Renewing Our Confidence in the Lord

It's really a great delight to be with you here. And what brings us into town, of course, is the Southern Baptist Convention. And so be in prayer for that. Lots of decisions have to be made. Keeping that Motley crew together is a task.

We're trying to do our part at Southern Seminary, but even keeping that institution together is always a challenge too. So we do appreciate your prayers that be faithful in the ministry that God has called us to. So I invite you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation, the book of Revelation, 4 and 5. So as I saw that Pastor Casey was preaching through Hebrews, I said, oh, rats, I can't. I can't. As David said, pick whatever you like.

Go-to book, my most favorite book in the whole Bible.

This is a sort of Spurgeon speak. If you know Spurgeon, he says every verse is the most important.

Can't be every verse then, can it? But yeah, my go-to book would be Hebrew, so what a privilege it is for you to be studying that, the greatness of Christ, and the glory of his work.

But if he's doing that, then I thought, well, let's go to Revelation 4 and 5 to see the greatness of our God, the Lord, who is on the throne, and the Lamb. And that's why I've entitled this, "Renewing our Confidence in the Lord, in the One Who Sits in the Throne, and to the Lamb." Both of these, this vision here in 4 and 5, which is so crucial in the book, is one vision. So we're gonna look at it. You're probably used to maybe taking smaller sections, but we have to keep this in mind because you've gotta have it all there, right? And see the glorious vision of our God on the throne and the Lamb of God. A subtitle of this would be, "How Big Is Your God?"

How big is your God? That's the question before us this morning and Revelation 4 and 5 will help us renew our confidence in God and challenge us to bring our thought into conformity with Scripture.

As we saw in the Sunday School class, there's a lot of Jesuses running around.

But the Jesus of the Bible is the only Jesus.

And we can expand that out to the Triune God. The only God of the Bible is,

the only God there is is the God of the Bible. And this God must be our God. And the one who sits on the throne of the Lamb must be ours, right? My prayer for the convention this week is that we would have a big view of God. That's what we need. Let's pray and then we'll introduce the subject and then turn to this wonderful portion of Scripture. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, be with us as we look at your word. Thank you for not leaving us in the dark,

leaving us to our own imaginations, but clearly revealing yourself to us in this culminating vision of Scripture,

which really brings together your glory, your majesty, your authority, your holiness, your sovereignty, that is through the entirety of Scripture from Genesis 1.1 all the way to the book of Revelation and bringing the glory of the Lord Jesus at the center of it all, that he is the one who can open the scroll. He is the one who can bring about your own sovereign purposes. He is the one who is judge and savior simultaneously.

May we enlarge our vision of you according to your word.

May we think big thoughts.

We live in challenging times, both in our nation and in the world, but also more close to home in the church and churches of this nation, let alone around the world, but that this nation are all over the map. And what is needed here at Bula Baptist and what's needed in every church is that we have the right understanding of you, that we would live that out in our daily lives, that at the center of that would be the glory of the Lord Jesus. So help us to this end. May we rejoice in this vision of yourself. May it transform us even this week as we seek to live for you. And we ask this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Now, years ago, 19 was at 52,

J.B. Phillips. I don't know if you remember J.B. Phillips, most of you obviously don't, but he was sort of the forerunner of

Eugene Peterson. Eugene Peterson wrote the message, sort of that paraphrase of the Bible. And the first one to do that, or at least similar to that was J.B. Phillips, a British Anglican minister who translated the Bible or paraphrased it, and then also wrote a book in 1952 called "Your God is Too Small." That's where we're picking up "How Big Is Your God?" Sort of that title of J.B. Phillips. Now, he looked around at the church at his day. So this is 1952, a little while ago. And he was concerned. He was concerned that our view of God had grown small, that in his Anglican church, and this would apply to other churches as well, that we had wrong conceptions of him. He went through chapter after chapter seeking to say, "No, this is not who God is. This is the God of scripture. He is the God who's creator and transcendent and Lord." And he realized that unless we have a proper view of God,

everything else goes awry.

If you don't have a proper view of God, then obviously we lose the truths of God's word at the center of all theology, center of the Christian worldview is the doctrine of God. So who is God? Well, if you get him wrong, you're gonna get yourself wrong. You're gonna get what this world is all about wrong. You're gonna get the gospel wrong. You're gonna get Christ wrong. And of course, Philip's book wasn't perfect, but he did put his finger on the issue of his day. And I don't think it's changed in our day,

is that our small views of God will lead to spiritual impoverishment. Small views of God will ultimately lead the churches to adopt all kinds of views that they shouldn't be adopting. We will not carry out the ministry that God has called us to unless we rightly see him for who he is and have that before us. Now, 20 years later, 21 years later, J.I. Packer wrote similar book that was challenging the church in his day, 1973, this sort of classic, "Knowing God," and then it's been published over and over again. It was the same thing, the introductory chapter to that, "Unless you think rightly about God, "you will not think big thoughts of God, "you will not do things great for God, "the churches will flounder, "and I dare say nothing, as I said, changed." So these are many, many years later. We face the same challenges in our day. We mentioned this morning some of the false teaching regarding Christ in our so-called evangelical churches. We're seeing this in Southern Baptist conventions, people all over the map in terms of what churches are, preaching what they're teaching. And the remedy is to go back to scripture, to bring our thoughts into conformity to the word of God, and especially on the doctrine of God. Well, where can we go? Well, you could go the whole Bible, but we're gonna go, as we said, to Revelation 4 and 5, because this is one of the great culminating visions that pulls together both Old and New Testament, that gives to us the glory of the one who sits on the throne and to the lamb, right? Now, the spirit is mentioned sort of indirectly, depending on how you interpret these seven spirits. So it could be a reference to the Holy Spirit, but the main focus here is on Father, the Son, the triune God, but the Father, Son, the one who sits on the throne, and then the great drama that occurs in heaven regarding Christ, regarding the Lamb of God, who takes the scroll. Now, we're gonna see this vision together, because it is one vision.

And sometimes in scripture, right, as you preach it and teach it, you can fragment it too much sometimes, right? It's important to see here, this is one section, one literary unit, it's to be brought before your whole mind's eye. So we're gonna do that. Chapter four will be where we spend sort of most of our time as we lay out how it presents to us the vision of the Lord God on his throne. But it will become, I'm gonna suggest the setting, the backdrop to this drama that unfolds in heaven. So four, John will be brought up into heaven. He will see the throne of God and see someone sitting on it. And then he gives a description of him.

Then chapter five immediately moves to a challenge and a great drama that unfolds. And then we see it. So chapter four, I'm gonna suggest is not only giving us a whole theology of who God is, a picture of who God is, but also it will set the backdrop, the setting to this drama. You've gotta have chapter four in place to understand the challenge and what's going on there in chapter five, centered in Christ. And then chapter five will present to us the Lamb of God, the glorious Redeemer, our Lord Jesus, and that he alone brings about God's sovereign purposes and judgment and salvation. So it highlights his utter uniqueness, his exclusivity, his sufficiency. So together, you see the Lord and the Lamb. Now the context to this is chapter one to three, obviously. And John, John is the author of this apocalypse, this book. And John is on the Isle of Patmos as an exile, the exile for Christ's sake. He's there on the Lord's day and the risen and glorified Christ appears to him in chapter one.

Justic presentation of Christ. Then in chapter two and three, letters are given to the seven churches in Asia Minor. And I take these to be historic churches that existed. And this would have been then passed on to them. And this book is to encourage them, is to strengthen them, is to warn them, is to challenge them. In these seven letters, you have Christ's assessment of these churches. It's a great place to go. We often talk about healthy churches. Well, if you wanna know what a healthy church is, what the Lord thinks a healthy church is, Revelation two and three is a great place to go. What pleases the Lord, do you find in these two chapters? And what displeases him? So obviously we want our churches to conform to what pleases him. Wonderful place to go. But he then gives these letters to these seven churches. And after that is done, right? John is brought into heaven. He's caught up in vision. So does he get transported actually into heaven or is this more vision? It's probably vision, it could go either way. But he then is allowed to come up and see the Lord on his throne, the one who is above all of the rulers of the earth, the one who's above the Caesars and the rulers of Rome and so on. And he then now sees God on his throne. That's where chapter four then opens up. Now we're gonna approach this by looking at chapter four in terms of the Lord on the throne.

And we're gonna look at this in terms of various plot movements. That's the first plot movement of this drama. The second step we'll get to just in a moment will be then in chapter five verse one, where we're in the beginning of a drama, we're introduced to this scroll that is in the right hand of the Lord who sits on the throne.

And then in the third plot movement will be in verses two through four of chapter five, which a mighty angel will issue a challenge to the entire world, the entire universe. And then we will be introduced lastly to the Lamb of God in verses five and following who then answers the challenge. And that's how this will unfold for us. So let's look at chapter four. We said most of the time will be spent here just sort of unpacking the Lord on the throne. And its significance you remember, I do think is it sets the backdrop. It sets the setting to what then unfolds in chapter five. Now in chapter four, we see this majestic, glorious,

earth-shaking description of God that's parallel to other descriptions of God that we see in scripture. And in verse one of chapter four, the means by which John is able to see this vision is in chapter, in verse one. After this, after all this transpired in chapters one through three, after this I looked. And there before me was a door standing open in heaven. So this is the means in this kind of literature where he's then caught up into a visionary form to see what's above the earth, what's in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. And of course, after this drama unfolds in chapter five, then you have the rest of the book unfold in terms of the breaking of the seals and so on. So he says, come on up here and let me show you what will then take place. So this is the way that John gets up into heaven. And then in verse two, it says, at once I was in the spirit and there before me was a throne in heaven. So he's come up into heaven. He sees a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it.

Now the question that we're gonna ask here is what does he see? What is his description? How does he describe this one sitting on throne? And there's a number of ways that it is described. I'm gonna pick up four ways that John describes the God who sits on the throne. So he comes up, sees a throne, someone sitting on it. What does he look like? Well, the first thing that we should note in verses two and three of his description is that ironically, not surprisingly, but ironically, the one he sees in the throne cannot be described.

That's the first thing to note in verses two and three. At once I was in the spirit, there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And he says here, the one who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, a rainbow resembling an emerald encircled the throne. That's an interesting description, isn't it?

Actually, it's not a description at all, is it? He sees the throne, someone sitting on it,

but he doesn't say, oh, so tall, so big, muscles are so big or large and so on.

The God that he sees there cannot be actually described in those kinds of terms and not surprisingly, God is a spirit.

God is immaterial. God cannot be described in idolatrous kind of fashion. He's not like the ones of the ancients who then cut down trees and make up idols and prop them up and bow down to him. This God who's on the throne isn't described in those kind of human terms. Instead, he's described in terms of precious gemstones. So it says here, he had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian. Now, what does that look like? He has an emerald rainbow is resembling an emerald surrounded the throne. I mean, the imagery here is he sees, as he looks at the throne, I take it to be sort of these precious gemstones, probably refracting light.

He sees one who in some sense is beyond description. Of course, that's the point. He's not like us. This is taught all the way through scripture, right? God is incomprehensible. God cannot be seen. God cannot be drawn with a picture. So what he does is that he describes the throne in terms of these precious gemstones, these shining lights. God is unapproachable in that sense. He is the God who is in a category all by himself. You cannot then take this and turn it into a picture. You can't then reduce him to some idol and put him in your hip pocket and carry him around. He is the God already, who is a God who's beyond description. Now that's what you see throughout all of the visions of God in scripture. It's quite common, isn't it? So when Moses meets with the Lord at the burning bush, right, doesn't see the Lord, he sees the burning bush, it doesn't get consumed. God says, take off your sandals, you're on holy ground to meet that theophany is not really seeing him, it's through the created means. Or in Exodus 19 and 20 at Mount Sinai, God is the one who is there, but he's not seen, but fires of smoke and billows and so on. You begin to see, and the author of Hebrews picks this up in Hebrews 12 and says, it was a frightened sight, right? You see in Isaiah six, when Isaiah comes into the temple, the year King Uzziah dies, comes into the temple to see the Lord, what does he see? Well, if you actually look at the description, all he sees is the hem of his garment.

He doesn't describe him in those kinds of idolatrous terms, you can't describe God. And of course, this description fits something similar or Ezekiel one through three, when Ezekiel looks at the God on the throne, he sees him through a mist.

And the point is, God is in a different category. God is a being who's not like us. And that's the first thing John recognizes. He is a God who is beyond description. But he goes on, as he then moves from this description of precious gemstones and emerald, he then goes to what surrounds the throne. So he immediately goes from sort of these unapproachable light to then that which surrounds the throne. So he's no longer describing the God on the throne, he's describing what's around it. What's around it? Well, he says surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones and seated on them were 24 elders. They were dressed in white and a crowns of gold on their heads. And then we'll come back to these obstacles or verse five and so on, and then go down through verse six, six B and the center around the throne were four living creatures. And they were covered with eyes in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion. The second was like an ox. The third was like the face like a man. The fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings covered with eyes all around, even under his wings day and night. They never stop saying, holy, holy, holy mighty who was, is, is to come.

So John, as he comes up,

can't actually describe the God on the throne.

And then he moves to what's around the throne.

And what's around the throne are 24 other thrones that have elders on them. And even closer to the throne are these four living creatures. Creatures who are unique in their own right. Now I take from this description, there's a lot of things we could focus on. I get to sort of the big picture in our mind. God is not only the God who is beyond description, but I'm going to take from these creatures surrounding the throne. The God in the throne is also the God who has absolute complete authority. So where are you getting authority from? Well, look at what's around the throne.

It's 24 elders, these 24 thrones. Thrones speak of some kind of authority. 24 elders, I take it, people have all kinds of interpretations of every element in the book of Revelation, but I take these elders to be angels, angelic beings.

In the center around the throne, these four living creatures, they seem to look like in the Old Testament, the seraphim, the cherubim. They have these elements of all creation that are given to us. The one is like a lion, the other one an ox, the third like a face, like a man, a flying eagle. This is almost like the sort of the way of describing these four living creatures in terms of they represent all of creations. Almost all of creation through them is bowing before God. But I take these to be mighty angels, angelic beings. In scripture, we have a description of angels, on ranks of angels. So we have seraphim, cherubim, high ranks of angels. We have other angels that do God's bidding. And what's unique about angels, they're not image bearers, but they are creatures who execute authority. They have dignity in their own right. They bring about God's purposes, right? They shut the mouths of lions. They free people from prison. They carry out and execute God's orders. That angel that went through Assyria, wiped out the Assyrian army in one fell swoop, right? They are creatures of power, of dignity, authority. Yeah, they're not image bearers, but they are creatures who are unique. Often when people come into contact with angels, they will often fall down, right? Now the angels will say, get up. John does that later on in the book in Revelation 19. He comes into contact with an angel, he falls down, the angel says, get up, worship God alone. But these creatures are creatures of dignity and authority.

Now where I'm getting the idea that if the throne of God is surrounded by these unique, powerful, awesome creatures,

then the point is, or the question you have to ask is, well, what must God then be like?

If he is surrounded by such high ranks of being, then he must even greater. That's the point. He must be the God who doesn't just have authority. He must be the God who has an absolute authority, absolute rule, absolute sovereignty. And of course, I think that's the point. Now, maybe get illustrated this way.

Now, some of you have picked up that I was raised in Canada. You're hearing my outs and abouts in this type of thing.

I've tried to shed myself of that over the years, but I still can't do it. My mother who's still alive, she says, don't you dare shed yourself of your Canadian heritage. And I say, I don't really care about Canadian heritage anymore. But anyway, I have that, you know that. But in Canada, we're still part of the British Commonwealth.

Good or for bad.

In the British Commonwealth, you still have the royal family.

Now, we won't talk about Charles.

We won't just leave him be. We'll go back to the old Queen Elizabeth. She at least had some dignity and rank to her, right? But if I were to go to Buckingham Palace in the day that Queen Elizabeth reigned,

I dare say that if I wanted to, you know, you take a plane to Heathrow and you go into London and you want to have tea with the Queen, you're not gonna be able to just simply hop in your Uber,

go to Buckingham Palace, walk right up to the door and say, I want tea with the Queen. Well, first you got those guards sitting there. They're not gonna let you go anywhere, right? No, you're not gonna do that, right? If you are going to have tea with the Queen, you have to be invited. You have to have some kind of position of authority, some kind of position of rank, right? Because she is the Queen. She has royalty, she has authority. Usually she only meets with people who have also a lot of authority, Prime Ministers and Cabinet members and so on. Well, that's the idea here. What surrounds the throne are not just lowly creatures.

What surrounds God's throne are creatures of uniqueness and of rank. And even as we saw, or we read in terms of their worship just in the moment, day and night, they never stopped saying, bowing down before him, holy, holy, holy. All of that John is seeing, he's saying, God on the throne is far greater than I can even imagine. I can't even describe him and look at these creatures. What? This is higher rank than any Caesar or any kind of leader of the land and so on. This is the God of heaven. And he has then highest authority.

It even stop here with application. Does the God that we serve and know, God we confess, is he the God of absolute authority?

The rubber meets the road when he has authority is do I follow his word? Do I obey it? Do I listen to what he says and put it into practice, right? Or do I simply try to reinterpret what he says? If he has all authority, then we listen to what he says. We submit ourselves to him.

But John continues. And of course, this gets picked up in these obstacles that he describes and this song of heaven that is given in terms of holy, holy. God is not only a God beyond description, a God of absolute authority, but he is the God of unapproachable holiness. Very much the text emphasizes the holiness of God. You see this in verses five through eight, particularly in further description, what surrounds the throne. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. So John, as he's describing the throne, right? Not only sees these four living creatures and these 24 other thrones and so on, but around the throne is a massive thunder and lightning storm.

So from the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing.

These are the seven spirits of God. Some people see this as a reference to the Holy Spirit. Also before the throne was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. Now here in this verse five, in the beginning of verse six, you read of all kinds of further obstacles between John and the throne. So you're to picture this as John comes up into heaven, he sees a throne, but you're not to give, there's nowhere does this give you the idea that when John comes up into heaven, if this pulpit here is the throne of God, that John's standing right there, and he's able to then sort of reach out his hand and say, "Hey God, how you doing today?"

Instead, the picture you're getting is that John comes up and what he sees is far, far away.

He sees God in a distance, not only in terms of stones, but all of these creatures and all of these creatures created distancing effect, don't they? He's not close to God, all of these creatures are. And then when you think of what else is around the throne, this massive thunder and lightning storm, well in the ancient world, we talk about atomic bombs, but in the ancient world, they talked about thunder and lightning storms, right? When you want to present something that pushes you back, recoils that has this awesomeness to it, you speak of it in terms of thunder and lightning and storms and so on, all of that surrounds the throne. And then you have these seven lamps and then particularly the sea of glass. The sea of glass imagery, the sea language imagery speaks of something that is sort of chaotic, that which distances God, John from the throne. So he is viewing God in this far off sense. What's the point?

Well, the point is that you can't approach the throne. The point. These creatures may be there, but John certainly not gonna go there. For him to get to the throne, he's gonna have to go through all of these elders, all of these thrones, all of these glass, he's gonna have to traverse the sea. He's gonna have to ultimately go through the storm. John is just simply far, far away. And of course that's the point. And of course that point is emphasized in the song of the four living creatures. Day and night, they never stop saying holy.

Holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is to come. What's emphasized here is the God and the throne is holy.

As you look at scripture, right? You have to become clear as to what holiness means.

Holiness is an attribute of God that is described, it's the only attribute that's described in what we call the superlative. That's why you have the three here. Some people will say holy, holy, holy in the sense of Trinitarian. That's no doubt true. But really I think the emphasis here in the three-ness of it, it's the superlative. It's the way that you say God supremely is holy. Nowhere do we have any other attribute described in this way. And that's why it's so crucial that holiness describes almost every other attribute of God. So when you speak of God's love, it's always a holy love.

When you speak of God's justice, it's always a holy justice. And that's what's being emphasized here. Now what's holiness? Now, often we think of holiness, we often define it sometimes as God is separate from us. Well, yes, that gets at it. But the angels here aren't just saying God is separate from us, separate, separate, separate, right? Holiness here is first way of describing God, I think as sheer God.

God is holy means that he is alone God. He alone is independent. He alone is self-sufficient. He needs nothing. He is God.

We describe God's independence in the theological term, "Aseity." God has life from himself. He has life from himself. He has knowledge from himself. He is the very standard even of what is right and good and true and just and so on. And that is conveyed in this notion of holiness. So first and foremost, God is sheer God. That's what this is getting at. So when John comes up into the throne, end up into heaven and he sees God, he sees God who is unlike anything else. You can't put him on a scale of being. Said in the Sunday school class in March, I was out in Provo, Utah with the Mormons. Well, they have a God on a scale of being. That's not the God of scripture. God is creator. God is in a category all by himself. God is holy. God is independent. God is self-sufficient. And if holiness also conveys the notion, a secondary notion to it, is that God then is as the very independent, self-sufficient one who's the standard of what is right and wrong. He is holy. He is pure. This is where we often convey a moral sense to this. We are to be holy like God is holy, right? We are to be devoted. We are to be set apart to him, but we are also to be pure. There's a sense of morality, a pureness, a holiness that is tied to this. And of course, this is what is being conveyed. And these four living creatures never stop saying, you alone are God. You are holy. We cannot approach you.

That's gonna be really, really important as the setting to the drama.

Because the great challenge, we're running ahead, but the great challenge of chapter five is, who can open the scroll and approach that God?

Who can come into his presence? Who can traverse all of the sea and the storm and the four living creatures and the 24 elders? Who can go into the very presence of God and pluck that scroll out of his hand?

Well, these angels don't.

No creature doesn't, because this God is holy, right? And that's so foundational to us, right? What have we lost in, I'll say it again, my own life, and our churches and so on? Well, we've lost a sense of the fear of God,

greatness of God, glory of God.

How do we do the things we do and say the things we do and play with scripture the way we do and so on without a sense of a fear of God? God is God of authority and is holy. I don't play with him. I submit to his word. I follow what he says. I fear him in a proper sense that I'm not just, you know, treating him as just the grandfather in the sky who just bends his will at my command. He doesn't bend his will for anyone.

He's true to himself. John Stott years ago, now John Stott wasn't perfect in everything, but he did write a good book on the cross of Christ. And this will tie into chapter five because it'll present us with the land. But he says here, he says that you'll never understand the gospel, you'll never understand the cross. You'll never understand the redeemer, the need for the redeemer, unless you first grasp that God is holy.

He says here, the kind of God, this is from his book on the cross of Christ, the kind of God who appeals to most people today. He says it's easy going in his tolerance of their offenses. He's gentle, kind, accommodating. We have no violent reactions. He's referring to Leviticus that speaks of God vomiting them out. And of course, Revelation three speaks of that, the church of Laodicea.

Unhappily, even in the church, we seem to have lost the vision of the holiness of God.

He says there's shallowness and levity among us. Prophets and psalmists would probably say of us, there's no fear of God before their eyes. In public worship, our habit is to slouch your squat. We don't kneel. We don't prostrate ourselves. It's more characteristic to clap our hands with joy than to blush with shame or tears. Saunter up to God to claim his patronage and friendship. It does not occur to us that he might send us away.

We need to hear again the apostle Peter sobering words, since we call on a father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives in reverent fear. In other words, if we dare to call God our judge, our father, we must beware of presuming on him. It must even be said that our evangelical emphasis on the cross, this is where he ties with the cross, is dangerous if, if the cross is, you can't get old, you can never ever emphasize the cross, can you? But it's dangerous if we come to it too quickly.

We learn to appreciate the access to God, which Christ has won for us, only as we have first seen God's inaccessibility to sinners. That's the point. God is the God of unapproachable holiness. In yourself, you can't come into his presence. You stand under judgment.

We cry, hallelujah, as God says, with authenticity, only after we have first cried with Isaiah, woe is me, I'm done. Oh, there's a lot of truth in that. And that's what John is picking up here, as he comes into heaven, sees God, right? This God is God of the universe. This God is not, he bent as his will. This God is all authority. This God is incomprehensible. This God is holy. And the last thing he picks up here in verses nine to 11 is this God is sovereign.

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor, thanks to him who sits in the throne and who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him, who sits in the throne and worship him, who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, and here's the song of heaven. They've already been singing, holy, holy, but all the lay down their crowns, you are worthy. Now remember that that's gonna show up in chapter five.

You have all worth. You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and power for you created all things. Why do you have all worth? Why do you receive all glory and power and honor? Cause you're the creator.

And by your will, they were created and have their being. Well, this runs all the way from the Old Testament. Genesis one, one, right? God, we owe him everything. He is worthy of our worship because he's not only the independent self sufficient God, but we owe him everything. He is the creator out of nothing. This is the great doctrine of creation, ex nihilo, out of nothing. He is the one by his will, calls all things into existence. Everything is sustained by his very power. He is the God of worth. That is what is being emphasized. Now that's what John sees.

He sees a God beyond description, a God who has all authority, a God who is unapproachable in holiness and a God who is unrivaled in sovereignty, rule and might. That is the backdrop. Now, apply this, well, ultimately is first, is this your God?

You're say in our, many of our circles, right? God is very small.

He doesn't have all authority. We don't listen to him.

We don't treat him as unapproachably holy. There's no fear of God before us, right?

We don't really think of him as the sovereign ruler. We're more trusting in men and all kinds of political leaders to solve our problem. You know, all of these things have been, have very, very practical implication, but this God is the God of the universe, right? This God is the God who we must then bring our thought and conformity to. But this leads to now the drama of heaven. And this now, I said the first area was longer. This area must faster in verse, terms of verse one, second plot movement. We read in verse one, then, then. So John sees this. Then I saw on the right hand of him who sat in the throne, a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. So obviously the scroll has, you have to understand what this scroll is. It's in the right hand of him who sits in the throne. Now I apologize for any of you who are left-handed, my dear wife's left-handed.

Nothing wrong with left-handed people, but right hand, right, speaks of authority and power, doesn't it, right? So it's just an imagery. So in the right hand, even God doesn't even have a hand, right? But ultimately it's the picture of clasp into his right hand. He has all authority. He is the sovereign one. He has this scroll. It has writing on both sides. So in the ancient world, when you put papyri together and scrolls together, type of thing, you didn't usually write on the backside of the scroll for a variety of reasons. So the very fact that it has writing on both sides means that it's full. You don't want to write on one side, have some leftover and put on a different scroll. You want to keep it all together. It's a fullness. So it's a fullness in this scroll and it's sealed with seven seals, seven speaks of, it's completely sealed, right? And of course the imagery here is, unless the seals are broken, of course that's what happens in the book, but unless the seals are broken, then what's in this scroll will not happen. That's the imagery. So in the right hand of him is the one who has this scroll and someone has to break these seals and open it in order for it to be enacted. Now what's the scroll? Well, from the whole book, this is basically God's plan for the universe. Pretty important scroll. So this is God's plan to bring about all of his purposes. So in this scroll is his plan to bring salvation to us. In this scroll is his plan to bring resurrection life. In this scroll is his plan to bring judgment upon sin, to balance the books, to put sin and death to an end, to bring final judgment. Everything is bound up in this scroll. All of God's promises, all of God's purposes, and the picture here is this is totally shut. And unless the scroll is open, then there will be no resurrection life. There will be no salvation. There will be no final judgment. There will be no justice in the end where God makes all things right.

That's what then moves to now this third plot movement in verse two, the challenge. So with this scroll in his hand, I saw a mighty angel in verse two, proclaiming in a loud voice. Now here goes a challenge. Who is worthy? That worthy, obviously I told you from 4.11.

Confession of God, you were worthy. Now the challenge is who has worth enough?

Who has rank enough? Who has attributes so full enough? Who has being enough who's worthy to break the scroll and open, to break the seals and open the scroll? And put in the context of chapter four, you can say it this way. This mighty angel, and it's a mighty angel because his voice goes into the entire universe, right? The challenge goes out to anyone. Who can go right into the presence of that God? Who can come into the presence of this God who's unapproachably holy, who's all authority? Who's gonna traverse all of those beings? Who has being and worth and value and attributes so enough? Who can do that?

And of course the answer in verse three, no one.

Now you've let that sink in, right? You know the end of the story. You have to pretend as if you're reading this for the first time or seeing it for the first time. John's seeing this. And the answer that comes in verse three is no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth, pretty comprehensive, could open the scroll or even peep inside it.

Now that means then if no one can open that scroll, then all of God's promises are for naught. All of God's purposes, all of God's salvation, all of God's judgment. I mean, this is ultimately for nothing.

And so this is the challenge, but no one can do so. Well, what about those four living creatures? They're pretty high rank.

What about those 24 elders? No.

What about some of the great figures from the Old Testament? Bring Moses back, bring Isaiah back, bring these things out of the picture. And the whole point is you let that sink in. No one has worth enough. No one has being enough. No one has holiness enough and authority enough and sovereignty enough to do this. And that's why in verse four, John's response is he's absolutely broken. I wept and wept. So the emphasis here, it's picking up this uncontrollable weeping. Closest you have to is a little child, falls down, hurts themselves. You've probably had that experience where they're not just sobbing. It's uncontrollable. You just have to sort of grab them and hold them until they stop shaking. I mean, this is the imagery here of John. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside it. He realizes he's part of the Old Testament people of God. I mean, he's part of the ones who knows with Ace of old.

If God doesn't fulfill his promises, then is God really good to his people?

This is the cry of the Old Testament saints. This is the cry of the Psalter, isn't it? How long, O Lord? Will you keep your promise? Will you reject us? Will you be the one who vindicates your name and defeats sin and evil and brings justice in the end? And John realizes that if no one can open the scroll,

none of that will occur. He's crying with the saints of old, isn't he?

But then we come to the fourth plot movement and we come to the Lamb in verse five. Then one of the elders, John is just simply uncontrollably crying, sitting there, turned himself, then one of the elders said to me, "Don't weep."

He says, "See the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has triumphed, he."

There's only one, but he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals. John, no one can do it, but there is one.

And of course the description of him is thoroughly messianic, isn't it? The lion of the tribe of Judah, this Genesis 49, and it's working in the Old Testament. The root of David, this is now the fulfillment of the great Davidic covenant. Here's the great Davidic king, here's Messiah, he can do so. And of course, as you put this in scripture, we'll see even the description here, this isn't just mere human king. This isn't just a mere Solomon, come back. This is the Davidic son, but the Davidic son who's also the Lord. See that even the description of him. And as he hears this, he hears of this lion, this kind of triumph, this victor, this king type of imagery here of the root of David. But when he turns to look,

he doesn't see a lion, he sees a lamb. Now he's a lion, but he's also the lamb. Now only book of Revelation can do this, right? You're not supposed to draw a picture of this where he's sort of half lion, half lamb, right? This is imagery that conveys that the one who can open the scroll is the king of kings, is the great Davidic son, but he is first and foremost, the king died, the king who suffered, the king who had to go to a cross in order to bring about salvation. Of course, that's the crucial message here, isn't it?

All the way through from Genesis 3.15 on, the great problem that you and I have is not the defeat of the powers, is not that we just need a greater enlightenment or something, what we need is we need a redeemer. We need a redeemer who will deal with the problem of sin and the human heart. We need one who will obey for us where Adam never obeyed. We need one who will stand on our behalf and perfectly obey God's law for us. He won who will then bear our sin. This is the promise of the new covenant, isn't it? The promise of the new covenant is that in the coming of a redeemer, the new covenant promise is not just forgive their sins, I'll remember them no more, the end of sin will come, justification will come. Then of course, you put it in the context of this God, how is it that I could be justified before a holy God? How can I approach his throne? I can't approach him on my own, but this one can. This one who is lamb, who has been one, who has given himself for me, and of course he is the king, who is the lamb, he is the priest, who is the king. Of course, as the description of him is given here, he stands in the center of the throne, that's crucial. He's not outside the throne. He doesn't come as sort of some third party out here, let me walk through all this. He comes right from the throne, which is another way of saying he's deity. He comes from the center of the throne, he's encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. He has seven horns and seven eyes, which obviously speaks of his uniqueness and his comprehensiveness of knowledge and so on. He has the seven spirits, the Bea reference to the Holy Spirit. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures, the 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each one at a harp, golden bowls of incense, this is the scribes of the saints. How long the Lord, how long the Lord, he done it.

And they sang a new song, right? So here he is, John sees this one, then goes right from the, comes from the center, takes that scroll. He has worth enough, authority enough, sovereignty enough, attributes enough to take that scroll and open it up as he was slain. And of course, the song of redemption is, you are worthy. Revelation 4.11, you are worthy our God because you are creator and Lord. Now here's one who is worthy because he is redeemer to take the scroll, to open its seals because you were slain and with your blood bought, you purchase. This is what we call substitution, but it's not just substitution. He paid a penalty, penal substitution. With your blood, you purchased us for God. From every tribe and language and people and nation, you made them to be a kingdom and priest to serve our God. They will reign on the earth, right? Here's the purchase of the church. Here is his accomplished work. His work accomplishes for us our eternal salvation. This is no kind of hypothetical payment. This is actually a payment that secures what it's achieved to do. And it brings about all of the fulfillment of God's purposes. And of course, when all of this song takes place, what's the response? I looked and heard the voice of many angels numbering thousands upon thousands, 10,000 times 10,000. They encircled the throne, the living creatures, the elders and a loud voice they sang,

worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. Then every creature in heaven and earth, under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them, singing, and of course now you combine four and five, to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb. They both sit on the throne.

He prays and honor and glory and power forever and ever.

Four living creatures said, amen. The elders fell down and worshiped. Here's the picture that John sees of heaven. And in this final vision of the book of Revelation, this is the whole Bible. This is the whole message of the Bible in a nutshell.

God, who's always always existed as the triune God, made us for himself. Sin has brought sin and death and judgment into this world. Promise of a redeemer, this redeemer comes. And only, only one who can save us is not just a mere human, is that. He is the Davidic son. He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He comes from David. All of that's true. He is the last Adam, but he is also the Lord. He is also the one on the center of the throne. He is true God. He is true man. He is the only one in this universe that can save us. Well, that's what we need to hear in a day. We mentioned this morning of 30 some percent of evangelicals in the state of theology poll says, God saves all religions.

I'm sorry he does not.

Saves only through Christ, only through this one. This one who is the son of God, who became flash. This is what, and what's crucial about this vision is the centrality of Christ at the center of the universe. Center of history, center of judgment, he alone is worthy of our worship and praise so that we praise the triune God in and through the son of God. That's why the final vision in Revelation 22, 21 and 22, when he comes again in new heavens and new earth, no temple in that place, the Lord and the lamb are the.

Well, in his presence forever singing his praises, enjoying the beauty of that new creation and soul, but all of that centered in him. Now, question is, is this your vision of the true and living God centered in Christ? How big is your view of God? Well, if this governs our thinking, it governs our lives, then we will think big thoughts of them.

We will do great things for him. We will see, I think in our church is a proper fear of him. We will not play with his word, right? Southern Baptist convention, I said my prayer this week is that we don't play around with God's word. We actually say, we hear we stand.

God is worthy, his word is true. We're gonna stand here and like Luther say, I think I can do nothing else. And this is what we need before us. This is what must motivate us even in the day where we don't know what the future holds. Our view has, our vision has to be set on him. You must not have confidence in men.

Confidence in political rulers. We want good rulers, we want people to rule, but in the end, they all fail. We ultimately need to look to the Lord and do mighty things for him. And to long for his appearing and busy about his work as we then carry out our daily lives. Well, this has to be your view of God because this is the only God there is.

And if you say, I don't have a clue about that view of God, I don't really have a God of authority and holiness and sovereignty. I don't really see the Lord Jesus for that. Then you need to come to him and ask, give me eyes to see and ears to hear, right? To come to faith in Jesus Christ, call upon him and he can change the rebel heart, sovereign to do so. You must then come and bow the knee to him. Now let's conclude in prayers. We give God thanks for this vision. Heavenly Father, thank you for this great portion that reminds us of your greatness, your glory, your holiness and supremely of the glory of the lamb. A lion who's the lamb, Lord Jesus. Oh, may we even this week reflect upon this vision. May it transform us. May we rightly think big thoughts about you. May we glory in the redeemer that is ours. May we be thankful that you have shown your grace to us by not leaving us to ourselves, but giving us a redeemer who alone can save. Oh, we thank you that there is a redeemer. And may we be the ones who seek to, in all that you call us to, to live for him and to serve him with heart, soul, mind and strength. We ask this in his name and for his sake.