Thanks to all of you helping here in the auditorium to make this possible. I have a wonderful team here, and we never make much of personalities, and we won't start today, but I know that there's been Some people out there who say, who are these people? Well, the first guy today and who preached last Sunday is Jay Nalin, who happens to be our youngest and newest elder in the church. We're blessed to have four elders. And believe it or not, for the last number of years, I've been the youngest. but not anymore and Bradley Pennington has been leading the singing for us and both Bradley and Jayden are graduates of the school that we had for 35 years which we don't have anymore but been a lot of good ministry through that a lot of years of service and ministry we're thankful and this morning we want to turn to God's Word again And this morning we will turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. I suspect many churches in their services today, however they do them, will be, this will be a passage that often will be quoted or shared from. I'm titling this the, the prophesied, crucified, risen, reigning, returning Lamb of God. Father, we thank you and praise you for the Lamb that was slain, that he arose when all was finished, that he reigns in heaven. Lord Jesus, that you kept your word, you sent the Comforter, you never left us alone. We thank you, Father, that You reign from heaven. You are the sovereign Lord. We thank you, Jesus, that you intercede for us day and night, as does the Holy Spirit. We thank you, Lord, that you're coming back and that in Christ we rule and reign with you for all eternity. Father, in this hour in which we live, we ask for your mercies upon peoples around the globe. So many are suffering. So many are dying. But Father, we live in a dying world. And we thank you for the resurrection of Christ, which alone solves the problem. The death, the burial, the resurrection of Christ sets us free from the fear of death, from the penalty of death. And we are free to live and free to serve you. And we pray that you would especially endure your children around the globe with encouragement today. in the living Christ. And for this we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. If you can find it somewhere, there was a book written many years ago by J. Sidlow Baxter entitled, The Lamb of God, the master theme of the Bible, The Lamb of God. And he had ten different scriptures that he pulled from Genesis to Revelation. And we're going to use those scriptures today I don't know of any topic that is more needful for us than to behold the Lamb. After all, the Bible has been given that we might know the God of the Bible, and Jesus told his disciples, the resurrected Jesus told his disciples, remember that Old Testament you have? It's all about me. Over in the Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, the Prophets, Psalms, all about me that's not egotistical he's God and he is worthy of worship and worthy of praise well so in these verses in first Corinthians 15 he simply gives the gospel he says in verse 3 I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. We will look at many verses today and later we will have this available on our website as an outline in case you're not able to get them down. I would encourage you to obtain this list of scriptures and make them a regular meditation because One of the things that is very valuable to do is to sort of take the broad, the big view. From Genesis to Revelation, what's the story? And so that's what we'll do today. We'll look from Genesis to Revelation, from the past all the way into eternity, and see redemption story as it's unfolded by the master theme of the Bible, the Lamb of God. you remember what John said behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world John 1 29 and later he was moved in writing the revelation the revelation is the unveiling of Jesus Christ as he actually is and there's a description clearly of him in chapter 1 but all through all the chapters almost every chapter in the revelation there are from 24 to 26 references, specific references, to Jesus as the Lamb. Even into eternity we never will forget that Jesus was the Lamb. And so that should speak something very significant to us. That is no doubt given to us in the teaching of Scripture in 1 Corinthians 11 at the Lord's Supper. We're showing his death until he comes. Now salvation is completed, it's finished, there's nothing to be added, but the key story all through the Bible is the whole story of the substitutionary atonement of the Lamb of God. And that's one of the beautiful things that we see here in the entirety of the Bible. So the master theme of the last book of the Bible is the glorious triumph of Christ and he's still seen as the Lamb. But again this is unfolded from Genesis to Revelation and when we tie this all together it does something else that we need to do we we often look at the cross on one day and or one period of time and the resurrection of another and sometimes we don't put them together well these scriptures will help us once again to put them together I don't have time to read all of these verses I'll call attention to some very familiar chapters and accounts of scripture and then on your own you'll be able to go back and and study them more deeply. In Genesis chapter 4 verse 3 through 7 we have the account of Abel and his Lamb. He came to worship and he brought a blood sacrifice. And so here we see the necessity of the Lamb. And this whole concept of a blood sacrifice, the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, Jesus making propitiation, satisfying the wrath of God, is sadly something that is more and more being minimized or even denied in our day. An Anglican priest in England said this, pastors who preach that Christ was sent to earth to die in atonement for the sins of mankind are making God sound like a psychopath. This is someone who stands in a pulpit. Another one said, the idea of God murdering his son for the salvation of the world is barbaric and morally indefensible. It turns Christianity into cosmic child abuse. People are saying this from pulpits in the nation or around the world. There was a lady who had a short term in running for president this year. And some years ago she did a, has, and is still available, A Course in Miracles. And is a, quote, sort of, you might say, professing Christian. She says this in her Course in Miracles. Let us not spend this holy week brooding on the crucifixion of God's Son. A slain Christ has no meaning. Do not make the prophetic error of clinging to the old rugged cross. The atonement is the final lesson that man need learn for it teaches him that never having sinned he has no need of salvation. A favorite of many people in evangelical and even Baptist churches as an author by the name of Brennan Manning. He's written a number of books and people recommend him and quote him. He said this, the God who exacts the last drop of blood from his son so that his just anger invoked by sin may be appeased is not the God revealed by and in Jesus Christ and if he is not the God of Jesus he does not exist. So in this time of great apostasy, it behooves us to go and look at the whole scheme of the Bible. It's the same from beginning to end, and it is promoting and setting forth the blood atonement, that if there is no remission of sin except through the blood of Jesus Christ. now in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 5 we're reminded going back to Abel and his lamb we're reminded that Abel did what he did by faith in other words he was accepting the revelation that God had given him faith in the revealed will of God true worship must be by revelation from God not by human reasoning of course Cain he had a wonderful idea I know that God has said this but here's my idea and he came up with a system that would exalt him look at my fruits and vegetables and throughout the world no matter what title or flavor religion is even religion in the name of Christ You either have salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone who paid your sin debt at Calvary, or you have some system of works. Abel's offering tells us that he was conscious of his sin and of his need of forgiveness. Now let's just pause and ask ourselves a question. Have I gone that far? Have I experienced the work of God in my life to where I own personally that I came to see myself as a sinner in need of God's forgiveness as I've said before I was letting a Methodist pastor through the barnyard gate to go fishing and he stopped right in front of me as I held the gate open and he asked me about my soul and for the first time in my life I had a conviction of sin and an awareness of needing the Savior and God in his grace sometime later opened my heart Cain's offering had nothing to do with confessing sin or needing forgiveness Abel's offering was by faith and faith comes by hearing the Word of God Cain did not believe God he was not an atheist he was ready to come worship but in his own way I got to thinking about that. Some of you may be old enough to know who Frank Sinatra is. He made a song famous, probably was, may well have been his life story, I Did It My Way. And verse after verse in the hymn, or hymn, in his song, it might have been his hymn, he makes some statement about life and things he's gone through and then he says, but I did it my way. That is the world's greatest and largest religion. Doing it my way. And that's what Cain did. It didn't work. Churches are filled with people hoping to get to heaven based on their works, their religious practices, instead of the blood of the Lamb. Where am I this morning? Where are you? Death is not far off. Eternity lasts forever. What offering do you bring? when you come to worship. Do you come in the name of Jesus, trusting only and altogether in his precious blood, or do you come with your best idea? In Genesis 22, verses 1 through 13, we see not only the necessity of the Lamb, but the provision of the Lamb. You'll recall that Abraham was going to worship God, and at God's command, as strange as it might seem, he was to take his only son. His son Isaac was willing to go, in some sense a picture of what Jesus would do. And at the point of raising the knife to slay his son, and the New Testament tells us he had faith to believe that if God had him carried through with that, he would raise him from the dead because he knew that he was a promised son, so this could not be the end of everything. But God intervened and said, I'll provide a lamb. And so he stayed his hand and here's an incredible wonder as we think about what Jesus has done for us, what God the Father has done for us. When Abraham was about to slay his son, God stayed his hand. There's provision here. When God so loved the world that he gave his son and when Jesus went to Calvary, there was no one to stay his hand. He followed through. No one took his life, he gave it. And the Father poured out on him the wrath that we deserve. In Exodus 12, there's of course the story or the historical account of the Passover lamb that was slain on the night before Israel left Egypt this lamb had to be slain it had to be perfect but a perfect lamb is no good unless it's slain because it's when I see the blood that I will pass over you it is not Jesus the great moral teacher and he is It's not even Jesus in all of his sinless perfection, and he was, and that is necessary. But for us to have salvation, Jesus must be the Lamb slain. He must be crucified. Nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Now again, if you're not aware of this, this is a theme all the way through the Bible. You could say, and I'll say this respectfully, the Bible is a very bloody book. From the moment in time of God providing Adam and Eve a covering for their sin, their fig leaves would not do. An animal was slain, blood was shed. And when you get to the book of Leviticus, there is a focus on the character of the lamb. The lamb had to be perfect, without blemish, Psalm 20 times in Leviticus, the Lamb must be perfect to be acceptable, to be a satisfying sacrifice. And when you get to the New Testament and you follow the life of Jesus through the Gospels, how encouraging, what great comfort it is to know that Jesus was tempted and tested at all points as we yet without sin. He is a sinless sin bearer. Then this unfolding gets very beautiful and sacred when you get to Isaiah 53. Go home and read the whole chapter, or you're at home, read the whole chapter. Now of course at this point all of the unfolding of this story of the Lamb and these lambs that have been slain and continue to be slain, they obviously were forfeited creatures Now in Isaiah 53, it becomes obvious that the prophecy here of a substitute is a person. And so when we progress to John 1 29, the prophesied Lamb of God is Jesus. All the other lambs that were ever slain were pointing to him. And again, the message of all of scripture is that we have all sinned. We all deserve hell. Behold the Lamb of God. Look and live. That's the message for the lost person. You are a sinner. You are under the wrath of God. The only hope is to behold the Lamb of God. It is a similar picture when Israel had sinned and they were dying because of the snakes that had bitten them. Human nature being what it is, probably, this is just supposition on my part, this is not something found in the scripture, but it does not do violence to teachings of scripture. So here are all these people dying, human nature being what it is. There are probably some strong men around killing snakes, but they're dying. there are probably some very nice nurse type people comforting people and they're holding people in their arms and comforting them but they're dying I wouldn't be surprised if there are those who are looking and say Moses Moses help us they're dying but God had instructed Moses to raise up a brazen serpent And brass symbolized judgment. They were under the just judgment of God. And he simply said, look and live. And by looking they were owning up to their sin and they were putting all of their hope in what God had provided outside of them. And that is the profound simplicity of salvation by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. You look away from yourself, you look away from all of your doing and all of your hopes and anything of your heritage or your standing in the community or how many people you've helped across the street or whatever, all of that is done. Oh, that's what Paul said. Saul of Tarsus had a lot of good things he was doing. But there came a day, by the grace of God, that he saw Jesus. He looked and he lived. Have you done that? Have you had that experience where the Spirit of God has so worked in you that that's where you stand? And Christian, this looking at the Lamb of God is very, very powerful for you and I in our Christian life. You may remember that 2 Corinthians 3.18 says we are transformed, we are metamorphosed into the likeness of Christ as we behold the Lamb of God. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 through 4 speaks to us about looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Now we move on to Acts chapter 8 verse 30 through 37 and there is something that is very specific. We already saw in Isaiah 53 that this lamb is a person. In Acts 8 30 through 37 the eunuch has gone to Jerusalem and is leaving Jerusalem and is reading Isaiah 53 and God has Philip to join him What are you reading? Isaiah 53, but I don't know what it means. What did Philip say? What does the scripture say about what Philip did? At that same scripture he opened the scripture and preached unto him Jesus. So Jesus is the promised Messiah, the Son of God. Have you come to that heartfelt conviction and confession where the eunuch said, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a profound simplicity in the gospel, isn't there? Now, this is Resurrection Sunday as we look upon it. Of course, in the New Testament era, every day is Resurrection Day and Sunday, but in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 18 through 21, this passage sums up everything, these three or four verses here, 1 Peter 1, 18 through 21, sums up all that we have seen thus far but now adds the revelation of the resurrection. Those who are in Christ are not redeemed by corruptible things. Here is the necessity of the Lamb, as we saw in Genesis 3. Peter tells us that Jesus is the Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world. Here is the provided Lamb. And as vital as the sinless life of Jesus is, we're not redeemed by his perfect life or his teaching, but by his blood. That's what Exodus 12 tells us. And it speaks of his character without blemish, without spot. Same story as Leviticus emphasizes over and over again. The prophecy of the Lamb being a person Isaiah 53, now we see very clearly in the passage we saw in Acts 8, Jesus is that person of Isaiah 53. And so this is the same truth in 1 Peter 1, 19 through 20, but then in verse 20 and 21, he adds something new. He speaks about the resurrection of the Lamb. The Lamb of God is alive. And all of the other works of the Lamb call for us to have faith in what God has done. His resurrection gives us hope and encouragement for not only what he has done, but for what he is doing and what he shall do. And as we study the scripture, we find that the resurrection is God's stamp of satisfaction that I am completely satisfied with the work of Jesus. He is being proved by his resurrection that he is indeed the eternal God, the Lamb of God. And it also points us to the future. The resurrection of Christ means that we'll have resurrection. And so when you get now going forward into the Revelation and picking a couple of the occasions where you see the Lamb there, and one of the most profound, if we can just enter into it, if we can just see it, the emotions of John were at the highest level possibly of any time in his life. as he's given revelation and understanding in Revelation chapter 5, he sees a book and there's no one who can open it, nobody in heaven, nobody on earth, nobody can see what's in it, and so John wept, he wept much, we could say, we could use the terminology that this book would mean if no one can open this book then nothing of the benefits of Christ will ever come to pass will never be resurrected Satan wins there's no hope John understands all of that he says I wept much because no man was found worthy to open the book and to read neither to look their own and one of the elders said don't weep Behold, again envision this, if suddenly in our auditorium or in your home the door open and a large male lion came in, would you be impressed? Maybe a little afraid? John hears this voice, weep not. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. You say, oh, lions have strength. I wish I had the strength of a lion. Oh, what I could accomplish. And he's prevailed to open the book, and the loose seals are off. But when John looked, he said, I looked and in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and the midst of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain. The most powerful work that has ever been done on this earth was done by Jesus not functioning in his strength as God, but as a lamb. the Lamb at Calvary where he submitted himself all the way to death and you know there are situations in our life when we feel like that we are powerless and there's so many things that we can't do anything about and we wish we had the strength of a lion or we wish we had the lion on our side we just need the Lamb Jesus the Lamb, the master theme of the Bible is the Lamb there is nothing more powerful than the work of Jesus as the Lamb as the Lamb he conquered sin he conquered Satan that great enemy about which the whole world right now is just wringing their hands fear of death Jesus is the only one who's ever conquered that and he conquers it in your life and mine now you are going to die And in this present virus, multitudes of the people who have died and who will die, frankly, are already living on borrowed time. We're only promised 70 years. Over in, I think in Psalms, some chapter, speaks about that being a general length of time. Well, I'm five years overdue. I'm living on borrowed time. Why should I complain? But God has a key anyway. But anyway, so here is the lamb that was slain, and he is the one who has power. He is enthroned. He is victorious. He is working in the nations, and he is accomplishing his will, and he is working in and through his redeemed, and moving events and nations on earth. to what will be a future time when you get to the end of Revelation where all rebellion is broken down. And oh, by the way, there's something else that's quite astounding in the process when God begins to intervene in very definite ways, far more than he's ever done to this point. There'll come a time when all the kings and the great people of the earth are unanimously crying out for the mountains to fall on them and to hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb we will either bow to Jesus as the saving, sacrificing Lamb of God propitiating, satisfying our wrath because of what he did at Calvary or we can reject the Lamb and do it our way and there's a stanza in that song that says he never bowed every human is going to bow every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. You either do that and find yourself saved by the grace of God or you rebel and find yourself bowing in utter fear as the exalted Christ, the Lamb of God, comes to judge. Quickly let's run through some of this again Because these passages, these 10 passages, unfold a number of aspects of the doctrine of salvation. Genesis 4, 3-7, Abel's lamb, propitiation, a satisfying of the holy wrath of God. Genesis 22, Abraham, the doctrine of substitution, a provided lamb, offered as a substitute for Isaac. Exodus 12, the Passover, protection, protection from the coming judgment angel and death you see how much trouble you're in if your God is only a God of love and not a God of wrath that's a God of your creation the God of the Bible is a God of love and his love is so holy that he cannot tolerate sin and God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever would believe in him would not perish and later in that same chapter of John chapter 3 he says that those who are outside of Christ are abiding under the wrath of God every moment of your life that you live outside of Christ you are abiding there's not only the mercy of God keeps the lost sinner alive and out of hell. One moment more, one moment more. So, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. In Leviticus 22, the freeing from the guilt and the penalty of sin, the guilt of Israel and the procedures they had there would be placed, as it were, on a sacrificial lamb. Well, Jesus was made the sacrificial lamb. Isaiah 53, the lamb suffered. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. We should take this in a personal way. It's one thing to read that and say, well, wow. But it's another thing to be at a point in your life where when you read that you say, oh my God, you did that for me. It was my iniquity. It was my transgressions. And then John chapter 1 verse 29, the Lamb bears away all of our sin. Acts 8, salvation is through the Lamb. What the eunuch had failed to find in all the religion of Jerusalem, he found salvation in the Lamb. And we could go on more of this, but I want to just go forward to say that we're looking at the necessity of the Lamb of God. We're looking at the Lamb of God for one man, for Isaac, As we go through the scriptures, we see the Lamb of God for a dark-skinned Ethiopian, there in Acts, and the Lamb for all history, the resurrected Lamb, the Lamb enthroned in the universe for all eternity, the highly exalted Lamb worshipped by all for all eternity. Is He your Lamb? If you reject him, you face him in his wrath. As we close this morning, worshiping and rejoicing in the master theme of the Bible, who is Jesus, the Lamb of God, there are so many songs that are said or sung in the Revelation, and they help us with having a worthy response. or wherever you are this morning as as a Christian then we can sing the song of heaven one of the songs of heaven and they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book to open the seals for you were slain and you have redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred tongue and people and nation and you've made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign forever. M. A. Thomas from India used to sing a little song. In fact, it was a whole hymn. I only ever heard him sing the chorus. No, that was a different song. I'm thinking of one that we learned from the church and the pastor we were in in college. Cheer up, you saints of God. There's nothing to worry about. Oh, there's lots of things to worry about, lots of things to make you fear, to doubt. Cheer up, you saints of God. There's nothing to worry about. nothing to make you feel afraid nothing to make you doubt remember Jesus the Lamb of God always saves so why not trust him and shout amen hallelujah praise the Lord our Father we bless you for your amazing love and mercy to us we thank you for so loving the world that you sent your only begotten Son to be the Lamb of God. Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you willingly came and laid down your life as the Lamb of God. We ask that you would open our eyes by your wonderful Holy Spirit as we read the Word of God to again and again see this master theme of the Lamb of God. And those who are outside of Christ beholding the Lamb and seeing their sin would look and live. And those who are in Christ beholding the Lamb would be more and more transformed into the likeness of Jesus. May we as your children go forth into this troubled world as lambs of Christ with more power than we can ever imagine, even though we look very powerless. And for these things we pray and give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.