Chapter 4, Revelation Chapter
4. I enjoy books that have good
endings. I enjoy books that have finishes. It bothers me to read a book
and then you're left out there hanging. You don't know exactly
what happens. Well, the Book of Revelation
never leaves us out hanging. We're always finding out that
the ending is for our benefit and for our good, and we enjoy
what's mentioned here in the Book of Revelation. It is a message
of God's grace to his people, and under the most perilous of
times, God always provides a good ending for his people. He always
provides his presence. He always provides his conclusion. Now, it may not exactly line
up with ours, but his is always the best. It may not be exactly
what we had in mind, but it always ends up for his glory and for
the glory of the church. And the people of God will say,
as these four and 20 elders will say, worthy is the land. It worked out for your glory
and for our good. Now, I would like to begin reading
with verse six. We've read part of this in the
past. In fact, we've read it several
times. And we looked at some of these verses the last time
we looked on Wednesday night together, which has been some
time ago. But I'd like to look, spend some
time on the last verse of this. But read with me verse six through
11 of Revelation chapter four. And before the throne there was
a sea of glass like under crystal and in the midst of the throne
and round about the throne were four be full of eyes before and
behind and we mentioned as we went over that verse of scripture
that the sea of glass as to me. And I don't think that we're
pushing the issue at all. To me, it is a statement, not
for God's benefit, but for our benefit, that that fountain that
we were washed in and cleansed in came out clean. All our sin is washed away. All our sin is put away. And
if you look at the cleansing agent, the blood of Christ, it
came out as pure in the end as it started. All things are taken
care of. Now in that same verse, we find
that there are four beasts and that it may have meant something
in 1611 when this was translated, but it doesn't carry with it
the meaning that was intended. This is not beasts as mean things,
but there are four living creatures. and they have the ability of
hindsight and foresight is equal. We looked at them and to me they
represent the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ as we have it in
the scriptures of four different aspects. I enjoy Mark. It's right to the point, but
it shares with us that our savior was a servant. And it speaks
very highly of our Savior as Him coming to be the servant
of His people, and that truly shares with us that He is the
man Christ Jesus. There's one mediator between
God and man, and that is the man Christ Jesus. Well, the other
four Gospels, the other three Gospels, share aspects about
the Lord Jesus Christ that have forever had the church bowing
down and saying, thank you. The kingship of God, my goodness,
the church has bowed down and said, thank you, Lord, for the
kingship of our God and his eternality. In the beginning was God, and
in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. And the church says, hallelujah.
We don't want a God that had a beginning. We want a God that's
eternal, and we don't want a Savior that had a beginning. We want
an eternal Savior. So it's just a joy to the church
to read through the Gospels and find out how he has presented
himself to the church, and we always come out the winner. He
never shares himself as less than God and less than the perfect
man. He always shares with us. And
then his dying words, it's finished. We just see the sum and total
of the Old Testament brought to a conclusion in this one person,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he shares that from the cross. And
then, as we mentioned Sunday, And many times the book of Acts
on, someone's coming back and truly the book of Revelation
is sharing that message. Someone's coming back and he
is a great king and glory belongs to him. And he's high and lifted
up and he's king of kings and Lord of lords. And we find that
here in this passage of scripture. These four living creatures are
full of eyes before and behind. The gospel was the same to Adam
as it is to us. There has been no changes over
time. We find people want to modify
the gospel and make it more appealing. My goodness, God gave it. Let's
leave it alone. It is not to be modified. It
is not to be made more palatable. There's nothing more palatable
than to find out your sins are forgiven anyway. It just makes
us, it's sweet in our mouth. It's like honeycomb. to have
our sins forgiven, and then to find out that God did it from
beginning to end. If we ever realize our position
before God by nature, after the fall, we'll be thankful that
he did the work for us, because we are unable to do anything
for ourselves. We're worse than children. Even
an infant can do certain things for itself, but we're worse than
that. We're dead in trespasses and sin, and we can't even do
what a child can do in respect to spiritual things. So thank
God for him being able to do what we could not do. And then
it says, in the midst of the throne, around about the throne,
four living creatures full of eyes before and behind, and the
first creature was likened to a lion, and the second likened
to a calf, and the third living creature had the face of a man,
and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. How it represents
our Savior in those four different aspects. That's not all. We find
many places in the scripture he's represented in some way.
One of my favorite is over there in that burning fiery furnace.
There was one like unto the Son of Man. I mean, those people
went unscathed, unharmed. There wasn't even the smell of
that fire on them. That's what a demonstration of
our Savior presented way over there in that Babylonian captivity. And we would not have that if
they hadn't been taken off into captivity. So he goes on here
and he says, And the four living beasts, four living creatures,
had each of them six wings about him. And they were full of eyes
within, and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy,
holy. Never once has the gospel ever
stopped saying, God is holy. Never once. Out of every generation. out of every time, out of every
century, out of every millennium, the gospel has continued to declare
that our Savior is holy and our God is holy. Before all other
attributes, that attribute stands, and the rest are going to be
presented in a manner that honor that attribute about God. He
is holy. He's past finding out. He's so
perfect, we can't contemplate it. And we are promised that
we'll be likened to him. It's out of our reach yet. We're
thankful for his salvation and we're thankful for his forgiveness,
but that quality is out of our reach until we stand before him. And it says, Lord God Almighty,
the gospel has never presented a little G God. Ever. Never presented a God that needed
our help. Never presented a God that was
uncertain. Never presented a God that was
wondering what to do. Never presented a God. We have
several times in the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis, it's
mentioned about, well, the Tower of Babel. Let's go down and see
what's going on here. What was that for? That's for
us. That's not God showing us that
God's a loser and God doesn't know what's going on. That's
for our benefit. God knew what was going on in
Babel. He knew what they were doing. And he knew what he was
going to do about it. And it wasn't something that
he came to a conclusion on between there and here. It was something
that he had determined to do before the foundation of the
world. He created all peoples with one language. And in fact,
after the flood, we find out he gives these people live there,
and these people live there, and these people live there.
And then it says they're all one language. And then he separated
their languages. They didn't separate their languages.
He did it. My goodness, he's almighty. He
took what was used to common language and made it a foreign
language to a whole bunch of people in the world. And they
thought it was their language, the ones that went off in that
direction. And then it says, in the days of Peleg was the
earth divided. God moved them to their places.
And that's why we have the languages. We'll never have one language
until we're in glory. Never. Now there's a commonality
among the church. God's people in every language,
every people, every kindred, and every tribe, when God shares
with them the gospel, it's the same in every language. He does not have various gospels. He doesn't have various messages. It isn't just that someone far
off in a distant land has to have some concept of God. That's
not the gospel. The gospel is how that Christ
died for our sins, according to the scripture, was buried,
and rose again the third day, according to the scripture, for
our benefit and for his glory. That's the gospel. Now, they
had these things and they cried, Lord God Almighty, which is,
or which was, and is, and is to come. That someone's coming. Someone's here. Someone's coming
back. That's what they say now In this
chapter The one bird one word that just thrills my soul is
in verse 9 the word wh e in When, and when those living creatures
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. When, when the gospel praises
God, the church praises God. When the gospel lifts God up,
the church lifts God up. When the gospel glorifies God,
the church glorifies God. It comes one and then to the
other. We don't know what to do, what
to say, how to say it until the gospel is revealed unto us and
then we consent wholeheartedly with what the gospel has to say
about our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no question
in our mind that he is a Savior that saves. There's no question
in our mind that he is a redeemer that redeems. There is no question
in our mind that he is all our hope. He's the one that has redeemed
us by his mighty hand. And as the living creatures,
they say this, he's the Lord God Almighty, holy, holy, holy.
And then the 420 elders, when they hear that, they have only
one thing to do, consent. consent. And it's not with our
arms way up behind us. It's not God tying us down and
trying to get uncle out of us. When he regenerates us, our heart
is in full fellowship with the heart creator. the heart giver. Our heart is in fellowship with
him. And he says, 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, the church, fall down before
him that sat on the throne and worship him that liveth forever
and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying. So
they fall down, they worship, and anything that they might
have, it's his. There is no such thing as working
for rewards. I like what God told Abraham,
I am the exceeding great reward. And everything pales compared
to that. Boy, if it depends upon our faith
to get a reward, it's not going to happen. Boy,
I don't know about you, but the world is wanting a reward. I've
served God for so many years, and I expect to have a reward. Oh, my goodness. I have tried
to serve God, but it's been miserable. But he has enabled me to serve
him by his grace. And whatever I have, I cast it
before him. He is all my hope, and he's all
my salvation. Now, notice verse 11 here. Verse
11. This is what the church says.
This is our song, and we're gonna sing it several times here in
the book of Revelation. Next chapter. It just gets so
good. Next chapter, we're gonna get
to say almost the same thing. Worthy. Thou art worthy, O Lord. Thou art worthy, O Lord. Now,
it's interesting that when we find the church speaking, wherever
it's speaking, under whatever circumstances it's speaking,
we find this word, Lord. Lord. Now that word is found
about 750 times in the New Testament and almost 700 times it's dealing
or names our Lord. Once in a while we'll find a
verse that there's someone has a master and he calls him Lord
and it's usually little L-O-R-D. When we find capital L-O-R-D
then We're almost assured it's speaking about the Lord of Glory,
the Master. This means the one speaking recognizes
one as the Supreme Master, Lord God Almighty, Lord of Lords and
King of Kings. The definition of that word Lord
is he whom a person or thing belongs. And the church recognizes
that we belong to Christ. There's a possession there. And
you know what? We like it that way. We want
him to have possession. Because when he has possession,
he can do as he wills and he will always do for his glory
and for our good. He will do with his church as
he wishes, but he does it out of absolute sovereign love for
his church. He's not looking out to beat
up the flock. He's looking out to deliver us
to glory. He is not out looking for us
to cross over the line so he can smash our fingers or slap
us with a ruler. He is divinely promoting us to
his presence and to his glory. Now through the trip, he has
said, there'll be times when I'll bring these things on. I
like what we've heard there and it's just brought out in the
scripture so clearly. Who did sin? This man or his
parents. And you know, sometimes we have
to ask ourselves, we do. I shouldn't say have to, we do.
We ask ourselves, what about this, Lord? What about this?
Well, let's not give the Lord the conclusion. Let's not give
the Lord how we want it to happen. Lord, I don't know what's happening
here. You do. Just make me happy over
it. He said there, thou art worthy,
O Lord. Oh Lord, there is no question
who these words are directed at. They're directed to the Lord
of glory, what the Lord is worthy to receive. And it tells us right
in there. Oh Lord, thou art worthy. Oh
Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. And the reason for
that for thou has created. You have created all things. Now what are they consenting
to? He is Lord of Lords and King
of Kings. And he is the creator of all
things. Now this, I realize, we want
to feel, we want to know that God created man and God created
the heavens and the earth. But let's not stop there. There
is a new creation which is in Christ Jesus that is far more
valuable to God's people, knowing that, than knowing that God created
the heavens and the earth. Now look with me, if you would,
to several verses here, just in the New Testament, that use
this word created. Mark chapter 13, would you turn
there with me? Mark chapter 13. Mark chapter 13 and in verse 19. Mark 13 verse
19, we find the same word used here as we found over there in
Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11, for thou has created. You're
worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. Why? You've
created. You've created. For thou has
created all things. And for thy pleasure they are
and were created. That's why we have the privilege
of giving Him glory and honor and power and praise because
He has created. Now He created the heavens and
the earth and He created the universe and He created all the
planets and all the stars and all the space in between, multitudes
upon multitudes, stars without number, galaxies without number,
and distance that can't be measured. We don't have the facility or
the faculty to measure the distance of God's creation. The other
day I was watching National Geographic and they were talking about the
speed of light. 186,000 miles per, is it second? 186,000 miles a second. And that's
the best we can do to measure the universe. And they tell how
many light years at that rapid rate and we can't
come to the end of it yet. But far greater than that creation
is a creation that God creates within every one of his sheep. It's a spiritual creation. It's
a heavenly creation. It's a new creation. It's a new
creation in Christ Jesus. It's a new living creation in
Christ Jesus. It's another word for regeneration. There was nothing and God made
something. Just as sure as God made this
universe out of nothing, did he make a new creation in Christ
Jesus out of nothing. Nothing we had, nothing we could
offer, nothing we could give. There wasn't even dirt that we
could add to the mix. He created a new creation in
Christ Jesus from nothing spiritual. He is the first cause of our
spiritual life. There's not even a twinkling
of a breath that we added to the mix. Now notice this word
over here, Mark chapter 13 and verse 19. Mark 13 and verse 19,
Mark wrote this, for in those days shall be affliction. Such
as was not from the beginning of the creation which God created,
unto this time neither shall be." Now, the affirming of God's
creation, he's saying here, there's going to be some trouble here.
It's going to be not like anything since God created the heavens
and the earth. Now that word created in there is the same
word that we find over here in the book of Revelation chapter
4 and verse 11. This word which God created unto
this time. Now if we go back there to the
book of Genesis, we find out God created this entire universe,
all the grass and all the cattle and all of the human beings to
begin with out of nothing. I've heard people say, I created
this dish. I created that painting. I created this artwork. I created that. I created this.
We're using a lot of what's already here to do whatever we did with
it. We're not the creator. We're just using what's already
here. But God had nothing. And he makes
that. distinction from the very beginning,
I created this world from nothing. Now when he goes on to the new
creation, we just follow it along and we find out that God created
that from nothing. We don't have anything to offer.
There's nothing there. It's a dead void. I was talking yesterday, there's
only in religion does people have a problem with dead. It's a dead void. It's a hollow
place that is dead. And God creates life in that
dead void without using anything that was there because there's
nothing there to begin with. Turn with me if you would to
the book of Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. We have this
word again. The church, the four living creatures,
when they said that, the church agreed and goes on with the conclusion
You're worthy of all praise because you have done this. You've created. And they realized where their
new creation came from. It was not 50-50. It was not
95-5. It wasn't 99% God and 1% the
creator or the creation. It was 100%. Just as there was
nobody before God created the heavens and the earth, there's
nobody can get to the place where God creates new life. where regeneration
takes place. All right, here in the book of
Romans 1, verse 25, and all praise is given to God because he's
the creator. Here in Romans 1, verse 25, the
scripture says, and Paul is looking at what men have done, who changed
the truth of God into a lie. From the beginning, God has been
spreading the truth. And man has come along and said,
it's not true, it's not true, it's not true. And God has been
declaring the truth through the gospel and through his prophets.
And man has come along and said, it's not true, it's not true,
it's not true. And God got to the New Testament and said the
truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. And man has come along and said,
it's not true, it's not true, it's not true. And in the book
of Acts or the book of Revelation, God has declared the truth again. And we find that people will
say, well, they've been telling us that since the beginning of
time, that God's going to come back. And it hasn't happened
yet. What's man saying? It's not the truth. It's not
the truth. It's not the truth. Now notice this. Verse 23, excuse
me, verse 25, who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped
and served the creature more than the creator. Now that's
the same word found over there in the book of Revelation chapter
four and verse 11, the creator. They worshiped the creature more
than the creator who is blessed forever. Now we can apply this
to the environmentalists. But the truth of it is, this
was going on in a church. The truth of it, this was going
on in religion. It wasn't the environmentalists
that he's talking about. Now, we can apply it to them,
certainly. They've changed the truth about
God, and they're worshiping the creature and creation more than
the creator. But it started in the church. He's writing to a church at Rome. He's not talking about People
who have no concern at all about God. He's talking about people
who pretend to have a concern about God. And he says, they
worship the creature over the creator. Now we've heard that
all our life. Thank God that he's intervened.
Thank God he stopped us in our way or we'd continue with that
philosophy to worship the creature. us more than the Creator. Now when God saves us, he turns
that around and he says, now you can worship the Creator more than the creature. Now you
know where you got your life from. Now you know that this
was not something that you did or promoted or got God's attention
for. Now you know the creator, the
creator of heaven and earth, yes, but the creator of a new
creation in Christ Jesus. And that's what the church was
thanking God Almighty for in Revelation chapter 4 and verse
11 when they said, you are worthy to receive glory and honor and
praise for You've created. You've made the creation. We're
examples of it. We're examples. Turn with me,
if you would, to a book of Ephesians, chapter 2. Ephesians chapter
2, and there in verse 10, Ephesians 2.10, we find the end of three
verses that we learn early in religion. Most of the time we have never
stopped to read chapter one. We've been skipped over. That
page has been glued together and we never went to it, but
oh my goodness, the value of Ephesians 1. Now we get to Ephesians
chapter 2, and there's a reason for rejoicing because Ephesians
chapter 1 has just gone before it. Now notice here, Ephesians
chapter 2, verse 8, 9, and 10, for by grace are you saved. And
that grace means something after you've read chapter 1. It's unmerited
favor. Almighty God having favor towards
the people that had no dessert. In fact, they're the ones that
raised their hand and fist towards me and said, we'll not have this
man rule over us. Psalm 2, all the kings of this
earth will not have him rule over us. That's what Saul of
Tarsus said, and that's what every man, woman, boy, and girl
has said towards God, and he has been faithful to break that
out of us. and causes to worship him. Now
notice here, Ephesians 2 verse 8, it says, for by grace are
you saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is a gift
of God. Well, he's given us a heads up.
You're a creator, that's what the church says. It's not of
yourselves, not of works lest any man should boast. Second
heads up. Boy, don't think for a moment
that you counted in this when it came to contributions. because
your contributions are worthless. Then he goes on to verse 10,
for we are his workmanship, and here's that word again, created
in Christ Jesus. And now the church says, oh my
goodness, he's worthy to be praised. He's worthy to be praised. We
can just praise him and thank him and bow before him, and that's
all he needs. We don't need to go and say,
Lord, guess what I did for you today? We can just say, Lord,
thank you for doing what you did for me today. All right,
it says, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath
before ordained, prepared that we should walk in them. Well,
what do we do? Jump to chapter 1. Tells us why
we're here. Tells us why we're doing what
we're doing. He's worked in us both to will
and to do of his good pleasure. Now, Ephesians chapter 3 and
verse 9. Would you turn there with me?
Ephesians 3, 9. Here's that word again we found
over there in the book of Revelation chapter 4 and verse 11. Why does
the church praise him? You've created. Why is he worthy? You've created. You created the
heavens and the earth. My goodness, go out on a super
dark night. Just go, leave town and go about
a mile. I was commenting the other day,
the Dalles is one place I've lived and I enjoy it. You can
go a mile in any direction and you don't even know what town's
around. Go south a mile. You get up in
those little hills there. You don't know it. There's a
town over here in the Columbia Gorge. Go out there on the dark
night and look up and see the stars. Then take you a telescope
and then look at the pictures that they've taken from telescopes
that are in space. And you know what? We haven't
got to the end of it. He's a creator. But the church
That's just secondary. We thank him for the physical
creation, but we thank him with our soul for the spiritual creation,
for the spiritual work of grace, for spiritual regeneration. We
thank him with every voice of our soul. Notice here, Ephesians
chapter 3 and verse 9. And to make all men see what
is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the
world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ. Now one more time, he says, I
created all things by Jesus Christ, seen and unseen, visible and
invisible, literal hand touch, and spiritual. I've created all
things by Jesus Christ. And then one more verse here
in Ephesians chapter four. Is it verse 14, maybe? Well, I wrote down the wrong
verse. 24? Yes, excuse me, verse 24. In new math they say, oh it's
okay, you're close. And that ye put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. You put on the new man, which
is created, which after God is created. He's the creator and
he has created in a place where there was nothing but dead void. The gospel comes along. God has
the gospel presented to his people in their dead and undone state
before they're born again, before they're called children of God.
You can't tell the difference between sheep and goats until
God works a work of grace. He has the gospel brought to
them. He may take them to the gospel
or he may bring the gospel to them, but he's going to get them
to hear the gospel. And then, by a miraculous work of God, a child is born. A child of God is born. A creation. A new creation in
Christ Jesus. Something that was not there,
but is now there. Something we didn't have any
ability of doing. And God did. We have less ability
to create our spiritual birth than we did our physical birth.
Did you hear what I said? We have less ability. Now how
much ability did we have on our physical birth? We have less
ability on our spiritual birth to take care of it by ourself.
It is impossible. With men, it shall be impossible,
but with God, nothing shall be impossible. He puts a birth where
there's barrenness. He puts a birth where there is
Lodibar. He puts a birth where there's
a desert. He puts a birth where there's nothing good. It's just
scorpions and dry, dry, dry sand, not even a cactus. and no hope until he brings the
birth. And then we're a new creature
in Christ Jesus. There's a word that is so related
to this and turn back with me to the book of second Corinthians
chapter five, second Corinthians chapter five. They're in verse 17, second Corinthians
chapter five, verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature or a new creation. Old things are passed
away. And I really appreciated what
Brother Mahan had to say about this verse. Not all old things
are passed away. And they're not. We still have
this flesh. We still have wicked imaginations
and thoughts. We still do things that displease
God. But notice the next part. Old
things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Now, in regeneration, everything
becomes new. Old things, not all old things
are passed away, but everything becomes new. There's a creation
that makes everything new. Our view of God is a new view
of God. Our view of the Bible is a new
view of the Bible. Our view of the church is a new
view of the church. Our view of sin is a new view
of sin. Our view of hell is a new view
of hell. Our view of heaven is a new view of heaven. It's all
things spiritual become new because we didn't have any spiritual
capacity before he regenerated us. Now, not all things are passed
away. Not all things are passed away. and all things have become new.
Everything spiritual is a new experience. There's nothing that
we had of our own. Now, the Lord is the one that
has created all things, physical, the whole universe, the heaven,
the earth, the sea, and all that therein is, but he's the one
that has created all things spiritual. Far more valuable. If we have
a, we're going to have a good view of creation. There's no
question about it. We don't have to argue about
it, whether God created. We won't because we know, but
oh my goodness, the view of the new creation in Christ Jesus
takes precedent over any view of the old creation. That's where
we're going to have people say, I don't believe that. They'll
agree with the creating the heavens and the earth, disagree that
there must be a new creation and that's a creation that we
have no part in. Oh, I had part in my salvation.
No, you didn't. No, no. He saved us against our
will with our full consent. He saved us by his grace. He
saved us not because of our words. I've got a book in my study in
there. I just about have thrown it away. There wasn't a few words
in there, but this preacher is promoting the fact that you've
got to pray through. You've got to pray through. And he spent nine days praying
through. That's nothing more than hogwash. That's just another way of saying
you're going to have to, the more time that you spend at the
altar, the better chance you have of getting to God. And that's
not the truth. The truth is God saves his people
when he pleases, where he pleases, and how he pleases. And we, the
church, Revelation chapter 4, verse 11, thou art worthy, O
Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created
all things. And for thy pleasure, they are
and were created. Yes, you created the dogs and
the cattle and all the trees, but that's just secondary compared
to what's valuable. You created new life in me. And I praise you for it. You're worthy to receive all.
You have an ability to create where there is a dead void. Talk
about a black hole. Scientists talk about black holes
out in space. Can't prove it, disprove it.
Nice thing to talk about. There's a black hole and that's
inside of every one of God's sheep before he regenerates them.
And afterwards, they're sitting and clothed and in their right
mind. Sitting and waiting on God. clothed
with his righteousness and have the ability of thinking spiritual
thoughts that they've never ever before had the opportunity. That's
what it is. All right. Now the next chapter,
and we're going to stop here, but the next chapter, we just
get to do some more of this. Oh, John wept. He wept because
he could see no one that could open this book with seven seals.
And an angel comes down and says, oh, don't weep. The lion of the
tribe of Judah hath prevailed. Talk about perking you up. The
lion of the tribe of Judah is going to perk up God's people.
He's going to prevail. He's going to do what he has
intended to do.