Worthy Is The Lamb

You know, the pastor is supposed
to be a pastor teacher. If preaching is real preaching,
it is also teaching. And I'm going to try to do a
little of both this morning. I hope you'll take the Bibles
and follow along with me as I read the scripture. I'll be reading
from Revelation, chapter 5, verses 11, 12, and 13. My subject today
is, Worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. Let's read
from Revelation 5, verse 11. 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 and thousands,
saying with a loud voice, 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 blessing, and every creature which is in
heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and such as were in
the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing
and honor and glory and power, be unto him that sitteth on the
throne and unto the Lamb, for ever and for ever. When you read
this 5th chapter of Revelation, you'll find the Lord Jesus Christ
referred to over and over again as the Lamb, the Lamb, worthy
is the Lamb, the Lamb that sitteth upon the throne. Listen to a
few verses. Go back to verse 6 and underscore this. In the
midst of the throne stood a Lamb. Then in verse 8, the four and
twenty elders fell before the Lamb. Then in verse 12, they
cried with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb. And then verse 13,
every creature in heaven, earth, under the earth, in the sea,
all creatures cry glory unto the Lamb, unto the Lamb forever
and forever. Now, my friends, this is the
faith of every redeemed person of every age. They all know and
trust and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God,
the Lamb of God. All of God's redeemed sons sing
the same song of praise, worthy is the Lamb, for thou hast redeemed
us to God, thou hast made us kings and priests, thou hast
put away our sins, and cleansed our robes and washed them white
by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation
worthy is the Lamb, Christ the Lamb. Let me ask you a question.
If you were preaching this sermon and you were going to preach
Christ the Lamb, you were going to preach on worthy is the Lamb,
where would you start? Well, somebody said, I'd start
with Abel when he brought the sacrifice of the Lamb. That's
about the first time in the scripture that we have a sacrifice of a
Lamb which pointed to Christ. But I'd go back a little farther
than that to begin my message on where there is the Lamb. Do
you know where I'd start? I'd start back yonder before
Adam was ever created. I'd go back yonder before the
world was created, before the morning stars sang together,
before the foundations of this world were ever laid, because
the scripture plainly declares in Revelation 13 that Jesus Christ
is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. That's
what it says. And when we want to deal with
the Lamb, when we want to preach about the Lamb of God, if we
want to preach about the foundation and source and object of our
faith, the Lamb of God, we've got to go back further than Abel
and further than Adam and yet even further than the angels
and go back to the foundations of the world when God in his
eternal purpose determined to save a people and preach about
the Lamb who was slain before the foundation of the world.
You know, the death of Christ on the cross and redemption by
the blood was no afterthought of God. It wasn't after Adam
fell that God came up with this redemption by the blood. It was
before Adam fell. The Lamb slain. Just think about
this a moment. God's word talking about the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. If there was no
sin, then why was there a Lamb slain? If there's no sin, there's
no need of a sacrifice, there's no need of a Savior. But in the
purpose and mind of God, in the foreknowledge of God, Adam was
a fallen creature before the world was ever made. Now give
that some thought. God knows all things. God never
learns anything. God never waits for anything
to happen to find a solution. He has a solution before it happens.
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. He declares
the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure. His blood is the blood of the
everlasting covenant. There was a covenant made with
David, a covenant made with Abraham, a covenant made with Noah, and
a covenant made with Adam. But there was a covenant made
before any of those. That's the everlasting covenant.
And Christ Jesus is called the surety of the everlasting covenant. Worthy is the Lamb. And here's
the first reason. Because he's always been the
Lamb. He was the Lamb before the world was ever made. He was
God's Lamb before the world was created. Our God's a mighty God. Our God is a sovereign God. And
our God knoweth all things. He purposes all things, and I
don't have all the answers. The revealed things belong to
us, but the secret things belong to God. I just have to preach
what his word says. And his word says that Christ
is the Lamb slain, not just the Lamb, but the Lamb slain, the
Lamb sacrificed, the Lamb offered for sin before the world was
ever created. I come to Abel. There stood Abel. It says, Abel brought to God
a Lamb. the firstling of the flock, not
just any lamb, but the firstling of the flock, the one without
spot or blemish, the best of the flock. And the Lord had respect
to Abel and to his offering. There stood Abel, the fallen
son of fallen Adam, guilty before God, sinful before God, knowing
he was sinful, knowing he was guilty, but there he stands with
his offering, with his sin offering. What is his offering? It's a
lamb. And that lamb was carefully selected,
carefully chosen, carefully put up and protected and observed
and then brought to the altar and slain and its blood put on
the altar as a sin offering. It was the Lamb slain and its
blood shed as Christ, God's Lamb, one day was to be slain and his
blood shed on that cross for our sins. Abel brought the Lamb,
and God had respect to Abel's offering. In other words, God
received Abel because of his offering. And he received Abel
because his offering pictured Christ, and because his offering
was offered in faith, believing in Christ, the Lamb of God who
was to come, worthy is the Lamb. What did his brother bring? What
did Cain bring? Well, he didn't bring a lamb,
and he didn't bring blood. He didn't bring a suitable sin
offering, a sacrifice. Cain brought the works of his
own hands. He brought the works of his own
flesh. He brought his deeds. He rejected
God's way. He rejected the blood, he rejected
the lamb, the lamb slain. He rejected the sacrifice, and
he brought the fruits of his labor. He brought his works.
My friends, the first religious quarrel happened on that day.
And the foundation of the first religious quarrel ever on this
earth was a quarrel over the blood of Christ for the works
of the flesh. That's right. Those two boys
quarreled. Cain did the quarreling. God
had respect for the blood, and God received Abel, and he forgave
Abel, but Cain brought his works, the fruits of the field. He rejected
the blood and rejected the lamb and rejected the proper sin offering.
And he got in an argument with Abel. And the first religious
argument was not over which denomination is the right denomination or
which is right pre-millennialism or post-millennialism or where
the kingdom ought to be or where it ought to be, but over grace
and works. And the first blood ever shed on this earth by man
was shed over whether or not to come to God with a lamb or
with the works of your own hands. The first martyr who ever died,
died because he preached and believed in the substitutionary
work of Christ. That's why he died. And Paul
wrote in Hebrews 11, verse 4, he's dead, but he's still talking.
That's right. He said, Abel's dead, but he
still speaks. What does he say? I'll tell you
what he says, not by works of righteousness which we've done,
but according to his mercy hath he saved us. That's what he's
saying. He's saying, for as much as you know, you're not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as a lamb without
spot or blemish. What's he saying? He's saying
without the shedding of blood there's no remission, there's
no remission. Worthy is the Lamb. Well, come
on down to Abraham. Let's come down to Abraham and
let's see what he says about the Lamb. Abraham, the friend
of God, the man with whom God spoke face to face. Abraham called
the man of faith, the man of many trials and the man of great
faith. What was his greatest trial?
What was the greatest trial of Abraham which revealed his great
faith? What was it, and when was it?
I'll tell you what it was. It was when he offered Isaac.
It wasn't when he left his father's house. It wasn't when he gave
the land a lot. It wasn't when he fought the
kings from Sodom or other places. It was when he was called upon
to sacrifice his son on an altar as a sin offering. Listen to
the command. Abraham, take thy son. And this boy was a pretty good-sized
boy. Take thy son, thy only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, to Mount
Moriah, and offer him on an altar as a sacrifice underneath." And
Abraham made that journey. It was a three-day journey. And
when he finally came to Mount Moriah, he told the servants
to stay at the foot of the hill. He and the lad were going up
to worship. And on their way up, the boy said to his father,
he said, Father, here is wood, and you have the fire, but Father,
where is the lamb? This boy understood what most
preachers today don't understand. This lad understood what most
theologians do not understand, what most religionists do not
understand. He understood this, that you
don't approach God without a blood sacrifice, that without the shedding
of blood there's no remission, there's no forgiveness, that
you don't dare come into the Holy of Holies, you don't dare
come before the throne of God's grace. You don't dare approach
a holy God without a sacrifice, without a blood sacrifice, without
a lamb. That's what the scripture teaches
all the way from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. Where's the lamb,
he asked his daddy? We can't offer a sacrifice if
we don't have a lamb. We can't worship if we don't
have a lamb. Abraham said, you fellas stay here. We're going
to try to worship. And the boy says, we're going to do what?
We're going to worship. Where's the lamb? And then Abraham spoke
these words. He said, my son, God will provide
himself a Lamb. God will provide a way for us
to come into his presence. God will provide a way for us
to come before his throne. God will provide a way of reconciliation
between us sinners and himself. God will provide a Lamb. God
provided it, too, on Calvary's cross. He provided a Lamb, the
Lamb of God. And God provided himself a Lamb.
He was the Lamb. That's right, he was the Lamb.
God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Paul said
to the Ephesians, the elders at Antioch, he said, You feed
the church of God which he purchased with his own blood, with his
own blood. And God not only provided the
Lamb and provided himself the Lamb, he was the Lamb, but he
provided the Lamb as a sacrifice to himself, to himself. No words of Abraham No words
he ever spoke, ever so fully summed up redemptive grace as
these words right here. God will provide himself a lamb. Abraham saw the day of Christ.
Christ said, Abraham saw my day. He saw my day. The day of my
sacrifice, the day of my shedding of my blood, the day of my redemptive
glory. He saw it. He may have seen it
right here at the foot of the mountain, but I know this. He
saw it when he got to the top, because he took that boy and
put him on that altar. and bound him. And you know what
was Isaac thinking? This was his father. What was
he thinking? And he even took the knife and
was prepared to slay his son. He had already slain him in his
heart. He had already given him to God in his heart. He had already
reckoned that God would raise him from the dead. He knew because
God had promised that his seed would be through this boy. But
when he raised that knife, God spoke, and he said, Abraham,
do thy son no harm. Touch not the Abraham looked
behind him, and caught in a thicket was a lamb. That's right. And he took that lamb. First
of all, he untied Isaac and lifted him off that altar. And he took
that lamb and put it on the altar in the stead of his son, in the
place of his son, as a substitute for his son. And that lamb died
right there in Isaac's place and shed his blood. That's the
message of redemption. It's substitution. Christ died
in our place. The Lamb of God literally took
our place on the altar. Sin demanded our death, the shedding
of our blood, our separation from God. But Christ took our
place, and the wrath of God fell on him, and the fire of God's
judgment consumed him in our place. That's the Lamb, that's
what Abraham, that's the gospel Abraham is preaching. That's
the reason we leave religious people said to him, what are
you talking about, you know Abraham, before Abraham was, I am. What
are you talking about? He said, Abraham saw my day,
Moses wrote of me, Isaiah 3. Well, let's go on, let's pass
on from Abraham and go over here and take a good look at Israel
and Egypt. They are the people of God in Egypt, the nation that
belongs to God, Israel. They are down in Egypt, helpless,
been there 400 years, in bondage and slavery. They had the promise
of deliverance. God said he wouldn't leave them
there. Now, they're going into their own land. God promised
that. They're going into their own land. God promised deliverance,
and God promised a new life. Slavery was not their portion.
God promised them a new life, and then God promised them a
new land. Not only deliverance, and a new life, and a new land.
They had the promise, but the promise would not be fulfilled
until a lamb was slain, and God showed them that. The deliverance
would not come till the lamb was slain. The new life would
not come till the lamb was slain. Deliverance from the old land
to the new land would not come till the lamb was slain. And
God sent Moses and he said to the children of Israel, he said,
slay a lamb, take a lamb and kill it and put its blood on
the door post, on the lintel and on the side post and I'm
going to pass through the land of Egypt this night in judgment.
And notice the scripture doesn't say a deaf angel passed through.
He says, I'll pass through, God will pass through. My friends,
wicked unbelievers and rebels are going to deal with God, not
death angels and not messengers and representatives. God Almighty,
God Almighty. And God said, I'll pass through.
But when I see the blood, when I see the blood, the blood of
the Lamb, I'll pass over you. What a promise, I'll pass. And
he did. And that night they went up all over Egypt, a terrible
cry. A midnight cry of anguish and
heartache. People didn't believe God. Just
as today they don't believe God. The only thing that stood between
God's wrath and the Israelite was the blood of the Lamb. That's
right. The only thing that stood between
death and life was the blood of the Lamb. The only thing that
stood between God Almighty's judgment and deliverance was
the blood of the Lamb. I'll pass over you. Christ, our
Redeemer, died on the cross, died for the sinner and paid
all his dues. Sprinkle your soul with the blood
of the Lamb, and I'll pass, I'll pass over you, over you. That's
my hope. I used to hear that old fellow
down in Louisiana sing, I once was lost, but now I'm found,
and by God's grace I'm heaven-bound. My only hope, my only plea, is
that when Christ died He died for me. He died for me. What will it be? Worthy is the
Lamb? Or will it be, God, I have preached in your name and done
many wonderful works and cast out devils and this, that and
the other? What will it be? The song of heaven is, Worthy
is the Lamb. The song of condemnation is,
I have done this and that and the other. Let's go a little
further. Let's go a little further from that day forth, from the
day that that Passover Lamb was slain. And it's blood on the
Lenneland's two side poles from that day until Christ, the Lamb
of God, came to this earth. The children of Israel, every
year on that day, they slew a lamb and ate that lamb and shed its
blood, called it the Passover lamb. And they did it until Christ
came, until he sat around that table with his disciples and
ate the Passover, and that was the last one. last thing God
ever paid any attention to, the last Passover feast. Because
that night Christ instituted the Lord's table, and he set
the bread, and he set the wine out before the disciples, and
he said, this bread is my body which is broken for you, and
this wine is my blood which is shed for you. As often as you
eat this bread and drink this wine, you do so my death until
I come. And that's what we do now. We
don't kill a lamb because God's lamb has already died. We don't
need any more types. We need remembrances and memorials.
We don't need types. We don't need shadows and pictures
and promises, because the Lamb has come and fulfilled every
type and picture and shadow and symbol. And now we have memorials. We have the elements. And there's
no salvation in the bread and in the wine. It's in the body
and blood of Christ. These are just representatives.
These are elements with represent Christ, and it's a memorial feast.
It's not for salvation, it's a memorial feast. And then go
to the tabernacle in the wilderness. We see the Lamb all the way through
the scripture. Go to the tabernacle in the wilderness, and there
in the mist, all of the twelve tribes are around, and there
in the mist is a tabernacle, a tabernacle. And that tabernacle
is made up of two parts. In here is the holy place, with
the table of showbread and the altar of incense and the candlestick
But through this great veil which separates the Holy Place from
the Holy of Holies, inside that veil is the Holy of Holies. That's
the presence of God, symbolic of the presence of God dwelling
in the middle of the people. God dwells, his presence, or
symbolically God's presence within this Holy of Holies. And there's
just one piece of furniture in there in two parts. There was
an Ark of the Covenant. And in that Ark was the Ten Commandments,
the broken law. And over the top of that ark
was a gold mercy seat. And once a year, the great high
priest, now they went through all kinds of sacrifices, there
was a morning sacrifice, evening sacrifice, and so forth, and
different types of sacrifices, but once a year, on the day of
atonement, the great high priest, the one selected of God to represent
the people under God, would take the lamb and shed its blood,
and he'd take that blood and go under that veil, into the
Holy of Holies, into the presence of God. And there he would put
the blood of the Lamb on the mercy seat, on the mercy seat
that covered the broken law. And that was called the atonement.
And that's what Jesus Christ did. He is our great high priest.
And he entered not the holy place made with hands, which is but
a figure, a picture of the truth. But he entered into heaven itself,
and not with the blood of animals, but with his own precious blood.
And there he obtained eternal redemption. Not a sacrifice that's
offered today and has to be offered again tomorrow and again the
next day. But Christ, by one sacrifice, one offering, has
purged forever all our sins and perfectly sanctified every believer. You see the picture in the Old
Testament? Christ is our Passover. That rock is Christ. As Moses
lifted up the serpent, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. Christ is our priest, Christ is our sin offering, Christ's
blood covers the mercy seat of glory and puts away all our sins. Come on down, if you will, to
the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 53, he described Christ
and he said he's led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. For
whom is this lamb sacrificed? He was wounded for our transgression.
He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Oh, we like sheep
have gone astray, we've turned everyone to his own way, but
the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. I've taken
you from before the foundation of the world to Abel, to Abraham,
to Isaac, to Israel, to the Passover lamb, to the tabernacle. And
here to the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, and now here's the last Old Testament
prophet. What was his name? Malachi? No,
sir. John the Baptist. The last Old
Testament prophet. That's right, the last one. He
was supernaturally born in sin. It was a man sent from God whose
name was John. He was filled with the Holy Spirit
from his mother's womb. He was sent of God, the scripture
says, to prepare a people for the Lord. Well, what was his
message? You know what his message was? He stood one day on the
banks of the River Jordan, and he pointed to a man coming down
the bank of that river, and he said to the people, Behold, look
with wonder, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. From the foundation of the world,
his coming had been promised. From the foundation of the world,
his coming had been purposed. from the time that Abel offered
that first lamb that we have written in the scripture, his
coming had been pictured. He had been prophesied, he had
been foreshadowed, he had been typified, and now on this great
day, one of the most momentous days of all of the human race,
John the Baptist, that last prophet in the Old Testament, he said,
here he comes, here he comes, the Lamb of God. It's all over. It's all over. Here he comes,
the Lamb of God. More of the Lamb than ever was
sacrificed again. God Almighty has sent his Son.
And then John, the other John, closes this book, closes this
book with this statement. This is the song of all the redeemed
in glory. God has resurrected all his people
and they stand in his presence. And he says, the song of heaven
is, worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the Lamb. It is the
Lamb who was slain that made them kings and priests. It was
the blood of the Lamb in which their robes were washed. And
only the Lamb was found worthy to open the book. No man was
found wanting. No man was found worthy. Christ
opened the book and they began to cry, worthy is the Lamb.

Worthy Is The Lamb

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Worthy Is The Lamb

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