Good morning again. You can open your Bibles up to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation 5. I'm going to read the first 13 or so verses. My message is entitled The Lion and the Lamb, and I'm really not going to concentrate too much on what I'm going to read here in Revelation 5, per se, as in the text, but just pick up on a few things here.

Revelation 5 says, And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within, and on the back side sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven nor on earth Neither under the earth was able to open the book, neither to look thereon, and I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not, behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah. The root of David hath prevailed to open the book, and loose the seven seals thereof, and I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb. as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which of the seven Spirits of God sent forth into the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.

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, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seal thereof, for Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands and thousands. saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessings in every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard, I saying, blessed in honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb forever. and ever.

Amen. What a text. And when we consider this lion of Judah and the lamb that was slain, this lamb, both of them, brothers and sisters, are representations of our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ. And when we think on the contracts that the paradox, if you will, of Jesus Christ being both a lion and a lamb. It's astounding.

A lion is called the king of beasts. He's the king of the jungle. His roar, it is said, will travel up to five miles away, and it's a way of him marking territory. that everyone that hears it, every animal that would hear it would know, that's my territory, says the lion.

It would cause fear among people. If you heard the roar of a lion outside of your house, are you going to go run out and see what it is? No, you would say, that's a lion. There would be fear that would come upon you. The roar, again, is a way of marking territory. By nature, the lion is a predator. It's an animal that would chase down another. It dominates. The lion resists or opposes any power to it. It is an animal of power, very distinct from the lamb.

A gentle, tiny, little preacher, content to graze in the grass. No human would ever fear if they heard. There's a lamb outside. Matter of fact, if you did hear a shriek because there was a lamb outdoor, it was probably Kathy, because across the street we have a little farm. And these sheep that she's been so concerned about, one of them had babies. And these baby lambs have come out. And she just shrieked with a loud voice, applaud. And I'm telling you, they've got an adopted mother across the street. She heard a pack of coyotes howling. And she went out on the porch screaming, you stay away from them.

I said, next time, get Sam and his little pelican and go out there and do that. They may look at you and think, there's a meal. Forget the lamb. Nobody fears a lamb. You see these little things? The other day, we're sitting on our porch enjoying this up and down roller coaster weather we're having. And I did my version of a lamb call or a sheep call. And they were like, what is that? She does it. And they come running to the fence, just those little lambs galloping or whatever that hop they do.

It's so cute that she's got this touch. Nobody's going to fear. There's no potential consequences of one of those lambs getting out of their pen. Nobody's going to sound alarmed. Harmless by nature the lamb does not resist If one of those coyotes had gotten a hold of it it goes off silently It doesn't resist doesn't put up a fight This lion in a lamb Illustration that the Lord gives us is definitely a paradox, but perhaps it's for us brothers and sisters and Because our Lord Jesus Christ, as hard as this is to explain, and hard as it is for us to understand, is 100% God, fully God, and at the same time, fully man.

Now put that in your brain and try to explain that. Perhaps God's helping us by telling us he is both. the Lion and the Lamb. What an awesome thing to consider. So I want to spend a little time talking about Jesus the Lion. We'll contrast that with Jesus the Lamb. Jesus the Lion.

This is really going to be a Bible study for us today, brothers and sisters, but my hope is that it blesses you. I borrowed a lot of this from a message I heard not long ago, added some of it to make it something of my own. Any word that I would say up here is simply borrowed from somewhere. I don't have any new thoughts of any kind.

Consider what Proverbs 20 says. It says, The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion. Whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul. The lion King Jesus is as the word says, from the breath of this lion, all things were created and all things are sustained by him. It's Psalm 33, Colossians 1.

All things of his universe, the kingdom that is the universe of this lion, everything is his. Psalm 50 says, it's all mine, the Lord says. Every cattle on every hill is his. Every breath that comes from every single solitary one of you is his, isn't it?

He controls all things, sustains all things, to the tiniest of details, details that we know nothing about, and yet He is the King of all those things, the sustainer of these. Turn over to Mark 4 and let's look at a time in which Jesus showed us, through the words of Mark, just who He was. Mark 4, verse 35-41. This is amazing. When you just think about what our Lord did to show His dominance at the same time as the Lamb.

It says on the same day when the evening had come, he said to them, let us cross over to the other side. Now, when they had left the multitude, they took him along in the boat as he was and others. Other little boats were also with him and the great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat so that it was already filling.

But he was in the stern, asleep on the pillow. And they awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing? Excuse me. Then he arose and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased. And there was a great calm.

But he said to them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith? And they feared exceedingly and said to one another, who can this be that even the wind and the sea obey him? That was probably the new King James. I copied this from my computer and sometimes it's back and forth on it, but it reads the same. Look at what they did. These are the disciples of Christ. And this is just like us and our weakness. We get into trouble.

And we say, don't you love us? Don't you love me? We're like spoiled children who don't get their way. I want this, Daddy. No, I'm not going to get that for you. Don't you love me? How many have ever had that? We've got a master in our home at it. And sometimes it works. Oh, we're sad people. I'm telling you what. But what does Jesus do? Look at that. He just arose, and with the roar of a lion said, be still.

And the waves obeyed, and the winds obeyed. Who has ever done this? What mere man could do that? Well, a mere man couldn't. But the one who is both God and man did, and showed just how majestic he is. And what did they say? What was their faith? Who is this man? He's God in their presence. How awesome is that story? It displays everything about him. He is God. He is creator. He can tell the waves be still.

And they listened. You remember in Matthew 14, what did Jesus do? I don't know. I've been to a lot of bodies of water, but I've never seen anybody walk on it. He walked right out on it, didn't he? What did Peter do? He tried to walk, too. Did it for a second or two, didn't he? And then like us, he sunk to the bottom.

The lion rebukes the legion of demons. Remember in Mark 5? The legion of demons are torturing this man Yet he comes along, and the man is relieved of those demons. He casts them out. They knew who he was, and he casts them out into a gathering of pigs. And then it says of Legion that he was now clothed and in his right mind.

And those villagers, they didn't see what he did for that man. They only saw what he did to those demons into the pigs. And they said, get away from us. They feared the lion. What did Legion do? He saw both. The lion and the lamb went into that village and told them what good things this man had done for them, what God had done for them. Do you remember the lion?

Imagine Jesus Christ. There's nothing in the scripture that tells us that he's some big, giant man. He's not Andre the Giant. He's not walking around with all these muscles. There was nothing that distinguished him like that, according to the scriptures.

Yet over in Matthew 21, in his anger, he goes into the temple and turns the tables. He took people's monies and tossed them about and then said, get out. And what did they do? They got out. Why? The lion came in and roared. And he cast them out of the temple. This is an absolute religious society. Money's a big deal to religious people. And he said, get out. And they obeyed the lion.

The lion then went in Matthew 23 and delivered a series of woes unto the most religious people ever. The most religious people ever and the most religious city ever, and what did he say to them? He called them blind fools, hypocrites, serpents, whitewashed tombs, thieves, robbers who don't know God and kept people from knowing God. Yet he was able, this man who was both God and man, both lion and lamb, was able to deliver such a message in such a way that fear had to overcome these people. Otherwise, they'd go and get him, right? And of course, they began to plot to go get this lamb.

The lion told people in John 10, no man takes my life. I lay down my life, and I raise my life back up again. Why? Because he's the lion and the lamb. That roar of the Lion of Judah reaches much further, brothers and sisters, than a mere five miles. Turn over to John 11. Let's see the power of the roar. John 11, verse 40 to 43, very, very well known.

You all know the story of Lazarus, but you understand Several days before this event, they came to him and said, Lazarus is very sick, near death. And what did he do? Let's just wait here. What? How could you imagine what was going through their minds? That's uncaring. It's unloving. What's going on with you? The accusations that had to be coming into their minds. What's going on? We need to go now. And he says, wait. Wait. Because he's going to do the work of the lion. And they needed to see it.

Verse 40 of John 11, Jesus said unto her, Did I not say to you that if you would obey, you would see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you have heard me. And I know that you always hear me. But because of the people who are standing by, I said this, that they may believe that you sent me." Now, when he had said these things, he cried. He roared with a loud voice. Lazarus, come forth. Now, imagine the fact that Jesus Christ spent four days waiting to come. And we know Lazarus stinketh.

He is in the grips of death, like a leopard who's dragged off his dead. You ever watch these documentaries of leopards and how they have to, boy, they put in a lot of effort to get a meal. Not only all that energy to get a meal, then they got to drag that meal off because the lions and the bigger cats will come along and take it from them. And they drag these things up into a tree before they can feast on them. That's what death had done to Lazarus. been dragging him off for days.

He's stinking. He's rotted. But the roar of the lion went beyond the five miles, went beyond the earth, went beyond the natural into the supernatural and said, let go of that one. And that man came back and came forth out of that tomb in which he was rotted moments earlier. And now he's full again. He's whole again. This is the roar that even death must give into. That's God. That's power.

That's the Lion. Jesus the Lamb. In contrast, in great contrast, remember what Isaiah 53 said about the Lamb. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before the shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. This lamb was born in obscurity, born in relative poverty. I mean, great poverty. I don't know. Were any of you born in a barn? You might have been. I don't know. But this one was, right next to animals. This is not the entrance of the lion into the world. This is not the entrance of the king into the world.

This man was born in Bethlehem. The religious city was right down the road, Jerusalem. That's where he should have been born, rightful king. But he was born in tiny, little Bethlehem. He was born, of course, to be the prince. They were going to robe him, ring him, and he would just rule over everybody. No, he took a day job. He swung a hammer.

This lamb took insults. In John 8, they called him a Samaritan. That is a nasty thing to call a Jew. That is a seriously nasty thing to call a Jew. That was hate speech. Today, if you said that on the web, apparently over in London, you'd be arrested for hate speech. He was even called a demon. And his own family said he was crazy. The Lamb of God? Crazy, they said. Turn over to Mark 3. Isn't that amazing? Here is the Lion of Judah in their midst. And yet, because they don't see the lion, they see the little harmless lamb. Then the multitude, it says in Mark 3 verse 20 and 21, then the multitude came together again so that they could not so much as eat bread. But when his own people heard about this, they went out and laid hold of him. For they said, he is out of his mind. And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, he has Beelzebub.

And by the ruler of demons, he cast out demons. He's out of his mind. I know the King James renders it a little differently, but that's exactly what it means. He's crazy. They thought he was losing it. His own family thought he had gone crazy. What lion would tolerate this? The Lamb of God tolerated it. They called him a deceiver. The Jews and the Romans, they ridiculed him. This lamb took physical abuse. The priest slapped him in the face when he was arrested. They slammed a crown of thorns upon his head. Turn over to Matthew 27. Matthew 27, 27 to 31. It said, then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around him.

And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. When they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and the reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. Then they spat on him and took the reed and struck him in the head. And when they had mocked him, they took the robe off of him and put on his own clothes and led him away to be crucified. Of course, he was nailed to the cross. He was beaten before that with a rope with razors, essentially, in it. This is an amazing account of Christ Jesus not being the Lion, but being the Lamb.

And for what? For what purpose? Turn over to Hebrews chapter 3. Excuse me, chapter 1. Hebrews 1 says, God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in time past under the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heirs of the things by whom also he made the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his persons, and the upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, that is, the Lion and the Lamb. The majesty is His. The power is His. But without Him being this Lamb, you and I die. It is love that He came to be the Lamb. Love that He came to spill His blood that we may be justified by that same blood in His righteousness.

Now let's consider some times And there's many, many of these. I'm just going to look at a couple of them. There's many times in which Jesus displayed almost in the same moment that He was both the Lamb and the Lion. Turn over to John 18. This is outstanding. When I think on this, worthy as a lamb. That's all that comes to my mind. Look at John 18.

Verse 2 says, And Judas also, which portrayed him, knew the place where Jesus oftentimes resorted tither with his disciples. John 18 verse 3 says, Judas, then having received a band of men and officers, from the chief priests and Pharisees cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons. Jesus, therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Who seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. And as soon as he said unto them, I am he, they went backward and fell to the ground." Why? The lion roared, I am he. Do you think on that? He could have with just a little breath from his nose, from his nostrils, wiped them all out. He could have wiped all of us out with just the spoken word.

And yet the lion displaying unto these people who came armed to arrest this man submitted to them. They got back up. The fear had left. They no longer saw the lion, but they saw the lamb. And he submitted to Him. That is awesome. All hail the power of Jesus' name. The day is going to come, brothers and sisters, when they will all fall backward who do not know this Lamb, who do not know this Christ. Luke 23. Let's turn over there. Luke 23, 39 to 43, one of our, has to be one of our favorite passages. I mean, I don't know any Christian that isn't moved by such things.

But you imagine, here he is, he's already been beaten, he's already been spat on, he's already been ridiculed, he's in the midst of being ridiculed. As he's hanging on the cross in this torturous death, which is the death ultimately of suffocation, where he's choking on the own weight of his body as he's sliding down. All these things in which, done to us, we would be groaning uncontrollably. And he is being mocked the whole time.

Verse 39, And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed with him, saying, If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing that thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds. But this man hath done nothing amiss.

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today Shall thou be with me in paradise? Now, I'll tell you right now, that's the lion. The lion shouted out from the cross of the lamb, I'm bringing somebody with me today. You open the gate for this one. This one hanging next to me, I declare to you, is mine. And that shot through into heaven, into those who guard the gates of heaven, and said, he's got one coming with him today. You see, that's the lion and the lamb together. This is who died for you on the cross if you are a Christian today. This is our Christ. This is our lion. This is our King Jesus. He is worthy of our praise. The Christian's relationship must be to both the lion and the lamb. There is no such thing in all of this world that's ever been created as somebody who's a Christian but only gives in to the lamb, or a Christian who only gives in to the lion. You will see them. but they're fake and they're fraudulent. You must come to both. You must come to both. Jesus is declared to be both Lord and Christ in Acts 2. Just listen to this. And I'm just reading one verse.

Peter said this, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ, both lion and lamb." And who said this? That scared little man who couldn't even stand up to a little girl a few weeks earlier, and even cursed whether he knew her or not. Yet in the power of the lion, he tells the religious world, you crucified him.

That's power. And what's he going to speak about? The work of the Lamb. The work of the Lamb. We, brethren, are called. Scripture tells us to go boldly to the throne of grace. Hebrews 4 says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. But who is on this throne? Who is on the throne? We are called to boldly, that is to fiercely, confidently, openly, publicly, with assurance, go to the lion's throne.

We are not called to fall back from the lion as the lost man might do, but to go boldly because he is indeed our defender. Yet we come to seek grace, the loving kindness of the Lord, a divine influence that is laid upon our hearts, which will take us back to what?

The finished works of the Lamb. We have to be Both with, he has to be both to us or he can't be anything to us. He must have power over all things in order to be sovereign. He cannot be sovereign without that. And that's exactly what the lion is. He is the king of the universe. All things consist in him. Every little thing that's ever happened or will happen are because of the lion.

And we must plead the works of the lamb. but to ever even attempt to approach this great, great lion. Isaiah 31 says this, for thus the Lord has spoken to me as a lion roars and a young lion over his prey. When the multitudes of shepherds are summoned against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor be disturbed by their noise. So the Lord of hosts will come down to fight for Mount Zion and for its hill.

God is for you in his power, Christian. God is for you, and he has the power of the lion that caused those men who came to arrest him to fall backwards. He has that power. Satan is nothing but really a dog on a leash for him. We have no reason to fear, yet oftentimes we're full of fear, but that's why we need to come boldly to this throne of grace. Our real duty in this world is to come to Christ and to come to the throne of grace where we'll receive everything that we need to continue in our battle. We are to call upon the power of the lion so that we would indeed remember the works of the Lamb. And what are those works today of the lamb? What if he cried out from that place in which he died? Are the works of the lamb finished now?

They're done. There's nothing more. They're finished. It is finished. And who said that? The lion or the lamb? It's both. Is it not both? There's nothing more that could be done because the lion has said it's finished. Don't add to it. Don't take away from it. We must come to both the lion and the lamb for Jesus is nothing to us. Turn back to Revelation 5. Look at verse 11 and 12 again. He said, I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beast and the elders. And the numbers of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and 1,000 of thousands. What is that? Billions? Billions? It's a lot. I don't know what that is.

It's a lot. saying with a loud voice, worthy is the land that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. We are called to declare the works of Christ as worthy, worthy to say worthy that you should come to because the lion reigns and when our Lion comes back. That's the end of grace. That's the end of it.

He is presently sitting on his throne as the Lion of Judah. And when he comes back, there will be not one single solitary creature who will dare spit in his face. There will be no mocking of them. There will be no crown of thorns put together to shove on his head because the work of the lamb is done, finished.

He has tolerated, and he's still in the period of tolerating, isn't he? Until he comes back. But when he comes back, when he appears, there will be a roar that all the universe will hear. A roar that all creatures everywhere, even created the earth, and the moon, and the sun, and the stars will hear. And they will know it's over. This is all his territory. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess. Some will go off into glory with him. And some he will cast off.

So knowing the terror of the lion, this is what God says in his word. Be ye reconciled unto the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of every broken-hearted one that comes to Him. Broken-hearted over their sin, broken-hearted over their true participation in what He endured as the Lamb of God. If you do not come to Christ, you will face this lion in his full, fierce anger. Today is that day, the Lord says, to come. And you should very much come today if you don't know Christ. If you know Christ, keep coming to Christ is that message. And brothers and sisters, I pray this has been a blessing to you. Let's go ahead and pray and be dismissed. Larry, I hate to tell you, I don't think this thing recorded. Operator failure, I'm sure. It's a blank screen, so.

Father in heaven, we are so grateful to you. What goodness comes from you, Lord. What power and might and majesty come from you, Lord, that you with a simple breath could create all of this world that we see, Lord. that with your power everyone is sustained. Believer and unbeliever alike are sustained. Lord, you are truly worthy to be worshipped on your mere creation alone. But Lord, such stubbornness. We are truly born haters of God.

And Lord, by your grace and kindness, there are so many who by the power of the Holy Spirit through the work of regeneration have now turned. turned away from themselves, and have turned and looked to the Lamb, and the finished works of the Lamb, Lord.

Help us who have believed to continue, Lord, to work in these ways towards You as far as praising You, trusting You, believing in You, pressing into You, Lord, that we would indeed continue in You, Lord. Help us to do these things. Help us to do those things which are pleasing to You, Lord. Lord, when we fall down, help us to remember to come boldly to you. When sin overwhelms us, our distresses overwhelm us, help us to come boldly to you and plead the works of the land.

Lord, thank you for your kindness towards us. Thank you for this church. We pray for our beloved pastor that he returned to us safely, Lord. We ask you to bless our time of fellowship as well, Lord, to guard our mouth. to remember you, that we would consider these things as great gifts from you. We ask you to bless our food as well. We thank you for all those who have worked to prepare this meal, Lord. Be with us today, Lord. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.