In his sermon 'Behold God On His Throne,' Scott Brown explores Revelation 4, emphasizing the vision of God's throne in heaven as a central theme of the chapter. Brown explains that this vision reveals the unseen backdrop of all history and events on Earth, highlighting God's sovereignty and control. He discusses the throne's beauty, described with vivid imagery of stones and rainbows, and underscores its significance in portraying God's holiness and authority. Brown connects chapters 4 and 5 of Revelation, suggesting they form a continuous narrative that sets the stage for the events described in later chapters. He warns of the delusions and moral confusion present in the world, urging believers to focus on the eternal, unseen realities of God's throne. Brown cautions both believers and non-believers about the implications of God's holiness, which is both a source of joy for Christians and a warning for those who ignore it. He calls for a recalibration of perspective, encouraging individuals to view earthly life through the lens of heaven's throne, and stresses the importance of seeking God above all else.

Please have your Bibles open to Revelation 4. I'll read the entire chapter from verses 1 through 11. This is the inerrant, all-sufficient, holy, life-giving word of truth. 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'll show you the things which must take place after this.

Immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. Around the throne were 24 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 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 twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. And cast their crowns before the throne, saying, you are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created. Would you pray with me? Oh Lord you have shown us a vision of things that are true, things that are powerful, things that are holy, things, Lord, that we must find ourselves acknowledging here this morning.

Help us, Lord, with all of our hearts to not just acknowledge, but embrace, and consecrate ourselves as these elders have consecrated themselves before your throne. Amen. Please be seated. I'll just have to say I have had a hard time waiting to get to this section in Revelation. It's just so stunning, it's wonderful, it's jaw-dropping, it's convicting, it's so much help really.

But today we turn our attention back to the book of Revelation and it's a look of God on his throne. And from the throne, he's controlling everything that is happening on the earth. The key phrase I want to direct our attention to is a simple one. It's in verse 2. There is a throne set in heaven.

And these chapters, chapter 4 and 5, they go together. They're not separate at all. I was tempted to read both of them together and preach both of them together, but I decided not to do that. But these are connected and they show the unseen backdrop of all of history. They show you what's always happening behind the curtain of your life.

Everything that's happening in your life, everything that happens in every government, everything that happens in everything has this as its backdrop. There is a great and mighty throne in heaven and you see this unadulterated beauty, it's an undisturbed glory, it's an unvanquishable authority, there is unquenchable joy and delight that's before this throne. And It's very interesting to see how this is arranged. You'll see I have a rather lengthy introduction to this text before we get to it. But in the previous chapter, in chapter 3, verse 21, Jesus said, to the one who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne.

As I overcame and sat down with my father on his throne he's saying so will you. So he he reveals that true believers will will be on this throne in some way. And then when you turn the page into chapter four, he tells you what this throne is about. So it's really interesting. It's not, you know, the chapter divisions often are not that helpful, but there's a continuous flow here that we see in this text.

And so now we see what this throne is all about and what is it all about? And just in terms of the big picture, these two chapters form the backdrop of everything that will be revealed to us in Revelation going forward. From chapters six to 18, you'll see what is happening on Earth. In chapters 4 and 5, you see what is happening in heaven simultaneously with the things that happen on the Earth. And of course, We're always so concerned about what's happening on the earth.

There's nothing wrong with that. That's where we live. But my greatest concern over the past year has been have we done what we must do to prepare this congregation for the world that we live in now and the world that we perhaps might be living in. We've seen dramatic changes. We've talked about storm clouds forming economically, socially, politically, morally.

These are storm clouds. They're real and they are, they look threatening and they are threatening. And the world that we live in is under the power of the evil one. The Apostle Paul spoke of a strong delusion that would come over the nations. And I believe that's what we are witnessing right now.

Strong delusions have diluted and clouded the thinking of people, and we're seeing people think and do and say insane things. At least if you compare these things with the word of truth. And so you find We live in a world where our government, our institutions, they're lying to us about morality, they're lying to us about manhood and womanhood, they're lying to us about gender, they're lying to us about disease, they're lying to us about the church, they're lying to us about masks, they're lying to us about vaccines, they're lying to us about the gospel, they're lying about almost everything. And people, you know, if you if you look at the news you have this question that gets popped up on headlines, can we trust what we hear anymore? And you hear that all over the place.

So what are pastors supposed to do in an environment like this where there are all kinds of challenging and confusing things going on? And I think there's much that pastors must do. But one of the most important things that these pastors must do here is to direct us to the throne of God. It's very, very important that a church is a church that really needs only one thing. They only need God.

They don't need entertainment. They don't need fluff. They don't need a circus show. They need God. And I pray that that's what this church needs.

If you need anything other than God, for one thing, you'll never be happy. But for another thing, you'll never really be the kind of free, you'll never be free to be the kind of person that you need to be, that God has called you to be. If you only need God, you need nothing else. And this throne set before us today is really set before us so that we would learn even more how only to need God. And I pray that our church is a church that has nothing to offer but God.

If you're looking for anything else, you'll be disappointed. And so we pray that, as we were told recently, to come with big buckets ready to scrape in as much truth and holiness and goodness and hope and conviction as we can. And I hope you have come with a big bucket today, but the truth is we have nothing else to offer you but God and his word. That's it. And that's actually good news and that's what we have to offer.

So I think one of the questions that I want us to continue to consider throughout our time here this morning is What are you thinking about the throne? Are you ignoring the throne? It's very important that the people of God understand that there's always an unseen world operating out in the midst of this seen world that we live in here today. The Apostle Paul spoke about this in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verses 16 through 18 he says therefore we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory. Now listen to this.

He then says, while we do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal." We are looking in this passage at the things that are not seen. These are scenes not seen by us and they are operating in heaven. So I want us to just calibrate what is happening here. So you find in these next few chapters the backdrop of Hall of History, and he's pulling back the curtain to show us what is happening.

And This scene of heaven precedes the upcoming trials that are described in the persecutions and the death and the financial collapse and all the things that are taking place on the earth. And this throne is the center of it all. This throne is the orchestrational force behind everything that is happening on earth. And we hope to see the beauty that's there, the glory, the power, the authority, and the millions upon millions that are worshiping God before that throne. And the one who's on that throne is unparalleled in his beauty and unmixed in his holiness.

He is holy. This is both good news and bad news for us. Now when we get to chapter 6 through 18 and when you look around in the world today you get the idea that the devil's winning don't you? You think the devil's winning. Just look around, who's winning?

Now, but is the devil really winning? The devil looks like he's winning, but let me just tell you, He's not winning. He's being manipulated by Almighty God from an unvanquishable authority in heaven. So I think we need, it helps us to see the world correctly, to be mature in the way that we approach life. You have to grow up.

You have to grow up and see life from the throne of God. Often people never grow up. They never grow up. They never understand that God is in control. And part of growing up is understanding that you're not the center of the universe, But God is.

And once you understand that, you're free. As long as you don't understand that, you will be incarcerated by every fear, every problem that comes to you, every disappointment, everything. You will be a prisoner unless you understand this throne. So it's very critical that we that we get this and you can't see it from earth but it's there and it's God's throne. The key word is the throne of God in chapter 4 And so in Revelation what we'll see is two things.

You see what's happening in heaven and what's happening on earth. You have these two layers that are revealed. These are the layers that we relate to in the world. We have to understand that there are these two layers that we are relating with. You have these traumatic and tumultuous crazy times going on in the earth, but in heaven there's a timeless calm, there's everlasting joy, there's absolute authority, and you have to understand earth by looking at heaven.

And you can't understand earth until you look at heaven. And this, of course, is the problem with mankind. They only see horizontally, and they don't lift up their eyes to heaven. You know, I was reading Pilgrim's Progress with some of my grandchildren last week, and when Pilgrim, when the Christian comes to the house of the interpreter, he gives several instructions. And the first instruction is, keep your eyes looking up toward heaven.

And the second is keep that book in your hand. And there were more, you should go find them out. They're absolutely wonderful and very helpful. But there is a throne in heaven. And so another thing that we see here in chapter four, the focus is God the Father seated on his throne.

The focus of chapter five is Jesus Christ enthroned, who is the lamb who was slain. So next week the focus will be the lamb who was slain. Here we have the focus of God the Father and his absolute authority and the inexpressible, unrestrainable joy that those who are in heaven experience. That's what you have to look forward to. So as we get into chapters six and forward, you'll see the ravages of war.

You will see famine. You will see economic collapse. You'll see violence. You'll see political upheaval. You'll see what we call natural disasters.

None of them are natural disasters. They are unnatural disasters being exercised by God. And you have in chapter six these horsemen that are released on the earth to bring judgment on the earth and God is under control, he controls all the horsemen who open up the seals or the Lord Jesus Christ opens the seals. So anyway, what you find here is this disclosure of heaven. These two chapters are, I think, full of encouragement for Christians.

They explain the beauty of the universe, the ruler of the universe, that he's on the throne. And at the same time, this ought to make even the Christian a little bit uncomfortable because God is holy And He will destroy everything that's unholy. And you might as well start now. You just might as well start now. And be a holy man or a woman or a boy or a girl.

God is holy. That is good news because holiness is happiness, holiness is beauty. But his holiness will roll over everyone who ignores him. His holiness will roll over everyone who denies him. His holiness will roll over everyone who will not turn to him though they have heard about him over and over again.

Some of you have heard of God's holiness over and over again. Let me tell you, you will be destroyed by his holiness because he is holy. And without turning to Jesus Christ as your only hope for holiness, you will be destroyed. You just need to understand that. This throne has massive implications for the Christian and the non-Christian, for the Christian to make us happier and holier, for the non-Christian to terrify and to help them to see there's no hope without the holiness of Jesus Christ, without the robes of righteousness, without the crown, without these white robes that are spoken of here.

And so these words ought to be a terror in one sense. They are so encouraging. It's been very difficult for me just not to think only about just the beauty and the sweetness of this passage of Scripture, but I'm not here to pamper your conscience today, frankly. Do not take him lightly. Some of you are taking him lightly and you need to know that you need to understand the danger that you're in from taking him lightly.

I recently read something that John MacArthur said. He said, a pastor's heart is not to manifest how good a man is at petting sheep. It is how capable a man is at protecting them from wolves. And I pray that this throne will be a protection from the wolves that want to devour you. So I pray that this is both heartening and also terrifying and that if you don't care about this throne that you would turn that you would turn and worship in the way that we see in this passage.

Okay so let's go to the text. So let's look at verses one and one and two. Now you can see my outline. I've broken this text into two sections. The first is the scene in heaven where God is on his throne.

The focus is upon God. And then in this section I want to speak of the throne of God, verses one and two, the beauty of God, verse three, the representatives of God, verse four, the perfection of God, verse six, and the undisturbed God, in the first part of verse 6. And then the second section here is the focus on the worship of God on his throne, and that's in verses six through 11. And you see the four living creatures, and you see the worship of the 24 elders. So that's how I want to approach this passage of scripture.

So we begin in the first section. We get this scene in heaven where God is on his throne at 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. So after these things, what does that mean? I think it means that after these things that the Lord spoke to John in the previous section revealing the nature of Jesus Christ in chapter one and chapters two and three, the letters to the churches after these things. Now something else is revealed to John.

Notice it's by a trumpet. Trumpets are very important. We're gonna learn a lot about trumpets in Revelation. And a trump, there's a voice like a trumpet. This was the very repeat of what we saw in chapter one as well and what is this, what is happening here?

Well there's a door standing open in heaven. In the previous chapter we learned that there's a door that no one can open and no one can shut. That was before the Philadelphian church and now God is opening a door for John for us to look into, for the whole church to look into. God is opening this door to see what's happening in heaven until Jesus Christ returns. So God is going to reveal something to his church, that's us.

And there's a tremendous principle here that I want us to click on for a second. And that is this, and that is that God is very kind. He's kind to let us know what we need to know. He does not tell us everything there is to know, but he tells us everything we need to know, and we don't need to know anymore than from what we gather from his word. The Lord's people are always the most blessed.

They're always the most stable. They're always the most happy. They're always the most sound when they are satisfied with what God has revealed to them. Not necessarily what they want to be revealed to themselves, but satisfied with God and what he has revealed. This is actually all we need.

We need the word of God alone to sustain us. And I think this is all part of the scheme of God to get his people fixed on himself, that when the people of God gather together in a church, in one of his churches, that what they get is God and what they want is God. They want what God has revealed. The sign of a healthy church is a people who want to hear from God and they want to hear from his word and their ears are attentive to God. In verse 2 he says, immediately I was in the spirit and behold a throne set in heaven and one sat on the throne.

So this is this throne. Now let me give you some perspective on the whole book of Revelation. The throne is depicted in every single chapter in Revelation except four chapters and those chapters are chapter 2, 9, 10, and 15. But this word throne appears 12 times in chapter 4 and it occurs five times in chapter 5, 34 times in the 22 chapters of Revelation the word throne appears. This throne is a prominent message of God to the church that there is a throne in heaven.

And of course, we know that this is all part of the gospel narrative. Jesus Christ was sent from God to Earth that he lived, and he was crucified. He died, and he was buried, and he ascended to the throne to be seated at his Father's right hand. This is all part of the Gospel message, that Jesus Christ is upon a throne. Here we have God the Father on the throne, I believe.

In the next chapter, in verse 13, the lamb takes the book from God the Father seated on the throne, and then the Son sits on his throne. And the father and the son are quite likely distinguished here. He, I believe, is the ancient of days that is spoken of first in the book of Daniel. OK, what's this all about? The Lord wants you, the Lord wants me to see life on this earth from this perspective for the rest of your life.

You've heard it now, for the rest of your life. See everything in this life from this perspective, that God is on his throne. He is the ancient of days, and he is seated on the throne. And that applies to everything that happens in this life. When the baby dies, when the money is lost, when your desires are not fulfilled, when you got stung in a business deal, God is on his throne, God ordained it.

What God ordains is always good is what the song says. It reflects the doctrine of the sovereignty of God. One of the men in our church has been studying the sovereignty of God over the last couple of weeks. You should ask him about it. His name is Ash Noah.

And there's much to say. I have way, way, way, way too many things to say about the sovereignty of God here, but I will not say them now. There's much to understand about this throne, but the sovereignty of God is a critical part of God's throne. The throne is described vividly in Exodus chapter 24 in about 1440 BC on Sinai, 700 years later in Isaiah 6. And then Ezekiel gives the most extensive vision of this throne, which is very much like Revelation 4.

If you want to, you know when we read this, all this stuff about the throne, it sounds so weird to us. It didn't sound weird to John. John read the book of Ezekiel. It was normal. It was just, is what he already had thought about.

It seems strange to us. The reason Revelation seems strange to us is because we don't know our Old Testament. We don't know Ezekiel, we don't know Daniel, we don't know the Psalms, we don't know these places where the imagery of Ezekiel is brought forth. If you want to understand Ezekiel, put down your newspaper and pick up your Old Testament. And this picture is found very clearly stated in Ezekiel chapter 1 beginning in verse 26.

And there is a throne set in heaven and when you look around God is not losing in the world God is not losing don't be deceived one second it may look like it is very you know it's very funny to me is interesting this last week the Canadian government put two fences around a church in Canada in order to shut the church down. That is so funny. You don't shut the church down, No one has ever been able to shut the church down. And I wish I was there. I think that you will see the happiest worship service of these people they've ever had, because they know that There's no government that can shut a church down.

It's ridiculous. The church will continue to be the church. The church will continue to meet. The church will continue to sing. The church will continue to have fellowship.

And the church will continue to eat together. And the church will continue to be the church. And you can't, this, you know what, the gates of hell will not prevail against this church. This is not gonna happen. But I really, I was just so humored by what happened.

It didn't scare me one bit, I just thought it was amazingly ridiculous that they would think such a thing. You know last night I was laying in bed, Deborah and I, and I opened up the Psalms to her, to read to her, and I, here's what I read. I couldn't believe I was reading this. It's Psalm 33. I'll pick it up in verse 13.

The Lord looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men. From the place of His dwelling, He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashions their hearts individually. Wow.

He considers all their works. No king is saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety. Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive and famine. Our soul waits for the Lord he is our help and our shield for our heart shall rejoice because our heart our heart shall rejoice in him because we have trusted in his holy name. And in this passage we learn holy holy holy Lord God Almighty. Now the Lord looks from heaven. This is what's happening in the throne.

So then we turn from the throne of God to the beauty of God, verse three, the beauty of God. And he who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne in appearance as an emerald. Now, there's a whole theology of stones here. You'll get a theology of stones by the time we get to the end of the book of Revelation.

Now let me first say that this throne exists in an overwhelming beauty that is expressed in light, in colors, and in sounds. The beauty of the Lord is expressed that way. And what is the point? Okay, we said this before. I'll just bring it back to your memory.

This describes not what he looks like, it describes what he is like, okay? He is like this and he's incomparable. It's hard to describe. In fact, in the second commandment he said, don't try to describe me, don't try to paint a picture of me no pictures of God no pictures of Jesus no pictures of the Spirit you can't picture them you don't make pictures of God and but what you you but you can say what he is like, and that's what John does in this whole thing, and he's beautiful. He's like beautiful stones.

He was like Jasper and Sardius in appearance. Like he's like, his appearance is like that. There's no facial features, there's nothing. There's just this, this is what he is like. He is like beautiful colored light.

It's almost inexpressible. It's hard to explain. You use these words. There's a, it's, he is like, he's opaque, is translucent, you know. No, he is like this color.

No, he is like that color. He is like light shining through colorful stones. Have You ever seen that? It's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful.

Gemologists can't get over it. And those who buy stuff from them can't get over it either. They keep showing their stones. Have you ever shown your stone? Your diamond?

It's beautiful. Jasper. There's this Jasper. Actually, it's a word that refers to different kinds of rock crystals and they can range from colors, from amber to green, and then you have Sardius, it's a reddish rock, it's also known as carnelian, and it's also used in the 12 foundation stones in the New Jerusalem, and when we get to chapter 22 verse 20 and there's this whole doctrine of stones. You get to chapter 21 verse 10 and you get the idea that the people of God are also like they're Jasper.

They're like that. Well, we're living stones, you know, being fitted together. And The light of God continues to shine increasingly through us and when you get to heaven I mean the light of God is you're gonna be like Jasper. You're gonna be just like this, in a sense. It's beauty.

What does God have for his people? It's beauty. I think the whole point of this thing about these stones is beauty. He's beautiful. He is so beautiful.

He's so stunning. You can't take your eyes off of him. And you also, as living stones, are being beautified. That's what God has for you. Beauty.

Beauty for ashes. So he's beautiful. Are you ignoring the throne? Have you been ignoring the throne? There's a throne at the backdrop of everything going on in your life right now.

Have you been ignoring the throne? Like the interpreter said to Pilgrim, keep your eyes looking up and keep that book in your hand and keep the world behind you. In Exodus 28 verses 17 to 20 we learn that Sardius is the first stone in the priests breastplate and the last stone in the priest's breastplate is Jasper. Isn't that interesting? The stones don't just reflect the glory and the beauty of God.

They also reflect the children of Israel. Remember the priests, they had a breastplate with 12 stones. And each one of them represented one of the tribes of Israel. And he would take the breastplate into the holy place. And he would intercede for them.

And they were beautiful stones to him. The first row shall be a Sardius Exodus 28 17 And the last stone in the last row is Jasper. So, okay, so you have this expression of beauty in the stones, and there's a rainbow, And you have a, we're gonna mix beautiful metaphors here. There's a rainbow around the throne in appearance like an emerald. So now it's a rainbow, but it's like an emerald.

It's just so beautiful. And An emerald can be a spectrum of colors. It's possibly green. But you have this imagery of the rainbow. We've heard a lot about rainbows lately.

But whenever you see a real rainbow, you're just drawn in. Around my house, every once in a while, you'll hear somebody shout, there's a rainbow. And everybody runs to the door. Now, my house, They always run to one door. The reason they always run to one door is because almost always when there's a rainbow it's always in one place right outside my back door.

It's really weird. I'm just going to say 90% of the time It's right straight out my back door across the trees in the pasture. It's really interesting. Do your people do that when there's a rainbow? Hey, there's a rainbow and everybody runs to the door.

Well, why? Rainbows aren't just theologically interesting. They're beautiful. They're amazing, but they are theologically significant. And rainbows are beautiful.

It's very similar to the rainbow in Ezekiel 1, 26 through 28. And I just refer that to you right at the end, Ezekiel 1, 26 through 28. And here you have a picture of God and the appearance of his waist downward and his waist upward, it says this, it was like the color of amber and there was brightness all around like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. So is the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord." So rainbows and emeralds and sardius and all kinds of beautiful imagery just to speak of this this beauty of God.

Now the rainbow does not represent the LGBTQ movement, okay? Rainbows do not represent equality of that kind.