Sometimes, and I've been thinking
about this and dealing with this with the latest book that we're
going to publish sometime later this year, the first of next
year, about the term relativism. I don't know if you're familiar
with that term. Relativism, that's the philosophy of the day. And what it says, basically,
is this, is that there's really no absolute truth. That truth is only truth as it
relates to certain individuals, their upbringing, their environment,
their culture, the time, history. So, therefore, what may have
been truth, for example, the Apostle Paul, may not necessarily
be truth for us. And what you get out of that
is a lot of times people, they'll read the Bible. You know, people
read the Bible and they'll get different things out of the Bible.
Currently on the TV program, I'm preaching a series on rules
of interpretation of the Bible. And there are some rules that
are laid down by which we're to read the scriptures and interpret
them. But somebody says, well, you
read a verse, you get this out of it, I read it, and I get this
out of it, and they're both true. Well, they both can't be true.
And so it's like somebody said one time, said either you're
wrong or I'm wrong or we're both wrong, but there's a truth here. Well, this relativism is what
I believe brings about what we're seeing here in the last verses
of Revelation 2 concerning the church at Thyatira. It's what
I call ungodly toleration. In other words, if everybody's
got their truth, and even though we might disagree it's all truth,
well, we just have to tolerate it. We just have to put up with
it. Now, understand now, I'm not talking about liberty and
freedom here. When it comes to toleration,
we have to put up with a lot. And if somebody wants to believe
a false gospel, they have every right to do that. And I'm not
going to try to force them. I can't force them to believe
anything else. They have the freedom to do that.
And so we have that freedom. We have the freedom to be wrong.
But here's something that the Apostle John brings forth as
it was revealed to him by the Lord Jesus Christ that's a danger. for the church. We stand upon
absolute truth. And that truth is in Jesus Christ,
the Lord of glory, and him crucified and risen from the dead. There's
only one way of salvation. There's not two ways. If there's
more than one way, then what this Bible says is not true.
The absolute truth is Christ is the one way, the only way,
and one of the things I've been writing on for this book is you
cannot be a Christian biblically now. I mean, you can call yourself
whatever you want to call yourself, but you cannot be a Christian
biblically and believe there's more than one way of salvation.
Christ said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by me. Peter preached it, he said, there's
none other name given among men whereby we must be saved. Now,
here in the church at Thyatira, listen to verse 18, it says,
and unto the angel, which I believe is the minister, could be the
pastor of the church in Thyatira, and this is one of those churches
in Asia Minor, which we, modern day Turkey, one of the seven
churches, He says, here's what you write. He says, these things
saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of
fire, and his feet are like fine brass, or bronze. Now this Thyatira, it wasn't
like Ephesus. It wasn't like the other big,
like Corinth, for example. It was a small city. And it was
famous, it was a business city. It was famous for its trade guilds.
Lydia, remember she was a seller of purple. You can read about
Lydia in Acts chapter 16 where the Lord opened Lydia's heart.
She was from Thyatira. And one of the trades there was
dyeing the colors of cloth, dyeing cloth. And she was skilled in
that process and she was a seller of purple cloth. That's what
it was. And so this city was a small city famous for its business
guilds, trade guilds. And what it was, it was ensconced
in idolatry, just like every Gentile city back then. And what
happened was each trade guild had its own pet idol. And if you did that business
in order to belong to the union, the trade guild there, you had
to buy into their idolatry. You may have even had to participate
in their idolatry and their pagan practices. And of course, you
could see how that would be a real problem for a believer. Because
a lot of times, if you stood against their paganism, you lost
your job. You weren't a member of the guild
or the union. So you had to compromise. Here's
what happens here. Now the Lord says he identifies
himself, and each time that he goes through one of these churches,
he identifies himself in such a way that meets the particular
problem. And here he is, is the one who
has eyes like unto a flame of fire. In other words, he sees
like nobody else sees. He's omniscient. That means he's
all-knowing. That means his ability to see
and judge things, the truth, the reality of them, is like
no other. He's God in human flesh. He knows
the hearts of men. And then he says, his feet are
like fine brass. That brass there speaks of his
power to conquer his enemies and to save his people. It speaks
of judgment. Anytime you see the metal brass
or bronze, think of, for example, the brazen altar, the brazen
serpent that Moses lifted up on the pole. That's a type of
Christ. Christ went under the judgment of God in the place
of his people as our surety and our substitute to die for our
sins and to pay our sin debt and to establish righteousness.
Out of the bronze or the brazen altar, comes righteousness for his people,
and that's a judgment. He was judged for our sins, so
it's a medal that symbolizes, typifies judgment. So here he
is, here's the one who sees like nobody else sees. You see, we
can see the outside, but he sees the heart. And his judgments
are always true. So the issue here seems to be
People who are making a profession of faith, but their heart's really
not right with God. Now that's the problem with any
of these things. You know, just like in Ephesus,
you know, they had left their first love. They claimed to be
Christian, but they weren't helping Christians. They weren't loving
the brethren. And so, and then in another place,
he talks about the compromise. They claim to be Christian. Well,
here these people claim to be Christian, But they were doing
something wrong. And listen to what he says in
verse 19. He says, I know thy works. Now here's what he's talking
about. Is there that which evidences
either a heart of faith towards God, a heart of repentance, the
new heart given by the Holy Spirit in the new birth, or the heart
that reveals the problem, reveals the sin that they need to repent
of. And here he says, I know thy works. I know your charity. That's their love for the brethren.
Your service, that's their obedience to God. It's the obedience of
faith. This is not service that's aimed at trying to make themselves
righteous. It's service that's based on the fact that God has
given them, imputed righteousness to them, saved them by grace.
It's a bond service, bond slave. He says, I know your faith, that's
their faithfulness. So apparently, Apparently, the
church as a whole was remaining faithful to the gospel, the truth,
and he says, I know your patience. That's their endurance. You're
enduring. He says, and thy works. That's
the fruit of the Spirit. And he says, and the last to
be more than the first. Now what that seems to indicate
is they grew in grace and in knowledge, in the doctrine of
Christ. They grew in these areas. In other words, they're not where
they started and where they've come to indicates growth. And that's, to me, when you see
things like that, whenever he deals with the problem here,
it kind of puts things in perspective, puts it in context. A lot of
times I'll read commentators on these churches and they'll
say things about them that doesn't fit with the commendation when
he talks about the problem. Well, he's commending them for
their love to the brethren, so that's not their problem. You're
charity. He's commending them for their service. He's commending
them for their faithfulness and their endurance and their works.
And he says, the last to be more than the first. He says, but
in verse 20, now look at verse 20. He says, notwithstanding,
I have a few things against thee. And then he begins talking about
the problem at the church at Thyatira. This represents the
danger that the church, the churches where the gospel is preached
and proclaimed are to watch out for and to avoid. And whenever
you go through these things, understand that you'll have a
lot of questions. How could they do this and not
do this? How could they not do this and
do... And I don't know. I can only tell you what's printed
here and go by that. I can't climb into their mind
and reveal to you their psychological reasoning and how they implemented
these things I just know this he's commended them and it seems
like what he's talking about are the evidences of salvation
but he has a few things against them and here's what he says
now look at it verse 20 because thou sufferest that means you
allow you tolerate that woman Jezebel which calleth herself
a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit
fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols." Now,
Jezebel. You know, that name rings up
in your mind a lot of different ideas, doesn't it? Most commentators,
and I agree, do not believe that there was a woman actually named
Jezebel in that church. But it really doesn't matter.
Whatever her problem is, he says it right here. This is a woman,
a woman in the church, who called herself a prophetess, which indicates
she wasn't called by God to be a prophetess. Now, a prophet
or a prophetess is one who claims to speak for God. It's a person
who says, I have the word of God. Sometimes that involves predicting
the future. In the prophets of the Old Testament,
that's what they did. Some of them. But they preached
things that were current, too. But it was the Word of God. So
here's a woman who claimed to be preaching the Word of God.
Well, of course, as you know, in the church, there's Women
are not to be pastors or have authority over men. The scripture
is clear on that. That's not male chauvinism. That's
the way God set it up in his sovereign order of things to
rightly represent Christ and his church. And that's the way
it is. And of course people rebel against
that because we by nature are rebels. But this woman Jezebel,
she claimed to be a prophet. I don't think her real name was
Jezebel, but she was like Jezebel of old. Now you can read about
Jezebel back over in 1 Kings 16, and I thought I put that
reference in your lesson. I didn't, but you write it down
here because you need to read about this sometime. I'm not
going to go back and read all this because I won't have time. But
you know about Jezebel. She was the wife of King Ahab,
who was one of the most wicked kings of the northern kingdom,
Israel. Now, all the kings of the northern kingdom were wicked,
but he kind of stood out from the rest. But let me just read
you a little bit. This is in 1 Kings 16.29. And I think this sort of helps
us to understand the problem. Now, you can read the whole section
about Jezebel, you remember, about the prophet Elijah and
all of that. Well, look at 1 Kings 16, 29,
it says, and in the 38th year of Asa, king of Judah, began
Ahab, the son of Omri, to reign over Israel. Now, that's the
northern kingdom, the ten tribes. And Ahab the son of Omri reigned
over Israel in Samaria, that was the capital of the northern
kingdom. Remember they had a temple there. They had constructed their
own temple in Samaria and rejected the temple in Jerusalem. And
it says 20 and two years, verse 30 says, and Ahab the son of
Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were
before him. In other words, they all did
evil up there, but he was above all. He stood above the crowd
in this evil. And it says in verse 31, it says,
Ahab, it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him
to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Now, Jeroboam
was the, you remember when Solomon died, the kingdom divided between
Rehoboam and Jeroboam. And Jeroboam, he took the, he
went north and established a kingdom there. And he allowed idolatry. And so Ahab is a man who thought
it was a light thing to do what Jeroboam done. It doesn't matter. What's the big deal? That's the
kind of idea that's set forth here. You know, I know we believe
in the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but look, we don't
have to be so strict. We don't have to be so narrow-minded,
you know. There's others out here, you
know. Somebody told me one time, I believe there's safe people
in all religions or in all denominations. That's the kind of idea that's
being promoted here. So what did Ahab do? Well look
at verse thirty-one, he thought it a light thing for him to walk
in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Neba that he took to wife
Jezebel the daughter of Ethbael king of the Sidonians and went
and served Baal and worshipped him. A light thing, you know we don't
have to be that strict. And it says in verse thirty-two,
he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal which he
had built in Samaria. So here you had not only a temple
that they claimed in Samaria was a temple of the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and of course that was an abomination of itself.
The temple was in Jerusalem. That was the Temple of Solomon.
But they also had a temple for Baal too. Let's make room for
everybody. Let's tolerate, you see, let's
open the door wide. That's what you're saying. Now
go back to Revelation 2. Well, Jezebel brought idolatry
into Israel. As I said, we don't know her
real name, but whatever it is, it doesn't matter. What her name
is doesn't matter. We just know that she was like
Jezebel of old, promoting this toleration of other religions,
other ideas, other beliefs, because, hey, We're all going to the same
God, we're just on different roads. You've heard that, haven't
you? That's the kind of thing. And you know, that's the popular
today, isn't it? People who claim to be Christian, you go your
way, I'll go mine. You remember the, I didn't put
this in your lesson, but I've used this before, the mountain
analogy. Here's the mountain, God's at the top. Some of you
are going straight up to God. Some of you are winding around,
going the long way, and some of you are crisscrossed. But
it's all roads lead to God. That's the ungodly toleration.
That's the relativism. And here's what she did. Look
at verse 20 again. She seduced my servants to commit
fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. That may
have a direct reference to these trade guilds and their idols
saying, well, now it's okay for you to do that, you know, it's
okay for you to participate in their idolatrous practices because,
hey, I mean, you know, we know what we believe. And so this
ungodly toleration keeps on. Well, that's Jezebel. And that's her idea. Look at
verse 21. The Lord says, I gave her space,
or opportunity, to repent of her fornication, and she repented
not. Now verse 21, I want you to think
about this now. This woman, Jezebel, apparently,
with some of his preachers, servants, the pastor, whoever, approached
her and told her the truth and gave her opportunity, time to
repent, and she repented not. She repented not. Now verse 21
is a commentary on every one of us by nature. In other words,
you see, If you say, well now Jezebel, she wouldn't repent,
but I repented. Okay, why did you repent and
she didn't? Is it because you're less rebellious,
less stubborn? Is it because you're better than
her? What if God left us to ourselves to make that decision to repent?
What would happen? According to the scripture now,
I'm not talking about, you know, this is what I think. I don't
care what you think. Don't care what I think. What does the Bible
say? If God left you or me or any of us, the best of us or
the worst of us to ourselves to make that decision, what does
the Bible say we do? We'd be just like Jezebel. We
repent not. I heard a man say one time, he
said, here's the thing about it. You know, somebody says,
well, salvation is totally up to you. God loves you. Christ died for you. You make
the difference. And a man said one time, he said,
let me tell you something. If you read the Bible and believe
what the Bible says, if God came down here and got the whole human
race before him and said, now I'm going to leave it up to you
all what you do, what do you think would happen? Well, the
scripture says we'd all reject him and his glory. That's what
the scripture says. But God gave her space to repent. What is that talking about? That's
talking about the long suffering of God. Somebody says, well,
you know, we look at our country, we look at how it's going, as
I said last week, to hell in a handbasket, you know. And somebody
might make the statement, saying, why doesn't God bring His wrath
down on them right now? Well, He's long-suffering, the
scripture says in the book of Romans. He's long-suffering. Why? He has a reason for it. I was listening to a message
last week by a man who was preaching the truth, but he was talking
about unbelievers and speaking in a very arrogant way about
how he was glad that God was going to bring his wrath down
on them. Listen, what do we say? You know, but for the grace of
God, there go I. Incidentally, that is a biblical
truth, but that's not a verse in the Bible. The verse in the
Bible would say something like this. Paul said this. He said,
I am what I am by the grace of God. That's what I am. And the reason I'm saying this
is this. If you have repented, if I have
repented, that's a miracle. And it's not a miracle of your
decision. It's a miracle of the grace and power of Almighty God.
It's a miracle that any of us have been brought to repentance,
isn't it? And to faith in Christ. But he gave her space to repent,
and she repented not. Well, look at verse 22. He says,
behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery
with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And he says, and I will kill
her children with death, and all the churches shall know that
I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give unto
every one of you according to your works. Now that's a statement
of the wrath of God upon unbelievers. That's what it is. A lot of people
will take verses like that and they'll go around and around
with it talking about how even believers can be killed in this
life for their sins. We do have some examples of that
in scripture but here's the problem. It's really not explained here
other than what he says they will not repent of their deeds
and he's going to give them according to their works which means that
he's going to judge them by their works. How do you know it means
judgment? Well, look what he says. I am he which searcheth
the reins and the hearts. The reins there is what drives
them, what direction they go, their motives, their hearts. What's the problem here? You
know this ungodly toleration. You know how most people promote
it in the name of love and unity. But my friend, it's a It's an
evil love. It's a self-love. It's a love
that desires to relieve themselves of the persecution of the cross,
the derision of men. Somebody says, well, we don't
judge. No, but the Word of God does, and we preach the Word
of God. If a person comes to you and
says, I don't believe that salvation is by grace. I believe it's by
works. What judgment are we to make?
Well, they don't believe the gospel. What does the scripture
say? He that believeth not shall be
damned. What do we tell these people? You're headed for damnation.
You need to repent. That's our whole message. You
need to turn to Christ. You need to stop following the
religion of Cain and follow the religion of Abel. You need to
look to Christ for salvation, for righteousness, for eternal
life and glory. So he says, I will kill her children
with death, and then all the Churchills will know that God
is the one who judges according to truth. That's what that means.
I try the reins in the hearts. In other words, God's not going
to do anything unjust here. God's not going to do anything
unfair. He's simply going to give them what they deserve.
Now how are we to look at that? You know, somebody says, well,
This preacher I was listening to last week, I told you he was
so arrogant. The first thing that pops into
my mind on things like that is Luke 13. I told you about this,
I think, last week or the week before. Where Christ, in dealing
with the religious Jews, and he made reference to two historical
accounts where the wrath of God was brought down on people on
this earth. He talked about the tower that
fell on those, and I can't remember the place now. Siloam, is that
where it was? That's what we would call a natural
disaster, like that hurricane in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina. And then he talked about how
evil men, Pontius Pilate and the Roman soldiers slaughtered
those who were coming to worship at an altar. And he asked him
this question. Somebody says, well, they got
what they deserved. And the answer to that is yes.
But suppose you that they were greater sinners and that's why.
Listen, what if God ever gave me what I deserve? What if God
in one moment of my life decided I'm gonna give Bill Parker what
he deserves? What would it be? And it'd be eternal death. Just
like this, I'll kill her children with death. That's what I deserve. And I don't deserve anything
better. I don't deserve anything more than to be killed with death
just like Jezebel and her children. And why is that? Because God
judges according to truth. So when I talk about salvation,
when I talk about blessings, When I talk about being accepted
with God, when I talk about eternal life and glory, understand I'm
not talking to you about what I deserve. I'm talking to you about what
God has given me by His grace freely based on the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see the difference? And when
you see that, that's when God brings you to repentance. The
great white throne judgment. speaks of books, plural, and
then it speaks of the book, singular. And those who are judged out
of the books will be judged according to their works. That's what that
book, the books record, what they deserve. But those who are
judged out of the book are judged just as much according to truth,
but not by what they deserve. They're judged in Christ. washed
in his blood and clothed in his righteousness. We'll look at
verse 24. He says, but unto you I say, and unto the rest of Thyatira,
as many as have not this doctrine, this doctrine of toleration,
this doctrine of Jezebel, this doctrine of putting up and even
maybe participating in idolatrous practices just to get along,
and which have not known the depths of Satan, Now I guarantee
you Jezebel, who claimed to be a prophetess, was talking about
what she said, the deep things of God. But she wasn't preaching
the deep things of God, she's preaching the deep things of
Satan. As they speak, I will put upon you none other burden. In other words, the burden of
condemnation is not upon you. You see, we have a burden, but
it's a burden of grace, it's a burden of love. And Christ
said, my burden is light. My yoke is easy, my burden is
light. But this burden of condemnation, by which God will kill her children
with death and judge them according to their worth, that burden's
not upon the people of God. Christ took our burden to the
cross. Our sins were imputed to him.
And he lifted that burden. He washed away our sins. And
he says in verse 25, and here's what he encourages them to do,
he says, those who have not fallen prey to Jezebel's seduction,
he says, but that which you have already, hold fast till I come. What you have already, in your
profession of the truth, you hold fast, you hold on dear to
it, you don't let go of it. That's what it means. I put in
your lesson, the simplicity that's in Christ. The grace of God. He says in verse 26, and he that
overcometh, every time in each letter he says that, the overcomers,
and what is that? That's true believers. That's
sinners saved by the grace of God. He's talking about victory
there. In other words, you've overcome
this problem. And it's not because of your
power, it's not because of your goodness, it's not because you're
better than everybody else or the ones who've fallen prey to,
it's because of the grace of God that preserves us and keeps
us. He that overcometh and keepeth
my works, I love how that's put there. Notice he didn't say keepeth
your works, he said keepeth my works. You know, a sinner saved
by grace, kept by grace, and brought into glory is the work
of God, isn't he? He's not even, you're not, we're
not self-made people. We can't have, that kind of pride
has no place in the gospel way of salvation. But you keep my
works unto the end, unto final glory, to him will I give power
over the nations. You see that? What is that power
over the nations? Well, I believe that that has
to do with with the judgment of the nations through the preaching
of the gospel that puts down the enemies of Christ and all
who continue, endure in the faith, shall sit with Christ, in this
sense, in judgment over all of his enemies. We'll be vindicated,
is what he said. Somebody says, well, You're right,
they're wrong, or they're right, you're right, well it'll be,
all of it'll come out then. Judgment over the nations. A
lot of times, or power over the nations, a lot of times in scripture
that's a direct reference to the preaching of the gospel all
over this world where God brings his people under the sound of
that gospel and brings them to faith in Christ. The gospel is
called a judgment. Did you know that in the Old
Testament? Read the book of Isaiah. He said, I'm going to bring judgment
to the Gentiles. And in those passages, he's talking
about believing the gospel. Because without the Holy Spirit
convincing us of sin and righteousness and of judgment, our judgment
is totally out of whack. That's what brings about this
ungodly toleration. Well, here's the way I judge
it, you know. Well, how does God judge it? He brings our judgment
under him. And it says in verse 27, He shall
rule them with a rod of iron, as a king and as a judge with
power. As the vessels of a potter shall
they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my father. So
this is the judgment of the nations, which is by the gospel. He says
in verse 28, I will give him the morning star. That's those
who overcome. And of course, you know what
the Morning Star is, that's Christ. In other words, those who overcome
and endure by the power and grace of God, what do we have? We have
Christ. And if we have Christ, we have
what? We have everything. We have an inheritance incorruptible. We have all things good that
God can give in Christ. He's the Morning Star, He's the
Day Star, the scripture says. And it says in verse 29, he that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
Now that's how he ends every letter. And it's just an emphasis
on the fact that those who hear, hear because of one reason. It's
because blessed are your ears for they hear, blessed are your
eyes for they see. This is the work of God. All
right.