2095. The Lamb In Glory

No. 2095-35:385. A Sermon Delivered On Lord’s Day Morning, July 14, 1889, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat upon the throne. {Re 5:6,7}

1. The apostle John had long known the Lord Jesus as the Lamb. That was his first view of him, when the Baptist, pointing to Jesus, said, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” He had been very familiar with this blessed person, having often laid his head upon his bosom, feeling that this tender goodness of the Saviour proved him to be in nature gentle as a lamb. He had beheld him when he was brought “as a lamb to the slaughter,” so that the idea was indelibly fixed upon his mind that Jesus, the Christ, was the Lamb of God. He knew that he was the appointed sacrifice, offered in the morning and evening Lamb, and in the Paschal Lamb, by whose blood Israel was redeemed from death. In his last days the beloved disciple was to see this same Christ, under the same metaphor of a lamb, as the great revealer of secrets, the expounder of the mind of God, the taker of the sealed book, and the one releasing of the seals which bound up the mysterious purposes of God concerning the children of men. I pray that we may have on this earth a clear and constant sight of the sin-bearing Lamb, and then, in that world of glory, we shall behold him in the midst of the throne and the living creatures and the elders.

2. The appearance of this Lamb at the particular moment described by John was extremely suitable. Our Lord usually appears when all other hope disappears. Concerning the wine-press of wrath, it is he who says, “I have trodden the wine-press alone, and of the people there was no one with me.” In the case before us, the strong angel had proclaimed with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the book, and to release its seals?” And there was no response from heaven, or earth, or hell. No man was able to open the book, neither to look upon it. The divine decrees must remain for ever sealed in mystery unless the once slain Mediator shall take them from the hand of God, and open them for the sons of men. When no one could do this, John wept much. At that grave moment the Lamb appeared. Old Master Trapp says, “Christ is good at a dead lift” {a} and it is so. When there is utter failure everywhere else, then our help is found in him. If there could have been found another bearer of sin, would the Father have given his Only-Begotten to die? Had any other been able to unfold the secret decrees of God, would he not have appeared at the angel’s challenge? But he who came to take away the sin of the world now appears to take away the seals which bind up the eternal purposes. Oh Lamb of God, you are able to do what no one else may venture to attempt! You come forward when no one else is to be found. Remember, the next time you are in trouble, that when no man can comfort and no man can save, you may expect the Lord, the ever-sympathetic Lamb of God, to appear on your behalf.

3. Before the Lamb appeared, while as yet no one was found worthy to look upon that book which was held in the hand of him who sits on the throne, John wept much. The Lamb of God is best seen by weeping eyes. Certain ministers of this age, who make so little of the doctrine of substitutionary sacrifice, would have been of another mind if they had known more contrition of heart and exercise of soul. Eyes washed by repentance are best able to see those blessed truths which shine out from our incarnate God, the bearer of our sins. Free grace and dying love are most appreciated by the mourners in Zion. If tears are good for the eyes, may the Lord send us to be weepers, and lead us around by Bochim to Bethel. I have heard the old proverb, “There is no going to heaven except by Weeping Cross”; {b} and there seems no way of even seeing heaven, and the heavenly One, except by eyes that have wept. Weeping makes the eyes quick to see if there is any hope; and while it dims them to all false confidences, it makes them sensitive to the faintest beam of divine light. “They looked at him, and were enlightened: and their faces were not ashamed.” Those who have laid eternal matters to heart so much as to weep over their own need, and that of their fellow men, shall be the first to see in the Lamb of God the answer to their desires.

4. Yet observe, that even in this case human instrumentality was permitted; for it is written, “One of the elders says to me, ‘Do not weep.’ ” John the apostle was greater than an elder. Among those who are born of women, in the Church of God we put no one before John, who leaned his head upon his Master’s bosom; and yet a mere elder of the Church reproves and instructs the beloved apostle! He cheers him with the news that the Lion of the tribe of Judah had prevailed to open the book, and to release its seven seals. The greatest man in the Church may be under obligation to the least: a preacher may be taught by a convert; an elder may be instructed by a child. Oh that we might be always willing to learn! — to learn from anyone, however lowly. Assuredly, we shall be teachable if we have the tenderness of heart which shows itself in weeping. This will make our souls like wax tablets, in which the finger of truth may readily inscribe its teaching. May God grant us this preparation of heart!

5. May we come in a teachable spirit to the texts and may the Lord open our eyes to see and learn with John! It is a great favour that we have the record of the vision. Does not the Lord intend for us to be partakers in it? The vision is that of a Lamb, a Lamb that is to open the book of God’s secret purposes, and release the seals. The teaching of the passage is that the Lord Jesus, in his sacrificial character, is the most prominent object in the heavenly world. So far from substitution being done with, and laid aside as a temporary expedient, it remains the object of universal wonder and adoration. He who became a Lamb so that he might take away the sin of the world, is not ashamed of his humiliation, but still reveals it to adoring myriads, and is, for that very reason, the very object of their enthusiastic worship. They worship the Lamb even as they worship him who sits upon the throne; and they say, “Worthy is the Lamb,” because he was slain and redeemed his people by his blood. His atoning sacrifice is the great reason for their deepest reverence and their highest adoration. Some dare to say that only the life of Jesus should be preached, and that no prominence should be given to his death. We are not of their religion. I am not ashamed of preaching Christ Jesus in his death as the sacrifice for sin; but, on the contrary, I can boldly say, “God forbid that I should glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We do not so believe the doctrine of Atonement as to leave it in the dark as a second-rate article of faith; but we hold it to be the first and foremost teaching of inspiration, the greatest well of the believer’s comfort, the highest hill of God’s glory. Just as our Lord’s sacrificial character is in heaven most prominent, so we would make it most conspicuous among men. Jesus is to be declared as the sin bearer, and then men will believe and live. May God the Holy Spirit help us in our attempt this morning!

6. I. Jesus in heaven appears in his sacrificial character; and I would have you notice that THIS CHARACTER IS ENHANCED BY OTHER CONSPICUOUS POINTS. Its glory is not diminished, but enhanced, by all the rest of our Lord’s character: the attributes, achievements, and offices of our Lord all concentrate their glory in his sacrificial character, and all unite in making it a theme for loving wonder.

7. We read that he is the Lion of the tribe of Judah; by which is indicated the dignity of his office, as King, and the majesty of his person, as Lord. The lion is at home when fighting, and “the Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name.” Like a lion, he is courageous. Though he is like a lamb for tenderness, yet not in timidity. He is terrible as a lion, “who shall rouse him up?” If any come into conflict with him, let them beware; for just as he is courageous, so he is full of force, and altogether irresistible in might. He has the lion’s heart, and the lion’s strength; and he comes out conquering and to conquer. It is this that makes it all the more wonderful that he should become a lamb —

   A lowly man before his foes,
   A weary man, and full of woes.

It is amazing that he should yield himself up to the indignities of the cross, to be mocked with a thorn-crown by the soldiers, and to be spit upon by abjects. Oh wonder, wonder, wonder, that the Lion of Judah, the offshoot of David’s royal house, should become as a lamb led out to the slaughter!

8. Further, it is clear that he is a champion: “The Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed.” What was asked for was worthiness, not only in the sense of holiness, but in the sense of valour. One is reminded of a legend of the Crusades. A goodly castle and estate awaited the coming of the lawful heir: he and he only could sound the horn which hung at the castle gate; but he who could make it yield a blast would be one who had slain a heap of Muslims in the fight, and had come home victorious from many a bloody fray. So here, no man in earth or heaven had valour and renown enough to be worthy to take the mystical roll out of the hand of the Eternal. Our champion was worthy. What battles he had fought! What feats of prowess he had performed! He had overthrown sin; he had met face-to-face the Prince of darkness, and had overcome him in the wilderness; indeed, he had conquered death, had defied that lion in his den; had entered the dungeon of the sepulchre, and had torn its bars away. So he was worthy, in the sense of valour, on returning from the far country to be acknowledged as the Father’s glorious Son, heaven’s hero, and so to take the book and release its seals. The brilliance of his victories does not diminish our delight in him as the Lamb. Far otherwise, for he won these triumphs as a Lamb, by gentleness, and suffering, and sacrifice. He won his battles by a meekness and patience before unknown. The more of a conqueror he is, the more astounding it is that he should win by humiliation and death. Oh beloved, never tolerate low thoughts of Christ! Think of him more and more, as the blessed Virgin did, when she sang, “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Make your thoughts of him great. Magnify your God and Saviour, and then add to your reverent thoughts the reflection that still he looks like a lamb that has been slain. His prowess and his lion-like qualities only illustrate more vividly the tender, lowly, condescending relationship in which he stands to us as the Lamb of our redemption.

9. In this wonderful vision we see Jesus as the familiar of God. It was he who, without hesitation, advanced to the burning throne and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat upon it. He was at home there: he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God. He is “very God of very God”; to be extolled with equal honour to what is given to the Lord God Almighty. He advances to the throne, he takes the book, he communes with Jehovah, he accepts the divine challenge of love, and unseals the mysterious purposes of his glorious Father. To him there is no danger in a close approach to the infinite glory, for that glory is his own. Now, it is he who stood like this on familiar terms with God who also stood in our place, and bore for us the penalty of sin. He who is greater than the greatest, and higher than the highest, became lower than the lowest, so that he might save to the uttermost those who come to God by him. He who is Lord of all stooped under all the load and burden of sin. Fall down on your faces and worship the Lamb; for although he became obedient to death, he is God over all, blessed for ever, the Beloved of the Father.

10. We observe, in addition to all this, that he is the prophet of God. It was he who had the seven eyes to see all things and discern all mysteries; it is he who opened the seven seals, and by this unfolded the parts of the Book one after another, not merely that they might be read, but might be actually fulfilled; and yet he had been our substitute. Jesus explains everything: the Lamb is the open sesame of every secret. Nothing was ever a secret to him. He foresaw his own sufferings; they did not come upon him as a surprise.

   This was compassion like a God,
      That when the Saviour knew
   The price of pardon was his blood,
      His pity ne’er withdrew.

Since then he has not been ignorant of our unworthiness, or of the treachery of our hearts. He knows all about us; he knows what we cost him, and he knows how poorly we have repaid him. With all that knowledge of God and of man, he is not ashamed to call us brethren; nor does he reject that truth, so simple, yet so full of hope for us, that he is our sacrifice and our substitute. “He who unveils the eternal will of the Highest is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

11. Our Lord always was, and is now, acknowledged to be Lord and God. All the church worships him; all the myriads of angels cry aloud in praises to him; and to him every creature bows, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things that are under the earth. When you call him King of kings and Lord of lords, lofty as these titles are, they fall far below his glory and majesty. If we all stood up with all the millions of the human race, and with one voice lifted up a shout of praise to him, loud as the noise of many waters and as great thunders, yet our highest honours would scarcely reach the lowest step of his all-glorious throne. Yet, in the glory of his Deity, he does not disdain to appear as the Lamb who has been slain. This still is his chosen character. I have heard of a great warrior, that on the anniversary of his most renowned victory he would always put on the coat in which he fought the fight, adorned, as it was, with marks of shot. I understand his choice. Our Lord today, and every day, still wears the human flesh in which he overthrew our enemies, and he appears as one who has only recently died, since by death he overcame the devil. Always, and for ever, he is the Lamb. Even as God’s prophet and revealer he remains the Lamb. When you shall see him at the last, you shall say, as John did, “I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.”

12. Write, then, the passion of your Lord upon the tablets of your hearts, and let no one erase the treasured memory. Think of him mainly and chiefly as the sacrifice for sin. Set the atonement in the midst of your minds, and let it tinge and colour all your thoughts and beliefs. Jesus bleeding and dying in your room, and place, and stead, must be to you as the sun in your sky.

13. II. In the second place, let us notice that, IN THIS CHARACTER, JESUS IS THE CENTRE OF ALL. “In the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain.” The Lamb is the centre of the wonderful circle which makes up the fellowship of heaven.

14. From him, as a standpoint, all things are seen in their places. Looking up at the planets from this earth, which is one of them, it is difficult to comprehend their motions — progressive, retrograde, or standing still; but the angel in the sun sees all the planets marching in due course, and orbiting around the centre of their system. Standing where you please upon this earth, and within human range of opinion, you cannot see all things properly, nor understand them until you come to Jesus, and then you see all things from the centre. The man who knows the incarnate God, slain for human sins, stands in the centre of truth. Now he sees God in his place, man in his place, angels in their place, lost souls in their place, and the saved ones in their place. Know him whom to know is life eternal, and you are in a good vantage point from which you may properly judge all things. The proper bearings and relationships of this to that, and that to the next, and so on, can only be ascertained by a firm and full belief in Jesus Christ as the atoning sacrifice.

   Till God in human flesh I see,
      My thoughts no comfort find,
   The Holy, Just, and sacred Three,
      Are terrors to my mind.
   But if Emmanuel’s face appears,
      My hope, my joy begins:
   His name forbids my slavish fears,
      His grace removes my sins.

In Christ you are in the right position to understand the past, the present, and the future. The deep mysteries of eternity, and even the secret of the Lord, are all with you when once you are with Jesus. Think of this, and make the Lamb your central thought — the soul of your soul, the heart of your heart’s best life.

15. The Lamb’s being in the midst, means, also, that in him they all meet in one. I would speak cautiously, but I venture to say that Christ is the summing up of all existence. Do you seek the Godhead? There it is. Do you seek manhood? There it is. Do you desire the spiritual? There it is in his human soul. Do you desire the material? There it is in his human body. Our Lord has, as it were, gathered up the ends of all things, and has bound them into one. You cannot conceive what God is; but Christ is God. If you dive down with materialism, which by many is regarded as the drag and millstone of the soul, yet in Jesus you find materialism, refined and elevated, and brought into union with the divine nature. In Jesus all lines meet, and from him they radiate to all the points of being. Do you wish to meet God? Go to Christ. Do you wish to be in fellowship with all believers? Go to Christ. Do you wish to feel tenderness towards all that God has made? Go to Christ; for “of him, and through him, and to him are all things.” What a Lord is ours! What a glorious being is the Lamb; for it is only as the Lamb that this is true of him! View him only as God, and there is no such meeting with man. View him as being only man, and then he is far from the centre: but behold him as God and man, and the Lamb of God, and then you see in him the place of rest for all things.

16. Being in the centre, they all look to him. Can you think for a moment how the Lord God looks upon his Only-Begotten? When Jehovah looks on Jesus, it is with an altogether indescribable delight. He says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” When he thinks of the passion through which he passed, and the death which he accomplished at Jerusalem, all the infinite heart of God flows high and strong towards his Best-Beloved. He has rest in his Son as he has nowhere else. His delight is in Jesus; indeed, he has so much delight in him, that for his sake he takes delight in his people. Just as the Father’s eyes are always on Jesus, so are the eyes of the living creatures and the twenty-four elders who represent the church in its divine life and the church in its human life. All who have been washed in his blood perpetually contemplate his beauties. What is there in heaven which can compare with the adorable person of him by whom they were redeemed from among men? All angels look that way, also, awaiting his august commands. Are they not all ministering spirits, whom he sends out to minister to his people? All the forces of nature are waiting at the call of Jesus; all the powers of providence look to him for direction. He is the focus of all attention, the centre of all observation throughout the plains of heaven. This, remember, is as “the Lamb.” Jesus is not as king or prophet chiefly, but preeminently as “the Lamb” the centre of all reverence, and love, and thought, in the glory-land above.

17. Once more, let me say of the Lamb in the centre, that all seem to rally around him as a guard around a king. It is for the Lamb that the Father acts: he glorifies his Son. The Holy Spirit also glorifies Christ. All the divine purposes run that way. The chief work of God is to make Jesus the firstborn among many brethren. This is the model to which the Creator works in fashioning the vessels of grace: he has made Jesus Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. All things ordained by the Father work towards Christ, as their centre; and so stand all the redeemed, and all the angels waiting around the Lord, as swelling his glory and revealing his praise. If anything could enter the minds of heavenly beings that would contribute to lift Jesus higher, it would be their heaven to speed throughout space to carry it out. He dwells as a King in his central pavilion, and this is the joy of the host, that the King is in the midst of them.

18. Beloved, is it so? Is Jesus the centre of the whole heavenly family? Shall he not be the centre of our Church life? Will we not think most of him — much more of him than of Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or any party leaders who would divide us? Christ is the centre; not this form of doctrine nor that mode of ordinance, but the Lamb alone. Shall we not always delight in him, and watch to see how we can magnify his glorious name? Shall he not be also the centre of our ministry? What shall we preach about except Christ! Take that subject away from me, and I am finished. These many years I have preached nothing else except that dear name, and if that is to be dishonoured, all my spiritual wealth is gone: I have no bread for the hungry, nor water for the faint. After all these years my speech has become like the harp of Anacreon, {c} which would resound only with love. He wished to sing of Atreus and of Cadmon, but his harp resounded only with love. It is so with my ministry: with Christ, and Christ alone I am at home. Progressive theology! No string of my soul will vibrate to its touch. New divinity! Evolution! Modern thought! My harp is silent to these strange fingers; but to Christ, and Christ alone, it answers with all the music of which it is capable. Beloved, is it so with you? In teaching your children, in your life at home, in your dealing with the world, is Jesus the centre of your aim and labour? Does his love fill your heart? In the old Napoleon’s days, a soldier was wounded by a bullet, and the doctor probed deep to find it. The man cried out, “Doctor, watch what you are doing! A little deeper, and you will touch the Emperor.” The Emperor was on that soldier’s heart. Truly, if they search deep into our life they will find Christ. Queen Mary said that when she died they would find the name of Calais cut upon her heart; for she grieved over the loss of the last British possession in France. We have not lost our Calais, but still hold our treasure; for Christ is ours. We have no other name inscribed on our heart except that of Jesus. Truly we can say,

   Happy if with my latest breath
      I may but gasp his name;
   Preach him to all, and cry in death,
      “Behold, behold the Lamb!”

19. III. Thirdly, our Lord is seen in heaven as the Lamb slain, and IN THIS CHARACTER HE EXHIBITS UNIQUE FEATURES. None of those features derogate from his glory as the sacrifice for sin; but they tend to instruct us in it.

20. Note well the words: “Stood a Lamb as it had been slain.” “Stood,” here is the posture of life; “as it had been slain,” here is the memorial of death. Our view of Jesus should be twofold; we should see his death and his life: we shall never receive a whole Christ in any other way. If you only see him on the cross, you behold the power of his death; but he is not now upon the cross; he is risen, he lives for ever to make intercession for us, and we need to know the power of his life. We see him as a lamb “as it had been slain”; but we worship him as one who “lives for ever and ever.” Carry these two things with you as one: a slain Christ, a living Christ. I notice that feeling and teaching in the church oscillates between these two, whereas it should comprehend them both. The Roman Catholic Church continually gives us a babe Christ, carried by his mother; or a dead Christ, on the cross. No matter where we go, these images are thrust upon us. Apart from the sin of image worship, the thing presented is only a partial representation of our Lord. On the other hand, we have a school around us who endeavour to put the cross out of sight, and they give us only a living Christ, such as he is. To them Jesus is only an example and teacher. As a true and proper expiatory substitute they will not have him; BUT WE WILL. We adore the Crucified One upon the throne of God. We believe in him as bleeding and pleading: we see him slain, and behold him reign. Both of these are our joy; neither one more than the other, but each in its own place. So, as you look at the Lamb, you begin to sing, “You are he who lives, and was dead, and is alive for evermore.” The mark of our Saviour is life through death, and death slain by death.

21. Note, next, another exceptional combination in the Lamb. He is called “a little lamb”; for the diminutive is used in the Greek; but yet how great he is! In Jesus, as a Lamb, we see great tenderness and great familiarity with his people. He is not the object of dread; there is about him nothing like “Stay away, for I am too holy to be approached.” A lamb is the most approachable of beings. Yet there is about the little Lamb an extreme majesty. The elders no sooner saw him than they fell down before him. They adored him, and cried with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb.” Every creature worshipped him, saying, “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be to the Lamb.” He is so great that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him; yet he becomes so little that he dwells in humble hearts. He is so glorious that the seraphim veiled their faces in his presence: he is so condescending as to become bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh. What a wonderful combination of mercy and majesty, grace and glory! Never separate what God has joined together: do not speak of our Lord Jesus Christ as some do, with an irreverent, unctuous familiarity; but, at the same time, do not think of him as of some great Lord for whom we must feel a slavish dread. Jesus is your next of kin, a brother born for adversity, and yet he is your God and Lord. Let love and awe keep the watches of your soul!

22. Further, let us look at his unique features, and we see that he has seven horns and seven eyes. His power is equal to his vigilance; and these are equal to all the emergencies brought about by the opening of the seven seals of the Book of Providence. When plagues break out who is to defend us? Behold the seven horns. If the unexpected occurs, who is to forewarn us? Behold the seven eyes.

23. Every now and then some foolish person or other brings out a pamphlet stuffed with horrors which are going to happen in a year or two. It is all about as valuable as the Norwood Gipsy’s Book of Fate, which you can buy for two-pence; but still, if it were all true that these prophecy mongers tell us, we are not afraid; for the Lamb has seven horns, and will meet every difficulty by his own power, having already foreseen it by his own wisdom. The Lamb is the answer to the enigma of providence. Providence is a riddle, but Jesus explains it all. During the first centuries, the Church of God was given up to martyrdom: every possible torment and torture was exercised upon the followers of Christ: what could be God’s meaning in all this? What else except the glory of the Lamb? And now today the Lord seems to leave his Church to wander into all kinds of errors: false doctrines are, in some quarters, fearfully paramount. What does this mean? I do not know; but the Lamb knows, for he sees with seven eyes. As a Lamb, as our Saviour, God and man, he understands all, and has the clues of all labyrinths in his hands. He has power to meet every difficulty, and wisdom to see through every embarrassment. We should cast out fear, and give ourselves entirely up to worship.

24. The Lamb also works to perfection in nature and in providence; for with him are “the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” This refers not merely to the saving power of the Spirit who is sent out to the elect; but to those powers and forces which operate upon all the earth. The power of gravitation, the energy of life, the mystical force of electricity, and the like, are all forms of the power of God. A law of nature is nothing but our observation of the usual way in which God operates in the world. A law in itself has no power: law is only the usual course of God’s action. All the Godhead’s omnipotence dwells in the Lamb: he is the Lord God Almighty. We cannot put the atonement into a secondary place; for our atoning sacrifice has all the seven Spirits of God. He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by him. Let us come to God by him. He has power to cope with the future, whatever it may be. Let us secure our souls against all threatening dangers, committing ourselves to his keeping.

25. How I wish I had power to set the Lord before you this morning really and truly glorified! But I utterly fail. My talk is like holding a candle to the sun. I am grateful that my Lord does not snuff me out; perhaps my candle may show some prisoner to the door, and when he has once passed it, he will behold the sun in its strength. Glory be to him who is so great, so glorious, and yet still the Lamb slain for sinners, whose wounds in effect continually bleed our life, whose finished work is the perpetual source of all our safety and our joy.

26. IV. I close with my fourth point, which is this: Jesus appears eternally as a Lamb, and IN THIS CHARACTER HE IS UNIVERSALLY ADORED.

27. Before he opened one of the seals this worship began. When he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, and sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book.” While the book still is closed, we worship him. We trust him where we cannot trace him. Before he begins his work as the revealing Mediator, the church adores him for his work as a sacrifice. Jesus our Lord is worshipped not so much for what benefits he will confer as for himself. As the Lamb slain he is the object of heavenly reverence. Many will reverence him, I do not doubt, when he comes in his second Advent, in the glory of the Father. Every knee will bow before him, even of apostates and infidels, when they shall see him take for himself his great power and reign; but that is not the worship which he accepts, nor what proves the offerer to be saved. You must worship him as a sacrifice, and adore him in his lowly character, as the “despised and rejected by men.” You must reverence him while others ridicule him, trust his blood while others turn from it with disdain, and so be with him in his humiliation. Accept him as your substitute, trust in him as having made atonement for you; for in heaven they still worship him as the Lamb.

28. That adoration begins with the church of God. The church of God, in all its phases, adores the Lamb. If you view the church of God as a divine creation, the embodiment of the Spirit of God, then the living creatures fall down before the Lamb. No God-begotten life is too high to refuse obeisance to the Lamb of God. Look at the church on its human side, and you see the twenty-four elders falling down and worshipping, each one having harps and vials. Well may the whole company of redeemed men worship the Mediator, since in him our manhood is greatly exalted! Was our nature ever so exalted as it is now that Christ is made Head over all things to his church? Now we are nearest to God, for between man and God no creature intervenes: Emmanuel — God with us — has joined us in one. Man is next to the Deity, with Jesus only in between, not to divide, but to unite. The Lord in Christ Jesus has made us to have dominion over all the works of his hands; he has put all things under our feet: all sheep and oxen, yes, the fowl of the air, and fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the sea. Oh Lord our God, how excellent is your name in all the earth!

29. The Lord is adored by the church in all forms of worship. They worship him in prayer; for the vials full of sweet odours are the prayers of saints. They worship him in praise with a new song, and with the postures of lowliest reverence.

30. But, beloved, the Lamb is not only worshipped by the church, he is worshipped by angels. What a wonderful gathering together of certain legions of the Lord’s hosts we have before us in this chapter! “Ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.” Their company cannot be enumerated by human arithmetic. With perfect unanimity they unite in the hallowed worship, shouting together, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.”

31. Indeed, it is not merely the church and angelhood; but all creation, east, west, north, south, highest, lowest, all adore him. All life, all space, all time, immensity, eternity: all these become one mouth for song, and all the song is, “Worthy is the Lamb.”

32. Now, then, dear friends, if this is so, shall we ever allow anyone in our presence to lower the dignity of Christ, our sacrifice? [“No.”] A friend says, emphatically, No; and we must say, No. As with a voice of thunder, we say, No, to all attempts to lower the supreme glories of the Lamb. We cannot have it: our loyalty to him will not permit it. Besides, no man will willingly lose his all. Take the Lamb away you take everything away. “Whoever steals my purse, steals trash”: whoever steals my Christ, steals myself, and more than myself — my hopes that are to be my future joys. Life is gone, when his death is rejected, his blood despised. Our souls burn with indignation when this vital truth is assailed.

   Stand up, stand up for Jesus,
      Ye soldiers of the cross!
   Lift high his royal banner,
      It must not suffer loss!

Wherever you are, to whatever church you belong, do not associate with those who decry the atonement. Do not enter into confederacy with those who, even by a breath, would disparage his precious blood. Do not bear what assails the Lamb; grow indignant at the foul lie! The wrath of the Lamb may with safety be copied by yourself in this case: you will be angry, and not sin.

33. Once more, if this is so, if the glorious sacrifice of our Lord Jesus is so much thought of in heaven, can you not trust it here below? Oh you who are burdened with sin, here is your deliverance: come to the sin-bearing Lamb. You who are perplexed with doubts, here is your guide: the Lamb can open the sealed books for you. You who have lost your comfort, come back to the Lamb, who is slain for you, and put your trust in him anew. You who are hungering for heavenly food, come to the Lamb, for he shall feed you. The Lamb, the Lamb, the bleeding Lamb: may this be the sign upon the standard of the Church of God. Set that ensign to the forefront, and march boldly on to victory, and then, oh Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us your peace! Amen.

[Portion Of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Re 5]
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, His Praise — A New Song To The Lamb” 412}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, In Heaven — Our Victorious Lord” 338}
{See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Jesus Christ, Names and Titles — Priest” 395}

{a} Dead lift: The pull of a horse, etc., exerting his utmost strength at a dead weight beyond his power to move. OED.
{b} Weeping Cross: A cross erected on or by the highway, especially for the devotions of penitents; hence, to return by the weeping cross, to return from some undertaking in humiliation or penitence. See Explorer "http://dictionary.die.net/weeping%20cross"
{c} Anacreon (570 BC-488 BC) was a Greek lyric poet, notable for his drinking songs and hymns. See Explorer "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anacreon"

The Sword And The Trowel. Edited by C. H. Spurgeon.
Contents for July, 1889.
The Preacher’s Power and the Conditions of Obtaining it. By C. H. Spurgeon.
My Friend Jack.
Trialogue on a Wet Sabbath Morning.
Open-Air Preaching in and about London.
“Polish and Power.”
Make Points.
More Fishers than Fishes.
A Sunset in the Southern Sea.
The Life which is Life Indeed.
Church of the Holy Refrigerator.
Counterfeit Gospels.
Borrowing a Knife.
An Old-Time Negro Sermon.
Our Countrymen in India
Group of Orphan Girls at Stockwell Orphanage.
Notices of Books.
Notes.
Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle.
Stockwell Orphanage.
Colportage Association.
Society of Evangelists.
For General Use in the Lord’s Work.
Metropolitan Tabernacle Colportage Association Annual Report.
Price 3d. Post free, 4 Stamps.
Passmore & Alabaster, Paternoster Buildings; and all Booksellers.

Jesus Christ, His Praise
412 — A New Song To The Lamb
1 Behold the glories of the Lamb
   Amidst his Father’s throne;
   Prepare new honours for his name
   And songs before unknown.
2 Let elders worship at his feet,
   The church adore around,
   With vials full of odours sweet,
   And harps of sweeter sound.
3 Those are the prayers of the saints,
   And these the hymns they raise;
   Jesus is kind to our complaints,
   He loves to hear our praise.
4 Eternal Father, who shall look
   Into thy secret will?
   Who but the Son shall take that book,
   And open every seal?
5 He shall fulfil thy great decrees,
   The Son deserves it well;
   Lo! in his hand the sovereign keys
   Of heaven, and death, and hell.
6 Now to the Lamb that once was slain,
   Be endless blessings paid;
   Salvation, glory, joy, remain
   For ever on thy head.
7 Thou hast redeem’d our souls with blood,
   Hast set the prisoners free;
   Hast made us kings and priests to God,
   And we shall reign with thee.
8 The words of nature and of grace
   Are put beneath thy power;
   Then shorten these delaying days,
   And bring the promised hour.
                        Isaac Watts, 1709.

Jesus Christ, In Heaven
338 — Our Victorious Lord <7s.>
1 Crowns of glory ever bright
   Rest upon the Conqueror’s head;
   Crowns of glory are his right,
   His, “Who liveth and was dead.”
2 He subdued the powers of hell,
   In the fight he stood alone;
   All his foes before him fell,
   By his single arm o’erthrown.
3 His the battle, his the toil;
   His the honours of the day;
   His the glory and the spoil;
   Jesus bears them all away.
4 Now proclaim his deeds afar,
   Fill the world with his renown:
   His alone the Victor’s car;
   His the everlasting crown!
                     Thomas Kelly, 1806.

Jesus Christ, Names and Titles
395 — Priest
1 Jesus, in thee our eyes behold
   A thousand glories more
   Than the rich gems, and polish’d gold,
   The sons of Aaron wore.
2 They first their own burn offerings brought
   To purge themselves from sin:
   Thy life was pure without a spot,
   And all thy nature clean.
3 Fresh blood as constant as the day,
   Was on their altar spilt:
   But thy one offering takes away
   For ever all our guilt.
4 Their priesthood ran through several hands,
   For mortal was their race;
   Thy never changing office stands
   Eternal as thy days.
5 Once in the circuit of a year,
   With blood, but not his own,
   Aaron within the veil appears,
   Before the golden throne.
6 But Christ by his own powerful blood
   Ascends above the skies,
   And in the presence of our God
   Shows his own sacrifice.
7 Jesus, the King of Glory, reigns
   On Sion’s heavenly hill;
   Looks like a lamb that has been slain,
   And wears his priesthood still.
8 He ever lives to intercede
   Before his Father’s face:
   Give him, my soul, thy cause to plead,
   Nor doubt the Father’s grace.
                        Isaac Watts, 1709.