Open your Bibles to Revelation 2, and you see my message titled, The Tolerance of Transgression is Intolerable. Would you say that with me? The tolerance of transgression is intolerable. I hope that's catchy enough and we say it enough for it really to stick in your mind as we leave here this morning. You see, we're going to be in Revelation 2, verses 18 through 29, looking at the church in Thyatira. About a month ago, we began a study in the Book of Revelation. We're looking at the first three chapters and the messages Christ brings to the churches in Asia Minor. And we've looked at three of those letters. Let me give you the title slides that I've had. You Have Left Your First Love. That was the church in Ephesus, the first letter sent. And then to Smyrna, do not fear. Do not fear all the difficulties as you're going through them. Last Sunday we looked at the church in Pergamum under pressure to compromise and conform. So hopefully it's good just to review these churches and maybe each week you read through all these letters to review. And today it's the church in Thyatira. The tolerance of transgression is intolerable. So let me put up our map. We have a map here of Asia Minor, and John, when he wrote, was on the island of Patmos, and he wrote to these seven churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, and now today, Thyatira. And so that's the church we're looking at. We really aren't certain how it was established. Maybe those who Paul reached went on to establish a church here. Cities are oftentimes given labels, nicknames. Let me throw out a few cities and you tell me what they're known for. Detroit. Come on now. Detroit. The Motor City, come on, my Detroit Lions are playing, they're in the playoffs, how can we believe that? All right, there are things much better than that to get excited about, aren't there? But anyways, it's exciting, they are. Las Vegas. Philadelphia. Yeah, phileo, the Greek word for brotherly love. City of brotherly love, Charleston. I won't ask whoever said that to repeat it, but it's known as the Holy City because of all of our steeples. Well when it comes to Thyatira, I want to give you some sense of it, and I've called it the blue-collar city, and that's because of its manufacturing and its trade guilds. In Thyatira, they had many different kinds of manufacturing. There were woodworkers, tanners and leather workers, potters, bronze smiths, fabric workers. And Thyatira was probably best known for manufacturing a rich purple dye. And that's why I have this verse out of Acts 16 when Paul led Lydia to Christ. He was in Philippi and we read, a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics. And that's what the city was known for. And so, Tahitira was a blue-collar city, manufacturing trade guilds. And when we think of trade guilds, I don't want to draw a direct parallel, but we are probably safe to think of trade unions today, trade unions. And in these trade guilds, members would do the following. They were really like their little society that people existed within, that they would practice their trade together, and they would protect their trade together, regulate it. And then I've got here party together. And I only put party because it's the third P, and I wanted three P's. But really it is this idea of they would engage in festivals and feast together. And so that could be very problematic for a Christian in Thyatira who is a member of a trade guild. And maybe the most of them before coming to faith in Christ would have been members of some sort of trade guild. but a part of their membership and their belonging to one would be that they would have these festivities, these festivals, and they probably took place at the local temple, maybe the patron god to their guild, and they would be expected to enter into the sacrifices and probably the sexual immorality that took place. All right? So it could be very problematic. You're a part of this trade guild. It's your livelihood. And the expectation is that you, as a member of that guild, would enter into their different festivals or festivities. They're worshiping together. You see, if things didn't go well with the guild, maybe it was your fault because you weren't worshiping the God. We'll have none of that. None of that. Okay? So it helps you understand the city, the challenges being a believer there. And here's our outline, and it's common to a number of these churches that we have letters to. We're going to see there's an introduction. So the recipients will be identified, and then a statement concerning the author, who is Jesus Christ, right? These letters were written by Christ, penned down by John for the church's And there'll be a commendation, a corrective, and then motivation. And so that's, we're simply going to work through this. And let me say, as we get started, this is a very hard message. The message for the church in Thyatira basically is, or an element of it is, you need to shape up Christ as intolerant of your transgressions. And if you don't, it may result in your death. All right? Hard message. So if you've come to church this morning wanting some kind of, oh, build me up, make me feel great about life, this probably, you may want to leave now because this message is more of the, you better straighten your life out kind of message. We ready for it? Oh, not much energy there. Anyway, thank you, Jack, Dave. Well, let's look at the introduction. The recipients to the angel of the church in Thyatira, right? The angel's probably the leadership, the pastor. And then the author, the son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet are like burnished bronze, says this. And we know that this author is speaking of Christ, And this simple statement is taken from a much fuller statement in chapter one of the glorified Christ. When John is commissioned, he has this vision of the glorified Christ, and there's an extensive description given of Christ, and here we have a part of that description. And it's a part that relates to the church in Thyatira. All right? We need to tie these things together. And so the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire, probably speaking of his gaze, he sees all, he has this penetrating look. And then feet like burnished bronze, probably speaking of his purity. And so those ideas tied together seem to be speaking of Jesus Christ as judge. He is the judge, and relating that to the church in Thyatira, Christ not tolerating their sin. That's the idea. He has this penetrating gaze. He is the ultimate judge, and he does not tolerate sin. In fact, verse 23, notice verse 23. It says, and I will kill her children with pestilence. We'll look at that a little bit. And all the churches will know. What are the churches going to know? You see, they're going to be exemplary. The church in Thyatira is going to be exemplary. That I am he who searches the minds and the hearts. I have this penetrating gaze. And I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. So it's describing Jesus Christ. This description. He is the ultimate judge. And the statement again, the tolerance of transgression is intolerable to Jesus Christ. Would you say that with me? I'm going to try to burn this into our thoughts. The tolerance of transgression is intolerable. And so that's the introduction. It's a very strong introduction. And then commendation. Verse 19, Christ says to the church there, and remember how chapter one starts out, Jesus Christ walks amongst the churches so he knows their strengths and their weaknesses, and he commends the church in Thyatira. He says, I know your deeds and your love and faith and service and perseverance and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. This is a good commendation, isn't it? They had a love that resulted in service, a faith that resulted in perseverance. And so I think we're safe to say that in the church in Thyatira, they loved one another, they were serving one another, they were helping the needy, they were persevering in the midst of this persecution. And not only that, it says what? Your deeds of late are greater than at first. They were growing in these kind of things. It's a good commendation. But now the letter is quickly going to turn to corrective. There's this one verse of commendation and much of the rest of it is corrective. And out of that I want to make an observation that I think is pretty important. Most churches aren't all good or all bad. They're usually some of both in a church. And that's what we see here. And we saw it earlier in a letter to the church. There's commendation, there are strengths, and there's corrective, there are weaknesses. And I would say to us as a church, there are many things here that can be commended. But there are things here that probably need to be corrected. Can you hear that? I know you don't think we as a church have arrived, that we've got it all together. We have challenges ahead of us and things that need to be corrected, I believe. And so I would hope, understanding that's true of these other churches, and it's true of us, that we would be humble and receptive to such as we move ahead. Amen? Yeah, it's true of your life individually. There's nobody here who's reached perfection. You have strengths and weaknesses. We have some of both. And when we own up to that, we humble ourselves, that's when transformation takes place in those areas of weaknesses. But if we're going to defend it and say, no, no, I've got it all together. You don't individually, and we do not as a church. We do not have it all together. We're somewhere in the process. There's a lot of good things happening at Charleston Bible Church, but hopefully in the future it will get even better and better. Amen? Well, I got your amen-ing a lot. So, the commendation. There's an introduction, there's a commendation, and then much of the letter is a corrective. Notice verse 20. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads my bond servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her, probably her disciples, into great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with pestilence. And all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your deeds." And so the corrective for the church in Thyatira is stated here. I have this against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel. There was in the church in Thyatira a very influential woman. And she is here called Jezebel. Probably not her real name. Probably a metaphorical reference to Jezebel in the Old Testament. How many of us have heard of Jezebel in the Old Testament? Hands up, I don't see a whole lot of hands up. I would hope we know our Old Testaments well enough to remember Jezebel, the wife of Ahab. And so the name here is telling us about her character. And so this woman Jezebel, we're told, called herself a prophetess. She made that claim that she was bringing a message from God. And we're told here that her message was leading those in the church of Thyatira into sexual sin and involvement in the sacrifices offered to idols. She was leading the church into the worship at these pagan temples. And so we see, as she's described, she was a false prophet, a false teacher, and her teaching was destroying the church in Thyatira. And Jesus Christ is speaking up and saying, I am intolerant of it. And I will deal with it if you won't. Pretty strong, isn't it? This is strong stuff. This is Christ speaking to his church. Let's talk about Jezebel in the Old Testament, because that's who's being characterized here. We read of her in 1 Kings, beginning with chapter 16. She's the wife of King Ahab. She was from Sidon. And we're told the following let's just read a little bit out of our Old Testament's concerning Ahab and how wicked he was and then Jezebel And so we read this Now Ahab the son of Amri became king over Israel in the 38th year of Asa king of Judah and Ahab the son of Amri reigned over Israel in Samaria 22 years and Ahab, the son of Amri, did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. It came about as though it had been a trivial thing for Ahab to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat. that he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbal, king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshipped him. So he erected," Ahab did, "'an altar for Baal and the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria," which was the capital of the northern kingdom. Ahab also made the Asherah, she was the consort of Baal. Thus Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him." Ahab was a bad dude and Jezebel worked along with him, actually I think directed much of his efforts. then, verse 34, in the days of Hael, the Bethelite, built Jericho. He laid its foundation with the loss of Abram, his firstborn, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son, Sagub, according to the word of the Lord which he spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun. And so in reading that, we see that Jezebel was from Sidon, the northern kingdom, the kingdom north of Israel. And after marrying Ahab, she becomes this ungodly queen who leads Ahab and the nation into the worship of Baal. Baal is the fertility god. And we know of him that they worship through sexual immorality, orgies. And evidently what would happen is they would offer sacrifices. Here's a picture. They would offer sacrifices to Baal. They would offer human sacrifices. They would offer their children in sacrifice to Baal. And after the sacrifices there would be these orgies. It was despicable. And in fact, in verse 34, notice verse 34 again, I had this specifically. In his days, Hile, the Bethelite, built Jericho. He laid its foundation, what does it say? With the loss of Abram, his firstborn. And set up his gates with the loss of his youngest son, Sagub, according to the word of the Lord. And evidently, what happened is Hile sacrificed his two children in rebuilding the city. That's what's taking place. offering a sacrifice to Baal as they rebuilt the city. And so, to our passage in Revelation again, to call the woman teacher in Thyatira, to call her Jezebel, you get a sense of what is happening. It's to characterize her as this immoral, ruthless, heretical teacher leading the church astray. That's Jezebel. And we're not told what her teaching was. Maybe she had some sort of Greek philosophy that the body is evil, the spirit is good, and so it doesn't really matter what you do with your body. You can enter into the worship at these temples. Or maybe she just brought a license to the grace of Christ. You're saved by grace, so let us sin that grace may abound. It doesn't matter. Jezebel's teaching would have been attractive to believers in Thyatira. And that's because many, if not the most of them, were being persecuted for following Christ, persecuted within their guilt, coming under this pressure. And to hear that it was okay to go ahead and get involved in the pagan worship, it's like, thank you very much. That sure takes the pressure off. You see? Are we putting this together? What's happening? And then there would just be the sensual dynamic of the sexuality involved in it all. And so the corrective again, I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel. And so the corrective that Christ brings to his church is that they needed to step up. They needed to step up and stop this heretical teaching of Jezebel. The tolerance of transgression on their part was intolerable to Christ. The tolerance of transgression on their part was intolerable to Christ. And he is speaking into the life of that church and saying, you need to deal with this. And we're going to see the failure to deal with it results in Christ dealing with it. Something like this also happened in the church in Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 5, we're given an example of the church in Corinth being so tolerant of transgression, and they prided themselves of it. First Corinthians 5, Paul says this, it is actually reported that there is immorality among you and the immorality of such a kindness does not exist even among the Gentiles. That someone has his father's wife, there's incest. You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. And so we see here that the church in Corinth tolerated incest. Paul says it's a sin that even unbelievers find offensive. And yet in the church in Corinth, they tolerated this incest, And actually, we're arrogant, Paul says, in their toleration, probably saying something to the effect, aren't we a very loving people? We get along with everybody. We accept everybody. Aren't we a loving, tolerant church? And Paul says, no, you aren't. And actually, Paul says, I'll deal with it. Christ loves His church. He loves this church. And if we were to tolerate such activity, Christ would deal with us as a church. And then it goes on, Paul says this, your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough? Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as in fact you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover, also has been sacrificed. And so this tolerance of transgression is like a cancer that in time works its way through a whole church and is so destructive. And it is not to be tolerated. All right, let's go back to our corrective, verse 21. Notice how Christ is gonna deal with Jezebel and her disciples. Notice what we read, verse 21. I gave her time to repent and she does not want to repent of her immorality. And so Christ says to the church, I have been patient, right? Isn't that what he's saying? I've given her time to repent and she does not want to repent. And so it goes on, behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds. And so Christ speaking to the church very strongly says, I am going to act and I am going to throw Jezebel, and that's a very strong action, on a bed of sickness. And I think the connection is this, that Jezebel had been on beds of immorality, and now Christ would put her on beds of sickness. And I think the idea is that connecting her immorality with what is often its consequence, which is sexually transmitted diseases. And so she's been involved in this morality, she's been on these beds, but I am going to throw her on a bed. a bed of sickness. That's strong, isn't it? That's strong, isn't it? And if her disciples would not repent, we're told they would also experience great tribulation, and that's perhaps a similar punishment. And then that statement in verse 23, and I will kill her children with pestilence. Doesn't that kind of shock you? Doesn't it? Come on, I don't think you're comfortable with that kind of statement. I will kill her children with pestilence. It seems to be talking of actual judgment resulting in death. And that shocks us. Are you talking about my loving Lord Jesus who died to sacrifice his, to pay for my sins as a sacrifice? He would do that? My loving Lord Jesus? Yes, because of his love for the church. Yep. This happened also in the church in Corinth, this idea of sin resulting in death. Remember in 1 Corinthians 11, they were desecrating the Lord's Supper? They were making a mockery of it? And Paul says, because of that, some of you are sick and some of you have died. And we may look at something like that and say, was it really that big of a deal? Well, evidently it was to Jesus Christ who desires the purity of His church. Oh, that we would grasp, that we would lay hold of a sense that Jesus Christ loves His church. And as a result of that love, he is seeking to purify his church. And what was true, not only of the church in Thyatira, is true of Charleston Bible Church. He loves this church. Can you hear me say that he loves you as his people? Precept Austin talking about this idea of death says this, the children of Jezebel possibly included actual illegitimate children of her promiscuity, but the term more definitely refers to her converts. As Timothy was a son of Paul in the faith, so Jezebel had won many to her hedonistic brand of pseudo-Christianity, and God will cut them off as were Ahab and Jezebel's children. by Jehu. What's here for us? What's the lesson for us? The lesson for us, and we'll see it here in just a moment, verse 23, is that we need to learn from how Christ dealt with that church and realize He deals with His church that way. That's the lesson for us. Notice verse 23, and all the churches will know, right? This is going to be the result that all the churches will know, not just Thyatira, but all the churches that are getting these messages will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. And so Christ dealing with sin in Tyre would make clear to the church at large that he would not tolerate sin. He will patiently deal with it, and we see that he had been patient. But there is an end to his patience. He is not indifferent. He is not inactive. He takes sin seriously and the idea here as the letter is given is that our seeing these examples of his dealing with sin seriously should lay hold of our attention. That's the idea. That's exactly what's being said. All the churches will know as they see my dealings with Thyatira and my dealing with Jezebel that I take sin seriously. I search the minds and the hearts and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. This is strong, isn't it? I hope you sense the weight of this, that I sense the weight of this. I got to thinking of cigarette commercials and actually the anti-smoking commercials that used to come out after they, didn't they? Outlaw cigarette commercials. And they had all these anti-cigarette commercials. And what they would do is they would show you somebody who had struggled with cancer and had half their face eaten away and say, this is what happens if you smoke. Right? How many of us remember those commercials? And that's the idea here. Christ says, I want you to learn from this example. That's for us. And this isn't the only example of Christ dealing severely with sin. You know, we become so comfortable with Jesus Christ. We pulled out his fangs, his claws, we made him so safe and comfortable. And there is a part of him that roars, is there not? There is a part of him that roars because he loves his church and is jealous for his church. Think with me of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5. In Acts chapter 5, the church is growing, things are happening, and Ananias and Sapphira lie about some monies contributed to the church. And you may say, bad things are going to happen to them because they lie about monies given to the church? Well, they were both struck dead. I guess God takes your giving seriously. That's an aside, I'll just throw that in. God takes your giving seriously. But how does the passage end? And great fear came over the whole church and over all who heard of these things. They heard of these things, they saw what happened, they saw Christ deal with sin in the midst and they had this fear. And that's a wholesome fear for us to have. That's a wholesome fear to us to realize that Christ loves his church. I keep saying that. It's love which will discipline. Love that does not discipline is not true love. We need this firm love. This love that says, I love you so much that I will deal with your transgressions. The tolerance, here it is again. Would you say it with me? The tolerance of transgression. is intolerable. This isn't a comfortable message. If you came here this morning to hear, you know, you're all wonderful people and God's going to make you a winner in life, this isn't the message, is it? Nope. This says the tolerance of transgression is intolerable. So how did this passage flow? I want you to see that. I want you to be able to go home and say, I can read through this and see exactly where it goes. There's an introduction. Then there's a commendation. And then there's a corrective. Now a big part of the corrective is motivation. Isn't it? We see that. A big part of it. But Christ goes on to give them much more motivation. He's so concerned. Christ is so concerned for you and your living right. He provides motivation after motivation. And this one that we've looked at is rather a stern one, but Christ goes on to motivate them concerning things to come. And we read, but I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them, I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless, what you have, hold fast until I come. He who overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him, here's the motivation. The one who overcomes, the one who continues to live right, to him I will give authority over the nations. And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from my father. That's one motivation. And verse 28, a second one, and I will give him the morning star. And so the motivation for those who are faithful, who do not tolerate this action on Jezebel's part, he says, let me give you two reasons, two motivations. And the first one is this. He who overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations. and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from my Father." This is a quote from Psalm 2, this great enthronement psalm. This psalm where God declares the enthronement of his anointed king. He was given authority over all things. And the idea is that those who in Thyatira hold fast and overcome, they will enter into the rule of Jesus Christ and be given authority in ruling with him. That's the hope! Hold on! Hold on, remain faithful, don't tolerate what is intolerable. And I will honor you, I will give you authority. If you'll exercise the authority I've given you now to deal with sin, I will give you greater authority in days to come. Do we see that? That's what he's saying, this great enthronement psalm. It's the hope of what's to come. And then the second motivation, and I will give him the morning star. It's the star that outshines all others, bringing light into the world. At the end of Revelation, Jesus Christ is spoken of as the morning star. And so the motivation to hold fast and to overcome is that those who do will share in the rule of Jesus Christ, who is the morning star. You want to be a star? You want to be associated with the star? then remain faithful, and you will rule with Him. You'll be given authority. You'll share in the glory of Jesus Christ. And that motivation, as we see it here to the church in Thyatira, is motivation also given to the other churches, our number of the other churches. It's the hope of what's to come. That enables us. It's this faith in what is promised us that enables us to hold fast, to remain faithful, to love Christ, and even do the things that are difficult. Because I'll tell you, when it comes to addressing sin in an individual's life, it's not easy. Those can be hard conversations to have, but they can be necessary conversations. Amen? And I am thankful that Charleston Bible Church is a church that is willing to exercise church discipline. It's the loving thing to do. I keep coming back to that. It's the loving thing. And parents, especially parents, we know that. With our children, it's love that gives us the strength to to discipline them as they need it. And then maybe it's this hope of what's to come, right? We see what the future can hold for our children. And then the exhortation that's found in all the other letters. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Listen up. Listen up. Hard message. Hard message. I'm so thankful that you want to hear messages like this. That is, in a sense, the beauty of expository preaching, where we don't just slide by passages of scripture that are very tough. And this is a hard message. It was for the church in Thyatira to receive it and to know that it's intolerable to allow this transgression. Yeah. I think I have that idea. No, I've got questions for you. I just want to read one and we're going to pray and our worship team is going to lead us in worship as we adore who Christ is. But I'd like you to think this week about all of these things, but number two in particular, Charleston Bible Church has both strengths and weaknesses, just like the churches in Revelation. What would you identify as such? And when considering such, how can you be part of the solution? What are you praying for Charleston Bible Church? What are you involved in helping? How are you involved in helping Charleston Bible Church become all that God would have it be? You know what? I'm willing to say we have our challenges here at this church. We do. Every church does. If you find the perfect church, Billy Graham said, don't join it because you'll ruin it. Right? You will, because you aren't perfect. And so if you go to the church, you're going to bring about Not good things. We have our challenges, but do you see the key part of that is when considering such, how can you be part of the solution? That's what we want to think in terms of. How am I a part of the solution? We have challenges, yes, and Christ will speak into those over time, and he may use you to help speak into some of the challenges we have. But don't become a grumbler and a complainer. Don't become somebody in the church who sees the challenges it faces and tells others it wants to grumble and complain. God, Christ will deal with that. Can I say that seriously enough? Christ will deal with that kind of attitude. What we need to be is people are part of the solution. How can I step in? What am I praying? If I sense it so strongly, am I praying and fasting? How can I use my gifts to address this? Amen? Don't you want to be a part of a church like that, that recognizes we've got a long way to go, but we've got people in here who are working to see that come about. Amen? That's the kind of church I want to be a part of. And so do you. That's the kind of church that will change our community and help change our world.