The Church at Thyatira: The Tolerant Church | Chris Chadwick | Revelation 2:18-29 — Chris Chadwick

Revelation chapter two in your Bible today. Revelation chapter two in your Bible. I'm excited for the opportunity to just preach the Word of God to you today and to help you this morning. I love our study in the book of Revelation. We have been going through and today, we are in the 18th through the 29th verse of chapter two, we'll be studying the tolerant church at Thyatira, the tolerant church at Thyatira. This is by no means today, will this be considered a light message? As a matter of fact, probably the next three or four will be considered what many would consider a rather heavy text to deal with, but because at Canyon Ridge, we go through the Bible verse by verse and we deal with whatever the Scripture deals with, then we will deal with what the Scripture deals with when we come to it. And so we don't have the luxury of jumping around, we want to deliver and communicate what God's Word teaches and what God's Word says.

So our text is in verse number 18 through 29, Revelation chapter two in your Bible this morning. It doesn't take a lot of study of the Scripture to understand that Jesus really loves his church. You don't have to be like a theologian that went to seminary or Bible college or something like that to realize that Jesus Christ really loves his church. As a matter of fact Ephesians chapter five, verse 25, a passage that we often refer to when talking to married folks or young men preparing for marriage or men that are struggling and loving their wives.

The Bible says husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Christ loved the church so much that he literally died for the church, but he didn't just die, he also did the daily things that were necessary. I've talked to a lot of men, they say, "Well, I love my wife enough to die for her." Well, that's great, but do you love her enough to give yourself to her on Thursday? Because sometimes giving yourself to her on Thursday is way more challenging than dying for her. And so Christ has a deep passionate love for the church. Christ loved the church and one of the ways that he demonstrates his love for the church is by leading pastors to love and care for Christ's church. Acts chapter 20, verse 28, the Bible says, ‘Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.’

It ought to be clearly stated that it was Christ's death on the cross that purchased or acquired the church. In other words, Bible preaching, Bible teaching churches are not the work of men, but were ordained by Christ and obtained by Christ through his death on the cross. Christ's love for the church isn't simply a love for us to do what we desire. He loves the church and Christ's leadership for the church is not just simply so that we can have kind of a Christian party on Sundays. That's not what it's about. Christ's leadership of the church demands that we be a holy people. That very fact is realized in the book of Matthew. Matthew chapter 16, verses 13 to 19 is the account where Jesus starts the church.

We understand the church was empowered in Acts chapter two, but it started in Matthew chapter 16, verses 13 to 19 when Jesus says to the disciples something like this to the 12 apostles who are there with them, "Who can do men say that I am?" And they answered some say that you're Elijah, and some say you're John the Baptist, and others say you're Jeremiah, or others say you're one of the prophets. And Jesus looks at him and says, "But who do you say that I am?" And Simon Peter is the mouthpiece for the disciples. And he says to Jesus, "Thou art the Christ, "the Son of the living God." And Jesus says, "Right, Peter, you're right. "Well said, Peter. "And upon this rock, Christ looking at himself. "And upon this rock, I will build my church, "and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. "Satan will not stop Christ's church." And Satan's tried to stop Christ's church. He's tried to stop Christ's church through persecution.

We read about it at the church at Smyrna, and Christ's church continued through persecution, and Satan's persecution wasn't able to stop the church of God. So Christ says, "Peter, we're gonna start this church." The very next instruction that we see to the church in the entire Bible after Jesus starts the church is found in Matthew chapter 18. And the instruction is to aid and assist the church in remaining holy and right before God. In Matthew chapter 18, Jesus says to the church, in verse 15, "Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass "against thee, or sin against you, your brother or sister, "go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone, "and if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy brother."

In other words, if there's a problem in the church with a brother, you go to that brother in the church, or to a sister, a saved person in the church, you go to them, and you tell them their fault, their sin, their mistake, not always a sin, but a fault that could be a sin, it just doesn't have to be. And you go alone, and you just talk one on one to that person, and if you hear thee and resolve the issue, you've gained your brother. But if there's a problem, and you go to him, and you talk to him, and your brother won't hear you, will not hear the verse number 16, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three, witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it to the church.

But if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man in a public, and Jesus says this, if somebody comes into the church, and there's a problem between believers in the church, and somebody doesn't wanna get the relationship, or have the relationship resolved that is in the church, and they don't want to resolve that situation, or that problem that is in the church, then you have to tell it to the whole church, and if they won't repent in front of the whole church, then you have to consider that person a publican, you have to consider that person a sinner, meaning you have to think of that person as not being saved. The practice says John MacArthur of church discipline, that Christ instituted to maintain the holiness of the church, has a twofold purpose. One, call sinning believers back to righteous behavior, and to purge from the church those who stubbornly cling to their sin.

In either case, the purity of the church is maintained. Not long after the empowerment of the book of Acts, chapter two, when Christ empowered through the Holy Spirit, the church in Acts, chapter two, Luke, the author of the book of Acts records, in Acts chapter five, a very important event at the church at Jerusalem. The Lord demonstrated his requirement for holiness in the church by executing in front of the entire congregation, a man named Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, for lying to the Holy Ghost of God in the church service. They were literally struck dead in the church for lying. God requires a holy church. He hasn't done that in a while. We're kind of glad, maybe in some ways for that. That'd be weird if that happened today. That'd be weird. In Acts chapter 15, the council at Jerusalem, what was happening in Acts chapter 15, all of this by way of introduction to get to our text.

In Acts chapter 15, there was a debate going on amongst the Christians, the believers, and the Jewish believers were saying that Gentile or non-Jewish believers could come to Christ, but before they could come to Christ, they first had to convert to Judaism, and then from Judaism, they could become followers of Jesus Christ and the apostles, primarily Peter and Paul were the most notable of the two, were arguing that a person need not convert to Judaism to come to Christ, that a person could just go directly to Jesus Christ. And by the way, I'm thankful that a person only has to go directly to Jesus Christ. I'm glad I don't have to go to some other religion to find Jesus. I can just go directly to Jesus if you're here today and you don't know Christ as your Savior. Let me tell you friend, you don't have to become a Baptist to know Jesus, you just get to know Jesus, you'll become a Baptist. One does bring the other.

But that was the debate that was going on. Do you have to come at you in order to become a Christian? Do you have to convert to Judaism to become a follower of Jesus Christ and the repent of your sin? And here was the conclusion is James the pastor at the church at Jerusalem, stands up and gives the final word on the issue in Acts chapter 15 verse 28. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. He says, here's the things that we're gonna burden the Gentile's with. Not that they have to become a Jew, but number one at verse 29 that you abstain from needs, offer to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication for which if you keep yourselves you shall do well and then it says fair you well or go do good.

This passionate pursuit of holiness in the church is not only seen in the gospels, but it is also Paul's admonition to the church at Corinth at first Corinthians chapter five, when incest was going on in the church and the church was puffed up about it in verse number two and Paul says in verse number four of first Corinthians five in the name of the Lord Jesus when you gather together and my spirit with the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, deliver one, one committed and unrependent sin and committing adultery with a stepmom, deliver such a one and a Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. This is not something Paul talked about theoretically holiness in the church. This is a very practical real thing.

A church discipline that Paul is talking about here is something that they practice and says in first Timothy chapter one verse number 20 of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander who I deliver to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. Paul is saying and Jesus is saying if somebody comes into the church and they become a part of the church and they profess to be a believer, but they live an incredibly unholy life and they are unrepentant in their unholiness, then you have to remove them from the membership of the church letting them in the world know that they are not a true follower of the church or of Christ. There's a matter of clarity. The pastors leading the church are called to be purposeful and passionate about leading the church to holiness. Sometimes people say about us pastors, let me talk about my fraternity that people sometimes don't like. And sometimes they say about pastors, you guys are just kind of nitpicky.

You seem to find problems all the time with stuff. Well, there's a reason for that. And Paul talks about it in second Corinthians chapter 11 verse number two where he says, "For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy. "I have espoused you to one husband "that you may present you as a chaste, "that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." Paul says, "I do, I have a godly jealousy in Canyon Ridge. "You want to be thankful for a pastor that has a godly jealousy "to help you stand before Christ, "chaste and clean and pure." Ephesians 5, 25 we read earlier, "Husbands, love your wives, "just Christ loved the church and gave himself for it, "that he might sanctify and cleanse it "with the washing of the water by the word, "that he might present it to himself a glorious church, "not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, "but that it should be. "Here's what the church is supposed to be.

"Canyon Ridge, here's what we are supposed to be. "Holy and without blemish? "The mandate for holiness is incredibly clear "in the local church. "Canyon Ridge, we are to be a church that is holy "and it's holiness is dependent on a few things. "Number one, our holiness, if you have the notes, "it says this, our holiness is dependent on a few things. "Number one, the leadership of the pastor "and the leaders of the church. "We have to live out and expect and lead "and even require a holy church."

Number two, the clear teaching and preaching of God's Word. Even when it comes to texts like we're dealing with today, which are not easy texts to deal with, this is the longest rebuking letter to any of the seven churches that Jesus is writing in Asia Minor. Number three, it requires mutual accountability among members to the Scripture. Mutual accountability amongst members to the Scripture. That means there needs to be people in the church that holds you accountable. And hopefully you can become really good friends with them and that would be a wonderful thing and that's the best thing and that's what we desire. We'll talk about love here in a minute, but even more important in some ways than love is somebody helping me see some blind spots in my own life that I may be able to stand before Christ pure and without blame.

Now, we understand the greatest of these is love and accountability should be born out of love, but I need to see the dark or the blind spots that are in my own life. And the Lord has orchestrated that to be done through accountability of members in the church. Number four, praying for one another on a daily basis. And number five, attendance at church services for weekly exhortation and encouragement. In spite of the clear teaching to the contrary, churches throughout history have tolerated sin. We see it in the church at Corinth that we read earlier, where incest was going on in the church. And many churches today follow that same pattern like the church at Thyatira, where members are engaged in both spiritual and physical adultery. And friends, the church that will tolerate sin will soon cease to be a church. Well, the layout of every one of these letters that Christ writes to them is the same.

And so let's talk just for a moment about the city of Thyatira. It's currently located in present day Turkey in Akhisar, Turkey, a beautiful city in Turkey. It's positioned approximately 35 miles between Pergamos where we talked last week and Sardis just right in the middle between the two. And what gave it its significance was simply its location. It was the gateway to Pergamos. If you were gonna come up through the valley that you see there, that green valley starting in Laodicea and going north in order to get to Pergamum, which was the Roman siege or the kind of the capital of the area, if you will. In order to get through there, you had to go through Thyatira. So it really just started as a military outpost or garrison. And it was that for hundreds of years. And so there would be many battles that were fought there. And it started. It was originally populated by Alexander the Great because it was about 40 miles before Pergamum.

And they would be in Pergamum, would be able to prepare for the battle if Thyatira kept the people at bay like they were supposed to. And so that's what its original existence was for. It went through many, many battles and was destroyed and rebuilt many, many times. But since Rome took over in 190 BC, they instituted what Pax Romana, the peace of Rome that was ruled throughout the world as a Roman ideal that they communicated. And when that happened, the little city of Thyatira began to flourish. And it turned from a military enclave into a commercial city. It actually became the center for the wool and dying of cloth in all of Asia and for much of the known world. And historians tell us that it became the center of guilds or trade guilds. What we would call unions today, very, very similar, almost identical to what a union would be today. That's gonna have real significance here in just a minute.

And there were people who had some trades who would band together and they would go to the city of Thyatira. They lived in the city and one of the big guilds was the dying of purple that was there. And there was a little root that they would grind up and they would extract a purple dye that they would put in clothes or there was a fish, a little fish that they would catch. And out of its stomach, they could push out literally one drop of purple dye. Thyatira was known for its purple dye, very, very expensive. Was this diamond incredibly costly? We actually read about a woman on a business trip named Lydia to Philippi. First European person to be saved in Europe that we have record up was Lydia in the book of Acts chapter 16 verse 14. She worshiped God and she was of the city of Thyatira very likely one of these guilds that she belonged to. And just very, a very, we might say it this way, a very unionized city was Thyatira.

The church at Thyatira was not a good church. Matter of fact, it's one of the worst. If the church married the world in Pergamos, like we talked about last week, the worldly church at Pergamos, then in Thyatira, they were celebrating anniversaries. If compromise began in Pergamos, it had taken over in Thyatira. Commentator Charles Erdman offered this perspective on the place of this letter among the seven, this letter among the seven churches. He says this, the letter to the church at Thyatira begins a second group of messages to the churches of Asia. In the first group, the church at Ephesus was characterized by loyalty to Christ, which is lacking in love. In the church at Smyrna, loyalty was tested by fire, and the church at Pergamos, the loyalty was lacking in moral passion. Yet all three were true to the faith and had not yet yielded to the assault of evil.

In the case of the church at Thyatira, as of the churches in Sardis and Laodicea, the situation was far more serious. Here, not merely a small minority was indifferent, but large numbers had actually yielded to the demoralizing influence of false teachers. Here, not merely a small minority was indifferent, but large numbers had actually yielded to the demoralizing influence of false teaching. There's a progressive worsening of character of these seven churches as they depict becoming more and more and more influenced by evil. The downward spiral reaches its lowest point in Laodicea that we'll see in a couple of weeks, but Thyatira was a really crummy church. Well, why was it so bad? Well, the church is known for tolerating sin. It's known for its toleration of sin, for the folks to be very aware of sin and do nothing about it. No, the church knew about it.

And churches throughout the ages and in America today have become very adept at tolerating sin. I share this by way of illustration to prove what I'm saying. Just not really anecdotally, I could give mountains of evidence to prove my point. Whether it be the United Methodist denomination, which changed their rules in 2024, removing restrictions on LGBTQ clergy and penalties for clergy who conducted same-sex weddings, which came into effect in 2025, which said essentially, we won't define what a man is, says the United Methodist, nor will we define what a woman is, nor will we define what marriage is, as long as everybody just gets what they want, that's what we want, we're gonna go along to get along, and there are no qualifiers here at all. Anybody can do whatever they want as long as they are consenting to it. Well, the vast number of churches, we have that.

And we have a huge number of churches, even conservative, biblically sound strong, doctrinally pure churches, which have covered up sin for years and sometimes decades in financial scandals and angry pastors and gossip or a myriad of other sins. A church that tolerates sin cannot be holy and like Thyatira are in danger of not being a church. See the big idea of this entire passage verses 18 to 29, we won't finish all of these 11 verses today or this morning we'll finish them tonight. A church that is tolerant of sin will soon cease to be a church. And every one of these letters Christ is writing to help churches be holy and right and to get things right. He is a gracious God and He wants us to understand and the first thing He wants us to see or to understand is who He is. We see the corresponded in verse number 18. On to the angel of the church in Thyatira, right?

These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. How does Jesus describe Himself in this passage of Scripture? This is the most clarifying He has been about who He is and His description here is by far the most terrifying. If you're sitting in that church you got to remember that John comes off the Isle of Patmos and he brings his scrolls that he wrote down with him of the book of Revelation and he's going to these seven churches and we assume maybe John went there and read the letters and it's an assumption the Scripture doesn't say we could be wrong on that for sure but it's an assumption seems like that's probably what happened.

But John goes to Ephesus and he reads his letter in Smyrna and then Pergamos and he shows up here at Thyatira and everybody comes into church and they sit down and they look up and the pastor of the church at Thyatira says it's our privilege tonight to have the Apostle John. He's the one that sat his head on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper. He's the one that was there at the cross. He's the one that took care of Mary the mother of Christ. I mean this is John the Apostle. Welcome John and people would clap or however they would welcome somebody a dignitary like that and John would stand up and John said something like I have a letter to read to you from Jesus and people are like from Jesus. This is kind of cool and he starts out with this unto the angel of the church and Thyatira right. These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass.

I'm just telling you right then everybody in the room got nervous. Why? Because Jesus described himself as the Son of God. It's the only time this phrase appears in the revelation and the emphasis is not on his humility but on his deity because his approach to the church at Thyatira was not a sympathetic loving high priest but rather his approach here was a divine judge. He's like you better understand who it is that is talking to you and who I am. He's not he's not the babe in a manger here. He's not the loving child here. He's not the suffering savior here. No he's the king of kings the Lord of lords and the judge of judges as he condemns the church at Thyatira for their tolerance. Notice what else he says. I have eyes like a flame like into a flame of fire. They're piercing eyes. It's got a laser like vision that sees all.

Now if you're old like me you remember what it was like to read a comic book and at the end of the comic book they had all of these ads. How many of you know what I'm talking about? The ads at the end of a comic book like the old comic books and one of the ads that was always there was for X-ray vision glasses. How many remember those X-ray vision glasses? I don't know what they... I remember one time going to my dad and my dad was not cheap he was thrifty and I remember saying to him like dad I want to get these X-ray vision glasses and like you can see through walls and stuff and my dad said son they don't work and I'm like come on dad they'll work son they don't work you can't see through walls you can't see through stuff like that so it's just not gonna work. I'm like dad it's like eight ninety nine and only thirty dollars for shipping and handling. He's like no you are not allowed to buy them.

Why did he tell me no because he's a good father and he did not allow me to buy them and he had tried it and so but you know everybody wants to like I wanted to see no when Jesus says eyes like a flame of fire literally what he is saying is I have eyes that see all they pierce all that that's the description and nothing can be disguised from him all motives will be seen to him when Christ in his glorified state at the second coming to talks about in Revelation 19 12 that is eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. The church may feel good about where they're at but make no mistake we will one day stand before Christ and he will see us as we really are which for the church at Thyatira was quite unfortunate and his feet are like fine brass this depicts his purity and his holiness as he tramples out impurity imagine what it would be like to hear this letter.

Thyatira I'm the judge I've seen what you've done and I'm here to stamp out your impurity I mean these guys have got to be like like quaking but Christ as he always does he's in every one of these letters he doesn't start with the judgment he starts with the commendation he commends them for some good things that they've done verse number 19 I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more than the first he says I know your works for summer 19 the first work I know the good things that you've done the good deeds that you've done I know them and I know your charity your good will the the believers at Thyatira were showing a love for God in one another although the love was apparently quite fragile since there was not a strong foundation of unified doctrine in some ways Thyatira was strong where Ephesus was weak Ephesus had no had lost their love and Thyatira is demonstrating love in fact it's the first of the seven churches to be commended for its love he says I'm gonna commend you where Christ can he's gonna say good things and then he says in verse number 19 I know your service the work done for others by a personal group their love for the Lord and their love for others motivated them to serve one another friends love always serves love always serves and then I know your faith he says your your pistons your firm persuasion you're trusting Christ your fidelity to Christ the Christians the true believers in Thyatira were dependable and they were reliable and they were consistent matter of fact it says in verse number 25 of our text here this morning but that which you have already hold fast till I come he's saying you've got some firm faith and they had patience verse number 19 another word for patience would be perseverance or the power to withstand hardship the power to withstand stress it was a inward fortitude necessary to continue walking with God the church at Thyatira hand that I found this incredible and I know they were and I works the last word works there and the last work to be more than the first work in other words they were growing in their work they were growing in their service now he's about to condemn them and it's gonna be the worst condemnation of any of the churches so far far worse than Pergamos but he first complimented them and he actually said your service your love your your work rather your work your love your service your faith your patience and your work and this church was doing some things good but they were getting the vast majority of things wrong friends if I can make a very appropriate application this morning it's really easy to compartmentalize your walk with Christ it's really easy to do something really good in this category and really bad in this category it's very easy to be in the negative category and say yeah but I do this let me illustrate it and the college where I graduated from there was a very prominent pastor who was very committed to the way pastors dressed in the pulpit when they preached that they had to wear a suit and they had to wear a tie and if you didn't wear a suit in a tie you were anathema you weren't allowed to speak publicly you were ostracized from your school bad things were said about you they would they would not recommend you even as a person and in some ways there was almost a not almost there was actually an assault on a person's character because they didn't wear a tie in the pulpit which we would consider quite silly like really like that's that's what it is and they're just I mean he would everywhere he went he was he would preach and teach that and people bought into it and he was he was a pastor of a very very well-known congregation in a distant state and people were were just listening to his perceived and self-promoting wisdom that he would give all the while he's preaching you got to have a tie on he's he's continuing on in decades long affairs with multiple women in his church and literally says my when caught in the affairs I have been caught in the affair but I want you to know my walk with God has been great all along brothers and sisters that's Thyatira that's Thyatira we've done all of these things so it's super easy oh I love Jesus I can sing for the cause and thank you Jesus for the blood and I can do all of these things super well but I'm getting lit up and watch porn on Friday night when nobody's around but I'm incredibly angry with my wife and kids because things haven't worked out like the way like I wanted them to I'm very lazy at my job in a poor testimony but I've got this area over here whatever the area is I've got that situated and that's what that's what what Jesus is dealing with through the pen of the Apostle John as he writes the church at Thyatira and we see a very clear condemnation verse number 20 notwithstanding he says all these good things notwithstanding I have a few things against thee we see the church is tolerance against thee now normally you can read the word thee and you know what it means it's pretty obvious but I need to point this out because I think it is very appropriate and it's helpful for you to understand the responsibility that I have here the use of the singular pronoun points this admonition especially to the senior pastor of the congregation when he says the here this word thee is not a plural pronoun it's a singular singular pronoun and it's essentially like he is saying I have something again this is what Jesus not essentially this is what Jesus is saying I have a few things against you pastor I have a few things against you leader of the church I can imagine well what do you have against me well let's look because now suffarist that woman Jezebel which call of herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols you pastor leaders in the church you've allowed you've not hindered that woman Jezebel will come back to her her name here in just a second which call of herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants a prophetess a female prophet one who speaks and acts from divine influence you you've allowed this woman Jezebel now the word Jezebel is not a reference to her name her name was not Jezebel it was rather a reference to her character a character that we would read about if we had time to go over and study first Kings chapter 16 and the following chapters Jezebel was the wife of wicked king Ahab this woman in the church reflected the character of Jezebel like the infamous wife of King Ahab she was Satan's agent to corrupt to corrupt God's people the Old Testament Jezebel was an unspeakably vile woman the worst woman in the Old Testament there was not a worse woman in the Old Testament so much so that the Bible names marrying her as one of the most if not the most evil thing which King Ahab did when she was a vile and through her influence Baal worship human sacrifice idolatry immorality became rampant in the nation of Israel and like wicked King Jezebel this woman who falsely claimed falsely claimed to be a prophetess led many of the saints that Thyatira into immorality and idolatry the church's tolerance is seen so clearly here not withstanding I have a few things against me because thou sufferest are you allowed that woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess to teach word teach there means to instruct by word of mouth the church tolerated her teaching in church a clear violation of Scripture first Timothy chapter 2 verse number 12 Paul says I suffer not a woman to teach her to usurp authority over a man but to be in silence you say pastor are you saying that women aren't allowed to breach at Canyon Ridge not up here you want to go to a ladies retreat well and Debbie here Debbie preach welcome to my world if you're a guest here Debbie is my wife she's she's got good things to say she's an expositor of the word she'll take you verse by verse and thought by thought through the word yeah you can do that that's wonderful but no women are not allowed to teach and preach in the church congregation when the church gathers together corporately you say well I don't like that rule well God wrote it I didn't well Canyon Ridge what's your position pastor we believe in what's called a complementarian relationship between men and women in the local New Testament church and complementarian is God gave callings and requirements to men and calling and requirements to women and they complement one another for his ultimate glory and men are to be the leaders in the church and women complement them in a variety of roles and ways and fashions but it is not through the preaching and teaching of the word the pastor was so weak he allowed this woman to get up and teach and now I know here's what somebody's saying like I knew Baptist are like this well the Bible makes us Baptist somebody said one time there's probably some truth in that statement but can I be super candid with you we're just gonna follow the word of God is the word of God is given and I suffer not I don't allow women to usurp authority over a man I don't allow a woman to preach or to teach that's we're not trying to be unkind we're just trying to follow the Scripture well pastor I went to this church and and there was a woman and she taught and she had really good things to say she may have really good things to say but if she asked ten thousand good things to say that does not give her the biblical authority to say them in the corporate gathering of the saints why cuz God said no that guy said well my mom was a preacher what do you have to say about that well my mom was a preacher too just she only preached to me and my brother and so they got it wrong when they allowed this woman to teach that the church has to be incredibly clear on on these things as the church stands before the Lord notwithstanding I got some things against you because you suffer you allow the woman Jezebel calls herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce her teaching wasn't good because in her teaching she seduced the Lord servants seduce led them astray cause them to wander here in this text to seduce literally to idolatry her teaching led them to idolatry it would have been wrong and a sin if she preached the truth of the word of God in a verse by verse fashion cuz God said no but not only did they allow her to teach to get up and teach that what she taught was even worse than the fact that she was teaching because she's seducing the servants of God the word servants of verse 20 is the word doulos it's a word slave it literally means this those who are voluntarily consumed with doing the will of God those who said Lord I'm just gonna serve you with the entirety of my life they weren't paid staff members they weren't pastors they were just let me refresh they could have been staff members they could have been pastors but they would have included everybody in the church who says I'm gonna give my life to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords who loved me and gave himself for me I'm gonna serve him with passion for the entirety of my life I'm gonna do that they were due losses they were literally slaves to Christ they were they literally said whatever you want from me I'm willing to do and this woman seduced to them well what did she seduced them to do verse number 20 commit fornication to commit sexual immorality we're not talking about non-believers that just walked in she seduced them to perform sexual acts that are forbidden by custom or by law she had taken a twisted antinomian view of God's grace arguing it that it did not matter if Christians sinned since God would graciously forgive them perhaps she also encouraged Christians to engage in the deeper things of Satan so they could better witness to the unsaved whatever the content of her false teaching which we're making some assumptions based on what was the prevalent false teaching of the day that we would read about in second Peter in first second and third John whatever her teaching was it led the majority of the Thyatiran believers astray from the truth and righteousness and into fornication perverse fornication it's not an amen point there's nothing good here the Bible does teach that true believers can fall into sexual immorality and idolatry first Corinthians 6 15 to 20 first Corinthians 10 21 respectively but to lead other Christians into false doctrine or a moral living is an even more serious sin one meriting the most severe punishment so much so that Jesus says rather than to offend one of these little ones and he's he's not talking about children we can apply it to that that'd be totally fine but he's talking about believers who are new to their faith or immature or somebody with less knowledge than you or somebody who doesn't have the authority that you have any of those would be included in that to offend I mean it's caused to stumble one of these little ones one of these less mature believers it would be better than a millstone or a giant rock that they would grind mill on be hung around your neck and you be taken out to the middle of the sea and dropped in the ocean and drowned rather than offend one of them Jesus is a very very very graphically describing the serious consequences for those who lead believers into sin well but pastor nobody knows wait remember he has eyes as a flame of fire his eyes as a flame of fire I feel like on a regular basis far too regularly it comes across my desk my computer another spiritual leader who has abused his position to take advantage of it used to be just women now it's women or men for sexual gratification better that a millstone be hung around their neck and they be thrown into the middle of the sea then to offend one of those little ones verse number 20 she's teaching them to do that very thing to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols now it's important to understand if you remember the council at Jerusalem that we read about earlier back in the book of Acts when the believers were when there was a question as to whether or not a Gentile believer had to first become a Jew in order to be saved the council at Jerusalem at 1529 says this here's requirement number one abstain from meat offered to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication this woman Jezebel led them in direct defiance of what they were told to do and she told them to eat things sacrifice to idols and somebody would say well pastor there's that passage in the epistles first Corinthians where where there's the debate over whether or not I could eat things offered unto idols and Romans there's there's that discussion right that's to purchase meat that may have been this is meat that had absolutely been offered to idols and Christians were to abstain from that because the idea of this word is that you are partaking of the celebration of the idolatrous worship in other words there's a party going on celebrating that the Apollo was the God the big God of Thyatira there's a there's a party going on to Apollo and everybody's super excited about that and they're cooking meat and offering it as a sacrifice to Apollo and then people are eating it meaning they agree with it they're worshiping Apollo when they eat it and she's encouraging them to eat this very meat that have been offered to Apollo and Jesus says I've got a massive massive problem with that so much so that if you don't get some things right you and I are going to face grave confrontation so the church was a super tolerant church just by way of again a reminder they allowed a woman to teach and they allowed her to teach heresy and she encouraged believers or taught believers a twisted view of God's grace and it was lived out in that the majority of the believers at the church at Thyatira were taking part in the public fees to false gods which included gross public sexual immorality gross public sexual immorality and eating things offered to idols how does a person go from sitting in a church and being a doulos a slave to Christ who's the only loving Savior and gracious Savior that there is how does one go from that to this gross idolatry and immorality but one of the curiosities of the The town of Thyatira was the Union.

the guilds. When the people banded together, as I said earlier, from various trades, metalwork, turning wool, dying of wool, the cultivation of wool, the spinning of wool, all of these different unions that would work. And each of the guilds or unions came to be defined by a guardian God, like some systems of religion have a saint over everything. It would be very similar to that. And they worshiped that God. If you were associated with the guild, you were in a religious group. And there was a God over that group that you had to worship. And associated with that worship was immorality, as in most pagan systems. Every pagan system grows immorality.

I'll be in Cambodia in January, and I'll take some pastor friends and the guards as I'll take them to a temple that has been in Cambodia for well over a thousand years, and I'll take them to the high places in that temple, and I'll show them the the the the carvings of immorality that have been done in that place. Pagan systems, almost always, if not always, are associated with immorality. And so there would be idols and feasts and celebrations and immoral orgies. And it would have been very difficult for a Christian to ever go to one of those things, and they would go to church on a weekly basis, and they would be encouraged not to be a part of that and to stand strong and to persevere and to hold true. And the senior pastor would get up, and he would preach and encourage and pray and lovingly lead and worship and confront when confrontation needed to be needed to be had, and he would he would just be a blessing to the people.

Well, somewhere, somehow, the pastor either the pastor's changed or the pastor got tired, and he allowed this woman to get up, and she starts teaching, which is a violation of scripture to begin with, and then she starts teaching this heresy and telling people that some type of what we would call antinomianism, that that you could do whatever it is that that you want, because God was okay, because all that you were doing it with was in your flesh, and flesh was bad anyway, and your spirit was already in heaven. So you could do whatever it is that you wanted.

So for the love of money, or to keep your job, these folks would go, and they would worship the God of the guild, and these public fees, and then they would go to church, and they'd be encouraged to not worship the God of the Bible, but to worship the God of the guild, and that God was okay with this, and this woman just kept taking an antinomian view of grace, and encouraging them to go to parties, and to commit acts of immorality, and before long, it was the vast majority of the church that was engaged in this, and they were just tolerant. Before you think I'm strange, understand that in the 80s, something like less than 20% of Christians believed that it was okay to live together as men and wife before getting married, less than 20%, and today it's something like 65% of Christians believe it's okay to live together before getting married.

As a matter of fact, I'm shocked when I hear pastors preach against it, and I'm so thankful every time I do. "Well, pastor, we just, you know, we want it to work out right. We want all of these things to be right. Pastor, we just think that this is the right thing for us to do." No, it's never the right thing to sin against a holy righteous God who said no. And a church that will tolerate sin will soon cease to be a church. Well, pastor, we just, we're just, I thought people say, Chris, we're just not going to deal with it. I mean, we just don't think it's our place. Wait a minute, it's in the Word of God, friends. Of course, it's our place, but it's not only our place, it's our requirement, it's our responsibility. We have to preach the truth of God's Word. Why? Because a church that tolerates sin will soon cease to be a church, and it's very easy for believers to fall prey to immorality and even idolatry.

And so we could, we could sit and we could say, well, yeah, that's for the pastors and truths for the pastors, but he's not just condemning the pastor at the church at Thyatira. He moves from the personal pronoun V, or this, I'm sorry, the singular pronoun V to plural pronouns talking about the whole church. And it wasn't long before the vast majority of the church was engaged in some type of fornication and idolatry. And so what we understand is that to some degree, the people in the church in a very large degree, the folks in the church, they began to encourage one another in these acts of idolatry and immorality. Well, how would they encourage one another? Well, friends, the words we use matter, the words we use matter. This is what we mean by that.

It's not uncommon for one believer to talk to another believer and say, like, hey, I've done this, and in American culture today, the average Christian at best sits silently, but often is approving. Like, I know, yeah, we all struggle with that. And it's just poor news, as long as nobody gets hurt, knowing that 95% of women that are in the porn industry are suicidal and either high or drunk during those times. And I think it's something like 65% of them are trafficked and trying to get out of the porn industry. No, no, no, people get hurt all the time. I'm a police chaplain. I deal with this on a very regular basis. I could tell you horror stories of girls as young as 13 being trafficked in the city of San Diego and our stupid governor with his stupid position by stupid bureaucrats. And I don't care what your political position is. We have an idiotic governor with an idiotic position that says we should legalize prostitution.

And we have girls as young as 11 years old walking the streets of San Diego, because we've got some idiotic politician up in Sacramento saying this is best for everybody, and we should make it acceptable. It's not acceptable in God's eyes, not because God is repressive, but because God is protective and wants to protect young men and women from the horrors of the hellish environment that our stupid governor wants to be promoted in the state of California. And if you're watching online, make a meme and send it to Gavin. Chris Chadwick, Canyon Ridge Baptist Church, 6866, Linda Vista Road, contact me at johnchiafos@gmail.com. And we just can't talk about that. What are you talking about? We can't talk about that. I don't think you're allowed to say things about the governor, bro, you better read the word of God.

I have a responsibility to stand up and speak the truth of the word of God to the people of God about the things going on in the community where God's people live. And when pastors get silent and tolerant, that's when the world begins to go to hell in a handbasket. Well, that's my governor. I'm sorry. You're dumb. Well, you're not allowed to say that. I am allowed to. I just did. And I'm 265 pounds and 8% body fat. And I can move like a ninja in my dreams. We just don't want anybody to be offended. See, that's the problem. You ought to be offended at sin. You ought to be angry at sin. You ought to be frustrated at sin. And a church that just tolerates like, we're just going to take it. We're just going to take it. We're just going to take it. We got a vote coming up. This is nothing to do. It's not even in my notes. We got a vote coming up here. I just don't want to be offensive to anyone. No, no.

I want to stand before the Holy God, right and clean and pure before him and him alone. And I'm not concerned about what goes on in people's response to what we do. We want to be gracious and we want to be kind and we want to be loving, but we want to be very, very clear. Thus say it the Lord, the holy and righteous judge who cares about people and loves people and gives himself for people and is intolerant of tolerant churches. And the church that will tolerate sin, bro, will soon cease to be a church. And we have a biblical responsibility to stand against it. Well, a lot of times Christians will just tolerate it and they'll know that somebody is in sin. And they'll say things, I just want to encourage them out of sin. You can't encourage somebody out of sin. You have to rebuke somebody out of sin. That's what James chapter three verse number one says this. "Brother, be not many masters knowing we shall receive the greater condemnation.

If the words you use encourage somebody to stay in sin, you're going to receive a greater condemnation. If the words you use, the counsel you give encourage somebody to stay in sin, you'll receive the greater condemnation." Sometimes folks will say to me, pastor, now I know how you feel about this, but, and I'll say, well then why are you telling me? If you know how, you know I think what you're doing is wrong, you know that God's Word says what you're doing is wrong. I know, but I'm just going to keep doing it though. Well, that's foolish. Incredibly. Notice I'll end with this verse 21. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication. I gave her time. I gave her some space. The word spacious means time, passing of time. God is always gracious, always kind. But the church at Thyatira allowed this woman to teach. And when confronted by God, she was calloused towards His mercy. I gave her space to repent, to change her mind.

And notice what it said, she repented not. She just wouldn't change. She just wouldn't do it. Folks, there are many in churches today who refuse to see their sin as sin. Or some will see their sin but refuse to change their mind about it. Yeah, I know it's wrong, but we're just saving up money and maybe in three or four years we'll have a ceremony and get married. Bro, I will lend you the money to go to the courthouse and get married on Tuesday. Have a ceremony later. And then what you'll realize is all people are coming for is the cake. So just give them a twinkie. You're good. She wouldn't repent. And because she wouldn't repent, I'll end with the words of Christ in verse 22. ‘Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.’ Here's what Jesus is saying. As John reads that letter and will finish this text out tonight, 24 to 29, Jesus is saying, "I gave her an opportunity. She wouldn't do it. In church Christ talking to Thyatira. I'm going to kill her children with death. And you will know that Christ searches the reins and the hearts. And I'm going to give to you according to your works or your deeds. We believe that these are believers and we believe that they will stand before the Lord for what they did. The tolerant church. Maybe today you've been confronted with the idea that you're supposed to be tolerant when in reality you're supposed to be honest and clear. And society says, "Just be tolerant. Just be tolerant. Just be tolerant. I'm not talking about being unkind.

I'm not talking about that at all. But I am saying there are some sins in our community and in our culture that ought to anger us, that ought to infuriate us, that ought to cause us to fall on our face before God and publicly confess the sin of our people. lest they too fall into the judgmental hand of Christ. And we may need to give counsel against somebody who is a gossip. We may have to give counsel to somebody that steals the Lord's time. We may have to give counsel to somebody for what they watch or maybe what they listen to. I don't know. But I know the church can't tolerate sin. And that's what the text is saying. Because the church that tolerates sin will soon cease to be a church. And it wasn't long before the church at Thyatira was no longer a church. They didn't make it to the second century. Because of their sin and their unrepentance, God took their candlestick and they ceased to be a church.