After the seven churches in Asia
received these letters that the Lord had dictated to John, and
I would full well suppose all seven churches each received
all seven letters, though each one had one particularly addressed
to them, yet when you look at the condition of each of those
churches, both in the troubles they faced in the endurance they
may have shown, or in the failures that they may have exhibited.
These chapters, chapter 4 and 5 in particular, are a perfect
follow-up to deal with them. When we look here and see the
Lord God sitting on the throne, high and lifted up, and see Him
in all His glory, both in His justice and His grace. How encouraging
that would be to churches like Philadelphia, the weak, and that
poor church, both of whom suffered false accusations from those
that were of the synagogue of Satan and called themselves Jews,
but really were not. They were not the people of God. And for those churches who were
becoming lax in matters of the purity of their lives and were
saying, hey, it's okay to compromise with false religion and compromise
with the world's attitude about how people ought
to live and what they ought to pursue, the church ought to compromise
and learn to just get along and avoid trouble, how this vision
of the Holy God would stir them to a purer and
bolder testimony of Christ in their day. And for those two
churches, the first one Ephesus and the seventh one Laodicea,
Ephesus who had forsaken her first love and Laodicea who had
grown lukewarm, nothing will return your love than the visions
of God and of His Christ and the glories of Him, and nothing
will heat up your lukewarmness like a revelation of God and
His Christ. Now these two chapters, we only
read chapter 4, but chapter 4 and 5 go together, and you just can't
cover all that material in one message. And they divided it.
This is one of the times chapter division was a really good one.
It's a good place to stop. We'll pick up there next week.
But this is a scene of worship. It is divided into the worship
of God absolutely considered. Now what do I mean by that? Well,
just God as God. The one who sits on the throne,
that's God, blessed forever. And chapter 4 deals with the
church's worship of Him. And in chapter 5, in that chapter,
Christ appears and those elements of the worship of God that are
distinctly tied to our Lord Jesus Christ, they are brought in.
And we find in chapter 5 the church worshiping God through
Jesus Christ. Now, it is worship, these two
chapters here, show us the worship of God as heaven sees it. Remember now, And the reading
I've done, mostly from Brother Don Fortner's study on the book
of Revelation, but he shows that there are seven distinct visions
given to John in this book. And every one of these visions
begins with the incarnation of Christ and ends with his second
coming and describes to us the conditions that'll be going on
between those two appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we look at this,
we realize these are symbolic visions. And they show to us
not necessarily distinct historical events that we can say, oh, well,
I read the newspaper today and that must be a fulfillment of
Revelation chapter so and so. No. They're basic themes that
go on all the time. All the time. And these things
which are going on all the time, it may be that in the times just
before our Lord's return, the persecutions will become more
intense and the revelation of the workers of evil and the Antichrist
and all that may become more distinct, but they won't be any
more real. The same one who wrote the book
of Revelation said in one of his epistles, he said, the spirit
of Antichrist is already gone out into the world. And these visions are not so
much a peek into the future as a peek behind the scenes or as
seeing things the way heaven sees them, the way God sees them. Now I said that these are These
two chapters make up a scene of worship, and here is the character
of worship to be found in all of this. Verse 11, you are worthy. Now, our English word worship
comes from the word worthy. And when we worship someone,
we're saying he is worthy to be revered. He is someone of
great worth. And so verse 11 says, you are
worthy our Lord and God. And then you look over at chapter
5 verse 9, you are worthy. And then we see here in verse
12 of chapter 5, worthy is the Lamb. Now all true worship involves
that. You know, people think that worship
is a certain attitude and feeling on the part of the worshiper.
That is, they say, well, we really had some worship last night.
I could just feel it. And I go to the CDs, I'm always
looking for some good music to listen to, and the other day
I was looking at the rack of Christian and gospel CDs, you
know, and they always have these worship This is what they call
worship music. And I'm thinking to myself, if
it ain't worship, it ain't Christian, you know, it all ought to be
called worship music. But here's what they mean by
worship music. And you can tell by what they put on the fronts
of the CDs, there's people doing this. I know on the front of
the CD you can't see them waving, but you know that's what they're
doing, because you've seen them on TV. And they're doing it, and they're
caught up in some kind of ecstasy. Now, let me tell you this, sometimes
when you worship, If not in your body, in your heart, you may
be doing just that. And don't deny the reality of
it. God can, in His Spirit, as He
did to John, bring us into states of ecstasy. Do you know what
ecstasy means? It's from Greek words. The word
ecstatic comes from it, and it means to stand out. Ek, meaning
out, and the static part is to stand. And what it's saying is
you get into such a state of mind that it's almost as though
you leave your body. You're standing outside of yourself.
You're so wrapped up in spiritual things, you're hardly even aware
that you're present in the physical world or encased in a body like
this. You're ecstatic. And I guess when we're able to
enter into worship of that character, since it's a matter of standing
out, we say it's outstanding. But friends, that is not necessary
to the worship of God. I'm glad for it when it happens.
I enjoy it, no question about it. But it is worship, no matter
how you feel, it is worship when from your heart you are able
to look Godward and say you are worthy. You are worthy. And some of the most God-honoring
worship you'll ever do is when you're in the bottom of a pit
of trouble and sorrow and feel most your worthlessness. We see
His worthiness the most when we see our worthlessness the
most. That which covers up His glory is our glory. Worthy. Do you think God is worthy? Worthy of what, you say? Everything.
Everything. Oh, how awful it is when people
act as though we do God a favor when we believe in Him. As though, you know, we did something
a little extra. As though when we showed up to
church that we've granted some kind of favor. Well, I guess
I'll come into God's presence. Won't He be happy with that?
I tell you, friends, He is worthy. Now, if you want to think of
it, He's worthy of every one of our thoughts, of all of our
affections. He's worthy of everything. And
once we have rendered to Him everything it's possible for
us to render. We will have only done that which
is reasonably to be expected of us. We will not have earned
anything. We have merely become, as the
Lord says, the unprofitable servant. Now, I said that this scene is how
God sees the worship of His church. I'll prove that later on. I want
you to think of this, and you heard me read this, and wasn't
that some kind of scene now? God on the throne, 24 elders
on thrones, four beasts, weird looking beasts, glorious praise. Do you realize that when God
looks down here this morning, this is what he sees. This is the worship of God by
His saints at all times. It is not something that's only
going on in that place called heaven. In fact, one of the things
we've got to dismiss from our minds is that heaven is actually
another location somewhere in this universe. As near as I can tell, that's
not what the Bible considers heaven to be. It uses a standard
word, heaven, which actually means the heaved up places, because
that's the common word that humans use to describe the abode of
God. But I don't know that you could
get in a rocket ship, if you could make you a rocket ship
that was able to take you throughout this universe, I don't know that
you'd ever find heaven. I don't think you can get there
in a rocket ship. Our Lord on the cross went into
the presence of God and never left Golgotha. Never left the
cross, but he went to heaven and offered himself to God. John
went into heaven and never left the Isle of Patmos when he did
so. Now, John is called to heaven. It says here, After this I looked,
and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. Do you
remember our Lord said to one of the churches, Behold, I have
set before you an open door. Do you realize that each of us,
this morning, That is, each of us who believes, each of us who
belong to God. God has set before us an open
door into His presence, and no man has shut it. Oh, if we could
begin to look at the assemblies of the church and view them as
God does and realize that when God has called His church together,
He has set before them an open door by which they come into
the presence of God and join with all the saints from all
the ages in the worship of Him. I know we come here and We got
a slog on a day like this, we got a slog our way through the
snow. And boy, it doesn't, today's worship service here at the church,
it doesn't look like this, does it? Not to us. I look at us and I don't see
anything particularly glorious, but that's because what I see
here is flesh. And that's all these fleshly
eyes can see. But God calls us spiritually into His presence,
into heaven itself, there to worship with all His people.
And He called John there. He said, The voice I had first
heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come up here and I will
show you what must take place after this. God calls us. He puts this door. He opens this
door and no man can shut it. You may refuse to go through
it. You might say, I got better things to do. But nobody can
shut you out of this. And God takes us, as it were,
into his confidence. He took John into his confidence.
He says, come up here, John. I'm going to show you what's
going to happen. I'm going to let you in on what I have determined
in history. Now, I'm not full of historical
curiosities. but the basic outline of what's
going to go on until the Lord Jesus Christ will return. Now
notice this, verse 2. At once I was in the Spirit. Now John is called into heaven
and it does not say, and at once I lifted from the ground and
traveled through the first and second heaven and went into the
third heaven, way beyond the star. John says, Christ called
me into heaven and I was in the Spirit. And I believe that here
is one of those what we might call ecstatic experiences. The Lord God was pleased to give
John that special privilege of being so spiritually aware that the flesh was of nothing
to him. And you know something? And I
know we can't be in control of this. I can't make it happen
to you. We can't work it up. But here's
what I know brings it about. It's when Christ calls us to
Himself. I listened to a great message
by Brother Tim James here this past week on Heaven. And it's
from near the end of the book of Revelation. Evidently he's
been going through this book. And he described Heaven this
way. There's a symbolic representation given there. at the end of Revelation. But here is that which gives
heaven its heavenliness. It says of all God's people,
and they shall see His face. And John got as close as you
can get to that right here, because he heard His voice. And the voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ calls us out of this world, calls us
out of the consciousness, so to speak, of our surroundings,
and can so focus our minds and hearts on spiritual things that
we say, I was in the Spirit. Have you ever heard the gospel
preached like that? Or in the preaching of the gospel,
let me put it that way. Have you ever heard the gospel
preached so much so that you did become unaware of what's
going on around you? You were so taken up with the
things of Christ that your spirit began to enter into the worship
of God so much it was as though you went to heaven and saw the
face of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now once again, You know,
I don't want to burden us with the need of particular experiences,
but I can tell you this. There are times when I've preached
that it's almost as if I weren't here anymore. And there's times
I have sat there and listened to other men preach the gospel.
And God has been pleased to so work upon my mind that I forgot
where I was and who I was My mind was cleared of every fear,
of every anxiety, of every sorrow. And I saw Christ and Christ alone. And I was for all intents and
purposes in heaven. And if you had come up to me
and said, Joe, you know, you can just leave now if you wish.
I said, good. Let's all go. All to be in the
Spirit. I don't know if John went into
a trance-like state or not. It says at one point that Peter
did when he received a vision from the Lord. He was in a trance-like
state when God showed him that vision of a sheet coming down
from heaven with all kinds of beasts in it, both clean and
unclean. And he told Peter to rise up
and eat. And Peter said, I've never eaten
anything unclean. And God says, don't you call
unclean what I've made clean. And he sent Peter to the unclean
Gentiles. I don't think we need to sit
around and try to do some kind of Eastern meditation practice
in order to try to get into some kind of trance-like state, hoping
that'll happen to us. But oh, if we will listen with
our hearts wide open and listen for the voice of Christ, who
knows? He may call us up to heaven.
He may call us into His presence and we will go into the Spirit
And here's what we'll see if that happens. Here's what everybody
in the Spirit sees. And there before me was a throne
in heaven and someone sitting on it. You know, the first and most
important thing that anybody can learn about God is this. He sits on a throne. Most of that music that goes
on under the title worship music, I know that's not what it is,
because there's nothing about a throne in it. There's nothing
about a God who controls all things in it. It's all about
man. It's all about what you can do.
It's all about what God wants you to do, but you won't do it.
It's all about what God wants to do, but you won't let Him. Well, I tell you, I don't know
where they went, but they didn't go here where John went. John
went in the Spirit, called to heaven by the voice of Christ,
and he's in the Spirit, and the first thing God shows him, a
throne. And they who worship God worship
Him as the God on the throne of the universe. And those who
worship a God who cannot do what He wants to do, whose will is
frustrated by the will of man, who tries but can't, Those who
worship such a God have not gone into heaven. They have, in their
spirits, gone into the hell of darkness and ignorance, and they
worship a false god. I find it so very revealing,
so very educational, that the first thing that the Lord Jesus
Christ showed John was a throne. And I know this about thrones,
they who sit on them. are full of power and authority
and glory. And John describes God that way. He says in verse 3, And the one
who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. Now, it can be a little difficult
trying to translate some of these Greek words and the Hebrew words
of the Old Testament when it comes to things like gemstones
The various translations will put different words there, but
I did some research in the books I have, and this jasper, whether
it's actually what we would call a jasper stone today, whatever
it was they were referring to was a clear stone. Brilliant. And any light that shines upon
it reflects back. And when it is cut and faceted
like gemstones are, it has a white light and then yet also has color
light, much like a diamond does. And this represents to us that
God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity with favor. He is the absolutely righteous
Holy One. There is nothing corruptible,
nothing of corruption in God. And then the carnelian, it is
said, is a stone blood-red. And this represents the justice
of God. And so when John sees God, and
of course this is a symbolic representation of Him, because
John himself said, no man has seen God at any time. God is
a spirit, you can't see Him. So this is a symbolic representation
of God. brilliant white, blindingly white,
like Jasper, holy, righteous, blood red like the carnelian,
just, who will by no means let the guilty go unpunished. Oh, what an awesome sight confronted
John. You know, maybe we don't enter
into this spirit of worship as often as we might because we
forget to remember that our God is a consuming fire. There is something about the
mind of man that makes him constantly think about his own glory. And
even when he comes to worship, he's constantly worried about
whether he came to worship right. And he's worried about, well,
am I doing this right? Well, I'm doing pretty good today. I said the
right words when I prayed, and I sang pretty good. Or something
like this. Our worship does not have anything
to do with what we are. It's all together to do with
what He is. But here's something. that will encourage our hearts
when we come to worship Him. There's another stone spoken
of. There's the jasper, white-hot holiness. There's the carnelian,
blood-red justice. And then it says, a rainbow resembling
an emerald encircled the throne. Now you don't hear a rainbow
mentioned very often in scripture. But whenever it's mentioned,
it has reference to God's covenant of grace. The first time you
find a rainbow is right after the flood. And God has flooded
the whole earth and destroyed every living thing off the face
of the earth. And then the floodwaters recede
and life begins to come upon the earth again. And Noah gets
out of the ark, and in the process of time, the
clouds begin to form again. You can imagine what Noah thought
then. Uh-oh, here it comes again. But in the cloud, God set the
rainbow, and he said, Noah, here is the testimony of my covenant,
that never again will I flood the earth. But springtime and
harvest will never end until the earth ends again, or ends
altogether. And God entered into covenant
with Noah by that rainbow. Ezekiel mentions the rainbow
again, and here's the rainbow. And what he's saying is this,
and it's spoken specifically to us. who have entered into
this covenant through faith, who have been made partakers
of this covenant through Jesus Christ. John says, I saw a throne,
a terrible throne, an altogether sovereign throne, and a white-hot
holy throne, and a throne of pure justice. But also there
was this rainbow around Him who sat on the throne. And mixed
with His righteousness and with His justice was His grace. was his covenant of goodness
toward all his people. Beautiful green emerald. You
know there is no more, to me anyway, no more peace and tranquility
inducing color than green. There's nothing that speaks life
more than green. And this rainbow, which we think
of being multicolored, yet it says it's like an emerald. Our
Lord's covenant is a covenant of life and a covenant of peace. And that sovereign, righteous,
just throne is a throne of grace to you and me. Then it says in
verse 5, From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings,
and peals of thunder. Before the throne seven lamps
were blazing. These are the seven spirits of
God. The throne of God is full of
mighty power and of awesome judgments. That's the flashes of lightning,
the rumblings and peals of thunder. It's a reminder of Sinai. It
brings back to us the picture of God giving the law. Now we
know, don't we? We've been taught that we are
not under the jurisdiction of the law. But there's something
the law can still teach us and remind us of. And once again
is that our God sits on a throne. You know, those three churches,
the three of them mentioned right there in the center, which were
beginning to compromise the truth of the gospel, being able to
compromise with the religion, the pagan religions around them,
and also compromising matters of decency and morality, and
allowing that one, you talked about that woman Jezebel, who
was acting like a temple harlot right there in the Church of
God. Don't you think this sight that John describes would suddenly
remind them, hey, our God is a holy God and we are to be holy
even as He is holy. Don't you think that that kind
of took away all the joy they found in the fleshly pursuits
that they were indulging in? and suddenly made them, and it's
entirely appropriate once in a while for believers to be brought
up short and made to tremble a little bit in the presence
of God when they begin to play fast and loose with the world
and with the flesh and with the devil. Let us all remember this, the pollutions of this world
whether they be religious pollutions or whether they be pollutions
of immorality and corruption and covetousness and those things,
all of them are headstrong rebellions against the God who sits on the
throne and who still sends out His law with power and thunder. It's always good for me to remember
who my God is in all his awesome authority. In fact, I'm sure of this. I
don't appreciate that rainbow of the covenant until I've heard
the sound of the thunder and seen the flashes of lightning.
and know that that glorious covenant has protected me from the death
that that lightning and that thunder portends. It also says this, before the
throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as
crystal. A lot of the imagery from these
visions is borrowed from the Old Testament temple. You see,
those temples, both the one that God had designed and the temples
of pagan religions, they were always an attempt to make some
kind of symbolic representation of heaven. That's what all of
them were. And even in that Jewish temple,
there was supposed to be, or there was given a symbolic representation
of what heaven was like, the throne of God. And back there
in the most holy place, where the Ark of the Covenant was,
that was considered God's throne. And out there, before you ever
went into the very presence of God, out there in the courtyard,
they had the laver. And later, when Solomon built
the temple, it was called the sea. And in that sea was water,
crystal clear. And the priests would wash their
hands in that before they went to do their work. And you know,
before we ever come into the presence of God, We go to this
golden sea, clear as crystal, the purifying word of the gospel
and the purifying blood of Christ. And therefore we are made clean
so that the peals of thunder, so that the bolts of lightning
coming from the throat won't touch us. So that we in worship
can come before this living God of righteousness and justice
and not be concerned. So many try to worship God and
bypass this golden sea, this sea of water, of glass, clear as crystal, and
forget to purify ourselves by the blood of Christ. Now, it
says there was a throne in heaven, but there wasn't only one. Surrounding the throne were 24
other thrones, and seated on them were 24 elders. Now, who are these people? And
why in the world are they sitting on thrones? You might be thinking,
I thought there was only one throne in heaven. Well, there's
one, surrounded by 24, and on those thrones are the 24 elders. Who are they? You ready to be
surprised? They're you. Every believer from
every age. These 24 elders are represented
by the 12 tribes of Israel, or the patriarchs. All the people
of God in the Old Testament church were represented as the sons
of Jacob, the 12 patriarchs. And when you get farther on in
the book, you'll find them named. And it says that they reserved,
that the angel was to go out and put a seal on 12,000 from
this tribe and from that tribe, all the 12 tribes, all the 12
families of Jacob. And then the whole New Testament
church is represented by the 12 apostles. In fact, in the
symbolic representation of the church given at the end of the
book of Revelation, it says that that church is built on the foundation
of the 12 apostles, and the gates into it are the 12 patriarchs. So what is he saying? These 24
thrones, these 24 elders, that's the people of God from every
age, both Old Testament and New Testament. And they're seated
there in the presence of God. Now, they're seated on thrones.
Why? Because they rule with Him. You say, I don't feel like I've
got a lot of power in this world. Yes, you do. You've got power
the world can't do anything about. Now, you don't have power. You
don't have the world's power. You don't have power necessarily
to be a shaker and mover. You don't have political power.
You probably don't have much economic power. But friend, that's
power that comes and goes. You've got a power that never
ends. You've got the power of a renewed spirit to worship God. And it doesn't matter what the
world tries to do. The world cannot rule you. You
are free in your conscience. Let them come with swords, if
they will. Let them come with guns. Let
them come with threats of the taking away... Let them come
with all their power. They cannot rule over the hearts
and minds of God's people. They are free men. It says they were dressed in
white. We're back in verse 4. They're dressed in white. They were dressed in white, robes
made white by the blood of the Lamb. They aren't white in and of themselves.
They aren't pure in and of themselves. And we aren't either, are we?
But we are robed in white, and we have crowns of gold, and these
are those victory crowns. Now for the winners of races,
often all they do is give them a wreath of actual laurel leaves.
And what would happen to that crown? Well, you know, as soon
as they take some laurel off of its vine, you know, and twine
it into a wreath and put it on its head, that laurel would start
to die. And if they went home and hung it on a mantel before
long, the leaves would shrivel up and fall off and all you'd
have is a stick of wood going around and around. These are
gold that never perishes, a victory that never ends. This crown of
victory, this kind of laurel wreath that was given, was made
of gold, pure. incorruptible, a crown that'll
never fade away. Friends, we sit this morning
in the presence of God. We sit upon thrones ruling with
Him in this world. We are robed in white. We are victors. We are winners. And then it says here in the
middle of verse six, in the center around the throne were four living
creatures and they were covered with eyes in front and in back. The first creature was like a
lion. The second was like an ox. The
third had the face like a man. The fourth was like a flying
eagle. Now, who are these living creatures? You know, people see
these wild descriptions And they try to come up with something
in our world that would fit this. Friends, there isn't anything
like that. This is a symbolic image. I was reading ahead yesterday
and saw the descriptions of some locusts that came out to judge
the world, you know. And I remember reading in a commentary
on Revelation one time said, it must have been that God showed
John some helicopters. And that was the best John could
do to describe them. They kind of looked like locusts, but they're
made out of metal and had a stinger in the back end. These are symbolic
visions. These four living creatures are
the preachers of God, the men sent out to tell the truth and
to minister to those 24 elders sitting on the throne. There
are four of them because God sent them out to the four corners
of the earth. to declare his word. They are living creatures. They are sent out with a message
of life. Now notice the four beasts that are used to describe
them. The creature was like a lion. Those sent out to preach are
bold. They declare what they declare because they know it
to be so. And they're not afraid to declare it in any place. And
they go out in boldness to preach the gospel. The first creature was like a
lion, the second was like an ox. Now that word actually in
every other place in the New Testament is described as a calf,
an oxen calf. And it wasn't so much a beast
of burden, though you could apply there. All these preachers, they
labor for the sake of the gospel. But every other reference is
to a calf for sacrifice. And those that are called to
preach the Gospels give themselves lock, stock, and barrel to the
Gospel. They are willing to sacrifice
and give themselves entirely to the declaration of that message. The third had a face like a man.
All God's preachers are human beings. They're men. You're looking at one of these
four beasts, and I'm just a human being. But because I'm a human
being, I talk to you in human language. Because I'm a human
being, I know what it is to be like you. I heard of a church one time, Brother
Mahan mentioned it. They said, you know, one time
we had a preacher that wasn't a man. Then we had a man that
wasn't a preacher. He said, God send us a preacher,
a man that's a preacher. And the idea is to have someone,
and God sends forth ministers like this. They are human beings,
just like our Lord came and was made in every point just like
His brethren, that He might be a faithful high priest, that
He might sympathize with them. We don't have a high priest who
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. And you know,
All the preachers that God sends out, they know exactly what it
is to be human because they're human. They got the face of a
man. And then it said that the fourth was like a flying eagle
with a sharp eye to see and to perceive. Each of the four living
creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around,
even under his wings. Now if you read back in Isaiah
chapter 6, you'll read about seraphim. There were three of
them. And these seraphim had the same message that these preachers
do. And these preachers had this in common with those seraphim,
that they had the six wings. And it says those six winged
seraphs there in Isaiah 6, with two they covered their face,
with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And likewise
it is with all the preachers of God. They cover their face
in the presence of God. They have an understanding or
at least some perception of the great holiness of God and stand
in awe of Him. They cover their feet in humility
before Him. And with two, they fly everywhere
preaching the gospel. And they have these eyes, eyes
to perceive, eyes all around to see behind them. that they
might understand God, and to look before them that they might
understand the people. And in their understanding of
God and understanding of the people, they declare God's word. in a way that people might understand
and profit from. Day and night they never stop
saying, here is an essential aspect of the message of every
man sent to preach. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty who was and is and is to come. That's the foundation
message. Nothing else that we have to
say makes any sense apart from this. Why do we declare the Lord
Jesus Christ? Why do we set before the world
the truth of Christ and Him crucified? Because God is a holy God and
we've sinned against Him. Now notice the worship of the
church and how it's carried on. Whenever the living creatures
give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne,
who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders, that's the church,
fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him
who lives forever and ever. When preachers go out and in
faithfulness to their ministry declare the Holy God in all that
that means, the church worships and falls down before God and
worships Him. And what does it say they do?
They lay their crown. Those golden crowns of victory,
they say it's not our victory, it's yours. We didn't win, you
did. The honor belongs to you. When
you see this world, this religious world strutting around wearing
their crowns, they are worshiping God. They haven't heard the message
of who God is or they'd be taking their crowns off. Oh, here's
how you can know if you are truly of the people of God. Are you
one of these 24 elders? When you hear of the glory of
God, when preachers set forth, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord
God Almighty, do you get off your throne and fall down before
Him and take that crown and say, Oh Lord, this isn't mine. I don't
even feel I belong on a throne. I don't feel I have a right to
wear a crown. They lay their crowns before
the throne and they say, You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power, because You created all
things. You made the world in which we
live. You created us as natural beings
and You recreated us as spiritual beings. By your will, all things
were created and have their being. And even if you had never shown
us any goodness apart from your created works, yet you are worthy.
And you are worthy that all creation bow down before you and give
you honor. That is the beginning of worship. And there never is worship without
that. without pride being crushed,
without the sense of self-right and authority being surrendered,
without all glory being removed from the crown of the head and
laid at His feet. Oh, I wish that I had the abilities to declare to you something of
the worth of our God. I don't. I can say some words. I hope that God, I hope that
our Lord Jesus, through these words, will call you, will set
before you an open door and call you into heaven. and put you
in the Spirit and for a moment let you glimpse this and enter
into worship. And I hope you'll think on these
things and that you'll get off your throne. And you'll fall down at the feet
of Him who sits on the only throne that makes any difference. And
you'll cast your crown at His feet and say, Oh Lord our God,
you're worthy. Now next week, believe it or
not, As glorious as this scene is, it gets even better. For not only will we be put in
awe of the God who made us, we will be put in awe and made to
rejoice over the One who redeemed us to our God and made us kings
and priests unto our God. Because next week, You see, we've
got the heavenly scene there in chapter 4. That's the heavenly
scene without Christ. And it's glorious. And it'll
move you to worship. Next week, we're going to see
heaven with Christ in it. And it adds a whole new dimension
of glory to it. May the Lord bless you.