I love those words. Excellent. Thank you so much. Had such good
music today. Blessed for the special music
this morning, the congregational singing as well, and the special
music this evening, and your congregational singing tonight
also. If you would, open your Bibles
to Revelation chapter 5. I am endeavoring today to lay
the foundation for a couple of messages that I'm going to bring
next Lord's Day, God willing. That's the reason I'm backing
up to chapter 5 and then next Lord's Day we'll finish up in
chapter 6. The issue in Revelation chapter
5 is The book of God. This book that is, as we have
already stated several times, sealed with seven seals. This
book that represents everything that God has purposed to do. The issue is the book and the
worthiness of one to open the book. The issue of one who is
worthy goes through the fifth chapter. After John sees the
book in the right hand of him who sat upon the throne, notice
what the angel says in the second verse. I saw a strong angel proclaim
with a mighty voice, and here's what he says, who is worthy. The word worthy is used four
times in this chapter. And then we find in the third
verse that nobody was worthy to open the book. Nobody was
even able to look in the book. And so in verse four we have
the second usage of the word worthy, and I wept much because
no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither
to look thereon. But then there is one who appears
on the scene, and he is none other than the Lamb of God. And of the Lamb of God we read
that the four beasts and the four and 20 elders worship the
Lamb. And in verse number nine, we
find the third usage of the word worthy. They sung a new song
saying, thou art worthy. Thou art worthy to take the book. Who's worthy to draw near to
the very presence of God? Who's worthy to step up to this,
the great glory of God, the throne of God's glory, the throne of
grace, the throne of judgment? Who's worthy to even step up
to God? Are you? No. Nobody is, except
for one. He's the Lamb of God. His worthiness is in who He is. And his worthiness is in what
he's done to save his people from their sins. Thou art worthy
to take the book, to open the seals thereof. And we'll look
at that more fully next Lord's Day in the next chapter. And His worthiness is to be found
in this, for He was the Lamb who was slaughtered. He's the
Lamb who's been slain and has redeemed us. He's bought us to
God or for God by His blood. out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation. He's made us unto our God kings
and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And then in the
twelfth verse, we find the fourth usage of the word worthy. And
all the voices of the angels, the beasts, the elders, that
is every voice, says this in verse number 12,
worthy is the Lamb. This is my subject tonight, the
Lamb is worthy. This is not a new name for our
Savior. We've been introduced to him
as being the lamb of God in picture and type throughout the Old Testament. In fact, in Genesis chapter four,
he is presented to us under the picture of a lamb as Abel brings
the firstling of his flock, and he offers that sacrifice to God. Abel represents every believer
who comes to God the right way. That's the way of the blood of
the Lamb of God. His brother, who is Cain, he
sought to approach God upon the basis of his own works. That
is, on a legal basis. But we read that by the deeds
of the law, no flesh is justified in God's sight. If you seek to
work your way into the good standing of God, That's a futile effort
and you're a fool for trying to do that. Cain brought the
best of his, the works of his own ability, the works of his
hand, the produce that he had labored so diligently to grow
out of an earth that God had cursed. And God had no respect
for Cain's offering. He had no respect for that which
Cain brought. He didn't honor Cain. He didn't
receive Cain. He didn't forgive Cain. Cain
was an enemy of God. Cain was an arrogant man. Cain
believed there was no necessity of death for sin. He did not
believe in the severity of God's punishment. God had said to Cain's
daddy, Adam, in the day that thou eatest thou shall surely
die. Death is what God demanded. In
fact, in Genesis chapter 3, God indicated to Adam and Eve that
the only way that they could approach unto Him was by the
death of an innocent victim. And so He killed the animals
for our ungodly parents, our sinful, rebellious parents. Then
He robed them in the garments of those animals. indicating
that the only way they could ever be accepted by God, the
only way anybody could ever be accepted by God, received by
God, reconciled by God, was for an innocent victim to die instead
of the guilty. And that's what we see all the
way through the Old Testament, leading up to our Lord Jesus,
and yet Cain rejected that way. He is indeed a picture of the
arrogant, self-centered man of the world. A man who thinks that
he knows better than God. He has a better idea. And so
he can just bring the best that he can do and say to God, now
you should receive me upon the basis of what I bring. And God
wouldn't have anything to do with him coming that way and
he won't have anything to do with you if you seek to come
that way either. The way of acceptance before
God is the way of the Lamb. The way of the Lamb. Abel brought
the firstling of his flock. An innocent victim. A victim
that was altogether innocent of any rebellion against God. He brought it and I'm persuaded
that both Abel and Cain were both adults. They represented
their families and they came to worship God And when Abel
looked to that lamb, believing that God would someday send the
seed of the woman, Abel believed God's word. Abel looked to the
one who would come in due time to put away his sins. And he
said, and so I present this lamb to you, O God. This lamb will
die in our stead. that my family and me may go
free. And that begins in the Old Testament,
our love affair as it were with the Lamb. It goes all the way
through the Old Testament. We get especially over to Exodus
chapters 11 and 12. God told Moses to tell the elders
of Israel, take a lamb, put it up for four days. It must be
a lamb of the first year without spot and without blemish. This
will be your lamb. And then you'll kill that lamb. You'll catch his blood in a basin. And then you'll take a bunch
of hyssop and you'll go outside your door. For God said, I'm
passing through Egypt tonight. And if you want your firstborn
child to live, you'll put blood where I tell you to put blood,
on the outside of your doorposts and over the top of it. God said,
and when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. The blood of the lamb. And all
the way through, we see this lamb. And then we get to the
New Testament and we find out that this Lamb is somebody. This
Lamb is God's Son. John said, Behold the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world. God's Lamb was
offered up an innocent sacrifice, a sin offering for the Lord's
people. Who offered Him up? God offered
Him up. God himself. Read again Isaiah
chapter 53. It's the Lord who bruised him. Scripture says it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. Thou hast put his soul to grief. Who did it? God did it. God did it in order to satisfy
His own law, in order to satisfy His own justice, which demanded
satisfaction on account of sin. Death for sin! You see, somebody's
got to die, right? Somebody's got to die. Either
you're going to die in your sins or you're going to have an innocent
Sacrifice. God sacrificed the sin, the Lamb
of God, to die in your stead. But God's going to get death.
God's going to get death because the Scripture says the wages
of sin is death. It's death. God said the soul
that's sinning shall die. Our Lord Jesus, 2,000 years ago,
He came into this world. He came to die. He's God's Lamb. He's God's Lamb by divine appointment. He's always been the Lamb of
God. Oh, He's revealed as the Lamb,
but in fact, He's the Lamb who's already been slaughtered before
the foundation of the world and the will and purpose of God Almighty. God gave to His Son a people
more numerous than the sands on the seashore, and these people
have got to be redeemed because they fell in Adam. All of them. Just as guilty as everybody else. If they're going to be saved,
if they're going to be redeemed, they'll have to be redeemed by
the blood of the Passover lamb. God's Passover lamb. That's why
God killed His Son. People can argue from now on
about who killed Jesus, and I know there's no question about it.
Satan had his hand in this, and the Gentiles had their hands
in this. The Roman soldiers had their
hands involved in this. All the Jews, the Sanhedrin,
they had their hands in it. But God did it! God did it! Because God's going to save His
people. God's purpose to save His people from old eternity. They were considered to be, we
were considered to be, one with the Lord Jesus Christ. And in
order for God to save us in a way to uphold His integrity and His
righteousness and His justice, His own Son had to die. Worthy
is the Lamb. This is what Revelation chapter
5 is about. The worthiness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God to reign over everything. He's worthy. Here's the book of God. The book
of all of God's decrees. Everything that God has purpose
to do. Can you imagine? Can you imagine
how infinite is this book. Because every single thing that's
ever going to happen, major and minor, big and little, significant
and insignificant, everything's in the book of God. Because God's
purposed everything. Don't you ever think for one
moment that God ever lets this world do what He wants to do
without Him governing all We're all dependent upon God. We're
not independent of God, though we may in our arrogance act like
we are and think like we are. We're not independent of God.
God has His will and purpose. He is doing what He intended
to do from old eternity. It's all in the book, you see. And that book was written before
God ever made the world. And here it is sealed up. Who's
going to fulfill God's will? Will God's eternal purpose go
unfulfilled? Will it be frustrated? What God
has set out to do? Can it be that a man or a woman,
a leader, a president, a prime minister, a dictator, Can it
be that there's anybody who will ever have authority over God? Can it ever be that an individual
would, what we would call, hamstring God? Keep God from doing what
He intended to do? You listen to people talk about
God today. They talk about Him in such a
pitiful way. And you know, as I hear many
preachers talk about the God that they preach and the God
that they believe, I feel sorry for their God. He's a pitiful
fellow. He wants to, but he can't. He
endeavors to do good for people, but people just won't let him.
Listen, that kind of God is a figment of somebody's imagination. The
God of the Bible is a God of purpose. He has a will, He has
a purpose, He has those things which He intended to do, which
He intends to bring to pass, and that's everything. And nobody
is ever going to frustrate His purpose. Nobody's ever going
to derail what God has set out to do. It's all in the book. Now, who's worthy to execute
the will and purpose of God? And the answer, all the answer
in Revelation chapter 5, it comes back to us in a resounding chorus. As all of the heavens sing out,
worthy is the Lamb to do this. That's who's executing God's
will. The Lamb, our sacrifice, God's
sin offering. He's the one who's bringing to
pass the will of God. You see, the Lamb reigns. He
is worthy to reign over all creation, over all providence and over
all grace. And His worthiness is to be found
in the fact that He finished the work that God gave Him to
do. The work of saving His people.
Go back to John chapter 17. John chapter 17. Excuse me for my cold and my
congestion tonight. John chapter 17. These are the
words of our Lord Jesus. The next day He's going to lay
down His life for the sheep. This is the night before. In
John 17, in verse 1, these words spake Jesus. He's already spoken
to his disciples in chapters 14, 15, and 16. Now he's going to speak with
the Father. These words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes
to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. One hour. The hour of his death. The hour when he would make his
soul an offering for sin. So often we read, especially
in the Gospel of John, and this is really unique to John. John
would say of our Lord Jesus that they came to take him or arrest
him or kill him, but then John would say, but his hour was not
yet come. It wasn't the hour. It wasn't
the time. But now He says, Father, the
hour has come. He embraced this hour. He didn't dread this hour. This
is the hour for which He came into the world. Why, ever since
He received the elect as a gift from the Father, he has been
looking forward to this hour. Ever since God said, these are
my gift to you, all that the Father giveth me, Christ said,
shall come to me. Ever since we were given to him,
Christ Jesus has been pointing toward Calvary. He's been pointing
toward this hour, this hour, And now the sand has gone through
the hourglass. And the Savior says, now the
hour has come. What is this hour about? Look at the next phrase. Glorify
thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. It's got everything
to do with God's glory. That's what this hour is about.
And I know that we receive the benefits of this hour. We receive
the remission of our sins due to this hour. We're reconciled
to a holy God because of this hour. We're robed in the righteousness
of the Son of God. That's to be traced to this hour. But it's about the glory of God. The glory of God in salvation. Make no mistake about it, dearly
beloved. Everything about salvation is
about the glory of our God. In fact, everything about everything
is about His glory. Isn't that right, Alan? It's
all about His glory. And this is what you don't hear
much of today. But our Lord Jesus says, Father,
the hour has come, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify
thee. Now watch this, as thou hast
given him, now he's already given him a people. And he's already
given him a work to do. And now he says, as thou hast
given him authority or power, over all flesh, that He should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. God has given to His Son, based
upon the absolute certainty that He will finish the work that
God gave Him to do. God has given Him all authority
and all power over all flesh for this specific reason. It isn't like, well, He has all
power over everybody, end of statement. No. He has all power
over all flesh, over all people for this specific reason. That He would give life. What kind of life? Eternal life.
What kind of life? Spiritual life. What kind of
life? Everlasting life. To as many as. To as many as,
no more and no less. To as many as thou hast given
him. Well, we might ask then, what
is this Eternal life. What is eternal life? He says
in verse 3, and this is life eternal, that they might know
thee. Know who? The one who's the only
true God. That's what salvation is, is
to know the true God. And Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. You see, as a result of doing
this great work, He's been given all authority and all power.
Turn over to Philippians chapter 2. The book of Philippians chapter
2. Look at verse 5, Philippians
chapter 2 and verse 5. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus. Who's he speaking to? He's speaking
to children of God. He's speaking to believers. He's
speaking to us. Now let this mind, this attitude,
let this mindset we would use, we would use that word, Let this
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Well, what was
his mindset? Well, who, being in the very
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself, this is a voluntary thing now, of no reputation,
and he took upon him The form of a servant. He's the form of
God. In this world, he's in the form
of God. He's always been God. But he took upon himself the
form of a servant. Two forms. He's God. He's man. And he was made in the likeness
of men. And being found in fashion as
a man. What did he do? He humbled himself
and became obedient. But that's not the end of the
statement. He became obedient unto death because that was what
was required to save us. See, you can speak from now on
about what a great life Jesus lived, and He did. You can talk
about how He obeyed parental law, how He obeyed Jewish law,
how He obeyed God's law, and He did. And I would never take
anything away from His obedience. But if it just stated and became
obedient, There'd be no salvation. This must be obedience all the
way unto death. What kind of death? Even the
death of the cross. That death that required the
slaughter of the Son of God. That death that was violent.
Violent. You see, we've been violent against
God. You know what sin is? Sin is
violence against God. Sin is a man's effort to jerk
God off His throne, to bring God down. We've been violent
toward God, and God's going to be violent toward sin. You can
bet your dollar on that. He must die, even the death of
the cross, the agonizing death of the cross, the horrible death
of the cross, the excruciatingly painful death of the cross, where
man did everything they could to his body and God Almighty
laid lashes on his holy soul. But God made his soul an offering
for sin. He was obedient to die. The death
of the cross. Wherefore? You want to know why He's worthy
to open the book? You want to know what right He's
got to loose the seven seals of the book of God's eternal
decrees? Do you know who this is who's
opening those seals? It's the one who died for sinners,
who fulfilled God's eternal purpose of redemption. And God said,
you're worthy. Open the book. You're worthy. The lamb is worthy. Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him. and given Him a name above
every name, that at the name of Jesus, Jehovah who saves. That's what Jesus means. It's
Joshua, Jehovah, who says, God is salvation. Wherefore God has
also highly exalted him and given him a name, which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things
in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. There's His glory again. There's
His glory. And I tell you, the Lamb is worthy. He's worthy to reign over all
things in creation. After all, He made all things.
All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything
made that was made. Proverbs chapter 16 in verse
4 says, the Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even
the wicked for the day of evil. It's the Word who made all things. And the Lamb is worthy to reign
over all things in providence. Look with me in Psalm 135. Psalm 135. Oh, the Lamb is worthy. He's worthy to
rule in creation. He's worthy to rule in providence. What is providence? The Lord
directing all things to the end that He Himself appointed for
the glory of His name and for the everlasting benefit of His
people. Here in Psalm 135, look at verse
3. Praise the Lord, for the Lord
is good. Sing praises unto his name, for
it is pleasant. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob
unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. And the
psalmist says, for I know that the Lord is great, and that our
Lord is above all gods, above all idols, And then he says this,
whatsoever the Lord pleased, whatsoever Jehovah pleased, that
did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places. What is our Lord Jesus doing
today? He's doing whatever it is that
he decided to do before he ever made the world. He's just executing
his eternal counsel. He has absolute power, absolute
authority. He does all of His pleasure.
Look at verse 7. Just allow me to read to the
reverses here. It says, He causes the vapors
to ascend from the ends of the earth. That's the clouds. He
makes the clouds that will pour out the rain. You remember when
Elijah squared off against all the false prophets of Baal, and after they had been executed,
And God had showed himself to be God indeed. There had up to that time been
a great drought. Elijah said, there won't be any
more rain until I give the word. When all the false preachers
were dead, Elijah sent his servants and
go up the top of the mountain. Come back down and tell me what
you see. He ran up there and came back and he said, I don't
see anything. He said, run up there one more time. He must
have been a long distance runner because he ran up there again,
ran up there a second time and came back and said, I don't see
anything. He said, go again and send him up there seven times.
And the seventh time, that servant came back and said, I see a cloud. But it's just about the size
of a man's hand. Elijah said, y'all better get
off this mountain. Because he makes the vapors.
God makes the vapors. God makes the clouds. That's
what it says, to ascend from the ends of the earth. Then it says, he makes lightnings
for or with the rain. That's amazing that two elements
should so often come together that are so opposite, fire and
rain, and yet the water doesn't put out the lightning, it doesn't
put out the fire, and the lightning doesn't put out the water. Who does this? Who's got this
kind of power? Well, look at the next statement.
He bringeth the wind out of his treasuries, You may do as many
have done and invest millions and millions of dollars in wind
turbines. But you can't make the wind blow
in order to turn the blades. Only God can do that. And I tell you, he may turn those
blades so fast, in fact, he may even stir up a whirlwind. He may cause a tornado, a hurricane. And just like man can't start
the wind blowing, he can't stop it when it is blowing. Who's
got that kind of power? Whose voice does the wind obey? the voice of the Lamb of God.
He's got that kind of power. He reigns over all things in
Providence. And just like man can't cause
the wind to blow physically, man can't cause the wind to blow
spiritually. That's the Spirit of God. Our
Lord Jesus, when he was instructing Nicodemus over the fact that
ye must be born again. He didn't tell him how to be
born again. He didn't say, do this and you'll
be born again. He just says, you must be born
again. That's what the Savior said. It's mysterious. It's miraculous. It's the work of God. And then
he says, the wind. Look up the word wind and spirit,
and you'll find that they're the same, aren't they? The wind
bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but you can't tell where it's coming from or where it's going.
So is every one that's born of the Spirit. We can't cause the
Spirit of God to blow in here tonight, to blow upon some soul
that's dead in trespasses and sins The Spirit of God breathed
life into them, as in Ezekiel chapter 37. We only ask God,
if you will, cause your wind to blow. A refreshing wind, a life-giving
wind. What I'm saying is, the Lamb
of God reigns in providence. He reigns in providence. and all things that happen fulfill
His will. Could I give you another reference?
Look at Job chapter 33. You know, our God does His exercises,
His pleasure in all things fulfilling His will like He did with Job. And our response should be, our
attitude before the Lamb of God should be, bow down in worship. Isn't that right? Bow down in
worship. In Job chapter 32, a younger
man, you know I had Job, he had some things to say and he defended
his integrity and it seemed to indicate that God was too severe
with him. and his three friends, Job's
three friends. You might kind of say about them,
with friends like them, who needs enemies, you know. They just
charged Job with all kind of foolishness. Anyway, there was
a younger fellow by the name of Elihu, back in chapter 32. He said, I waited for somebody
here, some of these guys that got white hair, You know, it
was supposed to be a sign of wisdom. I waited for some of
you guys to say something that sounded wise, but he said, I
just, I can't wait any longer. He said, I'm like a, I'm like,
my belly is as wine that hath no vent. I'm ready to bust. I'm
going, I'm going to say something where I'm going to burst wide
open. That's what, that's what Elihu said. And so he addresses
Job in chapter 33. He says in verse 8, Elihu says,
Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing, and I have heard the
voice of thy words, saying, I am clean without transgression,
I am innocent, neither is there iniquity in me. Behold, he, God,
findeth occasions against me, he counteth me for his enemy.
That's the way you've been talking, Job. You've said things like
this, He puteth my feet in the stocks, and He did say that back
in chapter 14. He marketh all my path. Behold
in this, Job, this is what Elihu said. Behold in this, thou art
not just. And I will answer thee that God
is greater than man. And then he asks this, why dost
thou strive or contend against him? Why do you strive against
God? For he giveth not account of
any of his matters. He doesn't owe you an explanation
for what he does. Every one of us will all give
an account to God. We give an account to God every
day. But here's where foolishness
comes in, to think that God's going to give an account to you.
He don't owe you an explanation. When you was growing up, I bet
you that your mom and dad, especially your dad, I bet you he's like
me. He'd tell me to do something, I'd say, why? And you know what
he'd say? Because I told you to do it,
that's why. He said, I don't have to give
you a reason. I don't have to give you an explanation. And
our Lord, the Lamb of God, He is executing God's will and He
doesn't give any kind of account of His matters to you or to me. It should be enough for us to
know He's always executing God's eternal purpose, which at the
very, very center of it involves God's glory and our welfare. That ought to be good enough.
It ought to be good enough. Elihu says to Job, God doesn't
give an account of His matters. God doesn't tell you why He does
what He does. Why did that have to happen to
me? Because God purposed it. Yeah, but I don't understand
the reason. You may never understand the
reason. If God wants you to know, He'll
divulge that information to you. It's enough for us to know. God
did it. He did it for His glory. And
He does it for our good. He gives not account of any of
His matters. And the Lamb is worthy to reign
over all things in salvation. And He'll take this gospel and
He'll send it to His chosen people because He's picked out a people
before the world began. Nothing good, nothing attractive
in these people. And just like everybody else,
fallen sinners, depraved and ungodly. But for the glory of
His grace, He set apart a people. Sinful people. And He redeemed
them. And the Spirit that He sends
is our comforter that He sends. The Lord Jesus said, another
comforter like unto myself. And He sends Him to us. He quickens
us. He takes preaching like you've
heard today, like many of you have heard for many years. Preaching
of a sinful man. He takes this glorious gospel,
this good news of what God in Christ Jesus has done for sinners. And the Spirit of God takes that
word and He just drives it into the hearts of those to whom He's
pleased to speak. And then you can't get away from
it. You can't forget it. You can't get it off your mind.
You can't get it out of your head. It's God Himself. And when God Himself deals with
you, it's for good. It's effectual,
isn't it? And you never get over it. And
you just want everybody to believe this glorious gospel. And you
want everybody to enter into this absolute glorious truth. The Lamb is worthy to receive
all praise and honor and glory and blessing. And He is worthy
to open this book sealed with seven seals. And everything that's
in that book He's going to bring it to pass. And God help us to say glory
to His name. Amen. Amen. Well, let's sing
a final song.