open to Revelation chapter 4. Those last two songs, the one
we sang as a congregation and then the one that Susanna just
sang, the words were written by John Newton. He's most famous
for writing the words of amazing grace He wrote lots of other
songs as well. He's just one of my favorite
writers, excellent preacher of the gospel, and an excellent
writer of lyrics that we so enjoy singing. The most unusual thing has happened
to John. John is one of the favorite disciples
of our Lord Jesus. Peter, James, and John were often
to be found in the company of the Savior. He took them into
his confidence. He spent much time with them. They were with him when he went
up to the Mount of Transfiguration. John saw things that were absolutely
glorious. But in the fourth chapter of
Revelation, he sees something that he's not going to get over
it. If you look in chapter 4 in verse
1, after this I looked, Revelation 4, 1. After this I looked and
behold, a door was opened in the heaven. The first voice which
I heard was, as it were, of a sounding like a trumpet, he said, speaking
with me, saying, come up hither. I will show thee things which
must be hereafter. Immediately I was in the Spirit,
and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the
throne." During his lifetime, John had seen many unusual things. This is something that is altogether
different. It's as though he leaves his
body at the word of the Lord. And he enters up into the very
presence of God. We often read today, there are
books out and people who have said that they have had some
sort of experience, perhaps a deathbed experience, and they have entered
into the presence of God. And they have seen things and
listened to things. You can't put any confidence
in those. You say, preacher, how do you
explain what they have to say? Well, I can't, and it's not for
me to do so. But I'll tell you this. In the
scriptures, you've got two great apostles who were escorted up
into the third heaven. Go back to 2 Corinthians chapter
12 of 2 Corinthians. Here we have the Apostle Paul He is speaking to us. Notice
what He says here in 2 Corinthians 12 and verse 1. It is not expeeded
from me, thou list to glory. He said I shouldn't boast. It
isn't profitable to me. He said I'll come to visions
and revelations of the Lord. And then he says this, he says,
I knew a man in Christ above 14 years ago, and of course he's
speaking in third person. He says, whether in the body
I cannot tell or whether out of the body I cannot tell, God
knoweth. He said, such an one was called
up to the third heaven. I knew such a man whether in
the body or out of the body, I cannot tell, God knoweth how
that he was, raptured or caught, delivered up into paradise. Where is paradise? That's where
the Lord Jesus is. Remember the believing thief
said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. The Savior said, verily I say
unto you, today thou shalt be with me in, what's the next word? Paradise. Here's the Apostle
Paul. He says, I went up to paradise. He went up to where King Jesus
is. He went up to where all the saints
have gone. He's up into the presence of
the Lord. He says this in verse 4, I was
caught up in the paradise, and he says this, I heard unspeakable
words, unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to
utter. In other words, God has forbidden
me to say anything about what I saw, what I witnessed, what
I heard. I can't say. And now back over here in Revelation
chapter 4, here's another apostle. He has also gone up into the
third heaven. He's gone up into the very paradise
of God. But, that which he sees he writes
about. Now, if you're interested in
the things that are in heaven, the things that those who occupy
heaven, the things that they witness, the things that they
behold, then you need to pay attention to this. Don't believe
the books that are written. Those are not inspired. Don't
believe what somebody says. I had an out-of-body experience
and I went up and I saw these beautiful things. Those things
are not trustworthy. This is. Because this is God's
Word. John is taken up into paradise. And I'm not going to go back
over chapter 4 because we basically covered it, but he saw lightnings. He heard thunder. He heard voices. The very first thing he saw was
the throne of God. And that just filled his vision. He didn't say, I saw my mother
and my dad or I saw my grandparents. He didn't say, I saw those that
I used to worship with. He mentions nothing about those. That which filled his vision. That which occupied his mind. And that which he wrote about. is God on His throne. Let this be understood. All of
those who are in glory are occupied with God on His throne. They worship God. He saw all
the saints of God gathered around the throne of the Lord. He heard Songs of worship. Songs of great praise to the
Lord. What is heaven going to be like? I listened many years ago to
a man preach a funeral sermon and I only went because the man
who had died was He was a good friend of mine. I'd known him
since I was back in high school. And he was a builder. The preacher
got up and bragged on him, and then he said, you know, when
he got to heaven, the Lord said, you know, I know you're a builder.
You just add an addition anywhere you want to up here. And the
preacher said, I could just see Brother Jimmy starting to build
a deck in heaven. Is that the kind of stuff that's
going on in heaven? That holy, holy place. Is it about reunions? Families getting together again?
I do believe that those who have who preceded us in death, who
died in Christ Jesus, who were the objects of God's love, the
objects of God's grace, those who were bought with the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, bought with His blood, those who roved
in His righteousness, those to whom the gospel is bought to
them in great They heard with these ears and then they heard
the gospel in their hearts and they were brought to believe
the gospel. I do believe we'll see them again.
I do believe that. And I think we will know them.
We will know them as they will know us. In fact, I think we'll
know everybody in heaven because we're all the family of God.
But it isn't going to be our brothers and sisters in the Lord
that we're going to be occupied with in heaven. That's not what's going to consume
our attention. That's not what's going to arrest
us. When we enter, you think about going to heaven. You think
about entering into the very presence of God. I was speaking to somebody this
week and I said, you know, if when I die, And I go back to God because
God says all souls are mine. And all souls go back to God.
If the Lord of glory meets me and He says, now, James Ferguson
Byrd, why should I let a sinner like you into my holy paradise? If that is the question asked
of me, by my God, by my Creator, by my Sustainer, this is what
I'd say. There's no reason for you to
let me in based on me or what I've done. But O Lord, I plead
the blood and the righteousness of your Son. Let me in for Jesus'
sake. And I told this person I was
talking to, I believe the gates of heaven will open wide open
and the Lord will say, welcome home. Welcome home. And when I get home, all of my
attention is going to be on my elder brother. Because you see, all of the Father
and all of the Spirit that I will ever see with these eyes and
embrace with these arms is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
shall see Him as He is. I'll see Him. I'll see Him. Him who lived for me. Him who
died for me. That one who arose for me, that
one who intercedes for me, that one who has redeemed me, that
one who has reconciled me, I will see Him, I will know Him, I will
recognize Him because I've been brought to love Him. The scripture says we love Him
because He first loved us. I've been brought to believe
Him. Oh listen, everybody in heaven is focused on the throne
of God and Him who sits upon the throne. And this is what
got John's attention immediately. Immediately. He said, I saw a
throne was set. It was fixed in heaven. He doesn't
say anything about the angels. His attention is not upon all
those vast, holy creatures that obey God's will, who are ministering
spirits, who are sent to those who shall be the heirs of everlasting
life. No, His attention is not upon
the angels. His attention is upon the angels,
Lord. It's the one upon the throne. He hears these noises. He sees
a rainbow. He sees a rainbow around the
throne. How can you think of the rainbow
without thinking of a covenant? When God sent the water from
above and the water from the depths of the earth. And He washed
away a godless generation. He brought Noah and his wife,
his sons and his daughters-in-law out. And Noah worshipped God
and God said, I'll put a bow in the sky. I'll never do this
again. That's what God said. I'll never
do this again. I'll never ever destroy this
earth with water again. You think about a rainbow, think
about the covenant of grace. in all of its brilliance, in
all of its beauty, that covenant made between the great members
of the Godhead, wherein God the Father gave to His Son a people
more numerous than the stars in the sky. And the Lord Jesus
received these as a gift. He said, I'll redeem them. I'll
save them. I'll rescue them. I'll buy them. I'll reconcile them. I'll remove
their debt of sin. I'll make them righteous through
my comeliness. And the Spirit of God agreed
to give life, spiritual life, to all those the Father chose
and the Son purposed to redeem. God made a covenant. Every time
I see a rainbow, I'm immediately reminded of that covenant of
grace. And David said of the covenant
of grace, he said, that's all my desire. That's all my hope. That's all my salvation. All
of my salvation is in God's covenant. Oh, I thought salvation was up
to you, preacher. Oh, no. No, it's not up to me
and it's not up to you. This is God's salvation. God's salvation. Jonah, God caused
a great fish to take him in. He swallowed him. Down to the
belly of the great fish he went. No possibility of getting out.
all the seaweed wrapped around him. He's a goner. Men on the ship, those men who
watched Jonah go out into the waters, if they saw him being
swallowed up, they said, goodbye, prophet. There's no possibility of his
recovery. Ask anybody, do you see the size
of that creature that swallowed him? He's a gone Jesse, I'll
tell you. And in the midst of the belly
of that great fish, Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord. If
I'm to be delivered, if I'm to be rescued, there's only one
who can do that. That's God. God spoke to that
great fish and out come Jonah. And I'm telling you, salvation
is not what you do with God. It's not a cooperative act with
God. It's what God does for sinners.
This is God's salvation. Therefore, he gets all the glory
and everybody in heaven is occupied with the Lord Jesus. They're
not doing silly, foolish things in heaven, like building a deck
on to heaven. They're not, as one father told
his son, when his son said, Dad, what is heaven going to be like?
And his dad said, well, my son, he said, think of the most delightful
thing that we do together on the earth. And the little boy
said, well, dad, you and me go fishing. I'm absolutely the happiest,
daddy, when we go fishing together. He said, that's what we'll be
doing in heaven. He said, whatever it is that
people most enjoy on this earth, that's what they'll be doing
in heaven. Now, there is an element of fact in that statement. If what you most enjoy doing
on this earth is worshiping God and listening to the gospel,
reading the scriptures, listening to the songs of Zion, reading
the words of these great hymns that we sing, reflecting upon
them, If this is what brings you the greatest joy, then I'd
say, yep, he's right. Because that's what we'll be
doing in heaven. Here is John. He goes up to heaven. And the Lord doesn't say to him
as He said to the Apostle Paul, He says to the Apostle Paul,
can't write about this. I absolutely sealed your lips. You can't tell anybody what you
saw. I read of another man who died,
who went to heaven, and he came back and he didn't
say anything about it either. Lazarus. That man God raised from the
dead. Christ Jesus, the Son of God, raised him from the dead.
He said, Lazarus, come forth. Well, Lazarus had been dead four
days. You say, well, where was he?
Well, where do you think he was? He was with the Lord. There's
no such thing as soul sleeping. There is no purgatory. There's either a place of awful
punishment Or a place of wonderful joy and happiness. And Lazarus
was one whom Jesus loved. That's what the scripture said.
Jesus loved him. Everybody that Jesus loves goes
to glory. Isn't that right? Everybody he
loves. He came back down here. He never
said a word about what he saw. John does. This is left for Brother
John. He sees things. He hears things. He's an eyewitness of things.
And that which is always in the very center of this great picture
that he, as it were, draws out for us is the very throne of
God. And when we get into chapter
five, he sees in the right hand of the one who sits upon the
throne, a book. A book. But it's a shut book. We know it was a scroll. But
in our English version, it says a book. Written within, written on the
back side. In other words, it's absolutely
filled. But it's not only shut, it's sealed. It's sealed. It has seven seals. And that speaks of something
that is mysterious. Something that is unknown. Something that is unrevealed. It's sealed up. Whatever's in
the book can't be known, won't be known unless the book
is opened. Now, we know, having previously
studied this, that this book indicates to us all of the purpose
of God. Everything that God intends to
do, especially especially with an emphasis on this gospel age. The gospel age is from the first
advent of our Lord Jesus to the second advent of our Lord Jesus. But nothing is revealed, nothing
is to be known because the book is sealed. It's all in there. And John, having seen that, he
then sees a very powerful angel in verse 2. And this very powerful
angel, he stood and he proclaimed this, Who is worthy to open the
book, to loose the seals thereof? Who has a fitness to open the
book? Who is qualified? to open the book, to loose the
seven seals thereof." And John said, no man, no man in heaven,
no man on earth, no man under the earth was able to open the
book or to even look on the book. In other words, nobody had a
fitness for this. There's nobody who is even remotely
qualified to open the book. That book contains everything
that God intends to do. All of God's eternal purpose.
All of His counsels which are wise and good. And they absolutely
pertain to everything. And yet the book is closed. It is sealed. And John says in
verse 4, I wept much. Now this is a most unusual, unusual
thing because we get over into chapter 7 when the saints of
God go to heaven. You know what it says, the Lord
shall wipe away all tears from our eyes. But here's a man who's
crying. He said, there is no weeping
in heaven, I beg your pardon. John wept. He's broken hearted. These are
not just crocodile tears. This is real grief. You see,
John, like all of the people of God, he's interested in God's
eternal purpose. That which is most important
to him is what God intends to do. God's eternal counsel. You may not be interested in
the will of God, but John was interested in the will of God. Today, in most religions, there's
much ado about man's will. John's not interested in man's
will. He's interested in God's will
being done. And he sees the book shut. He sees it sealed. He knows in
His innermost being that everything that's to happen between the
first coming of our Lord Jesus and the second coming of our
Lord Jesus is in that book. And yet it's going to go unrevealed
and unfulfilled if it remains shut. And he weeps. He's a broken-hearted apostle. But then a voice said to him,
don't weep John, for there is no possibility that
the purpose of God will end in failure. It cannot be that that which
God has ordained shall be frustrated or hindered or go unaccomplished. Don't weep, John! Don't weep
about whether or not the will of God is going to be done, whether
or not the counsel of God will be fulfilled, whether or not
that which God has eternally purposed will ever come to pass. Don't weep! Because the purpose
of God is going to be in good hands. And there is one who will
fulfill it, every jot and every tittle of it. Well, who is that? He says in verse 5, Behold, he
is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He's the Lion. He's the Royal
One. He is the Great Messiah. He is the Son of David. He is
the Seed of Abraham. He is God's only begotten Son. He is the Root of David. He came
through a family that was poor. seemingly insignificant. He's just a root out of dry ground,
Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 53. And he says he has prevailed. He has prevailed to open the
book. In other words, there is a fitness
to this one. There is a great qualification
to this one. There is a worthiness to this
one to open the book, to loose the seals thereof. And John said unto him that I look
for six and low in the midst of the throne. Right out there
in the middle. He's not over to the side. No, He doesn't come after Mom
and Dad and Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Joe and Aunt Susie
and then way down yonder is Jesus. I'll get to Him after a while,
after I meet all my family members. No, no, no! In the midst of the very throne
of God, here He is, the One who prevailed. The one who prevailed
over all of the enemies of his people. The one who conquered,
he conquered Satan, he conquered sin, he conquered the world,
he conquered the grave, he conquered death, and he goes on to carry
out and maintain the cause of God. He has gotten the victory! He has prevailed! He's worthy
to open the book. He has a fitness about him because
of who he is and what he did. You see, His worthiness is found
in the fact that He's God. He's God over all, blessed forever. He is the Son of God. But He's the Son of God who stooped
down so low as to join His deity with our
flesh. Why did He do that? because he
took on him the seed of Abraham, and because he took upon himself
the responsibility to save his people from their sins, which
necessitated him suffering and bleeding and dying to satisfy
divine justice. Because God can't suffer, God
can't bleed, God can't die. And a man who's a mere man like
you and me, we can't satisfy, we can't honor God, we can't
even enter into the presence of God to do business with God.
But behold the God-man. One. One. Forever in union. God forever in union with our
flesh. And He does the work of reconciling
us unto God by His death. The voice says, He's prevailed.
He's prevailed. John says, I beheld, I looked. And in the midst of the throne,
verse 6, and of the four beasts, in the midst of the elders stood
a lamb as it had been slain. In other words, get the picture.
I saw the Lamb of God. His blood was fresh. It's fresh
blood. It's like He was just crucified. That's what John was saying.
It's like He just died. I saw the blood. I saw the blood
of the Lamb of God. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. The life of the flesh is in the
blood. This is the Lamb of God, the
bleeding Lamb of God. That's the picture here. Here is the Lamb who stood as
it had been slaughtered. That's the merits. That's the
ever-present merits of His blood. You see, His blood will never
lose its power. It will never lose its power.
Hold your place there and look at 1 John chapter 1. Look at
1 John chapter 1 and verse 7. John didn't see wounds that were
scabbed over. He didn't say this was the lamb
who many years ago died. He said, I saw the lamb as if
he had just been slaughtered. This is the same Lamb John the
Baptist spoke of in John 1 when he said, Behold the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. And this is what in 1
John chapter 1, it's what the Apostle John says, 1 John 1 verse
7, But if we walk in the light, the light of honesty, the light
of the Word of God, as He is in the light, We have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus, Jesus Christ, His Son,
cleanseth us. It doesn't say washed us or cleansed
us, as in the past tense, though it did because His blood did
put our sins away, but this present tense, this is keeps on going,
cleanseth us from all sins. In other words, it never loses
its power. The blood that the Lord Jesus
shed upon the cross of Calvary will never lose its power till
all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more is what
we sing sometimes. There is a fountain. It's the
blood of the Lamb who had been slain as it had been slain. And John said, here's the way
he looked. And remember this is symbolic
language. He says back here in Revelation
chapter 5 and verse 6, having seven horns. What's a horn symbolic
of? Authority and power. Seven is
a number of perfection in the Bible, you know that. Number
of completion, as in seven days in a week. He has seven horns. Our Lord
Jesus has absolute perfect power. There's no weakness in Him. There's
no defect in Him. You who are burdened with the
guilt of your sin, He has all power to forgive, all power to
save. He's not a weak, anemic, pitiful
Savior. He's mighty to save. He's mighty
to save. He's able to save to the uttermost
all that come unto God by Him. Oh, come unto God by Him. You'll
find He's able to save. Able to save. You say, but preacher,
I've done this, I've done that. You hadn't done what anybody
else hadn't done. But it's not just what you've
done, it's what you are. And I'll tell you this, He's
able to save the vilest of sinners. Listen to the scriptures. This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And this is what
old Saul of Tarsus said, of whom I'm chief. He said, He came to
save me. He came to save sinners. He had
seven horns and seven eyes. As the horn speaks of authority
or power, ability, The seven eyes speaks of knowledge. He
has perfect knowledge. Nothing escapes His attention.
So, I'm so bad. I know. And He sees how bad you
are. You don't have any idea how bad
you are. When we have taken the scriptures
and have tried to set before us the blackness of our innermost
beings. It must be said of us what was
said of Solomon. The half has not been told of
his wisdom. The half hadn't been told about
our depravity. We don't really have much of
an idea how bad off we are, do we? But you know who has the
perfect knowledge? He does. He does. He knows you inside and out.
He knows your doubts. He knows your fears. He knows you. And He says in verse 7, He came
and took the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon
the throne. He takes the book. You know why? Because He's worthy. He's qualified. He has a fitness about Him. Nobody
else can save. Nobody else can execute the purpose
of God. Nobody else can fulfill what
God is determined to do. But our great Savior does. Say,
what is the Lord Jesus doing today? He's opening the seals. He's fulfilling the purpose of
God. And to you, my brothers and sisters
in the Lord, who are enduring a trial now, or who have just
come out of one, or if you are not in one now, you will be going
into one probably tomorrow, I say to you, my fellow believers,
my family, those of you who are the family of God, this is our
Savior who governs all things. for the glory of God and the
good of His people. He only does what's best and
what's right for you and for me. And that ought to give us
rest. That ought to give us peace.
This One who is the Lamb upon His throne.