PODCAST

A Throne in Heaven

January 19, 2025 | Brandon Cooper

The sermon emphasizes that true satisfaction is found in worshiping the indescribable, transcendent, and holy God who is the Creator rather than in idols or temporary pleasures. A vision of God’s glory is the best remedy for struggling with temptation and trials. God is at the center of all things, and we must humble ourselves and cast our crowns before Him in worship. The gospel offers us the love, peace, and security we truly desire, which are found in Christ alone.

TRANSCRIPT_______________________________________________+

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Good morning. You can go ahead open up to Revelation chapter four. Revelation. Chapter Four is where we will be this morning as you’re turning there. No doubt you are familiar, at least with the Wizard of Oz. Have probably seen the movie, maybe a few of you have even read the book. But if you have seen it or read the book or something like that, you know that in some ways, the quest of Dorothy and her friends, The Lion, the Tin Man, the straw man, ends in disappointment, because the great and powerful wizard of Oz is, in fact, a powerless, pitiful little man with a bunch of smoke, mirrors and that kind of stuff, although it’s not total disappointment, this is, like major spoiler alert, but you know, the movie came out in like, the 1930s so that’s on you. That’s not on me. Okay, it turns out that they already had the courage, the brains, the heart that they needed. Maybe they found it within themselves. And so some people have read this as a critique of religion in some ways. And I could see that, you know, you’ve got one particularly small person who benefits from that, that would probably be the clergy or something. And then you find that everything you need is already inside of you. You don’t need to go somewhere else to someone else to get it. I mean, that’s just expressive individualism. That’s our culture right there. So we find that they’ve saved themselves, the lion, the Tin Man, the straw man, and really, all they need is for somebody else to validate the goodness within them. Maybe, maybe that’s what it’s about. I don’t know. I do know that it raises an interesting question. Still, the Wizard of Oz, it raises this interesting issue, like, if you’re going to go on a quest to find what you need, you should choose really carefully where you’re going and who you’re going to like. You don’t want to end up having devoted your life to something that is just smoke and mirrors that can’t meet your deepest needs, doesn’t satisfy your deepest thirst. And I bring this up because we are going to Oz today. We’re going to go into the throne room of the great and powerful. What will we find there? Will it satisfy our hearts? Will he be worth giving our lives to? Now, some context here, because I mentioned last week we’re skipping chapters two and three. We’re not skipping them. We already did them last summer. But that is the the context these seven letters to seven churches in western Turkey that are facing issues that are common to all churches everywhere, really, issues of temptation to things like sexual immorality and greed and self reliance and, of course, persecution and the pressure to conform to the outward culture as well. In those sorts of situations. What do we need? Brains and heart and courage, faith and hope and love, steadfastness, truth. You kind of see, even just thinking through those seven letters, never mind thinking of your own lives, that our lives throb with need. What will meet those needs? What will satisfy? That’s the question we gotta have as we look at this chapter and next week as well. These two chapters together form the Throne Room vision, and they are the center and the fulcrum of the book, because they show us the God who rules history and in whom we can trust, the one who will meet all our needs. And this may come as a surprise to us, but a vision of God’s glory is the best remedy when we’re struggling with temptation and trials like that’s what we need is to see God as He is. So let’s take a look together at him. We’re going to kind of get these four aspects of God’s character that we’ll see on display. First one is that he is indescribable. God is indescribable. Chapter four, verses one to three. Let me read it for us. After this, I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven, and the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this, at once, I was in the spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it, and the one who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Ruby, a rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Just pause there. So after this, again, after the message that the spirit has for the seven churches and for all of us, John sees a door to heaven open, and this voice, like a trumpet that we met in chapter one, that’s Jesus himself, is calling John up here to see what must take place after this. And we talked about this chapter one as well. This is a quote from Daniel two verse. 45 and that that dream that Nebuchadnezzar has of the four kingdoms the statue, and then there’s this final climactic kingdom that is coming, God’s kingdom. That’s what we’re talking about here. So this is a a future facing vision that we’re going to get in the rest of the book. But right now we’re talking about what was happening then in AD 92 or whatever in Patmos. So this is, this is the present vision of the throne in heaven. But the future facing peace is interesting too, that you know that that Jesus says, imma show you what’s going to take place after this. It’s worth just for a moment leaning into the wonder of God’s exhaustive foreknowledge of the future and his foreordination of everything that happens when we worship one, after all, as Ephesians, 111 says who has predestined us according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. This is a God who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. Isaiah, 46 verse 10 says something very similar. God speaking says, I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please. So God not only knows what’s going to happen, but it is His purposes that are unfolding and that will be brought to complete fruition in the kingdom to come. God knows what’s coming. He’s in control. And just think what a comfort that would be to these churches who are suffering persecution at that time, or to any of us who are undergoing trials, as we certainly all will. God knows it’s in his hands. He will bring it to its purpose end. And then verse two, at once, John is in the spirit. I mentioned that in the spirit is going to be a major marker in Revelation. So this is the second time we’ve got it. This is the second major vision that John has when he sees what’s happening in heaven right then. And Jesus gives him a tour of the Throne Room. The one who sat there right we get the throne, someone’s sitting on it. The one who sat there had the appearance of Jasper and Ruby. And when we get there, we gotta stop for a moment and talk about how to read Apocalypse again. Remember Apocalypse we talked a lot, a lot about this last week. Means Revelation. So it’s meant to reveal. It’s meant to help us out here. And it doesn’t always feel that way, because oftentimes it’s kind of confusing what these images are getting at. And so I want us for a moment to imagine what it would be like if you had to explain like a video call on your smartphone to someone from the past, and think of how difficult that would be. Now, if this someone from the past had known computers or TV, that makes it a lot easier. Even radio, at least, you’d get that sense of like something through waves can come to you. I don’t know not a scientist, electricity would be helpful. Also, like the whole idea of power, you strip that way. So let’s, let’s pretend you’re telling John Calvin this. All right. You get to meet John Calvin, 16th century, and you have to explain to him how all this works. Where would you even start magic? I like it. Great. That’s it. We can close in prayer. You know, it’s kind of looks like a mirror, I guess, especially when it’s off. Of course, you know what off means? You don’t have electricity when it’s on, what mirror? Because it’s selfies, right? We’ll talk about selfies in a moment. John, okay. But then if you turn it on and you’re talking to someone, it’s like a painting, because you can see the other person. It’s this thing called a camera. You don’t know about that, but imagine, like a really tiny, really fast painter, so he can paint exactly what’s happening. And it’s like moving the image as it’s going and you can also hear the person. I don’t even know how to explain that to you. But, and then, and John, being a perceptive guy, is like, okay, and how does this come to this little mirror that you’re holding in your hand, and you go, Wi Fi? And how are you gonna explain Wi Fi again? You’re gonna have to talk waves, right? That’s all you’re gonna have. I mean, that’s what the little Wi Fi symbol means, even, right? And so you like, you know how waves like, carry a log to shore, they carry the image to you, and then you’re gonna have to talk batteries. You understand the point, though, what did I keep saying? Like, like,
like, because that’s all we can do. John Calvin is not dumber than we are. In fact, there’s a good chance he’s smarter than everyone in the room. He was he was quite brilliant. He’s not dumber. He just hasn’t experienced, hadn’t experienced what we’ve experienced. And so how do you explain what is beyond our experience? Simile, that’s it like. That’s all we’ve got. It’s like this. Well, isn’t that what we’re going to read, not just in these three verses, but in the rest of the chapter as well. But it had the appearance of Jasper and Ruby or whatever stones. These are difficult to translate stones. There’s a rainbow, like an emerald encircling the throne. These are not literal. They’re they’re suggestive, because, you know, sparkling jewels when they catch the light just right. It’s this multi faceted glory, the wondrous variety that comes with a shift of perspective. That’s what’s being talked about. And of course, the language, the image that is being used is taken from the Old Testament, as we’d expect at this point in this case, it’s Ezekiel chapter one, when Ezekiel has the vision of the portable throne, when God is going with his people into exile. And it says things like, it’s sparkled like Topaz. There’s an immense cloud like flashing light in there. These four face figures that we’ll meet a little bit later on in the sermon. And then it says this, Ezekiel 126, to 28 above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up, he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down, he looked like fire, and brilliant light surrounded him, like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell face down, and I heard the voice of one speaking. This is not a physical description of God, because God is not physical. In fact, it’s three stages removed from true sight. Like I love that this is the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Like all these filters, all these analogies and similes, because any attempt to describe God literally would limit God as soon as we say, you know, he’s got white hair, you know, he’s old, which he is. He’s eternal, but you’re going to immediately go like a grandpa, like a grandpa, so, and now I know my grandma, and so we’re going to start to squeeze God into some sort of box and and Scripture won’t let us do that. Scripture speaks of his indescribable majesty. Ineffable, sublime, beyond description, beyond words, ultimately, and I think, and we’re going to see some of this in this chapter and the next. This is also one of the reasons why we sing, why humans make music, which is weird when you think about it, and then we’re commanded to even but why do we need to sing when we see the glory of God? Because we make music when there is something that is just a little bit beyond words, and that’s what we have here. Remember our context too. We don’t ever want to lose that. This is a real book written to real people living in a real situation in in first century, western Turkey and John is speaking to an afflicted minority experiencing state sponsored persecution. Can I tell you what those people at that time would have thought that Caesar’s throne was really impressive right up until they saw this, and they saw what Real Glory looks like, because worship centers us on the ultimate power and authority, and we have a vision of that. Well, the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. He is indescribable. Second, he is transcendent. Let’s keep reading verses four to the first part of verse six. Surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones, and seated on them were 24 elders that were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne. Seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven Spirits of God. Also in front of the throne, there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. So God’s on the throne in the center. And there are these, you know, 24 other thrones and 24 elders seated on them around him. It is important for us to see that God is in the center of all of this, though, like he is literally in the center of the room, but figuratively as well. He is, and should be, the center of our lives. I like the way Richard Bauckham said it in commenting on this passage, he says, when you look at this vision, humanity is radically displaced from the center of things, where human beings naturally tend to place themselves. So we have this tendency to go, me, I’m the center of the world. And then we see ultimate reality, and we go, oh God. God is at the center, and he is surrounded by these 24 thrones. And again, 24 elders seated on them. Now. Who are these 24 elders? We got two big options, heavenly beings or people, and there’s evidence for both. And when then that, when that happens, we want to try and take account of all the data possible in our guests. So I think what we are dealing with here are likely heavenly beings for a couple of reasons. One is the the placement of these beings. They’re between the four living creatures and then the multitudes of angels. So it makes sense that they also are heavenly beings. It’s also the way the word elder is used in Revelation, not the rest of New Testament. New Testament talks about people, for sure, but in Revelation, elders tend to be heavenly beings. And then what’s determining, for me is Revelation 510, which we’ll get to next week, when the elders are singing this song of the lamb’s redemption. And it says, of God’s people, you have made them to be a kingdom and priest to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. They don’t say you have made us and we so he’s talking about a different group. These 24 are talking about a different group, the people. But that being said, these 24 heavenly beings have something to do with humanity. Why 24 after all? Well, that’s 12 plus 12. We know symbolic numbers and multiples of them, we got 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 Apostles. This is the old covenant people of God and the New Covenant of people of God. And what these 24 elders are wearing crown on their heads. White robes are what we will be given to wear as well. This is part of our reward if we are steadfast to the end, as we’ll see, we keep going through Revelation. So although these are heavenly beings, they are closely associated with the people of God. They most likely represent Israel and the church. Regardless, I could be totally wrong about all of that. That’s fine. I’ll sleep at night. What exactly is the point of these 24 whoever they are, what are they doing? Why are they there? Plus the four living creatures that we’ll meet in just a moment, what do they have to do with this throne room vision? It’s a little like this. I am pastor of a reasonably small church, so if you want to talk to me, you can just walk up to me. I’ll be in the lobby after the service. We even said we’d love if you came up and talked to us after the service. If I were a pastor of a slightly larger church, it might get harder to talk to me. I know this. I have friends who are pastors of of larger churches. And occasionally I’m like, Hey, we should get get to get together for lunch, and their assistant will email me back and say, how does the 23rd sound? I’ll go, okay. This is all very official. Now it is harder to get to you, still willing to talk to me, though. Now suppose you’re in DC this week, and you think, I’ll just pop in. Congrats. Congratulate Don, you know, wish him well, let him know we’re gonna be praying for him and stuff. How close do you think you’re getting? You know, just go ahead and try and walk up to him, see what happens. But even if you were gonna go through the proper channels, man, there are channels. And like those channels have channels, the Chief of Staff is the person who decides who gets to talk to the President, the Chief of Staff has a staff, and like they all have assistants, and then the assistants have interns and stuff. You get the idea, the more important you are, the more flunkies you have, so that eventually even your flunkies have flunkies. Well, God is so transcendent, he is encircled not by mere bodyguards or groupies, but by heavenly thrones. He is surrounded by kings. And again, this would be true of Rome, like Caesar, the Emperor loved to have his you know, vanquished kings sitting around him, but those are still just humans, not Heavenly Kings. And so you see the separation, how other god is, so that we cannot simply approach God, because He is encircled by ascendingly More impressive beings. This idea of transcendence then continues in the next three images that we get in these verses, the storm, the seven spirits of God and the sea, they all point to God’s transcendence. Think of the storm. Have you ever been caught in a thunderstorm before you’re out hiking with friends or something in a sticky, hot summer afternoon when the sky darkens, and it turns that foreboding greenish gray,
and you’re nervous, and then all of a sudden, the whole sky lights up, and you and your friends who are hiking do that thing where you count in your head, and you’re probably counting faster than you should be, because you’re hoping that it’s farther away than it actually is. Right as the drops begin to fall. Thunderstorms are fun to watch from your front porch, the steaming hot cup of tea or something. They are terrifying to be caught in. And you gotta remember, at this time in history, there was no greater force on earth than nature. It. Until we split the atom, basically. And really, even still today, yes, nuclear war would be a bad thing. I’m pretty sure the earth could wipe us out faster than that super volcano or something like that. I mean, even look at what’s happening in LA right now, awful as it is, and, and we do this thing that we do in America where we blame the other side. And so if you’re on one side, it’s global warming, right and all that stuff. And that’s true. Of course, the Earth has warmed, and the other side you talk about, you know, your bureaucratic missteps of of a blue state government, you know, kind of thing. And maybe there were some bureaucratic missteps there as well. If we’d cleared more brush, if we’d, you know, made sure the reservoirs were all that’s true, none of that would have stopped the fires, because what’s most important is the way the rain falls in California or doesn’t fall, and the Santa Ana winds, and you get that we think we can control nature. And every now and again, nature goes, nope, nope. And that’s just what’s near God’s throne. The point is his unrivaled power. He is greater than anything any of them would have ever seen. Of course, the image is taken from Exodus 19 this is when God is there at Sinai. He’s revealing his law to his people. Exodus 1916 says this on the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning with a thick cloud over the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, everyone in the camp trembled. God can’t reveal Himself to us without scaring us, because he’s so transcendent we tremble. That’s why everybody keeps falling down like they’re dead. Every time he shows up. That’s the storm. Then we get the seven spirits, these seven lamps blazing, which are the seven Spirits of God. And you got a text note that says, that is the seven fold Spirit of God. This is the Holy Spirit. Why is he called Seven Spirits? Number of perfection. But of course, of course. But also alludes to Isaiah, chapter 11, verse one, where that’s one of your Christmas verses, and there’s this, you know, shoot that’s going to come from the stump of Jesse, and talking about the Messiah. And it says, The Spirit will be on him. And what is it’s the spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Seven descriptions of the Spirit. Those are the seven Spirits of God. The image of the lamp stand, though, and its connection to the spirit is drawn from Zechariah, chapter four, verse two, which we looked at last week, where there’s this, you know, candelabra, this lamp stand in the temple, and it’s got the the seven branches on it. And that image was there in Zechariah to show Zechariah and the the leaders who brought the people of God back after exile, they’re rebuilding the temple. And it’s It’s to remind them the temple of God will be rebuilt. Chapter four, verse six, says, Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord. And so what are we learning from that? That the the lamp stand that was there in the temple was just this dim reflection of the original light shining in the heavenly tabernacle, which is the Spirit of God. And of course, what’s interesting in all this is that we just talk about the seven churches in chapters one, two and three. Is being these seven lamp stands, of course, because now it is the church that is the temple of the Holy Spirit. So even we shine by the Spirit’s presence among us, it’s like all these cool things coming together. There’s this article up on the gospel coalition late last week. It was called biblical theologies for nerds. And that was a point, right? Was like, you draw all these things together and you’re like, This is so much cooler than I had any idea. I’ll put it up in the pulse for you this week. But yes, there’s some nerdery for you, of just how cool this seven spirit seven lamp stand idea is finally, then we get the sea. That’s a little bit like sparkling glass. Now, I know you’re looking you’re texting, you’re saying it. It doesn’t say sparkles. It says it looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. I think sparkling is probably a better translation here, because the technology didn’t exist back then to make smooth glass, so all glass had bumps on it, imperfections, which when the light hits them, would sparkle Right? Like like waves the sea dappled by sunlight. And of course, this image is drawn from Ezekiel one, as you’d expect, verse 22 so there’s this vision of the Throne Room, again, the portable throne, and it says, spread out above the heads of the living creatures, the creatures that we’re about to meet, by the way, was what looked something like a vault. Good simile, again, sparkling like crystal and awesome. What’s interesting is, in this vision, the throne of God is seated on that vault on the sea. And even this is probably drawing from Genesis one, verse seven, when God creates the. The firmament to separate the waters from the heavens. All this highlights God’s transcendence, again, because everything is below the sea, it’s only God who is seated on it, until we get to Revelation 15, by the way, in a few weeks, when the redeemed of the Lord are standing on the sea with God, and that is a remarkable moment, because all of this reminds us that God is so totally unapproachable, we’d fall down dead in his presence. And yet he has made a way for us to draw near to Him. We have no business being in the room and yet. And then we read in Hebrews when God says, you know, come before my throne of grace boldly to receive mercy in your time of need. It’s God, after all, who throws open the door of heaven and says, come on up here that is the beauty and wonder of the gospel of Christ. So God is indescribable and transcendent, and then third, he is holy, which we sang about already this morning. Let me keep reading the rest of verse six through verse eight. In the center, around the throne, 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 like a man. The fourth was like a flying eagle, each of the four living creatures had six wings, was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night, they never stopped saying a Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come. So the throne is surrounded by these four living creatures, they all get this incredibly odd description, yes, except that odd description is pointing, once again, to God’s character, and as I mentioned, taken from Ezekiel one. We won’t look at it this time. They are covered in eyes. It’s not meant to be taken literally, of course. What is the symbol getting at? They’re getting at God’s omniscience. God sees everything, and therefore God knows everything that’s happening. And we have this unceasing vigilance. Some of us have been studying Psalm 139, in Journey groups recently, and David talks about this as well, right? There’s nowhere I can go where God won’t see me. If I go to the heavens, he’s there. If I make my bed in the depths, he’s there like he’s always there. His eyes are always on me. And then these four creatures themselves. Now four is an important number. If seven is the number of perfection, four is the number for the Earth, the whole earth, the four corners the world, the four winds of heaven, we get. And so here we get these four creatures taken from the four spheres of the animal kingdom, the lion, which is the king of the beasts, of course. Then you get the ox, which is the strongest of the domesticated animals, humanity, kind of our own thing. And then the eagle, which is the most impressive of the birds of the air. These four all have characteristics associated with them. I mean, again, Lion, and he’s the king of the beast. So royalty, the ox the strongest domesticated enemy. It’s his strength. Humanity has got wisdom and intelligence, not always on display, but usually wisdom and intelligence. And then the eagle, of course, swiftness, but also a swiftness to show compassion. Passage like Isaiah 40, where it talks about God rescuing these people out of Egypt. And it says, I bore you up like an eagle’s wings. So that’s how he carries us out of our troubles. The point, of course, is that God has all the attributes he needs to rule us as Sovereign King and creator. He is the perfect King. No wonder, then that these four living creatures worship Him ceaselessly, with all the angels joining in as well as magnificent as these preachers are, they’re marked by humility and modesty, because they’re standing next to God, going well, obviously he gets all the glory. And here, of course, it sounds a lot like Isaiah chapter six, which Robert read for us earlier. There were, if you were to take Ezekiel one and Isaiah six and smoosh them together, you would get revelation chapter four, right here. And so the refrain especially is taken from that passage, holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord God Almighty.
So the three fold repetition, again, the perfection of His Holiness. Holy here means more than just his moral perfection. That’s usually what we mean when we talk about Holy. No, that person’s holy means they’re good. Yes, that’s true of God, but it’s more than that. In effect, when it’s used by itself holy simply means you are God, right? You are so totally other than we. Are so transcendent, so indescribably transcendent, that we we just gotta kind of say other. Other. You are God. This is, this is celebrating his God-ness in particular. So he’s a holy, indescribable, transcendent, holy. And then lastly, creator verses nine to 11. Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say, You are worthy our Lord and God receive glory and honor and power if you created all things and by your will, they were created and have their being so every time the four living creatures glorify God, which, by the way, is day and night never stops, right? The 24 elders fall down and worship also, which means they also never stop worshiping. And remember, the 24 elders are representing God’s people. So they show what we should be doing all the time too. Should always be falling down in worship before the Lord. And the four living creatures represent the totality of creation. So all of creation should be falling down in worship before the Lord at all times these 24 elders, they lay their crowns before God, like defeated kings before Caesar, to show their submission, to show that their life will be lived in service to Him. And you think what an important reminder for churches who are being pressured to participate in the Imperial cult, which, again, you need more about that. Go back listen to that series on the on the letters. But you know, it couldn’t really participate in civic life unless you were participating in the worship of the Emperor, and you’re going, Nope, nope, nope, like we lay our crowns down only before God. What an important reminder for us too, because in praise, in worship, we bring heaven, Heaven’s realities to Earth, like into our daily lives, by remembering the throne room, by remembering what’s at the center of it all, but remembering what is the deepest reality gets at the importance of public worship too, like what we’re doing here. This is what helps us live counter culturally in our world. And what is the church? The church is an embassy of God’s future kingdom in the here and now. So it’s a kingdom outpost. And so we we come together to remember our heavenly country, to remember what it’s really like. And when we come together, when we sing together, when we consider God’s truths together, what do we do? We We undistort reality, because the world keeps distorting reality for us, a little bit like when you go to carnival or something like that, and you go in there the fun house, and then you got the Fun House mirrors, and you know, so you’re standing next to somebody who’s taller than you, and he’s like two foot four, and then you look nine foot six. That’s what the world does for us. It makes God look small and us look enormous. But when we worship, we straighten out the fun house mirror and set things right in our minds. So again, what we talk a lot about here, we magnify Christ. He’s so much bigger, I will make myself smaller, humble myself and worship before him. Now for what do they worship God? Specifically here next week we can get some new themes. But here what we’re expanding on, this idea of a holiness. Because you are who you are. You are worthy to receive our worship, and then, most especially, because you are creator. And as creator, God is separate from everything else. Everything else is created. God alone is the uncreated one. There is no parallel here to understand our relationship to our Creator. You can picture a kid who’s, you know, making figures out of clay, okay, that’s the Creator. But those figures, they don’t have a will, whereas we do what we want, of course, or maybe parents, of course, parents don’t create kids. We do beget them, and they come into the world under our authority. We set rules and expectations for them. But of course, that’s so different too, because we are fallible, because eventually they’ll leave our rule and authority and may surpass us in many ways. And we are, of course, not the ultimate source of joy. There is no parallel here. We belong to God, body and soul. He made us so we are His. But he didn’t just make us. He made us for a purpose, and that was to be with Him, to know him. It’s right there, right Genesis, one God creates Adam and Eve. And then they they hang out together. They’re in perfect fellowship. That was it like. Even today, we designed tools to run on certain things, cobalt, lithium, gas, electricity, whatever it may be. We were made to run on God by your will. They were created and have their being. We’re meant to run on God created to find joy, satisfaction significance in relationship with Him. And so the proper response to all this is to delight in the majesty of his being. As Augustine famously said, You have made us for yourself, and we are restless until we find our rest in you when we go right. This is what I was made for. This is who I was made by. As John Piper famously said, God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, when we delight in him. That’s what worship is, delighting in God, treasuring Christ, above all that is the deepest praise that we are to give him. The problem, of course, is that since the fall, that has not been our default setting, has it, we find delight in all sorts of other things, and think we will find our greatest joy in them. Paul talks about this, and talks about it in terms of creation, the same theme we’ve got here. He says this in Romans chapter one, speaking of wicked humanity who suppressed the truth by their wickedness, he says, For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God, nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal god for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading their bodies with one another, they exchange the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator, because we were created, and that’s true of us, and whether we deny it or not, it’s still true of us, because we were created. We were created to be worshipers like we know we belong to something else, and so we’re going to imprint on something. We’re going to worship something. And the problem that Paul talks about here, the problem that we live out every day, is the problem of cheap substitutes. I mean, like you wonder sometimes, why did anyone ever worship a little statue of a frog instead of Almighty God. I’ll tell you why, and it’s been there from the beginning, from Genesis chapter three. It’s because we are made in God’s image. There’s something about us that has the likeness of God. And so it was easy to tempt us to think that we really are like God and that we could become like God. That’s what the snake says to Adam and Eve in the garden, if you eat this fruit, you will be like God, knowing good and evil meaning, having moral autonomy, choosing for our selves. The essence of sin is acting like we are our own God. And so what do we do when we think we’re our own God? We deify our desires. Whatever I want is the most important thing. I will worship that and that ironically, leads to idolatry. I know you’re thinking that’s weird. Am I deifying myself, or am I deifying other things both at the same time, the one leads to the other, right? Deifying our desires leads to idolatry, because we make dumb statues that will then do what you want
so that we can conform everything to the purpose of our will. That’s what idolatry is. Idolatry rejects God’s God-ness, His Holiness, and then it starts to blur the distinction between creation and creator. Christopher Wright says, then a great reversal happens. God, who should be worshiped, becomes an object to be used creation, which is for our proper use and blessing becomes the object of our worship, right? So we start to treat God like a genie, and then treat people and things like a god, and that is a bad exchange. Such a bad exchange because God offers us the love for which we were created, and then we settle for an illicit sexual encounter. Or God offers us peace, but we put our trust in our 401 K, or God offers us security, but we go chasing political power statues of frogs instead of God. God, and because they are not God, they over promise and under deliver to the end of an illicit sexual encounter, you feel exploited, abandoned, empty, no love or whatever happens with money. Yeah, you know two options when it comes to money, either bankrupt or bored, right? Like you lose the money that you’re trusting for peace, or you get everything you want, that’s most of us here in this room, and you go, Yeah, that wasn’t enough. That’s not good enough. You get the idea there’s no peace. So we’re back to Oz. Like we finally get there to the end of the road, and there’s nothing there. It is smoke and mirrors. Worship is just recognizing true glory and valuing supremely what is supremely valuable. We’ll get into this more next week. But of course, this all ties into the gospel like you look at those things that we want most, like love and peace and security, where are they found in Christ. You want love God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son. You want peace. It’s done. It is finished. No circumstance can threaten your relationship with God. You want security. He vanquished sin and death and the grave. Everything we want is right there already. This is the big idea, then, like pulling all these threads together here the big idea, don’t worship what won’t satisfy. Don’t worship what won’t satisfy. Worship our indescribable, transcendent, holy creator. Don’t worship what won’t satisfy worship the God that we just met in Revelation, four indescribable, transcendent, holy creator, just as we’re wrapping up. I mean, ask yourself even now before what or who? Will you fling yourself before what or who are you flinging yourself right now in worship? Before whom are you going to cast your crowns? Is it worthy? Is it worthy of your lifelong devotion? It is such a powerful passage for those of us who are caught up with little things like don’t settle for porn or video games or new clothes or the latest technology or promotion at work, those are frogs. Those are odds. There’s nothing there. We have to keep preaching this to ourselves. What do we do when we’re when we’re resisting to temptation? We’re just saying to temptation, you are not better than the one on the throne, and I will give him my worship instead. Like what will it take to free you from idolatry, to liberate you from the world’s pole, to get you drinking streams of living water instead of sucking down the muck at the bottom of broken cisterns. It is this a vision of God as He is, because a vision of God’s glory is the best remedy for us when we are struggling with temptation. As the desert father Abba poi main said, Do not give your heart to that which will not satisfy your heart. That is the message of revelation four, don’t settle for Oz, don’t worship won’t satisfy instead, worship your indescribable, transcendent, holy creator. Let’s pray to him now. The Lord, we see you now seated on the throne in all of your multifaceted glory, we see how much better you are than what the world offers us. And Lord, once we’ve seen this, what else could we possibly do but fall down before you in worship, casting our crowns before you, giving our lives holy to you. Open our eyes even now Lord, to see you as you really are, and may the things of this world grow strangely dim. Then in the light of Your glory, we pray through Christ, our Lord, Amen.

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