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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.
A Good Church Tolerating Sin
| Sermon ID | 326251210545 |
| Duration | 49:39 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - PM |
| Bible Text | Revelation 2:18-29 |
| Language | English |
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