Returning God's Word this evening to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation 2. We're going to read the entire chapter. The text tonight will be verses 18 through 29. The last part of that chapter. But we begin reading at verse 1 of Revelation 2. This is the Word of God. Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. Nevertheless, I am somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate, So in that first letter to the church there in Ephesus, Jesus Christ identifies some of the strengths of the church, but the great weakness is they left their first love. Now going on to Smyrna. Verse seven, he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. I'm sorry, verse eight. Unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich, and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. So the church in Smyrna was a church persecuted and encouraged then by Jesus Christ, now Pergamos. Verse 12, And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges, I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is. And thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days when Antipas was my faithful martyr, who is slain among you where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. So the church in Pergamos was struggling with those who had come in and they were pressuring the church to cave to the culture around them in many ways they did. Now Thyatira, and this is the text for tonight. And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins and hearts. And I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you, I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Thus far we read God's Word in the text that we consider tonight. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, sadly, the church of Jesus Christ today tolerates sin in her midst. And more specifically, the church of our Lord Jesus Christ today tolerates sexual sin in her midst. In our area, you can ride by churches that will fly a rainbow flag or have a picture of such a flag on their church sign signaling that they are open to those who want to be part of their church and yet continue in that sin of homosexuality Then on top of that, there are churches today, even those who take the name Reformed, and will allow practicing homosexuals to serve in the special offices in the church, although that is contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture. These churches have openly caved to the world's pressure to accept this sin. Sin is tolerated in churches today. But there's a more subtle way in which this is happening in the church of Jesus Christ. In a recent report that I read, it said that 54% of practicing Christians admit to viewing pornography, which is only about 14% less than those who admit to doing that in the world. So 68% in the world, 54% in the church. But what's even more alarming is that the same report said that over half of these Christians who said that they do this, they view pornography, over half of them, said they were okay with it. 62% of them said they didn't want to change or turn from it. Only 16% said they had some reservations, and only 14% said they wanted to turn from it. How sad that is, if in the church today, that's the view of sexual immorality. In many ways, that makes the church a dangerous place to be. But what it indicates is that sin is being tolerated in the church of Jesus Christ today. And these are just a couple of examples. But it's because of these examples that the letter to the church in Thyatira is extremely important for us tonight. If you go back, you will find that these letters to the churches that are recorded in Revelation 2 and 3 were written to particular churches in particular times. There were seven main churches in Asia Minor, and these letters were written to them. They were written by the Apostle John. He was exiled on the island of Patmos, so he was being persecuted. for preaching the gospel, and he sends these letters, but he had received these letters from the Lord Jesus Christ himself, so that these letters were very truly the letters of Christ himself to his church. And they were to be received in that way. And when these letters were sent out to these seven churches, it wasn't as if the seven churches which each received just the letter that was addressed to them, but they would all receive the letters that were addressed to those seven churches, and they would be read in those churches. So you can read Revelation 1 through 3, and essentially that's what would be read in those churches on the Lord's Day. But just as much as this was the word of Jesus Christ to the church of that day, almost 2000 years ago, so also these letters are still the word of Jesus Christ to his church, as relevant as they ever have been because of what the church faces in this world. And therefore we tonight need to hear what Jesus Our Lord has to say to His church, receive this as a letter and a word of the Lord Jesus Christ. And His word to the church in Thyatira and His word tonight to grace Protestant Reformed Church is this, it's about a good church tolerating sin. And that's our theme tonight, a good church tolerating sin. Notice first the idea of it. Secondly, the judgment. and finally the encouragement. Notice first of all that Jesus Christ says to the church in verse 19, I know thy works. Jesus Christ is about to harshly criticize the church in Thyatira for the disturbing things that were going on in that church. Jesus Christ does not ignore the positive that was found in the church in Thyatira. Part of what that tells us is that Jesus Christ values what is good and positive in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a relief that is for us to know. Because there is no church of the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth that is perfect. We know that. We remind ourselves often of that. We're not a perfect church. There is no perfect church here on this earth. Yet Jesus Christ does not miss that which is good within his church. And the reason he doesn't miss it is because he's the source of it. Any good that is found in the church of Christ is because Jesus Christ has worked that in the church. That's why He values the good that was found in the church in Thyatira, and He values the good that is found in your congregation as well. And Jesus here in the text praises that. That's an important lesson for us to learn as well. We can be quick to criticize the Church of Jesus Christ because there is plenty to criticize in the Church of Jesus Christ. We can do it when it comes to other denominations. We can do that when it comes to our own denomination. And sometimes we can do that when it comes to our own congregation. We see the weaknesses. We see the struggles. But the point we must not forget here is let's not forget to see the good. Because Jesus Christ is working good within his church. That doesn't mean ignore the weaknesses. That doesn't mean don't look at those weaknesses, but remember to see the strengths as well. But what were the strengths that were found in the church in Thyatira? I would go back to verse 19. I know thy works, and charity, or love, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works." Those are quite the strengths. Those are high marks for a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you find these things within the church, love, service, faith, patience, you'll find a healthy church of the Lord Jesus Christ from many perspectives. This is true of a church that preaches the gospel. It's true of a church where the Holy Spirit resides. And that was true of the church in Thyatira. Now let's just go through those four characteristics that Jesus sees in that church. First of all, love. They loved Jesus Christ, and they loved God, and they loved each other. And that was evident in the way they lived. There was service. They gave themselves for the good of one another within the church. And then in addition to that, they lived in faith. They trusted in the promises of God and they trusted in the promise of the finished work of Jesus Christ. And as those who trusted in the promises of God, then they lived in patience. That means they faced hardship and persecution standing firm. They stood firm in that faith. They didn't discard it. They didn't run away from God. No, they were standing steadfast in truth in the city of Thyatira. Jesus says about them, not only that these things were true of them, but they were growing in these things. Look at the end of verse 19. He says, and the last to be more than the first. The idea is that they were growing in these things. There was more of these things that was found in them compared to when they began. Church in Thyatira was probably about 40 years old. And the idea was that they were a church that was growing in love and service and faith and patience. They could see it. They could look back and say, well, where we began was much different than where we are right now. We know that in our lives, don't we? I know that for myself. I look back at my own life as a husband and a father and say, I'm thankful to God I'm not the same husband and father I was when I was first married and when I first became a father. because there's been growth and maturity. And hopefully we can say the same thing in the church. I think you as a congregation are maybe 20, 25 years old as a congregation. I'm sure someone can tell me exactly what it is after the worship service. But you're not the same as you were some 20, 25 years ago. There's been hard things you've gone through and change that has happened, but by the grace of God, We trust that you've grown too in love, service, faith, and patience. A church that is growing is growing and being like Jesus Christ. This church in Thyatira had heard the gospel of Christ. They were living out that gospel in good ways in their lives. There was progress that was taking place. And the Lord willing, we hopefully see that same progress and maturing in us. But the church in Thyatira had a great weakness. It was tolerating sin. It was tolerating sin. To help us understand how the church was tolerating sin, we need to know something about the city of Thyatira. The city of Thyatira was a blue-collar city. It was a city that was known for its industry, especially the textile industry and its metals. There were those there who were known for making wool and linen and clothing and dyes. And there are others there who were known for being workers in metal, especially in copper and bronze. Now that's important to know because all of the different industries in the city of Thyatira were organized into trade guilds. These trade guilds were something like labor unions, but stronger than the labor unions that are found in our own nation. These trade guilds controlled the industry. So the idea was, if you didn't belong to one of these trade guilds in the city, you didn't do business in the city of Thyatira. Well, why is that so important for us to know? Well, it's so important for us to know because each of these trade guilds had their patron God. It was connected to the religions of the city. And you can understand that from a heathen perspective. If they want their business to be successful, well, you're going to want a God that's going to give you a blessing upon your business so that you can be successful. And that was part of these trade guilds. Idolatry was part of it. And that meant that if you belong to one of these trade guilds, you would be invited and pretty much required to go to the feast that they would have for their patron God. And what would happen at those feasts? Well, there would be worship of an idol God. There would be food that was dedicated to that idol God. And along with that, there would be sexual immorality that was taking place because that was almost always part of the worship. of these pagan gods. Now remember again, if you weren't part of these trade guilds, it was very hard to do business in the city of Thyatira. It's with that background that we then hear what the text is saying to the church in Thyatira. The church in Thyatira had tolerated a woman who is teaching there. She's identified by the name Jezebel. That was probably not her real name. But Jesus uses the name of the Old Testament woman Jezebel to describe what she was really like. And so that name points us back to Jezebel of the Old Testament. Remember, kids, who she was. She was the wife of wicked King Ahab. She was infamous for her wickedness. This takes us back to one of the most wicked periods in the nation of Israel where a transition was being made. Before this, they would worship God but through golden calves. Now Jezebel brought into the land the worship of Baal. So they went from violating the second commandment, no graven images, to violating the first commandment, and that was through Jezebel who brought the idol Baal into the land. Remember what was included in the worship of Baal? Sexual immorality. See, Baal supposedly was the god of fertility. And if you wanted the land to produce abundantly, then what men would do is they would go into the temple prostitutes. And the idea was, the more you did that, the more fertile the land would be, supposedly, from Baal. So that was all part of the worship of Baal. And so this woman is identified by that name Jezebel. So we see what was going on here in the church in Thyatira. First of all, there's a woman who had taken upon herself a teaching position and this was allowed. She's known as a prophetess here in the church. And then this is what she's saying to the church there in Thyatira. She was telling the people that they didn't have to abstain from these feasts to the idol gods or a part of the trade guilds, but she was saying they could join them. They could be part of them. You can picture that she said something like this, what's a little sexual immorality in idol worship when you have to feed your families? So she encouraged the eating of food offered to idols. She encouraged this sexual immorality. Maybe she said something like this, let's not be judgmental of these people here in the city. But let's join with them and let them know that we as Christians aren't opposed to having a little fun in this city and a little fun in this world. After all, you need to feed your families. And there were those, reading the text, verses 22 and 23, who were doing what she said. They were joining in these feasts to idol gods. They were engaging in this sexual immorality and the church tolerated this. What that means is the church basically said nothing about it. It wasn't preached from the pulpit. It wasn't disciplined by the elders. This woman was not disciplined for what she was doing, for her teaching, and for what she was teaching. And so the church was simply tolerating this sin in her midst. The question for us tonight is, what does the church today learn from this? One of the things that we learn is how Satan works to attack the church. He attacks in many different ways and that's brought out in these letters to the seven churches. One of the ways that Satan attacks is through persecution. Another way that Satan attacks is through false doctrine. That's the Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans were saying that there was a teaching that they could follow that allowed them to be like the world. So the Nicolaitans were teaching a false teaching. But now there's another way that Satan attacks. There's another weapon in his arsenal. It's new teachings that promote being like the world. Let me say that again. New teachings that promote being like the world. In the church, there's always been an attraction to something new. Now that doesn't mean we should be suspicious of every new thing we hear. Sometimes we hear new things out of the Scriptures that we hadn't heard before. It doesn't mean be suspicious of every new thing that you've heard. But yet on the other hand, there's a certain attraction to that that is found in the world. They're not content with the old gospel. which is a good gospel because it's from Jesus Christ. In that sense, there's nothing new in the gospel. There's development, but there's not anything new. But there are always those who come along and say, oh, there's this and that maybe you haven't thought of before. And there's an attraction to that. But often what these new teachings do is they promote not being against the world, but adopting something of the world into the church. Let me give you an extreme example. You may remember, young people probably won't, but others of us will remember Rob Bell, who is very big in this area. and there were people who were flocking to his church in Granville so much so you'd hear stories about them basically having to shut down the roads and the cops would have to direct traffic before and after worship services there because everybody wanted to go and hear Rob Bell. Well, was Rob Bell preaching the gospel? Well, it didn't take very long to find out. He wasn't preaching the gospel. Now, he would open the Bible, and he would say, well, this and that, and this is what this is teaching. But what we was bringing in very subtly is the ways and the things of this world, which included some of the things we've talked about earlier, being open to homosexuality, and being open then to transgenderism, and all the rest that is found in the world, and adopting an idea of worship that was very world-like. And you see that in churches today as well, there's this something new, and what it brings in is a bit of the world, so that even in the worship of the church, it becomes more entertainment instead of truly worshiping God. You had that with a church like Willow Creek and this business model, marketing model for the gospel and you just have to market it in the right way and then you'll get people to come to your church. Always there's been this desire for something new. That was Jezebel. She had something new and exciting here in the church, and the people wanted it, and they craved it, and that's what we want too. That's why we want that new. We crave the world in our old man of sin. At the same time, what Satan is doing is he's attacking the church through that. He's bringing the world in, wanting the church to tolerate sin. Satan is attacking us as a church in that way, as well. He wants us, then, to tolerate sin. He wants us to adopt a new way of thinking about this world. And we're reminded tonight that the church must fight against that, must fight against that with the truth, the truth of God's Word. We need to see that especially when it comes to sexual immorality that's found in this world and the so-called secret sin of pornography and other sexual sin as well. And the church must not tolerate that, must not tolerate the other sins of this world coming into the church. The church must take a hard stance against this false teaching and sin. That's what Thyatira failed to do. They tolerated it. They didn't discipline it. They didn't preach against it. It's very easy for the church today to move to a place where we tolerate things. The pressure is great. And it's not just the pressure from out there. Sometimes it's the pressure from right here. When the church does its work, and there are those who aren't happy with it, and they're speaking about the leaders of the church, and the pastor preaches about sin, and there are people who are unhappy, and they're upset about it. And there's that tendency to cave to that within the church. Discipline is hard work. Preaching the gospel at times is hard work. Taking a stand is not easy. And there will be those who lash out with anger and accusations. We even know what that's like sometimes when we go to a brother or sister and we try to very gently say something to them about the way in which they're walking and they lash out against us. No one likes that. Well, I shouldn't say no one, but many of us don't like that. I don't like that. And that happens. And what we're told here is we must have courage as a church to do what's right because more than we fear other people, we fear the head and the king of the church, our Lord Jesus Christ. So this is what was going on in Thyatira. This is application for us as well. It was a church that was tolerating sin. Now Jesus goes on here in this letter to give a judgment Jesus Christ announces here in the letter that because He hates this sin, He will judge those who do not repent. Notice, first of all, the one who says this. Notice, first of all, the judge, Jesus Christ Himself. And notice how He identifies Himself in this letter. Look with me at verse 18. These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass." There are three things there that are important that we must see about our Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, he identifies himself as the Son of God. Why does he do that here? Well, he does that because that was also the title that Caesar had taken upon himself. And Caesar supposedly in the world was the supreme judge. And the Lord Jesus Christ is coming and he's saying to the church, Caesar's not the judge. The world is not the judge. I am the judge. I am the son of God. And so Jesus Christ is the holy and just judge. What matters to us is what he says. Secondly, the Son of God has eyes like flames of fire. This is not the first time the Lord has said this. You go back to chapter 1, verse 14 is described in the same way. What's the idea? Well, the idea, first of all, is that nothing can escape His eyes. He sees everything. He knows everything. There's comfort in that, that our Lord Jesus Christ knows the things that we go through. But that means also He sees and knows all of our sins. Sins that we think are done in secret are not secret to Him. He sees and knows every The click we make on our computers, He knows our browser history even if we delete it. He knows everything that we are looking at, everything we are thinking, all of our sins. He knew the sins. of the church in Thyatira. His eyes are like flames of fire, but he's the one who sees it rightly and purely flames of fire. And then finally, his feet are like fine brass or bronze. This refers to the brilliance and judgment of the Son of God. It's with His feet that He tramples the enemy. And so we see here that He is the powerful Son of God who judges. And that's exactly the point. He's the powerful Son of God who judges. What is His judgment? What's striking here that when it comes to Jezebel, and her followers and what was going on here in the church is that he's not calling Jezebel to repent and her followers to repent as well. It's as if Jesus Christ has already done that and now he's saying that he is going to judge them. He's going to carry out discipline himself since the church was not doing it. That's what he's saying here. Verse 21, I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Now read what he will do. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and then that committed adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds, and I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and the hearts. So Jesus Christ is not here calling the church to repent. He's not calling Jezebel and her followers to repent, but he's saying, I'm going to carry out this judgment. What is it? Well, first he says, I'm gonna cast her into a bed. Play on words. Where does sexual immorality often take place? In a bed. And so now Jesus Christ says, well, She says, it's okay to be in a bed doing those things. Well, I'm going to put her in the bed and make her sick. I'm going to do something worse to her than the pressure you might feel from the world to cave on these things. And then Jesus Christ says, I'm going to kill her children. The idea is the followers of this woman Jezebel. Put them to death. It's not simply death that the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about. He's talking about something worse. Without repentance, what this means is that the wrath of God will fall upon them. These were those who were members of a church in Thyatira, and Jesus Christ says His wrath will fall upon them. When you think about this, just go back a moment to Ahab and Jezebel. What was God's judgment upon that family? Well, you remember how he raised up Jehu and sent Jehu to kill the children and the family of Ahab and Jezebel? And then do you remember how Jezebel died? Remember how Jehu called up to her servants and said, throw her out the window? And they did. An upper level window, she died. They went in, had something to eat, and by the time they came out, all of her flesh was eaten. Only bones were left. Wild dogs had eaten her, and that was the judgment of God upon her. Death. But more than that, the wrath of God. So we learn something from that gory death of Jezebel. That's the judgment of the judge of heaven and earth. And he's coming and saying to the church in Thyatira, this is the judgment that's gonna fall on this woman and those who are followers of hers. But with this word of judgment, the son of God then is calling the church to repent. of her failure to do anything about this sin. He's calling her to repent of her tolerating sin and making friends with the world. We learn from this that judgment for sin is severe in the church today. We should not think that the church will escape the wrath of God if the church walks in the same way that Psalm and Thyatira were walking. The lie of Jezebel and the lie of Satan is it's not such a big deal. It's not that big of a deal. But we see here that God is holy and He hates sin. And over and over again throughout the Scriptures we read of this holy God punishing sin. And so we must hear that as well. And so the Son of God speaks to those in the church who may be walking in sin. And He calls you to repent. It's not hidden from Him. He sees and knows what we do. Young people, you can maybe hide things from mom and dad, or hide things from some of your friends, but you can hide nothing from the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He sees and knows everything that you do. When you're in a dating relationship, He sees and knows everything that you do. When you're on your computer or you're on your phone, He sees and knows everything that you do. He knows what you watch. He knows every glance. He knows what's found in our hearts. And tonight, He calls us to repent. Where we're tolerating sin in our lives, where we're tolerating sin in the church, He calls us to repent. What does that look like? Well, that means confess your sin to Him. Confess your sin to those you have hurt by your sin and turn from that sin in dependence of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Walk in holiness. Walk in godliness. Don't continue in the way of sin. Fight against that sin with all that you have in dependence upon Jesus Christ Himself. We're reminded here tonight that there really is only one sin for which the judgment of God comes. One sin. It's not sexual immorality. It's not idolatry. It's impenitence. It's failure to repent of sin. That's why even within the church we recognize there is really only one sin for which one is disciplined in the church. It's failure to repent of sin. It's not really bad sins. Those are the ones that we deal with. No, it's when there's no repentance for sin. We believe and know that in the church there is mercy. There is mercy for sinners. I don't mean in any way by my word tonight to take away from that. There is mercy for sinners. Sinners who repent of their sins, for them there is mercy. Those are the ones to whom God shows mercy, not because they repent, but this is the way God works. In His mercy He brings them to repentance and there is mercy for repentant sinners. That means within the church we don't have to hide our sin. or we're struggling with sin, we tell someone, we talk to someone, and we should do that in confidence, and there should be confidence, but at the same time, there should be mercy for them, knowing we are sinners ourselves, and we're here to help one another as we're battling against sin. We're not just here to turn a blind eye to it. To try to pretend it's not there. No, we need to help one another and encourage one another, but we need to do so knowing that if there's not repentance for sin, that brings the wrath of God. That brings the wrath of God. And so we need to hear that word tonight and repent where we are sinning in our own lives. But at the same time for us tonight, there is a word of encouragement. And there was a word of encouragement to the church in Thyatira. It was not all gloom and doom. It's not that the church was just viewed according to this one sin and that they were tolerating certain sins. It was awful that they were, but there is a word of encouragement. Jesus encourages the church that is faithful with promises. And that's what we find, especially in verses 24 and following in the text. We find, first of all, in verses 26 and 27, Jesus saying this, The promise is authority over the nations. The literal idea there is shepherd. This idea of rule here is they will shepherd the nations. So the idea is not we're going to stand in judgment over all the world and point the finger at them, how wicked and undefiled they are, and we're so good of ourselves. No, that's not at all the idea. But the idea is that we are given a place in this world for the spread of the gospel We're to bring the gospel to the world. We're to carry out the great commission. And that's how the church rules in the world right now, bringing the gospel, praying for that, doing that in our individual lives with the people that we come across, speaking of the great things that God has done for our souls, doing that together as a church, and then doing that together as a denomination. We're out there bringing the gospel. And Jesus Christ is saying to the church that is faithful, I'm going to use you for the spread of the gospel and the gathering of my church. Secondly, there's the promise of the morning star. Verse 28, I will give him the morning star. What's that morning star? Well, the morning star we know from Revelation 22 verse 16 is Christ Himself. Jesus Christ says to the church, I give you the best thing there is, myself. He's redeemed us. And one day He's going to take us to Himself. And until that day that we are all gathered there before the throne of Jesus Christ, He is still with us. He's with us here on this earth by His Spirit. He rules in this church. He lives with His church. He cares for His church. He loves His church. Jesus Christ says to His church that remains faithful to Him, I give myself to you. I'm yours. I love you. And I will continue to watch over you and keep you unspotted from the world." We know our great need for Jesus Christ each and every day and His promise to us is He will give us Himself. Now that encourages us as we go forward in our lives. How does that encourage us? Well, we have a calling now. As a church, we are called not to tolerate sin. As individuals who are members of this church, we are called, don't tolerate sin. Don't tolerate sexual immorality. We're encouraged to sexual purity here within the church. There's encouragement to preach that. There's encouragement to the elders to discipline for that. There's encouragement for each one of us to do that with one another, where we see that taking place. Young people, you are encouraged to sexual purity. In our marriages, we're encouraged to purity. That means in our homes as well, we're training our children when they come of age so they know what sexual purity is. Teach them that. Oh, the conversation's awkward, I know. But it needs to happen. We need to teach the coming generations because if we don't, the world will. So let's teach them what it is to live in purity in this world. We're encouraged by this encouragement of Jesus Christ and the victory that is ours in Him. but also we're encouraged in our lives to live for God and His glory alone. We're encouraged to love Jesus Christ, love one another, serve one another, live in faith, live in patience, and serve God and God alone. And don't compromise for anything. We don't have it like Thyatira, do we? The pressure there was, if you're not part of the trade guilds, you can't do business. We don't have that yet, but the day is coming. And so that means for us right now, we need to be ready to be willing to give up everything because we serve Jesus Christ and him alone. Our greatest witness in the world is not compromising with sin, but our greatest witness in the world is when we're ready to stand for Jesus Christ no matter what the cost in our lives. May we be ready to take such a stand in our lives and do that because we're focused as a church and as the people of God and serving the King of kings and the Lord of lords. There's nothing higher and more important than that in our lives. So let's not be a church tolerating sin. And I didn't bring this tonight to be any accusation to you as a church. This is the last sermon I preached last week in my own congregation. But it's still an important word for us, not tolerating sin, but instead living in purity and faithfulness in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. May he give us the strength. Amen. Let's pray. Father in heaven, there's always a danger that we cave to this world. We struggle with it in our lives and in the church we struggle with it as well. We pray for grace and strength that we would stand firm. That we would not tolerate sin in our lives, we would not tolerate sin in the world, but we'd stand against it. Because more important for us is serving our Lord and our King, Jesus Christ. Forgive graciously our sins. Renew us, O Father, for the callings that we have ahead in this new week. We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.