And that is a tie that cannot
be broken. Ties of grace and ties of love
hold me to my God above. I'm so thankful that our being
kept doesn't depend on us. Well, I hope everybody had a
good Thanksgiving. It's good to be back. I know
we've got several folks still out of town. Next Sunday, Lord
willing, I'll be preaching at the conference in Lexington,
which I know some of you are planning to attend. And Dennis
Fitzton is going to come down from Charlotte and preach for
you here next Sunday. Michael will do the Bible study
hour and Dennis will be bringing the message the second hour.
So I hope if you're able to be here that you'll pray for Dennis
and be an encouragement to him. December the 14th, which I think
is two weeks from today, Trish and I would like to host an open
house at our home and would just be honored if you would come
over and spend some time with us Sunday afternoon, the 14th,
two weeks from today. Let's ask the Lord's prayer of
blessings. Ryan, it's good to have you back,
brother. We missed you. Our Heavenly Father, we are so
very thankful that the covenant of grace is just that, it's one
of grace. That you draw us with cords of
kindness and you keep us, Lord, with ties of grace and ties of
love. Keep us to our God who is above. We pray, Lord, that you would
strengthen those ties this morning. We pray that you would increase
our understanding of your grace and cause us to comprehend a
little bit more of thy love. We pray through your Holy Spirit
to open our hearts to your word and open your word to reveal
to us the glory of your dear son and his accomplished work.
But we ask it in his name. Amen. Well, in looking at the
various names and titles of the Lord the last several months,
we've looked at 28 of them, actually, so far. And this morning I would
like for us to look at one that we just sang about. We sang about
the Lamb, the Lamb of God. Glorious is the revelation of
the Lord Jesus Christ all throughout the Scriptures when it comes
to comparing Him to a lamb, a sacrificial lamb. It begins right after the
fall. Now, Scripture gives us the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ in progression. So he is revealed progressively. The shadows and types that we
see of him in the early part of Genesis are clarified a little
bit more as we move through the Psalms and into the prophets.
And then when we get into the New Testament, that which was
revealed to our fathers in various times and in sundry places has
now come in the flesh and revealed himself in the fullness of his
glory in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I make a point
of that because the first reference to the Lamb of God doesn't even
mention a lamb. But understanding the full revelation
of Scripture, there's no other conclusion you could come to.
When Adam tried to clothe the shame of his nakedness before
God by sewing fig leaves together, It was fruitless. It was in vain. It wasn't successful. And the Lord had to cover his
nakedness. And in Genesis chapter 2, the
scripture says that He covered him with the skin of an animal. No doubt, the Lord took a lamb
Perhaps it was Adam's choice lamb. I understand, never having
been around sheep and lambs, I understand that the lambs make
really good pets and that they're very gentle and very affectionate.
Perhaps this was that lamb to Adam. But nevertheless, the Lord
took that lamb in the garden and slit its throat and shed
its blood and took the fleece of that lamb to cover the nakedness
of Adam. And right there from the beginning
of our fall in our father Adam we see a picture of what the
Lord Jesus Christ would do in making himself the sacrificial
lamb and in successfully clothing us with his righteousness that
we might not stand naked and guilty before God. The second
reference to a lamb in the scriptures doesn't mention the lamb, but
you know it was. When Cain and Abel brought their
sacrifices before God, Cain brought the fruit of his labor. He took
the choice fruits and vegetables that he had labored, toiled in
the ground, and grown, and presented them before God, and the scripture
says that they were not accepted before God. Abel, on the other
hand, took the first sling of his flock. Again, we see this
pet lamb. We see this tender, innocent
lamb that Abel took, understanding from his father Adam what God
required. For without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. And so in order for us to stand
before God, blood had to be shed. An innocent lamb had to be sacrificed. And the scripture says that the
Lord had respect for Abel's sacrifice. And right there from the beginning
started the jealousy of those who were not accepted before
God for their own righteousness, and those who did find acceptance
before God in the righteousness of the shed blood of the Lamb,
and hasn't stopped since, has it? The conflict has carried
on ever since. The third revelation that we
have of the Lamb in the scriptures is in Genesis chapter 22, when
God told Abraham that he was to make of his son Isaac a sacrifice. And so Abraham and Isaac and
his servant took an ass and put the wood on it and went to Mount
Moriah and they went to the foot of that mountain and Abraham
told his servant, he said, you stay here. The lad and I are
going to make a sacrifice and we will return unto thee. So Abraham knew that somehow
the Lord was going to deliver Isaac, whether he thought that
he would raise him from the dead or what. So on their way up the
mountain, Isaac looks at his father and he says, Father, here
is the wood and here is the fire, where is the lamb for the sacrifice? And Abraham said to his son Isaac,
God will provide for himself a lamb. And that's exactly what
he did. There's three things in that
statement that need to be understood. God will do the providing. God
will make the provision to himself. It's God's wrath that has to
be appeased. It's God's justice that has to
be satisfied. And thirdly, the lamb itself
will be the Lord. So he'll do the providing, he'll
provide himself, and he'll provide himself to himself. And that's
what Abraham meant when he said, the Lord will provide for himself
a lamb. And just as Abraham raised the
knife to make of Isaac a sacrifice, the Lord stopped him. And there
was a ram. caught in a thicket by its horns. What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ hanging on Calvary's cross and that became the sacrifice
in Isaac's stead. The revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ when it comes to the picture of the Lamb of God begins there
at the fall, goes through Cain and Abel, through Isaac, and
then of course in Exodus chapter 14 when the children of Israel
are under the horrible taskmasters of Egypt in bondage to slavery. And the Lord heard their cry
and he sent to them a deliverer, and Moses goes and the Lord proving
his glory over the gods of Egypt sends all these different plagues
and after the ninth plague the Lord's going to bring them out
in the tenth plague and the tenth plague is that plague of the
of the death angel that's going to come through and going to
kill the firstborn of every household except for those who are behind
the door stained with the blood of the Passover lamb. Take a
lamb, each one, to his family and keep it in your house. Make sure it's without spot.
Make sure it's without blemish. Don't take a sick lamb. Take
a perfectly healthy lamb and spend three days and put it in
quarantine and inspect it and make sure there's nothing wrong
with it. And isn't that what happened to the Lord? In three
years, he was quarantined, if you will, and inspected by all
men, by Satan himself, by his enemies, by the law, and was
proven to be without spot and without blemish. And at the end
of that three years, was offered as a burnt offering before God.
And the fire of God's wrath fell from heaven. and consumed him
on that cross, even as he quenched the fire of God's justice. And
the death angel came through. It came through. You know, one
of the distinguishing marks between God's elect and the reprobate,
according to Psalm 76, we read it this morning in the study,
Psalm 73, is that the reprobate Those who have not been chosen
by God live their whole lives here without any thought for
their souls. There's no fear, there's no bans
of death in them. They've made a covenant with
death. Whereas God's people have an understanding. They have a
fear of God. They have an understanding that
this life is temporal and that death is racing towards them.
And that there is a God with whom they must do and they're
in need of a Savior. They're in need of a Savior.
Not a day goes by that God's people don't think about that. It's not something that... that is discouraging or depressing
or morose to them. It's encouraging, but it's true. It's the reality of death that
causes them to find their hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then if you read the books
of Leviticus and Numbers, Every transgression of the law
required a blood sacrifice. Judaism in the Old Testament
was a bloody, bloody, bloody religion. There wasn't a day
that lambs weren't sacrificed. The blood flowed. It was a horrible
sight to beheld in the wilderness when they got into Israel. It
was a never-ending slaughterhouse of lambs. Because every transgression
of the law, just read Leviticus and read Numbers and you'll see
that just time after, this is what's required. Without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And if a person
does this, then they offer a blood sacrifice. Person does this,
they offer a burnt sacrifice. God required it. There's no forgiveness
of sin apart from the shedding of blood. And then in Isaiah
chapter 53 verse 7 we read, he was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. I heard a man talk about his
experience in a slaughterhouse one time, and he was comparing
the pigs to the sheep. And the pigs seemed to know what
was happening. And they were kicking and screaming
and squealing all the way through to their death. Whereas the sheep
didn't really know what was happening. He said they would moan a little
bit or almost sounded like a baby's cry when they were put to death. But they went not like the pigs. And I thought, wasn't that amazing?
that the Lord would take such an animal and use him to illustrate
the Lord Jesus Christ who went to the cross and he opened not
his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before his shearers. He was dumb. He opened not his mouth. And then when the Lord Jesus
Christ does come, in the fulfillment of all those Old Testament types,
John, who is his forerunner, sees him, and the Lord reveals
to John, there he is. There he is, the Lamb of God,
which taketh away the sin of the world. The only hope that
we have of having our sin taken away is in that one right there. That one right there. By the
way, if you want to understand how the word world is used in
John 3.16, just look at it there in John 1.29 when John the Baptist
says, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
the world. Now, if what the Lord Jesus Christ
did was to take away all the sins of all the world, then all
the world stands innocent before God. No, God doesn't punish twice. Once His law is satisfied, once
it's been fulfilled, once His justice has been met, then there's
no double jeopardy with God. If what John meant was that he
takes away the sin of the world, and that's the same world that's
used in John 3.16, then those who believe that Christ died
for everybody in the world must believe. must believe that he
actually succeeded in taking away all the sins of every person
in the world and basically they are Unitarians, Universalists. They don't believe that there's
a hell, they believe in the end that everybody goes to heaven.
In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 19 Peter puts it like this, he says,
you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things such
as silver and with gold. You weren't redeemed with those.
You weren't purchased with those. But as with the precious blood
of the Lamb of God who is without spot and without blemish. That's how we were redeemed.
That's how we were purchased. That's how we were bought before
God. Now I want you, if you will,
in the last few minutes, turn with me to the book of Revelation. Progressive Revelation began
in the garden with the animal skin. We saw it with Abel's sacrifice. We saw it with the Paschal Lamb.
We saw it with Abraham and Isaac. And the sacrifice that they made
and the lamb that God provided, we see it all through here. We saw it in the person. Now
at the end of the Revelation, the fullness of the Revelation,
we're going to stay right here and there's five verses of Scripture
very quickly that I want us to look at that speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. The first one is found in chapter
5 at verse 6. Now, we'll have to read verse
1 and following to get this, to understand this. Verse 1,
And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a
book written within, and on the backside sealed with the seven
seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming
with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose
the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor in earth,
neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither
to look thereon. Now John knew that this book,
had to be opened and the names in this book had to be read if
there was any hope of anyone being saved. But the book was
sealed and there was no one in heaven, no angel, no innocent
angel and no strong man in heaven was able to open the book. And
John fears that if the book's not open, no one will be saved.
And so John says in verse four, and I wept much because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to
look thereon. And one of the elders saying
to me, weep not. Behold the lion, the lion of
the tribe of Judah, the root of David hath prevailed. He hath prevailed. He hath succeeded
in what He came to do. What did He come to do? He came
to save His people. And He accomplished their salvation.
He hath prevailed. He has prevailed to open the
book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld,
and lo, in the midst of the throne, and the four beasts, and the
midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain. a slain lamb John saw in this
vision of glory. He sees the Lord Jesus Christ
as a lamb slain having seven horns and seven eyes which are
the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth. Now I know
you've seen these blasphemous pictures that men have tried
to paint of these types in the book of Revelation. These are
images that aren't to be portrayed in a picture. This is language
that is describing the omnipotence and the omniscience of the Lamb. He's got seven horns. The horn
in the Bible is a picture of power. If you're dealing with
a wild animal, you want to stay away from its horns. Its horns
are where its strength is. And now this lamb has seven horns
and the eye is a picture of omniscience. He sees everything. He sees our
thoughts before we think them. He sees our steps before we make
them. He knows everything there is
to know about us. he's got all power he's omnipotent and he's
got all knowledge he's omniscient here's the lamb oh what a glorious
lamb he is one that's been slain one to whom we can come before
and know that he has the power to save and know here's the comfort
of his omniscience the comfort of his omniscience what is the
fear that that grips our hearts when it comes to our sin that
somebody might figure us out. Somebody might know the things
that we've done or might know the things that we think and
we don't want that. The glory here is the comfort
that comes to the heart in knowing that He knows more about you
than you know about yourself. There's no hiding anything from
Him. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing. That's not
something to be feared. That's one that we're to flee
to from mercy, knowing that He knows everything. Everything. The unbeliever thinks that he's
hiding something from God. But the child of God knows that
the Lamb has seven eyes, the seven spirits of God that search
to and fro, they know everything about everything. We don't have to fear Him. We
don't have to fear Him finding something out about us. Truth
is that when we come to Him, He's going to reveal things to
us about ourselves that we didn't know. He's going to show us more than
we thought was there. Our sin's a lot worse than we
thought it was. And then He's going to comfort us with the
power that He has to save. All right, look at chapter 5
and verse 8. And when He had taken the book,
and the four beasts and the four and twenty elders fell down before
the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full
of odors, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sung
a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and
to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed
us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and
people and nation." Now the last part of verse 9 is the best definition
that there is in the Bible when it comes to W-O-R-L-D. The world is never used to describe
each and every individual person of the world. Here's the world.
God has a people outside of national Israel, in every nation, in every
tongue, in every tribe, in every people, and has made us unto
our God kings and priests. Now a king has authority and
a priest has access. And that's what the Lord's done.
He's made us Royalty. I passed by the TV this morning.
Somebody was talking about how even in America, pretty much
everybody stays within the same socioeconomic bracket that they
were born in. you know, that the American dream
really doesn't, you know, occasionally someone might break out of that,
but generally everybody pretty much stays right there. Wherever
they were born is where they stay the rest of their lives.
And I thought, you know, here's a socioeconomic
bracket that the world knows nothing of. To be a child of
God, to be associated and married
to the king of kings, the one who is lord of lords? The world knows nothing about
this socioeconomic bracket. This is a bracket beyond anything
this world can comprehend, but that's where God's people are.
They're kings, and they're a nation of priests. They have access. They don't need another man for
their priest. They have a high priest and they
are made priests like the sons of Aaron to be able to serve
in the tabernacle of God. and they can come right into
the very presence of God. Why? Because of the Lamb. And
has made us unto our God, kings and priests, verse 11, and I
beheld and I heard the voice of many angels round about the
throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them
was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands, saying with 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. This Lamb is the object of worship. He's the object of worship. And the only way that you're
going to worship God is if He is sovereign. Sovereign. The feigned worship, now listen
to this very carefully, you know this is true. The feigned worship
of man-made religion is just that. It's fake. It's a facade. It's pretend. That's why we don't
put into our places of worship all the trappings of religion
so that men can be incited by the smells of religion and the
sights of religion and the sounds of religion. Why? Because we
don't want to manufacture some sort of feigned worship. God's
people worship Him in spirit and in truth. They worship Him
from the heart And they worship him in faith and faith comes
by hearing and hearing comes by the word of God. So what do
we do? We spend all of our time right there in this book because
this is the message that draws the heart in true worship before
God. This lamb is worshiped. Chapter 6, verse 1, And I saw
when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were,
the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come
and see! Come and see! Here's what the
Lamb says, Come and see! I'm so glad we're not a part
of the old dispensation. When the priest was stationed
outside the tabernacle, when the sacrifices were made, and
the people were warned, stay away, stay away, and if anyone
got close, they would kill him. Now the veil has been rent. The
holies of holies has been exposed. Our forerunner, the Lord Jesus
Christ, has gone into the heavenlies. And He calls us, come. Come and see the glory of your
God. Are you thirsty? Come and drink
of the water of life freely. Are you hungry? Come and eat
of my flesh. Eat of the bread of life. Are
you willing? Come! Come knowing that God made
you so. Come. Come and see. See what? See that you're a sinner
without any ability to save yourself. See that God has elected before
the foundation of the world according to His own good purpose and will
a people that He's pleased to show mercy on. See that the Lamb
of God laid down his life for the sheep, for the sheep, and
that he satisfied the demands of God's justice and fulfilled
all the law for God's people. See that. See that when he's
willing, when he's able, when he's ready to make you willing,
that you will be made willing in the day of his power. Oh,
Lord, make me willing. Keep me, keep me from falling
and to present me before Thy throne of grace, without fault,
holy, undefiled, unblameable before Thee. Lord, would You
do that for us? Can you see that? Can you see
that? Come and see. That's what the
Lamb says. Come and see. Come and see. Chapter 7, verse 14. Verse 12 says, 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 answered, saying unto me, What are these which
are arrayed in the white robes? And whence came they? And I said
unto him, Sir, thou knowest. So the elder now is asking John,
John, do you know who these are? Kind of like when the Lord asks,
The prophet, can these bones live? Ezekiel, can these bones
live? And John says the same thing
back to the elder that the prophet said, Lord thou knowest. He says,
one of the elders answered saying unto me, what are these that
are arrayed? And whence came they? And I said unto him, sir,
thou knowest. And he said to me, these are
they which came out of the great tribulation, have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The only hope that you and I
have to stand before God is to be in the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. And every saint of
God in glory is going to be robed in the fleece of the Lamb of
God made white by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. 13.8 and 17.14, there's two more
references to the Lamb. We'll save them for another time.
All right, let's take a break.