Our scripture lesson for this evening is drawn from the book of the Revelation, chapter 5. And I saw in the hand, in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and on the back, sealed up with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals? And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it. And I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, Stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures, and the elders, a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. As he came, he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the lamb, each having a heart and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy art thou to take the book, and to break its seals. For thou wast slain, and didst purchase for God with thy blood men from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. And thou hast made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God. And they will reign upon the earth. 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, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and might, and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every created thing which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and things in them, I heard say to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion for ever and ever. And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen, and the elders fell down and worshipped." This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. So, who owns that piece of land? Which one? That one over there. Who owns that? The one with the nice trees and the creek running through it? Yeah, who owns it? Well, I'm not sure. I'm not sure it would be nice to own it because you could really develop that land. That would be a really nice piece to put stuff on. Yeah, but I'm not sure who owns it. It is an important question who owns that piece of land. We human beings have made our secular law to be nine-tenths concerned with possession, and if that land isn't yours, you can't do anything with it. You are not the worthy party to actually work with it, to give it a purpose, to shape it, to mold it, to bend it to your will. It may be very attractive, and in fact it could be very beneficial to you if you were, but if you are not, you simply aren't. There is someone else who is worthy, because they own it. We human beings like to assign to ourselves that we are worthy to shape the multiland, but there is some question about that. In the King Arthur legends, there is a story told where the young Arthur, being trained by Merlin, is turned into a bird and sent into the sky to look down onto the land. Merlin doesn't tell him why, he just tells him, I want you to go up there and look around and come back down and we'll talk. Once Arthur comes back down and Merlin transforms him again into a man, he asks Arthur, so what did you see? concerning borders, national divisions, divisions between kingdoms. Arthur said, I did not see any borders. And Merlin said, ah-ha, you did not. You see, nature is not quite so keen on honoring our claim of worthiness. Between human beings, we draw the lines, but God's creation maybe not so much unless we truly subdue it with our hands. Years ago, in Richmond, my family bought a house in a neighborhood, and nearly all the neighbors came out to cheer. The man who had bought the house was an academic hippie, and in the middle of a neighborhood, he had transformed his land into a wilderness. No yard, just a bunch of brambles and briars, and he had let it grow up into a natural state because he was a hippie and that's what he wanted to live in. It was his land. He assured his neighbors that it only would affect him, but, you know, the mice that lived in the brambles didn't really respond to the boundary he put around them. And when that was all cleared away, the neighborhood came out to sing our praises because God's creation doesn't necessarily honor our worthiness and our direction as far as what shall be shaped and molded and what will go where. If that is the case, though, where in it do we get our doctrine of possession? Well, the answer is we get it from Scripture. The Lord claims to own all things. In fact, we began our worship with Psalm 24 for that very reason. It begins with a claim that God is the real owner. The earth is the Lord's, and all it contains, the world and those who dwell in it. Why is he the owner? Well, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. owner, and he has the right to own it, because he is worthy. Verse 2 of Psalm 24 begins with word 4. There's a reason why he can be the owner. He made it. That makes him worthy to own it. He owns it by reason of creation. But, if we were to do an in-depth study of the scripture, we would find out that because he is the owner, he can assign to stewards to take care of it, and that's what happens. He assigns to men, you'll take care of this part of the world, or you'll take care of that part of the world. It's a rightful stewardship. And when we talk about ourselves, we say, I own this. I own that. And we acknowledge each other's rights. You own this piece of land. You can shape it and mold it. You can give it a purpose. As far as between man and man, that's perfectly legitimate, because God owns all things, and he has assigned ownership to us secondarily. But it is very secondarily. Consider, if you will, the very piece of property we stand on. A hundred years ago, there was somebody who said, I own this. And we believe that human beings don't fade into nothingness. They go to the Lord when they die, they continue in existence. So, whoever it was who owned this piece of property and said, I own it, how much authority do they extend over it now? They continue to exist, but not a lot happening here is because of what they say. If you happen to own this piece of land a hundred years from now, exactly how much authority and power are you going to have over it? I would wager not a lot. And so, our worthiness to own, to rule, to shape, is very limited when you get right down to it. It's real, but it's secondary, and it's fleeting. Now, consider the entire world. Consider not only the world as we know it, a ball spinning in space, But consider the entirety of creation, not just one parcel of land, not just one bit of property, but the entirety of all things. Every natural law, every bit of matter, every bit of energy, everything and everything. Who could possibly be worthy? to shape, to mold, to use, or even to bring to an end, all of that. In our wildest dreams, we cannot consider the treasure that is literally everything. Our treasure hoards are small, they are bits of everything, and when you consider creation at large, our treasure hoards are unseeable. but the Lord owns all things by reason of creation. Who is worthy to make a stop? That is effectively the question we hear asked in Heaven as we begin our chapter. There's a book in the hands of the one who is seated on the throne, and we're going to learn as we go further into the Revelation that this book is the pre-written ending to all the story. God has written it, and it is the purposing, the disposing, and the ending of all creation. Well, if we have a question of who is worthy to run little bits and pieces, who could possibly be worthy to bring it all to an end? Who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals? No one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was immediately found who could open the book or look into it. Because worthiness is a big issue. Who owns this? Who has purchased it? Who has the rights? Bringing everything to an end, by the way, is seen in scripture as a very positive thing. Creation is first. Every day, every week, 24-7, we walk, talk, and breathe, and have our being in a creation that is tainted by sin and under the wrath of God, and really not what it was supposed to be from a certain sense. Bringing it to an end is actually what we all long for, and John in verse 4 says, I began to weep greatly. because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into. A cursed world, a terrible place, a place of death and frustration and rebellion. Who can bring this train to a stop at the station? It doesn't look like anyone. But then one of the elders points out to John that, yes, there is someone. He is a very special someone. He is different than all others. He is worthy. Stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals." To be worthy to dispose of a piece of property to shape and mold it, we have to pay a price. Well, this one is worthy because he is, quote, overcome, and the story continues on. He is called the Lion, but we see him standing as a lamb, an impressive one. He has seven horns and seven eyes. Horns are a symbol of rule, eyes are a symbol of knowledge. The seven spirits of God, which are the symbolic omnipresence of the Holy Spirit, they are all around him. But he is called the Lion, and we see him as a lamb, and he is standing as one flame. He is conquered, he is overcome, says the elder, but what we see with the eye is sacrifice, death, and pain. He is the ultimate paradox, I mentioned that word this morning. He is the lion who is conquered by being the lamb who has submitted himself to death, and by being this, he has bought the right to bring it to an end. And he's going to. He is going to open the seals. The story has already been written, but now it is going to be read. And there is a purpose why he is ending it. In verse 9 and 10, we hear all of heaven singing. They sing a new song. The ending is something new. worthy art thou to take the book, and break its seals, for thou wast slain, and did purchase for God with thy blood men from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation. And thou hast made them to be a kingdom, and priests of our God, and they will reign upon the earth." We do not reign upon the earth now. control certain small parcels, perhaps, but we are not reigning as we are going to. But Christ is bringing all of history to an end because he has purchased a special people. The crop has been growing. The granary of the souls of the true saints has been filling. Now it is filled. Now, it is coming to an end. The greenery is beginning to spill over the top, and the time has come to stop. But, make no mistake, it is not just the elect that has been purchased. He has purchased everything. When ripe the fruit, no longer do you need the husk, and we are about to see the husk But Christ has not just purchased the elect. He's purchased everything. He's about to judge it. He is about to dispose it. He is about to make rid of it. Consider, if you will, a very banal example, but it's a good one nonetheless. You go down here to the corner and you buy yourself a candy bar. What did you buy? Well, you bought yourself a candy bar, and you're going to eat it. You have a purpose for that candy bar. But it is still technically true you bought the wrapper as well. The wrapper has had a purpose. It has protected your candy bar. It has brought it to you. You have bought it. When you remove it from your candy bar, you will dispose of it as you see fit. If you decide to spread it out and put it on your wall as a piece of art, it's certainly yours to do so. But most likely you will not be doing that, you will be tossing it away, though it belongs to you. Just so is the purchase that the Lamb who has been slain has made. There is a verse of the New Testament that many Calvinists run and hide from. It is 2 Peter Chapter 2, in verse 1, and we absolutely hate dealing with it. Peter writes, But false prophets also arose among the people, just as also will be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even with denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Non-reformed people point to this verse and they say, look, Christ has bought these false teachers and yet we are told they are going to go to destruction. Obviously what you have here is people who have been purchased by the blood of the Lamb, who are not saved, they are not elect. They have fallen away. They have become false teachers. They were in the body of the church and now bought by the blood. They will be on their way to hell. But it should not be awkward, because Christ has purchased a special people for God. They are going to be kings, they are going to be priests, but they are purchased in a different way than he has purchased everything else. When we look at the second Psalm, and we see the covenant that the Father has made with These are the words of that countenance. Beginning in verse 7, I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will surely give the church, Israel, the elect people. Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as thine inheritance. and the very ends of the earth as thy possession. You will own them. Now, will you treat them with grace? Will you treat them with your forgiveness and mercy? Will you establish them? Well, the next verse is, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt shatter them like earthenware. And just to get the point across, the psalmist continues, Now therefore, O kings, not O Israelites, not O members of the church, Now therefore, O King, show discernment. Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, you pagan kings. Do homage to the Son, you unredeemed pagans, lest ye become angry and perish in the way, for his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him! just in case we had perhaps missed that Christ is being referred to in this psalm. A few chapters back, we have read Christ's own words to us. He is speaking to the church at Thyatira, and he says, and he who overcomes and keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. as the vessels of a potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from my Father. The Lamb has been slain, and He has purchased all creation, but not all creation is going to the same place. The time has come that the elect are filled, and it's time to bring everything to an end, and thanks be to God. But Christ has bought it all. Christ has the legal right to determine heaven or hell for individuals, and in fact to dispose, to purpose, and to use all that is. His Father, before it ever was, entered into a covenant with him and said, ask of me and I will give it all to you, and you can dispose of it as you will. Blessed will be those who take refuge in you, but it will all be yours. The elect, the kingdom of heaven, the saints in heaven, the rulers of that which is His kingdom, begin to worship and they celebrate that the book is about to be opened. Christ, who has bought it all, will now determine it. Worthy He is, the Lamb that was slain. to receive power, which is the ability to do stuff, and riches, which is the value of things, and wisdom, which is the ability to dispose of it to a purpose, and might, which is very similar to power, and honor, which is rule, and glory and blessing, all of it shall soon break forth on him. He has possessed it already. He is worthy of it. But now it's the final chapter of life that's put into its place. It will be unmissable, for he is worthy.