I want you to take your Bibles
and turn this morning with me to Revelation chapter 4. We've been going through verse
by verse through the book of Revelation. And here it describes
John's being caught up or called up with a heavenly invitation. That's
the only way you can see heaven, by heavenly invitation. And he
was given the great privilege of looking into heaven itself. Now, heaven is a place of great
mystery if you start thinking about it. Heaven is a place of
great mystery to men. It's the abode of God. I know
that from the Scriptures. Heaven, He said, is my throne.
Earth is my footstool. And it's the throne of His kingdom.
And as far as I can tell, it's the wellspring of every blessing
to men. It all comes down from above. It comes down from heaven. It's the place where our Lord
came from. And it's the place to which He
returns. on our behalf and where our salvation
is said to be secured, heaven itself. Peter said it's reserved
in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last day. Heaven is a
place where our Lord said, your angels, believers' angels, do
always stand before the Father, waiting for His orders concerning
you. They always attend Him standing
before the Father in heaven for you. Did you know angels have
been appointed to watch over you? Well, that's what it says
in Hebrews chapter one. That's what these angels are.
They're ministers to those who shall be heirs of salvation.
And heaven is the place of eternal things, of eternality. When we
talk about heaven, we're not talking about the present. When you peer into heaven, it's
not like seeing things here. We see things here relative to
time. A storm come through last night.
We saw it coming. We felt its presence when it
came and we watched it go. That's living in the present.
But when you look into heaven, heaven is a place of eternality. Things which are not seen, Paul
said, are eternal. The things which we see, they're
carnal. They're just here for a moment
and gone. But when we peer into heaven, we're talking about eternal
matter. I'm talking about eternal things.
So heaven is a place of eternality. And then those things which are
not seen, like I said, are eternal. And the believer's house in heaven,
he said, is eternal. It's eternal. Believers are enabled of God
to peer into the mysteries of heaven. How? How? I go to funerals of unbelievers
sometimes and I hear preachers talking about things in heaven
as though they understood what they were talking about and talking
about streets of gold and gates of pearl and talking about cabins
in the corner of glory land and all this stuff. All you got to
do is look through your hymn book and you'll find all kinds
of jargon in there about heaven from people who don't know what
heaven is. So how do we see these? How does
the believer peer into heaven? By two things. First of all,
he's enabled to look into heaven itself by the word of God. Now,
if I want to know something about heaven, I'd rather listen to
somebody whose abode is there, wouldn't you? God inhabits heaven. He can tell you, He alone can
tell you what it is. So the Word of God sets before
us everything, purpose for us to know about heaven. And then
secondly, by His Spirit, who alone can enable us to rightly
divide the Word of Truth so that we rightly see and rightly hear. and understand what God says
about his heaven. This book is a spiritual book
and only those who are in the spirit, that's what it said about
John, he was caught up in the spirit. That's how you're enabled
to see these things. So what did John see? Here's
John, he's a man just like you and I, and he's a person, he
was born into this world, he had a mother and he lived for
a while and then died. He was just a person just like
we are. And he was caught up in the spirit
of God and enabled to peer into heaven. What did he see? What
did he see? He saw a throne. A throne. The throne is a symbol
of power and authority. When you see a throne, if you
were to peer into heaven itself, and if God enables you to do
so, first thing you're gonna see is a throne. You're gonna
see a throne. This is where all authority and
power is. It's in glory. So the throne
is a symbol of power and authority, but when it's occupied by a gracious
and merciful king, it can also be a source of great blessing
and comfort and assurance. God sits on the throne. That
fellow asked Henry one time, he hadn't seen Henry since they
were in seminary, and Henry had been pastoring for probably 30
years at the time, and he said, Henry, he said, are you still
saved? And Henry said, well, I don't know. He says, God's
still on the throne. You see, if you know him that
sits on the throne, it's a source of comfort. God's sovereignty, it rubs people
the wrong way. It makes people ill. It makes
people troubled. Also, but it doesn't to the believer,
his hope is in the sovereignty. If God's not sovereign over all
things, I'm a goner. Now having seen this throne,
John now proceeds to tell us about things round about the
throne. If God would allow you this morning,
if He would enable you by His Spirit, to gaze into glory and
look upon the throne of God, what would you expect to see
round about the throne? Have you ever thought about it?
What would you expect to see? Blaming swords? Angelic creatures? What would
you expect to see if God would allow you to peer into glory
itself? Well, let's read and see what
John saw, Revelation 4, verse 4. And round about the throne were
four and twenty seats. And upon the seats I saw four
and twenty elders sitting, clothed and in white raiment. And they
had on their heads crowns of gold. Now remember, this vision
is about seeing Christ. It's about seeing His appointments,
His work, His glory, and His power to finish what He began. It's a word of assurance to John
that Christ is able, able to bring about the victory all the
way through this gospel age until its climax in the last day. And when John saw the throne,
he saw also the church, represented by these 24 elders, all wearing
crowns and seated on 24 subordinate thrones. You remember he talked
to, Paul the Apostle talked to us and told us, he said that
we would be seated with him in his judgment of the world. Believers
are kings and priest under our God. So these men sat there on
24 subordinate thrones and these elders are most likely to me
the 12 patriarchs of the Old Testament and the 12 apostles
of the New Testament. 24 of them. And between these
24 they represent the whole Church of God. The whole Church of God. These were true Jews both naturally
and spiritually. And God's church is made up of
men, women, and children chosen of God in Christ before the foundation
of the world. They were given to Christ to
be saved in such a way that's consistent with His glory as
He sits on this throne. God is just. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of His throne. God's just. Therefore, he must
be just in our justification. God is righteous. If we're to
be saved, we must be perfectly righteous before God. God is
holy. His people must then be holy. By the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, the New Testament apostles show us this salvation, typified
in his Old Testament patriarchs. He begins with Abraham. You remember
Romans 9? I read it to you last week and
showed you there how each one of these men, Abraham, Isaac,
Jacob, Joseph, just go right on down the line, all these patriarchs,
every one of them typified the Lord Jesus Christ, especially
Judah. And here we see these men clothed
in a white raiment with crowns of gold on their head. And of
course this raiment can't be anything except the righteousness
of Christ. And these crowns are crowns of
victory. All believers are victorious
in Christ. We have the victory in Him. He's
our victory. You'll never have assurance trying
to look in yourself for some kind of potential to be victorious.
There's no potential in you. It's all in Him. We look to Him
and we have the victory. He's seated at the right hand
of God. Paul just keeps telling us that. All right, Revelations 4 verse
5. And out of the throne, here's
these 24 elders all seated around the throne of God. And then John
said, out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and
voices. These are three distinct things
which John saw coming from the throne of God. Lightning, thunderings,
and voices. Lightning, to me, indicates the
manifest wrath of God. It's a grave error to imagine
that God's wrath is being held back and will not be exercised
at all until judgment. He's already manifested his wrath
when he ran Cain off to the land of Nahn. He manifested his wrath
in Babylon when he confused the languages. He manifested his
wrath in the flood of Noah. He destroyed the whole world.
Just a handful on the ark. And you can go on and on and
on with the manifest judgment of God. But it's a grave error
to think that God's holding back His wrath. God's not angry. You
always see that little smiley face. Boy, it was big here several
years back. Smile, God loves you. Can you
imagine seeing that on the Ark? I can't imagine. Can you imagine
seeing that in Sodom and Gomorrah? That big smiley face on the side
of the building and it burnt to cinders? Unbelievers in their state of
unregeneracy are said to have been, by nature, children of
wrath, even as others. Children of what? Wrath. In John 3, 36, it says, He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not
the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God abideth
on him. And then in Romans 1.18 it said,
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth and unrighteousness.
What is? This man knows the truth. He
knows it by conscience and he knows it by creation. He knows. He maybe never heard the gospel.
He maybe never darkened the door of a church. He maybe never picked
up a Bible, but God gave him a conscience. And he's surrounded
by creation, which tells him that there's a God who sits on
the throne and orders all things, and his conscience tells him
what's right and wrong, in general. But in Romans 1, it said, They didn't want to retain God
in their conscience. They didn't want to bow to God
in His superiority. And so they changed the glory
of God into an image made like unto man and four-footed beasts
and creeping things. And God gave them up to themselves,
gave them over to themselves to do what's inconvenient. The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. How
is it revealed? It's revealed in men and women's
satisfaction and love for darkness. That's how it's revealed. You
want to see the wrath of God? Go out here down the road today
and look in the churchyard. These churches preaching lies,
preaching another God, preaching another gospel by another spirit,
and men and women shouting and singing and pretending to worship
that God. That's the wrath of God. That's
what that is. Satisfaction of men with darkness. They're satisfied with it. They
love it. They love it. You know in our country today
it's lawful for men to live with men as married couples and women
the same thing. The nation's satisfied with it.
The lawmakers are satisfied with it. The communities are getting
more and more satisfied with it. What is that? That's the wrath of God. That's
what that is. The man of... When John saw that
throne, he saw lightnings coming out of that throne. That's the
manifest judgment of God. And if you'll really see that
manifest judgment of God, go to Calvary. God manifested his
judgment on his son at Calvary. That's the wrath of God being
poured out on his son, who died in our stead. If you can rejoice and find pleasure
in false religion, the wrath of God abideth on you. So he said, I saw lightnings.
Lightnings. And then John said there was
thunderings. What are these? These thunderings
that he saw and heard coming from the throne of God. well
these are thunderings of the law of God, cursed is everyone
who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. When Israel came before Sinai
they looked up there and there was lightning and thundering
and the earth was quaking before that mountain and they told Moses,
said you go up and talk to God for us, we're not going up. God said, you tell them, don't
you even touch this mountain lest you die. Thunderings. Thunderings from the throne. He said, what thing soever the
law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before
God. And then sometimes thunder comes
from God by way of the pulpit. Did you know that? James and
John, the Lord's surname, Boanerges, that's what he called them, Boanerges,
called these two brothers. You know what it means? Sons
of Thunder. That's what he says in that same
verse. Sons of Thunder. So lightnings proceed from the
throne of God and thunderings, I stand up here all the time
and tell you about the curse of the law. I tell you how deadly
the law is. I tell you how foolish it is
to try to keep that law and produce a righteousness before God and
find hope in that law. That's thundering, that's thundering
from the throne of God. And then John said he heard voices. The God of glory here in this
vision to John tells us that he's willing to speak. Now a quiet God, He was quiet
for 400 years between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
He didn't have anything to say. And don't you know men and women
went right on gathering themselves and going to church and clapping
their hands and singing songs and practicing their ungodly
worship and all those things during all that time and God
wasn't saying a word. And there was men just like there
are today standing up telling people, God told me to do this
and God told me to do that. God wasn't saying anything for
400 years. But God here says that He's willing
to speak. In fact, the second person of
the Godhead bears the name, the Word of God. He's the Word of
God. And in Revelations 4, 5, the
second half of the verse, He tells us that there were seven
lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven
spirits of God. Now, He mentions here the word
seven spirits. He's talking about the Holy Spirit
of God. But also here, the entire church
is represented, not only in these elders, but they're represented
in these seven churches that we just studied about in the
first several chapters of Revelation. And the Spirit of the living
God has taken up abode in his churches, in us, in us. And so it's represented before
this throne as seven. It has a two-fold application.
It represents the seven churches, which are a symbol of God's church
throughout the gospel age. And then secondly, it's the number
of perfection and completeness, which absolutely represents the
Holy Spirit of God. Perfect wisdom, perfect knowledge,
perfect in all of His work. And He burns as a fire to consume
the enemies of God and to protect his people and comfort his people.
All right, Revelation 4 verse 6. And before the throne there
was a sea of glass like unto crystal. Now I read all kinds
of things about this sea. And they were all good. Sea of glass. All kinds of things about what
it might represent. But of everything that I read,
the thing I think that fits it best is the gospel. Now you just
think about what I'm saying. You remember our Lord came to
his disciples walking on the sea in the midst of a storm. I imagine it said their ship
was about to go under. So we ain't talking about a little
blow like we had last night, we're talking about a big blow.
And out on that sea, and here he comes, early in the morning,
dark, no moon, no stars, no nothing, in the midst of a storm, and
here they are on this ship, and he comes walking on these waves
on that troubled sea. And they invite him into the
vessel, and he steps into the vessel, And they said, Lord save
us lest we perish. He said, peace be still. And
that sea become as glass. It's like glass. How did it become
like glass? Through his word. Through his
word. And I believe that sea that surrounds
the throne, if you get to thinking about what is this sea of glass
that surrounds, it's the way to the throne. And that sea is
troubled except that Christ has made it calm. He made it as glass. And now we can approach that
throne through him on that sea of glass. Everything and everyone that
stands before his throne stands upon the sea. And our Lord said
over there in 1 Corinthians 15, he said, talking about his gospel,
he said, wherein you stand. That's what we stand on. And it's said to be before the
throne. Is that important? Well, I think
it is. I think it's before the throne
to show that access is forthright before God. You're not going
to climb up some other way and you're not going to approach
God from behind. You're not going to blindside
God from the side. You're going to approach Him
head on or you're not going to approach Him at all. So this
seed laid out before the throne. If you're going to approach God,
head on. That's the only way you can do
it. Only way you can do it. Of course, the sea is as glass.
It's calm and peaceful before this thundering and lightning
throne. And it was as glass reflecting all that appears upon it and
before it. It's like a mirror. You know,
you go out there in calm water and you look down at it and you
can see yourself just like looking in a mirror. Well, that's exactly
what the gospel does. It reflects our image right back
at us. It tells us exactly what we are. and then it tells us what we
are in Christ. All right, Revelation 4, verse
6, the second half of the verse. And round about the throne were
four beasts full of eyes before and behind. Now these beasts
are not beasts as an ox or a dog, and they're not angelic beings
with some kind of beastly appearance. These beasts are men. How do I know that? I can see
right now, I can see the gears turning. How does he know that
these beasts are men? Because in Revelation chapter
five, verses eight and nine, it tells us that they were redeemed,
these beasts and elders, They were redeemed by the blood of
Christ out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation
and made kings and priests before our God. So these beasts are
men. These are not ox or some kind of... I've read religious
books on on the tribulation and they start making these into
being literal beasts and flying dragons and fire-breathing dragons
and as far as your imagination can go, that's what they have
to say. But I believe these four beasts
represent all God's preachers throughout all the gospel age.
You know, four is the order of creation. where lights were set
in the firmament. Did you know that on the fourth
day? The sun and the moon and the stars. They were ordered
into God's creation and they were put there that men might
see in the darkness. And that's why he calls his preachers
at the beginning of this book, he calls them stars. Stars. What's a star? Well, he puts
the stars in the heaven. What do men do when they see
stars? They navigate. That's what they do. They navigate.
They find their way by these lights. And the moon. What's the moon? That's a reflection
of the sun. What's the church? A reflection
of the sun. You are the light of the world.
Isn't that what he says? And these four beasts, I think
the number four stands for that. He's talking about light. He's
talking about the order of creation in which light was given. And there's four beasts as God's
servants are sent, it says, to the four corners of the earth.
So here he represents all of his preachers being sent to the
four corners of the earth and these four beasts. But why beasts? Because when God calls a man
to represent him before men, he first shows that man what
he is. He's a beast. David said, I was
as a beast before they. And I guarantee you, every preacher,
he couldn't preach if he didn't. And it's a mistake, I think,
for preachers to push men to their own experience because
I think God gives them a little bit more in their experience
than He gives everybody else and maybe takes them a little
deeper in their revelation of men and what sin is so that they're
able to preach to you and talk to you about it. And then listen to this, they're
full of eyes. They stand between God and his
people, not as priests, but as ambassadors. And they're full
of eyes before and behind, being gifted with spiritual insight
and understanding of the mysteries of the gospel. And it says they
have eyes before and behind. What's that talking about? They've
got eyes to peer into things past. the Old Testament Scriptures. And they got eyes before to appear
into those things which God has prophesied that are yet to come. And John, by the Holy Ghost,
gives us some likenesses of these beasts. Revelation 4 saving. The first beast was like a lion.
And the second, like a calf, and the third beast had a face
as of a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. Now
let me say this, and I'm gonna close after this, I've already
run out of time. The number four, although it
does not indicate the exact number of gospel preachers, yet it does
hint at something. There's a number to remind us
that all preachers are called in the sin of God. And so there's
a certain number. And he does this all through
Revelations. He'll give you an exact number, but he's really
not talking about an exact number. But the number hints at things.
And here he tells us there's an exact number of preachers
designated throughout this whole gospel age. A certain number
called and sent. How shall they preach except
they be sent? But it's a very small number,
four. And that's to remind us that
they're few and far between. And then they're numbered one,
two, three, four, I think, to show us that they differentiate
from one another. They're all not the same. There's
no way you can compare John the Baptist to John the Apostle.
They were the opposite of night and day. All preachers are not of the
same temperament. And it could be all of the likenesses
given in these verses describe all his preachers, or it might
be that they're given to remind us that they differ. Or it may
be telling us both. So what do we know about these
men? Well, the first was like a lie. I could be telling us
that these preachers are not timid. They're going to tell
you the truth. You don't want to know the truth.
Don't ask a preacher. He'll tell you. He's not timid. A fellow told me one time, he
said, I could have gotten angry at what you said. I said, well,
the problem is I'm more afraid of God than I am of you. So I'm going to tell you the
truth. If you want to get mad, get mad. So it could be talking about
that or it could be talking about the order of the beast and describing
either a man like John the Baptist or Christ himself. And certainly
we'll have to say this of the first preacher. He says the first
beast, Christ, was the first preacher. And listen, what did
they call him? He's the lion of the tribe of
Judah. Oh, he got a face like a lion.
The second beast was like a calf. A calf is a young cow. I read
all kinds of stuff on this. Where they got it from is beyond
me. And a young cow, if you go through
the scriptures, a young cow only has two scriptural definitions. The first is a food source. When
the father saw the prodigal son coming, he said, go get the fatted
calf. Isn't that what he said? He put that calf away and prepared
that calf to be eaten. What do preachers do? They feed
the church. Feed my lamb. You love me, Peter,
feed my sheep. Feed my lamb. This is the food
source for the church, is the preacher. And then secondly,
the calf is used in the scriptures as a sacrifice, typifying the
sacrifice of Christ. And preachers are men who by
the mercies of God have presented their bodies a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable unto God, which is their reasonable service. All right, the third beast had
a face of a man. That's obviously telling us that
preachers are men. where me all that i was with
you in weakness and in fear and much trembling when i came before
you and while we strive to be godly representatives of christ
we do not want to give the impression uh... that we are in any way
different from you i have the same weaknesses you have the
same fears and doubts that you And then the fourth beast was
like a flying eagle. The flying eagle's a picture
of power and grace. They build their nests on top
of the mountain and they soar above the clouds on their way. This is a picture of God's preachers. They know the truth. They've
studied. They know the truth. They know the truth. And the
truth is what sets you free. The truth is the power. He said
the gospel's the power of God unto salvation. And preachers
are enabled of God to preach this gospel in a way that you
can hear it and at least understand it in your head. And so there's
that power and grace. And then the four beasts each
had six wings about him. They were full of eyes within,
and they rested not day and night, saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. Now the only other place you're
gonna find that's Isaiah chapter six, where he talks about the
seraphims. They each had six wings, with
two they covered their face, two they covered their feet,
and with two they did fly. Where did they fly? Huh? Above the throne. Above the throne. I hardly bring a message to you
that doesn't emanate from the throne of God. It's where it
comes from. That's where I camp at. I know
every good thing, every good gift, and every perfect gift
cometh down from the father of lights who sits on that throne
of glory. And so if I want to bring that
message to you, it's gonna emanate from the throne. That's where
it is. And so I hover right there. Hover over that throne. Study
that throne. Study him who sits on that throne. And then I'm enabled to preach.