Colonel John Howard was ordered to retreat in the
Revolutionary War. But as he did, the British started to
charge, and he decided to surprise them. He ordered his men
to attack. They did and won a smashing victory for which he
received great honor. But General Morgan reminded him,
had his plan failed he would have been shot for disobeying
orders. His decision could have led to disgrace rather than
honor. Opposites can be so close, and in the case of Jesus as
the Lamb of God, these opposites comes together as one. The
disgrace of the cross became the basis for Jesus to be
honored, not only for all history, but for all eternity. A song
we will never cease to sing is the song, Worthy Is The Lamb
Who Was Slain. Every joy and every pleasure of the eternal
kingdom will be ours because of his sacrifice for us.
After ten billion years we might forget every aspect of the
history of earth and time, but we will never forget this song.
Rev. 5 is the worthy chapter of the book. Out of 7 uses of the
word in Revelation, 4 of them are here in this chapter, and
they all refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God who died for the
salvation of a lost world. This song of heaven exalts Jesus in
a way no other does, for it is not just the redeemed humanity
that praises His worthiness, but the angels, and all the beings
of creation. We are focusing on verse 12 which is the angelic
chorus portion of this grand universal musical.
The whole creation joined in one,
To bless the sacred Name,
Of Him that sits upon the throne,
And to adore the Lamb.
I think the church has underestimated the roll of angels in
the whole plan of God. This text tells us they are together as a
multitude beyond number praising the worthiness of the
Lamb just as loud, if not louder, than the redeemed. I fear
we have underestimated the cosmic consequences of the
cross. We are told that angels cannot know what it is to be
redeemed by the Savior, and there is no doubt truth to this,
for they were never lost. But Christians have gone to far in
separating the angels from the joy of salvation. They know
and feel more than we realize. They are the ones who rejoice
over every sinner who repents. They are the ones who sing of
the Lamb being worthy of 7 things: Power, wealth, wisdom,
strength, honor, glory, and praise. Seven being used all
through the book for completeness and totality. In other
words, there is nothing imaginable for which Jesus is not
worthy of honor.
The angels actually know more about what Jesus deserved
and merits for His sacrifice than do the redeemed. We tend
to want to make salvation man-centered, but the fact is, the
Bible expands the picture to include all of creation, and the
angels are deeply affected by this. It is superficial, therefore,
to put the angels down as does Anna Grannis in her poem:
There's a song the angels can never share
While the endless ages roll;
The song of one who has been redeemed,
The song of a ransomed soul:
Shall we sing it together, thou and I,
With the wondering angels standing by?
Shall we sing it there in the courts above,
The heaven gained through redeeming love?
Our text tells us it is not so. The angels are not just
standing by. They are singing just as loud as the saints.
They understand that Jesus deserves every honor that
heaven is capable of bestowing. To be worthy is to deserve
what you get. We are not worthy of the least of His favors.
We are saved totally by His grace. But Jesus is exalted as
King of Kings and Lord of Lords because He earned that
honor. He deserves it, and every knee will bow to Jesus
because He is worthy. Aristotle said three hundred years
before Christ, "Dignity does not consist in possessing honors,
but in deserving them." The whole point of heaven's praise
is that the Lamb of God deserves all the honors He receives.
The greatest rewards in heaven will be given to Jesus, for He
alone deserves them. We can't consider all 7 of His honors
but I want to select three to focus on that all began with the
letter W. Worthy is the Lamb to receive Worship, Wealth,
and Wisdom. These represent all of which He is worthy.
The first is the word praise which is the same as worship.
I. HE IS WORTHY OF WORSHIP.
We need to grasp this basic truth that praise or worship is
not to be founded on the worthiness of our circumstances
alone. When all is well and we flourish under showers of
blessing, we naturally praise our Lord with hearts full of
thanksgiving. But we can easily let this lead us to conclude
that our blessings are what makes Jesus worthy of worship.
The fact is, He is just as worthy when we are up to our knees
in mud, because the showers of blessings have become a
cloud burst of calamity.
His worthiness does not hinge on our well-being. That is a
great aid in helping us praise, but we need to see Jesus as
worthy and richly deserving of praise even when we are
going through terrible days. Sammy Tippit, founder and
president of God's Love In Action, and international
evangelistic ministry, tells of his discovery of this truth in his
book, Worthy Of Worship. He was leaving for Romania
where he had preached before and saw many come to Christ.
The night before his flight he had an accident in which he
totaled is car. No one was injured, but he had to board the
plane with a heavy heart, for he was leaving his family
without transportation. He felt down and lonely. The next
day he joined two friends in Budapest and boarded a train
for Romania. When they arrived at the border, soldiers
came aboard and said, "Mr. Tippit, please take your luggage
and come with us." He tired to ask what was happening, but
got no response. The train pulled out with his two friends
looking out the window. He felt so bad the tears began to
well up in his eyes. He was tired and lonely, and felt
God-forsaken. But in that dark moment the Holy Spirit
brought to his mind the song, Great Is Thy Faithfulness. He
began to sing it. Great is thy faithfulness, morning by
morning new mercies I see. All I have needed thy hand hath
provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me."
The guards looked at him like he was crazy. It didn't
make sense to him either, for his feelings were not in
conformity with those words. He had to make a choice: Do I
follow my subjective feelings, or the objective revelation of
God? He decided to praise the Lord for who He was, and not
focus on the mess he was in. He began to sing praise songs,
and had a private worship service. His feelings began to
lighten, and a sense of peace and joy replaced his sense of
defeat. His crisis did end, and he was on his way, but he
learned a vital lesson for life. Jesus is worthy of praise, not
just in good times, but always. When we practice this truth
we will find our bad times are easier to endure. Paul and
Silas were praising the Lord at midnight in a dungeon locked
in stocks. It is not the environment that is likely to produce
praises, but the never changing reality that Christ is worthy,
regardless of the setting, made them sing to him who is ever
worthy of our praise.
Tippits experience again illustrates the point. He was in a
small village in a mountainous part of Germany. He went
jogging even though a fresh foot of snow had fallen. For the
first half hour it was complete drudgery, for he kept his eyes
on the ground. He was getting exhausted as each step
became more difficult. Then he looked up and saw a view
that was magnificent as the mountains and trees sparkled in
the sunlight. It was awesome, and he decided to slow down
and look at the splendid scenery. His run was now and
immense delight, and he enjoyed renewed vitality because of
where he placed his focus. Again, the lesson is, look to Jesus
and get your eyes on the glory. If you look at the hard road
and the heavy load life can be a burden. But get your focus
on the brightness of His glorious whiteness, and the
unchanging worthiness of his praise, and the burdens grow
lighter, and this world becomes brighter.
The basic issue in worship is not, is the choir worthy, is
the soloist worthy, is the organist or pianist worthy, is the
pastor worthy-the issue is, is Jesus worthy? And if He is,
then we can worship and praise Him regardless of all other
short comings. They are aids to worship, but if the aids fail
to achieve the goal appointing us to Jesus, then we have an
obligation to look beyond the aids to Him who is worthy, and
let His worthiness alone be our aid to praise.
The point is, there is never an excuse to fail in worship.
No human defect, or flaw in the circumstances, can rob us of
our joy in praise if we look to Jesus. There is no end to what
is not worthy of praise in even the best efforts of men to
glorify God. If the works of men are your focus, you will be a
complainer and a disturber of the peace. But if your focus is
on the works of Christ, you will be an never ending praiser
and distributor of peace. You have a choice in life as to
where you will put your focus. If you choose to focus on what
is bad in the body, you will be dominated by negatives, for
the body has endless defects. But if you chose to focus on
what is good in the Head, you will dominated by positives,
for the Head has endless perfections. It's a matter of, heads
you win and tails you lose, for the body is often not worthy,
but the Head is never not worthy of worship and praise.
Next, we note of the Lamb of God that-
II. HE IS WORTHY OF WEALTH.
In other words, if anybody in history is worthy of being
rich forever, it is Jesus. There are a lot of people who are
rich who do not deserve to be. They have acquired their
wealth at the expense of the health and well being of others.
By drugs or pornography, or even by murder, there are those
who are millionaires. There status as rich will be very
temporary, however, for they are not worthy.
Others have produced products that are of great value to
life, and they became wealthy in a way that is deserving.
Firestone made a tire that race track drivers trusted with
their lives. From 1920 to 1966 every winner of the
Indianapolis 500 came in on Firestone tires. People made
him a rich man because they said it's worth the price for his
product, and so he is worthy of wealth.(How times change!)
When the doctor has the skill to save your life you are
grateful, and you pay your bill feeling they are worthy of
wealth, for they have restored you to health. There are many
who receive riches who are deserving of them. How much
more the Great Physician who has found a way to heal all
our diseases forever? He alone has the cure for that which
robs us of health and wealth, and our relationship to God.
Sin robs us of our identity as children of God. Sin is a plague
that is so devastating it makes all the other plagues of history
look like acne in comparison. Find a cure for sin, and you
have the greatest hero of history, for he will be the benefactor
of all mankind, and the entire creation of God.
That is what the song is all about. The Lamb who was
slain was that hero, and He is, therefore, worthy of wealth.
The richest person in eternity will be Jesus, and rightly so,
for he did what no other could do. Isaac Watts expressed it
in his hymn-
Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away.
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.
Nobody will ever walk down the golden streets of the New
Jerusalem and complain, "How come the Lord Jesus has a
palace the size of the Mall of America, and the rest of us only
get these 50 room mansions?" No one will ever envy the fact
that Jesus will be the riches being in the universe with more
jewels on the doorknob of His palace than are in all the
crown jewels of Europe. There will be no envy of the luxury
beyond our wildest dreams, but rather a sincere song of
praise acknowledging that He, and He alone is worthy of
such wealth. We will love the lavish luxury of our Lord, for
we know there is no way we can adequately reward Him for
what He has done for us. Thank God the Father that He has
a way of richly rewarding His son even in a context where all
will be rich forever.
Have you ever thought of it: If you have trusted Jesus as
your Savior, you can tell people that you have an older
brother who is richer than the richest men in the world.
There are billionaires, but I haven't heard of any trillionaires
yet. But even trillionaires are not in the class with our older
brother in the family of God. If Jesus gets the wealth He
deserves, then He inherits all the riches of God, and as King
of Kings and Lord of Lords possesses the wealth of the
universe. We are talking about figures so astronomical that
in comparison the combined wealth of all the nations of the
world is equivalent to the value of the mineral deposits under
your little finger nail.
That is why heaven is so full of the songs of praise. That is
all you can give to the man who literally has everything.
There is nothing we can add to the wealth of Jesus. All we
can offer Him is the sacrifice of praise. That is why we will
enjoy the angels in all creation in singing forever-worthy is
the Lamb to receive wealth. Next we see-
III. HE IS WORTHY OF WISDOM.
Solomon was the wisest man in history, but that was due
to God's grace, and not his worthiness. He became very
unworthy of God's favor and suffered judgment. But a
greater than Solomon is here as the theme of heaven's song.
Jesus was the wisest man in history, and will be for all
eternity, and He deserves it. He earned His degree in the
school of hard knocks, and is worthy to have the very mind of
God knowing all that can be known, and having the wisdom
to use that knowledge for the good of all, and the glory of the
Father. No one else in all the universe was worthy to open the
scroll of heaven and see the future. The spotless angels who
never fell were not worthy. The geniuses of history who were
already in heaven were not worthy. Only one being existed
worthy of sharing the very mind of God. He only had the
wisdom to look beyond the moment and obey God at any
cost. This is where all others have fallen short of being
worthy. Lucifer could not see the glory of the long-run. He
wanted the glory of the moment, and so in folly he fell from
grace. Adam and Eve could not see the glory of obedience to
God, even when they did not understand. They grasped for
the glory of the moment and they fell. It is the story of all
God's creatures, but Jesus came on the stage of history and
was offered fame and fortune and power if He would bow to
Satan, but He had the wisdom to say no to the glory of the
moment so that He and we might enjoy the glory of forever.
Nobody else ever had that kind of wisdom. His ability to see
the long-run, and the long range picture, is what made Jesus
the wisest man to ever live, and thus worthy of wisdom
forever.
If that is heaven's estimate of Jesus, then we need to enter
into that estimate on earth and recognize Jesus is worthy of
our best. He is worthy of our best thinking and planning,
and worthy of excellence in all that we do. We are to love
Him with all of our mind, and give heed to Paul who says,
"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."
We are to be wise and not foolish. We are to live and think
and create on a level of excellence that conveys this
conviction-worthy is the Lamb to receive wisdom. He does
not receive it from God the Father, but He only receives it
from us when we are conscience of His worthiness and
present ourselves, body, mind, and spirit, as living sacrifices
for His glory.
He is worthy of our best now and for all eternity, because
He alone had the wisdom to figure out how to turn filthy
ragged sinners into white robed saints. J. W. Ham tells of his
wonder at visiting a paper mill where he saw a huge pile of
dirty rags thrown into a vat and made into pulp. Then
chemicals were added, and this stuff was rolled out into pure
white paper for people to write messages of love on, and send
to loved ones. Man is deserving of honor and reward for the
wisdom of this process that benefits us all. How much more
the Lamb of God whose wisdom devised a way to turn the
filthy rags of our righteousness into the white robes of
redemption, making us acceptable in the presence of God?
Wise are we who will not wait
To in His praise participate,
But right now on this present date
Join all heaven to celebrate.
Let us never cease to sing, worthy is the Lamb who was slain
to receive worship, wealth, and wisdom, and every other
honor conceivable. As part of the Bride of the Lamb, this is
our song now and forever-worthy is the Lamb.
