Thyatira

Brendan, we want to continue on with the series, The Seven Churches of Revelation. As I have said through the first three times, we've covered the first three churches, and I want to cover some of the same material here at the onset. That attitude is the father of action. Attitudes are mental blueprints. Our actions come about as a result of building upon those blueprints. I've quoted in the past 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5, where it talks about casting down arguments at every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So what we're looking at here is practicing what I call kingdom thinking. Kingdom thinking.

Hopefully this coming feast, we'll be hearing more and more about that and prior to the feast, getting ready for the feast. But we want to be thinking as God thinks. His thoughts need to be our thoughts. He's our dad. We have a family legacy in terms of what God is given to us as His children. We look into the Scriptures. We see the richness of our family history, Old and New Testaments, Hebrews 11, and so forth. We want to practice the godly thinking we see in the Scriptures, kingdom thinking. I've also quoted Ephesians 2, verse 10, where it says, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So yes, we want to get our thoughts together. We want kingdom thinking, but that kingdom thinking should lead to kingdom living. Kingdom thinking leading to kingdom living. So therefore, we have been going through these very special epistles, as some people call them, epistles of Jesus Christ. We've got the epistles of Paul. We've got some of the general epistles. Here in the book of Revelation, we've got seven small epistles that Jesus Christ gave to His church, one to each of the churches. Today, our focus is on the church in Thyatira. As I was going through and preparing for the message today, I couldn't help but think how so much of what I was looking into and studying regarding the church of Thyatira is so relevant.

All of the Scripture is relevant to us, but there was just something about this particular church that really seemed to cry out to me as to the needs we have in God's church today. Now, prior to getting to that, we've gone through the church in Ephesus, the church in Smyrna, the church in Pergamos. In terms of the church in Ephesus, the idea there, the attitude there is a godly zeal must be reinforced with godly love. And of course, we've got in 1 Corinthians chapter 13 at the beginning of that chapter where it talks about how we can have a silver tongue, we can have all the right words to say, but if we say those words without love, what is it?

It's nothing. We can have all the positive actions in the world, but if we do it without the love of God, then it means nothing. The message to the church in Smyrna remains faithful to the true values despite opposition. Now we live in Satan's world. There's no doubt about that. As you and I watch what's happening in our society, the dismantling of morals in our society, the dismantling of things that we hold so dear in our society, we realize that we are living in Satan's world. Other than God's church, we don't have kingdom thinking.

We don't have kingdom living. We've got some people who are good folks in the world, but they don't know all that we know. And again, it's not their fault. God's not called them yet. You said a church in Pergamos be uncompromising in your loyalty to God. That's a discussion you've got from one end of the Bible to the other. You've got the prophet Elijah saying, you know, are you going to worship God or are you going to worship Baal? Jesus Christ said, are we going to worship God or worship Mammon?

You can't do both. And so again, the idea of compromise is something we want to avoid. The church in Thyatira also had issues with compromise, and we're going to see that as we work our way through the material today. The church in Thyatira had many in its ranks that were very faithful people. We don't want to paint with a broad brush, making everyone seem to be the same. That's certainly not the case. There were very faithful, very devout people in the church in Thyatira. We'll get to that in a moment.

But the church in Thyatira, by members of our church, by virtually every commentator I looked at, there was one phrase in describing a church in Thyatira that was fairly universal. And that phrase was, the Thyatira church was a corrupt church. A corrupt church. Now, we don't want that set of us. This is a church of God. It had people that were, again, very faithful, very zealous, but they also had people that had a lot to overcome.

Rough dates. This would be the church of the Middle Ages, or the Dark Ages, as some would refer to it, from roughly 1,000 AD to 1,600 AD. Again, those are very rough dates. Some people put it from 1,000 AD to 500 AD. Again, very rough dates. I'd like to quote to you from The Seven Epistles of Christ by Taylor Bunch. Just a couple of paragraphs here. Thyatira was located about 25 miles southeast of Pergamos. It was a garrison city built on the plains with no natural fortifications. It was captured, destroyed, and rebuilt many times. Thyatira, at the time of the Epistle, was an important manufacturing city, its citizens being mostly poor and humble laborers.

Adjust the opposite of those in Pergamos. The workmen of Thyatira were organized into labor unions or guilds. Now, that's going to be something prominent as we go through and discuss what's happening in this church. Labor unions and guilds. A guild was a form of a labor union. The two leading industries were the dyeing of cloth, especially royal purple. Homer speaks of the dyeing of red and purple cloth as being characteristic of the city. It is significant that purple and scarlet are the chief colors worn by the popes and cardinals of the ruling Church of the Middle Ages.

That also is going to be significant. The fact that you've got the Church in Rome and the various Protestant churches or the Protestant Church having a tremendous sway on our brothers and sisters who lived during this period of time. Christ, continuing on with a bunch of work here, says, Christ introduced himself to the Church in Thyatira as the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass.

Eyes like flaming fire and whose eyes flash like fire and his feet glow like bronze are other translations. This language was very familiar to a people who labored in foundries with their flaming furnaces, or fine brass, bronze and other metals were manufactured in all sorts of articles for the market. Right on the end of quote from Taylor Bunch, but my thoughts as we're going through and combing through the material here historically, is the major difficulty with this church era was compromise due to economic concerns.

Compromise due to economic concerns. The members of the church were, for most cases, forced to join a guild in order to make a living, and in doing so they were under pressure to follow the dictates of the guild, which included practices that were religious and social. If you weren't a part of the guild, there was a good chance you didn't have work.

These guilds sponsored idolatrous annual festivals, thus putting pressure on Christians to compromise to fit in. And of course, why is that relevant for us today? In your notes, you might want to jot down Revelation chapter 13. I'm not going to turn there. But in Revelation chapter 13, we see there's coming a time where you will not be able to buy and sell unless you have the mark of the beast. People back in the age of the Thyatira Church, historically, if they weren't joining those guilds, they had a very rough time making a living.

I'm going to be quoting just a couple of moments some material from our correspondence course, lesson number 51. And in that particular correspondence course, there's a fascinating material for you to be reading. Some interesting photographs of the area where we feel God's people were at the time. Southern France, Northern Italy, Central Germany would be some of the areas where we feel our people were at that time. But in so many cases, our people, people that if they were resurrected, would be sitting right with us today.

For them to make a living, they had to live perhaps high in the mountains, in areas where normally if you're a farmer, you wouldn't choose that area to live in and have a farm because of the altitude, because of the rocky soil and all those things.

But they had to go someplace that was left to them, where they didn't have to worry about joining a guild or something of that nature. So a lot of our people had to do things of that nature. So the question for the members of that era was, how far could they go in accepting and adopting the standards and practices of society around them?

And hasn't that been something we've seen before? With Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were captives. They were taken into Babylon. Babylonians wanted to brainwash them, change their language, what they ate, change how they worship. Of course, with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they didn't fly with them. But there was pressure, indeed, put on them to bend over and to do these things, to compromise. So God's Church at the time, as I said, in the Middle Ages, was primarily in Central and Southern Europe.

And again, part of the problem is you go through, especially our correspondence course, lesson number 51, is, and here's the attitude I want to convey for you today, don't go along to get along. Don't go along to get along. Because that's what too many of the Thyatirons, not all of them, again, perhaps a great many of them were very faithful people. Some of their leaders were burned at the stake. You know, back in these days, Dante's writings about the inferno, about hellfire, those were very big in people's minds.

And at first, the Church in Rome didn't want to to persecute somebody by burning them at the stake, but gradually that crept into the church. And heretics were burned at the stake. And our people were considered heretics, burned at the stake. You can only imagine how awful that would be to see somebody that you know and love, your pastor or a fellow person in the local congregation, their families being rounded up and tied to a post and so forth.

And again, for the sake of the young years, we're not going to go through all that in detail. But don't go along to get along. That path leads to destruction. That path leads to destruction. So the message to the Church in Thyatira goes from Revelation 2, verses 18-29.

It's interesting that of the seven churches, probably the least historically is known of this church. Now, we write at some length in our correspondence course about it, but from a historical perspective, looking at other sources, it's the longest of the seven letters. And as many people would say, it's addressed to the least known, least important, least remarkable of the seven cities. And yet, I say to you, it's God's church. And although it may have been least known, it wasn't least important, and it was very remarkable because God's people were a part of that. Now, I made mention about going to our correspondence course, lesson number 51. The name of that lesson is The Light in the Dark Ages. For those of you who do not have copies of that at home, there's two websites I want to, if you don't know about these, let you know about these two websites where a great deal of Mr. Armstrong's literature, various booklets we've put together in years gone by back in that era. You can find them there. They're there for you to look at, to read. In many cases, you've got a lot of other material there, which you'll find very helpful.

The first resource here is at www.herbert-armstrong.org. Again, many of you may know that. You may go there all the time. Many times, I'll go there for various research needs. www.herbert-armstrong.org. The other one is www.hwalibrary.com.

www.hwalibrary.com. Just want to read you a couple of paragraphs, kind of wet your appetite, for which you'll see when you go there. It's fascinating reading. I don't know why we don't use more of this material. I did contact Dan Dowd, who's done a significant amount of research along these lines, and also Gary Petty. I asked them their thoughts on these things, and they thought that material is great. I do, as well. I want to quote a section here from lesson 51. I quote, this is from the correspondence course lesson number 51.

In the Middle Ages, the geographical area of southern France, where the Thiatira era was to begin, was the very center of the textile industry of Europe. A college was founded to train qualified laborers. Three small stone buildings in the Argoncron Valley and the Alps provided classrooms. The college in the town of La Torre, located where the Agranca Valley meets Lucerne, the Valley of Light, became the new headquarters of the work and the growing Church of God.

At the college, articles and small booklets were written, and multiple copies were produced. There was no printing in those days. All had to be laboriously copied by hand, keeping many busy in the headquarters area. Literature was given free to those who were interested. Ties and offerings from many countries paid the cost, the cost of operating the college. Mature men of about age 25 were chosen for students. They attended classes during the winter months for three or four years before going full-time into the work. After further testing when necessary, if their fruit showed Jesus Christ had called them to the ministry, they were ordained by the laying on of hands. So again, they had their ABC program, so to speak. They had their training. And it's interesting that in that part of Europe, especially central in southern France, was home to the textile industry. Not only were God's people getting out as much literature as they could by hand, other people were as well. This wasn't just the Church of God cottage industry, others were as well. A lot being done by the weavers, by those people, worked in the textile industry. And I thought it interesting that as the correspondence course pointed out, why is it that we call things texts today?

Because of the textile industry. So we call them texts. It was also interesting that the ministry back in those days, and again, this is taking from here and there and a little from different places in the correspondence course. Because your life would be in jeopardy, whether you be an elder or a member, people didn't refer to so-and-so as being our pastor or our elder.

Instead, they referred to them as barbs. Barb meant uncle. And uncle is normally an elder, right? Somebody who's older. So they were called barbs. They had their own little in-speak. Most of these barbs, most of these ministers, knew at least three languages.

And they had to have a pretty good memory because if they are found carrying any section of Scripture, they would be persecuted. And back in the later years of this era, burned at the stake. So they have to memorize large sections of Scripture. And that's possible. If you got a copy of Haley's Bible Handbook at home, Mr. Haley used to give Bible recitals back in the day. And he could quote, I think, the whole book of John by memory. Now, I'm lucky if I quote two or three verses of John, but he was able to quote the whole book. Typically, what would take place with the ministry back in those days is you would have an older man working with the younger man, mentoring the younger man. And one last little tidbit to whet your appetite, maybe do further research, is when the Catholic Church found out what was going on, even in some of these far away little valleys, where the church at Rome and the government of Rome, not just the religious government, but the secular government, when that was found out that people weren't obeying the Roman government or the church at Rome, crusades were sent through some of these valleys to hunt our people down. And there's a couple of things that you can read in their correspondence course about that where they wanted to take our people out. So fascinating reading.

And, you know, I don't know what you consider persecution today, but we've not seen nothing.

We've not seen anything yet. But as I go through this, as I was going through this, I kept on thinking, I hope that when the time comes, I've got what it takes like these people that the people who are living properly. Now, the first time the city of Thyatira is mentioned is over here in Acts chapter 16. Let's take a look over there. This is just a little something in passing interest.

Acts chapter 16 and verse 14.

Acts 16-14. Now, a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira. Again, this was one of their big industries. Who worshiped God, the Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. So here we have in chapter 16, I'm not going to take any time with this, but we have the beginnings of the church in Philippi, one of the churches Paul loved so dearly. When Paul said to the Thessalonicans that he didn't want to be a burden to them, he wouldn't collect tithes and offerings because they thought maybe he was in it for the money.

Paul would actually ask the church here in Philippi if they would support him, if they would send money so he can continue his ministry. And Lydia here from Thyatira was one of the charter members of that church. So just a little bit in passing. Okay, so much for that background. Let's go over to the book of Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2, starting here 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. As I made mention, this is the longest of the seven letters, and some people would say it's addressed to the least known, least important, least remarkable of the cities. And yet, brethren, I say to you that these are God's people, whom he loves with all of his heart. Jesus Christ came to die for all of these people. And Christ doesn't care whether the church is a thousand strong, or a hundred strong, or ten strong. Those are his kids. He loves them. And that's a thought for us today. That's a thought for us today. Numbers are meaningless when it comes to God. We see that in so many different ways in the scriptures. We see that, for example, with Gideon, who started out with many thousands of men. And what was God's response? You've got too big an army. We need to pare this army down. I think he began with, what, 32,000 or something like that? Ended up with 300. 300. So numbers are meaningless to God. Let's go put a marker here. Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

Regardless of what situation you find yourself in in life, God loves you. God is concerned about you. God wants the best for you. Now, we go through trials. We go through tribulations. There are those in this room who you've had more than your share, it seems. There's been plenty of heartache. There's been plenty of tears. But again, that doesn't mean because you've gone through those things that God doesn't love you. We look at the people in Hebrews chapter 11, all that they went through. God loved them tremendously. God's got something bigger in mind for us. And the fact that we have health issues or economic issues, social issues, whatever the issues are, those are teaching tools for us. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26. For I see your calling, brethren, that not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world, but the shame the wise. And God has chosen the weak things of the world, but the shame of things which are mighty. And the base things of the world, and the things which are despised, God has chosen, and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things are. And verse 29 is key. That no flesh should glory in his presence. That no flesh should glory in his presence. No one will ever be able to stand up face to face, nose to nose with Jesus Christ and say, I did it better than you. I had it harder than you. Nobody. That no flesh should glory in his presence. So again, the fact that Thyatira was a church seemingly of little consequence, well, it was of great consequence to God. These are the kinds of people that God calls.

And you know, brethren, it may well be. Here in the Chicago church, again, I've said this on a number of occasions, I'll keep on saying it. Here in the Chicago church, we are so fortunate. We've got a good-sized church here. We've got very young. Dare I say, we've got very old. We've got some who feel like they're very old. We've got everything in between. We've got little kids. We've got everything when it comes to having a church here. But again, as I was reading the material on church in Thyatira, I couldn't help but think that as you look at prophecy, and I look at prophecy, there may come a day when we can't meet like this. There may come a day when maybe it's only a couple of families that get together for fellowship in secret in our home, and maybe the basement of our home. We've got to be prepared for that. You know, that's why, you know, as William was saying earlier about to his prayer request, he's so thankful that he's got this family. And I would say to what William had to say, amen. We've got a tremendous family here. We've got to appreciate what we have. Appreciate what we have. So let's go back now to Revelation chapter 2.

Verse 18, to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, these things to the Son of God.

This is the only place in the book of Revelation where that title is used, Son of God.

And everything that Jesus Christ writes in his epistles to these churches is for a purpose.

Now, in Thyatira, these guilds all had their patron, not saints, but patron gods.

And one of the big deities to the people in Thyatira, not to the church people, but to the people of the world in Thyatira, was the Son God. The Son God. Apollo, son of Zeus. He was very, very popular in Thyatira. And so God wants that he, Christ here is getting their attention when he says, he is the Son, S-O-N, Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire. Let's put a mark here. Let's go to Revelation 19. Revelation 19.

Starting here in verse 11.

Revelation 19, 11. Now I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, clean and white, followed him on white horses. So here we've got a prophecy of the future talking about Jesus Christ with these eyes of fire, these eyes that are penetrating, these eyes that are perceptive, these eyes that are piercing, the ability to see all.

And for a church that was a compromising church, some of them being a compromising, for a church that some of them being corrupt, Jesus Christ wanted a telegraph to them, I see what you're doing. You're not fooling me. You may be fooling yourself, but you're not fooling me. Nothing escapes his vision. And of course, we see in Revelation chapter 19 that he comes, and he wages righteous war with those who don't follow his way of life. Back to Revelation chapter 2 and verse 18. These things says, the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire in his feet, like fine brass. If you've got a new international version on your lap, or if you got your computer and you can turn to it quickly, it says his feet were like fine bronze. Now again, remember, Christ is relating to the people here in Thyatira, and one of their big industries is that they had these foundries, and they worked with things like bronze. They worked with things like brass, and so they were very familiar with this metal. But the idea Christ is getting at here is that not only does he see everything, but his feet are going to carry him to act. His feet are going to carry him to act. In your notes, you might want to put down 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 24 and 25. Let me read that for you. 1 Corinthians 15 verses 24 and 25.

Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when he puts an end to all the rule and all authority and power. For he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet.

He must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet. And so here, when Christ is talking to the church in Thyatira, talking about his feet like fine brass, the idea is God sees, God hears, God will act. Don't be fooled. Verse 19. I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience. As for your works, the last are more than the first. Now, I made mention earlier that this church was called the corrupt church, but again, not everybody. We don't want to paint everybody with the same brush. Verse 19. If Christ said that of you or I, we would feel we've been quite well spoken of. As for your works, the last are more than the first. Now, this was not said to the church in Ephesus. As time went along, those who were following God got stronger and stronger, despite the persecution, despite having to maybe sell everything they had and move up into the mountains, someplace where the persecution would not reach them, the Dominican priests and so forth.

Back when I was younger, there was that song, Dominique. If you're waving your head, then you're showing your age. You're old as I am. That's old as dirt. But those Dominican friars were the ones who would put people on the stake, and we don't want to be singing about that. They're the ones who persecuted our people and others. And not just Protestants as well, not just our people, but it was very, very bad times if you didn't follow certain doctrines that were the doctrines that follow, which were heretical doctrines. But anyway, verse 19 here, I know your works.

And then basically what we've got here are couplets. Love and service, that's one, and faith and patience would be the other. Love from the inside, that's inside of us through God's Holy Spirit. And from that love comes service. That's the fruit of what's inside of us.

The same thing is true with faith that is in us through God's Holy Spirit. And because we are faithful people, we can be patient people. We can be people who persevere, who overcome, because we have faith in God. And sometimes that perseverance takes us all of our life right to the grave. Now we don't like hearing that, because as physical human beings, we want our problems solved now.

We want to be healed now. We want a good job now. We want a nice house now. We want, you know, various things now. We're Americans. We want things on the rush, right? And yet, that's not necessarily what God wants. God is in the process of building holy, righteous character.

And if we got everything right now, we wouldn't be developing faith. We wouldn't be developing patience. There's a whole host of things we wouldn't be developing if we got everything right now. Or if we got everything our hearts desired.

So Jesus Christ here is very graciously praising His Church for the good things He sees.

For the good things He sees. You know, people aren't all, generally speaking, people aren't all evil. They're all good. We're a mix as human beings. And God the Father, Jesus Christ here, as Jesus Christ is talking, read a letter in my Bible, He's making sure that He's saying some things to them that are encouraging to them, because He's just presently going to get to something that's not so encouraging. Verse 20, Nevertheless, now the shoe's going to drop, 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 into things sacrificed to idols. So Christ here is rebuking the Thyatira church, those who were doing the wrong thing, living the wrong thing. There's no kingdom thinking with these folks. There's no kingdom living with these folks. And basically, when you take a look at verse 20 here, I broke this down four ways. There were personality problems, there were authority problems, there were theologic problems, and moral problems. Brethren, do we have personality problems in the church today?

Dare I say the word split? Are there personality problems in the church of God today? Are there authority problems in the church of God today? Again, dare I say the word split?

Are there theology problems today? I don't know where you were in 1995 or let's say the late 80s going into the early 90s. I know where I was. I know the things I was reading from the pastor general's report in terms of theology. You know, fellows, you know, ministers, you know, pastors. I'm quoting a thought, not verbatim, but the thought was, our people for generations have been taught doctrine. We don't need to teach them doctrine anymore. Remember, this is in the mid to late 80s, knowing what was going to happen in the early 90s. Don't need to teach them doctrine anymore. Need to teach them Christian living. So was it any wonder when things started falling, coming down the road in the wrong way, that people weren't as sharp on some doctrinal issues as they should have been? Because they weren't being fed properly. So yeah, we have a theological problem.

Do we have that today? You answered that. Do we have that today in God's church? Certainly.

Do we have a morality problem? I'll get to that when we, as I break this down, work our way through the material. But I would say, yes, we've got a morality problem in God's church today. God expects us to be a community of repenting sinners.

God expects us to be a community of repenting sinners. He doesn't want us to go along to get along. He doesn't want us to compromise. He doesn't want us to use the word that's so prevalent in our society today. And we tolerate virtually anything. The only thing that's not tolerated are things of God. I find myself talking to my TV set too many times. Here, not that long ago, we had a very well known actress in Hollywood who said something very vile. She had a very high-ranking TV show. You know the name. I'm not going to use the name. But because of what she said was so vile, she lost her show. She basically lost her whole career. Now, a week or two later, another woman said something very vile about another woman.

After there was a big commotion about what she said, she was forced to apologize. But did she lose her career? Did she lose anything? Why? Because the woman she was saying the nasty things about, that woman, was a conservative woman. In our country today, you don't criticize a liberal lady, but heaven help you if you criticize a conservative one. Now, that sort of thing, it's my gentile blood boiling. It's my gentile blood boiling, I tell you. And I talk to my TV set.

Okay, let's kind of work through this material here.

Guarding against a personality problem. A personality problem.

In verse 20, it says, nevertheless I have a few things against you because you in many translations, my King, New King James says allow, but in many translations, the word there is tolerate. Because you tolerate that woman Jezebel.

Now, we're not thinking about the Old Testament woman explicitly here, but I'm sure the Old Testament Jezebel was a type of what we see here in the New Testament. And I don't even know if the woman who was being referred to is a real life woman or just an individual man or woman, but they had a certain philosophy. You know, Jezebel in the Old Testament, what did she do?

Ahab's wife, King Ahab's wife of Israel. She made Baal worship the state religion of Israel.

Long and short, she made Baal worship the state religion of Israel. She encouraged compromise. She wanted people to give up the ways of God. And for whatever the reason here, in God's true church, there was an individual, perhaps a woman, perhaps a man. Man can be a Jezebel as well in terms of their thinking, who called herself—we'll get to that in a moment—and she began to teach and seduce with false doctrine. So, brethren, again, I say to you, and I know that in this particular church, we have been well-schooled in doctrine. But just because you've been well-schooled, don't think you don't have to review. We all have to review, every one of us. Always making sure that we know how to cross our T's and dot our I's from a doctrinal point of view.

In a church in Thyatira, again, they had these trade guilds, these trade unions. And generally speaking, there were three things that would take place in a typical meeting. As we did the research, they had three things that would take place in those meetings. There would be a worship service. Again, our people had to make up their mind. Are they going to go to that worship service?

There was a worship service where they worshiped the God that was over their particular trade.

And every, every particular trade had a patron God.

Now, perhaps Jezebel said, you know, you and I, we know that those gods are nothing.

And so for us to go and sit in that service, it's not a big deal. Go ahead and go to that church.

Go ahead and sit. You don't need to do anything. You're just, you're just sitting in a church. You're just, you're just sitting in a building. The building is nothing. The God is nothing. Just go and sit.

Perhaps that's what our people did. A second thing, besides the worship service, they would have a sacrificial meal in honor of their patron God. Prayers would be said over that meal.

Would our people eat that food? They could say, well, the God was nothing, so therefore the food's okay.

Now, of course, we've got, you know, God's understanding in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 and other places. But again, we're showing a frame of thinking here. And certainly the third thing they did, which I'm hoping our people did not do, is at the end of the evening they would have an orgy. I'm hoping our people didn't go there. So there was a problem with personality, where this person had an individual, their personality was such that the, perhaps very charismatic, made evil seem to be good, exciting. You know, heresy is always exciting, but it's not what God would want. The second thing was an authority problem. As they made mention here in verse 20, who calls herself a prophetess, who calls herself a prophetess. Do we have people today in God's church who call themselves a minister, who call themselves a leader? You better believe we do.

Do we have people in God's church today? And I'm using the phrase God's church very loosely here, uh, claim to be God's church, who don't even believe there is a ministry.

I thought it was interesting, I know one location, one particular state, where there's an individual who runs a fessite, but doesn't believe in a ministry. And some of our people would go to that fessite, run by a guy who didn't believe in the ministry. I mean, it's... Let's take a look at Ezekiel chapter 13.

Ezekiel chapter 13, verse 1.

And the word of the Lord came to be saying, Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, out of their own heart, not God's heart, out of their own heart, hear the word of the Lord.

Thus says the Lord God, woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing.

O Israel, your prophets are like foxes in the deserts.

Dropping down to verse 6. They have envisioned futility and false divination, saying, Thus says the Lord, but the Lord has not sent them. Yet they hope that the word may be confirmed.

Have you not seen a futile vision? Have you not spoken false divinations? You say, the Lord says, but I have not spoken.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God, because you have spoken nonsense and envisioned lies. Therefore, I am indeed against you, says the Lord God.

My hand will be against the prophets who envision futility and who divine lies. They shall not be in the assembly of my people, nor be written in the record of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the Lord God.

Years ago, Gerald Waterhouse used to quote this scripture, verse 9, and he used to say, you know, I'm wondering if this means at the end of the age, just prior to the millennium starting, if all the false ministers, false prophets, what have you, God's going to allow to die. If God's not going to allow Satan and the demons into the world tomorrow, into the millennium, why allow his ministry? That was his thinking, and I don't know that I can gain say that thinking. So there was an authority problem, people seizing power because of raw ambition. There was also a theology problem. I talked about how she was, let's go back to chapter 2 again.

Jezebel called herself a prophetess to teach and seduce my servants.

Wrong theology, wrong teaching. I remember a, I think I may have mentioned this to you before, we had a regional conference. Mr. Fay was running one of the sessions, and he said, what happened with worldwide back in the day? And I stuck my hand up and I said, well, I think the people saw the tree of good and evil, but they were only focusing in on the good. They saw the missionaries who would give their lives, they saw people who were zealous and did all sorts of good works and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the thinking was, well, since these have got to be Christians by the way they live their lives, and if they're Christians, they've got God Spirit. If they've got God Spirit, well, then our theology must be wrong. Mr. Fay said, that's right.

That's right. And that's exactly what's happened. So many cases. People see the tree of good and evil, and they take the good.

Not seeing there's evil there. Not seeing there's evil there. Let's go to the book of 2 John.

Just a few pages back. 2 John. Verse 9. Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God.

He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son.

If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor greet him. For he who greets them shares in his evil deeds.

Have you many things to write to you? I did not wish to do so with paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak to you face to face that our joy might be full.

You know, brethren, there's a reason why John didn't want to write a lot of things here. Didn't want to write a lot of names here, because he didn't want people tracked down and hounded. So the letter is a little on the generic side, you know, to the elect lady and her children.

Because this is written in the 90s A.D. Persecution is happening here.

So John says, you know, I'm not going to write a lot of specifics as to where you're living, what your names are, and so forth, because I don't want you to be hurt.

I will come to you and we'll discuss these things face to face as family. So yes, indeed, there was a theology problem.

And again, we've got to make sure there's no theology problem as you and I head toward the Kingdom of God.

Lastly, there was a morality problem.

Morality problems. Go to 1 John 2.

No, this Jezebel in the church in Thyatira was seducing people to do immoral things.

1 John 2, verse 15.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. The world is passing away in the lust of it, but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Some of the people in Thyatira were slipping morally.

2 John 2, verse 16. Years ago, in another church area, there was a fellow who was a church kid. He grew up in a church. By the time I had to talk to him about what I'm about to relate to, he was, I believe, in his early to mid-30s.

Grew up in a church.

But he felt it was okay for him to go through and have his way with the ladies of the church.

Won't be any more specific than that. I think you understand what I'm talking about.

And one of the ladies came to me and crying and said, here's what's happening. And so I made it a point to go and have a meeting with this individual.

Saw him there in his place.

And I really expected, I guess, naive me, really expected that the conversation was going to go, oh, Mr. De La Sandro, I'm so sorry for what I've done.

I really need help.

Could you and I have some Bible studies? Could we fast together? Should I go to one of these groups that deals with pressures like this?

What I brought up, what I was told from the woman who confided in me, and I told her I was going to go see him, and I said, oh, I'm going to go see him. His first response is, that's none of your business.

I said, oh, sir, it is very much my business.

It is very much my business.

I'm the pastor of this church, and God holds me accountable for what happens in this church.

And he said, well, I'll just go to a neighboring church. Now, again, my blood is boiling here.

And I said, oh, well, I'll tell you what. What church do you think you want to attend? He said, this one.

I'm going to call that pastor.

I'm going to tell him why you want to attend. And you know what? He's not going to have any of that.

And so it was basically, in your face, I'm with you. It's none of your business. I can live life whatever way I want. Now, is that an extreme example?

I've talked with young adults, and I'm not picking on young adults.

I think I may have mentioned this in the past, but in another area many years ago, somebody said, you know, Mr. De Los Andros, every young man I know has a problem with pornography.

And this individual knew a lot of people all over the country.

Every fellow I know.

Now, I don't know whether he would include the ladies in that or not.

But do we have a morality problem? Now, is everybody, you know, do we need to be walking around afraid? No.

But, you know, is society coming into God's church?

Hasn't it always come into God's church? If we've got 5% of people on the outside who are alcoholic, we're going to have 5% on the inside who are alcoholic. We're going to have 5% on the inside who are alcoholic.

So let's not kid ourselves that there aren't morality problems. Now, is there morality problems with you? I'm hoping not. With me, I'm hoping not. But we want to make sure that we are guarding against these things.

Robert Mounce is a commentator. One of the things he said was this.

One thing we can state with a sense of competence, the problem in Thyatira centered on the guilds.

For persons to maintain their livelihood, some connected, indeed, into membership, to the guilds was a virtual necessity. For Christians, the problem was that this mandatory participation in the guilds involved meat offered to idols, since the patron god of the guilds was always worshiped at the feast. At times, this could involve more immorality. The extent to which these feasts degenerate into debauchery is questionable. Many have argued that commit adultery here is an Old Testament for idolatry.

However, it's more likely a reference to immoral practices.

Whenever Christians refused to participate in a feast because of such participation would compromise their faith, they faced the anger of the pagan populace and had economic repercussions if they lost their jobs. Thus, while Pergamum was in a life-threatening situation, at Thyatira the problem was more economic and social. Jezebel probably taught that there was nothing wrong with a Christian taking part in a guild feast and celebration. For it was merely civil. Since idols were nothing, Christians could not destroy their faith by participating.

But I think we can see how this can happen in our day and time today.

Jezebel said it was fine to compartmentalize our faith. Not that our faith touched every aspect of our life.

But we can have little compartments.

I remember years ago, you know, I've not always been in a full-time ministry. When I graduated from Ambassador College, I moved back home to Detroit.

And for two years, I was a warehouse manager, and for eight years, I was in sales. But those first two years, I was a warehouse manager at a furniture company, a furniture store.

We had a warehouse and then two stores that were supported by the warehouse. And as the manager, I had a crew of anywhere from six to ten guys, depending upon what time of the year it was.

More people on staff during the Christmas rush.

But I remember when times really got tough and they wanted, you know, furniture being pushed out the doors, I would work a pretty standard 10-hour to 12-hour day. And then when the trucks came back empty, if there was, you know, somebody screaming they had to have their furniture, I would jump on a truck and go out for a very late-night delivery.

And there were times when the owner would say, Randy, we really need you to come in for a Friday night or a Saturday. Really need you to come in.

He said, could you please talk to your pastor?

Has anybody else heard it? Can you please go talk to your pastor and get a special dispensation? Get a special okay that it's all right for you to do these things?

I said, I don't need to talk to my pastor. I'm not going to do it.

So for the two years I was there, I think there was between 30 and 40 employees, I was the only one who kept the Sabbath. I was the only one who never worked on Friday night or Saturday.

And I say that because I know it's sometimes getting work is difficult, but it can be done. You've done it. You'll do it in the future.

I've done it. And we don't need to compromise with that.

One man said, and I wish I had written down his name.

I can't give you the author of this particular quote, but I do want to quote, When the church looks like the world, you have a sick church.

When a church acts like the world, you have an impotent church.

When a church plays with the world, you have an unfaithful church.

True words. Let's go back to Revelation.

And yeah, we're going to go overtime today.

Revelation 2, verse 21.

They gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Every day we are alive, brethren, every day we are alive, it's an opportunity for you and I to draw closer to God. Every day that God gives us the gift of life is an opportunity for us to be more like what God wants us to be.

God's discipline is fair. God gives us the time we need.

And I don't know about you, but I know that many times when I'm praying, I say, God, I'm not ready yet.

You know, you go out today, summertime, you see all the little orange barrels because they're doing construction. Well, I know there's orange barrels all around Randy del O'Santro because God is... I'm a work in progress.

There's more construction that needs to be done in my life.

I'm thinking there probably is more construction needs to be done in your life. Verse 22.

Indeed, I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.

Unless they repent of their deeds.

Expositor's Bible commentary says this about verse 22.

The Lord therefore will judge Jezebel by two swift acts. She will be hurled, new international version language, into a bed, and her children will be put to death. The bed or couch can mean a bed used for resting or for a guild banquet or for sickness.

Ramsey adopts the banqueting sense and relates it to the idle feast couches.

On a bed she sinned, on a bed she will suffer, and those who committed adultery with her will suffer intensely. The Lord is walking among his churches. He judges evil, but he also offers deliverance to those who have repented.

Verse 23. I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I'll give to each one according to your works.

Just a little thought here in passing.

The word for heart here in the original is actually kidney.

Kidneys.

Look that up if you want to.

But back in the day when this was written, kidneys were considered the moral center of the life, while mind, literally the heart, represented a totality of the feelings, thoughts, and desires traced back to one's inner desire or inner life. Again, that's from expositive Bible commentary.

Verse 24.

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.

Let me read this in a New International. I don't use New International too often in the New Testament, but Revelation 2.24 in a New International.

Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira and to you who do not hold to her teachings and have not learned Satan's so-called deep secrets.

Satan's so-called deep secrets. I will not impose any other burden on you. So basically, Christ is saying to the people here, you are withstanding sin within the congregation. You're withstanding economic pressure from without the congregation. And I salute you. Keep on doing that. Keep on doing that.

Verse 25.

Hold fast what you have till I come.

Hold fast.

James and Fawcett and Brown says, Hold fast. Do not let go your grasp. However, they try to arrest it from you.

People come with all sorts of enticing words and arguments and so on and so forth. You hold fast. You grasp it. You hold on. You get a grip on that. And if people try to pull the truth away from you, you continue to hold on to the truth of God.

Verse 26. And he overcomes and keeps my works unto the end. To him I will give the power over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron, and they shall dash to pieces like the potter's vessels, as I have also received from my father, and I will give to him the morning star. If he was in the air, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

So here in verses 26 and 27, he shall rule them with a rod of iron. The word rule, if you look it up, the original word there in the Greek, it means shepherd.

We will shepherd the people.

Now shepherds have their shepherding hook, or crook, whatever you want to call that, that piece of equipment that they have.

Typically, that can be used to guide, to lead the sheep, to help the sheep, to serve the sheep. It can be used as a weapon to beat off wolves, and yes, it can be used for disciplinary reasons.

But he shall shepherd them with a rod of iron.

Verse 28, I will give him the morning star.

Morning star, Revelation 22, verse 16.

Jesus Christ is the morning star.

Brethren, we start our journey as we're standing in some sort of a baptismal tank, or a lake, or a stream, or some body of water where we were baptized. We start with Jesus Christ. We end with Jesus Christ. He is the Alpha and the Omega.

We start with Him, and this is what we want.

He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

So today, brethren, we've taken a look at the church in Thyatira, and I think, again, this church speaks loudly to our day in which we live.

Today, we've had people who once attended with us, and they went back to their formal way of believing.

We've seen that. We've felt that. We've been hurt by that.

Spiritual compromise leads to spiritual corruption.

It's happened before. It will happen again. But don't let it happen to you. Don't go along to get along. That path leads to destruction.