And indeed, what a joy it is to sing of our Redeemer's praise for what He has done. I'm going to ask you to please remain standing out of honor for God's Word. And if you have your Bibles, to take your Bibles and turn to the book of Revelation. That's Revelation chapter 4. I'm going to begin reading in verse 1, and I'm going to read through verse 5. So the first five verses of Revelation chapter 4. As you know, we just finished seeing the letters to the seven churches, just finished that last week. We pick up now in verse 1 of chapter 4, where God's word says this, After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things. Immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and one sitting on the throne. And he who was sitting was like a jasper stone, and a sardius in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones. And upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders, sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. And out from the throne came flashes of lightning, and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. Let's pray. Father in heaven, how grateful we are to have your word before us. How grateful we are for truth. Grateful Lord that you haven't left us to, to grope around in the dark about who you are and what is required. but you have revealed these great truths to us in your word. Lord, now, as we come to this book, which has been such a difficulty for your church for so many years, we pray, Lord, that you'd be merciful to me, the preacher, this morning, that I would handle this text accurately. We pray, Lord, that indeed your Holy Spirit would lead us into truth. for your great praise and glory and for the good of your people, we pray in Jesus name. Amen. May please be seated. And I'm sure I've said this before, but one of the many things that I appreciate and love about Gina is that she, and there's many things, but she likes to buy me books. She knows I'm a reader, and so she will, you know, when she's out shopping or whatever, usually at a dollar store, or something like that, she'll see a book and she'll think, oh, I think Wade would like that. And so she'll buy it for me. And it's amazing how often she is right. Some of my most favorite books that I've read are books that I didn't even know existed that she bought me. Usually the books are about politics. or World War II, or sports, or something like that. There are never books on theology. Recently, she has given me books about the Jewish Holocaust during World War II. One book that I've read is called The Happiest Man Alive. Fabulous book. It was written by a man who was in Auschwitz concentration camp. And the title comes from the fact that he said when he was put in Auschwitz, he was determined, I am going to be happy. They're not going to win. They're not going to beat me down. I am going to be happy, even here in Auschwitz. And I'm going to get out. And when I get out, I'm not going to look back. I'm not going to dwell on it. I'm going to be the happiest man alive. And for the most part, he says, that's what he has done. Another book is called First One In, Last One Out. It was written by the niece of a man who was in several concentration camps. He went into the concentration camps first in 1939, went all over, including Auschwitz. Eventually, he was at Dachau, and he escaped Dachau in 1945, about a month before the Americans liberated Dachau. And hence, from 1939 to 1945, That's what she means, first one into the concentration camps and the last one out. He spent almost six years in the concentration camps. For Father's Day, she gave me a trilogy, three books written by the same author. The first book is called The Tattooist of Auschwitz. And it's about a Jewish man that is put into service there. It's his job to put the tattoos on each person that comes into Auschwitz. And he describes what it was like for these people and the fear that he'd see in their eyes and so forth. And then he writes about the horrors that he went through personally in Auschwitz. And I don't know how familiar you are with the Holocaust, but it is sometimes just really hard. to read about it, the brutality and the inhumanity and the absolute wickedness of what occurred to the Jews at that time. It's almost otherworldly. It's just simply unspeakable. And when you read about it, Your sense of justice demands these Nazis need to be punished for this. They can't get away with this. They need to be caught and they need to pay and to suffer for what they did. Well, therefore, the Nuremberg trial has become kind of interesting to me because as many of you know, right after World War II, 21, 21 Nazis were arrested. And they appeared before the court in, of all places, Nuremberg, Germany. And they were indicted on four separate charges. Count one, conspiracy. Two, crimes against people. Three, war crimes. And four, crimes against humanity. And the courtroom scene at the Nuremberg trial, or trials, is really quite impressive. There was more than one prosecutor, because each allied country supplied a prosecutor, and the chief prosecutor for the U.S. was Robert Jackson. Listen to his opening statement. He said, what makes this inquest significant is that these prisoners represent sinister influences that will lurk in the world long after their bodies have returned to dust. We will show them to be living symbols of racial hatred, terrorism, violence, and of the arrogance and cruelty of power. The biographer William Shirer, who wrote a biography on the Third Reich, and he also wrote a book called The End of Berlin Diary, he was at the Nuremberg trial. And he said this, my spine throngs today as Jackson used the power of language to build upon hour after hour his masterful case against barbarism. And then he pointed out that hundreds of secret documents were seized by the Allied armies before the Nazis had a chance to destroy them. And he said, at this court, the Nazi defendants are going to be convicted by their own words, their own records, and their own foul deeds. And then the world watched the Nuremberg trials and basically said, good. Go get them. Get those Nazis. Get them for what they did. Bring them to justice. Make them pay for what atrocities they did. The people I mentioned, the Nuremberg trial, because here in the book of Revelation, things are somewhat reversed, aren't they? Here in this book, it is the first century Jews themselves that are brought to court. And they will be prosecuted not only for their crimes against Christ, but also their crimes against Christians that they have been persecuting. And of course, their crimes against God Himself. And what we have before us today is a glimpse, just a glimpse into the heavenly courtroom. And what you're going to see here today is this, it's very simple. First, you're going to see the glory and the majesty of God. And then you will see a sharp reminder for all of us that God will judge. And therefore you will see your need for Jesus Christ. And there are what five verses here, and I have five points today because we're going to see the timing. First, the timing of chapter four, very important. Then we're going to see the scene. We get a glimpse of this scene, then the judge, then the elders that are there in that scene. and then the power of God. But first, the timing. Look at verse 1. Revelation 4, verse 1 says this, Your translation may say, after this. but literally it is after these things. Now, people, I'm a good Biola graduate. I am a former dispensationalist, and I am well aware of the common teaching on this verse. Those who say that this book, that Revelation is referring to our future, well, they say that that phrase after this or after these things means after the things of the church or after the church age. And so they say at this point, when you come to chapter four, right here, verse one, at this point, The church has been raptured. The church has been caught up into heaven. And now everything in Revelation from here on out is in the future. It's in our future. In other words, they won't occur until after the rapture, which hasn't happened yet, has it? The church hasn't been caught up into heaven. So all that we have here going on is gonna be future, because the church is gone. And usually we will hear arguments like this. Well, a trumpet is mentioned in verse 1, and in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, which is, by the way, a rapture text, a trumpet is mentioned there, and so this must be the rapture. And they will point out that the word church, boy, how many times did I hear this at Biola? The word church, which we saw so much in chapters 2 and 3 for the last several weeks, Well, it's not going to occur again in Revelation until chapter 22, verse 16, which they say is because the church is raptured. Church is gone. It's in heaven. But we would point out this. The phrase, after these things, points us back to the end of chapter 1, to verse 19. Look back at chapter one, verse 19. It says, therefore, write the things which you have seen and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things. And remember, we already saw that these things, whatever they are, are about to take place. That was chapter one, verse one, very first verse of this book. Chapter 1, verse 1, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his bondservant, the things which must soon take place. And as we already said, when we were in chapter 1, since God, since John was told in the first century that these things, again, whatever they are, that they're soon to take place, well, then we should be looking for a first century fulfillment. and not a 21st century fulfillment. That's the timing. The church has not been raptured here. As David Chilton says, the only one raptured here is John. The only one caught up into heaven is John himself, but not the church, not yet. And so we go from the timing, very important, now to the scene, verse two, look at verse two, says this, immediately I was in the spirit and behold, a throne was standing in heaven and one sitting on the throne. Notice again, John says he was in the spirit. Well, what does that mean? We saw it in chapter one, verse 10, didn't we? He said the same thing there. What it means is this, this is not a dream. In fact, as John MacArthur says, he says, John was basically transported out of the material world, awake, not sleeping, to an experience beyond the normal senses. The Holy Spirit empowered his senses to receive revelation from God. And what does he see? Very important. Well, the scene, of course, is the throne room of heaven. We get a glimpse into heaven. And again, I'm going to say to you that this is a court scene, if you will. In fact, in chapter five, we're going to see a seven sealed book. And that book is God's sentence against Jerusalem. Well, what does John see? Well, that takes us now to the judge. Verse three. Verse 3, we have the judge. Look at it. It says, And he who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne like an emerald in appearance. You know, I think Robert Godfrey from Westminster Seminary, who I love and appreciate so much, I think he explains this best. Here is this remarkable vision of the heavenly temple with God seated in it. And it's interesting how God is presented. Notice he's presented almost entirely in colors. What John seems to see is color, not an image. There's nothing physical that he is trying to describe. Instead, what he seems to be trying to describe is his glory, like the glory of emeralds and rainbows and jasper. So it's an image that can't be painted, even if you wanted to. It can't be painted. What John is trying to do is communicate to us how glorious this scene is. Remember people, God is spirit. There is no form. This is an effort to describe the glory and beauty of God, and also the power of God. Because as you're gonna see in verse five, that from his throne comes lightning and peals of thunder. So we see the glory and the power of God in this text. But you should notice something else also. Notice it's a scene where God is not alone. There are others around him. And as Godfrey says, part of the character of God is that he rejoices in relationships. with others, not out of need, he just rejoices in relationships with others. We sang holy, holy, holy earlier. There is plenty of fellowship, if you will, in the Trinity itself. This is not out of need, but God just rejoices in relationships with others. And so that takes us now to the fourth point. I'll call it the elders. Or others, however you want to say it, but look at verse 4. Verse 4 says, around the throne were 24 thrones. And upon the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting, clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads. People, all of that is symbolic. The white garments, of course, are symbols of purity. The golden crown points to conquering. And remember, we are called to overcome. We are called to conquer. And these 24 elders have conquered and they reign now with God in glory. So who are they? Who are these 24 elders? Well, again, here's what Godfrey says. I think he's spot on. He says, how do you get 24 from the Bible? He says, easy. 12 tribes in the Old Testament, 12 apostles in the New Testament. The Old Testament saints and the New Testament saints here, not segregated, but united around the throne. In fact, when we get to chapter 21, which probably won't be for quite a while, but when we finally get to chapter 21, we see the wall and the gates coming down of the heavenly Jerusalem. And what do we find? the name of the 12 tribes and the name of the 12 apostles written on it. So Revelation chapter 21 verse 10, you don't need to turn there, because I'm going to read it to you right now. But it says this, And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone, as a stone of crystal-clear jasper. It had a great high wall with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels. And names were written on them, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel. There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. And the wall of the city had twelve foundation stones, and on them were the twelve names of the apostles of the Lamb." And so, people, we have here What we have is a scene, and it is God with His redeemed humanity. God with His people. Which takes us to the fifth point. The fifth point is the power of God. Look at verse 5. Out from the throne, come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God." The burning, the burning torches of fire are a symbol of a symbol. What do I mean? Well, remember the seven spirits are a symbol of the one Holy Spirit in His fullness. We saw that back in chapter one. But here we have seven torches representing the seven spirits, which represent the one spirit. And so remember in this book, there's going to be layers upon layers of symbols. But why do I say that we see here the power of God? Well, the very beginning of verse five says, out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. Well, that points us back to Mount Sinai. Points us back to something we just, I read to you the 10 commandments earlier today. That's Exodus chapter 20, right before the giving of the 10 commandments. In Exodus 19 it says this, Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. And its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently. And when the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him with thunder. And the Lord came down on Mount Sinai to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. And then God gives the Ten Commandments, which again, I read to you earlier from chapter 20. Then right after that, right after the giving of the Ten Commandments, we read this. All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking. And when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Why? Because of the sheer power of God, because of the fear of God. And so the very next verse says, then they said to Moses, speak to us yourself and we will listen, but let not God speak to us or we will die. Same thing here, people. We've seen a glimpse into heaven. We've seen into the throne room and we've seen the glory and the majesty of God. And now here we are reminded of His power, the glory and majesty of God, and the power of God, all right here in this text. And remember, people, John is brought up into heaven for a purpose. Ken Gentry says this. He says, we must not forget the reason John is summoned into heaven. The righteous God of Israel is seated upon His throne and is about to judge Israel according to the standards of His holy law. And remember, God's law, His holy law holds forth two prospects for Israel, either blessing or curse. Blessing or cursing, one or the other. Well, what determines whether it's blessing or it's curse? Well, what determines it? Her response to God's law. It's Deuteronomy 11, where God says, see, I'm setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse if you do not obey the commandment of the Lord your God. What we see in Revelation is that God's judgment crashes down on evildoers on the earth, and particularly first century Israel, which rejected her Messiah, put him to death, and then persecuted those who followed him, the church. In the beginning of this message, I said that we would see here in these verses the glory and majesty of God. And certainly that is what John is trying to describe in these colors. He's not describing a form, but he's describing the glory of God. But I said we would also see a reminder to each one of us of the judgment that awaits us if we do not repent and turn to Christ. The remainder of this book is going to be God bringing down His judgment on His enemies in the first century. Remember Deuteronomy chapter 11 that I read earlier? God said to Israel, see, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse. The blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and the curse if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord, your God. Do you remember during the pastoral prayer, after you all confessed your sins? Do you remember when I prayed, I said, God, we know we deserve to fall under the curse of this law, which we have not kept. We haven't obeyed. We deserve his curse, don't we? And that's what God said would happen to those who break his law, curse. And that is all of us. We all deserve his wrath, but there's good news. And we see that good news right here in Revelation chapter 4. I want you to look ahead. We'll be there next week, but look ahead to verse 9. Verse 9 says this, And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever. They give thanks to Him. Why? Why do they give thanks? Because he is a God who redeems. And that is good news. And that good news is actually seen in the Nuremberg trial that I mentioned in the beginning. To me, as far as I'm concerned, there were two main Nazis that stood out from all the rest, Adolf Eichmann, whom I'm sure many of you are familiar with that name, but also another one named Reinhard Heydrich. Who's Reinhard Heydrich? Well, he was the one who was authorized to implement the complete solution, what we now today call the final solution, the complete solution to the Jewish problem. The plan to systematically murder the Jews was actually nicknamed Operation Reinhard. after this guy, because he's the one who conceived of the idea of exterminating the Jews in gas chambers and so forth. He is the one who established three killing centers. First three killing centers, Belzec, Sobidor, and Treblinka. And you know, if you arrive at Treblinka when it was first constructed, you arrive there as a Jew, immediately after you get off the train, you go straight to the gas chamber. There's no tattooing. There's no, you know, huts with wooden bunks. There's no houses. It's just straight to death. The reason I mention him is Hitler, Adolf Hitler. Ever hear him? He had a nickname for that guy, Reinhard Heydrich. You know what the nickname was? The man with the iron heart. Now, people went, Hitler? Man, this guy's such a bad dude. He's just heartless. He has an iron heart. When Hitler says that about you, you're a pretty bad guy. But you know what about Reinhard Heydrich? He was very loving to his parents. He had four kids that he doted over. He was a loving father. He was loving to his friends. But his iron heart was toward the Jews. He had no love for them. But people, that's you and me, isn't it? By nature, we have hearts of stone, the Bible says. Not toward our friends, not toward our families. We might be very loving and everything with our friends and our families, but our hearts of stone are toward God. By nature, we hate Him. By nature, we want nothing to do with Him. But in absolute grace, God has taken our hearts of stone and given us hearts of flesh. The other person is Adolf Eichmann. After the war, well aware of the horrible things he did, he fled with his family to Argentina, changed his name to Ricardo something, I forget what the last name is, but changed his name, and he actually managed to hide for five years before Jewish authorities captured him, brought him back to Israel to stand trial. And at his trial, he said this, I have already resigned myself to my fate. In other words, you do. I'm guilty. I have no defense. There's nothing I can say in my defense about what I have done. And he knew his only hope was for mercy. And he didn't receive any mercy. He received instead justice. And he was sentenced to death, and he was executed June 1st, 1962. If that court said, oh, OK, never mind. That's all right, Adolph. Never mind. You're free to go. We'll just forget the whole thing happened. Nothing we can do about it now. Well, that wouldn't have been just, would it? Justice demanded this. And if God were simply to say to you and me, oh, never mind. Just forget about it. You know, all is good. Then he wouldn't be just. And so what he has done is given us his own son. Because men and women, we are like Adolf Eichmann. Our only hope is the mercy of God. And fortunately for us, God has been merciful and has supplied for us the only way. where we can be saved and where he at the same time remains just. And that is in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross, which we are now going to remember when we take this communion. Let's pray. Father in heaven, how grateful we are for your mercy in our lives. How grateful we are, Lord, for your goodness to us. Grateful that you supplied a way where You remain just where sin has been punished, and yet you're merciful and gracious to us. We thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ. We thank you that he has kept the law perfectly on our behalf. And we thank you that when you brought your wrath down on him, sin has been punished and you are just. Lord, how grateful we are for this salvation. We pray, Lord, that indeed we will remember what Jesus Christ has accomplished for us. And Lord, we thank you. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.