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Corruption without Discernment
Revelation 2:18-29
Skip Heitzig

Revelation 2 (NKJV™)
18 "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, 'These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass:
19 "I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first.
20 "Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.
21 "And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.
22 "Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds.
23 "I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works.
24 "Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden.
25 "But hold fast what you have till I come.
26 "And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations--
27 'He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels'-- as I also have received from My Father;
28 "and I will give him the morning star.
29 "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."'

New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved.

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66 Revelation - History's Last Chapter - 1996

The book of Revelation exalts Jesus Christ as the soon-coming Lord over the earth. Skip Heitzig explains the amazing and mysterious prophecies that form God's final word to mankind.

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America is increasingly becoming a very spiritual country but it's not a revival of the old time religion, though it sounds great, 'Hey, we're becoming more spiritual,' it's not always the good kind of spirituality. People are open to anything it seems. More on the fringe, here's an article from the Hollywood Reporter that is fringe. There's a new church in Portland, Oregon, according to this article, it's called The Church of Kurt Cobain. It is a nondenominational church. It is named after the rock singer who committed suicide in 1994. The pastor and founder is Jim Dillon. He says, "This is a serious thing. This is not a joke. The church hopes to find meaning in the lyrics and the tragic life of Kurt Cobain." If you cruise the World Wide Web, the superhighway, a couple of fans have established the First International Church of Tori, named after folk rocker Tori Amos. On this internet site, they feature a bulletin board called the Altar Room and fans share their testimonies of how Tori has changed their lives. One fan writes, "You know me better than I know myself and you saved me." Another fan wrote, "Now I thank my savior, idol, and my inspiration, Tori Amos." She has been known for her disturbing lyrics as well as her theology. What's ironic is that she's the daughter of a Baltimore, Maryland minister who, in a recent interview with Spin Magazine, said, "I wanted to marry Lucifer even though I had a crush on Jesus."

There was a church, the church of Thyatira, mentioned now here in Revelation chapter two, who had problems with a woman they were tolerating. They were tolerating her false doctrine. What's more, they had no discernment; nobody seemed disturbed about what she was doing, what she was teaching. It was immoral. And so Jesus writes a letter. It's the longest letter of all of these seven letters and yet, Thyatira was the smallest city of all of the seven cities. In fact, many scholars wonder why Jesus bothered writing such a long letter to such an out-of-the-way place. It was way out on the plain. Nobody really went to it. It had a few temples, it had a few notable things, but it was such a small place. You know, you can have big problems in small places. Sometimes we think, if I could just leave the city and find a small country environment where everybody's holy and perfect. Or if I could find a smaller church where people are different. Listen, corruption is universal. You'll find it everywhere. Whether it's a small-scale or a large-scale.

A few things about Thyatira. It was known as a commercial city. That is, it had numerous guilds. If you wanted to work, you had to belong to a union. If you were a cobbler, you belonged to the cobbler's guild. If you were a potter, to the potter's guild. If you worked with bronze, to the bronze worker's guild. Each guild had its temple; each temple had its god. So if you wanted to belong to that guild, you had to be involved in some of that system. It was also known for its wool, a special kind of wool. It was purple wool. Thyatira was the center of the most expensive kind of garments in that part of the world and they would take a special shellfish from the Mediterranean Sea called the murex and extract purple dye drop by drop and dye wool with it. It cost about $300 to dye one pound of wool. And we know of a woman who did this. Her name was Lydia. And we read about her in the book of Acts. She was Paul's first convert in Europe. She's called "a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple from Thyatira." It's the only other time this church is really mentioned, given any notoriety, is that Lydia, the first convert, was from there. Probably she went back to Thyatira and was part of the influence to get a church started.

Also, for the sake of background, it'll come in handy; there was a temple for fortune-tellers. Sort of like their ancient equivalent of the 1-900 Psychic Hotline and there was a woman who presided over it as the chief prophetess or oracle. Now in verse 18, where we begin, the Judge is introduced: "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, 'These things says the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: "I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first. Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds."

Right off the bat, we see that this letter is a little firmer; it's a little more radical in approach. It's approached with judgment this time. Jesus' words are more severe. There were times when my parents were very tender to me and there were times when they were more severe with me, depending on me. Not their mood as much as my behavior. Most of the time parents address their kids by the first name. But if kids are really bad, do you notice how parents like to say first, middle, and last name in their approach? They're still their parents, those kids are still their kids, but their approach is a little bit different. My brother Bob would always get into trouble and have this happen to him. I remember overhearing, Bob? Bob? And if he was really bad, Robert Michael Heitzig! And I thought, uh-oh, he really did something bad. Because the approach of my parents. It could be that we brought a snake inside the house that we found outside or my brother would throw me through a window or I'd chase him with a knife. You know, all the things that boys and girls do when they're young.

The approach then would be stern but the relationship was always there. And sometimes God's approach to us nice and warm and loving and other times it's still loving, but it's firm. It is disciplinary. It shouldn't shock us. The writer of Hebrews says, 'Do not despise the chastening of the Lord nor be discouraged. For whom the Lord loves, He chastens. He reproves or rebukes every son whom He receives.' Jesus is introduced to this church as the Son of God, it's the only time in Revelation this term is used. It speaks here of authority. The Son of God is coming to you and He comes with two elements. Two elements from the vision in chapter one. Remember we said that every time Jesus introduces Himself to a church, He pulls something out of the vision John saw in chapter one. The two things that Jesus brings from that vision are eyes of burning fire and feet of brass, which speaks of judgment. He is coming with the penetrating gaze. He is walking through the midst of the church in judgment.

One day Jesus will look at you. His eyes will be looking at you. You'll see Him face-to-face. But I don't want to see this kind of look. Again, I still remember the gaze of my father. He had a certain look about him; do you know what I mean? Did your Dad have the same look? And just by that look I thought, 'He's like looking through me. He's reading my soul, so to speak.' The other day I was listening as I thought I heard my son trying to sneak a snack from the pantry. And I turned around the corner of my study and sure enough, there he was slowly opening the door, going for the tootsie rolls. I don't mind him having them. If he would've asked me, I would've said, sure. But he didn't ask; he tried to sneak. But I was kind of behind him just watching. Suddenly he turned his head a little bit to the left and saw that gaze and he went, 'Ahh!' It's funny. Sometimes people will be having a conversation or doing something and let's say I'm in that store or out in the community and all of a sudden they realize, 'That's Skip,' and they get a little nervous because of what they're saying or what they're doing or what they're drinking or whatever. I'm thinking, 'Why should I make you nervous? God's been watching all the time. He hasn't made you nervous?' Do you think you get by with anything from the gaze of God? The writer of Hebrews said, 'All things are open and naked before the eyes of the One of whom we must give an account.' You're not pulling anything off.

The church is observed in the next several verses. We read a little bit about it and something to notice, Jesus takes a sandwich approach. If you counsel anybody, mark this approach. He doesn't come in and say, 'Ok. I've got something against you.' He first says, 'This is what I like about you.' And He closes by saying, 'Listen. You don't have to go this way.' They're words of positivity and words of encouragement. And then He gives the rebuke in between. Let's see what He approves of. He says, "I know your works," verse nineteen, "Love, service, faith, and your patience; and as for your works, the last are more than the first." That's a good list. Now He mentions their service. Deacon comes from this word. The word deacon does not mean a paid professional or somebody who's elevated on a pedestal. It means somebody who spontaneously, voluntarily will show his love to another person by serving the needs of another person. That's what it means. One who gives his love in service for another. One of the marks of the world is they are self-absorbed. Their life is spent on them: what about me, what about my needs, is the cry of the modern man. And I've always been interested to see sort of how this trend has been seen in our society in the magazine racks. In the 1950s, we came up with Life Magazine, this generic look at life. After several years, we started developing People Magazine; let's just focus in life on people. The last several years has been the magazine Us. So from Life to People to Us and now there's Self Magazine. Listen, if you want to beat this whole thing and kind of have the next magazine that's going to really take over, call it Me. That's where we're going--from Life to People to Self is the trend of our society.

But the church, on the other hand, was always known for its tender care for other people. They loved people; they served people. Jesus said, 'I notice that about you. You have that voluntary spontaneous love that is demonstrated because love was always demonstrated in practical service.' Around 200 AD, an unbeliever in observing the Christian church wrote a letter about their fellowship. He said, 'It is incredible to see the fervor with which these people of that religion help each other in their needs. They spare nothing, for Jesus has put it into their heads that they are brethren.' Now not only did they have the patience and the love and the works and all this good stuff, but it was something that was increasing. Verse nineteen, toward the end: "As for your works, the last are more than the first." They learned the vital lesson that the Christian life is not static, but it is growth. It's developing. It was an increasing kind of a thing. Whenever you try to coast or put it on cruise control, your Christian life goes backwards. You can't coast if you're bicycling uphill. You can't coast. You won't coast forward, you'll coast backwards. And they learned that it has to be something where they are growing.

This brings up a question. So far we've got a profile of a great group of people. Love, patience, all this stuff Jesus mentioned. An increase in works. With a profile like that, with a church with that kind of a personality, how is it possible that they would be guilty of the charges He's about to bring against them? In fact, let's read those charges. "Nevertheless I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent. Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds." How is it that a church that was that awesome could be thus indicted? And I can only think of one answer. The answer is this. The church was active in works, but it was not bound completely to the Word. Yes, they were interested in social action, but to them social action superseded discernment. Discernment had become a dirty word. There was corruption without discernment. Notice how Jesus crafts His accusation. "You allow this woman." You allow it. The idea is that you are tolerating something. It's not that you are ignorant and I'm bringing this suddenly to your attention. You've known about it all along and you're letting it go on. You're allowing somebody in your midst to teach the opposite of what I've taught you, which is to be holy. Here is a gal who's teaching moral laxness and you see it and you know it and you don't do anything about it.

It seems that there was a gal called Jezebel, I think that's really her spiritual nickname, rather than her real name. In fact, some people think that she was that prophetess from the temple of the fortune tellers that had some kind of a conversion, quote-unquote. Her name was Sambathe and she had some kind of a conversion experience, so to speak, she was allowed into the church and because she was so notable in the community they let her teach. And she taught that which was false. Notice something else about her in these phrases. She calls herself a prophetess, Jesus said. It's not that the church said, 'Here's a leader that we designate. She's passed the character test; she's passed the doctrine test.' She came along and called herself a prophetess. Very easy to do. 'I have a word from God.' Well how do I know you're from God? 'Don't you touch God's anointed. I said so.' Well so what? Anybody can be self-authenticating. And this woman was self-authenticating. Drew a crowd aside and said, 'I have a message from God. I am called of God.' But it wasn't by the local leadership. It was self-appointed. You know, sometimes Christians get intimidated by people like this. A person will say, 'God spoke to me and He has a message for you.' Instead of saying, 'Now wait a minute. How do I know that?' Somehow it's unspiritual to be discerning. You just have to go along and go, 'Ok. Well, praise God. You know, whatever He has, I'll be open because I don't want to fight against God.' Now I'm not saying you should fight against God, I'm not saying that you should be judgmental. I'm saying don't be gullible.

Ephesus had discernment and Jesus commended them for it. This church has no discernment and Jesus goes against them. Now why is she called Jezebel? Well notice it says because she's teaching and seducing My servants, says Jesus, to commit sexual immorality. In other words, she's very much like the woman in the Old Testament named Jezebel. She fits the character description to a tee. Let me tell you about Jezebel in the Old Testament. You remember reading about her; she was married to a guy named Ahab. A wicked and, I would add a spineless dude. Very much was Ahab like the church in Thyatira because his wife sort of wore the pants in the family spiritually and in every other way and he just said, 'Yes, dear.' 'I'd like to have a temple to these false gods.' 'Yes, dear.' 'And I'd like you to kill the prophets of God.' 'Yes, dear.' Her father was a pagan priest of the Sidonians. She was a foreigner and she brought a false worship system into Israel. Here was the clincher: she didn't come on the scene and say, 'My religion is better than your religion, thus let's get rid of the Hebrew religion and establish the worship of Ashtoreth.' No what she said is, 'Let's combine them. Let's synchronize them. Let's bring in false worship and mix it with true worship.' And that was the reason that she caused all of Israel to fall into idolatry.

Well this gal in the church at Thyatira much like Jezebel. Did the same thing. She was teaching, she was seducing people to commit sexual immorality. If I were to paint a composite picture of probably what happened, it's this: if you work in this city, you have to belong to a trade guild. To belong to a trade guild because if you want to work, you have to belong to one. That means you have to come to some of the feasts in the temples. They're going to cut an animal and sacrifice it to an idol and there will be a little bit of immorality and drunkenness, but if you want a job you better be there. And probably she thought all in the name of, we've got to keep our job so we have to go along with all of that false stuff. The modern equivalent of the church of Thyatira or Jezebel would be somebody who would say, 'Let's mix other religions with Christianity. Let's put it all together and not make Christianity exclusive because we all have a part of God, a part of the truth. So we'll all be together.' Some churches mix occultism with Christianity. There are new age churches, so called. There are crystal churches. There are metaphysical churches. The worship that Jezebel in this church was trying to push would be like somebody saying, 'Well you can be a Christian and still be a transcendental meditator or Zen Buddhist or anything else. In fact, these other disciplines will help you in your spirituality.' There's a big push these days toward that, isn't there? Generic spirituality.

From an article in a local newspaper new age author Ann Carson advised people on how to couch, as she said, their pagan philosophy by using the right words. She says, "Use the language of diplomacy. Say 'prayer' not 'magick' or 'spell'." Let me say a prayer over you. No thanks. Say prayer instead of magick or spell. "Say ceremony but not ritual." She says, "That way I can tell my aunt that we had a blessing ceremony for our infant daughter under the auspices of a Dutch Reformed minister leaving out the invocation of the four elements, the sprinkling of cornmeal, and the bastes of the spirit name--all things which are occultist." Let's pause for a minute before we move into this text a little more. I'm making a plea for discernment. For people who would be bold enough to say, 'I'm not ashamed of the truth. I'm not ashamed of drawing a distinguishing line and saying that's false; that's error. This is truth.' That is so lacking in the church today. It seems like the cool thing is to blur the lines and have many shades of grey but not black and white.

John wrote to the early church and he said, 'Brethren, beloved, do not believe every spirit.' First John chapter 4 verse one. 'But test the spirits and see whether they are of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.' Goodness. If he said that 2,000 years ago and many false prophets had already gone out by then, what about now? Many false prophets have gone out into the world. Do you know there's a spiritual gift called the gift of discernment? Pray for it. It's the ability to distinguish between truth and error. When somebody claims, 'I'm inspired. I've got divine revelation.' We have to learn to discern. To not be gullible. Just because a guy wears a collar, carries a Bible, is on national television, has a radio program, smiles, knocks on your door, rides a bicycle, or whatever else does not necessarily mean they are representing the true God. I'm not saying everybody who says that they are automatically write off; I'm saying learn to discern. Discernment had become a dirty word in this church. Don't let it be a dirty word in your vocabulary. It's not wrong to discriminate. Jesus said, 'Judge ye a righteous judgment.' Do you? This church did not.

In fact, Jesus said, 'Beware of false prophets. They come to you," in what kind of clothing? Sheep's clothing. You see, false prophets don't wear badges that say, 'I am a false prophet.' They do not knock on your door or get on the television and say, 'I am your local neighborhood deceiver. Could have a few minutes of your time to rip you off spiritually?' That's not going to happen. They're going to use the names and the words and all of the Christianese. They're going to speak sheep talk. They're going to, 'Baaaa.' And you're going to go, 'They speak my language! They're also sheep!' Jesus said beware of them. Remember the Wizard of Oz? As that little band of four look up and they see that big face with the smoke and they start shaking. And little Toto goes over to where the curtain is and gently pulls back the curtain and they see that guy who is behind the controls making this face move. And the man behind the curtain sees that they see him and what does he say? 'Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.' That's what wolves do! Pay no attention to the wolf behind the sheep's clothing. No, pay attention to the man behind the curtain. Look deeply; test them.

You say, well how can I tell one? Let me give you three easy tests that you can apply to anyone who says anything in the name of God. Number one, it's the test of character. Paul spoke about having the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is just the character of Christ that's developed in a disciple of Jesus Christ by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Look at the character. Not, 'wow, he's got a great message.' What does he live like? The test of character. This woman Jezebel had a loose character. There was no evidence of fruit. People want to see truth. Next there's the test of creed. What do they teach? What do they say? Especially what do they say about Jesus? Who was He? A god, a good guy, or was He God the Son come in human flesh? What do they say about the work of Jesus Christ? That His death paid the penalty for the sins of the world that whoever would call on Him would have everlasting life? Are they adding, well, you have Jesus, but you need this, too? What do they say about Jesus Christ? Many people like Jezebel worship the Jesus of the broad road, not the Jesus of the New Testament who said, 'It's a narrow gate.' They would say, 'Well, Jesus and metaphysics. Jesus and this.' Remember Paul wrote to the Galatians? And he said, 'I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you to a different gospel which is not another but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.' Listen to his follow-up: 'But even though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.' That is strong language. Test what they are like in character; test their creed.

There's a very dramatic example of this. A guy by the name of Victor Ernest wrote a book called I Talked with Spirits. Because he did. He was a spiritist. He was an occultist. And while he was still an unbeliever, he happened to be reading the New Testament and he came across 1 John 4: 'Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test them and see whether they are of God.' So he thought, 'Fair enough. I'll try it.' He came to a séance, the medium that was in the trance overtaken by a spirit, the spirit supposedly spoke through her and said, 'I'll grant each of you three questions.' It sounded, I know, like a genie, but it's not. He thought, this has never happened before in any of the séances that I've been involved in. So he started asking probing questions. His first question: Is Jesus Christ the Son of God? There was a smooth yes affirmation through this medium by this spirit. He thought, well, that's interesting and he asked a second question: Do you believe Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world? At this point, the spirit through the medium rebuked him for his doubt. Finally, his third question was this: Spirit, do you believe Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that Jesus Christ was the Savior of the world, that He died on the cross and shed His blood for the remission of sins? Victor Ernest said at this point the medium was hurled to the floor from her chair and broke the trance. He thought, that's it. Something's wrong. He never went to a séance again. In fact, he's now a pastor. He was converted but he tested the spirits to see whether they were of God.

Third test is the test of converts. You listen to what they say and look at their lifestyle, but then watch the fruit blossom. Don't make a judgment in wintertime. Wait until the spring and you see the blossoming effect of the followers who are listening to this person or this teaching. In the case of Thyatira, this woman's teaching led to a spiritual seduction. Caused others to commit sexual immorality and be turned away. This is what Paul meant when he wrote to Timothy and he said about false prophets, 'Their message will spread just like a cancer.' In other words, the walks will be eroded. The walk of faith will be eroded. Now before we jump in to the rest of this and bring it to a close, many scholars look at the church of Thyatira prophetically, just as the church of Ephesus was the apostolic church, the church of Smyrna was the persecuted church from the 2nd to the 4th century and then there was the church that married itself to the world. They see now historically the church of Thyatira was that church that once they got entrenched with the world and brought in a lot of the pagan systems, started getting involved in weird practices. There was a time in church history when they called the church, 'mother church' and referred to her as a woman, as their mother, the church. They got involved with image worship and superstition; they became bound to it. And many scholars see a correlation there.

Let's finally close up with the admonishment that Jesus gives to these folks. In verse twenty-one, "I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent." What He does is first address the followers of this woman and the woman herself. Speaking to the church but about this group. 'I gave her time to repent and she didn't.' And Jesus says because they didn't repent, they're in big trouble. You know that Jesus doesn't like to judge. When you read this don't think, 'See? God is always judging people. Point His finger at them and say I'm mad at you' He said I tried to get them to turn and repent. The Bible says God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. That's what He wanted them to do. But that's not what she wanted to do. She didn't want to turn; she wanted to stay exactly in the place that she was at. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, do you remember? O Jerusalem! How often I would have gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks but you were not willing. I'm sure Jesus looks at America the same way. How often and yet you were not willing. And so the message here is 'I will cast her,' verse twenty-two, 'into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and the hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works."

What does that mean? I'm going to cast you into great tribulation? It could mean a few things. Number one, in the immediate sense, it could refer to persecution by the Roman government. It could mean secondly, in the moral sense, that you will reap the repercussions for your sexual immorality (i.e. disease, suffering). I'll cast you in a sickbed. You love the bed? Wait until you see the bed I've got for you. I'll simply let you take what is naturally occurring if you're involved in sexually immoral behavior. Gonorrhea and syphilis were very common diseases and very widespread during that time. And it could be that He's referring to that. You want sexual freedom? Well look what happens. Now those of us who grew up in the sixties and seventies remember the sexual revolution. Forget man, what everybody else says, the older generation, they're so stiff. Free love! You know that we were sold a bill of goods? It's like the real estate guys, have I got a deal for you--choice land. You find out it's swamp in the Everglades. You think, you know, I've been ripped off because after all of the revolution and free love, look at the children who will follow those precepts. There's no utopia for them. They're crying out in misery. And that could be what Jesus refers to here. Tribulation in the moral sense.

Or number three, tribulation in the prophetic sense. He could be referring to the great tribulation, the period of judgment on the earth, saying that this system, this church system, will last all the way until the end. The reason I bring that up is look at verse twenty-five: "But hold fast what you have till I come." In other words, this system will be in operation at the time that He comes. And He's saying to some, hold fast, don't get involved in that. Either way you slice it, He's saying, you're going to get afflicted. Don't do that. And we'll close with what He says to the faithful followers. Verse twenty-four: "Now to you I say, and to the rest in Thyatira, as many as do not have this doctrine, who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say, I will put on you no other burden. But hold fast what you have till I come. And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations--'He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels'--I also have received 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."

He promises authority. It's a quote out of Psalm 2. Jesus will rule with a rod of iron in the millennium. A thousand years of peace upon the earth. We'll get to this and develop it later on in Revelation. Jesus says, look, stick with Me, man. If you stick with Me, you will rule with Me and reign with Me for 1,000 years. Even as been prophesied that My Father would give Me a kingdom--you will share in that glory with Me. He finally closes off with saying, I'll give you the morning star, verse twenty-eight. I'll give you the morning star. That's a symbol obviously, and the question is what exactly does He mean? In Revolution 22, we find the answer, just like in school. The answers are always in the back of the book. In Revelation 22, I quote out of verse 16, 'I Jesus have sent My angel to testify to you the things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the Bright and the Morning Star.' I'll give you the morning star. Now I think to unlock the interpretation of what He's saying, you need to see it in its context. Back in verse 24, He says, 'to the rest I say and to you as many as of not this doctrine who do not know the depths of Satan as they say.' It was common practice by false religious groups in that time to speak about having the deep things of God. The Gnostics used to say that. Well I know you're a Christian and you go to this church but if you really want to know the deep things of God and true spiritual stuff that none of the other Christians really have but us, come to our group. We have the depths of God. And no doubt, these people of Thyatira who followed Jezebel would say, we have grace, we really understand what the depths of God are. Jesus said, the depths of Satan, you mean? Let me correct you on that. They talk about having this depth. Jesus said, I'll give you the morning star.

In other words, when you have Me you don't need anything else. And I will come for you. They will be cast into tribulation. I will come for you. I'll give you the morning star. That was good news to this group. They needed discernment. Where does discernment fit into your scale of important attributes for a Christian to have? Jesus said to the church of Ephesus, I commend that you are intolerant of evil and false teaching. To the church of Thyatira, He said, you got a lot of good stuff happening. But your problem is you don't have discernment on that which is evil. There is a fish in Central America and South America, lives in the rivers. It's a minnow-like fish. They call it Four Eyes. Not because it wears contacts or glasses but the way it lives is a fitting description of how Christians ought to live and process what is called truth. You see, Four Eyes travels through the water with his big, bulging eyes half of which are in the air above the surface of the water, half of which are below the surface. Interesting composite. It's got an air lens on top, sort of like bifocals, and a water lens on the bottom. So it can go through the water and see any predators above the water and see below the surface as well. Because sometimes predators aren't always readily seen. That's how we should process what people say, this is from God. Well great. My eyes are open. I'll take it at surface, face value. But then I'll also look to the depths in the underworld, below the surface to see what it's really like. That's how we ought to live our lives. The church of Thyatira did not. Let's overcome that.

Additional Messages in this Series

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6/9/1996
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Good News from a Bad Place
Revelation 1:1-8
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6/16/1996
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Catapulted into the Future
Revelation 1:9-20
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6/23/1996
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When Love Grows Cold
Revelation 2:1-7
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6/30/1996
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Postcard to Those in Pain
Revelation 2:8-11
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7/7/1996
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The Curse of Compromise
Revelation 2:12-17
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7/21/1996
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Church of the Living Dead
Revelation 3:1-6
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7/28/1996
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Body Building - God's Way
Revelation 3:7-13
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The human body has become the obsession of our modern culture. Much like the ancient Greeks, people are madly trying to fit the contemporary ideal of what is an acceptable shape and size. The church is metaphorically called the "Body of Christ" and His desire is to see it built up spiritually. The church of Philadelphia is a good model of a healthy, faithful church. Their example provides for us a template to follow in building up the Body - God's Way!
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8/19/1996
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Taking Your Spiritual Temperature
Revelation 3:14-22
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Ever since we were kids our moms stuck thermometers in our mouths whenever she suspected that we were sick. If our body temperature of 98.6 had climbed up just a few notches, it was always a good indication that an unhealthy condition was present. There is also a spiritual temperature that reveals the condition of our souls, and when the thermometer reads Lukewarm it indicates that something is wrong; it indicates the presence of danger. Let's see how Jesus, the Great Physician, treats his patient with this malady.
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8/25/1996
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Peeking into the Portals of Heaven
Revelation 4
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9/1/1996
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History's Greatest Real Estate Deal
Revelation 5:1-7
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9/8/1996
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Worship His Majesty - Part 1
Revelation 5:8-10
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In heaven there won’t be just three services in the morning and one at night with a midweek tacked on. There will be no need to be sensitive to time so we can go to lunch. Words will not have to be printed nor projected. Worship leaders will have no need prompting people to sing. It will be an all-consuming experience that will involve our total cooperation and enthusiasm.
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9/15/1996
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Worship His Majesty - Part 2
Revelation 5:11-14
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9/29/1996
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Four Riders with Bad News
Revelation 6:1-8
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10/6/1996
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The Cries of Heaven and Earth
Revelation 6:9-17
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10/13/1996
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A Blessed Interruption in a Tough Time
Revelation 7
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10/20/1996
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Trumpets of Doom
Revelation 8
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10/27/1996
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When All Hell Breaks Loose
Revelation 9:1-12
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11/3/1996
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Angels of Mass Destruction
Revelation 9:13-21
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11/10/1996
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A Big Angel with a Little Book
Revelation 10
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11/17/1996
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Two Powerful Preachers
Revelation 11:1-14
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11/24/1996
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Light at the End of the Tunnel
Revelation 11:15-19
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12/1/1996
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The Panorama of Spiritual Warfare - Part 1
Revelation 12:1-6
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12/8/1996
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The Panorama of Spiritual Warfare - Part 2
Revelation 12:7-17
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There aren't many people who like to fight. Confrontation is something most would like to avoid. But in the spiritual realm it's unavoidable. The question isn't, "Will I engage in spiritual warfare?" Rather, the question is, "How well will I fight?" As we saw last week, the war in the heavens makes its way to the theater of the earth. Let's see what else it entails.
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12/15/1996
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The Coming Global Leader
Revelation 13:1-10
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12/22/1996
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Evil's Right-Hand-Man
Revelation 13:11-18
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12/29/1996
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The Lamb Who Shepherds His People
Revelation 14:1-5
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After all that john has seen in his apocalyptic vision, seeing the docility of a lamb standing with his overcoming sheep is a welcomed sight. Although the dragon pursues god's people relentlessly, although the beasts are bent on ruling the earth, the ultimate winner will be the lamb and his followers.
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1/5/1997
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Angels Set The Record Straight
Revelation 14:6-13
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1/12/1997
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It's Harvest Time!
Revelation 14:14-20
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One of the most common ways to make a living in ancient times was to "work the land." The early rains of October/November and the soft latter rains produced the wheat and barley harvest later on. Also, when vintage season began, almost the whole village could be found in the fields harvesting the crop. Such images would also provide a poignant way of depicting the final judgment of the earth, as in this section.
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1/17/1997
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Getting Ready for the Grand Finale
Revelation 15:1-8
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1/26/1997
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What's in the Bowl? - Part 1
Revelation 16:1-11
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We now come to the "seven last plagues" of God in the Great Tribulation that is coming upon planet earth. These judgments come in the form of "bowls" being poured out swiftly and completely-the judgment will be swift and thorough. Yet through all the mercy as Well as wrath of this awesome era, people will persist in having a hardened heart. Open your heart 'right now to these truths.
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2/2/1997
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What's in the Bowl? - Part 2
Revelation 16:12-21
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What will the end of the world be like? What are the final events just before Jesus returns and takes over to set up His millennial reign? That's what this section tells us. There will be increased warfare activity in the Middle East, massive deception, and unheard of destructive cataclysms on earth. In the midst of foretelling these events, Jesus has a word of encouragement.
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2/9/1997
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The Coming World Religion
Revelation 17
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It was Karl Marx who stated, no doubt cynically, that religion was the opiate of the masses. The fact is, he was right-it is! People are driven to worship something or someone. This desire will be exploited to the hilt in the Tribulation period and will be under the umbrella of the world dictator-the Antichrist. What are its roots and how does it end?
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2/16/1997
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Get out of Babylon!
Revelation 18
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Someone once said, "Money can't buy you friends but your enemies treat you a little better." Though meant to be tongue-in­cheek, that won't happen when the entire world economy collapses. God's shakedown of the earth will include everything that the Antichrist's kingdom will embody, from the sacred to the secular.
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3/2/1997
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Marriage Made in Heaven
Revelation 19:1-10
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3/9/1997
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The Return of Jesus Christ - Part 1
Revelation 19
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Even in the dome of our capitol in Washington there is an inscription which seems to point to the return of Jesus Christ. It says: "One far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves." It is that event which we will be studying in the next two weeks. This is what all Christians of all ages have looked forward to - His return and reign of His creation.
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3/16/1997
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The Return of Jesus Christ - Part 2
Revelation 19
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Even in the dome of the capitol in Washington there is an inscription which seems to point to the return of Jesus Christ. It says: "one far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves." it is that event, that Christians of all ages have looked forward to-his return and reign of his creation. We will conclude our study of the return of Jesus Christ, today.
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4/6/1997
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Paradise Regained
Revelation 20:1-3
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4/13/1997
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The Devil's Last Stand
Revelation 20:1-10
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A typical question is, "Will evil ever get its reward?" What ever happened to ethics and justice? Well, we see here that God will not turn His back on this issue. He will deal with the source of all evil (the devil himself) and then judge those who revel in it. This section gives tremendous hope to anyone concerned about injustice in our world.
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4/20/1997
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Life, Death, and Resurrection
Revelation 20:5-6; 20:11-15
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5/4/1997
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All Things New - Part 1
Revelation 21:1-3
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5/11/1997
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All Things New - Part 2
Revelation 21:4-8
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"It's like nothing you've ever seen or experienced before." That's how John describes the emotional experience of heaven. So that we can relate, he tells us that all of the pain, sorrow, and moaning we've endured here won't be there. By the way, only those who want to go there will go there. Heaven is not a destination by default, reservations are made here and now!
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5/18/1997
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The City of the Future
Revelation 21:9-22:5
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There is no architect or builder like God himself. Even the patriarch Abraham "was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Heb. 11:10) he didn't find it in his lifetime. "You won't find you're "happily ever after" here either, but the New Jerusalem will be God's answer for man's longing to live in a perpetually peaceful stare.
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5/25/1997
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He's Coming - Now What!?
Revelation 22:6-21
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There are 43 additional messages in this series.
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