The Guaranteed Harvest — Paul Washer

It's a great privilege for me to be here with you this evening. We are here to speak about missions, yet at the same time, there are so many here this evening that your heart is dull because you've never known Him.

Maybe you're a young person and you were brought here this evening. Your parents, you look down, you move your feet, you write with a pencil, you distract yourself. No matter how humble we are as preachers and how hard it is to hear us, know this young person, that just the fact that you're in a church where the Bible is taught and a man is attempting to speak from the open Bible, you are greatly privileged.

Greatly privileged. And you will be held accountable on that day. I fear for some of the young people who are here tonight. Listen, there is absolutely nothing more important than Jesus Christ. If you sense boredom, fight against that boredom and pay attention, because your life depends on everything you hear when a Bible is open.

The Privilege and Accountability of Hearing the Gospel

Seek with all your heart to know Him. Hate the fact that you don't care to know Him. Do whatever is within your means to seek Him and to hear His Word. If you're a Christian here tonight, we're talking about missions.

We're not talking about something that can be added to or taken from the Christian life. We're talking about missions. That there are countless billions of people who have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And if we're in this generation, we are responsible to make that gospel known. I always say this, missions, there's only two ministries in missions. You either go down in the well or you hold the rope for those who are going down.

Either way, there will be scars on your hands. Stand up. Show me your scars. What has it cost you to be a Christian? What has it cost you to follow Him? What has it cost you to take the gospel to the nations?

What have you given up? You look for meaning here and there, running to and fro. I'll tell you what meaning is and where it is found. It is found in doing the will of God. I have food to eat that you know not of.

My food is to do the will of Him who sent me. The reason why Americans are so full and yet so empty. The reason why our Christian bookstores, 50 percent of the books in there, are written to figure out why we have no purpose.

Why we feel so hollow. It is because we have left the first things. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. With all your mind and with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself.

And your neighbor is the one closest to you and the one most far away. The one who has the gospel and must be encouraged. And the one who does not have the gospel and at this moment stands very little chance of ever hearing the gospel unless something changes.

The Lamb’s Victory and the Mission of the Church

Let's open up our Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter five, Revelation, chapter five and verse one. 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 or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.

Then I began to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals.

And I saw between the throne with the four living creatures and the elders, a lamb standing as if slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.

And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty four elders fell down before the lamb. Each one had each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

And they sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain. And purchased for God with your blood, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, you have made them to be a kingdom and priests who are God and they will reign upon the earth.

Let's pray father, father, we so much need the Holy Spirit multiplying words upon words, take or this word. The Holy Spirit. And make it alive, a living reality in the hearts. Of all of us, Lord, that we might see the victory and the glory that the lamb has won.

That we might see his absolute sovereignty and his power, how he has triumphed over all things and purchased for himself a people that that would motivate us to worship him, to serve him and to go out, father, to every tribe and every tongue and every people and every nation.

And with the glorious gospel of our blessed God, father, help me, Lord, who is worthy to even touch. The dust of this book, and yet, Lord, to speak about this text at this time, father, please help us in Jesus name.

Amen. The general theme of this book is the victory of the lamb. And the victory of the lamb's gospel, we live in a day where Christianity is considered a small thing, but it is not a small thing because of the one who has accomplished the greatest work in the name of God, and that is his Messiah, his Christ.

This chapter that's before us, it is about the victory of the lamb and all that he has accomplished through the cross. And I want us to look at this verse by verse to see that the work of missions does not hang upon the power of a man, the intellect of the greatest mind or the eloquence of the greatest preacher.

The gospel hangs upon the power of Christ, the lamb of God, the son of God and the savior of the world. Before I get started again, I just look out here and I see so many lives and I want to tell you, don't waste your life.

The Great Commission and the Call Not to Waste Life

I am 48 years old and I have regrets. The only regrets that I have is that I have not given more to the cause of Christ, that I've kept so much back for myself. And I look at you and you love your children and you love your wife and you want good things for them and you want your children to learn all sorts of things and to prosper and have good jobs and play basketball and football and have friends.

But don't you see that that's compared to Christ and the great commission is nothing. Sir, are you leading your children? To see that all the universe pales in comparison to the one we're going to see here tonight and every task, every work, every deed that is known to man is nothing compared to taking this gospel to the world.

Don't waste your life. Look at this Christ's night. Fall in love with him, be absolutely amazed at his power. Follow him. Follow him. And we look at our text, verse one, he says, 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.

John says, first of all, I saw. That's why John is called the seer. He saw the things that God revealed to him, that Jesus Christ himself revealed to him, and he wrote it down in this book. Now, the fact that John saw the future is a very important thing.

It tells us something very important about God. Really, we can interpret this only one of two ways. If God saw the future, if John saw the future, it's because God revealed the future to him. If God revealed the future to him, God knows the future.

But here's the question. How does God know the future? It is very popular in the evangelical world today to say that God knows the future because he looked down through the corridors of time. And he saw what was going to happen or that his wisdom is so great, he is able to discern all the factors creating the future and then come to a logical and perfect conclusion about the future.

He knows the future because he saw it. But that's not what Scripture teaches. John knew the future because God revealed the future to him and God revealed the future to him because God knows the future and God knows the future because he is the author and the sovereign Lord of the future.

He has determined, designated, predestined, designed, whatever you want to call it, absolutely everything so that it will come to pass according to how he desires. And yet without removing the responsibility of moral creatures.

God’s Sovereign Redemptive Plan

Now, he says here he saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book. Now, this book consisted of papyrus or parchment glued together and rolled up on a spindle books, as we know them today, didn't come into play until about the second or third century.

Now, we have to ask ourselves, and this is very important to understand our text. What does the book represent? Well, I want to read to you from Ladd, he says this, it is God's redemptive plan for the final scene of human history, the overthrow of evil and the gathering of a redeemed people to enjoy the blessings of God's rule.

Beal writes, the book is best understood as containing God's plan of judgment and redemption, which has been set in motion by Christ's death and resurrection, but has yet to be completed. I believe this book deals in a general way.

With the revelation of the final consummation of God's plan in human history, the gathering forth of a people, the judgment upon the wicked, the redemption of the church and the restoration of all of creation.

Now, he says here, I saw in the right hand of him. So the book was held in the right hand of God, literally in the Greek, it says that the book was on the right hand of God. Now, from our studies in biblical literature, we understand that the right hand was a place of favor, attention and a place of power.

Thus, the Christ is seated at the right hand of the father, the seat of favor, the seat of power, the seat of authority. Now, what does that mean about this book? It means this. That God's redemptive plan for the church, his work of gathering a people for himself, it receives his full attention and is the center point or focus of all his power.

And you see what that's actually saying, you see a missionary beating on a drum, talking about a people that he loves. You don't see that because he is involved in the Great Commission, that he receives the full attention of God.

That he is the focal point of the power of God, it's quite an amazing thing. Let's go on. Now, I want you to look, it says, I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne, a book written inside and on the back.

The thoroughness of this book, I want you to understand something with regard to the salvation of the church, the gathering forth of a people for Christ, the Great Commission, not one detail is missing.

Not one thing is left to chance, he is sovereign over all things, to the greatest events, to the most minute, he's Lord over it all. I want to read something to you that I wrote to put in my notes. It is this, whether it is one family saved from a deluge in a makeshift boat, granting a baby to an old man and his barren wife, sending a favored son to prison in Egypt, placing a baby in a basket of reeds and setting him afloat on the Nile, dividing a sea, diverting the spear of a wicked king thrown at a young psalmist who would replace him, preserving the Messiah's line from an evil queen when only one male descendant remained on earth, watching over an exiled people and bringing them home again, moving an entire empire to hold a census in order to bring one unknown carpenter to his hometown in Bethlehem.

Whether it involves sending his son and having him offered up on the cross by the hands of the wicked men, whether it involves resurrecting him from the dead and gathering a people to be his bride, every detail is worked out and not one thing is left to chance.

A missionary life is not one of great apparent success. True missionaries struggle a great deal. They can spend their entire life and not see many conversions in certain lands. This is the stuff of strength.

Not what they necessarily see with their own eyes, not with the reports that they can send home about all that God is doing, the strength comes from this, that the one who is lord over history is lord over the Great Commission and everything he has ordained will come to pass.

Psalms thirty three eleven, the counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart from generation to generation. Isaiah forty six nine. Listen to this. Remember the former things long past, for I am God and there is no other.

I am God and there is no one like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things which have not been done, saying my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good.

Pleasure Ephesians one eleven, who works all things after the counsel of his will. Now, if we look in verse one again, it's a book written inside and on the back and it's sealed up with seven seals. Now, in ancient times, in Roman times.

The seal was used to show three things are to do three things to show ownership. To protect the document from being changed or altered in any way. And to keep its contents secret. Now, how does this apply to our text before us tonight?

Well, first of all. That seal implies God's ownership. Again, that God is the owner of human history. He's the sovereign Lord and author of human history. You need to understand something. Everything that has ever been done has been done for him.

God’s Glory as the Highest End

Everything that he is doing is ultimately for his glory and the display thereof. Now, because you're from a humanistic culture, you say, how could God do all these things for himself because he happens to be God by virtue of that title?

It is his right to do all for his own glory. Any rational creature must have an end or a purpose for what they're doing. And if they are a rational creature, they will have the highest end or highest purpose for what they're doing.

So if God is going to do something, there must be a reason for it. And the highest reason in the universe is God himself. He does it for him. You say, what about me? Well, the kindest thing that God could ever do for you.

Is to give you the greatest gift he could ever give you, and that is for him to make the world a stage. And to walk out in the center of that stage and to reveal his glory so that you might see it. Some of you who think Christianity is so dull, it is either you have been taught wrongly or you still remain unconverted.

Because when you understand that it is about the glory of God and the manifestation of such beauty that you must be strengthened in your inner man on the day you stand before the Christ. Because if you are not strengthened in some supernatural fashion, his mere beauty will drive you mad.

Christianity is about that glory. Now, also, the decrees are fixed. That seal represents that what God has decreed to do, it cannot be changed. By anything in heaven, earth or hell, the most well-meaning angel cannot bring a change to a jot or tittle.

The greatest demon in hell cannot affect what is written on that scroll. Listen to what he says in Ecclesiastes 713. Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what he has bent? No one. Oh, he is not this little God sitting there on some tin throne with a paper mache crown on his head, wringing his hands, wondering what's going to become of his plan.

He knows what's going to become of his plan. There will be victory because it hangs upon one who is worthy, and that is the Christ. Now, also, God's decrees are hidden from men unless he chooses to reveal them.

It says in Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong to the Lord, our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever. Do you realize something? Listen to me. Those who don't think much of scripture, reading or preaching.

Do you realize that men and women far more noble than you would have given their lives to hear the things you are hearing and to see the things you are seeing? Oh, if God would just take away our ignorance, if he would take away this dullness of mind that causes us to chase after things that do not matter.

If we would only in our hearts return to those things that are truly precious in the sight of God. Ramsey writes this in God's government, nothing is left to chance to him. Nothing is uncertain. No unforeseen contingency can arise and there is no crisis unprovided for.

The Strong Angel’s Universal Proclamation

It's amazing. It's amazing now in verse two, it says, and I saw a strong angel proclaiming in a loud voice. Now, we all know that angels are quite strong, at least that's what it seems in the scriptures.

So if it was just an angel or maybe even a small angel, we would be amazed. But it says clearly that here is an unusually strong angel proclaiming in an unusually loud voice. Now, what is he trying to show us?

He's saying that the message, the declaration that this angel is about to make is not confined to a certain region in the world or a certain region in the cosmos. But his voice travels throughout the entirety of the universe.

And what does he ask? Read on, he says, who is worthy to open the book and to break its seals? The word worthy comes from the Greek word axios, it's an adjective meaning literally weighty, having weight or having worth.

When you're in an argument with someone and you trump. Their contradiction, they say, well, that's a weighty argument, that's a worthy argument, it has worth, it has value. And the question being asked here is who has the weight, the worth, the virtue, the merit, the strength corresponding to the greatness of the task.

Now, who is able to reveal, but not just reveal, also enact or bring to completion the decrees of God leading up to the final redemption of the church and the final restoration of creation? Verse three, and no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the book or to look into it.

First of all, we understand that a search has been made throughout the entirety of the universe. Secondly, we find out that not even the greatest of angels are able to answer the call. We have no mention here of Gabriel coming forth or of Michael standing up and saying, I am the one.

When we look among the greatest of men, we could go to Noah, but he's absent. Abraham. Moses. He's silent, surely Isaiah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets of old, no, they sit in their seat, they do not move.

They know they are not able to answer the call, as a matter of fact, if all the most precious creatures in heaven were to join forces of strength, of intellect, of purity, of spirituality, none of them.

As a collective unit would be able to rise up and say, we shall do the task. No one Ramsey's writes, Ramsey writes in vain, as this call made the whole universe is silent, it seems to stand appalled at the very idea of such a work being committed to creature hands.

Cease writes, Angel shrunk back from it is beyond their qualifications, heavenly principalities and powers stood mute and downcast as they surveyed the requirements of the work. Do you know one of the great evidences of true conversion is that if someone comes to you and even hints.

That your virtue or merit had something to do with your right standing before God, you become so nauseous as to vomit. You turn from them and say, oh, way, way here, this great call is made and all of creation hangs its head.

Almost sick, even the possible suggestion that one of them or all of them together might be worthy. Now we read in verse four, then I begin to weep greatly because no one was found worthy to open the book or to look into it.

Literally, John began a great weeping or a wailing. There is no one able. No one to open up the seals, reveal the plan of God, but most importantly, there is no one able to take that book out of his hands and enact the decrees and bring the work of God's salvation to its final completion.

Cease writes, John knew this is so amazing. John knew by that spirit in which he was, what that sealed book meant. He knew that if no one was found worthy and able to take it from the hand of God and to break its seals, that all the promises of the prophets and all the hopes of the saints and all the things associated with the redeemed world must fail.

He understood that if there was a failure at this point, the redemption of the purchase possession must fail. Could it be possible that this should be? Had he all this while been hoping and preaching and prophesying what should, after all, not be accomplished was the promise inheritance now at the ripened moment for its recovery to go by default into eternal alienation.

How could he bear the thought? Yes, yet such were some of the suggestions of this interval of blankness, an awful pause in heaven. We are so dull. About the things of God that someone would suggest that something might not happen, that he decreed, and we are so dull in our understanding that we do not think it's a big deal.

John came undone. He knew if only one aspect of God's plan fails or cannot be enacted, then the whole thing is gone. There is no hope at all. You know, there's a saying out there that men are so spiritually minded, they're no earthly good.

I say men are so earthly minded, they're no good in heaven or earth. Do you see what's going on here? We care more about our balancing of our checkbooks, about whether or not we have the right home or the right car or the right clothing or this and that.

We fret about so many things. But John was a seer. He could say that all the earthly things do not matter. The decrees of heaven being carried out on the earth is the only thing that matters. Oh, give me twenty five men who realize that the only thing that matters on this planet is the carrying out of the decrees of God and they will march like an army this world has never seen.

This silence in heaven was a dramatic interlude. It was a dramatic interlude. Calculated to impress upon John. And to impress upon us. The singular dignity of the one that's about to be presented. I love that all hope is gone.

There's nothing left, not even the greatest angels in heaven or the holiest of men. Their jaws drop, their arms hang to their side. There's no force left in them. Even the seer wails and cannot be comforted.

The Lion of Judah and the Vision of Christ

And then you hear that name. I know a dear brother. And if you walk up to him, he's an old man. And you say, brother, tell me something about Jesus. Jesus, he will turn around with his face glowing. And tears just flowing down his face.

Let me tell you about the life I wish we would see him as that precious. I don't need to psych you up for missions. I don't need to get you like some football player riled up to go do some good deed. What we need is a vision and that will compel you.

Paul, yes, he was a prisoner for Christ Jesus because he wore chains. But it was much bigger than that. He was indicating something else. He was a prisoner of the love of Christ. He was a prisoner of the splendid beauty of Christ.

He saw Christ in such a way that Christ became of infinite worth to him. And it drove him, some would say, drove him almost mad, but drove him nonetheless. That's what we need, so we need an evangelicalism, so we need a reform movements and sovereign grace movements and every other kind of movement.

We need an exalted vision of the beauty and power and the unique dignity of the person of Jesus Christ that will build a fire and a man that won't go out for a thousand lifetimes. In verse five, one of the elders said to me, stop weeping.

Now, this elder is possibly part of 20 of a group of 24. That are possibly the most splendid, the most exalted rank of angelic creatures, it could be possible. But we don't know that they are the greatest, the highest order of creature.

But notice when he directs John, he does not direct John to himself. He points away from himself and he directs John to the person of Jesus Christ. That is such a good word for those of us who are preachers.

There are no great men of God. Never have been, never will be. I've known some of them and they're not great at all. There are no great men of God, just tiny, faithless, unbelieving, sinful. Minuscule, pathetic little men of a great and mighty God, he says to John, stop weeping or stop wailing.

This is not merely a consolation. He's not merely telling John, John, I'm consoling you. I feel for you, John. Now, this is a command, John, stop. Stop. What's the difference between John? And this elder.

How is it that the elder can stand there in silence and be so bold, and yet John hears the silence, no one answers the call and he's broken into a million pieces, he's disintegrated. What's the difference?

I'll tell you what the difference is. It's not the nature. Of that angelic creature as being superior over that of John's. But it's that that angelic creature possessed a greater, sure knowledge and a deeper vision of the power of God.

He knew God. I am amazed today I go up to students and I say graduated from this and that seminary or Bible college, and I say in your four years of training, how many of those years did you spend studying the attributes of God?

Well, we dealt with that half a semester. There's a problem. There are two things in which men must be trained. One is to know their God. And the other is to understand the gospel, how to spend four years on both.

We need a vision of Christ. Now, I'm going to stop here for a moment, I could tell you that you need to love God more and you would say, of course, I do. The question is, how do you love God more? Do you pull yourself up by your proverbial bootstraps?

What do you do to make yourself love God more? Well, I love my wife now much more than I did when we were first married. She is an imperfect person. But over the 16 years that we have been married, I know more now of her than I did when we were first married.

I know more now of her virtue and her merit, her nature, the things and the ways in which God has changed her and that virtue in her draws out my affections. So the more I see of her virtue, the more my affections are drawn out toward her, the more I love her.

It's the same way. The more you know of God's virtue and merit and worth, if you are a true believer, the more your affections will be drawn out of you and control you. But if you're an unconverted churchman, the more you know of God, the more you will hate him because your heart must be changed before such virtue could ever draw forth such affection.

Now, let's go on. He says, John, stop weeping. Behold, the lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the root of David. Behold, either look, be careful, pay attention to this at this moment, at this moment, everything draws back and everything vanishes from John's sight.

And there stands the Christ, the angel says, he is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Now, this is a messianic title taken from Genesis chapter forty nine. Just let me read it to you. Judah, your brother shall praise you.

Your hands shall be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's son shall bow down to you. Judah is a lion's wealth from the prey. My son, you have gone up. He couches he lies down as a lion and as a lion who dares rouse him up.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Now, why is he called the lion of the tribe of Judah?

He is presented here. Jesus Christ is presented as the great, the magnificent, the fierce warrior king. He is now I want you to hold on to that. He is presented as God's great champion and the champion of God's people.

Now, he's also called the root of David. This also is a messianic title. Let me read it to you from Isaiah 11. Then a shoot will spring forth from the stem of Jesse and a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

The spirit of the Lord will rest on him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And he will delight in the fear of the Lord and he will not judge by what his eyes see nor make a decision by what his ears hear.

But with righteousness, he will judge the poor and decide with fairness all the afflicted for the afflicted of the earth. And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked.

Also, righteousness will be the belt about his loins and faithfulness, the belt around his waist. Now, by calling him the root of David, the stem of Jesse, this is what's going on. First of all, the Messiah came forth from the line of David when David's line was almost nothing more than a wilted root, a dried, parched branch in the desert.

And what does that tell us? Even when the greatest promises of God seem to be coming as close as possible to their ultimate failure, they blossom forth and fulfillment and prove the faithfulness of God.

That is God's dealings with his people. That it seems like before every great victory, we get closer and closer and closer and closer to failure so that every human strength is exhausted, all endeavors of mankind are dried up, there is no hope.

And then he comes bursting forth. Is that not the way God moves in history? Secondly, though he is the son of God. He is the son of man. He is of David's line. I think this is so amazing, folks. I could stop right here and for the next three hours we could just go on this.

And what's so important here? Just listen to me, this one who is going to walk up to God and take the book out of his hands and is going to enact the decrees of God and direct all of human history to its final goal, making every even the smallest detail obedient to him.

He's a man who is not ashamed to call us. He is God, yes, but so often in our defense of Christ's deity, we forget his humanity. And that is a tragedy. Now, number three, though David was the anointed of God, this is God's anointed and he is given the spirit without measure.

Christ Greater Than David and Moses

Now, let's just go back for a moment. I want you to think about something, David. King David, there was so much about him that was admirable. There were so many great works that he accomplished. He fought the battles of the Lord and for the Lord's people.

He did great things. He brought liberation. But he is a worm and less than a worm compared to the one who comes after him, the one who is greater than David. Sometimes I hear pastors will compare themselves to Moses and they'll say, you know, as as Moses needed a man to stand on this side and that side to hold up his arms so that the people of God would prevail.

So the pastor needs someone on their left and their right holding up their arms so that the people will prevail. No, you're missing the point. The point is, we now have one who is greater than Moses. He doesn't need to sit on a rock and no one needs to hold up his hands.

You are not the fulfillment of Moses. Jesus Christ is you are not the fulfillment of Joshua. Jesus is anything that's ever had to have a fulfillment. He's it. And I like it that way. I like it that way.

Also. Having died in weakness. This one from David's loins. He was raised in power. We see this working constantly in this magnificent person of Christ. He came in weakness as a lamb and was crucified.

He was raised. He sits at the right hand of God. There is a sense, my dear friend, and we're going to possibly get to this tomorrow in which there no longer are. Any real governments. Are real kings. There is only one in God's economy and those who would pretend themselves to be an authority.

They ought to kiss the sun and make amends with him before he becomes angry and his anger can flare up in a moment. That's the Christ you never hear about. But it's the one of scripture. Goes on. He has overcome, we read, so as to open the book and its seven seals, Christ has overcome.

But in what way has he overcome? Well, there's a whole lot I have here, but I'm going to have to jump through a lot of it. He has overcome all the obstacles that have stood in the way of God's redemptive plan for his people and the restoration of creation.