And so Revelation 2, beginning in verse 18. Let us hear the word of our God. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, these things says the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass. I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience. And as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed, I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. I will kill our children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your works. Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels. As I also have received from my father, and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen. As we begin here this morning, I want us to think of a few things. First of all, sometimes you hear people say, how far is too far? Or possibly, what is the line between pagan and Christian? Or can I be a Christian and do whatever it is? Oftentimes, in this context, you hear the terminology of Christian liberty, and people will ask or say things like, I am free in Christ, and so I am free to be able to do whatever it is. And so we ask these kinds of questions. A related point, though, is this. And let me ask it as a question. What is it that you have lost because you're a Christian? or to use the language of what we saw in Sunday school, how is it that being a Christian costs you? Now, on the one hand, you can answer this and say, it doesn't matter what I've lost because I've gained so much in Christ. But the point here is, what is it that you have lost because you're a Christian? Have you lost relationships? Have you lost a job or possibly a promotion? Obviously, some Christians have lost their lives for believing in Jesus and following him. Now, if we haven't lost very much, then maybe it's because we're compromising. We come here to this central message of the seven, and we come to this central section of this message, and it has all to do with the issue of compromise. So, thus far, the message to the church in Thyatira has emphasized Jesus' power and his authority over all things. Jesus has also praised some of the believers in Thyatira for their good works. But unfortunately, the primary focus of this message is a word of rebuke. especially to its leaders for allowing this false teaching and behavior to continue. Sin's going to happen. We're sinners. But if we permit it to continue, that's even worse. Now, as I mentioned to you at other times, we frequently talk about the things we learn at church at our house during the week, and when we reviewed the sermon from last Sunday, when we got to this point where we were talking about some application, I basically geared the conversation toward personal application. The emphasis here is on the church leadership, but what about ourselves as individuals? We are surrounded by technology, especially now in the last 12 years or so with smartphones and so on. But how is the use of technology being used in your lives? Are you permitting evil to continue with those things? Or are you controlling that? As we relate to one another, especially as siblings or as those in the home, How are we doing this way? Are we permitting evil to continue? Are we allowing nasty conversations or fights or, you know, hard words or cold shoulders or whatever it is? Now, of course, Nalene and I have the primary responsibility in our home. We are to lead in this way. But every one of us individually is ultimately responsible for the choices that we make. Am I permitting myself to persist in sin? It begins really with myself. Yes, we have families, we have churches, we have things in society, but in the end, self-discipline on this matter is most significant. So, we started verse 20 last time. and we came to this primary idea. Well, let's now finish the thoughts here and how it leads to these next verses. So verse 20, again, it reads, nevertheless, I have a few things against you that you allow that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. Alright, well, for the believers here in Thyatira, they were tolerating this sinful teaching in ways of Jezebel. Now, first of all, you recall from verse six. and from verse 15 about the Nicolaitans, and then also from verse 14 about the teachings of Balaam. And as I have mentioned to you, it is very likely that all three of these were teaching something very similar. There may have been some nuanced differences between them, but for the most part, the same kinds of things. And so what we see here, in a sense, is not going to be any different. On the other hand, there does seem to be some nuanced emphases. Alright now, John is obviously calling us back to the Old Testament Jezebel, as I've mentioned a few other times, that sometimes John writes things that are wrong grammatically. In this case, he uses the nominative case instead of the genitive, for those of you who follow those things. Okay? It's not done correctly. But he does it to say, hey, hello. Hey, I'm shocking you with this bad grammar to call your attention back to the Old Testament. And so here it is for Jezebel. So let's turn then to 1 Kings. And first of all, chapter 16. For here we are introduced to Ahab. And if you look especially at the end of the chapter, verse 31, it says, And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Dabat. Now you remember, Jeroboam set up the golden calves in Bethel and Dan and said, worship these, don't go to Jerusalem. So that was bad enough, and Ahab continued in that. And then it says, that he took as wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians, and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria, and Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. So here is Ahab doing these sinful things, and most notably, he marries this foreign woman who brings in this Baal worship. And so instead of him leading her in righteousness, she leads him into sin, and he, of course, is following quite willingly. So in chapter 17, God then brings judgment. He brings the drought. And we have Elijah surviving and so forth. And then in chapter 18, note verse 4. So it was when Jezebel masquered the prophets of the Lord that Obadiah had taken 100 prophets and hidden them. So you see that Jezebel isn't just preening herself in the castle and setting up some kind of get together with local queens and princesses and, you know, doing her nails, right? She's out there killing the prophets of Yahweh. She was a very wicked woman. We know the rest of the story here in chapter 18, right? Elijah calls everyone to Mount Carmel and they set up the altars, right? And they're to call on Baal to burn up the sacrifice and it doesn't work. And of course, Yahweh does everything and burns everything and so forth. Well, if you look in verse 19, It says, therefore send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table. So again, it isn't just that she favors Baal. I mean, she is all in. And then if you look at verse 40, Elijah, right after the fire comes down and they confess Yahweh, seized the prophets of Baal and do not let them escape. So they seized them and Elijah brought them down to the Borkishon and executed them there. That's at least the 450. Maybe it's also the 400 prophets of Asherah. And so, again, you see what we're learning about Jezebel. If you look at verse 19, then she responds, or sorry, chapter 19, chapter 19, verse 1, and Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so let the gods do to me and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. Hey, obviously she wants to kill Elijah. And so he flees, comes eventually to Mount Sinai, right? The still small voice and all of that. And then if you turn to chapter 21, this is what we read earlier. And of course we see Jezebel is the prime mover here in getting Naboth murdered. And God then brings judgment. You see there verses 17 and following. And note, especially verse 23, And concerning Jezebel, the Lord also spoke, saying, The dog shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. All right, well, let's turn now to 2 Kings chapter 9. 2 Kings and chapter 9. Jehu is anointed as king, and he's gonna come, you see, in the next chapter, and kill all of Ahab's sons. But before that, at the end of chapter nine, beginning in verse 30, note these words. Now when Jehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it, and she put paint on her eyes and adorned her head and looked through a window. Then as Jehu entered at the gate, she said, is it peace, Zimri, murderer of your master? And he looked up at the window and said, who is on my side, who? So two or three eunuchs looked out at him. Then he said, throw her down. So they threw her down, and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her underfoot. And when he had gone in, he ate and drank. Then he said, go now, see to this accursed woman and bury her, for she was a king's daughter. So they went to bury her. They found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. Therefore, they came back and told him, and he said, This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite, saying, In the plot of ground of Jezreel, dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as refuge on the surface of the field in the plot of Jezreel, so they shall not say, Here lies Jezebel. Well, these are the key passages in regard to this woman. And obviously, we see that she was a very evil woman. So as we come back to Revelation chapter 2 with this now ringing in our ears, Jesus says, hey, you are permitting Jezebel in her teaching and her behavior. Or to put it another way, you're acting like Ahab and he's not very happy. Now this obviously has raised some questions, but most likely there was a particular woman, a particular individual who was leading a group of the professing believers in Thyatira in her ways. Some have suggested that maybe she was the wife of an elder. Some have suggested that this was Lydia who went bad. Some have suggested that it's merely symbolic, that there was not an actual person who was leading the way. Obviously, there is symbolism here, but some go even farther with that. I'm inclined to agree with those who say it was probably a prominent, wealthy, charismatic kind of woman. Maybe it was someone from one of the individual house churches in Thyatira. We don't know some of the details. But clearly, there is a woman there who is leading the believers in Thyatira to compromise with the world, just like Jezebel did with Israel there with Baal worship. All right, now if you look at verse 20, it says that she calls herself a prophetess. And so obviously she is telling people that she is receiving word from the Lord, messages from God, and so she must be believed. And presuming she is rather charismatic in some way and maybe wealthy and prominent, this would all add to the convincing nature of her teaching. But as Jesus says, she's actually seducing them. Your translation may say deceiving. She was teaching them to participate in these pagan sexual practices and to eat food sacrificed to idols. Now, once again, as we have seen, this is referring to the trade guilds. of the first century. We talked about it somewhat in Smyrna, because how it led to their suffering. We talked about it even more in the message to the Pergamum Church, because it's more directly addressed there, and now even more so here. And the idea simply is this, in order to buy and sell, you had to join the Union. And you had to participate, once you did, with these pagan practices of worshiping the idol, offering sacrifices to the god or goddess, and engaging in ritual sexual relations in order to ensure fertility and large profits. And if you refused, hey, life would be difficult. Let me read a couple things here quickly. This is from William Hendrickson and his commentary on Revelation. And he says this, here were to be found the trade guilds, wool workers, linen workers, makers of outer garments, dyers, leather workers, tanners, potters, bronze workers, and so on. These trade guilds were associated with the worship of patron gods. Each guild had its guardian god. The situation, therefore, was somewhat as follows. If you wish to get ahead in this world, you must belong to a guild. If you belong to a guild, your very membership implies that you worship its god. You will be expected to attend the guild festivals and to eat food, part of which is offered to this patron god, and which you receive on your table as a gift from the god. And then when the feast ends, the real immoral fun begins. You must not walk out unless you desire to become the object of ridicule and persecution. in this difficult situation, what must a Christian do? Now let me pause here and try to get us not to think, oh, you know, that was years and years and years ago with Jezebel or in the first century or whatever. These trade guilds are very much like unions. They're very much like an official union or an unofficial one. And if you want to be part of this group, you need to do certain things. So whether this be friends at school, or an actual union at work, or whatever it happens to be, even things in our own families, you have to do certain things in order to be accepted. And there are definitely times where the things you have to do lead us to do non-Christian things. And so what is a Christian to do? Especially if it's in our own family or if it's at our job and we need money to survive. We need food to eat. How do we handle these things? So he says this, if he quits the union, he loses his position and his standing in society. He may have to suffer want, hunger, persecution. On the other hand, if he remains in the guild and attends the immoral feasts, eating things sacrificed to idols and committing fornications, he denies his Lord. In this difficult situation, the prophetess Jezebel pretended to know the real solution of the problem. Now in Smyrna, their solution was, we're obeying God, not man, and it led to all kinds of suffering. In Pergamos, and now here in Thyatira, they're trying to find a middle ground. How can I be a Christian and a pagan at the same time? So back to my opening questions. Let me read here then a moment from Dr. Osborne. and how he adds to this thought. He says, Jezebel probably taught that there was nothing wrong with a Christian taking part in the guild feasts and celebrations, for it was merely civil. Since idols were nothing, Christians would not destroy their faith by participating. It is also possible that she used some form of Paul's teaching on Christian liberty, similar to 1 Corinthians 8, and he quotes a little bit. We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one. And food does not bring us near to God. We are no worse if we do not eat and no better if we do. And then Osborne says, in other words, the Christian is free to eat meat offered to idols. But this wasn't the only issue. There was the sexual immorality issue as well. So here's the dilemma. And again, don't just think, oh, that was way back then. How are we facing some similar kinds of things, even though the details may be different? Well, let's go back even farther. Like Israel in the Old Testament, compromise and syncretism, another word for it here, was unfortunately rather common. They would mix the worship of some idol with Yahweh. Recall the golden calf at Mount Sinai with Aaron. We just read about Aaron's death here a little bit ago. And when he made it, he called it Yahweh. and said, this is the God who brought you out of Egypt. Note there's this mixture of Egyptian false worship with Yahweh. Ahab obviously mixed Baal with Yahweh. Jeroboam I mixed the golden calves in Bethlehem with Yahweh. Solomon mixed the gods of his numerous wives and concubines with Yahweh. We could keep going. There's numerous examples of this. And so here is this woman doing the same kinds of things. She probably said things like this, you know, Jesus is the true God, ultimately, and these other gods are under Jesus. So we need to focus on Jesus, and it's okay to partake with these others. Just have Jesus as the greatest one. Or, as Osborne just said from 1 Corinthians, she may have said, idols are nothing, eating food sacrificed to them, that really doesn't matter, it's permitted. Maybe she said things like participation in pagan feasts and immoral activities are necessary. Otherwise, you're going to die of starvation and God doesn't want us to die. Maybe she said things like becoming all things to everyone is necessary. Maybe there are Greek elements of her thinking mixed in here. The Greeks taught that the body was evil. And so outward behavior is only going to taint an already tainted body. It's not going to affect our inner souls, and so it's okay to partake of these things. Some early Gnostic ideas, you might say. Whatever she said, it was something like this. She was justifying sin while claiming to love Jesus. Now, if you look at verse 14 a moment, back where it said about the teachings of Balaam, Notice at the end of the verse it says about eating things sacrificed to idols and then secondly it says committing sexual immorality. And now here in verse 20 do you see how that switched at the end of verse 20? Committing sexual immorality and then eating things sacrificed to idols. It sounds like the switch here is to emphasize which is the bigger problem. What was the bigger issue that was faced in Pergamos and now here in Thyatira. If you look at verse 21 here, Jesus specifically mentions repenting of our sexual immorality, so it seems like that is the bigger issue here. So therefore, let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 8, sorry, chapter 6, 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Let's begin our reading in verse 15. This is nothing new, you might say. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 15. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not. Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For the two, he says, shall become one flesh. But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? If you were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body. and in your spirit, which are God's. And Paul's dealing with some of the same issues, basically. Now, let's now go forward a bit. Compromise is something we've seen back in the time of Israel, time here in the first century. But unfortunately, it has plagued the church ever since. Beginning in the second century, shortly after John's messages here, we start seeing the church compromising with the world. For example, we see the mixture of Greek thought with scripture, whether it's Gnosticism or Plato's teaching. Origen was one of the most famous early church fathers who did this. And there were several of them. Hey, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and so forth. Thankfully, there were some who pushed back against that, like the Tertullian, for example. He said, what does Athens have to do with Jerusalem, right? We can't mix these two together, he is saying. You know, I've mentioned about the different views of Revelation at different times, right? The Preterist view, Futurist, Historicist, and Idealist views. Well, among the Futurists and Historicists, sometimes you will hear them talk about an era of history that corresponds with one of these messages. And so the message of Thyatira, some of them will say that this refers to the era of the Middle Ages leading up to the Reformation. And that's when we see compromise most in the church and so on. Okay, you also see it in the second and third century and so on and so forth. But they'll talk about how the mixture of Greek teaching and the scripture was done at this time. And certainly you've got Thomas Aquinas. He deliberately mixed Aristotle's teaching with the scriptures. That's how you come up with transubstantiation in the mass. Also, Mary being seen as a co-redemptrix was pushed forward at this time, not codified until later, but she became a Jezebel really, the veneration of images, Tetzel with indulgences, so on and so forth. Now, I disagree with this era of the Thyatiran church, but you definitely see it there. In the modern church of the 19th and early 20th century, we see the mixture of the church and the scriptures with evolution and science, with liberalism. Today, we see the mixture of the scriptures with neo-Marxism, wokeism, the social gospel, We've seen numerous Christians compromised in the last five years during COVID with mask wearing and shots and isolation, Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, riots, white privilege, nooses everywhere. I mean, on and on we can go. Constant examples, numerous examples of Christians compromising with the world. You know, there are actually people in America that worship Baal. knowledgeably. Of course, we have 72 genders, or if you prefer, gender is a spectrum. Well, many of those different genders are associated with a false god or goddess. We have Christians today who say you can live together and not be married. There are many churches that give you inspirational messages and feel good morality. Here just the other day I saw a sign that says, laughing is good exercise. Okay, what's that have to do with the gospel and our sanctification, but all right. We regularly hear people using scripture to manipulate God. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And then it's used in a way to manipulate God rather than submitting to him. Or you hear Christians talk about trying Jesus. or take a leap of faith. Or you hear Christians talking about how abortion is justifiable. Or other Christians saying Trump is the only one who can make America great again. Or other Christians saying Trump will destroy democracy. Or that Jordan Peterson is a great Christian leader. Or the government will help us with all of our problems. or that Christians are obligated to help illegal immigrants. Pay attention, M&A's apology doesn't seem to be all that genuine. You go into Christian libraries and what are they filled with? Inspirational novels, topical studies, and some of them may be okay, but not about how to understand your Bible. We have a gospel of niceness in American churches. We have Christians who will scroll and give all kinds of time to Instagram and TikTok or Facebook. Oh, I don't have time to read the Bible for very long. Do you see the point? There are ways that we compromise everywhere. Maybe one of the most tempting ways for us to compromise is, I need to act in such a way so that I have friends, so that I avoid rejection, or ridicule, or some form of suffering. As I mentioned to you, this is the longest of the seven messages here in Revelation. And it's the one right in the middle. And it seems to be very deliberately done in this way. Because compromise is something that we have seen since Adam and Eve. We see it throughout history. We see it today. Do not fall prey to this idea, oh, those stupid Israelites were so much better, or that was way back then. We don't do that today. That's just not true. In some ways, we compromise more today than they did then. And as I've said many times, this is not an issue of if, it's a matter of how. All of us compromise in some way with things that are unbiblical. The question is, in what ways are we doing it? Now for myself, I've mentioned at other occasions that I very deliberately watch certain things on TV or listen to certain things because it is easy to become isolated and to be in a bubble, especially since I do my work from home and we live out in the middle of nowhere. It's easy. So I enjoy watching sports or following politics or watching certain movies or shows or whatever to help me get out of that bubble. and to be aware of what the world is saying and doing and teaching and so forth. But it's so easy to see and hear these things and then compromise. Hey, it was a couple years ago or something, I decided to record the different cheers episodes. Because I'll watch these again, you know, and such. I watched some of them way back when they first came out and so on. But, you know, it doesn't take you very long. You're like, you know, everything is about sexual things or picking on Clavin or just being dumb and mean and very ungodly. Some of it's funny. But is it really worth my time? Is it causing me to compromise? I remember at one time when I was in seminary during dinner, just as a distraction from my constant studies, I'd watch Wheel of Fortune. You know, after a while, That greed started really entering into my viewing. I could have gotten that. I would have won all this money, you know. So I quit watching, you know. Do you see the point? It is so easy for us to compromise with sinful things. And Jesus is telling us when we tolerate sin, he is not happy. So, let's look now at verse 21. And it gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. As I said a moment ago, seems to highlight the fact that yes, they're eating food sacrificed to idols, but the primary issue is their sexual sins. But you see Jesus' patience, his goodness, his mercy, He isn't just stomping on this Jezebel. Even Jezebel in the Old Testament, it was many years. She had opportunity to hear the truth and repent and never did. Do you see Jesus' goodness in this way? He isn't just mad and just ready to smack us in the head and move on. Do you see his patience with us? And isn't this a wonderful truth? Because we compromise so regularly, it is such a good thing that God is patient with us. Well, unfortunately, Jezebel refused. Now, this of course has raised some questions. How did Jesus give her an opportunity to repent? Well, maybe it was John himself. We know John was in Ephesus for a number of years, and so maybe he took a trip to Thyatira. Maybe he warned her. We don't know. Maybe God raised up a true believer in Thyatira, a faithful leader or something that warned her. Whatever the case, Jesus gave her opportunity to repent, and she did not listen. But do you see how Jesus knows that this is a constant threat and he is willing to forgive? But there's a limit. And so we go from opportunity to repentance to a warning. Verse 22. Indeed, I will cast her into a sickbed and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds. So the opportunity to repentance is given And he's going to wait for a while, but listen to the warning. If you don't listen, this is what's going to happen. There'll be punishment. But again, you see his patience. You see his goodness here. Now the punishment for Jezebel is to cast her on a bed of sickness. Obviously, this is turning things around right here. The punishment is going to fit the crime. Because she used beds sinfully, now she's going to have a bed of sickness. Probably this is referring to sexually transmitted diseases or other diseases. Certainly it's not going to be a bed of pleasure. And then it says about those who committed adultery with her. Now some have tried to say that this is literal, that they actually had adulterous relations with the woman. Probably it has more to do with the fact that they believed what she was teaching and acted in the same way and so forth. But notice how compromise here is connected with spiritual adultery. God alone is to be worshipped. And there is no way for us to get around the first commandment. She was trying, but if they don't change their ways, there's going to be great tribulation. And so notice how this too is turning things around. They're trying to avoid suffering by compromising with the world. And because they're compromising with the world, they're going to have great suffering. Sorrows, pains, the punishment is going to fit the crime. Again, possibly STDs, maybe unwanted pregnancies, abortion issues, abuse, emotional pain, financial troubles, so on and so forth. However it is that we compromise, God is typically going to punish us accordingly if we do not repent and heed the warnings. Aaron and Israel had to drink up the gold dust The fertility rituals in Moab, Balaam led Israel to do that led to 24,000 people dying, not more children. Israel compromised with Rome in order to kill their Messiah, and so Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed. Churches who compromise with the world now, You see some of them closing. You see others of them losing numbers and money. You see others being led by child abusers and pedophiles. Don't be surprised, right, when these things happen. Ultimately, of course, the Great Tribulation will lead to the final judgment. Which brings us to end of verse 23. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your works." And so if you don't repent, and if you don't heed the warnings, there are no more second chances. There is judgment. Here he says about killing her children, it's possible that she had some actual children that would die, but most likely this is referring to her followers, As Jezebel was killed, as Ahab and all of his sons were killed, so the same is going to happen here. When this happens, this will be a clear indication that Jesus expects total allegiance from his people. All the churches will know. All the various house churches in Thyatira, all the seven churches here in Asia Minor, all the churches throughout history. When Jesus brings judgment against his people for compromise, it shows that Jesus means business. He's not a pushover. Three thousand died at the Golden Calf. As they said, 24,000 of Baal Peor, millions of Jews died in the Jewish war in the fall of Jerusalem. Jesus hates compromise. Do we? Jesus hates when leaders allow compromise. He's going to render judgment when we do so. He is patient. But there is a limit. He has blazing eyes. He sees everything. He knows everything. He knows not only our outward behaviors, but also our hearts and minds. He knows our motives, our thinking, our feelings. He will not be fooled, no matter how much we justify, no matter how much we try to explain away and make ourselves feel better, and so on and so forth. He knows when we compromise, even if nobody else does. And he is going to render judgment for the wicked works, but also blessing for righteous works. Again, that's not the primary point in these verses. Now, let me also point this out to you. Jesus refers to himself 18 times in this message. If you go back to some of the ones we've looked at, you know, maybe two, three, four, five times, something like that, 18 times Jesus is referring to himself here in this message. Hey, just here in verse 23, I will give to her children death. All the churches shall know that I am he who searches. And then I, I will give to each one of you according to your words. That's just one verse. Do you see how much Jesus is invested, if you will, with his church, especially when they're trying to justify compromise with the world? He hates it and he is head of his church. And in this central message, this longest message, this point keeps coming hard against us and wanting us to listen. So what describes you then? You're a compromiser, just as I am. Hey, but what describes you? Do you insist on your compromise? Do you turn a blind eye? Or when it's pointed out to you, do you repent of it and turn to the Lord and give him thanks? Are you asking Christ to help show you where you are compromising with the world? What describes you? Don't be fooled. Jesus knows. And do works pleasing to God. Let me end with this one thought. Notice that Jezebel here obviously is in the context of the church. In chapter 17 and 18, you see the description of the harlot and Babylon. It sits on the beast and all this sort of thing. That has to do with the same general issues, but in the world. They go together. Jezebel is an individual representation of Babylon coming into the church. There were many Israelites who were taken into exile into Babylon and they ended up staying there and not coming back to Israel. Hey, this is a big deal. Beware. It's so easy to compromise. Heed these words of Christ. Ask him for his help and for his mercies. Let's pray together. Our Lord and our God, we thank you for your word, and especially here in this case, these hard-hitting words. We are thankful, Lord, that you are king and head of your church, that you see all things, you know all things. We are thankful, Lord, that sin is important to you, that you don't just overlook it or pass it by, because this highlights your holiness, your righteousness, and your goodness. And we are thankful for this, Lord. We are thankful that you are so patient with us and that you are merciful and that you give us opportunities to repent. We are thankful, Lord. We are thankful for the forgiveness of sins. We are thankful for the perfect righteousness of Christ. But Lord, we do pray that you would help us to love righteousness as much as you. to grow in our standards of holiness, that we would not be content with mediocrity, that we would not be satisfied with being a little bit better than our neighbors, but that we would seek to act like you and to keep your word and not justify ways that we compromise and act like the world. Lord, help us to live by faith. Help us to have ears to hear. Help us to see ourselves and our sins. Help us to repent of them and to turn from them and to turn to you. Please grow us in grace here in these ways, Lord, that we would not follow in the footsteps of Jezebel, but to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. And so, Lord, we pray for these things, for your mercies to us. We thank you again for your grace through Christ. And so we pray all these things then in Jesus' name, amen.