Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2321
“And when He had taken the Book, the four beasts and twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having, every one of them, harps and golden vials full of odors, which are theprayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the Book, and to open its seals: for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and have made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.” Revelation 5:8-10.
THIS morning [Sermon #2095, Volume 35—The Lamb in Glory.] we had a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ appearing in Heaven in His Sacrificial Character, being adored in that Character, looking like a Lamb that had been slain, and being worshipped under that aspect in the very center of Heaven. I tried, as far as ever I could, to insist upon it that we must never hide the Atoning Sacrifice—that Christ, as the Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world—is always to be brought to the front, to be put foremost in our preaching and in our practice, too. In this verse we go a step further. This blessed Lamb appears in Heaven as the Mediator between God and men. At God’s right hand was the Book of His Eternal Purposes. None dared even to look upon it—it was hopeless that any creature should be able to loose its seven seals. But there came forward this glorious Lamb who had the marks of His slaughter upon Him and He took the Book out of the right hand of Him that sat upon the Throne of God! Thus He acted as Mediator, Interpreter—taking the will of God and translating it—letting us know the meaning of that writing of the right hand of God which we could never have deciphered, but which, when Christ looses the seals, is made clear to us!
Jesus Christ, then, is seen as our Sacrifice in the capacity of Mediator and, in that capacity, He becomes the object of the adoration, first, of the Church, then of all the thousands and ten thousands of angels, and then of every creature that God has made! It would be too large a subject to take in all those hallelujahs and, therefore, in speaking, tonight, I select only these three verses to set forth the song of the Church, the adoration of the Church of God, rendered to the bleeding Lamb as the Mediator between God and men.
I shall have only two divisions. First, behold the worshippers. And, secondly, listen to their song.
I. First, BEHOLD THE WORSHIPPERS, for, remember that we must be like they if we are to be with them. It is a well-known rule that Heaven must be in us before we can be in Heaven! We must be heavenly if we hope to sit in the heavenly places. We shall not be taken up to join the glorified choir unless we have learned their song and can join their sacred harmony. Look, then, at the worshippers. You are not yet perfectly like they, but you will be, by-and-by, if you have already the main points of likeness worked in you by the Grace of God.
The first point about the worshippers is this, they are all full of life. I must confess that I should not like to dogmatize upon the meaning of the four living creatures, but still, they do seem to me to be a picture of the Church in its Godward standing, quickened by the life of God. At any rate, they are living creatures and the elders, themselves, are living persons. Yet alas, alas, that it should be necessary to say so true a thing, but the dead cannot praise God! “The living, the living, he shall praise You, as I do this day.” Yet how many dead people there are in this great assembly tonight! If one who had sufficient powers of penetration as to be able to detect the actions of the spiritual life of man, were to go round this crowd, “Ah, me,” he would say, “take this one away, take that one away—these are dead souls in the midst of the living in Zion.”
I will not dwell upon this very solemn thought, but I wish the conscience of some here to dwell upon it when the service is over. You are dead people in the midst of life! You joined in the song just now, but there was no living praise in your singing. Prayer was offered by my dear Brother Hurditch very fervently, but there was no living prayer in you. Do you know that it is so? If so, then take your right place and God grant you enough life to know the absence of life, lest He should say of you, “Bury My dead out of My sight,” and you should be taken away to the house appointed to the dead, since you cannot be allowed to pollute the gathering of living saints! Those in Heaven are all full of life! There is no dead worshipper, there, no dull, cold heart that does not respond to the praise by which it is surrounded! They are all full of
life.
And further note, that they are all of one mind. Whether they are 24 elders, or four living creatures, they all move simultaneously. With perfect unanimity they fall on their faces, or touch their harps, or lift up their golden vials full of sweet odors. I like unanimity in worship here. You remember the lines—