Revelation: A Glimpse of Heaven's Throne Room | Revelation 4:1–11

I want to welcome you to the First Baptist Church of El Doredo Sermon Podcast.

My name is Taylor Guerin, the senior pastor here.

All throughout this fall, we're in a series through the Book of Revelation.

Certainly a book that can feel intimidating, certainly a book that at times can be misunderstood.

What we believe is that it is a book that is meant to be read by Christians and meant to provide great encouragement, both for the future but also for today.

I hope you are encouraged by the series this fall.

If there's anything we can do for you, specifically any way we can pray for you, don't hesitate to reach out.

Go to our website and click the Connect with Us page.

We'd love to hear from you.

Thank you so much for listening.

We'll see you soon.

Revelation chapter 4.

Revelation 4 · chapter mention

Let's read that together now.

I'll read that and you follow along.

Turning verse 1.

After this I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven.

And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, Come up here, and I will show you what must soon take place after this.

And once I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne.

And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald.

Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God.

Before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal, and around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures full of eyes on front and behind.

The first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature like the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight.

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.

They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

Amen.

Lord Jesus, would you speak now through your word, by your spirit?

We ask in Christ's name.

Amen.

Chapter 4, verse 1 again begins like this.

After this I looked.

And so we ask the question Well, after what?

After really the events we've seen unfold in the first three chapters.

We began in week one with uh somewhat chapter one of an introduction to Revelation of what would soon be taking place.

But we see this picture of the throne room of God.

We see the one uh described, at least, who's sitting on the throne.

We see the glory that surrounds him.

And then we see these letters to the seven churches.

We walked through four of them, but the postal route through Asia Minor, we saw these letters go out.

We were at times encouraged by these letters.

At more times we were greatly convicted by these letters.

We saw often a picture of ourselves within those letters.

But now we see this.

After this, after these letters, I looked, and behold, look, a door standing open in heaven.

And the first voice which I heard speaking to me like a trumpet.

Well, we know who this is.

This is Jesus, because in chapter one, verse nine, we saw Jesus' voice, that it is said in chapter one, sounded like a trumpet.

This voice comes and says, Come up here.

Now, first let's see, we're we're dealing with the elevated one, the high and lifted up one.

For John to come see this picture of the heavenly realm, what does he have to do?

He has to come up here.

I love this comical moment in Genesis chapter 11 at the Tower of Babel.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

And uh man and woman, they're trying to build their way up to the heavens.

They're trying to show just how impressive they are.

So they build this grand structure.

And then uh the Lord says, Let me go down to see what they're up to.

I love that picture.

They're building their tallest tower.

If we can just build this, we'll reach the heavens.

Won't we be impressive?

And then God says, Let me go down.

Basically, let me see if I can go down low enough to see what they're up to.

Well, here we see just the opposite.

That we are low and we have to come up.

Come up to the elevated place where the one is high and lifted up, and I will show you what must take place after this.

Oh I will show you what must soon take place.

Really, what we're dealing with is we could just call it the remainder of Revelation.

I will show you the things that are about to unfold.

Verse 2 says this at once I was in the Spirit, and behold, once again that word, behold, look.

A throne stood in heaven.

The throne is really a centerpiece of this chapter.

Really, I should say the one who sits on the throne is the centerpiece of this chapter, but the throne is mentioned eleven times in the chapter.

The throne, it says, it stood in heaven.

I love that phrase, it stood.

That means it is firmly established.

It does not move, it it does not move around.

The one who sits on the throne does not uh come in and out of office.

He doesn't have to be voted in.

He cannot be voted out, he has no term limit.

The throne stands in heaven, and here it is, with one seated on the throne.

Now, John is about to do his best, and he's not gonna do as well as he wishes he could, but he's gonna do his best to describe what's going on in this scene.

And this is something we've got to see throughout the remainder of Revelation.

That throughout Revelation, John is trying to describe the indescribable.

He's he's trying through the Spirit, and thankfully the Spirit is there to help him, he's trying to describe what he's seeing, and yet he's never seen anything close to this.

How do you describe that which is impossible to describe?

How do you describe, if I asked you today, describe something, but but but you can use no no colors from the Crayola box.

You've got to use colors that currently don't exist.

You're trying to describe something that that we don't have vocabulary for.

And so he's gonna do his best.

And verse three, we see this.

He who sat there on the throne had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, this really this opaque stone and this red stone, and really giving you just a vague description of uh the colors that radiated off is the most John can do to describe the one seated on the throne.

Now, he's gonna describe everything else, but as far as the one seated on the throne, that's all he can give you.

I can tell you a little bit about the colors that were radiating off of him, the beauty that existed there, and around them, the throne, around him, around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of Emerald.

This rainbow surrounded the throne, which fascinates me because the throne room is about to be a place over the next few chapters where rightfully so, judgment is brought forth from the one who is seated upon the throne, and yet in the midst of the judgment, rightfully so again, the judgment that comes from the one of the throne, surrounding the throne of judgment, is also a symbol of God's covenant promise.

Way back in Genesis chapter 9, God gave this rainbow in the sky to show a promise that He is the covenant-keeping God.

Genesis 9 · chapter mention

So around the throne, we see the one who rightfully judges, yet in the midst of that judgment, we still see the merciful uh attitude of our Savior.

Both are existent there, they don't contradict one another.

God's judgment and God's mercy.

And once again, this is what he's able to offer us.

This is what he is able to describe in this moment.

And so now he looks at what's around the throne.

Verse 4.

Around the throne were 24 thrones.

So you've got the big throne that stood in heaven, you've got these miniature thrones, 24 of them around the big throne, and on those thrones are 24 elders clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads.

Now, who are these individuals?

Who are these 24 elders?

I can't say with 100% certainty.

There's some that believe these are uh these are are human uh beings, these are humans that are representative of the church.

Some say, and and I probably lean towards this, that these are angelic beings.

These are angelic beings.

What I do believe without a doubt is these 24 elders uh represent the people of God.

They represent you and I, if you are a believer and every believer who's ever walked the earth, these 24 elders surround the throne.

We're gonna look at more at what they do in a moment, but they have these crowns on their head.

We're gonna look in a moment about what those crowns are used for.

They have these white garments that uh show their cleanliness.

They are the redeemed ones, these beings, uh, the these the white garments, golden crowns, and we're gonna see that their job is to be around the throne and to worship.

And they represent all humanity.

And so you have these around the throne.

Verse 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were born burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God.

We saw this in Revelation chapter one, these seven torches.

When it says the seven spirits of God, really we're talking about the spirit of God.

The seven, this number of completeness, referring to the Holy Spirit.

I want to be clear, and I love this.

The throne room of God, it is a Trinitarian event.

We believe in one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit.

And you go to the throne room of God and you see it's a Trinitarian event.

We see God the Father seated upon the throne.

We see the Holy Spirit, these lampstands around the throne.

In chapter 5, next week, we're gonna see God the Son, Jesus Himself, who is able to open the scroll.

So when you go to the throne room of God, you see God, and you see God in Trinity.

It's a Trinitarian event.

But you have these flashes of lightning, these rumbles of thunder.

I I know we can praise God that yesterday evening you saw flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder.

We've been waiting a long time for the things that happened yesterday evening.

In this moment, it reminds me of Exodus when the people of God are down at the bottom of the mountain there at Sinai.

Moses has gone up to meet with the Lord, and the people of God look up at the mountain, and there's this great cloud surrounding the mountain, and what do they see?

The rumblings, or what do they hear?

The rumblings of thunder.

They're looking up on the mountain, and they say, I don't know what's going up on up there, but something is going on up there.

The mighty one has descended upon the mountain.

You come into this throne room, and you are overwhelmed and you are undone by what is happening here.

Verse 6 before the throne, there was, as it were, a sea of glass, like crystal.

Crystal sea surrounds the throne, and around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures.

It's about to get exciting, everybody.

Four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind.

Now hang with me for a second.

The first living creature, like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third with the face of a man, the fourth like an eagle in flight.

So if you're taking notes at home, four living creatures, all over them are these eyes.

It's a lot like Ezekiel chapter one, Ezekiel gets a vision, similar creatures, but in this instance, they're covered in eyes.

One has the face of an eagle, one an ox, a lion, and like man.

These are angelic beings and they are different than what we're used to.

I'm used to the sweet little children walking down the aisle in late December telling us the Christmas story, and the sweet little angels with the sweet little wings walk into the room.

I don't know that we want a, you know, revelation realistic picture at this year's living nativity.

I think that might scare us a little bit because these creatures are here and they're here to worship these angelic beings with these faces like nothing we've seen, these eyes all over.

And it is just quite the picture that's happening in verse 8.

And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, we saw something similar in Isaiah chapter six.

With two wings they cover their feet.

This place is too holy for me.

This is holy ground.

With two wings they cover their eyes.

I can't gaze upon the holy one of God.

And with two wings they fly.

But here in this moment, each of them with six wings are full of eyes, once again, all around and within, and day and night, look at this, they never cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.

So these four living creatures fly around the throne, and day and night, what do they never cease to say?

Once again, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come for a few minutes.

I want to talk about the three things that exist there.

We see the holiness of God, the sovereignty of God, and the eternal nature of God.

Just in that song alone, we see the holiness of God, the sovereignty of God, the eternal nature of God.

I want to talk about the holiness of God three times.

Holy, holy, holy.

What does it mean that God is holy?

Think about it like this: that God is different.

He is other, he is set apart.

You and I, we are not holy.

Someday, in the presence of Christ, we will receive a glorified body.

No more sin, no more shame.

If you know Christ, that is true of you.

But in this life, we are not holy.

We are flawed individuals, and yet there is this one who sits on the throne in heaven who is holy, unblemished, without sin, can't be in the presence of sin.

It is is wholly different and other from we are, from what we are.

And I think of this word holy and just how mighty he is, how as you think about the throne room, how overwhelming it must be, we know, to be in the presence of holiness.

And I'll I'll say it like this every every few years, uh a book will come out.

Someone will release a book and uh and it might sell okay, and they'll they'll talk about I I spent 30 minutes in heaven.

I spent 90 minutes in heaven, and they'll tell a story.

I I was I was I was counted as as dead, but I I came back briefly and I spent time in heaven.

Now I'm not here to bash, I'm not here to to knock necessarily, but but I've never seen one of those books.

And starting at page one, they begin to tell their story of being in heaven, and they say it like this.

They say, I don't have a clue what I saw.

I can't write a page about what I saw.

Because as I entered the throne room of God, even looking upon the face of the glory of the holiness of God, I would have been completely undone.

I don't have a story to tell because everything in me sought to keep my eyes covered because I couldn't look upon the radiance of the glory of God.

Because all throughout scripture, when you get a view of the throne room of God, this is what we see.

Isaiah chapter 6, he comes to the throne room of God.

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

And what does he say?

Woe is me.

I shouldn't be here.

I'm too sinful for this place.

Ezekiel chapter 1, he comes to the throne room of God.

Ezekiel 1 · chapter mention

In chapter 2, verse 1, the Lord says, Rise up to your feet, which tells me he was on the ground.

I love the moment in Exodus uh chapter uh 33, when Moses looks to God, and they've got a close relationship.

Surely, Moses and God, surely if he asked, God would do this.

And he asked God, can I look upon your glory?

And God just looks at him and just says, Moses, you can't handle my glory.

You can't look upon this.

And God says, The best I can do for you, if you will hide in that rock, I will pass by.

And when I'm past you, you can look at my back as I fly by.

That's the best I can do for you.

That's the most you could possibly handle.

And yet Moses could hardly handle it.

Like this is the picture of the throne room of God that you walk into it, and it is so overwhelming and so mighty, and God is so wholly different from you and I that when you come into his presence, any story we have in scripture, the person is just undone.

I don't hear me this morning saying anything that sounds like we're not welcome there.

By the way, as redeemed believers in Christ Jesus, we are welcomed before the throne of God.

But let's just be clear about it.

It's a mighty place.

So, first, holy, holy, holy, he's holy.

But second, this is the Lord God Almighty, He's sovereign.

What does it mean that God is sovereign?

It means that He is over all things, He controls all things, that nothing happens that He is not aware of.

He doesn't need to watch the news to catch up on current events.

He doesn't have social media to keep track of what's going on in the world.

Everything is under his control and everything is known by him.

And so I asked this question what does sovereignty mean?

Think about this.

If you walked into the throne room of God, would you ask the question, uh, just curious, who's in charge here?

Because there are 24 other thrones, these 24 elders, maybe one of them is in charge in this moment.

No, no, no.

You come to the throne of God, and there's just no question about who's in charge.

There's no question about the authority in this moment.

I can't get enough of uh Psalm 115.

Psalm 115, I want you to hear this, verses 1 through 3.

Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory, for uh the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness.

Why do the nations say, Where is their God?

Why why do the nations look at us and say, you know, where's your God?

When's your God gonna show up?

What's your God up to?

Here's his response.

Our God is in the heavens, he does all that he pleases.

Again, uh Psalm 115, verse 3.

Psalms 115:3

Our God is in heaven, he does whatever he pleases.

So if we ask this morning, what does God do in heaven?

What is God up to on the throne?

Here's a very simple answer, a very accurate answer.

Whatever he wants, whatever he desires and delights to do.

He's never asked permission for a thing.

He's never uh needed any of us to give him advice on what his next move should be.

He's never needed someone to provide counsel for what's ahead.

Our God is in heaven, he does what.

Whatever he pleases.

This is what it means that God is sovereign, that God is in control, that he makes no mistakes, he does whatever he pleases, and what he pleases, what he does, it's the right thing, it's the accurate thing, it's the holy thing, it's the best thing, and it's his thing.

Our God is in heaven, he does whatever he pleases.

But I want you to hear this this morning because I love this.

If our God is in heaven and he does whatever he pleases, and then I look at what he has done, I put two and two together and realize what he has done is what he was pleased to do.

So what does that mean?

He sent his son to redeem humanity.

He sent Jesus to die on the cross, to rise from the grave, defeating sin and death, so that you and I might come to the throne room of God, might have relationship with him, eternal life with him.

And if our God is in heaven and does whatever he pleases, that means that as God sat on the throne from eternity past, his mind was on the heart of redeeming mankind.

So that God came for you, his son coming for you, and guess what?

It pleased him to do that.

He was not sitting in heaven and saying, you know, these people down there, they've really messed up.

I I guess I need to take some time to help them out a little bit.

You know, they they do keep crying out to me, one of these days I gotta go help them.

No, no.

From the foundation of the world, he's in heaven, he does what he pleases.

It pleased him to redeem you and I.

That you were on the heart of God, and his delight is found as he comes to redeem you.

That's good news.

So God is holy, holy, holy, holy, sovereign is the Lord God Almighty, and I love this.

Eternal.

We'll see this a few times throughout Revelation.

We've already seen it.

Who was and is and is to come.

Who was, he always has been, who is, he is, who is to come.

I I love this moment in Exodus chapter 3.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

At the burning bush, God is telling Moses his plan to redeem his people out of Egypt.

Moses has a logical question.

He says, okay, if I do, if I do this, if I go there, I know Pharaoh's gonna ask, well, who who sent me?

You know, Pharaoh knows a lot of gods, lowercase g gods.

He's certainly gonna want to know, you know, which God sent me, what authority he has.

And so, God, my question here, when when Pharaoh asks who sent me, what should I tell him?

Basically, this what is your name?

And what is the name that God gives Yahweh?

It's this I am who I am.

That's what God says.

If you want my name, here it is.

I am who I am.

What does that mean, God?

Uh if I go to Egypt, are are you gonna be with me?

I I I am.

I will be with you.

Things start to go south there.

Can I trust that you're faithful?

I am.

What does that mean for you and I?

I think we've got to come to terms with, and we're making this word up for the first time, the eternal amness of God.

Do you understand the amness of God in your own life?

Let's go even uh worse in terms of English.

The is-ness of God.

Do you understand God's is-ness in your life?

God's eternal right now-ness, that God is and am forever with you?

This is terrible grammar, but I just, you need to get it.

That God's is-nessness surrounding you is so full of is and am that he is just constantly beside you and on your side.

And you ask this question, God, are you faithful today?

I am.

Will you be faithful then?

And the the answer is I am.

I have been, I am, I will be.

There's not a moment uh in time where God is not acting on your side in his is-ness, in his amness.

He is and am with you.

And I know we laugh at that, but but it's it's grammatically terrible, but theologically correct.

Do you understand that God is constantly with you?

And I just wonder in your own life, if you look at a situation now or you look at some days ahead and you're just tempted to wonder, God, are you faithful in this?

Because you look at the days ahead and you say, here's a category we were not prepared for.

Here's a phone call I didn't think I'd get.

Here's a diagnosis I didn't see coming.

Here's a here's a roadblock that I didn't know was the case.

Here's a prodigal child that I didn't know would go on to be a prodigal child.

Here are all these moments in my life, God, will you be faithful?

And he just says, I am.

That's his answer.

And he's right.

And he's right in saying that.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.

Verse 9.

And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him, who lives forever and ever.

They cast their crowns before the throne, saying this, Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

And so, first of all, whenever the living creatures give worship, the elders then fall down and give worship.

Now, here's my question.

Well, when do the living creatures give worship?

Verse 8.

Day and night they never cease to say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

So what does that mean for the elders?

Whenever they give worship, day and night, never ceasing, they worship.

And I love how they worship.

They take their crowns, which they've rightfully received.

Praise God for all who are in Christ Jesus, that you and I will hear those words as we faithfully endured, well done, good and faithful servant, that you will receive the crown of life.

We talked about it in 2 Timothy, the wreath, the crown of life.

We've already talked about it within Revelation for some of the churches, that if you faithfully endure, you will receive the crown of life.

These individuals, these elders representing us all, have received the crown of life.

And we'd be tempted to say, I sure hope my crown is impressive.

We'd be tempted to say, I sure hope my crown is shiny.

However, shiny it may be, and I'm sure yours will be extremely shiny, what do you do with it?

What do they do with it?

They received the crown of life, and what do they do?

Immediately they take it off and put it on the ground.

That in this throne room, only one person wears the crown.

It's debated whether it's true or not, but sometimes when a story, you don't know if it's true or not, and it's a good story, just say it's true.

That when the king first heard, King George II first heard Handel's Messiah in that room that evening, that concert hall, hearing Handel's Messiah for the first time, when they got to the Hallelujah chorus, and it's the reason why any room you're you're hearing Handel's Messiah, your room will probably stand during the hallelujah chorus, that when they got to the hallelujah chorus, King George stood to his feet, so moved by the music, so moved by the words, by the way, that come directly out of Revelation, so moved that he knew this was not a place where I stay seated, that I rise to my feet.

And because of that, when the king gets up, you get up.

And so the whole room stood up, and for hundreds of years since we've just all been standing up during the hallelujah chorus.

Whether the story's true or not, I hope it is.

King George knew something in that moment that there is one king in this room.

And then when you you see and get a vision for the excellency of the glory of God who is seated on the throne, there are no other kings in that moment.

And just like everyone else, King George said, I'm gonna worship as well.

And so these elders, they fall down day and night, casting their throne, their crowns to the ground.

Worthy are you to receive glory and honor.

You created all things by your will, they existed and they were created.

At all times, all the time, they worship.

And here's what's interesting, church family.

They delighted to do this.

It wasn't a burden to them.

It wasn't a scheduled event to which they said, Oh, it's it's such and such time.

I've got to go sing my song again.

I remember a few years ago being in Estes Park, Colorado, and I just remember uh it was a trip with a student ministry, and so we had some things indoors, like some worship services, but I mean, obviously, we wanted to be outdoors.

We would come out of the worship service, we'd look around, and the worship would just continue because we'd see God's creation.

And I'm so fascinated being in the midst of those beautiful snow-capped mountains as I looked around.

Uh, do you do you know no one had to tell me, uh, you know, Taylor, go go take a second and just look at the beauty outside.

No one had to say, Taylor, I know you're having a great time, you know, on your own in the little dorm room they gave you, but you know, it's two in the afternoon.

It's time to go look at the mountain.

You couldn't, you couldn't pay me to be inside.

I wanted to go see the beauty of God's creation.

I wanted to see these mountains.

I look at worship, and it's just the natural thing.

You don't have to tell me to worship.

When we come before the throne of God, there will only be one natural thing to do.

There will only be one thing we want to do, and that's worship Him, the one who is on the throne.

I want to uh close today with with three little pieces of application.

I know sometimes I give some points throughout.

I've saved them for the end today.

That doesn't mean we've got 30 more minutes.

I'll be quick.

But I want us to see three things that I believe happens when you and I behold the glory of God.

Behold the true glory of God, the one who sits on the throne.

I want to walk through these.

Number one, when we behold the true glory of God, it gives our heart further reason to worship.

Like more and more as we gaze upon the glory of God, just like the four living creatures, just like the 24 elders, it just leads us to want to worship.

Have you ever been reading scripture maybe and you just see some verse?

Maybe you've seen it a hundred times and it just feels new today, or maybe you've never seen this before, and you just see this new facet of the beauty of the glory of God, some new facet that is so worshipful.

And it just leads you to want to worship.

Thank you, Lord.

Have you ever just been uh overcome in a moment by how God moved in a certain way in your life?

And maybe you've been praying over this, but but God moved in a way, uh answered that, not just how you pray, but answered it in even a way that you would have thought praying for that would just be too greedy.

God, you can't be that good.

And he just moved in some mighty way.

And what does it do?

I hope it does this.

It leads you to worship.

As you see a greater picture of the beauty and the goodness of God, it should lead you to worship all the more.

And I'm not just talking about on a Sunday morning at 10:15, though I am, praise God.

But a life of worship, a life of worship.

So beholding the true glory of God, it gives us uh further cause to worship.

I also want to see this.

It gives our heart further reason to fight sin.

I want to ask you this question.

Have you ever, any category, have you ever had what we'll call the real thing, and it just uh absolutely ruined anything less than the real thing?

I I've I've I've never flown, not one time, I've never flown first class.

Not even, I'm not talking even a long trip, even just the Little Rock to Dallas, Little Rock to Atlanta.

I've never personally flown first class, and I hope I never do.

And let me tell you why.

It's not that I don't want to, I do want to.

But I know once I do it that first time, I know once I get a taste of it, that walking to the back of the plane every other time is gonna be miserable.

That once I taste the real thing, I'm just not gonna be able to go to 42B.

I can't do it.

When you behold the goodness of the glory of God, when you see the real thing, you're just gonna start to lose your taste for the counterfeit.

You're gonna start to lose your taste for these empty promises that Satan desires to make.

When Satan offers you these things that will satisfy or finally fulfill your longings or give you this worth or identity that you're seeking, you're gonna say, hey, I've seen the glory of the goodness of God on the throne.

I've seen the beauty of Christ Jesus who died and rose again.

I can't settle for less.

I'm sorry.

I've tasted first class.

I'm not walking to the back of the plane.

I've seen too much, I've seen the glory of God.

I don't want to settle for less than that.

The seeing the glory of God will cause us further reason to fight sin.

And lastly, is this it gives our heart further confidence in suffering.

I want to talk about this for a minute.

Chapter 4, chapter 1, and a few other chapters throughout Revelation are going to give us these brief interludes where in the midst of revelation of all that's going on in the heavens, but certainly here on earth, we get these brief interludes where we get to see, meanwhile, what's going on at the throne room.

That we get to have this quick little picture of the throne room and see who is on the throne.

Here's why that's important.

Because we're going to be in chapter 5 next week, but then after that, I'm going to warn you, chapters six through 19, it's going to get wild.

It's going to get interesting.

There's going to be judgment and wrath.

There's going to be a beast that wants our hearts.

There's going to be this dragon that comes.

There's going to be the great prostitute who lifts up the glory of Babylon and all the sins of this day.

There are going to be moments in Revelation 6 through 19 where as you're reading through it, you're going to say, This is getting dark.

This is getting, I'm nervous about this.

This can God handle this?

Can can is God really gonna come through in these moments where we see the beast and the dragon and it feels overwhelming?

Can God's people handle this?

Can God handle this moment?

And every once in a while, God's just gonna give us this interlude, and we go to the throne, and God's just sitting on his throne, and he's ruling and reigning and he's in control.

And even in the valleys of life, even in Revelation 6 through 19, where we're tempted to wonder, is God still on the throne?

He gives us this glimpse.

God is on the throne.

And so seeing the true glory of God, it gives our hearts confidence in suffering.

I just want to talk to you about that in your own life.

That your own life is gonna be filled with moments.

Revelation 6 through 19, like moments, where you're gonna be tempted to wonder, God, are you with me?

That suffering and trial are gonna come in your own life, and you're gonna say, I was not ready for this.

Oh, there's gonna be joy, there's gonna be excitement.

God is is is good, but but there's gonna be hardship.

And in our own lives, in these moments, in the valley of the shadow of death, we need to see the reality that if we just look heavenward, if we just look to the throne, we see that our God is there.

And that's what we need.

And I just gotta tell you, there are people in this room, I know for a fact, that have walked through suffering at a level we can't imagine, that have walked through the dark night of the soul, the valley of the shadow of death, and they would tell you, here's what kept me going, here's what kept me uh keeping one foot in front of the other, here's how I made it through this.

I'll tell you, I just knew God was on the throne.

I just knew that he was faithful.

To go back to some bad grammar, I just knew about his amness and his is-ness, and I knew he was with me.

If you walk through suffering, if you're in it now, if you're in the storm now, I just want to tell you, here's the good news again.

God is on the throne, Psalm 23, 13.

I know that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

That's your promise.

I know that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Psalm 8, uh, excuse me, Romans 8, 18.

I consider that the sufferings of this present moment aren't worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.

That in all of these moments of revelation, in all these moments of your life, God is simply on the throne.

My hope for you is this that you will just look to the throne.

Today, tomorrow, that you will look to the throne, that it will help you worship, that it will help you combat sin, that it will uh help you in suffering, and by the way, in joy, that you will look to the throne, and and and as we sang this morning, that this battle, Christ has already won it.

This life, my life, it's already his.

And that that would give you confidence that the Lord God is on the throne.

Let me pray for us this morning, and then we're gonna worship, and we're gonna worship to some words that are right out of this book.

And so I want you to embrace that moment of worship.

Let me pray for us.

Lord Jesus, thank you for the goodness of the gospel, thank you for the hope of the gospel, thank you for the reality that you've died for us, you've risen again, you are faithful.

And so, Lord, I just pray that we would gaze upon the beauty of God, that we would spend our lives looking to the throne, knowing that even when it feels like, maybe it feels like we're on our own, maybe it feels like our world is just spinning out of control, maybe it feels like chaos, that we can step back.

And like this interlude in Revelation 4, we can see so clearly our God is on the throne.

He was yesterday, he is today, he will be tomorrow.

That's good news.

That's good news for weary souls, that's good news for sin sick souls.

That's that's good news for us.

If there's anyone in this room this morning that wants to respond to that invitation of the gospel, wants to come meet Christ Jesus, Lord, would they do it this morning to join this church, to talk about baptism, to just pray with the pastor, whatever it may be, Lord, would we respond now?

Would all of us respond in worship even now?

In Christ's name.

Amen.

Would you stand and let's worship together?