I'm speaking to you today from
the fifth chapter of the book of Revelation. If you will, I'd
like you to open your Bibles with me to the fifth chapter
of Revelation. I'm going to be speaking to you
on the subject, Worthy. Worthy is the Lamb. And our reading
is Revelation 5, verse 11 and 12. Now listen carefully. John
says, And I beheld, And I heard the voice of many angels round
about the throne of God, and the beast and the elders, and
the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands
and thousands. And they were saying with a loud
voice, worthy is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the lamb
that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessings and every creature, now listen
to this, and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth
and under the earth and every creature such as are in the sea
And all that are in them heard I saying, Blessing and honor
and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb, unto the Lamb for ever and ever." Now the person
who reads this fifth chapter of Revelation, the Revelation
of Christ Jesus written by John, Everyone that reads it that has
any understanding at all of the Bible knows that the Lamb here
is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lamb of God. In verse 6 it says, In the midst
of the throne stood a Lamb. In verse 8 it says, The four
and twenty elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb. In verse
12 it says, They cried with a loud voice, is the Lamb. And in verse 13, every creature
in the universe, in heaven, every creature on earth, under the
earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them,
heard I saying, glory and honor and blessings to the Lamb. Now every believer of every generation
of all times. I'm talking about Old Testament,
New Testament, present day. Every believer of every generation
knows that by the grace of God, we were redeemed from the law,
from the curse of the law, from sin, by the blood of the Lamb
of God. Peter wrote it this way. He said,
for as much as you know, this is something you know. This is
not something in to be put to debate or argument or question. This is something we know. For
as much as you know that you were not redeemed by corruptible
things such as silver and gold or works or rituals or ceremonies
from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as a
lamb without spot and blemish. Every believer knows that. We
were redeemed. It doesn't matter whether they
lived in the Old Testament, New Testament, or present day. For
as much as you know, you were redeemed with the precious blood
of Christ. And the song of heaven that we
have just read in Revelation 5, the song of heaven, the song
of the redeemed, the song of every redeemed person. And John
makes it clear it's every creature in heaven. in the new heaven
and the new earth every creature all of them sing the same song
worthy is the lamb not some of them praising their works and
some of them praising the law and some of them praising the
ceremonies every one of them praises the lamb worthy is the
lamb for thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every
kindred and every tongue and people and nation Now this is
the song of heaven, and this is the true preacher's theme.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. What was
the theme of this man sent from God? What was the theme of his
message? He cried, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. So that's my subject today. I
want to deal with this subject, the Lamb of God. Now, if you
preach a message on the Lamb of God, we know that Lamb is
Christ Jesus. And we know it's by the blood
of the Lamb that we're redeemed. And we know that the song of
heaven is worthy of the Lamb. And we know that the true preacher's
theme is the Lamb of God, the blood of the Lamb. Now, if you
preach a message on the Lamb of God, where do you begin? Where
do you begin the message? Well, let's begin where the Word
of God begins. In Revelation 13, 8, listen to
this. Revelation 13, 8. All that dwell
on the earth shall worship the Antichrist, whose names are not
written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Now, if you're going to preach
a sermon on the Lamb of God, and you begin at the beginning,
You're going to have to talk about the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. Christ is the Lamb of God before
man was created, before man fell, before the world was created.
He was the Lamb slain and He was the Lamb who was the sin
offering and the sacrifice before the world began. Now God did
not begin to look for a Savior after Adam fell. God did not
begin to look for a Savior after Adam's sin. Redemption by the
blood of Christ was no afterthought. The Savior stood as our surety
of an everlasting covenant before Adam ever fell in the Garden
of Eden. The scripture says, known under
God are all his works from the beginning. And salvation is certainly
his work. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. So known unto God are all his
works from the beginning. I tell you this, when Adam fell
in the Garden of Eden, if there had not already been a Savior,
already in the mind and purpose of God a substitute, already
in the purpose and plan of God a sin offering and a Lamb slain,
Adam would have been damned in that moment just as the angels
were damned when they fell. It says in the word of God, he
took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the
seed of Abraham. Now the angels were created before
men, and the angels fell before men. And when the angels fell,
the scripture said, from that moment they were reserved in
everlasting chains of darkness unto the day of judgment. But
when Adam fell, God had purposed to redeem a people out of Adam's
fallen race. and conformed them all to the
perfect image of his Son. So before Adam fell, before Adam
transgressed the commandment of God, there was a Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ, our Lamb,
the Lamb of whom they speak in heaven, worthy is the Lamb, has
always been the Lamb. His blood is the blood of an
everlasting covenant, He is the surety of an everlasting covenant. He was a lamb slain in the purpose
and mind of God, in the will of God, before the world ever
was created. Now that ought to be established
clearly in our minds. The salvation from sin by the
substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ is the way of salvation
from the very beginning. And all of these dispensations
and all of these pictures and patterns are but types of Christ. And are but Christ Jesus revealed
in different ways to different generations. So when you begin
a message on the Lamb of God, you begin where God began. He
was the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. Now
that's in Revelation 13.8. And the Book of Life is His book. It's the Lamb's Book of Life.
And these names were not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. All right? Then where
do you pick up the Lamb in Scripture? Well, in Genesis 4, verse 4.
Turn over there and read this. Genesis 4, verse 4. Abel brought
to God a Lamb, the first sling of the flock. And the Lord had
respect to Abel, and his offering. Now here are two brothers. Adam
and Eve sinned and God cast them out of the garden. And there
were born to them several children, not just two, Cain and Abel. We pick it up there in the scriptures,
but you know, if the scriptures had recorded every word spoken
and every deed done and everything accomplished in those years,
A library wouldn't hold the books of the Bible. So God only gave
those things needful for us and glorifying to himself. And we
pick up two sons of Adam and Eve. They were Cain and Abel.
I don't know how old these boys were, but I do know this. They
were not young children. They were not teenage boys. They
both, both of them brought a sacrifice. Cain brought a sacrifice and
Abel brought a sacrifice. And I think the reason, this
is what I believe, the reason that each of them brought a sacrifice
is each of them were family heads at that time. Cain brought his
sacrifice and Abel brought his. They were the head of their own
household. And Cain, what was his sacrifice? Well, he brought
the fruit of the field. He was a farmer. And he brought
different things that he had raised. He built an altar. And
he brought to God, as a sin offering now, remember this is a sin offering,
this is a sacrifice, this is the way that Cain thought he
would come to God for acceptance. And he would come to God to worship.
He brought his own fruit of the field, things that he had accomplished
with his own hands. What did Abel bring? Abel took
the freshling of the flock, as God had commanded. And he slew that lamb and put
the blood on an altar. And the scripture says God had
respect to Abel's offering and he rejected Cain's offering. Abel brought a lamb. He slew
the lamb and offered it to God. And that lamb represented the
Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the fact that Abel brought
a lamb indicated two things. Now listen to this. The fact
that he brought a lamb and slew that lamb and offered his blood
indicated two things. Number one, it indicated that
he knew he was a sinner and his sin deserved death. When he slew
that lamb, he was saying sin deserves death. The wages of
sin is death. Sin, when it's finished, brings
forth death. The innocent victim had to die
as a sin offering for Abel. And the second thing he was saying
was this. He believed that God would one
day provide a perfect sin offering Not an animal, and not the blood
of an animal, because the blood of animals cannot put away the
sin of men. And Abel indicated two things
by that lamb sacrifice, by the blood sacrifice. He knew he was
a sinner, and his sins deserved death. And he indicated his faith
in the promise of God to redeem us by the blood of his lamb. And I'll tell you this, this
is very significant. the first religious quarrel on
this earth. When God accepted Abel's offering
and rejected Cain, Cain was angry and he rose up in anger against
his brother and slew him. And the first religious argument,
the first religious quarrel and division was over what? Salvation
by the blood of the Lamb. Salvation by the blood of the
Lamb. The first martyr died died fine for believing that salvation
was in the blood of the Lamb. And there is a pattern for religious
conflict and division that has come right on down to this day.
Every religion, religious system is either a system of faith in
Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, or faith in our own works. And
the Scripture says in Hebrews 11, 4, Abel, being dead, yet speaking. Abel being dead,
but he still speaks to this generation. What does Abel say? Abel says
this, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission.
Abel says this, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses
us from all sin. Abel says this, not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy
he hath saved us. All right, let's go on with the
Lamb. Now let's pick it up again. This Lamb that they're praising
in glory, worthy as the Lamb, is the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. It's the Lamb that Abel typified
and pictured when he brought the blood sacrifice, and God
accepted it. God accepted it over his brother's
sacrifice of works. Now thirdly, Genesis 22, verse
7 and 8. Now listen to this. You're familiar
with this conversation. You've read it many times. And
Isaac said to his father Abraham, Behold my father, here is the
fire and here is the wood, but where is the lamb? Where is the
lamb for the sin offering? And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb. This is one of the most significant
conversations that have ever taken place on this earth. Here
is this man Abraham. Abraham was a friend of God.
The scripture says God spoke to Abraham face to face as a
man with his friend. Abraham is the pattern of the
faithful. Abraham is the man whom God chose
out of idolatry and pagan idol worship to be the first of the
children of Israel. And he promised the Messiah as
the seed of Abraham. Abraham is called the father
of the faithful. And God is about to test and
try and reveal both to Abraham and to the world this man's true
faith and the object of his faith. Abraham had one son, Isaac, and
he loved that son. I would say Isaac was in his
teens, 14, 15, 16, somewhere in there. And God came to Abraham,
and he said, Abraham, take thy son, whom thou lovest, to Mount
Moriah, and sacrifice him unto me as a sin offering. And without
question, without argument, Abraham got his servants together and
saddled the donkeys, and they started toward Mount Moriah,
which was a three days journey. And I'm sure during those three
days that Abraham would sit by the campfire and he'd look at
that boy, Isaac, as he slept. There was no sleep for Abraham.
Troubled, distressed, not understanding fully, because the Lord didn't
say anything else to him. He didn't say, I'm going to deliver
Isaac, I'm going to have a substitute for Isaac, you'll bring Isaac
back. He said, just take your son Isaac, and offer him as a
sacrifice to me on Mount Moriah." And Abraham departed believing
God. He believed God. He believed
that God would raise Isaac from the dead because he'd already
promised Abraham that in Isaac his seed would be caught. So
when they got to the mountain, Abraham left the servants and
the donkeys and the equipment at the foot of the mountain and
he gave Isaac the fire. They had the fire at the end
of some kind of stick with some sort of oil on it. And he took
the wood and put it on Isaac's back, and they started up that
mountain. They were going to worship God. They were going
to worship God. They were going to seek communion
with God and fellowship with the living God, the true and
living God. And as they walked up the mountain,
Isaac turned to his father, and he said, My father, here's the
fire, and here's the wood. Where's the lamb? Where's the
lamb for sin offering? Isaac knew, young as he was,
that without the shedding of blood there was no forgiveness,
there's no remission, there's no acceptance before God. Sin
has got to have a sin offering. And Abraham replied to him, he
said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb. God will provide
a lamb. And God will provide himself.
He'll be the lamb. God will be the lamb. Jesus Christ
is God Almighty in human flesh. And God will provide a lamb for
himself in order that he might be just and justifier of those
who believe. And that's what the Lord Jesus
meant later when those Jews said to him, we have Abraham. He said,
if you had believed Abraham, you'd believe me because Abraham
saw my day. Abraham rejoiced to see my day.
He saw it and was glad. When did Abraham see the day
of Christ? He saw it right here. Right here, he said, God will
provide himself a lamb. And he saw it again. When he
got up on that mountain and put his son on the altar and strapped
him to the altar and raised the knife to slay him, God said,
Abraham, touch not the lad. And Abraham looked behind him
and there was a ram caught by his horns in the thicket. And
the Lord God said, take the ram and put it in the place of your
son and slay the ram as a sacrifice and a sin offering. That's substitution. You see, that's what Christ did
for us. He came and took our place on the altar of sin, as
a sin offering. He took our place as our substitute,
and He bore the wrath of God in our place. My Son, God, will
provide Himself a Lamb, and that Lamb is Christ. All right, let's
move along. Now, in Exodus 12, 13, here's
a significant verse. God said, I will pass through
the land of Egypt in judgment. And when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you. Now, all of you are familiar
with the word Passover, the Passover, the Jewish Passover. And you're
familiar with the story of Israel's deliverance out of Egypt. Israel
had been in Egypt for 400 years. They were the people of God,
and God would deliver them out of Egypt, and God would take
them across the Jordan into the Canaan, into that land that was
promised to them, the land of milk and honey. But first, there
must be a deliverance. And that deliverance is a picture
of our deliverance. Egypt is a picture of sin. Israel
is a picture of the true church in the world, in the world in
sin. And God is going to deliver his
church out of the world, out of sin, and take them to the
promised land or to glory. How is he going to do it? Well,
several plagues had been brought upon Egypt, finally the last
one. And Moses said to the people, select a lamb of the first year,
not an old lamb or a baby lamb, but one in prime of life, a lamb
without spot or blemish. And put it up for three or four
days that you might observe it and make sure there's nothing,
there's no fault in it, there's no disease in it, there's no
blemish in it. And so they selected a lamb of the first year without
spot or blemish and put it up four days. And then they slew
the lamb and roasted its body and put the blood on the lintel
and on the two side posts of the door. And at midnight, when
God came through Egypt in judgment and death, He said, when I see
that blood, I'll pass over you. Now he said to Israel, you shall
observe this feast forever. Every year you'll observe the
Lord's Passover. And when your children say to
you, as you're sitting around, you've roasted the lamb, you're
eating the carcass, you've given the blood on the altar as an
offering for sin, and your children ask you, what do you mean by
this service? You shall reply to them, this
is the Lord's Passover. When he delivered us by the blood
of the lamb out of the land of Egypt. out of the land of bondage
and slavery. And my friends, our Lord Jesus
Christ, on the night before he was crucified, observed the Passover,
the last Passover with his disciples. And as he observed that Passover,
he stood before them and he took bread and broke it. And he said,
this is my body, the body of the Lamb of God, which is shed
for you. His body was bruised and broken
and slain and roasted in fire on the cross of Calvary and he
said this is my body broken for you and then he took the wine
and poured it in a glass and he said this is my blood shed
for you now eat this eat this bread this unleavened bread and
drink this wine and as often as you eat this bread and drink
this wine you show the Lord's death until he comes now we no
longer observe the Passover because the true lamb has died there's
no need to kill a lamb and shed its blood, and eat its carcass,
and put blood on the door, because the Lamb of God has shed His
blood, and His blood has been placed not on this earth, but
in heaven itself to redeem us. Now, let me move quickly. Look
at Leviticus 17, 11. It says, For the life of the
flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar
to make an atonement for your souls. It is the blood It is
the blood that maketh atonement for the soul. Now there was a
tabernacle in the wilderness which Moses erected according
to God's specifications and directions. In that tabernacle was a holy
of holies. In that holy of holies was a
mercy seat. A mercy seat that covered over
the Ark of the Covenant. In that Ark of the Covenant was
the broken law. And on the top, the mercy seat,
once a year, The high priest would slay a lamb and bring the
blood of that lamb along with a censer of incense, picturing
the prayers of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he would bring that
blood of the lamb and pour it on the mercy seat. And that was
called the Day of Atonement. That was called the Atonement.
That was called the sacrifice for sin, propitiation. Now Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God, we've been talking about, the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. The Lamb pictured
by Abel. The Lamb pictured by Abraham
and Isaac. The Lamb pictured yonder in Egypt.
And here the Lamb, whose blood was shed and offered as an atonement,
is Christ. And Christ, our High Priest,
of good things to come. This is Hebrews 9. You ought
to read the whole chapter. Not this building, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but with his own precious blood
he entered into the Holy of Holies, into heaven itself. and obtain
eternal redemption for us. Isaiah 53 says this, He is brought
as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, he opened not his mouth. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the
Lamb of God, was wounded for our transgressions and bruised
for our iniquities, and the chastisement of our peace was laid upon Him,
and by His stripes we are healed. He is the Lamb of God. Now listen
to John the Baptist, the forerunner And God said, I'll send my messenger
before I come, and he shall prepare a people, and he shall prepare
the way of the Lord. John the Baptist stood out there
on the banks of the Jordan, and he saw Jesus of Nazareth coming
toward him. And he pointed to him and said
to his disciples gathered around him, Behold, the Lamb of God. And my friend, this was the announcement
that the whole world was waiting for. This was an announcement
that God had prophesied and promised and predicted from before the
foundation of the world. This is a revelation of God's
redemption. There He is! Behold! Look! The Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. There He is! He's the fulfillment
of every promise. He's the fulfillment of every
prophecy. He's the fulfillment of every
pattern. There's the Lamb of God. Now, do you understand better
the words that I read in Revelation 5? Worthy is the Lamb. For he was slain, and hath redeemed
us to God by his blood, out of every tribe, kindred, nation,
and tongue unto heaven. Now I have this message on a
cassette tape. It's called Worthy is the Lamb.
On the other side, I'm going to bring a message next Lord's
Day on Christ, Head of the Church. Christ, Head of the Church. If
you want these two messages, we'll prepare them and send them
to you. You write to me, the address will be given you in
a moment, send two dollars, that's what it cost us, prepare them
and get them to you. Same tape, two messages, Worthy
is the Lamb, Christ Head of the Church. Until next week, I bid
you a pleasant good day.