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You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Good afternoon, everybody. It's great to see everybody here tonight. We can go ahead and find our seats. We'll go ahead and get started And for tonight's first song, we'll start in song number 427. Song number 427. We Three Kings of Orient are song number 427. Song number 427. Everybody sing it out a little out of the first. We Three Kings of Orient are bearing gifts we traverse afar. Field and mountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Born a king on Bethlehem's plain, gold I bring to crown him again, king forever ceasing, never over us all to reign. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Frankincense to offer have I, incense on the deity nigh, prayer and praising, home and raising, worshiping God on high. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Mur is mine, it's bitter perfume, breathes a life of gathering gloom, soaring, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in a stone cold tomb. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Glorious now, behold Him arise, King and God and sacrifice, hallelujah, hallelujah, fields through the earth and skies. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. Oh, star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading still proceeding, guide us to thy perfect light. No beautiful chamber, no soft cradle bed, no place but a manger, nowhere for his head, no praises of gladness, no thought for their sin, no glory but sadness, no room in the inn, no room, no room for Jesus, oh, give Him welcome free. You should be at heaven's gate, there is no room for thee, no sweet consecration, no seeking His part, no humiliation, no place in the heart, no thought of the Savior, no sorrow for sin, no prayer for His grave, no room in the inn, no room, no room for Jesus, oh, give Him welcome free. Lest you should hear at heaven's gate, there is no room for thee, no one to receive Him, no welcome while here, no balm to receive Him, no staff but a spear, no seeking His treasure, no weeping for sin, no doing His pleasure, no room in the inn, no room, no room for Jesus, oh, give Him welcome free. Lest you should hear at heaven's gate, there is no room for thee. Thank you for coming to Step Fast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, you can lift up your hand nice and high, and one of the extras will come by and get you a bulletin. On the front, we have the Bible memory passage, Proverbs 31. We're on verse 11. Any kids that can quote that this evening can get a special treat after the service. Inside, we have our service and soul winning times, and then we have our church stats. On the right, we have a list of our expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them. We have a lot of ladies you can be in prayer for. We also have our prayer list that we keep going over on Wednesdays. We've been praying for Brother Cameron's leg. We've been praying for the Wallach's daughter, Ms. Haley, and also his niece, Hattie, who's going through cancer treatments. We've been praying for Ms. Karen's stepdad's cancer treatment. We've been praying for Brother Oz, his brother. We've been praying for the name's grandmother. We've also been praying for Brother Rich on a job, Elijah on a job, Ms. Eva. Unfortunately, her brother David passed away, so condolences to them. Also, Ms. Natasha, we were asking prayer for her niece. And so we have several that are there listed. We'll go ahead and just say a quick word of prayer as our church family. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this evening and for our opportunity to be here. I pray that you just please bless all of these ladies who are expecting in our church. Those who are not able to make it this evening, that you be with them. I also pray that you would just help our church family that's struggling with illness and sickness. Please give them a speedy recovery. Please grant them just favor right now and give them patience. Also, please just help them during this time of affliction. I pray that you also help our church family that needs help with their finances or job or just wisdom. Please also be with the Garcia's who recently lost a family member. I pray that you could use them to reach the rest of their family and that you could help other people realize the importance of getting saved and the fragility of this life. I pray that you'd also just help our church during the season to think of Christ and to celebrate the birth of your son, Jesus. And I just thank you for all you give us. In His name we pray. Amen. On the back, we have the note about the Christmas music recital for the kiddos. There is a sign up sheet. Please make sure you do that tonight. It's going to be this Saturday that we're having those try out rehearsals. So please make sure that you're signed up for a time. And then also next Saturday we're going to be having the recital 2 to 4. It is anybody and everyone is invited and so we would love to have a lot of people show up. And we'll have some refreshments with that as well. I don't necessarily anticipate the actual recital portion being two hours. So don't get too nervous about that. But we're just kind of allotting that time frame. I think last year, honestly, it was probably 30, 40 minutes or something like that. So I don't know what to expect this year, but probably something more similar to that as far as the music portion. I have been to music recitals that were literally like two or two and a half hours. And it felt like eight. But the one that we had last year was actually great and we really enjoyed it. And it went by really quickly. So if you are interested in that, we'd love for you to come and visit with us on that. And then the kiddos in here do a good job. So I'm really impressed with the talent that we have in this room. Also, we have a ladies Christmas party this Friday. So that's a reminder to you guys. Get some peanuts to throw at the kids and watch them. It's obviously nursing's only. And so we'd love for all the ladies to participate. Please, please help them to do that. There is a gift exchange. If you have a question, please ask my wife about it. Otherwise, you can just bring one and to participate. We also have the cookie bake off that's going to be coming up near Christmas on the 24th. So if you want some of the details there, they're basically just show up cookies. My recommendation has always been that you bring a lot of them just so that you get the most chances for votes. And this is the one time our church votes a year. So this is your one time to exercise your democracy. All right. And also the other upcoming events, the Christmas caroling is going to be on Monday. And we'll probably just email the church and then also on Sunday, give you the information about that as far as where we're going to be meeting and just the exact time and everything like that. But we should get that information out to you shortly. Also, the New Year's Eve party is on the 31st. So lots of events for the end of the year. That's pretty much all I have. We're going to sing our psalm of the week now. Psalm one hundred and forty eight. If you can use a handout, it's a lot easier. If not, you could use the King James Bible. Psalm one hundred and forty eight. All right, Psalm one hundred and forty eight. Psalm chapter one hundred and forty eight. Singing out real loud first. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights. Praise ye him. All his angels praise ye him. Praise ye him, sun and moon. Praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens. And the waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the Lord. For he demanded and they were created. He heard the Lord so established them. For ever and ever he hath made a decree. Which shall not pass, praise the Lord from the earth. He, dragons and all deeps. Fire and hail, snow and vapor. Stormy wind, fulfilling his word. Mountains and hills, little fruitful trees. And all cedars pleasing. And all cattle, creeping things, and flying fountains of the earth. And all people, princes and all judges of the earth. Both young men and men, made his own men and children. Let them praise the name of the Lord. For his name alone is excellent. His glory is above the earth, and heaven he also. Dictomed in the morn of his people, the praise of all his saints. Even the fount of Israel, the people here unto him, praise the name of the Lord. Great singing everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bible to Revelation chapter 5. That's Revelation chapter number 5. Revelation 5 the Bible reads, And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor on earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne out of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying, Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sit upon the throne and under the lamb forever and ever. And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father God, we thank you so much for Revelation Chapter five. And I pray that you just enable Pastor Shelley to expound this chapter to us and bless the Bible study tonight, Lord, as we go through verse by verse and understand more about your word. We love you. And in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. So we're in Chapter five and we're continuing this vision that John is seeing in heaven. So in Chapter four, we had transitioned into a new vision. And in chapter number four, we had seen someone seated on the throne and he gives some details about the one that's seated on the throne. There's twenty four elders around the throne and they're worshiping him that sits on the throne. We've also talked about some cherry bims that are that are located around this particular throne. And we kind of deep dived into a lot of the other visions in the Bible and kind of compared them. But it's very clear that from other visions and other descriptions that we're talking about God, God sees on the throne in heaven. Now, it's interesting that we only are kind of talking about one when we are in chapter number four. We are constantly just mentioning one. And you're wondering, where is Jesus Christ? Well, chapter five kind of flows in and gives us some more details on the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Look at verse one. Now, this is really interesting. It proves a lot of different things in the Bible. Number one, you know, the Bible says forever thy word is settled in heaven. And think about this. The Bible is talking about a book in heaven. So I believe that there really is a Bible in heaven as well. Now, I'm as King James as they get, but I heard someone recently said, when you get to heaven, there's going to be a King James Bible there. Well, I don't know if that's necessarily true, okay? I wouldn't be offended if there was, okay? Don't hear me wrong. But, you know, I don't know that it's necessarily written in the King's English, the one that God the Father is sitting up there with in heaven, okay? It doesn't really matter because the Word of God transcends a particular language, all right? But, albeit, I guarantee it matches the King James Bible. It lines up, says the same thing as the King James Bible, okay? Now, but I think it's still important to think about the fact that even in heaven, the Bible exists, basically, right? I mean, we're talking about a book, and notice what it says, written within and on the backside. So, you know, what does that mean? Well, it's just like, think about your Bible. It's written on this side and on that side, right? It's just basically saying there's a book where the writing is on both sides of the pages. It's basically where you can see the Scripture, and that's what we have, is I have a book that's written, you know, on the inside and the outside of every single page here. So we have this interesting book, and it's sealed up according to Revelation 5 here. It says it has seven seals. So the information is kind of being cataloged in seven different sections here. It says in verse number two, Notice that the Bible is saying there's no man. So it's definitely emphasizing the fact that a man would be the one to open this or a man would be the person to look on this, which, you know, again, is also kind of interesting because if we think about it, there's actually a lot of different creatures in heaven, aren't there? There's seraphim. There's cherubim. There could also possibly be even beast-like, animal-like creatures. We don't know. I don't know. I've heard there's a movie called All Dogs Go to Heaven. I don't know if that's true. Actually, the Bible tells us that their spirit descends back down to the earth. But I don't know if God has any kind of creatures like that in heaven or not. But it's saying that there's a man. It's emphasizing still men in the Bible, and we're still very important of the creations of God. Arguably the most important creations of God is mankind. And so, as mankind, they're in heaven, but he's saying not even there, just basically everywhere. It's saying there's no man in heaven right now, so Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Noah, none of them are worthy to open that. There's no man on this earth, whoever you think's the greatest people on the earth today, the most spiritual, godly person you can think of, that person's not worthy. Certainly nobody in hell is worthy enough to open up this seal. But he's just basically saying there's just nobody that's worthy enough to open this book or to lose the seals, and they can't find it, they can't even look at it. Verse 4, And I wept much. Now this is also interesting, because think about this. When John describes himself in chapter number 4, he says, and immediately I was in the spirit. So apparently, even your spirit can have emotions, right? I mean, the spirit man, John, who's in heaven, is kind of still going through the same kind of human emotions that we go through and that we experience, and he's weeping. That kind of indicates a lot of different things about the fact that he must have eyes, right? I mean, he must have some kind of, the spirit body of John has been caught up there is still very human-like, okay? And I think that's important to kind of recognize and understand. Also, you say, like, why is he weeping? Well, it says, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. So he's upset that he's in heaven, and we've got this great book, and we want to find out what's in this book, but we can't. And, you know, today's culture doesn't emphasize reading at all, and so it's probably really hard for people to relate to this, but, you know, it actually is upsetting, and it should be upsetting. Now, why is it upsetting? Well, go back to chapter 1 of Revelation. Go back to chapter 1 and look at verse number 3 again. The Bible says this. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein, for the time is at hand. The Bible is saying there's a blessing to reading the Bible, there's a blessing to hearing the Bible being preached, there's a blessing to keeping the instructions of the Bible. So in context, you could think about it, he's upset and disappointed because he's missing out on what? Missing out on blessings, missing out on information that's going to help him, missing out on the opportunities to do good. And a lot of people do actually still have this attitude or mentality. You know, there's a lot of people that really want to go to college, or they want to get accepted into some particular institution, or they want some kind of information, and they have to apply, and they have to go through interviews, or maybe present their accolades, and if they were not able to get in, it would be very disappointing to them because they wanted that opportunity to learn and to grow and to get the blessings of knowledge and the blessings of information. Ultimately, at the core of Christianity, you have to realize that getting wisdom and understanding and knowledge is like our primary goal and objective in life. And getting that information is super important. Imagine I said, I have a book that's going to solve all of your problems, but it's written in a language you don't understand. That would be disappointing. Or if the book was given to you, and then immediately it was destroyed or dissolved, or perhaps it was put in a box and it's locked up and you can't get in that box and you can't get that information, you know, that would be very disappointing. Think about it in the context of salvation. Imagine if you were not saved and you're as confused as the rest of the world is on salvation and they said, hey, here's a book that has the answer to salvation and it's locked in this chest and you can't get into it. That would be very upsetting and very disappointing to have that information locked up and hidden and not accessible. And so John is feeling these emotions of wanting access to this information, wanting to know the truth of God's Word, wanting the blessings that come from God's Word, and it's being kept from him. It's not attainable unto him. And so he's very upset about this. And you know, we as God's people should have a hunger for righteousness. We should have a hunger for the Word of God. We should have a hunger for knowledge and learning and growing. And it should be disappointing to us if we were ever kept back from learning and growing. Whereas the world today is very apathetic. It's very full already. So they're not disappointed when they're kept back from knowledge and wisdom and understanding. I don't need that. I don't need church. I don't need the Word of God. I don't want to hear preaching. You know what? That's a bad attitude. The right attitude should be that you'd be disappointed if you missed out. Imagine what if they said, hey, the best preacher in America came and preached last night, and the recording failed. So if you weren't here, you missed it. Wouldn't you be kind of disappointed if one of your favorite preachers ever came to preach at your church and the doors were locked and you couldn't get in and there's going to be no recording of it? You'd be disappointed. You'd be upset that you didn't get to hear that great preaching, that great event, and he's in heaven. This is like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In heaven, there's this book that's in God's hand. I want to know what's in that book. I want to know what it has to say. But you know what's incredible? We literally have the book of Revelation, and we do know what's in it, and there's so many people today, they don't even want to open the book and understand it. There's so many people today, they want to understand Revelation, and there's a lock on it called the pre-trib rapture, and it's keeping people from understanding what's in that book. And you know what? It should cause them to weep because they have no... Look, literal pre-tribbers, just ask any of them. Hey, what do you think Revelation means? I have no idea. It doesn't make any sense to me. I can't understand it. I mean, this is what you constantly hear from the pre-trib crowd. Or they'll say, it's not for us. I don't know. You know, that's really disappointing, isn't it? And it's disappointing to a lot of people that go to these churches and they ask their pastor, hey, what does this mean? And they're just like, I don't know. I can't understand it. Nobody knows. I remember going to a church that essentially would bring people in to teach the pre-trib rapture for them because they said they didn't even feel comfortable teaching it. They were like, we need experts, or we need professionals to come in here and teach this doctrine. You know why you need a professional? Because it's not in the Bible. So if you were trying to get the Bible to teach it for you, you weren't in luck, okay? You have to get somebody with a chart, or you have to get some guru in there to come and teach you some of this false doctrine. But you know, John is upset because he can't understand. He doesn't know what's in this book, and he wants to know what's in this book, and he wants to hear what the book has to say, but unfortunately, no one is found worthy. And so that's the emotion that he's experiencing. That's the emotion he's going through. And I think that it's a commendable emotion. It's an emotion that we should have in the context of desiring knowledge. And if it was kept back from you, that should be upsetting. Not like, well, you know, I'm just going to turn on the TV and zone out. God didn't create us to just literally just watch TV and zone out. In fact, I would almost argue he created us to do the exact opposite. He actually wants us to do things. He wants us to actually work. And look, I'm not against watching stuff in general, but there's a time and a place for it, but it shouldn't be the max of our life. It shouldn't be what we're most excited about. And, you know, readers are leaders. People who read gain a lot of information and knowledge. You say, I don't feel very smart. It's because you don't read. Like, I would venture to say that people that are really smart definitely read and have read a lot. People that don't have much knowledge are really just, they haven't read hardly anything. You know, reading is the key to being wise. Reading is the key to having knowledge and learning. And especially Christianity. The best Christians are people that have read their Bible scores of times. People that are great Christians did not just like, you know, I've never really read the Bible. It doesn't exist. Because those people are lost. They don't even know who Jesus is. If you want to be a great Christian, it comes through reading the Bible over and over. Well, I've gone to church a lot and heard a lot of sermons. You're really malnourished because, honestly, I could preach for like ten hours straight and you just reading the Bible for one hour, it'd probably be more. You just get so much more out of just reading the Bible yourself than you ever will from preaching. And if you're not getting a lot out of the Bible reading, I would say you're probably just not reading. You're just scanning the words on the page. And sometimes we do that because you feel like I'm just obligated to read the Bible. You know, and we're coming up to a season where, you know, and I'm not against this, but like there's challenges, like read the New Testament in January or do these other things. And I think sometimes what people do is they get in this habit of reading, but they're not really reading. It's kind of like driving. Have you ever noticed that you're driving and then all of a sudden you're like, how the heck did I get here? But people do that when they're reading, too. You're like reading and then all of a sudden you're like, I'm in chapter six? What happened in chapter four or five or any of this? You know, I don't even know who these people are or what's going on. And I would say this. You know, it's more important to like know what you read than to read a whole bunch real fast. And so sometimes it's just good to slow down or even just reread what you read. Like if I just read a bunch and I kind of like zoned out, like, okay, I got to read it again, okay? And then sometimes I'm like, I zoned out again, didn't I? I got to read that again. I'm like, no! You know, and it's like, okay, well, what do I do? Do I just fast forward and check off that box on my, you know, reading goals? Or do I actually like learn something today? And you know what, it's better to just learn something. I'd rather read one chapter and actually know what the chapter said that day than read ten chapters and be like, well, I know I physically did it. I mean, I know I checked the box. What did you read? You know, and sometimes I'll even ask my kids this or I'll ask other people, like, hey, what did you learn or what did you read? You know, this is what I love to do is when people say, hey, good sermon. It's like, oh, yeah, what was it about? The Bible? You know, I don't know. It's like, you know, did you learn something? Did you pay attention? Right? Hey, what did you read? I don't know. There was words on the page. You know what, pay attention to what you're reading. Slow down and pay attention. If you don't know a word, look it up. If a sentence didn't make sense to you, read it again. And you know what, it's better because if you go slow at first, eventually it'll pick up, you'll get better, you'll understand it more, and you'll get new insight. You know, we need to be a group of people that actually learns to read and likes reading. You need to teach your children to read and learn how to read because if you want them to be successful and actually move out, sometimes you're like, move out already, right? They need to read, okay? Anywhere you go, any kind of job you get, there's tons of reading, documentation, things they can study, things they can learn, you know, reading's super important, and the greatest people are people that have read. They need to read a lot of books to get a good education, to be a critical thinker. You know, I can't recommend reading enough, and the Bible emphasizes reading. And in fact, if you want to be a successful Christian, you have to learn how to read. Oh, it's the King James Bible, it's so hard. It's really not that hard. It is hard for people that like to watch cartoons all day. That's what it's hard for. But you know what's hard for them? Anything. Because they don't even have an attention span. Look, watching TV will destroy your attention span. It causes you to not, like, have interest in reading at all. It just literally makes you dumb. And I remember I had a teacher in junior high, she called it the dumb box, and I kind of made fun of her, but you know what, she was right, okay? She was right on that issue. It is the dumb box, and it makes people dumb. And she made fun of people for watching TV, because she's like, oh, those are dumb people. And it's kind of true. People that just watch TV, and that's all they do, they just become pretty dumb. NPC, they pretty much start getting the vaccine, and pretty much they're dead in a few weeks, okay? So, don't do it, all right? They wear the mask, and they have nothing important to say anyways. So, that's just reality, folks. You know, we can't help but speak the things which we've seen and heard. You know what I don't want to hear is all the commercials you watched on TV. And all the propaganda and all the feminism. Why is everybody so feminist? It's because they watch feminist TV all day. And they just regurgitate all of it. And then you're like, think, how is it that all these people in my life that have nothing to do with each other all have the exact same ideas and talking points? You're thinking like, what weird propaganda school did you go to? The television, and Instagram, and TikTok, and whatever. So, they all just have the same messages now. You know, read the Bible so you can have a new, interesting perspective. People actually care what you have to say when you have something to say from the Bible. Now, look at what it says in verse number 5. And one of the elders saith unto me, weep not. So, there's hope. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. So, kind of like how the Bible says for all sin to come short of the glory of God, there's an obvious exception there, isn't there? Jesus, right? Everyone sinned, except for Jesus. Kind of in this context the same way. No one's worthy, no man's found worthy to open the seals thereof. Wait, exception. The Lord Jesus Christ, right? This is some descriptions of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says that, number 1, he's the lion of the tribe of Judah. So, we see a little bit of his lineage. To be of the tribe of Judah is kind of signifying where he came from in his incarnation. Because to be able to come out of Judah, that's where we see his earthly lineage through Mary, and that he's coming from the tribe of Judah specifically. The lion's kind of a picture of the king of the jungle, kind of the scepter. So, we kind of see he's the king of the Jews, he's the lion of the tribe of Judah. This is kind of a euphemism for the fact that he's the ruler of Judah. And it pictures his humanity, his earthly reign, the kingly lineage that he is. But notice the next phrase to describe him, the root of David. So, not only is he the offspring of Judah, he's also the root of David somehow. Which is really interesting. Keep your finger and go to Revelation chapter number 22. Go to Revelation chapter number 22. So, when we talk about this person that's capable of opening the seal, we know we're talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible describes him in a similar way in Revelation 22. Look at verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David and the bright and morning star. Now, that's really incredible. And, humanly speaking, it's a contradiction. How can you be the root and the offspring at the same time? It really just can't happen. It doesn't make sense humanly speaking. So, it's obviously an appeal to the deity of Jesus Christ. It also proves that Jesus Christ didn't come into being at the incarnation, at the time that he was born, or at the time that he was conceived in Mary's womb of the Holy Ghost, because he's also the root of David. That's why he made several appeals to his divinity while in his earthly ministry, when they were talking about his birth and he's saying, hey, have you seen Abraham? You're not even 50 years old. And he's like, before Abraham was, I am. Signifying that Jesus Christ existed before David. Jesus Christ existed before Abraham. Jesus Christ existed before the beginning, because Jesus Christ created all things, and he truly is the root which even gave us David in the first place. If you go to Colossians 1, go to Colossians 1, so the root of David points to the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The lion of the tribe of Judah points to his humanity and his earthly, kingly lineage. Colossians 1 talks about the Lord Jesus Christ in detail in regards to his creation aspects and who he is. Now, it says in verse number 14, let's do verse 13. Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. So we're talking about the Son here, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. So what gives us redemption? The blood of Jesus Christ, that's what gives us redemption. And verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, for by him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things are created by him and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Wow, how could you get any clearer of a picture of the fact that Jesus Christ is divinity? Now, of course, there is a phrase here that some people would scream at, where it says the firstborn of every creature. But I believe that it's just in reference to verse 18. It says, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. So, you know, in a sense he's a firstborn when we talk about the glorified state. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the firstborn in that context, of the fact that he's the first begotten of the dead, he's the firstborn in the context of the glorified state. But, you know, first of all, he can't really be the firstborn of anything, because if he's before Adam and Eve, no one was born before Adam. Okay? Because there wasn't a mother. There's no, like, mother object in the universe. I know a lot of people want to create a mother within God, but there is no mother because God is a man, and God is male, as the Bible describes him. Okay? And men were created in God's image. So, Jesus was never born physically into existence. He was born physically in the incarnation, but he pre-existed that. Okay? So he entered into his own creation through that particular birth. But you could say, in a sense, he had a birth in the context of the resurrection, where he came back and now he has the glorified state, and so that's kind of like a birth type process. And so that's where he kind of gets these two titles. He's the firstborn. So, but again, he's the firstborn from the dead. Okay? If we get that analogy, if we get that kind of understanding. But notice it's very clear that he's before all things, he created all things, he's the root of David. Go back if you would to Revelation, chapter number five. When we talk about the divinity of Jesus Christ, this is an important point, because false religion denies that Jesus is God. And, of course, Jesus Christ is emphasized as being the Son of God. That's probably the most common thing that's emphasized in the Bible, but denying the divinity of Jesus Christ is really, you know, a picture of someone that's not saved. And we talk about the Muslims. They will say Jesus is the Son of God, but he's not, or he's a prophet. I guess they deny he's the Son of God too, but sometimes they'll say that, but they just say he's a prophet. They really deny that God has a son, okay? And they deny the divinity of Jesus Christ. We talk about Jews, they deny that God has a son and that the son is God. When we talk about cults, we look at the Jehovah's Witness. They deny that Jesus Christ is God. They just say he's, you know, a son of God. Look at Mormons. They think that Jesus is just a son and he becomes a god later. So there's all kinds of weird, creepy, satanic false doctrine related to the divinity of Jesus Christ, and we want to pay attention to other verses that talk about the divinity, like the fact that he's the root of David. How is he the root of David? Well, you could show them other verses that kind of correlate to this, and we see that Jesus Christ really is God. He's from everlasting, as the Bible describes, and he created all things. How can he create all things if he's created? He can't, right? That means he exists outside of creation itself, okay? Because Jesus Christ does exist before all things, and he created all things. Now look at what it says in verse 5 again. It says, to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. So Jesus Christ is going to be the one that reveals unto us this portion of this book. That's kind of significant too, because keep your finger and go back to Revelation chapter number 1, and look at verse 1. Revelation 1, verse 1. The revelation of Jesus Christ. Did you notice that? Who's the one that's giving this revelation? Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him. So it's kind of symbolized here, where God is literally giving Jesus Christ this book, and Jesus Christ is taking this book, and he's revealing unto us that knowledge and revealing unto us that information. The Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter number 1 that he's also spoken to us by his Son. And in some context, Jesus Christ literally is the Word of God. The Bible says that he is the Word, and so we get the revelation from Jesus Christ specifically. So there's a lot of symbolism that we could also kind of relate to, but I also believe that this is literal, that Jesus has literally got a book in heaven that he can open with seven seals. Go back to chapter 5, verse 6. Now, what's interesting is in verse number 5, this is just the elder talking about it. He says, hey, no, no, no, there's someone that can do this. And then in the vision, all of a sudden, he sees a lamb, is what the Bible says. It says he sees a lamb, and he sees a lamb standing, and this lamb, according to the text, has seven eyes and seven horns. Now, it's difficult to know exactly what this means, okay? There's a lot of different ways that we could interpret this, but I'm just going to kind of give you two different options, and then kind of what I lean towards as far as how to understand what's happening here. I think either, A, it's just Jesus standing as a man, and we're using metaphoric language to describe him, or John is seeing a lamb, literally, that's what he sees, but it's Jesus standing there literally as a man. Okay, and I kind of lean towards that's the right way to interpret this, is that Jesus is, it's really talking about Jesus as a man standing there, but what John saw is he saw an actual lamb with seven horns and seven eyes. Now, whenever we're trying to interpret the Bible, you know, most of the time, I believe the right way to interpret it is you should just always take things as literal unless there's a good reason to believe it's a metaphor. Now, there's a pretty good reason to believe this is a metaphor. Why? Well, number one, it says that it's having seven horns and seven eyes, and Jesus Christ the man did not have seven horns or seven eyes, okay? So, that's kind of unusual for a man to have seven horns or to have seven eyes, okay? Additionally, notice what it says, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth in all the earth. Now, that's similar to chapter number one, if you go back to chapter number one, and look at the last verse, verse 20, the mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. So, in Revelation chapter number one, verse 20, he gives us kind of a picture or a vision of there's seven stars, there's seven golden candlesticks, but then he's saying these things aren't, like, real. They're just kind of representations of things, right? In the sense that when we go to heaven, we're not necessarily going to see seven stars and seven golden candlesticks or whatever. Those were just visions that he's seeing representing real people and real churches, okay? And so, I think when we talk about what's happening in Revelation chapter number five, a lot of this, of course, in the book of Revelation is literal stuff that we're going to see. Like, I think if you went to heaven, there would be a throne set in heaven, just like it's described, and there would be the cherry bin holding it up, and there is a live coal pit that's there underneath, and there really is a crystal sea glass and everything like that. But because of the way this book is written, there's also visions mixed in with what's happening. And so, it's most likely that he's seeing a literal lamb that was slain and that it has seven horns on it and has seven eyes, but these are things that just represent who Jesus is and give us some kind of an idea of Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ is called the Lamb of God. Now, is Jesus Christ literally a lamb? No. Go to John chapter number one. Go to John chapter number one. Let's look at a couple more verses here. John chapter number one. John chapter one. Look at verse twenty-nine. The next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Now, I don't think anybody in the world would say that John one twenty-nine, John saw a literal lamb. Like, baa. No, I don't think... I think everybody pretty much universally understands that when John is saying this, he's using it euphemistically, right? He's just talking about Jesus as being the Lamb of God because the Lamb pictured the sacrifice. It pictured the Passover. It pictures the animal that's supposed to take the shed blood, okay? And basically that blood is supposed to give remission of sin. It also says in verse thirty-six, And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold, the Lamb of God. So, this is just another name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's representative of who Jesus Christ is. And many times we have pictures, foreshadowings, and examples of Jesus Christ pictured throughout the Bible. So, when we're in Revelation, chapter number five, I think of a very valid interpretation, and this is kind of the one that I have, is that John is in his mind, and what he's seeing is he's seeing a lamb with seven horns and seven eyes, okay? But if we were to really be in heaven, all of us, and we're looking, we wouldn't be seeing a lamb, we would be just seeing Jesus Christ the man, okay? But for the sake of this book and for the sake of this Revelation, John's seeing it as a vision, John's seeing it in this kind of euphemistic style way to represent certain things that we can't necessarily see from the man, right? Because if we just see the man, we'll miss out on certain things that he wants to kind of show and reveal to us, right? Like what? Like the seven horns and the seven eyes. What is that picture? It pictures these seven spirits. And I think that that's important because, you know, it helps us understand that not only, you know, could the Holy Spirit have the character and attributes of the seven spirits, but that Jesus Christ also has those same character attributes. Why? Because we believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit being the same essence, and that the Trinity, because they are one, they share in the same attributes and the same characteristics, and that these seven spirits are in Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ was on the earth, he was doing work through the Holy Ghost, and he had those seven spirits upon him. You know, Isaiah chapter 11 is very clear that the Lord Jesus Christ had these seven spirits. And I think that that's representative of Jesus Christ having the seven spirits of God, them being sent out throughout the whole earth, and how we are influenced and can also share in the characteristics of the seven spirits of God. The spirit of fear and the spirit of, you know, wisdom and all the different spirits that are mentioned in the Bible. And it's beneficial to kind of get a glimpse of who Jesus Christ is. He's a lamb. He was that spotless, perfect, precious, mild, gentle sacrifice, right? We get that imagery through the lamb. A lamb doesn't really seem like a really intimidating animal. The lion pictures like that king, right? The lion pictures someone ferocious. The lion pictures the leader, the ruler, the one that's going to take charge. What does the lamb signify? Something that's just innocent and gentle and mild and that sacrifice. So he's using this imagery to show how Jesus Christ was that innocent, spotless, perfect, gentle, servant, humble. A lamb is a humble creature of the animal kingdom. Whereas the lion is the top dog. He's the ferocious one. He's the one that you would think of. But Jesus, when he came to this earth, he didn't come as the lion. He came as the lamb, didn't he? And he'll come back as the lion. Don't hear me wrong. But what I'm saying is that he came first as that humble servant, as that lowly lamb. But not just the lamb, the lamb slain, right? And he sees that lamb slain, signifying what the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And signifying also the fact that since he's standing in the midst of the throne, showing his worthiness. Because no other man is allowed to stand on that throne next to God. The elders are sitting in chairs around and they're throwing their cast and their crowns at the one that's seated on the throne. But you know what? The lamb standing on the sea of glass, in the midst of the throne, there's a lamb standing by God, the Father, the one seated on the throne, showing the significance, the position that the lamb has. And that this lamb has the seven horns and the seven eyes, signifies that he has the seven spirits of God upon him. So I think that, again, the reason why it's using this kind of language is just kind of a euphemism for Jesus Christ. But I believe that if anybody else were to go there and to kind of see this taking place, it would be really a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, standing there and performing these kind of actions. Now, as we keep reading in this text, notice it says in verse 7, And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. It would be unusual to think about this. It would be unusual that it's not euphemistic, considering a few things. Verse number 3 says, Why would we think, like, oh, a man can't open it, but an animal could? You know, it's not really, it doesn't really make sense, nor does it really fit the logic of, like, how's an animal kind of doing these type of actions. Plus, as you go through the book of Revelation, consistently it's going to continue talking about the Lamb. Just over and over, the Lamb, Lamb, Lamb. And it even culminates, look at chapter 19 for a second, and I want to show you this. It certainly, at some point, is just becoming a euphemism or name to talk about Jesus the man, right? But look at Revelation chapter 19 for a second, and it's going to bring up the Lamb again. Look at verse 7. And it, to her, was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Right blessed are they which are called in the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God. And it says, And I fell at his feet to worship him, and he said unto me, See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren, that have the testimony of Jesus, worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him, was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth he judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. So, and we keep reading, And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. So, in Revelation chapter 19, it's still talking about who? The marriage supper of the Lamb. The Lamb is coming up. Here's the Lamb, here's the Lamb. And then all of a sudden we see what? A man riding on a horse with crowns, clothes, a vesture. So, when we get a little bit more understanding, the Lamb is certainly just talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and his person, okay? And, you know, the Bible talks about the Lamb being on the Mount of Zion and the 144,000 following him. You know, we're not still seeing some kind of a vision of, like, an animal-type, you know, person. It's just the Lord Jesus Christ, right? With this name, the Lamb. However, in chapter number 5, why I think that, perhaps initially, he may have actually still seen kind of this vision of the animal Lamb, is just because you have the seven eyes and the seven horns, and notice again, it says, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. So, it's not saying, like, these are literal seven horns and seven eyes. It's saying these things are just metaphors picturing something. The seven horns and the seven eyes aren't, like, this real literal seven horns and seven eyes. They're just picturing the seven spirits, and you can't necessarily see that, can you? Just like the wind. You can't necessarily see the wind, so you might have to use a euphemism or something to kind of picture what the wind would look like. And similarly, I think this is where we can't necessarily see everything about Jesus, so just painting us this picture, this vision that John's seeing, to give us a more understanding about who Jesus Christ is. But, at some point, you know, this, of course, is going to shift into reality, where we literally see Jesus the man coming up, taking the book out of the hand of him that's seated on the throne, and we have the Lord Jesus Christ taking the Bible from God the Father. I've heard some weirdo say, this is the humanity of Jesus taking the Bible out of the hand of the divinity of Jesus. I don't even know how you could make that statement. It was hard to even just say. It was so weird. But I'm going to prove why that's so stupid. For a second, look at verse 9. And they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof, for thou hast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands and thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Now, this is what's really interesting. In verse number 8, it says, The four beasts and the four twenty elders fell down before the Lamb. You know what that means? They worshiped the Lamb. Because worship and falling down, or kneeling down, are synonyms. In the Bible, someone falling down means worship. When the Bible says someone came and worshiped someone, it means they were kneeling or falling down. That's what that means. If this is just the humanity of Jesus, why are people worshipping man or worshipping humanity? You're only supposed to worship God. So if you're going to separate the divinity of Jesus Christ, then how do you get the goal to then end up worshipping the humanity aspect? What does that even mean? That's why it's stupid to try and separate the divinity and the humanity of Jesus Christ. I don't really agree with this. It almost makes Jesus schizophrenic or something. I don't think that's what the Bible teaches at all. From our perspective, we don't have any kind of controversy. There aren't days where I'm acting more on the father part, like my dad's part, than my mom's part today. I don't have thoughts. I have this division of which part of my genes I'm going to use today. Am I going to use the dad parts of my body today? Or the parts that are coming from my mom? Look, I'm 100% the son of my mom and the son of my father. And I don't have this split personality. If you have a split personality like that, you have some serious problems. If you're trying to divide yourself between your mom and your dad on your mentality and body parts and whatever, that's weird. I think the same is with Jesus Christ. He really was 100% man and 100% God. And we believe in the hypostatic union, where somehow those things are connected. Not separated, not split, not divided. But Jesus Christ is one. And God was made flesh and dwelt among us. God was manifest in the flesh. I don't think it was just a suit that he's inhabiting. And if it was, wouldn't it be weird that when he took off that suit, then we worshiped the suit? Isn't that kind of weird? Why would we then worship the suit? The suit doesn't really matter. That's what they're almost saying. That's what people are trying to say. Somehow Jesus took off his suit and then his suit's like giving him, taking a book out of the hand of who he is. It's like, this is just weird. This is confusing. It's just really the father and the son. It's that simple. It's that simple that you have the father on the throne. You have the son. The son comes up, takes the book out of the hand of the father, and we have it being given to him. This is significant because, keep your finger and go to John chapter number five for a moment. Go to John chapter five. But no, I don't believe that they're worshiping a suit up in heaven. I don't think they're worshiping an animal either. They're worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the Lamb of God. But what's significant is that the Bible, or this book, is given unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Now John chapter number five, look at verse twenty-two. The Bible says, For the Father judgeth no man, but have committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, which hath sent him. This is a really interesting verse where the Bible says that the Father is not going to judge, but he's committed all judgment unto the Son. And when you think about this, this book that's being handed unto the Lord Jesus Christ is a book of judgment. It is a book of judgment, and when we open up these seals, it is going to judge them. And these vile judgments, and these trumpet judgments, I mean these things are just some of the worst judgments that ever happened. And notice it's like committed unto the Son. The Son is the one who's going to end up opening these seals, and loosening these seals, and he's basically the one doing this type of judging, and bringing forth this kind of wrath. The Bible even talks about the wrath of the Lamb, and so it's like the Father is basically empowering the Son, and giving unto the Son the judgment, and to bring judgment upon the earth. And so that's kind of an interesting verse, and it kind of almost to me this symbolism of the Father handing the book to the Son shows something. Because think about it. If we go back to Revelation chapter 5, think about the wording in verse 7. And he came and took the book out of the right hand. Notice this word, out. So it's really symbolic. Because it's not like he just came and got an extra copy, or they're both holding it. He's taking the book out of the hand of the Father. So it's like the Father, in a sense, he's taking the judgment, and he's giving it to the Son. So the Father doesn't have the judgment. The Son now has the judgment. The Son now has the book. The Son is given this authority, is granted this permission, is granted this particular task, and the Son is taking the task from the One. Think about this in the light. Oh, the humanity gets the judgment away from the divinity? If you're going to say this is Jesus taken from Jesus, that doesn't even make sense. That doesn't even fit any part of scripture. And why in the world would we commit the judgment under the humanity of Christ away from the divinity? No, it's saying and signifying that the Father is delivering and giving the judgment unto the Son, and the Son is taking the judgment from the Father, and he's the one that's been empowered to deliver this particular judgment. Look at verse number 8 again. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints. So again, I think when we have, you know, this symbolism, we can interpret these things as sometimes metaphors, right? It says golden vials full of odors. What does that mean? What are these odors? Well, somehow they're literally the prayers of us. This is kind of cool, because it tells me that our prayers have a real specific purpose. Think about it. You can literally have prayers in heaven near God, and they're in these golden vials in some kind of a symbolic representation of your prayers are literally in heaven, and that God literally cares about your prayers and that the prayers are being presented before the Lamb. And it's important that they're presented before the Lamb, because, think about it, he's the one that intercedes between us and the Father, isn't it? He's the one that makes that intercession. He's the advocate with the Father. And this is what would be sad. Think about this. You could be a Christian your whole life and not have any prayers in heaven, because you didn't pray. You know, the only way to have odors in there, to have those prayers, is because you prayed. But you know what? It takes faith, doesn't it? It takes faith to pray to someone that you can't see. It takes faith to pray to the Father and to pray for your brothers and your sisters. But notice, the prayers of the saints are in heaven. You know what it also doesn't say? The prayers of everyone. Who's prayers are up there? The prayers of saints. And so it's important, you know, there's a lot of people that pray, the Catholics pray so much. I mean, they pray the rosary, and you know, God doesn't want those vain repetitions up in heaven. He's not having to weep. He doesn't have a junk mail folder up there, okay? That he's having to like, you know, those are already blocked, okay? Block sender, okay? The only way to get through to his email is, you know what, you gotta be saved. But those of us that are saved, you know, isn't it kind of a shame if the Catholics are out praying us? And their prayers don't even matter. Whereas our prayers can literally be in golden vials up in heaven. I mean, that's significant. And you know, we need to take prayer seriously. You know, Jesus is constantly teaching on prayer. If you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Jesus constantly brings up prayer. His disciples ask him how to pray. He tells them how to pray. He models prayers. John, probably one of the greatest gospels ever. I mean, it's my favorite. Large sections of it are just prayer. Like, he just... Chapter 17 is just him praying for us just for us to understand his prayer life and understand these things so that we would know how to pray and to model our prayers. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. I mean, we need to increase our prayer life. You know, it's hard for carnal people to pray. Why? Because there's nothing, you know, they're not spiritual and there's nothing beneficial to praying carnally. Carnally is just a drudgery. But you know what? It is important spiritually and we need to pray more. We need to get in our prayer closet and pray and know that our prayers are actually in heaven when we pray. Another thing it says it has that they have harps. Go to chapter 15 for a second. And I want to compare this. But in chapter 15 it kind of brings up a similar thing. Revelation chapter 15. Look at verse 2. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire. That sounds familiar, doesn't it? It says, And them that had got the victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. That's pretty cool. There's going to be a special privilege to the people that have gotten, you know, victory over the beast that they also get to stand on this sea of glass, which is an elevated position. The elders aren't even necessarily standing there. And they also have harps of God. And it says they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God. Go back if you go to chapter 5 and notice what they're doing. It says in verse number 9, it says, And they sung a new song. I think that's also significant. You know, the Bible even says in Psalms to sing a new song unto the Lord. And I think sometimes we can think of like, man, it's going to be boring in heaven. We're just up there just doing the same thing over and over. No, there is a newness even in heaven. Notice that they're singing new songs. I kind of showed you how the four cherubim, their message from the book of Isaiah, shifted when we were in Revelation. It actually changed a little bit what they were saying. So there's still going to be new things in heaven. There's still going to be new stuff. There's things that are mentioned in the book of Revelation, we haven't gotten there yet, that we don't even know about. That he's like, hey, seal that up. You know, he's going to utter things. There's things that God uttered in the book of Revelation that we have no idea what they are yet. Because he's like, hey, seal those up. That's not going to be revealed yet. So there's all kinds of new things that are going to happen in heaven, and the new heaven, and the new earth, and all that stuff. So there's plenty to be excited about. You say, what is all that new stuff? I don't know. It doesn't really matter. It would be kind of like explaining to someone, you know, a young couple, like, hey, that's never been married, and they're both virgin, like, hey, you're going to really enjoy marriage. And there's a lot of new, cool things that are going to happen. And they're like, what is it? I can't tell you, but just don't worry. It's going to be a lot of fun, all right? But, you know, you don't know about these things until they happen, right? Little kids, they don't know what it's like to be an adult. You couldn't really explain it to them, okay? There's going to be parts of our lives that we're never going to really understand or experience. Think about someone that's not saved. And you're like, hey, come to church. You're going to really like it. It would be hard to articulate to them what, in their mind, they're thinking church is kind of boring and lame, and they don't like it. But, you know, a lot of us actually love church. And we really like church, and we really enjoy these different things. You know, oh, you're going to use that same old King James Bible? Yeah, but isn't it interesting how sermons constantly keep being new, and we learn new things, and we're growing, and it's like it never ends? You know, I believe that's how it is, and it's going to always be that we're going to constantly be learning new things, new things are going to happen. You know, I love singing the old hymns, but I like writing new hymns and new songs, too. I really enjoy them. I don't know if you guys like them, but I really like them, okay? And I keep trying to work on them. Other people try to work on them. And I think that God wants us to write new music, too. I love those hymns, and I want to sing them until I die. But I think if we can incorporate new music, that's good, too. And not new style, I'm not trying to bring in like new kids on the block or something, or like Shakira or something like that, but I am trying to bring in, hey, some hymns, you know, new hymns and new songs and spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your heart of the Lord. You know, apparently there's musical instruments in heaven. That's pretty cool. I mean, they have harps. It's mentioned multiple times. And, you know, a harp, interestingly enough, is very similar to a piano. If you think about it, it's just like a harp that's laid down, okay? And then we have keys that kind of bang on them or whatever. But I love playing the piano, and piano is one of the most incredible instruments there are out there. And you know what? God is having these people play harps. Harps are really, you know, an interesting musical instrument. So I think that we're going to have, you know, it's funny, these Church of Christ people can't have musical instruments in their church. But then they literally have them in heaven, worshipping God right now. Isn't that weird? Like, that doesn't really make any sense. Why would you have people in heaven right now worshipping God with harps, and then on earth we're not allowed to use any kind of musical instruments whatsoever? I don't believe that for one second, okay? I believe that God likes us to have musical instruments and stringed instruments, as He describes, as we sing. You know, we sing about praise Him on the harp and praise Him on the stringed instruments. That's what God really likes, and so we're going to be even doing that in heaven. And it's going to be really good. People are going to actually know how to play, all right? No, I'm just kidding. And it says here in verse number 10, And has made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. Here's another thing, you know, you think like, oh, well that's going to be boring just sitting up there in heaven, you know, being an elder. But you know what? That's not their life. Those people are going to come down on earth, and they're going to literally rule and reign on earth, too. You know, there's a true reward to serving God, and it's not only experienced in heaven. In fact, most of it's actually experienced on earth again. And then after that, we're going to have a new heaven and a new earth, where we're going to continue to rule and reign with God for all of eternity. Verse 11, Now if you times ten thousand times ten thousand, that's one hundred million. And then with thousands of thousands, we're just going as conservative as possible. That's one hundred million at the least. And then the thousand times a thousand is another million. So that would be one hundred and one million. So at the bare minimum, you have a hundred and one million creations singing and praising God in this moment. It's probably a lot higher than that, because it could be a hundred and twenty million or a hundred and eighty million. We don't know the exact number, but roughly we have a ballpark of a hundred plus million people and angels and everything here in heaven. Now what's interesting, if you think about this, it says, And I beheld and heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them. So, you know, the elders are numbered as only twenty four. So I don't know if that means that the rest of these are angels. It does mention beasts. So, you know, I don't know that that's probably talking about the cherry bin specifically. And I don't know when the angels, like, are we talking about other angelic creatures? Sometimes the angels are referred to as just other people. They're just messengers of the Lord. And so perhaps it's just people. I don't know how many angels are. Some people have speculated this gives us an idea of how many real angels exist. I don't know if that's true or not. I don't think that that's necessarily even reflective because there could be a lot of angels on the earth right now, you know, that are also, you know, protecting the little ones and going around fighting the devil and his angels. So some people will be like, this tells you exactly how many angels there are. And then if you divide that by a third, that's how many demons there are. And they try to, like, come up with all this math. That's a lot of speculation. OK, I think this is the reason why the number is given. Just to give us some idea that there's a lot. And that is a lot. A hundred plus million creations all giving glory unto God shows a lot. It also is not a lot in some contexts. Think about it this way. There's eight billion people on the earth. So by sheer numbers, eight billion dwarfs a hundred million very quickly. In fact, that's only about a third of the United States population. You know, that's still a significant amount of people, but it's not necessarily huge in context of how many people on the earth. And I think that also brings in a little bit of rationale, the reality and the fact that, you know, the Bible says, Broad is the way which leadeth unto destruction, and many be there which go in their act, because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. You know, broad meaning that most people, a lot of people, are going to hell. And isn't that sad? That God giving free will, the vast majority reject him. But that is kind of the reality. And I think that's also important, because let's just think about it. If this is the reality, if the reality is that God giving free will to his creation, that ninety or ninety-five percent of them will reject him, don't you think that would be a little bit beneficial information to us, so that we could have the right expectation? Because what if your expectation is, oh, everyone's saved? Well, then you would think like, well, your religion can't be right, because not everybody believes like you do. But, you know, having the right expectation can help us match it with reality, so that we don't get confused about our actions and the behaviors and the things that we're doing. It also kind of destroys certain ideologies. You know, this universalism type teaching. Oh, everybody that's a Christian is saved. Wrong. Nope, sorry, there's not two billion people on this earth that are saved. You know, that's not an accurate number, because it doesn't match other portions of scripture. It doesn't match where the Bible says, you know, it'd be hard to say that it's few people saved when it's literally a third of human population. Okay, that wouldn't really fit. You know, if it's like five percent, now that's more realistic, you know, within what Jesus Christ is actually saying. Plus, it's a lot closer to some numbers that we're talking about here, when we look at the numbers that are in heaven. Okay, obviously when we get a little bit closer to the, you know, the rapture and stuff in the book of Revelation, it talks about a great multitude, which no man can number. So, okay, we don't know what that number is. But, you know, think about it from this context. How many people have existed in history? You know, in history, you know, I don't know what the exact numbers are. I would just be making stuff up off the top of my head. But it's not anywhere close to how much human population is today. I'm pretty sure most mathematicians and most people will agree that we have more people alive today than all of the people that have died so far combined. So you take every single person that's ever lived and died and you add them all up, it's still less than the amount of people that are alive on the earth today. And if salvation statistics ever made relatively, you know, consistent, then that percentage of people that would be saved kind of coincides pretty closely or more closely with this hundred million number than it would with a lot of others. That's just kind of one way to kind of research this. You can study that on your own. If you come to a different conclusion, then that's your opinion and, you know, I could be wrong. But it makes sense that this number is the number that it is, okay. And then later we get another number of just this final, you know, rapture on everybody that's going to go up to the Lord later. So we see both the Lamb and Him that's seated on the throne receiving worship and getting, you know, all kinds of praise, all kinds of accolades, blessing, honor, glory, power. It sounds like a Ben Rant or something, you know, it's just like all these, you know, adjectives here. But I like this in verse 12, it's a saying with a loud voice. You know, the Bible emphasizes in the book of Psalms, and of course Psalms is our song book, it's what we sing, it constantly emphasizes singing loud. You know what, in heaven they're singing loud and the Bible tells us to sing loud. Okay, we should be loud when we sing, not be shy, you know, and for some reason, I don't know how it works, but even though you might have a bad voice, when everyone's singing together, it sounds good. Like, congregational singing just somehow sounds good, even though if we were to like be able to isolate it just to yours, we're like, eh, but then we go to everybody like, oh, and it's like, eh, you know, it's like, that's weird. But you know what, even if you didn't have the best singing voice in the world, God still wants it to be loud, okay. And think of it this way, your little children that sing, even when they sing off pitch, you just think it's awesome and cute anyways. Okay, so to God, we're the children of God, He loves us singing, you know. The one thing that parents always want is they want their kids to sing and sing loud so they can hear it and enjoy it. You know, this is what all the moms do, their kids are doing something cool or singing, and then they're like, wait, wait, wait. And then as soon as they get the phone out, the kids stop, and they're like, oh. You know, they're disappointed because they want to keep seeing it and they like it and they want it to keep going, right, and they're disappointed when it ends. You know what, don't be that kid that God's like ready to listen to you and then you just won't, you won't perform. He wants you to perform, He wants you to sing, He wants you to actually lift up the voice. Why do you think God gave you a voice? God gave you a voice to sing. And I know that a lot of people in here, you're probably, you know, singing Britney Spears or Taylor Swift. I won't get a raise of hands on that one, all right. You're singing some country song or something, moping, right. You're singing some rap song that you probably shouldn't even sing the lyrics to. You probably don't even know the lyrics, you're just making noises because they just, you know, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, who knows what He's saying? No one knows what He's saying, right. You'll go out and you'll belt it in the shower. You know what, you need to belt it in the house of God. And God wants us to sing loud and praise His name and you know what, you're just rehearsing for heaven anyways, okay. When we all get up there and we get to worship the Lamb, we get to worship God the Father. And you know what, I bet the people that are the best at singing here are more likely to be in the front rows in heaven, okay. And I want to get, I want to be up in the front row. You know, if you go to a concert, the front row tickets are where you're at. You know, or the backstage or whatever, that's what everybody wants. People don't want to be at the back of the concert, they want to be at the front of the concert. And you know what, we're going to be in a concert in heaven. The best concert you could ever imagine. The coolest concert with the best music, you know, is happening all the time in heaven. You know what, start practicing for your gig, okay. Because we're going to be there. If you're saved, you're going to be there. You know, you might as well get good at it now. And I think that God is going to reward those who are the best, you know, in those ways. Why wouldn't He? David's the sweet psalmist of Israel. You know, we see consistently God's, some of the greatest men of God were also, cared a lot about music and playing instruments to the Lord and singing. And you know, there's a special, there's a special blessing with singing and worshiping the Lord. Don't undermine that. And I think some people, they don't like our church just because of the music. Like, they think, like, oh, we need Hillsong or something. You know, we need this CCM, or we need to, you know, Sway, or we need all this other stuff. You know, let them have the weird, girly, effeminate music, but let us sing loud. You know, they have to blare the loud music. We don't need the loud music. We want to lift up our voices. We want our voices to be the loud thing that God's hearing. And God wants us to sing. It's not a participation sport. You go to these big churches and everybody's just sitting there watching the rock concert. You know, we want to be participants and singing and praising and lifting up our voice and shouting unto the Lord. And, you know, I want to be a church when people come here, they're like, man, the singing is loud. The singing, like, they were, like, all super into it. I get frustrated, and it's annoying when we have visitors, and everybody's just like, Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord. You know, it's like, how can the Pentecostals out sing us? Dude, have you ever been to a Pentecostal church? It's off the chain, man. I mean, they're singing and shouting and juking and jiving. Shout to the Lord. You know, that's what they're like. Why can't we be like that? Why can't we lift up our voice like a trumpet? Why can't we sing and, you know, praise the Lord? You know, it's Christmas time. We get some of the best Christmas music. Why can't we sing it? You better sing loud next, all right? Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us this book and giving us knowledge and giving us wisdom. Thank you for the sacrifice of your Son. I pray that we would recognize the blessings that we have to be able to read the Bible, to understand Scripture, the blessings we have to go to church, the blessings that we have through the free gospel, and the opportunity to sing praises unto your name. And I pray that we wouldn't squander those opportunities, but rather we'd take them seriously, that when we have an opportunity to sing, that we'd sing with all our might, that if we get an opportunity to play an instrument, that we'd play with all our might, and that we'd realize that we have an opportunity to pray every single day, and that those prayers are actually in heaven. And I pray that we'd increase our faith so that we would be concerned with the worship and service of you. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, in closing, let's go to song number 424. 424, O Come All Ye Faithful. Song number 424, O Come All Ye Faithful. Sing it out as loud as you can. O come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels. O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation, O sing, all ye bright, hopes of heaven above. Glory to God, glory in the highest, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning, Jesus to Thee, all glory given. Word of the Father, now in flesh of hearing, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Great job, nice and loud. You guys are all dismissed.