So last week we began a series in Revelation, and I'm going to do at least the first three chapters. We covered the first three verses last week, just the first three verses of the first chapter. But we saw that this book begins with the words, the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The Gospels give us history of Jesus Christ when he was here among us, a history that we call the Gospel, the good news that we believe because he brought salvation to us through his work that he did when he was here, when he came in the flesh. It shows us, and then Revelation unveils with visions what he's doing now, that he's been exalted to sit at the Father's right hand. It shows us that his reign is not what we might expect. When Jesus is reigning, then he does things like setting a bunch, open up the ground, a bunch of demons come out, and things like that, or sending a rider that is going to destroy one third of the people in the earth, or various things like that, that we would say, why did he do these things? It is part of his reign that we can trust that he is accomplishing his purposes to bring about the things that he has said that he would do. He's going to, sometimes his enemies, we see in Revelation that there'll be times when the church almost looks like it's completely wiped out. And yet then it's brought back again as his work continues. Just like when his people were in Egypt in the Old Testament and he raised Pharaoh up, he raised Pharaoh up. And then in order to bring him back down and to show his glory in doing so. So, we also saw that there is a great chain that's shown to us in Revelation and how the Revelation gets to us, this revelation of these visions in heaven. It goes from God the Father to God the Son as mediator. And then it goes from him to an angel. And it goes from the angel to John the Apostle. And then John the Apostle gives it to the church in the word of God in writing. Revelation shows us then in this way, right from the beginning, that there are many agents that are involved in Christ establishing his reign upon the earth that the father told him that he would give to him, that all things will be brought under his feet. So, God the Father involves His Son in this work, of course. He sent Him to be the primary agent, the mediator. And then, He involves angels. We see that an angel is set loose and all these things happen on the earth, with wars and different kinds of things like that. We see the vision of these things when we look at Revelation. We see the apostles that bring the word of God. We're all involved in this great work and have an integral place to play. So whether we could break it down further with those that are ministers and elders and deacons and heads of households and just anyone that's involved in this work. We saw that the book is a great blessing to those who, remember the three things that we saw, those who read it, those who hear it and those who keep it. Those are the three things that are mentioned there. When we are God's true servants redeemed by his grace, then we're eager to hear God's word, to receive God's word. and for it to inform us and to become part of our lives so that we believe what it says and we live according to what it says in obedience. So this week we're going to look at the blessing of grace and peace that comes from God. Okay, this is a greeting here of grace and peace to you is what it says, and it comes from God. So we want to look at that, that God is the source of all blessing to us. Our text is Revelation chapter one, verse four through eight. So I'll read it to you now. This is the Word of God, Revelation 1-4. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and 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. Amen. Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him, even so. Amen. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Praise God for his gracious words to us. Let's consider them that our souls might be enriched with fresh delight in our God, in his saving work. First of all, grace and peace to you from him. This is John's greeting to those that he's writing to. Let's look at this grace and peace and see what it is and who it is for. And then we'll see where it comes from after that as a main point. But what it is and who it is for. What is this grace and peace that John wants the recipients of this letter to receive? Grace is God's giving to us good things that we do not deserve. It speaks of Him helping us and enriching us when we are unworthy of being helped and enriched. Sin, of course, has made us unworthy of the least of God's mercies, to use Jacob's words, but grace accepts us and takes us and blesses us anyway. even though we don't deserve to be blessed. It finds ways, grace finds ways to do good for those who are, because of their guilt, incapable of receiving good. We were in a situation where we were incapable of God being able to bestow good on us because it would be unjust to do so. Because all he could do with us is punish us. And grace, you see, finds a way to bring blessing to people that are in that condition. That's what grace has done. That's why God's Son came. That's why the one that we're talking about, Jesus, is revealed here. That's why he came. Peace in the Bible includes two wonderful components. First, and this is the one that we might think of first, it includes reconciliation with God, the one we were estranged from. It puts an end to the hostility between us and Him, because of our sin and rebellion, that's what caused the hostility. The double separation that I've talked to you about before, where we're separated on the one hand because God can only punish us. We're separated on the other hand because we don't want anything to do with God. Our heart is rebellious and defiant. So there's two things that separate us. If God says, well, hey, I've taken care of your sin. You can come to me. We still don't want to come. And if we decided we wanted to go to God, he'd say, well, who are you to come to me? You're a sinner. You can't come to me. Of course, that doesn't happen. He's made the way and he's opened the way through Christ if we come through him. But that's what we think of as peace, and we're right. It's the end of that hostility. We have peace with God now. And you see, if you don't have peace with God, you don't have peace with anything, ultimately, because God is the ruler overall. But the second thing of peace, the second component of peace, is it includes, and this is the biblical word peace that does this, it includes a wholeness. Okay, a sort of a, a filling up of all that is lacking in us so that we are complete as persons as human beings in every way we are filled with all kinds of things. We're filled with satisfaction. That's what part of peace is. I've got a wholeness, a fullness of satisfaction. We're filled with goodness. See, that's kind of a whole altogether different thing, so that we're able to be good, to do good. We're filled with it. It fills us up. I'm not saying we are yet, but this is the things that God brings when he brings peace. filled with purpose. People don't know have any purpose that's meaningful. We're filled with joy and hope. We're filled with delight in God. What a good thing that is. We should be delighted with our God and we're not because of the fault. Peace means that we're filled with that, filled with wisdom. We could go on and on. It's a peace. It's a wholeness. The word Shalom is the Hebrew word and it's much more of a full word than just like, okay, I've got peace now because all the trouble's over. No, it goes beyond the trouble to a filling up with what needs to be there as well. So it's a beautiful concept here to say grace and peace to you. When the two are put together, then you have a kind of a dynamic situation where God is working through grace in the undeserving in order to bring peace, wholeness to them, to bring shalom. So graciously to the undeserving, bringing that fullness to them. I'm delighted with James Durham's words here. He says, grace is the fountain, you know, like a fountain welling up. Grace is the fountain of God's free love. and peace is the effect of that free love. So grace is the exercise of love in places where it doesn't belong to the undeserving that God finds a way to get that love so that it does belong there. Grace finds a way. His love unleashes, it flows out. And then what does that produce? It produces peace. So here again, Durham's words, grace is the fountain of God's free love and peace is the effect of that free love, the result of that free love, which being put together is love vented in its precious effects. So he pictures God, as it were, bursting with love, venting love. Love is venting out of him and finding its way to the undeserving, the undeserving sinner. That's what we're talking about here. And when that love finds its way to the undeserving sinner, that sinner is filled up. with wholeness, with shalom, with peace. And that's what we're talking about from our God. That's what grace and peace is. Now, what is grace and peace? Or let's look at who this grace and peace is for. It is for those to whom John is writing. You see that at the beginning of verse four. To the seven churches which are in Asia, Asia was a province in the Roman Empire. The word just means east. It was an eastern part of the Roman Empire. And we call it Asia Minor sometimes, where these churches were. There were more than seven churches in Asia, to be sure. At that time, there were more than seven when John wrote this. But it is to these seven that John writes. These seven churches in just one Roman province. We go, why is Revelation so narrowly written to such a narrow few? It might seem strange that a letter that has all this in it would not be written. Why isn't it just written to all the churches? What about the rest of us? Why does he single them out? What about all the others? Well, this, in fact, is actually something that is super encouraging for us and helpful because that he writes to just these seven churches. And we have all kinds of things here about to these seven churches. By writing to them, I touched on this a little bit last time, I think, it shows how intimately he involved he is with each of his churches. And so we're not supposed to look at this and say, why them and not us? But we look at it and say, wow, he's specifically involved with each one of them. If them, then us also. All the other churches, he is just the same. We get the pattern here. He couldn't possibly show us his intimate involvement and engagement with every single church. We'd have a really, really long book. There'd be not the seven churches, but, you know, the seven million churches or whatever. We would have a whole different thing going on. So by writing to them, he shows the intimate involvement that our Lord Jesus has with every one of his churches. He knows, as we get into those letters, he knows the strengths of each one. He knows the weaknesses of each one. He encourages them. He has ministry and direction for them that he brings to his agents that he has appointed. He writes to the angel of the church, probably those kind of angels and the kind of angels that are ministers and elders on earth. He's working to bring about his purpose. He even knows right down to all the individuals in those churches every single individual because he says to them you know you're doing this is good this is a bad thing as a church and then he says at the end of all of them those seven letters to him who overcomes so there can be somebody that's in one of these churches that's really gone wrong And he says, but I know the ones in you that overcome. I know the ones that are trusting me, that are following me. It's right down to those details. He knows every single person, what they're about, what they're doing in the church. He knows every single church and every single person in the church. So yes, Revelation is addressed to these seven churches, but like the rest of God's word, it is written for the admonition and encouragement of every believer who is given the word of God for their edification and strengthening. Think about some of the other books that we have. Are they not the same? Like Paul's letters are often written to one congregation. You know, to the church at Philippi or to one cluster of congregations in a city that's called a church in that city like to Corinth was made of many different congregations a Presbytery as it were in a region there are even books that are written to individuals Like Paul's letters to Timothy or Titus or Philemon or something like that but we understand that the men who wrote these books were so guided by the Holy Spirit that They are all of use to us to help us to understand everything that we need to know from God. His word is complete through this method of dealing with specific situations in a certain time in history, certain places that we learn from those to be able to apply these things to our situation. To put it plainly, these words are addressed to the seven churches in Asia that will be named shortly, but they are intended for the entire church, including Covenant Reform Presbyterian Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia. These words are written with that in mind. He is intimately involved with us as he was with them. Our Lord is intimately acquainted with us right down to this very moment in history. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our strengths. He knows who is resisting Him. He knows who is overcoming by trusting in Him. He knows it all. So John is expressing this blessing of grace and peace for these churches that he's writing to. But this grace and peace goes to all the churches of Jesus Christ. When we look at ourselves and are rightly mindful of our sin, it might seem preposterous to think that we could attain this peace, this wholeness of life, this filling up that I'm talking about. But it's not because of the one who does this. And that's what we want to look at next. Who is the one that bestows this grace and peace? Of course, we know that it's God, but John doesn't just say, grace and peace to you from God, right? He's got a lot more to say. He presents the triune God here. He sets forth in all of his fullness and glory as the one from whom grace and peace comes. Talk about encouraging. Here is the one who is able to bring about this grace and peace, to fill us with peace by grace. Consider who he is, consider how capable he is, how sure you can be that he will be able to do all that needs to be done to make his entire church right down to every single individual whole and complete. Okay, first we are told that it is grace to you and peace from him who is, and who was and who is to come. And that would be the fathers. We'll see. This is a reflection of God's great name, Jehovah. It's a paraphrase of his name and what it means. I am that I am. That's literally what Jehovah means. And you paraphrase that a bit, fill it out. What do you get? You get the one who has being or existence, if you will, in himself. See, the one who always was, the one who presently is, and the one who always will be, ever the same. What he is now, he always has been, and always will be. He is the fountain of all existence, the only creator, and the sovereign designer and ruler of all. All three persons of the Trinity are one God and one in the same essence, but when they are spoken of separately as they are here, then the Father is the one that's referred to as the, because he's the fountain of the Godhead, he's the one that's referred to as the one who is and who was and who is to come. The Son being begotten of him from all eternity, and the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son from all eternity. But do not miss the encouragement here. It is this one who was and who is and who is to come, this one who is the unmoved mover, he is the one who is committed to give us this peace to make us whole and full. This is the one who has being in himself. This is the one who cannot fail. All whom he deigns to bless will be blessed. No matter where they are when they begin, they will be filled to the full. Remember what we have seen from last week though. He does this great work of making us complete and whole through agency. We got to keep that in mind. You would like for him to just like kind of give us an injection or something and make us complete and whole. He has not chosen to do it that way. Instead, he communicates to his son, who had to come and do a whole bunch of work here, and continues to do a whole bunch of work. And he communicates to the angels who are busy doing all kinds of things as we see in Revelation. We don't understand their work completely, but they're ministers to us. And then he gives it to his apostle. And then the apostle gives it to the ministers in the churches. And then the minister gives it to the people. And it goes on and on. There's all this work, the parents with their children. He works in a way that makes us all an essential part of the process. But the end is guaranteed because it is orchestrated and it is the work of him who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Besides the father, the next one then of the hymn, if you will, the one who brings the blessing, the agent who brings the blessing. The next one who gives grace and peace is designated as the seven spirits. who are before his throne. Now usually we would expect the Son because he's the second person of the Trinity, but here it is the Holy Spirit. The church as interpreting this scripture has pretty much universally understood this to refer to the Holy Spirit who is co-eternal and co-equal with the Father. But why seven spirits? So do we have a Trinity now that becomes more like nine, seven spirits and two others? No, that's not the point. It is at this point that we need to consider an important feature of Revelation. And that is numbers aren't always meant to count things. Sometimes the numbers are symbolic to represent things. And in Revelation, they're often used that way. Remember that John has shown us visions of things that otherwise are not even visible. Like you can't see the Holy Spirit. We're given a vision of seven spirits to communicate something to us. What is Christ doing up there while we're here is what we're talking about. Things that cannot be seen by human eyes. John is given a display of these things with visions of all kinds of things that are put before him. And the spirit is portrayed as seven spirits before the throne of God. Why? Because seven is the number of fullness and completeness. It shows that the spirit who works in the world fills all things, that there is no deficiency in him. There is nothing missed by him. There is no place where he is not doing his work. He's pervasive. Okay, now let's look at this a little further. We might note that Revelation 5-6, in Revelation 5-6, we're told more about the Holy Spirit there in this seven thing. John says, and I looked, and behold, this is Revelation 5-6, in the midst of the throne, and before the four living creatures, in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes. You go, oh, these are the seven horns and seven eyes of the lamb. Yes, they are. But he says, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. So the Holy Spirit proceeds from the sun as seven horns and seven eyes. What are horns and eyes here? This is giving us more about the seven fold spirit. What do horns represent in scripture? They represent power, okay, power. And what eyes are seeing and knowing, right? So this shows us that the spirit is indeed the one who exercises his divine power in the earth and who sees everything. He has omniscient power, all power, I mean, omnipotent power, and he is omniscient, that he sees everything. He knows he misses nothing. Nothing escapes his notice. So once again, we have great encouragement that the one who is committed to making us whole, the one He is and was and is to come, the Father there. And then He has a spirit, the seven horns. He has power to take ruined sinners and transform them. The sevenfold spirit, the seven horns and seven eyes. He doesn't overlook anything. Nothing fails in his work due to weakness and nothing fails due to missing information or lack of knowledge. Be encouraged then all you who have come to him for salvation. But John's not finished yet, is he? Now let's go to the other person who is involved in graciously bestowing peace on us. He is named like this, verse 5, from Jesus Christ. the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead and the ruler over the kings of the earth. He is the son of God who became flesh and dwelt among us. The one who is known or was known when John wrote this by his name, Jesus Christ. The name Jesus means Jehovah who saves. The name Christ means the anointed one or the Messiah who is anointed to be what? A prophet, priest, and king to actually come down here. and be anointed down here in ministry as prophet, priest, and king, yet who is the Son of God. He is usually put second, as I said, when the Trinity is mentioned, but here he is put third because he is the one who is the agent that has to carry out the work in his own person for our salvation as Christ, our prophet, priest and king. So he is indeed presented to us here in those three offices. Look at what it says. The faithful witness. What would that be? That would be as prophet. What does the prophet do? He bears witness of God's word. He brings God's word to us. So the father gave the word to his son who gives the word to us, who reveals the father to us. He reveals the father also by his work, by his saving work that he did as the mediator between us and God. By his example, as he lived among us, we see what God is like when he's in human flesh. His teaching and His ministry as a prophet, He brings the Word through us, working through preachers and elders as well. When the Spirit comes, the Word comes with power so that we are convicted of our sins, so that we see the sufficiency of Christ in such a way that we actually trust in Him, and so that we yield to Him. That's his prophetic ministry. He gets the word to us who would otherwise be incapable of receiving the word because of who he is. Next, he is called the firstborn from the dead. What does he have to get to us now? Gracious work of his is to bring forgiveness of sins, to cleanse us from our sins. He's the firstborn from the dead. That refers to his priestly ministry. The priests were the ones who represented the firstborn son in every family. Okay, God had in the, before Moses came along, before the law came, every family would, the firstborn son would represent the family as he, you know, got to be an old man. He would have lots of children, grandchildren under him. And he would be the one that led them and offered sacrifices for their sins. You know how Job offers sacrifices for his sons? You know, that kind of, and daughters, you know, that kind of a thing. He took the place of priest. Jesus came, you see, and took the place of the priests as the firstborn among many brethren. He is called the firstborn here from the dead. The priests were also appointed to offer sacrifices for sin, and Jesus has fulfilled that by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sin. So the Father showed that he approved of Christ and received the sacrifice that he offered by raising him from the dead after he was crucified. The work was acceptable, that it was adequate, and therefore God has found a way by grace to bring the blessing of peace to people that Otherwise couldn't receive it. It would be unjust to even give it to them because of their rebellion. Talk about bringing us peace. You know, this is reconciliation here. Then his office of king is noted with simplicity is the ruler of the kings of the earth. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who reigns over them all and will reign until he brings all under his feet. There will be no other rule but his. So you see how John's word, and let me qualify that too. When I say no other rule but his, there will only be his rule. There will be those that are ruling with him, but they'll be ruling in full agreement and accord with him, just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit rule not as individuals contending with each other, but rather is one God, one substance, one essence bringing forth. We won't be one essence with God, but we will be as those who are under him. We will be in complete harmony with him. You see ruling yes, but not in a contentious way anymore. Okay, so you see how John's word give the whole church confidence in the outcome, because our triune God is the one from whom grace and peace come. If it came from somewhere else, you know, to say that, Tom, one of you is going to give us grace and peace, I wouldn't have any confidence, wouldn't have any hope that you would be able to do that. He's the one who brings us this, this triune God is the only one who is able to do this. So since Jesus is the one who especially carries out this work of salvation, John breaks out in doxology to him you know words of blessing and praise when we when we bless God he says 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 amen So his way of bringing grace and peace is further described to us here. First that he gave us a bath to wash away our sins. We were filthy and unacceptable and the only way to wash us was by dying for us. That's referred to as washing us from our sins in his own blood. Who would do such a thing for those who hated him? Who would die in their place for those who rejected him and despised him? Our Lord Jesus would do that. That's who has done it. What a gracious, loving thing it is. He takes His place as a sacrifice to pay for the sins that we committed against Him. And in defiance of Him still. After He washed away our filth, then He went the extra mile and He made us kings and priests to His God and Father. He makes us then acceptable worshipers of God. You could say a kingdom of priests, that could be translated. A kingdom of priests who offer sacrifices of praise, thanksgiving, service, our lives given in obedience to Him, to our great God. We're able to live for God now who could not live for God before, a thing that we could not do. By his grace, we have overcome Satan and we shall overcome death. What a gracious work this is and what it brings peace. So we want, I mean, do we want Jesus to succeed in this work? We want Jesus to succeed in the work that he was given to do in this regard. John says in the doxology, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. I want him to rule. May he rule. Yes, Lord, believers say. Take dominion of me, Lord. Take my life. and make it yours, make it whole, make it complete, make it what it should, fill it up. And yes, Lord, take dominion of the world. Subdue the world under your feet so that you are the undisputed ruler of all. Take dominion of Satan and of all of his allies. Yours is the glory and the dominion forever and ever, Lord. You can tell where your heart is by looking at what do you think of the success of Jesus Christ? Do you hear of his success and you go, oh, no, I don't want him to rule. You're not in a good place, you need to repent and you need to come to him for that grace that you can be restored to him. Or do you look at it and say, yes, Lord, yes, come and rule to him, be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Don't let your, I urge you to turn to him without delay if things are not settled with him. I mean, of course you are unfit. That's the reason that he had to go to the cross. That's the reason he had to do all this work. That's the reason that he has to make you a king and priest to God because you're not that and you should be that. Because it's not in you to do it. He's the one that does it. And so don't stay away with him from him because of unfitness. Of course you're unfit. That's what this is all about. You come by faith in his saving work. He's the one that's able to do this. Don't even let it stop you if you're unfit in your mind that you can't quite see the truth or see the value of it. cast yourself on him about that too. You say, I'm fuzzy. I just don't get this. Cast yourself on him about that too. He fixes that too. He fixes minds as well as hearts and rebellion and all of these things. You don't want to be on the wrong side of him when he comes in his glory and takes dominion. He's going to have this dominion and you don't want to be against him in that day. You want to be in harmony with his saving purpose and all you have to do is come and cast yourself on him and he will receive you and he will make you whole by grace. Not because you deserve anything, not because you did anything. We just put ourselves in his hands for salvation. He will succeed. John assures us that he will, because we may look at that and say, oh, I don't know how he could do that. I don't know how he could do that to me. I don't know how he could make me whole and complete. I don't know how he could restore me. Look, John assures us. Verse seven, he says, behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even they who pierced him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of him. Even so, amen. Now, there's a lot of talk about when Revelation was written. Was it written before the fall of Jerusalem, before 70 AD, or was it written after? I'm inclined to think it was written before, but studying the book of Revelation the way I am now, I honestly don't even care that much. But if Revelation was written before the fall of Jerusalem, as many suppose, then this that we just read speaks of the coming in the clouds that Jesus declared would happen in his own generation. He said to those who are sending him to be crucified, over to the Romans to be crucified, he said, you're going to see me, son of man, coming in the clouds of heaven with glory. You're going to see that. He said, it's going to happen in this generation. So that would refer to the destruction of Jerusalem that he told about. He said that his accusers would see him coming in the clouds, which is a way of speaking about him coming in judgment. How do I know that? Because in the Old Testament, he comes in the clouds when he's going to judge someone. It doesn't mean that you look up and you see these little things going on up in the clouds. Look, that looks like a chariot. We're not talking about when he comes in the clouds, it's talking about that there's armies that are raised up like the Romans or something like that. And they come and crush people because God has said, I'm going to judge you. I'm going to use the Assyrians. He comes in the clouds and he rides on the clouds. The Assyrians are going out doing all this stuff. Again, it's stuff that you can't you can't visually see when he comes in the clouds like that. But you see the the effect of it. You see, because he's prophesied it and said he's going to do it. So the tribes of, and then the tribes of the earth in that case, the tribes of the land, right? It was destruction upon Israel in 70 A.D. that is being spoken of, perhaps here, if it was written before 70 A.D. Whether it speaks of the fall of Jerusalem or not, it shows us how God did work if it's past when Jerusalem was destroyed, but it also shows us how he works in the future and how he'll work when he comes back at the end and how he works up in many, many different times in history through that, the Reformation or whatever it is. He orchestrates from heaven his judgments upon the earth. He rides on the clouds and the earth all this work, it goes down through all the different agents that are working angels and all sorts of different people. He will at last do it in such a way that all will see and acknowledge his hand. See, those who pierce him by persecuting his people will see him judging and will mourn because of him. Or if it's before 70 AD, those who pierced him are the ones that literally pierced him. The nation that pierced him. Some of them will repent. Some of them will curse him when they see who he is. But at last, whether gladly or as enemies, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The dominion and the glory will be his. He will come in the clouds and every eye will see that he is Lord at last. What did people learn in Egypt? Same thing happened in Egypt, didn't it? God said, I'm going to show you, Israel, that I am Lord by what I do to the Egyptians. I'm also going to show the Egyptians that I am Lord. And he did. They saw he's Lord. Pharaoh said, I can't deal with this. He let the people go. Of course, he kept going back on it, but he couldn't deal with it. the Lord himself also assures us that he will succeed. Okay, so John assures us there in verse seven. And then in verse eight, we have the Lord's voice jump in here and assure us because we're not so sure. that he's going to accomplish this, even though it may not always look like he is, everything is under his sovereign control and everything will serve his purposes to bring many sons to glory. Look at verse eight. He says, I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end says the Lord who is and who was and who is to come the almighty. What does this mean then? It means that he is in this context, he is the source of everything. He is the final word about everything. He is the Eternal One who is, and who was, and who is to come. And He is the Almighty One who does whatever He pleases in heaven and earth. No angel, no man, No collection of angels or men is able to thwart Him. We are the greatest fools if we deny Him and do not submit to Him. Who can resist His sovereign, almighty, eternal power? It is much better, I say, to come to Him and to be restored than to be forced to bow to Him with Satan and all who are in league with Him. Yes, come to your proper place under God now through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace of our God and his kingdom of priests and bring pleasure to him as those who delight in his majesty. Do not let your pride stand in the way, lest you be crushed when he does appear, because he will appear and he will crush his enemies. The devil is the one to resist. The Lord is the one to submit to. Yes, the Lord will take you by the hand as it were. And he will bring you at last to the father. If you come to him, he is going about that business right now in the world. We've got a vision here in revelation. That's going to show us he's very busy and active. He's taking those that are his and bringing them into this everlasting kingdom. And he's destroying and crushing his enemies. What do we say to him? Be the glory and the dominion forever. Amen. Blessed be the name of the Lord Jesus. Please stand and let's pray. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth? There is no one like you, oh Lord, for yours is the dominion and the power and the glory forever and ever. We praise you, Lord, that every eye will see your glory, that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that you are Lord to the glory of God the Father. We praise you that you are the one who is and who was and who is to come. The Father is that, the Son is that, the Spirit is that. We praise you, O Lord, for the fullness and the completeness that you will bring to your people, the wholeness, that we will be made kings and priests, that we have been already made kings and priests, and we're growing up into that. We're growing up in the fullness and the wholeness of that, that we're offering sacrifices of praise and honor to you, O Lord. We're giving our lives in service to you of obedience. We pray, Lord, that we would grow rich and fat in that, Lord. That we would have a rich fullness of your grace and your blessing of peace, Lord, that we would know that that shalom, that that fullness of all that ought to be that we would be, Father, all that ought to be. We hardly even know what it looks like yet. We don't know what it looks like, but we know that when we see him, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. We thank you, Lord, for the for the rich, rich hope that we have. We thank you that it's a sure hope because of who you are. the one that is revealed to us, the triune God who is bringing grace and peace to a ruined and fallen people that they might be a saved, redeemed, justified and blessed people. Oh, Lord, we thank you and praise you for your grace and mercy to such as us. We lift these prayers up in Jesus who brings us all about. Amen. The blessing of God The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. I'm going to ask you to sit down for a minute and have any questions. We'll just take five minutes or so.