Revelation 2: The Church at Thyatira

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So good evening. We are still in Revelation. Providentially, sadly but providentially.

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Pastor had asked me to cover the one Wednesday because they were having time together with the family and then he took ill and so when

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I was starting to prepare I thought I'll just have that in the folder for weeks to come and apparently it's these weeks right now.

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So maybe God has something for us in these in these letters that he has providentially ordered things that it just happened to be a short series that's being utilized right now.

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So we have been going through the letters to the churches in Revelation and we've gone through how many so far?

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Who knows? Who remembers? Pastor Anthony knows. He's paying attention.

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They're either throwing up gang signs or they got the right number. Yes, three. Yes, so we've spoken about the church in Ephesus, right?

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What other churches do we talk about? Smyrna? No one remembers my hardware joke?

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And the church in Rickles. They're too young. I know my kids are too young for it.

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Pergamum. Pergamum. Pergament. Probably not related. Okay.

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Alright, so we went through those three churches and we talked about some of the issues and do we remember what some of the issues were?

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Keep in mind we're looking at things like how Christ describes himself, what description he gives as he speaks to each individual church, what commendation he has for them, what encouragement he has for them, and also what, if any, criticism he has for them.

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So do we remember any of the issues going on in those three churches before we go to the church in Thyatira?

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Not all at once. Only two of them had issues, if I remember correctly. Only two of them had issues?

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Only two of them had something brought against them. Correct. They all had a commendation, I believe, but only one didn't have a commendation.

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I mean, wait, words. Only one of them didn't have something brought against them that they need to repent of. Do you remember which church?

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I want to say Smyrna, but I'm not sure. You are correct. You want to say it because it's right.

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They're going, and what was their commendation? Do we remember? What were they dealing with?

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They are this, but they are actually that. Right?

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Why is that funny? We're tired. Okay, yes, he goes,

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I know your tribulation and poverty. You're poverty, but you are rich, right? And why were they poor?

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Why would they be enduring poverty where God is, Christ is encouraging them and comforting them in that?

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Is it a virtuous thing and it's inherently to be impoverished?

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Was there an answer there? They're being persecuted, right? Why else would they be?

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I mean, it's related to that. Yes? Because in order to be a part of some of the trade guilds, you had to do certain things that were simple, like sacrificing food to idols or partaking in immorality.

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Right, the trade guilds were often associated with a patron god, right? And so if you want to be part of that guild, you had to give honor to that god.

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And if you didn't, they would basically boycott you. You'd be a pariah. You wouldn't be getting work.

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So yes, so there was a number of things going on that was causing them to be impoverished, but it was for the sake of Christ.

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And so he was encouraging them in that, and that's an encouragement for us that when everything seems like it's against us, you know, where we're standing for Christ, and if we just feel the heat of persecution, we're feeling difficulty in our circumstances, recognize that not only does

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Christ recognize it, but he commends us, he encourages us. And so that should be a point of commendation and encouragement for those who are going through that.

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Okay, so perhaps later on you might want to read through these letters again, because I'm not gonna spend the whole time reviewing, but we'll see some of these same patterns coming up.

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So I need someone to read for me Revelation chapter 2 verses 18 to 29.

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Who wants to do that? Got Ryan in the back, nice and loud.

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And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write, the words of the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze.

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I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first.

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But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

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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

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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.

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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

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I say, I do not lay on you any other burden. Only hold fast what you have until I come.

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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, and when earth and pots are broken in pieces, even as I myself have received authority from my

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Father. And I will give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

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Okay, trying to get it so I could have it just big enough for the whole thing fit in on the one without me having to move the screen around.

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Okay, so what's going on in Thyatira? Let me ask you a question.

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Reading that description of Christ, the words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze, what do you think is going on there?

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What do you think he is conveying by that description of himself? This is what

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John saw and this is what Jesus is saying. You weren't supposed to see that.

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Yes, that was, the highlighting is for my own thoughts. But yes, he does.

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His eyes of like flame of fire do see, do penetrate. So yes, absolutely.

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Okay, does this sound like anything else in Scripture?

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Don't? Yeah, yeah.

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Actually, I'm thinking of something else in Daniel. What happened in Daniel where there might be fire, where there might be glowing?

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The furnace, right? And what does he see when he throws the three friends in the fiery furnace, heated up seven times, hotter than normal, right?

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What? He sees the Son of God, right? One like a Son of God walking in there.

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And this is interesting because there's a number of allusions to Daniel throughout the book of Revelation, which would be no surprise to us.

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But that imagery, especially for people who be familiar with the Old Testament, what does that story remind you of as well?

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Think about Christ and his description in Revelation, how he's walking among the lampstands, he's got the seven stars.

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What do we see with him in the furnace? What's the encouragement there?

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Right, that he's with them. So there's allusions to Daniel here, but also you'll find out about the city.

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Who knows a little bit about the city and why this description could be pertinent for that reason as well?

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No? Okay. The city imported, or not imported, they produced bronze, they exported bronze, they were known for bronze.

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And the patron god there is Apollo, Tiramanus, something like that, the

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Sun God. And so that the local trade guild worshipped their god there. So the reference to bronze throughout is specific to the city as they were producers of it, okay?

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And so here it's the Son of God as opposed to their fake

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Sun God, right? And so these things echo a lot louder for that original audience because they're living in that time and they understand.

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We get enlightened when we study the context, that's why we want to find out the background of what's going on here and why these things are pertinent.

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So we see in the scripture allusions to that. We're here being faithful even to the point of being thrown in the furnace and they're trying to execute them.

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Christ is in their midst protecting them and he'll spiritually do that as well for those who refuse to bow down to the king statue, refuse to bow down to the patron god

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Apollo and the demands of the trade guild there. So he goes, I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, your latter works exceed the first.

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And do we remember what we were saying that these works are most likely referencing?

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Evangelism, yeah. As I said before and I'll be preaching Sunday so you might be hearing more of it,

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I plan on focusing a little bit on that letter to Ephesus. But the works, one commentator in particular sees the pattern of the works referring to evangelism and he gives some really good explanations and arguments for that.

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And here he's saying, I know your works and it's not just evangelism but that's part of it, your love and your faith and service and patient endurance.

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So they're dealing with some things. And he goes, your latter works exceed the first. So it sounds like they are very active as a church.

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That's a strong commendation from Christ, he knows of their love and faith and service so that's good.

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However those wonderful things don't leave room to excuse serious error that's going on there.

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And what's that serious error but they're engaging in, they're either engaging in it themselves or they're tolerating the engagement of other believers.

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The same error and sin that was pronounced at Pergamon. And here instead of talking about Balaam right and the

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Nicolaitans, the Nicolaitans, now he says Jezebel.

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Why does he say Jezebel do you think? The answer is right there I promise.

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Why does he refer to Jezebel instead of say

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Balaam or the Nicolaitans? Because of her promiscuity. I'm looking for something a little more specific to that name.

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False idol worship. But is he talking about an actual woman named

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Jezebel? That's a two -parter. Is he talking about an actual woman?

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What? The spirit of Jezebel? The spirit of Jezebel but is he talking about an actual woman?

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It says who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching so it sounds like it is a person. Yeah. Is it

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Israel? Israel? Maybe. Maybe.

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I think. Well they also refer to her children. I mean that could mean the descent.

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It doesn't have to be the physical children. Uh -huh. I don't know there's a bunch of double...

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And when you have a book that's symbolic in nature like well do you think they knew?

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I don't know because it talks about the followers in tribulation the children are dead so it seems like I don't know

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I thought it was her actual children because there seems to be a distinction between children and followers unless it's talking about followers.

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No here I would say well these are all possibilities right because we're dealing with a symbolic book and so when you're saying when you're throwing names like Balaam out there and Jezebel out there well then you have a good reason to say well that could be symbolic of a teaching of an idea of a spirit.

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Those are all genuine possibilities. My particular take on it is that he has he is actually speaking of a specific woman there.

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She calls herself a prophetess. He says you are tolerating her right and I gave her time to repent so I don't think of that as a just a generic spirit.

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It seems to be more personified and you know and centered on a person. I think he's giving a different name to her to point out just like he pointed out the

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Nicolaitans with the teaching of Balaam and he's tied those together. You know an old heresy and a new heresy but they're actually the same thing.

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There's nothing new under the sun. But here what was

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Jezebel known for in the Old Testament? Who was Jezebel? Right.

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What was her position though? She was a queen. Right. So she was married to King Ahab.

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Right. We know our Old Testament history. Right. So here she is the queen of King Ahab and she was a huge idolater.

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Right. Encouraging her husband and all of Israel with him to worship

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Baal. Right. Even to highlight that more specifically she was of Israel.

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It wasn't Judah. It was Israel not Judah. Right. So they were already completely like turned away from God and even she was.

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Yeah. They were already a mess and she made them worse. Right.

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You know helping orchestrate the murder of Naboth and all that. Threatening poor

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Elijah after he had victory over those all her false prophets there on Mount Carmel. Right.

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So he's linking that identity of someone who's supposed to be helping the king to lead.

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Right. And lead rightly but rather taking a people that were set apart by God and bringing them into compromise with false worship.

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Right. Idolatrous worship. You know sexual morality all of that. And she's a prophetess.

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Right. So she's calling herself a prophetess and they're tolerating her. It seems like this woman whoever she is is highly respected in the city, in the church.

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You're tolerating her. She's calling herself a prophetess. If someone's a prophetess or a prophet what does that mean?

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Speaking on behalf of God. And we know that especially in that transitional period you know leading up to 70

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A .D. you know the sign gifts you know were in much greater operation as not all the church had the completed canon yet.

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Cameron. I was just going to say it almost sounds like she's potentially a member of the church here in Thyatira and she's promoting the idolatry of that city which they're speaking out against here.

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Right. That city's known for its idolatry and she's telling, I mean it even says that she's you know eating food, you know encouraging them to eat the food sacrificed to idols whereas she's encouraging the church to participate in the idolatry of the city.

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Yeah. As opposed to setting themselves apart which we know in Thyatira is very difficult you know based off the nature of the city.

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Right. So that's exactly right. And so here before you know maybe the group is associated with a group you know following after the teachings of the

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Nicolaitans where there's, here's this woman who is respected in the church and she's calling herself a prophetess and yet not only, she's encouraging the people to compromise.

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Compromise. And telling them that there's no problem with having Christ and having this as well.

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Right. Do we see that sort of thing today or is that just a Thyatira problem?

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Is that, we don't have to worry about this anymore right? Right. What does this sound like?

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Careful. What's that? Women preaching in the church and so there's a reason for that.

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Well there's a wonder and that's not Ephesus. That's not just that one specific church that had an issue. Right.

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Many people say when Paul says I don't allow a woman to teach or preach you know to teach or have authority in the church.

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Some people say well that was just in Ephesus. You know he's telling Timothy you know they're all out of sorts so don't let them because of that problem.

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No he says they're not to have authority. Look at the influence she's having as someone who's a prophetess saying that she has a word from God and she's encouraging them and they're apparently not testing it against scripture to see that this was never okay.

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There's a, because he'll say later on to the rest of you who do not hold this teaching who have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan.

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And so there's questions well what does that mean? Who's being encouraged not to, you know who's being encouraged to learn the deep things of Satan?

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So some think it's a sarcastic reversal that they're saying it's the deep things of God and God is showing them what it really is.

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Or it could be some that are saying well idols are nothing and you know in contrast to the gospel look how it has no power over us.

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Or perhaps if you know just how bad sin is if you engage in it then you realize how much great the gospel is.

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You remember hearing about Paul saying that people were saying to him well if grace abounds we should sin all the more.

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And he's like may it never be. Don't put those words in my mouth. So there were people who would twist the gospel, twist the truth of grace and its application in our lives.

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So they really could, it's possible that they were saying the deep things of Satan to know them that you might be stronger in your faith perhaps.

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It's ridiculous what people will actually put out there and claim to be Christian teaching but don't we still see it today.

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We still have women teachers and preachers. We still have churches that are zealous for evangelism and yet they have all sorts of error going on within the body.

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All sorts of wrong teaching. Maybe I'm oversimplifying it a bit but it almost seems like you know the deep things of Satan are the things of this world right.

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Like you know you can kind of take it back to you know we're in the world but not of the world. So those who are in the church who have held fast and have not learned what some call the deep things of Satan have not learned to tolerate the worldly things of this city right.

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It seems like that might be the biggest problem in this city is that the worldly influences and the idolatry and the gods behind that idolatry is laying siege on the church there.

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And some people are learning to tolerate it and even partake in it and try to try to hold a balance between both worlds the world of the church and the world of Satan.

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Yeah that's a certain certainly a possibility and we of course we see that still today right.

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Trying to figure out how much in the world we can be and still have Christ. And so what we're seeing here is he says

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I gave her time to repent but she refuses to repent of her sexual morality. Behold I will throw her onto a sick bed and those who commit adultery with her

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I will throw into great tribulation unless they repent of their works and I will strike her children dead.

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And here I don't think it's talking about her biological children I think it's talking about disciples you know just like you know

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Paul calls Timothy his son in the faith. These two were like her children in following after her teaching you know just following her around and doing the things that she says to do and things that she says that are okay.

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That's something you know covenant theology and talking about our children and I'm not going to get into it.

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Ashley. What do you believe specifically that it applies to today like because like churches now.

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I mean I don't know if I mean maybe there are churches that are okay with committing adultery and sexual immorality but like I mean

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I don't I don't know like what are certain things that you see nowadays. I mean sexual morality.

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Unless that's like a symbolic of something not necessarily exactly adultery literally or sexual immorality literally.

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What would it be? It's both is my understanding of it.

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I mean we're going through Ezekiel for Sunday school you know and when you read through the

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Old Testaments and you and you read to the prophets. How often they refer to idolatry as adultery you know it's spiritual adultery.

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You know God is their husband and there they are and Ezekiel is graphic at times in describing just how heinous their sin is but using that that imagery you know of a spouse you know and of a wayward wife.

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So idolatry is spiritual adultery. So that's for sure.

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But when you read through the law you read through Leviticus the holiness code and there's all these different sexual perversions that are named and prohibited.

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And so some people say well that was because they were worshipping other gods and that was part of their their idol worship which we would just think is bizarre because we don't have all the context.

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But it was. I mean we still read as we're reading through the historical narratives how they were you know cult prostitutes right temple prostitutes male and female.

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That was just part of idolatry was sexual morality you know as far as you know looking to the gods of fertility right to encourage the rain to come into the ground for the seeds to grow and for all this.

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These analogies they thought well if we do it sexually the gods will do it for us agriculturally you know and so we'll we'll have that you know we'll have that fertility.

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So they're often linked together. The Greek word there is is for Neo which is usually in the in the context is usually encompasses a lot more than just adultery.

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It's a it's a much more broader term for sex. That's why it's translated as sexual immorality.

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Right. In the you know in the commandments thou shall not commit adultery. Right. But that's a that doesn't mean fornication is

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OK. Well if you're if you're not married it's all right. You know he gives the case or he gives a more detailed law to show how all sexual immorality everything outside of one man one woman in legally covenanted marriage is forbidden.

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And so these things were still going on. So it wasn't just adultery was fornication it was homosexuality.

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Those were just some of their basic stuff that that was that was just par for course that's what they were engaging in.

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Now we don't have churches today that I'm aware of except for like the cults that encourage like polygamy and stuff like that.

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I don't know of any churches today that are like pushing adultery as some sort of virtuous thing.

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However sexual immorality. How many churches do we see giving their their seal of approval to homosexuality.

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How many churches can you drive past right here on the island and see a little rainbow flag. And now we have the transgender flag underneath it right.

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You know God God made them male and female. Oh no no no no. Apparently we decide for ourselves and you have churches that wave that little flag and basically said

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God's word doesn't matter. Right. So they put their seal of approval and we love and encourage and accept and affirm.

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We are a safe space and all are welcome all means all. Until you or I walk in there sharing a couple of scripture verses.

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Go ahead. And I'd add to that also the unfortunate truth that so many pastors are caught up in sexual immorality on a regular basis or even child abuse.

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And I'm not even talking about just the Catholic Church either. No unfortunately not. No I mean we know everyone points to the

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Catholic Church and all that and they move the priests around here and there. But there's plenty of scandal everywhere you go.

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Going through on Friday nights Discipline of a Godly Man by Kent Hughes and one section talking about the discipline of purity.

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He's talking about Christian magazines that a lot of their subscribers were leadership you know pastors and deacons and just you know committed congregants.

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And the percentage rate for people who had engaged in pornography you know viewing pornography was way higher than you'd ever think possible.

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It's horrifying. And then you have those who are actually committing physical deeds with other people you know whether it be someone who's not married or someone who is married.

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It's going on. And so yeah we have churches that accept sexual perversion that we have churches where people are engaging in these things and everyone's sort of looking the other way.

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They don't know about until the scandal hits and you find out and they're exposed and then the whole church suffers from it.

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And the name of Christ is brought reproach upon because of the scandal. But I've heard of churches that are well aware of couples cohabiting.

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So not even the homosexual not even transgender but just your plain old average vanilla male and female but not married living together and active members in the church.

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And no one says boo about it. Right. What is that telling people you can engage in sexual morality and still have

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Christ and everyone's OK. Right. You don't have to worry about having some idol that you have to sacrifice meat to or something like that.

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You can just engage in the sin that you want to engage in and no one's going to speak to you otherwise.

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They forget that Christ is there with the flame eyes of flame of fire right and feet like burnished bronze where he's searching the mind and heart and he will give to each of you according to your works.

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That could be an encouraging thing. That could be a horrifying thing. Right. And so he tells him he's going to he's going to throw her onto a sick bed.

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He's going to bring great tribulation on them. He's going to strike her children dead and all the churches. Why. Why is discipline so important.

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One of the reasons is for the health of the church. Right. That the churches will know that I am he who searches minds and heart.

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But he says to the rest of you in Thyatira who do not hold this teaching who have not learned what some call the deep thing of Satan.

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I don't lay on you any other burden. Hold fast what you have until I come. So he's coming.

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Right. I don't know how widespread this problem is what was going on but judgment was coming.

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And so he's telling those who have not compromised. I see you. Hold on.

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And he's going to deal with them. And again the one who conquers and keeps my works until the end to him I will give authority over the nations and he will rule.

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So again conquering does not always. Conquering you can conquer by dying.

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Right. By laying down your life by enduring to the end. And yet you will be identified with Christ and you will rule and reign with him.

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So there's strong words here of condemnation. Like so this woman could have been you know again just because the church is out there preaching the gospel and zealous to do so doesn't mean that all is well.

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And so we have to you know it's like the opposite of with Ephesus. Seems like they were starting to grow cold on that where they walked away from their first love.

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They had abandoned it. Yet they were doctrinally pure. Here this church is zealous to evangelize.

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But they're they're tolerating major error. They're just we're welcoming everyone. You know just come on in.

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And so we still see that today. So she's claiming Christ claiming the prophecy yet leading people astray and she was being tolerated.

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She could have been taking scripture and twisting it and things like an idol has no real existence or rendered a seizure of the things that are

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Caesar. So I mean this is part of being a good citizen is going along and doing you know and this is just superficial.

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You don't really mean it right. You know it talks about don't make the weaker brother stumble.

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Well if they're not weak if they're not stumbling then perhaps it's not a problem for anyone so they can do it.

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So they weren't maintaining doctrinal purity. The sexual morality the food sacrifice the idols rampant in the unbelieving world and a stumbling block for believers.

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And so I have a question here. Why is that such a draw. Why is that such a draw for people.

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We keep seeing food sacrifice the idols. Why is God so opposed to food sacrifice the idols.

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Right Paul says an idol is no real thing. And don't ask about it in the marketplace if it's just there by your meat and go home.

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But why. Why is this such a constant issue. It's like the principle behind it is that the principle behind it is that it is being sacrificed to them.

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Even though they don't have any control or any power you know it's still you know the point of them engaging that ritual to sacrifice to that false god.

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Those who engage in it are taking part in that. I think those names are very significant.

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And so you have this food that's like under this false gods like it's like identity.

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That's very important in scripture. And then like I think about today's Bible reading where Jesus like I'm the bread of life and he eats and drinks me.

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And so here they're eating and drinking something that belongs to a false god.

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Yeah. It's that whole thing that God said he's the only one who provide your business.

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Everything is his. He's the creator. The very sustenance we have comes from him and you're giving it to idols that are nothing have existence at all.

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So that's that's like a you know telling God no you didn't provide you didn't do this.

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Why do people sacrifice titles to get a benefit.

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Anticipating getting a benefit. Why else. On the other side of that.

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Well I mean to get a benefit. But do they offer like a Thanksgiving type of sacrifice.

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They you know these are trade guilds. Business has been good. Thank you.

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Apollo. Right. You provide for us.

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You sustain us. We had a record breaking year.

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Thanks to Apollo. Now you guys all come and let's let's toast to Apollo.

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Do you see what the problem is there. It comes down to an active versus passive participation.

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Right. Like I mean you mentioned you know go into the marketplace and don't ask. Right. Meat is meat.

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Meat is meat. Right. But once you're actively participating in the the offering of that food and then partaking in it that's where the problem because it takes its focus away from where it needs to be.

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You're putting your focus on the false idol on the false guy and taking it away from the one who actually does provide.

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All right. So you know it's one thing if they've sacrificed the meat and they put it there and then you didn't eat it.

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They sell it on the marketplace. Well meat's meat. It makes its way to the marketplace. You don't have to ask.

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You can just eat and you're giving thanks to God. But if you go to that hall if you go to that festival where they're toasting and cheering their

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God they're asking God to their God to give them these benefits.

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Now you are a willing participant. Think about other things that we've seen in the scripture.

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Think about Jesus's first temptation. If you're hungry if you're the son of God do what?

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Make these stones into bread. Be self -reliant. Be your own man.

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Do your thing. And what does he say? Bye bye.

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He goes you know what's more important than physical food? Spiritual food.

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Everything that God says is of greater value. Why? It's the truth.

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He's the one who sustains us. He's the one who provides for us. Don't be afraid of the one who can kill the body and then do nothing else.

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Be afraid of the one who can take body and soul and throw them into hell. Right? Reading a book that's talking about implications of what happened with COVID.

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When they talked about the church was not essential. You couldn't go to church because it was not essential but you could go to the grocery store.

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You could also go to the abortion mill. You could go to the cannabis shop. You could go to mostly peaceful BLM riots.

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Protests. Those were all deemed essential.

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Groceries. Most people would say are usually essential. Depends what you're getting I guess. But the word of God.

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The gathering of the saints. The worship of the holy triune

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God. Not essential. What sort of worldview do you have to have to make that statement and then make law about it?

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What kind of worldview do you have to have? You have to have an idolatrous.

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Yeah, materialistic for sure. Idolatrous. It's not

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God who's really providing for you. Who's providing for you in this case? Because the state tells you what you need.

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The state speaking truth. Right? And you know, let's face it.

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The state's going to do what the state's going to do. The real problem was that the church at large just took it with no argument.

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Yeah. Yeah. No problem. Stay home and watch church in our pajamas.

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All right. Yeah. And we still have people who want to do that. They were doing that before.

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Now they're just continuing on anyway. Right. All right. But what do we say? What do we show that we believe when we will go to places like the grocery store here, there, and the other place, but we won't go to church.

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So the draw of food sacrifice to idols talked about names, talked about identity, talking about all of that.

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He says, man doesn't live by bread alone, but every word of God, every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

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What does he tell us to pray for? Give us this day, our daily bread, our daily sustenance, looking to the

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Lord for life and provision as a sign of our identity with him and our opposition to everything opposed to him.

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When we, the problem with food sacrifice to idols is not the meat itself.

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The problem with food sacrifice to idols and the modern day application of it is what sort of worldview are we embracing?

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What sort of worldview are we celebrating? What sort of worldview are we affirming? We don't, we talk about worldview a lot here, right?

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But we don't think about worldview enough in the church at large. We don't see that there are really two entirely different spheres.

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God reigns over everything, you know. But we, are we embracing, are we encouraging, are we supporting idolatrous worldviews with our behaviors, activities, our words?

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We don't have, well, we have a lot less temples that we can go to that we have to worry about them offering a feast and a festival and an orgy to follow and inviting you to come out or you're going to lose your job.

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But we do have other things that if we don't go along with them, if we say that what they're saying is right, if we don't do that, we'll lose our jobs.

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Right? We saw it happen. If you didn't believe what the priests of the state were telling us, you couldn't work.

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So these things still happen today. And the question is, how much further will it go?

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Could you say also like there's application to like in Daniel chapter one, when he refuses to eat the king's delicacies.

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For sure. And remain faithful. Yeah. I mean, in Daniel's case, they still had a strict dietary law in effect.

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And he didn't want to defile himself by breaking that law. And so everyone else was like, well, when in Babylon, you know,

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Daniel's like, I'm going to try not to. How about that? So it's something for us to be thinking about, about the idols of today.

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I mean, are there things where if we partake, we are actually supporting an idolatrous worldview.

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Something to be thinking about looking for those modern day applications. So he promises judgment, right?

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Judgment on her and judgment on those who hold on to those teachings. And it'll be in such a way that the true churches will know that God is still active.

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He's still paying attention and he's still going to bring about a day of reckoning. So any that's enough.

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That's one. Oh, didn't even get two churches tonight. But I think that was that was a question.

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I really wanted to us to ponder that the food sacrifice is because we see it so much in the

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Old Testament and we see it so much in the New Testament. And it's we're so tempted to go, well, glad I don't have that problem anymore.

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But we still do. I was just thinking there are actually some

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Christians out there. I don't know if you guys ever heard of this. I don't know the name of it specifically.

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But there's like a certain teaching now that Christians have a certain number attached to their personality.

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And do you have you heard of that? I've heard of. Yeah, I can't think of the name of it.

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There's a neogram. Yeah. And that's like a big thing right now.

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Yeah. So that's like another teaching that they're adding. Yeah. It's accepted as truth.

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Yeah. Yeah. At first it was astrology and astrology is still around. It's still astrology.

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And now it's the number system, whatever, trying to help you determine what your personality is, rather than just looking at the word of God.

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This correlates directly to the history of Israel when Jezebel and King Ahab were ruling.

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And effectively, she was the state. Right. And she had her priest doing idolatry and, you know, sacrificing to idols.

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And the people of Israel stood in their homes as a church. It didn't come out to say, no, not only one man was sent to do that for Israel.

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So it correlates directly with it. Yeah. Yeah. So these things,

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I was going to say, too, with another part of scripture came to mind, like Proverbs 23, for example, too, when it says, you know, to observe carefully what's before you and eat before a ruler and to put a knife to your throat if you're given appetite and not to desire his food because it's deceptive to have food.

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You know? Yeah. Yeah. Be careful of the favors of people whose hearts are not really with you.

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But they're just looking at something where they own you now. Right. Yeah.

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So there's a lot of things there. There's a lot there. And we'll leave it at that for now.

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So we can talk more about this later on. But we are out of time. So let's close in prayer and go on to our time.