" 9 And they *sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
10 “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
13 And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying,
“To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped."
I have been frequently asked, "Are we really in the last days? Is it possible that we could be near the end of human history?" Scripture clearly describes the end times with some general descriptions that certainly fit our time. Everything from apostasy to the nation Israel being back in the land. The immorality in our society today has brought the world to a large degree, what it was at
when the Lord drown the whole of humanity in the time of the flood of
Genesis.
The seducing spirits and doctrines of demons seem to have reached extreme influence, like never before in our time. The movement toward a cashless society, and with the economic, social and political climate, our world is more divided than ever and that division has reached unprecedented proportions. The world stage is certainly set for a great world leader to suddenly arise and to bring peace in the Middle East. So, I would have to say, the answer is yes, I believe that we are living in the last days and standing on the brink of divine wrath. However, there is no man who knows the day or the hour of the coming of the Son of Man. The truth is, we just don’t know the exact time, so we cannot speculate. We can however, discern the signs of the times we are living in and the problems we are currently experiencing in our culture, and have a greater sense of anticipation than any other generations in the past.
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
In Jesus name we ask and pray
Amen
Today's Message: HE IS WORTHY
The Apostle John continues to take us on a journey into Heaven, the marvelous vision of God and of the Lamb and he gives us front row seats at the concert of
the ages. And
when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the
twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and
golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. The choirs of heaven sing, and
they sang a new song… Let’s go in, take our seats and listen to the hosts of Heaven
as they lift their voices in praise and worship of the Lamb of God!
Open your Bibles with me to the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 5. I invite you to follow along with me as I read to you from verses 9 through 14. Revelation 5:9-14.
"And they *sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.” Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, “To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped."
Last time we saw that John no doubt expected to see a lion, instead he saw a Lamb, as if it had been slain. Still bearing the wounds of death, the Lamb that had once been dead, was standing and still very much alive. The Lamb is alive! In verse 7, "He came and He took out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne the little scroll." Then, in verse 8, we saw that He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Now, we come into this marvelous song of worship, this time of adoration and praise.
Notice the twenty-four elders have harps. The harp or the lyre, which by the way, is another stringed instrument, are regularly associated with prophesying. Look at I Samuel 10, verse 5, "Afterward you will come to
the hill of God where the Philistine garrison is; and it shall be as
soon as you have come there to the city, that you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and a lyre before them, and they will be prophesying."
And, in II Kings 3, "But now bring me a minstrel." And it came about, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him. He said, "Thus says the Lord." God had ordained by that sound, His Spirit would move. The prophets will come, and they will come with harps. In Hebrew, a minstrel denotes the player of a stringed instrument. So, we can conclude the harp not only was used for accompaniment in worship, it was used for the accompaniment of prophecy.
As a footnote, all of the end time prophecies that had ever been made is symbolized with the harps. Whether the end, the future, or the final return of Messiah, they were symbolized with harps. The golden bowls were symbols of the priestly function of intercession for the people. And, in the Old Testament, priests burned incense because it symbolized prayer rising up to God fragrantly.
Whenever you pray, whenever you seek mercy for the benefit of another, whenever you pray for Christ’s glory to be revealed, you are filling Heaven with the sweet aroma of incense. These prayers that were offered in faith are about to be answered in power. Now, as they pluck their harps, we have anticipation on the part of the redeemed and raptured elders. The final redemption is about to come to pass. All that the church has ever promised through the Scriptures and all that we have ever prayed for is now about to come to pass.
That brings us to verse 9, "And they *sang a new song, saying, "Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation."
The redeemed will sing a new song. In other words, all their hope based on the promises and their prayers, is now going to happen. There's a brand new anticipation as the twenty-four elders bring before God what represents the desire of the saints. So many songs, as we listen to them, cause us to shout for joy, weep at
the thought of Christ’s coming glory, rejoice in the knowledge of His
love. The power of music ensures that whenever you hear or sing a song of praise, your heart is filled with joy. Always the redeemed sing.
While we cannot say specifically that this excludes the angels, because they can see the reverse of the curse here, they have gotten their song back. But angels do not sing in Scripture, the only allusions are before the fall and in anticipation of the reverse of the fall. In music, minor chords speak of the wretchedness, death, and sorrow of the fallen creation. And, an angel knows nothing of the wretchedness, nothing of the sorrow of the fallen. An angel has never fallen and been brought back to God. By the way, major chords speak of triumph and victory.
I realize, that at Christmas-times, we often sing carols that tell us that the angels singing, but when I
read Luke’s account in chapter 2, of the birth of the Saviour, he is careful
to avoid saying that the angels sing. Rather than saying that the angels
sing, he writes, "Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of
the heavenly host praising God and saying "Glory to God in the highest,And on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased."
So the twenty-four elders sing this new song, they are joined by the four living creatures. It’s a song that they know personally, a song of redemption. If you go through the book of Psalms, you can see all the places it talks about new song. There's Psalm 33, Psalm 40, Psalm 96, Psalm 91, Psalm 144, Psalm 149, as well as other places. In the Old Testament, there was a new song for those redeemed. Here, there's a new song for those redeemed in the church age. And there’s a new song for those redeemed out of the tribulation who are led by the one hundred and forty-four thousand.
Ours is not a message of despair, it is rather a message of hope. For the day will come, known only to God, when Christ shall receive His own. Those who have fallen asleep in Christ, the dead who have died in this
holy faith, will be raised; and we who have believed shall be united
with them before that glorious emerald throne.
"Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation."You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth."
Step by step, Christ reveals the battle plan by which He conquers the universe, and banishes Satan by breaking the seals. Whoever was going to be the king of the earth, the heir of God, had to be slain. At the cross, the Lord Jesus paid the price to buy the slaves of sin
with His own blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
and set them free. Some translations include the word "us" in verse 9, "And purchased us for God with Your blood." There is strong evidence in the ancient manuscripts for including the word "us." If that is the case, I believe that strengthens the idea that the twenty-four elders indeed represent the raptured church.
The term "every tribe and tongue and people and nation," occurs five times in Revelation, and it always refers to all of humanity. John 3:16 says "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Christ shed His blood for the whole world. And, if we belong to Christ there’s only one choice to be made in life
and that’s to live and serve Him with unquestioning obedience. The divisions between people are now unnecessary, because we are "all one in Christ Jesus."
Scripture says that people from every nation are praising God before his throne. Allow me to point out here, that God's message of salvation and eternal life is not limited to a specific culture, race, or country. Don't allow prejudice or bias to keep you from sharing Christ with others. Anyone who comes to God in repentance and faith is accepted by Him and will be part of His Kingdom.
In John 6, Jesus said "All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out."
In Verse 11, "Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands."
According to the Greek words used here, "myriades" myriadōn and "chiliades" chiliadōn, one "myriad of myriads" would be 100 million angels! The number is beyond calculation. And, although angels can not experience redemption, they are keenly interested in the phenomenon.
And the angels join the praise, in verse 12, notice, when the angels come in, it doesn't say they sing. They can only echo the song of redemption. It says they "say with a loud voice." This leads me to believe that they’re still not singing, and maybe they never do. God likes everything loud.
"Saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." They can glorify God, but they can’t sing the song of redemption. Here, they’re saying loudly, in an angelic doxology, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain." The elders are joined by the hosts of angels in heaven, who added their voices of praise. In the angels’ praise they ascribed
power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and
blessing to God. They declare the worth of the Lamb! They praise Him for Who He is. Notice that they do not praise Him for redemption.
I believe this is an interesting contrast to Jesus' earthly life, when His enemies said He was worthy of death, but now, the angels say He is worthy of praise. The Jewish leaders accused Him of working by the power of Satan, here, the angels say He is worthy of power. He was dishonored on earth, now, He is honored in glory. He is worthy to receive all this praise. Here on earth, people sing about everything under the sun! In Heaven, every song will be about Jesus.
Verse 13, "And
every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the
earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." Notice, that there’s nothing left out. It's an absolutely all-inclusive statement. After the angels complete their praise, all of creation joins in to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. In endless blessing, endless honor, endless praise, endless glory, endless worship to God, to Christ.That a thrilling picture of heaven!
I've heard many religious people say, "I worship God, but not Jesus Christ." To ignore Christ
is to insult the Father. In heaven, every angel and every raptured
saint will honor the Father and the Son and praise them. The Word of God is quite clear in informing us, that the kingdom will come, and Jesus Christ will reign. He has been given "the name that is above every name."
To unbelievers, the Cross is folly, a stumbling block,
yet in a reversal of the world’s values, the crucified Christ is the
power of God and the wisdom of God for our redemption.
And, here in verse 14, "And the four living creatures kept saying, "Amen." And the elders fell down and worshiped." Amen is a solemn confirmation, it means let it be, and so, they say it over and over and over again. And, again, the twenty-four elders fall down in worship of God and the Lamb.
In Closing..
I believe that we could be very near the end, but for those of us who are in Christ, we have nothing to fear. Because we understand the happiness, the joy and the rejoicing of heaven, so we wait, in anticipation of the King coming!
If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, Romans 10 teaches, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
This is my plea to each person hearing this message today. Believe on the Lord Jesus and be saved. Then come, and join us in worship of the Lamb of God!
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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