draws a line that that when we come to Jesus we actually repent of our former lifestyle and we now seek to live what he tells us to live and sometimes that means repenting of things that I love and and have natural desires for well that can't be right God gave him to me yeah did he well I was born with it okay doesn't mean God gave it to you
[41:25] Jezebel who's this Jezebel she's from the men's group knows who this Jezebel is we've been studying the life of Elijah and Elijah keeps coming across this woman called Jezebel she was the foreign wife of the most wicked king of Israel his name was Ahab not to be confused with the whale guy Ahab was one of the most evil kings of Israel remember Israel had split from Judah so it's the northern ten kingdoms right so this is after Solomon after things fell apart okay king of the north so he married a foreign woman he did not marry an Israelite so he broke the law and married a foreign woman why because she's okay I'll save what she is so here's how the New Testament describes it there was none who sold himself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab in other words he's the worst nobody sold himself to do what is evil before the eyes of the Lord like Ahab whom Jezebel his wife incited in other words the real person wearing the pants in that marriage was Jezebel and if you read the story you'll find out because he comes home crying and she says what are you crying about
[42:49] I'll fix it that's how things went Ahab's kind of and Jezebel's like I'll take it right I mean that was a literal Hebrew translation wasn't it that's at least what we all got in the men's group we got yeah that guy okay she killed prophets she threatened Elijah Elijah was a man of God who took on 950 prophets and overcame them right with fire from heaven and the next day Jezebel threatens his life and what does Elijah the man of God do run I can take 450 prophets on but one evil woman I'm out of she was scary okay we laugh but she was scary I got the impression this Jezebel type here in
[43:50] Thyatira was not someone to be lightly taken okay she was probably a strong business woman in the community probably was a power mover probably was very intimidating okay that's why I'm not gonna you could front Jezebel I gotta go to the mountains so I mean even Elijah right a man like us right he got afraid so so and then it says later in her life after God killed Ahab her husband she continued to live on as the queen mother and ran the kingdom through her son and this is what it said at the end of her life what peace can there be so long as the whorings and sorceries of your mother Jezebel are so many so Jezebel she's not just a killer of prophets she's not just a idol worshiper which she brought in Baal worship but also she was a whoring woman and a sorceress okay those often go hand in hand just like in the first century they're saying these trade guilds to participate is not only that you're eating the food sacrificed to idols but there's immorality along with it it was the same thing back in
[45:15] Israel she is seducing the nation into this to stray from God so as Jezebel seduced Israel so now this whoever her counterpart is Jesus is calling her Jezebel that probably wasn't her real name he's just calling her that she's just like that Jezebel that Jezebel woman here she is again now she's in this church okay so he says what verse 21 what about her well I gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her immorality this is a Christian woman and he's already come to her somehow we're not told how perhaps through the apostle John who maybe it's been going on for a while because God is really patient with this stuff and she refuses to repent so she is hardened so what's
[46:21] God going to do next well verse 23 I will no excuse me verse 22 I will throw her onto a sick bed literally it's just I will throw her onto a bed the idea is implication is to sickness and those who commit adultery with her in other words those who are following her those who have been enticed and come along with her I will throw into a great tribulation unless they repent of her works so in other words God hasn't he's not done yet notice that it's like I'm coming unless they repent he's going to give her another chance he's already confronted her she's unrepentant okay now I'm going to take it to the next level unless she repents how many chances does God give people how severe is God's judgment well he seems to be patient to hold it off as long as he can and for sinners
[47:23] I mean I'm so grateful for that for myself how many times did he warn me and I kept straying doing what I did that I knew in my heart was wrong and here's this woman she's she's hurting the church she's a Jezebel that's evil but something in her she's she's in the church and he's calling her to repentance and he's giving her more chances amazing isn't it how gracious and merciful this God is so it may sound scary to have those blazing eyes looking at you but no behind those blazing eyes is also a God full of mercy full of mercy and patience he is a holy holy God but he is long suffering that's our word that we love patience long suffering you know how to be short suffering right long suffering that's a lot harder because it's longer just a little insight there so and then notice at the end of verse 23 why he's doing this what's really important to Jesus he's looking at this church he's saying
[48:57] I love this about you he's looking at this church he says I got this against you okay we really need to have some repentance going on here and whoever's leading this church needs to do some confrontation gentle confrontation of this woman and her followers but notice what's really important to Jesus the end of verse 23 I will strike her children dead that could simply just mean I will I will I will strike her children with pestilence or some kind of affliction because literally it's I will kill her children dead that's kind of like overkill kill them dead so it's probably a picture here's here the next sentence in verse 23 and all the churches will know see when I act when I bring this affliction when I bring this judgment all the churches will know and I want them all to know what that I am he who searches mind and heart and
[50:00] I will give to each according to your works I am patient I am merciful I am going to wait you out as long as I possibly can but there will come a point of no more I will like the people in Corinth right 1 Corinthians chapter 11 where they're not they're not worthily taking the communion right talks about they're not doing it in a worthy manner and Paul says that's by the way that's why some of you are asleep dead taken home early and that's why some of you are sick because God says you're not going to treat my communion table in an unworthy manner you're not going to keep on doing that there will come a point where I say okay that's that's enough Jimmy's going sorry Jim yeah Ralph Ralph's coming home early so that that may be what he's saying here
[51:04] Jezebel if she's not going to repent I'm just going to take her home or I'm going to make her really sick with the last hope that that will break her that that will get her attention all will know I thought of Galatians 6 7 says do not be deceived God is not mocked whatever you sow that you will reap it matters how you walk it matters how you live God does not expect perfection by any means but he does desire us to trust and lean on and repent huh and if we're just negligent and ignorant and or suppressing the truth remember Romans 1 remember how
[52:11] God's wrath is displayed we repress the truth suppress the truth and what does God do does he come and get us no he pulls back and then we go on further and we do what we do in our sin we keep following our natural impulses and what does he do does he come and attack us no he pulls back God's wrath is displayed by pulling back his grace pulling back his grace leaving us to ourselves that's wrath living apart from God and he's talking about unbelievers there he can do that with believers as well we probably don't realize how much God is protecting us like Paul says there but for the grace of God go I right is that Paul saying that or am I making that up I think I'm making it up but you know to say right there before the grace of God right I could be there I could be that kind of sinner if it wasn't for God's restraining grace in my life and my parents and my friends and my church and what has helped preserve me and not giving those opportunities peace so
[53:25] I feel like I'm going off today am I going off today now it is now it is okay finally there's still hope for this these people look at verse 26 to the one who conquers and keeps my works until the end I will give two gifts his promise is to the one who conquers well what is conquering well for the church who is being addressed as tolerant conquering means confronting no longer tolerating but confronting that sin okay for the sake of Jezebel and for the sake of those people following her and for the sake of their witness in that community and then for the others what does conquering mean it means for those who are holding to this teaching for those who are participating it means repentance it means rejecting what's false rejecting what is conforming to the world and trusting
[54:33] Jesus' word that these things are not right and the promise is twofold I will give one verse 26 I will give authority over the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron as when earthen pots are broken in pieces even as I myself received authority from my father stop there so I will give authority to rule with a rod of iron doesn't that sound familiar that sounds like the prerogative of one person that I know of to rule with a rod of iron that's what the Messiah will do rule with the rod of iron now he's saying to the one who overcomes hey Jezebel if you overcome I'm going to let you rule what who rules with a rod of iron well Jesus does it's actually just another way of saying you will rule with Christ you will reign with Christ the end of this book ends that way those who are part of the resurrection reign with
[55:35] Christ reign with that doesn't mean you're taking over for Jesus okay and then he says I will give you a morning star verse 20 and I'll give you the morning star in verse 22 chapter 22 16 Jesus says I am the bright and morning star it just means you're going to reign with Christ and part of what you get is when you reign with Christ you get Jesus you get the shining star so how can we be a church that's loving without compromise of the truth I think 2 Timothy 2 sums this up really well for us Paul says to Timothy therefore if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable in other words repents right he will be a vessel for honorable use set apart as holy watch this he will be useful to the master I like that would you like to be useful to the master to be useful to Jesus we'd like to hear
[56:41] Jesus say well done I like what you did there then we cleanse ourselves from what's dishonorable ready for every good work so if you what does cleansing look like well flee youthful passions lust pursue righteousness faith love and peace along with not by yourself but pursue that with those who call upon the Lord from a pure heart we do it together have nothing to do with foolish ignorant controversies don't get into arguments because they're arguments you know that they breed quarrels and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome okay here we go must not be quarrelsome but be kind to everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil not condemning it patiently enduring evil correcting his opponents with gentleness not attacking correcting with gentleness God may perhaps grant repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth because what they're lacking is truth and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil so that's what we recognize
[57:58] Jezebel member of the church captive not not controlled believers can't be controlled but they can be deceived right held captive she's bought in she herself has been enticed and deceived and now is teaching this tolerance okay after being captured by him to do his will so how does a loving church how can we be a loving church without compromising one realize this that God alone defines what is true we don't say this is my truth and this is your truth we say this is truth when it comes to definitions of morality to change that truth is a seduction of Satan it is a lie truth here's the truth we are all sinners we are all born in sin we are all we're formed in the womb with our sin nature inherited from our forefathers we all still fall we all still rebel we all twist the truth when it helps us and we're called to cleanse ourselves from the sin we're called to look to
[59:34] Christ to confess our sin to ask forgiveness to turn back around Jesus calls us to follow him and what he means by that is to flee the lust of the world and we care for one another we pursue these things with one another so if my brother sins and if I'm pursuing righteousness peace joy faith love these things if I'm pursuing those with other believers then I will know if my brother is falling off or my brother will know if I'm falling off and Jesus says if your brother sins go to him in private right and show him don't condemn him show him show him not your opinion show him show him because it doesn't matter what you think it really doesn't matter it matters what he thinks show him his fault show him brother
[60:40] I got that right or do I got it wrong where are you there we show him we go we correct with gentleness and we pray that God will give them repentance the devil is working hard today to seduce the church to seduce the church to be more like the world to adopt the values of the world it is pressuring us to loosen up on our tight wad morals narrow minded Christians that pressure is coming from Satan not who he's using it's coming from Satan he doesn't want us to be a church where Jesus is known as I search their hearts they are repenting before me they're holy because they look to me
[61:45] Satan wants us to be tolerant he wants us not to make judgments he wants us to conform to society come on get up get with it now right it's modern day modern day stop that preaching show movies and be like the rest of but Jesus says hold fast my works hold fast my works my works not yours hold fast my works may we willingly meet the searching gaze of Jesus and do all that we can to please him let's pray father we thank you for your word I pray Lord Jesus as I prayed earlier today that you would filter my words that you could be heard this is a difficult subject I'm afraid of saying it the wrong way but I'm not afraid of saying what's true so father grant that your truth wins out grant that we each hear what the spirit is saying to the churches this we pray in christ's name amen