The Marriage Supper of the Lamb | Revelation 19:6-10 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (7/26/26)

Well, good morning, Maranatha Bible Church. Welcome to the Lord's Day. Welcome to the Lord's Day service here in this building, risen Jesus Christ. We are so glad that you are have joined us today. I invite you as we prepare our hearts to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, to focus our minds on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I invite you to stand with me as I read from first Peter chapter two. First Peter chapter two as we read the word of the Lord. The apostle says, through the power of the Holy Spirit, so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious.

You yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture. Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. So the honor is for you who believe. But for those who do not believe, the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, and the stone of stumbling, and the rock of offense.

They stumble because they disobey the word as they were destined to do. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession. Why? That you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once, you are not a people, but now you are God's people.

Once, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, Let's pray. Father, we thank you. Lord, that you have chosen us.

That we are your people, Father. And and and we are your people that we might proclaim the excellencies of you because you have called us out of darkness into your marvelous light. Lord, let us rejoice in that today. May we exalt in that today. May we celebrate that afresh today.

You have called us out of darkness. You have called us out of death into life with you forever. And father, we thank you for that. And as we gather as your people in this place, Lord, may we encourage and strengthen each other in the Lord. May we spur one another on to love and good works.

And Father, may our hearts be turned closer to you today as we sing your praises with your people, as we pray together as your people, and as we hear your word proclaimed and heralded as your people. Have your way in the service today for your glory and our joy. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Church, will you please remain standing?

Lift your voice to the Lord. Lift your hearts to the Lord as we sing together.

Can we pray together? Lord, we look to you because we believe that you are knowable. We believe that we can experience your love. We believe that you do love us. Lord, we have chosen to come to your house today in obedience to your word.

You have told us that we should not neglect meeting with one another. And so, Lord, as we have come here, we believe, like, with every command, when we obey, we will be blessed. We pray that you would bless us this morning, that we would leave here knowing that we have been touched afresh by the person of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Lord, we look to you in great desperation to know you more today. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.

Well, turn to somebody whether you know them or not, and welcome them to this Lord's Day service, please. Good morning to you, Mary, not the Bible Church. And good morning to those who may be visiting us for the first time. We are so blessed that you can join us here, at our Lord's Day service. We hope that you would, as we just pray, be blessed as we continue to seek the Lord and worship and adore him.

And we do that in many ways, and one of the ways that we offer our love to him is through our giving. And so at this time, the ushers will assist us in our giving, and we're so grateful for your contributions and your partnership in this regard. The Bible tells us that when we give in every way, not just our finances, but our time and our energy and our efforts, we will be rewarded. That is an undeniable thing that we see in the Bible. And so know that you are giving to Him, not ultimately to receive something, but because He is worthy of everything anyway, but that He is so gracious to us that He is He is always ready to help, always ready to intervene, always ready to reward His people.

God bless you. As you give, besides that, I would like to offer us a few announcements, important announcements. It's a busy summer as as it is every year. The first thing that I want to bring to your attention is that, the registration for our yearly conference has come to a close except for one, availability, and that is for the women's dorms. And so if you're a sister here and you don't mind dorming with other sisters, you can still find spots available, at the campsite.

And, besides that, you can always attend the meetings and lodge outside of Maranatha Bible and, Conference and Missionary Center. And so, that's always available. You can always attend. When I mean registration's closed, I'm just referring to the lodging, no longer being available, but you can always, register still and be put on a wait list. It's possible that people can cancel last minute, and it's a first come, first served kind of thing.

And so if you still wanna, just register in case there's an opening, you can always do that as well. And you can just scan this, QR code and find all the information there. Another announcement, we have our VBS just around the corner. It's coming up in in a couple of days here, and, we're so grateful for all those who have volunteered, for all the children who'll be participating. Be praying that the Lord would use this.

This is this is more than just a a way of babysitting our kids in the summer. This is an evangelistic effort, hoping that these little children of ours would be able to understand the gospel and walk with him in the early phases of their lives. So be praying for v VBS. Be praying for the volunteers who are dedicating their time and volunteering their schedules to be able to serve our children well. Other than that, a couple of other things, we have our members meeting coming up on August 1 for those who are official members.

You know if you're a member here, you can't wonder, am I a member? You will know if you're a member. You've met with the elders. Your name has been called, and so this is just something that we do a couple of times in the year, and it's, it's a way for us to just understand what's happening in the background, what the Lord has been doing, what the Lord will be doing as we continue to pray and wait on him. And this this upcoming meeting is very important because, we made this massive transition into this new place, and there's a lot of new information that we wanna be acquainted with.

So please be mindful of that. On on August 1, that'll be taking place immediately after, the service here in the sanctuary, or August 2, I believe. Yes. August 1. The reason why I'm saying August 1 is because we have our men's breakfast on that day.

And so on August 1 at 10:30 a. M, men, brothers, if you want to bring other brothers that don't necessarily come to this church, they are more than welcome. We'll be meeting downstairs at 10:30 a. M, and we will be having a time of fellowship and prayer and testimonies and even singing, and it's always a blessed time. That will be our first breakfast here in this new home.

Lastly, speaking of food, we have our picnic also. Probably our last one for the summer here on August 9, and that will be taking place after the service as well. If you want to bring any additional food, that's always helpful. It's a potluck type of event. You can bring desserts, you can bring side dishes, you can bring drinks.

And after the service on August 9, we'll be making our way downstairs outside, and we'll be spending time together as we love to do on a regular basis. Well, thank you for paying attention to those announcements. And I just wanna fuel the fire in your heart a little bit more with something from the scriptures as, as I've been reading the book of first Corinthians in my own time. And the last thing that I've been meditating on is the gift of tongues. Look how everybody perked up.

Oh, look at that. I'm not gonna be talking about tongues. But in this chapter where tongues is discussed in first Corinthians 14, Paul is making an appeal to these believers who are very, very excited about the spiritual gifts. Do you know anybody like that? They really want to experience the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and Paul's not against that.

He wants to encourage that, but he wants to shift their focus, because these Corinthian believers wanted gifts to build themselves up. And it's very possible for Christians to ask for gifts, to exercise the gifts, for the underlying motive of building themselves up. And this is what Paul is teaching against. And so he doesn't want to squash their enthusiasm or their faith to be energized by the Holy Spirit with supernatural abilities, but he wants them to aim for the gifts that build up the church. And that's his focus in one Corinthians 14.

He keeps bringing it up to build up the church, to build up the church, to build up the church, to build up the church. And then he mentions something. I just want to read one verse to you to reveal how Paul understands Christians being built up in the context of a gathering like this. He says in first Corinthians 14 verse six, now brothers, if I come to you speaking in tongues, how will I benefit you unless I bring you some revelation or knowledge or prophecy or teaching. And what he's proposing here is if you really want the gifts of the spirit, if there's one gift that you should really strive after, it's the gift of prophecy.

We can get into that another time. But what I see here is that Paul understands that the main way Christians are built up in their spirit, in their faith, in their worship is through truth. What do all these things have in common in verse six? Revelation, knowledge, prophecy, teaching. They are means by which truth is explained, understood, and received.

I don't know if that moves you. That moves me. That one way you and I know that the spirit of God is moving and that we can assure encouragement and edification in our relationship with God is through the truth being known in greater ways. And that's why we want to sing truth. That's why we need to preach the truth.

That's why on top of all of that, we should have conversations and times of fellowship around the truth because the Holy Spirit through Paul is showing us this is the way that we are built up. Unfortunately, there are many churches who have different ideas of how Christians should and can be built up, and there's little effort in the truth being known. I want to be aligned with the Holy Spirit. I want whatever God has to offer in His enabling work through the Spirit as it leads to our edification through the truth. I bring all this up to comfort you that our emphasis on teaching and knowing and singing the Bible to the Lord from our hearts is totally in alignment with what the Holy Spirit desires to do in our lives.

Can we say amen to that? And, Lord, we do thank you today that as we've come together, we will indeed be benefited because we trust that you have revelation in store for us, that there is knowledge to be unlocked, that there is teaching to be received. And we pray that it would all be done in the power of the Holy Spirit, and that each of us would leave here genuinely built up. And may we strive to be a people who seek your blessing in our lives so that we can be a blessing to others. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

Amen and amen. Let's stand together, and let's sing about the truth as this church.

Lord Jesus, we repeat that our hope is only in you, God. Lord, you sustain us, you hold us. When we cannot hold ourselves, God, you are our savior, Lord, and we thank you for covering the sin that would have us in death otherwise, Lord. We thank you for how you've saved us, for how you've loved us. We ask that we would be worthy of your love, Lord, that we would, serve you, Lord, with our hearts, with our minds, with our souls, God, that we would love and serve you all of our lives, all of our days, Lord, that we would give you the glory and honor that you deserve, God.

We thank you for bringing us together this morning to sing and to hear your word. Bless our pastor, Lord, as he delivers the word, and we we bring You all the praise and glory, God. Amen.

Today we return to our study in the book of Revelation. And the last time that we were together in this book, we were able to say hallelujah. In fact, we were given three reasons why we should say hallelujah because it appears for the first time that word in the book of Revelation, namely in chapter 19. But I want to let you know that we will have at least one more reason to declare hallelujah in this study because that word appears for a final time in the passage that we will explore this morning. And the reason why we didn't group this final proclamation with the first three hallelujahs is because this last one centers on what is known as the marriage of the lamb.

Have you heard of it? Many Christians have, but in my experience, I don't think most Christians know exactly what it is. For most, they know enough to say the Marriage Supper of the Lamb has something to do with the return of Christ, and there is a dinner involved, apparently. And they might entertain and discuss what might be on the menu of that celestial feast, but the conversation usually doesn't go beyond that. Well be encouraged.

Today, we are going to look at the most detailed passage about this future event, this future reality known as the marriage of the lamb, and it begins here in Revelation 19 verse six down through verse 10. And as always, let's begin by reading the text and then asking God to help us understand what the marriage of the lamb entails. Revelation 19 beginning in verse six. John writes, then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out, hallelujah. For the Lord our God, the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory. For the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, write this.

Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. And he said to me, these are the true words of God. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would help us through these verses worship God. And we ask, Lord, because we, with Paul, understand that we now see through a mirror dimly.

There are a lot of things, oh God, that we admit are mysterious. But we ask by your help that you would make this passage as clear as possible And that we would receive these things in humility and in hunger, believing that you have designed it to benefit us to the glory of your name. I sincerely pray, Lord, that there would not be one mind distracted during this time, but that by your power, you would grant us the grace to hear your voice through your word. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

It's very common for notable teachers of God's word when trying to explain the marriage of the lamb to do so by shedding light on the customs of an ancient Jewish wedding. And the reason why this is done is to try to make sense of the sequence of events connected to this fascinating prophecy. In other words, what you find in many theologians is this argument of the necessity of looking back into history to see how weddings of this time went about, were planned, were executed in order to receive greater clarity and assurance of the timeline of the last days. And though there may be value in that, and though there may be some help in understanding Christ's parables or certain prophecies about his return and our relationship to him in that event, my goal today is to simply draw our conclusions from the Bible alone. What understanding would you and I receive about the marriage of the lamb if you were just looking at the text of scripture.

That's my sole ambition here, though it is very tempting to go beyond that. And my meditations on this thrilling text has led me to at least three very important observations that I wanna share with you today, and they're very easy to remember. The first thing that we have to underline is the excitement for the marriage. Secondly, we will look at some of the details of the marriage and finally, John by the spirit gives us the certainty of the marriage. So let's consider now the excitement for the marriage.

Whatever the marriage of the lamb is, the way John is preparing to inform us about it stands out. It stands out from the other hallelujahs preceding it. In this vision, we recall that John is witnessing this exuberant rejoicing taking place in heaven as the masses in that celestial place are recognizing the fulfillment of certain events leading up to the return of Christ. And so you have four hallelujahs, each one is targeted towards a certain event or truth about Christ upon his return. And every single one of those hallelujahs is meaningful, but when you come to this last one, you recognize and sense, you get the impression that it is climactic.

Let me show you what I mean. Go back to verse six of Revelation 19. Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder crying out, hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Now if you compare this chorus with the previous three hallelujahs, you will have to admit that this declaration carries stronger force and louder volume. We saw it here.

Right? The voice of a great multitude that appeared earlier but added to that like the roar of many waters and finally the sound of mighty peals of thunder. This is intentional. It's as though here that the expression of worship reaches a feverish pitch. This is the pinnacle.

This is what everything is leading up to. There is something special about the truth that the people are rejoicing here and that truth is the marriage of the lamb. Now we're gonna look at the details of this marriage in a moment here, but on a foundational level, we can be certain that the marriage of the lamb speaks to our relationship with God. Or else that metaphor makes no sense. In fact, most of you already know this.

Throughout the scripture, the Bible uses imagery related to marriage and try to help us grasp God's desire for us and our response to him. Marriage is frequently depicted and presented to us in order to understand God's covenant to love and how we can genuinely have intimate knowledge of Him on a personal level. He chooses marriage intentionally. After all, what greater and stronger bond can you have on a human level than marriage? And so this is what we are being confronted with and the reason why I'm saying all this now is because the most emphatic hallelujah is tied to this amazing truth.

We are united with God and it is marked by experiential love, protection, provision, and commitment. And this reality that we get to taste on a daily basis will be even more fully known when we meet Christ face to face. That is what this loudest, strongest, most emphatic hallelujah is reserved for. That truth. And I wanna argue that this is the truth that the spirit of God wants us to be the most excited about as followers of Jesus Christ.

I get to know God personally and intimately day by day. And I am promised fellowship with him forever. That deserves a heartfelt hallelujah. And that's why we see it here. In fact, I want you to think for a moment of the different ways the church is described throughout the bible.

The temple of the Holy Spirit. Yes? A pillar and buttress of the truth, the body of Christ, the flock of God and so on. But have you ever considered the final reference given to and about the church in the entire bible. You don't have to guess.

Let's go there. Go to Revelation chapter 22 verse 17. As this divine library is ready to come to a close, notice how the church is spoken of. In Revelation 22 verse 17, it reads, the spirit and the what? The bride.

The spirit and the bride say, come. And let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Isn't that amazing?

That the church is identified as the bride of all things as we come to the closing statements of Holy Scripture. What does that show us? Here's what it means. That as history draws to a close, the work is complete, all the promises are fulfilled, judgment is done, the one thing that remains is relational intimacy and fellowship with God. That is what all of this is leading to.

That is one of the last things that we want to learn and see and believe by the authorship of the Holy Spirit. It's the bride. In fact, scripture anticipates this from Genesis to Revelation. Even in the most obscure books of the Bible, this concept of being united to Christ remember this is figurative. This is metaphorical.

We're not talking about a literal marriage. However, it is something that is found throughout the pages of scripture. And I would say it's the heartbeat of the scriptures. Have you ever heard of the book of the song of Solomon? Doesn't get much attention.

In fact, many people think it's an awkward book. It's found after the book of Ecclesiastes. It's there before the prophet Isaiah. The book of the Song of Solomon is a series of love poems between a man and a woman. Namely, King Solomon and a lady who is not identified by name, but where she is from, the Shulamite.

And for many people, they believe the sole purpose of the book of Song of Solomon is to give us wisdom and insight and inspiration regarding the joys and the privileges of marriage, which it does. But I am among those who believe that this book has more to offer than that. Because the Bible itself teaches that marriage is a picture of Christ's relationship with the church. And if you believe that, then you can go to the book of Song of Solomon and find insights and illustrations of how the Lord has affection for his people and how God's people's hearts should be devoted to the Lord. And the other day, I learned something wonderful about the woman who is portrayed in that love song.

We don't have to turn there but listen to this very carefully. This woman is very different from Solomon. In that, Solomon was raised in nobility. He was birthed into royalty. He's a son of King David.

And yet, this woman in the opening of that book describes herself as a working class rural woman. In the first verses of that book, she she tells about how she tends to the vineyards and how her skin is darkened by the sun because she labors outside day in and day out. So in terms of social class, they're on the opposite ends of the spectrum. And yet, you learn that King Solomon pursues this woman with all of his heart. And this woman responds to King Solomon.

However, what you find is that in her glee, in her excitement, in her infatuation, this woman never speaks about her anticipation of what she will receive by being married to a king. You'll never find this woman gushing over the wealth that she will inherit, the honor she will be crowned with, the fame that she will receive. The sole object of her delight is the king himself is the king himself. This is what you see. She can't stop talking about his beauty.

Her yearning is is for his presence. She relishes in his character. She says things like, I am my beloved's, and the beloved is mine. She speaks about being in the shadow of his presence. She speaks about yearning for the consummation of their relationship.

For this woman, it's all about the king. And the benefit of being married to the king is being with the king. Nothing more, nothing less. I have a question for you this morning. What is the most meaningful thing to you being a follower of Jesus Christ?

And I say this in love, if you can't confidently and honestly say, it's Christ himself, something is wrong. Furthermore, if someone were to ask you, what is the one thing that you are looking forward to the most about heaven? You cannot say to enjoy the unbroken fellowship with my King for eternity, something is wrong. And more than that, that is evidence that there is a significant work of the Holy Spirit that is missing in your life. It's the spirit and the bride who say, come.

One way you and I know that we are aligned with the Holy Spirit, that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, that we are in tune with the Holy Spirit is that there is a heart cry with all the busyness, all the craziness. In fact, the busyness and the craziness fuels this desire, more come more Jesus. If that's not there, if that's not evident, if that's not growing, something's wrong. The marriage of the lamb indicates that this is God's desire for us and it should be our desire for him. For our relationship to him to be consummated.

And here's what's so stirring to me. Out of the all the ways that this marriage could have been described, defined, it's called the marriage of the lamb. Not the marriage of something else. It's not the marriage of Yahweh. It's not the marriage of the maker of all things.

It's not the marriage of the sovereign. It's the marriage of the lamb. Is that intentional? Absolutely. Why?

Because the lamb undoubtedly points It points us to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that makes this relationship possible to begin with. The fact that it is titled the marriage of the lamb should call to remembrance the price that the bridegroom paid for us to enter into covenant with him and to receive the promise that we will be with him forever. He pursued us to the degree that he died for us in order to have us. What a shame it would be to be the bride of Christ and not long for him when he did so much to have us. So right away, you and I see something here about the excitement for the marriage.

And it reflects how you and I also should be absolutely thrilled to know that there is a wedding to come. Strongest hallelujah comes from believers recognizing that the long awaited union between Christ and his people is about to be realized. But now we discuss the details of the marriage. There are so many significant observations in these four verses that we looked at. And they can raise a lot of questions.

And so my goal here is not to answer all of them, but to at least consider a few very important ones. So now we're discussing the details of this marriage. Here are some things that we wanna answer. Number one, what is the marriage of the lamb exactly? We got a hint, but there's more to it.

What is the marriage of the lamb exactly? Number two, when will it take place? And finally, how do we prepare for it? Can we answer these one by one? What is the marriage of the lamb exactly?

I wanna make this as simple as possible. The marriage of the lamb is the moment when Christ and his people will be united in perfect and permanent union. The marriage of the land speaks to the moment when Jesus Christ and the church come face to face in unfiltered fellowship perfectly and permanently. And some may ask, well, aren't we now in relationship with Jesus Christ? And the answer is absolutely yes.

But there's an important distinction. Right now, you and I as a church are not married to Christ. That may sound shocking, but that's not my teaching. That's the apostle Paul's. Do you remember what he said to the Corinthians?

Some of you know this text already, but in case you forgot or you don't know, listen to how Paul defines the current status of believers. Then and now, in second Corinthians 11 verse one to verse two. He's he says here, I wish you would bear with me a little foolishness. Do bear with me for I feel a divine jealousy for you since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. So Paul here is assuming the role of the spiritual father and guardian to the Corinthian church.

And he uses this metaphor to help them understand some things that they have forgotten. When Paul preached the gospel to the Corinthians, when he introduced to them the message of Jesus Christ and they accepted that message, he explains that they became betrothed to Christ. In other words, they became engaged to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is where the church currently stands. He reminds them here that you are in fact in a relationship with Christ in a very official way in the same way that you and I would understand two people who are engaged in our culture, but the fullness of that relationship is yet to be experienced to know.

There is still a wedding to be planned. There is still the experience of a lifelong marriage to unfold. It's not here yet. You are now betrothed to Christ, And things are going to become much more real in the final stage of your relationship with him, namely in marriage. And Paul is a leader.

Oh, that we would have leaders like this. Senses this weighty responsibility for the church in Corinth. Again, he introduced them to the bridegroom. This is your husband so to speak. He's asking you to marry him.

Do you accept? Yes. From now on, I have a role to play part Paul says, in order to protect your moral purity and your doctrinal faithfulness until you are presented blameless before your bridegroom. Every true preacher in a church, every true elder, every true overseer has this underlying goal in all that they do to prepare God's people for eternity. Not just for you and I to navigate through this life.

That is important. There is wisdom and there is grace for that, and God cares about that. But ultimately, a true spiritual leader looks at God's people day in and day out, every Lord's day with this longing. How can I preach? How can I exemplify?

How can I correct? How can I encourage and get the people of God more ready to meet Christ? This is what Paul is expressing here. You are betrothed to him. And so I'm calling you to faithfulness while you remain engaged.

Don't cheat on Jesus with false teaching, with another kind of Jesus as he says later on. Remain steadfast in your commitment to the true Jesus. There's more that we can say about this, but I think the point is clear. The marriage of the lamb is yet to happen. It is something future.

It is something to come which brings us to the second question. When will it take place? Now that we've established that the marriage of the lamb speaks of the moment Christ and the church will be united in perfect and permanent fellowship, when will that happen? Does it surprise you this morning that this part is highly debated among Christians? Shouldn't.

And we're talking about the book of Revelation. Thankfully, the debate is not too complicated because it boils down to these two major timelines that are disputed. On the one hand, you have those who believe that the marriage of the lamb will take place at the second coming of Christ. So when Jesus Christ physically and bodily returns to the earth to destroy all of his enemies forever and to bring in the new heavens and a new earth, that is when the marriage of the lamb commences. And so in this view, people believe that the marriage of the lamb happens after the tribulation.

But then there are others who make the case that the marriage of the lamb takes place before the second coming of Christ, which necessitates a belief in the rapture. Snatching away of the believers at some point before the bodily return of Christ. If the Lord wills, we will discuss the rapture at greater length in a separate message. It deserves that kind of attention. And so I'm going to briefly speak about this and I know that I'm gonna set off so many questions in your mind, maybe even anger in some.

All I ask is for your patience. I'm not going to be able to answer everything about the rapture in this session. However, I want to at least show you how the marriage of the lamb being something before the second coming of Christ is a valid reality. It is something that can be seriously considered from scripture. And there are many texts that we can go to, but I wanna just see what we have before us here.

Look back at verse seven in Revelation 19. I want you to notice how the bride is dressed in this passage. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory. For the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure.

For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. You have to underline verse eight. Because look at how the heavenly company that returns with Christ is described shortly after this. So we're we're celebrating the marriage of the lamb, are we not? Now, we come to verse 11 and it looks like it's being described chronologically with the wording that John here is presenting.

And what do we find? The glorious portrayal of the return of Jesus Christ. Look at verse 11. Then I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness, he judges and makes war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems. And he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called is the word of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure were following him on. This is very significant.

Do you see it? The armies of heaven at the return of Christ are described in the same way that the bride of Christ was described just a few verses earlier. Fine linen, white and pure. And if they are the same group, then how is it that the bride of Christ is descending from heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ in her wedding garments unless, of course, she has been with Christ in heaven beforehand? Do you see?

Now I'm fully aware that there are those with different perspectives who attempt to answer this differently. There are some who would say, well, look, the armies of heaven in the passage that you just read is not describing the saints at all. It's it's actually describing angels. And they'll even go to different parts of the Bible even in Revelation to show how angels and their garbs are described similarly to what we see here. And there are others who would say, no.

There's a compelling case here that the armies of heaven are in fact believers, but they still would say that this is not describing or giving any kind of indication that believers have been with Christ for a period of time before he returns from heaven with them. They would argue that this is showing how believers are caught up to the Lord in the air the moment that he comes back. Not years, not months, not weeks, or even days prior. Many people would say, when you see the believers in the air with the Lord coming with him triumphantly to the earth, they were translated both the living in the and the dead in the twinkling of an eye, caught up with the Lord and coming back with him to conquer and rule and reign forever. In other words, some would say the rapture and the second coming is a simultaneous event.

And people get very sensitive about this discussion. I'm not one of them, to be honest. Because when Paul speaks about seeing through a mirror dimly, to me, that truth becomes more real when you have this kind of conversation, the timing of some of these things. And so there are genuine believers on both sides where some say, no, we're going to be caught up with the Lord in heaven years before his return. And there are others who say, no, we'll be caught up with the Lord in the air a few seconds upon his return.

We'll have this conversation more another time, and I'm sure you can see how we can spend a lot of time discussing this. But for now, here's what I wanna say. Whether you believe the marriage of the lamb will take place in heaven before and during the tribulation or it will begin after the tribulation when Christ comes down, generally, most people agree on this. The celebration of that marriage will continue after Christ returns once and for all. And the prophet Isaiah alludes to this.

And a very important prophecy in his writings, we have to turn there in Isaiah 25. Come with me to Isaiah 25. You need to know that most agree that the celebration of the marriage of the lamb will continue on earth when Christ establishes his kingdom. That is generally agreed upon. And I want you to see Isaiah 25 verse six down through verse eight to see how he even prepares us by the spirit for what we're looking at here in Revelation 19.

It's amazing. Isaiah 25 verse six. He writes, on this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food. A feast of well aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. Does that sound like a supper or what?

This is a celestial banquet. But notice it's happening on earth and there is no debate here that this is speaking about a messianic banquet. This is speaking about when messiah comes in the fullness of his power, his reign, his authority, he's going to lay out a banquet. Now tell me if this sounds familiar. Verse seven down to verse eight.

And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. And the reproach of his people, he will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken. So hopefully, I didn't lose you here.

Apart from the clear terminology and consistent themes in this prophecy knowing that this prophecy here speaks to what we will experience when we are united with Christ face to face. Is there any undeniable proof? Is there any evidence that does not even make this a debate that what Isaiah is looking forward to is what the church is going to experience when we come face to face with Jesus. Yes. Because the apostle Paul quotes this passage and tells us that the fulfillment will become a reality when we are resurrected.

You have your bibles with you? Yes. First Corinthians chapter 15. And I want you to see verse 51 of first Corinthians. First Corinthians chapter 15 beginning in verse 51.

Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? What is Paul saying here? He's clearly teaching about our resurrection, the resurrection of our bodies. And he's saying here that when we are resurrected and we are now gathered together to Christ with Christ, then what was written will be fulfilled.

And he quotes it briefly. Death is swallowed up in victory. That's Isaiah 25. Didn't we read it? So here's how all this ties together.

The initial marriage union with Christ that will take place in heaven or in the air, that will happen first. And you can call this the ceremony part of the wedding. Following that, the reception of the wedding or the marriage supper of the lamb will happen when Christ returns to the earth, establishes his earthly and eternal kingdom where the bride of Christ will be with the bridegroom and enjoy a feast. A feast that Isaiah even speaks about. Most of us here have been to a wedding.

And even in our day today, there is a ceremony part of the wedding and there is the reception. I wanna make the case in Revelation 19, you have that distinction. There is the marriage of the lamb and then later on, we read of the marriage supper of the lamb. And I think there's a wonderful case to be made that the marriage of the lamb is that initial union with him, the ceremony of it. And then when Christ comes back, we experience the supper on that mountain.

In our world once Christ comes to govern all things forever and ever. And it's gonna be a long feast by the way. And some people have trouble believing that. It's gonna be a long feast. Well, it's been a long engagement period, hasn't it?

We've been engaged for a long time. So we're still under the heading of the details of this marriage. We've been discussing what the marriage of the lamb is exactly, when it will take place. So that is very debated and we can all still love each other if you hold to a different view of the timing of these things. But finally and most importantly, how do we prepare for it?

How do we prepare for it? We'll come back to Revelation chapter 19. And look here with me in verse seven and eight again. Now, some might think that this question is unnecessary because our acceptance and our relationship with Christ is on the basis of his finished work on our behalf. That's the gospel.

And that is absolutely true. However, look at the language of this prophecy very carefully beginning in verse seven. Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory for the marriage of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen bright and pure for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Oh, this is interesting.

We have to read carefully again. There is this wonderful blend of awesome truths regarding our salvation. In this passage, first and foremost, we have to determine that the bride's acceptable adornment and attire is grounded in the grace of God. We have to establish that. And that's even taught here.

Look at verse eight again. It was granted her to clothe herself. You know what that means? The beauty of the bride, her dress, her acceptance is sourced from God, is given by the Lord. It is granted to her.

It's extended from him. So her dress which speaks about our ultimate righteousness is from God. It's imputed. It's a gift. Moreover, did you read earlier that the celestial choir is rejoicing and giving glory to God?

Did you see it in verse seven? Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory. God is getting the glory for the readiness of the bride. The bride receives no praise for her right standing. It is something that heaven recognizes as a work of God ultimately.

However, you cannot deny that the bride is responding to this grace. She's reacting to it. And that's why it says here that she made herself ready. And that these dresses and and these garbs, her her appearance which is metaphorical of her character, her heart, her her soul status speaks to the righteous deeds of the saints. Does this teach grace plus works?

In order for you to come into relationship with Christ now and forever, you do accept what Christ has done, but you better perform and help him in order for you to be ultimately received by him? Not at all. What you find here is what you find throughout the bible. That the grace of Christ, that his sacrificial love energizes our faithfulness. That what he has done on our behalf is the animating power for us to respond to him and obedience to his will.

That is the equation that you find throughout the Bible. And that is what we find here even in this snapshot of this culminating moment between the church and Jesus Christ. And unfortunately, people wanna debate about this, about our actions and how we can make sense of it with Christ's work on our behalf and I think they're missing the entire point. Because what's really being emphasized here is the attitude of the bride. She has been anticipating this moment.

She has been planning for this moment. She has been getting ready to meet Jesus Christ, and she's acknowledged for it. I think you would agree with me in that it would be very strange if you knew a young lady who was engaged to be married. You learned that she has been doing absolutely nothing to get ready for that wedding. For me, that would lead to at least two conclusions.

At least two conclusions. One, this girl doesn't believe that she's actually getting married. Or two, it would make me question the sincerity of her love for her fiance. You're not thinking about the wedding? You haven't planned for the wedding?

You put no thought into the dress for your wedding? Hey. You have a ring on your finger. You're gonna get married. What's going on?

And yet, for some reason, we accept Christians who confess that they believe in what we've been hearing, the marriage of the land, that one day we'll be meeting with Christ face to face, and they don't ever think about it? They don't ever talk about it? They don't examine themselves to consider how they can be better better ready to to meet him face to face? How can that be? One, either you don't believe that there is a marriage to come, or there is something seriously wrong with your love for Christ.

The bride has made herself ready. The same John who recorded this prophecy taught in his first epistle in the context of the return of Christ and us seeing him at his appearing. In first John three three, thus whoever hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. The Saint John tells us that it is totally possible for a genuine Christian to be ashamed at the appearing of Jesus Christ. In the same way a bride would blush, and maybe more than blush, if she showed up to her wedding totally unprepared?

How much do you think about that union with Christ? When's the last time you thought there is a day coming where I will come face to face with the Lord Jesus Christ? Come on. We're Christians here. This is a core tenant of our faith.

This isn't some fringe doctrine. You can't be a Christian unless you believe this, but I'm asking for something more than just belief in it. The Bible is asking for something more than just a credence or some confession. He's asking for our hearts. This is what we believe that Jesus Christ is a real person that walked on this earth, that died a real death, was buried in a real tomb, that really raised from the grave, ascended on high, and is telling us here in this book that there is a marriage that he is getting us ready for, where's our heart in that?

I don't wanna just believe it. I wanna be excited for it. And here's the encouraging part. We read earlier, the spirit and the bride say, come. If you can't get yourself to be excited about the return of Christ, the spirit will help you.

You can sit there honestly if you truly love the lord Jesus, but this whole time you've been numb. In fact, you've been thinking about other things. Here we are talking about a marriage, an awesome spiritual experience that will last for eternity. Is anything moving in your soul? I'm ready to fly off this pulpit.

And if you can sit there and say, brother, thank you. I appreciate your passion and your enthusiasm, but it's not clicking for me. I can't help you. I can't. The spirit of God can.

We can go on about the details of the wedding, but I wanna end here with the certainty of the marriage. Let's revisit verse nine and ten of Revelation 19. And the angel said to me, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. Notice that the supper is brought up here earlier. It was just the marriage of the lamb.

I think that that distinction is intentional as well. And he said to me, these are the words of God. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus worship God for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

So now this angel who is helping John understand this vision tells us something quite intriguing. He says, write this. Now that seems a little redundant because John has been writing everything up to this point. He's been faithful in that task. He's been commissioned in Revelation one, write down these things.

He's been doing it. But at this point, and we saw at one point earlier in our study, an angel tells him, John, write this. This certainly underscores the importance of what has been said. John, I don't want you to miss this. John, I don't want my people who read this prophecy to miss this.

It is a blessing to be invited to this wedding. And more than that, he says, these are the true words of God. Because for a wounded afflicted man like John, who is on the island called Patmos, imprisoned for his faith, what he has just experienced might be too good to be true. And the angel, by the authority of God, lets him know it is true. God said it.

This is your future. This is promised. The wedding date is set already. And strangely, this so excites John. He's so overcome that he bows down before this angel and begins to worship him.

This is startling. And John's failure here in this moment teaches us that even after receiving a revelation of the age to come, of the wonderful promises of our savior, you and I can still be given into the temptation of worshiping created things instead of the creator himself. It's very possible that at the end of this message, some of us would walk out of here and in your heart, you're bowing before something else instead of God. It's a warning. And the warning here also is that John, as an aged man, it is believed that he's in his nineties writing this, is still dealing with idolatry.

Is still resisting the urge to give his devotion and his affection to something lesser than God. He also shows us that we can make idols of good things. He's bound before a messenger of God. Is it possible for Christians to make too much of men who speak about God? Yes.

Be careful making too much of a man, of a pastor, of a theologian, of an evangelist. If this angel can say to John, I'm a servant just like you. How much more flesh and blood? Get up. You must worship God.

And the angel gives John a very important reminder of at least one reason why God alone deserves worship. Look at this last phrase here in verse 10. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. That seems a little cryptic, doesn't it? What does that mean?

It's it's very simple actually. The core theme of every Old Testament prophecy, the heart behind every teaching in the New Testament is Jesus Christ. John, you're missing it. Here you are bowing before an angel. Don't you understand from Genesis down to Revelation, it's all about Jesus Christ.

Get up. And he does. And what this teaches me at least is, if you and I come to every service this church has to offer to hear messages, if we study our Bibles for hours every day, especially prophecy, and it doesn't lead us to greater worship of Jesus Christ, we missed the point. We missed the point. So many who teach out of Revelation and who are very passionate about Revelation are very much passionate about charts and decoding things and trying to make sense of it in light of recent events.

There's a time and place for charts. I'm not against charts. But if it doesn't inspire worship, what are you doing? The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. And this Jesus promises us that we will be with him forever.

And if you're in this place and you don't have the confidence that that is your future, let me remind you that this is called the marriage of the lamb. And Christ Jesus whom I speak of today has already pursued you when he came to this world two thousand years ago to take on flesh and to make the payment for your redemption? Have you answered his call? Have you received his love? Have you allowed him to wash you in his blood?

You know, we're talking about the bride making herself ready, but it's already been established back in Revelation seven fourteen that the whiteness of the robes of the redeemed are white because they've been washed in the blood of the lamb. So my question for you in closing is, do you know with absolute assurance that you've been washed in Christ's forgiveness and that you are in right standing with him. In this Sunday service, you are being invited to a wedding. I plead with you to accept that invitation. The way you do that is by repenting of your sin, and believing that what Christ has done is the sole reason why you have a chance at this endless feast in glory.

Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you've helped us understand the marriage of the lamb. Thank you that there is a moment coming when our relationship with you will reach consummation. And that we will no longer see through a mirror dimly, but we will see face to face. And until that day comes, keep us faithful as we are betrothed to you.

If there's any teaching that we are adhering to that is contrary to your word, we wanna abandon it. Lord, if there's any behavior that we know would break your heart, thank you for reminding us that we're supposed to be married to you. Thank you that you are the faithful bridegroom who never chooses somebody else over us. Who never abandons your vows to to us. May we reflect your faithfulness in our own lives.

And lastly, Lord, if there's even one person in here who cannot relate to the exciting things that we heard, who are numb, who are indifferent, who are careless, may they believe with a mustard size seed faith that if they look to you now and ask for you to change their hearts, you are willing to do that. We love you, Lord. And now we stand in your presence in anticipation of what's to come rejoicing and saying, hallelujah for the marriage supper of the lamb. Amen. We've heard so much already from God's word, but I wanna read a few verses for you in closing.

Another promise from Jesus. John 14 verse one, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. Know this, wherever you are troubled, it's evidence of a lack of faith in God for that thing.

Let not your hearts be troubled. What's the solution? Believe in God. Believe in God for that thing that you're troubled about. Believe in God.

Believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have not told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, you may be also. He loves us.

And as we go about our day to day and as we seek to serve him and as we try to be the bride of Christ and we anticipate his coming, living in light of that coming, he is preparing a place for us. It's an amazing thing, isn't it? It's not ending with your suffering. It's not ending with pain. It's not ending with your troubles.

It's not ending with strife. It's not ending with disease. It's not ending with loss. It's ending with a wedding. It's ending with a feast with Christ forever and ever.

And I want us all to be there. Lord, we ask that your Holy Spirit would continue to work in our hearts with the truths that we've received, For the believer to be the bride that you've called us to be. For the unbeliever to accept the invitation to this wedding. Lord, help us prepare for that day by living in light of this marriage, And we know that you'll help us do that and we thank you for it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

May the bridegroom go before you this week and should he tarry, we will be united again in this place. God bless you. Have a wonderful time.