Gooding, David: 6 - Revelation and the Tabernacle

We come now in our studies of the book of the Revelation. We come now in our studies of the book of the Revelation to chapter five, which is the second portion of section two of the book. The chapter that is exceedingly famous and much beloved amongst the people of God, for therein is celebrated the triumph of the Lion of Judah and the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. This, therefore, is understandably a portion of scripture that is frequently read when believers gather to worship the Lord and to celebrate the great victory of his cross. It is a passage that appeals to the hearts of believers in this particular tool, that it celebrates the time when all the redeemed people of God shall be gathered before God in his throne. And the Lamb shall be praised as one who has redeemed us out of every tribe, tongue, kindred, and nation, overcoming all national barriers, though preserving what is lovely and good in all national traits and characteristics, ending all the animosities that have separated men of different nations, tribes, languages, uh, uh, and ethnic groups, and bringing them all to sing harmoniously to the praise of God. It goes without saying that anybody who could take the diverse characteristics of the nations of the earth that have so long been the cause of much strife and to this present vex our world with cruel warfare, it goes without saying that anyone that could take all the characteristics of the nations and redeem them and blend them into one harmonious choir of living and of praise, that man on any count would be a genius. The world waits for him. One day the world shall hear the blessed proclamation, the line of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. But while this is a passage often used, therefore, in the worship of the church, perhaps it is not always realized, as it should be realized, what it is exactly that he is worthy to do, according to the words of chapter four of the re- uh, five of the Revelation. The worthiness that is here proclaimed is the worthiness of the Lamb to take the book, to break the seals, and unroll the scroll. And as we perceive from the following chapter, chapter six, the breaking of the s- seal involves the unleashing of the judgments of God upon an evil world. And that is a contemplation calculated to stop the heart. I repeat what the Lord Jesus is found worthy to do is to break the seal that will unleash the judgments of God. We must ponder long and hard as we think about his worthiness to do that. And therefore, rema- let me remind you of the context of this chapter five, the worthiness of the Lamb. It follows on the pronouncements of chapter four, of course, where we are told that night and day, the living creatures that support the throne of God cry in the ears of the Creator, saying, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty, which was and which is and which is to come. When the living creatures thus give glory and honor and thanks to him that sits on the throne, to him that liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders shall fall down before him that sitteth on the throne, and shall worship him that liveth forever and ever, and shall cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Worthy art thou, our Lord, our Lord and our God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power. For thou didst create all things, and because of thy will they were and were created. Ponder the words of the twenty four elders. Thou art worthy, they say, to receive the glory and the honor and the power. They are, of course, addressing Almighty God, and in one sense, he already has the power. Who can dispute him? Already he has the glory and the honor. And here we think of the context of his great creation gone astray. The creation of intelligent beings that do not yield the power to their almighty creator and are far from giving him the honor and the glory that is his due. One day, the voice of the elders and of the living creatures shall prevail, and God shall rise up to take from this world what this world has so long refused him. Last night we considered at length the nature of the throne of God, that is to say, the nature of his government. What kind of a throne is it that would proceed to deluge the world with judgments that make mortal men gnaw their tongues for pain? And we saw, contrary to popular opinion and and idea, that this throne is not the throne of any tyrant. Here sits a creator who designs to share the government of the world with his creatures. Here sits a creator who does what he likes, but likes to limit his judgment, and has shown his heart by giving his son to die and bear the judgment of his rebellious creatures. But that said, the claims of God to receive the power, the honor, and the glory are beyond contradiction, are they not? Notice they are founded on his creatorial right. He has a right to rule the universe. He has a right that that universe serves his purpose and his pleasure. For the simple basic reason that there wouldn't have been a universe hadn't he created it. This universe is not a mindless assembling of blind forces. Let our modern humanists in the West as well in the East be reminded of it. What a denial of intelligence it has been. What a denial of rationality. And human beings with the highest form of rationality we know of on this planet have used their rationality to deny the very basis of rationality. And in their attempt to escape the Creator and his claims upon them, have invented the notion that our high rationality comes from the blind forces of nature. The blind forces of nature, energy, the weak atomic force, the strong atomic force, electromagnetism, gravity, and anti-gravity, if there be such stuff. These, they say, have made us, all without purpose, not knowing that they made us, poor things. And one day, just as they made us unknowingly and without purpose, will destroy us. Our rationality, intellect, emotions, aesthetic sense, and all that makes us the wonderful creatures that we are. The modern humanist theory that claims it is campaigning in the interests of man, informs us that these blind forces of the universe will one day destroy the universe and humanity with it. And the final irony will be that when they have so destroyed us, they won't even know they've done it. A theory which, as you'll see in the end says human rationality is futile, and life has no ut- uh, ultimate meaning. It will end in dust and ashes. And why do men adopt such an absurd and anti-rational theory. It is, of course, deep down in the creature's heart. There has been sown this desire to rebel against the notion that there is a creator. Because instinct tells us that if there is a creator, then as his creatures, we owe him the allegiance of our hearts. If there is a creator who made us, the only rational way to live is to fulfill the purpose he had in mind when he made us. The twenty four elders constantly hymn the glory of God, and they say, for thy will, because of thy will, they were and were created. Sometimes I say to my friends, I remember one of them in particular, an acquaintance of mine, and we fell to talking about spiritual things, and I mentioned the word sin, and he objected to the same. He thought sin was a silly concept. Thought it's sin. I didn't care about sin. I said, my good young friend, sir, uh, do you think you would be capable of making a motor car? Oh yes, he thought he could, given the tools. I said, if you made a motor car, um, and when you sat behind the driving wheel, five times out of ten it went where you wanted it to go, but five times out of ten it took no notice of your intentions and went where it wanted to go itself. What would you do with it? He said, scrap the thing. Oh, I said, that's interesting. I said, but suppose this motor car that you had made went nine times out of ten where you wanted it to go, and only once when you sat behind the steering wheel, it took no notice of you and went where it wanted to go itself. He said, I'll scrap that too. He said, if I made a motor car, I would want it to go always a hundred percent where I wanted it to go, as I just scrap it. I said, my boy, you better look out that the Almighty doesn't scrap you. For he made us to do his will. And if men persist in going their own way, there will be nothing for it. God will have to put them on the scrap heap of eternity. The judgments of God must come. Now the appalling question is raised. Who is worthy to take the book and open the seals that deludes the world with judgment and remove the ungodly and make way for God's redevelopment of the universe? Note the question is not simply who is able. Any fool, I nearly said, could press the button, couldn't he, and start a successive chain of atomic reactions that would blast our planet, planet out of recognition. Any fool could do it. A question of who is able to do it merely. But who is worthy to do it? Oh, my saintly brother, my saintly sister, if God asks you to rise up and execute his judgments on the world, how could you do it? Well, we are sinners. Who is worthy to do it. When the challenge went out and John heard it, he tells us that no man in heaven or earth was found able to take the book, able to look on it, let alone open its seals. There was a scroll written with the purposes of God, with the judgments that must follow upon the breaking of God's will. How could you face it, even to look at it and bear to read its contents. John wept much, he says, and he doesn't mind us knowing, manly man though he was. He wept much when he heard that there was no one able or worthy to take the book, face its contents, open the seal. And any intelligent human being would weep, wouldn't they? For if no one is found worthy to take this scroll and open the seals and set loose the judgments, then the vast tangle of human iniquity must proceed forever. As late as the end of the last century, men were imagining that by the progress of science, the world's problems will be solved. The twentieth century was an era of tremendous optimism, and the dawn of this one raised the hope that through the United Nations, world peace would be brought. And those brave hopes have been blasted. In our own century, multi-millions of people in Europe have been massacred and still are being, let alone the killing fields of Cambodia and the troubles that fill the world. And it's not only political troubles that are our difficulty. It is economic problems, is it not? We've reached the absurdities of the West with their butter mountains and wine lakes that can't be given away, though millions starve to death in other countries, and can't be given away because it would, um, upset the whole economic balance of Europe and elsewhere and plunge everything into economic chaos. The world comes more and more to resemble ancient Egypt, as describes in the book, as described in the book of Genesis. God first planted man in a garden, you know, and the economics are fairly simple. By the time you got to the end of Genesis, uh, things are not quite so simple economically. You have a vast empire called Egypt, with all the little satellite countries around dependent upon her. And then there came the famine. And Egypt would have perished economically, with all the nations dependent on her, had it not been for the God-given Joseph from Israel. And he solved their economic problem. And the world looks not only for a political solver of difficulties, somebody that can grasp the economic problems of a developed world and solve them to the benefit of mankind and to the glory of God. But even economic difficulties are not solved so easily, are they? Master Marx thought he had the solution. And the solution was to get rid of God. He was so sure he had the solution that he and his followers were prepared to ma- massacre millions to put the theory into effect. And we have been left to ponder the vast tragedy of millions massacred for an economic theory that now has been proved nonsense. You'd weep, wouldn't you? You'd weep for the mothers and the children, for the men and the women. Oh, have a heart for humanity. Know your own heart that contributes to the problem with its selfishness. It's going astray from God. Is there no solution? Shall none be found? Must it go on forever? And John wept when there was none found able or worthy to take the book. One of the angels and the, or the elders came and said, weep not. Weep not, John. The lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. Being turned, says John, I saw a lamb. We celebrate this morning, my brothers, my sisters, first of all, the triumph of the lion. The lion, note the verb, please. Note what the lion has done. The lion has prevailed. He has overcome. And here we meet again that word that is so basic to the thought flow of the book of the Revelation, the word to overcome. The lion has overcome. And we celebrate his victory this morning. Then we are to celebrate the wonder of this, that the Lamb... It doesn't say here he is overcome. It says he has been slain. In normal parlance, those two things are the opposite, aren't they? If you overcome, you survive. If you are slain, you don't overcome. You appear to be defeated. Now we celebrate this glorious thing, the overcoming of the lamb, the sla- the overcoming of the lion, the slaying of the lamb. These two things are the key to the bringing back of God's universe to serve his will. The overcoming of the lion, then, the lion of the tribe of Judah, and the figure of speech is a very natural one, and particularly frequent in Hebrew writings and other writings, where the lion is used as a figure of a king. The lion of the tribe of Judah takes our minds back, of course, right to the book of Genesis in chapter forty nine, where Jacob on his deathbed foresaw the fact that, uh, Judah amongst his sons was a lion's cub, a lion's whelp, and the scepter would not depart from Judah until Shiloh would come. And ever since Israel and the world unknowingly has been looking for the coming of the lion. All the li- world has known some lions, hasn't it? Ooh. Some of them have looked glorious. There was that old lion that Daniel saw in his vision and recorded it in, um, in, uh, chapter seven. He was a funny looking lion. He had wings on his back like an eagle, we'll say. But, uh, eventually he was humanized somewhat, and his wings were clipped, and he was made to stand up on his hind legs like a man, you'll see, and a man's heart was given him. That has been an observable process amongst the nations from time to time, hasn't it? That the lions of this world, some of them have been tamed a bit. Hmm. They descend to being presidents and, uh, things instead of monarchs and all that. And they become more humanitarian in their treatment of their subjects, and so and so forth. Lion. There were some pretty ferocious lions stalking the earth in the days of the New Testament. Paul, writing to his fellow believers, said that God in his mercy delivered me from the mouth of the lion. He was talking of a pretty insane lion. His name was Nero Caesar. Israel herself knew lions. And in Ezekiel chapter nineteen, Ezekiel, uh, rehearses the fact that, uh, Jerusalem had produced some lions. There was a lioness, her name was Jerusalem, of course, and she brought up a young lion, one of the kings of Judah, and he went out on the mountains and he roared, and at first the nations were afraid of him, but in the end they put their hooks in him and brought him down to Egypt. So she got another cub of hers, and she brought him to be up a great hunting lion, and the nations were afraid of his roar, but they spread their nets, and they took him in their pit. This lion of the tribe of Judah. It is said of him that he has overcome. What has he overcome? What is this battle that he has won, so that now he is worthy to loose the book, to loose the seals of the book? Do you suppose it means that there were a whole lot of candidates lining up to take the book out of the hand of him that sat upon the throne, and they all got fighting among themselves, who should be the chief lion around here? And he had the stronger bite, so he bit them and he clawed them and he beat them, and he's triumphed. He's come out number one president of the whole world, you'll see. He's the lion that has overcome. Not as far as I can see from the reading of this book, there don't seem any other candidates. There was a mighty great pause when the challenge went out, who is worthy to take the book. There were no other candidates in sight. It's not that he has overcome the other candidates, is it? In what sense is he overcome? Perhaps we better consult him himself. When in almost his last words bef- to his disciples before he left the upper room, he said, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. A few days earlier, standing on the streets of Jerusalem, he had spoke similarly, had he not? Said he, the prince of this world cometh. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to me, for the prince of this world comes. He has nothing in me. He had overcome the great and false prince of this world. You know, the world, the creation of God, beautiful as it has always been, has in some sense been a dangerous place. I wonder if you found it so. And perhaps the most dangerous thing about the lovely creation that God has made is not the ugly things. Who would want to keep a tame crocodile? It's been the beautiful things of this world, isn't it, that have proved the most dangerous. God made a lovely world, and in that new formed world, says the book of Genesis, he planted a garden, which shows, incidentally, that the rest of the world wasn't a garden. In that garden, God put Adam and Eve, his first creatures, with their commission to subdue the earth and make something of it. What a lovely task that was, wasn't it? Fancy being there before anybody had messed the place up. And you've got the rights to develop the whole earth. Oh, I see the, the, the itch in the feet of the businessmen, what they would have made of it if they'd had a chance. Says the historian, see those rivers going down there? You follow that one in particular. There's gold down there, and if Adam had been a businessman, he wouldn't have stayed long in the garden, would he? Not with daffodils and things, when he could have gone down that river to develop the gold, you see, and the silver and the copper, and make something of this glorious work. That's why it says, God, get on with it, you see. This is what you could do with earth if you had a mind to. See what I've done, you see. Look at this garden. Isn't it superb? Now, Adam, get on with it, my boy, you see. Made in my image to be my viceroy, to develop the world and make something of it. Marvelous, isn't it? Ooh, I wish I had three or four lives, you'll see. I've been a classicist in my, classicist in my life, then I'd like another one to be a physicist, you'll see, and perhaps then a chemist, though it smells a lot. And uh, uh, you'll see, to learn about this fascinating universe, even the tiniest atom's got enough in it, hasn't it, to last you a whole lifetime and more to discover its secrets. What a marvelous place it could be. And if only men had sense in their heads what fun it would be instead of fighting each other and spending the greater part, a great part of our national, general national product on producing armaments to kill people, if we knocked our heads together in a peaceable fashion and sort of tamed the Sahara, for instance, and made the earth blossom as a rose. Why can't we do it? Ah, hear the story of it all. Into that lovely garden, one bright morning, came his satanic majesty. Using the form and voice of a snake, a serpent, he accosted Eve. He said, my dear, you know, I'm rather sorry for you. I hear you mustn't eat of any of the trees in this garden. Oh no, you've got it wrong there, she said. We we we are allowed to eat of all the trees of the garden, except one. Yes, said Satan, with his sarcasm. Mm. Uh, that's typically God, you know. That's how he is, God. He loves tantalizing people. He does really. He makes a beautiful tree, lovely fruit on it, puts it right in front of your eyes and near your mouth, and just as you're going to get it, he says, no, you can't have that. That's God, you see. Mm. Go on, woman, he says, eat the thing. Eat it, woman. No, no, said he, we we mustn't eat it, for for God has said, you'll see, in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Oh, nonsense, my woman, he said. That's old-fashioned stuff, that is. None of us around here believes that kind of thing anymore. Die? Of course you won't die. Woman, look at the tree. And she, oh, she looked at it. Cool, it was good to look at, and the fruit was good to eat, and it was desirable to make you wise. That she could see. Good to look at. That's aesthetic satisfaction, isn't it? And good to eat. That's physical satisfaction. Desirable to make you wise. That is intellectual satisfaction. My dear, said Satan, that is life. That is life. That is the sum total of life. Intellectual satisfaction, aesthetic satisfaction, physical satisfaction, and as long as you have that, you don't need anything else. Word of God, oh my hat, that's for Sunday school children. You don't need the word of God. Take the fruit of this tree and you'll have what is life itself. Independent of God. Spinning his lie, he deceived our first parents into this utterly false attitude to the creation around us, that we can enjoy it and enjoy life to the full, by taking life's beautiful things without and in independence of God. Thereafter, earth has brought forth its th- thorns and its thistles. And making a go of it a successful thing has forever since been tempered and frustrated with thorn and thistle, pain and anguish, and hard Labor. labor. I needn't remind you that here we put our finger on one of the basic needs of the world still. You'll see Satan didn't use the ugly things of this world, at the moment there were none, with which to draw men's hearts away from God. He used the lovely thing, the beautiful thing. And so it is still. I tell you now, there will be more men in, men and women in hell forever, brought there not by the ugly things of life, but by the beautiful things, because they determined to enjoy the beautiful things without God. And Satan has used those beautiful things, lovely gifts of the Creator, to draw man's heart away from their personal Lord. And it would be a sorry story and abysmal situation for us to be in this morning, could we not now turn and celebrate the victory of the lion of the tribe of Judah, who has overcome the world. For we are told that soon after his baptism, the Spirit of God led him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil forty days and forty nights. And the tempter came to him when now he had fasted forty days and forty nights and was a hungered. Real man though he wa- uh, uh, because he was, hunger was a very, very real suffering and pain. And the tempter came to him and said, if thou be the Son of God, make these stones bread. It was a devilishly clever temptation, wasn't it? The devil has never used that one with me. The devil came to me and said, uh, make these stones bread, my boy, I'd say, don't talk nonsense. I- I've never been tempted to make stones into bread, actually. Don't know about you. I can't, it's no temptation to me, making stones bread. But he wasn't just a mere man, was he? And he had the power to make the stones bread. And the more power you have, the more the temptation is. Oh, how little things we've had, haven't we? And they prove too much for us to hold, and they've dragged our hearts away from the Lord, and our zeal has declined. Power is a very difficult thing to hold. But let me now advertise in your ears him of whom it will be said he is worthy to receive all the power. Why is he worthy to receive all the power? Because he can handle the power. The great lion of the tribe of Judah in the desert, when the prince of this world sought to take him to in his net and bring him down to the very pit, overcame. Overcame. Yes, he had the power to make the stones into bread. But then... who said he should? And for what purpose would he do it? You will say he's got every right to do it and every reason to do it, and he's hungry, and if you feel hungry and you can satisfy it and make yourself feel good, isn't that the basic principle upon which the universe works? If it feels good, do it. I've got an appetite, I've a right to have the appetite fulfilled. Ah, but my good friend, the universe doesn't work on that principle. The universe was not created to satisfy my hunger. It was created to do the will of God. That blessed Lord said on another occasion, I have a food to eat that you know nothing of, for my food is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work. And if God should call upon him to go hungry in the doing of his will, oh, blessed son of God though he was, he would go hungry. My brothers and sisters, we need to come back and see the lion overcome, because sometimes it seems to me that in our modern generation we are being endangered by our being taken in the net of the enemy. It is not only the worldly man that makes pleasure his supreme principle, but even in our spiritual exercises, in our church program, we are in sore danger these days, in the West at least, of following the world and making our own pleasure, our own enjoyment, our hedonism. The thing that is the main principle. If I enjoy the meetings of the church, I come. If I don't enjoy them, I don't come. If I enjoy the work of the Lord, I do it. If I don't enjoy it, I don't do it. Sometimes we preachers are the most guilty of the lot when we get down on our knees and we represent the living God as though he were a salesman of a few pills that make people feel good. You're feeling blue? You're feeling down in the dumps? Well, Jesus could help you. Oh. Oh, you're not, you're not feeling bad. You're enjoying yourself. Oh well, ah, pity. I thought I could sell you some Jesus pills. And in making our own satisfaction and pleasure the basic principle, we are perpetuating the strategy of his satanic majesty. Man, if he is to be saved, must learn to go hungry, if so it is his creator's will. And the blessed Lord overcame. Lion of the tribe of Judah. Heir to the whole universe, all the marvel of it, with the right to command every angel that flies, with the right to enjoy every mineral and flower that was ever created, went hungry because at that moment it was his Father's will. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Then the devil, he's a past master at it. Have you not found him so? He couldn't attack at the one point, he'd attack at the opposite point. And he came again, and he said, you are a remarkable young man. I mean, your dependence on God, you know, he said, is is is is wonderful to behold. You're prepared to trust God even when you're hungry, you know. Glorious, marvelous. He said, young man, that's the way. Now I, I got a suggestion to make, you see. Look, come with me. And he took him up the temple and set him on the pinnacle. And he said, now you're a young man of faith, aren't you? And you trust God. Now take a step of faith. Step out in faith. And you see, I mean, the Bible says, doesn't it, if we step out in faith, he'll give his angels charge concerning us that they bear us up on their hands so that we don't dash our foot against the center. Young man, he says, demonstrate to the whole world that you are a young man of faith and you trust God. Step off the temple. You say, that's marvelous. I mean, what's wrong with that? We, I mean, we all have to step out in faith, don't we? Yes, we do. But faith in what? Who said he was to step off the temple? Whose idea was that? Faith isn't just I want to do something and I feel strong about it, so I shall do it. Faith has to be, if it's genuine faith, a faith that responds to God's word. Just imagine if he'd stepped off the temple full of people. That would have been dramatic, wouldn't it? And the people would all have left off worshiping God and come to look at this new wonder. And instead of administering, administering to the praise of God, it would have drawn the people's attention to him. Faith doesn't mean that I propose the program and God has to back me up with his resources. God isn't in that business. It is God's universe, it is God's plan, it is God's work. If he tells me to do something, he will back me up with his resources. But he's God, and I'm his servant, and I must wait his bidding. And the lion of the tribe of Judah prevailed. And then there came the third test, didn't there? As this tempter came to him and showed him all the glories of the world and its kingdoms and said, all these will I give you, for they've been given to me. All these will I give you, if you bow down and worship me. There, you will observe, speaks of someone who can't forget he's a creature. He said, I'll give all these kingdoms to you, for they have been given to me. In the wisdom and inscrutability of God's divine plan, yes, Satan has been given and allowed to gain power. Said he to the Lord Jesus, I'll give it all to you if you'll bow down and worship me. But we should understand what he meant by worship. He didn't mean worship in the particular religious sense of, uh, uh, sitting around Satan and singing some hallelujahs and praises to Satan. He didn't mean that kind of worship. The Hebrew word and the Greek word for worship very often simply mean to bow down before and recognize the one before whom you bow down as the supreme authority. Look, said Satan, let's do a deal. You know, young man, you're full of ideals, aren't you? You want to convert the, the, the world to God? That's a beautiful ideal. Yes, yes, uh, yeah, I would. But you know, young man, you'll learn by experience, you'll see. Um, it's no good hitting your head against a stone, you'll see. And uh, when it comes to the world, the kingdoms of the world, it so happens that I am the uh, ultimate authority, you'll see. It's no good thinking you're going to beat me. You'll have a rough time if you do. I've got a few crucif- cro- crosses up the road. Uh, but we could do a deal, couldn't we? If you would just moderate your language a bit, you see, when you're preaching, and uh, uh, just acknowledge, you see, that I am the ultimate power, and there are certain things in this world you'll never change, like sin, for instance. Um, then you can have the lot. And that's a temptation that not even the Church of God has always been able to resist. And he is compromised with evil. And we are yet to read in the book of the Revelation of horrible compromises with evil on the part of those who profess even the name of Christ. The lion of the tribe of Judah overcame, saying, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. You can buy success in this world at too high a price, you know. The only true success there is, is in serving the will of God. All praise God for the lion of the tribe of Judah. He has prevailed. He not only overcame Satan, but in that sense he overcame the world. Listen to him through his apostle John subsequently exhorting the rest of us who follow him. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. The lust of the flesh and the lust of the eye and the pride of life, these are not of the Father. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And you say, does that mean I- I- I- I- as a Christian, I- I... I mustn't enjoy the world? I mean, can't mustn't, is it, is it wrong for a Christian to enjoy the scent of roses and, uh... the beauty of flowers... and the lovely taste of food... and marriage and all those lovely things. No, it doesn't mean that, does it? John is talking about the world set against God, the world that Satan has engineered by taking its beautiful things and drawing men's heart away from the Father. And if we go about trying to enjoy the lovely things of the world and they draw our hearts away from the Father, instead of bringing our hearts to the Father. Then the lovely things become a curse. Oh, God has given us all things richly to enjoy, says Holy Scripture. We are to enjoy them. Let us see to it that the joy of the lovely thing brings our hearts nearer the Father, instead of taking them away. You will not need to be told, my brothers and sisters who come from the East, about our failings in the West. You know them, I'm sure. Some fifty years ago, in my boyhood, there was much unemployment, much pain, much hunger, even in England. In those days, believers often found it easy to wait on God. Hadn't got anything else to do. Then after the war came our great prosperity. And God in his mercy gave us beautiful things. And some of us had cars that we never had before, do you see? Now, if you've got a car, you've got to use it, haven't you? Huh? And if you're all day long at work and it comes the night of a prayer meeting, huh? And that's the only night you have free. Well, what would you do? There's nothing wrong in driving a car, is there? Going out in the country. Of course there isn't anything wrong. Very necessary sometimes. But without our noticing often, the lovely things drew our hearts away from the Father. And you'll find a hundred people in the church on Sunday and about ten at the prayer meeting on Monday. You know, if we carried on like that, it would be dangerous to take us to heaven, wouldn't it? If a little old mini Austin would keep you from the prayer meeting on earth, what on earth would happen if God gave you a, a whole galaxy to look after when you get home to eternity core? I hope he will, in- incidentally. I hope I'm not all the time singing hymns around the throne. With due respect, I- I- I'd like some time off to go and uh, investigate the universe and see how it works, wouldn't you? And be given ten cities or something to look after. But if a mini down here would keep me from the prayer meeting, what on earth would happen to me if I had a whole galaxy to look after up in heaven? I might never attend the choirs of heaven at all. Oh, that would be disastrous, wouldn't it? I got to learn in this temporary world to enjoy the lovely things that God gives. Ah, but to guard my heart, lest I come so to love them that there's no time nor energy left to love the Father. I have overcome the world, says Christ. And he's worthy, my brethren. He has demonstrated his worth. And one day, because he knows how to handle it, the whole universe, Earth included, its riches, its economics, and all else shall be put into his hand. And he would have a right to enjoy it, wouldn't he? But if that were his right to enjoy it, how many of us would share the enjoyment? We don't have the right, do we? And said John, I s- I turned to see this lion of the tribe of Judah, and I saw the lamb as it had been slain. Who is worthy to take the book, to loose the seals, and send forth the judgments? He is worthy because he is the lion whom himself never yielded to temptation. It's a right to have it, isn't it? Ah, but he is worthy to take the book and to loose the seals and set loose the judgments, because he was slain. And here you notice the choirs of heaven take a new note. It's deeper, perhaps, and it's new. They sing a new song. Thou art worthy to take the book, to loose the seals thereof, for thou wast slain. It's an ugly word i- i- in Greek. They don't say thou wast sacrificed. No, this is just the crude, plain word slain. And it reminds us that when he came to Calvary, how this sinful, selfish world filled with envy, as Pilate himself said, took him and tore him and murdered him. They'll have no ground for complaint, will they, when he in turn sets loose the judgments of God. But more than that, he was slain and has redeemed us to God by his blood, out of every tribe, tongue, kindred, and nation. He has brought us back. He has redeemed us. And here is a story once more verging on the incredible, isn't it? Why ever should God bother with this little planet? You, sir, if you were walking one night along the road and some irreverent mosquito alighted on your royal brow and had the audacity and impertinence to sting you with its venom, venom, what would you do? Why, you wouldn't think twice. You'd slap it into oblivion. What you do with midgets that irritate you. Why, tell me why, when God made this world and put man in it to serve him, and man disobeyed and went over to the enemy, why didn't God dissolve the whole show? Wasn't hard up for galaxies, was he? Why didn't he blast it into nothingness and start again? One of the answers must be this, that had he used his power simply to destroy mankind, and with mankind destroy the devil himself, with his last gasp of breath, his satanic majesty would have said, you've lost, God. God, you've lost. You are almighty. You can destroy everything if you want to. We never did dispute that, but you've lost the game, God. You made a world of men and women, but you couldn't keep them. You couldn't attract them. And I won. I took your own good things and I used them, God, and I beat you at the job. And I won their hearts, and you can't get them back, can you? And all you can do is to use the big stick of your almighty power and destroy the lot. And that's defeat, God. God wasn't for being defeated. Before the Lamb opens the seals that shall deluge this world with blood. Before eventually he destroys heaven and earth and substitutes a new heaven and earth, God is going to win the battle against Satan and redeem man, men and women out of every tribe, tongue, kindred, and nation. God's going to win! And win their hearts back again. And that's the worthiness of Christ to destroy the old and bring in the new. For he has won, brought men and women back to God, not all of them I know, but out of every tribe and nation. And how would he do it? How could God win this way round? You say by using his power, of course. Lion, you know, isn't he a lion? Let him come to mankind in their rebellion and let him start roaring. That'll bring them back. They'll be so scared they won't be able to do anything else. The roar of a lion never won anybody's heart and love, did it? For now, the question is not a question of power. Power cannot command love. And the whole issue at stake is, would they love God? Would they love the world? Would they love the lovely things that God had created more than they love God himself? It was a battle for their hearts. And how should God win it? What kind of power would overcome the human heart and bring it back from its rebellion, genuinely to love God? Now look at this lamb, it's been slain. You say that's, that's not overcoming, that's a, that's a defeat. He has been slain, but, but pray, pray notice, this lamb has got seven horns. You never saw such a lamb before, did you? It's got seven horns, and horns in biblical language stand for power. This is the power of the cross. For the weakness of God is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men. And how would God win your heart back, or mine either, or the hearts of men and women? You say, give them, I know what bribe them. Ah, have they got a motor car? Well, what, we'll give them, we'll give them a, a Cadillac then, or a Rolls-Royce. We'll give them an airplane. Well, they've got all those things. Dear me, what can I do now? Well, give them a galaxy, that'll win them. Uh, uh, what has Satan given them? Ooh, he's given them the world. Ooh, well, I better give them two worlds then. That is how some parents treat small, uh, spoiled children and lose their love forever. And God knew better. It was those very things that took us away from him. How will he get us back? He will show us not his creation, but his heart and himself. And the Lamb of God died at Calvary. For all we like sheep had gone astray, we turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's what God is like. And words fail, but you know it in your heart, don't you? For if I were to come to each one of you this morning and say, what is it that has bowed your heart in willing obedience to Christ? And what is it that makes you suffer and toil and endure privation and sometimes go hungry, and you do it and you don't need to do it? If you compromised with the world's system, you needn't go hungry. You know that, don't you? What makes you love and serve this Jesus Christ and on times go hungry for it? And you say, but you see, it's this power, it's the power of the Lamb crucified for me. And if that's what God is like, then I find it impossible to resist him, and I must follow him forever. The lion has prevailed, the lamb has been slain, but not merely to rescue us from our trouble. That could never be the final answer, could it? The world gone astray to serve its own pleasures and desires, instead of serving the will of God, and got themselves in trouble and worthy of the judgments of God, and the Lamb of God comes and he bears the judgments and sets us free to... carry on serving our own loves and our pleasures. But that would but perpetuate the trouble, wouldn't it? There's no solution to us, uh, uh, needs. The worthiness of the Lamb is this, that he not only redeemed us to God by his blood, but he's made us. He has made us a kingdom. That is the true reading of the Greek at that po- point. He has made us a kingdom, that is a company of people who willingly obey God. He's changed us from rebels into obedient servants, and made us a kingdom of priests, if you please, that we serve God, and we serve others. And at that point, one would begin to tremble a little, wouldn't you? If it were advertised to the world that Christ is worthy to set loose the judgments, and the world inquired why, and you say because he's redeemed sinners at the cost of his life, well, perhaps the world would approve. I'll have to anyway. But if we were advertised to the world that Christ is worthy to rule, to set loose the judgments and take over the government. Because, says God, look at this, this fellow here, take him just as one example, I mean this Gooding here. Uh, my son has made him part of my kingdom, you know. He's somebody that obeys me. Oh yes, says my neighbor. I hadn't noticed it myself. Is that so? Yes, and he's made him a priest, you know. He's a, he's one of these people that lives for God and lives for, for others. Oh, how interesting. We never heard of that before. What, you mean him? Is it so that the worthiness of Christ to take over the government in the coming day is what he's done with you and me, my brethren? To make us obedient subjects of God's kingdom and to turn us into priests that not only worship God and offer spiritual sacrifices, but show forth to the world the excellences of him that has called us. Then, if that be so, oh God, help me. God grant that by his grace, who who he who triumphed at the cross may continue his good work in me and perfect his work, so that one day, when the blessed Lord Jesus comes again, he may come to be wondered at and admired in his saints, as the universe is called upon to see what Christ has made of his people. And with that, of course, we're told that the heavenly choirs sing their praises. The living creatures and the elders round about the throne say with a great voice, along with the uncountable multitude, worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to receive the power and the riches and the wisdom and the might and the honor and glory and blessing. Then John heard a remarkable thing. He heard every created thing which is in the heaven and on the earth, and if you please, under the earth. And on the sea and all things that are in them, heard I saying, unto him that sits on the throne and unto the Lamb, be the blessing and the honor and the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Amen. It is not to be surprised at that they in heaven and on earth should acknowledge it. Did you hear those other voices from the very abyss itself? And his satanic majesty among them, everything. Alas, the doctrine of universalism isn't true. Not all are going to be saved. Satan and some others, this very book tells us, will be cast into the lake of fire that is eternal. But everyone in heaven, earth, and under the earth will in the end have to admit that God's throne has won, and the Lamb is worthy. You see, the battle is a moral one and a spiritual one, not who has the greatest power physically, but who is the greatest moral and spiritual power in the universe. In Isaiah the prophet, God says, as I live, says the Lord, to me shall every knee bow and every tongue confess. And when you first hear it, it perhaps might just seem to be the words of some omnipotent big dictator. But see how the New Testament tells us that that pronouncement of God is to be fulfilled. As I live, saith the Lord, to me shall every knee bow and every tongue confess. Yes, it shall happen, but when it happens, this is the statement of it, of him who, being in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped that to be equal with God, but poured himself out and was found in fashion as a servant. Being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross. Wherefore God has highly exalted him and given him the name which is above every name, that in the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue. Sometimes in my devotions, I tell God the Father, and I hope it is not an impertinence on my part, I think he's glad to hear it, and I tell him, oh God, I bow my knee, and I confess your power and your glory, and I must tell you why I do it. I don't do it because you are the Almighty, simply, pardon me, but I do it because of what Jesus Christ has shown me that you are. And in the name of Jesus, I bow my knee to God. A few things keep us now for just a few moments. We have spent long time, as is proper, on chapters four, the worthiness of God, and chapters five, the worthiness of the Lamb. In chapter six, the Lamb proceeds to open the book. He looses the seals, and when he does so, there proceed a number of exceedingly unpleasant things upon earth. There comes a horse and his rider coming forth, conquering and to conquer. Then there another horse came through, and he was a red horse. You'll see, and to him that sat thereon, it was given to take peace from the earth, and that they should slay one another. And there was given unto them a great s- unto him a great sword. And when the third, uh, seal was opened, I heard the third living creature saying, come, and I saw, and behold, a black horse, and he that sat thereon, and he had, uh, a balance in his hand. And I heard, as it were, a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a measure of barley for three measures of bar- a measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny, and the oil and the wine hurt thou not. And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, come, and I saw and behold a pale horse and he that sat upon him, and his name was Death, and Hades followed with him. And there was given unto hi- uh, him authority over the fourth part of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with death and by the wild beasts of the earth. And the critical will say, well, so what? That's nothing new. Been going on for centuries, hasn't it? Little dictators and bigger ones too, getting on their high horses and going forth to conquer with that power lust in their hearts. Or the Assyrians in their day, or Napoleon in his, making all the excuses he could find, but in the heart it was his just his war games, his lust for power, going forth conquering and to conquer. And as a result, of course, it has followed, um, war, and peace has been banished from the earth. And as a result of the war, there has followed, uh, shortages of food and famine. And with shortages of food and famine and rotting bodies on the face of the earth have come disease and death and plague. You say that's nothing new, is it? Well, in a sense, it's nothing new. Only you are to know that down the centuries, God in his mercy and still does, he restrains. And if God didn't, by his spirit, restrain the wickedness of the human heart, this world would have long since perished under its own iniquity. There's coming a day when he that restraineth will no longer restrain, and that two Thessalonians, Th- Thessalonians says quite clearly. The mystery of iniquity that doth already work shall be set loose. And the world will see that what happens when God the Creator removes his restraints and lets man's selfishness go to its own extreme. That's been the trouble, isn't it? We've turned everyone to his own way. Very good, says God. If you have your own way, if you will not be won by my love to return to my obedience and to serving me, then have your own way. The Lamb undoes the seals of the book, and as he does so, evil is unrestrained. God will yet demonstrate to mankind what the fruit of his sin is, before he closes down the whole show and institutes the kingdom of Christ. And man's foolishness and enmity and selfishness will result in a great stream of martyrs. And God asks them, verses nine to eleven, to be patient while God's plans are perfected, and one day he will reward them. That's a very solemn thing. And in the Epistle to the Romans, Paul tells us of the judgments of God. Because men would not retain the knowledge of God, God himself gave them over to a reprobate mind to do all kinds of evil and revolting things, and to dishonor their very bodies, and to defile their bodies. You say that's a very sinful thing to do, that they should, uh, have such an outlook on life that does those things. Surely God will judge them for it. Wait a minute, my brother. That is the judgment of God. He is judging them for it. They wouldn't have God. God's judgment was he gave them over to a corrupt mind, and that's why they do the things, because their mind is corrupt. God gave them over to it. When I was a boy at school, I used to be punished now and again for my sins and misdemeanors and had to write out lines, as we called them, improving moral sentences, you'll see. We had to write them out many times till they penetrated our thick skulls. And the one I was asked to write was this: Experience is a hard school, but fools will learn in no other. God's judgments are that to begin with. If they will not have God, then let them learn that the human intelligence and moral judgment is not an independent product of man's wisdom. Man's moral judgment comes from God. If man will refuse the God who gave it, then his moral judgment will go corrupt and perverse, and will in the end destroy him. Now these judgments lead up to the great climax when heaven departs, and men discover to their horror that there is a throne in heaven, and that throne is occupied. They call on the rocks to cover them, but not in all creation is there anything of nature that can hide God's creatures from God. The chapter seven that concludes this part of the revelation is a much debated chapter, particularly by the systematic theologians. And they should certainly, and most certainly, be allowed the last say as to what this chapter is about, and who are the companies that are there represented. As I said the other night, my task this week is not that of a systematic theologian. I content myself, therefore, in the last two minutes of our lecture, with commenting upon these two groups as they serve to exhibit two of the principles of God's salvation. The hundred and forty four thousand sealed on their foreheads that no blast of wind or storm shall harm. We must read it in its context. It doesn't mean that no believer will ever perish through flood. It doesn't mean that no believer will ever perish through disease, diseases indeed that have been spread abroad in the world by man's own sinfulness. We are part of the world community. We get affected by its famines and its floods. It depends, however, how you interpret the thing, doesn't it? For a believer, no drop of the wrath of God will ever fall on him. Nothing that befalls a believer is rightly interpreted as the wrath of God. We are sealed, be we people of this age or decades yet to come, be we Jew, be we Gentile, here is a principle of salvation in this age common to all, sealed by the Holy Spirit of God until the day of the redemption of God's purchased possession. Sealed and then saved. Take an extreme case, the great tribulation, they that come out of it triumphantly with the palms in their hands, and they cry salvation to him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb. And, uh, the elder explains what has been their experience. They have washed their robes, he said, that is in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God. See salvation now in its finality. We have been occupied with the throne of God. Now we come full circle, the results of redemption, see it exemplified in this particular group. Therefore they are before the throne of God. Perhaps last night you grew a little bit tired with my constant emphasis on the prepositions of the Bible, but at least, uh, receive this one with joy and gladness. To be before the throne of God. What unspeakable wonder is it that I, a little creature of the dust, 6 feet of clay, and a sinner in addition, and a rebel against the throne of God, by what divine wonder and magic has he redeemed me and purged me of my sin, that I can stand not in some obscure corner of his universe where God could perhaps conveniently overlook me. I stand before, and in the full blaze of the glory of the throne of my maker. And what else does salvation secure? They serve him day and night in his temple. And you read it with gladness, don't you, my brother? You wish it were so now. But the present constraints of our limited creation and our own failings and feebleness mean that our service to God is intermittent and desultory. There's coming a day when we not only stand before the throne, but serve him ceaselessly, day and night, in his temple. And God shall respond to it. He shall take his tabernacle, his tent, and spread it over them, so that no sun shall smite them, neither storm nor tempest, and creation shall no longer hurt the redeemed of God. We said it on our first evening, we must say it again. Creation has hurt many of us, hasn't it? It's no good pretending with over pious sentiments. This is a lovely world, but creation hurts people. It hurts Christians still. Broken sorrow of parents whose child is handicapped. The life who can has the intelligence to see what life could be without some inhibiting weakness or disease. Flood, avalanche, and earthquake. Creation hurts us. But it is a disorder. But there's coming a day when he who sits upon the throne will spread his tabernacle over us, and creation will never hurt us again. And the greatest dreams and the most wonderful visions of what could be as a creator, as a creature of God, shall be fulfilled. And the Lamb shall lead them to life's fountains of waters. And here begins eternity in our vision. Later on, we must come back to this wicked earth. But the drama of the narrative has taken us on to the great eternity, where there shall be no more sorrow nor tears, for the former things are passed away. So now, as we close briefly in prayer, may God's word and spirit abide in our hearts, and these things sinking down into our hearts and our imaginations will fill us, as Peter says, with joy unspeakable, already tinged with the coming glory of God. Shall we pray? So, Lord, bless us as we have tried here this morning to read and to understand thy word. We thank thee for it, and we make now each one our response to thee in his and her heart. And we cry worthy is him, he who sits upon the throne. Worthy is the Lamb. Help us to serve thee, as one day we shall, day and night in thy temple, for thy name's sake. Amen. We just stand up and sing the last dance with us.