All right, so tonight we're going to kind of look at. Revelation from an overview perspective, and I don't know when this ultimately gets recorded and put up on the website, where it's going to go, if it's going to be on the front end of the series or the back end of the series, or what it is. It's going to be like a retrospective. I should let you guys all know that we're in the process of revamping and updating our website from the ground up. It's going to be totally new, hopefully in about a month, max. We hope. And we're in the process of migrating. All of these studies are kind of in a place that's a little bit hard to get to. Some of you have come to me and it's like, where are they? In the not too distant future, they're going to be really easy to find. So we're going to have everything in a hopefully really easy to locate place. All right? OK, tonight I want to kind of walk you through some things with regard to the book of Revelation. And I'm going to ask you some questions and hopefully help you guys come to a point of self-discovery and in the process teach you a little bit about Bible study as well as we're doing this. Alright, a lot of you have been with me from the start. Or at least a huge portion of this book. If you were to have to take an educated guess, and I say educated because you've been here with me through a lot of this study. About what the central theme of the book of Revelation is. You boil it down to one thing. One thing. What would it be? Okay, very good. Well, that was quick. No, but you're right, it is. First of all, it's the person of Jesus Christ, and then it's as the book of Revelation presents Him in His glory. And I want to show that to you, alright? First of all, look at the very opening statement of the book. The very opening statement of the book. Chapter 1, verse 1. There's a couple, but there aren't many. I don't have a number off the top of my head. There aren't many, but it's one of the only books in all of Scripture that has its title, especially in the New Testament, as the very first sentence. Right? The revelation of Jesus Christ. There you go. The whole book is about that. It's not the judgments that are coming. That's what everybody's interested in, right? That's the juicy stuff. The whole book from start to finish is about the person of Jesus Christ. In fact, the word revelation, do you guys remember what that word means? First of all, do you remember what the Greek word is? Anybody? Apocalypse from which we get the English word Apocalypse. Now, when we think of the English word apocalypse, we think of destruction. Disaster. The end of the world. Everything is blowing up. Which, the end of the world does come in this book. But the whole idea of apocalyptic literature rose out of this. Before this, the word apocalypsis or apocalypse did not mean destruction. The Greek word apocalupsis means the unveiling, the uncovering, the revealing. And the idea that we have here, who's writing Revelations? The Apostle who? John. He's on the Isle of Patmos. He also wrote a Gospel, right? Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. John wrote a Gospel. And in the Gospels, how do we find the person of Jesus Christ? And by how do we find Him, As opposed to his state when he was in heaven, how do we find him in the Gospels? I'm sorry? It's okay, you can say it. He's in the world, yes, you're barking up the right tree. In Revelation he is, but in John, Well, that's Mark. John's Gospel represents him as God. But on the earth, by and large, Jesus Christ, in general, when we talk about Christ in earth versus Christ in heaven, we talk about Him in His humiliation. So in the Gospels, we find Christ in His humiliation. We find Him in an unglorified human body. Sinless. but it's unglorified. We find Him as a normal human being from a physical standpoint, who has to sleep, who has to eat, who has to deal with the sin of other people, who has to deal with persecution, who has to deal with the fickleness of the crowds, who has to deal with the attacks of Satan, And in the final analysis, goes to the cross, in obedience to the Father, lays down His life, bears all the wrath of God the Father for our sin, and because He bore the wrath of all the sin of everyone who would believe, He is punished worse and bears more wrath than anyone could ever possibly bear. Anyone else. He places himself in his humility lower than anyone else ever has been or ever could be. Right? So in the Gospels, we see Jesus Christ in his humiliation, in his humility. In the book of Revelation, we see him in his glory. All right? We're going to get to that in just a minute. Okay, so you have the opening statement of the book of Revelation We have the right understanding of what apocalypse means and I know what it means in English But apocalypse is in Greek means the unveiling so we are in in in the Gospels. We had him in his humility We had him clothed in in in human flow. He's still in human flesh, but an unglorified human flesh and In the book of Revelation, we have His glory unveiled. So it's the unveiling of Jesus Christ. John says what I wrote before was Him unveiled for him. Now I'm going to show you to Him unveiled. Fully. Now, I want you to look at chapter 1 verse 19. Because Revelation is also one of the very few limited number of books in Scripture that suggest its own outline. Jesus is speaking to John and He says, Therefore, write the things which you have seen, the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. So, the book of Revelation, this is the outline that I followed for us all throughout this study. The book of Revelation has three basic divisions. The first one is, he mentions in v. 19, write the things which you have seen. What is that? I'm sorry? Right, but specifically in the book of Revelation, what is that? No. What has he seen? Yes. Because he's supposed to write the things that he's seen. What's he seen? No. He has. But within the book of Revelation, what has he seen? The vision of Jesus Christ. He's seen the glorified vision of Jesus Christ. Chapter 1, verse 20. That's what he has seen. The glorified Christ. This is the opening vision of the book of Revelation. It is the first major section of the book of Revelation. And it's the first major section of the book of Revelation because everything that comes after it, builds upon it, relates back to it, runs off of it. So that's what he has seen. Right? What you have seen. He's seen Jesus Christ and His glory. And the things which are. In other words, the things that exist right now. Now as you think about the book of Revelation, and what's coming next in the book of Revelation, what are the things that exist for John, the things that exist right now? The status of the churches. All right, that's the second section, major section of the book. So the first section is chapter one. The second section is chapters two and three. That's the condition of the church at the time of his writing, and that in fact is the condition of the church in every age, because these seven churches represent every church of every age. Each one of the letters closes with the statement, let him who has an ear hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So this is a letter written specifically to each one of those seven churches, but it's written to every church in every age, and it's instructive for every church in every age. So these are the things that are. So we've got the things that he's seen, you have the things which are, and then third in verse 19, the things which will take place after these things. So, the things that he's seen, Christ, the things that are, the church, the things that will take place after the church, it starts in chapter 4, verse 1, and goes all the way to the end of the book. All right. So there's three major divisions of the gospel or the of the revelation of Jesus Christ written by the apostle John. Now, if the main theme is the person of Jesus Christ, when you're studying a book of the Bible, that book has a theme. It has a purpose. It has a reason for the writer to write. He tells you what that is in the very first sentence, actually the first four words, the revelation of Jesus Christ, or in Greek it's three. So the revelation of Jesus Christ, and you've got three main sections, so every one of those sections relates back to the person of Christ. Is this making sense? So you've got your main theme, you've got your three main sections, they all relate back to Christ. And so then you ask yourself the question, what do each one of those sections reveal about Him? Well, the first one is very obviously the presentation of His glory, right? 1.1 to 1.20 is the presentation of His glory. What does 2.1 to 3.22 tell you about Jesus Christ? It tells you, and don't write this yet if you're taking notes, but we're building to something here. It tells you about His care for each of His churches, His love for each of His churches, His correction for each of His churches, But what does he start each letter to each one of those churches with? How does it start? Himself. And how does he introduce himself? Correct. But he uses something we've already seen. Okay, yeah, he's talking, which is the messenger, so the letter is to the messenger of the churches, but how does he introduce himself? In each case, it's a different description of himself, but where does that description come from? Okay, you're all close. he gives a vision of himself in chapter one, doesn't he? And when he introduces himself in chapter two and three to each one of the churches, he uses a portion of that vision from chapter one. That's the first thing he tells them, is, here I am. And this is the part of me that you need to see. And then he critiques that church, whether it's some sin that they've committed, some encouragement that they need, or they're under persecution. And in each case, He presents Himself in exactly the form that that particular church needs. So what you have going on in chapters 2 and 3, remember, we've got to relate back to the theme of the glory of Christ, right? The person of Jesus Christ revealed in His glory. So to each of the churches in chapters 2 and 3, He reveals Himself in His glory in exactly the form that each one of those churches needs. Which tells you what about His glory? It tells you that His glory, He Himself is fully sufficient for every need you have. Alright? And in chapter 4 we see it in the pouring out of his judgments upon the earth. He is displayed as righteous. The people upon the earth are wicked. He's demonstrating his righteousness and he is coming back as the glorious conquering king. And starting in Revelation chapter 6, you have him pouring out his judgments And each one of these, the more that I study this book, the more that I'm convinced this is not just a series of judgments with a battle at the end in Armageddon. This is God waging war. This is the campaign. That concludes in Armageddon, or I think you can call it the campaign of Armageddon. Of Jesus Christ. Taking back his kingdom. So you've got His glory through His worship in heaven. You've got His glory as He is a conquering general in chapters 6-19. And then you have His glory as He returns in chapter 19. And then His glory as He sits as King of kings and Lord of lords in chapter 20. Then His glory as He pronounces final judgment upon the nations of the world, the judgment of the sheep and the goats. From Matthew 25. And then you have His glory as He recreates the universe as creator again. And then you have His glory as He sits as sovereign over the new heavens and the new earth. Forever. And you have the full display of His glory then in the new heavens and the new earth. We've been talking about this most recently. He is shining out. The text literally says, its lamp is the Lamb. And you know from the description of Christ throughout the book of Revelation that that is the lamb is Jesus Christ. There is nothing in this book that is not his glory. There is nothing in this book that does not relate to his glory. There is nothing in this book that does not display him as glorious. All right. So the theme of the book of Revelation or the purpose of the book of Revelation is to reveal, to show, to unveil Jesus Christ in his glory. I've been talking for 28 minutes, Glenn. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so the first one is His glory in His presentation. The second one is His glory in His church. And the third one is... How can I put this into one sentence? His glory... His glory is conquering King. His glory is conquering King. That's the best way I can think of to put all of that. that's going on from chapter four forward into one small sentence. Yeah, but that, yeah, in six through 19, you know, four and five is the glory of his worship in heaven, a sovereign king, and then when you get into 20, you're kind of back to that again. So, but yes, yeah, that that that subsection of the third main division revelation. Yes. So revelation is about the glorious dominance of Jesus Christ. All right, any questions or thoughts on that before I go to the second part? All right. Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah. They wanted the overthrow of Rome now. They wanted world dominance now. They wanted Messiah on his throne in Jerusalem now. And they wanted, how can I portray this accurately? You can see this in the disciples, but especially in the Pharisees and the religious leadership. They wanted their place in Messiah's kingdom. we're the leaders the country when he comes back he's going to reward us he's gonna set us in in in the you know the the the leader of the places of leadership and because we are the perfect one and even have uh... James and John basically hiding behind their mother's skirt. She comes up to Jesus and says, I've got something I want you to give me whatever I want. Well, what do you want? Well, I want my two sons to sit at your right and left hand in your kingdom. Everybody wants the place of authority in Messiah's kingdom. Kingdom now, glory now, domination now, and we're all going to shove our way into Dominance and we're gonna fight and struggle and step on whoever we have to step on to get in it Now the way up is down Yeah Yeah The way to glory is suffering That's no fun for us But the way to glory is suffering and our Lord suffered. Why would we expect anything less? Why would we expect anything different if we get better than what he got? We're very privileged We're very privileged and Now we we are and we got it way better than he had it, right? Which, at your lowest low in life, you can remember, I've sat with people who are literally at the lowest point in their life and they were so angry at God because, how could He put me in this position? How could He do this to me? And my response to them is, Have you for one minute, do you think that you can roll up your sleeves and compare your scars to his? What he went through? Just in his earthly suffering, let alone the wrath that he bore for you. You know, when somebody gets in that position, I want to be compassionate to a certain extent, but they also have to understand that the reason they're in that position is because they're in the middle of a pity party, just being honest. And they need to understand what Christ went through for them. And he asked way more of himself than he ever asks of us. So before we get to that point, we need to remember what he went through for us. Isn't that interesting how God does that? Yeah. All right, any other thoughts before we move on? That's where I want to shed a splash of blood. It's chapter one, verse 29. For unto you it is given, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on it, but also to suffer for it. Notice the incredible choice of words that Paul uses there. It is given. The Greek word is the word that is in other places translated gift. Isn't that incredible? It is a gift to you to suffer. What does that mean for us? Well, in the first place, it means for us that if you're suffering, take a deep breath. It's going to be okay. God brought that into your life to conform you to the image of Christ. And as hard as it is, we need to understand in the final analysis, I know it hurts now, but in the final analysis, if we accept it right, it's a gift. It's a gift, why? Not because the suffering is fun. Not because it feels good. That's just sadistic. Right? In the end it's a gift because it conforms me to the image of Christ. Yeah. Yeah, when I accept it correctly it builds humility. You know, you were reading their passage that Paul wrote. He. Guys, I'm driving mental blank right now, but talks about his thorn in the flesh. Right. And then he tells you what his thorn in the flesh is. A messenger of Satan sent to buffet me. A messenger, an on glass. An angel of Satan. A demon. How'd you like to have that for a gift? Here, here's a demon. Merry Christmas! Sent to buffet him. Sent literally to beat him. Not physically. Why? Because Paul goes on, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. what God has revealed, what God has unveiled to him. Paul says, listen, I have received so many incredible revelations of Scripture from God. What's he in danger of? Pride. Pride. And so God uses that to humble him. I've got two that want to speak. You beat him. Right, and I, which he did have an eye issue. Yeah, yeah, he specifically, you know, that God has given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger. And again, it was given the word is gift, a messenger of Satan sent to buffet me an angel, a demon. And what was God's response? So most gladly, therefore, I will Yeah. I am content to be to be weak, to be beaten up so that the glory of Christ can be revealed through my humility. Yes, ma'am. And a haughty spirit before destruction. Oh, yeah. Proverbs. Yeah. Yeah. And so God is God. You've got to love me for this. God loves us enough. He's willing to give us a demon to keep us humble. It's true. It's true. That's not easy to accept. Okay, so I have to be careful what I say there just so we all understand. It's not possession. A believer cannot be demon possessed. A demon cannot share the same house with the Holy Spirit. You are possessed! Every one of you, you're possessed! By the Holy Spirit. He can oppress you. He can make life difficult for you. Yeah. Yeah. A perfect example, Job. The messenger of Satan he had was Satan himself. And that's the perfect example to show that God does allow that in certain circumstances. And, just out of curiosity, we're way off topic here, but just out of curiosity, does anybody know what Job did wrong? Nothing! Nothing! Have you considered my servant Job, a man who does right and is upright in all his ways? But in the end, what did God not treat him right? In the end, Job goes through all this horrible experience. In the end, God gives him more children, more possessions, more of everything that he ever had before. He did get stuck with the same wife. Who didn't turn out to be so helpful in the beginning, did she? Actually, there are some people who... and there's some credence to this. It's not as bad maybe as it seems. The belief then was if you curse God, you will die. And the idea is you are in so much pain, so much agony, that your life is so miserable, curse Him so He takes you. She's lost all of her children and all of her possessions. Effectively, yes. She lost a lot, too. Everybody forgets it. Now, was she right? No, she was wrong. But let's cut her a little bit of slack, Marcelo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good thoughts, guys. All right, and isn't it amazing how all this relates to the glory of Christ? He is glorified in our suffering. And speaking of glory. All right, when we talk about, we're going to move on to the next section now. Did somebody, did I see a hand? Yeah. Right. Yeah, I mean... You know, I have a very Protestant Bible, and it says the revelation of John. Now, by that it means the revelation that was given to John But yeah, at least it doesn't, you know, make John divine here. Or a saint. Any more than I am. Yeah, don't do that. Public service announcement to everyone everywhere. Don't call it revelations. It's not. It's singular. Even in the Greek, it's singular. It's a pet peeve. We'll leave that there. OK. Moving right along. Yeah, good. All right. Now, I want to talk to you just for a little bit of time here about glory in general in the book of Revelation. You're sitting there going, we've already talked about this thing 80 different ways. How much more could there be about glory? Answer a lot. Now, what do I mean by this? I want to talk to you about the different types of glory that are revealed in the book of Revelation, specifically the types of glory of Jesus Christ. Number one, this is a little bit of a theology lesson here. Number one, you have what's called intrinsic glory. I-N-T-R-I-N-S-I-C. Intrinsic. The word intrinsic means something that you inherently have as part of you. Something that just is. And if it was taken away from you, you would cease to be you. Alright? We often talk about God with regard to His attributes. His holiness, His omniscience, His omnipresence, His love, His self-sufficiency, all of the different aspects that make God what He is. If you remove one of those, He no longer is what He was. If you remove one of those, He no longer is God. That's how important the attributes are. So when we talk about intrinsic glory, because what glory is, what glory is, is it is the summation of all of His perfections. That's the most concise definition of glory I've found. And I've spent a lot of time looking at them, trust me. The most concise definition of glory that I've ever found is the summation of all of His perfections. And we can unpack that later if you want. But the idea that's present there is that when we talk about glory, specifically intrinsic glory, it's glory that someone has because of what they are. Example. Revelation 1, verses 12-20. John is speaking. And he says, Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and upon turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe, reaching to his feet, girded across his chest was a golden sash. His head and his hair were white like white wool, like snow. His eyes were a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze, which had been made to glow in a furnace. His voice was like the sound of many waters." He's describing, we've gone through what all of these things mean, but descriptively, he's talking about all of the attributes of Jesus Christ. His kingship, His sovereignty, His wisdom, His eternality. That's what John's describing as he's going through all of these things. It is who Christ inherently is. That's intrinsic glory. There's a second, and by the way, intrinsic glory never diminishes. It never increases, it never diminishes. It always stays the same because it always is an accurate reflection of what He is. The second type of glory that Christ has is what we call ascribed. Ascribed glory. A-S-C-R-I-B-E-D. Ascribed. In other words, it's something that is ascribed to Him or given to Him. That's another way to think of it. His given glory. This is the glory that we give Him. We ascribe praise and honor to Him. That's ascribed glory. Now, that increases and that diminishes. because it's something that someone else gives to him. But I do find it interesting that in the triumphal entry when Jesus is walking into Jerusalem, the Pharisees say, tell your people to stop talking. Jesus' response is, if they stop talking, the rocks will scream out. He will be glorified. by His creation, one way or the other. And like I said in a sermon a few weeks ago, the difference between us and the rocks is rocks never forget who made them, and they always know the glory that He deserves. So they're, you know, maybe a little better off than we are sometimes. All right, so ascribed glory. This is us worshiping Him. This is us singing to Him. This is us praying to Him. And it takes different forms. In chapter 2, verse 1, through chapter 3, verse 22, you have Jesus reveals to the church His intrinsic glory at the very beginning of each letter to the church. And then He tells them, here's your situation, now here's what I want you to do. So, they act based upon who He is. That's His command to the churches and understand, that's His command to us. So, our life is to be a response to His intrinsic glory. By our obedience, we ascribe glory. Do you understand? So because He has intrinsic glory, our life is to be a response to that intrinsic glory. And by responding to that, we're ascribing glory to Him by our obedience. Does that make sense? So that's intrinsic glory, that's ascribed glory, and that's the relationship between the two. Intrinsic glory demands ascribed glory. The churches do it in Revelation 2, 1-322. What happens in chapters 4 and 5 of the book of Revelation? What is all of heaven doing? It's worshiping Him, right? If you look at those two chapters of the book of Revelation, verse 8, For living creatures, each one of them having six wings, full of eyes around and within, they do not cease to say, here is the inscription of glory. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, The twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Here is more inscription, Worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive He's receiving what? Glory and honor and power. Why? For you created all things and because of your will they existed and were created. You are awesome and because you are awesome, it's our responsibility to ascribe the glory back to you that you deserve. That's what's happening in heaven. And so God constantly reveals Himself as awesome. And the angels constantly reveal to him or ascribe to him the glory that he deserves because of who he is. And the Psalms tell you that the heavens declare the glory of God. The only people for which the declaration of God's glory is ever in question is us. The angels do it. Heaven does it. Creation does it. When Jesus Christ approached demons, we know who you are, the Holy One of God! What are they doing? They're ascribing glory to Him. The only beings that don't just responsibly ascribe glory to Him are sinful human beings. Everything else does it. It's just the instantaneous response to his presence. Does that give you an idea of how seriously we've been marred by sin? I apologize if my yelling scared anybody. Didn't mean to do it. I get excited when I teach. We got to do it. I don't do that very often. Occasionally, I do. I get yelled at whenever I do it. I do. I get people, you shouldn't found the pulpit like that. I'm sorry. The church ascribes glory to Him in its obedience. Heaven ascribes glory to Him in chapters 4 and 5. Chapters 6 through 19, you have the glory that's ascribed to Him in judgment. Even the sinners on the earth, they go to the rocks, and the hills and the caves fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne. And from the Lamb. Why? They're in awe. Aren't they? Do they mean to ascribe glory to Him? No. They're enraged at Him. They're trying to get away from Him. And in their effort to run away, they're ascribing glory to Him. Because they're in awe of Him. And then you get to the end of the book, chapters 20 to 22, and you have the eternal state. And there is nothing that isn't continuously ascribing glory to him. The book of Revelation is a crescendo of glory. From beginning to end. Third type of glory. So you have intrinsic glory, you have ascribed glory. Third and the last. Third and the last is manifest glory. The easiest way I can describe this to you for you to understand is one word light Now when I say the word glory everybody usually almost always universally thinks of the light that comes out from God the scripture says he dwells an unapproachable light That is a manifestation of his glory. It's the physical visible manifestation of his perfections and And his face was glowing. Why? When he would go to meet God in the tent of meeting, he would have to leave wearing a veil over his face because nobody could stand to look at him. Because he was ugly? No. Maybe he was. I don't know. But it had nothing to do with his physical appearance. It had everything to do with the fact that his face was radiating glory of God. And it was too bright for anybody to look at after he left. Yeah, there you go. Alright, so you have this manifest glory. Some examples of this, chapter 1 verse 16. In his right hand he had seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength, literally at its zenith. How long can you stare at the sun? Not very. And if you do, you're going to do serious damage. Right? And the angels who proclaim the glory of God, we see this in Isaiah chapter 6. Even the angels, holy, sinless angels, have six wings. They only use two to fly. The other four cover the bottom half and the upper half of their body because they need a shield against the magnificence of His glory to just be in His presence. Now, we've been studying this. In the future, we will see His face. Right? Isn't that what chapter 21 and 22 say? You will see his face. And in the Old Testament it was, no man shall see my face and live. Human flesh can't endure it. Alright, so you have His face shining in the strength of 116. 21-23, He is the glory of the New Jerusalem that literally lights the universe. And we've talked before about the fact that this has happened once before. It is alluded to in Genesis chapter 1. And God said, let there be light. And He doesn't create the sun, the moon, and the stars until day 3. So something lit the universe for two full days. He just turned it on. He just extended his glory to the vast reaches of the universe. Chapter 15, this is terrifying. You remember this. Chapter 15. Verse eight. The temple was filled with smoke. From what? The glory of God. And from his power. And no one. And no one. was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. Beloved, he turned it on. And when he turned it on, the evacuation order was issued. Nobody could be in that temple. There's your brief time where the seraphim, encircle his throne saying holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and who is and who is to come. They weren't saying that because they couldn't stand to be in his presence. He turned it on and it's confined to the confines of heaven at that point and get out, it's on, we can't take it. until he's done with the last seven plagues. Reverence, awe. So there's your three types of glory. Intrinsic, ascribed, and manifest. All right. Hopefully that makes sense. Yes. A little question? We'll see. Yeah. by me with the glory that I had with you in your presence before the world was. It's veiled. Yeah, it's veiled. Yes. Yes, Jesus specifically said that I glorify my Father and the Father glorifies me. Yeah, on more than one occasion. John 17 is another example of that. So yeah, he's anticipating, he's not saying, turn the light on right now, right before my crucifixion. He's saying, when this is over, can you imagine? When this is over and I've paid the price, then I get to be in your presence and we can share the glory again. I can't even believe the passion with which he must have said that. I can't even begin to imagine it. That is one of, I think, one of the most amazing statements in all of scripture. Some of my favorite, I mean, I've got, there's a number of passages that are like quote unquote favorite passages for me, but the ones that you read and you just want to weep over are what I call the, it's a wonderfully theological way to say it, the inter-Trinitarian communication. The son speaking with the father. Hebrews 1. The father says of the son, your throne, O God. Is forever and ever. Who else does the father speak to and say your throne, O God? To hear those words come out of the father's mouth. Befuddling. That's the relationship they've shared with each other since eternity passed. Forever. This is the love that's within the Trinity. Your throne, O God. He's marveling in the sun. One member of the Trinity is taking delight in another member of the Trinity. Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The heavens roll up like a scroll, but you? You're amazing. You remained. It's incredible. If that's not glory, I don't know what is. That is one member of the Trinity, both members of the Trinity having full intrinsic glory, and one member of the Trinity ascribing glory to the other. Put that in your computer and try to crunch those numbers. All right, so just a few concluding thoughts here. The glory of God is revealed in Revelation in all forms. And the role of the believer is two, four things. More than this, but just in summation. Number one, to worship him for his intrinsic glory. He's just worthy. And if you ever doubt that, just look at what heaven ascribes to Him in chapter 4. We read it a little while ago. Worthy are you. Right? 1. Worship Him for His intrinsic glory. 2. Ascribe glory to Him by living faithfully. Your obedience is an ascription of glory to Him. Your lack of obedience is a non-ascription of glory to Him. We glorify Him by our lives, by the way we live. Third, I think this kind of glory requires some awe, some respect. We need to be in awe of His magnificence and to long for the time when we can behold it. Yeah, to be in awe of His magnificence and at the same time long for the time that you can behold that magnificence. The amazing thing that scripture tells us about him is that when we see him, we'll be like him. Now that doesn't mean you're going to be equal to God, but it means you're going to have the same type of glorified body that he has now. We share in his glory, we reign and rule with him. And you ought to long for that and not this world. Because compared to that, this world ain't got nothing. Money, gold, sex, possessions. It's a good word, yeah. Yeah. And, you know, even, you know, we've, you guys and I have talked a little bit in the past, kind of the context of, you know, what you guys have kind of in a lot of ways come out of and know a lot of people who are in the, you know, the health, wealth, name it, claim it, want to get all this, you know, Possessions and money and yada yada and God exists to give me whatever This makes that so small so even compared to him repulsive and so When when you have a right understanding of who he is just understanding who he is obliterates that Yeah, that's right and we're gonna get immeasurable Inheritance when when we reach heaven You're right Ned they are They are trying to get you to buy a cheap substitute, and I mean a very cheap substitute. That's all I have. So that's the world I've been floating in the last couple days as I'm writing this dissertation, which on the one hand is incredible. On the other hand, there's the academic pressure that's on me to try to get it done so I don't get to enjoy it much when I'm writing it. But hey, I got to enjoy it tonight with you guys. So I sat down and literally scribbled this out in like, I think I spent seven minutes scribbling this out. Oh, goodness. Yeah. Yeah. It's so that. Oh, wow. That's that's that's a neat little acronym, isn't it? I didn't catch that at all. Wow. I am. intrinsic, ascribed, and manifest. I am. That's brilliant. See, I thought of it and didn't even know it. No, those and those are just, um, Those are just the standard. I mean that's that's the kind of the theological. Those are just the words that have that we. Put on it so we can have some way to talk about it. But if that's that's a really neat little acronym because it you know it. Brings us right back to the to the self existence of God. I am that I am. I am a sent you. That's a nice ribbon to tie this up with. Let's pray before I say something stupid. Father, God, we come to you tonight and we just marvel at the glory that's revealed to us in the book of Revelation that you share with Christ and with the Spirit also. Father, our hearts can't begin to fathom what is waiting for us with you. I pray tonight, Lord, that you would use this in my life and in the life of every person here. To allow the things of this world, the pursuits that are here, the things that we would be tempted by. And it's all the things that tempt humanity. Possessions, money, sex, food. All of those things. They're so small compared to your glory. And when used right, in obedience to you, ascribe you glory. And we pervert them. Father, help us tonight to give that pursuit up. To just be done with it. That we can ascribe you more glory because you deserve so much more than we could possibly ascribe. Help us to do it, and we can't wait for that day when we are with you in your presence, and we will be for eternity. And so we pray with John, come Lord Jesus quickly. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.