I think you would probably agree with me that one of the greatest virtues of our culture today is to be open-minded. A closed-minded person is someone what we want to avoid. Certainly someone you don't want to have a deep conversation with. And certainly if you are seen as being closed-minded, then you're bigoted. You're unloving. You are probably guilty of all forms of prejudice. Those who have open minds are fair. They're tolerant of everyone, and of course, loving. Here is my take on it. The point of an open mind, like having an open mouth, is to close it. on something solid. Listen, there are at least three different kinds of tolerance. First, there is a legal tolerance fighting for the equal rights of all ethnic and religious minorities. Christians should be on the forefront of that campaign. Second, there is social tolerance. This would be going out of our way to make friends of adherents of other beliefs, since they are God's creation and they too bear his image. This also is a good tolerance. I told you last week, I'll say it again, I feel very blessed that God has given me many friends at the college where I teach that embrace alternate lifestyles. I get to be Jesus with skin on to them. But there is a third kind of tolerance which endangers our spiritual life. This one is intellectual tolerance. This cultivates a mind that is so broad, so open as to accommodate all views and reject none. This contradicts the sentiment of G.K. Chesterton, which earlier I identified as my take on the subject. Here are Chesterton's exact words. The purpose of opening the mind as of opening the mouth is to shut it again on something solid. To open the mind so wide as to keep nothing in it or out of it is not a virtue. You know what it is? It is the vice of the feeble-minded. Just to be clear, true tolerance is a good thing. True tolerance means showing respect to other people even if you disagree with them. But a false tolerance, which is what is promoted today tries to have us believe that all ideas and all behaviors are equally valid and virtuous. That is a doctrine from the pit of hell. And we're about to see that, we're gonna discover that is true in our passage of study today. It is a problem that God does not want us to allow in the church. There are some things that are right and there are some things that are wrong. There is absolute truth. The first century church at Thyatira, operating from a false concept of tolerance was allowing immorality and false belief to invade their church. We love everybody. And we judge nobody. But we are about to see Christ declare That is not a reason to rejoice. It is a reason to bow your head in shame. God never calls us to sacrifice truth for tolerance. You see, that is what the church at Thyatira did not understand. And you know what? The same is true for the age that we're living in right now. There's a great need in our time for men and women to be people who are so gripped by the Word of God and its truth that they will challenge falsehood on the basis of what God has spoken. We need people to understand what God calls the church to do and who do that without apology to a culture that wants us to pretend that other religions and philosophies are equal and just as truthful as Christianity. According to one of the older commentaries that I used a few years ago in preparation for a message on this passage that we come to today, it said 72% of Americans, 72%, in the 18 to 25 age bracket, believe there is no such thing as absolute truth. This view appears to be shared by over half of those who claim to be born-again Christians. This week I researched it and I wanted to find out if those numbers still reflect current thoughts and attitudes. And I found out the answer is yes. Both Barna and Pew Research Institutions report that over 30% of those who regularly attend an evangelical church express skepticism that absolute truth exists. They say that it's primarily noticeable among younger evangelicals who have been influenced by society's view of pluralism, relativism, and postmodernism. They believe that it is an absolute truth that there are no absolute truths. How's that for an oxymoron? To them, the only non-negotiable truth is that everyone is right unless somebody claims to be. There has been a trend toward accepting relativism inside the church. for quite some time, and it is likely to become the primary battleground for evangelical churches. We may disagree with other believers on many issues. You may not agree with all that I am presenting in this sermon series through the Book of Revelation, and that is completely fine if your objections are based on Scripture. but we can never be tolerant on the standard that Jesus is the only way to be saved and find forgiveness of sin. We must never lack a backbone on matters that directly affect people's salvation. Here's something that relativists who accept Christianity as equal to other religions. Here's something they never consider, and I hope that you would consider this. Maybe if God puts in your path somebody who claims to be a Christian but believes that Christianity is just one of many paths to God, maybe you would have them consider this. What kind of heavenly father would send his own son to death on a cross through torture if the plan of salvation was multiple choice? Is that a God you would love and trust? We've been studying the book of Revelation here on Sunday morning, and today we come to the fourth letter out of seven that John was instructed by Jesus to write. And the number seven represents completeness, and these seven churches represent the complete history of the church from Pentecost until the church's end, when we will be raptured off of this earth. We've been going through these letters, one a week, and seeing that John was addressing specific contemporary situations that were occurring during his day, during the time of his writing. But also, as Old Testament prophecy often did, they clearly relate as well to future events. In this case, they foretell seven definite periods of church history. And in the first three letters that we've seen, I've been pointing out what was happening contemporary during that time period and how clearly it manifests itself in these definite periods of church history. And today is no different. Today is no different. We're gonna see it all the way up to the final letter, and the final period of church history, the period of church history we happen to be living in now, that letter to the church at Laodicea. Now, we've already studied the letter to the church at Ephesus. This letter parallels the literal church in Ephesus during John's day and the church period from Pentecost to around 100 AD, when the next church age began. Next, we studied the letter to the church at Smyrna, which amazingly parallels the period of church history from 100 AD to 312 AD. The church at Smyrna is the church under persecution. And in 312 AD, Constantine made Christianity legal, and so that church period of its suffering came to an end. In 312 AD, Constantine became emperor. He not only stopped the persecution, he made Christianity very popular, and the church became married to the Roman Empire, or the world. John's letter to the church at Pergamum shows an incredible resemblance to the events of church history from 312 to 590, when the church became married to the world. And by the way, Pergamum means married Interestingly enough, even the names of these churches that he's writing to prophesy about the events that occurred during that church period. This was a period of church history of unifying itself to human government. It closely became tied to the Roman government. In the letter that we come to this morning, the letter to the church at Thyatira, we see even more parallels between this letter and the period of church history that stretches now from about 590 to 1517. The Thyatira portrays the church during the Dark Ages. sometimes referred also as the Middle Ages. And that was a time period, it was filled with corruption. The word Thyatira comes from two words, meaning sacrifice and continual. Think about that for a moment. I'm gonna make a point about that, the meaning of Thyatira. It was during this time that the church at Rome formalized its doctrines. There can be little doubt that the Roman Catholic Church concept of the mass is foretold in this fourth letter. and this fourth period of church history, among many other parallels of this letter to that period of church history, as the name of each of these seven churches also has remarkable amount of prophecy about that church period. I've already said Thyatira means continual sacrifice, and during this period of church history, the concept of mass, was developed. You're a bunch of Baptists, maybe you don't know what Mass is. Every time a Roman Catholic priest celebrates Mass, according to this belief, the Lord Jesus Christ is sacrificed again. Not only for the sins of the living, but also for the dead. The doctrine teaches that priests have the power to turn the bread, the element of the bread, into the actual body of Jesus Christ. Again, it magically transforms into his literal flesh. And the wine, rather than being symbolical as we portray it, it actually turns to the actual blood of Christ. So every time Mass is kept, the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ is sacrificed again and again and again. Thyatira. Let's read our passage now in Revelation 2, this letter to the church at Thyatira, Revelation 2, verses 18 through 29. 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 later 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 the mind and heart and I will give to each of you according to your works. But 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 to 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 rule with them a rod of iron as when earth and 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. Thyatira was named by Alexander the Great, the city of Thyatira. It was named by Alexander the Great in commemoration of his little girl. This place is smaller than the other three cities that these letters we've seen have been written to, and yet Thyatira receives the longest letter of all to the seven churches. It was the headquarters of many ancient guilds, the potters, the tanners, the weavers, the robe makers, and they even had dyer guilds. It was the center of the dyeing industry. They had a special seashell by which they would get purple and able to dye things purple. You might remember Lydia, the seller of purple, whom Paul encountered in Philippi. She was from this community, and it's thought that perhaps she even started this church after Paul had dealt with her there in Philippi. Well, Thyatira was also known for its many bronze workers. They had several different guilds that were part of it. But let me call your attention back now to the very opening of this letter in verse 18. Revelation 2.18 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." Our Lord introduces himself to this church as the Son of God. As the Son of God, he rebukes the church that would degrade him and keep him the son of a human mother, while it exalted her above him as the mother of God and the queen of heaven. He would have everyone who would usurp Jesus' veneration and replace it with a veneration of Mary to know that he is the very Son of God who speaks with supreme and final authority. They are dealing with deity, the one who possesses the nature of God, the divine Son of God Himself. This period of church history made Jesus popular as the Son of Mary, a position that robs him of his essential deity and thereby degrades him. Even though Jesus the Son is co-eternal, co-equal with the Father, This veneration of Mary and denigration of Jesus is a problem that began in this fourth period of our church history. And today, the world's largest church that is considered Christian is still teaching that Christians must pray to Mary in order to get through to God. This theology is nowhere hinted in Scripture. On the contrary, our Lord taught that the Father was to be approached in the Son's name. Thyatira. foreshadowed the efforts that began during the fourth period of church history to lower the dignity of Jesus's name, which still plays prominent today. The Son of God who has eyes like flame of fire, there's nothing more piercing than flaming fire. Everything yields and melts before it. It penetrates all things. It consumes every opposition, sweeps down all obstructions, and presses its way with invincible power, and that is what is depicted as the eyes of Jesus. They look through everything. They pierce through all masks, all coverings, all religious talk, They look through everything. They search the remotest recesses. They behold the most hidden things of the soul. There is no escape from his eyes. God is not fooled by outer appearances. He sees the inward man. His eyes will search in judgment. They will pierce, they will penetrate, they will commend, they will condemn. There is absolutely no person or thing that will escape the examination of the eyes of fire. His feet are like brass. That was an image very familiar to the people of Thyatira. Brass speaks of judgment. The brazen altar in the tabernacle was the place where the sin offering was sacrificed, Exodus 38. And the lever, also of brass, spoke of self-judgment. Temple priests washed their hands and their feet in the bronze lever as they went in and out of the holy place. Brass in the Bible is many times seen as a symbol of judgment. The brazen serpent that was raised by Moses out in the wilderness was another example of God's judgment in Numbers chapter 21. In judgment, he will be victorious over all. The Lord, having just established himself as judge of holiness, and judgment now gives his assessment of the work of this church. And let me tell you, Thyatira was a working church, no doubt about it. Jesus commends the church at Thyatira for five good things. Number one, works. Number two, love. Three, faith. Four, service. And five, patient endurance. And what's more, he tells them, your latter works are greater, they exceed the earlier ones. Folks, they were doing good things. They were apparently getting better and better at doing good things. It was this time period when the church introduced to the world orphanages, hospitals, universities, especially towards the end, and outreach to heathens. Now granted, once they saw that there were riches to be gained in going to those heathen lands, it quickly became something else. But it was at this period that the church began doing all of these good works. Verse 19. I know your works. your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first." Yeah, that describes what was going on during this period of church history. What an accurate description. The church was a loving church. Ephesus had left its first love. We saw that in that letter. But Thyatira, had not. These saints were dependable. They were reliable. They were a dedicated people who did not quit if things got tiring and difficult and inconvenient. They didn't just get involved. They stayed involved and accomplished their purpose. Our Lord praises their patience and their determination to continue steadfast in service. They weren't quitters. And I think we see that today. Listen, we are to run our race for Christ with patient endurance. Their last works were more than their first. They were neither slipping backward or standing still, but they were advancing steadily in their Christian course. How is it with you? Is your faith growing? And your love increasing? Have you run out of gas, spiritually speaking? Are you really serving the Lord or stuck in a swamp of apathy and unconcern in your Christian walk? Here's something I hope will reignite your fire and passion, if that's the case. Dr. Earl Rodmacher, who was president of the seminary that I attended, would often say, The person I am becoming today is preparing me for the person I shall be for eternity. Wow, that's powerful. Think about that. The person you are today will determine the rewards and responsibility of your eternity. Your life now will impact your responsibilities in eternity. Now, even though this letter parallels the church period that we know of as the Dark Ages, I am certain And we have from our studies of world history and world civilization, we have all of these images of all of the corruption and all of the ugliness and so forth that was happening in the church of that time period, even though I am certain there are going to be many from that church who are going to be in heaven with us. in large part in seeing their love for Jesus and what spurred them on in their faithfulness. I'm not the only one who believes this way. Dr. Harry Ironside wrote this. The Lord gave Rome credit for a great deal that is good. Remember from the seventh century to the present, there has been a great deal in the way of good works in the Roman Catholic Church that cannot be overlooked. There have been Roman Catholic nuns and monks who have been ready to lay down their lives for the needy and the sick. Centuries before Luther, every hospital in Western Europe was simply a Roman Catholic monastery or covenant or covent, convent, I'll get it. The Lord does not forget all that. where there is a bit of faith, His love takes note of it all. If there are hearts in the Church of Rome that, amid the superstition, reach out to the blessed Lord Himself, He meets them in grace and demonstrates His love to them. I agree. verse 20. 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. Well, certainly seemed like Thyatira was a perfect church until we get to this verse. What was wrong with Thyatira? Well, they were so concerned. They were so thoughtful about the temporal good of others. They became foolishly tolerant toward matters that are eternal. They developed an optimistic, positive thinking that blinded them toward absolute truth. The Old Testament, Nathan didn't act this way, he confronted King David, you are that man. Joshua didn't act that way, he confronted Achan, and the ground opened up and swallowed him. Paul confronted the apostle Peter publicly for not wanting to eat with the Gentiles, and he confronted the church at Corinth repeatedly for their worldliness. But Thyatira was an era of sweet tolerance. The people even tolerated evil in the church. That is done so often today. It's done in the name of love. You cannot tolerate evil. When evil becomes strong, it will not tolerate righteousness. Thyatira tolerated a woman who was called Jezebel. You know, a good woman is the best thing on earth. Women were the last at the cross and the first at the tomb. The church owes a debt for our faithful women. To say nothing of the debt we owe to our homes and our homes of godly wives and mothers. But an evil woman is the most dangerous thing on earth. It's highly significant that so many false religions and modern delusions were begun by prophetesses. Whoever this Jezebel and Thyatira was, our Lord says that she considered herself, or was considered, a prophetess. So that means that she was claiming, or they were ascribing to her, inspiration and new revelation on par with God's words. She taught and seduced Christians to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols. She dealt in the deep things of Satan. This must have been some highbrow philosophy from the world, some ism of the devil. Just like Thyatira, we have quite a number of present day isms. which attract church members. We have a lot of people who will not believe the plain word of God, but who fall for any ism with double-jointed words that nobody can pronounce, much less understand. In our Old Testaments, Jezebel was the heathen wife of King Ahab. Ahab, under the influence of this wicked wife, 1 Kings 16.33 says, did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. That's a lot. He was an ungodly Jewish king married to an ungodly pagan woman. It was Jezebel who was essentially responsible for establishing pagan worship in Israel. Jezebel led Israel to commit spiritual fornication by worshiping Baal instead of the true God. Jesus uses Ahab and Jezebel's union as a picture to point out what was happening in the church at Thyatira. They were letting the world's influence and compromising and bringing it in, such as the church that is involved with pagan practices and false religion and this world. The church, with its rites, its forms, its unbiblical ceremonies, had formed an ungodly alliance with the pagan world. This is one of the darkest periods of the church's history, from the time of Christ to the present time. Jezebel is a symbol of all that is evil and ungodly in the church today. There's no question that Jezebel typified an ism in the church, which is a complete system, is what I'm trying to get at. I believe that it is Roman Catholicism that is pictured as Jezebel. for several reasons. Number one, they introduced statues and images for the people to bow down to. That's idolatry. Number two, they began teaching a papal bull, an official proclamation of the pope. And all of their historical teachings are equal to the word of God. human teaching, human proclamations. This assumes the role of prophet, or in this case, prophetess. Number three, Jezebel encouraged Israel to practice immorality. Well, how did she do that? You realize that confessional practice, what that does, it tolerates immorality. All the sin you want to commit is permissible as long as you make sure you've been baptized as an infant, that you go to confessional regularly with a priest, say enough Our Fathers and Hail Marys, and that you're married in the Catholic Church and you have a priest administer your last rites over you at death. You're fine, you can commit as much immorality as you want. Listen, no amount of payments and sacrificial works can compensate for our sin. It can't. Christ alone must forgive by his mercy, not our efforts. But the church, during this fourth period of its history, began permitting a false prophetess to influence its people and to lead them into compromise. Verse 21, I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. You know what I think that's speaking of? The Lord Jesus Christ has patiently dealt with this false system for more than a thousand years now. He has dealt with a lot of patients with it. but there has been no real change down through the centuries of this system. Verses 22 and 23. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great, and I think that word was selected purposefully. I do believe that we have an indication with these verses here. that this Jezebel system is going to experience and suffer through the Great Tribulation when it comes. The Jezebel system that characterized the Dark Age period of the church history will still exist when the Tribulation comes. And I think these verses are indicating they're gonna be going through it and many of them are gonna die because of it. Verse 24. 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. All those other burdens that are being laid upon you, I didn't lay them on you. Praise God for his faithful servants who refuse to follow the theological trends of the day. Praise God for his mercy. The deep things may have been all the extra biblical teachings of the church that only the class of priests were allowed to know. It's kept from the laity. You can't understand these things. In fact, you can't even read scripture. You can't understand. We have to interpret it for you. But it says that we should hold tightly to the basics of our Christian faith and view with extreme caution any new teaching that turns us away from what we have. His word. Let's take it on to the end now of the letter. 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 rule with 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 them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Those who are part of the Jezebel system will suffer, I believe, and go through the tribulation, but those who resist, who are holding fast to the basics of the Christian faith, will rule and reign with Christ in the millennium. And this has been such a central part from the book of Genesis all the way through scripture, and especially seen in the New Testament. The idea of saints reigning with Christ is very much keeping with the original purpose of God for man. Let me show you two New Testament verses. I could go through many Old Testament as well, but here's just two from the New. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. 1 Corinthians 6, verses two and three, or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels how much more than matters pertaining to this life? Yes, we're going to be reigning with Christ, it's very evident. Jesus never intended for Christians to be losers. The believer is a creature of victory, not defeat. We have the victory because Jesus has won it for us, it's his works. And he makes a distinction here, I want to show it to you. He is not only our rewarder, he is our reward. We have a star, a finished work, and a finished revelation. Let us hold fast and hold them forth until Jesus comes. And this promise of the morning star is a promise to the overcomers that they're going to be identified with Jesus, that they're going to share in his rule with him. Now, I want you to observe the phrase in verse 26, my works. That's in contrast to what was brought out earlier in verse 19, your works. You see the system of Jezebel was all about your works. And he's saying here, cling to my works. The supernatural work of Christ is what we are to cling to. That only God can do, that is what we're to hold on to. Not the Jezebel system of our own works. That can't earn salvation. That will not allow us to reign with him. It's clinging to his works, his accomplished work. And we receive the morning star, glory with him, identified with him. Remember, one of the primary threats against our holding onto Jesus, though, it's not just the system that still exists today. Folks, this threat is in every church. That's not part of the Roman system. Jezebel exists in many churches, Baptist and otherwise. Jezebel can be very charming. Sometimes she teaches a Sunday school class. She sings in the choir. She gives large amounts of time and money to the church. But she commits a sin that everyone knows is sin, and they tolerate it. And because no one does anything about it, eventually she leads the church to just simply, oh, that's just the way they are. We can live with it. Jezebelism. led to spiritual adultery. And we need to be aware of any behaviors or teaching that makes God's people unfaithful to the truths that are expressed in his word. Not to be tolerant of behaviors and teaching that is not here. The message of John's fourth letter to us, the letter to the church at Thyatira is this. Christ places no other burden on us than to hold fast to our biblical belief and refuse Jezebel's wickedness. If we do that, then we will experience the joy of His promises. Can I hear an amen? Would you pray with me, please?