09-17-26 Study of Revelation Chapter 4:6b-11 A Trip to Heaven Part 3

➡ The Bible study focuses on John’s journey to heaven as described in the book of Revelation, emphasizing the significance of God’s throne in our hearts. The study suggests that understanding this concept can help us overcome challenges and achieve salvation. It also highlights the importance of our relationship with Jesus Christ and encourages us to continuously communicate with God. The study concludes by reminding us that the throne of God is the centerpiece of our lives, symbolizing God’s faithfulness, grace, and mercy.
➡ The text describes a vision of heaven where the church, symbolized by 24 elders, is present and at rest. The throne of God is surrounded by a rainbow and crowned saints, indicating their triumph and righteousness. The throne emits lightning and thunder, symbols of God’s impending judgment. The text also mentions the seven lamps of fire, representing the sevenfold spirit of God, and a crystal platform reflecting God’s glory. The text suggests that the upcoming tribulation is a transition period from man’s earth to God’s earth, where Jesus, the rightful heir, will take over. The text also introduces four living creatures moving around the throne, described in detail in the book of Ezekiel.
➡ The text describes four beings with multiple faces and wings that cover the earth. These beings move in any direction without turning their heads, each having a face of a man, a lion, a bull, and an eagle. They are surrounded by wheels that move with them, filled with eyes and glowing like fire, representing the Holy Spirit. These beings are identified as cherubim, angels associated with God’s divine power and holiness.
➡ The text discusses cherubim, a type of angel, and their role in religious texts. These cherubim are described as having multiple faces, including those of a lion, calf, man, and eagle, and are covered in eyes, symbolizing their vast knowledge and awareness. They are considered to be powerful, dutiful, rational, and swift beings. The text also suggests that these cherubim may represent different aspects of God’s creation, including untamed and domestic creatures, humans, and flying creatures, or they may symbolize God’s people, as represented in the tribes of Israel.
➡ The text discusses the role of four cherubs in the judgment process as described in the Book of Revelation. These cherubs are involved in the delivery of God’s wrath and are also responsible for worshiping God. They have six wings, two for covering their face and feet in the presence of God’s glory, and two for hovering, ready to serve. The text also describes a crescendo of praise directed towards God’s throne, starting with the cherubs and elders, then adding instruments and angels, and finally every created being in the universe, praising God for creation and redemption.
➡ This text discusses the concept of God’s holiness and his mercy. It emphasizes that while God’s holiness can be intimidating, he also shows compassion and forgiveness. The text also explores the idea of God’s presence in our lives, despite our imperfections. Lastly, it delves into biblical interpretations and discussions about the Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat.
➡ The text discusses the Ark of the Covenant, its creation, and its significance in the Bible. It explains that the Ark became a covenant when God came down, symbolizing mercy and redemption. The text also discusses Jesus Christ’s role in accepting judgment for the world’s sins, leading to redemption. Lastly, it touches on the future return of Jesus, the wrath of God, and the importance of understanding and applying scripture in our lives.

Foreign. Welcome back. This is our Thursday night Bible study. We are in the book of Revelation. We are in chapter four. And we’ve been looking for the last several weeks at John’s trip to heaven. And we’re going to be looking at it for tonight in one more session. This four little mini series of looking at John’s trip to heaven. And why is that important? Because as we’ve noted to you in the last two weeks, what John describes to you is basically the throne of God. And where’s the throne of God sit in your life? It’s in your heart.

Okay? So what he’s describing from heaven is exactly what’s sitting inside of you. And that’s important because what he’s describing is the temple of God, which is you. Now, as he does this, you need to take particular note of this because if you go back to chapters two and three, he describes the condition of the church. Who’s the church? It’s you. So now he’s giving you sort of like this comparison model. He’s saying, here’s where you’re at. Somewhere in these seven, you know, pieces or views or descriptions of the church. And I’m sitting over here and this is what’s inside of you.

If you would just wake up and understand that, then what you’re going to be able to see is your overcoming condition that gets you into the Rapture, being through salvation and transformation into the Rapture. I’m describing it for you. This is your glory, guys. And so when we look at this, we need to look at this in view of how, how we interact with our relationship with Jesus Christ. Now when we look at chapter four, and he describes this wonderful text, being taken to heaven. While John is in the Spirit and is taken to heaven, so shall you be in the Spirit and go to heaven every day, every minute of your life, if you want.

Why? Because he says, come, come boldly to the throne. Where’s the throne? It’s in your heart. Okay? So you can go to exact location that John went each and every second of the day. There’s no reason you can’t. So when we were taken there by, by Apostle John to see this throne of God, and, and, and by the way, this is an experience that very few have ever had. But because Jesus Christ came in and positioned the Holy Spirit in your heart, you can do this continuously. How would you like to have a conversation with God that goes on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365, and you never have to leave your.

That’s what? That’s what this is. This is your throne room. Now Isaiah had such an experience in a vision, much like John when he saw God on the throne high and lifted up. Recorded in Isaiah chapter six was Isaiah’s vision. And Ezekiel had such a vision as well, which he records in the first chapter of his prophecy. And there he tells us of this majestic and wonderful and splendor and glory of his vision of the throne and of God. Now John’s has this experience and it says in verse one, behold a door standing open in heaven.

The first voice which I heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, come up here. It wasn’t say, hey, you know, you know, look up here. No, he says, I want you here. And immediately John jumped from physical self to spiritual self and was setting standing in front of the throne. Now think about process, guys. How does that happen? How does that happen? Portals, time machine. If God wants you at a place in time and says, come here and you’re obeying, he will take you from the physical to the spiritual. And I get you there in less than a second in time.

So John then is transformed. That’s a term that you need to get a hold of because that’s going to come out more and more and more as you begin to learn this, this scientific thing of time travel. You must be transformed to time travel. Send me up, Scotty. Beam me up Scotty. You transformed. Okay. Beyond time and space to ascend past all the heavens that we’re familiar with as we look into the heaven of heavens and the very throne room of God. Now he’s going to find out what is going to take place in the future.

Now remember what, what Christ said. There’s the outline he gave us in, in chapter one. Write what you say, what you have seen, write what you see and write what you you will. Future have come to pass. So John’s outline is tell you the past, tell you the present, and tell you the future. And that begins to unfold in chapter six. Four and five is this little in between chapter that gets you ready for your voyage. You’ve now had chapter two and three. You understand where you’re at in your life. You now have chapter four and five to understand what it should be.

And chapter six gets you on your voyage to the end and before the actual unfolding what is going to take place after these things we find in chapters four and five, John’s experience of viewing the throne room of God. And so on the wings of words, he pinned under the inspiration of The Holy Spirit by the Apostle John. Here we take with him this incredible trip to the throne of God. Now, again, I want you to imagine as we are describing this, we’re actually describing the spirit of God inside of you. Okay? Now I’m gonna. I’m gonna go down a memory lane thing.

I’m going to remind you what we’ve already learned. The central piece, as it were, in the scene of Heaven is the throne. That is the central piece. Why? Because that’s the center of your life. You get it? Centerpiece story. Centerpiece, your life. In verse two, John says immediately, I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was standing in heaven. This is a set throne. On it sets the ruler of the universe, the almighty God. And then he went through a series of prepositions, and we noted that John speaks of on the throne. He says in verse 2, 1, sitting on the throne.

And who was sitting on the throne was like a Jasper stone. That’s a diamond like stone, if you recall from our conversation. And a Sardis. A Sardis is like a ruby like stone in the appearance. And there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. And so he tells us who was on the throne. There was none other than the almighty God, shining and brilliant diamond glory with red, representing, no doubt his provision of sacrifice, as well as the flaming fiery judgment that proceeds from the throne against unbelievers. And then John noted not only what was on the throne or who was on the throne, but what was around the throne.

And he says around the throne was a rainbow. Not a usual rainbow, but like one, an emerald in appearance. Now let’s go to Ezekiel. That’s one of the things that we talked about as we study Revelation. We cannot get Revelation down unless we understand Daniel, Ezekiel, and Zechariah. All right, those are the chapters that basically do. Now, Isaiah has some prophecy, but. But if you really want to understand Revelation, you got to study Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah. So Ezekiel describes it this way, and we’re going to go through this because Ezekiel deals with wheels and stuff and whatever.

We’re going to put all of this in perspective for you tonight so you can see how this ties together. In Ezekiel’s vision, he saw the same rainbow. We noted for you that it’s probable a symbol of grace and mercy, a symbol of faithfulness. For God gave a rainbow to Noah to demonstrate his grace and mercy toward mankind, that he would not drown them again. And to be a symbol of that promise. Well, the rainbow around God is a symbol of Fulfillment of all of his promises. Okay, so every one of the promises made in Scripture to you, every one of the declarations he says I have already given to you.

And all you need to declare is, is symbolized in this rainbow. So around the throne, first of all we see a rainbow. This symbolizes the faithfulness and his grace and mercy. And then we noted around in verse four, there were 24 other thrones. And upon those thrones 24 elders were sitting. They were clothed in white garments and golden crowns on their head. Now we went through a whole dissertation of why these 24 elders couldn’t be anything other than elders of the Gentile Church last time, okay, so these were representatives of the church. We said that of course this is symbolic of a glorified and coronated church.

The church is now present in heaven. That means that we’ve been raptured at this point. We’re going to get into that after chapter five, we’re going to break out, go to Daniel and we’re going to see all of this stuff take place. Get into Paul in 1st Thessalonians and blah blah, blah. We’re going to get into all of that. So you can actually have all of this picture in your mind before I sort of give you blow your mind on your trip on the tribulation that’s going to happen to the world. So the church is now present in heaven, symbolically seated on the thrones represented by the 24 elders.

And we can assume then that the church is in heaven now. There has been a rapture that has taken place. And so we see then around the throne a rainbow. And around the throne they’re coronated saints who have triumphed and are now crowned riches in heaven based upon works on earth. Crowned and wearing robes that symbolize their eternal righteousness. They’re white. The fact that they are sitting also indicates that their work is done. I have fought of good fight. I finished the race and my work is done. Unlike angels who have yet much more work to do.

They can’t sit yet. They got a whole lot of work to do. They can’t just relax yet. They have reached the point of their rest, which means the church is at at a point of time of resting in heaven in its righteousness, worshiping Jesus Christ and enjoying every bit of the time. And then the fourth thing we note was what was coming from the throne in verse five says, from the throne proceed flashes over lightning and sounds and pills of thunder. Emblems of God’s fiery judgment which is about to break out. And we will see all of that as it comes in chapter six, as we start breaking open the seals.

So John is caught up. He’s to see what’s about to take place. And what is about to take place is a fiery, furious judgment, a series of holocausts that break out on the earth as God begins to display his wrath against sin. Why is that important for you to know? Well, if you don’t overcome, you’re here. If you’re still alive, okay? And you need to overcome in order to be raptured. So we find then their fifth. A filthy. They’re. They’re fifthly. Another proposition here that we talked about last time, before the throne. We find that in verse five, there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne.

And we showed you last time that the seven lamps represents the sevenfold spirit of God. We noted that before the throne there was a sea of glass like crystal. This was a base upon which the throne was set. The crystal platform was there to reflect the glory of God. North star, guys. Reflect the glory of God. To refract it like a prism and send to his blazing glory through all of the universe. Just think of this. Have you ever thought about how rainbows in the clouds is made? Have you ever thought about that? Is that actually sun going through clouds that cause a, A, you know, a, a segregation effect that causes colors? No, because if it did, you’d have rainbows all the time.

Do you ever think about that? Did you ever think that maybe, just maybe, that. That what we see in the sky is a reflection of what’s around God’s throne? As. As to promise he’s not going to do this by rain anymore. Only at the time that he wants it to be shown, The heavens declare his glory. That’s absolutely right. See, so we think about things that we see physically and don’t understand that really this is a projection of the throne room. Think about that. So, So we see then in heaven, the heaven of heavens, the throne.

And on the throne is God. Around the throne, the manifestation of his grace, mercy and faithfulness, the coronated and elevated saints. And from the throne comes the emblem of his fiery judgment. And before the throne is the spirit of God. And as well a platform of crystal. Crystal you can see through. Think about this, guys. Think you can see through this crystal that can cause his glory to be reflected. Oh, now we’re starting to tie some dots together. So we see God in His universal rule. We see him in his glory and his splendor and his all of his beauty and His Majesty, his sovereignty, all of his power.

He, his holiness and yes, his wrath. They’re all on display. I want you to think about this. We’re told that everybody will see God coming, His second coming. And everybody’s talked. Well, that can happen because of technology. You don’t need technology when God wants to make you see, he, his projection screen is his floor and it goes to the ends of the earth. He can show you that in big, big, big screen time. Okay, so here’s the scene is the scene of the throne of glory of the Almighty God as He begins to unleash his judgments for the purpose that His Son may take over the earth.

That’s the condition of his judgment. Why? Because he gave earth his son, right? His son is the only one that can open the scroll because his Son had paid the price. So he’s got the deed of Earth. Think about this thinking turns here he’s sitting in the throne room. God’s just given the deed of Earth. Now he’s showing you all of this process he’s fixing to go to. And, and before Jesus unstarts, unscrolling the scroll. Do we get in chapter six, the Son, you remember has the right to the earth. That’s what he gave him. Remember, back before sin, all of the spiritual beings was given to his Son to glorify His Son because that’s how much God loved him.

So he, after all, is its King of kings and Lord of Lords. It has been man’s day, but now it’s fixing to be the Lord’s day. And he will take the earth and give it to his Son who is the rightful heir. And that’s what’s happens during the time we call the tribulation. During that process of tribulation. You, you guys got to love this word because you hear it out of my mouth all the time. It is the transition from man’s earth to God’s earth. Okay? That seven year period is a transition period. And things have got to get changed transitionally.

And that period of time, that great tribulation, is for the day of the Lord to take his throne. And a lot of things have got to happen to do that. So that great tribulation period, that seven year period is for transition. So this incredible vision shows us what is on around from before the throne. Now we’re going to go one step further as we go into tonight. And that is in verse 6 we see two prepositions combined. It says this and in the sinner, and around the throne, four living creatures. Now here we see four living beings that are both in and around the throne.

They’re in the center or in the middle of the throne and around gives the sense of an inner circle moving, moving. Think about this moving through and around the throne, very close to the presence of God. Energy source. They’re in it. Think of the take of Pentecost. Think about the Holy Spirit when God, when Christ sent the Holy Spirit back. They’re in it, they’re around it all at the same time. They’re in a constant state of motion surrounding God and moving. Ezekiel describes them very vividly. They’re called the four living creatures, from the Greek verb zoa, which means to live.

There are four living ones, not really animals. They shouldn’t probably be called beast or creatures either. That would be a different word, like maybe etheria. But they are living ones or living beings, foreign. Let’s go to Ezekiel and let’s look at how Ezekiel describes this and let’s begin to connect the dots from Ezekiel back to Revelation. Let’s look at the description that Ezekiel gives beginning in verse four of chapter one. This is. Okay, and this, we’re going to read this. We’re going to sort of commentate as we go. As I looked, behold the storm. Storm wind was coming from the north, dissension down, right, coming from heaven.

I see this. It’s coming downward. It’s not going up and it’s not going sideways. It’s coming down, guys, a great clout with a fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it. And in the midst of it, something like glowing metal like fire. And within that, there were figures resembling four living beings. Now, as he describes these being, you got to listen to what he says in verse five. And this, Ezekiel says, this is the appearance I saw. Okay, now you got to remember, he didn’t have all the technological bells and whistles we have today.

He had ancient, you know, things he had to work with. So he’s describing to Israel the best he can with what he saw and the words he could use. So we’re going to try to break it down for you. They had human form that were like you and me, like them. Then each of them had four faces and four wings. Now, that’s a little difficult right there. Their legs were straight and their feet were like calves, hoofs, and they gleamed like burn it burnished bronze. Okay, let’s continue. Under their wings, on their four sides were human hands.

As far the faces and wings of the four of them, their wings touched one another. In other words, they had multiple sets of wings. The outward wings were spread apart, touching the, the four covered the earth. Okay, so as one spread out its wingspan, then the other one took shape to touch his wingspan, touch the next living beings wingspan. By the time you got four of them across, you actually covered the earth. Now. Their faces, their faces did not turn. Okay, that ought to give you an indication real quick about what we’re looking at here. Their faces did not turn when they moved.

Each went straightforward in whatever direction it went. Okay, if I’m looking forward, think about this. If I’m looking forward, I want to go that direction. My face is going to go that direction. If I want to go to my right, I don’t need to turn my head to the right because this, the face on this side of my head could see where I’m going. I just went. If I wanted to go that way, I didn’t need to spin my head 380 degrees. I had a face in the back that could see where I was going and I went that way.

Their, their heads did not turn. Okay, as for the former, their faces each had the face of a man. Okay, here’s the four conditions. Each one was at a face of the man. They had a face of a lion. They had a face of a bull on the left, the lion was on the right. Think about this, the positioning man’s face straight ahead. I have a lion on my right, I have a bull on my left. I want you to think about positioning in scripture. And I have an eagle in the back. Those are the four gospels, guys, all right? I gave you that in, in the self study.

Those are the four focuses of the gospels. In Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, their wings were spread out above. Each had two touching another being. In other words, when they put their outward wings out, they were touching one on each side and two covering their bodies. And each went straight forward. Well, how could you not go straightforward? You go, you go forward, back, right or left, and you’re still going straight forward, right. Didn’t matter where you go. Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go. And without turning as they went. What a spirits do they just go? In the midst of the living beings, there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings.

Oh, what’s that? That’s got to be spirit. That’s got to be the energy. The fire was bright and lightning was flashing from the fire. Well, those of you who know anything about electricity, you put the circuit together and you’re Going to have fire. And the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning. And that, of course, gives us the picture that John saw when he said there were in. And then they were around and we see them in motion. John was describing these guys the same way, but with different time periods. Now Ezekiel goes on.

He says, now as I looked at these living beings, behold, there was one wheel. One wheel, one source of energy, one will on the earth beside the living beings. For each of the four of them, the appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like sparkling burl. And all four of them had the same form. Oh, think about it. All four of the wheels had the same form. No difference. Their appearance and workmanship being as if one will were within another. We’re all connected. One spirit, one whale. Whenever they moved, they moved in any of their four directions without turning as they moved.

I just said that I didn’t have to move my head if I wanted to go, right. I had eyes over here to see if I wanted to go to back. I had my eagle eyes in the back. I could go. It didn’t matter which way I moved. I moved as the Spirit moved, as what Ezekiel said, as the Spirit moved, they moved. And the wheels were around about them, which was the Spirit. As for the rims, that is the wheels, they were lofty and awesome, and the rims of all four of them were full of eyes, roundabout.

And whenever the living beings moved, the wheels would move with them. And whenever the living beings rose from the earth, the wheels arose also whenever the Spirit was about to go. See, here’s the key. Wherever the Spirit was about to go, they would go in that direction. It tells you that the. That the wheels that Ezekiel saw was actually the Holy Spirit around these guys. And the wheels rose close beside them. For the Spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. Well, what is the holy. What did God Christ say? I’m sending back the Holy Spirit to you.

Not to just be inside of you, but to be around you. What was Ezekiel seeing? He was seeing the. The presence of the Holy Spirit with mankind as the church. Whatever those went, these went. And whenever those stood still, these stood still. And whenever those rose from the earth, the wheels rose close behind beside them. For the Spirit of the living beings was in the wheels. It tells you right there what the wheels are. Now. Over the heads of the living beings, there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal extended over their heads.

Well, think about this. And under that expanse, their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other. Each one also had two wings covering their bodies, as we said, one on. On either side. And they heard the sound. Ezekiel says, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the Almighty. A sound of turmoil, like a sound of. Of an army camp. Whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings. And there came a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads. Whenever they stood still, they dropped the wings.

Said, what does all this mean? Well, I just painted you the picture of a very detailed view of word descriptions associated with the total view of the Bible. But I’m not sure about all the details either, because Scripture doesn’t give us to them. We just have to sort of put it together based upon the descriptions that are given to us. But I want to tell you one thing. Ezekiel saw something spectacular. He saw these four living creatures with all of these various faces and manifestations, and he saw the spirit of those living creatures in some kind of wheels that were moving.

And these wheels seemed to be bright and flashing, and it was all in a motion, a constant motion. There was the original light show, believe me. There was this supernatural laser flashing and refracting through the prisms of these very beings. Well, you might say, who are they? Who are these living creatures, these incredibly beautiful, glorious beings who are so utterly indescribable? Well, don’t try to take everything in Ezekiel chapter one and comprehend it. You can’t. It is just a grandiose description of the indescribable. But we know who they are in. In chapter 10 of Ezekiel in verse 15, he tells you who they are.

Then the cherub rose up. They are the living beings that I saw by the river of Shebar. Now, when the cherubim moved, the wheels would go beside them. So when the cherubim lifted up their wings to re. To rise above the ground, the wheels would not turn from beside them. When the cherubim stood still, the wolves would stand still. And when they rose, the wheels would rise with them. And when the spirit of the living beings was in them. Ezekiel’s simply saying that these living beings were the cherubim in blazing light and glory and movement and flashing brilliance.

Now, cherubims are angels. That’s the plural of cherub. Cherubim are angels frequently referred to in the Old Testament in connection with God’s divine power, energy. For example, for example, in Psalms 80, verse 1, in Psalms 99, verse 1, and elsewhere in Psalms, we find that the cherubim associated with the power of God we also can note that they appear also to be concerned about the holiness of God. They are in God’s presence and they are guarding his holiness. And they are there for the purpose of expressing his power when he bids them to do that. Now, in First Kings, chapter 6, verse 23, in the inner sanctuary, your temple.

Inner sanctuary, your holy of holies. In the inner sanctuary of you, which is the building of the temple, he made two cherubim of olive wood, each one 10 cubits high. And five cubits was with the one wing of the cherub and five cubits, the other wing of the cherub. A Cubit was about 18 inches from the tip of your fingers to your elbow, about, about. That’s about size of one cubit. The other cherub was 10 cubits. Both the cherubs were of the same measure in the same form. The height of one of the One chair was 10 cubits, and so was the other cherub.

And he placed the cherubim in the midst of the inner house. And the wings of the cherubim were spread out so that the wings of one was touching the wall, and the wings of the other chair was touching the other wall, so the wings were touching each other in the center of the house. He also overlaid the chair with gold. I just described your throne room. Now, you know from previous discussions, Numbers, we’ve talked about this. Otherwise we, you know, in the inner sanctuary, which is the holy of holies, the cherubim were spread out over the mercy seat in the Ark of the Covenant.

And there they are, the symbols guarding the holiness of God. The symbols representing the power of God as he acts against sin. Oh, my gosh. Think of what is inside of you. They then, are the living creatures. They’re most beautiful, most magnificent, most glorious, and most indescribable. Now, I think it might be worth a moment to look at Ezekiel 28 and we read more about this kind of angel. Well, and I think you might be surprised to meet one in similar terms. It says in Ezekiel 28:11, Again, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, son of man, take a.

Take up a lamentation over the King of Tyre and say to him, thus says the Lord God, you had the zeal of perfect seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. The ruby, the topaz, the diamond, the barrel, the ox and the Jasper, the lipis lasula, a beautiful blue stone, the turquoise and the emerald and the gold. The workmanship of your Settings and sockets was in you on the day that you were created. They were prepared. Now, if you go to verse 14.

You were the anointed of what? The cherub who covers who’s there to go guard God. And it were, as it were, to guard his holiness. And God said, I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. You were the blameless in your ways from the day you were created. Who’s he’s talking about? Satan? Until unrighteousness was found in you. A thought. One of those living creatures, one of those cherubim who may, by the way, be the same as the seraphim. One of them was Lucifer, son of the morning.

See, these angelic beings are unique. They’re elevated. The ranks of angels, as we’ve already studied. We did. I gave you a whole discussion in the substack. I forgot which study. And they must have been at the top. In the third chapter of the book of Genesis, when the man and the woman were cast out of the Garden of Eden, it was the cherubim who were placed on the east side of the garden to guard and keep the tree of life safe. To keep man from eating the tree of life and living forever in his fallenness. It was in the building of the tabernacle, the pattern of which God gave up to Moses from heaven.

There were cherub inner, interwoven into the fabric of the veil, the 10 curtains that covered the tabernacle above the Ark of the Covenant, which I just noted to you that contained the ten Commandments, which if a man kept, he should live, but if a man broke, he will die. They were there over the solid gold lid, the chairman throughout the Old Testament, Jehovah, God is called the one who dwells between the cherubs. And so they were very special angels. Now, what they look like is pretty hard to describe and very, very hard to understand. So let’s go.

Let’s try to go back to Revelations and see what we can see and grasp that which we can. What John says is, he says about them, the four living creatures were full of eyes in front and behind. And that is precisely what Ezekiel said, by the way. He said they were like a wheel, their spirit like a wheel full of eyes. Well, it gives you a unique word there, there’s spirit, which tells you they’re spiritual beings. They were an exalted order of angels. That’s seen by the closeness to the throne. They were in and around it.

They certainly are to be distinguished from Perhaps what we could call more common angels. There were, for example, in Revelations, chapter 7, verse 11, all the angels standing around the throne and the elders and the four creatures. So they were even sorted out from the rest of the angel pool as very special, exalted angels. Their task, their duty, makes from more elevated, more responsible, and more unique, if not at all more righteous, from all the other angels. Might say, what sets them apart? They have eyes everywhere. What does that mean? Their awareness and alertness indicated by their comprehensive knowledge and their ability to see and perceive everything.

They’re not omniscient. That’s reserved for God alone. But they’re aware of whatever pertains to their duty to protect and to serve holy God and express his power. Nothing apparently escapes their scrutiny. And if you go to verse eight, they had six winks, are full of eyes around and within twice. He reminds us that there are eyes everywhere that speaks of their knowledge. They are very knowledgeable. They’re. They’re the most knowledgeable of all the angels, and they are aware of the most of everything. The second thing he says about them is in verse 7, and has to do with their responsibility.

And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf. And the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. Now, this is similar to what Ezekiel saw. We don’t expect it to be exact because it is a vision and it is an indescribable one at that. But you can tell from the reading of the two paces of Scripture side by side, there’s really no difference. Ezekiel’s cherubim resembled human beings generally, and then had the same kinds of characteristics of a lion, calf, man and eagle.

John gives us a simpler description. From his viewpoint, Ezekiel’s cherubim had four facial appearances. But as John looks, he only sees one of each of their four faces. He sees the face of a lion or a calf, or, as Ezekiel says, a bull or an ox, a bovine animal. Basically, he sees the face of a man and the face of an eagle. Now, what do these faces on these cherubs. Cherubims mean? Well, Ezekiel tells us that they all had all the faces, four sides. They didn’t have to rotate their heads to move. They could see in all directions.

They had all knowledge but the way that they turned. When John saw them, he saw the one with one face, the other with another, and another, another. What does it mean? What do they represent? Well, some scholars suggest that the lion speaks of untamed creatures, that the calf or the bull of domestic creatures demand the greatest of all creatures, the eagle representing the flying creatures. And that the angels are seen in the relation to the to the created world, that they have some duty and responsibility on behalf of God to tend to the created world. Now, it is also possible that the lion symbolizes strength and power.

The calf symbolizes service, man symbolizes reason. We’re the only creature that God created that can reason. And the eagle symbolizes speed. It may be that what you have here are cherubones that are represented as being able to see and be aware of vast amounts of information and to act. And that these angels are powerful, dutiful, serving, rational, swift beings and discharging their duty. Well, I like to think that they are symbolic in that regard. The lion symbolizes strength and power. The calf services rendered, the man reason, and the eagle speed. They’re swift, they’re rational, they’re of service orientation, and they are very powerful.

Going outside the Bible into the Talmud, the rabbis wrote this. There are four primary forms of life in God’s creation. Man, calf, lion, and eagle. And they felt that creation was represented in those four. In the camp of Israel, three tribes gathered under each of these four banners. Several tribes gathered with Reuben, symbolized by a man. Several tribes gather with Dan, civilized by an eagle. Several tribes gather with Ephraim, symbolized by the ox or the calf, and several tribes gathered with Judah, symbolized by the lion. And so not only could they represent all of the created order, not only could they represent certain characteristics and attributes of the angels themselves, but it is also reasonable to say that they may even have represented God’s people.

Because in the past God collected his people under the banner of these four. Perhaps these angels have some special role in the life of Israel. But for now, these four creatures are involved in the judgment, and they are very involved in it. In chapter six, verse one, John says, I saw when the Lamb broke one of the seven seals. The judgment begins with the breaking of the first seal. And I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, come. And it was this cherub, this one cherub that calls the rider on the white horse that starts the judgments.

In chapter 15 of Revelation, in verse 7, one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels golden bowls full of wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. When it comes time for the bowl judgments, and these rapid fire wrath judgments are poured out and the final holocaust takes place in a very brief time as all seven are poured out almost Rapidly, one after another, it is the cherubim of one of them who hands over, as it were, the bowl to pour out the final wrath of God. And so these four cherubs are very involved in the judgment process, beginning in Revelation 6, all the way to Revelation 22.

They may well may well have been involved still maybe in some way with the nation of Israel, who was at one time under their banner, as it were. They may be manifest here, one of the various attributes that we have talked about. They may have even had some responsibility over the created order. All of those are very possibilities. But it’s difficult to be dogmatic. And so it’s best perhaps just to try to see them all in whatever they can represent. But understand that there’s one source, one energy source. These are angels, and they’re spiritual beings moving in spiritual form.

Now, there’s this third element that we see here. Not only something about their personal nature or their personal knowledge, something about the responsibility, but thirdly, we note their. Their worship. It says in verse eight, the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, and then full of eyes around and within each of them having six wings. This is reminiscent of Isaiah 6, where he sees the seraphim, and each of them have six wings. With two they cover their face. Remember that in Isaiah 6, 2 it says, with two they cover their feet, and with two they hovered.

And the Hebrew word is like something like a celestial helicopter, just staying in motion. But what we see here, the highest order of heavenly beings had six wings, two to cover their face. Why? Because they were created beings and couldn’t look on the full glory of God without being consumed. Two to cover the feet, because they were crystal platform on which they stand is holy ground. And with two they hover, ready to do his bidding. You might note that four of their six wings are related to worship, feet and head, and only two are related to service, because worship is always the priority.

And so we have these six wings, just like the seraphim in Isaiah 6, 2, they’re there in the presence of God, and they’re adoring, and they are worshiping his majesty and his glory. In fact, Revelation tells us about their worship in verse 8. And night and day they do not cease to say, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who he is, and who is to come past, present and future. It is their constant occupation, day and night in the eternal sphere, to offer God eternal worship. That’s what your responsibility is.

No different. That is their privilege, that is their calling. That is their permanent occupation. Better put that on your self assessment form. So we’ve looked at the throne and we saw God. We looked around the throne and we saw a rainbow and 24 elders. We looked from the throne and lightning flashing, beginning the mood of judgment. We looked before the throne and we saw the Holy Spirit and a crystal platform. We looked in and around the throne and we saw, we saw these angelic creatures moving about and they’re worshiping and praising God and adoring him and is already ready to do his bidding in regard to the created order, in regard to the people of Israel, in regards to judgment.

And now that leads us to a final note after preposition. There’s another one that I want to insert here. Let’s call it towards the throne. Toward the throne. We already saw it in verse eight, the four living creatures, day and night, do not cease to say holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was, who is and who is to come. This is toward the throne and they direct their worship. Now, in this chapter and in chapter five, there are five hymns of praise. Five of them. And as they go through the scripture, each one has the size of the choir, gradually increases the choir that sings this, these five hymns starts with a number and in the first hym increases the number into the second hymn and so forth and so on, on into the hymn number five.

So in the first eight you have a quartet, a quartet of four living beings. You move down into verse 10 and you add 24 elders. You’ve got a choir of 28 elder voices. You move into verse chapter five, verse eight, and you’ve got 28 voices. But added to them according to verses eight and 10, or harps in the orchestration comes in. You go down to verse, to chapter 5, verse 11, and added to the 28 voices and the orchestration come all the angels. And then by the time you get into verse 13, every created thing in heaven and earth and under the earth, on the sea, and all things in them is added to it.

So here the music begins to praise God. The crescendo of what God is fixing to do is being praised by his people. And that’s what his people have been asking for. When are you going to avail us of all this evil? Well, it’s coming to the closing act. We’re building to the climax. There are two parts to this oratorio, the crescendo of the music. In chapter four you have an oratorio of creation. The Lord God, the Almighty, who was, who is and who is to come the one who lives forever. In verse nine, in verse ten, the one who lives forever.

And then in verse eleven, worthy art thou to receive, and so forth, glory and honor and power. For thou does create all things, and because of thy will they existed and were created. Ephesians 1, 2 and 3. Here is the music that is the oratorio of creation. Oh, that tells you something. That’s what they did when God was actually doing the creation of matter. I’m the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. So is his angels, so is the process. In chapter five, you have an orator of redemption beyond creation to recreation. Worthy is Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.

And so you have, starting here in verse eight, this thrilling crescendo of praise directed towards the throne, a quartet 28 voices, 28 voices with instruments, 28 voices, added instruments. And all of the angels. And to all of the angels, every created being in the universe. And first they just praise God for creation, and then they shift and praise God for redemption. Now, when we pick up next time, next week to wrap this little miniseries up, we’re going to go into all of these glorious crescendo of praise. It’s because it’s important. Suffice it to say, for now we’ve seen the throne.

We know who’s on it, we know who’s before it, we know who’s in and around it, we know what’s coming from it, we know what’s being directed at it. So we have got a true vision of John’s visit to heaven. And I’m going to suggest to you what your response to that ought to be. See, Scripture doesn’t tell us what happened to John here back. But back in chapter one, the first time he had a vision, it says in verse 17, I fell at his feet as a dead man. Now, this is the same reminiscent experience of Isaiah, because back In Isaiah, chapter 6, when Isaiah had his vision of heaven, he had a response.

He says, then I said in verse five, Isaiah, sick woe is me. I am destroyed. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among people of unclean lips. When John had his first vision, he went into a coma out of a sheer fear, fright, panic set in. Because he knew that if he saw God on his throne, Holy God, Holy God. That God saw him and God saw his sin. And it. It frightened him into paralysis. See, that’s what God sees from his throne or inside of you. Does it bother you? Isaiah had the same response, woe is me.

I am damned. I’m ruined. I. I’m sentenced to hell. I’ve seen God and God has seen me. And if God has seen me, I’m done. Ezekiel says, when I saw it, he says, I fell on my face. That’s the right response, guys. They all had it all the same response. Fell over in absolute fear. You can’t take a trip to heaven like this and walk away. You’ve got to realize this is the holy God that you not only have seen, this is the holy God that is inside of you. It ought to shake us up to the very core to realize that he sees us and sees our sin and our iniquity all the time.

He is infinitely holy. The holy angels are there surrounding him. His holiness blazes forth in judgment, and that should put fear in all of us. But I love the Word. But in every case, he manifested his grace. He took compassion on us to be frightened, panicked Isaiah, who saw it, he was about to be sent to hell. The Lord sent an angel with a call from off the altar to touch his lips and said, your sins are forgiven. To a panic Ezekiel, lying in the dirt, face down, he said, get up. To John in chapter one, who had fainted in fear.

The hand of the Son of God reached out and touched him and said, don’t be afraid. See, in all cases, God offers you a wonderful balance of life. Let me tell you guys, the world is full of people who, when confronted by the holiness of God, will be consumed. The first time they take a visit to the throne room, they’ll be consumed because when they get there, it’s going to be called the Great White Throne. Judgment. And all the ungodly and all of the ages are going to come to that throne and be cast into the lake of fire, which burns with fire and brimstone forever.

It’s only when those of us who have been redeemed come into the throne room that we can walk back out. We may have been frightened to be exposed to holy God because of our sin. It is his mercy and grace granted to us in Christ that allows him to reach out and say, get up, you’re forgiven. Go to work. We’ve got to have that balance of fear and assurance. See, John learned his lesson in chapter one and didn’t fall over in chapter four. He’d already experienced the ball. He said, I don’t need to do this again.

I already did it once. Nothing happened. I was told to get up now. We should rejoice that our God is Absolutely holy. And yet he is loving and gracious to those who are protected by his righteousness of His Son. See, that’s what he offers us. He lives in your house, as unclean as it may be. His throne room in your heart is as brilliant as his throne room is in heaven. And you darken the light. He watches you. He sees you. But in his mercy and grace, he still sits there waiting on you. You going to be an overcomer or not? That’s the question.

Your self assessment takes on a new wrinkle tonight, I think. Well, we’re going to finish this series of miniseries up next week, looking at all of the crescendoing that moves us into basically the unsealing process. And that will lead us into doing a study in Daniel and Ezekiel and maybe a study in Zechariah. I’m trying to determine whether I want to do that or not, because we’re referencing that in the other stuff. But anyway, always try to work it out. So. Questions or comments tonight? Anything, Jim, As I’ve gone through different Bible readings, the four creatures, the.

The calf is oftentimes something different. I’d have to go grab two of the Bibles to remember what they were, but I could never. It’s called an ox in the Old Testament. It’s called an ox. Okay, okay. Or calf. Okay, so it’s, it is described as, as, as an ox in the Old Testament. Is there a different animal that’s not, not related to the ox that I’m remembering? Well, vox is what comes to my mind right now. There’s, There’s a. Let me pull it up. My library. Bull is one of them. I’m sorry, Ax. Bull. And I was.

I want to think an oxen. No, it’s ox. Oxen, bull, calf. Yeah, the others don’t change. That’s what. No. Kind of threw me. No, the others do not change. And in some cases, depending upon how you read it, there’s some. There’s some verbs put in with calf, like fat and calf and stuff like that, but it’s all talking about the same thing. Same thing. Okay. Yeah, mine says ox. Yeah. Ox, oxen, bull fat and calf. But it’s all that same creature. Yeah. Yes, Sam. Well, Jim, that really summed up what we were talking about last week in versus 23 and 26.

I did do a bunch of research on that and basically came up with what you just said, which is fascinating. I was looking at a spiritual ark of the covenant, though, because in. I think it’s 23, Ezekiel 1 the two wings are pointing at each other. And that’s the only part in scripture where we see the wings pointing at each other is on the ark. Yes. They’re pointing. The. The two cherubs are facing each other with the wings pointed up towards each other. And then the sapphire had glittering gold in it, like the sky. And the stars are the glittering gold.

And that represented the gold around the ark. From what I was researching for the last week, I was hoping to be on Tuesday’s call to talk about this, but I just couldn’t get home and. Time. Yeah, well, that’s fine. Yeah. But so. Well, that it’s interesting. I gave you some. I gave you some mathematical heights and widths tonight. Put. You ought to put those together and see because. And then go back and look at the instructions that God gave Moses for the Ark of the Covenant. Okay. And see if they match. One other thing, Jim. I also was looking at this with spiritual aspect, especially with the physical aspect of our eyes.

We have the corona, which may represent the firmament, and then the iris is the rainbow. So when we look at it backwards, we’re looking through our eyes and we still see that. We can still see that rainbow effect. Yeah. Okay, here’s another. Here’s another condition. If you were to look. If you were to go to an optometrist and they were to look through your eyes with their. Their light thing, light fixture that, you know, lets them see, what do they see in the back of your eye? Light. What kind of light? What does it look like? The prism, Isn’t it? It’s.

Yeah, it’s. Yeah, it’s a rainbow. It’s a rainbow. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Wow. Well, that’s just a mind blower. So it’s interesting because I don’t know about the rescue, but how many of you seen triple rainbows in your life? There you go. Missy and I saw a double rainbow. It was split, too, this past week. Yeah. It was like rainbow going up and coming down and another one going up and coming down. And it was like they were setting like this. They weren’t touching. We saw that one, too. So when you see three of them all in a row.

Yeah. Especially in the morning sunrise at the same time. Yeah. They were all. What does that mean? That’s a good question. It always started when I was at work working on Lake Michigan with the sunshine coming through. The way it hit the lake was just awestruck by it all the time. We often get two, one on top of the other and then a big space and Then another one. Thanks, Joe. Now what’s up? Few comments. First of all, the rainbow circles the throne, but yet we only see half a rainbow. And secondarily, the ark, the cherin, are on the mercy seat.

Where are they? When they take the ark out for battle? They’re. They’re attached to the mercy seat. Yes. Okay, so where are they? They’re on top of the mercy seat. Okay, so the mercy seat, when they carry the ark out for battle, the chair owner. Where’s the mercy seat then? Is that just stay or. That’s the piece I was. Okay, so, all right. So, all right, let’s look at it. What is the mercy seat? Define mercy seat and you’ll answer your question. God’s presence. That’s where God comes. Yes. God’s presence. Yes. Okay. Where in the ark, he sets between the cherubs.

True. Well, that becomes the mercy seat. True. So if the ark is going to be taken to battle, then God is the presence between the two cherubs. It sits there on top of the ark and creates then the mercy seat. Do you have a mercy seat if God’s not present? I don’t think so. Okay, well, that’s why I said if you could define mercy seat, then you would answer your question. You can’t have the mercy seat without the cherubs. Agree. All right. I just guess they. They always just talk about, you know, just carrying the ark, but they really don’t mention the mercy seat or the chairman or anything, so.

Okay, well, here’s something else. Okay, think about this. Only the Levites could be priests. There was a set sect of other Jewish people that only could carry the. The tabernacle that they put away the in stuff and the mercy seat and the. In the Ark of the Covenant. And they put. They put certain bars on. On the holes in the side of the Ark of the Covenant to actually pick it up. And if they touch the Ark of the covenant, they were immediately struck dead. Right. That’s how. What scripture? Yes. Now. Yes. Let’s go back to the process.

Somebody had to build the Ark of the Covenant. Right. So somebody was touching all of that covenant. Okay, it wasn’t a covenant yet. Right. It was just about. Correct. Okay, correct. When did it become a covenant? I guess when everything was done. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no. The box was done. The cherubs were there. It was there. They were. They were spit and shining it and all this stuff. When did it actually become a covenant? When God came down. Well, that was the mercy seat. When did it become A covenant. Say, these are things that.

These are the. These are things that you should know, because these apply to two areas of your life. The blood. The blood. The blood. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Because everything in scripture is a code book, and it all ties back to you. That’s the fascinating thing about the Bible. It is you. Totally fascinating. And everything in there is talk, talking about your spiritual being and God’s saying, I built this ark of the covenant so I could have a mercy seat in order to provide mercy to you. Remember, nobody got saved in the Old Testament. Okay. Christ hadn’t come, so redemption didn’t happen until he shed his blood.

And he shed his blood on the ark of the covenant in heaven. Which gave you what? Redemption, Salvation. Redemption. Okay. So it all ties to you. All ties back to you. Yeah. Kim, can you hear me? Hear me okay? Jim? Yeah. When Pilate was judging Christ to be condemned, wasn’t that another type of bema seat or mercy seat? Also? Explain. Basically, you know, another form of the judgment where it was coming. Where. Where Jesus was basically casting himself to be in a merciful, merciless, or presenting mercy in a position to the world. And with that judgment being cast upon him, what he was.

Okay, so you. I would say. Good point. Great question. Reverse it. Okay. God wasn’t. Jesus Christ wasn’t creating judgment at that point. He was accepting judgment on him forever. Yeah, that’s. That’s what I was trying to say. Yeah. Okay. Understood that. All right, so he was. He was basically cat. He was putting himself for the world, you know, to be judged. He basically, he. He brought the gauntlet down on him willingly for everybody. For everybody. Now in his second coming, he’s going to take that gauntlet and put it on all of evil. So his first. First coming was humble, humbleness, servant, servanthood, accepting responsibility, taking judgment upon himself, dying to pay the price.

For you. In that process, you got redemption. And when you got redemption, he got final judgment. Vengeance is mine. Remember? Vengeance is mine. Sent the Lord. And I will provide vengeance. And that’s what’s happening in Revelation, chapter 6 through 22. Yeah. The wrath of God. Correct. The great and terrible day of God. The day of the Lord. Yeah. Thank you. Bet. Anything else, guys? Y. Thank you for the connection between the four faces. And I’m. I’m not. I’m kind of struggling with my words. The positions of the tribes around the tabernacle that Moses laid out. Dan was to the north, and he was the eagle.

Right. So a long time ago, I had asked the question, where was Dan in Revelation, because he’s the only tribe that’s left out. So I’m still trying to put together if he was the tribe to the north, but yet trying to look at. And I haven’t had a chance to do this, to look at where the tribes were given land when they went into the Promised Land. Dan was to the west, but then he moved to the north. Yeah. So there’s significance there. I’m thinking about Dan being in the north, but why is he not in Revelation? Well, he is in Revelation.

He comes back. We’re going to get. Okay, all right. Just hang with me. We’re going to go through a repositioning of Dan inside the nation of Israel in. In this series of. In our series of Revelations. We’re going to get to that because it’s an important point for. For you to understand. Yeah, thank you. And it’s. It’s perplexed me for a long time. You know, remember, remember, 12,000 of the tribe of Dan is going to be set aside as well. Okay. So Dan has to come back to. Into the picture. Oh, okay. So where is that? I’m.

I’m not sure. Well, the 144,000. The ones the right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. 12,000 from each tribe. So Dan has to be in the picture by then, right? Okay, Yeah, I remember that now. Thank you. What else, guys? Sure. That’s great. I thank you again for a lovely night, getting into your word. Thank you for a great day. What. What a great day. Hey, this has been. And just appreciate all that you’ve done today, all that you’ve handled today in all kinds of ways that we. That we’ve been able to notice. And I just want to give you thanks for that.

Father, just continue to watch over us. Give us. Give us this. The sincerity of wanting to understand your scripture. Give us the basis to understand what you’re telling us, but more importantly, give us the. The willingness and the want to. To actually apply it to our lives so that we can actually become better citizens of your heavenly realm and. And the ability to walk closer to you. So I just continue to. To guide and direct, be with those that are still healing. We just continue to pray for those that need your help. We know that you are the healer and you will heal upon whatever terms of your plan for our life.

So, Father, just take and give us joy and peace to know that you’re in total control, be with the leaders of this world. As change is becoming more rapid, please make sure that the planning board stays white and Father, just give the leaders the direction of humanity. Sovereignty your will. Father, we just want to praise and give you thanks for your son, his death, his resurrection, and your promise to give us eternal life through faith. If we trust you and Father, we just continue to say hallelujah. I want to call these things in your sun, strength.
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