So, Revelation. No questions on Revelation so far? No, Brother John, we haven't got but five verses into the thing, and there's 22 chapters. Well, this first chapter really, I believe, really sets up the rest of where we're going. When we start seeing Christ, with the eyes of faith, things will make much more sense. And the things that don't make sense to us will be that much more easily received. And what I mean by that is that it doesn't matter if I don't know what it is, because I don't know a lot of things. But if I trust in Christ, I know that he knows, and that's the thing that matters. Last week, when we were looking through verses four through six, we started off with the understanding that the grace and peace comes from the triune God. We saw the Father who is and was and is to come, and that though He is, though that presents His eternality, that He's eternal, it also presents, too, in just those words, His infinitude, He's infinite. And in this time of year, when people look at this time being Christ's birth, which we know it's not, Spurgeon knew it wasn't, this wasn't the time of year, but he had a love-hate relationship with Christmas as well. And I'll be talking about that in the morning worship service. And if you don't typically hang around for the morning worship service, I encourage you to do so. There'll be some things that you'll hear that I think will be a tremendous blessing to you. But I'm going to cover even some of them just briefly here today. Because one of the things that we looked at with the father being sovereign, we didn't look at that as much. But in his sovereign design, I mean, sometimes we look at sovereignty, well, he's king, but he just lets things slide. Rachel and I were just talking about this and just to give you some background, because she was going through a personal Bible study on Ruth. And apparently, I don't know who this teacher is of this book that she'd gotten. But as we were discussing it, I thought, wow, those are some insights. And I started saying some things to Rachel. She says, well, dad, did she listen to you preach or something? Because you're saying almost word for word some of the things that she was saying in there. And she starts off the book, you know, Ruth. She marries Boaz. Ruth becomes, as a Moabite, she becomes the great-grandmother of David the king, the sweet psalmist of Israel. But she starts off the Bible study by going to Genesis. Because you know where the Moabites came from? They came from the effects of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, when he left, because the cattle that God had blessed Abraham with and also his nephew lot with were so there were so they were so plentiful that Abraham says, you know, our your servants and my servants are getting into Bones picking with one another so you need to separate you take whatever you want And he went down into the lush valley just north of the Dead Sea, which was their Sodom and Gomorrah was and then and you know time goes on and lot now and is no longer has herds, he's living right in the midst of the debauchery of Sodom, but he is a righteous man. And we know that he's a righteous man because the New Testament tells us that. Peter in 1 Peter says that God, through Peter, says that Lot was a righteous man. And so So when they flee, when God hurls fire and brimstone, so with this sulfuric explosion on both Sodom and Gomorrah and he flees, he ends up in a, you know, just making the long story short, he flees into a mountain cave and the husbands of the wives don't come with them. His wife turns into a pillar of salt. So how are we gonna carry on our father's legacy? his progeny, and does this terrible, disgusting, ancestral thing, gets him drunk to where he doesn't, I recognize that it's his daughter's, and we kind of laughed, kind of laughed ickily about this, you know, all of a sudden, wow, it's just us three here, how did you get pregnant? And those two daughters end up, and it's in God's sovereignty, it's in God's sovereign plan. He's not caught by surprise, and it's not like he directly did this, but he put events in such a way that now two of the most despicable people that are enemies of Israel, the Ammonites, which they were named after, they were named Ammon because the Am means people, and these are the people that come from, my father, and then Moab, because Moab means from the father. Moab, from him, the father, literally. And so the Moabites is the people in which Ruth came from. And in this whole salvation story, these little four chapters that take place during the time of the judges, even before Samuel is on the scene, that God shows how he reaches in through a famine, sends Ahimelech out to Moab so that Ruth can come back, the most despicable of people, to not only be saved, but to be mentioned in Matthew chapter one along with a few other women, Tamar, Ruth of course, Rahab the harlot, and then another woman who is, her name isn't even mentioned, the wife of him who was called Uriah the Hittite, named the husband, the one who was murdered by David. And God in his sovereignty shows this beautiful gospel picture, not only in just Ruth's life, but in reaching down to bring someone out, not only to show a gospel picture, but to put her in the direct lineage of Jesus Messiah. What a sovereign God we have. Yehovah God, who was the Father, who was and is and is to come. That's what we read here in verse four. John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come. And then we went over the seven spirits of God. We started it off two weeks ago, and then last week we finished it up when we saw, and I just took you to John, which was a great place, I believe, to show the seven spirits who are before his throne, and we see that in Revelation chapter four, verse five. There are torches, illumination before the throne of God, which we're told in Revelation four that these are the spirit, this is the Holy Spirit, the spirits, seven spirits of God. And not that it's seven different spirits, we recognize that as those who are saved. The Trinity are three persons of deity, but there's one God. So likewise with the spirit, though it says seven spirits, it's still one Holy Spirit, but these are, it's used in such a way to show his completeness. Seven is the number of completion in biblical literature, in the scriptures, all through the scriptures when we see the number seven, we identify with completeness, perfection, God's plan, God's purpose. Seven is always an indicator, an identifier of that, completeness, perfection, God's plan, God's purpose. And this is what we see right at the beginning. So we went through those, John 14 through 16, these seven things. And we recognize how important these are because these are the things that Jesus said in John chapter 14, he says through 16, I have many things to say to you, but you can't bear them right now. But what does he say to them? He tells them about the Holy Spirit. and he identifies, he brings to us seven unique characteristics of what the Holy Spirit does in the New Testament. What a blessing that is. However, when we look at John 16, verse seven, we find out the, where am I? John, John. John 16, verse seven, This answers a question that would naturally pop up because here in our identification of the triune God, of the Trinity, we have Father, Holy Spirit, and Son, but the Son is usually mentioned second because he's the second person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit testifies of Christ as we saw. He glorifies Christ, John 16 verses 13 and 14. He testifies of Christ and he glorifies Christ. He's the third person, so he's in submission to the Son and to the Father as a person. But as God, he's equal with the Father and the Son, co-equal. in power and glory. The same in essence. So as God, the three are one, yet in their persons it shows us the authority structure that we see that we should follow. We are supposed to be submissive to God, the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's how we're even baptized in Matthew 28. Not by a formula, but by the truth of that authority rests upon us. Baptize them in the name, singular name, because it's one God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But why is it in this order here as Christ is revealed? As we see in the very first verse of Revelation chapter 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ Apocalypse, Jesu Christo. This is about Jesus. And so as this is unfolded, he gives us this truth. And in John 16, verse seven, Jesus says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. In verse eight. And when he comes, he will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. That presents one of the attributes. But in verse seven, it's necessary, it's expedient. that Jesus goes away, that he is crucified, buried for three days and three nights, rising from the dead, ascending into heaven, and then praying to the Father. The Father sends him, he uses that language, because the Father sends the Holy Spirit, but he also says, I'm going to send him to you, because as God, you can't divorce the action of one from another. This is why we know the Trinity exists, even without the King James Version of the, 1 John chapter 5 verses 7 and 8. And in that place I would call it the King James perversion because it wasn't the King James, the King James translators translated it but it should never have been in there. But the Trinity does exist because in the whole counsel of God, remember when we cover the attributes of God, that The son raised himself from the dead, John chapter two. I will destroy this temple and I will raise it up. Son raised himself from the dead. But Ephesians one says that the father raised him by the power of his might in Ephesians chapter one. And Romans chapter eight, that the Holy Spirit raised up Jesus from the dead. And there are many other things too. The resurrection is just the most powerful, but there are other things that identify all three of them as doing the same work. And this is why we know that he's the same in essence, equal in power and glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit coming to reveal unto us this, and I'm gonna give you I didn't plan on doing this. I plan on going right into these eight attributes right here, and we'll probably do this next week. But I want to give you, to me, I think, if you want practical application in your life of what Christianity is about, how we can apply the scriptures to our life, I'm going to give it to you just in a brief. I'm going to do it a little bit later today in the worship service with a little bit more detail. Here's how we apply. It's not a complex thing. It's not complex at all. We tend to take it and make it really difficult. We say, you know, I need to get my house in order. My finances are a wreck. I want a better marriage. I want to be a better father. I want to be a better mother. I want to be a better Christian. I wanna be a better witness, all these things. And so how do I be that? And I get it because when I was first saved, here I am at just weeks away from my 25th birthday when the Lord saved me in 1985. I went for a couple of years wondering, in a Bible teaching church, they were teaching through the scriptures, chapter by chapter and verse by verse. But how do you do this? How do you be a Christian? And they never told me. Because see, my flesh rises up and wants to do stuff. Okay, your flesh rises up. I say that because I say it with me, but I should just say your flesh rises up and wants you to do stuff. It wants you to work out your salvation. It wants you to, and we pervert Philippians chapter two that says, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling as if it's stuff you do. But it's not on that. It's not on the thing that's done. Application comes in this. Christ's exaltation. That's it. That's how you apply scripture. This is why I spend so much time driving into you, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ in scripture, because if Jesus Christ isn't in scripture for you, he's not going to be in your hands and feet when you close your Bible. If Jesus Christ isn't everything to you, he's not going to be the paramount thing in your prayer. You know, prayer isn't about getting your stuff done. Prayer is about communing with God. through Christ. It's about saying to Jesus, Jesus, you know my life better than I do. Let me spend time with you. And that's what prayer is about. That as we do, spending time in his presence conforms us to his image. It makes us more like Jesus. You know, I've told you before, I've used this term when I went down to the Bible Belt, We, I was invited at the first year or two when we were in Alabama, I was invited to several of these churches, these fellowship churches, these sovereign grace churches to preach until they realized what I was preaching and then I wasn't asked back again, except to, you know, come and fellowship with them. But one of the pastor's wife said to Lisa and I, you two favor. In other words, I had to figure out what that was. She was saying that we complemented one another in our looks. We actually looked like one another. We looked like we went together. That's because, even more so now, because we spend time together. We've been together for coming up on 34 years. And except for Jesus, that's a long time. I haven't done, except for the Lord saving me, that's the longest thing that's been in my life, the Lord saving me, and the second longest is being married to my wife. But when you spend time with Jesus, you're gonna be more like him. And so the question we ask, and this is the thing, we have to overcome our flesh, because when we look at application, we even say, well, you know, what do I do? And we are pragmatic, we're result-oriented. But that's not the question we should ask. How do you overcome the flesh? By asking this question, and the Bible is full of that. is rife, almost every other verse is filled with a question that should be answered, Jesus Christ. This is why it's tough to preach through this monumental 42 chapter book, because almost every verse gives us something that prods us, even by the presumptuous friends, Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad. They say something that points us, the only way you could answer that question is look at Jesus Christ. It's amazing. Beautiful book. I love it. I never realized that. This is the first time I'm preaching, actually preaching through Job, and we're doing it chapter at a time. I almost want to say, that's, you know, rejoice in it. Because if we went verse by verse, we would never be out of Job. It's just, there's too much. See, this is the question we need to ask. Whenever you're faced with a decision, a direction, Whatever it is that you have to do, this is the question you need to ask yourself. How is Christ exalted in this? If I do this, will Christ be exalted? Will Christ be exalted in this? Then you're gonna say, Brother John, I'm faced with three decisions, and Christ can be exalted in every one of them. Okay, that's why I ask you, stick around for today's message, I'll show you how that works. But sometimes you'll be more exalted one way or another. And if in your mind or in your walk, that this is as far as you've gone in your walk to exalt Christ, there can't be a wrong decision. Even if the results are terrible, for example, you know, to give you an example of, say, a result that wasn't exactly what he expected. Jacob marrying Rachel. There's one. But then, go into a dark tent, she's all veiled just as the Middle Eastern custom is, and then when they consummate the marriage, they come up, open the tent flap, look out to the bright sunshine, turn around, as the sun's beaming in, it's Leah. I've been hornswoggled. But in God's providential design, it brought forth the whole 12 tribes of Israel, including Dinah, plus the handmaids that went along with it. Were every decision made correctly? Obviously, it was put in place. And so now, even looking at, especially looking at the Old Testament, we see Romans 8, 28, and we know God worketh all things together for good to them that love God, for those who are the called according to his purpose. And he puts those things in order so that that result is the gospel. That result is Christ exalted. Lord, I picked this road and I thought it was going to be the best one. The road you wanted to be on was the one that's kind of velvet lined and full of cushy stuff on the side. I don't mind going through the narrow road, Lord, and the straight way, but could you put, like, pool table bumper cushions on the side and put rose petals on the ground? Sometimes we walk through thorns and thistles. You ask yourself, is Christ exalted? Is he most exalted by this or most exalted by that? And just pick one. What if he's equally exalted, Brother John? What if it's not as simple? He's exalted this way and he's not exalted this way. And see, that's what keeps you from temptation, too. Is Christ exalted? in this, in this decision. Will Christ be exalted if I put these things before my eyes, which I might not be able to unsee? That'll help you out. So when we start doing that, then we can start getting into some other things. Well, how do I know that I'm really being led of the Spirit? Well, the first thing is, is if you're asking Christ to be exalted, Christ, how are you exalted most in my life? for whatever it is I'm doing, the decision I'm making, the direction I'm going, whatever that happens to be. Well, are you doing this because you love Christ? Do you love him? You've spent time with him. Do you love him? I'm doing this because I love you. I want to exalt you, not because I have to, but because I want to. This is the driving force of my life. You've saved me by your life and death. You shed your blood for my forgiveness. You suffered God's wrath for the penalty that I owe, for the debt that I owe, and you took it upon yourself. I love you, which is the first fruit of the spirit, is it not? Galatians 5 verse 22. if you're still having trouble after that, is that decision going to bring you joy in Christ? Now, see, there's the thing. See, sometimes I bypass the love thing. I'm doing it out of love for Christ because I got to do it. And I love you, Lord. And I know I don't understand love because 1 John 4 tells me that God is love. So I really don't understand love. So I'm going to do it for joy. And if it's the fruit of the Spirit, see what we do is we take joy and say, well, how am I overjoyed by this, by what I've done? No. Does the decision to exalt Christ bring you joy? And this is a Christmas, that would be a Christmas message, wouldn't it? That's where the, you know, when the shepherds came to see the Lord Jesus, when they were announced, when his birth was announced to the angels, After they saw him, they departed with joy." It says so clearly. Linus told us that in that peanuts thing. Hello. I'm glad Linus recited that. I still have it playing in my head. When my grandson's watching it, that is pretty cool. Yeah, that's how practical application works because the thing is is that your flesh rises up and causes you to want to do and our focus is on the doing rather than on the deity of Christ. rather than on, you know, it ends up being on the discipleship process. He's discipling us, so our focus has got to be on Him, and that's how we overcome that. And I promise you, the more that you do this, the more it'll become almost second nature. You kind of start doing it automatically. well, I know this isn't gonna please the Lord, I'm gonna go this way. Or this just seems the direction that is prodded. And it might not be such that you're getting some kind of urge or unction from the Holy Spirit, because he's given you that opportunity to be responsible. How does he do that? He's given you even a greater responsibility than Adam before the fall. Because see, we inherited Adam's correct DNA. And he disobeyed that sent the entire cosmos and turned it upside down, turned it topsy-turvy. Now with Christ giving us these opportunities, instead of saving us and saying, you know what, the greatest thing, as Paul says in Philippians, the better thing is to be with Christ. That's the better thing. And most of us think, and I've thought this for, 34 year or almost 40 years. Come this coming June, I'll be 40 years in the Lord and I've thought this for many years. Sometimes I still think that, Lord Jesus, it's been a long, long dusty road. Please come, please come. You saved me Lord, now are you gonna come? Are you gonna take me home? I wanted that in the depth of my soul. And we should want that. Paul says that in Philippians chapter three. It's better to be with him. However, he gives us this opportunity to be responsible for the salvation that he has given us. And every time that we exalt him, just as constantly the son exalted the father. He exalted the Father constantly. He's the only one that ever kept Deuteronomy chapter six verses four through, Deuteronomy chapter four verses four through six. He's the only one that, maybe it was six. No, it's four. You know, the Shema, the Hebrew Shema. Shema Yisrael, Yehoveh Eloheinu, Yehoveh Echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your modecha, all your everything. your veriness. He's the only one that's ever kept that. If you haven't thought of the Lord Jesus every single second, every single microsecond of every single moment of your life, that shows you how depraved you are, because Jesus is the only one that kept that. And if we put it into the Greek in the New Testament, where he says, all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, if you haven't loved the Lord your God, if you haven't loved Jesus, with all of that, you know you need all of his grace. And so what he does is he gives us this responsibility and in every time we hand it over to the exaltation to Christ, that matures us, that makes us more like Jesus. And that's why he's left us on the earth. He's building his church and he's doing it one member at a time. Not one log at a time or one stone at a time. This building is just the place where his church gathers. And that's how he's doing it. He's giving us an opportunity to apply it. And this is why I'm, you know, I preach in a lot of Baptist churches once because when we got down there, there was a big thing in 2009, I think, when we went on down there, there was this kind of big riff about there needs to be a great deal of application. And what they were doing was they were turning us into legalists. by, you gotta, okay, here's a situation, you gotta do this. Here's a situation, you gotta do that. Here's a situation, you gotta do this. But if the gospel is everything, if the gospel is everything, then I need to keep the gospel and Christ exalted from the gospel, front and center, and then all those things will fall into place. If Christ is the most important person in my life, then I'm gonna love my wife. If Christ is the most important person in your life, you're gonna love your spouse. You're gonna love your children and raise them the best that a sinner saved by grace is able. Still leaning on Christ. How do I deal with this situation? If you don't have the wherewithal, if the scriptures aren't right at hand, Lord, how will you be exalted in it? How will you be exalted in the lives of my family? How will you be exalted in the lives of my church family? Brother Mike. That very first one, Church of Ephesus. They left their first love. We'll turn there in a minute. Since we're still in John, I wanna show you another thing. Turn backwards from John 16 to John 6. You happen to know something else, Brother Mike? I would say they started judging everybody. Yeah, they started off pretty good. They didn't like the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which when we get, I could probably go into that, but we're jumping over some things. See, here, I just want to give you a supporting verse for what I'm talking about as far as for application. That's why it's all, see, in my mind, it's always been that simple. When the Lord had revealed that to me, when I've asked that question as a young Christian, Even as a one who, after departing the Navy, when they were downsizing, and I was being medically retired, going out to be a street preacher in the Philippines, it was still nagging on me, how do you do it? Why aren't you telling? You're telling me how to do things. And that's just getting me into more trouble. And I end up reading Galatians chapter three, having begun in the spirit, now am I working out my sanctification by the flesh? How is this working? Well, here's a proof passage for you. In John chapter six, remember that in John chapter six, Jesus, he feeds the multitude. about 5,000, it's 5,000 men not counting women or children. So we have an estimate at this feeding of some bait fish and some wonder bread or pilot bread, fragments of bread, these five loaves and barley loaves and two bait fish, Jesus feeds probably 20,000 people. So the next day, after a big storm in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, and they end up in Capernaum, he's in the synagogue there. And everyone said, look, the disciples' boats are over there. And so they were there in verse 22 on the next day. And I'll start at verse 22. On the next day, the crowd that remained on the other side of the sea, saw that there had been only one boat there and that Jesus had not entered the boat with his disciples, but that his disciples had gone away alone. Other boats from Tiberias came near the place where they had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. So when the crowd saw that Jesus was not there, nor his disciples, they themselves got into their boats and went to Capernaum seeking Jesus, which was his base of operations in the Galilee. So in verse 25, when they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, Rabbi, when did you come here? And Jesus said in verse 26, he answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, you're seeking me not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. And you could translate that because you were glutted by what you ate. They didn't just stop at 80% because, you know, that's enough. They had food that was so delicious, I believe, the Wonder Bread, Miracle Fish. And Wonder Bread builds bodies eight ways, seven, whatever it was. Verse 27, he says, do not work for the food that perishes. Don't labor after that stuff. Don't work for the food that perishes, verse 27, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him, God the Father has set his seal. And in verse 28, they said, to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God? And then Jesus says this. He answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent. Now see, as a Baptist, I'm going to get accused, if anybody listens to this message when it's on sermon audio, of being too charismatic. to believe on Him in whom He has sent. And so the practical application, how does this justify it? Because I believe in Christ, because I don't have any power in myself. The only power I have in myself apart from Christ is death. Remember what Jesus said in John 15, verse five. I'm the vine, you're the branches. Abide in me and I in you and you'll bear much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. And remember, I've been breaking that down to you for several months here. There's two messages in there. One, apart from the Lord Jesus, that you're saved, you can do nothing. But if you are not a part of Jesus Christ, in other words, the branches that are abiding in the vine, if they're not abiding in the vine, they're kindling. Apart from Jesus Christ, you are nothing. I am nothing. But in Christ, then we bear fruit. And so what he says when you believe that when I am desiring in the depth of my soul to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, do you think he's going to be unfaithful to be exalted by you? No, he will be exalted. He will be faithful, though all men are liars. Though you have committed atrocious sins, each time you go to him, if you're his, he'll be faithful to bring it about in your life. And then it's not a wrong decision. Then it's not a wrong direction. I was thinking of going north, but then again, I was thinking of going south. Which direction should I go? Well, Lord, how will you be exalted most? If he gives you no answer, then take one. If going south, doesn't not, if it does not dishonor Christ, then go south. But if going north does not dishonor Christ, then go north. If either one of them don't exalt, don't dishonor Christ, then he's letting you have your way. How it works out in the end, that's in his hand. Did he not see you choosing that way? Now, he made you such that as a new creation in Christ, that was your way. That was the way that you were going to go. That was the way he wanted you to go, it turns out. But it was filled with all this peril. All this trial. All this tribulation. Hmm. Aren't those the things that actually build your character to make you more like Christ? Because have you ever suffered any tribulation that Jesus hasn't suffered? Have you ever suffered any temptation that Jesus hasn't been faced with? Your temptations are nothing compared to what Jesus was tempted with. And when he was tempted, in his perfect mind, that temptation laid on his mind the whole time and he withstood it for the entire ministry until he went to the cross. Still, he cannot, he's tempted On the throne, he is tempted by men all the time now, though he's glorified. But is he withstanding that temptation? He certainly is. He's not submitting to that temptation. He is eternal God. Because the argument is, well, unless the temptation was such that he could succumb to the temptation, then it's not legitimate. Let me ask you this. In the Old Testament, was Jehovah God, the Father, ever tempted by Israel? All the time. Have you read Hebrews? Oh yeah, you did. That was before the book of Revelation, right? Sunday school, we were in Hebrews. The first couple chapters, Israel tempting them, tempting God, tempting God, tempting God. But could God be tempted? Was it a legitimate temptation? Certainly was. Crying out to him, wanting to go back to Egypt, et cetera. Failing to go into the promised land because of disbelief. God himself said that they were tempting him. Several times, not just in the Torah, or in the Pentateuch, in the books of Moses, he said so in the Psalms. Tempted God, so we're, now, sorry about that, I got to preaching. I'll be doing that later. This is supposed to be a lesson. Any questions, comments? Anything? Does that help you? Is that helpful? Just young people, young men, is that helpful for you in direction? That when you're seeking to exalt Christ, we get our minds so much on the result that we become pragmatists. you know what a pragmatist is, right? It's somebody who seeks to do something based upon the result. Well, you know what? If I brought a band in here, then we can get people from the world because it'll stimulate their emotions, et cetera. And it's something that they're familiar with. And we'll just change the words to some secular songs just a little bit to put them up here. and then we'll get more people in and then we'll preach the gospel to them, but it doesn't work that way. What we'll end up doing instead of them being saved, what it'll do, it will stain us and we'll become more like them than them becoming more like us. It's always how it works. You can do it all, there's all kinds of other things. You know, I actually, Sister Bro, this one summer, even from the pulpit, she asked a question. And it wasn't because of any brilliance in me. The Lord prompted me with an illustration right at that moment. And I said, see, if you took a glass of water, pure, pristine water like we used to have in Scammon Bay from the Chekhovak that just kind of bubbled up from the base of the Asconuk Mountain, And you took that glass of water, and it's cool, delicious water. And then you just took a pinch of dirt and put it in the glass of water. Will it still be pure? No, it didn't take much. If I put a little, if I put a dropper, eye dropper of poison, one drop in that pure water, would it still be pure? No, it's tainted. That's who we are. We're tainted. It's not that we're so thoroughly corrupt in our depravity that everything that we do is tainted. It's just that it'll never be good enough. That's why Jesus had to come. So that's why we look to exalt him. Brother Galen, yes, sir. Question, Revelation 1, verse 7. Revelation 1, verse 7. Behold, he is coming with a cloud, and every eye will see him. Why would all the tribes of the earth be in mourning because of his return? The answer to that, that's a good question. Did everybody get that? And I know the people in the back probably wanna hear that too. Brother Galen was jumping ahead and there's nothing wrong with that, brother. No, that's okay. Because in chapter six, we have a bunch of things that we're gonna go over next week. Those eight things that are mentioned in verse six, not chapter six, in verse six. But in verse seven, Brother Galen mentioned, behold, He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will wail or mourn, I guess from the New King James Version, will mourn on account of him. Even so, amen. The answer to that actually lies in the verses beyond that, because when John sees him, who's a saved man, he's an apostle. He's one who has not only walked with Jesus on the shores of Galilee, but as an apostle has received such inspiration from the Holy Spirit that he's written already at this time, three letters to the seven, you know, to some of the churches and has been ministering in a circuit as an itinerant preacher with his base of operations out of Ephesus and through those seven churches John has been ministering. And when he sees the Lord Jesus, when he sees, here's the voice in chapter 12, excuse me, in verse 12 of chapter one, and then describes him, verse 17, he says, 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. whenever I will see him, when it's, you know, it makes the statement of the coming of the Lord. When he comes in clouds, as he did promise, because that was the thing that he got, that he was executed for, if you remember the gospels. When he says, when the high priest says to him, I adjure you, and he goes through the whole rabbinical thing, I adjure you in the name of Yehovah, that are you the Christ, the son of the living? the son of the living one. And he said, you said it. And what need do we have witnesses now? You've heard his blasphemy. And then he says, from now on, you will see. Yeah, he says, you said it. And from now on, or from at this point, Because the crucifixion, he was talking in terms that he's going to be crucified. You'll see the Son of Man coming in the clouds as a reference to Daniel chapter 7. And that's where the high priest tore his robes and said, he's committed blasphemy. He's saying he is the Ancient of Days. He's saying he is the Baranosh. He is the son of man, the son of man, the Messiah. And that's what he was executed for. So that when every eye sees him at this point in the coming of clouds in the reference to his return, that There'll be, and I'm suggesting this, that there'll be an instant, you know, that in 1st John, in 1st Corinthians 15, it speaks of this corruptible putting on incorruption and this mortal putting on immortality. And then also in 1st John 3, verse 2, that says it does not yet appear what we shall be, that we're the children of God, but it does not yet appear what we shall be. But when he appears, we shall see him as he is for we shall be like him. In other words, it's talking about the transformation. I think that a moment before that twinkling of an eye and that we're changed, that when we see him, that in our mortal condition that is still soiled by the DNA of fallen Adam, that the brightness of Christ's glory is such that we see our great need of him And that we even have that now, that there are times, too many times that I just look at the scriptures and I see Christ and He grabs a hold of my soul and He shows me by the Spirit how weak I am apart from Him. That there's wailing, there's mourning even in all of us now. because we have that anticipation. Maybe it won't happen like in that instant, but it's happening now. When you sometimes, I know that for every one of you that are saved, you have looked into the scriptures and you have seen Christ and he has gripped your soul to say that you're all there is. Lord Jesus, you are all there is. And so much of me gets in the way and spews up like vomit. The flesh spews out of my life like vomit and is filth before you. But His cleansing righteousness is such that it doesn't just cause you and me to tremble. His righteousness and His holiness and His glory of who He is, all that is contained in the truth of His crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension, that He is Lord, He is King, He is Lord, He is God. And as it wells up in us, you know, we just, we crumble. We're weak in the knees. I do that too many times. I'm glad I actually have a comfortable chair, because sometimes if I was standing up while I was studying sometimes or praying, I would fall over. I would fall on my face as a dead man. And that's... Not with a vision like with, you know, the actual presence of Christ as John sees it, but there's enough of the true presence of Christ in every believer that I know that you've all experienced that. Brother Steve. It says all tribes of the earth. And I would take that to mean not just the tribes of Israel, but everybody. This is everyone will mourn because of him. Those that are in him will mourn because, or will wail. And in fact, I think that the English Standard Version, I'll have to check my Greek because I haven't really studied that deeply into verse seven, but that word there may be used of with having a couple meanings, and one of the meanings may be such that our wailing, the wailing of the nations, including, say, including us, or it might be exclusive. I have to look at the Greek on verse seven when we get there, probably in a couple weeks from now first. Brother Mike. I thought the operative word was of the earth. Yeah, that the operative word there was of the earth, Right, and the will wail. Actually, in my English Standard Version, I have a footnote here that is in such fine print, I can't read it. No, it just says mourn. So I have to look it up in the Greek and then see the context of it in the Greek to try to isolate it and see if there's some other depth of meaning in there. It may be, if it's in the present, what we would call the present imperfect, or the present infinitive, I can't remember which tense it is, but there's a tense in Greek that says, it's happening now and it continues on. And so that means it could possibly be exclusive at the return. But since the return of Christ is also, in a sense, with the believers a foregone conclusion, that wailing of ours is going on now, until that time, but it'll continue because of the unbelievers. But I'll look it up in my Greek New Testament and some of my other Robertson's Word pictures and Wiest and some of the other Greek guys, Greek experts. Mounts, I guess, is another reference, resource that I have. I'll look it up in Mounts and Weest and see what those guys had to say, because I'm pretty weak in Greek. Not to be, you know, not to be, you know, like the rhyming Reverend Sharpton, weak in Greek. Anything else? I left it for questions longer than I usually do, and I still went over, so I guess I'm gonna have to stop at like 9.30 next time. Let's pray. Our most blessed and gracious Father in God, in Jesus' name and for his sake, we thank you, Heavenly Father, for our Lord Jesus Christ. In him, we can have such victory that, you know, I can babble on sometimes in my prayers and you don't mind. Sometimes I feel so ridiculous, Lord, but you're such a good God and such a gracious God, such a loving God. And we thank you, Lord, for who you are and what you've done. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for revealing yourself to us by the Holy Spirit. And we pray that you'll come quickly. Amen.