Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Are you planning on spending eternity in heaven? It's a long time. How will you stay busy? Welcome to Thru the Bible. Seriously, have you ever thought about what you'll be doing in heaven?

Well, one thing's for sure: you won't be bored. In this study of Revelation, we're going to get to look into the throne room of heaven and catch just a glimpse at some of the ways that we're going to spend our time in God's presence. To get us started, Dr. McGee takes us back to chapter 4, verse 1. Let's listen now.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, last time we said that the break between chapters 3 and 4, you have the rapture of the church. In fact, the matter is the fourth chapter, I think, makes it very clear that it is the rapture of the church.

Now, it's been the custom of those that do not believe that Christ takes the church out before the great tribulation. The primary reason I've heard them give is that the last trumpet that is mentioned in the judgments in Revelation and the statement of Paul in 1 Corinthians, where he says at the last trump, they just immediately associate those together, the seventh trumpet and the last.

And of course, there actually is no relationship at all. I had that question on our question and answer program some time ago and dealt with it. Now if you want to take trumpets, then go to the fourth chapter where the rapture takes place. It says, "After this I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me and said, Come up hither."

Now, there was a voice like the sound of a trumpet. Well, at the rapture, the Lord Jesus' voice is going to be like a trumpet. And you say, "Do you know that?" Well, of course, in 1 Thessalonians the fourth chapter, verse 16, it says, "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with a voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first."

Now, this is the Lord Himself coming from heaven. There's no angel there. His voice is going to be like an archangel, and it'll be like a trumpet. And you have that right here in the fourth chapter, verse 1, when John is caught up to heaven. He's a representative of the church, and he's caught up to heaven at the beginning of the great tribulation period.

I do not know how much proof that some of our post-tribulation friends are going to have to have before they'd be willing to correct their viewpoint, but apparently, even statements like this doesn't seem to phase them. It's just like water on a duck's back.

Steve Schwetz: We'll hear more about these mysterious creatures in our study, but first, Thru the Bible's president's here with our mailbag. Greg, I hear that we've gotten some really good letters recently.

Greg: We have. And just before we jump in, we just love to hear from you. Thank you for continuing to write to us in all different forms: email, letters, texts, Facebook posts. But just think about this: We're coming to the end of 55 years of airing this same content 11 times, and yet people's lives are still being touched.

Steve Schwetz: It is amazing, and it is such an encouragement to be a part of it and to read these testimonies. You want to start with John?

Greg: Sure, this is John in Wisconsin. He emailed us to say this: "Thanks to all those behind the scenes. Through this program, the Bible is speaking to me. It refreshes my spirit daily, it helps keep me focused on God and changes how I think. I am often so challenged. The prayer I repeat over and over is, Lord, please let your thoughts be mine so that my actions, the things I do, glorify you. The more we study, the more I want all my actions to be in His will and to have Him on my mind as often as I can."

Steve Schwetz: Well, thank you, John. Now, here's a heartfelt letter we got from Isla in Kansas, and she starts by mentioning a testimony she read in one of our World Prayer Today emails. Pretty amazing. She says this:

"I really appreciated Linda's message on the World Prayer Team email. My story sounds remarkably similar to hers. I'm guessing that many in so-called Christian America have the same story: saved at a young age, baptized, strayed as we got older, thankful for our Lord's gentle drawing back to Him. I, too, really appreciate the prayer points you give.

The first prayer point today, that believers would continue to grow in their understanding and love for God's Word, really is about me. The second point, for those who feel spiritually dry, is about me as well. Unfortunately, I'm at a place where when I read God's Word, I keep thinking, I know this part. I'm somewhat jealous of those who say they love God's Word and have a desire to read it more and more. Sadly, that is not me. I'm continuing faithfully to read and pray. Hopefully, I will soon also have an encouraging outcome. Thank you, Greg and Steve, for continuing to save a seat for me on the Bible Bus, praying I will soon look forward more and more to the ride."

Greg: Isla, I just want to give you a word of encouragement. I know I've been in those dry seasons myself. And I just want to encourage you to say that God is faithful, and He will reward you for diligently seeking Him. Scripture tells us that, and I would say don't give up. Continue to pray, open your heart to the Lord and say, "Lord, make yourself known to me," and He will do that.

Steve Schwetz: Amen. Yes, stick with it, and it's about our faith, not our feelings. And that's an important part of the Christian life is when we don't always feel things, but we know what is true. So here's one from Chuck. Steve, you want to read that?

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, he and his wife Mary Ann hop aboard the Bible Bus from their home in Indiana, and they write this:

"As a boy, I heard Thru the Bible on the radio at my mother's kitchen table. I didn't understand everything that was said, but I remember Dr. McGee's passion, conviction, and humor. Well, 45 years later, I start the day by listening on the app. My wife and I refer to your materials for the small group that meets in our home. Thank you, Dr. McGee, Steve, and staff for this ministry. The letters that you read inspire and encourage my faith. Please use the enclosed gift to keep the Bible Bus rolling around the world."

Greg: Wow. It's just thank you so much to all of you who write. We are so encouraged. We read every piece of correspondence, just so you know. None of it gets shoved away somewhere. A human being reads every correspondence that comes in because we are so invested in your journey.

Steve Schwetz: Yeah, absolutely. Greg, let me pray for us as we begin.

Heavenly Father, I pray for Chuck and the countless others who are part of the TTB family, who have grown up on the ministry of Thru the Bible, learned to see who Jesus Christ is through the pages of Scripture and being taught at Thru the Bible. I pray that that would continue, Lord, that you would bless the study as it goes out now. In Jesus' name, amen.

Now here's Dr. J. Vernon McGee with our study of Revelation 4 on Thru the Bible.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now friends, we're here in the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation. We're down to the seventh verse again. I went over it rather hurriedly last time. He says here in verse 7, "And the first beast," and I should change that, "the first living creature." The word as we saw last time was *zoa*, and it doesn't mean a wild beast as we might think.

Now, we will have that when we get to the 13th chapter of the book of Revelation. That's a different word, and it's a different type of beast. These are just living creatures. And as we said last time, the emphasis is not upon the bestial, but upon the vital, the fact they're living.

And we're told here the first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face as a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. Now, we attempted to identify these with the Gospel that they represent, and I believe rather accurately, although that's questioned a great deal today.

The first Gospel presents the Lord Jesus as the King. He's born a King, He lives a King, He dies a King, He's raised as a King, He's coming again as a King. Everything He does in the Gospel of Matthew, He does as a King. And you'll remember that God said of the tribe of Judah was like a lion, and the King, the Ruler, would come out of that, that the scepter would not depart from Judah until Shiloh came.

Now the second was like a calf or an ox. That's the beast of burden. And then you have the third living creature has a face of a man, and the third Gospel presents the Lord Jesus as the Son of Man. Luke does that. Then the fourth living creature's like a flying eagle, and that communicates the deity of Christ as seen in the Gospel of John.

Now these living creatures also represent the animal world. In fact, all living creatures on this earth is suggested by Godet. The lion represents wild beasts, the ox represents domesticated animals, and the eagle represents birds and man here is the head of all creation.

Now somebody says, "Well, what about fish?" Well, in the new heavens and the new earth, there's not going to be any more sea. And since there's no sea, you won't need any fish, unless they're going to live on dry land. And reptiles, the serpent won't be there either to introduce sin as he did at the beginning.

Now let me read verse 8. "And the four living creatures had each of them six wings about them; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come." Now, these six wings immediately correspond to the seraphim in Isaiah, the sixth chapter. And I'm sure that when you read that verse, you think of the sixth chapter of Isaiah.

And instead of that they "had," it means "having." This is present tense. This is where the action is and it's taking place, and it's in present tense. And again, the thing that they say monotonously, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty." Now, that's the same refrain of the seraphim of Isaiah the sixth chapter again.

Now, "which was and is and is coming," that refers to Christ. He identified Himself, you'll remember, at the very beginning of this book in just that way. He said, "I'm Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending," saith the Lord, "which is, which was, which is to come." And so He's identified for us. We don't need to speculate in places like this.

Now in verses 9 and 11, let me read now the remainder of this chapter. "And when those living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, the four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

Now this is the first great worship scene that we have here in heaven. Praise and adoration is the eternal activity of God's creatures in heaven. The creature worships the Creator as the triune God. Holy, holy, holy. And worship is the activity of heaven.

Now, may I say this? You hear a great many people say, "Not everybody talking about heaven's going to heaven." Well, there's a better question than that that is suggested by that song, and that is, why do you want to go to heaven? What's the idea? To miss hell?

Well, I don't think that's an unworthy motive myself, but may I say to you, if you go to heaven, you're going to find yourself either getting down on your face or up off of it, worshipping the triune God, and especially the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now if you find worship boring down here and you're not interested in worshipping the Lord Jesus and expressing your heart's desire to Him, then why in the world do you want to go to heaven, friends? Because they're going to spend a lot of time up there worshipping Him.

Now, we are told here that the crowns of the church here are laid at Jesus' feet as an act of submission and worship. I think very frankly that we're going to get embarrassed wearing a crown around. So many people talk about there's going to be a crown for them over there. Well, I think that frankly that after we've worn it around a little and the new wears off, we're going to get embarrassed because what in the world are we doing wearing a crown? The only one worthy up there's the Lord Jesus, so we're going to put it at His feet—that is, if we get a crown to begin with.

Now you notice it's, "O Lord, Thou hast created all things." Now did you notice here? Dr. Walvoord in his very excellent book on Revelation calls attention to this, and I want to call attention to it. I think it's important.

If you'll notice that the living creatures here, they give glory and honor and thanks to Him that sat on the throne. They worship Him for His attributes because He is who He is. But the four and twenty elders, they represent the church. And they worship Him not just because of His attributes, but because of what He's done. And here they worship Him as Creator, but they worship Him because "Thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

In other words, the church comes out of this little earth and this is God's creation, and they join in the worship because He created this earth. Genesis 1:1 is accurate and the church believes it. And where it says here, "It's created for thy pleasure," it actually should be "because of thy will." This is very important to see, that the reason that God created this earth and things are as they are is because it was in His plan and purpose.

Now, I don't understand a great deal that He's doing. I don't understand a great deal about this universe that I live in, but I do know this: that it's created this way because that's the way He wanted it. He's in charge, and we're to worship Him because He created this little earth. I'm glad He did. And I'm glad He created me. He could have forgot all about me, and I'm glad He didn't. I'm glad I was in the plan and purpose of God. I'm glad He created, and so we worship Him because of that.

When we come to chapter 5 now, we actually just continue right on in this scene in heaven. You see, the church now is in heaven, and I think it's well for us to spend a little time here to get acquainted with where we're going. You wouldn't buy real estate in Florida, I'm sure, without seeing it.

I had an uncle that bought property down there, and he went down and he said he had some of the finest alligators that you've ever seen because all of his property was underwater. He bought it sight unseen. And there are people buying property here in California that way, and believe me, we've got a lot of desert here and you find out that you're sure going to get a whole lot of cactus when you buy a lot sight unseen.

Now if you're going to heaven, you want to know something about where we're going. And that is the reason this ought to be interesting to us. Now we see here the church is in heaven with Christ. He said, "Where I am, that's where you're going to be," and we're going to be with Him. Now we have that here in chapter 5 as well as chapter 4.

Now we have here in the first four verses the book with seven seals. And then we have Christ, the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Lamb which has been slain. It takes both of these to represent Him, and that's verses 5 through 10. And then we see myriads of angels of heaven, their created intelligences without number, and they join the song of praise and redemption because they're going to sing a new song there, and that's about redemption. That's verses 11 and 12. Then you have the universal worship of the Savior and Sovereign of the universe, verses 13 and 14.

Now this chapter, as we've indicated, continues the same theme as the preceding one. The scene is set in heaven preparatory to the events of the great tribulation period. And since the church is in heaven with Him, they sure couldn't go through the great tribulation down here on the earth.

Now the throne was the center of chapter 4, and the Lion and the Lamb, both of whom represent Christ, are the center of this chapter. For He is the Lamb on the throne. He is both Sovereign and Savior. He is in full charge of all the events which follow in this book. And let's don't lose sight of Him. That's very important.

Now let's look at this book with seven seals here in the first four verses. He says, "And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals."

Now let me give you now my translation: "And I saw on the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back, close sealed (that is, sealed tightly) with seven seals."

Now the way this chapter opens, "And," that is a connective, a little conjunction that says something went before. And that is the string that ties us into chapter 4, you see. That actually we don't need a chapter division here. I'm glad they made it, makes it a little helpful, but we don't really need it at all because it's all the same subject. "And I saw here on the right hand of him that sat on the throne."

Now John is the witness of these events, you see. This is something that he sees now. May I say to you, I think that we ought to bring all our senses to bear here in the Word of God, and especially in Revelation. John is seeing and he's hearing.

And one of the reasons that for years I used slides in my services and I used them quite frequently, and I received some criticism for it. They said you ought not to bring that into the church. Well, my friend, may I say to you, we need to see a lot of things today. We need to hear a lot of things, and the Word of God should grasp and lay hold of all of our senses: of tasting and smelling even. My, I tell you, there are certain scenes here in this book that you can smell them, and there are places where you can smell the fire and brimstone. And that's important.

Now we find here that God the Father holds in His hand a scroll which is rolled tightly and sealed closely with seven seals. Now it was the manner in that day, Stauffer is the one that calls our attention that the Roman law required a will to be sealed seven times, as illustrated in the wills left by Augustus and Vespasian for the ones that were to succeed them.

That was the method that was used. But we know in the book of Revelation that the number seven is not just an accidental number, or it wasn't used just because they used it in the Roman Empire, but it's interesting that seven was used.

Now Godet considers this the book of the New Covenant. Others label it the book of judgment. Walter Scott considers it the revelation of God's purpose and counsel concerning the world. It perhaps should bear no title, as it is, as Dr. Ironside has suggested, the title deed to this world.

And you find out that was God's method. You remember when the children of Israel were going into captivity, Jeremiah was instructed to have his servant to go and buy some property and to get the title deed to it because these people were going to be returned to the land.

Now I think that what you have here is a title deed. And who holds the title deed to this earth down here? Well, none other but the Lord Jesus. He alone has it. There are several explanations regarding this. I think probably I ought to turn to several passages of Scripture right at this point.

In the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel, verse 13, I read: "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed."

Now I believe that here you have a suggestion that what is being handed over to the Lord Jesus (and we'll see it will be handed over to Him) is the title deeds to this world in which you and I live. He created it, He redeemed it, it belongs to Him, and that is the picture that is given to us.

And you also have the same thing, you remember, in Zechariah. And you remember I told you in Zechariah that you need to know it to understand Revelation. In the fifth chapter he says, "Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll." Same thing.

"And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off."

And some think that the Ten Commandments are on this and that the world is to be judged according to those commandments. Well, I'm not sure that that is it. I rather have another suggestion that I want to make, but I'm going to have to wait until next time to make it. Until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: We'll have to wait until next time to hear Dr. McGee's other suggestion. So see you back here for that. Until then, if you'd like to dig deeper in God's Word yourself, why don't you download our app? Or visit ttb.org, or you can always call 1-800-65-BIBLE if we can help you find something specific. That's 1-800-65-BIBLE. I'm Steve Schwetz. May God bless you as you walk with Him in His Word.