In this sermon, the preacher focuses on two chapters from the book of Revelation: chapter 4 and chapter 5. In chapter 4, John sees a vision of the Creator and witnesses the worship that is accorded to God in heaven. The preacher emphasizes the importance of recognizing God's right to rule over all creation. In chapter 5, John sees a vision of the Redeemer, who holds a book that contains God's program for putting down evil and establishing His kingdom on earth. The preacher highlights the significance of finding someone worthy to open the seals of the book and administer God's plan.

And I want to read to you from Revelation 4 and Revelation 5. They are two chapters which are very much linked together and are the basis of this great and glorious book of Revelation. We've had the first three chapters, when we're given a wonderful vision of Jesus himself, every feature of which is full of significance for us. And then he gives to John letters to send to the seven churches of those days. Each with a very stretching message, a revival message to each of those churches. And it's not until Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 that the book proper begins. The first three are preliminary. Now we come to the very heart of it all, or the beginning of it. After this we read, I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was it there as of a trumpet talking with me, which said, Come up, river, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne set in heaven, and man sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jester and a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats, and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white garment, and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne was a sea of glass, like unto crystal. And in the midst of the throne and round about the throne were four beasts, four living creatures, full of eyes before and behind. And the first living creature was like a lion, and the second like a calf, and the third had the face of a man, and the fourth was like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures had each of them six wings. This seems to take us back to Isaiah 6. This is exactly what Isaiah saw. You might have thought that that was a special vision that Isaiah had, laid onto his benefit. It wasn't at all. It had been happening all the time in heaven. And it's still happening there over in Revelation. And it's still happening today. And the four living creatures had each of them six wings about him. And they were full of eyes within. And they rest not day and night saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And then those living creatures did glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth forever and ever. The four and twenty elders fell down before him that sat on the throne, and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created. And so it is, chapter four, gives the vision that John saw and he saw first of all, the vision of the Creator. And the worship which is accorded in heaven to God as the Creator of all things, and at this very hour, that worship from the same living creatures is going on in heaven. Then we continue to chapter five, and here we have not the vision of the Creator, but if you please, something far greater, the vision of the Redeemer. And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book, a scroll written within and on the back side sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. The book, as the later chapters explain, is really God's program for the putting down of evil, and the establishing of his kingdom on the earth. And is no one to be found worthy to break those seals and open the book and read it, and administer it? What a terrible thing, if evil is always going to be on the throne, and truth always lying in the street. Is there none worthy to take this book, break its seals and administer its program? And I wept much because no man was not worthy to open the book and to read thereon. And one of the elders said unto me, do it not. Behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. And so he looks, expecting to see a lion. He has been told, the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed. And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders stood not a lion, but a Lamb, as it had been slain, had been seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. And he came, and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne. And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having over one of them hearts, and golden dials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us with God by thy blood, out of every kindred, tongue and people and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests. And we shall reign on the earth. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels, round about the throne, and the living creatures and the elders. And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the land of the slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I say, Blessing and honour and glory and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him, that liveth for ever and ever. Are you noticed, of course, that when this second chapter, this chapter five, speaks of God not as creator now, but as redeemer, the worship according to him, according to, according to him, as redeemer, is infinitely greater, than that according to him as creator. That first chapter there is also, Thou hast created all things. But all heaven goes wild with joy and worship, when they see the creator has become the redeemer. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain and has redeemed us. You see, to create, he's only got to speak, but to redeem, he had to bleed. And heaven has not gone over it yet. They're still amazed to plunder the depths of love divine. And that worship is going on right now. And sometimes a faint echo of that worship comes from us. They're our highest moments. Our happiest moments, when somehow we are linked with that vast sea of worship going on there. So chapter four and five, God the creator. The worship according to him, God the redeemer. God in the gospel of his son, hath all his mightiest deeds outdone. Now I want to pick out a little phrase from the first of those chapters, and then a little phrase from the second. In chapter four verse two, And behold the throne was set in heaven. That's where we saw the first part of the vision. Indeed to the ultimate spirit of behold a throne. That's the first word, behold a throne. Whenever men in Bible times were given a vision of God, nearly always they saw the throne. Now a throne is the symbol of authority. And the fact that this is the chosen emblem to be revealed when men see God in any degree, means that the heart of deity is authority. The chief thing about the Godhead is that he has the right to rule the creatures whom he has brought into being and the universe that he has made for his pleasure. They were and are created. And the picture of a throne always speaks of God's right to rule. God's authority over us. And if I was a missionary going to a tribe that had absolutely no knowledge of God at all, I think very soon I'd have to come to the picture of a throne. The first thing they've got to know that there is a God who created and this God has the right to rule those whom he has created. This shows us what sin then really is. Sin isn't merely being something inconvenient that hurts other people. Sin isn't something being something not quite ethical. It is nothing less than rebellion against the authority of that throne and the one upon the throne. Not only does it show us what sin really is, it also shows us what repentance is. Repentance then is nothing more than returning to the authority once again of that throne and the one upon it. I return to this authority in those matters where I rebelled against it and chose to go my own way. That is how it was with the prodigal son. He returned to his father, not merely geographically. He returned to the loving but nonetheless firm authority of his father from which he rebelled. He was bending, so to speak, that stiff necked eye to the loving authority of that father from whom he had departed. And in case you think that's rather harsh, may I remind you that there was and still is a rainbow round about the throne. There's a rainbow round about the throne against which you've rebelled and gone your own way. And a rainbow is a symbol of grace, undeserved grace. It was a symbol when it was first given that I will not anymore curse the earth with a flood. And round about the throne symbolizing God's divine authority over us there's a rainbow. You're going to return when you repent to the loving, gracious authority of that one. And it cannot but mean infinite good for you. The ways of rebellion are always the ways of misery. Thank God there's a rainbow round about that throne to which you're invited to return in penitence. That then is the first word I pick out of these chapters. The one from chapter four, the chapter that speaks of God as creator. Here it is. Behold a throne! God's right to rule all those whom he's created. And if they're not willing thus to be ruled then that is the extent of their sin. If for that they'll be brought into account at the end and it is to that rule they may voluntarily return. And there's something about the sweetness of that rainbow round about the throne. But then in the next chapter we're given a little more of a picture. And in verse six he says, As I beheld and know in the midst of the throne stood a lamb as it had been slain. And the words I select out of that verse are simply these. In the midst of the throne a lamb. Not a lion as he thought he was going to see. And certainly not a tiger! But in the midst of that throne which symbolizes God's authority over everyone there stands a lamb. And the lamb we know is the meekest and gentlest of any creature. I live in a farm. My son is a doctor who somehow contrives in his spare time to run a farm and raise lambs. And I tell you spring is a lovely time. As I look out of our window we see these sweet creatures newly born lambs. Skipping. They're so gentle. I've never yet seen a lamb try and snap at another. You can do what you like to a lamb and it doesn't retaliate. To take a lamb to the slaughter, I've never tried it, I'd hate to do it. I think would be the easiest thing in all the world. If you look up into your eyes and just, you'd like to do it. They tell me it's very different taking pigs to the slaughter. And they tell me that in those barns where they're killing the pigs of course that's the old fashioned way, before they were taken off to some big factory and it's done scientifically. But in the days when there was a barn where the pigs were slain there was a rumpus going on. There knew what was coming. But in those barns where the lambs were led to the slaughter all was silent. And it's a wonderful picture of gentleness, of meekness, of the surrender of rights. And this is the chosen name and picture of Jesus in the midst of the throne where stands the lamb. Now he was led of course to think he was going to see a lamb. The angel said to him, the lamb of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seals. And when he saw expecting to see a lamb up there instead he saw a lamb. Actually both figures are true of Jesus. The lamb shows that he's overcome and gotten to himself the victory but the lamb shows the way in which he's overcome. By weakness of old himself, you wouldn't know it is so old. We are living in England now. By weakness and defeat he won the mead and crown trod on his toes, beneath his feet by being trodden down. The lamb speaks of victory, the lamb. The way in which he achieved the victory. It's the victory of humility. It's the victory of grace. And that's the word I bring you in the midst of the throne is a lamb. And Jesus is called a lamb. He's shown on the throne. And there are two reasons for this. The first reason is likely to convict us. The second designed to comfort us. As I've said, a lamb is a creature of gentleness, weakness. Weakness even. And Jesus is called the lamb because that describes his character. He was made, we read, as a lamb to the slaughter. They found it so easy. They'd come prepared to arrest him with swords and staves. Instead they said, whom seek ye? Jesus of Nazareth said, I'm here. And they turned back and said, who do you want? Jesus said, I've told you before. Here I am. And you know that phrase comes again and again in the New Testament. He gave himself for us. Actually in the Greek there's a word which isn't often added and translated. He gave himself up. You know what it is when a man gives himself up? To the police? Gives himself up to those that are chasing him? That's what Jesus did. They didn't need any swords and staves because they were dealing with a lamb. He's called the lamb because that's his character. He himself said, I am meek and lowly in heart. A meek is one man who is not a person who answers back or fights back. Or stands up for his rights. I know the world says a man who's as meek as a lamb would get into the stew. But Jesus said, I'm going to be meek. Actually he got into the phone. Not to the stew, ultimately. Then he was reviled, he didn't revile again. Then he was threatened, he didn't answer back. But he simply committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously. And let them do it. He didn't say, how dare you treat me like that. I insist you treat me with the respect due to my position. No, he didn't, you see, because he was the lamb. Had he not been the lamb, he would have quoted a day long before he came to Calvary. And this phrase, this picture, betrays his character. And that's the reason why he's extremely, especially in the book of Revelation. When you see him, you'll be amazed, glory, he's always called the lamb. Now don't get the idea of a lookful lamb. If you like, it's a nickname. Now, screw the children who have nicknames they send them to their teachers. There's a hitch, quiet, the something's coming. In heaven they say, the lamb's coming. And invariably these nicknames are given to them because of some characteristic which they highlight. This is certainly true about this beautiful man that Jesus bears, the lamb. He's the one who loved his enemies. Who blessed those who cursed him. Who forgave those that would lay him to the cross, even before they asked him if again. This is the one who occupies the throne. You got it, the throne speaks of authority, right to rule. And now we see the one in the midst of the throne, exercising the authority of the throne, is called the lamb. And that in turn conditions the demands that the throne makes upon you. It's not a lion in the midst of the throne, not a tiger, not a cat. But a lamb. And I want to tell you that makes the commands from that throne far more searching. And far more convicting than that. If it was a lion or a tiger in the throne, I might do alright. Because I can be a lion. I can be a tiger when I'm round. I can tell you I can. And if there's a tiger in the middle of the throne, that allows me to be a tiger. But there's not a tiger in the midst of the throne. There's a lamb. And that's the one thing naturally I can't claim to be. Anything but. And I don't think you can. But that's who it is on the throne. It's a lamb. And that conditions what that throne requires of you which you have not been able to respond to. The reason why you're called upon to be no more proud but to humble yourself is because it's a lamb in the midst of the throne and he humbled himself. The reason why you're called to forgive your enemies is because he was the lamb and he forgave his. They wronged him. Nobody even asked him to forgive them. But even as they inflicted the blow, he was ready to forgive them. And because there's a lamb on the throne, it conditions what that throne requires of you which you have not really given him. You think I would command you to love others? It's because he loves others. It says God is love. But he that knows that love is love, knows not God. But he that abides in love, dwells in God and God in him. God is love! Now you think, I normally think that that means God is love for me. It is. But that's not the context in 1 John 4. If you read that chapter, it occurs twice. Once put negatively, once positively. And the whole context is God is love for the other fellow. And if you don't love that other fellow, if you hate his guts, if he irritates you, if you criticize him, you don't know God. But God loves him. He knows his faults better than you do. He gave his son for him, he loves him. But I don't. And I have to tell you, there's nothing quite so searching as to see there's a lamb in the midst of a throne. And what that throne dispenses is the rule of the lamb. And I don't think you've seen it. If you had seen it, you couldn't act and react as you do to others, even in the sanctity of your home and in the church, as you do without being convicted. The way in which we act and react and never have a pile of conviction shows that we don't see there's a lamb on the throne. We're quite sure there's a lion or a tiger on the throne. Well, he won't stand for that, will he? He'll knock people's head off while they're being treated like that. And if you think he's like that, it gives you liberty to be like that too. And I want to suggest that very largely we've gone on the assumption there's a tiger or a lion or a cat in that throne. And we act in the way we know those creatures do. And if that's the one on the throne, it gives you perfect right to do the same to others and to do it in his name even. Until the Holy Spirit takes you and shows you there's a lion in the midst of the throne where we make his love to narrow by false limits of our own and we magnify his strictness with a zeal he wouldn't own. And you see there's a lamb in the midst of the throne. There's a very powerful verse in Psalm 50. This psalm tells us that the things that God does not convict us of are the things he does. He says I'm not going to convict you for not having brought enough sacrifices. And then your religious obligations as you think they should be. I'm not bothered about that. I've got all the lambs. I've got all the cattle of a thousand hills. I'm going to convict you of some and do this. And then in this some of the sort of things that we do ignorant of the fact that there's a lamb in the midst of the throne. We play with moral standards. We bend them to our convenience. We give to the other according as he gives to us. We answer back. We defend ourselves. We nourish hard and bitter feelings. And man is sin even if it's only for a moment. In fact sometimes being human we don't seem to have any ability to choose. Someone does something to you. Straight away you react. Your power of prayers comes afterwards when you can repent. But we don't repent so often. And the only explanation is we don't see there's a lamb in the midst of the throne. And this verse in Psalm 50 says These things hast thou done and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such and one as thyself. But I will approve thee and set them in order before mine eyes. Man, that's what it is. Deep down you think God's like that. You think God's a sort of Hitler. And it enables you then to be Hitler in turn. You think that I am altogether such and one as thyself. But I'm not. There's a lamb in the midst of the throne. In fact this book of Revelation has an extraordinary phrase a little further on when it talks about the wrath of the lamb. That sounds like a contradiction in terms. If the lamb is so gentle and gracious and loving and beneficent how can you talk about the wrath of the lamb? It's because he is the lamb that he is concerned when you long and hurt. But I'm the one that he loves. The fact that he's a lamb demonstrates a wonderful thing that he's always on the side of the poor and needy. There's so many things. He's concerned about the fatherless. There's always been a lamb in the midst of the throne. Do you know the sermon of the mount of the Old Testament? It's in the book of 19. That's the Old Testament passage which says, Light up thy neighbor as thyself. It's always been like this. This isn't something merely for the open. This is God as he always has been. It was only fully revealed in Jesus that he always had been. And I see in Leviticus 19, this sermon of the mount passage, verse 14, Thou shalt not curse the dead. Nor put a stumbling block before the blind. For thou shalt fear thy God. I am the Lord. He doesn't curse the deaf. They can't hear what you're saying. That's what that means. Talking about people behind their back, they can't hear it. Nor put a stumbling block before the blind. They can't see how you're taking advantage of their blindness. They never do it. I am the Lord. I think you say, What sort of a God is this? This is talking about the deaf and the blind. There's a land in the midst of the throne. They say to him, Thou shalt not avenge. Nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. For I am the Lord. I am the land in the midst of the throne. There are commands about when you, when you make a loan to a poor man, and you take his garments as a pledge against the loan, you are specially told to return that garment to him before night. And it is clothes. It is nothing which he's going to live. And he'll cry to you, And I, the Lord, will hear. Who is this is concerned about situations? There's a land in the midst of the throne. And I could take up isles, showing you that even in the Old Testament there's a land. There's one who's concerned for the widow and the fraudulence, and those who wrong the stranger in their midst. I have learned that you shall fear me. Because there's a land in the midst of the throne. Take the case I said about this wrath of the Lamb. You know the thing that David did? It says displeased the Lord. That's putting it mildly. You know this situation I'm talking about? Uriah and the Sheba and so on. Why? Merely because he was unethical? Because he was concerned for that common soldier, Uriah, whose wife David had stolen while he was away at the war. And it was because there was a land in the midst of the throne that David was called to book. That land was concerned for the doing wrong done to that low-serving man. Remember the place where there was a famine in the days of David? Three years, year after year. And David at last realized this was God speaking to him. He couldn't be accounted for merely on bad weather conditions. And he inquired of the Lord. And the Lord said it is for Saul and for his bloody house. Because he slew the Jubanites. And his predecessor Saul had wronged another minority, the Jubanites, to whom they had made solemn prophets and kept many of their servants and seized their farms at his zeal for the children of Israel. It was no good God talking to Saul. He would never hear. But now it's a man who can. And although David didn't do the wrong, he was in a position to put it right. And that it was that the rains hailed for three years in succession. They were in famine. Why? Because of the Lamb in the midst of the flood. He saw the wrong done to the Jubanites. And therefore it's very touching to see him as the Lamb for us. It's very searching for us to see him as the Lamb of somebody else. And for that reason he has sometimes his own dear children on the land. They will incur the displeasure of the Lamb. And a wrong has been done. A dirty deed has been done. A hurtful word spoken. You sent somebody to their bed going in tears. There are ministers I know that their eyes have cried themselves to sleep. They've got a recruitment. But the congregation supported them, I want to tell you. There's a Lamb in the midst of the flood. And the whole congregation can sometimes incur the displeasure of that Lamb. My dear friends, this picture of the Lamb in the midst of the flood is a searching picture. I'm no Lamb naturally. I've been on the mat before God. I've been lacking in love and care, but I don't have any concern for myself. And because I'm concerned for myself, I can wrong others and neglect others. But you know that I wouldn't have it otherwise, that there should be a Lamb. Frankly, I don't want him to let me off. I've come to know that being on the mat before God is always a blessed place when I'm willing to face the Lamb. But there's another reason why Jesus is called the Lamb in Scripture. Not only because that describes his character, but because it pictures redemption. All the Old Testament pictures of redemption and forgiveness are associated with the Lamb. The Israelites were saved from judgment and the cross overnight when the firstborn in every house died among the Egyptians. But only those over whose house the blood of the Lamb sprinkled was the firstborn saved. The Lamb. And then the various offerings were codified in the Book of Leviticus. The Lamb, the Lamb, either from the sheep or the goats was always figuring there. That blood that was sprinkled once and there upon the mercy seat of the Holy of Holies by the High Priest, it was the blood of the Lamb. O man, I want to tell you it means everything to you that there's a Lamb in the midst of the throne. I want to tell you if it searches you that that should be so. If you're prepared to admit it's true or He shows you, if He comforts you, even you, even to you, even to me, there's a Lamb in the midst of the throne. It's important to him that as at once one of those verses says this, Jesus, my great High Priest, offered His blood and died. My guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside. His powerful blood did once atone and now it pleads before the great Hallelujah that there's a Lamb in the midst of the throne and I may grieve to Him and hurt others. But if I prepare to admit how wrong I am, I want to tell you His good end is appointed. And right now, this very moment, there's a Lamb, I'm sorry to keep on quoting these hymns, I wish you knew them all. Five bleeding wounds He bears. Received on Calvary. Those poor effectual prayers they strongly plead for me. Forgive me, Lord, forgive, they cry. Nor let that ransomed sinner die. Or again, when Satan tempts me to despair and tells me of the guilt within, after I look and see Him there who made an end of all matters. Oh, thank God, there is a Lamb in the midst of the throne. The boy Isaac said to his father, I will let the family back the wood, but where is the Lamb for the burnt offering? And with the hand uttered different words than you realize, my son, God will provide for Himself a Lamb for a burnt offering. And He's got Him. And that burnt offering has anticipated all these terrible falling short, that it has such terrible complications and hurt others that by sending the Lamb to the most, you've only got to put the blame where it belongs, upon yourself. And immediately the stillet was sold to hold the Lamb. Behold the Lamb, and He's in the midst of the throne. Had His blood not been part of love, as the hymn says, He never would have got to the throne. He took Him with all sins on Him. How can such a Lamb go back to Heaven if there isn't power in the blood? And thus it is written, He entered into the holy place by His own blood. And where He is appearing is the presence of God for us. I want to tell you there's no limit to the grace that's going to pour upon the penitent man. Jesus, it is said, not enough against the lesser, but unless it's the less. You're going to be the object of divine solicitude and grace when admitting the hard truth about yourself. You go to Him. You put your feeble claim in, but Jesus, you're the Lamb, in the midst of the throne, and the Father cannot turn His face away from Him. This is how revival comes to the church. Only because there's a Lamb in the midst of the throne. If He's weak and lowly, if He's belittled with all, if He's full of mercy for others, isn't He going to do that for you when you take the place of the poor and needy, who's on the side of the poor and needy, but you aren't or haven't been in that place until half the night. When you see yourself so low, my dear friend, you're going to confess that fact. You become endowed by that very confession, attributed to the One who's merciful and gracious to sinners, and He's on your side. He takes up your case. He allows no one to lay charge against His elect. If, of course, they do, it's OK. You disagree with them. You know, sometimes I have an awful feeling. I act wrongly or speak to my wife in a rather abrupt way, and that looks at others. Oh, I say, what? What do you think? And I'm disheartened. This is the fellow that wrote Calgary Road? And you know how I got out of that? Not if they think I'm one big failure. If they think I'm a humbug, they think the truth. And if they come to say that to me, I say, you're dead right, brother. Only I'm more so than you realise. God's already shown it me, and I've become reconciled to it. And there's a sense in which you get peace with the blood of Jesus. A sensitive conscience does. Some people's consciences aren't very sensitive, but a sensitive conscience gets peace by the blood of Jesus by being reconciled to the fact that they are a servant. And being reconciled to the fact that it's all been taken care of in glorious fashion. And you're given liberty and boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. One of the great words in the epistle to the Hebrews is boldness. Sometimes it's translated confidence. Cast not away your confidence which hath great recompense of the Lord, and the love of those having therefore boldness to enter the holiest. Same word. How can you have boldness with God? When you know yourself to be what you are. Only because you see there's a block, there's a land in the midst of the field. There's a living to make intercession. Spreading his wings and sharing his hands. And when you cast that gaze of faith that threatens to say, no thank you, hands are not set. That is a fact. Then, it isn't difficult to make things right where they need to be right. You've just received such abundant forgiveness from God you just want it to be completed by asking the forgiveness of whoever else it was that's been involved. And if they don't give the forgiveness and they take advantage of your apparent humility, and I always said you were like that, now don't go back on it. You say, that's what I'm saying, I always have been like that. Yes, I think you are, that's exactly what I say. They almost get tired of saying it to you because you're saying it yourself. And, it's a little difficult for them not to give you forgiveness. Sometimes, you aren't always met, you're likely met when you put things right. Could it be you haven't gone the whole way in repentance? Could it be there's some bit you've retained saying I'm all right there, you've been really wrong. I've got to tell you, you won't get a right reaction from that. If you take wholly and solely the place of the sinner, by the hope of that dear lad, it's difficult for another not to give forgiveness. Though, if they don't, you've got it from God and you go on with Him, leaving God to work in that other heart in due course. And not complaining that they haven't forgiven you so freely because you see your sin to be so grievous. In fact, if another human could forgive you, it's a wonder. Only Jesus, you sometimes say, could. But God knows how to help them too. And they're on this wonderful thing to hold a throne. In the midst of the throne, a lamb. And I've got to tell you, as a result of many visits to Calvary, over this, over that, something's going to happen in you. You are progressively going to be made a partaker of the divine nature. You're going to progressively have seeped into you more and more the disposition of the lamb. Let this mind be in you that is in Christ. It can be in you! Not merely by asking for it, but by believing to go to Calvary when it's not there. And Jesus loves to give us at the cross the very thing we confess we haven't got. A blessed exchange. And progressively. Maybe you won't see the difference. If it isn't one thing, it's another thing. The Lord's dealing with you on that as well. It's so different, you know. And then your husband, he's so quick to say it's wrong. Husbands aren't known for that, are they? But when the Lord's got to work on us, He does! It does happen. And this is the day. I've got to tell you, it's my joy to have many friends who've found this secret of walking in the light with God. And they've known it for years. They're always there at the cross. They're always getting on. Some new person you've knew at release and cleansing. They don't think. They're improving. I can see the difference. What they used to do, not they are now. And I've got to tell you, I have seen holiness working about on two legs. This way. I've got to tell you, grace achieves what the Lord never can. And you'll be changed from boy to boy. But you must begin, the first thing God's talking to you about and after that the next and the next. Behold a throne. And hallelujah, in the midst of the throne, a lamb. Dear dying lamb, thy blood shall never lose its power. And let us hope to have another. Let us pray.