-4T_aVobPKc

1:30And he said to him also, and you are to be over five cities. Another came, saying, Master, here is your mina, which I kept, put away in a handkerchief. For I was afraid of you, because you are an exacting man. You take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow. He said to him, By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow? Then why did you not put my money in the bank, and having come, I would have collected it with interest? Then he said to the bystanders, Take the mina away from him and give it to the one who has the ten minas. And they said to him, Master, he has ten minas already. I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given. But from the one who does not have, even what he does have, shall be taken away. But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.

2:41Heavenly Father, we come before you, recognizing that you are the one. You are the nobleman who has gone on a journey. The kingdom of God, described here, has not appeared yet, but it will. You have gone. You receive the kingdom, and you will return, having received with all power, all authority. The kingdom of this world will become your kingdom, and you will rule and reign forever. And, Father, we look forward to that day. We also recognize that you give each of us instructions, a measure of gifts and abilities to steward for your glory in faith of your return. So, Father, we want to be good stewards of all that you have entrusted to us. You have given us your words, you have given us the gospel, and you have given us life. Father, let us connect all of these in all of the things that we do. And let us show expectancy for your return, for indeed you are coming. Father, forgive us where we have not been faithful with that which you have entrusted us. Be faithful, I pray for your forgiveness for all husbands here who have not loved their wives like Christ has loved the church. Father, forgive us in that endeavor and help us to grow. Father, I pray for every child here who has not honored their parents in a way that has honored you. Father, I pray for every wife and every woman and every person married and single here. Father, that in all things that there would be a submission to you for your glory and great goodness. Forgive us, for we have squandered our talents. We have. Been enticed by the ways of this world and by the kingdom and the prince of this world. Father, forgive us, for we've sinned against you in many ways. And there are many sins, Father, that we are not even aware of. We are presumptuous in many things. And so, Father, we come before you this morning in the shed blood of Christ, washing our robes this morning, cleansing us by faith in your finished work. And pray, Father, that you would bring to mind those things which are not right, and so that we can mindfully confess them. And Father, but as we do, we come here, Father, rejoicing, even though we are incomplete and still have a long way to go, we can come before you, worshiping you and praising you for the great things that you have done. So that is why we were here this morning, Father. May you be exalted and glorified here in our midst. May your kingdom come and your will be done. In Christ's name, well, once again, good morning. Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 22.

5:42Revelation chapter 22, I want to read to you verses 6 through 9, though I realize this morning we probably won't make it through all of those. Revelation chapter 22. Verses 6 through 9. And he said to me, These words are faithful and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show to his bondservants the things which must soon take place. And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book. I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed me these things. But he said to me, Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren, of the prophets, and of those who heed the words of this book, worship God.

6:48Well, welcome to what I am calling the introduction to the conclusion of the book of Revelation. The introduction to the conclusion. We are at a very, of course, we're coming to the end. And I have laid out the next series of messages to really bring home where we've been. It's the so what of Revelation. We want to spend some time concluding as the angel, the vision of Revelation is complete. The visions complete. And now you have a series of exhortations that come from the angel, from Christ Himself, and from John, others. And so we'll look at that. But I want to give you a context. As we are now finishing the book, I want you to get a framework for where we have been. Look back at verse 6. And he said to me, Notice the he. Who is the he?

8:04That is the angel. That is the angel guide that we have been in this extended section. And I'm going to ask you to turn to chapter 17 and verse 1. And I want you to see a few things just so you can put in perspective where we are in the book. Revelation is intended to reveal and to give you insight into the things herein. And chapter 17, verse 1. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. So there's this angel guide. Now, let me just, you can circle that word. I'll do this a little bit and then just to give you a framework. And turn to Revelation chapter 1, verse 1. And I want to read to you the first verse, and then I want you to again circle the word angel, his angel. Chapter 1: The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants the things which must soon take place.

9:19And he sent and communicated it by his angel. There's the angel to his bondservant, John. Now back, keep your thumb, go back to chapter 17, verse 1. It is this angel that comes. He finally shows up. We don't have a description of him throughout, but then he shows up here. Chapter 17, verse 1. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me. He's introduced here because now we have a framework for who he is. By the time we get to the end of John, Revelation chapter 16, we see these angels, these seven angels, come out of the temple. They have a golden sash. Just like Christ did in chapter 1, they are there in the presence of God. They come out with these seven bowls and they pour out the bowls of wrath upon the earth. And then those bowls conclude at the end of chapter 17, chapter 16. I'm sorry. And then at the beginning of chapter 17, one of these angels comes and to give John a tour guide.

10:30And first of all, he says, I'm going to show you the harlot, specifically the judgment of the harlot. Now, turn a couple pages to chapter 21 and look at verse 9. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues, sound familiar, came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, and I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb. So you have the harlot and the bride. From chapter 17 all the way to really chapter 22 and verse 5, you have this extended section that we started six months ago on October 15th. We started working our way through this section of Scripture, a very significant section of scripture in Revelation, contrasting, showing the harlot and the bride. It's a tour guide. It's an angel guide that is going to, right after the bowls of wrath are poured out, then this angel comes along. Now, let me take you in deeper and show you some things. Let me show you specifically the judgment upon the harlot and the bride. And so you can just go back to chapter 17 just for a second, and we'll be have you through flipping around here in just a moment. But I need you to see how this is unfolding. So he. This angel guide. Let me take you a tour. Let me take you in deeper. Let me tell you more about Babylon the Great that has been judged, that you saw judged in chapter 16 with the bold judgments. Now, let me go into greater detail about the judgment of this harlot. Chapter 17 speaks about the whole judgment of the religious body. So, this Babylon the Great is going to have a religious component. And really, as it is rising to power, it's going to have this ecumenical antichrist ideology. And you can see that these elements in the world today, these antichrist ideologies that coalesce for no other reason other than what they hate. It's not so what they're for, but they coalesce, just like what does Islam and radical feminism have in common? Nothing. What does Islam and the LGBTQ movement have in common? Nothing except what they hate more than what they're for. Well, this is the Antichrist world sentiment that is building, that is part of this ecumenical antichrist ideology. But its judgment is going to come in chapter 17 in favor of a pro-beast religion. Guess what? False teachers and false prophets are really about themselves, with ultimately a kind of a power broker system. False religion is about power and influence and ultimately. Ultimately, this ecumenicalism, you want to know what's going to happen to it, it's going to die at the hands of a pro-beast worship ideology. In other words, at some point, they're going to have to recognize there's only room for one to be worshiped, and that's going to be Satan himself. And so, all these other antichrist ecumenicalism, this antichrist ideology, will give way to the pro-beast religion of the time, and will have to express religion. And this is what was happening in the early church. This is what they were dealing with: emperor worship, the state being the highest. Pay tribute to the emperor or you die. So, ultimately, whatever religion you have, as long as it comes under the authority of the beast or the emperor, and you would pay tribute, you would be fine. Well, that's the judgment against that religious system. So, in chapter 17, the angel shows John the judgment of religious Babylon. But in chapter 18, there's another component that's going to fall, and that's going to be the economic power of Babylon. That will fall, and it will happen. This great city with all this wealth and its great trade center, it will come to an end, and in one hour, merchants will be horrified. Then in chapter 19, there is the judgment upon Babylon the Great's military might and allies all coming together, gathered together in Israel at Armageddon, hills around Megiddo and surrounding, just infiltrate the whole land, a gathering together. And Christ is going to come and he's going to judge the military strength of Babylon. Then in chapter 20, you come, and there's an emphasis going here.

15:37Then Satan, what about the spirit who inspired this whole system? Well, in chapter 20, the dragon, the beast, the dragon of old, Satan, the liar, he is going to be thrown into the lake of fire. At the end of chapter 20, the spirit behind Babylon is in the lake of fire. And then, as you come into chapter 21, the first eight verses talk about, are going to ultimately conclude with the judgment upon the citizens of Babylon. Look at verse 8.

16:20He gets this vision of heaven coming down. And in verse 7, he who overcomes will inherit all of these things. But, in verse 8, but for the cowardly and the unbelieving and the abominable and the murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And so judgment upon Babylon's citizens, or those who have embraced the kingdom and ideology of this world, which culminates in Babylon the Great, once it gets full expression. But it's interesting to note that the very top of the list in verse 8 is the cowardly, those who are afraid. Afraid of what?

17:14Caving in to worshiping the beast, those who are afraid. And you can, again, see how applicable this is to the seven churches who, under Dominic, are facing emperor worship and the whole pressure to worship. Very applicable. State-sanctioned emperor worship. Test of loyalty to Rome. Pay tribute to the Caesars. Those who are afraid and go with it have no part in the eternal city. What a profound statement that all this comes to. And then, look at verse 9. Then, one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb. And so then, from there on, we see this picture of the glory of heaven.

18:24And the glory of heaven is obviously the presence of God. But we've been walking through this glory of heaven and seeing this glory seen in the description of this city, the bridal city, also seen in the function of the city, and more particularly in the occupants of the city. Look at the occupants of the city. This is the bride, the flesh and blood, bride herself. And look at verse 3 of chapter 22. There will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in it, and his bondservants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads, and there will no longer be any night, and they will not have the need of the light of a lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them, and they will reign forever and ever. And here's the emphasis: the bride.

19:21The bride. They see his face. You remember in chapter 6 and verse 16 when the day of the Lord was and the cosmic signs when the Sixth seal was opened up, and people were running. Kings and servants, and everybody in between were running for fear, saying, Fall on us, rocks, hide us from the face of the one who sits upon the throne, and the Lamb. Hide us from his face, hide us from his presence. And here you see the bride, in sharp contrast to those who've been taken in the passion of the harlot. The bride, they will see his face, have his name on their foreheads. They will, and it's here you get this great revelation. The bondservants are the bride.

20:19Revelation. You bondservants, you're the bride. And so you can see how this would encourage those seven churches and everyone since then. Servants, bride. Very sharp contrast. You saw in parts of Revelation chapter 9 when the bottomless pit was opened up. What happened to the servants of Satan? They were all tormented by all the locusts, by the demonic horsemen and the demonic army. I mean, this is how Satan treats. His own. Very different from two different kingdoms, the harlot and the bride, two completely different systems.

21:10And an encouragement to the church of that day, to the church of this day, to come out and to be among the bride of Christ, to join the eternal city. And so it's in this context that the angel begins the conclusion. And he, the angel, said to me, Now look at this, we just think, let me give you a real quick thing that's on. Some reason it's not advancing. There it goes. Simple outline, Revelation. This is just a file just to give you, again, a big picture of where we are in this book.

22:00There's the introduction in chapter one. Basically, chapter two and chapter three are what I call the seven epistles of Jesus, a very profound part. We have epistles from Jesus written to the churches and what he expects. You have that in chapter two and chapter three. And then in really chapter four through sixteen are all about this seven sealed scroll. Chapter four, chapter five introduces the scroll. Chapter six opens the seals. And then, of course, those seals become. Seventh seal becomes seven trumpets, and the seventh trumpet becomes seven bowls. And that takes us all the way through chapter 16. And then you have this angelic tour, what I call the description, a little more personal tour to show John and the churches, the harlot and the bride. That's in chapter 17, all the way to chapter about 5.

22:595, 6, 5 plus chapters. And then you have the conclusion. So that's the conclusion begins in chapter 6. And again, that is to help us understand and to give us the so what of Revelation. It's going to end with a series of exhortations and encouragements. So that's just a simple big picture. We've covered a lot of territory and now trying to relate these final exhortations to us today. And so the message is about stewarding the words of Revelation. Look at verse 6. And he said to me, These words are faithful and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show to his bondservants the things which must soon take place. These words, let's Just walk through this very carefully because we need to be precise in understanding what is being said here.

24:08These words, they are faithful and true. What words? Well, in the immediate context, it's just what the angel has just given that tour guide. The harlot and the bride. Specifically, in the most immediate context, the new heavens and the new earth. These words are faithful and true. They would certainly include also, as we keep going, it encompasses the whole book of Revelation. And so you have these words in the immediate context. It's the new heavens, the new earth. It's the tour of the harlot and the bride. It's also the seals. It's the letters to the churches. It's all of the words of Revelation. And they are faithful. Notice he says they are faithful and true. They are faithful. They are trustworthy. They are dependable. Build your life up on these kind of words. They are true. They are genuine. They are without error. They are real. They are in accord with truth. They are in accord with reality. These things are certain. They are going to happen. Put that in your mind.

25:28And notice he says. The Lord, God, the Lord, the God of the spirits has sent them. Spirit of the prophets. He's the one behind it. Notice, and I would love to just go off on a little bit of a rabbit trail and talk about the inspiration of Scripture. But it's clear that the Lord, the God is, Lord God is God and Lord of the spirits, their own spirits, the spirits of the prophets. He is Lord over their cognitive abilities. He is Lord over what they're thinking, over what they're feeling, what is moving them, their entire capabilities. He illumines them. He is Lord over that. All of that.

26:14And he is the ultimate source for these words. And certainly in this context, John is prophet relating all of these. And notice the angel. Notice how he sent these to the angel. Like I said, I'm going through each word. We need to carefully look at each word. And sent his angel to show to his bondservant this thing. So we've already looked at that angel. We know who he is. A very prominent angel. We've spent a lot of time looking at the different kinds of angels in Revelation, at least in a separate series. Angels. And you can add this one to the list: an informing, an instructing, an. Illuminating angel, one that is using in the purpose of communicating biblical truth, prophetic truth. But notice what he was to do. Look back. To show. He was to show something. He was to make something known. He was to disclose. That's the idea, to show, to cause something unseen to be seen. That was his task. To make something unknown known. And notice this endeavor was to his bondservants. Look back at verse 6. Sent his angels to show to his bondservants.

27:41There's the lamb. Remember, we just read this. The bondservants. Look back at verse 6. His bondservants. Now look at back. Look at back. Look back at verse 3. There will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and the lamb will be in it, and his bondservants will serve him. If you go all the way back to Revelation 1:1, listen to these words: the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants. Bondservants, bondservants are the bride.

28:19They are the people who willfully and delightfully serve the interests of Jesus. And that's us. You're in him. That was them. Churches seven, the faithful among the churches there. That's the same as true as today. They believe that Jesus' ways are the best. They gladly defer to him. They know that his ways are good. They know that his ways are worth promoting. And they give themselves to that task. That's what bondservants do. And they willfully indenture themselves because of his great goodness.

29:03They're not just servants by chain and whip. They are servants by a bowed heart. Whatever you want, Lord, your ways are good. You have the words of eternal life. I will follow you. I want to be doing what you want me to do. I want to use my freedom to indenture myself to you forever. That's the bride of Christ. That's what a bondservant does. They're not trying to promote their own cause. Bondservant is in service to another.

29:41And so Revelation is a book about a communication from the husband to the bride, from God to the bondservants. Bondservants. You are the bride. Bondservants, you will occupy the bridal city. So he sends his angels to show them. To show them what? Look back at verse 6. The things which must soon take place. That's what he is to show them. The angel, the fellow servant, commissioned by God, who is the Lord God, the Spirit of the prophets, to show the bondservants, the bride, those who he dearly loves, those who will inherit the bridal city, to show them the things which are going to soon take place on planet earth.

30:52Now let's look even carefully. Look at the things which must soon take place. The things, which things? Which things have just been talked about? Well, the things just mentioned: the new heavens, the new earth, all the information about the harlot and the bride, but also everything that is written in Revelation. And by the way, if you look carefully, these things include the new heavens and the new earth. This is what this statement makes the fulfillment of all of the events in Revelation inconsistent or improper. Why I can't go with it. Think about this. If you're going to look at these things and see that all of these things in the book of Revelation, what we call full praetorism, is completed, then even the new heavens and the new earth have come. And I picked up a commentary by one of these last, or just in the last couple weeks, and been reading his take on it. And so, what does yeah, he's saying, yeah, these things would apply to everything, and that would be consistent.

32:12That would be a consistent view. If you look at this and you say the things which must soon take place, what is soon to take place? Well, everything in Revelation. And so he would take the position that all of this, everything, including the new heavens and the new earth, has been fulfilled in 70 AD. Problem with this, hopefully you see, is evident, surface. That would mean that we're in the new heavens and the new earth right now. And so he says that we will allegorize this. That's the church. And that the living waters are the gospel that's going forth. To the nations. Well, at first glance, I'm like, well, that sounds pretty good. But then you start trying to square that with what's been said, and you just find that it just can't be. And let me tell you how I know that. I pastor a church.

33:16You know, if the new heavens and the new earth, where there is no sin, nothing defiles, no liars and all of that are in it, and we're the new heavens and the new earth. Guess what? I've talked with some of you. You guys don't fit that criteria. And not only that, I've looked in my own heart. I hope you see the evidence that, and to say that we're not under a curse anymore, that there's, I see evidence of the curse already. Satan is not thrown into the lake of fire, that we're still among wheat and tares. It's so painfully obvious. But that at least they're consistent.

33:58They will be consistent and say, well, if these things refers, you're going to give the angel his due, then it's everything written in the book of Revelation. But notice what he says: the things which must take place, which must, things that have to take place, it is necessary that they take place. Why is it necessary? By divine urgency, by divine necessity, these things must take place. The things that are coming upon the earth are necessary. Why? Because of the nature of evil and because of the purposes of evil. They are necessary. You see, at the same time that the gospel is going out, guess what else is going out? A hardening effect. So, as the gospel is going through the world and softening hearts and bringing people to him, there is also a hardening effect. There are people around the globe that also will hear, they will reject, and they will grow in their hardness against God and against the Lamb. And that's taking place. And that's going on in this time that we're in, in this church time period. Gospel is being proclaimed. Some are believing, some are coming, some are rejecting and being hardened. And those who are being hardened will crystallize, according to Revelation, into one major expression, one matured expression, Babylon the Great.

35:30That's the nature of evil. But these things must take place because that's what evil is going to do. You will grow in your hardness. If you do not soften your heart to the Lord, that will happen to you on an individual level. That will happen on a global level. And so, on and on throughout this book, there's this call to soften your heart, to be repenting, to be leaving the ways of this world, be leaving your sin behind. There's an urgency because there's Hardening effect if you don't. Don't get comfortable with an ideology that lets you stay comfortable in your sin or excuse it. Come out of that.

36:12Strong exhortation throughout. These things must take place because of the nature of evil, but they are necessary. They must take place because of the nature of God and because of the purposes of God. He is going to give the new heavens and the new earth to his people. He is not going to let evil continue to reign. And we know in this new world, I mean, you saw Iran attacked Israel yesterday. We know that there's no place for Israel or for true followers of the Lamb in the kingdom of this world. There's no room for the able's in a world of Cain's.

37:05And so judgment is necessary. These things must take place because God has something completely other in mind for planet Earth and for the bridal city. It is for his people, his bondservants, those who love him, because it is good, it is right. And so. He gives us a system to understand. He gives us revelation. We understand what's going on with Iran. We don't know where it's going to end with this particular event, but we understand there's a global sentiment, and you can see it today. That wants Israel gone. There is a global sentiment that it can tolerate everything except true Christianity.

37:56But notice, we have been informed about the things that are coming upon the earth. They must soon take place. So, if we're not allegorically in the new heavens and the new earth, what does soon to take place mean? Interpretive issue. It's really the same that we looked at in Revelation 1:1. It's the only other place this expression is used in the book of Revelation. Let me read to you: Revelation 1:1, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservants the things which must soon take place. Isn't this a nice little neat package? You see, the conclusion is restating what was said in the introduction, in chapter 1.

38:45The things which must soon take place. What are the options? There's four options there: interpretive issue. What does soon to take place mean? First, some say it means immediately. Option number one: it must immediately. Take place. But it's not that, clearly, because John uses a different word for immediately. Remember, in Revelation chapter 4 and verse 1, he hears a voice that says, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. Probably the angel calling him up there. Who knows? And verse 2: Immediately I was in the spirit. So, boom, instantaneously, immediately, as soon as I heard that, I was immediately. That's not the word that John uses here.

39:33Second option is: some would say that there's a precise time frame, say within 50 years, something very close, something like in the lifetime of a person. Some insist that the word must have a precise time frame. 50 years is near, but 100 isn't, and certainly not 2,000. That's not near. And the problem with that is that, well, we have no authoritative guide. What is near? What then could be near? And 2 Peter 3 tells us, look, verse 3 says, know this, first of all, that in the last days, mockers are going to come with their mocking, following after their own lust, saying, Where is the promise of the coming? There's going to be people, but it's been 2,000 years. Where is he? You know, you guys, give it up, give it up. That kind of mockers that will be coming and are. I've heard them.

40:28But then Peter answers that. And he says this in 2 Peter 3:9, the Lord is not slow about his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. So in the chronicle of Earth's history, here it doesn't have to be 50 years. There's a third view: rapidly. So these things must rapidly take place. Rapidly. So that's like the idea of a, it's where we get tachometer from. Think of you know, the really high RPM. So these events must happen really, really fast.

41:21And so once they start, once they start, boom, boom, boom, they go really fast. Well, that's certainly true, and certainly consistent with Mark 13 and the parable of the fig tree: this generation, once these things start happening, will certainly not pass away until all these things are complete. And it could be that, but it's not likely, in my opinion, because the events, even though the events will be cut short, and even though the events will happen rapidly once they start, it's not the swiftness, but the immediate danger of them that is in view. Let me say it like this: Suppose you're driving down the road at night.

42:01You all with me? You're falling asleep? Wake up. We're driving down the road, okay? Driving down the road, and you see it's dark, and you're flying, you're going the speed limit, 75 miles an hour plus a few. Not that any of you would, but let's just picture that that's you. You're going 75 miles an hour plus going down, and you see bridge out. What's going to go on in your mind? Is the first thing that's going to go into your mind is, okay, that bridge is out. I wonder if I'm going to have an airtime of three seconds or ten seconds. It really doesn't matter, does it?

42:42You're not going to be thinking about, oh, I wonder how long that bridge was. No, what's going to go on in your mind is the imminent danger that you're in. There isn't another warning coming. There's nothing else that has to happen except a bridge being out and you going off it unless you change course. That's more of the idea here. It's the idea of imminence, view forward, something near that can happen at any moment, something that's pending, something that's looming. And it could be speaking of something that's close to you physically, like a bridge being out, or temporally in time. You're going to go off that really quickly if you don't change. Think about the San Andreas. Fault. You'll hear language like it can go at any time. In fact, we just saw it made the news again last week. San Andreas Fault, that big fault line in California, it can go at any time and create all kinds of havoc. Well, it was said to be imminent 100 years ago and longer. It's just as valid to say that it was imminent, it was near 100 years ago as it is near today because it can go at any time. And that's the thought here. You hear this expression: without further ado, you ever heard that? Without further ado, without further fanfare, without further ado, this thing is going to now take place. Now, think about this in the concept of prophecy. Without further prophetic ado, Revelation is the last warning sign before the bridge. Without further ado, without further prophetic ado, this is going to happen. So be ready. And so that's how it's being used here. When you put these thoughts together, nearness implies that it can happen at any time. So be on the lookout. We don't know when these things are exactly going to happen. Neither did John. Even Jesus in his humanity didn't know.

44:56But they are looming. No more. Prophetic adieu. But what's important here is not so much when they will happen, but that they will happen. That's going to be the measure of do you believe that these are coming? Prophecy calls us to action. That's what it does. It calls us to listen, it calls us to understand, it calls us to heed. And we are to live in the light of the nearness of these events. Think about, you know, we have to sometimes be ready for a hurricane, especially if you're further closer to the coast. Live and prepare. One can happen. Same with earthquake.

45:41And so, what is being stated in Revelation is the time period of the events of Revelation can happen at any time. They may be ushered in, and yes, they will rapidly happen once they do ramp up and kick in. But meanwhile, we can see a lot of things trending this way before they cross that accelerated pace. I think they will happen at any time, and I think they will happen rapidly when they do. But the main question then of this conclusion is: so, what do we do?

46:22What are we to do in the light of the fact that these words have been given to us? God has sent to his bondservants a certain corpus of information that he carefully sent to us through the angel, using the angel and to John and now to us. How do we steward these words, the information? How do we prove to be good bondservants? Remember Luke 16, 10, he who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much. And he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.

47:07Luke 19, 17, we read it a little while. Well done, good slave. Because you have been faithful in a little thing, you will have authority over ten cities. And so if you look at where we've been the last two and a half years, what does God want us to do with this knowledge? Well, I want to begin looking at how to steward the words of Revelation. How do we steward them? Why are we interested in this?

47:39Because we are Christ's bondservant. And therefore, we seek to be good stewards of the things entrusted to us. That's what we'll be looking at. And let me show you my power. Points. We want to live expectantly of Jesus Christ's return. We want to heed the words of Revelation. We want to recognize your fellow servants. We want to worship God. That's just for these verses. I thought I might get to one of the points today. I realized I wasn't going to make it through all four of them this morning, but I did think I'd get through the introduction and even through the first point. But I think I'm going to leave it there. I want to come back, think about where we've been, and think about what God, when God has entrusted something to you, He's given all of us something. He's given us time. He's given us His truth. What are you doing with the truth? He wants you to steward that properly. And so I invite you back as we will probably over the next few sermons and we'll be winding this whole thing down. And we want to make sure that we're stewarding not only the words of Revelation, but all the words, with all the gifts and all the talents that He's given us, we want to be good stewards of it. So I pray that you will be with us over the next series as we conclude.

49:31Our conclusion of Revelation. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks for your goodness and thank you for entrusting to us your truth, for showing us that, wow, as bondservants, we are so much more than just indentured servants. We are precious, treasured, owned by you. We belong to you. We will see your face. We will dwell in your presence, Father. And your presence is not frightening to us in the sense that it is to fall in humanity.

50:11We come to you. We're drawn to you. We know that we have a perfect advocate. We know we have a perfect sacrifice, and none of this is our own doing. So, Father, I pray this morning that for everyone here, that we would endeavor to be good stewards of the days, the hours, the gifts that you give us, and especially the truth of your gospel, of your word that is given to us. In Christ's name.