James 1:9-18 (Teaching)

[0:00] Morning. Good morning. Good morning. We'll be back in the book of James again this morning. James chapter one. Last week after I talked, I told Missy on the way home from church.

[0:17] Everything that I did wrong were not a teaching last week. She testified, I did that right off of teaching or freeing.

[0:28] I know one thing that I brought up last week was when James says, if any of you like wisdom, let him ask of God. And I got into everything that wisdom was not.

[0:41] I spent a little bit of time on that. I never really told you what wisdom was. So I apologize for that. I'd like to clear that up this morning before we get into the next little passage of scripture.

[0:55] As I said last week, wisdom, knowledge does not equal wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to use that knowledge. And that's, it's in a nutshell.

[1:08] The knowledge itself is not wisdom. I told you all last week before I was saved, I knew an awful lot about this book. More than most professing Christians that I knew about it.

[1:20] But that wasn't wisdom. That was knowledge. I didn't get wisdom until I got saved. I didn't get wisdom of the scriptures until I got saved. So wisdom is nothing more than the ability to rockfully use the knowledge that we have.

[1:35] Whether it's spiritually, whether it's in the workplace, or whether it's at home as a parent, or a grandparent, or wherever the case is, wisdom is the ability to rockfully use the knowledge that we have gained.

[1:49] So I wanted to clarify that. And I know we made it to verse 12 last week. I would however like to back up to verse 9, because I didn't feel like I'd done much justice before this.

[2:02] And once again, I'm kind of known for that. Sometimes I go off in rabbit holes. Sometimes I get caught up in things that have nothing to do with the lessing. Like when I tried to teach the book of Ruth last week and I shouldn't have.

[2:15] But things like that happen. So we'll be in James chapter 1, we'll start in verse 9. It says, Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted, but the rich in that he is made low, because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

[2:33] For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass and the flower there I'll falleth, and the grace of the fashion I'll be perished. But so also shall the rich man fade away in his way.

[2:47] I know I spent a little bit of time on this last week, but something didn't point out I should have. Once again, I don't know what I trailed off on, but I'm sure it was something.

[3:00] But in verse 9, he says, Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted. Verse 10 begins with a butt. And that butt's very important.

[3:11] Who is James writing to in this letter? We talked about that a little bit last week. He's writing to fellow believers. He's writing to people that believe in Jesus Christ. He says, Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted.

[3:26] Verse 10 says, But the rich in that he is made low. He's saying, Let the rich rejoice in that he is made low. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted.

[3:40] He is lifted up. But let the rich rejoice in that he is made low. I, of the mind, I think this word butt confirms that, that he's talking about a fellow believer in Christ.

[3:55] That the low are exalted. They're lifted up, but the rich are made low. But he's saying, Let the rich rejoice in that he is made low. How can we do that?

[4:07] If you have great riches, or if I have great riches, or even minimal riches, for that matter, and we're made low, what's the first thing that pops in our mind?

[4:18] All of our riches have been taken away. All of our material things have been taken away. Everything that we've worked for in our lives, everything that we've, you know, we've scratched and sweat and bled and everything else, to have in our lives, it's all been taken away.

[4:34] Folks, I don't think that's what James is getting at here. There's some physical stuff that James talks about in his letter, but we have to look at it in a spiritual aspect.

[4:45] How is the rich brought low? Well, we briefly talked about that last week, and that the rich, and James is saying the only time he brings up the rich, in his letter, he brings him up again in chapter two, up again in the last chapter of his book.

[5:04] And most of the time when he's talking about the rich, it's scathing things that he's saying about the rich and what will become of them. But here, I believe he's talking about a fellow believer.

[5:16] How has the rich been brought low, and why should he rejoice that he was brought low? Because the rich tend to depend on the riches that they have, on the things that they possess, the things that they've gained throughout their life.

[5:29] And that's what they depend on. How has he brought low? When he has shown that those things will do him no good, come judgment day. When he has shown that no matter how many palaces he has, no matter how many cars he has, no matter how many women he has, or men she has, or how many of anything that they have, no matter what they have done in their life, they are brought low when they see at the ground his level, they're at the foot of the cross, the Calvary.

[5:58] And they see that that poor man, that the man without anything has been exalted, and that he has been brought low, they're on the same level.

[6:10] They're on the exact same level. And that is why the rich can rejoice in that he was made low. Folks, if somebody got into my bank account, my Mrs. Bank account, and took every dime that I had, I would feel anything except for joyous about it.

[6:26] I would feel all kinds of ways about it, but I guarantee I wouldn't be happy about it. I don't think that's what James is getting at here. I think he was talking about it in a spiritual aspect. Now, that being said, that being said, remember verse two in James chapter one, where he says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.

[6:46] When you fall into diverse temptations, count it all joy. Look at it as a moment of joy. Look at it as a moment to praise God when you fall into diverse temptations.

[6:57] And he goes on to say, knowing this is the triumph of your faith, work with patience. That's why. That's why. Well, let patience have a perfect work, then you may be perfect in entire wanting nothing.

[7:08] Let's let patience work something in our lives that the world can't give us. It works something in our lives that riches can't give us. It works something in our lives that being poor can't give us. It works something in our lives and in our heart and way down deep in our soul that only God Almighty can do through the power of the Holy Spirit.

[7:27] That's why we can rejoice in those things. That's why we can count it all joy when we fall into diverse temptations. That's why the poor man can rejoice when he is exalted.

[7:38] That's why the rich man can rejoice when he is made low. I wanted to bring that up. I know I briefly covered these verses last week. But I failed to do them.

[7:49] Good justice. Don't know if I just did or not. Good welfare. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat but it withered the grass and the flower thereof falleth and the grace of the fashion of it perished.

[8:03] So also shall the rich man fade away in his ways. So in other words, don't matter what the rich man's got. No matter how he's done in life. Once again, doesn't matter how much money he has, how many houses, cars, what food he can afford to eat, lines. All that's going to fade. Every bit of that will fade. Blessed is the man that endured temptation for when he has tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that loved them. This falls right in line with the last two verses that we read about the rich man. You can actually throw the poor man in there that was exalted or the low man that was exalted. And there are all that is. They're all tempted. The man that's lowest to the ground or even underneath that level part of the ground, those that haven't been exalted, wants their temptation. Their temptation is to do whatever they got to get their nose above the water to stay alive, to steal, to take, to deceive, to lie. That's the temptations there, folks. The temptations for them are no no different than the temptations of the rich. They have the same temptations that the low men do, that the poor men do. They're tempted to lie. They're tempted to deceive. Why? Because they may lose what they've gotten. So the temptation is the same. But the Bible says, Blessed is the man that endured the temptation. For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. Now, I went through one type of temptation just now. But what temptation are we talking about? James clears it up for us in the same verse. Blessed is the man that endured the temptation. For when he is tried, when he is tried, we're not talking about being tempted to sin. James ain't talking about being tempted to sin in this. That's why I think that the low man he was talking about and the rich man he was talking about were both, he was giving examples of saved individuals for when he is tried. Same way that Abraham was tried over in the book of Genesis, when

[10:19] God told him to take Isaac, his only son, the son whom he loveth, take him up full mountain of rhyme and sacrifice and kill him, give him up for a burnt offer. That was a trying of God. It was a temptation of God. But it wasn't a temptation for Abraham to sin. It was a testing of Abraham's faith. And that's what we're talking about here. For when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. This blows everybody out of the water. This says, I think everybody's going to heaven. This blows that thought, this blows that theology out of the water. It says the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him. There's a lot of folks in this world that don't love God. There's a lot of folks in churchhouses that don't love God. There's a lot of folks in churchhouses that don't love his word. They don't love the people of God. They don't love God himself. They don't love God the Father, God the Son, nor God the Holy Spirit. The crown of life is promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I'm tempted of

[11:26] God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tipped of he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust has conceived it brings forth sin and sin. When it is finished, bring forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. So, as I said just a second ago, Abraham, he was tempted of God. Scripture plainly says this. Genesis 22, I believe that is. This is God tempted Abraham. But it wasn't talking about enticing him to sin. God would never entice us to sin. God hates sin. Why would he seduce us into trying to sin if he hates it so much? But that's something that evidently was being taught to the believers at this time in the first century church. And folks, it's something that's still thought of today. You'll hear that if you ever go out on the streets and evangelize, if you ever talk to people, you know, just random people about God and about the Bible, some of the questions they have is, well, you know, if God doesn't want me to sin, why does he allow sin in the world? Both sin is in the world because of man. Sin entered in because of Adam and

[12:44] Eve. God didn't invent sin. God didn't create sin. God hates sin. But no man say when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God. Well, we're talking about a different temptation here. He's done been through the first part of this this passage here.

[13:05] He's talking about being tried of God. But now he's talking about being seduced into sin. But no man say when he is tempted, I'm tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempted he any man, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and entice. Then when lust is have conceived and bring forth sin, and when it is finished, bring it forth death. He's drawn away of his own lust. Every time you sin, it's because that's something that was in your heart that you wanted to do to begin with. Every time I sin, I'm in the same boat. I ain't pointing a finger at you without pointing one back at me.

[13:42] The Bible plainly states, plainly states that we are drawn away of our own lust. There's something that is inside here, and we can't point the finger back at Adam and Eve. We can't point it at our at our own parents because they can see does we can't say well they've never had me I want the sin. We can't do that folks. We are responsible for our own sin. We are responsible for our own actions.

[14:09] We're responsible for our own thoughts, and when that temptation arises and the demons that are floating around in this world, they know what your desires are.

[14:21] They know what your what your lusts are, and they don't know these things because they know everything like God does. They know because you let them know. They know because of your actions. They know because of what they've seen you do and what they've seen gives you pleasure. That's how they know what your what your desires and your lusts are. Just like Adam and Eve, folks, it's been like that from the beginning, from the very beginning when the serpent beguiled Eve in the garden.

[14:52] That's exactly what she said. When God came and he hollered for Adam and they came out of hiding, what did Eve say? The serpent beguiled Eve. She pointed at the serpent.

[15:09] What did the serpent do? He appealed to her desires. He appealed to her flesh. He appealed to her pride. He'll be made like God's. He appealed to everything about the flesh. The serpent did. What did Adam do? Adam blamed his wife. The woman that thou gave us, my Lord. He tried to point the finger at his wife. Eve tried to point the finger at the serpent and Adam and what he said, the woman that thou gave us, me. She did give me the fruit and I did eat of it. He was indirectly accusing God of it when he said, the woman that thou gave us, me. If you'd never give her, give her to me, Lord. I'd have never sinned. And we've got the same attitude as Christians here in 2022. We blame our situations. We blame our circumstances.

[16:08] We blame our living conditions. We blame our upbringing when we are responsible, every one of us, for our own sin. If you were brought up in a bad situation as an adult, you've got opportunity to change that into a good situation. You may not be able to control it when you're five years old or you're 10 years old or even on up into your teens, but once you're an adult, you can get yourself out of those bad situations. But folks, we can't blame our circumstances. I couldn't blame my circumstances when I was wondering around in sin. When I was wondering around loss. I couldn't, I certainly couldn't blame my parents. And even if I had felt like I could, that would have never held water or come judgment day. It would have never ever held water in the eyes of Thrice Holy God. I'm responsible for my own sin, for my own decisions. He says, then when lust hath conceived, and bringeth forth sin and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. James uses a picture here of birth to describe the life cycle of desire to sin to death. He uses birth to do that. When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. When lust has conceived, what does it kind of give us a picture of? I'm not trying to be vulgar in this at all. But he say there's a, there's an unholy union that's taken place there. When lust has conceived, conceived with what? Your lust, your desires has to conceive with something. It's got to conceive with, you know, your lust, your desires is the same as the temptation here. And folks, don't get me wrong, I ain't saying the temptation is sin. It's not. Jesus Christ was tempted and he never sinned. Temptation ain't sin. Sin has given in to the temptation. Sin has let the temptation over override what you know is right. And that goes for saving lost people alive. God give us all a conscience to know good and evil and right and wrong. And when temptation comes in, it is up to us whether we give into that temptation or not. I'll give you an example I've used several times over over the years. And I've used it because this this was a personal temptation of mine. You drive them down the road, driving down the interstate whatever you want to say. Man, this is more for you than women it is for the women.

[18:57] You drive along minding your own business, you see a billboard, got a woman holding up a can of ice cold beer or a bottle of ice cold beer, she got it up against her neck, she got a bikini top on that water dripping off of that thing, come on down on her chest. I look up there and I see that billboard. Have I sinned? No. I didn't put the billboard there. I didn't advocate for the billboard to be there. If I glance up and I see it, that's not sin. I keep on driving but my eyes shift toward that billboard knowing that it's there. Knowing what I'm going to see is that sin. Yes. Yes. That is sin. If I know that it's there and I know what it's what's what gears are gonna start turning in my mind looking up there again, that's when it becomes sin. I never asked for the billboard. I never asked to see it. Never wanted to see it but once I did and I knew that it was there and I glanced again, folks that's lust and that's desire. That's why Jesus Christ said in the

[20:04] Sermon on the Mount, either look at the woman in lust that committed adultery in his own heart. See the Pharisees and the scribes of that day, they were just giving bills of divorce with left and right. I'm tired of this one. Been married to her for two years and won't get me a new remodel. That was their idea. Most just said to give her a written bill of divorce and I'd be fine.

[20:33] But Jesus took them all the way back to the beginning. Jesus took them all the way back to the beginning. It's from the beginning. It was one woman, one man. And that's the way that it should be. He showed them that every one of them were adulterers within their own heart. Every one of us on the high media or familiar with Ray Comfort or not, he's got one of the best ways to describe to people, to show people that they're sinners, to show people that they've done wrong. That's one of the examples that he uses hunting to beach California when he goes out on the street evangelizing. They tell people, have you ever looked on a, if he's don't do a man, he'll say have you ever looked on a woman with lust? If he's talking to a woman, have you ever looked on a man with lust? And most of them are honest and say, well, yeah, some of them will say, well, no.

[21:28] That everyone else have done that. Everyone else has. They'll say, and he'll say the same thing I just did. Jesus says, if you look on someone with lust and lust in your heart, you committed adultery with them in your heart.

[21:43] That brings us down to that same level ground I was talking about before. It doesn't matter how rich or poor, how good or bad we think ourselves to be. It's all level when you get down to it. It is level at the foot of the cross. And I thank God for that. I thank God that no one can be any more saved than I am.

[22:07] No one can be any more holy than I am. Sanctification is a little bit different, but folks, we God works on our sanctification from the moment that we get saved to the moment we're dead. God is sanctifying us and God is consecrating us for his use and for his glory and for his honor. So somebody that's been saved for a year shouldn't be as consecrated or as sanctified as somebody's been saved for 30 years because God been working on them longer. But they are still nevertheless no more saved than the person that's only been saved for a year. Right. I just got awful one in tangents. I sure got awful. Then when less conceived of very foreseen, similar to this, finish breathing forth death, do not err my beloved brethren. He gives warning here, do not err my beloved brethren. In other words, I know this is being taught. I know this is something that you've heard, the folks I'm telling you the truth. This is what James is telling these people, do not err from what I'm telling you in this letter.

[23:14] Don't go to the left, don't go to the right. I'm speaking absolute truth to you. Every good, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the Father of lives with whom is no veribleness, neither shadow of turning of his own will beget he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first groups of his creatures. Now, what do we just come out of? This ties back with the previous few verses. We just come out of, but every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then he gets into every good and every perfect gift is from above. All this fits together. God's not sending this temptation to sin. God is not enticing us to sin. God does not do that. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from God. A seduction or a desire or or sin itself cannot be from God because God only gives good gifts and

[24:19] God only gives perfect gifts. That's why this follows the way that it does. Every good, every perfect gift is from above and coming down from the Father of lives in whom is no veribleness, neither shadow of turning. It's the same God of the Old Testament as much as, I've heard it, I've heard it talked. I've actually heard it talked in supposed Christian churches that the God of the Old Testament is not the same God that is in the New Testament and that is heresy. That is outright heresy. It's not a word that I use loosely. It's not a word that I usually describe every little variable between theologies.

[25:06] But when you say that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is different than the God of Paul and Peter and John, that's heresy. It is the same God.

[25:17] It says that with whom is no veribleness, neither shadow of turning. There's not veribleness between the Old Testament and the New Testament. There is none.

[25:31] There is zero. Now the Old Covenant was different than the New Covenant. Yes, but there is no veribleness with God because all throughout the Old Testament and all throughout the Old Covenant, all throughout the wall, all throughout the Psalms and the prophetic books, all throughout these things. God, the Father, is pointing directly at God the Son in the New Testament. The entire way through the Old Testament, you see this. And Paul confirms that in the New Testament. Paul says that without the law is our schoolmaster. It was our tutor. It's the one that showed us the way to Jesus Christ. This is the one that showed us our need for Jesus Christ.

[26:16] So there is no veribleness between the two of them. Yes, the two Covenants are starkly different. And I thank God for that. I thank God for the New Covenant that we have in Jesus Christ. That I'm not depending on the blood of bulls and I'm not depending on the blood of goats and I'm not depending on my keeping of the law to have a relationship with Almighty God. I'm depending on the work of Jesus Christ on a cross at a place called Golgotha as my ways and means of having a relationship with God. That's all I can depend on. There is no veribleness. There is none. Neither shadow of turning, of his own will be gay. He is with the Word of truth. This is important. It's important because there's so so much in the church nowadays saying that, well, we don't really need the Word. We just need somebody to kind of get up there and entertain us for a while. You find that in a lot of churches.

[27:16] Well, I'll tell you why the church right now in 2022 is so weak and why Christians, I'm talking about believers, people that are born again, why believers are so weak. It's because of their neglect of this right here.

[27:35] That is why we were begotten by this. Some man had to stand and preach this. It had to enter into our ears. It had to enter in from our ears into our heart. The Holy Spirit had to take what we had heard and shine the Spirit of God, the gospel lot into our hearts, shine it back in the deep crevices, back where all the cops were, back where all the secret sins that nobody else knew about knew a lot more than mine. The Holy Spirit of God had to show us those things using the Word of God and then that gave us opportunity to be saved. We're begotten by the Word.

[28:15] But not only are we begotten by this Word, we're cleansed by this Word thereafter. After we're saved, after we'll be gotten, after we're born again, we are cleansed by this Word. Jesus told his disciples in the Gospel of John and said, the words that I've spoken to you, that's what cleans you daily. The Word of God is what cleans us. I've used it as an example. In fact, I talked about it a few years back when you look at the Tabernacle in the Old Testament. When you walked in the Tabernacle to your right, you had to brazen altar. That's where the sacrifice was made. Sacrifice was the first thing that had to take place. Blood had to be shed before they could make their way back. But their next stop was a place called the Lever. And that was nothing more than a fountain-sized trough, really, that contained water. And the priests had to wash their feet there. Why their feet?

[29:19] Why not the rest of them? Why their feet? Because their feet's what carried them all over the region. Their feet's what carried them from 10th to 10th and what carried them from town to town. Their feet is what carried them into all these wicked places. So they had to get that off their feet, folks. That was symbolic.

[29:39] The same thing as us. What did Jesus tell Peter? When Peter thought he was being so big and mighty when the Lord was washing the 12 feet, and Peter said, you'll not wash my feet, Lord. I won't allow such a thing. That's basically what he was saying. And Jesus said, if I don't wash you, you'll have no part with me. If I don't wash your feet, you'll have no part with me. And Peter said, not my feet only, but from my head on down. I want you to wash all of them. But Jesus said something very important there.

[30:10] He said, they that have been cleansed, have no need to be cleansed again, save their feet. Their feet have got to be cleaned. Why? Because folks, everywhere we go, whether it's work, whether it's to lost people's houses or lost relatives' houses, whether it's to a neighbor's house, whether it's to their grocery store, our feet carry us out in this world. And the world will brush off on us. And we have got to get that off of us. Jesus said, they that have been cleansed have no need to be cleansed again, save their feet.

[30:46] Their feet must be cleansed. You want to be clean? Clean it with this. You clean yourselves with this. You compare yourselves. And James gets into that here just a few more verses. We will reach it today. The folks, this word is a mirror. It's a mirror. And we don't like the reflection that it is. Because if we look into this and we compare our status, we compare our good words, and we compare our holiness and our righteousness to all those things of God's, we don't like, we don't like what we see. We don't like what we see. I don't like what I see. I'm a born-again Christian. And you, you shouldn't like what you see when you compare yourself with God who has never sinned, who knows no sinned. When you compare yourself with Christ, whom the Bible says that no God was ever found in his mouth. When we compare ourselves with that kind of holiness, we don't like it. Because it shows us who we are. We think that we're good and we think that we're great. We think that we're better than the murderer down the street. We think that we're better than the rapist. We think a little better than all these people that we hear about in the news. Their sin is no blacker and no more wicked than what Jordan's tiniest live was. It's all sin against God. And all of it deserves hell and all of it deserves death.

[32:18] Of his own will, he asked with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first verse of his creatures. So of his own will, that's important in this verse as well.

[32:33] God didn't have to do what he did. Of his own will, he got his with his word. God could have just, after Adam and Eve sinned, God could have let this world populate to whatever it is now for over close to eight billion people. He could have just let it populate and then just snuck this all out, sent us all to hell.

[32:56] And he would have been completely just in doing so. He would have been completely right in doing so. Because of his own will that he made this way for us. I believe that man has free will.

[33:10] I believe in man's free will and I believe in the sovereignty of God. And we've got to make those two things mesh because you find both of them in scripture. Right. Both of them are right here in the pages of this Bible. We've got to make them mesh.

[33:24] But when you start to think, hopefully nobody does, but when you or I should include myself, when we start to think, that it's something that I've done, why God, why I found favor with God.

[33:37] We need to be reminded of this verse right here, James 1 and 18. Of his own will be yet he is with the word of truth. He begat us. He has begotten us. He has burdened us or re-burdened us, I should say, with his word and with the Holy Spirit and with the blood of Jesus Christ.

[33:57] All of these things were of God. It had nothing to do with me. I had no part in my own salvation. It took God to come to where I was. It took God to show me where I was, show me who I was. It took God to save me.

[34:11] It'll take God to keep me safe and it'll take God to get me home one of these days. I can't do it. And I'm thankful that I can depend upon him who has begotten me to begin with, who started this thing, to end this thing as well.

[34:29] He that began a good work and thus shall finish it, is what Paul wrote to the Philippian Church. He will finish it. And I thank God for that. But I was a little bit giddy, I asked what the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruit of his creatures.

[34:45] What's the first fruit indicative of? 1 Corinthians 15 talks about Christ being the first fruit of the resurrection. What's the first fruit? The first fruit is what was brought unto God. Yes, over in the Old Testament you read about the first fruit being brought to God, which is generally thought of as a tithe.

[35:07] But they would bring God the first of the harvest and that was dedicated to God. Why would they do that?

[35:18] First of all, that's what God won't do. Second of all, they would say, God, this is what you've given us thus far. We're dependent on you for the rest of it. If they brought exactly 10% of what they got, they were dependent on God for however much they got thereafter.

[35:38] Folks, the first fruit of the resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15, is no different. Christ is the first fruit to the resurrection. What is that? Christ being the first fruit, he is the guarantee of the harvest to come. He's the guarantee of the resurrection to come.

[35:53] He begot us by the word that we're in James chapter 1. That being a tithe of first fruit, a tithe of the first fruit, one of the first fruits, there's more to come after us.

[36:08] There's more after the first century church folks. He was talking about me when he wrote that. He was talking about you as you were born again when he wrote that. We're begotten by the word, but thank for the first fruit. We're the guarantee to come after. That's something I'm thankful for about the word of God.

[36:27] That's going to drown some. If I die today, there'll be somebody left to preach the word of God. God's always got a remnant.