Bible Study - July 22, 2020

Revelation. You know, last week we covered the church at Pergamos, and we talked about how some doctrinal issues were beginning to creep into the church of Pergamos, and God addresses those issues. And this past Sabbath, we talked about the doctrine of Balaam that is talked about in the church of Pergamos. We'll talk about the doctrine of Nicolaitans, I think, this week, God willing. You know, they're very significant, what went on in the church. And as we look at what happened to the message of Pergamos, when we talk about Thyatira today, we'll see that there's a number of things that goes on that God is very interested in our doctrinal purity, if you will. He wants us to truly come out of the world and to embrace His and to leave off the things that can creep in and so can easily creep into our lives from just the influence of society or even our past religious training before we came into the church and everything. So, you know, we have the doctrine of Balaam. That's, well, just a find there in the Old Testament. The Nicolaitans, you know, that's a New Testament type thing. So the Nicolaitans, you know, that doctrine, what is prepped into the church is a little different than Balaam, but certainly important and has some of the things that we need to look at. And as we get into the church of Thyatira, we see the same type thing happening. You know, this time God defines the doctrine that is coming in by a woman who has, you know, a very, very bad reputation in the Old Testament that He describes it in. So why don't we go ahead and we'll look at chapter 2, verse 18 of Revelation. But before I go there, are there any questions, comments, observations from last week that anyone would like to make on any of the things that we talked about? Like I said, we talked about Pergamos in the first part of chapter 6, if I remember correctly, so Revelation 6.

Okay, well, let's look at verse 18. You know, every one of the messages of the seven churches, and remember these were literal churches that were on a mail route in Asia Minor there, but they are messages to everyone today. They're as applicable to us today as they were to that back there in the first century and as they were down through history to the various churches and those timeframes that we talk about in history.

So God is talking to Jesus Christ to the church at Thyatira, and it says to the angel of the church in Thyatira, right? Remember, you know, angel can be a messenger. And as we've gone through some of these, we look back at history and we can see key people, if you will, in the church, the true church, whose names pop up as people who were talking of the truth of God and everything.

And as we talk about Thyatira, we'll say a name, pop up, you know, in the history, the brief history that we talk about tonight that pops up that is associated, or could be associated with the era of Thyatira, if we can use that word, era, and a sign of time to it. He goes on and he says, and Jesus Christ, remember, he kind of redefines himself or uses a portion of his description as he introduces these messages.

He says, these things as the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass.

You know, last week he was talking about the sword. This week, this church, he talks about his eyes, you know, his eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass.

And if you remember from chapter one, when he talks about his feet, his feet were like fine brass, refined in the fire.

And, you know, refined in the fire may be part of the message that he's going to be giving to the church in Thyatira here and those flame eyes like a flame of fire that look and see and search the hearts that will see.

In verse 19, as he talks to this church, he says something that's great would be great for all of us to hear.

And certainly, you know, commendation on this church, he says, I know your works. I know your love. I know your service. I know your faith and your patience.

And as for your works, the last are more than the first.

So it's a very good report that God gives in this church at Thyatira. All those things are great. They have the works. They have everything that a true Christian should have.

And he even says that as he looks at this church, the older they got, the more, the longer they were in the church, their later works were even more, you know, more than their first works. So, you know, he doesn't give them the same admonition that he gave the church at Ephesus, like, return to your first love, right? He says, I see what you do. What you're doing is very well.

But in verse 20, he has something against this church, if you will, and that's what we're going to focus on for a while.

I will mention that the message to the church of Thyatira is longer than any other message to any of the other seven churches.

And there is a lot buried in this message of Thyatira that will do us well to spend some time on it.

I think as we look at Thyatira, we're going to be able to relate to the day and age that we live in as well.

And as we look into the future, you know what lies ahead of us, that we're living in the same type situation that the people here being spoken to in Thyatira were.

And verse 20 says, 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.

So, you know, Christ, as He looks at this church, He says, you know what? On the surface, you're doing everything right. The church is a good church. You've got works, you've got service, you've got love, you've got patience, and you're increasing in those things.

But, but there's a doctrinal problem there. You're allowing some things to creep into your belief system, or the way you're conducting yourselves that are, is not the pure religion that God wants us to.

And He uses, in the end of verse 20, you know, He says, this woman Jezebel teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

Now, we see this, you know, throughout the New Testament, right? Even back in Acts 15, in the Jerusalem Council, when they were talking and enjoining nothing more on the Gentiles. It wasn't that they were doing away the Ten Commandments or anything to say it, but their conclusion was, you know, physical circumcision is nothing but we enjoy nothing more on the Gentiles except don't commit sexual immorality and don't eat things sacrificed to idols.

And even into the, in the church in Pergamos, you know, as He talks about the doctrine of Balaam, back up in verse 14 of chapter 2, He says, here's the children of Balaam, or the doctrine of Balaam. You know, He's, He's teaching my children to eat, to commit sexual immorality, and eat things sacrificed to idols.

And it's important to realize when we read those things, you know, that God writes, He's not just talking about the physical act of sexual immorality. He's not talking just about the sex, the physical act of eating things sacrificed to idols.

These are spiritual concepts that He's talking about here, and I, I know we're all aware of that, but as we read these things, He's speaking here into the New Testament church of the spiritual things that, that we need to make note of.

You know, Jesus Christ and His Sermon on the Mount, you know, said it's not enough to just not physically commit adultery with His women.

You don't even think about her or lust after her in that way. You, you have your mind under self-control that you don't allow the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and these things to enter in, and that takes a lot of work.

So when God is talking about sexual immorality here among churches and peoples and about His people, He's talking about the fornication that we might have with the outside world, ideas that are there, bringing things in from prior associations that, you know, we would, that we might still be holding dear and, and if you will, fornicating on, on God or against God, cheating on God, if we can put in the modern veracular, and by, by still holding on to these things and staying close to these things that are of the world and not of the teaching that God has for us. Same thing with eat, with eating things, you know, sacrifice to idols. You know, Paul has a whole chapter in 1 Corinthians 8 about eating things sacrificed to idols.

And, you know, we don't, we don't worry about the physical things that we eat today and say, I wonder if that was ever sacrificed to an idol. But there's a spiritual component to that, that, you know, we need to think about and we need to kind of understand what God is saying about and bring some of the words that we read in the Old Testament into the twenty-five years.

We need to think about the first century meeting because as God writes this to Thyatira, it applied to the people down through the Middle Ages and it applies to us in the 21st centurylia's much as it does to them.

So when we go back into verse 20 here. You know, what God is saying is, look what has happened to you. You've been enticed, you've been lured into this, and you're doing things that I'm counseling you not to do. The same as he counseled the church at Pergamos not to do. The same thing that he would talk to us today is just something that we can be influenced by. So let me leave that. This afternoon, a question came up, and a little later I'll give us something to think about over the next week that relates to that last phrase there. But let's go back up into verse 20, and let's peel this verse apart a little bit here and see what God is talking about. He says, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel. Let's just stop there for a moment because the prior church, he talks about Balaam, and he talks about the Nicolaitans, but here he talks about this woman Jezebel. And when we see the word woman in Revelation, again, you know, it's depicted by us sometimes with a woman, but God is not talking about, you know, he's not going back and talking about just that woman Jezebel. She symbolizes something, and we see the word woman in Revelation. What is it that, you know, what is it that God is depicting when we see the word woman in Revelation? Anyone?

Church. False church. False church or the true church, right? Woman is usually a religious system. It's a church. Let's go back because in Revelation itself, you know, we see this word woman show up a number of times. If we look at Revelation 17, you know, we can kind of see in Revelation 17, God is talking about this false religion, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. This church, this church, the world fornicates with her, and many people fornicate with Mystery Babylon the Great. And it's clear when we read through chapter 17 that he's talking about a religious system that's there. He puts to death the saints, and he concludes in verse 18 of that section. And as he kind of identifies who this woman is he's talking about, says that the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.

And so we have, you know, God saying here, the woman, this Babylon the Great, this Mystery Babylon religion who he pictures as a harlot. She's dressed in that array. She born a case with the people of the earth, the kings of the earth, and whatever. Here's this woman, here's this religious system.

And he identifies it, you know, pretty much. We go to Revelation 12.

You know, we see a woman prominent in Revelation 12, two different women in Revelation 12. In the early verses, we read about a woman that persecutes the church.

And the true church, in this case, has to flee into the wilderness. Let's pick it up in Revelation 12. You know, we'll pick it up in verse 4. Verse 4, in the first part there, he's talking about Satan who dragged away a third of the angels to be demons. And it says, and the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born.

So Jesus Christ was born through, you know, the congregation in Israel, through the tribe of Judah, of the nation of Israel. And Satan, we remember, he was right there. When Christ was born, he was there, and he had Herod ready to kill every baby under two years old to see if he could destroy the Christ child. Of course, God protected him by taking him to Egypt. And it says in verse 5, And we know that life he ascended to God. Then the woman, and in this case it's not the same woman in Revelation 17, but it is a woman, right? The woman who delivered the child, which would be the church, if we look at the nation of Israel as God's people in the Old Time, it was the woman, that religious system that God called out of Egypt and gave his laws to and wanted them to become a model people, the ones that he called his holy people. This woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1,260 days.

And so we have this number 1,260 days in this case, and I'm sure we understand the prophecy in this early one. It refers to 1,260 years. That early church, you know, it was under intense persecution, and it was scattered. We talked about that a little bit last week with the church in Pergamos. They were scattered throughout the world, and for 1,260 years, they were subdued. They were sought. They were killed. They were martyred. They had to go underground, and for that 1,260 years, the Bible was suppressed. The Word of God and everything in the power of this other woman who appears in Revelation 17 who has dominated the earth, you know, through the course of modern history, if you will. She dominated the earth and tried to subdue the Bible, and for 1,260 years, it was illegal to have a Bible. It couldn't be translated, and while the church was in the wilderness, persecuted and hiding, finally, you know, when it was God's time, the Bible, it became legal to have a Bible. And so the Bible began to be translated into English in England, and the Protestant Reformation began, and, you know, we'll talk about that a little more in the church history, you know, next week as we look at some of those things. But that 1,260 years expired, and the church was able to grow again. It no longer had to hide in the bushes that it did before. It was no longer persecuted. But it was the same woman that we read about at the end of Revelation that persecutes the saints, that puts the saints to death. And the mission is to quell the true church of God, and that's what happened during this 1,260-year period until recent history. And we all know who that church is. And so, you know, we just, the Catholic Church has done that. That is their history. And that was what they were called back in, you know, the times of Thyatira. We read about, or we talked about the Council of Nicaea last week, where the Catholic Church, you know, took away Passover and London Other Bread, replaced it with Easter, added Christmas, told the true servants of God, you can't assemble in your houses anymore, you can't do any of these things anymore. You simply are going to be wiped out. And that was their mission for them to have. And remember, even the edict from Constantine was, you know, take the far better course, he said, of joining the Catholic Church.

And the Catholic Church down through the ages has always been against God. And so we continue down, and that part of Revelation 12 is done, and that woman fled into the wilderness, and God protected her. You know, and He protected her through many, many deaths, so, I mean, it wasn't easy as those people lived through that. And so in verse 9 we come down, and after we read about this war that broke out in heaven, and in verse 9 it says, The great Dravigan was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

And then we hear, you know, the voices in heaven saying, Now salvation is strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brethren, who accused of before our God day and night, has been cast out. And so, you know, we don't know exactly when this happens. We don't know when God casts Satan to the earth. But you know, when we look at the world around us today and how it has changed so much in such a short period of time, and we watch things that are going on around that don't even make sense, and we see the division, and we see the hate on all sides of the fence, that a world that seems to be totally out of control with absolutely no direction. And we see all these things, and it makes you wonder, has the time come that Satan has been cast down? Is he here stirring up everything that has made our world, all of a sudden, a very, very different place than it was back in January and February of this year? We don't know when it was. Maybe it hasn't taken place. Maybe it has. God knows. Right? But as this time comes, when Satan comes, we see that God encourages His people. You can overcome Satan by the power of Jesus Christ. He died that we could live. We have His Holy Spirit. He overcame the world. So can we. As we stay close to Him, and we see in verse 11, they didn't love their lives to the death. Many, many people we read in Hebrews 11, many, many people when you read church history, have sacrificed their lives during that time. And as we read in Revelation, we see that there will be more before the return of Jesus Christ as well. So in verse 12, he says, the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows he has a short time. And when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. So we see the thing here. It's like, here's Satan. Here's Satan, his church, or he persecutes. He's been against God's people from day one. He's against God's people physically, the physical nation that God calls His holy people, the tribes of Israel. He's against God's church and His people. He hates them. His whole system is set up to bring down anyone who is God's people. And here he is, then he begins to persecute the woman, the true church, the one through whom Jesus Christ was born, physical Israel, and then spiritual Israel as we are today. And so that persecution will come. That persecution will come. But God tells the woman, the church, His true church in this case, not the woman in Revelation 17, the false church, but the woman was given two weekends of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. So here we have the three and a half years again, the 1260 days. In this case, though, it was 1260 literal days, 1260 literal 24-hour periods, three and a half years, as we reckon them.

But God says, I'll take care of this woman, the woman who is the true church, the woman that I call my special holy people, that I have called out to follow me and that yield themselves to me and that are growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. And He goes, I'm going to take them away. I'll take them away from Satan. I'll shield them from his persecution. And of course, Satan doesn't give up. So in verse 15, we see the serpent spew water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman. We commonly look at flood and say that can represent armies. Or whatever it is that Satan musters up to try to capture that church before God can put it wherever or whatever he has in mind for that church, his church at that time, Satan will try to stop it. But it says God will open up the earth. Later on, if we get into chapter six, we'll talk about God opening the earth. And we see significant times when God is present that the earth opens up. And here it is opening up and swallowing the flood that Satan puts after the woman. And it says, well, I'm sorry, I'm ahead of myself, but in verse 16, that's exactly what happened to swallow it up the flood. But here's this group of people who fly into the wherever God has them that He nourishes them for three and a half years. But then there's a group of people who are part of that people, but they're left out of that group that's nourished for a time, times, and a half a time. However it is that God determines He will do that. And the dragon, it says, was enraged with the woman. Well, we just read that the woman, at least part of the woman, she was taken to a place. But the rest of the woman, the dragon was enraged with the woman. He can't stand the fact that God protect her, and He went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And so we have a woman who's protected, but then we have the rest of her offspring who are there at a very trying time in earth's history and a very trying time for all of mankind. And it's an admonition to us, you know, as God has called us, to be sure that we are staying close to Him, not just for whatever promise He makes in verse 14, but because eternity is at stake and the future is at stake. But there is a group of people who don't make their calling election sure, who don't develop the doctrine, the pure doctrine, if you will. People who, as we read in Revelation 2, are part of the woman that may be doing all the works, that may have a lot of service, that may be demonstrating the love, who have the patience, but God has something against them. There's something against this woman, He says, that I'm going... He's going to talk about next. So let's go back to Revelation 2, verse 20. I'll pause there for any comments or any questions or any observations. Mr. Shaby, are you focusing still on Jezebel? I'm getting to Jezebel. I'm on the word woman right now. Oh, okay. Because you started out, I thought, with discussions about Phyretira and Jezebel. And I was just going to bring just some ancient information concerning Tyne here. And that is that the Greek city of Phyretira was originally called Plopia, and some ancient Greek texts. And here's the interesting one. And Semiramis, an other Greek ancient text. So these were the names of the city before it became Phyretira. And we know who Semiramis was. And we know that she was the mother of the Babylonian religion, the mother of the Echinocer, etc.

So I see a very interesting tie-in with the concept of a Jezebel with Semiramis as we move forward from Babylon up until the present time of the Phyretira church. Very good. Very good. Yeah. It's interesting how the names fall right into what the Bible says here and some of the problems that God is going to address here. Very good.

Okay. Well, let's talk about Jezebel. So we've talked about the woman. I think everyone understands that. Right there. Many of the things that God introduces in Revelation, the expletions are right there in Revelation. We just have to kind of tie it all together. But here, if you were going to take a woman, right? Take a woman. If you were going to pick one woman in the Bible that is the epitome of someone who is against God, it would likely be, if you thought through it, this lady Jezebel, because she has a history, as we recall, in ancient Israel.

She's the one who, after Elijah put to death the prophets of Baal, who demonstrated that God is the true God of Israel. Now, when Elijah went back, fully assuming, as any of us would, that there's all the proof of saying. Israel will yield to God. Israel will yield to God now. And then Jezebel took exactly the opposite approach. It's like, I'm not going to yield to God at all. And back to Elijah, my entire mission now is to put you to death. That's all her focus was on. She never relented. She never stopped pursuing. She never gave up. Her entire reason for being was, I will fight God.

And so when God uses the word Jezebel here in verse 20, and he's talking about this woman, you have this woman, and you've allowed this woman, this religious church, this church that's there among you. And she is dead set against me. Everything about her resists me.

And, you know, we can look down through ages and we can see the Catholic Church has always been against God. They're the ones who were talked about in Daniel. In fact, let's go back and look at a few of those. Let's look, go back and look at Daniel 7. Daniel 7 talks about, you know, even in the Old Testament in many places, it's just, it's there. This is the church that brought to the world, you know, let's do away with the true church and the Council of Nicaea. Let's do away with their practices and replace them with our own practices. Daniel 7 in verse 23, you know, it says, talking about clearly at the end of the day, talking about clearly at the end time, the fourth beast, he says, shall be a fourth kingdom on earth. We know that's the Roman kingdom who that has existed, you know, down through the ages here. A fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all other kingdoms. It will devour the whole earth. They will trample it and break it in pieces. And it's interesting that God says they devour the whole earth. And we just read about Satan who deceives the whole world. But here's a religious, a fourth kingdom that will be huge in the days ahead. That will devour the whole earth. It will trample it and break it in pieces. The ten horns are ten kings who shall arise from this kingdom and another shall arise after them. He'll be different from the first ones. There's that little horn that when we get to Revelation 13, we'll talk about there. He's a king too. He's a mighty figure, but he's different. He's different. There's something different about him, and he shall subdue three kings. And it's interesting when you look at what that means, and we'll get to it at a later date. He shall speak pompous words against the Most High. He'll be marked for blasphemy. He's not going to be an ally of God. He's not going to be promoting the truth. He's going to be promoting just the opposite. He shall persecute the saints of the Most High.

So we see the same system, the same beast that we read about in Revelation 17 that we know is going to persecute and be drunk with the blood of the saints. It opposes everything about God, and he sets himself up as God. And he shall intend to change times and law. You know, that began with the Council of Nicaea.

And the saints shall be given into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time. And so God, you know, it's like this is the time that's coming. That church will dominate. As it has dominated once before, it will dominate again.

And even though it doesn't dominate today, its influence in our world is very, very, very strong, as it must have been in Thyatira here. So when God talks about this Jezebel, this Jezebel, you know, that is here, and she is the antithesis of God. She is opposed to him in every way, shape, and form.

And that's the religious system that he's talking about here. That's extant in Thyatira. That's still on earth today. And that's going to be even more powerful and more influential in the time ahead of us.

So, you know, we have a picture of what he's talking about, so we can put ourselves right here among the people of Thyatira, right? I have a few things against you because, and he uses the word allow. You know, you allow it. You church, you allow this thing to happen to you. You know, doctrinal purity is what you're striving for, and personal purity in our life, but this is doctrinal stuff that he's talking about here. So he says, this woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, you know, she's there, and she's saying, I'm the one. I'm the one who has the answers. I'm the one who knows God. I'm the one who can teach you, you know, the things that you need to know. And down through the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church, the Catholic Church didn't allow people to read Bibles. They're the ones who, this is the way of God. You know, those who came from Catholic backgrounds can attest. You know, I was very young when my parents came into the church, but we were Catholic before that. But I remember hearing the priests, people didn't have Bibles in their homes. Or if they had a Bible, it was a Catholic Bible that was kind of a watered down version with the commandments altered and whatever. And in school, you didn't learn the Bible. If you went to Catholic school, you learned Catholic catechism, which is their way of doing things. You bowed down to idols. You kept the days that they kept and were taught that and everything. And they were, they're the true churches, what they've always promoted themselves to be, you know. So he says, here's this, this, this, this, I'm going to use the word evil, evil religious system who calls herself a prophetess. You know, we read the Bible and not too long ago we talked about how, you know, in the latter days, what's going to happen are false teachers. And there will be this false prophet who's able to just do miracles that, if it were possible, Christ said, even the elect would be to see. He'll call down, you know, he'll call down fire from heaven. He'll do all these things. And if we're not close to God, if we're not watching, if we don't know the Bible, that isn't part of our heart. You know, even we could be deceived. And we know, you know what happens if we're deceived and if we yield to this, this false religion that's going to dominate. And he says, you know, this, this false prophet, this, this, this false religion calls herself a prophetess.

And some, he says, of you here in Thyatira, you've allowed her to teach and seduce. Now, how do you, how do you seduce? We know how to teach, right? Teach, by example, you know, they keep doing the things and whatever. What's seduce? You know, often when we think of the word seduce, you know, we think of, you know, we can think of it. We go back to Proverbs when it talks about seducing, we think about the young man who's seduced by the harlot. And she entices him to sin. She entices her into her chamber and tells them, don't worry about it. My husband's away, you know, we can do whatever we want until he comes home. Who's ever going to know? And it's kind of an attractive setting. And there's this lure that is there with that word seduce. And this, this false church, this false church that is 100% against God in every way, shape, and form, seduces even the people of God to commit sexual immorality. And to eat things, sacrifice to idols, to do things that they should know better of, and to, and lures them into this, into this setting, if you will, that they have. And so God says you're allowing that to happen. And we need to pause and just, you know, think about the setting that we live in today and the influence the Catholic Church has had on all of the world, or really all of the world, but certainly all the world that would say Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that looks at Jesus Christ as the Savior. Because the Catholic Church, the influence is unmatched by any other religion that would promote Christendom. And even in the world apart from Christendom, it has significant influence. I mean, we go back to the Council of Nicaea. And we talk about the Church, you know, and what happened was the Sabbath day was done away with. It became this Jewish thing that they hated and they didn't want any part of. They replaced it with Sunday. Didn't want Passover and unleavened bread. We needed to have Easter. We needed to have Christmas to lure the pagans in, the pagan people, and we'll mix it with the birth of Christ. You know, we have an All Saints Day on November 1st, but it's going to be Halloween. The evening before has become the thing that everyone talks about and everyone does. And All Saints Day is an afterthought and, you know, whatever it even means in today's day and age. But we look at the influence in the world around us, and it is from this great Jezebel Church that God talks about in Thyatira. And whatever one of us is affected by it, every one of us feels that influence of that church, everyone living in America, everyone living in Britain, everyone around the world, feels the influence of that church. That's just how deep it is. And it's all against God as they promote themselves as the true church of God.

And so even as we live in our society and as we go about our daily lives and we work where we work, we go to school where we go to school, we deal with our neighbors, you know, we feel the influence. And every December, you know, I'm sure we all kind of can't wait until December is over and the 1st of January is over where we can get out of the consistent, wherever we go, you know, the greetings of the season, you know, and what those are. So, you know, we have we face those things and we see that and we have to deal with it. And this can be seductive, you know, it's just, I, you know, I know you all have personal experiences and I have personal experiences of people who kind of know the truth. They kind of will come to understand that the Sabbath is the Sabbath and even that these holidays are wrong, but they're such an allure. They're so attractive. They're so addictive that they can't let go of them. They just can't let go of them. And so they don't become part of the church. They just can't let go of the system that's there. And it has an influence on us as well. And maybe sometimes the way we think, you know, we need maybe to look at 2 Corinthians 6, 17, a little closer on how God says, you know, come out of her, my people. Don't even touch the things that are unclean. Don't even touch those things that are unclean because they're of this church. And we can find ourselves maybe seduced and even compromise a little bit and say, well, it's not that bad. This is just this and this is just that. And it's okay if I do that as long as I remember that it's the wrong holiday and as long as I'm not actually giving gifts and setting up a tree and all these other things. And we could allow ourselves to become seduced and influenced a little bit as well because God doesn't condemn these people and say, you've left the church. He doesn't say you've gone back to that system. He says, you've allowed it to seduce. And I see that you're allowing it in and you're committing, in my eyes, sexual immorality. You're playing with the harlot that's out there. You're whatever he means by eating things sacrificed to idols because we all have, you know, we all know that there's idols in the world. And we come into the church with them and through our lives, God helps us to see what our little idols are that one by one we need to put out of our lives and learn to trust and rely on God. And that's the system that's there in the church of Thyatira, a powerful system that's alluring and that the people in that time are being seduced by.

So let me pause there. Let me pause there for a moment and let that just sink in for a minute. And if, you know, if there's any comments, but I think, you know, we can see that we live in that time now as we look ahead in the Bible. So the time's ahead of us, certainly. Certainly the same church, the same woman, Jezebel, is going to be front and center in world affairs and very dominant, very dominant in the world.

So I'll just pause there for a moment. I have a comment, Mr. Shavey. Yes. Concerning that Jezebel, in the margins here in the Hebrew, it was a woman from Tyre, and she was equated as a false teacher. So Tyre, Thyatira, there seems to be a relation. I'm not lazy for anything, but Tyre, the Thyatira, there are plain words, and God uses plain words that would cure, quote unquote, humor to bring up a point.

And another thing about the woman, in Revelation 7, 18, we know exactly plainly that the woman is the one who rules over the kingdoms of the earth. And so, although we know that it's an athlete church, it is probably a literal woman because the Catholic church, they are focused on Mary. They call him, quote unquote, the Mother of God. So the last pope that died, he was devoted to the doctrine of Mary.

And also this week, they executed somebody in Indiana, the second execution prisoner that they injected, he was praying to Mary before he died. So the whole population, probably here in the United States, but as a Catholic, they don't realize that Jezebel is probably literally a woman, the idea that Mary, the Mother of God, quote unquote, and it is a very subtle injection of thinking. So when the Revelation Jezebel and Phyathera, you connect all those thoughts. Phyathera, Tyre, Mary. So they are actually forces that are confronting us today in this age. It's not like old text back in the Revelation in the days of John, but they are actually literal ideas and forms of thinking that we are grappling today.

So that's just an interesting point to bring up. Yeah, very good. I know you mentioned Tyre, we even read about the Prince of Tyre, right? It describes Satan in Isaiah 14 or Ezekiel 28. The Prince of Tyre is what he's likened to. Very good. That's interesting. You know, Mr. Shaby, to add on to what Bob was just saying, you know, there is a push going on in the Catholic Church where they're trying to get Mary to be almost like an equal footing with the Trinity.

And they're trying to make it so that she's actually the person that is almost like above even God the Father, where everything has to go through Mary. So, which would tie in with what Bob was just saying and going all the way back to Samiramis and all of that. And I was going to say, I think it's also interesting, you know, with Jezebel and how that brings from the past to Tyre to even to us today is that, you know, she was a priestess, you know, and all this stuff with Ashtoreth, which was Astarte, which is Easter, you know, and that's one of the things, the big things for the Catholic Church, as we all know, is Easter.

And that ties right into that. Also was thinking, you know, you had mentioned Proverbs 7, where Saul was talking about the man. You know, Proverbs 5 also talks about that, staying away from an adulterous woman. And you look at it in a spiritual sense. He says in Proverbs 5 verse 8, he says, Remove your way far from her and do not even go near the door of her house.

So, you know, it's all through there, you know, where God says, look, don't have anything to do with it. Just completely stay away from it. You know, don't listen to it. Don't have anything to do with it because, you know, once you have the truth, you don't need anything else. You have the truth. If God opens your mind to understand the Bible, to understand the truth, then that's it, you know, just continue with what God has in His Word.

So I just think it's interesting there. Now, it's very interesting. And using those verses in Proverbs 5, very good because you got the spiritual application of what God is talking about there. It brings us right back to where we're talking about.

We had a couple of people just join us. We're in Revelation 2 in verse 20. We're talking about the woman Jezebel and the church that it represents in the world today.

Brother Chet, a better translation for chapter 17 verse 18 is that the woman whom you saw is the great city that has royal power over the kings of the earth. And you were talking about influence.

If you think about it, a lot of the politicians, they give homage. The Catholic Church has churches in every nation, even in Muslim nations. They all give some respect to the Pope.

So their influence is very far-reaching. So a better translation is royal power over the kings of the earth. It's just that their power seems a little withheld now because God is restraining them until he lets them have full run.

Yeah, no, very good point. And when you look back at the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church, the Pope really did control the kings back then. He was the one who was kind of like, it's okay for you to invade here, it's okay for you to do this. And that power is going to be removed somewhat, but they're still very powerful in the world today. And obviously, going forward will be.

So this is a church that dominates the world with its false doctrines. Okay?

Anything else? Anyone?

Okay, well, let's move on to verse 21. I think you get the picture of what Tyra or Tyra, the times they were living in, how can we say that this is the time we live in too? We're here with the same church that still has a tremendous influence on the world around us. And what God is saying is, don't let them seduce you into, you know, the sexual immorality and the things sacrificed to idols, the spiritual application of that. Verse 21, he says, I gave her, speaking of the woman, Jezebel, I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality. And she didn't repent.

Now, you know, we can go back to the woman Jezebel, the literal woman Jezebel, you know, first and second Kings. And we say that, you know, God did give that physical woman Jezebel. She was an evil queen, and she was 100% against God, and she never did repent. But God did give her time to repent. So somewhere along the line, when that might be, God is going to give this false religion time to repent because God, you know, we're told, God is not willing that any should perish, but all should come to repentance and receive eternal life, but come to repentance. But this church doesn't, just like that prophetess, that queen Jezebel, never repented. But God did give her time to repent. Let's go back and look at that because we know well the story of Jezebel. But let's go back to first Kings because we see there where God made a pronouncement on Jezebel early on after she had her, you know, the incident where she really stole the vineyard from Naboth and gave it to Ahab.

And that's in first Kings 21. And God could see in her heart at that time, and in verse 23 of first Kings 21, he says, he says this about that woman. He says in, you know, verse 23, it says, In concerning Jezebel, the eternal spoke saying, the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. The dog shall eat whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field. I'm going to read verse 25 too, because I want to make a point here in a minute. But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the eternal because Jezebel, his wife stirred him up. So we kind of see, here's this picture of Jezebel here with Naboth, and God could see what happened. This woman is so evil. She even has an influence on Ahab. She makes him worse than what he was. And God says there's no one like him.

But here's Jezebel, and God says, literally, whether it's years before this prophecy or what he said about Jezebel happened once or whatever it is, he said this is what's going to happen to her.

But he gave her time to repent because it didn't happen to Jezebel until 2 Kings 9. And after the incident or the event with Elijah and calling down the prophets of Baal, and her threatening Elijah is like, there's no way I will ever bow to that God of Israel.

And God could see her iniquity is complete. There is no way she was going to yield to God. She was no way she was going to repent. And we read that in the Bible. God will say, you know, until you'll have that land once the iniquity of the Amorites is complete. And there's a time when God knows the nation's iniquity is complete, and he knows there's a time, you know, if people fall into that category that their iniquity is complete and they're not going to repent.

And so we come over to 2 Kings 9, and we come down to verse 32. You know, well, this Jehu enters into the picture here in verse 32. He looks up at the window, it says, and he says, Who's on my side? Who? And so two or three of lunas looked out at him and he said about Jezebel. Now verse 30, he talks about Jezebel here. I should have started there. But we're talking about Jezebel. And he said, Throw her down. So they threw her down and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, and he trampled her underfoot. And when he had gone in, he ate and drank. And he said, Go now, see to this accursed woman, and bury her, for she was a king's daughter. So they went to bury her, but they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands.

Therefore, they came back and told him, and he said, This is the word of the Eternal, which he spoke by his servant Elijah, the Tishbite, saying, On the plot of ground of Jezreel, dogs will eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the corpse of Jezebel shall be a refuse on the surface of the field, and the plot of Jezreel, so that they shall not say, Here lies Jezebel.

So, you know, in God gave Jezebel time, he could have, after that incident with Naboth, he saw clearly what was going, but God gave her time to repent.

But the finality of her, the judgment on her, came, you know, in 2 Kings 9. So, and somehow, he allows this woman Jezebel, the Catholic Church that dominates the world. You know, he gives her time to repent, however that is, and I don't know if anyone's got any ideas on that, but he gives her time to repent. But just like Jezebel, she did not repent, because it is so thoroughly evil, and they have their minds 100% set against God, that they simply will not yield to God.

And I'll pause for a moment, but you know, we can kind of fast forward in our minds in the book of Revelation, and as we get into the seven trumpets and the vials and all that, you remember that it's clear that this is all coming from God. And it says, and it says there in the face of all this, of God, and there's no other explanation, but God is bringing his wrath on the world, that the people simply will not repent.

No matter what he does, they set their minds against him, and they do not repent, but they continue in their ways. And of course, as we progress through those vials, they are there at the end in Armageddon to fight against Christ. They never yield. They simply will not repent.

And that's the picture we have in verse 21 of this church, Jezebel, that God calls Jezebel, and that's where we are. So that's where we are.

Any other thoughts on that verse?

Yeah, it reminds me of chapter 14, as you said, in Revelation, starting at verse 6 through 10, where it says, Fear God and give him the glory in verse 7. Repent of your worshiping of demons and so forth, and let no one take. If anyone worships the image or takes the mark, that person shall suffer the second death.

Very good. Mr. JB, I think it's interesting, too. I'm sorry, go ahead, Z. In that verse, it says, I'll cast her in a bed.

It says that in verse 22, he's going to cast her into a sick bed. Sick bed, okay. All right.

Yeah, Dave.

No, I was just going to say, I think it's interesting, Jezebel wouldn't repent. And then you see later in history, Simon Magus, he wouldn't repent. And then you see how modern Jezebel, you know, will not repent as well. You know, I looked up the word Jezebel, too, by the way. I think it's really interesting that that word is only used the one time in the New Testament there in that verse in Revelation. And you know, when God uses something just one time, you know, it's a lot of stress on it. You know, he stresses the importance of paying attention to it, too. Yep. He's defining, you know, what the reality of that church that he's talking about is there in verse 20. That is extant in our lifetimes as it was in Thyatira's time. Verse 23, bro, Shabbi, he says, I will kill her children with death. Right. He kills someone already dead, but if you kill them with death, he must be emphasizing something else, which is what chapter 14 says.

The second death. Yep. They will not repent. Yeah. And then we read of that false prophet, you know, at the end of Revelation 19, that's thrown into the lake of fire. You know, he simply will not repent. And that's, you know, that's his judgment. So.

OK, let's look at verse 22, then. You know, read the first phrase there. I don't know how God does this or what his intents is. He says, indeed, I will cast her into a sick bed.

Whatever, you know, whatever that means, whatever God has in mind, maybe someone has heard something of that in the past. I don't know what that means, but, you know, God's going to do something as he talks about that church.

OK. And then he says, you know, what the message to us is, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation.

And that's that piece would be pertaining to us, could pertain to the whole world, right? And, you know, whenever we read the words great tribulation, you know, that should ring bells in our minds because Christ talked about a time of great tribulation on the earth, such as never was before, nor ever shall be again. And God says, you know, those of you who commit, and he's already said that there are some in Thyatira who commit adultery with this, you know, they don't leave the church over it. They don't leave the physical true church of God, but they're kind of playing around on the side with this church, if you will. Indeed, I will cast her into a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation. So we need to pause on that a little bit, and we need to look at, you know, the church at Thyatira.

Because the literal, the church during the time that this was, you know, they did endure tribulation. During that 1,260 years that the church was in the wilderness, I mean, none of us would have wanted to be alive during that time. It was a tough, tough, tough life that I don't think we can even imagine that they went through. But many of them came through, but many of them were martyred, and many of them turned back to the way of life, you know, and I was going to, I'm going to put up, you know, part of our church history that the church history hand out here for a minute and show you something. But, you know, it says, El Trove, the great tribulation. So the church, they did have great tribulation. It doesn't say THE great tribulation, but great tribulation. And so we'll come back to great tribulation. Let me pull up the document here and share with you for a minute.

This is from that church history and the period of time that we would say is Thyatira. And I mentioned that, you know, here in the handout you have that we've sent around and talked about, here's the church that was during this 12th century, and they were the church of God. The history records, what these people did and everything.

You can read that in yours. But we see even the second tenet it has, as I've highlighted, the second tenet, which distinguished this church, was they were advanced in the opposition to the doctrine of three persons of the divine nature. Even the church back then was opposed to the Trinity, and they know it was a false concept. Another thing that the Catholic Church introduced to the world that still a tremendous influence and just about every Christian church except the true church of God, you know, abides or believes in that doctrine.

But there in the 12th century, those weren't, you know, they didn't, they held fast to the truth. Well, here's this. You've heard of the name Peter Waldo. I mentioned that, you know, we see names pop up in history that were significant in the history of the church. And this man, Peter Waldo, you know, became that. He was a Catholic. Apparently God called him out of the Catholic Church, and he followed the principle that Christ talked about to that young rich man in Matthew 18.

When he was asking, well, how do I serve Christ? You know, it's like, well, go and sell all you have and take up your cross and follow me. And Waldo, we say, our history says Waldo did that. He did that, and he became a man of God. And, you know, it talks about, you know, the people, the people flock to him. The humble rung through the church, listen to him.

Many new disciples were brought to repentance. His disciples became almost as many co-workers for him is what it says. I mean, they, this man was significant in that time period. And many people came to the truth and were made aware of the truth through his preaching and his teaching of the world. So he's significant at that time. And, you know, the world called them Waldensians when you hear that. Well, he died in 1218. But then by 1500 A.D., as this period went on, when this great leader died, we see history record that the church began to look at the Catholic Church and even began to adopt some of their principles.

Infant baptism. Attend mass with them that it would be okay to do that. Others it says, and, you know, came, this is what comes right from the history books there. Others meddled in politics in the hope of avoiding persecution. I will look to the world for my safety. I'll get involved in this and I'll do this. And, you know, and you can see what God is talking about here, how the, how this great church and society there, that people began to be seduced by it and even began to bring some of its doctrines into the church.

So it comes alive when you see that and you think, how can people do that? But the influence was great, right? It says that a crusade, you know, resulted against a remnant. They were killed. A few escaped because never in the history did God's church ever die out. But we see a pattern that after a few generations or a few years, the people begin to look to the world.

They lose some of their zeal. They lose some of their commitment to God. And they water down the truth and they begin looking at the world, looking at the idols of the world, looking at another church and let some of those things creep into their, creep into the way that they live life. And that's not a good thing.

That's not a good thing, right? So when God talks to the church at Thyatira here, we can see even in the part of history that, you know, the church kind of shows is kind of related to that Thyatira time, that they can put a pinpoint on it, that we have these same things happening in history. So it is a clear warning to us to not allow the influence of the church to come there.

And God gives a pronouncement to them. You know, he says, he goes, if we are seduced, you know, it doesn't say the whole church of Thyatira is, but if we are seduced by that, he will, that he will send them, or he will give them great tribulation.

And so, you know, the people of God, because the people of God, the physical nations of Israel, as well as the spiritual Israel, there is a lot, you know, God calls both his holy people. And he's very aware of where physical Israel is today and the blessings that he's given on them, given to them. He's very aware of, of course, physical or spiritual Israel and where we are. And he talks about great tribulation, you know, and we talked about Jesus Christ, you're well aware in Matthew 24, where he talks about great tribulation.

But let's go back to the Old Testament again and just remind ourselves that this great tribulation is something that was talked about before Jesus Christ was ever born, you know, God, before the foundation of the earth, God knew what was going to happen, and the pattern of what would happen and how Satan would be and what he would bring on the earth. And in Daniel 12, you know, we see this great tribulation.

Christ talked about it as a time that was, there has never been a time like it on earth and never will be a time like it on earth again. In Matthew 12, Matthew 24 and verses 15 through 22 there. In Daniel 12 verse 1, Daniel writes this, says, At that time Michael will stand up, the great prince who stands watch over the sons of your people, Daniel, and there will be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that time.

Heard the same things that Jesus Christ said about the great tribulation to come, you know, Daniel is written about. And he's talking about a physical people here, but again, remember that Satan is against everything of God. He hates Israel, physical and spiritual. He hates the things of God and he will do whatever he can to kill it, stomp it out of the earth and make lives miserable. There will be a time, even to that time, yes.

Yeah, Paul? Could this time be the church getting, or these people getting caught up in the great and terrible day of the Lord? That would be some serious tribulation. Well, when we get in, well, the great tribulation, not if we're going to get into Revelation 6. We didn't get into it in the afternoon either, but, you know, in Revelation 6, the fifth seal is generally considered the great tribulation. It comes before the seven trumpets.

So there's a great tribulation that precedes the wrath of God, and it's the wrath of Satan, you know, on the people, the holy people, if you will.

That'll be a time that tries the whole earth, right? But that's God's wrath on the people. This is a time that Satan brings on the people of Israel, directly related to the people that God would call His holy people, physical and spiritual. What I was saying was, these people may end up receiving part of that. Oh, yes. You're talking about part of spiritual Israel, being having to go through that as well? Yes. When to the, you know, the church, the protected church, will not necessarily receive of the great and terrible day of the Lord, the day of the Lord. Right. These people may get caught up in that. It's maybe a warning to them about that. Not just the tribulation in general, as we think of it, but more particularly, the last part of the tribulation, the day of the Lord. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I see what you're saying. I agree. I agree. Yes. It'll be the whole thing. They will feel they will feel the wrath. Yes. Okay. Okay. And as we go on in Daniel 12, 1, it says, At that time, Daniel, your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. Many will sleep in the dust of the earth. Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. Talking about the first resurrection there, right? Some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. So the people who God called during this time, who committed to Him that they would follow Him, you know, all their lives, some, as we know, will be resurrected until they'll receive eternal life. Others will have wasted the calling that God gave them, and they will be resurrected to shame and everlasting contempt. Then as we go down through the verses there in verse 7, Daniel writes, I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever, it shall be for a time, times, and half a time, that same three and a half years, that same 1260 days we've talked about before, and when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished. When the power of the holy people has been completely shattered. Now the power of the world, the power of the beast, the power of the beast is not completely shattered until Jesus Christ returns at that seventh trumpet and completely obliterates. And there is no doubt who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But this is a time when the power of the holy people, the people that God would call holy, the physical nations of Israel and the physical people of the church, when their time, it'll be such a devastating time that their power will be completely shattered. Would that be the time when the two witnesses are killed? Yes, yes. And that happens before the seventh seal, right? As we'll see here when we get into later on in Revelation. So, you know, we see this time that it's a devastating time. Jeremiah talks about it too, and Jeremiah again names the people on whom this terrible time will come back in Jeremiah 30. Just read a few verses in Jeremiah 30 and verse 5. Now verse 4 it says, And we know that pain, what he's picturing there that any of the women with us who have had children can talk about what the pain is. But we men don't know what that pain is. It's a man ever in labor with child. So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor? And all faces turn pale. Alas, for that day is great. There is none like it. It's the time of Jacob's trouble.

And God says, but he will be saved out of it. He won't let him be completely eliminated from earth. So we see, you know, we see great tribulation on the earth. And we see, you know, we know that that lies ahead of us, because none of us have been in great tribulation or even tribulation, you know, in the sense of the word in our lives right now. But that lies ahead of us, as we see prophecy. And in the church of Thyatira, God says, if you meddle with them, if you allow yourself to be seduced, if you allow some of that sexual immorality to come into your life that defines this church, if you allow some of that eating of the idols to be part of you, I'm going to throw you into great tribulation. But the very, the last part of verse 22 is very encouraging and in a way a promise that God gives us. In this reading verse 22, it says, I'll cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her, I will be the whole world, right? I mean, the whole world is cast into great tribulation. The peoples of Israel, physical Israel cast into great tribulation. They've all fornicated, right? They've all eaten the things of idols that God talks about spiritually. Throw them into great tribulation, and certainly there's a group of people that, you know, that we read about in Revelation 12 that Satan will make war with, will be in great tribulation. He says, unless they repent of their deeds. Now, that's an interesting verse. As God warns and gives people time to repent, because He's not willing that any should perish, He's just willing that everyone comes to repentance. So He warns the church of Thyatira, repent, pay attention, wake up, see what you're doing. You know, counsel me, ask me, what am I doing that might, am I guilty of any of this? Unless they repent of their deeds, they will be thrown into great tribulation.

It's an interesting verse and an encouraging verse, but also a motivating verse. It should be to us, as God stirs up our spirit, to become more like Him and to grow closer to Him and really earnestly pray that His will be done and that He will clear out our minds and show us where our weaknesses and faults are. Verse 23, you know, it says, I will kill her children with death. You know, we got to pause and look at that word, children, there, because God calls us His children, right? When we repent, when we're baptized, when we receive His Holy Spirit, we're His children. He's watching over us. He's very interested in our development. He anticipates the time, just like a father, when the couple is pregnant and they're having a baby. They anticipate the time that that child will be born, and they're very interested during that time, that nine-month period when the baby is developing and growing and able then to live in the world when it's born. And all that time that it needs to develop its heart, its lungs, and all the things it needs to live in life, God looks at us in this time that we're living in. Are they developing? Are they growing in the way they should so that when they're born as spirit beings, they can function in the world and they can have the mind, have they're using the time and this incubation time or whatever the time that we call it. Now that you're pregnant and you're begotten, are you growing? And as it gets closer and closer to the time that you will be born, are you able to live? Do I see that you can live, that you can function in this?

That would be including doing away with the deeds and fornicating with the world, fornicating with this false church and the influence that's there and coming out of the world of some of the things that we talk about. And he says, I'll kill her children. Well, just like God has children, this false church has children that subscribe to her and that listen to her. And she's got many, many churches that we would call daughters that still subscribe to her.

The Protestant Reformation came and when the Bible was extant on the earth and it began to be published, they saw some of the heirs of the Catholic Church, but then they just kept with some of those. They continued to worship on Sunday. They continued to celebrate Christmas and Easter and be part of that and let that be part of their lives.

They didn't come out of her. They embraced it. They still did it. They're still her children because they're still clinging to her tenants, the primary ones of them, and they're not worshiping the God. These are the people that God would say, He called me Lord, Lord.

You said that you knew that Jesus Christ was my son. But you didn't do anything. I said, I don't know you. You're not of me. Even though you have the name, you're not of me. And He consoles us. Don't become part of them because I will kill her children with death. They have to give that up. They have to leave that behind. And He says, in all the churches, I think He means probably here, all the seven churches He's talking to, but maybe all the churches in the world too that claim that Jesus Christ is the Savior.

But don't do what He says. I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. I am He who searches the minds and hearts. Let me pause there for a second because there's a lot in those verses that God is talking about.

And He's counseling us. We need to be paying attention. We're here in that time. And I'll pause, but we could be turning back to Jeremiah 17 if someone has a comment or you want to talk about something here.

One comment. Going back to Jezebel in the time of Elijah, God inspired him to make a comment to the people. He said, how long will you vacillate? And in the previous Bible study, we're talking about the bubble mind. Go back and forth. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Commit. Yeah, very good. And that's so we can get trapped in our own deceptions or in deception of men with persuasive words or supplic words and get off track and then ruin ourselves. Yeah. Where we get a little too close and we kind of think that's not that important.

I can handle that. God knows what's in my heart. And you know what He says? Watch the deeds. Watch what you're doing. And He's doing those. Mr. Shaby. Yes. Yeah, right. Going back to verse 22. I'm going to cast you. Are you going to repent the great tribulations of work? Ezekiel 5 verse 3. That shall also take thereof a few in number and bond them in your skirt. I take that to mean protection.

But here's the Lord. Then take of them again and cast them into the midst of the fire. Sounds like great tribulation to me. So, as we know, there's a lot of scriptures and prophecies that all connect. And I see that as some kind of a connection to this. It is. It is. Yeah. Let's talk it into that conversation. Well, I mean, we can't, right? We talked about that. Yeah, in Ezekiel 5, Ezekiel 6, talks about this kind of tribulation and what happens to Israel as well. So, yes, but you're absolutely right. When He talks about it in 3, binding them up in your skirt or the edge of your garment. That is a time of protection.

And that whatever He means by verse 4, that they'll be thrown into the fire is whatever God has in mind. Let me throw one other thing into it. The Philanephean era is promised protection, but the Laodiceans, I cancelled you, go get some gold that's tried in the fire. Could that be connected to that Ezekiel 4, 2, 3, and 4?

The Philanepheans are protected and the Laodiceans are thrown back in. It could be. I hadn't thought of that. That's an interesting thought. But, yeah, we got the fire there and there's some that God protects, but then some of them are thrown into the fire. Just some of them, not all of them. So, indeed, that could have some. I'd have to think more on that verse. But I think all these verses tie together and we get a picture of what God is doing.

Mr. Shavey. Verse 22, I want to go back there. You showed a clip in history of 1500 AD about Peter Waldo and later on they were baptizing children. But I want to bring forward these events. They did not only happen in the 1500s, it also happened in our day, and most of us are witnesses. Back in the day, in the mid-1990s, some of our group followed the National Evangelical Association and they went their way. And unbeknownst, doing some research, the Evangelicals that we know today in America, they have been with the Catholic Church since the 1960s.

They call it the Ecumenical Movement. They are now joining the Evangelicals and the Catholic Church and now the Muslims. So, going back to the idea of water baptism, I actually saw in YouTube some of the groups that followed that movement, the W.C.G. They were actually baptizing children and using those Catholic rites that were showing it. There was a congregation back in the Southeast. I know that in my own eyes, and then they were using the crucifix. In fact, here in Jacksonville itself, there was the minister that came to the sermon and showed the crucifix.

And I said, why are you showing the crucifix of the Catholic thing? So, my point is, in verse 22, it is not only back then, and it's not only in the Middle Ages, it has happened to us here in the present day in our generation. Yeah, good observation. These messages are to us. It happens in every church era, if we want to do that, down through the time of the church.

Very good. Can I see another person wanting to comment? No, I was saying it's linear. Okay. Okay. Well, let's go back to Jeremiah 17. We're going to get through the Thyatira here, and I'll rush it up a little bit. We got through Thyatira this afternoon, so we'll try to get through it here this evening, too. In Jeremiah 17, a well-known verse, but we have to recognize our hearts really are evil.

As God calls us, we see that there are things that we have to change. We just cannot justify ourselves. God calls us to a life of change. We called us. We're not perfect. And if we think we can continue doing the things that we do, we can't. He says the heart is deceitful above all things.

It's desperately wicked. Who can know it? Well, we can't, right? But with God's Spirit, we can know who we are. And with God's Spirit, we can have the strength to overcome it and the desire to overcome it.

And in verse 10, God says, I, the Eternal, I search the heart. I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways.

And so, you know, God finishes that thought with that. I search the heart. You know, we read that in Thyatira. I'm searching the hearts. I'm the God who, you know, I'm very happy you're doing the works. I'm very happy with the service that you give. I'm very happy with the patience. But you know what? I'm searching your hearts because it's all of you. It's all every part of you that needs to be yielded to me and submitted to me. So if you go back to verse 23, we see Jeremiah 17, 9 and 10, you know, right there. And it brings to mind Psalm 139, verse 23, where David asks God to search his heart, something that we should be asking God to do with the sincere heart. You know, it says, I'm he who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your works. Did I read that in Jeremiah 17 or did I not go far enough? I did read it. Okay. I even to give every man according to the fruit of his doings. Okay. The same thing he says in Jeremiah 17, 10. He goes, you know what? You're a good church. You do all these things. But some of you were holding to these doctrines. And while the church overall, you know, I'll give commendation to some of you. Some of you, he says, need to work. Some of you need to see what we're doing because individually you'll be given whatever you do in your lives, how committed you are to me, what you're willing to give up. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Willing to do that because God looks at our hearts. Verse 24, I say to you and to the rest in Thyatira. This is an interesting verse too. And I say to you, now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine. Okay. So again, he's looking at the church and he's saying, some of you are holding this doctrine you've been seduced by Jezebel.

But there's some of you that haven't been. Some of you don't have this doctrine. Some of you have not known the deaths of Satan, as they say. They haven't participated with that church. They haven't. They've totally separated themselves from that. They've taken their old religious ideas and they really have only one God. They aren't doing the things the way that church said. They're not holding on to any of those things. They're not letting them creep into their lives.

They're really fulfilling 2 Corinthians 6, 17. All the idols of life are disappearing and one by one as God reveals those to us, we put them out of our lives and put our trust and put our reliance and put our faith in Him and not in the things of the world. And he has, he says, he again comes back to what he said in verse 22. You know, he says, those of you who don't have this doctrine, he says, I'm going to lay on you no other burden. I'm going to lay on you no other burden. It tells us that's a really hard thing to do. It's a lifelong thing to separate ourselves from our past religious affiliations from the world around us and the increasing influence and domination that it's going to be on us. To keep ourselves pure and to keep ourselves separate from that is a really tough task. And God, again, segregates that church in Thyatira from those who can't do that or who don't do that, from those who do. And to those who do separate themselves and God's eyes from the doctrine of this woman Jezebel, he says, I won't lay on you any other burden.

You know, there's promises and things God says to the church in Thyatira here that are interesting to contemplate and even to contemplate as we go forward in the book of Revelation.

In verse 25, he says, but hold fast. Hold fast what you have till I come. You know, we're told that in the church of Philadelphia. The church of Philadelphia is told, hold fast to your crown. Don't let any man take your crown. You know, 1 Thessalonians 5, 21 says, prove all things. Hold fast that which is good. Don't let it go. Don't fall prey to the world around you. Don't be seduced by other doctrines and other things that you do. Keep pure and keep with me. Don't entertain these other things. I'm going to rush a little bit through here because in verse 26, this is 830.

I don't want to keep you too long. It says, and he who overcomes, all the messages to the churches, you know, he who overcomes, but in each one we learn a little bit more about what God has promised for us and gives us a picture of what life will be as a spirit being if we endure to the end, if we do what God says.

He who overcomes and keeps my works until the end. To him I will give power over the nations. Back to the kings and priests, right? Revelation 5, 10, Revelation 1, 5.

I'm going to give them power over the nations. You will be my kings. You will be my priests. You will rule over them. You will teach them. You will serve them.

He will rule them with a rod of iron. They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessel, as I have also received from my potter.

In verse 28, he adds this. He says, I will give him the morning star.

Now let's finish on the morning star. When Christ says, I will give him the morning star, what can he be talking about? I will give him the morning star.

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas on that?

Peter mentions it in his epistles and says, until the bright morning star rises in your heart, would that be the first resurrection? Good thought. Yes, that's good.

The first resurrection is certainly being talked about there.

When we see these things, we can look at the book of Revelation. Let's go to the very end of the book of Revelation. Revelation 22.

I'm just going to say that. Someone was going to say that, Dave?

I'll preempt you here a little bit.

In the interest of time. Revelation 22 and verse 16.

Jesus, in my Bible it's got red letters. Jesus is speaking. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things in the churches.

I am the root and the offspring of David. I am the bright and morning star.

So we have a morning star that Jesus Christ says, I'm the morning star.

And you know, he says to the church in Thyatira, and we piece all these things together as the church that overcomes, because all of us have to pay attention to the seven churches. He says, I will give him the morning star.

I'll give him, and we see Jesus Christ as the morning star.

And the morning star is very, very bright, right? If we look at Jesus Christ, remember, people can't even look on His face. It has to be covered with clouds, because if we look on His face, we would die. It's so bright. And so we see, you know, stars, the stars in heaven, science tells us that the stars are brighter than the sun.

And we have the same thing back in Daniel. Let's look back at Daniel real quick.

You can write some of these things down and, you know, contemplate them later. But in Daniel 12...

I can get to Daniel 12 here. Daniel, Isaiah, Daniel 12, he talks about the same things.

We read in Daniel 12, 1 and 2 about the Great Tribulation and the First Resurrection in Daniel 2.

And in verse 3, speaking of that First Resurrection, he writes, Those who are wise... well, those are people who have followed God, right? Who have dedicated their lives to Him, who are in that First Resurrection that are resurrected to eternal life.

Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament.

And those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars, forever and ever.

So we see a picture of what it's like to be a spirit being. I mean, we will be given to Christ as His bride.

We will be given the morning star. We will be like Him. We can see a picture a little bit of what it will be like in that time. And those pictures that God gives us should motivate us, should be like, wow!

Wow! God is opening our eyes to see what He has planned. Not everything, right? A little bit, a little bit that He gives us. I want to give you just one more thing in Numbers 24, because I thought it was very interesting as I was putting this together.

In Numbers 24, our last Sabbath, we talked about Balaam. And we talked about how Balaam couldn't curse Israel. Balaam would take Him around to all these mountain heights and say, Please, please, please curse Israel. And God did not allow Balaam to do it. He only spoke blessings on Israel. And in the third of those mountains that they went to, Balaam even speaks of prophecy, if you will, when he's talking about Israel. And we find that in Numbers 24 and verse 17, he says, I see Him, but not now. And Him is probably capitalized in your Bible. I see Him, but not now. I behold Him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob. A scepter shall rise out of Israel. And batter the brow of Moab and destroy all the sons of Tumult. So even in the truth that God spoke through Balaam, there was that prophecy, and He talks about the star that will come out of Jacob, and the scepter that will be there. And the brightness that's there, He says, I see Him. He's not here now. I behold Him, but He's not really near now. It's far into the future, what I see. So through the Bible and the messages to the churches, we learn a lot. Certainly as we go through the book of Revelation, God gives us much instruction. Well, let me stop. I did not intend to spend the entire Bible study on Thyatira, either this afternoon or this evening. But as we get into it, I don't want to fast-track us through these things, too, because there's so much in these scriptures that should be encouraging and inspiring to us, and so much instruction to us that we shouldn't just speed through it for the sake of speeding. But we will get into Revelation 6, and as we got through the first four seals last week, and next week we'll talk about the fifth and sixth seal and hopefully get into chapter 7 as well. But there is an awfully lot buried in Revelation 6 as well, as we look at the words that God uses and understand that every word that comes from the mouth of God is instructed to us. So let me pause that. I'm going to stop talking. I appreciate your patience and sculling over time and everything. But if there's any comments, any discussion, I'm opening it up, and I'm going to zip my lips here. Brother Shaby, one of the other places where it mentions stars is when Christ spoke to Abraham.