Forbidden!

By the way, Marianne Williamson in her Course in Miracles on Oprah's Network now having taught millions of people, here's what A Course in Miracles says about the crucified Lord, and I quote, A slain Christ has no meaning. Do not make the pathetic error of clinging to the old rugged cross.

End quote. My friend, a slain Christ has eternal meaning. Don't make the pathetic error of ignoring the old rugged cross. Paul said, God forbid that I should glory in anything except the cross of Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that the cross is foolishness to the world. When he came to earth, he set his omnipotence and splendor aside to wear the garb of humanity.

He lived in meekness and died in meekness. However, the testimony of God concerning his son is unmistakable. Jesus Christ is God. He went to the cross to make our salvation possible.

The Bible clarifies that believing in the Son of God is what God expects from you. In Stephen's message today, you'll see that while many people reject that truth, it's truth nonetheless. If you've been with me in this series through Revelation chapters four and five, following the first two hymns of heaven in chapter four, we arrived at chapter five to discover the apostle John, who is broken into tears. He's weeping. He's weeping because there's no one capable of opening the scroll with seven seals.

John's audience, you remember, would know immediately that a seven-sealed scroll was a title deed. It was a last will and testament. No one was worthy to claim the title deed of earth. No one was powerful enough to carry out the last will and testament, as it were, of God the Father.

But there was one. One who centuries earlier had come to earth to do the will of the Father and now will complete it. In verse five of chapter five, John is told to stop weeping because Jesus Christ, who is equally omniscient and omnipresent and omnipotent, he's described in chapter one of Revelation as pre-existent and sovereign. This one is able to fulfill the will of the Father. He is powerful enough to see it accomplished. By the way, here in the text you're looking at, written in 1895, God has already written the scroll, events that are going to take place. Now it's been more than 2,000 years later. It's already confirmed to God the future is as clear as the past.

So here's the son in verse five, the lion, the one who descended from the royal tribe of Judah, the one who is both the descendant of David and the pre-existent root of David, the only one who conquered death in the grave. He's stepping forward to receive the confirmed decreed will of triune God. Already established in the first century, yet to be revealed, we don't know when, it could begin these hymns today. Listen, to try to find the will of God through mediums and spirit guides and channelers, the occult world is a dangerous pursuit. To listen to the teachings of authors like Rhonda Byrne and Marianne Williamson and Helen Shook and Eckhart Tolle and the list goes on and on and on is to play with fire. Since the heart of every human being knows there's life after death, everybody wants to know, there's something out there, there is a spirit world, it's just as alive. You go to the deepest Amazon jungle, you go to the most erudite society and they intuitively know there's a spirit world. But if all forms of spiritism, whether channeling spirit guides or automatic writing or seances and the like, if all of it was then fakery, if we would say as a church, well, it's just sleight of hand. In that case, God would never have forbidden his people from dabbling in it. Why worry about it? Why bother? The gentleman in our church gave me a recent article a couple of weeks ago from the Wall Street Journal that recorded the ongoing uproar right now that's happening in the Philippine Islands over a judge, a trial court judge who was fired.

He's taking it all the way to the Supreme Court there. He was fired because he admitted to receiving advice from three invisible elves. No, I'm serious. Sounds strange to us, but not in that culture where elves are considered a part of the spirit world, capable of relaying information to human beings. They have power and that superstition dates all the way back to the 16th century in their culture. People in that culture make pilgrimages to places of supposed elf sightings. This judge claims to have been able to perceive these three elves in 1986 before he was fired, only recently he would sometimes enter a trance in his chambers and write his rulings. The three elves, he knows them as Angel, he says that's the neutral force, Armand, who is a benign influence, and Louis, whom this judge described as the King of Kings. Ladies and gentlemen, Satan, the angel of light, is alive and well. He has his hopes and plans. He and his dark kingdom also have the ability to deliver to open minds and hearts information about the past and events of the present and clues about things that just might happen in the future, deceiving many into believing they have tapped into something good.

That's how that channeler, by the way, on television can come up with a nickname of your deceased uncle. The demonic world can communicate through their own network what happened in New York and Australia. They see right now the vision boards of tens of thousands of women who are following Rhonda Byrne and the secret, maneuvering for many of them whatever they can so that some of it comes true so that those women can be further deceived. Listen, there's a reason why demonized people in the New Testament immediately knew who Christ was and who the Apostle Paul was without ever having been introduced. They knew. Now they do not know the future any more than you or I, for Satan and his demons are not omniscient, but they can read the times.

They've had thousands of years of experience watching humanity at work and play with incredible skill. Several years ago, I headed to Japan to visit some of our global staff, Bill and Becky Petit. By the way, what a privilege to have in my class this semester at Shepherd Seminary that little boy who's now preparing for ministry.

He's going back to Japan to pastor a church planted by his grandfather as soon as he graduates. Before I left, whenever I travel like this, it's my custom to get a foot locker and fill it with candy and games for me. No, I mean for the missionaries.

And then I leave it with them. And so I went to the store and I was surprised to see Ouija boards stacked. You ought to know that the makers of the Ouija board in 1922 went all the way to the Supreme Court claiming tax exempt status for what they believed was a spiritual exercise. They called it a form of junior mediumship. I reread again on the web the article declaring the decision of the Supreme Court. They refused their argument.

And so since then, it has been sold as a game. If you have an Ouija board, throw it away. If you are reading tarot cards for fun, throw them away.

You're playing with fire. If you read the horoscope and the newspapers like millions of other Americans, just to sort of see if you know it's going to come true, stop. If you're calling 1-900-Psychic, stop.

OK? Millions of people are calling every day and the deception is widening. Stop flirting with a kingdom that is real and is out to deceive and destroy. God does not warn us because these things are innocent.

Just read again 2 Kings 1 on your own sometime. God doesn't forbid the activities of mediums and sorcerers and spiritists and astrologers because they're silly or just for fun or they're really not true or none of it ever happens. He warns us because they are a doorway that opens the heart and mind to the deceiver, the angel of light, the false teacher, the medium, the channeler, the erudite and articulate guest on television talk shows who say that you can create your own destiny having gained knowledge from spirit guides. Your will can move the universe. For the believer, there is only one whose will we seek. There is only one to whom we pray. There is only one on whom we meditate. There is only one who controls the universe. There is only one who has revealed the future in the truth of Scripture as we pursue it.

There is only one whose will we desire. Listen to the prophet Isaiah deal with the spiritual wanderings of his own people as he wrote this warning. When they say to you, consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, should not a people consult their God?

Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? To the law, to the testimony, he says, if they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no light and they will be thrust into thick darkness. Here is the future. All that God wants us to know about it is unrolling in a scroll held not by a principle of deity, a symbol for any god or goddess, but the Lamb of God, the risen, majestic Son of God. In this inspired tour of heaven, Christ alone is the one worthy of performing the will of his Father, which will mean unleashing the wrath of God on earth, eventually riding to victory with the redeemed and setting up the throne of David in Jerusalem in that coming kingdom. So John stops weeping as he sees Jesus Christ take the scroll. Notice in verse 8, and when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders, which represent the church, fell down before the Lamb. Listen, John is seeing what is in your future.

That's what's so exciting to me about reading this. We're there. He's seeing something that we're participating in, the church. We are crowned, we're wearing white robes, and we'll place them at his feet, where we're called to rule and reign as priests before God.

They fell down. People often wonder what we're going to do when we see Christ. You don't need to wonder.

This text tells you. You will fall at his feet. John MacArthur shared in a session I attended some time ago about a well-known leader, a pastor in California, who told him on one occasion that he was shaving that morning when Jesus Christ appeared to him, a well-known charismatic leader. He said, Jesus Christ appeared. Then he asked John, do you believe me? Do you believe that Jesus Christ appeared to me? And the leader asked, did you keep shaving? He said, yes, I did. MacArthur responded to one Jesus.

If it had been, you would have fallen on your face at his feet, shaving cream and all. Now, before we look at the lyrics, notice what the elders representing the church are holding. Verse 8 tells us that they are each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense. The grammar here in the text makes it unlikely that the four creatures are holding harps or bowls of incense.

In fact, it seems that they do not sing until the final stanza of the hymn we're about to hear. When you hear about the elders holding harps, you think, I knew it. We're going to play harps in heaven. This is where people, by the way, get the idea that we're going to sit on a cloud and play a harp forever. Now, some of you wouldn't have minded if the text said, you know, they're all holding guitars or trumpets. In fact, some of you would really be happy if it said they're holding banjos. You know, heaven knows good music, right?

Amen. Now, these are literal harps and bowls, but they serve a symbolic purpose. We're given some help in verse 8 by being told the symbolic nature of the golden bowls of incense. Notice, these are the prayers of the saints. Roman Catholic interpreters would use this verse to prove that saints in heaven are serving today as mediators of prayers voiced on earth. And so we ought to be praying to the saints. And so you choose or pick your saint. Protestant author Randy Alcorn in his book entitled Heaven, argues that saints in heaven are praying for people on earth. What both views miss, first of all, is the clear teaching in scripture that there is only one mediator in heaven.

And his name is Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2.5. Furthermore, this is not a picture of saints in heaven praying for saints on earth. This is a picture of the future when the church is in heaven with Christ immediately preceding the tribulation. Now, one is not implying here that saints in heaven are conveying to God the prayers of believers on earth, as Roman Catholicism teaches, or that saints in heaven are involved in praying on behalf of saints below, as Alcorn's book teaches.

This is a picture, not of here and now, but of the future. The prayers of the saints then, I believe, could be understood at this particular stage in history as appeals to God for the coming of Messiah's reign, that literal culmination of how Christ taught us to pray on earth before we were taken to heaven. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Imagine the perspective we will have and the ability to pray that particular prayer then.

It will be amazing to hold before him those prayers at that point in time. What about the harps? Well, we're not told what they represent, as we are the bulls of incense. However, in the Old Testament, harps are often associated with prophecy. The prophet Samuel prophesied to the sound of harps in 1 Samuel 10-5. Before Elijah prophesied in 2 Kings 3-15, he called for a harpist while prophesying. I agree with the most evangelical scholars here that I have read that when you take together the harps and bulls, what seems to be indicated here is that all the prophets that have ever prophesied and all the prayers that God's people have ever prayed is finally and ultimately going to be fulfilled. Donald Gray Barnhouse, a former pastor, provoked my thinking when he wrote this. He said, you know, there are four things that are out of place right now in the universe. What he meant by that is there are four things not yet in their final place. Christ, who belongs on David's throne, Israel, who belongs in our land, Satan, who belongs in hell, and the church, who belongs in heaven. Kind of an interesting thought, isn't it?

No wonder there is such incredible worship. Events are moving that will put everything in its rightful place. Verse 9, they sang a new song. Why a new song, by the way?

That struck me. Well, it's a new song because nothing else will quite do. The Greek word for new kinen is a word that refers to something better than old, something of superior value. And when you think about it, Revelation is a book of new things.

If you go to John in the margin, we're given a new name. That's one thing, chapter 2, verse 17, chapter 3, verse 12. We're going to occupy a new Jerusalem, chapter 3, verse 12, chapter 21, verse 2. There are new heavens, a new earth coming, chapter 21, verse 1. And to kind of sum it all up, God says in Revelation chapter 21, verse 5, I make all things, what? New.

Everything is new. What a wonderful promise. Are you abused? Are you mistreated today? God is going to make everything just. Are you suffering and afflicted? God is going to make everything right. Are you tired of temptation and sin? God is going to make everything clean and perfect. Are you tired of the drudgery of life?

God is going to make everything fresh. Are you getting old? I am. When I began pastoring Colonial, I was 28. And I longed to turn 30. I longed to turn 30 because 28 just sounded way too young, so happy. I was even happy to turn 40. I'm not happy anymore.

I want you to know that. God is going to make everything, including us, brand new. They sang a brand new song, a new song. That word for song is the word ode, which gives us our English transliterated word ode. It's a lyrical poem intended to be sung.

We recognize that word in the classical world of music, don't we? In Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, he included the poem Ode to Joy, which is very famous now. In fact, the Ninth Symphony is called the Symphony of Joy because it is so joyful in its lyrics. The poem ends with these powerful lyrics sung in this magnificent symphony. One sees the banners of joy in the wind through the opening of burst coffins. One sees her standing in the chorus of angels. Endure courageously, millions. Endure for the better world.

There above the starry canopy, a great God will reward. It's interesting that by the time Beethoven finished this, he was deaf. Never heard one note when it debuted with him conducting. There were four movements in it. After the second movement, people leapt to their feet and began to cheer. He facing the symphony was rather bothered that they weren't preparing for the third movement.

He kept tapping away at his stand until finally one of the members pointed. He turned around to see the crowd cheering while members of the orchestra wept. Ode to Joy, magnificent music. We can't even begin to imagine here, but the redeemed are singing an ode to Jesus.

It is incredible. It begins in verse 9 with the words, worthy are you. Now John's audience would have goosebumps at that first phrase.

Why? Well Domitian, the cruel Roman emperor was beginning to persecute the church. It was Domitian who exiled John to the island of Patmos. Whenever there was a lavish state banquet or a festival, the crowd would rise when Domitian entered. And they chanted these same words to him, worthy are you, worthy are you.

Imagine what a thrilling moment as this orchestra and choir sings. And John hears these opening words to the true emperor of heaven, the king of kings. In John's day, don't forget the church was small. The church was isolated. The church was struggling.

The church was sinful. What will her future be? John would have wondered, here he is exiled, the last living apostle, will she triumph? Will the promise of Christ come true that the gates of Hades will not overwhelm her? What will be the future of Christianity? Now he is fast forwarded and he sees the churches alive, triumphant and well.

Millions upon millions upon millions of redeemed, singing, worthy are you. The lyrics go on, for you were slain. The word used for slain refers to a death of violence and mercylessness, brutal. His death was not an accident. His death was intentional. Without it, there was no gospel, 1 Corinthians 15.

His death was also redemptive. Notice the next phrase, and by your blood you purchased us for God, which I believe is a better reading. If you have the New King James, that's how it is translated there. The word for purchased, by the way, was used in John's day for buying slaves and then setting them free. You bought us and set us free.

Imagine singing that there in heaven one day. Christ's death was not only intentional and redemptive, it is universal. That is the effects of the atonement of Christ's reach around the world. Just look at the middle part of verse 9, the redeemed are from every tribe. This refers to the same family line or clan. The redeemed are from every language or tongue, glossa, gives us our word glossary. This refers to every group distinguished by a language. The redeemed are from every people.

This word refers to race. The redeemed are from every nation, ethnos, gives us the word ethnic. Can you imagine John's heart pounding with amazement and joy as he discovers that the atoning work of Jesus Christ has gone around the world? Three benefits quickly to Christ's cross work are sung of next. The church has given, first of all, royal position. We're made a kingdom, he says in verse 10. Secondly, we're given an eternal priesthood. As priests, we have an ongoing, immediate access to Christ our Lord.

Thirdly, we're given a future promise. Verse 10, the latter part, and they shall reign on the earth. This is an indisputable reference to the coming kingdom on earth. They shall reign, not in heaven. They shall reign on the earth.

More on that later. Ladies and gentlemen, this ode to joy is inspired here. You could call it an ode to Jesus Christ, which is how I came to think of it. It's really a song about the power of the cross work of Jesus Christ who was slain, who ransomed people for God. By the way, Marianne Williamson in her course in miracles on Oprah's network now having taught millions of people, here's what a course in miracles says about the crucified Lord, and I quote, A slain Christ has no meaning. The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross. Do not make the pathetic error of clinging to the old rugged cross.

End quote. A slain Christ has no meaning? My friend, a slain Christ has eternal meaning.

It is of the utmost importance. Don't make the pathetic error of clinging to the old rugged cross? Listen, don't make the pathetic error of ignoring the old rugged cross. That's the gospel. Paul said, God forbid that I should glory in anything except the cross of Jesus Christ.

You can't make too much of that either. You ignore the crucified Savior, you reject the cross of Jesus Christ and you will die in your sins without hope forever. You accept the crucified Savior, you place your faith in his death for you and his forgiveness of your sin and his resurrection for your justification and you will live in heaven forever.

Ignore it, die in your sins and suffer the consequences forever. Believe it and live into Christ and you will live with him in the coming kingdom forever and ever. If you have any desire to enjoy eternity in heaven with God and avoid the consequences that come from being the enemy of God, place your faith in Jesus Christ and the message of the gospel revealed to us in the Bible.

I hope you've done that. If you have any desire to enjoy eternity in heaven with God and avoid the consequences that come from being the enemy of God, I hope you've done that and if you haven't, I hope you'll do that today. This is Wisdom for the Heart and Stephen Davey called this lesson, Forbidden. You can learn more about Stephen and our ministry if you visit wisdomonline.org. With our next lesson, Stephen will conclude this current series. on Wisdom for the Heart. .