Anyway, Revelation chapter 1 and verse 9, I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Verse 10, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, or verse 11 saying, write what you see in the book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum. and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea." And many of you in the King James Version will note that it doesn't say, and you've heard me not say from the English Standard Version, I am Alpha and Omega. Verse 12, I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest, verse 14, the hairs of his head were white. like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, verse 15. His feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace. And his voice was like the roar of many waters, 16. In his right hand he held seven stars. From his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength, 17. When I saw him, I felt his feet as though dead. but he laid his right hand on me saying, fear not, I am the first and the last, 18. And the living one, I died and behold, I am alive forevermore. And I have the keys of death and Hades, 19. Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this, verse 20. As for the mystery of the seven stars, that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches." This is the word of the Lord, and almost certainly add His abundant blessing to the reading of His holy truth. Now, in looking at verse 9, this is, you know, to kind of recap where we were from last week. In the King James Version, I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Yeah, we took a look at a few of the terms at first, that John being a brother and also John being a partner or companion, that partnership that presents a truth of union last week, that he is all together with them, that they're experiencing tribulation as well. And John here, foremost as we saw last week, I will read from Gil, I think I ended last week with a reading from Gill. John Gill says this, it is as Pliny says, now Pliny was a first century historian, about 30 miles in circumference. and speaking of Patmos, and it lay next to the churches on the continent and is said to be about 40 miles southwest of Ephesus. From whence John came thither, and to which church he writes first. How he came here he does not say, concealing through modesty his sufferings. He did not come here of his own accord. Ignatius says John was banished to Patmos. by Domitian, emperor of Rome, as Irenaeus says, at the latter end of his reign, about the year 95 or 96, and as Tertullian after he had been cast into a vessel of flaming oil where he got no hurt. So he's put into a, it's not just boiling oil, as I've heard it said many times, but Tertullian, John Gill, citing Tertullian states that it was flaming oil and it didn't harm him. Then he's banned, after that then Domitian takes him and bans him to Patmos and so when he says I'm a partner in the tribulation and that's one of the things that we covered last week. We're a partner in the tribulation. It presents a truth of, you know, how much worse can it get for the Christian Church? when a disciple of Christ, certainly he's an apostle, but he reduces himself to the place of, in a sense, humbles himself, not reduces himself, but humbles himself to the place of brother. I am a brother of yours and also a partaker in your tribulation. And then he doesn't mention anything about what he has suffered. However, the historical accounts present he suffered pretty greatly. And this is what kind of baffles me about some that look for the future tribulation to come as being something very horrific and very grotesque. And I'm sure that it probably is. But how much more grotesque and how much more horrific can it get if you're put into a vat of flaming oil? and then placed into exile for the Word of God and the testimony of Christ. That must be pretty, that must be pretty tough. In tribulation, what we looked at last time, that the tribulation, the kingdom, and the enduring patience that he mentions in this first verse. The tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance. And remember, There is a connectedness with all three of them because of how the Greek sentence is presented. It uses what I mentioned last week as just a reminder. It uses the term ente with each of them. And chi is the word and in Greek. But chi here is connected Where am I? I'm losing my place. Oh, okay. Oh, oh. Ente flipsis cae bacillia cae hupomane in Jesu Christo. So the ente is only spoken once, but it uses cae as a connector. In doing so, it presents a truth of its interconnected between, interconnection between the tribulation the kingdom and the enduring patience that we are graced with to be partakers of the kingdom, to be proclaimers of the kingdom, to be advancers of the kingdom through the tribulation that we all suffer because we're promised that. And that was last week. What we want to focus on today is John's exile. Are there any questions so far? And I know a couple of you were out last week because there's a sickness that's going around. There's a flu and a cold that's going around the peninsula. So, Lord willing that folks that are suffering that won't be too put out. So, he was on the island called Patmos. In your notes there, let's see, that's in your, towards the bottom right under where it says you have underlined Tribulation, Kingdom, and Patience. It was on the island called Patmos. And what we see there is egonomen, excuse me, enegomenente naso ta kalumeno, Patmo. Patmo in Greek is Patmos. And island He was in and doing is where that root comes from. I was there. Island is Naso and Columano is called. And the reason why this, I believe, is significant for us is significant in that his exile presents the truth of the increasing reality that being set apart by God, even through the situation and circumstances we're in, allows us to know Christ much more. We know this just from experience, having been saved, that when we are When we have times of just spending time with Christ on our own, there is a closeness that we occasionally receive, at least occasionally receive, if not every time, that we, when we fast, we put away a meal so that we can be in prayer and look at the Word so that we might draw closer to Christ, and we do. But we see this biblically as well, that John, being banned, being exiled at this particular point, being the last of the Of the 12, if you will, Fox's Book of Martyrs presents the truth of John being the last of the original 12, and even of the associated 12. Matthias was the one that took Judas Iscariot's place. And all of them had been martyred for the faith, and John's the only one left. And in exile, what we see biblically is that a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ is evident through exile. The first one we encounter in Genesis chapter 28 is Jacob with his brother saying, well, I'm gonna kill him, but I'm gonna wait till my father dies. There's gonna be no problem there. I'll go ahead and kill him. And so Jacob goes into exile. He goes up to, goes north to the Armean lands of his uncle Laban. And so, let's see, in Genesis, I'm turning, Genesis 28, verses 10 to 12, 10 to 22, In his moving into exile in the very first place, he has a tremendous revelation of God. And this is where I believe that Jacob was saved. There are commentators that believe that Jacob was saved afterward when he wrestled with Christophany, when he wrestled with Christ. But I believe he was saved here. In Genesis 28, he's sent to Laban. His mother sends him off to find her brother Laban. And in verse 10, it says, Jacob left Beersheba. Genesis 28, verse 10. Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night because the sun had set. taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Verse 13, and behold, the Lord, Jehovah, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. Verse 14. Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth and shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south. And in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Verse 15. Behold I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Verse 16, then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, surely the Lord is in this place. And I did not know it. And he was afraid and said, how awesome is this place. This is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven. Now he appears, Jacob comes back later and this is where some people think, well he was saved at this point because he's wrestling with God. But at this chapter here he calls the place El-Betel. Bet is the house, El is God, so it's the God of the house of God is where he met him. And he sets up a pillar at the end of this chapter. And verse 20 says, Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, verse 21, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set up for a pillar shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will give a full tenth to you. Now because it's in English it says if even in the King James version some people say well this seems like a tit-for-tat kind of thing. Well if God you do this then you know you'll be my God. However the im in Hebrew represents the same as in the Greek. It could be since. Since you're going to do this because God had already promised this to him. This land is yours. I gave it to Abraham and Isaac I'm gonna give it to you. And since you're going to do this, then you're going to be my God. Not the God of Abraham and Isaac as Jehovah pronounced at this particular point, or El Shaddai really, because he wasn't known by Jehovah until, you know, after Moses. So since you're going to do this, then you're my God. Not just Abraham's God and not just Isaac's God, but my God. And certainly we do see this in his blessings throughout while he's with Laban. Did you have something, Brother Mike? Yes. We are in exile ourselves because our citizenship, we're told in the scriptures, is in heaven. And so we're, in a sense, we're exiled. 2 Corinthians 5 says that we're ambassadors. We're not home. Our home is heaven. Exactly right. We see this revelation while he's being exiled. He's banned from the place that is his home. It's Abraham's. It's Isaac's. He is the progeny in which the promise is to come. and yet he's being exiled and this is where he sees the Lord in verse 13, standing above this staircase or this ladder with angels ascending and descending above it. Here's a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We further see it with Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. Moses, as you know, was exiled as a Jew growing up in the house of an Egyptian in God's providence, murdering an Egyptian, thinking he's going to be found out. Now he's in Midian, basically Saudi Arabia. He marries Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro. And so in exile, from, removed from the people of God, Israel, who are suffering under great affliction, being in exile in fear for his life, just as Jacob was, threatened and so forth. You know, we make, again, both of these make a connection with John who was suffering tribulation and then exiled. But now he has a revelation. He hears the voice of Christ from a bush that is not consumed. In verse seven it says, I have surely seen, excuse me, verse one, now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flocks to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him, in verse two, in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked and behold, the bush was burning, but it was not consumed." So here he has been shepherding for 40 years in the Median back desert. Well, there's something you don't see every day. A bush, it's burning, but it's not consumed. Verse four, when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush. Moses, Moses, and he said, I am. Verse 5, then he said, Do not come near or take the sandals off your feet, for the place of which you are standing is holy ground. And he said, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. And verse 7, then now the apparition that he sees, we I don't conclude that he's seeing a face in the flame. He's seeing the flame. And note this, which will be significant when we get back to Revelation 1. He hears the voice of Christ because God does not have a body. John chapter 4, God is spirit and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. But the voice of Yehovah God is the voice of Jesus Christ. And when Jesus speaks, even in his pre-incarnate existence, He, the power of his voice alone causes Moses to hide his face because he has seen, he has seen God with eyes of faith. Does he see a vision of Jesus's face? I don't believe he does here. I believe he will later on. When he goes into the Tent of Meeting it says that he has presence to presence fellowship with Christ. In Numbers it mentions that. He speaks to him face to face. It was during Aaron and Miriam's rebellion. There's no one more humble on the earth than my servant Moses who speaks to me face to face. presence to presence. So he may have been, when he went into the tent of meeting, he may have been speaking to Jesus Christ, the Christophany. But here we, you know, we move on from here. He speaks to him, he hides his face, but then he says, come I will send you in verse 10, come I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people and the children of Israel out. But Moses said to God, who am I that I should do this? Verse 13, Then Moses said to God, if I come to the people of Israel and say to them, the God of your fathers has sent me to you. And they asked me, what is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses in verse 14, I am who I am. Ahiyah asher ahiyah in Hebrew. And he said, say this to the people of Israel. Yehovah has sent me to you. I Am has sent me. Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh. So he reveals his name for the first time as Yehovah there. Some people call it the Becoming One because Ahiyah is like the closest thing that the Hebrew language has to the form of the verb to be. is, am. And ahia, a share is that or which. Ahia is or am. Ahia am that am. The I is presumed or is assumed in it. I am that I am. Because that would be the nearest translation that we could make in English to it. So you have in exile Moses having a revelation of Christ. We have also that Elijah did as well in exile, running away from Jezebel who wants to murder him after he has a showdown with 850 false prophets, the prophets of Baal and the prophets of the Ashtoreth in 1 Kings 18 and in 1 Kings 19. We recall here, so he's in exile in a sense where, you know, here he's walking around as a prophet. He has the showdown. Jezebel wants to kill him and so he's running away because tribulation is chasing at his heels. And in 1 Kings 19 verse 12 is the verse in particular as I didn't provide it in your notes, but if you're a note taker you could take that down in verse 19. Remember that now as he's still and by himself, he's in a cave lodged in verse 9, and then the Lord's voice comes to him, what are you doing here Elijah? Verse 10, I've been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts, for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword, and I even, I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away. And when he says this, we recognize that he's going to be corrected by this, but note that his speaking this, and then it's recorded in the Scripture, it amplifies his exile. Because that's how we feel when we're taken alone to be with God when he puts our situations and circumstances also. Sometimes I pray for that and then he puts my situation and circumstance so I'm separated from anyone so that I could be alone with him. And so it does sometimes before you have that revelation of the truth of Christ rising up in you there's kind of a I'm alone. And so You know those times when you're reading the Word and everything in your life is going crazy but you just feel like the Word isn't as flowing in my life as it has been. It's a little dry. Why is it? Because it's that dryness that allows for when you do see the onrush of rain. I'm using that illustration because, you know, remember it was dry for, there was no rain for three and a half years in the days of Elijah. And then he, just before this point, then a cloud formed and all of a sudden now there's rain. This desolation prior to, wow, it amplifies really who Christ is and what he has done. And so verse 11, he said, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord and behold, the Lord passed by and a great strong wind tore the mountains and broken pieces of the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Verse 12, and after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, verse 13, he wrapped up his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, what are you doing here, Elijah? Saying the same thing, but now it's more powerful. And in fact, Those who are, let's say, hyper-charismatic, who put a lot of emphasis into the supernatural, and I don't deny the supernatural. I believe that, you know, God has worked the miracles that he worked through the Lord Jesus. He works miracles in our lives every day. However, the Lord isn't in those. Those are only things to grab our attention to see him. He's the miracle. He is the the truth in his voice. And so here is this great revelation that Elijah gets. And now he's moving on to the next portion of his life. No, Joseph does. I'm just picking out just a few of them. Joseph, Brother Mike asked, does Joseph fit the profile for those of you in the back? Because he was separated from his brethren 13 years. Imprisoned for 13, sold as a slave and for the time in Potiphar's house and then the time in prison, all total was 13 years because he was 17 years when he was sold into bondage. and he was 30 years old when he was placed as the second ruler in Egypt. And so I would suggest that that would also be a place where he the vision for him is basically his own life, because he becomes a type of Christ. And that's why I kind of left it out, because these other ones actually have something where they see Christ, see Christ, Christophany, or have a manifestation of Christ. Whereas in Joseph, he is the manifestation. His life is that which is a type of Christ. as Christ the suffering servant? That's a great question. I appreciate you bringing that up. We have it also in Ezekiel, and you don't have to turn there, but remember that he saw the likeness of the glory of the Lord at the river Kibar in Exodus chapter one, excuse me, not Exodus, Ezekiel chapter one, verse 28, that being taken in exile, As far as for the exiles in Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 28, he saw the likeness of the glory of the Lord at the river Kibar and then all those other visions that followed suit. But Ezekiel would be a great example of one who was in exile and then a greater revelation comes to this prophet because he was certainly a prophet before his recordings came. He was called as a prophet before that, yet we don't have any record of those things until he's in exile, of those visions and so forth. And great visions they are too, Ezekiel, if you consider them. You know, all the way up until the rebuilding of the temple, given the instructions so that by Ezekiel's writings that when, in the days of Zerubbabel, Ezra, Nehemiah, You know, they have the dimensions for the rebuilding of not only the temple, but even the city itself with the gates because of those given by Ezekiel. Then finally, Daniel saw Christ, the Son of Man, the Ancient of Days in Daniel chapter 7. I'm going to go ahead and turn there. Chapter 7, verses 13 to 14. We covered that portion when we were in verse 7. that the Son of Man coming on clouds. I see Daniel chapter 7 verses 13 and 14. I saw in the night visions. And of course, Daniel is exiled as well. He is taken from, he is a prophet of God, but he is of the kingly line. He is of the children of Judah. And he's taken to Babylon. So in verse 13, he says, I saw in the night visions and behold, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like the son of man. And he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him, verse 14. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, and all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. And so here, an incredible vision apart from all the other things that Daniel was graced to see and do the interpretation of scriptures before Nebuchadnezzar, but here is one where he actually sees a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, of Christophany, who is presented before the Ancient of Days and is given the promise of that which he would secure through Calvary's cross. And so in exile, I'll just give you those examples. And so with John, likewise, here we have a New Testament exile. One who's taken in the midst of tribulation, is exiled to Patmos even after the tribulation and through the tribulation which he suffers. And he receives this blessed vision of Christ. and which is in fact the truth of what we see from verses 9 through 10. And before we move on to finish off verse 9, I wanted to present that truth coming off the exile that will ring very true in the case of Moses. Where, again, I'm going to read it from the English Standard Version and point it out as I'm going along. Verse 9 says, I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Verse 10, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, or like a trumpet, verse 11, saying, write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Laodicea and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. He hears the voice of Christ and he hears exactly what is being said. Now in verse 12 it says, then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me and on turning I saw the seven golden lampstands. And in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. So what he hears, and when he hears this voice, loud like a trumpet, then he turns around and the first thing he sees is the church. Because we know that in verse 20, Jesus himself tells us that the seven stars in his right hand are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the churches. So the first thing that he sees with hearing the voice, so this is a particular vision, so he turns around and he sees the church and that's the blessed beauty of what the local congregation is about. The Word of God comes through us and the first thing that they should see is the church. Christ's body that has been given and has been, you know, broken. Without a bone being broken, broken upon the tree for the salvation of souls. And I believe that being significant. And that it's the voice. Before even seeing him, that in the midst, that he saw the lampstands and then in the midst of the lampstands then he sees Christ. So in the midst of who we are. who you and I are in Christ. the voice of Christ shines through. And it's reflective of Moses. He hid his face because of the presence of God. From the face of God, if you will, from the Hebrew. But what he saw was the voice and the flaming fire on the bush. The bush was not consumed by the fire, so we have the holiness of God, we have the judgment of God, but then we also have the grace of God because the bush was not consumed. And so here we have some things. And I'll even mention this, and we'll go over it again next week when I cover verses 10 and 11. Why is it not, like why is the King James Version, it's placed in there? I think that all, they were well-intended, probably Desiderius Erasmus was, really wanted to make sure that it was emphasized that this is Jesus speaking. But it's absent in most of the ancient translations. probably shouldn't be there. And the reason why I believe that it is is because it becomes more impactful when he says in verse 17, fear not I am the first and the last. So that after this vision comes of the voice and then seeing Christ's church and the truth of what he is building in his church to be even by this time in the mid 90s of the first century. That by putting it in there, it takes away the emphasis of what we do see that is there. The voice speaking and our responsibility to be Christ's church. You know, we'll try to mess it up. Well, we'll just point to Christ and all those other things. Our behavior doesn't matter. No, we're golden lampstands. And so it springs forth from the truth that Christ is in our midst. And so by his not having to say who he is, it amplifies the truth that Christ is speaking through his church and speaking to his people, is my opinion on that, and why it's good that it's actually not in there in most of the manuscripts. Because of its absence, it more amplifies it where it should be. And so is God not able to preserve his word in the manner in which he decides that it should be? And that's why. I'm somewhat weary of the textus receptus of Desiderius Erasmus. He places man's idea of where emphases should be rather than the collective instruction from God in the original autographs and the more ancient autographs. So there's that. Any questions or comments so far? This last thing is a truth that I just thought was very marked. Because John makes mention of that he is, in the last part of verse 9, that he's in exile on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. It's not either or, it's both. The connective distinctive in here is this phrase, diaton, diaton. It says, diaton, lagon, tutho, kai diaton, marturion, Iesu Christo. On account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus, and in fact the English Standard Version just puts Jesus in it, but it seems that the majority texts of the ancient autographs say Jesus Christ. And that's why I have it in here from the Greek. It says, on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ in Greek, Jesu Christo. Marturion means testimony. It means witness. It's where we get our word martyr from. And of course, we twisted the word martyr to mean somebody who's laying down his life for a cause. It does mean that, but the origin of its meaning in Greek, especially for we who are Christian, it points to the prime example of a martyr is the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter 18 verse 36, for this cause came I into the world. This is why he laid down his life. John chapter 10. He is the martyr. He is the testimony. He's the witness. And martyr, any other martyr that is not based in the truth of who Christ is and what he's done is not a martyr. Yes, brother. Verse 9 does not use the word exile. Is there anywhere else that it refers to John being in exile? Yeah, it doesn't use the word exile. What it uses is... Let me see. I should have grabbed my new Greek New Testament here. Because it... Basically it doesn't use the word exile, but we just presume exile because it uses the... What it uses is the Greek word... It has the word ego in it, or egio, or excuse me, ege, which places it into the first person. An amen would be that which was, you know, that he was basically there. So it doesn't say that it was an exile, but Patmos historically is known as a place of exile. And so exile is implied. So it doesn't say that he was exiled, he just says I was there, which actually I'm glad you asked that question because it's a wonderful illustration of that. We, by the implied truth, we have the understanding and that we see that when we get alone together with Christ, we see, you know, we see Christ. That's an important aspect. But since it doesn't actually say that, it's an implied thing, because he's on Patmos, he's just there. And that's how also we should live our lives. Not that we're in exile, but that God's sovereignty has placed us where we are. And that we should be cheerful and joyful because of that. Brother Mike. It is. Yes. Yes, Brother Mike was mentioning that here he was there for God's purpose because it says, and as we see it in the Greek, on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus, or basically for lagon, which would be the word lagos is the Greek root word, lagon, diaton, lagon. tu-tho-o kai-de-a-ton-mar-to-re-on ea-so-chris-to. And what this does is a connective but distinctive de-a-ton. In other words, one can preach or do the Word of God without power because they do not have the testimony of Jesus. The way that it's worded in the Greek, there must be both. It's the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. This is why Jews that don't believe in the Messiah. They have the Word of God. In fact, they have the sufficient Word of God because when John's writing this, in fact, the mission destroyed many of the manuscripts trying to shut down churches and so forth. They had to be rewritten again. And so when Paul was even on his missionary journeys, you know, his letters were being written. Those scriptures that they had was the Old Testament. And so, here we have Jews who, ethnic Jews, who are reading the Word of God, but they don't have the testimony of Jesus. And so, therefore, it leads to nothing, doesn't it? Things are working, once again, things are working together for good, right, Brother Mike? Exactly. We know this to be true because there are people who do the things that are in the Word without Christ. Remember that in Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 to 23, in that day that Jesus says to those, you know, that not everyone that says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. They said, but Lord, didn't we, you know, do do mighty works in your name? Didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in your name? He said, depart from me, you worker of iniquity, you workers of lawlessness. I never knew you. So those are doers of the word without the testimony of Christ. Even quote unquote Christians. Philippians 1 verse 17, remember that preaching Christ from selfish ambition is not true to the word of God. Philippians 1, remember that when Paul was in prison, there were people that were preaching Christ to get him into more trouble, because it's going around. And so they were doing it out of selfish ambition and selfish motive, and in fact, even wicked design in order to get Paul into more trouble. And he says, well, Christ is preached, and so I'm happy about that. But still, it opposed the word of God, but they were preaching his word. So there was no power in it. And if there was anyone saved through their preaching, it was because God's a gracious and loving and merciful God. I mean, I look at some of the places today, some of the people that we have had today. There was, you know, a fellow down in Houston, Texas. 30,000 people that go pile into that place every week. Is there anybody saved in there? I would suggest, yes, there are. But are they strong in their faith? Are they growing in grace? I don't know. It's questionable because, you know, a broken watch is right twice a day. And, you know, he says some good things, but there's that church down there in Houston is void of the gospel. There are other people who've used devices whose heroes were people like Robert Shuler and Norman Vincent Peale, Harry Emerson Fosdick. I just saw a recent one of Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, The Purpose Driven Life, where he In an effort to be culturally relevant, he says, Jesus didn't take sides in politics. He was crucified in the middle. He was neither to the left or to the right. So that opposed the testimony of Christ right there. That is not gospel. And there's an issue with that. The reason why he was crucified in the middle is he was numbered with the transgressors according to Isaiah chapter 53. He was the one to be, in fact, that's what I'll be preaching on in Job chapter 25 today. The tale of two worms. He was numbered with transgressors. He was numbered as one of us and he received the payment in his incarnate body. God received the payment for our sins. Paying a debt he did not owe for a debt that we owe and could not possibly pay. And then just the word and the testimony of Jesus, so important. James 2 verse 19 was the last one I have for you note takers. James 2 19, remember that. Thou believest God is one in the, what is that, in the King James Version, James 2.19. The devils, thou doest, or you believe God is one, thou doest well. The devils believe in tremble. The devils believe in shudder, I think is the English Standard Version. But they believe without honorable obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. The devils obviously rebel. the third of the angels that fell with Satan's rebellion. And so belief without honorable obedience to Christ is not in accordance with God's Word. And in fact, it presents that it is, but it's not. It tries, well, I'm doing what the Word says and I believe in Christ. but their lives are not honorably obedient to him. And so that testimony is not going to bring you any closer relationship with the Lord Jesus. And this is why I think even John bringing this to them, this is an encouragement to people that are in tribulation as well. And so therefore it's an encouragement to us, because who here doesn't suffer trials? Anyone who is getting older by the day is gonna suffer a tribulation. just waking up in the morning on a daylight savings Sunday to get to church because we lost an hour. So any questions or comments? That's pretty much verse nine. We'll tackle 10 and 11 and that'll finish up that section and then we'll get into verses 12 through 20, I guess. Anything? All right, let's pray. Our most blessed and gracious Father in God, in Jesus' name, we thank you, Heavenly Father, for the revelation of Jesus Christ, that our eyes may be upon him for his exaltation, that you may be glorified. We thank you, Holy Spirit, for ministering unto us and ask you to continue to teach us of things that we hadn't covered here in this lesson. And we know that you will, and we know that there's even much more here than we've covered. And so we thank you for the truth of your Word and the testimony of Jesus Christ. In his name and for his sake we do pray. Amen.