There is no substitute for the preaching and teaching of God's Word. Each weekday on Enjoying the Journey, Scott Pawley leads us in a brief study of Scripture. Today on the Weekend Pulpit, we are happy to share a full-length Bible message given through Scott's Pulpit Ministry. These messages were recorded live in a local church or gospel event in recent days. It is our prayer that the message will be a help to you today. And I'm bringing you in this hour to Revelation chapter 4. What an amazing chapter. It is only 11 verses long, but there is an eternity of truth in these 11 verses. And I want to look at them with you, and I want to warn you about something. When I finish preaching, when I finish preaching, I'm going to ask every person in this room to respond to today's message. The reality is you actually respond to every message because you can't be neutral on truth. And maybe you're sitting there thinking, well, I don't know what this preacher is going to ask us to do. Number one, I'll just tell you right up front, I'm not going to embarrass anybody, but I am going to ask you to respond not to me but to God because here's what I'm convinced of. When you get a fresh glimpse of who God is and what's coming next, you cannot be the same. It's impossible to be the same. People who say they've had an encounter with God and want to go right on the same way they've always lived have never seen the God of the Bible. And so we come to Revelation chapter 4 and verse number 1 where John writes, after this I looked. Can I show you something really fascinating? Back up to the last verse of chapter 3. We studied it in the Bible study hour. Matter of fact, you people that were here can quote it, right? He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. In verse 30, excuse me, verse 22, circle the word hear. And when you come to verse number 1 of chapter 4, circle the word looked. Do you see a great transition here? There's coming a moment when you won't just hear about God and hear the Bible, and hear the Spirit speaking to you, there's actually coming a moment when you cross the threshold from time into eternity, faith will become sight, hope will become substance, and in a moment, in an instant, you are going to see that which you have heard about all of these years. Now, I love being in church. I love hearing the Bible preached, faith coming by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Hope you got your ears on this morning. Hope you're ready to listen. But I want to tell you something. There's coming a moment that with your own eyes you are going to see what John saw. There is a world just as real as the world you are living in at this moment and infinitely better. There is a reality that you cannot see with the eyes of flesh. You can only see with the eyes of faith and looking through the lens of the scripture. But there'll come a moment when you will see Almighty God and you will see all that God has prepared for us. And I got to tell you, that's going to be the greatest moment you ever live if, if you are ready to meet God. I thought a lot about this as I get older. And I'm not trying to be morbid. But I fly every week, and I get on planes, and I don't think much about it now, but I pray when we take off, and I pray when we land. Did you know that? And after the news in recent days, I prayed a little extra as we take off and as we land. But the truth of the matter is, someday I'll take my last trip. I don't know where that will be. Someday I'll preach my last sermon. I've often wondered, what will my last sermon be? Someday, I'll wake up for the last time. I'll live my last day. But wait a minute, that's not just true for me. That's true for every one of us. Someday, you'll take your last breath here and your first breath there. You'll close your eyes in death here, or Jesus will come back, and you'll open your eyes and be in the presence of God. Let me ask you a question. What if that was today? What if the Lord came back or called for you before I finished preaching today? Now, it's so funny. We give mental assent to that. We say, yeah, that could happen. Wait a minute. It actually could happen. One of my favorite authors, a man by the name of V. Raymond Edmond, wrote a great classic book called They Found the Secret. He was one of the last really strong presidents at Wheaton College. He was a missionary statesman. He was preaching one day, literally in the middle of his sermon, and he was talking about seeing Jesus. And they said he staggered for a moment and fell over and was dead before he hit the carpet. I thought to myself, what a way to go. Not for the people, but for the preacher, you know? Can you imagine pastors showing up there and saying, Lord, I was just talking about you a moment ago. The famed missionary David Livingston died on his knees praying. Can you imagine entering into the Holy of Holies with God in prayer and then in a moment opening your eyes and you're not here, you're there with the Lord? I'm telling you, this is not a figment of the imagination. This is not a fairy tale. This is not a fantasy. This is reality. The God who made it all is making all things new and shortly we are going to meet God. And so we come to verse number one. Would you mark these two words? It's my message. Two words. After this. After this. It's not my words. Look at them. It's Revelation 4 verse 1. Read the first two words, Ribbon Church. Ready? After this. Do you believe there is an after this? There are people that think when you die, you just go back to the ground and worms eat your body and you're done. You're finished. Let me just tell you something. The eternal God has placed a little bit of His eternity in every one of us. Listen to me carefully. You have an eternal soul. One million years from this moment, you'll be somewhere. God made it so. In fact, there is, even in the most remote places on earth, inherent in the conscience of a man who's never been educated, who may have never heard what I'm talking to you about right now, but there's something in man that says there must be something higher than this, there must be something better, something grander, something longer, there must be something on the other side, and the answer to that is yes, a thousand times yes there is. And God describes it for us in the book of the Revelation. After this, I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said," I love these words, "'Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.'" You might want to mark after this the beginning of the verse. and the word hereafter at the end of the verse, it's the same word, and connected to in your Bible and in your thinking. Did you know in the language of John's day, pastor in Bible college, did you take Greek? I took a little Greek. He didn't take on me, you know? I learned the alphabet and some things like that, but there are some really fascinating things when you start studying these amazing languages. Did you know that the word hereafter and the word after this, the root word of it, is the word meta? How many of you ever heard the word meta in recent days? I had all this talk about the metaverse. Do you know what the word meta means? More beyond. Oh, I love this thought. Look here. Man knows there's something more beyond. In fact, he's trying to create his own meta. He's trying to create his own hereafter. He's trying to imagine his own after this. But I'm sorry to tell you this, you didn't get to pick this life and you didn't create this world. and you don't get to control everything there, that's in the Lord's purview. And if you want to know what's coming after, you better talk to the God who was the beginning and the end, the God who has no start and has no ending. Only the eternal God can tell you what is getting ready to come after this. On the count of three. If you're not ashamed to say it, count out your age. Just shout out your age, would you please? And look, if you're embarrassed, just whisper it to yourself. Ready? One, two, three. Yeah, I hear the young people above all. Isn't that interesting? And the rest of us are muttering and mumbling to ourselves. I'll be 49 this year. Thank you. You know age is relative, right? These young people think I'm old, and old people think I'm young. I'm in no man's land. That's where I'm at. But I'm old enough now to know that this world is not my home. I'm just passing through. Our kids are grown now. We have a granddaughter. Matter of fact, I got about, I don't know, 5,000 pictures. If you'd like to see them when church is done today, I'd be glad to show you. It's a new season of life, but it is just that. It's a season of life. Every season gets you ready for the next season, and no season lasts forever. And someday, the seasons of life will end, and I'll step out of this world and into the world to come. And I got to tell you, I've lived long enough now that I'm not thinking about the starting. I'm thinking about the ending. I'm not thinking just about where I am. I'm thinking about where I'm going. And I know one thing. I want to be ready not just for this. I want to be ready for after this. So what's coming after this? I'll give you three things. They all come right here from the passage. If you've got a pen, you might want to mark them in your Bible. I'm going to read verse 1 again. When I stop, say the next word. You got it in front of you? Chapter 4, verse 1. After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in what? All right, so there's the first one. Would you circle in your Bible? After this was heaven. It calls attention to a place. It's a real place. where real people go. By the way, in the same book of the Bible, he talks about a real hell. Strange to me how lots of people want to believe in angels and don't believe in the devil. Those same people want to talk about their loved ones going to heaven when they die, but never want to give any thought to hell. I just want to remind you that there are only two groups of people on earth. There are those who truly know God and those who do not, and there's only two eternal destinations, that is, with God forever or separated from God forever, and you can't have it both ways. He's writing to people who truly know God, and he says, when earth recedes, heaven awaits. You understand someday time will be no more. No more time? I mean, like, I can preach as long as I want to. Is that what you're saying? In fact, when we get there, you're not even going to think about this world. Crazy, isn't it? How much time and energy and attention we give to things that are going to burn up, things that don't matter when you get to the end. People spend their whole life trying to get stuff to be happy, only to have their whole world reduced to a room and a handful of loved ones around the bed. It's crazy. Maybe we should stop thinking so much about this and start thinking about heaven after this. I'd never been to Lumpoc, California until last night. I drove in under cover of darkness. Seems like a very pleasant place to live. I look forward to being here this week, and seems like a nice town. It's got lots of nice people, at least the ones that I've met so far. But I want you to know there is a real place, just as real as your town, a celestial city, and it is even more beautiful because it is perfect. It is where God is. And by the way, I'm not just preaching for old people. You young people, look at me now. I want you to know something. Don't you wait until you're old to start thinking about eternity. You want to make the most of your life? Go all the way to the end and work your way backward, because the only thing that matters today is what's going to matter on the day you meet Jesus face to face. After this is heaven. By the way, look at verse number one. The Bible says a door will open there. God's going to open the door to his house. What do you think of that? You talk about a welcome mat. Sometimes you go out visiting people, pastor, and you knock on a door, and you know they're home, you know they're home. And then suddenly the blinds go down, the music comes, turns off, and you hear them on the other side say, be real quiet, the preacher's standing outside. They don't want you at their house. Let me tell you what Jesus said. Jesus said, in my father's house, There are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I like this. I go to prepare a place for you. Do you have a place there? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also. Everybody wants to go to the place. How do you get there? Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Let me tell you where heaven is. Somebody says, you know where heaven is? Yes, it's wherever Jesus is. He's what makes it beautiful and lovely in every way. He's what keeps out every ugly and despicable thing because heaven is his place. Heaven is the Father's house. Heaven is the place where the family reunion is being planned. I hope you're planning to be there for it. The Bible says the door opens. I was thinking about this yesterday. You ever think about all the doors in the Bible? In Eden, in the Garden of Eden, there was a door, a gate. When man sinned and got kicked out of the Garden, God put an angel there with a flaming sword to keep the way of the Tree of Life. They could no longer go back in that. Somebody said, that's sad, that's tragic. Yeah, but I got good news for you and it says, what Adam lost, Christ got much more. Somebody said, you mean we can't go back to Eden? No, you're going to get something much better than Eden. Somebody said, I wish we could find the tree of life. I'll tell you where it is. Read Revelation chapter 19. It's planted in God's city and we get to eat from it someday. That's heaven. That was a door. The door of Noah's ark, only one door, a picture of Christ. God's the one who sealed that door. God's the one who made the door. Noah didn't get to pick his specks on that. No, no. God was the crew chief on that construction project. You don't get to make your own way of salvation. God makes the way of salvation. You walk through the door. That's why Jesus said, I am the door, you see, the only way to God. There was a door into the Holy of Holies where only the high priest could go. Couldn't go through that door. I don't know what's behind this door, Pastor. Sometimes you get scared, you know. There was a door that only the high priest could enter into. Nobody else could go in. Matter of fact, if you walk through that door, you're dead. You know who Jesus is? He's our great high priest. You know where He is at this moment? He's passed into the heavens. He's in the Holy of Holies. But I got good news for you. He left the door open behind Him. He made a way so you could go in that door. That's why there was a door in the tabernacle, and there was a door in the temple, and there was doors in Egypt that had to have the blood on the doorpost. And then my favorite door, my absolute favorite door so far, is the door I walked through when I was over in Israel not too long ago. It's the empty tomb. Aren't you glad he opened that door and he left the stone beside it just to prove he wasn't in there any longer? Lots of interesting doors. If I had time, I'd take you back a chapter and show you that he said to the church of Philadelphia, I've set before you an open door. You know what that is? It's the open door for the gospel. You people understand there's an open door in this town right now for people to know Jesus? The door is open. That doesn't mean we're getting it out. It doesn't mean we're bringing people in like we ought to. But the opportunity is there. And for the record, someday it will close. He says to the church at Laodicea, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I'll come in to him and sup with him and he with me. See, there's a door that God opens and there's a door you have to open. God opens the gospel door, you have to open the door of your heart. He's not going to kick it down and barge in and take over. No, he's going to stand there lovingly and patiently and say, don't you think it's about time you open the door and let me in? There's coming a moment another giant door is going to open in heaven. And what's going to happen? Look at the verse. He heard a voice like a trumpet talking with him. And what did it say? Come up hither. You ought to write in the margin of your Bible, you can look at it later, 1 Thessalonians, just write it down. 1 Thessalonians in your Bible. Because in 1 Thessalonians we're told someday there'll be the sound of a trumpet. A voice will shout out a sound of a trumpet and the dead in Christ will rise first and we are going up. Aren't you glad we're not going down? Watch this carefully. The devil's way always leads down. God's way always leads up. It's an ever ascending life. Look at the verse carefully. After this, a door opens, a trumpet sounds, a voice says, come up hither, and we go to be with God. I think the word come is even an interesting word because what was Jesus' first word to his disciples when he called them? Come. Come after me. Come on, boys, come. Follow me. Do you know what it is to be a Christian? Some of you are trying so hard to figure it out right now. People get baptized and check boxes and try to do all the right things and please everybody. That's not the way to God. Let me tell you what it is. It's simply becoming a follower of Jesus Christ. Watch this. You come to him at the moment of your salvation and then you just keep on coming and keep on coming and keep on coming until suddenly you hear a voice that says, come up hither. And watch this. Those who've come to Christ are going to go be with him for all eternity. After this, there's heaven. Can I show you the second one? Look at verse number one. The Bible says, and I will show thee things which must be, here's the word, ready? Hereafter. Would you mark that in your Bible? Hereafter. Now, that phrase has been used before. Go back a page in your Bible. Everybody turn back a page to chapter 1 and verse number 19, because this is kind of the whole purpose of the book of Revelation. I'm working on a book right now on the Revelation. And it's just really kind of a devotional guide to the book of Revelation, because everywhere I go, people, church members are saying to me, what's this passage mean? And what about this? And I don't have all the answers, but it's an amazing book, and I've just enjoyed so much studying it. But you've got these repetitions. Look at Revelation 1, verse 19. Write the things, three things, which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be what? I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. The things which shall be what? You've got three things. The things which you'd seen, that's Revelation chapter 1, he saw Jesus in all of his glory. The things which are, that's Revelation 2 and 3, that's the church age, things as they are right now. And then the things which shall be what? Hereafter. And that's the rest of the book. Sometimes I think we make things so complicated. God keeps them so simple. What are the things that are hereafter? Can I just give you a little 30,000 foot flyover? Somebody said, you're going to preach the whole book of Revelation? Settle down. Give me just five minutes, all right? Write them down. Here they are. In chapter 4 and chapter 5, let me tell you what's going to be hereafter. Chapter 4 and 5, we're going to come back to chapter 5 in the next three nights. Can I tell you what's going to be hereafter? First of all, there's going to be a celebration around the throne. You know what it means? It means the greatest celebration in the history of the world is getting ready to take place. We're living in sad times, aren't we? Depression at an all-time high, suicide up 200%. We're the most drugged generation in the history of the world, and everybody's trying to figure out the secret to gladness. Can I tell you, joy here and there is only found in the presence of Jesus Christ. But when we get there, you've never seen a celebration like we're getting ready to have there. By the way, I'm glad I came this Sunday. Today's Cupcake Sunday, is that right? Like real cupcakes? Like homemade cupcakes? Did you make them? Man, that's a good Sunday to be here. But I'm going to tell you, there's a supper being planned for us called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, and I don't care how good your mother could cook, nobody's ever spread a table like Jesus spreads a table. And we've got a lot to look forward to. I have not seen, e'er hath not heard, it is not entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him. I've got a big book I'm reading at home, about like that, by a guy named Randy Alcorn, and it's all about heaven. It's fascinating, and it's very interesting, and there's some imaginative things in it, but I've come to this conclusion. I don't know all the details, but it's better than you ever imagined. Whatever the greatest thing you ever imagined, what God has prepared is better than all of that. This is where we're going to be after this. Then, write this down. From chapter 6 to chapter 18, there's a tribulation on the earth. As surely as there's a celebration going on in heaven, there's a tribulation going on on earth. And by the way, those two things are going on simultaneously. I remember years ago, funny how technology changes. And you know, you kids, you've grown up with such advanced technology. I remember when cell phones came out. Man, that was a thing, you know. I remember when televisions for the first time had split screens like picture in picture. How many of you remember that kind of thing? It was kind of stupid because you could only listen to one of them at a time, but you could keep your eye on the other ballgame while you watch this ballgame. Do you know what Revelation is? Revelation is not a chronological timeline. Revelation is a split screen. It's back and forth from heaven to earth and earth to heaven. Watch this. While there's a celebration going on there, there is tribulation going on here. Can I ask you which place you plan to be? For the record, you don't get to pick that at the rapture. You don't choose that when you die. You choose that right now. Because the reality is, the homecoming, the end gathering, is only for those who truly belong to the Father, who've come to the Son, who are members of the family. You don't go to the Father's house if you're not a member of the family. And do you know what the tribulation age is? Excuse me, it's all the powers of hell unleashed on this planet for seven years. You think it's bad now? You wait till the dam breaks. You wait till the Holy Ghost, the restrainer is removed and the church, the salt and light is gone. You wait till the Antichrist comes along. You just wait. I'm telling you, this world has never known seven years like those seven years Man will do his worst, then Satan will do his worst, and then God will bring the worst. See, God always has the last say in the end. God always has his day in the end. And so you've got the celebration around the throne in chapter 4 and 5. You've got the tribulation on the earth in chapters 6 to 18. And then in chapters 19 to 22, that's the end of the book, you have the consummation in the end. It's not going to go on forever. It's coming in a moment. God's going to say, enough. And Jesus will come back to this earth, set up his kingdom, rule and reign. There'll be a new heaven, a new earth, a new Jerusalem. I'm excited about that. Anybody else excited about that? Can you imagine what the world would be like without sin and without the rebel Satan leading the charge and without us living in these fallen bodies? I say, even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. For the record, if you're not excited about Jesus coming, maybe you don't know him well. If you're nervous about after this, then maybe you need to get better acquainted with Him right where you are. Do you know what will happen in the consummation? Jesus is going to straighten out everything. You ever get annoyed at what people get by with? You ever get aggravated at the injustices in our world? You ever get ticked off at a politician? You ever think, I'll tell you what we need, we need somebody to make things right around here. We'll come back to that thought this evening, but can I tell you, only Jesus can do that, but when he comes, that's exactly what he's gonna do. Matter of fact, I gotta show you a phrase. Everybody go to the end of Revelation, would you please? Then you can tell people I preached the whole book today, all right? Would you go to Revelation 21? I want you to mark a phrase. Look at Revelation 21, verse 5. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. Verse 6, here it is. Ready? Get ready. And he said unto me, Read the next three words out loud. Ready? It is done. How many of you know that usually things are never done? You build a house. You get it exactly like you want it, then it needs repaired. You buy a car and it breaks down, correct? You get over one hump only to find out there's another mountain waiting you on the other side. You get through the busiest month of your life and you think things are going to slow down only to discover it's not done. Can I tell you there's coming a moment that God's going to make all things whole and complete? This is so interesting to me. Do you know where you first find this? All the way back in Genesis. In the creation week, the Bible says that the heaven and the earth were finished. That's powerful. Someday, he's going to make it all new, and he says, there's coming a moment, he'll say, it's done. By the way, if you think it was very good in Genesis, this is not good English, but you ain't seen anything yet, let me tell you. It seemed like Jesus said something like that from the cross. through the darkness, do you hear Him? When he cried it at the beginning of the New Testament, that was the work of redemption that was finished. He made a way of salvation for us. But when he cries it at the end of the New Testament, this is a word of restoration. This is when he sets all things right. This is what we're waiting for. And when is it coming? I'm not here to predict a time. I don't know. Nobody knows. And anybody that tells you they got all this figured out, I'd get as far away from them as you possibly can. All I know is what God has said. God has said, after this, there's heaven. And after this, there is a hereafter. There is always more to come from an infinite God, and if you're a child of God, the best is always yet to come, because Jesus always saves the best for last. Go back to Revelation chapter 4, and I'll give you the third one quickly. It's the rest of the chapter, you see. Because when you get there, it's not just a place, and it's not just a period of time. That's heaven and hereafter. No, no, it's a person. Who's the person? It is him that is sitting on the throne. Look at verse 2, and immediately, I was in the Spirit, And behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. Would you look at him? I want you to look at him. I want you to look at him and see him in his government. He's on his throne. I looked at it again yesterday. Did you know the word throne is found 10 times in this one little chapter? 11 verses long. 10 times the word throne. You know what that is? It's a reminder that our God has all authority, has the final say, has unlimited power. God is God and we are not. Aren't you glad our God is where he's always been and he will always be? Where is that? He is seated on the throne of the universe at this moment. And it might look like the devil is having his way. It might look like things are coming apart at the seams. It might even look like your life is just so messed up. But I want you to know something. There is a God who knows what he's doing. He's got his eye on you, every hair on your head numbered. He knows you by name. He remembers that you're dust. He holds you in the palm of his hand. And after this, you are going to see him on his throne. Scan the passage, come to verse number three. You not only see him in his government, you see him in his grandeur. He that sat was to look upon like a jasper in a sardine stone. That's interesting. You know what that is? That's brightness. Do you know in heaven the Bible says there's no night there? Somebody said, but we'll get tired. You won't get tired there. All things new. All things new. Gates of the city never close. Lights never go out. You know why the lights never go out? Because the light comes from God. Watch this, please. There can be no night when God is bright. and who is God. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. As a matter of fact, if you just look through the passage, there's a lot of light. Look at verse number 4. There's white raiment, crowns of gold. Verse 5, there's lightnings and thunderings. There's fire burning around the throne. There's a lot of light going on. I'm captivated by these colors. They said when you saw Him, He was like a jasper and a sardine stone. Do you know what that is? In John's day, these particular stones that he's referencing were red and white, red and white. It's beautiful, red and white. When I was a boy, red was my favorite color. I had red carpet and red curtains and red everything. I liked red. I got sick of red after a while, but I liked it. Red and white, that's regal. It's royal. I've often wondered, why red and white? Of all the colors, why red and white? Could it be red, a reminder of the blood of Jesus? and white a reminder of the resurrection power? Could it be the cross and the resurrection symbolized? Maybe. Did you know that the first and the last stones on the Old Testament high priest breastplate were these two stones? Now that's really interesting to me. You're looking at the high priest. You're in the Holy of Holies. And you're seeing the stones, you're in the presence, you're where only the high priest can take you, only the blood can get you there. What is this? This is the grandeur of our Christ. And then look at the end of verse number three, you see him in his grace, there's a rainbow around the throne, in sight like to an emerald. I love rainbows. I think it's wicked and awful that the world hijacked a symbol of God's covenant to symbolize corruption. Isn't that just like the devil always trying to make a cheap substitute and messing everything up that he touches? This is a complete rainbow. It goes all the way around the throne. Look at it carefully. It's a rainbow that looks like an emerald. What is the rainbow? It is a sign, a symbol of the promise of God, the grace of God. The first mention of it is the first mention of grace to Noah. This is so great. But when we get there, you're not going to strut into heaven, you're not going to prance your way into the throne room and say, all right, I'm here, you're lucky to have me here. No, we're all just a bunch of rotten, hell-deserving sinners. When you get to heaven, you will know that the only reason you were there is not because you were worth it, but because Jesus is worthy. You're not there by your merit. You're there by His mercy. It is the grace of God that brings you into the throne room of heaven. Can you see him? Look at him! You see him in his government, and you see him in his grandeur, and you see him in his grace, and in verse 7 and 8, you see him in his goodness. There's a four-fold picture of Jesus' humanity in verse 7. The lion and the calf and the man and the eagle. It corresponds with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It's a four-fold view of the perfect man, the Lord Jesus. But it's not just his humanity on display. Oh, no. It is his infinite holiness. Look at verse number 8. The four beasts had each of them six wings about him. 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, the thrice holy God. Holy is the Father, and holy is the Son, and holy is the Spirit. He always was holy, and He is holy, and He always will be holy. This is the great goodness of our Christ. I got to tell you, I get so sick of my own sin. Funny how you can fuss about everybody else's sin, isn't it? I'm sick of me. Any of you sick of you? Say, I won't do that again and do it. Say, I won't think that way again and think it. Say, I won't speak that way again and speak it. Come on now. But when we get there, all of that will be gone and we will be in the presence of the God whose very nature is holy in every aspect. Do you know Him? Do you know Him? I know your life's not perfect and nothing's going to be perfect till we get with our perfect Christ, but do you know Him? Can you see him in all of his goodness? And then look how the chapter ends, verse 9 through 11, when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne who liveth forever and ever. The four and twenty elders fall down, that's us, 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 hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. Here he is in his glory. I noticed this earlier. Isn't it fascinating that we're at the end now? We're at the end of time. We're on the edge of eternity in Revelation 4, and he's taking us all the way back to the God who created everything. Let me just tell you something. It all came from God, and it's all going back to God. And nothing and no one is going to stop it. After this, you're going to see him. Interesting, the Bible says we'll cast our crowns before the throne. It must mean the judgment seat of Christ has already taken place. But can I tell you the posture? Everybody look up here just a moment. On that day, we'll all be on our knees. We'll all be on our knees at the nail-pierced feet of Jesus, and we'll see Him. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That day is coming. When's it coming, preacher? After this. I remember taking trips with my parents, being so anxious to get there. When are we going to get there? Soon. I hated that word. It wasn't a definite time, but it was a definite promise. Soon. Could it be today? She was quite an entrepreneur, owned a hat shop a century ago, I guess, in Ohio. A businesswoman. She loved Jesus, and she was musically gifted, and she wrote poems that became songs, and we sing some of them. When she was in her 30s, she went blind, completely blind. So admired their mother's gift of writing music, they didn't want her to stop, so they built her like a 24-foot blackboard. Can you imagine a 24-foot blackboard in their home? And they bought her a box of chalk, and they said, when God gives you a song, just come over here to this big blackboard and start writing. We'll come in, transcribe it all, and get it down on paper, and get it to the people it needs to be. But don't lose those. One day they came in, and she had written the words to a new song. All over that board is the hymn, Jesus is coming to earth again, what if it were today? Coming in power and love to reign, what if it were today? Would you look at me just a moment? What if it were today? Over here in this section, this section right here. What if Jesus came? What if four and a half minutes from right now, at noon, straight up and down, you knew you were getting ready to see Jesus? Four and a half minutes. You've got four and a half minutes to get ready to meet Him. Anything you don't want to take care of? How about you people? Four and a half minutes before you see the Lord. Could be sooner. What if you knew it's four and a half minutes from now? Anything you don't want to confess or give to the Lord, make right? How about over here in this section and in this? Anything you'd say, I've got to take care of that. I don't want to meet God for that. I don't want to answer to God for that at the judgment seat. No, I want to be right and I want to be ready when I meet Jesus. I want you to know the only way to live for the greatest day of all, the day you're going to see Christ face to face, is to live every day like today could be the day. you If this Bible message has been used of God in your life, or we can pray for you in some definite way, please contact us at enjoyingthejourney.org. We hope you will share the message with others who may also be encouraged by it. For additional full-length Bible messages, please visit Dr. Scott Pauly's YouTube channel. Tomorrow is the Lord's Day, and we want to encourage you to be faithful to attend a Bible-preaching church in your area this Sunday. Thank you for listening to The Weekend Pulpit, and don't miss Enjoying the Journey daily devotional podcast each Monday through Friday.