09-03-26 Study of Revelation Chapter 4:1-3 A Trip to Heaven Part 1

➡ This Bible study focuses on the book of Revelation, specifically the transition from individuality in the church to the unity of the church body. It emphasizes the importance of self-assessment and understanding the future as described in the Bible. The study also discusses various accounts of people claiming to have visited heaven, questioning their validity based on scripture. The goal is to encourage individuals to focus on their personal relationship with Jesus Christ and their role within the church body.
➡ A man named Roberts shares his experiences of interacting with Jesus, claiming that he was dunked in a river by Jesus as a child and later ordained to minister by Jesus himself. He also recounts seeing Jesus at his home when he was 11 years old. Despite the skepticism surrounding his stories, Roberts insists they are true. He also discusses a vision of heaven described by John in the Bible, emphasizing the spiritual nature of the experience.
➡ The text discusses a spiritual journey to heaven, guided by the apostle John. It emphasizes the majesty of God’s throne and the importance of Jesus Christ, who was with God during creation and became the Lamb of God through his crucifixion. The text also explains the transition from the church age to the future, as described in the book of Revelation. It ends by highlighting that God had planned all these events before the creation of the world.
➡ John, in a spiritual state, hears a voice like a trumpet calling him to heaven to show him future events after the time of the church. This is not a symbolic rapture of the Church, but a revelation for John. The events, which start in chapter six and run through chapter 22, occur after the church age and do not involve the church. John’s journey is to understand and write about these events, which are the culmination of Paul’s teachings about the end times.
➡ John’s vision in the book of Revelation focuses on the throne of God, which is mentioned numerous times. The throne symbolizes God’s sovereign rule and authority, not just a piece of furniture. It’s not located in a palace, but in a temple, a place of worship, emphasizing God’s holiness. This throne is permanent and unmovable, signifying God’s unchanging and eternal sovereignty.
➡ The text discusses the concept of the divine throne, emphasizing its immovable nature and its central role in the universe. It suggests that despite chaos or uncertainty, God remains in control, seated on this throne. The throne is described as brilliant and fiery, symbolizing God’s glory and wrath. The text also references various biblical prophets who have seen this throne, reinforcing its significance and permanence.
➡ The text discusses the vision of God’s throne, described as brilliant and fiery, symbolizing beauty, splendor, and wrath. It mentions two stones, Jasper and Sardis, representing the first and last tribes of Israel, suggesting God’s covenant with Israel will not be broken despite impending judgement. The text also talks about a green rainbow around the throne, symbolizing God’s faithfulness and mercy. Lastly, it suggests that the throne room of God is within us, in our hearts, as we are God’s temple.
➡ The text discusses the concept of the Holy Trinity, explaining that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit are all one entity. It emphasizes that we pray to God the Father through Jesus Christ, who acts as our intercessor. The text also explores the idea of our future in heaven, where we will exist in glorified bodies, free from pain and sorrow, in the presence of God’s radiant throne. Lastly, it mentions that our salvation is a continuous process, starting from our creation, through our current lives, and culminating in our final redemption in heaven.
➡ This text discusses the importance of understanding and applying the teachings of the Bible in our lives. It emphasizes that we are part of Christ’s body and should let His light shine through us. The text also suggests that our connection to God is like a direct link, allowing us to boldly approach Him. It concludes by encouraging us to spend time in quiet reflection, studying the Bible to better understand and communicate with God.
➡ The text encourages daily prayer and self-study for spiritual growth and understanding. It emphasizes the importance of discernment and wisdom in interpreting information. It also includes a prayer for healing, gratitude for positive changes in the world, and thanks for the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus.

Oh, welcome. This is our Thursday night Bible study. We’re in the book of Revelation. We have migrated through the seven letters of the churches. We’re now getting into chapter four where things for a couple of chapters will. We’ll be looking at the, the dynamics of heaven and, and so forth. I want to try to relate this to you guys in a way that you got. You guys can see the process here. In Revelations 1, 2 and 3. It talks about individuality in the church. The letter is written to the church. But if you recall from the letters it was talking about the individuals in this church, which is you.

All right. You are the church. Well, that’s what these seven letters were all about. The application of these letters are all in the book of Ephesians. That’s what you need to associate with. Because he’s talking at an individual. If anyone opens his door, I will come in. He’s talking about the individual. He’s not talking about the corporate church, he’s talking about you. That individual relationship with Jesus Christ comes from the book of Ephesians. Then he moves into the collective whole, which is the church itself, as we would know as the body, the unity of our room, body, unity of, of the church.

That’s what we’re studying in Acts, we’re not quite finished with yet. But you need to keep in perspective as we continue to move through ACT and learn about the history of the church that the, the churches that these letters were written to all are contained in the book of Acts. And you’re seeing the history that went on to get these churches where they were even at at that time. Starting with the church in Ephesus being the cornerstone of all of the churches. So when you now move into chapter four, you’re not moving into chapter four with the understanding of you as an individual anymore because we’re moving into the church as a unity body of Christ.

And what you’ll find in this is the descriptions of heaven. We’re going to study this for a number of weeks. The descriptions of heaven that gives you the understanding of how God’s view is, how Jesus Christ view is, of what he wants the church to become. Okay, so what do you need to need to do is as we move through these weeks, you need to center your attention on you. Okay? You need to look at your self assessment in a way like you’ve never looked at it. Because when we come into chapter six and we begin the process of this great tribulation taking place, we look at the timelines, we look at all that stuff after chapter five, we’re gonna get into Daniel, we’re going to get into Ezekiel, we’re going to get, look at all these timelines.

We’re going to see everything. What we’re doing is, is setting the stage for your understanding of what is still to come and what will be. And, and you have to decide which side of this coin your life is. So as we take get into chapter four, chapter four and chapter five takes us on a trip to heaven. And this vision of John should be a welcome visit for all of us as he unfolds what heaven is, what heaven looks like, and so forth and so on. In fact, if you look out through our history, there are a lot of people who claim to have visited heaven.

One of them was Dr. Percy Collette, a charismatic medical missionary. Divide devised an extensive series of detailed messages on heaven. They were all drawn from his extraordinary personal experience. Click. Claim that in 1982 he was transported to heaven for five and a half days. He says he saw Jesus who was supervising the building of mansions there. And he claims he was able to speak face to face with the Holy Spirit. I want you to pay attention to what this says and to apply to his scripture. The only time that you will see Jesus Christ face to face is when you get to heaven.

All right, if I may add a par paral statement here, it is very difficult to speak face to face with any spirit. When you read this nonsense of what people are saying of these near death experience, you better associate that with the truth of scripture. Are you going to get off track and go down another one of those little roads like the New age movement have taken you? A newsletter detailing Dr. Klit’s journey to heaven began incredibly with these words and I’m quoting this newsletter. While Christianity abounds with accounts of glimmers of other dimensions from those who have had out of body experiences, Dr.

Colette is, is unlike these. Obviously he was caught up in a third heaven even as Paul was. The difference being Paul was not allowed to utter the things he saw and heard, while Dr. Klett, almost 2,000 years later, was commanded to do so. God’s the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Colette offers videotapes detailing his sojourn in heaven. And his accounts are peculiar indeed. Quote, everything God created upon earth is in heaven. Horses, cats, dogs, everything he created upon earth is in heaven in the ways of animals. And only these are perfect. For example, the dogs do not bark.

You don’t need plumbing. You can’t go to the banquet house and eat all you want. And no plumbing is needed. Colette describes this way. He talks about departments in heaven. The pity department. Listen. The place where the souls of aborted babies go and also some severely retarded babies. And it is here these little souls are trained for a period of time before they go before the throne of God. Is that what scripture says? No, no. He claims he also saw the record room and immense area where all the idle words spoken by Christians are being retained under until the Christians give an account of them or, or judge at which time there will be an emptied into the sea of forgetfulness.

Is that what scripture says? Colette describes a garment room where angels are sewing our robes, mansions are under construction, a Holy Spirit’s elevator and many other astonishing sites. He adds one macabre detail. While I was traveling back to earth, I saw two girls, one brunette and one a redhead. I, we, we stopped to talk to them, their soul bodies. On the way back we asked them what had happened to them and they indicated they had gotten killed in a car accident on a Californian highway. Their bodies physically were in the funeral home. They said their mother was weeping over them.

So they asked him would he go back and tell her, their mother, what happened. So he was having conversation as he was moving back to earth. Another upand cominging young leader, a charismatic movement leader is Roberts Lerden. He says he took an extensive tour of heaven as an eight year old, supposedly with Jesus as his personal guide. He recalls many people have asked me what Jesus looks like. Oh, get this. He’s 5 foot 11 to 6ft tall. He’s got sandy brown hair. Well, why does the same. Why does the scripture say he has nappy hair when he’s sandy brown hair? It’s not too long, it’s not too short.

He’s a perfect man. Whatever you picture as a perfect man, that’s what Jesus is. He’s perfect in everything. The way he looks, talks, everything. That’s the way I remember him. He says we walked a little farther and and he says this is the most important part of my story. I saw three story houses 500 to 600 yards from the throne of God. They’re very long and very wide. We walked into the first and as Jesus shuts the front door behind us, I looked around the interior in shock. One side of the building were arms, fingers and other exterior parts of the body.

Legs hung from the wall. But the scene looked natural, not really weird to me. On the other side of the building were shells filled with neat little packages of eyes. Green ones, brown ones, blue ones, etc. This building contained all the parts of the human body that people on earth need. But they haven’t realized these blessings are waiting for them in heaven and therefore saints and sinners alike. Is that what scripture says Jesus said? He says, Jesus said to me, these are unclean blessings. This building should not be full, it should be emptied every single day.

You should come in here with faith and get the needed parts for you and the people you’ve come in contact with that day. End quote. Gordon describes many other incredible sites he witnessed in heaven. The river of Life. A stadium full of people who he says were the cloud of witnesses spoken about in Hebrews 12:1. Oh, and there was a medicine cabinet with, with pill bottles, label peace and overdose of the Holy Ghost. Here Lardin’s description of what took place at the River Life, which I quote from him. Jesus and I visited a branch of the river of Life.

This river was knee deep and was crystal clear. We took off our shoes and got in and do you know the first thing Jesus did to me? He dunked me. I got back up and splashed him and we had a water fight. We splashed each other and left. It goes on to say that meant something to me for the glory of, for the King of Glory, the Son of God, to take time out for a little 8 year old Roberts and dunk him in the river of Life. He says, when I get back to heaven, I’m going to put a historical marker on that spot.

It’s going to say this is the spot where Jesus Christ became not only my Lord and Savior, but my friend. Now they walk to and talk together more. And now when he hears a joke, I can run to Jesus and listen to him laugh at it. And when he gets a good one, he tells me Larden also claims that while in heaven he was ordained to minister by Jesus himself. We walked a while and were quiet. Then Jesus turned around, took both of my hands and hit one of his, placed his other hand on top of my head and said, Roberts, I’m calling you to a great work.

You have to run like no one else, preach like no one else, be different from everybody else. Go, go, go like no one else has gone. Go and do as I had done. Now Lorden’s trip, as he states, supposedly happened in 1972. He says he didn’t tell anybody for eight years though says Jesus appeared twice more to him. The second time he says it was too scary. He can’t, he can’t talk about it. But the third time was a bit More mundane. This is what he said. The third time I saw Jesus was when I was about 11 years old.

Jesus walked in through the front door of my house while I was watching Laverne and Shirley on television. He came over and sat down beside me on the couch, kind of glanced at the television, and everything in this natural world clicked on. He says, I couldn’t hear the phone, I couldn’t hear the television set. All I heard was Jesus, and all I saw was his glory. He looked at me and said, roberts, I want you to study the lives of my generals in my great army throughout time to. Does he have generals? He’s got angels. Know then, like the back of your hand, know why they were a success, know why they failed, and.

And you want nothing in that area. He got up, walked out the front door, the TV clicked back on, and I. And he says, I resumed watching Laverne and Shirley. Now, Lordin’s account of heaven, of course, is as bizarre to the point of silliness. And it is utterly inconceivable that someone who saw Jesus face to face could go back to watching Laverne and Shirley look at Moses, look at Abraham, look at Ezekiel falling on his face. What are you buying in these days? See, that’s what he says. And then if you don’t write those stories off as fanciful and reserved, you’re probably going to write them off as Blasphemous.

They have Dr. Richard Eby, who claims to have died, gone to heaven and came back again. He said he fell off of a balcony, struck his head, supposedly died, reported he experienced paradise. He was the first one that I ever heard of. And there’s. There are more. All of these fanciful fabrications attempting to tell us what heaven is like. God did take Paul to heaven, tells us very clearly in second Corinthians that he was caught up into the third heaven, as you recall, and he saw things too wonderful to speak up. But there was another one who was taken to heaven, and that’s John.

And we find that occasion in Chapter 4 of Revelation as a study tonight. John not only was caught up into heaven, but he was commanded to write about it. In fact, all the way back to chapter one, verse 11, Jesus said, Write in a book what you see. That was his mandate to put down his vision. Here in is the second of his great visions. The first one was the apocalypse of Jesus Christ, or the revealing or unveiling of Jesus Christ ministering in his church in the great vision of chapter one. This is his second vision.

Now we have the second of his visions. It is a vision of heaven. He describes heaven to you. And he, as in this case of the first vision, was to write it down. If he wrote it down, and that is the truth about heaven, how could these yahoos of today tell you any different? But you buy it hook, line in secret flying because you’re not sanctified. You don’t know who you’re dealing with. You don’t know who he is, therefore you don’t know who you are. Now, as we come to this very important vision, we need to, to get it in, in our hands.

So let me read, I’m going to read these 11 verses to you. And here we go. Verse one of chapter four through verse 11. After these things I looked, I behold a door standing open in heaven. Portal door, have a portal gateway. And the first voice which I heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things come up here. Just like the calling of the church, the rapture. I show you what will take place after what these things, after what is going on in the church.

With these seven letters, you immediately, this is John talking. I was in the spirit. And behold, the throne was standing in heaven. And one sitting on the throne. What did we say? This book is written about your spiritual being, not your physical being. Because your physical being will not go to heaven. It will die as dust in the casket or however you treat yourself. So he went in the spirit and behold, the throne was standing in heaven. And one sitting on the throne. And he who sees. I’m sorry, he who was sitting was like a Jasper stone and a Sardis in appearance.

Oh, wow. What’s a Jasper stone look like? What Sardis look like tells you right here, Christ in his glory looks like a Jasper stone and a Sardis stone. And there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. This rainbow is the same rainbow that he puts inside of this earth every time it rains. To show you the rain is over with. Because that’s the rainbow he gave to Noah and says, this is a sign that I will no longer curse the earth by rain. And around the throw were 24 thrones. And upon those thrones I saw 24 elders setting, clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their heads.

And from the throne proceed flashes of lightning and sounds of pearls of thunder. Energy, Think energy. There were seven lamps of fire, seven churches burning before the throne, which were the seven spirits of God. Seven spirits, seven churches. Now think about this. There’s nothing new underneath the heaven. If he talks about seven spirits and he’s identifying the seven churches by lampstands, which is basically the church. There’s a tie in here. And before the throne, there was, as it were, a sea of glass, like crystal. Was it glass? No. No, it’s not glass. A sea of glass like crystal.

The only one that could be like that is diamonds. And in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf. And the third creature had a face like a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings. Okay, they’re describing cherubs. If you go back in history and look at the Old Testament, Ezekiel, Isaiah, you’re going to find that they describe cherubs with six wings.

And they had eyes around and within and day and night. They do not cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come past present and day and tomorrow past, present and tomorrow. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him, he sits on the throne. To him who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders will fall down before him who sits on the throne and will worship him who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, worthy art Thou, our Lord God, to receive glory and honor and power.

For thou didst create all things. And because of thy will, remember the will and testament before the foundation of the world cause of thy will, legal document, they existed and were created. That gives you the story of creation, of why creation even took place, That. That this vision extends into chapter five. And we’re going to discuss it after we get through chapter four, of course. And this is a personal visit to the divine throne room of heaven. It is John’s second vision. His second unveiling is, second apocalypse. It is the second time now on the isle of Patmos.

And that he has been lifted beyond the human senses. And he is now experiencing a transcendent and divine experience. And we, escorted by the beloved apostle John, are carried above, as it were, to the scenes of heaven. And he reveals heaven to us. Now, there may be a light to see in heaven, but I want to tell you one thing. There is nothing that can compare to the throne of God. The most made, majestic thing you will ever see in your spiritual life will be the throne of God. And nothing compares to the Lamb of God in chapter five, who are we talking about? We’re talking about one and only one, Jesus Christ as God and as the Lamb.

Remember, he was with God at the time of creation. He came to earth as flesh and he became the Lamb of God on his crucifixion. And so the focus of this trip to heaven is on the throne and the one who sits on it and on the Lamb of God. That’s what this vision’s about. Why? Because you just learned about the seven letters of the churches, of what they did right, what they did wrong, and what they needed to do. You’ve now applied them to your life. You now understand the application Ephesians in the book of Ephesians.

Now you come back to here and you need to understand. That this is about how you view Christ in order to build your relationship to him that is described in the book of Ephesians. As this chapter begins, we’re going to be drawn into the vision and suddenly we become face to face with the infallible majesty himself. Verse 1. After these things I looked and behold a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard, like a sound of a trumpet speaking with me, set. Okay, sound of a trumpet, a high pitched noise. Come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things.

Now you have to, you have to now notice the words and the phrases. As we look at this, you’ll notice twice the phrase after these things. Hang on, let me just move this. After these things, says John, I looked. What things? After the things that he had just experienced before this, what did he just experience? Well, the tremendous vision of Christ in chapter one and then the giving of the seven letters to for the churches in chapters two and three. After this experience of seeing Christ ministering to his church and getting the word of Christ for his churches, after these things, what did he do? I looked.

I was done with the first part, so I looked. I did what I was told to do. I stopped and I looked. So he’s simply giving us somewhat of a personal chronological order in saying, after having experienced the first three chapters, I now have experienced what I am about to write. The phrase after these things at the end of the verse is a bit different. Come up here and I’ll show you what must take place after these things. In other words, you have here not John’s chronological chronology, but God’s chronological order. John is telling us when he says after these things that after these things I just experienced, then I experienced this.

God is saying to him, or the Voice is saying to him, after these things you have just written about, then will come these other things. This is a very important transitional point for you to understand. The phrase after these things is used throughout the book of Revelation to mark the beginning of a new vision. Frequently it is used after these things with the word I saw. John personally saw this. He saw it in spiritual eyes, but his spirit was able to transfer it to his physical brain to write it down. And I look, chapter seven, chapter 15, chapter 18, chapter 19.

In each of these cases, it introduces a new vision or a new section of the book as the scene shifts. What we have here is John saying, after these things, I looked after the visions I just had. I looked and there was another one coming on my way. At the end of the verse, the Lord is saying, after what I just told you about, then this will happen. And so now we have a transition between chapters two and three that deal with the church age. Now, the things which are, they’re called in chapter one, verse 19.

Now we move into the things which shall be. We shift from the church age described in chapters two and three to that period of time that comes after that. After these things, after matters regarding the church, after the instruction regarding the church on the head on earth, we now come to heaven. And what are we going to learn? Well, guys, it’s pretty evident. We’re going to learn what’s about to take place. That’s the next sequel of events. So he says, after these things, I looked. And behold. This is an exclamation. Behold, I saw a door standing open in heaven.

A portal. He didn’t see it open. He said, I saw it. I saw it open. He didn’t see, I saw it opening. He says, I saw it open. It was already open for him to see. It was. And he saw it. I saw a door standing open in heaven. Now, if you remember, back in chapter three, verse 20, there was a door closed on earth, right? Think about this. The church at Laodicea, there was a door closed on earth. It was knocking, right? Penny, man, open the door. I’ll come in. But that door was closed. Whatever I closed, nobody can open.

Whatever open, nobody can shut. It was a door of the church. You, a door of the church. And it was closed to Christ, right? That’s why he was knocking and asking entrance. Oh, he doesn’t come and intrude. You have to open the door. Oh, that goes the same with the evil master. You open the door. He’s. He’s. He’s not going to wait. He’s coming. But it’s you that opens whatever door that’s going to exist. Let’s continue. So here is the door to heaven and it is enclosed. It’s open. The door on earth was closed to Christ.

You, the door in heaven is open to John and us. It’s open all the time. You have to see. Allows entrance into the very throne of God. What did, what did Scripture say? Come boldly to the throne of God and make your requests. What do you think that meant? Oh, let me stand here and look up there and say, oh, you know, I, I can’t quite see you, but you know what? I got these requests. No, that’s not what he said. You go boldly to the throne of God and make your request. I hope you’re seeing the tie ins here of your life to what’s fixing to happen.

It is a door standing open by which John will take us into the heavenlies. He’s going to show us the heavens now? No, a door standing open to heaven. The heaven being described is the abode of God. It’s his home. Where’s his home? In you. He sets his throne in your heart, near the temple home. It is the place that Jesus Christ went after his resurrection. After of course, he rose from the dead. He ascended into heaven. Acts 1:10 and 11 talks talks about that. Acts 3:21, Acts 7:55 and 56 at Romans 10:6, Colossians 3:1 1st Thessalonians 4:16.

All of those things indicate to us that the Lord ascended into heaven. It is the abode of God. It is his home. Furthermore, it is the heaven where the Lord has been preparing for us. A place. John 14. He says, if I go, I go and prepare a place for you. That where I am, there you may be also. This is a marriage image of the Jewish traditional marriage. We walk through that. So he’s gone to the Father’s house and he’s there in heaven preparing a room for us. And when the room is done, what happens? He comes pretty much at the dead of night and he collects his bride.

What’s that? That’s the rapture of the church. Now here’s an interesting note. John says, I saw a door open, standing open, and it was a door to into heaven and the heaven where God dwells. The heaven where Christ is having ascended and preparing a place for us. For the rest of the book of Revelation, John spends most of his time in heaven. There are times when his visions seem to be from the vantage point of earth, but predominantly they are heavenly visions. He is in heaven, looking at heaven, looking forward in time, seeing the movie being played out and noticing the impact of the physical realm.

Ephesians 1:2, chapters 1, 2 and 3 says that God did all of this before the foundation of the world. Do you understand? This is a simulation of what he already created in his mind, played out in his. His computer made sure that whatever his plan was, was going to be successful before he implemented in production called matter and physical human being, physical realm, this universe. Now. So John here for the first time is lifted up into heaven and for the rest of the book will spend the most of his visionary time in heaven as he is fixing his enlightenment.

Oh, not New Age. He, he didn’t, he’s not, you know, elevating up to another level. Okay, can’t do that. As he’s fixing his enlightened, transcendent, spiritual eyes on the open door, he hears a voice. You’re listening. He hears a voice. And the first voice which I heard, this is John speaking. You got to know he will hear other voices in this. He says, the first voice I heard was like a sound of a trumpet speaking to me. It was the calling. It was the calling. Just like you’re called to salvation and you’re called to do service and you’re going to be called home.

Home when the rapture time is here. That should sound for very familiar to us, right? Because in chapter one, verse 10, in the first vision, he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day. Oh, Sunday, think Sunday. Literally, I was transcendent. I was in a spiritual state. I was conscious of spiritual and, and I supernatural things. I had transcended the earth. And I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet saying, well, whose voice was that? Whose voice was that? Say, because he turned around, remember in chapter one when he heard this, he turned around in verse 12 to see the voice.

And there he saw one, like the Son of man. As David asked on Tuesday night, were there two sons of man? Well, yeah, but this son of man was the man of Jesus Christ, none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Here again, it is the Lord Jesus that speaks to him in chapter four. With this loud trumpet like clear voice is a commanding, an authoritative voice. And that’s why it’s likened to the trumpet. The voice gives a command that is specific. Come up here. And when the Almighty and exalted ascended Lord says, come up here, you’re going to go.

Well, matter of fact, you don’t have a choice. Okay, come up here. And I will show you what must take place after these things. Now we got to understand that John was not carried mystically into some never never land of fantasy. It was carried spiritually into the ever ever land of heaven with only a slight foothold in time and space to see what human eyes could not see and hear what human ears cannot hear. We have a veil over our eyes. We have a veil over our ears. We can only hear that which God wants us to hear.

We can’t hear everything in this spiritual world because revealed. So. But the Lord says I want you to come up here because why? I want to show you some things that must take place after these things. After the time of the church. Hear me. After time of the church, this church rapture, after the time of the church there’s some things that are going to happen. And I want to show you what they are. That’s what Christ was telling John. I want to. I want you to see what is going to happen and I want you to write about it.

Because this is the closure of everything that Paul put in every one of his epistles about the end times. This is the encapsulation of the process of what will happen at the time of the tribulation. Now some have equated come up here with the rapture of the Church. That’s not true. They see that they the reason why they do this because they see it as a symbolic rapture. Now I don’t think that this is the church going up. I think this is John going up. I don’t think he’s going up for the purpose of glorification. I think he’s going up for the purpose of revelation.

Why? Because he was sent back. If it was the point of the rapture church, he wouldn’t come back. It would be nice if it were because it would seal the pre tribulation rapture for those who are desperately want some scripture to do that. But that’s not. Excuse me. What he did. Because it was the rapture of the church would be a process of glorification. John didn’t receive his glorified body. I see here a transcendent trip of one man for the purpose of revelation. Come up here. Not because I want to glorify you. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t.

I want to glorify you will be glorified in time. But come up here, I want you to see something. I want to give you a reward. I come up here because I want to show you some things that are going to happen after things that are concerning the church age. And so as John is having this unique trip, he’s talking, he’s taking us along with him on this journey in this writing of this book, step by step by step. Now, the things which are to happen shortly or after these things are the things that make up the final part of the book.

Remember in chapter one, verse 19, we’ve talked about the things that you’ve seen, the things which are the things which shall take place after these things, the things you have seen. That’s the vision in chapter one. The things which are are the letters to the seven churches today. That’s where you live. The things which shall take place after these things is what’s going to happen after the church age. That’s the third element of the book. And from chapter four to chapter 22 is all of the discussion of what will happen after the church age. After the things described in chapters two and three.

The actual historical events start in chapter six and run all the way through chapter 22. What we have here in chapter four and five is the prologue to those historical events. The activity around the throne of God as God begins to move in action is a curiosity. And should be noted that in from chapter four, verse one on through the remainder of the book, the church is never mentioned. Why? Because it’s not here after you get through what God does in heaven. Getting ready to bring home the church. Chapter six, the church is gone. And therefore the things that are mentioned in heaven don’t apply to the church, applies to the activities of God.

Getting ready to bring the church home. There’s no mention of the church at all, which seems to fit the fact that the Lord is going to show John things that happen after matters concerning the church. And so we can assume here that the church is out of the picture. That’s important as we move forward because you’ll be able to put all the epistles of Paul in place with the understanding of the events that Paul takes, talks about with the events of what is provided to you in the book of Revelation. And, and by assumption. Many would say that the rapture must occur before these things begin to take place.

But what is said here is not that it says come up here. That’s what he’s telling John. Come up here. And it cannot be equated with a rapture call, because nobody else went. It’s a single person. Remember back in chapter three, verse ten, there was the promise from the Lord to the church that because you have kept the word of my perseverance I will also keep you from the hour of testing. That’s the tribulation, that hour which is about, about to come upon the whole world to test those who dwell upon the earth. Now we talked about that in great detail for many, many weeks.

The, the church, how it seems that the Lord is, is there saying, I will deliver you from that coming hour of testing. And so we can assume now that as the testing unfolds, beginning in chapter six and the prologue to it in chapters four and five, and the church is not mentioned that they have already been delivered. So somewhere between chapters three and somewhere between the beginning of chapter six, the church is gone. And in this chapter four and five, between chapter three and six, we get the things going on in heaven that lead us to the things that go after the church.

Okay, so that’s how you can put this together. So if you look at this before we get into the unfolding of the judgment in chapter six, after chapter three, chapters five, four and five gives us the ability to have a wonderful time in heaven for a few weeks. The sealed, the trumpet and the bold judgments don’t begin until chapter six. But we see all of the commotion that sets them off here in chapters four and five, you get to see the legalists, legalism of how Christ is able to do what he’s going to do as the kinsman Redeemer.

Remember we talked about that as the kinsman Redeemer because he’s the only one that can unroll the seals. He’s the only one could do judgment. And that’s what we see here in chapters four and five. The central theme here is the throne. In fact, you might be interested to note that in chapter 4, the word throne is used 13 times in 11 verses. 11 times it speaks of the throne of God. Twice it speaks of the thrones occupied by the 24 elders. And. And the word throne in the book of Revelation from here on out is used nearly 40 times.

But in chapter four, the main focus as John visits heaven is on the throne. We see that in verse two, the throne. Immediately I was in the spirit and behold, a throne was standing in heaven. That is, behold again. Which would be a wow factor in our vernacular. It’s amazing. It’s astounding. First an open door, now a throne. Think about this. Immediately after the voice that he heard, immediately after the summons from the Lord, he went into some transcendent kind of a static state and he went into the condition where, as I said earlier, he lightly touches time and space and he is taken out of this world as Paul was in 2nd Corinthians 12 which he records that he John says, immediately I was in the spirit.

Oh, think about Enoch and Elijah. Immediately I was taken out of the physical and moved in the spiritual. I was transferred. Same thing he said in chapter one, verse ten. I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day. What he means is this. I was under the control of the spirit. Oh, think about your life. I was under the control of the spirit and I was taken out of the time space dimension. What have we talked about? You’re not a citizen of this world, you’re a citizen of heaven. You’re supposed to be controlled by the spirit.

And when you’re controlled by the Spirit, timelessness is your partner. This is a kind of a miraculous spiritual condition produced by the only the Holy Spirit can do. That’s that sensitizes all of the faculties of John’s mind and body to a spiritual level of reality that we don’t know or experience normally. Because were not at that level. Why sanctification. He is now about to have his second revelation. And so there I was, this is John. There I was, immediately in the spirit, sensitive to the spiritual reality that was transcendent. And behold, I see a throne standing in heaven.

Perhaps Psalms 103:19 flashed into his mind which says, the Lord has prepared his throne in heaven and his kingdom rules overall. Perhaps he remembered Isaiah 66, verse 1 where it says heaven is my throne. And here John sees the throne of God. This is the seat of universal sovereignty. What does it seem Satan on this earth. This is a seat of universal sovereignty. This is to establish God in his rule. This is to say that from now on, John, all of the future eschatological history which unfolds is coming out of the throne of the sovereign God.

He’s in charge. You got to note this, the throne John saw was not so much a piece of furniture, but a symbol of sovereign rule and sovereign authority. He saw the glory of Jesus Christ himself. It would have been not unlike the throne that Isaiah saw in chapter six. If you remember, Isaiah went into the temple and had a vision of God. And if you recall, he saw the Lord high and lifted up and sitting on the throne. There was another ecstatic, transcendent supernatural experience in which the eyes and ear and ears of Isaiah were sensitized to the same kind of experience.

Again as even in Isaiah’s case, John sees God as a sovereign position, sitting on a throne, running everything. Now, the throne is not located in a palace. The throne is not located in a palace. Well, that’s what we know it as. If you were to talk about the throne and apply it to your knowledge base, you would say, oh well, the throne is in this big beautiful place, right? The building of sorts, we might assume, because it’s a royal throne, a regal throne, a sovereign throne, a majestic throne, because God is the king of the universe.

That it was in a palace. Not so, not so. See, all throughout the book of Revelation we learn that the throne is in a temple, a place of worship. You, you get it. You, it’s is associated with worship, not just with kingly sovereignty, but with godly holiness. Where do you get that from? Ephesians 4. First thing you do, you got to be pure. What’s that? That’s pure, guys. Holiness. That’s what, that’s what he’s describing. He’s not only describing himself, he’s describing you. It is in a temple. It’s a dwelling place of the holy God who is not only to be obeyed, who is not only sovereign, but is to be worshiped and adored.

Now if we move into chapter seven, verse 15 for a moment, for this reason they were before the throne of God, that is those who have been saved in the tribulation. We’re going to get it there. They’re before the throne of God and they serve him day and night in his palace. No, in his what Scripture says in his temple. Chapter 11, verse 19. And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened and the ark of his covenant appeared in his temple. And there were flashes of lightning and sounds of pails of thunder and earthquake and a great hellstorm.

Your body is the mirror image of the temple that was built in the Old Testament where God resided in the holy of holies. And if you get into the self study revelation, you’re going to see all of that detail for it. See, that’s very similar to the kind of lightnings and flashings that come out of the throne in chapter four. And so here we have the seat of that same kind of fiery judgment, only here it’s not a throne, it’s a temple. Which then tells us that the temple is the place where the throne is. Chapters 14 and 15, again enriching our understanding.

It tells us about God and his wrath and his fury. And again, it is God. It is God who is what on his throne? It says in verse 15, another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice. In other words, there is a God on his throne. In his temple. Dispassing dispatching angels to judgment. In chapter 15, verse 6, seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple. There again, God’s throne must be in the temple from which he dispatches the angels that surround him. Wherever he is. The angels are surrounding them even now.

And there we find the angels coming out of the temple. In verse 8, the temple filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power. And no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. We find in chapter 16, verses 7, 17 and 18, the seventh angel poured out his bowl on the air. The loud voice came out of the temple from the throne. There it is, out of the temple from the throne. The throne is in the temple. Again in verse 18, the flashes of lightning sounds, perils of thunder, great earthquake, and so forth and so on.

So the heavenly throne is in the heavenly temple, the dwelling place of God where he is not only a sovereign to be feared, but he is the holy God to be worshiped. You got to notice this. A throne was stand. Was standing in heaven. How does the throne stand? Pick up the words, guys. How does the throne stand? The idea of that is this is not a portable chair. This is something that is set in stone. Now, we used to say, if you can knock off the palace, you can rule a country. Well, the Rothschild said the same thing, but a little different.

If I can control the money, I control the country, I control the government, I control the people. And I. I’ve seen some palaces in my travels that are simply ringed with guys holding machine guns with bands of bullets over their chest. And it’s that simple. I can tell you, the first time I walked off a plane in Singapore, I almost fell off. Fell off myself. Why? Because there’s guys in the. In the tormac area where you embark for the plane. Going up to the jetway, going up to the terminal. They were standing about every four feet in army uniform with machine guns.

Lo and behold, I figured it out once I got to the hotel and the news came on. They were. They were going to arrest a guy on the plane that was bringing drugs into the country. Oh, let me tell you what. Next day he got executed, right? Not in our country. So if you can come in with your gang and mow them down and take over the throne, you could be the king. That’s the idea. Well, that’s the idea of Lucifer is. Anyway. Well, I’ll tell you, heaven’s not like that. It’s not a portable throne. You can pick up the throne and haul it off to somewhere else in the world.

This is a fixed, a set, a permanent throne occupied by God. North Star, guys. It’s immovable. I saw John there. A fixed set established in place of divine rule, worship and judgment. Why is that important to note? Because the way things are going to flow in this period of time as we walk through this book to come, and the way that the prophecies are going to take place, somebody might think God had lost control and somebody had knocked off the heavenly temple and stolen the throne. Oh, prophets had the same problem of understanding. Isaiah did. Isaiah had the same problem.

When Isaiah went to the temple to check in and see if God was still on his throne, it was because everything in the nation was going to pieces. Everything was crumbling and falling apart. And the great king Azariah, who had been king for 52 years, God killed him because he tried to act as a priest and invaded the priesthood, which of course was a cause for death. He was the last vestige of blessing, as it were, on the apostate land. And so Israel rushes into the temple to check in with God and see if somebody’s taken over the throne because everything has gone so badly.

So before we get into all the horrors and trauma and the fearful things that happen at the end time, you got to know that the throne is a set place, a fixed place. God is on it and is immovable. So we meet the throne now as we unfold this chapter, and we’re going to start it tonight as we unfold this chapter. Everything relates to the throne. A very simple outline that we’ll talk about through this whole chapter. It runs something like this. On the throne, around the throne, from the throne, before the throne, in and around the throne, and towards the throne.

Everything’s about the throne. That’s all of it. Who’s on the throne, what’s going on around the throne, what’s coming out from the throne, what is before the throne, what’s going on, going toward the throne. The throne is the center of everything. Your energy source. All right, so let’s start. That was just the introduction, guys. So now let’s start. All right, we’re going to start with verse 2. 1. Sitting on the throne, somebody is in charge. Well, you might say, or I might ask you a question. I hope that you’re glad that somebody’s in charge. Okay? History is not whimsical.

History is not luck. There is a sovereign of the universe in charge. Sitting indicates the posture of reigning, not to be confused by the way, with the posture of the rest of the book of Hebrews. You remember Hebrews 1, 3, 10, 12, 12, 2 says Christ is seated. He rests. Well, that has to do with resting because he’s accomplished his atoning work. Different scripture has different contextual meaning. Read the words. This is not resting. Revelation is not resting. Revelation is about action, all action, because something is done. There is a this posture of raining because something is about to happen.

Now, John doesn’t tell us the name of the one there. He doesn’t say it’s God, he doesn’t say it’s Jehovah, he doesn’t say it’s the Almighty. But maybe he has some respect, having taken his trip into heaven. Maybe his Jewish heritage comes back and he reveres the tetragrammaton of the four Hebrew letters that identify the name of God and he doesn’t want to speak them. Jewish tradition is you can’t speak the name of God. So we don’t know why he doesn’t mention the name of God. But it isn’t really necessary because it’s obvious immediately who is on the throne.

We know who it is. Isaiah, in his vision, when he saw the very same throne, went into this very same situation and the very same scene. He simply says this. In the year of King Uri Uriah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. You got to study the whole Bible if you want to understand the meaning of Scripture. It is indeed the same Lord that is on the throne that there was when Isaiah got his vision. It’s the same throne set, it’s established, it’s fixed, it’s immovable and sitting on it is the same almighty sovereign God of the universe.

There’s no difference. Foreign First Kings 22, the prophet, verse 19 said, Therefore hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right and on his left. Now that is a true vision of heaven. He said, I saw the Lord. And he was up there in heaven and he was sitting on the throne and all his angels were around him. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord. And he was sitting on the throne. And all around him, remember the seraphim were crying back and forth, holy, holy, holy.

In Psalms 47, verse 6, again we read similarity. God reigns over the nations. God sits on his holy throne. This is God, guys. It’s nobody else. And I’m reminded also of Ezekiel’s amazing prophecies. In Ezekiel, chapter one of that great prophecy, he sees God and listens to how he describes him. Listen. Now, above the expanse that was over their heads, there was something resembling a throne, like Lipsy Luzia, okay, Which is a great stone, a kind of stone in appearance. And on that which resembled a throne, high up was a figure with appearance of a man.

And then I noticed from the appearance of his loins and upwards, something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it. And from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw something like fire. And there were was radiance around him as, as the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day. So as the appearance of the surrounding radiance, well, you might want to say, who’s this? So Ezekiel goes on and says, such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, this is Ezekiel, I fell on my face.

Ezekiel had the same reaction Isaiah did. And no doubt John had a similar one, though he doesn’t tell us that. So the one on the throne is the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Lord God himself. And John doesn’t need to give us a name because it should be obvious to you. Furthermore, the description tells us all we need to know. Verse 3. And he who was sitting on the throne was like a Jasper stone and Sardis in appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Well, that’s the same description of Ezekiel, same description of Isaiah and their prophecies in the Old Testament.

And before John goes to around the throne, he says on the throne was sitting like a Jasper stone, a Sardis in appearance. Now that takes us back to what we just read in Ezekiel chapter one, where he said it was like a blazing light. It was like fire coming out of the throne. Here you have the eternal God, Here you have the enthroned king, described in a flashing flaming light with color. This is the glory, the splendor, the beauty and the fiery wrath of his character. Jasper stone is mentioned here. And to get a little further definition of what that is, you need only to look to the end of the Book of Revelations, chapter Revelation, chapter 21, verse 11.

It says the brilliance of the holy city Jerusalem is the brilliance of the glory of God. Her brilliance was like a very costly stone as a stone of crystal clear Jasper. So what we learn about Jasper is that is a crystal clear stone. As I said, it’s best to see this as a diamond, the most precious, the most magnificent, a crystal clear, flawless diamond reflecting all of the colors of the spectrum in unbelievable brilliance. That’s it. He. Wasn’t that the first stone on the breastplate and Exodus as well? Okay, yes. And he sees the shining, flashing facets of the glory of God bouncing off of the stone.

And Denny says in chapter four that one sitting was not only like a Jasper stone, but like a Sardis. Oh, by the way, the church of Sardis in the city of Sardis reminds us to note that Sardis, the town, was named for the stone. See, apparently they were found in that vicinity. The stone itself was a red blood ruby stone, fiery bright. It speaks a blazing, fiery nature of God’s wrath and fury. And so here is John and he sees the throne. And that is not a peaceful vision. It is not a comforting division vision for him.

It’s a flashing, brilliant, glorious, splendorous, magnificent, wrathful kind of a frightening experience. As it must have been for Ezekiel when he fell on his face. And as it must have been for Isaiah when he fell on his face. The appearance of the almighty God was clear and brilliant and blazing and fiery. You’ve seen God in his total glory as described by John. Now, if we go back to Daniel, chapter seven in verse nine, Daniel’s writing. And he says, I kept looking until thrones were set up and the ancient of Days, which was a title for God, took a seat.

His throne was ablaze of flames, its wheels. Wheels. Another closed energy source. Its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him. And then Daniel goes on to talk about thousands and thousands and myriads and myriads of angels, but you got to notice the same thing in all of these scriptures. Don’t take this word out of context. What he saw was whiteness, brilliance, light, clarity, purity, blazing fire and flames. You can go all the way back to the Pentateuch in the book of Deuteronomy and remember these words. Deuteronomy 4:24.

For the Lord your God is a consuming fire. Words repeated in Hebrews 12:29 and. And which I have already read you the amazing description of brilliance and the glory and the fiery light that came from what Ezekiel saw. So what does it picture? Beauty, splendor and wrath. God is about to fire out the lasers of his judgment. It. Now, I don’t want you to miss anything the Lord may have intended with these two stones, so I’m going to give you a footnote. The Jasper and the Sardis were the first and last stones on the breastplate of the high priest.

Sam, you find that in these Exodus 20:8, they represent the first and the last of the tribes of Israel, naming namely Reuben the firstborn, represented by Jasper, and Benjamin the last born, represented by Sardis. And so it may be that these stones, God is seeing in covenant relationship to Israel that even though he’s going to fire out the wrath and the rat and the fox furry and the blazing laser flames of judgment, it will not consume the covenanted people. Now, as we will know during the time of the tribulation, Israel is going to be what, saved.

We’ve already talked about that. And he will, he will fulfill his covenant with them. God is not through with them yet, as described in Romans by Paul. They’ve just been put on a shelf. And so it may be that those two stones also speak of the fact that God in his covenant has not forgotten his promise to Israel. And he will first of all call out 12,000 from each of those tribes to be his witnesses and seal them. Remember, the Holy Spirit’s taken out of here when the church goes, but he’s going to seal them with the Holy Spirit so that they can evangelize the Jews and the, and the Gentiles that are there during the tribulation.

And as a result of their effort, the nation will look on, on the one whom they have pierced, mourn for him as an only son and be saved. Now there’s another interesting note about this. Let’s look at Reuben. He’s represented by Jasper means in Hebrew, Behold a son. That’s what Jap means in Hebrew. Behold a son. Benjamin, represented by the Sardis in Hebrews meaning son of my right hand. Could those names also speak of the greatest Jew, the true son, the son sitting at the his right hand, even Jesus Christ. Do you ever think about that? The breastplate of the priest represents God himself in all of his splendor and glory.

Maybe all of that is intended in the reference to the Jasper and the Sortus. And so as we see the one who is on the throne. So thirdly, first the throne, then on the throne, around the throne. And we’re just going to begin to, to look at this tonight. Around the throne in verse three, there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Now you, you and I have seen a lot of rainbows. I’ve never seen one that looked like an emerald. An emerald is what color? Green. A rainbow is made up of seven colors of the spectrum.

This is a special kind of rainbow. Maybe the green just dominated and stood out or maybe it was a very special green rainbow. Or maybe even a green emerald can flash all. All kinds of colors when it reflect refracts also the spectrum of light. We just don’t know. Scripture doesn’t tell us that. But what we do know, what a rainbow means. We read from Ezekiel that when Ezekiel saw the same thing John saw. Heaven hasn’t changed, by the way, he said in Ezekiel 1:28, there is a radiance around him. And it had the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day.

It looked to Ezekiel like just a multicolor rainbow. It looked to John like a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. Maybe the green was dominant and the other colors sparkling off of it. No matter what, this is something wonderful. Because if you look just at the throne, it is pouring out furry, in flashing fury and flashing brilliant, glowing white and red flanks. And all of a sudden, the coolness of green seems to capture John. That’s interesting. And a rainbow, what does that mean? Well, if you go back to Genesis 9, 13, God says, just to prove to you that I will be faithful in my covenant Noah, and never again drown the world, I’ll put up my what? My rainbow in the sky.

And every time you see it, a rainbow, it is God’s way of saying to you, he will never again destroy the world by water. See, the rainbow is a sign of God’s faithfulness. God is faithful to his work, faithful to his promise to you and faith to his covenant you. So at the center of the throne, you see the holy wrath, but surrounding it, you see this beautiful green hue of faithfulness. Ever looked at energy under a color spectrum? If you’ve never done, you need to go do it. Listen, guys. Wrath is never an expense of faithfulness.

Judgment never overrules promise. God is powerful enough to crush everyone with a thought. And that would cause us to live in fear were it not for his faithful mercy. You remember in the day of Malachi, when they were afraid that they were going to get caught in judgment, he said this. Now, Malachi is the. Is the book right before Matthew, Old Testament to New Testament, as the King James Version splits out. And Malachi is where God set aside himself from the nation of Israel for 430 years because of their disobedience. So here’s what Malachi said. They shall be mine in the day when I make up my jewels.

Oh, make up my jewels. Romans 8:1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. God will be faithful. God will be merciful to his own. God will be gracious. God will keep his promise. And so here’s John sees an unbelievable vision. He sees a throne. And on the throne he sees almighty God in all of his splendor, grandeur, glory, light. And around the throne there’s a rainbow, a covenant that he made, a rainbow. There’s a lot more around the throne. And it even is going to get more fascinating as we continue this journey.

And from that, there’s your opening to chapter four. What do you think? Anything? Questions? Comments? Yes, Jim, that was wonderful. I have to say, the one thing you mentioned about the beauty that goes back into Matthew 5. About the beauty, Ben. Yes. Okay. And then the other thing is looking at this like you said, with the trilinear of filtering. Filtering. That’s divine completeness, that’s holiness, that’s perfection. That’s God’s throne room. And we have to be still in a childlike mind of purity to be there, right? Yeah. You can only come to me as though you were a child one, because you come to him, no matter the age as a baby, to be reborn again.

And then you have to mature like you have done in your physical journey. You have to mature in him spiritually. Which is what I want to go back to John. John eloquently talked about on Tuesday night for me because of my. My all day podcast. He eloquently said, you got to feed that spirit. And how do you feed the spirit? You got to feed the spirit with the word of God. Sanctification. Yeah. Victoria, in the comment about us being at the temple and that we are God’s temple and you’re describing the throne room within the temple, would it be safe to say that the temple resides? Temple is inside of us.

I know, in our heart. But the throne room is as well. The throne room is where God resides, which is your heart. And you are the temple to provide the house of God. You are the temple. If you looked at your biological makeup, guys, you need to go look at the self study revelation. I have put that out there for you. All right? If you look at the biological makeup of your body, your body has all of the same representation as the temple itself. You have an outer court, you have an inner court. You have the holy of holies.

The holy of holies is the throne room of God in you. Your heart. Your inner court is your soul. Your outer court is your physical name. Part. So the throne room is within us, but God’s throne is not in within us? No. God’s throne is setting in heaven. But God sent his comforter, Jesus Christ in the spirit Part of the Godhead that he resides in the temple. Yeah, the Holy Spirit. Okay, so then the other question has been for a while on my list is that God can’t be near us or see us because of our sin, which we learned a long time ago.

So actually, how does he see us? Is he seeing us through, through the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is God, the Holy Spirit is Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. So it’s all God. Yeah, they’re all gone. Okay. Because, you know, it’s been very challenging to bring all that inward because I’ve always been looking at outward. Okay, so when it resides in you, then you have all three parts of the Godhead. Why? Because all three parts of the Godhead are all three parts. Jesus Christ is all three parts. God is all three parts.

The Holy Spirit is all three parts. Christ says, if you see me, you see God. But God, but God, but God. The Godhead cannot be God the Father cannot. The Father, God the Father has to be separated from sin. That’s why we pray to God in Jesus name. You pray through your intercessory, Jesus Christ to God the Father, which provides the blessings. That’s the reason why. And you look at the Lord’s Prayer, it opens up with praying to God the Father. You are. You. You are acknowledging the sovereignty of God the Father and his role in this process.

Okay, we trip up and, and don’t address the, the, the right Christ or God. We’re still addressing. We’re still praying to God. Yes. Knowing he knows our heart. Well, knowing he knows your heart. But God is the God of detail. God wants you to know his scripture. Right? Right. God does not want you to assume anything. And that’s why I’ve been taken looking at those scriptures and turning it around. Not look, turning it around, but you as a guide to praying as opposed to learning. It’s more of a way for me to pray. This is what has been said.

And you know, I, I go on from there. So I think that is, see, Jesus Christ is your intercessory, but you got to look that God. God is Jesus Christ’s Father and he separates himself from the, from the God the Father because of the sovereignty of God the Father. Jesus prays to his Father and he tells his disciples when he gave them the description of prayer. You always want to exalt the sovereign authority of God the Father because that’s where everything comes from. Is Christ our portal cry? Oh, you may think of it your porter. It’s, it’s your Intercessory.

In other words, you. You pray your prayer to God the Father through the Son, who’s your intercessory that takes your prayer and prays it fervently to his father. All right, great. Thanks, Jim. Can I add. Can you hear me okay, Jim? Yeah. Nice to see you. You guys got home yesterday? Yes, got home yesterday. Bobby’s doing great. Oh, good. He. He may walk past in just a moment. He’s been sitting here most of the night and. Thank you so, so much, everyone, for your prayers. It’s amazing. It’s amazing what God has done. It’s only been about three and a half weeks, and he is actually walking without any help, no cane, nothing.

It’s amazing. But I do scold him when I’m not here, which is rarely. I mean, you know, but if I happen to step out, he best uses cane. Okay, so he even tried to get the lawnmower out today, y’. All. I mean, just. I tell you that he. I. I mean. Anyway, what. What I was going to add, what you described, Victoria, is only on this earth. It’s a way that God designed that he can dwell in us, in our bodies, okay? And. But when we get to heaven, it won’t be like that. We will be in our glorified bodies and actually be right at the throne of God.

Can you. I hate to override you, but I’m not gonna. I’m just gonna. I’m just gonna talk over you a minute. Just fear me out. Can you imagine getting to heaven and seeing the radiance of the throne room all around you, like the energy source that exists for the Holy Spirit being around you here? Okay? That’s what it’s good. That’s what it’s going to be. It’s going to be. There’s no darkness. Remember? That’s what scripture says. Where does the light come from? It comes from the throne room. Yeah, it comes from the throne. Okay. His whole energy is going to be wrapped around you.

It provides you warmth, it provides you light. It provides you the healing power of him. It provides all the things that scripture says. And you don’t feel pain. You don’t feel sorrow. You don’t cry anymore. You’re just a happy go, lucky saint worshiping Lord Jesus Christ. Yes. I has not seen nor ear heard what the Lord has prepared for us. And as you said, Jim, there’s no way to imagine it, but it’s just a way. Thank God that we are blessed, that we can house the Holy Spirit of God. And we are A temple with three parts, like, like Jim said, you know, the flesh, the soul and the spirit, just like the tabernacle.

But in heaven it won’t be that way. We will be in our glorified bodies and actually anyone just unimaginable. You won’t have, you won’t have flesh and you won’t have a soul. Libidus to spirit in heaven. Yes, that’s it. Glorified, glorified spirit as in the beginning with Adam. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there’s a reason. Now, now, Bill, thank you. There’s a reason why scripture tells us we’re made in the image of Adam. Because just as Adam set the process at the beginning, so shall it be at the end. And that’s where we get our glorified body, God.

Adam was glorified before he’s transgressed against God. Adam was walking around in the glorified spiritual body until he transgressed. And then what does scripture say? Christ had to make him a suit of clothes and get him all the organs and all the other stuff to live in the elements and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We get to this host body system. Yes, we’ve. We fail short of God’s glory. Okay, we fail glory. You know, when sin entered, glory disappeared. But we’re getting that back. We’re getting that back, you know, in, in heaven with our glorified bodies, you know.

Yeah. Thanks, Dylan. The, the, the thing about it is we’ve always talked about salvation was in the past. Salvation is present and salvation is in your future. You’re redeemed. You are being redeemed and you will receive your final redemption when you get to heaven. You’ve been glorified, Adam. You’re being glorified by the grace of God through salvation. And you will receive your glorified self when you get redemption and when you get final saved going to heaven. It all is a closed loop process. If we just understood it that way. We started one way, we crapped out.

Pardon my French. We’re now living a crapped out life. We’re going to get the glorification back. It is a complete circuit. What it was at the beginning will be at the end. That’s how it works. Yeah. Ken, can you hear me okay, Jim? Yeah. Okay. Why do you think God chose those four specific creatures for the cherubim? They must represent a specific purpose. Do you have an answer to that or no? Well, there’s symbols. The book of Revelation is symbolism. We’re going to get into that. Well, before we get out of chapter four. We’re going to talk about those four cherubs that were mentioned by John, mentioned by Ezekiel, mentioned by Isaiah, blah, blah.

We’re going to talk about in detail. Oh, by the way, those also are the four symbols of the four gospels, all right. In order as they were identified in Revelation. Matthew being the first Mark, Luke, John, and those are the, those are the symbols of those four gospels as well. And that’s in self study too, by the way. We’re going to get out of that, Ken. I’m just going to hold that, I’m going to ask you to hold that thought until we get into the actual discussion. Because I don’t want to, I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but we’ll get there.

Okay. Another, I have another question. I wrote a text in the beginning of the call there. I don’t know if I don’t think you saw it or not, but either way God has revealed to us that I has not seen nor ear has heard the things he has prepared for us in heaven. Correct? Right. Okay. Now when, when you’re reading in that chapter four there, John was revealed these certain elements that we’re all familiar with on earth here, everyday lives throughout history. Do you think that he showed those things to John so he can relate that back to us easier and it only applies to the throne and not the places, the other places, the mansion, whatever he’s prepared for.

Well, all of those places. All of those places we’re going to talk about in the next seven weeks. We’re going to go through all that. Okay, so what we did tonight was just the introduction, if you get that, just the introduction, setting the stage for what were the details for the rest of the rest of chapter four? Chapter four is only 11 verses, guys. Okay, there’s only 11 verses. But chapter five is not much more than that. But it has, it’s jam packed with descriptions and descriptors that you need to understand. Why? Because you need to see that in your life.

That’s the importance of this. If you didn’t get out of the letters of the seven churches in the, in the book of Ephesians of how you’re relationship with Jesus Christ ought to be and know that you’re responsible for growing that. If you don’t see the beauty in that, just like we talked about tonight, what, what John was describing was your life. He was describing Christ on the throne room. But you’re to be like. We are be to be like Christ. We are in the body of Christ. Do you Realize that that same throne light shines through you, you darken it.

Right. What is, what does the Bible say? Let this light shine through you. What light? The light of Jesus Christ. How does it get there? Same way. God. Same way. We’re talking about it here in Revelation. It’s from the throne room. You, You. The throne is in you. Guys, this is so tied for you to understand how it applies to you in ways that, no, I don’t think anybody’s ever taught. Like, we’re learning. And it’s not me, it’s the Holy Spirit, just. He’s just unveiled this. Okay. For some reason, I, I’m just a tool. But anyway, you’re looking at it as a reflection of you, and that’s how you need to be looking at it.

And you need to look at it as a self assessment. If you don’t have any light in you, you’re not going to have any fruits. Well, where does that light come? It comes from Jesus Christ. Well, why doesn’t that light shine through me? Well, you got some darkness in there. Where’s the darkness? They’re identifying the darkness. Okay. And if you identify the darkness, then you know that that’s sin and you got to ask for forgiveness so that basically you let the light shine again. All right? Yeah. And the throne room, what you’re describing is the spirit of God, the throne room in me.

The reason we can come boldly to the throne room in heaven is because the throne room in me, the spirit of God, is directly connected to the throne room in heaven. That. It’s like having an ether cable. You’re hotwired to the modem. You’re hotwired to the modem. Yes. And the modem is Jesus Christ, your intercessory. And you get connected to the Father by the modem. But you have this link. Yeah, the spirit of God. Yes. That’s. That’s how it’s. It’s spiritual. It’s there. There’s. There’s no lost connection there. If I’m walking in the spirit, living in the spirit, there’s no lost connection, you know, because it’s.

You. You described it as the throne room. We can call it the spirit of God, whatever. It’s directly connected to the throne room in heaven. That’s how we can just enter in boldly. Boldly. I think you, you talked about this, Jim. The, the angels with, with the eyes around the throne. Okay, this is my thinking on that, because they’re going around the throne of God crying, holy, holy, holy. And they have all these eyes, every time they pass around God, they see him in a different dimension. Thus the eyes, they, they get a different essence of him.

They get a different, they see a different dimension because his dimensions are infinite. So everything, every time they go around, they’re crying, holy, holy. And, and the Bible incorporates eyes there. They’re seeing a different dimension of Him. The symbolism we’re going to get into. Probably, maybe not next time. I gotta, I’m trying to put that together. Probably in two weeks we’ll get into those. The symbolism of those four creatures. And, and what, what you’ll find is you need to understand Scripture is written for your spiritual self, not for your physical. So you can’t, you can’t apply the, the what John saw and described as a physical nature.

Self can’t do that. It’s all spiritual. Yes. And you need to, as Billy R. Was saying, you need to then, in the spiritual format of your mind, you need to understand that everything is infinite and everything is all seeing. And that is where we’re going to go with this when we get there. And you’re going to see how the eyes represent your spiritual self. Because you need to understand, Remember, God wants. God’s a detailed God and he wants you to understand his scripture. You need to understand all of the characteristics and nature of God. And that’s eyes.

That’s the eyes. And we’ll get there. What else? Guys, can I make one more request? As we start to study, I hope that Holy Spirit will guide us into helping us to understand what’s going on in, in the spiritual as opposed to here, you know, how do I put it? What’s going on in the spirit world as opposed to what’s going on here. Because you’ve, we’ve talked about things coming down from heaven and I’m still trying to grasp that. So I hope that, that, that will kind of go along with the study. Maybe it’ll come from study.

And then I want to touch on what Sam said about the beauty and the Beatitudes. You know, I studied a little bit of that. That really, to me is in a nutshell about us and, and how through us the church grows. To me, it’s like in a nutshell, in an out form, you know, in an outline. Yeah, I thought on that. So many parts of the scripture that we need to, we need to study and, and we’ll get there over time. The Holy Spirit’s going to do it. But you’re right, it’s, it’s, it is a great outline for self.

Yeah. And then are you going to do a study on the scroll? Yeah, I mean, we’re going to go through revelation word by word. By word. Yeah, because read in Daniel and his visions and for end times and he wrote all this down and there’s commentary on. Could that be the, the scroll that Jesus unseals? I mean, where is that scroll coming from that Jesus is unsealing? Where is that? Well, God holds it in his hand because it’s the title deed back to the earth. So he’s going to bring it with him. Oh, oh. He gives it to his Son and his son is the only one that’s worthy enough to unseal the scroll.

And he peels the scroll back and he gets. It’s the land deed to the earth with all of the processes that he, He’s. He’s going to use to claim the land which are all of the judgments. Oh, so, okay, so that’s not what Daniel was doing. We’re, we’re going to bring Daniel in. After we get to chapters four and five, we’re going to take a little break and we’re going to go see Daniel. All right. We’re going to get through Daniel because you need to understand Daniel before you get in chapter six. So we’re going to do another outtake and go to Daniel and we’re going to study Daniel and you’re going to understand what Daniel is because Daniel is the only one.

And Christ says, if you want to know the time, go, go see Daniel’s prophecy. So he referenced that Daniel’s prophecy on the end times is, is the right time and you just need to understand that. And, and we’re going to study that. It’s also in the self study book too. Self study guide on the online courses. It’s out there already for you. Okay. Yeah. John? Yeah. You know, in regards to, you know, the Holy Spirit is talking to us all of the time. The problem is, are we spending enough time in quiet to hear from him in conjunction? You know, in John, John says, and the Word was God and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became fleshed and dwelt among us.

And Jesus said, I don’t do anything, anything that I have not seen the Father do. The Father only works by the Word. The worlds were formed by Jesus, the Word. So it’s imperative, the more time that we spend. You want to hear from the Holy Spirit? Spend time in the Word and you will imagine you’ll be amazed because Jesus in Ephesians, he says, Ephesians 1. He says he is the administrator of that New Covenant. Jesus runs the New Covenant on this earth. He wants to talk to us, he wants to communicate with us. But we have to be willing to sit down and be quiet and hear from Him.

But we do that through being in his Word. And guess what? Sanctification continues to take place. It’s the Word. It’s the Word. It’s the Word. And anything that, and I’ve said it before, I would encourage you to go to Ephesians 1 and pray those Ephesian prayers over yourself every day. You’ll be amazed at what happens in your life. And then I’ll be quiet. Good input. Done. Thanks. What else guys? Anything else? True. All right, let’s pray. Father, thank you for a great evening in your word. Thank you for giving us the revelation of exactly the truth of your scripture.

God, may we continue to grow in grace. May we continue to grow in you so that basically the sanctification process that we’re going through, we at one day sometime can be sanctified in you. Father. Give us the ability to, to have the want to attitude of self study. Give us the ability to give it, to have discernment over the information that is given and the understanding of taking that information and turning it into knowledge and wisdom. For, for purposes of you revealing yourself to us, Father, we just ask that you continue to bless those that are healing.

Thank you so much for the return of body and Billy. Ruth, bless. Bless those that are in, in need of sickness and that we’re praying for. Just give them the help healing hand of, of what you offer as the only healer that exists. Father, thank you for what’s going on in this world. Thank you for the change that are happening. Thank you for, for your control and the revealing of this for from you and Father, we just want to thank you for your son, the death and resurrection. Without that we would not be able to go home.

We ask all these things and I know. All right,
[tr:tra].