Sep. 11, 2016 Our Hope In A Sovereign God by Pastor Josh Sheldon

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Sep. 11, 2016 Our Hope In A Sovereign God Revelations 4-5 Pastor Josh Sheldon

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Practice in the morning as I'm finishing my coffee as I'm just sort of getting ready for my day here at the office
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I listened to al moeller in the briefing He's been speaking a lot lately about what he calls the sexual revolution this confusion people have about who is who?
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You know what? I'm speaking of we won't go into a lot of detail there But he brought up a couple of things that just threw me for a loop
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He just brought home to me how far things have gone how quickly they have gone as far as they are
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There was an article that he referenced in Time magazine from this month
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Written by some woman you can look it up. I don't remember her name look it up afterwards, please but the
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I do the the title of the article is my brother's pregnancy and on the cover of time was this picture of A baby being nursed by this person
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Wearing some type of a strongman one of those old -fashioned strongman outfits and with a beard
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I found myself totally confused. I didn't know what's happening my brother's Pregnancy does she mean that?
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This is her brother who thinks he's a woman or is this a woman who thinks she's a male I got so confused.
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I actually had to ask one of the younger brothers here at the church To get me so what is going on here?
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I Praise God that I was preparing a message. I was finishing a message. It reminded me
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God is sovereign We need to know this church
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We need to know that God is sovereign before we become activists before we decide we're gonna change laws
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We're gonna resist laws. We're gonna do this that whatever the thing is God is sovereign It is
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God who reigns from heaven with his right son Jesus Christ sitting at his in his throne at God's right side
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The psalmist asks us if the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do?
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It's not that picture. I described to you a destruction of the foundations What can the righteous do a revelation chapters 4 and 5 would confirm his immediate answer?
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The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven Revelation is a book of hope
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It's a book of hope and this hope rests on this one fact that God is sovereign that he rules from heaven
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So let's look at these hymns these four hymns in these two chapters The first one is in chapter 4 and verse 8
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Now Jesus was told John was told by Jesus rather he says come up here come up from where you are come up here and see this scene and Immediately he was in the spirit and he saw and he heard this
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Read it to you again and the four living creatures each of them with six wings are full of eyes all around and within and day and Night, they never cease to say.
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Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty Who is who excuse me who was and is and is to come
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Now what's John seeing here? He's seeing the same scene From centuries before that the prophet
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Isaiah saw we have recorded in chapter 6 of his prophecy Isaiah chapter 6 verses 1 through 3 in The year the king
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Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on the upon a throne high and lifted up and the train of his robe filled the temple above him stood the seraphim each has six wings with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and One call to another said holy.
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Holy. Holy is the Lord of hosts The whole earth is full of his glory
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Of course the inspiration for him number 87 in our Trinity hymnal. Holy. Holy.
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Holy Lord God Almighty That great hymn we love to sing well the scene of this throne room this one that John when
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Jesus said come up here and He was in the spirit. He came to this throne room the same one as Isaiah 6.
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It's actually repeated again in the book of Ezekiel Without the song there is no song there
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But in Ezekiel chapter 1 you might want to turn there would be a bit of a passage
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I want to read to you in Ezekiel chapter 1 At the end of verse 3 in that chapter
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It says that the hand of the Lord was upon him which means just what John meant when he said he was in the spirit
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Now Ezekiel gives us a great deal more detail about some of these things that he saw most especially the four living creatures
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I'm not gonna read it all to you right now It's a very long chapter and gets very intricate and the details would take a long time to pull apart for us
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So it's just verses 5 & 6 and then verse 10 Ezekiel 1 verses 5 & 6 and then verse 10 and I want you to see that this is the same scene
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Isaiah saw in chapter 6 of his book and That John is seeing in chapter 4 of Revelation and from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures
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And this was their appearance They had a human likeness, but each had four faces and each of them had four wings
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Now verse 10 as for the likeness of their faces each had a human face the four had the face of a lion on the right side the four
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Had the face of an ox on the left side and the four had the face of an eagle Now see how much these three scenes have in common the prophets all three here the prophets.
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I'm calling John a prophet I know he was an apostle but for purposes of this morning Prophet which he was also
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The prophets in each of these are receiving their commission by way of this magnificent vision of God and his glory and His might his magnificence and can
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I say his sovereignty as he sits on that throne? And in all three scenes the creatures are one in the same
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In each of the six books the creatures all have wings in Ezekiel Each has four faces man ox lion and eagle and in John each of the four has only one face
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But there's a man there's an ox a lion and an eagle We can see the similarity Isaiah hears the name
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Lord of hosts Holy holy holy It's Lord of hosts
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God the commander of the armies of heaven this irresistible force that will fulfill whatever mission is given them
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Fairly chafing at the bit trying to get out and carry out his orders The Lord of hosts
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Ezekiel saw visions of God uses the word Elohim and the hand of the Lord Yahweh was upon him
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Well, John heard that it is Lord God Almighty. And what is that? That's El Shaddai who is holy.
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Holy holy These prophets are all in the same
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Throne room seeing the same God getting this vision of his might and his sovereignty in the same way commissioning them to their prophetic ministries and The prophetic ministries of each of the three portend in many ways much the same thing which is judgment judgment at different times in history judgment prophesied by Isaiah We see accomplished in Ezekiel and again prophesied by the
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Apostle John Isaiah again and again warns Israel that God's patience has worn thin and Babylon is about to be sent against them
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Ezekiel is about to see the destruction of the temple and visions of the new temple coming down from heaven John is going to have unveiled before his eyes
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God's sovereign care for his church and the end of history As well as an end to this creation as the new heavens and new earth are created by the power and the will of God something both
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Isaiah and Ezekiel saw in some measure and John will see the completion of I Mean the completion of it in the vision not in history
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You see for all three prophets the throne room is one Isaiah with the
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Lord of hosts and all is awesome and terrifying and glorious holiness Ezekiel saw all creation subservient standing beneath God's throne and carrying out his commands
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John saw the throne in the center of everything Not just the center of heaven the center of everything not just the center of this solar system or this galaxy the center of Everything and to say the center of the universe is still too small that throne at the center of Everything as Expansive as you can make that word be in your mind
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God's at the center of it God's sovereign power
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At the core of anything and everything that happens Not a sparrow falls not a hair turns white not a star turns
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Nova nor does in a ordained day Fail to bring about whatever he the sovereign
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Lord has decreed So this is the beginning of John's Commission to see
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God in all his sovereign authority and to hear this course this thrice emphasized holy holy holy
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John is going to report all this to a church That was reeling and staggering under the oppression of insane
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Nero They lived in a world that couldn't be more different than the one to which they were called by the
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Spirit of God The world they were in the world that surrounded the one that they came out of it couldn't be more different than this one that John Ezekiel Isaiah saw with the perfection of God As seeing the perfection of those who will be with God prophetically
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It was a world violently opposed to the righteousness of God and ill disposed towards those who would promote it
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That was in the first century 20 centuries later. I think we can see ourselves in much the same position
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And becoming more and more sidelined and despised This is the church that John wrote to then
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They were they all scouring of the world to use Paul's words they were treated like pond scum so what did they need to know as They saw the might of Rome Opposed to them
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What do they need to know? Nothing different than you need to know Then the whole church needs to know today to the flotsam of the world
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I speak to you to the flotsam of the world to you who are held beneath contempt Because you believe a
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God who says we know the difference between men and women You who say we know quite well where to relieve ourselves and in whose company we should find ourselves when we do so You who stand on what
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God says marriages, which is one man one woman committed to harmony and fidelity to each other
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To all of you who are displayed last of all as a spectacle of the world to you to the church this hymn of Revelation 4 tells us
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That our God is sovereign that he rule he reigns from pole to pole and none can say to him
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What is this you have done? He is holy his ways are holy and so too must be his people
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To you fools I speak to the church to you fools
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Who trust this God to do it is right? to the church Revelation 4 says fear not for the
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Lord of hosts El Shaddai Yahweh the unchanging one Elohim the Creator He and he alone
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Hold your fate in his hands none other
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Him all that's in that first him Revelation 4 8
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When they hear it the 24 elders follow the four living creatures with this in verse 11
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They say worthy are you O Lord our God to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they
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Existed and were created None but a sovereign God Can be counted as creator none, but a sovereign
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God can claim to be creator only such a God as ours can call that which is not as though it was who calls into existence the things that do not
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Exist who by faith we believe created. What is from what was not? God is worthy of our praise
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Because he is creator and only a creator God could be sovereign only a sovereign God could be creator
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God's sovereignty over creation could hardly be more fully expressed than in this hymn of Revelation 4 11 at a point in time
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Genesis 1 1 to be exact at a point in time God created everything and John uses the form of the verb here that means this definitive one -time act
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You created all things. That's what he means there in the beginning
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God created the heavens and the earth We don't want to pass too quickly by the next phrase in Revelation 4 11
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By your will they existed that catch your ear a little odd. You created all things and by your will they existed
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You see God didn't just make everything and then sit back to see what's going to happen.
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God is sovereign He shares his glory with no other so the inception and fate of the minutest part of his creation is
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Under his direct his sovereign will they existed denotes this continuous and incomplete action an ongoing action
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Much like Colossians 1 17 which we preached a few weeks ago in him in Christ all things hold together
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John says by your will they existed continually and exist now by God's will in Him in Christ because of God's will they all hold together they consist in him even now
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Ask yourself. Why did creation last one day after the seventh day of the creation account?
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Why was there another first day? Why did we get to day eight?
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Because it was God's will that that would happen Why did creation continue after the flood?
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After Babel Why was the church able to endure
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Nero's violence or earlier than that Saul's Persecution against the church
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Why are we here today? Because it's God's will that tomorrow we can look back and say yesterday.
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We existed because God wished it and you
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Christian you church Remember the words of the
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Apostle He said for we are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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Remember that this hymn in Revelation is worshiping God because he's creator You created all things and by your will they existed and were created
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Paul tells us we are his workmanship Created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them This is as much this is as much you the individual as it is all of us the church at large
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Created at a point in time by the will of God and then walk in them as we continue to exist
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So long as it is God's will that we exist And while it's
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God's will that we exist we walk in the works that he prepared beforehand because he created us
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For that purpose we being his workmanship in Christ Jesus Good works and hard providences, you know, they're really much the same to us
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Why are we to do good works for one reason because our Creator God created them no less than he created the heavens and the earth sometimes that good work is to bear up under the trials of bad relationships of hard jobs that we need to have to meet our family's needs
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The derision and the persecution we may face over the definition of marriage and human sexuality over even restrooms
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All this is under the direct will of our God who created us and will sustain us as long as it is his will
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We have no other platform From which to proceed We see all these things going on around us
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They make some of us tremble As I said Friday on Al Mulder's briefing
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It finally shook me to the core how fast and how far things have gone and what do we have to remember in this?
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How to paint our signs in which Street to go into the street to stand on to make people read them how to honk our horns
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I'm not against activism But I tell you Remembering God's sovereignty
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Believing God's sovereign having faith in this sovereign God in whose hands rest every molecule in the universe
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And are you not worth are you worth more than many birds and sparrows and ox and sheep?
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And whatever else can be brought to God of course you are says Jesus Christ this
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More than the other will see us through these hard times That's the second hymn and John's vision is now directed elsewhere the one who sits on the throne the throne at the center of all existence
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He has a scroll in his hand Steve just read this to you the scroll with the seven seals
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And the angel calls for anyone in heaven or on earth Whether on it or under it whether a great creature of the sea or a mighty one of the land
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Majestic eagles are asked and the mighty ox is asked men especially men especially men are bidden if you are worthy
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Come to the throne of him who lives forever and ever and take the scroll from him Reveal to us its contents
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We think of the book of Esther Do you remember the king I won't try and pronounce his name right now.
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I always flub it up If you walked into his presence
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Unbidden and he didn't point the scepter at you you could be killed And here's every creature in all creation being called upon if you are worthy come
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And see if the God sitting on that throne at the center of everything Will point that towards you
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You can almost feel all history coming to a halt Well none can
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None are found worthy and John weeps with frustration Until one of the elders tells him weep no more behold the line of the tribe of Judah the root of David has conquered
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Remember that word he has conquered so that he can open the scroll and it's seven seals and John looks and he sees a lamb standing as though it had been slain with seven horns and seven eyes
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Which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth You have any doubt who it is.
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He's seeing have you any doubt at all who John is looking upon He's looking upon lamb.
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He could tell it was slain. He knows immediately who it is I think we do too. Who's he looking at it is
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Jesus is the Lamb of God who is slain it is Jesus He sees and that's hallelujah.
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It's Jesus that he sees the Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world Remember John the
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Baptist behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world and From that time in history.
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He can look back and say the Lamb of God who did Take away the sin of the world who died for the sins of his people and there on the cross
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Conquered sin and death in the works of the devil That God that Jesus that lamb, that's the one that John is being pointed to see
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Him our mediator standing before God and between God and us interceding even now for us he
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He alone can open those seals and he will Understand this all history flows under the jurisdiction of God's will
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Nothing happens, but God does not actively and purposely and personally and sovereignly will it to happen nothing
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Nothing and yet here we see that will
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All of it nothing left out of it all of it fulfilled by who?
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by the Lamb of God By Jesus Christ who conquered we already mentioned he conquered how on the cross he conquered sin and death in the works of the devil
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Lord willing he conquered your stubborn will he conquered mine Dragged me to his kingdom
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He dragged me kicking and screaming, you know, he changed my heart so that I willingly came said
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Lord take me That was not a natural thing that's because of God's regenerating spirit in me
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He this one this conquering lamb Can open the seals?
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Why him why only him? Well, really that's in the next him
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Because it's gonna answer it for us Revelation 5 9 and 10 The next him says worthy are you to take the scroll and open the seals for you are slain?
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I've already alluded to that and by your blood you ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation
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I've already spoken about that. What is that? That's the gospel That's the gospel of God accomplished in Jesus Christ the eternal covenant
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Father son Holy Spirit that the father would elect a people God willing you are part of that people
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That the son would then redeem By taking their sins upon himself by dying for that people
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And that the spirit would then come to personally those chosen by God Those known by Christ as he suffered
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With all that as we say in theology applied to you That act of faith
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That's what it means you ransom people for God ransom took them out of the world brought them to God paid for their sins and Took them out of slavery and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our
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God and they shall reign on the earth Why him
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Because he was slain on the cross why him because by his shed blood he ransomed the people for God from all over the earth
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Why him? Because by his willing sacrifice for those the father had chosen he turned us from citizens of this world to citizens citizens of the kingdom of God from blasphemers to priests from subjects of this world and The devil who holds sway to a destiny of reigning with him
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Think of that You're by nature children of wrath says the Apostle children of the devil
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Christ Paid that price to ransom you from that and translate you from that world that kingdom that sway that influence that non -sovereign
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God with a small G Into the kingdom of God's light the gospel of the
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Son Jesus Christ Why him? Because he saved you
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Why him because none other Accomplished God's righteousness and holiness and justice and mercy and wrapped it all together in one person in one life
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That resulted in one cross to redeem a people From this world from this sin to God We have a destiny because of him
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To him we did last week that we preached last week if we endure we shall reign with him
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The crown of righteousness awaits because the sovereign God has said I've placed you in my son and sent my spirit to make you cognizant of that fact and give you faith to believe it and therefore our destiny
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Has nothing to do with what's outside these walls and the insanity Closing in on us more and more and more
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Our destiny is in God's hands Do you know whose hands carry every event no matter how small how seemingly insignificant it might be
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Do you really know in whose hands it all resides? Do you know this in?
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your heart in your soul In your
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Holy Spirit remade person. Do you know this? It's in God's hands and from his hands to the care of his son to fulfill every last detail
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It was God's will to smite and afflict him Jesus God's will to smite and afflict him with his wrath at our sins
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That's Isaiah 53 4. It was God's will to wound and crush him for our iniquities
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Isaiah 53 10 To pay for our peace by chastising him who knew no sin
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Isaiah 53 5 with 2nd Corinthians 5 21 God's will to crush him in our place
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Crush him on the cross instead of you It was
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God's will that people be redeemed and it was Jesus's joy to fulfill it That's why he that is why only he is
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Worthy to open the scroll and to allow history to proceed You know the first hymn the one sung to God's holiness was sung by the winged seraphim the the four living creatures
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The second hymn was sung to our Creator God did you notice who sang that hymn that was the 24 elders
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Best guess on who they are is representative of the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles that founded the church the 24 elders before God sang to him the hymn of Glory because of his creation and Now this hymn of redemption, did you notice who's singing this one?
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It's both It's the four creatures with the 24 elders the four living creatures the elders.
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They're all bowed down together Worshiping the God who's redeemed us redeemed them by his son and see what it was in their hands
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Did you notice this as Steve read a? Harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the
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Saints So I say to you dear Saint Redeemed by God's Son and reconciled to him by God's by his cross
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Do you tremble in this world of iniquity where we are so small and we're so powerless
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Do you fear for the future of your country? Have the foundations been smashed beyond repair?
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Look here Jesus said come up here. I See the one who really has things under his will
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Come up here join the Apostle and get a dose of reality This is reality.
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This is what is really happening. See who it is who attends to your prayers? These elders are not
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Saints who we must pray to and and ask them to tell God what we need It's symbolic it's symbolic of the truth that our
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Holy God our Creator God our Redeemer God our Sovereign God Has our prayers he has your prayers
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If by faith they are in the name of Jesus Christ his son who redeemed you He has your prayers
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Right before him That's what this imagery is about Is it just imagery to make us feel good?
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No, it's imagery that gives us a real literal constant truth That that's where our prayers go if they're in the name of this of the son
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Jesus Christ Right before God as an incense a sweet smelling aroma right before him
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The church that was being squeezed lifeless by Rome needed to hear this The church that feared as the mightiest power on earth at the time was turning against them not organized official
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Persecution yet But it was coming They needed to hear this
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Before all the incredible images of the following chapters. They first needed to hear What we first need to hear we need to know that God lives that God hears that God acts and sovereignly attends to everything
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We need to see how true and how literal is Paul's famous statement in Romans 8 28
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And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose
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I've said this before when we read this verse Does that mean God is up there and he sees something happening to Mary Jane or to Billy Bob over here and says?
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Oh my how am I going to make good out of this? No That would not be sovereign at all.
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That would just be clever That's not God What did Paul say
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I read it from Ephesians just a few moments ago He prepared beforehand Nothing out of our
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God's control nothing out of his sight nothing out of his vision not the shortest simplest crudest prayer by faith in his son
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Goes unnoticed by this God The church then needed to know this before all the incredible Incredible symbolism and imagery of the rest of this book culminating in the new heavens and new earth the new
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Jerusalem coming down from heaven as Ezekiel had hoped for before all that That simple key
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God is sovereign There's one more hymn that we need to attend to This will bring this message in this short series this five -part series on the hymns in the new testament to a close
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It carries on with the theme of redemption It's the last one before the seals are open and history is finally set on its final course
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Is revelation 5 verses 11 and 12? Then I looked
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And I heard around the throne of the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands
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Saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb who is slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing
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This affirms what was sung by the elders and the creatures now They're joined by many angels numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands.
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What is that number? I never heard of a trillion until some years ago
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It wasn't there when I was in grade school, which was admittedly a long time ago We didn't know that trillion existed
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Can we limit this to a trillion? Myriads of myriads and thousands and thousands
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Many angels calling this out worthy is the lamb who was slain. Who's that?
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That's jesus christ In whose name we do everything in this church That's jesus christ to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing
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Brethren we're not going to go through revelation. This closes this series, but do you have any doubt?
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What the end of revelation is about it's about jesus christ Receiving power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing because he is worthy.
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Why is he reworthy? Why is he worthy? Because he followed god's will and redeemed a people to him
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It's all about the cross one day
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Oh one day for us to join that vast throng for us to say together Yes, he is worthy to receive all glory laud and honor as our hymn says
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This is a worship to join in Where none shall be ashamed that another's voice is better trained because in this choir
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It is the glory of the lord and not the skill of the singer that matters Here is a time when we'll not hold back of ourselves where self -consciousness and uncertainty will have no place
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And we'll all together innumerable Bow and gladly sing this song over and over and over and over With the myriads upon myriads and thousands upon thousands of angels
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And god willing that many saints And lord willing some of us will hang on to the hand of someone we've spent our life with My bride your husband and sing this song together
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That's a hope to look to That's a god who we know
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Can see us through You know, I personally
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Can barely stand expressions like let god be sovereign in your life Make god your king
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We've all heard these haven't we you read these hymns in revelation 4 and 5 read the bible
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We don't let or make god anything He doesn't depend on us he is sovereign he is king
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Whether you allow it or not he is We're not quite done
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No, we're not quite done history itself waits for god and his son jesus to receive the full measure of their rightful praise
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And I say let history wait Let history wait, but let god be praised let my day begin tardy
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But so as it begins with praise Let my first matter to be My first matter be to fill that golden censer that golden bowl with prayer
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I say to you Christian I say to you that if history can wait until he has been praised
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So can your breakfast or your commute to work if history itself can be suspended for this cause
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Is it possible that your retirement to bed cannot patiently wait? Also john goes on in verses 13 and 14
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He says and I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth And under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying
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To him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever
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And the four living creatures said amen and the elders fell down and worshiped to him be the blessing
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There's what we call the definite article article there the word the To him be the blessing the honor the glory to him be the might
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Not just blessing and honor and glory and might in a general some abstract or theoretical sense
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But the blessing and honor and glory and might that are especially his Especially meant for jesus christ our redeemer and this hymn
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This hymn is the hymn of all creation The seraphim are still singing
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The elders have not left the room the myriads and thousands of angels have not retired
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And here singing of the redemption we have in christ. Jesus They are at last joined by every creature in heaven and on earth every creature
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In heaven and on earth has now joined in this hymn to our mighty god Might they be joined by mountains and hills breaking into singing and trees clapping in their hands
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Paul says in romans 8 22 that the creation itself groans with us as it yearns to be remade
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Are you troubled? During your pilgrimage here Has the world intruded too quickly too darkly upon us upon you
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Has your endurance begun to begin to flag You just can't keep
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Praising him. You can't keep testifying of him You've given up that anybody will ever hear you believe the gospel, which has conquered you
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Are you out of strength? We know what paul says about that Because in my weakness god's grace is perfected
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Does that mean I have to be physically weak? No, this means that I confess my inadequacy my inability
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That with god nothing shall be impossible but with man Almost everything's impossible for without christ.
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We can do nothing. He says How's your endurance?
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How are you holding up with the world coming in the way it's been coming in lately
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Or not coming in these walls. Do you know what I mean? Things changing so fast
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Our relationships Our jobs The hymn says oh soul, are you weary and troubled no light in the darkness you see
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There's a light For a look at the savior And life more abundant and free
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Turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace
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Do you see the throne room Can you join with isaiah and ezekiel and john do you see that throne room where god sits at the center of everything
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All that exists There is god in his might and his power and his goodness and his sheer unvarnished sovereignty
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Look to the throne room See if you can build up some more strength
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Through god's spirit by attendance to his word by faith that he is actually there hearing your prayers
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Believing that he's a good god If you ask him for a fish he won't give you a serpent
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He's a good and providing god if you ask him for strength To continue to hold up to continue to leave a holy and peaceable life as is his will
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To not give in to the things that the world is pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing
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Which are not his will Will he not by his spirit? Give you all things that you ask in jesus name.
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He will If you can see the throne throne room, you have the antidote for the fears in your life
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You have swallowed a great pill of reality I say do you see the throne it exudes thunders and lightnings isaiah cried
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He said woes me for I am lost. I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of people of unclean lips
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The lightning that john saw It evokes fear and it should because god is wrathful at sin
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He's wrathful of what is going on outside these walls Here it serves john as an eternal reminder of how much jesus took upon himself when he calmed that holy anger
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Do you see the throne room? Church, do you see the throne room? Where god with his son at his right side rains?
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There's a rainbow around it an eternal reminder of the bow that god set in the sky to remind himself
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Of his promise to never again destroy the earth by flood It's the only place we can go to find strength to find comfort
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It's the only god we can go to to find the power to endure Well, this is all what jesus brought about by his cross
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Is closed with this from the apostle paul in romans therefore having been justified by faith