The Seven-Fold Spirit & the Four Living Ones

Transcript

GR 2002
05/07/2017
The Seven-fold Spirit and the Four Living Ones
Revelation 4:5-8
Gil Rugh

We have a great and awesome God and we are studying about that great and awesome God and the glories of heaven where He dwells and where we will one day dwell with Him so you can turn in your bibles to Revelation chapter four. I’ll tell you before we start that my first hour class told me after this morning when we were done they said you’re not going to get through that with them but that’s all right we’ll get as far as we get and then next week we’ll pick up there. I have many pages. What greater subject than the subject of heaven and that’s what the subject of Revelation chapters four and five is. It is Heaven the dwelling place of God.

Let me say something before we look into some of the details. We are a diverse body and I don’t want anyone to get discouraged. When we look at heaven and God revealing something of Himself in heaven we’re going to look at passages and if you’re new to the study of the bible or you haven’t studied this area before it may sound like wow, I don’t know if I’m getting much out of this. One thing, be sure that you pick up, this revelation of God and the glory that is His in heaven is a reminder to us that He is an awesome God that He is a God to be honored, to be worshiped, to be obeyed.

Now there are many details but we start with the big picture. Revelation chapters four and five are preparing the way for the rest of the Book of Revelation. It’s important we understand that the sovereign God who is enthroned in heaven is in charge of everything taking place on earth. Nothing happens apart from His divine control. Now we have to keep that in mind because when we get to chapter six, as I remind you, we are going to come into the most terrible awful time the world will have ever seen and God spends an extensive amount of time emphasizing the awfulness of this period-of-time. From chapter six through chapter 19 it is one judgment after another. Literally, billons of people will die on the face of the earth and then at the end of chapter 20 we’ll have multitudes sentenced to an eternal hell. We have to keep in mind all of this comes from the hand of a sovereign God to fulfill His purposes.

You say well that’s a terrible thing to say about God. To think that He would bring such awful suffering on people but He is a God of great mercy, great love, great kindness but He is a God to be feared, to be honored, to be obeyed, and when people persist in their stubborn rejection of Him, there is nothing but judgment awaits them. We’ve talked about the perspective of God on His throne. Just look at verse five. We’ve noted that the things we have pointed out here and described to us will prepare us for what comes in the future and in verse five of chapter four we had the throne and from the Throne of God come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder.

When we get to chapter six, we start with a series of judgments. There are three series of seven. Seven seals each containing a judgment, seven trumpets each containing a judgment and seven bowls each containing a judgment. You note this verse five, from the Throne of God come flashes of lightning, sounds, peals of thunder. His is a God of justice He’s a God of judgment. I want you to note when you get to the last of each one of these series of judgments.

Turn over to Revelation chapter eight. The last of the seven seals is the seventh seal so you read in chapter eight verse one, when the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then you come down to verse five. Then the angel took the censer; filled it with the fire of the altar threw it to the earth; . . . note . . . there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning. This is an awesome God! This comes from His throne as it was described in chapter four as we looked in heaven. It is a throne and from it come flashes of lightning, sounds, peals of thunder. This is a throne of judgment for those who have not availed themselves of the mercy of God so you see it at that seventh seal. That emphasis connects it back to the throne.

Come over to chapter 11. We’ve come through this series of seven trumpet judgments. We come to the seventh and in verse 15, you read of Revelation 11. Then the seventh angel sounds his trumpet. There were voices in heaven. Then come down to verse 19 and the temple of God, which is in heaven, was open; the ark of the covenant appeared in His temple, there were flashes of lightning, sounds, peals of thunder, an earthquake, hailstones so we come to judgment.

Then that last series the bowl judgments and you come over to Revelation chapter 16 and you read in verse 17 “then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air;” . . . and you come to verse 18 and . “. . there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; an earthquake the greatest earthquake that had ever occurred.” So you see we’re getting a glimpse of God in heaven and He is an awesome God!

He is a God to be honored, to be respected, to be worshiped but it must be done His way. We come up with plans of worship and ideas and think God ought to be pleased. No, God said He must be worshiped “in spirit and in truth”. He’s provided His Son Jesus Christ to be the Savior and He says, “. . . no one comes to the Father, but by Me,” Jesus said. “There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus . . .” so God offers salvation, forgiveness, cleansing, hope. In fact you can be joined in the glory of God’s presence by placing you’re faith in Christ and trusting Him but there’s no other way so we come to this glorious scene. We’ve looked at the Throne of God in heaven. We’re looking at the individuals associated with the throne.

We’re going to review some of what we’ve covered. There are three groups around the throne, the twenty-four elders, the seven Spirits of God and the four living creatures and we want to look at each of those groups. We’ve looked at the twenty-four elders in our previous study and there are three facts about the elders that we noted. They are “seated on twenty-four thrones,” they’re “clothed in white garments,” and they’re “crowned with golden crowns” so a very important group here. They’re singled out as we’re brought with John into this heavenly scene. First, we are focused on the Throne of God in Heaven, which is the focal point, but here gathered at this throne are twenty-four elders on thrones, clothed in white garments, crowned with golden crowns.

We went through why it seems the elders are representative of the Church of Jesus Christ that group of believers from Acts chapter two down until the Rapture that occurs between chapters three and four of the Book of Revelation. We talked about that event. We’ll see more of related subjects as we move toward the end of the Book of Revelation. The reason why it seems the elders are representative of the Church of Jesus Christ, the Bride of Christ that has been removed, raptured and taken to heaven because this group has experienced judgment at the Bema Seat to be rewarded and clothed and so on.

So we started out with the promise to the overcomers just as a general statement because in chapters two and three of the Book of Revelation Jesus addressed seven letters to seven different churches and each of those letters concluded with promises to the overcomers. The overcomers are those who have gained the victory over sin, the world, the devil, through faith in Christ and His finished work as payment for their sin. In those promises are promises that are carried out and we develop those in the next three points; white garments, crowns and thrones so the connections given to promises to the churches to those who are believers in the churches fit with the description of these individuals; also in other passages of Scripture.

First, the white garments and they were promised to believers in the churches. Then in chapter 19, the Bride of Christ is clothed in these garments of righteousness as a result of having been judged so that fits the Bride of Christ. It would be another reason why we think the elders represent the churches, the Church as a whole.

The crowns and we noted the crowns here are stephanos crowns not diadem crowns. The diadem is the crown of a ruler. The stephanos is the crown of a victor, which you would get if you won in an athletic contest something like winning a marathon. They would give you a wreath that was just a wreath of leaves and twigs but it symbolized something but the elders have golden stephanos and it indicates they have been crowned, rewarded for their faithfulness as Christ’s slaves. We looked through a number of Scriptures, promises to the churches in the New Testament. The promised crowns are a reward for faithfulness.

They’re on thrones; we looked at passages of Scriptures in the letters to the churches and other places where believers in the Church are promised to rule and reign with Christ in His kingdom. Now the kingdom hasn’t started yet but here they are enthroned as Christ is in heaven in anticipation of the kingdom that will be established on the earth and they will share in the rule and reign with Christ, that’s the promise to us as believers in the Church and then they’re called elders and you’re well familiar.

Acts chapter 14 on Paul’s first missionary journey. He appointed elders in all the churches and repeatedly in the New Testament. We have elders as those who are given the responsibility of the oversight or shepherding of the church so these things seem to point clearly that the twenty-four elders are a representative number of the whole number of elders as we talked about from the Old Testament; represent the Church. Important section. They represent you and I, being in the presence of God in the glory of heaven following our rapture from the earth, and the bodily resurrection of believers who have died. We will appear before the Bema Seat. We’re going to talk about the different judgments of Scripture as we move toward the end of the Book of Revelation where we’ll put all the judgments together and the resurrections so we’ve looked at the elders.

You see the three groups so we’ve talked about the elders. Now we need to talk about the seven Spirits then we’ll talk about the four living creatures so if you look in your bible to Revelation chapter four verse five. We already talked about God on the throne, we reviewed that point at the first part of chapter five, and then we’re told there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne. The seven lamps of fire are the seven Spirits of God so we’re not puzzled about what the seven lamps of fire are they’re the seven Spirits of God but we say well what are the seven Spirits of God. Remember you don’t have a symbol of a symbol; otherwise, you’re just in a world of uncertainty so the seven lamps of fire symbolize or represent the seven Spirits of God.

Now we’ve already seen the seven Spirits of God in Revelation. Come back to chapter one and verse four and note. “John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace” . . . now note this grace and peace comes from three distinct Persons . . . “from Him who is and who was and who is to come;” . . . that’s God the Father. As we noted in our study, it will come up again as we move on in our next studies . . . “and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne.” Well, that’s what has just been identified for us, being symbolized by the fire, then in verse five . . . “from Jesus Christ.” Well we know God the Father is the One described as who is, who was and who is to come, Jesus Christ, the seven Spirits before His throne. You wouldn’t say grace and peace come from God the Father, God the Son and seven angels.

Angels are created beings; they are not the source of the provision of God’s grace, God’s peace, so the seven Spirits are a representation of the Holy Spirit of God. He’s consistently described or represented in this way as the seven-fold Spirit. It doesn’t mean He’s seven distinct persons. He is one Person, the Holy Spirit but He’s described in something of the fullness and completeness of His Person and ministry. This is the seven-fold, seven Spirits so each member, there is one God eternally existing in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit and we’ve noted, in heaven we will see a manifestation of the presence of all three Persons that comprise the one true God. We emphasize this because it comes up again and again in Scripture.

Here we are back in chapter four, being reminded again not only of the Father on the throne but of the Holy Spirit before the throne manifesting His presence as seven lamps of fire, depicting the seven-fold ministry, completeness of the Holy Spirit. While God the Father gets represented in human form and obviously God the Son does because He took to Himself humanity and God on the throne as we’ve seen and we looked back, depicted as having a head, having hair, we’ll see His right hand described as we move along. We see in the Book of Ezekiel his feet. He has more of a human form. We’ll see the Son in chapter five presented to us again, God the Son, Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit, when He manifests His presence visibly, is not in what we would describe as human form but it is in a visible form because we don’t want to get confused as though God was just another human. He chooses to manifest Himself. Now Christ took to Himself humanity and all the fullness of Deity dwelt in His human body but God chooses to manifest His presence but even Christ in His human body is omnipresent, He’s present everywhere. The Holy Spirit is being manifested here as seven lamps, oil lamps with burning fire. He’s the seven-fold Spirit but He’s one Person.

Now think about this. When you became a believer in Jesus Christ, the bible says the Holy Spirit took up residence in your body, in my body. I don’t have part of the Holy Spirit and you have part and He’s been divided into all kinds of parts, there is one Holy Spirit. He dwells in me as Paul wrote to the Corinthians; your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit Who dwells in you. He doesn’t say your body is a temple of a piece of the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. That’s why I say we’ll talk about God but our minds don’t completely comprehend it all. He dwells in His Person in your body, He dwells in His Person in my body and He is present everywhere but it is also true that God, has chosen to manifest His presence to His creation, in a visible way in a given location. That given location is heaven. There you see the presence of all three Persons of the Godhead manifested but that doesn’t mean they’re limited to heaven because they are omnipresent, present everywhere so even though all the fullness of Deity dwelled in Christ in bodily form He was also present everywhere because one of the attributes of God is that omnipresence. Things are getting clearer right. Aren’t you glad you have me to explain it but God intends us to grasp it? We don’t fully comprehend it all but we understand the Spirit of God is here. It is the Holy Spirit as we saw in chapter one. Grace and peace has only one ultimate source, the one eternal God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit distinct in Persons but comprising one God.

Let’s go back to the Book of Zechariah, that’s the background. Zechariah is the next to the last book of your Old Testament so if you get to the gospel of Matthew at the beginning of the New Testament, just thumb backward in your bible and you’ll have Malachi at the end, and it is a short book, and then you’ll hit Zechariah and we’ll go to Zechariah chapter three. Remember, we remind ourselves, that one of the challenges in studying the Book of Revelation is the fact that there are hundreds of allusions to the Old Testament. No direct quotations but the background for what is being said is found in something that was revealed in the Old Testament. The less familiar we are with the Old Testament the more we are a little bit adrift and that’s why over time more of the pieces that we study will come together so if this is relatively new to you don’t get discouraged. It’s like a puzzle, if I can use that in the right sense, where you know, you get a piece and then you get another piece and another piece and you say well, I only got three pieces but that’s a start, and overall the pieces as you grow in knowledge and understanding more and more fits together.

Now we’ll never have a complete understanding of the eternal God because we’ll always be finite and that was just to give you time to get to Zechariah 3. Look at verse one. “THEN He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD and Satan standing at His right hand to accuse him.” Now when we get to chapter 12 of Revelation we’re going to have another heavenly scene where we’re told that the accuser of our brethren gets cast to earth so again we’ll see a connection to the past. Here you have Joshua the high priest standing to represent the people spiritually and he’s viewed as defiled and Satan is accusing to point out the defilement but there is another Person there who provides for the removal of the iniquity and the picture that is going on.

Verse four, “I have taken away your iniquity from you . . .” and then you come down to verse eight. We don’t have time to do the details here. Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are standing in front of you--indeed they are men who are a symbol, . . . so we have a symbol and what are they a symbol of? . . . “I am going to bring in My servant the Branch.” Now we know from comparing Scripture with Scripture one of the titles of Christ is the “Servant, of the Lord”. Another title of Christ and we’ll see it in a little bit in another Old Testament passage is the “Servant, the Branch” of the Lord so He’s both the “Servant” He’s the “Branch”. Then note, “for behold the stone” and the “Stone” well it’s another title of Christ. He’s not only called the “Servant” not only called the “Branch” He’s a “Stone, of stumbling” and a “Rock, of offense” and passages like that and you’ll note.

The stone I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes . . . and this anticipates the day at the end of verse nine when “I will remove the iniquity of the land in that day, declares the Lord. “. . . “Every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his fig tree”. Where does that carry us? That carries us to the Messianic Kingdom, sitting under the vine and the fig tree. You see you don’t represent it by the marathon, its peace, relaxation, joy sitting under the tree that brings shade, appreciate it in desert lands. No fear, no struggles, no battles so you see the context here and the seven eyes on the stone.

Then you come down into verse two as he’s awakened to have another vision. “What do you see?” He said chapter four verse two, “I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold with its bowl on the top of it, its seven lamps . . . with seven spouts . . .” By the way, what did we see representing the seven Spirits in Revelation 5? Seven fires, the lamps burning so here we have seven lamps on it with seven spouts that provide the oil and two olive trees, which, are the source of the oil because they’re oil lamps. What’s this all about? “Do you know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord” I don’t know about this.

Then he said to me verse six. “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel” . . . Joshua is the spiritual leader Zerubbabel is the political leader during this time of reconstruction following the Babylonian captivity . . . “Not by might nor by power but by My Spirit,” says the Lord. That’s what this is about; you won’t accomplish this in your strength with your abilities. It’s My Spirit at work and you have here Him talking about what’s going to go on in the time and ministry of Joshua and Zerubbabel but in that context He also talks to them about what will happen in the future day when the iniquity of Israel will be removed as we’ve seen. When it will be a land of peace and prosperity and enjoyment so come down to verse 10.

“For who has despised the day of small things?” When they get done building the temple in Joshua and Zerubbabel’s day the people who had survived through the captivity, the Babylonian captivity, and remembered the old temple it was much more glorious, much greater, that’s why here you say who has despised the day of small things? Parallel prophets talk about the people and their disappointment but it was the Lord working in that small way. But these seven will be glad when they see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel--and we figure out, these seven they’ll be glad but these seven who are they? These are the eyes of the LORD, which range to and fro throughout the earth.

So what have we been talking about back into chapter three? The seven eyes on the stone in verse nine, then the seven lamps, and the seven spouts. Well verse six told us, “this is all about things that are going to be accomplished in the near view and in the ultimate promises given here. Not by power but by My Spirit, says the Lord.” Well who are these seven? Who’s going to accomplish it? “These are the eyes of the LORD, which range to and fro throughout the earth.” Again, you have the seven-fold Spirit depicted in this way.

Come back to Isaiah 11. We looked at some of these in connection with Revelation 1:4 but it’s good to review it since sometimes we forget. Isaiah 11, note verse one. “THEN a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, a branch from his roots” . . . there we have the branch. Whom are we talking about here? Well you recognize it’s a Messianic promise and Christ does come from the line of Jesse. He is the One who will sit on the Davidic throne, fulfill the Davidic covenant. Then what? “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him” . . . what happened when John the Baptist baptized Christ, which marked the entrance of Christ into His, Messianic, ministry. For the first thirty years of Christs’ life, He was not offering the kingdom to Israel. He was not doing great and mighty miracles, a demonstration of His exceptionalness when He was 12 and so on but basically, we don’t know anything about those years.

He just grew but when He was baptized by John; what happens? The Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. To see the Spirit and His presence you must have some kind of visible representation of the Spirit. On that occasion, it was a dove because John the Baptist had been told “the One that you see the Spirit descending on in this way that’s the Messiah” so here it’s called the Spirit of the LORD. It is Deity; this is the third Person of the triune God who would be on Christ in a special way to empower Him during His earthly life.

It is the spirit of wisdom and understanding, counseling and strength, knowledge and fear. We have three pairs here, wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge and fear, two, four, six. Add to that is the Spirit of the Lord, that’s the seventh. It is an identity; His Deity, the Person that He is. It’s the seven-fold Spirit. Now we don’t want to get confused He’s not seven distinct spirits as seven distinct persons. He is one manifested in this seven-fold way. He was present at the creation back in chapter one of Genesis. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. What happens? The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the deep because He is involved in the creation as we find in other passages in the New Testament telling us of the involvement of the Father and the Son as well as the Spirit.

Come back to Revelation and come down to verse six of chapter five. “And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a Lamb standing”...... now we have Christ introduced we’ll see that when we get into chapter five in a future study . . . “It has seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.” What did we see in Zechariah chapter three? The stone, what was on the stone? The seven eyes depicts what; the Spirit of God and His ministry in connection with the second Person of the Trinity, Christ and what would be the Spirit’s ministry when Christ ascended to heaven? He shall glorify Me. It was the work of the Holy Spirit to direct attention to Jesus Christ and His work of redemption and so on, so the connection here, the seven Spirits in connection with the work of Christ who will be presented here in His work of redemption.

So at least get clear what we have revealed here is when we get to heaven we’re not just going to be hearing voices from God. We will see God the Father manifest His presence there in a visible way. We will see Jesus Christ manifest His presence. That will be clearer in chapter five. We will see the Holy Spirit manifest His presence in a visible way. What an honor to be there in the presence of the triune God. That’s the destiny of believers in the Church of Jesus Christ.

Well the third group on our three groups around the throne. There are four living creatures and interestingly they get a pretty full description. The Holy Spirit is mentioned briefly in a line. Now we’re going to describe four living creatures and that would fit because that is true throughout the bible. That doesn’t mean the Spirit’s ministry is of less importance but it primarily involved directing attention either to God the Father or God the Son but these are equal but they are not the same as we talk about the Trinity.

I just need to pause because old errors get recycled and theological journals would give you some idea of what is going on before even they get in books usually. There is a revival of old errors. Some are trying to say there is no order in the Trinity. You know in the Scripture you usually think of the Father and see the Father sends the Son and the Spirit. The Son sends the Spirit but it never says the Son sends the Father. The Father and the Son both send the Spirit but it’s never said the Spirit sends the Son or the Father so there is an order within the Trinity but that does not imply inferiority.

Now people get out here, they want to make a distinction they want—since we often talk from 1 Corinthians, there’s an order, male and female, men and women and that’s exemplified because the Son is submissive to the Father. Well since they don’t like to have to say God created the woman to be in a role of submission to the man they try to redo their theology to say well that doesn’t mean that’s there’s an order in the Trinity. They’re all on the same level and the order does not imply inferiority. You can be under the authority of someone inferior to you. That happens in a lot-of-places in a lot-of-ways. In some of your jobs, you are a child of God under the authority of a child of the devil in your physical job. It doesn’t mean you’re inferior in person. You’re a son of the living God destined to glory. You’re one that He cares for in a special way so it does not imply inferiority of person. That’s just a side note.

Now we can go on to the living creatures and the living creatures are not deity and that’s clear but they serve in a special way in connection to the Throne of God. Note verse six. “Before the throne there was, something like a sea of glass, like crystal . . .” We talked about that in connection with our talking about God on the throne. Now note . . . “in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature was like a lion, the second creature like a calf, the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings are full of eyes around and within day and night they do not cease to say, “HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, is the LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY who was and who is and who is to come.”

The four living creatures or as some prefer the four living ones, the four living beings, they’re around the throne. As we would say the four sides, front and back, side, they’re around the throne. From comparing Scripture with Scripture as we’ll look these are a category of angels called the cherubim and the “im” is just the plural. In English, we would put an “s” on to make it plural, Cherubs but the Cherubim in the Hebrew “im” is plural. In Isaiah 6, we’ll see angels, who are the Seraphim, the angels, so here we have a category of angels, as we’ll look at, who are in close proximity to the Throne of God. We know there’s order in angels because of descriptions given in other places and here we have angels who serve in an especially close relationship to the Throne of God. They’re guardians of the throne. They will lead others in heaven in the worship of God on the throne including the elders.

They’ll be also involved in administering God’s judgments on earth in coming judgments. You’ll note these in verse six. They’re around the throne; they’re called four living creatures, they’re full of eyes in front and behind and eyes, we saw the Holy Spirit depicted in that way as seven eyes. Here they have eyes because eyes depict knowledge, understanding. They have a knowledge, they don’t have omniscience like God does but they are enabled by God with a special knowledge that, as we’ll see in a moment, enable them to act instantly according to the will of God to do His will. They will be involved not only in leading worship as we’ll see in verse eight where they’re “holy, holy, holy leading those around the throne like the twenty-four elders to bow and worship” and so on but they are involved in administering God’s judgment on the earth.

Turn over to chapter six, and when you get to chapter six, we’re ready to begin the first series of judgments on the earth. We will move from heaven at the end of chapter five and come down to earth. We are ready for the pouring out of God’s wrath on the earth and you’ll note chapter six verse one. “Then I saw the Lamb broke one of the seven seals” . . . and as we’ll see when we get there, this is a scroll and each time He breaks a seal and opens it another judgment poured out on the earth or announced on the earth. “When He broke one of the seven seals, I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a loud voice of thunder, “Come.” I looked; behold, a white horse, so you see the Father is ready to unfold His judgments.” As we’ll see in chapter five, “ the Son is the One because of His redemptive work to bring about the judgments that will culminate in the redemption of creation and one of the four living beings who then gives the call for the judgment to come forth. So one of the four living creatures with a voice like thunder, “Come” and what happens a white horse comes forward, which is the first judgment.”

Verse three, when He referring to Christ broke the second seal, “I heard the second living creature saying, “Come” and another, a red horse went out:” . . . . Verse five, “when He broke the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, “Come” and a black horse. Then verse seven, the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living creature say “Come” and an ashen horse comes” so you see these living beings, their close proximity to the throne, full of eyes, the knowledge, the understanding and that readiness for the will of God to be carried out whatever it is. They’re not deity but they are enabled by God to be ready to carry out His will so they need that exceptional knowledge. They don’t have to think they don’t have to wonder they don’t have to well what do I do here. They’re ready that’s the picture of their eyes.

All right, we have to go back to the Old Testament. Go to Ezekiel chapter one. Now remember when you get to heaven you’re going to be able to say, “oh yeah I know who they are, yeah I remember, I remember you from revelation. I remember you from Ezekiel.” Now remember I told you in a previous study, Ezekiel chapter one and Revelation chapters four and five ought to be chapters that we read and reread because they are the fullest description we get of the glory of God’s very presence and God’s presence is heaven. Here we’re going to have an extensive unfolding and we don’t have time to read the whole chapter but I just want to pick up some of the connecting points.

You’ll note verse four and Ezekiel at the end of verse three has been taken to captivity from Israel to Babylon. Remember there were three deportations connected to when the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel. They would deport the people and in 597 Ezekiel is part of the group that are transported to Babylon so when you see at the end of verse three he was in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar and that’s where God appears to him. That in and of itself is amazing because here you have Ezekiel in a foreign land. Where did God dwell? God’s dwelling presence was in Israel in the temple there but now He’s appearing to His Jewish prophet in a foreign land. As He appears to him, what will take place through this vision and repeated visions is he’s is going to see in a vision, be transported back to Jerusalem, to see that the glory of God is removed and departs from Israel.

Then that’s about 600 years at 597 or so. Shortly thereafter, he gets this vision so here’s the vision. “ I looked and behold, a storm wind was coming from the north a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually” . . . see the connection with the Throne of God. This is a time of judgment. The nation has been conquered. The very presence of God is about to depart from the nation and its homeland; in the midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire. Within it there were figures resembling four living beings. Here we have again similar to what we have in Revelation.

This was their appearance: they had human form. Each of them had four faces . . . we read that . . . and four wings. Their legs were straight their feet were like a calf’s hoof, they gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides were human hands so these beings are a combination of forms of what we call God’s animate creation, God’s living creation, the human and animal world being distinct from like the plant world. We talk about the plants are alive or dead or a tree is living or dead but it doesn’t have the animate life like animals and humans have that move and act and so on so here they have wings so they’re a conglomerate. You’re going to see their faces as we saw. They resemble four living beings and they have wings but under their wings, they have hands, their wings touch one another; their faces don’t turn when they move each went straightforward. The form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion, the face of a bull, and the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. Their wings spread out they touch one another. In the midst of the living beings, verse 13 something like burning coals of fire. Verse 14 the living beings went to and fro like bolts of lightning.

Then there’s a wheel and the living beings, behold, there’s a wheel and there’s multiple wheels with the living beings. You have a wheel, a living being, a wheel, and a living being indicating something of the mobility going on. That would associate with their wings because you see their wings will move as the Throne of God moves. The wheels move with them. We’re not going to get much further but some picture the wheels like a gyroscope because it seems like the wheels go north and south and they go east and west so something like a gyroscope where you have a wheel within a wheel. The picture is it can go any direction at any time, you don’t have to make a turn and that’s the same way. These living beings, each have four faces, you know like we do that speak of being able to go any direction. You can talk about north, east, south; west the four winds all of this.

These beings have four faces so it says they don’t have to turn and remember they’ll be full of eyes, the wheels have eyes, these living beings they’re full of eyes. You come down in verse 18, “their rims they were lofty and awesome, the rims of all four of them were full of eyes and then the living beings they’re full of eyes and they even have eyes under their wings." The picture is there’s never a time that they don’t have knowledge of what to do. They are ready and in our next study we’ll see the movement going and we’ll see the departure of the glory of God with the movement of the wheels and the cherubim and His glory leaving the eastern gate to the Mount of Olives which some of you will be visiting here shortly on a tour.

You will have to read Ezekiel 10 and if you haven’t read it recently you’re reminded of the Mount of Olives when the glory of God leaves, it’ll leave out by the eastern gate and go to the Mount of Olives and the glory of God is gone, departs from Israel. When Christ returns He’ll return to the mount. When He ascended to heaven, He ascended from the Mount of Olives and so on so here we’re getting a picture of the glory of God. He is an awesome God. He’s a God to be feared, to be revered. He is a God of love, mercy and grace but you understand this is a day of mercy and grace. You could be saved today from the wrath of God, in an eternal hell but He doesn’t say you will be saved tomorrow. That’s why Paul said there is a sense of urgency, today is the day of salvation! Now you may get saved tomorrow, wonderful but every time you say no to an opportunity, something happens, a hardness that progressively settles in.

This revelation of God, if you get nothing else, He is a God of glory and power. He’s a God to be worshiped; He’s a God to be feared. He’s a God who will keep His word and we need to live in light of that. We as believers in Jesus Christ, we sort of let that go by. We were reminded with the songs today, He’s a God who keeps us, He is in charge today. The world is not unraveling and when the world is really going to pieces, beginning in chapter six of Revelation, He’s still on the throne! He’s still under control so why should I worry, why should I be afraid? I have a God who loves me. I belong to Him. He tells me in Romans 8, nothing can separate me from the love of God . . . because I am special? No, not special because of who I am but special because of who He is, what He has done for me, think about it. You can have the forgiveness and the relationship for eternity with this God by simply recognizing you’re a sinner, recognizing that Christ, God’s Son, came to pay the penalty for your sin and placing your faith in Him. It doesn’t get any better than that. Is it any wonder when He says I’ve done all of this and I offer it to you as a free gift if you say no you can expect the fullness of the wrath of God not mixed with mercy ultimately? Now there is mercy. We saw that with the throne but there’ll come a time when all mercy will be withdrawn and that ultimately comes in the final judgment at the end of Revelation chapter 20.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord that You are a God of patience that You have in Your plan, made this a day of salvation. A day, when You invite people to come, when You encourage them, when You instruct them. You invite them to come and receive forgiveness and cleansing and new life, not by working and earning it, not by keeping a set of rules and regulations but by recognizing they can do nothing but cast themselves on Your mercy, receive as a free gift by faith believing that Christ died for them. Lord, may we who have trusted Him not lose sight of these glorious truths and may they shape us in the way we live today and every day until Christ comes. We pray in His name. Amen.





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