Answers Bible Curriculum: Lesson 2 - God is Awesome

Holy Father, as we come into this topic this morning, I pray that you would, prepare our hearts and help us to, as we go through this, this subject matter to truly be able to Be open to what your spirit is teaching us, and Lord, may your presence be with us. And Lord, I ask that you would help me to be clear and to go through this material in a way that honors you. And you just ask for your strength in this, in your name. Amen.

I need an adjustment here. I think I touched it. OK. I try not to touch it.

Today, we're looking at a subject that I think I'm Very, ill qualified for. we'll be looking at the glory and the holiness of God and And. This is a subject that, as you get into it, and, and as you will see as we get into it, As, as human beings, we, we find ourselves confronted with, a God who is truly awesome. And that word is, is a word that is I think really only applies to God.

and so as we come into this, I just ask you to be thinking about that. The reason why I had this question, can you handle the truth? that's what we get confronted with when we come into God's presence. And as we'll be looking at, today, we are, our adult class is a part of our para-family ministry that's designed to come alongside our families in their journey from brokenness to wholeness.

And so, that's what we want our classes to do, is to help, they're, they're for all of us as we are in this journey together to, to support this and, and as, probably all of, all of our classes, are, are going through, from children on through adults. Going through these materials, Our, our memory verse, Proverbs 21:1, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. Like the rivers of water, he turns it wherever he wishes. And that's the theme for the first section of these lessons that we're in.

Last week, we're, we talked about Daniel. we'll be looking at next week, the new covenant that's, prophesized, looking at God's protection, restoring of worship. That would be the coming back into the land, from exile. We're looking at Esther, an amazing story.

We're looking at, visions that, God gave to Daniel. restoration of God's law and basically going all the way up through, the end of the Old Testament of the prophets. And so, that's what we'll be doing with this, quarter's sections. But today, we're looking at our awesome God.

And Be doing it, first with a little bit of review from, from the past, few weeks, then getting into today's passages, which are gonna be a, today is gonna be a lot more, scripture reading, But it's because there's just no other way to do these sections. And so we just take them for what has been written. I seem to be stalled on this slide. OK, thank you.

Well, we did pass the timeline. Here we have the timeline. Of, of what we've been covering so far, it takes us, this is pretty much everything that's dis discussed or described in the Old Testament., at least from the time of Abraham, up to the end of the prophets. And we are pretty close to the end of it over here in this, exilic period, right after Babylon destroyed Jerusalem.

And so, that's where we are at this point in time. And our primary target today is Ezekiel, but we'll also be talking about Isaiah, getting into Isaiah, and then also, John, actually. OK. And so Israel.

As we've looked at in the past, that they were the fulfillment of God's covenant with Abraham, as a nation. Remember God had told Abraham, your, your descendants will be as the stars of the sky and the sand of the sea. And so Israel, the nation was a fulfillment of that. And that, that God was intentionally using this, this line of descendants from Abraham.

To carry out his purpose, they went clear back to the Garden of Eden, when God told Eve that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. The beginning of the gospel all the way through, we find God's plan working. And so Israel was part of that plan. But being the fulfillment of God's covenant, by the time we get to this stage, it's now been divided and ultimately scattered.

yet, and we see most of the survivors of the nation of Judah have been taken to Babylon in 3 separate deportations with a small remnant left to tend the fields, and so it would be a natural conclusion if that's all you knew, to think, well, that's the end of God's plan. He's, he's decided to do Plan B. But no, God's still doing his plan. He doesn't have a plan B.

he doesn't need a Plan B. he's all wise and he's all powerful and he makes his plans work. in this fall of a nation, we find that God is still faithful and untroubled in keeping His covenants and fulfilling his plan of redemption for mankind. And God still sent prophets to instruct and encourage the faithful.

While confronting the rebellious. And the prophets are have been one of the significant players that we've been looking at over the last, many weeks now, looking at several different prophets and, and the role that they played, how God has used them to continually bring his message of repentance and calling people back to, to faith in God. And, And we've, what we've looked at is how the, the role of the prophet, the prophet themselves is they've had some, some pretty, some of them pretty tough lives.

God has used those lives that they've lived to, for significant things.

And, and RC Sproul writes this about prophets. He says the prophet in the Old Testament Israel was a lonely man. He was a rugged individualist, singled out by God for a painful task. He served as a prosecuting attorney of sorts, the appointed spokesman of the Supreme Judge of heaven and earth to bring suit against those who had sinned against the bench.

The, the prophet was not an earthly philosopher who wrote his opinions for scholars to discuss. He was not a playwright who composed dramas for public entertainment. He was a messenger, a herald of a cosmic king. His announcements were prefaced by the words, thus saith the Lord.

That's in his book, The Holiness of God. And if you've never read that book, I encourage you to read it. It's, it's, something that should be considered a Christian classic. it's something that's very, very eye-opening as to what holiness is all about and what it really means with God.

And it's excellent, for your, your own study. Last week, we looked at one of those prophets. We looked at the early part of his life. We looked at Daniel, and we, we, talked about how, that Daniel and his three friends, Hanania, Azaria, and Micheel were taken as young men, teenagers likely, and, taken to a foreign land, to Babylon, and what they went through as far as their initiation into that culture, going from one culture to a completely new culture, new language, and, so Pastor Mike took us through all of that and, and, and we talked about How he and his three friends, So revered God, and so ordered their lives to follow God's way rather than the dominant culture.

and really gives us an example for how we live in our culture too, that, that we don't need to just float along with the culture, but rather we're, we're to go to God. And, and, what we need to be concerned about is the culture of God or, or the culture of Christ. What is it that, that, is important for us to follow and, as we've talked about in the past, how culture can be such a dominating and usually is a very dominating, presence upon the thinking of people. You go to different parts of the world with different cultures and everybody subscribes to things without even thinking about it.

we say they just go along. What is it that God calls us to do? God calls us to something that's different. God calls us to His laws, his ways, and so we need to be a lot more thoughtful.

And Daniel and his three friends were very much more thoughtful of that and, and showed their reverence to God by their commitment to do that. And they will, see in later times the actual prophetic ministry of Daniel in later lessons. But today, we're gonna be getting into visions of God in His majesty. And we're gonna be primarily looking at Ezekiel.

He's our, our primary person, but we're gonna also do quite a bit with Isaiah and John because they have similar experiences and we want to fill out this picture that Ezekiel experienced. And, and so this is, is where we'll be, but this is where we find ourselves. confronting this question that's posed. Can you handle the truth?

One of the things I was thinking about earlier this week as I began reading, in, in preparation for this, reading the passages. And thinking about what that would be like, trying to put myself into their place and imagining, what would it be like to be taken captive, maybe put a, have a hood put over your face, you're kidnapped and taken somewhere and you're brought into a room. And the hood is removed and it's this intense bright light that completely exposes everything. And all of a sudden, I am confronted with the unadulterated pure truth.

That is what Isaiah, Ezekiel, and John all experienced. Coming into this presence of God is this complete exposure to truth. And how does that affect us? How does, how would that affect me?

Well, we see how it affected them, and there's much to learn from that, what, what their experience was like. but how would we handle the exposure, when all of a sudden we're brought into this place where nothing is hidden? And how we are with each other as human beings. We always hold back a little bit.

Even with our spouse that we trust and love, there's still a little bit that we hold back. And that goes clear back to the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit and they discovered that they were naked. And they're, they're, they needed to cover themselves and, and people have been covering themselves ever since because there's a little bit of shame. There's that That part of us that, that we really don't want anyone to know about.

And we're right to think that way, by the way. That's, that is appropriate. and yet, we find, these three people go into that place of complete exposure and let's see how God also deals with them and it's pretty amazing to see. So let's turn to Isaiah chapter 6.

We're gonna begin with Isaiah and do him first. And we'll talk about his vision of God on his throne. Isaiah 6 begins. In the year of King Usaiah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.

Seraphim stood above him, each having 6 wings. With 2 he covered his face, and with 2 he covered his feet, and with 2 he flew. And one called out to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.

And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of Him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, woe is me, for I'm ruined because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. And one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand. Which he had taken from the altar with tongs, he touched my mouth with it and said Behold, this has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. He said, go and tell these people. Keep on listening but do not perceive.

Keep on looking but do not understand. Render the hearts of these people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim. Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and return and be healed. And I said, Lord, how long?

And he answered, until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate. The Lord has removed men far away and the, and the forsaken places of are many in the midst of the land. Yet there will be a 10th portion in it, and it will again be subject to burning like a teabinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is in its stump.

The year King Isaiah died. I Thought by some to be the beginning of, yeah, let me go back. The beginning of. the ministry of Isaiah, others believe that Isaiah actually started a little bit before Usaiah's death.

so it, it's unclear. Had Isaiah turned 30 at this point in time, he would have been in his 90s, when he died. so it's, it's possibly he started a little sooner. The typical starting place though for, A priest and, and Isaiah was a priest would be the age 30.

So that's not made clear for us, but it does, what's important is that when in that year, that's when Isaiah got this vision. Now, King Uzziah, let me go a little bit ahead here, and recover some of this material we covered before. The these are some of the kings of the kings of Judah. And, going down to Joash.

Joash was the 2nd reformer. And under the leadership of the priest Jehoiada, as a child, began to initiate many reforms, taking Israel back to worshiping God alone. And, and so it was under Joash and then his later years, he, he had some faltering in there. His son Amaziah continued some of those reforms, although not perfectly, but Usaiah, For 52 years he was king, and he was a man who, who, strictly continued those reforms and is described as a good king.

He's actually a, a, a pretty amazing person, was a builder, loved the soil, is known for, for his, his, vineyards and gardens and so on, and described as a builder and, and built much of the city of Jerusalem. And built armaments, things that are described in, in, in the chronicles, sound like catapults on the walls and, and, these big machines of, of, of, of, of defense for the city. And so that was Usaiah. Usaiah was one of those men and God blessed him, because of his, leadership, within the city and then, or with the nation and then his son Jotham also continued those reforms.

So it's in that, that Isaiah, it's at the end of Isaiah's reign. gets this vision. Isaiah, I picture as, as a person who's in this culture now that's, that is fairly comfortable with where it is. The status quo seems to be pretty good.

And so Isaiah coming into his, his prophetic ministry as a priest, would, would look out and say things are going in the right direction, probably. That's probably how he thought. We don't know for sure, but it seems like his confrontation here in this chapter is very startling. we, we know that at the end of Isaiah's reign, He went into the temple to offer incense.

He got full of himself thinking he had, he was pretty righteous guy and he should be able to, to come to God himself without the help of a priest. And The priests there confronted him and tried to hold him back. He was the king, the king Isaiah was struck with leprosy and had to be, had to go and he lived the rest of his life in solitude. But it was that that zeal for the righteous things of God within the, the priest community that's remarkable there in that story and it could have been that Usaiah's father was one of those priests that actually was there in the courtyard, resisting Usaiah.

And so this is the, the where Isaiah is coming from. And yet as we read this passage, His, his coming into the presence of God, into this throne room. is, is, the sudden realization that the status quo isn't very good. The status quo is terrible, in fact.

And, and, and so Isaiah is confronted with this, this sense of, of doom, when he says woe is me, that, that is a very serious act of, of a recognition of condemnation, that, that things are really bad and And, one of the translations, I think is the King James Virgin, he, he says, I am undone. And so, This, this idea that when he comes before God, God isn't patting on the back and saying, you guys are doing really great right now. No, it's, it's an, an understanding that's immediate, that, that we're in trouble.

I am in trouble.

And, and so he describes himself that way. RC Sproul describes this in this way. He says, Isaiah explained it like this. My eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.

He saw the holiness of God. For the first time in his life, Isaiah really understood who God was. At the same instant, for the first time, Isaiah really understood who Isaiah was. And that is a a realization that is helpful for all of us, isn't it?

when we, come to that place of being able to just bow before God and say, I know who you are and I know who I am. One of the most terrifying things throughout human history for mankind is the holiness of God. We'll be looking at, at John a little bit later, but that word apocalypse. is, is a Greek word that just means revelation, means to reveal.

But we use that word. over and over in our, vocabulary to describe impending doom. Something that's terrible is coming. Why?

I think it's in the back of man's mind. That when, when God reveals Himself, and in the book of Revelation, it's reveals Himself through Christ that, that Jesus is, is formally revealed to humankind, that, that it's doomed for man. and, and man is right to be afraid of God. Because he is holy and because we are not.

We're not holy. We don't measure up. And so, again, from the Garden of Eden, mankind has been hiding from God, been afraid of God's holiness, and been right to be afraid. And yet God has through His mercy and kindness, reached out to men and, and has been drawing men to him and providing a way for men to come to him.

And that, and we do rejoice in that gospel and we find that, that in, in this section where Isaiah is confronted with, with God, what does God give to him? Well, God gives to him a, a vision. first of all, he cleanses him. Isaiah said, I'm a man of unclean lips.

And so an angel comes with, with a burning coal and touches his lips and cleanses him, picturing the cleansing that God offers. God offers cleansing for us. God didn't just leave Isaiah there. then he commissioned him to take a message and what we can find out is that the, that the general status quo of the nation.

was not very good. In fact, we can read in 2 Chronicles 27:2, where that's the passage where Usaiah has died and his son Jotham is taking over as king. And here's a description of the people, but it says, but the people continued acting corruptly. That's their that's their description.

So there is within the culture, this, this current, a pretty strong current of, of wicked, living, of defiance against God. And even though 52 years have, have, of King Usaiah's reign has been this general overview, influence of, of godliness. there's still this, this strain of wickedness that's underneath it that is coexisting, and that's pretty typically human, isn't it? That's pretty much how we are.

And so, in, in this case of Isaiah, he saw his own sin. God confronted him with his own sin. So then God could prepare him to confront the people in their sin. And that's what we see, in, in, this confrontation.

Now we move on to Ezekiel. So you turn with me to Ezekiel chapter one. We can read about his experience. We'll begin reading in verse one.

This came about in the 30th year, on the 5th day of the 4th month while I was by the river Kibar among the exiles. The heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. On the 5th of the month, in the 5th year of King Jehoiain's exile, the word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, son of Busi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Kibar, and there the hand of the Lord came upon him. As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it and in its midst, something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire.

Within it were figures resembling four living beings, and this was their appearance. They had, they had human form. Each of them had 4 faces and 4 wings. And their legs were straight and their feet were like a calf's hoof, and they gleamed like burning burnished bronze.

Under their wings, on their four sides were human hands, and as for the faces and wings of the four of them, their wings touched one another. Their faces did not turn when they moved. Each went straight forward. As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man.

All four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle. Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above. Each had 2 touching another being and 2 covering their bodies, and each went straight forward.

Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go without turning as they went. In the midst of the living beings, there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings. The fire was bright and lightning was flashing from the fire, and the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning. I look down to verse 22.

It says now over the heads of the living beings, there was something like an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal spread out over their heads. Under the expanse, their wings were stretched out straight, one toward the other. Each one also had two wings covering its body on the one side and on the other. I also heard the sound of their wings like the sound of abundant waters as they went.

Like the voice of the Almighty, the sound of tumult, like the sound of an army camp, whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings. And there came a voice from above the expanse that was over their heads whenever they stood still. They dropped their wings. Now above the expanse that was over their heads, there was something resembling a throne like Lapis Lazuli in appearance, and on that which resembled a throne high up was a figure with the appearance of a man.

Then I noticed from the appearance of his loins and upwards something like glowing metal that looked like fire all around within it. And from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw something like fire, and there was a radiance around him. As the appearance of the rainbow in the clouds of a rainy day, so was the appearance of the surrounding radiance. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, and when I saw it, I fell on my face.

And I heard a voice speaking. OK. so this is the, what Ezekiel sees and it's pretty, pretty descriptive. but if you notice as we're reading through it, there's a lot of, of times where he uses the word like or like as because there are things here.

That he doesn't, he's never seen before. He doesn't know how to describe, so he just tries to get something close to what we would know about. And so he uses the word like. But this is a very awesome thing and his his response to it was to fall down.

Just fell, fell on his face. But then he's going to, to be commissioned and so chapter 2, verse 1, he says, then he said to me, Son of man, stand on your feet, that I may speak with you. As he spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. Then he said to me, Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to rebellious people who have rebelled against me.

They and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. I'm sending you to them who are stubborn and obstinate children, and you shall say to them, thus says the Lord God. As for them, whether they listen or not, they are a rebellious house. They will know that a prophet has been among them, and you, son of man, neither fear them nor fear their words, though thistles and thorns are with you, and you sit on scorpions, neither fear their words nor be dismayed at their presence, for they are a rebellious house.

But you shall speak my words to them, whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious. And that phrase, that description, rebellious house is repeated 7 times through the 1st 3 chapters. I think God is, is pretty full up with, with their attitude and, So, so God is describing in this way, over and over again. And he's calling Ezekiel.

To this, this very difficult ministry, from exile, Ezekiel is in exile. If you remember from our past lessons, Ezekiel was in the 2nd deportation. Daniel was in the 1st 1. There were 3 altogether from Jerusalem to Babylon, and Ezekiel's in the 2nd 1, and he's in, by the river Kibar, which is, southeast, according to one map I looked at, Of, of Babylon.

And the River Keybar is, is a tributary into the river Euphrates. And it goes as, as much like a canal in, in appearance. OK OK. Technical difficulties.

Please do not adjust your sets. So anyway, that's where the a large encampment is of Judean, exiles, and he lives there among them, and that's where he sees this vision of God. And so let's finish up this section and go over to chapter 3. And read verse 6, and it will pick it up in the middle of the verse there.

He says, but I have sent you to them, who should listen to you. Yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you since they are not willing to listen to me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate. Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.

Like emory harder than flint, I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house. One of the things that, that we see in God, bringing his prophets into this vision of, the holy place of God is, it prepares them to do something that otherwise is an impossible task. And what Ezekiel's preparation is, is to have to go to these rebellious people who are not gonna want to hear his message.

these are people, many of them that are in exile. Some of his message is gonna be directed to those who are still in Jerusalem, because this is before the complete destruction of Jerusalem. It says there that, that, that God's gonna make his face hard as flint. Because their hearts are hard.

Their faces are hard, and he's gonna have to be able to match up to that. And that's one of the things that, that we see with God's preparation. God is preparing a prophet to be able to handle, what's gonna be coming against him. And so we Ezekiel lost his strength.

We, we see he's, he falls down as one who has no life. And God picks him up. It, it actually describes the picking up of, of the prophet and, through the Spirit of God, and God then equips him. So, Out of his weakness comes the strength, and, and that is just like Isaiah, out of Isaiah's weak, weakness came the strength to be able to do what God had called Isaiah to do.

Now we see the same thing with Ezekiel, that out of Ezekiel's strength, God is gonna make him strong, to be able to confront this obstinate, and rebellious people. We talked about a few weeks ago how Jeremiah had written to those who were in exile. Jeremiah is still in Jerusalem, had written to them how they were to live, how they were to, to plant gardens and raise children and just continue on with life because they were not to listen to the false prophets who said they were gonna be coming back any day now.

they were to, to actually plan on being there, that the time of exile was 70 years.

And so Ezekiel is, is now is living with these people who are expecting to, to be going back now, back to Jerusalem. But Ezekiel, and so there's this hardheartedness, this stubbornness that he's having to confront and he's having to live with. One of, one of the interesting passages, if you read down into verses 12 to 14 to 15, talks about him, being empowered and, and actually, he's in the spirit, he, he's having this vision and it describes as being enraged, in, in his spirit and that the hand of the Lord was strong upon him and that, and that the Lord took him and placed him down in the river or next to the river by all the other exiles and he sat there for 7 days.

And the reaction of the people around them was great consternation.

And it's a From our standpoint, a little bit humorous, at least to me. I, I have a weird sense of humor, but, but here's this prophet just sitting there, for a week and And causing great consternation among them. One other point about Ezekiel, I will not go and read all these passages. I encourage you if you've never read through these.

God shows Ezekiel, who is in Babylon or in, in the area south of Babylon. The, the, departure of the, of, the spirit or the presence of God from Jerusalem, from the temple and then from the city, the whole city. again, this is before its destruction. But God takes Ezekiel and shows him, through his spirit in a very miraculous and supernatural way, what was going on, the false worship, all the things that were taking place even on the temple grounds, that, that, sacrilege was the big thing and, it was just, just common and, and how the glory of the Lord left.

The, the temple, and went out into the courtyard, then goes out to the city wall, then goes to the Mount of Olives and then it's gone. And the poignancy of that whole section is that no one seemed to notice. That everything just went on and no one, there was no outcry. There was, there was no weeping.

There was, there was nothing. They just continued on as if they're saying, well, you were still here. they, they didn't care. That God had left and It is, it is a, a very tragic scene, as God God withdraws his glory from that place of worship, and it will soon be completely leveled and destroyed.

Now if you turn with me to Revelation chapter one. We're looking at John's experience. And let's read from verse 9 to 19 in chapter 1. I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and I heard behind me a loud voice, like the sound of a trumpet saying, Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smymyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw 7 golden lampstands in the middle of the lampstands, I saw 1, like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash.

His head and his hair were white, like white wool.

Like snow. And his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace. And his voice was like the sound of many waters.

And in his right hand he held 7 stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. And he placed his right hand on me saying, do not be afraid. I am the first and the last and the living one, and I was dead and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Therefore, write the things which you have seen and the things which are and the things which will take place after these things. And so we see here John having a, an exposure to Christ, to, to the glorified Jesus. And, and so he, even though John is, one of the disciples, he spent, those 3+ years with Jesus, probably knew him for much, much longer than that. It's believed that John was actually related, so may have known him all his life.

And John. had served him faithfully all this time and yet when he sees him like this in his glorified state, it is, it's too awesome. And so he falls down as a dead man. And Jesus picks him up and, and gives him a message for the seven churches.

In Asia Minor. And then at the end of that message, go over to chapter 4. He takes him and gives him a vision of Of the throne room of God. And we'll pick it up in verse 5.

Out of the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder, and there were 7 lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the 7 spirits of God. And before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal, and in the center and around the throne, 4 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 the face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.

And the 4 living creatures, each one of them having 6 wings.

are full of eyes around and within and 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. And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the 24 elders will fall down before Him, who sits on the throne and will worship Him, who lives forever and ever and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy are you, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you have created all things and because of your will, they existed and were created.

I saw on the right hand of him who sat on the throne a book written inside and on the back sealed up with 7 seals, and I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.

Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, Stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders a lamb standing, as if slain, having seven horns, and the seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. When he had taken the book, the 4 living creatures and 24 elders fell down before the lamb, each one holding a harp and a golden bowls of incense, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice.

Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. We should all stand and sing the hallelujah chorus right here, right? Yes. And this is amazing.

And every created thing, which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them, I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever. And the four living creatures kept saying amen, and the elders fell down, fell down and worshiped. John, his experience, he, he falls down as one is dead, but he, God raised him up and he comes up with great expectation. And we see how great that expectation is in his response to no one being found worthy to open the scroll.

That scroll is there and, and he, he, he knows that there is some, there's the plan of God is yet to be revealed and he, he wants to see what it is, how, where it's gonna go. And so then it is opened by the one who is worthy. There's a Something there that just jumped out to me as I was, I was preparing this and The, the statement there where he says that, where the The angels and the elders sang this song and they said, you have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God and they will reign upon earth.

That What Jesus did.

was on, on the cross when he made, fulfilled this plan of redemption that goes clear back to the beginning. what he did was seal the victory in the battle between God and Satan for the lives of humanity. And that, that, what Jesus did. Was create a kingdom.

That, there, that he didn't lose humanity. He now has a kingdom and priests to, to, to God. And so, this is a defining, Description, I guess, of the victory that, that Jesus wrought, that he is victorious. So what are we to, to make of all of this?

There's a lot here. I can only do a few things, but these are some thoughts I had on this. the first one is that our confrontations with God are meant to change us and to prepare us for the task that he has for us. Now, God is much gentler with us and he's, his confrontations with us usually are spread out over a long period of time, or in fact, our lifetime.

And he's continually preparing us as needed for the tasks that he has for us. it's not as strenuous as Ezekiel and, as Isaiah and John's were. These, these were very powerful, overwhelming confrontations. But God does confront us, in, in his ways.

And maybe it's with a sermon that we hear, or some, some experience that goes with that. It could be, different ways that God confronts us. It's in, in the reading of his word, but he does confront us and prepare us for tasks that these confrontations aren't for nothing. They're for a purpose, and he always has purpose.

One of the things, there, there was another person who had an experience like this, and that was Paul. And Paul writes about it in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Only he doesn't just go into detail and describe it. All he says about it was, it's indescribable.

That, that's, that's, and Paul was not a person that had a shortage of vocabulary, right? He, he knew how to write and know how to describe things. But that wasn't his purpose in, in, in sharing this experience. And you remember what he got out of it.

A thorn in the flesh, right? That's what he got. That was his, his souvenir. and, and so you can read about that in, In 2 Corinthians 12, but one of the principles that, that Paul really makes a strong point of, there is that it's out of weakness.

Out of our weakness comes the strength. And we see this pattern with the other situations, with, with Isaiah, with Ezekiel, and with John, that it's out of, out of their, their weakness, that, that God gives the strength to, to accomplish the task. But when we have this confrontation, the psalmist wrote this, if you, oh Lord, should mark our iniquities, Who could stand And that, and that is one of the things that, as I was preparing this, thinking about this thing, how could we possibly stand before this God?

this is, this is a, a, a, a, a thing that, that is powerful.

And, and this whole idea, can you handle the truth? To, to come before God and be confronted with the truth about yourself? It, it's difficult for me to think about that, to, to actually have to go into all that detail. God, do we really have to go there?

Do I really have to look at that? can I really handle the truth? But that's what it is in coming before God. God is truth.

And, full exposure before God is what will happen when we are confronted with God. There is a hymn, an old hymn that I recently became reacquainted with. And its words express our really our, our hope, and our faith as Christians. And, so the, the first verse goes like this.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame. that frame, that's, that's man's ideas, man's philosophies. The, the philosophical frameworks that man comes up with.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but holy trust in Jesus' name. The new version has a different chorus and it's Christ alone, cornerstone. Weak made strong in the savior's love. Through the storm, He is Lord, Lord of all.

And that's who we rest on. the old chorus is, On Christ's solid rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. And of course, that comes from the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

And so when we build our, our beliefs and we live our lives based upon the solid rock, then we have that ability to stand before God. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 10 says, Paul writes, we must all stand before God and give account for our deeds. We will all stand there. We're all gonna have that exposure.

That brilliant exposure of pure truth. And are we going to be able to handle it? Well, only if we've built on the solid rock. Jude, 24.

To 25 has this amazing, amazing statement. Now unto Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory, blameless. With great joy to the only God and Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord be glory, majesty, dominion and authority before all time and now and forever. Amen.

That is, that is, the, the hope that we have, that he's the one who sustains us and he's the one who's preparing to present us blameless or faultless before the presence of his glory. So the last verse of that hymn. Goes like this. When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in him be found dressed in his righteousness alone.

Faultless. Stand before his throne. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your grace.

And for The opportunity we have to be called into your family. And Lord, as we worship you, as we live our lives before you. Maybe live with gratitude. Knowing that you being an awesome God, a God to be feared.

are also a god. To, to be loved and worshiped, and that you are a God who has opened your arms to us and provided a way for us. And Lord, may we live our lives in remembrance and reverence. And in great joy because of what you have done for us.

And, and with that great gratitude that we can have for you. Amen. Thing