Song – Worthy Art Thou

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Song – Worthy Art Thou

Sermon by  Thomas Thornhill Jr

Passage: Revelation 5:10-14


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Sermons From Songs

#34, Hymn’s For Worship

 

Tonight, we examine another song we sing from time to time.  This song addresses the worthiness of our Lord Jesus to be praised and honored by us.  The song is Worthy Art Thou.

The song was written and composed by Tillit S. Teddlie, a gospel preacher and prolific song writer.  He was born in Swan, Texas, 1885.  He was baptized into Christ in 1903.  He is mostly known for his work teaching singing in singing schools, publishing hymnals and writing songs.  Over more than 6 decades he published 14 hymnals & composed 130 songs.  The many songs he wrote and/or composed include: Heaven Holds All To Me, Hear Me When I Call, In The Service of My King, True Worship, Singing Redemption’s Song, Into Our Hands, Time Enough Yet, When We Meet In Sweet Communion, What Will Your Answer Be, We Shall Meet Someday, etc.  He died at the age of 102 and is buried in Greenville, TX.

The reasons Jesus is worthy of our praise ought to be obvious, but the song is taken from Revelation 5:12 (11-14).  Revelation 4 & 5 is a scene of heaven.  Chapter 4 describes the throne of God with living creatures and elders worshipping Him.  Chapter 5 describes one on the throne (God) with a scroll in his right hand sealed with 7 seals.  But no one in heaven was found worthy to open the scroll.  As John wept because no one was worthy an angel told him, “Do not weep.  Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David…” would be able to open the scroll.  Then we see in the midst of all there, a Lamb that look as if it had been slain.  He took the scroll.  Then those surrounding the throne fell down and worshipped the Lamb and sang a new song, saying the Lamb was worthy.  Then many are seen saying with a loud voice, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor 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, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”    While it is not the intent of this lesson to address the premise of this text, the Lamb is clearly Jesus who died for mankind.  He is worthy to open the seals and they sang praises to Him.  Our song is based upon this text.

 

  1. 1 – Jesus is worthy of praise
    1. He is worthy – the word is defined as having worth or high value. As used here, the point is Jesus is deserving of the described qualities.
      1. What we give to Him is not a waste. In fact, our offerings to Him are paltry (inadequate, minimal) compared to what He deserves.
      2. He is deserving because of everything that He has done for us. Philippians 2:5-8 is a description of what He has done.  Of note in that text is that God has highly exalted Him – thus He expects us to honor Him as He is due.
      3. In our context, He is being worshipped. And Jesus is worthy of genuine worship – considering that Jesus is God (deity) (Titus 2:13 – where He is described as “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”, Hebrews 1:8 – on His throne He is God, and even in our text the point is made, that was in “the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God.”  (Phil. 2 6).  Why is He worshipped?  He is worthy!
      4. The rest of the text (and much of our song) describes HOW we recognize His worth.
    2. Worthy of praise is our redeemer –
      1. We praise Him – Philippians 2:9-11, continuing that text we find that God has highly exalted Jesus and all mankind bow before Him and every tongue should confess Him.
      2. Our text in Revelation shows Him being praised.
      3. Our redeemer – He is praised and honored for many things, chief being He is our Redeemer. Meaning He paid the price for the forgiveness of our sins – Ephesians 1:7, Titus 2:14 – He gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed (He purchase our freedom).
    3. Worthy of glory, honor and power – glory means to give a place of high honor, to magnify. This would be the idea of praising Him; To honor Him is to exalt Him; His power is in His authority – Matthew 28:18, cf. Philippians 2:9-11, Romans 1:4 – He was declared to be the Son of God with power….   Consider with this phrase John 5:22-24 where Jesus declared that God has granted that He be honored (and glorified and respected).  1 Timothy 1:17 reads, Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
    4. Worthy of all our souls’ adoration – the soul is descriptive of that part of man that will live on eternally. Adoration – a word that is associated with worship and holding on in high admiration or esteem.  Again, Jesus is worthy of us exalting Him, just as God did.  And in EVERYTHING we ought to magnify Him – cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 – in everything give thanks.
    5. Worthy art Thou, worthy art Thou – this is the theme of our song and repeated throughout. If we sing all verses with the chorus, we mention His worthiness 24 times.
  2. 2 -Let all praise Him – every creature
    1. Lift up the voice in praise and devotion – again, this song appeals to Philippians 2:9-11. The word “devotion” means dedication or selfless affection toward Jesus.  We are reminded that as Christians our life is hidden in Him – Colossians 3:1-3 – you life is hidden with Christ in God.   Philippians 1:21, to live is Christ, but to die is gain.  Romans 12:1-2 – we present ourselves as His living sacrifice.  AND we do this openly – cf. Romans 1:16.
    2. Saints of all earth before Him should bow – again in Philippians 2:10-11 we are reminded that we WILL bow before Him. The only question is: When?  Will it be now where He can redeem you, or will it be before Him in judgment when it will be too late?  Let us have the mind of Paul – Ephesians 3:14, For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
    3. Angels in heaven worship Him saying – we have the angels as an example. This is the emphasis in Revelation as all creatures before the throne bow and worship Him.  Hebrews 1:6, But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all the angels of God worship Him.”   Likely the “thousands” praising Him in the text at the foundation of our song included, and was MOSTLY angelic beings (Rev. 5:11-13).  Thought: If angels bow before Him, how much more should we?  NOTE Revelation 22:8-9, Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things. Then he said to me, “See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”   This lends more credence to the fact that Jesus is God (as He did accept worship on earth AND before the throne).
    4. Worthy art Thou, worthy art Thou.
  3. Praise Him in song
    1. Lord, may we come before Thee with singing – Colossians 3:16 – we sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord. One of the things this song reminds us of is that our singing needs to be joyful (cf. James 5:13).  If we are giving God our best, we will strive to make everything the best we have.  When we sing we will act like it is important! 1 Corinthians 14:15, Hebrews 2:12, saying: “I will declare Your name to My brethren; In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise to You.”  AND Revelation 15:3, They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints!…  NOTE: While these are in heaven (or the heavenly realm after death), notice their victorious praise.
    2. Filled with Thy Spirit, wisdom and power –
      1. The Spirit of Christ dwells within us (as does the Spirit of the Father – John 14:23, 1 John 4:15, the Holy Spirit – Romans 8:9-11, 2 Timtohy 1:14, His word – Colossians 3:16, Faith – 2 Timothy 1:5, etc.). The point is we need to let Jesus influence our lives and decisions – Ephesians 3:17 – Christ is to dwell in our hearts through faith.  cf. Philippians 2:5, “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…”  Colossians 3:16 begins, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…”
      2. Wisdom – are we letting His wisdom and knowledge govern our lives – Cf. Psalm 1:1-2, 1 John 2:24 – let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.   Colossians 1:9-10, this is the very thing Paul prayed for.
      3. As to power – think of the authority He has – Colossians 3:17, Matthew 28:18.
    3. May we ascribe Thee glory and honor – will we openly profess Him! Matthew 10:32-33, 1 Peter  3:15 – be ready always to give a defense.
    4. Worthy art Thou, Worthy art Thou.
  4. Chorus – More of His worthiness
    1. Worthy of riches – See also 2 Corinthians 8:9 – He was rich but became poor for us, that through His poverty we might become rich. There is NO price we can pay that will equal what He has done and the gift we can have in Him – 2 Corinthians 9:15
    2. Blessing and honor – to bless Him is to honor Him. We earlier addressed this.
    3. Worthy of wisdom, glory and power – again, we addressed this in our verses.
    4. Worthy of earth and heaven’s thanksgiving – He created all things for us. In Him all things consist – Colossians 1:17.  Furthermore, in a very real spiritual sense, this world praises Him – Romans 1:20, See Psalm 148.
    5. Worthy art Thou, Worthy art Thou

We sing many songs of praise to God and Jesus.  This is a song that reminds us of WHY we do that – because they are WORTHY considering all that they have done, are doing and will do for us in the end.  Let us continually be reminded that He worthy to be obeyed.  Does your life show His worthiness? Think about it!

 

 

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