I'm going to read now the 20 verses of Revelation chapter 1, the revelation of Saint John the Divine. I've considered up to the end of verse 3, my intention is to focus in on verses 4 and 5. Hear now this entire first chapter of Revelation chapter 1. 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 bare 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, and 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 forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him in all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him, even so. Amen. I'm 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'm Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And what thou seest, write it a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea. 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. His head and his hairs were white as like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of fire. And his feet like undefined 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. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead, and He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first. and the last. I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. Here ends the reading, and God bless it to your understanding. You may be seated. As I return your attention for the ever so brief period of time, brief in comparison to the tsunami of information, both helpful and not helpful, dare I say misinformation, that you have and can be exposed to in our information tsunami times. But as I return your attention to the verses I have reached in the opening chapter of the revelation of Jesus Christ, an attention and an interest it is impossible for me to create or maintain. Something only the Holy Spirit of God is capable of doing. May He be pleased to do so if what I have prepared today is for the glory of the Lord and the good of souls, even yours. But I have reached verses 4 and 5 of this first chapter of the book of Revelation, given to the Lord's last living apostle, the apostle John. Dead to this dying world for the last 1900 years, but more alive than anyone presently living, because he will pass through death no more. But as John records, as the end of the first century approaches, he is in tyrant-imposed isolation. He is in tyrant-imposed isolation from the churches he loved and the churches he served, due to the tyranny of the now-dead Roman Emperor Domitian, dead to this dying world but not to God, before whom he and all tyrants, both those dead and those presently living, will have to stand in final judgment. Tyrants who are in temporary power and do not understand or believe this biblical truth are in worse condition than the beasts that perish. But as I seek to open up before you verses four and five, as I said, over the ever so brief next few minutes, I'm not going to summarize again how we intend to open up this unique book, the book of Revelation. Not concealment. In the only Word of God that the living, true and only God of Father, Son and Holy Spirit has given to mankind, the Holy Bible. But only those reborn by the Spirit of God see and believe that the Bible is what it uniquely is. The Bible alone is the Word of God. As I've already explained twice, I'm not going to seek to open up this unique book, preteristically, futuristically, or spiritually. Although aspects of all these incorrect ways of opening up the book of Revelation are present in the way I'm going to correctly open up this book, historalistically. I know that's a big word. I have trouble saying it. I'm sure you will as well. Now in saying correctly, I'm not trying to present myself as any great teacher. The Lord alone is your teacher. The Lord Jesus Christ is alone your teacher, believer, and James warns me in James 3.1, my brethren, be not many masters or teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation or the greater judgment. Nor in saying correctly am I needlessly trying to offend or annoy those holding to the three ways that I am convinced are incorrect ways of opening up the book of Revelation. If how I open up the book of Revelation, this book that is meant to be a blessing, For the gathered church of Christ, in every generation of believers, until the Lord Jesus Christ returns, as I sought to show last Sunday from verse 3, if my opening up of this book is correct, as I believe it is, it will become evident, even as you have the blessed responsibility of being Berean, with respect to everything I preach from the book of Revelation or any other book of the Bible. And dare I say one more thing about my bold statement of intending to seek to open up the book of Revelation correctly? Would you want me to seek to open it up incorrectly? Or if someone in these new Corona times were to ask you, why are you daring to gather with others in light of Corona? Oh, we're gathering to worship the Lord and the beauty of holiness and to hear someone incorrectly open up the book of Revelation. Another term used to describe how I hope to and want to open up this book correctly is historicism, which I will give further justification for doing so in the verses I intend to open up this morning. But if you need or want to refresh your memory as to why I see these, the three ways that I mentioned as incorrect ways of opening up the book of Revelation, I invite you to re-listen to my first two messages on this book. Available on sermonaudio.com or have one more than one internet savvy person in this fellowship download them for your listening if you're unable to figure out how to use the internet. And I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that. I know a brother who's trying to convert a file and he hasn't been able to do it yet. And he's very internet savvy. But I'm convinced that seeking to open up this book of apocalyptic pictures of fulfilled and yet to be fulfilled human history is entirely appropriate for these new corona times that you are now living in. Believer, as you can honestly wonder and hopefully not worry, You know, what these new corona times may yet reveal in the sovereignty of God over human history, the book of Revelation shows to the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. Truth, as I said, that every generation of His blood-bought people need to hear and apply. As seen by the verse I ended at last Sunday, blessed is He, singular, that readeth, something I've just done. Blessed is he, singular, that readeth, and they, plural, that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein. There are things written in the book of Revelation that every gathered, confessing Church of Christ is to believe and apply. For the time is at hand. And just a brief comment on this last statement in verse 3. For the time is at hand. This statement should show to any right-thinking believer that futurism, as I have previously explained it, cannot be the correct way of opening up the book of Revelation. An incorrect method of interpretation that has resulted in myriads of confusing and contradictory books and ideas being taught, especially since the rise of the false teaching of dispensationalism due to a false teacher by the name of Schofield and a Bible with dangerous footnotes in it bearing his name. The book of Revelation was written for the benefit and blessing of all Christ's churches, wherever and whenever they gather, even as this book must have been a blessing and benefit both by encouragement and chastisement to the believers in the seven churches that first heard it being read to them. Verse 4, John to the seven churches which are in Asia. Notice I said both a benefit and blessing to the seven churches in Asia that first heard this book read to them, both by encouragement and chastisement. The Lord knows what every one of His blood-bought churches needs to hear. Run from the false teachers who say they never preach anything negative. They are not following the example of the head of the churches who writes to them through John and is a blessing and benefit to them by way of both encouragement and rebuke. So John, the last living apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ is, as verse 9 records of him, 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. As John is exiled to the island of Patmos due to the tyrannical actions of the Roman Emperor Domitian, the Lord uses John. The Lord uses John to write this book for the blessing and benefit of all the churches of Christ until he returns. And friends, just as the last statement of verse 3 exposes the error of futurism, The churches that were the first recipients of this final prophecy of Jesus Christ for all his churches, as seen by the warning at the end of this book, a warning that those who have written their dangerous books in which they write about having met Jesus are obviously not taking seriously. Friends, the book of Revelation is the final prophecy of Jesus to the world. But the fact that John tells you who the first recipients of this book were, the seven churches in Asia, and what he writes to them individually, clearly shows you that opening up the book of Revelation, preteristically, is incorrect, even as Futurism is, because the church in Smyrna was not planted in Asia until years after The incorrect dating of the book of Revelation, which is required, friends, it's required for preterism to be true. Plus, friends, the condition of the churches in Ephesus and Laodicea, churches that Paul specifically wrote to, even though God saw fit in his omniscient wisdom to not preserve the letter Paul wrote to the church in Laodicea, But how Paul writes to and about these two churches, Ephesus and Laodicea, is radically different from the way John does. For example, if you are familiar with the seven churches that John wrote to and what he wrote to them under the infallible inspiration of God the Holy Spirit, which of these seven churches that John writes to I ask you, was in the worst shape? Which of the seven was in the worst shape? Oh, somebody's mouthing Laodicea. The church at Laodicea. How many of you rightly said or thought Laodicea? Revelation 3, start and read at verse 14. Listen to the church John is writing to. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Omen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot, so that because thou wert lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth, because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked? I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent." I think we're honest in saying that the church that was in the most dangerous condition was the church that John was writing to, Laodicea. But just listen. In contrast to how Paul describes not only the church in Colossae, but what he says about the church of Laodicea in the letter to the church in Colossae. A letter Paul wanted to read in the church in Laodicea as seen by Colossians 4.16. And when this epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the churches of the Laodiceans. And that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. But listen to how Paul writes to both churches through what he wrote to the church in Colossae. Colossians 2, starting to read at verse 1. For I would that ye know what great conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and into all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and the Father and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, In this I say, lest any man beguile you with enticing words. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ." Does what Paul writes about both the church in Colossae and Laodicea sound like the church that John is writing to in Revelation? Why are you shaking your head? No! They are two different generations of believers. One is a source of joy to the Apostle Paul. The other is a source of burden to John and the Lord Jesus Christ. Friends, it should cause you to tremble when you see how Scripture interprets Scripture. And friends, I've said this more than once, and I've said it both publicly and privately, I do not do my devotional reading to prepare my messages. But when I'm doing my devotional reading, and a passage knocks me on my feet, or knocks me on my backside, I say, Lord, I've got to include this. I read that passage earlier this week in my devotional reading, and I said, Lord, you're showing me another way! Preterism is not the correct way to open the book of Revelation. Because John wouldn't have said what he said about the church in Laodicea if he was writing about the same church that Paul wrote a letter to. Scripture interprets scripture, friends. The Bible is not a book written by deceived, uninspired men, but uniquely called Holy Spirit-inspired men over millennia, centuries, and decades of time for the glory of God and the good of his redeemed people, regardless of the time you're living in, believer. Even these new and at times troubling corona times. Now, some have attempted to undermine the historical way the apocalyptic imagery of Revelation should be interpreted by saying, how would this way of opening up the book of Revelation be of any blessing or benefit to the seven churches in Asia who first received it? How? Because if they understood the Scriptures, both what is called the Old Testament, And the New Testament, they would have clearly seen, as you can and should believer, that God has revealed, fulfilled human history to others who did not live to see its fulfillment in their day. Take, for example, the prophet Daniel. Take, for example, the prophet Daniel. Did Daniel live to see the fulfillment of all the apocalyptic images the Lord gave him? No! Do you think he was blessed by having received them, even though some of them overwhelmed him? Did Daniel live to see the fulfillment of the apocalyptic statue he interpreted for King Nebuchadnezzar? No. Have you been blessed by its fulfillment? I hope you have. Did Daniel live to see the fulfillment of the 70-week prophecy as was given by the Lord in Daniel 9? No. Have you been blessed by seeing its fulfillment despite the dispensationalist misuse of this Christ-exalting fulfilled prophecy? I hope you have. What does Peter write about Daniel and the other prophets? And what they were given apocalyptically and prophetically? Notice what he writes. 1 Peter 1, verses 9. to 12, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, unto whom it was revealed that that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. They wrote these things and they were trying to understand them, even though it would take the coming of Christ for many of these things to be understood correctly. The prophets were looking for the fulfillment of the things they wrote about, even though they were centuries in the future. Especially as so many of them related to the first coming of Christ. Prophecies that the church of John's day, as he was on the Patmos, would have known had been fulfilled. Think of that. As the first century comes to an end, The first century church would have known prophecy after prophecy after prophecy that had been written about in the old covenant now fulfilled. Because what does Matthew repeatedly write? Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying. Believers living when Jesus walked on this earth saw the prophecies given about the Messiah in numerous Old Testament books being fulfilled in their day. So when the churches in the last years of the first century received the book of Revelation from the last living apostle, John, would they have been annoyed or upset that this book of images, much of which would have been a mystery to them as to their precise fulfillment? No! Would this truth have cast down these first century churches? No! This book would be what it was meant to be to all churches of Christ until He returns. A blessing, because as they knew that their beloved John, the Apostle John, was on the Isle of Patmos for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ, they received the book of Revelation. They received the book of Revelation from John, showing them apocalypticly that just as the Lord had not taken His sovereign hand off of human history in the days of Daniel, in the 400 years of prophetic silence before the angel Gabriel announced to Zachariah and Elizabeth that they would be the parents of the promised and prophesied forerunner of the Messiah of God, when they received the book of Revelation, they would rejoice that God was showing them that He'd not taken His hands off of human history, even though the churches had been and were being persecuted by tyrants. Friends, for a person to say, how could the seven churches in Asia be blessed by what John wrote them, unless it all specifically applied to them, would mean that unless a portion of the Word of God was written specifically to you, then the letters to the specific churches in the New Testament could not be applied to teach and bless every gospel-preaching and believing church until Christ returns. including what was written to Old Covenant Israel, Romans 15, 4, for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning that we, through the patience and comfort of the scriptures, might have hope. The patience of the scriptures? Yes, every single jot and tittle is going to be fulfilled. For whatsoever things were written aforetime to the seven churches in Asia were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope in these new corona times. He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, and what is the first thing that the Lord of all human history, past, present, and future, wants the churches of Christ to know, regardless of the date on the calendar. Verse 4, John, to the seven churches which are in Asia and to all subsequent gathered gospel preaching and believing churches, grace be unto you and peace. Grace be unto you and peace. Don't ignore who John declares this grace and peace is from, something I will look at in a moment. But brethren, What is going to get the confessing Church of Christ through these perplexing and troubling new Corona times? Grace be unto you. Grace be unto you. The unmerited, undeserved, impossible to merit, amazing grace of Almighty God. What is going to prevent you, believer, from being swallowed up by the worry and the despair for few who have tyrannically shut down the world's economy want you to ask about the millions who have, are, or will yet be negatively affected even terminally by this shutdown unnecessarily imposed on them for their For have there been more deadly epidemics? Yes. And that did not lead them to shut down the economy of the world. And friends, if you have access to sermon audio dot com, and if you don't have this link, I'll send it to you. I read a portion of this book. It's free. This man is applying history to Corona times and he lists the pandemics and he lists all the various deaths and he just testifies to the greatness and the majesty of God. Yes, those dying from Corona or anything else over the last month is gut wrenching. to those who have had to personally face it. I'm still praying for my brother. His house, 40 years living with his wife, and now she's gone. But friends, what is every death? What is every death? A sobering testimony to the truth that death is the destiny of all men, then the living should take it to heart. What if Corona was to take me out? Am I ready to meet the Lord? But how many have willingly given up their freedoms to try and temporarily prevent something that will happen to us all before the return of the Lord? For it's destined for men once to die and after this to judgment. To adapt a verse from Amos, mankind is fleeing from the lion named Corona only to meet the bear of despair and destruction due to the unprecedented global economic shutdown. Believer, what is going to keep you from being swallowed up by this bear in the hands of the tyrants who tell you that music stores can stay open but not churches? Peace be unto you. Peace be unto you. The peace of God that passes all understanding. Regardless of the times you are living in, believer, regardless of the things you have gone through, are going through, or may yet have to go through, what do you need to remember and believe that you have received from God through the Lord Jesus Christ? Grace and peace. John is imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. And what is the first thing the Holy Spirit wants the churches he is writing to through John to know? Something they've received from God. Grace and peace to you. When Paul wrote his letters to the churches as he was also in prison for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. But how does he open all his letters to the churches? He wrote to while in prison for preaching the gospel or not. But all to all the churches he wrote to and to all the individuals he wrote to with the same benediction. Yes, slightly different. But the same request for the blessings of grace and peace. from the same living, true and only God. The apostle Peter does as well in the two letters he wrote to believers. Believer, regardless of what these new corona days may bring in the sovereignty of God, what do you know you will need every day from the living, true and only God? The things that all believers, even those imprisoned at different times, Peter, John, Paul, all imprisoned by tyrants at different times, knew what every believer needs. His grace and his peace. His grace and his peace. John knew this. Paul knew this. Peter knew this. I ask you, do you? Do you know what you need today? You need the grace and peace found only through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Are you praying for these blessings for me? Because friends, I can get caught up. I can follow rabbit trails and wonder what's going to happen and everything else. I have to ask my wife, Dale, in the morning. I said, OK, we're going to talk about Corona today or we're going to put it on the back burner. There's just so much out there. Are you praying for these blessings for me? Am I praying these blessings for you? His grace is manifested and displayed in my weakness as I struggle with these new confusing times and how to respond to them in a way that glorifies the God who saved me and helps my brothers and sisters in Christ and in Adam. Look, those believers are meeting despite Corona. despite fascist government dictates. Who do they know? Who is so important to them that they're doing this? The God of all grace, who reached down and saved me by that almighty grace, that I might know that I need him every day of my life. His peace is what I need in the midst of these troubling times. Peace in the face of these new corona times. The joy of the Lord is your strength, believer, because of His amazing grace and mercy to you in Christ. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And since I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, I can have peace in the midst of these disturbing and troubling times where the majority are possessed by fear of corona. And devil-deceived and power-mad men are using it to play God. Domitian, you can imprison me on the Isle of Patmos because of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, but you can't prevent, you can't prevent the living God from blessing his people with grace and peace through what he has given me to write to them. for the temporary powers that be and how many lost in America can look at or are looking upon the gathered churches of the Lord Jesus Christ as unimportant. Let's be honest. How many in America today in so-called Christian America are looking upon the gathered churches of the Lord Jesus Christ as unimportant? Less important than a Walmart or a gas station. Don't listen to them, believer. Listen to the living, true, and only God, a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who gave you the book of Revelation for your blessing and your benefits. 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. Believer, let the blind leaders treat man as a soulless descendant of a mythical 555 million year old defecating worm. Because if those in temporary power believe the Bible, the last thing you would see them doing would be hassling any gospel preaching church and teaching The truth of the gospel. The last thing they would be hassling is any gospel preaching church that dared to keep its doors open for any and all who wanted to hear the word of life during corona. But haven't you heard? Abortuaries are essential service and not churches. Don't listen to those in power who treat you as if all you are is animated dust, a few generations removed from the apes. Believe that you are a creature made in the image of the living, true and only God, a Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who saves those who look to his Son alone for acceptance with him. Remember and believe who it is that gives you, believer, the grace and the peace you need today and every day. The God that John wants you to know you are receiving grace and peace from. From God the Father, through the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit, due to the finished work of God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, the living God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is able to bless you with His grace, with His peace, regardless of the date on the calendar or what is happening during the days that you're living in. How many who have faithfully recited the American mantra, One nation under God at their now closed, idle fests of too many flavors for me to list are now filled with fear and not faith. Because they use the word God as a talisman, as a rabbit's foot, to help them make it through the night, but not through these new corona times. Because they're looking to the government to save them! And they're looking to the government to protect them! Not to Jesus Christ! But you, believer, have eternal life. You have eternal life. John 17, 3, And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. You know the God who has blessed you, believer, with His amazing grace and peace. One God in three persons, God the Father, grace and peace from Him, which is, and which was, and which is to come. Believers can call God our Father, which is in heaven today. Do we? Believers know the true and only God through the regenerating power of God the Holy Spirit in the midst of every trial and tribulation known to man, including these new Corona times. Do we? Believers in the living, true, and only God, come boldly unto his throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help them in these corona times through your one and only high priest, believer of the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work of penal substitution. God the Son took sinless humanity into union with his eternal deity so that he could die upon his cross to enable God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit to bless you With his grace and his peace, every day you live on this dying earth. God, the Holy Spirit, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne. How was John able to open up history apocalyptically? Because the perfect spirit of God who knows all things, being God, knowing even the deep things of God, revealed them to John for your blessing and your benefit, believer. Those behind these new corona times, the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly realms, want to banish from your mind, believer, the ability of the Holy Spirit to give you the wisdom and strength that you need to fight the good fight of faith in these new times that may never go back to being the way they were before. Remember, believer, these new times are not outside His sovereign oversight and knowledge, even as John, being a prisoner on the Isle of Patmos for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, were not. But how is God the Father able to illuminate your spiritually depraved and dead mind with His grace and peace and justly through the regenerating grace and mercy of the Holy Spirit at verse 5? 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." Brethren, I'll have to return to this verse. Believer, these new corona times cannot change what the Lord did for you, believer, when he said, it is finished. He loved you, believer, and washed you from your sins in his own blood 2,000 years ago, believer, and showed you that his finished work was effective and acceptable to God by rising from the dead. given over to death for our sins and raised to life for our justification. Believe the biblical gospel of God, and every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday. Believer, who can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus your Lord? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, or corona, Are you persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor death, nor any other creature shall be able to separate you from the love of God, the love of God that he has for those through his only begotten Son? Grace and peace be unto you, believer, from the Father through the regenerating power of the Spirit because of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Brethren, these Corona times are not times to forget the grace and peace you have received from God through Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, but to remember them and feed your soul on them. Are you? Let us pray. Oh Lord, in these times, when man is being treated as nothing but physical, physical problems with physical dangerous solutions. We acknowledge, O Lord, that You are the living God of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and You have made us in Your image so we are not just bodies, we are body and soul. And in the mystery, the wonder, the amazement of Your grace and mercy, You reach down and lifted us up out of that miry clay of our own depravity, our own wickedness, our own sinfulness, and showed us the glory of the Lord in the face of Jesus Christ, and that we had to cry out, Lord, have mercy upon me, a sinner. And so, Lord, how I thank you for the grace and peace you want each one of your people gathered in this place today to have. May you minister to them abundantly. Not only today, but however many days you are pleased to give them in this very changed world. But we thank you, O Lord, that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, the same today, the same forever, even as we look for his coming. Guide us by your grace, mercy, and peace. We ask in the one through whom alone we have received it, your beloved Son. Amen.