All right, we are going to pick up in 1 John 5, which is where we were about to go at the end of last week. We were hoping to finish all of 1 John, but we did not get to chapter 5, and it's an important reference that we can't leave undealt with. So, as we delve into this, one of the issues that's going to come up is that there is, in our reference this morning in 1 John chapter 5, one of the largest textual variants in all of the scriptures. And so it's, unfortunately, I have to kind of walk through a little bit of its history, because it is incredibly important to ensure that we have the right text here, because there's quite a few things that go on. So if you're just joining us, it's 1 John chapter 5. We're going to start in verse one, but I kind of want to give you a little bit of head notice here. If you have a King James version, or let me ask you this question. Do you have a King James version or a new King James version? Are you using that right now? Okay. Your verse is going to read considerably different than ours because of the different manuscripts that are used behind that. Yeah. Okay. Oh, then you'll be just fine, no worries. Anything that is not based on the King James Version, which is 99% of all the ones that are done today, are not going to have the variant. So, does anyone actually have it, King James Version or New King James Version today? Oh, you can switch, right? So that's just fine. So I want you to know that there is, so if it's not something that you are going to deal with firsthand, I just didn't want to pass over it without mentioning it. It's one of the most significant textual variants in the scriptures. And we know with 100% clarity which way we're supposed to take it, which is why every modern translation agrees on this. But I'll mention it when we get there. It's not until we get to verse 7. So, let's start in 1 John 5, verse 1. Again, we are here to understand the nature, the work, and the role of the Holy Spirit, so keep that in mind. Verse 1, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome." That's perhaps one of the most important aspects of this introduction. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" Now, okay, so we're going to set the stage here because what John is expressing to the churches here is saying that not that just believing in Jesus is the only thing we ever need to teach to anyone ever. What he's saying is, this is primary and always present. This is the reality of the gospel, the hope of the Christian. Everything that is who they are is wrapped up into that. Now, there's all manner of things that come out of that, such as our attitude toward the commandments of God. And he expresses not only that we keep the commandments of God, but he expresses the attitude of a Christian towards the commandments of God. When we read that God says do not commit adultery, we don't look at that and go, oh man. When he says don't steal, we don't look at that and go, that's the best way to get ahead in life. No, as Christians, we look at the commandments of God and as he says to them, they're not burdensome to us. The law itself holds no threat over us because it's been fulfilled in Christ. Now we get to follow the law as a fulfilled law. So when God says, do not murder, we know because of what we know of Christ, we know that that's going to bend us towards life. And we know how freeing that is. You say, well, what if it goes against the natural desire I have? It will, all the time. But as we walk with the Lord longer and longer, the less burdensome following him becomes because we've learned to depend that he knows this life far better than we do. Our culture is trying all manner of ways to think about marriage, to think about life, to think about sexuality, think about all manner of things defined from our perspective, rather than from God's perspective. The Scripture has the words for that. It's called being proud. But the Christian, in walking humbly with our God, we learn that his commandments are not meant to be a burden to us. No, in fact, they are fulfilled in Christ. What did Jesus say? He says, I did not come to abolish the law. I came to what? Fulfill it. It means we actually get to follow the law as a fulfilled, finished thing on our behalf. That's a tremendous source of liberty for the Christian. Not liberty to do whatever we want, but liberty to follow the law without fear of condemnation. This is the work of the Spirit through and through. It is why Romans chapter 8, the largest chapter about the Holy Spirit in all of Scripture, starts with that chapter 8, verse 1. Anyone can quote it? Romans chapter 8, verse 1. Who knows? I'll give you the first three words, and I bet you you can finish it. There is therefore, to those who are what? In Christ Jesus. The law has been put to death in this, so the threat of the law does not come against us. And then he goes on into the longest description of the role and the actions of the Spirit of God in the Christian's life. Remarkable stuff. saying there's two roads. There's in the flesh or in the spirit. That's it. There's no in between. And so John is going to play off of this. Remember, that is already in the corpus of the church's knowledge. And so when John is writing a broad text like this that's meant to be shared about, they're going to have read Romans. They're going to have, I mean, Romans itself was written over 20 years before this book. And so when 1 John is being written, they're having to understand that to be in Christ is actually the center of all of these things. And to understand that Christ's commandments, God's commandments are not burdensome to us. So when he tells us, do not covet our neighbors. Yes, sir. Yes, it will be. Once we get to verse seven. Only in that verse. Yeah, we'll get there. I'll cover it when we get there. Okay. Sounds good. I will address it simply because we have several dozen people who follow this class online that may use the King James Version. So I'll address it when we get to verse 7. Hang on. Okay, the expression about the idea that the commandment's not burdensome to us is this concept that all of these things are built out of following Christ, not that we can please Him, but that God is already pleased with His Son. And He is pleased with us. What is the commandment of God? It was said explicitly in the Gospel of John. What must we be doing to do the works of God? What is the commandment of God? But that you believe on Him whom He sent. That is the central focus of the Christian life. Everything else flows out of that. When we rely on the Son, when we rely on Christ who was sent, every other commandment falls away with fear. When it says, do not covet your neighbor's house, or his donkey, if that is your predilection, or his car, or any of these other things, what does that say to us? How does that make you feel? How does that make you react, that kind of commandment? Okay. Okay, sounds good. So if I'm not to covet, then actual life and happiness must actually come from something other than chasing around my neighbor's lifestyle and trying to live up to that. So there must be satisfaction or contentment that comes from something else that isn't to be coveted. Contentment. This is what Paul has written about in many places where he says, I have learned in any and every situation how to be content. Whether, I know how to abound and I know how to be abased. I know how to be comfortable. I know how to suffer. I know in any and every circumstance, I have learned the virtue of being content. It is not connected to the amount of money I have. It has a lot more to do with following God's direction regardless of our circumstances. Same with suffering. There are many Christians who only want to follow the Lord if he benefits them in some tangible, measurable way. But following the Lord, and Christ heads us off on this, following the Lord may actually cost us in a tangible, measurable way, either in family or in friendships or in money even. What should be our attitude? This is not a burden for us. We know who we're traveling with. We know who we depend on. You say, well, what if he leads you to death? I mean, what if you live in a culture that is so bent away from God that it's going to start putting Christians to death? Has God abandoned us there? Or is he there with us there? This is the things that we learn all through church history that has happened multiple times and we hear Testament of Christians through and through saying it is not burdensome for me to go to the stake and be burned. Rather it is a gift. Verse four, for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. Does this mean that we have Christian armies that go out and we can conquer in the name of Jesus? No, no, no. The world is conquered. Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. This is what he's expressing. Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. The world will not drag us into its muck. Even if it attempts for a time. You say, well, what is the victory that overcomes the world? What is all of this stuff? Everything that we have, Is it our works? Is it our churches? Is it our Christian armies? What is it that actually overcomes the world? What brings victory into the Christian's life? Surely it is a great number of accountability partners. Surely it's having the right rules in place. It's having good, you know, what is it? Verse four. The victory that has overcome the world, our faith. That is our connection to it. 100%. So wait, what kind of victory is that? That's not going to win any battlefields. Correct. Correct. That may not transfer to entire nations and make for Christian nations and all these types of things. Correct. It may lead hundreds of thousands of Christians to their death. Correct. And still it is overcoming the world. Because the success of the Christian life is not measured in years and days and decades. No, it is actually measured on the scale of eternity. What does Jesus say about this? Do not fear them who can kill the body. Don't fear those who can kill the body. That's the worst they can do. Instead, start your wisdom out with fearing him who can destroy body and soul. Do you think this is the only story going on? Christ says, no, it is not. Our wisdom does not begin with fearing those who can harm the body, or our bank accounts, or raise our taxes. No. Our fear begins where it ought to be. The one who actually has made heaven and earth, and all that is in it. The one to whom we will give an account. Wisdom begins there because elsewise we will live lawless lives thinking that we are in some way legitimized or in some way can perfect ourselves and we are lying to ourselves through self-deception over and over and over again. And so what does John remind us? The only thing that overcomes this world, the one who has overcome is Christ and our only connection to him is faith. We rely on him. Who is it, he says, just to put the gravestone on top of any hope we have in ourselves. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? That is a tremendous statement. He is not saying this as somebody who will not endure persecution. John himself was boiled in oil almost to the point of death and then exiled to the island of Padmas. He knows very well what persecution can bring. Most of the other apostles had already been either crucified or beheaded at this point. What a thing to write from that perspective. And so he expresses to them, verse six, this is he who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. And the spirit is the one who testifies because the spirit is the truth. What do you suppose he's drawing out here? We're dealing with the constant expression of the testimony of how we can rely on Christ. How can we know that he's the one worthy of all of that devotion? If we are to say that he has overcome the world, then we must understand that no matter what the world lobs at us, no matter what our circumstances, we believe on him regardless. That must have a tremendous burden of proof. There must have been a testifying of great proportion, publicly known all throughout. And in both of these references, water and blood both express the highest testified moments in Christ's life. One, his baptism. One thing that Christ had referred to multiple times during his ministry, the ones that the gospel writers refer to multiple times, as well as the writers of the epistles, going back to the reality that we heard call out of heaven the voice of the Father. We saw with our own eyes the Spirit descending on him like a dove. We saw it publicly. We saw it openly. We heard it again when the Greeks came and questioned Jesus in John chapter 12. Peter, James, and John heard it again in the presence of Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration. This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. That is what was heard at the baptism. Here's what John refers to. Another thing that John is going to be able to refer to is the fact that he was on the Mount of Transfiguration as well. something that we walked through Peter's reference to in 2 Peter 1, if you remember. And he says, we have something more solid than even standing on the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter himself, having stood there, think about this. Peter says, the strongest testimony that we have is actually Holy Scripture. Peter, the one who was standing on the Mount of Transfiguration, meeting Moses and Elijah in person, somehow knowing who they were, seeing Jesus in all his glory, hearing the voice of the Father in his own ears, being sworn to secrecy by Jesus at the moment, along with John, who is also writing this, writes to us in 2 Peter 1 and says, we actually have something even more sure than such eyewitness testimony, and that is the scriptures. That is the Spirit of God inspiring the Scriptures, working in the hearts of His people to express to us the very thing that He writes about Himself in Romans 8, that He intercedes and teaches our spirit to call out Abba Father. He actually works in our lives. This goes back to last week, when I said why I only preach the Word of God. Because that is the mechanism through which the Spirit of God works on His people. It is the primary mechanism. Sure, He uses other things. But the primary mechanism is the Word of God. And here, we have this exact thing. This is He, Jesus, who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ. Not by the water only, but by the water and the blood. Where's the blood? That'd be the cross. That's a pretty straightforward one. From the baptism to the cross, we have the testimony of who Christ is and why He is viable for us to rely upon. Do you ever think about that Jesus actually never did any miracles before his baptism? Nothing he ever did was without the power of the Spirit. That was the Spirit's role in the incarnation. That and the actual conception itself. No miracles. And then the first thing that happens during Jesus' miracle, you remember, I love the way that Mark puts this in Mark chapter one. That the moment he came up out of the water, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness to be tested by the devil. That the difficulties that marked the beginning of his ministry had absolutely nothing to do with he's in the wrong, which is what Satan was saying to him in the wilderness. You know, if you really are the son of God, then here's what you would do. You would purchase all the nations of the world immediately, no suffering required. You would be able to feed yourself immediately by turning rocks into bread. No suffering required. No fasting required. No difficulties required. Easy accomplishment. John says, as we depend on Christ, we will not seek to live in the world by its own standards. That is its own standards. Get rich quick. Solve all your problems this easy way. And you can hear false teachers promise it all the time on televangelist shows. If you've got money problems, send us $1,000 of seed money, and through faith, God will give you $10,000. Don't do that. They are lying to you to steal $1,000 from you. God does not work like that. He's not a lottery. It doesn't work like that. Christ has worked through giving us testimony of these things. He says at the end of verse six, the spirit is the one who testifies because the spirit is the truth. The spirit was present at the baptism, the spirit was present at the crucifixion. The spirit was present at the birth of the church, present in the sharing of the gospel and all of the charismatic gifts that went out into the world in that first generation and a little bit beyond. Why was the Spirit testifying? What have we learned about the Spirit throughout all of Scripture? What is His role? Life giver. There's life in no other name. And so we're not going to expect to see that the Spirit of God is going to be doing all of the types and shadows of the Old Testament role that he had, where he was picking up a prophet by the hair and dragging him around the earth. That's Ezekiel. Or whether he was indwelling David in a very unique way like that, so that poetry basically comes out of this guy. We're not going to expect to see him using someone like Samson again. something bizarre, piling up a thousand bodies with a jawbone of a donkey. We're not going to expect to see the types and the shadows and the pictures of the judgment of God and the salvation of God. No. Now that Christ has come, the Spirit of God is going to take everyone and point them to Christ. For a sinner, that would mean full conviction. For somebody who is not depending on Christ, he's going to point them to Christ and say, see your judge, Lord of heaven and earth? And to the Christian, he's going to say, see your Savior, Lord of heaven and earth. You see the difference? For one, it brings dread unto conviction. For the other, it brings comfort unto salvation. And the Spirit of God is involved in both of those. Why is it that the Spirit testifies? It is because the Spirit is the truth. And if there is anything that the Spirit is going to do, it's going to point all men to Christ, no matter. If you have a King James Version, verse seven is going to read very differently. I want to actually just read that. Hey, sweetie. There's a good historical reason why this is. I'm not going to get into the huge history of it. If you really want to know the huge history of it, take me out to lunch someday. I will give it to you. It's actually quite fascinating, but it's more complicated than a Sunday school lesson can give. But suffice it to say, in verse 7 in the King James Version, verses 7 and 8 read like this. There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, the water, and the blood. These three agree as one. That's verses 7 and 8 in King James Version. If you have another one of the versions, you will wonder what in the world just happened. There's a huge sentence that was just removed, right? Because if you read it in the ESV, for instance, for there are three that testify, the spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three agree. Right? Let me give you the 30-second explanation. We actually have the manuscript that this happened on. Someone wrote a thought in the margin on a handwritten document in the 11th century, and they said, wow, the three, maybe that's parallel to the Father, the Son, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. We actually have that document still, and people who came on copying it afterwards, thought it was a missed section of a verse, and so we have that little strain. And it happened to be one of the very few manuscripts that the King James Version used in order to work on their translation. And so, it only got into that translation. Everyone else was able to realize that, whoops, that happens with fallible people. This is how textual variant studies work. And we're able to reconstruct very plainly and very obviously that it is not supposed to be that. That and the fact that for a thousand years, with all of the arguments around the Church about the nature of the Trinity, nobody ever quoted 1 John 5-7 about the Trinity. which just simply shows us, I mean, that would be the most astounding quotation to take out of Scripture about the Trinity. The Father, the Word, and the Spirit, these three are one. That is not clearly stated anywhere in Scripture. That is presumed everywhere, but it is not stated like that. That was a marginal note that accidentally got copied in. That's how it worked. Hey, sweetheart, how are you? So, we'll continue on. We'll stick it as it is. Verse 7 and 8. In other words, if you think, and I keep seeing this nonsense go around the church, if you think that the Spirit of God is leading you somewhere where Christ has spoken against, you are wrong. The Spirit the water and the blood, the ministry of Christ, the ministry of the Spirit, the leading of the Father, all of these things will always be unified. I don't disagree with the marginal note the guy wrote, the monk wrote in the 11th century. He's exactly right. The entire Trinity is at work in every aspect. And so, when somebody goes, oh, well, and man, I keep running into people that do this stuff. The God of the Old Testament is so mean-victive. Jesus is so nice and calm. And the Spirit basically just encourages me in whatever I feel. None of those things are right. All of them are tiny pieces of stuff. And the last one, the most egregious of all, which is the Spirit is there to make you feel good about your decisions. That's not what the Spirit's role is. You and I both know that. Are you capable of decisions that lead you and bend you towards death? I am. You guys sinned recently? Yeah. Does that bend us towards death? Yeah, you bet it does. Yeah, you bet it does. Every sin bends us towards death. And this is why confession, repentance, and belief on Christ is constantly our drumbeat. Why? Because we do not have life in ourselves, we have life in Christ only. The Spirit of God pointing us to Christ shows us our sin, throws it under the cross, and has us joy in our salvation again. There is not a do this or you're going to die thing. No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that sin is not the stuff of the spirit. It is not the stuff of life. And so we cannot approve it at all. It is false. It is false teachers. Hi, sweetie. It is false teachers that will come up and say, because God will forgive you, you can do whatever you want. That is death. That's what the book of Jude was written against. That's what 1 Peter 2 was written against. In explicit terms, those who turn the grace of God into lewdness, the worst part of hell is reserved for. And if you don't believe me, you can hear it the way that Peter puts it, where he says, for them specifically, the blackness of darkness is reserved forever. My advice, don't be a false teacher. Hi, sweetie. The Spirit, the water, and the blood all agree. And if we receive the testimony of men, he says in verse nine, the testimony of God is greater. You say, what if everybody in my generation says something to the opposite? So be it, they're all wrong. Honestly, if every man were a liar, we should still believe the Lord. Why? Because it's the only way of life. And mankind has made up his mind to be wrong about so many things that spin it towards death in many instances throughout history. And so when we come to express, how is it that we actually live and interact in this world? It is the stuff of life. It is the stuff of the spirit. And sometimes, in fact, most of the time, it will lead to persecution in a culture that is spun towards death. Sarah's in here. It's okay. This is the testimony that we have concerning his son. Verse 10, whoever believes in the son of God has the testimony in himself. This is the spirit of God consistently, clearly pointing us to Christ in all places. Whoever does not believe in God has made him a liar. There is no neutral standing between man and God. There is either believing on the one whom he has sent. or there is calling God a liar. That is it. There are two roads in this world. In the early church, they took the very Jewish concept. There is called the way of death and the way of life. That is it. Whoever does not believe in God has made him a liar. You cannot just say, oh, I just don't have enough information. Yes, you do. And you're a coward to think otherwise. This is what the Lord has expressed to this. You cannot just say that there's one or the other. and I'm fine with one or the other if I don't have enough information, no. Now look how everything is bent towards life here at the end before we go to the book of Revelation. Whoever believes in the son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God is born concerning his son. This is the testimony that God gave us eternal life and this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life. Look at these two paths. Whoever does not have the son does not have life. End of story. That's not overly complicated. The reality is that these two paths of life and death always sit before us. And so for those who are trying to claim that there is distinction in the Trinity with regards to truth, those people are wrong. You cannot look at your life and just say, oh, this sin is fine, that sin is fine, doesn't bother me, doesn't have to confess. No. How did John start all this out in 1 John 1, verse 9? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have no sin, we are lying and are not practicing the truth. So the attitude of the Christian is never, you know what? Everything's going really good. Look at my awesome maturity. Look at this great, where are you focused? Self, that's the stuff of death. This is why humility is one of the chiefest Christian virtues because it is presuming that we have someone greater to depend upon other than ourselves. Whoever has the Son has life, whoever does not have the Son does not have life. And he says, and he writes down why he wrote this entire epistle to the churches in verse 13. Look at that wonderful verse. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. It is a tremendous thing that the Gospel of John, he says, he wrote so that you may believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by believing you may have life in his name. Here he says, for those of you who believe, I want you to be assured of the life that is inside you. That is why I'm writing this letter now. Really is part two to the Gospel of John. All right, let's get through the introduction of the book of Revelation, and then let's start it. We're going to be in it for a couple of weeks, but I at least want to get through the introduction. Let's do it. The book of the Revelation of Jesus. The author of this book, which is not called Revelations, by the way. After an introduction like that, I hope it's easy to see. Whenever I'm asked about the book of Revelation, And someone says, you know, what do you think it's about? What do you think it's going for? I said, it can be summarized really in one word, and that is suffering. For the Christians, our relationship to the world is that of sufferers. It is not of conquerors. It is not of kings and princes. It is the stuff of suffering and of martyrdom. That is our primary relationship with this world. Oftentimes, the church has forgotten that. In fact, even in the first century, as we see in the opening chapters, Jesus comes to these seven churches that this apocalyptic prophecy is going out to, and he is saying to them, to most of them, unfaithful in many things. Some have lost their first love. Others are allowing vicious women that are actually called Jezebel by Christ here, to rule the church. Others are dealing with persecution is coming on their doorsteps. Others are dealing with just broad senses of lackadaisical attitude. None of this really matters. That's the church in Laodicea. There's others that allow sin to run rampant in their churches and don't condemn it or deal with it. And so in all of these things, Christ is alerting them to the reality that you got to get your own house in order because the reality is that no one else is going to do it. And beyond that, you will not have prepped yourself or your people for the suffering that is about to come upon them. For some of these churches, Jesus warns one of them that they're going to have persecution and most of them will die. You say, that seems a weird thing for a king to tell to some of his people. What? Wouldn't he just go, hey, I'm going to come to your defense. Don't worry about it. I'm sending angels, so everything will work out A-OK. No. He just tells them, you're about to be thrown in prison. You're going to be tortured. And a lot of you are going to be put to death. Who wants a letter like that? Imagine a letter arrives from Christ to your local assembly in Sardis or in Thyatira, and then it bears these types of things. You see some of them, like the church in Philadelphia, gets no correction, just encouragement. You've been faithful. Continue on being faithful. But then your church is, oh, you're faithful. That's going to lead to your death. The one in Philadelphia doesn't lead to that. Their faithfulness leads to popularity. But in some of these other ones, their faithfulness leads to suffering and martyrdom. The entire book of Revelation is written to Christians, literal historical Christians, that are about to undergo all manner of experiences in this world, some of them famine, some of them death, some of them it feels like God has abandoned them. And so Christ comes and gives this message and says, no, there's no abandoning. The focus now, as always, is the eternal state of the new heavens and new earth, not to perfect the old earth. How many Christians have thought that they could pull this off? How many Christian movements throughout history? If we set up the right government, if we set up the right things, if we vote for the right people, everything will work out well and heaven and earth will become one. No. There is no way to do that. Can you improve your culture in which you live? Yes, absolutely. We're not even talking about that. We're talking about what ultimate hope drives the Christian to be able to endure anything. That's what this book is about. And Revelation will come out swinging. And it's pretty remarkable because the reality is that the harshest words that are also hope-filled come out of the mouth of Jesus and of the Spirit of God here. It is quite remarkable. It is one of the hardest books to teach on. It is one of the hardest books to fully appreciate, because our culture is so entirely different than the culture that this was written to. We don't read it in cycles. You can see, even in the way that people lay out the seven seals, the trumpets, and the bulls, we try to make everything linear in our society. And one of the things they say, and by the way, it's B, that's correct. It is a cycle. That was how they thought about time. That's how they thought about prophecies. That's the language they spoke. It wasn't about, okay, these seven seals happen, okay, and then these seven trumpets happen, okay, and then these seven bowls happen. That's us imposing us onto that. The real aspect of this is cycle, showing you every single time, introducing you to the terror of this, the reality of this, and then starting back again and bringing you deeper and deeper and deeper to understand how broad and how deep the promises of God actually are. Because as you first come to be a Christian, you may have been under the misgivings that if you follow Christ, everything will work out well. Well, that's true. All things work together for good to those who are called by God. Yeah. All things work out that way. Does that mean the path there is all good and everything's great? No. I've heard people quote Romans 8 to 28, by the way. Again, back to Romans 8 again. I've heard people quote that at funerals. I try to remind people that this is somehow a good thing because you're a Christian. No, it's not. Suffering is the stuff of death. We endure it for a reason, not because we can spin it to make it good. No, death is the enemy. Sin is the enemy. Don't spin your sin or your death or anything like that into being your friend. It's not. All of this is the stuff of death. Why do we endure this and still stay faithful is because the promises of God are much stronger than the grave. They are much stronger than our sin. And so why is it we hope in Christ, no matter how much we have fallen? Great is our sin, but our Savior is greater. That's why. It's not by redefining our sin or redefining the grave. No. The grave is horrible. We weren't supposed to die. We were created eating from the tree of life. Immortality. We were created for that. Death is the enemy. Though in Christ the sting of death is removed, death itself is still here, isn't it? And I think many people who have been informed by more prosperity gospel level teaching will tend to try to lessen the strength of death. But if any of you have experienced the loss of somebody close to you, you know there is actually no way to lessen the pain of that. It's powerful. It is much more stronger than us. No matter what we try to do, we can't solve it. How many people are in the world that's aged over 120? We can't solve it. It's not a solvable problem, no matter how many people try. Even if you could get it to where we solve all of our medical issues, accidents happen, natural disasters happen, things happen. You will not be able to live forever. Yet. That's the whole point. It is not about giving us the answer and saying, hey, following Christ will make your suffering go away. Yes, but not yet. Now it teaches us endurance to the end. And we'll see what the Spirit of God says about all of these things. John is on the island of Patmos. He says, and I love the way he talks about this in verse nine. He says, I, John, your brother, and partner in the tribulation. Partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and what? If you see it in verse nine, it's really important stuff here. I am your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and what? Patient endurance that are in Jesus. I was on the island of Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Again, we have the overlap of themes. This is why it is indeed the Apostle John writing these things, because he is writing exactly the same way he wrote in the Gospel of John and exactly the same way he wrote in 1 John. The testimony of Christ, the infatuation with the number seven being a picture of these things. If you're not familiar, the Gospel of John has seven miracles of Jesus showing the completeness of the testimony of his works. And he says here, he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. Now here, you can see very clearly, we are well on into church history, actually. This is the last book of the New Testament written. The fact of the day of Sunday being called the Lord's Day, that was not the case in the book of Acts yet. But by the time we get to the book of Revelation, they are calling it the Lord's Day. That's why they moved it. They didn't move it because they wanted a second Sabbath. They moved it to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus. And he says, Sunday itself is the Lord's day. It's not my day or your day or anyone else's day. It's his day. Interesting thing. He says, I was in the spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice. It was just like a trumpet saying, I'm not going to try to do the voice here. I have no idea what that sounds like. Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea. You go, okay, that's weird. Not a typical occurrence by any stretch of the imagination. What in the world does he mean he was in the Spirit? That's a brand new reference. We don't have anything like that anywhere. I mean, we've walked through, I promise, every reference to the Holy Spirit in all of Holy Scripture for 65 books. Where is this kind of, in the Lord's day, I'm in the Spirit? Now, we have instances where like Paul describes visiting the third heaven, for instance, hearing things that he can't utter and seeing things that he can't describe. And he says, I don't know if I was in the body or in the body, I have no idea. Obviously, there was some of this, but those are references to his spirit. What in the world is happening here? If your Bible uses capital S's for this, it will be a capital S. It's not that he was in his spirit, it's that he was in the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? I don't know. I really don't know. What was unique about his experience, he literally woke up by himself on a rock in the Aegean Sea called Patmos. on Sunday morning and he was in the Spirit. That doesn't mean he just had a lot of emotions about going to church service that day. It meant something quite phenomenal because what happens thereafter is the very next moment he hears the voice of one that sounds like a trumpet. By the way, all of these pictures, if you have not read Zechariah, or Daniel, or Zephaniah, or Ezekiel, you're going to be missing out on so many of the pictures that are overlapping here. And this is, I think, one of the reasons why, no, I know it's one of the reasons why the book of Revelation is so misinterpreted by the modern church, is because we don't give two moments concern about the Old Testament prophets. When you read those, you will see that almost every single picture, including horsemen, including seals, including trumpets, including bulls, including lampstands, including trees, including beasts out of the earth, all of these things come out of the Old Testament prophets. Every one of them. Including the promises of the New Jerusalem. Isaiah 65, if you're curious. Verse 12. When I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, on turning, I saw seven golden lampstands." Again, Zechariah. And in the midst of the lampstands was one like a son of man. Boy, who could this be? Clothed with a long robe. Look how kind eyes this guy is. Just there to make you feel good about yourself and eat with you and not ever call you to repentance. Watch this. With a golden sash around his chest, but the hairs of his head were white like white wool, just like snow, and his eyes were flames of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength." You want to know what Jesus is like after the incarnation? There's a picture. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, but he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not. I am the first and the last. the living one. I died, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are, and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands, the seven stars of the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. I am not going to delve into the imagery of the book of Revelation. I'm just letting you know that on the front end. Okay, just have it say angels is the term messengers, whether that is referring to the bishops of those churches or whether that is referring to actual angelic beings that are given responsibility over local churches, I do not know. Nobody really does. But that the seven lampstands are the seven churches is really remarkable. Because here he sends, in chapters two and three, seven short letters, one to each of the churches, and we learn what Jesus thinks about his local assemblies. It is the only place in scripture where we have that. And it should instill a great deal of hope and fear into his people. Those who are faithful, hope. Those who are lackadaisical and give no concern to these things, fear. Look at how he does this. To the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works. Ouch. Imagine getting a letter from Jesus and it starts out that way. The one who is walking with burnished bronze feet and flames of fire for eyes and hair like white wool. Swords of the Word of God coming out of his mouth. His first words to you are, I know your works, your toil, your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil and have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false. In other words, there were those who were going out calling themselves apostles, means sent ones, that I, Jesus, have not sent. Verse three, I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my namesake, and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you. You have abandoned the love that you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, repent and do the works that you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Yet this you have, you hate the work of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Wait, Jesus is so mean. The Nicolaitans are just mistaken, right? False teachers. I mean, maybe they're just a little bit wrong. Verse seven, he who has an ear, here's why we're here. Let him hear what the spirit says to the churches and look what the spirit says. Jesus here passes along the message that the spirit has for the churches to the one who conquers. I will grant to eat the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God and first letter. No, thank you. I mean, amazing and incredible and terrifying and encouraging all at the same time. Welcome to Jesus. I mean, this is the picture. So when people, one of the things that really annoys me is when people go, if you want to know exactly what God is like, just look at Jesus during the incarnation. No, that's not true. That was God veiled in human flesh. You want to know what God is like, direct, on the level that we can actually understand? Here is where he is. Right here. Terrifying, awe-inspiring, speaking the Word of God so that it divides all the way down to the difference between bone and sinew. Everything that he says is piercing. Everything that he says is true. Everything that he says is unburnished. It's just straight in front. You hate the work of the Nicolaitans? Good. I hate them too. Wait, what? I thought everything Jesus does was just to be nice and carry lambs and sheeps around. No. We have a battle going on. And what Jesus is expressing here is saying the same thing. And then the Spirit comes up and not only backs him up, Jesus passes along the message of the Spirit. The only time that has ever happened. Here is what the Spirit is saying to the churches. And notice, if you will, even in the very early post-apostolic era, he doesn't say, go find that guy who has dreams in the church in Ephesus and ask him what the Spirit says. No, Jesus has to tell them by letter directly. Here's what the Spirit says. You're not told to go into some trance or to go and get some vision or to anything else. No. You want to know what the Spirit is saying to you, you church in Ephesus? Here is what the Spirit is saying to you. To the one who conquers, I will grant to eat the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. What? We haven't seen the tree of life since Genesis 3. It's been 64 books. It's been thousands and thousands of years. What is the tree of life showing up for all of a sudden again? What has the Spirit of God been focused on since the very beginning? What does the tree of life show us? He's the life giver. He is the one through whom immortality comes and life reigns. And so the very first message that the Spirit has for the church is that Jesus passes on as, the one who conquers I will grant to eat the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. We'll cover the very next church quickly here, Smyrna. To the angel of the church of Smyrna write, the words of the first and the last who died and came to life. I know your tribulation and your poverty, but you are rich. And the slander of those who say they are Jews and are not, but are of a synagogue of Satan. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested for 10 days." By the way, in apocalyptic literature, that usually means years. For ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. I have that on my wall in my office, that verse. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Why? He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Now, the church in Smyrna receives their own message. The one who conquers will not be hurt by the second death. You fear the first death? You should really fear the second death. It's not your first death that's terrifying. By comparison, it's the second death. We learn at the end of the book of Revelation what the second death is all about. That is an ultimate separation of all things where hell itself and everything else is cast into the lake of fire. That's the second death. And yet most people spend their time worrying about the first death. And what he says here is, for Christians, we have been removed from the second death. So what does the first death actually hold for us? Should it hold deep fear? Or will our conquering actually pass straight through it? We're going to come back and pick up on the Church of Pergamum next week. Any questions here before we stop? Almost mid-thought. Is everything perfectly clear? Sweet. Let's end it quickly. Oh, good. We'll be back in Pergamum next week and hear One of the coolest pictures that we hardly ever talk about, and that's what the Spirit says to the church is there in verse 17. He says to the one who conquers, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone with a new name written on that stone that no one knows except the one who receives it. Ah, some pretty awesome pictures we're going to look at next week. Okay, we'll come back to Pergamum next week.