The Wedding Supper of the Lamb. This sermon was first preached on August 21st in the year 1887 by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. The text for today comes from the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 19, verse 9. Then the angel said to me, Write, Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.

My friends, you can readily see that there was a command given to John to write. Why was he told specifically to write down these words? I believe that first, it was because the information to be recorded was valuable. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. It was important that this new beatitude, this declaration of blessedness, would be recorded. So the angel of God said to the apostle, write. It was also to be written because of its absolute certainty. These are the true words of God. This blessedness was not a thing to be spoken of once and then to be forgotten. Rather, it was to be recorded so that the future generations might be able to see that it is absolutely true, so true as to be beyond all question. God has commanded this record to be written down in black and white. Yes, engraved with an iron pen on the rock forever. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.

Without a doubt, it was to be written down in order that we would reflect on it as a thing worthy to think about, a text to be read, to be marked, learned, and inwardly digested. Not merely spoken to John by the angel of God, but written by the apostle at the express command of the Spirit of God. Lord, did you say to John, write it? and will we not read it? Did you command the beloved disciple to write it down, and don't you thereby virtually command me also to consider it and to remember it? Lord, by your Spirit, write this message on my heart. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.

I find that my text is followed as well as preceded by something rather remarkable. And he added, these are the true words of God. Lest any doubt should arise in your minds about the wedding supper of the Lamb, or about the fact that many are called to that supper, or about the blessedness of those who are called, the angel says, these are the true words of God. Some things appear to be too good to be true. We frequently meet with sinners who are under a sense of guilt and who are staggered by the greatness of God's mercy. The light of the gospel has been too bright for them. They could not see because of the glory of that light. A light as bright as that which Paul described as the appearance of Christ when on the Damascus Road. So to make sure that we have an absolute assurance and that we won't question its truth because of its greatness, we have this solemn declaration especially certified by order of the Lord, under the hand and seal of the Spirit of God. These are the true words of God.

Oh, my brothers and sisters, the Lord Christ will come again. He will come to gather his people and to make them forever blessed. And you will be happy if you are among that chosen company. If you will meet the King of Kings with joyful confidence, you will indeed be blessed.

You may have noticed that I read parts of two chapters before I came to my text this morning. And I did this with a purpose in mind. The false harlot church is to be judged. And then the true Church of Christ is to be acknowledged and honored with what is called a wedding supper. The false must be put away before the true can shine out in all of its luster. Oh, that Christ would soon appear to drive deception off the face of the earth. At present, it seems to gather strength and to spread until it darkens the sky and turns the sun into darkness and the moon into blood. Oh, that the Lord would arise and sweep away the deadly errors which now pollute the very air. We long for the time when the powers of darkness will be baffled and the pure everlasting light will triumph over everything. We don't know when it will be, but come what may to stand in the way, that day the world will see. When truth will conquer error, and when the true Church will be revealed in all her purity and beauty as the Bride of Christ, and the apostate Church will be put away forever and ever.

For now, time appears to slowly roll along and some hearts grow heavy and sad. But let us take courage. The morning comes as well as the night. and there are good days not too far off, just like we have sometimes imagined. And some of us may yet live to see times which will make us cry out, Lord, you can now let your servants depart in peace, for our eyes have seen your salvation.

Whether we live till Christ comes again, or whether we fall asleep in him, Many of us know that we will sit down at the great wedding feast at the end of the age, and we will partake of the supper of the Lamb in that day, the day of His joy and glory. We are now looking across the blackness and darkness of the centuries into that promised millennial age where we will rejoice, rejoice with our Lord with inexpressible and glorious joy.

I will no longer keep you from the text, and in meditating on this majestic marriage festival, I want you to notice, first of all, the description of the bridegroom. The description of the bridegroom. There is no marriage without a bridegroom. There is no marriage of the Church without the appearance of Christ, and therefore He must be manifested. He must come out of the ivory palaces where he hides himself today, and he must appear in his glory, and when he does appear, what will be his title? Notice it, blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.

This term, the Lamb, seems to be the special name of Christ which John was accustomed to I suppose he heard it from that other John, called the Baptist, when he said, Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Isaiah had compared the Christ to a lamb brought to the slaughter, but he had never really called him the Lamb of God. This beloved John, who knew the Master better than anyone else did, constantly seemed to love to call him by this most expressive name.

Now, if in any book of the Bible we might have expected that our Lord would not have been called the Lamb, it would have been in the book of Revelation. It might seem as if the name, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, might appropriately have been used every time, and the name, the Lamb, would have been dropped. The name, the Lamb, seemed suitable for Jesus here below, despised and rejected of men, led to the slaughter, speechless and patient at the hands of cruel men. The name, the Lamb, seemed suitable for Gethsemane and Golgotha, but John calls the Savior by this name many, many times throughout the book of Revelation. He constantly writes about the Lamb, the Lamb in the midst of the throne, the Lamb leading his people to fountains of living water. And now the angel tells him to write about the marriage supper of the Lamb. This is so remarkable because at first sight it may seem strange to blend these two things together, the Lamb and a wedding supper. But the strangeness of figures must sometimes be allowed in order to make clear some master truth which must not and cannot be veiled for the sake of correct language. It sometimes happens that language becomes a burden to thought. Great thoughts will break the backs of words and crush them into the dust. So it happens that comparisons and metaphors crack and break like rotten wood in the wind, under the stress of some great master thought which rules the writer's mind. It does not matter whether these two figures agree. They agree enough, in fact, that this final and great wedding will be the wedding of the Lamb. What do I infer from this? I gather in a word just this. that Christ anywhere, even in His highest glory, still wishes us to regard Him as the sacrifice for sin. He desires to be viewed by us in His character as the Lamb slain from before the creation of the world. This is a character which He never lays aside, and it is as the Lamb that He will manifest Himself in the consummation of all things when his church is perfected. First, as the Lamb, he is the only everlasting sacrifice for sin. The only everlasting sacrifice for sin. Where is the Lamb that God has provided for a burnt offering? It is Jesus. Where is the morning and evening Lamb to take away Israel's guilt? It is Jesus. Where is the lamb that bleeds and dies, that with its blood the top and both sides of the door frame may be smeared to protect the occupants of the house from the destroying angel in Egypt? It is Jesus. In the sum total of his life and in his death, he was no lion, no beast of prey, but rather he was the gentle, suffering, sacrificial victim, dying that we may not die, presenting himself as a sacrifice acceptable to God. Now because Christ was the Lamb, suffering for sin, and because he delights to remember that he was our sacrifice, therefore he is seen in that capacity in the day of the joy of his heart. He links the memory of his grief with the manifestation of his glory. And as he was a lamb to redeem his church, so he also appears as a lamb in the wedding supper of his glory. One reason why he does this is because he is especially glorious in the character of the Lamb of God. I cannot conceive of our Lord Jesus Christ as ever being less than infinitely glorious. But dear friends, if there is ever a time when we can appreciate the splendor of His character more fully than at other times, it is when He is on the cross, when He dies the righteous for the unrighteous to bring you to God. Do not tell me of all the glory which now surrounds Him in the middle of the throne. I cannot conceive any glory exceeding in brightness the glory of his self-denial, the glory of his taking on himself the form of a servant and being found in the appearance as a man, humbling himself and becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. The glory of men consists in what they are prepared to suffer for others. The glory of a king must lie not in the crowns he wears, but in what he does for his subjects. And Christ's glory is most seen in his sacrifice for sinners. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends, but Christ laid down his life for his enemies. when the Lord Jesus Christ put on the bloody shirt in Gethsemane, when he decorated himself with the five bright rubies of his wounds, when he was adorned with the crown of thorns, and last of all, when he was decorated with that robe of blood as the soldier pierced his side, then it was that he was more glorious, more glorious than at any time before or since in the eyes of those who have true wisdom and understanding. This is the star in his sky. No, it is the sun that eclipses all the stars that Jesus loved and pitied and had compassion even to death on the cross for the sons of men. So in the day of his marriage, he comes out again in this highest and noblest of characters especially glorious as a lamb. It is as a lamb that he celebrates the wedding supper with his bride, the church. Brethren, I think it is very appropriate for Christ to appear in glory as a lamb, because it is as the lamb that he has most fully displayed his love to his church, the church to which he is engaged. and to which he is to be married at that last and great day. Beloved, the wedding supper is a feast of love. There love is at home. So Jesus, that he may reveal himself in the best expression of his love, appears as a bleeding sacrifice on the day of his love's triumph. I don't know how to talk about this great theme, But this truth rests in my heart and makes me feel more glad than I can possibly tell you. It lies like a cake of sweet perfume on the altar of my soul, and it burns there with the soft flickering flame of love. And I rejoice to know that in the day when Jesus takes his church by the hand and leads her home to his father's house, he will appear in that character in which he most clearly shows his love to his beloved. You see most of his love when you see most of his griefs and most of his condescension, and therefore he appears as a lamb at his wedding supper. There is one other thought before I leave this first point. It is as the lamb that Christ is best loved by our souls. It is as the lamb that Christ is best loved by our souls. You feel your affections most drawn out towards him who suffered in your place. Tell me, you who know him most, you who love him best, is it not true? You have seen him on his throne, but you have fallen at his feet as dead, for the sight has been too much for you. But when you have seen him on the cross, oh, then your heart has melted while your beloved has spoken to you, and you have said, he has won my heart, now he has completely mastered me, I must love him now. So then you see, on the day of his marriage, When he would be loved the best, Christ comes to his church robed in that garment in which he appears most lovely in her sight, and he draws out at that wedding supper, more fully than ever he did before, all the love of all his redeemed for whom he laid down his life. Now you, you who do not care for my Lord as a substitute and a sacrifice, Will you be at the wedding supper when He appears as the Lamb? It is as the Lamb of God that you reject Him. You are willing to take Him, you say, as a teacher or as an example of a godly man, but you will not have Him as a sacrifice for sin. Then neither will He have you. In that great day, because you have rejected the substituted sacrifice, then he who was that sacrifice will reject you. There will be no marriage between your soul and Christ if you will not have him as the Lamb. For that wedding supper is to be the marriage of the Lamb and of no one else. As long as this tongue can move and these lips can speak, I will preach nothing to you but Jesus Christ and him crucified. that he who had no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. I know of no other Savior but Christ, Christ who bore our sins in his body on the cross, and who, after he had provided purification for sins, sat down at the right hand of the majesty in heaven. and now in his glory bears the marks of the great substitutionary sacrifice by which his people are saved. But now, secondly, I have to speak a little on the meaning of the wedding supper. Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. What will that marriage supper be like? There will come a time when all of God's redeemed will be saved. There will come a day when all who have died in Christ will be raised again from the tomb and those who remain alive will be changed so that their corruption will put on incorruption and mortality will put on immortality. Then the church will be perfect and complete. Not one single member will be missing. There will be no spot or wrinkle remaining in her. Then it will come to pass that Christ will celebrate this wedding supper, which will be the bringing of the people of God into the closest and happiest possible union with Christ, their Lord in glory. Even now, the Lord Jesus Christ is no stranger to some of us, and we are not strangers to him. Yet there will come a day when we will see Him face to face, and then we will know Him with a clearer and more fuller knowledge than is possible for us today. I cannot begin to tell you what a delight that will be. Oh, the indescribable brightness when we will see the face of Jesus. Oh, the unspeakable sweetness when we will hear His voice. Oh, the amazing bliss when He will manifest Himself to us in all of His glory. And there will be such a day, such a day for all whom He has redeemed, for all who trust Him and rest in His atoning sacrifice. That will be the wedding supper of the Lamb. That supper will be, like most other wedding suppers, the fulfillment of long expectation. The fulfillment of long expectation. Our Lord has waited a long time for His perfected Church. He promised Himself to her long before the earth was created, but there was much to be done before she was prepared for the marriage. The bridegroom, too, had to leave his father and become one with his bride by taking on himself our humanity. For our sake he left the thrones and royalties of heaven that he might become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. And here he was born, and here he lived, and here he died. But still the bride was not ready. And it is not until you come to this chapter that you read, the wedding of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. Souls have to be saved, newly created, blood washed, sanctified, perfected, and then all of them, all of them must be gathered together to make up the body of Christ's spouse. And when that is done and she is all complete, The expectations of the Christ will be fulfilled at that wedding supper. O beloved, you do not know the longings of the heart of Christ for that day of glory. For this he lived and for this he died. For this he continually pleads that all for whom he shed his precious blood might be his in that day. That day is rapidly approaching, and when it arrives, then the wedding feast in heaven above will begin. That will also be the day of the public announcement of the great fact of mutual love and union. The public announcement of the great fact of mutual love and union. At this moment, Christ loves His Church. and he is one with her, but the world as a whole does not know it. It does not know either him nor her, nor does it care about them. But the day will come when Christ will bring his hidden people out into the light of day. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. And then Christ himself will be manifested. Oh, what a day that will be! What a day that will be when the eyes of the entire universe will be turned in one direction, and the glorious Christ in the splendor of His manhood and of His Godhead will take the hand of His redeemed Church, and before men and angels and devils declare Himself to be one with her forever and ever. That will be the beginning of the wedding supper of the Lamb. It will be the announcement to everyone of the great fact of mutual love and union. Moreover, the picture of a wedding supper is intended to proclaim the overflowing of mutual delight and joy. There is too much joy for two. They are so happy that they invite others to come in and share the banquet. So in those days, how delighted this blessed Christ and His Church will be with one another! How the Church will rejoice in Him! How He will rejoice in the Church! What hallelujahs will they raise to Him! And oh, with what delight will He look on all His people, and see in them neither spot nor wrinkle, nor any such thing, because His blood has cleansed them, and His Spirit has perfectly sanctified them. In the past it was written, The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing. And oh, what a magnificent and unbelievable love that will be and what unimaginable joy will be experienced at the singing of Christ over His blood-bought ones, when they are all before Him and all made like Him to reflect the glory of God. Brethren, to add just one other thought, that marriage feast will be the grandest display of Christ's magnificent generosity in a banquet. It will be the grandest display of Christ's magnificent generosity in a banquet. People usually put on a little more show at a wedding banquet than on any other occasion. Oh, what a show Christ will make that day! Depend on it. It will be a grand display when He comes in the glory of His Father with all the holy angels with Him and with the very clouds of heaven under His feet. Then will His church come before Him in all the glory that He has given to her. Her clothing will be made of gold. There is no luster, no beauty, no excellence that can be compared with that which Christ will put on His church. She will admire Him and He will admire her. She will bless Him and He will bless her. Oh, I talk but feebly about lofty things that need a poet's eye and a poet's tongue. No, put away your poetry. The soberest language that can be uttered might better fit a theme in which the highest sublimities must be simplicities. I want all of you to believe that there is to be a day when all the chosen seed, blood-bought and saved, will make one body and Christ will come and glorify them with himself in a union that will know no end, though all the ages roll along forever and ever. Now thirdly, I must speak a little about the persons who are called to this supper. The persons who are called to this supper. Who are the people who are called to this great wedding feast? In one sense, every one of you are called to it. Oh, my listeners, there is a call of the gospel to every one of you. We are commanded to preach it to every creature under heaven, and we do preach it, leaving none of you out. Whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The call, look, the bridegroom comes. is to the foolish virgins as well as to the wise. And if you do not come, it is not because you were never invited and never entreated to come to Christ. By the Spirit of the living God, I implore both men and women to seek the Savior's face. I may never address all of you again, as perhaps I have never addressed some of you before. But by him that comes on the clouds of heaven, I plead with you to fly to Jesus, the great and only Savior. Seek his grace now, that you may see his face with joy in your heart in the great day of his appearing." But this is not exactly what the text means. For although there is a blessedness in being called, it changes into a curse if being called sinners refuse to come to the Savior. Although there is a blessedness in being called, it changes into a curse if, being called, sinners refuse to come to the Savior. Who then are they who are specifically called to this marriage feast? Well, they are those who are called in such a way that they will, without a doubt, accept the invitation. Have you come to Jesus? Are you trusting Him? Will you have Him? Does your heart say yes? Then He is yours. There was never any unwillingness in Christ to receive the guilty. The unwillingness is in you. And if the unwillingness has left you, since it never was in Him, take Him and have Him forever. Take Him and have Him tonight. Will you go with Christ? Will you have Christ? If so, He will have you. If you are willing to have Him, you are among those who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb. To help you to judge yourself, here is another test. Those who are called to that wedding supper love the bridegroom. He will have no enemies at his banquet. Do you love Jesus? Does your heart leap at the sound of his name? O timid and trembling woman, do you love him? You find that you cannot always speak up for him, but you could die for him. Well, if your heart seeks after him, then his heart has long ago gone after you and you will be at the wedding supper. I tell you, you will be a part of his bride in the day of his appearing. Again, those who are called to his supper are made ready. Those who are called to his supper are made ready. Are you made ready? You remember that the man who came to the wedding supper was commanded to put on a wedding garment. Have you put on the righteousness of Christ? Has Christ put on you his sanctification? Are you changed in your heart? Without holiness, no man will see the Lord. Has the grace of God renewed you? Then you are one of those who will come to the wedding. You are among the blessed who are called to that great marriage feast. You can help to judge yourself by answering one more question. Have you any desire to go to that wedding supper? Do you have any desire to go to that wedding supper? Do you look for Christ's coming? There are some who are completely unconcerned about it. They don't care about Christ or His coming. It all means nothing to them. O my listener, I trust that you are not of that opinion. But if you are looking for the coming of the Son of God, if your faith is resting on His first coming and your hope in His second coming, if you see your sin put away by His coming as a sin offering and then your sorrow put away by His coming as your bridegroom, Then, dear heart, you can be sure that you would not have these drawings towards him unless he had drawn you to himself. He is drawing you, therefore run after him. Now, lastly, let us think of the blessedness which is ascribed to those who are called to this wedding supper. The blessedness. which is ascribed to those who are called to this wedding supper. I know that I am speaking to many of you who are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb, and I want you, my dear listeners, now to enjoy yourselves, for you have a hope which blesses you even now. If you are called to the wedding supper of the Lamb, the text says that you are blessed, and truly blessed you are. Blessed are all those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb. If you had an invitation to see the Queen tomorrow, some of you who are wonderfully loyal would think a great deal of it and you would say to yourselves, well, we are going home tonight to a very small room in a very poor house, but we have a great hope for tomorrow. And oh dear friends, think of this, You who are poor, you who are in pain, you who are very weak, you who are depressed, within a short time your eyes will see the King in all of his beauty and the land that is far, far away. It may be only a few days or weeks or months, certainly only a few years at the most, and we will share in all the glory that awaits the Church. and the glory of our dear Lord who loved us and gave himself for us will be ours and ours forever. I know that you put this great event far away in your mind and say that it is a long way off, but it is not. It is close at hand. Suppose it were not to come for a thousand years, yet what is that but the twinkling of an eye very soon over? The older men get, the shorter time seems to be. When I was a child, a week seemed to be a very long time. You who have grown old know that a year seems to come and go before you are aware of it. You can say with Job, my days are swifter than a runner, they fly away. Yet what does it really matter if we have to wait 50,000 years for our bliss? We who have believed in Christ have the absolute certainty that we will one day stand in the midst of the splendor of Christ's wedding feast. The wedding of a king is usually something very grand. But what will the wedding supper of the king of kings and lord of lords be like when he who is the son of the highest will take to himself his fit companion? when it will no longer be said of the man Christ Jesus that there was not found a suitable helper for him, when he takes his church made out of his own flesh and welcomes her to himself to be with him forever. I will be a part of that church, and you who believe will also be a part of that church, and we will all have great honor in being called to such a future what bliss to be there, what joy to be there, not as spectators, but as part of the bride that will be taken by her husband. My soul, you will swim in bliss. You will dive into seas of inconceivable delight because of your union with Christ and your delight in Him and His delight in you. I know of no better idea of heaven than to be eternally content with Christ, and Christ to be eternally content with me, and all this will happen within a very short time. Therefore, lay aside your cares, dismiss your fears, murmur no more. Such a destiny awaits you, and you will be very content. I have heard that when Queen Elizabeth once carried the crown while she was a young princess, she found it to be very heavy as she carried it before her sister. But then someone said to her, you will like it better when you wear it yourself. So we have to carry every day a weight for Christ. But oh, when the crown is put on our own heads and we are in paradise with him, We will forget the light afflictions which were but for a moment, as we enter into the enjoyment of a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. I want you, if you can, just to enjoy yourselves while you think of the honor which is to be put on all of Christ's people in being married to Him. One with Jesus, by eternal union one. partakers of His name, His estate, His glory, Himself. He will make us sit with Him on His throne, even as He has overcome and sits down with His Father on His throne. Remember too, we will be blessed at the wedding supper because no fear will mingle with our enjoyment. No fear will mingle with our enjoyment. It has been well observed that if men and women could know all that will happen to them in the course of their married life, they might, perhaps, not think a wedding day was such a happy day after all. Love may soon grow cold. So often promises are broken and unkindness takes the place of affection. Therefore, it is a dubious joy that surrounds the wedding feast. But when we are with Jesus at the banquet above, there will be no such fear. Here I may be fearful that my love to Him would not be true, lest after all, my following of Him would only be temporary, and not the consequence of the new life within. But once up there, we will raise no more questions, we will be exposed to no more dangers, We will no longer dread backsliding and apostasy. Once there, we will be far from a world of grief and sin, with God eternally shut in. Once there, every pain and tear and fear will have disappeared forever. That will be a glorious wedding feast indeed. My beloved listener, will you be there? If there were no hell, the loss of heaven would be hell. If there were no hell, to have missed Christ's wedding feast would be a black enough hell. If there were no worm that did not die and no fire that can never be quenched, then it would be enough damnation to have missed the kisses of Christ's mouth and the joy of the everlasting oneness in His glory. Don't miss it. I charge you, don't miss it. When some of us will be coming through the gates of the New Jerusalem, I trust that we will hear you as we pass by, and pausing for a moment, we will ask, who is there? You will answer, I am here, brought to know Christ by your ministry. That will make another heaven to add to our own heaven Everyone that we will see there converted by the preaching of the cross by our lips or through the printed sermons will multiply our bliss and make us even happier and forever and ever happier still in your happiness and joy. I have finished my sermon, but I don't like to go home with this thought in my mind. Perhaps some of you will miss this bliss. The Lamb's book of life will be read, but your name will not be there. Can you bear that thought? Remember that if you are not blessed, you are cursed. If you do not find heaven, you are lost forever. You have often joined with God's people in singing, I'd love to meet among them now, before your gracious feet to bow. Though vilest of them all, But can I bear the piercing thought, what, what if my name should be left out when you for them shall call? You cannot be left outside of the wedding supper if you have trusted in Jesus. Then I ask you, I plead with you, trust him at once. Rest in the lamb who will be your bridegroom. and at whose wedding supper you will be present to praise the glory of His grace forever and ever. Amen.