Revelation 5 - The Lamb

… Let us turn to the fifth chapter of Revelation. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne of books, written within and on the back side, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the books and to loose the seals thereof. And no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the books, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the books, neither to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, Weep not. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the books, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and though in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, or living creatures, it really should read, and in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne. And when he had taken the books, the four living creatures, and four and twenty elders, fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the books, and to open the seals thereof. For thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God, kings, and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the living creatures, and the elders, and the number of them, with ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 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 say, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. And the four, the four living creatures said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down, and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever. I read this whole chapter because tonight I want to speak about the Lamb. Now when we look into the book of Revelation, we find that the Lamb is mentioned 28 times. And the book of Revelation gives us the final triumph of the Lamb. And we have four definite references, or the word is used four distinct times in this chapter. We have the Lamb as it had been slain, seen in verse six. We have him mentioned again in verse eight, in verse twelve, and also in verse thirteen. We have the Lamb mentioned. And as I said, we have the word Lamb 28 times in the book. But we have him referred to many other times also by the pronouns. For instance, in the next chapter, we have him mentioned in the first verse, and then it says in verse three, and when he had opened the second seal. In verse five, when he had opened the third seal, it's the Lamb. So even the pronouns are referring to that same one. And to me it's been a very interesting thing to trace out, right through the book, the references to the Lamb, and to see the full implication of all this. I'm not a Greek scholar, but I'm looking up the references and the concordance to the words. We find that the word Lamb in Revelation is a different word to the one that is used elsewhere in the New Testament. For instance, when John the Baptist says, Behold the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world, that is a different word to the one that's used here. The word that's used here gives us the thought of a small, an insignificant Lamb, a little Lamb that perhaps mightn't be thought much of. That's the thought that we have here. And it's a Lamb as it had been slain, or a Lamb as it had been offered in sacrifice. So here you see the thought is, this is something that starts off in insignificance. What greater expression of weakness can you think of than an insignificant little Lamb that's been killed? It's the greatest expression of weakness. And that's done, no doubt, done on purpose. The chapter, this chapter starts off with this angel having in his right hand this book. It's really a scroll, and it's sealed with seven seals, so that when the seals are all broken, then the whole scroll can be opened out and what's inside can be read. And that's really what we have the picture of in Revelation. The angel has this book, and, or rather it's God sitting on the throne that has the book, but the angel is, the angel proclaims with a loud voice, who's worthy to open the book? Who's worthy to break these seals and unfold this book of God's judgment? And when they look around they find there's no one open it. John looks around, he can't see anyone that's able to open this book. He certainly didn't feel he was worthy to open it, and he couldn't see anyone else that was. And it says, no man in heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, nor even to look upon it. And John weeps about it. And then the angel says, now don't weep, the Lion of the tribe of Judah is going to open the book. And you can imagine John looking around to see where this bounding lion comes from, because a lion is just the exact opposite to the Lamb. A lion, or the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he's able to open the book. He's the one that's worthy to open the book. And John looks around to see this lion, and what does he see? An insignificant little slain lamb. That's the lion. And this is the great mystery of Christianity in a sense. One of our hymns says, by all that seem defeated, he won the mead and crown. Trod all our foes beneath his feet by being trodden down. The Lord was crucified through weakness, and he liveth by the power of God. What greater expression of weakness was there than to see the Lord Jesus Christ allowing himself, the eternal Son of God, allowing himself to be taken and nailed to a cross. That's the Lamb as it had been slain. And so the great triumph of the gospel is that the Lord Jesus was crucified through weakness, and through his death, and through the shedding of his precious blood, souls are saved, and he has brought glory to God. And even though this world cast him out and wouldn't have him, and counted him as someone worthy of death, and treated him as an insignificant person that wasn't fit to live on earth, revelation shows his final triumph. And the triumph of the Lamb is God's triumph in the universe. And it's going to be the final triumph with him, of all those who've trusted in him, and it's going to end up with the condemnation, as we have it also in this book, of all those who've refused it. Now the lovely thing is that this, the book starts off with the references to the Lamb, it starts right off with showing the great contrast between the Lamb and the Lion, that because he became the Lamb, he prevailed as the Lion of the tribe of Judah to open the book, and gives us a picture here of his people in the glory, worshiping him. Because this is a little picture of the redeemed. The first three chapters of Revelation give us, or rather the first chapter gives us what was true in John's day when he wrote the book. Chapters two and three give us a prophetic history of the professing church, from Ephesus to Laodicea. Chapter four begins with the door opened in heaven, which corresponds I believe to what we call the rapture, the saints being caught up to be with the Lord, that's what we're waiting for. And in chapter five, chapters four and five, the rest of chapter four, we have the Lord being honoured as the creator. In chapter five he's honoured as the redeemer, that's where the Lamb comes in as we've just read, and the Lord is given worship. You notice what it says there in verse eight, that when the Lamb takes the book out of the right hand of him that sat on the throne, the four living creatures and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of the harps and golden vials full of incense which are the prayers of the saints, and they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou were slain and has redeemed us for God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. And then you have the voice of many angels in verse eleven, ten thousand times ten thousand, and they're also attributing worship, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing. You know those things mentioned there, they're the things that man strives after, and man strives after them, and if he gets them he abuses them when he gets them. You see how many people have striven after power, and when they get power what do they do? They abuse it. The Lord didn't strive after any of these things, but he's given every one of these things. He's worthy to receive these things, power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing, because he took the low place. He went right down and became obedient unto death, as Philippians 2 says, even the death of the cross. God has exalted him and set him at his own right hand in the glory, and we look up on worshipping there. And every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth, touches her in the feet, every creature is called upon to give worship to the Lamb. So it's a lovely picture, starting right off with this picture of abject weakness, and yet that one who was crucified in weakness is the one who receives the worship and the praise, the adoration of not only his redeemed people, as we have it there in verses 8 and 9, that's the Lord's redeemed people, but every creature owning him as the worthy one. Now we go on to the sixth chapter, and in the fifth chapter we find the Lamb beginning to do the work of opening the seals of the book, because I take it that this is a scroll, and it's sealed with seven seals. So before the scroll can be opened out, each one of these seals has to be broken. And as each seal is broken, a judgment is poured out on the earth. We find at the end of the breaking of these seals that the people say the great day of God's wrath has come. That's what they think. It hasn't come yet, but they think it's come in the breaking of the seals. If the breaking of the seals they think's the day of God's wrath, what were they going to think when the whole scroll was open and the real judgments of God are revealed inside? That's what we find later on in the book with the blowing of the trumpets and the pouring out of the vials. That is really the judgment of God. But as each seal is opened, something happens. So we have in chapter 6 the Lamb mentioned again, I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard as it were the noise of thunder, and one of the four living creatures saying, come and see. And I saw and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him had a bow, and a crown was given unto him, and he went forth conquering and to conquer. This isn't the man on the white horse that we have in the 19th chapter. In the 19th chapter, the man on the white horse is the Lord. This is the coming world dictator who's going to go forth conquering and to conquer. This is the picture of what's going to take place after the Lord takes the church away. And I'd just like to say in this connection that in many of these modern books on prophecy, practically all of the writers, although they say many good things, they confuse this gentile conqueror who's going to be the head of the revived Roman Empire with the Antichrist. And they call him the Antichrist. If he's anti-anything, he's going to be anti-God. The Antichrist is going to be a Jew, and he's going to be the one who takes the place of Christ with the Jewish people. They'll be deceived. But the head of the revived Roman Empire is not Antichrist. And if you want to study this carefully, you study the 13th chapter of Revelation, and you'll find that it starts off with speaking of the beast out of the sea. That is the head. He is the same one, I believe, as the conqueror on the white horse here. He is the head of the revived Roman Empire, and he'll be a gentile. Now when you come down in the chapter, it mentions the beast out of the earth, and he has two horns like a lamb and speaks like a dragon. That's Antichrist. He's got two horns like a lamb. He looks like a lamb. When I said there are 28 references to the lamb, I'm not referring to that lamb there. That's the one who pretends to be a lamb, and he's got two horns like a lamb. But you listen to his voice. He speaks like a dragon. You see, that shows that he is the Antichrist. He professes to be Christ, and he will deceive the Jewish people, and he will deceive many religious people among the Gentiles. Also, the world today is looking for two great men. They're looking for a great political leader, and they're looking for a great religious leader. They'll get both. The great political leader will be the head of the Roman Empire. The great religious leader will be the Antichrist. But as I said, many of these writers today, and in this Hal Lindsay's book, The Great Planet Earth, while he says many good things in that book, he's not clear on that. And he calls the political leader the Antichrist. The Antichrist is going to be a religious leader. I just want to mention that, just so people might have their thoughts clarified on that subject. But I'm not condemning all of these writers' rights, because many say, in those books, they say many good things, many things that are right, but sometimes they get off the track in some things. Now, here's the lamb. He opens a seal. And I'm not going to give an exposition of this, because what I want to do is to take up the references to the lamb. But you notice that every seal that's opened, it mentions he. When he had opened the second seal in verse 3. When he had opened the third seal in verse 5. When he had opened the fourth seal in verse 7. When he had opened the fifth seal in verse 9. When he had opened the sixth seal in verse 12. And then, as a result of the opening of these six seals, the seventh has not yet been opened. With all these various judgments that are taking place, for instance, when the sixth seal is opened, there's great earthquake, the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, that's verse 12, the moon became as blood, the stars of heaven fell, and so forth and so on. Heaven departed as a scroll. The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. Now you know this is a very remarkable statement. It shows that the people of that day, with the knowledge that man now has of the gospel, that these people, those who refuse the gospel, that with the knowledge that they have of the gospel, they will know that these judgments have come from the Lamb. That they've come from God, the one that sits on the throne, and from the Lamb. Isn't it remarkable that they use the word the Lamb? Hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. Why is it that they're getting the wrath of the Lamb? Because they refuse the blood of the Lamb. And beloved friends, if there should be one here tonight that's not saved, you must either accept the blood of the Lamb to wash your sins away, or else you're going to come under the wrath of the Lamb. That's very, very plain, as we have it right here in this book of Revelation. They ask to be hidden from the wrath of the Lamb, and yet this isn't, the book's not opened yet. This is only the providential judgment connected with the breaking of the seals. But they say the great day of his wrath has come. They think it's the day of the Lord's wrath. The day of his wrath is beginning, that's all. It's certainly not ended yet. We have it in the rest of the book. And yet they ask to hide from the wrath of the Lamb. A very, very solemn thing. Then in chapter 7, we have a parenthesis. Chapter 7 comes in a parenthesis, because the 7th seal isn't broken until the beginning of the 8th chapter, as you'll notice. The 7th chapter comes in as a parenthesis, because it lets us see beforehand what the Lamb is going to get for himself out of the great tribulation. And this is a wonderful comfort, beloved brethren, and should be a comfort to us even today. Sometimes we're inclined to think, well, things are going to the dogs, things are getting going from bad to worse. It looks as if Satan is taking over, and as if the Lord's not getting anything out of, very little out of the world today. God always gets his portion. And this should be a comfort to us, that the devil never has it all his own way. And even during that great tribulation that's going to come upon the earth, the Lord is going to get his portion out of it. And this chapter lets us see what God is going to secure for himself. He's going to secure 144,000 out of 12,000 out of each tribe of Israel. You know, we have other people today saying they're 144,000. When they say that, I ask to which tribe they belong to. Here, this is what the Lord's going to get out of Israel. The restored Israel, he's going to gather out a people for himself out of them. Whether this is a literal number or a symbolic number, I'm not quite sure. But it shows us, at any rate, that the Lord secures for himself those who are going to be redeemed. They're going to have the seal of God in their foreheads, because they recognize the Lord Jesus Christ as their Messiah. They own the land. And then we have also in verse 9, after this I beheld and know a great multitude which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before the throne and before the land, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands, and cried with a loud voice, Salvation to our God which sitth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. Notice twice the Lamb is mentioned. In verse, they stood before the throne and before the Lamb, and they say, Salvation to our God which sitth upon the throne and unto the Lamb. And then it tells us in verse 14 that they are those who washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And it says in verse 17, the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them and lead them unto fountains, living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. God is going to secure for himself out of Israel a number, and he's going to secure a multitude that no man can number, out of the Gentiles. You say, well who are these going to be? Are people going to get a second chance if they've heard the gospel now and refused it? No. No one who's refused the gospel today will have a chance after the Lord comes. But there are many people no doubt still in the world who have not heard the gospel, especially I believe in these countries where it's being prohibited. And the Lord will see that they get an opportunity during the great tribulation to receive the gospel of the kingdom. And the Lamb is going to secure these for himself. He is going to triumph. It looks as if man is triumphing. You see, as we read Revelation and we find that this revived Roman Empire is going to come into being by satanic power, it could very well be that this European economic market is the forerunner of it. We don't know, because we've got to be very careful in interpreting prophecy that we don't become prophets ourselves, or think we're prophets, and say this is that when it isn't. Or we can say that it looks as if it might develop into that, although I very much question whether the alignment of some of those nations are what they're going to finally be. Because some nations are in it now that weren't in the old Roman Empire. But that's all in the future. But there are many things that are happening today that let us see that everything is preparing for the fulfillment of what we get in Revelation. But man and Satan, while it appears that for a while they're going to have it their own way, the Lord is going to get his portion out of it, and he's going to finally triumph. The Lamb will triumph in the end. And this should be an encouragement to us, beloved brethren, because Christianity is in a place of being despised. That's always been the truth. All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall stop at persecution. The world likes to see the results of Christianity, even in a Christian, when a Christian works for an unsaved man, he likes to have an honest, he likes to have an honest man or an honest woman working for him. And so he likes to have a Christian working for him because he knows he can trust them, even though he doesn't want their Christianity. Maybe he completely despises their Christianity, but he likes the fruits of it. That's what the world is. The world despises Christianity, but the world likes to see the fruits of Christianity all the same. And that's why we have to give our testimony, and we have to do it being willing to be despised because we're the Lord's, and realizing that this is part of our, of the privilege, not only of believing on the Lord, but of also suffering for his sake. Because in our testimony, we're really carrying out the whole principle that we see here, that's connected with the despised lamb. You see that? The Lord was despised. He was the despised lamb, and it's this despised lamb that eventually triumphs. And that's what we've got to remember. But our triumph, our triumph here is that we're able to get the victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil, and serve the Lord faithfully. But our final triumph will come when we're with the Lord, and he'll vindicate us in the very presence of those who've despised us here, in the measure in which we stood for him. And so here we find that even in the great tribulation, the lamb gets his portion. Now, as I said, we have in the, in the seventh chapter, the parenthesis. The eighth chapter, we get the lamb again, but it says he this time in verse eight, and when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. The lamb opens the seventh seal. When he opens the seventh seal, then the scroll is unrolled. And what do you see inside the scroll? Seven trumpets, and seven vials. And I believe the seven vials come in between the sixth and seventh trumpet. And it's when the last trumpet is sounded, and the last three trumpets are the woe trumpets, as we get studied through the book of Revelation. That is the end of the great tribulation, when the Lord establishes his reign. So the, we get the seventh seal is opened, and there's nothing done, except the silence in heaven for half an hour. The scroll is unrolled, and then the angel comes, and we have all that goes on as each angel sounds, the various angels sound their trumpets, and these judgments are poured out on the earth. These are the real judgments that are beginning to be poured out. And we don't have the lamb mention anymore, until we come to the twelfth chapter. Because in these chapters, we have the various angels blowing their trumpets. And I'm not giving an exposition on all of this tonight, but this is a very, very interesting and important thing, to see how every trumpet brings further judgments from God. This is the time of the tribulation, and the last trumpets give us the great tribulation, because we know from other scriptures, that there's about seven years to run, and the last three and a half years will be the great tribulation, especially connected with the last three trumpets. And because that's when Satan is cast down to earth, and he knows that his time is short, and the Lord allows this terrible tribulation to come upon the earth. And it says that if the Lord didn't shorten the days, no flesh would be saved. Now, when we come to the twelfth chapter, we get another parenthesis. We might say that the end of the eleventh chapter is really the historical end of revelation. The end of the eleventh chapter gives us the end of the tribulation, and the Lord establishing his kingdom. I'll just read what it says there. The seventh verse, verse 15, or verse 14, the second woe is past, the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, we give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art and was and art to come, because thou hast taken to thee thy great power and reign. And so on right down to the end of the chapter. Then, chapter 12 gives us five distinct agents that will be seen during the great tribulation. We have the woman clothed with the sun in verse 1, which is Israel. We have the great red dragon, which is Satan in verse 3. We have the man-child, which is the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 5. We have Michael the archangel in verse 7. And we have Satan mentioned again in verse 9 that he's referred to in verse 3. And then we have the remnant of the seed in verse 17, which is the godly remnant out of Israel. But I just want to point out that in this chapter we get the Lamb mentioned. Because when Satan is cast out, he's overcome by those who have been saved, as we saw them in the seventh chapter. And it says, they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. How did they overcome? How are these going to overcome Satan in that day? By the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. That is, because they have trusted in the Lamb and in his precious blood. By his blood they overcome, and by the word of their testimony, because they're not ashamed to let it be known in a day of great persecution that they belong to the Lord. But do you know the true believer always overcomes when he takes a stand as a believer, even if he's killed. Even if a Christian is killed for his faith, he still overcomes. Because they've not been able to make him deny his faith, even though they've killed him. So he dies as an overcomer, refusing to deny his faith in order to live. And if he lives, he still overcomes, if he's allowed to live, because he's given his testimony for the Lord. These overcome by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. So that's twice we've had the blood of the Lamb mentioned. Then we go on in the book to the next chapter, chapter 13, and we have something else mentioned about the Lamb. It says in verse 7 of this Roman prince, as he's called, the conqueror that I referred to, the political head of the Roman Empire, it says in verse 7, it was given to him to make war with the saints, this is the beast out of the sea, and to overcome them. And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And a better rendering of that is, whose names are not written from the foundation of the world, in the book of the Lamb slain. All will worship, will worship this man who is the anti-god. As I said before, the political head will be anti-god. He claims divine worship. And the anti-Christ will say to the people, I'm Christ, he's God, you worship him. And he will cause even an image to be made to him and force the people to worship him. And those will worship him whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life. So here we get something else about the Lamb, that this Lamb has a book, and in that book are written the names of those who are going to believe in that day, in the Lamb's book of life. In chapter 14, we have the Lamb again. A Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and it mentions 144,000. Some think these are a different 144,000 to what we have in the 7th chapter. I'm not quite sure whether they are. But at any rate, I just want to point out that it mentions the Lamb there, and in verse 4, he's mentioned twice. These are they which shall not be filed by women for their virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb with us wherever we goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. Again, the Lamb is triumphing because in this day of great departure of the worship of Satan and the worship of the beast, there are those who worship the Lamb, and they follow him with us wherever he goeth, and they're the firstfruits unto God, as it says. Then we go on to the 15th chapter. We have a reference again to the Lamb. It says in verse 3, we have a reference here to those who gained the victory over the beast, you notice. Verse 2, I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire, and them that have gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the hearts of God, and they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. This is a heavenly scene. These are those who've gotten the victory over the beast, but they've been killed. But as I said before, the fact that they've been killed is a proof that they got the victory, because they would not worship him. But they're giving, they're in the glory, singing the song of Moses, which was the song of redemption, and the song of the Lamb. Now we come over to the 17th chapter, and we have the Lamb again mentioned. Here we have the beast and the ten kings. This is the revived Roman Empire with its head, and it tells us verse 14. These ten kings, the heads of ten nations, have one mind and give their power and strength to the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. For he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. So even though he makes war with the Lamb, the Lamb is the one that gets the victory. Satan is not going to get the final victory. The Lamb is going to get the final victory. Now we come a little further along in the 19th chapter, and here we get, I believe, the beginning of the final victory of the Lamb. It says in verse 7, Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. To her that was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean as white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he said unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. I like to link this up with the 22nd of Matthew. In the 22nd of Matthew, it says that a king made a marriage for his son, and the people that were invited didn't come, and we know we use that when we preach the gospel sometimes, and it ends up with the man that gets in without the wedding garment. Now that's the gospel application, but here it goes on for something further. There, the king, of course, is God, and the son is the Lord Jesus Christ, and God is honoring his son. And I believe the picture here in 19th revelation is that the marriage, the marriage of the Lamb, is looked at as the great triumph of the Lamb and his being honored by God in connection with his triumph. The picture is somewhat, we might say, that he is a king in ancient times whose son has gone out to battle and has conquered his enemies and has distinguished himself. Then his father has chosen a bride for him. You know they still do that in Egypt, it's the parents that choose the girl and have to make all the arrangements about the wedding, and that's no doubt, this is an oriental picture. And so the father has now chosen the bride for his son, and he prepares the great wedding feast. And of course the bride is there, and that's what we have in verse 7. And then there are all the others that are invited, the other, the Old Testament believers, no doubt, and others have been there, and they're there in verse 9, because God is honoring his son. He's finished the work, he went to the cross to finish the work of redemption, and here in Revelation we've seen him starting off as the little insignificant despised lamb, but right through we find there's an increasing triumph of the lamb, because right through we find it's always the lamb that is the one who is gaining the victory. Even though those who believe in him are martyred, they've still gained the victory, and they've gained the victory, and the honor goes to the lamb in whom they believed, because they've given their destiny to him rather than deny him, and even though they've died. So it's all speaking of the glory of the lamb. And now, publicly we might say, before the whole universe, God is honoring his son. God's honoring his son, and every other believer of the different dispensations are called there to witness it. All the angels, the seraphim and the cherubim, will see it. They're invited to the marriage supper of the lamb, and it says, blessed are those that are called. And then as we go on into the 21st chapter, we have the continuation of this. It says in the 21st chapter, in verse 9, there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, come hither, and I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. Here she is, this is the same one, and John is taken to see her, and he sees the bride, the lamb's wife, which speaks of affection, and then he sees her as a great city, which speaks of order and beauty and form and administration. This is the church, the great heavenly company. She's seen there, and he takes him to the mountain. This is the same angel that took John to see the destruction of the false wife, Babylon the Great, mother of harlots and abomination of the earth, in the 17th chapter. She professed to be the bride, and she's an impure and unchaste woman, that the Lord is going to allow the beast and the ten kings to destroy. But here, it's the bride, the lamb's wife. She's also a city. The other one is Babylon. This one is Jerusalem, and when it's the bride, when it's the bride, it speaks of affection. When it's the city, it speaks of beauty and administration. But it's the church, a thing there for the glory of Christ. Then it says in verse 14, the wall of the city had 12 foundations, and in them the names of the 12 apostles of the lamb. You have the lamb mentioned again in verse 22, I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the lamb are the temple of it. And the city hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamb is the light thereof. You see, the lamb is in the place of final triumph. And who is there in this city? Only those, it says, whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life. There shall no wise enter into it, anything that defile us, neither work whatsoever work of abomination, or make us a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. And then you have in verse 22, the throne of the Lamb, and the lamb is mentioned again in verse 3, and that's the final reference. And this takes us, we might say, in the right, it takes us right on into the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here he is, as he is the Lamb. The final triumph of the Lamb. The Lamb is, you might say, the center of the whole eternal city. The Lamb has triumphed. This is not the triumph of the church. It's not the triumph of Israel. But it will be the triumph of both Israel and the church, as associated with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's his triumph, and it's our triumph as associated with him. But it's all brought out here to let us see that he's the one who finally triumphs. Now, how does the book end up? After working up, it seems to me, from seeing that little insignificant Lamb as it had been offered in sacrifice, and after working right up to the Lamb being given his place as the center of the heavenly scene, and all of those associated with him being honored because of associated with him, but the great thing is that he's the one that's honored. John is led then to give a final call. And you notice what he says in the verse 7. The Lord is speaking. Behold, I come quickly. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. In verse 12, behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his work shall be. Verse 20 says, he which testifies these things says, surely I come quickly. And the answer is amen. Even so come, Lord Jesus. But then it also says in verse 16, I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and offspring of David and the bright morning star, and the Spirit and the bride say come, and let him that heareth say come, and let him that is of thirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. So the Lord three times reminds us that he's coming quickly, but he still sends out a precious invitation. Whosoever will. The Spirit and the bride say come. I believe that they say come to the Lord. Then let him that heareth say come. Those who hear, if they trust in him, they can say come. But then the third come is the invitation to the sinner. Whosoever will, or rather, let him that is of thirst come. If there's one here tonight that's still thirsty, that you haven't found satisfaction for your soul, you're invited to come and drink of the water of life freely. Because if you don't, beloved friend, you're going to have to be under the wrath of the Lamb. Put your trust in the blood of the Lamb. And for those of us who are the Lord, and this is the message that I want to leave with you, how precious it is that this book ends up with the Lord reminding us that he's coming quickly. Oh, you say this was 1900, this was over 1,940 years ago that John wrote this. Well, 1,930 years ago maybe that he wrote it. Yes, it was a long, long time ago. But the Lord's coming is never looked at as any further away than the life of those that read the word. So we can always look for the Lord, no matter how long it has been preached that he's coming. But we know from everything that's happening around us that he's coming very, very near. And so what he says here is true. The Lord says I come quickly. So may we be stirred up to be faithful. And to be faithful in bearing our testimony for the Lord. Not ashamed, I think this is the great thing that we need to learn out of this. Not ashamed to be faithful to him who died that we might live. Not ashamed to bear our testimony for him. And if those are going to even be killed in order to overcome him in that coming day, how much more should we be faithful? Because the Lord doesn't ask us to die for Christ. We're not asked to die for the Lord. We are asked to live for him. And sometimes, you know, I believe we find it more difficult and we need more grace to live for the Lord than if we had to die for him. I'm sure that if a great persecution came and we had to choose whether we die for the Lord or deny him, even the weakest believer would say, I'm not going to deny my Lord. And the Lord would give a special grace to witness for him and not deny him. But we're not called on to do that. We're called upon to go on from day to day and from week to week and from month to month and from year to year, living for Christ and witnessing for him and serving him and showing by our lives that we belong to him. And we need perhaps more grace day by day to do that than if we were going to die for him and had a special, a special grace given for that particular moment. Because life gets humdrum sometimes. And so we need to continually be exercised before the Lord to be on our knees, to be reading his precious word and not to forget that he is coming. And he says there, I come quickly. Very soon he'll come and take us to be with himself. Down here, we say goodbye to one another. We part from one another for a little while. But very soon, beloved, we're all going to meet in the Lord's presence. So may we seek to be faithful to him while we're waiting for his return. Thank you for this time together when we have been reminded of the wonders by wondrous love, the love that was able to give by an only beloved son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. We will ever be reminded of the perfections of his work and we will ever be reminded of the place into which he has brought us and the character that he took up as the Lamb of God in that eternal scene. We believe that even eternity itself will never exhaust that wondrous thing. So we pray for thy blessing upon this meeting as we have been together that we might be able to think upon these things and consider them and put them into the very way of our lives. We think of how thou wouldst have us to be occupied with him, thy beloved son. And we thank thee that we have been able to do this tonight, to look into the glories of that blessed person. We think of our brother as leading us, we commend him as a vibrant hand for journeying mercies and provide good hand to be upon him. Taking him safely, we pray across the ocean to New Zealand and that he might bear the love of the brethren in this place to the saints in that land, asking for thy goodness to be upon him and we give thanks for this time together. …