In Revelation 19, this is a passage
that is almost like an instruction manual on worship. The scripture tells us that the
people of God are to worship God in spirit and in truth. That's one of the marks of God's
elect. You know, somebody says, how
can I know if I'm one of God's elect? Well, do you believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ as your whole salvation? The scripture
says in Philippians chapter three and verse three, we are the circumcision,
which means born again. That's another term in the New
Testament for being born again of the spirit, because what that's
talking about is circumcision of the heart. And Paul described
it in Romans 2, 28 and 29, for example. And so when a sinner is brought
by the Holy Spirit to faith in Christ and true repentance, and
I'm gonna talk about that in the message this morning on a
new creature, the new creation and what's really new in those
issues. He's been born again from above
and God has given him a new heart, given him or her a new heart.
and it's heart of belief, it's a heart of faith, belief of the
truth, now not just believing, and people need, especially today
in our religious day, people talk about faith, having faith,
and usually what they mean by faith is just being something
like sincere, or believing enough, or having good intentions, and
that's not faith at all. Now, yes we should be sincere,
yes we should have good intentions, all of that, but faith has a
foundation, You know, we sing that, how firm a foundation,
ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in what? You know
the next lines? His excellent word. Faith believes
God. Faith doesn't just believe anything.
You know, when I was a boy, I used to believe that the moon was
made of green cheese. And I had faith in that, but
it wasn't true. So, those are the things we have
to understand. And then faith has an object. Now here's the
object of faith, it's Christ. Salvation in Christ, not in me,
not in you, not in what we do, not even in what we decide. Somebody
says, well you need to make a decision for Christ. Well listen now,
if God leaves you to yourself or me to myself, we won't make
that decision, we won't make a right decision. But we do make
a decision when God changes the heart. That's, he makes us willing
in the day of his power. Now that's what the Bible teaches.
And that's what we have to understand. But when he does, he draws out
our heart in worship. And look at what he said, look
at verse seven. Revelation 19, verse seven. He says, let us
be glad and rejoice. Now, that doesn't mean that if
we believe we're gonna be happy all the time. We're gonna have
a lot of moments of sorrow. You know, Christ told his disciples
in John 16, he said, in the world you'll have tribulation. That's
trouble. But he said, be of good cheer because I've overcome the
world. That's what he's talking about
here. Let us be glad and rejoice. Why? Because we are partakers
of a salvation that is freely and fully and sovereignly and
powerfully provided for us in and by the Lord Jesus Christ
and give honor to him, he says. We're not here to honor each
other. You know, that's what a lot of people do in churches
when they talk about worship, you know, they give accolades
to men. And especially, especially preachers. I'll tell you what, you know,
people want to elevate preachers and most preachers love it. You
know, even if they don't actively pursue it, they'll allow it to
happen. Paul dealt with that in first Corinthians chapter
one. But here, here's what I'm telling you. Here's the situation
here at Eager Avenue Grace Church. This is one center standing up
here, preaching to other centers. And we all have the same need.
And that's salvation by grace. And I've told you a thousand
times, I guess, that if God were to judge me at my best, at any
time, even now, today, even while I'm standing here, based upon
my best efforts to obey him, I would receive damnation. Salvation
is not by my best efforts. And somebody says, well, I don't
believe that. Well, then stop going around saying salvation
is by grace in your understanding. we give honor to him. You know,
I love, you know, you've heard me talk about the John the Baptist
school of preaching. I love that you go through John
the Baptist ministry. If anybody could have honored
himself and talked about his credentials, John the Baptist
could. He was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He was
born of a miraculous birth because his parents were way past the
age of childbearing. He's the forerunner of Christ.
John the Baptist could go to Malachi chapter three and point
and say, that's talking about me specifically. I can go to
a lot of scriptures and say where it's talking about me. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I'm, gee,
that's talking about me. But John the Baptist could go
there. That prophecy is about John the Baptist. pointing the
way. And he was the last of the Old
Testament, but he didn't say any of that stuff about him.
He told him, he said, I'm not the Christ. I cannot save you. I can baptize you in water, John
said, but there's coming one who's able to baptize you with
fire. Now, what that means is in the
power of the spirit to bring a sinner to faith in Christ.
I can't give you a new heart. An old preacher said, I can't
save you, I can't even save myself. I can tell you who can save and
who does save. And that's what he said. That's
what John the Baptist said. Behold the Lamb of God which
beareth away the sins of the world. The sin of the world.
That's sins of his people all over the world. And he said,
I'm not the Christ. He said, I'm not even fit to
tie his shoes. That's what he said about Christ.
Compared to Christ, I'm not even fit to stoop down and untie his
shoes. And then he said this, he, Christ,
must increase, I must decrease. Pastor Mayhem, my old pastor,
he used to say, he said, preach Christ, here's what preachers
should do. Point sinners to Christ and then
get out of the way. That's what I want to do. And
then that one passage, I think it's in John three, where his
disciples, it says they heard John speak and they followed
Christ. And that's what I want. You're
hearing me speak, but I don't want you to follow me. I want
you to follow Christ for salvation. Well, look at verse seven. He
says, for the marriage of the lamb is come. Now the lamb is,
is Christ. He's the lamb of God. You know
that all the Old Testament lambs were pictures and types of the
substitutionary work of Christ as the lamb slain under the justice
of God. That's what it was all about.
You've heard the term propitiation. This is what it is. Propitiation
means a sin-bearing sacrifice that makes satisfaction to justice. satisfies. That's what it means.
Christ went to the cross for his sheep. Their sins were charged,
accounted, reckoned, imputed to him. And he was made guilty
in their place and he died. That's the penalty. He had to
die. God has to be just when he justifies
the ungodly. And his righteousness is imputed
to them. What we have here is the culmination
of redemptive history. In the marriage of the Lamb,
look at it, verse 7, the marriage of the Lamb has come and his
wife, his bride, hath made herself ready. His bride is his church. His wife is his people. Christ
is called the Bridegroom. The church is called the Bride
of Christ. The Bride of Christ is not some
special, specific denomination. Now, that doesn't mean all denominations
are correct. You know, I've heard people say,
well, I believe there's safe centers and safe people in all denominations.
You better read the Bible. That's not so. But we're not
preaching denominationalism here. There's a group called the Landmark
Baptists who say they're the bride of Christ and you can be
saved, but you're on the outer circle. I know, I used to be
one of them. And it's not true. The bride
of Christ is made up, the wife here, is made up of sinners whom
God chose before the foundation of the world and gave to the
Lamb, gave to Christ. The Bible says in Revelation
13 that their names were written in the Lamb's book of life before
the foundation of the world, the Lamb slain. That's who they
are. They're fallen sinners. They
have no hope in themselves. By nature, they're no different
than children of wrath, and they're born dead in trespasses and sins. That's what we are by nature,
as we're naturally born. But then Christ was sent into
the world to identify with them in his humanity God-man, and
what did he do? He redeemed them by his blood. That's what he did. Ruined by
the fall, chosen of God before the foundation of the world,
ruined by the fall, and redeemed by the blood. And in the process
of time, here's how we know we're of that number and how we find
out about each other. The Holy Spirit brings them under
the preaching of the T-R-U-T-H. The truth, not a lie. God doesn't
save sinners under the preaching of a lie. That's the broad road
that leads to destruction. But under the gospel, wherein
the righteousness of God is revealed. What is that righteousness? It's
the entire merit, value, worth of the work of the Lamb. Now
he says here, the Lamb's wife made herself ready. How do you
make yourself ready? Well, you start working hard
and trying to, you know, trying to work your way into God's favor.
Well, that's not how you make yourself ready. The thing about
it is, if that's what you're trying to do, that's unbelief. For by grace you're saved. Through faith, and that's not
of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. Ephesians 2.8 and 9. So if you're
trying to work your way into salvation, trying to earn it,
trying to deserve it by your efforts, you're not making yourself
ready for this marriage. In fact, you're alienated from
God. That's what the scripture says.
That's the wicked works that the scripture speaks of. That's
the iniquity. And why is it iniquity? Because
nothing that we do, even in our best, will measure up to the
righteousness that God requires. Well, where am I going to find
that righteousness? Only in the Lamb. Only in Christ. So how does the wife make herself
ready? I'll tell you exactly how. By
God-given faith. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Rest in Him. Rest in His blood
for my whole forgiveness of all my sins. Past sins, present sins,
future sins. is conditioned on what? The Lamb's
blood, the blood of the Lamb, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
me from all sin. How many times you hear me quote
the hymn? What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood
of Jesus. You really believe that? Some
people think they have to do penance. Well, penance does not
wash away sin. Penance does not pay the penalty.
Penance does not make you righteous. You know where penance comes
from, it's repentance. Do we have to repent? Yes, but
it's not our repenting that cleanses us from sin. It's by seeing that
the blood of the lamb cleanses us from sin and issues from that
as the fruit, repentance. Repentance is not the cause.
Repentance is not the ground. Repentance is the fruit of seeing
that the lamb's blood washes me clean. So she doesn't make
herself ready by trusting Christ for all of salvation. That's
what it's talking about. Listen, every true believer,
sinner saved by grace, we ought to be the most obedient people
on the face of God's green earth. But our obedience does not qualify
us to marry the Lamb. Our obedience does not make us
righteous before God. The Lamb does. Now that's a difference
that is infinitely more profound than what most people understand. Because, well, you know, well,
you say it that way, we say it that way. No. This is the glory
of God. You know, anytime you read about
The marriage, you know, and I won't go through all this. I've got
a little bit in your lesson on this, about back in the Old Testament,
the Jewish marriage and what they would do. They, you know,
the bride and the groom, you know, they were They were betrothed
to each other, and then they had the marriage, they were espoused,
and all of that, and all those different stages they go through.
And incidentally, if you read Ladies, y'all may be disappointed
in that, but it's not like marriages today. You know who was the focus
of the marriage back then? Not the bride. The bridegroom
was. And that's why Christ is called
the bridegroom. He's the focus here, isn't he? And so it's changed,
had marriage ceremonies. Incidentally, you all do know
that there's nothing in the scripture about how preachers should conduct
a funeral or a marriage. Did y'all know that? Somebody
asked me one time when the Supreme Court did this homosexual thing,
said, well, what if they come in here and said, you've got
to marry these two homosexuals? I don't have to marry anybody.
There's nothing in the Bible that commands me as a preacher
to perform marriages. That's right. And if you look
at our Constitution here, there's nothing in my job description
that says I have to do it either. I do it if it's people of the
church and I know them and all that. And I don't mind doing
it, don't get me wrong. But I'm just simply saying that's
a myth. The law could come in here. I could say, well, I'll
marry this couple over here, but I'm not going to marry this
one over here. I could do that legally. And they couldn't do anything
about it legally. But it's different now, isn't it? The way it is. But this marriage here, this
is the culmination of redemptive history. Christ, the Lamb returning
to earth, the second coming of Christ, and where he takes in
unto himself his bride, his church, gathers his church unto himself. And anytime you see in the scripture
where the bride is putting on a wedding garment, and you see
in Isaiah 61 and there's several places in the book of Revelation,
do you know what the wedding garment is? The wedding garment
is Christ's righteousness imputed. Look here, he says in verse eight,
he says, and to her was granted that she should be arrayed in
fine linen, clean and white, that word white, you might see
the word glistering or you might see the word bright. I mean,
this is a bright light. This is a clean garment. For
the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. Now many people, in
fact, I heard Pat Robertson, you know who Pat Robertson, years
ago, He was taking a question and answer series on his program,
and a lady stood up and asked him, said, what is the righteousness
of the saints there? What is that wedding garment?
And he said, well, that's the works of believers here on earth.
No, it's not. How do I know? Well, first of
all, I know salvation is by grace, not works. Secondly, the context
tells us what it is. And thirdly, any other time you
go to anywhere where it's talking about the wedding garment, it's
not talking about our works. It's talking about Christ's work,
the merit of it, charged, accounted, imputed to us. You see, the gospel
is the revelation of the righteousness of who? The righteousness of
God. Romans 1, 16, 17. His righteousness
becomes ours how? by imputation, by a legal act
of accounting, reckoning. And how many times have I used
that? You've heard me use that illustration about a person who's
in debt. Let's say you're in debt a million.
Let's say you owe a million dollars. And you cannot pay the first
penny. I mean, you're just totally gone on that, you know. And you
go to the bank that you owe the money to, and you ask to speak
to one of the loan officers. And you say, well, I've got to
throw myself at your mercy. Now, you know how much good that
would do, don't you? And he said, I'm going to throw myself at
your mercy. I owe this money, and I can't pay it. And the banker
gets out his books, and he opens the book, and he finds your name.
And he says, wait a minute now. You don't owe a dime. Somebody
already paid your debt. Somebody walked in here and said,
put it on my account. I'll repay it. It's paid. Now,
could you imagine what kind of relief would come over you if
that really happened? So you get up to leave and the
banker says, wait a minute, wait a minute, there's more. What
do you mean more? They put a million dollars in here on your account.
That's what I'm talking about. That's what Christ did for his
bride. He paid her debt in full by the price of his blood and
he gave her in return, spiritually speaking, a million dollars to
the good. That's his righteousness. We
stand before God not in garments of our own, but in garments that
he made and put on us, and that's the righteousness of God. Now,
if the righteousness we stand in is our own, then it's flawed. That's right. Let me ask you, you say, well,
all right, let's take an example for, you know, people say, well,
I just love everybody. Well, first of all, you don't. You don't love everybody. I don't. Should I? I should love my neighbor
as myself, yes. But see, define love in the scripture. That means you always think the
best and you always sacrifice your stuff for even those who
are your enemies who would do you the most harm. That's love. That's what Christ did for his
bride. Even when we were enemies, the scripture says, Christ died
for the ungodly, Romans chapter five. Now, can I honestly say
that I always think the best and sacrifice my things for my,
I don't even do that for my friends, let alone my enemies. Therefore, if I say, well, now
I'm going to go before God and I'm gonna say, God, I just love
everybody. God knows my heart. He's gonna
say, no, you don't. If that's what you plead, that's
a flawed righteousness. That's not a white linen, glistering,
bright garment. But what do we plead? My hope
is built on nothing less than what? Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, no matter how sweet it sounds to me, but wholly lean
on Jesus' name. You see the difference there?
Now it's the righteousness, what is the righteousness of saints?
Well, read the Bible. The Lord sent that president
back in Genesis chapter three, when he slew an animal, that
means blood, that means death, satisfaction of justice, and
gave Adam and Eve coats of skin, a picture and a type of the imputed
righteousness of Christ. That's the righteousness of saints.
What's a saint? He's a sanctified person. She's
a sanctified person, a sinner saved by grace. That's what a
saint is. It's not somebody who's been
canonized and did three miracles and blah, blah, blah. No, if
you're a believer, you're a saint. And you're a saint not because
you've been so good or try to be so good. You're a saint because
God made you so by his grace through the blood of Christ.
Look at it, it says in verse eight, to her was granted that
she should be arrayed, that was given to her. It didn't say she
earned it or made it or worked hard to get it. And look at verse
nine, he says, and he saith unto me, right blessed are they which
are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now the supper in
the Bible, It means fellowship. It's not just sitting down and
eating a meal. It meant more than that. Do you remember when
the Pharisees approached the disciples and one of the charges
that they had against Christ, Jesus Christ, your master eats
with publicans and sinners. because that meant fellowship
to them. Well, he did eat with publicans and sinners because
he came to save those kinds of people. That didn't make him
a sinner and he didn't condone what they were doing, but that's
the kind of people he consorted with. I'll tell you what, if
he saved me, he saved you. What'd he save? A sinner. So
he says here that the marriage supper of the lamp and verse
nine, and he saith unto me, these are the true sayings of God.
This is the truth. And look at verse 10. He says,
and I fell at his feet to worship. They remember we talked about
worship. He fell at his feet. Well, here's the thing. Now,
John, John is falling before this messenger and worshiping. And that's a common fallacy even
of believers that we have to watch out for. Listen to what
the messenger says, verse 10. And he said unto me, See thou
do it not, do not worship me. You know, John was overcome and
he was doing this out of ignorance. It's a response, you know. In other words, it's kind of
like you've heard Don't shoot the messenger if he's got some
bad news. Well, don't worship the messenger if he's got some
good news. The opposite, say. Worship Christ, and here's what
he said. See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant. I'm
no more than just a servant like you, our bondservant of Christ,
and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus. Worship
God. That's who you're to worship.
That's a good lesson for us. Worship God, for the testimony
of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. All prophecy finds its source
and its culmination in Christ. John 539, when he was talking
to the Pharisees who read, studied, debated, wrote commentaries on
the Old Testament, basically he's talking about the first
five books of the Old Testament, the Law of Moses. And he says,
you do search the scriptures, for in them you think you have
eternal life. They are they which testify of me, he said. This
book is about Christ. And I want my preaching and teaching
to be about Christ. So don't worship the mess, worship
God in Christ. All right.