Sermon

7-26-23 Service: The Worth of the Lamb

Sermon Podcast—LBC Easton

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  1. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.

  2. The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

  3. Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us,

  4. or contact us at my libertybaptist.org, or just look

  5. us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this

  6. message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

  7. Last week we saw that the Lamb is worthy, and certainly the

  8. Lamb of God is worthy. We cannot doubt.

  9. That the Lamb of God is worthy where the angels were not worthy

  10. to open the seals, and where the mankind as in general is not

  11. able to open the seals. And even the patriarchs and the

  12. elders and the leaders were not able to open the seals.

  13. There was one who was able to open the seals, and that was the

  14. lion. Of the tribe of Judah, the root

  15. of David that is Jesus Christ. And we saw that Worthy is the

  16. Lamb. And we echo that again tonight,

  17. don't we? Worthy is the Lamb.

  18. If we said nothing else tonight and said Worthy is the Lamb,

  19. well, we would be doing all right, because you can't speak

  20. anything else. Other Everything else is really

  21. an offshoot. Of the fact that the Lamb of God

  22. is worthy. And tonight I want us to kind of

  23. continue that thought as we continue on in the Book of

  24. Revelation, Chapter #5 specifically.

  25. But I want us to look not necessarily at the fact that the

  26. Lamb is worthy, but ask the question.

  27. What makes the Lamb worthy? What is it about the Lamb that

  28. makes it worthy? What is it about his abilities?

  29. And of course, we could talk about this all night, couldn't

  30. we? I mean, we could elaborate on

  31. the worth of the Lamb of Jesus Christ.

  32. Well, we could elaborate on it till the end of time.

  33. You. Just like if we considered the

  34. Book of John at the end of the Book of John and said that if

  35. the works of Christ were to be able to have been written, that

  36. the world would not be able to contain all of the works that he

  37. has done. And well, I kind of feel the

  38. same way about Revelation Chapter #5 and addressing the

  39. issue of how worthy Jesus Christ is.

  40. However, there are some very specific things about the worth

  41. of the Lamb that are mentioned in this text, and I believe

  42. those are the things we need to explore tonight and understand

  43. because they're. Being communicated to us through

  44. this chapter in this text. And I want us to look at it here

  45. tonight. And so we're going to go back

  46. and although we're not going to address all of chapter 5

  47. tonight, I do want us to read all of chapter five once again.

  48. So you remain seated and we're going to read Revelation Chapter

  49. #5 here tonight. And it says and I saw on the

  50. right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within

  51. and on the backside sealed with 7 seals.

  52. And I saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loud voice.

  53. Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?

  54. And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth,

  55. was able to open the book, neither to look there on.

  56. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to

  57. read the book, neither to look there on.

  58. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not, Behold, the lion

  59. of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open

  60. the book. And to loose the seven seals

  61. thereof. And I beheld and low in the

  62. midst of the throne, and of the four beasts in the midst of the

  63. elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having 7 horns and

  64. seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into

  65. all the earth. And he came.

  66. And took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon

  67. the throne. And when he had taken the book,

  68. the four and beasts, and the four and 20 elders fell down

  69. before the Lamb, having every one of them harps.

  70. And golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the

  71. Saints. And they sung a new song,

  72. saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals

  73. thereof. And thou was slain, and hast

  74. redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred and tongue

  75. and people and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and

  76. priests, and we shall reign on the earth.

  77. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about

  78. the throne, and the beast and the elders.

  79. And the number of them was 10,000 * 10,000.

  80. And thousands of thousands we saw last week that's numbering

  81. over 100 million and then more. On top of that saying with a

  82. loud voice worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power

  83. and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and

  84. blessing and every creature which is in heaven and on the

  85. earth, I'm sorry. Oh, and on the earth, and under

  86. the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in

  87. them, heard I saying, Blessing and honor and.

  88. And glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne,

  89. and unto the land, for how long, forever and ever.

  90. And the 4B said, Amen. And the four and 20 elders fell

  91. down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever.

  92. And surely, as Thomas would have said and proclaimed when he saw

  93. the hands with the nail scars, and he saw the side that was

  94. riven, he said. My Lord.

  95. And my God. And you can't come to any other

  96. conclusion to read Revelation chapter five with an open heart

  97. to the Holy Spirit and look at the Lamb of God, the line of the

  98. tribe of Judah, the root of Jesse, the root of David, and

  99. say my Lord and my God, and we see him in His Majesty here.

  100. So last week we looked at Jesus and his worth reflected in his

  101. titles. Those titles remember the line

  102. of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.

  103. We ended our message last week by looking at him.

  104. At his titles. But tonight I want us to look at

  105. him and his worth reflected in his traits.

  106. What is it about Jesus Christ that makes him worthy?

  107. And again, I know we could talk about this well for ages,

  108. literally and never exhausted, but I want us to look at what we

  109. see here in Revelation chapter #5 that is highlighted for us by

  110. the Holy Spirit here tonight. And the first thing I want us to

  111. see about this is this. Number one, He is worthy.

  112. To redeem number one, he's worthy to redeem First

    1 Corinthians 15 chapter mention

  113. Corinthians chapter 15, and that great chapter that expounds the

  114. gospel in a way that maybe is not mentioned or or expounded in

  115. any other place in the word of God, Paul says by the

  116. inspiration of God. For I delivered unto you, first

  117. of all that which I also received, how the Christ died

  118. for our sins, according to the Scriptures.

  119. And that he was buried and that he rose again the 3rd day.

  120. According to the scriptures, that's what Jesus Christ did to

  121. redeem mankind. That's found in verse #9 in our

  122. text. And it says, And they sung a new

  123. song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the

  124. seals thereof. For thou wasst slain by the way.

  125. It doesn't say, for thou are slain wast in the past.

  126. By the way, that's one of the exceptions we take with the

  127. Catholic Church that perpetually sacrifices Christ.

  128. In every Eucharist that shows Him on the crucifix still slain,

  129. they're perpetually slain for the sin of mankind.

  130. No, He was slain. And although He shows those

  131. scars and those marks to remind us of that sacrifice that was

  132. made, yet He lives again, so that was slain and has redeemed

  133. us. There's That word has redeemed

  134. us to God. By thy blood out of every

  135. kindred tongue and people and nation.

  136. So we ask ourselves this, this question I What does it mean to

  137. redeem? We see here that he redeemed us,

  138. but the question is, what does it mean?

  139. That Jesus Christ redeemed us. Well, this word, redeem has

  140. taken many different forms over the years.

  141. It can be used many different ways today.

  142. There are ways that you can redeem yourself.

  143. You ever heard someone say that they redeem themself or about

  144. someone else? That they had redeemed

  145. themselves. What does that mean?

  146. That they made amends? That they vindicated themselves?

  147. And typically it's about something that they have done on

  148. their own to better themselves. I.

  149. Would think in Literature of the Christmas Story by Charles

  150. Dickens and Scrooge. Redeemed himself, didn't he?

  151. At the end of that story that he made good of himself.

  152. By the way, that's not in the Bible.

  153. Just want to make sure you understand that.

  154. But if you were to take something that the world would

  155. say, well, what did he do? He found it in and of himself.

  156. To make himself a good character again, by the way, which is

  157. exactly opposite of what the Bible says, that are worth is

  158. not found in doing good deeds on Christmas.

  159. Redeemed himself. Are worth is found in Jesus

  160. Christ and that's where we find that and through salvation in

  161. him that good deeds don't make us a good person.

  162. There are people who do that and try to get saved and find out at

  163. the judgment seat. Watch at the great white throne

  164. judgment that those good deeds never save them, and so

  165. certainly an awful thing, but the world would say that well.

  166. So that's one way to use it. If you have coupons, remember

  167. what those used to be? That's back when people used to

  168. have newspapers back in the day. But I remember my mom had a

  169. shoebox full of coupons back in the day and she would pay me a

  170. dime for every coupon that was expired.

  171. Every few months I would go through and get all the expired

  172. coupons and show them to her. And then she'd give me a dime

  173. for all of them. Well, inflation.

  174. I should have been making hundreds of bucks for that.

  175. Now that think about it. But here's the coupon for milk

  176. and here's the coupon for I can't believe it's not butter.

  177. I could believe it wasn't butter didn't taste like it.

  178. But here's all these coupons there.

  179. What do you do with them? They say you need to redeem

  180. them. And in that sense, it literally

  181. means to exchange it. To turn in, I'm going to give

  182. the coupon, I'm going to turn it in and I'm going to get

  183. something in return that's a little bit closer to what we

  184. would see here. But yet not even the same Boaz

  185. is going to redeem Ruth. And I mean, I know I'm getting a

  186. little bit ahead of myself from Sunday night, but we're going to

  187. find out that Boaz would be the Kinsman Redeemer and we'll talk

  188. much about that later on. So I don't want to actually

  189. spend a lot of time on that component of this evening, but

  190. it is right here in our text, this redeeming that word redeem

  191. that we see. Here comes from 2 Latin words or

  192. two Latin forms that the first word, the Latin word red or form

  193. red meaning black or not, black back rather, and emo meaning to

  194. obtain or purchase. And so literally, the word would

  195. mean to buy back. To buy back the 1828 dictionary

  196. puts it this way. To purchase back to ransom.

  197. To liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage.

  198. Were any of us in captivity or bondage to anything?

  199. Oh yes. Before we knew Jesus Christ our

  200. Savior, we were in bondage to sin and we were enslaved by our

  201. Father, the Devil. Those are Jesus's words, not

  202. mine. Before we belong to Him, we

  203. belong to our Father. The devil, but we were in

  204. captivity or bondage. From any obligation or liability

  205. to suffer or be forfeited by paying an equivalent to redeem.

  206. As to redeem prisoners or captured goods to redeem a

  207. pledge, you could look at it maybe this way.

  208. If someone left something at a pawn shop, what would they do?

  209. They would. Redeem it at some point.

  210. That's what you're supposed to do.

  211. If you're able to, you go and well, you buy it back.

  212. You purchase it back. You have now liberated from

  213. behind that window with the bars over it, and now it's set free

  214. and it's back in your home again.

  215. Well, that's maybe a very worldly or earthly way of

  216. looking at it, but when we look at what Jesus Christ did for us.

  217. He redeemed us from the clutches of Satan.

  218. He redeemed us from the power of sin, and he redeemed us from a

  219. future that we had living in a devil's hell from all eternity.

  220. Jesus Christ, the day we got saved, redeemed us for all that,

  221. and that redemption was sealed on the day that he died on the

  222. cross. And then three days later, it

  223. was authenticated once again as he rose from the grave, going

  224. back to First Corinthians 15, where it says that he died in

  225. three days, he was buried, and he rose again.

  226. That's the. The gospel message He redeemed

  227. us. He set us free.

  228. By the way, you're free today. And he that is free, it says,

  229. and John is free. Indeed, this verse here at verse

  230. #9 tells us that the vehicle of the redemption was his death in

  231. the shedding of his blood. That's what it says right here

  232. by his blood. We are redeemed by his blood.

  233. And then it also tells us about the vastness.

  234. It's not just the vehicle of his redemption.

  235. But the vastness of his redemption, how vast is it?

  236. Every people, every kindred, every tongue, every nation?

  237. I mean, I would say from what I see here, that upon the

  238. authority of the Word of God, each one will have some

  239. representation. Someday in heaven, it will be a

  240. true United Nations. Not the puppet court that we see

  241. here on Earth today that gathers together and gets nothing done.

  242. In fact, it probably gets less than nothing done, all things

  243. considered. But no, here we see, it says of

  244. all of these people that we represented.

  245. Why? Because they're redeemed.

  246. They're redeemed. The the vehicle, the blood, the

  247. vastness. All of the peoples of mankind.

  248. Ephesians 17 in whom we have redemption.

  249. Through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to

  250. the riches of His grace. Where's our redemption from?

  251. It's grace. For by grace are you save

  252. through faith and that not of yourself.

  253. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should

  254. boast. Which reminds us that word gift

  255. is very much synonymous with grace, that they are very

  256. similar their kindred terms in many ways.

  257. That by grace we have salvation. It's not that we earn the

  258. redemption. Well, that's not what it's

  259. about. Well, I did the work.

  260. I clipped it, I turned it in, and then I got something back.

  261. Nope, that's not what it is. No, it's that Jesus Christ did.

  262. Look what he did on the cross, that he proved what he did when

  263. he rose again. And that because of that, when

  264. you and I call upon Jesus Christ to save us, at that very moment,

  265. we could know that we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies

  266. because of the redemption. That's an exciting thing.

  267. They don't even make a Baptist shout.

  268. OK. I mean that that wasn't

  269. shouting, but that's OK. It's as close as we'll get.

  270. I mean, we're not going Pentecostal tonight, but that's

  271. all right. I'm just saying it's exciting,

  272. You know, it's exciting that Christ redeemed us.

  273. And that's what we see here first.

  274. Peter won 18 and 19. For as much as you know that you

  275. were not redeemed with corruptible things, what are

  276. corruptible things? Will look in your wallet.

  277. What's corruptible things? Look on your online bank

  278. statement, what's corruptible things?

  279. Look in your portfolio. And I'm not saying there's

  280. anything wrong with those things in and of themselves, I mean.

  281. Those kind of financial blessings are just that,

  282. blessings, as long as we don't make them into idols themselves.

  283. For it's the love of money. It's not money that's the root

  284. of all evil. It's the love of money that's

  285. the root of all evil. But those things are corruptible

  286. in the sense that when this world goes up, guess what?

  287. You're not taking it with you. We are not redeemed with

  288. corruptible things. Silver and gold from your vein.

  289. Conversation received by tradition from your father's.

  290. But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without

  291. blemish, without spot, who's that lamb?

  292. We're seeing him here in Revelation Chapter 5, in all the

    Revelation 5 chapter mention

  293. splendor and all of his glory. We'll look more again at this

  294. redemption as we look at Boaz, the Kinsman Redeemer in the book

  295. of. Ruth, but I we can't go past

  296. this here tonight. And and not just dwell with

  297. wonder at the Lamb of God, who's slain, who shed his blood.

  298. It was slain to be able to secure our redemption.

  299. He is worthy to redeem. By the way, was anyone else

  300. worthy to redeem? There was no one else that was

  301. worthy. It's not just that he was worthy

  302. to open the seals. There was no one else worthy to

  303. redeem. That there was no one.

  304. There's no Angel that can make the sacrifice.

  305. No man that could take the sacrifice.

  306. There wasn't the blood of bulls and goats that could forgive

  307. sin. They could only cover the sin of

  308. mankind. It's only Jesus Christ who is

  309. worthy to redeem. I'm glad we agree on that.

  310. All right, #2. Let's look at this.

  311. He's not only worthy to redeem, He's worthy to reign.

  312. He is worthy to rain REIGN. That's not talking about what

  313. happens outside with some precipitation.

  314. We're talking about ruling and raining like a monarch would

  315. rain. Verse 10 talks about this when

  316. it says, and has made unto and has made us unto our God, kings

  317. and priests. And we shall reign.

  318. There's that word rain on the earth.

  319. I believe verse 10 here when it talks about we shall reign on

  320. the earth is a direct connection to the millennial reign, that

  321. thousand year reign of Christ after the seven-year tribulation

  322. because we'll get here in like 5 years.

  323. Revelation chapter 20 verse #6 where it says blessed and holy

    Revelation 20 chapter mention

  324. is he that has part in the first resurrection.

  325. On such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests

  326. of God, of and of Christ. And shall reign with him for

  327. 1000 years. And so I believe there's a

  328. connection here to that millennial Kingdom, that

  329. millennial reign. And he says that we will be

  330. kings and priests and we are kings and priests.

  331. And by the way, that thought of being kings and priests is

  332. mentioned three different times in the Book of relation.

  333. It's already been mentioned in chapter #1 and will be mentioned

  334. again at the end of time in the dawning of eternity.

  335. But we see us being kings and priests as kings.

  336. He grants us authority. You realize no authority can

  337. flow from any other place than from God.

  338. Romans 13 verse one says let every soul be subject under the

  339. higher powers, for there's no power but of God.

  340. The powers that be are ordained of God.

  341. Now of course that's talking about human government, but I

  342. think we can also make a direct connection to say that when

  343. mankind has power, in essence it flows from God.

  344. As kings He is granting us authority, but as priests he's

  345. granting us access because in the Old Testament, what did the

  346. priests have? They had access that other

  347. people did not have. That's why it was so amazing

  348. when Christ died on the cross, you and he proclaimed it is

  349. finished. What happened in the temple, the

  350. veil between the holy place and the holiest of holies, it was

  351. rent into and it wasn't just rent from the bottom of the top

  352. like a man could do so. And by the way, from what I

  353. understand about that veil, that it was constructed in such a way

  354. no one was just coming up and going.

  355. Like you were taking a shear from, you know, one of your

  356. windows at the house that it would have been likely

  357. impossible for a person to tear anyway, but just so that God

  358. made sure that no one made any kind of of thought process, that

  359. it was man, it was rent from top to bottom, which wouldn't have

  360. been the normal way that would have happened.

  361. Which was the finger of God that took care of that and the voice

  362. of God that took care of that. And that partition was removed

  363. and what do we have access? And we have access today.

  364. I I say this verse a lot, but I'm going to give it to you

  365. again because it's just so important.

  366. Hebrews 416 Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of

  367. grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time

  368. of need. I know, and I I I don't want to

  369. be labor this here tonight, but we have people coming from all

  370. kinds of different places in their spiritual walk and some

  371. are early on in their spiritual walk and some are more.

  372. Experienced in their spiritual walk.

  373. I wouldn't call anyone here older, but they're more

  374. experienced in their walk. But I want to remind you tonight

  375. that when you sin, you don't have to come to me and confess.

  376. Now you can come talk to me and I can help you and pray with you

  377. and maybe show you some Bible verses.

  378. You don't have to go to Diane and confess.

  379. Only I have to do. Oh, no, never mind.

  380. You don't have to do that. All right, you know what we do.

  381. Hey, we go right to God now. If you have transgressed against

  382. someone, you need to go to get it to them and ask for their

  383. forgiveness. That's an important thing in the

  384. Bible teaches about that. When we have done wrong to

  385. somebody that we go and apologize to them.

  386. But if we want to get that rightness with God, we don't

  387. have to go through the priest. We don't have to go to my office

  388. and shut the door and have you confess.

  389. No, no that you can go right to the.

  390. Throne of God. As a priest, And you have been

  391. granted access, and that's what it says.

  392. And we shall rain on the earth, because we're kings, and we're

  393. because we're priests. Spurgeon put it this way.

  394. Ye are kings and priests unto your God.

  395. That how much ought kings and priests give to the king of

  396. kings? This speake to yourselves I am a

  397. king. That I will give a king I will

  398. give as a king giveth unto a king.

  399. Now, Mark, you know paltry subscriptions.

  400. We don't expect kings to put down their name for trifles.

  401. That again you were a priest. Well, priest, do you mean to

  402. sacrifice? Yes, you may say.

  403. But you would not sacrifice a broken legged lamb or a

  404. blemished Bullock, would you? Would you not select the best of

  405. the flock? Very right.

  406. Then select the very best. What is he saying?

  407. Is kings and priests Well as kings?

  408. We don't give trifles. We give much because we've been

  409. given much. And as priests, what do we do?

  410. We make sure we sacrifice the very best we have to God as

  411. kings and priests. It's not just, wow, look at all

  412. these things that God has given to me.

  413. Although that's true, it's wow. Look at all these things that

  414. God has given to me. I need to give these to others

  415. as well, and just be a conduit of God's grace to other people,

  416. as a king and as a priest. But yet you might say this

  417. tonight, Pastor. You keep talking about us ruling

  418. and raining, but yet you say up here.

  419. That he's worth it to rain. It seems like you're taking the

  420. verse here and you're taking something that's talking about

  421. us and making it about Jesus Christ.

  422. And I mean, I understand that if you're thinking that as I'm

  423. speaking about this because it says again in verse #10, has

  424. made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on

  425. the earth. But yet let me ask you this

  426. tonight, How can we reign unless we're given that authority from

  427. a higher authority? How are we able to be kings and

  428. priests if someone is not worthy?

  429. Who is higher than us? Who is able to confer that title

  430. upon us? It would require, if we have

  431. been made kings and priests, that someone with higher

  432. authority is able to give us that kingship.

  433. That someone above us is able to give us that priesthood which

  434. reminds us that it's Jesus Christ who is worthy to reign.

  435. And that makes us worthy to reign because he has the power.

  436. Why was Joseph able to reign? Well, because there was one

  437. greater than Joseph who gave him that power which would have been

  438. Pharaoh. Why did Mordecai was he able to

  439. reign coming from having the death sentence upon his head

  440. from Amon just a few chapters previously?

  441. It was because one greater than Mordecai, King Ahasu Eris

  442. conferred upon him the same title basically as Joseph, the

  443. second in command of all of the Kingdom.

  444. And for you and I to be kings and priests, it requires that

  445. there is one who is greater than us, who is able to give us that.

  446. And that's Jesus Christ, Luke 133.

  447. And he shall reign over the House of Jacob Forever.

  448. And of his Kingdom there shall be no end.

  449. By the way, that's not just good in December.

  450. It's good all 12 months out of the year.

  451. Hebrews 18 We went over this last week, But it's so good we

  452. have to do it again. But unto us but unto the sun he

  453. sayeth thy throne. Oh God is forever and ever

  454. again. Remember showing that deity of

  455. Christ unto the sun. He sayeth thy throne.

  456. Oh God, it is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is

  457. the scepter of thy Kingdom. So what does he have?

  458. He has that scepter of righteousness, that sign of

  459. ruling and reigning. We'll look at this later.

  460. Revelation 11/5. The 7th Angel sounded and there

  461. was great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this

  462. world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and

  463. he shall reign forever and ever. If you thought that came from

  464. the Hallelujah Chorus, that's not where it came from.

  465. It came from the Word of God that he shall reign forever and

  466. ever. That's not handle or handle or

  467. whoever. It was pretty sure his handle.

  468. But you know what it was? It was from the word of God that

  469. we find that he shall rain. He's worthy to rain.

  470. And by the way, if he's worthy to rain and he's put the

  471. authority on us, that means he's allowed to tell us anything,

  472. anywhere, anytime, what to do. Because we are all excited about

  473. the fact that he's worthy to rain and that he's coming back

  474. and he's going to settle accounts.

  475. But may I remind you that he's worthy to rain in your life

  476. tonight, That if he's to come down from heaven and touch your

  477. heart, which is what he can do through your holy, through his

  478. Holy Spirit that lives within you, if he is to tell you do

  479. this or do that, go here or go there, just as that man told

  480. Jesus Christ I also. Am a man under authority and

  481. understand go here and go there, do this and do that with that is

  482. what he does to us tonight. Who are we to say No, God, I

  483. won't do it. No, I won't go there.

  484. That's too far. That's too much.

  485. No, that's not something I'll give up.

  486. No, if He's worthy to reign the. Scene that we see here in

  487. Revelation Chapter 5. If he's worthy to reign over 100

    Revelation 5 chapter mention

  488. million or so angels, I think he's worthy to reign over our

  489. heart, my heart and your heart. He is worthy to reign #3 I also

  490. see this. He's not just worthy to redeem

  491. and worthy to reign. He's also worthy to receive.

  492. He's worthy to receive looking verse #11, it says I beheld and

  493. I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the

  494. beasts and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 *

  495. 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud

  496. voice Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive.

  497. We'll just stop right there. He is worthy to receive.

  498. Which means there are some things that we see not just in

  499. the phrases that follow, but in this text.

  500. There are some things that he is worthy to receive from his

  501. children or from the Angels or for the 20 and four elders.

  502. There's some things that he's worthy to receive that maybe we

  503. wouldn't be able to receive. Well, actually, there's no maybe

  504. about it that we wouldn't be able to receive.

  505. There are some people who are worthy to receive certain

  506. things. There are some people who are

  507. not. There are awards that are given

  508. out at different times, different seasons.

  509. Some people are worthy to win those awards.

  510. Some people are not. You know, a catcher is not

  511. worthy to win the Cy Young Award in baseball.

  512. You know why they give it to pitchers?

  513. They're not going to give it to a catcher that that's he's not

  514. worthy to receive it. We are not worthy to receive the

  515. things that we see here. The only one who's worthy to

  516. receive these things is God alone and Jesus Christ,

  517. specifically in the Godhead who has mentioned God the sun here

  518. in our chapter. But what's the things that we

  519. see? There's four things that we see

  520. that he is worthy to receive in our text.

  521. And the first is this. He's worthy to receive worship.

  522. He's worthy to receive worship. Of course, we have dealt with a

  523. whole Series A few years ago on worship.

  524. Look at what it says in verse 8 and it says.

  525. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and 20

  526. elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them

  527. harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of

  528. the Saints. And then we see later on

  529. specifically that verse #14 and the 4B said Amen.

  530. And the four and 20 elders fell down and worshiped him that

  531. liveth forever and ever. There are times in the Bible

  532. whether it was specifically, I think of the book of Acts where

  533. there were some who would fall down before one of the apostles

  534. and they'd say this get up. I'm a man just like you are.

  535. Don't bow before me. I'm just a man.

  536. What would Paul have been saying?

  537. What would Peter have been saying?

  538. They're saying we're not worthy to receive worship.

  539. It is not becoming of us to be able to receive worship that is

  540. only worthy of the Lord. They we see here they were

  541. bowing and again, once again reminding us that true worship

  542. is the posture of humility, that there is a difference between

  543. praise and worship. And again, I know that the world

  544. and Christianity uses those words interchangeably, and

  545. sometimes they just yoke them up together like it's one thing.

  546. Praise and worship, praise and worship.

  547. But yet, praise and worship are both distinct things, and we

  548. don't get to just make our own definitions for them just

  549. because it's what popular Christianity does today.

  550. What's worship? I see people getting down and

  551. get low. And by the way, it's not just

  552. their body, it's their heart. Because worship that has you

  553. down on your face before God but has you stiff neck is not real

  554. worship. You say stiff neck.

  555. You mean like I've been down on the ground so long that my neck

  556. gets stiff? No, no.

  557. I'm talking about spiritually being stiff neck that you can be

  558. down on the ground you could be. You could be prostrate on the

  559. ground, nose on the ground as low as you possibly could get.

  560. But if you were defiant towards God, your worship is not as

  561. humble as your posture might seem to indicate.

  562. He is worthy to receive worship. How many during Jesus earthly

  563. ministry would come to the realization of who he was and

  564. what would be? What would they do?

  565. They fall down before him. When they came to realize who

  566. Jesus was, immediately they would fall down before him and

  567. worship him. And guess what?

  568. Everyone will do this someday. For some, it will be eternally

  569. too late for salvation, but they will have no other conclusion

  570. than to come to than to bow the knee to Jesus Christ that goes

  571. all the way by the way back to the Old Testament, because

  572. Isaiah 4523 says I have sworn by myself.

  573. By the way, you have to swear by a higher power.

  574. So what does God do? He says.

  575. I swear by myself. Who else is he going to pick?

  576. I mean, we can probably just make a message right on that,

  577. and be probably in good form. But I got to keep on going.

  578. I have sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth and

  579. righteousness, and shall not return that unto me every knee

  580. shall bow and every tongue shall swear.

  581. Now who is speaking there? It's God.

  582. Now Romans 14 verses 10 through 12 reiterate this.

    Romans 14:10–12

  583. Paul gives a call back to the Old Testament when he says, But

  584. why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou said it not thy

  585. brother? For we all shall stand before

  586. the judgment. Seat of Christ Ford is written

  587. as I live. Say it, the Lord every knee

  588. shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God, so

  589. that every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.

  590. So what does it say in the New Testament that every knee shall

  591. bow and every tongue shall confess to Jesus Christ?

  592. By the way, if you want another proof of the DD of Christ, the

  593. Old Testament says every knee will bow to God.

  594. The New Testament says every knee will bow to Christ.

  595. Calling back that Old Testament verse, what does that mean?

  596. That there isn't the nickels worth a difference between Jesus

  597. Christ and God. Because Jesus Christ is God the

  598. Son. That he is not just God the Son,

  599. the Son of God rather, but he's also God the Son that he is

  600. both. And I bring it up often because

  601. the Jehovah Witnesses or the Mormons or other cults will say,

  602. oh, he is a a son of God, but you can be too.

  603. And of course they're perverting what the Word of God says,

  604. because it does say we become adopted into the family of God.

  605. But at the same time, to pretend that once we get saved or we

  606. become righteous, that we are on the same level as Jesus Christ

  607. in his worthiness is to twist the scriptures to such a point

  608. that it's uneven, recognizable to what the word of God says.

  609. So what do we see? Old Testament?

  610. New Testament, This relationship, the deed of

  611. Christ. We saw it in Hebrews chapter

  612. one, verse eight. We see it here in Romans chapter

    Romans 14 chapter mention

  613. 14 as well. That every knee shall bow, every

  614. tongue shall confess. Why he's worthy of worship.

  615. What else is he worthy of? He's worthy of prayers.

  616. He's worthy of prayers. It's amazing to me that people

  617. will pray to statues. It's amazing to me that people

  618. will pray for Saints. Hey, did you hey, did you lose a

  619. coin. Did you lose your job?

  620. Hey did you have someone that's sick.

  621. Pray to Saint elsewhere. Pray to Saint this one or

  622. Bartholomew or St. No maybe not St. elsewhere but

  623. pray to this and and and I'm being a little flippant but the

  624. idea is there are people who say if you're in this situation pray

  625. to this St. here's the situation.

  626. I pray to this St. who then prays to Jesus Christ, which is

  627. not what the Bible says, nor does it indicate.

  628. And by the way, the Bible makes very clear that when you are

  629. saved you become a St. Now, we don't always act like

  630. Saints, but the Bible does say upon the authority the word of

  631. God, that we become Saints when we are saved.

  632. That's why you see that pretty much in the address of every

  633. epistle as it's identified to the Saints which are at.

  634. The name of the Church. Why?

  635. Because those are the ones who know Jesus Christ, their Savior.

  636. So we don't pray to these other entities.

  637. We don't pray to statues or to so-called Saints.

  638. What do we do? The only one who's worthy to

  639. receive prayers is our Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

  640. Look at what it says in verse 8. And when he had taken the book.

  641. And the four beasts and the four and 20 elders fell down before

  642. the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full

  643. of odors. Which are the prayers of the

  644. Saints? Well, where are they pouring

  645. those out, if you will? Though it doesn't technically

  646. say they're being poured out, but where are these vials

  647. located before those who are kneeling?

  648. And so I'm just of the opinion that as as they are kneeling

  649. before him, they're pouring these out.

  650. If you see this differently, I wouldn't argue with you.

  651. But what are they doing? They are presenting, I think

  652. that's very clear, these prayers to none other than the Lamb.

  653. Why? Because He is the one that is

  654. worthy to receive them. That's why we pray to the Father

  655. in the name of the Son through the power of the Holy Ghost.

  656. Because all of them are important, integral, impossible

  657. to remove from our prayer life, and only he is worthy.

  658. Robert Sergeant put it this way about this passage.

  659. In his commentary he said our prayers reach heaven, our

  660. prayers please God. As a sweet smelling savor, our

  661. prayers are stored in heaven and our prayers worship God as an

  662. expression of our total dependence on him.

  663. I like that this shows our prayers reach heaven.

  664. Where do they go? Well, it shows right here to the

  665. very throne room of God. We see that from Hebrews chapter

    Hebrews 4 chapter mention

  666. 4. What is it?

  667. Show there a sweet smelling savor.

  668. Psalm 141, verse two says this. Let my prayer be set before

  669. forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as

  670. the evening sacrifice. That that sweet smelling savor.

  671. Listen, prayers smell good to God.

  672. Summers smell good to God. That that's something that He

  673. anticipates. It's something that He desires

  674. from His children. Just as your heart might rejoice

  675. if you get to hear from your child.

  676. Can you imagine how much more so our Heavenly Father who created?

  677. US anticipates and looks forward to hearing from his children.

  678. Well, he knows what we're going to say.

  679. Well, does that matter to him? It seems that he finds this to

  680. be a very pleasant thing when his Saints come to him in

  681. prayer. He says, Sergeant, that his

  682. prayers are stored in heaven will replace these vials, which

  683. means this. Those prayers are important

  684. because they've been stored, they've been collected together.

  685. And I don't know that. I know doctrinally all that goes

  686. into that, but it does seem like there's some collection of these

  687. that takes place. I don't know all that means, but

  688. I know this. Do you think God is going to

  689. forget the prayers of one of the Saints?

  690. I can't imagine that he does. What does that mean?

  691. They're precious to him. They're precious to him.

  692. And our prayers are worship as an expression of our total

  693. dependence on Him. When you pray to God, you're

  694. expressing your total dependence upon Him and Him alone.

  695. When you pray with the heart that is right before him, you

  696. know, God, I'm laying this before you.

  697. There is nobody else that's worthy to hear this.

  698. There's nobody else who has the ability to answer this.

  699. So I'm coming before you. What a beautiful, beautiful

  700. thing. And the fact that they're

  701. presented before him shows that he was and is worthy to receive

  702. them. Let her see.

  703. I also see this. He's worthy to receive our song.

  704. He's worthy to receive our song, it says in verse #9.

  705. And they sung a new song. I like that saying.

  706. Now art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,

  707. for that was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood

  708. and out of every kindred a tongue and people and nation.

  709. Now I've heard people take that phrase, the new song there and

  710. say, see, we just need to sing new songs.

  711. That's all we need to sing and and listen, I mean, that's

  712. certainly very convenient if that's your theology, but I

  713. don't believe that's what it's saying here.

  714. And by the way, I'm not against new songs that there are songs

  715. that we sing in our hymnal that are a couple, 100 years old.

  716. There are songs that we sing. Sometimes it's specials, and

  717. there's some in the hymnal as well that are just years old or

  718. maybe just a decade or two old. And the way that it is given

  719. unto the Lord. It's not the time that the song

  720. was written that makes the song good.

  721. It's the content of the song that it exalts Jesus Christ that

  722. makes the song. But really what this shows us is

  723. this is that when we sing in a song service, we're not singing

  724. for each other when we sing a special.

  725. We're not singing to impress the people in the quote UN quote

  726. audience. Do you realize that when we sing

  727. for a congregational song that we sing on Sunday morning, we

  728. lift our hearts up to the Lord? Or even if it's on a Wednesday

  729. night like we did just a few moments ago, that when we sing,

  730. we're not singing for the person that's next to us.

  731. We're not singing for the person whose ears in front of us and

  732. the row in front of us. What are we doing?

  733. We're singing unto the Lord. We see that all throughout the

  734. song. Singing to the Lord.

  735. Sing a new song with everything. Have breath.

  736. Praise the Lord, like the old preacher said, we've.

  737. Done here before. Is given to him.

  738. And so you'll put your hand in front of your mouth and blow.

  739. If you felt anything. Well, the Bible says with

  740. everything they have breath. Praise the Lord.

  741. So if you felt something, that means he's talking to you.

  742. And if you didn't feel something, you got bigger

  743. problems than just praising the Lord.

  744. Let me tell you, we gotta probably help you with that

  745. because you might have some very dire issues, but the idea is

  746. this our. And anytime we sing where the

  747. congregation is special, our audience is truly the Lord and

  748. not the people around us. And I will tell you, one of the

  749. things that I appreciate about some of the older songs more

  750. than some of the newer songs, and I'm speaking generally here,

  751. not specifically, is that many of the older songs seem to make

  752. much of God. Many of the newer songs seem to

  753. make much of our own experience. And I'm not saying there's

  754. anything wrong with. Having a song that talks about

  755. our experience, the fact that Christ saved us when the Lord

  756. saved me, when the Lord saved me, something wonderful happened

  757. when the Lord saved me. That's a fairly new chorus and

  758. it talks about our experience, but we do get out of balance

  759. when all of our songs were about.

  760. Us. And they're not about God and

  761. who he is. Because I look at these songs

  762. here and I know we're looking at a small sample here, but when

  763. you look at the song from verse 9 and on.

  764. And you hear what's said, You realize this.

  765. This is all about Christ. This is all about him.

  766. This because I will say, you will run out of songs about your

  767. own experience, but you'll never run out of songs talking about

  768. who Jesus Christ is. You will never run out of

  769. talking about his greatness. But our song he is worthy to

  770. receive. We don't sing about each other.

  771. We don't sing for each other. If you say, well, I don't sing

  772. very well, Pastor. I don't like to sing in church

  773. because I don't have a great voice.

  774. Listen, I don't want to be unkind about that, but but don't

  775. worry about that, don't think about that.

  776. You sing. Some of my favorite voices are

  777. the ones that sing with gusto and the people who don't think

  778. about what or care about what anyone else hears and they're

  779. just going for it, man. I mean, they're taking it

  780. seriously when it says make a joyful noise before the Lord.

  781. They're being literal, and that's OK.

  782. In fact, that I have to imagine that somewhere that's translated

  783. from from this building to the throne room of heaven and in the

  784. ears of God, that it's just a beautiful thing.

  785. Because you know what? It's not the the, the vocal

  786. cords that he's really taking in.

  787. It's the. Heart that when we sing, we're

  788. not really singing. As much with the vocal cords as

  789. we are with the heart and and that's who's worthy to receive

  790. that he's worthy to. And So what do we see?

  791. Very. Quickly, we're almost done.

  792. We've mentioned this before, but he's worthy to receive our

  793. sevenfold praise. It says in verse #12, and this

  794. is not technically part of the song.

  795. It says that it was said, but I don't know.

  796. It does say we heard the voice and then it says saying with a

  797. loud voice. And so I believe there's still a

  798. connection here. But it says, And I beheld and I

  799. heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the

  800. beasts and the elders. And the number of them was

  801. 10,000 * 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud

  802. voice. Worthy is the lamb that was

  803. slain to receive power and riches.

  804. Wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.

  805. And once again we see seven different characteristics there

  806. 7. The number of perfection in the

  807. Bible. Perfect praise being offered to

  808. God power. That Word power is the Word.

  809. Dunamis. You've heard me.

  810. Use this example before how that word dunamis is where we get the

  811. word dynamite today. That it's not just power, but

  812. it's dynamite, explosive power. That's the power of our God.

  813. The power that could create everything out of nothing.

  814. That's power he's worthy for all.

  815. Riches. Ephesians 3/8.

  816. The unsearchable riches of Christ.

  817. I mean, you could search the riches of Christ your whole life

  818. and never come to the end. You could never get to the

  819. bottom. Second Corinthians 8-9.

  820. For ye know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that

  821. though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, That ye

  822. through his poverty might be rich.

  823. I mean that unsearchable riches he sacrificed for us, coming

  824. down and having the form of a servant.

  825. So what? We could have the riches that we

  826. see here in Revelation chapter #5?

  827. What incredible love. We see his riches.

  828. We see his wisdom. 1st Corinthians 124.

  829. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

  830. So we've already seen Christ has the power of God, just a couple

  831. before, but also the wisdom of God.

  832. I'm amazed I'm going through the Proverbs right now.

  833. Some of you might read a proverb every day.

  834. Some people do that differently. I'm amazed.

  835. It doesn't matter how many times they go through the Proverbs,

  836. just how amazingly simple but powerful they are.

  837. I mean it would be common sense other than the fact that we

  838. don't think this way, but then you look at it and say it.

  839. Makes all the sense in the world, yet the world doesn't

  840. understand it. Well, where is?

  841. Where's that? Wisdom come from Solomon?

  842. Well, who gave him that wisdom? It was the Lord.

  843. We know that from his encounter with the Lord very on, early in

  844. his kingship. Oh, I got to go.

  845. A strength he's worthy for to be praised for his strength,

  846. William Barclay, the commentator, said.

  847. There is no situation of which he cannot cope.

  848. Think about that. There is no.

  849. Situation of which he cannot cope.

  850. You put something on my desk, I'll try to handle it.

  851. I may and I may not. There's nothing that goes across

  852. the desk, if you will, of Jesus Christ, that he's not able to

  853. cope with all strength, all honor.

  854. The world honors those who are often dishonorable and

  855. disreputable. The honor of the world is many

  856. times honor among thieves, but yet the honor of God He is

  857. worthy. He is truly.

  858. Worthy to receive honor where a lot of these people who are

  859. honored today are honored because they can act or honored

  860. because they can sing or honored because they can play a sport.

  861. But no, they're not many times worthy to receive that honor as

  862. we find out about their private lives later on.

  863. But what do we see? That when it comes to Jesus, it

  864. doesn't matter how far deep you go, you'll still come to the

  865. same conclusion. He's still worthy to receive

  866. honor. You know, they talk about our

  867. heroes, quote, UN quote today. And they say don't dig too deep

  868. because you don't know what you'll find.

  869. You know, it doesn't matter how deep you dig into the

  870. unsearchable riches of Christ, you'll come to the same

  871. conclusion he's still worthy of honor.

  872. There will be no November surprise, if you will, like

  873. every presidential candidate has every four years.

  874. Well, watch out for the November surprise.

  875. We'll find out something about them that will make us not want

  876. to vote for this one or that one.

  877. There's no surprises when it comes to God.

  878. It's all revealed right here. And the deeper we get.

  879. Listen you all, we're all eternity.

  880. At no point when we say, you know what?

  881. He wasn't what I was expecting. There will be no point in all

  882. eternity that we will say Christ wasn't what I was expecting.

  883. All honor, all glory. There's many times that

  884. something's built up in our mind and it disappoints.

  885. You know the glory of Plymouth Rock.

  886. And then you get there and you realize it's not as glorious as

  887. you thought. Yeah.

  888. So, yeah, you get there. Yeah, you get there.

  889. And it's a Pebble, right? You say, all right, where where

  890. do I find the lobsters for 20 bucks?

  891. And so. And the answer is nowhere

  892. anymore. So.

  893. But so there are many things that are glorified in this world

  894. and they disappoint. And just like with his honor,

  895. there is never a time with his glory that you'll say, you know

  896. what, I'm disappointed in who I thought he was.

  897. That will never happen. And blessing William Barclay

  898. once again says this here is the inevitable climax of it all.

  899. All these things Jesus Christ possesses and every one of them

  900. he uses. The service of men for whom he

  901. lived and died. He does not clutch these to

  902. himself, meaning this, these things and the sevenfold praise

  903. he bestows upon us as kings and priests.

  904. And that leaves us with this thought because we're done here

  905. tonight. What's the response of all those

  906. who are there to this song, to this spoken word that's given?

  907. And it says in verse #13, And every creature which is in

  908. heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are

  909. in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing

  910. and honor, and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon

  911. the throne, and under the Lamb of God forever, the Lamb forever

  912. and ever. And the 4B said, Amen.

  913. And the four and 20 elders fell down and worshipped him that

  914. liveth forever and ever. What was their response?

  915. First their agreement. What do they say?

  916. Amen. When you say Amen in church,

  917. what does it mean? I agree.

  918. I'm with you pastor. I I like what you're saying

  919. pastor, because it's the word of God.

  920. But they said Amen. Meaning I agree everything that

  921. said here he's worthy. I agree Amen.

  922. They gave their agreement but they also gave him this, their

  923. adoration. They looked into the lamb and

  924. they said this he's worthy and they fell down on their face.

  925. So I'm 4/4 says this stand in awe.

  926. But you know what the next part is?

  927. Because we do stand in all of Him, We should stand in all of

  928. Him, shouldn't we? That we look at Him and we just

  929. stand in all in Him. But that standing in all that

  930. adoration and that agreement should, should not just have a

  931. stand in all. Psalm 4/4 says that stand in all

  932. and sin not. The more we stand in adoration

  933. of Him, and the more we look at Him for who He is, the closer it

  934. should draw us to Him. The more we ponder the worth of

  935. the Lamb, the more we should become like the Lamb.

  936. You know, you become like what you watch.

  937. You know why there are Christians who sometimes have

  938. problem with their mouths? Because they're watching things

  939. on television that also have problems with their mouth.

  940. Ooh, that just slipped out. No, it didn't.

  941. It got programmed in many times. And I know sometimes we can all

  942. have the slip of the tongue. I'm not trying to be unkind, but

  943. I'm saying is those things are not just put in there on

  944. accident. We watch it and we become it.

  945. I've watched sometimes teenagers that when I was a youth director

  946. that would hang around a certain teenager and before I knew it

  947. there was one teenager acting one way and one teenager acting

  948. the other way and after. A while They were two teenagers

  949. acting the same way because they had modeled behavior to one

  950. another. They'd watched each other for a

  951. while, and they had become like one another.

  952. What do we do? Well, you want to walk with God?

  953. Stand in all Him. You want to grow in your walk

  954. with Christ? Find out more about Christ.

  955. And standing on him because when we stand in all of him for his

  956. worth, you know what it says. We'll sin not because we

  957. understand his power and his glory and his honor and his

  958. riches and his wisdom and his strength and his blessing.

  959. When we just stand in all of that and say you are.

  960. Worthy of that, all we can do is say, why would I want to sin?

  961. Why would I want anything else? In fact, I don't even need to be

  962. told not to do that stuff, because the more I look at him

  963. and the more I observe him and and the more I dive into the.

  964. Unestimable riches of his grace. The more I want to be like him

  965. and the more I want to serve it. Thank you for listening to the

  966. sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.

  967. If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we

  968. can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at

  969. [email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday

  970. at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.

  971. May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.