If you'll open your Bibles again
to the book of Revelation, we'll finish up a message we began
last week, a message entitled Heavenly Comfort for Saints on
Earth. Now, the saints need comforting.
In chapter 40, I believe it is, of the book of Isaiah, it is
written, Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, says the Lord.
And the Lord would not command our comfort were it not that
we needed it. We who believe God are not at
home in this world. We cannot find satisfaction here. I'm not saying that we are always
miserable. I'm not saying that we cannot
enjoy much of what goes on in this life. But if we have been
born again by the Spirit of God, there is a part of us which longs
for something that cannot be found here. And therefore, it is troubled
by the things that it sees, witnesses, and experiences here. Now, the book of Revelation is wildly misinterpreted, and
I don't say that by way of judgment on those who wildly misinterpret
it. I did, too. To Western eyes like ours, it's
a strange book full of wild symbols, wild images,
And if you try to make some kind of sense out of the visions that
are given, and try to do so by thinking that these are not symbolic,
but literal descriptions, well, you're going to run far afield.
of what this book has to say. Most people see it as a terrifying
book, and I guess to some they have every right to be terrified
if they understood what it was saying. There is nothing in this book
that cannot be found elsewhere in the scriptures. There's no
different message in the book of Revelation than there is from
way back to Genesis chapter one and all the way up to the beginning
of Revelation. It's saying the exact same things the rest of
the Bible is saying, it's just saying them in a different way.
Now I happen to be what they call a visual person. I and most
affected by what I see. And even in my mind, I'm often
thinking in visual terms. And that's why once I understood,
or I shouldn't say once I understood, once someone taught me how to
look at this book, it was a beauty to behold. Because it's full
of things to see. It said, It says in chapter four,
verse one, right at the end, come up here and I will show
you what must take place after this. The apostle says, we live
by faith, not by sight. Consequently, we understand that
the things that are described here are not a sight of things
that actually exist in the literal way we think of it. They are
symbolic things, but through these symbols, faith sees what
natural sight could never perceive. And the things which are shown
to John are not designed to terrify the church of God. They are designed
to bring comfort, and when we understand them, they will. In
the midst of all our troubles, whether they be persecutions
from the world, whether they be the troubles, the standard
troubles of life, whatever they may be, we find comfort in regard
to them by the things that were shown to John. Now, last week,
we got through three of these things, and I've got eight of
them, but let's just quickly mention these three. The first
thing he saw was a throne and someone sitting on it. And our
comfort arises from the fact that even though the world around
us looks chaotic and looks opposed to the things of God, and it
is opposed to the things of God, but it often looks like it's
winning, but it's not. In heaven, in the place of God's existence,
there's a throne, a sovereign throne. A throne that rules everything
that goes on in this universe. And there's somebody sitting
on it. And it's not the President of the United States. It's not
the King or Queen of England or anyone else. It is the one
who made this world. For they spoke of him that sits
upon the throne. In verse 11, it says, you are
worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.
You created all things. By your will, they were created
and have their being. And that isn't just talking about
that however long ago it was, he spoke the universe into existence. That's the beginning of it. But
it means also that everything that has gone on in this world
ever since then is the result of his decree, his purpose, all
of it. That means none of it's out of
his control. Therefore, if my hope is in the one who's on the
throne, then no matter what I see going on in this world, I can
say it's being ruled by one who is determined to save me. Therefore,
nothing contrary to my salvation can happen in this world. And then it says that, excuse
me, A vision here was given to John, a symbolic vision of a
powerful word from the fullness of God's omnipotent spirit. It speaks of the sounds of thunders,
the power of lightning, And it speaks of seven lamps that were
blazing. This is verse five, seven lamps
or sevenfold. Now, one thing to understand
about this vision he sees, it very much resembles the temple.
And the reason that it resembles the temple is that the temple
was designed to be an illustration of heaven. In particular, back there in
the Holy of Holies. was that Ark of the Covenant,
and it said that God was enthroned between the cherubim, that's
the two creatures on either side of that Ark of the Covenant. And therefore, the Holy of Holies
represents the heaven of heavens, the place of God's throne. And
in the holy place, which is the next place you'd end up if you
were in the Holy of Holies and then started going out of the
temple. You'd go into the room that was just called the Holy
Place, and in that room was the candlestick. And this candlestick,
they called it candlestick, it was actually more like what you'd
call a candelabra. It was a, we know it as a menorah. You know on Hanukkah, the Jews
light a menorah. And what it is is a, actually
it was just a thing that branched out, And then there was lamps,
olive oil lamps, on the tops of each one of those branches,
seven of them. And that was the only light in
there. They would light those things, and it was representative
of the light of truth, in particular, the light that is given to people
by the Spirit of God as he takes the things of Christ and shows
it to them. Seven being the number of perfection, we realize that
the Spirit of God gives us the perfect and full revelation of
Jesus Christ. And here it says He exists. He's there. He's there before
the throne broadcasting His light. We look to the world and we say,
this is an awfully dark place. And the world is a dark place,
but never fear, this light will never go out. The Spirit of God
will always be in the world, taking the things of Christ,
taking the light of Christ and revealing it, shining it into
the spiritual eyes of those to whom he has given spiritual light.
And you know something? You may think to yourself, it
just looks, particularly in the United States, like there's just
so much of ungodliness and so much darkness and so much false
religion welling up, it's going to snuff out the truth. No, it's
not. No, it's not. Remember, the world may be powerful. The spirit that rules this world
may be powerful, but he's nothing compared with the fullness of
the spirit of the omnipotent God. Now we preach. I realize I'm the one that does
the talking, but you all, you're members of this congregation,
you support this work, which enables me to be preaching, so
we're all preaching when I'm up here preaching. And yet we
say, look how few of us there are compared to other churches.
It looks like maybe this isn't working. Friends, it's working
perfectly. The light of the Spirit of God
is shining. The fact that most people don't
see it, is not ours to deal with. We simply speak it. And then we read of the four
and 20 elders, or 24 elders, a lot of this I remember from
the King James Version, it says four and 20 elders, 24 elders. And they are representative of
all believers through all the ages. represented in the 12 patriarchs
of Israel, and the 12 apostles of the church, joined into one
group. But all believers, from the beginning
of time, all the way to the end of time,
as we now experience, when the last of God's elect shall be
called to faith in Christ, all of them are joined into one body,
represented by these 24 elders, and they are dressed in white. Every one of them. What's that
indicate? That as they stand around the
throne of God and in the presence of God, they are without sin.
You say, preacher, I know me. Now I'm a believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ, but all what sin stains my garments. What sin
pollutes my person? And it cannot be that if I stand
before God that I look like anything but the rotten mess that I am.
Oh, if you went there dressed in your garments, you would look
a mess. But these garments, we are later shown in the book of
Revelation, it says that these garments were given them to wear. They didn't sew them up. They
didn't weave the fabric from which they were made. These are
the white garments of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, which
is given to us, as the book of Isaiah says, as a glorious robe
of salvation. And all your sin, which howls
in your conscience and tells you that in the end you will
be damned. Believer, you will not. In the presence of God,
you are dressed in white. there is no stain upon you. Do you believe that? Do you believe that when God
looks at you, he sees nothing but what delights him? If you're dressed in Christ Jesus,
when he looks at you, he sees Christ. And he said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And if he's well pleased
with Christ and you're in Christ, he's well pleased with you. And it says they have these white
robes, and then they have golden crowns, and these were not crowns
of authority, they were crowns of victory. You might think to
yourself, I know I profess faith, and so far, yeah, I'm still here, but I tell you,
sometimes I think I'm gonna quit. Sometimes I think that in the
end, I'll be lost. Sometimes I think that I just
wanna give up so bad. I wanna quit fighting, I wanna
quit struggling, You won't. You may want to. But the Lord Jesus Christ won
the victory. And the scripture says, thanks
be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
You say, I don't feel like I'm winning. Doesn't matter. Christ
won and he gives you his victory. and puts upon your head the crown
of his victory. When all is said and done, not
one of the 24 shall be missing. Later on, they're called the
144,000. Not one of them will be missing. Not any one of the thousands
and thousands and 10,000 times 10,000 will be missing. Our Lord
Jesus Christ said, this is the will of him who sent me that
of all that he has given me, I will lose nothing. And he won't. That's why your weakness is not
the issue. Your weakness will not present a problem to your
salvation because your victory is not dependent upon your strength.
Your victory is dependent upon Christ's victory, which by the
way is already done. It's finished. Now that's how
far we got last week. Let's see if we can't finish
these up. And just, child of God, just put these images in
your mind, that there are seven blazing torches representing
the Spirit of God. bringing truth into the world. And you've been given eyes to
see that truth and that light will never go out. You are victors
through Christ. Doesn't say you will be, you
are victors in Christ Jesus. And then it says that there is a Crystal sea. Let me find the right verse here.
Right, verse six. And before the throne there was
what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. Now remember
I told you that this is actually very much patterned after the
temple. Now when they made the tabernacle, which was the first
version of the temple, they had what was called the laver, and
when the priest would offer a sacrifice, he would go there and he would
wash his hands in it, and it was about the size of those little
basins of water that some churches use to sprinkle their infants.
That wasn't a very big thing at all. But then along came Solomon,
and he made a brazen, bronze dish so big they actually called
it the sea. I mean, Solomon didn't do anything
by halves, you know. And Solomon is a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ victorious and at peace. That's what his
word, his name means. Shalom, Solomon, man of peace. And so they had, at that first
temple, man, when the priests went to wash their hands, you
know, it was huge. Well, here in this vision of
heaven, it's not just a little labor. It's not just a great
big brass bowl. It is a sea, clear as crystal. Now it says that we are priests
unto our God, but we are priests that need to be washed. Here's
two things that I notice about this sea, or three things. It's
huge, and we'll wash many clean. Secondly, it's clear as crystal. Now, my dad would come home from
work. I'd often watch him get cleaned
up afterwards. I don't know why that fascinated
me, but I would stand there and he'd have his hands and he worked
in a steel fabrication plant and they were dirty. And he'd
fill up that sink with water and he'd soap it all up, you
know, and then put his hands in there. Now the water was clean,
but he put his hands in there. And once he put his hands in
there, it got full of all the filth that he washed off and
soap's gone. It was no longer clean water. But the sins of a multitude no
man can number have been cleansed in this sea and it is still crystal
clear. You see, this sea doesn't simply
wash us clean. It washes our sins out of existence. And it is not polluted by our
pollution. And here's another thing. It
says it's like glass. Now, when you talk about the
sea being like glass, what are you talking about? No waves. Flat. What's that mean? If you
have this sea in which many are washed and yet it's still, what's
that mean? All the washing's already been
done. The water is undisturbed. All the 24 elders are already
washed clean. and that process of washing them
is done, and there is no disturbance. Your sins, they'll come to your
mind, but they never come before the
throne of God. He looks at, he can, from his throne, can look
upon that sea, and it still is pure. as it was when it was created. And I realize we're talking symbolic
things here. And it's as pure as it was before you got dunked
in it and cleaned up in his sight. And he can't even see your filth
in the sea, much less in you. And then it says, In the middle of verse six, in
the center around the throne were four living creatures and
they were covered with eyes in front and in back. The first
living creature was like a lion and the second was like an ox.
The third was like the face of a man. The fourth was like a
flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures
had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under
his wings. Day and night, they never stopped
saying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and
is and is to come. Now, obviously, this is not describing
any literal creature. Actually, what it describes,
if you envision, it's kind of grotesque. An animal with four
faces and wings completely covered with eyes. If you saw something like that,
you'd probably expect the person to say, trick or treat. Obviously not speaking of something
literally real. What he is picturing here is
men sent by God to preach the gospel. You say, how do you get
that? Well, you get that from several
things. First of all, these things, these
creatures, are mentioned after it tells us about the sevenfold
Spirit of God in those lamps. And that light, since they're
right before the throne, they're going across that crystal, glass-like
sea. That light goes out over top
of that pure sea. And the result of it is the presence
of these men. And what are they doing? What
are they saying? the same thing every God-called
preacher says. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. Most people think
that the beginning of gospel preaching is God loves you. You
will not find anywhere in all of the preaching of the apostles
that they ever stood up before a group of people said to them,
God loves you. The Lord Jesus Christ said that
to his disciples, and when Paul or one of the other apostles
would write a letter to the churches, these were people who professed
to believe in to believe the gospel, he would say to them,
speak to them of God's love for them, but never was there just
a general declaration of the love of God. Rather, there is
a general declaration of the essential character of God as
holy, and it says it not once, not twice, but three times. You
say, why three times? Some believe that it's three
times because God is a trinity. I don't know. But I know this, whenever I try
to tell my kids something, I often had to say it two, three times
before they got it. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. What does it mean when you say
God is holy? Well, the word essentially means
set apart. Well, what does God set apart from? Well, us for
one thing. He's not like us. Men go astray. No wonder they have such foolish
versions of religion. They think God is just kind of
a big version of us. No, that's not how it is. He exists outside of space and
time. That's why he called himself
the I Am. Now right here, it puts it within a time frame,
who was and is and is to come. That's one way to describe it.
But when God revealed himself to Moses, Moses said, who are
you? And he said, I am. That's who I am. We really never have to apply
past tense or future tense to God. He just is. As brother Tim
James called him, he is the eternal isness. I like the way the Lord put it,
and this was one way that he declared rather plainly that
he is the God of scriptures. He said, Abraham, rejoice to
see my day. And they looked at him and said,
you aren't yet 50 years old. How did Abraham see you? And
he goes, he didn't say before Abraham was. was I was, he said,
before Abraham was, I am. You say, that doesn't make good
grammatical sense. Well, you can't make good grammatical sense
and describe God. But we declare, we, those called
to preach, everything they say bears some connection to this
truth about God, of His holiness, that He is so far above us that
we cannot conceive of the kind of being He is. Not only that,
He is altogether separate from unrighteousness. Sin. Now He's not separate from unrighteousness
simply because he's determined that he would never do unrighteousness. He is utterly separate from unrighteousness
because he is the very definition of righteousness. A thing, God doesn't do a thing
because it's righteous. It's righteous because God does
it. And when our God came to us in
the person of Jesus Christ, it says of Him that He did no sin. In Him is no sin. He knew no
sin. Holy. He's pure. The Old Testament says of Him,
you are of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. You say, well, that doesn't sound
like a comforting message. Well, if that's all there was
to say, It wouldn't be very comforting. That's the foundation of the
message of all preachers. The gospel we believe is the gospel and is as it is
because God is holy. Actually, when I was in the study
this morning, I was reading about this woman who was raised in
that Westboro Baptist Church. You remember them? They were
the ones that went around with the God hates fags signs during the
early times of the war. And it was horrible. And I'm not saying that, I'm
not trying to act like God accepts homosexuality or anything like
that. It's just that they were just being horrible to people.
Well, this woman got out of that church, but essentially she got
out of church altogether. She's the granddaughter of the
man that started that church. And they asked her about atonement.
And she says, there is no atonement because there's no need of one. But then she'd already professed
she doesn't really believe in a God either. Well, of course,
if there's no God, there's no need for an atonement. But if
this God exists, there's a need for an atonement. And there's
a need for a kind of atonement that neither you or I can provide.
How would we ever be able to satisfy the demands of a God
like this? The reason we believe that Jesus
Christ died on the cross, not simply as a demonstration of
love, it was that. But that was not its primary
function. Its primary function was to satisfy the righteous
indignation of a God so holy that just calling him holy once
isn't going to cover it. God coming into this world of
space and time, where in space and time we have sinned, and
in space and time in experiencing within himself all that a holy
God like this could do to those who bear sin. People say, well, the gospel,
I mean, the atonement, you know, a bloody death sacrifice, that's
just primitive religion. Call it what you want, it's the
religion of a holy God. And they're right, it's primitive
religion. Primitive coming from the word
prime, meaning first. This is the first religion. Do
you know what Jesus Christ is called in this book? The lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Before the world was,
there was a lamb slain. And what happened a couple of
thousand years ago was simply that eternal reality occurring
in space and time. I'll be going to Africa here,
Lord willing, first part of December. And it's going through my mind,
what am I going to preach to these people? I don't know them. I don't know
what they believe. They claim to be Christians.
This is what I'm going to preach to them. Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord God Almighty. Start there. Make people realize
what kind of God they have to deal with, and when they understand
what God is like, they will be like Job and say, how can a man
be just with God? How can a man be righteous in
the sight of a God like that? It said, whenever these living
creatures give glory, honor, and thanks
to him who sits on the throne and lives forever. The 24 elders
fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him
who lives forever. Whenever preachers go out and
declare this message, do you know what happens? The
church of God, the church of God falls down before God. who sits on the throne, the sovereign
God, and they worship Him. You know why what's called worship
in most churches today doesn't really look anything like worship
at all? Because the God they claim to worship doesn't look
like a God at all. People don't worship something
they control. How often I was told, God wants
to save you, but you won't let him. How can you worship a God
like that? Well, you know, that devil did this and God couldn't
stop it. How can you worship a God like
that? You worship a God that sits on
the throne. A God who is so holy that you cannot and you dare
not approach to him in yourself. Wonder of wonders, and here I
am, I'm one of these four-faced creatures with eyes all over.
And I go out and I declare to you, holy, holy, in one fashion
or another, I'm declaring to you, holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God Almighty. And you know what you do? In
your heart, you fall down and you worship him who sits on the
throne. Now, why is this a comfort to
us? Well, you look around, you say it looks like the church
is withering up. Looks like things aren't working out. Well, if
you look at every group that calls itself a church, you might
think that it's not working. But know this. God always has his preachers
in the world. And they're covered with eyes, indicating their perception
of things. But it said they had eyes on
the top of the wings and under the wings. And that is, they've
got an eye toward God, and they've got an eye toward the congregation.
They see of God what they're capable of seeing. And they see
the people and their need. And they care for them. There
are four faces. It says, that the first living
creature was a lion. Everybody sent of God to preach
is bold like a lion. They'll tell the truth whether
people want to hear it or not. You find somebody, they'll change
their message to avoid persecution. He's not been sent from God. Second was like an ox, they labor. Men sent by God to preach work
at what they do. I'm not the kind of guy that
sits a long time at a desk. That's just not the way I do
it. But you know something? Almost all the time, the truth of God
and you, the people of God, are on my mind. And it's rolling
around in there. And I'm thinking about what God
has said and what that means and how to deliver that to you. It's just kind of all the time
running in the background, if not running in the forefront.
God's ministers work. Instead I had the face of a man.
Here I am. Someone you can relate to. You know why I know what you
need? Because I know what I need. And you and I need the same thing. And then it said it had the face
of an eagle. And eagles, well, they've been represented several things, many
things over the years, but one of the things that eagles have
always characterized was a noble strength. Now, we who preach
would not give ourselves virtuous titles and characteristics. Because
we know what we are by nature. This is what they are by grace.
They have a strength, and you know the eagle's a bird of prey.
And the eagle will protect its own. They are, as much as they
can be, like the Lord Jesus Christ in his fierce And that's the
right way to put it, his fierce love for his people and a willingness
to do whatever it takes to protect them. You say, well, I just don't,
I don't see any preachers coming up. They'll be there when they're
needed. Here people say, well, you know what the church needs
is more preachers. No, she's got exactly the amount she needs of exactly
the character she needs. For the Lord who sits on the
throne will not allow that his people lack any good thing. And when these preachers preach,
notice this. These 24 elders, they worship
him who lives forever. We're at the end of verse 10.
They lay their crowns before the throne. Why? Remember, these are crowns
of victory. They lay those crowns before
the throne because that's where the crowns came from. And that's
the one who actually won the crown to begin with. They say,
yes. We have won the victory. But
really, it was your victory and the crown belongs to you. You
don't find boasting among the people of God when the truth
of God is being preached to them by men of God sent to preach
the word of God. They're not gonna tell you about
all the good things they've done. No, all glory to him. Now, all of this was good and
wonderful. But it says then in chapter 5,
verse 1, that I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne
a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals.
And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, who is worthy
to break the seals and open the scroll? But no one in heaven
or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even
look inside. I wept and wept because no one
was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then
one of the elders said to me, do not weep. See the line of
the tribe of Judah, the root of David has triumphed. He is
able to open the scroll and its seven seals. Now, in all of chapter
four, we saw some wonderful things to behold. But then John saw
this scroll in the hand of him who sits on the throne. This
is the living God. I don't realize Christ is the
living God, but But this is God, as Henry used to say, absolutely
considered. And he holds in his hand a scroll with writing on both sides, filled
up and sealed with seven seals. Now John must have understood
what that scroll was about. Because those seals prevented
it from being opened. And there was nobody found that
was worthy to open those seals and bring to pass what was written
on them. He saw the 24 elders. He saw the crystal sea. He saw
the sevenfold Spirit of God shining out the light. He saw the four
living creatures. But it didn't make sense. Because
he knew what they represented. And there's no way that a holy
God, if this is all there's known about him, there's no way that
a holy God could bring about the salvation
of anybody under the circumstances that are mentioned in chapter
four. Because you see, up to this point,
there's no reference to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. A holy
God cannot be good to a people apart from a sacrifice. What
is on this scroll? This scroll written on the front
and the back is the scroll of God's everlasting purpose to
save a people. And it contains within it everything
that ever happened or will happen in this world. In particular,
it contains a record of all that God will do to bring those 24
elders to a condition dressed in white, wearing a golden crown. It tells how it shall be that
there is a light to shine into the world. It will describe how
it is that there is a sea in which sinners are washed clean.
And it will tell how it is that preachers can go out with a message
of the holiness of God, and yet it result in praise and worship
to God and humility on the part of those who worship. How can
this happen? And he began to weep. And then
one of the elders said, here's one of the members of God's church
telling the apostle John, don't weep. Don't weep. Look, the line of the tribe of
Judah, the root of David has triumphed. How did I get this
golden crown on my head? Right here. Wasn't me that triumphed,
it was him. And it was no pansy that triumphed,
it was a lion. And he said the tribe of Judah,
that means he's the king. And he's triumphed. And he is
able to open the seals. What's it say? He, the book of
Hebrews put it this way. He is able to save to the uttermost
them who come to God by him. That's what it's saying. He can
open up those seals. He can bring all this to pass. Obviously, there's going to be
a part three, but let me sum it quickly if I can. I don't
know that I've ever done anything quickly in the pulpit, but I'll
see what I can get done. Brethren, You look at the world
and things look out of control. You look at yourself and you're
going to say, how could anybody like me ever be saved? How can
anyone like me be considered victorious and righteous? Here's
how. There is a lion and he has triumphed. And how
did he triumph? Just the next verse, verse six. Then I saw a lamb. He was told
about a lion, but he turned around and looked at the lion, and what
did he see? A lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing
in the center of the throne. Now by the throne, they didn't
mean just the chair. They meant the whole dais, I
think is how it's pronounced, the whole elevated platform upon
which a throne would be set. And there is a throne with God
on it. There is a platform with a chair-type
throne, and God's in it. And yet there's one standing
right in the center of that platform. And he is nothing or no one other
than our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God slain from the foundation
of the earth in the line of the tribe of Judah. And in being
slain, he purified ourselves from sin, that there's no obstacle
between us and God. And in being the lion of the
tribe of Judah, he saves us from every enemy we have on this earth.
And if you are in Christ, if Jesus Christ is your hope, if
Jesus Christ is your savior, there is literally nothing in
heaven, earth, or hell that can ever bring you any harm. You say, I'm sick. It ain't going
to hurt you. It might be painful, might be
sorrowful, but it will not harm you. I'm old. I'm old. That's all right. Your old age
is not going to harm you. After all, it's the Ancient of
Days that's your savior. He's older than you are. And
yet he has the dew of youth, the scriptures say. He said, I've lost so much. You
haven't lost him, and he hasn't lost you. I'm so sad. It's the way it is
in this world. Lots of things to be sad about. But the things you are rightly
sad about shall someday disappear. And you shall appear in his presence
dressed in white. with a golden crown of victory. And there shall be no curse and
no death, no sorrowing, no crying. For all the former things will
be passed away. And behold, all things will be
new. When I'm back in a couple of
weeks, we're going to pick up, because I can't leave any of
this out. Aaron?