Well once again we're in the throne room of God where we've been for the past actually four weeks because I wasn't here two weeks ago. And as we look at this throne room, we see some very odd creatures. Three weeks ago, when we looked, we were curious about those creatures that had those four faces, the face of man, the face of an ox, the face of an eagle, and the face of a lion. But as we looked at the book of Numbers, chapter two, we saw that the tribes of Israel had four chief tribes as leaders. The tribe of Reuben, the firstborn. The tribe of Dan, whose symbol, according to his father, was a snake, but who changed their symbol to an eagle, the great enemy of the snake. The tribe of Judah, whose symbol was the lion. and the tribe of Ephraim, whose symbol was the calf. And so what happens as Israel is marching, if you look at Ezekiel chapter 1 in light of Numbers chapter 2, and Ezekiel is looking, and he's looking into the north where these four creatures are coming, and what he sees facing him is the face of a man. And that's the banner of the tribe of Reuben. And why? Because the Hebrew word for head or first is Rosh, which is both a human head and then symbolized in the birth of the first child of Israel, who is Reuben. And then he saw on the right the lion, and that's the tribe of Judah, which would have been that way as they marched. And then he looked to the left and he saw the calf, and that's the banner of the tribe of Ephraim. And at the very back, where he couldn't see, was the eagle. And so these four creatures of Revelation are a reflection of the marching orders and of the camp of Israel in the wilderness wanderings. the human head, the calf, the lion, and the eagle. Now we want to look at something else today. As we look at this, if we look back at chapter 4, we see something else. And we find in the very beginning of chapter 4, these words, And he sees the throne of God, this is page 1917, and then he sees verse 4, Revelation 4.4, surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones and seated on them were 24 elders. Now that's interesting, isn't it? And how many children did did Jacob or Israel have? He had 12. But remember that the firstborn got a double portion. And so what you have is that Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, are counted as sons of Jacob, sons of Israel. So, you end up with 13 tribes, but the tribe of Levi is taken out as the priestly tribe. Now, if you look at the New Testament, you have clearly those 12 original disciples of Jesus, but you know that Judas is removed, and in his place, I believe, as an eyewitness of the resurrection of Christ, was a great enemy of Jesus who was won to Christ on the road to Damascus. So you have 12 Apostles. Now, if we think about it for a moment, is that who we're looking at here in heaven? I don't think so. I think they represent something else. But they're 24. Why 24? Because if you think of the fullness of God's people in the Old Testament, You think of the number 12. If you think of the fullness of God's people in the New Testament, you think of the number 12. I have a theory, and I'm going to preach a theory to you because I think it fits the data very well. First of all, the Apostle John who is probably the last of the living apostles, is the one that sees this vision in heaven, when he is raptured, taken up into heaven, and allowed to see these wonderful things in the throne room of God. So does he see himself as one of those elders? I don't think so. And for answering the question, I want us to look at a couple of passages. Let's start with 1 Kings chapter 22, and we will find this on page 566. Now, if we look at verse 19, and I have mentioned this passage before, but it's really important. If we look at 1 Kings 22, 19, Micaiah, a true prophet of God, prophesying before the godly Jehoshaphat of Judah and the ungodly Ahab of Israel, continues, and he says it in verse 19, Therefore hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the hosts of heaven standing around him, on his right and on his left. And the Lord said, Who will entice? Who will tempt? Who will? make Ahab do something he would never do if he knew what was going to happen? Who will entice Ahab into attacking Raimath-Gilead and going to his death there? So he's asking for a tempter, right? Yes. One suggested this and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, I will entice him. By what means, the Lord asked. I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets, he said. And the Lord's response, you will succeed in enticing him, said the Lord, go and do it. So now the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you. Now, this is an interesting scene, isn't it? Do you remember in Zechariah chapter 3, after the Babylonian captivity, you have people have returned to the promised land. You have Zerubbabel and you have Joshua the high priest. Zerubbabel is a descendant of King David and he's the governor of the land after the Iranians have allowed the Jewish people to return to their homeland. And there's Joshua the high priest in the priestly line of Aaron through Zadok. And you remember that he's standing before God. We probably ought to turn over and look at it just so we see things. In Scripture, Zechariah chapter 3, And there is Zechariah the high priest. And what do we read about him? We read this, as he stands before God, and remember that he's God's people on earth, it's representative, page 1874, Zechariah 3.1, then he showed me Joshua the high priest. And by the way, the word Joshua in Hebrew, as well as in Greek and Latin, is identical to the word Jesus in those languages. He is not Jesus, he is a high priest, and he is the high priest representing God's people. The high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand. Wow. Wow. to accuse him. Why? Because the word Satan in Hebrew comes from the Hebrew verb that means to accuse or to be an adversary. So Satan is standing in his right hand to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, The Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire? Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, take off his filthy clothes. Then he said to Joshua, see, I've taken away your sin and I will put rich garments on you. And so he's clothed there. Now the point I want to make is, at the time before the ascension of Christ, Satan, had full access to the throne room of God. Let's look over at Job chapter 1 for a moment. Job chapter 1 for a moment. And what do we read there? Job chapter 1. We have an event where we are told there, page 788, And, excuse me, 789, Job 1.6, one day the angels, now the Hebrew phrase there is sons of God, b'nai Elohim, one day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, where have you come from? And Satan answered the Lord, from roaming through the earth and back and forth in it, And then the Lord says to Satan, if you consider my servant Job, what I want you to see is that in the Old Testament, Satan and his demons are part of the throne room of God at times. In other words, there's a heavenly assembly, and within that heavenly assembly, there is also the presence of great evil, Satan and all of his minions with him there, and they are there to do mischief. And we find there God initiates a contest with Satan and Satan's response is, have you not put a hedge about him? Have you ever thought about the fact that you'd be dead now if it weren't for a hedge around you? Has God put a hedge around you? You better believe he's put a hedge around you. God's put a hedge around you. God put a hedge around Job and yet, God responds to Satan's challenge and he says, take that hedge away, I'll make him cuss you to your face. And the same thing happens, you read over in chapter 2, after all of the terrible trials that Satan inflicted on Job, back in chapter 2, you see in page 790, on another day the angels came, that is the Bnei Elohim, that is the sons of God, came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came with them to present himself before him. And so once again, you have this challenge. Or while we're in Job, let's turn to the right over to around Job chapter 38, where we look at the creation of the world. Job chapter 38. And what do we read? We discover as God speaks out of the whirlwind to Job, and He's challenging Job and saying, at who I am, my awesome power. And he says, excuse me, that's page 835. And he says in verse 4, Job 38.4, where were you when I laid the earth's foundation. Tell me, if you understand, who marked off its dimensions. Surely you know. Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings laid? Or who laid its cornerstone? Verse 7, While the morning stars sang together, and all the angels, that is, the B'nai Elohim, shouted for joy." What I want you to understand is that when God created the earth, the angels had already been created. and the angels are there, and in parallelism, stars, and they're singing for joy. Who? The sons of God. The sons of God, the B'nai Elohim, the angels, they're there. When God created the world, there was a great chorus of singing. The heavenly hosts were singing praises to God. All the morning stars, while the morning stars sang together, and all the angels shouted for joy. Glory! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! That's what's going on when God creates the world. Before there's a single human being, they're doing that. And so what we have here are the angels of God singing and shouting for joy. And I can't leave, Job, without turning us over quickly to chapter 42. And we're told here that Job is comforted by his friends in page 842, Job chapter 42, verse 11. All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted him and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him. Now think of it for a moment. You know, the world we live in is a world that is governed, I've said this many times before, by cause and effect. What's going to happen when I let go of these keys? Somebody's going to do what? jump and they're going to fall. Why are they going to fall? Because there is an observable pattern in nature. I like to think of observable patterns rather than of some kind of independent natural law. There's an observable pattern in nature and every time I do this, probably, very highly probably, maybe one chance out of an inverted lazy eight, anyhow, that it won't happen, but there's an observable pattern in nature. We call that natural law or cause and effect in the natural world. And then there is within the sphere of that, I've had this up before a year ago, a bigger circle and that's the world of conflict between Christ and Satan, between the Lord of hosts and the devil, between the forces of good and the forces of evil. That's the second circle. And we can say in that second circle, all the misery that happened to Job is because Satan enjoyed doing what he did, because Satan wants to eat your lunch. He wants to devour your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He wants to afflict you. He wants to make you so mad at circumstances in life that you become completely and can no longer perceive the blessing of God on your life. That's his goal, and it's a real goal, and he has real power, and he can do amazing things to bring a person to that point where, in the words of Job's wife, curse God and die, where people are ready to just say, I've had it, I'm out of here, I don't want to be a Christian anymore. And so in that second sphere, encompassing the first sphere of natural phenomena, is that conflict between good and evil. You're being tested. Satan is going about as a roaring lion, seeking how he can devour you. But then there's a third sphere, and that is no devil in hell, no devil on earth, no archdevil, no principality or power that's hostile to God. Not even Satan himself can do something to stop God, and God is absolutely sovereign, and that's what we see on page 842, Job 42.11, all the trouble the Lord brought upon him. Now, there's something else here that we need to remember, and that is, if we'll turn, keep turning back to the right, we're going to do a Bible exercise today. which for arthritic hands is not as easy as it used to be. But look with me for a moment at Daniel chapter 4. Daniel chapter 4, and that's going to be on page 1378. 1378. Daniel 4, beginning at verse 34. God has a purpose in the nations of the world. God wants to save little children, and God wants to save godly people, and God wants to save ungodly people, and God wants to save Joe Biden and Donald Trump. God wants to save Vladimir Putin and Premier Xi. He wants to save all kinds of people. And God went to such trouble to save one of the worst tyrants in the history of the world named Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, who was the second ruler of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, then look at what he does at verse 34, Daniel 4, verse 34. You know what God did to Nebuchadnezzar? He made him go nuts. He caused him to lose his mind completely. He was bloated with pride. Do you know that Babylon actually had designer bricks? Nebuchadnezzar had gotten his name embossed on the bricks that they built as the city went in the great building project and the hanging gardens of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, wow. Nebuchadnezzar, bricks stamped with his name. And he's looking out over his city that he built and he's saying, wow, man, look what I've done. And finally, the word, he had had warnings before and dreams. Finally, as the words coming out of his mouth, a watcher comes and strikes him and he goes nuts. Do you know sanity and insanity are totally in the hands of God? There may be natural causes. Need to get enough sleep. Need to get enough exercise? But there are also supernatural causes. But the supernatural cause is underneath the overarching plan of God. So in the case of Nebuchadnezzar, after all this has happened, and you can read about it in verse 33, how he was baptized with the dew of heaven. It's an interesting thing. He was baptized with the dew of heaven. It sounds like full immersion to me. Anyhow, he lost his mind. His hair grew out and got matted. His nails were long. Nobody messed with him. He would be out there and he'd be grazing on the grass and chewing it like an ox. In verse 34, God brings this pagan idol-worshipping king of Babylon out of his insanity. At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of earth." In other words, angels and devils, principalities and powers, archangels, all. those forces in heaven. God is absolutely sovereign over Satan and all the hosts of hell, all the principalities and powers that rule our earth, which we'll look at in another moment. He says, He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven. Wow! You mean the arch-devil over Texarkana? I'm not talking about a political person. You mean the arch devil over America? No, don't go down there. He's probably a libertarian. But anyhow, you mean The ruler over the United Nations? You mean the greatest wicked forces of evil in our world? Do you mean that they are underneath the sovereign God, the only true God, the only real God, the one true and living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? You mean that God Almighty does with them as He sees fit? Do you mean that God Almighty could cast Satan down into the lake of fire right now on the 17th day of October, 2021? Do you mean God could do that? Do you mean God can remove the rulers of America right now, the supernatural evil rulers over America right now? Do you mean that he's in charge of all the good angels as well? He says, all the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. You know, when you look at the majesty of God and you say, well, what about me? When you consider the majesty of God, where's nothing? What about the United States? It says nothing. What about China? It says nothing. What about the largest geographical country in the world, Russia? It's nothing. What about the teeming masses of India? There is nothing. All the peoples of the earth, he says in verse 35, are regarded as nothing. And how much Nebuchadnezzar, I, Nebuchadnezzar, king of kings, lord of Babylon, I'm as nothing. Nebuchadnezzar came to realize he was nothing when he's out there grazing on grass like an ox, his back drenched with the dew of heaven. And he does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, what have you done? You don't like how God governs the world? Sometimes I don't either. Hmm? You like 2020? You like 2021? You like COVID-19? You like the Great Reset? You like a tyrannical government mandating things and forcing people to do this and that? You like runaway inflation like the Weimar Republic, which is the only way this thing's going? You like that? You like what the Weimar Republic led people to do to vote for Adolf Hitler? You know what? You'd probably voted for him too, and I probably would have as well, and the country was bankrupt, and money was worthless, and the Deutschmark had to be put in wheelbarrows, and you didn't know the future. The man's making promises, and he seems like he's delivering. We'd have probably all voted for him. Well, because we don't know the future, you see, but God does. But do you like having Hitler? Do you like what he did on the continent of Europe? Do you like World War I that forced us to have World War II? Do you like that? Do you like your dollars are worth, going to be worth, $100 bill is going to be worth $10 in the future? Do you like that? I mean, do you like that? You know when you pay $20 an hour for people to flip burgers? Wow. Just start looking. Do you like history? Wow! No one can hold back his hand or say to him, what have you done? Why did God do that? Why didn't God stop it? Why did God allow this? Why did God allow that? You know the bottom line? Shut up! That's the bottom line. I got to shut up. When I begin to feel sorry for myself, when I begin to think, oh God, why didn't this happen? Oh God, why did that happen? Why did it happen to me? Why did it happen to my family? Why did it happen to my state? Why did it happen this? Why did that? Wow. The tens of thousands of dollars that Hurricanes Laura and Delta cost me. Wow. I like that. The moment I begin to say, God, Why do you do that? Why are you treating me like this? Why are you going to let America come under the control of these people? You know what? God's Word says, through Nebuchadnezzar, shut up! Your opinion doesn't count. Wow, isn't that serious? That's really something. In other words, the stance of worship is always, The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him. One last passage before we finish, and that is in Deuteronomy chapter 32. Deuteronomy chapter 32. We're trying to think about those 24 elders, which we're not going to find out completely about yet, but this is what we want to see. Deuteronomy chapter 32, page 323. Page 323. And listen to what we're told here in Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 8. Deuteronomy 32, verse 8. When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided up mankind, He set up the boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. Now I'm going to make a comment here. If you look down at the bottom of the page, It says Masoretic Text, then it says Dead Sea Scrolls see also Septuagint, sons of God. Now let me say something about the Masoretic Text. Our Hebrew Bible was composed in its form that we have it a couple of hundred years after Jerusalem fell in 70 AD. It was composed, that is, I shouldn't have said composed, it was compiled and edited and things were added so people could understand it, vowel points, because the Jewish people understood that the Bible The Torah, the Nevi'im, and the Kadavim, the three divisions of the Old Testament, were the inerrant and fallible Word of God. And that the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the yod or the jot, and the smallest distinguishing mark, the tittle, were all inspired by God, as Jesus Himself said. And so they had to find ways to make it readable for non-Hebrew readers. And they also made it readable by translating into Greek. So if you look at the oldest Hebrew manuscripts, the Dead Sea Scrolls, that predate by a thousand years the complete copy of the Hebrew Scriptures, Codex Leningradis, which is because Leningrad is where it was found. It's what? It's the angels of God. He said, when he divided mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the Bene El, the sons of God. What's he saying? He's saying that God put administrators over all the nations of the world. And some of them ended up turning against the Lord. And then he says, verse 9, for the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. Now I'm going to give you the thought for next Sunday, and that's this, in my opinion. What does that mean? I can't be dogmatic. In my opinion, the 24 elders represent God's administration over His people, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. That's who I think they are. I don't think they're human beings. I think they're ruling principalities and powers assigned over God's people in their fullness, Old and New Testament. We do know that the Jews had special angels. So we have people like the angel Gabriel. We have angels like the angel Michael. These are archangels. They're over other angels. And just as the kingdom of God, the heavenly kingdom, is divided under various administrations, so in Satan's scheme, his organization has structure as well. And so I'm closing with this thought. that the 24 elders are heavenly beings who have remained loyal to God. They are part of God's elect angels. Remember, if they're elect angels, they're also reprobate angels. They're part of the elect angels. They remain loyal to the Lord of hosts. They never joined in Satan's rebellion when Satan said, how come you getting all the brags? They never joined in that. They remain loyal to the Lord. I believe that the 24 elders of the throne room in the book of Revelation represent those loyal principalities and powers, loyal to the Lord, but who had a special assignment over God's people as over against others. Other nations had different sets of angels, and many of them rebelled against the Lord. That's why Paul could say to us in Ephesians 6, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. We wrestle against principalities and powers. Wow. Is there a principality over Texarkana? Yes. Is he different on the Arkansas side from the one on the Texas side? I believe so. Is there a difference in the way that Texans think than people in Arkansas and Louisiana think? Oh yeah, I think so. And why is that? Is it simply natural? Is it simply because that's how daddy and mama taught us? Is it simply how things were passed down? Or is it what we might call, using a German phrase, zeitgeist, the spirit of an age? Is it a supernatural entity that helps to hold people into a way of thinking? Does Texas have a can-do attitude? I think it does. Does Louisiana have a Ain't worried about nothing? Attitude? I think it does. And for my Louisiana listeners, that's what I think. And some counties, we don't have counties, some parishes have even more of that attitude. What am I saying in this? What is God saying? Well, the whole thrust of the throne room is this, God's in control. And when we say that God's in control and He rules over everything, that He's absolutely sovereign, it doesn't mean that God doesn't work through second causes and doesn't mean that He doesn't work through human beings. It doesn't mean that He doesn't work through archangels and principalities and powers. But God has always had a special place for His own people. God loves the world, but He has a special place in His heart for His own people, for His elect. Israel in the Old Testament, under God's special protection, they were His heritage, they were His special object of affection, and for the Church. Do you know that God loves the Church? Do you know that the church is special? Do you know that God is biased on behalf of his gathered people and that he has special angels assigned to his gathered people? The B'nai Elohim, the 24 elders who surround the throne. To be continued next week, may we pray. Lord, we pray that you would bless these words as we ponder our amazing world, a natural world, A world at war and conflict where there are Republican demons, and Democrat demons, and Libertarian demons, and Socialist demons, and Communist demons. And, wow! Also, angels who love the Lord, working through and in all those people as well, because you have a great purpose. May we be comforted in Jesus' name. Amen.