This evening, our text is from the book of Revelation, chapter 13, verses eight through nine. And speaking of the beast, the scripture says, all who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing of his word this evening. This evening together we have rehearsed the climax of Christ's passion from his arrest to the cross and finally to his burial. And the picture that we get from reading the gospel accounts is that this horrific series of events took most people by surprise. The remaining 11 disciples at this point were devastated. And the rest of his followers were in shock. Even the religious leaders who had long plotted against Jesus couldn't have foreseen how easily he would finally be delivered into their hands. Because time and again, he escaped them when they plotted against him. But this time, this time, everything seemed to fall into place. But it was such a shock because just a week earlier, throngs of people were welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem as king. They were shouting, Hosanna. They were waving palm branches. They were laying out their cloaks before him, spreading out the red carpet, as it were. And then, in just a matter of days, throngs were then shouting, crucify him. It seems that no one would have predicted such a shocking turn of events. Well, that is no one but Jesus himself. Of course, even his followers didn't understand him when he spoke of his death, and they didn't believe him either. So how did Jesus know what others couldn't possibly have seen coming? Well, Jesus gives the answer very straightforwardly to his disciples on the night he was betrayed. If you'll recall in the Gospel of John, he says, I am telling you these things before they take place, that when they do take place, you may believe that I am. That last part of the statement is often softened by modern English translations, but literally in the Greek, that's the way it reads. that you will know I am. You see, Jesus knew that his triumphal entry into Jerusalem would end with his betrayal, with his crucifixion, and then his burial, because he was God incarnate, because he was the great I am. But he knew this not simply because God knows the future. He knew this because God has written the future. And the tragic events that were unfolding were bringing about the climax of God's eternal purpose, a very glorious redemptive work. Now with that in mind as the background, let's go back to that profound statement that we read in Revelation chapter 13. In the flow of the narrative as you're reading along in chapter 13, this seems to be little more than a passing remark. At the end of verse 8, we're told almost as an aside that Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The apostle doesn't bother to explain it. He doesn't bother to dwell on it. He simply mentions it in passing and then quickly moves on. But as is common in John's writings, even the most incidental of details in a text are so often immensely profound. Don't let anything slip by you that was written by the Holy Spirit to the pen of John. It is all significant. Now, before we can truly appreciate then this little statement that Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, before we can truly understand that and know its fullness, we have to understand the context. And in those verses, we find a truth that permeates all of Scripture. Men segregate themselves, they classify themselves in lots of ways. But in the final analysis, the scripture tells us there is only one distinction that really matters. In fact, God divides all of mankind just simply into two categories. That's all. And John alludes to that distinction right here. All who dwell on the earth are divided into these two camps, those who worship the beast and those who worship the true and the living God. That's it. No matter what religion you might embrace, if you're not worshiping the God who has revealed himself in scripture, you're worshiping the beast. Call him what you will, but you're worshiping the beast, for you're worshiping a false god. And John identifies those who worship the beast as those whose names have not been written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Now, folks, this is a clear and specific reference to election and reprobation. See, in chapter 17, verse 8, you can read that later, but if you skip ahead in the book of Revelation to chapter 17, verse 8, you'll find that the names of those who worship the beast have been absent from the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world. They've never been there. On the other hand, as Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 tells us, God chose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world. So here you have this eternal setting. In one instance, God has chosen those who will be his own before the foundation of the world, and in the other, others are excluded. God's people are those whose names have been in the book from the very beginning. You see? Those who worship the beast then are the non-elect. Their names have never been recorded in the book of life, the book of the redeemed. And so the message couldn't be any clearer here. The destiny of all people who dwell in the earth is in the hands of our sovereign God. That's the context of this passage. Now this context is important because it shows us that not only is God fully and completely in control, the outcome is never in question. The cross has always been planned from the very beginning. You see, the benefits of redemption were assigned to the elect from the foundation of the earth. The lamb who was slain has a book of life, a book that records the names of those he died to save. And so 2,000 years ago, the lamb, God's son left the glories of heaven and he entered into time and space and he assumed a tabernacle of humanity in order to accomplish that sovereign purpose that reaches all the way back to eternity past. In other words, the origins of this great act of atonement predate time itself. But not only does John tell us that the names of God's people were recorded in this book before creation, He also tells us that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. And for just a moment tonight, I want you to think about what that means. Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That means that before God created the universe, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit counseled together. It's the great covenant of redemption. And they determined to redeem a people by the sacrifice of the incarnate son. Do you see the point here? Speaking from the timeless realm of God's good purpose, the reality of the cross predates time itself. And the implications of this are many, folks. For one thing, this means that the cross was never an afterthought. Sometimes that's the way it's preached. God forbid that be the case. No. It wasn't as if God created man, but then just couldn't seem to find a way to keep him from sinning. And so, he then turns to Jesus and says, wow, what are we gonna do now? Or actually, it'd be the word, wouldn't it? The eternal word. What are we gonna do now? I've gotta find a way to deal with this fiasco. This man that we've created has sinned. No. None of that took God by surprise. He didn't turn to the sun and say, well, I'm sorry, but you know what this means. You're going to have to die. You're going to have to be a sacrifice if there's going to be any chance to save even a few of these rebels. Now, that's often the way that the gospel is presented, but how poorly presented it is, for it's not what the Scripture teaches. Now, that's absurd. And it isn't as if Jesus was sent by God with a message of love for the whole world, but evil men foiled that plan by killing him. Sometimes that's the way it's presented. But God wasn't scrambling around trying to figure out how to salvage a botched mission. No. The cross was the plan from the very beginning. In fact, were it not for the cross, the story of human history would have ended in the garden. Talk about a short story. It would have been. The only reason humanity was spared after Adam and Eve sinned is because God had already determined from eternity past that he would send Christ as the sacrificial lamb who would take away the sins of the world. So think about the implications of this. This means then that the cross work of Christ is the centerpiece of God's purpose and the whole of created order. The whole history of the world owes its very existence to the fact that Jesus himself is that lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The lamb slain before time even began. And so that means that all of the so-called great events in human history, we look back in our history books and we marvel at the seven ancient wonders of the world. We look at the magnificent Egyptian empire. We marvel over the powerful Roman empire. We look at the Middle Ages and all that unfolded there, the Renaissance, the birth of the United States, the Enlightenment, all of these major events in history that have charted the course. of humanity. We could go on and on, but folks, the point is, every one of those events and all of those events put together pale in comparison to the cross. In fact, they owe their reality to the cross. Men may exalt those things as important, but when all is said and done, I can assure you that those events will be little more than footnotes in the annals of human history. They're not significant in the big picture. Because the one event that drives all of human history is the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The cross is the climax of God's purpose in this created order. And so from the beginning of time, everything pointed to the cross. And now that Christ has come and he has given himself upon that cross, it all flows from it. Everything before pointed to the cross, everything afterwards flows from the cross. It's the centerpiece of God's purpose. And this is the picture we're given in Revelation 5, if you were to take the time to read that tonight. We find that in the hand of the one who sits on the throne is a scroll with seven seals. And John weeps because there is no one found worthy to take that scroll, to break those seals so that God's purposes might come to pass. But then, John is told to stop weeping by the angel, do you remember? He says, look, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, he is worthy. Now, when John looks, what I find so interesting in that passage is he doesn't see a lion, this lion of the tribe of Judah, this root of David. When he looks, he doesn't see a branch. No, when he looks, he sees a slain lamb. And this is the one who's worthy to break the seals so that God's purposes may unfold. I hope you get the picture, folks. It takes the sacrificial lamb of God to bring God's divine purposes to pass. History could not have unfolded without the cross. There would be no history without the cross. The cross is the centerpiece of history itself. And so is it any wonder, I think, that the Apostle Paul says, I will not boast except in the cross of Christ. What a statement. In the big picture, it's the only thing that really matters. I mean, we glory in the cross as God's people because we owe our very existence to the cross. His cross made our existence possible. We glory in the cross because it's the reason that we know the love of God. Without the cross, we would not know the love of God. We glory in the cross for by it, we have been rescued from eternal condemnation. glory in the cross for by it our destiny has been secured. We have a future of living forever in the presence of the Almighty God and for that we must look to the cross. We owe that to the cross of Christ. Finally, whenever we hear that Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, we realize that not only did God foreordain our Savior that would one day come and die for us, it means that His sacrifice was made in time and yet is timeless. Do you see? If Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, then although His sacrifice was made in time, its efficacy is timeless. Because it was planned by God before the foundation of the world. And therefore, the value of Christ's sacrifice is eternal. That's why the cross is eternal. The value of the cross is eternal. And the glorious work of Christ is eternal. You have to remember, God transcends time. He's the great I am. And therefore, from God's perspective, The consummation of our salvation is already a reality. What comfort that is. God sees things as true outside of time. And that's why Paul can say, those whom he predestined, he also called. And those he called, he also justified. And those he justified, he also glorified. We're not yet glorified, at least not in time. But our future glorification, folks, is more certain than the fact that we're sitting here tonight. We are glorified already in the mind of God, in the purpose of God, in the decree of God. We've just got to catch up in time. Well, in the same way, folks, that's what it means for Christ to be slain as the Lamb from the foundation of the world. The whole created universe depends on the eternal reality of the cross. The glorious work of our Savior, though it's accomplished in time, is never limited by time. It's the eternal foundation on which creation rests, and that's why the prophet Isaiah, whose writings we rehearsed a moment ago, He writes almost 700 years before the cross, and yet He could say, He was, past tense, wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. Isaiah and the people of God were healed in their day 700 years before the cross by the cross Just as we are healed in our day by the cross some 2,000 years ago The atonement of our Savior is timeless for he is the lamb slain before the foundation of the world and so tonight as we recall the sacrifice of our Savior and Let me encourage you to remember that we're not just looking back to some distant event that occurred in the first century in the faraway capital of Judea. No. We're resting in the eternal work of God the Son. We're resting in a timeless sacrifice that redeems a people chosen by God and destined for his saving love. And all of this before time began. Oh, what a marvelous Savior. Oh, what a glorious God. For Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And because of that, we are His redeemed. And to Him be glory forever. Amen.