Revelation chapter 1. I'd like
to read verses 1 through 16 and then spend our time concluding
verse 8 and looking at a few thoughts in verse 9. Revelation
chapter 1, verse 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ. And I just want to say again,
this same word is used over there where it says, a light to lighten
the Gentiles. The revelation. opening up, allowing
us to view, to see the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave
unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come
to pass. And he sent and signified it
by his angel unto his servant John, who bear record of the
word of God and of the testimony of Jesus Christ and of all things
that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth. And
they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things
which are written therein, for the time is at hand. John to
the seven churches which are in Asia, grace be unto you and
peace from him which is and which was and which is to come. And from the seven spirits which
are before his throne, And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful
witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of
the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us, and washed
us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests
unto God and his Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever
and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with
clouds. and every eye shall see him,
they also which pierced him. And all the kindred of the earth
shall wail because of him, even so, amen. I am Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and
which was and which is to come, the Almighty. 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. I was in the spirit on the Lord's
day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet saying,
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And what thou seest,
write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which
are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Samarna, and unto Pergamos,
and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto
Laodicea. And I turned to see the voice
that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks. And in the midst of the seven
candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment
down to the foot, and gird about the paps with a golden girdle.
And his head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as
snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet likened
to fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace. and his voice as
the sound of many waters. And he had in his right hand
seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword,
and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. We'd like to stop there tonight,
and we'd like to spend a little time looking at the end of verse
eight, and then spend a little time on verse nine. The last
two words in the eighth verse are this, the Almighty. The verse says, I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which
is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty. Now, when
we are looking at this term, the Almighty, and we spent some
time last time we were together, when we look at this term, we're
looking at the one that is declared to be the Almighty, and he is
declared to be the Almighty by several demonstrations. One of
them that is so fascinating to us is he created all things from
nothing. Now that we just, I don't know,
I cannot understand that. He created all things from nothing.
He is the almighty. There was no dirt. He created
it. There was no atoms. He created
them. There was nothing but God in
his glory. And he's declared to be the almighty. by creating all things from nothing. We also find him declared to
be the Almighty by the miracles that he performed. Now I was
thinking about this about the miracles that the Lord Jesus
Christ performed. And he performed many miracles. In fact, some verses says, it
doesn't even enumerate them, but he healed many. And we find
the numbers of people that came and the maladies that they had,
the diseases that they had, and they were blind people. And there
were people who could not hear and people who could not speak.
There were people who were all bent over. There were people
who had issues of blood. There are people that we just
on and on, leprosy. He healed these people and he
demonstrated his being almighty by that. And as I was thinking
about that in our day and time, there's so many ways that God
has blessed medical science in allowing us to have all sorts
of surgeries that take care of many of the maladies that older
aged people years in the past had no thought about. I've read
about people going in and having their eyes worked on and they
can throw their glasses away. And people who have, well, we
have people right here had knee replacements. and just all manner. We got a Christmas card from
a friend of ours and her husband, Claude Hegarty, is going to go
in and have some surgery on his ear. He's deaf as a post. And
he's going to have some surgery on his ear. They think they can
get his hearing back. I mean, years passed. This was
impossible. We didn't even think about it.
And open heart surgery, heart transplant, lung transplants,
all of these things, back surgery, corrective surgery of all kinds
are taking place in our time. But there is one place that the
Lord has no rivals. He raised the dead. No rivals. No medical science has or ever
will. rival our Savior on that issue,
in that area. Now he's almighty in all the
other areas, don't get me wrong, but if we ever want to view him
in his almightiness, look at his healing those, erasing those
that were dead. And we never find it termed that
the young girl who was 12 was dead, and the 20-year-old man
was deader, and Lazarus was deadest. There's no superlatives. They're all dead. And the Bible
class on Sunday, we heard about that. The definition of dead
just means that. And it doesn't matter how you
come at it, it means dead. And that's what the Lord did.
Now he is declaring himself to be almighty by dealing with those
three that we know of, and then every one of his lost sheep. They're dead in trespasses and
sin. They're enmity against God. And yet he, with his quickening
power, is able to raise them. By the same power that he was
raised, are we raised from the spiritual dead. And by that same
power, when the day arrives, he will raise all his children
from the ocean, from the earth, from whatever circumstance they
were in. you'll raise them. Now, he's
also declared to be the almighty when he raised himself from the
grave. Almighty God in action when he
raised himself from the dead. And he is declared to be almighty. Now this just thrills my heart.
when he obtained eternal redemption for all his children. To redeem worms to sit at his
feet. Now that's almighty power. We may lift worms out of the
ground, but we can't make them anything else. but he is able
to take that which is dead and give it life, and life that will
worship God freely. Now, I love that free will. we
can freely worship God. Whereas before we were caught
in a trap, we couldn't. But by his grace, we're raised
from the spiritual dead, we can freely bow before him and in
delight bow before him. And we don't have his hand in
the back of our head pushing us down. We want to worship him
as Lord and King and Savior. Because he, a great Savior, saves
great sinners. and every one of his children
are great sinners. The Apostle Paul summed it up
for all of us. Chiefest of sinners. It's a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came to die
for sinners of whom I am chief. And I believe he spoke for us. He is the orchestra leader for
all the orchestra. Just he speaks for us. Our names
could be put there. And then he has declared to be
the almighty by having the eternal government of his people upon
him. Now, My dad had a truck that
had a governor on it, and it saved a lot of wear and tear. Us kids wanted to run that thing,
make it go faster, but you just couldn't get it past the point.
Now, I don't know the mechanics of a governor, but I have driven
trucks that had governors on them just for their own protection.
my protection and the truck's protection. And isn't it wonderful
that God has an almighty governor on all his children? They cannot
be lost. He has a governor on him, he
is the governor. He protects them from being everlastingly
lost. He has a covenant of grace that
protects us, that will not sentence us to eternal death. When we
have been passed from death into life, his eternal governorship
and his almightiness protect us from ever falling to perdition. I love him being almighty. I
know myself. So I'm thankful that there's
one that has that governorship over us, the eternal governorship
of his people upon him. And he, as a result of that,
he keeps his people, and he upholds his people, and he bears them,
and he carries them to the end. This is the Almighty. Now, a
liturgy god can't do that. That's why we have liturgy gods
in theology. They just can't keep you to the
end. But the big G God, the almighty
God, has made a promise before the world began that he would
save his people and keep his people and present his people
spotless. And as a result of his almightiness
and his governorship over us, he will do exactly what he has
promised to do. And the church just says, thank
you, Lord. Thank you. I know myself. I know my error. I know what I do. And then. He does this through all our
infirmities and afflictions and temptations and trials. He still is governor. He has lost none. He will present
all. He will find all. He will deal
with all. And I am thankful to God that
he is almighty. He's not Lord God almost. is
Lord God Almighty. And it takes that if the righteous
scarcely be saved. It takes an almighty God to deliver
us. We go through infirmities and
afflictions and I realize that they're all prescribed by almighty
God and temptations and trials, but he has promised as a result
of his own almightiness that he will deliver us from every
trial and every temptation and every affliction and every infirmity. He will deliver us. He will present
a spotless. He will carry out his word. So he's almighty. The church
needs an almighty God, and he is the almighty God over his
church. He is almighty God to them. He
is their governor. The government shall rest on
his shoulders. He carries us so clearly and
distinctly as the scriptures tell us. We look like we're faltering. Have you ever carried a flailing
kid? We know what it's like. We're faltering and flailing,
but he still carries us with precision. He will not drop his
children. He will present them. He'll bring
them home. So he's almighty, and this is
brought up so many times in the scriptures, and I believe here
in the book of Revelation, there's four or five times he is declared
to be the almighty. Now you just can't get any higher
than that. That is superlative, almighty. Now I'm thankful for
the people who have dealt with language, and they have taken
two words and combined them. All, A-L-L, and mighty, put it
together, almighty. He's almighty. Now, as we have
seen him in his almightiness, it tells us there, as a result
of that, in verse six, look at verse six with me. He hath made
us kings and priests unto God. It takes almighty God to do that,
to make us, what's he say? He hath made us kings and priests,
king-priests. He has taken the off scouring,
he has taken the worst of the lot and he makes them to be kings
and priests because he is almighty. He is able to do that. He is
able to take that which is dead and give life. He is able to
take those who are blind and give them sight. He is able to
take those who cannot speak and give them speech. He is able
to take those who cannot hear and give them hearing. He is
able to take those who are all bent over by nature and cause
them to be upright. He is able to do that because
he is almighty God. And that is what we need. That
is who we need. and that is who we bow to is
Lord God Almighty. Now as a result of that too,
we find in verse nine, 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. Now would you
turn with me over to the book of John, chapter one. John chapter one. Now I realize
that this is a totally different John. These words are written
about the John that came to prepare the way. This is Elizabeth's son. This is the boy that was born
three months or six months earlier than our Savior, the Lord Jesus.
He has the same name as the one that we're reading about over
here. And these words that are recorded about that John could
have been recorded about this John. Now read with me, John
chapter one, verse six. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. Now those words could be precisely
applied to this John over as we've been reading in the book
of Revelation. This John could be applied about the one who
wrote the book of John, and first John, second John, and third
John, and now the one that has been given the privilege of taking
down the notes about Revelation. There was a man. Now we want
to emphasize that. He was a man. Used in the most
powerful capacity and that was to share the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There was a man. And it tells
us over here he was sent from God. Now I like that part about
John when we read about him in Revelation. He's a man sent from
God. We wouldn't want anyone else.
We want someone who has the authority to speak for our God. And this
man, John, was sent from God. This man, John, John the Baptist,
was sent from God. This man, John, over here in
the book of Revelation was sent from God. God put him into this
ministry, and God used him in a powerful way to give us one
of the grandest descriptions of our Lord God Almighty that
we find in all the scriptures. This is a compilation of all
the scriptures put together in one book, so that as we read
through here, we see the grandeur of our Savior. and the glory
of our Savior, and the work and ministry of our Savior on the
behalf of all his sheep, because he is called the Lamb in here
more times than any other book. This is what John wrote about. Now, looking in that same book,
John chapter 1, look in verse 15 if you would, and though it's
writing about another John, these words could be written about
this John or any prophet in the Old Testament. or the 11 disciples,
or Paul the Apostle, or Barnabas, or Matthias, or any of God's
children, and in particular, those he's put there in that
special place as he did John. Notice this, John 1, verse 15. It says, and John bear witness
of him. John bear witness of Christ.
I was thinking about an incident that happened here about a year
ago. We had some visitors. There were three men and their
wives. It's been two or three years,
excuse me. When I finished the Bible lesson,
one of those men made a challenging comment. I realized right then
that he had a little flock with him and he wanted to keep control
of them. There is no room for jealousy
in the ministry. No room. We're not in it to build
our little flocks. We're not in it to build our
own empires. We're in it, what did John, what's
it say about John? It says, John bear witness of
him and cried saying, this was he of whom he spake, of whom
I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred
before me, for he was before me. And John is older in physical
age than the one he's talking about, but he realizes that the
one he's talking about is from eternity. And he bare witness
of him. Now let's follow this just a
little further. Verse 27 of that same chapter. He it is who coming
after me is preferred before me, who is shoelatched, I'm not
worthy to unloose. This John is speaking the same
words that this John and all of the disciples and the Apostle
Paul could be some of and all the prophets of the Old Testament
was their ministry was not theirs but God's and it was for the
promotion of almighty God and not themselves. What's it say
here in verse 27? It says in verse 27, he it is
who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoelatches
I'm not worthy to unloose. So when we read over there, I,
John, and he goes on to describe what's going on, we're looking
at a man that was put there to write exactly what God told him
to write, and he is a man sent from God, and his whole ministry
has been based upon this. I point men to Christ. Now, let's read here just a little
further. Verse 29 of that first chapter says, And the next day
John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and said, Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now, this is
one of two places, I believe, in this book, and the rest of
them are all found in the book of Revelation, where this one
says, Behold the Lamb of God. Now, that word Lamb, those Jews
that heard him knew exactly what they were talking about. This
is just not a off-the-cuff word. This is sacrificial lamb. Behold
the Lamb of God. And then in verse 35, notice
this. Verse 35, and I believe that
John in the book of Revelation could have had this written about
him. Notice this. And again, verse 35, again, the
next day after John stood and two of his disciples And looking
upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, behold, the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him
speak, and what? He lost his disciples. He's losing
his power base. What happened to them? They followed
Jesus. And you know what John said? I've been pointing him in that
direction and there he is and they followed him. Now that was
his ministry and I am convinced that that's the ministry of John
that we find in the book of Revelation. that he has no different ministry
whatsoever in this world. I, John, is the same person that
we could put over here. There was a man sent from God
whose name was John, and his whole ministry was to declare
the glory of Christ and how insignificant he is. He is, little h-e, but
he is almighty. I point men to him. I point women
to him. I point children to him. I point
to him. That's what John said. That's
what John said. That's what Paul said. That's what every believer
in Christ Jesus will say. I'm not interested in gathering.
They'd say, I'm not interested in gathering a group around me.
I'm interested in gathering a group around him. He's our only hope. He's the Savior. He's the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now, go back
there to the book of Revelation, and let's look at this again.
I, John, now, I don't know how you'd feel if this man stepped
in our midst. And we knew who he was. Oh. John. It says he got to rest
his head on the Lord Jesus. Says he was on the Mount of Transfiguration,
saw him in his glory. I don't know what I don't know. But what did he say about himself?
Notice with me here. I, John, who also am your brother." There is no big people. There is no big preachers. If
there was ever an opportunity for a big preacher, John. He's
the only one recorded in all of the New Testament. that got
to park his head on the breast of our Savior. Two more got to
see him in transfiguration. Others got to see different things,
but he's the only one that got to park his head on the breast
of the Lord Jesus. And when it comes time to represent
himself to others, I, John, am your brother. We have the same position. We have the same position. Children
of God. Now, I'd like to look at a couple
of verses. Turn with me to the book of Matthew,
if you would. Who also in your brother, what
grace will do to a person? No elevated position. There will
not be elevated position. There will not be trying to to
create a elevated position. It's just not in the church.
People may try that, but it's not from God. Turn here with
me, Matthew 20. As we look at this, I, John,
who am your brother, it just struck me as I saw that, I'm
your brother. We would have been glad to say,
John, you're special. Oh, if you come to our church,
We'd have you preach. You'd preach several times, too.
And John would just say, I'm just your brother, just your
brother. I'm not elevated. I have nothing
more and nothing less than any other child of God. We all have
the Lord God Almighty. And we have this relationship
as brother, as, well, we put it this way before, there's no
aunts and uncles in the kingdom. We're all brothers and sisters.
There's a relationship, a blood-bought relationship that we have because
of Christ that no one else knows about. We have brothers and sisters
we've never met, but when we meet them, I don't know how many
times I've heard this, It's like, uh, we've always known each other.
We just always known each other.
Well, we have, we go back to eternity together. We'll go back
to the covenant of grace and every one of God's people see
the line that God has traced for them to bring them to the
hearing of the gospel, to their paths, crossing Christ. Now,
Matthew 20, I'll get there. Matthew chapter 20 and verse
25, read these words with me. Matthew 20 verse 25, as we hear
John say, I, John, who am your brother, what a man, I mean,
one of the disciples, one of the apostles, one that walked
with the Lord Jesus for three and a half years, one that saw
miracles, and yet, when it comes time to write about himself,
I, John, who am your brother. We sit in the same pew. He can
say with us, we were saved out of the same pew. Saved by the same grace, by the
same Lord, by the same gospel, we're saved the same way. Now,
Matthew 20, verse 25, the scriptures share this. But Jesus called
them unto him and says, ye know that the princes of the Gentiles
exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise
authority upon them. But it shall not be so among
you. I like that word shall, don't
you? I don't want it that way among
you. No, he says, it shall not be that way among you. It shall
not be so among you, but whosoever will be the greatest among you,
let him be your minister. And whosoever will be the chief
among you, let him be your servant. Even as the son of man also came,
a man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to
give his life a ransom for many. He says, this is the way it will
be. There will not be. a hierarchy, is what he's saying. Now, turn with me to another
verse here, Matthew 23. Matthew 23 and verse 8. That's
why John's writing. My John, who am your brother,
he had every right to say, well, you know, we're all saved in
the same way and we all have the same God, but I walked with
him. So if you'd just raise the stool
a little higher for me. I'm your brother. If he walked
in here, he'd put his arms around us. If he walked in here, he'd
talk about the Lord. If he walked in here, with no
boasting about himself, he'd be boasting in Christ. There
would be nothing that would draw attention to John. Just as we
read about John over there in the book of John. There was a
man sent from God whose name was John, and his whole ministry
was based on one thing. appointing even his disciples
to Jesus. Now, notice here in Matthew chapter
23, verse eight, the scriptures say this. But be not ye called
rabbi, for one is your master, even Christ, and all ye are,
what? Brethren. equality. The only place we ever have absolute
equality is in the spiritual body of Christ. Now it will come
when we sit at his feet. We'll have absolute every bit
equality, but right now, the only place where we're all equal
is in Christ. He says there in verse eight,
and all ye are brethren. Call no man your father upon
earth, for one is your father which is in heaven. And he's
talking about spiritual father, you know. He's not talking about
call my father father, he's talking about in a spiritual sense. Don't,
you only got birth from one father. There's only one father had seed
to give you birth. That's our heavenly father. And
then he goes on to say that neither be you called masters, for one
is your master, even Christ. Boy, the ground gets level, doesn't
it? Ah, it is plain. They've gone over it with a long,
long land leveler. Lot of feet between the wheels. It's level at the cross. He just
goes down here, don't be rabbi, don't be master, don't be father,
don't be master. There's one master. But he that
is greatest among you shall be your servant, and whosoever shall
exalt himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself
shall be exalted. And only one in this world can
do that. That's Christ. There's no greater
position than to be exalted in Christ. lifted up in him. And so he said this. Whoa. And
then 1 Corinthians chapter 4. Would you turn there with me?
1 Corinthians 4. As we think about John saying,
I'm your brother. Oh, if there's anyone. Paul,
boy, we put him on a pedestal. But he just said, I'm the least
of the apostles. I persecuted the church of God.
I'm the chiefest of sinners. You know what he's saying? He's
right down here where we all are. And he walked through that
door, he just put his arms around us. He wouldn't expect any special
treatment. We'd be honored to have him speak
for us, but we'd expect no special treatment. I'm your brother. We all know Christ. Let's just
praise God Almighty. Now, here in 1 Corinthians chapter
4, a verse of scripture that goes right along with John's
words there about himself. He says, 1 Corinthians 4, 7,
for who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou
that thou didst not receive? Now that's humbling, isn't it?
If you got anything, you got it from someone else. Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? You came
up with it on your own. Sorry. Apostle Paul says, I didn't
get it that way and you don't get it that way. We don't come
up with it on our own. Woe to those who think they do.
Woe to those who think by much study they get intelligence.
It's not that way. We get it by revelation. And that is sovereignly given.
Sovereignly given. As God is almighty, he's sovereign
over that, too. Now, turn with me, if you would,
to 3 John. 3 John. Now the writer that was used
over here in the book of Revelation wrote three other small letters. And third John is the smallest. But he had a serious, serious,
serious thing to discuss here. And he, Jim and I were talking
earlier about Charles Spurgeon, he never backed up on anything.
When it came to the Bible, John didn't back up on names either.
John just brought it right out in the open so nobody would be
mistook about who he's speaking about. Here in 3rd John chapter,
excuse me, 3rd John verse 9 and 10, says, I wrote unto the church,
but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them,
receiveth us not. Now, he wouldn't write, I, Diotrephes,
who am your brother. He's got this elevated position.
He's got a little group around him, and they're calling him
rabbi and master. And he loves it. And John wrote
about him, says, who loveth to have the preeminence among them,
receiveth us not. Can you imagine a preacher not
receiving John? I can. A whole bunch of them
don't even read his writings. Okay, look at the next verse.
Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he
doeth, pratting against us with malicious words, and not content
therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth
them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Now John was permitted to write. I, John, who am your brother.
If there was diatrophies, he's mentioned twice in the scriptures,
and he is a real pain. John is mentioned a number of
times, and you know what? He'd sit down on that front bench
with anybody that wanted to visit. That is one thing I have appreciated
about all 99.9% of the speakers at camp. You want to visit, they're
ready. That is gracious, gracious. John's a busy man, but he would
write, I, John, who am your brother. We have this in common. I, John,
who am your brother. And then would you look one other
verse, 1 Peter chapter five, 1 Peter chapter five. The Apostle Peter was used as
a secretary to write these two books, two letters, and here
in the first one, in chapter five, 1 Peter chapter five, verse
one, we read these words. The elders which are among you
I exhort to am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.
Now this is the ministry. Feed the flock of God. Now that
just makes it simple. That just simplifies things.
Feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre,
but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage,
but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall
appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away."
Now, I like that. I like that. These clear, plain
instructions. Those words could be summed up
this way. I, John, who am your brother,
I am not expecting anything special, because all the church is going
to inherit equally. But do you hear the inheritance?
Heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. That's pretty
heavy inheritance. That's a delight. And everyone
gets an equal portion. I, John, who am your brother,
I'm going to inherit. I did what I was asked to do.
I, John, who am your brother. Now, let's go back over there
for just a moment and look at this. He says he's a companion. He's a companion. I like that.
He's a companion. He's a companion. He's a companion
with every believer. I, John, who am your brother,
what's he say? Who also am your brother and
companion in tribulation and in the kingdom and patience of
Jesus Christ. I'm your companion. Now, I'd
like to read one other place where this word companion is
translated a little bit different. That's found in Romans chapter
11. Turn with me to Romans chapter 11. Notice this with me. Romans chapter 11, verse 17. Now this just makes it so simple.
It just explains what that word companion means. It says, and
if some of the branches be broken off, now we'll get to the book
of Romans chapter 11 someday, and we'll go over this. And there's
some things here, I'll be honest with you, I pray to God, he opens
my eyes about, but there's some things we can understand. And
I have to say again here, there's a whole lot of this, I know what
it's not talking about. If it discredits our Savior,
it's not talking about that. If it's making him look weak,
it's not talking about that. If it makes him change in his
mind, sorry, it's not talking about that. We may not know what
it's talking about, but it's not gonna discredit God. All
right. And if some of the branches be
broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among
them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the
olive tree. Now did anyone catch the word
in there that's the same? It's partakest. Now look at that,
partakest of the root. I'll tell you there is of image.
We partake of the same root. Christ, that's where we partake,
that's our companion. We're companions. We're sucking
the same juices out of the root. He's grafted us in, in our whole
life. Is life in the branches or in
the root? Doesn't take us much to answer that, does it? The
life is in the root, and the branch's life depends on it.
And he says, I'm a companion. We're down here, and we're all
hooked to the root. And our whole spiritual well-being
is dependent upon that attachment that he made with me with the
root. I used to watch my father graft. He was a grafter. Graft trees. Now the root didn't
jump up there and do it by itself. He went and pruned it off of
one tree and opened up that bark and put it down in there and
wrapped it up and lo and behold, if it was by the right side of
the moon, that's what he said, it would take off and grow. It
was not the twig, it was not the branch, it was the grafter
that did that. Branch that was brought in its
whole life dependence upon the sap Of that tree the root and
John saying that I'm a companion We're down there and licking
up the same juices Our whole life is dependent upon being
attached to the root We have nothing in ourself I'm just your
brother. We're just down here enjoying
supper together. I sweetest, most delightful food
and nutrition that anyone could have. I'm your companion. I'm just sapping up the sap." That puts a picture in my mind
that just makes it all enjoyable. And it's no wonder he said, I'm
just your brother. We're down there attached to
the same place, and our whole life is dependent upon that attachment. Companion, says I'm your companion
in tribulation. Now, that word tribulation, I
want to go over to the book of Mark chapter four. We've read
this and have had it read several times, and this word tribulation
is found right here. He's a companion in tribulation.
He had lots of tribulation. He, well, Sister Tilly was sitting
in a rocking chair and a parson came by and she was just there
rocking away and he says, Sister Tilly, are you okay? And she
says, yes, the Lord said I'd have tribulation. I'm just sitting
here tribulating. companion in tribulation. Now
notice this Mark chapter four, verse 17. Now this is part of
the parable of the seed, the soil. Now this same word that
we found over here in the book of Revelation versus companion
in tribulation. Now here that same word is mentioned
and this will come along and it will loosen and remove those
who have not Christ. It's the sifter. Mark chapter 4 verse 17, the
scripture says, and have no root in themselves and so endure but
for a time afterward when affliction, that's the same word. Now John
said, I'm your brother and I'm your companion in tribulation.
The tribulation doesn't shake a believer. Tribulation shakes
unbelievers. He will loosen them. They think
they're grafted in, but they're not. He says there, after when
affliction or persecution arises, for the word's sake, immediately
they are offended. And what happens? We've seen
that in the scripture. This is a hard saying. And what
happened? They walked with him no more. So this tribulation that we're
companion with John is also the tribulation that comes along
and shakes the ones who have not Christ. And before you know
it, now we're never, we're never, we're instructed to never go
after those who we think may not be Christians. Leave them
alone, he said. Leave them alone. Now there's
no better place in all the world than have them hear the gospel.
My goodness. Have them hear the gospel. But
we're to leave them alone. When the end shall come, he'll
sift them out. But we leave them alone. That's his instructions. And
good instructions. Because Lord only knows we make
terrible mistakes. We do. All right, I just want
to read that verse again over there in Revelation. I, John,
who am your brother and companion in tribulation, now notice this,
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. Now he knows what it is to have
tribulation. He's a preacher of the gospel
and he's just preaching it from the housetop. And someone came
along and arrested him and sent him out to this barren, barren
island and said, this will be your home. We're taking your fellowship
away from you. We're taking everybody you know away from you, and we're
exiling you out here, and now you shut up." And then it says,
well, now he's in the spirit on the Lord's day. I just love
it. God doesn't abandon his people.
He just gave him one of the richest blessings John's ever had. He
saw his savior one more time, face to face. And this time when
he saw him, he said, I fell down as if I were dead.