"18 “And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:
The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this:
We live in a culture where there is so much confusion over sexual identity. Sexuality, was once a term to describe the state of being sexual active or the act of engaging in sex. Sexual identity has has now replaced that term, and has been described as a part of an individual's identity, which reflects how someone lives and thinks according to the belief that their choices and behaviors determine who they are.
The reality is, that God created us male and female, He assigned our sex at conception, therefore, every cell in our body carries the genetic code of our sex. Chromosomes, hormones and reproductive organs are what determine our sex. Therefore, our sexual identity is who God created us to be. It is God’s will that each person appreciate and embrace who He created us to be. Regardless of our own feelings of confusion, the biological reality of God’s design is determined at birth. Any other view falls short of the glory of God.
Scripture clearly warns us about such godless reprobates. Isaiah 32:6-8 says "For a fool speaks nonsense, And his heart inclines toward wickedness: To practice ungodliness and to speak error against the LORD, To keep the hungry person unsatisfied And to withhold drink from the thirsty. As for a rogue, his weapons are evil; He devises wicked schemes to destroy the afflicted with slander, even though the needy one speaks what is right. But the noble man devises noble plans; And by noble plans he stands."
We are seeing pre-tribulation travail in the world, the world bears such evil in it, vile reprobates, that even the earth can no longer bear it any longer.
In Hosea 4:3, the prophet wrote "Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives in it languishes
Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky, And also the fish of the sea disappear."
As Christians, we are known to be opposed to per-marital sex, extramarital sex, and all forms of sexual immorality. It is Satan’s plan to pervert every good thing; and the perversion of the best inevitably leads to that which is worst. Under the influence of unrestrained passion the morality of our society has degenerated into license for sexual perversion and abuse.
With the aid of the internet pornography, television, movies, the world is being guided on a downhill course to new depths of depravity. In spite of the clear moral standards set forth in God’s Word, the world today is witnessing a resurgence of the perversions and depravity that marked ancient civilizations. The culture has become so reprobate, having their conscience seared, now absolutely nothing fazes them. Tragically, these same sexual sins are as much in the church as they are in the world, because the church has comprised God's moral standards with the world.
Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil and reestablish the right relationship with God the Father. Through salvation in Jesus Christ, all may be freed from the grip of sexual perversions and sinful practices.
Literally hundreds of Bible prophecies have been fulfilled and those that remain shall surely come to pass.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
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. But I have this 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. 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. 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. 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. 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; and I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’"
This is the longest letter written to the smallest city of all seven.
Compromise with the world always leads to idolatry and immorality. Today, you very rarely ever find a church that is intolerant of sin and confronts and deals with it. Many not only tolerate sin and error, they happily live with it. Christ commands that His church be pure and holy.
Smyrna was assaulted by a synagogue of Satan, Pergamos was literally in the throne of Satan, but Thyatira had descended deep into the things of Satan. Large numbers of people were actually giving in to the demoralizing influences of false teaching and immorality. I would like you to notice, that there is a flow in that progression. When love is abandoned, compromise follows and then leads to the toleration of sin.
Let's get started. "And to the angel of the church in 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."
Notice that He identifies Himself as the Son of God. In chapter 1, He is identified as the Son of Man, which speaks to the issue of His humanness, to His care, to the issue of His compassion, and His understanding of our weaknesses and failures and struggles. It speaks to His intercession.
But He is identified as the Son of God.This emphasizes His deity, His holiness and, consequently, His judgement. In other words, Divine power is about to be launched against an immoral and idolatrous congregation. The Savior has now become the judge, the Intercessor has now become the executioner. His is no longer sympathetic. This is not comforting, it's confronting. You know that you’re in trouble when the Lord sends you a letter and begins it like that. This is a picture of devastating judgement.
Here, we see His eyes are again are like a flame of fire, we saw that in chapter 1. This is, by the way, the same imagery given in the 10th chapter of Daniel, which pictures God with eyes that are like torches of fire. This is not one of His churches, though there were some true believers there.
Thyatira represents church history from 500-1500 A.D., the dark ages. This was a time in church history when the Roman Catholic Church nearly strangled the life out of Christ’s true church. The truth of God had been replaced by the traditions of men. The Pope’s decrees replaced the true doctrine. And, salvation was substituted for sacraments.
The entire Catholic belief system is founded on works, and good works of charity they do, and they put most of us to shame, as they minister to the hurting, the hospitalized, the starving, the widows and orphans, and historically, even the unborn. The monasteries of the dark ages were the forerunners to what modern day hospitals have become. Yet, good works won’t save a person. There were some men like Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe, John Huss, and Savonarola, who lost their lives for standing against their church for the sake of the truth.
Peter Waldo was persecuted because he stood against heresy. John Wycliffe, publicly spoke out against the Pope, saying that he was not infallible. And, after his death, the church actually dug up his bones and burned them. John Huss was branded as a heretic, said "I will obey the Pope so far as his commands agree with the doctrine of Jesus Christ, but when I see otherwise, I will not obey the Pope, even though you burn my body." The Catholic Church said, good idea and he burned at the stake. Savonarola, preached against the evils of the Catholic Church in cathedrals that were overflowing. He was imprisoned, later hanged, and his body was burned in the city square of Florence as a warning and a deterrent to others.
'And His feet are like burnished bronze." This is judgment on a church that has begun to tolerate the things of Satan. In this church, they were living in the same kind of sinful patterns that they had before they came to church and professed Christ. This is God saying, "I will not tolerate sin in My church." And, as far as we can tell in history, this church disappeared sometime toward the end of the 2nd century.
Verse 19, "I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first." That is actually a wonder commendation. Notice there is no mention of sound doctrine, like there was in Ephesus. "I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service" They were characterized by service. Their voluntary meeting of needs, that's the word "diakonia."
There was a certain perseverance, a certain dependability, a certain loyalty there, that springs forth from faith. The church was growing and their deeds were greater than they had done before. Love wasn’t their problem, faith wasn’t their problem, ministry wasn’t their problem. Their problem was that they were tolerating sin!
Because I put an emphasis on the pursuit of holiness and the confrontation of sin, I've been accused of being legalistic, but that is exactly what our Lord asks of us. Next, we see the condemnation is devastating.
Verse 20, "But I have this 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."
As I have said before, churches must be intolerant of false teaching, and intolerant of immorality. Apparently, this church had succumbed to some kind of feminism, Jezebel was a way to identify her, it was not her name, but this church was not worshipping some outside god but the tolerance of some inside false teacher who’s literally bringing in false gods. This was an internal assault of persecution.
In the Old Testament, back in II Kings, Jezebel brought in orgies in worshipping Baal. The priests of Baal were wicked, sexual perverts. So, this woman was symbolically identified as Jezebel because she introduced immorality and idolatry in the church. It says she calls herself a prophetess. By the way, most cults originate from significant women. This woman literally made the people in the church comfortable with their pagan idolatry and immorality. This woman came into the first century church and convinced them that they could live an immoral life and worship idols! And they were fine with it.
There have always been people who want to twist the Scripture, wherever there’s sin, grace abounds, so it doesn’t matter what you do in the flesh. It's the spirit that matters. God made us this way, this is just who we are. They celebrate their sinfulness. There is even a very popular preacher who had "peccator," which means sinner, tattooed on his arm. There will always be people who think the gospel and grace is license to live in sin.
In verse 21, the Lord says "I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality."
Scripture tells us to flee immorality. This women doesn’t want to repent. She is full of herself, she is enjoying her sin. This woman had succeeded in leading true Christians to engage themselves in idol feasts and sexual sin. There was sexual sin probably connected to the orgies going on in those idol feasts.
Look verses 22 and 23 " 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. 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." The word pestilence is "death." Her children means all who follow her example, who follow her teaching. Christ wants His church pure and He may kill people to bring that about. People in the church may die. So that "all 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."
Here is a promise of severe judgment on the woman and great chastening on those who followed her. The world is in such a terrible mess, and the church is following right after it. I believe the church today really needs to hear this message, all the churches need to know Christ's reaction to the tolerance of sin. I don’t understand how churches today can be so indifferent to sin. This is very serious! This is a pretty shocking statement. It doesn’t get any stronger or clearer than that. This is the Lord is saying "I’m going to kill people and I'm going to put it on public display! Everybody is going to know when I do it, that I will not tolerate false teaching and the immorality that accompanies it!"
In 1215, the confession of sins to a human priest was established, the doctrine of transubstantiation came into belief in the Catholic Church, that is the belief that the bread and the wine become the actual, literal blood of Christ. When you crucify the son of God afresh again and again, Sunday after Sunday at the communion table, that’s not just error, that’s blasphemy! The Bible says there is ONE MEDIATOR between God and man, that man is Christ Jesus!
I believe the message to us today is very powerful. You have to stop the old pattern of life. Because if you're just professor of salvation and you're living an ungodly, immoral life, there will be very severe consequences! If you are you involved is part of this man-made, devil inspired monstrosity, I implore you to get out of it, because judgment is coming! I remind you that there is no such thing as a little sin. Sin is precisely that—sin! False doctrine can be overcome, by trusting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.
Now, all of that leads to a final command in verse 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."
The Lord is saying He knows those that are His. I know you don’t hold this teaching. Some of you who know better than to buy into that. You are saved unto holiness, unto righteousness. You don’t have a burden beyond having to go on resisting this teaching. Continue to be faithful. I ask nothing more.
Verse 25, " Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come."
I know there's no other church, it won't be easy, so be strong and hold fast, until I come. The Lord is saying to all of His church, there’s always going to be sin around, hold on and be faithful until I arrive.
Error that is once tolerated will always attempt to assert itself as normative. Reasserting itself and demanding that we accept it. If we do not have the Spirit of God to guide our steps, we are prone to accept evil as normal. The Holy Spirit of the Lord lives in each believer. He guides His people, keeping them from sin. If you are a Christian, your life is divided into two periods—lost and saved. There was that time when you were still outside of Christ. Outside of Christ, we know that we are capable of the vilest acts, the most heinous deeds.We have each learned things of which we are not proud. But now, we have the Spirit of God restraining us and the hand of our God to discipline us when we do wrong.
In verses 26-28, comes a promise, "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; and I will give him the morning star."
The evidence of true faith in Christ is endurance, obedience, and good works to the end. Christ is coming to set up His kingdom and when He does, you will reign with Him. Those of us who are glorified believers in the kingdom, will assist Him in judgment and the care of His own. If you’re among the faithful, I will give you the kingdom.
Then, the final word in verse 29, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’"
You heard about a church that had tolerated sin, a church that had invited the world in, a church that was full of iniquity and was doing nothing to eliminate it. This is a church under severe judgement. If you’re listening, do you hear how serious I am about this? The church should be a place of life and joy and holiness. I want you to notice that the evidence of being a true believer is not succumbing to false doctrine, or immorality, it's holding fast.
That's God's message to His church.
May it be so..
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen