Doxology

Well, it's hard to decide whether or not you actually want to do any kind of sermon or message introduction after that.! Dustin Kinsrew, I think that's how you say his last name, I've never met him. Dustin Kinsrew, about 10-12 years ago, was boarding a flight from Southern California on his way back to Seattle, Washington.

And in the airport, the clock struck midnight on December 31st. And as he heard the televisions in the airport and some of the people in the airport ringing in the New Year with Old Lang Sy, that's the tune to All Glory Be to Christ.

He got his notepad out of his backpack and as he boarded the plane and sat down in his seat, he spent that flight on his way back to Seattle.

And in his words, in an effort to reclaim a tune known throughout the world for the glory of Christ.

In Dustin's mind, Old Lang Sy was a tune that everybody knew. And if everybody knew that tune, could he use that tune? Could he put words to that tune that would bring glory to Christ?

Now, I had no idea we were going to sing that song. But as I'm thinking about the very introduction to this message, that's actually a better introduction.

Because what Dustin's heart and the very posture of his spiritual life gives testimony to in that moment is the very thing we're talking about when we talk about the doctrine of worship.

The doctrine of what we call doxology. And that is leveraging the entirety of our life in thought, in word, in song.

The very posture of our life is given to the glory of Christ. To the glory of Christ.

I do call your attention to the book of Revelation this morning. The book of Revelation. We're going to look at chapter 5. Of this privilege that John the Apostle, an elder at the church in Ephesus, stranded on an island.

This privilege of being able to gaze into the very future that God had planned before the foundations of the world.

For John to see what is taking place on the day of the Lord. Which is the day of judgment, if you don't know how that works.

The day of the Lord is the day when Christ, King, stands to judge the whole world from a book that has the judgments of God in it against all of creation.

And we'll get there in just a moment. But I'd like to say a few things. Josh said a few things about this. But I want to acknowledge the uniqueness of the last four days.

You, each of you, have had the privilege of being part of something. You've heard this word unique, and it is unique. Being part of something special. This is special. I had the honor of serving in student ministry for 17 years.

And in those 17 years, opportunities to place students that I was shepherding into ministries and events like this were very few and far between, if any at all.

In fact, I don't recall ever having an opportunity to bring students to something quite like this. We went to a lot of camps. We went to a lot of conferences.

We went to a lot of events. We hosted events. We did all of those things over the course of those 17 years. But nothing as focused on doctrinal realities from the scriptures.

You may say doctrinal. I say doctrinal because I love the dead British people. Okay? I love dead British theologians. So doctrinal realities that come forth from the word of God.

That really give us our foundation for all that we do in the spiritual life. And I'm tasked with wrapping up all of these wonderful messages that you've heard over the last few days.

These beautiful doctrines from the scripture. In fact, even the doctrine of scripture that you all have looked at. And I don't know what the future plans for the different doctrines that are going to be.

Guys, you could do church camp for 30 years and still be touching new doctrines found in scripture. There is no shortage of doctrines to cover in a camp like this.

But I just wonder what the leaders of this camp might be thinking in the future about how do you wrap up a week like this? When you look at these beautiful, rich doctrines of scripture, I can think of no better doctrine than to wrap it up than the doctrine of worship and the doctrine of doxology.

And so being given that task, I was excited about that and didn't really know where to start. Because all of the scriptures testify to worship.

They all do. Because our life in Christ is a living testimony of worship. We were created to worship.

We were created for the purpose of doxology. But what is doxology, right? That is a fancy word for worship maybe. It's a little bit different than just the generality of the term worship.

It's got a little bit of scripture leaning more into this term doxology. Doxa, the first part of that, means glory or praise.

The word ology that we get at the end of that comes from elogia, which means a speaking word or word given. So when you put those two together, you're talking about worship or doxology in the form of poems, songs, responsive reading liturgy, any of that.

You put those together and what you have are glory words. So when we talk about worship, when we talk about doxology, we're talking about glory words. Words of glory that we give back to God.

These are all words he's already given to us. He's given all of these words to describe himself. Describe his nature. To describe his word.

I mean, if you go and look at Psalms 119. Psalms 119, it's the longest chapter in all of scripture. And in there, the Lord, through his servant, the choir master David, uses eight different terms to describe his word.

And so God even gives us glory words to describe his word that comes forth to us. And so as God gives us his word, he gives us his nature so we can understand his nature.

He gives us the words for how we can know to rightly worship him. He calls us to give those glory words back to him.

To sing those back to him. To read those back to him. To meditate on those and posture our hearts with those glory words. And that's what doxology is.

It is a response from what God has given us in his nature, his character, his son, his spirit, his word.

It is a response. And so for the people that claim Christ, that claim the beautiful name of Christian, that is as unique of a name as in the scripture tells us, it's as unique of a name as anybody can be given to be called Christian.

The people that claim to be Christian but find no real affection for doxology or worship, for any variety of reasons, they don't like the tunes, they don't like the style, they don't like the type of worship at their church, they don't like this song or that song because they're maybe old and boring and whatnot, but for the person that has decided in their heart that this part of Christian discipline, this part of singing to God, this part of reading glory words back to God, proclaiming those to God, for that person who claims Christ, similar to what Brent said last night, you claim to love Jesus but you don't really have deep affection for the church, you can't claim the name of Christ and find it to be boring or not part of a deep affection for spiritual principles to live a life of doxology.

Those two things are not compatible and you don't see that in scripture either. It's interesting though when you look at the formation of the church, what we see today as different forms and practices of worship, practices of doxology, I mean that had to start somewhere, right?

I mean all the songs that you've been singing this week, somebody wrote those songs. They wrote them from scripture. That's one of the beautiful things about this camp is that I knew sending our students, one of which is my own, sending our students to this camp, one thing from my worry plate of camp I knew was for sure going to be removed.

I did not have to worry about the songs that were going to be sang at this camp because I do worry about that when I go places. What songs are we going to sing?

Are they going to have doctrinal integrity to them? Are they going to demonstrate and display the richness of God's word and the character of God and the sovereignty of God and the nature of Christ and the work of Christ?

Are they going to be tethered to the word of God? And Graham has been an amazing testimony of beautiful liturgy in song that we can value and appreciate and we don't have to worry about it.

We have the freedom to declare these truths to God in song and we know that there's a richness to it. But we have that privilege 2,000 years after Christ of having just this huge treasury of music to pick from and it just mind boggles me with this huge treasury of beautiful music that we have to pick from that so many times you see people pick like stuff that shouldn't even belong in the treasury.

And it's like they're using these things to somehow communicate that they belong to Christ without ever saying anything about Christ. Without ever using any of God's word, the glory words that God gives us and giving them back to Him.

But at this camp, if you haven't learned already, you're learning that it's more important to have beautifully rich, doctrinally sound words put to beautiful tunes because you can walk away from this camp and know God was pleased with our music because it was His word.

The glory words that He gave us, we gave those glory words back to Him. So be measured by that in your life. Now in the early church, as early as the 4th century, there was a couple of things happening in the church.

There were these things called heresies happening in the church. Okay? And the church fathers had to get together and they had to come up with some creeds and some confessions to kind of help right the wrongs that were happening.

And it almost always, when you look throughout history, almost always the heresies that rise up in the church almost always are about the person and work of Jesus Christ.

He is the great threat to Satan in the world. And so Satan will use all of his tools to attack the church and attack Christians and he will attack us by making us question the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And so these church fathers had to come up with creeds to kind of help set a standard in the church. Well, they actually had to do that with music as well. As early as the 4th century, the church fathers began coming up with what are called doxologies.

These doxologies, there was two that were initially given to the church. One in the Latin was gloria patrie and that's glory to the Father.

It's an eruptive declaration of doxology where you say glory to the Father. And that's called the lesser doxology that was given in the 4th century. Shortly after that, for the time of communion or the Lord's Supper, they came up with what was called the greater doxology.

And you're probably more familiar with this one. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Glory to God the Father. Okay? And this was considered the greater doxology.

Now, the doxology that you've been singing, you might not realize this, but didn't come around until the 17th century. In the 17th century, the doxology that we now know through Christian history is the one that almost everybody is familiar with that we've been singing, that came along as a more comprehensive approach to what's called a benediction in Christian liturgy.

So the church embraced the doxology as a way to kind of summarize what God has been doing in the events of a worship service.

So from start to finish, when you gather with other saints in the faith and you receive from the word of God the proclamation of the word, as you pray together, as you meditate together, as you do all the things you do in Christian worship service, there was this formulaic, fantastic liturgy called the doxology that we've been singing.

And it was the way of closing the service to say, all that has been done by the grace of God in our time together is to be given back to Him in these glory words.

It's a response. Doxology is a response. We see it in the scriptures as a response. We see it in church history as a response.

And we should embrace worship as a response. Just to kind of summarize that before we get into the scripture here, why it's so important, why it is critical for us to be able to link these doctrines that God has given us and given you this week to link them together and summarize them and give them back to God in doxology.

Why that is so important. Matt Boswell says that the chief, and Parker may have said this already, so if he did, I wasn't here for his message.

But Matt Boswell says the chief end of theology is doxology. Everything you've learned this week, all of these great, deep, and rich doctrines, the point of theology is worship.

That's why we learn these things. That's why God gives us these things. And why is it so important for the church to be fed from the Holy Scriptures to come to understand these doctrines it is so that we can worship him rightly.

You can count on it any time in history where there had to be a course correction with the church. With the church, her worship was not genuine because her theology was heretical.

Every single time in the 3rd century, in the 6th century, in the 7th century, in the 11th century, in the 16th century, as recently as 25 years ago when Christians all over the western world were getting the doctrine of scripture wrong and there had to be a course correction on that, it's interesting that 25 years ago is where we get probably the greatest number of really cheap worship songs that we've ever had in the history of the church.

They go hand in hand. What we know about God, what we understand about God, what we receive from his word is what we give back to him and if we get his word wrong then we're going to get our worship wrong.

There is a D, largest living organism in the world is in the Fish Lake National Forest of Utah and it's a grove of aspen trees.

I think last time I looked there was about 100,000 aspen trees that are the single largest living organism in the world. They all come even though there's individual shoots, they all come from the same root.

They're genetically identical. Though they stand on their own, they are each to one another genetically identical. And about 20 years ago these researchers in this Fish Lake National Forest began to see that the growth of these trees had slowed down.

And so they started digging into that. What's going on with these trees? And they discovered two realities to this grove of aspen trees referred to as pando, not panda, panda.

That's the Latin term for massive growth of aspen trees I guess. I don't know. They discovered two things. There was an internal problem and an external problem.

The internal problem was that this grove of identical, genetically identical trees had a disease in the root system. Something had diseased these trees from within.

Externally, the government had been releasing mule deer into this national forest and the mule deer population had grown to the point where the trees could not mature because the mule deers are plucking the shoots and eating them.

So you have this internal disease and this external threat that's destroying the largest living organism on the planet. Now ask yourself, why is doctrine so important?

Because if we get the word of God wrong, then we will have an internal heresy that destroys us and we will have no defense against the external threats and schemes of the devil.

And it will directly impact our worship to God. What we then give to God is insufficient. What we then give to God does not please God if we get that wrong.

That's why things like this, studies like this, coming to terms with hard doctrine is good for us though it be difficult.

So distilling down the doctrines of God so that we can rightly worship God as Matt Boswell says is the chief end. That's the goal. So that means if all you've done this week is take notes for the purpose of having information that doesn't translate into a deeper affection for your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that you might worship him in truth and spirit then church camp has not been realized for you.

If all you've done is fill your head with knowledge and that's the end and there's no genuine worship that follows that then this camp's missed the mark.

Not because the leaders have missed the mark. It's missed the mark for you. Pardon me. So where do we go in the scriptures? Where do we go in the scriptures to have a better understanding of what authentic genuine worship looks like and what is the chief end of worship?

For that I think we go to Revelation 5. Revelation 5. You should be there by now. Even though I said I wasn't going to do an introduction I did it anyway. And would you all stand as we honor the Lord at the reading of his word?

We're going to read all of Revelation 5. And here is John giving testimony to what the Lord has put before him as he looks down into eternity.

He says, And I saw 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 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 then 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 of the earth.

And he came and 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, having each one a harp 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 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. And 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 and myriads and thousands and thousands, singing 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 on the sea and all things in them I heard saying to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever 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. Father, we do love you and we trust you and we pray that over these next few moments that you would be with us, you would encourage us, you would give to us the great gift of glory words that we might give them back to you.

It's in the name of Jesus the Nazarene and all of God's people said amen. Now I have to be honest, I don't know what time I'm supposed to be done.

What time am I supposed to be done? 930? 930? Okay. What is this scene that we're looking at here?

Let's just real quickly walk through the scene that we see on the day of judgment, the day of the Lord. Okay. On this day of judgment, we have in front of us, as John sees, we have a scroll in the right hand of God.

And what is this scroll? This scroll is the book of sins and judgment to be leveraged upon all creation. At the day of the Lord, we know that we will be judged by Christ who sits at the right hand of God and has been given all authority and reigns as king and lord.

And so what God holds in his hand is the scroll that symbolizes the book or word of judgment. We also have an angel, a strong angel, who is putting a question before the assembly.

Now let us consider that this question by the angel is meant to reveal something to John. It's as if the angel, the strong angel, it says, is the challenging with a question.

It's more than just rhetorical. It's kind of a thought, it's kind of a challenge to the mind. Who is it that can open this scroll?

Then you have a weeping John the apostle. And why is he weeping? He's weeping because as he looks around and as he hears the echoes of who is worthy, it is said that no one is worthy.

No one is worthy to execute the judgments of God because no one can do that. And so John weeps. It's a hopelessness in the weeping that no one can do the very thing that God had ordained to be done.

So it's kind of a challenge, a rhetorical challenge to us as we see this. Well no one, no one can execute the plan of God at the end of time.

All of these promises of scripture, all of this that is to come, the new creation and everything, no one can bring that to an execution for God. No one can administer that.

And the tears flow down John the apostle as he's in this assembly. But then there's an elder. There is an elder who testifies that there is one who is worthy.

There is one who is worthy. And this one who is worthy is described as the lion of Judah, the root of David, and the lamb of God.

So Jesus at the end of time, at the day of judgment, on the day of the Lord is described in two ways. He's described first as the way the prophets told of the coming Messiah, the root of David, the lion of Judah.

So at the end of time, in Revelation 5, the vision that John gets of what's going to happen in the end is that everything the Old Testament testifies, everything the prophets said is found in this person.

this king, this lord, this one. And everything the New Testament talks about of the life and work and ministry of the one is the lamb slain.

When Jesus comes and takes residence to tabernacle, it is John the Baptist standing there with his disciples. They're learning from him in John chapter 2.

And John the Baptist sees Jesus and he says, look, the lamb of God. And those disciples get up and they go after the lamb of God and they follow him.

Jesus is described in the way the scriptures have described him. He is the one to come that the prophets told about through the root of David. And when he came, he died a death on the cross as if a lamb slain.

So I want you to see this picture that we have in Revelation 5. This picture that we have before we get to the response from the assembly that's there and all creation is that there is a problem.

problem. And the problem is that no one seems worthy to deal with all of creation's destiny.

And there is a hopelessness in that. And then the one elder says, no, no, no. There is one who is worthy. And the one who is worthy is the one who was told about.

And the one who is worthy is the one who came and died as the lamb. And then you get the response. And what is the response?

The next seven verses deal with the response. Worthy is the lamb. It's glory words in heaven back to the lamb, the one who is worthy.

I want you to see in Revelation 5 that at the end of time when all of creation is assembled at the day of the Lord and comes to the realization creation that the only one worthy to handle all of creation, all of what God had ordained, all of the mystery surrounding all of eternity, new creation, judgment, sin, hopelessness, all of that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

And at that name, all of creation worships. And it's exactly the way God ordained it.

That God on His throne would take His Son and put His Son up to be exalted before all of creation.

When you think, as you search the scriptures and you ask yourself, what is genuine and authentic worship?

God has already shown us in His Word what genuine and authentic worship is. And it is this, to exalt Christ.

To exalt Christ. There is no greater authenticity, there is no greater biblical worship than to exalt the Son of God.

Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. And I have to do this super quick. I have to do this super quick. So you're going to have to think quick, write quick, and receive quickly.

But the root of worship, to exalt Christ, is rooted in three things. The first thing it's rooted in is the knowledge of the glories of God the Father.

The knowledge of the glories of God the Father. Second, regeneration by the Spirit of God. Regeneration by the Spirit of God.

And third, deep and growing affections for the Son of God. Deep and growing affections for the Son of God.

We see the knowledge of the glories of God the Father manifest into worship throughout the Psalms. And if you can hang with me real quick, let's just look at a few of those. In Psalm 41, the choir master David helps us see how understanding the nature of God and the character of God leads to doxology, leads to glory words.

In Psalm 41, he starts this way, how blessed is he who considers the helpless. The Lord will deliver him in the day of trouble.

The Lord will protect him. In verse 3, the Lord will sustain him. The Lord does restore him. Notice what David is doing as he opens Psalm 41.

He starts by describing the nature of God. He is giving the doctrines of God in the choir song, in the poem.

And when you get to the verse 13, the end of Psalm 41, this is how he wraps up his thought on the nature of God in the midst of his own trouble.

Verse 13, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen and amen. Now real quick, do you know what it means when you see in Scripture when it says not just amen, but amen and amen?

It's actually words that are used at the end of some kind of theological, doctrinal, or doxological eruption, if you will, that bookend what has just been said.

So it's as if David is saying, I'm starting this with an amen, and I'm ending this with an amen. What I have just said is a doxology unto God. So he starts with the doctrines of God.

Look in Psalm 89. He does the same thing in Psalm 89. I will sing of the loving kindness of the Lord forever. You say loving kindness, is that really a big doctrinal word?

It's actually huge. Okay? Chesed. Chesed is the Hebrew word for loving kindness. We saw it in Exodus 34 the other night. Chesed is the word that is directly connected to mercy seat.

It's actually how you interpret loving kindness. It's the same way in the Greek. You hear the word propitiation. Propitiation in the New Testament. Loving kindness in the Old Testament are both rooted in this phrase, mercy seat.

And where does mercy seat come from? Mercy seat comes from the Ark of the Covenant. The mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant is where God would come and sit for the forgiveness of sins.

So when you see propitiation, when you see loving kindness in the Old Testament, okay, those words are talking about the mercy seat of God. They are rich with doctrine because they talk about the forgiveness of God found in atonement for our sins.

And so that's how he starts Psalm 89. Look at how he ends Psalm 89. And through Psalm 89, you see all of these, he gives the character and the nature of God throughout it all.

52, Blessed be the Lord forever, everlasting, everlasting, forever, amen, and amen. And we can do this with a whole lot of Psalms, but when you get to Psalm 150, Psalm 150 is the doxology of all the Psalms.

So there's all these Psalms where God gives a, or David gives a doxology at the end of the Psalms, but then Psalm 150 is that benediction to all of the Psalms. And Josh read that to begin.

And so when you consider David, King David, when you consider all of his burdens, all of his troubles, all of his sins, all of his kingly responsibilities, and each time he writes a poem or he writes a song to give to God, he always starts with the nature of God, who God is.

And the deeper his affection for the nature of God, the deeper his affection to worship God is. That's why doctrine's important. It helps you worship God. It actually enables you by the Spirit of God to worship God.

Now, secondly, you know, actually, you know, yeah, we got three minutes here. When you think, who's seen The Wizard of Oz?

Like the original Wizard of Oz. Okay, you've seen the original Wizard of Oz. The Wizard of Oz has a very disappointing scene to it, does it not? The whole movie you hear about the wonderful, powerful, benevolent, great Oz, right?

And then when we get to see Oz, as the curtain is drawn back and you finally get to see Oz, what you recognize is that everything that's been said about the great and powerful Wizard is not true.

But the beautiful thing about the doctrines of God in the Scriptures is that every time we look into the doctrine of God through his word and the curtain is drawn back, what we see on the other side of that curtain is the glorious reality of the truth of who God is.

And as that curtain is drawn back, our affections for what we've looked into God at grows and therefore our worship grows. Second, regeneration by the Spirit of God.

Regeneration by the Spirit of God. So our second proposition is that genuine worship is of this nature of the regeneration by the Spirit of God, which is the primary work of the Spirit of God.

The primary work of the Spirit of God is to restore the lost soul to an intimate relationship with God through regeneration. Now, without this work of the Spirit of God doing the very thing that God sent the Spirit, Jesus left us with the Spirit so that this thing of regeneration and sanctification would happen.

consider what Jesus says to His disciples in John 14, verse 26. He says, But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatever I have said unto you.

The primary work of the Spirit of God is to bring lost souls into fellowship with God. And we only know as much about God and of Christ as the Spirit of God enables us to know.

So, genuine worship is rooted in our understanding of the glories of God, the nature of God, the character of God, but it's also rooted in our regeneration by the Spirit of God.

The Scriptures testify that people cannot know God apart from the Spirit enabling them to know God. You cannot worship God apart from the Spirit of God regenerating your lost soul into fellowship with God so that you can worship God.

that's why discontent and unrepentant people are not in a state of spiritual constitution and posture to worship God.

And that's why we have so much false worship. In the mid-90s, okay, how many of you are Taylor Swift fans?

I'm, okay, this is actually beautiful. Just a few of you. And you're very proud of it. I'm glad for you. That's great. In the mid-90s, the Taylor Swift of the 90s was a band called U2.

And I got to go to a U2 concert, Zoo TV U2 concert in Texas. And I wasn't a believer yet. Okay, I didn't become a believer for a couple years after that.

Okay? But I saw probably still to this day the greatest scene of worship that my eyes have ever seen. It was horizontal worship.

It was misguided worship. It was not genuine, authentic, spiritual worship. It was worship of a band. Okay? I was in Cardiff, Wales. So I was in Europe the day that Michael Jackson died.

And if you thought Michael Jackson was popular in the United States, he was a hundred times more popular in Europe. There were people weeping in the streets of Cardiff, Wales when Michael Jackson died.

The appeal to the unregenerate soul to worship is to worship things that are not spiritual. To worship things that are not biblical.

To worship idols we have made for ourselves. And yes, I'm going to go ahead and say it because I'm not afraid to say this. This modern day worship from teenagers, I see this, is no different than what it was in the 90's and no different than what it was with Elvis.

It's around a pagan. It's around a pagan leader. A leader of this world empowered by Satan himself to lead people astray and give them a false sense of what genuine worship is.

So be careful. Be careful what you do and what you claim as worship. Only the regenerate soul can worship in truth and spirit.

Jesus tells us in Nicodemus in John chapter 3, he says you must be born of the spirit. The spirit of God enables us to grow in knowledge and understanding of God.

True worship requires new birth. genuine worship requires new birth. Not a better life, a new life.

Romans chapter 6, a new life. You have to die and be given a new life if you're ever going to worship in truth and spirit.

And lastly, and it's really I don't know if you can say this or not, but arguably the most significant in light of Revelation 5 is a deep and growing affection for the Son of God.

Our third final proposition on genuine worship is this matter of deep and growing affection for the Son of God, Jesus our Lord. The entirety of Scripture testifies to the climactic events regarding the person and work of Jesus Christ.

From Genesis chapter 3 to Revelation, to the end of Revelation, all of the climactic events of worship are all about the person and work of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

All of the entirety of Scripture testifies to the preeminence. God, in Colossians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul writes to the church of Colossi and he says to them, God has taken his Son, Jesus, and he has put him above everything, and he has made him the center of everything.

For God's glory, Christ is to be exalted. All of the Scriptures testify to this. Looking just at the New Testament, just because of time's sake, just at the New Testament, in the book of Matthew, he is the king of the Jews.

Jesus is the king of the Jews in Matthew. In Mark, he's the Son of God. In Luke, he is the Savior born in the city of David. In John, he is the word become flesh, dwelling and taking residence among us.

In Acts, he is the risen Lord, proclaiming salvation to the nations. In Romans, he's our justifier. In Corinthians, the spirit at work in the churches.

In Galatians, he is the righteousness imputed to us by faith. In Ephesians, our righteous armor. In Philippians, the God who meets our every need, Jesus.

In Colossians, the firstborn over all creation, who is the preeminent Christ. In Thessalonians, he descends from heaven with a shout to meet us in the clouds.

In Timothy, he is the one mediator between God and man. In Titus, he's our faithful pastor. In Philemon, he is our redeemer.

In Hebrews, he is our great high priest. In James, he is the life at work in our faith. In Peter, he is our living cornerstone.

In John, our advocate who pleads on behalf of God for our righteousness. In Jude, he's God, our Savior, the one who keeps us.

In Revelation, he is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the Lamb slain before the foundations of the world. He's the King of kings and he's the Lord of lords.

That's just the New Testament. Every book of the New Testament proclaiming Christ, putting him where he belongs, exalted above everything, right where God has placed him.

You want to know what genuine worship is? Exalting Christ. It's what God does. It's what he calls us to do. The author of Hebrews says that Jesus is the radiance of God's glory.

Who does Isaiah see in Isaiah chapter 6? He sees Jesus Christ and that's what causes him to worship. The New Testament is a symphony of doxologies regarding the person and work of Jesus.

So back to Revelation chapter 5. And I'm going to ask you to put your notes down, your pens down, and I want you to just grab your Bible. I'm going to go ahead and ask Graham to kind of make his way up here.

In light of that, in light of the history of worship, in light of what the scriptures say about who Jesus is and where genuine worship comes from, the glories of God revealed to us in the doctrines of God, regeneration by the Spirit of God, and deep affection for the person and work of Jesus Christ, who the Bible tells us in this picture of worship for all of time, that God would choose to place him before the nations as if a lamb slain.

The supreme ordination of God in his Son as the Redeemer on the cross.

As if a lamb slain. When the world looked at crosses where criminals died, it was repugnant. It was repulsive.

But for all of time, we're to worship the lamb that was slain. Now the cross is beautiful. So stand with me again as we look at Revelation 5.

Revelation 5. And I saw 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 earth and 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 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 the seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth.

And he came and 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.

Having each one a harp 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 him to be a kingdom and a priest to our God, and they will reign upon the earth. And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders.

The number of them was myriads and 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 under the sea and all things in them. And I heard them say to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.

The purpose of worship is to exalt Christ, the Son of God. Father, we love you.

We trust you. We are thankful for your word. Lord, we find your kindness that you would give us your word.

And the richness and the glories that we read in your word enable us to worship you in truth and spirit.

And God, I pray that we are your children that live in such a way that the very testimony of our life is that we would spend it exalting your Son, Jesus Christ.

It's in the name of Jesus the Nazarene, the lamb that was slain, who sits on the throne forever and ever, that we ask.

Amen and amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.