Alright, if you will turn with
me to Revelation chapter 4. The book of the Revelation of
Jesus Christ sits before the believer seven visions, each
of which spans the whole of the Gospel age, beginning with Christ
and His appearance on this earth and continuing on until the end
of time. First of these visions we've
already looked at in chapters 1 through 3. That is Christ walking
among the candlesticks, walking among His churches, speaking
to His churches through His pastors. And then the second vision is
declared in chapters 4 through 7. And this vision has Christ
opening and fulfilling all that's written in the book of God's
sovereign and eternal purposes and decrees. We find him taking
from the one who sits on the throne a seven-sealed book, and
that book is all God's eternal purposes and counsels. Now, this
morning we'll begin our study here in chapter 4, and this is
the beginning of the second vision of John. Revelation 4, verse
1. After this I looked, And behold,
a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice I heard was
as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up
hither, and I'll show thee things which must be hereafter. Now
the first thing I want you to see here is that this open door
is in heaven. It's in heaven. He was about
to view heavenly things, not earthly things. Whenever preachers
today talk about the book of Revelations and these coming
events, they always talk of earthly things. This voice told him to
come up hither and he was going to see heavenly things. Heavenly
things. Now everything that the believer
has and everything the believer knows and everything the believer
hopes for comes from heaven. You ever think about it? It comes
from heaven. In James 1.17 he said, Every
good gift and every perfect gift is from above. Where is it at? Where does it come from? It comes
from above. and cometh down from the Father
of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Paul
tells us in Colossians 3 verse 1, if you then be risen with
Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth
on the right hand of God, and set your affections on things
above, not on things there. That which interest the believer
is in heaven. That's where my hope is. We have
a living hope. Where's he at? Seated at the
right hand of God. Everything I need, everything
I hope for, everything that gives me comfort is from above. It's in heaven. And heaven is
that place where the eternal God dwells and rules and does
all his pleasure. He said heaven is my throne.
It's my throne. Heaven is the wellspring of all
wisdom. Heaven is the wellspring of every
blessing of grace and mercy. He hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. When our Lord declared His coming
into this world to do the will of His Father, He said, for I
came down from heaven. When John the Baptist declared
Him He said, He that cometh from above is above all. He that is
of the earth is earthy and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh
from heaven is above all. The Scripture is full of declarations
concerning heaven and the God who dwells there. But how can
a poor ignorant sinner know anything of the glories of heaven? What
do we know of the glories of heaven? How do I know what's
there? How do I know what to look for?
How do I know what to long for? How does a poor ignorant sinner
who's known nothing but this earth, nothing but this world,
how can he have any sense of what's in heaven? How can he know anything of the
purpose of God and the will of God and the power and wisdom
of God, the origin of the universe, the origin or the purpose behind
the creation of man? The angels, heaven and hell,
sin and judgment, providence and the end of time. We're told
that God is invisible. No man has seen God at any time. God is invisible. And so is heaven
unless we're allowed of God and enabled of God to see it. You
see what's going on in this vision? This is a spiritual vision given
to John and he said the first voice I heard was as it were
a trumpet and he said, come up hither. Come up here. This is exactly what this verse
is telling us, that a door was opened in heaven, an access,
a way to peer into the eternal realm to see what is closed to
most. but we see that a door has been
opened. We can peer right into heaven
itself. I've had people say that of me
after I've preached. Who's he think he is? Who's he
think he is? What's he think he's seen? I've
seen through the door. I've peered into heaven itself.
And Christ is the door. When Christ came down into this
world, God came in the purpose of his son. In him, Paul said,
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Everything
in or about heaven is made known by him. I don't know anything
at all about the Heavenly Father except what I know about Christ.
And that's exactly what he told his disciples. He said, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. What do I know of the Holy Spirit
except what I know by the Spirit of Christ? That's how I know the Holy Spirit.
I know Him by what's displayed in Christ. It can be said of every believer,
I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. All right,
now watch this. The first voice which I heard
was as it were a trumpet, talking with me. which said, come up
hither and I'll show thee things which must be hereafter. Now the trumpet speaking can
be no other than the Holy Spirit of God who speaks through the
gospel and speaks of Christ who is the gospel. And the trumpet
all through the Scripture speaks of the Gospel every time it's
used in the Old Testament. Remember they went around and
around and around those walls of Jericho and then they took
out those trumpets and the walls fell down, they crumbled down.
The trumpet all through the Scripture speaks of the Gospel and so it
is here that Christ speaks through His Spirit to His beloved prophet,
the Gospel. Now notice this, the trumpet
talked with him. It talked with him. Most of the time when we think
about the gospel, we think more in general terms, but when it
comes in power and revelation, it's to the individual. It speaks
to him. It may not be speaking to...
It's certainly true to everybody in the room. It's certainly pertinent
to everybody in the room, but everybody in the room's not hearing
it. But when the gospel comes in power, it comes to that individual
and that individual hears it. He's moved by it. He's affected
by it. It becomes effectual in his heart. And this trumpet that talked
to him, it called him. It talked to him. It showed him
things. Nobody else that I can find in
the word of God heard anything on that island except John. Isn't
that something? He was in the spirit on the Lord's
day. And it spoke to him. He heard
it. It talked to him and it called
him and it said, come up hither. Come up hither. And that's what the voice always
says, come up hither. If one will see the heavenly
vision, he must rise up from this earthly place and these
earthly limitations and be made meet to be partaker of the inheritance
of enlightened saints. If you will be enlightened and
peer through that door, you must rise up above these limitations. There's only one way you can
do that, through the new birth, by the Spirit of God. I'm telling
you the truth. I've said and done it, and you
can waste your time if you want to, but you can sit one-on-one
and talk till the cows come home to somebody, and it'll just roll
off of them like water off a duck's back. The Holy Spirit can take
something that might not even affect you, and He can break
a man's heart with it. It becomes effectual when it
comes in power. And then our Lord said this,
except you be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.
You're not going to see anything in heaven. You're not going to
see anything there. Now listen to me. The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They're
written in a book for him to read, and that book's inspired
by the Holy Spirit of God, but he won't receive it. God called
a man and equipped a man and sent that man to preach to him.
Accompanied his preaching with the Holy Spirit, but he won't
receive it. He's a natural man. He must be born again. I'm telling
you, the Spirit of God must work in a man's heart in order for
him to believe. And believing is the gift of
God. He gives him this ability. Without this heavenly door, without
this effectual calling of the spirit, nobody's ever gonna hear
or see anything. All right, now listen to this,
Revelation 4, verse 2. And immediately, I was in the
spirit. What on earth does that mean? I was in the spirit. Does that mean his eyes rolled
backward in their sockets? And he stood there trembling
in some kind of trance? Does that mean that he had some
kind of out-of-body spiritual experience and his spirit just
was lifted from his body? What's that mean, I was in the
spirit? That mean he quit using his native
language and began speaking in a heavenly language? Not at all. It simply means that his mind
and heart was drawn away. from the cares and limitations
of this world. And it was drawn away to commune
with God. That's what it means. I was in
the Spirit. It become fixed, his mind and
heart become fixed on the things of God. He ceased to see with
his natural eyes and hear with his natural ears. He was in the
Spirit. And he saw with the eyes of his
soul and the eyes of the Spirit. What did he see with these eyes?
When God opened that door into heaven and called him up hither
and granted him to be in the spirit, what did he see? What
did this man of God see when God let him peer into heaven? First thing, a throne. A throne. My friend, if God ever
enables you to hear His gospel and allows you to look through
the sun into heaven itself, the first thing you're going to see
is the throne. The word throne is mentioned
some 17 times in chapter 4 and chapter 5. 17 times. The throne is a symbol
of sovereign power, authority, and dominion. God runs the show. We don't have a voice in it. He's been running things from
the beginning. God determines the purposes behind
all things, the end of all things. He sits on the throne. And the
message of the vision is clear. All things are under the power,
authority, and dominion of Him who sits on the throne. I remember
reading something by A.W. Pink years ago, and I saw it
recently in a bulletin. You see, God is working out his
eternal purpose, not only in spite of human and satanic opposition,
but by means of it. He's using the very means of
it. We act sometimes like God's fighting
against it. You know, when those men crucified
his son, every one of them did exactly what he wanted to do.
But when they did it, they did what God determined before to
be done. Just exactly. Nothing is seen or made known
in heaven that's not first based on and grounded in the absolute
sovereignty of God. Nothing's going to happen apart
from God's appointed sovereignty. Now I've heard a lot of men talk
about their heavenly experiences. I've never heard one yet mention
seeing the throne. Have you? They talk about feelings
and they talk about visions and they talk about voices and they
talk about all kinds of things. But here, I'm told the first
thing you see when you enter into heaven is the throne. I've
never heard one of them talk about the throne. God said heaven's my throne and
earth is my footstool. The Bible said, Thy throne, O
God, speaking to Christ, is forever and ever. And this throne is
a heavenly throne. And being a heavenly throne,
it declares power and dominion, now listen to me, over everything
that is. It's a heavenly throne. Darkness
and light and salvation and damnation and life and death and poverty
and riches and sickness and hell. And no man can truly worship
God until he sees Him seated on the throne of glory. That's
when you begin to enter into some sense of worship with God,
when you see Him who sits on the throne. Paul preached to God who's God.
He said to those philosophers on Mars Hill, God, He said, that
made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord
of heaven and earth, He doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. Acts 17, 25, neither is He worshipped
with men's hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He giveth
to all life and breath and all things. and have made of one
blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and set
the bounds of their habitation." You know why these natives live
in deepest, darkest Africa? Because God determined their
habitation. That's right. And that's why
you live here. God determined. the bounds of
your habitation. Now he's either God over all
or he's not God at all. That's what you're going to find
out in the scriptures. He's God. He's not God but he's God. He's God. And seeing this glorious
throne and him that sat upon it, John began to tell of the
glory of God. He said he was to look upon like
a jasper. Now I'm going to be honest with
you. I'm not a gemologist. I don't
know a whole lot about gems, so I had to look them up. I wanted
to see why John would say that he that sat on the throne was
like a jasper. Like a jasper. So I took some
time and I looked up these gems to make myself familiar with
them And so I could get some idea of their relationship to
our God. And jasper appears in all colors. It comes in all colors. But the
one that's the most appealing is called natural ocean. And
this type of jasper, it contains all the colors of a rainbow. They're not expensive jewels.
You can buy these things for 18, 20 bucks. And then he said he's like a
sardine stone. And he's known mostly, these
stones are known mostly for their deep red color, but behind the
color, when they're polished, behind that deep red color is
a bright yellow, a very bright yellow, and it gives the appearance
of a sunrise behind a red cloud. That's what it looks like when
you look at it. What a picture of our sovereign God who's all
light, and in whom is no darkness at all and who makes his light
to shine in our hearts through the blood of his son on the cross. We see that light and it's shining
through that red cloud. You look on him who sits on the
throne. The only way you're gonna see
him who sits on the throne is to see Christ. He's God. And
that's how we see him. all right revelation four three
the very last line of the birth and there was a rainbow around
about the throne insight like unto an emerald now i know emerald
green i've heard talk about emerald waters of the sea and all this
i know it it's green in color so i wonder what does green have
to do with the rainbow So I looked up this gem, and when I saw it,
the only way I can describe it, now this was a polished stone
already dug out of the earth, but it had not yet had the emerald
taken from it. And to look at it was like looking
at a volleyball, and every one of those little patches that
go around was green and then black, and then green and then
black, and green and black. And so when you look at it, it
was layered all the way around in the rough. and they polished
it so you could see what it looked like in the rough. So this rainbow,
he said, was like an emerald. It was sectioned. It had sections. It had divisions in it. Any view of heaven, of God, of
salvation, has as its source the covenant God. Whenever you
see a rainbow, what do you think about? You think about that covenant
that God made with Noah after the flood. Those for whom provision was never
made shall be justly left in their blindness and darkness
forever. They shall be justly left to themselves to do what
their wicked nature dictates for them to do. All for whom
provision was made shall be called, justified, and glorified. How
do I know that? Because God who sits on the throne
of heaven is a covenant God. He made a covenant. He can't
deny himself. He said, because I could swear
by no greater, I swore by myself when he made covenant with Abraham.
You think about that. God made covenant by, he swore
by himself. God can't fail. These men talking
about God doing all He can do, and the rest is up to you, and
if you don't believe, then you've caused Christ's sacrifice to
be a... That's foolishness. That's blasphemy. God can't fail. He swore by Himself. All of these things owing to
the sovereign grace of God who made for them and with them an
everlasting covenant of grace. Paul said, now the God of peace
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd
of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. So this God, now if God's going
to let you see Him at all, the reprobate never go for it
the following angels never go for it they're going inside but
if god don't let you see him through his gospel and through
his son and peer into heaven and see him sit on the throne
you don't see him as your covenant that's what he's saying there's
a rainbow round about his throat But why rainbow? Well, turn with
me to Genesis chapter nine, and I'll wrap this up. Immediately after the destruction
of this world, the Lord said to Noah and his children, verse
11, Genesis chapter nine, and I will establish my covenant
with you. Neither shall all flesh be cut
off any more by the waters of a flood. Neither shall there
any more be a flood to destroy the earth. God said this is the
token of the covenant which I made between me and you and every
living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud
and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the
earth. Now a bow is the token of God's
covenant. He said his bow. Now, scientists
are telling us that global warming's gonna melt all of Iceland and
all the ice is gonna flood the oceans and the earth's gonna
be destroyed with a flood. God's bow tells me it's not.
It's not. And the bow round about the throne
is the symbol of our covenant God. Everything in the history
of men finds its source in the covenant of God. Creation, the
fall, Israel, the law, the coming of Christ, the death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ, Christ's present reign and glory, this
all flows from the everlasting covenant of God's grace. Were
it not for God's everlasting covenant of grace, nothing, as
we know it, would exist. I forgot to put this in my notes,
so I'll just try to add it by memory. I looked up these rainbows. I wanted to see about it. The rainbow, when you look at
it, you always see a half a circle. Starts over here, ends over there. But the rainbow is a full circle.
The reason we only see half of it is because it's prism through
the water drops in the cloud and we're looking at it sideways.
If you go up in a plane and look down on the rainbow, it's a full
circle. Goes all the way around. Now
when John saw this rainbow in heaven, what'd he say about it? It was round about the throne. Went all the way around. Everything
that stems, everything that comes, everything that has its source
from that throne is to his people and it's secured by his bow. Now that's what he shows us when
we see that throne. When a believer sees the throne,
he doesn't see a place of judgment, he sees a place of mercy and
covenant grace.