All Creation Joins In Worship

Transcript

GR 2006
06/11/2017
All Creation Joins in Worship
Revelation 5:10-13
Gil Rugh

We're going to Revelation, chapter 5. Revelation 4 and 5 are two of the most amazing chapters in all of the Bible because they take us into the very presence of God in heaven. How awesome that is! And it is to put our focus in proper perspective for what is going to unfold in the book of Revelation.

God is about to bring to completion what He has planned for His creation from the beginning. There is a simple order as we have noted in Revelation. In Revelation 1 John was given a vision of the resurrected, glorified Christ; in Revelation 2-3 Christ gave letters, messages to seven of His local churches. And they were such letters as they were not only directed to those individual local churches, but as Christ said at the end of each of those letters, they are blessings for every church that heeds and responds to what is in those letters. We are to learn from them.

Then the church age will end, the church will be raptured into God's presence and then will unfold a period of trial and tribulation on the earth. So Revelation 3 ended, if you will, the church age as we move along. Then we are transported to heaven in Revelation 4 and 5, and we saw there the church represented in the 24 elders gathered before the throne of God in heaven. Then with Revelation 6 we will return to earth to see the judgments of God that are poured out in preparation for the coming of Christ in Revelation 19, and in Revelation 20, the establishing of His kingdom which will never end. Then we have the conclusion of events, the final destiny of the wicked and the final destiny of those that have been redeemed by God's grace.

So Revelation 4 and 5 are preparing us and letting us know why these coming events will take place. We saw in Revelation 4 the focus was on God the Father enthroned in heaven, sovereign over all. He is the “One, the Almighty,” as He was called in Revelation 4:8. He has all authority and all power and He will execute His purposes for His creation as will unfold, beginning in Revelation 6. In Revelation 5 we are still in the throne room of heaven and the attention is taken from God the Father and placed on God the Son, who is the only One who can bring to fruition and completion all that God has promised and planned. And you see authority being given from the Father to the Son to bring the purposes of God to completion when a seven-sealed scroll is passed from the Father to the Son, and the Son is declared to be the only One in all creation, and He is not a created being but He became part of creation when He was born into the human race. And He is the only One who can bring about the completion of God's purposes for redemption. Without Christ there could have been brought about the destruction of all the wicked, but there could not have been brought about the redemption of wicked persons. There could not have been brought about the bringing of glory to God's creation.

So Revelation 5:5 said that the “Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book or the scroll and its seven seals.” And then down in verse 9 there is a song sung: “Worthy are you to take the book and break its seals, for you were slain.” It is His death that is crucial to everything. “And you purchased for God with Your blood.” By His death He paid the penalty that made possible God to bring forgiveness to lost, sinful people. Every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation this provision encompasses. We noted as we have studied this, it is important to be clear there is only one way of salvation. There is only “one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. No man comes to the Father but by Me,” Jesus said. There is no salvation in any other way. All the religions of the world are meaningless, they can do nothing. All your good works, all my best efforts can do nothing. The only thing that can satisfy the justice of a holy God is the death of His Son, through faith in Him. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that whosoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.”

So that's the celebration in heaven. Because of the work of the Son of God, the Lamb of God, the Lion from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, His suffering and death on the cross to pay in full the penalty for sin so that those who turn from their sin and place their faith in Him, there is redemption. Not all will spend eternity in hell. The creation itself will be redeemed from the curse. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, it brought personal sin and guilt upon the race that would descend from them, all humanity. It also brought the cloud of sin over all creation. That will be lifted because of the work of Christ and what He has done.

Come back to Romans 8, we'll get a little ahead of ourselves but we will see it as we move along then. Romans 8 is talking about the fact that we have been set free in Jesus Christ. Remember when He purchased us, as we read in Revelation 5, by His blood. That was to pay the price to set us free from the bondage, the servitude, the slavery and ultimate penalty of sin. So Romans 8:2 said “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has set you free from the law of sin and death.” Then he goes on to talk about the redemption of Christ and the provision of God's Spirit to dwell in those who place their faith in Christ. Then you come down to verse 16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. If children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ. If we suffer with Him that we may be glorified with Him.” Because of what He has done and our relationship with Him. The ultimate end, we will share in the glory that is Christ's when He rules and reigns. That is where we are going in the book of Revelation.

So Paul can say in Romans 8:18, “I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation,” so now you see he is encompassing all God's creation, “waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.” The revealing of the sons of God will come when Christ returns to establish His kingdom and then we will be revealed as those who belong to Him and share His glory. “For the creation was subjected to futility,” emptiness, meaninglessness, “not willingly but because of Him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans,” suffers the pains of childbirth, “until now. Not only this but we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,” note this, “waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons,” for us to be placed with the full prerogatives and privileges of sonship, “the redemption of our body.” There is yet a phase of our redemption that we have not yet realized, and that is the transformation of this physical body to be conformed to the body of Christ's resurrected body of glory. And all creation is waiting because that is when the curse will be lifted from the creation and we are presented before the creation as God's glorified children.

Come back to Isaiah 11. Remember the Old Testament prophesied the coming of the Messiah. It did not distinguish between the first coming of Christ and the Second Coming of Christ, it just prophesied the Messiah would come. In Isaiah 11 now that Christ has come we realize the first three verses of this prophecy about the coming Messiah related to His first coming.

Then with verse 4 and following we have prophetic material that will be fulfilled at His Second Coming. Isaiah didn't know that is how it would break out, but we know now that it has taken place. And in connection with the Second Coming of Christ when Christ will rule the earth, verse 6, “the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf and young lion and the fatling together. A little boy will lead them,” no problem the little boy leading a wolf, a leopard, a lion. “The cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox.” He won't be eating the ox, he'll become a vegetarian. “The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra.” Think about that! This little nursing child doesn't need a rattle, he has a cobra to play with. “The weaned child will put his hand on the viper's den.” A little kid playing in the yard, you can't come out, put his hand there, just playing. “They will not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,” remember a mountain in prophecy symbolizes a kingdom, “for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” Do you see why the whole creation groans under the weight of the consequences of the sin of Adam, the sin that has descended and characterized all humanity ever since? But that will all be lifted when Christ reigns.

So come back to Revelation 5. There is celebration that finally the chains of sin, the darkness of sin will be broken. The light will come. That is what heaven is celebrating. There are some terrible times to come on the earth, beginning in Revelation 6. That will be carried through to Revelation 19 when finally Christ returns to the earth. But then we have Revelation 20-22 and we see in the end Christ has won the victory, He has overcome and it is glory for all the creation. By that time at the end of chapter 20 the wicked will be in hell, whether they are sinful angels or sinful human beings. There are only two destinies—the suffering of hell and the glory of heaven in God's presence. So that's what we are talking about in celebrating in heaven in Revelation 4 and 5, and being reminded that God is in control, it is His purpose being worked out.

So you come to verse 10 where we left off in our study. “You have made them,” and who is the “them”? Those that were purchased by God through the death of Christ, they have believed in Him wherever they are, whatever part of the world they live in. There is only one way of salvation, He is the Savior that God provides to any and everyone everywhere in every place. We don't make an adjustment with the Gospel if we take it to another continent, another people. We may have to learn their physical language, but in the language we present the same Gospel, the message of Jesus Christ and His death as the payment for sin because only by trusting in Him can you be set free. And that's the foundation for the freeing of the curse from creation.

“You have made them,” the redeemed ones, those purchased out of slavery to sin and Satan, “to be a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign upon the earth.” To be a kingdom…..now that is not being fulfilled right now. We “have been transferred,” according to Colossians 1, “from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” That kingdom has not yet been established, but our citizenship has been settled there, as Paul wrote elsewhere, “our citizenship is in heaven” once we await the coming of our Savior. So we are destined to be citizens of this kingdom. We will reign upon the earth. This is talking about a physical kingdom on this physical earth. The idea of spiritualizing this and saying this is a spiritual kingdom that exists in the hearts of people and we are reigning spiritually today is not biblical. There is a coming earthly kingdom, just like all the prophecies of the coming of Christ relating to His first coming were fulfilled literally just as you would expect, so those that have yet to be fulfilled will be fulfilled in the same way. And when He reigns, we will reign; when He rules, we will rule.

Come back to Revelation 2:26, this is in the context of what He promises to the churches. “To him who overcomes,” verse 26, and remember Christ overcame and when we place our faith in Him we share in His victory, He has overcome. “To him who overcomes,” we overcome in Him, “who keeps My deeds until the end I will give him authority over the nations. He shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a potter are broken to pieces, as I have also received authority from My Father.” We will have delegated authority in the kingdom. Seems pretty clear, authority over the nations. You don't have that today. You don't think that is true? Go out and try to exercise it. You don't, but someday we will. The King of kings and Lord of lords will reign according to the plan of God the Father and we will have authority from Him.

Come over to Revelation 20, jumping far ahead. Christ returns to earth in chapter 19 and you have the establishing of the kingdom in chapter 20. Verse 4, “I saw thrones and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them,” that's authority. Then come to the end of the verse, “they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” There is a resurrection in this that we will talk about more fully when we get here, the different resurrections of Scripture. But you see the intention is they reign with Christ for a thousand years.

Come over to Revelation 22, that's not the end of our reign, this kingdom is an eternal kingdom. We find out for the first time in Revelation 20 that the first phase of that eternal kingdom will be a thousand years. After that will be an eternity which also has time in it. We'll even have twelve months in eternity but we have to wait to talk about that. Look at Revelation 22, we are in the eternal phase of the kingdom. You'll see what it says at the end of verse 5, “They will reign forever and ever.” So Christ will reign forever and ever and we will reign with Him forever and ever. That anticipates a coming earthly kingdom.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 6. This has practical application for today. Just like the fact that Christ is sovereign and reigning and will bring all things to His appointed conclusion, that is great comfort to us today. He is enthroned in heaven, it is His sovereign purposes, His sovereign plan that is being carried out in the world today. So understanding that we will have authority to rule and reign in the kingdom He will establish should impact some of our conduct today. And that's what Paul talks about in First Corinthians 6. Look at verse 1. “Does anyone of you when he has a case against his neighbor dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints?” He's writing to the church at Corinth, evidently there were some disagreements. We know the church at Corinth had some divisions, some of those people went to secular lawyers to try to win their case. “Do you not know that they saints will judge the world?” That's a future time when believers will rule and make decisions as part of their authority in the kingdom. “If the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest courts?” I mean, some day you are going to have authority worldwide and you can't even make little decisions over disagreements among you? “Do you not know we will judge angels?” When it comes to the kingdom, believers will have authority over the angels. Now it's hard to think what you are going to tell Gabriel, Michael. But the angels were made to be ministering servants for the heirs of salvation, the book of Hebrews tells us, so in the kingdom we will have greater authority. So how much more in matters of this life? “So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church? I say this to your shame.” You ought to be embarrassed. If you have a disagreement with another believer, get a couple believers and say we need you to resolve this. Well, what if I don't like their case? If I go to court I can appeal. Well you say Lord, I am willing to accept your will and I will accept it from these godly believers who resolve the situation. They hear both sides and say here is what ought to be done. I don't like it. Well, God says then you have trouble with Him.

So you see how practically it has application. Not just oh well some day. Right now my conduct (remember Jesus said there is blessing on those who read, those who hear and those who heed what is written in this book, the book of Revelation, that letter.) Well, heeding it is living in light of it. This is one of those areas. The kingdom is yet future, we will reign when Christ reigns. He is not on the throne on earth yet, but when He is we will reign, and until that time we are shaped by that. But the kingdom is yet future. We will have more to say about that as we touch on some verses rather than go back there now. We have looked at some.

We are also priests. You'll note in verse 10 he says “there will be a kingdom and priests.” We are a priest now, like we are kings and we can do things now in rendering decisions among believers and so on, even though the kingdom has not yet been established. We are priests, every believer, but in that kingdom we will be priests in a fuller and more glorious way than we even are now because we will be serving in the literal presence of God. A priest in the Old Testament, you know what a priest did. You have the children of Israel, then you had the priests appointed by God above them, and then you had the high priest and then you had God. So the people didn't come directly to God, they came to the priest who would offer their sacrifice and represent them before God. With the coming of Christ that system has been dismantled. There is a new high priest that is not the priest after the order of Aaron. The book of Hebrews develops this in detail, but it is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. But He is the high priest.

Come back to Hebrews 4:14, “Therefore since we have a great high priest who is passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” Verse 16, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.” The sacrifice of our high priest enables us now as priests to come directly to the throne of God. There are no intermediary priests.

Roman Catholicism has built its whole structure on the Old Testament system that was annihilated and done away with at the coming of Christ. They have the pope as the earthly high priest, then a whole series of priests under him, then the people. And the people can't go directly, they have to receive the sacraments which are the means of God's grace commuted to them from the priest, who got his authority from the high priest, the pope. Couldn't be anymore unbiblical and anti-biblical. It is a denial of what Christ has accomplished and done. We individually are to come with confidence directly to the throne. Now you can't do that if Jesus Christ is not your high priest, He becomes your high priest, your representative when you place your faith in Him. You are cleansed by the sacrifice that He has offered, which enables you now to come acceptable. You are welcomed. Come with confidence, assurance to the throne of grace. But then in the kingdom He establishes we shall serve in that kingdom as priests, serving the very throne of God. Remarkable. So we have a taste of it now but the fullness of it yet will come at that future time.

Come back to Revelation 5. We looked in previous times back in Daniel 2 and 7 when Christ will receive the kingdom, we will have more to say about that as we move on in Revelation. Pick up with verse 11. “Then I looked,” now John further information for us. “I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders. And the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,” or literally ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands of thousands. Just like we would say hundreds of millions and millions and millions. You are just saying a number, I have no idea, it is so vast. Now obviously God could have given him the specific number but the point is for the first time . . . Up until this point in Revelation 4 and 5 we saw the Father on the throne, the Lamb coming before the throne and the seven spirits at the throne. Then we saw the four living beings around the throne and the 24 elders. Now we find out there are a number of beings around the throne, so many of them John had no idea. All he can say is ten thousands of ten thousands and thousands upon thousands after that. We would say what do you think? I don't know, there must have been millions, hundreds of millions, millions of millions. There are hosts there in heaven, it is an innumerable number, a host of angelic beings here. It is an awesome scene.

I'm going to take you to Daniel 7, we're not going to look at all the verses that we could. Daniel 7, and here we have a similar kind of flow. We've been to Daniel 7 several times, we'll be here a number of other times so if it is new to you, stay with us and you will see how the pieces fit together. “After the empires of the world” in Daniel 7:9, “kept looking until thrones were set up, the Ancient of Days took His seat.” And that is God the Father, we connected this in Revelation 4, saw the similarities. Then you see in verse 10, “a river of fire was flowing, coming out before Him.” Now note this, “thousands upon thousands were attending Him, myriads upon myriads were standing before Him.” Same kind of picture we have in Revelation 5, thousands upon thousands, ten thousand upon ten thousand. An innumerable host is gathered here.

And then we saw the Son coming before this throne. So the picture in heaven, even though it often focuses on specific beings, you realize in the courts of heaven an innumerable host, countless angels serving. In 1 Kings 22:19 Micaiah the prophet is going to prophesy the death of Ahab the king of Israel and he says that he “saw God on His throne and surrounding Him was this countless host of angels.” And it's that picture. Psalm 68:17. So something of the awesome scene in heaven, the glory associated with it.

Come back to Revelation. These angels are here and they are basically observers of the work of redemption. You realize with the awesomeness of angelic beings, they have never experienced redemption, there has never been redemption or salvation in the angelic realm. Angels did sin, Lucifer and the host that followed him. We'll see this in Revelation 12. But there never was salvation provided for them. Upon that act of sin they were consigned and destined forever to an eternal hell.

Back up to 1 Peter 1. Talks about the prophets prophesying, the coming of Christ. And in verse 11 “the prophets were prophesying of the grace that would come with the coming of Christ. And the Spirit of God was directing them in their prophesying. They were seeking to know,” verse 11, “what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he preached the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” How can this be? He is going to suffer and die, He is going to rule and reign in glory. I don't know how that all could both happen. Which is it? And now we know since He has come, there are two comings of Christ to earth. “It was revealed to them they were not serving themselves but you in these things, which have now been announced to you through those who preach the Gospel to you by the Holy Spirit from heaven.” Now note this, “things in which angels long to look.” They are observers of redemption, God's work in providing salvation for sinful human beings, something that was never done for angels.

Come back to Ephesians 3, and here he is talking about the revelation of God's plan in bringing people into redemption and into the church of Jesus Christ being established by Christ. We have to break in here. Verse 8, “To me the least of all saints this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.” We'll talk about the riches of Christ in a moment. “To bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things, so the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church.”

Now it is revealed. The Son of God Himself will enter the human race, die on the cross and pay the penalty for sin so there can be salvation for sinful human beings. There are pieces and glimpses of that, but now the full revelation has been given. And do you see what verse 10 says? “So that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenlies.” That's talking about angels there, those in authority. They learn of redemption by observing what God has done on our behalf. Imagine the awe of the angels that “God's Son has stepped from the throne of glory,” Isaiah 6, “when He was enthroned in glory the seraphim crying out holy, holy, holy.”

In John 12 we are told Isaiah had seen the pre-incarnate Christ. He stepped from that throne, came to this earth, suffered and died to provide redemption for humanity. This manifests the greatness of God's grace, mercy and kindness. Angels long to look into it, it is manifest and made known, the manifold wisdom of God to provide redemption in such an awesome way. Amazing!

Come back to Revelation 5. What is this innumerable host saying and singing? Let me say something about the matter, do angels sing? Some say not. I was reading some commentaries this week again that said they are “saying with a loud voice, ‘worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, riches, wisdom, might, honor, glory’” and so on. But I don't think that means they couldn't be singing in this saying because come back to Revelation 4:11. At the end of the verse those worshiping God the Father on the throne are saying, “worthy are You.” Then you come down to Revelation 5 and now Christ becomes the focus. Verse 9, “They sang a new song, saying.” So that word saying is used when it is talking about the content of their song. They sang a new song, saying. You might put it, they sang a new song.

So when it uses that word “saying” and we are in the heavenly scene and the substance is basically the same, proclaiming the worthiness of God, whether God the Father or God the Son, I don't think there is any reason where it says in verse 12, “they are saying with a loud voice,” it may mean they are singing with a loud voice the anthems of heaven. It would be no different whether they are singing it or saying it as far as angels could be included. But I just mention that because sometimes you read that angels don't sing in the Bible, and they will pick up this, that it was the elders that were singing in Revelation 5:9 but they are just saying it here. But when the elders sing a new song they are saying. So I take it here it is not a major point, they could be singing and what they are saying when they sing. We would say follow the words of what you are singing or what is being sung. Sometimes when we have an instrumental song we have the words on the screen so you can follow the words of the song. That seems to be what is here.

So this is a huge choir, if you will, that can't be numbered. You can imagine it is a loud voice, I mean it is thundering through heaven. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive.” Now he is going to mention seven things about the Lamb, and He is worthy, God the Father is worthy. We saw that in Revelation 5:11, we saw the Son is worthy in verse 9. He is the only One worthy, all honor and all glory goes to God. We sing the song, to God be the glory. That's it, God says “My glory I will not give to another.” There are times when He speaks about the glory that will be ours, that we will be glorified with the glory that God bestows upon us. It is not the glory due us because of our very being. Only God deserves all the glory. So they are proclaiming “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” You understand everything hinges on this truth, this is it. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, He is the sacrificed One.

Without His death there would be no redemption, there would be no purchase. We would be in the same position as angels who sinned, there would be no hope and destiny would be hell. Any wonder that the angels look and observe and have to be taken aback at the greatness of God's grace, that He should do for sinful human beings what He did not do for angels who sinned—provide the Savior, His own Son. And this is crucial, this is the only way. Don't become sentimental, don't become wishy-washy. Doesn't matter what church you go to, doesn't matter what your religious activity is, doesn't matter if you have no religious activity. The only thing that matters is Jesus Christ is the Lamb that was slain, He is the Savior God offers to all. He is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” and the way that sin is taken away individually is when you recognize your sin and place your faith in Christ.

That's the big hang up! So we have all these religions where people are learning how to earn their way to heaven, try to make themselves acceptable to God. You are no better off than an atheist, he is just open and says I don't believe it, I don't believe in God, I'm doing my own thing. The other person is basically saying I don't believe what God says and I'm doing my own thing. I've just made it religious. “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.” He is the focal point in heaven and the work that God is doing on earth.

Seven things said about the Son, seven qualities that are His that show Him as worthy, the One deserving of worship and ultimately all the glory. “To receive power,” and He has power and He will receive power when He exercises it in establishing His kingdom. He is the God of power. 1 Corinthians 1:24, “Christ the power of God.” We get words like dynamite, dynamo, dynamic. We just carry it over, dunamos, so we just transliterate it over into English. He is the power of God. He is God's power. “All things were created by Him and for Him,” Colossians 1 says. “He is the One to receive power and all power is due Him.” “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth,” in the Great Commission. So He is the One worthy to receive power.

“Riches.” Spiritual riches, but all things. Riches, spiritual riches which are so crucial for us but “every good and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow caused by turning,” James 1 says. All the wealth. God said if I had a need, in the Old Testament, I wouldn't ask you. Everything belongs to Me. Riches.

Come back to 1 Chronicles 29. David is giving worship and praise to God for enabling him to store up all the riches that will be necessary for Solomon to build the temple when he succeeds David. And he says in verse 10, “So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly. David said, blessed are you, O Lord God of Israel, our Father forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth. Yours is the dominion, O Lord, You exalt yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You. You rule over all, in Your hand is power and might. It lies in Your hand to make great, to strengthen everyone. Therefore, our God, we thank You, we praise Your glorious name. But who am I? Who are my people that we should be able to offer as generously as this. For all things come from You, and from Your hand we have given to You.” I'm just giving to you, Lord, what you gave to me, is what he is saying. “Oh Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build You a house for Your holy name, it is from Your hand. All is Yours.” So you see that offer of worship involves an acknowledgement. When we give, even to today.

Come back to Revelation 5. It's not well, I hope the Lord appreciates how much I sacrificed to give Him. I have to start out by saying, “Lord, You have been so gracious to give me so much. What I have to give You I have received from You and my giving this to You is just an acknowledgment, Lord, it is Yours. It is all Yours but in Your grace You allow me to keep some to provide for my need.” That is what David is saying. I don't get any credit for storing up silver and gold and vast wealth for the construction of the temple. Where did I get it? I got it from You. So riches come from Him.

In Revelation 3 to the church at Laodicea, Jesus said in verse 18, “I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fired so that you may become rich.” In that context, you remember, He is talking about they are spiritually destitute and spiritual riches come from Him. Second Corinthians 8:9, “For your sake He became poor that you through His poverty might become rich.” And in Ephesians 3:8 our privilege is to “preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches or Christ.” Do any material things compare to the spiritual riches and wealth we have in Christ? It is all centered in Him.

So Revelation 5:12, “receive power and riches and wisdom.” And wisdom. I mean, where do you get wisdom? Proverbs starts out the beginning of wisdom is the reverence, fear of the Lord. The prophet said they rejected God. What kind of wisdom do they have? The world lives in darkness, the world lives in emptiness. They think they are wise, they are fools, they look at the message of Christ as foolishness. They look at Christians as fools. 1 Corinthians 1 says we have “God's wisdom.” Christ is the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 1:24, that verse I said, “Christ the power of God.” It's “Christ the wisdom of God, the power of God.”

He is the mighty, all might. His is the strength behind all He does, our strength comes from Him. “Be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might.” Our strength, our might, our ability to do and to serve comes from Him. Honor, associated with His work of redemption. God brings honor to Himself in the redemption He has provided and Christ has done for that. Hebrews 2:9, “Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor.” And in John 5:22-23 remember God has given all judgment to the Son in order that everyone should honor the Son as they honor the Father. And the one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father.

Glory. This is all that He is, the God who became incarnate.. Remember in Jesus' high priestly prayer, “restore to Me the glory I had with You before the world was.” We saw Christ enthroned in heaven in Isaiah 6 with the “seraphim crying out, holy, holy, holy. All the earth is filled with His glory.” He is the God of glory. John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And blessing. All blessing and praise goes to Him, He is the God “worthy of our praise.” We talk about blessing God; that's when we praise Him with our voices and our speech. We are blessed by God because He bestows His riches on us, but He is the One worthy of all praise, the glory that is His. It's very similar, the description, to what we read David said in 1 Chronicles 29, ascribing to God.

Verse 13, “And every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all the things in them I heard saying, to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.” How fitting it is that all creation then joins in acknowledging God, even the wicked, when we get to Revelation 20, condemned to hell.

Remember Philippians 2, God has ordained that “at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” So when we get done with the book of Revelation we will have come to that point. Remember Jesus, when they said “tell Your disciples to stop the acclamation given to Him,” He said, “if they stop the rocks would cry out.” The point is all creation recognizes the sovereign glory of God the Father and God the Son. “To Him who sits on throne and the Lamb.” It will be theirs forever and ever. When all is said and done, all creation will be brought into proper relationship with God. That includes the wicked angels and human beings in an eternal hell, under the condemnation that they deserve, the relationship they need to be in before a holy God. And we by His grace experience His glory.

Now what do you say to this? Well, “the four living creatures,” remember, that are “around the throne kept saying repeatedly, amen, amen. Amen.” Carry that over, we just transliterate it over from Greek that carried it over from Hebrew. This “true” is the idea of the word, this is true, it will be so. “The elders fell down and worshiped.” This will work out.

So we launch into Revelation 6, we see catastrophes of unimaginable breadth taking place. The sovereign God rules, He is worthy of our worship. It's what we go through our troubles and trials here. You turn on the news, you get frustrated. What are they thinking? What are they doing? Relax, turn it off. God is in control. We serve Him. We are here in the midst of a world that has no wisdom, a world that is dead in their trespasses and sins. There is only one thing they need to hear. There is a Savior, there is a sacrifice made that God will accept as payment for your sin. There is only way to receive it—believe in Him, trust Him. Isn't it amazing how simple God has made it by doing everything for us? Is it not a reflection of our sin? The angels look at this salvation, they have to be in awe. They don't accept the salvation that our God has offered them as a free gift, salvation that He never provided for us in the angelic realm who sinned. And yet there are people who say, “no,” persist in going their way. It's a day of grace, we want to be sure we are testifying to that grace clearly.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your grace in revealing Yourself so clearly to us. Lord how blessed we are as Your people who have had our eyes opened. You have given us understanding, You have given us Your wisdom, You have given us Your Spirit so that we can study these truths and know them. Lord, You expect us to live in light of them. May that be true of us as we serve You not only today, but in the days ahead. We pray in Christ's name, amen.