Now, we're going to be looking
at Revelation chapter 4. If you want to turn in your Bibles
there, Revelation chapter 4. The title of the message is,
Thou art worthy, O Lord. Thou art worthy. And that comes
from the last verse of this chapter, verse 11. Thou art worthy, O
Lord, to receive glory, and honor and power, for thou hast created
all things for thy pleasure. They are and were created. Now, every time we meet as a
body in the Church of Christ, we're met here really to do one
thing and one thing only, ultimately, and that is to worship the Lord. And to worship Him is to extol
Him, exalt Him, to lift Him up. And we pray within our hearts.
The Bible says that those who worship God acceptably worship
Him in spirit and in truth. And it actually says the Lord
seeketh such to worship Him. And so whatever text that I'm
on or choose, we're going to worship the Lord. But there are
times when we come to passages of scripture that are what I
call almost like a worship manual. These are texts that just ring
forth, not only with just the spirit of worship, but tell us
how we're to worship. And that's why I had Brother
David read that Psalm 29, that's what that is, that's a psalm
of worship. Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty,
give unto the Lord glory and strength, the glory due unto
His name. And I really thought about, in
line with our passage in Revelation 4, this is the second vision
that the Lord gives John, the apostle, concerning the last
days. And this second vision, beginning
in chapter 4 going all the way to chapter 7, is like a manual
of worship. You want to know how to worship
God? Here it is. And the last few verses that
Brother David read in that Psalm 29, it says in verse 9, the voice
of the Lord maketh His hinds to calve. Well, what is the voice
of the Lord? It's His gospel. It's His truth.
You can't worship the Lord without telling the truth. Telling the
truth on God, who He is, how holy and righteous and just,
as well as merciful and gracious, loving, telling the truth on
ourselves. What are we? We're nothing. Now
he says, give unto the Lord, O ye mighty. That sounds like
a bunch of strong people. But where is our strength? It's
not in ourselves. It's not in our numbers. It's
not in our bank account. It's in the Lord. He is our strength. By the grace of God, I am what
I am. And it says in verse 10, the
Lord sitteth upon the flood, yea, the Lord sitteth king forever.
We open up in Psalm 4, speaking about a door open in heaven,
the trumpet sounding, in verse 1, that's the clarion call, the
gospel call, come up, come up unto the Lord, come up here.
Who's He talking to? He's talking to His chosen people.
talking to those who are justified in Christ, those who are the
redeemed of the Lord and called out. He said, I'll show you things
which must be hereafter and they must be because He's on the throne. Verse two, and immediately I
was in the Spirit. We're taken, what that means
is that our minds and our hearts, our thoughts, our desires are
taken up from the things of the world to the things of God. Remember Colossians 3, set your
mind, your hearts on things above. That's what we're here to do
this morning. We're not here to talk about politics, economics,
the troubles of the world. Oh, there's troubles in the world.
There's a war going on now over in Israel. And we know God's
in control. He's on the throne. He didn't
turn His back and everybody catch Him by surprise. Immediately
I was in the Spirit. Behold, a throne was set in heaven
and one sat on the throne. This is Christ on His throne.
Christ representing the Godhead. Because in Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, Father, Son and Spirit. He's
on His throne. He's not down, as some of them
say, the banister of heaven, leaning over, just begging sinners
to accept Him. This is worship, seeing Christ
upon His throne, the sovereign of the universe. If you make
Him a beggar, you're not worshiping Him, you're putting Him at your
will, at your behest. And that's not what happens in
the Bible. thrown set in heaven. And it says there in that Psalm
29 that Brother David read, the Lord will give strength unto
His people. There's our might. If I'm mighty
in any way, it's certainly not in myself. I'm a weak, pitiful,
broken pot. We have a treasure. Oh, what
a treasure we have. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who
shall deliver me from this body of death? Might? You call that mighty? A mighty
person? Only as the Lord will give strength
unto His people. He's the one who gives me strength
to stand up here and preach the gospel. He's the one who gives
you strength to come here and sit there and listen. And it
says the Lord will bless His people with peace Peace between
God and sinners through the blood of Jesus Christ. Peace between
God and sinners through His righteousness imputed. Peace between God's
people because they're drawn together by that same grace that
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Verse three says, he that sat
was to look upon like jasper, that clear crystal gem that reflects
many colors, signifying His purity, His justice, like a sardine stone,
blood red, the blood of Christ. The blood of Jesus is our hope. My hope is built on Him. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood. There was a rainbow round about
the throne. That's the mercy of God. And
it had a green hue about it. That's life. You see that? This is symbolic language now. Don't paint this in a coloring
book or in a picture. That's not what it's about. This is about Christ and His
people. And He's on the throne. And He's the center of our worship.
He's the object of our worship. Verse four, round about the throne
were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats I saw four and
twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had
on their heads crowns of gold. That's the people of God. That's
the complete number of God's elect. No one missing. It's a multiple of twelve. Twelve
in the Bible is a symbol of God's complete, perfect government
of His people, His city, His kingdom, His church. Twelve patriarchs
in the Old Testament, twelve apostles in the New Testament,
put them together, they represent the whole number of God's chosen
people sitting around the throne. They're made a kingdom of priests
Because they have full right and title to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. And that's what this is. Clothed in white raiment. What
is that white raiment? That's the heart of the gospel.
That's the righteousness of their Savior. That's His righteousness
imputed to them. That's what that's all about.
I heard another man preach a message on this and he went through there
and he talked about the white raiment. He said it's the righteousness
of Christ. That's all he said. My friend,
that's the heart of the gospel. I can't leave it alone. And if
you get tired of hearing it, then it's just too bad. Because
I can't stop. This is our right and title to
be near that throne. Right there. That's the merits
of Christ imputed to us. And it said they had on their
head crowns of gold. That's the crown of righteousness,
the crown of life, the crown of glory. That was given to us. We didn't earn these crowns.
That's what grace is all about. That's why grace is so amazing.
Because we didn't earn it and we don't deserve it. Every blessing
of salvation is by the grace of God in Christ. Whatever blessing you have, you
didn't earn it and you didn't deserve it, it was freely given
to you. That's what the Holy Spirit teaches
God's people through the preaching of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 and verse 12, he says, the Spirit reveals to us that
which is freely given. People today, they think, well,
part of it's freely given, then part of it you earn. That's not
the case. Verse five, he says, out of the
throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. That's
the authority, the power, the effectual nature of the word
of God, which is sharp and powerful than any two edged sword. There
were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are
the seven spirits of God. I wrote an article for next week's
bulletin on the seven spirits. That's not seven different spirits.
That's one spirit who does a complete, full, perfect work. And that's what the number seven
stands for, a finished work. God created the world in six
days, and on the seventh day, He rested. It doesn't mean he
got tired and had to lay down. It means that he finished the
work. And that's what seven means, a finished work. The Sabbath
days, the Sabbath weeks, the Sabbath years of the Old Testament
had to do with resting. The people resting after they
finished their week's work, the people resting on a month or
after a year, letting the land rest even. Seven, a finished
work, a perfect work. And then the greatest seven of
all, Christ on the cross, accomplishing the work of redemption for his
people. And he said in John 19.30, it is finished. It's over. All the conditions of my salvation
were finished by Christ. on that cross and he gave up
the ghost, he died, he arose again the third day. Righteousness
was finished. All the righteousness God requires
of me, I find in Christ. I will be made righteous one
day within myself when I go to be with the Lord. But the only
reason that I will be existing in the glory of eternity is Christ's
righteousness imputed to me. Everything else is the fruit
and the result. Well, the Holy Spirit does a perfect work too.
He comes to us. He brings us under the gospel
where we hear the perfect gospel. There's no flaw in it. He gives
us life from Christ, the resurrected life of Christ. He indwells us. He preserves us. And when Christ
comes again, we'll be brought to glory. That's His perfect
work. Now look at verse 6. He says,
And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal. The sea of glass. I think I mentioned
this last week. In ancient times and in ancient
literature, the sea generally brought to mind trouble, storms,
mystery, darkness, fear, and death. The sea sometimes portrays
man's storm of rebellion against God. Over in Revelation 13, we
see a beast rise up out of the sea who leads men astray, speaking
blasphemy against God. But here, as we worship God,
as we see this view of the last days from the throne of God,
that's what we're seeing, Here's a sea of glass like under crystal. It's calm. It's smooth. It's pure. It's clear. There's no mystery about what's
underneath. It shows God in control, truly
working all things for his glory and the eternal good of his people.
It's a peaceful scene, isn't it? The Lord speaks peace to
his people. It's like the tapestry analogy. You remember the tapestry analogy?
When you look underneath a tapestry, you see a confused mixture of
various colors and threads. But when you view the tapestry
from the top, you see how all these threads come together to
make a clear, distinct, and beautiful pattern. That's what this sea
of glass is. Peace, peace, where there is
peace. You know, life on Earth in the
last days is full of trials. trouble, turmoil, but the heavenly
sea is tranquil and calm. It's clear. Christ is the one
who conquers and calms the sea. We read that when he was walking
on the water and Peter came out, when the ship was being overflowed
with a flood, he said, peace be still. We have one other reference to
the sea in Revelation 15, we'll get there, but it's mingled with
fire, and that's where God's people stand singing the song
of Moses in the land. And what does that mean? Mingled
with fire shows God's righteous wrath against all his enemies,
but it also shows the salvation of his people through the Lord
Jesus Christ, who took upon himself as our surety, our substitute,
and our redeemer, the wrath of God for us. Some commentators say this sea
of glass is a reference to the brazen labor filled with water
in the temple. You remember that? That water
where they had to wash, the priest had to wash. In 2 Kings 25 and
verse 13, that brazen labor is called the brazen sea. And you
know, it was a pretty big thing. It wasn't like an ocean, obviously,
but it was bigger than what most, it wasn't like a little sink.
It was a big labor. and it had water in it. They
called it the brazen sea that was in the house of the Lord.
And it typified being washed clean by the blood of Christ.
It could also refer to the washing of the water by the Word. Cleansed. Brought to faith in Christ. And
look here in verse 6, it said, And in the midst of the throne
and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before
and behind. These are four living creatures.
They're not four wild beasts. Later on, we're going to come
to four wild beasts. But here, these are four living
creatures with eyes before and behind. And these beasts, they
represent, I believe, mainly the gospel and even the ministers
of the gospel, willing, loving, bond slaves of Christ, spreading
the gospel of grace all over the world, north, south, east,
west. That's why there's four of them. Four is the number of
the earth, northeast, southwest. The four elements, water and
air and fire and earth. And it says here, these four
beasts, verse seven, the first beast was like a lion, the second
beast like a calf, and the third beast had the face of a man,
and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. What does that
describe? That's describing the message
that these beasts Preach, which is the fullness of Christ in
every avenue and every part of His nature as the Savior of His
people. And these eyes before and behind,
we see the past, we see the present, we see the future as God reveals
it to us. God has declared the end from
the beginning and He's told us how it all began. He told us
how it's all going on now. He's told us how it's all going
to end up. Now, we don't know the day and
the time, but we know it's going to end up for His glory and our
good. Do you believe that? All things
work together for good to them that are the called, them that
love God who are the called according to His purpose. And like the
sea of glass, they cover the whole earth with this message.
Preaching the gospel to God's chosen people out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation. Proclaiming the glory of Christ.
And think about this. If you preach Christ, think about
this. The first beast was like a lion. Well, who is the lion? Christ is the lion of the tribe
of Judah. You remember that? The gospel of Matthew emphasizes,
the lion is the king of the jungle. The Gospel of Matthew emphasizes
Christ, the King of the Jews. And understanding the full import
of that is knowing that the Jews is not the national Jews over
in Israel, but it's spiritual Jews who've been circumcised
in heart and ears. He's our King. He's on the throne. He's the ruler. The second beast
is like a calf, that's an ox. An ox was the strongest of the
beast. He was a beast of burden to serve.
Well, Christ is the strong, invincible servant of the Father, the servant
of the covenant, the servant of his people to redeem us from
our sins. And the Gospel of Mark actually
emphasizes the servanthood of Christ. And then the third beast
had the face of a man. Well, that's Christ in his humanity.
He's God manifest in the flesh. He's the God-man. Great is the
mystery of godliness. God manifests in the flesh. He
is the Word made flesh, dwelt among us. And the Gospel of Luke
emphasizes the Son of Man. his humanness without sin. For
verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took
on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made likened to his brethren, that he might be a
faithful and merciful high priest in things pertaining to God."
To do what? To make reconciliation for his
people. And then this fourth beast was
like a flying eagle. That emphasizes his deity and
his power, just like He bore Israel out of Egypt on wings
of eagles. This is God's work. This is the
powerful, sovereign work of the Lord. In the book of John, the
Gospel of John emphasizes the deity of Christ. In beginning
was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. He is
the Lord, our righteousness. The Gospel proclaims the righteousness
of who? Of God. because Christ is the
God man. Well, look at verse eight. It
says, and the four beasts had each of them six wings about
him. They were full of eyes within. And again, these eyes talk about
their knowledge, their view of things. You know, I often, when
I read different articles, a lot of them talk about the Christian
worldview. And most of them are talking
about what I call Christendom, which is false Christianity.
There's no truth there. It's a false Christ. But here's
your Christian worldview right here. They have eyes, full of
eyes within, and they rest day and night saying, holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. Now
there's your Christian worldview. How do we view this world? This
is a lost and dying world. But God has a people. all over
this world, out of every tribe, every tongue, every kindred,
every nation. And so he commands us to go into
all the world, preach the gospel, and tell sinners there's no hope
in this world. You can try to change the environment. You can buy an electric car.
You can do whatever you want. And I've often told people, and
don't get me wrong, I don't want to drink dirty water, and I don't
want to breathe dirty air. Let's be responsible. Let's be
clean people. But environmentalism is not going
to save this world. And man cannot save this world.
He didn't create it, and he cannot save it. It's marked for destruction. Where to live? according to God's
revealed will by way of commandment on this earth, we who believe.
We're to support and promote godliness in ourselves and morality
and responsibility in the world. But we know where it's headed. And it's a global warming, isn't
it? Because this world's going to burn up. Christ is coming
again. All of this, we examine all things
by the word of God. And rest not day and night crying,
holy, holy. Look at verse nine and he says,
and when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that
sat on the throne who liveth forever and ever, the four and
20 elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship
him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before
the throne. In other words, when that Gospel
is preached, when the Word of God is preached, the church cries
out in honor and glory and thanks to God. A big part of worship is just
saying, thank you, Lord, for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord,
for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to
me thy great salvation, so rich and so free. That's what our
obedience. People talk about living the
Christian life. Well, sure. There's no argument
there. How we should live. And living
the Christian life is living in gratitude, motivated by that
gratitude, by grace, and by love. It's not banging people over
the head with the law, telling them that if you don't straighten
up, you're going to hell, or you're going to lose your reward.
If the preaching you hear inspires you to act like that, you're
not hearing what these 4 and 20 elders are hearing. And somebody says, well, you
know, what you preach just doesn't motivate me enough. Well, I'm
sorry to hear that. Because I'll tell you right now,
if the grace of God in Jesus Christ is not enough to motivate
you to love God and love His people, to act right, to forgive,
to show mercy, to be obedient. If that's not enough, then you're
in poor shape. That's right. Grace is not just
a doctrine. Grace is a dynamic that God plants
within the heart of His people. I could easily stand up here
and say, now, look, y'all, you better come to church every day
the doors open or you're gonna burn in hell. That's a false
preacher. That's a false preacher. Somebody
asked me one time, well, what do you do if so-and-so claims
to be a Christian, he's out here doing this or she's out here
doing that? Well, what do you do? Well, you brought out the
black whip of the law and just beat him to death. No. No, you
just say brother or sister, you're not thanking the Lord. You're
not living like you should. But these four and 20 elders,
they fall down. You know what that is, that's
humility, that's submission. Fall down before the Lord. I
don't mean physically, I mean within our hearts. My hope is
in Christ on that throne, the Savior of my soul. He is the
Lord my righteousness. And they worship Him. They brag
on Him. God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it says, Him
that liveth forever and ever. And they cast their crowns. What
crowns we have? The crown of righteousness. It's
a crown He gave us. Cast that crown at His feet.
The crown of life. Cast that crown at His feet.
He is our life. The crown of glory. Cast that
crown at His feet. And here's what they say. Look
at verse 11. Thou art worthy, O Lord. Thou art worthy. Over in Revelation
5. we're going to see the song of
the redeemed, the song that they sing. And you know what the title
of that song is? Worthy is the lamb that was slain. Now, none of us here today in
ourselves are worthy in ourselves. But we have one who is worthy.
That means He is fit for the glory and honor that He deserves. That's what that means. Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, He deserves the honor and glory that we give
Him. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and
power. Why? For Thou hast created all
things. He's the Creator. Jeremiah put it this way, and
Paul, quoting Jeremiah, he said, he's the potter, we're the clay. And for thy pleasure, now that
means for his glory, for his satisfaction, they are and were
created. Now there's a Christian worldview.
It's all for his glory, it's all for his satisfaction, it's
all for him. Not for us. Man has been duped
by Satan and by his own deceitful heart into thinking that he's
the center of the universe. And that's trickled down into
religion, especially false Christianity. It's all about you. It's all
about me. It's what you do. It's what you
decide. Well, my friend, that's a bad
worldview. That's humanism. It's not all
about you and me, it's about Christ. It's about the Lord God
of this universe who created all things, by whom all things
consist, and for whom all things consist. That's what it's about.
That's what worship is all about. The glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Okay.