We've got a problem. Well, it's good to see you this
morning. And as we've said so many times
before, it's a miracle of God's grace that
we're able to be here. I ask you to turn to Revelation
19. We'll look at a couple of verses
this morning. Before we begin, let's have a
word of prayer. Our Father, we thank you this
morning for another time to be able to meet together. Lord,
this is truly a marvelous time. Because this is the time that
you've ordained that we would be able to meet. And we pray
this morning that you would be pleased to bless the word. To our heart, to our understanding. As we strive together. In prayer. To ask your blessing. Lord, you've
promised that you would Never leave us. Never forsake us. And
for that we're assured. But you've told us also that
we have not because we ask not. And we ask you this morning to
bless our understanding. For Christ's sake. Amen. John, in Revelation 19, heard
a voice. that came out of the throne. That's what verse 5 says. Revelation
19. We're not told who the voice
was. The one that spoke, obviously,
was not God Himself. It was not the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 5. says that the voice
said, ìPraise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great.î Verse 7 says of the voice speaking,
ìLet us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage
of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.î But in verse 10, John speaking,
This is the most revealing verse that says this was not the Lord.
Verse 10, And I fell at his feet to worship him, as John said.
And he said unto me, See thou do it not. I am thy fellow servant
and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship
God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Had
this been the Lord Jesus Christ, he would have accepted. that
worship. He'd accepted that praise. He
was worthy of it. John would have bowed, but the
speaker said, don't do this. Don't worship me. There's one
that is worthy of worship. Well, John, then the Scripture
says, saw heaven opened. We've been looking at that. the past few weeks, and he saw
the glorious Lord Jesus Christ sitting on a white horse. His
name was Faithful and True, and he was being followed by the
redeemed, the church. John is beholding the way that
things are. He is seeing. as things actually
are, the Lord leading His people to the glorious victory over
all rebellion against Him. Verse 15 says that the nations
are going to be smitten with the sharp sword of His Word that
proceeds out of His mouth. He shall smite them with a rod
of iron. He is the strong Shepherd who
governs over His dominion. He is the Lord. He rules. The Scripture says that He treads
the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. He is God. He is the King. of kings, He's the Lord of lords. He's got the right to do whatsoever
He does. No one has a right to question
Him. Why do we go through what we're
going through? Why? Why? I'm talking to you
that believe. Why? Because the Lord works all
things after the counsel of His own will. He's the potter. We're the clay. We serve our God. He's going to prevail. Well,
John is beholding now the glorious, victorious Lord Jesus Christ
leading His people And verse 17 says, I saw an angel
standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying to
the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves
together unto the supper of the great God, that ye may eat the
flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty
men, the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and
the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. Now John is watching this. He's seeing the victory, the
glorious victory of the Lord Jesus Christ and all associated
with Him in that victory, His bride, those that He's everlastingly
loved, those that He's everlastingly stood for. Those that He's everlastingly
answered for. Those that God Almighty never
looked upon in wrath. Never. I heard someone say the other day,
and I've heard it. It's a common thought. And I
understand, I understand how men think like this. I understand
how someone could think Well, before we're converted, God looks
on us in wrath. I understand that thinking because
I understand how our foolish mind works. I mean, it doesn't
surprise me. It's just not scriptural. That's
all. That's the only problem with
it. Remember, God's never changed. Therefore, if God ever looked
on a man in wrath, God would always look on him in wrath.
He would never change his mind. Never. Therefore, he says, I've
always loved you. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Never. But here is the Lord, Jesus Christ
leading. And John said, I saw this angel
standing in the sun. Now, I want you to notice that
we're not immediately told who this is. There's things that the Lord
does conceal. There's things that He's not
pleased. You know, that's His opinion. It's the glory of God to conceal
a thing. Now, you think about this. Why
is it? Let's give you an example. Why
is it? that God would choose to show mercy to one and leave
another to himself when they're dug out of the same pit. Now,
here's the thing. A believer versus an unbeliever. Two people that die. One died in belief, died, you
know, believing Christ, trusting Christ. Why was it that God showed
mercy to one when they were dug out of the same slew of despond."
Why? It's the glory of God to conceal
a matter. Here's what He said, so it seemed good in our sight.
Why would the Lord Jesus Christ lay down His life only for His
sheep? I mean, we can trace this all
the way back in election, predestination. Why would God show mercy to one
when they're both in themselves not worth shooting? I'm telling
you, if there's a believer in this room this morning, a believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ that has by faith given from above
trusted Him, that believer in himself as he
is born in Adam, he ain't worth shooting. Why would God show mercy to one
like that? Is none good? No, not one. Is
none to seek after God? There's none. So why it pleased
the Lord to conceal the matter? Men might say, well, why in the
world would God say it? It pleased me to do so. You know
what we say? Lord, so it seemed good in your
sight. Thank you that you showed mercy to me. Thank you. Don't attempt to bring God down
to our level. You're not going to do it. Don't think foolishly in your
heart. Don't do that. What do we do? You bow to Him. Bow to Him. I saw an angel standing
in the sun Standing. The word standing there
means the instrument appointed. He was standing. That's where
he was. That's the instrument appointed. He was standing in
the sun. And in the sun, no doubt, speaks
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Malachi 4.2, But unto you that
fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing
in his wings. The sun spoken of reverently. Not that ball up there that we
look at. Even that's a type, a picture
of Christ. But the sun symbolically, here,
speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. So without the Scripture setting
forth specifically who this is, and without me trying to make
the Scriptures say something that they don't, I would ask
reverently this morning if you would allow me to share with
you a few comments based on the Word of God and show who I believe
this angel is. And this is my thoughts that
I'm sharing with you. If the Scriptures said that it
was him, it doesn't say who it is. Therefore, I want to be very
careful. I don't want to speculate. without
scripture. You know, sometimes we speculate
with nothing to back it up. But if I set forth some things
concerning the scriptures, speaking of this event, then we ask our
Lord to speak to us. Here's my thoughts. Number one,
this angel is speaking to all the fowls that fly in the midst
of heaven. and he is bidding them to the
supper of the great God. That's what it says. I saw an
angel standing in the sun and he cried with a loud voice saying
to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, come and
gather yourselves together under the supper of the great God that
you can eat, that you can eat, that you can eat. So whoever
this angel is, he's bidding the fowls. Well, here's the question. Who
were the fowls? Well, Ezekiel 39, let me read
this to you, 17, 18. Thou son of man, thus saith the
Lord God. Speak unto every feathered fowl
and to every beast of the field. Assemble yourselves and come.
Gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice
for you. even a great sacrifice upon the
mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood,
that ye may eat the flesh of mighty and drink the blood of
the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, of goats, of
bullocks, and all them fatlings of Bashan." Or Bashan means the
fierce and the cruel. So in Ezekiel, the Lord Himself
said to Ezekiel, bid all the fowls of the earth that they
may come to this great sacrifice that I am doing for you, that
they may eat. Jeremiah, listen to this one,
Jeremiah 12, 9. Mine heritage is unto me as a
speckled or a taloned bird. The birds round about are against
her. Come ye, assemble all the beasts
of the field. Come to devour. These fowls that
are being spoken of right here, based on other scriptures are
revealed to be the people of God. He refers to them as the
fowls. Come, come, said all the fowls
that fly in the midst of heaven, you come and I want you to eat. Well, secondly, this supper that
they are invited to, It says that there, it says, come, verse
17, and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great
God. Now, this supper is a supper
of sacrifice because somebody is going to die. It says the flesh of kings, the
flesh of captains, mighty men, somebody's going to die and somebody's
going to eat. That's the way it is. Somebody's going to die. He said,
I want all of you, all of your fowls, you come together under
the supper of the great God. This is God's supper. This is a feast. It's a sacrifice
and it's a feast. Now, you know, I got to thinking
about this. This is the way it does me. I find myself. As I'm studying
and I'll read something. And my mind will start thinking
on things. This is a supper. And I got to
thinking about suppers. I can think of three suppers
right off the top of my head. I'm sure I could find maybe something
else, but three in particular came to my mind. The first one
that I thought of was the Lord's Supper. Now, that's not this. I'll tell you what the Lord's
Supper is. We come together on a scheduled
time, and what we'll do is we'll assemble ourselves together,
and there's two elements in the Lord's Supper. There's bread
and there's wine. And we come together and we do
exactly as the Lord said to do. We meet together and we're here
to remember the Lord Jesus Christ. And just exactly, as exactly
as we can look in the scriptures and have those scriptures set
forth We do exactly as the Lord said do. He took bread. He broke it. He gave it. He said, You take, eat. This
is my body. Symbolically, obviously, it was
bread. It was a piece of bread. It is not changed in to the body
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's not so. It's a cup of
wine. It's about that big. It's real
wine. That's what we drink. Real wine.
It's been all of the fermenting and everything. It's wine. And we take and eat a little
old piece of bread and a little old cup of wine and somebody
says, why would you do that? Because the Lord said. this do
in remembrance of me." We will remember Him as a remembrance. And as a wise man, much wiser
than I, said, at no time are we closer to true worship than
when we observe the Lord's table. So I know this. This is not the
Lord's table. It's not the Lord's supper. It's
not that. We do that. We do that. in remembrance
of him. Let me tell you what else it's
not. This is not the marriage supper. Marriage supper of the
Lamb. Look in this chapter we're in,
Revelation 19, 9. Marriage supper of the Lamb is
mentioned one time in that text. Marriage supper of the Lamb.
Revelation 19, 9. He saith unto me, Write, Blessed
are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, these are
the true sayings of God, the marriage supper of the Lamb." May I give you a thought on my,
you know, I'm just sharing my heart with you this morning.
Have you ever thought about the marriage supper of the Lamb?
When is it? When is it? Turn with me to Matthew 22, 1
to 14. Matthew 22, 1 to 14. The Lord gave an illustration, a
story concerning this very topic, Matthew 22 verse 1, and Jesus
answered and spake unto them again by parables. And he said,
The kingdom of heaven is likened to a certain king which made
a marriage for his son. And he sent forth his servants
and bid them that were bidden to the wedding, and they would
not come. And again he sent forth other
servants saying, Tell them which are bidden. Behold, I have prepared
my dinner. My oxen, my fatlings are killed,
all things are ready. Come unto the marriage." But
they made light of it. It went their ways. One to his
farm, another to his merchandise. The remnant took his servants
and treated them spitefully and slew them. But when the king
heard thereof, he was wroth and sent forth his armies and destroyed
those murderers and burned up the city. Then saith he to his
servants, The wedding is ready. But they which were bitten were
not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways
as many as you shall find. Bid to the marriage. So those
servants went out into the highways and gathered together all as
many as were found, both bad and good. And the wedding was
furnished with guests. And when the king came in to
see the guests, he saw there a man which had
not on a wedding garment." I want you to understand where these
people are sitting. They're sitting at the supper. He saw there a man he didn't
have on a wedding garment. At this dinner prepared? Yes. And he said unto him, Friend,
how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And
he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants,
bind him hand and foot take him away, cast him into outer darkness.
There should be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called,
but few are chosen." So you're saying that there was
a supper and the Lord said, this is the way the kingdom of heaven
is. A certain king's son He bid many,
you mean some of them made light of it and they wouldn't come.
He said, no, you go out and get them and you bid them and you
bring them in. And then there was a guy sitting
there and he didn't have on a wedding garment. And the Lord says, the
master came in and said, friend, what are you doing here? What
are you doing here? And the Scripture says he was
speechless. How did this man get to the dinner? Do you know when I believe the
marriage supper of the Lamb is? You're at it. You're at it. There's tares among the wheat. There are some that sit that
don't have a wedding garment. They're sitting in the midst. But there are some here that
are feasting. And they, with anxious anticipation,
look forward to that day. The Lord knows those that are
His. But there are some that see it.
How did this man that didn't have a wedding garment get here?
How did he get there? He came in. He came in. Who knew that he didn't have
a wedding garment on? The king. How did you get here without
a wedding garment on? What are you doing here? Look in Revelation. Turn over to Revelation 3, verse
20. Revelation 3.20. This is the
Master speaking. Revelation 3.20, Behold, I stand
at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice, open
the door. I will come in to him, and I
will sup with him, and he with me. How many is Christ going
to come into? How many? Everybody that He desires to. By faith and life, you say, Lord, have mercy on me. And He said,
I come in and I eat with Him. I eat supper with Him. Here's the marriage supper right
here. Though there be some that may
sit without a wedding garment on, there are many that do. And the Lord knows who they are.
So this is not the marriage supper. I know it's not the Lord's Supper,
and I know it's not the marriage supper. This is a feast. And you that believe know what
I'm talking about. You feast. You do. You eat of
Him. You eat of His flesh and drink
of His blood. You eat of His life and His death
because you know that He lived for me. It's not the marriage supper.
It's not the Lord's supper. I'll tell you what this is. This
is the supper of the slaughter of Christ's enemies. That's what
it is. Back in Revelation. Chapter 19, again, He said, You
come and gather yourselves to this supper. This is not the
marriage supper. It's not the Lord's supper. This
is the supper of slaughter and feasting. Psalm 74, 14, Thou
breakest the heads of Leviathan, that is, the dragon of opposition
to God and to His people. Just like when the Lord sent
the nation of Israel through the Red Sea, and the water stood
up, and God's people walked across those that were symbolic of all
of the redeemed of Israel. Symbolic. Walked across. Listen, on dry ground. Dry ground. I've heard all the silly stuff.
You know, it was thin. It was just, you know. That sea
opened up, and God dried up that ground, and they walked right
across. And the Egyptians came in and
tried to go the same way they went. And Almighty God let them
all get in there. I'm sure that old Pharaoh, whoever
was leading, you know, first man in, I got just wept. I'm going to make it. I'm going
to get you. that the first guy almost got
to the other side. He could see the light at the
end of the tunnel, and the last one was coming on in, and God
closed it up. And it says the Israelites stood
there and saw all the Egyptians wash up on the shore. God is
going to destroy all that oppose Him. He drowned him. Thou breakest the heads of Leviathan
and gavest him to be the meat of the people inhabiting the
wilderness." Everything that opposes Almighty God is going
to be destroyed. We think light of those things. But I am telling you, God Almighty
is a just God and He is a Savior. Well, thirdly, in telling you
who I think this angel is, is this, only the Lord shall bid
any to this supper. Who is going to be able to feast
upon Christ's victory? Who? His people, the fowls. What is this supper again? This
is a supper of slaughter and a supper of feasting. And who
invites people to this supper? Only the Lord. Zephaniah 1, 7
and 8, Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God. For
the day of the Lord is at hand. For the Lord hath prepared a
sacrifice, that is, a slaughter of divine justice. he hath bid,
that is, he hath prepared, he hath purified, and he hath kept,
he hath bid his guest, the called, the summoned, the appointed,
the invited. And it shall come to pass in
the day of the Lord's sacrifice that I will punish the princes,
the kings, the children, And all such as are clothed with
a strange apparel, adulterous apparel. Friend, how did you
get here? What are you doing here? I had a pastor friend one time
that someone came to him and he preached the gospel of God's
free grace, set forth, speaking to the people of God to comfort
them, telling them of God's sovereign Saving, electing, predestinating
grace. Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people. Someone came up to him afterwards
and said, you know what, I take offense at what you were saying
about that God choosing. And God, that offends me. He told him, he said, I wasn't
talking to you. I was talking to those that rejoiced
in it. I wasn't talking to you. I don't like what you said. Your
issue is not with me. Your issue is with God. Because
I'm telling you, God's Word is going to stand. Stand. All that are not clothed in the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, come, verse 18, that
you may eat the flesh of kings. The eating of the flesh of kings
and captains Those eatings, it's not cannibalism,
it's not that. Those that are free and bond,
small and great, what it is is there's a rejoicing in the victory
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There will be a day when Almighty
God, I remember the first time I preached this about two years
ago, there's going to come a time when all that Almighty God cast
into outer darkness. And this is a hard thing for
me to comprehend. There's some of you that know
what I'm about to say. I've got some folks in my family
that I love. I love them. I love them. I just talked to my mother. She's Lord willing, preparing
to be here. I'm supposed to go down and get
her and bring her back. And she was visiting with some
relatives of mine. I was talking to some of my relatives,
and obviously, they don't confess to Christ of this Bible. And
they're so secure. They believe they're right. Based on this Word, based on
the Scriptures that Paul says, Can any man preach any other
gospel? If you believe not this gospel, free sovereign grace,
let it be a curse. There's coming a time when God
casts all rebellion into outer darkness. The redeemed of God
are going to say hallelujah. You know what I believe? I believe
that's exactly what's going to happen. because we're going to
know as we're known, and we're going to bow to what He's done. How can this be? God says it
is. He said, You come, you feast. Almighty God is going to do that
which is right. David said in Psalm 130, verse
3, in closing, If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities." That
is, if you should call into judgment. That's what that means. If you
should call into judgment. When the Scripture, if thou,
Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Does
that mean that God is not aware of the failings of His people?
Does that mean that He's just oblivious? It's that for God's elect, he
doesn't hold them accountable. You say, are you telling me,
Marvin, that one, two people, one elect, one non-elect, one
vessel of honor worth the price and another vessel of dishonor
left to themselves in rebellion. Are you telling me that if these
Two people do the same thing. In this life, they did some of
the same things, thought some of the same rebellious thoughts,
and they did the same thing. And Christ died for one of them
and didn't die for the other one. And in this life, that Almighty God would look
on one in mercy and forgive him and not call into judgment His
iniquities. And the other one He would, that's
exactly what I'm telling you. Why? Because Christ was made
sin for one. And God dealt with both men in
absolute justice. Put one of them in a substitute.
And He showed mercy to one, and He left the other one to Himself.
Lord, if you would call into judgment one sin, who's going
to stand before you? None. That is God's elect. Before we ever actually committed
one sin, before we were ever born, before we ever committed
the iniquity in time, the blood of Christ, shed from the foundation
of the world in the absolute purpose and will of Almighty
God, stood for us. He has always been our surety. Therefore, when the Lord forgives
us of our sins, He is not forgiving us unjustly. I tell you this,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. He forgives the
sins, the transgressions of His people in absolute justice. Why? Because the law has been
served and obeyed for them. John saw this angel that called
the fowls of the heavens. He said, you come to this supper.
The supper of feasting on Him who is victorious. That's what
the supper is. The supper of victory. May Almighty
God be pleased to teach us something of His mercy and grace toward
us for Christ's sake.