Finding Peace in God's Grace - Revelation 1: 4-6

1:32We've started this book. Already looked at what Revelation is in chapter 1, verse 1: the revelation of Jesus Christ, that is, the revealing of Jesus Christ, the full disclosure of who he is. So it's a book that is about the unfolding of Christ, who comes in his glory. We've seen him in his humility already. It's the record we will see him in his glory. It is also a book by Jesus Christ. It is the revelation about himself that he has given to his bondservants, things which are soon to take place. The events themselves will happen rapidly, but the epic of their nearness is also imminent, coming quickly. So even if this thing takes another thousand years before these events play out, we know that it is imminent. God expects us to live expectantly. He wants his people to be living expectantly that these things will soon come to pass.

2:47And in the grand scheme of eternity, they are soon to come to pass. And certainly, for all of us individually, God wants us to live expectantly because at any moment we Whether he comes in the clouds or whether you go to him at any moment, any one of us could find ourselves in the presence of God. So we are to live in the light of these truths because they are truth and they are certain coming realities.

3:24It's not so much the when, but the that they are happening and how you arrange your life in light of the truth. It's good news. It's good news. And in verse 3, it's a promise: Blessed is he who reads, blessed the ones who hear, blessed the ones who heed. You know, there's not another book that opens with such a promised blessing. Blessed. It's given to a corporate body. Yes, it was a circuit. These words were to be read publicly. They didn't have Bibles floating around in abundance like they do. So it was certainly intended to be read in a circuit, but it also was intended to be shared. These truths are something that we, as a body of believers, share. And the blessing itself is tied to the fact that you and I are in our actions. With these words. The promise is that the words, the words themselves, the words of this prophecy, the blessing is tied to the meditation upon, the thinking through, the conversing about these words. And so I know that it is going to be a blessed journey. And so, again, as we come to Revelation, I pray that you will join us. It's not too late. We're taking our time introducing it, and we'll continue to do so.

5:05But in our words that we'll be looking at this morning, it's very evident that we need to find peace in God's favor. We need to find a peace in God's grace. That's the title of this morning's message: Finding Peace in God's Grace. You know, Paul. Sorry. You know, Paul, the apostle. He had some problems. He had what he described as a thorn in his flesh. And in 2 Corinthians 12, 7, he describes this thorn in the flesh as a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself.

6:00And so he prayed. A lot of people try to figure out what this thorn in the flesh was. Well, I can tell you this much: it was not sin. It may have been a physical situation, or it may have been people in his life, or a person. But it caused him torment. This circumstance. And this circumstance brought Paul to pray to the Lord. In fact, he says in verse 8, concerning this, I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me.

6:42I implored that God would remove this situation from my life. Three times. And this was the Lord's answer in verse 9. He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. My grace, my favor, my love for you, my loving kindness for you. My favor upon you is sufficient. For my power is perfected in weakness. And this changed Paul's thinking. He said, Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ. May dwell in me. That was God's answer. Paul, it's not about your circumstance, it's about you coming to the reality or to the grip of the fact that my favor is upon you, even in the midst of these trying circumstances that you feel is tormenting your soul. Paul, my grace is sufficient for you.

7:53You know, sadly, I think many Christians are not characterized by peace. As I've studied my own heart, and many Christians or so-called Christians that I know, I often find that for many, the truth that God has sent His Son is just not enough to set our souls at peace. As if to say, the gospel isn't good enough to calm my soul. What's wrong with this picture? Something's really wrong if the king of heaven can say, My favor is upon you to such an extraordinary degree, and you can say, Yeah, God, but my circumstances are just way beyond that.

8:56Isn't that what we do? Do Really believe this truth? Has this truth really converted your soul, or are you a pretender? That's what we have to ask ourselves. Why do we need more than God's grace? Why do we need more than God's favor? Why is that not enough? And I'll tell you why. Either you don't believe it or you're very immature in the faith. And I'd say many times we simply just don't believe it. This truth has not converted our soul.

9:49We hear a lot, we go to church, we hear a lot of the Christian talk. It's about God's favor being upon all of those who are in Christ Jesus, and it is sufficient. Let this truth of God's favor convert your soul. And I can tell you, until you know how to be at peace in God's grace, you will never be able to weather the storms of life and be fruitful in the situation that God has placed you in.

10:25And as I read the scriptures, as I go through the Scriptures, I find this amazing theme over and over again that God loves sinners and He calls them out of their sin to be His people. Over and over again, I see this amazing favor of the Creator God upon His people. Why is that not enough? Ask your soul, say, Soul, why is this not enough? What's wrong? Listen, your life and ministry needs to find peace in knowing God's grace.

11:10So let's look at the opening words of verse 4: John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace. Let's stop there for just a moment. Seven churches. Seven churches. Now, we're going to read a little bit more about who those seven churches are in a few verses, but just for right now, I know you're probably going to barely be able to see this, but the churches: Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Diotira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. That's the circuit. And they are listed in that order. Kind of see if you started at Ephesus. That'd be like a clockwise circuit. Now, to give you a little bit of a perspective, let's look at the Texas triangle for a little bit. You can't see this very well, I know, but just to give you an idea, let's just imagine that we are here at Steep Hollow, and that's not hard to imagine, is it? Like the church of Ephesus. If this was the headquarter of the church of Ephesus, then if we drove up to Bremond, you know where Bremond is, you can kind of see it up here, that would be like a drive from Ephesus to Smyrna. And then if you went from Bremond to Corsicana, that would be like going from Smyrna to Pergamum. And that's not to say that Corsicana is the seat of Satan's throne.

12:57It's just I'm trying to get some kind of scale. I mean, if you're on a diet and you stop at, what is it, the Collins Street Bakery, you might be tempted beyond what you're able to bear. But Corsicana, and then if you want to go over to Palestine, think about Thiratira, down to Crockett, Sardis, over to Lufkin, Philadelphia, because everybody in Lufkin just loves everybody there. So come down to Livingston by the lake, you know, where it's all, everybody's just taking their ease. Right over by Lake Living. But anyway, but that's what the circuit. It would take you about eight hours to drive that. And in today, so that gives you a sense of the scale, the scale of these churches, these seven churches. Now, something very special about these churches. If you'll remember, Paul ministered in Ephesus for three years.

13:59Think about that. Paul was there for three years. He wrote Ephesians, Colossians, and 1 and 2 Timothy to this area. That's a lot of revelation, right? And then he wrote 1 Corinthians, most likely from this area. And so you get the idea. And so these churches would have been very familiar with the content of the issues going on in these churches that Paul was ministering to. And then, according to reliable tradition, shortly after Paul was martyred under Nero's persecution, John arrived on the scene at Ephesus. And he ministered to these churches for nearly three decades.

14:53Think about that. John wrote his gospel. John wrote for the gospel. 1st and 2 and 3rd John, and Revelation for the benefit of these churches. That's pretty a lot of revelation, right? In fact, some would call this the cradle of Christianity. Maybe. Maybe, if not the cradle, I'd certainly call it the nursery, right? Think about what we're interacting with now. This is where the church really takes root, gets organized. You'll have councils that meet here at Ephesus, even in later years. But from the opening words of this book of Revelation, it's clear that this book is written to churches. It is a letter. Yeah, it's prophetic. These are historic churches, real churches.

15:55You know, you can think about it like if you're writing a letter, how many of y'all remember these old things called snail mail, right? A letter. And what do you do with the letter? You put a stamp on it, right? And then there is an area where you send it, right? An address. And then there is a return address, right? Well, that's exactly what you have here with this letter. You have those to whom it's being sent to, and those who write it. John to the seven. churches that are in Asia. John is writing this. And then, what does he say? Grace and peace. Grace and peace.

16:45Grace. Grace to y'all. Grace to you. Plural. Meaning of grace is divine favor. May divine favor. be upon you. Divine favor, grace, the goodwill of God. May that be upon you. Who doesn't want that? Right? Grace. That's the best wish you can wish for anybody. It's the best wish you could wish for your children. Best wish you could wish for anybody you know, that God's favor, that God's face would be turned to you with a smile, right? May God's face shine upon you. That's the gift. Grace. Grace and peace, the idea of peace communicates that sense of shalom, Hebrew sense, shalom. That is welfare, health, calmness, well-being, contentment, serenity, all of that, right? All in one word. Grace, divine favor be upon you. And as a result, the condition of soul-satisfied peace. You see how the two are related.

18:00Listen, when divine favor is upon you, that is the basis for peace. Right? What's interesting about these words is that they come to us in a situation or they were written at a time when the situation was anything but peace from a worldly perspective. Look at sorry, my empty one that hasn't been opened yet, so forgive me. Look at Revelation 2, verse 10. This is the message to the church at Smyrna. Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. That doesn't sound like a very peaceful situation, right? Look at what he says again in verse 13 to the message to Pergamum. I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is, and you hold fast my name and did not deny my faith.

19:30In the days of Antipas, my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you where Satan dwells. So, this is a time, anything but peace. It's a time of anything but serenity. They have faced persecution, painful persecution, and they're about to face more painful persecution and all the loss, the confusion, the pain that goes with it. And it's in this context that he says, Grace to you and peace. You see, John, but you must look beyond John because this message is from God Himself, right?

20:17God wanted the seven churches to be at peace in their historic situation. And so, what He does in these opening verses is He draws attention to the source of grace and peace. Where does it come from? Where does this source of grace and peace come from? How does it manifest itself? And how are we to walk in it? All that is explained in these three verses. You see, we need to understand the source of peace, don't we?

20:50We need to understand how it manifests itself. We need to understand how to walk in it so that we will walk in peace. This peace, so that we will find God's peace. How do we find peace in God's favor? How do we find peace in God's grace? Well, that's what we're going to be looking at this morning. We're going to be looking at finding peace in God's grace. Continue just to introduce. You know, this isn't, this isn't the, well, something seems off.

21:37I lost a, oh well, I lost a, I know I put it up there, I lost some information. No problems. It's all in the text anyway, right? We don't rely upon this, we rely upon the word. But the first, if you have your Bibles, first way to know or how do you find peace in God's grace? First of all, you need to know the source of grace and peace. You need to know the source of grace and peace. And that's what we'll be looking at this morning. It'll take us through about the first half of verse 5. Look back at verse 4. John to the seven churches that are in Asia, grace to you and peace. Now, I want you to look. Look for the word from, and I want you to circle it when you see it.

22:35Grace to you, grace to you all, and peace from, from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from, there it is, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Now, if you look at that, oh, oh, thank you. Ah, our tech people are amazing. Thank you. Thank you. So, you've got to know the source of grace and peace. Think about it, just looking at that list. There is quite a distinguished list of persons there, right?

23:25From him who is and who was and who is to come, from the seven spirits who are before the throne, from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth. This is the one who sends you greeting. This is the distinguished list. Now, think about this. Suppose you weren't feeling well. Suppose you were down, whether distressed physically or mentally. And suppose you received a letter from the highest office and The highest persons of the most distinguished kingdom on earth, and these persons were genuinely interested in your well-being and very concerned about your well-being.

24:16Would that lift your spirits? I should hope it would. I should hope it would, right? I mean, this is a distinguished list of persons who wish you well. Well, let's look at these and point out: the desire for us to experience grace and peace does not ultimately come from John. John is sending greetings, right? Certainly, greetings. But this isn't just cheap talk, superficial talk. Grace to you and peace from Him, from the Seven Spirits, from Jesus Christ.

25:07I don't know about you, but I wouldn't put words in their mouth, and neither would John. And so you have here grace and peace from the most distinguished list of persons that the mind can possibly conceive of. That's the source of peace. That's the source. A favor. Well, let's look at this now. Let's look at this distinguished list of persons, and we're going to take our time. The promise was to look at the blessing, it is based upon the words. So we're going to talk about the words. He doesn't just say, Blessed from God the Father, blessed, you know, grace from God the Father, God the Spirit, and God the Son. He doesn't do, he further explains, he uses words. Yes, these individuals are certainly behind this persons.

26:11But he, let's look at the language that John uses. Look at the first one. From him. From him who is, and who was, and who is to come. Grace to y'all and peace from this individual, the one who is, who was, and who is to come. Well, this first distinguished person is clearly the Lord God Almighty. Look at verse 8. I am the Alpha and Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Do you see that? The Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Lord God Almighty. Look again in verse 8, or chapter 4, verse 8. Remember the living creatures, verse 8, four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, full of eyes around and within, and day and night they do not cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come. So this Lord God Almighty is this individual, is this person, the one who is.

27:36John describes his eternal existence. He describes God the Father here in terms of his eternal existence. The eternally existing one. The one who has always existed. The one who is currently existing. The one who has continued to exist and is coming in all of his glorious existence. This individual coming, certainly with his Christ. But John describes him in terms of his eternal existence. He is existence. He is life. Life itself. He is life. And as such, he is the author of life. Think about this. The one who is life.

28:30The one who gives life, the one who resurrects life, the one who sustains life, the one who protects life, the one who enhances life, this is the one that says, grace to you and peace. This isn't just coming from John, it's come through John. This individual, this person. Listen, if life has extended divine favor to you, how can this not impact your soul? He knows how to give life. Life itself, the eternal, existing one, this one, he has extended his favor to his people. The source of life has set his favor upon you if you are in him.

29:33Do you believe this truth? Why do you not experience peace? Maybe you don't believe this truth. Maybe this truth hasn't converted your soul. But the good news is, you're invited to come to him today. Look at how this truth. Impacted the living creatures and the elders. No, look at how this truth, that life itself, look at what they say in chapter 4, verse 8 again. I just read it. This one, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is, and who is to come. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, to him who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created.

30:50It moved them to worship the very thought that the favor of the one who creates all things and gives life to all things brought them to a joyous place of worship. How can this truth not convert our soul? That's why you're called to believe it. Let's look at the second distinguished person or persons. Look back, verse 4. From the seven spirits who are before his throne. Distinguished greeting comes from the seven spirits who are before his throne. Who are these seven spirits?

31:40We come to a pretty significant interpretive issue. And if you were here in Sunday school, we talked through this a little more, basically, from a perspective of Zechariah 4. We don't have time to go through all that this morning, but there are just a few options here. A few options. And it is challenging. And I'm not sure at the end of it we have a dogmatic resolution. Some people like to see this as seven angels. Refer to chapter 8, verse 1.

32:21Chapter 8, verse 1. When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. So you get the trumpets, but there are seven angels who are standing before God. So some see this as a description, seven spirits, as referring to seven angels. In fact, from Jewish literature, you can come up with the names of them: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and several others.

33:00Problem with this view is that nowhere are angels here referred to as spirits. Angels refer to angels or possibly leaders of the church. But it would be a unique. Sometimes demons are referred to as spirits, but you don't see angels. But the one strength of this, it sees seven as seven distinct individuals. A second view is that they're really one spirit, and what this is doing is describing the sevenfold ministry of the Holy Spirit, the seven spirits. Remember in Isaiah 11:2, the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. One problem with this view is that when you count them out in the Hebrew, there's really only six and not seven.

34:10But still, completeness, seven, completeness, a wholeness. Third solution, and this is where I end up, is that what these seven spirits indicate, or what the Spirit of God Is indicating through this expression is that this is the faithful and comprehensive administration of God's Spirit. This is seven, this is a completeness, this is this is the comprehensive administration of God's Spirit, which brings about or who brings about God's will. So, if you think about the picture, you have the Lord God Almighty, and then you have these seven spirits who are before the throne, that's the detail, who are before his throne, as if standing ready to carry out, to accomplish whatever the will of the Almighty is.

35:12And so, whether you end up with them being seven distinctives, distinct individuals, or the one spirit who is ultimately behind the administration of God's will, it's pretty straightforward what the encouragement here is that. But I want to further explain why I believe we're to understand this certainly as the administration, the effective administration of God's will. And so, the seven spirits are this indication of this comprehensive work working out, who stand ready to carry out. God's will.

36:02Well, it's first, they're before the throne. Second, the first greeting is from clearly God the Father, though expressed a little differently. The third is clearly expressed from Jesus Christ. And so it might seem a little unusual to put a greeting from angels right there in the middle of that. Not out of the question. We look at what's written, but it certainly seems that the second greeting in the middle of all this would be the ultimate administration of God's will, which is certainly the work of the Holy Spirit. But another reason why I don't think this is best understood as angels. Look at chapter 4 and verse 5. Chapter 4 and verse 5, one of the ways you can help understand the Bible is let the Bible interpret the Bible. And that's what we'll do here. In chapter 4, verse 5, out of the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. So John tells you these seven lamps, he sees another scene where there are seven lamps. A fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. So here the language is that of burning lamps. And as we looked at in our Sunday school, we looked at Zechariah 4:6, where there's this elaborate picture that the angel gives to Zechariah, showing him a lampstand with seven lamps on it, supplied abundantly by oil, and two trees, trees representing the office of priest and king.

38:09And in all this, the expression, it's not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord. And so you have the same kind of scene here where the spirits of God are also the lamps of God, lamps burning. What do lamps do? Well, they light up a place, right? They show what darkness conceals. Flames also indicate zeal, right? The zeal of the Lord. We've seen these seven before. But look at chapter five and verse six.

38:58We see these seven spirits. Of God again. And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders of a lamb, and the elders, a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. So here we have the depiction of eyes that are sent out. Eyes. So in one context, the spirits of the Lord, I mean the spirits before the throne, the seven spirits are lamps. In another, really in the same scene, they're also described as eyes of the lamb. And so when I think of eyes of the lamb, this speaks about his comprehensive ability, his comprehensive searching. He understands the deep things of God. As 1 Corinthians 2, 10 says, he also understands the things which are hidden. He has eyes. He'll have eyes of fire. He sees, he sees, he understands God. He understands man.

40:15And the eyes don't seem to be separate beings. They seem to be part of him. So what we have here is an indication that the all-seeing and comprehensive ability of the Lamb to understand all things. He is the judge of all things. And we get the throughout Scripture, we get the sense of the eyes. We see the eyes of the Lord looking, moving to and fro, as 2 Chronicles 16:9, the eyes of the Lord moving to and fro throughout the earth, that he may strongly support those who heart is completely his.

40:53So, all that, I think it's certainly safe to say that the seven spirits indicate the faithful and comprehensive work or the administration of God's Spirit who brings about God's will. I mean, ultimately, even if you want to insist that they're angels, ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit who brings about God's will, even if he's using other agents. But I think what you have here is the administrative office, the ones responsible for carrying out the will of the Almighty.

41:39And regardless, what John is, the encouragement is clear. That's what's very clear here. Even if we may not be so dogmatic, who are these seven spirits? What John is doing is very clear. What God is doing is very clear. Not only Does the author of life send his favor to us, but also the one or the ones who effectively carry out his will send their favor. Your favor is not just that God the Almighty has set his favor upon you, but the one carrying out his will has set his favor upon you. Grace and peace.

42:32Let that truth settle in. So the source of grace and peace, first of all, is from him who is and who was and who is to come, the seven spirits, and third, from Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Look back. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, verse 5, firstborn of the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth. We'll just stop there. The anointed one, Jesus Christ. That's God's anointed man, judge of all the earth, God's anointed one.

43:17But he describes him by three phases: Jesus Christ, three phrases, all aimed at setting God's people at peace. Let's just look at each one. We're interested in the words, and we want to go where the Spirit goes, right? First of all, Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. The faithful witness. Literally, the martyr. The faithful martyr. That's what a martyr is: a witness. The dependable witness. The trustworthy witness. David, you don't even know what to believe, right? Well, here's someone you can believe. The dependable one. In fact, remember when Jesus stood before Pilate in John 18:36, Pilate said to him, So you are a king. Jesus answered, You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world to testify to the truth. And everyone who is of the truth hears my voice. Do you hear Christ's voice, or do you dismiss it? If you are quick to dismiss it, you don't know him.

44:42You're not of the truth. Jesus came and witnessed to the truth of God's grace. And he witnessed to the extreme limits of God's grace. Crucifixion. What can we say about this? God forgives. God loves you. That is what is expressed on the cross. That is from the faithful witness, the faithful martyr. Do you believe that? Is your soul at peace? Listen, we know that God was with Jesus. So did that generation. The works attested to him. Scripture attested to him. The father's own voice attested to him several occasions. So why, why in the world would one so highly favored be sent to the cross? Why? Because that was that golden scepter that God extends to the whole world and says, Come to me.

45:53That's the scepter of his favor. Crucified Messiah. That is God's invitation for you to come to him. That is the testimony of Christ. His grace has been extended to us. He has been lifted up and he draws all people to himself. Do you believe? He is the one who always recognizes the truth. He's the faithful witness. He's the one who always speaks the truth. He is the faithful witness. He is the one who always reflects the truth and embodies the truth. So, in a world that has gone crazy, it seems at times, there can be peace even in the face of lies, peace in the face of uncertainty, peace in the face of doubts. Which who am I to believe?

46:58Even if we can't trust our news and trust our textbooks, sometimes we can have peace in all of this because we have a faithful witness. Second description of Christ. He is the firstborn from the dead. He is the firstborn from the dead. Now, don't interpret this to say that he is the first one to ever be raised from the dead. That's not what it's saying. He is the preeminent one that has come out of the grave. He is the first one to put on a glorified human body and dwell in the presence of God.

47:35Listen to what was promised. God had promised an eternal king who would one day reign forever. Isaiah 9:7, there will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord will accomplish this. Daniel. 2.44, in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. It itself will endure forever. Luke 1.32, he will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob, and his kingdom will have no end. You see, all these promises, one thing's certainly implied: both the king and his kingdom are forever.

48:35It's important to understand that Jesus wasn't just skilled in avoiding death. He went in to the grave. He conquered the grave. He came out of the grave. And he is only the first one. There will certainly be more. And so we can have peace in the face of death. And there's a lot of that going around these days. A lot of us struggling with the pain of losing someone we love. But there is peace in knowing that the one who rose from the dead and calls people out of the grave extends his favor to us.

49:27This is the one who wishes. Your well-being. I will come out of the grave. I can have peace no matter what happens. I will come out because the firstborn of the dead has set his favor upon me and not because of anything I've done. Just because of how good he is. And that favor is extended here to you today. Do you believe it? How will this not set your soul at peace? You can have peace in the face of death. Third, I know we need to move quickly. Jesus Christ, not only the faithful witness, Jesus Christ, not only the firstborn from the dead, but Jesus Christ, the ruler of the kings of the earth. The book of Revelation makes it clear that Jesus is the future ruler who is coming, never to be displaced. His good pleasure will be done on earth. It will dominate the minds and hearts of all humanity.

50:49However, the verb also suggests that Jesus Christ is presently ruler, presently ruler over the kings of the earth. Earth. All authority has been given to him even now. So we can have peace in the face of political upheaval, can't we? Think about what these churches were going through. We can have peace even in the face of political hostility. Peace in knowing that the ruler of all the kings and governments of the earth wishes you well. These are the headwaters of shalom for your soul.

51:37And I can assure you that John doesn't just put these words in the mouth of God. It is God who desires you to find peace in knowing that you have His favor. And yet it is this thing that will be challenged most of all. And that's the thing that you'll keep hearing. Does God really love me? Is His favor really upon me? That's the one doctrine that always gets attacked and somehow comes to set you off balance.

52:20No. You can find peace in God's grace. How do you do that? Well, first of all, you need to know the source of grace and peace. Next time, we'll look at how to develop this further. Something we need to understand, and there's something you need to show, but I hope you'll come back. But the whole book itself is a gift of God's divine favor. Revelation is a gift of divine favor to us, to us who read, to us who hear, to us who heed. This is a gift of divine favor. It is the gift that wishes us, wishes to communicate God's favor, but also set our souls at shalom.

53:15It is the book that delivers what it proclaims, it bestows what it wishes. So, bringing it back to us today, let me ask you: is the gospel good enough for you? There isn't a higher truth. Is it sufficient? I would submit to you: if you don't have peace in the gospel, you've never been converted by the gospel. You have never really believed these truths and taken them in. God's grace is sufficient. The reason we look for things else is because we don't really believe that. Listen, there will be times in your life when God's favor is all that you might seemingly have, but it's real.

54:16You may be taken into circumstances like this church, where it seems like these churches, that it seems like the only thing we have is God's favor. Well, I hope you'll join us as we continue, as we continue to look at this unveiling of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the truth, showing us where grace comes from and how that grace is sufficient to set our souls at peace no matter what we are facing. Father, and I pray that this truth will convert our souls. For those who do not know you, that they would come to believe this truth. And if they struggle with believing, I pray that you would help their unbelief.

55:11And I pray that they will choose to believe by your grace. Father, and help us to choose, those of us who have walked with you, to come back to these truths over and over so that we might be like Paul and really apprehend. Yes, your grace, your favor is sufficient. In Jesus' name, amen.