Oh, this was having some trouble recording, and I think I, I hope I fixed it. Tonight is hopefully the last night, and it is night, so I can say good evening to you from me, but since I probably won't have this video up tomorrow morning, until tomorrow morning, for Sunday morning service. I'll say good morning to all of you when you see me, if you see me tomorrow morning, because this is the last, at least for a while, that I think I have to do a sermon to replace my regular sermon at First Presbyterian Church, my last chance for a while to come without a suit code and those things. And I've chosen the passage that is out of the Sermon on the Mount passage. Not one of those is what I mean. Revelation chapter four. After these things, I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. Immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and one sat on the throne. And he who sat there was like a Jasper and Sardius stone in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were 24 thrones and on the thrones They saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads. And from the throne proceeded lightning, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God, Before the throne, there was a sea of glass like crystal. And in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion. The second living creature like a calf. The third living creature had a face like a man and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes, surrounded within, and they do not rest, day or night, saying, holy, holy, holy Lord, God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. 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, fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, you are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power. For you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. I forgot to bring any water. This sermon, when I have them on Sermon Audio, there's always a PDF text of the outline. So this is going to be a long message and there will be a PDF text, a detailed sermon outline with it. So you can look that up. It says Sermon Audio PDF text. If you can find the sermon, you can find that as well. Well, one of the reasons, not the only reason and not the most important reason, but one of the reasons I picked this particular passage to preach on this Sunday was because Mother's Day is next Sunday. And with my mother having passed away on February 26th, this This year, she's much in my mind. And as I was thinking of what to preach. I remembered the time between my age six and ten when we lived in Florida and then we moved back to Wisconsin and Illinois and all those places. And I didn't come back to Florida until I was an adult. But between the years six and ten, I remember our house in Florida. Mom had this stereo where she would play her records. And one of the songs she played all the time was, What's it all about, Elfie? Is it just for this moment we live? What's it all about? What's it all about, Elfie? And it was played again and again and again and again. And for four years, at least, probably, I heard that song played maybe every day. So I kind of memorized some of it, even against my will. You know, sometimes you try and try to memorize something, especially when you get older and you can't. But when I was younger, I tried not to memorize that, but it stuck in my mind. What's it all about, Alfie? Is it just for this moment we live? As I grew older and I went to college, I took a philosophy class and my professor was an atheist. And he said, this class, it's about questions like, what is God? Or is there a God? Or what's the meaning of why? And he said, these are beer questions. They're the kind of questions that are not really important to real life, but they're the kind of questions that you talk about with your buddies at the bar when you're half drunk. And so what's it all about, Alfie? What is the meaning of life? What is, is there a God? All of these questions weren't very important to him. But I had just become a Christian and they were extremely important to me. And I thought about that. What is the meaning of life? What is the chief end of man? At that time, I had also discovered the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which starts with that question, what is the chief end of man? And it answers it with man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. And so what is the chief end of man? What is the meaning of life according to Revelation 4? Well, if we look at Revelation 4, the first thing we see that answers that question, what is the meaning of life or why did God make us? Why did he create us? We can say we were created to enjoy life in another dimension. a spiritual, moral, eternal dimension. And we see a hint of this in Revelation 4, in the very first verse, where John says, After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, Come up here. a door open in heaven. That's what John saw. And I believe when John saw a door open in heaven, he was seeing the world, a place. This passage, it starts talking about seeing stuff in the future. But John doesn't see the future right away. He sees heaven as it was then. And I believe he sees heaven, the heaven he saw, as the same as it is today. God is still on the throne. It's still the same throne room. Heaven is still the same in that way. He saw a place that exists today and will exist maybe in another form in the new heaven and the new earth. but there will always be a heaven and there will always be the throne of God. And so we see something here that I believe is in one sense eternal. I believe he was seeing into the spiritual realm. That's a realm that's not just above us. I believe when he talks about above us, he's not necessarily talking about the sky above us, but it's above us morally on earth. You know, it says, Jesus says, when we pray, we should pray that thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, because we know it's done in heaven. There are sinless angels in heaven. There are these poor little creatures that we read about that are always doing God's will, and they do it right. They don't mess up. And so we pray, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, because we know it's done perfectly here. And John is seeing into this spiritual realm. And I believe it's not just above us. It is above us. And in John's case, it was above him. But I believe it's also all around us. We see a similar thing in 2 Kings 6 verses 15 through 17. Now Elisha, remember of Elisha, he had a servant and Elisha was causing a lot of trouble for Israel's enemies. And because of that, they sent an army after two men. And this army surrounded Elisha and his servant's tent. And the servant came out in the morning and saw this army. And this is where I'll pick up reading 2 Kings 6, 15 through 17. It says, When the servant of the man of God arose early and went out, there was an army surrounding the city with horses and chariots. And his servant said to him, Alas, my master, what shall we do? You know, he saw this army, what shall we do? We're surrounded, we're in trouble. And so Elijah answers, he says, so he answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Now, when the servant looked out, he didn't see a crowd of an army on his side. That's why he was scared. He did not see it, any army on his side. But listen to the rest of this. And Elisha prayed and said, Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. And so here the servant looks out the second time, and he's seeing a spiritual army. He's seeing horses and chariots of fire. Have you ever seen a horse of fire? I imagine if you did it would be a pretty fearful awesome thing. A chariot of fire? The same way. You know the chariots of that day, I mean the earthly normal chariots, not chariots of fire, we probably wouldn't be too scared of them today if we had tanks. But what if we have tanks against chariots of fire? The chariots of fire, I think, beats even our tanks. And so here he sees this great army of angels, of horses, and chariots of fire, and he knows he's seeing into the spiritual realm. The kingdom of God is such a realm that we don't normally see it. I remember as a young person seeing the twilight zone. and this dog runs under a bed and all of a sudden under the bed he's gone into another dimension and then the little boy follows him and the parents follow them and they're all in this different dimension and they're lost and they don't know where they're going or what's there. That's kind of like this but not quite because this is a that was fictional and this is very real. The kingdom of God is a real moral even joyous place It's mentioned in Romans 14, 17, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. I've read of prisoners in Japan during World War II, prisoners from all different countries. I can't remember the book it was in. I just thought of it just now. I'm not taking credit for myself other than the book I remember reading. And one man in the group, well, they all were accused of stealing something. And one man who was a Christian in the group, in order to, said not all the men would be punished, confessed to stealing that. Later, they found out that he actually did not steal it. But being a Christian, he gave up his life so everybody else could live. And the rest of that group, some of them probably Christians, thought about this deeply and thought, why would this man do this? And how could he do it? And they had been fighting among each other. But after that happened, they stopped fighting among each other. and they started getting along and they started finding even in the midst of the prison where many of them were sick and a lot of them were starving they didn't have enough food they didn't have nice conditions to live in they started to discover and see the kingdom of God and it was not eating or drinking but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. And they started experiencing that kingdom of God. And they started encouraging each other and teaching each other and helping each other. And in that prison, they found a place more beautiful than any place they ever had known before. This kingdom of God is such a place. It is a place we see or do not see, I mean that we see as Christians, but the world does not see. The world does not see it or know it or desire it. As Jesus says, and what's the surely I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Only if we're born again, only if we have God's spirit, do we see this kingdom. The kissed frogs know the princess, the unkissed frogs. When she grabs them, they think she's gonna eat them and they don't want anything to do with her. But the kissed frog who becomes a prince, he has a whole different view on that kingdom. It is the most wonderful thing that he can imagine and there is no way he's gonna eat flies anymore. and lie in a swamp when he has a nice bed to sleep on in the castle, or even go back to another frog, even his favorite frog, when he has this beautiful princess. 1 Corinthians 2, 9 and 10 says, but as it is written, I have not seen, nor heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed them to us through his spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. You know that passage, 1 Corinthians 2, it starts off talking about the cross. And chapter 1 talked about the cross being foolishness. And the ungodly world doesn't see the cross as having anything good about it. But the believers, those who have been regenerated by God's Spirit, God has revealed to them the things of God, including the cross, including Christ's resurrection, including those wonderful things that are in heaven, that we have there, that people cannot see, that we desire to see more of. It is a place And when you think it's a place ruled by a person, God the Father, God the Son is there, God the Spirit is there. It is a place and people, God the Son, God the Father, God the Spirit. Even we as believers don't see perfectly. Even the Apostle Paul, who was caught up to the third heaven, he says, for now we see in a mere dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I know. He says he knew a little bit about God. He saw some of God and what he saw was enough for him to desire that place. He certainly wasn't afraid to die. He was ready for that. He knew that he had a ministry on earth and he would keep it up for a certain amount of time, but he was looking forward to something more. Yet when we are at our best down here, we see it, the kingdom best, we see Him, God best. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, Matthew 5, 5. That's Jesus saying that. If we are pure in heart, which at least not at the start, we aren't. You know, it starts with blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn, and mourning over sin. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Why do they hunger and thirst? Because they're lacking it. But as Christians says, they will be filled. And we go on and eventually we get to the point where we're pure in heart and then we see God. But even now we see him as in a mirror. dimly or in a glass starkly. We don't see him perfectly, but we see enough that we desire more. We know that heaven is another place where we will be and we will be there for eternity. We typically come to this place also when we're down on the bottom and on our knees and in need. Patmos, the island that John was on, was not a pretty place. It was a prisoner colony. and John was on the bottom but he was also in the spirit and he was with God and he was called up to heaven to see that wondrous place immediately as he says I was in the spirit and behold so the first part of an answer to this question, what is the meaning of why? And why did God create us? Well, we can say he created us, not just for the here and now and for this earth, but he created us to enjoy another spiritual, eternal dimension, which in scripture is called heaven. Now, the second point, we were created not just to enjoy heaven, but we were created to enjoy The relationship with the living and true God. It's one thing to have a mansion to live in and Jesus said in my father's house there were many mansions. It's another thing to have perfect people there with you. Loving people, loving company. And who is better than the living and true God? The God of the universe who made us all. And so verse 2 says, Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne sat in heaven, and one sat on the throne. One sat on the throne, and that is God. And His sitting on the throne means He's a king. He is sovereign. He reigns over us, and He reigns over everything. And so the first thing we know about our relationship with God from Revelation 4 is He is King, He is Ruler, He is Sovereign, and we are His subjects. We are called to obey Him. We are to hallow His name. As Jesus says, in this manner therefore pray, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. We are His subjects. We are to obey and do His will. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. If we are people of God, we are subjects of God. He is our ruler. He is on the throne. But this passage doesn't only talk about God as King. It goes on and describes Him, not in great detail. In the next part, verse 3, it says, And he who sat there was like a jasper and sardius stone in appearance. Now, jasper and sardius stones, one of them is a red stone. The other, as far as I remember, is a multicolored stone. But what are they other than stones and colors? Red may be symbolizing the blood of Christ, but I don't know if that's the case, because there's the other colors there as well in the other stone. But what do they tell us, or what does Revelation tell us when it doesn't tell us that God on the throne had arms or legs or a face or any of that that we see or know? I think it's telling us that those aren't the things we need to know about God. We don't see an image of God. We don't worship him because he has a physical form. In fact, here, even in Revelation, when the throne is described, it's symbolic of God's sovereignty, but there's not a great big giant throne somewhere up in the sky. That's just symbolic of the fact that God rules. And when we see that he's all these multi-colors and that there's no form given, we should say, well, there is no form. We're not to worship statues of God or pictures of God or even pictures of Jesus because God is not shown to us in that way. Thirdly, we see here when we look in Revelation 4, we see there was a rainbow around the throne. It says there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance. like an emerald. Well the rainbow we know from the Old Testament even from as early as Genesis and the Genesis flood right after God caused the flood and destroyed all the earth with the flood he brought out his rainbow and it was brought as a symbol of His grace. It was a sign of God's covenant of grace toward the world, showing that He would not destroy the world again by a flood. Genesis 9, 11 says, Thus I establish my covenant with you never again, so all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, Never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. That was 9-11. And that shows God's promise. And that was He was covenanting with man with that, making a promise to them. And then verse 12 said, and God said, this is the sign of the covenant. which i make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations i will set my rainbow in the cloud and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth and we all know what a rainbow looks like it's multi-colored and it's beautiful almost like nothing else in the world and it's not symbolic of gay pride or anything like that. No, it's symbolic of God's grace and his promise not to destroy the world again as he did once by the flood. It's saying, even if we are sinning, God is not going to use that means again to destroy us. Now we see first that it is a rainbow, but this is a unique special rainbow that is around God's throne because it says that it is the color of an emerald. Now in Scripture, and even in other ways, green is typically thought of as the color of peace and prosperity. And in the Old Testament, the word shalom, for peace, not only meant peace in the sense of tranquility, but when you wish somebody peace, you were wishing them also wealth, even material wealth. Blessings on blessings is what you were wishing them. green even today. When we talk about green, one of the things, you know, Jesus is the bread of life, and we call money bread. And here this rainbow is emerald green. And when we talk about green, sometimes the word green is used for dollars, or $20 bills, or $100 bills. They're all green. That's their color. At least in our country, that's the case. And green is symbolic of prosperity, even for us. And it was in the Old Testament and the New Testament in those times, green because if you have a lot of green grass, a lot of green plants, a lot of green crops growing, you are prosperous. And we're definitely prosperous If we make it to heaven, as Jesus said, shortly before he was going to die, he said, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. There are many mansions there. I go to prepare a place for you. Many of us dream of having a mansion or having a lot of good things here on this earth. And I like having good things here on this earth. But Jesus says in another place, about the things of the earth, he talks about, they are in this place where moth and rust do corrupt and where thieves do steal. You could get some precious thing, got a new car myself, 10 years from now that car, moth and rust will corrupt it. You can buy some little thing, maybe a very valuable purse and thieves come and steal it and they run off with it and you don't see them and the police don't come and get it in time. But in heaven, none of those things are possible. Nothing gets old, nothing corrupts, nothing is stolen. And so it's a better place. And so we see that here. And not only because of riches like that, but because of superior spiritual riches. Ephesians 1.3 says, Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Even he's talking while he's here on earth, but he knew this had already happened, that he and the other believers were blessed. not just with a little spiritual blessing, but every spiritual blessing. And then in verse seven, he says, in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, not just a little bit of his grace, but according to the riches of his grace, we have forgiveness, meaning you can't sin too much and for God to forgive you. God has room for you. Because it says right after there, which he made a bound towards us in all wisdom and prudence. And if I went on in that passage, which I don't have time to, you would see he's listing blessing after blessing and more and more riches and all these good things that we have in Christ and will have in heaven. We as people, this is number four under, you know, what kind of relationship do we have with God? Why is this such a blessing to have a relationship with Him? Well, we as His people, And we see this in Revelation 4, have representation at and around his throne. And when I say we have representation, what I'm talking about is verse 4. It says, around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the throne I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white robes, and they had crowns of gold on their heads. about our representatives who are in heaven. Notice one or eight, their number. 24 thrones, and on the throne I saw 24 elders. Why is it 24? Well, there were 12 sons of Jacob in the Old Testament representing all the people of Israel who loved and knew God. And then in the New Testament, there are the 12 apostles of Jesus, probably not Judas, but either Matthias or Paul taking his place. There are the 12 apostles of Jesus in the New Testament, and they represent us who are Christians, who are God's people. As we sing, we are God's people, the children of the Lord. We are represented in heaven by these 12 elders. Now, the word elder in scripture is one every one of us, that first Presbyterian should know that the Greek word is presbyteros or presbytero or presbyteron. And what does it mean? It means Presbyterian. Presbyterian, it sounds like it, doesn't it? And it is that same word. And that's what it means, elder. And elders are, you know, we have ruling elders and teaching elders in the Presbyterian Church. And yet we're not only rulers and teachers, we're also your representatives. And the apostles and the 12 sons of Jacob as elders were represented and representing us in heaven. Notice too, their clothing. It says they were clothed in white robes. White robes, meaning pure, meaning clean. And why so clean? Because they were washed in the blood of Christ the Lamb. And so when we stand before the Lord and our elders stand before the Lord, even Peter, who denied Jesus three times, he's washed in the blood of Christ. And so are we. Then also we should notice when we look at our representatives in heaven, you should notice D, their high positions or position. And it says, and they had crowns of gold on their heads. Now you can say, yeah, well, they have crowns because they're the apostles and they died for their faith and they really deserve those crowns. But if you look at the next chapter in Revelation, it's a very interesting chapter five. It says, and they sing a new song saying you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals. for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation and have made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth. That's not the apostles singing and praising God there. out of every tribe, tongue, kindred, and nation. No, the apostles were all Jewish. They were all Israelites. The apostles were, even Paul, who came later, was an Israelite. But when we read about certain people being kings and priests to God, and when you read a little later in that passage, it says there's thousands and thousands and ten thousands of them. That's us. We are the people out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. So we have a high position. And when the elders are there behind the throne, they're just representing us. Fifthly, we see, as we look at this throne where God is, we see the outworking ministry of God's spirit. Verse 5, it says, and from the throne proceeded lightning, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Now that might be confusing. Are there really seven spirits of God or is there one Holy Spirit? Well, there is one Holy Spirit. And as we go, if we were to go through the Book of Revelation, I'm not sure yet if I'm going to preach on more about from the Revelation. I know I'm going to do the Sermon on the Mount again. And I'm not sure if I will, it'll be up to the Lord. He has to lead me that way. But it talks about seven spirits of God and there's the seven seals and the seven trumpets and the seven bowls. And there's a lot of sevens in the book of Revelation and they're all symbolic. And I believe when seven is used for the spirit of God. It's talking about the abilities and gifts He gives us and how He prepares us for every circumstance. And the Holy Spirit is there for us in all circumstances as a comforter, as a giver of gift, as He who regenerates us in more ways than I can tell in this sermon, because seven is the number of perfection. But whatever we need, the Spirit, He helps us with that. He comes alongside us and carries us. And so when it talks about the seven spirits of God, notice it also says, I almost, did I skip it? Proceeded lightning, thundering voices, seven lamps of fire, burning before the throne. You know, our lamps of fire. Go back to the sermon on, you are the light of the world. He's talking about a lamp. We're to shine out into the world, and we do that by God's Spirit. Notice it also mentions lightnings and thunderings and voices. And the Spirit, when He comes, is not always gentle. John 16, 8 says, and when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and righteousness and judgment. And some people say, well, the spirit always has to be gentle because he's a dove and yet preaching sometimes is powerful like John the Baptist. And the spirit was with John and the spirit empowered him. And he's not just in this little small wind, but also in the hurricanes. And we need to see the spirit both ways. Sometimes he's a gentle wind and sometimes he's a powerful wind. You know, there was a mighty rushing wind at Pentecost and we saw many saved and we pray that we'd have a mighty rushing wind today that might come into our country and bring about another revival. But we don't despise the day of small things either, when one person here or one person there might become a Christian through the Spirit's quiet ministries. Notice number six, a place for cleansing. Bethreath the throne there was a sea of glass-like crystal. And I'm not gonna go into detail with this either, but in 1 Kings 7 and 2 Chronicles 4, we read of a sea of bronze that Solomon put in the temple for the purification of priests. And I believe heaven is not gonna lack anything that Solomon might have in his temple by the throne of God. There's this sea of glass. And ultimately, when we think of cleansing, whether it's of our sins or whether it is for service to God, we have to think of 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And I believe this sea of grass could be pointing us to Christ, that precious blood of Christ that washes away all my sins. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And so when we look at God on this throne, we see that He's ruling. And yet His rule is a gracious rule represented by this great green rainbow. As he rules, he has 24 elders around the throne. They're the rulers under the ruler. They're the princes who are over those us who were kings and priests under him. We rule in the earth. And so we have a relationship with the ruler, and yet we're to rule over ourselves or have self-discipline. We're to rule in a way over those things, you know, let not. sin reign in your mortal body, we're to rule over it and put it down. And so God helps us with his spirit to do those things. And when we do sin, we have that sea of glass or the blood of Christ to wash us. And so we see the second part, you know, there's been two parts so far. What is the meaning of life? Well, we were created to enjoy a different dimension, a heavenly, spiritual, moral dimension. Secondly, we were created to enjoy a relationship with God where He rules, where we rule under Him, where He is providing for all our needs by His grace, especially our spiritual needs. and he provides even for our service by giving us his Spirit and the seven Spirits which are able to provide for every need we might have in order to minister. And so that's the second part. And the third part, and the last part of this, but not the least, is we were created to answer the highest calling to live out the grandest adventure. I think this is one of the most exciting passages in all of Scripture, starting at verse 6 of Revelation 4. It says, in the midst of the throne and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. And then in verse seven, the first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within, and they do not rest night, day or night, saying, holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. 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 fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne saying, you are worthy, O Lord, to see glory and honor and power, for you have created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. Well, there's several things I'll have you notice here. First, the high calling of the four living creatures. They have a high calling. They're at the throne room of God and they're there all the time. And what I want you to notice about them first is notice their fitness for this particular calling and also their energetic activity in it. The four living creatures, high calling was to be at their environment, which was the throne and presence of God. Verse 6a, it says, and in the midst of the throne, that's where they live, and around the throne, that's also where they live, were four living creatures. These creatures were created to live in God's presence. God said to Moses, even when he would allow Moses just to see his backside, he said, you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live. And why do I bring up that verse, Exodus 33, 20? Because we can't, we can't live in the very presence of God, at least not exactly how we are now. If we were taken to God in our present state, without our glorified bodies, we would die. But these creatures, the four living creatures, are in God's presence right now, and they are living creatures. They're alive in God's presence, not dead. And to dwell in God's presence, to see his face, As I said, as we are now would kill us. Our eyes cannot even bear to look at the brightness of a noontime sun. And the sun is, what is it, but another, just one of our fellow creatures. Surely we cannot look at the brightness of God. And yet the four living creatures are designed for the very presence of God, to see his face, to give God glory and to do his will. Just as the polar bears were designed for polar cold and they could dive into that icy water and not be bothered by it at all. And fish are designed to live under the sea so that if you pull them up out of the sea they just flap around and they're not doing well at all after a while. You have to get them in water or they'll die. But they're very fit for the sea. We would be just the opposite. Somebody tie a chain around our, a ball and chain around our ankle and throw us down into the sea and we're in trouble. But fish are fit for that environment. And here the four living creatures are fit for the environment of the throne and the presence of God. Well, what makes them so fit? Well, first notice their eyes. better to see God with. Like the wolf better, I have big eyes, better to see you with a little red riding hood. These creatures had eyes better to see God with. Notice verse six, the creatures were full of eyes in front and in back. Full meaning having lots, not just a little bit of eyes in front of that, but full of eyes, like spiders or flies, but I'm sure much better than what they have, and in front and in back. You know, my mom, when we were young kids, she always used to kid us, as I think other moms from what I've heard do. I have eyes in the back of my head. She'd do that, so we would think, well, maybe she does. We better be good. Something like that. But these creatures do have eyes in the back of their head, and in the front, and on the sides, and all around at every angle. Around at every angle, not just in the front and the side, because in verse eight, it says, we're full of eyes around and within. within, meaning these creatures not only see and know the glory of God, but they also see and know themselves. You know, can we look inside ourselves, especially inside of our heart, meaning our spiritual heart? It says in Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? The idea there when it asks the question, who can know it? The next verse says God knows it, but we don't know. We don't even know our own hearts. We tend to deceive ourselves thinking that we're better than we are, but our hearts are so sinful and our hearts will tell us we are not so bad. You know, it's said of murderers. that when they're in prison with other murderers, they never think that they're as bad as the other murderer. They really didn't do that is the way they think. And yet these creatures, I do not doubt were pure in heart. When they had eyes within, they saw no sin. as they do see God. Just like it says in Matthew 5a, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God while these creatures had to be pure in heart. That's just the way they were made. They never sinned and yet they were humble too. They looked in themselves and they saw that they were mere creatures in the presence of the living God. All these eyes were needed. However many there were, it doesn't give us a number. It just tells us they were full of them all around them and all in the front and in the back and inside them. And they were needed because they were in the presence of God. David wrote in the Psalms, he says, one thing I have desired of the Lord. that I will seek, that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." David did behold, spiritually, the beauty of the Lord. And yet, as Paul did, he was seeing in a glass darkly, in a mirror dimly. These creatures were at the throne of God, and so they needed all these eyes to see him. As it says in 1 Corinthians 13, 12, for now we see in a mere dimly, but then face to face. These creatures were seeing God face to face all the time. B2, first I talked about their eyes. They were created for the presence of God with vastly superior eyes to ours, but notice also their appearance. They are either representatives of, or the best of all creation. And I believe they're both. They're both representatives of creation and they're also the excellence of creation. Notice one is like a lion, strength, power, courage. Another is like a calf, patience, service, self-sacrifice. When you think of, calves were one of the sacrificed animals in Israel. And one of these four living creatures had a face like a man. And the man in scripture is supposed to be intelligent in his right state. He has knowledge of God and he's created in the image of God. And then the last of these four living creatures is the flying eagle. representing soaring devotion, but those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and shall mount up with wings like eagles. And so these are the four living creatures represented by the lion for strength, by the calf for patience, by the man for intelligence, by the eagle for soaring devotion. And then it goes on and it says, as it describes these creatures, the four living creatures, each having six wings, all this size so they can see and know all the best aspects of creation. And then also six wings. God designed some wonderful things that have wings. I don't know if you've ever seen, I've shown a movie with a hummingbird and actually it shows many birds and how wonderful their different wings are. But the hummingbird is one of the most impressive because its wings move so fast and it can go backward or it can go forward or up or down and all these different ways with its wonderful little wings. And it's not just the wings, it's an unbelievable metabolism that these little things have, and their tongues that they use to get the nectar out of flowers. It's just amazing. They're almost like little heavenly creatures. And yet these creatures had six wings. And one of the things you might think, with six wings you can go really fast. And it means they had an ability to do the will of God very quickly. And notice also, and I didn't do this before, but we have the same picture of these four living creatures, not only in Revelation 4, but also in Isaiah 6. And I want to note what Isaiah 6 says about these wings. Isaiah 6, 2, it's talking about the seraphim, and it says, talking about above it, meaning above the throne, a strid seraphim, each one having six wings. With two, he covered his face. With two, he covered his feet. And with two, he flew. Now, why is this? Well, face cover, even with all the eyes that these creatures had, God's glory was still too bright. And so I just went through this whole long thing about how these creatures were especially equipped with all these eyes in front and in back and around and within and how these were created for God's presence. But even with all these eyes, they were covering their eyes with the wings. Maybe they peek through like we might peek through through the sun to see the sun, but they couldn't look on that brightness of that glory. even with all those eyes. And then they cover two, use two wings to cover their feet. And feet are typically humble parts. Feet are the parts that would touch ground, that would set feet on the ground. And these are heavenly creatures who fly in heaven. And so they cover their feet because they're humble. And then two for flying. And I believe even when they just used these two, they were still fast. They could use all of them if they were doing something, I believe, applying for God. Notice their energy, B4. Their energy and their endurance. Verse 8 also, and they do not rest day or night, saying, they don't rest day or night. These are creatures that never, ever, ever get tired. You see them way back in Isaiah 6, and they're still doing the same thing in Isaiah. I mean, in Revelation 4, they are saying, holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, and they're saying this repeatedly. And it's not a boring job either. They're in the presence of God, and they're always in heavenly rapture as they behold His glory constantly. A glory they can't even look at. They're putting their wings in front of their face, but they still see it because it is so bright. And it's so glorious. And so we move to B5, the glorious message. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come. And when they say, holy, holy, holy, as R.C. Sproul said, you know, there was a pit, pit, because there was a very pitty pit. And holy, holy, holy is the most extreme level of holiness. and they're seeing it all the time, and they're never, never, never, never, never bored. A friend. once sent me a card. I think it was a birthday card as far as I remember. And on the front of the card, there was a picture of a man sitting on a cloud and his harp was sitting next to him laying there. And he looked as bored as can be. And I opened the card and inside it says, I wish I would have brought a magazine. That's not heaven. That's not what heaven will be like. What heaven is like is what we see here with the four living creatures. They're in the presence of God and there's nothing else like it. The greatest sights, the most wonderful experiences that you've ever had on this earth will not even compare to the experience of being with God for all eternity. The highest height of excitement maybe is that you had as a child when you saw something wonderful and you were so excited about that. It won't come close to what we will feel when we're before the throne of God. And so we see this extreme repetition, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. But when we look at this repetition, I want us to notice something else. When it's repeated three times, holy, holy, holy, that also. represents every member of the Godhead. God the Son is holy. He has a name that is above every name. We are to keep it separate. We're to hollow the name of Jesus. We're called to hollow the name of the Father, and the Holy Spirit is named holy. And so we have to hollow His name. We do when we call Him Holy Spirit all the time. We use that title. B6 notice. The four living creatures, notice their calling to glorify God is one they share with us. and with all creation. I'm ending kind of quick this way, not quite ending yet, but I'm not covering this portion as much as I probably could. Verses 9 through 11, it says, 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 fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. and cast their crowns before the throne saying you are worthy oh lord to see glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created notice there seems to be some kind of relation between these four living creatures praising God in heaven and the elders, the 24 elders who are praising God on the earth or by the throne, falling down before the throne in humility, bowing before God. and saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for You have created all things. It was God who created the four living creatures in heaven. It is God who created us in His image. It's God who created the sun and the polar bears and the fish in the sea. He created them all, and they all are to give Him glory. And yet, though all these things are created to give God glory, we are created in the image of God and have even a more glorious calling than the four living creatures. And you could say, pastor, how could we have a more glorious calling than the four living creatures who are right there in heaven with the Lord? They're right there. That has to be the most glorious calling that there could be. And I'm saying, no, no, no, no, it's not. The more glorious calling is the one we have. And it's not the calling that we have when we get to heaven. It's the calling that we have right now on earth. Let me show you by comparing our calling here on earth to the four living creatures calling in heaven. First, they are called to glorify God with their strength. We are called to glorify God with our weakness, because as it says in 1 Corinthians 1.25, because the foolishness of God is wiser than man, and the weakness of God is stronger than man. God used Jesus' weakness when he was on the cross to glorify him. And he uses our weakness to glorify him as well. And you'll see how that is as I go along. The four living creatures also were called to glorify God in heaven, in a place of pleasure. There's no pain there. We are called to glorify God in a place of pain. In Psalm 1611, the psalmist says, you will show me the path of life in your presence, meaning when you're close to God, is fullness of joy. at your right hand, their pleasures forevermore. When we're in his presence, when we're at his right hand, when the apostles are with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, oh, what a wonderful place that is. And yet when they come down to see the demon-possessed boy throwing him, the demon's throwing that little boy all around, oh, what a horrible place that is. And yet we're called to glorify God on the earth. before we get to heaven we are cast down but not conquered as it says in 2nd Corinthians 4 7 through 11 but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. There's an old paperback book that I used to have. It says, we have this treasure. It's trying to bring this up to modern day. We have this treasure in Styrofoam cups. I have paper cups in my kitchen that I put coffee in. Styrofoam cans, paper cups, they're things that get thrown away. And earthen vessels, sometimes a potter made them and they were made really quickly. They only were made not to be beautiful or anything like that. but they were made to hold a drink. And they could be made to hold, well, be very humble, but still hold a very delicious, delicious drink. And so it says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. It's an old broken down cup. Oh, but that's the best coffee I've ever had. It's amazing. We are hard pressed on every side. yet not crushed. We are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always caring about in the body the dying of our Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifest in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death, for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. If you're not understanding what I'm talking about now, I've seen it. David Coker, 17 years old, dying of cancer. He went from 240-pound linebacker and running back for his high school team, one of the best players in the state, and in a very, very, very, very, very short time, due to cancer, went down to a 100-pound thing. And yet at 100 pounds, he was stronger spiritually than he ever was as that 240 pound linebacker. Oh, and he would praise God. And many of the nurses who worked in that hospital were converted because nobody praises God and is so happy when they're going through cancer. I remember going seeing him. I was a young man myself. He was 17 and I was 19 or 20. And I was thinking at the time, oh, I must've been 20, cause I was thinking of ministry. And I think I need to go see David. And I was thinking, I don't want to see David. I don't want to see him all torn up like this. I gotta go see him. I don't want to see him. I gotta go see him. And finally I went to see him. And I was glad to see him because it was something I had never seen before. Somebody so sick, somebody so broken, but somebody so healthy and so strong spiritually. He said, Arnie, I'm going to heaven early. He was excited about it. I believe he had a vision, a little bit more like the four living creatures vision. The things that he went through purified his heart and he was manifesting the life of Christ. I saw the same thing in Rynthea Jackson and I see it in a lot of people at our current church. But I mentioned Rynthea Jackson in particular because I remember when Erica and I went to her house to take her to the hospital and she didn't want to go and she was very upset. But I remember, too, her in the hospital. Every time I'd come into the hospital, she was in pain, but she had a joke, and she would laugh, and she would smile, and she'd praise the Lord. Why is that? It's because in the midst of her troubles, Jesus was real, and she was in the presence of God. My mom was the same way at the end. She was happy. She was forgiving. She was comfortable at some of her worst times. And so are many of you, even while we live this life and we get older and we have more pains and aches, yet we still know how to praise Jesus. Amy Carmichael was a missionary in India. And she would steal children away from being temple prostitutes. And when she got older, she had an accident and she was most of her time on her back for many, many years. And she was in pain a lot of these times. But she says, this is why we glorify God more than those angels in heaven. because their part is easy to do. They're strong and they're in this perfect, beautiful place. But we praise God in our painful place. And so she writes, before the winds that blow do cease, teach me to dwell within thy calm. Before the pain has passed in peace, give me my God to sing a song. Let me not lose the chance to prove the fullness of enabling love. O love of God, do this for me. Maintain a constant victory. Can you see what she's saying there in that first stanza of that poem? Lord, let me glorify you now before I lose the chance of glorifying you when I'm in pain, because soon I will be in heaven and it'll be easy and everybody glorifies you there. But it's special when somebody living in difficult circumstances praises you." That is the wonderful thing. And so the second stanza is like it. She says, before I leave the desert land, you know, you could picture a desert. Every once in a while you see a movie and this guy is crawling through the desert and his skin is all burnt from the sun and he would just love to have one drop of water. And so she says, before I leave the desert, land for meadows of immortal flowers, flowers that don't wilt, flowers that don't die. Lead me where streams at thy command flow by the borders of the hours." Meaning those spiritual drinks that we find even in the desert. I know even in the worst times of life, My hardest times, God sent me a letter from a friend, which was like a double sun shining in the great dark time. And God does that in the midst of our trials here on earth. He gives us special little pleasures to keep us going. Then she says, lead me to our streams at thy command, flow by the borders of the hours. that when the thirsty come, I may show them the fountains in the way." Meaning there are those fountains there. In this world, we have many little pleasures, especially as Christians. God blesses us in multiple wonderful ways. He says, Oh, love of God. She says, Oh, love of God, do this for me. Maintain a constant victory. That's Amy Carmichael. We see some of this in scripture too. It's not just David Coker and Renthea Jackson and my mom and people at church who suffer and still praise God, but we see it in scripture. In 1 Peter 1, verses 6 through 9, Peter, who was an apostle, who saw Jesus transfigured, who saw Jesus resurrect. writes to some of the Christians now who had not seen all these things Peter wrote, or Peter had privilege to see. And he says in verse six, he says, in this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire. See, they were going through various trials, tested by fire, yet they still had this faith. And then he said, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you know, these people weren't like Peter, they didn't see Jesus resurrected. He says, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. No cherubim, no for-living creature could glorify God, like these poor people Peter was writing to. They never actually saw Jesus in the flesh. They didn't see Him raised from the dead. This is sometime probably after Peter had seen those things. He writes to them, and they were being persecuted. They were going through trials because of their faith. And yet they believed and they rejoiced with joy inexpressible and full of glory. Just like the four living creatures were full of eyes around and within, these people who could not see Jesus were full of glory. had, I mean, had a joy and that was inexpressible and full of glory because it glorified God. Because they praised God like the living creatures did with not near the ability or the circumstance or the environment that those creatures had. receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. This passage in 1 Peter brings up another difference between us and the living creatures. They are called to glorify God in his presence with clear vision and we are called to glorify God at a distance and by faith. As it says, who having not seen you love, Though you now do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of the faith, the salvation of your soul. 2 Corinthians 5, 7, Paul agrees with this, for we walk by faith, not by sight. I saw a movie, you should have seen it. It was kind of not the greatest movie, but in the movie, the boy has a blindfold on and he's driving a motorcycle with a blindfold on in the midst of a crowded city street. And his girlfriend, sort of girlfriend, is sitting on the back kind of guiding his way and he had a lot of faith in her. as he drove blinded. We walk by faith. Fortunately, our faith is in Christ and not in one another. We walk by faith and not by sight. Our love, our faith is called to take up a cross, to endure trials, to glorify God at a distance when he is not seen. And this makes our call, not just the love story. I think that's what you see with the four living creatures and God in heaven. There's a love story. Of course, it's a comfortable place. It's a beautiful place. There's no trials. There's no difficulties. There's no separation. That's a love story there. The four living creatures have that. But we, who are on earth, who are called to glorify God and love Him, not within sight, but from a distance, not within pleasure, but in pain, we don't have a love story. What we have is an adventure. And I started this sermon with the song my mom used to play. What's it all about, Delphine? Is it just for this moment we live? What's it all about? What's it all about, Elfie? Well, what's it all about? Well, it's about living for another dimension, a spiritual moral dimension. It's about enjoying a relationship with the living God. And thirdly, it is about a great adventure. The four living creatures, they have a wonderful relationship with God, but we have a great adventure. We're to serve him through pain. We're to serve him and follow him from a distance. We're to praise him in the midst of trials. And there's a song sung by Stephen Curtis Chaplin. I guess it's written by Jeff Moore. And it starts like this. Saddle up your horses. Ooh. Started out this morning in the usual way, chasing thoughts inside my head I thought I had to do today. Another time around the circle, try to make it better than the last. I opened up the Bible and I read about me. Said I'd been a prisoner and God's grace had set me free. And somewhere between the pages, it hit me like a lightning bolt. I saw a big frontier in front of me. And I heard somebody say, let's go saddle up your horses. We've got a trail to blaze through the wild boo yonder of God's amazing grace. Let us follow our leader, that's Jesus carrying the cross, into the glorious unknown. This life is like no other. This is the great adventure. And that song is a long, long, long song. And it talks about this great adventure that we have on earth now as Christians. We have an opportunity. that the four living creatures in heaven will never have. That is to walk in the image of God and even in the image of Christ who suffered and died for our sins. And if we suffer like he did, even if somehow we're crucified, And we do it praising him. If we go through cancer, or if we go through financial trials, or the trials of relationships, or whatever kind of trials we go through, and yet we still praise the Lord. That's where we give glory to God, that the four-leaved, where the creatures cannot give. They were created to live near heaven. polar bears were created to live in the icy cold places where we wouldn't want to go, and we were created to glorify God in weakness, to glorify God from a distance, and to glorify God even though we don't have eyes within and without and with all around us to see him because we're right next to him. We're to glorify God by walking by faith and not by sight. Well, let us pray. Father, I thank you for this passage in Revelation 4 that teaches us so much about what is the meaning of life, what we were created for. And Father, we're thankful that we're created for more than just the here and now, for more than just eating and drinking. but we were created to enjoy another dimension, a spiritual dimension of life and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We thank you that there is more to this world than those things that we touch and taste and feel, but there is a spiritual life. And not only in this world, but that spiritual life is eternal. We thank you, Lord, that you have provided for us that we might have a relationship with you. We pray that you'd help us to be obedient to you as our King and reverence and honor you as our King and that we might serve you as our King and that we might glorify you as our God. And Father, we thank you for that high calling that we have. We are created in your image. We are to be molded into the image of Christ. We are to glorify you, not just in heaven when we get there, but we are also called to glorify you here on earth, where there is pain, where there is difficulty, where no four living creature treads. in this more difficult place. We pray you'd help us to fulfill our calling, our high calling that is so much like the calling of Christ who came to this earth and suffered and died for us. Father, we thank you for him. And we thank you that you call us to such a great calling. And we pray you'd enable us to fulfill it in a way that you'd have each of us to do that. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.