In his sermon, 'What Throne Is Pulling at You?', Scott Brown delves into Revelation chapter 4, urging listeners to focus on the throne of God as the ultimate reality amidst worldly distractions. Brown describes the vivid imagery of the heavenly throne room, where God is surrounded by 24 elders and four living creatures, all engaged in ceaseless worship and adoration, proclaiming God's holiness and omnipotence. This scene serves as a backdrop for understanding the power and sovereignty of God's throne compared to earthly thrones that compete for our attention. Brown emphasizes that God's throne is the true center of history and reality, highlighting the need for believers to align their lives and worship around this divine throne. The sermon calls for personal consecration and a focus on God's holiness, urging the church to seek God above all else and to be a community that exists for His glory. The sermon also connects the themes of Revelation chapters 4 and 5, where the worship in heaven is centered on God's acts of creation and redemption, drawing believers to a deeper understanding of their relationship with God and His eternal plan.

Please open your Bibles to the holy, inerrant, all-sufficient, life-giving word of truth through Revelation chapter 4 and while I'll be covering just verses 6 through 11 I'll read the entire chapter so let's begin in verse 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 Jasper and a sardius 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 24 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 all around and within, and they do not rest, day or night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, who is and is to come.

Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne who lives forever and ever. The 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne saying you are worthy oh Lord to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. Let's pray. Father we are so thankful to be in front of these words. We pray that your word would penetrate our hearts, move us toward your throne, helping us to love your throne more than any other throne.

Amen. Please be seated. Well through these verses so far we've been urging one another to see everything that we are, everything that we have, everything that we say from the perspective of the throne of God. And these verses I hope are helpful to all of us to make us a particular kind of church, a church that only needs God and I pray that this Would be the effect of these verses here and our whole church life That we would be a church that exists in the world That has her eyes on Jesus Christ That has their eyes on the ancient of days Sitting on his throne that when you come here, he's the only one you want you only want his word You're hungry for him. You don't really care about anything else in this world except God and the word of his grace and So I pray that these things would would be helpful to us.

God did promise that he would dwell with his people in Exodus 29, 45. He says, I will dwell among the children of Israel and I will be their God. He promised to give us a new heart in order to do that in Jeremiah 24, then I will give them a heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God and they will return to me with their whole heart and he promised that he would be our God and there's no one like him. In Exodus 15 11 Moses says who is like you oh Lord among the gods glorious and holiness fearful and praises doing wonders So I pray that that that these words would help us in this way as a church. There's nothing sweeter, there's nothing happier than people who know their God and He's all they need.

So we turn again to Revelation chapter 4. We're in the last half of it. Then we'll go on to Revelation chapter 5. This is the unseen backdrop of all of history. We look at the things which are unseen here, and there's a throne in heaven.

That's the heart of this matter. And it's very interesting, the chapter begins with, after these things I looked and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and that is a door to view the throne of God. And that door is still open, that door is open today for anyone who wants to be near this throne of God. And the question that I wanna be asking from these verses today is this question, what throne is pulling at your heart? Last week the question I was asking is have you forgotten about this throne?

But I want us to ask today what throne is pulling on you? Pulling on your affections, making us who we are. Now I want to just give a very, very brief review. You see an outline in front of you here. You can see exactly where I'm going.

I want to give, you know, just a very brief overview of verses one through six, and I'd like to speak of these other matters That are listed there in your outline I think this passage breaks down into two major sections and the first is the worship of the four living creatures in verses six B through nine and then finally the worship of the 24 elders. So we'll be handling both of those. But in the first half of the chapter, we saw the beauty of the Lord, These 24 elders, the sevenfold perfections of God, the lightning, the thundering, the voices, the fire, we saw this undisturbed sea of glass. God in His undisturbability should teach us something about our own lives. And we saw the Lord in these first six verses as just almost indescribably beautiful.

They were almost indescribably beautiful to John. He's grasping at these images of stones and he's and colors. They're beautiful And he tells us about this rainbow that's like the color of an emerald. And it's all around, it's a 360 degree rainbow. And we talk about how compelling and beautiful rainbows are, they always draw you in.

But if you've ever seen one that's 360 degrees, I've seen lots that start in the east and end in the west, but I've never seen a 360 degree rainbow, not a half circle. You know, mountain climbers have seen them. In fact, last week I think I saw a picture of one from from an airplane where a pilot took a picture of this 360 degree rainbow you know Joel Beeke in his commentary he takes he takes this idea of the unbroken rainbow which is a symbol of God's covenant, God's unbreakable covenant and he says that it represents an unending covenant of God's grace, unbroken, always there, always beautiful, Always full of grace and truth. I love that imagery So this is a vision of his throne and there are worshipers Before the throne and so we'll be focusing on these Worshipers who are before the throne And I really like the way that the commentator, Dennis Johnson, speaks of this. He says that, revelation shows us that those who dwell with God in heaven constantly break forth in song, overwhelmed with joy and adoration by his perfections in himself and by his awesome achievements in creation and in redemption.

These beings are involved in ceaseless praise. Here's another way to say it. They are unceasingly thrilled with God. It's such a remarkable picture. And there's a lot to learn from this about worship, our worship here on earth.

But it's undeniable the overwhelming theme of these two chapters is is the throne of God now this theme rises Many times in the book of Revelation here in this chapters the throne is mentioned 12 times in chapter 5. It's mentioned five times The throne of God is mentioned 62 times in the Bible. 47 of them are in this book, Revelation. You might say that the theme of Revelation is the omnipotent power of God's throne and destroying all of his enemies before him and exalting his people to bless them with happiness Everlastingly and So these thrones there are thrones in Daniel 7 we're learned that God God set thrones and whatever earthly throne seems to be ruling and there are many competing thrones in this world but there's a superior throne And it's the throne of a holy God, not a corrupt ruler. And I just want us to acknowledge for a moment that there's always a throne pulling at you.

There's always a throne moving a heart. And there's a throne that defines you. There's a throne that moves you. There's a throne that moves your mouth. There's a throne that spends your money.

There's a throne that is speaking to you. There's a throne that's speaking through you and I think this passage draws us to consider this throne of God. In chapter four, it's the throne of God Almighty, the ancient of days, God the Father. In the next chapter, it's the throne of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who was slain before the foundation of the world. But there is a throne in heaven, and this throne is the ultimate reality.

And you know, the crypto realities, you know, the crypto currencies of your material life, of your image, of your achievements, of all these things, of your reputation, of your Instagram, of your Facebook, of your TikTok. These are not ultimate reality. These are not realities really at all. And, but there is a throne. There's always a throne pulling at us.

You know, I guess a few years ago there was a series called called the Game of Thrones. I never saw it and I would never see it and I hope no Christians have seen it, but it's very clear that it was nothing more than just the defiling game of Satan's throne. That's all it was. But there are thrones and there are always thrones pulling. What throne is pulling at your heart?

I think this passage asks us that. Now also I want us to recognize too that these chapters really form a pivot point in this book and they are pivotal in the sense that they pivot from one scene to another. They really are a true pivot point and they are intimately connected with the first three chapters. You know the first chapter shows a vision of Jesus Christ. We've been reciting a major section of that portion so that we would just continually have before us this vision of Jesus Christ.

And then in chapters two and three, through the letters to the seven churches, Christ is walking among the churches. And it's very interesting how this section ends in chapter 3 verse 21 after the church of Laodicea Jesus says to the one who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne just as I overcame and sat down with my father on his throne. And so the letters to the churches end with this vision of the throne and that those who overcome, those who are justified by grace, they will sit on his throne with him. So that's our chapter three ends. Then when you turn the page into the next chapter, you find this throne.

It's almost as if the Lord Jesus wants us to understand what this throne looks like. He says you're gonna be with me there now here's what it looks like. So it's a very beautiful section and you know all of all of these letters to the churches really point to the condition of the church in a secular society with lots of thrones pulling on them. And the letters to the churches actually acknowledge the pull of the thrones of the world. Remember the letters to the churches.

I hope you were able to be here to hear them, but these churches had thrones pulling on them, the throne of Caesar. And these thrones had to do with some kind of pleasure or stability or satisfaction or power in the material world that they offered. Just identify with Zeus. Identify with the superheroes, that's you. Or identify with Athena or Dionysius or Asclepius, the god of healing.

Identify with those things. Get your focus on all of those kinds of things. We remarked about the fact that the livelihoods of the people in those churches was often dependent on their acknowledgement of these thrones, of the throne of Zeus and the throne of Dionysius and and the throne of Caesar and the trade guilds actually demanded it you couldn't you couldn't play in the economic scene in these cities without paying homage to these thrones that's the way it was structured in fact even in the Church of Pergamos we we read in chapter 2 verse 13 I know where you live, where Satan's throne is. And the God of this world had sway in all of these communities. This malignant, malevolent, abusive spirit of the devil and his thrones are always, always dancing around us and these are opposition to God's throne.

Satan gets his footholds from these thrones. And so in these two chapters, that's what we see here. We see these pictures of thrones, really, and it begins from the very beginning of Revelation and and it's very I think it's very helpful to help us understand what's going on around us today. Today like the ancient thrones they are everywhere The throne rooms of Hollywood to defile your morality, the throne rooms of the universities to define the truth, the throne rooms of the governments to define your status and what you can and can't do. The thrones of the largest corporations of the world today and their CEOs are the thrones that are driving the moral revolution.

And they're demanding homage to the gods of this age. And they are the new social and economic regulators, the big corporations are right now, and they're managing the moral revolution. They're managing identity. They're managing sexuality. They're managing inclusion in society.

They're managing your economic activity, and they will regulate your economic life. Just this week I saw a headline in the Washington Post which was reporting what some British companies were saying. I'll read the headline. No jab, no job. As British companies move to mandate coronavirus vaccines for employees, discrimination fears mount.

In other words, get vaccinated or lose your job, so said this article. Well, there are thrones, there are thrones everywhere, and they're always pulling on the people of God and What we find in the seven churches was the struggle with the thrones and they were these the thrones were always on their game in the ancient church and they are Today And the great struggle in the churches of revelation centered on the pressures that these secular thrones were putting on them. And the appeal was just to acknowledge Caesar, just acknowledge him, just take a pinch of incense, drop it in the fire, everything will be fine. You don't really even have to believe it, just do it, that's all you have to do. Just say it, all you have to do is say it, you don't even have to do anything else, just say it.

And these are the thrones that are operating and but what's God's perspective? Psalm 1 states it as clearly and helpfully as any. He who sits in heaven laughs. He laughs at the thrones. He's not concerned about them because he is governing all of their activities.

And so there's this throne set in heaven that really set the backdrop of all of history. And what Jesus reveals here is really what is behind the curtain of what's happening in all of history. And that's why this focus is so helpful. Keep your eyes on God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ. Keep your eyes on that throne.

And so this scene precedes the upcoming trials that are described in the great persecutions and pressures on the people of God that begin in chapter 6 and they progress at least through chapter 18. But there's a throne at the center of the universe and it is God's throne. All these other little gods are going to be destroyed. And at the same time we learn in these next chapters that God is the one who's bringing all the storms. Jesus Christ is the one who's opening up the scrolls.

Thank God it's him. And you know you can't really see the whole plan when you're in the storm, can you? But God sees the plan. He is orchestrating the plan. He conceived of the plan for his own glory.

So we've dealt with the first half of chapter four with this scene in heaven with God on his throne. Now we're going to turn to the worship of God on his throne beginning in verse six. And we come to the point in the text where there are worshipers who are worshiping God and so let's find ourselves in verse 6 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. So the focus here is the creatures themselves.

We'll get to their worship in a moment, but where are they located? Well, these beings are in the midst of the throne and around the throne. See that language? You might picture these, they're around the four sides of the throne. Some say, you know, because the number of four is the number of earth, they are representing north, south, east, and west.

They're covering all, everything that extends out beyond the throne and what are they? What are they really? These beasts, these strange beings and you know some people think that they are the four gospel writers, four meaning the four Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Some say that they represent the activity of the representatives of God's glory and of God's sovereignty in all creation. Others say that they are angels and the reason that they say that they're angels is that in Daniel they are cherubim which are angels and if you liken this to Isaiah chapter 6 the one with the six wings covering his face and his feet, that one is a seraphim, another angel.

So, well, they're definitely created beings. Are they angels? I'm not sure. My view is at least that these are created beings who ceaselessly glorify God. And we can marvel at how remarkable they are.

They look so strange, don't they? Have you ever seen strange animals on the earth? They're all over the place. God has created all kinds of absolutely jaw-droppingly, stunningly beautiful, astonishing, crazy-looking beings from insects on up and on up. God creates marvelous creatures.

This shouldn't surprise us. We've already seen marvelous creatures. And these are ones that are in heaven that God has created and God has given us these I believe these creatures on the earth these astounding creatures we love to look at them in order to prepare us for heaven they are they are preparations for heaven They tell us a little bit about heaven as likes. Everything on the earth that's been created points to something in heaven, everything does. These creatures are real creatures.

They're mentioned in Ezekiel chapter one, they're mentioned in Ezekiel chapter 10, they are mentioned again in Revelation six, but they all show something a little bit different. And they are, let's just say they're angels. They may be just some kind of unusual created being, not angels. I tend to think that they are angels because of the other passages, but you choose. Here's a reality.

Their bodies fit their environment. God created them to exist in the environment that he created for them and they see the throne, they see everything around the throne and they're posted all around the throne. They were created for this, just like you were created for this that we're doing today. Now interesting, these beings, if you flip over to Revelation chapter 6, in the first eight verses, these creatures, these beings, announce the opening of the scrolls of judgment. And these beings, these four creatures, summon the four horsemen, the first four horsemen that are in chapter six.

And so we read, when I saw the lamb he opened one of the seals and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, come and see. They have a voice like thunder and They are they are calling for onlookers to see that's in verse 1 in verse 3 When he opened the second seal I heard the second living creature saying, Come and see. So you have these creatures, we're not done with them in Revelation yet, we'll see them in chapter 6, and in verse 5, when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come and see. So these living creatures are saying, come, come and see. And come and see what?

Come and see the troubles that are going to cascade upon the world and upon the church of Jesus Christ. And when we get to the most intense part of the judgments of God one of the creatures will give the seven bowls of wrath to the angels who will then pour them out on the earth that's in Revelation 15 verse verse 7 So these creatures have a prominent role in the book of Revelation. Here are a few things I think we can conclude about these creatures. They are aware of the sufferings of God's people. They actually announce the trials and the tribulations that are coming on the world.

And I think they stand as an encouragement to God's people in the midst of their tribulation and they they are sent forth to announce the tribulations that are coming upon the world and you know it was very interesting last night one of my one of my children asked me to sing some song to my grandchildren around a fire, and they asked me to sing the song that I sang to my kids over and over again when they were growing up. And it goes like this, all night, all day, angels watching over me, my Lord. Now I lay me down to sleep, angels watching over me. Angels watching, angels watching, angels watching over me. I love that song.

I bet I've sung it thousands of times but what maybe these created beings were those ain't like angels and these four creatures are watching over you I don't know it's possible Now notice too that they have a magnificent capacity for glory, to acquire the glory of God into their souls. They are full of eyes, full of eyes. That's such remarkable language. Now, I believe all mammals have two eyes. I heard that scallops have 100 eyes.

And there are spiders that look like they have more than one eye. We all know that mothers have eyes behind their back. We all know that. But these are full of eyes and their capacity to praise God is exponentially expanded by their seeing in all directions. They see the throne and they see everything that's happening on earth and in heaven.

They have their eyes on God the Father. They have their eyes on the Ancient of Days. They have their eyes on God the Son. They have their eyes on the Ancient of Days. They have their eyes on God the Son.

They have their eyes on the Lamb who was slain. And they see it all. And you know, sight is a very precious thing. Sight must be a very precious thing to God. Did you know that most of Jesus' miracles were to give sight to the blind?

He's the one who opens eyes. Remember when we were in the Gospel of John in that section? He's the one that opens the blind eyes. And it's so wonderful to have eyes to see the Lord in his glory. It's the most important thing.

It's what we need the very, very most. I was talking to a sister yesterday who was struggling just with fatigue and discouragement and the only thing that she was asking, what do I do? And I say, I don't know anything else to do except to lift your eyes up to heaven and be governed by the word of God and put the world behind you and you know Jesus said the lamp of the body is the eye what your eyes are attracted to what they look at makes you who you are and they light you up one way or another. This is what's so damaging and harmful about pornography. It darkens you, darkens your whole life.

But the light of Jesus Christ does the opposite. And that's why David said, open my eyes that I might see wondrous things from your law. That's why David said in Psalm 101 verse three, I will set no unclean thing before my eyes. And that's why The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 12 2 was looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. So that's what we need.

That's what we need more than anything. That's the solution. And These beings are involved in ceaseless praise look at this they do not rest day or night They don't rest in now for most of us who think oh, no not resting day or night Well, this is a little bit different place when you get to heaven you will You will be able to be on it and apparently these beings don't need to rest. Will you ever rest in heaven? I you're going to go to eternal rest, but that rest isn't the same thing as doing nothing You know you're gonna be doing a lot of and it will be ceaseless praise Notice the language that this implies here, you know, praises for complete adoration, unmixed joy, total satisfaction.

You know, by the way, four times in these chapters there's praise. It's another central subset of these two chapters. They are unceasingly thrilled. They're full of eyes and they don't rest day or night. And notice the marks of how thrilled they are.

Well, there's adoration, 100% adoration. There are no requests in these prayers, just adoration. A second, and also notice they're all always observant of what God has done. That's why they're full of eyes. They're thrilled.

They're stunned They're amazed. They're enraptured. What other words can I use? I don't help me. What do I use They were absolutely unceasingly thrilled.

That's heaven. What a blessing. Unceasing delight. Unbroken happy fellowship. By the way, this is this is the beginning of the songs in Revelation.

There are several songs. There are about a dozen songs in Revelation. We're just at the beginning of them. We love to sing together. Well, there are songs all over this book in four and five, in chapter seven, in chapter 11, in chapter 15, in chapter 19.

There are two songs. So these songs are so critical and those who see the Lord are, they break forth. They want to sing. They're, as Dennis Johnson says, they're overwhelmed with joy and adoration by his perfections in himself and by his awesome achievements in creation and redemption. Remember the theme of chapter 4 is God the Father's work of creation.

In chapter five, the focus is the son's work in redemption. So they are full of eyes. Now, what do we say about that? Are you full of eyes? Am I full of eyes?

I wish I were more, far, far more full of eyes before God's throne than I am every day. But you can look to this throne every day. When you wake up and you feel dread, when you wake up and you feel anxiety, when you wake up and you feel fear, When you wake up and you feel anxiety. When you wake up and you feel fear. When you wake up and you feel fatigue.

There's something that you can do. Look at the throne. You can make your bed a throne before God. You can make your kitchen, you can make your desk, you can make your car, You can make anywhere a throne before God. This is the gift of salvation that we can bow before his throne wherever we are, which really is the solution.

And then notice what they're saying. Not only are they full of eyes and just unceasingly delighted, well you can see that they're delighted by what they say. I mean, you can kind of get a feel for how delighted they are. Well, they say, Holy, Holy, Holy. You know, that's a favorite song of every four-year-old I've ever known.

Holy, holy, holy. And What does it mean that God is holy? Well one thing it means is that holiness really is not a separate category. It's the category that subsumes all other categories of the attributes of God. Every attribute of God is summed up in his holiness.

Yes, he is love. Yes, he is wrath. Yes, he is mercy. But all of these things are wrapped up in his holiness. He is completely different.

It means to be holy, separate, separate. You know, one time I heard Paul Washer, he was talking about this and he said, picture, picture yourself cutting carrots in the kitchen. I thought, oh no, Paul, don't do this. And because he's describing the holiness of God And he says, you know, you cut up the slices of the carrots and then you take your knife and you separate them. And he says, that's holiness.

He is wholly separate. He is completely removed from all the other things that you might imagine. And he is not only holy separate, he is perfectly pure and he's unflappably happy in himself. That's why Jonathan Edwards says, and he's speaking of this matter of the holiness of God This makes his majesty lovely and not merely dreadful and horrible That it is a holy Majesty Well, Well, that's why we read of the beauty of its holiness in the Bible. And now notice this is responsive, singing, worship is responding to God.

We see, we respond. We see something in him that is stunning, that is beautiful, that is needful, and we praise him with confession, with consecration. But it begins with his beauty. Well, that's how this chapter began. It began with his beauty, his absolutely, not just his uncontestable authority, but not just his unmovable peace like a glass like crystal, a sea like crystal, and not just with his unmatched majesty, But also with his absolute beauty.

Now one thing that I realized when I was just meditating on this for the last few weeks is how easily distracted I am when it comes time for prayer, when it comes time for reading my Bible, just how ridiculously distracted I am. Everything is telling me to get up and look at something else. My phone, my computer, my dog, whatever it is. I was gonna say my wife but I wouldn't want to say that. She never distracts me from that.

But most people that I know, they struggle to worship God. We struggle to pray, I struggle to pray. It's the hardest thing in my life. You know, everything in my flesh hates prayer. I want to do something else.

Here's a little bit of hope. When you find yourself in heaven, he'll never struggle with that again. Never. Unceasing praise. It's such a wonderful thing.

And of course His Holiness does speak to us about our lives because His Holiness is the most helpful thing we could ever behold, because we're not holy. And there are two levels of this. The unrepentant sinner, the person who has not confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, the person whose life has not been transformed and they're not holy. They're in such big trouble with a holy God. I mean big trouble with a holy God.

God will destroy everything unholy. Everything unholy that does not confess and obey his Son. So his holiness is not only the most wonderful thing, his holiness is the most dangerous thing to the unrepentant sinner. And he's holy, Holy, holy, and then Lord God Almighty, Lord God Almighty. We ran into this word Almighty in chapter one verse eight.

And we ran into it again. God, he is almighty in power. He is all powerful. He is omnipotent. Nothing stands in his way.

He will roll over every opposition. And who was and is and is to come, was in the past, who is in the present, and is to come in the future. And this just speaks of his everlasting presence. He spans all of history, all of history, but not just all of history. Generally, He spans your conception, your birth, he spans your youth, he spans your middle age, he spans your old age, he spans your death.

And I think the pastoral intention of this book is really to encourage the saints to recognize God is in control. He has done everything for you, and he is doing, he did everything for you, he is doing everything for you, and he will do everything for you. Who was, who is, and is to come. In Isaiah, in chapter 57, verse 15, we read that he inhabits eternity, he inhabits eternity. Think about just think about that for a year.

He inhabits eternity. There's this indwelling, there's this imposition of His name throughout all eternity, including your humanity. It's absolutely remarkable. Your humanity. It's absolutely remarkable.

You know in Ephesians chapter 1 we learn why, why at all, that why is all this happening here on the earth and we learned from Ephesians 1 that he created us for the praise of the glory of his grace. So that we would praise the glory of his grace for all eternity. That's why we're created. That's what we're designed to do. And he, you see this in these creatures, you know, he deserves this glory and honor and thanksgiving.

And you see in these creatures this joy, you see the gratitude, you see the amazement. About what? Gratitude about what? Joy in what? Amazement about what?

Thankful for what? Because God is on his throne. He's beautiful. And he was and is, and he is to come. And he is holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.

So again, you know, what throne is pulling at your heart? What throne is pulling at your wallet? What throne is pulling at your heart? What throne is pulling at your wallet? What throne is pulling at your tongue?

What throne has been moving your emotions? You know, That's the most important question that we can ask in a passage like this. Okay so then we move to the 24 elders. We now set aside the four living creatures. Now we go to the 24 elders.

I won't Spend time right now talking about the number 24. We've done that a bit. We will do it some more verse 10 the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and Worship him who lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne. And then they say some things. Let's just stop right there.

This is a picture of consecration. They're falling down before God. This ought to be the normal activity of the people of God, falling down before God, personal consecration. And what are they doing? They're casting their crowns and what does that mean?

They're casting their crowns. It's like they're saying you put a crown on our head? No, you did it! You did all the work! But the Lord puts a crown on his children's head.

That's how good he is. But then his children say, oh no it was you. It was you who did it all. And so they cast their crowns back. You know just this week Deborah was telling me that when she was a little girl, she pictured this in her mind.

And she said, you know, she pictured it as the elders, they're casting down their crowns, and then they go pick them up, and then they throw them down again, and then they throw them down again, and then they throw them down again. And then they throw them down again. And then they throw them down again. They keep throwing, and they keep throwing it back on God. Well, if you're seven years old, I don't know how you picture this, but what here, The idea is this, God is so marvelous, he puts a crown on your head and he did all the work for you to deserve the crown by sending his son.

That's what it is. So, this daily activity of personal consecration falling down before the living God, centered on God, a church, holy, wanting, only God, this is so important. And they say, you are worthy. So they're not done yet. You are worthy, oh Lord.

You are worthy. What is worthy? It means weighty. You are weighty. It means to give proper weight.

That he is not of equal weight to the other thrones, not even close. And in fact, Paul uses this word in different ways. He shows us that our sufferings are nothing compared to the weight of glory that's coming. There's this matter of weight, and his glory is so weighty. He is worthy.

That's what worthy means. Weighty. He's heavy. He is the heaviest in the room. And then in the next chapter, in chapter 5, in verse 2, we're going to hear these words.

Who is worthy to open the scrolls? Who's weighty enough? Who's wise enough, heavy enough, smart enough, good enough, loving enough, righteous enough to open the scrolls? Who is the one who is worthy to govern world history and the troubles that are coming on the church? Only Jesus.

Well, we'll get there soon. Worthy for what? To receive glory. What's that? To receive glory.

To receive thinking highly of. To receive high esteem and honor. This is exalted value and worth and power. This is capacity or ability, glory, high esteem, honor, exalted worth, power, capacity and ability. This is God.

Behold your God. This is your God. This is the one that you can look at. This is the one that you can behold his glory in the morning and in the afternoon and the night time and the night watches. He's the one.

Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. He's the author and the perfector of your faith. You don't need anything else. And then he says, for You created all things. You created all things.

So he's the creator. Creators have the right of ownership. You create something, it's yours. In John chapter one, we read those beautiful words. All things were created, Were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made he created everything And I love this last phrase and by your will they exist and We're created focus on exist Well, that's what we're doing right here.

We're existing. Right here in this room, everybody's existing in the presence of God under the view of his throne. The idea of this word exist is a continuous action of continually being upheld, continually being preserved. I mean the Bible says that there's nothing in the world that doesn't happen except by the ordinance of God. And that he actually holds all things together.

But he doesn't just hold the atoms together. He holds you together. Your soul, your life, your relationships, everything. He's the one. He's the one who's worthy of, by your will they exist.

You know, you might be sitting here and say, oh boy, I'm existing, I don't really like my life that much. Well, guess what? God is sovereign over that. So what are you going to do? Lift up your eyes to heaven.

That's all you need to do. Lift up your eyes to heaven, confess your sins before God, and come to him and come to him and worship him in spirit and truth. Start right there. You can't fix everything in your background. You can't.

God ordained everything in your background by the way. Maybe to bring you to this moment where you say, Oh Lord, I want to worship you. I want to worship you alone. I need the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. I need his righteousness.

I want to walk with him. That's what it means to be a Christian. You know, in Ephesians 1 verse 12, you find this picture of praise that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of his glory. Translation, when you trusted in Christ God opened the door of heaven so that you would be unceasingly delighted. That's why the gospel is good news.

Now so in eternity past, God designed that enjoyment would be the result of his work in the world. That's why it's so important that you understand what's pulling on your heart, what throne is there. Because the enjoyment and delight is the reason that we praise. And We always praise what we enjoy. That's just the way we're built.

That's why we were created to the praise of his glory, that we grow up in such a way that it's his glory and his beauty that we praise. So I wanna give you a few things that are just sort of by way of pulling back in application of all this that's here. And the first is a warning. It's a warning to anyone who's worshipping before another throne. It's a warning to anyone who is indifferent to God's throne.

It's a warning to anyone who is compromising. It's a warning to anyone who is serving the guilds and disobeying God by obeying the policies of the world, the thrones that are there, the philosophies of the world. And you know the question is you know have you fallen into and kind of an inconsequential worship like you just are showing up it's not that big of a deal to you. You know, you'll come here, you know, and you can give your little pitch to God, just like they do with Caesar, it's not a big deal. And you're just gonna go home, is that you?

The Bible is full of words for people who are in that shape. In 1 Kings 9, 9, they forsook the Lord their God. In 2 Kings 17, 9, the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God the things that were not right. In 2 Kings 17, 14, nonetheless, they would not hear, but they stiffened their necks. In 2 Kings 18, 12, they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God is that you God is holy and that means you are in an enormous trouble before a holy God.

And your only hope is eternal Jesus Christ for refuge. And we have a tendency to lower the bar in our lives. We keep lowering the bar often. Maybe You've been lowering the bar for a while, but when you see the Lord in His holiness, you're drawn to His holiness, and you don't want to lower the bar anymore. That's the thing.

And so is the trajectory of your life for more holiness or less? Let me say it again. Is the trajectory of your life for more holiness or less? Now I know this is such a huge blessing. It makes me so happy.

Many of you are getting married, maybe this year. Some of you for sure this year, if the Lord wills, and you're thinking about what your life is gonna be like. You're leaving your parents' home, you've lived in a Christian home, you've grown up there, it's been good, it's been good to you, it's been good for you, but will you, Will the choices that you make now that you go out and make a new government, a new family, will you be holier? Are you moving toward more holiness or less? Like maybe you're saying, well I don't know if my parents were right about that, but are you saying, am I moving toward more holiness or less?

Ask that question. Everybody's in a transition at particular times in their life but when you get married it's a big one and it's such a sweet one. But that's the most important question. Is what you want to do more holy, more pure, more obedient, more careful, or is it less? God is holy and he's looking for worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth.

So the second the second thing I want us to think about is that about what we learn about worship and you know we've talked about singing you know quite a bit in this church I love to sing it's my the sounds of the voices of the people of God sing is my favorite sound in the whole world in the entire world and singing is heavenly and it's responding to God it's it's part of a conversation that God starts and Then we continue it on with one another and the Bible has a singing to one another The Bible teaches you to sing to one another The Bible tells you to sing to your own soul The Bible tells you to sing to the unbelievers that are in the room. It's a very rich experience that is kind of so multifaceted, but it's all a response. We sing in response. For singing is dead, it's because the inputs are dead. And he acts, he speaks, and we respond.

But our worship is designed to be an expression of our delight, of our dependence, of our repentance, of our need of him, all those kinds of things. And so I think the Lord might be instructing us a little bit even more just a little bit more about singing. It's responsive to God so let's learn the lesson. Well, we're not done because we have a lot more to go in chapter 5 and I I'll just emphasize this again thirdly I just can't get over the beauty of God and the thrilled creatures that surround the throne. And they know about all the hard times coming on the earth.

And they're going to be involved in dealing with it in some way. And you know the purpose of Revelation partly is to encourage an embattled church in the midst of the warfare against your soul when you suffer you know that Christ will prevail he is on his throne. In chapter 6 and forward we'll see the church under attack the beast and his persecution and his violence and his death the false prophet and his fake ideas and the harlot the seduction of the world the church in In the following chapters is going to be persecuted. It's going to be hurt. It's going to be hungry the church is going to be terrorized, marginalized, and not feeling particularly successful and wondering is God on his throne?

And we'll be tempted to say where is God? He's on his throne. That's really the message. And these, I think these visions of heaven are there to equip us, to make us mature, to help us to grow up a little bit and realize that God is sitting on his throne and he's omnipotent. And then you know what is heaven like?

What is heaven like? You'll meet the Lord and with all of your heart you're going to say, Lord, you did a perfect job. You did a perfect job with my life. Your plan was unbelievable. You're gonna say, Lord, everything that happened in my family, you did it perfectly.

You're gonna say, Lord, everything that happened in my church, you did it perfectly. Lord, you did everything perfectly in my employment. You did everything perfectly. The hard times, the rich times, it was all perfect. Lord, you did everything perfect in my community.

Lord, in my sickness, you did it perfectly. My sickness was perfect for your plan. Lord, all my disappointments, they were perfect. I can't, how did you do that? It was so remarkable.

And you'll say, Lord you were perfect. And you'll, and you won't be able to get over it. Unceasing delight for all eternity. It was funny, I was thinking about this one day and it reminded me of my father who died last fall. And many of you who knew my father and he was here every Sunday if you asked him how he was doing you know what he would say Bill how are you doing perfect perfect that's what he would say And that's what you'll say in heaven.

Lord, you're perfect. Everything you did was perfect. And maybe that's all connected to what my father's last words were to me before he died. Son, The Lord knows what he's doing. What a wonderful Savior.

And what an important question, what throne is pulling on your heart today. Revelation 1 3 blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it. May the Lord add his blessings. Let's pray. Lord, how thankful we are.

You're all wise, you're all loving, and you're omnipotent. And we praise you that you've made us, children, to walk and to live and to exist under the shadow of your wings. Lord you're so good and we're saying it now and we we will say it forever. Lord help us to grasp that as a church. Help us to be a church that only needs you.

Amen.