Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #30 of Revelation 2, and we are looking at Revelation 2:24:

But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

In our last few studies we have been discussing Jezebel and her wickedness as she stirred up her husband Ahab to do great evil, and the Lord used her to typify those in the churches and congregations that were teaching and seducing God’s servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

The Lord gave space, the entire New Testament church age, for the churches to repent and turn from these practices.  But the churches did not turn, and God then began to identify the whole corporate church body as “Jezebel,” and He said He would cast her into a bed of sin and death, and into great tribulation.  The Lord also said that he would kill Jezebel’s children with death, and we discussed in our last study how God brought the condition of death upon the New Testament congregations when He departed from their midst.  Christ as the light of the Gospel abandoned the churches, and it left them in darkness and in the condition of death.  Never again would anyone become saved within a congregation, and any entering into the churches would remain in the same unsaved state that they were in previously because God ceased to save sinners within any church.

Yet during the Great Tribulation, God mercifully and graciously had a plan to save the great multitude outside of the churches and congregations of the world.  God carried that out, and He saved tens of millions of people all across the face of the earth.  The only condition was that they had to be outside of the churches, as He would save none within the churches, and that is why it is said that He killed their children with death.

But now in verse 24, God is again speaking to the church in Thyatira, and what He has to say applied to all the churches throughout the centuries during the church age.  What was He saying to them?  He said in Revelation 2:24:

… as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

What does this mean?  It means that those in the church at Thyatira, as well as those Christians that lived during the many centuries of the church age, would not have to deal with the doctrine of the Great Tribulation.  They would not have to experience the Great Tribulation, so that is why the Lord is saying that they have not this doctrine that He was discussing regarding casting Jezebel into a bed and those that commit adultery with her into great tribulation.  That was something that was reserved for the end-time Christians that would be found in the churches.  Therefore the people at Thyatira (representing all the believers during the 1,955 years of the church age) would not have to know the “depths of Satan.”  Yes, it would have been trying for them to deal with the workings of Satan as he infiltrated the churches and congregations.  We read back in verse 13 that Satan had his seat in a congregation; he was very active in the churches as he sowed tares among the wheat.  That made things difficult as they had to deal with Satan and his emissaries, but they did not have to deal with the depths of Satan’s wickedness that God had reserved for the time of the end.

Just look at what has happened over the last few decades since the church age came to an end and the Great Tribulation began back in May of 1988.  Just look at the incredible increase of wickedness and evil in the churches of the world.  We can see the multiplication of sin as the churches greatly fell away to depths they had never reached before.  We have seen phenomenon that the churches previously never experienced.  It is true that throughout the centuries, there would have been rebellious churches or denominations.  There may have been a woman, here or there, who were teaching, and there may have been a homosexual leader who tried to say that homosexuality was allowable.  In the rarest of instances, that may have been allowed in a church somewhere, or there could have been people, here or there, who claimed to receive divine revelation and communication from God outside the Bible, but never to the degree that we have seen since the end of the church age and over the last few decades.  There has been a great increase in the number of churches that believe God brings additional revelation through tongues, and dreams or visions.  And there are churches that involve themselves in “holy laughter.”  Can you imagine?  How foolish!  How utterly ridiculous!  You would think from the title itself that people would know it was not from God, and yet there are congregations that fell for this phenomenon, as well as the phenomenon of “falling over backwards” during the last few decades.

The depths of Satan were realized as we entered into the period of the end time during the time of the Great Tribulation, but those in the churches during the church age did not know these things.  They were spared this, and it was not for them to realize the depths of Satan.  They had their own things to deal with in the spiritual battle that raged over the many hundreds of years during the church age, but God did not put this upon them.  Of course the depths of Satan would occur with his loosing.  But those in the churches during the church age lived at the time the Bible says that Satan was bound, but at the beginning of the Great Tribulation he was loosed, and that is why wickedness increased to the degree that it did.  That was all part of God’s plan, as God has taken His hand of restraint away, more and more, from mankind, as the evil deeds of Satan increased in the world as he was the beast that rose up out of the sea. 

We have seen so much evil in such a short period of time that the child of God is weary of it.  We are sick and tired of the evil that is everywhere around us, and we have even become accustomed to the tremendous depths of Satan that the world and the churches have given way to, and yet that is our burden, and that is what God has ordained for those of us who are alive and remain on the earth during this end-time period.  We have our trials and tribulations.  We had “great tribulation,” and now there is this final severe test for us.  But it was not for them in the churches during the church age, and that is why it says in Revelation 2:24:

… as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

Remember what Jesus said in John 16?  He really said something amazing in John 16:12-13:

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

Now this is really an incredible statement that the Lord has many things to say…and remember that He is the Word.  The whole Bible is the Word of Christ.  He has many things to say, things that He desires to communicate to us, and yet He says, “But ye cannot bear them now.”  What could not be bearable at that point in time?  This is what our verse in Revelation 2 also refers to when God says, “I will put upon you none other burden.”   God stored up information in His Word.  He sealed up the Word until the time of the end, as He said to Daniel.  Let us read that verse because we have not read it for a while.  It says in Daniel 12:4:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

What does God say about the increase in knowledge?  He tells us in Ecclesiastes 1:18:

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

This is just a factual statement.  With much wisdom is much grief.  And he that increases knowledge increases sorrow.  Remember that it also says in Daniel 12:10: “…and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.”  And that increased wisdom and knowledge that God would give His people at the time of the end would also serve to increase our sorrow because as we learn things, we have to speak the things that are very grievous doctrines in the Bible. 

One example is the doctrine of the end of the church age.  God reserved that information and kept it sealed up until a point at the end of time, and that is one of the things Jesus had in mind when He said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.”  No, He would not give them that burden.  Why would God give those in thee churches and congregations additional information that would not apply for almost two thousand years?  They would have their own issues, afflictions, and trials and tribulations.  Some of them were burned at the stake for the Word of God.  They had their burdens, so why give them additional burdens that would have application only at the end of the world?  So God did not increase their knowledge and thereby increase their sorrow. 

One of the other things the Lord opened up was the date of Judgment Day, the very time that He would begin the judgment process by shutting the door of heaven.  He revealed that date to be May 21, 2011.  Can you imagine if God had given this information early to the first century church?  What a tremendous burden it would have been to carry the information that God’s people would remain in this world for about two thousand years.  God kept that information back, and He did not reveal it to His people.  He could have revealed it to them, just as He has revealed it to us, but He kept it back because they had no real need to know, and He allowed His people to live with the expectation that the Lord could come in their generation, and that would have eased their everyday trials.  It eased their everyday burden of living the Christian life.  They did not have to carry the burden that there was no possibility that Christ would return in the first century, or that He would return in the year 1400 A. D. or 1700 A. D.,  and as God’s people were sending forth the Gospel, they did not have to share that information because they did not know it.  They had no idea when the Lord might return, and that was really the mercy of God and His graciousness to His people to keep that information from them.

Notice it said in John 16:13:

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

This is referring to the Holy Spirit guiding us into “all truth,” or all the information that God had sealed up and reserved to the time of the end.  It would be revealed by the Spirit of God at the proper season when the time of the end was reached, and knowledge would increase.  And we are that generation today.  We are there, and the Lord is giving us information that we require because it applies to our lives.  He has taught us about the end of the church age, and it was absolutely necessary that we learned that so we could get out of the churches before God brought about that day of judgment and shut the door to heaven there.  Otherwise, many would have been trapped in the churches at a time that God indicated that all who remained would be bundled as tares for the burning.  So it was absolutely necessary for God to reveal this to His people so we could get out.

And it was necessary for God to reveal the Day of Judgment to His people so that we could, in turn, “sound the trumpet” and warn the world so that all the elect that were out there in the world would hear.  And this message would strike those individuals as God would cause them to hear and respond, and He would draw them through the proclamation of the warning of coming judgment, and God would save them.  So in God’s perfect wisdom and His perfect plan reserved these things for the very end, as it says in Mark 13:10-11:

And the gospel must first be published among all nations. But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: but whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost.

This is the companion verse to John 16:13.  “In that hour,” which refers to  the “hour” of the Great Tribulation, the believers would speak, and it was actually not the believers that were speaking, but the Holy Ghost.

Many think that the Holy Ghost literally speaks outside of the Bible, but that is not what the Lord means.  How does the Holy Ghost speak?  It is explained in 1Corinthians 2:13: “ Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”   That is exactly how God has taught us through the Holy Ghost as He opened our understanding, and He led us very carefully to follow His methodology to compare Scripture with Scripture, making sure our conclusions harmonize with the whole Bible.  That is how the Holy Ghost has taught the things that have been hidden for millenniums until the time of the end, our present time. 

So this is what our verse in Revelation 2 is referring to when it says, “I will put upon you none other burden.”  God did not burden them with these things pertaining to the end.  It was not for them in their particular time.

It goes on to say in Revelation 2:25:

But that which ye have already hold fast till I come.

Again, He is speaking to those in the congregations about “that which ye already hold fast till I come.”  And that refers to the doctrines and teachings He had taught about those things that had not been sealed up until the time of the end.  The information that was available for them to know, they were to hold fast.  That was the standard of faithfulness for the churches.

You know, those of us living today  are privileged to be living at the time of the end when God is opening up the Scriptures and teaching doctrines like the end of the church age; Christ having died for the sins of His people at the foundation of the world; and the doctrine that the wrath against sinners is annihilation and not to be sent to a place called Hell.  It is not really fair for us to look back and criticize those in the churches during the church age for not having a correct understanding of those particular teachings and doctrines.  We cannot judge them as unfaithful because they did not know these things.  It was not for them to know.  God says in Revelation 2:24, “as many as have not this doctrine,” as He had not given them those particular doctrines which would have burdened them.

But we should evaluate the churches on that which was given to them, and on that to which they were to hold fast until Christ came.  Of course they were not faithful as a corporate institution.  There were faithful men and women, God’s elect, who did hold fast, but as an institution or corporate body, they did not hold fast, and that is why the Lord did come to visit, and He found them unfaithful in the things He had given for them to know, the truths that had been entrusted to the churches.  In those things, they were found wanting, and that is why God brought about the judgment of the end of the church age.