Rev No.8 An Open Heaven

Ezekiel chapter 1, omitting verses 2 and 3. In the 30th year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kiba River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. Verse 4. I looked and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north, an immense cloud with flashing light, and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures.

In appearance, their form was that of a man, but each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight. Their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze.

Under their wings and on their four sides, they had the hands of a man. All four of them had faces and wings, and their wings touched one another. Each one went straight ahead.

They did not turn as they moved. Their faces looked like this. 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 side of an ox.

Each also had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out upward.

Each had two wings, one touching the wing of another creature on either side, and two wings covering its body. Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went.

The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures. It was bright, and lightning flashed out of it.

The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning. As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. This was the appearance and the structure of the wheels.

They sparkled like chrysalite, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel. As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced.

The wheels did not turn about as the creatures went. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around. When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved, and when their living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose.

Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When the creatures moved, they also moved. When the creatures stood still, they also stood still, and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was what looked like an expanse, sparkling like ice and awesome. Under the expanse, their wings were stretched out one toward the other, and each had two wings covering its body. When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings, like the roar of rushing waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army.

When they stood still, they lowered their wings. Then there came a voice from above the expanse, over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. Above the expanse, over their heads, was what looked like a throne of sapphire, 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. Let's hear scripture being read again, Revelation chapter 4. After this, I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven, and the voice I had heard 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 carnelian.

A rainbow resembling an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones, and seated on them were 24 elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads.

From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.

Also before the throne, there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes in front and behind. 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 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. 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.

They lay their crowns before the throne and say, you are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they were created and have their being. Thanks be to God for this glorious vision. After this I looked and there before me was a door standing open in heaven.

This is one of the Puritans. They are the preachers who took the pulpits in this country just after the Reformation. I pity the man, I pity the woman, who never thinks about heaven.

The Apostle Paul, when he is writing to the Corinthians, setting out the wonder of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, has this to say in his 15th chapter and 19th verse of the first letter, if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. In other words, if there is no heaven, there is no hope. Do you ever think about heaven? Bertrand Russell, who may have been a brilliant man, but he didn't know how to put his own life together, he said on one occasion, when I die I rot.

But Lord Russell, thus thou art and unto thus thou shalt return was spoken to the body, it was not spoken of the soul. You would have discovered more philosophy and more truth in the daughter of a friend of mine in the United States of America, a story I told you once before on a Sunday evening, who was astride her father, who was pretending to be dead, lying on his bed. And with her little finger she lifted up his eyelid, and she said, I know you're in there.

When you die, it's your body, not your spirit. Then to where does the spirit go after death? Well, the answer to that question brings in the whole of this rich, glorious Christian teaching of the doctrine of heaven. In one sense, you know, that opening verse of Revelation 4 contains all that there is to know of gospel truth.

If you understand it enough, you could almost say you could dispense with the rest of the Bible. But none of you has that full understanding, therefore you won't take such extreme measures. I saw heaven opened.

And that's the reason why Jesus came on earth. I am the door, I am the way, the truth of the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me.

I saw heaven opened because someone came from heaven who has dangling from his girdle strings its keys. On another occasion in Scripture, you read of heaven being opened. The baptism of our Lord Jesus was a glorious example of obedience.

When John the Baptist tried to deter the Lord from submitting to baptism, we read in the third chapter and the thirteenth verse of Matthew's gospel that Jesus prevailed in his argument. As soon, verse 16, as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him.

One of the greatest men who influenced my life, Lloyd-Jones, says in a quotation I give you once more in Notes and News, my whole outlook upon everything that happens to me should be governed by these three things. My realization of who I am, my consciousness of where I am going, and my knowledge of what awaits me there. Charles Spurgeon recites a little tale of a man, an elderly man who was asked his age, and his response was this, I'm the right side of seventy.

Later on it was discovered that he was seventy-six. And so the question was put, you said you were on the right side of seventy. Quite so, said the old man.

I'm on the other side of seventy, it's the right side because I'm nearer to seeing the Lord Jesus. And says Charles Spurgeon, why cannot all Christians think like that? Do you ever think about heaven? Or is your grip on this life so grim and tragic that you believe that really, effectively, that's all that there is? If you had a one hundred and one percent commitment to the doctrine of heaven, I tell you it would affect considerably the way that you live out your life on planet earth. Well, here is John, an old man.

He's incarcerated on the Isle of Patmos, and he discovers that the presence of God is there with him. And in a most remarkable fashion, he has this vision. And having related the various messages that the Lord Jesus has for the seven churches of Asia, in other words for the whole church of God throughout the whole time of time, then the vision continues.

And John in his experience tells us, after this I looked, and before me heaven was opened. And the voice I had first heard in the 19th verse of Revelation 1 spoke again like a trumpet, the trumpet indicating authority, and says, come up here and I will show you what must take place after this. Again the 19th verse of the first chapter indicating that there are great wonderful events in the saga of man, which are to be thought of in terms of what God already knows is going to happen.

And so John finds himself once more, verse 2, in the Spirit. As you found that he was in the Spirit on the occasion when the Lord Jesus revealed Himself to him in the opening chapter, his concept of the Spirit and his experiences intensified as indeed it must be as this vision is granted to him. Come up here, the authoritative voice of the one who beckons him into heaven is heard, come up here and I will show you what will shortly come to pass.

And John says, verse 2, once I was in the Spirit and there before me was a throne. You remember Isaiah in the earlier chapters of the prophecy that bears his name speaks of on one occasion the year that King Uzziah died, I also saw the Lord seated upon a throne. And time and time again in this chapter and in the fifth chapter you will read about the throne, verse 4, surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones.

Verse 6, also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. The throne, the throne, verse 10, he who sits upon the throne and so forth throughout the whole of this chapter, liberally sprinkled in the fifth chapter and taken up in the rest of the book of Revelation to the extent that there are only five chapters without reference. The dominant theme is the throne and he who sits upon the throne.

If you had gone into the allied headquarters in the Gulf in this tragic unfortunate conflict of these last four or five weeks, you would have found a map of the whole area and on the map there would have been little flags and other little symbols. Some would have been immediately recognizable to you. You would appreciate that it was the theater of war and it was being set out for those who had the knowledge of how to interpret them as to what was happening and what the policy was of the allied forces.

No one ever gets into the headquarters of command unless they're very high officials in the theater of war. And here is John and heaven is open and he goes to the headquarters and there are the symbols, not always easily recognizable, but nonetheless clear in general to those who will come to this book of Revelation. And John will teach you as you need to be taught that despite all that seems the capriciousness of events here on this earth, there is someone who is on the throne in glory and who is working out his plans and his purposes.

I was in the Spirit and before me was a throne in heaven. I says John verse 2, with someone sitting on it. God is still on the throne and he will remember his own.

Though trials may presses and burdens distresses, God cares for his own. A simple chorus that I was taught to sing when I lied in my home church in Sheffield. So verse 3 tells you about the one who is on the throne, the one who is seated there.

Now you're in difficulties. You're always in difficulties when you're trying to understand God. You're grasping the ungraspable.

You're trying to comprehend the incomprehensible. You're trying to define the indefinable. So what recourse has John to? Well there's only one thing that he can do.

He can resort to symbol. He can resort to metaphor. He can use these bold contrasting images to try to bring into some vision in your mind just what he is experiencing in this great vision that he's carried up into heaven to see.

And so he uses the metaphor of Jasper in Carnelian verse 3 as he tries to describe to you something of the greatness and the majesty and the wonder of our God, the flashing splendor of the most precious gems. I says, John, that's how I think of God. I do not know whether John wrote the epistles after he wrote the book of Revelation.

If that is so, then maybe that's where he drew his inspiration from when he said of God, in him is light and there is no darkness at all. He sees one who's sitting on the throne. He sees one to whom all the Old Testament pictures of him now seem to coalesce.

He speaks of the rainbow, and you will remember the story in the Old Testament of the rainbow granted to Noah, and how from that promise God showed Noah that visual reminder of his promise, the rainbow, that he would never again flood the earth. John also sees from the throne, verse 5, flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. And those of you who have any recall of Scripture at all will remember that when Moses was on Mount Sinai and the law was given, there was volcanic activity, the presence of God, the flashings of lightning, the rumblings, the peals of thunder.

I says, John, and I saw a seven-branched candlestick. And some of you will remember how in the Old Testament again, in the tabernacle and later on in the temple, there were the branches of this beautifully made candlestick which spoke of the perfection of God and his concerns to straddle the world with his power. Well, says John, with his mind in the imagery of the Old Testament, that's who I've seen.

Him of whom the Old Testament scriptures make reference, one there sitting on a throne. How do you respond to the vision of the glory of God? The Lord is in his heavens. Let all the earth be silent before him.

You say you were afraid these past few weeks. Doubtless, you're speaking for many, many thousands of people. But don't you understand that the headquarters of control is not within the power of men, be they Arabs, or be they Westerners, or be they Jews.

There is a force which is playing down its power and bringing about its purposes on this earth. The force is none other than that of the Lord. The personality who reigns is none other than the Lord majestic in splendor himself, the Lord Jehovah.

And John says, I saw a vision. Heaven was opened and there was one sitting on the throne. And he describes something of his personality, something of his glory.

But then, not just the one on the throne. But John will make reference to those who are around the throne, sitting, if you please, on subsidiary thrones. Look at the fourth verse, will you? Surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones, and seated on them were 24 elders.

You have to be careful, as I say, when you're interpreting Revelation. There is a verse in a hymn, or a line in a verse in a hymn, which says, God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain. Well, let me strip the hymn of its context, and identify that as a principle.

That as far as dealing with Revelation is concerned, you allow the book of Revelation and the rest of the Bible to interpret the symbols, or else you will be in great confusion. The prizes will go to the people of the greatest ingenuity. Who were the 24? Well, according to the history of the church, and its interpretations, and I see no reason to, in any way, differ from the worthy commentators of yesteryear, the Old Testament patriarchs, the Reminders, were 12 in number.

They stood for God's people in the Old Testament dispensation. And in the New Testament, when you think of the leadership of the church, you think of the 12 apostles. Now, there is only one people of God.

There is only one church of God. The Old Testament and the New Testament, they combine, so to speak, to reveal the people of God. And in the Old Testament, the 12 patriarchs.

In the New Testament, the 12 apostles. They stand as the leaders, so to speak, of the two dispensations. And John says, around the throne.

He sees, in effect, the international church of our Lord Jesus Christ. You'll discover in the 21st chapter, in the 13th and 14th verses, that he brings this together as he describes again the New Jerusalem, and the names of the patriarchs, and the names of the apostles engraven on the walls. Surrounding the throne were 24 other thrones, and seated on them were 24 elders.

How were they dressed? Well, John will tell you. Look again into the heart of the fourth verse. They were dressed in white.

You know a great deal about white. You know that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. Says the apostle when he receives letters to the other churches, that there is one who can give them garments of white.

White stands for the radiance and the righteousness of our Lord Jesus. It speaks of that which the Lord Jesus allows you to enter into. As a confessed sinner, you receive his pardon.

The Old Testament children of God, they received pardon on the basis of what would happen at Calvary. As the New Testament children of God receive pardon on exactly the same basis. Well, says John, I see these men, 24, on their subsidiary thrones, in a position of authority, but not the authority of the one who sits on the central throne.

They're dressed in white. They have crowns of gold on their head. Says the apostle, Paul, I've fought a good fight.

I've finished the course. I've kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day.

Again, in the letters to the seven churches, you read that the one who overcomes will be given a crown. Symbolic, yes. Symbolic of a life well spent.

Symbolic of the accolade of God as he registers the way that this lady or that man lived out his life as a servant of God in the Old Testament or in the New Testament era. Surrounding the throne were those dressed in white who had crowns of gold on their heads. Now, move away from the symbolism for a moment and think about yourself.

How often do you consider that the insight that John has into heaven is a description of all that waits for you? You confess the Lord Jesus as your Savior. You're working for Him or you're trying to work for Him. Very good.

Then that means that the future that there is in store is a glorious one for you. And what is more, during the month or the year or the decade that you have ahead, the thing that should condition and control the way that you live is the thought that you will spend eternity in heaven. And the rewards of heaven and the blessings of heaven and the glory of heaven is in some way heightened by the way that you live your life here on this earth.

My friends, we should be more heavenly conscious. We should recognize more and more our destiny. So, John takes us back again to the one who's on the throne.

Verse five, from the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. To that we've made reference. But before the throne, seven lamps were blazing.

You see, John will not have you to think of the throne as being occupied by God the Father alone. Remember, we're into symbolism. In the first chapter, when John has this remarkable vision, he's also given some insight into the seven spirits of God.

Seven is the number of perfection. It always speaks in revelation of God, for He alone is perfect. The seven spirits of God speak of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the ever-blessed Trinity.

There are the seven spirits of God. Also, before the throne, there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. And some have thought of our blessed Lord Jesus, and of the laver in the Old Testament, containing the blood of the animal that was slain.

And later on in the fifth chapter, as John moves from one metaphor to another in this great vision, he sees not so much the laver and the glass of blood. He sees the lamb slain, as it were, before the foundation of the world. And you are brought face to face in this vision with a grandeur of this God who expresses Himself in terms of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the patriarchs of old, and all the righteous dead of the old era, the apostles of the new, and all those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord, are there standing before this great throne.

And ultimately, you'll see they burst out in praise and worship before this grand, eternal being. So then he takes us once more, having visited the throne twice, and shown us once what is around the throne on the circumference. He takes us back to the circumference, and in the seventh verse, you get even more metaphor, and even more wonderful description.

I say the seventh verse, actually it commences in the latter part of the sixth. In the center around the throne were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes in front and behind. 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.

What mean these visions? Some of you thought I was being fanciful a little while ago, one Sunday evening. When expounding from Ecclesiastes, I tried to show you that God has a great concern for the animate world besides the human within our planet. When the earth was originally created by God, it was perfect, and in that world there were not only trees and flowers and all the beauties of nature, there were also animals that he created.

And the king of the jungle is the animal that is first referred to in this vision, the lion. I see the lion, the king of the wild animals. And then he goes on, and he refers to the ox, the king of domesticated beasts in the Middle East and in Southeast Asia to this day.

And then he speaks of a creature that has a face like a man. And we're reminded that the king of the animals, so to speak, the one who is to exercise paternal and careful lordship over the world that God has made, is none other than man himself. And then he sees a beast with a face like an eagle.

The eagle is the king of the birds. Psalm 148, which you all read together, speaks of the creation bringing praise before this great God. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

But when man who is the only wild beast, literally understood for he is the only one who pollutes the atmosphere and brings some such obscene measures against his own species. When man fell in Eden, he brings with him like a pack of cards a curse upon the rest of the world. And here is John.

And he sees the beginning, and he sees the end, and he sees the crosswork of our Lord Jesus. And in language which is amazing as it's revealed to him, he sees that through our Lord Jesus Christ, there is the restitution of life in the universe as it was and as it ought to be. Fanciful exegesis? Then come, I interact with you more.

Go to Romans in chapter 8. Tell me how you understand this. Here is the apostle. I'll set the context as you find the place.

Romans 8, and the 18th verse is speaking about the present sufferings of the church, as John later will speak of the sufferings of the church. For from the sixth chapter and onwards, there will be terrible sufferings and tribulation through which men and women who are righteous people are overcome also cause to pass. But that's not going to the end of the story.

So Paul says in the 19th verse of Romans 8, for the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. Did you hear that? The inanimate, or if you like, the animate non-intellectual part of creation, our world and the glories of the world besides man will be brought back into what they were originally intended to be. And just in case that is so mind-blowing that you dismiss Paul as being absurd, he goes on to say in the 22nd verse, we know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to this present time.

Not only so, we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption of sons, the redemption of our bodies. And so he goes on. You see how that ties in with what the Apostle John says, admittedly with a great amount of metaphor, as he brings the sight of these creatures who are around the throne.

And day and night, we're told in the eighth verse, they cry to the Lord, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. Now when you really believe this, when you really believe that the whole of history is in the control of God, when from time to time like John you're taken up into heaven and you see the control room and you have some idea as to what is yet to happen, then to live as just mortal men without a care for tomorrow or fulfilling your responsibilities as a Christian person before the Lord today would reduce you to the level of a fool. We ought to be more heavenly conscious because the end of history is in the lap of the one who is on the throne.

God is working his purposes out as year submits to year. And so this worship that these living creatures give, this verse 9, glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne, it continues ceaselessly. And once more prefiguring the church and man now moving in all the glory of his manhood, verse 10, the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever.

You see, man is the king of this world. He was made in the image of God. And when he recovers that standing which he lost through the fall, when he's elevated by the grace of our Lord Jesus, when he acts in all his manhood, in all his manliness, then he will be the first of all creatures in the heavenly and redeemed earthly realm who will want to give praise and honor where it's due to this great God.

So the 24 elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. And they lay their crowns down before the throne because all the honor that was given them in terms of the way that they lived their lives for the Lord and brought his accolade was caused by the power that he gave them in the first instance. There's nothing we have that we do not receive from him.

So you're a faithful mother. God bless you. One of the most important things to be in the world.

You're a faithful husband. You're a faithful teacher. So many ways in which you show service to the Lord.

But don't you see your faithfulness which is rewarded on the day when you stand before the Lord, when he gives you that crown. Even the faithfulness that you have comes about through the power that he gives you. So the 4 and 20 elders take their crowns and they lay it before him.

They lay their crowns before the one who made them what they are. You see this is so wonderful. I just wish that I had the words to be able to express the spirit that is upon my heart as I feel something of the quickening impulse of these verses as John is caught up and he sees all that is to happen and he sees all that is already happening in the heavenlies.

For there is a sense in which heaven is not way up there. Heaven is nearer than you think. This great crowd of witnesses.

This dimension which is so near that I believe that when we pass through the veil of death which frightens so many of us, at the other side we will laugh that we ever thought that it was such a difficult journey. I saw heaven says John and the door was open. My friend if you can see heaven and know that the door is open and there's one on the throne who's controlling things even in this world despite all the evidence to the contrary, beside all the insanity of man.

I say if you can see heaven opened and realize that there is one on the throne, this great God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit who is concerned about your well-being and your eternal destiny in the new heaven and in the new earth, then you will gladly do what the patriarchs and the apostles are doing right now. You will join in this anthem of praise along with the seraphim and the cherubim and you will say you are worthy, thou art worthy, our Lord and our God to receive glory. No, that's not exactly the way it's expressed in the original language.

To receive the glory and the honor and the power, the totality of glory belongs to this God. All praise, all adoration, it's got to be to the one who sits on the throne. That's why you'll take your crown off.

That's why you'll say no, Father, no, Son, no, Holy Spirit, all that I ever did that was successful, it was as a result of your grace. Thou art worthy unto you the totality of worship. You see, I believe that when the new heavens and the new earth come, it won't be literalistically you sitting on a throne and singing all the time.

But in the work that God has for you to do in this new dimension, it will be so permeated by a sense of God that everything you do will be to His praise and to His glory. Now that's something about what you should be anticipating now. So to go back to my oft-quoted incident, when you change a nappy, when you change a car wheel, when you're in your shop, when you're in the school, when you're in your court, whatever you're doing, do as unto the Lord in your anticipating what you'll be doing in the new heavens and on the new earth.

Dear old godly Richard Sibbes used to sing, or it used to be said of this man, another Puritan who preached in London years ago, of this good man, let this be written, heaven was in him before he was in heaven. John says, I saw heaven opened and one on the throne. I saw around the throne all the redeemed and I got a vision of the earth and of the universe as it will be in that climactic moment when God brings all things to consummation.

And through his son, redeems and restores all the universes for all time. And in that plan, though it blows your mind, you have a place and that is the Christian gospel. Take it, bury in it, heaven is open, is still on the throne.

Father, we thank you for the opening of heaven. We praise you that you reign throughout this world even now. And one day your reign will be consummated in the return of our Lord Jesus.

Until that moment, keep us faithful, blessed, distressed and despondent hearts here and may this morning's address have been a balm to their soul and help us to live in the light of eternity. May heaven condition our lifestyle on earth. For Jesus' sake, all the people of God said, Amen.

And the saints rejoiced. God bless you.