Verse 19, the way the book's divided up, those things which thou hast seen was chapter 1, those things which are chapters 2 and 3, and those things which shall be hereafter, chapters 4 through 22. We see that the book is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him. And Jesus said in John 5, 39, search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but they, the scriptures, are they which testify of me. He is the revelation of God in all the scriptures. We begin to study in chapter four, and see that the come up hither is Christ inviting the Old Testament church under the blood of bulls and goats to come into the glorious spiritual privileges of the New Testament age under the blood of the Lamb of God. It really is amazing the difference that there is. You read the book of Hebrews and study it, it keeps saying how much more, how much more, or much more, or much more to Christ than this, and so forth. And we see the greatness of Christ and then what the Christian has in this age that has never been afforded them before. We come now to read verses 2 and 3. in chapter four, going down through verse four, and see what God would have for us. I'm not going to go back and review any more than that for time's sake. Revelation chapter four, verse one, after this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. Jesus said, I am the door. If any man enter in, he can find a life to his soul. And the first voice which I heard over in chapter one, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me which said, come up hither. And that is the man of God rising up and looking at heavenly things and not things of the earth, Colossians 3, 1 through 3. And he says, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And the result was immediately I was in the spirit, not in the rapture, not elevated one inch off the earth, but it changed the man Spiritually, internally, I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty, and it's really thrones, four and twenty seats, same word thrones. And upon the seats, or thrones, I saw four and twenty elders sitting clothed with white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold. Father, I pray that you'd help us this afternoon, that we might be able to have the Spirit of God's grace continue us in the thought and in the revelation that you began this morning. Let the richness of Christ be seen through this. Let it not be another revelation lecture. Let it be, Lord, the imparting of the body and the blood and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ unto his people for God's glory and for their nourishment. In his name we pray. Amen. We see, dear soul, as we begin to look in verse 2 and then in verse 4, there is the immediate revelation of Jesus Christ as Lord. This is absolutely essential. It cannot be any other way for people to come to understand who God is. Dear soul, I hate to tell you this, but the majority of religion that you know today as Christianity is a fallen religion and does not serve this particular Christ. I had too much of their insights fall away from me when I saw the sovereignty of God. Let me change that. I had their insights fall away from me when I saw the sovereign God. I don't want you to think that I'm just talking about a doctrine, the sovereignty of God. But I'm talking about the doctor. I'm talking about Christ. When you see Christ for who He is, all that other stuff falls away from you like fleas off of a dead dog. And so this is what you're called to, to be in the Spirit. and to see God in his sovereign glory. Let's go to Romans chapter 10. We just touched on that one verse this morning, but look how sovereignty is essential in salvation and us coming to God. Dear soul, we need to reread every sermon in the book of Acts. There is nothing in there about, oh sinner, God loves you. It is a mandate. Every sermon in the, I mean every sermon in the book of Acts is Jesus Christ is Lord, bow and worship. That's the divine mandate, and it's a worldwide thing. That's said to everybody. Lost, saved, tall, short, doesn't make any difference, friend. All men are commanded to repent. The gospel brings society, humankind, under the authority of King Jesus. And the reason you've got anarchy in the streets and the ungodliness and the lewdness and the vulgarity that we have in America today is because the pulpit has let down on preaching God in his sovereign glory. We've taken him down off the throne. Therefore, as in Romans chapter one, we have recreated God, so that's recreated us. It has an effect on man as to whether you hold the image of God true to them or not. In Romans chapter 10 and verse number 9, listen at this. Listen at how you're saved. Romans 10, 9. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, three words. The Lord Jesus, okay? And shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. What about these people that don't confess the Lord Jesus? I'm not talking about words. I'm talking about a knowledge and a consciousness of this God, of the God. We're in a mass. That's what got me to start with for seven years is I confess little Jesus meek and mild I confess Jesus a baby in a manger. I confess the dead Jesus on the cross. I confess the picture of Jesus that was in my Bible But dear soul seven years later God revealed the true Jesus to me and I didn't have to argue with him about Baptist doctrine I did like Paul did like Saul did he knocked me down and I said who art thou and Lord. That's the first thing you see. We've already been through that this morning. We won't do that again. All right, verse 10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. Believeth what? That Jesus Christ is the Lord and God has raised him from the dead. And with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed, for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. Now wait a minute, there's two alls in that phrase. The same Lord over all. It doesn't matter if they're lost, he's still their Lord. It doesn't matter if they don't believe it. He's still their Lord. You can walk out in the middle of a rainstorm and say, I don't believe it's raining. You're going to get soaked. It doesn't matter whether you believe it. He is, that's the gospel. Jesus Christ is Lord and we are to bring that to bear upon humankind and that and only that will restore morality in America. That and only that will restore decency and law abidingness in all the hearts of all the men and women in America. He says he's Lord over all. but he's rich unto all that call upon him. That's two alls. He's your Lord whether you call upon him or not, but he's your Lord and will be rich to you personally if you call upon him as Lord. That's what the book of Romans is saying. So he says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be what? Then if they don't call on the name of the Lord, Listen, I'm just trying to make you think. I'm not trying to say that you've got to come here. I know there's an occult in the grace movement that accents the word the and they'll say the gospel. And they're not talking about what I'm talking about right now, the spirituality of the gospel revealed by the Holy Ghost. They're talking about the five points of Calvinism. And I can tell you the names of the preachers, I won't, but I could tell you, that say, if you don't preach T-U-L-I-P, every service, you're not preaching the gospel, and if you think you're saved out from under the gospel, those five points, then you're lost. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about God revealing himself to you as God, Christ revealing himself to you as Christ, the Lord revealing himself to you as the Lord. If you have Him in your heart as ruling and reigning Christ, you're alright. But we're fooling ourselves if we think this little Jesus, meek and mild, is our Savior if we don't have Him as Lord right now. You cannot separate. Do not be guilty of trying to divide the Godhood. God the Father says He's Lord, and me and you need to bow and say He's Lord too. This is what this is all about. This is what we're talking about. Now, in Revelation 4 in verse 5, notice, dear soul, not only in verse 4, the 4 and 20 thrones or round about his throne, we're round about him, but look where the gospel comes from in verse 5 of Revelation 4. And out of the throne proceedeth lightnings and thunderings and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. John is actually seeing here in visible form the diffusing of the gospel going out into all the world. He is actually seeing in vision form in Revelation 4, 5, what Jesus said, our Lord Jesus said in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. All authority is given me in heaven and earth, out of the throne. The gospel, that which reveals, that which enlivens, I am the light of the world. He that walketh after me shall not walk in darkness, but if he follows me shall have the light of life. The lightnings, the thunderings, and the voices is nothing more than the revelation, manifestation, the book of the revelation, and John's revelation of how the gospel is gonna go out. And so it's out of the throne. No wonder people are moved by the gospel preached by the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. It comes from God Himself. Nothing saved you except an effectual voice of God. The preacher didn't save you. The church didn't save you. The baptism waters didn't save you. Dear soul, God used the preachers by the foolishness of preaching. God ordains to save them that believe. But dear soul, I thank God we can have a part in it. What can we do? Take away the stone and loose him and let him go. But he's got to call the dead man out of the tomb. It was God's voice from the throne of God, Christ's voice, calling His sheep by name that brought you to Him. He brought us into him in a context of a local church. Thank God for the local church and for the body of Christ. I will never forget what Pastor Brian Bravo said to me down in that devastation in New Orleans. He said, Brother Breed, the world out here is going crazy. He said, all they've got is FEMA and the Red Cross. We've got the body of Christ. I'll never forget that. He said, the churches, and he said, it's only a handful of churches that are sister churches with us, and those are the ones that I'll let them know what we're going through. And he said, through those little handful of churches, we have just really been lavished with things to take care of us, but especially with the precious prayers of people praying for us. And said, we've got so much, we can actually use it as a ministry to give it out to others round about us. Isn't that good? He didn't get it from FEMA. Guess where he got it? He got it from the Lord Jesus Christ through his body, the church. Isn't that good? So he says it's coming, the 24 seats, the elders, the church represented collectively, the 12 apostles and the 12 tribes, put together the old and new, Ephesians chapter 2, the middle wall of petition broken down and the 24 elders, the old and new economies coming together under the one Lord, one faith, one baptism, under one Christ. Read Ephesians 2 about the middle wall of petition being broken down and we all come one man to Christ. It's not Jews and Christians, it's the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in whatever age you're in. So these are around about the throne. And the gospel comes from the throne. And it is dispensed out from the throne. Look at chapter 11 and verse number 19. And the temple of God was opened in heaven. Isn't that what we just saw there in Revelation 4.1? Yep. The door was opened in heaven and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament. That's Christ, dear friend. He's the mercy seat. He's the rod that buddeth. He's the manna. He's all we need to stand before God. And there were lightnings, that's strong, penetrating revelations and voices and thunderings, the reverberations of the lightnings going out to different ones and an earthquake and great hail. It shakes everything. It has an effect upon everything. It's amazing to see it. And so, this is what we're talking about in Revelation four and verse five. It said, out of the throne proceedeth lightnings and thunderings and so forth. It comes from God. Let me show you this in Psalm 97. Psalm 97. In verse number four. Psalm 97, for his lightenings enlightened the world. The earth saw and trembled. The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare his righteousness and all the people see his glory. The lightning is there to show the glory of God. That's the gospel going forth with its powerful revelation. It's Christ being revealed. It's like in Matthew chapter 17 in verse 1 and 2 when Jesus was on the Mount of Transfiguration. It says, And after six days Jesus taketh Peter and James and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. This is Christ flashing out his revelation to our hearts. What is it? What is the ingredient that saved your soul, that transformed you from darkness into light? He that seeth the sun and believeth on him hath life. This is life eternal, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. It's a revelation of Jesus Christ. It's a manifestation of Christ. So these lightnings are Christ revealing himself to his people. The thunderings come next. We used to say, well, we can tell how far the lightning was when it struck, so we count by seconds until we hear the thunder, and then we'll divide that by five, and that's how many miles it was that the lightning struck from right here where I am, because that's how long it takes the thunder to get to you. I don't know whether that's true or not. There's a lot of stuff you learn when you're just coming up. You don't know whether it's old wives' tales or not. But anyhow, the thundering always comes after the lightning. These are the reverberations. These are others telling others. These are those who have had the lightning flash in their soul telling others about it. It's the people who can't get over coming to know God telling other people about Christ. That's the way that it is. I got a call Wednesday. I don't know when it was during the day, but during the day Wednesday, I got a call and a guy with a very distinct British accent. He said, this is Hassan Mansour. And I thought, what did he say? He said, I am in Croydon, England. He said, a brother over here read me the King James Version in John chapter one. And when he got to that verse that said, the word became flesh and dwelt among us, he said, that word became like a hammer and it smashed my stone heart and broke it into pieces. And God granted me life and God granted me repentance and God granted me faith and God granted me mercy. And he said, and the brother told me that if I would get in touch with Grace Baptist Church, they would send me materials. He wasn't calling Grace Baptist Church. He was calling my phone study in my basement of my home. How'd he get that number? I don't know. Who was the brother that told him about us? I don't know. But the thunder worked. And he said, can you send me any materials? I said, get away from your mailbox. Step back. We're fixing to pile more stuff on you than what you can imagine. I don't know how God does it, but it ain't my show. This comes out of the throne. God does it. He's working when you don't know He's working. He's doing when you don't know what you're doing. Thank God for that. Because most of the time I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just trying to do what I think is right. But God makes it work. Isn't that good? So we see this thundering comes from the throne. It can't come from the church. It would just be hearsay. It has to come from the throne. The power of the revelation of God has to be there, dear soul. God manifests himself. So in verse 2 and 4, you see God sovereignly on the throne. In verse 5, you see from that throne comes the gospel, and that's where it originates. Then in verses 6 through 11, in the rest of chapter number 4, is one of the most glorious things that God has shown me in the scriptures. And that is, God shows me what new creatures in Christ Jesus look like to Him in the Spirit. He begins to show me the life of God in the soul and the heart of man. He says, let's see, how's that go? Can y'all quote 2 Corinthians 5, 17? I can't get jump started on it. Here it is. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is what? A new creature. And you know what? That word creature is the same word beast over here in Revelation. So he's a brand new beast, he's a brand new creature. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And in Revelation 4 verses 6 through 11, it says, And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal. Not the sea of brass. We're not under judgment anymore and we're not coming to God with washings and all that like they had to do in the Old Testament. But a sea of glass. Our sins are remembered no more. We're standing in perfect transparency in the blood of the Lamb of God. And in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts, same word, creatures, full of eyes before and behind." Somebody asked me this past week, what should they do about something? I know who it was and I know what they asked me, but I'm just saying somebody asked me. That's not a preacher's trick, it really happened. And the answer that I gave the brother was, follow your heart. Why? He's a new creature. You have an unction. How do you know, John, that I'm not going to be one of those antichrists in 1 John 2, 18 and 19? How do you know that I'm not going to go forth from faith and walk out on God? He said, verse 20, because you have an unction with the Holy One and ye know all things. I don't need to write you some laws down. I don't need to come snooping around your house and check up and see if you're doing things right or not. We're not in this thing for a bunch of do's and don'ts. Been there, done that, didn't work, left me in a mess. Never did conquer my guilt in that mess. But when the Holy Ghost came in, Jesus did it. He gave me credit for it. And now I can go in and out and find pasture to my soul. What is wrong with that? And why would I want to mess that up? The brother said, what do you think I should do in that situation? I said, I think you should follow your heart. I think that the Lord was teaching and training that brother and bringing him on to know the Lord. And I know that he already knew what he should do, but he was wanting me to go ahead and say it. I refuse to because I will not let myself be made a Pope. That's all you've got to do. That's all you've got to do. People say, Preacher, what should I do? You tell them you become the Pope. Let God tell them. And you and them stay straight and they don't become guilty of worshipping a man and you don't get caught up with pride thinking you're God. That's how the Pope got started. It was through local churches out in the country going into the big city churches where they had mega stuff going on and going to the camp meeting up there in the city and big bottle stopper with his rings on and all that stuff. And here comes a little preacher come in with his sackcloth garments on and big and little got in on it. And first thing you know, you got a Pope and the rest of the guys saying, That's how it started. I'm not going to do that. I'll quit first. I mean it. I will not do it. Listen. The four beasts, the four creatures are full of eyes. They see by faith into the throne of God. They see the revelation of the glory of God. They have discernment. Where? Before and behind. And guess what? They have eyes within. In verse number 8. They're full of eyes within. They know. You have an unction with the Holy One and you know what? All things. That's what this is. This is the life of God in the soul of man. This is God showing you in a revelation vision of how Jesus is going to run his administration. He is the last kingdom. He's going to take over and run this thing, and the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our God and of Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever, and nobody will ever take that kingdom away from him. His is the last kingdom. And he started it, dear friend, there when he sent the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. He started it at his ascension. That's the way that it is. So we see, dear soul, that he starts picturing for us what he would like for us to understand and know. What is the life of God like in the heart of man? Well, it has a lion-like quality. It has not only discernment, eyes before and behind, verse 8, full of eyes within, verse 7, it has a lion-like quality. Revelation 5, 5, he said, don't cry anymore, John. He said, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open the book. And in Revelation 20 and verse 4, you see the church ruling and reigning with Christ. It has an authoritative, lion-like boldness. God gives them that. And then, secondly, in verse 7 of chapter 4 of Revelation, it says, the second beast or creature is like a calf. It has a quality of daily sacrifice. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body as a living Paul, what did you say in 1 Corinthians 15, 31? I die daily. What did you say, Paul, in 2 Corinthians 4, 10? Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. What day can you point to in your life, dear Christian, that you can say Jesus gave me authority and victory and peace in that day that you didn't have to die to yourself? What's the first thing you've got to do before you put your foot on the linoleum every morning? What's the first thing you're going to do before you put your foot out of bed every morning? Get yourself in check and die to yourself and say, Lord, I intend to do so and so, but if that's not your will, you show me what you want. Let me die to myself and let God be Lord. That's the day you're going to have victory. You've got to be a lion, but you've got to be a calf. A living sacrifice. The calf was for sacrifice. And then it says, the third beast, we had the face of a man. And I think about 1 Timothy 2, 5, there's one mediator between God and man, and I like these next two words. The man. Who? Christ Jesus, I am so glad that he came in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin so that he could condemn sin in the flesh, because that's where I live. I was born in the flesh before I was ever born in the spirit. I'm more in contact usually with the natural man than I am the spiritual, but dear soul, I'm glad that that's where Jesus came, but what kind of man was he? He had intelligence above the animals. So this speaks of the Christian's intelligence. I'm not talking about being smart and passing the IQ test. I'm talking about understanding and perceiving and knowing God and all the things of the Lord. And the face of man, you know what? I told Diane, I said, you see that little old boy with that red shirt on down there in New Orleans? I said, that's gonna be the poster child for the sorrow and the devastation. Sure enough, every time they come on with a report concerning the flood down there, there's that little old boy's face. And it was his face that captured everything. You don't have to ask, you just see his face and you know. And this old, the face of man, God put it on. He wanted his salvation, he wanted his glory, he wanted his righteousness to be encased under the face of a man. God became man in order to show us God's face. Moses said, Lord, show me thy face. God said, I'll show you my backside. But then you come over to 2 Corinthians, it says, we have seen the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God showed us his face in the precious gospel, in the cross, and God showed us the kindness, the tenderheartedness, the compassion. You can see somebody's face and you know whether you're in trouble or not. Your mama used to give you a look in church, it would just cut right through you like a knife. You knew you was going to get beat when you got home. You wasn't gonna get no whipping, you was gonna get beat. You could see it in her eyes, because you had embarrassed her in front of the preacher and in front of the church, and she told you to sit up straight and quit talking, quit wiggling, and you didn't do it. And she didn't say one word. You know, women got one of them looks, and man, it cut right through you. It comes in the face. Dear soul, I'm glad I have seen the face of God. You said, Brother Gene, I wouldn't dare say that. You better dare say it. He that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, hath life." Oh, dear soul, have you seen the face of God in the benevolent kindness of Jesus Christ as the calf, as the lion of the tribe of Judah? Thank God for that. And then the fourth one, he said, life of God in the soul of man is like the eagle. Where is the church identified? where the carcass is, there are the eagles gathered together. Where is God's people going to be? Going to be where Jesus' body is broken for you. It's going to be where Christ, where God is offering the sacrifice of the blood of the Lamb of God. What are we doing here like this today? What put us together like this? Some of you come from places the rest of us don't even know, we know and have never experienced. And some of the rest of us come from places that the former ones never knew, don't have that experience. What's the common, where the carcass is, that's where the eagles are gathered together. Won't eat dead roadkill like a buzzard. Gotta have hot, fresh blood, gotta have a fresh kill. This is my blood which is given for you. This is my body which is broken for you. He that drinketh my blood hath life. There's the eagles. And what do they do? Nothing can get them down. Why? They can fly above the stench of the world. They can fly above the cares of this life. They can mount up with wings as eagles, and they soar into the heavenlies. They're seated in heavenly places already. That's where the eagles make their nests, on the rocky crags of the mountaintops. That's where the Christian lives, seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. They've got eagle-like qualities. That's how God sees the regenerate soul. And he did it all, dear soul. And then the last three verses in Revelation 4, and I'm not going to start into Revelation 5 today. This will be it for us for today. Not only the description of the new creatures, but the activity of the Spirit in the believers. Now, the book of Acts. Why do you think they call it that, the Acts? What do you think it is? Well, you say Cambridge named it the Acts of the Apostles. Well, I don't just mean to be tromping on Cambridge or whoever printed your Bible, but it's really the Acts of the Holy Spirit in the Apostles, right? This morning we discovered that the title The Revelation of St. John the Divine was wrong because Revelation 1.1 says The Revelation of Jesus Christ. So we changed that to say The Revelation to St. John the Divine. And they've named the Book of Acts the Acts of the Apostle. I understand that, but you're leaving out something that's very important. It's really the Acts of the Holy Spirit. in the apostles and so the last three verses of Revelation 4 if you are indeed a recipient of the sovereign sent gospel from the throne if the lightning of God has come from his very person where he has disrobed himself of his humanity and revealed his spiritual glory to you as on the Mount of Transfiguration And if you are then a new creature in Christ Jesus, if you are lion, calf, man, and eagle-like, then what is your activity? Here it is. Verses 9 through 11 of Revelation 4 gives the activity of the spirit in the believer. There's a little verse in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17. See if you can find it right quick. And I would like for you to just read it to me. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 17. This is probably the second verse me and Frankie Chester would want to quote. When they said everybody has to quote a Bible verse. If I got it first I'd say Jesus wept. And he always hated it. I cheated him out of getting that verse. Then he would say this one. without ceasing. You know, it's dangerous talking on a cell phone drive. But if you're going to close your eyes and pray while you're driving, let me out. Right? Now how are you going to do that? How are you going to pray without ceasing? But dear soul, that's the activity of the Spirit of God within the believer. He has established once again that altar, that golden altar outside of the Holy of Holies where that fire never goes out in your soul. He is going to keep the fire of God's glory and holiness burning within you. It's not, now lay me down to sleep, pray without ceasing. It is a consciousness of God within every thought. So that in nothing God is far from me, but I try to think every thought and I try to perceive God in every way in my mind that I possibly can. That's my heritage. The spiritual man is gonna do that. But I gotta get my natural man trained to be able to submit to that. Now, I'm fixing to take you somewhere where you never have been. Because I don't think anybody in here is wearing hearing aids but me, are you? Stick your finger up if you are. Stick your finger up if you are! Oh, okay. One of the things you have to learn When you wear hearing aids, it's not just to listen to the person that's talking, but you have to learn to listen to your hearing aids. You don't know what I'm talking about, do you? Hope you never find out. I had learned not to hear. I just didn't try anymore. And the audiologist told me and my family both, you gotta start trying harder. He said, talking to me, you gotta start listening to your hearing aids and quit accepting deafness as a way of life. And told my family, don't turn your back on him and walk away from him when you're talking to him. And if you put him in the back seat and y'all are in the front talking, you might as well have left him at home. These things to learn. Now, that helped me with this. I had been in Adam for all those years before God saved me. And there's that voice within yourself, you know, that you perceive and understand and know as you. Then the Holy Spirit comes. And there's that glorious, still, small voice. It's not really your conscience. It's kind of like a regenerated conscience. It's kind of like a holy enunciation or holy stillness of revelation that you sense. And that thing is so sweet, but yet you can override it and noise it out. And one of the things that you have to do as a born-again Christian, like I had to do as a man with hearing aids, was I had to learn to listen to that voice and get myself, that I call me, to pay attention to that voice and do what God says. So the Lord was going to keep the fire burning. The Holy Ghost was going to live within me. But you know, I could be living in the darkness again in lustful, sinful thoughts or activities or whatever. I've got to learn to listen to that voice. Pray without ceasing. It's not just Jesus' part up on the throne to represent you, dear soul, up there. There is not only, dear soul, a responsibility of Christ to keep me holy and to make me holy, but there's a responsibility to me to abstain from all the very appearance of evil. Some people have thrown me out by saying, if you think you've got to do anything, then you don't know grace, and therefore you're not a grace man, and they throw me out, won't listen to me no more. But those that I preach to that think they got to do it all by their self, they think that I'm just going to cede on the sovereignty of God, and I don't believe in the responsibility of man, and they throw me out. But there is an in-between there when you understand and know that God not only has stood as your justification for you in heaven, and you cannot finally fall away, but you've also got to cooperate with the Spirit of God in sanctification within your soul. You've got to do that. God dear soul is not going to do some things that he told you to do and that's so you can get in on it and you can develop yourself and recover your natural man for the glory of God and bring him under the submission of the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Holy Spirit is going to invest within you the desire and the ability to worship God continually. Listen to what it says, Revelation 4.9, and when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and 20 elders fall down before him that sat on the throne. and worship him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Now, the four beasts that give glory and honor and thanks to God in verse 9, are the individual believers, and the four and 20 elders is the collective church. So in verse number nine, you have the individual believer, wherever he is, out on his job, she and her home, or driving down the street to the grocery store, wherever, the individual has the ability to give glory and honor and praise and thanksgiving to God. But when that happens, and you become a worshiping individual, You come together in the church, and that's the four and 20 elders. The collective church then is a recipient of every one of your, every one of yours obedience to God and your love for him. You bring it together and we have what the apostle called our feast of love. So that God works within each individual. But as that individual is brought together in the local church, the 20 and 4 elders, the collective church, then that worship just spreads through every one of them and they're gathered together in one mind, one soul, one spirit. That's the way that it's supposed to be. 1 Samuel 3 verses 3 and 4. 1 Samuel chapter 3 verses 3 and 4. First Samuel 3 in verse 3, And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep, that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here am I. If you can see it, that right there is a physical accounting that can be brought over into the spiritual mind, and you can see that that's where you lay. What is the one thing that you want to be maintained in your life? The revelation of the glory of God in your soul. And that's where your soul is, that's where your heart is, that's where you lie. And you don't want that lamp to go out. And dear soul, that's where God speaks to you. That's where God talks to you. And Samuel did let none of the words of God fall to the ground. If you have time, we won't go into it. Leviticus 6, 9 through 13, study about the altar with the fire on it. We're going to run back into that later in the study in the book of Revelation, if the Lord continues this. But, dear soul, you're going to see that God has that light, that warmth, that revelation, that glory within your soul and the activity of the true believer is the worship of God individually and coming together to worship God collectively. And that's what you have as the life of God in the soul of man. Let me read these two verses and we'll close. Hebrews 13, 20 and 21. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. And what do you say to that? Amen. Are you glad that God is attending to your heart today? I'm glad He is mine. Why do I even care about making my bed close to where the lamp of God is? Why do I care where the lamp of God goes out or not? Because that's my contact with God. That's how He made me. That is the life of God in the soul of man. That is the activity of the true born-again saint of God. And that's what Jesus did for you. That's what this revelation is all about. He did not leave it up to church membership, moral do's and don'ts. It's not a work salvation in order to get it. Christ didn't leave it up to that. He's doing it. He is the sovereign over all things, and He will bring you on to Him. But He'll let you get in on it. Isn't God good to us? Thank you, our Father, for what our eyes have seen today and our hearts have heard of thee. Thank you, Lord, for the mercies of God manifest to us even in this very day. We praise you and thank you for your goodness. We thank you for those who stood up publicly this morning and say, I want to be identified with the Lord's people. We thank you for them, Lord. They were already fully accepted, fully loved. fully embraced in the oneness of Christ's spirit among us, but Lord, how it encouraged our hearts, how it uplifted and fortified our hearts and minds to have them to stand publicly and say, we want to put our hand to this work and say that it is the Lord's. And as the sister said, we want to do whatever we can to encourage the Lord's people. How wonderful, how precious, how good. Lord, that could not have happened except you gave your blood, except you manifested yourself to us by thy Holy Ghost. And then as individuals, we come together to be one of the candlesticks where Jesus Christ sits in the midst and sends out his word from the gospel, or excuse me, the word of the gospel from the throne and brings glory to himself. Continue to honor yourself among us and help us that we would follow thee all the days of our life, and that we would come to dwell with thee in thy glory forever. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's all stand and turn to page number 345, please. Blessed assurance.