lesson this morning's in revelation
chapter four the book of revelation when we
read this book you soon discover that it's speaking in symbolic
language it's it's a big mistake to try to take it literally and
and try to interpret it literally looking at these these beasts
and he calls his preacher stars and he calls his churches candlesticks
and you go all through here and so it's best just to understand
at the get-go that he's talking in symbolic language. Now once
he establishes what these symbols are, that's what they mean all
the way through, all the way through the book. And most of
these symbols, if you go back and read the Old Testament, you'll
find back in the Old Testament where the symbol began. And sometimes he even gives reference
to it. He talks in this book of men
receiving the mark of the beast here in the book of revelations
that number 666 stamped in their forehead so we know that whatever
this thing of the beast and that's that's what we're going to talk
about this morning the message of the beast and and so we find
out that the beast is a man that he's talking about he's not talking
about a Well, you conjure up whatever vision you want to when
you think about a beast, or you can take it literally like it
was spoken of in the Old Testament, a beast being a cow or a goat
or a sheep or something else, a beast. But here in the book
of Revelations, he likens man as a beast. And he receives that
mark in his forehead, 666, and that number six is the mark of
man. And so what he's talking about
here is that all men receive that religion which is nothing
but man, man, man. So when he's talking about man
as a beast, that's what he's talking about. But here in Revelations
chapter four, he's talking about four beasts. He's talking about
four And these four beasts represent ministers of Christ. Why were
they called beasts? Because they're men. That's why. But God chose them, gifted them,
and he placed them between his throne and his people. Not as
priests, but as ministers and ambassadors to bring them the
message of God. out of this cursed lot. God has
a people which he calls and regenerates and out of that number he puts
some into the ministry. And here and also in chapter
five as well they're called the four beasts. Now these are representative
of all God's preachers. You remember when God called
Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar's up there with his thumbs and
his suspenders up there on that big tower and he's looking down
over Babylon and just praising himself for all that he'd done
and glorifying himself and God took him down and he made him
to feed like the beasts. And when he was aware of what
it was to be as a beast, then God gave him some sound reasoning
and he was able to talk a little bit about God. Well, that's the
way it is with God's preachers. And David, think about this.
This is the man after God's own heart. David said, so foolish
was I, he said, and ignorant I was as a beast before thee. And then last week we looked
at all the various aspects of these beasts, understanding that
they represent God's ambassadors and his people. So let's take
up where we left off here in Revelation 4 verse 8. 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 you can find a creature back
in the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter six. When Isaiah saw
the Lord, the Lord tells us over in the book of John, he said,
Isaiah spoke these words, when he saw my glory, when he saw
me. And there he was. And Isaiah
saw the Lord upon his throne. He saw these two strange creatures
he called seraphims who had six wings. They had the exact same
description as these beasts. They had six wings. And these
seraphims hovered above the throne of God. And here we find, in
glory, we find these four beasts and they're hovering around the
throne of God. So these seraphims, they hovered
above the throne of God and here was their message. Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His
glory. And at the message of these strange
creatures, Isaiah suddenly become acutely aware of his sin. Here's
these creatures hovering above the throne of God, and here's
the Lord Jesus Christ, before he ever appeared on this earth,
but seated glorified on his throne, and these creatures are talking
about him. And they're telling them, telling Isaiah that he's
holy. He's holy. What's holy mean? That has to do with the whole
character of God. This is God in harmony in all
his attributes seated right here. This is God on the throne in
the person of a man. And they just kept crying, holy,
holy, holy. The whole earth was full of his
glory. Well, it ought to be full of
his glory. He made it. He rules it. He preserves it. It was made
for him and of him, and it's full of his glory. So at the
message of these strange creatures, Isaiah become acutely aware of
his sin, and he cried, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean
lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts. And then one of those seraphims,
one of these beastly creatures, went over to the altar and he
took the tongs and he picked up a live coal and he come and
he laid it right on Isaiah's lips. And he burnt that vision
into his mouth and Isaiah from that day forward, you know people
call the book of Isaiah the gospel according to Isaiah, he's so
clear. in his statements of the gospel,
more clear than any of the other prophets, all through the book
of Isaiah. So it enabled him to say good
things and rightly divide the word of truth and the glorious
sacrifice of Christ being burned into his mouth. And then Isaiah
willingly, he willingly responded to God's calling him into the
ministry. He said, here am I, send me,
send me. The scriptures, or the seraphims
rather, in Isaiah, it says use two wings to cover their face. And they
used two wings to cover their feet. And with two wings they
did fly. God enabled them. God enables
his ministers to rise above the things of this world. They have
a message not of this world. They have a message of God. Here's
these beasts. That's what they were. They were
down here in the earth and they were beasts. They were cursed
of God. They had nothing. They knew nothing. And God saved
them. And he enabled them to rise up
into glory and tell about the glory that they saw. That was
what they did. And here they are, up in glory,
talking about things. And my message to you this morning,
not of this world. You can't learn it in this world.
You can't go out here on the river and suddenly all this stuff's
just going to dump into your head. He has to enable you. Paul said, God hath made us meet. He said, thank God that he made
us meet to be partakers with the enlightened saints of
this revelation and be able to see these things. So you see,
here they are and they have the ability to fly, but back in the
Old Testament these wings were covering their feet and covering
their face. Why? Because they were in the
presence of the king. So we're talking about humility
Even of these angelic creatures, we're talking humility, unworthiness. Or maybe because as yet the gospel
ministry had not began. It was only being prophesied
of. And so that mouth that speaks is covered. And them feet, oh
how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel feet.
Those feet were covered. It was a mystery at that time. But the beast here in Revelation
4, who are the antitypes of the seraphims, their faces are fully
revealed. Their face, he tells us in those
beginning verses, one like unto a lion, and one like unto a lamb,
and one like unto an eagle. Their faces are exposed. You
can see their faces. And then he tells us that they
were full of eyes within. Eyes within speaks of the eyes
of faith and the eyes of the hidden man within. We see things
not with these eyes, but with the eyes of faith. We see things
that this world don't see. He called the whole world up
into heaven. He called John. He called John. And he, by faith,
we're able to enter into those things. We're able to see those
things and perceive those things. And he's talking here about the
hidden man within in his eyes. They had the vision of faith
which sees things as God reveals them and walks after those things
which they see. And then he tells us that these
beasts rest not day and night. What he's talking about here
is their calling has totally absorbed
them. No matter, I mean, We have other
interests, we have other things that we do, but the message is
never off my mind or off my heart. I don't ever rest. I'm thinking
about it all the time. If we, you know, if we get together
and have a fellowship and we're talking about fishing and all
these other things, my mind's still going about this gospel.
And somewhere in that conversation, we're gonna talk about it. They
don't rest, they don't ever rest. I wake up in the middle of the
night dreaming about these things sometimes. And so these, here
they are, these beasts, and they're, God's enabled them to, and then
look where they're at, they're around the throne. You want to
learn something about God, that's the place to learn it. God's
the source, he's the beginning. That's where it all happens,
that's where the authority comes from. There's the throne, then
there's the beast, then there's the church. The church is represented
in these elders. Preachers' minds and hearts are
fully taken up with His glory. And the glory of the Lord is
first and foremost in their lives. They're often misunderstood about
not having affection for people or not having affection for their
own family members, but that's not so. I love my children. I love my family. But my love
for Christ is greater. It's greater. And oftentimes
these things take precedence over the other, and they're misunderstood. There's a place in Matthew where
the Lord talks about your family hating you. It's not that they
really hate you, it's that they perceive your love They perceive
that you have no love for them because they're not the center
of your attention anymore. Christ is. God is. Not that I
don't love them, I do love them. But I love Him more. Love Him
more. And I'll tell you this, beware
of any preacher whose life is not dominated by the glory of
God in Christ. If he's willing to compromise
that gospel for anything, I don't care what it is, if he's willing
to compromise that gospel, he's not called of God. It's not that
we don't have families or interest or other needs, but it's kind
of like the stars. You go outside, we were driving
home the other night, that big full moon, you look up there
and the sky was full of clouds and you could look over here
and you could see these stars shining all over the place. When
the sun comes up, the stars don't go away. They're still there. But you don't see them. Why not? Because of the brilliance of
the sun. All these other things disappear. They disappear. And that's what it is when your
heart becomes absorbed with the glory of Christ. These other
things become invisible to you. They rested not day and night. Now I want you to look closely
at the last line of Revelation 4.8. The Lord God Almighty which was
and is and is to come. The one thing of which John was
the most convinced is that Jesus Christ was and is and evermore
God Almighty. He's God. He's God. He's not just, he was a man,
but he's the God man. And he's as much God as if he
was not man and as much man as if he was not God. When it talks
about his humanity, you would swear he was talking about one
of us. And then when he talks about his deity, you can't see
his humanity. But they were one in him. He's
the God-man. And John was absolutely, if you
read the book of John or the epistles of John, he just goes
on and on and on talking about Jesus Christ and his divinity. All true revelation finds its
beginning in God. In Christ, Paul said, dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead. You don't need anything else,
you just study him. Everything you're ever gonna
learn about God, you're gonna find it right here in Christ.
That's where you're gonna find it. And he tells us plainly in
this book of Revelation that Jesus Christ is Alpha and Omega,
he's the beginning and the end. All right, now let's read these
next several verses all together. Revelation 9 through 11. And when those beasts gave glory
and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who liveth
forever and ever, the four and 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 has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are
and were created. So when these beasts, God's chosen
ambassadors, when they finished speaking, giving glory and honor
and thanks to him that sits on the throne, the elders, which
represents the church, fell down before him that sits on the throne. They fell down. and they begin
to worship God. Religion says this. Religion
says stand up and be careful what God says. Bow down and worship. Religion says name it and claim
it. I don't know how many times I've
heard that on TV. I, in the name of the Lord, I
claim this and I claim that. They say name it and claim it.
God says, give glory and honor and thanks to him that sits on
the throne. If you have anything from God,
he gave it to you. You didn't claim it, and you
didn't name it. He revealed it to you, and he
gave it to you by his grace. And then notice this. It's as
these beasts spoke that the elders worshiped and worshiped. until these four beasts spoke.
When these four beasts spoke to them of the glory of God,
then they worshiped. It was the result of their speaking
that caused the elders to cast their crowns before the throne. When they finished speaking,
they took the crowns off and threw them down at the feet of
Christ. And it was the result of their preaching that caused
these elders to say, Thou art worthy, Lord. You're worthy to
receive glory and honor and power. And it was the results of their
preaching that caused the elders to know that he created all things
and for his pleasure they are and were created. Are these not
all things that I declare to you and teach to you every Sunday
when I get up here? Sure it is. I tell you that he
created all things. I tell you he created them according
to his good pleasure. He created them for his purpose.
I tell you every one of those things. That's what these beasts
represent, preachers. telling God's church. And when
they do, and God enables them to hear it, they take off their
crown, throw them at his feet. Now John's vision here is about
the worthiness of Christ to accomplish the redemptive will of God, and
he's going to accomplish it. He has to a certain degree, but
he shall in its entirety before his second coming. Then Revelations
5-1, look at this. He said, I saw in the right hand
of him that sat on the throne a book. This book was written
within and on the back side was sealed with seven seals. Most
of the old writers agree that this is the book or at least
a representation of a book which contained all of God's eternal
decrees and purposes. That's what this book is. Everything
that God intends to do is sitting in this book, and the book's
sealed. He's holding it in his hand on the throne. Some believe
it was to this book that Paul made reference in quoting David
in Psalm 40 over in Hebrews chapter 10 when he said, Lo, I come in
the volume of the book it's written of me. to do thy will, O God. In chapter 4, God the Holy Spirit
shows to John the absolute sovereignty of God in the creation of the
world and the providence that rules it and maintains it. Here
in chapter 5, he's going to show him that same sovereignty in
its relationship to the redemption of his people. Brethren, our
God is a God of purpose. Religion kind of sits before
men, things just floating around in a vacuum and they're just,
you know, you've seen these outer space pictures and it's showing
men floating around and things floating around and papers floating
around and everything. That's how religion sits forth
this world. Everything just kind of going
at random. It don't have any direction. It just, that's not
the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible does things
on purpose. He's a God of purpose. He's a
covenant God. He said, I'm God. There's none like me, told Isaiah. There's none like me. I declare
the end from the beginning and from ancient times of things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel will stand and I'll
do all my pleasure. God saves a man. He saves him.
It's no accident. He saves him on purpose. Truth be known, he was born in
this country, born in this state, brought by the providence of
God up to a certain age, and at that age brought into this
church, sends a preacher down here who preaches to him, and
God the Holy Spirit regenerates him and saves him. All these
things, all this prevenient grace is going on back here. Grace
for grace is just going on and on and on and on. And suddenly
God lets him in on it. Oh my soul, God's been saving
me from all eternity. He saved me when he called me
and put me in Christ before the foundation of the world. That's
what's in this book. That's what's in this book. The death of Christ was not out
of God's control or according to the random events of an out-of-control
government. The scripture said, him being
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, you took him with wicked hands to crucify and slay. You did what his hand and his
counsel determined before to be done. So all God's eternal decrees
and counsels are represented here in this book. God's purpose
and predestination, which includes all things. He worketh all things
after the counsel of His own will. And in this chapter, the
Holy Spirit's going to show us that God's predestination of
all things is for the salvation of His elect. And this is His crowning work
and around which everything else finds its purpose and being. So what is this book in the hands
of our sovereign God? It's the book of His eternal
decrees and purposes. Well, what do we know about the
book? What does God tell us about this
book? What does He tell us about all His eternal predestination? What does He tell us about it?
It's sealed. It's sealed. You can't open it.
I can't open it. And a search went on in heaven,
and John was looking around. Now remember, God's revealing
these things to John, and he's looking around, and he sees the
book, and he knows what the book is. But the book's sealed. And
he said they looked around, and nobody, nobody in heaven was
worthy to take that book, to look on it, or open those seals. But then one cried. Huh? What'd he say? Behold the lion
of the tribe of Judah. He's worthy. He's worthy. He can take the book. Now you,
there's no way I'm gonna get all the way through this today.
My time's already up, but I want you to think on this all week.
He who opens the book has to be able to fulfill everything
that's written in it. That's why nobody was worthy.
I mean everything in it, every jot and tittle of it, providence,
creation, salvation, everything had to be exactly in accordance
with the character of God and the purpose and decrees of God,
and none was worthy except Christ. And when he takes this book,
John's gonna show us how he opened these seals and fulfilled everything
written in the book.