Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to be preaching from the book of Revelation chapter
5. And I want to talk to you this
morning about the subject of the Lamb of God. The title of
the message is Worthy is the Lamb. And I took that title from
Revelation chapter 5 and verse 12. Worthy is the Lamb. Now of course you know the book
of Revelation has much symbolism in it. many pictures and symbols
that refer to, that are earthly things that have spiritual, heavenly,
eternal meaning. A lot of people argue about these
symbols, what they mean, and the times of things. That's not
what I'm going to do in this message. And you may not agree
with me on what every little symbol stands for. But one thing
is clear in Revelation chapter 5 is that it is only the Lamb,
the Lamb that is spoken of here and described, who is worthy
to be praised, to be honored, to be worshiped, to be trusted,
and to be served. And that's clear here. Worthy
is the Lamb. Nobody else in this chapter is
worthy. And this chapter is a picture
here. It's symbolic of salvation and
heaven itself, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. Who
is worthy in this kingdom? Religion spends its time speaking
of the worthiness of men. That's what self-righteous works
religion is about, the worthiness of men. But here in the kingdom
of God, in the kingdom of salvation, in the kingdom of grace, there's
only one who is worthy, and that's the Lamb. Now another thing that
is clear in Revelation 5 is exactly who this Lamb is. There can be
no doubt who's being described here, who is truly worthy. It is none other than the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. Not any man, but Christ Himself.
He alone is worthy to be praised, and honored, and trusted, and
worshiped, and served. And then there's one other thing
that's clear here. What is the basis of His worthiness? The
ground of His worthiness? What makes Him worthy? Now, we
have to be careful here because, first of all, we need to understand
that Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, is in Himself, as God the Son,
worthy of all praise and honor. He's always been worthy. He is
God. He is God in human flesh. He's
the second person of the Trinity. He has no beginning and no end.
In Himself, He is worthy. But here, His specific worthiness
is his finished work to redeem his people from all their sin,
to save his people. You remember when the angel came
to Joseph and to inform him about Mary and the fact that she was
with child of the Holy Ghost. He said the child's name shall
be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin.
His name shall be called Emmanuel which being interpreted is God
with us. So what he's speaking of here, the worthiness of the
Lamb, is the worthiness of His mediatorial glory as the Redeemer
of His people. Yes, He's worthy in Himself,
but He has a worthiness here that is directly connected to
the success of His work on the cross to redeem all His people
from their sins. You see, there will be no sinner
for whom Christ died who will end up in hell. No, sir. They
will all come to know the Lamb and to bow to Him in His worthiness.
Now let's look at these verses in Revelation chapter 5 on worthy
is the Lamb. John is given this revelation
from the Lord Himself and he says, I saw in the right hand
of him that sat on the throne a book written within on the
backside sealed with seven seals. Now there are different books
in the Bible that are symbolized this way. One's called the Lamb's
Book of Life. This is what this is. This is
the Lamb's Book of Life wherein all the names of his people are
written. It's not a literal book, but this is the revelation of
the sovereign mind of God who knows his people. Paul said,
the foundation of the Lord stands assured the Lord knows them that
are his. He knows them in sovereign, gracious
election. He knows them as He justifies
them based upon the worthiness of the Lamb, the blood and righteousness
of Christ. He knows them in sovereign redemption
at the cross. He knows them in regeneration.
They've been adopted into His family and then He brings them
in by new birth. And He knows them in His preserving
grace. And He also knows them, He will
know them in the glory of grace that he will bring to them as
we're glorified together with Christ. So this is the book. It's sealed with seven seals.
Seven is the number of perfection, spiritual perfection and completeness.
In other words, whatever's in this book, it's complete. It's
not unfinished. And he says in verse two, and
I saw a strong angel, an angel here is the messenger of God.
And he says, proclaiming with a loud voice who is worthy to
open the book. and to loose the seals thereof."
Who's worthy? Can we find anyone who's worthy
to do the work that is prescribed in this book? This book, this
Lamb's book of life, this book of God's providence, this book
of the mighty works of God, the fulfillment of the plan and purpose
of God, the covenant of God. Who's worthy to do it? Well,
look at verse 3. Now listen to this very carefully.
He says, "...and no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the
earth was able to open the book, neither to look thereon." Did
you notice what he said there? No man in heaven nor, you know,
it's easy for us maybe to understand that we here on earth still yet
in our sins as far as our experience, that we're not worthy to do this,
to finish the work, to complete what is in this book, But he
says no man in heaven, that means even the saints who are going
to be with the Lord, even they, though they are sinlessly perfect
in themselves, even they still are not worthy to do the work,
to complete the work of God's book and God's providence and
God's covenant, God's decrees. They're not worthy. No man in
heaven, no man in earth, no man under the earth is worthy. And
he says here that we're not even worthy to look upon that book. We can't even open it and just
read it because we're not worthy. Well, look at verse 4. John says,
and I wept much. That's the sorrow of the unworthiness
of all men and women without exception. The Bible teaches
that we're all sinners. We all deserve death and hell.
that by deeds of law no flesh shall be justified in God's sight. All sin that comes short and
John says I wept much because no man was found worthy to open
and to read the book neither to look thereon. One of the first
things the Holy Spirit shows us when he brings us to faith
in Christ is our own unworthiness, our own sin and depravity. And
my friend, you may think, well, you're better than somebody else.
You may say, well, I'm a sinner, but I'm not as bad as some people. Let me tell you something. There's
not one person who has ever been born of Adam or ever will be
born of Adam. There's not one person who does
not deserve eternal damnation. And that's based upon his best
efforts to keep the law. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. And until you come to see that
and submit to that, you'll never see the glory of God's grace
in Christ. You see, God doesn't compare
us with each other. Somebody says, how righteous
do I have to be to get to heaven? Well, you have to be as righteous
as the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody says, well, I'm not
that righteous, but I'm not as unrighteous as others. It doesn't
matter. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
This is what John is weeping over here. But look at verse
5. That's not the end of the story, and thank God that it's
not. There's the rest of the story, as one of the old commentators
used to say, news commentators. But the rest of the story is
God's Word, as all of it is. He says, and one of the elders
saith unto me, Weep not. Don't cry. Behold. Look at this. Listen. Understand. The Lion
of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open
the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. Now right here
it hits us right in the face who he's talking about. Who is
worthy to open the book? Who is worthy to loose the seven
seals? Who is worthy to do the work
of salvation? to perform what God requires
and what God has decreed. He gives two symbols here, Old
Testament symbols, and he says it's the Lion of the tribe of
Judah. Now that's none other than the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's speaking of His God-man,
God in human flesh is speaking of His earthly heritage as perfect,
sinless man. He's the Lion of the tribe of
Judah. Back over in the book of Genesis,
It was revealed to Jacob, and he revealed it to his children,
that the scepter, that is the rule and reign of the kingdom,
will not depart from Judah, that's the southern kingdom, the kingdom
of David, the scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh
comes. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because the true king, the king of kings, as Paul wrote to Timothy,
the potentate of potentates, What does that mean? It means
the all-powerful of all power. That he is none other than the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lion of the tribe of
Jesus. He will, listen, he came and
he conquered sin, just like a lion conquers his prey. Back over
in the Old Testament, when Cain, after he got angry with Abel,
and slew Abel, God told him, He says, if you do well, you
shall be accepted. Now, what is it to do well? Well,
just to bring the blood of the Lamb for salvation. But He said, if you don't, sin
lieth at the door. And the picture there is sin
lying outside the person's door like a lion crouched to devour
him when that door is open. In other words, sin is going
to make an end of you. But here we have the Lion of
the tribe of Judah, Christ himself, making an end of sin. You see,
he devoured sin in the sense that he fully satisfied the justice
of God against the sins of his people. And therefore, as Daniel
said in Daniel 9, he made an end of sin. He finished the transgression. He brought in everlasting righteousness.
And he's the root of David. According to the flesh, he came
from the seed of David. That was the lineage of his humanity. He was without sin because he
was not born of Adam. He was born a perfect man. His
humanity was created for him in the womb of the Virgin Mary
by the Holy Spirit. And both Joseph and Mary were
of the lineage of David, the tribe of Judah. It was prophesied
that the Messiah would come out of Judah through David. Well, this is Christ, and He
says, He hath prevailed. to open the book. He kept the
law perfectly. He did all that God required
of His people. Think about this. If I'm in Christ,
here's what I can say without any hesitation. Everything that
God required of me in order for me to be saved and justified
before Him and redeemed, I find perfectly complete and finished
in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my hope. His blood cleanses me from all
my sins. His righteousness gives me a
complete title and right standing before a holy God. Well, look
at verse 6. He says, And I beheld, and lo,
in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts. Now, the
four beasts here refer to living creatures. And what they are
is symbols of God's ministers. There are four of them because
they go north, south, east, and west. They cover the earth. You
remember the Lord told his disciples that the gospel must first be
preached over all the earth before he comes back. He told them to
go into all the world and preach the gospel. There are times in
the book of Revelation where you read about another beast
which is an untamable, a wild beast, the beast that come out
of the sea, the false prophet, the antichrist. They're untamable
beasts, but these are living creatures. They have spiritual
life and they carry with them the living word of God. And they're
like the oxen under the yoke. Christ said, my yoke is easy,
my burden is light. And they are servants of the
Most High God. They are servants of Christ.
And he says, I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and
of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, which are
representative of all the people of God, stood a lamb as it had
been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the
seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. Now here's
the lamb in the midst. He's the center. Christ is the
foundation of the church. Christ is the heart of the church.
And Christ is the glory of the church. And he's standing here
in the midst. He said, where two or three are
gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them. He said,
I'll never leave you, never forsake you. But he says, a lamb as it
had been slain. You see, the lamb must be slain.
You see, back in the old covenant, God, or the Old Testament rather,
God told Israel before they left Egypt, He said, when I see the
blood I will pass over you. That's the Lamb's Length. That
pictured Christ, the Lamb's Length. The Bible teaches that God must
punish sin and it says without the shedding of blood there is
no remission, no forgiveness of sin. Redemption must be by
blood. You may have heard me say it
on this program many times, the cost of forgiveness is the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, sin demands death. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. So there's got to be death. Blood
has to be shed. And that's why God sent his Son
into the world. The Lamb of God, John the Baptist
said, Behold, the Lamb of God which taketh away, beareth away
the sin of the world. God has a people all over the
world, and that's what he's saying here in verse 6. This Lamb who
slain, He has seven horns. That means the completeness of
His power and His reign. He has seven eyes. That's the
perfect light. He said, I'm the light of the
world. He knows all. His word sees all. He is God. And He says, which are the seven
spirits of God. That's the complete work of the
Spirit, which comes forth from the Lamb as the fruit and result
of His work on the cross. Verse 7 says, He came and He
took the book, the Lamb that was slain. He came and He took
the book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the throne.
That's the hand of His Father. Christ was given all the responsibility
of the salvation of His people. It was placed upon His shoulders
for the government, Isaiah 9 and verse 7, for the government shall
be upon His shoulders. In other words, everything that
God was going to accomplish for the salvation of His people unto
eternal glory was placed in the hands of the Son, the Lamb slain. And He took it. Christ did it
willingly. He was appointed of the Father.
He is able to deliver and He is willing to deliver. And it
says in verse 8, and when He had taken the book, 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,"
that's the incense, the prayers of the saints to our Savior,
which are the prayers of the saints. So you see, this is the
worship of the Lamb, the Lamb that was slain, Christ and Him
crucified. It's not His attempt to save
His people, it's His finished work that saves His people. He
said in John 17, in his high priestly prayer, he said, I have
finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And he was speaking
in anticipation of the cross and what he would accomplish.
And when he died, he was buried and arose again the third day,
which signified that the work was done, the work was completed,
and that the work was successful. All his people shall be saved.
Now listen to verse 9. It says, 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 unto God
by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. This is redemption. This is worship,
and faith, and trust, and honor, and glory to the Lamb by His
people, based on the redemption, the price paid, the debt paid
for his people. And he says, they say, thou art
worthy. Thou art worthy because you've
redeemed us to God. You've paid the price of our
redemption. We were sold out in the slave market of sin and
depravity. We couldn't pay one single penny
to redeem ourselves. Sin had to be paid for. The debt
had to be paid. Righteousness had to be established.
We could not even contribute to the payment of that debt and
to the establishment of righteousness, but the Lamb redeemed His people
by His blood. And not just His people among
the Jews, but His people all over the world, out of every
tribe and tongue and kindred and people and nation. What a
glory this is. This is glory of the Lamb. Verse
10. He says, not only has he redeemed us, but he's made us
unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on earth.
In other words, he's given his people a reign. Now what is that? Well, Christ is king. We're not
kings in the sense that we rule beside him as if we're equal
with him. He's the only king of kings.
And that's what it means. He is the king of kings. But
He's given us an authority. He's given His people an authority.
It's the authority of the Savior. It comes by the Spirit in the
preaching of the gospel. Every time I preach the gospel,
I'm preaching the kingdom of Christ. And He's made us priests. Now what does that mean? That
means we don't have to go to an earthly priest today. That
means we have free, open access into the holiest of all by the
blood of Christ. It's a new and living way, Paul
wrote in Hebrews chapter 10. It's a way that was consecrated,
that is newly made, not by me or by you, but made by Christ. He made it when he gave his life
on the cross, when he was made a curse for us, and died on the
cross and shed his blood as the payment for my sins. He established
it, you see, and so we'll reign on earth as we preach the gospel.
and as we live by the grace of God in Christ. In verse 11 he
says, And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round
about the throne, and the beast and the elders, and the number
of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of
thousands. The Bible teaches that God has
a multitude of sinners that he redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. He chose them. He justified it. He redeemed
it. And listen to me now. Now listen
to this very carefully. How do you know who they are?
How do you know if you're one of them? Or if I'm one of them?
Well, God's going to bring them into the kingdom by the preaching
of the gospel, the good news of the worthiness of the Lamb.
And how Christ alone entitles them to all of salvation, now
and forever by His blood and His righteousness. And I'll tell
you, over the period of time, there may be in moments of history,
it seems like the people of God are so few as compared to the
world, and they are. But over this period of time,
it's going to be a multitude, 10,000 times 10,000, and thousands
of thousands. And here's what they'll say.
Now, as I ask that question, how do you know who they are?
How do you know if you're one of them, or if I'm one of them?
Well, here's the description. Look at verse 12. all this multitude,
they will say with a loud voice, that is not with a timid voice,
they're not ashamed of Christ's name, but they'll say with a
loud voice, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power. And he says, and riches, and
wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. What
is he saying there? He's simply saying this, that
these people who were redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, chosen
of God, justified and redeemed. These people who are called by
the Spirit, they're born again. Here's their song. Worthy is
the Lamb that was slain. Christ is worthy to receive all
salvation, spiritual blessing in heavenly places. In other
words, if I have anything good in salvation and blessedness,
it comes through the Lamb. I'm not worthy of it, but He
is. You know what? He is my worthiness. My only worthiness before God
is Christ and Him crucified. In verse 13, he says, 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 say, they heard John say, Blessing and honor and glory
be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb
for ever and ever. Glory be to God through the Son. You see, it's in Jesus Christ
that God is glorified in the highest. You remember when he
came and the angel came to the... when he was going to be born
and the angels came... the angel came to the shepherds
and he said, Glory to God in the highest. Why? Because in
this person, the Lord Jesus Christ, God would be glorified in the
highest way. And then the last verse, verse
14, And the four beasts said, Amen. In other words, they didn't
argue with John. They don't disagree with him,
they say, Amen. So be it. And the four and twenty
elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth forever and ever. Worthy is the Lamb. Do you see
that? It's not Christ who is the Jesus
of this world that's being taught the counterfeit. who's trying
to make a way, who's trying to save, but it's the One who was
slain, the One who saves His people from their sins, the One
whose blood ensures and secures the entire salvation of all His
people, this unnumbered multitude, the One whose righteousness alone
gives sinners a right standing before a holy God. It's not your
righteousness, it's not mine, it's His. and it's legally charged
and credited to us. The one who sends his spirit
to raise us from the dead spiritually and gives us eyes to see and
ears to hear and hearts and mouths to understand and proclaim his
glory and his worthiness. This is the Lamb of God that
was slain. This is the Lion of the tribe
of Judah. This is the Root of David. This
is the one who's worthy to take the book, open the seals, and
perform and accomplish what lies therein. This is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, I hope that's been helpful
to your understanding of the Scriptures and of the gospel
of salvation. If you would like to get a copy
of this message, listen to the announcer and he'll give you
the details. The title of this message is, Worthy is the Lamb. And I hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word.