In the book of Revelation chapter
4, Revelation chapter 4, I don't know about you, but I'm glad
my God's on the throne. After, you know, I don't know
how you feel about the election, but I didn't even worry about
it. It's in God's hands. I voted the way I felt like I
should vote, and God voted. And that's what it is. So I'm
thankful he's on his throne and he has decreed from eternity
to raise up kings and dispose of them too. So we just praise
him. And I can't help but believe
that some of the issues that the people who received this
letter of revelation, the revelation of Jesus Christ, were going through
some very trying times when it was given to them. Now, they
probably were facing much greater trials than we are facing. They
were facing great and severe persecution. And this letter
of revelation was given to them as a letter of comfort. It was
never, and I will underline that, never given as a book of fear
and suspect and all the stuff we hear about today that was
a book of comfort for God's people and it has been a book of comfort
for God's people since it was given to them and it continues
to be a book of God's comfort because on every page we find
that the Lord Jesus reigns. And he is successful, and he
is victorious, and he is victorious on over every enemy. of God and every enemy of the
church. He has been, He is, and He will
continue to be victorious over every enemy of the church. Now
in this fourth chapter of the book of Revelation we find that
the Lord allows John to see the beginning of a great vision.
He has been called up in a place to observe what the Apostle Paul
was not permitted to write about. Paul said he saw things that
he just could not write about. In fact, he was given a thorn
in the flesh to prevent him from talking about it. And he begged
three times that that be relieved from him. And God said, my grace
is sufficient for thee. So John gets to write about it. Now it is figurative, and if
we try to interpret it literal, we're going to find ourselves
in severe trouble. But if we look at this as a figurative
book declaring the glory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, then
we're just going to have a grand time. and enjoy every minute
of it. And when we come to places that
we can't see what's there, we're not going to spend a lot of time
on it, because Christ is there. We just haven't seen it. You
may have, and you can talk to me about it and say, I think
this is what that's about. But it's just a great book. Let's look here in Chapter 4.
As we've seen in Chapter 1, the greatness of God is declared
in the the picture that John was permitted to see. Then in
chapters 2 and 3, the letters that John was to write to the
seven churches of Asia, which represent the church in every
age, and shares with us the issues that face a church in every age. The only answer to every problem
is Christ in every age. Let's just stick with him. Just
keep the main thing the main thing. And that's what he was
telling the seven churches of Asia, just keep the main thing,
the main thing, and that's Christ, keep him centered, and all things
will be well. After this, I looked, and behold,
a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice which I heard
was, as it were, of a thunder, excuse me, a trumpet talking
with me, which said, come up hither, and I'll show you things
which must be hereafter, or take place after these things. And
immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set
in heaven, and one sat on the throne." What a sublime, beautiful
picture we have here as he explains what he saw. He that was set
was looked upon like a jasper, and a sardine stone, and there
was a rainbow round about the throne, and the sight like unto
an emerald. And round about the throne were
four and twenty seats. Upon the seats, I saw four and
20 elders sitting. And we looked last time, when
we were at this verse of scripture, we looked and saw that this is
a beautiful statement about the church in every age. There was
the church under Old Testament economy. There were people saved
under the Old Testament economy, not by the sacrifice of bulls
and goats, but by the grace of God, by the preaching of the
word, by the declaration of God Almighty. And through the faithfulness
of God and to his people, through the spirit, they were brought
to Christ in the same way they're brought today. And he used the
types and shadows and pictures of the sacrifices. We look at
those today in two emblems that we review as we go to the scripture
and as we observe it from time to time. We don't have the animal
sacrifices, but we have two shadows. We have two pictures, one of
them is baptism, the other is Lord's Supper, and we'll declare
fervently that there's no grace in these, they're just a picture,
they're a type, they're a shadow. And I've mentioned many times,
and I don't know, Sherry's probably has a great menu too, but I used
to think of Denny's menu as being the menu of all menus, beautiful
pictures, but I'd never be satisfied with sitting down and eating
a menu. I wanted what those represented. And we want the same thing. We
don't want baptism. There's no grace in baptism.
There's no spiritual significance in baptism. It's a picture. Give
me Christ. And the same is true about the
Lord's Supper. They're emblematic. They're an emblem. They're a
picture. They're a type. He even mentions that. The Lord
did. And he said, this is the new covenant in my blood. Well,
it's not in a cup. It's in Christ. So this is a
glorious statement. They had their observances. We have ours. But we're saved
by the same grace. We're saved by the same word.
We're saved by the same Holy Spirit. We're saved by the grace
of God and nothing else. And he's only saved people that
way. And it's recorded in the 11th
chapter of the book of Hebrews by faith. And that's the same
way God saves his people today, by faith. Now, here it tells
us that there were 4 and 20 elders, 4 and 20 seats, and they're all
full. And that's a statement about
the completed church. Old economy, new economy, in
all ages. The printers of our Bibles do
us a great injustice when they put a lot of stuff between the
completion of the Old Testament and the beginning of the New
Testament. We think of them as two separate books, but they
are not. It is the Word of God. It has
the same message. And we must remember that all
of the ministry of the Apostle Paul, he used Genesis to Malachi
to preach the gospel from because that's all there was. He was
being used to write what we have as much of the New Testament
And the Lord Jesus Christ used only Genesis to Malachi to preach
the gospel and instruct his church. And all of those preachers in
his day, the apostles, they only used the Old Testament as we
know it. This is part of the old economy.
And that's what we find. Philip brought the great message
there in the Book of Acts to the Ethiopian eunuch. It was
in the 53rd chapter of the Book of Isaiah. So there's the church,
and it's a completed church, and there's no empty seats, and
there's not too many seats. It is complete and full, and
it's represented being around the throne of God, around the
throne of the Lord Jesus. Now, looking here in verse...
Verse 4, I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white
raiment, and that's just a beautiful, beautiful picture of the righteousness
of Christ. That is our only true clothing. God had to clothe Adam and Eve,
and he must clothe his church. Now, he clothed them symbolically.
He clothed them with the skins of animals. He clothed them with
a substitute, and we too must be clothed with the substitute.
We must be clothed with Christ. We must have him as our righteousness. We must not just say, I want
the righteousness of Christ. We must say, I want him as my
righteousness. It's not separate. We're not
going to get Christ's righteousness separate from Christ. We're going
to have Him as our righteousness. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 shares
with us that He is our righteousness. He is all the righteousness that
is represented. Here, this church is sitting
and clothed in white raiment, and they had on their head crowns
of gold. Now on verse five, we'd like
to spend a little time there tonight, and out of the throne
proceedeth lightnings and thunderings and voices. And there were seven
lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven
spirits of God. Now, would you turn with me to
the book of Hebrews? I would like to look tonight
at three things in this verse of scripture. One of them is
the throne. The second thing is the lightnings
and the thunders, and the third thing is the seven spirits. In
this verse five, out of the throne proceedeth lightnings and thunderings
and voices. Turn with me back to the book
of Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews chapter 1, we find that
the Apostle Paul was used by the Holy Spirit to leave us a
wonderful, wonderful book and a wonderful, wonderful passage
of scripture here in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 8. But under
the sun, he saith, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 8, under the sun, he
saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of
righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. Now, in this
verse of scripture, we find what is plainly taught throughout
the Old Testament and also continued throughout the New Testament,
and that is the throne of God is an eternal throne. It has
never ceased. There is no beginning and no
end to the throne of God. It is a representation of his
constant rule over all things. He has never relinquished that
rule. He will always have it. And we
see it behind us. And we know it's true in front
of us. History declares that God has ruled, and we take it
confidently that he rules the future, too. We don't know the
future. We don't know what lies ahead
in the future, but we are confident that he rules and reigns in the
future and he has determined all things whatsoever that shall
come to pass. He rules over all things and
he rules so seriously. And he rules so righteously,
and he rules so wholly, and he rules with such intensity that
nothing is without him. From the smallest atom to the
largest complex series of stars in the heavens, he rules over
them uniformly. He rules over the fish of the
sea, he rules over the animals, the cattle on a thousand hills
belong to him. I take great joy when I witness
in the scriptures that fish coming up to the seashore and allowing
an apostle to catch it so he can take a gold coin out of its
mouth to pay taxes with. I just love that verse of scripture,
that passage there about God's absolute rule over all things,
even the fish, the donkeys, the horses, everything. He used a donkey to ride on that
had never been ridden on. He showed his great power riding
that donkey. And he rides the waves of the
sea, the scriptures say, and he rides the wind, the scriptures
say. He's in a boat, and there's a
tremendous, boisterous wind. It's real close to the dowels,
that boat was. And he caused it to cease in
an instant. And that's what he does to the
souls of his people when he speaks peace to them. there is a great
calm. So he's absolute rule. And it
says here, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. And God's people take comfort
in that. Now, same book, chapter 4. Chapter
4. We have the opportunity, and
we're going to see this in just a moment, when it talks about
lightning and thundering around the throne, a lot of people are
going to take a lot of fear there. Boy, my goodness. It just, it's
awe-inspiring, awe-striking. But there is no fear in God's
people approaching the throne of God. We have been welcomed
into his presence because of the blood of Christ. Here in
Hebrews chapter four, verse 16, it tells us here, for some, excuse
me, chapter four, verse 16, let us therefore come boldly under
the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to
help in time of need. Now, it doesn't matter what it
says about that throne. We can come boldly. If there's
thundering and lightning going on, it's to our benefit. If there's
thundering and lightning going on, it's to our good. It speaks
good to us and not ill. It does not create fear in us.
It creates awe in us, reverence in us. That's what this thundering
and lightning is. It may be other things implied
there, but my goodness, we're not coming to Mount Sinai. We're
coming to Mount Zion. We're not fearful to even come
and approach that mountain. We're welcome to the mountain. In Mount Sinai, if an animal
even touched it, there was to be someone there with a spear
and thrust it through. This is a holy place. It's still
a holy place, but God has made his people holy, and they can
approach it with confidence and love and grace. Come boldly to the throne of
grace. So whatever's going on, it's
positive. Whatever's going on, it's good.
Whatever's going on, we're welcomed and it's awe-inspiring. I mentioned
the other day, I read Concerning Thunder. People tell you things
about lightning and you go do a little research and find out
without lightning, we could not exist on this earth. It does
something to the air. And I don't remember how many
thousands and thousands of lightning bolts an hour strike this earth.
And if it wasn't for that, there wouldn't be life on this earth.
It's absolutely essential. And out of the thunder comes
the lightning. So it's an essential thing that
God is declaring here, and it is essential to our spiritual
well-being that we approach this throne. And we approach this
throne through Christ, but we approach this throne holy because
of grace. Now turn with me, if you would,
to chapter eight of the book of Hebrews and we read this with
regard to that throne. It's a glorious throne. It speaks
of God's great sovereignty. It speaks of his absolute control
of all things. He is king of kings. He is Lord of lords. He is dog catcher of dog catchers. He is to everything, to every
issue, he is supreme. Nothing surpasses him. He has
everything in his hand. Now notice here in Hebrews chapter
eight in verse one. Now the things which we have
spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest. I
like that. If you want to reflect on all
that we've seen, this is what this total is. This is the sum. We have such a high priest who
has sat on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in
the heavens. a minister of the sanctuary of
the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. We
have the throne of the majesty. He has sit at the right hand
of the throne of majesty in the heavens. Now, we have seen many
times in the scripture that this high priest, our high priest,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the high priest, is the only high priest
in all the scripture that ever did this, sat down. His work was finished. Their
work was never finished. His work was complete. It was
finished. Redemption was to be had. It was given by the grace of
God. And in chapter 12 and verse 2 of this, would you turn there
with me? Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
2, as we think about this throne, excuse me, Hebrews chapter 12
and verse 2, it says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. Now there's not many thrones,
there's one throne. And this throne is the same throne
we find over here in the book of Revelation chapter four. This
is the throne of God. This is the throne of grace.
This is the throne of majesty. This is the throne of Jesus Christ. He sit down at the right hand
of the father on his throne. There is an absolute distinction
between this throne and every other throne that has ever been
built. This throne is forever. It's
not the throne of Nebuchadnezzar. It's not the throne of Cyrus.
It's not the throne of David in Jerusalem. This throne is
an everlasting throne. It's from everlasting to everlasting. He's just declaring that. If there's a throne in heaven,
that's God's business. But what he's saying is, I'm king. I'm supreme. I'm sovereign. And the best way we can see that
described is a throne and him sitting on it. King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. Now, in this chapter 12 of Hebrews, look at verse 18
with me. Chapter 12, verse 18. Now, there
at that throne, there's proceeding lightnings and thunderings. I
don't know how many times preachers have used these verses to scare
people into a profession of faith, and all you got was scared people
with a profession of faith. That's not the purpose of the
book of Revelation. In fact, that's not the purpose
of the gospel. It's never to be used as scare
tactics. It's to be declared. Now, if
God scares us, that's his business. But we should never use it that
way. Now, notice here. Sinai is a
fearful place. Zion, this throne, these lightnings,
these thunderings, this is not a fearful place. This is comfort
to the bone. Now, it's going to keep the enemy
away and protect us. It's going to declare to us he
is mighty, there's comfort here, there's life here, Hebrews chapter
12 verse 18 says, for ye are not come unto the mouth that
might be touched and burned with fire, nor with blackness and
darkness and tempest. We've not come to that mountain.
We've not come to Sinai. We're not coming there in Book
of Revelation. We're not coming to a fearful
place. We're coming to a place of green pasture. We're not coming
to a place of fear and being scared and everything going awry. We're coming to a place of absolute
protection. If you've got someone in control
of thunder and lightning on your side defending you, it's a pretty
good place to be. Those sons of thunder said, call
down lightning and destroy these people. Well, on this side of
the lightning, it's okay. It's a good place to be. Now
here it says, and the sound of trumpet and the voice of words
which voiced they that heard entreated that the word should
not be spoken to them anymore. That's a serious verse of scripture. We don't want to hear this anymore.
Now to God's people at Mount Zion, would you go over this
again? The songwriter put it this way,
tell me the old, old story. Would you repeat it one more
time? Verse 20, for they could not
endure that which was commanded. Now that's interesting, too.
They just couldn't keep it, even though they said they could and
would. For they could not endure that
which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a spear
or dart. Now that's just God's word about
how holy this place is. The law just declares the holiness
of God. We're going to see down here
that the four living creatures, the words out of their mouth
is holy, holy, holy. Dr. Hawker in his commentary
I was reading tonight says you never find any place in the Bible
where it ever says sovereign, sovereign, sovereign is God or
any of the other characteristics or attributes. The only thing
that we ever find in these triplets is holy, holy, Now, if you have a God that is
holy, you have a God that is sovereign. You have a God that
rules. You have a God that redeems. You have a God, all of the other
characteristics and attributes. But if you're just touting one
of the characteristics and attributes, then you don't have this God. This God is holy, and he's thrice
holy. Mentioned in Isaiah chapter six,
mentioned here about those four living creatures, the King James
uses the word beast, and that's an atrocity. They're just wonderful
living creatures. And their comment is holy, holy,
holy. It's the Lord. Now notice here,
Hebrews chapter, uh, 12, it says in verse 21. And so terrible was the site
that Moses said, I indeed fear and quake, but you are calm. You're calm. We're not come to
that place. Lord doesn't save anybody at
that place. Lord doesn't give any hope at that place. There's
no peace at that place. There's only fear at that place,
and we are invited to come boldly to the throne of grace. We're
invited to come on friendly terms to this throne. We're invited,
even though there is thundering and lightning, which is just
pictorial of His great grace and protective power to us, Even
though it's going on, we're coming in quietly, respectfully, awestruck
about the greatness of our God, but coming in boldly to the throne
of grace. As it says here, you're come
to Mount Zion, under the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General
Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to the God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just
men made perfect. We've come to Mount Zion and
we're approaching that as we step into this book. God allows
us to be in this position every day of our life after he regenerates
us. This is not a once, one-time
deal. I get to go to the throne of
grace today. I've been waiting for years. No, it's an everyday
activity. that we get to approach the throne
of grace. We're there as much as we'll
ever be there, but we get to approach it every day. We get
to come in boldly every day. We get to see the grace of God
every day. And all of this respectful honor
that he is displaying there, the thundering and the lightning,
there is no fear in it to God's people. The cross is not fearful. Blood is not fearful. Everything
about the cross, God's people say, thank you, God. We would
never say, as has been said, if I were here, I wouldn't have
let it happen. We would say, it better happen. We need this. We need this sacrificial lamb.
We need this redemptive lamb. We need this sacrifice. We are
desperate. The lamb which taketh away the
sin of the world. Now, if you would go back to
the book of the Psalms, Psalm 68, as we think about this lightning
and thundering, these do not pose a danger, but it's still,
it's still respect and honor and thanksgiving. There is no
fear for the saints to approach the throne of God now. We find
in here in the book of the Psalm, Psalm 68, that we are awestruck. Psalm 68 and verse 35. We are awestruck. We're awestruck
at a sunset. Boy, when we see a beautiful
sunset, we're awestruck. We were up there in those mountains.
We got up at 2.30 in the morning. So we could start our trek up
into the mountains at 3.30, and halfway up this mountain, we
stopped and looked heavenward, because there's no light. I mean,
there's no porch lights, and there's no night lights. There's
just stars, millions of them, bright. We just stopped. We were
awestruck. Even those guys that could care
less were awestruck. We just heavenward. the constellations,
the Big Dipper, the Polaris, the North Star. We stopped in
our tracks. We just, they were so bright,
so beautiful. We're awestruck with a sunset. We're awestruck. You look, we
saw the Tamaracks turning yellow up there. Thousands of them across
those panoramic views. We're just awestruck at the beauty
of God's world. awestruck at God. We come into
his presence through his word. Our tongues are stopped. Our
jaws drop. His greatness is so great. I've said this a hundred times
since I've been here and I'll just keep saying it. He's never
found to be less than we thought. Now we may find people that way.
But we'll never find God that way. He is always greater than
we thought, greater than we anticipated, greater than we found him yesterday,
even in the word. Now notice this, Psalm 68, verse
35. The scriptures share this. It
says, O God, thou art terrible out of thy holy places. We're
awestruck. That word terrible, I mean, carries
with it the thought of being awestruck. stepping into his
presence, our mouth stops and our jaw drops. It's so overwhelming. He goes on to say here, the God
of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people, blessed
be God. Now, if we just stop there and
says, oh God, that weren't terrible. In our vernacular, in our language,
We'd say, what in the world? But let's read the rest of the
verse. He says there, out of thy holy places, the Lord of
Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people. Blessed
be God. Let the thunder go on. Let the
lightning strike. Whatever it means, it is significant
to us in the fact that he is God and beside him there is none
else. He is the one that gives his
strength to his people. He's the one, he's the God of
Israel and give us strength and power to his people. You know
what that means? He's our motor. In him we live and move and have
our being. It is in him that we have all
that we are ever going to be and all that we're ever going
to have. He is our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
He is all our power. One of the, my favorite cartoonist
doesn't do his cartoons anymore, but I have a collection of them.
Gary Larson, Farside. And he showed in one of his cartoons
the boneless chicken ranch. And all the chickens can't get
up, you know, because they're boneless. And I get a kick out
of him. I get a kick out of that. And
without Christ, that's us. We're just boneless. We have
no, we can't do anything. He is our structure. He's the
one that upholds us. He is the one that underpinions
us. He's the one that gives us breath and life. Turn with me to Joel. Joel. Joel Amos Obadiah Jonah. Joel, last chapter of the book
of Joel, chapter three. Joel 3, 16. The Lord also shall roar out
of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and
the earth shall shake. Don't stop there. Let's keep
going. Now he's talking about his power. One day he was fed up, he opened
up the earth and swallowed, I mean opened up the earth. One day he sent a great fish
to pick up one man. One day he spoke to one man and
says, you know, I realize that you think you're the only one,
but I have 7,000 that have not bowed the knee to Baal. How gracious God is in those
times to come to one and share with him, I'm the God and I have
7,000 of my anointed elect that have not bowed the knee to Baal.
That's an encouragement to us. Now let's read the rest of this
verse. Verse 16. But the Lord will be the hope
of his people and the strength of the children of Israel. Do
as you will. Roar as you want. Lightning as
you feel it. Thunder as you care. But you
are our hope. You're all our peace. You're
all our hope. As he shares here in verse 16,
the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of
the children of Israel. Do as you please, but you're
our hope. Job, he said there, it is written,
that I've heard of you with the hearing
of the ear, but now my eye seeth you. Now, as we close this, go back
to the book of Revelation with me, chapter four. The latter
part of that, it says that there are seven lamps of fire burning
before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Now,
there's not seven spirits of God, seven Holy Spirits. Word
seven is complete. Now, there's two sides of this. He is everything we need. Complete. The Holy Spirit is everything
we need for regeneration. Complete. And on his side, he
is all power. and he does whatsoever the covenant
of grace declares. The Holy Spirit is complete and
he is everything complete that we need. We'll not see God without
regeneration. We'll not see God without him
revealing Christ to us. It is the complete revelation.
We'll not learn a wit on our own. We must be revealed to us.
We'll not learn anything from God unless God gives it to us
through his Holy Spirit. He is the complete revelation.
He is the completeness of the book. He is the complete trainer.
He is the complete studier. He is the complete giver. He
is the complete, everything about him is absolute, complete. He
is the seven, complete Spirit of God. And he has everything
that we need, and God supplies it completely, without reservation. We have a need, we must be, he
teaches us. He's the only one that can teach
us. Now we have teachers. God uses people to teach us,
but it's the Holy Spirit that brings it to our heart. We can
hear for a thousand years, and one day, bingo, the lights come
on, we see the grace of God. We thought we did or we didn't
care we did, but one day on the road to Damascus, Saul of Tarsus
had his eyes opened and God quickened him. And it was so complete by
the seven spirits of God, the complete spirit of God. Everything
about it was absolute, what Paul needed and couldn't supply, but
was given by the complete Spirit of God. And so, around the throne
is the Spirit of God in His completeness, and He is to the 4 and 20 elders,
He is all their need. He teaches them, trains them,
leads them, directs them, walks with them. He's the complete
walk, the complete trainer. And the same is true about everyone
that's in the church of God. He is our completeness. When it comes to the interpretation
of this book, it is the Holy Spirit that teaches us. And when
he's teaching us, the Lord Jesus Christ said about the Holy Spirit,
when he has come, he will. testify of me. So if we're off
on a track and we're away from Christ, it's not the Holy Spirit
that's leading us. The Holy Spirit will lead us
to see Christ. The Holy Spirit will not lead
us away from Christ. And I'll say this, the Holy Spirit
will never, ever lead God's people to go against the law of God.
And we're not kept by the law. We're not saved by the law. And
it's not our guide for life, but the Holy Spirit will never
lead us to lie about God. The Holy Spirit will never lead
us to bear false witness about God. The Holy Spirit will cause
us to confess Christ and praise God. To this side and to this side,
he gets blamed for a lot of things that he doesn't have a witty
part of. He has one part. I will lead you into all truth.
I will lead you to Christ. I'll teach you of Christ. I'll
teach you of holiness. I'll teach you of righteousness.
I'll teach you, and it's a complete teaching. Verse six, before the throne
there was a sea of glass like in the crystal. In the midst
of the throne and round about the throne were four living creatures
full of eyes. And before and behind, and I
like that, they see the past and they see the future. And
they're in it. And I believe these are just
declarations of the gospel. various aspects of the message
of Christ. He is my son of man. He is my king. He is my servant. And he is my God. They declare
that so simply. Let's not leave the simplicity
that is in Christ. Thank you.