Worship Him! Rev, 19:1-10
Revelation 19:1-10 · Vern Peterman · Oct 27, 2002
Revelation (2001-03), No. 50
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826224982073

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

A number of you may have heard about this week's announcement of the discovery of this ossuary box that is marked with James, the son of Joseph, brother of Jesus. While those are common names for that period of time, The combination of those together is a little hard to attribute to chance, so they're figuring it's probably pretty genuine. The other thing is the time frame when they made these little ossuary boxes is only about 10 AD to about 70 AD, so that also kind of brackets in the time frame pretty well. Now while that's a good thing, the truth is that these ossuary boxes, and a lot of these are found on the Mount of Olives, and we've seen pictures of that in the past, just on the hill right across from where the Temple Mount is. And the truth is that these ossuary boxes, they've been finding those for decades, and there's lots of things on them that back up the accounts on the New Testament, especially since, again, the time frame being 10 AD to 70 AD, when they used these, brackets it right in the New Testament period.

And here, for example, they found the ossuary box with his name on it, Caiaphas. That's, of course, the name of the high priest who was head of the Sanhedrin when Jesus was condemned and John knew him. So here they found that. And not only that, you notice that this previous box is kind of simple looking. And here's Caiaphas, who would have been more well-off. And notice the ornate carvings and all that sort of thing. A little more, you know, costly box there.

Other examples, and these aren't necessarily names of the biblical characters, but it's reflective that the names were typical. Here's one, Sons of Lazarus. Here's another one, this is not Mary, but the name Mary showing up. And also Martha, in the one right below it.

So this is not, all this discovery is certainly significant. It's not like there was no evidence of anything biblical prior to that time. And my reason for bringing this up is the article that announced this made this statement. This container provides the only New Testament-era mention of the central figure of Christianity and is the first-ever archaeological discovery to corroborate the biblical references to Jesus. Now that is a disturbing statement because it makes it sound like, good heavens, for centuries people have just been making this up. We finally found something that connects. This is ridiculous. Let me elaborate.

For instance, there was a Syrian fellow who wrote in 70 AD, what advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise king? Here's another one, Babylonian Talmud, which is a version of a Jewish writing, so this is actually Jewish. On the eve of the Passover, Yeshu the Nazarene was hanged, just ten years after the events. Here's at 110 AD, Cornelius Tacitus, who was a Roman historian, Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius. It kind of nails it, doesn't it? Here's another one, Flavius Josephus, and by the way, some of his writings with regard to Christ are hotly disputed. This is one that is not. So he assembled the Sanhedrim of Judges and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James.

Of course, this was the box that was found. So here's just some examples that are right within that period of time, and I could give numerous additional ones. But the point being, if you read in some of the articles that this box was somehow breaking into the first century, and prior to that there was no other evidence, They're greatly mistaken. At any rate, I wanted to clarify that.

Why does this matter? It matters because Jesus didn't just die as a good idea. He didn't die as an example. As Paul put it, if Christ is not crucified, then we believe in vain. Christianity is not an, I hope so, idealistic religion. It is a belief in the spiritual facts based on historical reality.

It's important to maintain that connection. We don't want to lose it. Now we're going to turn the corner here to the book of Revelation. We're in chapter 19. I need to correct your handout there. It has all kinds of wonderful information, but it has one piece of misinformation. The bottom there has last week's reference. Don't get confused.

It's Revelation 19, 1-10. So, anyway, as we turn to chapter 19, the tribulation period is about to end. Are you glad? Okay, hope so. Alright. Seven years of pain and agony is a lot to handle, especially if you're handling it over less than a year, right?

Our passage this morning is fortunately a very positive one in many respects, and it's also one of those momentous turns. It's one of those pivotal events. As we see here, we've got this syncopation between heaven and earth that's been taking place, and we've been kind of chronicling this syncopation as we go along. Now we're in a situation where these red arrows represent here what we've already covered. Can you imagine we've already covered that much? We've been at this for about 13 months now, and we've covered this up to this point.

We're now returning to the heavenly scene, and that's the key point we want to make here. As we mentioned before, there are about 150 verses in Revelation that are in the heavenly scene, and this passage here is the second-to-the-last one of those. We're going to cover 10 verses here this morning that will be in the heavenly scene, describing it, and kind of our second-to-the-last shot at these descriptions, these narrative descriptions of heaven.

And then, before we venture into the passage, I want you to just take note. You're going to be looking ahead here. There's going to be four groups that we're going to be hearing from, kind of almost in a back-and-forth kind of motion. First, the great multitude, or much people, or many people.

That's in verse 1. Next, the 24 elders representing the church in verse 4, and the four living creatures. I don't have 24 fingers, so I won't hold that up. But anyway, four living creatures. And then the last is a kind of a summary statement, his bondservants, all those creatures who are here in the heavenly scene and who are joining him in praise. So those four groups are going to be showing up here. So let's look at the first three verses, would you?

After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. And I won't try to reproduce the volume that he describes here. Because his judgments are true and righteous, for he has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and he has avenged the blood of his bond-servants on her. And a second time they said, Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever."

Now John uses this phrase again after these things, telling us that this is a sequential, real-time event. This isn't just, hey, I think I'll just tell them a story about this. He's being specific, he's being sequential, he is telling it as he sees it, as if it were history, because it has the same historical reality. It is a real event he is describing. He also uses this phrase, I heard, and he's used that phrase before, and he uses it to describe something that he is testifying about as if it were legal testimony, having that weight and gravity and truth to it.

And you might be interested to know that there's only two more occurrences of loud voice in Revelation. But the phrase, great multitude, or much people, we've seen before back in chapter 7. Do you remember that? You remember chapter 7, right? Okay, let's get there. Revelation 7, 9 and 10.

After these things I looked and behold a great multitude, which no one could count from every nation, and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands. And they cry out with a loud voice saying, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb." And notice the way that they start out is exactly the same. But these were the tribulation period saints who had been martyred and were now gathered in God's throne room in heaven. And now this massive chorus of voices, this great multitude, shouts, Hallelujah!

As you recall from Palm Sunday, you remember Palm Sunday, of course, the Jews would traditionally recite Psalms 113 through 118 as they would travel up towards Jerusalem. That was called the Hallel. And it means praise. So they would recite the Hallel, the praise, that section of the Psalms. So that's the first part of this word. And then, The next thing is at the end, the name of God is Yahweh, so the shortened form of that is Yah, so Hallelujah. Put that together, it means praise the Lord.

It's real interesting, that word in a lot of different languages is understood, Hallelujah. My grandmother taught in the Chinatown section, she taught school in San Francisco years ago. And she said, even there, people would be speaking Chinese and all of a sudden you'd hear Hallelujah. A little Chinese accent, if you understand, but Hallelujah, just the same. Okay.

It turns out that though the word Hallelujah is used a number of times in the Old Testament, especially the Psalms, if you look it up, Hallelujah, where it'll be translated sometimes, just praise the Lord. This is the only place in the New Testament where it actually shows up. And it shows up several times. Okay, four times to be exact. Then listen to the thing that this multitude praises the Lord for. You're going to see praising him for salvation. They have this overwhelming chorus there.

Remember, this is the group, they were not believers when the tribulation started. Remember that? The rapture had taken place, those who were believers were all taken up. And so now here they're starting into this period of time after the rapture as unbelievers. And so they had fairly recently come to salvation.

And some of them may have actually become believers and shortly thereafter have become, excuse me, have become believers and shortly thereafter been faced up with martyrdom. So they may not have been Christians very long. Others may have actually had to suffer the horrible pains and agonies of the Antichrist. Others of them, I'm sure, saw, if they'd spent much time during the Tribulation period, because we've had some awful descriptions of the conditions, this choking suppression of the world upon them, and they've been through that.

All of them have come to belief in the Lord at a time when the price was very, very high. You see that? Moreover, They have come to know Christ the Lord. They're eternally separated from the slavery and death of sin. They've now come to realize what they have in the Lord. Notice the next thing. They acknowledge God as the origin and source of all glory.

What is glory? Glory is the eternal radiance of who God is. That aspect of eternal radiance is so essential to God's glory and who God is, that just a couple of chapters from now, we're going to see heaven described, or the new heavens and the new earth described, such as no day and night. Why? Because the radiance of God's glory will be sufficient. No day and night anymore. The radiance of God's glory will be sufficient. That shouldn't surprise us.

1 John 1.5 tells us that God is light. It doesn't say God has light or lights around because God is. God is light. It is essential to His being.

The other thing to recognize is God is the source of all glory. We think of glory in different terms. Maybe it's everything from some glorious sunset to war heroes to football game winners or something. But the truth is that there is no glory that is not from Him. None. There is no glory that is not from Him because He is the source of all glory. Any other glory derives from Him because He has decided to share His glory, including that glory which He shares with us because we believe in and behold Him. that glory too. But notice the next thing that this great multitude attributes to God. They attribute to Him honor.

What then is honor? What is it? It's respect, reverence, and esteem. It's recognizing God for who He is. He is honorable. That is His character. It is acknowledging the exalted character of God Himself. Notice that I use the word esteem While we're there, let me mention that one of the world's great problems is not that there is low self-esteem in people, but rather that there is not esteem or honor for God. That's the real low esteem problem that we have as human beings. But to esteem God requires that we acknowledge and believe in Christ and His great salvation on our behalf. Believing in the spiritual facts that have been revealed is honoring to God. See that? Believing in the spiritual facts that have been revealed is honoring to God. That honors Him.

Finally, this great multitude attributes power to the Lord. The fourth thing. Now, the Lord is never limited in His power, is He? His power is unlimited. He has this ability that is without bounds. But thinking about that power, we need to think about something. You've heard people say, well, God can do anything. Well, that's not true. Now, before you burn me as a heretic, hear me out for a minute. The trial would be good for me, but I think I'd rather you wait.

Now, God is unlimited in the magnitude of His power, but God is limited by His nature. See the difference there? His power is unlimited, but the way He expresses that power is limited by His nature. Now, what do I mean by that? God is love, but that love is constrained by His holiness. That's why Christ had to die. God's holiness could not allow God to simply ignore sin. So God's power is limitless in magnitude, but limited in its avenues of expression by God's very nature.

And that's a good thing. Let me give you some for instances. Aren't you glad that God's expression of power is limited by His mercy? Aren't you glad about that? Isn't that a good thing? We'd be in deep, deep trouble if that weren't the case. Aren't you glad that God's expression of power is limited by His love? Aren't you glad that God's expression of power is limited by His grace? We need all those things, don't we? The aspects of His character that limit His power are essential. and a huge part of who he is. So when they exalt his power, this is power constrained, though unlimited, constrained by his nature in every aspect.

Then, as we look at verses 1 through 3, we also see that God has not only praised for his character, that's who he is, his nature, but he's also specifically praised for acting in judgment against this world system called Babylon. They praise the Lord because for these things. He has acted in judgment against Babylon, that's the name of this world system, that is saturated with every kind of evil and ensnarled people with it. Justice has been done on behalf of the bond servants, those who are servants of the Lord, those martyred by Babylon. Not just in the tribulation period, but over the centuries. The indications of Babylon's demise, as you'll notice in this passage, they remain.

It says the smoke goes up forever. That destruction is final and irreversible. That's the mark. Okay? The destruction is final and irreversible. You've seen various instances where you're saying, boy, I'm glad this didn't happen, or I'm glad that didn't happen, some awful thing, or somebody got justice, and so far, I mean, we see little instances where justice came to play and something bad got suppressed, but this is different. This is a final termination of the world system. That's the end. The smoke goes up forever. It's gone. It's done with.

Let's read verse 4 now, and watch this because if you're a believer, you're in this verse. Read it with me. And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God who sits on the throne, saying, Amen! Hallelujah! Now we've seen that the twenty-four elders and these four living creatures have done things together before in chapters 4, 5, 7, 14, and 19. And so we see them here.

But this first, Revelation 19, 4, will be the last mention of the twenty-four elders. That's it. Last one. Now, allow me to suggest a reason why this is the last time we read about the 24 Elders. Since the 24 Elders represent the Church, and I won't go into that because we've spent quite a bit of time on that, but if you have questions about that, please see me.

We can talk about it. But since they represent the Church, these will be gone from the scene as the 24 Elders because their heavenly presence as the Church will be changed as they are taken with Jesus Christ to reign upon the earth. Furthermore, there'll be this wedding supper that we're going to read about shortly. So there's going to be some changes that are going to take place as to their location, where they're reigning with the Lord, as well as a recognition of their condition, if you will. So changes are going to take place, and that's why this is the last time we're going to see them represented there as the 24 elders.

Now you'll notice in Revelation, as Revelation chapter 5 ends, with the 24 elders falling down to worship as well. In this, the four living creatures join them. And who do they worship? They worship God who sits on the throne. Now this is not simply indicating that God just sits all the time. That's not the point.

The Greek of verse 4 has some special insights that we want to take note of. Now, first there, Phaos, that's this Greek word for God that you find throughout the New Testament, it has the definite article here indicating the God, this specific one and no other. The word translated sat also has a definite article, and the verb is a present participle, we call it, indicating the one continually sitting. This is called the gnomic present tense, If you want to forget that term, fine, but the idea is that it's something that is continually and always true.

Now, it means that God is continuing to sit upon the throne. That is His place of authority. He remains in authority all the time. Aren't you glad? That's a good thing. He doesn't just sit there occasionally, He remains in authority constantly, always. Remember that next time a crisis hits you.

The word translated throne is the definite article as well, indicating not just any throne, but THE throne. Taken together, this verse is telling us that these 24 elders and 4 living creatures fell down and worshipped the God who is the one continually sitting on the throne, the one continually having authority and sovereignty. And God's continual sitting on the throne is the expression of His always having the power and authority of that position. This is the unchanging God who loves and saves us, and He is always sovereignly in ultimate power and authority. That's what it's telling us.

The expression of these four living creatures and the 24 elders, that's you and me. They say but two things, Amen and Hallelujah. First, they say Amen, and that means that they agree with what the great multitude has said. They agree that it is true. That's the statement that they're making. Next, they say Hallelujah, and as we've said before, that means praise the Lord. They're saying, praise the Lord, what you have said is entirely and exactly true.

Verses 5 through 6 there, And a voice came from the throne, saying, Give praise to our God, all you his bondservants, you who fear him, the small and the great. Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude, and like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, Hallelujah, for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns." Now at first we might think that the one speaking there is God himself because the voice, this lobbed voice, comes from the throne. But there is more than one instance we read in the book of Revelation where a voice coming from the throne is actually some other being.

We know that because of the context. For instance, we know this in this case because this voice speaks in this way, it says, give praise to our God, which God himself would not say. Furthermore, it speaks about him in the third person and not me in the first person. So we'll see this pattern again and extrapolated upon in chapter 21 as we see a similar passage. Then we have this great response.

John is telling us with these descriptions of the great multitude about the many waters and the many thunders that this chorus of praise is overwhelmingly loud and thunderous. If you've been at a large athletic event When the crowd cheers wildly, then you know what I mean. Or you know what John means, right? If you've been at the base of a huge waterfall, as we see depicted here, the roar is just constant, and it's hard to even hear anything over the roar. If you've heard that, then you know what John's writing about. And if you've heard the thunder here in Colorado when it's really close and it's been a big hit, then you know two. What does John do? He puts those three together.

He says, all of those. We're talking about something that just rocks the foundations. The power and immensity and intensity of this praise is huge. It's massive. It shakes the heavens. That's the kind of praise we're talking about here. It is even louder than the sound of thunder at our place when our kids were growing up and Nancy would say, dinner's ready! It's louder than that.

Now you've got this great mass of angelic creatures and those saved from or out of the mess on earth, and I say from because there were those who were taken out before the church and from because there were those who were taken out during the tribulation.

And they say hallelujah for the fourth time, that is, praise the Lord. And they say that the Lord God, who is all-powerful, reigned. And the Greek here says that his reign is in the aorist tense, and the meaning is that the focus is having been reigning in the past. He's been reigning, including the tribulation period that is now drawing to a close.

So let's take a look at verses 7 through 9, and now we're getting to a very momentous and pivotal event. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And He said to me, Write, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He said to me, These are the true words of God." Now, before the second coming of the Lord on earth for the saints to reign, there must take place the marriage supper of the Lamb. As we look at these verses, there are some things to point out here. The Bridegroom is the Lamb that glorified Jesus Christ. The Bride is the Church that is the Body of Christ. Those that are of the entire Church Age, all the way from the beginning to the end. Pentecost to the Rapture.

Now, you say, Vern, how do you know that's true? Well, let's take a look at it. First thing, John 14, 2-4, Christ speaks to the disciples using words that are much like a Jewish wedding arrangement. We'll take a look at that in a bit. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11-2, For I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. And then in Ephesians 5, 22-33, Paul writes of the relationship between Christ and the Church as an example for husband and wife. It's written as an analogy there, but the implications are clear. And there are other passages in the Gospels as well.

But next we need to address the question of where this wedding supper takes place and when. Now, I have to tell you that there are a number of good conservative scholars who take it that this wedding supper of the Lamb actually extends into the millennium and goes on for a thousand years. But there are a number of reasons why I don't believe that's the case. But rather that the wedding supper of the Lamb takes place in heaven during the tribulation period.

To look at this in context, I'd like you to come with me to a typical Jewish wedding. You mind going to a wedding? Is that alright? Okay, we'll go to a Jewish wedding here. Here's how it works out. Step one. The father selects the bride. Gotta pick the bride. That would explain why the scriptures speak in terms of her having been elected, even using the singular and referring to the church as the elect, the chosen bride. The bride and groom during this period of time are then betrothed to one another. during which time the bride is to prepare herself.

That would explain the reference to the righteous acts of the saints being our wedding clothing in verse 8. This preparing is going on. Expressions of the life and righteousness of Christ in and through us right now are the preparation for the wedding day and subsequent celebration. That's the preparation.

This betrothal period is what we read about with Mary and Joseph, in what's frequently called the Christmas story. Here's Mary and Joseph, and they're in this betrothal period, and in the Jewish system, that was not a, hey, I'll give you a ring, and if you don't like it, give it back.

It was a contract, and you did not break it except under, you know, taking the legal steps to go through doing it. It was a tight agreement. So they took it seriously. It's not a casual engagement. Now, the marriage of the bride and the groom, in which the father tells the groom, go get your bride, that's the next step.

And that's how it starts. And so this is why Jesus would tell them, he says, I don't know when the second coming is, but the father knows. So doesn't this match up perfectly? Here's the Jewish wedding, and what is the Fathers say, he says to the groom, go get your bride. He calls the time. That exactly matches up with scripture, doesn't it? Okay.

Then what we also see in John 14, the Lord says, I'm going to prepare a place and come again and take you unto myself. He lays this out exactly according to the Jewish wedding procedure there. The marriage supper and celebration upon the wedding take place in the father's house. And the father's house is going to be in this heavenly scene, not in the Millennial Kingdom. Make sense? Also, in this wedding celebration, it is the groom who is the one particularly honored. What happens next might surprise you a little, so brace yourself.

Let's read verse 10. Then I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, Do not do that. I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now, John sees this angel, it's likely the one who spoke to him back in verse 9, and he responds by worshiping him. Since these angels are bright and shining creatures, We can in some degree understand this. As you read the accounts of people encountering angels in scripture, and it is not common, but it does happen, it is described, we notice that almost universally the angel starts off with, don't be afraid. There is this incredible emanation of light and glory coming from the angels, and that's not God. But here's John looking at this incredible creature. who has revealed to him a great number of things, and he begins to bow down.

So you can kind of understand John's mistake here, can't you? Probably if we were in the same spot, we might wonder if we're not supposed to respond the same way. So, one of the things we have to look at here is there's a conflict going on. John has begun to worship this angel, and yet there are instances we can read of where Worship of Jesus is not refused. Let me give you some examples here.

Here in Mark 5, 21 and 22, Jairus came to Jesus to plead for his daughter's life. So he fell down there and the implication is that he worshipped in his pleading. Another example would be in Mark 7, 25, the Syrophoenician woman. This is a Gentile. came to Jesus to plead for her daughter's release from a demon. So this is another instance, and she fell down.

In John 10.28, we read where Thomas, remember this is the one that doubted? He says, unless I see the marks, I don't believe this. He sees and believes, and he proclaims right there, my Lord and my God. In none of these instances do we read of Jesus refusing that worship. Now, we do, however, read of other instances of this refusal of worship, either by an angel or by a man. Acts 10, 25 and 26, here's Cornelius. Remember, this is the instance of the first Gentile converts. And here's Cornelius, and he comes up to Peter, and Peter immediately stands up.

I, too, am a man. I'm a man. Don't do this. This is not appropriate. So Peter refuses the worship. We see another instance in Acts 14, 11-15. Here's Paul and Barnabas, and here they are among a number of Greeks. And the Greeks are treating them, they're starting to carry out this procession and sacrifice and offering up to them as if they were some of the Greek gods. And they refuse it. They're absolutely distressed and distraught that this would happen.

We're going to read in a couple more chapters ahead here in Revelation 22, 8 and 9, John falls down again to worship an angel. This must have been some experience for him, huh? Trying to discern. Remember early on, one of the elders had to tell him to stop crying? Stop weeping! Here's John, and this is a phenomenal thing that he's experiencing, and now he falls down to worship an angel. He does it again. So it must have been real hard for him to sort out who's who. So we have this instance.

Here we would do well that the worship and focus upon angels in this last decade is completely refuted by what you see here. This movement towards people worshipping the angel, angel knick-knacks, angel TV shows, everything else. A real tendency to focus on these angels. And here what you see is the angel Though he is glorious, though he is impressive and awesome, the angel says, don't do it. Don't do it. I'm a fellow creature just like you. Worship is for the Lord. Worship is for the Lord. Any angel that doesn't refuse worship is not on God's side. Any angel that doesn't refuse worship is not on God's side.

Finally, the angel says that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Now this is an attempt to be spooky. He is saying that the very nature of prophecy is to testify of Jesus Christ, to give glory to His name and His person. You see that? The very nature of prophecy is to testify of Jesus Christ and give glory to Him. Prophecy in Scripture is given by inspiration of God through the Holy Spirit.

And we know from John 16, 13, and 14 that the Holy Spirit will not draw attention to Himself, but will draw direct our attention to Jesus Christ. Important significance there. The Holy Spirit's work is not to draw attention to Himself, but to direct our attention to Jesus Christ. That will be not some peripheral aspect, but central to the Holy Spirit's ministry.

Now, as we examine this passage, you and I both know that it is proper and fitting for a bride to look forward to her wedding and the celebration that accompanies it, right? That's an appropriate thing for a bride to do, to look forward to that time and that day. Now, just as the bride looks forward to that wedding and the celebration that goes along with it, it's fitting that we should be looking forward to our being joined with Christ the Lord and anticipating honoring Him in that wedding supper of the Lamb, to which all who believe in Christ will be joined with Him at that time. Do you look forward to that day and time?

I do. Meanwhile, we can behold Him through His Word. We have that privilege. Isn't that neat? We can behold Him through His Word already having been, to use the Jewish wedding analogy, we've been betrothed by His Father. The agreement's already been made. It's been set up. As the Bride is glorious, we grow from glory to glory as we behold Him. That's our preparation. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Our preparation. is beholding Him, and therefore growing from glory to glory. Let's pray. Lord, we give You thanks.

As we look at this passage, it's so marvelous, especially after looking at the chapter after chapter of so many horrendous things happening on earth, to look at this narrative passage and see how marvelous You are. This passage we looked at this morning not only involves us intricately and intimately, But, Lord, it focuses our attention upon You. And we give You thanks for that. And we thank You, Lord, that we can have so much to look forward to with no detraction, nothing to say, yes, but, or, oh, I wish. Lord, this will grip us and grasp our hearts fully. And, Lord, we look forward to that day. And until then, we look to You to grow us from glory to glory in preparation for that day. when we will celebrate that marriage supper of the Lamb. I just pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.