Dennis Tuuri

# SERMON TRANSCRIPT – REVELATION 2: THE LETTER TO THE CHURCH AT THYATIRA

of God’s word, Revelation chapter 2. Our title of the sermon is the letter to the church at Thyatira, the fragrance of oppression. Revelation chapter 2, beginning at verse 18. And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira, write these things saith the son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. I know thy works, charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first.

Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, who calleth herself a prophetess, to teach, and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you, I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine and which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak. I will put upon you none other burden, but that which you have already hold fast till I come.

And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we thank you for this awesome piece of scripture and we pray that your spirit may do his work in writing this word upon our hearts. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

This is a time of great celebration. It’s also a time of great preparation. All too often the Christmas season is one of preparation in terms of various activities and tasks which draw us away from devotion to the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ and to his coming. Of course, those things that we engage ourselves in—terms of gift buying and preparation of food, etc.—these are all good things when seen correctly from the perspective of God’s word and consecration to the Lord Jesus Christ whose advent we celebrate.

Whether it’s his conception as Michael Mass would teach or whether it’s his birth as some others assert (that historical events can be traced to show that he actually was born this time of year), but in any event, we celebrate a historical event and we prepare our hearts. And this text which I’ve just read—which is an exceedingly powerful portion of scripture—of course, soon as one says that, one remembers that all of scripture has power. But for our particular place, the church of America, the church in Oregon, the church in the world today, this is a very important piece of scripture and it contains great truths to be celebrated, but it also contains great warnings that call for a great deal of preparation.

I like to stretch the Christmas season out. And you know, the liturgical churches actually move into January with the celebration—the twelve days of Christmas, beginning on December 25th and ending on January 6th, Epiphany. We, I guess historically here in America, we begin the celebration with Thanksgiving, which is a great way to begin any celebration. And in our family, we kind of swing into high gear at St. Nicholas Day on December 6th. And I received this tie as a gift from my lovely and precious wife Christine for St. Nicholas Day. And I only say that to try to keep you awake.

At the end of the sermon, I’ll give you an illustration to think of as you look at the tie today. I’ve had a lot of comments on it. Great times of celebration and preparation.

This text could serve as a series of very useful sermons for a long period of time. Let me say first of all that Thyatira was probably the least significant church of the seven churches economically, politically, religiously, etc. It was really kind of a guardian city for Pergamos, kind of a foothill sort of city for it, although it was a distinct city of course.

And yet, as you probably noted, it is the longest in terms of length of verses of the seven letters to the seven churches. I think it is, at least. And it’s kind of at the center—not just in terms of length, but if you remember that these sevenfold patterns are chiastic. The Greek letter chi is an X. Half of that is a chiastic structure. So the middle of a sevenfold structure is of great importance. It’s like central and everything else kind of pivots on it.

And so this central one here is kind of a pivot place as well. And as I said, contemporaneously to what we believe here at Reformation Covenant Church is the beginning of the reformation that will indeed go around the world. These last probably, with the, uh, we would say with the theology of Cornelius Van Til and then perhaps more formally with the publication of R.G. Rushdoony’s Institutes of Biblical Law in 1973, the church has changed—has changed dramatically, although maybe not quite so obviously. Nonetheless, the change is there and it’s working its way through, and many of the distinctives that we believe can really be pointed to in terms of this text.

Let me just give you an example of what we could do with the text. The Jerusalem Council, of course, is cited here. What was Jezebel’s sin? Well, she instructed—she diverted the saints into doing two things: fornication, eating things sacrificed to idols. Now, that’s a violation of the Jerusalem Council held in Acts 15. They got together to talk about circumcision and stuff, and they put out a proclamation to the rest of the churches, which was binding upon them.

Now, some people think it wasn’t binding, and some people think that thing was just to kind of keep the Jews placated. They, you know, you don’t want to eat things sacrificed to idols because the Jews will get upset. Now, we maintain—I maintain—that what that is is a reassertion in the New Testament of the abiding validity of God’s law. Because the holiness code of Leviticus 18—that begins with the section for the gentile God-fearers, not just the Jewish special nation of God, but the gentile God-fearers who are there as well—includes these aspects. It starts with them. So it’s a pointer from the Jerusalem Council back to the entire law of God and saying that law is in effect.

The ceremonial law has been completed in Christ. But the moral law and the law for the nations continues in effect. So obey these things. You see, if you think that it was just to placate the Jews, you got a problem with the text in front of us. Is Jezebel to be seen as so bad because she got these Christians to offend the Jews? No. God says it’s idolatry. It’s adultery—what they’re doing here by breaking his law.

You see? So the Jerusalem Council as a binding legal document on the Christian church and all the implications of that for theonomy, covenantalism, etc. is affirmed by this text of scripture. You just can’t deal with it honestly or fairly and come up with any other decision but that it affirms the law of God. It’s a theonomic statement. And frankly, I don’t know how you could read this portion of scripture and not come away with a postmillennial position—whether it’s optimistic amillennialism—without an optimistic view of the future.

Jesus says that he is the son of God. And he says he rules the nations. And he says he gives to the church at Thyatira and all the churches that follow the rod of iron that they might share in his rule of the nations. What does that mean? Psalm 2 clearly tells us that it involves the discipling of the nations, just as our Savior told us in Matthew 28. Very important text here. An important text in terms of the significance and importance of the church as well.

This is a letter to a church. And that’s where this stuff begins. And it’s also very significant, this letter. I’m touching on little themes here that could be developed at length. It’s also very significant for showing us how that rule and authority is affected. And it’s not by grabbing political mechanisms, is it? He doesn’t say get involved in politics. Now, I think they are to get involved in politics. I’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes.

But what he says is you keep doing the things you’re doing. You continue in love. You continue in a faith that works and a love that works, and you continue to endure and persevere under trials and tribulations actively pursuing the mission of the church. And I will give you this rule. You don’t need to grab at it. It is granted to us. That’s real important because that means when you go home this afternoon and you start your work day tomorrow or you start your day at home tomorrow, the small acts of faithfulness, love, service, charity, endurance that you engage in are part of the change in this world to manifest the reign of Jesus Christ through his saints.

Isn’t that exciting? I think that is wonderful, wonderful news. It’s a great cause of celebration for us.

Now, there’s lots of stuff we could talk about, but I want to begin just by doing some structural review like we’ve done before, and then we’ll get to some of these lessons at the conclusion. So, if you’re on your outlines, I haven’t quite begun the structural review.

Let me say first of all we want to remind ourselves that this is, as I said, the fourth letter in this series of seven, and it’s been given to three other churches. Who are the churches? Who are the first three churches? Can you remember without looking at your Bibles? Well, it was the church that was desirable. It was the church that was perfumed. And it was the church that is a fortress, a beachhead, uh, in the context of an occupied territory.

Well, you don’t remember reading that. Well, Ephesus means desirable. And the church at Ephesus was the desirable bride. And Smyrna means perfumed, all myrrhed up. Remember that? The myrrh that comes actually from the suffering of Christ. Myrrh fragrance. The bride of Christ is desirable to him. And he wants her to love him. And the bride of Christ has been perfumed by him as the Holy Spirit is pressed into her. And the bride of Christ doesn’t just do this to go sit around someplace. She does it that she might be a fortress city, a beachhead in Portland, Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, wherever it is, for conquering all those who rise up against the Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, we come to the fourth city, Thyatira, and its name is significant too. It means perfume, aroma, fragrance of oppression, problems. This church doesn’t smell quite as good as it should. This church has some real big problems. And this church has some very significant things that we must meditate upon as we properly prepare for the reminder—the historical remembrance of the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ and for his advent in our lives and in our day and age as well.

I might also say that Thyatira could be a play on the word Tyre, and now the word Thyatira (Thia) means aroma or fragrance, and Ty means, or Tyra here means or refers to oppression. But it sounds like Ty in the Greek too. And Jezebel, of course, was from Tyre. And she is the picture, of course, of the bride who is not perfumed nicely but who stinks to high heaven. And that’s who Jezebel is in the text. So it could be a reminder of that as well.

Now on the structural review side, then, let’s remind ourselves of just some basics that we’ve talked about before. Please don’t let these get you confused. I do this every time we do an actual letter and hopefully it will help you to remember certain things and make some connections that’s important for understanding of the text.

First of all, the seven letters remind us or restate the creation week, and that’s no different here. What is the fourth day of the creation week? What was created? Well, what was created was sun, moon, and stars. And Jesus in the letter to the church at Thyatira says he is the morning star. He says he rather will give them the morning star. And Jesus is pictured as one who has eyes of fire—which are to say lights that shine over and govern by evaluating and seeing and trying the world. So those lights are given as governors.

It says in the book of Genesis the sun and moon, one to rule or govern the day, one to rule or govern the night. And so the sun, moon, and stars up there in the heavens are pictures to us of governors. Now we know—that’s kind of like a common bounty from God that people know these things. What do we have on the flag of the United States? We’ve got 50 stars. What do those stars represent? They represent states, governing agencies, you see.

And you go to Muslim countries and frequently they’ll have the moon up there because it’s a picture on their flag of what God really did create—the sun, moon, and stars. You go to Takashi’s homeland, you’ve got that rising sun on the flag. And so we know that instinctively we know from the general revelation of God that these are pictures of governance and rule.

And the letter to the church of Thyatira is full of statements of governance and rule. There’s another not so obvious correlation here to astronomical truths, however, and that is the reference to Jezebel. Well, what’s that got to do with stars, Dennis? Well, if you go on to chapter 12, why don’t you turn to chapter 12 of your scriptures there in the book of Revelation, chapter 12, beginning at verse 1.

There appeared a great wonder in heaven, up in the skies. A woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown of 12 stars. That’s the church. Obviously, the woman is pictured as an astronomical collection of sun, moon, and stars, okay? And she’s up there. This is the true Jezebel. Okay? This is the true church. The true bride. Jezebel’s the harlot. But the true church, the true bride, is pictured as being clothed with the sun, moon, and stars.

And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth and pain to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon. Now, we could talk about the constellations in the sky that would have significance here, but we won’t take that rabbit trail. It’s a wonderful study to do, however. God establishes the constellations obviously in their place. We may not know the specific names, but they’re up there. And there’s a reference to it.

Behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail threw the third part of the stars to heaven, and he cast them to earth. And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. Well, you got Herod being the picture of Satan’s device to try to kill off the child—the slaughter of the innocents that we considered Friday night here at the Christmas program.

Verse 5: she brought forth a manchild who was to rule all nations with the rod of iron. Oo. Oh, there it is. There’s a direct connection, isn’t it, to this church at Thyatira with a rod of iron. This astronomical significance of the church is her rule and reign. She brings forth a child to rule all nations with the rod of iron. And her child was caught up into God, into his throne. That’s the ascension of Christ.

See, he goes up, and what does he do? Remember the book of Daniel? We’ve talked about this a lot in the opening sermons on this series. He goes up to assume rule. He gets the rule from the father. And Psalm 110 says he sits down until all his enemies made his footstool. He’s going to rule up there. And in Revelation chapter 2, the letter to Thyatira, draws on all of this—draws on Psalm 2, draws on Psalm 110, draws on this picture to come in Revelation 12—and tells us that his mechanism for doing that is through giving rule and reign to his church.

So there’s another significance there to the astronomical things recorded for us here. And so first of all, in terms of the literary structural device, the letter—the fourth letter—is in the place of the sun, moon, and stars, and it has significance because it reminds us yet one more time in the context of that letter the significance of reign. It’s interesting.

I’m not sure where I should say this. I’ll say it now though. The second point: the seven letters restate past history. And we talked a little bit about this two weeks ago with Jezebel. And obviously the place of past history that’s referred to here is the kingdom period. The reference to David in Psalm 2, the reference to ruling with the rod of iron, the reference to the sun, moon, and stars governing events, the kingdom period. Jezebel was married to the king. But see, it’s interesting that Ahab is not mentioned here. Jezebel is.

And it’s interesting that the third letter, recounting the period in the wilderness, really addressed false king Balak and the false prophet Balaam. And here in the fourth letter, the enemy is Jezebel—the false bride, the harlot bride. And without making a big deal of this, I think it’s interesting that if you contemplate that this fourth element, stressing as it does the rule of Christ, stressing the kingdom monarchical period, does so by reference to the false bride.

And so the bride informs the king of the land, okay? And so our problem isn’t ultimately Ahab. Our problem isn’t ultimately Clinton. Our problem isn’t ultimately who may be sitting in Salem ruling and governing incorrectly. Our problem is the false bride who informs the king in a wrong way. The center focus is the bride of Christ, not the kings of the earth, the great King of heaven who rules by way of his church.

Now let’s look at the third point: the seven letters model us. They are a model. They show us how to be toward one another. Christ is the measure. Remember, we’ve said that when we go to each other, we want to measure ourselves against the cannon of scripture, the word of Christ. He’s the standard.

And his standard is he is son of God, which means he’s king. We’ll talk about that in a moment. But he rules and he discerns. He’s looking and he’s burning up his enemies. And his legs are bronze legs. By the way, I was going to mention Boaz here because Boaz (which relates to “in him is strength”), because that’s again a reference to the kingdom period when the temple was built—his two bronze legs.

What are the bronze legs of the temple? Well, there were two pillars made in front of the temple that were like big bells, apparently. And their names, they had names according to the scriptures, were Jachin and Boaz. Jachin, “he shall establish,” is what it means. And Boaz, “in him is strength,” as far as I can tell. And so these two names and the significance of the names in front of the temple that was built in the kingdom period now, that’s important because that really is the message of this whole thing again—of God’s rule in the nations.

He shall establish. We don’t grab it. He’ll establish, and it is in him that we have strength, okay? Those two pillars there. But so Christ is the measure. He shall establish and in him is strength, and in him is rule and authority. Remember those bronze legs are pictured later on in Revelation. The fire is coming down upon the earth from heaven. Remember he’s got his head up in the heavens and his feet are one is on the earth and one is on the sea. One is on Israel, one is on the Gentiles. Notice his feet cover all the earth, and he is bringing flames to purify the elect and to destroy those outside of Christ—those Jezebel and their followers, okay?

So he’s active, and he measures Thyatira against his active reign, and he says, “You got big problems. You’re not active. I’m glad for all the work you’re doing. Good stuff. But you got these people here, a lot of them now, who are antinomian. They don’t believe in the law. They’re violating the law. They’re compromised at the civil state, etc., etc. You got big problems.”

Jesus is the standard. And Jesus then tells us what he sees. And he begins with positive statements again here. He sees their works, and then he tells us what those works are: their love, their faith, their service, and their endurance. And he doesn’t just see those four aspects of works. He says, “Your works are better now than they were when you started.”

It’s different than Ephesus, isn’t it? Remember, Ephesus is supposed to go back and do the first works. Thyatira didn’t have to go back and do the first works. Those who were faithful, they were doing already better works than they did at first. Maturation—see, that’s what he sees. Doesn’t just see good works. He sees a growth in good works, a maturation.

So he tells them, you’re doing that great, good deal. And then he tells him, however, there’s some real problems. And he talks to him about Jezebel. He talks to them about the stink of oppression here. He talks to them about the harlot’s perfume and her band of followers and how terrible it is and what an offense it is to him and how he’s not going to take it.

He’s going to cast them into a bed of affliction. Dying they shall die. They’re going to die with death. Remember Genesis: the day you eat of it, dying, you shall die. Double statement, two-fold witness. The king is going to cause them folks to die. Dogs are going to eat your flesh if you do the works of Jezebel. Warns them. But then he tells him by way of implication that there’s time to repent. He says, “But I gave Jezebel space to repent, but she didn’t repent. And so now I’m going to take her out and her children out.”

Repentance is at the center of this letter. What do they have to do? Repent. They have to discipline, and they have to continue doing the right things as well. And then what Christ will do negatively, he stretches out the two paths here in front of them. Your choice, children, adults, is either to have your flesh eaten by dogs, to be in a bed of affliction, to dying, you shall die with plagues and terrible things going on with you. Or you get to have the rod of iron that God gives to those who continue in good works. And you get the bright—you get the morning star.

See, huge blessings of reigning with Christ and huge punishments of receiving the punishment of the worst manifestation of the maturation of evil in those times recorded for us in the monarchical period, the great tribulation when all the prophets were being killed off by Jezebel and her followers. So huge manifestations here, an intensification of the two paths. And which path do you want to be on?

And then finally, Christ is the means. He gives us the ability to reign, and that’s what he’s telling him to do: reign. Use the rod of iron. Break Jezebel’s head. Break her to pieces like a potter’s vessel. Do it. He is the standard, but he’s also the means, okay.

Now let’s go back over the text a little more slowly now that we’ve seen that basic pattern. Now we’ll move—we’re not quite into the application section, but we’re getting there. Now we want to look at the actual text itself and just make some comments as we go. So just turn to the text itself in verse 18.

Unto the angel of the church in Thyatira, which means odor, stink of oppression. It’s not a good smell, it’s a bad smell. Write these things. These things saith the son of God. And there we have to stop for a couple of minutes.

What does it mean here when Jesus says he’s the son of God? Well, we know in our normal answer that if I ask you, “What does it mean when Jesus says he’s the son of God?” you’d say, “Well, what it means is he’s divinity. It’s, you know,” and then we bring out the typical proof texts that show that Jesus is actually deity and has been eternally. And that’s a good thing. That’s all true. And I don’t want to take anything away from that. But I want to add to that something.

I think that when we read it here, what we really want to read this as is that Jesus is Messiah. Now, that’s not clear enough for us either because we don’t know Messiah that well. Messiah was the anointed king to come who would make everything right. But to us, we just sort of think Messiah, okay, but let me put it this way. When he says he is the son of God, he’s saying he is the King of Kings. He’s referring to his messianic reign—that’s what he’s talking about. He’s talking that he is the ruler of all rulers.

Well, how do I know that? Let’s look at a few verses. And now I can look—there’s a lot of verses that talk about this, but we’ll just look at a few. In Psalm 89, verses 3, 26, and 27, this is what the psalm says. “I have made a covenant with my chosen. I have sworn to my servant David.” And then in verse 26, so this is to David, “He shall cry to me, ‘You are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.’ And I will make him my firstborn, my son, the highest of the kings of the earth.”

Now, he’s talking in the first instance to David, but he’s talking, of course, with the greater David to come. So what does he say? When you make him the son of God, you’re going to be the firstborn. He’s saying you will be the ruler of the kings of the earth. You will be the highest of the kings of the earth. That’s what it means to be the son of God.

Psalm 2, he just recited it. He says, “I will declare the decree the Lord has said unto me, ‘You are my son. Today I have begotten you.’” And what does it say then? What, how is that explained to us? “Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thy inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” That’s what it means when Jesus is given the name the son of God. He will rule all the earth. All the kings will either repent and kiss him or perish off the face of the earth. That’s what it means when he says, “I’m the son of God.”

Few more scriptures. Let’s move into the New Testament. Nathaniel in John chapter 1, he says to Christ. He answers and said unto him, “Rabbi, thou art the son of God. Thou art the king of Israel.” See, Nathaniel knew better than we do. Son of God? Yeah, you’re deity, but you’re not just deity. You are the king of Israel. You are deity come to earth to reign over all the earth.

Luke 1, verses 32 and 33. “He will be great, speaking of Jesus, will be called the son of the highest and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there’ll be no end.” His reign, his kingship, is talked about in terms of his being the son of God.

Romans 1 says that he was declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. When is Jesus declared to be the son of God? Well, in actuality, we could go through scriptures and say that at the annunciation, his being the son of God—a messiah to come—is announced. At his baptism, “This is my beloved son. Do what he says. In whom I am well pleased.” He refers back to Psalm 2.

And the baptism rather—at Jesus’s trust, you know, his son of being son of God is related to him being called Messiah at every critical point in his reign in his life rather. This is asserted, but Romans 1 says particularly at his resurrection—and we would say then his ascension—he’s declared to be the son of God with power from on high, okay. Through him and now what is what’s the implications? Going Romans 1 again, by the resurrection from the dead, verse 5: “Through him we have received grace and apostleship. Why? For obedience to the faith. How much obedience? Among all nations, for his name.”

You see, that’s what Jesus is saying here. I’m the son of God, and you’re going to reign. And in Romans 1, he’s declared to be the son of God by his resurrection and ascension to the end that we might reign by preaching him and that all nations might become obedient to the faith.

Acts 13, verses 32 and 33. “We declare to you the glad tidings that promise which was made to the fathers. God has fulfilled this for us their children in that he has raised up Jesus, as it also says in the second psalm, ‘You are my son today I have begotten you.’” So the resurrection of Christ—again tied to him being the son of God, tied by Psalm 2 to his universal reign over all the nations.

And then finally, Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews 1 says: “God who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets has in these latter days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the world. Who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had himself purged our sins, after his work on the cross, at the ascension sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become—now it’s not that he wasn’t eternally divine, eternally begotten, etc. But now there’s a renewed sense—having become so much better than the angels as he has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name by inheritance. Now, through his work on the cross and his resurrection ascension, a better name.”

For to which of the angels did he ever say, “You are my son today I have begotten you?” What does it mean the resurrection and ascension of Christ? It means specifically that he’s the son of God. And it means specifically that he will rule over all the earth. That’s the whole point repeated time after time after time in the scriptures. And yet the church today is just blind to this fact.

And we limit the sunship of God—of Jesus being the son of God—to a mere statement of his divinity. Its divinity come manifest in the context of the earth and ruling the earth. And again, “I will be to him as a father and he shall be to me a son.” And then in verse 13 of Hebrews 1: “And to which of the angels has he ever said, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.’” Psalm 110, Psalm 2—that’s what’s quoted here. The most quoted Psalms in the New Testament. Why? Because they point to the coming of Christ. They point to his becoming the son of God in a sense that he now exercises rule and reign over all the earth.

Very important not to just fly by this reference in the letter to the church at Thyatira of Christ’s sunship. It is central to what he is telling the church at Thyatira. The standard that they have failed to meet in not exercising rule over Jezebel and her band, and the means by which they shall do that—he shall give them rule and reign over all the nations.

So Jesus is the son of God, and when you read that here, say he is the king. He’s the messianic king of all kings. And this king has eyes like a flame of fire. Going back now to the text in Revelation 2, verse 18 and following: verse 18, he’s the son of God. He’s king. And he has eyes like unto a flame of fire. They see everywhere. And you remember, the eyes are watcher eyes. They evaluate. They discern. They see what’s going on behind closed doors. And they move. They bring fire down to burn it up—the bad stuff.

And his feet are like fine brass. One other thing I didn’t mention there: remember Joshua. Jesus is the greater Joshua. Wherever Joshua’s foot went, that was his. God says you’re going to conquer that territory. And Jesus’s two feet come down in the book of Revelation—the greater Joshua—one on the land and one on the sea. And that is all there is. And what we have here: so he’s king over all things with these two feet like fine brass, bringing altar fire from heaven to earth and declaring his kingship.

Verse 19: “I know thy works, charity, faith, service, patience, and thy works that the last are more than the first.”

Okay, so he says, “I know your works.” And then he tells us what those works are. Works are not separate—that’s a delineation of what the works of the church were. And this is a great time, a great message of preparation—to look at our lives.

What were their works? Love or charity. Their works were faith. And their works were service. The word service here is like deacon. The deacons are pictures of service to the Lord Jesus Christ and secondarily to his body in terms of the church. And then patience.

So the centrality of what this church did well then was that they had faith, they had love, and they had a faith and love that worked. Faith without works is dead. If you say you love your brother, but if you say you love God and don’t serve your brother, that’s a lie too. Love without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. Biblical faith, biblical love serves others—not yourself—serves Jesus ultimately but should do that by serving other people, the elect. And they do it with endurance.

You know, faith, hope, and love, right? Well, that’s—I could, we won’t go to the scriptures, but endurance is always tied to hope. Our hope is the basis for our endurance—our staying under suffering while it’s there, okay. So they worked in an enduring, patient fashion. And then this is summed up again. And not only are you doing this—you’ve got this faith and love that works and you’re enduring things—but you’re doing things better now than you started with. He says the last is better than the first.

These guys are maturing, and we have to be maturing Christians, okay.

Notwithstanding this, verse 20, “I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel who called herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication.”

Now I don’t know. It could be that there was a woman at this church who was teaching these things. And of course, right away, just as Eve should have known when she saw the snake—the serpent speaking—that something was a mess, the people at Thyatira, just by letting a woman teach, had violated the command word of God. I don’t know that’s specifically what happened.

Overall, what’s going on here is that there’s a portion of the church that has become not the bride of Christ, but is actually the harlot. And you remember we talked about Jezebel being the maturation of compromise. You begin by compromising—Ahab married to Jezebel to get balance of power and keep peace in the context of the different nations of the earth, etc.—but there is no compromise with evil because they will eat you up if you don’t defeat them. If you don’t conquer the world, Christian, the world will conquer you.

What the picture of Jezebel is: foreign domination of Israel and the church of Jesus Christ—or the church rather of the Old Testament that failed to accept Christ. They were now Jezebel, okay.

Let me read you a portion and I—we talked a lot about Jezebel a couple weeks ago. Let me read you a scripture from the book of Jeremiah. Give me a moment to find it. Okay. Jeremiah, why don’t you turn to this text? Jeremiah chapter 4.

The whole land shall be desolate, yet will I not make a full end. For this shall the earth mourn and the heavens above be black because I have spoken it. I have purposed it and will not repent. Neither will I turn back from it. The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowman. See, they heard him coming like Jezebel heard Jehu coming. Israel hears God’s punishment coming upon it.

“The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowman. They shall go into thickets and climb up upon the rocks. Every city shall be forsaken and not a man dwell therein. And when thou art spoiled, what will you do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou decks thyself with ornaments of gold, though thou rent—thou rentest thy face with painting—in vain shalt thou make thyself fair. Thy lovers will despise thee. They will seek thy life.”

Remember what Jezebel did? Jehu’s coming. So she paints herself up to remind him of her royalty. And maybe there’s some seduction going on. She paints herself up and puts on these fine garments. And that’s just what Israel is described as doing here in Jeremiah 4. She’s become Jezebel. And in Revelation, it’ll say the same thing about the harlot. She’s all pretty and wanted by the lovers of all the earth, but they’re going to turn on her and they’re going to be God’s instrument of judgment against Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Just like Jehu was the instrument of God’s judgment. And just like here in Jeremiah, the people that come to take them into captivity were the judgment.

“Even though you make yourself fair, her lovers will despise thee. Your lovers will despise thee. They will seek thy life. That’s Revelation. That’s what happens to Jerusalem. Their lovers, the Romans, the other nations would grow would end up by despising her. For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion that bewails herself.”

So point is that Jeremiah draws that connection that tells us that Jezebel is the Jerusalem church—the church of the Old Testament who refused to accept Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. So it’s the Judaizing influence, just like remember Balaam and the Nicolaitans are all the Judaizing influence. It’s the false church, okay.

What’s the idolatry involved then? What idol did the Jews who were persecuting the Christians by means of the state—what idol did they worship? They worshiped the beast, the beast was Rome. Because they said, “We have no king but Caesar.” When push came to shove, for the Jews who rejected Christ, they worshiped the beast Caesar, not the Lord Jesus Christ. And what was the image of the beast to them? It was the temple. The temple had become an idol to them.

And the temple, we could go to the references, but the temple, you know, talks in Revelation about having life breathed into it the way an idol would. They became idolatrous. So they’re going to the same place that God had dwelt in, but he was now gone. Jesus was gone, and they went there idolatrously, and the temple became a symbol of Rome.

In a way, it always had been because Herod built it. As we learned Friday night, again, it’s the picture of Roman oppression of the Jews, and they’re worshiping the beast Rome ultimately—Satan who lies behind Rome—through the idolatry of the temple worship they continued to engage in even though the end of the temple had come in the portion and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So when we read here in Revelation that there is this woman Jezebel who teaches my servants to break the law—to eat things sacrificed unto idols—it really is talking about those Old Testament feasts that they continued to think would give grace from on high, and they wouldn’t. They’d become idolatrous.

Verse 21: “I gave her space to repent of her fornication.”

God is so gracious, isn’t he? He is so long-suffering. Remember Ahab? Ahab made a famed repentance and God put off his judgment for years. God is so gracious, so long-suffering, even to a Jezebel, the maturation of evil. He gave her time to repent and her children time to repent, but they didn’t repent.

So Jezebel and all her three children were slayed in a terrible way. And God says here that he’s going to cast her into her bed and them that commit adultery with her. You know, she—there’s no picture of Jezebel in the historical record of the Old Testament that talks about her lying around with a bunch of guys and being a prostitute or an adulteress that way. It’s her false religion that makes her an adulterer.

And if you think somehow that if a person lies with the woman, it somehow is a lot worse than forsaken cult idol down the road here called the Mormon church, you’re wrong. That place is filled with adultery. The scriptures say they’re adulterers. I don’t care what their sexual morality is. Ultimately, the more important thing behind the sexual morality is the adultery of idolatry. And that’s what they do down there. So be warned. You may keep yourself from sexual sin, but be warned that you keep yourself from idolatry—of the empty worship of Christ when your life does not reflect the love of Christ nor the works that he has called us to do.

Great days of preparation are upon us. Great celebration in this text, but great cause for concern and great deal of preparation in terms of hearing the word of God.

“Behold, I cast her into a bed that commit adultery with her into great tribulation. Here’s the great tribulation. You know, when the great tribulation happened, it was then. He told Thyatira, “You’re going to be cast into the great tribulation.” That’s a reminder of Jezebel and those terrible days of the Old Testament, but the greatest tribulation was A.D. 70, the past.