Era. As you're turning there, let me tell you a little bit about our friend Charles Haden Spurgeon. There was a point in his ministry, it became one of the defining points of Charles Spurgeon's ministry, where he believed that many ministers in the Baptist Union, the denomination that he was a part of, were drifting from essential core doctrines, a trend that he called the downgrade. There was after a number of letters published in local periodicals and newspapers by a man named Robert Schindler who is a a close friend of Spurgeon.
And eventually Spurgeon himself entered the debate by penning numerous editorials in in 1887 that warned the churches that were quote unquote rapidly trending downward. Those were his words. There were four essential doctrines that he was concerned about. First, there was a denial of scriptures infallibility. There was a denial of Christ's substitutionary atonement. There was a denial of eternal punishment or hell.
And there was a promotion of universalism that everyone is going to be saved no matter what. Why would churches that normally wouldn't teach those things, why would they compromise and begin to teach those things? The answer ultimately was this ecumenism. That is, we want to we want to get together with all of the churches and everyone who calls themselves Christians and we want to just link arms and be able to say, look, we're fully unified. In order to do that, they had to compromise or so they felt on these doctrines.
This is false unity. And Charles Spurgeon would go on to say, "I'd rather be eaten by dogs." In other words, in the court of public opinion, he didn't care if they tore him apart. He'd rather be eaten by dogs than to go along with what they were doing. And so, he stood firm and he ended up withdrawing from the Baptist Union. And sadly, his warnings and his urgings went unheeded and that denomination drifted far from adherence to sound doctrine. Why do I bring that up?
When we do not exercise biblical discernment when it comes to matters of sound doctrine and we tolerate evil for the sake of quote unquote unity and getting along so to speak, we will inevitably drift and we will inevitably veer off into what is evil in the sight of God. This is what we see in the church in Thotyra. So let us look here at this starting at verse 18 of chapter 2 and going to the end of the chapter. Here's what it says.
And to the angel of the church in Thotyra, write the words of the son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetus and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.
I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed, and those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works. And I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches the mind, pardon me, who searches mind and heart. And I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thotyra, who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.
Only hold fast what you have until I come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end. To him I will give authority over the nations. And he will rule them with a rod of iron as when earth and pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. That statement, as I mentioned, I think at the start of this series, that last statement, he who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.
That's in every one of these seven letters to these seven churches. The seven churches were meant to hear what the Lord was saying to each of them, but it's meant for all churches of all time to hear. We need to hear this warning today. It's important for us. But there's also a measure of encouragement here, too, and we'll get to that. Thotyra is the smallest of the seven cities. So the churches are in these seven cities. Thotyra is the smallest one and yet it's given the longest letter of the seven.
This is the longest one. It's 40 miles southeast of Pergamum. They were very active actually in trade work, working with their hands, making things with their hands that could be that could be sold in the marketplace or what have you. And perhaps perhaps no better is that scene than in its most famous resident. Go to Acts chapter 16. In Acts chapter 16, starting in verse 14, we read this. Acts 16 starting at verse 14.
One who heard us was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thotyra, a seller of purple goods. So there you can see she's working with her hands. She's selling purple goods that she had made who was a worshshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized and her household as well, she urged us saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay." And she prevailed upon us.
So here you have this woman working with her hands from Thotyra and she comes to faith in Christ Jesus sincerely and genuinely as the Lord opened her heart to receive this message and thus be saved. Now was it because of her that the gospel made its way back to Thotyra and the church was planted possibly. However, it came about at some point the church was established in Thotyra and some time has passed and by the time we get here to the mid to late 90s this church has some severe cracks going on.
So what can we learn from the church in Thotyra? There's many things we could learn. First of all this love without discernment leads to disaster. We read here that the one who is writing this to them is the one who has eyes like a flame of fire. You get the sense right that this this this one who's looking is peering into the church and intently looking at what it's what's going on there. No one escapes the eyes of the Lord, lest this church thinks that perhaps they're hiding these things. No, no.
The one who has eyes like a flame of fire, he sees and he knows. And then he proceeds here starting in verse 19 to speak of some commendable things that are going on in their midst. He says, "I know your works." What works? Your love, your faith, your service, and your patient endurance. Interestingly, love and faith are there. And and and actually in scripture, love and faith go together often.
In fact, the number of scriptures we could go to to show you how often love and faith go together are too many this morning. But let me just give you a couple. In Galatians 5:6, it says this, "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love." In the book of Colossians 1:es 3 and 4, it says this, "We always thank God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints."
And the the scriptures are so many that talk about faith and love in the same sentence. Here again, they have this there's love in their midst and faith. They also have they're serving. They're patiently enduring. And you might say, well, in light of what we're about to look at, how is that possible? I don't know. But this is what's happening. And in fact, if you look at the letters up to this point, when there are churches that have struggles, we see the Lord com giving them what he can to commend them first before he gets to those hard things that he needs to tell them.
Now, we're going to come to Sardis, and that breaks the mold. But up until now, he tells them some things that are commendable before he gets to the things that he has against them. As a rule, by the way, this is an aside. This is not the main point of the passage. That's a great way when we need to con confront someone. That's a great approach. Commend them what for what they're doing well and then get into those things that they need to have corrected. And that's what we see here. But what we have going on here in Thotyra is the exact inverse of Ephesus. In Ephesus, you have a church that was standing against false doctrine.
They were standing firm on truth. They would not compromise what they believed, but they did not have love. They were not grounded in the love of God. Here they have love. In fact, it's the first church to this point that is commended for its love. They have love and faith and service and endurance. They have that, but they're not standing against sound doctrine. And friends, I would say to you this.
Whereas no, you know, having great spiritual discernment with no love leads to a stiff spiritual arrogance. Having all kinds of love with no spiritual discernment to stand for what's right leads to disaster. And we see it here in this church. And we're going to look at the ills that are that are many in this church here in a minute. But let me just say this. The impetus to quote unquote let's just love. Let's just get along.
Let's love each other and detached from sound doctrine. That thinking is alive and well today. We see it predominantly in mainline churches. We see it in seeker friendly churches. All of those churches that are desperate to get bodies in the door at all costs and at any costs. And what we see then in short order is larger culture then dictates the direction and the decision-making of the church in an effort to get everyone in everyone singing the same song.
They trying to appeal to everyone and anyone at the expense of honoring God. That is not what our heart should be like. What should our heart be like? Well, Kelvin read to us wonderfully from Psalm 26. Let me just take you back there for a moment. This is what we read in the first few verses of Psalm 26. Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity. We should be people who walk in integrity, spiritual integrity.
And I have trusted in the Lord without wavering. We should trust in our God without wavering. Prove me, O Lord, and try me and test my heart and my mind. For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness." So, you see how he is walking with integrity and in steadfast love together. I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites. I hate the assembly of evildoers and I will not sit with the wicked.
There is no tolerance for wickedness from the psalmist here. That is how it ought to be. But yet there's steadfast love in their midst as well. That is how we ought to be. That we stand firm on what is right. We will not tolerate wicked while steadfast love is the ground of our hearts. Go with me to John chapter 6. This is the Lord Jesus teaching. And it's after he teaches what we're about to look at here that many walk away. Notice how Jesus is not seeker friendly.
Jesus didn't chase after them or change his message to keep them there. No, no. He stood firm on what was true and right. Starting I'll pick it up in verse 35. Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day." And the Jews were joyful about this. Is that what it says? Look what it says. So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
They said, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now now say I have come down from heaven?" Jesus answered them, "Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard and learned from the father comes to me. Not that anyone who has seen the father except except he who is from God. He has seen the father.
Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate man in the wilderness and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that no one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give him give for the life of the world is my flesh. The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" They were troubled by many facets of what he was teaching him here.
And drop down to verse 60. When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying. Who can listen to it?" But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, "Do not do you take offense at this. Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit who gives life. The flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning. Those those who were from the beginning who those were who did not believe and who it was who would betray him. And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted to him by the father." After this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. And so he gave them truth.
They grumbled. They grumbled. They grumbled. "We might leave you. We might leave you." And he says, "Okay, well, let me give you more truth." And he stood firm on the truth. Did he love them by giving them this? Absolutely. This is what they needed to hear in order to repent and believe and have eternal life. So here we have the one who was the most loving, the one who is love himself, giving them truth, love and truth together.
We need to learn from this. We need to learn from Ephesus and we need to learn from Thotyra. We need to be grounded in the love of God and we need to hold fast to what is right. Those two are not opposing. They go together lest disaster befall us. We must learn from them and we need we must ask the Lord that he would grant to us fidelity, faithfulness to the truth in love for God and love for one another. So what is the issue here in Thotyra? I would say the issue is this tolerance that leads to destruction.
Look what it says verse 20. But I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel. The word for tolerate here is aphimi. That's the Greek word. It mean it can mean one of two things interestingly because it's actually used earlier in chapter 2. It can mean to neglect or it can mean to permit. Some of your translations depending what translation you have here it actually might use the word permit. Here you permit this woman Jezebel. So here it's used to denote permission that they were being permissive.
In chapter 2 verse4 talking to Ephesus he says this to them. I have this against you that you have abandoned aphimi. Same Greek word the love you have at first. In that case it was they were neglecting the love that they had at first. In both instances this word is a negative word. It denotes a a terrible wrong that has been committed. And here they are tolerating they are permitting something in their midst that ought not be there. And what does he say?
You permit, you tolerate that woman Jezebel. What's he talking about? Is there a woman whose physical name is Jezebel in their midst? Well, perhaps, but I don't think that's what he's saying here. He is comparing her, this woman, whoever she is in Thotyra, to the Je to the Jezebel of the Old Testament. Who is Jezebel? That then becomes the question. Well, I'm so glad you asked. Let's go to First Kings. In First Kings chapter 16 starting at verse 30. Listen to this.
First Kings, if you're not sure where to find it, it's right before 2 Kings. First Kings chapter 16. I'm going to pick it up for you in verse 30. And Ahab the son of Omry did evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, he took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbel, king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal and worshiped him.
He erected an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. And Ahab made an Asher. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. That is quite a statement. There was a If you read up to this point, there is an awful lot of evil. And Ahab here is doing more than anyone had done before him.
And part of it is he married this woman Jezebel who would have encouraged him and led him to worshiping Baal to to idolatry among other things. Go with me to chapter 19 verses 1 and two. In chapter 19 of first kings we read this in the first couple verses. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword.
Now for context, the chapter immediately preceding this chapter 18 is the whole encounter with Elijah and the prophets of Baal. If you remember that there's all these prophets of Baal, hundreds of them, and they erect this altar as does Elijah. You you call your gods to see if they'll he'll consume this with fire. And they are chanting and calling and there's nothing. And Elijah mocks him if you remember that. Call louder. Maybe your God is sleeping. Maybe he's relieving himself, etc. And then Elijah calls down and boom, God responds mightily.
So this is right after this. Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and more also if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by this time tomorrow." So now she is threatening death to one of God's holy prophets. Go with me to chapter 21. There's a lot more we could look at about her life.
I'm giving you just a summary here. Chapter 21 25 and 26. We read this. There was none who sold himself to do what was evil in the sight of the Lord like Ahab, whom Jezebel his wife incited. He acted very abominably in going after idols as the Amorites had done, whom the Lord had cast out before the people of Israel. But notice here, Ahab did this wickedness in large part because Jezebel incited him to do it.
Now Ahab's responsible too. He committed the sin, but Jezebel was the cause of his of his wickedness in many ways. That's Jezebel. And here now we come back to Revelation 2. I have this against you that you tolerate that woman Jezebel. There's a woman in their midst who is like Jezebel who calls herself a prophetus, a selfappointed prophetus.
Of course, she is not a prophetus, but this is what she calls herself. Lest you think that this kind of thing doesn't happen anymore. It does. In our own community, there has been a cult group operating for quite some time now, a number of years, that started off, I think, well-meaning, desiring to be a house church that would maybe become, you know, more formal as time went along. And a woman came into their midst and she called herself a prophetus and eventually she asked them all to close their Bibles and set them aside because she was giving the words of God and they didn't need their Bibles.
This group operates in our community. So let's not think that this doesn't happen anymore. It's happening today. She calls herself prophetus and she is teaching and then she is seducing. He says my servants, we'll get to that in a minute. To practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. Just like Jezebel, this woman is drawing hearts away from God, away from truth, and to that which is evil and carnal and wicked in the sight of God.
She is seducing those that even would call themselves servants of God to partake in wicked and evil actions. What's what leads a church to this point? Well, from our text here, I think there are three things that are very evident. Three key elements to a downgrade to use the words of Spurgeon. The first step in a downgrade of a church is to begin to distrust the word of God. Genesis 3:1. What is the first thing that the enemy says to Eve?
The first thing did God really say? This ver verse 24 talks about the deep things of Satan. This is the deep things of Satan. When the enemy says, did God really say when you begin to just trust the word of God? When you don't believe that the word of God is inherent, you you don't believe it's infallible, you don't believe that it's sufficient, you begin to doubt that the word of God is true.
That is step one and the biggest step, the deep things of Satan toward a downgrade and and in a hurry. Once that step is accomplished, step two is this. Believe that man's ways are better than God's ways. Once you don't believe that the the Bible is inherent, that it's infallible, that we can trust it. Once you think, "Yeah, did God really say that?" But once you've bought into that lie, then the next step is, well, my ways are just as good as God's ways.
Proverbs 14:12 says that there's a way that seems right to man, but its end is death. I, you know, you hear it today often. I You hear people say, "Well, I know that this is what the Bible says, but times changed." Boy, time's changed. And, you know, we got to keep up with culture. We got to get with the program. Can't be relying on these archaic ways of thinking. This is what you hear. You know how that started? It started because they began to distrust the word of God and now they believe that their ways are better than God's ways.
And then according to our and you see you see that here in our text, right? You see you see it here that they have begun to tolerate things that they ought not to tolerate. Things that they knew were not right if they had just peered into the scriptures which leads to the third step in at least in this case from our text and that is to become egalitarian. So what does that word mean? There are two words complimentarian coined by a a unknown guy named John Piper means that that actually there are some things that egalitarians and complimentarians agree on that men and women are equal in the sight of God in value and worth.
Is that not true? Of course it's true. Men and women are equal in God's sight. They're equally valuable. Equal in terms of they both can be saved. Galatians 3 says that neither Jew nor Greece, slave nor free, male nor female, all can be found in Christ. Praise God for this. Men and women are created in the image of God. This is a beautiful thing. Equality is not the issue.
What is the issue is function and role. God's design. In God's design, he has given men the function and the role to lead in the home and in the church. That's God's design from Genesis to Revelation all the way through. It's evidently clear. And women have the role of helpmate and the caretaker of the home and all that goes with that. And it's beautiful when both are doing their roles as God intended it.
Where things break down is where we say no, no, we reject that. And that's what egalitarianism is. Where we say yes equal in the sight of God, but also equal in function and role. Whatever a man can do, a woman can do. Whatever a woman can do, a man can do. There's no difference in function. There's no difference in role. Which then leads to this. Whatever a man can be, a woman can be. Which then leads to this. A man can be a woman.
It's the exact same hermeneutic. It's the exact same way of thinking. As soon as a church becomes egalitarian, start the clock. It's a matter of time before that church will affirm the LGBTQ community. It's the exact same way of thinking. Hence why we have in this church a woman who's teaching. It's not her role to teach. And what are they doing? They're practicing sexual immorality. This is what happens. Now, it's not the only thing. And when I say becoming egalitarian is step three, that's a huge one. But there are other ditches.
But this is the one that's in the text. I was talking I have I have a group of pastor friends. We text each other each week and we talk about each other's sermons and what passages we're going to be looking at the coming Sunday. Okay. And so I was in this text group this week and one of my pastor friends named Dan, some of you might know Dan, he said to me, the opposite, not maybe not fully opposite, but one of the opposite ditches to this one that people can also fall into is this hyperatriarchy, repackaged gothism, where women instead of being elevated to position they ought not be, over time they slowly are demeaned and degraded and belittled.
So that's another ditch you can fall into as well. But here in this text is talking about egalitarianism. And anytime we turn away from revealed truth, we are living the way Satan would have us live. These are the deep things of Satan. There can be no tolerance for that which opposes evil. Tolerance is a word today, isn't it? It's it's the buzzword.
We We need to be tolerant, so we're told. You know what isn't tolerated? The word of God. Oh, parts of it are parts of it out of context, mind you, are tolerated. The parts that talk about love and kindness, what have you. But holiness, righteousness, justice, true biblical justice, justness, etc., etc., those parts are not tolerated in any realm.
God's people need to stand firmly on the word of God. Love being the undercurrent that guards their heart, but standing firmly and unwaveringly on the truth of scripture. Now, notice God's kindness even to this woman. Isn't this remarkable? God is so kind to her. Look at 21. I gave her time to repent. Well, that's merciful. Is it not? Oh, that's kindness. Now, we're never told what that means.
How what did God send a a a messenger directly to her? Was it some of this faithful group that we're going to get to here in a few minutes? Did they try to exercise a measure of church discipline with her? We don't know how, but in some way, she was given time to repent. And look at what we read here at the end of verse 21. But she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. She spurned God's imperative and command to repent.
Jim H Jim Hamilton put it this way. Those who belong to Jesus repent of sin. The refusal to repent of sin identifies someone as unregenerate. It's true. And so the result here is eternal punishment. Behold, I will throw her onto a sick bed. Some of your translations might say, I'll throw her onto a bed of sickness. In the Greek, there is no word for sickness or sick. It's just literally, I will throw her onto a bed. In other words, the Greek is saying this.
She's made her bed, and now she must lie in it. An eternal punishment, eternal damnation is what awaits her now. Her heart hardened, refusing to repent and to turn of her sin and her children with her. Look at the start of verse 23. And I will strike her children dead. This presumably is talking about her spiritual children. That is her disciples. Those who are following her, those who are rah rah. We believe she is a prophetist. We are with her 100%. We are, you know, bowing at her feet, engaging in everything she's called us to engage in. She is our God. Yeah.
They're going to go to eternal damnation too. And then there's this middle group in between the start of 22 and the start of 23. I will throw her Jezebel onto a sick bed. And those who commit adultery with her, I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of her works. This would probably be the group that he referenced earlier that she was seducing my servants. Presumably, these are believers that have gotten caught up in in the seduction of this tempress and have allowed themselves foolishly to engage in the idolatrous, wicked, sexual sin that this woman has promoted.
And the Lord says, "You need to repent. And if not, I'm going to bring some discipline and it's going to be harsh." Look at the destruction here. Look at it. This is awful. And where does it start? Because they tolerated. They tolerated that which is evil. They allowed it to come in. They did not hold firm. They did not hold fast. They let evil come in the door.
It may have started off something that seemed pretty small and then it blew up. They gave her a platform and it went astray in a hurry. When we tolerate that which is wicked and evil and we turn from the sound true words of the Lord God Almighty, this is what awaits. Reminds me of what we read in Hebrews chapter 10. Let me take you there for just a moment. In Hebrews 10, starting at verse 26, here's what we read.
For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by th though by the one who has trampled underfoot the son of God and has profained the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace.
For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine. I will repay and again the Lord will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And that's what we have here in Revelation. They are falling into the hands of the living God and they're facing this consequence. We must learn from this. Brothers and sisters, we must learn never to compromise on the truth, never to acquies, never to turn away, but stand firm on the revealed scriptures.
That's why in our church here, if you're new to our church, we just preach verse by verse through the scriptures. We will not skip a verse just because it's uncomfortable. We will preach the whole council of scripture. According to Acts 20, Paul said, "I am I am innocent of the blood of you all because I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole council of scripture." This is what must be done in churches is that the whole council, every verse Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 must be heralded. And we and not only heralded, applied believed made right and true in our lives, lest we go this way.
So, you might say, "Well, this is a heavy text." You're right. It is. But there's good news. Look at it. Verse 24. But to the rest of you in thought, by the way, if you're if you're a filler outer of like the outline, let me I because I know it drives people nuts when I don't give the point because they're trying to write it in. So for you anal retentive people who have to have the point, gospel faithfulness leads to deliverance. There's your point.
The rest of you in Thotyra who do not hold this teaching who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan to you I say I do not lay on you any other burden. Now I'm going to come back to the verse 25 in a moment. What is he saying here? Here you have this group a faithful remnant in Thotyra. We're never told how big this group is. I can't help but think based on the tone of the letter that it's probably a smaller group, probably not many, but they're faithful.
They have not given in. They have not compromised. They've held firm to the truth. They have love, faith, service, patient endurance, exceeding, as it says here, the latter works are exceeding your first. They're probably the model of those things. And they have not given in to what this woman Jezebel has been teaching them. But yet, they've had to stay there. And you might say, "Well, why did they stay in this church?" Well, remember, it's the smallest community of the seven. Could it be that this is the only faithful Bible teaching church or faithful? Maybe it's the only church in the whole community and they're convinced that they need to go to church. So, they're there.
How difficult must it have been to be this faithful and to see all the depravity, to see all the evil all around them, and to know it's not right. To know that these people, these friends of ours presumably, you know what it's like to be in a church family. You make friends. To see them giving into evil, it must have broken their hearts. What a burden it would have been. And so he says to them, I will not lay on you any other burden. You have, you're carrying this burden.
What ought you to do only? Verse 25, hold fast to what you have until I come. Notice what it does not say. Only hold fast to what you have until I come and eventually the corner is going to turn and man life is going to be prosperous for you in this world. Text doesn't say that. You know what the text says? Hold fast till I come. That's all it says. There are some saints who hold fast to sound doctrine, who love the Lord deeply, and whose life is relatively free and easy, who have all the things that that they would love to get.
They're comfortable, and and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. Right on. Praise God. But there are other saints who are just holding on. They're holding fast until the Lord comes and that's all they've got. Life is horrible for them. Life is terrible. It's painful. Their families are ungodly. Everyone around them, nobody loves the Lord. They're mocking them. Their workplace are the only believer. They're getting spit upon essentially verbally at work. There is no place to for reprieve except for maybe here in the church, but otherwise their life is awful and they just feel like they're just barely hanging on.
That's what he's saying to them. Hold fast until I come. I'm not going to lay on you any other burden because you're feeling burdened. Only just hold fast, friends. Hold fast. Don't give in. Don't give up. This is what he's saying to them. And what will eventually come for them in the world to come. The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end. To him, I will give authority over the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron.
They will reign with Christ. We see that actually throughout scripture. 2 Timothy 2 speaks about that. Actually, Revelation 20. We're going to come to Revelation 20 in the spring and we'll see it there. A lot of what that means, what does it mean that we'll reign with Christ? There's some unknown in that. All we know is that we will reign. But know this, it's not, as some would have you believe, that we're going to reign like on our own planets or anything like that. No, no, no, no. Christ reigns and whatever our rule is, I don't know what that is, but it's under his rule. It's under his reign.
Revelation 19:15 says this, "From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. He rules and reigns. And the saints here who are faithful to the end, they will rule with them. And they will be given verse 28 of our text, the morning star." What is that? Well, Revelation 22:16. Helps us understand what is meant by that.
In Revelation 22, the last chapter of the Bible, this is Jesus speaking. He says, "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star." At the end, they will have Jesus. He is their inheritance. He is their portion forever. Those who hold on, those who do not give in. And we are pressured daily, aren't we saints, to give in, pastors and elders are pressured to give in.
And it doesn't matter what denomination you're a part of. Joe was just Where's Pastor Joe? Where is he sitting? He was just at a denominational event. And we love our we love the AGC. Is it perfect though? No. Are there those who perhaps capitulate within our own denomination? 100% there are. And there's pressure constantly to do that. As elders, we cannot give in. We must because of the love of God and the love for his saints, stand firm, stand fast, not give in to the deep things of Satan.
That must be our calling. And it is our calling. And we must stand firm in that. And the good news is for those who do, they will conquer and rule and reign with Christ. And Jesus will be their portion at the end, even if it means hanging on for now. There's good news in this. Near the end of the right at the tail end of the Battle of Dunkerk in June of 1940, Winston Churchill gave a speech, a lengthy speech.
I'm just going to read to you just a couple of sentences from that speech. It became famous for the couple sentences that I'm going to read to you. He said this in the course of that speech. This is as Nazi Germany is seeking to invade their island. And he says this, "We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and the oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches.
We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. And it was a rally cry for the people. Friends, we must fight sin. We must fight the temptations to to move away from sound doctrine. We must never surrender. And as we do, as we do, we know that though this world is difficult, there's a time coming when we will reign with Christ and he will be our portion forever.
May that be ever in front of us, that we would be faithful to the very end. So, Father, I pray that you would minister to our hearts in that way. Lord, this is a a warning bell to us this passage. Lord, I pray that we would see the truth for what it is. That we would never acquies in any way. That we would stand firm because we love you. May the love of God be the motivator of our hearts. May the love for the our fellow saints be that which motivates us to keep one another in check and accountable and pursuing holiness together.
And may we stand firm to the very end, holding fast to the true and sound doctrine as given by our Lord and Savior. And so minister to our hearts in that way and by your spirit enable us and empower us to live lives of holiness and purity as unto our great master. We pray these things in the precious name of our savior Jesus. Amen. Let's close and
Transcribed automatically from YouTube captions, so names and words may be misheard.
