says, "Well, let's begin, guys. Ready for me? We're going to go super in-depth because by the time I'm done, you'll be more in awe, more amazed at how beautiful and worthy Jesus is because I don't want to rush through this.
" And do stay focused. Now, let's go to the four living creatures. Here it is.
And before the throne, there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal, and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures. Now, watch their description. Get ready, brethren.
If you don't listen, you're going to miss it, please. And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings.
Please remember six wings. I'll smash my head against the wall if you forget this. And day and night they do not cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty, who was and who is, who is to come.
" Remember this part real quickly. Let me show you who they are. Isaiah 6.
And he sees the Lord in a visible form, seated on a visible throne. Saraphim. Pay attention how many wings they have.
Each having six wings. Sounds familiar. The two covered his face.
With two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. Now watch what they said. And one called out to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory. " Wait, that sounds like what the four living creatures said here. Revelation 4:8.
And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings like the seraraphim 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, who is, who is to come. " Oh, so the four living creatures are the saraphim.
But hold on, their description is also of another class of creatures. And I'm going to blow your minds away. Watch here.
And the first creature was like a lion. And the second creature like a calf and the third creature had a face like that of a man. And the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.
You know what these are? Lamaso right there. That's what John saw by the spirit in heaven.
Look at it. That's the four living creatures. But they combined them together into one.
You guys know this or no? Because it's from the Babylonian Persian. We found these statues which means they were aware of these spirit creatures.
So be before I move on, I'm going to show you that these four creatures that are the saraphim, they represent the livestock, humans, and the fowl of the air. Meaning they represent creation because every creature must give God the glory that is his due. And there's deeper meaning there.
In fact, some took these as representing or that the gospels represent each one of the four creatures, right? and also the four winds of the earth, the four directions of the earth, the four corners of the earth, meaning all creation of the earth is being represented before God. And yet they also say that the four gospels represent each one of the creatures.
Why? Luke represents Christ as perfect man. Matthew represents Jesus as king and the lion is the king.
Mark represents Jesus as the sacrificial bull, right? Burnt offering. And John represents Jesus as the flying eagle because the eagle source the heights above the earth.
And Jesus is not from the earth. He's from heaven above. Got it?
Now, now can I show you what else John is drawing from? We see that Isaiah 6, the seraraphim had six wings, and they cried out, "Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts. Oh earth is full of his glory.
" The same thing the four living creatures said. And they too had six wings full of eyes. But hold on.
I'm going to show you the other connection. So there's saraphim, but not only saraphim. Watch here.
But then this is going to pose a problem that I'm gonna have to solve. Remember lion, eagle, bull, man. These four living creatures have six wings and they say the same thing.
The seraphim say, "Holy, holy, holy. " But Ezekiel in chapter 1 sees these four creatures because God appears to him in a vision on earth in Iraq. The Kabar River in Iraq.
Ezekiel 1, the entire chapter. So I got to go through this. Watch Ezekiel 1.
The four living creatures have six wings like the seraraphim. Say what the seraphim say. So they're depicted as a seraraphim.
But now watch, they also are being depicted as these creatures. Now it happened in the 30th year on the fifth day of the fourth month while I was by the river. That's in Iraq by the way.
That river is still there. Kabad among the exiles that the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God on the fifth of the month in the fifth year of King's exile. Now who came to him?
The word of Yahweh came expressly Ezekiel the priest son of Buzzi in the land of the Chaldans. Calaldanss. Oo we're cool.
By the river Kabar and there hand of Yahweh came upon me. Then I looked and behold a storm wind was coming from the north. a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light all around it and in its midst something like the gleam of glowing metal in the midst of the fire.
You see how much Old Testament you must know before you come to the New Testament and Revelation. You can't deal with Revelation if you don't know the Old Testament, folks. You got to know your Old Testament or you're going to miss all of this.
And within it there were figures like the likeness of four living creatures. Isn't that what John saw? John saw the same throne, the same being, and the same creatures Ezekiel saw.
And this was the appearance. Now watch their appearance. They had the likeness of a man.
H And each of them had four faces and four wings. H and their legs were straight and their feet were like calves hoops. Oh, like a bull a calf.
Hm. And they sparkled like the gleam of burnish bronze. And under their wings, oh, they had wings.
Okay. What was there? Were hands of a man.
As for the faces and wings of the four of them, now watch. Their wings touched one another. Their faces did not turn as they went.
Each went straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, watch. Each of them had the face of a man.
All four had the face of a lion. Boy, that sounds familiar. On the right, and the face of a bull on the left.
And all h four had the face of an eagle. Where did I read that at? Man, lion, eagle, bull, four.
And each of them had the four faces. Now notice their shape has changed. Now each of them had these four faces.
When John saw them before the throne, one of them had one face. Their shape changed. What?
Now watch. Let's continue. And such were their faces.
Their wings were spread out above. Each had two touching another being. They're in a circle in a wheel and they're flying and God is above them.
And two covering their bodies and each went straight forward. Wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go without turning as they went. As for the likeness of living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire.
Burning coal of fire. That's what one of the seraph took from the altar and touch it on Isaiah's mouth to purify him of his sin. Isaiah 65-7.
like the appearance of torches going back and forth among living creatures. Their fire was bright and lightning was flashing from the fire, and the living creatures ran to and fro with the appearance of lightning. Then I looked at the living creatures, and behold, there was one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of four of them.
So they each had a wheel, huh? Wow. What an amazing sight.
The appearance of the wheels and their workmanship was like the gleam of barrel. And all four of them had the same likeness. their appearance and workmanship being as if one wheel were within a one another.
They were interconnected. Ever they went, they went in any of their four directions. Four directions, right?
Four corners of the earth, four winds, north, south, east, west without turning as they went. As for their rims, they were lofty and awesome. And the rims of all four of them were full of eyes all around.
It's going to get a little better. Watch here. Here's the juicy part because now watch who else appears now.
Over the heads of the living creatures, there was something like the likeness of an expanse, like the awesome gleam of crystal spread out over their heads. Something over their heads, like pavement. Now above the expanse, what does he see?
That was over their heads. There was something in the likeness of a throne, like sapphire stone in appearance. and upon the likeness of the throne.
So he sees what looked like a throne and someone on the throne who high up was the likeness of one with the appearance of a man. So he sees a human shape. And I saw from the appearance of his loins and upward something like the gleam of glowing metal with the appearance of fire all around within it.
And from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw something like the appearance of fire. That's exactly how Jesus appeared to John. Revelation 1.
And John reacted the same way. He fell at his feet. In other words, if you believe the New Testament is considered Old Testament, he was seeing Jesus coming down from heaven on the throne in a human form.
So he could realize this is God appearing to him and there was rain all around him as the appearance of the rainbow. The same rainbow that John saw in Revelation 4, the one on the throne. And that one wasn't Jesus, it's the father.
So was the appearance of the rain all around. So who did he see? Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh.
And I saw this and I fell on my face and heard a sound of a voice speaking. Got it? But who are these that Ezekiel saw?
Now in Ezekiel 10, guess what he calls them? Ezekiel 10:1 and2 he says they were the cherubam. Then I looked and behold expansive was over the heads of the cherubam something like a sapphire stone.
So they're cherubam. So hold on. John described them as having six wings saying holy, holy, holy.
Same thing the saraphim said in Isaiah 6 1-3. But then he describes them as the same four creatures that Ezekiel saw and Ezekiel said they were cherubam. What does that mean?
Does that mean saraphim and cherubam are the same? But according to our tradition, the cherubams and the seraraphim sepre are not the same. The answer was in Hebrews 1:7.
In speaking of the angels, he says, "He makes his angels spirits and his servants flames of fire. " Wait, they're spirits, but they can also appear as flames of fire. They can also appear as men, just men.
And you won't even know they're angels. Hebrews 13:es 1 and two. So, are you seeing that even when John sees the four living creatures, they appear differently from when Ezekiel sees them?
They don't appear the same. That means the spirit creatures have been endowed by God to change their shape and form so that the cherubam can resemble the seraraphim in having six wings without being seraraphim and say what the seraraphim said. Now angels not only appear as flames of fire, they can also appear as men.
Here Hebrews 13:1 and2 let love of the brothers continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. For by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Did you catch it? Angels will appear as men in order to test you whether you're going to show them love and hospitality or fail the test. So notice angels can appear as men, appear as woman, can appear as flames of fire.
So why would it shock you that the cherubim can change their shape so that each cherubim can have all four faces or only one of the faces and can have four wings but another time six wings because they can change their shape. So it doesn't mean the seraraphim are the same as the cherubam.
