Here to open your Bibles to the
book of Revelation chapter two. That's where our lesson will
be from this morning. Revelation chapter two. Before we begin, let's bow and
seek the Lord's blessing and prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
merciful Heavenly Father. Lord, how we thank you that out
of your goodness to your people that you've given us another
opportunity One more time, hear the gospel of thy blessed son
preached. That you've given us another
opportunity to open your word, to hear thus saith the Lord,
to hear your word to your people. Father, we thank you. We pray
that you'd bless our worship service this morning. Bless us
in this hour as we look into your word. Bless us in the worship
service. Father, give us your spirit.
Enable us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Without you, we
can do nothing. How we need you every hour, especially
to worship, to hear, to learn of thee, to have you give us
the gift of faith in your son. Father, we beg your presence
and your mercy upon us for our good and especially for thy glory.
Get glory to your name through our worship service this morning.
Bless the classes in the back. Father, bless the teachers. Bless
our children. Give them a heart that would
receive the things that you would have them learn from your word.
Apply your word to their hearts and in your time, Father, we
beg of thee that you'd cause it to grow to faith in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you'd be
at the sick and afflicted, those who need you especially. Give
them a special portion of your presence. Comfort their hearts
and heal and provide deliverance as soon as it could be thy will,
we pray. All these things we ask and we give thanks in that
name, which is above every name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
All right, Revelation chapter two,
we're going to begin our lesson in verse 18 this morning. The
title of the lesson is compromise with the world's religion. That's
the warning to the church at Thyatira. It's all about compromising
with the world's religion, not only its methods or its message,
but its methods. Thyatira was a very wealthy trading
city. Lydia, the seller of purple,
whose heart the Lord opened, was from this city, Thyatira.
This city was, from what I read, full of early trade unions. And
they had a union for every different kind of craft you can think of.
And each one of those unions had their own mascot idol. To
be a member of that union, you had to be a member of that union
to get work. And if you're going to do that,
you've got to worship this idol. You've got to take part in the
ceremonies relating to these idols. And then after the ceremony,
then all sorts of deviant behavior began to take place. And you
couldn't leave then, or people would be offended and call you
a bigot, narrow-minded, and you wouldn't get work, which was
the whole point of being in the union in the first place. Well, that's
the town our sister Lydia went back to. after the Lord revealed
himself to her. And there was a lot of pressure
put on the believers there in that town to compromise with
idolatry. Just do what you gotta do to
get along. You know, just change the way
you're doing your service. Make your service more modern.
So, you know, kind of like everybody else's, so we can all just get
along. And whatever you do, don't upset
the apple cart by calling a lie a lie. Don't get everybody riled
up by calling a false prophet false. Just don't do that. So
that's the, you know, kind of the life, the environment of
the believers there. And the Lord sends a letter to
that church. He addresses it first to the
pastor. We've seen each of the other
letters. The angel of the church is the pastor of the church.
And the letter's addressed to the whole church, but it's addressed
first to the pastor. Because it's the pastor's job
to protect the pulpit. It's the pastor's job to protect
the congregation, to protect the doctrine that's preached
there and protect what people would believe. You know, the
danger of somebody stand up and behind this pulpit preaching
is somebody might believe what they say. So we've got to be
careful that what they're preaching is Christ. And I tell you the
way we protect the pulpit, the way we protect the doctrine,
protect what we have here. Number one is obviously by keeping
false prophets out of the pulpit. But I tell you the way we do
that. It's by always preaching Christ. It would just faithfully
teach the scriptures, verse by verse, line upon line, precept
upon precept, thus saith the Lord. That's how we protect the
pulpit. That's how we protect the doctrine
of the church. So here in verse 18, this is
the beginning of the letter, unto the angel of the church
in Thyatira write, these things saith the Son of God, who hath
his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine
brass. Now, the Lord we worship and
serve is the one who wrote this letter. I want you to notice
how he identifies himself in the church because it's so comforting.
First of all, the Lord, our Savior, is the Son of God. What majesty
and power the Savior must have if he's the Son of God? If our
Savior, the captain of our salvation, is the Son of God Almighty, we
can't be lost, can we? Everything we believe depends
on who we preach, who we believe. If he's the son of God, we can't
be defeated. We can't be lost. If our master
is the son of the highest, the son of God, our service to him
can never be in vain, can it? You know, it is a delight to
be called a servant of the son of God. There can't be any higher
calling than being the servant of the son of God. And that doesn't
just apply to the pastor. That applies to every believer.
We're servants of the Son of God. And the fact that our Savior
is the Son of God, doesn't that motivate you to want to follow
Him and not act like His enemies? Then He says, our Savior has
eyes like a flame of fire. They're all seeing eyes. Nothing
is hid from Him. Those eyes of fire are eyes that
burn with vengeance against His enemies. And they're eyes that
burn with warm love for His people. Doesn't that encourage you to
follow him and act like him and not compromise with his enemy?
Then the Lord says that he has feet like undefined brass. I
don't know a lot about brass, but from what I read about it,
brass becomes more fine, it becomes more brilliant, shines more brightly
when you put it through the fire. Well, that's the feet of our
Savior. His feet are like undefined brass because he has walked through
the fire of God's wrath against the sin of his people. And you'll
notice he walked through it. He didn't stay there. He walked
through it. He came out the other side because
by his sacrifice, he put the sin of his elect away. It's gone. Now that ought to motivate us
to follow him wherever it is he leads. These feet of fine
brass. This is the other thing I know
about brass. It's very strong. His feet of brass are strong
enough they're going to destroy every enemy. He just trampled
them down in his fury. Well, then I don't want to conduct
my worship service like them. I don't want to compromise with
them. Do you? They're going to be destroyed. And these feet
of fine brass, they also have strength and stability and support
that will always carry, always support and hold up his people.
Our Savior sees everything and he knows everything. He knows
that he's been through the fire of God's wrath for his people,
and he'll never cast them out. He'll always hold them safe and
secure in him. Doesn't that motivate you to
serve and worship him? It does me. That gives the believer's
motivation to serve the Lord, to follow him, to not compromise
with his enemy comes from love and gratitude to the Savior for
who he is and what he's done for us. And he knows his people. Look at verse 19. He says, I
know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience
and thy works that the last be more than the first. Now the
Lord says, I know your works and what he means here is your
good works. I know your good work. Well, what are good works? You know, Calvinists are always
afraid to talk about good works. What are good works? You know,
our Lord called one thing. One time did our Lord call something
a good work. It's in Matthew chapter 26. Remember
the woman came and she brought that box of very expensive ointment
and she came and poured it upon the Savior. She anointed him
with this oil. And the Lord says she did it
to anoint him for his burial. She somehow knew the Lord was
going to be crucified and be buried and she wouldn't be able
to get to him at that time. So she came and did what she
could when she could. And the people sitting around
watching that thought, This is a waste. This could have been
sold. You know, we could have had this money given to the poor.
But our Lord said, you leave her alone. She brought a good
work upon them. So good work is a work that's
done upon the body of Christ for the glory of Christ. All
right, our Lord to send it back to glory. How can we do good
works then? Well, you've got to remember the body of Christ
is his people. He's the head, we're the body.
If you desire to do a good work, I'll tell you what you do. You
do something helpful for God's people. And do it not for recognition,
but for the glory of the Savior. That's a good work. Help one
another. Pray for one another. Give each
other what we need. Help one another out with a word
of compliment, a word of thanks. The church at Thyatira was doing
that. The Lord says, I know your good
works and I know your love. Now love's in the heart. So how
does he know their love? Well, love is known out in the
open because it acts. Love is known by these good works,
these labor of love. He knew their love for him because
of what they did for one another, how they served and helped one
another. The Lord says, I know your service. Now this service,
what he's talking about here, service in helping spread the
gospel. You know, every single one of
us has an opportunity for service. Every one of us. Use the talents
that God's give you. Use the opportunities that God
gives you to talk to people. Every one of us has opportunity
for service. Preaching and teaching are obvious
areas of service, but they're not the only ones. We must pray. Praying for one another. Praying
that the Lord bless the service. Praying that the Lord give the
pastor a message and understanding and the ability to preach. That
service to the church, that helps spread the gospel. There's giving
to support this ministry. There's helping keep the building
up, you know, keeping it looking good and being comfortable for
a place for people to come worship. There's seeing to the needs of
one another, keeping the nursery. I've never had to keep the nursery.
I can imagine it's, you know, you'd rather not if you had the
opportunity. But now I'm telling you what,
keeping the nursery is an area of service. It really is. If
some infant's not in here, you know, doing what an infant does,
crying and, you know, being cute and people, you know, looking
at it, waving. There's this little baby. Well, we were eating dinner
last night, and they carried this kid in, and as his mama
was setting it down in the chair, that kid turned and looked at
us and just lit up with a smile. Well, I'm telling you what, for
the next half hour, everybody at that table was, you know,
well, that's great for a restaurant, but that's not good that would
take away from our ability to worship and hear from the Lord.
It's service. Preparing and serving food. We
have times of fellowship. Now that's an opportunity for
our ladies to serve. You all do it so well. Every
time we have one of those, be sure to thank them. They did
such a good job. That's an area of service. There's
so many areas. Lord, I know your service, what
you do for the furtherance of the gospel to help the church. And Lord, I know your faith.
Now, faith is like love. It's hidden in the heart. But
now faith can be seen out in the open. The Lord sees into
the heart, so he knows their faith. But faith can be seen
out in the open. How? Faith is seen by our actions. Works of love. That's how faith
worketh by love. Faith for Christ is seen when
we faithfully follow Him, when we worship Him. Faith for Christ
is seen how we help one another. You know, that's all the Lord
requires from a servant. Faith. He says, I know your faith. And he commends him for it. He
says, I know your patience. You know, from what I described
about the life of a believer in Thyatira, that's going to
require some patience in it. They patiently endured trials. And that's the only way we're
going to gain patience. It's through trials. We don't
like them, we don't choose them, but the only way we'll ever grow
in patience is by going through trials. This Lord saw their patience
and knew it, commended them for it. But then He says again, I
know thy works. Now why does the Lord repeat
Himself at the end? He already said, I know thy works.
Because what He's saying is, you've grown in them. He said
the last to be more than the first. You've grown in all these
areas over time. And that's good, that's commendable.
You've grown in your labors of love. You've grown in service
for the gospel. You've grown in faith. You've
grown in patience. And every believer desires growth
in those areas. We desire growth in every one
of those areas because we're never satisfied with where we
are now. Yes, my faith has grown. Yes,
my love has grown. But I'm far from satisfied with
it. I want to see it grow, don't you? This was something, it was interesting
to me as I was looking at this. None of these things come naturally
to the flesh, do they? Love and faith and patience,
serving somebody else, none of those things come naturally to
the flesh. So if we have any of these things, no matter how
faint that they may be, or even if they've grown quite a bit,
if we've got any of these things, where'd they come from? God had
to give them to us, didn't he? That's the only way we can have
them. God had to give them to us. It's just always interesting
to me that the Lord gives us these things. He gives us a heart
of love, a heart of service, a heart of faith. He gives us
patience, and then he commends us for using them. It's all of
the Lord, isn't it? It's all of Christ. And if we
keep that in mind, if that's the way we preach, if that's
the way we look at the scriptures and preach the gospel, that's
protecting the doctrine in the pulpit. That's that's protecting
the doctrine of this church. And they did that. But something
happened. I don't know what it is. Something
came up that required this letter of warning from the Lord. And
we need to pay attention to it. Be warned about this because
it can happen. It can happen here just like it happened in
Thyatira. He says in verse 20, notwithstanding, I have a few
things against thee. because thou sufferest, 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, the problem, the Lord says,
is they were suffering. They were tolerating this woman
named Jezebel. Now, nobody knows for sure, but
I really don't think there was a real woman in Thyatira named
Jezebel. I believe it was a woman or group
of women or someone who acted Like they had the same motivation,
the same actions, same methods as the woman Jezebel we know
of from the Old Testament. And it wasn't necessarily have
to be a woman. A man could be doing the same
thing with this false doctrine, but I believe it was an actual
woman or an actual group of women. And the Lord called, gave them
the name Jezebel because the error in Thyatira was tolerating
the methods of modern day religion, the world's religion. And certainly
that would include women preachers, wouldn't it? I mean, in our day,
all you got to do is turn on the TV. Most preachers that you
see on TV and stuff today, they're women. After the inauguration, the president
went to some prayer thing or whatever, and the pastor of this,
I think it was Episcopal church, was a woman. Well, I'd not be
surprised. Most of them aren't anymore. That was the error that
they were tolerating. Now, who is Jezebel? The Lord
calls this woman Jezebel, because she's got the same methods, the
same doctrine. But Jezebel was a very wicked
queen. She was married to the wicked King Ahab. And we won't
take the time to turn to these. You can look at them later if
you want. But you can read all about her in 1 Kings 16, 19,
21, and then 2 Kings 9. Let me just give you a summary
of what you'd read if you'd go through and read that. Jezebel
worshiped the idol Baal. And she hated Elijah more than
any man alive. Oh, how she hated him. You remember
at Mount Carmel, he killed 450 of those prophets of Baal in
one day. I mean, she hated him. She had
it out for him. She hated Elijah so much, she
swore an oath to kill him. And Jezebel, she worked behind
the scenes. She manipulated her husband Ahab. Ahab's already
a wicked man. And she just manipulated him
to do even more wicked things, just more things contrary to
God. She was a manipulator, just like
false prophets today. They're manipulators, whether
they're men or women, they don't just preach the gospel, preach
Christ and lead the sinner along with God. No, they're always
manipulating you, manipulating you to do something, usually
for them, manipulators. And Jezebel was a deceiver. When
you're going to manipulate somebody, you don't do it out in open.
She was a deceiver. She wrote letters one time. She
sealed them with the king seal. She was writing these letters
pretending to be a king, or to be the king, to be her husband.
And she did it with this purpose in mind. She wanted to get this
man named Naboth killed. Now Naboth had a garden, and
her husband Ahab wanted to buy it. And Naboth wouldn't sell
it. He inherited it. There was a
sentimental value to that to him, and he wouldn't sell it. Well, she wrote these letters
to get this man killed so she could get that garden and give
it to her husband. And that's exactly what a false
prophet does. They deceive people, they pretend
that they're speaking for God, and what they do is they get
people killed. They get people sent to hell, and their conscience
doesn't bother them by it in the least. of Jezebel. Well,
that kind of thing, that kind of method of religion was being
tolerated by the church at Thyatira. It was all around them in their
city. They were just inundated with it and they began to tolerate
it. They began to tolerate man's
method of religion. First of all, they tolerated
that. They just compromised by allowing
this woman preacher. Now, I don't know if she tried
to preach or she tried to influence people, telling them what they
ought to believe and how they ought to do it. I'm not exactly sure.
She may have used her influence to try to control the church
and direct the church instead of the church being directed
by the pastor and the elders. And that is the way of modern
religion. But that, the Lord says, that's
not my way. I know modern man, modern religion
says, well, That was okay for that day, you know, when Paul
writes the letter to the church at Corinth and tells them not
to have women preachers. That was okay for that day. But,
you know, we're so much more enlightened now and we've grown
and we don't have to be, you know, so bigoted and, you know,
just sexist, you know, that women are just as good as men are.
And, you know, that's just an old way. It's outdated now. I
don't argue with you that women are just as good as men. I mean,
they could be smarter. I mean, who knows? Women know
just as much about Scripture as men do. They can be well taught. But that's not the issue. It's
not the issue at all. God said women aren't to preach. Women, you have many other areas
of service, but preaching is not one of them. That's the Lord's
way. And to compromise with that,
to compromise with the way, the method of the world's religion.
And if we tolerate a change in God's word, because we think
we know better than God's word, very, very quickly, we'll have
no basis for worship. We'll have no basis for doctrine,
we'll have no basis for preaching, because the basis of everything
we believe is this book. And you put a question mark on
one sentence of it, and you're gonna erode the rest of it very
quickly. That's why the Lord's warning them of this. Jezebel,
she also, she hated God. So she hated God's prophet. And
what she tried to do is get the people to slowly go away from
God and go away from God's way and go away from his prophet.
And that's what was happening here in Thyatira. The way they
were trying to do that in Thyatira is they were saying, well, now
we want to conquer Satan. We want to conquer sin. Well,
if you're going to conquer sin, you got to know a lot about sin.
If you're going to conquer Satan, you've got to know a lot about
what he's doing. So it's fine to go to these houses of idolatry.
You're not really worshiping there. You're just finding out
everything you can find out about Satan and see him. Just go there. and compromise with them, just
tolerate. I know they're saying things wrong, but just kind of
tolerate them and compromise with them, you know, kind of
get them kind of with you and then get them to come with you.
And, you know, here we'll compromise some things till we get them
in here for a while and then we'll straighten them out. That will never work. Never,
ever, ever will that work. You cannot change false religion
from inside of us. You got to get out of it. Just
like John the Baptist did. Just like our Lord did, and just
like the apostles did. You got to get out of it. You
go preach Christ and let him draw his sheep to you. That's
the way of Jezebel. It's to be a deceiver. We don't
have to deceive somebody with the gospel. Just preach Christ. You don't have to deceive people
with it. The way of Jezebel is the way of man's religion. So
you can never call something a lie. You can't call a false
prophet false. You know, they say, well, that's
too offensive. You'll drive them away from us, you know. They
say, boy, you can't say somebody that believes free will works
religion is lost. I know the Bible says that, but
you can't say that to them. You know, you'll run them away.
And if you say that, you know what they'll throw up to you?
Judge not that you be not judged. Whatever anybody does, it's okay.
Don't judge them for it. Don't be such a bigot. That's
what they say. Don't be so closed minded. Well,
I know that's what politically correct man says. But that's
not what God says. We say what God says. God help
us to believe what God says. And to compromise in those areas.
You know what that is? It's spiritual adultery. And
you know where that leads? It leads to physical open adultery,
open fornication and all manner of sin. Why wouldn't it? I mean, if you say compromise
is OK, you say, you know, compromising with the sin is OK. Then why
not do it? It's just the logical end of
that compromise theology. And apparently that's what was
happening in Thyatira, because look what the Lord says in verse
21. And I gave her space to repent
of her fornication. and she repented not. Now this
is the Lord's goodness. Oh, how good he is. Anybody that
winds up in hell can never blame God for it. God says, I gave
that wicked woman who hated me, who hated my prophet, who hated
my people, I gave her space to repent. You know, I wouldn't
have done that. I wouldn't have. Thank God he's
not like me. Jay and I were watching a television
show this week. It was a show about the president
of the United States. And the president had this enemy.
And the president finally got that enemy right where he wanted
him. Let him go. Just let it go. And
I told Jay, oh, that was messed up. If I was the president, I
would have destroyed that guy. I mean, he couldn't have got
elected dog catcher in Greenham County if I was the president.
She just looked at me, she said, well, it's a good thing you're
not the president. And that's true, I don't know. But I tell
you what is true. It's a good thing I'm not God.
It's a good thing he's not like me. The Lord gave this woman
space to repent. And he wasn't just saying that,
you know, he really did give Jezebel space to repent. And
if she would have repented, he wouldn't have killed her. You
look at 1 Kings chapter 21, I'll show you that. He gave her space
to repent, and if she would have, he would have spared her. So
she got nobody to blame but her own self. 1 Kings chapter 21, verse 19, here
the prophet comes and Elijah, he comes to tell Ahab and Jezebel
what's gonna happen to them. What's the Lord said here? 1
Kings 21, verse 19. And thou shalt speak unto him,
saying, Thus saith the Lord. Hast thou killed and also taken
possessions? You've killed this man Naboth,
and taken his garden. And thou shalt speak unto him,
saying, Thus saith the Lord. In the place where the dogs lick
the blood of Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine. You're going to be killed here,
and the dogs are going to lick your blood too. Now look over at verse
25. Here's Ahab's reaction to the
Lord's message to him. But there was none like unto
Ahab, which did sell himself to the work of wickedness in
the sight of the Lord. I mean, he didn't just do it. He sold
himself out to work wickedness in the sight of the Lord, whom
Jezebel, his wife, stirred up. She was, you know, trying to
manipulate him into doing this stuff. And he just did it because
he was such a wicked, wicked man. And he did very abominably
in following idols, according to all things, as did the Amorites,
which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. Now that's
who this man is. And it came to pass when Ahab
heard those words, that he rent his clothes and put sackcloth
upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth. And he went
softly, he went humbly. And the word of the Lord came
unto Elijah the Tishbite saying, seest thou how Ahab humbleth
himself before me? Because he humbleth himself before
me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his son's
days, Well, I bring the evil upon his house. The Lord spared
that wicked man Ahab because he repented. And if Jezebel had
repented, he'd have spared her too. But she wouldn't do it. The Lord will spare anyone who
repents and comes to Him seeking for mercy. That's what that story
is teaching us. Anybody, I don't care who they
are, I don't care how wicked that they've been, anybody who
repents of their sin and turns to Christ, the Lord has mercy
on them, He'll spare them. That's what He commands us to
do. We're commanded, repent of your sin and trust Christ. Then
He's going to accept us when we do what He commands. But if
not, look back in our text, Revelation 2 verse 22. If we don't repent,
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 I'll kill her children with death, and all the churches shall
know that I am he which searches the reins and hearts, and I will
give unto every one of you according to your works." The Lord says,
this is how I'm going to deal with her, she doesn't repent.
I'm going to cast her, I'm going to kill her in the very bed she's
made. She made her bed. and now she's gonna lie in it.
And I'm gonna do the same thing to everybody who follows her
wicked way. I'll give them exactly what they
deserve. Exactly what they deserve. Now
that's the end of Jezebel. That's the end of people who
go, who would be called by the name of Jezebel today, these
false prophets. Don't compromise with them. Why
would you? You don't have to worry about
them. The Lord's gonna take care of them. Want me to tell you what happened
to Jezebel? Sometime later, after Ahab had died, you know how Jezebel
died? She was up in a tower. She was
trying to hide out, you know, and she had, I think, six eunuchs,
six servants up there with her, and they threw out the window.
She died. Well, a man named Jehu was there.
Jehu was cleaning house in Israel, and he saw her get thrown out
of that window and died. And you know what he did? He
went to that tower and called those servants and said, let's
have us a meal. Let's sit down and eat. It was kind of a celebration. Jezebel's dead. And then as they
were eating, he said, you know what? He said, we ought to at
least bury her. She's the king's daughter after
all. We ought to at least bury her. So the servants went out
to bury her. They came back to Jehu and they
said, no point in burying her. All that's left of Jezebel is
her skull and the palms of her hand. The dogs have eaten everything
else. That's the end of Jezebel. And
that's the eternal end of Jezebel. That's the eternal end of everybody
who follows the religious ways of Jezebel. That's the end of
everybody who follows the religious methods of this world who hates
God. Thank God that's not the end
of this letter. That is not the end of God's people. That's what
we deserve by nature, but that's not the end of God's people.
because Christ has saved them, and he'll sustain them to the
end. Look at verse 24. But unto you I say, and unto
the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and
which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will
put upon you none other burden. Now the Lord here, he's calling
on his people who never did compromise with the world's religion. I
want you to notice what the Lord calls the way of man's religion. He calls it the depths of Satan. Now, that's how wicked man's
religion is. It's not that they've got some
good things. What they say is the depths of Satan. And Lord
says these people who have come through great tribulation because
they wouldn't compromise. He said, I'm not going to lay
any of my wrath on you because it's already all been poured
out on Christ, your substitute at Calvary. The only burden that
you're going to have to bear is the burden of putting up with
this world and not compromising with it as long as I leave you
in it. And I'm going to be the one to give you the strength
to endure, to not compromise. All you're required to do is
be faithful. Hold fast to the gospel, verse
25. But that which you have already, you hold it fast. Hold it fast
or I come. And this is the Lord's promise
when he comes, what he'll give his people, verse 26. He that overcometh, that keepeth
my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. As the vessels of a
potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of
my father. Now, the Lord says those who
are saved, those who overcome, are people that keep my works. Now, earlier in the letter, he
commended them for their work, didn't he? But they're not trusting
their works. Those who overcome are those
who keep my works. What is it to keep the works
of Christ? It's to believe. It's to rest in. That's how we
overcome, the Apostle John said, by faith. By faith in Christ
who already finished the work. And he talks here about giving
them power to rule and judge and things. I don't think that
any of God's people, any believers are going to rule over or the
wicked or judge the wicked in that day of judgment. All judgments
given to the son. Christ is the judge, not us.
But the believer will be with him, will be with him physically
and will be with him in this way, will be with him in agreement,
will agree with every verdict. But we're not going to judge
any man. That just doesn't make any sense. All judgments given
to the son and none of the wicked are answerable to us anyway.
They're not our servants, they're His servants. He'll be the one
to judge them. But this is what the Lord will
give His people. The Lord will give His people Himself. He'll give them everything that
He is, verse 28. And I will give Him the morning star. Christ
is the bright and morning star. There's something wrong if you
want to judge somebody in the day of judgment, you want to
rule over them, and you don't have much interest in being given
Christ. the morning star. This is the blessing. Christ
is going to give his people everything that he is. He's the bright and
morning star. He's going to give his people
the glory of his life. He's going to give his people
the glory of his righteousness and his holiness. He's going
to give his people the glory of his presence. What a promise. What a gift. I desire that. more than anything in this world. Then Wayne, I'm going to compromise
with you. God is my helper. This is my
desire. So he says in verse 29, he that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
If Lord's given you an ear to hear, you hear that and you understand
his message. You're blessed because the Lord's
given you that ear. If he's given you that ear, he'll
give you the strength to not compromise with the way of man's
religion because we worship and serve God. I hope the Lord will
bless that too.