{"id":18958,"date":"2018-08-12T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-12T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-010-disregarding-divine-directions\/"},"modified":"2018-08-12T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-08-12T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-010-disregarding-divine-directions","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-010-disregarding-divine-directions\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 010 – Disregarding Divine Directions"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18958","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 010 - Disregarding Divine Directions","sermon_date":"20180812","sermon_month":"8","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5970,"sermon_slides":5973,"sermon_mp3":5976,"sermon_id":"812181021523","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"2:18-22","sermon_transcript":"Dr. Andy Woods\n\nDisregarding Divine Directions\u00a0\u00a0 8-12-18\n\nRevelation 2:18-22\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 10\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0\u00a0 If we could take our Bibles and open them to Revelation chapter 2 beginning at verse 18.\u00a0 The Title of our message this morning is Disregarding Divine Directions.\u00a0 As you\u2019re turning there I want to express appreciation for Gabe Morris who filled in last week;\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I was in Southern California and don\u2019t worry, I was obeying the Scripture the whole time, particularly that verse that says I buffeted my body.\u00a0 You guys don\u2019t go for that interpretation?\u00a0 I was visiting family and speaking at a prophecy conference.\n\nRevelation 2:18, Disregarding Divine Directions.\u00a0 And as you know we\u2019ve been moving through the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 We answered (at the very beginning) some introductory questions about the book, made it through the prologue of the book, verses 1-8, and along the way we\u2019ve noted that the Book of Revelation has three parts.\u00a0 John is told to write down the things that he had seen, the things which are and the things that will take place after these things.\n\nThe first section is chapter 1, \u201cwrite down the things that you have seen.\u201d\u00a0 (Revelation 1:19, \u201cTherefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s the vision of the glorified Christ that John saw on the island of Patmos at the close of the first century.\n\nThen he\u2019s told to write down the things that are, that\u2019s the section we\u2019re in now.\u00a0 Chapters 2 and 3, seven letters to seven real churches, real people, real churches, with very real problems.\u00a0 We have already studied Ephesus, the loveless church; Smyrna, the persecuted church, Pergamum, the compromised church, moving today into Thyatira, the corrupt church.\u00a0 Each letter, as we have talked about has eight elements to it so look for these eight elements as we go through each letter\u2014the loveless church, the persecuted church, the compromised church, and then we move into Thyatira, the corrupt church.\n\nIf Jesus were to write a letter to your church what would He say.\u00a0 And He gives a very honest and candid opinion to each of these churches and today we\u2019ll see what He says concerning the church at Thyatira.\u00a0 There\u2019s our outline that we\u2019re going to follow as we look at what Christ says to the church at Thyatira.\n\nNotice first of all the destination of the letter.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, chapter 2 and verse 18, it says, \u201cAnd to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:\u201d \u201cthe angel\u201d would be the messenger of the church that we have identified, I think correctly, as the pastor of each church.\u00a0 Where is Thyatira?\u00a0 Thyatira is just thirty-five miles southeast of Pergamum, so you\u2019ll notice that we\u2019re sort of on the downward trajectory as he\u2019s going to continue to address churches moving now in more of an eastern direction until finally you get to the church at Laodicea.\n\nThyatira is interesting because the only other time that this church is ever mentioned is in Acts 16:14, and it\u2019s not even a church, it\u2019s a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, the seller of purple fabrics.\u00a0 [Acts 16:14, \u201cA woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening; and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 It\u2019s generally believed that it was through the influence of Lydia, Lydia is Paul\u2019s first European convert, it\u2019s generally believed that somehow Lydia had an instrumental role in the foundation of the church at Thyatira.\u00a0 We know she had a big effect in helping found the church at Philippi but since she was from Thyatira, after she got saved many believe she went back to Thyatira and started a church there.\n\nThyatira was known for its purple dye and factories and great wealth.\u00a0\u00a0 This is why Lydia is called a seller of purple fabrics.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice how Christ describes Himself.\u00a0 To each church he takes imagery that we\u2019ve already studied in Revelation 1 where Jesus appeared on the Island of Patmos to John in his glorified state, a tremendous description of Christ was given there.\u00a0 And imagery is taken from chapter 1 and applied to each church as it relates to things that each church is facing.\n\nNotice how Jesus describes Himself; it\u2019s in the second part of verse 18, it says, \u201c\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this.\u201d\u00a0 Notice the three descriptions here of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 How does Jesus describe Himself to Thyatira?\u00a0 Number 1, He describes Himself as the Son of God.\u00a0 That, of course, is who Jesus is, He is unique in His Sonship; He is unique in His personhood although He shares the same essence of deity with the Father.\u00a0 He is the unique eternally existent Son of God, the Second Member of the Trinity.\n\nHe describes Himself as having \u201ceyes like a flame of fire;\u201d\u00a0 He takes this imagery from chapter 1, verse 14, where Jesus is described in chapter 1, \u201cHis eyes were like a flame of fire.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 1:14, \u201cHis head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.\u201d]\u00a0 I believe this largely speaks of judgment.\u00a0 He can see directly into a church, He can see directly into a heart and consequently He is in a position to correct what is happening in that church.\n\n1 Corinthians 4:5 tells us the day will come where He will disclose the motives of men\u2019s hearts.\u00a0 [1 Corinthians 4:5, \u201cTherefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God.\u201d]\u00a0 It\u2019s a frightening verse when you think about that.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t see to us, He sees through us; He sees our motives and this is why He is described as having eyes like a flame of fire.\n\nIf you just take a sneak peek and go down to chapter 2 and verse 23, towards the end of the verse he says to Thyatira, \u201cI am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 2:23, \u201c'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.\u201d]\u00a0 This is why He is described this way, these eyes that see in judgment, in discipline.\n\nAnd he\u2019s also described here as \u201cfeet like burnished bronze.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll find a reference to that in chapter 1, verse 15.\u00a0 [Revelation 1:15, \u201cHis feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.\u201d]\u00a0 Why is there a constant emphasis on feet?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s in His feet that He stamps out judgment.\u00a0 This is why the judgment of God is referred to as the winepress in this book, that was trodden down, Revelation 14:20.\u00a0 [Revelation 14:20, \u201cAnd the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses' bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.\u201d]\n\nIf you\u2019ve been to a Hebrew or an Israeli, as I have in the land of Israel, a winepress that\u2019s how wine was made, you stamped these pieces of fruit, grapes, and wine came forth.\u00a0 The imagery is Jesus coming back to this earth to stamp judgment and the blood will flow as high as the horse\u2019s bridle for two hundred miles.\u00a0 He\u2019s described in chapter 19, verse 15 of treading the wine press of the fierce wrath of God.\u00a0 [Revelation 19:15, \u201c\u2026He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty\u2026.\u201d]\n\nDo we have today a complete picture of Christ?\u00a0 Most of us look at Christ as the person that had nowhere to lay His head, born in a manger, the suffering Savior, and of course, He is all of those things but have we so gravitated towards certain parts of the Bible and ignored other parts of the Bible that we no longer see Him as judge and reigning King?\u00a0 Not only is He the Lamb but He is also the Lion.\u00a0 You either meet Jesus as your Savior today in this life or you meet Him as judge in the next life.\u00a0 This is the value of studying Revelation, the Book of Revelation; it highlights this aspect of who Jesus is, giving us a complete picture.\n\nIn fact, in John 5:22, John\u2019s other book, John wrote the Book of Revelation, he also wrote The Gospel of John, it says this: \u201cFor not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,\u201d He has entrusted all judgment to the Son.\u00a0 His feet are like burnished bronze, the Son of God, eyes like a flame of fire.\u00a0 [Revelation 1:15, \u201cHis feet were like burnished bronze, when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters.\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 2:18, \u201cAnd to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: \u2018The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this.\u201d]\n\nAnd as you look at verse 19 you see this familiar word or verb, \u201cI know,\u201d He said that to Ephesus, chapter 2, verse 2.\u00a0 He said that to Smyrna, chapter 2, verse 9.\u00a0 He said it to Pergamum, chapter 2, verse 13, and now again He says it to Thyatira here in verse 19.\u00a0 [Revelation 2:2, \u201cI know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;\u201d\u00a0 Revelation 2:9, \u201cI know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.\u00a0 Revelation 2:12-13, [\u201cAnd to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the sharp two-edged sword says this:\u00a0 13] \u2018I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is; and you hold fast My name, and did not deny My faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 2:19, \u201cAnd to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze.\u201d [Revelation 2:19, \u201cAnd to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this:]\n\nHe knows exactly what\u2019s happening in our lives.\u00a0 He knows exactly what\u2019s happening in our churches and consequently He is uniquely qualified, since His eyes are like a flame of fire, to give an evaluation, to give a performance, an appraisal if you will, of the life of His church.\u00a0 And it is very interesting that before the Lord begins to criticize any church, there are some excep\u00adtions as we\u2019ll be getting to later in this series, but the general rule is before he criticizes any church he commends the church for what they\u2019re doing well, which is a pretty good managerial philosophy to follow as you manage people, rather than just coming down on people with a ton of bricks you might offer them a word of praise for what they\u2019re doing right; that\u2019s a good technique to use as you\u2019re dealing, perhaps with your own children that need correction, or grandchildren.\u00a0 You see Jesus following the same pattern as He deals with His churches.\n\nAnd He commends the church at Thyatira for at least six things here.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verse 19.\u00a0 He says, \u201c'I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.\u201d\u00a0 Six words of praise: number 1, their deeds.\u00a0 Of course, we are not saved by good deeds but we are saved unto good deeds.\u00a0 God expects the believer, as the believer abides in Christ, to produce lasting fruit, Ephesians 2:10 speaks of this.\u00a0 [Ephesians 2:10, \u201cFor we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.\u201d]\n\nHe has praised Ephesus for that back in chapter 2, verse 2.\u00a0 And so Thyatira gets the word of commendation for their deeds.\u00a0 [Revelation 2:1, \u201cTo the angel of the church in Ephesus write\u2026\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a02, \u201cI know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;\u201d] \u00a0\u00a0The Greek word there is ergon<\/em>, \u00a0where we get the word energy, their works, not in the flesh but as they were abiding in Christ.\n\nHe commends them, number 2, for their love; this is not a group of people like Ephesus that had become so involved with activities that they fell out of love with Christ and stopped treating their fellow Christians with love.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s amazing how bad Christians can treat each other.\u00a0 It\u2019s astounding.\u00a0 Sometime it\u2019s done in the pursuit of truth; sometimes the pursuit of truth becomes such an overriding concern that we can trample right over people.\u00a0 Thyatira wasn\u2019t like that, they\u2019re commended for their love. Ephesus, that was their critique, they had left their first love; not Thyatira.\n\nHe commends them for their faith, their walk of faith, which is very important because \u201cwithout faith it\u2019s impossible to please God.\u201d\u00a0 [Hebrews 11:6, \u201cAnd without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.\u201d]\u00a0 Christianity begins and ends with faith alone in Christ alone.\n\nHe commends them for their service.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting, the word \u201cservice\u201d here is diakonia,<\/em> where we get the word deacon.\u00a0 What are deacons?\u00a0 We have deacons at this church.\u00a0 In many senses they are nameless, faceless people who just do the work of the church, things as simple as unlocking the gates, taking out the trash, closing the doors when the congregation has left the premises, turning the air conditioning on.\u00a0 I mean how could a church like this function without deacons or servants.\u00a0 And sometimes when you\u2019re in that role you don\u2019t really think anybody cares or anybody is watching but the fact of the matter is the Lord is watching.\u00a0 He was aware of this servant and the service that was taking place here at Thyatira.\n\nHe commends them for their perseverance.\u00a0 The Greek word there is hupomon\u00e9<\/em>, it\u2019s been a word used a couple of times already in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 John describes himself on Patmos having persevered; the church at Ephesus was persevering.\u00a0 What does it mean to persevere?\u00a0 It means to continue on doing the will of God despite opposition and uncomfort or discomfort.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to do the will of God when everything is going well from a human perspective but you see what God is trying to develop in His people is hupomon\u00e9<\/em>, perseverance.\u00a0 You just keep staying with the task despite discomfort, despite opposition despite maltreatment or mistreatment.\n\nAnd he also commends them at the very end of verse 19 because their \u201cdeeds of late are greater than they were at first.\u201d\u00a0 These were people that were actually increasing in terms of their sacrifice and service unto the Lord.\u00a0 Now there is a doctrine today,\u00a0 you find it in some forms of Calvinism, some forms of Arminianism, which says if you are not increasing in fruit then you\u2019re not really a Christian.\u00a0 The Arminian will say you\u2019ve lost your salvation; the Calvinist will say you never had salvation.\u00a0 And so they act as if fruit-bearing is automatic.\n\nJust a very simple question here\u2014if fruit bearing is automatic, if increasing fruit bearing is automatic as the doctrine of Calvinism and Arminianism maintain, then why in the world would Christ trade this church for increasing fruit?\u00a0 I mean, if all Christians are supposed to bear fruit and increase in fruit why would Jesus comment them for something that\u2019s supposed to be automatic?\u00a0 The fact of the matter is fruit bearing is not automatic in the life of the Christian.\u00a0 There are many, many people that will be in heaven and will have virtually no fruit to show for it because they\u2019re saved by faith alone through grace alone but they never really matured or grew in Christ.\n\nJust to show you that I\u2019m not making this up, over in 1 Corinthians 3:15 Paul there talks about a judgment of rewards for the believer and he opens this door.\u00a0 He says, \u201cIf any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019re dealing there with people that are saved, they are in heaven, they are not in hell and yet when Jesus evaluates their Christian life, as He will do with His eyes that are like a flame of fire, much of their Christian life was spent in the flesh; their rewards dissolves and they\u2019re described here as escaping through the flames.\u00a0 They\u2019re in heaven but they can still smell the smoke on their garment.\u00a0 What a tragedy for that to happen to a believer and how we ought to commit ourselves not to being this type of carnal Christian.\n\nThe church at Thyatira, though, on the other hand their deeds were increasing and Christ commends them for that.\u00a0 Well, with a church with those six things going for it what room could there be for correction?\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you asked because as you go down to verse 20 you start to see the rebuke or the word of correction that Christ gives to all but two of these churches.\n\nTake a look, if you could, at verse 20 as he moves from commendation to correction.\u00a0 Revelation 2:20, \u201cBut 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.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Now you\u2019ll notice this word \u201ctolerate,\u201d they were putting up with something in their midst, a false teaching leading to wrong behavior.\u00a0 And Christians, of course, many times can do this, put up with things that should have been purged out of our lives a long time ago.\n\nPaul, in 2 Corinthians 11:4 describes a false gospel, a different gospel, and he says this to the Corinthians, \u201cyou bear this beautifully.\u201d\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 11:4, \u201cFor if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sarcasm, you put up with it; you know it\u2019s errant, you know it\u2019s wrong and yet you keep tolerating it in your midst.\n\nIt reminds me of the condition of the church in the last days where it says in 2 Timothy 4:3-4, \u201cFor the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting<\/em> to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, [4] and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting how tolerant we can become to falsehood and how we can shut the door to what we need in terms of truth .\n\nSo Thyatira had opened the door to something that should have been pushed out a long time ago.\u00a0 Ephesus, of course, was the opposite of that.\u00a0\u00a0 You might recall that Jesus commended the church at Ephesus where He says \u201cyou cannot tolerate evil men but you\u2019ve put them to the test.\u201d [Revelation 2:2, \u201cI know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false;\u201d]\n\nEphesus had discernment, they purged out of the life of their church falsehood; Thyatira for whatever reason did not resist the lure of false teaching.\u00a0 False teaching is always a lure; it\u2019s always attractive to us initially because it sounds right and it gives permission to the flesh or to the sin nature what it automatically wants to do anyway.\u00a0 People have a covetous desire to get rich so why not come up with a gospel that tells people they can become rich.\u00a0 People have a desire to be sexually immoral so why not come up with a licentious gospel that downplays morality.\u00a0 This is the type of thing that was happening here in Thyatira.\u00a0 And Jesus analogizes it to the woman, Jezebel.\n\nNow you can go into your Old Testament and read the story of Ahab and Jezebel in 1 Kings 16-22, Jezebel was not a Hebrew, like Ahab was, Ahab the king, one of the kings of the Northern Kingdom, she was Phoenician.\u00a0 And so it was an example of a mixed marriage, a marriage Ahab should have never gotten into in the first place, and once he got into this marriage she influenced him, not for the better but for the worse.\n\nThere\u2019s the story in 1 Kings 21 and Naboth\u2019s Vineyard.\u00a0 Ahab coveted that vineyard, he wanted that vineyard but you see, in the land of Israel a king can\u2019t just do what he wants to do because the king is not over the Law, he is under the Law.\u00a0 And the nation of Israel had private property rights, so he offered to buy the vineyard.\u00a0 Naboth would not sell the vineyard and so Ahab went home bound by the Mosaic Law and he began to sulk and pout.\u00a0 Now his wife, Jezebel, saw him in this condition and began to mock him and ridicule him by saying what kind of king are you?\u00a0 Let me tell you something, where I come from (Phoenicia) kings do whatever they want.\u00a0 In fact, kings are demigods, if not outright gods, there is no moral restriction on the king; there is no private property rights a king has to live under.\n\nAnd so Ahab began to listen to the voice of his wife; she influenced him for the negative.\u00a0 And he went, 1 Kings 21, took the vineyard, contrary to the Mosaic Law, and murdered Naboth in the process.\u00a0 And this is one of the reasons God brought the judgment on the northern kingdom\u2019s scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.\n\nThe fact of the matter is, when you\u2019re looking at somebody who\u2019s going to have influence over your life, a pastor, an elder, a teacher, a government ruler, you\u2019d better look pretty carefully at their spouse because the woman over the man has incredible influential power, for good or for bad.\u00a0 I can testify in my own life that the things that I am doing today, which I think are good\u2026 amen?\u00a0 Or else you wouldn\u2019t be here\u2026\u00a0 have largely come into existence through the influence of my wife influencing me in a direction for the better.\u00a0 But how different my life would be if I had married the wrong person.\u00a0 I can guarantee you that I would not be doing any of the things that I am doing today, I would be moving in a completely different direction.\u00a0 The power that a woman has over man, particularly within marriage, is inestimable!\u00a0 It\u2019s almost infinite!\n\nAnd so it\u2019s very appropriate and Richard Nixon did this, today they would say that\u2019s politically incorrect, you can\u2019t do that.\u00a0 When he was interviewing Harry Blackman for the position of Supreme Court Justice, Harry Blackman, as you might know, wrote the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision, Richard Nixon asked Harry Blackman what kind of woman is Mrs. Blackman?\u00a0 Of course, Blackman was shocked by the question.\u00a0 Today it would be deemed off the record, you can\u2019t ask questions like that.\u00a0 But you see, Richard Nixon was very wise because he could ascertain the direction a Supreme Court Justice will move in based on the influence of his wife.\n\nAnd that, essentially is the story of Ahab and Jezebel.\u00a0 Jezebel was not a positive influence on Ahab.\u00a0 She was a negative influence and in fact she brought into the northern kingdom through the influence of her husband, the king of the northern kingdom a level of idolatry that that kingdom had never experienced before.\u00a0 And consequently, Christ here surfaces this woman from the past, this woman, Jezebel.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice what Christ says here of Jezebel\u2014she calls herself a prophetess.\u00a0 [Revelation 2:20, \u201cBut 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.\u201d]\n\nIn other words, she\u2019s not a prophetess, she\u2019s not called by God, she\u2019s self-appointed, she is not recognized as a prophetess so she has to go around telling everybody she is a prophetess.\u00a0 It\u2019s very similar to what we read back in Revelation 2:2, where there were those in Ephesus who called themselves apostles.\u00a0 [Revelation 2:2, \u201cI know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false.\u201d]\u00a0 Were they apostles?\u00a0 No, they weren\u2019t, but they were self-appointed to this woman, Jezebel, was.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice the root of the problem, and this is why I\u2019ve entitled this sermon Disregarding Divine Directions.\u00a0 The problem is right there in verse 20.\u00a0 This is the reason why the church at Thyatira was opened up to a very high degree of deception.\u00a0 They had disregarded the principles of God concerning leadership.\n\nLook at what it says, \u201cshe\u201d and later on in the verse she\u2019s called \u201cthat woman\u201d or \u201cthe woman,\u201d dunatos<\/em>, she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray.\u201d\u00a0 Well, there is the problem!\u00a0 You have somebody in the flock who has, in whatever capacity usurped the position of a man and is now in a position where she is spiritually leading the church, and in this case, she is misleading the church.\n\n1 Timothy 2:11-14, and please don\u2019t get mad at me for reading the verses, this is God\u2019s standard, not mine, if you have a problem with this take it up with the Lord.\u00a0 1 Timothy 2:11-14, as Paul writes to Timothy, pastoring in nearby Ephesus, he says, \u201cA woman must quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. [12] But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. [13] For it was Adam who was first created, and<\/em> then Eve. [14] And it was<\/em> not Adam who<\/em> was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.\u201d\n\nThe fact of the matter is women, as I\u2019ll show you in just a minute, have a Bible role to play in the church.\u00a0 However, when it comes to the office of pastor-teacher, when it comes to the office of elder there is a gender limitation on those offices.\u00a0 And for whatever reason Thyatira, although they had the written Word of God, disregarded God\u2019s instructions.\u00a0 Maybe it was the political correctness of the culture; maybe it was we\u2019re doing all of these things under the banner of love and equality and tolerance.\u00a0 Whatever it is they had pushed aside what God had said and now they were open to deception.\u00a0 This is exactly what 1 Timothy 2:11-14 warns of.\n\nYou say well come on Andy, I mean, this was written 2,000 years ago, you can\u2019t take a statement that Paul makes to the church at Ephesus concerning limitations on female leadership within the church and you can\u2019t apply them to the 21st<\/sup> century, can you?\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, everybody knows that times have changed and that was just a cultural issue that Paul was dealing with back then and there.\u00a0 Well, to quote the late Curtis Mitchell, one of my seminary professors, he says: \u201cDon\u2019t take the cultural cop-out, we can dismiss anything we want out of the Bible if you take the cultural cop-out.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice the cultural cop-out is a door that is not opened here with\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1 Timothy 2:1-14 because as you notice as I read those verses Paul\u2019s instruction, Paul\u2019s exhortation Paul\u2019s injunction is related to creation itself, before sin even entered the picture.\u00a0 It\u2019s transcultural, what Paul was saying.\u00a0 He\u2019s very clear that the man was created first, the woman was created second.\u00a0 He\u2019s very clear that it was not Adam who sinned first but the woman was deceived.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I have the complete understanding of it but here\u2019s my take: we\u2019re not saying that women are less valuable than men, both are made in God\u2019s image, both are joint heirs of salvation.\u00a0 We\u2019re not saying that women are less intelligent than men; just compare me and my wife sometime and you\u2019ll get validation for that.\u00a0 What we\u2019re saying is there\u2019s something inherent within the woman, maybe it\u2019s her emotional genetics, her emotional DNA, I don\u2019t know, that makes her more open to spiritual deception than a man.\n\nNow once again, this is not my opinion, it\u2019s what your Bible says in 1 Timothy 2:11-14 and this was the door that the church at Thyatira opened.\u00a0 They transgressed this; they put this woman, this Jezebelian woman in a place of authority where she was leading and teaching and misleading them as a result.\u00a0 Why did they do it?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 I mentioned before that this church was likely founded by a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, maybe it had something to do with the fact that this church had a female that was very instrumental in the foundation of this church and somehow Thyatira, as a result, started to sort of disregard the principles of God related to gender.\u00a0 That\u2019s a possibility.\u00a0 But whatever happened the door was opened and despite the wonderful things that were happening in Thyatira, Thyatira was compromised from day one because of this problem.\n\nNow before I get too far into this people are going to say well you must be some kind of misogynist; I mean, you must be a real woman hater, which I\u2019m not, I love women so much I married one by the way.\u00a0 And we are not saying here that the woman has no place in the ministry.\u00a0 In fact, if you took every woman out of Sugar Land Bible Church the whole place would collapse.\u00a0 I hear a lot of that\u2019s right, yeah.\u00a0\u00a0 [Laughter] Women have a tremendous role to play in ministry.\u00a0 In fact, who taught Timothy the Scripture from infancy?\u00a0 Lois and Eunice, his grandmother and his mother, 2 Timothy 1:5, 3:15.\u00a0 [2 Timothy 1:5, \u201cFor I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is<\/em> in you as well.\u201d\u00a0 2 Timothy 3:15, \u201cand that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.\u201d]\n\nThink of the influence a woman can have over children.\u00a0\u00a0 Over in Titus 2, verses 3 and 4, and this is something we desperately need today, older women are to teach what is good so that they may encourage the younger women.\u00a0 [Titus 2:3, \u201cOlder women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, [4] so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children.\u201d]\n\nI mean, how needed that is for young women as they\u2019re trying to live for God in a fallen world, trying to find their place in the world, how important it is for the older women in God to come alongside those younger women and disciple and counsel.\u00a0 So women have a tremendous role to play in the church.\u00a0 In fact, Jesus Christ\u2019s ministry, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke, was supported by women.\u00a0 In fact, it was Lydia who likely founded this church.\u00a0 So we\u2019re not saying that women have no place; what we\u2019re saying is there are rules that God has established, the board hasn\u2019t established these rules, the board tries to follow God\u2019s rules the best we can.\n\nThese are God\u2019s rules.\u00a0 A woman is not to be a pastor, senior pastor, she is not to preach or teach or exercise authority over men.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting to me how that standard is being violated today.\u00a0 There\u2019s a big church, I won\u2019t mention its name, you all know what I\u2019m talking about, in fact, everybody around the country knows what church I\u2019m talking about, it\u2019s only about 20 minutes from here.\u00a0 \u00a0You drive by on the freeway and what does it say?\u00a0 Mr. So and So and Mrs. So and So, right there on the sign, co-pastors\u2026 CO-pastors!\u00a0\u00a0 Such doctrines and behavior and practices within the church are completely and totally foreign to the Word of God.\n\nAnd it is interesting to me to note the rapid false teaching that has come into the church and how many of these ministries are headed by women as the leader.\u00a0 We\u2019re living in the times of Thyatira.\u00a0 A woman is not to teach men; she is not even to teach a mixed audience.\u00a0 She can have a great role, and we have some wonderful women Bible study teachers here, a great role over other women, a great role over children, but the divine standard is the divine standard.\n\nThyatira, for whatever reason, chose to ignore 2 Timothy 2:11-14 and they were paying a price here because they allowed a woman more open to spiritual deception into a place of influence and she began to mislead the church at Thyatira to such an extent that Jesus has to correct this church despite all of the other good things that were happening.\u00a0 And consequently, you read these words here, \u201cshe leads my bondservants astray,\u201d bondservants, the Greek word doulos!<\/em>\u00a0 John calls himself and the readers bondservants.\u00a0 That\u2019s who we are; we are slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 But you know what, if you\u2019re being misled and being deceived and you\u2019re moving off into man\u2019s teaching rather than God\u2019s teaching you\u2019re not a bondservant any more, are you? You\u2019re a servant to another spirit; you\u2019re a servant to another master.\u00a0 And apparently there was a group of them in Thyatira moving in this direction.\n\nNow when I talk like this people say Andy, you\u2019re majoring on the minors; you\u2019re dividing the body of Christ when it doesn\u2019t need to be divided.\u00a0 Let me ask you a question: do you think spiritual deception is a minor issue?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a minor issue at all, I think that\u2019s a major issue.\u00a0 And Paul in 1 Timothy 2:11-14 gives us the formula or the blueprint or the mosaic for avoiding spiritual deception.\n\nNow what was happening in Thyatira, two things that were very Jezebelian\u2014sexual immorality, the sexual standards of God were being discarded, and there was idolatry, the very things that Jezebel influenced Ahab to do thereby corrupting the northern kingdom bringing the mandatory discipline of God through the Assyrians in 722 B.C.\u00a0 That\u2019s quite a rebuke, isn\u2019t it, verse 20?\u00a0 [20<\/a>, \u201c\u2018But I have this<\/em> 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<\/em> immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.\u201d]\n\nNotice verse 21, here\u2019s how you change.\u00a0 I love how Christ doesn\u2019t just give us the problem, He gives us the formula to change; here\u2019s how you correct it.\u00a0 And we see that point of correction there in verse 21.\u00a0 Notice what he says, \u201c\u2018I gave her\u201d that\u2019s this Jezebelian figure, \u201cI gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.\u201d\u00a0 Notice this word here, \u201crepent.\u201d\u00a0 When was the last sermon you heard on the word \u201crepent?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s almost a forgotten word.\u00a0 What does that word even mean?\u00a0 We\u2019ve studied it, we\u2019ve studied the meaning of it in prior sermons because Jesus uses that word frequently to these seven churches.\u00a0 \u201cRepent\u201d literally means to change your mind; change your mind about something.\u00a0 Of course, all of us must repent in order to be saved in the first place, because repentance involves a change of mind.\n\nAt some point a person must change their mind about Jesus Christ.\u00a0 They must stop trusting in religion, stop trusting in self, stop trusting in their own good works, and place their confidence completely in Christ for salvation.\u00a0 We call that the word believe, which simultaneously involves repentance or a change of mind.\u00a0 People say should people repent or should they believe?\u00a0 Or should they believe or should they repent?\u00a0 The answer to the question is, of course, yes!\u00a0 Lewis Sperry Chafer says it very well in this quote which I\u2019ve already shared with you, repentance is believing, it\u2019s a synonym for trusting.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how a person becomes a Christian.\u00a0 The first tense of their salvation is executed, they are now made right with God on the basis of faith along in Christ alone.\n\nNow God loves us as we are, amen!\u00a0 But He loves us too much to leave us as we are, because when you get saved and when I got saved our lives were all messed up still.\u00a0 The bad habits, the bad thinking, all of that goes with you into the Christian life and so the Christian life, which is the middle tense of salvation, sanctification, now becomes a lifestyle of repentance, where the Lord, as you get under the teaching of His Word and become open and sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, will say well, this part of your life is not in accord with My holiness, whatever the issue is, gossip, compulsive spending, any number of things.\u00a0 And so we repent of that, not to get saved but to grow in Christ.\n\nAnd then the Lord says well this part of your life needs to change, so we repent of that.\u00a0 And we say to ourselves, Lord, I don\u2019t know how you\u2019re going to do it, I don\u2019t have the strength to let this sin habit go but I\u2019ve just repented, I\u2019ve changed my mind, and You\u2019re going to have to strengthen me.\u00a0 And you might fall flat on your face.\u00a0 But what\u2019s happening is a process has started in your life where you\u2019re learning, we are learning to rely upon the divine resources and this is how God moves us into sanctification, not justification, sanctification where our daily lives are being conformed, transformed into the image of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 You say what is God\u2019s will for my life?\u00a0 Here it is, you ready?\u00a0 That your daily life might be conformed and transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, that our practice in daily life might catch up with our position in justification.\u00a0 No one arrives perfectly this side of eternity but under the power of God and the resources of God and the teaching of the Word of God great strides can be made.\n\nSo, to Thyatira and Jezebel and those influenced by Jezebel I want you to change your mind about this misplaced priority that is opening you up to spiritual deception\u2026repent.\u00a0 Now it\u2019s very interesting, verse 21, the Lord says I gave her I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.\u00a0 \u00a0[22] \u2018Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness,<\/em> and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.\n\nAnd to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this: \u201c'I gave her\u201d that\u2019s Jezebel, \u201ctime to repent,\u201d the Greek word for \u201ctime\u201d is chronos<\/em>, where we get the word chronology, I gave her a window of grace.\u00a0 And this is something you\u2019ll see in God as you study the Word of God.\u00a0 Before God sends discipline, before He sends judgment, there typically is a window of opportunity, the Canaanites had 400 years to get their act together; that\u2019s a long time, before God send in General Joshua who eradicated the Canaanites.\u00a0\u00a0 There was an opportunity to change; this is what is being said here, \u201cI gave her\u201d Jezebel and her disciples, \u201ctime to repent.\u201d\u00a0 How long did God wait before He sent the global flood in the days of Noah, Genesis 6:3 says 120 years.\u00a0 [Genesis 6:3, \u201cThen the LORD said, \u2018My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless, his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s half the length of the global flood in the days of Noah.\u00a0 Genesis 6:3 says a \u201chundred and twenty years.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s half the length of the United States of America duration wise.\u00a0 That\u2019s a long time.\u00a0 This is why\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1 Peter 3:20 talks about the patience of God that kept waiting in the days of Noah.\u00a0 [1 Peter 3:20, \u201cwho once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.\u201d]\n\nAnd you see, here\u2019s the deception with sin, it\u2019s like running a red light\u2026 I got away with it, nobody was watching.\u00a0 But you know what, I\u2019ll get away with it the next time, or the next time, or the next time.\u00a0 And we play this game with God and our hearts are already prone this way because we gravitate towards sin like a moth to the flame.\u00a0 Sin is like a magnetic pull the way it pulls us in its direction and we think you know what, I got away with it, nothing happened so I\u2019ll do it again, and I\u2019ll do it again, when in reality we confuse the window of grace with the idea that there\u2019s no payday.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we\u2019ve done.\u00a0 We\u2019ve deceived our self into thinking that discipline and judgment will never come because we\u2019re experiencing this window of grace.\u00a0 Thyatira probably thought everything\u2019s fine, the problem is here, we never corrected it, God hasn\u2019t sent discipline, I guess it doesn\u2019t matter and so they deceived themselves into thinking that discipline or judgment or consequences for sin will never follow.\n\nLet me tell you something; consequences follow sin like night follows the day; it\u2019s inevitable, immutable law, and just because the consequences don\u2019t overtake us instantaneously doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019ll never come.\u00a0 Look at the things that David lost because of the sin of, first of all adultery and then murder, and look at his eviction from his own throne, look at the death of his child, look at the fact that the sword never departed from his household.\u00a0 See, the thing is, you can pick to sin, that\u2019s your freedom, and so can I, but you don\u2019t get to pick the consequences.\n\n\u201cI gave her time to repent,\u201d look at what it says here, \u201cand she did not want to repent.\u201d\u00a0 The word translated \u201cwant\u201d is thelo <\/em>in the Greek, which means wish or desire.\u00a0 The problem isn\u2019t with God, the problem is with Jezebel and her cadre of followers.\u00a0 They were given a window of grace, I would assume they were given some kind of warning and they just didn\u2019t want to be bothered by it.\u00a0 And this is how God deals with humanity.\u00a0 Contrary to some of the very lopsided false theologies that you hear today, which argue that man has no free will in anything, God will not override Himself by force into our lives.\u00a0 You say well shy not?\u00a0 It has to do with how we are made; we are made male and female in whose image?\u00a0 Genesis 1:27, God\u2019s image.\u00a0 [Genesis 1:27, \u201cGod created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.\u201d]\u00a0 The fall of man has not erased our image bearing status.\u00a0 It may have effaced it some but it has never been erased, Genesis 9:6, post fall, post flood, still says man is made in God\u2019s image\u2026\u00a0 [Genesis 9:6, \u201cWhoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 James 3:9 tells us in the New Testament age of the church that we still bear the image of God.\u00a0 [James 3:9, \u201cWith it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God;\u201d]\n\nIf you\u2019re looking for God to kick in the door that\u2019s not how God works.\u00a0 Many have put it this way: God is a gentleman; if God gave you a free will and He gave me a free will He respects the will that He has assigned to us and that\u2019s why it says the problem here with Jezebel is her lack of desire; it\u2019s not God\u2019s fault, it\u2019s volition on the part of Jezebel.\n\nI was thinking about this human will, divine sovereignty.\u00a0 I\u2019m reminded of Jesus coming to the man who was a paralytic for 38 years.\u00a0 Remember that story in John 5:5. [John 5:5, \u201cA man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 Do you remember the first question Jesus asked that man, verse 6?\u00a0 He says \u201cDo you wish to get well?\u00a0 [John 5:6, \u201cWhen Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had already been a long time in that condition, He said to him, \u2018Do you wish to get well?\u201d\u2019]\u00a0 That\u2019s, if I\u2019m not mistaken, thelo<\/em> again.\u00a0 Do you want to get well?\u00a0 You read that and you say well, what kind of question is that, of course he wants to get well, he\u2019s been a paralytic for 38 years.\n\nYou\u2019d be surprised at the number of people that have grown so accustomed to their sin and its consequences that they really don\u2019t want much of a change.\u00a0 We know that this man\u2019s sin had put him into that condition because later on when he\u2019s healed Jesus says don\u2019t go back to sin or something worse is going to happen to you.\u00a0 I mean, we love sin, don\u2019t we?\u00a0\u00a0 Sin brings into our lives a temporal window of pleasure and many times we\u2019re just happy with sin.\u00a0 We love the darkness rather than the light and so we really don\u2019t want the healing touch of God.\u00a0 And that was the condition of this woman, Jezebel.\n\nVery quickly, he moves into the consequences; I\u2019ll only be able to articulate here verse 22.\u00a0 By the way, these consequences are very severe but they have nothing to do with the loss of salvation.\u00a0 The Bible is very clear in John\u2019s other books, John 10:27-29, that we are in His hand, absolutely nothing can snatch us out.\u00a0 [John 10:27, \u201c<\/sup>My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; [28] and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. [29] My Father, who has given them<\/em> to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them<\/em> out of the Father\u2019s hand\u201d] The Greek actually says nothing, two negatives, the strongest double negation you can have in Greek is two negatives together.\u00a0 And then he throws in the word \u201cforever.\u201d\u00a0 Is that clear or what?\n\nYou\u2019re in His hand, absolutely nothing can take you out but let me tell you something, you move back into sin and there are all kinds of things that you forfeit of value that do not necessarily relate to heaven or hell.\u00a0 I am on a fast track to glory as are you but there\u2019s an awful lot of things I can give up.\n\nNotice, if you will, verse 22, \u201cBehold,\u201d as he gives the consequence, \u201cI will throw her on a bed of sickness and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they\u201d what? \u201crepent\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 2:22] Did you know that God can be very sarcastic?\u00a0 According to the contemporary English version of the Bible when Elijah was mocking the prophets of Baal it says Baal must be a god, maybe he\u2019s daydreaming or using the toilet.\u00a0 Where is your god, maybe he\u2019s sitting on the toilet is what Elijah was saying there, according to this translation.\u00a0 God can be very sarcastic.\u00a0 In fact, every one of the plagues of Egypt was designed, in the Book of Exodus, to mock an Egyptian deity.\u00a0 You want to worship frogs, okay, I\u2019ll give you so many frogs you won\u2019t know what to do with them all.\u00a0 You want to worship the Nile, I\u2019ll turn it into blood red.\u00a0 And God says to Thyatira do you like the bed of adultery?\u00a0 Do you like the bed of fornication?\u00a0 Then I will throw you onto a bed of sickness, you\u2019ll be on the bed so much you won\u2019t know how to get off of it in other words.\u00a0 That is pure divine sarcasm.\n\nI\u2019m going to bring sickness into the church, 1 Corinthians 11:30, \u201cFor this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep,\u201d because you\u2019re committing adultery.\u00a0 Study the Old Testament prophets, when the nation of Israel ran off the rails.\u00a0 What does God analogize it to?\u00a0 Harlotry, Ezekiel 16, Ezekiel 23, Hosea 9:1, you played the harlot.\u00a0 [Hosea 9:1, \u201cDo not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations! For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God. You have loved harlots' earnings on every threshing floor.\u201d]\u00a0 James 4:4 calls disobedient Christians adulteresses.\u00a0 [James 4:4, \u201cYou adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.\u201d]\n\nAnd what is the last days religious system called in the Book of Revelation, (should we ever get there before the rapture)?\u00a0 The great harlot.\u00a0 [Revelation 19:2, \u201cBECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.\u2019\u201d]\n\nAnd I am throwing you, God says, into great tribulation.\u00a0 Now be careful with that word \u201cgreat tribulation.\u201d\u00a0 The word \u201cgreat tribulation\u201d doesn\u2019t always mean the same thing everywhere it\u2019s used.\u00a0 Here it\u2019s talking about great tribulation that\u2019s coming into Thyatira, not to be confused with the great tribulation coming upon the earth later in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 You define the term by how it\u2019s used in context.\u00a0\u00a0 But there\u2019s always an out\u2026 there\u2019s always an out in God unless they repent.\u00a0 The consequences can be avoided if you change your mind about what\u2019s happening and under My resources submit to My authority and change your behavior to the Christian.\n\nMaybe that\u2019s a message some of us need to hear today.\u00a0 Maybe we\u2019ve been going to church so long and hearing so many messages about how God wants us to be happy and healthy and fulfilled that we\u2019ve lost sight of these teachings of the Bible which are calling us to repentance.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s true that somebody here today has never repented initially.\u00a0 I mean, you\u2019ve never changed your mind about who Jesus is; you\u2019ve gone through the religious thing, you\u2019re doing good works but the gospel is saying that\u2019s not going to save you; in fact, your good works are as what?\u00a0 Isaiah 64:6, a \u201cfilthy rag.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 64:6, \u201cBut we are all as an unclean thing<\/em>, and all our righteousnesses are<\/em> as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.\u201d]\n\nYou\u2019re not going to get anywhere with God trying to curry favor with Him as an unbeliever through doing a bunch of good stuff.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t work that way.\u00a0 So, you need to change your mind about who Jesus is.\u00a0 You need to stop trusting self, religion, baptism certificate, Sunday School attendance and transfer your confidence, as Lewis Sperry Chafer put it, the one needful trust into Christ and Christ alone for salvation.\u00a0 The Reformers called it sola fide<\/em>, faith alone in Christ alone.\u00a0 Is that not repentance?\u00a0 Is that not a change of mind?\u00a0 And so if you\u2019ve never done that I would invite you to do that now.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to walk an aisle to do it, join a church to do it, raise a hand to do it, give money to do it; it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where the Lord convicts you of your need to do this and\u00a0 you change your mind about who Christ is;\u00a0 you trust in Him and His finished work for salvation.\u00a0 If that\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nBut what about those of us who are saved?\u00a0 What do we do?\u00a0 Well, you\u2019re saved, so here\u2019s the deal; you\u2019ve got an opportunity today, tomorrow, this week, next week, to go right on back to the sin nature and what is the Lord calling us to do?\u00a0 To exhibit, to exercise a lifestyle of repentance.\u00a0 If the Holy Spirit is surfacing something in your life that is not right with Him repent of that, change your mind about it and ask the Lord for His power to change your lifestyle.\u00a0 And as that happens you\u2019re making progress, not in the first tense of your salvation, that\u2019s done, but you\u2019re growing in the will of God into that glorious moral image of Christ into Christlikeness.\u00a0 Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful for the teachings that You\u2019ve given us here in the church of Thyatira, hardly even halfway through the verses but I just pray You\u2019ll continue to work in our lives, in our midst, as we study and give ourselves to this section of the Scripture.\u00a0 We ask, Father, that we would not just be going through the Book of Revelation but we ask specifically that the Book of Revelation would be going through us as You conform us into the image of Your Son in daily life.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t