In this sermon, the preacher begins by discussing the opening of a door in heaven as described in the book of Revelation. He suggests that this may be a figurative representation of John being able to see into heaven. The preacher then connects this to the idea that the Lord Jesus will come and open the door to search the Book of Revelation. Moving on to chapter 4, the preacher emphasizes the importance of believers taking advantage of the open door of opportunity to witness for God in these dark times. The sermon concludes with a reminder to those who may be alone or widowed that God is with them and cares for them.

Book of the Revelation, and we're at chapter four this evening, Book of the Revelation, chapter four. May I say before we start, it's good to see you all back in your places again, in spite of flu and weather, and I wish you all a very happy and blessed and peaceful and prosperous New Year. We're at chapter four this evening, and we're going through from verse one to the end of verse five. I know it is from one to six on your notes, but that's my mistake. I should have put down one to five, but I gave the typist one to six, so the blame is mine and I'm accepting it now. She's looking at me sideways. You see, when you're over forty you make mistakes, but it's not her mistake, and I have to get a bit of change out of it someway, so I will. When we're going through from one to five, and I want you to note this very carefully, the theme changes here. In the first three chapters, and we've gone through them carefully, you know that John, the writer here, John the Apostle, he was on the Isle of Patmos. Go back to chapter one and look at verse nine. Chapter one, verse nine, Our John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patient of Jesus Christ, was in the Isle of Patmos for the word of God and for the text, the money of Jesus Christ. He was held a prisoner there by Nero, and in the first three chapters, John was on the Isle of Patmos all alone, a prisoner there, suffering because of his testimony to Christ. And of course, I think you remember this, that Christ, in the first three chapters, was walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks. See verse ten, John said, I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last. Verse twelve, And I turned to see the voice that spake with me, and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, armed in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the Son of Man. And the last verse of that chapter tells us that the seven candlesticks which thou saw are the seven treasures. And so our Lord is walking in the midst of the seven treasures of Asia. Have you got the scene properly in the first three chapters? John is on the Isle of Patmos, and our Lord Jesus is walking in the midst of the treasures. Now the scene changes in chapter four, and that's very important. See how the chapter begins, chapter four, verse one? After this, and I think that the Spirit is underlining the two words, after this. You might stop and ask, after what? Well, after this wonderful scene of our Lord walking in the midst of the treasures, and marking all the activity, and scrutinizing all the service that was going on, and weighing every word, and measuring every motive. And then he wrote those seven letters to those seven churches. Now after this, one thing that we have underlined right through is this, that these seven churches were seven literal, local churches. The church in Ephesus, and then the church in Smyrna, then the church in Pergamon, then the church in Thyatira, the church in Sardis, the church in Philadelphia, and the church in Laodicea. These were seven actual, literal, local churches. But we notice something of the deep faith of God, and there are deep things in this book when you are helped by the Spirit. These are not only seven actual, local, literal churches, but some of us believe that these seven churches bring us seven pictures of the whole complete period of church history. And when we examine them, also this, the first church, let us see the first hundred years of church history, how the church lost its first love. And then Smyrna, and the very word means suffering, it comes from the word myrrh, and that gave us the period of the suffering church for two hundred more years. Then the word Pergamos, it is not only a place in Asia and not only a literal church, but the word Pergamos means the word gammas, in Greek means marriage, and Pergamos means mixed marriage. And this was the period under Constantine when the church, joined with the state, became married to the state. It has been the greatest blunder of church history, the church ever getting married to the state. Of course, immediately following that comes Thyatira, which brings us into the dark ages when Rome ruled, with all her priest craft and subtlety. And then, of course, Stardust brought us to the Reformation period, and to the shelter of the Protestants. And when the Lord looked down on the Protestant church, he said, Thou hast a name to live, and art dead. And I think he would say the same to us. And he owns men in this class, bless them, but they know as well as I do, that a great many of their companions only go to church once in the year, and they don't get to who's about God or the book either, and they talk about Protestants. They've got a name to live, and they're dead. And then, of course, Philadelphia brought us to the Greek period, when revivals came. And revivals came to the north of Ireland, and to Wales, and to America. And then we were looking at Laodicea the last night we were here, which is the seventh one And let us see the state of things today. The Lord looked at the Laodicean church and said, Thou art neither cold nor hot. And surely we have a lukewarm Christianity around us. If this view that so many take, and I take, if this view is correct, and these seven churches are giving us a complete picture of church history, then we have almost come to the end of Christianity. And there will come a moment when the church will be consummated, and Christ will come and take her home. You know, this is part in Christianity, that the Lord Jesus is coming back again and is taking the church away from this world. Let's go back and have a look at this. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 please, and we'll not spend too long with it, but we must establish this. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, and Paul is writing to these saints in the church of Thessalonica, and in verse 16 he said this. Now this is unmistakable language. 1 Thessalonians 4 verse 16, For the Lord himself, and I love these emphatic pronouns, because it just establishes the thing. The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout. That means he's coming back again, with the voice of the archangel, armed with the trump of God, and here's the first thing that will happen on this planet, and the dead in Christ. Now that's not all the dead, that's just the people that died in Christ. You know I worked for many a long year beside an old professor of surgery, and many times I stood at that old table and saw him lay a knife on a bare breast and the blood flowed. And once when he was taking a tumor out, and it's the big thing, and he'd worked for about five hours very carefully, the man just opened his finger like that on the table and he's gone. And he just took the knife and took it off the wall and walked off and walked out behind him. He said he's dead. I said I know that. I said how he died that matters sir. He said what are you talking about. I said you know when you come to the last analysis sir, you either die in Christ or you die in your sins. He looks at me, never spoke to me. He knew what I was talking about all right. There's a lot of people who die in their sins down here. There's a lot of dear old saints and they die in Christ. Well when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, the dead who have died in Christ shall rise. No general resurrection about that in this book. That's the dead in Christ. That's what it says in your book. Of course the muddlers get it muddled. What's the next bit? Verse seventeen. Then we, who is he talking to? Who is the we? The general public? What on your life? He's writing to believers. Then we believers which are alive and remain, because it's possible even we believers in this place might be alive and remain on this planet when Jesus comes. We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And the consummation of the church has come. You see that's very wonderful. Because that's there a long time now. And that must be fulfilled. Are we getting the influence? You know Britain entered yesterday into the common market. The European economic community it is called. I came to this church to teach this book about twenty years ago. And I remember when I came I gave some prophetic lectures. I wanted to interest the people of this town. And of course I took a week or two about the United States of Europe. This common market as it's called. And Churchill first called it the United States of Europe. I think it's a great name for it. But in those days you know folks looked at it very carefully and didn't take it in and couldn't possibly accept it. And a lot of people thought I was a fool. And down through the years I've repeatedly gone back to it. Well yesterday Britain entered the United States of Europe. I'm not so thrilled because I said that long ago. Well I'm thrilled because the United States of Europe are just the same to me as the ten toes of Daniel's image. Way back yonder, way six hundred years before Christ came, God gave a revelation to Daniel in Babylon of all places of the whole outline of Gentile history. From the realm of the Babylonians, the first great Gentile empire, down through the Mediterraneans and the Greeks, down to Rome, and then this revived Roman Empire formed under ten toes. Now admittedly there are only nine. But the other one will be seen one of these days, could well be Spain, doesn't matter, it'll come along all right. Now this book declares this, that when Babylon had run its course in Mediterranean, Greece and Rome and the ten toes had appeared, then Christ would come from heaven and smite the toes. Now that's not the coming we're looking at in 1 Thessalonians 4. 1 Thessalonians 4 is the Lord himself coming to the air and taking the church out. Now if he took the church out tonight a lot of people would be left behind and the common market would go on, it would be better without us. But I'll tell you this, they're going to have tribulation down here, they're forming up for it now pretty well all over the world, and there'll be seven years of it, and at the end of the seven years the Lord will smite the toes. Now take this as reasoning, just as reasoning. If the toes are appearing now, and there must go seven years before they're smashed, how near are we to the Lord's coming to the earth? Nearer than what you think. This old world may be finished as far as the church is concerned. Paul writing to Timothy about the last days of the church, he says, in the last days of church history perilous times shall come. He wouldn't like to argue me out of it, sure he wouldn't. We're in perilous times. You're hardly safe going to your work. And I'm against these murders, whether they come from the Protestant side or the Catholic side. I'm totally and wholeheartedly against it. But let's get the hold of this. Let's go back to Revelation 4. Now you see we've come through the first three chapters, and we've seen John on Patmos, and these seven chapters, and if it is true that they picture for us the whole course of church history, then at verse 22 of chapter 3, church history ends. Chapter 4 begins like this. After this, I looked. John's getting the revelation. And behold, a door was opened in heaven. It's just the man you're saying, you know. He's standing on Patmos. But somehow there's a door opened in heaven. Don't ask me to explain it, I don't know. It may be only a figure of speech to teach you and I that John was seeing the way clear into heaven. But after the church said, John looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet speaking with me. It's the same voice as in chapter 1, the Lord Jesus, which said, Come up heaven. You know, this is actually going to take place one of these days. We are almost at the end of church history. The Lord himself will come. That will open the door. And he'll shout. And as the shepherd of the sheep, only the sheep will hear his voice. And I think he'll shout, Come up heaven. And we'll leave this land of sin and fire for a better summer land. It's wonderful to see that the thing has shifted. Actually, it has changed from earth to heaven. You see, after this, I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven. And the first voice, which was Christ's, which said, Come up heaven. And he also said to John, And I will show the things which must be hereafter. And I can tell you this, that the things that come on after this, just after this point, are the dreadful things which yet to be in this world. When we get this throne properly established, and we see the land that's fairer than day, and it'll take two chapters to do it, four and five, then we'll begin to see the terrible things which must hereafter happen on this very earth. And they will happen. And they're forming up for it now. I think that you can see the thing has changed. You see, in the first three chapters, we were looking at the Lord in the midst of the churches. Now, in the next two, we shall be looking at the Lamb in the midst of the throne. You see, if you go on into chapter five there just for a moment, John says in verse six, And I beheld and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain. You see, this is our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb glorified. You remember when I was preaching on the Lamb one night, and I began away at Genesis. And you have the Lamb prophesied there. And then we went into Moses, and you have the Lamb typified there. Then when you come to John the Baptist, we have the Lamb identified. He said, Behold the Lamb. He identified the person. And when you come to Calvary, you have the Lamb crucified. And when you come here, you have the Lamb glorified. It is the Lord Jesus in the midst of the throne. So the scene has moved, it has shifted. This is important for future studies. John has even taken from Patmos to heaven. Actually, the Lord is just doing this to John, letting him see, as it were, in a visit, what Paul already knew and taught by revelation. That the whole church would be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. But we're doing five verses tonight, and I've split them into three headings. I want to have a look at the journey of John, and then we want to have a look at the confidence of Christ. Because there are one or two things here I must underline for you about Christ. And then we must look at the transcendence of the throne, this throne of God above. Now look how carefully this first verse is done. After this, and I think he's underlining the period, isn't he? After this, behold, a door was opened in heaven. And I think he's underlining the place. And I heard, as it were, a voice, and I heard, and the first voice which I heard was, as it were, of a trumpet talking with me, which said, and I think this identifies the person. It's the same person as we saw in chapter one. And I heard a voice like a trumpet behind me saying, and John turned to see the voice that spoke with him. But I want you to get the hold of this. Not so much about the period or even the place of the person for a moment, but the purpose of taking John. The purpose was, I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And the whole book of Revelation from that point onward is a revelation of things that will happen after the church is gone. I want you to get that, because that's very important. That's very important. You can see the journey of John. It brings the confirmation of the church age. And we needn't go into that again. And you can see the revelation of the open door. You know, that would make a great subject for some of you young preachers. Because this door is mentioned many times in Scripture, and there are different kinds of doors. I wonder, do you remember the ones we've already touched? Let's go back to chapter two for a moment. Chapter three, it says, verse eight, the Lord speaking to the church in Philadelphia. He says, I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. Now, that's the door of opportunity for the believers. And I believe in these days in which we're living, dark, devilish, diabolical days, I believe the Lord has opened a door for us to go in and testify. It's the opportunity to witness for Him. And we need to do it, you know. Men are ready to listen, you know. Men are ready to listen. You see, each evening as I unfold this book to you, you can see that it's being kept by quite a number, and there's a lot more in that back room. And these tapes go all over the world. But this is very interesting, and I had a letter last week of the head shootman of the Queen. He's a very dear brother in the Lord. He belongs to the brethren. But he gets the tapes from this place every Tuesday. And there are a lot of other servants in the palace who are also servants of the Lord. And once a week they gather in his room, and he plays over the message from this place, usually following on, of course, behind us. This one he will be playing next week. And the other evening about five of them were sitting and the door opened, and along the corridor came Prince Philip. Stopped in the doorway and leaned in and listened. Listened on till the end. Then when it was turned off he said, Who's the preacher? And the fellow said, Willie Mullin from Northern. Thank him for saying it like that. Glad he didn't say Pastor Mullin, that would have messed it up a bit. But they do get around here. And the message gets out. And my dear friends, this old word gets about. There's a door open for us. The church, they're getting through doors. And we print little books here. And they go all over the world. And there's a door open for you. Maybe it's over the garden walls or the room next door. Because if the Lord comes and takes you home one of these days and leaves you at the line, you'll be sorry. It's a door open for you. It's the door of opportunity, isn't it? That's the door where he sends his servants to the world. The one in chapter 4 is the one where he takes his servants from the world. There's another one in chapter 19 where he comes to the earth. This is where he comes to the world. It's an open door. I'll let you say this to you, that I've got ten walls here. You find them. I'm not just here to do all the messages for you. You just find them. There's a lot of open doors there. Yes, this is the figure of speech that shows John that the way into heaven is prepared. And there's not only the confirmation of the church age here and the revelation of the open door, but there's the invitation to the aged apostle, come up heaven. This is just one of the ways the Lord has of showing John what the great apostle Paul had already preached about. Now, I want you to notice the translation. John says, and immediately. That's faster than the spaceship goes to the moon, you know. Faster. This old book says when Christ himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, in 1 Corinthians 15 it says, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, just like a flash, we'll be with the Lord. What a moment it'll be. What a blessed moment. If it happened now, I don't know how you'd go through the roof, but you'd go through it. And there'd be some of you left sitting here. Not Alex, but you are. And you'd be lost, remember, because the door would be shut there. He's shutting the door when we go in. If you're left knocking, you're damned. Yes, you can see the confirmation here, and you can see the revelation, and the invitation, and the translation. Immediately, I was in the Spirit. Now, I want to just touch on the confidence of Christ in you, because you can bypass this very easily. You know, when he looked down and saw John on the island of Patmos, and said, come up hither, he was absolutely confident that he had the power to remove John to heaven. There's no doubts about it. And you know, the Lord is confident that when he steps from the throne into the air, and shouts, he'll pick the church up. Don't you have any problems about it? Your science can't measure this. He just shouts, and we rise. But meet the Lord in the act of the word, and the Greek is, What now? She's like a magnet lifting pennies. It is no problem. What power. Now, I want you to notice this little bit, because you can easily miss this in reading the Scriptures. He was not only confident that he had power to remove the church, because John, as he figured, that the church, as we'll see in a moment, but he was also confident that he could reveal the hereafter. He says, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. Don't tell me he doesn't know. These old modernists come around and try to tell me Jesus doesn't know. What ignoramuses they are. They amuse me with their ignorance. They don't seem to know that Jesus Christ was God. You're not trying to tell me God doesn't know. I'm telling you that when he called John here, he said, come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And when we go through the chapters carefully as we're doing now, from 6 right through to 19, every phrase, I tell you there will be nights when we'll really shake in our shoes about the things that's going to happen hereafter on this planet after we go. That's what he's going to tell you. So you can see the journey of John, and you can see the confidence of Christ. Now I want you to take a moment to see with the throne in heaven tonight. I think this is worth doing. I've called it the transcendence of the throne. You can see the throne was in heaven all right. Verse 2, and immediately I was in the Spirit. For this mighty power that works this medical and all others is the Spirit of God. And behold, a throne was set in heaven. Now this is heaven's throne, make no mistakes about this. This is the throne that we now call the throne of grace. You know, each night now we can close our eyes and by faith we can go right to the throne of grace. There's a way open. He hath opened a new and living way for us, and we can go right into the throne. And he absolutely teaches us to come boldly to the throne of grace where we may obtain mercy, and we always need mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. And every home in Ulster needs the grace of God just now. Grace to help in time of need. It's the throne of grace. As John gets closer, it's the throne in heaven. It's the throne of God. But in a moment or two we're going to learn that it will be the throne of judgment for this earth. Because things are coming from above. And God is going to smite this earth. It will be the throne of judgment for this earth. The throne in heaven, I think you can see the place of the throne. Now, I think we must be very careful about this. Redson said, and immediately I was in the spirits, and behold a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and far-dying stone. Now, what a way to describe a person. You need to look at this description. Why does it say that he looks like a jasper and far-dying stone? Does this tell us anything about him? Is this sort of language used just because of the glory and the majesty and the magnificence of the one upon the throne? It may well be, but I think it's far deeper than that. I think there's a very deep truth here, and I think when you get down to see what I want to show you, you'll say it's wonderful. I want you to have a look at the two stones now. He that sat was to look upon like a jasper. Try and get that into your mind. A jasper and a far-dying stone. Sardos is the word. And these are two stones well known to those who work with precious stones. Now, I wonder, do you remember us doing the high priest's garments? I think you do. Do you remember that the high priest had a breastplate and a stone? Of course, in those days, I made a model of the high priest, and I only took the breastplate off him today. It was like this. And the breastplate had got twelve stones, four doors, three in each room. Maybe we'd better see this in the scriptures. Let's have a look at this. It's the book of Exodus, chapter twenty-eight. Book of Exodus, chapter twenty-eight. And it's commencing to read at verse fifteen. Exodus, twenty-eight, verse fifteen. And the Lord is talking to Moses, and He's saying to him, And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work. After the work of the ephod thou shalt make it of gold, of blue, of purple, of scarlet, fine, fine linen. You see, I did that long ago. It's made of gold, of blue, of purple, of scarlet, of fine, fine linen. Of course, the gold was actually a metal woven in the linen. They beat the gold into thin plates, cut it into wires, and wove it into the linen. You know, it's a metal and a material put together. That was very wonderful. I went down to a reach one day, and they know more about weaving than I'll ever know. And I asked them, did they ever weave metal and material together? And they did. The weaver in front of me normally said. It's not done so much now, but it has been done. They have woven metal and material together. Now, the metal was gold. Gold is something that's everlasting. It's unchanging. It's like God. The linen comes from cloths. It comes from earth. Was this a type of the incarnation? Is deity and humanity getting joined together with Cunningham? Oh, yes, it was. Oh, I know the old folk, the muddlers that I'm talking about. They don't see anything, and they tear the pages out. They just think that God was talking nonsense to Moses. That he says you should make the best place of judgment of gold, of blue, of purple, of scarlet. I find them not a bit of it. It's a type of Christ. And not only is Christ seen in the gold as God, and seen in the linen as man. But when you come to blue, it's the color of the heavens, isn't it? Well, the one who is God and man is the Lord from heaven. When you come to the purple, it's the royal color. It belongs to royalty. And the one who is God and man and Lord is king. Born king of the Jews. When you come to scarlet, it speaks of suffering. And the one who is God and man and Lord and king, he will rise in person. Now, when they got the best foundation made, then they put in the stones. Have a look at your text again. Verse 16 we're at now. Exodus 28, 16. Four square it shall be being doubled. A span shall be the length thereof. A span shall be the breadth thereof. And thou shalt set in it setting of stones, even four rows of stones. Twelve stones, you see, one for each trial. The first row, the first stone actually, shall be what? Hardness. That one that we were thinking about back there. That's the first one. What's the last one? Oh, go on down quickly so you see. Verse 20, the fourth row, a burl, a nonnix, a jasper. See the two stones that's mentioned in Revelation? They're the first and the last. It's just the wonderful way that the Holy Ghost has of putting truth into this book and you've got to take your time to find it. You've got to dig in all the wells deep. The one that's seated upon the throne that John saw, he's the first and the last. That's the way God has of saying that you've got to find it or I've got to find it for you. I think that's very thrilling you know. That's most thrilling. I couldn't have planned the first and last out like that, could I? Had nothing to do with the writing of this and it's a good job. Now let's go back to Revelation. I think you can see the person on the throne all right. And you know I think I should take the time to say this. You know if you go back to the first chapter of Revelation, see the first chapter, you know John hears the voice and he turns to see who spoke with him. And the moment he turned in verse 13 it says, And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one light unto the Son of Man, and then he sees him in all his glory. Verse 17 says, And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, and he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last. Now here's what I want to say to you and I want to say this very quickly. You know you may be alone or widowed this evening. Dear old lady who's lost her husband and her children are gone, and there are some such widows in this, and some of them not so old in this meeting. Now let me speak carefully to you. The one that sits on the throne above who is the ruler of the universe, he's quite willing to come to you in your loneliness and touch you. When John was alone, and there was nobody with him, and his friends had gone, and he was suffering, it was the first and the last, the one that sat on the throne who came down to his loneliness and laid his right hand upon him, saying unto him, Fear not, I am the first and the last. He'll be with you dear. Somewhere in the shadows of your wee homeless evening, even if there goes off a blast in this town of ours, somewhere in the shadows you'll find him. He'll look after you. If you belong to him, let me tell you this. There will nobody shoot you, unless he allows them to. And if he allows them, it will shoot me. This was great conflict there. But let's get on with this. Let's go back to this. We're at the third, we're at the fourth spectrum. And we're looking at the throne. Verse 2. Immediately I was in the spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne, and he that sat with him looked upon like a jasper, and a sardine, or a charge of stone. First and the last. And here's a lovely little bit. And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. It was a green rainbow, and we'd never seen a green rainbow. Actually, the word in the Greek that's translated rainbow is also translated halo. Of course, you would understand that, wouldn't you? It's just a bright thing in a circle all round. You know what a halo is, you know what a rainbow is, you know what the bright colors are. But now, maybe it's nearer of the Greeks to say rainbow. But halo helps you to imagine the thing anyway. You know, the rainbows are tremendous things. You remember when the flood came, and after it was gone, that God entered into a covenant with Noah. He said, I'll never destroy the world by a flood again. You see, he gave Noah a token of his covenant. It was the rainbow. And he said, when you see that in the sky, you'll know that I have made a covenant with you. This is the messenger of the covenant, this is fit for you. Now, this is very wonderful, because when our Lord Jesus came to this earth, he was called the messenger of the covenant. Actually, it says in Malachi, the Lord shall come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant shall enter right in. So the Lord Jesus is the messenger of the covenant. In fact, I believe with all my heart, of course, that the rainbow is a type of Christ. First of all, it's the messenger of the covenant. You know about the bow, don't you? Do you know about an Indian's bow, or not? Of course you do. When we were boys, we all played at this game. Well, you know, when an Indian pulls the string, and the bow is towards me, you're under judgment. But the rainbow bow is not towards you, it's away from you. Go on the other way. The bow is not towards you at all. Because the Lord didn't come into this world to destroy man's life. It came to save us. You see, he's not only the messenger of the covenant, he's the savior of the world. You see, he can take all the colors of the rainbow. Well, you know this better than I do. We have so many university students and scientists here. You know that when you put all these colors through a prism, the colors, these are the colors that go to make light. And you see, he was the light of the world. He's the messenger of the covenant, he's the savior of the world, he's the light of the world. You know, he was a sage man, and a sage man had to be this. He must be able to touch God and touch men. And the top bit of the rainbow touches the highest point in the heavens. And the bottom red went down into the valleys of earth. Oh, this is very like Christ. Now we want to get the hold of this. That as he sits upon the throne of heaven, this rainbow, this emerald rainbow, now that's very wonderful, you know. Because if you go back to the stones again, let's go back to the stones again. This is the book of Exodus 28. Exodus 28. Verse 17, Thou shalt set in it settings of stones even four rows of stones. The first row, Sardis, Topas, Carbuncle. That's the first three on the top. The second row, the first one, is an emerald. Now, it's the fourth stone, isn't it? The fourth stone mentioned. Now, not only were there stones on this desert, but on each stone was inscribed the name of a tribe. So I had to do a bit of thinking. Whose name is on the emerald? Who was the fourth son of Jacob? Reuben was first. Simeon was second. Levi was third. Who was fourth now? One of the scholars. Judah was fourth. You know, it was from the tribe of Judah that the lion of the tribe of Judah would come. The king of kings. What does the word Judah mean? If you go back to Genesis 30 sometime you'll find out. It means praise. Actually, when old Jacob was talking to Judah he said, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. And let me say that when we get to heaven and see the throne, and see the first and the last upon the throne, the whole place will be filled, covered with his praises. It's a great book. You've paid attention to the book, you know. We don't take it the way we should. We just read it over and gallop through. And then you say, how do you find it? Take your time. Now, I think you can see this. There's a promise above the throne that he'd be praised forever and ever. I think that the green and everlasting, the evergreen, and his praises shall be forever and ever. Now, let's get the hold of this. Very forward with that now. And round about the throne. You see, you can see the place of the throne and the person of the throne and the promise above the throne. But this is round about the throne. It's the people actually round about the throne. Round about the throne were four and twenty sheep stand upon the sheep. I saw four and twenty elders sitting clothed in white raiment. And they had on their heads crowns of gold. Now, you have a right to ask, who are these four and twenty elders? Well, you can't guess, you know. You're not allowed to guess. I don't guess. I could be a blasphemer by guessing. I'd never do it. If I don't know, I shall have to say I don't know. But when we get into chapter five, it will be easy enough. But we'll take a bit out of five just now. Go over to chapter five just for a moment. Verse six. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had been trained, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came, the lamb came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And we'll come to that when we're at that chapter and you'll see the meaning all right. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders, that's the boys we're thinking about just now, fell down before the lamb, having every one of them hearts and gold and vials full of orbs, which are the prayers of the saints. And they, the four and twenty elders, they sung a new song saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the fields thereof, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us through God by thy blood out of every kindred and common people in Egypt. Do you know who they are now? Well, they're the redeemed. That's who they are. Now, why did God say twenty-four? You see, when we were looking at Christ's coming, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, I think that all the sheep of this dispensation will hear his voice and rise to meet him. It says, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and with the voice of the archangel. Now, what's the archangel got to do with this? Well, you see, we've been through this when we were looking at the book of Daniel. And the archangel has to do with the Jewish nation. In fact, it was he who was there at the resurrection of Moses when the devil was annoyed that Moses should be raised from the dead. You see, when the archangel shouts, all the Jewish saints of the old dispensation will rise too. You see, there were twelve tribes that were the foundation of the nation of Israel. There are twelve apostles who were the foundation of the church of Christ. We are built upon the foundation of the apostles. And when you get the two twelves together, this is one of the ways God has in the wonder of his book of showing us the complete saints, the complete body of saints in heaven. And they sing, Thou art worthy for thy last slain and hast redeemed us by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. And this is the people before the throne. Will you be there? As God gave John this picture it will be hard to do it in this sort of language. Can you be there? Jesus came tonight, would you go? Can you sing this song? My dear friends, I stood by an old man's bed not too very long ago. I said, Mr. Conley, are you going to heaven? I am, he said. On what ground? He says, well, I did nobody any harm. I have always paid my debt. I was good to the orphans. I gave money to the orphans. I said, what do you think they will do in heaven? He says, there will be no war there. I said, that's right. He says, the same. Do you know what the same is? No. I will read it to you. So read it to us. They sing, Thou art worthy for thy last slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood. They sing about Christ. They sing about Calvary. They sing about the blood. And they don't talk about their money or what they did or anything else. I said, can you sing it, Mr. Conley? He says, I can't sing it. He says, you're not going. Friend, are you going? Only if you know Christ. Only if Calvary means everything to you. Only if you're washed in the blood of the Lamb. That's what they sing about up yonder. He says, you can't sing it. You're not going. Let's have another look at the throne. Verse 5. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. I think that this speaks of the fullness of the fury of the wrath of God against Philos. And that I shall prove when we come to chapter 6. But out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne which are the seven spirits of God. I think this is the fullness of the Spirit who is also on the throne because he's one of the great persons of the Godhead. You see, you have the fullness of the fury against sinners and you have the fullness of the spirits of blessed saints. You know, there's a fullness in the throne for you tonight and you can be blessed if you only go in and ask God to bless you. Following on with the chapter next week again.