Overcomers Pt 4 Thyatira the church that tolerated the wrong thing.

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jezebel, judge, overcomers, repent, thyatira

Rev 2:18  And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;

Rev 2:19  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.

Rev 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

Rev 2:21  And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

Rev 2:22  Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

Rev 2:23  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.

Rev 2:24  But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

Rev 2:25  But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Rev 2:28  And I will give him the morning star.

Rev 2:29  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Here this church does all these works and they are increasingly improving.  But in this place there is this woman…

Rev 2:20  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

Rev 2:21  And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

Rev 2:22  Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

Rev 2:23  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.

Now there is a finality to this.  Everyone involved with this woman and her doctrine will be destroyed.  Because this church was not paying attention and throwing out the evil in the midst it is indicted.  But listen now to what He says about the rest.

Rev 2:24  But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

Rev 2:25  But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.

And the overcomer …

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

Rev 2:28  And I will give him the morning star.

There are two things here, overcoming and “keeping His works to the end”.  His works are those things done in the Love of God and the Faith of the Son of God. James tells us what pure religion and un defiled is before God. Jas 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Now we might not be able to be going and doing visitation ministries but as often as people come across the path of our lives which have a need God enables us to meet, we should not turn them away.  However the second part is a must, keeping ourselves “unspotted” from the world.  In Galatians there is a “crucifixion” of not knowing, boasting or glorying in anything but the Cross by which we are CRUCIFIED to the world and the world is CRUCIFIED to us.  We are to live in the world but not “of the world”.  That is to say we don’t live necessarily according to the traditions and customs of the cultures of those around us or even according to our familial heritages which have cultures attached to them.  No indeed we are “set apart” in many ways.  In fact if you care to understand this, Christ IS our culture as well as our heritage.

But look at the reward.  The overcomer will rule the nations with a rod of iron as the vessels of a potter the nations will be broken under the iron rod rules of these overcomers, to shivers or shards.  The most important clause in the sentence is  the last one; EVEN AS I RECEIVED OF MY FATHER.  Yes this is a familiar statement because Jesus Overcame the world and authority was given Him over the nations and the Rod of Iron was given Him to demolish Nations like a potter does unsuitable or damaged pots.  This Iron Rod may be seen by those it destroys to be Despotic and to the disobedient it is.  But to those who Love the Lord and are the called according to His plan the Rod is there but it doesn’t break anything.  It is Benevolent.  When you have finally died in death you have overcome. We are dead and our lives hidden in Christ.

But what Revelation do we see here? In the previous church that had in it those who propagated error, He was actively the Judge or the One who wars against His enemies. In this case we have a church which is permitting error to live in the midst and there is a shift in the Revelation.  These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass;…  This is none other than the Revelation of the King.  This is Suzerain authority and RAW POWER folks.  He will put an end to His opposition.   In out mortal estate we cannot fathom a Being whose eyes either have the intensity of fire and whose skin is like fine brass, or rather like burnished fine brass, and I say this because this description is seen in chapter one.

Rev 1:14  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

Rev 1:15  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

We cannot conceive of the composition of such a Being who is capable of Creation from nothing.  This is the Revelation given here.

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Judgment Day

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book, judge, LAMB, law, throne, virtue, white, yom kippur

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat upon it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne; and books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.

In Jewish tradition, at Yom Kippur they tend to say “may your name be written in the Book of Life”; we know this to be the LAMB’s Book of Life. But there are other books opened.  In the next verse we find that somehow every person who is now produced to stand before this Great White Throne is being judged according to “THEIR WORKS” and in the fifteenth verse the deciding factor of their judgment was whether or not they were found in the “book of life”.  In some Jewish tradition they talk about the book of deeds.  It is said that on Yom Kippur each year that the books are opened and it is decided who lives and who dies and who prospers and who does not. The other Book by virtue of a need for a Standard of Law would be the book of the Law.  By these two books perhaps does a soul get judged, and is weighed and found wanting for as James will tell us, if in any point of the Law we fail to live up to it and comply with it then we are guilty of the whole law. (Jas 2:10  For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is become guilty of all. )  Here are a few more facts that argue for the Book of the Law being used to compare to the Book that may well record all the deeds of men.

Rom 2:12  For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without the law: and as many as have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law;

Now look at this; this one statement covers the Jew who is NOT IN CHRIST and the Gentile as well.  The Law of Moses judges the Jew and the Deeds of the Gentile either stack up to Christ or … they are found … wanting.

Rom 3:20  because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight; for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.

Justification is the key for without being able to be justified before God as Judge Eternal there is no entrance into The Kingdom and realize this that there are no Christians here….at least there are none whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s book of life.  In Justification you are made Not Guilty, which puts you in “right standing” before God and grants you access into the Kingdom.  But since by the Law or Deeds no one can be “justified” these have no chance.  You see dear reader there is no deed, no action or sacrifice or ceremonial thing that will replace being recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life which means saved by grace through faith and that not of yourselves.  This Justification is Salvation and that as a free gift. Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Just as in the other judgment previously the wages of their being in Christ were paid, now here for these the wage is being paid.

One more book is actually recorded in Scripture.  A book of Remembrance.

Mal 3:16 Then they that feared Jehovah spake one with another; and Jehovah hearkened, and heard, and a book of remembrance was written before him, for them that feared Jehovah, and that thought upon his name.

This was in connection with a rebuke of Malachi the Prophet against the Israelites. Now the actual book may still be used or was only used on this occasion. However what this does tell us is that God listens in on and considers every word of our mouths.  Jesus confirms the thought of God listening on and weighing out our conversations.

Mat 12:32 And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come.
Mat 12:33 Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit.
Mat 12:34 Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.
Mat 12:35 The good man out of his good treasure bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.
Mat 12:36 And I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.
Mat 12:37 For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.

Now some folks say they will have some explaining to do before God when they get there but the reality is that the explanations and adjustments were to come in our lives in flesh un-glorified here on Earth BEFORE death.  It appears that Eternity is a fixed aspect.  There will be no explaining or reasoning with the MIND of God.

So then its not just what we did or didn’t do with Jesus but also what we said.