AM Revelation 7:9-17

[0:00] Strange days in which we meet each other and greet each other. Just a few moments of introduction.

[0:11] I'm going to be here, God willing. Who knows what's going to happen over the next few weeks, but certainly the plan is that I'm going to be here quite a bit between now and the end of the year, God willing.

[0:24] And so I hope we like each other and I hope we get on with each other. My name is Douglas Cranston, my wife Christine. We live in Blackwood.

[0:36] We're members of the Free Church there in Blackwood, a new Free Church. I come from Glasgow, but I spent my last two years of education in Dumfries Academy, so I'm not unfamiliar with these places.

[0:53] His dad was minister in Sankar, just a couple of hours down the road. And I came to school here in 1977 and 78.

[1:08] And it's lovely to be back and it's lovely to be with you. And I bring greetings from the clerk of the presbytery, who's my own minister, who's very ill at the moment with Covid.

[1:21] Him and his wife are both diagnosed just recently with Covid. And we pray for them, of course. And I also bring greetings from my good friend and your interim moderator, Kenny, who sends his best wishes.

[1:40] The evening service is at six o'clock and I had hoped to be with you, but as you may know, on Friday, South Lanarkshire, where we live, has been diagnosed one of the areas where we're not allowed to go into someone else's home.

[1:57] So, unfortunately, I can't avail myself of the hospitality that was offered. And it was decided it was just too far to go back to Blackwood and then come back here at night.

[2:09] So, Norman Cumming has very kindly agreed to step in and he's going to lead you in worship this evening at six o'clock. Now, we're really at the mercy of the government at this time in terms of how long that process will continue.

[2:27] But hopefully, the next time I'm back, hopefully, that restriction will have been lifted and I'll be able to do a morning and an evening.

[2:39] Wednesday at 7pm in the Lower Hall with the prayer meeting and Bible study led by Robert Dale. And next Lord's Day, at the usual times of 11 and 6, Tom McKenzie from Downvale Church will lead us in worship, God willing.

[3:02] So, I think that's all the intimations. Let's worship God as we come to sing His praise and glory from the Scottish Psalter.

[3:13] We are going to be listening to Psalm 148, the first six verses to God's praise. Psalm 149, the first six verses to God in the Lord.

[3:35] The Lord of heaven confess On high His glory grace Him let all angels bless In all His armies grace In all His armies grace In all His armies grace In all His armies grace In all His armies grace And all His armies grace From God your beings are In all His armies grace In all His armies grace In all His armies grace When He the world must say And from that place And from that place Where things still be And from that place

[4:38] Where things still be Like His degree You'll come on us Let's allow the psalmist to read us into prayer Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth Serve the Lord with gladness Come into His presence with singing Know that the Lord He is God It is He who made us And we are His We are His people And the sheep of His pasture Enter His gates with thanksgiving And His courts with praise Give thanks to Him Bless His name For the Lord is good His steadfast love endures forever And His faithfulness To all generations Let us unite our hearts

[5:40] In prayer Let us pray Almighty God and gracious Heavenly Father You are our Father in Heaven And it is for us wonder of all wonders That You who are high and holy Above all heaven Lord of time and eternity That You should have directed the times and the seasons And in Your eternal purpose You should find a way to dwell among us In the person of the Lord Jesus Christ You dwelt in untroubled Unsullied peace and perfect bliss You were in Godhead unity And harmony And yet You found a way to come near to us In the Lord Jesus Christ

[6:41] Emptying Himself And not considering equality with God Something to be held on to You became man And You dwelt among us In all Your fullness You entered the frailty of our humanity And because of that You are not unaware or untouched By the feelings of our iniquities By all the inadequacies that we feel By our fragility By our frightenedness And by all that troubles us In these days And in these hours By the very miracle of incarnation As one made flesh to dwell among us We pray that You will look upon us graciously That Your Word will speak to us this day That the Lord Jesus Christ Might become through Your Holy Spirit

[7:43] The sole focus of our minds And our deliberations this day And we come to You As we look on the Lord Jesus Christ Very aware of how far short we fall We are very aware of our frailty But we are often less aware of our falling short And we pray that Your Holy Spirit Will work a work in our life That as we expose ourselves to Your Word We will see that we do indeed Fall short of the glory of God That we are sinners And that we have sinned And that without Your grace And without the Lord Jesus Christ Saving death on the cross There is nothing that we could do To bring ourselves closer to You We are dead Dead in our trespasses and sins

[8:44] But In the Lord Jesus Christ And through His unique and saving death And Calvary's cross You have brought us near And You have made us alive Through the Gospel Eternal God We come before You When we confess our sin Not least the fearfulness That so many display in this day Not least our own sense Of having fallen short Of the opportunities That have been given us In these days To proclaim Your good news And to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ High We confess the sins That we have committed Against each other We confess our own personal sins And we pray

[9:46] Heavenly Father That in Your great mercy And through Your loving kindness We might know afresh The calm of sins forgiven That we might be renewed In the power of the Gospel That the ministry of the Holy Spirit Will be evident among us this day And may it even be Your purpose Lord God That You might speak to us anew For those of us Who know the Word And who belong to You We pray that we will come To that Word With a freshness And a fresh appreciation Of its depths And of its truth And of its life And if there be any here this day Who do not know Your Lord God We pray that it might be Within Your will And Your purpose That You might speak to them this day And by Your grace Open up their hearts and lives To the truth of the Gospel Father our deep desire is

[10:49] That You might bless this time That we might know more of You And more of Your Son The Lord Jesus Christ And that in Your blessing We might find peace Perfect peace In this Tired Broken world That we might be found To be the people of the light Living the Gospel way Giving in all things Thanks to God Our Heavenly Father For His Son The Lord Jesus Christ Our unique Saviour So this day Heavenly Father We pray that we might know Your presence with us The calm of sin forgiven And the renewal Of our commitment to You And to serving You In this tired and broken world Through Jesus Christ Our Lord we ask this

[11:50] Amen Let's continue to worship God As we sing from Sing Psalms Psalm number 23 The Lord is my shepherd No more shall I know He makes me like a bear Where the green masters grow He leads me to rest Where the calm waters grow My wandering steps He brings back to His way His strength of righteousness

[12:51] Making me stay And this He has come From His great name To display The one in this valley Where darkness is near Because you are with me No evil I fear Your love and your staff Bring me comfort and cheer In the sight of my enemies The table you spread The oil of rejoicing You pour on my head

[13:52] My cup overflows And I'm graciously fed So surely your covenant And mercy and grace Will follow me closely In all of my ways I will dwell in love And solve the Lord All my days Amen Well turn with me In God's word To the last book of the Bible The book of Revelation It had been my intention To preach morning and evening

[14:53] On this passage So I think what we're going to do Is we're just going to see How far we get This morning And then God willing Next time I'm back We'll follow that up It is my intention To do a couple of series Over the times That I'm here And in particular I am going to be doing Something that's Very evangelistic Around the person Of the Lord Jesus Christ In the lead up In the Lord's days Up to Christmas And I think that affords you An opportunity You have that every Sunday Of course To invite friends and family Along to those services That will be specifically Focused on evangelism Part of the reason I'm doing this Is I think As many of you will know

[15:54] There are a lot of people Who have really had Very little connections With any church Or any Christian faith group Who are asking A lot of questions These days About what's going on In our world And what's happening To our world And I firmly believe That the Christian gospel Is the only answer To all these questions And I would hope That you would feel free To invite friends along Perhaps you haven't done that For a little while But specifically Invite them along To those services On the lead up To Christmas What I'll do is I'll give you specifically A note of what I'm going To be preaching on It really focuses around The identity and the person And the work Of the Lord Jesus Christ But this morning I want us to turn To the 7th chapter Of the book of Revelation And we come here

[16:55] Really as an encouragement To those of us Who are believers And what I want to focus On this morning Is the perspective That this book And particularly This second half Of this chapter Brings to us As God's people A perspective A perspective That I believe Is very needed And necessary In our day And in these times So we're reading God's word From the 7th chapter Of the book Of Revelation We're reading From the 9th verse And this is The word of God After this I looked And behold A great multitude That no one Could number From every nation From all tribes And people And languages Standing before The throne And before the Lamb

[17:55] Clothed in white robes With palm branches In their hands And crying out With a loud voice Salvation belongs To our God Who sits on the throne And to the Lamb And all the angels Were standing Around the throne And around the elders And the four living creatures And they fell on their faces Before the throne And worshipped God Saying Amen Blessing And glory And wisdom And thanksgiving And honour And power And might Be to our God Forever and ever Amen Then one of the elders Addressed me Saying Who are these Clothed in white robes And from where have they come I said to him Sir You know And he said to me These are the ones

[18:56] Coming out Of the great tribulation They have washed Their robes And been made them White in the blood Of the Lamb Therefore they are Before the throne Of God And serve him Day and night In his temple And he who sits On the throne Will shelter them With his presence They shall hunger No more Neither thirst Any more The sun Shall not strike Them Nor any Scorching heat For the Lamb In the midst Of the throne Will be their shepherd And he will Guide them To the springs Of living water And God Will wipe away Every tear From their eyes Amen And may God Bless to us This reading Of his holy word And to his name Be all praise And glory given Just before we turn To consider God's word Let's again

[19:57] Unite our hearts In prayer Let us pray Eternal God And loving Heavenly Father It is indeed Our duty And our delight To come before you And we would want To acknowledge The awesome privilege That is ours Of standing before you In worship Before the very throne Of this God That we've just been Reading about In this wonderful book Of Revelation We stand before you And as Solomon Stood before the temple As it had been built Declaring you are God And there is no one Like you in all The universe We would want To echo those words Heavenly Father Confessing that There is no one Like you In all the universe Heavenly Father

[21:01] We do not need To rehearse Before you The times And the seasons That we live in You are God And we believe That these things Have been brought About by your Almighty hand And we thank you Heavenly Father That you have given us A way and a means And a faith Calling us to Understand the seasons Calling us to Look to you For truth And explanation And for peace And we look around And we see A tired Old world Broken in so many Different places And we cry out To you for mercy That in judgment You will remember Mercy Father God

[22:05] We look to At our Political leaders In Westminster And in Edinburgh As they Seek to Manage this Situation As they seek to Tweak things Here and there And we see Nothing but Confusion and Chaos Father we pray That these times Might be A cry From you To the nations To turn to you To seek only Your face And to know That in you And in you alone There lies the answer To all our Uncertainty To all our pain To all our Fear To all our Grief To all our Despair Father we pray For a revival In Scotland

[23:05] The nation That was once Known throughout The world As the nation Of the book Heavenly Father We just cry Out that Once again That your Word might be Heard and Proclaimed Throughout the Nation That people Might find a Fresh turning To you In these days And that our Political leaders Might look to you To find The solutions To all the Issues and Problems that They are seeking To address We pray for Any in our Community Heavenly Father Who are Suffering from This virus We thank you For the skill Of doctors And nurses And for Health workers Who are Supporting us In these days We pray that You'll sustain Them and keep Them safe And we pray Too for the

[24:06] Rule of law And for Order That authorities Will be Sensitive But firm In seeking To establish Safe environments For us To work In and To leisure In We pray to Heavenly Father For the Leaders of our Church and of Our denomination We pray that You'll grant Them wisdom As they Struggle with The issues Of opening Up places Of worship And the Challenges That that Brings Lord God And heavenly Father Bless us As your People Protect us And uphold Us In your Mercy And in Your grace Encourage us As your People We pray That we Might indeed Have strength For today And bright

[25:08] Hope For tomorrow Father You're the God who Knows Even the Numbers of Hairs on Our head And so You're a God who Cares Personally About us You want To be Intimately Involved In every Aspect Of our Lives And so This day Heavenly Father We bring Before you Our own Personal Needs And our Own Personal Concerns And our Own Personal Prayers Hear these Our prayers Heavenly Father For we

[26:09] Ask them In the Precious Name Of the Lord Jesus Christ Amen Well I Hope that You'll have Your Bibles Open It's far More important To see what God is saying Than anything That I have To say to You this Morning So I Do encourage You every Time that Any of us Indeed are In this Pulpit To have Your Bibles Open And make Sure that What you're Being told Is correct And accurate So just Before we Consider this Let's again Turn to God And ask For his Help Let's Pray Our gracious God we Ask you To do Now for What we Cannot do For ourselves That as we Open up Your word That you Will speak To us Through the Ministry Of your Holy Spirit Show us Yourself

[27:09] Show us Ourself Show us The Saviour And may Your word Speak to Us O Lord Amen Now I Spent 35 Years of Ministry Engaging in Systematic Expository Preaching In first Of all Denny West Park And then In St.

[27:38] Columba In Kilmacomb And I Would always Alert people To ministers Who would Just come In and Grab a Chapter Out of a Book At random And then Start preaching It and Here I am Doing exactly That And so I Think it Requires just A moment of Explanation as To why I'm Delving right Into the Middle of This And that Is because As I look Out on our World today As many of You will Know It is a World of Great confusion I'm not sure That's anything New frankly I thought the World was Confused Six months Ago Before anybody Had ever Heard of COVID-19 But particularly In these days There is Just a Randomness And a Confusion Out there Of people Not knowing Of people Not understanding What's going On And certainly

[28:38] There is an Opportunity To bring To these Days And these Times An eternal Perspective It's not a Glib thing To know And to say That we As believers Who have The Bible Have read The last Chapters We know How this World is Going to End We know How these Things Will finish And if Anything Has happened Over these Last six Months It's become Very very Clear That the World that Was presented To us In the Media And in Literature And in Our newspapers And by Our politicians By our Scientists The world That was Had everything Under control And science Could do Anything And we Were all Constantly Making Progress And we Were evolving Morally And politically And as

[29:38] Human beings That has Been shown To be The great Lie that We all Knew it Was six Months Ago And what Is interesting To me As someone Who has Spent 35-40 Years of Ministry Viewing the World And speaking To people And analysing All that From a Christian Perspective Is that Not only Is the World Been thrown Into Confusion But the World Has displayed Great Fear In our Generation When I Hear people Speaking Today In our Televisions Through our Modern Media What I Hear Is fear People Are quite Genuinely Terrified They're

[30:39] Terrified At an Economic Level They're Fearful For members Of their Family Who are In the Vulnerable Category And now Increasingly They're Fearful For our Young People Who are Being exposed To this Virus And we're Told that We still Do not Know what The long Term Effects Are going To be They're Afraid For Economic Reasons They're Afraid For their Own Well-being As they Psychologically Contemplate More Times of Isolation Our Own Circumstances In South Lanarkshire Is that Once again We've been Told that We cannot Visit Each Other Fear And that Fear is Not something That's Local to South Lanarkshire Or to Dumfries Or to Scotland Or to The United Kingdom It's a Fear that Has spread Throughout the World People Are Afraid And perhaps

[31:40] Even Some of us Who are Christian people Have got a Little fear In our Lives We are Human Beings It's Natural When we Encounter Something That we've Never Encountered Before That we Might become Afraid Political Events And scientists And our Secular World Has made Great Claims Regarding The Significance Of this That And the Other Six Months Ago All we Could Talk About Was Whether We Should Leave Europe Or Stay In Europe It was Everywhere And then Suddenly A virus Strikes Our land And These things Are hardly Mentioned For six Months Such Is the Fickleness Of what The world Considers To be Important And what The world Considers To be Dominating

[32:41] In our Lives This book Of revelation Is a Vital Book For us To be Looking At And Understanding Those Of us Who have Been Christians For many Many Years And many Many Decades Would Probably Say It's One Of The Books That We Don't Really Know Very Much About That We Don't Really Quite Understand What It's About That We Don't Really Go There As Often As We Perhaps Go To Some Of The Other More Familiar Places In The Bible Perhaps The Corners Of Our Bible Are Not Quite So Worn Out In The Pages Of Revelation And Part Of That Is That We're Sometimes Afraid Of The Book Because Of That Lack Of Understanding Well It's Not A Book That We Should Be At All Afraid Of And I'm Going To Try And Help You Get

[33:41] Into This Book Just A We Bit By Preaching A Couple Of Sermons On This Book But First Of All I Want You To Understand What The Book Of Revelation Is Essentially Doing And We Don't Need To Look Very Far Into The Book Of Revelation To See What It's About If You Just Open Up Your Bibles Go Right Back To The Very First Chapter And The Very First Verse The Revelation Of Jesus Christ Which God Gave To John To Show To His Servants Now That That Is So Easily Missed And Yet It's Right There At The Start Of The Book That This Book Is Best Understood And Indeed Is Properly Understood By

[34:41] Understanding That What God Through His Holy Spirit Is Doing To John Is That He's Showing Him Things So The Book Of Revelation Is About Pictures And About Scenes And About Things That Are Meant To First Engage With The Eye To The Brain And Not The Ear To The Brain Now Turn Back To The Passage That We're Considering Today In Chapter 7 And Verse 9 And We See This Clearly Underlined For Us After This I Looked So Again What We Are Being Presented With Is A Picture And

[35:43] More Specifically A Description Of The Picture That God In His Mercy Has Chosen To Reveal To John And Through The Holy Spirit And Through The Bible To Us Through What Is Written Down So I Think You'll Find It Enormously Helpful And There's Perhaps No Better Way To Spend A Sunday Afternoon Than Actually Reading Through This Book And Thinking Of It From That Perspective That What We Are Doing As We Read The Book Of Revelation Is We're Really Going Into An Amazing Art Gallery And We're Going Into One Of Those Side Rooms That Happens To Be The Book Of Revelation And Up On The Wall As We See Each Scene Unfolding Through That Book We

[36:44] Are Seeing Great Pictures That God Is Presenting Before Us For Our Understanding For Our Study And For The Building Up Of His People Creating A Surety That He Wants Us To Have As Believing People And So With That In Mind What I Want Us I Want Us To Consider What Is The Picture That We Happen To Be Looking At When We Come To This Ninth Verse In The Seventh Chapter Of The Book Of Revelation Now I Don't Know About You But I Am Fortunate Enough That I Travelled To Many Places In The World And One Of The Things That I Love Doing As I Go To Particularly Many Of These Great Cities Is To Go To Art Galleries And

[37:45] As You Go To These Art Galleries You Come In And There Are Many Seats That Are Laid Out So That You Could Sit In Front Of One Of These Pictures That You Happen To Be Looking At That The Gallery Is Displaying And Sometimes You Go Back To Familiar Pictures And As You Sit There You Look At These Master Pieces And You Begin To See Things And Details That You Perhaps Not Seen Before But When We Look At This Picture That Is Presented To Us In The Second Half Of This Chapter I Think It's Perfectly Obvious As We Read Through John's Description Of It That There Are Two Things That Speak To Us Obvious And The First Of These Things Is That This Is About

[38:46] The Lamb And The Holy Spirit Clearly Wants Us To Spend Some Time Looking At And Focusing On The Lamb In Verse Nine Therefore I Look And Behold And I Was Later On In The Verse Before The Throne And Before The Lamb In Verse 10 And Crying Out With A Loud Voice Salvation Belongs To Our God Who Sits On The Throne And To The Lamb And Then In Verse 14 They Have Washed Their Robes And Made Them White In The Blood Of The Lamb And Then In Verse 17 For The Lamb Is In The Midst Of The Throne And Will Be Their Shepherd So in These Eight Verses It is

[39:47] Perfectly Obvious From Anybody Who is Looking at This Great Masterpiece That Is If You Like Painted Before Us That One Of The Things That We Are Called To Focus On Is The Lamb And For The Rest Of The Time Available To Us I Want Us To Look At What This Passage Tells Us About The Lamb And The First Of Those Things Is That The Lamb Saves By Substitution And The Second Thing That It Tells Us Is That The Lamb Sits In Victory And The Third Thing And We Probably Won't Have Time For This Because I Was Going To Do It In The Evening Is That The Lamb Is The One Who Secures His Bride So First Of All Then Let's

[40:48] Look And See How We Are Presented With A Lamb Who Saves By Substitution Now Where Do You Get That From Douglas Well Very Obviously I Think It Comes From The Fourteenth Verse There And I Said To Him Sir You Know Answering The Question Who Are These Clothed In White Robes And From Where Do They Come From Sir You Know And He Said To Me These Are The Ones Coming Out Of The Great Tribulation They Have Washed Their Robes And Made Them White In The Blood Of The Lamb The Garment Was The Robe That They Wore The Covering For Their Body And That Garment Had Been Cleansed By By The Shed Blood Of The Lamb Now If And Perhaps

[41:48] All of Us In This Room Today Are Familiar With The Bible And If We Are Familiar With The Bible We Should Realize That This Idea Of The Lamb Is Not Something New If You Want To Be Smart About It The Lamb Is No Rabbit Out Of The Hat To Mix Pictures There The Concept Of The Lamb And The Lamb Saving By Substitution Is A Concept That If We Read Our Bibles We Will Not Be Unfamiliar With At All Indeed Some Would Say It Is One Of The Main Central Themes That Runs Through The Whole Of The Bible And We Can See That If You Turn Back To The Very First Book Of The Bible Right Way Back At Genesis And Chapter 3 And At Verse 21 We See There The Truth

[42:48] That As God Begins To Engage In The Saving Activity Of His People Namely Here Adam And Eve That He Is Concerned That They Might Be Clothed And The Lord Made For Adam And For His Wife Garments Of Skin And Clothed Them He Provides A Covering For Them And That Theme Of course Is One That Begins Right Back In Genesis 3 And Runs Right The Way Through The Bible Right Up Until These Last Chapters Of The Book Reminding Us Again That The God Who Wrote The New Testament Is The God Who Wrote The Old Testament And They Are Not Two Entirely Different Things But They Are Indeed One And The Same Thing And We Cannot Understand One Without The Other It

[43:50] Would Be Like Going Into A Play Halfway Through And Not Understanding What The Characters Were And The Symbols Were If We Just Began In The New Testament And Likewise If We Left A Theater Halfway Through A Presentation We Wouldn't Understand What Happened And What The Climax Was And What The Meaning Of All The Things Were That We Had Been Introduced To In The First Part And So In The Bible We Need To Hold Both These Things Together Continuing That Theme In Genesis 22 Again Familiar Passages To Us We Have The Sacrifice Of Isaac Well Known Story To Us Where We Read That There Is A Sacrifice That Is Going To Be Made Here As We Open Up This Chapter Abram Is Taking It Up And In Verse 7 You Will Notice Of Chapter 22 Of Genesis And

[44:50] Isaac Said To His Father Abram My Father And He Said Here I Am My Son And He Said Behold The Fire And The Wood But Where Is The Lamb For The Burnt Off Right Recognizing Again The Central Place That The Lamb Has In The Sacrificial System Of Things But Interestingly Enough As We Read Through That Story And As We Know That God Doesn't Require That Sacrifice From Abraham Of His Son In Verse 13 We Read And Abraham Lifted Up His Eyes And Looked And Behold Behind Him Was A Ram And Again We Have There An Understanding Not Yet The Provision Of The Lamb But Of Something Lesser Than The Lamb Is Provided Here And

[45:51] We See That Continually Throughout The Old Testament That There Is A Longing Created An Expectation Created When Will The Lamb Be Provided When Will This All Come To fruition And Of Course We Could Follow The Way If We Had Time Through The Bible To The Book Of Exodus The Lamb's Blood That Was Put In The Door So That The Angel Of God's Wrath Would Pass Over And The Great Prophetic Book Of The Book Of Isaiah In The Old Testament Hundreds And Hundreds Of Years Before Jesus Comes In That Great Lost Passage To The Jewish People Isaiah Chapter 53 Isaiah Describes The Messiah The Lord Jesus Christ As The One Who Would Be

[46:51] Led Like A Lamb To The Slaughter In Verse 7 And Verse 10 Makes An Offering Who Is The Lamb That's What Isaiah Is All About Who Is The One That's Finally Going To Make The Ultimate Sacrifice The Complete Sacrifice Who Is The Lamb And Then We Jump Forward And We Can Look At Other Illustrations Of This But I Think You've Grasped The Point Here We Could Look 400 Years Forward Right Into John's Gospel And Jesus Comes And How Is He Described As He Appears On The Scene Of His Adult History Behold The

[47:52] Lamb Of God Who Takes Away The Sins Of The World He Dies As The Lamb As The Substitute He Saves By Substitution He Dies A Saving Death He Dies For Sinners We Are Not Made Right With God By Means Of Any Endeavor Of Our Own But We Are Cleansed By The Unique And Saving Death Of The Lord Jesus Christ On Calvary's Cross And There Is Nowhere Else In The Universe That This Absolutely Vital And Necessary Salvation Is To Be Found Other Than In The Saving Death Of The Lord Jesus Christ On Calvary's Cross Spurgeon Described

[48:53] All The Alternatives As Damnable Good Works We Are Put Right On Account Of The Sacrifice Of The Lamb And What Revelation Is Laying Before Us In The Portrayal Of The Lamb As One Of The Central The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The The Father Punishes Our Sin Even When It Was Ours Christ Took It Upon Himself And He Paid That Price Loved This Is Our God He's Not A Cheerleader He's Not A Life Coach He's

[49:54] Not Some Therapeutic Moral Philosopher He's Not A Casual Friend Sitting On A Park Bench He Is A God Hanging crucified on a cross the lamb who saves by substitution and the second thing you will notice is that he is the lamb who sits in victory verse 15 therefore they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence now again this is something that it would be so easy to just pass over as some mere insignificant detail but if we know anything about John and anything about John's gospel and anything about the book of Revelation there is no mere detail in John's writings and this description of a God who sits is absolutely crucial because sitting in the Bible and in particular in this context is a symbol of the work being completed now let me show you a very specific example of this if you want to turn back with me to the book of Hebrews and in particular chapter 10 of the book of Hebrews now what is going on in chapter 10 of the book of Hebrews and again we're kind of delving in right into the middle of a book without very specific context which is everything is that there is a comparison basically being made by the writer to the Hebrews between the Old Testament system of sacrifice and the New Testament system of sacrifice that's not to say that the Old and New Testament are at odds with each other but the purpose of the Old Testament is to create the expectation that is met in the New Testament and so when we read this and if you have your Bibles open chapter 10 verse 8 we read this when he said above you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings these are offered according to the law quite legitimately by the law given by God then he asked behold

[53:20] I will come to do your will he does away with the first in order to establish the second and by that we will have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all so basically that takes us right up to to where we were in terms of the lamb offering sacrifice of his life saving by substitution now here's here's the crucial bit he's now describing the Old Testament system of sacrifice and every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins so there's the picture the priest standing daily offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which ultimately never deal with the problem they never take away sins but verse 12 when Christ had offered for all time do you see the contrast with repeatedly offering for all time a single sacrifice for sin now look here it is he sat down at the right hand of the father now

[55:07] I don't want to be irreverent here but it's not because he's tired it's because he's finished the work has been done and in that saving death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross complete atonement has been made and there is nothing else required he sits there finished and of course we have echoes of that in Jesus on the cross crying out and declaring exactly what the writer to the Hebrews is saying there it is finished God's work of salvation is done now you see that is the problem with for example the Roman

[56:19] Catholic Mass Christ where they believe that they are actually breaking the actual body and transubstantiation and drinking the blood of Christ and repeating the sacrifice you see Roman Catholicism is ultimately an Old Testament dispensation now you go to the west of Scotland and ask people why they don't like Catholics or they don't like going to Mass or why that's so wrong and you'll get an entirely different answer but this is the reason they are living in an Old Testament dispensation of repeatedly offering the same sacrifice which can never take away sins because Jesus has come and in that one and single event of his saving death on Calvary's cross he takes away the sins of the world he sits down he saves by substitution and just to tie this up and

[57:34] I would have come on to this this evening but God willing we'll come back to this next time I'm here he does that so that that great multitude that we see here surrounding the throne worshipping God is sheltered by his presence they shall hunger no more neither thirst any more the sun shall not strike them nor any scorching heat for the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will be the shepherd he will guide them to the springs of the water of life and God will wipe every tear from their eyes and that great multitude what a picture we're given right at the start of this passage a great multitude that no one could number from every nation that's the other thing that we would see if we were looking at this great picture there would be a multitude of people all different shapes and sizes all different colours but not all different creeds only one creed behold the lamb and as we finish brothers and sisters and I don't know you

[59:01] I don't know where you are in relation to the Lord but let me ask you this imagine that you are sitting in that great art gallery in that room that is marked the book of revelation and you're looking at this beautiful picture that has been painted for you by the Holy Spirit through John and you're looking at that multitude and you're standing there looking away from the lamb and looking away from the bulk of the multitude to begin to see individual faces in that great throng of the redeemed here's the question is your face among them is your face among them because friends it is only by one way that your face will be among them and that is if your absolute trust and confidence and saving faith is in the

[60:19] Lord Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world let's pray clothed and cleanse all these once were sinners defiled in thy sight now arrayed in pure garments their praise they unite and in the quietness of this place we just give God an opportunity to speak to us and for us to quietly speak to him telling us telling him what our response is to what we have just heard from his word this day and father you know every heart and every life and your great desire is that we might know more of you that we might fear less that we might trust more and that we might find peace perfect peace in this world of sin confusion and fear and that because of our salvation that is all of

[62:09] God all of grace and all in Christ Jesus and this we pray through his precious name amen well let's close by listening to one of the great hymns of the church to God be the glory great things he hath done so loved he the world that he gave us his son who yielded his life and atoned them for sin and opened the life gate that all may go in praise the

[63:12] Lord praise the Lord let the earth hear his voice praise the Lord praise the Lord let the people rejoice oh come to the father through Jesus the son and give him the glory great things he hath done great things he hath taught us great things he hath done and great our rejoicing through Jesus the son but purer and higher and greater will be our wonder our transport when

[64:18] Jesus we see praise the Lord praise the Lord let the earth hear his voice praise the Lord praise the Lord let the people rejoice oh come to the father through Jesus the son and give him the glory great things he hath done and now may the blessing of God almighty the one true living God father son and holy spirit rest and abide with each and with every one of us this day and forever more amen

[65:19] J