©1998 Larry Huntsperger
Peninsula Bible Fellowship
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3/8/98
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Deep Things of Satan
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Rev. 2:18 ¶ "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:
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.
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.
Rev. 2:23 '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.
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.'
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 we’ve been out of prophecy
for more than a month,
so 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.
Then, between THE FALL
and a point still in the future
when our God physically return 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
nearly 30 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.
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 Rev. 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.
The comments are found in Rev. 2:18-29,
a section that we will call The Deep Things Of Satan.
The last time I spoke on this passage
was in May 1969 - 29 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 have never spoken on this passage before,
and never did again until today.
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 in 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 has entered into the deep things of Satan.
He has entered into a world
in which there is no path to freedom
because there are 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.