Well, the assignment that has
been given to me for this session is to preach on Trinitarian worship,
which is a lot to get your arms around, and I hope you'll not
be disappointed because in order to do that, I would have to cover
more territory than I have time allotted. And so, what I want
to do is focus upon worship at its best. worship that is in
heaven, that is, as it is found in Revelation chapter 4, as it
is focused upon God the Father. So, if you have your Bibles,
and I'm sure that you do, if you would take your Bibles and
turn with me to the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 4. I want
to begin reading… I want to begin by reading the first eight verses
of this text, and I think that you'll see why I have selected
this text for this session at this time. to direct our thoughts
in the worship that most pleases God. And ultimately, that is
the issue. It's not the issue that pleases
us. It is not the worship that will
attract the world. It is the worship that is most
pleasing to God. That is our desire. And so in
Revelation chapter 4, I want to begin reading in verse 1,
and I want to set the text before you that we will be considering
in this session. We talked last night about biblical
preaching. You read the text, you explain
the text, you apply the text. So let me begin by reading the
text. After these things I looked,
and behold, a door was standing open in heaven. And the first
voice which I heard, like the sound of a trumpet, speaking
with me, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must
take place after these things. Immediately I was in the Spirit. And behold, a throne was standing
in heaven, and one sitting on the throne. And he who was sitting
was like a jasper stone, and a sardius in appearance, and
there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne were twenty-four
thrones, and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting,
clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads.
Out from the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds and peals
of thunder. And there were seven lamps of
fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of
God. And before the throne, there
was something like a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the center
and around the throne, four living creatures. full of eyes in front
and behind. The first creature was like a
lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature
had a face like that of a man. And the fourth creature was like
a flying eagle. And the four living creatures,
each one of them having six wings are full of eyes around and within,
and day and night they do not cease to say, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God the Almighty, who was and who is and who is
to come. A new way of doing church has
emerged across the country. one that is virtually unprecedented
in the history of the church. It is a new way that is taking
its cues from the world. The goal seems to be to make
Sunday morning, the gathering of the church, as much like the
world as possible. This radical paradigm shift has
come about with the goal in mind of attracting the world. So whatever
we'll make An unconverted attender most comfortable in church is
what the worship service is designed to do. A new atmosphere is desired. A new ambiance is designed. The idea now is to be comfortable
in worship, to be casual, to be laid back, to be kicked back. The goal is to be cool and cutting
edge, certainly not timeless and transcendent. The emphasis
is no longer upon reverence, but upon being relaxed. Now, the music has changed too,
and it's either very soft and soothing or so jamming and jiving
that the words are virtually unintelligible. All too often,
the preaching is different as well. No longer is expositional
preaching the goal. Instead, the preacher wants to
be trendy, light, chatty, brief, felt-need oriented. He desires
to be far more therapeutic than theological. And the dress is
different too. And rather than coming to church
as though you were having an audience with the king, now the
desire to be is… it seems to be as sloppy as possible. And the desire is to look as
though you just fell out of bed. In order to have an audience
with yourself, the infinite has been replaced with the informal.
Exposition has been replaced with entertainment. The vertical
has been replaced with the horizontal. The transcendent with the trendy
and trivial. Doctrine has been replaced with
drama. And all of this is to remove
the barriers between the church and the world, and to make the
church as attractive to the world as it can possibly be. And that
is to become like the world in order to win the world. But there
is an utter bankruptcy to this approach. Rather than looking
around at the world in order to fashion our worship service,
the church is looking in the wrong direction. The church needs
to be looking up to heaven, where the best worship is, where God
has designed the worship service in heaven. And our worship on
the earth needs to be but a little slice of heaven. It needs to
be a foretaste of heaven. Our worship upon the earth needs
to be as much like the worship of heaven as it can possibly
be. R.C. Sproul has written a book
entitled A Taste of Heaven, and it is a book about worship. And
in this book, Sproul argues convincingly that all worship on the earth
should be anticipatory of heaven and should be a foretaste of
heaven in which the worshiper has some sense that I have already
tasted of heaven long before I go to heaven, and that the
worship here upon the earth would be in some way to prepare me
for the very worship of heaven itself. Spurl then asks this
question, if God Himself were to design worship, what would
it look like? The answer to that question is
found in Revelation chapter 4. The answer to that question is
found in the Word of God. And so this morning, I want us
to look into this text of Scripture, into the most perfect worship
service that there is, this one which is designed by God. And
I want us to note what are its distinctives, what is its tone,
what is its feel. And in order to look at this
section, I want to begin by setting the stage. I want us to look
at verse 1 just for a moment, just to set the stage. after
these things," referring to after the vision of Christ on Patmos
in chapter 1, and after the seven letters to the seven churches
in chapters 2 and 3, after these things, I looked, and behold,
a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard,
like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, Come up here,
and I will show you what must take place after these things."
And the Apostle John has been on the island of Patmos when
suddenly he is in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And he is
now commanded by Christ Himself to come up to heaven, and as
the Apostle John does, he steps into a worship service, a worship
service that is already going on. And what does John experience? What does John see? What does
John hear? What does John feel? I want to set several distinctives
before you from this text. and submit to you that our worship
services upon the earth must bear the mark of these five distinctives. Distinctive number one, a high view of God. A high view of God in verses
2 through As John stepped into heaven, he stepped into this
worship service that is already in progress. And first and foremost,
it was designed to convey and to communicate the exaltation
and the magnification of God Himself. Verse 2, immediately. In other words, this struck John
instantly as he stepped into this service. He knows he's in
another world. He knows that he is in another
place. Immediately, I was in the Spirit,
and behold, a throne. The first thing that struck John
about heaven was not who is there and who is not there. The first
thing that struck John was not to have a Q&A to have all of
his questions answered. And the first thing that struck
John was not the streets of gold or the gates of pearl. The first
note that struck John is a throne. The throne is represents the
absolute sovereignty of Almighty God. This throne that is towering
over all of human history, this tower, this throne that is over
every human life, and that is over every human destiny, it
is this throne that immediately grabs John's attention. His focus
is instantly dominated by an awareness of the supreme authority
and absolute sovereignty of God. That is the dominant theme of
heaven, and that is the dominant theme of this worship service. And John needs to be reminded
of this, because down here on the earth, The Apostle John has
been suffering exile and suffering persecution, and it would appear
at this moment in history that Caesar of Rome is ruling and
reigning over history's darkest hour. It would have appeared
from John's earthly perspective that the enemies of the gospel
were ruling, and that circumstances were ruling, and that man and
devils were ruling. But upon stepping into this worship
service, there is an immediate change of perspective. And what
John sees is that it is not Caesar, it is not Satan, it is not man,
it is not circumstances, it is not any fictitious myth of good
luck or chance or fate, but that there is a throne in heaven. And the one who is seated upon
this throne is ruling and reigning. He says the throne was standing
in heaven. That it is standing means that
it is fixed. It is bolted to the floor. It
is permanent. It is unshakable. It is immovable. It is unchanging. It is unswayed
by human leaders. It is unaltered by human events. It is standing. Caesars come
and they go, but this throne remains standing. Human history
ebbs and flows, but this throne remains fixed, towering over
all of the universe. And then John records A throne
was standing in heaven, and one sitting on the throne. This throne is occupied. It is
not a vacated throne. It is not an empty throne. God
has permanently assumed this posture of sitting upon the throne,
and the throne will never be abdicated. God is presiding,
and God is ruling, and God is reigning every moment of every
day, and this dominates the inner sanctum of heaven. In fact, everything
in heaven in this chapter is viewed in its relationship to
the throne. In verse 2, he notes the one
on the throne. In verse 4, he notes those who
are around the throne. In verse 5, that which is proceeding
from the throne. In verse 6, that which is before
the throne. In verse 6, that which is in
and around the throne. In verse 9, it is that which
is to the throne. In verse 10, it is that which
is before the throne. Everything in heaven is measured
by its proximity to the throne, whether it is above the throne,
below the throne, around the throne, next to the throne. The
throne is the epicenter of all that there is. And it is God
who is upon this throne. The Apostle John does not name
who this One is who is on the throne. He does not need to because
it is so blatantly obvious. It is none other than the sovereign
God of heaven and earth, the One who but speaks and it is
done, the One who acts and it holds fast, the One who wills
and it is done." And verse 3, something of His
glory, something of His radiant, shining glory is bursting forth
inside this throne room. And He who is sitting was like
a jasper stone that speaks of the crystal clear diamond, speaks
of His purity, speaks of His holiness, speaks of His glory. And there is a shining forth
of the radiant glory of God that is bursting forth from this jasper
stone, and a sardius in appearance, comforting, beautiful, beautiful
in His holiness. And there was a rainbow around
the throne, no doubt representing His covenant faithfulness to
His people. And there was an emerald in appearance.
all of the beauty of these valuable stones representing something
of the perfections and the attributes and the character and the being
and the glory and the majesty of Almighty God as John is staring
into this throne room. It speaks of the regal and royal
majesty of God, His stately splendor. It is a vivid display of His
awesome glory. Whenever anyone enters into our
worship services, they should not be struck with the horizontal. They should be struck with the
vertical. They should not be struck with our adaptability
to the world. They should be struck with our
identity with Almighty God and this throne and the One who is
seated upon this throne, the One who is ruling and reigning
over all of history. In verse 4, around the throne
were twenty-four thrones. These are lesser thrones, under
the direction of the one great central throne of God. These
are, if you will, appellate thrones. These are subordinate thrones. They possess a delegated authority
to rule and reign with God, but under God. And we read that upon
these thrones are the twenty-four elders representing the redeemed
of the saints from all of the ages, perhaps twelve elders of
Old Testament saints and twelve elders of New Testament saints,
but no doubt representing all of the redeemed of all of the
ages, the one people of God and these elders presiding under
the supreme authority of God. They are clothed in white garments. It matters how they are dressed.
These garments represent the perfect righteousness of Christ
imputed to them in the act of justification. They stand faultless
and blameless before the very throne of God, not due to their
own works of righteousness, but because of the perfect righteousness
of Him who lived a sinless and perfect life and bore our sins
upon Calvary's cross, and golden crowns on their heads. It's the victor's crown, rewarded
to those who have persevered in ministry and in life. And
there is this note of triumph. There is this note of victory
in this worship service. as these who now share in the
righteousness of Christ share in His victory and share in the
triumph of His glorious exaltation. No, there is no sense of defeat
in this worship service, but simply the magnification of the
supreme will of God and the glory of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is at the very forefront
of a God-centered worship service. It is throne-centered. It is
sovereignty-centered. This is what people should sense
and feel as they enter into our worship services, that I have
left the world behind, and I have stepped into another world. I have stepped into the world
to come. Heaven has come down, and I have
stepped into the presence of the King. There should be this overriding
sense of the towering transcendence of God over us and His supreme
sovereignty. Now, in order for this to happen, we must be going down deep into
the Word of God if we are to be lifted up to the heights of
heaven. It is the depth of our worship
service in the ministry of the Word that will determine the
height of our worship. And if we are superficial in
the ministry of the Word of God, then our worship of God will
be equally superficial. But only as there is a depth
in our digging down into the Word of God, it is our depth
that will determine our height. John MacArthur has told me I
can walk into a church where I am to preach, and I can tell
you within five minutes of listening to the music what is the level
of commitment to the ministry of the Word of God in this church. and where there is faithful teaching
and preaching of the Word of God that goes down into the deep
veins of the sovereign grace of God and mined out of the glorious
reservoirs of Scripture, then the people rise up to the heights
of heaven's throne and bless His name. But when man is the
preoccupation, when the world is being courted, when we have
such a low ceiling in the ministry of the Word of God, then the
worship of God is very low. As we step into the worship service
of God, there must be this sense. that we have left the realm where
Satan reigns, where sin reigns, where demons reign, and we have
entered into the heavenly realm where God alone reigns. Do you feel this as you walk
into your worship service? This high view of God, this towering
view of God, when you are alone with God and you have an open
Bible, and you come before the Lord, is this the sense that
you have? That I am entering into the throne
room of God, and I am coming before the One who is seated
upon this throne through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and
I now have an audience with the King of kings and the Lord of
lords. that I need to sit up straight,
that I need to pay attention, that I need to lean forward,
that I need to humble myself, that I need to look upward into
the heights of heaven. This is the first distinctive
of this worship service, a high view of God. And may I say to
you, you cannot have too high of a view of God. And you will
never outpunch your coverage in this. Behold your God. Now, second,
there needs to be a deep fear of God, a high view of God, and
a deep fear of God. And it is the high view of God
that produces the deep fear of God. And so we read now in verse
5, and please note the tone of this worship service. It is one
that is marked by reverence and awe. There is a sense of shock
and awe about this worship service. This is not like you're stepping
into Starbucks and hearing a little mood music in the background. suddenly the one in this scene
is gripped with the awesome reality of entering into the presence
of Almighty God, and there is a deep fear of God. Notice verse 5, out from the
throne, meaning proceeding out of the very character and being
of God, come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. There is nothing soft and gentle
about this scene. Here are flashes of lightning
and peals of thunder and lamps of fire from this throne. Here is the thundering, fiery
presence of God totally controlling John's attention. The tone is
strong. It is masculine. It is dominant. This is intended to reflect the
supreme authority of God. There is no one going up to the
throne and high-fiving God. There is no one casual with God
in this setting. There is no one trying to be
cool, not with this lightning and thunder proceeding from the
throne of God. This is intended to do something
to the worshiper, and it is intended to instill a healthy, holy, reverential
awe and fear of Almighty God. This tone is dominant. It is riveting. It is commanding. It is compelling. how unlike
so many worship services today, where it seems that the goal
in today's setting is intended to do everything it can to remove
the fear of God. Everything is to be casual and
comfy and sweet and sappy and syrupy. And as John MacArthur
says, and I agree, we are suffering from the feminization of the
church. Men are to be men and women are
to be women, but the scene has become far too soft and cuddly,
but not in this worship service, not in this scene. It strikes
a note of sobriety and seriousness in the heart of those who are
there. It is attention-grabbing. It
is arresting. It is not toned down to make
people feel comfortable. It is thunderous, and it is intended
to convey the awesomeness of Almighty God. Proverbs 1 verse
7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
and so it is in the beginning of worship. Psalm 2 verse 11
says, worship the Lord with reverence and rejoicing with trembling. Psalm 5 verse 7 says, at your
holy temple I will bow in reverence before you. That is to say, the
worshiper is to take God very seriously and to realize that
I am standing on His earth, I am breathing His air, I am drinking
His water, and I am living the defined parameters of a lifespan
that He has set before me. there is this deep fear and reverence
for God. We are a generation that has
lost this sense of the fear of God. Do you see yourself growing
in the fear of God? At the end of the book of Ecclesiastes,
he says, this is the entire matter. Fear God and keep His commandments. It's not just the beginning of
wisdom, it's the end of wisdom and everything in between. We
should be growing in our reverential respect and honor for God as
we grow in His grace. a distinct separation from God. In verses 6 through 8, what is
conveyed to us by John as he has stepped into this worship
service is that even in heaven, God alone remains God, and even
we as glorified saints remain but glorified creatures, and
that there is a vast expanse, a sea of glass that still sets
off God from His creatures. in verse 6. And before the throne, there
was something like a sea of glass, like crystal, this vast expanse
separating God from the redeemed saints. The Scripture says, we
shall behold His face. The Scripture says that we will
sit on the throne with Christ and rule and reign with Him.
But this text also says that there will be forever this sea
of glass-like crystal between God and us. This sea of glass
shining brilliantly, sparkling brightly. And when we come to
the end of Revelation 21, we read that there is no more sun,
and there is no reason for the sun because of the bright shining
glory of God Himself and the effulgence of His divine perfections
will illuminate and light up the entire universe. And it will
be refracted and shining through this sea of glass, magnifying
its brilliance. And as we stand in the presence
of the Lord, He will be shining brighter than ten thousand suns
before us. And in that day, in our glorified
body that will be perfectly adapted for our new heavenly home, we
will be in a glorified body that will be able to look upon His
face, the beatific vision. and honor and glorify Him. And
verse 6 says, and in the center and around the throne, meaning
at each corner of the throne. Again, I would draw to your attention
that everything is defined by the throne. That is the epicenter of the universe that God has
created. And in the center and around the throne, four living
creatures, literally in the Greek, four living ones. And these four
living ones, I think, are cherubim. Ezekiel 10 verse 15 identifies
them as cherubim, an exalted order of angelic beings whose
primary responsibility are to be guardians of the glory of
God. In Genesis 3 verse 24, these
cherubim were positioned at the entrance to the Garden of Eden,
keeping Adam and Eve from returning. In 1 Kings 6 verse 23 and 28,
there are two carved cherubim placed in the Holy of Holies,
symbolically representing their guardianship of God's holiness. And in Ezekiel 28, 14, and 16,
we read that Satan was once the anointed cherub, that one which
was closest to the throne of God. No one approaches the throne
in any attempted coup or takeover but that they would have to pass
through these cherubim. I believe it's merely symbolic
and representative for who could remove God from His throne. But
it is there as a visual reminder to us that God is set apart and
that God is separated even from His glorified creatures. We read
in verse 6, they are full of eyes in front and behind. That
is their constant surveillance, looking in every direction, seeing
in front and behind and all sides. No one is allowed to approach
the throne without their awareness. They are in constant vigil. They
are alert. They are awake. And in verse 7, the first creature
was like a lion, the second like a calf, the third like a man,
the fourth like an eagle, certainly reflecting what Ezekiel saw in
Ezekiel 1, like a lion, strong in serving God, a calf, sacrificial
in its service, like a man, smart, reasoning, brilliant in service
for God, like an eagle, swift to fly off to carry out the master's
bidding. And the four living creatures,
verse 8, each one of them having six wings, no doubt drawn from
Isaiah chapter 6, and the seraphim also having six wings. We read
there, with two to cover their face, unable that close to the
throne of God to gaze upon His blinding glory with two wings
covering their eyes, with two covering their feet. a sense
of their utter unworthiness to be in the presence of One who
is so infinitely holy, and with two wings they flew, ready to
dart off into the universe to carry out the will of the One
upon the throne. It certainly says something about
how we are to be as well in our service of God, ready to go serve
the Lord, a sense of our own unworthiness in ourself, but
strong and sacrificial in our commitment to this God. And we read, and day and night,
day and night, day and night, at the end of verse 8, They do
not cease to say. They have this lifestyle of worship,
this continuous, ongoing commitment and focus towards God. They are
crying out, holy." The same threefold repetition
that we read in Isaiah chapter 6 and verse 3, this epiphany
of praise back and forth, volleying back and forth from both sides
of the throne to the other, holy, holy, holy. This attribute being
the only attribute singled out in the worship of God, the holiness
of God, the summation of all that God is. all of His perfections
and all of His divine attributes, the wholeness of God in His holiness. It speaks of His utter and complete
separation from His creation, that He is a cut above us. that
He is majestic and transcendent and high and lifted up, set apart
from all evil without any moral blemish of sin. All of His ways
are perfect. All of His words are perfect.
All of His works are perfect. All of His judgments are perfect,
never erring, repeated three times to indicate the superlative
degree. holy, holier, holiest, God completely
distinct from all other beings, and completely and utterly sinless
and pure, separate, separate, separate, sinless, sinless, sinless. This is to be the sense. This
is the air that we are to breathe in the worship service, that
we are like Moses before the burning bush, and we now stand
on holy ground. 1 Samuel 2, verse 2, there is
no one holy like the Lord. Exodus 15, 11, God alone is majestic
in holiness. Habakkuk 1, verse 13, his eyes
are too pure to approve evil, and he cannot look on wickedness
with favor. Psalm 47, verse 8, God sits on
His holy throne. Leviticus 11, verse 44, I am
the Lord your God. I am holy. This should set a guard on every
worship service upon this earth. Everything that does not pass
through this paradigm of the holiness of God should be left
at the front door. no place for triviality, no place
for verbality, no place for the arrogance of man, no place for
the secular ideologies of this world and the worship service
of Him who is infinitely and absolutely, perfectly, eternally
holy. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord,
the sovereign ruler who possesses supreme authority. Kyrios is
the Lord God, the Almighty. This is the strongest name that
God can take for Himself. He is almighty. There is no strength
but the Lord's strength. There is no might, there is no
power, but that it is the Lord's power. The power that you and
I have to live, our little moments in the sun, is but a delegated
power that has come to us from God. It is in Him that we live
and move and have our being. But all power and all might belong
to our God alone. Nothing is impossible for our
God. There can be no resistance that
will ever succeed against our God when He makes His arm bare
in the day of His power. God possesses creating power
to speak everything into being out of nothing. He has sustaining
power to uphold all that He has made. He possesses governing
power to providentially rule over all circumstances and events. He has saving power to rescue
the chief of sinners. He has judging power to damn
that which falls short of His glory. Psalm 115, verse 3, our
God is in the heavens. He does whatever He pleases. Heaven is not run by a democracy. Heaven is not run by anything
but a theocracy. I hear some say, well, God votes
for you and the devil votes against you, and you have the deciding
vote. Well, let me tell you, the devil
doesn't have a vote. The devil is, as Martin Luther said, the
devil is God's devil, and God will use him to carry out His
own purposes here upon the earth. Now, heaven is ruled by the theocracy
of God. The angels go on to say, who
was, and who is, and who is to come. This too should dominate
our worship services, that this God is transcendent above time. He's not trendy. He is above
time. He is the God of eternity. From everlasting to everlasting,
God is God. that God was speaks to His eternality,
that God is speaks to His immutability, and He is to come. He is without
beginning. He is the uncreated Creator.
He is the first cause of which everything and everyone is the
subsequent effect. Psalm 93, verse 2, your throne
is established from of old. You are from everlasting. Psalm
90, verse 2, before the mountains were born, or you gave birth
to the earth, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. That is what this is representing,
this towering, eternal, timeless transcendence of God over all
that there is. 1 Timothy 1, 17, now to the King,
eternal, immortal, invisible. He is the uncreated Creator without
beginning, free from the succession of time. And this God who was
is the God who is, meaning there is no alteration, there is no
changing, never weakening, never diminishing, never tiring, never
increasing, forever the same. Malachi 3.6, I, the Lord, do
not change. James 1.17, the Father of lights
with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. Psalm 102,
of old you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work
of your hands. Even they will perish, but you
endure, and all of them will wear out like garment, like clothing. You will change them, and they
will be changed, but you are the same. and your years will
not come to an end." No, God is not on our level. Neither are we on His level.
We have union and communion with Christ, and His mediation has
brought us before this throne of grace. But let us remember
the One before whom we come in our worship. the One who was
and who is and who shall be forever, who is holy, holy, holy, who
is the Lord God, the Almighty." A. W. Tozer said, the most important
thing about your life is what comes into your mind when you
think of God. that everything in your life
is a subsequent effect of this one central knowledge of God. That is why Calvin began his
Institutes with the knowledge of God and the knowledge of man,
knowing that everything in my life flows from my knowledge
of God, and even my knowledge of self flows from my knowledge
of God. And a high view of God will lead
to high worship and high and holy living, and low views of
God will lead to low living in the gutter. My view of God is
that pivot point in my life that affects all that I am and all
that I do. The greatest thing that can happen
in your worship service is for there to be the unveiling of
the greatness and the glory and the grandeur of God. Number four, in verse 9 and 10, a constant
focus upon God. Every sight line in this scene
is intersecting in God. Every anthem of praise is being
directed towards God. It is all about God. It is all
going to God. And verse 9, and when the living
creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on
the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever. Notice the
emphasis on Him. And in verse 10, the twenty-four
elders will fall down before Him and will worship Him. Everything is about Him in this
worship service. These worshipers are lost in
the glory of Him. Glory to Him, honor to Him, thanks
to Him, falling down before Him, casting crowns before Him. Everything has this Godward focus,
this Godward preoccupation, this Godward orientation. God is the
focal point. 1 Chronicles 29, verses 11 and
12. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness
and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty,
indeed, everything that is in the heavens and on the earth.
Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head
over all. Both riches and honor come from
You, and You rule over all. And in Your hand is power and
might, and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen
everyone. Now therefore, our God, we thank
You and praise Your glorious name. Worship is all about getting
the first person out of the way and the second person in, getting
the I out and the you in, in worship. In verse 10, the twenty-four
elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne. They
fall like cut timber before His throne of grace again and again. In fact, six times in the book
of Revelation, these elders are prostrating themselves before
the throne of God. It is a humble posture of reverential
awe and lowering oneself in the presence of Him who is infinitely
greater than they are. and they will worship Him who
lives forever and ever." And I love this at the end of verse
10, "...and will cast their crowns before the throne." You know
what this signifies? It signifies that from Him and
through Him and now to Him are all things. To God be the glory
forever and ever. Amen. They come to the realization,
no doubt, that I cannot keep this crown. God, it is You who
chose me in eternity past for Yourself. It is You who predestined
my eternal salvation. It is You who sent Your Son to
die for me. It is You who sent Your Spirit
to regenerate me when I was dead in trespasses and sin. It was
you who convicted me of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
It is you who called me out of darkness into light. It is you
who drew me irresistibly to yourself. It is you who birthed me into
your kingdom. It is you who has come to and
dwell within me. It is you who is at work within
me, both to will and to work for your good pleasure. It is
you who has empowered me for every good work. It is you who
has prepared all good works for me to walk in. It is you who
has done all of this, and it is you who has safely brought
me all the way home to glory before Your throne of grace. I cannot keep this crown. I am
what I am by the grace of God. This crown belongs to You, God.
All things are from You and through You and to You. I cast this crown
before Your throne of grace, representative and symbolic of
my worship of You, that all that I am, I am by Your grace." This is the worship service in
heaven. Listen, I'm in some churches where I preach, and the pastor
is more excited for the announcement. than He is for God. Our preaching is to exalt His
name. Our teaching is to magnify His grace. Our worship must be
directed exclusively to Him. So lot needs to be put back in
our worship for the glory of God alone. And then finally, verse 11. This towering anthem of praise
just sitting here at the end of the chapter, or in the middle
of the chapter, a resounding praise to God. You know what
the word praise means? In the Hebrew, it means to boast
in God, to brag on God, to exalt God, to magnify God, to glory
in God. And such high theology now demands
this high doxology. The higher our theology, the
higher our doxology. This can be now the only expression
from hearts of those who have come to understand the sovereign
grace of our God. Worthy are you. Our worship is
declaring the worthiness of God, that He alone is worthy to receive
our praise. He alone is worthy to receive
all that I am and all that I have be given to Him. Worthy are You,
our Lord and our God, to receive glory. Now, just stop right there. Theologians make a distinction
between two aspects of glory. There is God's intrinsic glory,
and there is ascribed glory. God's intrinsic glory is all
that God is, all of His divine attributes, all of His divine
being, all of His divine perfections, the sum and the substance of
the Person of God. And there is no way that any
of us here today can add to that glory, and we cannot take from
that glory. God is who God is, unchanging
in His eternal perfections. That is God's intrinsic glory. And then there is ascribed glory. This is the glory that we give
to God. This is the glory that we declare
to the nations, and the glory that we declare to God. And the
more we understand of His intrinsic glory, the more we will ascribe
glory to Him. The more that the veil is pulled
back and we understand from the depths of Scripture something
of the height and depth and breadth and length of the glory of this
God, the more we are overwhelmed in astonishment and awe and want
to now ascribe glory to this God. That is what we see in verse
11. Worthy are You, our Lord and
our God, to receive glory. to receive this ascribed glory
based upon the revelation and the knowledge of His intrinsic
glory that was made known in the anthem. Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord God, the Almighty. Heaven and earth is full of Your
glory. And now all of heaven resounds
in praise to God as they now apprehend and come to understand
with increasing awareness. the majesty and the transcendence
of this awesome God to receive. You are so worthy to receive
our ascribed glory and honor. We honor You and exalt You and
esteem You. And power, we cannot give power
to God. This is a part of His intrinsic
glory. So in this verse, we have both
intrinsic and ascribed glory. for You created all things. You
spoke everything into being out of nothing. You stood at the
beginning and declared the end. You spoke from eternity past.
You are the author of Your eternal decree. You have never resorted
to plan B or to plan C or to plan Z to whatever exponential
power. You have had one plan A from
all of eternity past, and it encompasses all that has come
to be. You have spoken, and it has come
to be. And because of Your will, because
of Your free will, because of Your sovereign will, they existed and were created."
What a worship service this is, as John has been on the island
of Patmos and is suddenly caught up in the Spirit on the Lord's
Day, and a door opened in heaven, and he hears the voice, come
up, and he is in his spirit taken to heaven, and he enters into
the very throne room of God and beholds all of this. This is
what our worship service should be like. This is what our personal
and private devotion should be like, that we are coming before
the King of kings and the Lord of lords who is now our Father
and who has birthed us into His kingdom and has adopted us as
His sons, and we have throne rights to come before His throne
of grace. Through the mediatorial work
of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the power of His Holy
Spirit, we come before His throne of grace. Let us have a high
view of God. Let us have deep fear of God. Let us give resounding praise
to this God, and let us remember that He is forever God, and we
are the people and the sheep of His pasture, bought with a
great price, glorified in His Son. All praise and all glory to Him. as you worship the Lord. Therefore, I urge you by the
mercies of God to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice
acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this
world, but be renewed in your mind and be transformed that
you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and
acceptable and perfect. May you give to God your very
body, your mind, your heart, your soul, from the top of your
head to the bottom of your feet. May you be sold out to this God,
and may your life be a living and holy sacrifice to Him.