In this sermon, the preacher discusses the book of Revelation and its significance in understanding God's goodness and love. He emphasizes that God runs to forgive when we come to him for forgiveness. The sermon also delves into the symbolism and crisscross of time in Revelation, highlighting the importance of verse-by-verse teaching to correct false thinking and theology. The preacher then focuses on three key elements in Revelation: the woman, the dragon, and the male child, explaining their significance in the biblical context.

We come to study the section that begins here, chapter 12, chapter 13 and 14, and this is the section in the Book of Revelation that basically digresses back across some of the time we have covered. And it looks at this time of the Tribulation from the angle of studying the Antichrist, the work of Satan, and basically the career of the Antichrist. In this section, there are several key players in the drama, and we will meet three of them today. Israel, Satan, and Jesus Christ. In the process, we're going to discover the long history of Satan's never-ending assaults on the people of God and why it continues. There is, for me, much practical insight to Satan and his tactics here in this study. I find that when you open the Bible and you begin to study it, especially verse by verse, because that's how you understand the flow of thought that's in the Bible. God in the Bible says what he means and he means what he says. So when you take it verse by verse, you begin to finally discover what his flow of thought is. As you understand what the flow of thought is, you begin to think the thoughts of God after him because he's written them down. This is God's word. Every word is inspired. The books are written in order with a purpose, a context, a flow of thought. So as you study verse by verse by verse, you get the thoughts of God into your mind and you start thinking the thoughts of God after him because he recorded them for you on the pages of the Bible. When you begin to do that, you will find that great light is shed on the strategies of Satan. As Satan realizes that you are beginning to understand his strategies, he will then put you on his hit list because, may I say it, the vast majority of average Christians do not understand the strategies of Satan. It is the biblically literate that understand the strategies of Satan. To be biblically illiterate, then, is to become demonically deceived. So studying through the book of Revelation, we find that we are pulled in our thoughts and in our pages of our Bible back across the entire Bible. In the process, we learn a lot about Satan. And in the process, we begin to have more victory over him as we see Christ is God, not Satan. So we have these things before us. Now, there's a lot of talk today about the Antichrist. People want to identify the Antichrist. They want to understand the Antichrist. But may I say this? You must understand the conflict of Israel, Jesus Christ and Satan if you're to understand the Antichrist, because he steps in at the culmination of God's plan for all of it. I'd like to read in Revelation 12, verse one down to verse six, if we could. Now, a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and under the moon her feet and on her head a garland of 12 stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems or crowns on his head. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to God and to his throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days, which is a phrase used throughout the book of Revelation. It's three and a half years. We are in the last three and a half years of the seven year tribulation period, the last three and a half years of man's history on this earth as we know it. That's where we are right now in the book of Revelation. In this section here in these six verses, there is a crisscross of time, spans of time, eternity. It is a huge panorama. There is symbolic language here, but let me say this. It can be understood and don't make a bigger deal out of it than you need to. See, one thing about verse by verse teaching is that it has a way of sweeping out false thinking. It has a way of correcting aberrant theology, theology that has truth, lie, truth, lie, truth, lie. It has a way of correcting and straightening out a lot of things. You do that by comparing scripture with scripture, which is what we will do to understand this. So here we have this great passage. Now, whatever is not clear to you, I'm certain that there are three things that stand out in the passage that are clear. There is a woman here, there is a dragon here, and there is the male child here. Those are the three things we'll look at the woman, the dragon and the male child. To begin with the woman versus one and two, we read now a great sign appeared in heaven. The word great is here for a reason. It is in the Greek, a word that you actually already know. It's the word mega. We use it all the time. Mega vitamins. Mega is a new one for Christians. Mega blessing. We use it for all kinds of things. And it means exactly what you think. It means that when you see it translated, great mega sign appeared in the heaven, it means that everything about this vision is huge in size and huge in significance. So you're going to find mega at different times. That is what it is. Huge in size, huge in significance. The word great. What about the word sign? A great sign. The word sign. It is used to describe a symbol that points to a reality. A symbol used to describe a symbol that points to a reality. A woman is pointed to here. The symbol is a woman. The reality is not a woman in this case. So you have the word great mega in importance, huge in significance, the word sign, a symbol pointing to a reality. So this woman is a symbol pointing to the reality. What is the reality? What is the woman's symbolism? Israel. The woman represents Israel. And I say that immediately bypassing a lot of explanation because there are those that teach that the woman is the church. And again, according to your theological grid, you may be here with that part of your grid today. My Bible that I teach out of the heading says it is right over the section. The heading says a description of the Church of Christ and Satan under the figures of a woman and a great red dragon. That heading is not consistent with biblical terminology. That's why I'm saying that when you see the woman biblical terminology that is consistent all the way across the Old Testament, especially God pictures Israel as a woman. Israel is spoken of as a wife, God's wife, unfortunately often spoken of as an unfaithful wife. Jeremiah three one. God says you have played the harlot with many lovers yet returned to me, says the Lord. He's talking to Israel. In the language of speaking to a wife in Jeremiah three twenty, surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, God says, so you have dealt treacherously with me. Here it is. Oh, house of Israel. So in Ezekiel sixteen thirty two, God says you are an adulterous wife who takes strangers instead of her husband. So the language of the woman, the language of the wife is very consistent with God's dealings with Israel throughout the Old Testament. And when we come to the book of Revelation, Israel is at the center of all the promises that God made to Israel throughout the Bible in the book of Revelation. So we have seen in our last several studies the of the two witnesses that have a distinctly Jewish quality about them. You have one hundred and forty four thousand Jews that are sealed by God to preach the gospel. And so the presence of Israel in the book of Revelation, may I say it is everywhere. The woman is Israel. You're going to see this further as just we move as we move along. The woman's garb underlines this revelation. Twelve one now great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and on her head, a garland of twelve stars. This is language that God has already used to describe Israel. Hold your place here and turn in your Bible to Genesis chapter thirty seven, verse nine, and we will find the same terminology. Amazing used at the beginning of Israel's history and used at the end. Why? Because God is consistent and God is precise. God is exact. Genesis thirty seven nine. You have Joseph is not out with his brothers because he's the youngest and they're out tending the sheep and all the flock. And he comes and he shares his dream that God gave him. Second dream, he says, in verse nine of Genesis thirty seven. Then he dreams still another dream and he told it to his brothers and he said, look, I have dreamed another dream in this time, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowed down to me. They don't like that yet. Eleven brothers didn't like that. Verse ten. So he told it to his father and his brothers and his father rebuked him. Jacob rebuked him and said to him, what is this dream you have dreamed? He interprets it for us. Show your mother and I son of the moon and your brothers stars indeed come to bow down to the earth before you. So in case you have any question whatsoever about it, Jacob is Israel named by God to be Israel after he wrestled with the angel and he interprets it for us. So here is the same exact terminology used to describe the woman and revelation used here with Israel, Jacob and the nation. And it's very, very beginning back in the book of Genesis. Then one interesting thing I want to point out before we go back to Revelation, verse eleven of Genesis thirty seven says his brothers envied him. His brothers envied him. He's seeking the Lord. The Lord gives him a vision. It really is from God. God really does talk to him. God really does have a huge plan for Joseph, even though he's the youngest. His brothers envied him. And even though his father rebuked him, look at the end of verse eleven, it says, but his father kept the matter in his mind. You see, the godly reaction to something you don't understand when God is doing something far greater than you can imagine, the godly reaction is to do what Jacob did here to keep the matter in your heart and your mind and to ponder these things. And I would encourage all of us to seek the Lord to give us that great, wonderful, holy habit. Nice to have holy habits, by the way, contrast to some of the other kind we have. So here we find the terminology. It's very exact. The woman's garb speaks out of the fact it is Israel. Then go back to Revelation twelve to we come to the woman's pain, the woman's pain, then being with child. She cried out in labor and in pain to give birth in Genesis three fifteen, right after man sinned in the garden. God appeared to him and the basic scene there is you have Adam and Eve and Satan. And in Genesis three fifteen, God gave the prophecy of the Messiah that he would come, that he would die on the cross. Effectively, it's the first prophecy of that. And right looking, I'm sure right at Satan. Said you will bruise his heel. He will fatally bruise your head. He will be your undoing. He will be the undoing of what you have done here. I love it. No sooner does Satan destroy paradise and lead man into sin than God rushes in with the promise of bringing it back. First promise of the cross. Genesis three fifteen. And so ever since that time, Satan has been attacking Israel because Israel is the chosen people through whom God would bring the Messiah. If you've ever in your whole life wondered why is Israel called the chosen people? What is it about them that makes them the chosen people? Simply this. God chose them as a nation to work with personally, through whom he would bring the Messiah, the savior of the world. That's simple. It is as it is. And that is as profound as it gets. But that is why chosen to bring in the Messiah. Because of that, Satan knowing since the fall of man in the garden that God was going to do this. This is why he has for the centuries attacked Israel. He has assaulted every everything that God has done to fulfill that promise. And thus, all through the history of the nation of Israel, there has been pain and grief and bloodshed because of Satan. So the woman's pain, crying out in pain to give birth. It's after all the pain of all the years through Satan that Jesus Christ was finally born on this earth. The woman is Israel. The dragon. Let's go to the dragon. Verses three and four. We read in verse three and another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads, 10 horns and seven diadems or crowns on his head. The dragon is Satan. So how do you know that? Just keep reading. Look down at verse nine. I think one of the greatest habits we could develop as Christians is to simply read on. So often when we have questions, if we would simply read on, they would be answered. Look at verse nine. Same chapter. So the great dragon was cast out. That serpent of old called the devil. And just in case you are wondering, Satan. So the serpent, the devil, Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. We will get to that next time. So he's called many things in the Bible, but a dragon is far more terrifying than anything, really. It is very graphic. Why fiery red? Because it speaks of the bloodshed of Satan that he causes the death. Jesus Christ himself in John 844 said the devil said of the devil, he was a murderer from the beginning. The Bible says that Cain slew his brother because he was of the evil one. So the fiery red is all the bloodshed that will happen during this time because of Satan and his demons. And we've been studying that recently. So that should be very obvious to you. What about the seven heads and the seven crowns? Verse three, the dragon has seven heads and seven crowns on his heads. Well, to save you a lot of time and chasing around the Bible, which we could do, but it would take the rest of the night. The seven had seven crowns basically speaks of the seven consecutive great world empires throughout man's history that ran their course under the power of Satan. What are those empires? Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome. And what will be the seventh? The empire of the Antichrist. So you have the seven heads and the seven crowns. What about the ten horns? Revelation 12, three, seven heads, seven crowns, but ten horns. Horns in the Bible represent power, usually kings. And here are these ten horns represent the kings who will rule under the Antichrist. The final kingdom of the Antichrist will be a ten nation confederacy, a ten nation confederacy. Many people today believe that will ultimately take its shape through the European economic community. And that is very possible. I, for one, believe that is right. And we'll talk more about that as we go through the book of Revelation. So you have the ten horns, kings involving a ten nation confederacy in the empire of the Antichrist, the seventh of all the great world empires. So the imagery of the dragon, he is Satan. Now it starts to get really interesting. Next thing is what I would call the irrationality of Satan, the irrationality of Satan reverse for inverse forces of the dragon. Now we know he's Satan. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, etc. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven. In the book of Job, the Bible says that in creation, the morning stars sang together. Angels in the Bible are referred to as stars here. These are the one third of the holy angels that rebelled with Satan against. God, with his tail, he drew a third of the stars of heaven and from there he uses his demons to attack Israel and then later Jesus Christ in his original assault. This is when he drew a third of the holy angels. What happened was this. Satan was one of the highest created angels. We know Michael's an archangel. We know Gabriel's an archangel. Most likely, Satan was as well. We have seen in the book of Revelation. There are Sarah from their cherubim. There are angels, presence angels. They blow trumpets, trumpet angels, and there are archangels. We're going to see Michael in a in a study that will blow your mind when it says in a few more verses, war broke out in heaven. It will literally blow your mind. I'm going to talk about the rapture. You want to talk about spiritual warfare. You want to talk about millions, if not billions of holy angels clashing with unholy demons in another realm and the rapture at the same time, then you better come back for the next message because war breaks out in heaven and it's all tied together. So in the beginning, Satan was one of the highest created beings. The Bible paints a picture that perhaps he was the leader of worship in heaven, the anointed cherub that covers and the beauty of his pipes in heaven and all of that. But in the end, he said, I will, I will, I will, I will. Five times, he said, I will ascend to the throne of the most high. I will become God. And he was so convinced. That he could pull it off, follow this, that he was able to pierce through perfection. Into the holy angels hearts and convince them that they would win in overthrowing God. You see, these holy angels were created by God. They were created by God. They were not born as we are born. They were created each one by God. Uniquely by God, holy, perfect. So they for us to be tempted is one thing. We've grown up in this world. We're shot through with sin. We've got weak points all over the place. But for a holy angel to give in to temptation, the temptation would have to be very strong. Satan so convinced himself he could overthrow God. He was able to pierce through perfection where there was no pride and foster it, give birth to it and then lead one third of these holy angels in rebellion against holy God. Amazing, amazing, phenomenal and utterly irrational because he lost. Because he never had a chance, but you see, utterly irrational because he so believed it. How about this utterly irrational? Because even after he failed and he fell and these holy angels become forever unholy demons. He doesn't stop. He goes right on. And when God creates man and he puts him in the garden on the beautiful earth he's created and gives man charge over the garden and the earth, he goes right into the garden and he goes right to work. Utterly irrational thinking he can overthrow again what God has done. So I say to you that when you read that he took a third of the stars of heaven with him in his rebellion, it's the ultimate irrationality. You see it in his original assault. You see it in his endless assaults. So what we're dealing with here, brethren, is a foe that is far more treacherous, far more relentless than we ever imagined. That's what we're dealing with here. You see, Satan and his irrationality does not give up. So you go from the original assault and you go to the relentless ones. It starts in the garden. You just move right through the Bible. You don't even get past chapter six in the Bible until the flood comes and you have Satan seeking to create an unredeemable human race. So God has to judge that race in the flood. Only eight of them survive. You see these great attempts on the part of Satan. He goes on, he seeks to kill Moses. When the prophecy of the deliverer is there and Pharaoh charged by Satan seeks to kill Moses and so all the infants die, the male infants, Moses is saved. You know, it is amazing to me. In dreadful things like this, I like to stop for sweet spots. What is amazing to me is that when Moses was saved, all the male children were being killed and his mother put him in a little ark and put him afloat down the Nile. The Bible says that Pharaoh's daughter heard him weeping. He was saved by a tear. Think of it in a very loud voice, which causes me to believe he was a better speaker than he told God he was at the burning bush. But that is another story. Kid had a set of lungs. Anyway, he was saved by a tear. Think of it. The plan of God of redemption hung by a tear, but it didn't escape the hand of God. God is always in control. You come to the book of Esther and you have Haman who seeks to exterminate the Jews. He puts together a plan to wipe out the Jews. He builds a gallows to hang Mordecai on God and his sovereignty hangs Haman from his own gallows. He fails and the Jews are saved. You see, so all through the Bible, you find these relentless attacks of the devil to stop the plan of redemption. You come to the New Testament and Herod seeks to destroy the Messiah being born. And so all the infants, two years old and under are killed. And yet God gets his son away in safety. You find in the wilderness 40 days, Jesus is tempted in the wilderness. Satan takes him at the end of the 40 days to the top of a high mountain and to the top of the temple. And he tells him to jump off the top of the temple. Why? I've got you now in a human body. I want to kill you. And so it goes. He preaches in Nazareth. They hear him preaching. They're so upset by his preaching. Satan stirs up the crowd and they seek to push him off a cliff and kill him. The Bible says he passed through the midst. He just blinded their eyes. Why? Because it also says it was not his time yet. His time had not yet come. Finally, you see him nailed to a cross, a crowd, a mob shouting, crucify him, crucify him, stirred by the devil to finally kill him. All these murder attempts throughout his life. But finally, he goes to the cross and he does die. And the devil thinks he's won his ultimate victory. You can see him and all the demons as they're hammering in the nails. He's so excited. Finally, I have hammered home the defeat. But you see, he's twisted. Jesus said there's no truth in him. Way back in Genesis 315, you will bruise his heel, but he will bruise your head. Da, Satan. He rose again from the dead in triumph. And you would think at that point he'd walk off the battlefield, but he doesn't. You see his original assault. You see his endless assaults. You see all the way into the book of Revelation across time and history and geography, all the way into the book of Revelation. You come to the time, the climactic assault of Satan on Christ at the battle known in the Hebrew tongue as Armageddon. And he does not win. Christ comes and destroys him with the word that comes out of his mouth as a sword. You say, well, surely he gives up then. No, he doesn't. He is then bound for a thousand years in the bottomless pit as Christ rules and reigns for a thousand years. We're told in the book of Revelation, these things literally. And he's bound for a thousand years in the bottomless pit. At the end of that thousand years, the Bible says he is loose to deceive the nations for a time. He is successful. Think of it in deceiving people who have lived right on the earth, seeing Christ reign. So he is still utterly convinced that he can win, even after having been bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years and being loose, he still deceives the nations. And fire comes out from God and destroys those people that rebel with him, you say, well, wait a minute. What is wrong with him? Can't he read the Bible? Doesn't he know? I mean, he quoted scripture to Jesus. Surely he does know the Bible. He does know the Bible. He knows the Bible better than you or I do. So you said, well, then can't he read the rest of the book of Revelation? Doesn't he see that he's thrown into the lake of fire that burns forever and ever? Doesn't he know that's where he's going to end up? Sure, he can read it. There's a big problem. Jesus said there is no truth in him. He cannot come to the ultimate true conclusion of the word of God. So he's twisted. And he has displayed from his first assault and he will display it to the last one that he does not believe he will end up in the lake of fire. That is what has driven him all the way. He believes he can win and he will triumph and he still believes it. His demons believe it. People will believe it on planet Earth during the last three and a half years of the tribulation. They will believe it during the thousand year reign of Christ on Earth during the millennium. He believes it. And guess what? That is why he fights with such unrelenting fury. So often we hear this phrase, the devil knows that he has very little time and he's really mad. Oh, folks, it goes way beyond that. It is way beyond that. The devil knows he's got very little time. Christ is coming back and he's in a rage. This is well beyond rage. This is the full blown, unshakable belief that he cannot be stopped. He was not stopped in the past. He is not being stopped in the present. He is not being stopped in the future as we go on from here. He will not be stopped until he is literally thrown into the lake of fire. He will not be stopped. And so as far as he knows by experience, he's never been stopped. Oh, yes. Limited, but not stopped. In the beginning, when he rebelled against God five times, he said, I will ascend to the throne of the most high and I will be God. Well, you know what? He is going to say it to the end. I will. I will. I will. I will. I will beat God. I will beat his plan, his people, his purpose. I will beat his Christ. He is shot through with that belief. And that is why. When we drift from our Bibles. And we drift from Christ as a result. He comes steamrolling with his demonic horde right across our lives and we cannot stand against him because there is only one way to stand against such a formidable foe, and that is to be found in Christ clothed in the full armor of God. Paul writes to the Ephesians and he says, here's the full armor of God. He tells us what it is. He tells us to put it on. He tells us to keep it on. And then he gives us the secret of the power switch. Did you know the armor of God is a power switch? Helmet, breastplate, belt. Sword, shield, the whole thing. You know, it has a power switch, it's called praying always. So you read your Bible, you stay in the word, you study it verse by verse, line upon line, precept upon precept, because that's the way it sinks into your heart and becomes a part of your heart and your life. And you're thinking you put on the full armor of God to do that. You'll have to study what it is. And then you're praying always to be filled with the Holy Spirit and his power. And Paul says that is the way you stand and having done all and fighting against the devil. That is how you will be found standing when the smoke clears and the battles over. The only people that are ever standing after the attacks of the devil are the ones who know their Bibles, know their Christ and know what it is to pray to him on a daily basis, walk in fellowship with him. But now you have something of an idea, I think, that was much bigger than when you came in of the formidable foe that we face. He's relentless. He's powerful. He will not be stopped. Only Christ can stop him. So I'll tell you what, it puts in my heart a great desire to be found each day living near to Christ. Because Jesus is my defense against the enemy. And if God before me, who can be against me? And that verse in Romans eight is talking directly about the devil mostly. So the woman is Israel, the dragon is Christ, is Satan. The male child is obviously Christ. Let's close off by looking at verses five and six. We'll be done. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to the throne of God. Then the woman fled into the wilderness. And she was has a place there prepared by God that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days. She bore a male child that is Jesus Christ. This verse is packed with theology. This is the incarnation of the God man. I love how Charles Wesley described it. Our God contracted to a span incomprehensibly made man. She bore a male child. It is the incarnation of the God man, our savior. And he was to rule the nations with a rod of iron. That is his coronation as king on earth in the one thousand year reign of Christ that we will study as we move right on through the book of Revelation. His incarnation is coronation that will be coming. His exaltation to the right hand of God after he died on the cross and rose again, appeared and disappeared for 40 days teaching, teaching, teaching until the beginning of the book of Acts. He ascended back into heaven. He went to the right hand of God, caught up to the throne of God, exaltation to the right hand of God, where he ever lives to make intercession for you and I thank God for that. He became a man, bore a male child who was to rule the nations with a rod of iron, caught up to the throne of God, caught up to God and his throne. He went back to heaven as a man. There is an exalted man who ever lives in the heavens, who has gone through what you go through here on earth, and he ever lives at the right hand of the father to make intercession for you. That exalted man is none other than the God man, Jesus Christ, caught up to the throne of God, where he never takes his eye off you and he never stops interceding for you. And that if you are a Christian today, if you've been a Christian any length of time and if you have blown it at all along the way, which you have. That is why you're still here and that is why you came back and you're here. That is why you always come back when you're not near, because the good shepherd is still leaving 99 to go get the one and bring them back interceding on the right hand of God. This statement, as I say, is packed with theology, is incarnation, coronation, exaltation to the right hand of God. Finally, his protection of Israel during this time, the last three and a half years before he returns to planet Earth for six, the woman fled into the wilderness. She has a place prepared by God there that they should feed her there. One thousand two hundred and sixty days from the time that the Antichrist sets himself up in the temple to be worshiped as God. Jesus himself cited the prophet Daniel in this incident, and he said this spoken of by the prophet Daniel, the abomination of desolation from the time that the Antichrist turns on the Jews after helping them rebuild their temple and helping them with a lot of things, turns on them and in their temple sets himself to be worshiped as God in the place of their God. From that time, he will turn on them and persecute them because they will reject him and God and his graciousness, God and his mercy, God and his love seeking to save as many as he can and to fulfill the word of God in Romans nine, 10 and 11, that Israel would come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. He has a place prepared where he's going to take them away to be fed for three and a half years in the wilderness. Now, says in the wilderness for six to the Jewish mind, the wilderness is east of Jordan and South Amman and Moab, that area down there with a rock city of Petra or Petra is so many scholars believe that this is where they will be taken and protected to get into Petra. There is an opening about as wide as one human being. Once you pass through that opening, there is this huge rock city inside. Already there are Bibles hidden there by Christians, tracts and everything else. But all it would take is for the Lord to blind. A fallen angel and his other fallen angels. He blinded the angels and Sodom. All it would take is him to blind the Antichrist to where this place is and to be safe there. God can do anything he wants. And they will be fed there. Perhaps he will once again give them manna. I don't know. I didn't know my God is an awesome God, a gracious God, full of mercy, forgiving sin. He runs to forgive. As the father did when the prodigal son came home, looking afar off, he was out there looking every day, looking afar off. The Bible says he saw him and seeing him afar off. That stately old Jewish man would have been wearing long flowing robes, wealthy, stately. He pulled up those robes and he did something an elderly Jewish man who was wealthy like that would never, ever do. He ran. He ran down that road to embrace his son afar off and forgive him of all of his sin. And he took him home and he broke out the best and they had a party. That is my God. That's a picture of my God, your God. You know him today. He runs to forgive when you come for forgiveness. Isn't that great? So the book of Revelation is an amazing book. It is woven into all the Bible. And in studying it, you find that the Bible in one place after the next is opened up to you in a way that it never was before. And the goodness of God in a book so full of judgment. Becomes so full to you, his goodness, his love. But in the end, you cannot help but love him more. You cannot help but long more to go to the place he's prepared for us. And spend there forever. When I see all of this activity. And I'm looking at through the eyes of my humanity. And yet my God lives in his infinity. I cannot help but ponder all the great things he has in store for us to do throughout forever. And they're all going to be suited, get this, to things you like. He knew you in your mother's womb. He gave you the natural talents and abilities you have. He gave you when you were born again, the holy gifts by the Holy Spirit you have. The Greek word is a word that could be translated as gracelets. Same word that you almost as the word translated grace, gracelets. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are gracelets in your life. This is the God who has gone through Jesus Christ to prepare a place for you. And when the time is right, he's going to take you there and you will dwell in the house of the Lord. Forever. Oh, I can't wait. We love you, Lord, because you have first loved us so much. And it wasn't just a one time event at conversion, you love us first every day that we live. And every time we drift from you, you love us first again as you come and bring us back to yourself and how we thank you, God. You are a God who runs to forgive. Oh, Lord, cause this vision of your love to be etched upon our hearts in such a way that each of us can each day as we live and walk with you, this this is the way we will relate to you as our gracious and loving God. And Lord, if there's any here listening that don't know you, open the eyes of their heart that they might behold your glory and your love and open their heart to your saving grace. And may they invite you in this day to save them from their sin and their selves and take them to heaven forever. Lord, we commit our lives to you and we expect wonderful things for you are truly a wonderful God. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.