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Broke off in our last session, we were debating among ourselves the significance of the imagery that is used to describe the throne of God in Revelation chapter four. We suggested that perhaps it is just impressionism. On the other hand, we found one little idea in chapter seven that suggests that this geographical description has deeper theological meaning. And therefore, on that presupposition, I look with you now to the, uh, geographical descriptions of the throne of God in chapter four.
And I'm going to suggest that they do indeed hold deeper theological, uh, uh, meaning. Only you would be well advised to stick your toes in very hard to resist all fancifulness and wild speculation and subjectivism and all those sundry evils that crowd into the minds of some expositors when they come to deal with passages like this, you'll see. And if you'll provide that counterbalance, then I shall be free to be very fanciful, you'll see. But the descriptions are geometrical, and we envisage them as such. The throne and the ri- rainbow round about the throne, presumably, uh, vertically, and round about the throne, thrones, twenty four of them.
So two concentric circles. If we maintain that geometrical idea, then anything that comes out of those, that throne, must pass, so to speak, the, uh, two circles, the two planes. The vertical plane bounded by the rainbow, the horizontal plane bounded by these twenty four other thrones. And in using that term, I may already have overstepped the mark. You say, but wait a minute, my good sir, you're not going to say that the throne of Almighty God is bounded by anything, are you?
Thought this was the throne of the almighty self-existence, uh, sovereign of the universe. Nothing binds him. No, of course not. Except if he chooses to bind himself, which he has a right to. And this is the throne from which the judgments are to proceed. In the imagery, the circles being described around, then you have described something coming out of the throne. Noises and thunders and lightnings. These are the beginnings of God's judgments that they, uh, exit from the throne. They must pass these two planes, pass these through to through these two circles.
They are, in that sense, setting boundaries. And the first one is the rainbow. But there we've gone beyond geometry, haven't we? Because now we have an Old Testament allusion. And the rainbow, ladies and gentlemen, where is it first talked of in scripture? Genesis. And when? After the flood. And the rainbow is God's guarantee that what? No more flood. Oh, God has limited himself in. And when it comes to judgment, uh, God put the rainbow in the sky to ens- uh, to assure Noah that he would never again, whatever else he did, he would never destroy the world by a flood.
That is God himself limiting his judgments. If that be true, well, it is true anyway. What a magnificent statement of theology that is. You sit secure on your seat just now, because this is the nature of God. He has himself limited his judgments. And if the rainbow causes us to think, first of all, of God's physical judgment on our planet, then of course we are allowed, surely, to extend the notion, all the magnificence of the grace of God, who has written about us in the person of his Son, whom he appointed to be the judge, and said, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hears my word and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting life and, and shall not come into judgment.
Yeah. That's more than impressionism, isn't it? The God of heaven, who of rights, if he concerned only his justice, would have consumed us all long since. Has limited his judgment, and he wants you to know it. There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. And like it was said over Noah, righteous man that he was, but gone grievously astray and compromised. Yet basically a man of faith.
As the angels came to drag him and his wife out of Sodom City, said the angels, get out, Rod, come out. I can do nothing until you are out. The limitation set by God's own merciful decision and decree, limiting his judgments. But there is another circle on a different plane. This is the horizontal plane. Now you're going to have difficulty believing this. Round the throne, says John, I saw thrones, twenty four of them, occupied, if you please, by elders.
Ah, you say, now, now we've got to the point. It's the one point we're interested in, in the book of the Revelation. Who are the elders? And if you don't pass muster there, Mr. Preacher, you can pack your bags and go home. Now, do you agree with us as to who the elders are? And I'm not going to tell you. Isn't that frustrating? So often in the book of the Revelation, we ask the wrong questions first, don't we? We want to know who they are, and the Holy Spirit hasn't said. If it were of the first importance that, uh, we should know who they are, the Holy Spirit would have said it, wouldn't he? It's marvelous how we get waxed up and hot and dogmatic over the things that the Holy Spirit hasn't said. You watch your preachers.
This one particular. They are very often most sure that their interpretation is right when the Holy Spirit hasn't said what the interpretation is. What we are told is not who they are, but what they are. And there's enough in that fact to keep us going for a very long time. Can you believe this? This is the throne of Almighty God. Isn't he the sole ruler of the universe? How come there are other thrones... round his throne? And what is more, you have to ask a question, don't we?
Are they there for sort of decoration or something? Or are they real thrones? They're occupied, says John, with elders. Well, this much is certain, those elders must be creatures, mustn't they? What creatures sharing the government of God? Tell me, are they real? Have they got real power, or are they a bunch of yes men? What do you think? Are they mere puppets? They've got golden crowns on. Do- does it represent any reality? Mm.
I reckon, you know, if you'd been painting the throne, you'd never have dared to say there were other thrones sharing the government of God, would you? It's the fact. The sovereign of the universe, almighty as he is, has chosen at various levels throughout his creation to delegate power. Of the great, uh, beings that inhabit the heavens in God's original creation, listen to scripture describing them. They are angels, principalities, powers, mights, dominions. All of them terms indicating rule and authority.
Hm. I can go something one better than that in my exposition. I fancy if I examined your hearts deep enough, I should find that one of these days you are hoping that you are going to share the government of the universe with God, aren't you now? We are reliably told we shall reign with him if we suffer with him. Ah, but my brothers, think not merely of your glory. Think of the character of God that designed it. You'd been the sovereign jewel of the universe, would you have dedicated your authority to this man here, or this man, or him?
You say, who are these elders? I'm not going to tell you, I told you, but uh uh I know of those that shall reign with Christ, that all of them, without exception, started off by being rebels against the throne of God. And this is the magnificent thing, that alone would lead us, if we had the time, to shut our books and start worshiping the God of the universe. He is no tyrant, ladies and gentlemen. Though Satan has done his worst to represent God's rule as the rule of an almighty tyrant. Not so. Round about the throne, thrones.
And now observe the next thing. You're told about the two circles before you're told in the next of the things that come out of the throne. If you follow that hint through the revelation of the voices and the lightnings and the thunders that come out of the throne, you will find what they mean. They herald the coming judgments of God. But the things that come out geometrically must pass through the two planes, limited by God's own limitation here of the rainbow, putting the limit to his judgments. I don't know whether I ought to use the word limited, because every judgment that comes out of that throne must p- must pass through a circle of other thrones occupied by creatures.
Hmm. They are of perfect personal righteousness, their robes are white. Their standards of government are sheer pure gold, but they are creatures, and not a judgment will come out of that throne, but what creatures given perfect personal righteousness and perfect principles of government, but what they would agree with the central phone and approve the judgment. Of course, that is a principle of God's judgment that is seen at a higher level, a much higher level, by the appointment of our blessed Lord as judge. The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son.
Why? Because he is not the Son of God. Yeah, the Son of Man. God believes in judgment by peer. When at last human beings stand before the great white throne to be judged, they shall be judged by... a man, Christ Jesus, won't they now? Oh, this is no tyrant, this. What a magnificent governor of the universe. I submit to you that the geometrical prepositions is- are not here just for impressionism.
They too carry their theological implications. Before the throne, now another pair. Before the throne, seven torches, lamps in the sense of torches. These aren't oil lamps. This is lampas, lampades. These are torches. And before the throne, a sea as of glass. They are pair described in chiastic pattern. What will they represent? And what here does the phrase before the throne mean? It might be helpful, might it, to look at descriptions of other people's thrones given us in Holy Scripture.
If you went to visit His Majesty Solomon, for instance, he was some potentate was Solomon, and you'll find him sitting on his throne, and as you approach his throne, do you know what he had before his throne? Beasts, yes? What kind of beasts? Lions, yes, wow. Common motif in the ancient world for monarchs. They had sat on their big thrones, and up the steps of the throne were lions on each side. There merely for artistry? I think not. They were there to impress every comer of the power of the throne.
Some of these monarchs, not Solomon, we hope, but old Nebuchadnezzar and uh, Darius, they not had only had imitation lions, they had some very real lions around the corner. They kept them in cages and kept them starved, ready for anybody who should offend his majesty. The lions were before the throne to indicate the power of the throne. Our Lord is later seen as the lion of the tribe of Judah, isn't he? It's a kingly title. But now here are before the throne. What will God have there to impress us with if, if that's his, what he's doing with his power?
You say, that's a little disappointing. What just... let, you know, torches. Did they impress anybody with power? You've got it wrong, you say, Mr. Peter. Mm. Well, they're torches. They're certainly a burning. That's how old-fashioned torches did. They were bits of wood, you know, soaked in a rag and and and put in oil, and uh, then you lit the oil and you went through those night streets, you see, wherever you were going, carrying this chunk of wood with a rag on the top, soaked in oil, with the flames coming out of the top, and they were burning, but they were a shining light, you see. The purpose of the fire was not to burn you up necessarily, um, but to give you light.
And these are lamps of fire, they're burning, but of course they're giving light. Do you know what power this is on this throne? Well, it certainly isn't the power of darkness. You can say that at once. This is the very opposite, the power of light. That is very important, isn't it? When God said his, he says that through Christ he's delivered us from the power of darkness, he's describing, of course, the devil's domain.
That comes in Colossians chapter one. You'll meet the same phrase in Luke's gospel, in Luke's, uh, description of Gethsemane. When the crowds came, the, the, the priests and the officers with a makeshift squad of soldiers with weapons and torches coming into the garden to arrest the Lord Jesus. And Peter drew his sword, mistakenly enough, to try to ward them off. Our Lord commented, this is your hour and the power of darkness. Why you say that here?
Well, you see, he pointed out to them, he said, you're right, gentlemen, I'm not running away. But this is odd, isn't it, that you come at this time of night with swords and spears and lanterns at the dead of night. Why didn't you take the opportunity yesterday and all the days of the week past when I was in the temple and arrest me in daylight? I was there at your fingertips, wasn't I? Why didn't you arrest me then? Yeah, because the crowds were hanging on the words of Christ and loved to hear. And he wasn't teaching political subversion. When in the temple courts they came to him and demanded, and it was a trick question, ought we to pay tax to Caesar?
And they'd worked it out, you see. If he said no, his popularity with the crowds would diminish at once and be gone. They wanted Jesus to lead them against the Romans. But if he said, yes, pay the, uh, if he said, sorry, if he said, yes, pay the tax, his popularity with the crowd would go. If he said, no, don't pay the tax, they'd have gone forthwith to Pilate, and he would have been arrested before he got out of the temple gate. They thought they had him both ways, but they didn't arrest him themselves because of the people. There would been a, would have been an uproar. So what did they do? They arrested him at night. Ah, yes, but not just at night. They came with a band of soldiers, if you please.
What, to catch twelve unarmed men. What do they came bringing soldiers for and all that paraphernalia? As though you were coming out against robbers and terrorists, says Christ, making it look as if you'd found me up to some nefarious business plotting against the government and starting a terrorist cell or something, and the whole a deliberate sham. So that they could take him to Caesar and charge him with political subversion. We found this man provoking the people to riot.
And oh, poor old Peter. He came near to putting his foot in it, didn't he? Oh, how the devil nearly succeeded in his plot as Peter drew his sword to cut off a man's head. Oh, if Peter had succeeded, the devil would have laughed the rest of the, of the week, wouldn't he? Just what he wanted, for Christ to be caught in a situation where there was political strife and one of his followers was starting a war. That's the power of darkness, lies. This is the power of light.
God never rules by keeping you in the dark, you know. Some people get afraid of science. I've known them to. I got afraid of it because I hadn't the brains for it, but that's another story. Uh, but uh, some people say, do you think you ought to investigate as far as that? Well, as far as I know, you can look down your powerful microscope. It can be an electronic microscope, and you can keep on the looking. You never come across a notice that says, trespassers will be prosecuted beyond here. Do you? God isn't afraid of light.
He doesn't rule you by keeping you in the dark. He rules you by flooding you with light and telling you the truth. Christendom hasn't always understood the principle, and for centuries, unreformed Christendom forbade people to have the Bible. They ruled them by keeping them in the dark, didn't they? Our Lord's techniques are the opposite. I am the light of this world. Continue in my truth and you shall doctrine, and you know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. This is the power of light, but it's burning light.
You have to be very careful how you handle the torch, don't you? Because it is burning. And the light of God's truth will burn up perversity, won't it? Before the, uh, seven torches of fire there before the throne, and before the throne, a sea of glass. What does that symbolize, if anything? If the things are going to plan, that also ought to indicate the power of God. Well, the imagery is probably complex. At the first level, if you're talking about the heaven, uh, and the heavenly tabernacle with its throne and its incense altar and its big altar, then if you use the term sea, it will conjure up in your mind the great laver in Solomon's temple.
The huge laver in that temple that was born on the backs of twelve oxen was so large it was called the sea. It may be here, uh, John is seeing the equivalent in the heavenly temple of the, uh, sea in Solomon's earthly temple. It may also be, as some have suggested, a symbol of the real sea, and the way that is used in scripture, all the nations are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters churn up mud and mire. This sea before this throne is certainly not troubled waters, and there's no mire underneath.
It is as pure as crystal. A whole bunch of ideas could gather there, couldn't they? The power of this throne is in purity. The power of this throne is such that it is able to calm the troubled sea. Listen to Isaiah talking about it. The power of this throne exercised by one who, going across the literal sea of Tiberias, calmed wind and wave, and there was a great calm. But deeper than that. The wicked are like the troubled sea.
We were among them once, weren't we, brethren, sisters? What a churn up of old emotions and powers and motives in our breast. It would be gospel, wouldn't it, if God had a power that could cleanse us from all impurity and make our lives a sea whose surface is a mirror to reflect unperverted the image and the glory of God. And it is a gospel. We who were hateful and hating one another and perverted always round inside and outside and upside down, says Paul writing to Titus in Titus chapter three.
He has cleansed us, he has saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewal by the performed by the Holy Spirit. Magnificent labor. The power of his spirit not only to reveal the truth, that's the objective side. To reveal the mind of God. To reveal the law of God, but the power of the spirit in his ability to purify and cleanse. And there are some at last seen in the triumph of God's power standing by the crystal sea.
Old Sankey had it somewhere near right, didn't he? The imagery is not far off, talking of our great salvation and the purifying powers of the Holy Spirit and regeneration. And he helped us to see that one day we shall stand by the glassy sea. And finally, there were the living creatures, not beasts. There are plenty of beasts enough elsewhere in the Revelation, they're wild beasts, but this is living ones. Zoon is the word.
In Ezekiel, where they are pictured underneath the throne of God and carrying that throne, they, it is explicitly said at some place that these living creatures are the cherubim, and the cherubim are the living creatures. You say, well, now you have a chance to redeem yourself, Mr. Lecturer. Um, tell us, who are the living creatures? Are they the church, or who are they? There you are at it again, wanting to know who. I, for the moment, I can't answer your question. I'm going to answer what they are. That's easy to answer. They are living creatures. Isn't the Bible simple when you come at it, you see?
That's what they are, that's what we're being told. Having ears, don't you hear? Why will we keep asking the wrong questions? We're being told they're living creatures. We ought to say, thank God we now know what they are, they're living creatures. So what? Why is God's throne seen to be resting, so to speak, on living creatures? Well, I can tell one innocent answer, because he is the living God, that's why. And have you observed how God runs his universe? When he wants an apple tree to bear apples, to take a simple example, he doesn't send a note down from heaven, tree, bear some apples.
Now, how he gets trees to bear apples is to give them apple life. Isn't that so? With all the genes and the life and the information in the genes and the life surging up the old bit of wood produces apples. He is the living God, and he governs by giving life, and with the life all kinds of information and patting setting genes, and I don't know what have you, as nowadays we know. Magnificent thing life is, isn't it?
How would you describe it? Life in its multifarious forms. The cherubim are described in different ways, aren't they, in different parts of scripture? Here they have four heads, one each. Sometimes each cherubim is said to have four heads. I personally don't think that there are angels flying around heaven with four heads on. Do you really? There could be, I suppose. We'll wait and see when we get there. But, uh, uh, they have 4 heads and are expressive of four different kinds of life. There's animal life in the ox, and there's a lion, two different kinds of life.
There's a lion with its kingly ferociousness, and there's the ox with its patient strength, yes, different forms of life in the animal kingdom. And then there's the eagle soaring aloft, and then there's man. Mm. I, on the whole, think I'm better, my life is better than a lion, though I sometimes admire his power, and when I've got a few enemies around, I like his paws. You know, I say, why can't I be entrusted with power like a lion? Why waste that on him? And then I, I, I mean, eagles haven't got a lot of sense in their head, have they? But I wish sometimes I could be an eagle and fly, don't you? Well, perhaps you don't.
You're content to be a man. But man hasn't every kind of life yet, has he? And God is the God of life of all kinds, living creatures underneath his throne. He is the God of life. And how does he govern? Well, let's press the theology and the doctrine and come over to higher, higher, and still higher levels. How did he govern you, sir? Well, you say my story is this. God came to me like he came to the Israelites, and he put up a couple of s- tables, put them in a box in his throne, you'll see here, and wrote on them his laws, written graven on stones, and they were clear enough to read.
Anybody could put a message on stone, couldn't they, if it's sharp enough chisel, and that would be clear enough to read. And God, these were written with the authority and with the finger of God. But in the end, that proved it didn't work. Why didn't it work? Well, you said, that's not enough to have laws written up on tables of stone, because I read them and I knew what I ought to do, but I hadn't got the puff to do it. When it told me not to do this, I hadn't got the power to stop myself doing it. And God could write as many tables as he liked, but it didn't work with me, do you see, like it should have done. So what did God do? God had another scheme, and what two Corinthians three tells us about it.
Written on the tables of the heart. A great, great metaphor for the great work of his spirit in writing the laws on our hearts. How? When God gave us his spirit, he gave us a form of life that carries with it all the powers and longings and qualities of his holy Spirit. He's given us... a life, hasn't he? And that's how he governs us. Yes, if we won't behave, he has some laws to deal with us and will chastise us. But his main principle of governing us is to give us...
and I say it with bated breath, his own very life, isn't it? To beget us. He is the living God, and the magnificent, almost incredible story of the gospel is this, that for his redeemed people, this is how he governs, by putting in them, begetting in them his own life and the very life of his son. Living creatures. That at any rate, gentlemen, and I stop my sermonizing, uh, uh, that is the kind of the way I would begin to come at this description of the throne in, uh, Revelation chapter four.
I probably am inexact and wrong in many details, but that's an attempt. I leave it with you. I do feel in my bones that it's not just impressionism. The geometrical phrases are meant to carry theological implications. A description, then, of the government of God. And as chapter four comes to its climax, and here we get back to our thought flow business. What is the thought flow going through section two, that is going through chapters two— uh, sorry, chapters four, five, six, and seven? What is the thought flow going to its great climax at the end of seven?
Well, the minor climaxes will sum up for us the stages in the thought flow. At the end of chapter four, the elders and the living creatures sing the praise of him that sits upon the throne, and from their praise, you observe it is the creatorial throne that they're talking of. Thou art worthy to receive the honor and majesty and so forth, they say at the end of four. uh, for thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were and were created. This is the throne of the creator, and he's worthy to receive all the honor and the revenues that come from creation because he made it.
And not only because he made it, but the reason why he made it. He made it for himself to write to, didn't he? Made it for himself. And he's worthy to receive the revenues of all his creation. And there's the problem. That is creation at various levels has gone its own way. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Yes? Years ago, I was traveling on a train just after the war, when rations were scarce, and going up to the north of England, to that great, bright civilization that is Scotland, I think.
Anyway, uh, opposite me sat a young gentleman, and he had some sandwiches and I had some tea, and we shared them, and we got talking, and the talk came round, of course, to salvation and whatnot. He said, sin, that's a s- that's a silly concept. I don't, I don't believe in sin and all that kind of talk, said he. I said, don't you really? Hmm, it's interesting. I said, changing the subject, um, I said, suppose you were clever enough to make a motor car, and he thought he was. Uh, so I said, you made this motor car, and when you got behind the wheel, um, nine times out of ten it went where you wanted it to go.
But once in ten, it, you could tug on the old wheel what you like, it went where it wanted to go itself, took no notice of you. What would you do? Oh, he said, I wouldn't have that. Oh, he said, oh, wait a minute, be reasonable. If only, if only five times out of ten it went where you wanted it, but five times out of ten it went where it wa- it it wanted to go itself. Well, yes. What would you, you said, scrap it. But I said, come. If only one out of ten it went where it wanted to go itself, what would you do? He said, I could still scrap it. If I made a motor car, I would insist it went every time where I wanted it to go.
I said, I thought so, and God made you to do his will. God says, we have turned everyone to his own way, that's you as well, and if you don't be careful, my boy, he'll put you on the scrap heap of the universe. That's why the judgments must come. Why do the judgments of the revelation come? They start with the throne, of course, and its creatorial rights. And the only way the universe will be made to work sensibly is if it is brought back to serve the will and purpose of him who made it. And if men will not repent, then the only way the world can be brought back is by God's intervening judgment.
But then that raises a problem, a very big moral problem. Who is worthy to execute the judgment? And that's why the cry goes out in Revelation five, For there was a book in the hand of him that sat upon the throne, written inside and out, sealed with many seals. Once those seals are opened, the judgments will begin. But who's worthy to take it and open it? You say God is. Why doesn't he get at God, get at it? And there you'll meet the magnificence of God. He has all power to do the judgment.
He's every right to do the judgment. Then why doesn't he? Because the ultimate question in the universe is not who has the power, who has the biggest power. The ultimate moral judgment is who has the biggest love and loyalty. A God who made a creature without asking the creature's permission, made it and brought it into the world, and was not loyal to that creature, would be an immoral God. If you as parents bring a child into the world, you don't ask a child's permission, do you?
You bring it into the world, and does not that create in you a moral responsibility for that child? Will you not be loyal to that child to the last? And a God who could create human beings and bring them into the world and not be loyal to them. That would be a God seriously defective morally. God of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of and God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is not just power. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is love.
And before he brings his judgments, even upon an aberrant world. He will be loyal to them. Who is worthy to take the book? The judgment is committed to a human being. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah. He's human then. Of the race of the King David. So he's a king. You say he's very powerful. So he'll see the judgments carried. God, he'll only have to start roaring and wielding his paws. Look out, you evil men. And I turned to see this lion.
I saw a lamb. A lamb? Yes, a lamb as it had been slain. Well, a lamb going to execute the judgment, isn't that a contradiction in terms? However, the lamb had seven horns, and horns speak of power, don't they, in anybody's symbolism. So these are the, this is the power of the lamb. Has the lamb any power? What's the difference between a lamb's power and a lion's power? This is not just the lion, it's the Lamb of Calvary.
Who will unleash the s- unloose the seals and start going the judgments. How is he worthy to? Well, precisely there. Thou art worthy to do it because first, thou wast slain. And this world will not be able to complain. It's unfair. The one who will del- deluge the world in judgment to bring it back to God first died, that none need perish. That a rebel world might be brought back to God, and not only forgiven and pardoned and made eternally secure, but made into something.
Thou hast died, thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, and made us into a kingdom, turned us from rebels into willing, loyal, obedient servants of God. And not only so, not ma- only made us obedient, a kingdom, but made us priests to serve God. There lies his moral worth to do it. None shall be able to find fault with the Lamb of Calvary if they perish under God's judgments because he died so that they might be saved. Oh, but there's more to it, isn't there? What would you think of a God who created a whole universe, and when it went wrong, he said, I'm tired of this, sponge it out, we'll start again.
That might sound reasonable to us. It would have been a defeat, wouldn't it? For if that is what God did, then Satan, as he perished, would had one vast sneering laugh at Almighty God, wouldn't he? And have said, God, we always knew you had almighty power, but we've defeated you. I defeated you, haven't I? You made a beautiful world, you thought it was lovely, and I came along and ruined it, didn't I? And you, you couldn't put it right. I've won and you've lost, and you've had to destroy your world. I defeated you, God. God doesn't propose to be.
Not going to scrub it all out as a failure. He has a man who not only died that sinners might be redeemed and rebels be converted and changed and brought to God and pardoned, but he has the genius to take once-time rebels and make them something for God. Be a witness to God's almighty triumph. Planet Earth will not be a unmitigated disaster and a failure, of course not. Christ is going to make it glorious for God. That is the thought flow of the passage.
And so Christ the Lamb takes the book because he's now the moral authority to do so. If the judgments come and some perish, they need not have perished. But the world can't be allowed to go on forever like it is. It's got to be back- brought back to serve the Creator. And the gospel is that Christ can make lunchtime rebels serve the Creator willingly. You do it, don't you? I'm not talking imaginary stuff. All the, the lot of you are rebels. Why on earth do you serve God? Not because you're forced to. You don't even serve him out of fear of hell, do you?
You serve him like Philippians two has got it. You serve him in the name of Jesus. If God be like Jesus, you say, then yes, I'm number one, and I will bow my knee and confess in the name of Jesus that Jehovah is Lord. So the judgments come with ex- uh, uh, uh, more and more intensity as the seals are unloosed, and men's own wickedness is allowed to have its head in the form of war, with its inevitable results of bloodshed and famine and plague.
You say, is that God's fault? No, well, God's way of judging is when men will not repent and insist on having their own way. One of God's methods of judgment is to say, well, have your own way, I'll let you go. At the moment, there is that which res- re- restrains. But God sometimes judges by letting men have their way and find out by experience where it leads. And then, as the judgments come to their crescendo, and the heavens are rolled away, and men see the throne of God and the Lamb, unrepentant men are terrified and cry to the hills to cover them.
So that's that. And now the commentators say, after this, this is the end, or near the end, of the seals. Come to number six. Number seven won't come for a while, so we now have a... Parenthesis. Just when you thought we were coming to something interesting and coming to a climax of the thought flow, at last we got a parenthesis. Yes, but you say, Mr. Preacher, you've got to tell us, who are these one hundred and forty four thousand? You do like that question, don't you? Who are they? Well, you'll have to have mercy on us elementary school boys.
We've only got round to thinking what they are. You can tell us who they are later on. And how are they different from this great multitude? Well, you tell me afterwards. Of course, we must take our systematic theology seriously, mustn't we? And when I've done my elementary talk about the literary side of the book of the Revelation, then you'll have to start, ladies and gentlemen, you the systematic theologians. You'll have to talk about dispensations and all such wonderful things, eh, and get the ages and everything settled and and put out. I say that sincerely. I'm not a substitute for systematic theology. I'm pointing out what the text says, how it's put together as it stands.
You'll still have to have your systematic theology, and the systematic theologians will tell you who the one hundred and forty four thousand are, and who the great multitude are, and what dispensation they belong to, and thus and thus and thus and thus and thus. Good stuff. You'll have to let me deal simply with the elementary beginning. And the judgments fall. What does chapter seven say? It says, is there any salvation then for anybody? Against the judgments of God. And in chapter seven there are two groups of people that experience the salvation of God. And that comes in two forms.
The sealing, S-E-A-L-I-N-G, the sealing, the sealed, and then the saved. Two sides of salvation. Sealed, what for? Well, before the seventh seal is undone, angels are command to seal these people in their foreheads, and that the winds be held back so that nothing hurts. Why? Because the six seals were but preparatory warnings, like plagues on Pharaoh. The seventh is different.
The seventh introduces the great day of God's wrath. That's a very different thing. The plagues under Pharaoh were meant to lead Pharaoh to repentance. When Pharaoh finally hardened his heart and wouldn't repent, there came the last, the tenth. For so- for Pharaoh, there was no salvation from that. And when the great day of wrath comes, wait a minute, says God, seal these. Nothing must touch them. And who they are, that's an important question, I repeat, you must decide who they are.
But at the basic level, what a vast and beautiful principle of salvation that does illustrate, doesn't it? Sealed against any suffering of the wrath of God. Oh, my brother, you'll feel a kindred spirit in your heart, won't you, whoever these one hundred and forty four thousand are? Or it's true of you anyway, because the principles of salvation are common to all God's people of all times. They're sealed against suffering the wrath of God, and no child of God, no believer in God shall ever suffer the wrath of God. That's basic gospel, isn't it?
Shall not come into judgment. God hath not appointed you to wrath. Put on your head whenever you start thinking about prophecy, the helmet, which is the hope of salvation, for God has not appointed you to wrath, and not one iota of the wrath of God shall ever touch a genuine believer. That's true of all believers of whatever dispensation, isn't it? Say amen, do. I got something right. Sealed then.
And then the saved, coming victoriously through the great Tribulation, this great multitude, and seeing and ascribing their salvation to God. And the ground of their salvation, and then what will their salvation involve? Well, let's read it once more. Uh, he said unto me, verse fourteen, these are they which come out of the Great Tribulation, and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God. There is the basis of their standing before the throne.
We'll say, yes, but they're not in heaven, are they? They're on earth. Surely these are an earthly people. Well, the systematic theologians will locate them for us. But whether they're on earth or in heaven, notice their theological standing, will you? They are before the throne. That's not just a question of local position, is it? Being before him and standing in his presence, as distinct from those who call upon the rocks to cover them, these stand before the throne.
Accepted. And now some lovely things are said, relevant to creation. They serve him day and night in his temple. So they're in his temple anyway. And he that sitteth on the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore, neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat. Oh, marvelous promise. You notice the description is in terms of created things, the created powers of the universe. They are, uh, the no hunger, no thirst, neither shall the sun strike upon them, nor any heat.
It's no good hiding our eyes from the fact that creation has hurt a lot of people, hasn't it? Not merely by physical s- sunstroke either. This is a broken creation, surely. And it's not just physical thirst that has tormented people, but deeper thirst. Nature crying out to have its desires sat- its proper desires satisfied, and finding life doesn't satisfy them, creating an almost intolerable thirst.
And wind and wave and sun smiting, causing death, disablement, cancer. Creation has hurt people, hasn't it? For it's a broken world. Ah, but see what cre- what salvation will do. It will not only protect from the wrath of God, but one day, yes, one day, he that sitteth upon the throne shall spread his tabernacle of protection over his redeemed people. The sun won't hurt them anymore, neither shall they thirst anymore, for he that made the universe will gear the whole universe to their blessing, and none of the great powers of the universe shall hurt them anymore.
That's not fairy stuff, ladies and gentlemen. That hope is based on the fact that God of the universe gave his son as the lamb to die for us. And the lamb who is in the midst of the throne, lovely. It means, in the first place, the lamb who is in the midst of the throne. You'll see we're still up with John in heaven, actually. The vision is going on. It doesn't reach its conclusion till here. The lamb being in the midst of the throne, he is described in chapter five as being in the midst of the throne and in the midst of the four and twenty elders, which is a Hebrewism for saying he is between, he is between the elders and the throne.
He is the Lamb in the midst of the throne. That is an exceedingly important theological statement. For the throne of the universe is not just absolute power. Ladies and gentlemen, in the very center of the throne of God is the principle of redemption through the Lamb. Who is Jesus Christ, this Lamb? He's not just a superior angel. He is at the very heart of God. He is God incarnate, Jesus Christ is God. And the man of Calvary and the lamb slaughtered, that is what God is like.
He tells out the heart of the government of the universe. Almighty, yes, all authority given to him now in heaven and in earth, it remains the Lamb of God. And when his redeeming work is done, he shall lead his redeemed people. And it says in verse 17, the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd and shall guide them unto fountains of waters of life. All the inexhaustible fountains, pure and undefiled, that will quench the thirst of every redeemed person in the universe through. He shall lead them to the source thereof and fulfill the role of the shepherd king.
According to Psalm twenty three. he makes them to lie down in green pastures. He leads them by the waters of stillness for his name's sake, doesn't he? And he shall wipe away every tear from off their eyes. Huh. Well, that's a, that's a beginner's attempt. Be merciful to it. Uh, that's an attempt to trace the thought flow through, uh, the second section of the Revelation. Dulce. Eh, and to argue that that is really where we ought to start, to take it, the book as it stands, to watch its thought flows, to watch its patterns, to watch its climaxes, the minor ones, and then the major one each time, and to follow the theme through.
That is thematic interpretation. I stress again, I'm not saying it replaces systematic. The systematic theologians will now have to come to that and use it as they, as they will, eh, in all their scheme, having in view the ways of God throughout all the ages, yes, and the differences in God's ways. But even they will insist upon the principles of salvation and redemption have always been the same throughout all ages. So to get the theme and the principles right is the first step in the process. Now I want to make just one or two other comments, and then I shall finish.
If you care to look back at your sheet of contents... If the scheme is right, there are six major sections to the book. That is the structure. Then we observed all kinds of patterns emerging, and there is a sense in which you have column one followed by two related columns, as we saw this morning. Two and three are related. Look at the tabernacle furniture, the throne in two, the incense altar in three. and they are functionally related, as we saw earlier.
Then we have four and five. Are they related? Well, yes. Four mirrors two. Two is God's throne. Four is the beast's throne. And Satan's great, uh, imitation and opposition. Then, uh, in three we have the smoke going up in the tabernacle, in the temple, from the altar of incense in the holy place. Five is the smoke going up in the tabernacle in the most holy place.
It is God's answer, as now he begins to express his glory and the reality of his presence by the smoke of his glory that emerges as he visits the world and its iniquity with his judgment in answer to the prayers of the saints. So you can take those two pairs, two and three one pair, four and five the other pair, and you say, well, there are a great deal of correspondences between them. If you do that, you should remember what someone said here the other day about the difference between pattern and structure. Patterns are complicated things, and there can be one series of patterns, and say, like we saw yesterday with the wedding in Cana of Galilee, the wedding in Cana of Galilee was the first member of a series of signs, yes?
And had we time to look at them, we should see why they are a coherent series. But look at John another way, and that, uh, wedding in Cana of Galilee becomes the first of another series, which is those stories in which women are prominent, which only John has and nobody else has, as John has them. These are patterns. You mustn't be upset and say this is getting too complicated. Some people don't like complications, do they? Well, I don't normally. There's one area, uh, where I love complications. You'll see, suppose I get a notice from my solicitor saying your Uncle Joe in America has just died, and you've been left in his will.
I hurry along to the solicitor, and I'm all ears, you'll say. The solicitor. Your Uncle Joe liked you. I say, yes, I know he did. Um, um, uh, come on, get on with the real stuff. Eh, well, he says he's left you his house. Mm, good, good. Any more? Any more? Yes, he's left you his private ranch. Oh, that's marvelous. Yes, yes. Mm-hmm. Any more? Um, yes, he's left you his air private airplane. Marvelous. Don't know where I shall keep it. And he's left you his ocean-going yacht. I say, yay, glorious. Pilot on, solicitor, go on. He says he's left you certain indentures. And, uh, then there are first preference shares.
Uh, I say, now look here, solicitor, I don't like complicated things. I don't know what you're talking about. Cut all that out. Keep it simple. Why don't? I say, go on, solicitor, I haven't got a notion what you're talking about, but make it more and make it more and more complicated. The more complicated you make it, I shall like it. Shares, indentures, uh, first preference bonds, futures, yeah, share options. Go on, make it complicated. You can see my motivation, can't you? Hmm, I like the wealth. Oh, I think God has made the Bible complicated, don't you? And heaven is going to be massively complicated. And if you don't understand it, enjoy the prospect, as the Lord will open your eyes as we can bear it to see what it all means.
Scripture is written by inspiration of God, and therefore on the surface is marvelously simple. A child can understand its prominent points. Underneath it is written with divine sophistication. There is the evidence for the thinking mind of its inspiration. A daisy is simple. A little child of two can make a daisy crown, yes? You ask the, the, the biologist and the botanist and finally the physicist to tell you about a daisy. Colossally complicated. So is scripture. Uh, you'll see. So, yes, you must expect patterns that are all intertwined.
Looking at it this way, there's a pattern. Starting the same point and looking that way, there's another pattern. It's nothing to do with structure, but it's pattern. And let's take another pattern in this book before we cease. Um... If we say there's one, m two, three— oh, let's do it wider so they can see it more easily. Uh, six, seven, eight, nine, sections in the first half of the book. And there are uh four, five, six in the second half.
Well, we noticed here what the thing is, son of man. And the lampstands, yes. And his face shone as the sun, and he had stars in his right hand. He was a man, of course, surrounded by the candlesticks. Now, when you come to chapter four, it is, as everybody knows, the great parenthesis. Because here are the seal judgments, and here are the trumpet judgments, and then the vials, the bowls come in five, and there's no series, apparently here.
It is called, therefore, the great parenthesis. Well, really. But just as these three started off with this great vision of the Son of Man with his churches and his face glowing like the sun and in his star hand seven stars, lo and behold, it starts off with a woman. Mm. And the sun, and the moon, and the stars. What's all that about?
Mm. It is to be noticed, of course, that once the topic of woman is introduced, the fifth win- one, uh, is about two women. Well, in fact, when you get to the climax, it's another woman, so we'll call her Woman three, shall we? Mm-hmm. And when you come to the final one, go, there's a woman. She happens also to be a city. She's the bride of the Lamb, of course.
As far as themes go, you will see the second half of the revelation lays tremendous emphasis on woman. And every Christian woman will want to know why, won't they? Huh. The woman is described as being with child and about to be delivered, and before her stands the old dragon, ready to gobble up her son before he's born. Now, I wish I had time to talk to you about allusions. I'm afraid that must remain unsaid. But there are throughout the Revelation, as there are through the Gospel of John, scores and scores of allusions.
Let me take an early one. Writing to the church at Ephesus, our blessed Lord says, to him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. So remember where thou hast fallen and repent. Promise then of eating of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. You say that's heaven, isn't it? Yeah, you've got it right, more or less. And when you come to the end of the revelation, you see the city and the river and the tree of life on each side of the river. I will give to him to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. Well, if that's all you know, jolly good, that's marvelous. But if you should happen to have read your Old Testament... Now, well, not quite that, but if you happen to have read it in Greek, you'll know that the Greek translation of the Garden of Eden is Paradesos, paradise.
Hmm. And in the Paradisos that was the Garden of Eden, there were two trees, and one of them was the tree of life. It was in the Paradisos of God, that is in the Garden of Eden in Genesis. Hmm. And when man sinned, he got put out of the garden so that he could not put forth his hand and eat of the tree of life. He was turfed out until he turned back to the dust. He fell, you know. Remember where thou hast fallen, says Christ to the church at Ephesus, and repent. To him that overcomes. I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God, but make sure you repent, won't you?
For if you don't, I shall come and remove you out of your place. I removed Adam out of his, you know. So he should not eat of the tree of life. You make sure you repent. Otherwise, I shall remove you out of your place. To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. And now one becomes aware that as well as being a symbol and pointing forward, the thing is, to those who happen to know their Old Testament, an allusion to Old Testament.
If you didn't know the Old Testament, you wouldn't see the allusion, and that needn't worry you too much. But if you know your Old Testament, wow, that's an added level of meaning, isn't it? The Revelation is full of it. Um, a woman with her seed, the woman's son, and the old dragon waiting to devour it. Did you ever hear of that before in the Bible? The woman and the promised seed? Whew. Most people have. When s- the old dragon, which is Satan, tempted the woman and she fell, and God came to pronounce, he said to the serpent, the seed of the woman shall bruise your head.
Thou shalt wound his heel. And so before the old beast arises and gets his tremendous power, and the Satan gives him his power, God takes you behind the scenes by an illusion to Old Testament history, to help you see what's involved. And a marvelous story it is. Look at that woman, big with child. Who's the woman? But more important, who's the child? Now ponder the question.
There's about to rise on earth, says God, Satan's last attempt to foster man's absolute insanity. Satan's put it in the idea of a man and the masses, that man can be as God. And you don't need God out there. Man will be God, and man will sit upon the throne, and Satan will give him his supernatural power. And they shall cry, who is like God? Who? No, they won't. Who is like the beast? Taking that, which is now blasphemous, the uniqueness of God, who is like Jehovah? Nobody. They'll say, who is like the beast is unique, and bow down to the beast and defy man, and Satan will give him his throne.
This is Satan's effort for man. You shall be as God. Isn't that what Satan said to Eve? And what will heaven do when puny man is trying to climb up and ape God and be God? How will God counteract that? Well, before it happens, says God, let me tell you what I'm going to do. You like to look at that woman? She's carrying a child, isn't he? Who is the child? Says God, this is my plan that none of the princes of this world knew. Satan wanted man to try and be God.
Do you know my answer to that? I've decided to become man myself. Hmm, nice, isn't it? Man trying to be God, and God's answer is, all right, says God, I'll become man. Oh, the strategy of God, you... The wisdom of our God. And Satan holds out all his glittering prizes for men that will follow him. And he says, you know, if you don't follow me and take my mark in your hands and in your forehead, you won't buy or eat or sell or anything. I'll reward you with every material thing you like if you will fall down and worship me.
But if you don't, you'll go without, and you won't buy, sell. Oh, won't I, says God? I shall then, and I shall enter the market, and I will buy men. Are you going to buy them, Satan, with all these promised material rewards? You're going to buy them? You think you'll win? I shall become man, and I shall buy them, and I shall be in the market. And how will you buy them, Lord? These, says the prophet, as he's shown a great company following the lamb, these were bought. And the apostle uses the straight Greek word for buying, not even redemption, but bought.
Satan said you couldn't buy. Well, says God, I will buy then. And in the marketplace, the blessed Lamb of God put in his bid, and he outbid Satan. I have to point out to you, ladies and gentlemen, that God has bought you. I don't know whether you like that idea. But you see, he had to capture your heart somehow, didn't he? And when Satan was offering his great bribe, you shall be as God. That was a nonsense. God had to buy, offer a bigger price, didn't he, to get your heart's allegiance. And he's bought you, you say, with what?
He didn't promise you riches. He didn't promise you gold or silver or a brilliant career. What he paid to get you was the blood of his son. Savior, thou has bought us not with gold or gem, but with our own thine own life's blood for our diadem. Yeah. That's God in the market to outbid Satan at buying people. And if I ask you why you follow the lamb whithersoever he goeth?
What is the secret and why do you do it? You would reply to me, wouldn't you? Well, I've been bought, you see. Yes. And what a price. Oh, I've gone preaching, I must stop, and I will stop. All I was going to say was that, uh, when you come to the Revelation in many a chapter, do look at the allusions to Old Testament. There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of them in the book of the Revelation, and they help us to see, uh, what is going on not only in the past, but what will go on in the future. Notice the pattern, starting with women here, and going on to the false women, and then to the true woman.
Because that's really where we started, wasn't it? Son of man. And the candlesticks. Another image of the church, which is his body. The true bride. Ah. Patterns are intertwined, aren't they? And if I've left you all confused and tired and weary and wondering where on earth and how much more complicated is this thing going to be, where, how can I step off? Well, you can step off now. We're now going to finish. But if I've encrated in your mind that it is richly complicated, I've done what I set out to do, to give you an incentive to dig deeper into the wonders of God's work.
Thank you for your patience.
