This study was first taught on April 7, 2019

Topic: The Assessment of the Churches (15): The Church in Thyatira (Now to the Rest I Say …)

(use the audio to study)

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Background
In the concluding part of our discussion on “The Call to Repentance” last week, we saw how God calls men to repentance, and, their responses to God’s call to repentance and the outcome of those responses. We made the following assertions and conclusions:
1. God’s call to repentance can be to an individual or to a group of individuals.
a. God can call men to repentance directly as He speaks to the individual’s heart or through dreams and visions of the night.
b. God can call men to repentance indirectly as He sends preachers to tell them of God’s intention through sermons, speaking forth, telling a parable, or telling the life story of the individual or group of individuals.
c. Whichever approach God takes, the goal is the same—to bring men to repentance!
2. God’s call to repentance is not always heeded.
a. For those who heed, there shall be personal spiritual revival, a resumption or restoration of fellowship with God, and, eternal life.
b. For those who refuse to heed, eternal judgment and damnation in hell will be the outcome.
3. Heeding God’s call to men to repent:
a. Is personal, even when the call is made to a group of individuals, as in a congregation—it is he/she who hears and heeds that matters!
b. Makes the difference between the individual who spends eternity in heaven (where he heeds God’s call and turns away from sin onto God) and the individual who spends eternity in hell (where he refuses to heed the call to repentance).
4. Three things must necessarily be evident to God in true repentance—humility, mourning (godly sorrow for their sin), and, a change of heart (attitude, conduct, etc.) toward sin! (1 Corinthians 5:1-2; 1 Kings 21:17-29; 2 Chronicles 33:9-17).
5. Forgiveness and salvation from eternal judgment depends on the state of the heart of the individual rather than on mere outward appearance—hypocrisy (Jeremiah 17:9-10; 1 John 3:18-21).
6. It is important to note that our act of repentance may not cause the consequence of your sin to cease from taking its course here on earth; however, your sins, once forgiven are never taken into account in eternity (2 Samuel 12:15-23; Luke 23:39-43; Jeremiah 31:31-34).

In the end, the church of God today must come to the realization that God’s call to repentance is not just for sinners who are out there in the world, but more importantly, it is to those who claim to be a part of the body of Christ (the Church) but who are living contrary to His word, way, and Will! The church must return to God in repentance and acknowledge Him as supreme and sovereign over all, so that She would be revived and fellowship with God is restored!

Scripture Text(s)
Revelation 2:24-25
Having spoken extensively to Jezebel and her accomplices, the Lord now turns His attention on the others, whom He addressed as “… to you (referring to the angel of the church) … and to the rest in Thyatira …”. We shall, likewise, turn our attention to the Lord’s message to this other group—“the rest”.
In this study, the term “the rest” refers to those who had not been involved in Jezebel’s abominable doctrine, and it included the leader of the church in Thyatira. These were people to whom the injunction to repent did not apply, because they had not known the “depths of Satan”. The “depths of Satan” was basically what Jezebel and her cohorts termed as ‘deep revelation’ ostensibly from God, but in fact it was from Satan!
1 Kings 19:18; 2 Timothy 2:19; Ecclesiastes 1:9-10; 3:15; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 1 John 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:3-5; Proverbs 4:1-27; Revelation 2:24; Acts 15:23-29; Galatians 5:16, 18; Romans 8:3-4; Matthew 5:17; Luke 10:25-37; Romans 13:8-10; 1 Corinthians 13:1-3; Hebrews 6:1; Ephesians 2:10; 2 Timothy 2:20-21; 3:14-17; Hebrews 13:1-3, 16; Galatians 6:6-10; Matthew 24:4-13; 1 Corinthians 3:12-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10, 12.

Conclusion
We have seen that when the Lord spoke to “the rest” in the church in Thyatira, He communicated three crucial things, and these in relation to the church today are:
1. There is no other demand on the church of God by the Lord besides those that He expressly tells us, as well as, that we love God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and all our being; and that we love all men, as we would, ourselves.
2. Anyone in the church who is not included in the call to repent of the abominable doctrine of Jezebel, must nonetheless continue to do good deeds for which we were born again, sanctified, and prepared to accomplish while here on the earth.
3. The church must continue to do good deeds despite the hostile environment we are in, until the Lord Jesus returns, or, until we return to Him.

Each man’s works shall be tested by fire. Where each man’s works endures the test, he shall be rewarded, but where it does not he shall have no reward, but he shall be saved—this is contingent on the premise that he had repented of sin and turned to God in faith—otherwise, he shall be damned in hell!

Thus, the Lord is speaking to the church at large to:
a) Focus on such as is required of you as an individual or as a local church.
b) Ensure that through the Holy Spirit, your love for God and for all men is sacrosanct.
c) Never give up on doing good deeds, and indeed all things that are well-pleasing to God for hereunto were you called.
d) Make sure that when you stand before Him in judgement, you would have rewards for the good deeds you have done on the earth.

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