This evening we are looking at something that is like a follow up of what the Lord has started with in the last two weeks. We began looking, two weeks ago, at The Birth and the rise of a New Kingdom and we concluded last week. So today, we are considering THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST. The Yoruba speaking people of Nigeria has something they call “Aditu - meaning: an enigma”. We were told from the beginning of this month that God delights in concealing things. In fact, we were briefly told that God created darkness and He is the Lord of it. But the same God who created darkness, and who keeps things in darkness, also said through His Holy Spirit that “it is glory of God to conceal a matter but the glory of kings is to search out every matter.” So, when God conceals, we unveil whatever God conceals.

 

One of the things I have learnt from the Lord is that the beauty of concealing things is for security. Now, supposing that the wives of the men here or listening right now, are married to, supposing the beauty, the destiny, the beauty of that woman is revealed unto every guy when you when still single. Do you still you would have still been be able to marry her? So, no matter how beautiful she has been to you, God concealed the real beauty, so that not everybody will be all over her and confuse her away from you, God made it only known to you, since you are the one in search of revelation.

 

We were told in one of our August meetings that in a kingdom that is revelation-based, you will get married by revelation, you would get a work by revelation, you will fulfill your destiny by revelation. So, your success, your progress, your growth in this kingdom is tied to your revelation. So, God conceals so that things would be preserved for you, but you must take on a personal responsibility to unravel what God has concealed knowing fully well that it is for your own primary interest that those things have been concealed. Assuming Petrol, Gold and other resources were on the surface, the "White men" would have taken everything out of Africa. But it took time for them to even realize that there was gold, diamond and the rest and since they realized it, "they have never left us". What have they been doing? They have been digging! So, as they dig, they meet, they haven’t been able to exhaust because as they dig deeper, they find more valuables.

 

So, the deeper you dig, the more you are able to draw out. God has so much that He has concealed for your own sake. He has concealed them so that thieves would not have access to them. Bible says the thieves come to steal, kill and destroy. But I have come that you may have life. The one that said He has come; we want to see Him as a mystery today: THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST: REGAINING THE LOST AUTHORITY IN CHRIST JESUS FOR DOMINION ON THE EARTH.

 

Let us go to the book of Revelation 4 and we will start from verse 1-11, and that we give us a picture of where stopped last week. The Bible says:

 

“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

 

From this verse we know that heaven is not down there, heaven is up there. That is very important for us to know. As soon as he was beckoned at, verse 2 says:

 

“Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. ³ And He who sat there was like a jasper and a sardius stone in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, in appearance like an emerald. ⁴ Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones, I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. ⁵ And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thundering, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” ⁶ Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures.”

 

In the last two weeks, we have been looking at living creatures. In fact, we saw in Genesis 2:7 after God had formed man and breathe into his nostrils, Bible says “man became a living being.” Another word for being is “living creature.” But the Bible identified four living creatures. So, if man was a living creature, and now there were four living creatures, we could see that, based on nomenclature, we were all living creatures. The rest we can figure out with the Holy Spirit. But let us have a description of them going forward. The Bible gave us a detail of them before we start assuming how the living creatures appeared. The Bible gave us a picture making us to understand what is in heaven and by what we are familiar with on the earth.

 

And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures.” full of eyes in front and in back. ⁷ The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. ⁸ The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:

 

“Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!”

 

⁹ Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

 

¹¹ “You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.”

 

May the Lord bless the reading of His word in our hearts in Jesus’ name. Actually, we are going to chapter five. But for us to appreciate certain things that we will find in chapter five, that’s why we started with chapter four of revelations. Now we were told about the throne that was set up and there is One sitting on the throne. And then, there were other thrones that has twenty-four elders sitting on them, and then we were told about the four living creatures. And Bible says whenever these four living creatures say the things they say, the twenty-four elders bow to him who sits on the throne. So, we are not confused about how the throne was. Is that established? Now let us go see what is in chapter five, our focus.

 

“And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. ² Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?”

 

Do we still remember that these activities actually took place in heaven, not on earth? The one who is showing us this was beckoned unto to come over to heaven, and by the Spirit, he was transferred to heaven. And so, what he saw, he saw it take place in heaven. So, what you are hearing are conversations among the inhabitants of heaven. It says who is worthy to open the Scroll that is in the right hand of the one who sits in on the throne and to loose its seals? And Bible says: “And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it.”

 

If there were Saturn, Uranus, Jupiter and all other places that has the interest of God in them, the Bible would have mentioned them. Let me show us this natural example. Once America has interest in a country, they put their embassy there. And then they do everything to influence the governance of that nation. It is because there is an interest. Without an interest, they will cease to be active or to be actively involved in what takes places there. And so, where you have seen, these are the territories that God has interest in and has invested massively in them. They are: The heaven, the earth and underneath the earth. So, the Bible says in all these three territories, there was no one found, not even the strongest of the angels or the elders. The living creatures were not too. But let us continue.

 

“So, I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it.” The question is: Why would he weep if the scroll and the things about the scroll are unimportant? He wept because of the importance of the matter. Verse 5 says: “But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”  The expression “don’t weep” could mean; don’t continue in this your oppressive mindset, don’t continue being in bondage, don’t continue telling yourself your situation will perpetually be hopeless, don’t continue to think “nothing good can come from your Nazareth”, don’t continue to think that you are a nobody and that you will die a nobody.

 

The matter we should consider is this: If John was aware that Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed to open the seal, would he be crying? So, the elders did what the Holy Spirit does to many of us, the Spirit of truth, to guide us into all truth. In ignorance, there is bondage, there is affliction; but in revelation, in vision, there is authority. So, what the elder did was to open his eyes to what he was ignorant of, that has kept him in a sorrowful and a sad state for a while. Because when he said “I wept much”, that means he was seeping for a while before he was consoled. The elder told him to stop weeping because the son of God has prevailed, and let us see the consequences of that.

 

As soon as the elder called his attention to what God has perfected on the cross, suddenly he saw. It says: “And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.” And so, we know that he was sent from heaven into all the earth. The only territory that was omitted was under the earth. Do we know that? Let us continue into verse 7 now. “Then He (that lamb that look as though slain. You know the lamb was looking slain but stood and rose to responsibility) came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.”

 

Now note this, the reason we read chapter four earlier on is gradually unfolding before our eyes now. Don’t forget in chapter four, the four living creatures worshipped God, the one who seats on the throne and every time they do that, the twenty-four elders also bow. Do we remember that? And it was only God, as far as they were concerned, deserved their worship. Now let us see what happens in Revelation 5:8 now. “Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. ⁹ And they sang a new song, saying:

 

Who are the they in verse 9? The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders. Don’t forget, these twenty-four elders had thrones. Together with their throne, their royalty, they bow before the lam and sang a new song saying:

 

“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
¹⁰ And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”

 

Sometimes we think that the discussion was done by humans. The living creatures in heaven, the four of them; where one of them had their appearance like a lion, one like a calf, another like a man and another like an Eagle, the four of them. We could also think this way, that the four of them is a representation of some other things too. Eagles that rules in the air, one that looks like man, who is assumed to be ruling, and the other that is assumed as the lion, the king of the jungle. But the lion is only the king of the jungle, the head of the beasts, wild animals.

 

Don’t forget, when the Bible talks about the cattle in Genesis, it is plural, “the cattles”, and there are many animals under the family that look like. So, it looks as if the four living creatures are like the summary, a representation of every sphere. Let us read that verse 9 and 10 again.

 

“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
¹⁰ And have made us kings and priests to our God;
And we shall reign on the earth.”

 

When we hear tribe, I am sure we assume the tribes of humans, forgetting that we as humans, we are only living creatures and the tribes involves every living creature. Now, if we stick with what we see now, we have four living creatures, twenty-four elders, but is that all? Are they the entire number of those that were involved? They were simply representations. Because what is true with them is true with the larger populace. And so, you must understand, based on verse 10, that those who were talking at that time, who were singing, they were conscious of their kingship and their priesthood via the works of Christ. So, there was something that Christ did for them.

 

Bible says “Christ was slain” and not will be slain. You know, there was a time Jesus was talking to John saying “I want you to take note of the things that you are seeing now.” Let me show us so that I don’t misquote the area. Revelation 1:19, so that we see the scope of this revelation, there are parts of revelation that has happened, part happening and part will still happen. The Bible says: “Write the things which you have seen (the things you have seen in the past), and the things which are (the things you are seen right now), and the things which will take place after this.” And so, the Bible was showing us the aftermath of the crucifixion of Christ Jesus. Haven been slain, who would have imagined that the inhabitants of heaven will also be glorifying God for the finished works of Christ?

 

Many of us have thought Christ was slain just for us, but the creatures that were talking, they were inhabitants of heaven, they were living creatures and the twenty-four elders and yet, they acknowledged that there was something that Jesus did, that was needed for their own authority over the earth. They were specific. I believe they didn’t lack authority in heaven, the twenty-four elders, they were ruling, the Bible says they had thrones because we must never forget, Jesus made a statement in Matthew He says “after everything was done, He says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He came authorized from heaven with the authorities in heaven. But He lacked the authority on the earth haven become a human who has fallen from the authority original. And so, after He defeated the one who deceived our father called Adam, what happened? He said “All the authority that were available on the earth, he had received them, in addition with the authority of heaven, I have them.” So, this ruling authority is in heaven, they acknowledged that Jesus haven’t finished His work has made them Kings and Priests unto our God. Where they will reign is specific, they will reign on the earth because Christ has been slain.

 

When we meditate about the things that God is showing us, we must not see ourselves has a mere tiny something existing on an Island in the middle of nowhere. Your dominion has been finished. Christ has finished the work. If you do not understand the mystery of what Christ has finished for your sake, you will still weep even though you are expected to be made a king on the earth. If the inhabitants of heaven will be rejoicing in what Christ has done for their own dominion on the earth, what about us? The Bible was specific, it says “and we shall reign on the earth.”

 

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, 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 Lamb who was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom,
And strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

 

¹³ 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!”

¹⁴ Then the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the twenty-four elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.

 

Amen is not a religious statement, it’s a kingdom word. These were kings, these were ruling beings. Another word for Amen is a seal. When a King has finished writing a decree, there will be a stamp. Amen! So be it! If you remember the story of the kingdom of the Medes and the Persia, their laws cannot be altered. Once they seal a law in those days in the Medes and the Persians, it becomes permanent. When you say Amen it is sealed, the devil cannot unturn it, cannot overturn, cannot do anything. Then the case of such a matter then becomes the case of a corn, that is inside a bottle and then the hen or the chicken is looking at it, just using the teeth to hit the bottle, it can’t penetrate. Imagine putting a corn, or some pieces of corn and you put it inside a transparent bottle and you put it near a chicken or a hen. Now what that living creature will do is to just be eyeing it, without being able to possess it. That’s why the devil said concerning Job, he said “Lord have you not made an edge all around him?” He was trying because, the more glorious your life becomes in the kingdom, the more you become a target for the devil.

 

Once God start exposing you, then as you are enjoying the glory of God, then devil is jealous of you and he is desperate to get you. But see, when your case becomes the case of Amen; “yes, and amen” then God has secured your life. So, when you are saying amen about a matter, be deliberate because you are sealing it. But we must not forget what happened here. The angels joined the living creatures and the four elders to decree it and to declare it. It says: “worthy, worthy is lamb that was slain.” He was slain and He is worthy to receive riches, strength, honor, power and glory and wisdom, He was slain to receive them. And the Bible says “every creature which is in heaven (talking about the territory above us) and on earth (the territory around us), and under the earth (the territory below us). It says “All the creatures.”

 

So, there are creatures under the earth and that’s the reality, there are creatures, and the earlier we know that the better. And the Bible says all of them and such that are even in the sea, excluding nothing, and all that are in them, I heard, saying: blessing! So, the fishes, they said “blessing”, the birds of the earth they said “blessing”, and the cattle on the thousand hills (no wonder God said they belong to Him), they said blessing. Every creature declares blessing, honor, glory and power. Why are they happy? What Christ has done affects them too. Christ didn’t come to redeem you alone unto God; He has come to redeem all of us. They included themselves too in the redemption. So, we were lost, when the kingdom was lost, many things were lost into it. It is like authority on earth, went into a wrong hand.

 

Now the inhabitants on the earth, and everyone were crying and wailing, eagerly awaiting the day when God will redeem them back into the right order. Do you think they love the rulership of Satan over them, No! He is an oppressive ruler; he has been oppressing them. How many of us watched the 300, that epic film? Now that king who called himself god, when you watch the film, it got to a time that we were told by the narrator, when they disappoint him, he punishes them by cutting their heads off. Do we remember that place? He punishes them. You see, the other king that came with just 300 men, even though they disappoint him, he does not kill them. And that king said concerning them, even though they were not around, we came with soldiers trained men. But he said he will even be surprised to find anyone among these hundreds of thousands if not anyone, who are ready for the battle, who are up to the task because they were coming with slaves, he was coming with trained men.

 

The 300 shows us what happens in the kingdom. Three hundred people facing so much, and if you note the battle, it was not only humans that fought, elephant fought, different animals fought they were living creatures and many of them were just falling into the ditch. That’s why the Bible says “when the blind leads the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” The creatures, the creation has been wailing because they seem to be blind following the blind ruler called Satan, and he has been leading them into the ditches. They are waiting for a day of redemption, if you receive it in your spirit that’s it. They are waiting for redemption. You think the animals that you call animals are happy like that? I hope God will show us. You think they love to just be like that

 

Let us see Romans 8:14, and 18-23 and I want us to read the chapter with the understanding of English. The Bible says: “For as many (I don’t know the detail of this word “many”, but we can figure it out with the Lord) as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. ¹⁸ For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Another English now “Us.” The last time we saw a word so close to it was when it was made by the living creatures, the twenty-four elders. Now, apostle Paul, a man we could connect with, is telling us now.

 

“For the earnest expectation of the creation.” You remember the time when we divided things into three: the creator, the creation and the creatures. And there is a close relationship between the creatures and the creations, they are different from the creator. The creator stands alone while the creation and the creatures are packed together. “Eeagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.” And I am sure we also know the meaning of the word “eager.” Initially we were told in verse 14 that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. If the Spirit of God is leading you, you are a son of God. What happens to the other living creatures? As long as the Spirit of God is leading them, they are sons of God. And Bible says the creation is waiting eagerly for the manifestation of the sons of God, Men and women who are filled with the Holy Spirit, a people who are led by the Spirit. What is the purpose?

 

Let us find out. “For the creation was subjected to futility” The creation, does it include the living creatures? There are many creations around us, many things that God has created. They have been subjected to futility and they are waiting for one day when the sons of God would be revealed. “not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; ²¹ because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” How is this statement different from what apostle Peter said? We have been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear son. Why was the translation necessary? It is because of the imminent or the pressing bondage that we are in as a people of God on the earth.

 

No wonder the Bible says the inhabitants of heaven rejoiced in Revelations 12 when Satan was sent out of heaven and the Bible says again “woe unto the inhabitants of the earth.” Did the Bible mention man and woman? No! The inhabitants of the earth include the plant and the creatures that you call animals. Every created being on the earth is subjected to futility, not willingly, but by Him who subjected it in hope, and Bible says those who have this hope in them purifies themselves. Another version says “Christ in us, the hope of glory.” So, when we are talking about Christ, we can’t separate Him from hope of the creations. So, when Christ was saying “now as I will, nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will”, He was saying it in understanding of the hope that if He fails God at this moment and avoid the suffering which is just for a while, the creations that have been subjected to futility would remain like that for the rest of their lives. No wonder He said it again in John 17, that for their sakes, I sanctified myself, I set myself apart for God’s use. Why? They must be liberated from the bondage of corruption.

 

You ask: "What is the genesis of corruption? Who led the entire creation and the creatures who led them into corruption?  So, do you think those who have been following Satan are eagerly doing it? And those who have been oppressed by his kingdom across the sea, in the oceans and wherever you find the spread of his kingdom, do you think they are excited?" No, they are not. They are hoping that one day, salvation will come from the Lord for them, and that is the mystery of Christ. What Christ has done is beyond what you are thinking. He has redeemed much more than you, He has redeemed the entire creatures of God unto God.

 

Let us continue: “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. ²³ Not only that, but we also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” Don’t we find a term that is coming again? Revelation 5, talking about we have been redeemed unto God.

 

And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll,
And to open its seals;
For You were slain,
And have redeemed us to God by Your blood
Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,

 

I want us to please understand the fact that God does not speak tautology, God does not waste time. Why what is the purpose of saying out of every, why was the mention of the four categories? But so that we understand the territories, the categories of the creations of God, that Christ has redeemed, He began with the Christ. Any group of creatures can form a tribe, the tongue, people and nation. But out of that He has redeemed us. But Apostle Paul said, “we are eagerly waiting for adoption.” I’m sure we understand that by the works of Christ Jesus, we who were not, who were no longer children, a people of God, as been born unto God as a people after the order of Christ and Christ became the first born among many brethren, do we still remember that? And so, when we are hearing adoption and redemption, these are necessary words, not religious words, they are kingdom words; they are necessary for our authority.

 

Until you have been adopted by a king, if you were not a son of the king or a daughter, you cannot take your place on the throne. You cannot share inheritance with the father, until you are adopted. And the only requirement for our adoption was the blood of the lamb. And by the blood we’ve been redeemed, we’ve been adopted. And so, we’ve been redeemed, we’ve been adopted by the blood of the lamb, and we have been made unto God through Christ Kings and priest and we shall reign on the earth. So, a man or woman that lives outside of Christ, cannot reign on the earth, because it is in Christ that you are made a king. It is in Christ that you are made a priest. Whoever you shall become, whether a nonentity or an entity, is going to be dependent on where you are, are you in Christ who is seated with Christ Jesus in the heavenly places, or are you with yourself or you are with the world.

 

Don’t forget out of every tribe, wherever you could imagine in your mind, that the creatures of God could be in bondage, out of those places God has redeemed you, God has redeemed us. None of us could say it categorically that we were born a saint, when I was born, I was speaking in tongues from my mother’s womb. How many of us could say that? So, we that were lost in sin, lost into the systems of this world, we were controlled by the system of this world, but are have now been redeemed by the blood of the lamb. And the purpose of our redemption is not so that we can just call ourselves believers, it is that we may reign on the earth by Christ Jesus.  So, everything we lost in Genesis we got in Christ Jesus. Our father Adam sold us out and we were bought over by our Father Christ Jesus.

 

So, the first Adam sold us off, the second Adam bought us over. We were sold off in deception, in ignorance and we were bought all over in knowledge, in the truth. Our father Adam was deceived in ignorance. Christ Jesus, being the truth Himself, bought us over in the truth, and our establishment in that redeemed state, is tied to our knowledge. If we will not lose this authority that we have in Christ Jesus, it’s going to be dependent on the knowledge of Him that we have. When Satan as a possessed serpent, was conversing with Eve, he said “has God indeed said?” So, there was a question of knowledge. There was a matter of ignorance, knowledge and deception. But in Christ Jesus there is light, there is liberty. The Bible talks about where the spirit of God is, there is liberty. Because when you come to Christ you come into the light of God.

 

The light of God that redeems us. God said in Genesis 1:26: “Let us make man in our image, and according to our likeness, and let them have dominion.” God gave us dominion we lost it in our fathers, even though we were in their loins, we lost it. But in the loins of the Lord Jesus Christ, we gained it. So, by the deceptions of our fathers we lost it. By the victory of Christ, we gained it. The lost dominion, the ideal dominion we have it. And it’s not only us, there are many creations of God that are excited, they were excited. No wonder Bible says “heaven rejoice over a sinner that repents.” When Jesus rose up on the third day, do you imagine the kind of Joy that was in heaven? May God open our eyes to see it. These affairs are beyond us, this celebration of Christ is beyond us. We are just privilege to be partakers of this glorious liberty, that we have in Christ Jesus.

 

I believe you have been blessed!

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Gboyega ADEDEJI!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!