Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.wartracebaptist.org/sermons/60691/revelation-218-29/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 2. We'll be finishing up the second chapter of the book of Revelation this morning. We will be in verses 18 through 29, Revelation chapter 2, verses 18 through 29.

[0:14] Last week, we did not have the opportunity to be in the book of Revelation. As many of you know, Brother Craig Davis, a missionary from International Mission Board who serves in the Asian regions, was with us last Sunday morning.

[0:26] I want to thank those who came and supported him. Also, the missions conference throughout the week, the prior week to that. We did not record that service, in case any of you are wondering, out of respect for Brother Craig because some of the things he shared with us were very sensitive to the region that he is in.

[0:45] He is not in a region that is very friendly to the gospel, so we did not want to endanger him at all. We didn't put anything on any kind of social media or online about his presence, but I had a great time of fellowship with him following and just a blessing to see how the Lord leads.

[1:00] He was sharing with me how blessed he was to be with us, so I just wanted to extend that to you guys. He said, you know, it was so reaffirming. He said, I've been to a lot of churches.

[1:10] He's from Kentucky. His home is in Kentucky, southern middle Kentucky, so a region not too different from this as far as church landscape goes. He said, you go into a lot of longstanding churches, and he said, usually they're small and dwindling and aging.

[1:25] He said, I was really pleased with the blend at the church at Wartrace and so supportive of the history of it, so I want to encourage you that, and the fact that our front row gets taken up.

[1:38] You know, that's encouraging to anybody. Now we've traded on dangerous ground because you've pushed the pastor's wife to the front row, so we're, she's going to get on to me for calling attention to that, but we're treading on dangerous ground.

[1:50] She's getting closer to me. She'll hold me in check a little bit more right here, but it is always good to be gathered together and see the Lord draw his people.

[2:00] But we are in Revelation chapter 2, verses 18 through 29. If you are physically able and desire to do this, I'm going to ask you to join with me as we stand together and we read the Word of God.

[2:11] Revelation chapter 2, starting on verse 18. We are reading through the letters of the seven churches as we're making our way through the book of Revelation, and we are this morning at the longest letter of any of the individual letters to the seven churches, which is the letter to the church at Thyatira.

[2:30] It says, To the angel of the church of Thyatira write, The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this, I know your deeds and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.

[2:47] But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads my bondservants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

[2:59] I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.

[3:13] And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

[3:24] But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan as they call them, I place no other burden on you.

[3:35] Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. He who overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from my Father.

[3:55] And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this day.

[4:07] God, we rejoice in the opportunity that you have given us this day to worship and to praise you through song. Lord, we rejoice with the privilege we have of opening up your word and worshiping you through it.

[4:19] I pray, Lord, as we have heard it and we have read it, Lord, that now our hearts and minds would be opened up to it. Lord, that it would search us out, that it would try us to our deepest parts.

[4:32] Lord, that it would help us to know ourselves, that we may know where we stand with you. And Lord, that it would draw us closer to you and to one another for your glory. And we ask it all in Christ's name.

[4:43] Amen. You may be seated. As we introduce the book of Revelations and we are beginning to make our way through it, we realize that when we looked at Revelation 1, it kind of gave us an overview of the entire book of Revelation.

[4:59] And we saw in Revelation chapter 1, Christ in heaven standing in the midst of and in control of his church on earth. And I told you that Revelations chapter 2 and 3 would be what the church on earth looks like.

[5:14] When Christ stands in the midst and in control of it. So we see in Revelation 1 a picture of heaven with Christ standing in the presence of his churches and in control of them.

[5:26] And then in Revelation 2 and 3, we see what it looks like when the church on earth is in the presence of and being controlled by the Christ which is in heaven. We have seen that the letter to the seven churches can be interpreted in a number of different ways, but the one in which we have looked at it because all interpretations really are just applications of the one truth that it contains.

[5:49] Any portion of Scripture has but one truth. Though it may have thousands of applications, it has but one truth. And we have looked at these letters to the seven churches as a whole.

[6:03] This is not just seven individual letters. Rather, these are a complete picture of what a complete faithful church looks like. Thus the number seven.

[6:14] And we have seen, as we're making our way through it, the seven characteristics of a healthy church. And we are now to the church at Thyatira. As I introduced this, as we began Revelation 2, I kind of gave you an outline of what they would be.

[6:30] And I told you that I thought that they would flow this way. And as is often the case, whatever I think, God normally changes. And as I wanted to go over the church at Thyatira, I wanted to say, or I wanted to look at the fact that the healthy church is a church of self-guarded purity.

[6:49] And while I genuinely believe that, I understand that purity only flows from one thing, so it takes us to really what this is. The church at Thyatira, I want you to see that it is a church of sincere doctrine.

[7:04] Because you cannot have purity unless you have right doctrine. Self-guarded purity is always an overflow of true and proper doctrine.

[7:16] Doctrine is an important issue in the church. It is an important issue throughout the churches in history. And when churches begin to depart from sincere or true doctrine, they begin to go down an impure or an idolatrous path, hence the church of Thyatira.

[7:34] But when churches stay true to doctrine, and they stay correct in that, and they stay true to what Christ has called them to be, then purity is no longer a struggle. Rather, it is an overflow of that doctrine.

[7:47] We don't use the word doctrine much anymore because it tends to scare us. It seems a little scholarly. It seems like it's above our head. But let us not do that. Let us understand that all doctrine is, is what the truth of Scripture proclaims.

[7:59] It is holding true to being what Christ tells us we are, as we should be, and it is very becoming of us to know those things. Because this, my friend, as you see, is what we are held accountable to.

[8:12] And we see at the church of Thyatira, that one of the characteristics of a healthy church would be, that it is a church of sincere or true doctrine.

[8:23] It believes the right things. And it lives out what it believes. Others have said it, and I always repeat it, that you need to know what you believe, and believe what you know.

[8:36] Instead of just saying, oh, I believe in Jesus, and that's great, because even the demons believe in Jesus and tremble. Or I believe that He is real, that's great. There's a lot of people around the world who believe that He is real, quote, unquote, but they do not have salvific faith in Him.

[8:52] We need to know what we believe, and we need to believe what we know. Therefore, we are operating upon convictions, and not on assumptions. That's a big difference.

[9:03] Because if I live my life according to assumption, you can change my assumption by telling me something that sounds better. But if I live my life according to conviction, no matter what you say, if it sounds right, and it doesn't match my convictions, I'm not doing it.

[9:18] Big difference. Conviction is that which moves us and shapes us. You can change a man's thoughts. You can change a man's assumptions. You can change a man's opinions. Ravi Zacharias said, but you cannot change a man's convictions without changing the man.

[9:33] Convictions are what the doctrines are that move the church. So we see here, the church at Thyatira, it is a church of sincere, or God is calling through Christ for the church to be a church of sincere doctrine.

[9:50] We see this played out in four rows throughout this letter. This is the longest letter to any of the seven churches. And it says here, it introduces, each church introduces a different aspect or a different trait of Christ.

[10:04] So the church of sincere doctrine understands, number one, the searching eye of Christ. The searching eye of Christ. Look at what the word says.

[10:15] And to the angel of the church at Thyatira, right, we always want to put things in context, right? So let's take the church at Thyatira in context so that we understand. Because until we understand the people he is addressing, we will not understand why he is addressing them in a certain way.

[10:31] Until we understand who he is writing to, we will not understand why he wrote the way he did. Thyatira is probably the least significant city of the seven churches. It is not that important.

[10:43] You say, well, surely it's important. It has to be important. It's in the word of God. Well, yeah, I mean, but by economic standpoint, by political standpoint, it's not like Pergamum, which had a stronghold of temple worship and a stronghold of even emperor worship.

[10:58] And it was not a major trade intersection like the church of Smyrna. It's none of these different places. Thyatira really is the least significant city in the list of seven. But you need to know that Thyatira was known, you should already know this because of portions in the book of Acts, Thyatira was known for its purple material, for dyeing material purple.

[11:21] And it was known for its fashioning of bronze, its bronze work. It was a city full of craftsmen. It was what you call a working class city. No higher levels of education here, no libraries full of books, no scholarly teaching.

[11:38] People didn't just stand around and talk about nothing. Rather, it was a class of working men and women who dyed material purple, fashioned bronze, but because it was full of working class individuals, it was also full of guilds, you know, those groups.

[11:53] The bronze workers had their groups. It would be like modern day trade unions, right? So the purple dyers had their guild and the bronze workers had their guild and you had all these different groups for all of this different work that took place.

[12:05] One thing that was rampant in Thyatira is that every trade guild or every union had its own idol and they worshipped their idol as a part of their guild.

[12:18] It was like paying your union dues, right? To be a part of this trade guild, you had to worship this idol and each one of the trade guilds as an act of worshipping that idol also practiced rampant immorality in the form of prostitution, which means not only were they idolatrous, they also prostituted themselves as a part of their union.

[12:44] That was everyday life in Thyatira. And this church at Thyatira is probably the least significant of the churches listed in the book of Revelation and it is to that church that Jesus has John pen the longest letter.

[13:03] Why? Because he is the Christ of an all-searching eye. And no matter where you are, no matter how insignificant you think you are, no matter how small the place you think you exist, he sees you and he knows you.

[13:21] Look at what he says. He says, And to the angel of the church at Thyatira, that is the pastor, says, write this, write, the Son of God. By the way, this is amazing. This is the only church that has Jesus introduced as the Son of God.

[13:37] This is the only one. The church at Thyatira, they see him as the Son of God. Why? Because they worshiped a whole bunch of sons of gods in pagan idolatrous worship.

[13:49] But he says, The Son of God, the true Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet are like burnished bronze, says this. So now all of a sudden we have the true Son of God who has the eyes like a flame of fire.

[14:03] This is not a compassionate, loving Jesus. This is one who sees all, understands all, and his eyes consume all. And he has the feet of burnished bronze. Bronze would mean something in Thyatira because it would mean something to that city that molded and shaped it and fashioned bronze.

[14:19] But bronze in Scripture is always representative of someone having absolute rule and authority. So Jesus introduces himself as the true Son of God who sees all and rules all and stands in the presence of all.

[14:33] And we're looking at the all-searching eye of Christ. Look at what he says. I know your deeds. Understand these things. I know your deeds and your love and faith and service and perseverance and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. This is good news.

[14:44] Jesus, when he corrects or rebukes the church, always starts with the things that he knows that are good. The church at Thyatira from the outside looking in looked good. Look at what Jesus says. I know your deeds.

[14:56] I know your love, your faith, your service, your perseverance, and you're doing more today than you did yesterday. I mean, your deeds are increasing. It's not like you're declining.

[15:07] The church at Pergamum lacked deeds. The church at Thyatira had deeds but they lacked devotion. We'll get to that in just a minute. He said, you're doing more than you have ever done.

[15:18] Looks good, right? This is a healthy church. The sad part is is that many of us in today's time will look at this church and say, that's a church I want to be a part of. I mean, man, they are persevering.

[15:29] They're reaching their community. They're doing things. They love one another. They're faithful. Look at this. Their faith, their love, their perseverance, their endurance, and the deeds, and they are doing more and more and more and more.

[15:44] What a great church. Wait just a minute. Jesus says, I know these, but this one thing I have against you.

[15:56] We'll get to that in just a minute. He says, I see past what everyone else sees. I see all the good things you're doing. I see all the works you're doing. I see all the effort you're putting forth.

[16:08] I see what it is you're professing. I see how it is that you're trying to live out your faith, but I also see this. I see this other parts of your life.

[16:21] Look at what the Word of God says. I mean, the judgment of Thyatira is stronger than any judgment of any other church. He says that, My bond servants have went astray. They commit acts of immorality.

[16:32] They eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent. We'll get all this in just a minute. She does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her in a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds.

[16:43] I will kill her children with pestilence and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. Just stop right there. There's this distinct, this distinction. I don't know if you caught it. Those who commit immorality with her will be judged.

[16:56] They will go through tribulation. Those who are her children, I will kill. You say, Well, that sounds like a loving Savior. He is. Because what he's saying is the one thing I do see is there are people in your midst who really aren't believers.

[17:09] I see people hanging out who are the children of Jezebel and not the children of God. There's a distinction between those committing immorality with her or adultery with her and those who are her children.

[17:22] He said, Those who are committing adultery with her are my children who are messing around. I'm going to put them through tribulation. I'm going to try them, test them, reprove them, rebuke them, and correct them. But those who aren't my children, I will annihilate them.

[17:35] I see that too. I see the false believers. Look at what he says. And all the churches will know. All the churches will know. This is what we need to know about Christ. All the churches will know. This ought to cause us to tremble.

[17:48] Okay? This ought to cause us to tremble. This ought to cause us to be like when Jonathan Edwards read his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, from that passage in the book of Hebrews that said that God is a judging God.

[18:01] He cannot judge Hebrews chapter 10. This ought to cause us to tremble. When Edwards read that sermon, people were gripping the back of the pews and they were screaming out and crying that the floor of the church was opening up and they could see the pits of hell.

[18:13] This is what started the Great Awakening in America, by the way. And they were just sitting there screaming out and saying, please stop, please stop. And he just kept reading his sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.

[18:24] And the church did exactly what they should do. They went through a series of revival and then they voted him out. They got him out of there, right? And he just went on and said, enough of that. We don't need you here. Those sermons are too harsh and too hard for us. But look, this ought to cause us to do the same thing.

[18:36] He says, I know, all the churches will know, that I am he who searches the minds and the hearts. Jesus says, I see everything you're doing. I see everything you're saying.

[18:47] I see the actions you take, but I also see your mind, which is why you're doing it, why you think you're doing it, what you're thinking about when you do it. And I see your heart, which is your motivation for doing it.

[18:58] I see your mind and your heart. And I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. Someone said that salvation in Scripture is always by faith. Judgment in Scripture is always according to deeds.

[19:09] You're saved by faith. Christ judges, yes, even the believer faces the judgment of Christ. We are always judged according to our deeds. That does not mean we lose our salvation.

[19:19] That just means we either have a reward or we have a loss entering into his presence eternally based upon the deeds we do. This is the all-searching eye of Christ. He says, I see why you're doing what you do.

[19:33] Talking about a church of sincere doctrine. And the first thing you need to understand is why do I need to be a church who knows the truth and lives the truth is because Jesus sees everything. Even why we do what we do.

[19:49] We can go out and do great humanitarian work and we can do it because it makes us feel good and guess what? That benefits us nothing in the kingdom of God. But we can go out and serve him when we don't feel like serving him and we can go out serving him when it doesn't feel good and we can go out serving him when we're wore out and we're tired but we're doing it out of a conviction being led by the spirit all of a sudden even when it's not fun even when it doesn't feel good all of a sudden we're storing up rewards in heaven because we're doing it out of obedience not out of feelings.

[20:20] See the difference? You can be side by side with someone doing the same thing. One has their reward on the earth other has their reward in heaven. Why? Because Jesus sees the mind and the hearts and that judgment is always based on what we do why we do it and how we do it.

[20:41] The searching eye of Christ. Number two the source of the church's problem. Let me go ahead and just say this listen to this whole point without being closed minded okay don't shut me off you say oh man every time you say that it's just going to get rough it is okay listen to me all the way through I'm just going to go ahead and put that up there some of you are going to put your pens down right now and you're going to listen and that's great and some of you are going to try to pick my words apart and that's great you can talk to me later but let's look at the source of their problem how did they get here well Jesus introduces us to the source of the problem please listen to all of my words okay listen to it now before I get into it how did the church at Thyatira come into existence anybody put that together real quick the first convert in the Asian province was a lady reached by Paul whose name was Lydia from the city of Thyatira who was a seller of purple lo and behold that makes sense doesn't it because Thyatira was known for its purple garment so evidently Lydia took the knowledge of salvation she had received from Paul and presumably took it back to Thyatira because Paul never went to Thyatira and therefore the church was started by a lady understand that from the very beginning okay let's not get bent out of shape just understand that she brought the good news back and the church was sprouted from this okay so now we read the passage that is the source of the problem but I have this against you that you tolerate the woman

[22:07] Jezebel I'm not going to say it yes I am too going to say it because it's so good one pastor said we name our kids David and we name our dogs Goliath we name our cats Jezebel some of you will figure that out later nothing wrong with that right have a mind of their own they kind of do things and I know some of you are cat lovers that's okay me and cats never got along a whole lot but I understand because they have their personality and I have mine and we don't see eye to eye a lot of times but he says anyway he says but this I have against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and she teaches and leads my bond servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols stay with me here here's the source of their problem they tolerated the woman Jezebel we don't know if Jezebel is her real name but we do know of a woman named Jezebel in the Old Testament who was the wife of Ahab who led the nation of Israel into idolatrous worship of Baal right it was Jezebel that Elijah went up on Mount Carmel and had to show down between the prophets of Baal and the people of God and it was Jezebel that he fled from and he called Ahab and it was Jezebel who had led the nation to do such acts of immorality to the point that Ahab wanted this field and the man didn't want to sell the field to Ahab so Jezebel said well just kill the man and take his field right it was also Jezebel who was thrown out of the top of a window and the dogs came and licked up her blood and we understand all these things through scripture but Jezebel doesn't necessarily have a great name throughout history so we don't know if this is really her name but this is how she is portrayed and what it says here is the problem is this here's the source of the problem stay with me on this you have allowed the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to lead and teach my people the problem is this the men had abandoned their role of leadership and how do I know that now there's nothing wrong in scripture with women taking place in church there is not even anything wrong according to scripture with women prophesying see the book of Acts there was a man who had virgin daughters who were all what prophetesses who prophesied that was Philip the evangelist his daughters were all prophetesses they prophesied but there is something wrong with a woman calling herself a prophet putting herself in a place of leadership and leading the bond servants of God astray she was leading and teaching now stay with me in this men had abdicated their rightful position of leadership and had succumbed to following the woman

[24:43] Jezebel who was a self-proclaimed prophet anytime someone stands up and says I am a prophet of God run away from them just being honest with you the reason why is because prophets are always vindicated they're never self-proclaimed you don't have to walk around with a billboard I seriously doubt Elijah walked around with a billboard telling everybody I'm a prophet no he just smacked some water to water party and he walked across and he went that man's a prophet right and that's how the things happened things happened that way vindicated his place but what we understand is that Jezebel all of a sudden by the way these acts of immorality some of them were probably sexual in nature some of them were fornication in nature but the immorality really is they were messing around with false doctrine and the false doctrine is this I'll get to it and clarify in just a minute they had allowed Jezebel to teach them and lead them in things that went astray to the true word and doctrine of God and we read nothing in this about men standing up and leading but who is he writing to to the angel to the pastor of the church you say oh boy you're being sexist now no because the word of God says that men are called to be pastors this is true talk right and we understand this and they're called to the place of leadership this is not this is not being minimalistic at all this is being truthful to what the word of God calls us to friend listen to me

[26:10] I'm going to stop some of you ladies are getting offended and I'm going to see if I can offend everyone and see if I can offend the men the problem was is that men weren't leading and the men had allowed a lady to lead and it probably started small and subtle and moved along and moved along and before you know it what she said people started listening people started paying attention it sounded good to them and it was easier to go along with it than it was to avoid it men listen to me for just a minute this breaks my heart to even have to say this but I'm going to say it a lot of times the question is how can the church affect society how can the church make society right how can we help what's going on in the world can we stand up to the world and we can tell the world what they need to fix well not really we can we can say that but a lot of people are holding up billboards and signs and telling the world what they need to do but the best way that a church can affect society is if they start as individuals getting right with their

[27:14] God and then they start as families getting right with their God and then the families move into the church and the church is right with their God and now all of a sudden you have a church in a community that is right with their God and it begins to overflow because the church begins to affect the community always goes back to the individual which means the male needs to know what he believes and why he believes it why do you start with the male remember what Craig Davis told us and I've said it over and over again if you reach children a small percentage of the families follow Christ if you reach the women about 40 something percentage of the families follow Christ if you reach the men somewhere around 95% of the families end up coming to Christ God has put men in a rightful place of leadership follow me with this okay you're not going to like it you're going to kind of rebuke against it you're going to kind of buck and fight because it places a lot of burden on you but that's okay you have the shoulders to take it God has given us this so men you get your heart right with Christ and your family will follow you I promise you your family will follow you they want to follow you they long to follow you oh you don't know my family yes I do because the word of

[28:16] God tells me all about your family I can read your mail because it's recorded right here in 66 books of the Bible so men you get right your families will follow you right all of a sudden now you have a church full of families that are right and then all of a sudden the church becomes right and you don't have this source of problem and next thing you know we may have men signing up on the sheet to keep junior church or nursery told you it would get offensive you know I thought about it discipleship is important very important discipleship is messy and it's very hard and one of the things I struggle with as a pastor is how are we going to disciple we need to start discipling I believe you start discipling children when they're young it's a whole lot easier to disciple a four-year-old than it is a 40-year-old four-year-olds don't bring as many problems with them plus you don't have to talk to them as long they only have about a two-second window and then you just go on right you just got to be present right but you know what we've done men and I say we we have abdicated all of our discipleship for our children to the women walk into any

[29:19] Sunday school class that contains our children go look at that junior church and nursery list and there are no men on it you say God God hasn't created me to be a woman I mean I don't have these motherly instincts no but you do have godly men instincts we want to know and I know this is getting harsh but stay with me you know why it is that when our children reach a certain age and all of a sudden they're not involved in junior church they come to big church all of a sudden they don't like big church it's because the first time in their church experience it is a man standing up in front of them not a lady and that's kind of harsh and you say well that that doesn't make a lot of sense go get some play-doh on you go play with some kids disciple those kids let them see a man that loves them and gets down beside them and men rise up and begin leading from the nursery up and you know what all of a sudden we don't have this problem it's Jesus who told his disciples you let those kids come to me I want them in my lap all nasty cheeto finger all over my kind of white robe that's okay why because the source of the problem in the church started men were absent and Jezebel found a void now number three told you that one would really get us number three that's the source of their problem number three we see the separation of sacred and secular what was their problem the separation of sacred and secular I introduced Thyatira to you and I told you that Thyatira was full of trade guilds right and I told you what those trade guilds did I told you how they practiced their guild how you had to go to idolatrous worship you had to take part in his acts of immorality well evidently Jezebel she sounds like a very wicked person what she probably taught if you studied the scripture and you really get into it is this okay you know what she wasn't necessarily a wicked person we want to don't make her out to be just absolutely wicked okay because when we hear this it's going to make a lot of sense to us she said this you know what church if we keep doing what we're doing we're going to lose money because we're all going to suffer economically the church at Pergamum was suffering physically they were dying for their faith the church at

[31:38] Thyatira was suffering economically because they had separated themselves from the trade guilds they had all of a sudden accepted Christ and if you accept Christ you can no longer take place in idolatrous worship and if you accept Christ then you're supposed to be pure so you can no longer take place in the immoral acts of fornication and prostitution so now all of a sudden you're separating yourselves from the trade guild it's like being a part of a strong union organization and not being in the union I know what that's like been there done that right I've been there I know how that feels and what you have here is everybody around them is doing this and all of a sudden they're not doing it but they're like so if you don't want to do what we do we're not doing business with you you die all the purple you won't you make all the bronze you won't you're not a part of our trade guild I'm not buying from you so evidently what Jezebel said is you know what guys we can worship God on Sunday but then Monday through Saturday we can live like the people of Thyatira we can have church in here on Sunday and it'd be glory hallelujah and then Monday we can go back out here and eat the things sacrifice the idols even though we know they've been sacrificed the idols we can go out here and practice acts of immorality why because it makes good business sense uh-oh this is where doctrine gets real because biblical doctrine does not only have application on

[33:05] Sundays it matters Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday and Jezebel came up with a compromise she said you know what I've got it hey we can be a more effective church and we can do more good if we have more money and a way to get more money is if we live like everyone else think of all the good we can do if everybody was buying your bronze or buying your purple or if everybody was buying your material go to the trade guilds live like they do act like they do do what they do so that you can do business with them bring it back here and we'll do good and surely God will bless us what does Jesus say I want nothing to do with that they separated the sacred from the secular that means they had their church life over here in their church family and then they had everyday life and everyday work over here friend listen to me there's no such thing in scripture there's no such thing

[34:18] Christ says he makes all things new oh you are dead you have become new it's no longer you who live but it's Christ who lives inside of you and the life that you live is not for your glories it's now for his glory you're not supposed to just live one day for Christ or two days for Christ or one and a half days for Christ and live the rest of the days for you God doesn't just want to tithe of your time he wants all of your time God does not want you know all this split arrangement God doesn't want that he wants full custody of you he wants all of you you say you don't know what my life would look like you don't know how much I would lose it doesn't matter you say pastor it does matter no it doesn't in light of eternity it does not matter I would rather lose it on earth and gain it in heaven as opposed to gain it on earth and be judged prior to entering heaven you say what do you mean I mean we cannot separate the sacred sacred from the secular we cannot compromise our faith to make it better and easier in the world we cannot be one way on Sunday and another way on

[35:43] Monday we just absolutely can't do it because Christ tells his church I'm about to judge you for doing it Jezebel was given time to repent she didn't want to repent it was making sense to her so Christ is okay so now I'm going to bring great tribulation on everyone committing adultery with it that doesn't mean they were actually doing the adulterous act that just means they were going along with her teaching it made good business sense to them they were going along with her suggestions and he said you're going to enter great tribulation this is what I have found people say I don't get it I love Christ I love God I go to church I attend church but still things seem to get harder and harder and harder and harder and harder and harder and I say well sometimes the Christian walk is hard and you say well there's no joy there's no peace there's no happiness there's none of these things yes sometimes there's tribulation but tribulation is never there just for the sake of being there maybe it's there because we're trying to separate the sacred from the secular maybe it's there because we want to have this part compartmentalized in this part compartmentalized and we want to jump in this box and praise him and then we want to jump in this box and work for the world and Christ says I'm not going to let that happen I'm going to make your life miserable so that you'll correct that and on the outside you may look good you may love him you may be persevering you may be pushing through you may be doing more deeds than you've ever done but deep down on the inside there's the stirring of your soul there's this moving of your bowels and deep down friend this is something I can't even say I've been through it I know what I mean deep down you know something's not right and you can't shake that feeling that's the tribulation of the soul that says cut out this separation now let's come to the good news the last thing because if we can push past all of that there is the shared position of authority there is the shared position of authority but I say to you because not everyone into church was doing this but I say to you the rest who are in thyatira who do not hold this teaching we have not known the deep things of Satan as they call them doesn't that phrase just mean make you want to go what in the world are they talking about the deep things of Satan because that was nobody really knows that's just one thing we're going to ask him when we get there right I place no other burden on you nevertheless what you have hold fast until I come so what he says those who have true doctrine those who have right practice those who love me and who have made all of their life sacred they have dedicated all life he said

[38:15] I'm not giving you anything else to do you just hold fast stay devoted stay committed why this is why he who overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until then to him I will give him authority over the nations and he shall rule them with the rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces as I have also received authority from my father by the way that I will give him authority over the nations and he shall rule them with the rod of iron as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces that should be in a different font type in your scriptures if not because that is a quotation found from the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament and is directly speaking to Christ and what he is saying is the rule that's been given me I'll share it with you would you rather let this world rule you and your actions throughout the week or would you rather be in a place of ruling this world I would rather rule the world right he said I'll let you rule the nations with me if you can stay steadfast and true I'll let you rule the nations with a rod of iron the way I'm gonna rule you'll sit on the throne with me that's good news by the way and he says and I would give him the morning star he's oh that's cool I get a star no the morning star is Jesus himself he said I'll give you more of myself this is what he says if you'll stay true to me if you'll keep your doctrine sincere if you'll give me your whole life no matter what the world takes away from you no matter how much you suffer no matter how much you're at loss financially physically or spiritually no matter how many things come against you if you'll stay true to me and you'll just hold on to me in the end you'll sit with me on the throne and you will get what you started with you came to me and I'll give you me you'll know me more than anyone else knows me I'll give you myself friend listen to me we can come to a place where we live and we gain a little bit of the world and we gain a little bit of Christ or we can come to the place where we live and we just forget about the world and we get all of Christ and I don't know about you but I would rather have he who created it all than everything he created story was told of a rich aristocrat who had many many possessions he had one son he had a number of slaves he in his will when it came time to die there was one particular slave he left every one of his possessions to every one of them he gave that slave everything he owned and in his will it stipulated that his son could choose one possession from among everything he owned and that would be his so the son stood up he said I'll take that slave because that slave owned everything and if he owned the slave he owned it too he said the only thing I want is the slave I want him to be with me and me with him so that his possessions are my possessions and we share those things friend listen to me Christ says if you'll forget everything in this world I'll give you myself and when you have me you have it all I read this morning first

[41:27]  Corinthians you have been given all things in Christ because you are his and he is yours and he belongs to the father therefore in Christ you possess all things so let's quit trying to separate the sacred from the secular and see how we can make it work out in this world because in Christ we already have it all though we may not be touching it all let's pray Lord I thank you so much for this day God I thank you for your love and concern I thank you for the way you even correct us oh God realizing that there are ways in my life that I fall so short God I need your rebuke I need your correction so I thank you for your word I pray Lord as we have heard it Lord that it would penetrate our hearts and minds it would penetrate our very depths of our being to show us who we are with you to draw us to a greater devotion to you that you may be glorified and honored and exalted in this world in which you've placed us to live and we ask it all in Christ's name amen daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy daddy