That's good, wasn't it, Marty?
Oh, boy. I appreciate that. That's a great
blessing. We've had two wonderful presentations
in special music today. And thank both Suzanne and James
for blessing us with your music. I'm so thankful for David's ability
in playing the piano and Marty's ability in playing the organ. They're such a blessing to me.
I've always loved, just about as far back as I can remember,
I've loved the music that honors God and I appreciate the musicians
diligently, prepare, practice, and do what they do for the glory
of God and to be a blessing to the children of God. So thank
y'all for ministering to us in music. Let's go back to that passage
that Brother Joe read to us from Revelation chapter 4. Let me again ask God to bless
the service. Dear Father, it is such an honor for us to
meet in the name of your only begotten Son. to speak again
of the glories of our God, the faithfulness of your servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and that redemption he accomplished by
his sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. And we know that
all he intended to accomplish He did indeed finish to your
satisfaction. And you have elevated Him. You have exalted Him to a position
over all. And our Savior is the sovereign
of the universe. And we rejoice to know that one
who is so near to us, even our brother, is the God who reigns over all. Help us, help me to lift him
up tonight and help these who listen, both in the building
and those who have joined us by way of the internet, Lord,
help us all to worship and adore and magnify the name of King
Jesus. We thank you for him, Father.
We thank you for your grace that you gave us in him before the
world began. Speak now by your spirit, for
Jesus' sake, amen. As we look in Revelation chapter
4, John begins this fourth chapter with these words, after this
I looked, and the question ought to be asked, after what? After this, after what? Well,
in the first, very first chapter, of Revelation, he has seen a
vision of the exalted Christ Jesus. The Savior spoke to him. He said, I'm the one who is dead,
but I'm alive forevermore. I've got the keys to death and
hell. He's been exalted because he
finished the Father's work of redemption. He saved the Father's
covenant children. He redeemed us back to God. And
he saved us by his grace. He made us righteous by his own
faithfulness to God. And he revealed himself to John
as the Exalted One. And then after this, after John
saw that vision of our Lord, and then after our Lord spoke
to John and said, now write these things, these letters, and write
them to seven different churches in Asia Minor. These churches
are typical of a picture of the entire church of our Lord Jesus
Christ at any time during, in between our Lord's first advent
and its second advent week. The seven churches are not to
be, don't divide them into, well, different phases of life or different
periods of time. But really the condition of those
churches, the seven fold conditions of those churches, that's the
way the Lord's church is always. You got some who are like Ephesus,
their love has grown weak and they've left their first love.
Others are faithful. Others are lukewarm like the
church at Laodicea. And of course you can read and
you ought to read the second and third chapters of the book
of Revelation. And you'll read what the Lord
had to say as he visited, as he visited those candlesticks. And he wrote a letter then to
each of the the seven preachers, and those letters were read to
the various congregations. After this, John now sees another vision. The vision that he is given in
chapters four and five consists of a vision of the greatness
of God, and that to our God, his people are most valuable
to him. And as I'm going to lay out,
if God the Spirit would enable me, I wanna lay this out for
you in chapter four, that which is the very theme of the chapter,
chapters four and five, is the throne of God, from which God
rules. You see, when you get to, and
of course, I preached through Revelation here a few years ago,
but when you get to chapter six, That's when the troubles and
the difficulties arise for the people of God, of which we're
all partakers. All of God's people suffer to
some degree in various ways according to the purpose of God, and we
can better deal with those things as we understand that our God
is the one who governs all things. And the Spirit of God is not
going to instruct John to write about the difficulties that we're
all going to experience beginning in the sixth chapter until, first
of all, he gives us this blessed assurance, our God reigns. If you can remember that. When
you encounter these troublesome times in life, be they sorrows,
diseases, disappointments, whatever they may be, you've always got
to remember this, and if you will remember this, it'll help
you. God rules, God governs over these
things. Nothing happens to you by accident. Now we say, we say if we fall
and hurt ourselves, we say, well, I had an accident. And to us,
it is an accident, but with God, all things are on purpose. There
are no accidents with God. And that which John is made to
see in chapters four and five is that God rules over all for
the good of his people to fulfill his purpose. As Joe read to us
from Revelation chapter four. You'll notice all of this chapter
is about the glory of God, the glory of the one who governs,
and it's about his people. This is how God views things. This is what's important to God.
And I guess this is the right way to say it. There are two
things vital to God, two things that occupies God's time and
purpose. And if I'm not saying it right,
forgive me. I don't know exactly how to say
it, really. But I know two things are vital
to God. His eternal purpose and His eternal
people. And everything that we view from
this chapter is viewing from heaven's glory as God sees things. I know John looks, he looks into
heaven. In the title of the message is,
John looked into heaven. But everything is set forth for
John and for us so that we may understand as God views things
in glory and God dwells in eternity. He is not bounded by time. He is not bounded by space. He's everywhere all the time. There is no past with God. There
is no future with God. He is the great I am. I am. And that which glorifies him and that which
he focuses on is his own magnificence, his own glory fulfilling his
eternal purpose and the welfare of his children. Now what happens
to everything else and everybody else? Indeed, God directs things
for everybody and everything, but he doesn't do so from the
purpose of his loving kindness and his grace. There is no such
thing as God's common grace. God's common grace. Some people
speak of that and say, well, you know, God shows grace to
everybody to some degree. No, he doesn't. God is good to all of his creation,
but he shows grace only to his people. There's no grace for
the ungodly. There's no grace for those who
perish. There's no grace for those who
die in their own filth and in their own wretchedness and unrighteousness. There's no love of God for them. There's only everlasting damnation. What is important to God? His
glory and His people. And as you face the various difficulties
in life that you have to face, and there are some people who
have some very severe trials, if you're gonna get through them
and kind of retain your sanity, you've got to keep this in mind,
there is in glory a throne. and the one who is seated upon
that throne is your Savior. He's the one who bought you.
He's the one who redeemed you. He's the one who loved you in
an everlasting love. And He cannot bring anything
that is ultimately bad into your life. It will all work together
for good. The scripture says, after this,
I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. Oh, heaven. What a subject. As we sang that last song, I was very taken back by these
words. He says in the fourth stanza,
I will not gaze at glory. What's he mean? He's talking
about we're going to dwell with him in Emmanuel's land. Oh, you
know where Emmanuel's land is? That's heaven. but this songwriter
says, I will not gaze at glory. You hear people talk about heaven.
Well, we go on preaching about heaven and preach about the streets
of gold and the walls of Jasper and the pearly gates and they
describe all of that, but here's what this songwriter says, I'm
not gonna gaze at glory. I'm not gonna be paying attention
to what the floor is made of. I'm not gonna be paying attention
to what the walls are made of. I'm gonna have eyes only for
the King of glory, that's all. And when I hear somebody, and
every once in a while I'll look up on the internet and try to
listen to a message on heaven, they miss the whole thing. Because
heaven is heaven because of who's there, the Lamb of God. If he wasn't there, it wouldn't
be heaven. And I'll tell you this, wherever
he is, that's where heaven is. That's right, wherever he is,
that's where heaven is. I want to be with him, and I'm
going to be with him. John says, after these things,
behold, I looked and behold, a door was opened in heaven.
Well, heaven, who's going to heaven? Well, it isn't everybody. It's just the elect of God, the
chosen of God. those who've been washed in the
blood of the Lamb, those who've been robed in the garments of
God's great salvation. That's who's going. Later in
the book of Revelation, John will write, as the Spirit of
God gave him the words to write, there shall no wise enter in
anything that defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination,
nor idolaters, or maketh a lie. Well, Lord,
who's going in? Those that are written in the
Lamb's book of life. That's what it says in Revelation
21, 27. Everyone who goes to heaven goes
to heaven on purpose. They were destined for heaven.
They could not wind up anywhere else except heaven. Because they
were chosen in Jesus Christ unto salvation before He ever made
the world. These are the Lord's people.
These are His favorites. These are His sons and daughters. These are the ones to whom he
purposed to give grace and glory. And if he gives grace, he'll
surely give glory. Glory always follows grace. All who go to heaven have trusted
in the Lord Jesus. They believed him. They've turned
their backs on all of their so-called righteousness and goodness, works,
merits. And they said, it's all loss,
it's no good. My only hope is Christ. My hope
is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's what all the saints of
God say. We don't go digging up a profession
of faith we made 30 years ago and say, I know I'm saved because
of what I did 30 years ago. I remember that little white
church and the building was clabbered or whatever, walls, wood walls. And I remember going down to
the front and praying through, no, no, no, no, no. I wish I'd
hear somebody and start saying something about what the Lord.
The Lord saved me. The Lord did something for me.
I was against him. And he broke down my barrier. He broke my free will and crushed
it to pieces. And he made a welcome for himself
in my heart. Who's going to that happy land? Those who are saved by the grace
of God. Chosen unto salvation, redeemed,
effectually called by the Spirit. They fell in love with Christ. Fell in love with the bridegroom. You see, our worthiness, those
who enter into heaven are worthy to go, made worthy in Christ
Jesus. He is our meateness. He is our
worthiness. He is our qualification. You
can forget about anything you've ever said, done, or thought as
far as that will qualify me to get into heaven. Your qualification
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's your qualification. I
tell you, we plead the blood of Christ only. Well, so we know
who's going to heaven. What's going on in heaven? What's
happening in heaven? What do people do there? Well,
we know it's paradise because the Savior said to the believing
thief, today you'll be with me in paradise. But what are they
doing? People in heaven are occupied
with worship. I've said this before, if you
don't enjoy worshiping God here, you don't enjoy hearing of Christ,
of his magnificence, of how wonderful he is, that he's all in all. If you don't enjoy hearing Jesus
Christ preached, you wouldn't be comfortable in heaven. You
just, you wouldn't fit in at all. It just wouldn't be right
for you because you'd be looking for, looking for something that you've
done or thinking something you've done qualified you and then you'd
get up into heaven and you'd be looking around, looking around
for mama and daddy and grandma and grandpa and so forth. I tell
you what, when John, when he looked into heaven, he writes
nothing about, now Joe read this to us and you read along with
him. He didn't write anything about seeing his grandparents
in heaven. HE ONLY WRITES ABOUT THE THRONE
OF GOD. THAT'S THE FIRST THING THAT CAPTURED
HIS ATTENTION. AND AS YOU GO THROUGH CHAPTER
4 AND CHAPTER 5, THAT'S ALL THAT HE'S OCCUPIED WITH. THE GLORY
OF THE THRONE OF GOD AND THE ONE WHO SAT UPON THE THRONE.
WHAT'S GOING ON IN HEAVEN? WELL, WONDERFUL FAMILY REUNIONS. WELL, IT IS A FAMILY REUNION,
BUT IT'S GOD'S FAMILY. It's God's family united around
the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. Won't it
be wonderful to be there and with a perfect heart and an unwavering
mind? just to fix your heart and soul
on the Lamb of God with nothing interfering with your thought
processes at all. Now, that'd be heaven. Just to be occupied with Him.
One of the things I'm constantly asking God for, for me and for
you, oh Lord, help us to just be occupied with your Son. We're so, we got so many carnal
things going on, and I know there are responsibilities and things
like that that we've got to give our attention to. I understand
that. But we ought to be more totally
committed to, dedicated to, focused on our wonderful Lord. You see, as you focus upon Christ
Jesus, you stop worrying. Somehow another anxiety just
leaves you for a little bit. I tell you, the nearest that I, the nearest that I feel
that I am to the Lord, if that's the right way to say that, is
when I'm here worshiping with the saints of God. There are some wonderful times
when we gather together and for a little bit, everything else
is like closed out. It's just shut out. And this
is kind of rare that we can go for 45 or 50 minutes or an hour
that our minds don't wander, but we focus on the Savior. I'll tell you what heaven's gonna
be like. Focusing on Him all the time. Of course, there is
no time in heaven. but we'll focus on him forevermore. And we're not gonna be caught
up in what Emmanuel's land looks like. That's not the comfort
of heaven. I've talked to many a dying believer. I don't say, well, you know,
soon you'll be clicking up your heels on the streets of gold.
What? Well, we'll be. How's that gonna
help me? But what about this, soon you'll
be in the Savior's presence. Oh, can it be? Can it be that
I should be close to the throne of God and the Lamb of God? Can it be that I'll be numbered
among these saints? Well, John says, after this I
looked, and behold, a door was opened into heaven. Boy, that's
important. A door is opened into heaven.
Christ said, I'm the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall go in and out and find pasture. I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And John said, and then I heard
as it were a trumpet. The first voice I heard was like
the sound of a trumpet. It was talking to me. I used to play a trumpet. I know
several did, Joe did, David does. He plays in an orchestra and
maybe some of the rest of you. I'll tell you what, it's kind
of hard to tune out a trumpet. When we were in church camp,
that's where Nancy and I met, I played reverie in the morning
and taps at night. And I made sure everybody heard
it too. Especially her cabin. I'd go
right up to her cabin, all the cabins, they didn't have windows,
they had screens. And early in the morning, about
6.30, because I also led the hikes in the morning, I played
Reverend as loud as I could right into her cabin. Kind of hard
to ignore that. I figured she may not like me,
but she's not going to ignore me. I guess somehow or another
it must have got through. But anyhow, John says the first
voice I heard was like a trumpet. He's already heard that voice
back in Revelation 1. It's the voice of the Son of
God, and it got his attention. I tell you, it says several things
to us here. Number one, that the Lord's got
to give us the effectual call of grace. He'll get your attention. As long as it's just violins
you just hear. Just so many words, nothing's
gonna happen. But when he blows the trumpet,
the gospel trumpet, and he blows it in your heart, it'll stir
you. It'll stir you. And secondly,
it will definitely get your attention forever. This voice was talking to him,
and the voice said, come up hither. I'll show you things which must
be hereafter. They must be because God has
ordained them. Now, this is where a lot of people
go wrong. They think, well, okay, these
are things that have gotta happen hereafter, and you read this
as if this was written today. No, this was written 2,000 years
ago. So 2,000 years ago, the voice said, I'm gonna show or
manifest to you things which must be hereafter, and a lot
of them have already happened since John received this vision. So he says in the second verse,
let me just, I'll just make a few comments as I go down immediately. I was in the spirit. It's like
he loses all touch with the physical or carnal things. And he sees
now with his soul. And the first thing he sees,
behold, behold, he saw a throne set. in heaven, and one who sat
on that throne. Now the word set means fixed. This throne is fixed. It stands
for the sovereign authority of God. It stands for universal
dominion and power. Like our Lord Jesus said, all
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel. He's got all authority. He's
got all dominion. That's the throne of God. He
sits on the throne. He sits on the throne, and that
throne is set. It's fixed. Well, how did he
get there? By way of a bloody cross. He's
been exalted because he is faithful to the Father to execute God's
terms of redemption. He himself being the Redeemer
and the means by which he redeemed us was by his substitutionary
death, his sacrifice to God that God might be just and justify
the ungodly. John is now, he's fixed on this
throne. This is what occupies his attention. In fact, In chapter 4 and chapter
5, the word throne is mentioned
17 times. This is the very center of attention,
the throne of God. And then in verse 3, he begins
to speak about the one who sits upon the throne. He that sat
upon the throne. He was like a jasper. That means transparent. This
is purity. He's pure. He's holy. And a sardine
stone, that's red. He's a God of justice and righteousness. There was a rainbow round about
the throne in sight like unto an emerald. You think of the
rainbow that God sent in the book of Genesis. That was a token
of the covenant that God made with Noah. So I'll never destroy
the earth again with water. And this puts us in mind of the
covenant of grace. Oh, how I love that covenant
of grace. Like David, this is all my hope,
this is all my desire, that's all my salvation's in the covenant. My salvation's really not in
my faith, it's not in my repentance, it's not in my feelings, it's
not in my doings, it's in the covenant of God. He'll be faithful
to his covenant promise. Then he says, round about the
throne were There are four and 20 seats. These are lesser thrones. And on those seats or thrones,
I saw four and four and 20 elders sitting. Well, what'd they look
like? He says, they're all clothed
in white raiment. And they all had on their head
crowns of gold. Now, who are these 24 elders?
Well, they picture all the church of God. 12, 12 sons of Jacob, 12, 12 apostles in the New Testament.
So this picture is the Old Testament saints and the New Testament
saints. It's picture 12. The reason you get to the, get
on over to chapter seven, you find the 144,000. Twelve is certainly a factor
in that number. And that's all the people of
God. All the Old Testament and New Testament saints. So John,
he looks into heaven. The Lord Jesus said, I'm going
to show you some things now. And as John looked into heaven,
he sees one, one magnificent throne. The Lord's on that throne. symbolizes his dominion, his
sovereignty, but then he sees 24 lesser throne. These are all the saints of God.
And what you'll notice is they're the same number of people as
there are number of seats or number of thrones. There's plenty
of room in heaven, but it's not gonna be any empty seats. Everybody
who's supposed to be there is going to be there. And John sees
them. And he sees that they all look
alike. They all got on white robes. Well, that's the righteousness
of the saints. We learn that from Revelation
chapter 19. That's the righteousness of our
Lord Jesus imputed to and given to His saints. That's why it's
called the righteousness of the saints. It's not righteousness
that we've invented or worked up, but it's righteousness that
has been freely, graciously given to us. The righteous obedience
of the Lord Jesus to his death, all clothed in white raiment.
And they had on their heads, all of them had crowns of gold.
Now, I'm bringing this message this evening in order, I'm kind
of setting you up for something. Because I'm setting up my message
for next Sunday night, believers and their crowns. Believers and their crowns. They're
crowns. That's something I've been studying
of late, just going through the Bible. Believers and their crowns. And here's what I have found
out. All believers have crowns. And all believers have exactly
the same number of crowns. Don't think that you're gonna
have more crowns than another believer if you do more for the
Lord. That's not the way it works.
It isn't that we're saved by grace, but our position in heaven
is determined by works. That's wrong. That's false. That's false. As I'll show you
next week, that believing thief who died at, at the last moment
of his life. God saved him just before he
died. He went on to glory and he got the same crowns that Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob and later Paul and John and all the rest
of the apostles and all the saints of God, they all get the same
crowns. because we're rewarded for, listen
now, we're rewarded for the obedience of our surety and substitute
the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't you try to get yourself
in there and squeeze in on, well, I'm gonna get a few more crowns
than somebody else. I'm gonna show you next week,
we'll all have the same crowns. Now look at verse five, out of
the throne proceeded lightnings and thunders and voices. Fills you with, fills you with
awe. It's the throne of God. And yet,
and yet, we're told to come boldly to the throne of grace. We have access, we're the Lord's
children, we have access to that throne. There were lamps of fire,
seven lamps of fire, perfection burning before the throne, the
seven spirits of God. Seven's a number of perfection,
not that there's seven spirits, but the spirit himself is perfect. And then before the throne, there
was a sea of glass like into crystal. Then in the midst of
the throne, around about the throne, were
four beasts, four beasts full of eyes before and behind. Some
say this is the cherub, cherubims or the seraphims. It's not angels. I know these are not angels.
Whoever they are, they're not angels because you get into the
fifth chapter and you find out that whoever these are, they've
been redeemed. Angels are not redeemed. The
seraphims are not redeemed. The cherubims are not redeemed. Who's redeemed? Sinners are redeemed. So these are not angelic creatures. I think they picture preachers
of the gospel. Four beasts, each one of them
had six wings about him. Back up to verse seven. The first
beast was like a lion. God's preachers, due to the grace
of the Spirit of God, they're bold as a lion. The second beast
is like a calf. The word really is like an oxen.
A worker. A laborer. God's preachers aren't
lazy. God's preachers labor in the
word. They study. They pray. They seek God's face. They seek a message from God
for their hearers. The third beast had a face as
a man. We know this. Every preacher
is just a man. He's God's man. He's a man God's
taught the gospel. And he's a man God has put in
charge. But he's still just a man. So
don't you put any trust in him. Don't you elevate him to a position
that he's not supposed to occupy. Esteem God's preachers, yes. Esteem them highly for their
work's sake. But don't you worship a preacher.
Don't you exalt a preacher. Don't you set him above everybody
else and say, oh, there's nobody like him. Let me tell you something.
He's just like everybody else by nature. He's just like everybody
else. And when you elevate a man to
a position that he has no right to occupy, you put him in a dangerous
position because God's going to have to show you he's just
a man. But God uses one sinner to preach
to other sinners of the grace of God. And then the fourth beast
was like a flying eagle, quick to go. We got the message. I'll
go preach where you want me to preach. I look at verse eight,
and the four beasts had each of them six wings about him.
They were full of eyes within. They understand. Understand some
things, not that we know all there is in the word of God.
I bet you I can ask you, you say, preacher, I bet you I can
ask you a question you can't answer. Well, hey, I have no
doubt about that because I'm not a walking Bible. I don't have all the answers.
But I do know what you need to know. That's what God's preachers,
isn't that right, Alan? We know what you need to know.
You need to know something about God, the God you've offended,
the God whose law you've transgressed. And you need to know the only
remedy for your disease of sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
why we preach Him. So you guys, you preach Him every
time you're in the pulpit. You bet we do. If we don't, it's
shame on us. Because you see, here we've got
several people here tonight. I have no idea what your standing
is before God, because I can't see your heart. But I do know
this, the only hope you've got is the only hope I've got. That
one who sits upon the throne, who left it for a little bit,
came down here to this earth, lived and died and rose again
to satisfy God's justice and he went back to heaven and God
said, now sit here on this set throne, a fixed throne. You got all dominion, you got
all power. He's the only hope you got. Somebody said to Brother Scott
Richardson, or said about Scott Richardson one time, all he does
is preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. He said, put it on
my tombstone. You think that's a criticism
that I don't like? Man, that's the best thing, man,
you could say about a preacher. All he did was preach the gospel.
Well, I hope so. I hope so. Look at verse nine,
what do these beasts do? In verse eight it says, they
rest not day and night, talking about the holiness of God. That's
why there has to be a sacrifice, because of the holiness of God.
In verse nine, when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks
to him that sat upon the throne, who liveth forever and ever,
the four and 20 elders, that is all the saints of God, that's
a symbolic number, The four and 20 elders, they fall down before
him that sat upon the throne, and they worship him. They worship
him that liveth forever and ever, and they take them, those crowns
that he put on their head, they cast them before the throne,
saying, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and
power. You're worthy. Because anything
we've done for your glory and for the good of your church is
only because of your grace working through me. That's all. So thou art worthy, O Lord, I'll
cast these crowns at your feet. You're worthy to receive glory
and honor and power for thou has created all things and for
thy pleasure they are and were created. John got a look into
heaven. He looked into heaven. You ask
somebody tomorrow, say, you know, if the Lord let you look into
heaven, what do you think you'd see? There's no telling what
kind of answers you'd get. And then you can come back and
say, well, I'll tell you what, he did let somebody look in.
His name was John. And I'll tell you what he saw.
He saw the throne of the Lord, and he saw the Lord's people,
how near to him they are, and therefore how dear to him they
are. Well, may the Lord bless. Father,
we thank you for your grace given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. It sure is an honor for us to
meet together and just try to worship you through the merits
of our King. None of us, Lord, can render
perfect worship to you. We can't do that. That's an impossibility. So we're thankful we have a mediator
who takes our prayers, our Bible reading, all of which is tainted
and polluted by sin. And our Lord Jesus, he bathes
them in his blood. He sweetens them with the delightful
ointment of his own righteousness. And then he presents them to
you. Father, here's the worship of your people. And we and our
worship are therefore accepted by you. It's a wonderful gospel,
all of grace, full of grace and full of truth. So give us tonight,
your people, give us a blessed assurance that no matter what
happens in our lives or in the lives of those who are dear to
us, you're governing everything,
your throne, You rule your thrones in the heavens and you have dominion
over all things. There's nothing, nothing that
ever happens but what our sovereign savior isn't. Omnipotent and has his way in
all things. We rejoice in Christ, in whose
name I pray, amen. Okay.