Holy, Holy, Holy

RV82-02

© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1993)

Please turn with me to the book of the Revelation as we continue studying worship in the throne room of God. This is segment number six.

The Four Living Creatures

We've seen that, in God's heavenly throne room, the apostle John sees the Father's throne surrounded by four cherub class angels. These four angels are called living creatures, or living beings. This name is particularly designed to stress the fact that they have life. They are possessors of life. The responsibility of these cherub type angels is to guard the Father's holiness, and to execute His decrees in the government of creation. The nature of the Father's government over creation is symbolized by the faces on these four living creature angels.

The Four Gospels

The character of the Father's divine government has been demonstrated by the Lord Jesus Christ. This we saw reflected in the four gospels. One of the living creatures has the face of a lion which symbolizes the sovereign authority of God's government as pictured in the book of Matthew. One has the face of an ox, which symbolizes the servant character of God's government as pictured in the gospel of Mark. One has a human face, symbolizing the humanity of God's government in Jesus Christ as pictured in the gospel of Luke. And one has the face of an eagle, which symbolized the dignity of God's government in Jesus Christ as pictured in the gospel of John.

The Holy God Almighty

At this point, John looks more closely at the four living creatures, and he observes, and he hears something of enormous significance. We're referring now to Revelation 4:8: "And the four living creatures each had six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within. They do not rest, day and night, saying, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God Almighty, Who was, and is, and is to come." This is a tremendous statement. It's a revelation about the person of the true and only God, which is interjected at this point for a very specific purpose. It's a revelation about the existence and the personality of God, which is of enormous importance.

Satan is having unbelievable success today in using the mysticism of Eastern religions to discredit both the existence of God and the nature of God. He promotes a great lie. Please remember that originally there was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – the one true living Creator God. That God produced the human race in the form of Adam and Eve. That human element was contaminated by the influence of Satan. The nature of that contamination was that Satan came to the woman, and he inquired, first of all, about the tree that God told her not to eat of. She said, "Yes, that is that tree right there. We can have all the fruit of the garden, but we must not eat of this one tree. It is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God says that if we touch it, we die," which wasn't quite the way it was. It was that if they would eat of it, they would die.

Satan came right back with a thought that immediately captivated the mind of Eve. He said, "Eve, that is not true. The reason God doesn't want you to touch that tree is because God does not want you to realize something about yourself. What he does not want you to realize is that you are God too." The result of her believing that, and the falling into sin of the human race, was that there came two lines of information: one we call divine viewpoint; and, the other we call human viewpoint. Divine viewpoint is summarized in the Judeo-Christian doctrines which portray a God Who is out there; Who is a personality; and, Who has created a universe. He is separate from that creation. God is over here, and His creation is over there.

Judeo-Christianity

That divine viewpoint line of truth concerning deity has been transmitted through the Judeo-Christian truth. That is one religious system in the world. There is only one other religious system in the world, and today that transmits the basic concept that Satan expressed to Eve: Hinduism. These are the only two religious systems in world. All of the religious systems fall under one of these two. They may fall under the Judea-Christian concept, and their corruptions of it. The heretical concepts of the Roman Catholic Church is a corruption of Christianity. Islam today is a corruption of Judaism. Every one of them falls under one of these two.

Hinduism

The other category is all of the various eastern religions. You have Buddhism; Shintoism; Taoism; and, so on. They're all variants of Hinduism. You need this frame of reference, because this is the significance of this verse. Under the Eastern religious systems (under Eastern mysticism) is portrayed the concept that there is not a God who is separate from His creation, but that everything is God. This post is God. That chair is God. You are God. This overhead projector is God. Everything is one. There is one life, and it is all expressed in a variety of ways. That was the significance of what Satan was saying to Eve: "Eve, if you eat of that tree, you're going to make an amazing discovery. You're going to discover that life is one." That is sometimes described as "monism," because it says that there is only one source of life – everything is life.

You're going to see that that has enormous consequences. There was a time when few Americans didn't care a Fig Newton about Eastern mysticism. Now there are millions upon millions of Americans who either, through the front door of transcendental meditation, or a variety of other approaches, have entered the beliefs of Hinduism; or, through the back door, which is drugs. There are people who have gotten on drugs, and who have had out-of-the-body experiences, which you do have on drugs, and who have communicated with spirits out there, and who have learned what they believe to be real truth, who have suddenly discovered that they are Hindus – that they believe exactly what Hinduism teaches. That is the basic line of thought that Satan is promoting to the world in order to counteract the concept of a God who is separate from His creation, and who is a holy God.

Part of this concept, therefore (that everybody is God), is that we are all progressing upward in our stages of deity, and that there already are beings out there. That's why you have millions of gods in Hinduism. There are beings out there who have already progressed well above us. They're well ahead of us, and they are acting as our protectors, as an older brother acts as a protector over younger children in the family.

Science Fiction Movies

In the 1950s, we used to have these movies about alien creatures coming from outer space. Always, in that era, when the aliens came, they called out the army to destroy them. They were viewed as potential dangers to the human race. Suddenly you notice that the movies have changed. Now we have a series of movies of creatures who are of a higher life form (of higher development). They show up on the scene as in the E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial movie, for example, as a lizard-looking-like creature who comes, and who is benevolent. They're no longer calling out the army to destroy these aliens. They're welcoming them as creatures who have come to defend us, and to help us to keep from destroying ourselves because of our technology that we can't control. And these creatures have all those amazing, marvelous supernatural powers. In E.T., you saw that creature who, when the boy cut his finger, brought a glowing finger, and the boy's eyes got wide, and the creature touched his finger, and it was healed. The creature himself, when he died, and the boy wept over him in his love for this creature, suddenly came to life. It had the ability to resurrect itself. There was this amazing capacity of this creature who had gotten left behind inadvertently from the space vehicle that had to leave.

The whole point is that something has changed. The Eastern gurus control spirit powers that are absolutely tremendous. All of the gurus operate on that which is for real. In the 1920s, when a famous guru came to the United States, he was demonstrating that kind of power in India. He thought the time was right that he should come to expand this knowledge of the truth to the American people. When he got over to this country, his powers left him. He was helpless. So, he finally went back to India, just completely bewildered. Do you know why he couldn't do it? It was, because, at that point in time, the United States was truly a Christian oriented nation. When he walked into the climate of a society that, by and large, functioned on divine viewpoint principles, satanic principles could not operate. "Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world."

Now the gurus come over here and they had no problem (no trouble) in our society functioning just as they do in India. They promote this devastating big lie that God is not separate from creation, and that everything is God.

Now, John comes along, and he looks, and he sees, and he hears something that is a dramatic declaration. There is a God; He is separate from creation; and, He is not identical with it. Today, Satan has moved into high gear through Hinduism and its offshoots in order to convey the impression that there is not a God out there who is separate, and that we are all gods. This whole business of self-consciousness that you hear about – do you know what the purpose of it is? Self-consciousness means for you to go through a system of meditation, and of emptying yourself, until finally you come to the realization that you are God. That's what Satan was telling you. He said, "Eve, you've forgotten who you are." And that's what the Eastern mysticism tells us: "We have forgotten that we are gods." When the Hindus meet one another, they put their hands together in front of their faces and they bow to one another. The Japanese do that bowing. Do you think that is just a matter of courtesy? No, it has far more significance than that. When they do that, they are recognizing the god-man in you. They are bowing because you are God. Whether you realize it or not, you are a god.

Isn't it interesting that this concept is spilling over, for example, on the Judeo-Christian side, into Mormonism today? What is the epitome of the Mormons' goal, but to become God, and to realize that he is indeed deity? And that's where he's headed.

This attack is moving into high gear. There is no way that Satan is going to be able to outmaneuver God unless he removes the concept of God from the minds of people. For millions of Americans, it is gone.

The Unity Movement

A few weeks ago, there was an article in the paper about a man who is in the Unity movement. This is another one you can add: the Unity cult. It's a big operation here in Dallas. This man has a program on the radio. It's called "Five Minutes that will Change your Life." It is really five minutes that will foul up your life. Well, I caught him on the radio recently, and I tell you, he went right down the line on Eastern mysticism like you couldn't believe. I mean, he came right out and said, "Just say to yourself, God, You are there, and I am here, and we are one. So, you couldn't put it more explicitly. I was fascinated how, one-after-another of satanic lies this man was promulgating on this radio program. He comes on three times a day. And what is he giving you? He's basically teaching the religion of Hinduism, and teaching you to realize who you are, and to realize that you're deity, and to realize there is no evil and there is no good: all is as is.

India

When you stop and think of that hocus-pocus, you know, that's saying a lot. Do you catch the point? If God is everything; all life is God; and, all life is deity, then everything evil in the world has to be part of God too. If everything is an expression of God, then everything evil has to be an expression of deity. I heard the person on this radio program being interviewed. The interviewer said, "Jack, what happens when you die?" He said, "Well, the first thing you must realize is that once you are separated from the body, you are a spirit being, and nothing bad can happen to you." I said to the radio, "Oh, yes, it can. There is a lot of bad that can happen to you." What was he saying? He was saying, "Don't worry about it out there, because God is everything. There is no evil. There is no good. There is no bad. Whatever is bad is an illusion, but it is just moving up to the place where you are going to finally come to self-realization of your godhood. India is a tremendously rich country in natural resources, but it is the lowest on the totem pole in standard of living, practically, of any country in the world. Rats by the millions run around eating a lot of the foreign-aid food that Americans send over there, because rats are gods. In India, cows are gods.

I told you about the little boy who almost killed his aunt with the weights, and later became a Christian. One of the things that began to put him in doubt was the fact that they had a cow. He realized that a cow is one of the most supreme expressions of deity in Hinduism. Every morning, he would worship his cow for about an hour, and then he would untie her, and take her out to the pasture. One morning, as he got down and worshiped her, she charged him, and he barely got out of the way. He said, "Why would my God try to kill me?" He could not understand? So, they will not eat a cow. They'll starve, and they'll die, but they won't eat the cow. The cows will multiply, and they will eat the food that people need. The people who die have been permitted to die because it is an act of kindness.

Here's a beggar who's starving to death. Do you realize that if you go up to him and give him some food, or give him some money, what you have done to him? You've messed up his chance of working out his karma, haven't you? Why is he a beggar? Why is he starving? Why is he suffering this physical ailment? It's because of something he did in a previous life. What's the kindest thing you can do to him? Let him work out his suffering, so that at his next reincarnation, he can come into the higher state.

So, India is a country of suffering, poverty, and death. The reason India is like that is because of Satan's big lie in the other religion of the world: Hinduism. That's why India is where it is today. The system of reincarnation comes in as a way of explaining how you're going to progress higher and higher up. If all life is one, that also demonstrates to us that we don't have to worry about what is right or what is wrong, because there can be no evil. It's just different expressions. So, from ancient times, one of the basic tenets of Hinduism has been that you must work out your own lifestyle. Today, we say, "Doing your own thing." And whatever you do, that's it. There is no right, and there is no wrong. There is no evil, and there is no good.

This is horrible, horrible stuff. So as Donald Curtis said in this program on the Unity program from the Unity church: "Look within yourself, and you will find the truth." That's when I talked to the radio again. I said, "That's Hinduism." That's exactly what's going on. That is the precise view that most Americans have. Once you become aware of this, you're going to see it all around you.

Satan

So, Revelation 4:8 is a significant verse. The four living creatures make a statement about God, which deals with the heart of Satan's, counterfeit, false, religious picture about God. Unless Satan can pull off this concept that all life is one, and all life is deity, he will not be able to pull off his rebellion against God. It all hangs on that.

Illicit Drugs

That's why the drug scene is so important today. You and I have looked at drugs, and we say, "That is bad for you physically as a Christian. It is bad for you as a human being." But that isn't really the crucial thing. There's something far worse than that about drugs. Drugs open you up to spirit communications. And I don't mean that you're going to sit there and hear voices. I mean that demonic spirits have power to communicate to your mentality. They have ability to transmit concepts to you. Drugs do that.

The man that I heard on the radio was condemning drugs. That is the thing now, because they said you can get the same thing through transcendental meditation. The Beatles found this out. The Beatles were big on drugs. The Beatles were big on everything that drugs were doing. One day, they met Maharishi Yogi, and they tried out the transcendental meditation thing, and they said, "This is fantastic. We are having exactly the same experiences as on drugs. Once we go into transcendental meditation, the psychedelic colors are all there, and the expansion of the mind and of the consciousness is there. The sense of euphoria is there. We're getting everything that we used to get with drugs without all the bad things, because, as the man on the radio said, "The bad thing about using drugs is that you lose awareness that you're not really out of your body." So, you get the impression that you want to fly, and you'll jump out of a three-story building, because you forgot that you are still in your body, and you'll kill yourself. But if you don't use drugs, while you are aware that you're out of the body, you're still aware of the fact that the body is there.

This is very, very significant – the whole concept that the power of deity is within you, so that all the truth you need is to be found within yourself and you don't have to look out any place else.

The Four Living Creatures in Revelation

Now let's get back to the four living creatures in Revelation 4.

Six Wings Each

John observed that the four living creatures "had six wings." The word "had" is the Greek word "echo." "Echo" means to possess. What we're discussing here is a standard appearance which is described here through which these living creatures functioned. He wants to make it very specific that they each individually had something. So, the word "each" means "one-by-one apiece." That's the way the Greek puts it. It's an individual description of these living creatures. What they each had was wings. The word "wings" is "pterux." "Pterux is the word for "wings" such as a bird has. We have seen that these are probably cherub type angels, and each of them are said to have six wings. There's only one other place in the Bible where angels are described with this particular appearance, and the other place is in Isaiah 6:2, where Isaiah sees God's throne in heaven. And above it stood the seraphim, and each one had six wings. Here again is the picture of six wings. This time he calls it a seraphim type angel. In Isaiah 6:2 and Isaiah 6:6 are the only two places in the Bible that the seraphim type angel is described.

These angels also had six wings apiece, and apparently they act as the attendants of God in the heavenly throne room, and they are engaged in praising God. As the cherub angels are there to protect the holiness of God, the seraphim angels are there to express praise for the divine holiness. Isaiah 6:3: "And one of these seraphim angels cried to another and said, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.'" Isaiah 6 also suggests the position in which the six wings of the angels in Revelation 4:8 perhaps were. We're told in the Isaiah 6:2, that: "With two, he covered his face; with two, he covered his feet; and, with two, he did fly." Two wings covered the face, suggesting reverence for God; two wings covered the feet, suggesting humility before God; and, two wings were for flying, suggesting his active service for God.

Covered with Eyes

In any case, we're told that these wings were "about" this angelic creature. Here they are cherub creatures. You kind of have to have a combination of cherub and seraphim angel appearance here. The word is "kuklothen." This is an adverb, and it means "round about." John is describing a human-like character (a humanoid-like figure) who is surrounded gracefully by these six wings. We're told that it is "full." That is the Greek verb "gemo." "Gemo" means "full," as in a heavily laden ship – a ship that's lying low in the water because it's filled with cargo. The idea here is that it is completely covered. He sees that these wings, again, are completely covered with eyes The Greek word is "ophthalmos." That is the regular word for the organ of "the eye." John sees that these four living creature angels, each with six wings, have themselves covered with eyes. He says they're covered "within." That's the word "esothen." That means "inside." That means that he sees that the eyes are under the wings as well as on top of the wings, and they're on the body under the wings. Of course, again, we've seen that the eyes symbolize divine viewpoint discernment. These creatures are enlightened. We may translate this with: "They are full of eyes, round about, and within."

Then we are told that they have something. They have the eyes all around them, full of discernment, and "they have." The word "have" is our Greek word "echo" that we had before. The next word is "rest." The Greek word is "anapausis." "Anapausis" is a noun, and it means "cessation." It means "to stop." These angels are doing something, and we are given the Greek negative "ou," which is the strongest one – that they never stop doing something.

We may illustrate this idea of cessation, for example, in Matthew 11:29, which uses the same Greek word "anapausis:" "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. You shall find cessation from your burdens."

In Matthew 12:43, you have this word used: "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, you walk through dry places seeking rest, and you don't find it." The unclean spirit wants a place where he can stop and relax, and there is none. It goes constantly.

In Revelation 14:11, we have this same word for "rest" used: "And the smoke of their torment ascended up forever and ever. They have no rest, day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name." So, the people who will be in the lake of fire never, never come to where they can just sit down and rest – where they can have a cessation from their agony.

So, they never have rest. They have no rest. It says "Day (which refers to the period of natural light on the earth) or night" (which refers to the period of natural darkness on the earth). "Day or night" means the 24-hour period in the day. "They never cease saying something. The word "saying" is "lego," which is the word that emphasizes the meaning of the words that they use. That's why we want to note that, because it is the meaning of the words that John hears, that he recognizes is of enormous importance. He's referring to the thought that is behind these symbols. It's an important declaration that is being made here that is true about God; the true God; and, the only God that exists. It is so important that it says that these living creature angels are constantly repeating something.

Holy

What they are repeating is something about God, and that is the word "Holy." The Greek word is "hagios." This word means separated from evil, and possessing absolute righteousness and perfect justice. Holiness means absolute righteousness and perfect justice. Those two qualities in God constitute His holiness. He is holy because He is absolutely righteous. He never does anything wrong. He is perfect justice. He always does what is fair in reference to evil.

This is repeated three times, and you can obviously see why he is saying it three times: "Holy, holy, holy," because he is referring to the Trinity, and he is saying that once for every member of the Trinity: Father; Son; and, Holy Spirit. "Holy" mean "separation from evil" and "separation to righteousness." So, the fact that he says "Holy" immediately tells us something very important about God that Satan is trying to cover up. Under Eastern mysticism, because all life is one, and that life is what constitutes deity, therefore, whatever is, is acceptable. I don't care whether it is child pornography; whether it is rape; whether it is murder; whether it is incest; or, whatever it is. If it is, then it is acceptable. It is all part of life. It is all part of deity.

You can only say that as long as the God you're talking about cannot be called "hagios." As long as he cannot be called "holy," which means "absolute righteousness and perfect justice," then you can say that those things are acceptable. This is why the eastern mystical religions are so popular today, because they immediately take the burden off the individual of worrying about not doing what he wants to do. He can do his own thing because there are no standards.

God the Father is Holy

The Bible is very clear that each person of the Trinity is holy. God the Father is declared to be holy in John 17:11. In His high priestly prayer, Jesus says, "I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are." He is a Holy Father. Jesus Christ, in His high priestly prayer on the eve of his crucifixion, addressed the only true God. You notice in John 17:3, that He says, "And this is eternal life, that they might know You (talking to His Heavenly Father), the only true God." And He calls Him "the only true God" in verse 3. Then in verse 11, He calls Him "the Holy God:" ("the Holy Father"). The Lord Jesus Christ was asking His Holy Father to preserve His followers from the evil that's in Satan's world. He was asking Him to grant to the disciples the Father's Own immunity from evil.

God the Son is Holy

Then the Bible makes it clear that the Son is holy. In Acts 3:14, we have that very clearly stated: "But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and desire a murderer to be granted unto you." They took Barabbas instead of Jesus: "You denied the Holy One." Before the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Luke 1:35 tells us that Mary would bear a Son, and that that Holy Son that would be born of her would be born of the Spirit of God.

In Mark 1:24, you have a dramatic statement from the demonic world. There was no question in their minds that they were dealing with somebody who is holy. The demons are addressing Jesus at Capernaum, saying, "Let us alone. What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God." Even the demons have to admit that He is the Holy One of God.

It is because Jesus is holy that Hebrews 1:9 tells us that He refrained from evil, and He pursued what was righteous. Remember that those are the two sides of holiness. There are a lot of Christians that think that if they don't do certain things, they will be holy people. That's not enough. Obviously, you don't do certain things that are evil and personally corrupting, but on the other side, you do things that are spiritually ennobling.

Hebrews 1:9 says, "You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore, God, even Your God has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your fellows." It's not only that we hate iniquity, but we also love righteousness, and we pursue that as well. It is because the Lord Jesus Christ was the Holy One that He was able to pay for the price of sin in substitute for others in the death on the cross.

So, in 2 Corinthians 5:21, we read, "For He has made Him who knew no sin (because He was holy) to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. If Jesus Christ were just a man like all the rest of us, you could not say that He was holy. The very fact that He is called the Holy One shows you that something must have been different about His humanity. That difference was that He had no sin nature.

God the Holy Spirit is Holy

Obviously, the third "holy" stands for the Holy Spirit. His very name stresses the fact that He is a holy one. Matthew 1:18: "Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was in this way. When His mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with Child of the Holy Spirit." And the title "holy" distinguishes the third Person of the Trinity from all other Spirit beings who are not deity. The Holy Spirit is a person. He's not an influence. He's not a force.

Star Wars

That word "force" is so popular today from the Star Wars movie. That was another movie demonstrating this concept that there are many gods out there: some benevolent; and, some bad. The concept of force is again from Eastern mysticism. Eastern mysticism has always used that word. Hinduism has always spoken about "the force." That is what you're trying to come to. When you come to the self-realization that you are God, then you have "the force" at your command. What is "the force?" "The force" is deity, and "the force" is everyone. In Star Wars, the force was presented as having a dark side and a good side. It was all deity. Darth Vader was the evil side of "the force," but Obi-Wan Kenobi was the good side. But they were the same. They had both been Jedi Knights previously. Darth Vader was part of that deity that had gone evil, while Obi-Wan Kenobi was part of the deity that had gone good.

In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker finally does battle with Darth Vader, and with his sword, he cuts off Darth Vader's head. The head goes rolling on the ground, and Luke Skywalker goes up and pulls the visor back, and sees his own face in it. What was the significance? Darth Vader, the evil one, and Luke Skywalker, the good one were one and the same thing. There was no difference. Therefore, they imply that there is no hell. There's only a heaven. There is nothing evil that can happen to you. There's only a good place to go to. There's only progression evolving upward. The whole concept of unity is based upon the fact that there is no concept of holiness.

As long as you can say that there isn't a Holy Father; there isn't a Holy Son; and, there isn't a Holy Spirit, then there is no right, and there is no wrong. There's just a force, and the force has two sides, but both sides are equally valid. That's the kind of religion that people like. That's the kind of religion that a person can really enjoy. But it is the fact of the holiness of God that gives us the division of right and wrong. The religions of the world do not have a Holy God. Doing your own thing is the key in Eastern mysticism. If God is everything, then all is good, and everything is equally accepted.

So, it's an important thing when John walks in there and sees these angels – these living creatures with the six wings, and the eyes symbolizing that they know everything. They're not conned. They're not fooled. They stand respectfully with two wings on their face. They stand in humility with two wings covering their feet, and two wings ready for service to God. 24-hours-a-day they keep repeating with exhilarating joy, "Holy, holy, holy." This is the God. Then they describe Him in greater fullness: "Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." That is the one true God. The significance of what John sees – he touches it immediately. Each person of the Trinity is holy. While there is one God in essence, each person of the Trinity, in His distinctive part of the Godhead, is a holy God. There is right, and there is wrong.

The God we worship – John sees Him on that throne, and he knows that he (John) is not God. He is separate from that God. He is different from Jesus Christ. He is different from the Holy Spirit. He is not just one life force. That simple little truth would preserve millions of Americans from making the mistake that is taking them straight into hell, because they have lost sight of the transcendence of God. God is not a piece of the creation. Transcendence means that He is separated from it. He made it. He's not the creation. Thank God for the simple little fact that you know that God is holy, and therefore, there are standards. When they are found, and when they are obeyed, then He blesses.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1982

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