Well the mystic union that we have with Father, Son and Holy Spirit is mentioned a number of places in Revelation. We're going to read one of those, Revelation 3 verses 1 through 6. And to the messenger of the church in Sardis write, these things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know your works that you have a name that you are alive yet you are dead. Wake up. and strengthen the remaining things that you were about to throw away for I have not found your works to be fulfilled before my God. So remember how you have received and heard and hold fast and repent because if you do not, watch, I will come upon you like a thief and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. But you do have a few names in Sardis who have not defiled their garments and they will walk with me in white because they are worthy. The one who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments, and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Amen. Father God, I pray we would not only have hearing ears, but that our hearts would receive what you have to say to the churches, that you would enable us to walk in the Spirit and to receive all of the resources that you have for us in Christ Jesus. We love you, we continue to worship as we respond to your scriptures, in Jesus' name, amen. Last week we looked at the astounding ways in which Jesus actually lived His life through the first century believers. Christ enabled them to do what they could not do in their own power. As saints who were seated with Christ in the heavenlies, He gave them a new authority they'd never had before. He gave them new joy and courage and love and hope and the compassion for the lost and a willingness to lay down their lives for His kingdom. And so there was a supernatural way in which Christ truly was living His life through His people. And the question comes, How was it that Christ could live His life through these saints when He had told them that He was going away? Was not Jesus in heaven and they on earth in the midst of trouble? And yet Jesus had also said, I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. I will come to you." That's John 14, verse 18. So how does He come to believers at the same time as He is away from them? In the same chapter, John 14 tells us Jesus comes to us by sending His Holy Spirit into our lives. And one of the most transformational books that I have ever read on this subject was written in the 1700s by a very, very good Presbyterian friend of William Cunningham. Some of you have read William Cunningham's books on ecclesiology and stuff like that. But this guy's name is Hugh Martin. If you ever get a chance to read his book, it's out of print. Well, no, actually, I think Joel Beakey may have reprinted it. Hugh Martin, The Abiding Presence. It is an amazing treatise on how we, day by day, can have Christ living His life through us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And he points to many passages, like John 14, that teach that by the Holy Spirit's presence in our lives, it unites us to the Father, to the Son, and everything that they have planned and purchased for us. Jesus said, he who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Now in context, that is what the Holy Spirit's indwelling presence achieves in us. It unites us to the very presence and work of the Father and the Son. And all three persons of the Trinity are involved in every facet of this great war that we've been looking at. Now last week, we looked at the offices of the Lord Jesus Christ as prophet, priest, and king. And today we're going to be looking at the work of the Holy Spirit and of the Father. And just as we saw last week, you can distinguish, but you cannot separate the offices of prophet, priest, and king, and Jesus. You can distinguish, but you cannot separate the persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Why? Because they are one God. They're not three gods. It's three persons in one God. And that's really all that the first point is focusing on. that there is a unity of the three persons of the Godhead. So just by way of illustration, and there's any number of passages I could look at this on, John begins the book of Revelation by saying, grace and peace to you from Him who is, and who was, and who is coming, and from the sevenfold Spirit who is before His throne, and from Jesus Christ. So it's the same message coming from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In John's gospel, Jesus said that the Father gave Him exactly the words that he was to speak, John 8, John 12, John 14. So the Father's words were Jesus' words. And Jesus said that he only did what he saw the Father himself doing, John 14, verse 10. Likewise, John 5, 19 through 20, Jesus said, most assuredly I say to you, the son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the father do. For whatever he does, the son also does in like manner. For the father loves the son and shows him all things that he himself does. So Jesus mirrors the father 100% in his actions and his will, so much so that he could tell Philip, he who has seen me has seen the father. That's how perfectly the Son reflects the Father's will and His actions. Jesus said everything He did, He did also by the power of the Spirit. So you cannot separate the Spirit from the Son or separate the Spirit from the Father. So John 14-26, John 15-26 both say that the Father sends the Spirit and the Son sends the Spirit. They both have the Spirit proceeding from them, and in turn the Spirit testifies to both persons. And so if you look in your outline, up on the top right, you'll see a diagram that the ancient church used to try to explain the Trinity, and sometimes you'll see it turned a different direction. This one reflects the Western creeds that have the philioquoclos, in other words, that the Spirit doesn't just proceed from the Father, but from the Father and the Son. So, I'm giving you this background material, and it explains why, for example, in John's seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 through 3, Jesus is speaking all the way through those chapters. If you've got a red-letter edition, you'll see red letters all over the place. It's Jesus speaking. At the end of each section, Jesus Himself says, He who has an ear to hear Let them hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. In other words, Jesus' words are the Spirit's words. And I'm going through this introductory material because even though I'm making distinctions between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and even though I'm gonna be illustrating those distinctions in their roles in the book of Revelation, this book also shows you cannot separate those three persons because they are always perfectly united in the Godhead. So there's not three gods, there's one God, and yet this one God has three persons. So the Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, the Holy Spirit is fully God. You cannot say the Spirit's one-third of God. No, He is fully God. Same with the Father and the Son. So three persons in one Godhead. Well, enough by way of Let's dig into the text of Revelation. And I want to first of all look at how is it that the Holy Spirit enables us to advance Christ's kingdom while He's here on earth. And I think probably the most important gift that the Holy Spirit has given to us is the Scriptures. We spent a fair bit of time when we were going through the verses of this book showing how prophecy works and how the Holy Spirit inspired every word of the Bible so as to provide us with an absolutely infallible book of guidance in our lives. It's an incredibly precious possession. Without it, we could not win the war that Christ has called us to win in this book. Absolutely impossible. And yet this word, when we wield it by the power of the Holy Spirit, it forces even Satan to flee from us. There is a power that is in here. It gives us comfort. It gives us guidance. It sanctifies us. And so we need to value the Bible. He transforms us by this book. And so I've given you a few scriptures in your outline that describe the critical role that the Holy Spirit had in giving us this blessed book. I'm not going to cover those. I think I have dealt with them adequately in my verse-by-verse exposition. But what I do want to cover this morning is this, because the Holy Spirit's passion and desire is to transform us, conform us to the image of Christ, make us look more and more like the Lord Jesus Christ, he goes beyond just giving us information in the Bible, and he works in our minds and in our hearts by what we sometimes speak of as illumination. where inspiration gave us the information in this infallible book. This is an outward body of information. Illumination is his work internally, where he opens our minds and our hearts, and he transforms that information within us, and he transforms us through it. It's like the lights that are going on instantly. And when Jesus wrote to the seven churches, he indicated, all who are regenerate do have the capacity to have illumination, to read the scriptures, but not all have access, access it, not all by faith access this illumination. In fact, Pastor Michael Elliott, he was leading the Thursday morning devotions at the prayer breakfast, and he was talking about the two who were going on the road to Emmaus, Here they are talking with Jesus, their hearts are burning within them as Jesus is ministering the Word, and yet it says their eyes were closed, they did not recognize Jesus. And later, when their eyes are opened, he points out that the same word for opened is used for the opening of the Scriptures in our own lives. And so every believer has access to illumination. We should ask for it. But not every believer enters this awesome privilege into the Holy Spirit. For example, seven times in Revelation 2 through 3, Jesus says, he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Now, he who has an ear means he who is regenerate. When you've been regenerated, you've been given a new nature. You're suddenly no longer blind to spiritual things. You can listen. You can hear the Holy Spirit. Yet just because you've been given a new spiritual ears does not mean you're using them. You still have to be told, listen up. Listen to what the Spirit is saying. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's work within your heart. And so these chapters, the Spirit is taking Christ's words, he is pressing them to the hearts of believers. And as we receive the Spirit's ministry by faith, we begin more and more to enter into the absolutely astounding things that we looked at last week. Christ begins to live his kingship through us so we find ourselves praying with more authority. We find ourselves having authority over demons. We have the ability, the empowerment to conquer our sins. He's living his kingship through us. Christ, by the Holy Spirit, begins to live his priesthood through us so that we have compassion. Where we didn't have compassion for people before, And we might wonder, why is it I feel so burdened for an individual? Some of you have told me, all of a sudden, in the middle of the night, you feel a burden to pray for somebody. And that is the Holy Spirit quickening Christ's heart of priesthood within you, wanting to see those persons reconciled to Christ. He quickens Christ's prophetic word as we begin to be able to handle the scriptures and apply the scriptures in people's lives. in a way that we were not able to do so before. And so the point is, it's not enough to have the wonderful resources that God has provided for us. We need the Holy Spirit to quicken those resources to us. He's an absolutely essential component in this great war. And the word that summarizes that work in the next point is the word grace. Chapter 1 verse 4 pronounces grace and peace from the Holy Spirit. Now, of course, if you read that verse, you'll see that it pronounces grace and peace from the Father and the Son as well. But the point is, where the Father has planned that grace and that peace, that shalom, the reversal of all of the effects of the fall, and where Jesus has purchased that, it's the Spirit who is applying that grace in your lives in a rubber-meets-the-road kind of a way. And he advances Christ's kingdom by that grace. Daily we need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us his grace. This is a war that is going to be won by grace and by grace alone. Now that same verse says that the grace comes from the seven spirits who are before that throne. The word seven, we saw, was a symbol of fullness, so it's sort of like saying, from the fullness of the Holy Spirit that is before that throne. Wilbur Pickering, I think, accurately translates that in chapter one, verse four, as from the seven-fold spirit who is before the throne, because the literal Greek is from the seven spirits, plural, who is, singular, before the throne. And so that's why sevenfold makes more sense of the singular is. But here's the point, the is singular demonstrates that the Spirit is one person, but the number seven is a symbol of fullness. So the sevenfold Spirit shows the fullness of the Spirit that unites us to all of the power and all of the grace of the triune God. We need to always be asking the Father for the filling of the Holy Spirit, and ask the Holy Spirit, Lord Spirit, just as you poured yourself out in your sevenfold anointing upon Jesus, anoint me, fill me. Father, send forth the fullness of your Spirit upon me. Now the next point highlights the fact that the phrase, the sevenfold Spirit, or the seven Spirits, however you wanna translate it, and you can translate it either way, takes everything of Christ, and puts it in us as believers. Or another way of saying it is the fullness of the Spirit brings the fullness of Christ and all that he has purchased into our lives. If we are to succeed in implementing the plans of God that he's given us in this war manual, we must operate in the fullness of Christ and the fullness of the Spirit. So I wanna just take a couple of minutes to go quickly over the four times that the seven or the seven spirits of God is used in this book. I've already read the first one, chapter one, verse four. John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is coming and from the seven fold spirit who is before his throne. So if we're facing the throne and the Father and the Son are sitting on that throne, it is the Spirit that brings us before the throne and brings the throne to us. In other words, apart from the fullness of the Spirit, we cannot have Christ's kingdom in its fullness lived out in us. We cannot have Christ's throne being lived out through us apart from the Spirit of Christ. The next occurrence of that phrase is in chapter 3, verse 1. This begins the message to the church of Sardis and it says, and to the messenger of the church in Sardis write, these things says he who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. So he is Jesus, so Jesus has the spirit in all of his fullness. So the spirit of God fully carries out the son's will even as the son fully carries out the father's will if we have the spirit. And that means we have the fullness of the Father, we have the fullness of Christ. Now that's exactly where we started with in the Gospel of John. Third occurrence of this phrase is in chapter four, verse five. Out of the throne came lightnings and voices and thunders and seven lamps of fire were burning before his throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Okay, so what do lamps do? lamps shine on something. They illuminate something. And in this case, they are illuminating the throne of the Father. This is what the Spirit does. He does not shine upon Himself. In fact, some theological, systematic theologies say that the Holy Spirit is the quintessential humble member of the Trinity. Now I can prove that all three members of the Trinity have humility, but par excellence, the Holy Spirit demonstrates that same humility. So if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, he's going to turn us into lamps that don't shine on ourselves, that shine upon the Father, give all glory to the Father. Now that does not come naturally to our human hearts. We want to take credit to things, But that's an evidence that I am filled with the spirit is that I don't care to get the credit. I'm wanting all glory and honor to be going to the father. The last example of this phrase comes from chapter 5, verse 6, and it says, And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living beings, and in the midst of the elders, a lamb standing, as if slaughtered, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Now we saw when we looked at that passage that the horns represent Jesus and His rule. So He's the Lamb, the horns on that Lamb represent His rule, but it's His rule in its fullest manifestation. That's the number seven. And it's a rule of full and complete wisdom symbolized by the seven eyes. Seven horns, seven eyes are part of Jesus. They represent Jesus' rule and wisdom, but then John goes on to say that they symbolize the fullness of the Holy Spirit sent out into all the earth. Now again, you cannot separate the persons. It is the Holy Spirit who takes Christ's rule, who takes Christ's wisdom, and applies it throughout the earth, you know, amongst His people. It is the Spirit who conquers our hearts and brings our hearts into submission to King Jesus. It is the Spirit who brings the invasion, as it were, of Christ's kingdom in rubber-meets-the-road way on life. Only the fullness of the Spirit can advance the kingdom of Christ. And this highlights the importance of Pentecost in our lives. You know, there are some people, Pentecostals, who speak of having a second blessing. And I think, no, it's not just once in your life that you need the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was poured out upon His disciples in Acts 2 and transformed them, brought the supernatural of Christ into their lives. But in chapter 4, the Holy Spirit is poured out in identical way a second time upon His people. And the apostle Paul says, we need to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit. It's not a one-time experience. Commentators point out that the background of the sevenfold Spirit is in both Isaiah 11 and Zechariah 4. Now, in Isaiah 11—I'll just deal with that one very briefly—the Holy Spirit anoints Jesus and has seven characteristics that enable Jesus to start, advance, and finish His kingdom. Okay, and as the chapter progresses, the Spirit enables Jesus to carry forth his kingdom so effectively that the earth will one day be as full of the knowledge of the Lord, it says, as the waters cover the ocean beds, and all of the Gentile nations will be converted. In fact, the Spirit's going to so effectively advance Christ's kingdom, it's going to even affect the very physical world, such as the wolf lying down with a lamb. or a leopard lying down with a young goat. So he's laying before us a vision of the accomplishment of the Great Commission, but it looks so out there that it seems impossible. People just symbolize it all. They say, that can't possibly be taken in a literal sense. But here's the point. When the church has the fullness of the Holy Spirit, they have the fullness of Jesus. And if you have the fullness of Jesus, you have the fullness of the Father. And if you've got the fullness of the Trinity, there is nothing that is impossible for the church. He can work through us. He can accomplish the impossible. Now last week we saw that Jesus enables us to accomplish almost impossible goals of world conquest that were outlined in this book. But we are seeing now that we must pray for the fullness of the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish that. After all, this is the next point, it is the Spirit of God who brings conviction to the ends of the earth by exposing the secret things that are in our hearts. That's in Revelation 5 verse 6 and in other passages. And it's the inward call of the Holy Spirit in Revelation 22 verse 17 that accompanies the outward call of the gospel that the church gives, the Spirit and the bride say, inward call, outward call. that makes the Great Commission possible. Again, we cannot do the Great Commission without the Holy Spirit accompanying the call of the gospel. He is the one who brings life where previously there had been dry ground. So the bottom line is we need the Holy Spirit to see last week's astounding promises lived out. He brings us to Christ. He brings Christ to our hearts. Now, I started reading from John chapter 14, and that passage says that he also enables the Father's plans to be lived out. And what I want to do is I just want to end this sermon by giving you just a sampling of some of the Father's work in this great war to give you an idea of this book being a Trinitarian work. The Father's work began before the foundation of the world. Seven times this book affirms that He wrote our names in the book of life before this world was completely created. Likewise, in the Father's decrees, the cross was as good as done. If God said, okay, Christ is going to be crucified at a specific day, specific time, specific way, if God decreed it, it's as good as done. So He says He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now that is an astounding thought when you think about it because it means God's decrees cannot fail. 100% of what He has decreed is going to be fulfilled world history. Chapter 7, verse 10 says, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. It's not by accident that people get saved. It is sovereign grace. Sovereign grace. So God has planned everything from eternity past, and His predestinating will is always accomplished. Now some people feel uncomfortable with that, but for me, this is one of the most comforting doctrines that I have ever experienced, to know that there is a security in God's plan. Nothing's outside of His plan. Jesus is purchasing the outliving of that plan, and He is now executing that plan through the power of the Holy Spirit. There's a certainty we have in those decrees. And again, with the triune God on our side, what is there that cannot be accomplished? Absolutely nothing. Now, one of the applications I like to make for the fact that our God is a God of planning is that we need to plan. We need to be detailed even in our plans. He models for us the importance of that. Next, it is the Father who has all authority and who delegates some of that authority to us by making us kings and priests. And after chapter 1, verse 6 makes that statement, it logically affirms that to God the Father belong, quote, all glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. So The fact that we are kings does not take one iota of God's authority and glory away. Instead, we are living out or expressing and representing His authority and glory as mediated through Christ and empowered by the Spirit. Next, God's holiness guarantees that He will not put up with sin forever. I love meditating on His holiness. To me, His holiness is an incredible comfort. His goal is to change a universe of sin into a universe in which righteousness dwells. That's Revelation 21 through 22. Now 2 Peter 3, verse 13. In chapter 6, verse 10, God's holiness logically requires the judgment of sin. And what we have in that chapter is the elect, the saints, who are claiming His judgments because He is a holy God. It's almost like His holiness necessitates this. Lord, we're claiming this. This is consistent with your character. In chapter 15, verse 4, God's people say, Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? Because you alone are holy, because all the nations will come and worship before you, because your righteous judgments have been manifested. So God's holiness brings tremendous comfort to the soldiers who are battling sin in this world. And it brings comfort because we know God the Father is much more hateful of sin than we are. He is much more motivated to get rid of sin in this world than we are. And so his very character necessitates a holy outcome in this war. We need to treasure God's holiness. It explains why we are in this war and why this war will eventually result in a righteous world. The God of holiness cannot deny himself. Next, the whole book illustrates astounding ways in which the Father's providence is arrayed against all humanism on behalf of Christ's kingdom. And we saw that those prophecies of his providence were fulfilled to a T, including even the weirdest of providences, like the blood up to the horse's bridles, and those gigantic meteorites hitting the earth, and those huge ice cubes falling out of the sky, 100-pound ice cubes. of the hiding place for the 144,000, and all kinds of detailed things. It gives us confidence that if God's providence worked out every single detail in the first century, He continues to work out every single detail of His plans today. And if God is for us, who can be against us? Next, the outline points out that Christ's judgments are not simply Christ's judgments. They are the Father's judgments being worked out by Christ in the power of the Spirit. So that means that those who battle against Jesus are also battling against the Father in the Spirit. Christ's great day of judgment is called, quote, the battle of that great day of God Almighty. And even though this book rightly calls all of these judgments the judgments of Christ, they are, Revelation 14.7 speaks of them as being the hour of His, this is the Father's judgment. And verse 19 refers to it as being that great winepress of God's fury. So the Father's judgments promote the victory of the church in history in this book. And the angels know that as judgment after judgment falls, no one can successfully resist His will. Absolutely no one. Why? The multitude says, hallelujah, because the Lord our God reigns, the Almighty. They don't have any doubt in their minds God's going to fulfill His plans. He never is a failure. He will never fail. But what is astounding in this book is that this Almighty God is so close to believers, He calls God Father five times. And in this book, He says that He is so closely knit to believers that He makes His home with them. They make their home with Him. Now, we already read that in the Gospel of John, chapter 14, that all three members of the Trinity make their home with us. But I want you to just consider one of several images that are used in Revelation. Revelation 3 12 the one who overcomes and that would be equivalent to John 14's he who keeps my commandments He who loves me and keeps my commandments So the one who overcomes I will make a pill him a pillar in the temple of my God and he will never go out again so a pillar is a permanent fixture within the temple. It never goes out. And it's a symbol of our permanent closeness to the Father. And each of the letters to each of the churches has some symbol of a permanent closeness to the Father. Now, when you're in a war, Having a permanent closeness and relationship to the commander is a cool thing. There's certain perks that come with being related to the commander. And God not only makes His home with us, we make our home with Him. We have an intimate, familiar Abba Father relationship with Him. Now the same verse goes on to show this family relationship by saying this, and I will write on Him the name of my God. We're family. We bear his family name. And so these relationships, these privileges are written right into the war manual to assure us, hey, Phil Kaiser, you're not just a statistic. You're not just a nameless number out there, oh yeah, cannon fodder going before the battle. No, you're family, you're precious, you are valued by God. You have a family relationship with him. Now that gives whole new meaning to fighting for him. The next point says that his sovereignty gives hope and enthusiasm to God's people. Chapter four shows the enthusiastic worship and the devotion that saints and angels have in God's presence, and it says, because he is sovereign. When I first became convinced of God's sovereignty over everything, including my stubbed toes and the hairs that fall from my head, his total sovereignty, that was in my early 20s, That was such a stabilizing influence in my life. That was one of the doctrines that began to remove my fears and my anxieties and give me some foundation. In the midst of the battle, chapter 19, verse six, it has the whole multitude enthusiastically saying, alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. But not only are we on the winning side of this battle, We're on the side of a generous God who loves to reward us. I'm gonna skip over that point for the most part. I think I dealt with the rewards that God gives in this book very, very adequately. But here's the point, our Father is lavish. He is lavish in his gifts in time and in eternity. Now his wrath, on the other hand, instills confident fear in God's people. We are confident that His wrath will only fall upon the non-elect, upon His enemies. We have confidence because we can approach His throne boldly because Jesus bore the wrath on our behalf. But wrath also instills reverence in us because it is impossible to see the examples of God's wrath falling upon His enemies and not be filled with awe. In fact, an awe that makes you not want to be on God's bad side, even as a parent, relating to him as a parent. When I think of fear and confidence in balance, I think of the one hive of killer bees that I had out in Ethiopia. I had 20 hives of bees, but one of them were just absolutely nasty killer bees. They have been known to kill a number of people in Ethiopia. In fact, the previous missionary to us that was on that station, he'd just been minding his own business, walking down a path and completely smothered. There were Ethiopians with him trying to get the bees off of him. But yeah, he was almost dead. Now that's when you're minding your own business. When you mess with their hive, it can be curtains. So when I suited up in my bee suit to work on the hive, the bees were so thick on the veil that covered my head, I literally could not see where I was going or what I was doing. I had to use my gloved hand like a windshield wiper, wiping them away, and the venom that they were trying to sting through that netting was just drenching that netting. Now, when that happens to you, it instills an awe and a respect when you realize what those bees could do. But you know what? I was not afraid of those bees. I approached that beehive totally confident because I was dressed in a bee suit. Well, we can come with confidence before this God of flaming fire because we are dressed in the bee suit of Christ's righteousness, so to speak, right? It protects us from God's wrath, it gives us confidence, but we would never be flippant with God and approach His presence without the bee suit. I remember the one time I forgot to tie off my pant legs. And it seemed like almost immediately, hundreds of those bees found those holes, I don't know how, and crawled up my legs, stinging as they went, and suddenly, confidence gave way to flight. And the neighbors were looking out their window laughing at me. I remember that very vividly. But in the same way, though we can have confidence to approach the Father and even climb into His lap, and call him Abba, which is a term of endearment like, you know, Papa or Daddy. It's a term of endearment. He wants us to have that kind of closeness with him. God the Father will make us dance if we rebel against him, right? Confidence does not mean disrespect. Confidence and respect for who God is must go hand in hand. Or you can think of the Amtrak engine When Kathy and I and Elizabeth took the Amtrak train, I stood beside that engine. And I was awestruck. I had no idea how big those train engines were until I stood beside them. And when I just heard the humming of that engine rumbling, whatever the sound was, it does something emotionally to you. So I'm looking at that engine, and I have a great deal of respect for it. I have confidence to ride the train, but I would never use my confidence to stop that train. It would stop me, right? It's my very respect for the power of that train that keeps me from messing around with it. Now the reason I've even introduced God's wrath in this war manual issue is that we can have confidence that calling for God's wrath against his enemies is totally compatible and consistent with his character. His wrath is actually one of the resources that we should call down upon God's enemies when they are seeking to destroy the church. God says in 1 Corinthians 3 verse 17, if anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. I would encourage you to claim that verse against the Chinese leaders who right now are doing exactly that. They were seeking to destroy the church of Jesus Christ, and God right here promises anyone who seeks to destroy His temple, which He defines as being the church, God will destroy him. May God destroy the leaders of those people, either through conversion or taking them out. But they are fighting against Almighty God, and it's a scary position to be in. Anyway, I'm glad that our God is a God of wrath because it means rebellion will be dealt with in His timing and it gives me confidence. I'm also glad that our God is a God of justice because it means that His justice does not just flow once in a while. No, His character is not on and off again, on and off again. Some people think God's justice is only manifested on the last day of history. No, that is nonsense. The book of Revelation has shown us that His justice is manifested all the way through history and on into eternity. So, in chapter 6, the saints asked, Lord, will you bring justice? And God's response is, yes, I will. You just need to wait a little while. And we saw it's not a very long while that they have to wait, because in chapters 8 and following, He brings His justice to bear upon the earth. Revelation 18.20 says, Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her. Now, how do we do this? We can do it through our prayers, we can do it through our singing. In God's authorized hymn book, which we call the Psalter, he has given us the words of many songs that call down his justice and his wrath upon his enemies, but we've also seen that The new resurrection has authorized new songs that deal with Christ and new covenant themes. So these new songs do not do away with the old. In Revelation 15, verse 3, it says that we are to sing both the songs of Moses and the songs of the Lamb. There's new covenant history that needs to be sung as well. And some of the songs of the Lamb also appeal to God's justice against our enemies. I'm thankful for God's power, because it is such omnipotent power, it cannot be resisted. And when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, we have access to all of the power of Almighty God. Revelation 18.8 says that Babylon was burned, quote, because strong is the Lord God who judges her, unquote. Power is not inherently present in men, angels, demons, or any other aspect of creation. Instead, Revelation 19 verse 1 affirms, quote, power belongs to the Lord our God. Now, the reason I'm including these attributes, they are resources that can give us confidence as we go into battle. and this father loves his children dearly and promises in this book to protect them. Revelation 9, verse 4, he seals his children on their foreheads and he tells the demon, don't you dare touch one of my children. Don't you dare touch them. That gives us confidence, right? His protection, his love, his provision. In chapter 12, verse 6, he gives a perfect hiding place for the 144,000 to flee to and be protected from Um, from God's wrath, but also from the, from the demons. And in chapter 21 through 22, God gives many examples of his protection and provision. Obviously, throughout eternity, we're gonna be protected because he's gonna wipe away all tears, all danger, but even in time, there are so many ways in which God protects and provides. In Isaiah 54, verse 17, he promises, no weapon formed against you shall prosper. Hallelujah. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. And this gives us boldness. to persevere in the fight. We cannot die one day earlier than it is God's time for us to die. We can't go to prison one day earlier than it serves God's purposes for us to go, and even then we're really not prisoners of them, we're prisoners of Christ because we're serving His purpose in that situation. And so we're ending this series on Revelation by looking at the triune God who gave us the war manual. And that way we realize that the battle's not won by our power or by our might, It is won by the plans, the resources, and the power of our triune God. My hope is that we will always keep God centered in our day-to-day living. And if we do, we are going to have the confidence that the 144,000 who turned the world upside down had. They had an unbelievable confidence and faith in Almighty God. May He raise up such an army today. Amen. Father, we thank you for your Word and we thank you for this book of Revelation. It has been my delight to present at least portions of this book and the implications of this book to the congregation. I pray it would continue to be a book that would bring blessing and encouragement and stir up faith and hope and stir up a warrior spirit in those whom you are calling. I pray, Father, that you would continue to strengthen this, your people, through your holy word. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.