Revelation 19. Revelation 19.
Revelation 19. I woke up this morning thinking
about the marriage yesterday. Many of you were there. Such
a blessing. What a joyful occasion. I was glad that I was there.
I was glad. I didn't particularly want to
perform the ceremony, but someone needed to. And I was glad I was there. I
was honored to be called on by the family to do it. Blessed
to be there. I was blessed to be there. And
I began to think about another marriage, a much greater marriage. It's very soon, very soon. A great, grand, and glorious
wedding that I want to be a part of. I don't want to miss, I want
to be there. And I want everyone in this room,
I just prayed for you and I meant it, I want everyone in this room
to be in that wedding, be in that marriage, married to the
Lamb. Revelation 19, 9 says, He saith unto me, Right, blessed,
blessed, 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." Write this down. This is true. Very soon, a marriage supper
of the Lamb. Now turn back to Matthew 22 that
we read together and hold your place in Revelation, okay? We read back here our Lord telling
this parable of of a wedding, of a marriage, of a supper. He made a marriage for His Son. Look at Matthew 22. Matthew 22. He said, The Kingdom of Heaven,
verse 2, is of a certain King. Our God is King and He reigns
and rules. And He made a marriage for His
Son. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God
created all things. And without His Son was not anything
created that was made. He created all things. He's God,
Jesus Christ. And all things were created by
Him, and what? For Him. Before creation, God,
well the whole world, God created the whole world for the glory
of His Son, Jesus Christ. That's right. The heavens declare
His glory. The firmament show that He's
in it. Everything in creation somehow or another typifies,
illustrates the Lord Jesus Christ in it. From the sky, the sun
in the sky, to the grass and trees and on and on. But before
creation, God purposed a kingdom, a kingdom. Before there were
any creatures of any kind, angels, Before there was man, there was
God. Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
And God, the Trinity, purposed a kingdom. An actual, literal,
physical kingdom. Spiritual, yes, but physical
also. Bodies. A body. Flesh and bones. Well, nobody will have blood
then. flesh and bone, all right? And this spiritual kingdom is
all about a marriage, a union of these people whom God will
create. People God has chosen and created
for His Son. They are called the Lamb's Wife. They are called the Bride of
Christ. It's called the Church, a blessed
term. A blessed term. When I say my
wife, it's a very special thing. You know that? I don't say that
about anybody else. I say it about one. The church. That's Christ's bride. That's
Christ's wife. I don't call every building I
see a church. And don't you do it either. Okay? It's a very special term. It's
a Lamb's bride. It's a Lamb's wife. Well, who
are they? Who are they? How did they get
in this marriage? How did they get to marry the
Lamb? The Lord Jesus Christ, the King's
Son. Who are they? Look at verse 3.
It says, The King sent forth his servants to call them to
the wedding. Every one of them were called
by His servants, chosen by Him. It pleased God, how? By the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. Okay? God sends preachers
of the Gospel. It says in Romans 8, For whom
He did foreknow, He did predestinate. Whom He predestinated, He what?
Called. How? Not an audible voice. Not a dream or a vision when
you're asleep on your bed. No. By our Gospel. The Gospel. I'm bound to give
thanks to God for you, Brethren, beloved of the Lord. Because
God hath from the beginning chosen you. Before you were ever born.
Before the world began. Before He created everything.
He chose a people. He chose you unto salvation.
Through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth,
which you're hearing right now. The truth. Okay. And called you. Where unto He called you by our
gospel. Unto the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. For His glory. It's all about His glory. The
gospel. What is the gospel, Preacher?
I thought you'd never ask. Well, it begins with God. It
begins with God, our Creator. It's the gospel of God, Romans
1 says. It's the gospel of God who reigns,
who rules. There's no good news if God doesn't
reign. God reigns and rules over all. His glory is everywhere. God. But man, man is dead in
trespass. Man is a rebel against God. Man hates God by nature. Yes,
he does. He's at enmity with God. There's
no good news if there's not death and life from death. Man's dead
in trespass sin. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespass sin. Everyone, the only ones who know
they were dead is those who are made alive. But God, But God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love, wherewith he loved
us, the saints, the elect, God's people, sent his Son to save
some, yea, many of those rebels. And you who were aliens and enemies,
you who were rebels against God, you children of wrath, even as
others, But God sent His Son to save rebels. Why would He
do that? For His glory. For our salvation. He's the only Savior. He sent
Christ down here to save His people by His righteousness imputed. Is that important? We're going to see in a minute.
It's the wedding garment. You cannot be married to the
Lamb without wearing His garment. You'll be cast out if not. God
saves His people through the righteousness of Jesus Christ
imputed and imparted to them. He is their righteousness. They
are saved by His goodness, by His work, not their own. They
are saved by His shed blood. Sin has to be paid for. The wages
of sin is death. The punishment for sin is death.
Christ died. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. Christ shed his precious blood,
not for all, but for some. For many, yes, for his people. And every single person whom
Jesus Christ died for and shed his blood, their sins are gone. This is the good news, he said.
If anything's left for us to do, it's not good news. Here's the good news. It's done. It's done. Your sins are gone. The Gospel is this. Here's the
Gospel. He tells us to repent. He tells
us to believe on His Son. He tells us to come to Christ.
He tells us to call. He says, come. He says, bow.
He says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
saved. And if you believe, you must
confess Him and believe rebellion. That's what it said. And if He
saved you, you will. You will. Gladly, you will. Now
that's the gospel. That's the gospel. And some wouldn't
come. They wouldn't come. That's what
we stand up and call men with every time. I didn't ask anybody
to do anything to them. Did I ask anybody to do anything
for God and let God let go and let Jesus? Did I ask anybody,
won't you accept? Did I? No, I did not. I just
declared who God is, what man is, who Jesus Christ is, what
He did for His people. That's it. Well, how's anybody going to
respond? The Spirit of God takes that
very message and works on it. Well, they wouldn't come. They
would not come, verse 3. They were bidden to the wedding.
Now listen to me. There's a reason he uses the word bidden. It's
not invite. Look it up. Ask Google. Ask Alexa. I don't care who you
ask. It's not invite. Why isn't invite in the Scripture?
Because it's not an invite. Salvation is not by invitation.
It's by command. John, and I love that verse in
the psalm, thou hast given commandment to save men. David didn't say
of Mephibosheth, go down and ask him if he wants to be my
son. He said, fetch it. Boy, if you're
lame on both your feet, if you're an enemy and know you deserve
to die, like all of Mephibosheth's brothers did. He was sure glad,
salvation by the mercy of the king. He was sure glad that the
king sent somebody to pick him up, lay hold of him, and bring
him all the way to glory to hear his voice and hear him tell what
he has done for him for the sake of another. Oh, that's good news. Phil Sheff thought he was going
to die. What did he hear? Mercy for the sake of another. Some of you are smiling and nodding
your head and laughing. How many times have you heard
my fiddle shape? Aren't you tired of it yet? No,
because that's our story. That's my story. That's your
story. That's every fetched child of
God's story. It's not bidding. Bid means announce. It means an announcement. Kings don't invite. When did
kings ever invite their subjects to do anything? Would you please
get me some tea? Would you please come and appear
before me? Seriously. Thus saith the king. Hear ye, hear ye. His servants
go out westward. They're not beggars. They represent
the great king in glory. He tells them, you go out and
you bid, you make this announcement, you make this declaration. Don't
beg anybody, don't ask anybody. Tell them, God commandeth all
men everywhere to repent. Not an invitation, it's a command. God's not a beggar and neither
is His servant. At 9.30 a.m. in the year of our
Lord, 2023, October the 15th, there will
be a service for the honor and majesty of our King. Be here. Here you are. Here I am. There was a time I would not
come. I would not come. He wasn't my
king, and his son wasn't my husband. At least I didn't know it. Do you see why salvation must
be by command, must be by sovereign call? Do you see why? I do. Boy, do I. I would not come. Christ said, no man can come
unto me except Let me say it again. This is God's glory in
Him. This is our condemnation and
to His glory in Him. Not just doctrine. This is God's
glory. It's our condemnation. And it's
also our joy. Because if we come, we know God
did it. No man can come unto me, Christ
said it. In case you didn't hear me the
first time, He said it again. Didn't He, John? Except the Father
which hath sent me draw them. Oh my, you've been drawn with
cords. You've been lassoed. You've been
roped and tied. We need it. Need it. Need to lasso us. Stop our wild career like a wild
ass is cold and get on us and ride us all the way to glory.
That's the only way we're going to get there. Not a bid. I mean, it's not an
invite. It's a bid. Command. Come. I'm here. Bless His Holy Name. You're here. Bless His Holy Name. And most
in here know how and why we're here. Verse 14 in our text. It ends this way. He ended it
this way. In verse 14 of Matthew 22. Many
are called, but few. are chosen. Are you saying only
elect will be saved? No, I'm not saying that. Jesus
Christ did. John Calvin didn't say it. Jesus
Christ did. Must you believe this? Yes, you
must. If he said it, if you believe
him, you believe it. You know it. And if you know
yourself, If you've truly been chosen, and drawn, and called,
and brought, and fetched, and saved by His sovereign mercy,
you're going to be singing throughout eternity, chosen, chosen, chosen,
chosen. Because I didn't choose Him. I would not. I chose me. I chose sin. I chose everybody
and everything but Him, but God. It ain't doctrine, people. It's
who does the saving. It's who gets the glory. I'm
going to keep saying this as loud as I can, as long as I can.
Look at verse 4. Verse 4. Tell them that are bidden,
tell them, behold, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen, my fatlings
are killed. All things are ready. I've done
it all. You do nothing at all, bring
nothing at all. You come. This is my supper,
about my son, his glory, his honor, and this is what I've
done. Now you come. Not interested, they said. They made light of it. Verse
5, they went their ways. I like my way. There's one way. Oh, preacher, you're going to
preach on the blood of Christ again. You're going to talk about
Christ crucified again. God forbid. Woe is unto me if
I don't. We're going to be singing throughout
eternity today. Oh, my. We all know why we're
there. The sun made light of us. One
went to his farm, another his merchandise. And then it killed
all of his servants, you know, the rest of it. And he went down
in verse 8, says, and all that's a picture of how all
the prophets were, the prophets preached. Who did the prophets
preach? What did the prophets preach? Who did Moses write about? Christ said, Moses wrote of me.
Who did the prophets give witness of? What was their message? Christ
said to him, give all the prophets witness. Then the apostles, what were
they sent out to preach? Not what? Who? Christ, the Crucified. They killed all the prophets.
They killed all the apostles but one, according to God's purpose.
Then the martyrs, the true preachers of God, the early church, what
did they preach? Same thing, same gospel, same
one, one way, one truth, one light, one person, one gospel,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one hope of your calling, one,
one, one, one, one. And they killed them too. Burned
them at the stake. Verse 7, the king heard. Oh, God loves you. He's angry
with the wicked every day. What about? Killed his son. And he sent his armies, destroyed
those murderers and burned up everything they had. But he said
to his servants, The wedding is ready. Everything's ready. Everything's been done. Everything's
been prepared. The food is ready. The king is
there. The son is there. The wedding
is going to take place. Someone's going to marry my son.
Well, who are they? They won't come. There's nobody
here. They just won't come. Well, he
said in verse 8, they're not worthy. Go therefore into the
highways. And as many as you find bid to
the mayor. So they went out and issued the
same bid or call, went out to the highways and look at this,
verse 10. So they gathered together as
many as they found. They gathered together. This
story is found in Luke. You don't have to turn, but I'll
turn for you. This story is also in Luke with
a little more added to it. The Lord said to the servant,
go out into the highways. He said, go there quickly into
the lanes of the city and bring in the poor, the maimed, and
the halt, and the blind. You see, maimed can't come unless
somebody brings them. All right, halt, that means they
can't walk. They can't come. So how did they bring them? They
picked them up and carried them all the way. And the blind, they
can't come, they can't see. They're blind. And the Lord said
in the service, go out into the highways and the hedges and compel
them to come in, that my house might be filled.
Compelled. What's that mean? Ron, did your dad ever compel
you to do something? With a compelling force that
you couldn't? Did Tom, your dad? I was often compelled. And I,
not willingly, but I did what he told me to do. Oh, the Lord doesn't make us.
Oh, if He doesn't make us to lie down, if He doesn't make
us to sit in heavenly places, if He doesn't make Christ to
be our Savior, if He doesn't make us, if He doesn't... The
Lord saves every single person against their proud self-will. He has to break that will. You
will not come. You will not come. He has to
make you willing in the day of His power in the gospel. It is
God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good
pleasure, or you wouldn't go. And yet somebody said, against
our will with our full consent. It changes our will. It makes
us willing. Go out and bring them in, compel
them. Now look in our text, compel
them. And I love that. Don't you love
that? I won't believe that. Yes, you will. I won't come. Yes, you will. Yes, you will. I don't like that.
You're going to love this. You're going to love my son. And verse 11 says, Now when the
king came to see the guests, he saw there a man which had
not on a wedding garment. And he said to him, Friend, how
camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was
speechless. He was speechless. This wedding garment, what is
it? Go to Revelation 19 now. We'll stay there. Revelation
19. The Lord said, Cast out that man, bind him hand and foot.
Revelation 19, look at it. You have it? Verse 1, listen to what everybody's
doing in glory. Listen to what they're saying.
Revelation 19, I heard a great voice of much people in heaven
saying, hallelujah, praise the Lord. Salvation and glory and
honor and power unto the Lord our God. They're all singing
of His glory, His honor, His power. That's how they got there.
Down in verse 6, I heard a great voice, the voice of a great multitude,
as the voice of many waters, thinking about Try to imagine
what that song of Moses sounded like at that Red Sea with two
million people singing it from the bottom of their heart and
the top of their lungs. Try to imagine that. I believe
the Lord had the ocean just dead calm, still. And they all started
singing. Try to imagine that. Try to imagine
this. You want to be there? Learn this
song. I heard a voice of many waters,
as a voice of mighty thundering, saying what? Same thing. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. All praise.
The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to Him. I was at the wedding yesterday.
And everyone that was there was there because they knew and loved.
Everyone from the church that was there was there because they
knew and loved the bridegroom. Right? We love that man, don't
we? We love his father and we love
the son, don't we? We love the son as much as we
love the father, don't we? We're there. And it was a great
honor to the father. I wish you could have seen Stephen's
face. They were taking pictures in my study. Wish I'd had a picture
of his face. They took a picture of his bride and his son, arm in arm, embracing. Stephen's looking like, that's
my bride, my wife, and that's my son. And that's as good an
illustration as you'll ever hear. That's what heaven is doing.
God looks on with favor. It's great honor and glory to
Him, those who honor His Son. He loves those who honor His
Son, His Bride, His Wife. I was there by God's grace. You were there. Some of you were
there. Why? Because we knew and loved the Bridegroom. And do
you know what? We've come to love the Bride
just as much as the Groom. Don't you? Care I? Oh, isn't
she precious? She reminds me of Jesus Christ.
Like Joseph. We were there. And this was to
the honor of the Father and the family. The church was there
to honor the Son. And that's what the church does
today. This day. We all love the Father, the Son,
and we love the Bride. We love the Church of God. And you know what? I'm wearing
right now, and most in here were dressed accordingly, befitting
the occasion. Honor, integrity, befitting the
occasion. We were dressed accordingly.
I'm dressed in exactly the same clothes that I wore yesterday
in honor to that occasion, in honor to the father and the bridegroom. The exact same clothes. Different
shirt. I've got a clean shirt. But here's
the point. Here's the point. I did all this
in the honor of the occasion and the one that was being married.
We're all going to be wearing the exact same thing. In fact,
I'm wearing it right now. And I look out and I see a wedding
garment on his paper. If you don't have it, if you
don't know what it is, you're not going to be there. I'm wearing
it. You can't see it, but God sees
it. What is it? Look in our text,
Revelation 19, verse 8. Revelation 19, to her was granted
that she should be arrayed in fine linen. Why fine linen? Well,
chapter 1 says, Thou hast made us kings and priests. First,
they said, you've loved us and washed us from our sins in your
own blood and made us kings and priests. What do priests wear,
John? Linen. Fine linen. Read on. Clean and white. What is it? What is this? This robe. It's
a robe covered in all flesh. It's a gown. The robe, fine linen,
it's the righteousness of saints. What is that? Christ's righteousness. He has made unto us righteousness. It's the covering of flesh, covering
of the filth of the flesh. Who made this garment? Not us.
The king's daughter, Psalm 145, is all glorious. She's brought
unto the king in royal apparel. Who made this apparel? Jesus
Christ Himself. His robe of righteousness. He
was stripped and we were clothed. They were arrayed. To her it
was granted that she should be arrayed. It wasn't offered, this
righteousness. It wasn't offered. Do you like
this? Would you like to wear this?
Put it on her. When the prodigal son came back
home, why did he come back home? Says he came to himself. Why? God, the Holy Spirit, made him
see himself and brought him back to the father. And it says, here's
what it says, when he came back, says the father, saw him a long way off, far off,
ran to meet him, fell on his neck and kissed him, embraced
him. What's the first thing he said?
What's the first thing the Father said? Huh? Bring the best robe. He was in rags before God brought
us to himself, to hear the gospel, you may have been in religion.
And those people that were brought in in the wedding, it says they
were good and bad, right? Remember that? Good and bad.
You may have thought you were good. You had a robe. You had
a righteousness that you worked at, you know. It's filthy rags
in God's hand. Stink. He brought you to yourself to
see your righteousness as a filthy rag that it is. To see the righteousness
of Christ as your only covering. And He brought you to Him and
He said, bring the robe. And what did He say? Put it on
him. Clothe him. Cover him from head
to toe. Don't let any flesh be seen. And bring the fatted calf. He's been waiting on this, my
son. And so it says in verse 9, my
cloak. He said unto me, write this down,
write it down. Blessed, oh how blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. He said these are true
sayings. It's all true. It's all true. You know, yesterday's wedding,
I believe, was scriptural. Several people said that. Someone
told me, someone was there, that they said they've never attended
a wedding of believers like that. Somebody sitting in this room.
And it was all to the honor and glory of our God, first and foremost,
was it not? It's all as a type of Christ.
I will not marry two unbelievers. I won't do it. I cannot do that
in the sight of God. Can't be a part of that. But
I could marry these two with great joy and confidence, by
God's grace, great confidence based upon the testimony they
both bear of our Lord. The love that's so evident in
their heart. Hope, faith, and Christ. Yesterday's message,
yesterday's wedding was scriptural. It was the honor and glory of
Christ. And it was happy, it was joyful
wedding. The blessed thing. Like I said,
even though I had to do it, it was still a blessing to me. I
wish you could have seen their faces. And I'm saying these things.
And Joseph's got tears in his eyes. And Karen's got tears in
her eyes. And I said, Joseph, will you?
He said, I will. They will it. Real love, real
faith, real... They knew what I was saying.
Who I was talking about? Christ, this bride. Joseph has
a great desire to be like Christ, be a husband to his bride like
Christ did. And Kara, a bride to her husband,
like she is to her great Lord. Oh, it's a happy, a joyful, it's
a blessing to all. Blessing to all. And then we
went to a place to eat, didn't we? What follows the ceremony?
Supper. Did you enjoy it? Did anybody bring anything? You
better not have. Why? It was all prepared. Wasn't that something? Did you
get enough to eat? I saw you. Ed, I saw your plates. I did. There was enough for everybody. Beautiful table. Beautiful table. Did you enjoy yourself then? Oh, I was talking to Steven and
Joseph and Nancy. We're all, it's all, wasn't
it joyful? Wasn't it joyful? We loved the
sir. We loved the father. We loved
the people of God. We loved this marriage. The food
was good. The fellowship was good. Brothers and sisters, I'm
here to tell you this morning, it's going to get better. Just wait. You just wait till
you're sitting at that supper. As Scripture says, you're going
to be silenced for 30 minutes because everybody's jaw is going
to be on the floor. See in the land. Just, I'm here. I'm here. We're going to sing. Oh, we're
going to sing. Oh, we're going to sing. Worthy
is the Lamb that was slain. Okay, let's sing our closing
hymn.