Good morning, beloved. Let's open in our Bibles to Revelation Chapter 2. Revelation 2, 18 to 29. It's on page 1029 in the Pew Bibles. Revelation 2, 18 to 29. So we come this morning to the letter of Jesus through the angel, through John, to the church in Thyatira. This is what the word of God says. 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. I know your works. your love and faith and service and patient endurance and that your latter works exceed the first. 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 food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works. 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 of you according to your works. 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. only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations and he will roll them with a rod of iron as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let us pray. Father, you know how weak we are, how prone to wonder we are, how cold we can tend to be. to glorious, ultimate reality like the person and glory of Christ. So I pray that you will stir our hearts as we just sang, Lord, that in our hearts there will be an ongoing, ever-deepening stirring about the person and glory and majesty and terrifying power of Christ. Lord, woo back to yourself any among us who is wandering, any among us who is weak. Give your strength to them. Any among us who are discouraged, that you would raise them up, Lord. That you would encourage any one of us. who's making progress to make yet more progress. We want to be a people who, as your word says, mount up on wings like an eagle in our obedience to you, in our love for you, and in our display of love for one another by your grace. So draw near and walk that and use these weak words of mine to that end. I ask in Jesus' name, amen. Certain things demand a very keen attention to a delicate balance in order to maintain equilibrium. For example, in an ecosystem, if you intrude on the prey-predator relationship in that ecosystem, you can disrupt the balance that is there and cause a lot of problems. Here's another example. in international relations, about which I know nothing, the balance of power in the various regions of the world demands a keen attention on the part of world leaders to the balance between the right kind of diplomacy and militarization and strategic regional alliances, which world leaders must pay attention to, and if they don't, a major conflict can erupt. Well, in the Christian life, faithfulness demands a biblical balance between walking in love and holding to the truth. So we have statements in the Bible like speaking the truth in love, which means you shouldn't claim you love if you are not speaking the truth. And you shouldn't claim you are speaking the truth if you do not love. There has to be a biblically adjusted balance in those two regards. Why am I saying that this morning? I say that because the way the church in Thyatira is criticized by Jesus is exactly the opposite way in which he criticized the church in Ephesus. So if you're looking at the criticisms and the corrections that any one of these two churches received, they are basically polar opposites of each other. They are essentially the opposite of each other. You may remember that the church in Ephesus was doctrinally pure but had lost its first love. That's the criticism it received from Jesus Christ. The church in Thyatira, on the other hand, is loving. We actually read that about them, their love. They have love for God and love for one another. but they have opened the door to moral corruption in the church. So you see they are on opposite sides of the spectrum in the criticisms that the head of the church, Jesus Christ, brings to each of them. So this warns us, doesn't it? It reminds us, as God's people, that corruption can infect a church doctrinally. But corruption can also infect a church morally. It can come in one of two ways. And no matter how it starts, it's dangerous for the church. whether it's doctrinal or it's moral, because one will eventually lead to the other. It never starts and remains there. If you picture a local church as a two-legged creature, like an ostrich or a human being, then the two legs on which it walks will be doctrinal purity and moral integrity. The church, any given local church, needs both of those to be doing what God calls it to do. And the church in Thyatira was extremely wobbly in regard to moral integrity. And to fix that problem, Jesus speaks a word to them that teaches us at least five truths for our own upbuilding and edification this morning. So five truths that Jesus conveys to us today by his word to the church in Thyatira. Truth number one, Jesus searches hearts. Jesus searches hearts. He sees into the deepest recesses of every human person. And sometimes he acts in ways as to let the churches know that he searches hearts. Do you see that in verse 23? Look at verse 23 of our passage, beginning at verse 22. Behold, that's Jesus speaking, I will through her, meaning the false prophetess, onto a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her I will through into great tribulation. unless they repent of her works. And I will strike her children dead, and I hear this, and all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart. Those words are actually in the original, he who searches kidneys and hearts, which means the deepest recesses of the human person. There's no dialysis that can reach as far as Jesus' eyes can see into the human person. Jesus searches hearts, and sometimes He acts in ways to let the churches see He searches hearts. Isn't that what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4? No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. That's who is speaking to the church in Thyatira. In other words, he knows what you thought about all week. He knows what you have muttered about. He knows what draws you, He knows the motives, the things that move you, the things that attract you, Jesus sees. And He knows these things with infallible precision. Can't debate with Him about that. If I have any motive other than exalting Him and building up God's people for preaching this particular sermon, Jesus knows it. He searches human hearts, and that's an attribute of our God. Let's listen to what the Bible says about God in Jeremiah 11 20. The Lord of hosts, who judges righteously, tests the heart and the mind. Jeremiah 20 verse 12. The Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, sees the heart and the mind. One of the last words of King David to his son Solomon as he was passing of the stage of leadership in God's program was this, 1 Chronicles 28 9. And you Solomon, my son, this is King David, a man who is defined as the man after God's heart, who saw all kinds of deliverances, all kinds of favors, all kinds of blessings, and discipline from the Lord that was severe. As he comes to his dying days and knows who is going to sit on the throne after him in his stead, what does he say to Solomon? If you were there, what would you say to that son of yours? Here's what David says. And you Solomon, my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind. And here's the reason. for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. How should the fact that Jesus searches hearts impact the way you think about your spouse? If everything you ever thought about your spouse were put on the table, will you still be married today? or a brother church, or a sister church, or a pastor, or as a pastor to the members of the church. If everything you ever thought about someone else was put on the table and made known as Jesus knows them, what would it be like? How should this impact your thought life, the life of your mind? And notice a corollary that follows from the fact that Jesus searches hearts. Look at the last part of verse 23. And I will give to each of you according to your works. Because he knows with infallible precision what goes through your mind and how that plays itself out in your attitudes and actions and words. He will give to you and to me and to everyone else according to our works, he says. Paul tells the Romans, that means no fraud, no favoritism, no partiality, no treatment of somebody based on something other than what they have done. Paul tells the Romans in Romans chapter two, God will render to each one according to his works, and that will happen, Paul says, on that day when according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. You know, that should be a comfort to us. If you believe in Jesus Christ, if your righteousness is His righteousness, this should be a comfort to you. It should be a comfort because no wrong ever done against you will be swept under the rock. Jesus sees it down to the motives for why it was done. Nothing will be missed. No faithfulness of yours will be unrewarded. Jesus sees it. The times when you spoke a word or undertook an action and everything was badly misconstrued. You had the purest of motives. You had the most loving of motives and you were badly misunderstood. Jesus doesn't have that misconstrual. He will see to it that your reward matches what was in your heart. He searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. Remember what? God told Samuel when he went down to anoint David, man looks at the outward appearance, but Jesus, God, looks at the heart. So Jesus searches hearts. But that should also be a terror to us. It should frighten us and scare us and remind us we are not dealing with a being with whom we can play games. No hypocrisy will fly under the radar of Jesus. He will see everything. He knows it before it happens. That's what David says in Psalm 139, before a word is on my tongue, behold, you know it altogether. You know, you may receive praise and acclaim from men, but Jesus sees exactly the impulses of the heart, the movement of the heart, what's driving that attitude and that behavior and that speech and that word. If you flatter with your tongue, Jesus knows exactly. If you pray sincerely, Jesus knows exactly. That's exactly what Isaiah said of Jesus. Isaiah chapter 11. He shall not judge by what he sees, or decide disputes by what his ears hear. So he will not be like one of these judges who sits in judgment and depends on the prosecuting attorney and the defense attorney and the jury and the witnesses to decide who is just and who is unjust here. No, he will judge righteously and shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the make of the earth. So there will not be any adjudication. He just knows perfectly what is to be known. As one theologian puts it, temptations have no encouragement to come near any person that is constantly armed with the thought that his sin is booked in God's omniscience. Like you know it's not escaping your mind that whatever you do, whether people are seeing or not seeing, that it is booked in God's omniscience. He knows it can't be forgotten. People who know God like that know to fight and run away from sin. So Jesus searches hearts. Truth number two, Jesus commends and encourages faithfulness. He commends and encourages faithfulness. So Jesus is not an exacting taskmaster that is impossible to please. That's not who he is. It's possible that some of us might have grown up with a dad or a mom whose standard you almost never meet. They're always asking more. They're never impressed. They're just telling you how much of a failure you are. Jesus is not like that. I mean, how could he be and then say, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. That's who he is. He encourages. and commend faithfulness. Notice the way he speaks to the church in Thyatira. Verse 19. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance that your latter works exceed the first. That's very striking commendation. From the Jesus who knows everything to this church that we will see in a moment was wracked by moral corruption that they tolerated. Jesus takes time to praise the virtues in the church. The church is working hard. They are loving one another. There is radiant love among them. And they love God and love one another. And what they do to serve one another is animated by this love. They are faithful. They are engaged in service. They are not idly sitting around as Christians. And even more remarkably, Jesus highlights the fact that they are making progress. They are growing in their faith. Do you see that? Your latter works exceed the first. So he's able to see what's happening right now in light of what was happening before and say like this progress, you're moving in the right direction here, Jesus is saying to them. And then in verse 24, he speaks in a way that shows he's not interested in trying to make the Christian life as hard as it could possibly be. Did you see verse 24? 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. Only hold fast what you have until I come. How tender and encouraging is that? I do not lay any other burden on you. I'm not an exacting taskmaster. I'm not asking you to do the impossible. I'm not imagining harder things to put on you to do. My yoke is easy. My burden is light. Isn't that the Jesus? that Isaiah talks to us about. A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench. He commends and encourages faithfulness. This is instructive to us as believers. We should expect that in our lives, we should often, regularly even, be marked by both thankfulness and repentance. Thankfulness and repentance. Thankfulness for the areas in which we are making progress and repentance in the areas where we are not making progress. Our tendency as human beings, depending on personality type, can either be to focus unduly in the area where we are doing well and never feel any need to repent and strive to make progress in the area where we are failing, or to become absorbed by a morbid introspection that focuses only on the area where we are failing and then become overcome by discouragement. That would be our human tendencies. But that's not what Jesus teaches us here. He calls us to be a people marked by both thankfulness on the one hand and repentance on the other. The two are not mutually exclusive. They should be working together in our lives as believers. That's instructive for me as a parent, for me as a believer, for me as a pastor, for me as a spouse. If I'm always only looking for how my child is failing, I'll not help them, I'll crush them with burdens. If I'm only looking at how they are passing, I will not help them develop in the area where they are weak. Same thing for your marriage, same thing for us as believers ministering to one another. Correcting where correction needs to be given and giving affirmation where affirmation is needed. You know, no matter how somebody is stumbling, if there are marks of grace in their lives, you are failing if you are not commending those marks. Commending an area of strength, an area where grace is evident in somebody's life, even when they are failing, is not an approval of the failure. You should commend what is commendable and turn around and correct what is demanding correction. That's the example that Jesus is showing us here. And the reverse is true. If somebody's always receiving only commendation and there's never any correction given them, then they will not develop as fully as they are. This is basic New Testament teaching, isn't it? When Paul writes to the Corinthians, he comes to chapter 5, they are tolerating egregious sexual immorality in their midst. What does he say? It's unthinkable that you who are participants in the new exodus, in the new exodus from slavery to sin into going into the new heavens and the new earth, that you're tolerating immorality among you that even unbelievers can't stand it. But when he comes to chapter 11, he says, I commend you for holding to the traditions and remembering the things I passed on to you and holding on to them as I pass them on to you. So he's not steamrolling everything and saying, sexual immorality is this, so everything is bad, or you are holding to the tradition, so everything is great. No, he's commending where there is, where commendation is appropriate and correcting where they ought to be. correction. One of the most important, not maybe not the most important, but one important skill and discipline you need to learn as a believer is to learn to receive godly encouragements and receive godly corrections and criticism and also learn to give godly encouragements and godly criticisms. You need that to be effective in your life as a disciple maker. That is the lesson Jesus shows us here. If we follow that, we are walking in the steps of our master. Jesus encourages and commends faithfulness. Truth number three, Jesus hates indifference to sin. Jesus hates indifference to sin. Notice I am not saying Jesus hates sin. That's undeniable of course. He hates sin, but I'm specifically saying beyond having, beyond hating sin, Jesus hates an attitude of indifference to sin, especially when that indifference is present in the one place on the planet where Jesus' name should be revered most, namely, a local church. When a local church develops an attitude of indifference to sin, Jesus hates it. So if we adopt a laissez-faire attitude, if we adopt a don't ask, don't tell kind of attitude towards any significant sin, in our midst as a church, we provoke Jesus to wrath against us. Where am I getting that from? Look at verse 20 of our passage. But I have this against you, says Jesus, 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 food sacrificed to idols. Now this is a church that is known for its love. The church is loving enough that Jesus himself sees it and speaks about it. But their love has degenerated into permissiveness. It's degenerated into a live and let live kind of attitude. To the point that they are allowing a false prophet to exercise corrupting influence in the midst of the church. Now you would notice, I hope, that John is doing here something we saw last week. He's using an Old Testament historical event and person to paint a vivid picture of what was happening there in Thyatira. Because he says, you tolerate that woman Jezebel. Obviously, the original Jezebel from the Old Testament had been dead many thousands of years by this time. But those who knew the Old Testament and knew the name Jezebel and what it stood for and what she was promoting, they would understand John's point. They will be jolted out of their stupor into realizing we are about to be brought under by what we are tolerating in our midst. And just hear some of the things that the Old Testament says about this woman, Jezebel. 1 Kings 16 verse 31. So this is a Sidonian woman, a woman from Sidon, who was married to one of the kings of the northern kingdom by the name of Ahab, King Ahab. And this is what the Bible says about Ahab in connection to Jezebel. 1st Kings 16.31, and as if it had not been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, so this is King Ahab, he took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him. So this is an Israelite king who chooses to marry a non-Israelite who in coming into that marriage brought all of the idolatry of her people into the northern kingdom and helped accelerate them on the path to exile basically. This Jezebel of Equin plotted murders. She organized land grabs in Israel. She threatened to kill true prophets like Elijah. She actually killed prophets of God. She sold herself to do evil to the point that under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the author of Kings will say this, 1 Kings 21-25. There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord, like Ahab, I hear this, whom Jezebel his wife incited. So Jezebel was that backseat driver in the administration of King Ahab who was controlling everything. King Ahab was not only wicked, he was weak. He could not lead. He abdicated leadership completely and therefore Jezebel had the full power and opportunity to enact the full scoop of her evil agenda among God's people. And John is saying that is playing itself out right now in Thyatira. You are allowing a woman whose agenda and purpose and plan and action is exactly like that of Jezebel, who infiltrated God's people in the northern kingdom, led them to sexual immorality, led them to the worship of idols, and eventually brought down that kingdom. But the deceit of Jezebel in Thyatira John connected to the deep things of Satan. Satan is always deceiving people, setting them up against God, setting them up, leading them to rebel against God. It started in the garden, Genesis chapter three, and has continued until when he is finally judged at the end of the age. And the human instrument by whom this deception was coming in Thyatira is this false prophet, code named Jezebel. And that teaches us as a church that the relationship between love and the truth of God's word is in some ways like the relationship between the organs and systems of the human body, all the other systems and organs of the human body, and the skeletal system. You need the skeletal system to hold up all the other systems. It's the skeleton of the human body that holds the organs, the various organs and systems in their place. If you can imagine a human body that says, who cares about bones, I don't want bones, and dispenses of all the bones, it will collapse into a self-suffocating and disgusting piece of meat lying there that will die. So if a church were to say, we are just about love, we don't care about truth, They will suffocate themselves spiritually to death like that. You need the truth of scripture, the commands of scripture to hold up the reality of love so that that love actually looks like what God intends for it to be. We are not called to love based on how we feel about love. We are not called to love based on how someone else feels about love. We are called to love based on what Jesus says love is. And he says that in his word. The most loving thing that the church in Thyatira ought to do in the face of the threat from Jezebel was to have excluded her from the church. And they failed to do it. And that's precisely Jesus' supreme criticism against them. I'll say more about that before we are done. Truth number four. Jesus is both severe and merciful. I like the word in Romans 11 where Paul says, note therefore the severity and kindness of God. Jesus is both severe and merciful. Note first the severity of Jesus. Look at verse 22. Behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation. That's Jesus' pledge and promise in terms of how he will respond to what was going on there. That's a word of judgment. Jesus is saying, this false prophetess will not go on forever. I will cut her down. She will be brought down. And then notice the irony here. Jesus says, I will throw her onto a sick bed. It's almost saying, you love the bed, I'll put you on the bed. She was about sexual immorality. I'll strike you on a sick bed. And then skip to verse 23. I will strike her children dead. That is her followers. We remember that in 1 Corinthians 11 we read of some people who partook of the Lord's table in an unworthy manner and the Lord of the church struck some of them with sickness and some of them with physical death as discipline to spare them from being condemned along with the world. In fact, if you keep looking at the severity of Jesus here in Revelation chapter 2, part of the way Jesus is described at the beginning of the letter captures something of that severity. Because it says, 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, whose feet are like burnished bronze. That's a sign of judgment because when we get to chapter 19, Jesus is said to be trampling the winepress of God's wrath. So these feet are to say he is not only uncompromising with sin, he will crush his enemies. He has feet that will trample them to death under God's wrath. So that's meant to show us Jesus is severe when he judges. But he's not only severe, he's also merciful. Did you see that? Look at verse 22 again. And hear this. So the door of amnesty is still open to those who have been led astray by this woman. The door of clemency, the door of forgiveness and mercy is still open. In fact, astonishingly enough, this woman had received previous offers of forgiveness that she spurned. Did you see? Verse 21, I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. So Jesus did not move in with judgment against this woman right away. I mean, you read that and you're thinking, I don't get it, Jesus. I thought you were just going to zap someone like that out of life forever and send them to hell. I mean, she's an imposter. She calls herself a prophetess. She's leading your people astray. She's causing your people to drink of the cup of the Lord and drink of the cup of demons. They are eating food sacrificed to idols. And yet Jesus gave her time to repent. That is mercy. Beloved, we have to remember this. He who covers his sins shall not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes shall find mercy. Those who belong to Jesus repent of sin. A refusal to repent and to bear fruit in keeping with repentance is indicative of the fact that someone is unregenerate. So how do you respond when you are confronted with your sin? When somebody brings sin in your life to your attention, does that make you angry? Or does it make you humble and contrite and even more thankful for the cross where the sins have been paid for? Does it make you more zealous to turn away from that sin? Or does it make you start to calculate ways that you can commit the same sin in the future and keep from being caught? See, those are two different responses altogether. If you get angry when people call you to repent, or if you start scheming about how to avoid getting caught when you commit that sin again in the future, That's indicative of the fact you do not have a new heart. You love the sin. You love the fleeting pleasures of sin more than you love the Jesus who offers forgiveness. That was exactly the spiritual condition of this Jezebel. By refusing to repent, she showed she did not belong to the people of God. So the severity and the mercy of Jesus are meant to lead us to repentance. They are not meant for us to take Jesus for granted because his mercy will not drag on for eternity. There will come a time when he will bring everything to reckoning. And for us as a church, like I said, that means that if somebody would not repent of their sin, we should, with trembling and humility, apply the authority of the kingdom of God, the keys of the kingdom, the power of the keys of the kingdom, whereby the person is excluded. from the fellowship of the church. Either we are saying your confession does not match what the Bible says or your words match what the Bible says, but your life does not match what the Bible says. We must never forget a little leaven leavens the whole lump. That's what the church in Thyatira was missing. The severity and mercy of Jesus should lead us as individuals to repent. If there's something in your life now that you know of Jesus, the Holy Spirit has been putting a finger on or a spouse or a brother or sister has been putting a finger on and you have been playing games. Here is Jesus calling you to repent of that. Let's remember, he who covers his sins shall not prosper. The second half of that promise is worth a trillion dollars. But he who confesses and forsakes shall find mercy. Here's the fifth and final truth. Jesus promises royal status to overcomers. Jesus promises royal status to overcomers. Verse 26. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. And the one who conquers is defined as one who keeps his works until the end. In the New Testament, works and faith go together. All true works are children begotten by true faith. Because as the reformer said, we are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone. So the New Testament can use works and faith interchangeably in that sense, recognizing the works are the fruit, not the root of our forgiveness. So he who conquers, to him I will give authority over the nations. And these are the people that Jesus has said to, to the rest of you who do not hold to this teaching and have not learned the deep things of Satan. I don't put any additional burden on you. Just hold what you have until I return. And his promise, his pledge to them is that if you do, if you hold on to what you have until I return, I will give authority over the nations to you and you will rule them with an iron rod and smash them as earthen vessels. That language comes out of Psalm 2 verses 8 and 9. Do you remember in Psalm 2? What's going on there is that the Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel is speaking to his Messiah, to his Davidic king and saying to him, ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage. You will rule them with a rod of iron. So that's speaking about Jesus. And we have confirmation of that because in the book of Revelation chapter 12, Jesus is described as one who will rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Chapter 19 verse 15 is described again as one who will rule them with a rod of iron. So the promise in Psalm 2 is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That's clear enough. But here's the astonishing thing here. Here's what is just mind-blowing here. Jesus is not saying I will rule over the nations. He's saying he will give to you and me the authority to rule over the nations. That's what he's saying. What the father gave to him, he's saying I will give to you. I'll give you authority to rule over the nations. That's the promise given to anyone who conquers. What will that look like? Can you picture yourself receiving from Jesus authority to rule over the nations with a rod of iron, the blood but incontestable authority of Jesus to rule over all the nations that have ever been and will ever be under Jesus. Can you picture yourself with that kind of privilege? No one of us has categories for the glory and blessing that lie ahead of those who endure to the end. That's why Paul would say, I consider the afflictions of the present age not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. The creature creator distinction will not disappear. Jesus will still be Lord and creator of all, but we will rule not in spite of him, but with him and under him. And that's the promise that he gives to us. And I want you to notice, this is not a promise given to some elite Christians. This is a promise of eternal life. It's what's given to everyone who endures to the end. It's not reserved for some special top tier Christians. And we know that for two reasons. One, each one of these letters to the seven churches ends with some symbolic description of the promise of eternal life. The letter to a church in Ephesus ended by saying, I will grant them to eat of the tree of life. The letter to a church in Smyrna ended by saying, they will not be hurt by the second death. The letter to the church in Pergamum ended by saying, I'll give them to eat of the hidden manna, and I'll give them a white stone with a name written on it that no one knows except the one who receives the stone. So we have no doubt that by the time this letter to the church in Thyatira is ending, John is describing eternal life again. But on top of that, in the immediate context, You could see that Jesus does not only say, I will give you authority to rule over the nations. He also says something in addition. I will give him the morning star. What does that mean? That's language that comes from Numbers 24 verse 17. If you remember, we looked at Balaam and saw how Balak had brought Balaam to curse the Israelites. And even though Balaam really wanted to curse the Israelites, when he opened his mouth, God did not let him curse, only blessings came out. And part of the blessings that Balaam spoke was said like this in chapter 24 of Numbers verse 17. So he's speaking over Israel and says, I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. It shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth. So there will be a skull-crushing king to come from Jacob. That's what Balaam is saying. And who is that skull-crushing king? But Jesus. He's finally come. He's crushed not only the skull of Moab. He's crushed the skull of the serpent on the cross and destroyed him utterly. And in chapter 22 of Revelation, Jesus says, I have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star. So he takes that language of Numbers 24, 17 and applies it to himself. And so what does he mean when he says, I will give to him the morning star? He means I will give to him myself. The greatest joy in glory land is not the physical blessings we will have, is the gift of Jesus himself to us. That is the greatest joy we will have. That's true freedom, that is the incorruptible inheritance that is laid up for us in heaven. And that's why we can sing and say, the bride eyes not her garments, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but on my King of grace. Not at the crown he giveth, but on his pierced hand. The land is all the glory of Emmanuel's land. That's why I said Jesus promises royal status and a gift of himself to all who will endure to the end. And therefore, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, you are too glorious, too wonderful, too satisfying for any human words to describe the beauty and glory and redemption and blessing and inheritance that you are to your people. Just ask, Lord, that whatever has been said here that is in keeping with truth, that you will seal that to our hearts and cause it to bear abiding fruit in our lives. Whatever has been said that is not in keeping with truth, that you would help us to discern it, dispense with it, and hold to what is true. Keep us holding onto the truth until we see you face to face. In Jesus' name, amen.