toward heresy and heretics? What's the proper attitude for
the honor of God, the good of his kingdom, and inconsistency
with the gospel of God's grace? How should we think about them?
How should we deal with them? Those are the questions that
I want to answer for you this evening from this passage in
Revelation 2 in our Lord's letter to the church at Thyatira. Thyatira,
you will remember, was the home of Lydia, whose heart the Lord
opened and called to receive the word of His grace. It was
a city of great commerce, like most of these cities that are
named in these letters to the seven churches of Asia Minor.
It was a city with many, many people passing through its streets
every day. Thyatira was a place of wealth and of power and of
influence. Now in that great place, as far
as the world is concerned, the trade unions, the guilds, were
very powerful. They were organized and very
well oiled. Wool workers, linen workers,
tailors, leather craftsmen, tanners, potters, all of them had their
various guilds, and each one being associated in business
one way or the other was also associated with pagan idolatry.
In fact, it was customary in those days in the Greek world
you know how wise the Greeks were. It was customary in that
Greek gentile society for every guild to have its guardian god. You wonder sometimes it's taught
in schools these days as though the idolatry of the of the Greeks
and the gentiles was just sort of like fables. It wasn't sort
of like fables, it was just base idolatry. You wonder where they
get all their ideas for their various gods. Each guild, each
segment of society had its own guardian god. The situation was
like this. If you wanted to get along and
get ahead in business, you had to belong to one of the unions,
one of the trade guilds. And if you belong to one of the
guilds, your membership implied that you worshipped its god.
You were expected to eat the food that was offered to those
gods at their pagan festivals, and that implied that you acknowledged
that you had received the food from the gods, so that this was
the problem, eating things offered to idols, when it was made to
be a religious thing. Now, if you went in the marketplace
and you bought something that was offered to idols, and bought
it in the, that which Paul describes as being sold in the shambles
without any religious tag to it, that's one thing. But to
conscientiously Receive in the presence of others that which
was offered to idols was to imply by receiving it I have received
this that I now eat from the God that it represents. After
the feast then base orgies began. These things were common in Gentile
society. You couldn't dare insult your
peers. by walking out of their festivities
no matter how degenerate they were. Our society has degenerated
to the same base level of Roman culture, to such a degree that
even in churches wearing the name of Christ, fornication and
adultery have become acceptable things. Now, I don't know of
anyone who stands up except in the very liberal churches and
says this is all right. But in most circumstances, in
most places, it's just winked at and folks pass it by as if
there's nothing to it. What could a believer do in such
circumstances? What should we do in such circumstances? If he quit his union, he'd lose
business. If he remained in the union and
attended the immoral festivities of the union, joining in the
idolatrous fornications of pagan worship, he would be denying
his Lord and sinning against his conscience. So God's saints
at Thyatira had these things to face every day. And you do
too. Every day. There was also in
the church at Thyatira a prophetess called Jezebel. She claimed to
have a solution to the problem. She reasoned this way. If you would conquer Satan, then
you must at least get to know him. After all, if you don't
know something about the things you oppose, how can you legitimately
oppose them? I've had folks many times write
to me and say, you ought to read this, read this book, read that
book, read this thing on theology, that thing on theology. After
all, if you don't read it, how do you know it's wrong? Because
I know what's right. I don't need to pollute that
man with what's wrong. The scriptures are very plain and very clear.
This prophetess Jezebel, she said you will never be able to
influence the idolaters and condemn them if you are never able to
influence them for good if you condemn them and refuse to have
anything to do with their religion. If you want to help them, you've
got to at least be a part of them. You've got to figure a
way to get along with them. You don't have to say that their
religion is everything about it's alright. But you certainly
can't condemn it. You don't have to deny Christ,
you don't have to deny the gospel of God's grace in order to get
along with these folks. Just simply accept the religion
of the idolaters, accept the religion of the various eels,
accept their gods as being acceptable forms of religion. After all,
who are we to condemn another man's religion? Who are you to
dare say that another man's God is no God at all? Who are you
to challenge the way anyone worships as long as he's sincere and his
religion does him good? Sound familiar? It's the kind
of nonsense we hear every day. By her cunning craftiness, This
whorish prophetess seduced many in the church at Thyatira and
persuaded them to commit fornication, not only spiritual or doctrinal
fornication, but literally to commit fornication in the name
of religious unity. That was the condition of the
church at Thyatira. Almost all of the old commentators,
almost all of them, that is all of the Protestant or Baptist
commentators, most of them, say that this letter has reference
to the rise of papacy and to the heretical immoral doctrines
and practices promoted by the Roman Church. Now I have no tolerance
for papacy, none whatsoever. I'm always ready to denounce
it as anti-Christ and I do so without hesitancy. Romanism is
idolatry. Romanism always promotes immorality. Find any place in history, find
any place in society to this day where Romanism is dominant,
and I'll show you a place where fornication, drunkenness, idolatry,
adultery, all things are just common practice. They're just
common practice. In fact, find any place where
man-centered religion is dominant, and I'll show you a place where
corruption reigns. And that's the problem with our
society today. Our society today is a society
of man-centered religion, and consequently corruption reigns. That's the teaching exactly of
Romans chapter 1. But it's a grave mistake, I think,
to limit this letter, or any of the other letters, to just
one particular system, or one particular person, or one particular
time. This letter is addressed to us.
in this day and age in which we live. It warns us of certain
dangers the church is sure to endure in this day. He that hath
an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the
churches. In this letter, our Lord warns
every local church, every pastor, and everyone who professes faith
in his name of the subtle damning influence of false religion. Now, I want you to get this.
I want you to understand this. If it seems harsh, if it seems
bigoted, if it seems divisive, I'm sorry for the appearance.
But I want you to understand this. All false religion is damning. It is damning to the souls of
men. All false religion. Please don't
ever come to me and talk to me about your children are mine,
your family are mine. Say, well, at least they're in
church somewhere. All false religion is damning. I'd rather my daughter
attend no place of worship than attend a place that calls itself
a house of God and teaches that which is contrary to the gospel
of God's grace. In fact, I would rather her be
under any influence than under the influence of false religion.
Nothing is more damning. Nothing is more destructive to
the souls of men. Here we are warned of the dangers
of the influence of false damning religion. Now here are several
things in the passage. First in verse 18. The letter
opens with our Lord making an assuring revelation of himself.
He who walks in the midst of the churches and holds the pastors
in his right hand, here describes himself as the son of God, who
hath his eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass. In times of trouble, in times
of danger, nothing is more assuring to God's saints than the comforting
knowledge of God's presence and the comforting knowledge that
he who is our Savior, he who lived for us, died for us, and
now sits on the throne of grace reigning for us, is himself God
Almighty. Sometimes we get to talking about
the politics of the age and the Things going on in the news media
and all the stuff around us. And we lose sight of this fact.
Bobby, our God's still in control. He's still in control. And the
darkness and the delusion of the age is not somehow a work
that is outside the realm of his dominion. The darkness and
the delusion of this age is darkness and delusion that God in judgment
has sent upon the day in which we live and the people who've
rejected the gospel of his grace. The Lord Jesus here speaks of
himself as the Son of God. He addresses himself to the angel
of the church at Thyatira. Now we've noticed this many times
and I'm going to keep hammering away at it. The angel of the
church was the messenger, God's messenger to his people at Thyatira. There was but one angel for each
church, one pastor, one messenger, one man upon whose shoulders
the responsibility of carrying the message of God to his people
rested in that place. So the angel of the church is
that man who by the faithful preaching of the gospel expounds
the Holy Scripture and establishes the saints of God in the faith
of the gospel so that they're no more tossed to and fro with
every wind of doctrine. That's Paul's doctrine in Ephesians
chapter 4. But turn with me, if you will, to Acts chapter
20. Hold your hands here in Revelation 2 and turn to Acts 20. I want
you to see this. Paul is now about to leave the
saints at Ephesus, and he has gathered together all the various
elders in the churches around Ephesus. And it says in verse
28, Acts chapter 20, verse 28. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves. and to all the flock of God,
over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed
the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood."
Now, here's the responsibility of every gospel preacher, everyone. It is to take the oversight of
God's church and to feed the church of God with knowledge
and with understanding. and feed the church of God with
this awareness, taking the oversight of God's church with this awareness.
It is Christ's church, which he purchased with his own blood,
and she exists in this world constantly under attack. Now
read the next verse. For I know this, that after my
departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing
the flock. also of your own selves, shall
men arise seeking perverse things to draw away disciples after
them." Our Lord here identifies himself then as the Son of God. In doing so, he calls for us
both to trust him and to obey him. He says he is himself God. That one who loved us and gave
himself for us is a man. A man touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. But this man is God Almighty. His name is the mighty God. His eyes are like a flame of
fire. Like a burning, piercing fire. Just a flame of fire. That means
this. His eyes are piercing and penetrating. So that all things are naked
and open to the eyes of him with whom we have to do Hebrews 4
13. The Lord Jesus knows all things. He has perfect insight
into all things and all people. He searches the hearts and knows
the motives of all actions. He tries the reins and knows
the principles of all people. You and me. The hypocrite and
the sincere believer. His feet are like fine brass.
This one who is God is a man who was tried and all things
he proved himself perfect so that he passes through the furnace
and his feet only were made to shine passing through the furnace.
He knows and judges all things with perfect wisdom. He rules
all things and acts with absolute strength and perfect steadiness.
His works of providence are all deliberate. irrepressible works. The works of a man who is God,
knowing all things by personal experience as well as divine
omniscience, he moves in one steady direction with absolute
purity and with absolutely no hindrance. Those two things ought
to encourage us. Oh, let us remain faithful and
loyal to Christ and the gospel of his grace. He knows all things. He has all power. You tell me
why we should fear anything or why we should be tempted ever
to compromise. He sits on the throne of glory. He walks in the midst of his
seven churches. He holds his angels in his right
hand and he knows all things and his feet are as fine brass. Nothing moves him, nothing deters
him, nothing hinders him. Now then, secondly, our Lord
in verse 19 displays an acknowledged regard for the faithfulness of
his people. It's promised in 1 Samuel 2 30,
him that honors me I will honor. And here our Lord begins to fulfill
that promise. I know thy works and charity
and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the
last to be more than the first. Now this commendation is not
given by a stranger. not given by one who is just
a casual observer. It's given, Bob, by him whose
eyes are the flaming fire. It's given by him who walks in
the midst of the golden candlesticks, walks in the midst of the seven
churches. Now, our Lord gives us here an
example of commendation. We must never be guilty of flattery. We must never honor the flesh
and promote pride. It's always However, proper to
recognize and commend faithfulness. To do so is simply to follow
the example of Christ himself. We should never neglect to commend
or show gratitude and appreciation for the good things people do
for Christ, his gospel, or for us. You young people would do
well to pay attention to this in the most practical outward
manner and most practical carnal manner. These days, thank you
is almost scarcely heard. People receive benefit from other
people. They receive gifts from people
and never acknowledge anything. Never acknowledge anything. Thank
you are two of the simplest, easiest words to speak in this
world. And man, they carry a lot of weight. And they're always
proper. Always proper. Always proper
to speak a word of commendation for any good thing done for you,
to you, with you, or for or to anybody else. Particularly in
the things of God. Particularly so. Well, we don't
want to puff up people's pride. We don't want to be guilty of
pampering the flesh. We don't want to be guilty of
seeming that we're just trying to rub folks the right way. That
pious pretense. hide behind spirituality as an
excuse for rudeness is abominable. It's abominable. We ought always
to be careful of people's feelings, to commend them, and to encourage
them. Commendation is always encouraging. Well, but it might
be taken the wrong way. Go ahead and risk it. Just go
ahead and risk it. Now these men and women, our
Lord here commends them for five things. The charity. He said, I know
your charity. By this shall all men know that
you're my disciples, that you have love one for another. He
read it just a little bit ago. Not by this shall you know that
you personally are my disciples. But by this, we know that we
pass from death into life because of the love we have for one another.
Believers do not look in themselves and say, now, boy, I love Rex
like I ought to. Maybe not perfectly, but I'm
really improving and therefore I have reason to believe I'm
born of God. If you have that attitude toward
your love, I'm afraid, I'm certain, you have absolutely no experience
of God's grace. But by this, I understand as
best one man can know another man. that that man sitting there,
because of his evident love for God's people, is born of God. You understand the difference?
These saints of Thyatira were people who loved each other,
loved God's people, loved the cause of Christ. Now love is
much more than a phony candy-coated smile. Love is a thoughtful regard
for and an active pursuit of another person's happiness and
well-being. Love is the commitment of one
person to another person's welfare, the commitment of one person
to another person's happiness, the commitment of one person
to another person's well-being. These saints at Thyatira were
also men and women of great service to the gospel. The Lord says,
I know thy service. No doubt they served one another
in many ways, but the word seems to have a particular reference
to the church's commitment to the gospel ministry. They were
a missionary church. They were committed to the furtherance
of the gospel. With great diligence, they sacrificed
money, time, and labor so that other people might hear the gospel
of God's grace. Like the Thessalonians, from
them sounded out the word of God. He commends them because
they take a concern in the kingdom of God beyond themselves. They
take a concern for the building of God's kingdom around the world.
And then he says, I know thy faith. The word is faithfulness. They were not lukewarm, half-hearted
religious professors, but faithful followers of Christ. And patient. I know thy patience. You see,
those who are most charitable and most diligent in the cause
of Christ, those who are most faithful in the things of God,
are most likely to be people tried and afflicted. But their
many trials only display their patience. Isn't that amazing? Trials don't change anything
as far as people are concerned. Any trial you or I go through
is not going to make us more or less believing, more or less
faithful. Any trial we go through is not
going to cause us to either believe God or not believe Him. No sir.
It will reveal what we are. That's what it does. I know your
patience. You've been tried and it proves
your patience. Patience. Patience. Tribulation
worketh patience. Nothing else does. Nothing else
does. And not with me. Tribulation
causes me to be irritable and unbearable. With God's people it works patience. Then our Lord says, and thy works. Why did he say this twice? Because
now in the first time he's talking about his works summed up, the
works of these believers. Now he's talking about their
continual works. He says, your works have steadily
grown. Your works steadily are increasing
in devotion. He said, I know thy works and
the last to be more than the first, so that their last works
were better and more numerous than the first. Others had left
their first love. Others had lost their first meal.
But not these folks at Thyatira. They grew as they grew old, wise. As they matured in years, they
matured in grace. As they declined in physical
strength, they grew in spiritual strength. Oh, God, teach me to
love my brethren, to serve the cause of Christ, to be faithful
to my God. to walk with patience before
God and me, and to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.
Now look at this alarming reproof in verse 20. Notwithstanding,
I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman
Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to
seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things
sacrificed to idols. This reproof is not so much directed
to the church itself as it is to the wicked seducers and deceivers
within the church. And yet the church itself was
at fault. How so? Because the church did
not reprove this Jezebel. The church was rather tolerant
and suffered this Jezebel. to teach her false religion.
After all, we don't want to disturb her. She's somebody's mother.
She's somebody's sister. She's somebody's wife. We can't
afford to say anything about her. There was within this church
a woman who claimed to be a prophetess. All women, let me say it lest
I forget to, and I want it to be heard everywhere this tape
is aired, all women who claim to be preachers, all women who
claim to be called of God to preach, are themselves deceived
and deceivers. God never called a woman to preach,
never. And those who do always preach
heresy. Have you ever observed that?
They always do. There are no exceptions. I've
never heard tales of a woman who claims to be a preacher who
preached free grace. Never in my life. They all preach
heresy. No one dared to assert the teachings
of Scripture and to reprove this abominable practice. But our
Lord called this woman Jezebel. He compares her to Ahab's wicked
wife because she encouraged the patronage of false religion and
kindness to false prophets. and the acceptance of idolatry.
She seduced God's people to engage in pagan festivities connected
with pagan idol worship, including fornication. And she did it all
in the name of God. She's so sweet. So nice. She comes in the name
of God and she says, now, now my friend, you know, I just want
what's best. You know this is the way to get
along. These other augers, they're so hard. Men can be so cruel,
so mean. Listen to me now. And so she
seeks to promote idolatry in the name of promoting the worship
of Christ. And people believed her. People believed her. They believed her. Folks who
knew better believed her. The church in Thyatira was to
be blamed in part for the spread of this wicked woman's heresy,
because they tolerated her, and they afforded her the opportunity
to proclaim her damning doctrines. They allowed a woman not only
to teach, but to preach, and they did so in direct opposition
to the Word of God. Now we won't look at them, but
if you want to read the Scriptures, and always interpret Scripture
by the plain statements of Scripture, here are the plain statements
of Scripture. The Lord God said, don't allow a woman to talk in
church. That's what he said. 1 Corinthians chapter 14, verses
34 and 35. In 1 Timothy 2, he said, don't
allow a woman to teach or usurp authority over man in any way
whatsoever. Don't do that. Because these
things are contrary to God's order in society. By allowing
her to spread her doctrine, by embracing her as a believer,
this church became partaker with her in her evil deeds. You remember
what our Lord tells us in 3 John? Is the man comes to your house
denying the doctrine of Christ? Don't you receive him into your
house and don't you bid him Godspeed. That is what that means, Mark.
Don't you encourage him in any way. Don't you put any stamp
of approval on him. Don't pray for God's blessings
on him. Don't do it. Don't do it. You see, if we would
be faithful to the souls of men and faithful to the glory of
God, false religion and false prophets must be pointedly and
plainly exposed. And it must be done with utmost
clarity. Several years ago I had a visit
from a Campbellite preacher. Every now and then they come
by and load up with books and they want to prove that what
I'm teaching is wrong. And this Campbellite preacher
sat down And he said, I guess you won't mind me calling you
a Calvinist, will you? I said, not if you don't mind
me calling you a Campbellite. Then he said, well, I think there's
one thing we can both agree on. He said, there's no possibility
that we're both saved. I said, you're dead sure right.
We both agree on that. There's no possibility. A man
who preaches salvation by grace and a man who preaches salvation
by works, Can't both be saved. Can't both be talking for God.
Man who preaches salvation by God's will and man who preaches
salvation by free will can't both be saved. Can't both be
talking about God. Salvation is either altogether God's work
or altogether yours. And those who preach opposite
messages are not preaching the same thing. I don't know why
it takes a degree in nuclear physics for a fellow to figure
that out. Two men preaching exactly opposite
doctrines are not preaching the same thing. They're just not
doing it. God will destroy every false prophet and all who follow
them if they don't repent and receive the love of the truth.
That's what he says in verses 22 and 23. Now then, here's our responsibility,
verse 24. But I say unto you, and to the
rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which
have not known the depths of Satan as they speak." I love
that way he speaks. Our Lord speaks so plainly. People come along and want to
turn you away from the simplicity of Christ, and they say, let's
talk about deep things. Let's talk about deep things. Buddy,
the gospel of God's grace is the most profound mystery in
the universe. But it's set forth in utter simplicity in scriptures. In utter simplicity. And the
preaching of the gospel is a simple thing. It's just simply declaring
the truth. When a fellow starts telling you things in such language
that you can't understand them, these two things have got to
be true. He doesn't understand what he's
talking about, and he doesn't really want you to know what
he's talking about. That makes sense, doesn't it? He's not going
to lie until he's going to cover his tracks. But a man preaching
truth doesn't proclaim the depth of Satan, but rather the simplicity
of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus here speaks to
us and says in verse 25, that which you have already, hold
fast. Hold fast. That means this. Hold fast that form of sound
words that was delivered to you. Hold fast the gospel of God's
free grace tenaciously. Hold to the things of God revealed
in scripture regardless of who or how many deny them. Hold fast
to Christ and the gospel of God's grace in him. And here's your
reward. He says, I'll give you the morning
star. I'll give you myself and all
that I am. And when this thing's over, you'll
sit in judgment over my enemies and yours. Don't be worried about what this
world does. A fellow wrote to me today. He said, can you show
me some of the ancient church fathers who wrote commentaries
bringing what you teach? I wrote him back as kindly as
I could. And I said, well, I could show you a few. But I don't base
my faith on what the preponderance of evidence is. We don't base
our doctrine on what most people believe. Not at any time in society. Well, where's your authority?
Is that enough? Is that enough? That's enough. And anything in addition to it
is corruption of it. Anything. Thus saith the word
of the Lord. Amen. All right, let's stand
together and sing another hymn. I'd like for us to sing number
256. I think it'd be a good hymn for us to sing. Number 256. Fade,
fade, each earthly joy. I got that wrong. Where is it?
What is it? 266. Yeah, 266. Fade, fade, each earthly
joy. Jesus is mine. Let's stand together.