Revelation 2:19-29 Thyatira

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan.

Reading Revelation 2 and Praying for Ears to Hear

I'm going to have you guys all stand. What we're going to do now is read this morning's passage. We'll have you all stand, and we'll read it. I'll read it, and in honor of sort of respect of God's Word, I'll pray, and while I pray, the band will come, and then we'll go right into worship from there.

So we're in Revelations. We're picking up in the fourth church. If you guys want to turn there in your Bibles, this is Revelation chapter 2. The fourth church is the address to Thyatira. We're going to read chapter 2, 18 through 29.

Again, I'm going to read. You guys can read along. This is God's Word to us at Recast this morning. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead.

And all the churches will know that I am He who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works. But to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say I do not lay on you any other burden.

Only hold fast what you have until I come, the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end. To him I will give authority over the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron, as with earthen pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my Father.

And I will give him the morning star. You as an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Let's pray.

Father God in heaven, we do ask you this morning that we would have ears to hear that you would produce a spiritual transformation inside of us, God. Prepare our hearts to worship you in spirit and truth as we come into contact with your word, that you would be transforming us from one degree of glory to the next, God, as we desire to wholeheartedly worship you.

Help us to put aside the distractions, to lay aside anything, the sin, and the weights that cling so closely to us, God, this morning. We love you and we desire now to worship you. In Christ's name we pray.

Amen.

Go ahead and have a seat.

Historical Background on Thyatira and the Call to Hear

Again, we're going to be in Revelation chapter 2. It's page 884 in the church-provided Bible. If you don't have one, raise your hand and we can get you one. Looks like everyone's doing all right. But I just want to again comment on Dave and the band and their leading.

I really enjoy it. I know music is a preference issue and we can get kind of tweaked about it, but what Dave and the group does is certainly within my preference. So I'm just so thankful for them and their service to us.

So we're going to be in this text and we're going to walk through it this morning. And like Don has said in the book of Revelation, it is a book of revelation. It's revealing Jesus. It's not a hiding.

It's a revelation. So we desire to see Jesus this morning.

That's the goal.

If nothing else happens, that we would see Jesus. But it is addressed to the church at Thyatira. And to give you some just historical background on Thyatira, Thyatira is another one of these cities there.

And it's the one that the least amount is known about of all these seven cities. It's sort of a town of commerce. And there's not a lot that can be said outside of there seem to be a lot of guilds. And guild isn't a term I'm totally familiar with, but apparently it is similar to like a union.

There was a lot of craftsmanship and a lot of guilds, a lot of unions, or maybe society. In terms of like professional societies. Like I'm in a society of toxicology. I know there's a society of quality assurance, a society of engineering.

So just your peers, your colleagues, and they had those associations. And usually what those provide is a business network. But also it provides a level of credibility. If you've been accepted into that union, into that guild, into that society, other people can see that on your resume and identify, yes, you do quality work.

You are up to their standards. So for Christians in this society, there was the challenge. Because to belong, to be a craftsman in this society, you also had to partake in what that society did, what that guild did.

And that included worship of other gods. So they would get together periodically for meals and they would worship other gods. And give thanks to that god for providing for them, for their jobs, for their careers.

And that would also include some sexual immorality and some revelry. And I don't get into it. It sounds like a pretty swinging party. I don't know exactly how that went. But obviously as a Christian, you would not be able to participate in that.

Or you would completely compromise. So you had the choice. You can compromise your faith and act like this is fine. Or you could separate from that and cost yourself livelihood. You would have to go out on your own.

So that's the challenge we see as this letter is addressed to Christians there under those circumstances. And one other artifact that we see in Scripture about Thyatira is there is a woman in Acts named Lydia.

And she is described as a woman who sold purple dyes and she was from Thyatira. So again, that kind of substantiates the idea that this town is a town of commerce, a lot of craftsmanship, a lot of business goes through there.

But I'm going to kind of start with the last verse first. In this chapter 2, our text is the last verse is verse 29. And emphasize that with us this morning as we get started. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

And just to emphasize that with all of you, that we only hear when God reveals it to us. This isn't talking about here, you know, take the stuff out of your ear, make sure your eardrum, your cochlea is working appropriately.

This is praying that God, and I've actually put together a number of slides giving scriptural references, and I think there's two that Eric might help us through. The first one I think has to do with Romans 11.

And it's talking about, maybe you can't see that, but the idea that God gives them a spirit of stupor. This is talking about Israel. And then in the Gospels we see repeatedly where Jesus is talking to his disciples and they're not getting it.

He's like, do you not yet hear? And it says there that you will indeed hear, but never understand. And you will indeed see, but never perceive. So the idea that I want to ask us, Recast, is that God would speak to us through his word, that we would have ears to hear, that this is a spiritual hearing.

That we would all be convicted as we come into contact with his word. So that's really what my desire is. This passage lays out just like every other address to the church. It starts with identifying Jesus who is talking.

It gives strengths, weaknesses, but this address also includes some promises. So we'll go with seeing Jesus, we'll identify his strengths, the church's weaknesses, the strengths of the church's strengths, and the church's weaknesses, and some promises, and then close with Jesus.

So that's the flow of the text this morning. So start with me in verse 18 and we see, And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write the words of the Son of God. So this is Jesus talking. Again, it's revealed to John on the island of Patmos.

But this is the words of the Son of God. That's to be emphasized. And I don't think in this context I need to tell you, but the Son of God is Jesus. This is Jesus' words to this church at Thyatira. But it gives two characteristics of him.

It says, So those, Don's already addressed that. Those exact same characteristics were mentioned in chapter 1. Notice he doesn't have eyes of fire and feet of burnished bronze. It's like, it's metaphorical language.

So what does it mean to have eyes like fire? What do we need to understand about who God is, who Jesus is, specifically, in this? What are they trying to communicate by describing that? So if we want to turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, and I think Eric has a slide there, I'm going to just jump right into this explanation.

I think it will give some credibility to who Jesus is. And I don't know, can you guys even see that? If not, there's page number 816. We're going to read verses 10 through 15 to kind of get some window into what is being revealed here in terms of characteristics of Jesus.

This is Paul talking to the church at Corinth. And this is what he says,. Now, if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become manifest, for the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by fire.

And the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. And if anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

So I highlighted the word work there because Jesus here is judging their works. We see that several times in this passage. He's talking about the works this church is performing. But what's evident is that what's described here, in fact, if you jump down later in the passage in verse 23, it says,.

So the idea is that Jesus not only can see our works, he can also, which is omniscient, right? And maybe someday we'll get to an era where there's cameras on every move of our day, but still it won't reflect what Jesus knows, and that is he'll know what's behind it.

He'll know our hearts, what searches our heart. And that's what we're seeing with his eyes like fire. It's the idea that he's testing our works, and he's able to discern what's behind them and whether or not they are founded on Jesus Christ.

So that goes to the part about his feet. His feet are burnished bronze. It's polished bronze. And that would have fallen on these workers in Thyatira as significant. They're working in metals. And to see these shiny feet, or that idea alludes to the idea that he has a firm foundation, just like in 1 Corinthians 3, foundation of works built upon Jesus Christ.

So that's, he's judging them in that light, that they would have works that are built upon Jesus, and he can understand the motives behind them. And so it's helpful to understand right now and pause, because it's, we have a notion when we hear works, well, no, that's all grace.

I can't do anything through works. So why is he judging our works? And that's what that passage is about. And I think the next passage, if I can choreograph it right, is James. He says, but someone will say, this is James saying, you have faith and I have works.

So that's James quoting somebody. But James says, show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. So the true faith works. That's what he's judging them on. There's no condemnation for us that are in Christ Jesus.

Nothing to do with works. We're talking about what we're doing because of our faith. And in fact, Ephesians 2 .10 might be the next slide that says, these works he prepared. We are his workmanship in Christ Jesus.

These are works that he prepared for us to walk in. Good works that Jesus prepared. The idea is that we're walking in his works that he's already prepared. So that's what we're talking about this morning, how Jesus is judging this church.

So hopefully that's a little bit clear in terms of what the focus is. But let's look at the strengths, the works that he sees in this church. Verse 19. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and the latter works exceed the first.

This is high praise, in my opinion. So unlike the church at Ephesus, which did not, they lost their first love, they had the right doctrine, but they lost love. This church has love. And you might think of 1 Corinthians 13, which closes out by saying faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

But particularly because it says, though I have all faith, faith that I could move a mountain and I don't have love, it says in 1 Corinthians 13, I am nothing. This church has love. That is really remarkable praise.

And also, they are growing. So I never considered Thyatira when the vision for Recast was set up, but our vision for our spiritual growth would be to grow in faith, community, and service. So you see both faith and service mentioned here in this church.

They are doing the work. They are out of love, motivated to do things. They're not sitting in a high tower working on theology and getting their pencils sharpened. They're actually doing the work. They're working at the pantry.

They're taking care of the least of these, taking care of the widows. They are loving. So this is really encouraging that Jesus is highlighting these characteristics about them, and I think we can learn.

But also, you see that their faith and love produce service, but also patient endurance. And I think that's just talking about those that are required to endure because of their current culture. To be a Christian meant you had to patiently endure.

So they were enduring that. Also, we're going to move on to, so, yeah, I talked about, so they are growing in that. They're doing it better. So it's not only that they have achieved these things, but they're continuing to grow in those things.

But it then transitions to this I have against you. But I want to highlight that this is Jesus' letter to the church, and he's loving them. It is loving for him to identify things that are wrong, that he sees.

I mean, he's not just throwing shade. He's not just trying to bring them down, humble them. Well, don't get too full of yourself. Here are some bad things. He really does love them. The church is the bride of Christ.

He wants us to be sanctified from one degree of glory to the next. In Christ, we are perfect, but we know that we are sinners now, and he's transforming us from one degree of glory to the next. And that's what this is about.

I think the next slide talks about Hebrews 12, 6. And there are lots of passages like this. So the idea that we are his children, and because he loves us, he's going to highlight where we are weak, where we can be improving.

He wants us to be the bride that he receives at the culmination of the marriage supper. So let's look at the weaknesses with the idea that this is actually loving. He's writing this letter that they could improve on these things.

He says,.

Tolerance, Jezebel, and the Call to Repent

So the first thing they're doing, they are tolerating. And in our culture, tolerance is like the highest virtue, it seems, in the last few years. If you are going to be intolerant, you might as well be a KKK-wearing bigot.

Tolerance is a low bar, I'll be honest. Jesus didn't say, tolerate your enemies. He said, love your enemies. That's our calling, is to love our enemies. And I also want to highlight what tolerance really is.

To tolerate somebody means you have to first object to where they're at. Like, if I'm watching Western play Ohio State yesterday, and they're rooting for Western like I am, I don't have to tolerate their opinion, right?

If they're rooting for Ohio State, then that's tolerance. So to tolerate somebody, that points to this church tolerated. They knew what Jezebel was saying, this woman in their church, but they tolerated it.

And so I think even in our culture, that understanding of tolerance isn't always, tolerance seems to convey a wholesale endorsement or getting, that's not tolerance. That's just, you guys agree, if it's that.

But to highlight, this is a real letter. This is a real church, it really did exist. There isn't a woman in that church probably named Jezebel, but there is a real woman in that church in Thyatira, and she's been teaching.

So that Jezebel, we'll get to that, is sort of a connotation for a particular type of teaching. But I would guess that she's not just droning on inane drivel. I think she's probably pretty persuasive.

I think she's probably appealing. She has good arguments, and she's probably deceptive, and it's easy to be convinced of what she's teaching. So I think it requires some discernment on our part to understand what we're dealing with here.

But also notice that it says, who calls herself a prophetess. She's self-appointed a prophetess. I speak on behalf of God. That's how she describes herself. Nobody's come alongside her and say, yeah, she's talking on behalf of God.

And just to highlight maybe that little point there, as we serve each other in this church, to not seek out and appoint yourself positions. Allow the body of Christ to affirm those strengths and weaknesses in you.

I doubt any of us are going to affirm somebody that comes every Sunday and leaves every Sunday and doesn't contribute, doesn't edify, doesn't use their skills. No one's going to be affirming that. But also, we shouldn't be saying, I just have the gift to sing.

I need to be on stage singing.

I know it.

Allow somebody else to affirm that in you.

Okay?

So I'm not trying to inhibit anybody from serving, but also to allow us all to be taking note, to use our gifts and talents to serve the body of Christ, but also to use our words to build one another up and to affirm that.

Because if you're appointing yourself a position in the church, it's probably not going to go well. And as is the case here where she's, I don't think she has an official role in the church. I think she just has a following in this person.

But I also want to give you guys the back story. So we understand in our culture probably Jezebel is associated with sort of cultural scandal or sexual immorality. And that really is pretty true because Jezebel was an Old Testament character, and it's based out of the story in 1 and 2 Kings of King Ahab.

So there's Israel, this northern kingdom. Well, first Israel, they said, we don't want God to be our king. We want our own king. So then you just see a succession of kings that just do a terrible job.

Almost every one of them is like, and they did what was evil on the side of the Lord. When you come to Ahab, it says he did what was evil unlike any before him. He was the worst. Ahab was. And he had a wife.

And he didn't take a wife from Israel. He took a wife from a pagan culture named Jezebel who worshipped Baal and Asherah. That was her gig. That's what she was good at was worshipping these gods, and she was sort of a prophetess.

So he married her, and God did not like that because she would assault, and she would seek out to kill many of the prophets of the Lord. In fact, there's great stories of Elijah, a prophet of God going against Jezebel, and you can read about those.

But I want to highlight that she was against God and that she was judged, particularly in dramatic fashion. There was a man named Jehu that comes to bring the judgment upon her. Maybe it's a soft Jehu or something.

He comes to visit her, and she's all dressed up, got her gold on. She comes to the window, and he sees her up there, and he tells the eunuchs beside her, he says, throw her out. And the Bible says she fell and hit the pavement, and blood hit the wall and hit the horse.

So that's literally what the Bible says, pretty graphic death. But not only that, the horses then trampled her. Jehu says, let's go eat. So they go in and eat, and they come back out. They say, let's take care of the body, and she's not there anymore.

Just her skull, hands, and her feet are gone. Dogs have devoured her. So when we see this letter written, they are reading this in the church of Thyatira. It should be obvious to everybody exactly who Jesus is calling out, and particularly with that connotation that judgment is coming.

Those of you that are following her, you know who she is, and you should have been able to hear a pin drop there in that church when that letter was read because they all would have been able to understand what he was talking about.

Spend a moment here talking about exactly what she was teaching. It says that she, in verse 20, yeah, seducing, teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

So sexual immorality is pretty obvious. There's no condition where sexual immorality is good. I think immorality essentially means sinful, so that's an easier one, I think. We don't need to spend too much time on that.

But the idea of eating food sacrificed to idols, there seems to be a dialogue in the New Testament on what that means. We see Peter has a vision where a cloth comes down with everything in it, and God says, you can eat all this stuff.

This is all fine. And then we see Peter later not eating with the Gentiles specifically because he doesn't want to be associated with them, and Paul calls him out to his face saying, what are you doing?

There's no reason you should be making a difference between eating with the Gentiles or with the Jews. But Paul gives definitive teaching, and if you don't mind turning there, it's in 1 Corinthians 8.

I think I have it up on the board, but it's a little bit longer teaching. And it's weird how many times in the study of this passage I came back to 1 Corinthians. It seems like there's a lot of parallels between the church at Corinth and the church at Thyatira.

But start with me in verse 4, and we'll read to the end of that chapter. This is some definitive teaching on what to make of idols. I know it's a longer passage, but I think it's helpful. Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one.

For although there may be so-called gods in heaven and on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things and through whom we exist.

However, not all possess this knowledge, but some, through former association with idols, eat food like it was really offered to idols, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. Food will not commend us to God.

We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols?

And so, by your knowledge, this weak person is destroyed, the brother from whom Christ died, thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it's weak. You sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble.

So the idea here is there is a context where it's appropriate, it's okay to eat food sacrificed to idols. And Paul says he's never going to do it in front of anybody. And I think, again, we're talking about works that we are.

There's no condemnation for those of us that are in Christ. So we're talking about everything we're doing as a result of our faith. And we have opportunity to do a lot of different things. And I think, I thought I'd use this illustration to kind of give a little bit of context or to teach it in a different way because it is about context and how we behave.

So I'm a toxicologist. I've been working at a toxicology lab for 17 years. Rule number one, the basic tenet of toxicology is everything is toxic. Everything. It's a matter of dose. It's a matter of how you're applying it.

So you can take straight water, inject it into your veins, and because of the tonicity, it will lyse the cells around where the water is being injected. So it's a matter of dose. You take the most toxic thing.

Well, I'll back up just one step to note that in toxicology, you want to put some kind of label on how toxic is something. It's called an LD50, a lethal dose that kills 50 of the population. So you see a prescription, it will have an LD50 listed in your prescriptions, and that describes the dose at which it will kill 50 of the population.

So the LD50 for the most toxic thing known to man is botulinum toxin. Botulinum toxin is if you take one gram of it and divide it into a billion, a nanogram, 13 nanograms injected per kilogram into a human will kill 50 of the population.

That's botulinum toxin, very toxic. However, people inject it into their face to get rid of wrinkles. So in the right context, Botox can be helpful. So you see how there's a context there where certain things that we can do, we could eat food sacrifice idols, but it's usually not good, like botulinum toxin.

Thalidomide was another drug. It's a great case study. Germany developed in the late 50s a drug that got rid of morning sickness, and it was great. They all started taking this, but by the early 60s, thousands of babies were being born with focal malia, it's deformed limbs.

Half of them died. So that's not a great drug, right, if you're pregnant. It has been shown now, and it's being marketed by a company called Celgene, to treat blood cancer, multiple myeloma. Thalidomide is a drug in combination with others to treat that.

So in the right context, certain things. So it's not a matter of that's sinful, that's not sinful. I think all things, Paul said at the end of the next verse there, all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient, not all things are helpful.

We need to be wise in what we do. And to be honest, we shouldn't be asking, well, is this sin or not? How close can I get to the line? We should be asking ourselves, what's best? These days are evil, Paul says, because we have so few of them.

What's the best thing I can be doing with my time? We should throw off every weight and sin that hinders us and run the race set before us that we might see Jesus, the author and founder of our faith.

He's seated at the right hand of Jesus. Those are the types of things we should seek. How can we use our time rather than is this idolatry or is this not? So hopefully that's helpful to you. But I think I want to talk about what is really behind this, because I don't, as you see in Paul's 1 Corinthians passage, it's not really about, there's no such thing as idols.

There's really, it's, there's no God to be worshiped there. However, God is jealous for our worship, and that's really what's behind this. That God sees them looking to these other gods, and Eugene Peterson says the worship of Baal and Asheroth was really about a feel-good religion.

What makes me feel good? So this church and these Christians in Thyatira, they would have to compromise their faith or they would suffer. They would not have all the things that are comfortable. They would not have the income.

They would not have the social status. I mean, going to those parties was probably pretty pleasing to the flesh, perhaps. But it doesn't, it doesn't satisfy. And what God sees here and what I think is underneath this is real idolatry.

Not to sort of flatten the message completely, but it really is, that's the underlying sin, that they are finding their satisfaction in something that is not Jesus. Jesus has provided everything they need.

And he often, and that's really what is described here where it says, in verse 24, at the end it says, you have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan. And that sounds kind of mysterious, like maybe there is some deeper witchcraft involved.

But really, Satan's message has been the same from the get-go. It's to question God's word. Has God really said? Sure, God is omniscient, omnipotent, and he is for us. He is always good. He is always good for us.

We know that all things work together for our good, those of us that are in Christ Jesus. But Satan wants to come along and say, has God said that? Is he always for your good? That's the deep thing. And I would doubt that this Jezebel in that church was actually talking about saying, well, these are the deep things of Satan.

She was likely saying, these are, this is a way to have a better relationship with God. If you do these things, you can have your cake and eat it too. This is actually a better religion. And Jesus is correctly identifying, that's actually Satan's teaching.

That's not anything more godly. And I think that's really helpful for us often, because we come into contact with people, and there seems to be some grayness there, but this is black and white. That's Satan teaching that.

So that's his love. That's his grace towards this church. Like, look, time to repent. And to bring that up, he gave her a chance to repent. Where was that at? Verse 21. Verse 21, I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.

So I don't know exactly what that looked like, but I want to encourage you. I would imagine that at that time, it was probably the leaders in the church confronting her. That's what would happen here.

And just to be praying for our elders. Certainly, I'm excited to have Steve on board with Mark and Bruce and Rob and Don, these guys. They care for us, and they have to have these conversations. It's easy to tolerate, to just let bygones be bygones.

That seems like, let's not make a big issue out of that one. This is a fundamental issue here that needs to be addressed. And so pray for them as they have these conversations, and to have the discernment about which ones to address and which ones not to address.

But she is, I mean, he is gracious. He's giving them a chance to repent, but no, there is judgment coming. They're going to get sick. She's going to put her on a sickbed, and her children are going to die.

So the children aren't actually, she doesn't have physical offspring. That's really language to talk about those that are following her, those that are taking on her beliefs and following her. They are going to die.

And I believe that's a literal judgment. Not that they are eternally going to die, if they are really in Christ, but they are going to suffer judgment. That's not a unique teaching to the Scriptures where you could have, where sin brings about bad things.

Holding Fast to Christ and the Promised Reward

So let's look at the promises. So he says, he gives them the strengths, the weaknesses, and there's the promises in verse 24. But to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching, who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan, to you I say, I do not lay on you any other burden.

And that's really what happens. Most other religions, most heresies require you doing something else besides what Christ has already done for you. And it says in the next verse, 25, only hold fast to what Jesus has done, what you have until I come.

That's what it's talking about. Only hold fast what you have until I come, Jesus. The one who conquers. Jesus has conquered death. He's gone to the grave. He's conquered sin and death. And who keeps my works until the end.

So he's talking about those in the church that are clinging to these promises, that God is there. And again, it's that there is no additional burden. Jesus said, my burden is light, my yoke is easy, my burden is light.

We just have to hold fast to what Jesus has said. And what he's done for us. There's no additional burden. But also in verses 26 and 27, it talks about, this is kind of military language, the one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end.

There we see again these works that he prepared beforehand that we should walk in, that Ephesians 2 .10 is still there. To him, I will give authority over the nations. I will give authority over the nations.

And that is, if you want to pull up that verse, Eric, Psalm 2, 8 and 9, it's a direct quote. This is a messianic sort of psalm. It says, and ask of me, and I will make, maybe I'll read it here so I can read it better.

And I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. So this is talking about the Jesus that is to come.

But then we see at the end of Matthew, the gospel, the next verse where he is about to give the great commission. And Jesus says, and Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

And now we see in Revelations that as in Christ we have that same authority. So that we have the gospel to preach to the Gentiles, to all nations. That is our authority. It's not that we're going around and literally killing people, taking up arms.