1 00:00:04,820 --> 00:00:10,439 Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a 2 00:00:10,439 --> 00:00:15,759 moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And 3 00:00:15,759 --> 00:00:22,260 today, I want to challenge you to think about the book of Revelation and what it means when 4 00:00:22,260 --> 00:00:32,479 the Apostle John tells us that we are a kingdom and a priesthood to serve God and the Father. 5 00:00:32,479 --> 00:00:37,619 Yes, we are kings and priests, the book of Revelation tells us. And the book of Revelation 6 00:00:37,619 --> 00:00:43,340 tells us that we are kings and priests now to serve the Lord our God. What does that mean? 7 00:00:43,799 --> 00:00:48,939 What implications does that have for our daily life here on earth, for our life in the church, 8 00:00:49,039 --> 00:00:57,000 for our life in our culture and world too? We are looking at the book of Revelation in our own 9 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:02,420 congregation now, in our worship services. And boy, it's been just a rollicking good time. 10 00:01:02,420 --> 00:01:09,299 As we've done so, because the book of Revelation is not always as it is presented to be on 11 00:01:09,299 --> 00:01:18,640 Trinity Broadcasting or in many of the congregations around the United States. It's not just about 12 00:01:18,640 --> 00:01:25,959 Revelation, Red Heifer, Rapture, Rants. No, the book of Revelation is much, much more. And it tells us, 13 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,079 for example, as a major motif, as a major theme all through the book of Revelation, 14 00:01:30,079 --> 00:01:37,579 that we are indeed kings and priests to our Lord and God. And we're looking at chapter 1, 15 00:01:38,019 --> 00:01:45,840 verses 4 through 8. So let me look at these with you and let me read these verses for you. 16 00:01:46,359 --> 00:01:52,239 We've already dealt with some of them earlier, but I want to deal in particular with verses 5 through 17 00:01:52,239 --> 00:01:59,239 8 today. But let me read the entire context. Revelation chapter 1. We're very early in the 18 00:01:59,239 --> 00:02:05,760 book of Revelation, verses 4 through 8. John, to the seven churches in the province of Asia, 19 00:02:06,400 --> 00:02:13,900 grace and peace to you from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits 20 00:02:13,900 --> 00:02:20,319 before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, 21 00:02:20,740 --> 00:02:27,180 the ruler of the kings of the earth, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood 22 00:02:27,180 --> 00:02:36,319 and has made us to be a kingdom, kings and priests, to serve his God and Father, to him be glory and 23 00:02:36,319 --> 00:02:42,180 power for men. Look, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him 24 00:02:42,180 --> 00:02:48,620 and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. So shall it be. Amen. I am the Alpha and 25 00:02:48,620 --> 00:02:54,939 the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Oh, what great 26 00:02:54,939 --> 00:03:05,199 and powerful verses those are. And we looked at verses 4 through 5a last week, looking at the 27 00:03:05,199 --> 00:03:11,199 Trinitarian God of the Bible as he is presented in those opening verses. But today, I want us to look 28 00:03:11,199 --> 00:03:17,620 at verses 5b through 6, to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made 29 00:03:17,620 --> 00:03:24,900 us to be kings and priests, to serve his God and Father. To him be glory and power forever and ever. 30 00:03:25,060 --> 00:03:36,360 Amen. And this is a doxology, listeners. A doxology, doxos, and logos combined to mean words of praise. 31 00:03:36,360 --> 00:03:44,159 Doxos is praise. Logos is words. So when you put them together in a doxology, you have words of praise. 32 00:03:44,699 --> 00:03:52,360 These words of praise introduce us to the motif of worship in the book of Revelation, lush, ubiquitous 33 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:59,639 throughout Revelation. So many people miss this. They glide over it on their way to the Antichrist. 34 00:03:59,639 --> 00:04:08,340 Everybody's looking for the Antichrist. Oh, dear listener, find Christ first, okay? Don't miss 35 00:04:08,340 --> 00:04:15,199 Christ on your way to the Antichrist. Revelation is intended to lay a pattern for us in our worship, 36 00:04:15,639 --> 00:04:25,379 which is a thing that is stubbornly ignored by the happy, clappy churches today. Worship is not just 37 00:04:25,379 --> 00:04:32,480 raising your hands in the air, closing your eyes, and singing meaningful lyrics to yourself. 38 00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:40,019 This is not the sum and substance of worship. No, worship is much, much more. The worship of the 39 00:04:40,019 --> 00:04:47,180 contemporary modern church, I'm afraid, as I've experienced it, as I've seen it take place, 40 00:04:47,339 --> 00:04:54,100 is an inch wide and an inch deep. It is very shallow and very narrow and very small. If we look to the 41 00:04:54,100 --> 00:05:01,259 book of Revelation, we see a much wider and broader and encompassing term of worship for us. 42 00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:09,439 This pattern for worship that we have in the book of Revelation is a thing that is stubbornly ignored 43 00:05:09,439 --> 00:05:16,500 by the contemporary church. We have songs and doxologies and motions of worship, creatures and 44 00:05:16,500 --> 00:05:23,360 costumes, liturgy and locale. All of these things have pertinence for our worship today, and this 45 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:31,540 doxology is an opening salvo, if you will, in the array of patterns for worship that we have in the 46 00:05:31,540 --> 00:05:36,980 book of Revelation. It's not an airy-fairy extraneous fluff to be breezed over on our way to the good 47 00:05:36,980 --> 00:05:42,620 stuff like raptures, great tribulations, 666 beasts, right? That's what everybody wants to ransack 48 00:05:42,620 --> 00:05:49,120 the book of Revelation for. We're not here to plunder Revelation for our own prophetic speculations and 49 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:57,319 titillations. No, I'm afraid that we have lost this feeling for worship. That the early church, as I go 50 00:05:57,319 --> 00:06:05,620 back and I read some of the early church fathers and some of the early patterns of liturgy that we have 51 00:06:05,620 --> 00:06:11,639 in the early church, yes, that word liturgy only means and everyone, if you have more than one element in 52 00:06:11,639 --> 00:06:16,980 your worship service, then you have a liturgy. And the only question that remains then, is it a 53 00:06:16,980 --> 00:06:23,519 biblical liturgy? Is it one that Christ lays down for us in the New Testament in books like the book of 54 00:06:23,519 --> 00:06:33,339 Revelation or the book of Hebrews? Or Paul has great sections on worship in chapter 14 and 15 of 55 00:06:33,339 --> 00:06:39,899 1 Corinthians, for example. So we do have patterns for worship in the New Testament. What is necessary 56 00:06:39,899 --> 00:06:46,180 for our worship then? We have some of it indicated for us here in this doxology. That, for example, 57 00:06:46,180 --> 00:06:54,259 glory and dominion be given Jesus Christ forever. Dominion be given Jesus Christ forever. Glory and 58 00:06:54,259 --> 00:07:00,639 dominion, remember one of the great motifs of Revelation is that dominion is our destiny as 59 00:07:00,639 --> 00:07:08,240 Christians. Dominion is our destiny as children of Christ. And even our dominion is taken through 60 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:14,120 worship. It's not through electing conservative representatives to Congress. It's not through 61 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:24,540 electing a conservative president. It's not through clinging to and maintaining our rights, our Second 62 00:07:24,540 --> 00:07:29,959 Amendment rights or our First Amendment rights. No, we take dominion in our worship. We take dominion 63 00:07:29,959 --> 00:07:35,779 by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. These are the weapons of our warfare to 64 00:07:35,779 --> 00:07:43,279 take dominion. And so we need to pay attention to what Revelation has to tell us about our worship, 65 00:07:43,279 --> 00:07:50,360 because by it we take dominion. And we do it now. We do it in our own day and time. This is what it 66 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:57,680 means to be a king and a priest, dear listener. It's not for some far-off, literal thousand-year 67 00:07:57,680 --> 00:08:06,899 dispensation. No, we take dominion here and now. We are kings and priests here and now. And most of modern, 68 00:08:06,899 --> 00:08:15,579 contemporary, mainline Christianity, evangelical Christianity in the United States has ignored this 69 00:08:15,579 --> 00:08:23,839 dominion, this glory and dominion to Jesus Christ is not random either. It's not randomly disposed, but 70 00:08:23,839 --> 00:08:30,560 rather because, as the text says, he has freed us from our sins by his blood. And that's recalling the altar in 71 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:36,000 the temple of the Old Testament, but as Hebrew so eloquently occurs, is now accomplished by Christ 72 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:42,580 in that greater heavenly temple. We are referred throughout Revelation to the heavenly temple. 73 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:48,580 Our worship here on earth is meant to be patterned up the worship after the worship of the worship in 74 00:08:48,580 --> 00:08:56,480 heaven, dear listener. Additionally, as the text tells us, he has made us, that is, Christians, 75 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:04,379 our Lord's own, to be kings and priests to God, to his God and Father. We are kings and priests right 76 00:09:04,379 --> 00:09:10,379 here and now. That's the preferable translation. The King James has it. And God hath made us kings and 77 00:09:10,379 --> 00:09:19,399 priests unto God and his Father. He has made us kings and priests rather than, as you have in the ESV or 78 00:09:19,399 --> 00:09:29,580 the NIV, a kingdom consisting of priests, right? No. God has made us kings and priests. And to him be glory 79 00:09:29,580 --> 00:09:38,500 and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now, we'll see that chapter 20 of Revelation will further elaborate 80 00:09:38,500 --> 00:09:48,600 and amplify this very thing for us, where, as chapter 20 of Revelation says, we come to life and reign with 81 00:09:48,600 --> 00:09:55,659 Christ for a thousand. Now, once more, that's not some far-off event following the great tribulation 82 00:09:55,659 --> 00:10:01,220 and the second coming of Christ. No. The idea that we are reigning with Christ for a thousand years is 83 00:10:01,220 --> 00:10:09,379 now, dear listener, I submit that you think about this, that you examine what we're saying here in our 84 00:10:09,379 --> 00:10:17,320 study of Revelation, because there is and has been for millennia an alternative to this idea of a literal 85 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:27,720 12,000-year reign that comes after some supposed great tribulation. And in fact, we are reigning now 86 00:10:27,720 --> 00:10:33,379 as kings and priests. Are you a priest before God now? Can you pray for other saints? Can you pray for 87 00:10:33,379 --> 00:10:38,460 yourself? You don't need another priest to intercede. You're a priest now. Well, you're also a king 88 00:10:38,460 --> 00:10:45,519 now. You also reign and you take dominion of the world around you by worshiping the blood of the 89 00:10:45,519 --> 00:10:51,419 saints, through the testimony of the saints as well. All of these things are the means by which we 90 00:10:51,419 --> 00:10:57,820 take dominion and conquer here and now. Dominion is our destiny. That's one of the major motifs 91 00:10:57,820 --> 00:11:07,779 of Revelation. Dominion is our destiny. It is now. We are kings and priests to God our Father now. And 92 00:11:07,779 --> 00:11:14,080 so, consequently, one of the major motifs we'll learn throughout the book of Revelation, how to take 93 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:22,019 dominion more skillfully and joyfully and effectively as we learn to worship in Revelation. 94 00:11:22,019 --> 00:11:28,240 Ha-ha, dear brothers and sisters, do you see how Christ indeed is the focus of the book of Revelation? 95 00:11:28,799 --> 00:11:35,120 Well, let's also look at verse 7 then, because there we see in chapter 1, verse 7, which reads 96 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:42,779 in indeed a psalm, if you will, of the New Testament, of the book of Revelation, 97 00:11:43,240 --> 00:11:49,340 look, he is coming with the clouds and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. And all of the 98 00:11:49,340 --> 00:11:56,200 peoples of the earth will mourn because of him, so shall it be. Amen. You see how prayerful, how worshipful 99 00:11:56,200 --> 00:12:04,460 that is? You have a good translation of that section. You have it in a hymnic form, in hymnic lines, 100 00:12:04,860 --> 00:12:13,419 because it indeed is a poetic hymn of the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the overarching motifs in verse 7 101 00:12:13,419 --> 00:12:19,740 and of Revelation in general is Christ's return, characteristic of the genre of apocalypse too. 102 00:12:19,860 --> 00:12:25,340 We looked at this in previous lessons. He sounds the first note here, John does, in Revelation by 103 00:12:25,340 --> 00:12:31,340 invoking one of the most familiar biblical images for judgment, that is the clouds. A biblical image 104 00:12:31,340 --> 00:12:38,679 throughout scripture for judgment, the clouds. God judged Pharaoh and he protected Israel from the 105 00:12:38,679 --> 00:12:47,279 clouds. He judged the nations of the earth, so many of them, did he not? Babylon, Israel itself, or Nineveh. 106 00:12:47,580 --> 00:12:55,340 In fact, all nations our Lord has judged from the cloud. Just one example here from the book of Nahum, 107 00:12:55,559 --> 00:13:01,580 the Old Testament book of Nahum, chapter 1. And there it says, the Lord is a jealous and avenging God. 108 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:07,440 The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his 109 00:13:07,440 --> 00:13:13,759 enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the 110 00:13:13,759 --> 00:13:22,179 guilty. His way is in whirlwind and storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. So the prophet 111 00:13:22,179 --> 00:13:29,779 Nahum. Well, the commentator, David Chilton, I recommend his commentary on Revelation to you. 112 00:13:30,299 --> 00:13:35,620 David Chilton, in his book, his commentary on Revelation, he puts it this way, and I quote him, 113 00:13:35,620 --> 00:13:42,200 This is the glory cloud, God's heavenly chariot by which he makes his glorious presence known. 114 00:13:42,580 --> 00:13:48,480 The cloud is a revelation of his throne as he comes to protect his people and destroy the 115 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:54,200 unquote. Well, dear listener, this judgment will be unavoidable. Revelation will have it. 116 00:13:54,759 --> 00:13:59,500 No other reason for the destruction of the wicked and the vindication of the righteous will be able to 117 00:13:59,500 --> 00:14:05,460 be postulated, but the judgment. And it won't be because of satellite TV that every eye will see 118 00:14:05,460 --> 00:14:11,980 him, right? That's according to one dispensational writer. How trivial, how small, how narrow that 119 00:14:11,980 --> 00:14:18,460 the Lord's second coming will be visible to all that every eye will see him because he'll be broadcast 120 00:14:18,460 --> 00:14:25,919 on TV. Don't give me that triviality. No. Are you going to buy commercial space? Oh, wouldn't you like 121 00:14:25,919 --> 00:14:32,100 to have commercial space? Oh, now we have a time for a commercial break. So the Lord's going to have 122 00:14:32,100 --> 00:14:38,399 to pause his second coming because of commercials, right? No, the Lord will appear to every eye. Every 123 00:14:38,399 --> 00:14:45,960 eye will see him, not because of television, but because of a supernatural act of God's revelation. 124 00:14:46,460 --> 00:14:52,559 It will be because the ineluctable force of the wicked's defeat and the unlikely triumph of the 125 00:14:52,559 --> 00:14:59,759 church that every eye will see it and they will say, praise the Lord. Amen, right? So John particularizes 126 00:14:59,759 --> 00:15:07,120 one group there in this text, right? Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him. Oh, even those 127 00:15:07,120 --> 00:15:13,860 who pierced him. That is the Jews. Revelation is in part about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 128 00:15:13,860 --> 00:15:18,980 and we'll be unpacking this for you as well. Yes, those of you that cast the whole book of 129 00:15:18,980 --> 00:15:27,139 Revelation into the future are just plain dead wrong. The book is in part be about the destruction 130 00:15:27,139 --> 00:15:36,279 of Jerusalem in AD 70. This single event was enough for any Jew without biblical blinders on as so many 131 00:15:36,279 --> 00:15:41,799 evangelicals have today. But the Jew of the first century without biblical blinders could see 132 00:15:41,799 --> 00:15:49,639 undeniably, undeniably, God visiting his wrath upon those who exclaim so enthusiastically to pilot 133 00:15:49,639 --> 00:15:58,000 his blood be on us and on our children. Remember that from the book of Matthew, right? So be careful 134 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:07,179 what you ask for. He will hold them accountable, well, for Christ's blood, not only in his crucifixion, 135 00:16:07,179 --> 00:16:14,419 but in their continued persecution of his followers, in those synagogues of Satan that we'll look at as 136 00:16:14,419 --> 00:16:21,679 we unpack the letters to the seven churches. Revelation will make good that self-malediction 137 00:16:21,679 --> 00:16:29,919 of the people by destroying the earthly Jerusalem to make room for the true city where God's name 138 00:16:29,919 --> 00:16:36,799 dwells, that is the heavenly Jerusalem. John is so emphatic about this at the beginning of his book 139 00:16:36,799 --> 00:16:44,659 at the beginning of the apocalypse. He will say, even so, amen. He will conclude Revelation with that, 140 00:16:44,740 --> 00:16:50,840 right? Come, Lord, even so, amen. Our Lord adds his own emphatic conclusion then to our introduction 141 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:58,220 as well with verse 8. And here we see the eternal transcendent God of redemptive history encompassing 142 00:16:58,220 --> 00:17:05,220 all and being sovereign over all, Alpha and Omega. That's what we mean in verse 8, where our Lord says, 143 00:17:05,220 --> 00:17:12,799 I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come. Mighty, all, dear listener, 144 00:17:13,079 --> 00:17:21,140 everything is under his will and his ordainment too. I am the Alpha and the Omega. All is under his will. 145 00:17:21,220 --> 00:17:26,799 And this means more too than so many evangelicals. They just go around shrugging and saying, 146 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:31,839 oh, well, God's in control, right? God's in control. God's still in control. And they throw up their hands 147 00:17:31,839 --> 00:17:37,140 and they say, I'm just going to wait for the rapture. Yeah. No, God is on his throne. God's 148 00:17:37,140 --> 00:17:44,480 still on his throne. God's still in control. All these trite cliches that mean nothing. And it's 149 00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:50,960 just a cop-out excuse for Christians not to do anything and not to take part in the world around 150 00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:57,720 them here and now and not to take dominion. That is defeatist resignation. And it's characteristic of so 151 00:17:57,720 --> 00:18:04,940 many of the revelation red heifer rapture Christians that we see around us today that are waiting for 152 00:18:04,940 --> 00:18:09,319 the future, waiting to find out when the great tribulation is going to be, waiting to find out 153 00:18:09,319 --> 00:18:13,920 when they're going to be raptured. And in the meantime, the beast is already here and it's eating 154 00:18:13,920 --> 00:18:21,380 your lunch, Christian. God is vitally, intimately shepherding you here and now. That's the idea of him 155 00:18:21,380 --> 00:18:27,859 being the Alpha and the Omega. God is intimately shepherding you and his church and all of history 156 00:18:27,859 --> 00:18:33,319 towards his ends and his final conclusion. He expects you to be a part of it. It doesn't 157 00:18:33,319 --> 00:18:37,599 mean you throw up your hands in frustration and exasperation when things don't go your way 158 00:18:37,599 --> 00:18:41,640 on the field of play. And then you go back up into the stands and say, oh, well, God's still 159 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:46,720 in control. He's still on his throne. No, that's an empty cliche. It's a cop-out. 160 00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:53,759 It means that your vital engagement in redemptive history has value and consequence. When God says, 161 00:18:54,000 --> 00:19:01,180 I am the Alpha Omega, it means that your vital engagement and action in redemptive history has 162 00:19:01,180 --> 00:19:08,220 value and consequence, no matter how insignificant and unpredictable it may seem at the moment to you. 163 00:19:08,839 --> 00:19:16,019 The forces of wickedness and evil are strong indeed. At times they seem invincible. This is how it 164 00:19:16,019 --> 00:19:23,400 appears to the world and as well, why lost weak people throw in their lot with the beast, but it's 165 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:28,880 not meant for you. And it wasn't meant for the first century Christians. This is why John is writing to 166 00:19:28,880 --> 00:19:34,660 them. Why our Lord is opening up the apocalypse to them, to encourage them, to strengthen them, 167 00:19:34,740 --> 00:19:42,759 that they might fight and take dominion. That God is Alpha and Omega in Revelation means that you are a 168 00:19:42,759 --> 00:19:49,720 victor by definition, that you are an overcomer, that you are a conqueror, that you are one who triumphs 169 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:57,400 despite the appearances. Paul puts it this way, doesn't he, in Romans chapter 8, who shall separate 170 00:19:57,400 --> 00:20:03,440 us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, right? Isn't that a motif? So the book of Revelation, 171 00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:09,720 the idea of tribulation, the idea of tribulation, yeah, a great tribulation that you're looking for that comes 172 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:18,099 after some fictional rapture. No, tribulation is here and now, and you cheat the saints who suffer 173 00:20:18,099 --> 00:20:25,259 tribulation by saying there's going to be some great tribulation later. No, our brothers and sisters all across 174 00:20:25,259 --> 00:20:30,720 the globe, and maybe you someday as well, dear listener, will experience the tribulation of the church. 175 00:20:30,720 --> 00:20:38,160 So don't cheapen and discount it by saying a great tribulation will come later. The church is experiencing 176 00:20:38,160 --> 00:20:45,039 tribulation now. Brothers and sisters all across the Middle East, whether it be in Iran or Syria or 177 00:20:45,039 --> 00:20:51,680 these obscure Muslim countries where we don't know the names and the faces, but our Lord certainly does, 178 00:20:51,759 --> 00:21:00,339 who are being sacrificed, who are being burned, who are being crucified, who are being cut off at the head 179 00:21:00,339 --> 00:21:05,680 This is tribulation, brothers and sisters, that our brothers and sisters all across the globe are experiencing 180 00:21:05,680 --> 00:21:12,680 now, and you may be called to experience that. And Paul goes on to say, shall tribulation or distress or 181 00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:19,039 puristic famine or nakedness or danger or sword separate us from the love of Christ? Paul says, as it is 182 00:21:19,039 --> 00:21:25,380 written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 183 00:21:25,380 --> 00:21:31,619 No, in all these things, Paul says, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 184 00:21:32,400 --> 00:21:39,619 That's the motif of revelation, brothers and sisters, that the blood of the Lamb is by the means 185 00:21:39,619 --> 00:21:45,259 by which we conquer, that the witness of our testimony indeed is how we conquer. And Paul says 186 00:21:45,259 --> 00:21:51,119 that in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure, 187 00:21:51,119 --> 00:21:57,720 Paul says, that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, 188 00:21:58,140 --> 00:22:05,380 powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the 189 00:22:05,380 --> 00:22:10,960 love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. That's one of those motifs. That's one of those themes 190 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:18,119 we see all through the book of Revelation, brothers and sisters. And Paul nails it here. He kind of sums up 191 00:22:18,119 --> 00:22:25,960 one of the major themes, one of the major motifs of the book of Revelation, that indeed we are 192 00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:34,160 conquerors. And this is one of those things that is not meant to be left to days to come to the 193 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:41,559 thousand year reign of Christ. Get off your hands, get off your thumbs now, dear listener, and begin 194 00:22:41,559 --> 00:22:47,980 conquering, begin taking territory, begin taking dominion. And you don't have to run for political 195 00:22:47,980 --> 00:22:55,339 office. You don't need to get out and vote. You don't need to take up your Second Amendment rights. 196 00:22:55,519 --> 00:23:00,680 This is not how we conquer. The Lord has given us the means by which we conquer, hasn't he? 197 00:23:01,160 --> 00:23:06,480 For indeed, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not fleshly, are they? But they are spiritual 198 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:12,319 to the pulling down of strongholds. The Apostle Paul got it. The Apostle John got it. And our Lord reveals 199 00:23:12,319 --> 00:23:19,779 to us how we conquer. And so I just encourage you to take a new look at worship, for example, 200 00:23:20,099 --> 00:23:25,839 because the structure of our worship has given to us in the New Testament. We're not just left to 201 00:23:25,839 --> 00:23:31,380 worship as we please, the things that make us feel good. Just because we feel good in worship doesn't 202 00:23:31,380 --> 00:23:38,680 mean we're worshiping appropriately, because God has given us modes, methods, and forms to use 203 00:23:38,680 --> 00:23:44,839 in our worship services. That is, he has given us a structure and liturgy by which we worship. And I 204 00:23:44,839 --> 00:23:49,980 just encourage you to look at this, because the book of Revelation has those forms and patterns 205 00:23:49,980 --> 00:23:57,220 that the early church, for example, used. I'm not saying that the full-blown liturgies of some of 206 00:23:57,220 --> 00:24:04,460 the churches that are practicing them now, here and now, have retained or recaptured those. No, 207 00:24:04,460 --> 00:24:10,819 I say we need to go back to the New Testament. We need to go back to the early church fathers, to the 208 00:24:10,819 --> 00:24:18,339 early church, and re-embrace some of those forms and some of those ways of worshiping, so that we know 209 00:24:18,339 --> 00:24:24,759 that God is pleased, too. It's good that you feel good in worship, and indeed, worship is meant to renew 210 00:24:24,759 --> 00:24:31,660 us, but it is also meant then to please God. When we please God in our worship, as he says in the Old 211 00:24:31,660 --> 00:24:38,339 Testament, it is a sweet savor in his nostrils. Is your worship a sweet savor in God's nostrils? 212 00:24:38,619 --> 00:24:44,519 Just because you feel good doesn't mean it is in God's sight. So we need to look at some of the 213 00:24:44,519 --> 00:24:49,480 patterns and liturgies and forms that we have in the book of Revelation, so that we might indeed please 214 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:56,180 God in our worship. And when we do that, we will find that there is a reciprocal avenue, there's a 215 00:24:56,180 --> 00:25:04,700 reciprocal road, a reciprocal river, if you will, of pleasing and glory and dominion. Our worship as 216 00:25:04,700 --> 00:25:10,759 well for us. Oh, what a delight worship is. I love going to church on Sunday and worshiping the way that 217 00:25:10,759 --> 00:25:15,920 God has given us in the Scriptures, and the book of Revelation, in part, gives us some of that form. 218 00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:23,940 Well, you can experience some of that on Sundays at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church, because we 219 00:25:23,940 --> 00:25:32,279 meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And if 220 00:25:32,279 --> 00:25:37,859 you haven't crossed our threshold yet, I encourage you to do so and find out who we are, what we are, 221 00:25:37,859 --> 00:25:45,519 and how we indeed are approaching the book of Revelation as we plumb its depths, not just 222 00:25:45,519 --> 00:25:52,539 looking for red heifers and raptures and antichrists and seven-year tribulations and 223 00:25:52,539 --> 00:25:58,140 helicopters that are locusts, these kinds of things. No, we are looking at the book of Revelation for 224 00:25:58,140 --> 00:26:05,559 all that it has to offer. And we meet for worship once again on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on 225 00:26:05,559 --> 00:26:10,599 the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for further information or some comments. 226 00:26:10,900 --> 00:26:16,180 Perhaps this pleases you. Perhaps it enrages you a bit. I can understand where it might, 227 00:26:16,839 --> 00:26:21,799 as it does fly in the face of so much of what's presented as the book of Revelation these days. 228 00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:26,579 If you want to give us some comment on these things, some insight, go ahead and give me a call 229 00:26:26,579 --> 00:26:35,200 at area code 208-523-0196. And I'll be glad to give you a call back and give you more information 230 00:26:35,200 --> 00:26:45,039 too if you want. That's New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church at area code 208-523-0196. 231 00:26:45,039 --> 00:26:49,519 208-523-0196.