Revelation 1:4-8

Jesus’ Coming will be:

1. Majestic
2. Dramatic
3. Prophetic
4. Catastrophic

We just sang praises to God! Did we not? How was your praise this morning?

Chapter one of Revelation beginning in verse four, here’s what it says.

Revelation 1:4-8 (ESV)

4 “John to the seven churches of Asia: (that would be modern day Turkey. Okay? That’s where they would be)

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,

5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings on earth.

To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood

6 and made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

7 Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him…

8b…who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

Let’s pray.

Father, this doxology we just read, this praise to You, this praise to You, this praise to Your Spirit, this praise to Your Son, may it be acceptable to You as we articulate it this morning in a message. To You be the glory. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

A little known fact in my own life and ministry is I used to lead the singing in our first church. Why are you laughing? I don’t know how good a leader I was in leading music, but our church sang! Man, did they sing! Little country church… we’d crank those windows open… let the whole world hear us singing! And in fact, one day as I was going into the church on a weekday a woman from the Lutheran church next door walked out of her car came to me. She goes, “You don’t know me, but you’re the pastor, aren’t you?” I said, “I am.” She says, “Every Sunday morning when I get out of my car, I take my time walking into our church so that I can listen to your people sing!”

John here begins with a doxology. That’s a word you’ve heard before. It comes from the Greek word “doxa.” It means “glory.” It means “to give glory to God.” A doxology is a short prayer or praise to God. And there are seven of them replete throughout the book of Revelation because this gets really heavy, really fast! And so throughout it, God has little markers for us to lift up our hearts to God and praise Him amidst all of His glory… and all of the gory.

Just the other day, a staff member mentioned one of the 50 or 60 that dawn this platform during the music time, one of them… expressed that they’re concerned, recently looking at your faces as they were leading music and your expressions, or lack thereof, or apathy. And it concerned me! — Because all I could think it was… I thought, “Can you imagine a bride just being pronounced “wife” to her husband, and then coming down the aisle like this? (humming)” (audience laughing) Well, never! She’s happy! They’re all but dancing! I’ve seen some pretty crazy stuff going down this aisle at the end! Why? Because they’re just thrilled! There is a reflection of their joy, their love, their passion… all of that!

We, who know Jesus Christ are the true church and the true church is the Bride of Christ! We celebrate our marriage to Him every Sunday! How’s that looking? How’s that sounding? Are your voices a reflection of your heart? Are your faces a reflection of your love for God?

Now I get it, I do. I get it. I’ve been there where a lot of you are. I mean… ‘I just got the kids in their classes and I’m just still getting over the argument I had with my wife on the way over here, and my medicine hasn’t kicked in…” — Whatever it is. We all have our excuses. Right? But we’re singing the praises of God! And again, this book is gonna get real heavy, real fast. So let’s enjoy these adorations when they come upon us! Amen?

A very young John Piper was studying… I don’t remember if it was a dissertation or a book he was writing on Romans 9 and all of the ins and outs of God’s sovereignty and election, going deep and taking on all the nuances of the text, and like a dog on a bone he was wrestling with it! And getting excited about it, but he writes that in the midst of it all, the Spirit of God spoke to his heart. God, Himself, sort of spoke to his heart. He didn’t hear anything, but this is what he sensed. He sensed God saying to him,

“I will not simply be analyzed. I will be adored!” John Piper

Do you adore God? This book, as I said, gets really heavy, so let’s adore Him in the moments we can. All three persons of the Godhead are mentioned in these verses, verses 4 through 8; Father, Spirit and Son, so let’s adore God this morning. Shall we? You’re going to get another opportunity to sing! — (a little hint) so, let’s adore God by praising the Father!

In verse 1, it says, “He is, was, is to come.” And I get it! At first glance, you’re thinking, ‘Well, that’s Jesus! You know, He is, He was, He is to come.’ But this is actually a reference to Father God, who is referred to as the One who transcends time, past, present and future. This is the one that Moses spoke of when he said,

[Deuteronomy 33:27 (ESV)]

27 The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms…”

Do you worship Him? Do you praise the Father? You’re going to get an opportunity at the very end of our time today to do that.

John Phillips, the Bible commentator, said,

“God reads the past, rides the present and rules the future.” John Phillips

And so we praise Him… or so we should.

John starts out by addressing these seven churches in verse 4 that are in Asia Minor or modern day Turkey. He lumps seven churches into one letter. I mean, Paul writes individual letters. John shoots one out… actually it’s not just John. It’s John sort of the amanuensis [a person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another; secretary] for Jesus, because Jesus is the One writing to these seven churches in chapters 2 and 3. But what I want you to notice is at the middle of verse four, “grace to you.” “Grace to you.” How beautiful that a book that’s known for God’s judgments begins with God’s grace. Christ’s rejectors will get what they deserve, but John reminds the churches that they’re getting what they don’t deserve, the grace of God! And every time I think of that, because we don’t deserve it either! Right? And note that with grace comes (what?) peace. They’re almost always inextricably tied together. Grace/Peace.

And I never see that combo in scripture without thinking of Brent… guy in our church 13 years ago, who trusted Christ as Savior, but not until after a series Bible says… I was ready… I was exasperated! — ready to give up on him! He just… the dial wasn’t moving. There was no sense of conviction. I’d come home and tell my wife, “He’s really a nice guy, but he just doesn’t get it! It’s not clicking!” And then he, himself, came to Romans 5 which says that, ‘Apart from Christ, you are an enemy of God.’

[Romans 5:10-11 (ESV)

10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

11 More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”]

And when he saw himself as God’s enemy, that’s when he wanted to run to Him! He wanted to run to the Father to get that surgery and become a friend of God.

Praise the Father for who He is and what He gives to us — Grace and peace. And isn’t that wonderful of Him? Adore God by praising the Father. Adore God by praising the Spirit. You say, ‘Where is He in this passage?’ Look at verse 4 again. It says,

Revelation 1:4

…”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…”

That’s actually a reference to the Holy Spirit. And I know what some of your are thinking. ‘Well, why didn’t you just say it’s from the Holy Spirit?’ — Because this ain’t Paul writing. This is John, and it’s the book of Revelation which has a staggering amount of Old Testament allusions, direct references, etc. This is sort of Old Testament terminology. In fact, of the 404 verses in the book of Revelation, 265 of them have some linkage to the Old Testament, which, remember, we talked about the bookends. Revelation is the book that cinches up the Bible… brings Old and New together. And the sevenfold dynamic work of the Spirit is rooted, this terminology at least, in the Old Testament. I’ll give you a couple of instances, the most important ones that is. One is in Zechariah. Zechariah 4 is… Zechariah is a prophetic book. It’s a book with lots of visions. And in chapter four, an angel gives Zechariah this vision of a golden menorah or candelabra which is flanked by two olive trees. The two olive trees are  dispensing a perpetual amount of oil into the menorah to keep the light going, which is a picture of what the Holy Spirit does. It’s a picture being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Bible commands us, ‘Be, being continuously filled with the Spirit.’

[Ephesians 5:18 (ESV)

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit…“]

That’s how you might actually translate that in Ephesians chapter 5. And it’s pictured here in Zechariah 4. This is the same passage, by the way, where God says to Zechariah in the midst of the context, he says… Listen;

Zechariah 4:6 (ESV)

“Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.”

Nothing gets done in the work of God apart from the Holy Spirit. Did you know that? Nothing!Even the Lord Jesus, if you study His life, He never did one miracle… apart from the power of the Spirit of God in His life. And so at the end of the context in Zechariah 4, it refers to this power, “…but by His Spirit…” —

Zechariah 4:10

“These seven are the eyes of the LORD, (See the seven eyes?) which range throughout the whole earth.”

This is a reference to the Holy Spirit. And by the way, you don’t have to be a numerologist (You know, that’s a numbers geek) to appreciate the number seven, and that the number seven in the book of the Revelation, the book of the unveiling of Jesus Christ, occurs 59 times. 59! There are seven churches, seven letters, seven spirits, seven lamp stands, seven stars, seven horns, seven seals, seven eyes, seven angels, seven trumpets, seven thunders, seven thousand people, seven heads, seven crowns, seven plagues, seven bulls, seven hills, seven kings, seven visions and seven doxologies! — All in one book! Why is that? I mean, again, you don’t have to be a numerologist to see when the number is repeated so often there has to be some significance. The number “seven” is “the number of “completion.” It’s the number of completion. And Revelation is the book of the completion of the plan of God from all eternity. Why would you ignore it? — the sevenfold dynamic of the Spirit — You see the eyes that are referenced here. The eyes of the spirit, referenced in other places as well like in Ezekiel, it speaks of the omniscience of God. His eyes are everywhere. Your eyes can only go one way. You know? And you’re thankful for some peripheral vision. Right? The Spirit of God sees everything! He knows everything and He knows the heart of God! That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter two,

1 Corinthians 2:10-11

[10 “…these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”]

…’that no one, who knows the heart of man but man. The Spirit of God knows the heart of God. He knows the mind of God! And here’s another one, and even more specific, in Isaiah chapter 11 and verse two, where this is a reference to Jesus, our Messiah, 700 years before He came. Look at what it says.

Isaiah 11:2

“And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.”

And remember, that’s exactly what the Spirit of God did in the form of a dove when He was baptized. Remember that? That’s when His miracle ministry took off, and not until then. But notice it’s sevenfold. It’s the Spirit of the LORD, It’s the spirit of wisdom, it’s the spirit of understanding, it’s the spirit of counsel, it’s the spirit of might, it’s the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. This is the sevenfold aspect of the Spirit of God. It’s powerful!

One of my mentors early in my life, he’s now with the Lord, his name is Dallas Campbell. Dallas… this was his life verse, and it would just roll off his lips and he would personalize it. “May the Spirit of the Lord rest upon me!” you know, “the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord,” —Because it was his way of saying, “Whatever, God, You, through Your Spirit gave to Jesus, would you give it to me? Would you give me… would you rest upon me the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of understanding, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of might, the spirit of knowledge and the spirit of the fear of You?” That’s a great prayer! And that man lived that. I want this. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, ‘Why don’t we just make a beeline to the New Testament? He’s doing a lot of stuff there.’ Yes He is. I mean, you’ve got the fruit of the Spirit;  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, no law against those things, [Galatians 5:22-23] or some of you are probably thinking of the filling of the spirit, pictured again in Zechariah. And what does, what is the result when the spirit of God fills you according to Ephesians 5? You know what it is? Singing! — and gratitude! It just comes out! And that’s why when you sing and it’s not reflected in your voice and it’s not reflected in your countenance, that’s a concern, because it’s when you sing with joy, your faces light up to the glory of God! That’s the evidence of the filling of the Spirit of God. Praise Him for that! Amen? He does that!

Some of you are thinking about the regenerative power, the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit. He’s the one who wakes you up! He’s the one who caused Brent to say, “Oh my goodness! I’m an enemy of God!” And He’s the One who Jesus said, ‘Unless you’re born of the Spirit, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.’ [John 3:3]

I can remember a membership class, it was several years ago, and there was a large class, and I was talking about how the Holy Spirit works, and when He turns the lights on, when the conviction is there, when you believe that Christ died for you, for you personally! — and He rose again for you, for you personally, and you are convicted of your sins, you see yourself as going to hell, because that’s what you are before you come to know Jesus, that’s when you repent and place your faith in Him. And right over here was a guy who’s now with the Lord. He just instinctively uttered out, “I don’t think I’ve ever had a time like that.” And on the other side of the room was a woman who had gotten saved like two weeks earlier. She looks… she goes, “That’s the Holy Spirit speaking to you! You need to be saved!” I’m just watching this! He got out of his desk, got on his knees and trusted Christ right in front of the entire class! That’s the work of the Spirit of God! Adore God! Praise the Father! Praise the Spirit! — and praise the Son because He is the subject of Revelation. We adore Him by praising the Son. Notice how He’s described in verse 5.

Revelation 1:5

“…and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.”

“…and from Jesus Christ” (and by the way, this is why we know the first part that “to Him who is who was and is to come” is not referring to Jesus, because He’s saying… He adds Jesus to it. That’s a reference to the Father.) And from “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,” (I love that!) Why the adjective, “faithful witness“? I’ll tell you why, because you never had to fact check Jesus. He never lied, He never deceived, He never dodged. I know what some of you are thinking. ‘Oh, you’re talking about Harris, aren’t you?’ I’m talking about all of them! All of them! Listen, Jesus isn’t coming to be your president, anyway. He’s coming to be your King!

And the unveiling of Jesus Christ is the theme of Revelation chapter 19, verse 10, that says,

Revelation 19:10b, “For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

He is the very essence of spirit of prophecy itself.

And so the book unveils Jesus in His presence amongst the churches. And when we get going in earnest in these seven churches, we’ll start with this chapter 2, verse 1, says this.

Revelation 2:1,

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘These things says He who Holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands:”

The golden lamp stands we’ll learn are a reference to the churches. And Jesus is seen, I think the ESV says “among,” I love the expression “in the midst.” Some of you right now, you’re worried about the person sitting next to you. You should be worried about the person walking in front of you! He’s in the midst. Listen, listen, listen. We don’t worship Jesus as if He were here. We worship Him because He IS here! He is in the midst of the churches and the book of the Revelation unveils Him with His presence in the churches today. It also unveils His glory in heaven. We’re gonna get to chapter five and we’re gonna see this scene in heaven before Jesus snatches the title deed from the Father and returns the earth. It says in verse 11,

Revelation 5:11

“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”

That’s gonna happen! You might as well start practicing now. His glory in heaven is gonna effervesce forever!

The book of the Revelation unveils Him in His glory. It unveils Him in His, not just His glory, but His wrath. He is wrath. The Lamb of God. When we think of the Lamb of God, we think of something cute and cuddly, but the Lamb is also the Lion. But even the Lamb in and of Himself is a Lamb of wrath! How do I know that? — Because the Bible says so. Chapter six, skip down to verse 16. Here’s where it says, verse 16 says… I’m sorry, I’m gonna go to verse 15.

Revelation 6:15-16,

15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains,

16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of (look at this) Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb (Have you ever read that?) for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

As C.S. Lewis put it, “Aslan is not a tame lion.”

And He’s not a tame Lamb, either! So it unveils Him in His wrath. It unveils Him in His return, His glorious return, to the earth. In chapter 19 verse 11, here’s what it say.

Revelation 19:11,

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! (not a donkey) The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.”

That’s still to come! It unveils Him in His reign, and He’s gonna reign on earth. Chapter 20 of Revelation has turned many a heart and mind. In chapter 20 and verse 6 we’re told this.

Revelation 20:6,

“Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Him for (what?) a thousand years.”

That reference to 1,000 literal years on earth returning to Edenic conditions, occurs six times in one chapter! Many an a-millennialists… You know, that’s the alpha-primitive “a” meaning “no”, no millennium. The a-millennialists do not pay much attention to the book of Revelation. It’s all history to them. But many an a-millennialists have been converted to become pre-millennialists by just studying the 20th chapter alone!

Thomas Schreiner is a renowned New Testament theologian and was an ardent a-millennialists until just a few years back, because in his study of Revelation he got to chapter 20 and God just spoke to his heart, showed him from the text, this is real, this is physical, this is actual, and he went from being an a-millennialists to a pre-millennialist, one who believes that Christ is coming physically to set up His literal kingdom on earth.

So Revelation unveils Him in His reign. It unveils Him in His judgment away from the earth, away from the heavens, and I’m not going to put the scripture up. I just want you to look at me because here’s what it says. In chapter 20 verses 11 through 15.

[Revelation 20:11-15

11 “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it. From His presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.

12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

13 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.

14 Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”]

John writes, ‘And I saw a great white throne and him who sat upon it from whose face the earth and the heavens fled away. And I saw the dead, small and great, because God is no respecter of persons, standing before God and the books were opened and another book which was the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to whether whether their names are written in that book. And everyone whose name was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire. Forever.’

Do you realize that that pertains to some of you? Do you realize that some of you sitting in this room, some of you watching online, you are gonna be one of those standing before God because you have refused to repent and believe the Good News? That will change your life and it will change your eternity. The book of the Revelation unveils Jesus as the judge of all eternity.

And then it unveils Him as the light of forever! He’s the light of the world now. He’ll be the light of heaven forever! Look at chapter 21 verse 23 says,

Revelation 21:23

“And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”

Beautiful! But John doesn’t want us to wait until we get to the 19th chapter for Jesus to return, and the 20th chapter to see Him standing as judge and the 21st chapter to see Him in heaven lighting the place up for us to see and to anticipate even now that He’s coming. In verse 7, look at it. Here it is. Look at it again. We saw it a little bit earlier. We single it out…

Revelation 1:7

“Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of Him. Even so. Amen.”

Jesus’s coming… Just look at the text. Jesus’s coming will be majestic! He’s coming in the clouds. You see that? God and clouds always go together. Have you ever noticed that? …Remember in the Old Testament during the wilderness travel, they were led by a divine pillar of cloud. When Jesus took Peter, James and John up on the Mount of Transfiguration, He tore it back to show His Second Coming glory. The Bible says Father God spoke out of a cloud. When He ascended into heaven, Acts 1, He did so in a cloud. And the Bible says there’s coming a day, any day, an imminent day, when the Lord, Himself, shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God and the dead in Christ will rise first and we who are alive and remain will be caught up together in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and we will always be with the Lord! [1 Thessalonians 4:16-18] It’s majestic!

His coming will be majestic. His coming will be dramatic. Every eye will see Him! His coming will be prophetic even to those who pierced Him. You see that? Zechariah told us that 500 years earlier when he said in Zechariah 12 verse 10,

[Zechariah 12:10 (ESV)

“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on Me, on Him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over Him, as one weeps over a firstborn.”]

When Jesus returns, “they will look upon Him whom they pierced.” And we know that this is a direct reference to the children of Israel who rejected Him. The Jews rejected Him, and thus they pierced Him.

But didn’t you pierce Him too? Didn’t I pierce Him too? I mean it was my sin and your sin that brought Him to the cross. Actually, it was His love for you to die for your sin.

So His coming will be majestic, it will be dramatic, it will be prophetic, and it will be catastrophic. And so it tells us they will wail! You see that? Some of your Bible say mourn. The Greek word means “to chop” or “to beat.” That’s what’s going to happen when Jesus shakes things out. In Hebrews chapter 12 verse 26, God says,

Hebrews 12:26

“At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”

‘Once more, I’m going to come and I’m going to shake this world. I’m going to shake this earth. I’m going to shake it! — so the things which cannot be shaken will remain.’

My wife has lots of rugs in our house. She loves rugs! — And she shakes them out every week. And I’d see her shaking them out there. Being the nice husband that I am, I said, “Honey, you don’t need to do that!” So… I said, “Honey, I could do that for you!” And so I took the rug, one of her rugs, and I took it outside, and I just started shaking it. And she saw me doing that. And she literally came out and she grabbed her, “That’s not how you shake out a rug!” [laughter] “You shake it like this! That’s how you get all that stuff out of there.”

Let me tell you something. There’s a shake down coming this world has never seen! — And it’s going to be Jesus Christ who causes it to happen!  And that’s when it’s going to be revealed.

…There are some of you that are like lent on a rug. And you’re going to come off. And you’re going to stand before God and you’re going to realize that you never, ever repented and believed the gospel.

John concludes by saying in verse 8,

Revelation 1:8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

All of this brought to you by the verse I purposely did not camp on… Verse 5. It’s the most beautiful verse in this context.

[Revelation 1:5 (NKJ)

“…Jesus Christ… who loves us and washed us from our sins in His own blood…”]

Isn’t that beautiful? That’s actually how the new King James puts it that “Jesus washed us from our sins with His own blood.” A lot of you are toting an ESV. It says that “Jesus Christ who loved us and freed us from our sins with His blood.” Now, why would there be two different English renditions of that? Because actually those two transcripts, the New King James and ESV, come from different manuscripts. They’re both reputable. They’re both good. Yet one translates it “washed.” The other translates it “freed.” Here’s the reason why — because the Greek word for “washed” in the New King James is “Luo.” The Greek word for “freed” from the ESV manuscript is the Greek word “Luo.” Didn’t you say the same thing? Yes I did. Exact same pronunciation, but there’s one little Greek letter in the word wash that makes it “wash” that’s not found in the ESV which makes it “freed.” So what is it? Did the blood of Jesus “wash” us or “free” us? The answer is, “Yes!” The Savior who will wash your stains will free your chains.

And some of you need to be freed. Some of you need to humble your heart right now. And quit saying things like, ‘Yeah, I’m religious.’ That’s not going to save you! ‘I prayed a prayer.’ That’s not gonna save you. Jesus Christ will save you! If you humble your heart right now, repent of your sin and believe the gospel. Will you do that? Because the Savior who washed your stains will free you of your chains.

Our Father in heaven, we give you the glory. We don’t want to just analyze you. We don’t want to just analyze this book. We want to adore Y through it all! And we run to You, Father, to that end. We pray your Holy Spirit would be taking these words and apply them to our hearts. And right now, if that’s you, dear friend, and you would say, ‘I don’t wanna be the lint on the rug! I wanna be a part of the rug! I wanna be a part of the family of God!’ Right now, just say it, from your heart, God, I am a sinner. I’m unworthy. I’m lost. Your blood, Lord Jesus, was shed for me! I believe it. Wash me of my stains. Free me from my chains. And to You, God, we give the glory, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s stand. [Music]