Prayer. Our Father, it's good to call
upon you and to bless your name. We ask you this morning to speak
to our hearts and bless this word to our understanding. Lord,
let it be not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghost. We need You to teach us. We cannot
learn of ourselves. We cannot perceive of ourselves. Lord, without You, truly, we
can do nothing. Help us, we ask, for Christ's
sake. Amen. Revelation 19. Revelation 19. John has been taught by God's Spirit. And we find in the judgment, God's people crying hallelujah,
hallelujah for God's salvation, hallelujah for God's judgment,
hallelujah because who He is. And in verse 5 of chapter 19, John heard a voice, that's what
it says, a voice came out of the throne saying, praise our
God. Now you have to understand that
verse 4 said that the 4 and 20 elders And we've looked at that
and showed the four and twenty elders represents the church.
So there's the entire church that is worshiping God. And the four beasts, we've looked
at those, living creatures, heavenly manifestations, creatures, real,
true creatures, living creatures. that set forth the attributes
of the Lord Jesus Christ in His covenant redemptive glory. I've told you before, this is
way over my head, but this is all I know. But these creatures,
these cherubim, set forth in the garden, set forth as golden
Angels, cherubim that are on the top of the mercy seat. Cherubim. Above, Isaiah saw them hovering,
flying. Six wings. Two they fly, two
they cover the eyes, two they cover the feet. Holy, holy, holy. What do we know about them? Very
little. But these four creatures fall down and worship. These
are not the Lord Jesus Christ. They're living creatures that
set forth the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they worship. And then John hears a voice in
verse 5. Who is that voice? We're not
told. Obviously, it's not the Lord. He says, worship our God. Praise our God. It's not the
church. It's not the cherubim. Who is
it? We're not told. We're not told who speaks the
words, but what He says is what we're going to look at this morning.
Verses 9 and 10. And in these two verses, We learn
three valuable lessons that are, or should be, of great comfort
to the church. I have a word for my people,
John, you write this down. Blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." Now, obviously, some have been
called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. Obviously, some
have. They've been called by name,
called by power, called by grace. God has everlastingly loved them.
We know that. Redeemed by the blood of Christ,
regenerated by the Spirit of God, and kept by God's power. They're blessed people. But you
know, when it comes to certain words, Like? Blessed. When we first read the Word,
we think we understand what it means. Blessed. Blessed. Oh, I know what that
means. But just stop for just a second if somebody asks you,
what do you mean when you say blessed? What do you mean? Blessed. And
you say, well, you know. You know. No, I don't. No, what do you mean? Blessed. Well, blessed, you know. The word blessed, it does mean happy. It does mean
prosperous. It means the bestowing of a favor. But the state of being blessed
It's not something that the natural mind, the natural understanding
grasp hold of when you say blessed. Most of the time when you listen
to somebody and they're talking about being blessed, this is
what they mean. Well, I tell you what, we live
in a blessed country. Boy, I tell you what, my family
sure has been blessed to the Lord. I've got a good job. And I've got a nice car, got
health. And what they're saying is, they're
saying that they've taken an opportunity that has been bestowed
by God, and they've made the best of it. improved on it a little bit,
and their environment was just right. And we're a blessed country
because we've got more stuff. That's what they think of blessed. Blessed. But my question this
morning, here is a voice out of the throne of God, and this
voice says, Are they which are called unto
the marriage supper of the Lamb? I want to know what that means
if I can. I'd like to perceive, you know, what's the heart? What's
the foundation? What's the root of being blessed
by God? I want you to turn to Luke 14.
Luke chapter 14. I think that this is a beautiful,
beautiful passage of Scripture. revealing. Luke 14, verse 12. Now, I want you to understand,
get the setting here. Luke 14, verse 1, it says, It
came to pass as He, that is the Lord, went into the house of
one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath day,
that they watched Him. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is
at a Pharisee's house, and He's there to have A meal. He's eating. Okay. Now, starting
in verse 12, the Lord speaking, Luke 14, 12, Then said He also
to him that bade him. The Lord is speaking to the Pharisee
that invited Him. The Lord said, When thou makest
a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren,
neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbors, lest they also
bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee. But when thou makest
a feast, call the poor, the lame, and the blind, and thou shalt
be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee, for thou shalt be recompensed
at the resurrection of the just. And when one of them that said
it meet with him heard these things, He said unto him, Blessed
is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Now, let
me tell you what our Lord was not telling this Pharisee. He
wasn't saying to avoid all family ties. He wasn't saying break
fellowship. The essence of what He was telling
him is the heart of true blessing. Hospitality. The blessing of
the giver and the blessing of the receiver. If you bid, the Lord told this
Pharisee, only those who have the capability to do the same
for you. Where is the blessing? If what
you're doing for someone else, they can do the same thing back
to you, he said there's no blessing in that. Who did our Lord say to call
to the supper? In Luke 14, look at verse 13. He said, when you make a feast,
now this is the one who practices what he says. This is the Lord. Have you ever heard people say,
you know, boy, I tell you what, you ought to practice what he
preaches. Here's the Lord. And he does. He told this Pharisee,
he said, when you make a feast, he said, call the poor. The poor in spirit. You know, there's some that God's
given a heart to truly see their spiritual poverty. Man by nature
doesn't see himself like that. Man by nature thinks himself
to be rich. Rich toward God. Rich in ability. I've got it all. I possess all these things. In fact, I'm so rich, I've got
the ability to kind of do what I will, when I will, how I will. But some by the grace of God
that's been made conscious of the fact that they owed more
than they could pay. Man by nature thinks he can pay. He's got the ability to pay what
it takes to reconcile himself back to God. What does man think
he's got? Himself. His will. I tell you what I'm going to do,
man things. I know that when I die, I want
to go to heaven. I want to go to heaven. But you
know, there's stuff. This is life. And before I die, I'm going to get things right
with God. I'm going to settle it up. Before I die, when I start
getting older, when things start to deteriorate, I'm going to
exercise my free will. But for the grace of God, you
won't. But for God's grace, you'll leave this world thinking that
you're rich. You'll leave this world thinking
that you've got the ability to pay by your exercising your so-called
free will. Free will. I've said before,
when you start talking about free, free, and you understand
what that word means, free means bound by nothing. Bound by nothing. Free. I'm not bound by anything. Well, if you've got any sense
at all, concerning the Scriptures. You know that you're bound in
trespasses and sins. You're bound by spiritual death.
You're bound by sin and your inability. You are bound. You
cannot. No man can come to Me, the Lord
said. Blessed it were given unto him
among us. Ruined in Adam. There are some
that by the grace of God, by a new heart, by a new spirit,
they're convinced that there's no salvation but in Christ. The
Lord told this Pharisee, He said, when you have a supper, don't
invite your rich friends and your family, you know. He said,
those that can, you know, you cook them prime rib and they
cook you prime rib. They made you filet mignon. I
mean, you made it for them. And they can make it back for
you. They've got just as much ability as you've got. He said,
when you make a supper to see blessing, to have a true blessing,
invite the poor. And secondly, in v. 13 of Luke
14, the maimed, the crippled in limb is what it means. Those
who could not work to procure their own salvation. Those that
can't. And thirdly, he said, the lame.
The halting. Those that limp. Those that can't walk. Can't
walk before God. I think about that story of when
Jacob wrestled with the man of the Lord Jesus. You know who
it was. the breaking of the day. And
the Lord told Jacob, He said, let me go. And he said, I won't
unless you bless me. I can't. I can't. He said, ask
him his name. He said, what's your name? He said, Jacob. He said, not
anymore. He said, you'll be called Israel.
Prince with God. He touched the hollow of his
thigh. And it said, Jacob, he halted
all the rest of the days of his life. He remembered. He said,
but for the grace of God, I can do nothing. God's blessed me. Those that are lame, those that
have no ability. There was a young boy, his name
was Mephibosheth. Boy, another beautiful story
of the grace of God. And Saul had a son. His son's
name was Jonathan. And Jonathan and David, good
friends, they loved each other. Jonathan knew that the kingdom
was going to be taken from his dad's side of the family. It
was going to be given to David. Jonathan asked David, he said,
when you come into your kingdom, he said, would you remember my
family? David said, I will. David becomes king. David asked one day, he says,
is there any left of the house of Saul that I could show mercy
to for Jonathan's sake? One fellow said, yeah, there's
a boy's cripple. His name is Mephibosheth. He
said, where is he? He said, Lodibar, the city of
nature, go get him. He said, you go fetch him. He
had to go fetch him because he's lame. He couldn't walk. And they
went and got that boy and they brought Mephibosheth to David
and here's the king and here's this lame kid. But more than
a lame kid, this was Jonathan's son. David had made a covenant
with Jonathan. He said, I'm going to show you
mercy. He said, I'm going to show you mercy for one reason.
One reason. One reason. Why? Your daddy. I loved your daddy. And I made a promise to your
daddy that I was going to show mercy to his family. And he said,
I'm going to honor that promise. You've got one reason that Almighty
God has shown anybody any mercy. One reason. One reason. For Christ's
sake. God the Father He chose whomsoever
He would. And He gave them to Christ. And
He said, these are yours. I love them. Why did He love
them? He chose to love them. Why did
He love them? He looked at them in Christ.
He saw them in Christ. He viewed them in Christ. And
He loved His Son. He loved Him. And He loved those
in Him. Who are they? Well, by nature,
they're the poor. They're the maimed. They're the
lame. And last, the Lord told the Pharisees,
He said, call the blind. You know, listen, I'm going to
tell you something. I know that there's some here
this morning that you see. Some do. I know they do. I know
you do. You see. You see by the grace of God.
But let me tell you the amazing thing about that is that you
know that you were blind. You know you were blind. Man
left to himself does not think that he's blind before God. He doesn't think that he can't
see. He thinks he sees. The Lord told
some Pharisees, He said, because you say, I see, He said, you
just evidence that you're blind. Who do you call? Call those who
have been made by the grace of God to know that without eyes
to see, they don't. And the Lord said in Luke 14,
and thou shalt be blessed Why? Because they cannot recompense
you. What is the blessing in inviting,
the Lord said to this Pharisee, to teach a lesson? Where is the
blessing? I'm explaining what the word
blessed means. Where is a blessing, the Lord
said, in those that can give you exactly what you give them?
Those that are your equals. He said, that's not blessing.
They're the same as you are. The real blessing, the Lord said,
is those that cannot give back. Those that have nothing to give.
Those that have nothing to boast in. Those that absolutely are
unable to help themselves. There's the blessing. Secondly, back in Revelation
19, blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper
of the Lamb. Why? They didn't have a heart
to come. They didn't have eyes to see.
They didn't have legs to walk. They had no limbs to work. They
had nothing. These are the blessed. They could
not recompense back to God what God did to them. God wasn't trying
to get them to do something for Him. God wasn't offering them
anything. And if they would accept it...
You see, that's nothing more than recompensing. The Lord offers
and I accept. He had a part and I had a part.
That's not blessing. That's works. Blessing, blessing,
blessing is those that God Almighty calls who cannot have no ability
to do what they can or what they would. Blessing. What is blessing? That's blessing. and he saith unto me, these are
the true sayings of God." Well, you would say, well, I
understand that too. That means just like I understood
what blessing means. I understand true because God
is true, and so whatever God says is true. But here's the
thing, the word true right there doesn't mean as opposed to false. That's not what it means at all. The word true means the enduring
reality. In John 15.1, I won't have you
turn there. Let me just quote it for you.
You've read it. The Lord said, I am the true vine. Now when you think about that,
you think, well, okay, that doesn't mean as opposed to false. It does in a sense, but it means
the enduring reality of. I am the true bread. The bread,
he said, that Moses gave your fathers in the wilderness that,
you know, God gave the bread, but the one that Moses was guiding,
that manna that fell, he said, that wasn't true bread. He said, I'm the bread. I am
the enduring reality of it. I'm the manifestation of it.
This is what it's saying. I am the manifestation of what
was pictured that fell in the wilderness. He said that was
the true light, speaking of Himself. Now, John the Baptist was a lamp. The word is light, but with the
word light concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, it means from within
Himself. When John was spoken of as the
light, that word is actually lamp and means it shows nothing
without oil in it. Last night our power went out
and we had a couple of lamps. But do you know if there's no
oil inside that lamp, that lamp ain't going to burn. That's a
lamp. Something's got to be put in
it for it to show forth. John was a lamp. Christ said,
I'm the true light. I am the enduring reality of
it. So the meaning of these is the
true sayings of God, the true thoughts, the true motives, the
true declaration. This is what Du Bois said to
John. John, he said, those are truly
blessed that have been called to the marriage supper of the
Lamb. Those that couldn't do anything for themselves. Those
that had no ability whatsoever. And when he said this is the
true sayings of God, what he's saying is, everything that has
been preached according to the gospel of God's free grace, From
the fall, when God covered Adam and Eve with those skins, everything
that has been preached concerning the blessed ones that will be
called to this marriage supper, here is the enduring reality
of it right here. This is the manifestation of
all that's been said. There's something being said
right now. And what it is, is this. God is going to bless some. to the calling of the marriage
supper of the Lamb. There's going to be some out
of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue that's going to hear.
And it's going to be some that God's going to reveal to that
they are blind in themselves, and they're maimed, and they're
poor, and they're halt, and they're crippled, and they're unable,
they're unable, and they're not going to see. They're not going
to believe that they've done anything to merit salvation before
God. And they're going to be there.
They're going to be there by the grace of God. They're going
to be there by the good mercy and compassion of Almighty God. And John, here's the open manifestation
of it right here. There they are. These are the
true sayings. This is the enduring reality
of everything that's been said and said and said and said. And
now here it is. And the Scripture says, and here's
the third part, verse 10, John said, I fell at
his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou
do it not? I am thy fellow servant and of
thy brethren, which have the testimony of Jesus, worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is
the spirit of prophecy. Here's the truth of this verse. We don't know who spoke the words. But what does it matter? You
say, well, it wasn't the Lord because He said, praise our God.
If it had been the Lord and He would have said, praise God,
that could have been the Lord. But He said, praise our God. It wasn't the church. It wasn't
one of the cherubim. Who was it? What does it matter? What difference does it make?
Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself speaking, apart from
Him, it's not the messenger, it's the message. Those called
out of spiritual darkness, regenerated by the Spirit of God, they hate
the temptation. Now listen to me well. They hate
the temptation because the temptation is always there to draw attention
to me. It's always there, Mitch, to draw attention to me. The
temptation is there. But those that have been regenerated
by the grace of God hate the temptation to continually draw
attention to myself. They hate it. They know what
it is. They know what it is. Men want buildings named after
themselves. They want highways named after
congressmen. I'm going to be honest with you.
Until I moved to West Virginia, I didn't even know who Robert
C. Byrd was. I do now. Everything is named after him. Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Evangelical. Man by nature. I understand this. I understand that. I mean, I'm
not so stupid as to think that men don't want to draw attention
to themselves. I paint a little silly picture,
and you know what I want to do? Sign it. Who painted that? Who did that
to me? That's pride. That's embarrassing,
but that's all it is. It's pride. Abraham was spoken
to by the Lord. There were two angels that came
with the Lord, and they went in to Sodom to go get locked. And Abraham continued to speak
to the Lord himself and ask, Lord, if there were two or three
in there, would you spare that city? Yeah, I'll do it. How about
four? How about ten? Abraham answered and said, Behold,
now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust
and ashes." Abraham said that. Mark 1, 6-7, And John was clothed
with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins. And
he did eat locusts, and wild honey, and preached, saying,
There cometh one mightier than I after me, the lachet of whose
shoes I'm not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I'm not even
worthy to undo his shoes. I'm not worthy to reach down
and pull the tie on his shoe. John 1.23, he said, when they
asked John, who are you? He said, I'm the boys. The Lord
said concerning all that was born of women, there was none
greater than John the Baptist. The Lord said that. But this
is what John said of himself. I am the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said
the prophet Isaiah. Whoever this was that spoke to
John told him, he said, blessed are they that are called to the
marriage supper of the Lamb. These are the true sayings of
God. And John wanted to worship Him.
And whoever this was The voice out of the throne said, don't
do it. Don't do it. I'm a fellow servant
just like you are. Who was it? It doesn't matter.
What difference does it make? Everybody including Brother Scott
knows how much I love him and appreciate him. Man, I'm telling you, don't say
anything to me about him if he's not kind. I'm not going to like
it. I don't like it. But with all due respect to him,
somebody says, well, I was converted under Brother Scott's ministry.
For that, I'm glad. But you know who Brother Scott
is? You know who Marvin is? You know who Brother Henry is?
You know who Brother Don, Brother Donny? You know who they are? They're dust and ashes. Who are
they? They're the recipients of the
grace of God. What did this voice say? He said, worship God. Worship God. Not this world and
the things of it. Not the false god of man's imagination
that can't perform unless man allows him to. Worship God. Worship. Pay the due respect. And realize that you're under
a sense of obligation. What do you owe Him? You owe
Him respect. You owe Him worship. You owe Him. This morning, we're
here to worship God. I owe Him. And I think to myself,
Lord, help me. I don't even know. I have no
idea what I owe. I have no earthly idea what is
due, what I think I owe. I haven't touched the surface
of it. Worship God, I thought in closing,
the seriousness of that thought. We're here for a few minutes
to set our minds and set our affections and set our heart
on God Almighty God, the I Am that I Am. He who is Jehovah. He of whom we are heirs. Heirs of God. Joint heirs with
Christ. Oh, how much I owe. And I think to myself, but for
His grace and mercy, I would go through this world thinking
that I have absolutely done all that I should to merit salvation. Blessed are those that are called
to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Why? because they couldn't
recompense back. These are the true sayings of
God. Here's the complete, full reality of that which God has
said in the gospel since the fall. Don't worship me. I'm just a
messenger. That's what that voice told him.
You worship God. Set your affection on God. You
call upon Him. You respect Him. Alright. We'll stop in just a few minutes.
We'll come back.