One of the sermon topics that was requested was sermons on the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. And I thought, wow, that's a big request, seven requests in one. But I decided that that would be a wonderful thing to do as I thought about it, that it's something I think that could be very useful for our congregation at this time to look at these letters and As I started working on the sermon, then I was thinking I might jump in Chapter 2 and get going there. I started looking at Chapter 1 a little bit, thinking I want to do a little bit of an introduction here. As I got into Chapter 1, I thought, wow, this is really good stuff here. I'm gonna do two sermons here and then work a little bit more. I think I'm gonna do three sermons in the first chapter. And so, yeah, I'm not gonna even call this the Suggested Topics Sermon Series anymore. That's how it got started. But this is just a series in Revelation that we're starting. And I don't know how far we're gonna go. We're gonna go at least through the seven churches, Lord willing, and then maybe on after that. I don't know. It's kind of a daunting thing to think about preaching revelation, because there's so many things that are not so clear. As I've said to you before, you can look at it in the historicist way, you can look at it in a preterist way, and I see good arguments for all that. But you don't necessarily have to know all that to be able to benefit from this book. And that's what we really want to do. It's God's word, and it comes to us in a way that can definitely bless us. So again, I think there's some important things here for our congregation, and I'm very glad that you're here to hear this, and I encourage other people to come. We wanna see a better attendance in our services. So let's go ahead and read our text. It's Revelation 1, 1 through 3. Here is the word of God. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants, things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is near. Here we end the reading of God's word. Thanks be to the Lord for his holy word. So this book opens with the declaration that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Those are the opening words, aren't they? The revelation of Jesus Christ. That's how it opens. There's nothing better for us than to learn of Christ. And of course, in the original language as well as in our own, the revelation of Jesus Christ can have different meanings. It can be the revelation that Jesus has, the revelation of Him to give to us, or it can be revelation about Him. And I think that it's kinda hard to tell here. I think it covers both of those things, really, as we'll see as we look at this. So it is a revelation of Christ himself especially. The word translated revelation is apocalypsis. So sometimes this book is called the Apocalypse. You've probably heard it called that before. It refers to an uncovering of something that By human abilities, we wouldn't be able to decipher, we wouldn't know, it has to be revealed to us. And so it's an uncovering of things that are beyond our access, that God gives us access to through the apocalypsis. So it's a revelation of things that we can't find out by ourselves, I guess you'd say. Much of it shows us, this book shows us what is going on in heaven. On the other side of the curtain, as it were, with angels and demons and things like that. So sometimes they're coming up, seem to be coming up out of the Earth and that kind of thing. And how this affects or will affect what happens on Earth. So we kind of get this picture of things that we cannot see ourselves, of things that are going on up there, out there. whatever, that the curtain is pulled back so that we can see that all this activity is going on that is affecting what is happening here. Kind of get behind the scenes. The best part of this, of course, is that it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And when you think about how Christ is revealed to us in the scriptures, we have the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And they tell us about Jesus and his ministry when he was here on the earth. The things that he did when he walked among us. And we see how he came and lived among us and trained up his disciples and how he went to the cross for us. And we see the care that he has in that way in his work. What was he like here in the flesh? Well, now we get this other book you see, Revelation. And now we get to see, okay, well, what's he doing now? He went up there. What's he doing there? We're told that he's reigning, that he's sitting at the right hand of God to reign, making all of his enemies, till all of his enemies are made his footstool. He's active and bringing about saving people and judging nations and raising up nations, bringing them down. And when we get a window into this book, we see that he's kind of up there the father and the son, controlling all of these things. And he's doing it through a whole host of agents, whether it's rulers on the earth or angelic beings, demons, all kinds of different ones. He's orchestrating all of this that is going on. And so we get a window that he's actively engaged in what is happening between the time that he went up there until the time that he comes back here. at the end of the age. This book tells us, it really shows us the reign of Jesus in heaven. And when we think about these seven churches, what is it showing us there? It's showing us that he's intimately involved in caring for those churches. From his seat in heaven, he sees everything that they're doing the good things and the bad things, and he notices it, he comments on it. He does not miss a single thing about any of these seven churches. He is even mindful of each individual, and he makes special promises at the end of each of those letters to the seven churches, special promises to those who overcome. So he recognizes that sometimes believers are in a really bad place with like a really bad congregation situation going on. It's going really wrong downhill. And he has a blessing for those among them that overcome. So that not only does he know all about the church and what's going on with it, but he also knows about what each individual is doing, how they're responding, and what's going on with them. later on in Revelation, then we're shown Jesus reigning in heaven. We're shown pictures and images of this in Revelation of him reigning in heaven. We see him carrying out God's plan to at last bring everything under his feet. So we see him dispensing things and restraining things and bringing about things that are all marching toward this purpose where he at last is, every knee bows and every tongue confesses that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. He's reigning over all things. It brings about that purpose in a very measured way, a sovereign way that he's working everything out. So there's tremendous comfort for us in a world that seems to be random and uncertain and running crazy. that he is up there reigning and doing what needs to be done. We're shown what is happening in heaven because there are a lot of times when on earth we're in very tough times and it looks like everything is going wrong. He shows us in this book that it's all planned. I mean, it's progressing as planned. The book shows us that there's lots of times like that when everything on earth is very, very chaotic, and it's deliberately orchestrated that way. He's telling us ahead of time that this is what he's going to do. Times when the church is in really bad shape, times when their enemies have the upper hand, and it looks like everything is gonna just completely be dashed to pieces and crushed, Demons are let loose. In His sovereign plan, a seal is opened, and then demons are unleashed and come out into the world and wreak all kinds of havoc. And lead all kinds of deception. This is all part of His plan. It's just times when rulers of the earth are given power to almost seem to completely wipe out the church, and yet the church goes on, and in the end, there is victory. And looking behind the scenes where Christ is, we see all of this is but the unfolding plan of the Lord. God's bringing about his purpose through him and because of him. He is operating, now let's think about this, he's operating very much the way he did of old. If you go back and you look at the time of Moses coming to Egypt and everything, what happened there? God tells us, I raised Pharaoh up. He tells Pharaoh himself, I raised you up for this purpose so I might make my power known. In other words, he planned for Pharaoh to be really strong and oppressive and to give him power to do that because he was revealing his glory to the whole world and to his people in particular in delivering them out of Egypt. And then he brings them out of Egypt, what happens? They end up in the wilderness for 40 years, instead of just going straight on to Egypt. I mean, straight on to the promised land, straight on to Canaan. And then they come to the land, and they're supposed to conquer everything, but it's always imperfectly that they do that. And there's always enemies, they're always doing stupid things, they're multiplying wives and end up having division in their kingdom, whatever. Even though the enemies arise and become very powerful, The world is not running out of control. Jesus is reigning. So what we see is he's operating now the way he did then. And to add still more to our comfort, we're told repeatedly that the things written here will not be delayed. Verse one calls them things that will shortly take place. And verse three says, the time is at hand. That tells us two things. One thing it tells us is that he got started with this stuff right away. Like as soon as he went there, he began to carry out his purpose and plan from there. There was an unfolding of all these, an unleashing of the plan that he had. And the other thing it tells us is that the whole plan, which speaks of thousand-year reigns and all of those kind of things, it seems like a long time, but that it is not delayed. It is unfolding very orderly, very methodically, and very quickly. according to exactly what he wants to happen. Him to whom a thousand years is as one day, and one day is a thousand years. Peter has already written and said this and told us that scoffers will come who will say, where's the promise of his coming? What happened to him? So this was all anticipated that this was gonna happen. It's not like God got caught by surprise. Man, it's taking me longer than I thought. I thought I was gonna do this sooner. But he tells us that people are going to say that, and that's how it's going to be. And Revelation shows us that there's thousand year periods here that are talked about. And perhaps more to the point of this book, he has his great plan to carry out that involves the rise and fall of many powers in the world and the releasing and restraining of demons and wicked rulers. All is happening exactly according to his plan without delay, even though it takes a long time from our perspective. It is for us then to trust him as we see signified to us through the signs and things that are in this book, the reign and merit of our Lord Jesus Christ as he reigns in glory. Because of his merit and what he did on the cross, we see later that This plan is able to be unfolded. Remember, they weep at first because there's no one that's worthy to open the scrolls and like set these things, these decrees of God to for them to go forward. But then the lamb that was slain appears. So in this book, we see what the father is doing. You see what Jesus is doing to establish his kingdom, that the kingdoms of this world might become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ. Now let's look at the chain that is used to bring this revelation of Jesus Christ to us, from God to us, if we are God's servants. It goes from God, this is the chain, from God to Jesus, to an angel, to John, to all of God's servants. That's the chain that we see. from God to Jesus, to an angel, to John, to God's servants. Look at the first verse again. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him, Jesus, to show his servants, us, that's the ultimate, that's the ends of it, things which must shortly take place. And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant, John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ to all things that he saw. So let's go through this. It starts off with God giving this revelation of Jesus to who? To Jesus. Now we might say, well, why would that be necessary? Jesus is the very son of God. Doesn't Jesus know all things? As the son of God, he does, but he has a human nature. He still has a human nature. And the answer is that in that human nature, he does not know. all that is to unfold until he's told. As God the son, he knew, but as the son of man who became flesh, he told us, I don't know the day and hour that it's not been shown to him yet. He knew that he would reign until all of his enemies were put under his feet. I mean, anybody that read the Bible knew that at that time. He knew that. And he knew that the father had given all judgment into his hand. He told us that that was so. But he had to learn those things when he was here as a human, because he didn't even exist as a human before that. He existed as a son of God, but he came here in the flesh. He had a beginning in human flesh, and he had to grow and learn. He grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God. And so, then when he went to glory, the Father showed him what his reign would entail here at the beginning of Revelation, we're told this. And we're told that the Father gave this to him to show to us. Notice how it says, to show to his servants. That language is deliberate. It could be translated, the word show could be translated to signify to his servants. What does this book use? It uses signs and symbols and visions of things to show us what is happening. They're not actual, we're not watching something that's actually happening, but we're seeing visions of things that are going to happen. Some of them may be things that are actually happening, but mostly it's things that are going to happen. Things like candlesticks. that represent churches and things like that with Jesus among them and caring for them. So a church isn't a candlestick. Jesus is walking around in a candlestick. It's symbolic of him with his churches caring for them. And then, now let's get back to the chain though, okay? So what comes next in the chain? The father shows it to Jesus, that's what we were just talking about, eventually to show to us. But Jesus gives this revelation about him to get it to us, he gives it first to an angel, it says. And what does this show us? We're reminded by this, and by this book in general, that angels are very much involved in the work that God does on earth through Jesus. We are not to get overly caught up in what has not been revealed and start speculating about angels and coming up with all kinds of theories and different things. Nor are we to worship angels or to try to communicate with them. But we are shown in scripture very clearly that they are very much a part of what God is doing here on the earth. They minister salvation to us, we're told. Both holy angels as well as fallen angels, Satan and his hosts, are used in God's sovereign plan. The holy angels are seen to work with godly leaders in the church and godly leaders in government. And the fallen angels are seen to work in conjunction with wicked leaders and rulers on the earth and false prophets and teachers and such. So Jesus delivers the plan to this angel. And then the angel is the one who presents this revelation to John. The Lord often uses angels to bring revelation to prophets. The Jews had an understanding of that in the Old Testament when the Ten Commandments were given, that it was done in the hand of angels. It was from God to his people, but through angels to Moses. The Son of God himself is called the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. He's the one who visited Abraham. He came with another angel as well. The word angel actually means messenger. It's wonderful then, with all of this, to see how the Lord delights in using various agents along the way in doing his work. He might have spoken directly to John. I mean, why didn't he just, if God wanted to communicate this, why didn't he just come and talk to John? Just give it straight to him. Why all this chain going on? Why proceed in this way? Our gracious Lord shows us that in the establishment of his kingdom, his son is involved, Angels are involved, apostles are involved, and all the rest of us have a part. we have an integral part to play. Sometimes when I was younger, and sometimes still, I wish the Lord would just go on and make his people right. Just go on and do it. Why are you piddling around? You can make us holy, just do it. Why do we have to go through all of this? He has the power. Why doesn't he just perfect everyone all at once? I want a business model efficiency. Let's get this done in the most efficient way possible. Just zap us. But the longer I go on with him, the more I realize that his way is a much better way. Yes, he involves us all. Our prayers are really involved in the process. We say, well, sometimes it seems like they're not answered. Our labors, sometimes it seems like I labor in vain. Jesus said that. Am I laboring in vain here? Our words, our examples, our deeds, all of this goes on and all that goes on in the realms above. Angels are doing a bunch of stuff that all has a part that if they didn't do it, it wouldn't get done. In this way, he engages us all in his work and we're drawn in and we learn so much more of him in this way than we would learn of him if he just gave us the zap job. So boring that way. God doesn't do things in a boring way. He makes it into a great outworking that we come to know him, we wrestle through and we learn of him. So John in receiving this revelation is shown and guided along by the ministry of angels. So we receive this book. Yes, from God. Yes, from Jesus. But it comes from an angel, too. He was in the middle, in between. And then John the Apostle, he's the one that, of course, presents it to us. So John then passes it on to us, and that's the next step. John passes it along to us, and he does it faithfully. Look at how he expresses it, starting at the middle of verse one. Cuz we might say, okay, God, the Father's gonna get it right. God, the Son is gonna get it right. The angel will probably get it right too, the holy angel. But what about this guy, John? Is he gonna be able to communicate this to us the way it needs to be communicated? And so John, starting in the middle of verse one, he says, and he, Jesus, talking about Jesus, sent and signified it by his angel to his servant, John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, all things that he saw. Now with these words, John assures us that what is written in this book is from him, John, as an official apostle, one who is sent by the Lord, appointed by him, and therefore guided by his spirit, so that he did a good job. What we have in this book, John recognizes to be holy scripture that we can rely upon. The apostles knew that they were giving holy scriptures and the people who received these scriptures knew that there were holy scriptures at the time. Don't ever believe the people that say that it was 300 years later that they came to get, that was when they said, which books are the ones that really are authentic and hammered out and discussed that and evaluated it. But right from the time they came in their hands, They knew that this was the inspired word of God. We see testimony of that through the scriptures itself and what they say about their own writings. And this is one of the places, because John says, this message is so reliable, so pure. It is from God. I'm bearing faithful witness to you of what I saw that you will be blessed if you receive the word that I'm giving you here. Okay, and so from John then, it comes to its final destination, which is, as verse one tells us as well, to God's servants. And who are they? Well, these are the ones who are born again. The ones to whom the word of God came with power and conviction so that they knew it to be the word of God. They heard in this word and the Word of God in general, they heard it as from God and responded to it as from God. It's that which brings salvation, that which has saving power. They have seen by this Word that they are estranged from God because of their sin, so much so that they're cut off from His blessing and sentenced to eternal death. But they have also seen That the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood to atone for their sins. That they might, through faith in him, have complete forgiveness and justification. And that by his saving work, the spirit is given to them to deliver them from bondage to sin and give them a new life. They have by that saving power responded to his call. to repent and believe the gospel. And they have come. And so now what are they called here? They're called the servants of God. Because now they do what every human should do, they serve God. They are in, as we looked at this morning, they are in their proper place with lives now yielded to God as God. Lives now trusting God as their God. Serving God as their God. Loving God as their God. Worshiping God as their God. Because the power of the gospel has rescued them from bondage to sin. It is to them that this message comes again so that they can see what their savior is doing in heaven. It is to you, the servants of God, that you might know what your Lord is doing now that he has gone to reign in glory. This book is to us then a great blessing. as the servants of God, but only upon certain conditions is it a blessing. What are those conditions? Verse three tells us, Revelation 1.3, blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it, for the time is near. Now we have to put out, in other words, we have to put out some effort. It's not just, this revelation is not just a blessing for existing. Okay, we've got a Bible, and it's not just a blessing for existing. Here we've got words on a page that's the word of God. No, it's a blessing for those who are diligent in seeking to understand it and apply it. Like it says in Proverbs 2, You don't get wisdom and discernment unless you search for it as for a treasure. If you don't care what God says, if you don't fear the Lord and what He says to you doesn't matter to you, you're not going to get anything out of His word. It'll just be a boring thing to you. You have to yearn to know God, to know what He wants, and to come to His word with that kind of desire. If you're indifferent and don't think it matters, you won't get a thing out of it. You can hang out at church for 30 years and get nothing out of it whatsoever. The blessing is for those who are eager enough to work hard to understand. This is not an easy book. It's intimidating to preach from it. But if there is a blessing to be found in this book, I want to get that blessing. And I think you will see that there is a great blessing here in the things that we're looking at. It tells you three things that you must do if you're to be blessed by this book. First of all, you must read it. Sometimes people buy a book and they think they're smart because they have lots of books on their shelf. You don't get smart from having a bunch of books on your shelf. You don't learn anything unless you read the books. This should be obvious, but sometimes it's not so obvious to us. The blessing only comes to those who read, and it comes because this is the word of God. Now, if you're worried about people that, and a lot of people that couldn't read, that were illiterate through the ages, but God ordained the reading of his word in church. And so people could hear it read in church. And I think about an elder that was at John Brown of Haddington's church. He was a man that was illiterate, and he was an elder. And the reason he was an elder is because he had the whole Bible memorized. How did he memorize the Bible? He heard it read, and so he memorized it. Because it was that significant to him. And so then he could, better than us, he didn't have to get his Bible out and say, what is that passage? I think there's something, he just, just like that. And so what was with that man? This was so important to him that he was able to remember it when he heard it read. Now, a lot of people wouldn't even have that ability, but, I mean, even if we don't, today, we've got things like audio Bibles, too, where we can get someone to read to us, you know, or hear it in our family. The first thing, then, is that you must read it. And God has always revealed himself through written prophecies. I mean, not always, in the very, very early time, but he's done that all along the way. Second, it says that you must hear it. When you read, you need to take it in. You have to receive it into your life and understanding. Parents talk to their children this way sometimes, don't they? They say, now listen, if you don't hear me, You're going to be chastened. You didn't hear me last time. And what do they mean? Well, you heard the sound of my voice. Well, I heard you. Well, that's the problem. Yeah, you heard and you didn't do it. That's what you mean. By hear, you mean hear as to do. With Revelation, it has much that we are to believe. So it's not only here to do, but also here to believe. It's interesting the word that's used here is to keep. It gives us a view of things that are a blessing for us to know and things that will shape the way we live. If we hear them, believing them, hear them, obeying them, it's going to shape how we live. So that's the third thing, is that you keep. It says that we must keep those things that are written in it. They need to become a part of what you believe that shapes how you live. Now, most people don't have the ability to remember as well as that illiterate man that I told you about. But if something is important enough to them, then they can remember a whole lot of what they hear. You have a kid at school who says that he can't remember his history lesson. He has a terrible time remembering his history lessons. But if he gets interested in getting a new bicycle, He can remember all the different brands and everything. It's really boring to someone else that's not interested. It's got this big old list of all these different brands. It's like a stupid name list. What does that have to do with anything? And he can explain about the different kinds of brakes that these bicycles have, and why this one is better, and this one works better in the rain, or whatever it is. He could talk about different gear ratios, get into all kinds of different things. And you can buy this particular. you know, break or whatever, it's not always just remembering the details though either. It's also taking in, as we study this book especially, it's taking in impressions that are given to us of the majesty of God given to us in this book so that you can think more accurately about God who is majestic and over all things. That will affect how you look at current events, won't it? If you see the majesty of God in this book and he's reigning over all of this, then when you look at current events, instead of getting afraid and thinking that everything is spoiled and everything is ruined and everything's gonna go awry, you will trust God. knowing that he's in control. It will affect your obedience and service. If you see that he's reigning and that he knows everything and that he's dealing with us according to how we respond to him and what we do, it's gonna change the way you live and your service. You will trust, obey, and serve God when you keep the impression of his majesty that you get from reading and heeding and keeping what is in this book. An impression of his majesty, that example I just used, is but one of many examples that you can use of the impression that you might get of God. If you fear God, these impressions will stick, okay? If you don't fear God, then you might have the impression at the moment that you're looking at it, and then you'll walk away and forget about it, it won't shape your life at all. So blessed is he who keeps these things. That impression of what you learned about God and his majesty stays with you so that three years later, you still have an impression of the majesty of God, even if you can't remember the details of this book that affects the way that you live. That's what I'm saying. So I ask you, do you want to receive a blessing from this book and from the word of God in general? There's an easy way to tell whether or not you want that. What is that? If you read it, if you hear it, and if you keep the things that are written in it, then you show that you truly do want God's blessing. And you will be blessed. It doesn't mean much to you to have, if it doesn't mean much to you to have a blessing from this book, then you won't pay much attention to it. It will go, as the saying goes, in one ear and right out the other. You won't read it at home. You won't talk to other people about it. You won't talk to your friends about it. You won't talk to your family about it. You won't talk to your siblings about it. You might not even think about it. You might not even think about it right when you're hearing it at church. You might be thinking about everything else. I was that way before I was converted. I went to church every week. And I would think about my woodworking project I was into, or sports, or something that I wanted to buy, maybe a new racetrack I wanted to get or something, you know, whatever it was. And this sermon's going on. And it was not until God changed my heart and I trusted in Jesus Christ that I became engaged. in God's word, and I started listening and taking it in, and it began to shape my life. The real key is this. We were told in verse one that this book was given to God's servant. You are not one of God's servants unless you're regenerated by his spirit. If you're still not reconciled to God, if you've never seen that you're a sinner who has cut off from God, if that's never made an impression on you, and never turned to Jesus for forgiveness, you've never seen that you need a savior and actually turned to him, that you might be restored to God, then you simply aren't interested. You're not interested in the things of God. You're not interested in this book and what it says. At least not interested in the right way. Some people can get curious about stuff and kind of look at it kind of a hobby or something. But you're not interested in the way that you need to be interested in it. Yes, it is only after you have trusted in Jesus to save you that you can be called one of God's servants. And when you are his servant, you're eager to please your Lord and your master. You love him. And you want to know him, worship him, learn of him, obey him and serve him. And that's true of you. That's what you want. This book will be a tremendous blessing and help to you. If not, it won't do any good unless God's spirit uses it to to lay hold of you for salvation. May each one of you then know the blessing of this book as you diligently read here and keep what is written here about our Lord. I'm thrilled to have the privilege to present the things that are in the first three chapters of this book of God Enables. I look forward to that. We'll pick up from here next week and continue on. And I encourage you, read this book. Read it as we go through it and think about it, meditate on it, talk about it. Let's ask God to help us. Please stand. Gracious Heavenly Father, how we praise you and thank you that you have given us your powerful word and that it does have a profound effect on us. We thank you that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. We have revelation about him throughout the scriptures. In the gospels, we have the revelation about his life when he came here in the flesh, what he did, why he did it, what the implications are, what it means for us, how it brought salvation to us, what he did on the cross, how he ascended up into heaven to sit at your right hand. But here in Revelation, we get to see what he's doing now. We get to see how he's intimately involved. with his churches, these seven churches that he knows everything about them, just teach us that he knows everything about every single church in the world in that same way. And we praise you, Lord, that you are like that, that you're involved with us, and you know about every individual, and what every individual is doing, and how they're responding, and what they're thinking, what they're doing with the revelation that you have given. And oh, Lord, I pray that you would awaken Awaken each one that is here, Lord, in our congregation. Awaken those that are not here. And Father, that they would come to delight in your word and to rejoice in the things that you have given to your people. And Father, to receive them as your servants who serve you, your servants who want to trust you as their God, who do trust you as their God, who want to obey you, who want to do the things that are pleasing in your sight, who want to talk of you and to to tell others of of what you have done. We pray, Lord, that this would be a reality for all of us. Our eyes are on you, Lord. We're here looking to you to trust in you. You are our hope. You are our salvation. We thank you for your graciousness and giving us what we need. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Our song of response is number 57 B. 57 Lord our God. Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come from the seven spirits who are before his throne and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. His blessing be upon you. Amen. Amen.