Intolerant Love

Take your Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 2. Revelation chapter 2 as we look at the message that was given to the church in Thyatira. Before we look at that message, we need to ask that God would bless His Word. for without the work of his spirit I would be wasting your time. So let's pray. Father, we do ask for the working of your spirit.

These messages are intended for the church in all ages and each message is meant for every church and so we pray that we would give careful heed to what this message says first to that church so long ago and to us today. Father, we want to be a faithful congregation. That's where our hearts are. But Father, we know it's easy to be seduced. So we would ask that you would use this message to that church to equip us.

Grant that for the glory of your name as we await the return of our Lord Jesus Christ in all his glory. Amen. Thyatira was not what you would call a significant city. It was situated in a valley without any natural fortifications, and so it really wasn't very important militarily. And because of that, it never really became a center of political power.

That distinction belonged to Ephesus. Nor was it a center of religious influence, like Pergamum. But because it was easily accessible, with great numbers of people passing through that valley. Thyatira became a great commercial and manufacturing center. Here you would find wool workers, linen workers, dyers of fabric, leather workers, potters, tanners, and any number of trades.

Do you remember the lady, Lydia, who was converted in Paul's ministry in Philippi? She came from this city. So here was a center of commerce and industry But Thyatira also had something else a congregation of Christians These were followers of the Christ who had banded together in a community of the redeemed called the church and who had a significant witness for Jesus in this manufacturing town.

Let's see what Jesus has to say to this church. Revelation 2, beginning in verse 18. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead.

And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, To him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself 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. Now remember that the book of Revelation is a letter. It's a circular letter to these seven churches, including Thyatira. The whole book was written so that Christ's congregations would understand the nature of the battle in which they are engaged.

It was written so they would conquer the forces of persecution and seduction arrayed against them. Well what the message then to Thyatira and to us at LaRoubaz Church It is this We must develop discernment We must develop an intolerant love The ability to discern those whose teaching would seduce the congregation from her purity. An intolerant love. A love that does not tolerate that kind of doctrine. but loves Jesus supremely.

That's the message of Thyatira to us today. Well, how do you develop that kind of discernment? This message is written to motivate us to develop that kind of a love, that kind of a discernment. How do you do that? Well, the first thing is to understand how this kind of dangerous tolerance develops. Now, the congregation at Thyatira was a real happening place.

When you look at verse 19, that becomes clear. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. These are the words of Jesus. This is his analysis of that church body. This is his analysis of that congregation. And they are words of commendation.

If I were looking for a church, I would quite possibly land here. This is a great church. This is a church that is incredibly growing. This was a church that was known for its love, loving those outside and inside. They operated here. They've got a reputation for faith.

They operated with an extraordinary faith. They believed what God said. They no doubt believed what he said about saving people. They said, well, God's about that. Let's go do the job. They were those who probably thought, you know what, God's going to meet our needs.

They believed him. They were known for their service. The word service that's used here is the word diakonos, that table-waiting kind of service. They were not afraid to get down and dirty when it came to helping people out. That's the kind of people they were. That's the kind of congregation it was.

My guess is they probably had the best community gardens in all of Asia Minor. Okay? Probably had the best. And they helped the drunks, and they helped the unemployed kind of people. And if someone in the congregation lost a family member, they were there. And if someone in the congregation's house burned down, they were the kind of church that no doubt said all right look these people need a place to stay Who going to volunteer to take in this family And they probably had a congregation that fought over who could have that privilege They were famous for their patient endurance.

If they were going to suffer persecution, they took it. They evidently had suffered some already. And they were known for enduring it. They were not afraid. And to top it all off, to top it all off, they kept getting better at it. He says, your latter works exceed the first.

I mean, not only are you doing well, you just keep getting better at it. This is a church that really has it together, wouldn't you say? Now, no doubt, this strong, vibrant, healthy congregation faced some particular tests. I think this is what it was. It's the same one that afflicted Pergamum. If you wanted to get ahead in this world, if you wish to make a living in this commercial center, you have to belong to a guild, a union, if you will.

As a leather worker or one who dyed fabrics or a potter or a metal worker, you must belong to a guild. And each guild had its own patron god or patron deity. And if you belong to a guild, your membership implies the worship of that deity. You would be expected to attend the guild festivals and eat the food that was given to you, part of which had been offered to the idol of your patron deity, and then placed on your table, and you would receive it as a gift from that god.

And then when the feast ended, the grossly immoral fun would begin. This was part of it. This is expected in the worship of these deities. Now, for you to remain in the guild and attend the... And these feasts were not like, oh, I can't make the party tonight. You were expected to be there, all right?

You were expected to be there because to be at the feast meant to worship this God and to gain the favor of your patron deity for your work. So you were expected to come to these feasts. It wasn't like a company party that you could bow out of. You were expected to be there. And if you went and attended these immoral feasts, you would deny your Lord. But on the other hand, to quit the guild means you lose your Lord.

You're standing in society and you open yourself and your family to suffering, hunger, and even persecution. That's your choices. Those are your choices. That's the test they face. This strong, vibrant, healthy, loving church, congregation, had to face that test. Well, along comes a group of teachers that had the answer to that dilemma.

Jesus refers to them as Jezebel. Now, I don't believe that this is a particular woman. I don't believe this is a particular woman, but a name applied to a group of teachers who came along and said, you know, you love these people that you're living amongst. You've been faithful. You've even endured persecution. But you know what?

You need to understand that you don't have to go through all that. You can still remain faithful to Jesus and not have to, not have to give all that up. And I think it's a group of teachers because, for example, John, who wrote the book of Revelation, in his second epistle, as he begins that epistle, says this. Listen to his words. The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I but also all who know the truth.

Now, when he talks about the elect lady, who's he talking about? He's talking about a congregation. He refers to a congregation as the elect lady. And he refers to the members of that congregation as her children. So it's not unusual to take a single name and apply it to a group. For example, for example, when you come to Revelation 17, we find the whore Babylon. that's applied to a whole system, not to a particular woman or a particular person.

So here you find John referring to this group and he calls them Jezebel, or Jesus calls them Jezebel. And Jesus, through John, calls them this because they're like the Old Testament queen named Jezebel. Who was Jezebel? She was a Sidonian princess who married King Ahab, one of the northern kingdom Israel rulers probably one of their most powerful rulers but one of their most wicked rulers We all know about Ahab He and Elijah just didn get along You remember You remember Elijah was always in his face because he was just a wicked guy.

Turn over to 1 Kings for a moment. Let's look at Jezebel for a moment here. 1 Kings chapter 16. 1 Kings chapter 16. in 1 Kings chapter 16 beginning in verse 30 we will begin in verse 29 in the 38th year of Asa king of Judah Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel and Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria 22 years. And Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him.

And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. Now, Jeroboam, remember, was the very first king, the breakaway kingdom, was the very first king of the breakaway kingdom of Israel. He's the one who started this cult of the golden calf. in Bethel, and enticed them, instead of going to Jerusalem to worship Jehovah, you come to Bethel and Dan, I think it was, and you worship at the cult of the golden calf.

And so he set them purposefully on the road to idolatry as a wicked king. And so this says that Ahab was not only wicked in that he promoted that same cult, but, let's continue, he took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbal, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him. Now, we're all familiar with Baal, but you need to understand something.

Baal is a fertility god, and part of the worship of fertility gods and goddesses was to go to the, okay, I'm a married guy, right? Well, I want fertile crops, and I want my wife to have lots of children, so I need to go to Baal. You know what I'm going to do at the temple? I'm going to get a room with a temple prostitute and have sexual relations with her.

That's my worship to Baal. Are you starting to understand a little bit why Baal was so hated by God and why idolatry was such a big thing Because idolatry inevitably led to sexual immorality even of the nature I just described for you By doing those things at the temple, you worship Baal, and he makes your wife and your ground fertile. Now, Ahab has married Jezebel.

She comes from Sidon. I mean, her father is even named after this fertility god. All right? And if you want to know the history, the Sidonians had a particularly bad form of Baal worship, if you can imagine that. They were of the Baal denomination that was really bad. Okay?

All right, so now you're starting to get the picture here. So he marries Jezebel, imports her religion because he married her. He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria, and Ahab made an Asherah. Asherah is the consort of Baal, the female part. Ahab did more to provoke Jehovah, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

Now you're getting the picture, I hope. This group of teachers in the church are called Jezebel because, like her, they're seducing God's people into worshiping, into being disloyal to God and being involved in sexual immorality. Now, she's in the church, in these teachers, seducing Jesus' followers away from their devotion to him and away from their purity as his bride.

That's why this is serious. They're seducing the pure bride of Jesus to commit adultery. I think if I were to make an analogy here, I think she's the sister of the great whore, Babylon. Look over at chapter 17. Chapter 17, verse 1. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk And he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality, and on her forehead was written a name of mystery, Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations. I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. Babylon is Rome with its great military and economic power, its marvelous standard of living, and all the pleasures anyone might want.

Now she stands, imagine this, Babylon stands outside the church doors trying to seduce God's people away from the Lord Jesus. But Jezebel is inside the church. She's inside the church. She actually has some cover. She actually has some cover because her voice is heard in the doctrine and the teaching of some churches and their leaders. And her answer to the dilemma is what Jesus calls in verse 24, the deep things of Satan.

That's her answer to the dilemma they face. Here it is. They're facing this dilemma. If I quit the guild, I open myself up to hardship, persecution, no social standing, no work. Jezebel comes along and says, you don't have to do that. God doesn't expect that.

God doesn't expect that. Now, I'm not sure, no one's exactly sure what it means, the deep things of Satan. I think it means they weren't saying this is what Satan says. I think they were saying you need to understand the deeper truths of what God says. And Jesus calls that not the deep things of God, but the deep things of Satan. Because they were proposing and saying. to these people.

They were saying maybe things like this, if you get a deeper understanding of what God really means, you'll do alright in this culture. You need to have a more sophisticated understanding. You're too simple in your understanding of the gospel. You need a more sophisticated understanding. But that more sophisticated understanding actually seduces God's people away from the gospel and away from Jesus himself.

It allows them to participate in the feasts and the immorality and still call themselves Christians. And so Jesus calls that teaching not the deep things of God, but the deep things of Satan. Jezebels can be found in congregations all over the world today. I can show you articles. If I look hard enough, and I got to know my library better, but I could pull down books.

I could pull down articles and show you that there are Jezebels today in the church of Jesus saying things like this. God is not against homosexual relationships. You say, wait a minute, what about Romans chapter 1? Oh, no, no, you're misunderstanding what Paul says in Romans chapter 1. He's not saying he's against all homosexual relationships. What he's saying is he's against this kind of promiscuous homosexuality, the kind that just goes from person to person to person.

That's the kind of homosexuality God's against. But God is not, if you compare scripture to scripture, God is not against homosexual relationships that are based on mutual love and respect. A monogamous homosexual relationship. God's not against that. He's against his others. What about Sodom and Gomorrah?

Now, look, okay, you're kind of simple here. I understand. You're not educated. You need to understand that God and Sodom and Gomorrah was not against homosexuality per se. It was this promiscuous kind. You've got to have a deeper understanding than what you have.

See? And these Jezebels say things like this to us. Getting rich? Look, there's nothing wrong with getting rich. Come on. We live in a land of great opportunity.

Hasn't God blessed us? And, you know, he's given you, you found a niche that people really, really, I mean, they're really wanting what you have to give. The service that you've developed, I mean, you're going to make a bundle of money with this. God's not against riches, okay? Don feel guilty about it God not against you getting rich God wants you to live the good life I mean doesn it say in Proverbs look after your retirement Doesn it Yeah?

And you need to live the good life. I mean, God providentially didn't put in you in America for you to be poor. I mean, if you've got the opportunity, right? God is for living the good life. But the gospel is simple and unsophisticated, if I can put it that way, so that even simple people can understand the gospel. And the gospel says, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age.

Nothing complicated about that at all, is there? The gospel calls us and saves us from sin so that we're no longer subject to passions, right? And the gospel says, take care and be on your guard against covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions. foolish is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.

That's pretty straightforward, isn't it? So you've got this Jezebel in the church itself distorting the simplicity of the gospel. so that we are seduced away from holiness and purity and simplicity and self-indulgence. What's the fatal flaw here? These folks have just the opposite problem that Ephesus had. Jezebel would get shot down right away in Ephesus.

All right? But Ephesus didn't have love. On the other hand, here, they had lots of love. Here's the fatal flaw. Lots of love lots of faith lots of service everything going forward except one thing discernment Discernment The church was growing in faith and love and its deeds were even better than at first. However, it did not have discernment.

Be careful of a growing love that just willy-nilly accepts anyone who calls himself a Christian. Now, we need to accept, when people tell me they're a Christian, I'm not going to say, All right, wait a minute. Before I accept that, I'm going to run you through a battery of tests, okay? But we need to be not so naive, all right? Be careful that you're not seduced by people who have sophisticated understandings that undermine the simplicity of the gospel.

We have to develop an intolerant love that hates seductive doctrine but loves Jesus. and purity for Jesus. We need discernment. We do need to look at what people say and teach and whether it is faithful to the gospel of Jesus. I've just entered, I don't know how to put this, I met with a Mary this week. Now, I've known Mary from the past because I've had her brother's funeral and her mother's funeral, and there's some connections there, but I just kind of knew Mary.

Mary now is dying of cancer. When you're looking death in the face, it has a way of kind of narrowing your focus to important things. She said, I need to talk to a pastor, and by God's grace, I was the one. Okay. And I've asked her if for the duration I can be her pastor, in quotes. Okay.

I hope by God's grace I'm able to sit with her on a regular basis and share the gospel with her. Because she's not, you know, she's probably not going to make it. And so the first time we were together this last week, we were sitting in her living room, and she starts talking about the ministers on the television who are always asking for money And in the context of okay in the context of praying that God would take this cancer away listening to ministers who say, God will answer your prayers if you give money to these ministries.

And here's a woman who's looking at them saying, Minister, right? Preacher. Knows what he's talking about. Now, I don't expect someone like Mary to have much discernment because she doesn't have a new heart. She doesn't have the Spirit of God. But you know what?

Those of us who do have the Spirit in congregations where the Spirit is alive can miss it sometimes if we're not careful. Just because someone says he's a Christian teacher doesn't mean automatically that he's teaching what's true to the gospel. And we need to be developing that. If you want to develop discernment, you have to understand this dangerous kind of toleration.

It's dangerous. Now, if we as a congregation would develop discernment, then we must see the Lord of the congregation. One more time, again, Jesus reveals himself in this letter from chapter 1. You recall in chapter 1, there's all these descriptions of all these attributes of Jesus. And as we go through each one of these messages, Jesus takes one of those attributes that is going to apply to that particular church and he brings it up to them.

And here it's the one from chapter 1, verses 14 and 15, with the flaming eyes and the bright shining feet. And what he's saying, if we're going to develop this kind of discernment, this kind of intolerant love, then we must see the Lord of the congregation. What is he like? First of all, he is the Son of God. Now, what struck me as I was reading through this was, this is the only time, this is the only message in which he identifies himself as the Son of God.

He doesn't use that term in any of the other messages, just in this one. He is the Son of God. Now, I believe this is a reference to Psalm 2. Look over at Psalm 2. You heard it this morning, right? You were listening, I hope.

And we sang it. So I hope you got it. Let's turn back to Psalm 2. Psalm 2, particularly verse 6. Ask for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. Okay?

Here's God saying, I've set my king in Zion, my holy hill. He's my king. Then he goes on. I will tell, or the writer says, I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you.

Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of your earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Here is the Son of God. And the reason why I believe that John here is referring to that because later on in verse 26 and 27, what does he say? This Son of God, who's going to break the nations with this rod of iron, gives his people a rod of iron to rule over the nations and the rod to break them.

So this is a reference to Psalm 2. He is the one who has been given authority by God over all the nations, and as such will dash to pieces all rebels. And there are rebels who distort the gospel, and he will smash them to pieces. He has authority to judge. Remember now that John is taking from this vision of the Son of Man from Daniel 7, this great end-time judge, right?

Now he's connecting that to the Son of God who is also a judge. And here he says, here is the Son of God, the one who has authority to rule, the one who has authority to judge. What else is he like? He has eyes like a flame of fire. Now, some of you have been to our house and in our back in our orchard, we have this little round place where we often have our own little bonfires.

We go back there as family every so often and roast our hot dogs with the grandkids and the kids and have a wonderful time. And every once in a while, friends come over. And we sit in the dark around the fire. And when you put some more wood on the fire, the flames go up. And you can look around that little circle and you can say, oh, whoa, there's a scowl on his face.

I wonder what's going on. And looking over there and saying, oh, he's looking at her out of the corner of his eyes as if we can't see it. Well we couldn when it was dark but now that the light is up the flames are up we can sure see it now What the point The point is that Jesus is one who has piercing discerning holy eyes Nothing's going to fool him.

Nothing will get by him. All right? Jesus cannot be fooled, even if we are. He never will be. He sees through Jezebel. He knows exactly what she's about.

And if we can't see it, he still can. And not only that, but he has feet like furnished bronze. The metal workers in Phi Tyre would know what that was all about. They would recognize that as this high-quality bronze that would just shine when it came out out of the purifying fire after the smelting process and putting it together, this high-quality, bright, glowing bronze.

Jesus is holy, and he demands that those among whom he walks be holy as well. Remember, these messages are set, remember from the opening here from chapter 1, these messages are set with this personage walking among the lampstands, walking among the congregation. So he's walking with these feet that say, you must be holy, those among whom I walk. If we're going to develop discernment, we have to see a Jesus who has authority to judge and as one who is holy and discerning.

Is that the way you see Jesus? Now, he's more than that. Certainly he's more than that. But he is that. This is his church. This is his congregation.

This church, this congregation in LaRue is his. And he's got penetrating eyes. and there may be things that get by the leadership here there may be things that get by some of you here but it won't get by jesus it won't get by him what does he do what does he do unlike the other letters it kind of expands on jesus a little bit more this is the longest message of the others of all of them and in Verses 21 through 23, we see what he does. He judges, doesn't he?

He judges. This holy, discerning Lord of the congregation, first of all, note this, extends grace to the disobedient. Isn't this shocking? This Jezebel who seducing Jesus bride Jezebel seducing the bride of Jesus And what does he do He extends grace to these teachers. He sends grace to the disobedient. You know, often these loving congregations with little discernment do not exercise discipline.

And this church, commended for its love, has failed to speak the hard truth in love. And this congregation had not done the loving thing, making judgments and exercising discipline that expresses the jealous love of Jesus for his bride's purity. But Jesus gives these teachers time to repent. He gives them time to repent, doesn't he? I gave her time to repent.

You say, well, if the church isn't exercising discipline, how does that happen? They still possess the gospel with all its simplicity. He says, look, you have the gospel. and they choose to distort it. And so, because they refuse to repent, he's going to judge them. And in holiness, he judges the works that proceed from that kind of doctrine. That's what he says.

I'm going to be one who judges. I'll give to each of you according to your works, works that express your doctrine. Remember, doctrine will always lead you in a particular way of action. Don't ever forget that. And Jesus does not let spiritual adultery go unchecked. He won't let that happen.

What would you think of a man who, after finding out his wife had committed adultery, would say to you, well, everyone makes mistakes. There's not much I can do about it. What would you think about that guy? You know what I'd think about him? If I was in that situation, if I was in that counseling situation, I think my attention would turn from her to him mighty fast.

And I would say to him, you don't love her, do you? you don't love her that was my wife i'd be incensed not just at her but at the man that got away with jesus loves his church he gets angry when someone messes with his bride he gets mad about that Jesus does love his bride and he's not going to let this go unchecked and those who follow this seductive teaching along with the teachers will have great hardship now he talks about throwing her into a sickbed That an idiomatic expression It an idiom It a phrase that they use to talk about tribulation and hardship. So those teachers and those who follow them, who are seduced by them, and by the way, the children and the lovers, I believe, are the same. All right?

The children and the lovers, they're identified as the lovers of her, have committed adultery with her. They're also her children. Their identity is wrapped up with her. They and her will suffer. And some will experience death. You know, I think of many of what they call the mainline denominations today who are actually arguing about these issues of homosexuality and those sorts of things. you know they're dying they're dying i can't help but think of them when i read this god's not going to bless them it's not going to bless them when they got jezebels running wild in their churches and jesus will do this in a congregation so that all congregations will know that he's exactly who he reveals himself to be.

Holy and discerning. So if we're going to develop an intolerant love, we must see Jesus as holy, who loves his bride with a holy love, and the one who possesses penetrating discernment. If we're going to develop discernment, we have to see Jesus. If we're going to develop this Christ-like discernment, we have to believe and conquer. verse 25 through 29.

I'm sorry, verse 24 through 29. We have to believe and conquer. He says, But to the rest of you in Thyatira who did not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. as when earth and pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.

I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. It calls us to believe and conquer. this discernment if we also believe and conquer. Now you have to understand what Jesus means by conquering here. This is important. The one who conquers is the one who remains faithful.

Okay? The one who conquers and, that is to say, who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. The one who conquers is the one who remains faithful. He does not lay upon the congregation any other burden than to do this. Remain faithful to the gospel. A simple life of faith and the holiness that flows from the gospel.

That's all I'm telling you to do. Just remain faithful to the gospel. Now, here's the thing that you have to see. This is conquering. And you go, wait a minute, it doesn't look like conquering, because to do what you're saying, to conquer in that way, Jesus, what you're saying is, go out and conquer, remain faithful to me, and lose your job and expose your family to suffering and maybe persecution.

Rah! That's the kind of winning team I want to be part of, right? Conquering? What? Listen. What looks like defeat to the world is conquering in the sight of God.

Now remember what we noticed a number of sermons ago as we started studying Revelation. Remember, revelation reveals God's perspective on what really is happening. To remain faithful to the gospel, which then comes about suffering, is from God's perspective, conquering. Now we must understand that. If we're going to understand this book, we've got to get a hold of that.

Because the book gives us God's perspective. what the world says as remain faithful to Jesus and lose everything that's conquering yeah it is it is but you can conquer only if you believe the promise of God What is it That you will rule with Jesus That you will rule with Christ He'll give you the rod of iron. You will sit with him in royal authority and rule. Now, Jesus has already begun to fulfill the promise of Psalm 2.

Right? Psalm 2. I put my king on my anointed hill. Right? I've given him authority over the nations. Ask of me the nations, I'll give them to you.

Now that was said of Solomon, but Solomon didn't fill the robes, Jesus does. And he began to fulfill that when he first came. Look at Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13. Paul is preaching here. It's one of the first sermons of Paul that are recorded in this book.

And in chapter 13, verse 32, and we bring you, he's preaching in synagogue, and we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus. And by the way, the term there, raising Jesus, does not mean raising him from the dead, but raising up the person of Jesus amongst us. As also it is written in the second psalm, You are my son, today I have begotten you.

And then he goes on to talk about the resurrection. All right? You are my son, today I have begotten you. That is, Jesus began the fulfillment of that promise when he appeared. Now look at Romans chapter 1, verse 4. So God raised him up amongst the people.

That was the beginning of it. He continued to fulfill it. he was, verse 4 of Romans 1, declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead. So Jesus began to fulfill and he will bring it to completion what Psalm 2 says as we look at Revelation 19. Turn there again. Revelation 19, verse 15. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty There is Psalm 2 again What the deal Jesus has begun to fulfill the promise. Now, we're also promised the morning star. What's that about? Jesus is the morning star. Okay, now let's see this as it goes through the scripture. Turn back to the book of Numbers.

Numbers. you know numbers is a pretty cool book if you really take the time to read it there's lots of great stories in here and this is the story of Balaam remember he's going to curse the Israelites and in number 20 numbers 24 this is his final third oracle and here's what he says as he's looking out over this mountain and he sees all the Israelites this huge group of people out on the plane. And here's what he says. I see him, but not now.

I behold him, but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel that shall crush the forehead of Moab and break down the sons of Sheth. All right? So here's Balaam, by God predicting that there's going to come this king out of Israel. All right? The theme is picked up in Psalm 2.

I've installed, I've anointed my king in the Holy Hill. There's the star. And then, okay, you follow me? Numbers 24, Psalm 2, now Revelation 22, 16. Revelation 22, 16. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches.

I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. What is the promise? the promise here is that we will share in the royal dominion of Jesus. And by the way, by the way, our ruling of the nations has begun now, already, by our conquering through faithfulness to Jesus. How did Jesus begin to fulfill the promise of the king to whom God had given all the nations? he died on a cross he died an ignominious death ignominious death a humiliating death would you have thought that the way a king would be crowned He begins his rule by not looking like a ruler We begin to rule with him by not looking like rulers either We conquer by suffering.

But that's not the end of the story, is it? Because like Jesus, we will be raised and we will be visible conquerors and rulers when he comes. If we're going to develop discernment, we've got to believe and conquer. Now, are we as a congregation at the same place as Thyatira? No. No.

I don't see any Jezebels here. I hope you don't see Jezebel up here right now. Could we get there? Yes. Any congregation can get there. But we will not get there if we develop a love for Jesus and the gospel that does not tolerate doctrine that perverts the gospel.

That means we must remain faithful to the simplicity of the gospel message. It means we must know Jesus as the wholly discerning one who judges, and we must believe his promises and conquer in the way that he says. May God help us to love intolerantly. Let's pray. Father, Father, we thank you for your word. Now we pray we'd be faithful to it.

Help us to be faithful to the gospel, remembering that our Savior is one who is passionate about his bride. Give us the same passion. Father, we live in a world just like Thyatira. a pluralistic age that says the only thing that's wrong is intolerance. Help us to stand against this age and to be intolerant in the right way. Give us God. intolerance, one that loves the church and the Lord Jesus in such a way that we will not be part of seduction, but we'll stand against it.

Help us to develop that discernment, we pray. We thank you now for your word. We thank you for your power in your spirit. Thank you for the Lord Jesus, who is our loving yet holy discerning judge. Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.