Thank you, Violet. And let's open our Bibles to Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. And tonight we want to begin reading this book by just looking at the very first expression in it. The revelation of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this time that we have to open your word together that we might better understand this book, Lord, and apply it to our lives to receive blessing from it. So just teach us now, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. We're going to be in the Book of Revelation for some time, but I thought I would just spend a few minutes tonight making some introductory remarks about the book. Some things that you might not think are all that important, but hopefully as we go through this material, you'll see the importance of it. And the first thing we want to talk about is the date of the book. I know everybody, Jeff just said everybody's weary and tired and surely that's going to put everybody to sleep. But it's important and so hopefully we can hang in there and see the importance of it. The revelation of John, written by John, It was written about 90, 95 AD, somewhere in that area, and that's the traditional date for the book, and it's very well established, and it's not my purpose tonight to prove that's the date when it was written. But I want to take a few minutes to talk about the date because in recent years there has been a real push in Christendom to reject that date for the book of Revelation. And there are two groups that have in recent years in my lifetime been pushing for an earlier date and they They've concluded somehow that the book must have been written in 60 A.D. and not 90 or 95 A.D. One of those groups called Christian Reconstructionism was very popular in the 1980s, and they believed that Christianity would gain prominence in the world and it would take over governments. And eventually they would turn the nations to righteousness and the kingdom would be brought in. And that was popularized by a man named John Rush Dooney. Some of you might remember that name. He was a staunch Calvinist. And what they really wanted to do was turn the United States government over to using the Ten Commandments as the law of the land, including Executing homosexuals and adulterers. That would be a lot of people. That was their view. They felt that the country was going in the wrong direction and they were dead right, but their methodology was dead wrong. They wanted to put the whole country under the law of Moses. It wasn't successful in Israel, and it won't work today. The law could never change a hot. That was not the purpose of it. And around that same time in this country, there was a group that followers of Jerry Falwell, the moral majority. And they also believed, and he was the founder of Liberty University, and they believed that the United States, the Christians in the United States, should gain in political clout if they were going to turn the country around and bring it back to God. And Christianity in those days was gaining popularity, and they were gaining political clout, and they were the key voting bloc that put President Reagan into office. However, reading the Book of Revelation was discouraging for them because it didn't fit their theology. Their worldview did not fit the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation said that in the future, this world is not going to be getting better and better. In fact, the worst period of history the world has ever seen or ever will see is what lies ahead for us as A nation in the world, the tribulation period. So Christianity, according to the book of Revelation, is never going to continue gaining popularity and political clout until it rules the world. That will require the second coming of Christ. So it's never going to happen in our lifetime. So that group, the Christian Reconstructionism, that was their view. And another view that's more popular today and gaining popularity is a group of believers called Preterists. And that word preter, it's a Latin word, it means something from the past. And this group, one prominent author is Kenneth Gentry, and he defined preterists for it, and he did an excellent job. He is one, he should know. And here's his definition. except for at the very end, but for the most part, his definition is right on target. He said preterist means past in fulfillment and futurist, and that's what we would be. We believe the book of Revelation speaks of their prophecies about the future, not history of the past. And futurist means a future in fulfillment. So that's our view, that the book of Revelation is prophecy, and someday in the future it will be fulfilled. Futurists believe that most end time prophecies, except especially the three big events, the second coming, the resurrection, and the judgment, are yet to be fulfilled. And that's right, that's exactly what we as futurists do believe. But preterists, and I'm still quoting him here, preterists believe that most or all of Bible prophecy, especially the big three events, have already been fulfilled in Christ and the ongoing expansion of his eternal kingdom." End quote. So here he defines preterists as those who believe that the book of Revelation has already been fulfilled. And their view is that Revelation, the prophecies, were prophetic when they were written, but they've already been fulfilled in 70 A.D. with the destruction of Jerusalem. And therefore, their view is that the book of Revelation was written in A.D. 60, and they need that date, or their system just doesn't hold water. So they believe that the Book of Revelation was prophetic when it was written in 60 AD, but it was fulfilled in 70 AD. And while Christian Reconstructionism has pretty much died out, preterists and partial preterists are on the rise today. And by the way, this has been the view of the Roman Catholic Church for many years and for many Protestant denominations. And it's had a resurgence among leading Calvinists today, such as R.C. Sproul, who's with the Lord now, and Kenneth Gentry and others. And Gentry marks our view of Revelation, that it's prophecy to be fulfilled in the future. And listen to what he says. Is the end of the world near? Are we living in the last days? Is Christ's return at hand? For 150 years here in America, we've been constantly told that we're living on the threshold of the end of the world and Christ's return. Prediction after prediction has failed to materialize. False hope after false hope has been foisted upon the Christian community. Does that sound familiar to you? It sounded very much like what Peter wrote in his second epistle, knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. We don't see any predictions coming true. Well, that's the view of a growing number of evangelicals today. And what difference does it make to us? Well, the date is important. They need a date of 60 A.D. in order to support their view that the Book of Revelation was fulfilled in 70 A.D. If it was really written in 90 or 95 A.D., then that totally undermines the whole premise of their argument. And so the date of the Book of Revelation has taken on new importance in our day and age. And this view, preterism, is held not by all but by many Reformed men. And they believe that when the Lord destroyed, when he used the Roman army to destroy Jerusalem and to knock down the temple and to destroy and kill a million Jews, their view is, and this is predominant in Christendom today, in believing Christendom, their view is that when God rejected Israel, when God judged Israel, the church replaced Israel in God's program for the future, and that God has no future for Israel. Instead, the promises in the Old Testament that God made to Israel, and they were unconditional promises when God made them, their view is that God washed his hands, the Jews rejected their Messiah, they had him crucified, so God is done with Israel. He's not going to keep his promises to them. Instead, God will fulfill his promises in the church spiritually. And that's their view. Now the traditional date for the book of Revelation, 90-95 AD, would make their whole view null and void. Because you can't claim that Revelation was fulfilled in 70 AD if the predictions of it being fulfilled were in 90 AD. And so their view is that the book of Revelation is now history. It's not prophecy of something to be fulfilled in the future, but now they see it as allegorical history of events that took place in the first century. And they don't see it as a book of prophecy yet to be fulfilled. And yet, if you're in Revelation 1, look in verse 3. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy. So this is a prophecy. It was when it was written, and it still is today, because we'll see very clearly as we go on, these events have not happened yet. These prophetic utterances have not happened. So it's kind of absurd to claim that Revelation is not a book of prophecy. It begins with the words describing it as words of prophecy, and it ends also in Revelation 22. For I testify to every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. And if you take away from the words of the prophecy of this book, God will take your part out of the book of life. So these words are prophetic. They were prophetic when they were written. They have never been fulfilled. And so the fulfillment, we look ahead to the future for their fulfillment, and that's why we're referred to as futurists. So the date is important. Now let's look at the title of the book. We're going to spend most of our time looking at the title. It says in our English King James Version, the Revelation of Saint John the Divine. A better title, those words by the way are not part of the original text, they were not inspired, they were added as were the chapter division. I think a better title for the Book of Revelation would not be the Revelation of Saint John the Divine, but rather the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Those words are inspired. And so the book opens up with the word, the first word in the book is apocalypsis. And this word means an unveiling, a disclosure. Now, commonly people use the word apocalypse as judgments and horrific tragedies and calamities and the skies are falling and those sorts of things. But the word apocalypse doesn't mean judgment, it means an unveiling, a revealing. It's a removal of ignorance and darkness. And it's exactly the opposite of the term mysterion in the New Testament, which means a mystery. Now, mysteries were truths that were known in the mind and heart of God, but were kept secret until the New Testament authors revealed them in the New Testament. So a mystery was something that had been hidden, it had been veiled, it had been covered up. But an apocalypse is something that is opened up, it's unveiled, it's manifested, it's made known. And that's the first word in this book. The revelation, the uncovering of God's plan. So this is the term. In 2nd Corinthians, in chapter 3, in verse 13, Paul used the word, the root word, when he said, Moses put a veil over his face. And that word veil has the root of apocalypsis, except it doesn't have the prefix on it. So that word veiled means covered up or veiled, so you're not able to see. Apocalypsis has a little prefix in front of it that means from or away from or removed from. And so the idea of an apocalypse is the removal of the cover so that we can see and know and understand. It's the taking away of the veil. And that's the first word in the book of the Revelation. And so why do we make a big deal out of the title of the book? Well again, throughout Church history, throughout much of Church history, it wasn't the case in the first century and a little beyond, but throughout most, I would say most of Church history, the meaning of the Book of Revelation has been as good as veiled or covered up. It was not understood. It was not studied. And for the most part, Even godly men throughout most of the church history looked at the book of Revelation and they were confused by it and they didn't give it the study that it deserved. And as a result, it might as well have been a closed book for centuries and centuries. The word means not a closed book, it means it's open. It's a revelation of truth, not a concealing of truth. The truth is no longer, these truths are no longer veiled in the mind and heart of God. Now they're open and God wants us to study it and read it and understand it. God does not want us to be ignorant of the book of Revelation. And if you are consistent and faithful in coming out to evening service, as long as it takes us to go through Revelation, I can guarantee you that a sixth grader would be able to understand the gist of this book. I'm not saying you're sixth grade level, but I'm just saying that if they could do it, we could all do it. So these truths are not Some of them are difficult, but overall, the gist of this book is knowable, and that's what I want to communicate tonight. Like all scripture, it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God, or the woman of God, may be perfect, whole, throughly furnished unto all good works." So this book is not concealed, it's a revelation. And it's not for our confusion, it's for our edification. Now why do I say that for throughout much of church history that this book was ignored? Well, I'm going to quote a few men who are my heroes and hopefully yours too. Martin Luther. In 1522, he wrote a translation of the Book of Revelation. He did the whole New Testament. And in the preface to his translation of the Book of Revelation, I'm going to read three kind of lengthy quotes, because it's helpful for us to understand what men during the Reformation, in those ages when Rome had the church under its thumb, And here's what Martin Luther thought of the book of Revelation. He writes, and I quote, I say what I feel. I miss more than one thing in this book, and it makes me consider it to be neither apostolic nor prophetic. So he doesn't think it's future prophecy, and he said he also doesn't think it was written by an apostle, even though John said he wrote the book, in the book. Another quote, first and foremost, the apostles do not deal with visions, but prophesy in clear and plain words, as do Peter and Paul and Christ in the gospel. For it befits the apostolic office to speak clearly of Christ and his deeds without images and visions. Moreover, there is no prophet in the Old Testament to say nothing of the new who deals so exclusively with visions and images. For myself, I think it approximates the fourth book of Esdras, a non-canonical book. The fourth book of Esdras, I can in no way detect the Holy Spirit produced it. So he doesn't believe it was inspired by God, he didn't believe that it was part of scripture, he didn't believe an apostle wrote it, and he didn't believe it was prophecy. Here's another quote by Martin Luther. My spirit cannot accommodate itself to this book. For me, for this reason is enough not to think highly of it. Christ is neither taught nor known in it. Amazing! that he could say that in the book that's called The Revelation of Jesus Christ. Christ is neither taught nor known in it, but to teach Christ, this is the thing which an apostle is bound above all else to do, as it says in Acts 1-8. You shall be my witnesses. Therefore, I stick to the books which present Christ to me clearly and purely. So he did not think highly of the Book of Revelation, he didn't think that it was inspired, and he wrote later on, and this is just a gist of what he said, not a quote, but he said, basically, the Book of Revelation is beautiful literature, it's too bad nobody knew what it meant. Now that's just a rough, a really rough quote, but that was the gist of what he said. John Calvin, he wrote commentaries on almost all the books of the Bible with a notable omission. He didn't write a commentary on the Book of Revelation, and also he skipped 2nd and 3rd John. Now, maybe he just never got around to it. It is the last book of the Bible. It's possible. But I think it's far more likely that he couldn't make sense of it, just like Martin Luther wasn't able to make sense in it. And for the Reformers, to them, it was as if this book was closed and sealed up. And then another reformer. Hang in there, this is the last one. Zwingli. Freda McConnell will appreciate this quote. He lived around the same time, end of 1400s into the 1500s, and he refused to accept as a doctrinal proof text any Bible verse from the book of Revelation. And he did not think highly of the inspiration of this book. And so, for the most part, the reformers did not see revelation for what it really is. It's an unfolding of truth. It's a revelation of truth, not a concealing of truth. It's the unveiling. So, revelation. The Book of Revelation is a revelation from God. And while we're thinking about the date in which it was written, we should also think about the privileged time in which you and I live in light of the Book of Revelation. For most of the church age, believers grew up with no understanding of the book of Revelation. Now, early in the first century, the last couple of 150 years or so, yes. But for the most part, throughout church history, believers grew up knowing little to nothing about what the book of Revelation was really teaching. It was a closed book. It wasn't really from God, but it was as good as closed because they couldn't study it. The reformers didn't think highly of it. Luther rejected it. He said nobody could understand it. Zwingli refused to accept any quotes from it. Calvin didn't translate it. And interpreters for centuries could not agree on whether the book was looking ahead to prophecies yet to be fulfilled or whether it was looking back at things that were already fulfilled in the first century and the Roman Empire. And on top of all that, when it came to prophecy, they didn't apply the literal grammatical historical method of Bible interpretation. Now the Reformers, this was an important part of their understanding, taking the Bible at face value, sola scriptura. And they did for the most part, but they were inconsistent. And when it came to prophecies especially, they used an allegorical method to interpret it. And that's what they applied to the book of Revelation. And no wonder they didn't understand what it meant. It would mean whatever the imagination of the interpreter thought it meant. And then came the 1800s, another reformation of sorts. John Dobby was born and began to interpret the Bible as he was trained as a lawyer to take a document at face value for what it said. to go to the meaning of the words, use the grammar, and discover exactly what's being said in the document, and he applied that method to the Bible, and prophecies just opened up. It was amazing. And brethren groups from England and Ireland began to flourish. And their use of the literal method of Bible interpretation resulted in what we call the dispensational approach to Bible study today, just taking God's Word at face value. And their teaching spread to the United States, and men like D.L. Moody in Chicago, and A.J. Gordon in the Boston area, C.I. Schofield, and Lewis Perry Chaffer, they all had two initials in front of their names that they went by, they began applying this method of interpretation in the United States. And in the early 1900s, dispensationalism began to be the predominant view in the evangelical world. It's not anymore, but it was for much a good portion of the 1900s. They applied this method of Bible interpretation and suddenly the prophecies made sense. Now, in Reformed circles, we're sometimes mocked for claiming to have some secret code to understand the Book of Revelation, and we've got this key that opens the door. It's not some secret code. It's just taking the Bible for what it says, using the same method of Bible interpretation that you use on John 3.16 or any other portion of Scripture, allowing, obviously, for symbols and figures of speech, as you would in ordinary speech, It's just believing the text, even though at times it might seem unbelievable. Believing is not a secret code. And the Reformers were those who restored this method. The Roman church was known for their allegorizing and spiritualizing everything, and the Reformers came in and inserted a literal method of interpretation most of the time. And therefore, they were able to see in the scriptures justification by faith and the priesthood of the believer and all these wonderful truths that were in the Bible all the time, but hidden and concealed because of Rome's spiritualizing. And they were kept in the dark. Their inconsistent use of the literal method of interpretation hindered them from understanding the promises that God made to Israel in the Old Testament. Then in the early 1900s and 1924, Louis Perry Chafer, with his brother, established Dallas Seminary. And it was established to promote premillennialism, which was the opposite of the Roman view and the reform view of amillennialism, premillennial Dispensationalism is what they taught at Dallas, and they used the literal grammatical method of Bible interpretation. And once that started, the understanding of the Book of Revelation in the 1900s exploded. Early authors like Dobby and William Carey and Harry Ironsides from the Brethren movement, they were writing books on the book of Revelation that your average believer could understand. And Bible prophecy conferences were sprouting up around the country. One early one was in, I'm forgetting the name, on the North Shore, sounds like, Swampskat, with Swampskat Mass. They had Bible conferences there. In the 1970s, Hal Lindsay wrote a popular book entitled, The Late Great Planet Earth, where he spoke about the coming of the Lord Jesus at the rapture. And this explosion of understanding of end time truths was not because God gave these men special revelation. or something new, or a special key. It was simply that they applied a literal method of Bible interpretation, yes, to the book of Revelation. And they were able to understand it. And people were, believers were eating it up. in the early 1900s. And God didn't need to give them any new revelation to understand it. They had the old revelation in the book of Revelation. They just took it seriously. And so now the book of Revelation is being ignored no longer. All that study for a century in the 1900s from the early Brethren writers and from Dallas and Grace Seminary and other places around the country. And now our understanding of the Book of Revelation is comparable to, maybe not quite, but comparable to our understanding of the Book of Ephesians or Acts. And dispensationalists, while they might bicker over the tiny details of it, for the most part, the general gist of the book, there's agreement on. And it was in the Bible all along. The words haven't changed. Just like justification by faith was in the Bible all along. It just had to be believed and studied and brought out. And that's what happened to the book of Revelation in the 1900s. And sadly, we're going backwards now. And many in Reformed circles are no longer interested in Bible prophecy, especially the preterists who believe it's not prophecy anymore. It's like studying history. Turn to Daniel chapter 12. Daniel chapter 12. In Daniel chapter 12, there are some portions of Bible prophecy that God tells us are sealed up. Look in Daniel chapter 12 in verse 4. God says to Daniel, but thou, O Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book. Now, he's talking about the book of Daniel, the prophecies of future events that were prophetic when Daniel wrote them. And he tells Daniel to shut up those words or seal them up, even till the time of the end, and many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Over time, men will understand, but in Daniel's day and many centuries afterwards, those words were sealed up. And look in Daniel chapter 12 and verse 9. He says, And go thy way, Daniel, for the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. So these prophecies of Daniel which are so linked together to the prophecies in the book of Revelation that you kind of understand Revelation without Daniel. It's a part of the foundation for understanding Revelation. And so if you take the prophecies of Daniel literally and see them as prophecies and connect it to the book of Revelation, then the prophecies make perfect sense. Now turn to Revelation chapter 22. Revelation chapter 22 and verse 10. Here's the end of the book of Revelation. Notice the difference between it and Daniel. And he saith unto me, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. So Daniel was to seal it up till the end time and then It was not to be sealed up. The book of Revelation is not a book that's to be covered up and veiled up and we cannot understand it. The book of Revelation is the taking off of the cover so we're able to understand those future events. Now back to Revelation chapter 1. Note that the book begins with the words, the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, grammatically, this expression, the revelation of Jesus Christ, could be taken either subjectively or objectively. And objectively, it would mean that Jesus is the one being revealed. He is the object of the revelation, that this book is a revelation of who he is. Taking it in the subjective, the same expression, would mean that Jesus is the revealer of the truth in this book. And men differ as to how it should be understood. I think that it might lean a little towards the fact that Jesus is the one who is revealing this truth to John and to the angel. But the two are not opposed to each other. They're not opposites. In fact, both are true. Jesus is the one who revealed this book to John and to the angel. But he is also the subject of the prophecies in this book. This book is about Jesus Christ. And let's look at, we'll see in a passage in a minute, the rest of the book. of prophecy teaches us something about Jesus Christ. If you turn to Revelation chapter 19, John writes, Revelation 19 in verse 10, he states that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now for a long time that expression had me a little confused. I remember years ago, and you know what helped me to understand it? Invert the two expressions. Remember the word is in the middle. It's almost as if it says equals. This expression equals this. So it helps me to understand it that the spirit of prophecy, what prophecy is really all about, is the testimony of Jesus. So prophecy in this book is a revelation of who Jesus Christ is. It's all about Him, just like Paul wrote in the book of Colossians, the word of Christ dwelleth richly, let it dwell richly in you in all wisdom. Paul saw the book of Colossians, excuse me, as a word that is, as a letter that is all about Jesus. And it is. And the book of Revelation, in a very similar fashion, is all about Christ. So as we read through the book of the Revelation, keep in mind that, yes, we're learning about end-time events that Jesus revealed, but we're also learning about who Jesus Christ is. This book is Jesus Christ unveiled. The Lamb appears as the Lion. The veil, the cover is off. And yet, It's amazing that Martin Luther would write, Christ is neither taught nor known in it. He didn't see Jesus in this book. Even though Christ was the one who was opening all the seals and unleashing the judgment on earth and about to take back the title deed of the universe and reign as sovereign king, he didn't see Christ somehow in there. It was a blind spot for a godly man who is one of our heroes of the faith who was valiant for the faith, but he had a blind spot here. And Amillennial theology blinded him concerning any future for Israel. And also his anti-Semitism. In his later writings, Martin Luther was very anti-Semitic, and that blinded him also for seeing that God had a future for the nation that crucified his son. He made promises to that nation that they would be the head of all nations, and God's going to fulfill that when Jesus returns. So think of the book of Revelation as a book that takes the cover off who Jesus is. We just spent a long time going through the Gospels, and all during that Gospel period, except for the last few words at the end of the book, but for the most part, what we read of the Lord Jesus Christ in all four of the Gospels was, He was veiled in human flesh. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. His true glory was veiled by a mortal body. But when we get to the book of Revelation, the veil is taken away. He's no longer in his mortal body. He's in his glorified, ascended body. And the veil is off. In the Gospels, we saw Jesus, as Matthew writes, meek and sitting upon an ass in the colt, the foal of an ass. He presented himself in a mortal body to the children of Israel as a meek, lowly man. Paul says, I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. In the Gospels, Jesus is seen sleeping and weeping and tired and hungry and turning his cheeks to the smiters. He's seen as a meek lamb being taken to the slaughter. But in the book of Revelation, let me read what John says. in chapter 1 in verse 14. His head and his hairs were white like wool, and white as snow. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and his feet like unto burning 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. His countenance was as the sun shineth in its strength." Imagine looking at the sun. That's what he looked like. And John says, when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. He's also seen in Revelation chapter 5 as the lamb that had been slain. And he has seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne, the father. So he was standing next to the Father's throne, and he took the book that no one else could take, that title deed to the universe, and he's taking charge of the universe, the world again, that had been usurped by Satan. And in Revelation chapter 19, we see him clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him in white horses, clothed in fine linen, and out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword. that with it he should smite the nations, and he should rule them with a rod of iron, and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God, and he's called the King of Kings and Lord of Lords." What a difference between the carpenter and Galilee. And when the veil is off in the book of Revelation, same person. His character hasn't changed. But the veil has been removed. And the book that we're about to study is called Revelation of Jesus Christ for a purpose, for a reason. The Gospels described and emphasized his humanity as the Son of Man, the God-Man. But Revelation emphasizes his sovereignty and his deity as the Son of God, the God-Man. And so as we spend many hours studying this book in the future, let's not lose sight of this important fact. The first three words, four in English, of this book, the revelation of Jesus Christ. These are truths about the future, prophecies that will be fulfilled, that are revealed to John and to the angel and recorded in the Bible for our edification, for our learning and our admonition. They're no longer veiled. This is not a closed book to us, or it shouldn't be. The veil is gone, and we should see, as we behold in the Word of God, the mirror, we should see the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ all the way through the book of Revelation. And as Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians, And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven. Apocalypse, same word. They'll be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so yes, one day the Lord Jesus Christ is going to return in power and great glory. Unveiled, totally unveiled, and every eye will see Him. And when the Lord Jesus returns, we're going to be with him. And Paul writes in Romans 8 that when we return with the Lord Jesus, then we're going to be manifested too. Just like the Lord Jesus, who he was on the inside was veiled by his mortal body. Paul tells us in Romans 8 that who we are as Christians is veiled by our mortal body. We look just like our unsaved neighbors. No difference in the outward flesh, but inside we're sons of God. And when we return with Jesus Christ, who returns in power and great glory, we're going to be like Him, in resurrected glorified bodies, and the veil will be off us too, and it will be obvious that we are the sons of God. And so the book of Revelation teaches us also that we are, as the song says, we are on the winning side. And so this is a wonderful book. The date is important, the title is important, and the content of the revelation is knowable. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you especially for the book of Revelation. God, in these crazy days in which we live, Father, help us to learn your word that we might make sense of things and, Lord, that we might prepare our hearts for your coming. Help us to be faithful servants, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.