never got to hand out from you
so we use in our him first songs out sounders second and good
news all right let's begin our worship service him before team And can it be that I should gain
an interest in the Savior's blood? Died He for me because He's paid
for me through Him Amazing love, how can it be That Thou, my God,
shouldst die for me? Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me. Tis mercy of an immortal
dies who can explore this strange design. In vain the firstborn Sarah tries
to sound the depths of love divine. Tis mercy all let earth adore. Let angels my eyes inquire. ? No more amazing love ? How
can it be ? That how my God should die for me ? He left his Father's
throne above ? So free soul of all but love and bled for
his own chosen race. Tis mercy all immense and free
for oh my God it found out me. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Long my imprisoned spirit
lay, fast bound in sin, ? Nature's night ? ? Thine I diffuse a quickening
ray ? ? I woke, my dungeon filled with light ? ? My chains fell
off, my heart was free ? Those went forth and followed Thee
Amazing love, how can it be That Thou, my God, shouldst die for
me? No condemnation now I dread,
Jesus and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him, my living head,
and clothed in righteousness divine, bold I approach the eternal
throne and claim the crown through Christ my own. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, shouldst die for me? After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing the other hymn out. That's sung to the tune of Jesus
Calls Us Over the Tumult. If you have your Bibles, turn
with me to the fifth chapter of Revelation, Revelation chapter
5. I'm going to read two verses of scripture,
verses 11 and 12. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels around about the throne and the beasts and
the elders. And the number of them was 10,000
times 10,000, 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 blessing. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
we are thankful that we can reach such words that glorify and honor
our Lord Jesus Christ for what he has done for his people. For
he has redeemed them by his blood out of every kindred, nation,
tongue, and people, and made them king and priest under their
God. He has put away their sin by the sacrifice of himself.
He's been made to be their righteousness, wisdom, and sanctification. He
is all to them, all of salvation and all of life. We are thankful,
Father, that he has done these things, that you and he covenanted
together before the world began, chose out a number out of a fallen
race that no man can number, and that he came freely to this
world voluntarily to die a vicarious and victorious death. We praise you. For those who
are sick and troubled, we ask, Lord, you'd be with them and
watch over them, comfort them in Jesus Christ. By ourselves, Father, we pray
this hour that you might be pleased to give us worship. even as these angels sang of
the greatness and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us,
Lord, to worship the Lamb, for He is worthy. We pray this in
Christ's name. Amen. Your handout, sung to the tune
of Jesus, calls us over to tomorrow. I am vile and so unrighteous,
all depraved and full of sin. In my heart there is no goodness,
only darkness dwells within. Is there hope for such a man? a remedy. Far from God and so polluted
must I die eternally. by his death on Calvary. Blessed tidings of salvation
in the word of God I found. God forgives the vile and guilty. What a cheer! sin and shame. Like he gives and faith to trust
him. Praise his sweet and precious
name. I believe upon the Savior for
his blood has made me whole. What a wonderful Jim, would you
and Stan receive the office of morning prayer? That hymn was written by Jim
Byrd. I was up at his conference a
couple years ago and told him I liked the tune of Jesus Calls
Up and Didn't Like the Words. He says, could you write me a
hymn for that? Because he's quite a hymn writer. He went in his
office and 50 minutes later he came out with that. I wish I could do that, but I can't.
Let us pray. Father, in the name of Jesus
Christ, we approach the holy throne boldly, knowing that our
sins are forgiven, that we have been made righteousness in him,
and we stand before you accepted all because you have given him
to your people. We are thankful that with him
we freely have all things. Help us now to worship you in
this manner which you've ordained for the preaching here and in
other places. Help us to worship you, we pray in Christ's name.
Amen. You. If you have your Bibles, please return
to Revelation chapter 5. These two verses, John in his
vision of Christ on the Isle of Patmos sees and hears a heavenly
chorus join in with the church in sublime and exultant praise
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If worship could be defined,
this would be as close a definition as possible of what worship is.
This is the vocation and the avocation of the church and is
equally the primary business of the angels in glory. The church
is a help to the community where it resides. We ought always to
seek opportunity to be of service to others and help to the widows
and the fatherless and others in need. According to scripture,
this is true religion and undefiled before God. A salvation that
does not create a compassion in the heart of the recipients
is not the salvation wrought by the Lord. However, compassion
and charity cannot be legislated. It does not come from a sense
of duty, but from a heart of love. Such things, however, are
not the full and complete reason for the existence of the Church
in the world. The Church is here for the declaration
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the worship of God
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in truth, those two things
are actually one thing, True worship is done under the preaching
of the gospel, and the preaching here in the gospel is true worship.
It's true worship. Now we know there's such a thing
as private worship, which a believer does in ways that are particular
to him or her. In prayer and reading of Scripture,
there is true worship. In meditation and pondering the
things of God, there is true worship of the Lord. However,
when worship is represented in scripture, by and large the context
is always public worship, where the church is gathered together. This gathering of the people
of God in one place, in communion of the singular mind and spirit,
in one accord, to praise God from a thankful heart. However,
one element is absolutely necessary to true worship. where there
is no worship, or there is no worship where there is no truth.
Where the gospel is not preached, there is no worship. There is
no worship where the person in the work of Christ is not fully
and accurately proclaimed and clearly as possible for a human
being to do. I know folks talk about praise
services, and I've watched a few of them on TV, and they're a
comedy of errors for the most part. All manner of tomfoolery
and religious hoopla is displayed. People speak of things like there
was not a dry eye in the house or there was a holy ghost meeting
and it was so powerful in the scene that there was no time
left for the preaching. These are nothing more than demonstrated
displays of the flesh designed to bring about some euphoric
rush of dopamine and endorphins under the umbrella of so-called
religious worship. Such efforts, no matter how shining
and enticing they are to the flesh, are simply and plainly
sin. They're sin. If God is to be
worshipped, it must be done through the preaching of the Word. And
the result will not be men and women calling attention to themselves,
but rather worship is the decrease of man and the increase of Jesus
Christ. Remember many years ago, a young
lady attended here, and she sat on the back row, and as I was
preaching, she started waving her hands. I didn't say anything
at the time. I wanted to say the bathroom
was over there, but I didn't. But afterward, I stopped her
in the vestibule, and I said, why did you do that? She said, well, I was praising
Jesus. I said, no use drawing attention to yourself. I said,
if somebody was watching, who would they be thinking of? Do
they be thinking of you? Or do they be thinking of Jesus
Christ? Worship never draws attention
to yourself. It's about worshiping the Lord
Jesus Christ. There must be a spirit, must
be the Holy Spirit, and also the spirit of man, the passion
of the worshiper, and there must be truth. Our Lord said there's
coming a time when men don't worship in a mountain or in a
synagogue, They that worship God must worship him in spirit
and in truth. Spirit and in truth. That's John
4. Worship is congregational and it is accomplished through
the gospel as the people of God. Sinners saved by grace gather
together to be reminded over and over again of the grace they
have received by the blood and death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why we gather here. Because we have to spend a whole
week in the Word. that cares nothing for the Lord
Jesus Christ, despises and hates his name. And once a week, or
for those who also attend on Wednesday nights, we come together
to once again be reminded that this world is not our home. We're
temporary strangers and sojourners here, and we pass through, and
as chaotic and as strange as it is, Our home is in glory,
though our feet are for some time attached to this world.
When the gospel is clearly preached to the congregation, there's
nothing left for them to do. If it's preached clearly, there's
nothing left for them to do but to praise and thank God, and
that's what worship is. It says in Psalm 29 that the
mark of the congregation of God is that everybody there Mark,
Psalm 29 9, speak of His glory. Everybody, always, all the time,
speak of His glory. And here in this passage, we
see glorious, true worship. The four beasts have declared
the holiness of God back in Chapter 4. In verse 8, And the four beasts
had each of them six wings about them, and they were full of eyes.
Within the rest of the day they cried, Holy, holy, holy Lord
God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. The twenty-four
elders have cast their crowns at the feet of Christ. What are
those crowns? There are two crowns mentioned
in Scripture that are given to the believer. One is a crown
of righteousness, and what that means is he is endued with that.
And the other is a crown of life. Another thing he's endued with
is his life in Jesus Christ. What do we do? We cast him at
his feet because he is our righteousness and he is our life. Christ has opened that book,
that book sealed with seven seals on the back and on the front.
And he's revealed the glory of God and the salvation of sinners
and the preachers and the congregation have sung a song of praise and
thanksgiving once this book was opened. Because no man was able
to open this book or worthy to open up this book save the Lamb
of God that was slain from the foundation of the world. He came
and he took the book and he opened it up. and revealed. I believe
that book's the Bible because it's, unless you're a child of
God, it is sealed with seven seals back and front and you
can't even begin to ever understand what it means. But if you're
a child of God, you get it. In fact, it's written in your
heart. It's written in your heart and in your mind. And you don't
even know it's there until you read it in the book and you say,
oh, that's it. There you go. That's the truth.
How do you know that? It's written in your heart and
mind with the hand of God. They sang a song of praise and
thanksgiving saying worthy is the lamb that was slain that
has redeemed us by his blood out of every kindred, nation,
tongue and people and made us kings and priests unto our God. Now the angels of heaven join
in. That multitude of heavenly hosts
in the chorus to sing of the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Song of the Angels is the
same as the Song of the Church with one marked exception. They
sang of His worthiness and the fact of His redemptive blood,
but they weren't speaking of their own redemption. They didn't
know anything about that. They're created beings. They
don't know anything about redemption, about being a sinner and being
saved. I think it was John Bunyan who
said, I don't know what Adam lost in the garden or what he
might have gained had he never sinned, but I wouldn't trade
whatever he got for the knowledge of the grace of God in the salvation
of sinners when he saved my soul. But they don't know about that.
That's something they look into according to Scripture over in
1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 9 and 10
says, Of which salvation the prophets have inquired in church
diligently. They wrote Genesis to Malachi
and they were searching through that for the language of the
Messiah. They inquired in church diligently who prophesied of
the grace that should come unto us. They talked about the grace
of God and the salvation of Jesus Christ and His death on Calvary
because when Paul said Christ died according to the scriptures
and was rose was buried according to the scriptures and was resurrected
according to the scriptures. He was talking about the Old
Testament. So it was all there. And they searched Gilead and
they spoke and they talked about the grace. They prophesied about
the grace which had come to us in this day. Searching what or
what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify when it testified beforehand the suffrage of Christ and the
glory which should follow, unto whom it was revealed that not
only themselves, but also that we did minister things which
are now reported unto you by the gospel." They looked into
these things. They looked into these things,
but didn't understand them, didn't fully grasp them. The angels
couldn't talk about redemption. They do, however, know the fact
of it and the reason for worshiping Christ, and they thus sing of
Him as the Lamb that was slain. priced in him crucified is not
only the song of the redeemed, it's likewise the theme of all
who worship God, angels, beasts and elders and all, and the trees
and the birds that sing and the fish that swim, all things that
have breath, praise the Lord. The words of these 10,000 times
10,000 and thousands and thousands of heavenly hosts sing is in
truth the only hymn in their book. They sung this once before
at the Incarnation when they said, Glory to God in the highest. Glory to God. Don't be afraid
for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord. Glory be to
God in the highest. their estimation of the value
of what Christ accomplishes, the Lamb of God prompts them
to ascribe greatness and glory to His name. He is worthy to
open the book, they say, and His worthiness extends to the
glory for everything that exists. It says He's worthy to receive
power, to receive power in this very same book. It says the Lord
has taken His power to Himself. and has reigned. He has as the
Lamb of God slain for sinners attained to this high place of
power." Dunamis. Dynamic dynamite power. He has, as the Lamb of God slain
for sinners, attained here by His sacrifice. He is earned as
a man the title, rank, and privilege of being Lord over all. That's
an earned title. Now, we know as God, this title
was always His, because in John chapter 1, it's very clear that
He was the Creator. Also in Colossians chapter 1,
He created all things for Himself. He's the Creator. Jesus Christ
is the Creator. he's the one who runs Providence
and he is the Savior but he's this title of the Lamb of God
is worthy to receive power Lordship he earned it that's what it says
because of his death his burial and his resurrection God has
made him Lord over all Lord over all that's the one true thing
I can say to every man upon the face of the earth, and not be
lying to them. If I told them God loved them,
I could be lying about it, because He might not. If I told them
Christ died for them, I could be lying about that, because
He might not have. He died for His sheep. But I can tell them
this, and they're going to find it out sooner or later. They
might not believe it. But right now, He's manipulating
their unbelief. It's just so. It's just so. He manipulated all the unbelief
of those who crucified Christ. He manipulated their unbelief.
So they would gather together in hatred against Christ, saying,
We shall cast His bands asunder. He shall not rule over us. He's
not our God. Who was controlling that? Well,
you see, there's a cross there. to be erected on Calvary that
this one is to be hung on. And for him to get hung on there,
these people have got to do their business. And so God gives them
the hatred in their heart to do that. And yet they were acting
on their own. It was natural to them. Natural
to them. How does that work? I have no
idea. I can't do it, but God can. He's Lord over all. One man says
that means he's out of control. That's exactly right. He just
does as he pleases. Always. He hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased in heaven and earth and all the deep places.
He does as he pleases. We don't. We do as he pleases. We do as he pleases. Lord over all. As a man. a slain sacrifice, a lamb. He
won the title and the glory that attends it. To him belongs power. That's what it says in Psalm
62, 11. To him belongs power. He's the right owner of it. He is to receive riches. That's
what it says. says behold I heard the voice
of many angels round about the throne of the beast before the
elders and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 thousands
of thousands the highest number in the Greek language was 10,000
so the only way they could say more than 10,000 is 10,000 thousands
of thousands saying with a loud voice worthy is the lamb that
was slain to receive power and riches the earth and all that
is therein all the inhabitants there we as Americans have difficulty
kind of rebel just how this nation started
rebelling against the king and we've been doing pretty well
he has over all flesh. We know it is
to give eternal life to as many as God has given. All things
are given to His hands according to John 3.35 because the Father
loves Him. All these are at His disposal
to move and manipulate and employ to bring His elect to the knowledge
of their salvation. History is for the elect of God,
His chosen race. His riches are unsearchable according
to Scripture. The whole earth is His, and the
fullness thereof, and all that is therein, along to the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's how the Word of God records
it. Look over at Proverbs chapter
25. Verse 3 says, The heaven for
height, the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.
That speaks of the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. That's
what Paul calls them, unsearchable riches. What does religion call
it? The simple gospel. The simple
plan. What does the Bible call it?
Riches so vast that they cannot be searched. They cannot be searched. He is worthy to receive riches
as He is also worthy to receive wisdom. If you read Proverbs
chapter 8, you will understand that Jesus Christ is our wisdom. As God over all, He is omniscient.
He knows all things. He knows all. He is said to be
the wisdom of God as the lamb slain He deserves and therefore
has received the store of wisdom. In Colossians chapter 2, Paul
said he's the source of all knowledge and wisdom. We might know a lot
of stuff. The world knows a lot of stuff.
I'm glad the world knows a lot of stuff. I'm glad that doctors
know stuff, aren't you? I'm glad that mechanics know
stuff, because I don't know. I'm glad that builders know stuff.
I don't know anything about that. I'm glad that plumbers know stuff,
because I sure don't know anything about plumbing. I'm glad the
surveyors know stuff because I couldn't tell you one line
from another. I'm glad for those things. You know what that's
going to be worth in glory? Nothing. All the pipes are going
to work in glory. All the boundaries are already
laid out and they're eternal. Every building's already built.
Already built and it'll never fall down. It'll never wear out. all wisdom belongs to Him. He
knows His people intimately. He knows them. Someone said there's three versions
of ourself. One, what the world sees. One,
what our spouse sees. And one, what we see. None of
those are the real version of ourselves. But God knows His people. He knows you when you're laying
down and when you're waking up. He knows the thoughts of your
minds and the intents of your heart. He knows the words that
you're going to speak while they're yet upon your tongue. This is Jesus Christ, the one
we worship. As the Lamb slain, He deserves
and therefore has received the store of all wisdom. He knows
the inclination of our hearts, the thoughts of our mind. He
knows the words that are upon our tongue. As the Savior, He's
entitled to this, to receive wisdom. And He's worthy to receive
strength. He's not this namby-pamby, nobody,
silly-looking thing standing at somebody's heart's door knocking
on it, hoping they'll let Him in. He's not that one. He's the lion
of the tribe of Judah, and he hath prevailed. He's the old
lion, and who shall rise him up? He's the young lion coming
back from the prey, his fangs dipping with the blood of his
slain. Strength. What kind of strength? Strength to rise from the dead,
to rise from the grave. The strength to overthrow the
strong man and take his spoils, and that's how you were saved. Even the strength to keep us
from falling. Thank God. The strength to keep us from
falling and lift us up when we do. And He always does. He's worthy to receive honor.
Honor. That word comes from root. Word
means punishment or a price paid. Meaning is that because our Lord
was punished, He took upon Himself our sin as the Lamb slain, paid
the price due our sin, He's worthy and valued for the accomplishment
of that sacrifice. He would not be worthy of honor
and He would not be valued if His sacrifice did not secure
the salvation of those for whom He made that sacrifice. if one
for whom he died and perished in an eternal hell, he is a failure. But that can't be because the
song of the angels of heaven says he's worthy to receive honor. Honor. He's worthy to receive glory. I've been thinking a long time
on that word, really, for months, just thinking on that word. Everything,
really, that happens in this world is somehow related to His
glory. What happened in the garden was
an attack on His glory. What happened on the cross was
an honoring of His glory. Your salvation is about His glory. creation and the new creation
is about his glory. The sun rises, it's about his
glory. The stars twinkle at night, it's
about his glory. Your light and understanding
is about his glory. Everything's about his glory
and it belongs to Jesus Christ. He's worthy to receive glory. You see, the glory of the King
is crowned because he's the only one in the whole kingdom who
has a right to wear it. Nobody else has the right to
wear the king's crown but the king. He's the only one. The one who
deserves the trophy is the victor and there's only one victor.
I know we live in a day when everybody gets a trophy. When
they started doing it, I said, that's the stupidest idea I've
ever heard. That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. The only one who deserves the
prize is the first one over the finish line. His singularity,
the uniqueness, the distinctiveness, the oneness that makes it glory.
If I can do something that God can do, then in that thing He
does not deserve the glory and does not have it because we both
can do it. Glory belongs to the singular one who has the glory,
who's done the job. His glory is that which uniquely,
distinctively, singularly, and specifically belongs only to
Him. His glory is intrinsically and exclusively His. He is worthy
to receive glory because He saved His people by His sacrifice.
Glory to the Lamb slain, it says. Lamb slain. He's worthy to receive
blessing. What is that? We get our word eulogy from that
word. You know, at a funeral, you say
nice things about the one who died. It's called a eulogy. he deserves to be eulogized and
that's what we do when we preach the gospel we're eulogizing him
who lives forever he's worthy of having good things and nothing
but good things said about him no bad things at all this is
the same word that Paul used in Ephesians 1 when he said blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in Christ blessed be God eulogize
God and nice and good things that Paul said about him in that
context of the declaration of the salvation brought by the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. Preaching
of the Gospel and the worship that ensues is but a bunch of
redeemed, thankful sinners saying really nice things about God.
That's why we're gathered. What follows may be attributed
that day when all men will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Verse
13 says, And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth,
and under the earth. What's under the earth? Well,
we've got some chipmunks out here that are under the earth
most of the time. We've got earthworms in the sea, all the fish in the
sea, and all that are in them. I heard them saying, I wonder
what that's going to be like. glory, power be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever." And
the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders
fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. This is worship. This vision seen by John, it
must have been something. when he saw everything. Blessing God and praising God. He saw things can only be seen
by faith and we can see it. We can see it in our mind and
in our heart by faith we can see that because we know the
Lamb is worthy. There is at this present time
an innumerable company of angels surrounding the church of God,
ministering spirits sent to minister then that shall be heirs of salvation,
according to Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 13. Surrounded. You don't go anywhere when you're
surrounded by angels. You can't see them, but you know
they're there, because the Bible says they're there. Remember
the story of the prophet and his servant? Him and his servant went to sleep
in a cave, and when they got up, sir went out to it's water
for breakfast makes biscuits for the prophet looks up whole
arm chowdhury surrounded all you can see with soldiers spears
horses you work on just to us back into profit prop more worse than they are then. That's the case
today. The young helper went outside
and looked and behind the army of the Chaldeans or between the
army of the Chaldeans and them was a host of angels. They couldn't get too more of
us than they are then. John sees every creature singing
praises to Christ. I often sit on the porch sometimes
and when I'm hauling in wood I'll sit for a minute and let
my back rest and listen to the birds sing. And I often think
they're singing for His glory. That's what that bird song was
given for. To an extent this is true at this moment because
every creature is employed and used by Christ for a particular
purpose in the bringing of the knowledge of the gospel to the
elect of God. Everything is beautiful in God's time it says that. Don't look that pretty to me.
I don't care. By faith you'll see that all of this craziness
and madness and hatred and division and racism and criminality is doing something good for us. Because it is. We know all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. Everything is beautiful. Everything. In God's time, because
everything in one way or another glorifies the work of Christ,
either in mercy or in justice, He's the Lamb enthroned forever.
what old scott richard told me one time he said if we could see through
God's eyes for a moment we would not change a thing we would not the preachers in
verse 14 the four beasts appreciate the message of the angels they
collectively rejoice in the sermon preached by the heavenly host
They say they in a man so be result the declaration words
the lamb slain his worship or if you see you worship the people
of God church this is always the case thank God we have a
place where we can get together as a family as brothers and sisters
in Christ bought by the blood of Christ gather with one heart
one and praise Him, and say together, Amen. He is worthy to receive
power, riches, strength, and honor. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name.