Going Deeper
Revelation 14-18 (8.3.19)
Grab your Bible and let’s go deeper into Revelation 15.
Let’s look at verse one through eight again together.
Revelation 15:1-8 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests. And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.
This is such a great text in the middle of Revelation as it focuses on our worship of the Lamb who was slain.
King Jesus is worthy of our praise forever and ever. We will sing the song of the Lamb and worship God for His great grace forever. I wanted to focus on this phrase, “the Lamb who was slain” today as a way of stirring our worship for all that God is and has done for us.
Jesus Christ. God the Son. One of the three members of the holy Godhead. Equal with the Father and Spirit as God. Worthy of all honor and praise forever. He is pure and holy. Spotless in every way.
We must see the innocence, the purity, the perfection, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He is the spotless Lamb!
1 Peter 2:22-23 says, He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
Now, not only did Jesus avoid bad things, he committed no sin, deceived nobody, reviled nobody, threatened nobody. The things that Jesus did He did unto the glory of the Father. He entrusted his life to God. This is important because doing the right things for the wrong reasons is also sin. This is huge because many people think that they don’t need Jesus because they are generally good people. Even many Christians think they are doing fine in life and in the faith when they simply avoid bad movies, don’t cuss, or chew, or run around with girls who do. But sin is more than avoiding bad things.
What is sin?
First we must see that sin is a matter of our actions and of the heart.
- Sin is doing the wrong thing (disobedience of God’s perfect law).
- Sin is also doing the right thing for the wrong reasons (self-salvation or self-exultation).
Some of you need to confess your sin today before the Lord not because you are guilty of doing a bunch of horrible, bad stuff but because you have been doing a bunch of great and helpful things for self-exalting motives. Your aim has not been righteousness for the name’s sake of God. It has been right living for the moving up the ladder in others’ eyes, or in life, or just for YOU!
Now, here is the thing we have to see with full eyes. Jesus never sinned! He was PERFECT!
Not only did He never commit sin, deceive anybody, revile anybody, or threaten anybody, but He did all that He did “entrusting himself to him who judges justly”. He did it all for the glory of God the Father!
Jesus was sinless! In 1 Peter 1:19, Peter refers to Christ as a Lamb without blemish or spot. No imperfections. Jesus is the spotless Lamb.
Now, why was it so essential that Jesus was spotless? Sin= Death
If a sacrifice is going to take on the sin of another (atone for the sin of another), then that sacrifice cannot be carrying a bunch of its own sin. The cost of a valuable animal sacrifice was part of the cost of paying for your sin.
So, Jesus’ sinless nature and sinless practice are the perfect gateway to life.
This is why: “… in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:22)
Those who are in Adam are condemned to death because their representative sinned. Those are who are in Christ are saved to life because their representative never sinned. See the spotless Lamb! See the fact that He is worthy of total pardon from any chastisement because of HIS PERFECTION!
But not us. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) Everyone one of us is worthy of eternal punishment for our betrayal of a holy God. You have to have a right view of your sin not compared to others but compared to our holy God.
Jesus is the only one who was sinless. Jesus was worthy of Praise and exultation. Yet, He came near. He took on flesh so that He could be our representative. And even though He was tempted in every way as we were, He did not sin!
Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. So, Jesus was the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. This is why what happened to Jesus is so huge!
Isaiah says Jesus was “like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent” (Isaiah 53:7b).
The spotless Lamb took on the sin of the sheep that had gone astray. We were the ones that went astray.
Isaiah 53:6
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
but the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Luther calls this “the great exchange.” My death for His life. My sin for His righteousness.
My condemnation for His salvation. My failure for His success. My defeat for His victory.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
He suffered. He died physically. He did so as a substitute in our place. He died the death we deserve. He absorbed the wrath of God for us. He took our due penalty resulting in our receiving His righteousness.
Galatians 3:13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”
Brothers, at that moment, Jesus Christ, who was sinless, perfect God became a man and took our sin upon Himself.
In that moment, Jesus was making atonement for the sin of His people.
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf …
He became sin on our behalf! He became the scapegoat. He paid our price. He atoned our sin.
Now, we must also understand, at that moment, the wrath of God was satisfied.
The justice of God was met. The holiness of God was respected. AMEN?
But notice what else Paul says,
2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB) He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Because the Lamb was slain and bled out, not just so we can have heaven but, so we could live in righteousness for God’s glory and others’ good!
Romans 6:11-14 & 17-18 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace …
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
Oh, how blessed we are to no longer be slaves to sin but now be slaves to righteousness.
We were in the “the snare of the devil”. We were in his grasp, and Christ our God came and He set us free.
He paid the price with His life, with His death on the cross so that you could be set free from sin and become a son, a daughter of God. That’s THE good news!
For the saved, oh, we have so much to praise Him for. We should have been slaughtered. WE should have bled out.
But He showed us His amazing grace. He took our penalty. He substituted Himself in our place! He made atonement for us so we could be reconciled to God.
Beloved, He did this so we could DIE TO SIN and LIVE to RIGHTEOUSNESS!
This is why we will sing “the song of the Lamb” forever and ever.
Revelation 15:3-4
And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
“Great and amazing are your deeds,
O Lord God the Almighty!
Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations!
Who will not fear, O Lord,
and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
May we worship Him today and every day as worthy of all of our lives.
By His grace and for His glory,
-Shepherd
Soldiers for Jesus MC