But this morning, go back to Revelation chapter 2. That's where we left off a few weeks ago, Revelation chapter 2. We're going to be examining the fourth letter of the seven letters from Jesus to particular churches in Asia at the end of the first century. Now, each of these letters deals with particular issues in particular churches at a particular time. So it is specific stuff that is going on, and yet, At the end of each letter there are statements that said this is also principles within it that apply to all churches through all time in all places and every individual in all places throughout all time. So though it was written more than 1900 years ago, it still is extremely relevant to us living now. If you have not heard or read the introductory sermons of this series on Revelation or those explaining chapter one, I would encourage you to go to our website and check it out. It's not recording? All right, all right. Go to the website and check that out because it will give you, it will really help you understand this book. Revelation is not an easy book. Partly it's because commentaries have gone all over the place with allegorical and mystical interpretation. This will help you understand why it is so important you approach this book from a historical, grammatical context to make sure we understand the message written then, not something I'm reading into it in my present circumstances. Much confusion, even some serious theological errors have crept into the church because of allegorical and mystical interpretation. Because that does allow the musings of man to replace the communication that God has given to us in His Word. Now, some quick review. It's been a few weeks since we got into this. The first letter is to the church at Ephesus. Ephesus received a lot of commendation, their deeds, their toil, their perseverance, in a place that was difficult for Christians. And I pointed out in that sermon that the emperor cult during the reign of Domitian was very strong in Ephesus, and it resulted in a persecution for those who would not participate in it. In fact, that was the reason John was exiled to Patmos, because he was in Ephesus at that time, and though he was an old man, he was forced to go there and work in the mines. Now the Ephesian church was also highly praised for their moral and doctrinal integrity. They both tested those that claimed to be somebody important, some were claiming to be apostles, messengers from God, and therefore with greater authority, and they found them to be false. They're going to check out their doctrine. They also would not tolerate those who had a low moral character as signified by their participation in the synchristic practice of the Nicolaitans. They merged paganism with practices of Christianity to have a mix. Syncretism is still a problem today, but that was specific in the Ephesian church. Now the problem with the Ephesian church was they had left their first love of Christ. They allowed a strong Orthodox to become an academic faith, and then a rigid legalism without a proper Christian charity. So the strength becomes a weakness. The command, for example, to admonish one another is one of the many things we're to do. But they forgot about the other things, all the other one another's, that would bring about the love that's supposed to be among Christians to properly guide them in life. That became neglected. Now the solution was for them to remember where they had been, where they had fallen, repent of those things, and then go back and redo the deeds of love that had been left behind. So that command, remember, repent, and redo, works not only when your relationship feels like it's getting distant with Christ, but actually works in your relationships with other people too. Remember where it was, repent from where it's gone, and go back and redo the things in which you first came to love the other person. Now the promise given to the overcomer, that'd be the true Christian, in Ephesians is access to the tree of life and the paradise of God. What Adam had lost in the garden due to his sin is regained because of Christ and what he's done for us. So we'll have access to it because we're forgiven by faith in Christ. Now the next letter was to Smyrna, that's about 35 miles north of Ephesus. It actually was a more difficult place because the emperor cult was stronger there, resulting in an oppression of Christians who by conscience could not offer incense to the emperor and say Caesar is Lord. Because they would not do that, they would not get a certificate which allowed them to participate in a lot of the functions within that society, including the economic ones. And so the Christians in Smyrna were impoverished, poor in the things of this world, and yet the text tells us they were rich in the things of God. They were blasphemed by the Jews in that city, those Jews that had rejected the gospel, and that just increased their level of tribulation. Now they were warned that a short period of greater persecution was about to come upon them, and then encouraged, continue in your faithfulness, even to the point if you have to die for Christ, if you become a martyr. And the reward would be the crown of life and a promise, which actually is given to all overcomers, all true Christians, that the second death cannot hurt us. The second death is God's wrathful condemnation of the unrighteous when they're cast in the everlasting lake of fire. That's described in the end of Revelation 20. Pergamum, which we looked at a few weeks ago, that was the capital of this Roman province of Asia. Western Turkey now. Now this is about 65 miles north of Smyrna and it was even more dangerous for Christians there. The emperor called in Asia had started in that city, and it continued to be the leading city in its practice. And a failure to comply with its demand could, in that city, result in execution. That already had happened, as the text tells us, to a fellow named Antipas. He refused to deny the faith, he maintained his witness for Christ, and for that, they murdered him. Now that's why Pergamum was marked out as the place of Satan's throne, where Satan dwelt. The church there was commended. They continued to dwell there, in this hard place, even though certainly it would have been a lot easier to flee, just to get out of there. But they remained to be a witness in that city. Now the problem at Pergamum was a compromise in the church that was caused by not removing from among them some that held to the teachings of Balaam and that of the Nicolaitans. Now if you recall from Old Testament history, Balaam is talked about in Numbers 22 through 24, and he was called on by the Balak, the king of Moab, to curse Israel, but he couldn't do it. He had to do what God had revealed to him, and so he kept blessing Israel. But Balaam was not a godly man. He was a greedy man. Balak had offered him a great reward if he could bring about a curse, and since he couldn't do it directly, he instead advised Balak and the kings of Midian of how to usurp Israel and bring about God's curse upon them. Send in the women, have them entice the men to come join them in the worship of their pagan gods, which would include the feasting to their gods, and then the immorality that would follow it. That's exactly what happened and 24,000 Israelites died as a result of it. 23,000 do a plague by God and 1,000 directly at the hands of some of the Levites who rose up to stop what was going on. Now when Israel conquered Midian, Balaam was killed because he was found with the five Midian kings. It's not where he belonged and that tells us a lot about him. Now the issue in Pergamon is somebody in that church was leading people astray in the same manner that Balaam had done. The Nicolaitans, a different heretical group, and yet ended up doing the same kind of thing. They were synchristic in their teaching, merging paganism and Christianity together, the result being false worship and unholy lives. They were trying to encourage Christians, it's okay to participate in this pagan culture and that's contrary to holiness. God has called us to holiness. Now Jesus commanded them, repent and warned that if they did not do so, he was coming quickly and he'd make war against them. Now that's contrasted with the promise of those that overcome, again, true Christians, of being given the hidden manna and a white stone with a new name written on it, which I explained in that sermon, is actually a reference to the marriage supper of the Lamb, which occurs in Revelation 19. Now this morning we get to the longest of the letters, of the seven letters. In verse 18, Jesus commands John and to the angel of the church in Thyatira write. Now as in the previous letters, this angel is not one of God's supernatural messengers. This is a person who is going to represent Thyatira and going to take this letter to that church. Now, I need to give you some background on the city of Thyatira in order to understand the message that's being given to them. Now, Thyatira is about 40 miles southeast of Pergamum. It's located in a very rich agricultural valley that ran north-south and connected two river valleys, the Hermaeus Valley and the Caicos River Valleys. In the middle of it is a small city of Thyatira. It was founded originally as a military outpost long before, but when Seleucus, he was one of Alexander's four generals that had split the empire after Alexander's death, he made a military outpost there because it was between his territory and that of a fellow named Lysimachus, who also was one of Alexander's generals. So it's just a place to try to make sure that if one's going to come against the other, there's something to at least delay it. And that's all they could do. It's in a wide valley. It's not defensible militarily, but at least it can slow it down until your defensive force can get ready and hopefully repel the invasion. Now because Thyatira bordered this area, whichever force conquered it had to rebuild it and then put their own defensive force and it kept going back and forth. When Philaterius, I spoke about him a couple weeks ago, as a king of Pergamon, when he had captured that land, now he was a threat to Seleucids. So it went back and forth and back and forth. So 282, it's under Philaterius, and then the Seleucid forces, they captured it, and then the Pergamonians, they captured it, and went back and forth until 190 BC, and that's when it was given over to Rome. And Roman, Pax Romana, Roman peace, allowed the city to become stable, and it began to grow. Thyatira's location, this major north-south valley that had made it subject to destruction before, between warring armies, now became an asset, as it became a communications, trade, and commercial center. By the end of the first century, It had become a very prosperous city with many trade guilds, including those of potters, bakers, slave dealers, bronze smiths, tanners, leather craftsmen, fabric dyeing, and workers of wool and linen. dyeing cloth and manufacture of clothing from it was a major industry there. We get an understanding of that from actually Acts 16-14 where we meet a lady named Lydia. She is in Macedonia in Philippi and this text specifically tells us she was a seller of purple. So she's a representative of the Thaetarian businesses and manufacturers of purple garments. Now that would be high-end clothing for their period because dyes were expensive, very expensive, and so purple, even to this day, is still associated with royalty because only those extremely wealthy could afford purple-dyed clothing. Now these trade guilds are very important to understand if we understand the position of Christians in that city. Now the emperor cult, which was such a problem in the previous cities, is not a problem there. They really don't care about the emperor. That's the bottom line of it. That's not happening. It is the trade guilds that are going to be important. Now, the major god of that city, the deity that was primary for them was Apollo, but there were also temples to Artemis and Trimanius and a shrine to one called Sambaeth, who was an oriental Sybil. Now there was a Jewish present there. Lydia herself was a worshiper of God, meaning she was a Gentile that had become a proselyte to Judaism in order to worship the true God. In addition, the letter itself contains a reference to Jezebel. We're going to learn about her in a few minutes. But that occurs in 2 Kings. A Jew would know about her, a Gentile would not. So there's some kind of Jewish present there, but it's not very strong because there's no indication they caused any problems for the Christians. The pressure on the Christians came from the guilds. Every guild had its own patron god or goddess. And to participate in that guild, to be part of it, we might consider a guild as sort of like a union. To be part of it, you had to participate in the worship of the god or goddess of that guild. If you did not, you're not just frowned upon, you could be kicked out of the guild. And if you were not part of the guild, you could not work in your trade. That's a lot of pressure. Suddenly you're out of a job. You have no means to supply food and shelter for your family. That's a lot of pressure. Now the worship of these gods and goddesses would include a sacrifice, then a feast from that sacrifice, usually followed by some sort of gross licentious immorality following the feast. Again, if you did not participate, you could be kicked out of your guild. Being kicked out of your guild, you could not work your trade. The church there may have been founded by the evangelistic efforts that came out of Ephesus during the time Paul was there. that we have seen has been true of the other churches. But there's also a possibility that Lydia and the early Christians there in Philippi, because they're tied to Thyatira, may have gone there and planted a church earlier than that, because that happens about a year before Paul even gets to Ephesus. So the church had been there by this time for quite a while. Now look at the description in Revelation 2.18, this is the author, this is the description of Jesus here. The son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet are like burnished bronze says this. Now that matches the description we saw in chapter 1 verses 14 and 15 with this difference. In chapter 1, John describes Jesus as son of man. That's the title he gives him. It's a messianic title. Here he's very specific. The title son of God, that emphasizes his deity. So both are carried off in this description. His humanity and His deity. And we need to remember Jesus is fully God, He is fully man. 100% of both. Does that make sense to us? No, 200% is too much. 100% man, 100% God. Any doctrine that seeks to diminish one over the other ends up in a heresy and ends up with a different Jesus. that Jesus' scripture, fully God, fully man. Here, the emphasis on his deity. He retains it fully even after he became a man. The term there, eyes like flaming fire, is a description of eyes that are shining forth like bright lamps, or literally in the text, is like torches. This isn't science fiction. This is not allegory. It's a reality of the supernatural to us. Now I've never seen anybody with eyes like that. Neither have you except in sci-fi. But this is a reality. A similar description is given of the angel in Daniel 10.6. Other descriptions of the eyes of the Lord, such as in Zechariah 4.10, that they search to and fro throughout the earth, or in Hebrews 4.13, that they search to and fro and everything is laid bare before them in his sight, confirms that this particular description is given to show that Jesus knows everything about them as we emphasize in verse 23 later, which says he searches the minds and the hearts. His feet are like burnished bronze, a similar description given to the supernatural appearance of the angel of Daniel 10.6, and also the visions that Ezekiel had of God, Ezekiel chapter one. So this shiny, glowing appearance of his feet also emphasized his deity. but also that he is on the move, he's going throughout the churches. He knows what is going on and he will carry out his will. You can neither hide from God nor avoid him, he will carry out his will. Now Jesus' knowledge of them is brought out directly in the next verse. We've already seen illusion, he's omniscient. I know your deeds, your love and faith and service and perseverance, your deeds of late are greater than at first. So once again, the particular word in verb tense here, the word translated no, expresses Jesus has full knowledge of them and will continue to have full knowledge of them. He also says he knows here their deeds are works. Our word for energy comes from this word. And as expressed, he knows their deeds in the areas of love, of faith, service, and perseverance, and includes this commendation that they had increased of late compared to earlier. They were growing in these things. It should be noted that only Thyatira of the seven churches is commended for this. Only they are recognized as having such strong love and faith and perseverance and service. Now there are severe problems in this church. We'll see that in a minute. But being commended for those things and that it's been increasing is a great thing. We'd like to hear that for ourselves, wouldn't we? That you're increasing these things. The love and service go together. If you love, you will serve those who are around you. If you love other people, you will serve them. Faith and perseverance go together. When your faith is strong, you'll persevere through whatever you're suffering, whatever it takes. They're commended in all these areas. Again, I mentioned the danger for them in Thyatira is to these pagan rituals. the gods or goddess of each guild, if they didn't participate, kicked out of the guild, unable to work in your trade, it would be a compromise to participate in these pagan rituals, but that's what's gonna bring about the condemnation. Here's what Jesus has against them, verse 20. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, She teaches and leads my bond servants astray so they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. That keeps popping up because it's part of pagan worship. Now understand this strong condemnation, this warning that follows it, you need to know something about Jezebel. Jezebel was the wife of King Ahab of Israel. That would be about 874 to 853 is when he's reigning. This is quite a while earlier. She was the daughter of Ephbaal, king of the Sidonians. That's one of the pagan Phoenician kingdoms that had settled along the coast. And she brought the practice of the worship of Baal into the house of Ahab, and Ahab then added to that the worship of Asherah. 1 Kings 16, 31, 32 describe this. This paganism became dominant in the northern kingdom in Israel. You might recall in 1 Kings 18 that records Elijah's contest with the prophets of Baal and Asherah. It actually states that that showdown on Mount Carmel was 450 prophets of Baal, 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. So that's not all of them, that's just the ones she's supplying personally. Now I don't know about you, I had three sons, it got expensive trying to feed them. What are you gonna do with 950 that you're trying to feed? So obviously a lot was going to do this. She is behind this. 1 Kings 19 records that God responded to Elijah's complaint that he alone was left is that that wasn't true. He alone was left of all of Israel. Everybody else has forsaken Yahweh and followed Baal and God tells them no. There are 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to Baal and kissed him. Now think about that. Only 7,000 in the whole nation. That's how extensive this was. That was the influence of Jezebel. She was a thoroughly evil woman who, in addition to her paganism, 1 Kings 18.4 states, she killed the prophets of Yahweh. 1 Kings 19.2, she sought the life of Elijah. She's the one who arranged for wicked men to slander Naboth of Jezreel in order that he would end up being murdered by them, executed by stoning, so that her husband Ahab could take his plot of land that he wanted. That's wicked. 1 Kings 21, 25 specifically cites her as the one that incited Ahab to do so much evil on the side of Yahweh. Now she was eventually killed, just had been prophesied. When Jehu was taking over and had a rebellion against Ahab, then he had some who sided with him toss her out the window. He went in to get something to eat. When he came out, the prophecy was fulfilled. The dogs ate her and licked up the blood. Now the reference here to Revelation 2 then is to somebody in that church who was of like nature of Jezebel, who claimed to be a prophetess, and instead was teaching and leading those who belong to Christ, his slaves, that's the word there, doulos, so they would join in the pagan worship in the practice of these gods and goddesses of the various guilds. The ceremonies often included sexual immorality to go along with the feasting on what had been offered to idols. These are serious sins. Also states she is a deceiving prophetess. That particular word is used. She's deceptive. Let's see, who else do we know is a great deceiver? Satan. She's just following the realm of Satan. A great deceiver. The result? Same problem is occurring in Pergamon, though a different source for the false teaching and deception. Now Paul had made it clear in his writing some 30 years earlier that women were not to be in this ecclesiastical role of teaching in the church. 1 Timothy 2.12 and 1 Corinthians 14.34. So she was already out of bounds before it was even considered of the heresy she was teaching. She should not have been in that position, and they should have known better. but she's deceptive, and that ends up gaining control, and it makes it far worse. Now, the specific condemnation here is the toleration of Thyatira for this woman and her teaching. In this, they were the opposite of Ephesus. I want you to see that. They are the opposite of Ephesus, very strong in doctrine, very strong in testing people, but lacking love. This is the opposite. Completely out of balance. Ephesus, it seemed, had forgotten about compassion, and being patient, and loving, kind, encouraging, helpful, and forgiving, and holding firmly this orthodoxy. All they really focused on was, well, we're gonna admonish. Gotta bring people to obedience of faith. We're just gonna get onto their case. We're gonna be harsh with them. That's Ephesus. The Thyatirans were more like the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 5, we find a similar idea. The Corinthians thought themselves to be very spiritual. And in 1 Corinthians 5, they think they're spiritual because they're tolerating a sin in their midst that Paul states was not even known among the Gentiles. But there's like, well, look how loving we are. We're tolerant of this person. Paul admonished them, stating, to not associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a violer, or a drunkard, or a swindler, not even to eat with such a one. This lack of balance is still common among Christians today, isn't it, within church bodies? Some lack enough love to even put into practice Galatians 6, one through four, of coming alongside the brother or sister who's stumbled into sin. with great humility, but coming alongside to bear their burden with them. You get involved with them, you help them, you're gonna encourage them. Yeah, there's gonna be admonishment too, but it's admonishment of truth spoken in love, not condemnation. Restoring them in a spirit of gentleness, not being ones who are instead critical, impatient, harsh, and condemning. Others go the other direction of not tolerating, of not just tolerating but even celebrating flagrant sin with a false belief that it's being loving. It's not. That is neither love for God or love for a brother or sister to leave them in sin because it leaves them in danger of God's judgment, which is what Jesus warns about in the next verses. Look at verse 21. I gave her time to repent and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each of you according to your deeds." Now, the beginning of this warning is first specifically to this woman, and then it will extend to anyone who is following her and her teachings, her practices. Now the fact that she is given time to repent indicates she had been confronted earlier about her false teachings and deception. But she refuses to repent because she has no desire to do so. The text specifically tells us that. How great is the loving, long-suffering patience of her God. How often do we find in scriptures the many, many warnings by prophets, by Jesus himself, by the apostles about the consequences for continuing in sin and to repent from it. That's just part of God's nature. And we're all grateful for it because if it wasn't that way, none of us would be here. We'd all be in hell now, wouldn't we? But God is patient with us, long-suffering. And even here, there's still another opportunity. You need to repent, but she's not willing. In the case for her, the constant is going to be, is she's going to be on a bed of sickness. And for those who are following her, it says great tribulation. Now that's a reference to trouble and suffering, not a reference to the great tribulation Jesus mentions in Matthew 24, 21, that's part of the seven years of the prophecy in Daniel 9. They're going to be in trouble. Now the immorality here, it's the word porneia, now certainly would include acts of sexual sin as described in the previous verse. Both this and adultery with her though would also be figurative of her false doctrine and religious infidelity it generated. Now such religious infidelity was often referred to as harlotry in the Old Testament. In fact, Jezebel is specifically charged with that and witchcrafts in 2 Kings 9.22. In this case, as well as in the pagan Baal worship, sexual immorality was part of it. Now those who fall for her deceptions and following her teaching, her spiritual progeny, here referred to as her children, do not repent, says they're going to be killed with pestilence. Now the particular word there, thanatos, is normally translated as in the King James, if you have one of those, as death. I'm gonna kill them with death. But if this is following the common usage in the Septuagint, the Hebrew translation of the Old Testament, it should be translated as pestilence. I'm gonna kill them by the means of pestilence. Now the purpose of that, though, is to make sure people would know, in all the churches, the Lord searches the hearts and minds. So their punishment would be a warning to everybody else. God knows what's going on. He knows your actions. He knows your thoughts. He knows your desires. But the punishment is gonna come, and the judgments come, strictly upon the deeds The deeds, though, expose the heart and mind, don't they? Isn't that what Jesus said in Matthew 15, 18, and 19? From out of the heart come all these evils, the actions of it. Your actions only reveal what you believe, what you're thinking. It should be noted in 1 Corinthians 11, 30, it describes an example of the Lord causing sickness and death among disobedient Christians. And that was just in terms of the way they were approaching the Lord's Supper. So yes, God is serious. Does that mean a Christian who's sick is being punished by the Lord? Not necessarily. That often is a way that God just draws us closer to himself. But it could be. As the text states, it could be. And so that's always a place to start. Am I in any sin? Am I doing anything that the Lord may be punishing me for? If so, I simply need to repent from it. Our God is good and gracious and kind and loving and forgiving. That's why James 5 even has that section in it, if you're sick but it's related to sin, confess your sins to one another, it's related to the same thing. But there's certainly a lot of indications throughout Scripture that Christians who are not in sin suffer many things, and God uses those in their life and in the life of others. In this case, though, there is a warning, God will judge them if they don't repent. Now the warning here is serious, but Jesus recognized those who have not stumbled, and he gives hope. By say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan as they call them, I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. There are those who have not fallen for the deceptions or followed the teachings of this Jezebel in the church of Thyatira. They have not known what they are calling the deep things of Satan. That is a reference to a Gnostic type heresy of having some supposed hidden knowledge that enabled them to participate in these pagan practices, including the immorality, and then say that they hadn't sinned. Similar things show up in Ephesus at the same time period. In 1 John 1, 8, and 10, there's an interesting passage there. We quote 1 John 1, 9 a lot. But the other two show that there were those who were self-deceived, claiming that they do not sin, and those who claimed they had not sinned. In doing so, they show themselves to be deceived, or even that God is a liar. Because we recognize that even after you become a Christian, sin's still a problem, isn't it? If you claim that you are not sinning in the present, then there's a problem with you. You're deceiving yourself. That's why 1 John 1, 9 is in the middle there. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just, forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. As long as we're in these bodies, we're going to have a problem. That's talked about in Romans 7. We're going to struggle with sin. We are new creations in Christ, but we're being transformed by the renewing of our minds into something different. God is at work, Philippians 1, 6, to radically change us. He's gonna continue this work to make us like himself. But we're not there yet, right? We're not like Christ yet. That will be happened when we receive our glorified bodies. But here are some claiming, I have no sin, I'm not sinning. And then some even more radical, well, I've never sinned. Tell a story, a friend of mine, this would be 40 years ago now, he was attending a seminary in Canada, and he was telling me about the speaker that came for a chapel, and he was going on and on about how he had not sinned in five years. And my friend Darrell went up to him after chapel and said, well, you did today. You ended your run, that was sin today, and you can go right to the scriptures. So obviously this wasn't just in Thyatira, there was a problem with this that it was spreading. Somehow I can sin and it doesn't count against me. No, this hidden knowledge, as they said, the deep things of Satan. A similar problem had shown up years, actually decades earlier in Corinth. There were those who claimed they had knowledge that enabled them to eat in an idol's temple, eating the things sacrificed to that idol, and even that doing so would help a weaker brother so that they could also eat of the same things. They claimed to be the stronger ones. Paul rebukes them, this is 1 Corinthians 8, 10 through 12, and he points out they are ruining their brother, and that was a sin against Christ. So it's a serious issue. but one had been around for a long time. And yes, similar things still occur today. I have my freedom in Christ and I can do this, but what they're doing is something that actually is sinful. I can handle it. No, you can't. You can't handle it. You can't rebuke for it. We have a different purpose. Our purpose isn't to walk so close to the edge of falling into sin and say, well, we haven't fallen, because you won't recognize you fell. It is to stay as far as close to the mountain as we can, if you're on the edge of a cliff, right? And walking in holiness. Why do you want to even be anywhere near what could be considered sinful? I don't want to even have the appearance of it. I want people to see Christ in me. I want them to see that I'm striving to walk in holiness, not walking on the edge. That's a big difference. And so he says here, the only burden, baras, a difficult requirement or hardship Christ has placed on them was simple. Hold fast to what they already had until He came. There's an immanency in that declaration. He is coming back, hold fast. Sometimes you feel like that, right? I'm just holding on. I'm grasping this thing. But that's enough. Hold fast. Continually to faithfully follow Christ. Don't let go of him. Don't let go of his teaching. Do not yield to heresy. Do not give in to peer pressure. And yes, it can be very strong. Don't fall to the temptation to follow a teaching that would remove the difficulties of being an outcast to the rest of society. The truth is is that we must follow In our own lives, this truth, our society is not advantageous for Christians anymore, hasn't been for a long time. Even in some churches, the pressure is to do what is contrary to what Christ commands, or at least not say anything about the sin of others, claiming in the name of a false idea that it's love. It's not love. True love for God and our brothers and sisters in Christ demands we flee from sin ourselves in the pursuit of holiness, and we come alongside our brothers and sisters and get involved, bear their burdens, and help them to do the same. If you're stumbling, don't you want someone coming alongside that you know loves you even when it means they say some things you don't want to really hear? Brother, you're in sin. This has got to stop. How can I help you? Let me get involved with you. That is true love. The true Christian should expect to be different from the rest of society. If you're trying to fit in with it, you're in trouble already. We don't fit. We stand out like sore thumbs. And even knowing that we are told in 2 Timothy 3.12 to expect persecution. Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus are persecuted. You don't even have to succeed, just striving for it. So no, you don't participate in the parties. You don't participate in the bad jokes. The fact that you won't use their language sets you apart. Now, if you do it right, you actually have an effect on everybody around you, because suddenly you're like, oh, I'm sorry. I'll change my word. I didn't mean to offend you. Offend me? You're offending God. I think that's a little more serious, isn't it? We don't fit. Don't try to fit. Trying to fit into society, for society's sake, so it goes easier on you, is the wrong direction. Go the other way. Strive to be like Christ. The letter concludes with a description of the reward to be given to those who remain faithful in Christ. This is verse 26. Now again, the overcomer is the true Christian. More specifically described here, the one that continues in following the example of Christ's works and good deeds set in contrast here to the evil's works of Jezebel. Now the first promise here is a share in Messiah's victory and receiving ruling authority over the nations. This is the first reference in Revelation to the future millennium. And it's an exciting one from the standpoint that Messiah is going to come. He's going to set millennium and the prophecies of Psalm chapter 2, verses 8 and 9 are fulfilled. He will rule with absolute authority. He is going to shatter his enemies like a clay pot as described in Revelation 19. His authority coming directly from God the Father. The second promise to the overcomer is the morning star. So we're not only just be part of I'm just gonna call it the godly bureaucracy. Can you believe it? Bureaucracy that will work. We're gonna be part of the ruling class, if you can put it that way. That's the first part of it because we're followers of Christ and he's gonna use us. The second promise is being given the morning star. Now there's several ideas proposed about what exactly this means, including that it's Jesus himself because he promises in Revelation 22.16 that he himself is the bright morning star. Another reasonable view ties us to 2 Peter 2.19 where there's a promise of a future time when the prophetic word, which would be the scriptures, to which we are to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place. That kind of goes back to David's idea that the word of God is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path. Same idea there, pay attention to it, will become supplanted by direct knowledge of God himself when, quote, the day dawns, the morning star arises in your hearts. So there's a day coming when the word of God We don't have to go back to it because we have God himself. Direct revelation from him. So that's also in the future. This also may be tied to Jesus' promise in Matthew 13, 43, which at the end of this age, the righteous will shine forth as the son in the kingdom of their father. He who has an ear, let him hear. Now whichever the specific reference is, all of these occur for the believer at the beginning of Messiah's future reign. We will be with Christ. We will know him as he is. And we will shine forth and we will be part of his millennial kingdom ruling with him in that kingdom. Now the letter ends in the same way as in all the letters with the first phrase being used by Jesus many times as a call to everyone to pay attention to what He said and heed it. just as in Matthew 13, 43, which we just read. He who has an ear, let him hear, I did hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So again, specific letter to a specific church at a specific time, dealing with specific issues in that church, and yet, the principles in it are from the Spirit to all churches and to anyone that will pay attention throughout time in every place. That means every church, every individual, is to pay attention to the principles and warnings in this passage. So take heart. The encouragement's here, the warning's here, the promise is made in the letter. Jesus is the omniscient judge. He knows everything about your external actions. Nothing's hidden from him. And he knows everything about your internal thoughts and desires. Our deeds of love and service to one another as well as our faith and perseverance, regardless of circumstances, should increase over time. We want that to be said of us. And yet very wary of and never tolerating those who deceive and teach what compromises with the world. None of us are to allow ourselves to be conformed to this world and instead we are to pursue holiness as we are called to in 1 Peter 1.16. Be ye holy for I am holy, thus says the Lord. And instead, we are going to be transformed, the word there is metamorphous, just like a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, everything dissolves and recreates into something completely different. We're to be transformed by the renewing of our minds into the image of Christ. That's the goal of life. More of Christ to be seen in me and less of me. Our freedom in Christ is never to be an excuse to join in worldly practices. You say, I don't know what is a worldly practice. If you have to question it, it probably is. So go the other direction or ask someone who's more mature, should I be doing this? They might come along and say, yeah, not really. There's other things you could do that'd be a whole lot better. And maybe that's a better way to look at it. Even if it's not a particularly sinful practice, is there something better you could be doing? Then let's pursue what is better, not just what is tolerable. Don't join in worldliness. Instead, hold fast in living for Christ in all circumstances, knowing Jesus is going to crush his enemies. The true Christian will be a ruler with him in that future kingdom. And so we say, Maranatha, Lord, come quickly. Father, thank you for the truth of your word. Thank you for the warning that is given to this church in Thyatira. There's so much of it that does fit the world that we live in. Father, though this nation's been affected a lot by Christianity, it is a secular nation. And so much around us is extremely worldly and contrary to what your word tells us about where to live. Father, continue to give us a great understanding of your word and yourself that we might live for you. Continue that work which you began in us, which you promise you will complete. Father, continue to transform us, allowing our minds to understand things of your word that we might know you and your desires in our lives and all the specifics. Father, let it be said of us that Christ shines out from us in how we live our life, that you may receive all the glory for you're worthy of it. In Jesus' name, amen.