If you'll turn in your Bibles
back to Revelation chapter 5, I have in the last couple of
messages stated how these first two chapters, this is the second
vision that God gave John, that Christ gave to the Apostle John
of the last days, the last days, the new covenant age, the time
of his first coming to the time of his second coming. These first
two chapters are like a manual for worship. And that's why I
love them so much, just to think how blessed we are to be saved
by the grace of God and to be brought by God to know the Lord.
Several times in that passage that Brother Richmond read, talked
about give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. Well,
how can you do that if you don't know his name? What is His name? Well, if you read through the
Bible from Genesis to Revelation, you find there's many, many names
for God because there's many descriptions concerning His glorious
character, His nature, His wonderful, mighty acts as the sovereign
God of the universe. And here in Revelation chapter
5, this book that is sealed, look at it in verse 1, I saw
in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written
within and on the backside sealed with seven seals. This is the book of God's sovereign
providence, sovereign will, sovereign purpose, what he's going to accomplish
in the last age, the gospel age. And last week, I entitled the
lesson, and this is the same title for today, The Lion, the
Root, and the Lamb. Listen to it. Verse two, I saw
a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to
open the book, to loose the seals thereof. No man in heaven, nor
in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. That speaks of our sinfulness,
our depravity, our unworthiness. Nobody No one anywhere was worthy
enough to open the book. And John wept, verse four, because
no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither
to look thereon. And one of the elders, one of
the ministers, saith unto me, weep not. Behold, now here's
how Christ is identified, and here's how we see the glory of
God, the name of God revealed in him. Weep not behold the lion
of the tribe of Judah, the lion, the king, the power. Christ is
the king, he is God almighty in every attribute of his nature.
And then it says the root of David hath prevailed to open
the book. The root of David, Christ is
man without sin in every attribute of humanity and yet without sin. So he is God-man. And he hath
prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof.
And then we concluded with verse six last week. And I beheld and
lo in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, that's
the four living creatures, that's the ministers of the gospel going
out all throughout the world, north, south, east, west, proclaiming
the glory of his name, proclaiming the gospel, proclaiming the Christ
crucified, risen from the dead. And in the midst of the elders
stood a lamb as it had been slain. Christ is the lamb. He's the
sacrifice of his people. The lamb slain. This points to
the cross. This points to Christ as our
surety who took our sins, bore them on the tree. having them
imputed to him, charged to him, and he died. He suffered unto
death and drank damnation dry. The cup of God's wrath was poured
out upon him, and justly so. And this was no legal fiction. This was reality. And having
been slain, it says, having seven horns, that speaks of his perfect,
complete, uninterrupted power. He is all-powerful, omnipotent,
as they say. And what He wills, He does. If He wills to save a people,
He saves a people. And then which are the seven
spirits of God sent forth into all the earth, this is a term
that is set forth by the Holy Spirit showing His complete work
coming from Christ. Because the Holy Spirit in His
complete work applying all the spiritual blessings and the graces
that Christ accomplished and earned for on Calvary to his
people. To save us, to bring us unto
glory. Imparting, there is an impartation,
the life of the resurrected Christ to us. He gives us a new heart,
a new mind, new affections, new will, new life. That's the new
birth. And here we come to the victorious
lamb. Look at verse seven. And he came
and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon
the throne. This is the victorious lamb. In his death, there was
a victory, not a failure. And he takes the book out of
the father's hand. And that symbolizes not only
agreement between the father and the son in the everlasting
covenant of grace, but also the finishing of the work the Father
gave Him to do. It is finished. Sin has been put away. Righteousness
has been established. And it's upon that ground that
God saves all of His people, Old Testament and New. It's upon
that ground that God justifies us, forgives our sins, declares
us righteous. The Father appointed the Son
to be all that He requires and all that we need. And He gave
all of us to Christ, placing the whole responsibility of our
salvation upon His shoulders. That's why we talk about salvation
conditioned not on sinners, but on Christ. And His taking the
book into His hands is symbolic of His own ascension. After he
died on the cross, finished the work, he was buried, he arose
again the third day, and he ascended into heaven, receiving of the
Father all authority, all power, all honor. What's the significance
of taking it out of his right hand? The right hand is the right
hand of power, the right hand of authority, the right hand
of judgment, and thank God, the right hand of fellowship. And
that's what God does when He saves us and brings us into the
Kingdom of God. He reaches out the right hand
of fellowship. And that right hand is Christ.
That's how we are brought into the Kingdom of God. And He goes
on, verse 8, when He had taken the book, the four beasts, that's
the four living creatures, and the four and twenty elders, that's
the church, they fell down before the Lamb. They're worshipping.
That's what we do in glory. having every one of them harps.
This is the music of worship. Worshiping the Lamb, showing
our gratitude, our reverence, our faith in Him. Christ, the
one mediator between God and man. And these harps, back in
the Old Testament, they were often used in worship, expressing
the song of the heart. The heart of worship. So it's
the music that glorifies God. It's not entertainment now. You
know, churches today, they're big on entertainment. They gotta
keep you entertained. Most of the time, they'll listen
to the music, but they don't even know what the words say.
It's just making people feel good. It's emotional. But this
is not entertainment. They have harps singing unto
the glory of the Lord, as that Psalm 96 said, as Richmond read. Golden vials full of odors which
are the prayers of the saints. We don't have to argue about
what that symbolizes because he tells us right there. The
golden vials. That symbol's taken from the
tabernacle inside the holy place. You know there was the outer
court, then there was the holy place, and then there was the
holiest of all separated by the curtain. And in that holy place
where there was a golden censer, full of incense that burned continually. The sweet smell indicating that
God was pleased and it represented the prayers and the praises and
the sacrifices of God's people. A sweet smelling savor unto God. Why? We're sinners. I heard a man say one time and
I agree with him. There's enough sin in the best prayer I've ever
prayed to sink a world to hell. So how can that be such a sweet-smelling
savor unto God? That means it's accepted of God.
God's pleased with it. How can that be? Because it's
presented to God by our Mediator. Washed in His blood. It comes
through Christ. Seeing we have a great high priest
who's passed into the heavens. Jesus Christ the righteous. Let's
go boldly to the throne of grace. to find help in time of need.
You know, Peter mentions this in 1 Peter 2. He talks about
the sacrifices of God's people. And he's not talking about sacrificing
our bodies there. There are other places where
that's dealt with. But he's talking about our prayers,
our worship. When we sing hymns, We're singing
them to praise God. That's the sacrifices that He's
talking about. And even our obedience. It's acceptable. How? By Jesus Christ. And it's not
that Christ makes up where I fall short. It's Christ is all. He is all. The only reason that
God hears and accepts the prayers of his saints is because they're
sanctified by the offering of Christ, his one body. And understand
that. But look at verse nine. They
sung a new song. And what was that new song? Well,
listen to it. Thou art worthy to take the book. Christ is worthy. That's our
new song. We didn't come into the world
singing that song. We came in the world singing, we gotta make
ourselves worthy. We come into the world saying,
I'm getting better and better. Someday I may make it. That's
the old song, that's gone, that's a dirty song. That's an unacceptable
song, that's an idolatrous song. But now, when God sends His Spirit,
to put Christ in our hearts and in our minds, knowing who we
are and what he is, who he is. We sing a new song, Christ is
worthy to take the book and to open the seals to reveal what's
in the book. And that's what the book of Revelation
is going to do. He's gonna show us these things
that will take place in the new covenant age. And why is he worthy? Now notice what it says here,
don't miss this. He is worthy to open the seals
thereof, for thou wast slain. Because he died. This is the
cross. It's the crux of redemptive history. It's the crux of the purpose
of God, the cross. It's the ground of our salvation,
our justification. It's what sanctifies us unto
God. For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. And not only just that He died,
look at it. Thou hast slain and hast redeemed
us to God. Now if you've been redeemed to
God, you cannot perish. Isn't that right? This idea that
is so popular in false Christianity, that Christ died for all without
exception, even those who perish? It is not in this Bible. I know
it talks about God so loved the world, but that's not talking
about the world in every person who ever lived. Here's the world
it's talking about. Look at verse nine. Thou hast
redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue
and people and nation. God has a people all over this
world whom Christ, he chose them. justified them, Christ redeemed
them, and they're going to be called out. I was listening to
a message a couple of weeks ago where the preacher was talking
about this very thing and how sad it is that what is known
as Christianity and the popularity of it is not Christianity at
all. And he said he heard a preacher
talking about how God loved I think he said Jezebel just as much
as he did Ruth. God loved Judas just as much
as he did Peter. And the preacher said, I was
waiting for him to say God loved Esau just as much as he did Jacob,
but he left that one out. Why? Because God says, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. And my friend, I'm not saying
that to make people angry. I'm not saying that to brag or
boast, listen, we all, we all deserve and have earned God's
hatred. Now if you want to talk about
what we do and what we don't do and what we earn and what
we don't earn, that's what we, that's what we deserve. Because
we've sinned against God. That's what we deserve. If God
loves anybody, it's a matter of his sovereign purpose and
grace in Christ. And here he tells us that Christ
not only redeemed a particular nation or a particular race or
a particular gender, he redeemed people out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation, Jew and Gentile. And aren't you glad? This is
The purpose of God. And we're gonna see that when
we get to chapter six, when the Lamb begins to open the seals. And we'll see how it unfolds. And I'll caution you right now,
don't interpret the seals, and then he comes along with the
judgments, the trumpet judgments, the bowl judgments. Don't interpret
them by what you see on the news tonight. All right? Don't interpret those things
based upon what you read in the newspaper. That's a very bad
way to try to interpret Revelation. And I'll show you that as we
get through it. But think about this. Every kindred-tongued people
and nation, who are the elect of God? Who is the true Israel
of God? What does the Bible say? Look
over and look with me at Romans chapter two. And you all have
seen these verses, but we need to emphasize this. Romans chapter
two. Somebody said, well, I hope that
the Lord saves the Jewish nation. Well, that would be great if
he would. I'd hope he saved the Arab nations. Don't you? There wouldn't be any conflict
there if he saved all of them, would there? They'd all be in
Christ. They'd all be brought together
in Christ. They'd love one another. Not perfectly. I'm not saying
there wouldn't be any trouble. There would be, but I wish God
would save everybody, but God's not going to save everybody.
He tells us that. But look at verse 28 of Romans
chapter two. He said, he is not a Jew, which
is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. Now
I could show you a bunch of other scriptures that support that
very thing, but isn't that enough? Go back to Revelation five. Look
at verse 10. He's talking about spiritual
Israel here. And you'll see that more in Revelation as we go through.
He says in verse 10, and has made us unto our God kings and
priests, and we shall reign on earth. He's made us a kingdom
of priests. I know that. Because we're priests
unto God. What does that mean? What does
it mean to be a priest? Well, look at Hebrews chapter
10. When you think of a priest, you think of somebody who wears
a collar and calls themselves Father or whatever, Monsignor
or whatever. That's not what a priest is. Look at Hebrews chapter 10 and
look at verse 19. Here's a definition of a priest.
Now Christ is the great high priest. Remember the high priest
in Israel? There was only one high priest.
Well, in the kingdom of God, in the tabernacle of God, which
is His church, there's only one great high priest, and that's
Jesus Christ crucified, risen from the dead, seated at the
right hand of the Father. But He's made His people to be
priests unto God, a kingdom of priests. Now, it says kings and
priests, and I'll get to that in a moment. But look, here's
what a priest is. Look at verse 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness. That word boldness is liberty.
Freedom. No obstacles. Boldness to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Do you see that? Enter into the holiest, the very
presence of God. On what basis? By the blood of
Jesus. By a new and living way. Not
a dead way like through the sacrifice of animals under the old covenant.
The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sin. Which
he, Christ, hath consecrated, made new for us through the veil,
that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over the
house of God. Christ is the high priest over
the church, the house of God. Look at verse 22. Here's the
definition of a priest. Let us draw near with a true
heart, a sincere heart, an honest heart, admitting our sinfulness,
what we deserve, but a true heart in full assurance of faith. Now
what is the full assurance of faith? It's the full assurance
of being accepted in the holiest by the blood of Christ. Not on any other basis. I heard a preacher one time say,
well, he said he couldn't say his prayers on a given night
because he had a bad day and he didn't act right. Really? So if you've had a good
day and you acted right, you can pray, you're qualified. My
friend, that's bad. Let us draw near with a true
heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience. You know what an evil conscience
is? It's a guilty conscience. It's
a legal conscience. If I try to come before God based
upon my best, that's an evil conscience. Because I'm judging
myself to be worthy based upon my best. You know, that's what
the conscience is. It's the seat of judgment in our hearts, our
minds. We judge ourselves to be worthy or unworthy. On what
basis? Well, he's saying come to the
holiest of all in true assurance, full assurance of faith, having
our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies
washed with pure water. What is it that sprinkles our
evil conscience and relieves the guilt of condemnation? What is it that washes us clean? It's the blood of Christ. It's
his righteousness alone. And it's through Him that we
learn the name of God by which to glorify Him. He's a just God
and a Savior. He's the God of all mercy and
grace. And then He's made us kings and
priests because we reign on earth with His authority. He's the
King of kings. Christ is the ultimate King.
But we only have His authority by His Word. Verse 11, He says,
I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the
throne. These are the elect angels. That's the only ones it could
be. The beast and the elders, the preachers and the church
all together. And look here, he says a number
of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. Now that may seem contradictory
when we look at passages of scripture where the Lord said that there
are few that find it like the straight and narrow way. Few there be that find it. And
I think that gets worse as we get closer to the second coming.
But you think over the span of time from the creation of the
world to the second coming of Christ when it's all over, the
end. There's gonna be a number in glory that we, it'll amaze
us. It'll be fewer than those who
perish. I know that because the Bible
says that. But there'll be, listen, 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands
of thousands. Don't get your calculators out.
That's not what this is doing. It's just saying this, we'll
be amazed at the number of God's people in glory. We'll be amazed. And that's all you can say about
that. I mean, I know people try to write books on this stuff. It's futile. All we need to know is the gospel
by which God calls out his people. And that's what we're doing.
And if next Sunday we have every seat filled, great. And if they
all come to believe in Christ, wow, I mean, that's great. And
if just three or four of you show up, that's great too. We don't know the number, and
counting is useless. Speculation. But I know this,
God delights to show mercy. And aren't you glad? Look at
verse 12. Here's how you know who they
are, if you're among the 10,000, thousand, thousand. Same with
a loud voice, not a whisper. But a loud voice, worthy is the
lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and
strength and honor and glory and blessing. That's worship. If you're not singing that song
in your worship services, you're not worshiping. Verse 13, every creature which
is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I say, blessing. John said, John said, blessing,
and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. God, the Father,
the Son, the Spirit, the Lamb forever, and the four beasts,
the preachers, The ministers, they said amen. I'm in agreement
with that. That's what I want to do. That's
what I want to hear. And the four and 20 elders, the
church as a whole, they fell down and worshiped him that liveth
forever and ever. Oh, what a scene that is. Isn't
that something? Here's the glory of God in Christ
pronounced throughout the universe. Not one creature is exempt from
this adoration and this praise to God in Christ. And here's
the church represented by the four beasts who said amen and
represented by the four and 20 elders. That's true worship of
God in Christ and the recognition that eternal life and righteousness
is in Him and Him alone. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. What a glorious scene that, and
we can look forward to being a part of, we can do it now in
our worship services, but we can look forward to the time
when we all gather together in that scene like that to sing
praises unto the Lord. Okay.