Let's go to Revelation chapter
4. The book of Revelation chapter
4. Our subject is the deity of the
Savior. We know that God the Spirit enlisted Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
to write of our Lord's life in this world. Each was led of the spirit to
write what they wrote. And in many ways, the books are
alike. But they're also different. You
know, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are often sort of lumped together
because they're very similar. There's a lot of overlapping. And the Gospel of John sets forth
things that are not set forth in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Each
is alike. in inspiration, each as alike
in setting forth the Savior. Because all of the Scriptures
set forth Christ Jesus. And these four men, Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John, they set forth the Savior who He is, they
set forth His life, they set forth His death, His resurrection,
and His ascension. Now, though they're all similar,
they're different. Because they seem to focus differently
on the Savior. And I think it's in the book
of Revelation, there's a verse here that I think it seems to
set forth our Savior in these different perspectives of the
four gospel narratives. Look at Revelation chapter 4
and verse 7. Chapter 4, verse 7, John writes
about these beasts. He said he saw four beasts. These
four beasts are before God's throne. The first one, verse
7, was like a lion. The second beast was like an
ox or a calf. The third beast had the face
of a man. And the fourth beast was like
a flying eagle. I think you'll remember that
Ezekiel, in Ezekiel the first chapter, he sets forth these
four living creatures. He has the order a little different,
but it's essentially the same. Because Ezekiel sets them forth
having the likeness of a man, and then a lion, and then an
ox instead of a calf. But, you know, that's okay. It's essentially the same. And
an eagle. So it's in a different order,
but basically the four are the same. Now these, I believe, set
forth gospel preachers. Laborers in words. Those men
who minister the gospel. I don't think they're a special
group of angels. Because whoever these represent,
they've been redeemed. And angels weren't redeemed.
Look over in chapter 5. Over in chapter 5, look at verse
8. Chapter 5, verse 8. When He had
taken the book, this is the Lord Jesus, He's the Lion of the tribe
of Judah, and out of the right hand of Him who sat upon the
throne, He took this book of predestination. This book's written
on the inside, on the outside, it's absolutely full. It's been
sealed up. Everything that God has determined
to happen is in the book. And someone said, who's worthy
to open the book? And nobody was worthy to open
the book. Nobody was worthy to execute all of God's everlasting
decrees. And then John saw, and the others
saw, one step forward. He took the book out of the hand
of Him who sat upon the throne. It's the Lord Jesus. And then
all of heaven began to break out with His adoration and with
His praises. Look at verse 8. When He had
taken the book, the four beasts that we just read about, and
the four and 20 elders. I believe these symbolize all
of the elect of God. It is 12 from the Old Testament,
12 from the New Testament. This is all of God's elect of
all ages. They all fell down before the
Lamb. They all had their harps. They had their vials full of
odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung
a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and open
the seals thereof, for Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us. Unto God. So who are these? You've redeemed us unto God by
Thy blood. Well, who are these four beasts? Well, whoever they are, they're
the redeemed of the Lord. Whoever they are, they've had
their sins washed in the blood of the Lamb. We know that whoever
they are, whatever their real identity, And whatever they symbolize,
they're God's elect. They're robed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus, and they've been washed in His blood. They have no sin. They stand
before God's throne without sin, blameless in His perfection. Now, as I look at this, I don't
think there's any question but what these four beasts are linked. They're linked to the manifestation
of the glories of our Savior. And I think these four, they
accurately summarize the messages of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Let me give it to you. Matthew. In the book of Matthew,
Matthew is led by the Spirit of Grace to set forth our Lord
Jesus as the Lion. He's the Lion. He's the Royal
One. That's why Matthew begins this
way. The book of the generation of
Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Matthew immediately
sets forth our Savior as being Abraham's seed or Abraham's son,
and it goes on to show his kingship, that is, his royal lineage, his
royal ancestry. Matthew begins with Abraham.
And it goes all the way to Joseph, and I'm reading from Matthew
1, Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is
called the Christ. Matthew presents him as the king. Look in Revelation 5 and verse
5. One of the elders said unto me,
Weep not, behold, look, see. focus upon the Lion of the tribe
of Judah? Who is that? He's the root of
David. Well, what has he done? He has
prevailed. He has prevailed. He's gotten
the victory. He is the mighty conqueror. He
is the one who conquered Satan. He conquered our sin. He conquered
death. He conquered the grave. He has
prevailed to open the book. Matthew sets him forth as the
lion. The lion. Then Mark. I believe
Mark sets him forth as that ox or as that calf, which represents
labor and service. The Lord Jesus is God's faithful
servant. And true to the picture, when
you get to the book of Mark, you have no lineage of the Savior.
You have no genealogy of the Savior. You don't have anything
really linking Him to David. You've had that in the book of
Matthew. He is as the ox or the calf, which is the figure of
service. We read in the Scriptures, Thou
shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. In other
words, the ox or the calf that labors, He is to have the fruit
of His labors. Even as our Lord labored to save
His people from their sins, and He will have the reward of His
labors. The reward of his labors is his
exaltation, and all those in whose stead he suffered, bled,
died, and arose. He will have the fruit of his
labors. We read Proverbs chapter 4. Much increase is by the strength
of a calf. And of the increase of our Lord's
kingdom, there is no end. He has almighty strength. He
has the power to save. In John chapter 17, He said that
He's been given all power over all flesh to give eternal life
to as many as the Father gave Him. Now, while it is true that
the ox or the calf is to receive the fruit of His labors, yet
the ox or the calf that labors really labors for somebody else. That is, he has a master. He
has someone to whom he answers. And while our Lord Jesus Christ
labored and reaped the rewards of his labors, he labored first
of all for the Father. Because God cannot do anything
for us. The Son of God could not do anything
for us until He first of all did something for Himself. Our
Lord Jesus labored for God. He voluntarily, now He is equal
with the Father, but He volunteered to become the servant of Jehovah. and He served Him all the days
of His life with that service absolutely culminating in finishing
the work that the Father gave Him to do, the work that He volunteered
to do in the covenant of grace, which was to save His people
from their sins. See the faithful servant. See
the ox. See the calf. See our Lord Jesus
serving the Father. And He always did those things
that pleased the Father. Therefore, we hear the Father
say, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He labored for the Father. And
He labored for those He came to save. He said, even the Son
of Man came not to be ministered to, this is Mark chapter 10 verse
45, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many. He
came to live for us, He came to die for us. Before that death,
He suffered for us. All of the sins of all of His
people, of all of the ages, they were all charged to Him. And
he bore the indebtedness and bore it away. He paid it in full. Serving the Father and really
serving us in a sense. He died the just for the unjust
to bring us to God. And then we get to the book of
Luke. The book of Luke presents him with the face as of a man. It's in Luke that we read, the
Son of Man, He has come to seek and to save that which was lost. In Hosea 11 and verse 4, the
Lord says, I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. We're therefore not at all surprised
at Luke in presenting our Savior as the man He gives the most
detailed account of the announcement of the birth of our Savior. He
begins with the birth of our Savior's forerunner. And in the
second chapter, He gives us more information on the birth of our
Lord Jesus, and the early childhood of our Lord Jesus, and our Lord
Jesus going to the temple when He was 12 years old, to the Jewish
Passover. He gives us more information
than any other writer in the Scriptures. Because Luke is emphasizing
He is the Son of Man. And in the third chapter, when
Luke gives the genealogy of our Savior, He is the one who traces
our Lord's ancestry as a man. He goes all the way back to Adam. He's really bone of our bone
and He's really flesh of our flesh. He is the Son of Man who
can have compassion on the ignorant. He is the Son of Man who took
not on Himself the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham
and was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. He is the one who is a faithful
and a merciful high priest who made reconciliation for the sins
of his people. Well, that brings us to John and the eagle. Listen to what Solomon says about
the eagle. Proverbs chapter 30. He says,
there be three things which are wonderful, they're too wonderful
for me, is what Solomon says. Yea, four which I know not, and
number one is this, the way of the eagle. The way of the eagle
is too wonderful for me, Solomon said, he's the wisest man in
the world. He asked God for wisdom. God
gave him more wisdom than he gave to any other man. And Solomon
says in Proverbs chapter 30 and verses 18 and 19, he says, this
is too wonderful for me, the way of the eagle. The word wonderful means that
which surpasses thought. That which is beyond description. Or as we would say today, that
which we can't really wrap our minds around. This is our Savior
in His glorious person. And in His work, He is the Eagle. Who can understand the way of
the Eagle? The way of our Savior. His matchless
condescension. And His sufferings. And His agonies. And His death. That love which
He had for us from all eternity which caused Him to come into
this world. Our everlasting surety. Who came
for us. Oh, it's too wonderful. You can't
wrap your mind around it. You can't understand it. Bless
the name of God, we don't have to understand it. We believe. We believe what we can't understand. And our minds are filled with
rapture. as we think about our glorious
Redeemer who defies description, who is more wonderful than we
could ever know in this body of flesh. He defies description. He is the Eagle. His name is
wonderful. In fact, that is one of His names. You remember when in the book
of Judges, when the messenger of the Lord, the angel of the
Lord, who was known as Christ Jesus before His incarnation,
of course, but our Lord Jesus, He appeared to Manoah and his
wife. And of course, He appeared to
Manoah's wife first, to Mrs. Manoah, and then to Mr. Manoah, and showed them glorious
things. And the messenger of the Lord
said, you're going to have a son. His name is going to be Samson.
And Manoah said, what's your name? So that when this comes
to pass, I'll know who to honor. And my wife will know who to
honor. And we'll tell our boy about this someday, of this wonderful,
glorious messenger from above. And the messenger from God, the
angel of the covenant, our Lord Jesus in pre-incarnate form,
he said, why do you ask my name? Seeing it's secret. And the word
means wonderful. My name is wonderful. My name
is wonderful. Then Manoah offered a sacrifice
to the Lord. And as he offered the sacrifice
to the Lord, lo and behold, this messenger of the Lord, whose
name is secret, he stepped up on the altar in the middle of
that sacrifice, and as the flames ascended toward God, so he ascended
toward God. What's his name? His name is
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. Our Lord is the eagle. Exodus
19 verse 4, the Lord said, you've seen what I did to the Egyptians. And you've seen how I bear you
on eagles' wings. And I brought you, get this,
unto myself. That's what He does. By His almighty,
invincible, effectual grace, He brings us unto Himself. In Obadiah chapter 1 and verse
4, it talks about those who exalt themselves as the eagle. Well,
our Lord Jesus, He has been exalted. He's exalted as the eagle as
a result of His glorious work of redemption. The Lord said
in Deuteronomy 32, 11, and 12, As an eagle stirreth up her nest,
and fluttereth over her young, and spreadeth abroad her wings,
and taketh them, and beareth them on his wings, so the Lord
alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him. Our Lord's the eagle. He's the
eagle. Matthew says he's the lion. Mark
says he's the servant. Luke says he's the son of man. And John says he's the eagle
that soars above, whose way is mysterious. And of course there's
overlapping. Right, we know that. There's
overlapping in all of these four gospel narratives, but that basically
sets forth the focus of these four evangelists as they set
forth our Savior. Now go back to John chapter 1. We know then that John's focus,
his reason for writing the book, is to establish that our Lord
Jesus is the eagle that soars. Nobody can hold him back. He is absolutely glorious. He
goes where he wants to. The eagle that flies, it soars
into the air out of sight of men, and his eyes penetrate. They say the eyes of an eagle
can spot its prey from way, way up in the air. Even so, our Lord's
eyes burn like eagles' eyes. He sees everything that exists. And so we read in Hebrews 4 that
all things are open and naked to the eyes of Him with whom
we have to do. What is John's focus? Well, John
focuses his book as the Spirit of God leads him to write every
word, of course. He focuses on the deity of our
Lord Jesus. That's why in John chapter 1,
you have no genealogy. Because John's purpose is to
declare, our Lord, that He's Jesus of Nazareth, He's the Son
of God. That One who from everlasting
to everlasting is the God of glory. Go back, hold your place
in John 1. Look at John chapter 20. Look
at John chapter 20. Look at verses 30 and 31. John
20, 30 and 31. Many of the signs truly did Jesus
in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this
book, but these are written. What is written in these 21 chapters
is that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son
of God. and that believing you might
have life through His name. This Jesus of Nazareth, exactly
who is He? He's the Son of God. Now listen,
it's no use talking about what He did. And whether He succeeded
in what He did, or whether He failed in what He did, until
first of all it is established, who is He? Because if we can
determine who He is, then the success or the failure of what
Jesus of Nazareth did will be evidenced. If He's not God, then
He didn't accomplish anything by His death. Nothing anymore
was accomplished by His death than is accomplished by your
death. But if He's God, if He's God's only begotten Son, If He
is the Eagle, if He is the Royal One, if He is Jehovah's faithful
servant, the Son of Man, if He is God Almighty, victorious over
everything, if He is God, then whatever He did, He was successful
in doing it. Whatever work He came to finish,
He finished it. Whatever accomplishment He came
to fulfill, He fulfilled it. It's all determined by who He
is. Who He is. He's the Son of God. Simon Peter made this declaration. He made this confession. Go back
to chapter 6. Look in chapter 6. And this is the emphasis of the
book. You know, other disciples had left our Lord. In verse John
6, 60, many therefore of His disciples, what does disciples
mean? Many of His students. Many of
His pupils. Many of those who sat at His
feet. Many of those who were learning
from Him. When they heard what He had to
say, They said, this is a hard saying. The word saying is doctrine. Our Lord taught doctrine. And
those who are faithful preachers of the gospel, they must, we
must teach doctrines, what the Savior did. And doctrine is merely
the teachings of our Lord Jesus. We've heard people say, I don't
want to hear doctrine, all I want to hear is Jesus. Well, do you
want to hear the teachings of Jesus? Well, yeah, that's doctrine. That's doctrine. And in John
chapter 6, he set forth that divine election, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He has set forth man's depravity
and inability. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me. Draw him. I'll raise him up the
last day. He set forth his own eternality. He said, I'm the true bread that
came down from heaven. He said, I'm the bread of life.
He set forth the spirituality of faith. Except ye eat my flesh
and drink my blood. You don't have any life in you. Our Lord set forth all of these
doctrines, and many walked away and followed Him no more." That's
what we get from verse 66. You see there, John 66. From that time, many of His disciples
went back and walked no more with Him. Then Jesus said to
the twelve disciples, to the twelve apostles, will He also
go away? Then Simon Peter answered Him,
Lord, Master? Sovereign? Ruler? Who are we going to go to? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. Now watch it. And we believe
and assure that thou art the Christ. You're the Son of the
Living God. in this book, John, in setting
forth the deity of our Savior. Now, I'm going to give you an
outline of the book of John, because next Wednesday I'm going
to start John 1. But I'll give you this brief
outline of the Gospel of John. I'd say first of all, in the
first chapter, We have the verbal testimony of the deity of our
Savior. We have the verbal testimony
of the deity of our Savior. We have the verbal testimony
of John the Apostle. What does he say? Chapter 1 verse
1. Look at it. John chapter 1 and
verse 1. And what a declaration. There's
no introduction. There's no few words to sort
of get things out of the way and then he'll get into the body
of his book. Oh no, the Spirit of God has
him just go right to work. He says, in the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And as evidence that He's God,
hear this testimony. All things were made by Him.
And without Him was not anything made that was made. Here we have
the verbal testimony of the deity of our Lord Jesus. We're introduced
to the eternal Word of God. You get a little further down
in chapter 1, beginning in verse 15, you have the witness of John
the Baptist. Because the first chapter you
see is the verbal testimony of our Lord's deity. You have the
witness of John the Baptist. From verse 15 you can keep on
reading down. As John says, I'm not the Christ. I'm just a voice. I'm just a
voice. Look at verse 15. John bear witness of Him. That
is, John the Baptist bore witness of Him. And this is what he said,
this was he of whom I spake, he that cometh after me is preferred
before me for he was before me. He was before me because he is
eternal. He was before me. He's before
me in rank. He's God. He is before me in
dignity. He is before me in greatness.
He's before me. This is John's record. He says
this in verse 16, "...of His fullness have we all received,
and grace for grace for the law was given by Moses, but grace
in truth came by Jesus Christ." So we have the witness of John
the Baptist. And that goes down all the way
into It's pretty deep in the chapter. In fact, look at verse
35. Again, the next day after John
stood and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as He
walked, He said, Behold the Lamb of God. So we have the witness
of the Apostle John. We have the witness of John the
Baptist. And then we're going to have
another witness. Go a little bit further down in the chapter
to verse 40. One of the two which heard John
speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first
findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found
the Messiah which is being interpreted, the Christ. We have the testimony
of Andrew. What does Andrew say? Well, Andrew
essentially is saying the same thing that the apostle John said,
and that John the Baptist said. He is the Messiah. He is the
Christ. He is the sent one. Go a little
bit further. You have the testimony of Philip.
Look at verse 45. Philip findeth Nathanael, and
said unto him, We have found him of whom Moses, and the law,
and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathanael said unto him, Can
there any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip said,
Well, come and see. Come and see. Jesus saw Nathanael
coming to him, and saith unto him, Behold, an Israelite indeed,
in whom is no guile. You have the testimony of Nathanael,
because look at verse 49. Nathanael answered and saith
unto him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Here's the testimony of all of
these men. That's chapter one. We have the
verbal testimony of the deity of our Savior. And then from
chapters, from the second chapter through chapter number 12, we
have our Lord's public ministry. And these chapters deal mainly
with the actions of our Savior that show Him to be divine. In
chapter 1, we have verbal testimony. In chapters 2 through 12, we
have our Lord's public ministry in which He showed that He's
divine, that He's God. In chapter 2, our brother read
a while ago, He turned the water into wine. Who could do that
but God? Here's just some water. And miraculously,
it becomes the finest wine these people have ever tasted. We also
have in chapter 2 the driving of the people out of the temple.
We also have in the second chapter, as our brother read to us a few
moments ago, right at the end of the chapter, there were many
people who believed on Him, or they professed to believe on
Him, but our Lord Jesus saw their hearts. He didn't commit Himself
to them. I ask you, who sees the heart
of men but God? But God. In chapter 4, He heals a dying
man, the nobleman's son. In chapter 5, He heals a lame
man at the pool of Bethesda. He healed him on the Sabbath
day. And the Jews got upset, and he said, my father worketh
hitherto, and I work. And they understood what he was
saying. He was making himself equal with God. In chapter 6,
we see him feeding 5,000 men. And that's not counting the women
and the children. Who could do that? But God. It's also in that chapter, he
walked on water. In chapter 9, He heals a man
born blind. And that man goes on to worship
Him. Worship is reserved for God alone. He deserves the worship. In chapter
11, He raised Lazarus. All of these very public and
powerful miracles, they were all done very out in the open. Therefore, undeniable evidence
was given that He is the Son of God. Then we come to the end
of His public ministry at just about the end of chapter 12.
In chapter 13 through chapter 16, He finished His public ministry. Now He is going to have His private
ministry with His disciples. In chapter 17, we see His high
priestly prayer. You want to know whether He's
God or not? He says, all power is given unto Me in heaven and
earth. You want to know whether He's
God or not? Listen to Him pray. Listen to Him pray. Father, I
will. that those whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory." Now,
when you address the Lord in prayer, do you say, Lord, I will? Father, I will? Well, you dare
not address God that way. You say, not my will, but thy
will be done. We can't will anything into existence. But He does. Because He's God. He's God. In chapters 18 and
19, we see his arrest, the mock trial, and the death of the Son
of God. We see Him as the soldiers walk
toward Him, that He takes the fight to them. He goes and meets
them. He says, who are you looking
for? They didn't even have time to approach Him and say, hey,
we're looking for somebody here tonight. No, He walked toward
them and said, who are you looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. They all fell
down. They got up and brushed themselves off. He said, who
are you looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, if you seek Me, let
these go their way. You can't have Me and these.
Who is He? He's God. He's God. Then we see His death. And you
get to chapters 20 and 21, we see His resurrection and His
post-resurrection appearances. In chapter 21, He creates a meal
for His disciples. Here's the point. Everywhere
the enlightened eye looks, everywhere the quickened soul reads in the
book of John, you see our Lord's deity. Jesus of Nazareth is God. He's not just a good example,
because good examples aren't friends with publicans and sinners. What kind of example would you
set if you hung around with publicans and sinners? But he did. You see, we've got
to be careful of the crowd we hang around because stuff rubs
off on us. So much so that the Apostle Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 15, 33, Be not deceived, evil communications
they corrupt good manners. And I tell you, that's good.
It's good for us to take that to heart on a moral level and
on a religious level. You be careful who you hang around
with. But our Lord hung around publicans
and sinners and harlots. It didn't rub off on Him. No,
He rubbed off on them, if I may put it that way. He washed them. He cleansed them. He's more than
a good example. Jesus of Nazareth is more than
a religious imposter. He's not a religious imposter.
Imposters don't raise themselves from the dead. Jesus of Nazareth,
He wasn't a phantom. A phantom can't be nailed to
a cross. A phantom can't die. Jesus of
Nazareth is not a myth. He's not a fable. A myth or a
fable doesn't have a lasting effect upon our calendar. We live in 2015 in the year of
our Lord. Jesus of Nazareth is God in human
flesh. God in a body coming to this
world to reveal God to us. and to satisfy God's just requirements
for the salvation of those for whom He came. He's God. That's John's message. He's God. That's John's message. And that's
my message. So let's sing the closing song. He's God.