Truth Mixed With Error Becomes Error

Transcript

GR 1990
Truth Mixed with Error Becomes Error
01/29/2017
Revelation 2:20-29
Gil Rugh

We’re studying the book of Revelation together. We are in chapter two so if you’d turn there in your bibles, Revelation chapter two. Just a reminder of the flow of the book of Revelation. We start out in chapter one with a vision of the resurrected glorified Christ, the One who has accomplished redemption for lost fallen sinners and on the basis of His redemptive work. The church was established in Acts chapter two. In chapters two and three of Revelation Jesus Christ, the head of the church, is addressing seven individual churches in the region of Asia Minor. These churches are selected as representative: each of these are historical churches in existence at the time but they are selected so that the churches down through history can have the message from Him regarding what pleases Him, what displeases Him, to be encouraged and to be challenged. We live in the church age. We live in the days of the seven churches of chapters two and three, not that we are these historic churches but the message to these churches. As each of these letters conclude, he who has an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Each individual church is addressed but these messages are messages to all the churches that we might learn.

At the conclusion of the church age the church will be removed from the earth. In chapters four and five we have the heavenly scene and we’ll see the church in heaven. Then we will return to earth in chapter 19 and in chapters 6 to 19, we have what is known as the seven year Tribulation. God’s wrath poured out on an unbelieving world climaxing in chapter 19 with Christ’s return at Armageddon. Then we will have chapter 20, the establishing of the kingdom, the first phase of that kingdom being the thousand-year reign after which all unbelievers will be resurrected and judged at the Great White Throne judgment. Then with chapters 21 and 22, we’ll move into the eternal phase of the kingdom, which is of great interest in what it reveals and what we will be doing in eternity. So, the overall flow of the book of Revelation is rather simple.

Revelation is crucial because it, more than any other book, puts things in order regarding future things. Our present time is chapters two and three. Then we move to heaven where the church will be following the church age and then the sequence of events that will take place during the tribulation period climaxing with the return of Christ. So you get prophetic events, many of which have been revealed in places in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament but Revelation puts them in order for us. The letters to the churches are of particular importance to us because we are a church and so what is said here is something that we are challenged and encouraged to pay special attention to.

We’re looking at the church at Thyatira in the city of Thyatira. We talked about that in our previous studies since we’ve looked at the first portion of this letter. It’s a city noted for its trade guilds. They would be like our unions. If you had a trade, you belonged to a guild like people today, if they belong to a trade or they might belong to the electrical union or something like that. Now the challenge was in each of these trade guilds they had their own god or goddess so when they would have their meeting together they would have food that would be first offered to this god and then to distribute it and as you partook of that you were acknowledging that you received it from this god. Obviously this will put great pressure on believers because this is part of my making a living, part of functioning in this world but what do I do if it draws me into a recognition of an idol and partaking of food, which I acknowledge, comes from that idol, knowing better? So some of that’s behind what is involved in this message to the church at Thyatira. It is a very good church. It’s a strong church. It’s a growing church. Christ appears to the church as the Son of God. He has eyes like a flame of fire, feet like burnished bronze. Now, it’s a good church. we might even call it a great church in many ways but He appears as a Judge, the Son of God that recognizes Him not only as Deity but also as Messiah. We’ll see that when we get to the end of this letter and then the eyes like a flame of fire, feet like burnished bronze, symbols of judgment and there is judgment exercised in each of these churches and this church particularly is going to come under judgment, believer and unbeliever in the church.

He begins by commending them in verse 19 and we noted they are being commended for four things. I know your deeds, your love, faith, service and perseverance. He commends them for their works. Your works of late are greater than at first. They are a growing church. Remember when we studied the first letter, the church at Ephesus, they had declined in their first love. Here this church has increased not only in its love but in the other areas as well, manifest in the things that they do. That word-translated ‘deeds’ is simply the word ‘works’ and as we’ll see, again they have a crucial place in the judgment that’s going to be exercised. We are not saved by works but we will be judged by works. We’ll talk about that as we move along but there’s a problem in this church and this is where we were focusing when we left off.

“I have this against you.” You’d think after verse 19 boy a growing strong church but I have this against you. “You tolerate the woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess and she teaches and leads My slaves astray so they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.” I sometimes wonder what is true of many in this church in verse 19 and then you can have also in this church the ones described in verse 20 so it is an unacceptable mixture. Christ has this against this church; they tolerate. Not everybody in this church is involved in the error and sin of this false prophetess but the church is held accountable for tolerating it. Everybody always wants to be tolerant but there are certain things we must not tolerate.

Jezebel carries us back to the Old Testament and we went back there. It doesn’t mean this woman’s name is Jezebel but she’s connected in her teaching and practices with the infamous Jezebel of the Old Testament. We went back and looked at Jezebel beginning in 1 Kings chapter 16. That was during the days and ministry of the prophet Elijah. He is the opponent of this evil queen Jezebel whose husband Ahab is the king of the Northern Kingdom Israel. She will meet her end as we saw in our previous study in 2 Kings chapter 9 in a very gruesome way that fulfills the prophecy of Elijah repeated by Elisha who succeeded Elijah in 2 Kings chapter 9. She was infamous for the corruption she brought into the nation Israel when Ahab the King of Israel took her to be his wife. She was a worshipper of the god Baal and she made it her goal to destroy all the true prophets in Israel and establish the worship of this false god for the nation so she’s doing this from within. She’s the wife of the King of Israel and yet she has this as her goal. So now, this church has been infiltrated with a woman who is promoting the same kind of evil doctrine and practice as Jezebel did in the Old Testament.

We noted the devil, basically, always works the same pattern. Some of the details vary but he attacks God’s people from without and he attacks them from within. Often it’s the attacks from within that cause the greatest damage. This woman called herself a prophetess. She teaches in the middle of verse 20 and “leads My bond-servants.” That word bond-servants is the translation of the Greek word for a slave, a doulos. So it seems that she and her teaching have been effective in even confusing believers in the church and getting them involved in both the religious and the moral areas of her teaching so that they commit acts of immorality and they eat things sacrificed to idols. This kind of teaching is a constant problem in New Testament churches. We were talking about this and we wondered how did this prophetess get away with this? I mean we would never do that. Sometimes the concern is we not read these letters written to the specific churches but the content was for the benefit and learning of all the churches right down to our church. The one thing we do learn as Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes at the end of the ninth chapter; “one sinner destroys much good.” Here you have Jezebel the prophetess and there are many good things in this church but the influence of one sinner can cause great damage and bring the judgment of God on the church. So that’s what He’s talking about here. My bond-servants, My slaves are even involved in immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

Paul had to deal with this in his letters to the Corinthians and we just find it in the other letters to the churches. We say, “what is going on?” We’ll were about 95 A.D. when the book of Revelation is being written by John. In the next century the second century A.D. we’re going to have a full-blown heresy develop that has great impact on the church that is called Gnosticism from the Greek word gnosis. In English, we don’t pronounce the first consonant when we have those two consonants together but in Greek, you do because Greek has no silent consonants. So gnosis is simply knowledge so the Gnostics or the Gnostics as we know them were those who claimed special knowledge and in this they made a distinction between the body and the spirit and this is a struggle it seems in the New Testament. Not that we have full-blown Gnosticism but this kind of error.

Well, what is really important to God is the condition of my heart, my spirit. My body is not that important, what you do with your body. These physical external things don’t matter and so we all know that an idol is nothing. An idol is a block of wood a piece of stone. Jeremiah mocked that in Jeremiah chapter 10. They can’t do anything good, they can’t do anything bad. A stone is a stone is a stone. A piece of wood is a piece of wood. You cut down a tree you put some of it in the fire to keep warm and you carve another piece of it to make your god. It’s nothing. So then, this is how people can get drawn in and sometimes you can do it with evangelistic purposes. How can we reach the world if we separate ourselves from the world? Is it better to be part of a trade guild and go and mix with these people so you can talk to them and witness to them or is it better to stand off and to be viewed as self-righteous? Well I could understand that.

Come back to 1 Corinthians chapter 8. Again just a reminder of how Paul had to deal with this kind of thinking in the church at Corinth and remember Paul’s been dead for over 25 years now but the problems that Satan infiltrates the church with don’t basically change. They’re dressed in a little bit of different clothes but they’re the same basic error. Chapter eight of 1 Corinthians and note the background here. This is a church that has trouble. They are a church commended in chapter one as we’ve looked at on other occasions but then he reminds them they’re functioning in many ways like unbelievers are functioning. He called them carnal, fleshly in chapter three and then you find in chapter five he’s dealing with immorality on a level and a scale that’s not even practiced by unbelievers; an incestuous relationship of a man with his step-mother in the churches, in the church here. It’s not dealt with. You have the immorality and you come to chapter six and he deals with these issues that ought not to characterize the church.

Come down to verse 15 of chapter six of 1 Corinthians. “Do you not know your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute?” He’s not just talking about maybe members that have fallen into immorality. These are members of the church at Corinth that make a practice of visiting prostitutes, which often are associated with false worship. Then you have the temple priestess’s and you bring the immorality in so he’s got to remind them of their condition. “Do you not know the one who joins himself to a prostitute is one . . .” with her . . . but you’re one spirit with the Lord? “Flee immorality . . . your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.” He talks about marriage in chapter seven. It’s a proper outlet for sexual desires.

Then you come to chapter eight and it begins . . . “Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge” . . . and a little bit of biting sarcasm here. I know because the Corinthians prided themselves in their knowledge but where did this knowledge lead them? Into thinking, they could be involved with idols and eat food sacrificed to idols, get involved in immorality and it didn’t really defile their spirit. “Knowledge makes arrogant, love edifies.” Verse four. “Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know there is no such thing as an idol in the world, there is no God but one.” You see the arguments that can be used to lure believers in. We recognize an idol is nothing and if you offer this hamburger to an idol and then give it to me, the hamburger hasn’t changed; it’s still a hamburger. And you know what that idol is nothing so basically you did nothing so give me my hamburger. So verse five “even if there are so called gods whether in heaven or on earth as indeed there are many gods and many lords yet for us there is but one God” and He is the sovereign God, the Creator of all and so on.

So we all know that, all believers. They recognize that so you Corinthians don’t think you have some kind of wisdom beyond what the rest of us believers have but there’s a problem and part of the problem is weaker Christians. Then we move through some of the principles you have to take into consideration when you have more knowledge than another Christian does. You have to be careful in this area so that you don’t, verse 11; “use your knowledge to ruin a weaker less mature brother” in Christ and lead him into things, which he is not prepared to deal with. So Paul talks about how we use our freedom; liberty.

Then you come on over to chapter 10 and he reminds them of what happened to Israel in the Old Testament, verse five with most of Israel. “With most of them God was not well pleased; they were laid low in the wilderness” and you’ll remember everyone over 20 years of age died in the wilderness. To say God was not pleased with them is almost an understatement. Now these things happened as examples for us not just history. They are recorded there for our benefit he says, he’s telling the church at Corinth this, that we should not crave evil things as they did. Verse eight. “Nor let us act immorally as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor try the Lord as some of them did and were destroyed . . . Nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed. Now these things happened to them” verse 11 “as an example written for our instruction.” Verse 12. “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”

This is a danger that pride, that self-confidence, that arrogance of knowledge. I know all about idols, I know the distinction and I worship God in my spirit, my heart, my mind and that physical idol is a piece of stone, a piece of wood. So the things sacrificed to idols and whether I’m there eating what they sacrificed, in my heart I know it’s nothing and pretty soon this leads me to….. well you know God’s concerned with the heart. “Man looks on the outward appearance God looks at the heart” so don’t make a big issue over what you do with your physical body. That’s moving you away from true grace and understanding. It’s what the condition of your heart is that matters to God. So you see the kind of thing that Paul has to deal with, with the Corinthians; could you be involved in idol worship, eating the food sacrificed to idols, can you commit immorality?

Why do you have to address that it ought to be obvious but the devil brings in teaching. It seems well, yeah, I don’t want to be legalistic, I do believe in grace and I know idols are nothing so maybe they have a point. And so the devil filters his teaching down in often using his followers disguised as believers and that’s what Paul has to deal with when he closes his second letter to the Corinthians. The devil masquerades as an angel of light, his servants masquerade as angels of light and the church at Corinth was beginning to listen more to the servants of the devil disguised as believers than they were listening to the true believers who were giving the word of God. So he comes down to verse 19. “What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything?” No, that’s not it. “I say that the things, which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.” So you’re right as far as you go. You know the heresies and error that infiltrate the church all have elements of truth woven in. What’s the truth here? That an idol is nothing. You’re right, it was a piece of stone when they carved it and it’s still just a piece of stone or a piece of wood, whatever but there are spiritual issues involved with that physical idol and those who worship that idol are worshipping spirit beings; the devil and his demons. I do not want you to become sharers, that word koinonia, fellow shippers, in fellowship with demons. You can’t drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You can’t partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons or are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealously?

Lord, I belong to You but I’m going to dabble over here. The picture of being wedded to the Lord and trying to provoke Him to jealously, that’s not a very good thing to do. We’re not stronger than the Lord is, are we? So you see where this has come. Now we belabor this because I fear that sometimes we read these letters like the letter to the church at Thyatira and we say well I can’t even fathom that a church would tolerate somebody promoting eating things sacrificed to a false god. I can’t imagine why they would promote immorality but it is being taught and some things don’t change, the devil comes in, he takes a piece of truth, mixes it with error and brings confusion.

So come back to Revelation chapter two. Jezebel, she calls herself a prophetess, claimed to have revelation from God, she teaches grace. This is what we see. Back up to just before Revelation to the book of Jude; that little one chapter book. What did he have to write about verse four? “Certain persons have crept in unnoticed.” They’re infiltrated among believers and they’re not noticed; it’s not recognized they’re unbelievers. There are “those who were beforehand marked out for this condemnation.” They’re ungodly persons but they’re not recognized by believers in the church for what they are. They turn “the grace of our God into licentiousness.”

So we’re not just talking about a believer who stumbled and sinned. We’re talking about these unbelievers who are promoting grace as a reason to sin. As we’ve looked at Romans 6, Paul has to ask the question, “Shall we continue in sin that grace might abound?” Again, “may it never be!” Megenoito, such a thought is inconceivable. They deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ and then he gives the examples of how the devil always is at work infiltrating among the people of God to bring corruption, division immorality, false doctrine. You say well you know nothing has changed. We can go back to the Old Testament to Jezebel, to the Old Testament to Balaam, which He did with the church at Pergamum and yet now we have 2,000 years of history and the complete word of God and yet the church continues to have to deal with such issues. We listen to lies of the devil, who is the father of lies, so the battle goes on.

Come back to Revelation. The impact is she teaches and leads. This is not just a woman who sins in the church. This is a woman who is teaching, claiming to have revelation from God and she teaches and leads My slaves astray, and they commit immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. Now He’s rebuking the church for tolerating that teaching but now as we’ve talked about, we’ve gotten into a level here and sometimes the church gets confused on this. How do you sort out believer from an unbeliever? Because now Christ has said, so she teaches and leads My slaves astray. So then here, now, it starts out with the devil promoting a lie through his servants disguised as believers that begins to infiltrate and affect others who are true believers and pretty soon they’re doing some of the things unbelievers do and now we’ve got this mixture and who’s the believer and who’s the unbeliever? And so the church gets to….look, we just have room for differences.

No, the truth is the truth and error is error, so what does Christ say? I gave her time to repent. How gracious Christ is. He’s the Lord of the church. He’s the head of the church. You’d think by now He would have come down on this church. “I gave her time to repent . . .” now how gracious He is . . . “she does not want to repent of her immorality.” There’s the issue. She doesn’t have the desire to repent. There’s no interest in repenting so this is where this woman is, she has no interest in changing. She doesn’t want to repent of her immorality. That would be her spiritual immorality and her mortal immorality. Sometimes difficult to sort out because it is unfaithfulness to Christ. What’s involved here as well is the physical immorality. They get all woven together and she’s promoting it and teaching it.

She doesn’t want to repent so here judgment is coming on her. The bronze feet pictures something of the seriousness and finality of the judgment that will come on the unbeliever. The searching eyes more that refining judgment of the believer. We’ll see these feet crushing the enemies of the Lord at Armageddon in chapter 19. “Behold I will throw her on a bed of sickness” . . . then He picks up that picture of the bed. The picture of the immorality and the unfaithfulness to God. I’ll throw her in a bed but it’ll be a bed of sickness and destruction . . . “and those who commit adultery with her into the great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.” So there is going to be a sifting out here and judgment will come and this church and those in it promoting this and involved in this are now exposed to judgment but He still gives them a chance to repent. It’s not too late. He says unless they repent of her deeds so He recognized that some have been led astray by the teaching of this prophetess. They have the time to repent. If you don’t repent, it indicates that you have never belonged to Him.

He’s going to throw them into great tribulation. That becomes almost a technical term for where we’re going in Revelation chapters 6 to 19 and it’s going to be true with the promised blessing for believers at the end of each letter so here in this letter He carries it to the ultimate future wrath that will be poured out. Unbelievers in the church will go into the Tribulation following the Rapture. So when the Rapture of the church occurs in this church every believer will be removed. The rest who are left will go into the great tribulation so He is going to throw them into great tribulation and there will be judgment come into the context of this local church but that’s just a preview of where it’s going.

As often happens with Israel as God prophesied judgment on the Northern Kingdom then the Southern Kingdom and judgment came in the form of Assyrians and Babylonians and so on. But in that context there is that anticipation of that ultimate judgment that will come upon Israel, which will result in their finally turning to the Lord, which we will see as we move through the book of Revelation. Turn over to chapter seven of Revelation. We’ll be in that great tribulation that period of time and in verse 14 of chapter seven. “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation” . . . so when we move into that period of time following the Rapture of the church and those that are martyred there come out of the great tribulation. So it promises there are going to be some and then verse 23 back in chapter two. “I will kill her children with pestilence,” [with death] “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.” Time of judgment, death that was what the great tribulation will be and then all the churches are going recognize there was a sifting out.

That’s a reminder, in the churches down to our day there are believers and unbelievers and we don’t seriously consider enough how much of the trouble, the error, the false teaching, the false conduct is disseminated and encouraged by the unbelievers. Well I know them. They’re good people. You think when the devil disguises himself as an angel of light he is not capable of very good disguises? We talk about some people. You watch a program, a crime program or something and they’ll say this person was a master of disguises. How many people were fooled? He presented himself as someone who could help them, who could invest their money for them; well don’t under estimate the devil, don’t under estimate his servant when he decides he’s going to corrupt the people. We can look at Israel’s history and say I’d have never believed Balaam. I wouldn’t have, I’d stood against Jezebel and on we would go and then the church at Thyatira--we would never-never-ever be like that.

Remember why Paul warned the Corinthians; “let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” He’s telling the church at Corinth that. Don’t get over confident. Don’t think you’re above being deluded or deceived. We don’t have to be deluded or deceived but if we’re not very careful we don’t stay faithful to the Word, we will be deluded and deceived. In our own strength, we are no match for the devil. Our strength is the fact that greater is the One who is in us than the one who is in the world but when the devil lures us away from faithfulness to Christ we are in a world of hurt; the world of confusion.

What’s going to be the impact on the church at Thyatira when they decide to get rid of Jezebel and her followers and those who practice it? We’re going to have a church split. Now how far will it spread? How many will think we’re being too severe, we’re being too narrow? They claimed to believe grace. We may not agree on everything in practice but we can agree on God’s grace. Isn’t that enough? No! So then, the judgment when this comes about all the churches will know. These seven churches but remember this is for all the churches to listen to; Indian Hills will know that Christ is the One who searches the minds and hearts. Ah, see I told you, God was concerned about the heart and the mind but isn’t it interesting where the next statement is? “And I will give to each one of you according to your works, deeds.” It’s a word for works. Now wait a minute. I thought we were saved by grace through faith. Amen brother preach it. Forget this works stuff.

Back up to Ephesians chapter two. You know the devil of course he’s had millenniums to work on this and he has a wisdom beyond our human wisdom. He takes the pieces but he mixes them up. Ephesians chapter two verse eight. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one should boast.” Then why does Christ say He will give to us on the basis of our works? Because we have verse ten. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

If you get the pieces out-of-order, it won’t work. If you took my eyeballs and made them my feet it wouldn’t work. They have all the parts so you take grace, faith, and works. Some people say it’s by God’s grace through faith with works that results in salvation. That’s the average Protestant, Roman Catholic and the Galatian heresy. You’re cursed to hell if that’s what you believe and teach. What is the order? You are saved by grace through faith. It’s not anything you do, not of ourselves. It’s not a result of works but when we are saved, we are God’s workmanship. “If anyone be in Christ he is a new creation old things have passed away new things have come. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works and God prepared them beforehand so that we might walk in them.” They are not optional.

They are not a cause of our salvation but they are a necessary result of our salvation. Now we want to be careful because you get those pieces mixed and then the church is confused. Well they talk about grace and faith. Roman Catholic doctrine teaches that we are saved by grace through faith. We believe in Jesus Christ in His death, His resurrection but that alone won’t save you and anyone who says you’re saved by faith alone is anathema according to the Council of Trent, present Roman Catholic doctrine. I’m just using that as an example.

So you come back here to Revelation. He searches the minds and hearts and will give to each of you according to you’re works. Every judgment is on the basis of works in Scripture but no one is going to be saved on the basis of their works. We’ll talk more about that as we move to the judgment at the end of the book of Revelation. We are saved by God’s grace; that’s why we are trophies of His grace. We are saved by grace and if it’s by grace, it’s not by works. Our works are the result of our salvation. So I’ll search the mind and the heart that determines whether you truly belong to Him and then He will bring judgment on the basis of works and even we as believers will be rewarded on the basis of our works. It doesn’t bring about our salvation in any way but “if any man be in Christ he’s a new creation old things pass away, new things have come.” So the judgment on the basis of works and these works will manifest our true condition.

Come back to Matthew chapter 12 look at verse 33. This is during Christ’s earthly ministry but we’re undergoing a change in Matthew chapter 12 of the rejection of Christ being finalized. The offer of the kingdom is no longer open to the nation Israel. Their rejection of Christ is accepted as final but note what He says in verse 33. “Either make the tree good and its fruit good or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.” It is obvious you don’t have a, I don’t know some kind of fruitless tree in you’re back yard and go out and hang pears on it and say, “now I have a pear tree.” No, you have a thorn bush that somebody put pears on. That’s the point. You are trying to act like something you’re not. “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” That’s why Jesus could say in John 8, “You are of your father the devil.” Oh not us we’re very religious people, we descend from Abraham. He says you’re of your father the devil. How do I know? “He is a liar and the father of lies” and you’re a liar so that reveals who your father is. As 1 John says, “. . . the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious . . .” The children of God practice righteousness and the children of the devil practice sin.

That doesn’t mean we’re perfect. We are not. We stumble but the pattern of our life is different. If we were going to have a time of confession and I asked everybody in this auditorium who didn’t sin once this past week to stand the only ones standing would be liars; there’s no one, none of us. If I am going to say, we all have to confess, we sure wouldn’t start up here. We wouldn’t want to do that. We realize we stumble, we’re not….. but the pattern of our life is different. We can look at a Peter and he denied the Lord three times but we wouldn’t say that’s the pattern of Peter’s life. It didn’t mean he didn’t stumble again as Galatians 2 talks about. We’re talking about our lives are different, we’re changed and we are revealed, “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.” That’s why He says in verse 36, “. . . every careless word that people speak they will give an accounting for in the day of judgment. By your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.”

People drag this out and say, “see it’s your works.” You have to put it into context. The heart has to be changed. Only God can change a heart because we speak out of that which fills the heart. They think if they make their words nice enough, now I’m a good person. No, your words reveal what you are, you can’t cover that up. We’re justified, we’re declared righteous because in the overall scheme of things, yeah it is different. It doesn’t mean a Christian never loses his temper and says something he shouldn’t say but that’s not the pattern of life of a Christian and if we are Christians, we realize that’s not what should be true of me. If those kinds of things being characteristic of me then I have to stop and say on what basis do I say I have a new heart? I was made a new creature when all that ever comes out of my mouth are things that shouldn’t come out. All the things that I do are things that I shouldn’t do. So that’s the point.

Come back to Revelation. The Church will be judged, this church will be judged and people in the church will be judged. Important to see here we are at this stage of the church it’s already been infiltrated by unbelievers and some of these unbelievers have taken the grace of God and now teach it as licentiousness. Back up two pages into Jude, verse four. Again, “certain persons have crept in unnoticed.” They have people who are not recognized as unbelievers here to teach and corrupt the church. “Those who were long before marked out for this condemnation.” They have never been saved. They are “ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ” and then you have all this, examples of what went on through Old Testament history. You see, they’re not recognized. Jude says I have to write to warn you, contend earnestly for the faith. This is not a stumbling believer, these are ungodly people who now have put a twist on the grace of God to validate ungodly conduct. They turn the grace of our God into licentiousness. Grace means what? We’re not under Law, we’re not under rules. God is just looking at my heart so you can’t say what is acceptable in what I do in practice.

Back to Revelation. Pretty severe things! You say the church is in bad shape but then He says in verse 24. “But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira” the rest “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.” Evidently, in their teaching of grace and their teaching of how you become more knowledgeable and more effective you indulge in with the unbelievers. A number of years ago we had what was called life style evangelism and I don’t want to paint everybody who taught that and promoted that with the same brush but basically go to the bar have a drink with the unbeliever that enables you to relate to him and minister to him. What’s the criticism of fundamentalist? They are separatist. We’re not separated because we’re better, we are separated because God has set us apart for Himself.

Even the church at Corinth he writes to the saints, the holy ones, but they thought you indulge in these things. We know from experience and we are able to appreciate and understand these things in a way other people can’t, to know the deep things of Satan. I want to place no other burden on you, than those who haven’t gotten involved than the burden of what? Plant your feet, no tolerance for this kind of teaching in the church; period! That’s where we stand on error on that which is unbiblical and conduct which is unbiblical, that’s not acceptable. Are unbelievers welcome? Yes, we love them to come and hear the truth. They are not allowed to promote their error. We’re to encourage people in that practice but we understand some unbelievers come and they do practice an ungodly lifestyle. We recognize them as unbelievers who visit our congregation but were not trying to be fit with the world so the world, well they will like us, they’ll appreciate us, we’re just like them. We are not! Not because we’re better than they are, but because we have experienced the power of God’s grace that has enabled us to die to the old man and be raised a new man.

So the promise. We have to finish this we can’t have a third message on Thyatira. “Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.” So this isn’t to discourage the church and oh, boy we’ve failed we, no, I want to encourage you I don’t want to put another burden on you. You have to deal with that and then hold fast what you have; the things He has commended in verse 19. Then the promise. “He who overcomes, he who keeps My deeds until the end, to Him I will give authority over the nations; He shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I have also received authority from My Father;” . . . that’s from Psalms two. “You are My Son, today I have begotten You.”

That’s why we started out in verse 18. He writes as the Son of God and then these what? When Christ rules; the overcomer, who is he who overcomes but he who believes that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God as John writes in 1 John 5 and he who overcomes is he who keeps My deeds. See, it is a result. If we become partakers of the divine nature and then you can say, our conduct doesn’t change, I mean you might make a robot that’s very lifelike but that robot is not a true human being. He might say, “well he looks like a human being, moves just like a human being but it’s not a human being.” So the devil can dress up his people but that doesn’t make them children of God so He changes the heart and now our conduct is changed.

We will rule and reign. In the Millennium and we’ll see is a time of rule with a rod of iron. There won’t be unbelievers in that first phase of the kingdom, sin will be judged and we will be part of exercising that judgment with the full authority of Christ. That’s what He says. He’ll give “He who overcomes,” the believer and the true believer is evidenced in his work he’ll have authority over the nations. Who gets voted president, prime minister, whatever that’s nothing compared to where I’m going. I’m going to rule in a kingdom under the authority of Christ, you as believers are as well, and it will be a firm rule.

We’ll talk about that when we get to the kingdom and I will give him the morning star because we receive authority from Christ as He received from His Father. Who is the morning star? Revelation 22 verse 16. “I Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” So when He shines and rules, we will reign and rule with Him, Daniel chapter 12, we’ll shine as the stars in those opening verses of Daniel 12. “He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” There is no expectation that the unbeliever is going to hear unless the Spirit of God touches him in a special way but we had better listen.

Those who need to repent, this is your day of repentance. There’s a warning here that day will close, the day of opportunity will shut down. There will not be opportunity. Oh, I sat in church for years, heard sermons, and could repeat some of them. Did you ever believe in Jesus Christ and have your life changed forever or are you just conforming to what mom and dad taught you; just conforming to what’s acceptable practice in this group? You know yourself. You may fool yourself but you don’t have to fool yourself. It’s a time of repentance for the unbeliever. For us as a church are we functioning biblically? Do we allow Satan to get a hold? Do we listen to things we shouldn’t listen to, allow that to impact and shape our lives? We want to be a place that is characterized by love, faith, service, perseverance and deeds that are growing stronger.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your grace. How amazing it is Lord that it’s Your grace that has brought us to where we are. Lord but for that grace we would be the most wretched of sinners. We don’t know what sin would consume us, control us, lead us. Lord, you do examine our hearts. Attending this church, being involved in this church, does not save a person. Lord, I pray the Spirit will convict hearts. Lord where we as a church need to make adjustments may we be willing to adjust. May our desire above all things be to be pleasing to You in every way to serve You with every part of our being that You might be honored. We prays in Christ’s name. Amen.


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