Please have your Bibles open and stand with me for the reading of God's Word in the book of Revelation chapter 5. And today we're coming to the final passage in chapter 5 verses 11 to 14. We have looked at this passage in three stanzas of glorious heavenly praise rendered unto the Lord especially the Lamb on the throne, the exalted Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And now we see the final stanza of praise, of the heavenly praise in Revelation 5, verses 11 to 14. And this is the third part of this chapter, which I've entitled, Worthy Are You, O Lord, Worthy Are You. This is the praise, this is the reading of God's word. Revelation 5 verse 11, Then 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 strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every created thing which is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, To him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be the blessing, and honor, and glory, and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures kept saying, Amen. And the elders fell down and worshiped. Amen. Please be seated. I don't know how our praise was in comparison to the heavenly praise, but I think we can safely say that it fell way, way short of the glorious praise that we have just heard and witnessed in the Scriptures that goes on now in a perfect way, without sin, around the throne, praising our Lord Jesus Christ, exalted, praising God the Father, who receives glory and honor and power and praise and worship and blessing. But when we look at the heavenly praises and the words and the concepts, we are surprised to discover they were already found in the Old Testament, in the praises of the Old Testament saints, like David, of his praise. We're going to take a look at that. And when we look at the heavenly praise, it's eerie that there is a symmetry of what's going on in the heavenly places with the praise of the myriads and myriads of angels and with the praise of the few here on earth. And so we realize, wow, this is the praise that our God receives, a perfect praise that he receives in heaven. How much more so we who have been saved by His grace render praise and thanksgiving. No wonder Apostle Paul says, Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, but give thanks in all circumstances. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. You know, how much you give thanks to God in your heart and in your expressions, in your practical manifestation of sharing your resources with others, will say a lot about what kind of grace you have received, how much of your sin you have been forgiven, and what kind of a joyful person you are. You will be an incredibly optimistic person, a joyful person, very positive individual, because you know that you've been so blessed. The expression of thankfulness shows what kind of magnanimity of the heart that he has sanctified to stretch out so that he can pour out his blessings into your life as well. Thanksgiving is one of those wonderful marks. It's a fingerprint, if you will, of God's divine blessing in your life. And only people who have experienced such great blessings know how to give thanks in such manner. And so when we objectively critique our lives, we know that we fall way short of the excellencies of Him who called us out from the darkness to His marvelous light, as the scripture says in 1 Peter 2.9. Scripture teaches that we will have an incredible elevated status over the angels. We heard the praise of the angels. Well, we're gonna have an elevated status over them. Well, take a look with me, 1 Corinthians 6. And I want you to see that you will have a moral and ethical superiority over the angels. Therefore, you, the glorified saint in glory, will be able to judge over the angels. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 2, or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Okay, that's the world. If the world is judged by you, are you not worthy to constitute the smallest law courts? Paul is using this illustration to point to the fact that there is no higher court in the world above the church and then look at verse 3. Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? We constantly pass judgments, don't we? We need to pass proper and right judgment of ourselves. But Apostle Paul was talking about in glory. We will judge angels. Why? Well, the reason why this will be so is because the saints were redeemed from sin. They were redeemed from sin. Did you know that the angels never experienced redemption from sin? The saints will be sanctified and tested here on earth from the powers and the temptations of sin. Do you know that the holy angels are so far removed they will not be tempted and they will not be sanctified by the wiles of sin? And the saints will be glorified with the full experience of both depravity completely removed and holiness completely received. The longing of our hearts for perfection, perfect holiness, perfect sinlessness, will be ultimately given. Therefore, the saints will have moral and ethical superiority over the fallen angels, who not only fell into sin, but they remain forever in their depravity, they are constantly evil, but also have greater holiness than the holy angels, since the holiness of the angels are different than the holiness of the saints, because the holiness of the saints are proven, whereas the angelic holiness is only preserved. They've been prevented from falling, so they have no experience of depravity. The saints have been rescued from depravity into holiness. Does this not follow then, that one day we shall lead the angels in worship? We will not only judge the angels, we shall lead the angels in worship, even beyond and glorious and perfect worship. As I was studying this passage, I could not help but every one of the angelic praise and the things that they praise God and Christ for are already found in the scriptures. It means that these were first the reflections and the praise and thanksgivings of men who have been redeemed. Like David, who understood God's awesome grace of salvation. And he praised God. The angels are following the redeemed people's worship. That is a surprising thing. And so when we look at the perfect worship in heaven, We look at this and we say it's perfect because it is sinless. But it is not so yet perfect in another way because it is lacking the complete redeemed saints to join them. It says myriads and myriads and thousands and thousands of angels are praising in heaven and yet the number is still lacking. Now think about that. Think about the graciousness of God and the generosity of God and the magnanimity of God and the abundance of God. Did you know when God created the universe and the heavens and the earth, have you noticed that he created thousands and thousands and thousands of birds and not just a few? Look at the fish. He created millions and millions of not only varieties, but the amount of each families. millions of herring, and millions of swordfish, and millions of whales, and millions and millions, thousands and thousands of all kinds. What does that tell you about the character of the Creator? He is incredibly wise and clever and ingenious, but also He is bountiful, plentiful. That's what it means for God to be generous in His being. He is essentially this way. intrinsically this way. He didn't become this way. He was always this way. He's perfect. That's why he created so many angels. That's why they automatically see, naturally perceive who God is. This is what's preventing us from rendering the perfect worship that is due to God. Because we're too preoccupied with the sinful self and with our environment, with other people. How come other people gain more attention in our minds than the one who should be fully devoted? Isn't it because of sin? Isn't it because of the preoccupation and the cluttering of our minds because of imperfections? Yeah. So there's something greatly lacking in us as we presently exist But praise the Lord as we look at the heavenly praise, we see, wow, we're going to join them and we're going to lead them into even greater level of worship because we are morally and ethically superior to the angels in their experience. And what an amazing thing for us to look forward to in glory. If you've ever shared a great rejoicing, laughter, cheer, exaltation with another friend or group of friends over a great victory, over a great gain, over something that's glorious, you know the joy of a group, of praise. Saints or believers who gather together like that will receive that perfection of praise. So we're going to study three truths from this passage. The heavenly praise, the heavenly response, and the heavenly conclusion. And they're all perfect. And so let's take a look at the first perfect heavenly praise of the Lamb, verse 11 and 12. Then I looked. This is now the fourth reference to the phrase which signals a new vision in a series of visions John has seen. And I heard. In addition to the vision, John also hears. And for the first time in the book of Revelation, There are many angels that are introduced. Many, many. How many? Well, first they say the voices of many angels around the throne. Again, central to this heavenly vision is the throne, the one who sits on it, that's God. And then around the throne, a great number of angels join the chorus and celestial praise accompanying the four living creatures and the 24 elders. And they're mentioned here, again, the living creatures and the elders. without their numbers, but we already know that there are four living creatures already mentioned, and there could be more. But the four immediately around the throne are mentioned, and the elders, of course, there's 24 elders. We specifically saw that number. But here, for the first time, are the number of the many, many angels. The number of them was myriads, of myriads, myriades, myriadon. See, right away you know, oh, this is original Greek that's transliterated into English. If you don't know the meaning, there's a direct equivalent in English, we just transliterate it. Myriads. We get myriads from myriades here. Well, this number is an echo of the numbers which appeared first. Let's take a look at Psalm 68. Psalm 68. Here is again the psalmist praise pointing to the glorious army of God and that's what this is. Psalm 68 verse 17 we see the chariots of God. Chariots, notice the plural there, chariots. Chariot was an equivalent of the tank today. It's a military armor vehicle, but it also carries the chief executive or the general, or in this case, the king in a chariot. So this also can serve as a parade instrument as well. But here the multiple chariots of God pointing the fact that he is the king of the hosts, the armies. And here are myriads and then it says thousands upon thousands. The Lord is among them as at Sinai in holiness. It's a glorious picture of the great throng and the hosts of heaven before the Lord. And this number also appears in the prophetic book of Daniel. So let's take a look at Daniel chapter 7 verse 10. Daniel 7 verse 10. Here Daniel is shown this heavenly vision and it says a river of fire was flowing and coming out from before him. What an amazing and glorious and awesome picture of this, a view of a river of fire flowing and coming out from before him. And then it says, thousands upon thousands were attending him and myriads upon myriads were standing before him. So apparently John, the apostle from the island of Patmos, was not the only one who saw the heavenly hosts. God has shown Daniel as He has shown Jehoshaphat. But each one of them are describing them slightly differently. Daniel, however, is using the exact wording that we find in Revelation. And Scripture says in Daniel 7.10, the court sat and the books were open. Now that's a solemn scene that Daniel was shown. It's the judgment throne of God. So the totality of the number of the heavenly hosts is given here as muriades muriadon. Myriads of myriads. So what's a myriad? Well, many of you who come from the Oriental background will see the Oriental aspect of this number, because we in the West, we're accustomed to just stopping in units of three digits, like three zeros. So 1,000, and then the next tenfold of that, we have to add 10 and then 1,000. ten and a thousand and then we put a hundred thousand and then only when we get to another unit of three zeros and we have a unique word million and then we use the same concept ten million hundred million and then only when we get to another three zeros then we come up with another number called billion and then trillion and on and on this is our Western system But if you notice both in the Greek and the Orient, the ancient Near Eastern tradition, four zeros and a unit of what we call 10,000, but it was a unique number, and that's this number. And that's still being used in most of the part of the world today. This is a very unique number. And so it's a number that is the largest number. And so they haven't used any numbers larger than this number, muriades, myriad, which is tenfold of the thousand, kilia. So a thousand is a specific number, kilia. 10,000 will be muriades. And here it is. So what number do you get when you multiply a muriades with a muriades? 10,000 times 10,000. You get 100 million. 100 million. Now why is that number important? Because the largest city in the entire Roman world at the time was Rome. At the end of first century it enjoyed one of the most populous metropolitan centers in the entire world, and it had about a million. And then after, at the end of the first century, that number continued to shrink. The entire population of the Roman Empire was somewhere between mid-50s to mid-70s. So about 55 to 75 million people. So they didn't even need a number like 100,000. So this is a fantastic great number, but we're not done yet. There's a leftover number called thousands of thousands. Historians really recognize that no other city in the Western Eurasia had over a million people until the 19th century. Rome was this populous at the end of the first century, but no other city in the entire Eurasian continent enjoyed another million people in the city until the 19th century, the 1800s. So this is an unimaginably large number of people. Now today we're used to billions and we're used to larger numbers, but this wasn't so in the biblical context. No one has ever heard of numbers like these. No one. And so this is just fantastic number of heavenly hosts If the myriads of myriads, 100 million wasn't enough, there's the additional leftover number, thousands of thousands, and you multiply a thousand by a thousand, that's a million. That's just a leftover number, that's kind of a rounding error. This is a large group of heavenly hosts praising the Lamb of God in this great doxology. We discover in Revelation 12 that this is not the complete number either, because two thirds of all the angels that God had created will be present here. But another entire third of the angelic hosts, Satan had led into deception and rebellion. And we see that in Revelation 12, verse four says, and the dragon and his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And Job 38.7 says, when the morning star sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. So there was once this huge, humongous, larger group of numbers of heavenly angels, and a third of them have fallen. Now we don't know whether This has already happened and will happen. Most likely because of the recapitulation in Revelation 12, it has already happened. So there is a complete chasm of the holy angels, two-thirds of them. There are myriads and myriads and thousands of thousands. And then there's another third, an entire third of the angels. Each one created by God like each snowflake. Have you seen the terracotta soldiers that the emperor had built commemorating each one of his soldiers, each one of them, thousands of them, with unique faces and features to honor each one of them. Well, God created hundreds of millions of these angels. We don't know how many. And two-thirds of them are assembled here, praising God. Verse 12 says, saying with a loud voice, which indicates fervor with which they praise the Lamb. Now we know that there are classes of angels. Ephesians 3 10 says, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. Huh? Manifold wisdom of God will be made known through the church when they see the church and God and how he saves each individuals and unites them into the body of Christ who is the bride of Christ. The heavenly hosts recognize God's immense wisdom. Wow. Look at the way God is doing this. Look at how he has done this. Look at how this insignificant group of Galilean fishermen have now turned out to be millions and millions. He's continually doing this. He didn't start with the myriads and myriads. He started with a little mustard seed through his son. And look at how he's multiplying them. This is amazing. Look how he's doing it, not in one generation, not in one century, but throughout the millennia. Not in just one part of the Middle East, in Israel, but all over the world. And they're just blown away. When you look at creation, are you in awe of his wisdom, his creativity, his humor? Have you seen some of the creatures that God made? Well, they make you laugh. In awe. Well, the angels are blown away. 1 Peter 1, verse 12, let's take a look there, and I want you to see that angels are not just passively observing. They are intensely involved and interested. 1 Peter 1.12 says, Now take a look at this phrase, things into which angels long to look. That long to look points to gazing. That's the same word is used for Peter as he stuck his head into, or John as he stuck his head into the tomb to see if it's empty. It's like gazing, it's long, it's observant looking. Angels are intensely interested in what's going on in this world, especially of salvation, because God never had a redemption plan for the angels. God never had a savior for the angelic world. This is amazing to them. This is new for them. And each and every saint that's saved, each and every church that's been planted, each and every evangelism that yields in a redeemed life. It's an amazing experience for the angelic world. They long to look into this. Now, they are being daily informed. And what happens, what does scripture say, when a single soul gets saved? There's great joy in heaven, Jesus says. There's great joy in heaven. Now they're assembled and John sees this glorious vision as Daniel saw. But Daniel saw more of a solemn vision where all the angelic myriads and myriads are standing as the books were open as God was judging. But here John sees the throne room and the glorious praises of the heaven. Have you thought about how much space people need to occupy in order to assemble together of hundreds of millions of angels? Well, this is vast. So this is the heavenly vision that John saw. And now let's listen to the content of their praise. Here it is, worthy is the lamb that was slain. Take a very closer look of the worthiness of the exalted Christ as the Lamb of God is because of his sacrifice that was slain. That's another experience that angels never experienced that. They don't know what it means to die. They never faced death, nevermind voluntary death, nevermind voluntary separation from God and his holiness. They never experienced this, but they know that Jesus has. He was with them receiving their worship, and then he took upon himself humanity to go and to die. And so they recognize his great worthiness. None of the angelic hosts have experienced such sacrifice, none of the 24 elders, and none of the four living creatures, none of them. But one has, the Lamb, who is standing but as if slain, now repeated here is the sacrifice to fulfill the righteous demand of God against sin and acquire redemption through His costly purchase, which we've studied previously. The seven-part praise is really interestingly phrased by John here. Because if you count, there are seven of them. And if you notice, after the first one, there is a recurring conjunction, and, and, and. If this were only seen as a unit, some exegetical sloth would come and say, oh, that's just signifying the perfections, the complete praise of the angelic world. And they would not be too far off. But the problem is, why then is there a repetition, a redundancy of the appearance of the conjunction chi here in the Greek an, an, an? Why? Why make it so complicated and convoluted? Why just put a comma? Put a whole list of them. Then you could say, ah, that's symbolic of their entire praise. But because of the conjunction that's there, we're not simply to lump this into a unit and then discard it, but to reflect on the perfect and complete and solemn praise of the heavenly host for the qualities that the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, already possesses. There's nothing here that says He has acquired this. He has gained this. Nothing. This is what the Heavenly Host recognized that is inherently already present in the Lamb. So then the complexity of this is that the first word, which is the term that's translated to receive power, the power that there is dunamis word and dunamis is ability. Ability. Later on it's going to talk about strength, iskus there. That's another word. So power is the full and complete almighty ability. Strength is the possession of all this power there, but it doesn't necessarily need to be exercised. When you go to the gym or when you see a big, tall, big wrestler kind of type of guy who works out, you know, you kind of take a look at it, wow, that guy's arm is like bigger than my leg. I mean, he looks strong. He looks strong, but he's just sitting down, but he still looks strong, right? And you realize, oh, I wonder what would happen when he exercises his strengths. I wonder how much he can lift, how many people he can just throw. I wonder how many of these boxes he can carry at one time. So our minds wonder to see, wow, I wonder how strong he is, but he's obviously clearly looking strong. That is the only difference between the power and the strength there. So first four words, when we take a look in a cursory summary here, which says power, riches, wisdom, and strength, actually points to one's possession, and in the ancient Near Eastern world, and in the biblical world, all these four words are used to convey some sort of strength. So if you're a rich person, they used to say, oh, he's a mighty man, he's a strong guy. That's the way they talk. And still today, we use those kinds of terms. Oh, he has great financial ability or financial power. Right? So these are the concepts that they use. This is in the Bible. So there is a few words in the Old Testament that they use for a rich person being a strong man. So when you look at it, you look at power, riches, wisdom. Oh, if somebody is very wise, that's also the power of the intellectual capabilities. And then, of course, strength here can be physical strength, obviously. So the first word, dunamis, It carries all this idea of power, which is really ability, ability to do things, right? So it's lacking the inability. There's no force that can come against someone who is this powerful. That's the idea. But that word, dunamis, is the only word that carries a definite article. So in Greek, it says the power. And the rest of them are anarthros, means no article. So what does this say? Well, it's complex grammar. It says that in one way you should see all these seven as a unit because the Lamb possesses all of them simultaneously. And it's not like, oh, 30% this, 40% that. No, this is 100% of the whole thing. So you should see this as a unit. But in another sense, because of the repetitive conjunction an-an-an-an, each one of these qualities were praised by the heavenly hosts, the heavenly angels. Each one. So therefore, it is really incumbent on us to meditate a little bit on each one of these attributes and qualities that the Lamb possesses. Now let's take a look at the Old Testament, and we will see that this is not brand new language. This is a familiar language. 1 Chronicles 29. 1 Chronicles 29 is David's praise before his death. 1 Chronicles 29, and then I want us to see verses 11 and 12, and notice this is how David praised Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel, who is also the God of creation. 1 Chronicles 29 verse 11, yours O Yahweh is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. Notice David just lists qualities one after the other after the other. He continues, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth, well God is the creator so he's the owner. Yours is the kingdom. He's also the ruler. Oh, Yahweh, and you exalt yourself as head over all. He is the first. Verse 12, both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all, and your hand is power and might, and it lies in your hand to make great and strengthen everyone. That's great, he shares some of this power. In David's praise we see the qualities that he recognizes which Yahweh already possesses and this is the emphasis of the heavenly praise, the intrinsic praiseworthiness of the Lamb of God. And here's the verb to receive in the infinitive. Only Christ is infinitely worthy to receive such worship and praise from all creation, including the exalted heavenly hosts. The first of seven qualities that Christ possesses, for which heavenly hosts praise Him for, is His awesome and perfect ability or power, dunamis. And I want you to see Revelation 11, 17. That one verse contains three power words. Revelation 11, 17, saying, We give you thanks, O God, the Almighty. Today we are celebrating Thanksgiving. It's a Thanksgiving Sunday. So one thing that you can thank God for is His power. He's awesome. He's not weak. He's not impotent like men. He's powerful. So give thanks to God, the Lord Almighty, who is, who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. There you have it. This is what we can pray. Lord, we know that you have all power. We know that no force can thwart your purpose. Even though Satan and his minions will try, we know that they will fail and you will succeed. So thank you that you have made me on the winning side. Thank you for you have made us, we have made little nobodies like us to be part of this significant purpose of yours. So it's one thing that we can begin to thank God and you will reign. And then think of all the passages that you know that the Bible says that the saints will co-reign with Christ. Now you keep wanting the things of this world and be devoted to the things of this world, you may not inherit the things of the world that's to come. But for His namesake, if you give up everything, you'll gain everything. Think of all the things that we've already heard in the Gospels, what Jesus said regarding discipleship and the outcome of that discipleship when the Lord reigns with His power. Ephesians 119 says, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of the might of his strength? Look at this, great power and his strength sent out into the world to save souls. Look at the trillions of dollars and the billions of armaments. They can't save a single soul, they only destroy. Look at all the missiles that's being fired now. Look at all the lives and the buildings that's broken. Not one soul is saved through all of the effort of man. He's impotent to save himself or anybody else. But look at this great power to save a dead soul and make him alive and make him a child of heaven. This is what God is doing right now. In this period, wait till the Lord appears with all these heavenly hosts who praise him the clouds when he comes down to rule and reign. You think any power will stand before him? Not a chance. Not a chance. The list relate to power or ability here to the exalted Christ which contrasts nicely to the apparent weakness of the lamb who is slain language. Lamb who is slain? When you try to tell that to the sophisticated, and the powerful, and the elite, and the multi-millionaires, billionaires, you try to tell them, oh yeah, you need to deny yourself, recognize your sin, and submit to the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for your sins. What? Somebody who died? Didn't even put up a fight? A victim? You mean my eternal destiny has to do with somebody who died 2,000 years ago on a cross? This is foolishness. This is the way that the blinded mind or the unbelieving heart responds, especially if they believe they're powerful, they're connected, they're wise and knowledgeable, they have fancy degrees. Well, that puffs up pride like nothing, especially when they have millions and millions. They think that they're gods. Why should they trust on anyone else when they trust themselves? Like one billionaire said, huh, I love myself. If I had another life, I would come back as me. What an arrogant fool who speaks like this. We've already seen the contrast in the scriptures. But now we see the heavenly hosts praising before the Lamb of God who was slain, but in the previous passage, they recognize him to be the Lion of Judah. The Lion and the Lamb. Incredible power, regal royalty, undefeated animal of greatness in the Old Testament, and a lamb. Just defenseless, helpless, sacrificial animal, and yet he is both. He's the one with infinite power. And then secondly, we take a look at this word, and riches, and riches. How rich is God? How rich is he? Well, Psalm 50 says this, verse 10, for every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains and everything that moves in the field is mine. Obviously, he's the maker. So he's the owner. Men are just simply renters. Temporarily so. So we come in with this nothing, and we go out with nothing. God owns, truly owns. He possesses. He is infinitely rich. 2 Corinthians 8, 9 says, For you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though being rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich. He left all the riches heaven to become poor for our sake so that we may share in the inheritance of his riches. Ephesians 3 to me the very least of all the saints this grace was given to proclaim the Gentiles the good news of the unfathomable riches of Christ. That's the good news. That's why the gospel will go to the criminals, the poor, the know-nothings, the uneducated, and they will receive Christ. Take a look at the first century. Did the highfalutin learned doctors, did they come in droves to receive Christ? Or did the lepers, the sinners, the prostitutes, the poor, the beggars, did they come to Christ? You see, that's why the gospel is carried even to the prisons and even to the streets of the homeless. And you know what? Those who receive Christ genuinely will rule over all the millionaires and the billionaires in the coming kingdom and the angels. They will be lifted up and all the so-called who's who, the elite, well, there'll be nothing. That's God's program. Because the Lord has unfathomable riches to make those paupers, those poor destitute people, filthy rich. And Jesus has all wisdom. 1 Corinthians 1 24. But to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Right now, people mock us for our faith and our belief. They say, oh, you foolish Christians. You're so unscientific, unsophisticated, unphilosophical, unreasonable. Yeah, but because they believe in lies, they're puffed up in their mind. They think that lies are truth and truth is foolish. But they will one day see. They will have a rude awakening. I believe that many Americans are having a rude awakening right now. That many of their heroes will be recognized as the greatest criminals. And it's gonna be shocking for them. But not as shocking as one day they will realize, what? Christ has been king all along? He's been the creator all along? This foolish religion that the early Americans believed and these foolish people believe, that is the truth all along? The gospel of salvation has always been the good news all along? Yeah. Because he alone has all the wisdom and he shared that wisdom. But why is this wisdom considered foolishness to so many? Because they're lost. Because it shows they're evil. Colossians 2.3, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Why do people go to these fancy universities and get highfalutin degrees and they actually think that they're wise when they have been so deceived and they believe in so many lies? You know the group of people that is most difficult to reach with the truth? The highly educated people. They are, they're just so locked in their pride, they cannot see the clarity and the simplicity of the truth. But Christ has all wisdom, that's why He's going to make an uneducated person very wise in Him, to live a life that is very wise when that person comes to Christ. Because He shares, He's bountiful, and He has plenty. and strength. It highlights Christ's power, whether He exercises them over or not. Here, Jesus used a very interesting illustration of the strong man in Luke 11, verse 22. Luke 11, verse 22, it says, Wow, what a great illustration. Jesus is saying, someone stronger is going to come, to the prince of the power of the air of this world, Satan, is going to strip him of all his power, take all of his plunder, and give all the rich eternal resources to his allies, to his friends. That's the illustration. Like the strong man whose muscles and size is intimidating to all, making grown men feel like pygmies, Christ will come with greater power, making so-called all the mighty men, mighty nations, They look like chumps. Their weaponry look like little sticks. With this great wrath, he's going to judge. He is truly might. That's why we need to fear the one who has all the power. Not the paper tigers. This is exactly what the Lord did to Satan. He disarmed him because he was the stronger man. And Paul exhorts the believers with the Lord's strength. In Ephesians 6 10, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the might of his strength. Wow, this is supernatural strength. It gives inner courage and boldness to the most timid individual because it's in the Lord. It's the strength of his might. It's in the Lord. And that's why even externally weak people can demonstrate tremendous strength. Why? Because the Lord is mighty, almighty. He shares the strength and strengthens the inner man. And now we come to the last three, honor and glory and blessing. Now, when we look at the word honor, most of us think of, oh, giving honor. But that's not the emphasis. Giving honor is only natural to the one who already possesses honor, who is intrinsically honorable. Like a lot of these politicians and judges have this title, honorable. But if you knew what was going on in the background, that they were acting and believing in a very disgusting and dishonorable way, would they still have that same title befitting their character? And we would say, no, they're criminals. They're just clever and got up there so they can have this title, honorable so-and-so. But when the angelic hosts recognize the exalted Christ, the Lamb of God, they recognize that He is worthy of all honor. They give Him honor because He is the most honorable. Hebrews 2.9 says this, But we do see Him who was made a little lower than the angels, Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, so that by grace of God He might taste death for everyone. And of course Paul says to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1 17, now the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. So honor and glory often accompanied together as we see here. Glory and honor, honor and glory. Hebrews 2 9 and 1 Timothy 1 17, they couple these two terms together. Glory is the manifestation. It's like when you have a beautiful watch, but it's in the box, but only when you open it you see, oh wow, that's a beautiful watch. Or a ring. You put a dark background on it, you put that solitary ring on it, and you point the light to it, then you see, oh wow, that's a beautiful gem, that's a beautiful ring. Or when you turn on the light in your closet and you see, oh, that's a beautiful dress. When you first see it, when you shed the light on it, then you see its intrinsic qualities. And that's the term for glory. Glory is the summation of all the attributes and the light is shining on it. And you go, oh, it is intrinsically glorious. It's beautiful. It's magnificent. It's the combined attributes of all of his attributes and it's glorious. But that is only due to the one who actually possesses it. And only possesses it. You don't put a pair of worn out pair of jeans in there saying that's glorious. Or broken old Timex watch with a cracked, you know, glass and you say, well, that's glorious, that's beautiful. Or plastic ring that you got from the candy machine and saying, well, that's beautiful. We don't do that. And in the same way, we don't attribute these terms to someone who doesn't possess it. To do so would be idolatrous. Now take a look at John. We'll take a look at two passages in John. John 1, verse 14. The world saw a Jewish man in Jesus. When he opened his mouth, they heard great wisdom. And they said, we've never heard anything like this. When they saw Jesus heal and minister and touch, they saw his power, exude his power, but in the way of ministry and healing and forgiveness, not in the fancy celestial miracles that they were seeking. But to those who saw the intrinsic qualities of divinity, this is what John writes in John 1.14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth." There you have it. They saw it. They experienced it. They witnessed it. Well, so did the world. They looked at it, they just saw a Jewish man saying things, doing things that were admirable, amazing. but the glory of the Father, the only begotten from the Father? That is a great blessing to see such glory. To worship God and behold Him as He is, that would evoke such an unmitigated and unhindered awe and praise. It's truly a rich blessing. Take a look at John 17 verse 24. Here in Jesus' high priestly prayer he says in John 17 24, Father I desire that they also whom you have given me to be with me where I am so that they may see my glory which you have given me for you love me before the foundation of the world. This is the eternal glory. Jesus is praying, Father I want them to be with me in eternity forever so that they may bask in my glory. You think the father says, no, I'm not going to answer that request. There is no such thing. The father always says yes to the son, of course. Whatever Jesus prays for, whatever Jesus requests to the father, father says, yes, of course, my son. This is why the believer can have the assurance when you love Jesus, when he has changed your heart, when you worship him and behold his glory, as imperfect and sinful as we are, Because of our love for the Lord and the Lord's love for us and the Lord's prayer to the Father that is always 100% answered in the affirmative, this is why we can be sure we're going to behold His glory. We're going to be exalted in heaven because Jesus prayed for us. that we would be with Him in glory. And here's the last word, blessing. Blessing. What is this? Well, often again, just like honor, we think of blessing as something that we say or do. But blessing is really an unaided response without any coercion, any external coercion or force to return the blessing to the one who blessed. so when you bless somebody in the name of the Lord is because you know that you've been blessed and when you bless the Lord is returning to him the blessing that you have received so bless the Lord oh my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name heart. We bless Him because we're creatures of blessing. Only believers who've been transformed can bless God. You see, again, thankfulness, giving glory and honor to the Lord that is rightly due, and blessing Him for all the blessings that we receive. Have you noticed that these are all reciprocal things which the Lord inherently possesses but that He shared with us? and only believers who've been transformed, saved from sin, saved from our utter sinful selfishness, and get to behold the Lord in this way, and when we think upon them, meditate on them, then we realize, oh, I'm truly blessed. The Lord blessed me. If the Lord has blessed me, What can men do unto me? None of their curses will ever stick because God has blessed me. He has chosen me. So what if men abandon me? He has chosen me. If the world is against me, what does it matter? The Lord is for me. And so this is the confidence, not cockiness, but the confidence in the faith of the believer who recognizes who the Lord is. Not only what he has done, but who he is. This is who he is. The Lord possesses all these intrinsic qualities of praiseworthiness. He is truly worthy of praise. That's why the angelic host says, worthy are you who has been slain. And they recognize this as the central core of what he did at his voluntary death on the cross, the sacrificial death to make us his blessed people. Romans 11, 36, for from him and through him and to him are all things. For from Him, He is the source. Through Him, He is the means. And to Him, He is the final end. Are all things to Him be glory forever. Amen. The heavenly hosts recognize this. Do you? Do you? If you're busy thinking about yourself, you won't. If you take a moment to gaze upon His glory, you will. And He will lift you up to where He is and not leave you down to where you are in the pathetic morass of our earthly existence. But that's not where we are. We're seated next to Him in glory. Our position and our eternal destiny is there with Him. This is what brings the believer to a glorious praise and worship. It goes on perfectly in heaven. Not so much here on earth. But the difference is that we, by faith, can join in that worship even now. as we look forward to the perfection when we will join in without sin, with the higher experience of being redeemed from sin. So now that we've seen the perfect praise rendered unto the Lamb of God in heaven, let's look at secondly to the perfect response rendered unto the Godhead in heaven. The perfect response to the Godhead. Verse 13. When we mean by Godhead, we're talking about more than one person of the Holy Trinity. We're talking about the entire Godhead, the triune Godhead. Specifically here is mentioned the Father and the Son, verse 13. And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, and here's the additional, fourth, and on the sea. Previously, we've seen the three spatial designations, heaven, earth, under the earth. But now here, we see an addition of the fourth, Now, take a look at Psalm 69 verse 34, and you'll find that language. Again, we realize that all the angelic praise in the language They're not the New Testament reality. They all appear in the Old Testament in the praise of the saints, especially the psalmist. It's in the Word of God. Here in Psalm 69 34 says this, let heaven and earth praise him, the seas and everything that moves in them. Okay, it covers everything here. Psalm 150 verse 6 says, let everything that has breath praise Yahweh, praise Yahweh, praise Yah. So this is the exhaustive number from every intelligent animated creation who have an understanding of the greatness of God and who have the capacity. And so this is a wonderful picturesque way of showing everything in the universe, in the created universe. That's verse 13. And Take a look at what it says. Every created thing which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them I heard saying, so this is all the intelligent being, to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb and blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. I heard saying. This is really interesting because this looks forward to the time when everything will be put in its right order. As we've already seen in Romans 11 and Paul, everything began with God in his creative act and everything will culminate and end in the great telos of God in the final recognition of his glorious being so that they will all worship the Lord. Notice it says, I heard saying, to him who sits on the throne, that's the father God, and to the lamb, that's the one who's slain, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this praise and worship is given to the Godhead, be the blessing and honor and glory and might. We saw all these words already, but only four are mentioned here, forever and ever. This is the worship of the perfect worship. This goes on for all of eternity by whom? Every intelligent animated being in creation who have an understanding of the greatness of God. of the greatness of God. Have you noticed even in the animal world, in the animal order, there are highly intelligent animals and there are not so intelligent animals. As far as we can tell through observation, the worm that crawls on the ground doesn't look very intelligent. If he were very intelligent, he would stay away from all the birds that want to eat him. And when we look at the birds, they're not very intelligent. If they were very intelligent, they wouldn't be so easily caught by men. But when we look at like dogs, or chimpanzees, or dolphins, or there's some creatures that are way, way up there in the intelligence scale, that we can communicate with them, train them. And then we can even see, so some of these animals can, they have emotion. Have you seen a dog happy with his tail wagging? Have you seen a dog sad and crying? Yeah, I've seen cows cry. So there's higher order of emotion. There's not just a sentience. There's a recognition of the being and the other. That's why they can relate. They're relational creatures. Now what if in the glorious eternal kingdom that all of sin's restrictions are lifted? And all of the other capabilities of the dog or your favorite animal that you think is intelligent are unleashed. God created so many of them. God created so many of us. Does he intend to keep them? Does he intend for us to enjoy them? To be in proper harmony and living relationship with them? To communicate with them? that they would recognize us as their benevolent masters, and we, their loving companions? There's a lot for us to be thinking about. Well, the heavenly host certainly recognizes this, and this will be the glorified state. When sin is removed, when all of God's work is done, the praise in heaven will be glorious. And that is just a fitting response, isn't it? I mean, how do you respond to the one who is all good, who made things all good, but we through our rebellion messed everything up and sinned, and the whole world is under the bondage of sin, but he has a plan to remove all of that and return not only us back into a glorious age, but even make it better. Even make it better, as some remodelers know. They can make an old dilapidated house even better than when it was built brand new by making everything better with newer materials and bigger spaces and greater abilities and technologies. Make even an old dilapidated house even better than when it was first built brand new. This is what God intends to do. He's going to renew, remake and recreate And when that happens, all of God's creation will recognize who He really is. And what a glorious praise and worship. We will respond to Him. This is a perfect response. And finally, we come to verse 14, the perfect conclusion. This is the perfect heavenly conclusion. This will be the perfect conclusion of all of history. And the four living creatures kept saying. That's a great translation of the imperfect tense of the verb here. They didn't just say once, they kept saying, points to an ongoing response. This is not a temporal response, but a continual response, which points to a continual praise and worship, continual response of Amen. That's the responsive reply, the four living creatures, to the perfect praise of the heavenly hosts of myriads and myriads and thousands and thousands, continual agreement, amen, amen. As we already seen John's statements in Revelation 1, if we go back there, look at verse 6, he says, and he has made us to be a kingdom of priests to his God and Father, to him be the glory and might forever and ever, amen. so he declares this glorious statement and then he says truly amen and then verse 7 says behold he's coming with the clouds and every eye will see him even those who pierced him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over him he says yes amen there's a hearty amen hearty i agree truly there's that And so the four living creatures kept agreeing with the heavenly host praise, amen and amen, and the elders fell down and worshiped. That's a natural response of a deep and profound understanding of the greatness of the Savior and his work of salvation, the greatness of God and the goodness of God. All the heavenly hosts recognize this. And so let's take a look at Revelation 7, chapter 7. There's another scene, another praise Even in the midst of all the wrath being poured out in the end times, in the great tribulation, in heaven, Revelation 7 verse 10 to 11, because God's purposes are being fulfilled, they cry out with a loud voice saying, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. And all the angels were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God. There you have it. Because things are happening exactly the way that He had declared it. And they say, you are so awesome, worthy of worship. You're so right, true, and good. And you are the author of salvation. This is who you are. You are saving God. And this is who you are, Lord. You are a Savior by nature. People need saving, and you're saving them. Peter, Jude, and Paul recognized that even unredeemed humanity will one day, in the future, come to recognize this. Today, they're not recognizing it. Only a small minority of humanity is recognizing this, and even that imperfectly. But one day, everyone will recognize this. This is what 2nd Peter 2.4 says, What do they recognize? All the heavenly hosts and even the fallen angels recognize God is holy, he is righteous and just and they deserve a just recompense. You commit the crime? You're going to do the time. You commit a crime against an eternal being, your penalty will be eternal punishment. Jude 1.6, that's a one chapter book, verse 6. Angels who did not keep their own domain but abandoned their proper abode, he has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of that great day. They're held in prison but they will be called and the sentence will be summarily be given and the eternal quarantine of hell. So that's the difference between city jail when you commit the crime in that municipality you go into the city jail and you wait for the time where you sit before the judge and the judge says you committed a great crime now you belong life sentence in the state penitentiary that's the difference and here they're just in city jail they're waiting for their ultimate sentencing and they will be sent into the lake of fire the state penitentiary. We know that one day this reality in heaven also will be reality on earth and in the universe and so what do you think these criminal beings both human and angel what do you think they will be doing? Apostle Paul says in Philippians 2 verse 9 he says therefore God also highly exalted him that is Christ and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Every tongue? Yep. Where? Who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, even the dead. Even those souls who are incarcerated forever, they will confess Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The fact that this is the only possible response to an intelligent understanding of who God is and what he has done and this perfect recognition of God's perfection is what goes on in heaven, it is a perfect conclusion to where history is headed. It's headed toward this ultimate goal. But on earth, things are currently very different. As Apostle Paul writes in Romans 8 verse 19, So we must grow in patience as we patiently wait for that time. All of us have to wait, right? Even if, let's say, you have the means, right? You have the means to fix your car. You have the means to fix your house. You go to the dealership and you say, I have the means, I can pay you, please fix my car. They say, well, I'm sorry, sir, you have to wait because we have a parts backlog and you have to wait at least six months for the parts to come in. I want to help you, we want to take your money, but we can't fix the car until the parts come in. And the first shipment will come in six months. I remember getting a message, something like that. And I said, oh, what a bummer. I have to wait. I have to wait. Meanwhile, I have to try to use my clunky car just to get around until it is fixed. Same thing. Man, we have problems in the house. We have leaky roof, termites. I have the means to fix this, but I can't find the roofers to do the job and those people who can fix my foundation to do the job. We just have to endure for a while. So sometimes growing impatience while we wait for this perfection. And the scripture says the hope, the anticipation, That's there. It builds up to the final climax when the Lord returns and we are with Him. I guarantee you one of the signs of your great sanctification will be your dissatisfaction of this world and your great anticipation for death and to enter into glory. That's one of the increasing desires, the diminishing return of the joys and the pleasures of this world, and the increasing hope and anticipation of what is to come, the longing for perfection. You'll no longer have to fight with sin and deal with sin, no longer have to beat your chest in this depravity and saying, oh, who will rescue me from the body of this death? And then you say, praise be to the Lord. Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus, of course, of course. So right now, there's an anxious longing. Right now, there's experience of futility. But also, there's a welding up of hope. If that is your experience and it's increasing year by year, while the Holy Spirit is working in your life and in your heart, But if you're constantly looking at the world, why is the world so messed up? Why is my life so messed up? Why are people around me so against me? Why don't I have enough resources? Why is this, why is that? Why is our country this way? If there's constant problem finding and not anticipation of hope welling up, and you're not being very sanctified. But this is God's even good plan, even for that. bring to your attention what God desires to remove from your life and prepare you for the perfect world that is coming. So you see beloved, all creation is being prepared for the outcome which the Lord God Almighty is working out for His glory and our blessing. You and I can join in the heavenly hosts one day leading them perhaps in worship? Yes, I believe so because we have experiences that they don't even have. We have the experience of redemption, the forgiveness, fighting with sin, sometimes failing into temptation, but God forgiving us, giving us another chance, rising up above it and growing stronger. As the frequency of sin decreases, our struggle with sin increases and our hope wells up. and when we enter into glory we realize wow we have been even more blessed than the angels who never sinned and we're going to lead them into worship and the number of all the saints redeemed will be perfect in heaven it'll be countless myriads and myriads of thousands thousands human numbers won't do justice This is what God has for our great blessing because he is the God of blessing. So love Him today. Give thanks to Him today. Worship Him for the rest of your life. And even as you experience the frustrations of life, may the Lord well up hope in your heart for the perfection that is to come, that all the frustration and all the patient waiting will no longer be, because it will be substance to you. You will have the answer to what you long for. So let's give thanks to God. Let's praise him. Father, thank you so much for granting us a heavenly vision of the perfect praise that goes on up there. And we're down here, we get so fixated, misguided, and we lose our focus so easily, taking our focus away from the author and perfecter of our faith. But as there is such a great cloud of witnesses, may we also join in each and every day in praise and thankfulness and personal worship, both in our meditations, our speech, and our actions. May we do things that demonstrate that you are first in our lives, that you are honored by your people, and that we exist to glorify you. and that this will carry over into various relationships and various enterprises and work and are dealing with others so lord as we give thanks to you this thanksgiving sunday we recognize that you are a god who is infinitely worthy of all thanks for you have given us so much we have because it is evidence that you have given so much And we have salvation because it is evidence that you have given us your only begotten son. So we're so grateful for you and for Jesus Christ. In his precious name, we give thanks and praise. Amen.