07-01-12 THE DEEP THINGS OF SATAN

Rev. 2:18-29 "And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write:

The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet are like burnished bronze, says this:

' I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with pestilence, and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds. But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them I place no other burden on you. Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come. He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also 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.'

Well, now that’s a heavy dose

with which to begin the morning.

We are returning to our study of

the last book in the Bible today,

the Book of Revelation.

We left off our study at Rev. 2:18,

and we’ll return there in a few minutes.

But first I’d like to help get us back into it mentally

by returning to a time-line we used earlier in our study

that may help us regain perspective on what’s going on here.

The book of Revelation

is not the center of the Bible’s prophetic teaching,

it is simply the completion,

the final chapter in a prophetic revelation that began in the book of Genesis.

Human history is not nearly as complicated

as we sometimes pretend it is.

We are created beings

in rebellion to our Creator,

trying very hard to pretend

everything is just fine,

in spite of massive evidence to the contrary.

Our Creator, on the other hand,

knew we would rebel

long before Adam plopped his little bare foot on this earth.

Even before man existed

God established His redemptive plan for us,

a plan that required Him

to take on human form

and offer His own death

as a substitute payment for our rebellion.

If we put it on a time line it looks like this:

It begins with the CREATION.

Then follows a brief AGE OF INNOCENCE prior to man’s rebellion.

Then comes THE FALL,

the point at which

man refuses to trust his Creator’s love.

Then, between THE FALL

and a point still in the future

when our God physically returns to this earth

to establish His personal rule over His creation,

we have the AGE OF FAITH,

a time in which God extends to every human being

the invitation to return to Him,

an invitation with two requirements attached to it:

1. We must give up our part in the rebellion by bowing before Him as God.

2. And we must choose to believe

that He has provided a way to deal with the consequences of our rebellion.

In other words,

we must choose to do

what Adam and Eve refused to do -

we must choose to trust Him,

both who He is,

and what He has said to us.

Heb. 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

THE AGE OF FAITH...

Part way through this age of faith

our Creator stepped into human history

and offered Himself as the sacrifice,

the payment for our sin that would then be credited

to the accounts of all those

who return to Him.

God has then given a special name

to the period of time

between the first visitation of Christ

and His return.

He calls it the LAST DAYS.

When I lived on the Caribbean Island of Trinidad

more than 40 years ago

there was a special Trinidadian phrase

that I learned quickly.

It was the phrase, “just now”.

When a Trinidadian says to you,

“I’ll be back just now...”,

it doesn’t mean what we Americans think it means.

We think it means they will be right back,

in a matter of minutes most likely.

But it doesn’t mean that.

“Just now” can mean anything from

a few minutes to a few hours,

or a few days.

The Lord’s use of the term “last days”

has a lot in common with the Trinidadian term “just now”.

With our extremely limited,

finite minds, we would expect the “last days”

to last a few weeks,

or a few months,

or perhaps as much as a year or two.

At present, though, the Last Days

have lasted nearly two thousand years.

When Christ left He said in effect,

“I’ll be back ‘just now’”.

But from God’s perspective

these really are the last days

of His eternal plan of redemption

for His rebellious creation.

This now is His great harvest season,

when God’s Spirit is working

in every country,

every people group,

every tribe and nation,

calling His people to Himself.

These last days

will then culminate

in 7 final years of incredible turmoil,

a time called THE GREAT TRIBULATION,

a time that will end

with the physical return of Christ in absolute power

to set up His kingdom on this earth.

The book of revelation then concludes

with just a tiny glimpse beyond,

talking about the ultimate disposal of this physical creation

once it has fully served God’s purposes,

and then the creation of a new heaven

and a new earth that will last forever.

Now, on our time line,

I have placed a red circle around

the two periods dealt with in the Book of Revelation.

The first 3 chapters,

and especially chapters 2 and 3

give us information and insights

concerning the LAST DAYS.

Then chapters 4-22 give us an in-depth look at the final 7 years of human history

and a tiny glimpse into the eternity beyond.

We are currently in Revelation chapter 2.

And if you have been here for our study up to this point

you know that chapters 2 and 3

are a direct quotation from Christ Himself

in which He offers instructions,

and warnings,

and promises to 7 local churches in Asia Minor,

and through those 7 churches,

guidance to every local church group

that has ever existed since that time.

We have looked at the Lord’s comments

to the first 3 churches,

and this morning we will turn attention

to church #4, the church at Thyatira.

Christ’s comments to this church are found in Rev. 2:18-29,

a section that we will call The Deep Things Of Satan.

The first time I spoke on this passage

was in May 1969 - 43 years ago.

I was living in Seattle,

just a few weeks away

from my college graduation.

I had been asked to share

with a group of high school students

in Everett Washington, just north of Seattle.

I ‘d never spoken on this passage before.

I have no idea whether it had any impact

on the lives of those high school students,

but I remember it so well

because of the impact it had on my own life.

I was drawn to the passage back then

because of that remarkable phrase

in Rev. 2:24

where Christ talks about “the deep things of Satan”.

Rev. 2:24 'But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them-- I place no other burden on you.

Though I don’t think I realized it at the time,

this is the only place in the entire Bible

where that phrase

or anything similar to it is used.

There are passages that talk about

the deep things or the depths of God,

but nowhere else are we given insight

into what God calls “the deep things of Satan”.

In this passage,

and the warnings contained within it,

we are given insight

into several of Satan’s most powerful weapons

in his warfare against the Kingdom of God.

The Lord clearly divides His message

into two distinct sections,

or rather He divides it into messages

directed at two distinct groups

or audiences within this church.

To the first group He begins by saying,

Rev. 2:19 ' I know your deeds, and your love and faith and service and perseverance, and that your deeds of late are greater than at first.

He offers them high praise

for the quality of their Christian life.

This is the only church

where He praises them for both their love and their faith -

the two great tests of Christian maturity.

He also offers them high praise

for their deeds, their service, their perseverance.

To this same group within the church

He concludes with powerful words

of encouragement and affirmation:

Rev. 2:24 'But I say to you, the rest who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them I place no other burden on you.

Rev. 2:25 'Nevertheless what you have, hold fast until I come.

Rev. 2:26 ' He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations;

Rev. 2:27 and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father;

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

Rev. 2:29 ' He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.'

But between those two words of affirmation

we have what is perhaps the strongest words of warning

and condemnation offered by Christ

to a group of Christians

found anywhere in Scripture.

The warning and promised divine discipline comes

because these people have given themselves over

to what Christ calls “the deep things of Satan”.

It is a sober

and in many ways a terrifying passage.

So what are these deep things of Satan?

What is it that caused the Lord

to utter such strong words?

Rev. 2:20 'But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

Rev. 2:21 ' I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.

Rev. 2:22 'Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds.

Now wait a minute!

To the church just before this,

the church at Pergamum,

the Lord identified the same exact two sins:

Rev. 2:14 'But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit acts of immorality.

So why were they not also accused

of participating in the deep things of Satan?

Because it was not the acts they were committing that were so evil,

but rather it was their attitude towards those acts.

The false teachers at Pergamum

were tempting the people to do evil.

But the woman Jezebel

was teaching her followers

that evil is good.

Let me see if I can explain what I mean.

Those at Pergamum

were being faced with clear temptations.

When they chose to sin

they knew what they were doing was wrong,

but they chose to do it anyway,

in direct disobedience to their God.

But that was not what was happening

in the church at Thyatira.

There was a woman in this church,

a woman whom the Lord calls “Jezebel”.

Most likely the Lord is using the name figuratively

to identify her with the identical sin patterns

that existed in the Jezebel in the book of I Kings.

This Jezebel here in Revelation

had established herself as a prophetess,

a leader and teacher within the family of God.

She then used that position

to blur the lines both between

truth and error

and between good and evil.

She corrupted and blurred true Christian doctrine

by blending it with the false religious systems surrounding them.

And she blurred the lines

between moral right and wrong,

very probably by convincing her followers

that God is a God of love,

and He wants most of all

for us to be happy,

to enjoy life,

and to meet our needs,

and whatever it takes

for us to reach those goals

really is God’s will for us

and He will bless us

and support our choices

as we pursue those goals.

Christ talks first of all

about acts of immorality in a broader sense,

and then He singles out

on specific act of immorality, talking about...

those who commit adultery with her...

Now, just so we understand what’s going on here,

let me set these two churches side-by-side

so we can see the difference.

In Pergamum

there would be a Christian

frustrated with their marriage

and they would choose to begin to build some sort of intimate relationship

with someone other than their marriage partner,

a relationship rapidly moving towards adultery.

In that church that Christian would be saying to themselves,

“I know this is wrong.

I know this is sin.

I know I shouldn’t be doing this,

but the pull is so strong and I don’t know how to stop it.”

That’s a tough battle,

one that every Christian faces at times,

but it is a battle in which there is tremendous hope for ultimate victory

because the battle lines are clearly drawn.

The lines between good and evil,

between victory and defeat are clearly drawn.

But, because of the teaching

of the woman Jezebel in the church at Thyatira,

there were those who, when they faced that same situation,

would be saying to themselves,

and hearing Jezebel say to them,

“There’s nothing wrong with this other relationship,

in fact, it is a very good thing.

I have prayed about it,

and I know this is God’s will for me.

This is His leading,

this relationship is His gift to me

because He wants me to be happy,

and it feels so good,

and it meets so many needs inside me.”

Once those reasoning processes take place within the Christian

he or she has entered into the deep things of Satan.

They have entered into a world

in which there is no clear path to freedom

because there appear to be no right or wrong choices.

One of the most hope-filled statements

our God can ever say to us is this:

“My child, the choice you have made is WRONG!”

Because, you see, that tells us that

there is also a choice we can make

that is RIGHT.

Our great hope

and great security in the family of God

is found in keeping the lines between

truth and error

and between morality and immorality

razor sharp,

no matter what may be happening

in the society around us.

Certainly we must have the wisdom

to speak only where God has spoken,

and keep silent where He has not,

but when we allow ourselves

to enter into the deep things of Satan

in which lines are all blurred

and error becomes truth

and evil becomes good

we have no hope of finding freedom from our bondage

until we return once again

to the moral and doctrinal absolutes

given to us by our God.