Revelation, Part 3 — Stanley Wells

Now I'm going to do it a wee bit different tonight. I'm going to read the chapter before we look at this chart. We're going to look tonight at the book of Revelation, and it's chapter 4. And this is at the first part, and then we'll read a little in chapter 5 as we continue.

Now we're happy to see you tonight, Monday night. Thank you all for coming. And our younger friends, we're delighted to see you as well. And if you're an unbeliever, still come to hear these important matters.

We know quite a number of unbelievers in our part out in the West, and they're very interested to find out what's going to take place. Now these first three sessions, we're building the base of what we're going to talk about in the nights to come.

The Throne in Revelation 4

So now we're going to speak about heaven tonight, and the throne. Do you see Revelation chapter 4, following from where we're at last night? There are 12 references to the throne in this chapter, and look at them as we read it together.

Verse 1, Revelation 4 .1, this is John talking,. After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter.

And immediately I was in the Spirit. Now we haven't pointed out, but that statement in the Spirit divides this into four sections, the vision that John got. Behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. Round about the throne were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold, victor's crowns.

And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like unto crystal, in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne were four living creatures, is the word, full of eyes before and behind.

And the first living creature was like a lion, and the second like a calf, and the third had a face as a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, and each of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within, and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is, and is to come.

When those living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth forever and ever, cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created.

I will read a little in chapter 5 when we get into the minutes that lie before us. Now let me say one or two simple things about what we're going to talk about. Number one, nobody can be dogmatic in the book of Revelation.

Number two, if you don't see it the way I'm going to suggest tonight, well I'll be happy to listen to how you handle it. Nobody knows all the statements of the book, but we're here tonight to give an overview, and we're delighted to see the younger friends as well.

Interpreting Revelation Literally and Symbolically

Now, another thing I want to talk about is we need to be simple in our overview. Now remember what I told you, wherever possible we interpret the content of this revelation, and we do it in a literal way.

Now if it doesn't make sense, we look for another sense. There's an example right here before us tonight. It says, for example, in this chapter there are four and twenty elders. Now it's pretty obvious that in the next chapter, as we'll see, there's more than twenty-four men or people in heaven.

There's tens of thousands and thousands of thousands. So obviously the twenty-four must speak about something, as we'll see, and likely at least it speaks about the saints of this great age, the age of grace.

Right. Revision. Remember what I told you about the word revelation? Apocalypse. I sometime ago was in a certain place, and this gentleman said to me, I'm doing a crossword puzzle here. And he says, the question is, what is the other word for the book of Revelation?

He says, you're a man of the cloth, you should know. I said, apocalypse. He says, I never heard of that in my life. And he put it in and it fit it. So don't forget, you might be looking at it sometime.

The apocalypse, the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right. We'll start here at this part of the chart tonight, and we're still building the base. Remember, I've told you, John was on the Isle of Patmos.

He got on the first day of the week, a vision of the Lord Jesus Christ and the future program that God has installed in divine purpose. And so we talked about this chapter one here, the things which he saw.

Now, the triumphs of the Christ are in chapter one. Remember what I told you? Verse 18, I am he that liveth, became dead of his own voluntary will. That's John 10. And he says, and I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades.

That's the triumph of the Lord Jesus. Do you see chapters two and three? Remember, we talked a bit about that yesterday and that circle going right around there. Seven assemblies, lampstands, burning in the darkness of the night.

That's the function of every new Testament assembly. Here we are, Ontario, Wisconsin. Dear people out there tonight, they're in the darkness and then the shadow of death. Their darkness is moral darkness, not so much physical darkness.

I understand that, but it's the darkness of the heart. And what are we to do? We have to show them light. Some poor, fainting, struggling seaman, you may rescue, you may save, let your lower lights be burning.

The Rapture and Entrance into Heaven

Now, that brings us to this part of the chart here. And maybe where you are sitting, you can't see it, but there's chapters four and five, and it has to do with this scroll. And we're going to read about the book in the next chapter, chapter five, and look to the Lord that we might learn something about it.

All right. Now, you see, remember I told you about these seven churches here? That's the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ tonight gathered to express his name. Now, here's the simple question. However, will people, likely hundreds of thousands, leave earth and arrive in heaven?

That's the question on the floor tonight. Well, I read you in verse number one of chapter four, there's a door open in heaven. Now, let me point out to you in the chart, you see the last verse of chapter three, and it's verse 22 of Revelation, and where I'm pointing to now, that's Laodicea.

That's the saints on earth, right to that point. See the next verse, there's a door open in heaven, and we're up here. See, chapter four, the elders in heaven. The judgment seat of Christ and all the rest of it.

All right. Now, the question is, how do we get from here up into heaven? Now, here's the chapter. I'll introduce it to you. Do you know what it says? John heard a trumpet, and he's invited to come right into heaven.

The courtroom of heaven, I call it. The immediate presence of God. Now, remember, dear friends, that his feet are still on the Isle of Patmos. His physical form is still on earth, but he gets transported in a spiritual sense right into the courtroom of heaven.

That's like Paul the Apostle in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. He's caught up to the third heaven to see things that others never saw. Now, that's John. So, it's pretty obvious now, 1 Corinthians 15 and 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 tells us that there's an instant coming, maybe sooner than we realize, when the Lord Jesus Christ will come with the voice of archangel and trump of God, and the trumpet shall sound.

1 Corinthians 15, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. I want to say to you folk tonight, see, if you're here and we're delighted to see you, whatever age group you're in, and if you're not saved, and if you're not born again, and you have reached the years of accountability, it's different in every person, you're going to be left behind for this awful time that the church talks about, the great tribulation of Holy Scripture.

See, those of us who are saved, we will rise from this sad veil of tears, and in an instant, we are at home with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, keep your Bible open now, please, let's show you. See, on the chart, we're up here, and this, of course, is the priesthood of Christ, his unfinished work at God's right hand.

Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 14. And by the way, to the casual reader of the Hebrew letter, there's only one verse in all the 13 chapters where it says about the Lord Jesus, the great high priest. He's the one that we enjoy and appreciate every day.

Three Sections of Revelation 4

All right, if that Bible of yours is open tonight, let me point out to you that there are three simple sections in chapter 4 of John. Of John's revelation. See, verses 1 and 2, the throne is set. Now, you take a minute and look at that word.

It says in verse number 2, immediately, I was in the spirit, and behold, the throne was set in heaven. That's established, that's stable, that's strong, that's unmovable, that is set. See, everything that we have here in this life has changed, changing all the time.

But John is assured as he gets into the very courtroom of heaven that the Lord Jesus Christ and the God of heaven is on the throne. You know what he's saying? God is still on the throne and he will remember his own.

Though trials distress us and things oppress us, he never will leave us alone. Thank God tonight for the one that's stable and strong and eternal. See, the next little section of the chapter, see verse 3, it's the throne sitter.

Now, you won't know from chapter 4, but we're going to read chapter 5 and you'll find out that the throne sitter is the father. Because the lion of the tribe of Judah goes to the throne sitter in the next chapter, and he gets the book, the scroll, as we'll see.

You see from verse 4 to the end of the chapter, here's the throne is surrounded. And again, we won't look at every statement and we won't look at every verse, but let me point out to you that in verses from 4 down, I'll just look at verse number 4.

Four and 20 elders sitting, clothed with white riment. Now there's those that surround the throne. And then of course, in verse number 6, there's at the end of the verse, the four beasts. Now it's not a beastly thing of chapter 13, but these are living creatures, guardians likely of God's throne and are right beside the God of heaven.

And then they're described in verse number 7 and so on. Now what I want to get across tonight, before we get too far into this, there's a throne. Many thrones on earth tonight we think of London, England, and the queen that has sat on the throne now for over 60 years.

But if the Lord doesn't come one of these days, she'll pass the way of all the earth and somebody else will take over. All of these thrones will rise and fall, but this one in heaven is secure and steady and it's forever.

Now John gets a look at it. You see, it's a vision, but it's real. There's no myth about heaven. I want to tell you that heaven is a real place and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father are there. We're there from all eternity.

And this is the place where we are going. But in all the unstable world that we live in, we want to show tonight beyond the shadow of a doubt that God is on the throne. Now here's where opinions come in.

The Twenty-Four Elders and Four Living Creatures

You see, somebody asks a simple question, well, who are the 24 elders? Now if you know your Bible, 1 Chronicles chapter 24, there's a man called David and before Solomon built his temple, he had so many of the Levitical family that they all couldn't function in one place at one time.

You know what he did? He made 24 courses of priests and that 24 answers to the 24 in this chapter. Now we're going to see from the next chapter that the saints of this age are kings and priests and we will reign over the earth as we'll read.

So I'm suggesting to you tonight that these elders, 24 of them, represent the saints of this age. You and I are included. Now here's a suggestion for you to think about. You see, Jacob had 12 sons, those 12 patriarchs and then the New Testament, there are 12 apostles and these could represent the Old Testament believers and the New Testament believers.

But whatever way you cut it, it represents the saints of this age and we are going to be surrounding the throne when days on earth are through. So somebody says, who are the four living creatures? What do you think?

You can look at all the books you want and you can search the net and you can go to whoever's online and all the rest of it and you'll hardly get two that will tell you the same thing. Now what I'm going to tell you tonight makes sense even though it might not be the interpretation.

But you see, whenever you read those words, holy, holy, holy, right away you think of Isaiah 6, the seraphim, guardians of God's throne. When you go to Ezekiel 1 and you think of the living creatures and the emphasis there in each different one and all the rest of it, you see guardians of God's throne and whatever else we say about it, you know, they're guarding the throne of God.

And then of course, when you come down, if your Bible is still open to verse number 7, these four are described. And here's a suggestion that God has one message for the world and it's in four gospels of the New Testament.

And these guardians of God's throne suggest some of the great things that were seen in the person of Christ in his perfect manhood. You know, without getting into any details, Matthew is the lion, Mark is the calf, Luke is the man, and John is the eagle.

If you want more information on that, I'll be happy to talk to you. I want to keep it simple. And here are these folk surrounding the throne of God on high, and as John gets in through the door, I call it the courtroom of heaven, he's absolutely enthralled.

He's awestruck. He can't understand and he has to be directed to the throne. Now, let me say this, as I pointed out last night, when days on earth are finished for all of us, let me talk to the believer first of all, we're going to go to a throne.

The Judgment Seat of Christ and the Great White Throne

It's on the chart there. I pointed it out to you. See, the judgment seat of Christ, the bema. And every one of us tonight saved in this company, we will stand at the bema of Christ after the rapture to give an account of how we have lived on earth.

Everything that we have done from conversion's day to the last step is taken. All that we have said, everywhere we have gone, how we have treated others, or affection to the person of Christ, or attitude in the assembly, in whatever way you cut it.

Let me talk to the unbeliever. You see, the unbeliever won't be in this throne. This is only for believers right in heaven. But if dear people leave the world without Christ, they will stand at the great white throne judgment.

There it is up there. The first man that ever lived in this life was born in a Christian home, to use that expression. His name is Cain. His mother had great hopes for him, but he died a rebel. And Jude 11 tells us, woe unto them that have gone in the way of Cain.

He's in perdition tonight. He's in hell. He's one of the millions that will stand at the great white throne judgment. You know what happened to him? God told him one day, direct from heaven, right in the field.

He says, listen, Cain, you come in my way and offer the lamb and I'll accept you. Cain says, no, I'm doing my thing. Woe unto them that have gone in the way of Cain. Right. Chapter five, because the time's flying.

The Sealed Scroll and the Worthy Lamb

Now, if the emphasis in chapter four of revelation is the throne, the emphasis in chapter five is on the book. And that's how we're getting into what we're going to talk about. See that there? That's the scroll or the book.

That's what we're going to read about. Now, I'll just read some verses here. Revelation chapter five, verse number one. I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne, a book and written within and on the backside sealed with seven seals.

And so Dr. Harry Ironside, as we'll see tomorrow night and the word of God, this scroll here as with seven seals is unfolded. And remember what I told you yesterday? I'll tell you again tonight, lest you forget.

There's only six trumpets there. And everybody says that the Bible says there are seven. Yeah. But out of the seventh one comes these seven vials. Now you see where it says here on this side, see where it says there, the roles reversed the seven bowls of the wrath of God.

Now you see it's sealed on the backside and this is going to unfold to us. Definite things that we'll see tomorrow night. All right. Now watch the book here. See verse number two. I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof.

And no man in heaven nor on earth, neither under the earth was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. See the emphasis on the book, the scroll. Now here's John. I wept much because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.

Now let me pause a minute. Here's verse four and people ask an obvious question. It says in Revelation chapter 21, there'll be no tears in heaven, no night, no death, no sickness, no distress and all the rest of it.

And it says here, here's a man weeping in heaven. Now I want to point out to you that the man has never left earth. His physical body is on earth, but he's in the courtroom of heaven and it's our spirit part that equates with divine persons in heaven.

So here's a response from his heart when as he surveys the millions of folk that are here in the courtroom of heaven and there's no one worthy to open the book. Well, here's his reaction. Now verse five, one of the elders saith unto me, weep not.

Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld in low in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures.

And in the midst of the elder stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and he took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

Now I'm going to suggest brethren, this again might not be the interpretation, but it makes sense. The Lord Jesus Christ is seen here as the lion of the tribe of Judah and he goes to the throne sitter and he accepts the book, their scroll.

Now that's exactly Daniel chapter seven, the ancient of days, when he approaches the throne to get responsibility and so on. All right. Now verse eight, and when he had taken the book, the four living creatures, the four and 20 elders fell down before the lamb, having every one of them, harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints.

Now you see brethren, here's another simple thing. Do you think we're all going to have harps in heaven? It's pretty obvious. We're not going to be having a physical harp. So it's telling us about the joy and the satisfaction and the happiness of all those that are in Christ.

Here it is. See verse number nine, they, the saints of this age, you and I are included. They sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals are off where thou was slain has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made us onto our God.

There it is. Kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. Now those of you who know the translations better than I do, let me remind you that the closest translation of the new Testament is JND as we call them.

John Nelson's Derby Bible. You likely have it in your library. He translated, and let me explain this a minute. He translated the Greek of the new Testament into French and from French it was translated into English and it's the nearest to the original of all the translations that we enjoy.

You know what he says? Look at it again. And if you don't believe me, check it out. See verse number nine or verse number 10, and we shall reign over the earth. I'm going to build on that as we go in the nights to come.

All right. So let's go down a little verse here to 12 saying with a loud voice, worthy as the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Notice verse 14, and the four living creatures said, amen.

Three Divisions of Revelation 5

And the four and 20 elders fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. Now I'm going to suggest to you that there are three simple divisions to this chapter. See, if you have your Bible open in chapter five of the book of revelation, verses one to five, there's a sealed book.

There it is. There's nobody can open it. That's the scroll. That's what the chapter is all about. See verses six to 10, it's the slain lamb. Worthy as the lamb that was slain. And then you see from verse 11 to verse 14 are the shouting hosts that surround the throne.

Brethren, make another suggestion to you. There's no record in the Bible that angels sang. And we have got all kinds of hymns and all the rest of it that tells us about it. And if you examine even the Job passage, verse 38, and a closer translation to the original, it would indicate that angels never sang.

Well, who's going to do the singing? Well, the singing is going to be done by the saints of this age. The harmony in that day is tremendous. And John is absolutely overwhelmed when he hears the great song that goes out to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Three Heavens and Christ's Ascension

Now, let me just go a little further here. John is now in spirit in heaven. He's in the courtroom of heaven. And by the way, just to let you know what I'm talking about, there are three words in the New Testament for heaven.

Somebody said, didn't know that. I'm telling you. You see what you and I look at out there tonight. And if it's a frosty night, the starry heavens. And away beyond that is the sky, the expense. That's what the astronauts saw.

And then beyond that is the immediate presence of God, the eternal heavens, the heaven of heavens, the third heavens. And by the way, it was through these three, well, two heavens and into the immediate presence of God.

When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended from the hill there in Acts chapter one and Luke chapter 24, instantly he was at the throne of God on high. So whenever I'm talking about the courtroom of heaven, I'm right into the immediate presence of God.

Imagine you're John and he's looking around. There are millions, thousands of thousands and tens of thousands. And the edict goes out, who is worthy to open the book, the scroll and to Luke they're on.

Nobody. But you see the chapter, I didn't read the verse, but the chapter says, it is the lion of the tribe of Judah. The little lamb has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. Now, whenever we think of the lion, we think of the characteristic of our Lord Jesus Christ as the conqueror, the victor over every enemy and Calvary is where he won the victory.

When we think of his crowning, his coronation, you see that is the lion side of things. That's Matthew's gospel, the king, the sovereign. But then the little lamb is a sacrifice and it's always in the New Testament.

Here's the order, the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. Now you see the sufferings, that's the lamb. You see the glories, that's the lion. And somebody says, well, why is it lion first here and lamb second?

It's pretty obvious that he is now in total control and the emphasis is on the one that is the sovereign of the universe and the sovereign in heaven. Nobody is able to open this scroll, this book. See that there?

Mr. Ironside, I think has got the idea and that's why he put that on there. And that's why we're in chapter four, chapter five. Now, let me explain to you before we go. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ and he takes that book, that scroll and he opens it.

Christ as Creator and Redeemer

Now, why is he the only one that is able to do it? You know why? Because this scroll is called the title deeds of earth. And somebody says, what does that mean? That means that here is the Lord Jesus Christ and he's the one that created the universe as we know it.

No one else had a part in it. He was in the world. The world was made by him. The world knew him not. Colossians 1, all things by him consist for him, to him, by him and unto him. He's the preeminent one.

He's the only one that could open that book because he's the one that created the universe as we know it. We speak that it was done, commanded and it stood firm, stood fast. That's Psalm 33. I'll tell you another thing.

He's the only one that could pay the ransom price for our sin. And he's the only one that went to Calvary and he's the only one that finished the work which the father given to do. And he has the rights alone to open the book.

I want to go further. Do you see when he advanced and opened the first seal as we'll see tomorrow night? In the will of God, all heaven bows as one man and they sing the new song. Thou art worthy. That's why we sung 328 tonight.

Thou art worthy to receive honor and blessing and glory and power and riches and dominion and everything for thou was slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every tongue and people and nation and we shall reign over the earth.

I want to tell you something. John was absolutely enthralled. You talk about singing and according to Hebrews chapter 2, at least in application, the Lord Jesus Christ would be the leader of the praise in that day.

Behold, I and the children which God has given me. What a day for him. Now, I want you to just think of how John felt when he's in heaven. And before we unfold what we're going to talk about tomorrow nights and the nights to come in the will of God, here's an order I want to suggest to you tonight.

Heaven Before Judgment

See the God that we serve, his strange work as judgment. That's what the Bible says. And before we get into these awful days of dreadful suffering and persecution and disaster and anguish and despair, whatever word you want to put on it, we get a look at the peace and the tranquility of heaven.

Peace, perfect peace. Thank God tonight for the one that made peace through the blood of his cross. You know what we're going to talk about? This chart behind me. See, as I pointed out to you, we're here on earth, but you see after the rapture, we're up here in heaven.

So, the book describes conditions on earth and describes conditions in heaven. Now, just to go to the end of the book for a minute, when John is exposed to all of these things that we'll look at, and the Lord Jesus Christ said to him personally, surely I come quickly.

What was his response? Even so, come Lord Jesus. You see, you might be in that mode of thinking tonight. We're in a confused world. We're in a world that has been wracked by sin, and the old devil has no mercy on the evil principle that all of us have within.

He wants to ruin our peace. Thank God tonight there's peace, perfect peace in this dark world of sin. The blood of Jesus Christ whispers peace within. And here's a beautiful thing, that John gets absolutely enthralled with what heaven will be before he sees what's going to happen to those that turn away from him.

See, in our world tonight, people live for themselves, they live for today, forget tomorrow. There's no eternity to be faced, and there's no God to be faced, and people can do what they like, and God waits, and waits, and waits, and waits.

And people say, how come? Well, we're in the age of grace. All these atrocities that are happening in our world tonight would break your very heart, but God allows it, but he won't allow it forever. And before we rise, let me just tell you this, if ever you're going to be in heaven, any of us, we have to have dealings with the slain lamb, the lamb upon Calvary, the lamb that was slain, that liveth again to intercede for us.

Salvation Through the Blood of Christ

And the only way that a soul on earth, whoever they may be, or wherever they come from, will ever be in heaven are those who have learned their need, poor sinners, on the way to eternity without a hope, without the Lord Jesus, without God, with no hope in the world, and without Christ.

Well, there's one hope tonight, and that hope is in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, dear soul, you're going to have to face the lamb. Tonight, he has shed his blood, and the Lord Jesus said, even in the Old Testament passage, when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

1 John 1, 7, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. I'll give you a simple illustration before we go. Some time ago, I got an email from a young lady. At that stage, she was 19 years of age.

We just had finished a series of meetings in her area, and the email went something like this, Dear Stan, I have just found out that I'm a sinner saved by grace. She's lying in her bed, 2 a .m. in the morning, and she started to think about 1 John 1, 7, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us, and she said, cleanses me from all sin.

And she took in a simple truth that when the Savior died and gave his life's blood, and he finished the work which the Father gave him to do, she recognized he did it for me. Is there anyone here tonight, simple enough, in the closing moments of this meeting, and you'll take the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior here and now, and the man that wrote this was a man called John, the son of Zebedee, and he heard a preacher one day telling him, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

And he responded, and he followed Christ. God help your friend tonight to take it in. So we have to leave it. We want to preach to the hour. We've said enough. How do we get from earth to heaven? At the rapture.

It could take place tonight. Whenever we're in here, what is it all about? Chapter 4 of Revelation, the throne. Chapter 5 of Revelation, the book. And we're going to see tomorrow night in the will of the Lord, this one that opened the book, opened the scroll, one by one, John watched them.