But this morning, I want to preach
a message about the Lamb in Scriptures. First place we'll turn is Revelation
chapter 13. We're going to be looking at
several Scriptures. I had our brother read one of them for
us. But from the very opening chapters
of the scriptures to the very last book of scriptures, we find
continual references to lands being offered as burnt offerings
to the Lord in order to be accepted by Him. Beginning with Abel's
offering all the way to the exalted Christ, we find the image of
a lamb offered as a substitute for sinners to save them from
the wrath of God." Now, already we've run into a point that many
people don't understand about the gospel. And that is this, that the gospel,
in the gospel, God saves us by himself, for himself, and
from himself. It's that last part most people
don't understand. So I say from the devil, the
devil wasn't your problem. I'm not saying he's not a problem,
but he is not the problem. Our sins separate us from God.
And the salvation we need is a salvation from God himself. And so it's a salvation that
comes from God, and it's also a salvation that saves us from
God. Now, in order to be a suitable
offering, a suitable sacrifice, a lamb must be a male in its
first year, and it must be without any defect. no blemish, no spots,
can't have a broken leg, can't be lame, can't be blunt, perfect. And all these aspects of the
required lambs for offering tell us something about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, he was a male. He was a
man. Now, this is not a sexist thing. It's not as though males make
better offerings than females would. Rather, it's because it
was a man that brought us into condemnation. It was Adam, not Eve, that caused
our race, our entire race of humans, to fall. Therefore, it
was a man who restores. The scriptures say, by man came
death, and by man came the resurrection of the dead. So our Lord was
a male. Now, he wasn't in his first year
when he was sacrificed, but a lamb in its first year indicated a
lamb in the prime of life. I don't know how long a lamb
would live, you know, under natural circumstances. But I guess by
one year, they have fully matured. They're as healthy and in as
good a shape as they'll ever be. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
when he was offered for our sins, was in the prime of life. He was about 33 years old. He
was the perfection of humanity. at the very peak of its powers. And he was without any spot or
blemish. He did not come into the world
with original sin like you and I do. A lot of people don't understand
what original sin is, but original sin, that's speaking of our nature.
We are born with the nature to sin. The Lord Jesus Christ was
not. And the reason he was not born with a sinful nature is
because he is not a physical descendant of Adam through a
paternal line. His father is God. So he is the leader of a new
race, as it were, a new line of humanity. Our natural birth
is in Adam, but our spiritual birth is in Christ. And when
we experience the resurrection of the dead, that which raises
from the dead won't be like that which was put in the ground.
What was put in the ground was of Adam. What comes out of the
ground will be of Christ. But our Lord Jesus had no original
sin, he never did any sin, never desired any sin. It says he knew
no sin. Perfect. So everything that God
required of all those lambs that were used in Old Testament times,
Jesus Christ fulfilled. Now, I started out by saying
that from the beginning of scriptures to the end, hear about the Lamb. And that's true. And we're pretty
much going to go through the scriptures to several places.
But interestingly enough, if you go through it historically,
you've got to refer to the very end of the Bible. Because look
here in Revelation chapter 13, we'll see the Lamb in pre-time. Now everything I've got about
him begins with the letter P. I don't know why we preachers
think that's important, but I've got six things here that begin
with the letter P about the lamb. And it says in the eighth verse of Revelation 13, all inhabitants
of the earth will worship the beast. all whose names have not
been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was
slain from the creation of the world." Now, we were chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world, and the Lamb was
slain before the foundation of the world. Why? Well, all of
our salvation is an act of God. And God exists in eternity, outside
the scope of space and time. Everything he does is in eternity. And when time began, when he
said, when he created the heavens and the earth, and that means
not just the things that occupy space, he created space itself. And he created time. Someone once said he created
time so everything wouldn't happen at once. But what we experience
passing through time is already accomplished in the out there
of eternity. And so if we want to speak of
the Lamb as it goes, you know, shall we say, through the process
of time, we have to go back before time. There's the Lamb already
slain. Before there was a sinner, there
was a Savior. Before there was sin to be atoned
for, an atonement had been made. Now, let's look back at Genesis
chapter 22. That's the Lamb pre-time. Now
Genesis chapter 22. We'll find the Lamb in promise
and prophecy. And I put those two together
because A prophecy that has a benefit
to it is a promise. And a promise is a prophecy. If you promise to do something,
you're telling someone, I will do this. So you're talking about
what's going to happen in the future. Now, often our promises
don't come to pass because we overpromised or we proved dishonest
or forgot. But a prophetic word from God
is a promise. A prophetic word by any of his
prophets in this world is a promise. If we begin reading here in verse
6, this is when God has called on Abraham to sacrifice his son
Isaac. And he said, in verse 6, Abraham
took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac.
And he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of
them went together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father, To
his father Abraham, Father, yes, my son Abraham replied. The fire
and wood are here, Isaac said, but where is the lamb for the
burnt offering? Abraham answered, God himself
will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And the
two of them went on together. Now, Abraham was being tested
on two matters when God said to him, You offer to me your
son, your only son whom you love. Abraham was being tested on two
points. First of all, his devotion to
God. You know, we say we love God,
and if we're believers, I'm sure we do. But, you know, there's
lots of things in this world that comes in conflict between
loving God And our devotion to him comes between that and things
in the world. And we're forced to choose. Now,
who of us would be willing to sacrifice one of our children? Are we that devoted to God? Now,
understand, God has never required that anyone sacrifice their son. He called on Abraham to do it.
to prove Abraham, to prove Abraham's devotion. But he knew that he
was not going to allow Abraham to go through with it. The only one who has ever offered
his son for sinners is God himself. God absolutely forbade human
sacrifice. Now there have been many who
have given up their children to false gods. No one has ever
given up their child to the true God under God's orders. If they did it, they did it without
his approval, and it was a horrible thing in his sight. Nonetheless,
Abraham was not aware of that at that point. So he's being
tested on his devotion to God, and he's being tested on his
faith. That's what the book of Hebrews tells us, because God
had made Abraham a promise that he would have a seed, that is,
a descendants that would occupy that land where God had put him,
and they would be as numerous as the stars in the sky or the
sands on the seashore. And he told him it wasn't that
this promised one wasn't Eleazar, his servant, it wasn't Isaac,
his son by the bondwoman. He said, it will be your son
born through your wife, Sarah. So Isaac is born. And I'm sure
that Abraham's faith was strengthened in that, to himself. Sure enough, the Lord came through.
Here's a child of my old age and my wife's old age. We'd not
been able to have children at the time when you would expect
people to have children. But lo and behold, when we're
both past normal age of childbearing, here is a son. And then God says, kill him. And at the time he said that,
Isaac had not been married, he had not had any sons. And I'm sure Abraham thought,
well, if I kill Isaac, how can God's promise come to pass? You
know what the book of Hebrews tells us? He believed in the
resurrection of the dead. In fact, in Genesis chapter two,
excuse me, 22 verse five, He's gone out there to Mount Moriah,
I believe it was, and some of his servants went with him. And
in verse five, he said to his servants, stay here with the
donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship,
and then we will come back to you. Now, you talk about faith. He's going up the hill there.
He's got fire. He's got a knife. Got wood, and he's fully expecting
that he's going to put his son on top of that wood, slit his
throat, set it on fire, and burn him to ashes. And then God's
going to raise him from the dead, and the both of them are going
to walk back down. Why? Because God promised there's a whole
nation coming through that boy. And for that to happen, he's
got to be alive. So Abraham was being tested on
his devotion, and he's being tested on his faith. But the
thing here is, and maybe Abraham didn't think that he would ever
be allowed to go through it. Because he said, in Isaac's question, where's the
lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham answered, God himself
will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. God will provide. That word provide, in English,
it's formed from Latin words, pro, meaning to, or in favor
of, that kind of thing. And then the vide part comes
from the Latin word from which we get the word video, something
you see. So to provide means to see to
something. You know, if a fella is working
and he notices there's a problem and he reports it to the boss,
the boss may say, well, you see to that. That means you take
care of it. You know, when Judas took the
30 pieces of silver and threw them back in the temple or took
them back to the temple and said, I've betrayed innocent blood,
and he was trying to return that money. The Pharisee said, what's
that to us? You see to it. That's exactly
what they told him. You see to it. And you know,
he did. He did. Because he approached
them on a legal foundation. He came to them convicted under
the conviction of the law. He had betrayed innocent blood.
He was trying to return the money. and he was approaching those
representatives of the law and what did they say to him? The
only thing that the law can say to a sinner, you see to it, this
is your job, it's not our job. It's not the job of the law to
justify you or to reform you or to make you acceptable in
God's sight. It's a job of the law to tell
you what must be done in order to be acceptable in God's sight,
but the law cannot do it. The law says, you do it, you
see to it. But what God said, what Abraham's
saying here, God will see to it. And God did. So here we have the lamb. given
to us or shown to us in a promise that God made through the mouth
of faithful Abraham. God will provide for himself
a lamb for the burnt offering. Now, I don't know Hebrew well
enough, but I have heard some say that could be translated,
God will provide himself for a lamb. In other words, God himself
would be the Lamb. That's certainly what happened, but the thing is that what God
requires, God provides. God requires a suitable sacrifice,
God provides it. And then what God provides, God
accepts. Why does the faith of God's elect,
why is it accepted by God? Because God provided it. Now,
there are a lot of people who have a natural kind of faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And it doesn't amount to anything
more than saying, I believe there's a God. Well,
the demons believe that. It amounts to nothing more than
saying, well, I believe that the earth has an orbit around
the sun. That's just what you believe. But the faith of God's elect
is a spiritual thing. God doesn't accept the natural
faith of natural men and women, but he accepts the faith which
he works in a person through the new birth. Why? Because it's
his work. Yes, we're believing, but it's
Him causing us to believe by His powerful grace. And whatever
He brings to pass, whatever He provides, He accepts. But here is a promise and prophecy
of the Lamb, and it's this. God will provide Himself a lamb. And if God's going to provide
it, what does that say about us? We don't have to. There are many in religion who
believe that giving up things is a way to please God. They
say, what would you sacrifice for God? Well, we don't have anything God wants. Now, let's face it. If you love
God, if you are devoted to Him, there are things that you will
lay aside. Now, you might pick them up,
but then you're going to lay them back down again. You know, we're wavering.
That's just in our nature. I know this. In the heart of
a believer, he would gladly sacrifice everything, but he wouldn't count
it a sacrifice. What did Paul say? For whose
sake I have suffered the loss of all things, yet I count them
garbage." You know, have you ever taken
your trash out to the curb complaining about what you're losing? Have you ever wept as you hauled
a sack of garbage? for the trash man to pick up.
Friends, everything we've got by nature is just garbage. If
we lose it, all we've lost is garbage. So what would you sacrifice? And certainly anything in comparison
to Christ, you can't call that a sacrifice. We sang that song, The Unsearchable
Riches of Christ, and it has that line, who would not gladly
endure Trials, afflictions, and troubles on earth, riches like
these to secure. And for a while, I didn't want
to sing that song because I thought, well, that's not how we secure
those things. But Miss Crosby, who wrote it,
I don't think that was a point she was trying to make. She was
simply saying, it would be worth a miserable existence in this
life. if at the end of it you were
ushered into that eternal blessedness with Christ, without fault, full
of joy in the presence of God. You know, Esau gave up the birthright
for a bowl of stew. And I'm sure, well I know, the
scriptures tell us, that when it came time to receive the blessing
associated with the birthright, he wept and wept because he realized
what he'd lost. Can you imagine on the day of judgment When we are in the presence of
our Lord glorified to be like Christ, and the rest of the world
sees what they gave up in order to have the things of the world,
they're going to say, oh, I chose a bowl of soup over the birthright. So we see Christ here in promise
and prophecy. as one supplied by the Father
and therefore we know we'll be accepted by Him. Now let's turn
to Exodus 12 where our brother read for us. Here is the Lamb
in picture. I think the Passover is one of
the most detailed and instructive pictures of our Lord Jesus that
you can find in the Old Testament. But I want to focus in on just
one aspect of it. Now, we read the story, so you
know what went on. They had to sacrifice a lamb,
and they would collect the blood, and then they were to paint the
blood on the doorpost and on the lintel. And then they were
going to go inside and eat the lamb and observe the Passover. And the Lord said, In verse 13,
the blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. No destructive plague will touch
you when I strike Egypt. Now there are several things
to notice about this. It was not the fact that they were Jews
that caused God to pass over them, because he didn't say,
when I see your Jewishness. It was not their faithful application
of the blood on the door that caused God to pass over them. We can't go through all the details
of this picture, but one thing to note is the person who put
the blood on the door is not the person who was saved by the
blood. Fathers operated as the priests
in their household, the representatives of the household, whose life
was in danger. Not the father. He wasn't going
to die. The only one in the house who was in danger was the firstborn
son. And he's not the one to put the
blood on the door. So it wasn't, when I see that you put blood
on the door, I'll pass over you. That's not how it goes. It was
the blood itself that caused God to pass over. the blood of
this lamb that met the requirements. And he says, it's a sign for
you. And you know, for us, the blood of Christ, when it's preached,
when it's told to us, it is a sign of God's grace towards us, isn't
it? It's a sign of salvation to us. But us seeing the blood
doesn't make us safe. It's God seeing the blood that
makes us safe, because he says, when I see the blood, I will
pass over you. The Jews were no better than
the Egyptians, but in a natural sense, they
had been chosen by God, the nation, to bear his name in the world
for a time. They'd been chosen as a nation
by grace. And despite all their sin, despite
all their rebellion against God, God came to destroy their enemies
in justice. And in order to preserve his
people from his justice against sin, he had them put that blood on
the door. And that represented our Lord. All who are in Christ
will not suffer. And they are in Christ, says
Paul, by the will and power of God. All right, then we have
the Lamb in provision. Abraham said God will provide.
Let's see that in the scriptures. Turn to the Book of John, Gospel
of John chapter 1. The Lamb. pre-time, the lamb,
promise and prophecy, the lamb in picture, now the lamb in provision. Verse 29, chapter one, the gospel of John.
The next day, John, not the John that wrote this book, this is
John the Baptist. The next day, John saw Jesus
coming toward him and said, look, the Lamb of God who takes away
the sin of the world. And in verse 36, he says, look,
the Lamb of God. That was the next day. Sounds
like he had a pretty repetitive message, doesn't it? Behold,
the Lamb of God. Now, several things to notice
about this provided lamb. It's the Lamb of God. Now, we
can look in the scriptures and find the Lamb of Abel. We can
find the Lamb of Passover. We can find the hundreds and
thousands and probably hundreds of thousands of lambs of the
Jews offered over the course of the Old Covenant. But their blood never washed
away a single sin. It had no eternal effect at all. So John says, behold this, gaze
on this, get your eyes full of this, the Lamb who's from God
and actually takes away sin. And then John the Baptist said
something that must have been startling to the Jews. since
they thought that they were God's chosen people and nobody else
was or ever would be. He said he takes away the sin
of the world. Doesn't mean he took away the
sin of every individual in the world. If that were true, everybody
would go to heaven. It's sin that puts people in
hell. And if all the sins were taken
away, what he's talking about is that this work was not for
Jews only. It's for people from every kindred,
tribe, tongue, and nation. Our Lord, well, the Lord God
is not just the God of the Jews, He's the God of everyone because
He's the only God there is. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
not just the Savior of the Jews, He's the Savior of all kinds
of people because He's the only Savior there is. Now, those of
the free will bent, You know, they want to say that Jesus Christ
died equally for every man. And I understand how they could
get that from a statement like this, the Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of the world. It sounds like it's saying that
he took away the sin of everyone in the world, but that's not
the way the word world is used. We don't even use it that way
very often. Actually, we could say God saved
the world in Noah's day by saving Noah and his family. He didn't
save everyone in the world, but by saving Noah and his family,
he saved the world. But even though we differ sharply
from those who would say that Jesus Christ died for everyone,
for every individual that's ever lived, We do say this, that the
blood of Jesus Christ is of sufficient quality, that no one needs to
think they've been excluded by it. See, the grace of God doesn't
exclude anybody. When you talk to people about
sovereign grace, when you say he chose a people, they say,
oh, he's excluding others. Everybody was already excluded.
We were already sinners. Why do you think there's a lamb
slain before the foundation of the world? We were sinners before
the foundation of the world. God saw the world as fallen.
God saw the world as full of nothing but sinners, and nobody
was worthy of salvation, and nobody could qualify for it or
earn it. So him choosing to save some
and sending his son to die for those same ones and sending his
Holy Spirit to call those same ones doesn't exclude anybody
from God's blessings. It included people that most
certainly would have been excluded without his grace. But I can
say this without fear of contradiction from the scriptures. If you want
the benefit of the blood of Christ, you may have it. Because if you really want it,
it's because God chose you before the foundation of the world,
shed his son's blood for you, and has sent his spirit to call
you. And the first thing that the spirit has to teach you is
your need, and then make you want the remedy. So the lamb has been provided,
and John the Baptist has pointed him out. Now look at 1 Peter
chapter 1. First Peter, chapter one, the lamb in performance. It was great that he's the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. It was good that we
see him in promise and prophecy. It's good that we can see him
in the pictures of the Old Testament, and it was good that John could
point to him and say, there is the lamb of God. But a lamb provided is not the
same thing as a lamb sacrificed. But here we have our Lord not
only being provided, but actually performing that which a lamb
was to do. 1 Peter 1, verse 17, since you
call on a father who judges each man's work impartially, live
your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know
that it was not with the perishable things such as silver and gold
that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down
to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of
Christ, a lamb, without blemish or defect. You know, our own blood is precious
to us. The blood of our children is
precious to us. But the only blood that was ever
precious to God is the blood of Christ. And here's one way
you can know whether you actually believe in Christ. Is his blood
precious to you? If he's precious to you, his
blood is precious. And you count it to be of tremendous
value. What must it have cost to put
away our sin? That's how valuable the blood
of Christ was. and is. The lamb in performance. When
Christ died on Calvary's tree, he was being sacrificed as the
perfect substitute for sinners. And then let's see the lamb in
the payoff. I had to work to find a word
that begins with P for this one, but payoff good. It may sound
like a vulgar word, I mean, you know, we like to think that everything
spoken of in the scriptures is to be spoken of with a kind of
high dignity about it, but actually, if you look at things in the
original language, most of the time there was no exalted language
being used. Our Lord died. He suffered the
penalty of the sins of God's wandering sheep. He suffered
as their substitute, and God rewarded him for it. Therefore,
God hath highly exalted him, said Paul, giving him a name
above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. That was the Lord's payoff. That's
what he got for his work. He also got a bride out of it.
He got us, but sometimes I wonder what kind of reward is that?
Only the Lord would consider us a reward. But look here in
Revelation chapter 5, and John is seeing a vision of heaven,
and there's been a scroll in the hand of God. And this is
how we know it's a vision, because he sees God sitting on the throne,
and you can't see God. So it's a vision, it's not a
literal experience. But there's a scroll in God's
hands, and that scroll is God's purpose of redemption of
his people, the purpose of salvation of his people. And the question
goes out, who's worthy to take that scroll from God's hands
and to loose the seven seals on it, which means perfectly
sealed up. And what would it mean then to
loosen those seals and unroll that thing? It means who is worthy
to bring all of this to pass? Here we have a scroll full of
the testimony of God's grace towards His people, full of a
record of how He will save His people from sin. And now he's
gonna control everything to make sure that it comes to pass. But
it's all sealed up, it can't happen. Until somebody is, somebody
worthy to go right up to the hand of God and take the scroll
out of God's hand. Not by force, but by worthiness. Back then the king would put
his seal on a dark document and one seal was enough. If you broke
that seal and you weren't authorized to do it, it'd mean death. Well,
it says this got seven seals on it. What's that mean? God
sealed it and it is sealed as any kind of thing can be. But
our Lord went up, took that, he broke all seven seals. He
unrolled it and he brought to pass God's work, God's purpose. But when no one was found that
was worthy, John began to weep. And then verse five, it says,
then one of the elders said to me, do not weep. See the lion
of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has triumphed. He is
able to open the scroll and its seven seals. Now look in verse
six. Then I saw a lamb looking as
if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne,
And by that he didn't mean, you know, we think of a throne, we
think of a chair. When they were talking about
a throne, it was the whole platform, you know, the elevated area where
a throne would be sitting. And so he was standing there
on the platform. The angel or the elders, one of the elders,
called him the lion of the tribe of Judah. A lion doesn't sound
very lamb-like. You know, lions don't submit. Lambs will. Lions don't. Lions
attack. But it says, the line of the
tribe of Judah has prevailed. He is able to open the scroll
of the seven seals. Why is he able? Because he's
worthy. Nobody would have been able to do it simply by power.
You can't overpower God and take something out of his hands and
open it up. When he went up to take that scroll out of God's
hands, God just opened his hand because he was worthy to take
it. And he took it. While the elder talked about
a lion, what John saw in a vision was a lamb looking as if it had
been slain. And that's how he became the
lion. I've got a picture. Believe it
or not, it's an old Pepto-Bismol poster. And my mother got it. She worked for a doctor, and
I guess those who sell Pepto-Bismol gave it to the doctor. Well,
they didn't want it, you know. She gave it to me, and you'll
see why I kept it. And the idea was, you know, Pepto-Bismol,
it's pink, and it tastes good. But they wanted to let you know,
even though, you know, it's pink and tastes good, it's really
strong. And the tagline at the bottom of the poster was strength,
where you didn't expect it. And in that picture, actually
the one who did it was an illustrator of children's books, but it's
a very stylized picture of a forest with just a little bit of a pond
or a lake showing at the bottom. And this pretty little lamb standing
there right beside that lake, so innocent looking, so weak
looking, so undangerous. But his reflection in the water
is a lion. And as soon as I saw that picture,
I said, that's it. The lamb who is the lion. The lamb whom the world looked
at him and they saw no majesty, power, ability in him, said,
what? He's useless. Be careful. This slain lamb is
the lion of the tribe of Judah. And though he were slain, yet
he will save his people with the violence of a lion. He will
deliver them from all their enemies. He has already delivered them
from the wrath of God. And if any of the created beings
of this universe stand in the way of their salvation, he will
tear them to shreds like a lion. From beginning to end, it's the
lamb, pre-time lamb, picture, I mean, promise and prophecy
lamb, a pictured lamb, a provided lamb, a performing lamb, and
a lamb who has been given the payoff from all his work to be
crowned with glory and honor, seated upon a throne, ruling
the world like a lamb in behalf of his people. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your provision of a lamb in your Son.