Let us hear God's word. Revelation 2 verse 18. 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 ask for your works, the last or 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 to 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 committed adultery with her into great tribulation. unless they repent of their deeds. 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'll 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 ever comes and keeps my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. They shall rule them. He shall rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels. As I have also 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. As we begin here today, I want you to think of a time where you've had a pop quiz. Or maybe you've been at work and there's been an unannounced inspection that day. Or maybe you're at home alone or whatever, your parents are not around and they come back sooner than they said they would. or maybe the same with your spouse. But with this in mind, obviously we're going to see here a reference to the return of Christ. And it's a similar kind of scenario here. He's going to say more about it in the next message, but nevertheless, we see some similar thoughts in this one. So, you know, if you're ready, these unexpected events are no big deal. If you've read the material and studied the material, pop quiz is not a problem. If you're not ready, well, that's different. If your parents are out of the house and you're doing what you're supposed to do and you're responsible, it's no big deal if they show up unexpectedly and they come home a couple hours earlier or something like that. But if you're doing things you shouldn't, right, totally different story. The same is true for Christ. If we are ready for His coming, it doesn't matter when He's going to come. But if we're not ready, well, obviously, that's not good. So last time. We briefly discussed what appears to be the central point in this message to the Thyatiran church, and that is the teachings of Jezebel and how the church was compromising with sin, and in particular, as we mentioned the week prior, that the leadership of the church were not stopping what she was saying and doing. Now, like we learned from Paul in the book of Romans and of course in other passages, all of us mix sin with holiness, even the best of us. All of our righteous deeds, the best things we do are still filthy rags. None of us are perfect in our efforts to obey God. And so therefore all of us compromise with the world and with sinful things in one way or another. Nevertheless, there is a difference between a nominal Christian and a true believer. True believers fail to achieve full righteousness in this life, but believers in name only compromise because they really do not believe. This woman in Thyatira named Jezebel had tried to say that believers can act like the world and still be Christians. But Jesus says emphatically, no, that is not true. In fact, he's quite upset and he threatens judgment because of this wickedness. And again, part of his anger is because the leaders of the church, especially, were allowing it to continue. Well, we come now to the next point. As I mentioned a moment ago, verses 24 and 25 is the next point. Verses 26 to 28 is the following, and then we have the last idea in verse 29. So today, let's look at verses 24 and 25 and continue this longest message of the seven and the one right here in the middle of the seven. So verse 24. Now I say to you and to the rest of 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. Well, obviously, you can anticipate there are a lot of questions here on how to understand this. Obviously, Jesus is turning to another group in the church away from these Jezebel followers. And so let's try to break down exactly what he means here. The Greek literally says it this way, but I am saying to you, and the you here is plural. So I'm saying to yins, hey, or all y'all, whatever. Hey, then there's no conjunction. The best manuscripts do not have a conjunction next. The New King James adds one, but there's only a few manuscripts that actually have one. So literally, but I am saying to you, all of you, comma, to the rest in Thyatira. If you include the and in there, it sounds like you're two different groups, right? If you leave it out, it sounds like it's one. And that does seem to make most sense with the manuscript evidence and just what he's going to go on to say. Now remember, as I've indicated to you, in each one of these cities, there were very likely multiple house churches. Even here in Thyatira, which may have been the smallest of the churches, they probably had more than one. But whatever the case, there were some who were following Jezebel, and there were some who were not. And so Jesus is saying, okay, to the rest of you who are not following Jezebel, let me say a few things. So, and trying to boil down the questions here, simply it's this. Is Jesus now returning to talk to the people in verse 19 again? The ones who are doing a good job, they're growing in grace, their works are better now than they were at the beginning. Or is he talking now to a third group? You have those in verse 19, you have those following Jezebel, and now we have a third group. That's the essential question. Well, I think the next clause leads us in a particular direction here. Note the next clause says, as many as do not have this doctrine. Well, presumably this doctrine is the doctrine of Jezebel, right? And so if you do not have the doctrine of Jezebel, you just kind of automatically have two groups here, don't you? Those who are following her and those who aren't. So I lean in that direction, but there is some debate on how to take this. And so as many as are not following the teachings of Jezebel who said we could compromise. those who disagree with her, those who are not accepting her justifications, those who have not joined the trade unions, those who have not eaten meat sacrificed to the patron god, and not participated in the love feasts and committed adultery with temple prostitutes. That's the group I'm talking about, basically. So notice now there is another clause here, and this one also has many questions. Okay, he says, who have not known the depths of Satan as they say. All right, well, first of all in this way, who are they? Who is saying this? Well, I think it's most likely referring to the followers of Jezebel. They are the ones who are saying about knowing the deep things of Satan. Okay. So what in the world are the deep things of Satan? What does that mean? Well, again, historically, there have been a number of ideas that have been suggested. But I think what makes most sense here is that this is Gnostic in its idea here. Gnosticism in its full form and flower was not seen until the second century, but there were ideas of Gnosticism that preceded it. In fact, 1 John addresses certain elements of Gnosticism, and that was written 10 years before this. And so, it does seem to make most sense that we're talking about Gnosticism. So, what is Gnosticism, even in its infant form here? Well, basically, it was a Greek philosophy that said that the body is evil. Matter is evil, right? The things that we touch, right? This pulpit and the floor and my body, all these things are inherently evil. And our soul can rise out of that. We can escape that and get away from this evil. This is how we are saved. Well, we transcend this evil through higher knowledge, having special understandings. And so there are certain teachings but then you also try to find spiritual experiences, some higher ecstatic kind of experience and this kind of thing. Today we see Gnosticism especially in some of your Pentecostal churches and so forth trying to do the same thing. Well one of the things that they taught is that in order for us to defeat evil is that we need to know evil. We need to experience evil. You cannot defeat Satan unless you experience him deeply. Now let me read a little bit here. This is from Dr. Robert Mounts and his summary thoughts on this. He says, knowing Satan's deep secrets is a reference to the view that in order to appreciate fully the grace of God, one must first plumb the depths of evil. Now let me pause here. Do you see the element of truth in that statement? All false teachings have elements of truth. What have we learned in Romans? From chapter 1, verse 18, through chapter 3, verse 20, these 60-some verses, over and over again, Paul is saying, you need to understand how sinful you are if you're going to understand grace. Well, the Gnostics then took the next step and said you need to experience evil in order to understand grace. So he continues and says this, Gnosticism boasted that it was precisely by entering into the stronghold of Satan that believers could learn the limits of his power and emerge victorious. Let me pause again on that. Isn't this what we often hear from our military leaders? How are you going to defeat the enemy if you don't know the enemy, if you don't know their strengths and weaknesses? And so we have undercover agents and so on and so forth. You have all this intelligence network to try to understand the enemy so you can defeat it. So again, you see there's some elements of truth to what they're saying. So he continues, on the basis that a believer's spirituality is unaffected by what is done with the body, Jezebel could argue that the Thyatiran Christians ought to take part in the pagan guild feasts and thus prove how powerless is evil to alter the nature of grace. Do you see the argument? taking elements of truth and going the next step with it, or maybe a few steps with it. If we are going to understand grace, if we're going to defeat evil, we need to get right in there and basically experience it. Or to put it this way, we need to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil if we're going to be able to eat from the tree of life. False teaching is very compelling. You've got to think carefully, but this is ultimately what they're saying, and this is what Jesus is addressing. Now, some people say that there probably were elements of the mystery religions and mystery cults that are part of all of this. Let's turn a moment to 1 Corinthians 2. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul seems to be addressing some of these ideas. Now, he's writing roughly 40 years before Jesus says these words, but it's similar. So how it all fits together historically, there are questions. But notice what he says in verse 10 here in 1 Corinthians 2. But God has revealed them, right, the things of God, the hidden wisdom of God. God has revealed them to us through his spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. He probably is using that language because of some of the false teachings about deep knowledge and so forth. Verse 11, what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. Now we receive not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us. And so the Gnostics, early forms of Gnosticism, we're taking some words like this from Paul and saying, okay, we're going to experience the deep things of God. And we do it through this higher knowledge. We do it through these ecstatic experiences. And we go to the bar. Hey, we go to the satanic temple and experience these deep things so that we can fight against it. We do have the Spirit, right? And the Spirit has given us this knowledge, this deep knowledge of God, and mature believers, then, need to know the deep things of Satan, too, because you must deeply know both light and dark, good and evil, God and Satan. And the enlightened ones will be able to do this without tarnishing their souls. And so you'll know God better, and you'll fight against evil more effectively. It is something like this that Jesus is addressing. And obviously Jesus is indicating this isn't right. This is not how we should understand things. True believers are not to play with fire. We are not to experience both good and evil or to avoid sin. We are to shun ungodly behaviors and teachings. You cannot eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you do, you're saying you can live your life without God. You cannot do that. And so, right, our public education system keeps telling us you can know things without God. No, you can't. That's experiencing evil. Now, ultimately, any way that we compromise is following in the footsteps of the teachings of the Gnostics. But here in particular, the application for us today is something along these lines. Don't go to the Kansas State House and join in with the satanic mass that they tried to do here the other day. Don't read a satanic Bible. Don't join a seance. Don't play with a Ouija board. You don't need to do these things to know that they're evil. We know they're evil. The Bible tells us they're evil. We don't have to go do some other evil activity to experience it, and now that we've experienced it, we understand it better and we can fight against it better. You don't need to do that. You know, sometimes you hear this in regard to children, right? Some of our children, they just have to learn the hard way. They have to figure it out for themselves, and they usually fall flat on their face, and they get into trouble, but then they learn their lesson, and okay, great. And then you have other children who, right, they'll heed the warnings, they'll listen to what you say, and they'll avoid bad things because they're just geared that way, if you will. Unfortunately, the ones who like to learn the hard way are going to be tempted to follow Jezebel. I said a moment ago that when we're talking about the issue of compromise, which is the overall point here in this message, we tend to justify our compromise with the same logic as these followers of Jezebel do. I could experience this evil by you know, justifying it. It's not really going to hurt me. It's not going to lead to all kinds of terrible things because I can experience it without corrupting me. So right the next time you are really tempted to share some nice juicy gossip with somebody else, recognize how you're thinking like Jezebel. I can experience this evil without it corrupting me. And then we justify it, because, you know, I'm just trying to share this information so they'll pray for the person. Or whatever justification we give. In a broader sense, it is very common today, unfortunately, to hear all kinds of woke understandings in the church. And so we can experience the evil of Marxism, and that'll somehow make us better. Of course, they'll never say it that way. But there are people who have been part of the woke church who have come out of it and said, that's really what's happening. Alisa Childers is one of those people who's written a book about it and has podcasts and so forth. It has some very helpful things. We've talked about some of this with the enemies in the church video that we watched and so on. The point is simply this, compromise that we all do is a form of saying, I can do this evil without it hurting me. And it may be a few steps away from knowing the deep things of Satan, but it's really the same principle. And so we might not ever go to a seance. We might not ever play on a Ouija board. But there are other ways that we compromise and use the same kind of logic. So, a few thoughts of bringing it forward a couple thousand years. All right, now, let's get back to Jesus' point. He says here in verse 24, for those of you who are not doing these things, he ends the verse and says, I will put on you no other burden. All right, now, more literally, the Greek says, I am not casting on you, and this is plural again, I'm not casting onions, another burden. All right. First of all, Jesus is obviously still speaking to the same group of people, the rest in Thyatira who are not following Jezebel. And notice how I translated it. The word for cast is used here, or to throw. And that's the same word that we saw last time in verse 22, where Jesus is going to throw Jezebel on the sickbed. And now he's saying, I'm not going to throw anything upon you guys, not any other burden they've already been given. And so Jesus judges Jezebel, but he does not cast extra burdens or judge his people. or trying to avoid these evil things. All right, now this leads to the word burden. What does Jesus mean by this? Well, probably something like this. Let's turn to Acts chapter 15 here a moment. All right, Acts chapter 15, you remember, of course, this is the Jerusalem council. They're trying to decide what to do with Gentiles, should they be circumcised, this kind of thing. And in verses 23 and following, we see the letter that was written that was to be sent to all the different churches. And note especially verses 28 and 29. Acts 15, 28 says, for it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things, that you'd abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you would do well. Sound familiar? It appears that Jesus is alluding to something that had happened almost 50 years before. And it was the Holy Spirit, and now Jesus is speaking, note the implications of the Trinity. Hey, I am not going to cast on you any other burdens other than the ones that we've been talking about for decades. Avoid these sins. Avoid meat offered to idols. Avoid sexual morality as well as the blood and strangled things. And so Jesus is saying to these believers in Thyatira, I'm not gonna give you any other burden. I'm not gonna add anything else to this. All right, this may be specifically what Jesus has in mind. And even if that's true, Do you see the broader point? The broader point is this. Recall that Jesus' burdens, his yoke, is light. It is easy. Let's turn a moment to Matthew 11, and you remember the words of Jesus here. At the end of the chapter, Matthew 11, verse 28, Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Now obviously Jesus here in Matthew 11 is emphasizing our initial conversion, but certainly it applies beyond that too to our sanctification. And so Jesus is telling us that he's treating us like an animal. Now, not in a negative sense, but do you see the point? When you put a yoke on a team of oxen, you are preventing them from going astray. You're keeping them on the narrow path. You are using it for positive things, right? Plowing the field or hauling something or whatever it is. these restrictions that are put on this team of animals, the burdens that are placed there for their good and for the good of others. And so when Jesus puts restrictions on us, it's for our good. It's for our benefit. It is actually providing freedom for ourselves and it leads to benefits to other people. And so Jesus limiting us is actually freeing us. Jesus putting burdens on us actually is leading to salvation and sanctification. So even though Matthew is focusing more on our justification, it does appear that it's this idea, but emphasizing our sanctification here in Revelation chapter two. And so this is why I had us read from the law of God a little bit ago. Jesus is saying, I'm not adding any other burdens. The law of God, whether it's the specific four things in Acts 15 or the law of God more generally, it's the same point. All of God's laws are a burden to a degree, but it's a good one. And so, if we keep that burden, if we keep God's law, then it'll please him and it'll lead to blessings for all kinds of people. So, do you see what we have seen so far here in verse 24? Jesus is addressing those who are not following Jezebel. And one of the specific things he is addressing are those who are not saying we need to experience evil in order to understand the good things, and grace, and God, and so forth. And he's saying, if you're not following down those things, then I'm not going to add any other thing, any other burden to you, which leads us then to verse 25. But hold fast what you have till I come. All right, now, as I've done with each of these different messages, we've talked about the different C's for each one, and do you see how we're coming to the next one here in verse 25? We've talked about the commissioning of John to write this message, we've talked about Jesus' character, we've talked about the commendation for those who are doing well, and the condemnation for those who are not. And so we come now to the command of Jesus. Now, in this case, it's not a correction. When he spoke to the Ephesian church and the Pergamon church, yeah, it was a command to correct bad behavior. Here, it's more positive, like we saw with Smyrna. For those of you not listening and following Jezebel, keep it up, basically. Hold fast to what you have. Now you may recall that we've talked about this word, to hold fast or to seize or to grasp. Back in verse 13, they were holding fast to Christ's name and not saying Caesar was Lord, even though Antipas and maybe others were being martyred for their faith. But then we have the opposite idea, right? Remember verse 14, some were holding fast to the doctrine of Balaam. Verse 15, some holding fast to the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. Well, now we have the same word, but here it's more in this positive sense, right? Hold tightly, grasp on to what you have. Don't let go of it and fall after Jezebel. So what is it that we have? What does Jesus mean by this? Ultimately, of course, we have God. He has saved us. We are his children. We believe in Jesus and so on and so forth. Certainly that's all part of it. But in light of what we just talked about with the burden and in light of what he says in verse 26, he who overcomes and keeps my works till the end, it seems like what we have here is emphasizing the law of God and this command to obey. If you look at chapter 3, verse 11, it says, "'Behold, I am coming quickly. Hold fast what you have, that no one may take your crown.'" So it sounds like, right, hold on to the truth, yes, hold on to Christ, yes, but maybe especially emphasizing holding fast to righteousness. And so seize onto right living. Do not compromise. Don't become apathetic or antinomian. Don't buy into the gospel-centered teaching that minimizes sanctification. But don't go the other way and buy into the federal vision or Catholic and high church teachings of legalism. Now, hold on to what you have. We have the gospel of Christ. We have His word. We have His law. And, of course, we believe that the Reformed understanding is the best way of understanding God's law. and obey, and do not turn from it at all. Not just when we first believe, not just for a time, but all the time, until Jesus comes back, He says, right? Until I come. As I just pointed out there in chapter 3, verse 11, He's saying the same thing, and there it clearly is saying, right? I am coming quickly, so hold on to these things. Now, prior to this, the coming of Christ has been used in the context of something negative. You remember back in verse 5, there to the Ephesian church, he says, remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. We saw in chapter 2 verse 16, same idea, repent or else I'll come to you quickly, I'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Jesus is coming, it's not gonna be very pleasant for the disobedient. But His coming is going to be very pleasant for those who are serving Him, who are holding on to what has been given. We see that here. We saw it again, right? Chapter 3, verse 11. Now, here's where I connect back to where I began. We don't know when Jesus is coming, just like you don't know when a pop quiz happens or a surprise inspection at work. We don't know when He's coming. We know He is coming, though. Are you ready? Or are you buying into this false teaching? And we have it all around us. Are you following after something that sounds good but really is not good? Are you compromising with the world in your thinking and in your behaviors? If so, you're not ready for Christ's coming. And his coming is not going to be very pleasant. But if you are preparing yourself, if you're seeking to live for him, if you're holding on to the truth and not compromising, then when our spouse arrives, it's not going to shock us. We'll be ready. And it'll be wonderful. Let's turn here lastly to Matthew 25. And to this familiar story to us, Matthew 25, verse one. And then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to 10 virgins who took their lamps, excuse me, and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight, a cry was heard. Behold, the bridegroom is coming. Go out to meet him. And all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. The wise answered, saying, no, lest there should not be enough for us and you, but go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. Afterward, the other virgins came also, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming." So what does it mean to have enough oil? Well, right, we're ready for his coming, and that includes proper thinking, not buying into false teaching, that includes righteous behavior, plus other things. Do you see the point? that Jesus is making here for us. Do not compromise with the world, because if you do, you are not going to be ready when he comes. Or if we die first, and we have to stand before him. So anyway, here are a few thoughts for us from this idea in the text, and so we'll look at the next part, Lord willing, next time. Let's pray together. Our Father in God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what you have given to us here. Lord, we do pray that you would help us to be prepared for your coming, or possibly our death first. We pray, Lord, that you would help us to be discerning, for false teaching is often very convincing. Lord, help us to see where we are enticed to follow the ways of the world and compromise. Give us discernment that we would see through the lies and the falsehoods. and that we would see our own tendency to want to believe things that are not so good. Lord, by your spirit, just help us to be ready, simply. Help us to serve you, to honor you, to live for you, day in and day out. And we'll be ready no matter when you come, whether it's today or 2,000 years from now. And so, Lord, we pray that you would Be pleased to answer these prayers, that you would grow us in grace, and that we would be honoring and pleasing to you in all these things. We pray all this then in Jesus' name, amen.