Did you hear that? You sang to the heavenly host to praise God. We're going to hear more of that even now if you would turn in your Bibles to Revelation 4. And especially as I've been away and returned to this series we've been doing, I'll orient some of you who are back, and maybe you didn't follow the series over the summer at all, and that's okay. And you who might be visiting with family or friends for the first time, we have been doing a Behold Your God series, taken directly from Isaiah 40. And there's been this unique way that we have been beholding our God, and that is as He has revealed Himself in His names. Unique ways that are not just a name, but a title or a description. How many of you pray to Yahweh Shalom in your private prayers? How many of you pray to Yahweh Tzevaot in your prayers, as you just heard from Isaiah 6? That is, well I'll describe it in the sermon. But how many of you actually pray the names or the titles of God in your prayers? That's a challenge right here from the orientation. Just a loving, encouraging challenge. How much of God's Word informs your prayer? How much of what is revealed about God in His Word informs the way you praise? adore Him, extol Him, and yes, even exalt the Lord, exalt the name of the Lord, as we were told in both Psalm 117 and Psalm 99. So with God's Word open hopefully before you now, we return and pick up a new portion of this. I thought about doing it before I went away, and just so many things happen in ministry. But as we give our attention to Revelation, God's Word in Revelation 4, there is something profound about what is revealed about who God is in the passage you're about to hear. So from the vision, of the throne room in Revelation 4, let's begin reading at verse 1. After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this. At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. And he who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders. clothed in white garments with golden crowns on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature, like a lion. The second living creature, like an ox. The third living creature, with the face of a man. And the fourth living creature, like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within and day and night, they never cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. That's for the reading of God's Word. Did you hear it? If you were looking, did you see it? Did you hear or see the difference in the vision in the heavenly throne room? What was it? I can tell by your faces, there's myriad responses happening in your minds. Did you hear it? Did you see it? Did you hear the change of the name of God that was sung in heaven by the living creatures? Did you hear it? Did you see it? If you read closely or have read closely, you will have noticed that Isaiah's account in Isaiah 6 verse 3 had one name, But in Revelation 4, verse 8, the very last verse that I just read to you from God's Word had a different name. Did you notice that the Trisagion was followed by two different names? What's the Trisagion, right? You guys know? Some of you study Greek, right? It's this three-fold name. Hagios means holy in Greek. The three holy trifold, threefold declaration, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts in Isaiah or the Lord God Almighty in Revelation 4. Somehow the foreshadow and the fulfillment are different. And is this the only time this song is sung? Did you listen closely? I'll give you a fuller answer, and Lord willing, this is just part one. We'll look at Revelation 4 more intimately, but first, we'll notice it's clear, like Isaiah before him, that John the Apostle had this extraordinary vision, right? Let's just not forget how incredible this is. Where is John, by the way? He's exiled because the Roman emperor Domitian said, you don't get to talk about Jesus around here. Banished. You don't get to talk, you don't get to preach the gospel, exiled onto the island of Patmos. And on the Lord's day, he has this insane vision, like Ezekiel. who had been banished to Babylon. And I'll only say it in passing because it's too crazy. Ezekiel 1 and 10 have these amazing visions of the throne room. If you want to treat yourself this afternoon, or all this week, or every day for the rest of your life, read the visions of Isaiah. Ezekiel, sorry I said Isaiah. Ezekiel chapters 1 and 10. But we're focused on Isaiah 6 and Revelation 4, and here we notice in the vision of the heavenly throne room, John has to go through the doorway, as simple as just passing through a door into heaven. He hears and sees something incredible. The praise to Almighty God. And what's the name of Almighty God in the original? You've all sung the song, right? El Shaddai, El Shaddai, El Shaddai. And we did it in two parts, so you can go back and look at that on the website. I can't unpack all of that now. It's just to notice how profound it is that following that thrice holy declaration, here in John's vision, the living creatures are praising. But in Isaiah's vision, it was the Seraphim who sang to Yahweh Tzevaot. The Lord of Hosts. And I unpacked that name for two parts earlier in this Behold Your God series, right? But I do want to say to you, just to draw really closely to here, you all know this name. When I kiddingly, or whatever I was, when I told it in the series, I said, Yahweh Sebaoth, you could say it like that in the Hebrew, you could say, Yahweh Sebaoth, depending on how you pronounce certain words. But the Lord of Hosts, in English, could be translated, the Lord of heaven's armies, the Lord of the angels' armies, the Lord of all angelic hosts, et cetera, et cetera. You just sang and told ye heavenly hosts to praise the Lord. Did you know that? You just told, you guys all just sang to the heavenly hosts, praise the Lord. Profound, right? Don't miss the importance of words. Don't miss the importance, especially of names of God as he is allowing himself to be revealed from heaven. This is profound, profound stuff. And I'll say it now and in part two, but it's possible that Revelation 4 into 5 is just one of the most amazing sections in all the Bible. I'll make that case next week. But here, you do know this name, not just from Isaiah 6, the Lord of Hosts, and I unpacked it again in two parts, but you actually sing it from probably one of the most famous hymns that you sing. Every single one of you knows the name, knows the song, the hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. And what's the name of God that we sing in A Mighty Fortress Is Our God? Lord Sabaoth. You all know this name that was sung in Isaiah. You've all sung it before. You've all declared what this says about God. He's the Lord that is the one true God of all angelic heavenly hosts. I don't know how else to say it. It's like so expansive and amazing. But I'm drawing close to you to hear that. You already know this. Best known as Lord Sabaoth. Okay. But you can go and listen to the other two parts. But as John passed through the doorway, the first thing he saw was someone. He, it said, seated on a throne. And as Isaiah had, the one seated, he sees, is the central reality of all that exists, saints. It is God. It's just so profound to think. They're beholding the Lord, but I thought no one can see God and live. Somehow they're living. I was gonna have us read Exodus 33 when Moses has that famous conversation, but we can't do everything in every service, so I'll just reference it for you. But the Lord allowed Moses to see the backside, as it was, of his glory. But this heavenly vision is being permitted, as it was for Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, to behold the glory of the Lord Jesus on that mountain as He unveiled Himself in something of His heavenly glory. And that's what John's beholding, and that's what Isaiah before him had beheld. And the one who sits on the throne, the glorious God of all the universe, is the Lord God Almighty, it says in Revelation. In Isaiah's vision, as I emphasized for you already, this is the Lord of hosts, the Lord of heaven's armies, the Lord of the angel armies. Pick your name as you wish. It's profound how people have tried to translate this into English. This is the focus of the seraphims' praise and worship. This is the focus of the living creatures' praise and worship. Do you know what the living creatures are? I'll let that hold. Is Isaiah's vision shaped everything else, going back to the context of Isaiah? I'll bet many of you, by the way, know Isaiah 6 really well, right? There are people here who work for a ministry that was practically built on the publication of one teaching series and one book, right? I mean, everybody knows Isaiah 6 now. But do you know Revelation 4 as well? Do you know Ezekiel 1 and 10 as well? Probably not, but that's okay. We're hearing back at the time of Isaiah, 2,800 years ago, that it came in the year of the death of King Uzziah. And this was a really formative thing because he was a mostly godly king, mostly godly, whose long and prosperous reign of 52 years was permitted by a gift of God's grace to the people of Judah. And in 740 BC, he was beholding the Lord. Now he was dead. I'm sorry, Isaiah was beholding in that year. And now Uzziah was dead. And the questions of political and possible instability and social anxiety about the future would naturally crowd into the hearts of the people, all the commentators said. There was unrest and worry because this guy had ruled for a whole generation, if not more than one whole generation in 52 years there. And he'd been the king over the beloved people of God. And now he was dead. And Isaiah, that year, had a vision of God. He had a vision of a throne that could never end, with someone seated on it, whose glory will someday fill the new heavens and the new earth, and we will behold him. So let your hearts be set toward heaven in that way even now. Because this vision of Isaiah, as I'll say twice in this message, it informed his understanding of God to the very end of his prophecy. To chapters 65 and 66, you'll read them and you'll go, these sound like Revelation 19, 20, and 21. They sound like the end of the Bible. And the first proclamation of the new heavens and new earth is in Isaiah 65. So this is informing Isaiah through to the eschaton, we say, right? To the heavenly kingdom. But in chapter 6 of Isaiah, he saw the Lord high and lifted up, a high and lofty throne, its elevation conveying its authority and superiority. Even the mere hem of the Lord's robe majestically filled the whole temple. Surrounding the throne were seraphim. Do you all know what seraphim are? It's the only place in all the Bible it's referenced. Yeah. And sometimes singularity is like super important, right? Because like it's the only time. But do any of you speak Hebrew? No? No one? Not even me. But we love to play with words, right? That's what preachers and pastors do. We play with words. In Hebrew, the word saraf, saraf, is the burning. It's to burn. Just like we might have a visit from the fireman, right, this morning. Some of you, right? No fire, no water leaks so far. But like we said about Elohim, God, the word Elohim, we noted, was plural. Elohim is plural gods. And from the very first verse of the Bible, Bereshit Barah, Elohim, right? The third word of the Hebrew Bible is reference to a plural gods, with the parentheses. Seraphim means the burning ones. Now, if you've not heard that before, it could blow your mind. This could be the day that your life is changed forever. God made creatures, angels that are burning ones that have eyes here and here and here and six wings and on and on it goes, right? It's wild. It's wild, saints. Don't miss how profound this is. Just the description of the seraphim in Isaiah or the living creatures in Revelation 4 should blow your mind. It's mysterious and majestic beyond imagination. But these burning ones are worshiping God. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. These are creatures that are burning? You ever seen that, right? Moses, famously, and Ezekiel. Man, I've been away too long, I guess. Now it's not working. Exodus 3, famously, Exodus 3, 14, in particular, the great I Am. Was the bush burning or not? It wasn't burning up. Some clever scholars and commentators have said, it's the unburning bush. There are burning ones, there are heavenly creatures that are sinless and perfect and behold God in his presence and sing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord. That's just Isaiah's vision. Have you reflected upon it enough? Because we're moving on, right? His glory fills the whole earth. What an awesome picture of heavenly worship this is. They see the Lord of glory and they cry out to one another. They're singing to one another of what they are seeing, as if to say, proclaim the Lord's greatness with me. Let us exalt. His name together forever. We all sing that, right? That's Psalm 34, 3. It's profound. When the Psalter tells us to praise God, I would ask you, because probably some of you want to sleep right now in service while I'm talking, right? Praise the Lord all the time in the heavenly host. They are constantly doing this. They never sleep. They were made burning ones so that they could praise the Lord all the time. And their cry goes to us, His redeemed people. It's profound, isn't it? I hope it's profound for you. The topic of their heavenly worship is the indescribable holiness, the separateness of this God. That's why the three holy declarations. They can never stop crying out aloud about it. They can never stop singing about it. What is also amazing is that these beings are themselves holy in the sense of being perfectly pure from evil. But the Lord is holy because He is separate, not only from evil, but from them and from every other being He's created. It's called the Creator-Creature distinction. No matter how great we become and how holy we become, we are still infinitely different than our God. Does that make sense to you? It's super profound, by the way. It's okay. God confronted, as it were, Isaiah and the people with this vision of His holiness. And Isaiah saw the Lord enthroned as the Divine King, high and lifted up. And in His presence are these seraphim, these burning ones, who cause the very threshold of the temple to quake as they declare their song. The song of the seraphim causes, as it were, the temple to shake. So might we shake ourselves in beholding this and not just read through it like once a year we read through that. I get to Isaiah once and I was like, let this inform your prayers today and tomorrow and all this week and just see how that changes you. That's part of my application and exhortation to you in this. Because the Hebrew language that uses this repetition that's so famous to us, that's why we say thrice holy, it's just communicating this superlative nature, this incredible quality, this ineffable, indescribable, I can't explain it in words kind of quality about God. And God is truly then the Holy One of Israel. This is a phrase rarely used, I'm gonna use this as an example to you. The phrase Holy One of Israel, you ever heard it, read it in the Bible? Do you know where you've read it? It's rarely found anywhere else in the other 38 books of the Bible, of the Old Testament. You know where it's found 25 times, though? In the prophecy of the one who saw the holy, holy, holy God high and lifted up. It's mind-blowing. This informed Isaiah's vision for the rest of the 66 chapters. 25 times he says, this is the Holy One of Israel. And then as we make our transition, as I try and do almost in every message, there's a shift that happens out of the Old Testament and into the New. Who is the Holy One of Israel? Is it just the Lord of hosts? Is it just El Shaddai? Who else is it? What's another name that appears only in Isaiah and only occurs one more time in the book of Matthew when the New Testament opens? What's that name of God, the Messiah, that comes in Isaiah 7 and 8, the three times it's used in the Bible apart from Matthew 1? Do you know what name I'm saying? Does it need to be Christmas for you to remember that name right now? Immanuel. We don't know the name Immanuel if God hadn't given it through Isaiah. The Holy One of Israel is Immanuel, the Messiah who was to come, your Savior Jesus. He's the thrice holy God. And let me unpack what that means for us. Pure and righteous, totally other and separate from His creation, and yet willing, as I said in the very first chapter of the Bible in Genesis, you can make this case in Genesis 1 for God being Creator, of course, but that's Jesus too, because in John chapter 1, in Colossians chapter 1, in Hebrews chapter 1, and even in Revelation chapter 1, it tells us that Jesus is the Creator. It's a profound defense, and that's I made to you when we did the Elohim series. So there's no one like Jesus. He's not only Redeemer, He's Creator. He's not only Savior, He is Creator. And so we praise Jesus the way we praise the Lord. It's the same. What Isaiah sees is a picture of God exalted as the eternal King, high and lifted up. Isaiah later uses this phrase, high and lifted up, to describe someone very important in his prophecy. In Isaiah 42, 43, 44, 45, all the way to the famous chapter Isaiah 53. They're called the suffering servant songs of the Messiah. And who's the suffering servant of Isaiah's songs in Isaiah 42 all the way to 53? It's Jesus. And the one that he calls high and lifted up is the one who will be lifted up onto a cross, die, rise again, and then be lifted up before the disciples' eyes, and now He is high and lifted up at the right hand." Is this all too much? I miss talking about the Word. It's so profound. But in getting to Revelation and getting toward the end, we're on this final page. The Apostle John continues to unfold this throne room. It's so strange that in verse 1 he just goes through a door. And all of a sudden, he's in the throne room. He's having this vision given by the Spirit because he was in the Spirit, it tells us. And this throne room vision reveals Jesus to him in this unique way, as you don't just see in Revelation 4, but especially in 5, 6, and 7. Isaiah sees a picture of God exalted as the Eternal King, high and lifted up, as we said. But Isaiah later uses that phrase to describe Jesus in particular. And so that's who John is seeing now. And what we have to say is magnificent, but we also humbly admit it's mysterious and maybe even strange. I wrote that wondering if strange is too harsh a word. How many of you are awesome in interpreting the book of Revelation? How many people have known there's just been a bit of confusion and consternation and problem and argument about the book of Revelation for the entirety of the Christian church? Does everybody know that? You're all smiling, so you get it. It's okay, sit loose, open hands, just ask God to be gracious to you as you're interpreting. And so I'll do my best here, right? But what's so profound is the point is made crystal clear, I say, like the sea of glass before the throne, it seems. By way of application, what I'm going to show us, by way of application, is truly crystal clear. John sees something like a sea of glass similar to a crystal before the throne. This adds to the splendor and brilliance of the vision. And maybe this represents purity and the lack of any need for cleansing in heaven at all. Maybe it stands for God's transcendent glory and holiness that we're hearing of so clearly in these two songs. John then sees, like Isaiah before him, four living creatures. We spoke of the seraphim, and now the living creatures, covered with eyes all around, one like a lion, another like a calf, a third had the face of a man, and the fourth was like an eagle, and you're like... How many of you have ever seen that? Right? None of us, right? So you're all smiling. I don't know, really, fully, totally, whatever. Eyes in this place and that and the six wings. But I'll say a few things that are pretty profound about what we do know here. One scholar said beautifully that these creatures cover all of God's creation. And in addition to being covered with eyes, they had these six wings, and these are clearly angelic beings of worship, made to worship God. But the characteristics of both Isaiah's seraphim and the living creatures in Revelation 4, and I'll just add again because I've referenced it two times already, in Ezekiel's vision, it's all cherubim. No mention of the seraphim and no mention of the living creatures. But the cherubim are in the Bible from the third chapter of your Bible in Genesis 3. Who's the one who has the flaming sword that doesn't let the fallen people of God back into the garden so that they would live eternally fallen? The cherubim is the answer with a flaming sword. It seems there and in the tabernacle and in the temple and in heaven itself, cherubim are there to preserve the holy places and spaces of God. These are beings created, right? That's why they're over the ark in the tabernacle and in the temple. They are there to preserve the holiness of God. May you care like the cherubim about the holiness of God in another temple that Paul exhorts us to guard. That's your body. I just throw that out. As hard as it is to imagine or explain all of this, we simply delineate the vision and try to interpret what it must mean. These creatures are strong like a lion, serve like an ox, see like a man, and they're swift like an eagle. And one scholar commentator said, Each in its particular appearance gives witness to the greatness and the glory of our God. No creature is as strong as He. No creature serves as does He. No creature sees as does He. No creature is as swift as He. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Two more minutes and I'm done. Everybody can take a nap right as soon as I finish, okay? while the meaning of the appearance may be mysterious. And I said that purposely. I said majestic and mysterious. I added strange only not to be, but mysterious to us. Nevertheless, the holy activity of the seraphim, cherubim, and living creatures, what is the one key thing that they are doing in this vision of heaven? They're singing praise to God. Christian, do you know here this morning, what you've done this morning, and what you will do again as we sing, holy, holy, holy, you will do forever in heaven? Do you know that one of the few things you do in this life, you will do forever in heaven? We will imitate these seraphim, cherubim, and angelic creatures in praising God. Day and night, they never stop. These angel saints, the smallest little detail, never sleep. How would you do without ever sleeping this whole next week, right? Okay, let me shake you one last time before you finish. You ready? You don't get to sleep until we see each other again next Lord's Day. How's that gonna go for you? You sleep one third of your life. Do you all know that? You all sleep or are called to sleep eight hours, right? You know, none of you to get it, but yeah, eight hours, right? Some days 10, some days two. Okay, it's not meant to be crazy. It's meant to engage you. Listen, there's a reason why sleeplessness is a form of torture for human beings. Did you hear what I said? In war, they will keep people awake because they will go crazy by themselves without rest, without sleep. Some of you know this, I can tell by you shaking your heads. How would you be if you did not get to sleep between now and when we see each other here, Lord willing, next week, Sunday? How would you be? Crazy, all of you would be crazy. These beings, Sinless beings in the presence of God giving Him praise never sleep. And they sing praise to God in all their existence. Is that profound to you? I hope so. What was the difference in the song of the seraphim and the song of the living creatures? Echoing the words, they say, holy, holy, holy. And one set said, is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And then in Revelation 4, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God El Shaddai, the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. And this finishes the message. Do you think there are other names that the Burning Ones sing? Do you think the cherubim or the living creatures sing other names of God? And so I'll ask you as I did in the very orientation before I even began this sermon, do you praise the name of the Lord? Which name and will you do more? Is that a clear application from all that we've said? Do you ever praise the names of the Lord? I think this is an indication that these ones who are created to this end do it. And they probably don't just do those two, because all the other ones reveal the truth of who their God is. And may we join in their worship. May we join them in this wonderful worship to praise the name of the one true God. Amen, let's pray. Lord, as we ask from the beginning, did we hear it, did we see it? Song of the Seraphim, the song of the living creatures, would you help us to praise you in a way that is befitting your glory, even as we sing this next hymn, may we sing it with a fresh joy, though we know it well. We participate in a small way here in this earth, in this world, in this life, in a semblance of something that is done in heaven all the time. And our Lord, we ask you that as we'll see, Lord willing, next week, the praise that was given to God the Father in Revelation 4 is then attributed directly to the Lamb, you, Jesus, in heaven. May we fix our eyes upon you, the author and perfecter and finisher of our faith. And may we join in the wonderful worship of the song sung of your glory as we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen.