And for the benefit of those who haven't been here for a while or for those who have, because I haven't been preaching or teaching for the last couple of weeks, not because I'm sick, but I just warn you that this is what my voice has been coming to the last three years or so. And the VA can't figure it out. But then again, they're doctors. That's why doctors practice. They don't know. There's only one that knows, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm fine with that. But because we have technology and amplification, I'm able to teach the class, or at least for right now. And the Lord also, for the worship service, some of you have noticed that I've been granted a measure of grace sometimes during the morning worship because I get some of my voice back, maybe because it's getting lubricated. I go to the VA again, this week, but as many times as I've had a scope shoved down my throat for them to say, we can't find anything physically wrong, I don't need to go through that again. It's somewhat discomforting and disconcerting every time it's done. Anyway, so we pick it up. in verse somewhere in here, verses 18 to 29, we've been looking at Thyatira and we see despite her wonderful good works in this particular church, which still exists today, in Askar, I think is the name in Turkey of this city that also by its dimensions actually encompasses what would have been ancient Thyatira, ancient Thyatira today. So it exists. We know that Ephesus did not heed and they were not overcomers. or more than conquerors, because their candlestick was taken out. The nearest church, the modern city of Ephesus is six miles away from the ruins of ancient Ephesus. So there's no church where Ephesus was, and that should be very sobering because they abandoned their first love. And our first love is always the Lord Jesus Christ. So this has taken us, we've looked at verse 18 of Thyatira, and as it is addressed to Thyatira in this church, we see that the Lord Jesus addresses himself as the one who has the sharp two-edged sword, and then, excuse me, as the one whose eyes are a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze, and remember they're like flame of fire. They are not a flame of fire. Because the the flame of Christ's gaze encompassed more than a temporal flame would. But we've covered that and we saw their works and all these works that were listed in verse 19. But despite their works and so much commendable There was this great sin that they had, and that's what we're going to cover in verses 20 to 21. I'll read it in the English Standard Version. It says, But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food-sacrificed idols. Verse 21. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. And we'll hold off right there because I think that with what we'll cover today, I only have time to cover verses 20 and 21 so that at least it's understandable in what we cover. And again, I apologize for sounding like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It was never my intent ever to think that I might sound like somebody else. But at any rate, what we look at, one of the things that we should mark before we look into Jezebel from 1 Kings chapter 18 to 2 Kings chapter 9, one of the things that we should note was that Jezebel of old, the wife of Ahab, was not a prophetess. The name that I suggest to you that the name that is given here gives us some indications of what this prophetess, a false prophetess, is doing in Thyatira. And so it's given a name, an allegorical name, a pictographic name, if you will, in order to bring us some idea of how seductive is this this cult that is coming up. And we can also see that as it starts off in Ephesus, we can see the problems that have arisen right up in the first century. First it starts off with idolatry because they've abandoned their first love. Idolatry. Anything that competes with loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ is idolatry. It might be lesser idols, but it's still an idol even if it doesn't come up and match our love for Christ. that is still an idol. Then we have sympathy in Smyrna that they received persecution and by their persecution and they held fast to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. They sympathized with the sufferings of Christ in such a way that they held on to their faith and the Lord had nothing uncommendable to say to Smyrna. In Pergamos, or Pergamum, we see that there was a form of idolatry there as well, but it was a doctrinal They lifted up, excuse me, Ephesus was doctrinal idolatry. This happens to be an idolatry that causes us to depart from, they were a compromising church and they were Pergamos, or actually the more correct name of the city is Pergamum, and that church exists today in Asia, in Turkey, it's Bergama. in Turkey today. But they were a compromising church, and they were committing idolatry of a doctrinal nature, both with Balaam and the Nicolaitans. And that's what brings us to Thyatira. They're committing adultery. And adultery is a form, every sin is really a form of idolatry. Adultery is perverse idolatry. It's taking something that God has made for good and twisting it in such a way that it's perverse. When we think of adultery, often we think of a relationship that's outside of marriage. And that's a correct definition, but if we look at it in spiritual terms, that if we are the bride of Christ as a church, and even individual members of it, we're married each as individuals, we're married to Christ and are to be faithful to him. So any departure from Christ is going to be adultery. It's a form of perverse idolatry. Taking something God has meant for good and twisting it for our own selfish ends. So this Jezebel, she is a prophetess but a false prophetess and she teaches and seduces the servants of Christ. Now you could take that servants of Christ and apply it both ways because he makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall upon both the evil and the good. As a sovereign God, every creature, in fact every portion of his creation is under his sovereignty. And so even the wicked serve, even Satan serves the means, the ends of God. His counsel and his purposes, his plans and purposes, his counsel will stand. However, most Commentaries will take the servants, meaning the servants of Christ themselves, those who have been saved by God's grace. And to one extreme, to the good end of those who remain faithful, like those in Smyrna, but also for those who have backslidden, that would be included as well. We know that every believer has a possibility to slide back without losing their salvation because of the corruptions that still remain in our mortal flesh. Those exist because, because they exist, it causes us to trust in Christ and not in ourselves. And so what would we say about her? That though all the faithful works, in verse 19, they don't matter anything in one sense. Let's read verse 19 again. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first, that they were more abundant and they were even broader at the end, at this particular point. And also, since we know from verse 21, he gave her space to repent, This probably started very close to the beginning of their journey in Christ as a church, and they were called to repent for all that time while these works that were so commendable rise up. They don't matter anything if this is existing, because as I think we had a lesson in Galatians about that last week, I think it was, and unfortunately the recording of that didn't, I messed up on saving it, and the recording of last Sunday night's teaching in Galatians is gone. But there are two works that we're responsible for. One is to believe on Jesus Christ, John chapter 6, and the other is to love Christ and to love others. And so those are the only two works that should spring forth from the love of Christ to love Christ. Love moves us to obey him, because love moves us to love him. And then if you love someone, you don't want to do anything to wreck the relationship. That's the simple definition of godly fear. Fear of the Lord. So turn with me, if you will, to 1 Kings chapter 8, and we'll see a couple things about this Jezebel. The wife of Ahab. She was actually more wicked than Ahab was. Ahab was one of the most wicked kings in the northern kingdom of Israel. But Ahab repented twice. He repented at the preaching of Elijah and he repented at the preaching of Elisha. Excuse me, he repented at the preaching of Elijah twice, whereas when Elisha came on the scene, Jezebel refused to repent. She killed the prophets of God. She was a murderess. And 1 Kings 8, verse 4 and verse 13, we won't read the whole thing, but in verse 4 it says, and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, or the prophets of Jehovah, Obadiah, Obadiah, whose name means servant of Yah, or servant of the Lord, he took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave, and fed them with bread and water. I crack up every time I read that portion because in the United States, it used to be anyway, I don't know if it is now, they give prisoners in prisons, you know, cable TV and internet. It used to be that if somebody got into trouble, they put them in isolation, give them bread and water. This was, they weren't in trouble. other than that Jezebel wanted to kill him, they were happy to receive the bread and water rations because they were hiding for their lives. It says cut them off in the English Standard Version, but we get a clearer picture in verse 13 where Ovidius speaks to Elijah, and Elijah in verse 13 It says, has it not been told my Lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord? How I hid a hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water. So she murdered, she was murdering the prophets of the Lord. When after Solomon, if you recall, in biblical history, that when Solomon's reign ended and his son Rehoboam was reigning in his place. The kingdom split to northern and southern kingdoms. Jeroboam became the king of the north because Rehoboam did not want to serve Jehovah God and he did not want to rule wisely and he had forsaken the counsel of the elders and took foolish counsel from the young. And so you have the northern kingdom of Israel or also called Samaria in the north and then you have the southern kingdom of Judah in the south. And here in the north there was several prophets up there. There was a myth that came around in the 19th century pretty much saying that the tribes were lost. 10 of the tribes were lost because Judah and Benjamin were down in the south, and so it was just those two tribes, and then the rest of the 10 tribes were lost. Well, they weren't lost. Jehovah God knew where all of them were. And since the promise after Joshua, which we're reading in a Robert Murray McShane reading plan, when Joshua led the people of Israel across the Jordan and they took possession of the land, it was a picture of the type of the gospel that crossing the Jordan is our salvation in Christ and now we take possession of the gospel. We take ownership. A responsibility now is ours since God by his grace has saved us. And so those people in those days when they were in the northern kingdom, this was given to them by God and they received it by providential inheritance through the tribes in which they were born. I can't give this up. This is my responsibility for the kingdom of God. Not the kingdom of Israel, but the kingdom of God. And so the people that were faithful to Yehovah God in the north, every three times a year, they would, even though they're going from the north to the south in the Bible, Jerusalem's the center of the universe. So they ascend to Jerusalem every, three times a year as commanded in Exodus 12. And some other places in the Pentateuch in the first five books of the Bible, in the law of Moses. And so they would go. So they would attend there. Levites themselves, if they had a city that they lived in in the north, they would go to Jerusalem. So there are plenty of prophets as we see. Prophets of Jehovah God, not false, They were not false prophets. Now there were plenty of false prophets too as we do read. So Jezebel, the characteristic of Jezebel which we would assign to what we see in Thyatira was this prophetess was a murderer. And we equate that to the fact that she's an emissary of Satan, who as Satan was spoken of by the Lord Jesus, he is a murderer from the beginning. He's the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning. So we see that this prophetess in Thyatira is a murderer, same as Jezebel. In verse 19, we see how many false prophets there were. So Jezebel communes with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah. Verse 19, it says, now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel. This is Elijah speaking to Obadiah, or excuse me, Elijah speaking to Ahab, the king. And now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel and with 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table." 850 false prophets. The prophets of Baal, they worshiped Baal. And Baal in those days had a couple distinguishing features. Typically it was the Golden Calf. They called the Golden Calf the Jeroboam set up both in the south, in the area that would have been given, portioned off to Ephraim, and then up at Tel Dan in the north, which is around what would be called the Golan Heights today. They had another Golden Calf so the people didn't have to travel far to commit their idolatry. That sin is convenient. Sin always makes itself convenient. It sneaks up on you. Hell always shows up when you least expect it. So there are 850, and note that Jezebel ate with these folks. She communed with them. She had fellowship with them. It wasn't just, these are guys that worship the gods that I worship. Baal worship, false worship, but that she communed with them. Remember that chapter 18 was where there was the great showdown between Elijah and and they called out to their gods, nothing happened. Elijah doused the wood and the sacrifices with water over and over again and then he calls out to Jehovah God and fire comes down from heaven and not only consumes the sacrifices but licks up even the water that is surrounding, licked up even the water that was in the trench surrounding the altar. But after that miracle, and even as Elijah had been praying for three and a half years that it doesn't rain, then a little rain cloud comes forming, and then all of a sudden, it's like Alaska. All of a sudden you see a tiny little rain cloud. It's a thunderstorm. And so after it had been in a drought for three and a half years, and then on top of that miracle, Elijah girds up his loins. In other words, he took the kittle that he was wearing. Yes, men wore dresses back in the old days. He gathers it up, tucks it into his girdle, into his, because he wore a leather girdle and ate locusts and wild honey. So camel hair, and he stuffs it in there, and then he runs to Jezreel, and beats a chariot there. That's another miracle. He's running, what was it? 20, 30 miles or something. 50 miles, I think it was. 50 miles. He runs 50 miles away and he beats a chariot there. Then after that, read chapter 19, verse one. It says, Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done. and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Oh yeah, once their prayer wasn't answered and everyone realized, oh, Jehovah, he is the God. Elijah, he kills 850 prophets. Now I don't think he did them by himself. It says that, hey, grab these guys. And so they were all slaughtered. And so Ahab in chapter 19 verse one says, Everything that he had done, he killed all the prophets with a sword. In verse two it says, then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying, so may the gods do to me and more also if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow. Then Elijah gets depressed. After all those miracles, but that's what we do too. We do that too. After every miracle that the God has performed in our midst, in our lives, then one little thing comes up and, doesn't God love me? Prophet of God like Elijah happened to him. It happens to us a lot. You saved me by your grace. Apparently you don't love me now, today. So Jezebel wants Elijah dead. Now that's another distinguishing feature. Men of God. It's not just enough to kill or to murder or put to death those who love Christ. And not a literal death, a figurative death. Keep the gospel from going to those people. Keep them from getting strong in the faith. Keep them from growing in grace. but she wants to murder men of God as well. Doing everything that she can do to maybe cause the congregation to vote for someone who'll just let us be status quo Christians. Don't stir the pot. Don't do what Jesus said to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me. Don't do what Jesus said. Do your own thing. Be your own man. Put guys like that there. She wants men of God filled with the spirit of God dead. Then in chapter 21 of 1 Kings, we find this terrible story of what another thing that Jezebel does, which I believe relates to this prophetess that's in Thyatira. Remember that there was a, man named Naboth, a Jezreelite, and he had a vineyard. And Jezreelite, and he had this property. And he was a servant of the Lord God. But it was up in the northern kingdom. And Ahab wanted it. And he says, Ahab says to Naboth, sell me your property. No, this is my inheritance from my father's. And I can't give this to you. It must stay within the family. This is my responsibility to the Lord God. He says, just tell me what price. And he says, I will not sell it. And Ahab got depressed. So his lovely wife, Jezebel, says, look, this is what we'll do. She concocts this plan. She says, don't be sad. The vineyard will be yours. And in verse eight, so she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal. And she sent the letters to the elders and the leaders who live with Naboth in the city. Remember back in those days, royalty didn't write their own letters. And in fact, children of the king didn't write their own letters. Paul dictated his letters in the New Testament, right? but she didn't lift up her hand to a pen, she dictated the letters, and then it was sealed with the king's seal so that everyone knew it was official. And so she sends them to the leaders who lived in Jezreel. to the leaders of the city. In verse nine, she wrote in the letters, proclaim a fast and set Naboth at the head of the people. Verse 10, and set two worthless men opposite him and let them bring a charge against him saying, you have cursed God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death. Verse 11, and the men of his city The elders and the leaders who lived in his city did as Jezebel had said, word to them. And as it is written in the letters that she had sent to them, verse 12, they proclaimed the fast and set Naboth at the head of the people. And the two worthless men, in verse 13, came in and sat opposite him. And worthless men brought a charge against Naboth in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth cursed God and the king. So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones. Verse 14, then they sent to Jezebel saying, Naboth has been stoned, he is dead. And from verse 15 on, she tells Ahab, hey, arise, go plant your little garden. You got Naboth's vineyard. You see the gospel there though, don't you? Because that's what they did to the Lord Jesus Christ. They said that he cursed God because that's what Jesus was finally condemned for. First they brought in false witnesses like the two worthless men. They brought in false witnesses to accuse the Lord, but none of them could agree. And by the law they could not condemn him. But they broke the law anyway because they condemned Jesus by his own words, which was forbidden in the law because the high priest said, I adjure you by the living one, tell us whether you are the Messiah. Tell us whether you're the son of the living. of the living one, in other words. And he said, you said it, and from now on, you'll see the son of man. And he used the term for Daniel, which was Baranosh, son of man, the Chaldean expression from Daniel chapter seven. From now on, you'll see, from this point on, you'll see the son of man coming in the clouds. Then the high priest tore his robes, Matthew 27. What need we have witnesses? You heard his blasphemy. He has cursed God in his words. That's what they condemned him for. But Jesus didn't curse God because he is God who became man. So we have a prophetic picture there of this. But what do we see with this concerning this prophetess in Thyatira that she will condemn men of faith through others and false witnesses. And they will probably more than that day, probably more than likely there were men that were suffering martyrs deaths at her hand, at her say so, at her behest. And See, they've gone that far. We have prophetesses and there are exceptions. The norm is that men are to preach because we're to take the responsibility that we see with God the Son and God the Father. As far as that goes, that's why the Scripture's written that way. There were exceptions, but the prophetess in Thyatira was becoming the norm. And there are pitfalls that can come with that because then you have to kind of shape the Word of God in order to make that fit. The norm is that men are to take the responsibility because it reflects the truth of the fall where one man did not take the responsibility. Adam, it was laid upon his shoulder. to be obedient, but remember, as I've said time and again, one of the reasons why, one of the biggest reasons why God didn't intervene there, because it showed that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect environment with the two perfect people in a perfect relationship and with a relationship with God, apart from Christ, they will dishonor God, they will disobey God and they will, or they will be deceived. They will dishonor God, they will disobey God, and ultimately it will lead to death. That apart from Christ, that's all there is. So in second Kings chapter nine, turn a few more pages to the right, we'll kind of conclude this picture and then draw, from Jezebel and then draw some conclusions concerning that and then see the repercussions next week when we look at verses 22 to 23. Jezebel was a seductress to the very end. We see this in Thyatira. He gave her space to repent and she did not repent. This cult that was going on in Thyatira that was competing with the truth of the gospel. In chapter 9, Jehu was the son of Jehoshaphat. was anointed to be king. He was one of the generals in Ahab's army before Ahab was killed by the Syrians. And so here he, Jehu, being anointed, he comes in, drives in the King James Version. I like that version where it says he drove his chariot furiously to do the work of the Lord. And he does do the work of the Lord, but he ends up becoming an idolater afterwards. But he ends up executing Jezebel in verse 30 when she hears news that he's coming because Jehu is coming towards the city. And so when Jehu, it says in verse 30, when Jehu came to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it and she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window. I just wanted to read that to you. Now, there are some people I think that will take this and say, well, women shouldn't wear makeup. Men shouldn't get a haircut then. No, don't use it for that. But the painted eyes, the reason why there's a reference here is because this was notable of those who were harlots. And so that it's written, it's making an emphasis of her seduction. It's presenting unto us the truth of what kind of seductress she is. And she's a seductress even though it's prophesied by Elisha that she would die and that the dogs would lick up her blood. that she's even painting herself up now to show herself important and to be with these emblems that show the seduction of who she is rather than the natural beauty of those who are daughters of Christ. And so she's a seductress to the end. But verses 31 to 37, Jehu actually brings to pass the things that Elisha, the servant of God and the servant of Elijah, what he had spoken, that in verse 31 it says, and as Jehu entered the gate, she said, is it peace? You Zimri, murderer of your master. She makes a reference to Zimri who reigned in Israel for seven days way back in 1 Kings chapter 16, I believe it is. Zimri is the one who killed Baasha, who was the king of Israel. And when he reigned for seven days, he died in a fire. And then Ahab became king. after Zimri, but she called him Zimri because Jehu is coming in to take over the kingdom much in her terms, in her view, the same way that Zimri took the kingdom of Israel from Baasha. So that's why she calls him Zimri. Verse 32, and he lifted up his face to the window and said, who is on my side? Who? Two or three eunuchs looked out at him. Verse 33, he said, throw her down. So they threw her down and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses and they trampled on her. Verse 34, then he went in and ate and drank. And he said, see now to this cursed woman and bury her for she is a king's daughter. Verse 35, But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands." Verse 36, when they came back and told him, he said, this is the word of the Lord which he spoke to the servant Elijah the Tishbite in the territory of Jezreel, the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel. Verse 37, and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as the dung on the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, this is Jezebel. Something just came to mind. Was I calling him Elisha? I still do it to this day. I probably said Elisha was the one who prophesied. It's Elijah that prophesied. Some of you might do the same thing. It's easy to mix up Elijah. J comes before S-H. The only way I could keep it straight is if I pronounced it in Hebrew. Eliyahu is his name in Hebrew. Elisha is the one that came after Elijah. And if I start saying it in English they start running together in the hearing of my brain and I mess up so I apologize. It's Elijah the Tishbite that said that she would die. So she dies an ignoble death and we'll see that also in verses 22 and 23 as far as the Lord Jesus rectifying those. But I wanted to give you a full a full run at Jezebel for understanding this prophetess. I'm gonna turn back to Revelation now. I know that there was a lot there. We went through a lot of scripture, but we're just concentrating on Jezebel as these features of this false religion that is coming up that opposes the gospel. It opposes Christ. And again, what we see in verse 20 of Revelation 2, but I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel. And so it's the believers, the true believers, they're allowing it to happen. You tolerate her. They're not putting her down. This is one of the reasons why a good statement of faith is an order. So that by our understanding of this is what defines us in our belief as a local church to distinguish us from another, that those things can't come in. No, you are bringing in, as we were studying on Sunday night in Galatians, you're bringing in another gospel, which isn't really a gospel. It's not good news. You're putting people under bondage. And she calls herself a prophetess. And there's another distinctive note. She calls herself a prophetess. She isn't called of Christ to do so. Christ uses whom he will. And as I mentioned, you know, one of the things is that sometimes we take biblical patriarchy to an extreme. We believe that men should be in the positions of leadership within the church. But sometimes we take it to an overbearing extreme. Remember, the first people to proclaim the resurrection were women so that we don't lord it over our sisters in Christ. We have to, we love them and we give them a very distinct place in our hearts and an honor and respect them as children of God whom Christ has saved. So she has elevated herself and then teaches and seduces the servants of God to practice sexual immorality. Now, more than likely, because the term that's used is used of actual fornication and sexual immorality here. However, since the things that have been spoken of earlier are speaking on a spiritual plane. You know, faith, service, patience, endurance. So the sexual immorality is going on, and not to downplay it, that shouldn't be happening. But what is worse is, and the thing that's probably not mentioned or even thought of as much, is what brings or what drives the sexual immorality to take place. It's something more underlying. That Christ isn't first, isn't preeminent in the lives of those. that are practicing such things, that are being seduced by such things, and also that the place of Christ isn't in those who are allowing for this to happen, those who are tolerating this. If Christ is preeminent, if he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, then everybody within this church in Thyatira has a responsibility to respond in love to Christ. And that love means we're not going to do this. This can't happen. And so not only had it gotten to that point, it had gotten to a point where they were flaunting it. One parallel you could see from this is in 1 Corinthians. That in 1 Corinthians, that same thing was going on. Not only were they allowing for a young man to have a relationship with his stepmother They were proud of their liberality. Look at how liberal we are with grace, which is actually, again, like as in Galatians, we're in chapter one, verse eight, where he says that you are so easily taken by this other gospel, which is really not another gospel. They're calling grace something that's not grace. Because grace that does not respond in kind to Christ's love, with love, and grace that does not produce holiness in our lives, isn't gospel grace. If it doesn't strengthen our faith to stand firmly upon Christ but allows for these other things to come in, then it's not grace. And they were calling it grace. That's what was going on with this immorality. To eat food sacrificed to idols. Again, we see that in 1 Corinthians. They were having all kinds of disputes about it, whether it was permissible or not permissible. Look at the liberty I have. And Paul uses it as an occasion that when he was in Corinth, finally correcting these things in person, he writes to Rome, to the Christians at Rome, a church he hadn't been to yet. And he mentions those kind of things in chapters 13 and 14, most particularly chapter 14. to not use our Christian liberty, which he explains in his first letter to the Corinthians while he was in his third missionary journey. Don't use it as an occasion for stumbling for your brothers, which is what was going on here. And Jesus is long-suffering, but he's not eternal suffering, we note. But in verse 21, I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent. There is, in English, it does capture the Greek very well. I gave her time to repent, past tense, but she refuses, present tense, at the time of this writing. She still refuses to repent, if you will. of her sexual immorality, of the external which springs from the truth of this internal turmoil that's going on, this spiritual upheaval that is opposing, absolutely opposing the gospel. Now we could speculate all we want, and some people have in their commentary, speculate on what it could be. But I suggest that it's generic here because it could be anything. And in America, you can take a sampling from almost anywhere that would fit what's going on in here in Thyatira. So that's all we really have time to cover. Any questions or comments concerning Thyatira? Jezebel gives us information. Jezebel was not a prophetess, but by Christ using this name presents unto us some things that give us features about what's going on. And it helps us to understand also that if these things start popping up in our lives, things like a communing with something that's false, putting to death, or just, let me give it to you in an easier application. You hear something from the Word of God. You see it in His Word. Somebody even says it. It doesn't have to be the pastor preaching it at the at the pulpit or in Sunday school teaching it. It could be just someone in passing that affirms something that you've read and you kill it right away. I'm just not going to do that. I'm not ready for that in my life. Christ was ready for you when you were an enemy. A sinful Godless and weak sinner who was the enemy of God, Romans chapter 5, yet Christ died for us. So, these are some of the lessons we can take from Thyatira. We'll look at the repercussions next week. So, any comments, anything? You know, Thyatira is one of the most pleasant churches to visit. Philadelphia is coming up. That'll be a little bit more, a little bit more of a blessing for us. Let's pray. Most blessed and gracious God and Father in Jesus' name, we thank you for that you took the time, Lord Jesus, to write this letter to Thyatira that we might be warned even. because those things do come up in our lives. And we ask that these things will be illuminated to us, not just the good, but also the evil that's in your word as a warning. that we may see how corrupt we can be and the potential we have for that corruption. We love you and thank you and ask that as our worship continues today that you'll be glorified through Christ's exaltation. In Jesus' name we do pray. Amen.