Sermon
7-26-23 Service: The Worth of the Lamb
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us,
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or contact us at my libertybaptist.org, or just look
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us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
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Last week we saw that the Lamb is worthy, and certainly the
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Lamb of God is worthy. We cannot doubt.
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That the Lamb of God is worthy where the angels were not worthy
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to open the seals, and where the mankind as in general is not
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able to open the seals. And even the patriarchs and the
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elders and the leaders were not able to open the seals.
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There was one who was able to open the seals, and that was the
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lion. Of the tribe of Judah, the root
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of David that is Jesus Christ. And we saw that Worthy is the
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Lamb. And we echo that again tonight,
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don't we? Worthy is the Lamb.
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If we said nothing else tonight and said Worthy is the Lamb,
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well, we would be doing all right, because you can't speak
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anything else. Other Everything else is really
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an offshoot. Of the fact that the Lamb of God
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is worthy. And tonight I want us to kind of
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continue that thought as we continue on in the Book of
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Revelation, Chapter #5 specifically.
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But I want us to look not necessarily at the fact that the
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Lamb is worthy, but ask the question.
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What makes the Lamb worthy? What is it about the Lamb that
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makes it worthy? What is it about his abilities?
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And of course, we could talk about this all night, couldn't
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we? I mean, we could elaborate on
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the worth of the Lamb of Jesus Christ.
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Well, we could elaborate on it till the end of time.
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You. Just like if we considered the
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Book of John at the end of the Book of John and said that if
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the works of Christ were to be able to have been written, that
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the world would not be able to contain all of the works that he
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has done. And well, I kind of feel the
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same way about Revelation Chapter #5 and addressing the
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issue of how worthy Jesus Christ is.
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However, there are some very specific things about the worth
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of the Lamb that are mentioned in this text, and I believe
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those are the things we need to explore tonight and understand
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because they're. Being communicated to us through
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this chapter in this text. And I want us to look at it here
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tonight. And so we're going to go back
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and although we're not going to address all of chapter 5
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tonight, I do want us to read all of chapter five once again.
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So you remain seated and we're going to read Revelation Chapter
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#5 here tonight. And it says and I saw on the
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right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within
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and on the backside sealed with 7 seals.
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And I saw a strong Angel proclaiming with a loud voice.
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Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?
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And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth,
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was able to open the book, neither to look there on.
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And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to
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read the book, neither to look there on.
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And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not, Behold, the lion
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of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open
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the book. And to loose the seven seals
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thereof. And I beheld and low in the
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midst of the throne, and of the four beasts in the midst of the
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elders, stood a lamb as it had been slain, having 7 horns and
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seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into
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all the earth. And he came.
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And took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon
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the throne. And when he had taken the book,
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the four and beasts, and the four and 20 elders fell down
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before the Lamb, having every one of them harps.
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And golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the
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Saints. And they sung a new song,
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saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals
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thereof. And thou was slain, and hast
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redeemed us to God by the blood out of every kindred and tongue
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and people and nation, and has made us unto our God kings and
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priests, and we shall reign on the earth.
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And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about
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the throne, and the beast and the elders.
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And the number of them was 10,000 * 10,000.
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And thousands of thousands we saw last week that's numbering
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over 100 million and then more. On top of that saying with a
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loud voice worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power
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and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and
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blessing and every creature which is in heaven and on the
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earth, I'm sorry. Oh, and on the earth, and under
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the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in
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them, heard I saying, Blessing and honor and.
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And glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne,
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and unto the land, for how long, forever and ever.
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And the 4B said, Amen. And the four and 20 elders fell
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down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever.
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And surely, as Thomas would have said and proclaimed when he saw
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the hands with the nail scars, and he saw the side that was
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riven, he said. My Lord.
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And my God. And you can't come to any other
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conclusion to read Revelation chapter five with an open heart
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to the Holy Spirit and look at the Lamb of God, the line of the
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tribe of Judah, the root of Jesse, the root of David, and
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say my Lord and my God, and we see him in His Majesty here.
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So last week we looked at Jesus and his worth reflected in his
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titles. Those titles remember the line
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of the tribe of Judah, the root of David.
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We ended our message last week by looking at him.
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At his titles. But tonight I want us to look at
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him and his worth reflected in his traits.
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What is it about Jesus Christ that makes him worthy?
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And again, I know we could talk about this well for ages,
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literally and never exhausted, but I want us to look at what we
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see here in Revelation chapter #5 that is highlighted for us by
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the Holy Spirit here tonight. And the first thing I want us to
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see about this is this. Number one, He is worthy.
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To redeem number one, he's worthy to redeem First
1 Corinthians 15 chapter mention
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Corinthians chapter 15, and that great chapter that expounds the
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gospel in a way that maybe is not mentioned or or expounded in
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any other place in the word of God, Paul says by the
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inspiration of God. For I delivered unto you, first
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of all that which I also received, how the Christ died
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for our sins, according to the Scriptures.
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And that he was buried and that he rose again the 3rd day.
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According to the scriptures, that's what Jesus Christ did to
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redeem mankind. That's found in verse #9 in our
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text. And it says, And they sung a new
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song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the
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seals thereof. For thou wasst slain by the way.
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It doesn't say, for thou are slain wast in the past.
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By the way, that's one of the exceptions we take with the
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Catholic Church that perpetually sacrifices Christ.
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In every Eucharist that shows Him on the crucifix still slain,
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they're perpetually slain for the sin of mankind.
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No, He was slain. And although He shows those
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scars and those marks to remind us of that sacrifice that was
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made, yet He lives again, so that was slain and has redeemed
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us. There's That word has redeemed
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us to God. By thy blood out of every
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kindred tongue and people and nation.
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So we ask ourselves this, this question I What does it mean to
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redeem? We see here that he redeemed us,
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but the question is, what does it mean?
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That Jesus Christ redeemed us. Well, this word, redeem has
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taken many different forms over the years.
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It can be used many different ways today.
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There are ways that you can redeem yourself.
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You ever heard someone say that they redeem themself or about
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someone else? That they had redeemed
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themselves. What does that mean?
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That they made amends? That they vindicated themselves?
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And typically it's about something that they have done on
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their own to better themselves. I.
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Would think in Literature of the Christmas Story by Charles
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Dickens and Scrooge. Redeemed himself, didn't he?
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At the end of that story that he made good of himself.
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By the way, that's not in the Bible.
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Just want to make sure you understand that.
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But if you were to take something that the world would
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say, well, what did he do? He found it in and of himself.
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To make himself a good character again, by the way, which is
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exactly opposite of what the Bible says, that are worth is
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not found in doing good deeds on Christmas.
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Redeemed himself. Are worth is found in Jesus
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Christ and that's where we find that and through salvation in
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him that good deeds don't make us a good person.
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There are people who do that and try to get saved and find out at
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the judgment seat. Watch at the great white throne
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judgment that those good deeds never save them, and so
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certainly an awful thing, but the world would say that well.
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So that's one way to use it. If you have coupons, remember
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what those used to be? That's back when people used to
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have newspapers back in the day. But I remember my mom had a
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shoebox full of coupons back in the day and she would pay me a
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dime for every coupon that was expired.
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Every few months I would go through and get all the expired
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coupons and show them to her. And then she'd give me a dime
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for all of them. Well, inflation.
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I should have been making hundreds of bucks for that.
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Now that think about it. But here's the coupon for milk
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and here's the coupon for I can't believe it's not butter.
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I could believe it wasn't butter didn't taste like it.
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But here's all these coupons there.
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What do you do with them? They say you need to redeem
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them. And in that sense, it literally
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means to exchange it. To turn in, I'm going to give
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the coupon, I'm going to turn it in and I'm going to get
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something in return that's a little bit closer to what we
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would see here. But yet not even the same Boaz
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is going to redeem Ruth. And I mean, I know I'm getting a
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little bit ahead of myself from Sunday night, but we're going to
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find out that Boaz would be the Kinsman Redeemer and we'll talk
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much about that later on. So I don't want to actually
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spend a lot of time on that component of this evening, but
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it is right here in our text, this redeeming that word redeem
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that we see. Here comes from 2 Latin words or
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two Latin forms that the first word, the Latin word red or form
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red meaning black or not, black back rather, and emo meaning to
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obtain or purchase. And so literally, the word would
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mean to buy back. To buy back the 1828 dictionary
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puts it this way. To purchase back to ransom.
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To liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage.
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Were any of us in captivity or bondage to anything?
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Oh yes. Before we knew Jesus Christ our
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Savior, we were in bondage to sin and we were enslaved by our
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Father, the Devil. Those are Jesus's words, not
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mine. Before we belong to Him, we
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belong to our Father. The devil, but we were in
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captivity or bondage. From any obligation or liability
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to suffer or be forfeited by paying an equivalent to redeem.
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As to redeem prisoners or captured goods to redeem a
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pledge, you could look at it maybe this way.
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If someone left something at a pawn shop, what would they do?
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They would. Redeem it at some point.
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That's what you're supposed to do.
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If you're able to, you go and well, you buy it back.
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You purchase it back. You have now liberated from
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behind that window with the bars over it, and now it's set free
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and it's back in your home again.
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Well, that's maybe a very worldly or earthly way of
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looking at it, but when we look at what Jesus Christ did for us.
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He redeemed us from the clutches of Satan.
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He redeemed us from the power of sin, and he redeemed us from a
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future that we had living in a devil's hell from all eternity.
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Jesus Christ, the day we got saved, redeemed us for all that,
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and that redemption was sealed on the day that he died on the
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cross. And then three days later, it
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was authenticated once again as he rose from the grave, going
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back to First Corinthians 15, where it says that he died in
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three days, he was buried, and he rose again.
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That's the. The gospel message He redeemed
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us. He set us free.
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By the way, you're free today. And he that is free, it says,
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and John is free. Indeed, this verse here at verse
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#9 tells us that the vehicle of the redemption was his death in
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the shedding of his blood. That's what it says right here
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by his blood. We are redeemed by his blood.
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And then it also tells us about the vastness.
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It's not just the vehicle of his redemption.
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But the vastness of his redemption, how vast is it?
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Every people, every kindred, every tongue, every nation?
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I mean, I would say from what I see here, that upon the
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authority of the Word of God, each one will have some
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representation. Someday in heaven, it will be a
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true United Nations. Not the puppet court that we see
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here on Earth today that gathers together and gets nothing done.
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In fact, it probably gets less than nothing done, all things
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considered. But no, here we see, it says of
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all of these people that we represented.
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Why? Because they're redeemed.
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They're redeemed. The the vehicle, the blood, the
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vastness. All of the peoples of mankind.
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Ephesians 17 in whom we have redemption.
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Through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to
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the riches of His grace. Where's our redemption from?
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It's grace. For by grace are you save
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through faith and that not of yourself.
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It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
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boast. Which reminds us that word gift
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is very much synonymous with grace, that they are very
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similar their kindred terms in many ways.
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That by grace we have salvation. It's not that we earn the
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redemption. Well, that's not what it's
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about. Well, I did the work.
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I clipped it, I turned it in, and then I got something back.
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Nope, that's not what it is. No, it's that Jesus Christ did.
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Look what he did on the cross, that he proved what he did when
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he rose again. And that because of that, when
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you and I call upon Jesus Christ to save us, at that very moment,
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we could know that we're seated with Christ in the heavenlies
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because of the redemption. That's an exciting thing.
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They don't even make a Baptist shout.
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OK. I mean that that wasn't
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shouting, but that's OK. It's as close as we'll get.
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I mean, we're not going Pentecostal tonight, but that's
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all right. I'm just saying it's exciting,
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You know, it's exciting that Christ redeemed us.
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And that's what we see here first.
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Peter won 18 and 19. For as much as you know that you
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were not redeemed with corruptible things, what are
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corruptible things? Will look in your wallet.
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What's corruptible things? Look on your online bank
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statement, what's corruptible things?
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Look in your portfolio. And I'm not saying there's
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anything wrong with those things in and of themselves, I mean.
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Those kind of financial blessings are just that,
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blessings, as long as we don't make them into idols themselves.
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For it's the love of money. It's not money that's the root
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of all evil. It's the love of money that's
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the root of all evil. But those things are corruptible
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in the sense that when this world goes up, guess what?
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You're not taking it with you. We are not redeemed with
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corruptible things. Silver and gold from your vein.
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Conversation received by tradition from your father's.
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But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without
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blemish, without spot, who's that lamb?
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We're seeing him here in Revelation Chapter 5, in all the
Revelation 5 chapter mention
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splendor and all of his glory. We'll look more again at this
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redemption as we look at Boaz, the Kinsman Redeemer in the book
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of. Ruth, but I we can't go past
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this here tonight. And and not just dwell with
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wonder at the Lamb of God, who's slain, who shed his blood.
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It was slain to be able to secure our redemption.
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He is worthy to redeem. By the way, was anyone else
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worthy to redeem? There was no one else that was
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worthy. It's not just that he was worthy
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to open the seals. There was no one else worthy to
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redeem. That there was no one.
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There's no Angel that can make the sacrifice.
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No man that could take the sacrifice.
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There wasn't the blood of bulls and goats that could forgive
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sin. They could only cover the sin of
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mankind. It's only Jesus Christ who is
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worthy to redeem. I'm glad we agree on that.
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All right, #2. Let's look at this.
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He's not only worthy to redeem, He's worthy to reign.
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He is worthy to rain REIGN. That's not talking about what
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happens outside with some precipitation.
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We're talking about ruling and raining like a monarch would
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rain. Verse 10 talks about this when
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it says, and has made unto and has made us unto our God, kings
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and priests. And we shall reign.
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There's that word rain on the earth.
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I believe verse 10 here when it talks about we shall reign on
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the earth is a direct connection to the millennial reign, that
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thousand year reign of Christ after the seven-year tribulation
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because we'll get here in like 5 years.
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Revelation chapter 20 verse #6 where it says blessed and holy
Revelation 20 chapter mention
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is he that has part in the first resurrection.
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On such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests
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of God, of and of Christ. And shall reign with him for
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1000 years. And so I believe there's a
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connection here to that millennial Kingdom, that
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millennial reign. And he says that we will be
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kings and priests and we are kings and priests.
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And by the way, that thought of being kings and priests is
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mentioned three different times in the Book of relation.
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It's already been mentioned in chapter #1 and will be mentioned
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again at the end of time in the dawning of eternity.
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But we see us being kings and priests as kings.
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He grants us authority. You realize no authority can
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flow from any other place than from God.
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Romans 13 verse one says let every soul be subject under the
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higher powers, for there's no power but of God.
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The powers that be are ordained of God.
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Now of course that's talking about human government, but I
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think we can also make a direct connection to say that when
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mankind has power, in essence it flows from God.
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As kings He is granting us authority, but as priests he's
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granting us access because in the Old Testament, what did the
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priests have? They had access that other
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people did not have. That's why it was so amazing
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when Christ died on the cross, you and he proclaimed it is
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finished. What happened in the temple, the
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veil between the holy place and the holiest of holies, it was
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rent into and it wasn't just rent from the bottom of the top
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like a man could do so. And by the way, from what I
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understand about that veil, that it was constructed in such a way
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no one was just coming up and going.
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Like you were taking a shear from, you know, one of your
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windows at the house that it would have been likely
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impossible for a person to tear anyway, but just so that God
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made sure that no one made any kind of of thought process, that
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it was man, it was rent from top to bottom, which wouldn't have
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been the normal way that would have happened.
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Which was the finger of God that took care of that and the voice
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of God that took care of that. And that partition was removed
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and what do we have access? And we have access today.
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I I say this verse a lot, but I'm going to give it to you
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again because it's just so important.
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Hebrews 416 Let us therefore come boldly under the throne of
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grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time
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of need. I know, and I I I don't want to
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be labor this here tonight, but we have people coming from all
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kinds of different places in their spiritual walk and some
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are early on in their spiritual walk and some are more.
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Experienced in their spiritual walk.
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I wouldn't call anyone here older, but they're more
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experienced in their walk. But I want to remind you tonight
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that when you sin, you don't have to come to me and confess.
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Now you can come talk to me and I can help you and pray with you
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and maybe show you some Bible verses.
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You don't have to go to Diane and confess.
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Only I have to do. Oh, no, never mind.
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You don't have to do that. All right, you know what we do.
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Hey, we go right to God now. If you have transgressed against
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someone, you need to go to get it to them and ask for their
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forgiveness. That's an important thing in the
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Bible teaches about that. When we have done wrong to
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somebody that we go and apologize to them.
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But if we want to get that rightness with God, we don't
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have to go through the priest. We don't have to go to my office
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and shut the door and have you confess.
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No, no that you can go right to the.
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Throne of God. As a priest, And you have been
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granted access, and that's what it says.
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And we shall rain on the earth, because we're kings, and we're
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because we're priests. Spurgeon put it this way.
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Ye are kings and priests unto your God.
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That how much ought kings and priests give to the king of
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kings? This speake to yourselves I am a
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king. That I will give a king I will
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give as a king giveth unto a king.
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Now, Mark, you know paltry subscriptions.
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We don't expect kings to put down their name for trifles.
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That again you were a priest. Well, priest, do you mean to
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sacrifice? Yes, you may say.
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But you would not sacrifice a broken legged lamb or a
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blemished Bullock, would you? Would you not select the best of
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the flock? Very right.
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Then select the very best. What is he saying?
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Is kings and priests Well as kings?
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We don't give trifles. We give much because we've been
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given much. And as priests, what do we do?
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We make sure we sacrifice the very best we have to God as
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kings and priests. It's not just, wow, look at all
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these things that God has given to me.
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Although that's true, it's wow. Look at all these things that
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God has given to me. I need to give these to others
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as well, and just be a conduit of God's grace to other people,
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as a king and as a priest. But yet you might say this
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tonight, Pastor. You keep talking about us ruling
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and raining, but yet you say up here.
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That he's worth it to rain. It seems like you're taking the
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verse here and you're taking something that's talking about
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us and making it about Jesus Christ.
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And I mean, I understand that if you're thinking that as I'm
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speaking about this because it says again in verse #10, has
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made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign on
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the earth. But yet let me ask you this
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tonight, How can we reign unless we're given that authority from
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a higher authority? How are we able to be kings and
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priests if someone is not worthy?
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Who is higher than us? Who is able to confer that title
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upon us? It would require, if we have
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been made kings and priests, that someone with higher
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authority is able to give us that kingship.
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That someone above us is able to give us that priesthood which
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reminds us that it's Jesus Christ who is worthy to reign.
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And that makes us worthy to reign because he has the power.
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Why was Joseph able to reign? Well, because there was one
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greater than Joseph who gave him that power which would have been
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Pharaoh. Why did Mordecai was he able to
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reign coming from having the death sentence upon his head
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from Amon just a few chapters previously?
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It was because one greater than Mordecai, King Ahasu Eris
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conferred upon him the same title basically as Joseph, the
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second in command of all of the Kingdom.
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And for you and I to be kings and priests, it requires that
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there is one who is greater than us, who is able to give us that.
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And that's Jesus Christ, Luke 133.
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And he shall reign over the House of Jacob Forever.
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And of his Kingdom there shall be no end.
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By the way, that's not just good in December.
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It's good all 12 months out of the year.
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Hebrews 18 We went over this last week, But it's so good we
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have to do it again. But unto us but unto the sun he
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sayeth thy throne. Oh God is forever and ever
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again. Remember showing that deity of
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Christ unto the sun. He sayeth thy throne.
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Oh God, it is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is
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the scepter of thy Kingdom. So what does he have?
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He has that scepter of righteousness, that sign of
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ruling and reigning. We'll look at this later.
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Revelation 11/5. The 7th Angel sounded and there
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was great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this
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world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and
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he shall reign forever and ever. If you thought that came from
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the Hallelujah Chorus, that's not where it came from.
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It came from the Word of God that he shall reign forever and
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ever. That's not handle or handle or
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whoever. It was pretty sure his handle.
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But you know what it was? It was from the word of God that
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we find that he shall rain. He's worthy to rain.
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And by the way, if he's worthy to rain and he's put the
-
authority on us, that means he's allowed to tell us anything,
-
anywhere, anytime, what to do. Because we are all excited about
-
the fact that he's worthy to rain and that he's coming back
-
and he's going to settle accounts.
-
But may I remind you that he's worthy to rain in your life
-
tonight, That if he's to come down from heaven and touch your
-
heart, which is what he can do through your holy, through his
-
Holy Spirit that lives within you, if he is to tell you do
-
this or do that, go here or go there, just as that man told
-
Jesus Christ I also. Am a man under authority and
-
understand go here and go there, do this and do that with that is
-
what he does to us tonight. Who are we to say No, God, I
-
won't do it. No, I won't go there.
-
That's too far. That's too much.
-
No, that's not something I'll give up.
-
No, if He's worthy to reign the. Scene that we see here in
-
Revelation Chapter 5. If he's worthy to reign over 100
Revelation 5 chapter mention
-
million or so angels, I think he's worthy to reign over our
-
heart, my heart and your heart. He is worthy to reign #3 I also
-
see this. He's not just worthy to redeem
-
and worthy to reign. He's also worthy to receive.
-
He's worthy to receive looking verse #11, it says I beheld and
-
I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the
-
beasts and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 *
-
10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud
-
voice Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive.
-
We'll just stop right there. He is worthy to receive.
-
Which means there are some things that we see not just in
-
the phrases that follow, but in this text.
-
There are some things that he is worthy to receive from his
-
children or from the Angels or for the 20 and four elders.
-
There's some things that he's worthy to receive that maybe we
-
wouldn't be able to receive. Well, actually, there's no maybe
-
about it that we wouldn't be able to receive.
-
There are some people who are worthy to receive certain
-
things. There are some people who are
-
not. There are awards that are given
-
out at different times, different seasons.
-
Some people are worthy to win those awards.
-
Some people are not. You know, a catcher is not
-
worthy to win the Cy Young Award in baseball.
-
You know why they give it to pitchers?
-
They're not going to give it to a catcher that that's he's not
-
worthy to receive it. We are not worthy to receive the
-
things that we see here. The only one who's worthy to
-
receive these things is God alone and Jesus Christ,
-
specifically in the Godhead who has mentioned God the sun here
-
in our chapter. But what's the things that we
-
see? There's four things that we see
-
that he is worthy to receive in our text.
-
And the first is this. He's worthy to receive worship.
-
He's worthy to receive worship. Of course, we have dealt with a
-
whole Series A few years ago on worship.
-
Look at what it says in verse 8 and it says.
-
And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and 20
-
elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them
-
harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of
-
the Saints. And then we see later on
-
specifically that verse #14 and the 4B said Amen.
-
And the four and 20 elders fell down and worshiped him that
-
liveth forever and ever. There are times in the Bible
-
whether it was specifically, I think of the book of Acts where
-
there were some who would fall down before one of the apostles
-
and they'd say this get up. I'm a man just like you are.
-
Don't bow before me. I'm just a man.
-
What would Paul have been saying?
-
What would Peter have been saying?
-
They're saying we're not worthy to receive worship.
-
It is not becoming of us to be able to receive worship that is
-
only worthy of the Lord. They we see here they were
-
bowing and again, once again reminding us that true worship
-
is the posture of humility, that there is a difference between
-
praise and worship. And again, I know that the world
-
and Christianity uses those words interchangeably, and
-
sometimes they just yoke them up together like it's one thing.
-
Praise and worship, praise and worship.
-
But yet, praise and worship are both distinct things, and we
-
don't get to just make our own definitions for them just
-
because it's what popular Christianity does today.
-
What's worship? I see people getting down and
-
get low. And by the way, it's not just
-
their body, it's their heart. Because worship that has you
-
down on your face before God but has you stiff neck is not real
-
worship. You say stiff neck.
-
You mean like I've been down on the ground so long that my neck
-
gets stiff? No, no.
-
I'm talking about spiritually being stiff neck that you can be
-
down on the ground you could be. You could be prostrate on the
-
ground, nose on the ground as low as you possibly could get.
-
But if you were defiant towards God, your worship is not as
-
humble as your posture might seem to indicate.
-
He is worthy to receive worship. How many during Jesus earthly
-
ministry would come to the realization of who he was and
-
what would be? What would they do?
-
They fall down before him. When they came to realize who
-
Jesus was, immediately they would fall down before him and
-
worship him. And guess what?
-
Everyone will do this someday. For some, it will be eternally
-
too late for salvation, but they will have no other conclusion
-
than to come to than to bow the knee to Jesus Christ that goes
-
all the way by the way back to the Old Testament, because
-
Isaiah 4523 says I have sworn by myself.
-
By the way, you have to swear by a higher power.
-
So what does God do? He says.
-
I swear by myself. Who else is he going to pick?
-
I mean, we can probably just make a message right on that,
-
and be probably in good form. But I got to keep on going.
-
I have sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth and
-
righteousness, and shall not return that unto me every knee
-
shall bow and every tongue shall swear.
-
Now who is speaking there? It's God.
-
Now Romans 14 verses 10 through 12 reiterate this.
-
Paul gives a call back to the Old Testament when he says, But
-
why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou said it not thy
-
brother? For we all shall stand before
-
the judgment. Seat of Christ Ford is written
-
as I live. Say it, the Lord every knee
-
shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God, so
-
that every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.
-
So what does it say in the New Testament that every knee shall
-
bow and every tongue shall confess to Jesus Christ?
-
By the way, if you want another proof of the DD of Christ, the
-
Old Testament says every knee will bow to God.
-
The New Testament says every knee will bow to Christ.
-
Calling back that Old Testament verse, what does that mean?
-
That there isn't the nickels worth a difference between Jesus
-
Christ and God. Because Jesus Christ is God the
-
Son. That he is not just God the Son,
-
the Son of God rather, but he's also God the Son that he is
-
both. And I bring it up often because
-
the Jehovah Witnesses or the Mormons or other cults will say,
-
oh, he is a a son of God, but you can be too.
-
And of course they're perverting what the Word of God says,
-
because it does say we become adopted into the family of God.
-
But at the same time, to pretend that once we get saved or we
-
become righteous, that we are on the same level as Jesus Christ
-
in his worthiness is to twist the scriptures to such a point
-
that it's uneven, recognizable to what the word of God says.
-
So what do we see? Old Testament?
-
New Testament, This relationship, the deed of
-
Christ. We saw it in Hebrews chapter
-
one, verse eight. We see it here in Romans chapter
Romans 14 chapter mention
-
14 as well. That every knee shall bow, every
-
tongue shall confess. Why he's worthy of worship.
-
What else is he worthy of? He's worthy of prayers.
-
He's worthy of prayers. It's amazing to me that people
-
will pray to statues. It's amazing to me that people
-
will pray for Saints. Hey, did you hey, did you lose a
-
coin. Did you lose your job?
-
Hey did you have someone that's sick.
-
Pray to Saint elsewhere. Pray to Saint this one or
-
Bartholomew or St. No maybe not St. elsewhere but
-
pray to this and and and I'm being a little flippant but the
-
idea is there are people who say if you're in this situation pray
-
to this St. here's the situation.
-
I pray to this St. who then prays to Jesus Christ, which is
-
not what the Bible says, nor does it indicate.
-
And by the way, the Bible makes very clear that when you are
-
saved you become a St. Now, we don't always act like
-
Saints, but the Bible does say upon the authority the word of
-
God, that we become Saints when we are saved.
-
That's why you see that pretty much in the address of every
-
epistle as it's identified to the Saints which are at.
-
The name of the Church. Why?
-
Because those are the ones who know Jesus Christ, their Savior.
-
So we don't pray to these other entities.
-
We don't pray to statues or to so-called Saints.
-
What do we do? The only one who's worthy to
-
receive prayers is our Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
-
Look at what it says in verse 8. And when he had taken the book.
-
And the four beasts and the four and 20 elders fell down before
-
the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full
-
of odors. Which are the prayers of the
-
Saints? Well, where are they pouring
-
those out, if you will? Though it doesn't technically
-
say they're being poured out, but where are these vials
-
located before those who are kneeling?
-
And so I'm just of the opinion that as as they are kneeling
-
before him, they're pouring these out.
-
If you see this differently, I wouldn't argue with you.
-
But what are they doing? They are presenting, I think
-
that's very clear, these prayers to none other than the Lamb.
-
Why? Because He is the one that is
-
worthy to receive them. That's why we pray to the Father
-
in the name of the Son through the power of the Holy Ghost.
-
Because all of them are important, integral, impossible
-
to remove from our prayer life, and only he is worthy.
-
Robert Sergeant put it this way about this passage.
-
In his commentary he said our prayers reach heaven, our
-
prayers please God. As a sweet smelling savor, our
-
prayers are stored in heaven and our prayers worship God as an
-
expression of our total dependence on him.
-
I like that this shows our prayers reach heaven.
-
Where do they go? Well, it shows right here to the
-
very throne room of God. We see that from Hebrews chapter
Hebrews 4 chapter mention
-
4. What is it?
-
Show there a sweet smelling savor.
-
Psalm 141, verse two says this. Let my prayer be set before
-
forth before thee as incense and the lifting up of my hands as
-
the evening sacrifice. That that sweet smelling savor.
-
Listen, prayers smell good to God.
-
Summers smell good to God. That that's something that He
-
anticipates. It's something that He desires
-
from His children. Just as your heart might rejoice
-
if you get to hear from your child.
-
Can you imagine how much more so our Heavenly Father who created?
-
US anticipates and looks forward to hearing from his children.
-
Well, he knows what we're going to say.
-
Well, does that matter to him? It seems that he finds this to
-
be a very pleasant thing when his Saints come to him in
-
prayer. He says, Sergeant, that his
-
prayers are stored in heaven will replace these vials, which
-
means this. Those prayers are important
-
because they've been stored, they've been collected together.
-
And I don't know that. I know doctrinally all that goes
-
into that, but it does seem like there's some collection of these
-
that takes place. I don't know all that means, but
-
I know this. Do you think God is going to
-
forget the prayers of one of the Saints?
-
I can't imagine that he does. What does that mean?
-
They're precious to him. They're precious to him.
-
And our prayers are worship as an expression of our total
-
dependence on Him. When you pray to God, you're
-
expressing your total dependence upon Him and Him alone.
-
When you pray with the heart that is right before him, you
-
know, God, I'm laying this before you.
-
There is nobody else that's worthy to hear this.
-
There's nobody else who has the ability to answer this.
-
So I'm coming before you. What a beautiful, beautiful
-
thing. And the fact that they're
-
presented before him shows that he was and is worthy to receive
-
them. Let her see.
-
I also see this. He's worthy to receive our song.
-
He's worthy to receive our song, it says in verse #9.
-
And they sung a new song. I like that saying.
-
Now art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof,
-
for that was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood
-
and out of every kindred a tongue and people and nation.
-
Now I've heard people take that phrase, the new song there and
-
say, see, we just need to sing new songs.
-
That's all we need to sing and and listen, I mean, that's
-
certainly very convenient if that's your theology, but I
-
don't believe that's what it's saying here.
-
And by the way, I'm not against new songs that there are songs
-
that we sing in our hymnal that are a couple, 100 years old.
-
There are songs that we sing. Sometimes it's specials, and
-
there's some in the hymnal as well that are just years old or
-
maybe just a decade or two old. And the way that it is given
-
unto the Lord. It's not the time that the song
-
was written that makes the song good.
-
It's the content of the song that it exalts Jesus Christ that
-
makes the song. But really what this shows us is
-
this is that when we sing in a song service, we're not singing
-
for each other when we sing a special.
-
We're not singing to impress the people in the quote UN quote
-
audience. Do you realize that when we sing
-
for a congregational song that we sing on Sunday morning, we
-
lift our hearts up to the Lord? Or even if it's on a Wednesday
-
night like we did just a few moments ago, that when we sing,
-
we're not singing for the person that's next to us.
-
We're not singing for the person whose ears in front of us and
-
the row in front of us. What are we doing?
-
We're singing unto the Lord. We see that all throughout the
-
song. Singing to the Lord.
-
Sing a new song with everything. Have breath.
-
Praise the Lord, like the old preacher said, we've.
-
Done here before. Is given to him.
-
And so you'll put your hand in front of your mouth and blow.
-
If you felt anything. Well, the Bible says with
-
everything they have breath. Praise the Lord.
-
So if you felt something, that means he's talking to you.
-
And if you didn't feel something, you got bigger
-
problems than just praising the Lord.
-
Let me tell you, we gotta probably help you with that
-
because you might have some very dire issues, but the idea is
-
this our. And anytime we sing where the
-
congregation is special, our audience is truly the Lord and
-
not the people around us. And I will tell you, one of the
-
things that I appreciate about some of the older songs more
-
than some of the newer songs, and I'm speaking generally here,
-
not specifically, is that many of the older songs seem to make
-
much of God. Many of the newer songs seem to
-
make much of our own experience. And I'm not saying there's
-
anything wrong with. Having a song that talks about
-
our experience, the fact that Christ saved us when the Lord
-
saved me, when the Lord saved me, something wonderful happened
-
when the Lord saved me. That's a fairly new chorus and
-
it talks about our experience, but we do get out of balance
-
when all of our songs were about.
-
Us. And they're not about God and
-
who he is. Because I look at these songs
-
here and I know we're looking at a small sample here, but when
-
you look at the song from verse 9 and on.
-
And you hear what's said, You realize this.
-
This is all about Christ. This is all about him.
-
This because I will say, you will run out of songs about your
-
own experience, but you'll never run out of songs talking about
-
who Jesus Christ is. You will never run out of
-
talking about his greatness. But our song he is worthy to
-
receive. We don't sing about each other.
-
We don't sing for each other. If you say, well, I don't sing
-
very well, Pastor. I don't like to sing in church
-
because I don't have a great voice.
-
Listen, I don't want to be unkind about that, but but don't
-
worry about that, don't think about that.
-
You sing. Some of my favorite voices are
-
the ones that sing with gusto and the people who don't think
-
about what or care about what anyone else hears and they're
-
just going for it, man. I mean, they're taking it
-
seriously when it says make a joyful noise before the Lord.
-
They're being literal, and that's OK.
-
In fact, that I have to imagine that somewhere that's translated
-
from from this building to the throne room of heaven and in the
-
ears of God, that it's just a beautiful thing.
-
Because you know what? It's not the the, the vocal
-
cords that he's really taking in.
-
It's the. Heart that when we sing, we're
-
not really singing. As much with the vocal cords as
-
we are with the heart and and that's who's worthy to receive
-
that he's worthy to. And So what do we see?
-
Very. Quickly, we're almost done.
-
We've mentioned this before, but he's worthy to receive our
-
sevenfold praise. It says in verse #12, and this
-
is not technically part of the song.
-
It says that it was said, but I don't know.
-
It does say we heard the voice and then it says saying with a
-
loud voice. And so I believe there's still a
-
connection here. But it says, And I beheld and I
-
heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the
-
beasts and the elders. And the number of them was
-
10,000 * 10,000 and thousands of thousands saying with a loud
-
voice. Worthy is the lamb that was
-
slain to receive power and riches.
-
Wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.
-
And once again we see seven different characteristics there
-
7. The number of perfection in the
-
Bible. Perfect praise being offered to
-
God power. That Word power is the Word.
-
Dunamis. You've heard me.
-
Use this example before how that word dunamis is where we get the
-
word dynamite today. That it's not just power, but
-
it's dynamite, explosive power. That's the power of our God.
-
The power that could create everything out of nothing.
-
That's power he's worthy for all.
-
Riches. Ephesians 3/8.
-
The unsearchable riches of Christ.
-
I mean, you could search the riches of Christ your whole life
-
and never come to the end. You could never get to the
-
bottom. Second Corinthians 8-9.
-
For ye know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
-
though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, That ye
-
through his poverty might be rich.
-
I mean that unsearchable riches he sacrificed for us, coming
-
down and having the form of a servant.
-
So what? We could have the riches that we
-
see here in Revelation chapter #5?
-
What incredible love. We see his riches.
-
We see his wisdom. 1st Corinthians 124.
-
Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.
-
So we've already seen Christ has the power of God, just a couple
-
before, but also the wisdom of God.
-
I'm amazed I'm going through the Proverbs right now.
-
Some of you might read a proverb every day.
-
Some people do that differently. I'm amazed.
-
It doesn't matter how many times they go through the Proverbs,
-
just how amazingly simple but powerful they are.
-
I mean it would be common sense other than the fact that we
-
don't think this way, but then you look at it and say it.
-
Makes all the sense in the world, yet the world doesn't
-
understand it. Well, where is?
-
Where's that? Wisdom come from Solomon?
-
Well, who gave him that wisdom? It was the Lord.
-
We know that from his encounter with the Lord very on, early in
-
his kingship. Oh, I got to go.
-
A strength he's worthy for to be praised for his strength,
-
William Barclay, the commentator, said.
-
There is no situation of which he cannot cope.
-
Think about that. There is no.
-
Situation of which he cannot cope.
-
You put something on my desk, I'll try to handle it.
-
I may and I may not. There's nothing that goes across
-
the desk, if you will, of Jesus Christ, that he's not able to
-
cope with all strength, all honor.
-
The world honors those who are often dishonorable and
-
disreputable. The honor of the world is many
-
times honor among thieves, but yet the honor of God He is
-
worthy. He is truly.
-
Worthy to receive honor where a lot of these people who are
-
honored today are honored because they can act or honored
-
because they can sing or honored because they can play a sport.
-
But no, they're not many times worthy to receive that honor as
-
we find out about their private lives later on.
-
But what do we see? That when it comes to Jesus, it
-
doesn't matter how far deep you go, you'll still come to the
-
same conclusion. He's still worthy to receive
-
honor. You know, they talk about our
-
heroes, quote, UN quote today. And they say don't dig too deep
-
because you don't know what you'll find.
-
You know, it doesn't matter how deep you dig into the
-
unsearchable riches of Christ, you'll come to the same
-
conclusion he's still worthy of honor.
-
There will be no November surprise, if you will, like
-
every presidential candidate has every four years.
-
Well, watch out for the November surprise.
-
We'll find out something about them that will make us not want
-
to vote for this one or that one.
-
There's no surprises when it comes to God.
-
It's all revealed right here. And the deeper we get.
-
Listen you all, we're all eternity.
-
At no point when we say, you know what?
-
He wasn't what I was expecting. There will be no point in all
-
eternity that we will say Christ wasn't what I was expecting.
-
All honor, all glory. There's many times that
-
something's built up in our mind and it disappoints.
-
You know the glory of Plymouth Rock.
-
And then you get there and you realize it's not as glorious as
-
you thought. Yeah.
-
So, yeah, you get there. Yeah, you get there.
-
And it's a Pebble, right? You say, all right, where where
-
do I find the lobsters for 20 bucks?
-
And so. And the answer is nowhere
-
anymore. So.
-
But so there are many things that are glorified in this world
-
and they disappoint. And just like with his honor,
-
there is never a time with his glory that you'll say, you know
-
what, I'm disappointed in who I thought he was.
-
That will never happen. And blessing William Barclay
-
once again says this here is the inevitable climax of it all.
-
All these things Jesus Christ possesses and every one of them
-
he uses. The service of men for whom he
-
lived and died. He does not clutch these to
-
himself, meaning this, these things and the sevenfold praise
-
he bestows upon us as kings and priests.
-
And that leaves us with this thought because we're done here
-
tonight. What's the response of all those
-
who are there to this song, to this spoken word that's given?
-
And it says in verse #13, And every creature which is in
-
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are
-
in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing
-
and honor, and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon
-
the throne, and under the Lamb of God forever, the Lamb forever
-
and ever. And the 4B said, Amen.
-
And the four and 20 elders fell down and worshipped him that
-
liveth forever and ever. What was their response?
-
First their agreement. What do they say?
-
Amen. When you say Amen in church,
-
what does it mean? I agree.
-
I'm with you pastor. I I like what you're saying
-
pastor, because it's the word of God.
-
But they said Amen. Meaning I agree everything that
-
said here he's worthy. I agree Amen.
-
They gave their agreement but they also gave him this, their
-
adoration. They looked into the lamb and
-
they said this he's worthy and they fell down on their face.
-
So I'm 4/4 says this stand in awe.
-
But you know what the next part is?
-
Because we do stand in all of Him, We should stand in all of
-
Him, shouldn't we? That we look at Him and we just
-
stand in all in Him. But that standing in all that
-
adoration and that agreement should, should not just have a
-
stand in all. Psalm 4/4 says that stand in all
-
and sin not. The more we stand in adoration
-
of Him, and the more we look at Him for who He is, the closer it
-
should draw us to Him. The more we ponder the worth of
-
the Lamb, the more we should become like the Lamb.
-
You know, you become like what you watch.
-
You know why there are Christians who sometimes have
-
problem with their mouths? Because they're watching things
-
on television that also have problems with their mouth.
-
Ooh, that just slipped out. No, it didn't.
-
It got programmed in many times. And I know sometimes we can all
-
have the slip of the tongue. I'm not trying to be unkind, but
-
I'm saying is those things are not just put in there on
-
accident. We watch it and we become it.
-
I've watched sometimes teenagers that when I was a youth director
-
that would hang around a certain teenager and before I knew it
-
there was one teenager acting one way and one teenager acting
-
the other way and after. A while They were two teenagers
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acting the same way because they had modeled behavior to one
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another. They'd watched each other for a
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while, and they had become like one another.
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What do we do? Well, you want to walk with God?
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Stand in all Him. You want to grow in your walk
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with Christ? Find out more about Christ.
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And standing on him because when we stand in all of him for his
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worth, you know what it says. We'll sin not because we
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understand his power and his glory and his honor and his
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riches and his wisdom and his strength and his blessing.
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When we just stand in all of that and say you are.
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Worthy of that, all we can do is say, why would I want to sin?
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Why would I want anything else? In fact, I don't even need to be
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told not to do that stuff, because the more I look at him
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and the more I observe him and and the more I dive into the.
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Unestimable riches of his grace. The more I want to be like him
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and the more I want to serve it. Thank you for listening to the
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sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
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If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
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can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
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[email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday
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at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
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May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.