This last part of chapter 5 we'll look at tonight, but remember
that this whole chapter is all about this book that needed to
be opened. The question was, who is worthy
to open the book? And we have the answer in our
text tonight, worthy is the Lamb. So this book is the book of God's
will and purpose. You saw that John wept when the
book couldn't be opened. The reason that there are tears
is because of sin. But the angel said don't weep.
The reason that he can say don't weep is because of the forgiveness
of sin. God's purpose of grace. So that's
what's in the book. The purpose of God's grace toward
his people really all of his purpose, but the that's the That's
really the theme of course the Bible that God has revealed everything
he's seen fit to reveal to us now in time It's Christ. It's all him and so we know what's
in that Book that's in this chapter and no man John cried because
no man could even look at it That is know what's in it You
don't even know what's in it unless the Lord reveals it, unless
He opens it. And no man can open it, and that
has to do also with fulfilling all of the decree of God that's
contained in it, the opening of it. No man could even look
at it or open it, but the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, came up
and took the book out of the hand of the Father. Now that's
significant, we'll talk about that a little bit. And I want
to talk more about this book this evening as we get back into
this chapter a little bit. In verse seven it says, the lamb
as it had been slain, verse six. That part's in verse six, the
lamb as it had been slain. And then verse seven it says,
he came and took the book out of the right hand of God the
Father. Wasn't forced upon him He came
and took it and think again about what's in that book Well Chris you already said it's
the purpose of God in that book yeah, but what is the purpose
of God? Christ in him crucified Is fulfilled is the fulfilling
of all of God's purposes every bit of it In the eternal covenant
of God's grace towards sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ willingly
agreed to be surety of his people. And him laying down his life
for us, him giving himself for our sins, is the fulfillment
of that. A lamb as it had been slain took
the book. The father didn't have to say,
son, now you come take this book and you're going to have to open
it because nobody else can open it. He came up and took it out
of his hand. With all of his heart, for the
joy that was set before him, he took it out of his father's
hand and opened it, knowing what was in it. And notice again what
made him worthy to open the book. Verse nine, for thou wast slain. thou wast slain. When Christ
Jesus on Calvary made His soul an offering for our sins, the
sins of His people, He fulfilled all of the counsel of God, all
of the will of God. Remember the two things that
we said this book is all about. It's God's glory. God's purpose
is whatever glorifies Him. He's going to get glory in all
of it. Whether we call it good or we call it bad. He's going
to be glorified in it. And how does that happen? What
is the chief glory of God? Lord, show me your glory. I'll
have mercy. The Son of God is going to be
slain for sinners. And God's going to have mercy
on them. God's glory, first thing, and
then the salvation of His elect. And it's really just one thing
if you think about it. Christ crucified is the fulfillment
of both. He is the fulfillment of everything. All of God's purpose is in his
hand. Remember when we said, a body thou hast prepared for
me? And Christ said, lo, I come to do your will. What's our problem? We don't do his will. We can't
do his will. What was his will in the garden?
Don't you eat of that tree. We didn't do his will. Nobody
ever does his will. Nobody can live up to his will.
But Christ said, I'm coming to do it. He took the book right
out of his hand and opened it. That's what that's a picture
of. And don't forget the and there in verse nine. The and, that's a key word in
this chapter now. He, thou wast slain and thou wast slain. Everybody believes
that somebody named Jesus died on a cross, but what about the
end? What about the end? The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
lamb that taketh away sin. Him giving Himself for His sheep
had a definite, inevitable, inevitable because of who He is result. He redeemed us all for whom He
died. That's just clear, isn't it? If it had been the Lord laid
down His life and made it possible for men to be redeemed, it could
say that, couldn't it? I reckon it could say that thou
was slain and made salvation available to every sinner. I
think it could say that, but it don't say that. It don't say
that because that's not what happened. He died and he redeemed
us when he did. He did it. He accomplished it.
Not waiting on you. We better wait on him. That's
what needs to happen. We need to hang upon his every
word. Redeemed us unto God by his blood what beautiful language
He redeemed us unto God By his precious blood and it doesn't
say there Verse 9 again, I believe it is. Yep. It doesn't say there. He redeemed every kindred and
tongue and people in nation He redeemed us He redeemed us out
of every kindred tongue people in nation That's different from
what they're preaching in most of the churches, so-called, in
this world, in this country, and around this world. All whom
he loved, all whom he chose, it's all through the scriptures.
All whom the Father gave him, all for whom his precious blood
was shed, he redeemed them. He redeemed them to God. That
word means the price for the freedom of a slave. All of us
are slaves to sin. You know, the Lord taught that
to the Pharisees, and they said, we've never been in bondage.
They were born in bondage and didn't know it. The bondage of
the law of God. And you know what we do when
we hear that? We hear how powerful precious
blood is And how that we were redeemed by we sing We sing what
are they singing? Think about what they're singing
here. They sung a new song saying you're worthy Christ is worthy
to Take all of God's purposes and will upon himself and to
fulfill it Verse 9 For you were crucified
and slain and has redeemed us to God By thy blood out of every
kindred tongue and people and that you know that it that's
the gospel That's the gospel He's to be glorified Because
of who he is He's worthy He is the one upon whom all of the
covenant of God is a covenant of His grace towards sinners,
it all hangs upon Christ. You know what this book, it's
a book of promises, isn't it? And all of them are yea and amen,
where? In Christ. So it all hangs upon Him, and
He's worthy of it. He's successful in it. Why? Because He was slain. and redeemed us. That's the gospel
of limited atonement. That's all limited atonement
is, it's just the gospel. It's whoever Christ died for,
he redeemed them. He died for those that he loved
with an everlasting love. He calls them his elect, his
chosen, more than any other thing in the scripture. He calls them
his sheep, his own. His redeemed ones. And we're
singing. They're singing the gospel there.
Worthy is the Lamb. Look what He did. That's the
gospel. Christ and Him crucified. Just
look at the eternal triumph of His cross. Right now, we preach
the gospel with a good hope that whoever among us that does not
as yet know the Savior, that it will please God by the foolishness
of preaching. to save them. That's the hope
that we have. We're not trying to get sinners
to do something for God. We're preaching with a heart
full of hope that God is going to do something for sinners.
Oh, and to save them through sanctification of his spirit
and belief of the truth that God would save. But then, there,
we will sing that same gospel. Everyone there around the throne
is already redeemed by his blood. There's no preaching anymore,
not like now anyway, as a means for salvation. Everybody there
has been saved, redeemed by his precious blood, but we sing of
his glories there that we preached about here. It's the same thing. We sing that he alone is worthy. No man, no man, But don't weep,
because the land of the tribe of Judah, the Lamb of God hath
prevailed. That word is accomplished. He
hath prevailed. Why can he open the book? Because
of the death that he accomplished on Calvary. So we'll sing that, we'll sing
of his glories that we preached there, here, We'll sing that
he's worthy like we preached here. We'll sing that his precious
blood is effectual in saving all for whom he died. Isn't that
what they sang? He gave himself and he redeemed
them. He was slain and he redeemed
us to God. That's what we preach. We sing
that all power is his. They attributed power to him,
didn't they? We'll talk about that a little bit more. They
attributed riches. The unsearchable riches of God's
grace and love are in Christ Jesus. We preach that now. We're
gonna sing it then. And notice it's a new song. How
in the world is it new, Chris? Isn't that the same thing that
the prophets declared all those thousands of years ago? Sure
is. Sure is. How in the world is it new? Isn't
Christ who He is and what He did the theme of all scripture? The theme of ages past? Of course
it is. But it's always new. Always new. And think about this. How is
it new? We sing of His glory now. We sing glory to God. But how much do you really know
about the glory of God? You know much about it? Yeah,
me neither. I know what He reveals to me. He may have revealed more
to you of His glory. We've experienced His glory,
haven't we? But how much do we really know?
That song's gonna be new, isn't it, when we're new? It's new
because we're new. We've got to be changed, don't
we? Our mortal must put on immortality,
and our corruption must put on incorruption. We're not gonna
sing like we do now. We sing of redeeming love, the
love of God. Could we with ink the oceans
fill, and where the skies of parchment made, and every stalk
on earth a quill? and every man a scrap by trade.
To write the love of God above would drain the oceans dry, nor
could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from
sky to sky. What do you really know about
the love of God? Oh man, you talk about getting lost in just
the thought of it. We're gonna know, we're gonna
know then. It's a new song, it's got to be a new song, doesn't
it? Because it's going to be a new us singing it. One that we can't sing now. Though
it's sweet now to sing of Christ and what he's done for us. It's one of our favorite things
to do. It's wonderful to have music. What a gift music is. The gift of God. We sing to praise
our Savior and to thank Him. But what do we know now? The
riches of his glory are unsearchable now, but then we'll know even
as we're known, and we'll sing a new song. We'll be able to sing without
sin, too. That's new. That's gonna be new,
isn't it? Never done that yet. I'm kind of looking forward to
that. Do you have any idea what Christ
has done for you? You really have any idea what
he bore on Calvary for you? It says that he was slain. The
word there is slaughtered. The word bruise in Isaiah 53. He was bruised for our iniquity.
That word means crushed. God destroyed his own son. The
word slaughter reminds me of Isaiah 53, also, all we like
sheep have gone astray, and we've turned every one to our own way,
and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was
oppressed and he was afflicted, and yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. That he was slaughtered,
the fact that he was slaughtered says something about us, doesn't
it? It took the blood of God to make you acceptable to God.
That he was slaughtered says something about him. He was willing to give himself
for the glory of God and for the joy that was set before him
in redeeming his own. It speaks of the holiness and
justice of God that he was slaughtered. God's justice demands perfect
satisfaction, and yet mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other in the Savior. He said, there's no God else
beside me, a just God and a Savior. Thou art worthy. What a beautiful
song. Clearly it's a song about him,
isn't it? Who he is. He's worthy just because
of who he is. He's worthy because of what he's
accomplished. But it says something about me
too. What am I doing there? We talked
about it last week. Maybe John saw us there because
in eternity there's no used to be and gonna be, it's eternity.
Eternity is not a limitless amount of time. It's altogether separate
from time. There is no time there. And so
I suspect we were there. It says in the scriptures we're
seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus right now, does it not? Doesn't it say whom he justified
he's already glorified? Glorified means being with Him
and like Him. That's what glory is. That's
what heaven is. But what are we doing there? That's the question. How did
we get there? Because He's worthy. Not you. Not because you're worthy, because
He's worthy. And so it has something to do with us, too, that worthy
is the Lamb that was slain. In verse 10, it said, he's made
us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
Do you feel like a king? Do you really feel like a king?
You feel like you have royal blood in your veins right now?
Well, you do if you're Christ. You do, we're royal. Royalty
in Christ, we're kings unto our God. We wear the royal robe of
his righteousness. But for God now, this world doesn't
count me a king and I don't want Him to. The world is crucified unto us
and us unto this world. Our kingdom is not of this world.
His kingdom and the kingdom that we're born into by His grace
is not of this world. We are born of the heavenly,
royal blood of Christ, forgotten again unto a lively hope Kingship
has to do with bloodline. We belong to him. We're his sons
and daughters. And we reign with him. He said,
if you suffer with me, you'll reign with me. He's promised
it. We're priests unto God. What
does that mean? Well, only the priest could go into the presence
of God under the Old Covenant. Only the priest could enter the
holy place. Nobody else. He had to have something
to offer. Is that us? Do we have something
to offer God? We do now, because our great
high priest, our forerunner, has entered for us into that
which is within the veil. And we're in him. Only a priest
can come into God's presence, but he entered into that for
us, and now we have full, perfect, access to God Seeing then that
we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus
the Son of God Let us hold fast our profession For we have not
an high priest which cannot be touched With the feeling of our
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without
sin Let us therefore because Christ took our place. Let us
therefore come boldly. Not haughtily, not with pride,
not with just kind of the over familiarity
that religion talks about, you know. But boldly, without fear
of him, we have reverence, reverential fear But we're not hiding from
God anymore, are we? Instead of running from God,
we're coming to Him. We want to be with Him. Let us
therefore come boldly into the throne of grace that we may obtain
mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Is there any
time you don't need His grace? Come. Come boldly to His throne. Verse 11, he said, I beheld and
I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the
beasts and the elders, remember the beasts are God's messengers
throughout the ages, his prophets, preachers and teachers, and the
elders, that's all the people of God. And the number of them
was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. A number which no man, the scripture
says, can number. But I guarantee you, God knows
the number. He knows exactly how many there
are. You remember the story of when the Lord told them to cast
their net on the other side, and they hadn't caught anything
all night. They told the Lord, we've been
fishing all night. This is what we do, and we ain't
caught nothing. He said, throw over on the other
side. of the ship, and they brought
in their net, and there was so many fish. In one account of
it, it says that there were so many fish that their net broke. They had to come from the other
boat and help them get what they could on the boat. But you know
what the other account of that, another account of that says?
That there was 153 of them in there. 153. It's a number which
no man can number, but God can. God can. Who shall declare all
the triumph of his cross? I won't sing it again. Millions dead now live again. I'm one of those, by God's grace. Imagine every one of them. Imagine
every one of them. I was at a concert one time. I won't tell you who it was,
but there were so many people there. And everybody was shouting
at the top of their lungs for this performer. And I sat there,
and I thought, these people are worshiping that man. That's what
that is. And it was deafening. Vicki and
I were there, and I was like shouting, like, she's right here,
and I'm shouting something there. And she couldn't hear a word
I was saying. It was so loud in there. But imagine this. 10,000 times 10,000, and thousands
of thousands, with a loud voice. Singing worthy is the lamb. Oh man. There it is in verse
12, 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 and every creature which is in heaven and
on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea And
all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing and honor and glory
and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the
Lamb forever and ever. Well, let's talk about this briefly.
This word receive in verse 12 is exactly the same word as the
word took in verse seven. Take a few minutes here, a couple
of seconds here to look back at verse seven. he came up and
took that book out of the hand of his father that sat on the
throne. It's the same word as receive in verse 12. And what
this is here, it doesn't mean that he didn't have these things
before and we're giving him something that he didn't have before or
anything like that. It's simply attributing to him
all of these things. We're attributing them unto him.
Remember that word took. These are the things that he
takes up. It's in his hand. These things are in his hand.
If we need any power or wisdom or anything like that, what are
we told to do? If any man lack wisdom, James said, let him do
what? Ask of God. Ask of God. He gives these things to sinners
as it pleases Him. The Lord just takes it. He just
takes it up. Yeah, it's in His hand. In other
words, it's His. These things are His. And we're
attributing them to Him. Power. He has power in so much that
everything right now consists by Him. Everything is the way
that it is. You ever think about, boy, it
just seems like everything's just gonna fall apart one of
these days. Not until he's ready, because he's the one holding
it together. It may happen soon, but it's not gonna be till he's
ready. By him, everything consists. He's made everything and everybody,
and by him, all things consist. But you know what my favorite
reference to the power of Christ is? Listen to this. John 17,
one, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy
son also may glorify thee as thou has given him power over
all flesh for a reason. Remember what it is? That he
should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. Oh boy, that's power now. Gives life as it pleases him
to do so that has to do with authority mainly It's his to
give Riches Under him be riches in him dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead in the body God Walking around
this earth in human flesh and now sitting on the throne of
the universe Paul wrote in Ephesians 3.8, unto me who am less than
the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Romans 8.32, he that spared not
his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? If you have Christ,
You have every good thing that God is able to give. You ever
think about that? How good can it possibly get?
It is. It is. Because of God and his
son. Wisdom. Again, if you lack wisdom,
and we do, I do, ask of God, James 1.5. Christ is the power
of God and the wisdom of God. Who are you gonna ask? He's the
one that's got to give it, doesn't he? Christ Jesus not only has
that wisdom, not only is it his to give, but you know what, when
he gives you wisdom, you know what you're gonna have? Him. He is the wisdom that he gives. Everything else, you might call
it knowledge, I guess, of a sort. What do you need to know? Christ is the wisdom of God.
The word wisdom in the book of Proverbs is just a synonym for
Christ. Listen to it. Wisdom is the principal
thing. Proverbs 4, 7. Wisdom is the
principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And with all thy getting, get
understanding. Wisdom is the principal thing.
Compare that verse with Luke 10, 42, where the Lord Jesus
told Martha, one thing is needful. Strength. The word power and
strength are not exactly the same thing. Power, as I said,
has primarily to do with authority. He's able because he's God. He's God. But also now, this
word strength, It speaks more of his inability to fail. He's just he's all powerful.
He does as he pleases and nobody can stop him. That's what Job
said. Remember our message last Sunday
when he said, believe you that I'm able to do this. That's talking
about his strength. Strength of his grace, the strength
of his love strength. of his virtue. Remember he said
when the woman with the issue of blood touched him, touched
the hem of his garment, he said, virtue has gone out of me. The
power of that virtue. The leper cried, Lord, if you
will, you can. That's the strength of God. You can. You're able. Almighty
to save. All authority and all power. ability He was able to bear all
of the sins of all of his people All of his elect and bear them
away Put them away He's able to keep you from falling
Now we need him every hour to keep us from falling Job said
in Job 42 too, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that
no thought of thine can be hindered. We attribute honor unto him.
Listen to John 5.22 about that. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should
honor the Son. and John saw us doing it. That's
what we're doing in our text. All judgment. That word, you
look that word up now. People equate judgment with wrath
and certainly they're connected. That word judgment means he makes
all the decisions. He's the one that decides every
case. That's what a judge does. He decides the case. Christ has
all. judgment That all men should
honor the son even as they honor the father and he that honoreth
not the son Honoreth not the father which hath sent him that's
key now We attribute glory unto him and we don't even know what
that is We just know it's him that he's the he's the express
image of God's glory I know what glory means for me. To be glorified
is to be like Him. So what is glory? It's Him. John 17, 24, Father, I will that
they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where I am that
they may behold my glory. So you're not gonna be thinking
about streets of gold or gates of pearl. I'll tell you that.
You're going to be gazing upon the glory of the one that bought
you with his blood. And you're never going to get
tired of it. Which thou hast given me for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Blessing. Remember
Ephesians 1? All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places are ours in Christ Jesus. All blessing comes from him. God has no blessing for sinners
apart from Christ. None. And men go about saying
bless you, bless you this, bless you my son or some nonsense.
All blessing is attributed unto him by those that know him. And about verse 13, let's look
at verse 13 for a minute here. I just want to say I just want
to point out that God the Father and God the Son are co-equal
in receiving all praise and adoration from everybody in heaven. Blessing and honor and glory
and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and all through
this chapter we've seen that that's the Father and unto the
Lamb forever and ever. There's a whole world full of
people talking about God, and they call different beings God,
and say that they worship God, and that they know God, but they
don't honor his son. They don't recognize Christ as
who he is. They don't glorify him. They knew God. They glorified
him not as God. And they're all goners, every
one of them. Everyone in this world, and that's
most of them by far. Most people even profess, you
ever think about this? Most of the people in the world
even profess that they don't honor the sun as God. They don't
bow to the sun, they don't worship the sun. If you don't, you don't
worship God. You can talk about God all you
want to. You're a goner. You're a goner. He that honoreth
not God the Son, honoreth not God the Father. And verse 14, here's what we
say to all this, amen. Amen's a good word, isn't it?
I told you one time it's actually pronounced in the Greek, amen.
But that sounds funny because we've said it for so long, you
know, amen, or a lot of people say amen. Amen is closer to the
way it's pronounced, actually. But I just like it the way amen
sounds, so I'm just going to say it that way. However you
pronounce it, he's the amen, isn't he? We saw that. He is the amen. Are we saying
that now to what to what God revealed, amen. So be it. You want God to be on the throne?
You like it that way? For Him to run you and everybody
else and everything, to run your life, to choose your steps for
you? Is that all right with you? I
kind of like it that way. I say amen, amen. Are you glad
that salvation's not up to you? that the Lord Jesus Christ is
the decider of all cases? That he gives life to whom he
will? The one that's perfectly good, and you're not? The one that's all wise, and
you're not? The one who is glorious in every
attribute that he, that wonderful attribute of his, and you're
not? Are you glad he's the one that
decides who is saved and who's not? Amen. We say an amen to all of this,
don't we? Are you glad his precious blood,
he didn't shed it in vain. He didn't shed it to make something
possible. He redeemed us to God by that
blood. Amen. And we fall down, look
at us, we're falling down. Fall down and worship him, verse
14. fall down and worship Him that
liveth forever and ever. Are we doing that right now in
our hearts? Worshiping the Lamb of God. It's a new song. It's a new song, isn't it? Worthy
glory and riches and honor and blessing. It's gonna be a new
song then, but if we're not singing it now, We're not going to be
there. We're not going to sing it then.
We're not going to sing it in His very presence, unless we
sing it now. We're just going to sing it better
then. Listen to Psalm 40, verse 1, in closing. Y'all were making
fun of me before church about saying that, so I'm going to
prove you wrong. I'm going to read it, and I'm not even going
to comment on it. Psalm 40, verse 1. I waited patiently for the
Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. To whom shall
we go? Well, I wasn't going to comment,
but I waited for the Lord. What else are you going to do? And He inclined unto me and heard
my cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay. set my
feet upon a rock, established my goings, and he hath put a
new song in my mouth. Even praise unto our God, many
shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is
that man that maketh the Lord his trust. Amen.