If you would, let's be turning in our Bibles over to the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation in chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. And as you're turning there, I want you to know that I believe that this piece of scripture that we're looking at this afternoon is one of the most significant pieces of scripture that's found in the Word of God because here we have a description of heaven. In fact, we don't just have a description of heaven, we have a description of the holiest place in all of heaven, the most important piece of real estate in all of creation, the throne room of God, the place where the angels cry out, holy, holy, holy, morning, noon, and night. It's a scene really that few of us ever truly imagine. We like to think of heaven. Sure enough, we like to think of heaven, but I think oftentimes our view of heaven is quite skewed to some extent. You know, we get sentimental when we listen to Alan Jackson sing, I want to stroll over heaven with you, and we think about walking through heaven hand in hand with our soulmate here upon this earth and just having a merry old time walking on those streets of gold and walking through those gates of pearl. And some think of heaven as a great meadow, so to say, as just walking through and tiptoe through the tulips, so to say. I'm pretty sure the tulip will be the most popular flower there. It's an inside joke for all you sovereign gracers. And then other people, of course, think of heaven like just as fishing out on a lake. Just fishing out on a lake, out by the stream, just all these little things that people tend to think about. And then of course you got these little images and drawings of people floating around on clouds and playing harps and things of that nature. And that's the kind of realities a lot of people think about when you think about heaven. And today we kind of have this heavenly tourism kind of business going on. You know what I mean by that? I mean, these are people that have, you know, say they've been clinically dead or something to that extent, and then they go and visit Heaven, and they come back and they write a story about it. And they want to tell all kinds of wonderful little stories, you know, stories about how they were baptized in the Lamb and they lived their life with Jesus. They even got baptized by Him. You know, this is some of the stories that are out there. All kinds of bizarre descriptions about Heaven. And it seems as if it's a place where everybody's going regardless of what you believe or whatever you did. You know, that's part of that heavenly tourism business. You just get to go. Jesus is waiting on you. But what they're describing, folks, what they're describing in these books is not the description that the Bible has for us. It's not the description the Bible has for us. And I am not denying the fact that the Lord could allow someone to come up to heaven. He's done it in the past. He can do it again. That's up to Him. But at the same time, God has not changed. Heaven has not changed. And God is still on His throne the same way He always has been. And that is what He's doing. In Scripture, we have three main accounts of heaven. of those who have been visited by earthly visitors, so to say. Paul certainly got to see a glimpse of heaven. He was called up into the third heaven, but was prohibited, seemingly, of writing about it. Daniel may have seen a glimpse of heaven, but again, there were some things that he was not allowed to write and he did not. But in the Word of God we have three main accounts. Three main accounts. We have Isaiah, who wrote in about 740 BC. We have Ezekiel, who came around about 200 years later. And then we have John, the apostle, who wrote in the book of Revelation sometime before his death, before the close of the first century. And then we get one more little bonus clip. before all of that. And I'll get to that a little bit later. But we're going to start in Revelation. I had planned on starting in Isaiah, and I kept going back to Revelation for references, so we're just going in Revelation. So, Revelation chapter 4, verse number 1. Let's see how it starts. It says, After this I looked, and behold, a door And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. Now that phrase, after this, refers to after the fact that Jesus has dictated the letters to the seven churches which were there in Asia Minor. And we have that represented for us in the first three chapters of the book of Revelation. So here we have after this. So after these things, this took place. And what we begin reading here is still yet in the future to John. As a matter of fact, it's still yet in the future to us as well, because when we get to this point, we're taken to the moments right before the Great Tribulation, which is getting ready to really just boom here upon this earth. John is not only getting a glimpse of heaven, folks, he is time traveling as well. So if you ever wondered if time travel was possible, John did it. I don't think anybody else is going to, but John did it. This voice that John hears as he ascends into heaven is the voice of Jesus. He said it was the first voice here in our verse. And we read about that first voice in Revelation 1, verses 10 and 11. It says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet. saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. And as you go through and you read through chapter 1, you understand that Alpha and Omega is indeed referring to Jesus Christ, the one who was dead and now lives forevermore. On both occasions, now in chapter 4 and in chapter 1, John says, the voice was like a trumpet. The voice was like a trumpet. When God, the son of David, grew up, the voice was like a trumpet. When God, the son of David, grew up, the voice was like a trumpet. I want you to remember all the way back to the book of Exodus when Moses was there on Sinai. You remember that? When Moses was there on Sinai meeting with God. I'm going to read to you just one verse there that speaks about how the people heard what was going on. prepared to ascend the holy mount of God. In Exodus 19.16 it says, "...and it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud so that all the people that was in the camp trembled." Trembled. So his voice was loud. Unintelligible to most, but just like Moses, John understood. what Christ was saying. He understood what God was saying. He heard the words of Christ in Revelation chapter 1. He heard the Word come up hither here in our chapter now. He hears the Word telling him what to do. He hears the voice of God down Sinai when the people below couldn't. when all they heard was just the loud sounding of a trumpet. You know, when the Lord calls us home in the air, in that great event that we call the rapture, that'll be brought in by the sound of a trumpet, folks, and we hear the words of Christ saying, come up hither, folks. You're going to understand What Christ is saying, but I'm pretty sure the world's going to hear the loud sounding of a trumpet. Verse number two, it says, and immediately I was in the Spirit and behold a throne was set in heaven and one that sat on the throne. John is now brought into the most holy of places. He's brought into the very presence, the throne room of God. And it's not a throne room in a palace, a castle, so to say. The throne here is in God's heavenly temple. Again, the most precious real estate in all of creation. Hebrews teaches us that the tabernacle and the temples that were here upon this earth, the temple that Solomon built and later on was reconstructed, that as you go through the list of furniture that God gave to Moses all the way back in the book of Exodus there, as you go through all the furniture, that all the furniture represents a heavenly reality. They all represent a heavenly reality. Wherever God dwells, because of His holiness, it is His temple. Consider the fact that even when the Holy Spirit indwells you, what are you called? You are called a temple. Now, here we begin to have the description of what the throne room of heaven's temple is like. Look in verse number three, it says, and he that sat was to look upon like jasper and a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. Later in this book, John speaks of the jasper, and he speaks about it being as crystal in nature, that is kind of clear. So what is described as jasper is more like what we would think of as a diamond today. And I want you to think about the brilliance of a diamond. You know, you men who have went and picked out an engagement ring perhaps, or you ladies as you go to the jewelry store to find a necklace or something, you know what it's like when they put that stuff under those special lights, right? And everything just sparkles and shines and it looks so nice. It's captivating. Well, God Himself God himself is light and John describes the brilliance of God like a diamond. The sardine stone is a dark red stone. Likely it is here to remind us of the blood of Christ which is paid for our redemption. For there is no other way to see the brilliance of God than to come to the blood. There's no other way. Now what comes next in our verse here I think is very interesting. And I think it's one of the most interesting things about this verse because he describes, John describes as it were this rainbow. This rainbow that is round about the throne of God. I want you to put a marker here in Revelation chapter 4 because we're going to be coming back here in just a moment. But I want you to travel with me to the book of Ezekiel, the book of Ezekiel chapter 1. Now you'll find the book of Ezekiel right after the exciting book of Lamentations and right before the book of Daniel. Ezekiel chapter 1 is where we're headed, and we're going to head towards the end of that chapter. We'll hit some other things in that chapter later on, but we're going to head to the end of the chapter, beginning in verse 26. Ezekiel 1 and verse 26. It says, and above the firmament, that is the ground, the floor so to say, and above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, and the appearance of a sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above above it, or above upon it. So when Ezekiel saw God, he saw Him in a human figure. I want you to kind of keep that in mind, who that human figure would be. and I saw as the color of amber as the appearance of fire round about it within it from the appearance of his loins even upward and from the appearance of his loins even downward I saw the appearance of fire and it had a brightness round about it and the appearance of a bow that is in the cloud In the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, and when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke." Now, notice here that Ezekiel describes the brightness, Same kind of brightness that John describes. And of course, Ezekiel describes for us here this bow. A rainbow. The kind that we find in the clouds right after it rains. Just as John describes. Now I want you to consider for a moment just what a rainbow represents here upon this earth. And to do that, we've got to, of course, go all the way back to Noah, right? We've got to go back to after the flood. And we know that after the flood, God made a promise. He made a covenant that He would never destroy all mankind by way of flood. And He sealed that promise with a rainbow. And God has never forgotten that promise. because there is a reminder constantly surrounding his throne. God never forgets a promise and God never breaks a promise. Today the rainbow has been hijacked. It's been hijacked by the LGBTQXYZ whatever comes after it crowd. The rainbow belongs to God. It belongs to God. It is a symbol of His covenant. And folks, we need to take the rainbow back. But again, in everything that we've read so far in Revelation, and here in Ezekiel, we see this explosion of brightness, of color that's coming from the throne of God. And before I go on, I want you to notice that in what we just read, that when Ezekiel saw the glory of God, what did he do? He fell upon his face. And folks, if we go back to Revelation chapter 1, we see that when John saw Christ in all... He saw the vision of the Son of Man, there was no strength left upon him, and he fell upon the floor. Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter 6, as we'll get to in a little bit, whenever he saw the glory of the Lord, he cried out, And I'm mentioning that, again, because of these plethora of books that have come out that just describe people having these near-death experiences and supposedly going up to heaven. And again, you know, it's like they go up to heaven and everything is happy-go-lucky. There's no reverence at all. Maybe this is someone who's waiting for them like a good old bird, wanting to show them around. That's hogwash, folks. That's hogwash. When these devout men of God... Now, let's travel back to Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. Hopefully you kept your marker there. And keep a marker there in Ezekiel. Switch them up now. Verse number 4 says, And round about the throne were four and twenty seats. And upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders clothed in white raiment. They had on their heads crowns of gold. Now we're introduced for the first time in our chapter, and the first time in this book, of these 24 elders. And 24 is a very significant number in the word of God. If you go all the way back to the Old Testament, of course, you'll find that the priests were divided into 24 courses. You will find that the musicians were divided into 24 courses. The 24 represented a whole, a whole. So the question comes, who are these 24 elders? Now, some believe, I'm going to tell you what some believe. Some believe that this is a special order of angels. I don't believe that. I don't believe that's what these are. Now, I want to tell you why they believe that these are angels. They believe that these are angels because they do not believe that the rapture is taking place at this point in time. They believe in a post-tribulation rapture. And if you have a post-tribulation rapture, you've got to figure out how your elders got there. That's what this is all about. So they believe it's a special order of angels. But for now, John sees and we see these elders are clothed in white raiment. We know that when we are saved that our old earthly garments that are filthy and stained with sin become indeed as white as snow and we are given a new raiment. We are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, right? which is truly whiter than snow. Do you ever realize? We're never told in scripture that the angels are clothed in white. We're not told that. We're not told that they're given garments of white. Secondly, we see these elders are wearing crowns, and again, we're never told about angels wearing crowns in heaven, but we are told that the redeemed shall wear crowns, crowns like the crown of righteousness, the crown of glory, the crown of life, and I don't know how all those things are going to work exactly, but literally, there are crowns in heaven. These 24 elders seem to represent the redeemed and rewarded saints. Redeemed and rewarded saints. A lot of expositors say that it was 12 from the Old Testament, 12 from the New. I don't know. I can't tell you. What we do have here is a picture, a picture of the redeemed of God sitting around the throne of God. They do not appear to be angels. They're never described that way. Now, curiously enough, when you go back and you read the accounts of Ezekiel and you read, you know, the description of Isaiah, you know, you read about these angels that are surrounding the throne, you hear about what they're doing, you hear about the brightness, the rainbow, and all of that, but you never hear in their accounts the 24 elders. Again, why didn't they? Because they weren't there yet. They were yet to come. They are in addition to the scene that John saw. Now let's read on. Verse number 5, it says, So out of the throne was the pouring of these thunderings and lightnings. And again, this reminds us of the very presence of God there on Mount Sinai. And here in this particular part of Revelation, though, these thunderings and lightnings are part of what is getting ready to take place and what is taking place here upon Earth, because this is the kickoff of the Great Tribulation. God has been long-suffering with this earth. But at this point in time, the long-suffering of God shall be over, and He will pour out His wrath upon this earth. So as we see here in this scene, this is the throne room of God in the Holy Temple of God, but this is also the war room of God. Here also we see the reference to the seven spirits of God. This is a reference, of course, to the Holy Spirit. You might say, well, there's only one Holy Spirit, right? So why are there seven here? Well, this is speaking truly of the completeness of the work of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 11, 2 gives us the ministrations of the Holy Spirit. In verse number 2 of chapter 11, it says, And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him in the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. These are the seven ministrations of the Holy Spirit. And it is represented by the earthly reality, as you recall, as the tabernacle was built and the temple was built later on, there was a candlestick, right? That is called a menorah. Not the Hanukkah menorah, that has extra branches on it, but the original menorah had seven lamps. And that is to represent the seven spirits found there before the throne of God. Now let's read on here in Revelation 4, verse number 6. I love what's... let's get ready to come next here. It says, "...and before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal. And in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts full of eyes before and behind." Now I want you to notice that the floor Where the throne is at is not gold, but it is described as a sea, S-E-A, sea of glass. I told you we get one more bonus account earlier on, and we find that actually in the book of Exodus. And we've mentioned, of course, Ezekiel and Isaiah, but we get a glimpse of some people who got to look up into heaven, all the way back in Exodus, again on Mount Sinai. And it wasn't just Moses that saw it, it was a lot of people that saw it. In Exodus chapter 24, verses 9 and 10, it says, Then went up Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and the seventy, and seventy of the elders of Israel. Alright, so we got 74 people here on Mount Sinai. And in verse number 10, I love this, it's so brief, so important, so amazing. It says, Exodus 24, 10, it says, and they saw the God of Israel. And there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone and as it were the body of heaven in its clearness. Now, quick quiz. What color is a sapphire? It's blue. When you think of the ocean, what do you think of? You think of blue. You think of a sea of glass. You understand the description? The blueness of glass that is under the throne of God. The same thing that John describes is the same thing that Moses saw on Mount Sinai and those that were with him. You see, Scripture agrees. Scripture agrees from the first account to the last account. Now we've been introduced to the 24 elders. We've seen the throne of God. We see where it's at. We see the brightness and the glory that's around it. And now we are introduced to these four beasts, or four living creatures. And these living creatures are around the throne of God, and in this verse here, we learn that they are full of eyes, here in Revelation 4-6, right? They're full of eyes. That is, they see everything. They know everything that is going on. And John goes on further with the description. In verse number 7 he says, And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had the face of a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. Now, hopefully you held your place in Ezekiel. Because I want you to turn back to Ezekiel one more time. Ezekiel chapter 1. And this time we're going to go a little bit further up in the chapter. In verse number 5. We're going to read the description of what Ezekiel saw. Again, what I'm trying to show you is Scripture is in agreeance with what's there in heaven. Verse number 5 says, And out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures, and this was their appearance. They had the likeness of a man, and everyone had four faces, and everyone had four wings, and their feet were straight feet, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot, and they sparkled like the color of burnished brass. And they had hands of a man under their wings and on their four sides, and They four had their faces and their wings. Their wings were joined one to another, and they turned not when they went, they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness of their face, the four had the face of a man, the face of a lion on the right side, and the four had the face of an ox on the left, and the four had the face of an eagle." So again, we see a very similar description of what John is describing here. There is a difference, there is a difference though, and seemingly what Ezekiel saw and what John saw, Ezekiel said the angels had four wings altogether. And John says in verse number 8, it says, And the four beasts had each of them six wings about them. And they were full of eyes within, that rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. These angels described here have six wings. Ezekiel later describes what he saw at this moment with the faces and everything. He describes them as cherubim. You might recall that when God gave directions for the building of the ark, there was Cherubim on either side. And what do we call that piece of real estate right there on the Ark of the Covenant? We call that the mercy seat of God because God promised to dwell there on the mercy seat. With what? The cherubim overlooking. Now what are the cherubim in heaven doing? They're overlooking where God dwells. You see how the picture is there in the furniture of the tabernacle. So, Ezekiel calls them a cherubim. Now that being said, in Isaiah chapter 6, again Isaiah got to see the throne room of God. Isaiah chapter 6, verses 1-3, it says, In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims, each had six wings, with twenty covered his face, with twenty covered his feet, with twenty did fly. And one cried to another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. Isaiah didn't mention multiple faces, but he says they had six wings and they're again shouting, holy, holy, holy. Just as those beasts do that are described with the wings. So the question is, when John describes them, is he describing the seraphim or is he describing the cherubim or something altogether different? I don't know. But they're all really similar, folks. They're all really similar. This we do know. This is for sure. These living creatures were doing exactly what they were created to do, and that is to give all praise, all glory, and all honor to God. And they do it day in and day out, worshiping Him around His throne. In fact, folks, worship is going to be a major event in heaven. And I'm going to read the last three verses here of Revelation. Revelation chapter 4, beginning in verse number 9, it says, And when those beasts give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who lived forever and ever, the four and twenty elders and worship Him that liveth forever and ever and cast their crowns before the throne of God. And folks, that's the real picture of heaven right now. You say, well what about the streets of gold? What is mentioned is part of the new heavens and the new earth. And I'm not saying that Heaven doesn't have those things now, but we're not told that it does. Right now, all we have is a description of the throne room of God. That's all we have. The picture of heaven in scripture is not sitting on clouds and playing harps. The real picture of heaven is not playing fetch with your old dog Rover who died when you were a kid. The real picture of heaven is not strolling over heaven hand in hand with someone that you loved here very much. Listen, the things of this earth The desires of this earth, the things that are important to us, when this flesh is removed, we're going to lose those desires. Right now the spirit is willing, but the flesh is we, folks. But all of those things are going to fade away and our desire is going to be to give God praise. To be what we were created to be. from the very beginning. As Christians, we talk a lot about heaven. We like to sing about heaven. We like to talk about that mansion just over the hilltop, right? We think of heaven because, folks, it is a reality to us. We know that When Christ left this earth, before he left this earth, he promised that he would go and prepare a dwelling place for us. We know that when we die, we will be present with the Lord. We know we have a heavenly hope and I know that whatever your idea of heaven was before we got started with this or whatever you hoped it would be, I know one thing that when you get there you will not be disappointed if Rover is not there. Because what is there is going to be far more awesome than what we could ever imagine. And today I want you to know there is only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ. It is through that Alpha and Omega that John saw. It is the one in whom the angels say, Holy, Holy, Holy. It is Jesus Christ. and He is the only way that we can enter into the presence of heaven. He is the centerpiece of heaven, and He is the door to heaven, and I want you to know there are no other ways. Living a good life may be a good thing, but it's not a door into heaven. Giving money to charity may be good things, but it is not a door into heaven. And trusting in any other God of this world, no matter how devoted you may be to that God, is not a door into heaven. There is only one door, and that door is Jesus Christ. and to see that heavenly reality, you must come through Him. You must look to the Lamb of God. Have you trusted in Him this day as the Lord and Savior of your life? I pray indeed that you have. Brother Randy, if you'll come and lead us as we sing, and Austin as he comes