← Back to sermon library

Please turn in your Bibles to 
Revelation chapter 2. Revelation 2, as we continue 
looking at the letters to the churches in Asia Minor. Picking 
up the letter to Thyatira this evening. This was the smallest 
city of the seven, but the longest letter. Its sole claim to fame 
was its trade, if you remember from Acts 16. Lydia was a seller 
of purple fabrics, and she hailed from the city of Thyatira. There 
were many trade guilds for all the various merchants and tradesmen. 
They each had patron deities in their local chapters there. Sophia Tyra was a community steeped 
in paganism. Also, there would have been some 
unbelieving Jews in the particular city, so the Christians there 
had some difficulty, to be sure, in dealing faithfully and earnestly 
for the cause of the gospel. I'll just pick up reading in 
Revelation 2 at 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 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 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. 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. Amen. Let us pray. Father, we thank 
you for the Holy Scripture, and we just pray now for your Spirit 
to guide us and direct us, and yea, Father, to convince, reprove, 
exhort, and instruct us in all righteousness, so that we may, 
as individual Christians and as a local church, step it up 
and live in a manner that is consistent with your Gospel. 
God, do forgive us for our sin. Do forgive us for our departure 
from the written Word, and grant us grace, Lord God Most High, 
to repent, to forsake sin, and truly to glorify and honor you 
in this world. We ask through Jesus Christ our 
Lord. Amen. Well, as we have noted 
going through these letters thus far, they all follow a similar 
pattern. There is an identification or 
self-description given by the Lord Jesus to the church. Then 
he commends the church if they have things commendable, as this 
church does. And then he condemns them or 
sets forth those areas that are lacking in their local church 
or in their specific context. And then he threatens, in this 
particular instance, to bring punishment in verses 22 and 23 
if there was no repentance on the part of the people. And then 
he ends by giving them an exhortation in verses 24 to 29. Let's pick 
up the self-description in 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. He refers 
to himself here as the Son of God, probably because he ends 
this letter with a reference to Psalm 2. Verse 27 is a quote 
from Psalm 2. 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. So he introduces himself as the 
Son of God. He goes on to describe himself 
as having Eyes like a flame of fire. This comes out of his description 
in chapter 1 at verse 14. His head and hair were white 
like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of 
fire. He is the omniscient one, probably 
the reference here. He is omniscient. He sees each 
and everything that goes on in his local churches. And we see 
that here in verse 19. I know your works, he says. Verse 
20, nevertheless, I have a few things against you. He is conscious 
of the fact that they are doing well, but they have also departed 
in some degree. And then in verse 23, very specifically, 
I will kill their 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. When we gather 
here on the Lord's Day, or when we profess faith in Jesus Christ, 
it is to Him that we answer. In other words, when we do not 
function in the manner prescribed in the word of God, the one who 
sees and observes it is Christ himself. Now certainly if we 
are, you know, slugs in our home, our wives see that. Or if we 
are not engaged in service in terms of church life, or we are 
not engaged in good works, other people certainly will witness 
those things, but the one with whom we have to do ultimately 
is Jesus Christ. His eye is upon us. He is the 
one who searches. He is the one that sees those 
things that we do, and he will render to each one according 
to his words. Albert Barnes comments, he says, 
before the glance of his eye, all is light, and nothing can 
be concealed from his view. Nothing would be better suited 
to inspire awe then, as nothing should be now, than such a reference 
to the Son of God as being able to penetrate the secret recesses 
of the heart. Christ is coming to Thyatira 
to expose some heresy, or to expose the toleration of heresy. And so he highlights this important 
factor of his character. He has eyes like a flame of fire. And before we pass on, let me 
just encourage you again to think like this. When you sin, it's 
not just the people you sin against that sees it or feels it. It 
is the Lord who bought you with a price. It is the Lord who governs 
His church. The church is supposed to reflect 
His glory. It's supposed to be like a trophy 
case. wherein His glory is displayed. That's the whole thrust in Ephesians 
chapter 3. God has designed to promote His 
glory through the life of local churches. And when we don't do 
what the Thyatiran church did, when we don't engage in good 
works or in love or in service, when we don't do those things 
that Christ calls us to, it's Him that sees it. It's him that's 
angry. It's him that is grieved. It's him that takes notice of 
this. And then he describes himself 
thirdly this way, and his feet like fine brass. In Revelation 
19.15, this is a reference to Christ's judgment. So Christ 
doesn't just come and say, you know guys, I hope that you'll 
get your act together, but if you don't, well there's nothing 
really I can do about it. No, Christ, when he threatens, 
can carry out his specific threat. And the threatened judgment here 
is the casting Jezebel into a sick bed and killing her children 
with death. That's how God deals with heresy 
in church. You know, you think that some 
churches are harsh when they carry out church discipline for 
heresy. Well, Christ threatens to kill 
Jezebel and those who would follow her in the church in Thyatira. So the Son of God with eyes like 
a flame of fire and with feet like fine brass. Hopefully, He 
has gained the attention of the church in Thyatira to give Him 
their ears. And hopefully he has gained our 
attention for us to give him our ears. Notice, secondly, his 
commendation in verse 19. There's five elements here. The first is works. I know your 
works. And not only works, but works 
times two. Remember, we're not saved by 
works. We're saved for works. We're saved so that we would 
be a people zealous for good works, according to Titus. According to Ephesians 2, verse 
10. We're saved by grace, through 
faith. It's a gift from God. It's not 
of works, lest any of us should boast. But we have been saved 
for good works. We should walk in that. Those 
that God created beforehand, that we should engage in. Notice 
in verse 19. I know your works, and then he 
mentions love, service, faith, and patience. And as for your 
works, the last are more than the first. They not only had 
works, but they were progressing in it. They were moving forward. And I think, or I fear, this 
is one of the most difficult things about corporate church 
life, is to be moving. It's far too easy to stagnate. 
It's far too easy to just get comfortable. It's far too easy 
just to sort of take root and never move. It's far too easy, 
not only corporately, but individually as well. Perhaps we first get 
saved and we're zealous for good works, we do a lot of things 
for the glory of Christ, and then we start to fizzle out, 
and then we start to reckon, well, I'm not in hell, so it 
must be okay for me to not be what I once was. Jesus hasn't 
judged me. He hasn't cast me into a sickbed. 
He hasn't killed me. He hasn't destroyed me. He must 
be okay with this minimal performance in the Christian life. Again, 
just so I'm not misunderstood, it's not minimal performance 
in order to be saved. We are saved by grace, but we 
are called to work, and we are called to work hard. If the church 
is to function as a display case for the glory of God Most High, 
we cannot be stagnant, we cannot rest upon our laurels, we cannot 
rest and just not do anything. This church is to be commended 
for their works. And then he says Aspyr works, 
the last, are more than the first. Not only were they commended 
for working, but also they were increasing in the amount of work 
engaged in for the Lord. Progressive growth is needful 
in Christianity. And that progressive growth may 
not be by great leaps and bounds. I mean, a Christian life shouldn't 
look like this. It should look like this, ultimately. It should be pressing onward, 
going forward. Doing those things the Lord has 
called us to do. If we begin to taper off, we 
learn from these letters that the Lord Jesus bids us repent. So we repent and we get back 
on track. We don't just lament what we 
used to be and now we're just slugs for the kingdom now. No, 
we do what we're supposed to do. It's easy to get down on 
ourselves or it's really easy to get down on our church. A 
man just recently wrote a good blog post. I've been dipping 
into the blogosphere because there's some decent guys out 
there writing. And this one had this thing about 
paper pastors. He was talking about how many 
people in churches talk about Piper and talk about D.A. Carson 
and talk about Driscoll and talk about, you know, all these celebrities. 
They're their pastors on paper. They're their pastors when it 
comes to being preached to, and learning, and growing. But in 
the context of their own local church, they've sort of given 
up on it. Well, that's not the best thing for the local church, 
and I doubt any of those men would want that to be the case. 
They would hopefully encourage you to build up your church, 
to pray for your elders, to labor for your progress as a local 
body. See, the thing that I'm encouraged 
about in these letters to the churches in Asia Minor is that 
Jesus is full of grace and full of mercy and full of kindness. 
Because I, for one, can read this stuff and say, wow, I am 
not what I ought to be. Forget it. That's not how Jesus 
deals. He doesn't come to Thyatira. 
He doesn't come to Ephesus. He doesn't come to Sardis or 
Pergamos or Laodicea even and say, look, this is what you're 
not doing. Forget it. No, he bids them repent. I mean, 
when we come to this text and it says, I know your works and 
we think to ourselves, when is the last time I did anything 
for Jesus? Now, just so you know, Words 
for Jesus aren't narrowly defined. We tend to think that unless 
I'm on the mission field in China, I'm not working for Jesus. No. When you're functioning in 
the God-given role that you operate in, and you're doing it for the 
glory of the Lord, those are biblically sanctioned words. 
In Philippians chapter 4, Paul is speaking about his visit from 
Epaphroditus. The whole context of Philippians 
is Paul sitting in a prison cell. Remember, we ended the book of 
Acts in Acts 28, AD 60-62, Paul is in a Roman prison. It's from 
there that he writes Philippians, along with Colossians and Philemon 
and Ephesians. Well, while he is there, the 
church in Philippi sends Epaphroditus to him to bring him food, to 
bring him gifts, not gold and silver, but gifts necessary to 
sustain his life. See, the government didn't provide 
three square meals for you when you were in the prison. If you 
didn't have friends or family, you wouldn't be in prison long 
because you'd starve to death. So Paul is acknowledging the 
kindness of the church in dispatching Epaphroditus with these good 
gifts. Paul refers to Epaphroditus' 
service as liturgy, religious service, religious worship. Now had you been some distant 
bystander watching Epaphroditus, all you would have noted is that 
here's a man that cares about this other man and he's bringing 
him some food. God looks upon it and he sees 
it as a sweet-smelling sacrifice of religious worship. So if as 
we are moving through this we say, you know, I haven't done 
anything for the glory of Christ, repent. Don't give up. Christ 
is not about give up. You're a loser. He really isn't. I need this sermon, to be honest 
with you, because I want to give up sometimes. Notice he says, 
secondly, I know your love. Love. The church, this church, 
is exactly the opposite of Ephesus. Remember what's happening in 
Ephesus? Ephesus is taking the word of God and applying it to 
those who claim to be apostles and are not. Oh yeah, you lost 
your first love. You left your first love. Thyatira 
is a loving church, but they're actually tolerating heresy. You see that in the midst of 
these churches. There's no perfect church. There is no perfect church 
on earth. That's what makes heaven so beautiful. That's what makes heaven so glorious. That's why you ought to be longing 
for the New Jerusalem. Why you ought to be longing for 
what we find revealed in chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation. Nevertheless, 
this church in Thyatira loved. They took seriously the message 
from this morning. Understanding being saved by 
precious blood, they feared God and they loved the brethren. 
They showed that love. They manifested that love. They 
demonstrated that love. So much so that the searching 
eye of Christ saw it, and when he comes to deal with this church, 
he commends them for it. I know your love, he says to 
this church. He goes on thirdly and says, 
I know your service. Your service. Albert Barnes again 
comments, the word would seem to include All the service which 
the church had rendered in the cause of religion. All which 
was the proper fruit of love, or which would be a carrying 
out of the principles of love to God and man. All the service which the church 
had rendered in the course of religion. Service. Amy Carmichael said we're saved 
to serve. We're not saved to vegetate. We're not saved to stagnate. 
We're not saved just to enjoy it for ourselves. We're saved 
to be like Jesus Christ. to make a difference in other 
people's lives, whether it's, you know, calling them out of 
darkness into marvelous light with the gospel. Obviously, God 
does it, but it's through the spoken word or whether it's just 
being nice to someone and listening to them or calling them or caring 
for them. Service. That's what church life 
is all about. And it cannot be a one man show. It cannot be service by representation. We live in a compartmentalized 
society. Don't we? If I want someone to 
cut my grass, I hire a gardener. Not any of us. We don't hire 
gardeners. We tell our wives, go cut the grass. Hopefully we 
don't do that. Hopefully we... Brothers, don't 
do that. And if you do, God be merciful 
to you. But just suppose for a moment 
we were all well-heeled and we had the money. We'd hire a gardener 
to do our gardening. We'd go see a specialist for 
the corn that's growing on our foot. We'd go to the deli when we want 
meat. We'd go to the vegetable store when we... Everything's 
compartmentalized. And so we get into the church, 
we got a pastor! He evangelizes. He talks to people 
about Jesus. He serves the saints. He does 
good works. We're just here, man. That's 
our function. Who isn't? Now, the pastor may be more set 
apart for certain of those tasks, but church life is corporate. It is a multifaceted body. And pastors don't have all the 
gifts. Pastors don't have all the abilities. Pastors are very, very narrow 
in many respects. And without a full-body church, 
the church is going to be lopsided. You know, sometimes when we come 
to church, most of the people sit on one side or the other. 
It sort of feels like that. It could be that way spiritually, 
if we're not all actively participating in these things. He goes on to 
commend their faith. I know your faith. That is a wonderful statement. 
And it's not just their subjective belief of the gospel. I'm sorry, 
it's not just their objective belief in the gospel, but their 
subjective hold on it. That faith that promotes mighty 
exploits for God. That faith that is described 
in Hebrews 11. It's by faith, by faith, by faith 
that these men did what they did. It's by faith the church 
in Thyatira has served. It's by faith the church in Thyatira 
has engaged in words. It's by faith the church in Thyatira 
loves one another. Paul in Galatians 5 says, for 
in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything 
but faith working through love. James 2, the whole chapter, faith 
is the root from which good works flow. And then he commends them 
finally on their patience. Notice at the end of verse 19. And your patience. The idea there 
is probably not that they had the ability to watch paint dry 
and they were commended for that trait. Very patient soul. Or they had a preacher that droned 
on for hours. I commend your patience. The 
idea has to do with endurance. It has to do with constancy. 
It has to do with the theme that is replete in the book of Revelation, 
overcoming. They're going forward. They've got issues, to be sure, 
and Jesus will address them on that. But when you survey the 
whole, they are a church that is constant. They endure. They 
are persevering. That is the challenge, to persevere. Not to start. but to continue. There's a lot of churches that 
start and fizzle out. There's a lot of churches that 
begin and close down. Anymore, it's not a lot of churches 
that are starting, persevering, and ending well for the glory 
of God Almighty. We need works. We need love. We need service, we need faith, 
we need patience. If we have been found out, as 
we work through this list of commendable traits, instead of 
throwing in the towel, giving up, saying, I'll never be the 
kind of Christian that I ought to be, say, Lord God, forgive 
me. Cleanse me afresh in the blood 
of Jesus Christ, fill me with your grace, and give me a genuine 
desire to engage in these types of things. That's the purpose 
for these letters. It's not to lambast or shut down 
the churches. It is to call them to faithfulness. Notice, Jesus' condemnation of 
the church, verses 20 and 21. Nevertheless, I have a few things 
against you. This is where it gets difficult. 
We love it when Jesus is commending us, don't we? We love it when 
Jesus is rehearsing those good things, right? Good, good, good. You know how this goes? Husbands, 
your wife is saying, man, you've been so nice here, you've been 
so good here, you've been doing this, but... Wait a minute, I 
didn't sign up for the but. I don't want to hear the but. 
How many of us really like to hear where we lack? I don't think 
so. They want to tell us but, and 
we're like, let's just move on from here. Let me go mow the 
lawn. Christ is faithful. Faithful 
are the wounds of a friend. Nevertheless, I have a few things 
against you. Because you allowed that woman 
Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants 
to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. A similar situation was going 
on in Pergamos. Notice in chapter 2 verse 14, 
But I have a few things against you, because you have there those 
who hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling 
block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed 
to idols, and to commit sexual immorality. One of the purposes 
in the book of Revelation, as a very Old Testament-ish book, 
is to bring a character out of the Old Testament Plop him or 
her, in this case, right down before our eyes so that we feel 
the weight of their wickedness. Now, it would be near impossible 
to identify who this Jezebel is, or was. There is a variant 
reading. Variant reading simply means 
there's a body of textual evidence that has another reading. Doesn't 
mean there's contradictions, doesn't mean there are errors, 
just means there's variants of the specific text in question. And one of the variants is probably 
in your New King James margin. where it says, your wife Jezebel. Some speculate that the pastor, 
remember, it's to the angel of the church in Thyatira. The angel 
is not the disembodied spirit that governs that church. It 
is probably the pastor or the overseer of that particular church. Some speculate, based on that 
variant, that the pastor's wife was having Bible study and she 
was teaching heresy. Now, I don't know. What I do 
know is that there was heresy being taught, probably by a woman. But the idea of Jezebel brings 
before our eyes a woman of gross wickedness. Remember Jezebel. She's in the Old Testament. She was the daughter of Ephbaal, 
the king of the Sidonians. She married Ahab, And if you 
were to look at the two of them, you would see wicked Ahab, but 
you would see her behind the scenes fanning the flames of 
his evil. She was, in many respects, the 
instigation for a lot of his wickedness. They were both grossly 
involved in Baalism, and they took the entire northern kingdom 
with them, according to 1 Kings 18. They had supported prophets 
of Baal on the payroll in Israel. Absolutely incredible. I mean, 
this was a wicked time in the 9th century BC. Jezebel was the 
one who concocted the scheme to obtain Naboth's vineyard for 
Ahab by lying about Naboth and having him murdered. She was 
a cunning woman. She was an intelligent woman. 
You don't pull this stuff off if you're an idiot. She was a 
resourceful woman, but she was deceitful and ungodly and able 
to exert her influence upon others. So as Christ comes to condemn 
in the church of Thyatira, he brings that monster and drops 
her right into the laps of the people of God. He says, you've 
got these things in order. but you've let Jezebel come in. 
You've let Jezebel come in and affect and infect the Church 
of Christ. She taught false doctrine and 
she seduced people into wickedness. When we saw this in Pergamos, 
we remembered that in Acts 15.29 at the Jerusalem Council, Gentile 
churches were specifically prohibited from eating things offered to 
idols or from engaging in sexual immorality. So Jezebel comes 
in and says, you know, it's not really that bad. You have liberty 
in Jesus. You can do what you want. As 
long as no one's being hurt, then it's okay. Christ says it's 
not okay. And the condemnation for the 
church, very specifically, is that they tolerated it. That's 
the issue. Oh yeah, she's bad and wicked 
and Jesus is going to kill her. But they let her. They didn't 
stop her. They said it was okay, you can 
host a Bible study. You see that? Nevertheless, I 
have a few things against you because you allow that woman 
Jezebel to teach and seduce my servants to commit sexual immorality 
and eat things sacrificed to idols. You allow it. See, Ephesus had it right. You 
don't get behind the pulpit unless you are biblically qualified. 
Thyatira, in all of their loving, opened the pulpit to someone 
who would infect the church with bad doctrine. I love what Chilton 
says. This must be clearly understood. Orthodox biblical Christianity 
is intolerant. A church that tolerates evil 
and false doctrine is a church under judgment. God will not 
long tolerate her. This is not to say that Christians 
should be intolerant of each other's mistakes, idiosyncrasies, 
and differences over non-essentials. But when it comes to clear violations 
of biblical law and orthodox doctrine, the government of the 
church is required by scripture to put a stop to it before it 
destroys the church. So when those enemies of the 
gospel claim that the church is intolerant, hopefully they're 
right. Hopefully they're right. I fear 
that our problem in this generation is to be too tolerant. Now, again, 
I think Chilton is right on. This is not to say that Christians 
should be intolerant of each other's mistakes, idiosyncrasies, 
and differences over non-essentials. If you and I differ on something, 
that's fine, provided it isn't the deity of Christ. provided 
it isn't violating the law of God. You see that? We need to 
draw the line. We need to hold tightly those 
things most surely believed among us. Those things that are indifferent 
are those things that are not as essential. Let's show charity. Let's show love. Let's show deference. Doesn't mean we can't have our 
own opinions. Doesn't mean we might not even fight for the 
validity of a certain interpretation. There's a place. for well-intentioned, 
good-hearted, as long as it's based in love, debate in the 
Christian life, that's fine. It shouldn't be the case that 
when we differ on a non-essential, we get so angry that we go start 
our other churches. That's not what Jesus is saying. 
Jesus is saying, though, that when you let Jezebel into the 
pulpit, and she teaches people to violate the law of God, you 
have sinned. You have violated a basic, fundamental 
principle of Holy Scripture. You do not tolerate wickedness 
in the Church. That's the point in this lesson. Christ goes on to say, I gave 
her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Verse 21. I gave her time? Do you see how unlike us, Jesus 
is? I gave her time. Christ is longsuffering. Christ 
is compassionate. Christ is patient. Remember back 
in Nahum's day, they interpreted the longsuffering of the Lord 
as being indifference? We're not supposed to do that. 
We are to appreciate the long-suffering of Christ in this instance. I 
gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did 
not repent. The kindness and the patience 
of Christ ought to promote repentance in our lives. Romans 2.4 says 
the goodness of God should lead you to repentance. Don't abuse 
it. Don't scoff at it. Don't live 
as if God has forgotten you. God doesn't forget you. God knows all things. It is always 
before his eyes. Sometimes that patience ought 
not to be interpreted as his indifference. It ought to be 
interpreted as a time that he is giving us for repentance. 
That was the case in Thyatira. Notice quickly the punishment 
threatened by Christ, verses 22 and 23. Indeed, I will cast 
her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her 
into great tribulation, lest they repent of their deeds." 
Isn't that amazing? The adulteress is going to be 
cast into a sickbed. Punishment answers to the crime, 
doesn't it? She's an adulteress. She'll be sick in her bed. There'll 
be great tribulation, threatened judgment, and the gracious unless. Notice, those who commit adultery 
with her in the great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. So those participants with her, 
if they do not repent, they will reap great tribulation. There 
is a window of opportunity. There is time for repentance. 
This whole letter, along with the other six, are all evidences 
of Christ's kindness. Don't just read this and go, 
man, he's pretty harsh with the churches. Just the opposite. 
He's very gracious with the churches. He's very kind to the churches. 
He is very good in telling them how they are to operate in this 
world. And then he says he would remove 
them by death. I will kill her children with 
death. Verse 23. This same judgment 
was inflicted upon the 70 sons of Ahab and Jezebel according 
to 2 Kings chapter 10. It's not as if Jesus is looking 
down at churches and saying, well, because of this I'm going 
to kill your kids. No, he's going back to the Old Testament. What 
was the end? What was the demise? What was 
the fate, if you will, of Ahab and Jezebel? Their children were 
slain. The same is the case with the 
Church of Jesus Christ if she will entertain Jezebel's doctrine. And that lesson ought to be needed 
by all the churches. 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. Christ comes to deal 
severely, if necessary, with erring churches. And then he 
closes off with the exhortation There are those who had not given 
into the doctrine of Jezebel. Notice in verse 24. Now to you 
I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine. So it wasn't the whole church. 
It wasn't an epidemic, or a pandemic, or whatever the type of epidemic 
it would have been if everybody was affected. Pandemic's a lot 
in the news right now. There were still faithful ones. 
There were still those who said, no, I don't want that doctrine. 
So that's a good thing, too. Just because your church entertains 
something that it ought not to doesn't mean you have to follow 
everything. I mean, Thyatira probably didn't 
have, you know, 70 churches. There wasn't a lot of options 
for the brethren here. They were sitting in a pew and 
Jezebel got up to teach and they were affected and saying, man, 
I just don't like this, this isn't right. Christ never unchurched 
them or de-churched them, so at least up to this point it 
was still okay to be there. They didn't have anywhere else 
to go, but they weren't going to follow along. There's a lesson here. Check 
everything. search the scriptures, bring 
your bibles to church, look in the texts, compare scripture 
with scripture. Don't just take the reverend's 
opinion. You need to understand it for 
yourselves. If the pulpit is plunging itself 
into heresy, and you've got the wherewithal to avoid that, Christ 
has a special word for you. 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. Again, the language is from the 
Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. He is basically saying, I'm not 
going to heap up on you more. You just do what you're supposed 
to do. In the midst of this context, 
you be faithful, verse 25. Hold fast what you have till 
I come. And there is this promise to 
overcomers in verse 26. And he who overcomes and keeps 
my works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations. Now we reign or we rule with 
Christ by virtue of our union with him. It's not like he gives 
us a hat and he gives us a stick and he says, now you go over 
there and you rule over France. Most of us would say, I don't 
want France. By virtue of our union with Christ, his victories 
are our victories. His triumph is our triumph. That's what the scripture envisions, 
or envisages, or speaks of when it uses that language. And that's 
from A. A. Hodge, Outlines of Theology, the best description 
of this I've ever read. It is not that we have our own 
little dominion, it is Christ exercising his sovereign rule 
and us being in him, we are said to participate in that. He quotes 
from Psalm 2, he says this is already a reality as I also have 
received from my Father. Jesus is not waiting to become 
the King, Jesus is the King. Jesus is the Lord, Jesus has 
all authority, and Jesus says that those who overcome participate 
with Him. And He ends, as He does, all 
of the others. He who has an ear, let him hear 
what the Spirit says to the churches. The reference to the Morning 
Star, Revelation 22.16 says that Morning Star is Jesus Himself. I will give him the morning star. 
I will give him myself. I will give him communion and 
intimacy and nearness. Those are the blessings the book 
of Revelation holds out for his people. We have learned again, 
Christ is present in his churches. He searches them out. He sees 
what they're doing. The good he commands, the bad 
he condemns. He would see the very same things 
here. Hopefully, he'd be able to say, yeah, you've got these 
things in order. Nevertheless, these things are not in order. 
We need to take these things, we need to pray them in, and 
instead of fixing someone else, let's fix ourselves. It's very 
easy to say, man, you should do this, or you should do that, 
or you should do... Now, there are certain things pastors should 
do, and if we aren't, we need to repent and forsake and all 
of that. But when you look at this list, am I working, am I 
loving, am I serving, am I being faithful, am I being patient? It's very easy for me to see 
when my wife's not doing her job. Very easy. Which doesn't happen a lot. It's 
very easy when I go to a store and there is an inept worker 
there for me to see that he's not doing his job. It's easy. 
I suspect it's easy for you guys, too. But when the cop pulls you 
over, it's very easy for you to become an authority about 
the law. And shouldn't you be out catching bad guys? We're 
good at doing other people's jobs. What I want us to do is 
take this and first look at ourselves. Before we have a church that 
throbs with work and service and love and all those things, 
we have to have individuals that do that. If we as individuals 
aren't doing it, we're certainly not going to do it at the corporate 
level. So please take this home, please 
pray it in when you see, yeah, Butler needs to step it up here 
and there. Tell me, yeah, I do. But look at yourself as well. 
I know your works, your love, your service, faith and patience. And as for your works, the last 
are more than the first. Brethren, I understand what it 
is to be battle weary. That means having been a Christian 
for a period of time, and realizing that it is not a rope of singing 
and dancing and tapping all the way into heaven. Christianity is not about having 
the birds flying around you, blowing their wind all over you, 
and rose petals adorning your path so that you can just dance 
on into heaven. Christianity, as I see it, is 
muddy and dirty, strewn with bodies, blood, bullets, bombs, 
casualties. When there's rose petals and 
birds, I would imagine it's easy to keep on skipping. When you're 
stepping over dead bodies, and you yourself have fallen many 
occasions, and somebody's had to come along and peel you up, 
that gets difficult. There is a danger in becoming 
battle-weary. And we all try to cope. I don't 
want to sound all psychobabble here, but there is the reality 
that we try to cope. We try to do the bare minima. 
We try to erect walls. We try to protect ourselves so 
that we won't be hurt again in the fashion that we were once 
before. That's unacceptable. As one who has done that, it 
is unacceptable. Christ never says in the Scriptures, 
when you've been hurt, erect a wall and make it such that 
you'll never get hurt again. He doesn't say that. He says 
when you get hurt, deal and move on. You've got to deal and move 
on. We've got to go forward. We've 
got to gird up. We've got to be faithful. We've 
got to do the things that we don't always want to do. We have seen in these letters 
thus far, with just these four, there's no either or in the church. You're going to have doctrine 
or you're going to have practice. The church is to be about both. 
We're to have doctrine. We're not to tolerate Jezebel. 
We're not to allow the devaluing of God's Holy Word to take place 
in His church. But in that frame, we're going 
to love one another as well. We're going to deal graciously. 
If firmly, we're still going to be gracious to one another. And also, we need to learn afresh 
the patience of Jesus Christ as it's revealed to us in this 
passage. Thyatira, this letter, along with the others, is a model. 
of the patience of Christ. I gave them time. I gave them 
time. Unless, he says, there are all 
marks of the mercy and kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ. May 
that mercy and may that kindness truly promote in us repentance 
and faithfulness in the duties that he calls us to. Well, let 
us pray. Our Father, we give you thanks 
for the Holy Scriptures. We give you thanks for this letter 
to Thyatira. And we just pray, God Most High, 
that you would help us to take these things and to search our 
own hearts and search our own lives and to see whether there 
are works and love and service and faith and patience, constancy 
and endurance and perseverance, all those things that are typical 
of a battlefield. God, we know that you have not 
called us simply to sit and enjoy our salvation. that you have 
called us to radiate the gospel of Jesus Christ in the way that 
we live, the way that we love, and the way that we conduct ourselves. 
And we just pray, individually and corporately, that you would 
forgive us, that you would grant us grace to act upon your mercy 
and to be faithful in these things. We pray that you would help us 
as well, doctrinally, to be faithful to your word, to love the truth, 
to love the scriptures, God, to buy it and sell it not, to 
value and prize it and not to compromise, even though many 
around us may do so. May Jezebel never gain a foothold 
in this church, but may we always be intolerant of heresy. And 
we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.