Revelation 4 // Sea of Glass

all right we're in revelation 4 we'll finish that up this evening for sure because there's only a couple verses left and we'll get into revelation 5 maybe maybe finish that up too so revelation 4 and let's let's just read through it it's only 11 verses and just to get your head back in it we haven't we haven't been here for a couple of weeks because of Easter revelation 4:1 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 a sardine stone in appearance and there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald around the throne were twenty-four Thrones and on the thrones i saw twenty-four elders sitting clothed in white robes and they had crowns of gold on their heads and from the throne proceeded lightnings 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 around and 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 twenty-four 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 and let's pray and let's get into it and again Lord we're we're going through a passage that speaks about your throne room speaks about things that we're going to be seeing many many times Lord as we're going through this and I even do this we go through and we look at the types and we look at the symbols and we look at what what's being pictured here Lord but uh I think that a lot of times we can we can overlook the fact that this is something that we're gonna be seeing we're gonna be there we're gonna be standing before your face we're gonna see the light that comes from that throne we're gonna see the colors that are described here we're gonna hear the roarings we're gonna hear the thunderings we're gonna hear the Lightning's we're gonna hear the sound of voices we're gonna see the the four angels that are crying out holy holy holy Lord God Almighty we're gonna we're gonna be there Lord and so as we go through and we finish this up talk about it Lord we just pray that you give us a real vision of what we're about to take plot to take place in our lives when you come to to take us back and so we just give you them give you the evening pray that you would bless the study and that you do this all in Jesus name Amen all right we've already hit on a lot of this stuff I just like the first verse a lot after these things he looked and behold a door standing open in heaven and there's a voice saying come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this I think that's a great description of what the rapture the church is like there's gonna be a time when God opens heaven and there's gonna be a door there Jesus is coming down through it and we meet him in the air is what the Bible says we're gonna be hearing those things come up here and we'll be going home to be with the Lord then at that point John is in the presence of God and again I'm just gonna go over this really quick he sees the throne of God and when God is described in this in this language in this passage he's not described as a man there are places where he is in the Book of Daniel he's pictured as a man with white hair in the Book of Daniel but in this passage New Testament passage speaking about the throne of God he's pictured as light and the light that's coming out from the throne of God is white and red clear white and it's red and also red the white would represent purity the red would present the blood it's also those are also the stones when it talks about a Jasper stone and when it talks about a sardius stone those are also the the stones that are the first and the last in the high priests breastplate one represented Reuben behold a son is what Reuben means and the other one represented Benjamin which means the son of my right hand was the first and last son of of Jacob and so you remember the high priest had a breastplate that was on his chest and had these different stones on it and each stone had one of the names of the tribes of Israel written on it mmm Jesus is our great High Priest and so the high priest represented Jesus the stones that were on the breastplate represent the people of Israel the fact that they're close to the high priests heart represents the fact that God loves his people and has them close to his heart the fact that the names are written on it represent the fact that God knows our names God knows our names and that's all an Old Testament speak so to speak it's all Old Testament symbology but it's something that crosses over to the New Testament because as we were going through the letters to the churches Jesus talked about the fact that he was going to give us a new name that only he knew and he obviously knows our name now and you have the rainbow that's around the throne and emerald is what it says it's a rainbow that looks like emerald which is obviously green and that was the stone for Judah which means praise and so now we've got three stones that are represented there it's a Jasper and a sardine and an emerald and if you take them from the names of the tribes of Israel that each stone represented that that meaning is behold the son the son of my right hand and praise that's a great picture of what God wants us to do with Jesus behold the son he's the son of my right hand praise Him that's just awesome and then you have the twenty-four elders and we talked about the fact that the twenty-four elders represent priests yet 24 courses prease it's the only place where you have 24 in the bible besides this place and it's in second chronicles chapter 24 or first chronicles chapter 24 excuse me talks about the 24 courses of the priesthood a Jew reading this book when he saw 24 elders would go that's the courses of the priesthood those are the elders of the families of the priesthood and when you had the 24 elders collected together you had the whole priesthood represented there sitting on Thrones and they're given crowns you sit on the throne you're a king and the Bible says that talks about the fact that God has made us kings and priests in fact these guys in the next chapter sing a song talking about how God made them kings and priests right there's only one group of people in the Bible that are called kings of priests and that's the church so that's a great representation of the church 24 elders would represent the whole church standing before the throne of God seated on Thrones and you'll remember as we were going through the letters to the churches Jesus talked about the fact that you if you follow him that he'll give you a throne that will be seated with him and again you have that picture these guys show up again all the way through the book of Revelation and then you see Thrones placed on the earth in Revelation chapter 20 after the second coming of Christ picturing the fact that the church is ruling and reigning with Christ on the earth after after Jesus comes back and I'm going through this real quick because you know we already dealt with this in detail and I don't want to spend a lot of time on it but you know it's worth going over it also talks about the seven spirits of God in verse five seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne and you'll remember that in the tabernacle all these things come out of the tabernacle you remember that in the tabernacle there was a seven-branch candlestick it's called a menorah and that seven-branch candlestick we represented a number of things it's it's gold it was fine gold beaten out of one talent of gold and it was beaten not molded and that's really interesting stuff because gold represents deity and what you're doing is you're beat in the deity they're beating the deity so when was God ever beaten and that's that's that's a picture again of Jesus Jesus is the light of the world and we talked about the seven spirits of God and the fact that that's most likely speaking about the seventh fold ministry of Christ under the power of the Holy Spirit and you know talked about verses that go along with that then you have the sea of crisp the sea of glass like crystal and it says verse six before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal in the midst of the throne and around the throne were four living creatures so the sea of glass it's another thing that comes with straight out of the tabernacle you got that picture of the tabernacle there see this is this is what's called the bronze Laver and a laborer is just a sink it's just a wash basin and it was that's a that's a picture of the tabernacle courtyard itself and it was sitting right in front of the tabernacle itself and it represents the Word of God when you're going into the tabernacle this but this on the bottom right here this right here that's a that's a gate and that gate is made out of linen it's all white linen all the way around the the tabernacle but that gate is made of linen and you can't see it but there are cherubim on that and these are the angels that we're talking about in this passage that's made out of linen and purple and blue and scarlet thread and every one of those colors represents an aspect of the ministry and the work of Jesus white represents his purity blue represents the fact that he came down from heaven the color of the sky purple represents his kingship what scarlet represent his blood you know where they get the dye for scarlet in the Old Testament it's a worm they have this worm that they would dry they would kill it they would dry it and then they would crush it and when they crushed it they would mix it with with liquid and they would make this dye that they colored things scarlet with and it's specifically the term that is used in Psalm 22 when Jesus in that passage typically in that passage in Psalm 22 it's a it's a it's a it's a picture of the crucifixion a thousand years before the crucifixion took place and in that passage it talks about the fact that Jesus says behold I'm a worm and no man and that's the term that's used it's that worm that was crushed to get the scarlet for the dying of the of the of the curtains and also of the tent that you have in the tabernacle so everything in the tabernacle is something that represents Christ and that is just rightly so because the Bible says that when Moses was put in a tabernacle tabernacle together he was putting it together after Mott it was a model of things found in heaven and so here we are going through the book that's describing some of the things that you have in the throne room of God and we have things that correspond to what's going on in the tabernacle so then you have the gate and obviously Jesus is the door Jesus is the gate Jesus is the way he's the way in and when you get in the first thing that you see is the altar of burnt-offering and that represents the sacrifice of Christ that's where you would put the sacrifices the next thing that you see is the bronze Laver and the Bible talks about the fact that we are washed with the water of the word it's a representation of the of the washing of the water of the word and so before a priest can minister to God in the tabernacle he has to offer a sacrifice and he has to be washed and it's exactly the same thing with us before we can minister to the Lord we have to be we have to have a sacrifice which is Jesus himself and we have to be washed with the water of his word I need to be constantly being conformed into Jesus's image I need to be transformed the Bible says by the renewing of my mind and the way I get my mind renewed is by paying attention to the Word of God psalm 119 is a great song to read about the effects of the word of God on a person's life and it's a it happens to be the longest sum in the Bible and so in the tabernacle you had the bronze Laver and it was called the bronze sea in Hebrew and when you get to the book of Revelation you have the glassy sea so now it's no longer it's no longer liquid now it's crystal it's not it back then it was something that was liquid now it's solid in the picture is you have the twenty-four elders standing on the glassy sea which would be standing on the Word of God that's kind of a cool picture right I like that it's the idea that the Word of God has been confirmed it's finally finished and now it's solid it's not something that's it's not it's it's it's not something that that flows it's something that has been hardened into into something that's never going to change and that's again what you have there then you have the four living creatures we talked about them last time and each one of those four living creatures they're they're angels and you have angels that are somewhat the same back in the Old Testament and in the book of the Ezekiel these angels are called cherubs and the plural of that is cherubim and I know that you know when I say the word cherub you think of little fat babies with little dinky wings that is not what a cherub was in the Bible cherub was was an angel that was pretty actually pretty radical and in Ezekiel's book when he's describing the cherubs they have four faces each one of them have four faces in this instance in Revelation 4 we have each creature with one face and it doesn't necessarily say that they don't have another face maybe maybe they're just facing one direction and this is what John's seeing but the four faces are represented here that represented on as something that's on each one of the angels in the Book of Ezekiel so I don't know if they're exactly the same angels or or if God's got a number of different styles of angels around the throne of God but when you're talking about the cherubs I mean you're talking about the cherubim these are angels of judgment and so when they were thrown out of the Garden of Eden it was a cherub that stood at the gate of the Garden of Eden with a flaming sword waving it you know one way in another you know all different directions so nobody could approach the Garden of Eden get to the Tree of Life and the reason for that is not because gods mean it's because man was fallen and God didn't want him to get to the Tree of Life and be cemented into the fallen state that Adam and Eve had ended up in because of their disobedience to God but it was a cherub that was the angel of judgment and you see these guys around the throne of God and they're again they're always connected with judgment they have eyes all over their bodies that's freaky and so we're gonna see that angels with eyes all over their bodies and again you got a picture that you know when I I'm I'm I'm really you know one of those guys who's visually oriented and when I think about these things I think about what it would look like to have an I shouldn't right here and looking at you moving around that kind of thing you know how you how you would say to your mom do you have eyes in the back of your head well you said that to a cherub he goes yeah I do you know turns around winks at you or something and so he's got they've got eyes all over them themselves and those eyes represent the all-seeing nature of God and one of the things that again that you have in every description of everything that you have in revelation 5 also in the tabernacle you each one of these descriptions is pointing to an aspect of the nature of Jesus and so Jesus is somebody who's omniscient he sees everything Jesus is is someone who is god that's gold represents godhood Jesus is a sacrifice Jesus is the son of God's right hand Jesus is the light of the world you know and Jesus's even the Word of God in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was God and so Jesus has even the Word of God and so all of these things are pointing to Jesus and each one of the aspects of these angels the four faces the lion represents the Lion of the tribe of Judah these all go with the four Gospels have you ever wondered why there's four Gospels there's really the reason there are four Gospels is because there are four witnesses of the nature of Jesus and so in Matthew's Gospel he's pointing to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah the Lion of the tribe of Judah and so you have that's the gospel that that most often is referring to verses out of the Old Testament that are talking about the coming of the Messiah and so that's Matthew's Gospel and that would correspond to the lion and then you have the second living creature the calf and the calf or the ox as a servant of man Mark's Gospel is about Jesus being a servant and it's Mark's Gospel you have genealogies in every other gospel so in Matthew's Gospel you have the genealogy of Jesus from the point of view of him being the King and so you have Joseph's genealogy where the legal right to the throne of David comes from but Joseph wasn't Jesus's actual father he was a foster father but he gets the legal right through Joseph when you get to Luke's Gospel it's different than than Matthew's Gospel still ends up with Joseph but there's some differences after David instead of going through Solomon who was the king of Israel after David it goes through Nathan one of David's other sons and it comes down again to Joseph's most likely what happened was Mary was an only child and when you had an only child and she got married you would adopt her husband and so most likely that's what's going on in Luke's Gospel that way at the the land that you gave stayed in the family and so that would make be Mary's genealogy and so you have the genealogy of Jesus from the physical line of Mary which is interesting and then you have John's Gospel and you're going Steve how what genealogy is in John's Gospel there's no genealogy and John's well yes there is it's the real genealogy and I already quoted from it when you're looking at Jesus he's not just a little baby who was born in Bethlehem he was God come down to earth and so in John's Gospel it starts off with the actual geology of Christ that in the beginning was the word and the Word was with the God and God was the word I'm giving you the literal translation of John chapter 1 verse 1 when you get to verse 14 it says and the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth and so that's the real genealogy of Jesus in Mark's Gospel there is no genealogy because Mark's Gospel is about Jesus being a servant and who cares where a servant comes from right and so again you you have this picture and so Mark's Gospel is represented again by the calf and by the and this angel represents the servanthood of Jesus you have the third one the man represents Christ humanity and in Luke's Gospel you have a phrase the Son of Man it's not confined to luke's gospel because Matthew's Gospel will do it well it will we'll use that phrase but most often that phrase is found in Luke's Gospel and it's in Luke's Gospel that you see the writer speaking the most about the humanity of Jesus were given intimate details by Mary about his birth about the genealogy and Luke that goes through the line of Mary all the way back to Adam cementing Jesus's human credentials that gospel pictures Jesus has tired as hungry as grieved in other words Jesus in his human condition and so the son of man again is the recurring reoccurring title of Christ in that gospel and finally the the last angel has a face of an eagle which again represents deity the one who came down from heaven that's where that's where Eagles hang in the heavens right and so that represents Jesus as deity and we've already hit on that a couple of different times the fact that the word became flesh and dwelt among us they have wings also six of them and that implies speed and along with that goes the idea of the speedy reactions that angels would have to the will of God you know Jesus when he gave us our prayer we usually call it the Lord's Prayer when he gave us our prayer he said let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven and the implication there is that God's will is done quickly in heaven speedily in heaven and so in the same way when we're praying that we're praying that God would make his will be done speedily on earth starting with me that I would be doing God's work will speedily wouldn't be putting it off and you to you praying that prayer that's what you're praying and that's exactly what the Angels do it's also a picture again pointing to the nature of Jesus and the fact that he did God's will and he did it again perfectly in John 5:30 said I can have myself do nothing as I hear I judge and my judgment is righteous because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who sent me and when you look at the the Ministry of Christ in the life of Christ that was what that's what he was into doing what the father wanted and it's a it's a great picture of righteousness and it's a great picture of what we should be doing in the same way we're to be doing the will of God and when I mean when I'm smack dab in the will of God things go really well for me and when I'm not smack dab in the will of God I can have some real problems it goes on and it says they do not rest day or night verse 8 saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come that's something that's straight out of Isaiah chapter 6 you have in that passage the seraphs they're called Seraphim in that passage it literally means burning ones and you know just as an aside did you know that the phrase burning one's the the the word the word Seraph literally means burning one and when you say Seraphim you're saying the burning ones it's literally what it means in Hebrew it is also the term that's used for the fiery serpents that bit the children of Israel and the wilderness so you read the term fiery serpents it doesn't say fiery serpents in Hebrew it says Seraphim in Hebrew which is weird that's really weird do you remember that story so the children of Israel or you know they disobeying God and so what God does is he sends fiery serpents into their midst and if they begin biting them and people begin dying and the people repent and it called Moses to save them you know to go to God to ask God for forgiveness and what does Moses do guys remember how the story goes anybody know what Moses does at that point yeah it takes it he takes and makes a copy of the snakes that bit them he makes a copy of the snakes out of bronze and he sticks it up on a pole and he tells everybody to look to the serpent hanging on the pole and if they'll look to the serpent hanging on the pole then they'll be healed that interesting so Jesus in John chapter 3 in fact let's let's go there John chapter 3 check this out a certain verse 13 he says no one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven that is the son of man who is in heaven and then look at verse 14 and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life and we're all familiar with John chapter 3 verse 16 for God so loved the world right we're all familiar with that but before Jesus ever gets to for God so loved the world he's talking about this thing in the Old Testament the Book of Numbers were there were there looking at a serpent hanging on a pole and you know and what Moses says is you need to look to the serpent and then you're going to be healed and in the same way Jesus takes that whole picture and he makes the point that whether where the world needs to be looking at is Jesus and he's going to be hanging on a pole hanging on a tree hanging on a cross just like the serpent did in the Old Testament and so Jesus compares himself to a snake out of the Old Testament in that interesting in in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21 it talks about the fact that he who knew no sin became sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in him and so that's a that's a pretty straightforward kind of picture there and so the thing that was killing those people was put up on the cross so to speak in the Old Testament so that they went when they look to that cross in the Old Testament they would be saved from the punishment of their sin and so it's a it's a picture of Jesus becoming sin but here's a here's another thing that's pretty wild about that that the seraphs in Isaiah 6 are called exactly the same thing that the Serpent's are called in the Book of Numbers so when they're on earth their fiery serpents so what are they when they are in heaven and there are serif and I wonder if they're fiery serpents on someone and it gives it gives a description of these guys and again they've got they've got wings and they've got feet mmm and that kind of thing but I'm wondering if there's some kind of serpentine quality to them and here's a wild thing about angels anyway you you realize that angels whether you're talking about these angels in Revelation chapter 4 or the cherubim in the Book of Ezekiel or the cherub in the book of Genesis or whether you're talking about Satan because he was the anointed cherub who covers is what the Bible says or whether you're talking about Michael or Gabriel all those guys were created the Bible says before the earth was formed and so in the Book of Ezekiel it talks about the fact that all the sons of God all the angels that's what that's speaking about shouted for joy when God laid the foundations of the earth so before the earth was ever even formed God had these angels well what kind of faces do the Angels have he made these guys before the earth was formed so what kind of faces do they have and it's a man face of a man they there are no men when God when God creates these guys there are no men he's got the face of an eagle there are no Eagles the Eagles I haven't been made the world hasn't been created yet and there are no cabs or oxen they're not there they don't exist yet there's no lions they don't exist yet and so literally when you're talking about lions and calves and Eagles and men they are pictured after things that God already had in heaven before he ever created anything specifically the faces of these animals here and I wonder if there's something serpentine about the seraphs which answers the question in Genesis chapter 3 what's Eve doing talking to the talking serpent and so I wonder if there's something going on there if Satan originally you know of you know when you're when you're talking about Satan he wasn't created wicked he was created perfect is what the Bible says he was the son of perfection and he was the most beautiful thing that God had ever created until sin was found until iniquity was found in him it says in the in the Book of Ezekiel and then God cast him out as as something that was polluted and so what Satan did was he polluted himself and so I don't think that that the the dragon in the Old Testament started off as being an evil thing the serpents didn't start off as being evil things we see that that as a result of the curse but it wouldn't have started off that way and so there's weird things going on in the Bible with angels and specifically with the Seraphim so just to throw that out at you and that interesting I would slow that up guys you know people come up and go you know so you believe in talking snakes that kind of stuff and then I start telling them what the Bible has to say about angels and you know serifs and stuff like that and they're like and I don't know I don't know how that works but it is really interesting that Jesus points to those two those dudes in any case they're crying out holy holy holy Lord God Almighty it says in verse eight one holy for each one of the members of the Trinity the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit when Holy One holy for each member of the Godhead that is something that's absolutely biblical that's out of the book of Colossians and when you're talking about the God of the Bible he exists in three persons the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit you don't confuse the person's Jesus is not the father Jesus prays to the Father the father talks to Jesus says you're my beloved son the Holy Spirit comes down in the form of death well while the father is talking and Jesus is getting baptized you don't confuse the person's but those three persons the Bible says are the one got there's one and only one God and each one of those dudes is called God and so that's where you get the doctrine of the Trinity it wasn't something that was made up in the fourth century it's something that you get straight out of Scripture you can't understand scripture unless you're doing that people go I don't understand that and I go I don't understand it either it's just what it says here's another thing I don't understand how does God know everything I don't understand that you realize God never learns now you might say that to your kid you never learn right and what you're saying is you're you're being a dummy stop it right but when you when we say God never learns God never learns because God already knows everything that there is to be known God never learns and so that's what it means to be omniscient to be all seen to know everything and then he's on the present how do you do that how do you be in every place at exactly the same time how do you be how do you be every place in exactly the same time in all of time because that's what we've got with God because when you go when you go to the very beginning and are K in the beginning when you go to the vet that's the Greek for that when you go to the very beginning God is there when you go to the very end God is there before time began God was there before the creation ever was God was there people bring up well what was God doing before you know before he created everything and you just said before if you've ever said that what was God doing before he created everything the answer is no there is no before before the creation because there is no time before the creation God is the only one who's timeless so how do you be timeless how does that work I have no idea but it's what the Bible says and you can go through every single one of the attributes of God how can God be loved all the time love all the time how do you do that and I certainly don't know I try to emulate that and I fail miserably right so any attribute that you can that that you can see that speaks of who God is we have no idea how those things work and what God has done is revealed himself to us he said this is what I am and then he and he lets us know and to go to the scripture and say well I think you're this and this but I don't go for this over here and I think you're that and that but these things over here I don't really what are you talking about that's just a dumb thing to do because it's all been revealed it's all from the other side of the spiritual realm nobody's been there you can't you can't figure that out on your own all that stuff has to be real revealed by God how to get to heaven we've been told how to get to heaven we didn't figure that out we've been told God goes there's away here it's kind of like he's giving you a map God is like Google Maps right he's showing you the way to heaven he's giving he's giving you the little blue line that gets you there and he says this is how you get to this place and nobody on this side has any clue about how to get to where God is the only one who has a clue on how to get where God is is God himself so salvations been revealed and so you go through everything that has to do with salvation and morality and who God is and what Heaven's like and what hell's like and all of this stuff you go through all that and it's not something that somebody just came up with it's something that's been revealed by God including his nature so I always use the illustration of writing too you know we used to well we do we do email now and so say say I'm emailing a pigmy in Africa and the pygmy in Africa has never seen a white guy right and so there he is pygmy in Africa pygmies in Africa are under 4 feet tall and so you know let's say say he's 3 foot 8 and he's got dark brown skin and he's going to have dark brown eyes and he's going to have black curly hair and that's you know and that's that's he's gonna look like his his facial features are gonna be a certain way and in that kind of thing and that's what a pygmy in Africa is gonna look like and so you got all got that pictured right and so say the pygmy in Africa has never seen a white guy and Here I am emailing him and he goes hey Steve you're a great guy you know we've had this back and forth and he knows me and I'm a good guy and he's a good guy we're good friends and that kind of stuff and goes Steve you're a good guy won't you tell me what you look like because he doesn't know what a picture is okay so pygmy in Africa right this is my story so I didn't know what a picture is and so he says describe yourself and I go as sick I'm six feet tall and when I had hair it was blond I had blond hair what's blond hair well it's kind of you know looks like straw and straight my hair was straight a little wave to it and used to have a little cowlick right here so so blonde hair little wavy have blue eyes and I have white skin right I can get a good tan in the summer but that's about it and that's what I am and then he writes back to me and says that's ridiculous that's not what human beings look like and he starts telling me that I can't have white skin I have to have dark brown skin and he starts telling me that nobody has blue eyes we only have brown eyes that's what a human being looks like and nobody has long straight hair nobody has wavy hair everybody has curly hair and it's black it's not the color of straw see what I mean and so he would be sitting there going by his experience of what I should look like and he would be absolutely wrong because what I'm doing is revealing my nature to him he doesn't know who I am until I tell him who I am it's exactly the same thing with God he's revealed his nature to us and you can either take his word for it you can say no I don't think that's right and how stupid are you gonna look see what I mean and that's where that's where you get the doctrine of the Trinity so again holy holy holy Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come in verse nine it says and whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne who lives forever and ever the twenty-four 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 and so these 24 elders hid their knees every time that the angels begin singing and they cast their crowns down when we were talking about crowns there are different crowns that are mentioned in the New Testament and in the Old Testament Franklin as being crowns that are given to believers and so the first one is a crown of life and that's given to anybody who overcomes in a trial who endures a trial so the crown of life is mentioned in James chapter 1 verse 12 and also in Revelation chapter 2 verse 10 how many of you have ever gone through a trial and you got through it and you did it in a godly way and you got victory over it how many of you have done that raise your hands it's more than that you're getting that crown is what the Bible says so you're not gonna be crowned like have you ever worried about that everybody else is getting a crown when they get to heaven I'm gonna have nothing so that's the that's the crown of life and you have a soul-winners crown of rejoicing and that's mission mentioned in Philippians chapter 4 verse 1 in 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 9 and also in Daniel chapter 12 in verse 3 so how many of you have led somebody to Jesus cuz you're him you get a soul-winners crown then it says the Bible talks about a crown of righteousness this is my favorite one crown of righteousness 2nd Timothy 4:8 Paul said that the crown what was waiting for him in heaven was a crown of righteousness and it was something that was also going to be given to everyone who loves the appearing of Jesus it's the idea of everyone who's looking forward to Christ coming back and wanting that to happen loves the appearing of Christ how many of you would like Jesus to come back right now right so you already got what is that three crowns right now and then you have the Shepherd's crown and the Shepherd's crown is one that's given four given two pastors it's called a crown of glory in first Peter five four and so there are a number of crowns that the Bible talks about and these are the crowns that these elders are wearing at the the word that's used for crown in this passage is stefanos it's Victor's crown it's something that you've got for an athletic competition and it's the same term that's used for the crown that God gives us a reward to believers who faithfully served him and those are the crowns that you're going to beginning what they do when ever the Angels start singing holy holy holy Lord God Almighty whenever they do that these guys hit their knees they take the crowns off their heads and they cast them at the feet of the throne again you see that in verse 10 they cast their crowns before the throne saying you were worthy Oh Lord you know why they do that because the Crown's aren't theirs the crowns are the Crown's are the Lord's because the only reason that I've ever let anybody to Jesus is because Jesus did a work in me and Jesus was doing the work in me as I was doing the leading the only reason I've ever endured a trial and come out on the other side in the right way is because Jesus was at work in me he was the one who was getting me through the trial he was the one who was giving me the endurance he was the one who was at work in my heart and you can the the same thing with loving the appearing of Christ we love him because he first loved us and you always see that in a believers life that things that we do as believers our responses to the fact that God has done something in us and when you are rewarded for the things that you're gonna get rewarded for you know when we go through the fire you know the talks about the your works going through the fire and everything that's wooden hay and stubble is gonna be burnt up and everything that's gold and silver and precious jewels is gonna remain the stuff that's not gonna burn up is the stuff that you've allowed God to do through you and so this is not a work strip we come into a relationship with Christ this is not a work strip when we give our lives to Jesus what we're supposed to be doing is going Jesus you got to do something with me it's why I came in the first place because I'm a messed up unit and so Jesus you have to do something in me you have to do something through me you have to make me like you and when you are praying that God is at work by His Holy Spirit doing things from the inside out and so you you are not sitting here making these things happen if you are they're not gonna last you can make that work for a little while and you can be disciplined and you can work hard and you can be you know self righteous instead of getting your righteousness from Lord you can be doing all that stuff and you get tired and it gets hard and you begin to fail and the reason that that's happening is because you're the one doing it jesus said my yoke is easy and my burden is light the idea of an easy yo cuz it's something that fits so yoke was designed for for both pulling and it was also designed for steering and it's the idea that that when God's yoke is on you it fits really well in fact that's what that's one of the things that carpenters made did you know that if you if you wanted to get a yoke for one of your for your oxen you had two oxen that we're gonna be usually going to be pulling something and the carpenter would come up and take measurements of the oxen because the yoke needed to fit the oxen and so the carpenter would carve this to fit the the specific oxen otherwise he started getting hot spots on their neck and they would they would start getting wood a blanket out you're walking along you get blisters it would start getting blisters and I would start chafing their neck and so you had to have a yoke that was easy that was fitted and that's what God does with us his yoke is easy and his burden is light and when when the yoke is hard and the burden is heavy the reason that's happening is because I'm doing it I need to stop it I need to begin resting in the Lord and ask him to do it through me and this is the cool thing about that when you ask God to do these things through you all of a sudden the work starts getting the way that the work is supposed to be you start looking the way that you're supposed to be looking you start doing the things that you're supposed to be doing and it's an awesome thing and Jesus is actually doing those things in you but when you stand before the Lord he's gonna go well done good and faithful servant and it's good to give you a reward for that but we're all gonna be stamps they're going I don't deserve it cuz you know I just showed up you know I wasn't doing a whole lot I just showed up and I just went God you got to do something with me and you did and that's why they're casting crowns before the throne of God because they don't consider them to be theirs they consider them to be the Lord's and that gonna be an awesome thing you're gonna have a crown on your head you might have a couple of crowns you're gonna have those things on your head and when when they start praising the Crown's get whipped off and you're just like throwing them at the feet of Jesus these are yours Lord they belong to you I'm looking forward to that looking forward to that and I really like that picture too because otherwise every single one of us you know there might have been a little bit of that as I was going through the list haven't you guys raised your hands how many of you led somebody the Lord how many of you loved the appearing of Christ and you're going oh there's one crown oh there's another well there's looking around did they all raise their hands am I getting one more crown than these other guys are getting and you know I'm that kind of that kind of thing and unless you're a pastor I got you all beat right but we're not gonna be going around up in heaven with all these crowns sitting on our head going that's not what's gonna be happening because we're all gonna know we're gonna know we're gonna be taking them off casting before the feet of Christ that by the way is where the band got their name casting Crowns so I think that's a good name I loved it when I heard that I've been crucified with Christ it's no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me so I'm me who's living anymore it's Jesus who's living in me fruit of the Spirit his love and joy and peace long-suffering kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control against such there is no law you do not live by law you live by the fruit of the Spirit and fruit is not works fruit is fruit there's no I I got fruit trees they do not grunt they do they do not groan I've gone out my orchard listened closely you know when the peaches come out they're not grunting grapes same thing that grapevine you know not doing any of that stuff no work going on there just abiding in the soil where they're planted they're bringing in the nutrients and as they do what plants do the fruit just comes out it's exactly the same thing with us we abide in the soil we abide you know we're supposed to be abiding in Christ actually Jesus pictured us as branches connected to the vine and if you're a branch connected to the vine you're not even pulling up the stuff out of the soil the vine is this is the one who's pulling the stuff out of the soil and he's pointing it in your direction and giving it to you and all you got to do is not move that's what branches do they just sit there and they don't move that's what abide means stop moving and so if you're having problems with your walk with God if you're having problems bearing fruit I can tell you without even having a sit-down with you I can tell you what you're doing you're moving stop moving stay where you were when you gave your life to Jesus and stop moving stop doing other things just stay in the place where where Christ is at and the fruits gonna come you know in that passage in Galatians 5 it's the works of the flesh and then it's the fruit of the Spirit and we don't want to be doing the works of the flesh we want to be doing the fruit of the Spirit last verse verse 11 it says that they 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 you know I don't like that translation especially the last part of that translation in the old King Jimmy it says and for your pleasure they are and were created I like that translation for your pleasure they are created and the reason I like that is because that tells me what I'm here for and what I'm here for is to please God I was made to please the Lord it's for his pleasure that I'm created and when I first read that I was like you know there's a couple passages in the Bible that really kind of tweaked me I would go through and and look at what it says in the Old Testament law and God saying I'm holy and and I want you to worship me you're not to have any other gods before me I'm the only one that you're to worship I'm a jealous God you know I had jealous girlfriends and they were crazy people yeah they they would stock you and that kind of stuff right and so God's a jealous God and that's what I'm thinking you know he's a guy who wants all my attention he wants all my focus and he wants it all on him because he's got some kind of you know I mean I didn't think that but I was like does he have some kind of self-esteem problem because all the girls that were jealous girlfriends had esteem self-esteem problems they were like well I don't really know tell me every single day and bring me gifts and you know pet my head and you know that kind of stuff and I would I just wasn't really good and so and so we would have problems and now you know now I got a God who's doing the same thing I got to come and pet his head because he's got a self-esteem problem is that what's going on with him that's not what's going on with him when the Bible says that God's a jealous God it's the idea of a marriage and so when I'm dating a girl she doesn't have any right to me there are some commitments there but she doesn't have exclusive rights to me when I marry her all of a sudden she does now it's exclusive it's absolutely exclusive and so it's supposed to be me and my wife and that's the way it's supposed to be and so if my wife was going off and hanging out with other guys I would be a jealous husband and I would come to her and I'd say that's not right I'm you you you made a promise to me that were exclusive and vice versa the same kind of thing if I was going around hanging out with other girls and you know I am going out tonight hon with all the girls you know that kind of thing not good things would not be good at home and my wife would be jealous and rightly so it's exactly the same thing in the relationship with God in the Old Testament God pictures himself as a husband and Israel as a wife and he says you're mine you belong to me you don't belong to anybody else you belong to me and I belong to you I'm My Beloved's and he is mine his banner over me is love out of the Song of Solomon right and you have the same thing in the New Testament Jesus is pictured as the bridegroom and where the bride we are betrothed to Christ we're in that kind of relationship and he's jealous over you and the Bible specifically says that about Jesus that he's jealous over you you were his and here's here again is why because God created me to have a relationship with him God is love and love always has to have an object now he doesn't need me as the object he's got the son as the object he's got the Holy Spirit as the object the Holy Spirit's got the father as the object in the son the son has the father and the Holy Spirit as the object of love God's okay all by himself right but when he creates mankind when he creates us he creates us for a love relationship with him and that what that means is that I was made to be in love with Jesus I was made to be in love with the Father I was made to be in love with God that's what I was made for and God loves me and so if I'm not doing the things that I made for then problems start taking place and I always my my illustration for this is a lawn mower blowing snow yeah you can take a lawn mower you could go out and blow snow with it next next year and so you know all lawn mowers nowadays are power mowers back when I was a kid I did a push mower and I don't think that that would work very well as snow but power mowers you can make a power mower blow snow in fact some the last time I taught it that I use this illustration somebody sent somebody sent me a picture of a guy in Wisconsin or something who went out there's about two inches of snow on his front yard went out with the lawn mower and was blowing the snow off his lawn with the lawn mower well you do that a couple of seasons and it'll probably work and it was working but what's gonna happen is you're gonna wreck the lawn mower because that's not what it's made for it's made to cut grass not blow snow right and I was made to love Jesus not love the world not love people above God not love my girlfriend of love above God if I'm single or my boyfriend if I'm a girl on I'm single I realize I mean Washington State I'm supposed to love God more than anyone more than my children more than my mom more than my dad I supposed to love him first and if I love him first then I am within the design parameters and if I don't then I'm messed up and what's gonna happen is I'm gonna break and that's what's happening with people's lives you know Jesus said if you love being do what I say and that's not unreasonable that's what my wife says to me if you love me do what I say if you love me will you put the clothes in the clothes hamper if you love me will you not leave your shoes all or the floor if you love me well you will you rinse out your dishes maybe even put them in the dishwasher if you love me will you feed the dogs every once in a while you know if you love me she wants me to do things for her because I love her right it's not unreasonable for God to say if you love me do the things that I ask you to God loves me and he does things that I asked him to he's never gonna do things that are gonna destroy me but if I'm if I'm asking something that is good and that's that's desirable for me and something that he can look at and go that is good he will do those things for me the Bible is clear on this issue and so God loves me he does what I ask I love him I do what he asks and that's again the way that it's supposed to go and when it's not going that way you break that's what happens you break that's the point of that passage chapter five will happen next week because I just looked at the clock in that good stuff yeah I can't wait to stand in the throne room of God and start casting Crowns I can't wait take the stuff that's off my head you know I've always been embarrassed by by that by that kind of stuff and when when people you know applaud me or you know talk about what I've done and give me strokes and and that kind of thing you know when I when I was in sports I wasn't embarrassed you know but when I'm doing something for the Lord I'm embarrassed I'm figuring that when I stand before Jesus I know that I'm going to be perfected and so you know some of the flaws and my character gonna be gone and so maybe I won't have a problem with this but I just get embarrassed about those things but taking crowns off my head and throw them at the feet of Jesus no embarrassment there that's exactly where they're gone I can't wait for the for the first lines of that song holy holy holy Lord God Almighty wasn't is is to come can't wait for the first refrain with that one's hit my knees off comes the crowns throwing them before the Lord it's gonna be good stuff you guys are going to be doing it with me right we're gonna be in the throne room of God can't can't wait there's a couple of songs in these two chapters you know you can read ahead in chapter 5 there's a song there too you need to read them you need to get used to them I don't know if there are overheads in heaven you know there's no screen you know I've never seen a screen mentioned and so it'd probably be good to have the songs memorized so when you get there you're not going blog or melon watermelon you know that kind of thing anyway praise Allah let's pray thanks again Jesus for your word thank you for chapter 4 thank you for the throne room of God thank you for light thank you for roaring thank you for lightening thank you for the for the awesome awesome spectacle that's gonna be taking place thank you for men who are crowned and who are willing to hit their knees thank you for the fact that we're all going to be standing before you and doing exactly the same thing thank you for the work that you've done in our hearts and our lives Lord and thank you for the fact that we're going to be able to honor you with the things that you've given us and cast them before your feet love you Lord and again thank you for our lives and or just just we're looking forward to the time when we hear your voice we're looking forward to your appearing last year Lord bless these people we ask that you do this all in Jesus name

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 8,527

Rating: 4.7935486 out of 5

Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: zYrw0zW_ynQ

Length: 60min 25sec (3625 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2019