and ye that fear him, both small
and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, and the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God Omnipotent reigneth. Let 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. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine
linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he saith unto
me, Right, 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. And I fell down 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 that have the testimony
of Jesus, worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit
of prophecy. Now, in the previous chapter,
chapter 18, we saw the end of all false religion. We see the
end of all false religion which is pictured by the great whore
of Babylon, the harlot. And we know that this is the
end because in the last two verses, verse 22 and verse 23 of the
previous chapter, this is mentioned three times. It says these words,
no more. No more. It says in the voice
of the harpers and the musicians and the pipers and the trumpets
shall be heard, listen, no more at all in thee. No more craftsman
or whatever crafts he be shall be found any more in thee. And the sound of the millstone
shall be heard no more at all in thee. And the light of the
candle shall shine no more at all in thee. Why? Because at
this point the whore is cast into the lake of fire. She is
cast out and is fallen. And we read this before that
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself says this in the very first part
of that chapter. Babylon is fallen, is fallen. Therefore, he even calls out
and he says, come out of her, my people. Babylon is fallen,
come out from her, my people. And listen, this is the voice
of every gospel preacher. This is the voice of the gospel
of Christ in which we preach to you sinners, to you sinners,
come out from her. Come out and believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the message of the gospel. Come out from the false church
that cannot satisfy. Come out from the world that
cannot satisfy. Come to Christ is the message. Come out and believe on Him alone. Because Jesus calls such sin. Such sinners who worshiped in
her, such sinners who denied Him, who will not come to Him,
this is the one He calls. He calls, come out of her. You know, Jesus said, I came
not to call the righteous. I came not to call the righteous.
Those who think themselves to be free from sin without sin,
Jesus said, I didn't come to call you. If you have no need
of Christ, then the call is not toward you. The call is toward
sinners. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Therefore, even now today, listen,
this is it, right now, you get nothing else, you should get
this. Sinner, come to Christ. Come to Christ. You who are outside
of Christ, come to Christ. Come to Him alone, for today
is the day of salvation." Today Christ is calling sinners. His people, He's calling His
people. And you know what the comforting
news is for us? They will hear and they will
come. Not one shall be left. All of
them shall come out. Today I plead with you that you
should come out. If you have not come to Christ,
I plead with you to come to Christ. I've told you that Jesus has
come to save the lost. Are you lost? Then come! Then come. He came to obtain
righteousness by His own faithful obedience to God. He came to
die for your sins, to put them away by His one death. And I
tell you the truth, that there is none of the name given among
men whereby we must be saved. There is no other salvation.
There is no other way to God. But this man, Jesus Christ, I
point you to him, I tell you to come to him. Don't come to
me, don't come to the front, come to Christ. That's where
you should come for salvation, come to him. And all who come to Him, we know
this, is because He draws you. He draws men to Him. He quickens
them by His Spirit. And these, His people, shall
come out. And you know what? They come
out first by being exposed. If you've never been a sinner,
you've never been saved. If you've never been dead, you've
never been quickened to life. This is the first thing God reveals,
is that you can by no means save yourself. I testify of that. I've learned that. I know that
by the Spirit of God, that I could not by any means save myself. I knew this when the Spirit convicted
me of sin, of righteousness, and judgment, that I had no hope
in myself. Therefore, by grace, I fled to
Christ and found refuge." And I tell you, you can find refuge
in Christ. Come out. I know this, that God's Word
is not in vain. This is not an empty call. This
call goes out to a bunch of people. But I know this, only God's elect
will come. Only God's elect shall come,
he said, thy people, Psalm 110, thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. Thy power. See, salvation is by power. It's just not your power. It's
His power. It's His power that draws men. And His elect will come. Well,
you ask, then, am I one of them? He's calling out His people.
Am I one of His people? Well, let me ask you, do you
believe on the Son of God? Well, yes! Then you are His people. The evidence that you are His
is that you have heard and you have come out. That's the evidence
of your election. That's the evidence of your redemption,
is that you by faith have embraced and received the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the evidence, that's not
the cause. Make no mistake, your faith is
not the cause of your salvation. Your faith is the evidence of
your salvation. We who come out, we believe on
Christ alone. And you know what? We have never
stopped believing and coming to Christ. You know, I've came
to Christ. But I tell you, this morning,
even as I'm preaching to you, I am still coming to Christ.
I'm still believing on Christ. Faith in Christ is the evidence
of God's grace upon the heart. If you believe on Him, then you
have come out of this hole. You have come out of the false
religion, not only of the world, but of your own mind. You don't
realize that religion, you don't have to be in a building to have
religion. You don't have to be joined to some church to have
religion. Every man has his own religion, and it's all false. Come out. Well, I thought, stop
thinking, come to Christ. Well, I believe. I don't care
what you believe. If it's against the word of God,
it's not true. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. Let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his faults and let him return unto the Lord
and he shall abundantly, abundantly pardon. That's good news for
a sinner. That's good news for a sinner.
So everyone that comes out, I want you to see what happens in the
beginning of this chapter. We're going to see the end of
everyone who believes. He says, and after this I heard
a great voice of much people in heaven saying hallelujah.
In other words, At the end of this thing, everyone who believes,
everyone who endures in the faith, we have this promise that when
we have come out of her, we will not have to partake of her plagues,
of her destruction. We will partake of the glories
of heaven itself. And we will praise God forever,
saying, hallelujah, praise the Lord for salvation. and glory and honor and power
unto the Lord our God. You see, what we're doing this
morning is we are giving praise to God for salvation. He saved
us. He chose us. He redeemed us. He called us. He keeps us. And in glory, we will say, praise
you for saving us, for keeping us, for calling us, for choosing
us. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
what we'll praise Him in eternal glory. will praise Him forever
and ever. And now then, look in your text
here. I'm going to skip down to your text. In verse 6 we heard,
in verse 5 we heard the command coming from the throne of God.
Praise our God, you servants of Him. This is Christ calling
us to praise Him. But that's the command out of
the throne this morning. We desire to praise Him. In eternity
we shall praise Him. Praise the Lord, both small and
great. What are you, small or great?
It doesn't matter. Praise Him. Praise Him, you His
servants. And you know what He said? I
heard a great voice of a great multitude, as many waters, saying,
Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. And this is the voice of those
who have come. Isn't this your voice this morning,
believer? Praise God that you reign. I thank God that He is
reigning over all things, aren't you? I'm thankful. We praise
Him because He rules. I'm so glad that we worship not
the pathetic God of this generation, who has no power to do anything.
We worship the Lord God Omnipotent. You see, what that means is that
everything God wants to do, He does. That's what it means. Everything God has purpose to
do, He will do. Thank God for that. Because why? He purposed to save me. Now then,
because the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, what then shall hinder
Him from saving me? Nothing. Nothing. Therefore,
the voice says this, let us be glad and rejoice. Isn't that good? Do you not want
to rejoice? Who doesn't want to rejoice?
Who doesn't want to be happy? And I'm not talking about this
frivolous happiness that comes and goes and disappears like
the wind. I'm talking about an eternal,
immutable joy. Let us be happy. Let us rejoice. Let us be glad. And this is the
cause that we should be glad and give honor to God. Listen,
for the marriage of the Lamb is come. Marriage of the Lamb. marriage of the Lamb. Throughout the scriptures God
has linked the relationship of Christ to the church in many
different ways. Has he not? Think of this, he's
our shepherd and we are his sheep. That's a way to look at our relationship,
isn't it? The shepherd of the sheep. The
shepherd laid down his life for the sheep. Now, what are you? You're the sheep. He's the shepherd. And so we can look at that relationship
in that manner. We can look at it as our king
and servants. In that what we just read, the
voice from the throne said, it says, the voice came from the
throne, praise our God, all ye his. Servants. So we can look
at that relationship. Christ is our king and we are
his servants. But consider the picture before us here. That
Christ is showing us a more intimate relationship. That of a man and
his wife. A bridegroom, or what we would
call a husband, and the bride. We elect you who believe are
his bride his bride and He is our bridegroom our husband and
poles Exhortation in Ephesians chapter 5 you remember he exhorted
the wives. He said why? submit yourselves
unto your own husbands and Now why should you do that? If
you're a wife and you should submit yourself to your husband,
why? What is the purpose of this?
This marriage relationship and why were each one given certain
things in the marriage soul to do? Because it is of a greater picture
than just a man and a wife. It's something greater than just
two people getting married. It is a picture of God's Son
and His Church. Therefore wives submit yourselves
to your husband. Why? Because you are a picture
of the church. You are representation of God's
people as they submit themselves wholly to Christ. That's what
the picture is. Picture of marriage. And you
remember husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church
and gave himself for it. See, Paul is talking about a
physical union between a man and a wife and their responsibilities.
But more than that, he says, but I speak of a great mystery. Because I'm talking about Christ
and His church. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
loved His bride so much that He gave His life for her. The union of a man and a woman
is a picture of Christ and his church. This is why believers
always should receive the covenant bond of a husband and wife and
keep it because it is meant to be a picture. A picture. Now, to understand and rejoice
in this picture, we must understand the custom in which John understood
marriage. in which our customs are different
in marriage. We have our own little customs
and things. But when you read a marriage
in scripture, you should see it from this Jewish mindset because
it really is detailed in its picture. Now, there are four
elements in a Jewish marriage. Four elements. that are necessary
for this bond to take place. First of all is the betrothal.
The betrothal. Now normally we go out and pick
our husband and wife, don't we? We go out, really the wife picks
the husband. You know that to be true. The
husband, he goes out there and he thinks, well maybe she'll
have me, maybe she'll have me, I don't know. And then they say,
okay I'll have you, and you get married. But in this way there
was the father. The father of the son chose the
bride for his son. It was a betrothal. Now this might be what we call
the engagement period in our culture, but a betrothal is much
more binding than our engagements are. Our engagements are really
nothing. They're no binding thing. Will you marry me? Yes. In two
weeks they break it off. It's no big deal. But this is
much more binding under the Jewish customs. It was really a contract. A contract. A man and a woman
were betrothed. They were looked upon as husband
and wife. They were legally married, though
they had not and could not consummate the marriage until other things
took place. Yet in the eyes of the law, they
were betrothed, and there was no way that anyone could find another. They were bound
together legally. And the second part of this is
an interval. So you've got the betrothal, then you've got an
interval between that and the marriage. Okay, this is the span
of time in which before the wedding feast, this is a time where the
groom is to make the dowry. Again, in the betrothal, you
had a dowry. The son was to pay, was to give
money to the bride's father to receive her a dowry, a down payment. You remember Jacob did that,
didn't he? It could be anything. It could be money. It could be
labor. It could be just anything that the father... It could be
an animal. You know, that'd be kind of bad.
What do you pay for your wife? A cow. You know, it could be
anything. But remember Jacob, he had to
work 14 years for Rachel because he was duped with Leah and worked
seven years for her thinking he was going to get Rachel, but
he He had to work that. That was his dowry. So that's
the interval between the betrothal and the marriage, the wedding. Thirdly is the marriage procession. This is very big. The bridegroom
would get all of his friends together, and they would make
a big procession, a parade of music and festivities, and they
would go to the bride's house, and they would receive the bride,
and then he would take the bride back to his father's house. And then we would have what we
call the wedding feast. This thing would last a whole
week. It was a big deal. The wedding
feast was a lavish, extravagant feast provided by the father
of the groom, and these feasts were to publicly and permanently
unite the bride and the groom. And it's here the wedding feast
is described. But this is no mortal wedding
feast. It says that in this. It says,
the marriage of the Lamb is come. The marriage of the Lamb is come.
In verse 9 he said, blessed are they which are called to the
marriage supper of the Lamb. It is at this supper that all
the bride, all the church, all the elect
will feast forever with the Lord Jesus Christ, our bridegroom. The marriage of the Lamb is the
cause of great joy in heaven. The marriage of the Lamb Let
us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage
of the Lamb has come." Consider this, that from the beginning,
from Abel, from the very first saint who entered glory, that
all the saints and angels have been waiting for this day, longing
for this marriage feast to come. And when that happens, can you
imagine the joy? when everyone's in. Abel's been
waiting for over 7,000 years. He was the first to get in there,
wasn't he? It seemed like he'd be pretty
much alone with all the angels. He was the first one. But he
himself has been waiting for this day. This day that's mentioned
in this text, he's waiting for that day. And you know what?
So am I. I'm waiting for that day. And so are you who believe.
We're looking for that day. We're looking for that day. Be
glad, believer, our Father has purposed and planned and decreed
this wedding feast from eternity and everything that has come
to pass is now coming to pass and shall come to pass is moving
toward that feast. Everything is happening to bring
us in. Now let us be glad for Jesus
our Savior having obtained our salvation, for God having made
Him to be wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Let us now start rejoicing. We can start rejoicing today.
You can be glad today because everything's moving toward that
feast. Everything's going right along. Be glad that we are in
Christ. And he who dwells in us, being
the earnest of the Spirit, will keep us unto that day. Now then,
consider the type, and we'll go through each one of these
rather quickly, Lord willing. First of all, the betrothal. As the betrothal was legally
binding in earthly bonds of matrimony, how much more was the betrothal
of God of us when He chose us to be the bride of His Son? When God chose His people, in
Hosea, that beautiful picture there, Hosea, God says to Israel,
He said, I have betrothed thee to Me in righteousness. In righteousness. I have betrothed
thee to Me. He said, I will betroth thee
to Me forever. Behold the covenant of grace
in which God, not for our sakes, but for His own glory, chose
a people for His Son. We were not chosen for ourselves,
but for the glory of God. Behold, in that picture of Hosea,
you remember that Hosea was to go out and marry that poor Gone. You remember what her name
means? Wasted. Now, is that not a good
picture of us by nature? Wasted. Wasted. Have we not wasted
our lives on sin? Have we not wasted our time running
from God? And yet, know this, God betrothed
us to his Son, even knowing we were wasted. God betrothed us, knowing our
nature. He chose us. You remember in that picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ and Matthew, when he started talking
about the wedding feast, he said the king made a supper, a marriage
supper for his son. And he sent those servants out,
and they bid people to come, and they would not come. And
his servant said, Lord, they will not come. He said, well,
go out into the highway and the hedges. You get the hawk, the
blind, the man. You get anyone and you bring
them in. You bring them in. So then who
did the father choose? He chose the blind, the hawk,
the lame. He didn't choose the righteous.
He chose sinners. He called sinners. You see, only
Gomer was betrothed. to Hosea and nobody else. And
I tell you this, only sinners were chosen of God to be the
bride of His Son. And even so now, the interval.
God chose us from eternity, but now the interval. What's that?
That is the time where the bridegroom makes the payment. The bridegroom
makes the payment. As Hosea went and bought Gomer,
even so Jesus Christ has come to buy his bride, to make the
down payment, to make the payment for our sin, which was what? His own life. His life. Do you not see, Believer, that
the price of your salvation was very high? I wouldn't have paid three cents
for me, but he paid a much higher price. He gave himself for me. This is the interval. When Christ came to provide the
righteousness, we could not. When Christ came to buy us out
of the slave market of sin, This is the interval of our betrothal
to make a perfect sacrifice for our sins, to put away our sins
forever. Our Savior, by His one offering,
the Scripture says, God says, hath obtained eternal redemption
for us. And having done so, God testified
that His offering was sufficient by raising Him from the dead.
Now, do you believe that the offering was sufficient? Well, you say, I'm not sufficient.
Of course you're not sufficient. We're never sufficient. Stop
looking to yourself. Look to the offering. Look to
the down payment. Look at the dowry that our Master,
our Savior, our Husband, given us he had paid the price all
that was necessary to take away our sins and now God has raised him from
the dead and I tell you it was necessary for him to go away
it was necessary he said if I go not away then the comforter will not come
I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will no doubt come again and receive you unto myself. So what now is the third interval
of the marriage? It is the procession. You see
what's happening now? This is a procession. A procession. And every time the gospel is
preached, you know what the Lord Jesus Christ does? He, as the
bridegroom, comes decked in his robes of righteousness to the
very worthless sinner, and he gets his bride. He comes and
he takes his bride. That's what he's done for us.
He came in his procession with his friends, his preachers preaching
the gospel, and we heard and we came out of our Father's house
Isn't that right? We came out of Adam's house and
we're going to our Father's house, to Christ's house. And this is
what we're doing in this interval. We are marching to Zion. Marching
to Zion. Beautiful, beautiful Zion. Oh,
by nature we were in enmity against God. By nature we could not come
to Christ but God. who is rich in mercy, for his
great love, wherewith he loved us, he called us to the marriage
supper. And here I was in the highway,
in hedges of sin, and God said, you come to the marriage. You come to the marriage. You come to the marriage! Now
I bid you all come to the marriage! Come to Christ! There's room. Come to Christ. I tell you, but
not all that are bidden come. Not all that are bidden come.
Many of you will make excuses. Well, I'm too young. Well, I'm
too old. Well, I'm setting my ways. Well,
I have a lot to live for first. I'll make that. I'll come later.
Don't be presumptuous. God may not call you later. Come now. Come now to the marriage. And this is what we are doing.
We are marching to Zion. We are coming. He is calling
us. In this interval we are going.
I can't help but think of Rebecca as she was going to Isaac you
remember he had given her those jewels to show how Isaac his
master was rich and How he would be able and he gave that dowry
for for her and all the way she kept asking questions about him
She'd never seen Isaac Isn't that the way it is right
now with us we are going to see our trove We're going to glory
to see Christ. I've not seen Him, but I love
to hear of Him. I love to walk as I'm walking
through to Him in this interval, in this procession. I love to
hear of His riches and His mercy and His grace and His blood and
His righteousness. That's what we're doing now. And in this interval, notice
this in your text. Go to this. For the marriage
of the Lamb has come, and the wife hath made herself ready."
Now, have you ever stopped to consider how that's possible? There we were. We're by nature
sinners. By nature we could not make ourselves
ready. By nature we had nothing to make
ourselves presentable to our master, to our husband. We had
only the robes of our sin, the rags of our filthiness. How then
is the bride made herself ready? Well listen, it's not by your
works do you make yourself ready. It's not by your merits, it's
not by your religion or your ceremony. How then is the bride
made ready in this interval? How is she made ready in this
procession? I tell you how. By God's grace,
she disrobes of her rags and puts on his righteousness. That's how we make ourselves
ready. By God's grace and mercy, when He gives a man life, that's
the first thing we do. We put off the old man and his
deeds. And we put on the new man. Isn't that what he said these
garments were? And her garments, which made herself ready that
she should be arrayed, these garments were granted, given
to her. See, I have righteousness before
God because it is given to me. I did not make this robe. I'm just wearing it. I'm wearing it. It's mine. You know who made it? My husband. Even the righteousness of God
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Unto all and upon all them that
believe, imputed and imparted to everyone that believes. Have
you made yourself ready? Are you ready for this feast?
I'm ready. Ready? Why? Because the word
was, all things are ready. Isn't that the word of the king
in Matthew when he prepares the feast? The king's word is, all
is ready. All is ready. Bring nothing. All is ready. And what happens
if you bring something? Do you remember the man in the
marriage parable that brought something? The king walked among the guests
and he saw one who had not a robe, had not a marriage robe. And
he said to that man, friend, how art thou come? You listen,
you add anything to this robe, one stitch of your works to his
robe and you have defiled his work. You won't be of any profit. Therefore, to make ourselves
ready is nothing more or less than to believe on Christ. Believe
on Christ. And all who do, listen, this
is your end, here it is. Be glad. And rejoice. And give Him honor. for the marriage of the Lamb
is come. You know it's what we do now
and that's what we're going to do then. And this feast is not
going to last for seven days, it's going to last forever. It's
going to last forever. Never. Never get tired. Never be weary. Never shed a tear. Never have
a trouble. Always love, always love, always
love, always love, never ceasing love. We will be glad and rejoice when
the marriage feast is come. And I do pray that God would
even open the hearts of men today to come. Come. You that have come, rejoice. Be glad. Stop looking at your
circumstance and look at what God has done to betroth you. Look at what Christ has done
to buy you. Look at what Christ has done
in his procession to come and receive you to himself and look
at what is waiting for you. Stop looking at the now, look
to Christ and be glad. Be glad. What do you have to
be sad about? Really, what do you have to be
sad about? You have you. You have everything. Everything. Pray God blesses
you.