All right, if you'd open your
Bibles to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5. This is the third message in
a series which I entitled Heavenly Comfort for Saints on Earth.
But that might be an appropriate title for the entire book of
Revelation because that's really what its message is. It is a
declaration to the people of God on earth of how things really
are in contrast to how the natural
eye can see them. Revelation chapter five, let's
pray. Our heavenly father, we thank
you for this time of worship and I thank you for all who have
gathered here and I pray that your spirit would be among us. Lord, enable me to preach the
truth. Bring to mind those things which
have been studied. Sanctify them to the good of
the people. We pray that all hearts would be strengthened
with grace. And if there be any heart here who has not yet been
made alive by the work of the Spirit of God, we pray that you
do so this day. And we ask this in the name of
the Lord Jesus, amen. Now, we spent a couple of Sundays
going through chapter four in which there is a vision given
to John showing him how things on earth appear from the perspective
of heaven. Things on earth, from the perspective
of earth, look really bad. The church was suffering a great
deal. In the times since the day of
Pentecost, which Pentecost had been approximately 60 years earlier
than this writing, there had been divisions in the church,
heresies had arisen, all manner of immorality. And at this point,
all the apostles but John are gone. And there doesn't seem
to be any of that glorious working that they experienced early on. And they were discouraged. And
so God gave to John a series of seven visions, symbolic visions,
by which he showed, God showed John what's really going on.
And in chapter four, we saw some glorious things. We saw a throne
and someone sitting on it, which teaches us that this world, even
though it looks like it's in chaos and doesn't it. I mean,
you know, you just, at least from the believer's viewpoint,
it looks chaotic. And yet we understand that there
is one upon a throne and a throne in heaven, and he rules all things
on earth for the good of his people. That's a comfort. The world's not in chaos. The
world is following the exact track that God set it on. And then we saw 24 elders with
white robes and crowns of victory, and these represent the church
of God from the beginning to the very end. And by this I include
within the Church of God all the Old Testament saints because
there is only one body says the Apostle Paul. The church didn't
get its full revelation of what it is until the Lord Jesus Christ
came but that doesn't mean that the people who were born and
lived and died before the Lord Jesus Christ came are not part
of his church. They are. And those 24 elders around the
throne represent them all and they're all there, not one is
missing, not one of God's elect shall fail to reach the presence
of God without spot, without blemish, faultless, full of joy,
victorious over all that was brought against them. They're
there. The spirit of God is shown to
be present and active In our day, there are many who think
that because we do not see miracles like healing and tongue speaking,
that the Spirit of God is not among us. Well, those kind of
miracles were for a particular time. Now, I'm not saying God
doesn't heal. He does. We pray. Sometimes He
heals, sometimes He doesn't. It's in His hand. I know this. Everybody who is healed is healed
by the Lord. He says, I kill and I make a
life. And if he's the one that kills and makes alive, then it
must be that he's always the one who preserves a life, if
he chooses to preserve it. But the day of preachers having
the ability, a gift given to them that they, by their word,
can heal others, that day was for the apostolic age, and it's
gone. But some think because we don't
have those things going on, that the spirit in his fullness is
not present. And yet we have an image of that
in the seven lamps before the throne. And then we have the four living
creatures. And these four living creatures
represent ministers of the gospel. And they see all things above,
that is they understand those things which come from above,
the truth, the gospel, and they see the things below. They see
the church, they see the people in it, and they have a care for
them and watch over them. And they declare this message,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and
is to come. That's not all that they say,
but everything that they say is based on that statement. It
is the holiness of God that causes preachers to point out the sinfulness
of man, because what they're going to declare is how can a
sinful man be made right with a holy God? And one reason we
see such weak and pitiful gospels being preached is because a weak
and pitiful God is being preached. You know, a person's gospel will
always match the God that he worships. Well, when you realize
that God is holy and so holy that you can't just say holy
once and describe his absolute and perfect holiness three times,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. who was and is
and is to come. He's God now and He always has
been God and He always will be God. And there's glorious praise and
the 24 elders representing all believers in all ages lay their
crowns of victory before the throne because they know that
it is the one on the throne who gave them the victory and that
they themselves have no right to claim it. However, John was in a state
of conflict. You know, in every good story, the author of the story sets
up a conflict. And he may take a long time to
do it, he may set it up right at the beginning, But the rest
of the story after the conflict is set up is a description of
how the conflict is resolved. And often there's a point in
that story at which or on which the whole story turns. Where
the conflict has reached its pitch and then something happens. It may seem like an insignificant
event. In fact, as you're reading the
story, you might not even notice it as you're reading it, and
it's not until you get to the end when you go, oh, it was then
that things started to change. And in this story, which in all
reality is the story of our reality, the story that goes all the way
from when God said, let there be light, until he wraps up this
entire world. That whole story is God's story
written by him. And the conflict was set up very
early in the story. And the conflict was our sin.
Our representative Adam sinned, and his sin was counted to all
of us as though we ourselves had done it, and his sin ruined
us. So that not only is his sin accounted
to us, every one of us follows in his path and does exactly
the kind of things he did. We rebel against God. That's a conflict on earth, that's
a conflict within the mind of John, because in chapter 4 he
sees all these glories, he sees this perfect group of people,
this victorious group of people, and he cannot reconcile that
image with what he sees on earth. He sees a throne with someone
sitting on it, and he can't reconcile that image with what he sees
on earth. He sees the crystal lake or crystal
sea in which all the people of God have been washed and yet
the sea itself remains unpolluted. And yet he can't reconcile that
image with what he sees on earth with the natural eye. He sees in heaven the four living
creatures, the full contingent of the preachers of the gospel
of grace, whom God sends in the world to testify of Christ. And yet he can't reconcile that
with his image on earth where he has seen those who at one
time claimed to preach the gospel but have departed from it. He
has witnessed those who do preach the gospel remain faithful and
yet because of their faithfulness die as martyrs. How can you reconcile what he
sees on earth? with what he sees in heaven. Well, chapter five tells us. It says in verse one, then I
saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a scroll
with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. The
answer to the riddle of how we reconcile what we see on earth
with what is declared to us as already true in heaven is written
on that scroll. That scroll is in the hand of
the one who sits on the throne, and it's in his hand because
he's the one who wrote it. This is God's sovereign, unstoppable,
irresistible decree of all things and especially as all things
are worked together for good to them who love God and are
called according to his people. It is a testimony of how God
shall save his people. Now our salvation is too prone. We need salvation from God. And I don't mean a salvation
that comes from God, I mean there is an aspect to our salvation
where God is the problem. One preacher of our day put it
well, he says, God saves us from himself, by himself, for himself. What people fail often to catch
in that is that God saves us from Himself. Who is the greatest
danger to the sinner? God is. It's appointed unto man
once to die and after that to judgment. And that's the scary
part of death. Because every one of us knows,
it's kind of an intuitive understanding, that when we die we don't stop
existing. We merely move. And that when we move, we're
going to face Him who made us and we must give an account of
how we lived. And all of us have an intuitive
understanding that that's not going to go well. But the Lord Jesus Christ came.
He came as the last Adam. The first Adam failed. He came
as the last Adam to succeed. And he came with the names of
God's elect written upon his heart and upon his hands. And
he lived the life they could not live and died the death they
dare not die for this single purpose. So that God can be just
and justify those who have faith in him. Some of you here, when you die and face judgment,
you'll have absolutely nothing to fear. Because you have been
washed in the crystal sea, mentioned in chapter four. And you are
dressed in the pure white robes of the righteousness of Christ.
And when God looks upon you, he will see no sin. In fact, that's the way it is
now. You see your sin. You understand it. It grieves
you. You can't believe that someone who calls upon the name of the
Lord acts like you do. And when I say you, I'm including
me in the you. Isn't that so? Don't you stand
amazed that you are counted among those who have been redeemed
and justified by the blood of Christ? And doesn't it amaze
you that someone who's been given such blessed privileges can still
play the rebel? Yet it's so. But as grievous
as that truth may be, it does not affect the reality that Jesus
Christ died for His people. And though a search will be made
for their sins, they shall not be found, for they are not. They're not just covered, they
don't exist anymore. For Christ has died and put them
away. But that's not all the need we
have for salvation. God had a just claim on us to
destroy us. But there is one who has no claim
on us and yet has captured us nonetheless. It's kind of like
a kidnapping. The New Testament calls him the
God of this age. It says the God of this age has
blinded unbelievers. It's the devil that he's talking
about, Satan. It says that he holds the world
captive at his will, and there's only one will stronger than his,
and that's God's will. People say, well, I believe in
free will, that a man, you know, can believe the gospel. He can believe the gospel only
if the one who has the absolute sovereign will comes and releases
them from the bondage of him who holds the world captive at
his will. People don't like to think they're
being held captive. Our Lord talked about Christ,
you know, the Son of God setting people free and they said, we're
Abraham's seed and we've never been in bondage, which is so
stupid because right at that time they were under Rome's bondage.
And they've been under Egypt's bondage, and Babylon's bondage,
and Assyria's bondage, and they've been in bondage a lot. But worse
than that, they were in a spiritual bondage, and everyone in this
world is born into this spiritual bondage. And release from that
does not come by an act of righteousness, but by an act of power. We have
an enemy that's stronger than us, and he must be defeated if
we are to be saved. And therefore in that scroll
that's in the hand of Him that sits upon the throne is the method by which this delivery
will come to God's people. It says it had writing on both
sides. In other words, it was full.
I like that. There's no blank spaces for someone
else to fill in. Scrolls, you know, we go buy
paper at the store and it doesn't cost us much. Well, paper was
expensive back then, or what they used for paper. And therefore,
when they made a scroll, they would actually start writing on it, and sometimes
they started at the bottom of the scroll and wrote up as they
unrolled the scroll, but once the thing was all unrolled, they
just kept going and they started writing on the other side. efficient
use of scroll materials well here this scroll is written like
that and it's written like that because it is the whole story
it's everything and no one can add to it and
no one can take away from it and then this scroll was sealed
by God sealed with seven seals. Now
in those days the seal represented the authority of the one who
wrote a document. They would write a document like
that and then they'd put a blob of melted wax on it and the king
would take his signet ring and impress it on there and that
would be the image of the king's authority or the authority of
whoever it was sent the document. And that That seal did two things. First of all, it showed who the
document came from. And secondly, it prevented anyone
other than its proper recipient from opening it. It was a seal
of authority. The seal itself was not very
strong. I mean, how hard is it to open up an envelope? But you
know that if something comes in the mail and it's sealed up,
Somebody licked the back, you know, sealed the flap down. You
realize, all right, I'm not supposed to open that unless my name's
on the front. And so that was the way the seals
of old operated. And so this scroll comes with
God's seal upon it. And it dare not be opened by
any other than the person for whom it was written. But it says it's sealed with
seven seals. Now, not every number in the Bible means something,
but some of them do. And in symbolic books like this,
numbers do have significance. Seven is a number of perfection
or completion. And this shows us that this thing
is sealed up and sealed up tight. Whoever opens this not only must
have the authority to open it, he must have the power to open
it. Because whoever opens it must
also put into effect all that's written in it. And therefore a call goes out.
A mighty angel, verse two, proclaims, who is worthy to break the seals
and open the scroll? But no one in heaven or on earth
or under the earth can open the scroll or even look inside it.
I wept and wept. because no one was found who
was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. That's pretty
bad, isn't it? No wonder John wept. He sees
something glorious and he knows on that scroll is a testimony
and a decree of how those glorious things shall come to pass. But
it's sealed up. And no one can be found who is
worthy to open it. Wouldn't that be sad to have a treasure in a box and
no way to open the box? Wouldn't it be horrible to see
the cure, but it's in a cabinet that cannot be opened by anybody? That's what John was facing.
One preacher, and I won't give his name because I wouldn't want
anyone to listen to him on anything else. I was driving along and
tuned in the radio and he was preaching and I didn't know who
it was. I'd have probably moved on to another station, but he
was talking about this text. And you know, according to the
law that even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while,
he made this statement. He said, why did John weep? Why
in heaven? Did John weep? Because that's
where he is in this vision. He's in heaven. Why would anybody
weep in heaven? He said, because it's a heaven
with no Christ in it. For in all the visions that he's
seen so far, all the symbols, there's nothing of Christ in
it. And that indeed would be a very
sorrowful heaven. Verse five, then one of the elders
said to me, do not weep. See the lion of the tribe of
Judah, the root of David has triumphed. He is able to open
the scroll and it's seven seals. There's someone who can unlock
the treasure. There's someone. who can open
the cabinet and get the cure and administer whatever is necessary
to spare the lives of those who are dying. That's the beginning
of the good news. There's someone. Who is he? He's
the lion of the tribe of Judah. Now, if I saw a lion, it'd scare
me. And I would think I needed to
run from him. But if I knew that this lion
had appeared not to destroy me, but to save me, then I wouldn't
fear any of the other animals in the wilderness. Why? Because the lion's king of the
animals. And that's why this symbol is
used. He's a lion. Lion of the tribe of Judah, the
tribe of kings. This is not simply a lion like
Saul. King Saul might have been considered
a lion. He was powerful indeed, but he was from the wrong tribe
and he turned out to be a lousy king. This is a lion of power,
a lion of ferocity. And he's from the tribe of kings.
What does that mean? He has power. He's a lion. He
has authority. He's the king. And he has triumphed. How? The book of Colossians says that
the Lord Jesus Christ triumphed over God's enemies by the cross. You say, how is death a triumph? What is the greatest weapon our
enemy has? This may surprise you. People
think that the devil's primary desire is to get us to sin. Well, that don't take much work,
does it? In fact, I think I can do that
all by myself. I hear people say, the devil made me do it.
All the devil had to do was stand back. We can manage sin on our
own, can't we? The devil's work, his most powerful
chain of bondage is not sin, it's self-righteousness. And
he promotes this with the law. You say, wait a minute, isn't
it God's law? Yes. Satan's called the accuser of
the brethren. What do you think he accuses with? How does he
make accusation against the people of God? By bringing the law to
bear against them. He makes accusation and his accusation
is accurate. Isn't that true believer? If
he said, well, so-and-so did such and such, wouldn't you have
to say, well, yeah, that's true. How can you defend against an
accusation that's true? Later on in the book of Revelation
it says that they overcame this accuser by the word of their
testimony, that's the gospel, and the blood of the Lamb. The
book of Colossians says that God, that Jesus Christ took all
the law, the written ordinances which were against us, and nailed
it to the cross. And when he did that, he disarmed
all those wicked spirits led by that chief wicked spirit,
Satan. He disarmed them. They got nothing to work with
anymore. They can't make accusation against us because in our behalf,
Jesus Christ has satisfied the law for us. And if he comes and
accuses us in the presence of God, he's got nothing to accuse us
of. The record's clear. The same law which at one time
condemns us, now can find no fault in us. That's why it says that this
lion of the tribe of Judah, powerful, authoritative. Verse six, he says, then I saw
a lamb. Now that's strange. The elder tells John, Here's
the way this is going to be worked out. There's a lion from the
tribe of Judah. And John says, okay, I want to
see him. And he turns and he sees a lamb. That doesn't make sense. When
can a lion be a lamb? When can a lamb be a lamb? Well,
God does things that nobody else can do. Because it says, a lamb
looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the
throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.
He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits
of God, sent out into all the earth. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the Lion of the tribe of Judah, came to that lion-y
character that powerful and authoritative character by being the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And his death on the cross was
not a defeat, it was a victory. He won the battle by not fighting,
but by submitting himself to death, even the death of the
cross, wherefore God highly exalted him. and gave him a name above
all names, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every
tongue confess that he is Lord. The devil got a tongue? Yes,
he does. And he's gonna confess that Jesus
is Lord. He had seven horns, meaning complete
power, seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, or
the sevenfold spirit of God. Once again, indicating that the
Lord Jesus Christ has not abandoned his church. His spirit still
goes out in the fullness of power to give light to his people,
to call them and preserve them, to take the things of Christ
and show those things to them. Now here's the turning point.
I said every story brings a conflict. And then there'll be one point
on which the whole thing turns. Verse seven, he came and took
the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And brethren, all history turns
on that point. Now, if you want to attach this
to any historical event on earth, it's when our Lord ascended on
high, led captivity captive, gave gifts to men, and sat down
at the right hand of the Father. The Father says, sit here at
my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your
feet. That's the event that corresponds with this symbolic event. But
this is the victorious Jesus Christ, not the suffering pleading
Christ, not the one who's looking over the banister of heaven all
disappointed because he died for everybody and yet most people
have rejected him. No, this is the Lion of the tribe
of Judah coming in the power and authority of his sacrifice
to take from the hand of God himself the decree of the salvation
of God's people and put it into effect. so that none of them
shall be lost. Now, I'll tell you something
about the one that sits on the throne. You can't take that scroll out
of his hand if he doesn't want you to. The cry went out, who's
worthy? He said, nobody can be found.
But then this character, our Lord Jesus, shows up. You can
see God, and I know God can't be seen. That's how we know these
are symbolic visions. But we see God with his hand,
and that scroll's in it. And Jesus Christ approaches,
and while it does not say this specifically in the scriptures,
we know this is kind of what had to happen for him to get
that scroll. God recognized him for who he was, the worthy one. And he just opened his hand. And Jesus Christ, our Savior,
took the scroll. and by his power begin to loose
the seals of judgment against all the enemies of God's people
in order that they might be released from that awful, awful bondage. We didn't see this event happen.
We only read about it. But it works in us when we understand
it, it works in us. The very same thing, it works
It worked in those in John's vision. Verse eight, and when
he had taken it, the four living creatures, preachers like me,
and the 24 elders, believers like you, fell down before the
Lamb. Before they worshiped, fell down
before him who sits upon the throne. That one who says, my
glory I will not share with another. In chapter four, they fell down
before him and worshiped. But when the Lamb came, and with
the full approval of the one sitting upon the throne, took
that seven-sealed document, all the preachers, all the believers
fell down before the Lamb, and the one on the throne had no
problem with that. Now that tells us something about
three classes of beings or people. Number one, it tells us about
something about those preachers whom God sends out. Every one
of them delights in the sovereign power and authority of Jesus
Christ. Do you know why I come here week
after week and preach to you? It's not just because I like
to hear the sound of my own voice. I'll admit I do, but that's not
why I'm here. I come here because of this. I come here because the lamb
is worthy. And he has the scroll in his
hand. And he's opening the seals. Because if that weren't so, I
wouldn't have anything to say that was worth listening to. That's why I say here is the
pivot point. Here is where the story changes. I could not bring myself to preach
to you a Lord Jesus. Well, I couldn't even use the
word Lord for this kind of Jesus. A Jesus who has to have the permission
of men to bring about his will and desire. He doesn't need our permission
to save us. He will save us and then we'll
thank him for doing it. But so long as Jesus Christ asks
permission, people say no. But it's when in sovereign power
he comes and opens their heart by His
Spirit and shines the light of His glory into the darkness of
their minds. Then and only then are they willing.
And it's this Jesus that can do that. It's only this Jesus
who has a will stronger than the will of Him who holds us
captive at His will. It's only this Jesus who has
power to deliver us from the bondage of sin and darkness and
death and everlasting condemnation. Only this Jesus can do that.
I like to preach about Him. I like to preach about Him because
if I have to preach about what you must do, I must do so with
tears because I know you'll never do it. But if I can preach about
what He has done and what He is doing, I've got something
to preach. I got something that's good to
hear. It tells you something about believers,
those 24 elders. When they saw the sovereign Christ,
they fell down and worshiped Him. We make a big deal out of Christ,
don't we? There's a reason. He's worthy
of people making a big deal out of Him, because He is a big deal.
He's the whole deal. We say to others, we preach Christ
and Him crucified. We echo the words of Paul, I
determined not to know anything else among you other than Christ
and Him crucified. Further, we agree with Paul when
he says we don't boast in anything other than the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Why? Because there isn't anything
else worthy of talking about. There's no one else worthy of
being spoken of and held up and praised and magnified. There's
no one else that had the right to take the scroll out of the
hand of the sovereign omnipotent God and bring his will to pass. I tell you, when a believer hears
that there is someone who was counted worthy in power and authority
to take that scroll of salvation from the hand of God and put
it into effect, Oh, they worship Him. And they don't need wild music
to do it. They don't need a preacher to
get them all ginned up or a worship leader to get them all ginned
up and emotionally excited. All
they gotta do is through the simple preaching of the gospel
hear about this Jesus. And then it tells us something
about God. They fell down, these two, the preachers, the believers,
all of them, fell down before the Lamb. And he that was seated
on the throne, who says, I will not share my glory with another,
did not rebuke them, did not say, hey, I'm the only one you're
supposed to worship. And why is that? Because the
one on the throne is the very same person as the one who is
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world and the lion of
the tribe of Judah." When you worship Christ, you worship God.
He said, I and my father are one. There were times when people
tried to give undue honor to the apostles and tried to fall
down before them and worship and they would stop and say,
no, don't do that. Worship only God. But Jesus Christ, when people
worshiped him, nobody stopped them. That is no Jesus didn't
stop them, the disciples didn't stop them, the only ones that
tried to stop them were the leaders of the Jews, the religious leaders
of the Jews. Why does God allow for this worship to go on? Because
God is the one being worshipped when Jesus Christ is worshipped. He is our God revealed in human
flesh. And it says, they fell down before
the lamb, each one had a harp. And they were holding golden
bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
And they sang a new song. You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals because you were slain. And with your
blood, you purchased men for God from every tribe and language
and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom
and priest to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth. Nobody worships the Lord Jesus
until they understand what that means. They may sing, they may even
sing good songs. They may be emotionally moved,
but they aren't worshiping till they see Him as worthy and able
to bring to pass. the whole counsel of God. Verse 11, And I looked and heard
the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and
ten thousand times ten thousand. Of course, you know the New Testament
was written in Greek, and the Greek of this age was just like
about every other language. It didn't have numerals separate
from the alphabet. You probably learned Roman numerals
when you were in school. And the Romans used letters to
represent numbers. Well, the Greeks did too. And
the biggest number they had was 10,000. And so that's why it
says 10,000 times 10,000. That's just as big a number as
they could write. But all that is being signified
by this number, it's not trying to set down an exact number of
those worshiping, it's simply saying that you gather all these
together and it's a multitude, nobody can really count. And what are they doing? They
encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders
in a loud voice, they sang. I know not everybody sings with
a loud voice. Probably people would appreciate it if I didn't
sing with such a loud voice. I know some don't because they
still feel like their voice is worth listening to, but in the
heart, the singing is loud. If in your heart you do not sing
and make melody unto the Lord in a loud voice, it's probably
because you haven't seen this. In a loud voice they sang, worthy
is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and
wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise. Now why
were all those things mentioned? What use has the Lord with wealth? Well, in the sense that we think
of wealth, He doesn't have any use for it. That there's just
simply piling up all the things that can be counted good and
said, these belong to Christ. He alone is worthy of them. And the Lord owns everything. The whole universe is His. The
earth is the Lord's and everything in it. That means you belong
to Him. Whether or not you've ever believed
Him and whether or not He ever saves you, you still belong to
Him. He still has power and authority
over you. And He will get honor, glory,
and praise from you one way or the other. Why? Because he's
worthy of it. And if you don't think he is,
well someday he's gonna change your mind. I hope he does so
before you die. Because then you're part of the
24 elders. And you're glad that he's worthy.
But whether or not it makes you glad that he's worthy, you will
recognize someday that he's worthy. Then I heard every creature in
heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and
all that is in them singing. They just keeps expanding. So it starts with the elders and the four living
creatures that includes the angels. And now it includes all creatures
in heaven and on earth and under the earth. What's this telling
us? they mean by unto the earth? That was their way of describing
hell. That so worthy is the Lord Jesus
Christ that even His enemies will be forced to acknowledge His worthiness and praise Him. They were singing to Him who
sits on the throne and to the land be praise and honor. and glory and power forever and
ever. Do you believe that? Do you think
that Jesus Christ is worthy of all praise? Do you think he's worthy to own
you? If you believe Him, you do. And
if you don't think that of Him, it's because He's never been
revealed to you in your heart. Now this Jesus can come into
a world that looks like chaos to us, and look at a church that seems
to be anything but victorious to the eye of the flesh, and
yet He can rule all things. such that not one of the church
shall be lost, that she shall have at all times all that she
needs for life in godliness, and that when it is the appropriate
time, each one, one by one, shall go to him and be made like him
until the end, when he shall gather whatever remains of them,
and they all shall be with him always. and forever. The four living creatures said
amen. When I preach, you know what
the word amen means, it means so be it. When I preach all I'm
doing is giving the amen to this truth. Jesus Christ is worthy. Everything I say is for that
purpose. to bring us to an understanding
of the worthiness of Christ, and to move in us words of praise
to Him. And if anything I say doesn't
accomplish that, it'd have been better if I hadn't said it. Amen. Year after year, generation after
generation, and century after century, those sent by God to
preach have simply been giving the amen, the so be it, to this
declaration. Jesus Christ is worthy. And the elders fell down and
worshiped. Oh, when God gives me in my mind,
shall we say, a vision of this, enables my heart to lay hold
of what it means, then I worship. Then I'm not worried about what's
going on in the world. Then I'm free from my sin. Then
I see clearly. And I say amen. and I worship. And that's heavenly comfort for
the saints on earth. May the Lord bless you.