His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): Pastor Matt Vandervinn says, a literal approach to Revelation is best and helps you avoid going down a path God never intends.

Matt VanderVen: I just want to take the word literally and keep it that simple. You know, I believe you lead to false accusations, you leave lead to divisiveness with the body of Christ. You go on a sin hunt when you're trying to drill into this Jezebel, you start making it something it wasn't. I think it's simple. Morality, idolatry, false teaching, and unrepentant sin. That's what we're seeing here. That's what was going on. That's what Thyatira is guilty of, or those that were practicing this in Thyatira.

Guest (Male): Tolerance, that's the big buzzword of the day. And at times we should be tolerant, but sin and false teaching should never be tolerated in the church. Welcome to His Perfect Love. Today, Pastor Matt Vandervinn takes another look at the Lord's letter to the church at Thyatira in Revelation chapter two. While he commended them for a few things, he rebuked them as well. They were tolerating false teaching and unrepentant sin and engaging in immorality and idolatry. Pastor Matt begins at verse 20. Nevertheless, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess.

Couple things here. She's assuming the office of a prophetess, which is fine. Woman can be a prophetess, a man can be a prophet. There's an office of that. Fine. Okay. No problem there. Women are allowed to do that. However, in scripture, Timothy clearly teaches that women are not to be able to teach men and women. It's very clear in Timothy, right? It's not something we we need to even debate about. It's it's it's the Bible, the Greek, it's right there. I had a university right in our area, a college. Um students came years and years ago.

I remember it was probably five years ago now, and they sat there and said, you know, pastor, uh the student unions coming together and they're asking us about certain things about homosexuality. Do we want to now say that that's of the Lord and God now allows it because he loves the people and and and and you know, but the Bible says that that's still an abomination. How how about women teaching and women being called pastors and and all these kind of things? How how do we want to you know, pastor, what do you say? I said, well, look, you this is doesn't matter what I think, what your Bible tell you.

And I took them to the passage. They go in, they read it, the translation to the the student union um I guess you call them president or whatever the role is they have to kind of organize the students before the vote. And the we said, well, that's just the translation. So these young ladies came back. There was like four of them. They came back and said, pastor, well, they said it's just translation. I said, why don't we send them to Greek? I said, we can do that. We know the Greek. So I wrote a paper in Greek and I said and not draw attention to me.

I mean, the Lord did that. We wrote a paper in the Greek. We sent the manuscript, the manuscripts and said, please let them know we'll give them the translation if they like, but they can go word by word here. God's not God's not meant to confuse us at all about any of these things. Word by word translation of the Greek to English, do the same thing. You be Bereans. So he turns around and he goes and he presents that and turns around and says, look, this is what the Bible says. You know what he did?

We don't need to share that. We don't need to present that. We're just going to call for a vote today. And the students voted. And I I'm sorry to say what the result was of the vote. Nevertheless, I have this against you. You tolerate the woman, Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, but her teaching she's teaching men and women, not not unbiblical. She misleads. Women women can certainly teach women, women can certainly teach children. And look, and I want to be clear here. I I don't care that that way. I I'm fine if we if God would have said women are to be the pastors, I'm on board.

I mean it. I think that's great. I don't have an opinion. Like I don't care either way. I just want to be obedient. Whatever he decides, I just want to be obedient to it. You can choose however. He says women have babies. I'm okay with that. I'm okay. You don't I I'm not I'm not wrestling with that one, right? Thank you, Jesus. You women are tough. I'm not that tough. I don't have it in me. But also as part of her teaching, what was she doing? She's seducing her servants, the people that were following her.

She's creating a following within the church to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols. This is a big problem. It's called idolatry. She's encouraging others to commit idolatry, to follow a different doctrine. Oh, by the way, the Lord told me. You ever had people that come up always, even the devil can appear as an angel of light. The scriptures tell us that we're to test out the spirits. I can tell you there's people over these last time. I've had people come up. The spirit of God has told me this. Okay, and I'll write that down.

Some have even said it prophetically. Deuteronomy tells me how to handle that. The office of a prophet. If somebody comes and says, this is going to happen next week and it doesn't happen, what am I to call them? Or what am I to recognize that as? A false prophet. He made it very simple, Jesus. He didn't even have to Matt, you don't even need to think about this. He knows me. He made it so I can just follow along. Like he kept it real simple for me. Your Bibles are written at a third grade level.

Did you know that? Your Bibles are actually written at a third grade level. So that he we could understand. He wants us just to be obedient to that. So he he turns around and he says, well, it's false prophet. She's she's saying things that aren't true. We we have that today still. People come in the church. Oh, the spirit of the Lord told me this. Oh, the spirit of the Lord told me that. And I love that this Holy Spirit does speak to us all. He does. I don't deny that. But we are told in scripture specifically to test the spirits because even the devil can open doors.

You do know that, right? How many of you prayed when you have an important decision to make, whether it's job or something else going on? Lord, if this is what you want me to do, open a door so wide that I can't what? Miss, you're in my brain. Yes, yeah, we all pray that way, right? And then what happens? Man, this casually garage door opens. It's like, oh, we see it at that moment and we're like, wow, this is it. Everybody, let's go through the garage door. And then we get to the door and all of a sudden we see all these idols.

Ooh, what's that doing there? That's not the fingerprints of God. That's not the fingerprints of God. And when I read the scripture, he told me this, but I kind of said, well, let's throw the fleece. And then I find myself walked through a door that I the devil opened. And I turned around and said, well, now we need to be careful test everything. I I it always makes me leery because when we say that the Lord told me or when we say what we're really saying and we should really take this very serious. Please listen to me right now because this is this is a really big deal and a big sin within the church when it happens this way.

When we say the spirit told me or I have a conviction in my spirit or this is what's happening, what we're really saying in a modern language is thus saith the Lord. Does everybody here understand that? When when you say that or I say that, we're really saying thus saith the Lord. And then when that thing doesn't come true, what was it when you say something of God that's untrue? The Bible defines that as what? Blasphemy. It's blaspheming. I know we don't mean for that to happen in no no way. You you hear it, you believe it is from the Lord.

Test the spirits, okay? Test the spirits because this Jezebel, this woman, she's doing it all over the place. She's going up to people. Oh, next week this is what's going to or false doctrine, things that are unbiblical, and people are listening to it and being led astray. One because they don't know their Bibles. Two because she's persuasive. It says right here that she seduced, which means she used her cunningness, her wiles if I can use that term. And I don't mean in a negative way. I've I've used that term in counseling with men and women.

I'll say men wiles or women's wiles. And somebody but what do you mean by that woman's wiles? I I don't know how else to say it. Men's wiles or women's You are able to think on your feet. You are quick. You are able to think on your feet. You can navigate. That's what I mean by that. You guys all with me when I say that? With something purports a problem before us, are we quick thinkers on our feet? Can we use our wiles, our brains? Right? Maybe that's a better way of saying it. But what we read here is she's leading believers into compromise and the church is engaging in sexual morality.

It's dabbling in idolatry. And it's possible that Jezebel was a real name, but but more than likely this was just a metaphorical reference to the Jezebel of the Old Testament, right? Another idolatrous woman who opposed God's commands. I'm going to go through a couple of things here. If you just want to turn there, 1 Kings chapter 16 in your Bibles, that's in your Old Testament. 1 Kings chapter 16 verses 30 through 32 is where I'm going to be at, okay? I 'm not going to read word for word in there, but I 'm going to talk about this.

But if you want to read word for word, you can follow along. Okay? What was the problem in Thyatira? So rather than the pastor or the elders or the leaders rebuking this Jezebel, this Jezebel spirit, we use that term. It's unbiblical, but still I'm using it just so everybody knows what I am talking about. A false teacher. Instead of a pastor coming and rebuking the false teacher and sending her out of the church if there's no repentance, the believers in Thyatira were allowing her to continue in deception. That's exactly what they did. They didn't turn around and go to her and say, sorry, this can't happen here.

Are you repentant? How do I know that repentance matters? Because Jesus tells me right in verse 20 uh 21, and I gave her time to what? Repent. But she didn't. She didn't. Well, in 1 Kings 16:30, this woman, Jezebel, what was her sin in the Old Testament? King Ahab married this idolatrous woman, Jezebel, who introduced a host of heathen gods to the children of Israel. Such powerful queen that she even had Elijah. Remember Elijah, the prophet Elijah, God's prophet? He fled to Beersheba to escape her threat. That that's actually in chapter 19 verses 1 through 3, not in 16.

But the idolatrous system that Ahab's wicked wife brought to the ancient people of God was as wicked as any this world has seen or ever known. And again, although Elijah stood against the wicked um priests of Baal, he feared this woman who brought this system in. That says something. Elijah, he had a crisis of faith, if you remember. Now a characteristic linked to this God this woman, even Jezebel in the Old Testament, is sexual sin and perversion. Now there are a variety of opinions of what constitutes a Jezebel spirit. Everything from sexual promiscuity in a woman to the teaching of false doctrine and I think anything in between.

And really that can be applied to a man or a woman, truly. The Bible does not mention mention a Jezebel spirit. You've heard people use that term in Christianese, I call it. Although it it has plenty to say the Bible has plenty to say about Jezebel herself though, and you're right in the chapters I want you to be in. Ahab and Jezebel's reign over Israel is one of the saddest chapters in the history of God's people. Now there were two incidents, okay? So you you just looked at verse 16, you kind of got orientated in verse 30 to 32 with King Ahab.

Now I just want you to kind of flip over since you're already in 1 Kings, just go to chapter 18, please, and look at verse four. If you look at Jezebel in the Old Testament, there's two traits I want us to see or two two incidents is if you can say it that way. Please forgive me if that's confusing. One trait is that she had an obsessive passion for domineering and controlling others, especially in the spiritual realm, okay? When she became queen, she began a relentless campaign to rid Israel of all evidences of Yahweh worship or worship of God.

She ordered the extermination of all the prophets of the Lord. That's 1 Kings. You can see it right there in your Bible right before me. 1 Kings chapter 18 verse four. She literally orders the extermination of all God's prophets. She doesn't want any competition, no one speaking truth because she has the only source of truth. And they replaced them with altars of Baal of these false pagan gods. And as I mentioned, her strongest enemy was Elijah, the prophet, who demanded a contest. Do you remember that? Some of you are familiar or have heard about that account.

It was on Mount Carmel, right? 1 Kings 18, right where you're at. Between the powers of Israel's God and the powers of Jezebel and the priests of Baal. Who won that? Do you remember that? Of course, God won, right? Um I even appreciate uh uh Elijah's uh connotation and humor that he shared. Where is your God? Maybe he's using the restroom. But despite hearing of the miraculous powers of the Lord and you know, because she heard about how God won that battle, that contest, Jezebel herself, she refused to repent and swore on her God, the very gods that were not able to defeat the one true God.

Just shows you the the craziness, if I can use it that term. Not and I don't mean if that offends anybody, but just that she would think the very gods that she's worshiping, the ones that she has made with her hands, these priests that she's concocted and put in a position who were not able to you know, defeat the one true God. She then goes back instead of humbling herself and yielding to the word of God or the truth of God or God's prophets, she turns around and says, I swear on the prophets you just destroyed and beat.

Does that even seem logical to you? Is that not illogical? I know swear upon those prophets that Elijah, you prophet of God, you man of God, I 'm going to take your life. I won't rest until you're a dead man. That's how maniacal she was. Maniacal. This is this is this Jezebel that we're reading about in Revelation. This woman that was in this church that And again, it doesn't have to be one could have been a man too, but this this this seeking of control and power and dominant and it's only her way. It's the only way it can be.

She's got the true account, the true test. Just And how many people get led astray because she's teaching all the doctrine of homosexuality. It's okay in the church. The doctrine of this, it's okay in the church. Sure you can shack up and and fornicate and not be married. That's okay. Jesus doesn't mind. That's the kind of stuff she's teaching in the church, saying it's okay. Her stubborn refusal to see and submit to the power of the living God, it leads her to a terrible end, doesn't it? 2 Kings 9:29 describes her fate. I think the second trait or incident that I'd like to share with you this morning, 1 Kings 21:3 It's also uh Leviticus 25:23 and the idea of the the heart and spirit behind it or obeying God commands in that way.

It involves this righteous man named Naboth. Some of you have heard about him. He refused to sell to Ahab land adjoining his palace. Ahab had multiple palaces. He 's got this nice palace. He looks to his left. Boy, I really like that land. And he starts going up to Naboth. He says, Naboth, I'd like you to sell that land. Naboth says, hey, I can't sell that land. The Lord's telling me not to do that. Uh this is an inheritance from my family. These are inheritance rights. I can't sell that land. So Ahab, of course, being a reasonable man says, oh, I understand.

You are honoring the scriptures, right? Him being a king of the Jews, king of Israel because that's who Ahab was. Of course, he's going to yield to that, right? Wrong. What does he turn around and do? He goes up in his bedroom, gets on his bed and starts crying and whining. Oh, I can't have the land. I really want that from my garden. It would be such a great garden. Now I don't get my garden. And he's crying, temper tantrum up there like an adult you know, baby. And he's carrying on that way and what happens?

His wife turns and he's sulking and fuming and Jezebel taunts him, ridiculed him for his weakness, then proceeded to have that innocent Naboth, man, the righteous man framed, and he was stoned to death. Not only him, but also what happened? His kids. His sons. You remember that? They were stoned to death. Why? Remember I described how maniacal that this Jezebel spirit is. Doesn't care about destruction, doesn't care about the ripple effect, doesn't care about how it affects other people. Never does. She did this so that there would be no heirs because if there's no heirs, there's no one that can inherit the land, which under the law or under the custom at that time, where does the land revert back to?

But to the possession of the king. And that's exactly what she was playing. She was using her wiles to figure that out and say, if you play this scheme and mechanism, I can get you to land at Ahab. And turns around and goes and murders this innocent man, a righteous man, as well as Satan will stop at nothing to destroy. He doesn't care. He doesn't set a limit like that. And this Jezebel is she's certainly being used by Satan. Such a single-minded, selfish determination to have one's way, no matter who is destroyed in the process, is a characteristic of a Jezebel spirit.

Now with the Old Testament context in hand here, you can turn back to uh Revelation, but it appears most likely that uh Jesus is referring to a woman either in the church who influenced in the same way that Jezebel influenced Israel into idolatry and sexual immorality. I mean, Jesus declares to this uh to this church of Thyatira that uh this is not to be tolerated. It's not to be accepted. It's not to be something to be compromised. Whoever this woman was like you know, this Jezebel, she refused to repent of her immorality and her false teaching and her fate was sealed.

Just think about that. The Lord Jesus is going to tell us as you we're going to read, he's going to cast her into a sickbed along with all those who committed idolatry with her. The end for those who succumb to a Jezebel spirit is always death and destruction both in the physical and spiritual sense. And that's exactly what you see. And every time I've ever seen that happen in the church where someone is corrected, maybe there's a rebuke or something given because you love somebody, God loves them, he wants to correct. When that kind of spirit happens, it's usually a slow fade.

It's a downward spiral and it's it's so difficult for all of us to watch that in someone we love. If they would just repent, if they would just turn, right? It's so difficult because we don't stop loving them, do we? We never stop loving them. But it's a heartbreak. And we want to see the Lord not have to remove that covering so that judgment comes. We don't want that, but even in 1 Corinthians, Paul very clearly said they need to that person that was committing that section, they needed to go because they were unrepentant so that they could be what?

Buffeted by Satan. And that's really difficult. That's really really hard for a pastor, for all of us, people we love. And it it should never be in my opinion, it should never happen. I believe scripturally in a repentant heart. If there's a repentant heart, there there's no reason for that because reconciliation is taking its place. It's only the unrepentant heart. Because doesn't Paul in 2 Corinthians then rebuke that same church of Corinth because they repented and got right? And then what did they do? They left them out there to be destroyed. Remember that? And Paul says, call that one and bring them back under the covering of the church lest that person be devoured out there and destroyed.

The goal is not to beat the bride. The goal is not to beat someone like that. It's to cause judgment, uncomfortability, to cause repentance, to bring in reconciliation, to bring back right relationship. That has never changed and will never change. That's God's ultimate desire. Can people get saved during the tribulation? We're in the book of Revelation. Some of you know and read this books, you know Revelation 7 and you know the answer is yes. But it's going to be terrible to go through that great tribulation. Billions of people are going to die. Better to accept Jesus Christ now.

Today's the day of salvation. But just something to think about that even then when God is bringing judgment to a Christ-rejecting world, there's still an opportunity for someone on this earth to humble their heart and say yes, Jesus, you are mine and I'm yours. Be my Lord and savior. And even in that moment, I'm not saying they're not going to be a consequence. They're going to go through that great tribulation. They're alive at that time. But more than likely what's going to happen to them? They're going to be martyred. Perhaps the best way to define the Jezebel spirit is to say it characterizes anyone who acts in the same manner as a Jezebel did, engaging in immorality, engaging in idolatry, putting your own ideas and opinions above God's word, false teaching.

Right? Which means uh uh uh uh parent teaching or a teaching that goes against God's authority or his word. And really all defined is unrepentant sin. I mean I don't want to oversimplify it, but if that's really what Jesus is saying here. To go beyond that or to engage in conjecture, you know, I have tons of like you, tons of um books uh by scholars and I can go through and opine on all these different things of what this Jezebel I just want to take the word literally and keep it that simple. You know, I believe you lead to false accusations, you lead lead to divisiveness with the body of Christ.

You go on a sin hunt when you're trying to drill into this Jezebel, you start making it something it wasn't. I think it's simple. Morality, idolatry, false teaching, and unrepentant sin. That's what we're seeing here. That what was going on. That's what Thyatira is guilty of, or those that were practicing this in Thyatira. Pastor Matt Vandervinn on His Perfect Love. Thanks for taking part in today's study of Revelation, a book that comes with a blessing attached to those that read and study it. If you were blessed and encouraged by the Lord, we'd like to know.

Email us while it's fresh on your mind. They're at our website, hisperfectlove.org. Be sure to include your prayer requests. Also at our website, you'll find an archive of these studies in Revelation, making it easy to replay a message you enjoy or catch what you miss on the radio. Again, we're at hisperfectlove.org and now at oneplace.com as well. Look for us wherever you get your podcasts. And we also have a free mobile app. This is a convenient way to listen to Pastor Matt on your mobile devices. Go to hisperfectlove.org for more information about that. And if the Lord is leading you to support this ministry with a one-time gift or ongoing monthly support, you can do so through the website at hisperfectlove.org.

Are you looking for a Christian school that offers a quality education and a nurturing environment for your children? If so, you might be interested in Calvary Chapel Christian Academy, a ministry of Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore. Calvary Chapel Christian Academy is a non-denominational Christian school that serves students from kindergarten to 12th grade. The Academy's mission is to provide a Christ-centered education that equips students to love God, love others, and serve the world. The Academy offers a rigorous academic curriculum, a variety of extracurricular activities, and a caring and supportive staff. The Academy is located at 28 North Locust Point Road in Mechanicsburg, PA.

For more information, please visit our website at ccharisburg.org/academy. That's ccharisburg.org/academy. And then join us next time when Pastor Matt will pick up where we left off in Revelation here on His Perfect Love.

Guest (Male): His Perfect Love is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Harrisburg West Shore.

Guest (Male): This is His Perfect Love.