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4:30Well, I really thought we had built a platform that was big enough. But Tricia and her great multitude has outgrown it already. I guess it is just part of a great multitude, but it's looking pretty big to me. And now, Pat, so notice how our Pat and Patrick. Patricia, thank you for the music and thank you for the worship. Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 16. I want to look at one verse today. Revelation chapter 16, verse 15.

5:19Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame. So, welcome back to the bowl judgments. We're working our way through them. This is the ministry of the seven bowl angels. And we come to a very, very, and let me underscore, very unusual interruption in the narrative, or the prophecy, I should say. And that is what we just read. And if you look at this, it's happening right in the middle of the sixth bowl. There is the judgments of the bowls, and as you know, that they happen in sequence. Once they start, they continue until they are complete. They depict God's wrath upon the world. And future wrath, future final wrath, because in them the wrath of God is finished. And right in the middle of the sixth bowl, there is this interruption. And this parenthetical statement, it's unquestionably by Christ himself. Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes.

6:46Unquestionably, it's Christ interrupting. And he doesn't even wait until the sixth bowl is complete. And you might expect it to happen right between the sixth and seventh bowl. You don't expect an interruption at all because already in chapter 15 and 8, it says the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. And so it is a rapid judgment that is coming in its totality, and there is no interruption. And then all of a sudden, there's an interruption, an exodus. Exhortation that comes from Christ Himself. Behold, I am coming like a thief. He doesn't, it's not even between the sixth and seventh bowl, but right in the middle. I think it's very significant where it happens. It happens right in the middle of the sixth bowl. And if you will remember what's happening in the sixth bowl, it's a judgment upon the Euphrates River, but really it's a judgment upon the allies of the beast's kingdom. And they are, the river is dried up so that the nations can gather. And so it's in this gathering judgment when God gives the nations over and he brings upon them a judgment to gather and to come and take your final stand against God. It's here in this interruption that it's here that Christ inserts himself: Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake, stays alert, keeps his clothes. And for this, this unusual interruption, I have decided to spend this day looking at this because this interruption gives us reason to pause. It gives us reason to step back and look at the big picture and to know exactly what this book is all about and what God wants us to do. Having received this revelation of the future events.

9:07Well, as you know, the major theme of Revelation is the establishment of God's kingdom upon the earth. By the time Revelation ends, the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our God. And the seals, the trumpets, and the bowls, they outline the events that lead up to it. And so once the bowls start, God is no longer evangelizing the nations, as we have seen Him do throughout Revelation. Angel going out, preaching the gospel, the good news, even at the late hour when the world is turned and hardened. He is still evangelizing. But when the bowls start, evangelizing is over and judgment upon the nations for their unrepentant evil is underway. They do not stop.

10:06And so, right in the middle of this gathering, as if to say, Christ is sending out the signal: do not join yourself to the worldly system. Do not be lulled into relationship with them. Do not practice their deeds. Right in the middle of that, it's very relevant to us today. A very relevant message. And what he does is he interrupts and he tells us, he states another blessed condition. In fact, there are seven such blessed conditions as we go through the book of Revelation. This is the third. And we come to that today. It's uttered by Christ himself in a very unexpected place. It reveals much about the heart of God and it forces us to consider carefully the message of Revelation, the applicational message of Revelation to each of us here today. And so I want to take this morning and understand this exhortation and then look at how it applies to us. First of all, this exhortation, there is a promised reality. This is his announcement. Look at verse 15. Behold, I am coming like a thief. This is a promised reality for you math-minded people. This is an axiomatic statement. He is coming like a thief.

11:50He is coming like a thief, and this is true. He is going to come like a thief to the unbelieving world. The day of the Lord will come like a thief, but he's also coming like a thief. Unexpectedly upon a professing church. The image of a thief, and by the way, that's a reminder. It's a reminder throughout the New Testament. This idea that he is coming like a thief, this is another reminder of it. It's just so shocking where it happens. It's just, he's been saying a lot of this in the New Testament, then all of a sudden, right in the middle of the bowl, sixth bowl, he jumps in. I am coming like a thief. A reminder. Now, what happens when a thief comes in? Well, we've had a thief break into our house and steal something, but a couple of things I could say that involves a thief, and maybe you have had this happen to you in your house.

12:52But a thief, it's unexpected and there's loss. There's usually a suddenness to it and a loss associated with it. And that's the idea here. I'm coming like a thief. There's a suddenness to it, and there's a loss to it. And it brings us to this, there's a couple of interpretive issues that you really have to think through. Who is he exhorting at this point? We're at the sixth bowl being poured out. Who is Jesus wanting to get the message?

13:32Well, there's the thought that maybe it's the unfaithful at the end. So we're talking about these unfaithful generations. You can see them, they're hardened in heart, they're cursing God. Maybe he's warning them. No, that's not happening. They are being judged. The bowls are in sequence. He is not warning them. I mean, he is not evangelizing them. He's not warning them any longer. He is judging them. The angel has already proclaimed the gospel has already gone out. Witnesses, so many, and they have rejected, they have hardened their heart, and they are under judgment. Now, I think it's axiomatically true that the day of the Lord does come unexpectedly upon unbelievers. But I don't think that's who he's speaking to here. That takes us to another category. Is he speaking to the faithful in that final generation? If he's not speaking to the unfaithful at the end, is he speaking to the faithful at the end?

14:35I don't think so. Because if you think about it, at this point in history, history itself is virtually over. The faithful are either have already been martyred or they're in a place of protection. But the point at this time in Revelation is that the faithful have already proven to be faithful. And it's also difficult to see how his coming at this point in history would be a surprise to his faithful people who are reading Scripture. Just think about it, okay, boils all over everybody. The sea turned into blood. That ought to get your attention. He's about to come. Rivers turned to blood.

15:18The sun burning, the darkness, the Euphrates, all of this. And with his coming, it's right in sequence with the seventh bowl, which happens immediately after this sixth bowl. So it's hard to even see how he's talking to a future generation of the faithful because it's hard to imagine that that would be a surprise. Any Bible-reading believer at that time would say, okay, I may not know the second, but wow, I think I'm within a pretty close zone right here.

15:54Well, then, then who does that leave? The third category, and who I think he's speaking to, is the professing Christians of the seven churches. Remember to who this book was written to. It's written to these seven churches. And they are experiencing many of the same issues that are described at the end. The beast's empire, the social pressure, the political pressure, the religious. Deception, all of this, these seven churches are experiencing. Now, no one of the churches is experiencing all of them, but collectively they're experiencing some of these same social, political, and religious, and economic pressures to deny and to march in step with the kingdom of the world. Now, in the future, it's going to be every church is going to be feeling all of those elements, but certainly, this church, these churches in Asia Minor, at the time of this writing, were dealing with all of these issues. You remember the economic pressures of the trade guilds? You remember the emperor worship issues, having to pay sacrifices to the emperors or be killed. And so he is speaking to this generation and this first generation of churches and every generation of church since he's speaking to us today.

17:35Christ's interruption stresses something he has said earlier in the book of Revelation. Do you remember the letter of Sardis? We might take a little walk down memory lane today. Remember the message to the church at Sardis in Revelation 3:1? It says to the angel of the church in Sardis, rise. He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this, I know your deeds, that you have a name, that you are alive, but you are dead. Wake up and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my God. So remember what you have received and heard, and keep it, and repent. Therefore, if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. You remember Sardis? That's King Midas, where you get the guy that, the rich king, that would touch everything and return to gold out of the whole Greek mythology. It was this golden city that also had these natural protection, these huge walls, geographic geology that made it very difficult to conquer. And King Croesus takes on King Cyrus, his first mistake. And he is defeated in the battlefield. He retreats to Sardis, and he just tells the whole town to go to sleep, even though Cyrus is in pursuit. He says, just go to sleep, because no one can break into this city because it's so protected. So he didn't keep watch over his city, and Cyrus's men scaled the wall during the night. Captured the city, bringing an end to the great Lydian kingdom. The city was taken by stealth, like a thief in the night. Very much ingrained in this church's understanding of their city.

19:50And Jesus' exhortation to Sardis and to all the churches is to be vigilant, to be awake. We are in a real spiritual battle. If you think about the message to this church of Sardis, the church of spiritual lethargy, as I call them, there was, and just remember, we looked at the danger of spiritual lethargy. We looked at the remedy for spiritual lethargy, which was become alive, focus on the right deeds, focus for the right reasons, and then three steps to how you become alive. We spent a lot of time looking at this. Be remembering what you have received. Be keeping what you have heard. And be repent. Repent. You see, like them, we are in a real spiritual battle. And when Jesus was exhorting this church, he was exhorting those kind of churchgoers who live spiritually unalert.

20:59They have. And their situation is not just, oh, well, I just got distracted for a minute. The issue is: no, you've been taken captive by the enemy. In your spiritual dullness and your unwillingness to be alert, you've been taken captive. And Jesus's message is: unless they wake up, Jesus will come as a thief. You see, a thief involves suddenness and loss. And his message is to professing believers. That was the church. They all professed. Some of them were true believers, some of them were not, just like us today. This is his message, it's a promised reality. He is coming like a thief in the night.

21:58And his message is to all of us who profess him but have not really embraced him. For the true believers, you know what they're going to do? They're going to heed. He's coming like a thief. They're going to believe he's coming like a thief. And they're going to be vigilant and they're going to watch. And so this exhortation is going to serve as a way to preserve or to encourage them. And they're going to receive it as such and they're going to stay awake and stay vigilant. For the false Christians, it's serves. As a warning to repent, focus on the right things. What are you doing with your life? Are you focusing on the right things? Are you focusing up for the right reasons? His message to you is: wake up.

22:48God has put you here on this planet for a reason. Dial into it. He is coming. You will stand before him. Do you believe this? If you believe this, be vigilant. Focus. It's a warning. Do not get caught up in the worldly system, or you will be handed over to the worldly system, which is going to be gathered together to be brought into the wine press of God's fury. Don't go there. So, Christ's exhortation involves a promised reality. And then it goes on to talk about the blessed. In this exhortation, Jesus said, Let me tell you who's blessed. The blessed. Look back at verse 15. Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes.

23:48Who are the blessed in Revelation? It's not hard to see. They're the ones who are awake. They're the ones who are clothed. They're awake. That is, they're spiritually alert. They're watching for the Lord. Lord's return. They are clothed. This is the one who is preserving in Christ's righteousness. They are doing the things that God has called them to do. They are clothed in his righteousness, both justified but also in deed. They are watching for the Lord's return and they are doing the things that they ought to do. That is a believing response to the fact that Christ is coming again. Do you believe it? Your life tells your story.

24:35And this is the third, as I already said, this is the third of the blessed statements in Revelation. The first one, if you remember, in Revelation 1:3, way back at the very beginning, Revelation 1:3 says this, Blessed is he who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it, for the time is near. And I love that first blessing because it's promised, it's not promised to those who understand all the details of Revelation. He just says, He says, Blessed are those who hear and heed.

25:16Blessed is the one who understands all the details because, wow, there's a lot here. But very simply, and just even as I began to preach Revelation, it was a little bit of a daunting task because I knew there was such a wise. Widespread spectrum on the way people interpret Revelation. I mean, it's all over the map. Did this happen way in the past? Is it happening in the future? Are the events just happening all the time, or are the events really never happening and just somehow out there relating some kind of truth? And I mean, as I read the commentaries, I mean, they are all over the map. And so it is a little bit daunting. And I think one reason why you don't hear it preached a whole lot is because we don't want to cause division over, and so it's easy to just not go through it. But something surprised me as I went through. And even though there can be some very sharp and emotional disagreements over what this is saying and how it relates and where it relates, what surprised me is the widespread agreement on how it applies to believers today.

26:27Even among preterists, idealists, historicists, and futurists, they may have a real different idea of how this connects. But when it comes time to how it's applied to believers today, it surprised me. There's been a few surprises in Revelation, and this has been one of them. The point is, and it's statements like this that we're reading: Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes. Pretty much everybody. Gets it. When it comes down to what you're to be doing, you're to be looking for Christ's return, you are to be ready for Christ's return, living in the light that you're going to stand in his presence and doing the things that he has commissioned you to do. And pretty much everyone would agree that the blessing to hear and to heed is clearly exhorted here. There is a second blessing in chapter 14 and verse 12.

27:30Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with him. So there is agreement over the blessing of dying in the Lord. If you have a high view of Scripture, regardless of your background and coming to this, you come to this and you say, Yes, the ones who are blessed are those who die in the Lord, whenever or wherever that is. Individually, we die in the Lord. What a blessed place to be.

28:12And we'd all agree that helping one another persevere in the faith to the end is part of the commission of the church. And the way we look out for one another is to encourage people to hear, to heed, and to. Give their life serving the Lord, and blessed that condition of dying in the Lord. In our text today, in chapter 16 and verse 15, we come to the third blessed statement, and that is, the one who is blessed is the one who is awake, spiritually alert, and the one who is clothed. Now, this takes us back to the letter of Laodicea. If you remember the church, Laodicea, let me read to you Revelation 3:14 through 18.

29:04To the angel of the church at Laodicea, write, the Amen, the faithful and true witness. The beginning of the creation of God says this: I know your deeds, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were cold or hot, so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich and have become wealthy and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed. That is, exposed for everyone to see.

29:56That's Jesus' exhortation. And this is the church that Jesus detests. As you can see by that spitting out, that's a graphic expulsion. And many of these churchgoers at Laodicea, they exhibited a profession without a possession. What about you today? Do you profess Christ and not possess him? If so, this warning is for you. It's for all of us to heed. Let's not be mere professors of faith in Christ. Let's possess Christ. He was given to lead you, and blessed thought that is.

30:57You see, what's happening in Laodicea? Just look at our lessons from there. And Jesus comes as the faithful and true witness. That is the judge. We see this in chapter 16. You're going to see this going on in 17, 18. It's he is the judge. He is the one who comes. And in Laodicea, he's the faithful and true witness, the true judge. And as such, he speaks with truth. As such, his counsel is reliable. And this is what he says. Says, seek true wealth, put on Christ's righteousness, and let God open your eyes. That is his message. Let God open your eyes to see your true naked condition, to see your need. And I don't care who you are. We need Christ. We need more of him. We need to get a better glimpse of who we are and our spiritual deficiencies.

31:56Pray that he will open your eyes. Seek that which is truly valuable. Seek true wealth and put on Christ's righteousness. Do the things that he has called you to do in the way he has called you to do them. That is his message to the church at Laodicea. And if you don't put this on, I will spit you out of my mouth. That's the judge. This is the same one who interrupts this bold judgment and says, Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes.

32:37So Jesus' exhortation to Laodicea and to all the churches is to be properly dressed. We are in a spiritual battle, and the New Testament has a lot to say about Christians being properly dressed. And these are the ones who are blessed when he returns. They're properly dressed. I could turn to many passages, but just... Here's one, Ephesians 6. Many of you memorized it 6, 10 through 17, speaking about the armor of God. Well, it's really dress.

33:14It's not just, okay, here's a good idea to someday go out and get ready for battle. No, you're in the battle. Proper dress is military outfit. And he goes on to describe it in this context. He says this in chapter 6, verse 10, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on, there's the word, put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. And then he goes on to describe this armor. Stand firm, having girded your loins with truth. Be growing in truth. That's how you be dressing in readiness. Be growing in truth, biblical truth. Put on the breastplate of righteousness. Be growing in the practice of right living. If you're growing in the practice of right living, the slanderous accusations of the devil and his way to bring You down will come to no avail.

34:36Have the right mission. Shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. That is, have on you the right mission. Put on the clothing appropriate for your mission. Gospel, peace to the nations and to one another. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you'll be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. That is, take up that shield of faith, confidence in God's sovereignty, that he is sovereign, that he is good. Have confidence in his Christ, that his Christ is coming to reign. Take up on this shield of faith and that you are tremendously valuable in his sight. Take up on the truth. Put on the faith. Grow in these and take the helmet of salvation. Let your mind just be taken captive with the great salvation that we have in Christ, the great salvation that is being offered day in and day out throughout this period of time.

35:39Put that gospel helmet on and let that saturate your thinking, the salvation of past, the salvation that's happening in the present, the salvation that is yet to come. Let that saturate your thinking. That's dressing properly. And the sword. Of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, with all prayer and petition at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert. There it is. Be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Put on the armor, be alert. Sound familiar?

36:20You see, there's a kind of churchgoer who thinks they are spiritually rich and in need of nothing, but are spiritually destitute. Is that you today? A good professor, but destitute. Awake. Hear the call. He is calling you to him. Jesus comes as a judge to such. And he makes it very clear: he will expose their sinful disposition. He will expose their poverty and their lack of true godliness. He said, That's what I'm coming to do. Don't let this be you. Get right with your heavenly Father before this time, because I am coming as the judge to expose.

37:16Now, you think about going without clothes, you know, what does that involve? Two things: exposure and embarrassment. A thief involves suddenness and loss. To go without clothes involves exposure and embarrassment. And again, Jesus' exhortation is to professing believers, to us. Some here today are true believers, and this will serve as an exhortation, as an encouragement. Yeah, I'm going to grow in these areas. I'm going to grow in proper dress and looking for him and others. It serves as a warning. Repent. Turn.

38:09So for you, false Christians, this serves as a warning. But it is also an appeal right now for you to be done with your false living, your false profession. Embrace the Christ of Scripture. Embrace the God who created you and wants a relationship with you. Have done. Be done with false living and low living. That's his exhortation. Behold, I am coming like a thief. You can look at the many places where Jesus exhorted his disciples to be dressed and ready. Be dressed in readiness. We read that in Luke chapter 12, and how blessed those are.

38:57I could give you many. But we're going to keep moving. Which that kind of brings us to the second interpretive issue in chapter 16, 15. To what coming is he referring to? Behold, I am coming like a thief. There's really two options. Is he talking about the coming at the beginning of the millennium, in which case, that is chapter 19, beginning in verse 11, heaven opened, behold, a white horse, and there he is. Or is it speaking of his coming to gather his people in rapture in the air?

39:42And as I said earlier, it's difficult to see how his coming at the end point in history would be unexpected. It happens immediately after the sixth full, so it may be a surprise to the unbelievers. And regardless, the axiom is still true. He's still coming like a thief, and even to unbelievers, they may be surprised. Shouldn't be. Wow. But again, no, it's better to see this as a Lord coming for his people in rapture. That's the coming. That's the coming.

40:25Where is the rapture mentioned in Revelation? I've been paying very careful attention as I've gone through. This verse by verse, line by line. And I'm convinced of one place that it shows up, and that is in Revelation chapter 3, 10 to the verse, to the church at Philadelphia. Remember in Revelation 3:10, this is that faithful church. Because you have kept the word of my perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. The hour of testing that's coming upon the whole world. What is that hour of testing? The events between chapter 6 and 18, 19. All of those events. That is the hour of testing, which is about to come upon the whole world, and the whole world from the churches in Asia Minor's perspective. Not in some local area in Jerusalem, but from the perspective of the whole world, from the churches, the seven churches in Asia, the whole world from their perspective.

41:43And if you remember this church, this is the church that Jesus cherishes. And there were three characteristics about this church. It was independent of its size. This church cherished his word. This church cherished his name. And for this church that Jesus cherishes, what does he do? He opens a door to eternal honor. He vindicates before their enemies, and he delivers them from the great hour of testing. Notice he keeps them from the time period, from the great hour. He doesn't say, I will keep you in the great hour testing, or I will keep you through the great hour of testing. In which case, you could say, okay, he's going to in some way protect as, but this language is very explicit. I will keep you from the time period of the great hour of testing. And this is very consistent with Jesus' promise to come again to receive his people. You remember John 14:1, Jesus says this to the disciples, Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. So Jesus promises to come again, and the coming in that context is to receive his people, not judge the earth. Oh, yeah, that's going to happen. He's going to come in that. But here he's speaking.

43:30I will come to receive you. And Paul goes on to describe this event in clearest language. 1 Thessalonians 4.13, Paul, when he's comforting the church about those who had died, probably in the persecutions associated with what happened in Thessaloniki 4.13, he says, We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. And then he goes on to say this: For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord. Get that? By the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not proceed those who've fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with the shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together. Rapture, there's the concept, caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore, comfort one another with these words. What Paul is saying here in the clearest language, the coming of the Lord in this context is in direct reference to Rapture being caught up. Those of us who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will be caught up with Him.

45:11I would love to spend some time speaking to you about the different rapture systems. Obviously, you know, there's post-tribulation, those who come after the tribulation. This will be some of your historic premillennialists. They would believe in the imminent return of Christ, as would many of those in the all-millennial camp. They also would believe in the imminent return of Christ. There's the pre-tribulation rapture, which also believes in the imminent return of Christ. And then you have the mid-trib. It's somewhat different from the mainstream pre-tribulational rapture. They would have a different definition for the hour of trial, reducing that to the three and a half years. Then there's the partial rapture, those who are coming out at different times throughout the period.

46:05But here's the thing to point out here. Why does Jesus promise to keep faithful believers out of this great hour of testing? It's because the faithful who have remained faithful in their times have already been tested. They have already patiently endured. They already are, they are spiritually alert. They are Mind they are clothed in righteousness. They are dressed. They are ready. And they have been tested, and there is no reason for them to go through more.

46:41I must move on. So, Christ's exhortation, coming back to Revelation 16, verse 15, we've looked at the promised reality: Behold, I'm coming like a thief. The blessed condition, blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes. And then we want to look at the disgraced condition, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame. This is a physical picture of a spiritual reality. This is what eternal disgrace looks like.

47:18The pretenders of the churches are going to be exposed for who they really are. When he comes, he is going to expose. That's what the judge does. And this is the condition that Jesus wants people to avoid. He doesn't want to come and expose you and say, look, you're not who you say you are. He's going to expose the individuals of this world. You're not God. And you are a miserable pretender. Look at you. And expose that any eternal shame.

48:07But this is the good news: is that this is the condition that Jesus wants people to avoid. In fact, this is the condition that early on in Scripture we understand that God doesn't delight in exposing people's shame. You remember, this is evident way back in Genesis chapter 9. You remember after the flood, Noah comes out and he begins farming. Decides he's going to plant a vineyard, grapes. In 9:21, he drank of the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself inside the tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japeth took a garment and laid it upon both their shoulders and walked in backward and covered the nakedness of their father. And their faces were turned away, so they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him. So he said, Cursed be Canaan, a servant of servants he shall be to his brothers. He also said, Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant. I mean, what's something happens here about?

49:31Exposing Ham thought it was funny or something. He did something about the father's shame and nakedness. And God comes down hard on that. And the other Shim and Japh, they cover it. They walk in backwards. That says something about the heart of God, and it's good news. God does not delight in exposing people's shame. Look, if he did, he could do it grandly, couldn't he? If that was the character and nature of God to expose just how off we were, wow, he could do it grandly. But he doesn't delight in reducing us and exposing us to eternal shame. On the contrary, he seeks to cover that, to protect us from that. That's the good news of the gospel. It's the character of God himself who delights to cover the shame of his people.

50:28Do you want to be one of his people? This is what God does when he deals with people's sinfulness. He's not at all. I know, like, when I, sometimes Nancy and I go on a trip, and we will leave the kids in charge of the house, and sometimes we'll go away for a few days, and sometimes even longer. And the kids have charge of the house. And whenever we're coming back, Nancy likes to call them and say, we're going to come home. At such and such time, you can expect us here. And she says that so that they will get the house ready. I think differently. I'm like, no, I want to bust them. You know, let's go in and let's not tell them when we're coming so I can walk in, aha, popcorn, aha, Derea, aha, messy, aha.

51:21Nancy likes to give them heads up. But this is exactly what God likes to do. He wants to cover his people's sinful shame. He says, I am coming, and this is what I'm going to do, so that you can be ready. He does not delight in exposing his people to eternal shame. Don't you see the goodness of God here? Revelation 6:16, 15, Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked, and men will see his shame.

52:14Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we delight in the good news that you are the God who covers shame. That this is exactly why you sent your Son. So that we don't have to be spiritually bankrupt and naked before you, but that we could be clothed in righteousness. And so I pray for everyone here today, Father, that we would all hear your words. It's very clear what you're saying, regardless of how we understand the details of Revelation. This is so crystal clear that you want us to be spiritually awake and in tune with the promise of your coming, with the reality of who you are and what you're coming to do. Father, that you want us to be dressed and clothed in your righteousness, which you will give to everyone who asks. And Father, we pray for your Spirit to be at work in our hearts, to take these words, take these truths, to plant them deep, and help us to heed, to hear what you are saying to us here today and to heed. So in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.