Glory, Honor, & Power - Revelation 4:7-11

[0:00] All right, so tonight we're gonna look at glory, honor, and power. Let's just read all of chapter four to kind of give us some context and give us a running start. And so John has just finished up writing to the seven churches, and he says, After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven.

[0:15] And the first voice, which I heard, was as it were a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show you these things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

[0:30] And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone, and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment.

[0:46] And they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God.

[0:57] 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.

[1:07] And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

[1:18] And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within. And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come.

[1:32] And when those beasts gave glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the four and twenty elders, they fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power.

[1:52] For thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. So John is, if you remember, just wrapping up his letter to the seven churches, and he writes that phrase there, I looked and behold, or I'm sorry, after these things, I looked and behold.

[2:17] In Revelation 119, we read that John was instructed to write the things which he has seen, which are, and the things which shall be hereafter. And so if we just go with the flow of the book, and we go with the flow of scripture, we've already read about the things which he has seen, Jesus, the vision of Jesus, the things which are seven churches.

[2:34] And so John is saying, hey, this is not yet been. I'm writing to the seven churches. I finished that. Now I'm writing about something that is not yet been. I'm not a part of it. I'm not going to be a part of it.

[2:45] It's still to come. Remember Paul, when he writes, he writes, when he's speaking of the rapture, of the resurrection, he says, we which are alive and remain. So Paul puts himself there. He expected to be there.

[2:56] He didn't expect to be in the things that are hereafter. He thought that, hey, the next thing on his horizon was the resurrection. That's part of the church. But then there are those things that are after, the things that have come next, which is John, is what John is writing about.

[3:11] John in type is taken away from these things. He's been writing about the church. Not going to write about the church anymore. He's not going to mention the church until Jesus comes back with those that are riding on white horses, clothed in white.

[3:23] But until then, we don't see them on the earth again. John says, hey, that's done. We're now in the hereafter. Ephesians chapter three, beginning verse 18, says that you may be able to comprehend with all saints, what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge.

[3:42] That you might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end.

[3:58] Amen. God wants us to comprehend. It's not supposed to be a mystery. And since it's not, when the Bible talks about mystery, it's things that have just not been revealed. It's not like a mystery, like, well, nobody can figure this out.

[4:10] Nobody knows. No, God doesn't want us to live in ignorance. He doesn't want his word to be a mystery. He wants us specifically to know everything that he's put in here for us to know.

[4:21] If there's something in here, like he'll write to John about the seven thunders and say, oh, seal that up. That's not something for you to know. But whatever it is for us to know, God wants. And at the end there, if you look at verse 21, it says, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, world without end.

[4:38] Glory, honor, and power from now into time, out in space, into eternity. That's the point. But what brings Jesus this glory? What is it that brings him glory in the church throughout all ages, world without end?

[4:51] Well, I think it's what Paul just prayed, that we would understand and be filled with all the knowledge of God. That brings God glory. God's glory is always man's benefit.

[5:02] It is always to the benefit of man for God to be glorified. There's never a time where it's like, well, that will glorify God, but it's not a benefit to man. You know, it is always in man's best interest for God to be glorified.

[5:14] Even as we move into the tribulation, why is God doing all this? God is getting glory through this. We will say with them, with the tribulation saints that are martyred and in heaven, we will say, righteous and true are your judgments, O God.

[5:26] This is bringing you glory. Is that in man's best interest, that God is judging them? Yes, because that's the only way that their hard hearts will now respond. They did not respond to the gospel. God didn't just throw them into hell.

[5:37] He was, well, the rapture happened and smoked the rest of them. No, no, he's like, hey, I'm gonna continue to try and work on your hard hearts. And every single one of them will say, hey, hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and the wrath of the lamb.

[5:50] They'll either turn or they won't. But it's always in our best interest for God to be glorified. So where it says, unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ through all ages, world without end.

[6:01] Well, part of that is, man, God gets glory when we understand his word, when we are filled with the knowledge of him. He doesn't want this to be like, well, we'll just skip Revelation.

[6:12] And we can't really understand who these people are. We'll just have to make some educated guesses. No, I think that we can follow the flow of scripture and understand exactly who it is.

[6:23] We looked at last time how our blessed hope that the rapture of the church is the hope of the church because it's the resurrection of the church. As John in type is being resurrected after these things, the church age culminates.

[6:35] It finishes, it's wrapped up in resurrection. And John says, okay, now we're moving on. We're after these things. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

[6:46] When that happens, it's wrapped up. We're now on to what is after that, what is after the church age. John said, after this, I looked and behold, a door was opened in heaven.

[6:58] And the first voice which I heard was as it wore a trumpet talking with me, which said, come up hither and I will show you things which must be hereafter. John looked, right? He looked, he has a new focus now.

[7:09] The message and mission of the church is over. So John is now turning his eyes to what's next as God puts that in front of him to say, this is what's coming next, John. I do want to point out, though, we've talked about this multiple times that, you know, John was told to write to the seven churches, right?

[7:26] Write to the seven churches. He didn't say, draw a picture. He didn't say, hey, you know, make an image of what Jesus looked like. And here now he says, I turned, I looked and beheld. And then he's still just going to write it down that Jesus is the word made flesh who dwelt among us.

[7:41] He's the logos. That is the expression of God. And God chose to do that not through image because image can deceive, right? Words don't deceive. They mean what they mean. You know, you can twist them, but you still have to deal with them.

[7:52] That's one of the things with the rapture. You can explain this away. You can try and explain all of this away, but that's the point. You have to explain it away because it's there. He didn't have to, if it wasn't there, he wouldn't have to explain it away.

[8:04] There's a whole lot of junk right now being pushed from the world into the realm of the church saying, hey, this is good because it's visual about the Bible.

[8:16] And so it's good, but it's not. You know, a couple of the guys and I got together recently and we were looking at Timothy where he talks about avoid fables, avoid the fables, but rather do what?

[8:28] Give yourself unto godliness. Into doctrine. Into teaching. There's a lot of fables right now. There's a lot more coming out this year. They're being pushed into the sphere of the church saying, hey, it's okay.

[8:38] It's okay because it's about the Bible because it looks like the Bible when the words that are there, as John would write, if you would write down those things that you see, the visual that's being projected, if you wrote it down, it'd be nothing but deception and lies.

[8:55] It twists the scripture. It's not of God's word just because it looks like it. Man, take what you see and write about it. Write what they're saying. Write what you see and compare it to God's word and you'll find out, oh, Jesus never said that.

[9:09] Oh, that's not in God's word. Oh, that's not how that event in Samuel went down. So, I say that to say, be careful because God did not present his truth to us in image and that is a way that Satan seeks to deceive the body in these last days.

[9:29] But picking up here in verse six, we'll back up into six and he says, and before the throne, so we just read that, you know, we saw that we have the throne out of it are coming lightnings and thunders where heaven will be very loud, very brilliant, but very still.

[9:42] Before the throne, there was a sea of glass like under crystal and in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts and he said that they were creatures. It doesn't mean they're beasts, they're living creatures full of eyes before and behind.

[9:56] Heaven will also be a little strange to what we're used to. I don't think it'll be strange when we're there. I think it's gonna be like, this makes so much sense. I mean, why wouldn't they have four faces? It doesn't make a lot of sense to us now, but it will then.

[10:11] But you know, the idea that heaven is gonna be loud and brilliant, but still, you realize when we're there, there's not gonna be any more pressure to perform. There won't be the next thing in your mind that you gotta do.

[10:21] There won't be that thing that's troubling you. There won't be the weight of just guilt or just awkwardness or uncomfortability with people. It'll be gone. It's gonna be perfect stillness of soul, perfect peace with everything that's going on.

[10:36] We won't be like, I really don't know if I fit in here. I mean, hey guys, which head do I talk to? You know? I like birds, I'll talk to the eagle. No, it's gonna be, it's gonna be perfect peace.

[10:48] It's gonna be so still. But these living creatures, it says that they're full of eyes. You know, when you're a kid, you might have done something wrong and your mom catches you, she's like, man, mom, you had eyes in the back of your head.

[11:02] And these guys really did. They had eyes in every face here. But being full of eyes, I think the idea of what we see here is if they're full of eyes, they're super perceptive, right?

[11:14] They're very perceptive. They're not gonna miss anything, right? We have one direction we look and the other three sides, except in our peripheral, you miss what's going on. I always wondered about chickens, you know?

[11:25] Like when a hawk flies over, they go, and they kind of look up. What are they seeing with the other eye? Can like in their mind, they shut that off and only look out the left eye? You know, if your eyes are on the side of your head, what do they see? That must be so confusing, but not for the chicken.

[11:40] Same kind of analogy. When we're in heaven, it won't be confusing for us. But they're super perceptive. You know, there's a lot of talk right now, right, about artificial intelligence, AI. Who wants artificial intelligence, you know?

[11:54] Hey, this is my artificial wife. Artificial children. Artificial cat. Let's go with that one. But, you know, artificial intelligence, man, I'd just rather have real intelligence.

[12:04] Who wants artificial intelligence? But I think the idea is full of eyes. They're super intelligent. They're able to process and understand things. And obviously, they have super sight, right? So they're full of, they're super perceptive, super intelligent.

[12:17] They have super sight, the fact that they have all of these eyes. there are many created beings. Beyond our scope of what we see in this world, there's many created beings in this world.

[12:28] There's many created spiritual beings that we don't even know all of them. Each with its own purpose, but there's only one type of being that's been redeemed. Out of all of God's magnificent creation, out of these things we're going to look at with the foreheads and faces and all the eyes, and they have wings, there's only one being that's ever been redeemed.

[12:47] Or see this when we get to Revelation 5, these elders sitting on the thrones, they will sing the song, for thou was slain, speaking to the lamb that was slain, and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.

[13:02] You know who doesn't sing that? These four creatures, these living creatures. The angels don't sing it either. It's only one type of being that can sing that song. We may not have all the supernatural, super perception, super intelligence, and super sight, but man, we have a super blessing in being redeemed.

[13:24] The other thing is, here we see again, everything is viewed in relation to the throne. What does it say about them? Before the throne and in the midst of the throne and round about the throne.

[13:35] So we have everything here is in relation to the throne. We have four different types of being related to the throne. We have that which is on the throne, which obviously is God. We have around the throne. We have before the throne in the midst means like under the throne.

[13:50] Everything is seen in relation to the throne. We said before, the message of the Bible and the message of Revelation, it's not earth-centered. It is a throne-centered message. Everything relates to the throne.

[14:01] And the first beast with all of the eyes, verse seven, he was like a lion. And the second beast, like a calf or an oxen.

[14:15] And the third beast had a face as a man. And the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. Now, does that mean that the one, like, he looked like a lion? Well, we'll look at more of what it means later.

[14:26] We're going to turn back and spend some time in Ezekiel. But it means their face. They had these creatures that had the wings and all of the eyes and we're going to find out they had arms like men. But their faces, they had a head that had four faces.

[14:39] And so you have the face of a lion, a calf, a man, and an eagle. Why? I don't know. I don't know.

[14:50] The best thing I could come up with that I was reading that I liked was that each one of those represents one of the four kingdoms of creation. You have the lion, the wild animals, the calf, the domestic animals, and then man, its own sphere, and then eagle, you know, represents those things that fly.

[15:06] But the problem with that is there's a whole sphere of creation left out. What is it? Water. So that one fell apart. I had that in there. I'm like, yeah, that's good. And then I was going over it today and I'm like, oh shoot, what about the fish?

[15:19] So I don't know. I don't know. There's all kinds of reasons, but this is what I do know. The four living creatures, they were not just for show. God didn't make them just because.

[15:30] They were created for a purpose and they always had an eye to the throne, right? They had eyes all over. No matter where they looked, they always had an eye that was to the throne and they spoke.

[15:41] We're going to find out continual truth and praise to God. God is a God of purpose. For God to create anything without purpose would be to create something outside of himself, which is impossible.

[15:54] God is a God of purpose. purpose. Anything that he creates without purpose would then by definition have to be outside of himself, which he can't do. So God creates everything for a purpose. I don't know his purpose.

[16:04] I don't know why we have mosquitoes. Seems like they have no purpose to me. Get rid of them. Would the world really be worse off without mosquitoes? But I'm not the one who holds this whole thing together, right?

[16:18] Look at all the ways man's tried to change ecosystems and, right, we live in the south with all the kutsu. That was a brilliant idea at one time and it totally messed up the whole ecosystem.

[16:32] Proverbs 16, 4 says, the Lord has made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. Even the most unlikely things God has a purpose for. Even the wicked? God has a purpose for them?

[16:43] God has a purpose for, and you could name some names of people that you think all they've brought is hardship and destruction into people's lives. But you don't know the souls that have been touched because of that, that have cried out to God in the midst of that.

[16:55] You don't know the souls that will be in eternity because God had a purpose in that horrible situation. I think of the hostages and people that are taken from Israel that are in Gaza.

[17:08] I just think, what? I just keep praying, Lord, just reveal yourself to them in that situation. I cannot imagine. How do you survive that? How did people survive the Holocaust? How did they survive the death camps in World War II?

[17:20] God has a purpose. Better way of saying that almost, instead of he's made all things for himself, in the Hebrew, it's the Lord has made all things for its own end or for its own answer.

[17:31] Everything will answer to its purpose, is the idea. That there is an end that it was created for. Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. We will all answer up to our purpose. And God says, God will hold us to that end.

[17:42] That's what we will answer to. What's your purpose? I want to answer to that purpose. I don't want to find out that I didn't. I don't want to find out that the purpose God created me for, I totally missed it.

[17:55] So we have these four creatures. What are these four creatures? Well, they're actually cherubim. We're going to look at that. We're going to turn back to Ezekiel. You can turn to Ezekiel chapter one. It's way too much text to put on the screen.

[18:08] So we're just going to turn back there. Ezekiel chapter one. So they're cherubim, not cherubs, as the world kind of paints them and makes them. You know, the world takes the things of the scripture and it doesn't know what to do with it because we know, but the Bible says they're spiritually discerned and they try and make it palatable to natural man.

[18:31] This was the attempt at one point in history where they did that. All right, well, okay, these are angels. It's the same thing they're doing today with what we were just talking about, the entertainment sphere, where it's like, hey, we'll make this palatable to natural man.

[18:42] We'll make it palatable to those who are not spiritual. But what it does is it ends up leading to what? Deception because it takes out the truth. That's not what a cherubim is.

[18:54] Like to make that correct, they'd have to have like a face of an eagle and a man and an ox and a lion and eyes all over him and then who's going to want to buy that, right?

[19:05] Who's going to want to buy that painting? But in Ezekiel chapter one, let's pick up in verse four. Ezekiel, if you remember, is in captivity in Babylon during the 70 years captivity and he has these visions when he's by this river.

[19:19] And I looked and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud and a fire enfolding itself and brightness was about it and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber out of the midst of a fire also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures and this was their appearance.

[19:37] They had the likeness of a man and everyone had four faces and everyone had four wings. Jump down to verse 10. I'm going to jump around a little just to get the the essence of what these guys are.

[19:50] As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man and the face of a lion on the right side and they four had the face of an ox on the left side and they four also had the face of an eagle.

[20:03] So if you're looking at the face of a man, you have the ox and the lion and the eagle in the back. Turn over to Ezekiel chapter 10. Actually, why don't you guys turn to Ezekiel 28?

[20:16] This one is small if I can put up there. You turn to Ezekiel 28 and wait for me there. Ezekiel chapter 10 beginning in verse 20 says, this is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chibar.

[20:30] So he's hearkening back to what we just read in chapter one, that vision of the living creature. He said, this is the living creature that I saw under, remember, we said they were in the midst of the throne under the God of Israel by the river Chibar.

[20:43] And I knew that they were the cherubims. Everyone had four faces a piece and everyone four wings and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings and the likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the river Chibar.

[20:58] Their appearances and themselves, they went everyone straight forward. And so here we have Ezekiel telling us, hey, this is who they are. Everything in Revelation is taken from the Old Testament.

[21:08] The Old Testament is not quoted directly in Revelation, but the types and the imagery that's in Revelation, if you know your Old Testament, then you'll understand what these things are. And so here we see that they're cherubim, he tells us straight up.

[21:21] Now in Ezekiel 28, if you're already there, pick up in verse 13, God is speaking at this point to Satan. He's speaking to Lucifer. He says, thou has been in Eden, the garden of God.

[21:33] Isn't that interesting? It says that God made a garden and put Adam in it to tend it, to keep it. Now we find out it wasn't Adam's garden. It was God's garden. God said, hey, you want to be my gardener? It's God's garden.

[21:45] And every precious stone was your covering. The sardis, topaz, and the diamonds, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold. The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes, so we get the idea that Satan, that Lucifer was the worship leader, was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created.

[22:06] Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth. You know that picture that the world tries to paint of Satan? You know, the red guy with the long tail and a little beard?

[22:18] It's not. He's got four faces. They're the face of a man, the face of an ox, the face of an eagle, and the face of a lion. Satan's a cherub. He's covered in eyes. Thou art the anointed cherub.

[22:29] It's the exact same word for cherubim. This is just singular. That covereth. Covers? What does that mean? Well, we know that the cherubim, some of them were under the throne. When he's saying covered, well, think of the Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat.

[22:41] What do you have over it? Two, they're extending their wings. Was Satan, was Lucifer's role to do that, to be that which covered over, which magnified the glory of God?

[22:51] Was that his position? And I have set thee so. God said, this is why I made you. I made you for a purpose. And then this section right here sounds like it's like taken straight out of like some fantasy fiction novel and I can't wait to find out what it is.

[23:06] Thou was upon the holy mountain of God. Thou was walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. I don't know what the stones of fire are. That sounds amazing. I can't wait to find out what that is.

[23:19] Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that that was created until iniquity was found in you. Jump to, skip 16, we'll go to 17. Ezekiel 28.

[23:30] Thine heart was lifted up. This is what the iniquity was that was found in him. Because of your beauty, you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness. I will cast you to the ground.

[23:41] I will lay you before kings that they may behold you. So Satan's also a cherub. You don't think of that when you think of him. Don't think of him as one of those creatures. But that's who he was.

[23:52] And he had a specific blessing, the purpose to cover. I don't know exactly what that means. He walked among the fire stones. I don't know what that means either.

[24:02] But that's so cool. We're going to get to see those fire stones someday. We're going to understand what they are. We're going to be in the mountain of God. These are real things in real places. Real creatures.

[24:13] And when we're there, we're going to realize this wasn't real, guys. This was just, what is it, C.S. Lewis says, when we get there, we'll realize that all of our life was but the title page to the opening chapter of the rest of the story.

[24:27] And that's what it's going to be. If we turn back to Ezekiel chapter 1, and this is our last in Ezekiel. So we've seen that they're cherubim.

[24:38] We've seen Satan's a cherub. And if you turn back to Ezekiel chapter 1, we're going to jump down and pick up in verse 25. And there was a voice from the firmament that was over their heads.

[24:50] We're back focusing on those living creatures, the cherubim. When they stood and had let down their wings, and above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone.

[25:04] And upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the color of amber as the appearance of fire round about within. From the appearance of his loins even upward and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire and it had brightness round about.

[25:23] As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. We just read in Revelation that there's the emerald rainbow that surrounds the throne. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.

[25:37] When I saw it, I fell upon my face and heard a voice of one that spake. So there's Ezekiel before the throne, just as John now is before the throne, his vision and seeing these creatures, which are cherubim.

[25:52] So now we move into verse eight and back in Revelation, you can flip back over to Revelation four. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him and they were full of eyes within.

[26:10] And so that's just like we just saw about the cherubim, right? And they rest not day and night saying, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, which was and is and is to come. But before we get into what they say, we can see what they see.

[26:22] Cherubim see, cherubim understand, cherubim see, speak, and man, they soar. They've got wings, right? Cherubim soar. Cherubim are spiritual beings, but they have the ability, it appears to have the ability to soar physically.

[26:39] We are physical beings, but we have the ability to soar spiritually. Isaiah 40, 31 says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

[26:50] They shall mount up with the wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. They are spiritual beings and they've got wings. Like, man, I wish I could fly. Well, you have an ability to fly and to soar spiritually in a way that no other created being has.

[27:05] We have a purpose that not even the cherubim have. So they begin to speak of God's holiness. God's angels declare, display, and deflect holiness, but it is God himself who is holy.

[27:18] They declare it, they display it, and they deflect it, but it's God who is. Lucifer was created for that purpose, to reflect and to deflect holiness. And instead, he took it to himself, thinking he was something.

[27:30] What does holiness mean? Well, holy means to be what? Set apart. It means singularity. The single thing. God is singular. There is nothing else. That's why he is holy. You alone are holy.

[27:41] In other words, there's only one singular that is God. There is nothing else. For Satan to say, well, essentially, I'm holy. I will be singular. No, Satan, you're not. Lucifer, you're not. You can't be. Psalm 29, verse 2 says, give unto the Lord the glory, do unto his name.

[27:56] Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. These cherubim says, day and night, they rest not. At all seasons and all times, holiness is appropriate.

[28:09] There's never a time where it's appropriate to turn off holiness. Well, it's nighttime. We'll rest now. They rest not. To rest means to cease, to finish, to be no longer active.

[28:20] They never cease declaring God's holiness. They never finish declaring God's holiness. And they're never not active in it. Right? They cease not.

[28:32] You know, we are supposed to cease. We're supposed to have a rest. Hebrews chapter 4, beginning in verse 9, speaking that, of how Joshua couldn't bring Israel into an eternal rest, so Jesus had to do it.

[28:45] That there remains, therefore, a rest to the people of God. For he that has entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God does from his. You know what that does? That declares God's holiness.

[28:57] When I enter into rest, I'm declaring singularity, that God alone is singular. God alone is the one who could bring me into rest. Where these cherubim rest not day and night, declaring God's glory, well, the fact that I am at rest day and night in God declares his glory.

[29:12] God's holiness is perpetually declared, but it is a holiness for which we, currently, are being continually prepared. As these cherubim continually and perpetually declare his holiness, well, it's a holiness that we're told that we're being continually prepared for.

[29:30] 1 Peter chapter 1, beginning in verse 15, but as he which has called you is holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversation or conduct or lifestyle, because it is written, be you holy, for I am holy.

[29:41] God is continually preparing us for this holiness. We referenced this earlier, 2 Corinthians 3, 18, but we all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed in the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord.

[29:59] And they rest not day and night, saying, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which is, which was and is, and is to come. Lord God Almighty, Lord means the one to whom all things belong.

[30:10] They're saying, holy, holy, holy, Lord, you to whom all things belong. Almighty, the word almighty, are you done writing? Definitely.

[30:26] The one who holds sway over all things. So Lord is the one to whom all things belong. Almighty is the one who holds sway over all things. So he says, these cherubim declare, holy, holy, holy, the one to whom all things belong, the one who holds sway over all things.

[30:45] He said, heaven will be very loud, very brilliant, and very still. But heaven is also an eternally present state of praise. An eternally present state of praise, where they cease not day and night.

[31:00] Well, we're told in another place that there is no night there because God himself gives the light. What does that mean? Well, there's some type of understanding of time, not linear like we experience it, but that there's an eternal present, a state in which we know that we're in.

[31:15] So heaven is an eternally present state of praise. And when those beasts give glory, those creatures, I start calling them beasts, every time I say that in my mind, I think like beauty and the beast. The beast! When those creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who lives forever and ever, we'll see the result in a minute.

[31:38] But what are they doing? What are the three things that they're doing? They're giving glory, honor, and thanks. God's holiness displayed is glorious.

[31:49] Right? They're saying, holy, holy, holy. And those beasts give glory, honor, and thanks as they're saying, holy, holy, and holy because God's holiness is glorious. Glorious means the opinion of one's esteem.

[32:01] So if something is glorious, then your opinion of their esteem, you recognize their esteem is glorious, honorable, the correct value of what is due to honor something, to honor someone.

[32:14] You give them the value of what is due, not what they think is due them, but the correct value of what is due. Like if, I don't know, if some official walked in or, you know, the mayor or whatever just walks in or whatever, you know, there's a certain respect that's there.

[32:31] There's a certain value of what is due. Thanksworthy, gratitude of what has been received. And so as they declare this, that God is holy, they have a correct opinion of their esteem for God.

[32:45] They have a correct view of the value of what is due him, and they are in gratitude for what has been received. The opposite of Lucifer, right? Lucifer had the wrong opinion of himself and an incorrect opinion of God, and then he valued his own worthiness and had no gratitude.

[33:04] Creation knows its maker and is grateful to him. And what is on the throne of this? And when those beasts gave glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who lives forever and ever, eternal life sits upon the throne of heaven.

[33:20] I give glory to the one who sits on the throne and lives forever and ever. Jesus says in John chapter 10, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

[33:35] My father, which gave them me, is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. Eternal life sits upon the throne. You know who else sits on the throne? Our father sits upon the throne.

[33:48] Eternal life, that throne that out of it is coming, the thunder and the lightning and you get close, oh, hey dad, it's you. It's our father who's on the throne.

[33:59] Our eternal security, it's secured by the highest authority and the deepest relationship. The highest authority, the creator, and yet the deepest relationship of that, of a father.

[34:11] The four and twenty elders, when, this is a continual sentence, sorry, and when those beasts, verse 9, give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne who lives forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him that lives forever and ever and cast their crowns before saying.

[34:29] We'll look at what they say in a minute. Let's see first what they do. To this point, the twenty-four elders, they've been seated, they've been crowned, and they've been silent. They haven't said anything. Well, what does that mean?

[34:41] Well, I think it means that the elders have position, they're seated, they're crowned, they have honor, they have honor, and they're silent, but they have words, they have potential for that.

[34:52] They have position, honor, and words, and they do three things here. What do they do? The twenty-four elders, they fall, they cast their crowns, and they speak, right?

[35:03] So to this point, they've been seated, they've been crowned, and they've been silent, and now they fall, they're no longer seated, they cast their crowns, they're no longer crowned, and they speak, they're no longer silent.

[35:13] And they say, thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power, for thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. We saw over in chapter five how they will eventually worship him because they sang a new song and said, you are worthy to take the book and to open the seals, for you are slain and have redeemed us to God.

[35:34] They'll sing that song. Right now they're worshiping him as creator. Thou art worthy, O Lord. What are the three things, like the title of our message, glory, honor, and power? Well, what did they just do?

[35:46] They fell, they cast their crowns, and they spake. The 24 elders, they worship honor, to fall, you give honor, they were in a position, they were in that, they had a position, and then they gave up that position, showing honor and deference.

[36:00] They cast their crowns, their crowns representing that glory which had been placed upon them, and they gave that glory to God, to worship him. And what did they do? They spake, which indicates like power, the authority they had to speak, and they used it to speak to God.

[36:19] Out of the throne came awe, glory, and power, and then back into the throne, and worship goes honor, glory, and power, reciprocates back into the throne.

[36:30] they only spoke after they first did what? Well, after they first fell, after they first cast their crowns, then they spake. The speech came only after their actions and their attitudes.

[36:44] Jesus essentially says the same thing in Luke 6, 45. He says, a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good. I think we talked about this Sunday. An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil.

[36:56] For the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. First comes the attitude and the actions, then comes the words, right? How often did Jesus speak about those who would say one thing?

[37:10] You say one thing, but your heart is far from me. Your lips profess one thing, but your heart's nowhere's near. Speech came only after their actions and their attitude. And what did they speak?

[37:23] They threw their crowns before him saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power, for thou hast created all things. Glory, honor, and power. Glory, the majesty that rightly belongs to one's person.

[37:39] So you have a glory. It would be the majesty that rightly belongs to you. Probably not very big, our glory is probably really small. Within your home, maybe, you know, there's a certain majesty that belongs to you as this is your home.

[37:56] honor, again, the value of one's worth, and power. The word power there means the inherent power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature. So they're saying, God, you have this power that we give you, the worship we give you is because inherent and residing in you by virtue of who you are is your own power and authority.

[38:16] I like that definition because right away it makes me think of in Hebrews 4, chapter 12, for the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. It has within it an inherent power residing in it by virtue of its nature.

[38:32] That's the danger. When we just give the truth, principles, look of the Bible, but remove the word, we remove the power. We remove the thing that has the inherent power.

[38:45] I won't oust anyone, but I was watching a podcast by some pastors and talking about discipleship and they're saying a lot of good things, you know, that you need to find someone that you can pass on to the spiritual truths that you have to them.

[39:01] You need to use the hardships in your life and use those to talk about how God has helped you through them and to bring someone under your wing. All these different things, but you know what they didn't talk about? God's word.

[39:12] Never mentioned God's word. It was all the truths and principles as veggie tales. All the truth and principle and morality but devoid from God's word. And when you do that, what do you end up doing? You strip the power out. There's no power because God's word is powerful.

[39:26] It's quick and powerful. When we remove God's word, we try and just retain the truths and principles, remove the thing that has the power to make a change in someone's life. And they say they worship him because you have created all things.

[39:39] Created means fabricated. God is a great fabricator, right? Colossians chapter one, verse 16. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

[39:56] All things were created by him and for him. And he is before all things and by him all things consist. John chapter one, we read the same thing in verse three.

[40:06] All things were made by him. Without him was not anything made or anything. There's nothing fabricated. There's nothing brought forth except what was in the mind of God. What was the purpose of this creation?

[40:22] They're worshiping God. Worthy are you, O Lord, to receive glory on and power. You have created all things. Okay, because he's created. But for that pleasure, they are and were created.

[40:33] And there we get to that word, purpose. Pleasure doesn't just mean because he wanted to have fun. It means for his will, for his determination. They are created.

[40:44] The Hebrew or the Greek there for they are means to be or to exist. So if we read it with those definitions we have, for you have fabricated all things and for your will and your determination they do exist.

[40:59] Right? It's for God's purpose and God's determination that those things exist. That's why they're worshiping him. You're saying, God, we worship you because you have created things for a purpose. You've created them to exist for a purpose.

[41:12] The one who brought all things into being and holds all things in being is the one who gets to determine the purpose of being. Right? He gets to decide. He brought them into being and Colossians says he holds them into being.

[41:27] He's the one who decides. Meaning, value, and worth are derived from fulfillment of purpose. Our meaning, our value, and our worth, it comes from our fulfillment of purpose.

[41:39] Purpose that God has created us for. And there's only one who determines and assigns purpose for his creation. Whether it's the one with all the eyes and the faces, whether it's the chicken with the two eyes, or whether it's us, right?

[41:51] God's the one who determines purpose. The fulfillment of our purpose, value, and worth will only be found in the one who gives it. If there's one who determines purpose and value and worth, well, I can't determine that then.

[42:05] I can just choose to seek to fulfill that purpose and live in it. Those four creatures, you look what happened when Lucifer decided, oh, I'm gonna go do my own thing. That created a mess.

[42:18] Therefore, creation's greatest fulfillment is found when God receives from creation what he created it for. Creation's greatest fulfillment is found when God receives from creation what he created it for.

[42:36] What did God create us for? Worship. To worship, just as we see these creatures doing and just as we see the elders doing, right? To give him honor, to give him glory, and to give him power.

[42:51] Creation's greatest fulfillment is found when God receives from creation what he created it for. And he created us to worship. John chapter 4, verse 23, but the hour comes and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the father in spirit and in truth, for the father seeks such to worship him.

[43:08] Well, he's not seeking them outside of their purpose, right? It's because he created them for that. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Revelation chapter 1, verses 5 and 6, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto God and his father.

[43:28] To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. The resurrection, Jesus, appearing to Mary, he says, but go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my father and your father, to my God and your God.

[43:49] one who sits on the throne. It's our dad. It's our father. We have a relationship with the highest authority that secures our position, but it also gives us purpose, value, and worth.

[44:06] All created beings are purposed to worship the father, but only one type of created being can worship him as father. Every created being is to worship the father, but there's only one that can worship him as father.

[44:17] That's us, and here we are. I only got one face. I don't know what's happening behind me. That's all I got, right? I can't move within dimensions. We just kind of move over. Here we are, right?

[44:29] But we are the only ones who have that privilege and can fulfill the purpose of worshiping God as father. Worshipers of the father, they recognize it is time to worship.

[44:41] They recognize how to worship. They recognize who to worship, worship, and they recognize their purpose to worship, and they relate to their father in worship.

[44:54] God's glory is always man's benefit and is man's best interest. Father, thank you so much, Lord. Lord, for not only sitting upon that throne and holding sway over all creation, but then sending forth your son into this world to rescue your created beings.

[45:17] Lord, who rejected you, who have fallen. Lord, Lucifer and one-third of the angels, they also fell. And Lord, in your infinite plan and purpose, you did not purpose them for redemption, but you did us.

[45:32] And Lord, the greatest honor and glory we can give you, the best way we can worship your holiness is to fulfill the purpose and calling that you have given us specifically.

[45:45] God, to live as redeemed people, to fulfill the purpose of redemption and say, yes, Jesus, save my soul. And then to fulfill the purpose of our creation and worship a father, not like the creatures, just we worship you because you're holy and because you're creator, but a whole other level, a whole different dimension.

[46:06] They may be in a dimension spiritually, they may be able to move through dimensions, but they can't enter the one dimension that we have entered into. They may have walked in the fire stones, which is really cool. But Father, we have walked through the fire with Jesus because of his sacrifice.

[46:24] We have entered in with him into death so that we could enter into life, so that we could come and essentially sit on the lap of the throne of God, coming boldly under the throne of grace. We don't come, Lord, we don't come flippantly.

[46:38] Lord, we don't come without gravity, but we do come. Thank you for the purpose you fulfilled or the purpose you've given us to fulfill.

[46:49] Thank you, Father, that you fulfill all of your purposes. Lord, as we continue through this book of Revelation, Lord, that we would just see the revelation of Jesus Christ, the love that he has for us, and all that he's done on our behalf, Lord, that we would not try to make it say something it doesn't, but we'd also be okay with when it says things we don't understand.

[47:06] Lord, we read in your word like Ezekiel, the mountain of God and the stones of fire. I don't know what those are, but Lord, I know the God who created them, and so I know there's an amazing purpose behind that. Lord, help us all to live out our purpose as we seek to worship you, and in Jesus' name, amen.

[47:23] All right, read ahead for next time. What is the book that we're going to see in chapter five? What are the seals? What are the requirements to open that book, to break those seals?

[47:36] And who is able and who is unable to open it? So that's your assignment as we get into chapter five. Begin to look at the seals and get into the tribulation.

[47:49] mission.

[48:03]