Revelation chapter four. The title of the lesson this
morning is The Throne of God. Remember, I told you that the
book of Revelation is a series of seven different visions giving
us seven, seven different views of the same person, seven different
views of Christ. In chapters one through three,
the first vision showed Christ in his church. Now, chapter four
begins a new vision. And it's the vision of Christ
the Sovereign fulfilling God's eternal purpose. Chapter 4 shows
us Christ the Sovereign on the throne. And chapter 5 shows us
Christ the Redeemer. Now those two chapters must go
together. You can't look at them individually.
They go together to give us a view of how we have a Sovereign Redeemer
accomplishing God's eternal purpose. Now this vision, the purpose
of it is not to show us what heaven looks like. This vision
gives us a view of the universe and human time, human history
from the perspective of heaven looking down upon time. It gives
us a view of our lives with all its troubles and trials and sorrows
and everything else we do, joys, everything. It gives us a view
of all that from heaven's perspective. And that'll let us put the goings
on of this life in their proper perspective. If we can view them
from the eternal perspective that John gives us here in this
vision. And the purpose of the vision
is to comfort suffering saints. This vision was written by John
to people who were suffering times of severe trial. And this
is going to apply to all of God's children. They all go through
trials. They've all come through tribulation. suffering and trials
and washed their roads, made them white in the blood of the
Lamb. Every child of God suffers. So the Lord gives us this word
of comfort from this vision. Our God's on the throne. And
if we would find comfort in times of trouble, we must look to our
God who sits upon the throne and not upon our circumstances.
Our comfort in times of trial is this. Whatever it is we're
going through is not an accident. It's been God's eternal purpose
and will for us. And whatever's going on, our
Sovereign Savior rules over everything for His glory and for the good
of His people. And if we can really see our Sovereign Savior
ruling and reigning, we'll find comfort for our souls. That's
the purpose of this vision. So let's look at it beginning
in verse one of chapter four. After this, I looked and behold,
a door was open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard
was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up
hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. Now
this vision begins with John looking into heaven. And he looks
into heaven and he could see the glory of it because the door
was open. Thank God there's a door and
that God's opened it. The wall around heaven is not
a solid rock wall. There's a door and that door
is open. There is a way for sinners to
come into the presence of God in heaven. And that way is the
Lord Jesus Christ, the door. Now, when John saw that door
open, he had to think about that. John's the one who recorded in
his gospel, our Lord saying, he's the door of the sheep. By
him, we go in and out. There's a way for sinners to
come into heaven and it's through the Lord Jesus Christ, the door.
And when that door was open into heaven, what did John see? He saw Christ. And you read through
scripture, every time a door is open, people see Christ. They don't talk about seeing
streets of gold and pearly gates and big mansions. Every time
a door in heaven is open, a man gets a view into heaven. They
see what's really important. What's really important overwhelms
everything else. They see all those things, but
they see what's really important. They see Christ who overwhelms
everything else. Ezekiel, Ezekiel one, when he
saw heaven opened, he saw visions of God. That's the thing that
overwhelmed him. Look back in Acts chapter seven. Stephen was being stoned. He
got a view, a door was open into heaven. He got a view of that
place. And look what he says in Acts
7 verse 55. But he being full of the Holy
Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory
of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God and said,
behold, I see the heavens opened and this is what I see. The son
of man standing on the right hand of God. That's what we see
every time the Lord gives us a vision into heaven. It's it's
Christ who is the glory of the place. And the reason that John
could see Christ like this is Christ called to the one here
with the voice of a trumpet. You remember back from Revelation
chapter one, the one who's got the voice of a trumpet speaking
is Christ. And that's the voice we must
hear if we would be saved. It's not going to do you any
eternal good to hear my voice. What does us eternal good is
to hear God call, to hear Christ call us through the preaching
of his word. And the Lord told John, our Lord
Jesus Christ, now you come up here. And this is what enabled
him to see these things. He said, I must show you things.
which should be hereafter. I'm going to show you the things
that's going to happen in the rest of the history of the world.
But you've got to see it from up here. You've got to see it
from the perspective of heaven so that you understand what's
going on. Now verse 2, And immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold,
a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. Now as
soon as our Lord spake to John, he was in the Spirit. He went
seeing things with natural eyes and natural understanding, and
he saw spiritual things with spiritual eyes. And that's the
experience of every believer. As soon as God speaks to us in
power, we immediately begin to see spiritual truths with spiritual
eyes. In his prayer, Wayne prayed for
our children. I can promise you at this point,
Our children are Calvinists. They've been taught those things
up here. I promise you they know those
things. And the reason they know those things up here is they've
heard their parents. They've heard their teachers. They've
heard the voice of their pastor. And this is what he prayed, that
one day Christ will speak to them, that Christ will be revealed
to them. If that ever happens, it won't happen by degrees immediately. Immediately. They're born again. Immediately, they will begin
to see things with spiritual eyes. That's what happened to
John. Now, through the rest of this vision, John describes the
things that he saw in pictures and types. He is not describing
things he literally saw. John didn't see men that had
four different faces and eyeballs going all around their head.
He didn't see that. He didn't see a lamb that had seven eyes
and seven horns sticking out of its head. He didn't see that.
This is a spiritual vision, and he's teaching us spiritual truths
through these pictures. And the important truth I want
us to see from this passage this morning is the sovereignty, the
absolute, utter sovereignty of God that we see pictured in this
throne that John saw. Here's the first thing about
this throne that John saw. God's throne is a throne of eternal
power and authority. When the heavens were open and
the Lord Jesus said, you come up here, I'm going to show you
things to come. John saw a throne set in heaven. It was set there. It was immovable. God's sovereignty
and God's authority is absolute. It's immovable. It's unchangeable. Nebuchadnezzar saw that. When
the Lord gave him some understanding, he said, this is what I learned.
God has dominion and it's an everlasting dominion. His throne
is set. Nobody can change it. God rules
over every minute detail in His creation. And not only can no
one stop His rule, nobody can cause a bump in the road to His
rule either. Nobody can, the Congress can't, you know, put
a temporary roadblock up. His rule is absolute. That throne is set. John saw
one set on the throne. The one who's set on the throne
is Almighty God. He's sitting on that throne because
nobody can take him off of it. He's sitting on the throne. And
he's sitting because he's not worried. My son-in-law Doug and
Sean, they both have a common trait. They both pace while they're
watching. They pace all around the room
while they're watching a Kentucky basketball game. If they ever
watch a game together, I'm sure they're going to run into each
other. They just pace, pace, pace, pace because they're nervous.
They don't know what's going to happen. Our God's not pacing. He's not nervous. He knows the
outcome because he decreed it. He decreed it. His purpose will
not fail. He's not worried. He knows he's
going to accomplish his purpose. Nobody's bringing him constant
status updates he's got to check. He's at complete ease. His will
shall be done. He's set upon the throne. And
I wish that our generation would learn that. I wish Lord teach
that completely to our hearts. Nobody's ever going to worship.
You cannot worship until you worship at the footstool of the
sovereign. We only worship when we can't
change him, when we can't affect him. You know, you go talk to
someone in authority. You're not worshiping them as
long as you think you can, by your arguments, you know, change
what they're doing or affect what they're doing to get them
to do something for you. No one ever worships until they worship
at the feet of the sovereign. That's what the leper did when
he came to the Lord. He worshiped him. Lord, if you will, I don't
know if you will, but if you will, you can make me clean.
That's worship. Nobody can worship until we worship
at the footstool of the sovereign. It's not that he's trying to
get me to do something for him. No, I worship praying. begging,
beseeching that he do something for me. That's worship. Look
over at Psalm 115. That's the difference between
man's idols and the true and living God. Psalm 115. You know,
the natural man says we we know right where our idol is. We know
what he's doing because he's doing what we tell him to do.
I know where he's at. He's right where I said. And
look what they ask, what the heathen ask the believer. Psalm
115, verse two. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? Why should they ask that? Our
God's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Now that's the difference between
idols and the true and living God. And that's the believer's
comfort in times of trial and suffering. Where's our God? What's he doing? I'll tell you
where he's at. He sat on the throne of heaven
and he's doing whatever he pleases. And what he pleases is his eternal
purpose. That's exactly what he's doing.
He's not reacting to what men are doing. He's accomplishing
his eternal purpose. God's throne is a throne of unchanging
sovereignty. Second thing we see is this.
God's throne is a throne of holiness. Verse three back in our text.
And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone. Now, again, this is a spiritual
vision. John here is describing God who
sits on the throne, but you'll notice he doesn't give us any
physical description or physical characteristics because that
can't be done. God's spirit. No man has seen
God at any time. So what John describes is the
character, the glory that emanates from the one who sits upon the
throne. And the first way he describes
this is a jasper stone. Now a jasper stone is a clear
stone like a diamond. And that's describing the holy
glory of God. God's throne is a throne of holiness. If you take a jasper stone or
a diamond and you hold it up to the light, that diamond or
that jasper stone is going to show you all the different colors
of the light. You just keep turning and it
shows you all these different colors. Well, that Jasper stone
represents all the different colors, the different glories
and beauties of God's holiness. That Jasper stone shows us the
glory of God's love and his justice. It shows us the glory of his
mercy and his truth. It shows us the glory of his
righteousness and peace. It shows us his wisdom, his goodness,
his grace. God's throne is a throne of holiness. And that's glorious. And that's
comfort for God's suffering saints. God's holy. He's not doing something
wrong. He's holy. He's not doing something
harmful. Even when I go through a time
of trial, God's not doing something bad. He's holy. His throne is
holy. The third thing we see about
God's throne is it's a throne of justice. John saw a jasper
stone and glory likened to a sardine stone. Now sardine stone is a
stone that's blood red, and that shows us the justice of God.
God's throne is a throne of justice. And the jasper and sardine stone
go together. God is holy, so he must be just. He must punish every sin with
death. Well, how's that comforting to
God's saints? Well, it's comforting in this. When God forgives sin,
he forgives him justice. If God forgives your sin, he's
going to be just to do it. That sardine stone is red and
that points us to the blood of Christ. Christ was made sin for
his people and the father punished him in absolute justice. Now, God's just. If God's already
punished Christ for your sin, he's not going to punish you
for your sin because that would be unjust. So here's our comfort. When I'm suffering, I'm going
through times of trial. God's not punishing me for my
sin. This is not God's wrath. No,
that's already been poured out upon my substitute. This is God's
sovereign purpose for my learning and for his glory. Right, here's
the fourth thing. I want to spend a little bit
of time on this. I like this one. God's throne is a throne
of grace. Here at the end of verse 3, John
says, and there was a rainbow round about the throne in sight
like unto an emerald. Now everybody knows what a rainbow
is. It's a token of God's promise
to Noah. And you know the story. God determined
that he would destroy man from the face of the earth because
man's sin was so great. That's all he ever did was sin.
It was just evil, wickedness. God determined he couldn't stand
it no more. He's going to wipe the whole thing out. And God
sent rain and he flooded the earth that destroyed every living
creature, every man, every woman, every child, except for eight
souls on the ark and the animals that God called in and put into
the ark. Noah and his family were saved in that ark. Why? Because Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. Now, God's just. His wrath against
the sin of Noah and his family still fell upon the earth. But
all that wrath fell upon the ark. And Noah and his family
were saved by being in that ark. That ark took all the punishment
that their sin deserved, and they were saved in it. And after
the floodwaters finally abated, Noah and his family got off that
ark. And the Lord promised Noah, I'll never again destroy the
earth with water. And God so gracious, Oh, how
gracious he is. He knew Noah. Noah had never
one time seen a drop of rain until the flood. Before the flood,
the earth was watered with a mist that came up. The first time
Noah ever saw a drop of rain, God flooded the earth, destroyed
everything. Well, from now on, the earth
is going to be watered with rain. And God knew Noah was going to
be worried. The next time he sees rain, he's
going to be worried. Oh, here, here goes again. Everything's
going to be destroyed and flooded. And I've already busted up the
ark. You know, used its wood to build me a house and build
fires and so forth. So God gave, gave Noah a promise
that he'll not destroy the earth again with water. And he said,
no, I'm going to give you a token, a token of my promise. So you'll
know, I remember my promise to you. It's going to be the rainbow. And when you see the rainbow,
you're going to know, I remember my promise and you're going to
be reminded of my promise of grace. I'll never again destroy
the earth with water. God said, when I see the rainbow,
Noah knew when he saw that rainbow, he knew God remembered his promise
to me and comforted his heart. Now God's throne is a throne
of grace. John saw a rainbow. Now we normally
think of a rainbow as an arc in the sky, don't we? Because
that's all we see of it, is an arc, a segment of a circle. But
there are times you can get up in an airplane, you can Google
this when you get home, there are times you can be up in an
airplane looking down and you see a rainbow in a complete circle. The pictures of it are spectacular.
That's the rainbow that John saw. It's a complete circle.
it went all the way around the throne. God's throne is a throne
of grace. That rainbow is a token of God's
grace. It's covenant of grace. When
God sits on his throne, everywhere he looks, in every direction,
he sees his people through his covenant of grace. He sees them
through that rainbow. And anyone who would come to
the throne of grace, has got to come through that covenant
of grace. That's the only way to come.
There's no other way to come. There's no breaks in it. It's
a complete circle. There's one way to come to God.
It's through His covenant of grace, His promise of salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's comfort for God's
suffering saints. We enjoy seeing a rainbow, don't
we? We enjoy getting those tokens of God's grace and mercy promised
to His people. But the only time you see a rainbow
is after the storm. The most beautiful rainbows,
you know how they're seen? You see that rainbow in the atmosphere,
and behind it are those black storm clouds that have already
passed. That's the only way to see the rainbow. There's got
to be a storm first. Got to be. And the storm of trouble,
you take company. covenant of grace. This rainbow
is a complete circle. It's not an arc. It's not like
you can get to the end of it and fall off and fall through
and be fallen from grace. No, it's a complete circle. You
can't fall through it. No matter where you are, if you're
God's child, he's looking at you in grace, not in wrath, but
in grace. He's already poured out all his
wrath upon your substitute. The only way God can look at
his people is in grace. I don't care what it is going
on. God's looking at his people in grace. And this is a pleasant,
sweet promise to God's people. John says the rainbow was like
an emerald. I looked at, I don't, I didn't
have any idea what that means. I was reading and looking and
what I read, this is what they say, that green is the prevailing
color of the rainbow. And green is the color of the
rainbow that gives the human eye the most pleasure. And this
is what John's saying. We see this rainbow. And this
is where the believer finds the most pleasure. It's looking at
God's covenant of grace. Looking at God through his covenant
of grace promised to his people. God's throne is a throne of sovereignty. It's a throne of holiness. It's
a throne of justice. But thank God, it's a throne
of grace. All right, here's the fifth thing.
God makes everyone who's around his throne holy. Verse four,
around about the throne were four and 20 seats, and upon the
seats I saw four and 20 elders sitting, clothed in white raiment,
and they had on their heads crowns of gold. Now these 24 elders
represent the entire church of God, both Old Testament and New
Testament. Some people think it, refers
to the twelve patriarchs of the Old Testament and twelve apostles
of the New. But whatever it is talking about,
it's talking about every believer of every generation. They're
around God's throne. God's made them holy. They're
dressed in this white raiment. They're holy. They're righteous
in the righteousness of Christ. They're clothed in his righteousness,
made as holy as he is. And they have crowns on their
heads. Now, Let's get this business of us receiving crowns and glory
out of our head. Us getting crowns and glory,
one person had more crowns than another one. All that is is works. People can try to disguise it
and grace all they want. All it is is pure, unadulterated
man's works. There are no degrees of glory
in heaven. One person is not going to be
closer to the Lord. One person might have a better
standing than somebody else. These crowns are not crowns that
these elders and they're not just elders. They represent every
believer. Every believer is going to have crowns and glory, but
it's not crowns that we've earned by our good works. They're crowns
of God's grace. We're crowned with glory and
grace that were of God's grace, not our works. These are crowns. Paul said in second Timothy four
verse eight that a crown of righteousness. It's Christ's righteousness given
to us. James 1 verse 2 says they're crowns of life. That's the crown
of Christ's life given to us. Peter said in 1 Peter 5 verse
4, it's a crown of glory. It's the glory of Christ that
we're crowned with, that we're covered with. It all belongs
to him, but his people identify with it. They have participation
in it through our union with the Savior. And here's the comfort
in this for the believer. When I'm going through times
of trial and suffering, I don't know what God's purpose is in
it, but I know it's God's purpose. I don't know what end God's going
to bring out of it. I know he got one. I don't know
what it is. Really, all I know is I'm suffering.
I'm in pain. I'm hurting. I'm in sorrow. But
here's our comfort. This is not happening because
God's angry with us. No, his anger was all taken out
on Christ. He's made us holy in Christ.
God doesn't have anything to be angry about with his people.
He put their sin away. He's made them holy. Now, he
may be correcting me. He's certainly teaching me something,
but he's doing it because he loves me, not because he's angry
with me. And whatever the suffering is,
I don't know when it'll end. I might not know at this time
what purpose, what God's teaching me in it, but this is what I
know. I know how the story is going
to end. I'm going to end up in glory,
made perfectly holy, made perfectly righteous, worshiping God, worshiping
Christ face to face. I know that's how the story is
going to end. I know it. I like to go to God's word and
check it out every once in a while, don't you? I like to hear it
again. I talk about that basketball. You were pacing around yesterday
like crazy. You about had a heart attack. I didn't. I've given
up on watching this. I just don't watch them. But
I don't know why. I don't even tape them and watch
them if they win. I just find no pleasure in it.
But for whatever reason, yesterday I recorded that game. And I knew
the outcome. I knew it. And I was watching
that game. Not once, but twice. I went back
and checked my phone. Did they really win? How did
they do that? We come in here on Sundays and
Wednesdays. This is what we hear. Could this really be true? Could it really, really be true? I've looked at myself. I need
to check this out. Is this really true? God could
save a sinner like me. Is it possible God could really
crucify his son for the likes of me? Oh, I don't see how I'm
going to get there from here. But is it really true that this
thing's going to end up with me and glory worshiping Christ? Yes, it is. That's what this
is reminding us. All right, the sixth thing. God's
throne has a message for his people, verse five. And out of
the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. And
there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which
are the seven spirits of God. God's throne has a message, and
it's a message that is majestic and awe-inspiring. John describes
the message coming from God, coming from his throne as lightnings,
thunderings, and voices. Those lightning bolts are the
lightning bolts of God's wrath against sin. that comes swiftly
across the sky. That lightning is the message
of God's word that just flashes, just instantaneously comes to
the heart. And they're thunderings. When we come together to worship
and we come together to hear God's gospel. Brethren, we're
not playing games. These are thunderings. The thunder
and terror of the law that should drive us to Christ. The sound
of the thunder of the gospel, the sons of thunder preach the
gospel of Christ. We hear it. We ought not mistake
what it's saying and come to Christ. Thank God there is also
voices. It's the sweet voice, that still
small voice of the gospel message that tells us of grace. peace
and forgiveness of sin in Christ. And this message is the perfect
message. This message will never, ever, ever miss its mark. These seven lamps and seven spirits,
they're not seven different spirits. It's one spirit. It's speaking
of the perfect seven, the number of perfection. It's speaking
of the perfect Holy Spirit of God that gives us light to see
Christ, that gives us wisdom to know Christ. It's a light
that gives us the warmth of life in Christ. And it always comes
to the people of God, never misses its mark. Then the last thing
about God's throne. It's a throne, it's a pure throne. Look here at verse six. And before
the throne, there was a sea of glass likened to crystal. In
the midst of the throne, around about the throne, were four beasts
full of eyes before and behind. We'll deal with those beasts
beginning next week. But thing I want us to see here is before
the throne was the sea of glass, like under crystal. This crystal
sea, it reminds us of the brazen labor in the tabernacles, the
labor that the priest would wash in. It's talked about in scripture
like a sea. Some people say that this is
a picture of the sea, the blood of Christ that cleanses us from
all sin. And it could be. Scripture talks about Christ
being a fountain open for sin, just an ocean of blood to cleanse
every sinner that needs cleansing. And that certainly could be.
This is talking about something that's cleansing and pure, perfect. It could be the blood of Christ,
but I don't know because blood's red, not clear. Tell you what
I believe this is talking about, this crystal sea. It's the word
of God. the whole word of God that cleanses
sinners through the message of Christ. David said, wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereunto
according to my word. That's how we're cleansed according
to the message of the word of God. But don't get caught up
on exactly what the sea represents. What we need to see is the message
of it. Here's the message of the crystal sea. Sinners are
made pure and sanctified in Christ. This sea leads to the throne.
The only way we can come to the throne is through the word of
God, through the word incarnate, through the Lord Jesus Christ
being made pure and sanctified in him. And in him, we can come
right up to the throne, the throne, the very throne of God accepted
in the beloved. Now, when we need times of comfort
and trial and suffering, I tell you what we should do. We ought
to get in this Word. We ought to get in it. This Word,
if you get in it, you want me to tell you where it leads you?
Every time. If God the Holy Spirit leads
you as you read the Word, you know where it leads you? Every
time. It leads you to Christ. Every time. The message of every
verse of Scripture is Christ. If we'll get in this Word, we're
going to be led to Christ. And when we see Him, everything's
going to be alright. That's where our comfort's found.
All right, I hope that'll bless you.