This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our look together through Revelation chapter 4, day 4. We're
going to focus on verses 5 to 8 today as we continue this experience together
with John describing to us the throne room of God. And that throne room, it's
going to get a lot bigger today.

Let me read for you the last part of verse 5 and the first of verse 6. Let me
read for you the last part of verse 5 and the first of verse 6. As you read
these verses, if you have any idea that this throne room experience of John,
this moment that he has before the throne of God is some small room, this blows
that totally out of the water.

In this throne experience, there is an entire sea, but this sea, it is a sea of
glass. There's many ideas of what that means, but one of them certainly is there
is peace there. Seas are often places of storms.

Your life is often a place of storm. But this sea, you've heard people say the
sea was as calm as glass, and this sea is a sea of glass. It's a place of total
calm, total peace, because God is totally in control.

It's clear as crystal. There's nothing that's not seen there. That's what it's
like to be in the presence of God.

Before the throne, there are the seven lamps that we're blazing. And he tells us
what these represent, the seven spirits of God. And we've come across this
several times if we walk through the book of Revelation and reminded ourselves
that seven is a sign of the number of perfection, and the spirit of God is a
perfect spirit in our lives.

John keeps coming back to God's spirit, because I need God's spirit to
understand the words that he's saying, and I need God's spirit to work in my
life today, to live out the kind of life that he wants me to live. God's
spirit's put into my life to empower my life. But here he is in heaven as well,
in this throne room, this experience of God.

Before the throne, there's this greatness of the spirit of God. There's this
greatness of this sea of glass, and all who are worshiping there together. And
then around the throne, around the throne, there are four living creatures.

And these four living creatures, as John describes them, for many of us, this
first description is one of those places in the book of Revelation when we
think, "What does this book mean? " Let me read for you these verses, the last
part of verse six through verse eight, and then we'll see clearly what they
mean. In the center, around the throne, John writes of his experience, were four
living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back.

The first living creature was like a lion. The second was like an ox. The third
had a face of a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle.

Each of the four living creatures had six wings, and was covered with eyes all
around, even under his wings. Day and night, they never stopped saying, "Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. " Now
remember, John is just describing what he sees.

It's not as if he is sitting down and thinking, "What could I write that would
encourage Christians today? Let me write the story of some picture of a throne
room in heaven, and make up these ideas. " That's not what's happening here.

John was called up to heaven by God, and he saw these things, and he is
describing what he sees. And as he describes what he sees, he sees exactly what
Isaiah the prophet and Ezekiel the prophet had seen before him. Every reader
would have immediately picked up on this.

Isaiah chapter six, verse two, says, "Sarah Phim stood before him, each having
six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and
with two he flew. " And remember that those angels in the book of Isaiah, they
sang the song, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. " He sees what's
always been in heaven, these angels worshiping before God.

And then as he describes the four living creatures, he describes exactly what
Ezekiel saw. Ezekiel chapter one, verses five and ten says, "In the fire was
what looked like four living creatures. In appearance, their form was that of a
man.

Their faces were like this. " See if this sounds familiar. "Each of the four had
the face of a man, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the
left the face of an ox, and each also had the face of an eagle.

" So there they are, the same things. You have the man, you have the lion, you
have the ox, and you have the eagle. They're describing the same experience in
heaven, the experience of what's happening before the throne of God.

Now what do these things represent? The lion, the ox, the man, and the eagle.
Well, many people think character qualities, the character qualities of who God
is, the strength of God, the patience of God, the power of God, the freedom that
God brings into our lives.

But others also point to the fact, especially because of how Ezekiel writes in
the Old Testament that they also represent areas of human government, the ways
that we want to govern. But the truth is, in the end, God's the one who will
govern. God is the one that we hang on to.

As you look through the pictures of what happens with these four living
creatures, we're getting pictures of who God is and how he wants to be at work
in our lives. God wants to be at work in your life like a lion, like an ox, like
a man, like an eagle. He wants to give you the strength that you need for today.

He wants to give you the power that you need to be patient, to power through the
difficulties of life. He wants to give you the freedom that you need for life.
In the wings, you see, in the angels, the quickness that they had, the
availability that they had before God.

So there is also in here the picture for you and I of what you and I want to be
before God and who he is. I want to be quick to be available. Now, some people
read this and they read the eyes that are on these angels.

And to us, it sounds like an ugly picture. Too many eyes. I don't want to see
all eyes.

But to them, as they read this, the idea of an eye, of being able to see
something was an incredibly beautiful idea. Much of the world today suffers from
what's called information overload. And we think that we see and know everything
and we're wrong.

We really don't see the most important things at all. In the ancient world, they
had a better understanding of this, I think, because they didn't have the
Internet. They didn't have 24-hour news.

They knew what they didn't know. And knowing what they didn't know caused them
to know that they needed to know. They needed to see things they didn't see.

And God says, "I'm enabling you to see what cannot be seen in any other way, to
see with eyes of the heart. " So they had these wings of quickness and
availability, but there were the eyes of intelligence and perception. The lion,
the ox, the man, and the eagle.

Why would I say areas of government? Well four, there are numbers that are
associated with things all through the book of Revelation. Seven is a number of
perfection.

As you read through Revelation, as you read through prophecy, even in the Old
Testament, four is almost always associated with a number of government. So
these creatures are somehow associated with God's government, the way God is
running the created universe. We have our human government, how we want to run
things, but God governs things.

He controls for eternity. This throne, this throne that we're before with God,
it is a place of holiness. But what I love about these verses is that they
remind us.

Angels sing, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to
come. " They remind us that God's holiness is meant to touch your life. For many
of us, when we hear the word "holy," we think that's something distinct and
different and separate from me.

That's not what holy means at all. The holy God wants to be a part of your life.
God wants to cause you to be distinct and separate and different from this
world.

He wants to bring the government, the control, the work, His will in this world.
He wants to bring it into this world through your life, through who you are.
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

" The amazing thing to me as I read these verses is that God calls you and I
holy. As believers, as followers of Jesus Christ, He calls us saints, which
means holy ones. Jesus tells us that we are meant to be holy.

The letters of the New Testament tell us again and again that God calls us to a
life of holiness and has given us the gift of His holiness. So this throne room
of heaven, this place that we look forward to one day, there is some small
measure in which God wants you to experience that in your life today. Not just
in your thoughts.

That's where it starts. He is a holy God, but also in your words, the way that
you speak to people today. Also in your actions, the way that you treat people
today, the decisions that you make today.

Also in your plans, the way that you're planning out your life. Also in your
attitudes. Attitudes about money, attitudes about calendar, attitudes about
people, attitudes about yourself.

God wants to bring the holiness of this throne room into your life today. How
can He do that? What in your life do you need to do to be singing, "Holy, holy,
holy?

Lord God Almighty. " Isaiah, when he experienced this throne room, like John is
experiencing it here over in Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah says, "Woe to me, I am a
man of unclean lips. How could I even experience something like this?

" And you may feel the same way. You see the uncleanness in your life, you see
the humanity. But the truth of the matter is Jesus Christ wants to come into
your life and bring holiness into your life.

That is what this throne room is all about, what God wants to be about in your
life. How can He do that today? How can I trust Him for that today?

Let's pray together. As you pray, just say, "Jesus Christ, help me not only to
look to your holiness, help me to experience it. I am a man, I am a woman of
unclean lips," you might pray.

"I see, I see the thoughts that I have, the words that I say, the things that
I've done. And God, you see them too. But you've forgiven them in Jesus Christ.

And you have set out a new path for me to live. Help me to walk in holiness
today. Help me to make the choices that would please you, to say the words, to
act towards people in ways that would please you.

When I stumble and fall, help me to look to you for forgiveness in a way that
would please you and then begin to walk in holiness again. Thank you, God, that
you're a holy God. And thank you through Jesus Christ that you give the gift of
your holiness into my life.

That's beyond understanding to me. But help me to live out in my life today that
which is beyond understanding the greatness of who you are. In your name I pray,
amen.

" And join us tomorrow for our last day of Revelation, chapter 4. We're going to
worship together the one who's on the throne.