Okay, Revelation chapter four.
Now you remember, at least I hope you remember if you're here last
week, that we looked at the beginning of this chapter to see the throne
of God. And we saw that around that throne, there were 24 seats.
And in those seats sits 24 elders who are clothed in white raiment
because they've been made righteous in Christ. Those 24 elders represent
all of God's church from all different generations who will
be in heaven. They've been made righteous in
Christ. They wear crowns of gold that they're not actual crowns,
but they're symbols. This is a book written in a lot
of symbols. Those crowns are symbols of the
believer being crowned with grace in Christ. And there are 24 seats
there and 24 elders. There's no empty seats. No one's
missing. Everyone for whom Christ died
will be in glory. Not one of them will be lost.
And that's the point of this sovereign throne. Christ is the
successful savior. Nothing can stop his will saving
his people. And then verse six and before
the throne was a sea of glass, like in the crystal and the midst
of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts full
of eyes before and behind. We saw that sea of glass before
the throne is the symbol of how everybody who comes to that throne
has been washed, they've been made clean and pure in Christ,
sinless. And now we come to these four
beasts, that's where we left off last week, these four beasts.
John says here at the end of verse six, and round about the
throne were four beasts, full of eyes before and behind, and
the first beast was like a lion, the second beast like a calf,
the third beast had a face as a man, the fourth beast was like
a flying eagle, And the four beasts had each of them six wings
about him, and they were full of eyes within. And they rest
not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,
which was and is and is to come. Now, I know the immediate question
that comes to everybody's mind is who are these beasts? I read
a lot this week. People have a lot of different
ideas about who these beasts represent. Now this ought to
be obvious, but let me point this out. They're not four actual
beasts. Heaven's not going to look like
Harry Potter land with all these weird creatures, weird looking
creatures. These four beasts represent someone. The question is, who do they
represent? The description of these beasts sounds a whole lot
like the cherubim that Ezekiel saw. He described him as Ezekiel
1, Ezekiel 10, if you read that, His description sounds a whole
lot like these beasts, almost identical. These beasts have
six wings and their cry is the exact same cry that the seraphims
that Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter six. Their cry is exactly the
same. It sounds like these might be
angels. They have the same cry, holy,
holy, holy. And there are many men who are
smarter than me think that they're angels. that they represent angels. I don't think that, and I'll
show you why. Look in chapter five of Revelation, verse eight.
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and the four
and 20 elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of
them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers
of the saints. And they sung, these beasts and elders, they
sung a new song, saying thou art worthy to take the book and
open the seals thereof, for thou was slain. and has redeemed us
to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people
and nation and has made us unto our God kings and priests and
we shall reign on the earth. Now no angel can sing that song.
No angel can sing the song of redemption saying thou hast redeemed
us. Christ did not take on him the
nature of angels. He took on him the seed of Abraham.
So an angel can't sing that song. Angels are not made kings and
priests under our God. Angels will always be created
beings serving God. So who are these beasts? I don't
think that they could possibly be angels. Well, I believe that
they represent God's preachers and that it just seems clear
to me that they represent God's preachers. Now quickly, let me
give you 10 ways that these beasts represent God's preachers. And
I want to do it relatively quickly because who these beasts represent
is not really the issue. But I think it's good for us
to see some things here about God's preachers, the way you
can identify a servant of the Lord. Number one, there are four
beasts, four beasts. God has sent his preachers to
the four corners of this globe because he's got a people from
every corner of the globe. We just read it. He's got a people
from every kindred, tribe, tongue, and people under heaven. God
sent his preachers, all those people. They're going to be saved
through faith in this message that God sends them to preach.
Second, these are living creatures. The word beast actually means
a living thing. They're living things. God's
preachers have been given life in the new birth, and they spend
that life serving the Lord, telling people how the dead are made
alive. Thirdly, you see these beasts around the throne of God. That's where you find God's preachers
around his throne. They spend their time with the
Lord. They spend time with him in prayer.
They spend time in his word. And they take the message from
the throne of God and deliver it straight to God's people.
They don't change it. They don't dilute it. They take
the message they get from the throne. and bring it straight
to God's people. Now you'll notice that the beast
don't stay between God and the people, do they? You don't have
to go through the preacher to get to God. If you've got to
go through a man to get to God, you mark it down. That man's
a false prophet. God's preachers never put anything
between the Savior and the sinner. So they're not between God and
the people. And they're not closer to God
than other believers. You know, they don't, they're
not a higher rank, you know, than other believers. All they are
is God's messengers. God uses them as his messengers
to bring his gospel to his people. Fourth, John said, they're full
of eyes. They're full of eyes before and behind, and they're
full of eyes within. The Lord's given his, his preachers
eyes to see Christ in the world. He's given us eyes to see Christ
so we can preach Christ, you know, from the word to his people.
God's given his preachers some discernment. It's not all discernment,
but it's some discernment to see the message of scripture.
You know, how can we expound upon the scripture if we don't
see its meaning? They also have eyes before and
behind to be watchful, be watchful over the flock, to be watchful
over the doctrine that's preached in the church. That's what Paul
warned the Ephesian elders about. He said, you'll see my face no
more. And he warned them, you be watchful. As I know what's
going to happen after I leave. Grievous wolves are going to
come in and devour the flock, devour the sheep. You be watchful
over them. You watch. It's the pastor's
job to watch. Watch for trouble, you know,
coming. But they're full of eyes, John said, also within. Within. God's preachers must see ourselves
as we are. See the corruption, the sin,
what's within, so that we don't preach down to people. Nobody
likes a preacher preaching down to them. You just think, that
guy's a jerk, I don't want to listen to him. Nobody likes a preacher
preaching down to them. God's preachers see our own sin.
We see our own corruption, our own weakness. So that the same
gospel that blesses us in the study will bless God's people
from the pulpit. It's got to apply to me first
before I'm preaching to you with any heart or any understanding.
God's preachers, we just understand what it is to be a person, to
just have the heart for it. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 4.
Paul warned Timothy of this very thing, to be watchful of his
own self. 1 Timothy 4, verse 16. Take heed unto thyself and unto
the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing
this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. That's
what Paul's saying with Timothy. Whatever's going to bless your
heart in the study is going to bless God's people from the pulpit.
Be watchful. Then John describes these four
beasts that he sees. The first beast looked like a
lion. Now that represents the boldness of God's preachers.
You know, a lion, thankfully I've never seen one face to face
without something between me and him. But I've seen, you know,
I'm fascinated by big cats. I like to watch these documentaries
on them. And I just don't see lions concerned about other animals. I'm the king. They just don't
worry too much about them. A lion isn't really all that
concerned when he comes up upon a man. Maybe he tries to avoid
him if he can, but if he comes across one, he's not scared.
He's a lion. He just roars boldly. You know, you understand I'm
the lion here. That's God's preachers. They
boldly preach the gospel. No matter the opposition. It
didn't matter. Why would we fear? Why would
we fear opposition? We're not preaching in our own
power. We've got the power, the dynamite, the power of God in
the gospel. We preach in the power of the
Holy Spirit. Why would you be afraid of anything if you're
armed with the spirit and armed with the power of the gospel?
God's preachers are bold to preach the entire word of God, the whole
counsel of God. In 6, John said there was a beast
that looked like a calf. And that's actually, it's a bullock
or an ox is what he saw. And that represents service and
labor. God's preachers are workers. They work hard. They work hard
in the ministry. They work hard in prayer. They
work hard in study. God's preachers are not lazy
men looking to live a soft life of ease. No, they're hard workers.
And they work serving the Lord, serving God's people. You know,
if a man wants to be in the ministry because he wants to be the boss
over everybody, the Lord hadn't taught him anything about the
ministry. God's preachers weren't serving
the Lord. They were our servants for Christ's
sake. They were your servants for Christ's
sake. And then John said, one of the beasts had a face like
a man. What that tells us is God's servants
are just men. They're just men. There were
just like the people whom we preach were no better. It's just
it's the same. The preachers got the same sickness
or sit the weakness and same sin and same need same sin sickness. So that enables them to preach
the gospel with a tender heart, with a tender compassion for
sinners. I understand what it's like to
be lost. I do. I understand what it's
like to sit there and thing. 15 minutes feels like I've been
here for three hours and just I've got no interest. I understand
that. I can sympathize with that. I
really can. I understand. I understand the
rebellion of unbelief. I can understand us having weak
faith. I understand. We all know, but
I understand it. I can sympathize with a person,
especially on a Wednesday night. They're so weary. They're so
tired from just being beat up in the world and have all the
responsibilities of this life. And they just say, I just don't
even know if I've got it to make it there tonight. And they just
crawl in here, hoping to hear something. Give me something.
Give me some water of life. Give me some bread of life. Give
me something to strengthen me. I understand that. That's what
I need, too. I understand that God's preachers
are just men. Our Lord became a man so that
he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. God's preachers
ought to too. Just remember what it's like.
When your heart's broken, my heart's broken. When you weep
and cry, I cry with you. And when you joy, I rejoice with
you. We're touched with the, we understand
what it's like to be touched with what everybody's going through.
And that enables us to preach the gospel with a sympathetic
tone. Then eighth, there was a beast
like a flying eagle. And that represents how swiftly
God's servants fly where God sends them. You know, an eagle,
when that eagle is flying, It's way up there on his perch, or
it's circling up there in the sky. He's got good vision. And
he's just scouring the earth for prey. And boy, when he finds
one, his vision is locked in on it. He just goes after it
like a dart. He's got tunnel vision after
that prey. That's God's preachers. They've got a singular vision. They're just focused on this
one thing. God's glory and the good of His
people. They're just focused on it, and they go swiftly after
that one desire. Then these living creatures have
six wings. It's like the Seraphim Isaiah
saw in Isaiah chapter six. They had six wings. Now, John
doesn't tell us what they're doing with those wings, but I
think it's safe to say it's the same thing as what Isaiah saw.
They used two wings to cover their face to show reference
toward God. They use two feet or two wings
to cover their feet, showing humility. We just we haven't
walked the way we ought to. We haven't served like we want
to. You know, we're just ashamed of our own selves and everything
we've done in attempting to serve the Lord. All we are is sinners
saved by grace. They use two wings to cover their
feet. But they're not doodlers. They're not just hiding. They
use two wings to fly. Two wings to fly to show how
willing they are, like that eagle, to go serve and do the will of
the Lord. Now here's the tenth thing, and
this is what is all-important. This is what the point of these
verses is that we're looking at this morning. The all-important
thing is the message of these servants. Their message is God's
holy. Holy, holy, holy. And God is
the Almighty. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty,
the eternal God, which was and is and is to come. Now that's
almost an identical message to the seraphim in Isaiah chapter
six, isn't it? So this is the point I want us to get from this.
It really doesn't matter who the beast represents. Really,
I mean, we might have some curiosity about it. We might be able to
learn something about God's preachers from it. Maybe we learn something
from angels about it. We thought they were angels.
I don't know. But it really doesn't matter who they're supposed to
represent. And remember that as you study scripture. And this
particularly applies to Revelation. Just be careful trying to spend
too much time trying to figure out something that really doesn't
matter. or that's not clearly revealed
in God's word. If you can't interpret scripture
with scripture to see what this could possibly mean, don't spend
too much time trying to figure out something that really doesn't
matter. When what really matters is right
in front of our face, just as spelled out as plainly as it
can be. What really matters is the message of these serpents.
Whoever they are, their message is Christ and the glory of God. And that's what we ought to be
paying attention to. It doesn't matter whether it's
an angel or a man. They both bring the same message. If they're sent from God, their
message is exactly the same. It's behold your God and see
his glory. Just behold your God. If you'll
behold him, everything else will take care of itself. If you see
him, oh, you'll know you're totally depraved. If you see Him, you'll
know you're dead, you know you need Him. If you see Him, you
know He's your only hope of salvation. If you see Him, you'll know He's
your only righteousness. If you see Him, you'll bow, you'll
worship. The message of God's servants
is, behold your God in all of His glory. And here's their message. Look here at the end of verse
8. This is their message. The message of everyone of God's
servants. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. which was and is
and is to come. And when those beasts give glory
and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth
forever and ever. Now, this is their message. Now,
remember, I told you that the book of Revelation is a series
of seven different visions of the same person, just from different
perspectives. Chapter four began the new vision,
the second vision in the book. And this vision, that began in
chapter four is the vision of man's history on earth from the
perspective of heaven. We get a drastically different
perspective and understanding of what's going on here on earth
if we're not looking at it on eye level, but we're looking
at it from the perspective of heaven. That's what this vision
is showing us. So let me give you a few things
about this message of heaven, the message of grace from the
perspective of heaven. First, the message of heaven,
the cry of God's preachers, is behold your God. Look to your
God. Look to Christ. God sits on the
throne. They said now behold Him. He's
on the throne. He's sovereign. He does His will
always. He's the Almighty. His name is
the Almighty. He has all power. Now you behold Him as He is.
Not the little God, the weak effeminate God of our imagination,
but you behold God as He is. And when you see that, you understand
everything that's ever happened in human history, everything
that ever will happen in human history, whatever it is that's
going on right now has always happened. Whatever it is going
on right now is happening by the almighty power and will of
God. The only reason anyone is there,
those 24 elders around the throne, there's not one seat missing.
The only reason they're there, the only reason there's not a
seat empty is God used his power to bring them there. That's why
they're there. The only reason anybody can hear
this message of heaven, the only reason anybody would believe
this message of heaven is God's given them an ear to hear and
he's given them a heart to believe. See, that's the perspective of
heaven. Now we understand the message. Now we understand how
and why and when God sends it. What he does, what he will. He's
sovereign. He's almighty. He's got all power.
He does his will. Nothing can stop him. Second,
the message of heaven is this. God's eternal. So his purpose
and his will is eternal. Just remember this about this
life. I'm not... Everything in this life, everything
that we're doing is temporary. It's just temporary. Now, you
got a job? It's temporary. But that doesn't
mean, you know, don't care about it. No, go do the best you can
at it. You parents, you're raising children. Well, don't think,
well, it's just temporary, so I don't have to put any effort
in. No, put effort into them. You know, teach them, raise them,
help them. But just remember this now. It's temporary. All this is temporary and God's
eternal. You and I are always changing,
always changing. Some of our girls here, I catch
them doing it. I've just been a pastor here
four years, but in four years, how quickly, how much some things
have changed. They like to go in there to study
and look at that picture that we took of all of us there on
the steps and laugh at themselves. How little we look, how little,
you know, We're always changing. And really, we're always changing
for the worse. From the moment this flesh is born, it's dying.
It's just changing, changing, changing, changing, to ultimately,
it's dust in the ground. We're changing. But God's always
the same. God's eternal. He always was,
He always will be, and He always is. Someone said, God is the
great isness. He just is. He does. It's not like he was and is and
is to come like, you know, in times of fixing. No, he just
always is. He's outside of time. He's the
great business. So whatever it is that God's
doing right now. It's what he's always done. It's
what he is doing. Whatever it is that God's doing
right now is exactly what God purposed to do in eternity. before
he ever created anything, right this second what he's doing.
It's just from the most big things to the most minute things, whatever
it is God's doing, it's his eternal purpose and will. And everything
will always happen just exactly like God's purpose for it to
happen. That includes things we call good. Our salvation,
the salvation of sin, that's a good thing. That's his eternal
purpose. That's why we're saved. If we
know the Lord, we're saved. The reason why is it's of the
Lord. It's his eternal purpose. All
the blessings of this life that we enjoy. That's God's eternal
purpose for us to have. All the joys and things that
make us so happy and get together and celebrate or celebrate your
birthday. That's God. God gave that to
us. What a blessing. That's his eternal
purpose. But this is just as true. Those
things we call bad, things that are hurtful to us, that's God's
eternal purpose too. They both are. You can't blame
one on the devil and one on God. No, it's all God's purpose. The
trials and heartaches that we have, that's God's eternal... He ordained that before time
began for a purpose, His eternal purpose. It's to draw His people
closer to Him. You know, if the Lord didn't
send us trials, you've got to admit this about yourself. We
get full of ourselves and quit depending on the Lord. If He
just gave us our heart's desire all the time, so He sends these
trials. And when I'm at my wits end,
He's taken away. Any hope I have, any strength
in myself, anything I can do to solve the problem, I've got
to run to Him. I've got to draw closer to Him.
That's why He sends them. God sends these trials. to His
people to teach us, to cause us to depend more and more and
more upon Him. When the Lord just cuts your
legs out from under you, you've got to rely on Him, don't you?
And we see, oh, I learn more by trusting Him more. That's
how our faith increases. Now, when we see these things,
not from our eye level perspective, but from the perspective of heaven.
Oh, well, they're not really bad at all, are they? It's God's
eternal purpose. Third, the message of heaven
is this. The message of heaven gives glory and honor to God
and makes his people give thanks to God. If you hear a message
that doesn't give God the glory, that doesn't make you see how
God has all the glory and all the honor and make you want to
say, Lord, thank you. Something's wrong. Either we didn't hear it right
or it's not the message, one or the other. The whole reason
God created man on this earth is for his glory. It's for his
glory. God created man, put him in the
garden for this purpose so Christ would get all the glory in saving
fallen man by his grace, by his sacrifice, by his blood and by
his righteousness. God put man on this earth for
this purpose. So we praise him and so we thank
him. for everything, for what he is, to give him all the glory
and honor that belongs to him. We give God the glory in saving
sinners in mercy. God said mercy is his greatest
glory. That's his greatest glory known
to man. That's why he put man on this
earth. So we see his greatest glory. We never would have seen
it. The angels never would have seen his greatest glory. They
flew around the throne. eternally crying, holy, holy,
holy Lord God Almighty. Boy, they never knew anything
about mercy till God created man. Oh, that's glory. We give God all the glory for
doing all the work of redemption. He purposed it, he planned it,
he purchased it, and he brings it all to pass. He gets all the
glory. And we thank God for it, don't
we? Materially, we thank God for everything we have. You and
I haven't earned one blessed thing, not one. Everything we
have, God's given us. I was talking with a man about
this yesterday. You know, I reckon only a believer can understand
this. The Lord will provide everything we have. He's given us as a free
gift of his grace. But tomorrow morning, you get
up and go to work and earn a paycheck. Both of those things are true.
God give you that job. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God.
Thank you. And that's most clearly seen
in salvation. You know, we might could say,
well, I go out and earn a paycheck. You cannot say you earned any
spiritual blessing from God. No, it's all by his grace. It's
all undeserved. God didn't save people because
they deserved it, because they're better than somebody else. God
saved his people for his glory, for his namesake. He saved those
who couldn't do anything for themselves. And the only reasonable
response to that is, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for saving
my soul. Thank you. Right, here's the
fourth thing about the message of heaven. God's people have
a reaction to it. God's people have a reaction
to the message of grace. Verse 10. And the four twenty
elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship
him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory,
and honor, and power. For Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Now, this is
believers from every generation. This is their reaction. When
they hear the message of heaven, they fall down and worship. True worship is seen in this.
It's the position of the heart. When the heart is bowed to God. And that's the reaction. The
reaction of the gospel in God's people is reverence. When these
believers hear the message of heaven, they bow in reverence,
they worship, and now we'll come back to these crowns. They cast
their crowns at Christ's feet. Now, I can't stress this enough.
There's no crowns in heaven. One person's not going to have
one crown, and one person's not going to have five crowns, you
know, because they did more in the service of the Lord. There
are no rewards in heaven. No rewards. The word rewards
is never used in scripture relating to a believer. Not one time ever.
It's always used relating to unbelievers. The reward of heaven
is Christ. It's not crowns. It's not an
easy life. It's not living on a street of
gold or having a great big mansion. The reward of heaven, the glory
of heaven is Christ. So what do you care? What do
you suppose? Just for the hypothetically,
there were rewards in heaven. So suppose hypothetically, you
could get crowns in heaven, you go around, you know, wear more
crowns on your head than your buddy. What do you care? If God does give them to you,
what are you going to do with them? Cast them at his feet.
There's no room on a head on a on a on a bowed head for a
crown. It's always going to come off. Who cares if Christ would give
you rewards, you're just gonna cast it at his feet. So this
is figurative. And what this is teaching us
is this. This is a confession. When God's people, those four
and 20 elders, when they hear the message of heaven, they give
Christ the glory. They bow to him and they say,
everything we have belongs to you anyway. We just cast it at
your feet. Christ won the victory, didn't
he? He won the victory by himself and He lets us share in it. But
we're going to give Him all the credit for it, aren't we? It's
our Savior who's crowned us with grace and with glory. But it's
His grace. It's His glory. We're giving
Him the credit for it. That's what this is. When we
hear the gospel, it's just giving God the credit for doing everything
He's done. The message of heaven is to give
God the glory and the honor and then to thank Him. You notice
that what these believers say, they say, Thou art worthy, O
Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. You notice they didn't
say we give God all the glory and all the power and all the
honor. They didn't say we give it all to him because we can't
do it. But what they're acknowledging
is the Lord deserves all glory, all honor and all power. I can't
worship him. I can't praise him like he deserves
to. But I'm going to give it my best.
But at the end, this is my confession. He deserves it all. And then
believers know this. When they hear the message of
heaven, they know and they believe God's created everything for
his purpose. All they're doing when they hear
the gospel is they're just amening every point of the message that
they just heard. They say, amen, that's what I believe. God created
everything. He's a creator of everything.
God preserves everything. And God's the final cause of
everything. Now, remember, this is the perspective
of man's time on earth, man's history on earth from the perspective
of heaven. God's the creator of it all. He preserved it all. And he's the final cause of everything
that happened down here. That explains everything that
has ever or will ever happen in human history. That's the
perspective of heaven. Brethren, that's the message
of heaven. Then let's make that our message
right now. Behold your God. Behold your
Savior. Bow and worship, giving the glory
and the honor. If we'll do that, if we'll make
this our purpose as a church body, this is our singular purpose. To preach the gospel, to tell
sinners, behold your God. God's people be saved. edified
and they'll be comforted. And God will use that message
to see us safely through all the way to the end. You want to do anything else?
No, we're going to preach this message. All right. Lord bless
you.