Spiritual Health Check

K.

We're gonna have our reading. If you're reading from, your bibles, it's Revelation chapter 2 starting at verse 18 to verse 29, and the words will come up behind me on the screen as well. To the angel of the church in thyatira writes, these are the words of the son of god whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your deeds, your love and faith your service and perseverance and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you.

You tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality, and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds.

Now I say to the rest of you in thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching, and have not learned satan's so called deep secrets. I will not impose any other burden on you. Only hold on to what you have until I come. To to those who overcome and do my will to the end. I will give authority over the nations.

He will rule them with an iron scepter. He will dash them to pieces like pottery. Just as I have received authority from my father, I will also give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches, Pete. Well, good morning.

My name's, Pete Woodcock, and 1 of the elders of the church. And, as Chris said, we're going through these 7 letters of the church from Jesus to the church in Asia, but also, of course, they're to us. Just a couple of things just to underline. The taste and see just pick that up and have a quick look at it. And, if you can later, just think, who could I invite to that?

There's been quite a few surveys done about inviting people to church and church events. And it's quite surprising because, apparently, and we can test this out, a lot of people are willing to come to something if they're just asked to come. So, can you pick this up, wave it to me so you can because how I can see that you're listening to me? It's like about half the Congress Simms isn't listening to. She hasn't got 1.

They're actually has now. Yes. But you haven't got 1 now. Yeah. Just just have a think of who you could invite And let's see.

Let's invite and see whether whether that statistic is true. That survey is true and invite to that because it'd be really good just to get people into thinking about what the Christian message is, and they they might stay and and listen. And then 1 other thing, Tom said to me, Tom's 1 of the other elders in the church that over where the coffee is. Is that right, Tom? Where are you?

Where are you? Over where the coffee is, there's gonna be a fresh pot of coffee made by Tom himself and standing there to anyone that's new, that's been, new in the last couple of weeks and you haven't really talked to someone. Tom will be there. Tom, do you wanna stand up? There he is.

Look at him. Coffee maker extraordinaire, and, so after the service, you can go straight there for a fresh cup of coffee, and he'll introduce himself and and other people in the church. Let me pray. Father help us now. As we look at this Pretty powerful tricky letter.

Please, give us humble hearts because we need it. It's so easy to be offended and then not listen, and we wanna be people that hear what you say, and look at our lives, be challenged by it so we may grow in love for you. So help us in Jesus' name, our, ma'am. Okay. It's a Sunday morning at the end of the first century in this small town of Thaira.

And the church is gathering like it normally does, but it's got more anticipation than the normal for its gat gathering, and the believers are very excited because today, a letter has arrived. To this little church in this town, and it's gonna be read out. It's a letter from none other than the apostle John. The last surviving of the apostles, those sent out ones by Jesus. And it's been smuggled out somehow from Patmos, the island where John is a prisoner for the lord Jesus Christ.

They'd heard that these letters had been around, and their sister church, 40 miles up the road in Pergamom, had had a letter last week, and now it's their turn. Fire Tyria are gonna hear the letter. The postmans finally come to them with this letter. Fire Tyria is in a district, a Roman district called Lydia, in a Shaminer. And if you know, the book of acts in the Bible, you know that there's a very famous woman called Lydia presumably after the Roman province, that comes from thyatira and she's now living in, Macedonia, and she's a trader in purple cloth.

And it all fits together because that's what Fire Tire was known for. It's a little town, but it was known for its purple cloth. There's something, to do with the minerals in the water around thyatira that made it really good for dying. So it's a center of dying for purple cloth. Now purple cloth is only for the rich important and religious people.

So it was very important in their thinking that the purple cloth was dedicated to the gods of the day. And that may well be 1 reason why Lydia has moved from thyatira. Because if you lived in thyra Tyra and you were gonna trade in purple cloth, you had to be part of a trade guild. And if you're gonna be part of a trade guild, you had to pay homage to the gods of the age, and dedicate yourself and be prepared to allow at least the immorality that went on with those gods to sort of, well, you would, you, you would allow it to happen. So what you've got here then is Christian business people in thyatira, and they had a choice to make.

And maybe, you know, Lydia had that choice and moved away, but they had a choice to make identify with the false immoral gods, and therefore with their immorality and make money or don't and don't make money. There's a choice. And it seems when you read this little letter of thyatira, that choice produced 2 groups in the church. There are definitely 2 groups here. 1 group, I'm sure their slogan, I could imagine, their slogan was if we wanna win the world, we need to be like the world.

Don't isolate ourselves from the world. And anyway, we're saved by Jesus. We're saved by grace alone. We're not saved by being different from the world. We're saved by Jesus, and therefore, how we live doesn't really matter.

I'm sure that's the slogan of 1 of 1 group. The other group, I'm sure I can imagine their slogan being hold it. Hold it. The church is like a ship, and ships are meant to be in the water, but if water's in the ship, then we're sunk. The church is meant to be in the world, but if the world is in the church, we're sunk.

So you've got these 2 groups, and I'm sure there's some tension between them, but they seem to be working on tolerating each other. There seems to be a tolerance going on in the church. That's the church. Anyway, that here we are back in the first century on Sunday morning and everyone's excited and they're anticipating this letter. It's a letter handwritten by none other, as I say, than the apostle John, dictated by Jesus, I mean, would you believe it?

We've got a letter from the apostle John dictated by Jesus to us little tiny church in thyatira. Now I don't know who read this out on Sunday morning, but I'm pretty sure they must have been quite scared. Perhaps it was the pastor of the church read this letter out. And I'm imagine he read it beforehand, And if he read it beforehand, he must have been shaking because he's going this letter is going to expose a powerful woman from 1 of those groups in the church. He's going to expose her.

There's gonna be a lot of red faces going on after the service here or adhering the service. Steve Levy, who's gonna come and speak to our young adults group. Is it next week or the week or next week? He comes from a church in in swansea, called Mount Pleasant Church. And 1 of the previous pastors, as he was telling me this story, was leaving the church.

He'd been the pastor of the church for quite a long time, and they had a service to celebrate his leaving or whatever, you know, to say thank you to him. And they allowed him to speak, but he took this occasion just to have a go at everyone he didn't like in the church. And he literally pointed people out and said, well, you, for a start, were a pain in the neck in my ministry. You never were helpful. And you, sir, you were 1 of the deacons of the church, and you always and he just pointed people out.

And Steve Levy said it would have been really red faced. It was so embarrassing. Well, that's what's gonna go on here. So it's quite shocking. So I don't know whether the pastor was worried or not.

But having said all of that, we must remember this letter comes from the lord Jesus Christ who's utterly pro church. He's not just having a go at it. He died for the church, and he wants the best for it. So it's a love letter, however strong it might be. So let's get on to my first point then.

Who is speaking? Well, it's the lord Jesus Christ, but how is he described? Who is speaking? Look at verse 18. These are the words of the son of god.

That's why you need to take the letter seriously. They're the words of the son of god. We're not listening to a counselor here. We're not listening to some adviser. It's not even the elders have got together and they wanna write a letter to the church.

It's not even a letter from another church. This is the son of god. These are the words of the son of god. Now when you read this letter, if you know the old testament, you'll you'll you'll know that actually there's a lot from this letter that's drawn from a Psalm in the Old Testament. Psalm 2 seems to to have in mind, when this letter is written.

And Psalm 2 is about the nation's raging against god, and god raising up his son, the son of god, who will have all authority over any raging nation. So He speaks here to this church of thyatira with all the authority of god over every nation. But notice this, and I want you to notice this because this This is actually an important application point, really. See how he does it. It says, the son of god, these are the words of the son of god.

But if you go down to verse 29, the last verse, in this letter, it says whoever has is let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. So it's the son of god speaking by the spirit. But then we know that this message is written down by the apostle John. And really that's what the Bible is, and we've got to get that. The Bible isn't just a collection of words and works and histories.

So in what in some sense, every week, when we open the Bible, we should expect to hear the son of god speaking through the spirit as we open up the written down message of the apostles. That's the way it works. The son of god speaks in the power of the spirit through his inscripturated his written downward, the apostles word. So that's his voice thing. Now we'll come back to that in a minute, but that's very important.

That's his voice, the voice of the son of god. Look at his eyes though, whose eyes are like blazing fire. I mean, he has bright eyes here. They're blazing like fire, and he it penetrates. He sees things.

And if he sees anything, you know, where someone's putting a barrier up, he sees through the barrier right through it. Look at verse 23. It says, I am he who searches hearts and minds. Nobody can, you know, get away from his gaze. The son of god, with all of the authority, searches with his blazing bright eyes blazing like fire.

Look at his feet, whose feet are like burnish bronze, What's that mean? Powerful, able to crush, to powder, anyone that stands against him? That's what that means. And he's the 1 with those feet that are walking around the churches. Verse 18 then, So the angel of the church in to the angel of the church in Thiodi thyatira writes, these are the words of the son of god whose eyes are like blazing fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

Bet you could hear a pin drop, don't you think? In thyatira, bet you could hear a pin drop. What are you gonna say? These are the words? Yeah.

What are the words? Yeah. I bet you could hear a pin drop. So he turns, first of all, to what I'm gonna call the faith force. There are the traitors and the faith force, and he turns to the faith force, and it's amazing.

Look what he says in verse 19. It's just wonderful. Everybody says in verse 19 to the faith force. I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service, and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. He knows.

This is this is beautiful. You know, the church is beautiful in his eyes with his flashing powerful eyes. He sees. They're serving, and they're loving, and they're growing. There's a sense that they know the word of god amongst them and they're walking with the lord together in their love and perseverance in their in their faith.

This this is really genuinely a lovely church. I mean, I wanna go to Fire Tyra if it's a church like this. It was it's lovingly kind and faithful church and desires to be more like the lord Jesus Christ. They're growing in this. They're not stagnant.

There's no smell of stagnancy. There's growth. To hear the lord Jesus Christ say things like that to them must have been incredibly encouraging, wasn't it? This is a Jesus congregation, he's saying. This is a proper church.

You know, like, you get proper tea, don't you? You know, yorkshire tea is proper tea. This is a proper church. Jesus is just saying, this is a proper church. Yeah?

This is what we should aspire to. You don't you don't need anything else. This isn't super Christian experiences that are needed here. There's no tingling down the back that you need. It's a proper church, plain and simple, love, faith, service, perseverance.

That's a proper church. Yeah? He says, I know your deeds. I think that I know your I think the deeds is sort of summary the overall. I know your deeds were what are the deeds?

Love. This church loves. It loves the lord Jesus. It loves the lord Jesus' people. There's love.

They're growing in love. They love to hear the word of god, they love to meet together, they love this church has faith. Trust is the word for faith, faith in god, growing in their understanding of what god says, believing that Even though everybody else may say something else, what god says is true, and even though everybody else might have, sort of designs on how to run a church, what god says is how to run a church, and they have more faith in that and service and perseverance. 1, very expert, commentator on the book of revelations. Massive.

A massive booker got it at home. And, he says that if you go through the book of Revelation, when when when service and perseverance are put together in the book of Revelation, it nearly always means witnessing to the outside world. Nearly always means that. So they've got love, faith, service. They're serving the world with the good news of Jesus Christ, even though it costs them, and even though they may be rejected for doing it.

And they persevere standing for truth. This is an authentic witness. This is an authentic church to a dark and lost world. Verse 19, I know your deeds, your love, your faith, your service, and perseverance, and I know that you're always doing more than you did at first. They're growing.

What encouraging thing is, this is a Jesus church. This is the type of church Jesus loves, and I want to say to you brothers and sisters here at Cornerstone, This is a church we must be basing ourself on. We've gotta be like this more and more. Well, we'll come back to that at the end. But look at verse 20.

Nevertheless. Remember this is the son of god speaking. Never the less I have this against you. There's something terrible happening here. Something potential disaster, among all the lovely flowers of love and faith and service and perseverance amongst the sweet smelling flowers of the Holy Spirit working in that church the simple, clear, basic, plain, beautiful scent of those ordinary flowers growing.

There's a weed. And the weed can absolutely destroy those flowers if we're not careful. Now what is it that the son of god has against this little church? It's quite surprising. What is it?

Tolerance. That's what he what he has against the church is tolerance. Extraordinary, isn't it? Because in many ways tolerance is a Christian virtue. I mean, we we need to be tolerant.

No. How how would we ever get on if we don't forbear with 1 another and have patience? I mean, how am I ever gonna get on with you lot? Without some measure of tolerance and patience. Yeah?

How is that ever gonna happen? Or you with me? How is it gonna happen? We need to forbear. We need to forgive.

We need to overlook loads of stuff. As spurgeon says, we need a blind eye and a deaf ear on lots of things. We need to tolerate each other. I mean, that's what church is really about in many ways, but tolerance is the thing that he's against. Because when it comes to evil in the church, when it comes to untruth, then to tolerate that is a sin.

And to tolerate that will destroy all the flowers Jesus delights in. So tolerance we must have, and we need to have tolerance in the world, of course. We have tolerance in the church, but Not when it comes to sin, not when it comes to error. So that leads me onto my third point then, the traitors in the church. Look at verse 20 again.

Nevertheless, I have this against you. You tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophet, but her teaching, by her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and eating a food sacrificed to idols. Who's jezebel? Who's a jezebel in Cornerstone? Who's jezebel?

We'll get to that in a minute. Who's jezebel? Who's jezebel here? I mean, is that her real name? I presume it's not, although it might be in god's providence.

I think even if it is her real name, what Jesus is doing here is showing us that she's got a jezebel spirit. She's like the Old Testament Jezebel. And if you know anything about the Old Testament Jezebel, you know that Jezebel in the Old Testament is an out and out pagan. She is a worshiper of baal. And she practiced all the disgusting stuff and sexual rights of that religion.

Jezebel is a power when you read the old testament. It's in you find her in 1 and 2 kings in the old testament. And she's a power behind the throne, and this is how often Jezebel's work. Ahab King Ahab is the king over Israel, and he marries Jezebel, and she influences him and then he influences a whole nation to worship baal in this orgy way. And so much so that at 1 time, there's only 7000 people in the whole of Israel that are worshiping god.

She's a powerhouse. If she wanted anything, she got it. She used all her power of sex and religion. And there's power in sex and religion, isn't there? And she used sex and religion for her own power.

She defied the lord's prophet Elijah. She stood up against him. So we have a jezebel in the church, a jezebel in this little church of thyatira, and she's called jezebel because she's is a jezebel. Let me read some quotes from the original Jezebel. Just a few.

I can't put it all in context because it would we've preached through this, I think, in, 1 king. So you can go and hear those sermons, but here's some quotes from 1 from 1 kings in the old testament. He, that's King Ahab, not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jarabome, son of Nibat, but he also married Jezebel, daughter of Beth, f, Fail, King of the Sidonians and begun to serve bail and worship him. See, Jezebel's influence? Here's another 1.

While this is just 1 line, while Jezebel was killing off the lord's prophets, I don't have to really tell you much more, do I? So Jezebel sent a message to Elijah. May the gods deal with me be of be it ever so severely If by this time tomorrow, I do not make your life like 1 of them, in other words, I'll kill you. Here's a message to Jezebel that she received with joy. Naboth has been stoned to death.

She made sure that he was stoned to death, and she was waiting for that news. That's Jezebel in the Old Testament. She's opposed to god. She worships false gods. She's a powerhouse, a powerful woman, and she's in thyatira.

She's got influence. I mean, perhaps she was the pastor's wife. He had to read this letter out or bloke. She was able to draw a following. She engaged in teaching in the church.

She got an authoritative voice in the congregation. She claimed to be a prophet. Listen to me, and you will hear god speaking. The Lord has told me this. This is the word of god for you, she would say.

If you wanna get into deeper things and surely if you're a Christian, you want to be deeper as a Christian, deeper than love and faith and service and perseverance, she'll always put those normal things down. They're too normal. They're too regular. They're the beautiful regular life of the church, but if you wanna come into deeper things, listen to me, you shall say. And as Christians, we're suckers for this.

And the reason we're suckers for this is because we wanna grow, and we're often disappointed with our own Christian lives. So someone who comes along with sort of powerful speech and powerful words and simpler ways of doing things, where I don't have to worry too much about certain sins, very attractive. Look at a number of things about Jezebel because they're nearly always the same. Where did her authority come from? Her authority comes from herself, not the apostles.

You noticed that? She has a direct word from god. You don't need to go through those apostles. It's interesting, isn't it? Even the lord Jesus speaking to this church in the first century thyatira, he has it written down by the apostle John, Yeah.

And then it's spoken. But she doesn't need to go through an apostle. It's too complicated. She has direct word from god. And anyway, those apostles, they wrote a different time.

They don't quite understand what's going on now. So she has authority from herself, not from the apostles, and she's self appointed and not church appointed. It says you tolerate that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophet. You can hear you can hear her. She calls herself a prophet.

She's saying things like, you know, I have a gift. God god's given me the gift. Why would god give me a gift if I'm not meant to use it in the church? If if the church doesn't recognize my gift, well, they're stupid. God recognizes it.

If the elders of the church don't recognize my gift, then they're stupid. If they tolerate me, then I'll tolerate them. But if they don't recognize it, are you saying that god wouldn't want me to use my gift? See how she clearly was prepared to dismiss the apostle Paul was teaching in 1 Timothy chapter 2, where Paula says I do not permit a woman to teach her her or assume authority over a man in church. Now we've done sermons on that, and so don't get just hung up on that, but go and have a listen to them.

But she's prepared to say I'm not gonna listen to the apostle Paul there, Now, of course, it's true that Jezebel might not just have to be a woman. It may well be a man. Although in the in Perganham, it was Balam, who is a man. And in thyTira, it's Jezebel, who is a woman. So but, you know, you've they're doing the same thing.

Verse 20 then. Nevertheless, I have this against you. You tolerate that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality, and eating a food sacrificed to idols. Her teaching is misleading.

She might be very nice. She might be very intelligent. She might be very persuasive. I'm sure she is. She may be very gifted.

She's even very seductive, but she's leading people into a worldly way of life and in this case sexual immorality. Now why would it lead to that? Simply this, and it often does. Why? Because when you say we don't have to be different to the spirit of the age, then the spirit of the age comes into the church, and the spirit of the age begins to take over and rule.

And where you start isn't where you end. Because the spirit of the age is always moving on. And therefore, although it may not start with immorality, in the end it leads there. You can hear her. Do not put your job on the line.

Join the trade guild. You've only got to do a certain thing, wear a badge, wear some colors around your neck, You've only gotta do it's it's all right. You you you you just identify with them, but it doesn't mean to say you're completely with them, and it starts there, doesn't it? And I want is the church meant to be that judgmental against the world? Come on.

We're in the 20 first century or we're in the first century. You were so intolerant. Those words are used. Be broad minded. Come on.

Give the culture a bit of, you know, isn't god in the culture a bit? Join the trade guilds. It's okay. The word of god says this in Titus 2. For the grace of god has appeared that offers salvation to all people Listen, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self controlled and upright and godly lives in this present age, in the present age, to say no to the powers of the present age.

We're a ship in the water, but if a little water is leaking in, the trouble is the sick the ship begins to sink a little bit by a little bit, and then water comes over the edge a bit more. And before you know it, it rushes in and the sink, the ship is sunk. Look at denominations that have not listened to words like this. And see that they failed. A little bit of tolerance starts to allow a little bit of allowance starts to affect.

Look at verse 21. See that? I've given her time, that's Jezebel time, to repent of her immorality, but she's unwilling. It's a very interesting verse, isn't it? Cause how had Jesus given her time?

How does that normally work out in a church? Well, maybe Jesus actually came to her. Maybe I I don't know. And spoke to her, but normally, it doesn't work like that. Normally, Jesus works through the church leaders, and the church teachers.

And perhaps they came to her lovingly and tried to correct her and tried to stop her and tried to show her the scriptures, but she wouldn't listen. And as I say, you can hear how it happens because I can tell you, I've seen this. How offensive you are? How upsetting you are? And then she'll play all the power techniques that Jezebel's do, the accusations of intolerance, your intolerant you are You're a chauvinist, and then the tears, if that doesn't work, you don't understand, and this is really personal, and then the walking out with tears.

So the whole atmosphere is just 1 of all my goodness, and the person up front feels like the bully. It's all manipulation. You're out of date. You're teaching isolates us from the world. Nobody will listen to a church that's gonna take that stance or carry on like you carry on.

So instead of repenting, she hardens her heart to the word of god, and it's very bad news for her. You see, god has an invisible line. If we carry on walking down sin, we may cross the invisible line, but it's invisible to us, but he has it. You know those funny sort of bump things that are like teeth that cars go over, you know, you know them they have them on the road. So you can go over 1 way, but you can't go back.

You know those teeth? God has them. People who are going down the road of sin, and he warns them, and he warns them. But eventually, they go over that bump and they can never turn back. And it's frightening.

For those who cherish sin, god holds up his mercy. But if they persist and won't repent, they've crossed the line. Look at verse 21 to 23. I've given her time to repent of her immorality, but she was unwilling. She's crossed the line.

She doesn't know it. He does, so I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely until they repent of their ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. You see, it doesn't really matter how awful we see Jezebel's sin.

But it does matter that we see that Jesus sees it as so awful. He sees it as so awful that he's gotta destroy it. He will judge it. He sees it as so awful that he won't tolerate it. What he's saying is you be like Jezebel and you will be like Jezebel.

And Jezebel came to a horrible end. Do you know what happened to Jezebel? Do you know what happened? She was on a tower, wouldn't listen to the word of god and was was thrown off the tower, fell down dead, and the dogs coming at her. That's what happened to Jezebel.

She didn't repent. And the message of the son of god is that if you play with sin, you should fear, and all who refuse to condemn sin should fear, and all who practice it, even a little should fear. And very often, and we know it in church history, very often, the hidden sins of Jezebel, who some people thought was a great leader and a great prophetess. Suddenly, and often after they've died, suddenly the real story comes out. Look at verse 23 the second half, and then all the churches will know that I am he who searches the hearts and minds, and I will repay each according to their deeds.

Suddenly, oh, yes. That was the problem with the church. And he or she's sins come out, and 1 person comes forward, and then another, and then another. That leads me to my fourth point. How long have I got, brother?

Back to the faithful because we don't wanna end with the faith list, do we? The the traitors. Back to the faithful. You're still with it. It's hard stuff this, isn't it?

This letter. It's not what I chose to do. I'd much rather There's a load of other passages. I'm much rather preach. I can tell you.

But back to the faithfulness, look, verse 24. Now I say to the rest of you, so he said that to the to the to the, to the traitors. Now I say that to the rest of you in thyatira to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan's so called deep secrets. Listen to this. This is the son of god.

I will not impose any other burden on you except to hold you to what you have until I come. It's a beautiful sentence. Look, you've been burdened by this Jezebel You've been under her pain and her accusations, and she's called you everything. And she says nasty things about you, but don't worry. I'm not gonna burden you anymore.

I'm not gonna burden you anymore. All I want you to do is to carry on doing what you're doing until I come because what you're doing in love and faith and service and perseverance is what I love. You stick at that. You stick at that. Carry on holding to the truth, growing in your love and faith and service and peer perseverance until I come, and when I come, I come with my reward, and my reward is, I'll stamp out the jettobels.

And hold on to the heavenly perspective. Look at verse 26, to the 1 who is victorious, and does my will to the end. I will give authority over the nations. That 1 will rule them like an iron scepter and dash them to pieces like pottery. Just as I have received authority from my father, I will also give that 1 the morning star whoever has ears to hear let him hear what the spirit says to the churches.

Look at the heavenly perspective. I'm coming the ruler of the world with justice. All of the things that Jezebelts have said against you are stamp them out. Unless they repent, unless they repent, feel sorry for them, stamped them out, or stamped them out with all the authority of the father, of god, of all the authority of the iron scepter that will dash the pieces the pottery. I will come to them and I will give you the morning star.

And what is the morning star? If you go at the end of the book of Revelation, we're told what the morning star is. What is the morning star? Jesus is the morning star. I will come and I'll give you me.

I will give you me, and there's nothing better to give. See, Jezebel is giving secret things. That's nonsense. I'll give you me. I'll give you more of me.

And the morning star is the planet Venus, and the Romans worshiped the plan, Venus, the goddess Venus, represented by the planet as the goddess of victory. So Jesus is saying, I'll give you me. I'm the victory. I'm the morning star. I'm the dawning of a new day.

Because the morning star comes up in the morning. I'm the dawning of a new just stick at what you're doing. Be faithful despite the Jezebels. Okay. That's it.

But I've got 4 applications. Can I go through them quickly? It might mean that you might wanna listen to this again because I'm gonna have to go through quickly for time's sake. Here's some applications. 1, Jezebel, Watch out for her.

How does she work when we've seen it? She'll always say I have a gift. Are you saying I shouldn't use my gift? Very little to do with character. It's all to do with gift.

I have a gift. Shouldn't I use my gift? No. No. You should have a character.

Secondly, she'll say you're old fashioned. She'll always do that. You wanna reach modern people, then you won't with your views. You need to modern up and let go a bit. Thirdly, she'll always say we need to reinterpret the apostles.

We need to reinterpret the Bible. We need to rethink that through in order to reach people today. Fourthly, Jezebels will always use, and they're brilliant at this. All the techniques they can. They'll use tears.

And it's very hard to ever pull back a meeting when a jezebel cries in the meeting. It's very hard because you always feel like you're a nasty 1 that's made someone cry. They'll use tears. They'll use words like you're intolerant. They'll use words like, well, they'll exaggerate your position to a sort of caricature position.

They'll always be talking on behalf of others, although they never mention who those others are. Jezebels are always doing that, and Jezebels will always try to place themself in a place of influence. I find it quite scary when you find people that don't really know their theology that get on Christian committees. And if you walk them. If they're clever enough, they get on hundreds of, what, loads of different Christian committees.

They have power without substance. They like being on a committee, and I see that in the church. Today, what's happening, certainly in America, and it's now happening over here is that we're always having co pastors. The pastor and the wife is a co pastor. You look at it.

You look at it. That's something to be a bit suspicious of because people are always worming their way into a place of influence without needing to be trained or thought through. It's not always the case. I know it's not always the case. Please don't have a go at me.

It's saying it's always the case, but be careful. That's Jezebel. Here's my second point of application, courage. It takes courage just to stick at the basics. If you're leading church.

It cap takes courage to say no to all of the beautiful things that are coming your way and to growing the flowers of love and faith and service. And perseverance. They're often not seen as sexy. They're just normal. They're just ordinary things.

Oh, is that yeah. Your ch it's only got love, faith, service and perseverance. Haven't you heard? But it takes courage to say no to everything and stick at them. 1 of the reasons, and this is where we're at in this country, men are not going into ministry is that it takes courage to stick at those things.

Thirdly, when churches win against the Jezebel, and I know churches that have, both male and female Jezebels or or rather balans and jezebels. There's a joy and a freshness of the lord Jesus Christ reigning in the church Even though that church has been bruised and feels bruised, when you go into a church where the pastor has had the guts to deal with a jezebel, there's a freshness of the lord Jesus Christ there. Fourthly, brothers and sisters, let's grow, and let's go to the prayer meeting and pray that we'll grow in love, faith, service, and perseverance. We don't need anything else. Please, let's not get distorted.

Those of you that are going to Hope Church, don't start thinking, oh, we can go to Hope and now we can have new ideas. You know? Some of the reason we're sending you to hope because some of you are jezebel's. No. No.

No. No. No. No. No.

That's not true. No. No. No. That is definitely not true.

You are not that. But but don't start thinking there's there's there's new ways of doing church. Now, there's often, you know, lots of outward things you can do differently, of course, but these are the fundamentals, love, faith, service, perseverance. That's what Jesus loves. And we don't move from that, and you don't need anything more than that.

And you do that and you'll be the witness to the world. Faith in the word of god, love for each other and and so forth. And believe that doing church god's ways, however counter cultural it is, and how however hurtful the Jezebels might be to us. That is an authentic witness to the world. Jezebel with her contagiousness will always have a go at the authentic.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches. Let's pray. Father god, it's it's a it's a stern sermon and a stern word, but what we really want to remember is that your spirit through your word through the voice of the son of god would create in us love and faith in you and service and perseverance. Help us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.