Well, this afternoon, we're continuing our series, The Seven Churches in Revelation, which I've told you may go extend longer than that. Not yet settled about that, but just looking at what we'll do with this series in the future, if we'll go on in Revelation or not. Today, it's the Church of Thyatira, that's the fourth one in the list. And Jesus' letter to this church is found in Revelation chapter 2 and verse 18 to 29. Thyatira was the smallest and the least important of the seven churches that Jesus sent letters to. It was primarily, in history, a military buffer that was used to protect places like Pergamos, like when the enemies would come in, then they had a garrison at at Thyatira, and they would impede the army, slow it down, and then Pergamos or whoever could get ready for the battle. So they got destroyed all the time. They weren't really able to build a lot of things. They got destroyed, wiped out, and then they would send another garrison in, rebuild the city, and get it going again. That was kind of its history, so it didn't ever develop a great deal of importance. But when Pax Romana came in and there was the Roman peace and there were one or all these skirmishes between different communities and things that were close to one another, then they were able to begin to develop a little bit. That's how it was when the time that Jesus wrote these letters. And so what came about there was a lot of trades. It was kind of a working town. And they were a small town, but there were a lot of people there that were just, you know, regular type laborers. And they had guilds. Then you kind of had to be part of the guild. It's kind of like a union if you were going to apply a trade there. They had some of the ones that they, the archaeologists have dug up are wool workers. linen workers, makers of outer garments, coats and things, tanners and leather workers, potters, bakers, dyers. That was one of the things they were really known for is that they dyed cloth. Lydia was from there, from Thyatira, and she was a seller of purple. So that would have been some of that. And they were slave traders. They had a guild for that. And they had bronze smiths as well, people that manufactured bronze. It's the reference to the bronze shoes of Christ in this Thyatira. But you had a lot of working people here. And I've pointed out how to you that by sending letters to seven churches when our Lord did that, that it is impactful because it shows us that he is intimately involved with each individual church. If he's involved intimately with these seven, It's the same with every church everywhere. If he just said to the church in general, it was all general, we wouldn't have that regard of the specific care that he has for each one. And when we see now this church in a small place, kind of an unimportant place as far as the world would have it, And here he sends a letter to them, specifically, as well as to a place like Ephesus that was a thriving commercial center, or a place like Pergamos that had the rich history that we talked about with all the, it was the capital of Asia Minor, it had all the important things. So our Lord is engaged with everyone. There's not people that he kind of overlooks and says, oh, those people are not important to me. It's very, very instructive to us. Let's read the letter that Jesus sent to this church. It's actually the longest of these seven letters. To the smallest community, he writes the longest letter. Not that that necessarily means anything. It's just the way it fell out. But here is the Word of God, Revelation 2, 18. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things says the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass. I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience. And as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed, I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. Now to you, I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden, but hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels. as I also have received 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. And there we end the reading of God's word. Thanks be to God for his holy and infallible word. May he use his word effectually in our lives today. It's interesting that I have that quote from Psalm 2 there that someone chose Psalm 2 this afternoon. But once again, we come to this letter recognizing that though it was written to a specific group in history, specific place, specific time, that there is instruction for us to hear that the word of God is written in such a way that it benefits us and it is up to us to consider what these things say to us, how they apply to us. Always read the word of God that way. Don't just read it as an interesting history or something. Read it to what does God have for me here? What is he saying to us as his people? So here we are to learn as we do from all the scriptures of our Lord. and of ourselves as his people. And even if you are not one of his people, you can learn of the God who made you and who will judge you so that you can know how to become one of his people. These are very important things to consider. You can experience his saving work. So let's look at this little letter here that we have just read. The first thing we learn here about our Lord is that our Lord presents himself is one that you would not want to trifle with, one that you would not want to mess with. Believe me, if you truly take in what he says about himself here at the beginning of this, it will change your life. I remember meditating one summer when I was teaching on the first time I taught through the Ten Commandments. And the commandment about have no other gods before me, the first one, it was words before me. Realizing that God is always, he sees everything, he knows everything, he deals with us. It had a great impact of changing my life and my walk to always remember God's there, he sees. And so Jesus says here to the church and to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, these things, this is how he identifies himself, these things says the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass. So you see there's three things here, that he declares himself here to be the son of God. And this is a unique thing to him alone. The angels are called the sons of God, it's true, and we by adoption are also called sons of God, but he is the only begotten of the Father. He is the Son of God in a sense that no one else is or can be. He possesses the one divine essence of God. He is of the same substance and equal in power and glory with the Father. He is eternal and unchanging. He was not begotten in time. But as a son, he was eternally begotten of the Father. There was never a time that he was not begotten. He is God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, as it says in the Creed, the Nicene Creed. He is our creator and judge. And so he is worthy of all honor and worship. He added to his eternal, unchanging, divine nature as the son of God, a human nature. when he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, but he continued to hold the stars in their courses, even while he dependently nursed his mother's breast. He had to have milk in order to live, as we do when we're babies, but he also was, as the son of God, ruling over all the nations and subduing kingdoms. What we have then with him is Emmanuel, God with us. He is truly and forever one of us, yet having a human body and spirit like we do, he will continue in that form for all eternity from his birth onward. He still has his divine essence that has no body, but he also has his human nature that he will carry with him forever. So he can fully relate to us. He can represent us as our prophet, priest, and king. He couldn't be our prophet, priest, and king if he were not one of us, if he were not human. But being God, he is what God would be like if he was our prophet, priest, and king. That is exactly what he is. Through him, then, we can be redeemed and we can know God. in a way that we could not know God if we did not have the Son of God made flesh. As believers, we will behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, not only as He has revealed to us now in Scripture through what He did in history when He was here, but we will see Him for all eternity in that way. Now, as we saw in John's vision in Revelation 1, He has all the glory and majesty and inapproachability of God. So that the great apostle John, we saw, fell down on his face before him like a dead man. And the same one that was so awesome was also the one that reached out to John when he was in that posture and touched him and said, do not be afraid. I am he who lives and was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore. That's a beautiful thing, that's one that has so much majesty and glory, is the one who came and died, and who reaches out and says, don't be afraid. How marvelous to know this one. Again, it changes our lives to see his majesty and purity and perfection as God, and to see his gentleness and his care and his ministry to those that call upon him. And then there are two specific things that he refers to about himself besides that he's the son of God that are suitable to his message to the church in Thyatira. Verse 18, he's the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass. So the eyes like a flame of fire remind us that he sees right through us. He has a penetrating gaze. that cuts through everything. This holy son of God sees things that you are ashamed for other people to see in your life. And not only that, but he sees things that you don't even acknowledge about yourself that he sees that are too shameful for you even to look at yourself. He sees everything, but this has a bright side as well. When we are redeemed, He also sees those desires for Him, that love for Him, those aspirations for Him, even when they're very small and imperceptible by other people, maybe even imperceptible almost by ourselves. But that yearning for holiness and some of the growth, some of the love and gratitude that you have toward Him, He sees all of that too. And he rejoices in that. And we're seeing that in these letters, aren't we? Because he speaks about those things in a very positive way, as well as he addresses things that need to change. So he sees everything. And we need to know him as the one who has eyes like a flame of fire. And then his feet are like fine brass. That points to his invincible power, is the one whose steps are unhindered. as he marches forward to carry out his business, to carry out his judgments even, then no one can slow his advance. No one can prevent him. You can't be like that garrison at Thyatira that slows him down. He goes on wherever he's going to go with nothing stopping him. He does whatever he pleases in heaven and earth. In particular, it speaks about the judgment by which he also tramples the proud under his feet. He crushes them. We're told in the prophet Micah, their imagery is used of the Lord empowering his people and making their feet like an oxen hooves that are made of brass or bronze that can trample out, can thrash the nations, you know, they would break the wheat apart from the chaff and the grain that oxen would trample on it. You've got a bronze hooves here trampling the nations. It's a picture in Micah 4, 12 to 13. No one will be able to stop our Lord when his judgment is unleashed. He will be completely unstoppable because he has feet like fine brass. So these are the things that he, this is how he reveals himself. Very, very helpful things for us to see. How we ought to admire our glorious Lord. Because what does he do with those omniscient eyes that see everything and with those bronze feet that can bring judgment and trample whatever he wishes to trample, bring that threshing. Well, he rides forth for justice and righteousness and truth. We sing that praise of him. We're taught to sing praise of him in this regard when we see him, you know, lacing up all of his armor to go to battle. Psalm 45, we sing, my heart is overflowing with a good theme. I recite my composition concerning the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. You are fairer than the sons of men. This is us admiring our husband as he goes out to battle and to do his work. Grace is poured upon your lips. Therefore, God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your thigh, oh mighty one, with your glory and your majesty. And in your majesty ride prosperously because of truth, humility, and righteousness. And your right hand shall teach you awesome things. Your arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies. The peoples fall under you. This is what we see of the one who has this majesty. We praise him and we delight in him as the warrior who goes forth to bring forth his kingdom of righteousness and to subdue Satan's kingdom and bring him down. He is the Lord of glory. He is the savior of the world. He will employ all his all seeing eyes and his brass feet to establish his kingdom of righteousness. We will serve him. in beautiful harmony with one another in the days of the accomplishment of that kingdom. No enemy, no rejecter of him will be able to prevail. He will reign. He will reign without any dispute. If you are among those who have trusted in him for salvation, your soul will be full of him that day, and your heart will rejoice forever. If not, you'll be trampled under his feet. Those are the two ways. So that is how he introduces himself to Thyatira. There's going to be some at Thyatira that were right in the church that are gonna be trampled under those bronze feet. There are other ones that are going to rejoice in this one who brings righteousness and peace into the world. What else do we learn about him in this message to Thyatira? Well, I want you to see next the charitable way that this one who has all seeing eyes judges his people. I trust that you have heard the term charitable judgment before. It's when you look at something in a good light. You don't look at it critically, like looking for trouble and things that are wrong so much, but you look at it to say, hey, you're looking at it in kind of a more of a positive way. Seeing the good in it. You see a bit of something good, and you draw attention to it. You praise that, even though it still leaves much to be desired. That's how it always is for our Lord with us in this present time. Jesus does that with his people all the time. Not only has he fully covered for all of our sins and clothed us with his righteousness so that we're not guilty before him, but he also knows that the work that he's doing in us, it's just begun. The seed though, he knows where that seed is going. And so he sees a seed start to grow and he knows what the flower is going to look like. He knows what he's bringing forth. And so when he sees a little bit of affection for him, a little bit of righteousness, a little bit of whatever it is, he knows where that's going to go in his hand because it's his work. in his people. The good things that he has started will develop into the full things that he delights in. So he delights in the beginning as well as the end of that progress and that growth of his people. Charitable judgment We saw a lot of this in the Song of Solomon, didn't we? Where our bridegroom looks upon his people and he says, I'm ravished with your love. One look of your eyes has captured my heart. This is where he's at with his people. We need to see him like that. We don't see him enough in that way. And what are the things that he sees then and expresses delight in? The saints in Thyatira. Perhaps he has a delight of some of these things in you. Let's look at them and evaluate and consider, do we have these things too? First, he commends them for their love and service. These things kind of fall out in Paris. When we come to Christ for salvation, we cannot help but be delighted with his great love, that even though we were unlovely, that he gave himself for us on the cross. This is love, he said, that a man would lay down his life for his friends. There is so much that could be said about the depth of his suffering for our sake, what he did for us, even more because of his great love for his father. He did it because of love for his father. And his desire as one of us to who became one of us to do what pleases his father because of his love for him. We see the love of Christ so manifested in his saving work. And that love that we see in him then is a love that delighting in that we want to have in our own lives and that we begin to have. As you admire something in someone, you begin to gravitate toward that thing. And this love is a love that expresses itself in service. It sent him to the cross. He didn't just love us and it wouldn't have done any good. Stay up in heaven and love us and say, oh, I love them so much. And never come and do what needed to be done. So the flame of love, this flame of love has been lit in us when we come to him for salvation. By his grace, by the working of his spirit, we come to love what is beautiful because it is beautiful. We're no longer jaded. We don't love beautiful things in our sin, but God begins to change that so that we love what is lovely. We love the Lord, our God, who is lovely. We used to not think he was lovely. He begins to give us a change in that way, an appreciation for things that really are beautiful. We also, though, that love is such a love that we love things that are unlovely. because we see how he loved us when we were unlovely, and how he ministered to us to bring about change. And so we love our enemies as well as we love God. We see how Christ loved us even when we were ignoring him, and we're otherwise ungrateful, or were ungrateful. The love that Jesus commends is a love that sees and loves what is lovely, our God in his glory, but is also deep enough to love those who are sinful and unlovely. And it is a practical love that is produced in us as well, that acts. 1 John 3, 17, whoever has this world's goods and sees his brethren needs and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? Jesus saw this love and service in the saints at Thyatira. And I am thankful to see that in many of you in the congregation. the way that many of you supported families that were in need recently in our congregation and went very far in giving sacrificially to help them out. And delighted to see some of you that really desire to extend hospitality to other people. You reach out, you open your homes, you care for the needy, you care for the lost. You minister to people, you pray for them. The encouragement that some of you give to refresh the saints. You come to those, you see someone that seems to be hurting, you notice that. Other people don't notice it. You notice it, you go and you minister to them. All of these things are things that are beautiful that God has wrought in you and things that he is delighted in to see in you. Jesus says he's pleased with this kind of thing. He's instructing us here about that to encourage us to go on for him. So ask him to to breathe on you and on all of us with the breath of his spirit, that that these things might might flourish in us and might grow up in us, that we might become a lovely people for him. The second pair of qualities that Jesus commends in the church at Thyatira are faith and patience. We may look at faith as we have seen it recently defined in the epistle to the Hebrews in chapter 11. The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. The one who comes to God must believe that he is. and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. In other words, he has the kingdom that he promises is a real thing. It's a kingdom, there's faith, you see, to receive that. This is something he's going to actually do. He's gonna actually do the things that he said he would do. We believe that by faith. We cannot see God, and we cannot yet see the reward, the kingdom that he has for us in the end, but we come to God by faith, believing his promise of forgiveness, that we're forgiven and cleansed of our sin, because he said we are through faith in Jesus Christ, and that he's going to bring us to glory. Because we believe them, we continue in patience. You see how those things go together. waiting for God until he establishes that kingdom, like Abraham did. He never got a piece of the land that God told him he would give him, and yet Abraham continued to seek the city whose builder and maker was God, eternal in the heavens. He realized that it was more than just an earthly kingdom where he would have given up long, long before. We come to him then trusting in him to do the work of saving us that he says he'll do, the work of restoring us that he says he will do through Christ our Savior. We carry on in that hope. Even though we don't see ourselves yet restored, we don't see what we will be yet. But we know that when we see him, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. So Jesus saw this faith and he saw this patience in the saints at Thyatira. No doubt as believers in that day, they were rejected and afflicted by the world. There was much persecution at that time. It was increasing. But they carried on how? By faith, because they believed what God said he would do. Then they could go through all of that with patience. rather than with fretfulness and anger and frustration and giving up. They possessed their souls with faith and patience, and they were filled with the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That was where they lived in their suffering and deprivation in this world. They had riches that the world does not understand. They had joy when other people would say, how do you have joy when you're being abused and persecuted like that? Now, how are we doing in this regard? How are we doing as a church? How are you doing in this regard? Again, many of you have the battle every day. Some of the people that aren't here because of this battle of chronic illness. Some of you have broken relationships somewhere in your life, in your family, and very, very difficult things to bear. Some of you have financial struggles. Some of you have loneliness, and you struggle with loneliness. And maybe people don't seem to want to be around you, and it's a difficult thing. But we know that God's promise is good, that he uses all of these things, whatever they are, And then if you have that faith and you know that there is a hope of glory for you, then you carry on for your God, you carry on, you prepare for glory. I'm encouraged to see this faith in many of you. It pleases our Lord. He sees it. He recognizes it, recognizes it. He knows it's there. But some of you are not continuing in the word. You are not feeding on his word and so you're not fueling your faith. You've become discouraged and you've kind of put God's word aside. You're starving yourself to death. You don't have anything to carry you through. You don't have what God has provided for you. You're not praying, you're not seeking him because you've lost heart. You need to be restored. You need to come back. You need to return to the Lord and to feed on His faithfulness. No wonder you're dry and struggling if God's Word is collecting dust. How can you walk in faith? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Faith evidences itself in persistent calling on the Lord as well. We pray when we have faith. When we don't have faith, God's not gonna do anything, we're not gonna pray. When Jesus taught about persisting in prayer, he then asked, nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he really find faith on the earth? There are gonna be people that are still seeking. After commending the love and service along with the faith and patience of the church at Thyatira, Jesus gives them the fifth thing that's the best compliment of all. What's the best compliment to them of all? He commends them for growing in their works, in their love and service, and in their faith and patience. At the end of verse 19, he says, as for your works, the last are more than the first. That's the way it's supposed to be. Remember, we are to grow in grace, the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, and walk in the fear of God ever increasing and growing in every good work, being fruitful in every good work. We are to increase in the love of God. In Hebrews 11, we saw how men like Abraham and Jacob, especially Jacob, And Joseph, Moses, how they grew in grace as the years rolled on. This was true of the saints at Thyatira. They were growing. But it's not always the case. We know it's not always the case. What did Jesus tell the church at Ephesus? They were reverting. You've lost your first love. You've dried up, he said. So that can happen as well. Their love was not as strong as it had been. They were going the opposite way. I see a mixture in our church. And some have grown cold and indifferent. Some of you here maybe are not among them, but go and stir up those that you see that that's the case. You need to repent. You need to get back on track if that's the case with you. Some of you only recently. Have been stirred up. I've seen some people stirred up lately that are starting to move forward. They're starting to grow. Starting to make progress again. Seeking the Lord again. What a wonderful thing that is. Oh, that would be true. That the Lord could save all of us. Like, what you're doing today is better than what you were yesterday. This year is better than last year. That should be the way it always is for us as Christians. We're to make progress in our walk. So these are the high praises, high praises indeed for Thyatira. But, not everything at Thyatira was well. Jesus has to reprove the angel of the church, we've said that that's the leadership, I think it's probably the elders in plurality that work as the messenger to the church of the Lord, it could be just referring to the ministers, but there are even in these churches, like in Ephesus, it was a whole presbytery, there were multiple ministers there, but he writes to reprove the angel of the church for failing to deal with the false teaching that was in their congregation. We especially need to take this to heart because Jesus has shown us that this is very, very important to him. I mean, this is the third time in the third letter out of four letters that he has mentioned this sort of thing. He knows how dangerous it is for his people to allow false doctrine, false teaching, or sinful practice in their midst. He knows that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. He knows that truth and falsehood cannot coexist in his church. The falsehood. will become dominant if it's allowed to remain. At Ephesus, Paul had sent Timothy. Remember when we saw Ephesus? They were doing well in this regard. They weren't doing well in their love, but they were doing really well. They purged out the false teachers. They found those that said they were apostles and not, and they cast them out. And they were the ones that it was You guys are doing great at Ephesus. Remember how the history of that, though, they had not been doing so well. Read the epistles to Timothy. Why was Timothy sent to Ephesus? Because they had false teachers among them and those teachers needed to be dealt with. The whole epistle of First Timothy is about that. And they had taken heed to Timothy's ministry. And so now when Jesus wrote to the Ephesians, he was able to say, yeah, you guys are doing great at that. You're not so good with the love, but you're doing great at this. Well, with this church, it's different. They're more like the church at Pergamos, where they had the, he talked about that they had those that had the deeds of the Nicolaitans, and they were bearing with, they were putting up with a lot of evil. Remember, at Pergamos, they'd suffered a lot of persecution. But this was their problem. They hadn't dealt with the false teachers. And that can be common in a persecuted church because everybody's all being persecuted together and you're all comrades and you're standing together and somebody's like not really, they're being immoral, they're doing something that's not right. And you still want to embrace everyone. And that can be a problem. And it was a problem at Pergamos. And it's a problem at Thyatira. It's the same kind of sinful toleration of heretics. We really need to pay attention. Because we have been slack in this, and the elders recognized that we had not been dealing with some things that we needed to deal with, and we've mentioned that, we've made that known. And we're trying to be more faithful, you need to pray for us. It's hard, it's not something pleasant to do, you don't like to do church discipline, it's awkward, and it's just clunky, and it's not a thing that anybody wants to do, it's unpleasant. And churches then put it off. a problem in the early church, churches that were planted by the apostles when the apostles were still alive. This was a problem. It's a problem in our day, big time. Clearly, though, it's something that our Lord stresses as important. So it needs to be important to us. People say, oh, I don't want to hear about that. Well, no, I don't really want to hear about it either. But we need to hear about it because our Lord says it matters. So what was the issue that was not being dealt with at Thyatira? Well, they had a woman there that's called Jezebel. I don't think that was her real name. Of course, it was the name of the woman, the wicked queen. to King Ahab in the Old Testament that was an idolater and fornicator and all the rest. And so this is what's going on in this church. Now I can't imagine being whoever the guy was, it wasn't John cuz he was shut out on the Isle of Patmos. But when he put down this letter and gave it to the messenger to take around to these seven churches, the guy that's going to read the letter. And you've got, you know, this may have been a church like, you know, the size of our church or something. I don't know exactly how big it was. I don't think Thyatira was a real big church. And he has to read this to them. Nevertheless, the Lord says, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. Everybody knew who she was. When that letter was read, they're sitting there, and she was likely sitting there too. Because you allow that woman who calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality and she did not repent. Indeed, I will cast her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds. And you say, what? He marked out someone that was in the church and named them? Yes, he did. And that's what we have to do with church discipline. When there's sin that's carried out in a public way, it has to be publicly brought forward. He says, I will kill her children. I'm sorry. Indeed, I will cast her into a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation lest they repent of their deeds. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts, he's got the eyes of a flame, and I will give to each one of you according to your works. I will trample down my enemies with my bronze feet, and I will bring blessing to those who are serving me. It's likely that everyone in the congregation knew who this was talking about, who this Jezebel was. And perhaps, again, she was there too when this was read to them. So what is this all about? Well, the Gentile culture was very tied in with idolatrous feasts to their gods. And these feasts were sacrifices to demons And these feasts were full of sexual immorality, fertility rights, and that sort of thing. You have temple prostitutes and things like that that work. Lots and lots of temple prostitutes that worked at the pagan temples at this time. In Acts 15, a council was held at Jerusalem about how to handle the Gentiles that had come into the church. And the big question that was raised that everyone thinks about when they think about the council at Jerusalem was whether the Gentiles had to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. And the council said, no. No, they don't have to be circumcised and keep the ceremonial laws of Moses. The Ten Commandments, that's not the ceremonial law, but the ceremonial laws of Moses. They didn't have to do that. But it also concluded that they were not to continue in their pagan feasts that were sacrifices to demons and it involved them in fornication with temple prostitutes and stuff like that. So hence the decree of the council stated this, Acts 15, 28. They wrote, for it seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you, you Gentiles, no greater burden than these necessary things, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, that's part of the association with the idols, and from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. Again, that's something that was part and parcel of these feasts that they would have. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell. That was delivered to all the churches. It was a relief, of course, to the Gentiles not to have to be circumcised and to keep the ceremonial law. But it was difficult to give up their pagan feasts. And you say, whoa, whoa, whoa. How could that be difficult, these pagan feasts? They were part of the rhythm of their life. We need to get into where they were with this. You know, atheists still have Christmas trees, right? Why? Because their heart's not in it. But they like the festivity, they like the activity, they have the feasts and all these things. And those that were once Muslim that depart from that but still are in their families, they observe Ramadan. They participate in these things even though their heart is not in it. So this was a thing that was part of their life. And they had family, and the family would get together at these feasts. It was a thing that you just did as part of your culture. And to pull away from that was a difficult thing. Well, can I do this and not get involved in the bad stuff? I'll just go and hang out. That kind of a thing would be the question that you would ask. Even more difficult, though, for them in giving up these fees for these tradesmen that we're talking about. Remember I said that they had guilds that were like trade unions? Well, if you're gonna apply a trade here at Thyatira, you had to be in one of those guilds. You couldn't just go out and start dyeing cloth or something and sell it on, you're not part of the guild. You can't do that here, that's not allowed. and to be part of a guild involved participating in the feasts that they had, feasts that were to idols. And if you weren't involved in that feasting, then you couldn't be in the guild, and if you weren't in the guild, then you lost your livelihood. So these were not so simple to just walk away from these feasts. And the woman called Jezebel, who claimed to be a prophetess, taught that it was okay. Hey, it's okay to be involved in those pagan feasts. You know, maybe she said, yeah, you're cleansed by Christ, you know, you're forgiven. And this was just what many in the church wanted to hear. Someone saying, oh, yeah, that sounds good. We can still do this, we can do it with a clear conscience. This was a teaching that appealed at least later on, if not now, that one of the part of the teaching was that you can do these things in a detached way. We know about doing something in a detached way, don't we? I talked about the atheist before Christmas or something like that. And we know, we struggle with that. I talked about that this morning. We worship, our heart's far away. We're saying all the right words. We just sang a whole song. We didn't even pay attention to it. It didn't mean anything to us. We were detached. And so it didn't mean anything, right? Okay, now rationalize that. Well, I can go to this feast, and I can eat the food that's sacrificed to the idols, and I can do all these things and be there with all the immorality that's going on, but I'm gonna be detached. I won't be engaged as a Christian in those things. It's very, very easy to start to rationalize this kind of thing. I can keep my heart pure. And this is probably what that reference is to the depths of Satan, that they've not known the depths of Satan, because some of the Greek philosophers and everything, you know, they had this kind of idea that I can do something with my body that I'm not really doing. Because it's just my body and my spirit's pure. They had that kind of understanding that at least it was clear later on that that developed and was a heresy in the church. We're not sure how fully developed it was now, but it was in seed form. Such a teaching is not acceptable to the Lord, who calls us to be holy in body and spirit. Not just on the inside, but the inside and the outside. What we do with our bodies matters. Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit. You think about in Corinthians where Paul addresses that. Jezebel was in violation of the decree at Jerusalem in Acts 15, that the Gentiles are not to engage in these things. She said, no, it's okay. She contradicted what the council had determined. Jesus is going to make an example of her and those who follow her. As Jesus says in verse 21, he had given her time to repent and she did not. So now, verse 22, he is going to cast her into bed is actually what it says. And the new King James understands it as a sick bed, that maybe there's some debate about what kind of bed it is. It doesn't really matter. He's bringing judgment to her. And it's interesting because actually in the present tense, I cast her. I am casting her. I'm carrying out this act. I'm doing this right now. He says as he sends this letter, her punishment will be associated with a bed because her sin was associated with a bed, with fornication. She was actually guilty because she was not. I mean, she was especially guilty because she was not just doing wrong, but she was leading others to do wrong. She was promoting this wrong. And so that makes her even more guilty. In verse 23, Jesus says that he is going to kill her children. And there's some question of what does that mean, her children? Who are her children? It may be her actual physical children that she had by fornication. that her children that she had born were going to die. Or it could be referring to her disciples, those that she had taught in her doctrine and that were promoting that doctrine as well, they were following her and her false teaching. Jesus is going to do this, he says, quickly and definitively so that all the churches will see that he is displeased with this toleration because our Lord Jesus reigning from heaven, he saw this thing growing up in his church. And he intervenes by writing this letter in these early days to say, this is not acceptable to me. And to make it clear to you that it's not acceptable, people are going to die right now. A whole lot of people that are doing this are going to die with death right now. And so he made an example out of them. He displayed his displeasure. Now, that being so, how are we now, 2000 years later, looking and reading this, how are we to take that? We're to take notice of that. He was displeased with it then. He's displeased with it now. And what do we see so often going on? There are many churches today that tolerate what? Sexual immorality among their members. There are those that tolerate idolatry. where the bread and wine is worshipped, or where prayers are offered to the dead, to ancestors and dead saints and all these kind of things. It has become very widespread in almost all churches to look the other way when there's a guy sleeping with his girlfriend, and people know about it, and nobody wants to deal with it. Jesus says, I'm charging you Not only that the ones that are doing this, but I'm charging you for not dealing with this in the church. It would please if it would please the Lord. We must not we must not tolerate such things. If you know of any member then engaging in these things. It is your duty to go to them and call them to repent. And if they won't, it's your duty to take someone else with you. and urge them to repent. And if they still will not hear, it is your duty to bring them to the elders, who are then to address them. And if they still won't repent, are to remove them from the fellowship of God's people. People will be offended when we do this. People are always offended when churches do this. but better to offend people than to offend the Lord of glory who has eyes like a flame of fire and feet like bronze. Jesus makes it very clear that he does not want us to tolerate this behavior. If we will not deal with it, Jesus will. Verse 23, and I will give to each one of you according to your works. The angel of the church at Thyatira had not dealt with Jezebel. So now Jesus is going to deal with her directly to let the church know what he thinks of Jezebel and her doctrine. Next, our Lord addresses those who have been faithful and who have not gone along with Jezebel. This of course would apply to us if we have not gone along with the common heresies and trends in the church today, like the acceptance of sexual immorality in the church. It's not an issue if people, if they fornicate and such a thing. Verse 24 says, now to you I say and to the rest in Thyatira as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan as they say, I'll put on you no other burden. You can hear how he picks up the language of the Jerusalem council. Because what did they say in their decree? That I'll put on you no other burden. Like, you know, only this, abstain from fornication and from idolatry and we're not going to make you get circumcised or keep the law of Moses or do these other things. Just do these things that are right before the Lord. He wants us simply to, as he goes on to say, hold on firmly. To him and to our faith in him. But hold fast what you have till I remain. Continue in his word. Continue in simple worship and praise of God and purity. Continue in love and service. Continue in faith and patience. These things that he said were growing and then the works that were growing. He asked for nothing extraordinary. He simply wants simple faith. and pure walking before him. He gives us a tremendous incentive here. If we keep his works to the end, we will reign with him in glory. Verse 26 and 27. And he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessel, as I also have received from my father. This is a remarkable promise to those who overcome. That's the promise that was specifically made to God's son in the second Psalm. And Jesus now says he takes that same words and applies them to the people at Thyatira or anywhere else who overcome. that you're going to rule over the nations with a rod of iron and they shall be dashed to pieces like a potter's vessel. This is an extraordinary thing for him to say. It's not obviously for the present time because it's talking about the reward if they overcome and persevere to the end. What is he talking about? We're gonna reign with him in glory. We're gonna rule with him in glory. We may be under the dominion of godly rulers in this world presently, but if we go on with Christ, we will reign with him and have no regrets, whatever losses we may have borne in this world. Best of all, he says that he will give us the morning star. What is the morning star? Well, according to Revelation 22, 16, it is Jesus himself. He says in Revelation 22, 16, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning star. So he is, you see, the one who came from David and the one from whom David came. From whom David came. He is the root of David. David came out of the root of Christ, right? But his creator, he created David. But he is also the one who came from David. He is the offspring of David. As we saw this morning, he is one born of us. We brought forth Christ by God's enabling power. He brought us forth and then we brought him forth. He is the light that rose in the darkness and in this dark and weary world to lead us to our heavenly home. He is the bright and shining star of hope that welcomes the dawn of the day. He gives us himself as the morning star to shine in our hearts. As his covenant promise goes, I will be your God and you will be my people. As the Song of Solomon says, I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine. Is he your morning star? If you have him by faith, then you will also have him by sight. Has he risen in your heart to give you hope? Is that a real hope that you have? Is it a living hope? to bring you home to God. Jesus concludes he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Plead with him to arise in your heart the morning star to bring you salvation and hope and love and service and patience and faith to bring you thanksgiving and joy. Please stand. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth, for you have dominion over all things. You have established your kingdom and you reign forever and ever until all of your enemies are brought under your feet. And we praise you and we acknowledge you, O Lord, that you are in glory reigning with those bronze feet and with those eyes that are like a flame of fire, and that you will accomplish your purposes concerning judgment in the church. We praise you, O Lord, that you have made yourself clear to us. We don't need to be fuzzy about whether fornication is sort of an okay thing, sort of an understandable thing, or such things. It is not to be tolerated in your church. And we see, Lord, how that the early church really did take heart to these things, and there was a great intolerance for fornication and such things in the early church. It is not so today, Lord. We cannot say that. We confess that in the church of Jesus Christ today, that in our part of the world especially, there is all kinds of sinful toleration of these things. And we pray, Father, that you would have mercy upon us, that you would deliver us from our idolatry and that you would deliver us from our fornication and that we would not go on in these things with an indifferent attitude about them. Father, we pray that we would be holy as you are holy. We are very grieved to see the condition that is in the church in this regard. But Father, we thank you too that we can see that you are at work doing the good things that you commended at Thyatira. that there is some of that, Lord, among your people today as well, all in the church throughout the world. That there is love and service, that there are those who are laying down their lives for the saints. There are those who give sacrificially to help those that are in need. Those who are always ready to pray for their brother or to encourage them or to minister to them in whatever way they need. There are those, Lord, who are wholly devoted to you because of the great love that they have for you. And father, we see that there are also those who have faith and patience, though they bear many afflictions, persecutions of all kinds or infirmities of this world, that father, they continue on in hope. They continue on with patience because they believe your promises. Though it seems to go wrong for them, maybe they're out to perform a ministry and no one receives the ministry, no one responds to the gospel. And we've seen those who have such faith that they carry on undaunted, that you uphold them and you sustain them in their faith and they go forward, being even the only one in a community that trusts you and that believes in you. Father, it's a marvelous thing to see, and we pray, Lord, that you would give us that kind of robust faith, that we would not waver in doubt and unbelief when it gets difficult, but we would continue and persevere, as the word patience really means, that we would persist and carry on, and that we would persevere in prayer and in the means of grace, that we would continue in your word, that we wouldn't set the word aside and say it's not doing any good. or set aside prayer and say it's not being answered. But Father, that we would know that that you do hear your children and that you receive them. And that though we may pray for things that are not that do not receive an immediate answer, that you will receive our prayers, Lord, and you will bring about your purposes and you will strengthen us and bless us as we call on your name. Not one prayer will be unheeded and unacknowledged. We praise you, Lord, for that. And we pray, Lord, that like Thyatira, that these things would be growing up in us, that we would be increasing in the fear of God, the knowledge of God, in our love for God, in our delight, in our service, in our hope, in our faith and patience, Father, that we would be getting stronger and stronger and not weaker and weaker. Oh, Father, may your church flourish today. Oh, Lord, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. that you might be glorified, O Lord. Hallowed be your name. Your truth, Lord, prevail forever and ever. Your people stand forever and ever, for you are the ones with the eyes like a flame of fire and the feet that are like bronze. You are the Son of God. And you will reign forever and ever over your church and you will establish her and beautify her and perfect her. All of our hope is in you. You will destroy our enemies. You will scatter them and they will not be able to prevail against us. Oh Lord, we praise you and we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. You know, it's interesting. One of the things that I find that had people actually express displeasure about before is with preaching about fornication and that sort of thing. People say, oh, you know, preach about that too much. And you think about this with the revelation. Jesus keeps preaching about it. This letter, this letter, this letter, this letter. He keeps on preaching about it. And when you think about that, we need to take heed to it. Why does he keep preaching it? because His people keep on doing it. That's the reason. It's very simple, isn't it? He keeps preaching about it because they keep on doing it. Now we need to come to the Lord our God and return to Him as we just sang, that we would receive His mercy and forgiveness. He's ready to unleash it upon us if we will turn away from our transgressions and follow Him. Receive the blessing of the Lord, you who are seeking the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen.