I want us to read tonight from
Isaiah for our Scripture reading, chapter 53. Chapter 53. He will not leave his own, nor let
his own leave him. What glorious hope there is in
that. Isaiah 53 verse 1, Who hath believed
our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? The word report there is the
word doctrine and it's a reference to the gospel. Who has believed
the gospel? I'll tell you who's believed
it. Those to whom it has been revealed. For he, the Lord Jesus Christ,
shall grow up before him, the Father, as a tender plant and
as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness,
and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire
him. We wouldn't have chosen him.
He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from Him. He was despised and we esteemed
Him not." That's every one of us. Until the Lord's pleased
to make Himself known to us, we had no interest in Him. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep. All we like
sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. There is a way that seems right
unto man. That's the way it works. Just
seems like God would be pleased if I would do something. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth." Sunday morning during the Bible study hour we
looked at several passages of scripture referring to the Lord
Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. We've been looking at the many
types and names that are given of him in the scriptures. Many
of them are only mentioned once or twice or three times. There's
no type given of Christ more often in the Word of God than
the Lamb. Almost 100 times he's referred
to as the Lamb of God. And here's one of them. He opened
not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? He was cut off out of the land
of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken." He didn't die for all men. He was stricken
by God for the sins of his people. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth." Almost 700 years
before the Lord fulfilled this prophecy, Isaiah, led by the
Spirit of God, gave detail about how he would die, how he would
be buried. Yet, it pleased the Lord to bruise
him he hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he, the father, shall see the son's seed,
and he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail of his
soul, and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquity. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong. Because he has poured out his
soul unto death, he was numbered with the transgressors. He bare
the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors." Michael will be preaching here
Sunday morning, the first hour, and Dennis Fitzton is going to
come down from Charlotte and preach the second hour. I'm so
happy about that. He'll be going over to Sarasota
and preaching for them Sunday night. So, the Lord enables you
to pray for these men and for me and other men that will be
preaching in Lexington this coming up weekend. That would be much
coveted. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father we thank
you for the revelation of the gospel that you've made in your
word and we thank you for the light that you've shed in our
hearts and you've made your report to be believed by your children. We thank you, Lord, that you
will not allow us to not believe it. That the work of grace that
you do in our hearts, causing us to trust Christ, is an eternal
work. Lord, we pray that you would
strengthen those bonds this evening as we open your Word. We ask
that you would bless it with your Spirit and that you would
cause us once again to find our hope in the Lamb. that was slain
before the foundation of the world. We pray for the preaching
of the gospel. Everywhere where your gospel
preachers stand to speak and where your people gather together,
where your word is declared, we ask, Lord, that you would
attend it with power and that you would bless your bride, your
church. We pray especially for this weekend
with a meeting in Lexington and the preachers that will be there
and ask Lord that your word would go out with free course. We pray
for Michael and for Dennis and ask that you would enable them
to speak with clarity and with compassion and with conviction. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I promised you Sunday morning
we would revisit these pictures of our Lord in the book of Revelation. We didn't finish Sunday morning
and I said there were two more. Well, I've gone back and revisited
this whole subject the last couple of days and there's a lot more
than that. Out of the almost 100 references
that are made to Christ as the Lamb, in the scriptures and those
are just the ones where lamb is actually used there's many
veiled references like the one with Abel and the one with Adam
in the garden and so many others but out of the ones where he's
called the lamb almost a fourth of them are used in the book
of Revelation. 25% of the 100 references of the Lord as the Lamb of God.
This is a major theme in the closing of God's book. And what a glorious picture we
have of Him. If you ever get a chance to just
do a Bible study on the Lamb in Revelation, we're going to
look at a few of them now. You remember Sunday morning we
saw in chapter 5 that John wept because he saw that there was
a book that was sealed with seven seals and no man in heaven was
found able to open the book and fearing that unless the book
is open no one could be saved and the angel came to John and
said he said we've not the lion of the tribe of Judah the root
of Jesse hath prevailed and he is able to open it and the lamb
came and took the book and read the names of those that God had
elected to save in the Lamb's Book of Life. Later on, as a
result of that, John falls on his knees and the rest of chapter
5 verses 8-14 are a reference to the worship of the Lamb. Now the Lamb in the beginning
of that chapter, you remember, is mentioned as having seven
horns and seven eyes. Seven being the number of perfection,
and the horn being a picture of strength, and the eyes being
a picture of omniscience. And so the Lord has perfect power
and perfect knowledge of all things. And He is the object
in that chapter of worship in heaven and in the earth among
His people. In chapter 6, the angel says,
come and see what the Lamb has done. And there's the call. The call of God is to come. If
you're hungry, come. Eat. If you're thirsty, come. Drink. If you're willing, come.
And that's our warrant for coming, is that God commands us to come.
If you have no interest in coming, then, you know, you're not You
haven't heard the call, but if the Lord's pleased to put an
interest for your soul in your heart, you'll come. You'll come. In chapter 7, you'll turn with
me there in your Bibles, Revelation chapter 7, And this is, this
book is not, the book of Revelation is not what most men think it
is. This book is as relevant to God's
people today as it was 2,000 years ago. It's as relevant to
God's people today as it was 1,000 years ago. It's as relevant
to God's people today as it will be if the Lord tarries 1,000
years from now. It's not a prophetic book of
current events. It's a picture painted in words
of the Lamb of God who has prevailed to get the victory for his people. And he's portrayed all through
this book. Look at chapter 7 and verse 9.
After this I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could
number of all nations and kindred and people and tongues stood
before the throne and before the lamb with white robes and
palms in their hands. and cried with a loud voice,
saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne,
and to the Lamb." The Lamb is being credited for salvation. The church is declaring exactly
the same thing that Jonah declared when he was in the belly of the
fish, when he said, Salvation is of the Lord. He's the one
worthy. Why? Because it's his salvation. David in Psalm 51 said, Lord,
restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. It belongs to you.
You're the one that thought it. You're the one that wrought it.
You're the one that brought it. You chose a people before the
foundation of the world. You satisfied all the demands
of your own holy law and justice in the sacrifice of your son.
You sent your Holy Spirit to open the eyes and make willing
those that you chose in the covenant of grace. Lord, it's your salvation. Unless the Lord builds the house,
the labor labors in vain. And here we have the saints of
God in glory joining their voices together and saying the same
thing that the saints of God here on earth say. When the Lord
said, Lord your will be done on earth even as it is in heaven.
We do look through a glass dimly now, but we join in these saints
in glory. Declaring that salvation to our
God. Salvation to Him. He gets all
the praise and all the glory. And this is the thing that distinguishes
the truth of the gospel from all the lies of man-made religion. Is that salvation to our Lord. Salvation to Him. We've not made
any contribution to it. We've not brought anything to
the table. It's not by Him that willeth. It's not by Him that
runneth. It's by God that showeth mercy. It's of the Lord. It's all His
work. All His work. Look at verse 14. Well, again,
The lamb is the object of worship. Look at verse 12 saying, amen,
blessing and glory and wisdom and Thanksgiving and honor and
power and might be unto our God forever and ever. Amen. And one
of the elders answers saying unto me, what are these, which
are arrayed in white robes and whence came they? The elders asking John and John
responds very much like Ezekiel responded when the Lord asked
Ezekiel when he said, son of man, can these bones live? You
remember what Ezekiel said? He said, Lord, thou knowest. I don't see any way they could
live, but you're asking the question. You're going to have to answer
the question. The Lord asked us questions, not because he's
seeking an answer. But he asked us questions so
that we'll respond in the same way that John responded, in the
same way that Ezekiel responded. Lord, you answer your own question
for me. That's a good question. Who are
these that are arrayed in white robes? And I said unto him, Sir,
thou knowest. You know the answer to that question.
I don't know. You tell me. What a difference there is. the
hearts of God's people when they're humbled before the Lord to confess,
Lord, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know anything. I can't do anything. I don't
have anything. You're going to have to ask the
right questions. You're going to have to give the right answers.
Lord, it's all up to you. You don't find that among the
proud in religion. You find them giving answers
even when they don't know the right answers, don't you? My wife wonders why I won't stop
and ask directions. And perhaps you other men have
that same problem. I'm going to tell you ladies
right now why we don't do it. Because we know that, generally
speaking, if we ask a woman, she's not going to know. And
if we ask a man, he's going to lie. He's going to make something
up. And we figure that we've got as much understanding as
where we're going as anybody that we might ask. Isn't that
the way we are? If we don't know the answer,
we'll just make something up. Not before God. Lord, Thou knowest. Lord, tell me the answer. Teach
me. And he said unto me, These are
they which came out of the great tribulation. And that's what
we are. That's what we are right now. I know that saints of God have
suffered in generations gone by in ways that we haven't suffered.
But every child of God knows what it means to have tribulation. If it's not anything more than
the civil war of his own two natures, He knows what it means
to have tribulation. He knows what it means to be
in a world that is contrary to Him. He knows what David was
talking about in Psalm 74 when he said, I looked at the wicked
and I envied them. I envied them. Why? Because they
don't have the same struggles I have. They don't have the same
conflicts I have. They just invest everything they've
got in the things of this world, and they have no bands in death,
and they don't seem to be in turmoil about things like I am."
And David went on to say, "...until I went in to the house of the
Lord, and then I knew their end." And I knew that the sufferings
of this world were not to be compared to the glory that shall
be revealed in us. And so all the saints of God
have been a part of the Great Tribulation. That's what we are.
And it's not going to let up. It's going to be this way. until
we escape this world through death and the Lord gives us a
glorified body and we depart all remnants of sin completely. And have washed their robes.
How did they wash them? You get a white shirt, you get
bloodstain on a white shirt, it's hard to get out isn't it?
It's hard to get out. I know you use cold water and
all that kind of stuff, but sometimes it just leaves a stain and you
can't get out. And here we have a white robe being washed with
blood. What a glorious picture that
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is a cleanser like no fuller
soap ever was and makes our robes white before God. It's the only
way. It's the only way. The blood of the Lamb is what
washes us and makes us perfect in the sight of God. Made white
with the blood of the Lamb. Look at verse 15, Therefore are
they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in
his temple. And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among
them, and they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more,
neither shall the sunlight on them, nor any heat. Why? For
the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them." Oh, they're not going to hunger
anymore. They're not going to go through these struggles of
desiring food for the flesh. The Lord's going to feed them
with Himself and they're going to be satisfied, completely content
in Him. He shall feed them and lead them
unto living fountains of water and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes. What glorious hope we have. And
here we are, sitting in glory in the midst of the Lamb, following
Him, and He's feeding us and providing for us everything we
need. He's doing it now. He's doing
it right now. Alright, turn with me to chapter
12. See how many times the Lamb is
mentioned in Revelation? And if the Lord sovereignly chose
to close the canon of scripture with this glorious book, and
a book that's so misunderstood and twisted and misinterpreted
by so many people, here's the picture. The Lamb is the theme
of this book. The Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the conquering Lamb. The picture throughout the entire
book of Revelation is that it may appear to you that Satan's
getting the advantage. It may appear to you that you're
taking one step forward and two backwards. But in fact, the Lamb
is conquering. He's conquering Satan. He's going to deliver his people.
And it's a picture all the way through. We're going to see that
right to the very end of the book. Chapter 12 at verse 10, And I heard a
loud voice saying, In heaven now is come salvation, and strength
in the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. For
the accuser of the brethren is cast down, which accused them
before our God day and night. He's doing it. He's accusing
us before God, and he's accusing us in our own conscience, isn't
he? Now many times the accuser of the brethren, Satan himself,
has come into our conscience and said, you were a child of
God, you wouldn't have thought that, you wouldn't have done
that, you wouldn't have said that, you wouldn't have acted that
way. There is now therefore no accusations,
no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. Who is he
that condemneth? It is God that justifies, yea
rather it is Christ that died and is risen again. He's seated
at the right hand of God and He ever lives as our intercessor. We're perfect before God. These
are just false accusations. They're false accusations. And they overcame Him. Now that's
what I want. I want to overcome the one that
accuses me. How are you going to overcome
Satan? How are you going to overcome him? Are you going to pull yourself
up by your bootstraps? Are you going to rededicate your
life to Christ? Are you going to grit your teeth
and try harder? Are you going to work harder? They overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb. Faith. Faith in Christ. Looking to Christ. Relying upon
Him as our only acceptable sacrifice before God. That's how we overcome
the accusations of Satan. We say with Paul in Romans chapter
8, Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto
God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Reckon it to be so. Now I know in the South we use
that word to just say, well, I think so, I reckon so, but
that's not what it means. Actually it means just the opposite.
It means just the opposite. When you use your GPS right now,
you are dead reckoning your current position by triangulating them
with satellites. That's what you're doing. And
that's what this means. It's to reckon yourselves. Triangulate
yourself. Your location is in Christ. And by the blood of the Lamb,
you are perfect before God. and there is no accusation and
no condemnation that can be made against you. This is the only
power that there is against sin, is to reckon ourselves to be
where we are in Christ. They overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. By your words
you shall be justified and by your words you shall be condemned.
What is the word of our testimony? The testimony of Jesus. That's the spirit of prophecy.
It's what the Scriptures, that's what the Revelation says. What
are we saying? We're pointing to Christ. We're saying that He's my salvation. He's my righteousness. He's the
one that has satisfied the demands of God's justice and put away
my sin once and for all. This is the word of my testimony.
This is the word of my testimony. And if you're a believer, that's
your testimony. And it always will be. It always
will be. I asked the question Sunday morning,
is there any sin that God won't allow one of his children to
commit? And the answer to that is yes.
Yes. He will not let them be an unbeliever. He won't. You won't do it. You can't. If
you're a believer, you're just stuck being a believer. If God
made you a believer, you're a believer. And you'll never be an unbeliever.
By the word of their testimony, we confess that the Lord Jesus
Christ is our life. And the blood of the Lamb, they
loved not their lives unto death. Turn with me to chapter 13. Now Satan has been loosed in
the world. He is our accuser. He is our adversary. He is a real enemy of God's people. There's no question about it.
In verse 7 it says, And it was given unto him, God gave to Satan,
to make war with the saints. Why? Same reason the Lord lets loose
the bloodhounds, chases us right into His arms. This very presence of Satan is
the thing that causes us to acknowledge our dependence on the Lord. It's
what causes us to run to Him. So the Lord has sent Satan into
the world to war with the saints and to overcome them. And power
was given him over all kindred and tongue and nations and all
that dwell upon the earth shall worship him. Who shall worship him? Those
whose names are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life. That's
the book. That's the book that John wept
over that he was afraid wouldn't be open. Those that aren't written
there, they'll worship Satan. The rest of us will be at war
with him. We're going to see what's going
to happen to that war. This Lamb, to whom the Book belongs,
the Lamb who is able to unloose the seals and has prevailed,
as the Scripture says in Revelation chapter 5, this Lamb, the Scripture
right here says, was slain when? Yes, He was slain on Calvary's
cross 2,000 years ago. He was slain in the decree of God before time
ever began. That's why it's called an everlasting
covenant. Before time began. Before this
world took shape and form from its void condition. Before the stars were cast into
the skies. Before the universe was created. If we're going to put a time
on it, we're going to have to say, well it happened when God
happened. When did that happen? Eternal. We can't comprehend
it, we just believe it. We just believe it. There's never
been a time. when God Almighty hasn't seen
His elect in Christ who was in His decrees slain by God before
the world ever began. Now, if that's the case, then
that puts away works completely. That means you can't do anything
to get into Christ and that means you can't do anything to get
out of Christ. Now that's secure salvation. That's why it's God's salvation. We already saw that, didn't we?
Salvation to our God is what John said. It's His salvation. Look at chapter 14. Verse 1, and I looked and lo, a lamb. I was amazed to see how many
times the lamb is mentioned in the book of Revelation. One-fourth
of all the references, well there's 93 references in the scriptures
and 23 of them are in the book of Revelation. And here's one
right here. And I looked, and lo, a Lamb
stood on the Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty
and four thousand. Now this is symbolic language.
You understand that. It's twelve times twelve thousand.
The number twelve is the number of completeness. It was twelve
tribes. There were twelve apostles. And
this is God's people. 144,000 is a symbolic number
of not one of my sheep will be lost. I know every one of them
by name. I call them out. They hear my
voice and they follow me. Having His Father's name written
in their foreheads. We're standing with the Lamb
before God. with the name of God, Jehovah,
written on our foreheads." That means that it's impressed what
the Lord say in Jeremiah and also in Hebrews. He said, I'll
write my laws in their heart and I'll impress it upon their
minds. Here we have the name of God, salvations of the Lord,
written right there on our foreheads. And I heard a voice, verse 2,
from heaven as the voice of many waters and as the voice of great
thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers harping with their
harps. And they sang, as it were, a
new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the
elders. And no man could learn that song but the 144,000 which
were redeemed from the earth." You can't learn the songs of
Zion. Oh, you can sing the hymns, you can articulate the words,
you can put music to the tune, but to know what it means? Only
the 144,000 have an understanding of this gospel. They're the only
ones. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned. And here God says, the only ones
that know this new song, the song of praise and worship for
the Lamb are the 144,000. And look at the next verse. These are they which were not
defiled with women. What is that? It's a spiritual
picture. It means that once the Lord puts you in Christ and teaches
you the song of Zion, and shows you the gospel. You can't go
back. You can't go back. I know people that come and they
listen to the gospel preached and then they'll go and sit and
listen to somebody else. Can't do it. I have an uncle that passed away
this week and my family doesn't understand why I won't come to
the funeral. I can't go. I just can't go. I can't sit
there and listen to that stuff. The last one I went to, I said
never again. You just can't go back. For they are virgins. These are
they which follow the Lamb, whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed
from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb." Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Redeemed by God. They're the
firstfruits. They follow after the Lamb. Another
shepherd they will not hear, they will not follow. I was talking
to a man this week and I was trying to help him to understand
the gospel and I said, if I came in here and started telling lies,
now he is one, he has heard me preach and he knows what we believe
and he says it is the truth, but he is going to a false church.
And I told him, I said, if I came in here today and started telling
lies about your wife, I said, you'd run me out of here, wouldn't
you? He said, you bet I would. I said, you wouldn't have anything
to do with me, would you? He said, that's right. I said, well,
if you believe what I'm preaching is the truth, how is it that
you can go and listen to people tell lies about Christ? How can you do it? They follow the Lamb wherever
He goes. They are redeemed and undefiled
and the firstfruits of God. Speaking of the world in verse
13 these have one mind and should give their power and strength
unto the beast These shall make war with the
lamb And here's the end of the story the lamb shall overcome
them We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus Who loved
us and died for us? The lamb shall overcome them You think your circumstances
are overcoming you? You think Satan's got the upper
hand? You think the world's going to hell in a handbasket? It's
all in the Lamb's hand. And He's going to prevail. He's
going to overcome. I heard a brother say one time
he was so passionate about his basketball team that he couldn't
watch a game live. in fear that his team would lose.
So he would record it and he'd only watch the games that they
won. And he'd sit there and enjoy
every bit of it because he knew however far they got behind,
he already knew the outcome. He already knew the outcome. That's the way it is. We already
know the outcome. The Lord's given us the end of
the story. This is the final chapter. The
Lamb prevails. And all of His sheep prevail
with Him. And all of His church, His bride, we're going to see,
are going to be gathered together at the wedding feast of the Lamb. The Lamb prevails. And the Lamb
shall overcome them. Why? For He is Lord of lords
and King of kings, and they that are with Him. Now, do you notice here that
the order is a little changed? I don't know why the Holy Spirit
did that, but it is. They're called. I guess that's
their experience. That's the first thing that they
know anything about, the Lamb, is when they're called. The effectual
calling, the opening of our understanding, the giving us of a new nature,
the regenerating of the Holy Spirit, that's our calling. And
we were called because we were chosen. And chosen and called,
you're going to be faithful. And by that I mean that you're
going to believe the gospel forever. Forever. You're going to do it. We just sang about that. You
can't stop believing. He called you, He chose you,
and you are faithful. All that are with the Lamb are
faithful. Look at chapter 19, verse 7. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his
wife hath made herself ready. What would she do to make herself
ready? For to her was granted that she should be arrayed in
fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness
of the saints. For he saith unto me, Write. Blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He said unto me, These
are the true sayings of God." Let the world lie all they want. Let them pretend. Let the religious
world go where they want to go. This is the true sayings of God.
The Lamb shall prevail. And His wife, His bride, is going
to be brought to the wedding feast. And the consummation of
this marriage is going to be experienced by all of God's people. Here's the way Isaiah said in
Isaiah 61, He hath clothed me with the garment of salvation.
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with jewels. What a beautiful picture. The
Bride of Christ being brought to the wedding feast of the Lamb. Ryan, Savannah, you all had your
wedding recently and it was a beautiful wedding. Not going to compare,
is it? Not going to compare. The Marriage Supper of the Lamb
is glorious to His Bride. Chapter 21. Verse 14, and the wall of the
city, here's the New Jerusalem, it's the church that's come down
from heaven. That's where the church started
from and that's where it's going to end up. It started in heaven,
it's going to end up in heaven. This church is coming down from
heaven. And the wall of the city had 12 foundations. and the foundations were the
apostles of the Lamb. Now we know that the church is
built on the prophets and the apostles. In other words, I was
flipping through the radio channels the other day and I heard this
guy talking about, well, he said, you know, in the Bible, It says
the gospel according to Matthew, the gospel according to Mark,
the gospel according to John, the gospel according to Luke,
and as I read these gospels according to these four men, I find that
there's inconsistencies with them. We don't even have the sense
to know that that's not part of the original text, the gospel
according to. That was put in there by transcribers
so we would be able to find our way around. This is the gospel
according to God. This is God's gospel and there
are no inconsistencies. That's why no one but the Lamb
can understand the song. They can't understand the language.
The world will look through it and they'll find the gospel,
this church is built on the foundation of the apostles of the Lamb. And all the apostles said the
same thing. And all God's preachers say the
same thing. And all God's people say the
same thing. They all see eye to eye. They all agree. There's no controversy. And there's
no division in Christ. God's people believe the same
thing. All the haggling going on in religion, just let the
potsherds of the earth contend with the potsherds of the earth.
We'll just believe the foundation of the gospel that's built upon
the prophets and the apostles. Twelve foundations. That's a lot of foundations. That makes it sure and steadfast. Look at verse 22 in chapter 21.
And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine
in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the
light thereof. The nations of them which are
saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth
shall bring their glory and their honor unto it." Verse 22. That's the verse I was looking
for. And I saw no temple therein. John's been given a vision of
heaven. Now the word temple here is translated
only one way in the scriptures. It's not the entire temple, it's
the holies of holies. It's the tabernacle. It's that
place where the high priest went in once a year and took the blood
of the lamb and put it on the mercy seat. That's the reference
here. And John says there's no temple,
there's no tabernacle in heaven. Why? because the Lamb is the
temple of it. Everything in that tabernacle,
the veil we know, the curtain that separated the holies of
holies from the rest of the temple is His flesh. That was rent.
The shidom wood that the box was made out of is a picture
of his humanity. Overlaid with gold was a picture
of his deity. The mercy seat is a picture of
his sacrifice. The cherubim that hovered over
the throne were the picture of God's intolerance of anything
being put on that mercy seat other than the blood of the Lamb.
And what did God say? Here I will meet with you. And what was in the box? What
was in the box? The tablets of the law, which
is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as our King, King of kings
and Lord of lords, giving the law and then fulfilling the law.
What else was in the box? Aaron's rod that budded. And the picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ is our great and high priest who has entered into glory
and ever lives to make intercession for us. What else was in the
box? An ofar or jar of manna that
was collected and put into the tabernacle. Why? Because the
Lord Jesus Christ is the bread of life. He's the one who brought
the word of salvation. He is our salvation. He's the word of God, isn't he?
our prophet, our priest, and our king. In heaven, there's
no tabernacle. Why? Because those were just
types of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb. He's
our tabernacle. He's the one that we'll see and
worship for all eternity. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we thank You for Your Word and we pray that You'd bless it to
our hearts. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.