A New Song in Heaven - 17

I am in Revelation chapter 5.

We are considering a new song that John draws our attention to, and I will read the entire chapter. Revelation chapter 5 beginning at verse 1. And I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll, written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who was worthy to open the scroll unto lucid seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look at it. So I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it.

But one of the elders said to me, Do not weep. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll unto lucid seven seals. And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each having a harp in golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor 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, I heard saying, Blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb forever and ever. Then the four living creatures said, Amen, and the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped him who lives forever and ever. May God write his eternal word upon our hearts and give us understanding and give us a will and a desire to comply and to conform our lives to the revealed word of God. One of the great gifts of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, at least in our lifetime, has been Dr. R.C.

Sproul, who is now in glory. One of his legacies that he left to the church was his high view of God, a man of incredible theological preciseness, a mind to understand and to comprehend and to articulate theology. I recall being at the Ligonier Conference in Orlando, Florida, and heard him preach, at least it was the last time I heard him preach. And he was obviously weak and was on oxygen and they had to wheel him to the stage in a wheelchair and he was helped to the platform and he came behind the lectern and he preached. He preached from Isaiah chapter 6 on the holiness of God. And whatever weakness he knew in body, the Spirit of God helped him. And your mind was not drawn to how weak and feeble this man was, but your mind and heart was drawn to the God that he was exalting and elevating and worshiping. Toward the end of his ministry, he took on a project of writing music, setting words of scripture to music, and then entered into a partnership with Jeff Lippincott, who wrote the music to quite a few hymns that Dr. R.C.

Sproul had written. And one of those hymns that we heard sung at the Ligonier Conference was this hymn entitled, Worthy is the Lamb, and listen to the words and how they come straight out of Revelation chapter 5. The veil of heaven opened wide, the scene was clearly set. John saw a scroll writ either side where seven seals were met.

With booming voice the angel said, To now unseal the scroll. But none was found to meet the task, not even one lone soul. Convulsed with tears and broken heart, John's hope was now assailed. Weep not, the elder counseled him, a lion has prevailed. No lion came to take his claim, no beast of royal reign. Instead there stood a bloodied lamb like one who had been slain. Ten thousand times ten thousand more the host of heaven cried, All blessing, honor, glory, and power to Christ the Lamb that died. Worthy, worthy, worthy is the Lamb.

Worthy, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. That captures and preserves in song the words of Revelation chapter 5 that we're considering this evening. A new song we're told in verse 8, Now when he had taken the scroll. The focus up to this point in John's vision was of him who was seated on the throne. And John's vision was drawn to a scroll, a seven sealed scroll in the right hand of Almighty God. And you heard me read the scriptures, you heard it rendered in song.

There was a search went out for someone worthy to take the seven sealed scroll and to open it and to reveal its content and no one was found. And John wept because of that reality. One of the elders said to him, Do not weep, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has prevailed. And John's vision was drawn away from him who sat on the throne, which has dominated chapter 4 and chapter 5 up to this point. And John's attention is drawn away to him who approached God the Father on the throne of God and took the scroll. And as he did, all heaven erupted in worship and praise.

And that's the scene that's before us. The Lamb is worthy of the highest praise. Now when he had taken the scroll, let me back up to verse 7, Then he, that is the Lamb, that is Christ, that is our glorified Savior, when he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb.

Each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. The new song that John heard was the song of redemption. It was the song celebrating the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the salvation that he had accomplished. William Hendrickson in his commentary says they sing a new song because never before had such great and glorious deliverance been accomplished.

Never before had the Lamb received this great honor. So it's a new song, new in the sense that worship is not directed to God Almighty on the throne, but worship is now being directed to the second person of the Godhead, God the Son, for his redemptive work. Again, now when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Let me stop and make mention of what we see there, the golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. Perhaps we need some help in understanding the value that heaven places upon our prayers as saints of God on this earth. Perhaps we have not fully understood that the offering of prayers is an act of worship.

Here in the presence of this scene of worship are again four living creatures and 24 elders, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And perhaps more than anything else, it should inspire us and encourage us and help us to understand that our prayers are not simply a means of communication and fellowship with God and interceding for others, but first and foremost, at least in this context, it's worship. It's worship. And some ask from time to time, why do we have an order of worship? Why do we do the things we do in worship?

Is that just tradition? And we had this discussion recently, I believe in staff meeting or maybe it was in other contexts, I'm not sure, but we try and include those things in the order of worship that we're given instruction in the word of God. And here is worship and here is prayers being offered. So we're more than invoking the blessing of God upon a gathering, a corporate gathering, we are also engaged in worship, leading you in worship, helping you to understand that prayers, both corporate and individual, are an act of worship before God.

And that is taking place here. The host of heaven sang a new song. And notice what provoked that. They sang a new song, verse 9, saying, you are worthy to take the scroll. Now again, worship now is being diverted away from him who sits on the throne to him who comes to take the seven sealed scroll out of the right hand of Almighty God. They, the four living creatures and the 24 elders, they sang a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals. And what qualifies him to take the scroll?

What are they directing our attention to? It says, for you were slain. Why is he worthy of worship? Now there's two elements here and one is not mentioned, is not the cause of worship, but I need to mention it so that you can see the distinction that I want to make. Christ is worthy. He has intrinsic worth in who he is, in his person, in his perfection, in his being God. He's worthy of our worship. But he receives worship not for who he is, but for what he has accomplished. And notice what this glorious cause is. The worthiness of the Savior who has ascended and taken his reign in heaven and he is worshiped there because it says, you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood.

You were slain. Christ is glorified. Christ is worshiped here for his sacrifice and death, for his giving of himself to redeem a people from their sins.

Seems like an odd, not odd, but our attention ought to be arrested, I think, at this point. Of all the things that would be the cause for our attention being drawn to worship him, there are so many things. Again, it's not his person, it's not his character, it's not his perfection, it's not his teaching, it's not his example, it's his redemptive work. It's his giving of himself to redeem us to God. It is because of his shedding his own blood to redeem us. Sometimes we ask the question, who is responsible for the death of Jesus? Who is responsible that he was slain?

And there are many answers to that question, but let me suggest one that perhaps we don't very often think of when we seek to answer that question. Who was responsible for the death of Jesus? Jesus was. Jesus was. He gave his life willingly, sacrificially, of his own free will and accord.

It was voluntary, it was vicarious. Jesus said, no one takes my life from me, I lay it down and I have power to take it back up. Jesus willed his own death. He laid down his life voluntarily on purpose for the purpose of redeeming us by his blood. So Christ is worthy, not only because he was slain, but secondly in the text here, he's worthy to be worshipped for the salvation that his death achieved.

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain. You see, if Jesus' death was just simply a plan gone awry, just got caught up in a vortex of evil people, if that's all it is, then he's not worthy to be worshipped. But he's worthy to be worshipped because he was slain and being slain, giving his life, had a purpose. He came for the purpose of giving his life, that he might redeem us to God by his blood. There are those who are not very happy with the emphasis of blood in the scriptures.

They want to extract that from it, they're embarrassed by it, they want to ignore that. But folks, any salvation that's void of the blood of Christ is a deficient salvation. We're saved by the blood and body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The dying of Jesus, the shedding of his blood, without the remission of sins, without the forgiveness of sins, or without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. The shedding of the blood of Christ is absolutely essential to our salvation. I don't know what the mention of the cross, the mention of death, the mention of blood, the mention of a cross evokes in you, but whatever it does, it ought to be different than the world.

What is the world? How does the world view the message of the cross? Well, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1 that the message of the cross is foolishness. It's foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. To those who are perishing, foolishness, but to us who are being saved.

That may arrest your attention a bit. We tend to talk about being saved in the past tense, but again we need to be reminded that when we're talking salvation, salvation is a broad term. There are many aspects of salvation. There is a sense in which we have, past tense, been saved.

We've been justified. But as Paul draws our attention there in 1 Corinthians 1, to us who are being saved, that there is a present aspect to God's saving work, that draws our attention to the doctrine of progressive sanctification. And then there are places in the scriptures where we find reference to a future salvation.

We shall be saved. Is it uncertain? Is it something that we can't be confident about?

No. Again, speaking of another dimension, another aspect of salvation, and in theological terms, it's glorification. The world views the cross, the world views the death of Christ as a sign of weakness, that he couldn't overcome his enemies.

But again, what does Paul say? To us who are being saved, it's the power of God. Not weakness, but a manifestation and a demonstration of power. Foolishness to the world, but what?

The manifestation of the wisdom of God, the wisdom of God. Again, the world says it epitomizes weakness. But for you and I as believers, it's a reminder of the power of God, the strength of God. The world says that it's an example of shame and the grotesqueness of it, the nakedness of Christ hanging on the cross. He was shamed, and there's a sense in which he was. But the cross has earned Christ the highest honor.

He's not shamed. The Bible says that God has exalted him and given him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And that's in the context of Philippians chapter 2 that speaks of his great humiliation, his incarnation, his death upon the cross. And God rewarded Christ for his willingness to humble himself and to come and give his life. And what followed humiliation? Exaltation.

Exaltation. So the world says it's a place of deep disgrace. But the Bible tells us it is the very place that the glory of the grace of God is displayed. The world would say it's an emblem, it's a sign, it's evidence of defeat where the word of God, the Bible, a Christian says no, no, no.

It's not an emblem of defeat. It is the place of greatest triumph where Christ faced the worst of enemies, sinned, death the grave, and was victorious. So again I say all that to underscore that our attention is drawn as we are made to see that Jesus is worshiped in heaven.

And what is the basis? Why is he worshiped in heaven? Because number one, he was slain. And number two, he has redeemed us to God by his blood.

I was going to say, well maybe I will. And has redeemed us to God out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. There's a wideness in God's mercy. God is drawing men and women, the elective God from the four corners of the earth.

He's preparing a bride for his son. And that bride will consist of people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. And that's why we are so enthusiastically engaged in worldwide missions because there are the elective God scattered all over the earth represented in every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. And we want to take the good news of the gospel which is the means of salvation to those who have not yet been brought in. Now when we think of salvation, we most of the time think of being saved from. We've been saved from sin. We've been saved from wrath. We've been saved from condemnation. We've been saved from the penalty of sin. But this scene of worship in heaven draws our attention not what we've been saved only from, but what we have been saved to. And what have we been saved to according to verse 10.

Again, worship is being directed to God the Son for his redemptive work, for the shedding of his blood, for redeeming us unto God. And he has made us kings and priests to our God and we shall reign on the earth. Now I don't know if your Bible draws your attention to the fact that there's a textual variant in verse 10, but my Bible does and my study did and really the thought there is not in verse 10, he's not made us kings, but he has made us a kingdom, singular. He has made us a kingdom. We are part of a kingdom. Christ is the king.

He is the monarch. He is the one that we bow to. He's the one that we seek to honor and obey. That Christ and him alone is to be worshiped, obeyed and served.

Not Caesar or any other earthly monarch, but Christ. And that's what we've been saved to. We've been saved to a life of obedience. We've been saved to a life of service.

We've been saved to a life of allegiance to King Jesus because he's made us a part of his kingdom. A kingdom has made us a kingdom and priests, plural, to our God. And the connection here is we are to serve Christ and Christ's kingdom in a priestly capacity.

What does that mean? What do priests do? Well, priests worship. That's one thing and that's what we're seeing here set before us, this scene of worship.

Priests engage in a priestly work, incense, the prayers. We pray to God. We serve God as priests in that fashion. We serve Christ in whatever his interests are in this world. We represent him in this world to a lost and dying world. So those are some of the ways in which we serve as priests.

And then a question that is a bit challenging. It says he's made us kings and priests to our God and it says, and we shall, notice the definite aspect to it, we shall, not might, we hope to, we could, no, we shall reign on the earth. We shall reign on the earth and the context there is that there will be an earthly kingdom. And on that kingdom we will reign with Christ in some kind of a priestly fashion. And I have two questions that I will simply raise and will not attempt to answer because I don't have the answers to either one of them.

But here are my two questions. What does it mean? What does it mean that we will reign? Not just submit to Christ in his earthly kingdom and acknowledge him as Lord and his lordship, it says we will reign, we will reign. We shall reign on the earth. So my question, what does it mean that we will reign? And question number two, when? When will we reign? When will we reign? And that really gets into questions of eschatology.

And to simply raise the questions and draw your attention to it and move on. Whatever that is, it's a spiritual, there's a spiritual dimension to it. You remember when Pilate was questioning Jesus about, so you're a king. And Jesus says, oh yes, I am a king, but my kingdom is not of this world. My kingdom is not of this world. And Jesus was making reference to a spiritual kingdom. A kingdom where he rules and reigns in the hearts of men and women.

And I think that has to be part of our consideration as we're trying to answer that question, what does it mean that we will reign and where will we reign? Revelation chapter five concludes with the entirety of creation responding to the adoration and the four living creatures and the 24 elders. Notice with me in verse 11, John says, then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne. The four living creatures and the elders and the number of them. And again, the number of them, the antecedent of them is the angels. The number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands. Now you number crunchers, the point of that language is to communicate to you that the number of angels is innumerable.

They cannot be counted. And then we must ask the question, well, why are angels engaged in worship? Angels are not the recipients of salvation. Angels aren't redeemed.

God had no plan to redeem fallen angels. Peter tells us that the angels long to look into this matter of salvation. They were curious about it.

They wanted to understand it. So they're not engaged in worship for their own personal benefit. But you remember, Jesus told us that the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who repents. So the angels are caused to worship God and the Lord Jesus for the manifestation of His saving work. So even though they're not the recipients of salvation, they have not been redeemed, they are engaged in worship.

And it seems to me that, I don't want to make too much of it, but there's an order here. That the angels are mentioned after the church is mentioned. That the angels are informed, they learn about worship and why there's worship going on, why Jesus is being worshiped from the redeemed church and they take their cue from that.

Perhaps. Then I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne. The living creatures, who are they? They are the seraphim of God, those special creatures of God, those fearsome, awesome, holy creatures that God created for the purpose of serving Him in worship. And the elders. Remember the 24 elders sitting upon 24 thrones? And the scholars tell us that they are the representative of the redeemed church. Representative of the redeemed church throughout all the ages. Made up of the 12 patriarchs, the old covenant people of God, included with the 12 apostles. The 12 and 12 make 24 and I had someone ask me a question recently and it was a good question. Well if there are these thrones and there are 24 people sitting on the throne, the patriarchs and the apostles, where is the place for Paul the apostle, the apostle Paul?

Is he one of the 12? And I thought that was a good question because of the significant place that he's played in the giving of the canon of scripture and the place he holds in the church and the history of the church. So, angels, innumerable host of angels around the throne. Living creatures, the seraph of God, and then the elders.

And what are they doing? Verse 12 says, They are saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb. The focus is still upon God the Son, the Lamb, the Redeemer. Worthy is the Lamb, again, who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Worthy to receive and there are seven things, a seven-fold expression of praise.

And again, you know that seven is a number of completion, that he's worthy of the complete expression in form of worship. Worthy is the Lamb, again, who was slain. But he's not dead. He's glorified in heaven.

He's there. He bears the marks of his death. Five bleeding wounds he bears received on Calvary, the hymn writer says. But here the angels compose and they sing a hymn dedicated, again, not to God, but to the Lamb. These heavenly angels, heavenly beings, these angels, they name the Lamb being worthy of worship twice in this context.

Chapter 4 verse 11, chapter 5 and verse 9, chapter 5 here in verse 12. Well, I want to draw your attention to chapter 4 and verse 11 where God the Father is worshiped because of creation. But twice in chapter 5, God the Son, the Lamb, is worshiped because of his work and redemption. So the church has cause for worship, for God's two great acts.

Number one, his act of creation. He's worthy of worship because of that. But he's worthy of worship in redemption, in the work that the Son has accomplished. Notice verse 13. Notice how all created, the entire created order is summoned to worship. And every creature which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them, I heard saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be to who? Be to him who sits on the throne, worship of God Almighty and to the Lamb forever and ever. You see, any notion that God the Son and God the Father were not exactly on the same page when it came to the work of redemption are completely erroneous. There is perfect harmony in the Godhead, even as I prayed earlier in the service.

I've read different people arguing that there was an unwillingness on Christ's part and the Father had to persuade him and he had to offer him this in order for him to do it. No, no. The Father is to be worshiped and all of the created order, all in heaven, all on earth, all in the sea, everywhere there is to be, blessing and honor and glory and power be to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb for how long? Forever and ever.

Forever and ever. And that doxology evokes an affirmative amen from the representatives that are surrounding God's throne. Notice verse 14, then the four living creatures said, Amen, and the 24 elders fell down and worshiped him who lives forever and ever. I trust that so far in our working through our study of the book of the Revelation that your perspective has been challenged and perhaps altered a bit. Because those who are not familiar with the content of the book of the Revelation tend to think that the book of the Revelation is solely about end times.

What's going to happen in the future? Well, here we are at the end of chapter five. What has been dominant throughout our study of these five chapters, however many sermons that has taken for us to get this far? Our focus has been upon God. Our focus has been on the Lord Jesus Christ, which shouldn't surprise us because John says to us in verse one of chapter one, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants things which must take place, it's the revelation of Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is being revealed to us. He's being laid before us, set before us on the pages of scripture.

And it is a terrible hermeneutic that misses Christ in the book of the Revelation. So we have, and I have labored hard to be faithful to the text and set before you what is here. And the Lord Jesus Christ is set before us. And I don't know, again, I trust if you're a child of God, your heart is reverberating as those around that throne.

When you see this scene and when you see what's going on and you're captured by the vision, you say what is recorded here that the four living creatures said. We say, Amen! Amen! Give your affirmation to this because, again, if you are of the redeemed, you have been purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. He shed his blood for you. This is what you will be doing in eternity, again, forever and forever. As we conclude, let me read the words of this hymn of Charles Wesley, O for a thousand tongues to sing! You know, it's unrealistic, but it is an expression of a heart that's full of thanksgiving and praise and a desire to worship God. And it's saying, O for a thousand voices, a thousand tongues to sing! Charles Wesley says, O for a thousand tongues to sing! My great Redeemer's praise! The glories of my God and King!

The triumphs of His grace! My gracious Master and my God, assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad the honors of Thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our fears, that bids our sorrows cease, Tis music in the sinner's ear, tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free, His blood can make the foulest clean, His blood availed for me. Hear Him, ye deaf, His praise ye dumb, your loosened tongues employ, Ye blind, behold your Savior come, and leap, ye lame, for joy.

Shall we pray? Father, thank You for a heart and for the way You have constituted us to engage our being in worship of You. How could a redeemed sinner do anything but have a heart and a desire to extol and to worship and to praise You, O Father, and You, Lord Jesus? How we thank You for the redeeming work of our Savior and how that work has included us, that we have been bought and purchased with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fill our hearts with worship of Him, increase our desire, increase our ability to engage our hearts in this most notable activity. Thank You for the Word of God. Thank You for revealing this portion of Your Word to us. Continue to bless us as we study this precious book, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.