The Wedding Supper of the Lamb - 48

We're in the book of Revelation.

We've been there for quite a while, but we're making our way, slowly but surely. Let me read a couple of verses, in fact six in fact, but we're only going to be able to deal with two verses with the time that's given this evening. But Revelation chapter 19, beginning at verse 6 through verse 10, John the Revelator says, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters, and the sound of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.

And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then He said to me, Write, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And He said to me, These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at His feet to worship Him, but He said to me, See that you do not do that. I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. I read in your hearing the parable of the wedding feast, and Jesus opens this parable by saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son. God the Father has arranged a marriage for His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is gathering a bride for His son from the four corners of the earth, and He has been busy doing that throughout the ages, and there is a day coming when that bride will be complete, and that bride will be presented to the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus Christ. The parable that I read to you draws a distinction between those who are called and those who are chosen. And the distinction there is between what we would in theology speak of as the general call and an effectual call. The general call goes out indiscriminately to any and all the gospel to come to Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The invitation to the wedding feast was to any and all, but you saw how those who are made up of unbelievers who hear the general call but refuse it, how they responded. They made excuses. They turned on those who came to invite them and killed them, murdered them. And then the invitation went out. People, gospel preachers, went out with a message, the invitation to the wedding, into the highways and to the byways, and were invited into the wedding. And those who came, those who took delight in coming, those who felt honored at being invited, are distinguished as the chosen as opposed to the called. Again, the called, those who hear the general call but don't respond.

The chosen are those who hear the effectual call and do respond. Unless you think that they're smarter than those who refuse, our hymn speaks to that whole issue. While all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast, each of us cries with thankful tongues, saying, Lord, why?

Why? Why was I a guest? If you're part of the bride of Christ, you've been invited to this wedding, you have been given an invitation, and you ought to be overwhelmed, you ought to be humbled, you ought to be blown away by the fact that you've been invited to such a banquet. Why was I made to hear thy voice? Do you hear what's being said? Why was I made to hear thy voice?

That's the effectual call. And enter while there's room when thousands make a wretched choice. Thousands make a wretched choice. People hear the gospel all the time and reject it.

And men will continue to reject it apart from God's effectual call that makes them willing. Why was I made to hear thy voice? And enter while there's room when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? Verse 4, stands at 4, "'Twas the same love that spread the feast that sweetly forced us in." That's the condition of our hearts, that we've been invited by the King of the universe to a banquet, and the only way we're going to be able to come and willing to come is if we're forced to come.

Again, that's the effectual call at work. Else, we had still refused to taste and perished in our sin. Apart from God's effectual call upon us, we would be like those who've rejected the general call.

We would have perished in our sins. So there's no credit to us for being made willing to come to the banquet. All praise and honor and glory to Him who planned a banquet, invited us to the banquet, made us a part of the guest list, and made us qualified in order to be there.

Pity! Pity the nations, O our God, constrain the earth to come. Send Thy victorious word abroad and bring the strangers home. Well, that's our prayer, that God will work in the hearts of others and bring them to the same delight that awaits the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, folks, tonight my message is the wedding supper of the Lamb, and it's one of those passages that you anticipate your heart gets ramped up about it, and yet at the same time there's a measure of, what should I say, hesitancy to speak to such a glorious text of Scripture.

I just want us to be able to stand in awe and wonder and worship and adornment of God for what He's doing here, and yet my task is to preach, so I trust that what I have to say will enhance the text and not take away from the text, but let me begin by saying something you already know, that salvation is a love relationship between the triune God and His elect people. The Church is the bride of Christ. The Church is the bride of Christ. We have in Ephesians 5, verse 25 to 27, an exhortation to husbands, but this is not about husbands. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. The Old Testament prophets spoke to this same desire that is fulfilled in Christ for His bride, the Church. Hosea, chapter 2, verse 19 and 20, God says through the prophet, I will betroth you to Me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord. I love the hymn, The Church is One Foundation, one stanza. The Church is One Foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is His new creation by water and the Word. From heaven He came and sought her to be His holy bride.

With His own blood He bought her and for her life He died. Keith and Christy Getty sing a wonderful song. If you've not heard it, I'd highly recommend you to find it, listen to it. We will feast in the house of Zion. We will sing with our hearts restored. He has done great things, we will say together. We will feast and weep no more.

That's the refrain. But the title of the hymn is We Will Feast in the House of Zion. Folks, the wedding supper of the Lamb, this is the great and glorious consummation that all of history is moving towards.

A time when the bride of Christ will be with her bridegroom in perfect, unbroken intimacy and communion forever and ever. And when you understand this, you will read the Old Testament narratives with new eyes. Because they're there not for their obvious instruction and benefit, but they are pointing us to this great and glorious consummation.

Let me give you some examples. When you read Genesis chapter 24 and you discover that there are 67 verses given to tell the narrative story of Abraham's servant finding a bride for Abraham's son Isaac, you ought to pause and say, why is God given so much time to tell us this story? Well, because it's not just about Abraham and Isaac. You cannot read this without seeing it a picture of God the Father choosing a bride for his son in eternity past. And as you read of Jacob working seven years for Laban as a dowry price for his beloved Rachel, you're not just going to read it for the benefit of knowing about Jacob and Rachel. You will see Christ paying a dowry price to the father for his beloved bride, the church. As you read of Mephibosheth in 2 Samuel chapter 21, being granted by grace and mercy a place at the king's table, you will see it as a symbol of the king's kindness to the lame and cripple. And you will see the kind and gracious salvation purposes of God to care for and provide a place at his banqueting table for those who make up his bride, the church.

And we could go on and on. But tonight as we look at a passage in Revelation 19 that looks at the marriage supper of the Lamb, I want to make a couple of statements of an introductory fashion and then begin to walk through these six verses. And I was already of a mind before I stepped into the pulpit tonight that it was going to take two weeks for us to cover these six verses.

So I'm only covering the first two tonight and that will probably challenge the time allotment that I have. But first a couple of introductory remarks. I've already hinted at this, but words fail me to do justice to the extraordinary subject that's before us tonight. By saying that, I don't mean to take away from the fact that we have inspired words from God to help us here. John the Revelator was told, right, aren't you glad that God commanded men of old to write the scriptures?

Right, John, right, Paul, right, Peter, right, right, right. And because they were faithful and obedient to write and preserve the text, we have that before us. We have the revelation of God before us. But words fail us.

My words fail me. And I'm reminded that eyes have not seen and ears have not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him. We're talking about something tonight that our minds fail us to get our minds around. It's like trying to adequately, with some degree of satisfaction, describe the Grand Canyon to somebody. You can do your best to describe it.

It's one of the seven great wonders of the world. But after you've said everything you know to say to describe it, what's the bottom line? You just have to experience it. You just have to see it, right? Words of description are unsatisfactory.

You have to experience it to get the full benefit of it. That's the first introductory remark. My second is a little bit more technical, but I think it's very, very needful and helpful. This is a good place to remind you of an important hermeneutical structure to the book of Revelation. I've spoken to this in the past in our study, but we've come to a place tonight that I think it merits and warrants mentioning again. There are seven cycles that John's vision consists of.

Each of the seven are related to the others. And as we progress in our study through the cycles, we get more clarity and more detail of these historical redemptive events. John is not giving this revelation in historical sequence.

That is so critical for you to know. If you do not see that, if you do not understand that, you will be confused. You will be befuddled as you're trying to make sense of this portion of God's word. For instance, the commentators say the marriage supper of the Lamb comes at the end of this age. Christ will consummate His union with His people and they will live with Him forever and ever. End of the age. Do you agree with that sentiment? Do you agree with that statement by the commentators?

I do. But here's the question. If that is true, why doesn't the book end right here at Revelation chapter 19 verse 10? Revelation 19 verse 11 through 21 to the end of the chapter details the second coming of Christ. To judge His enemies, to pour out His wrath, to confine the beast and the false prophet to the lake of fire, chapter 19 and verse 20. And then there's Revelation chapter 20 and chapter 21 and chapter 22. Revelation 19 verse 21 concludes the sixth of the seven cycles in the book. Do you remember now?

Is this ringing a bell to you? How I showed you that this literary device called an inclusio is used throughout the book to give a structure. What's an inclusio?

An inclusio is like the best way I can think to communicate it to you. It's like a set of bookends. You've got books. You don't want them falling off the shelf. You've got one that secures this end.

You've got one that secures that end. So you've got this inclusio device being used throughout the book. And it marks the seven cycles. It helps you know when you've moved from one cycle to the next. And what is that first bookend at each one of the beginning of each one of the cycles? It is some reference to the first advent of Jesus Christ.

I think of one particular occasion. It's a reference to the incarnation that John makes use of. But that's that marks the beginning of that particular cycle. Each of the cycles is marked with some reference to the first advent of Christ.

It might be his crosswork. It may be some other thing that Christ did during his first advent. But the other bookend is marked by a reference to some aspect of the second coming of Christ. So we know we're coming to the end of the sixth cycle, sixth of seven cycles in our study of the book of Revelation. What do we see at the end of this portion that's going to deal with the marriage supper of the Lamb? Christ coming on a white horse. Christ coming in his second coming to bring judgment. To confine the false prophet and the beast to the lake of fire.

Pour out his wrath. That's what is contained in chapter 19 verse 11 through 21. That will mark the end of that cycle. And then when you go into chapter 20, we begin another cycle. Now, again, John is not following historical sequence.

John will go back and begin to retrace other themes that he's been dealing with throughout these cycles. So I think that's absolutely critical that you understand that. Let me show you an example of how we were reminded of that even this morning. Pastor Barkman made reference about Christ being greater than the angels. And John in Revelation chapter 22, in his excitement, bowed to an angel and was told, Don't do that.

I'm just an angel. You bow to God and only Him. That was Revelation chapter 22 in verse 9. Well, verse 8 says, Now I, John, saw and heard these things. And when I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things.

Then he said to me, See that you do not do that. For I am your fellow servant and of your brethren, the prophets and of those who keep the words of this book, worship God. Revelation 22, 8 and 9. That's toward the end of the seventh cycle. We here in Revelation 19 are at the end of the sixth cycle.

And what do we see here? We're not going to have time to look at it tonight, but this is part of the passage that I just read. Notice Revelation 19, verse 9. Then he said to me, this is this messenger, Right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, See that you do not do that.

I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus, worship God. You see how closely those words parallel what we find in Revelation chapter 22? Well, did John make the same mistake twice? No, it's the same event being addressed in two different cycles.

So I'm trying to help you understand the structure of the book and how to read the book. So, the wedding feast that's before us here in Revelation chapter 19. Is this the first hint of this? Is this kind of come at us as a surprise? We didn't see this coming. No. John hinted of that in Revelation chapter 3, verse 20.

Remember? Jesus said at the end of chapter 3, again, at the end of the first cycle, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me. There's language describing feasting, supping, dining. There was a hint of what is further elaborated on here in Revelation chapter 19. Now, those introductory remarks, let's begin our exposition of Revelation 19, 6 to 10 by, again, this is both what's remainder of our time tonight and next week. I want to make nine observations from these six verses.

So, I think I'm going to cover the first four this evening, but observation number one. Observation number one, I want you to see an arresting sound. An arresting sound in verse 6. John says, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings.

Three word pictures John gives to us. The voice of a great multitude. Well, this is the heavenly choir made up of all the saints of all the ages.

A choir numbering in the millions upon millions. This is what John hears. He says, I heard a loud voice as the sound of many waters. The closest thing that I could point to to try and illustrate what John is saying here is, if you've ever been to the Niagara Falls and stood at the railing there and saw the water coming over the falls and the sound that is accompanied by that water moving over the falls there and crashing beneath, you can't carry on a conversation. It's an arresting sound. And as of the mighty thunderings, we've been treated to some thundershowers recently, thundering and lightning. So, he heard the sound.

I don't know that we can get our minds around this, but let me try and illustrate this to a much, much, much smaller, diminished way to help you understand what John is trying to convey to us. According to the ESPN Sports Network, the loudest crowd noise ever recorded was at a college football game that took place at Clemson University at the famous Death Valley Stadium during the 2005 contest between the Clemson Tigers and the Miami Hurricanes. During the final minutes of that closely contested game, which Clemson won, the noise reached the ear-shattering level of 146.6 decibels.

That will do some damage to your eardrums. Now, how many fans can they get in that stadium? 100,000? Well, not all of them are Clemson fans.

Some are Miami fans. So, let's say 80,000 people screaming at the top of their lungs made this much noise. John hears the sound of a choir made up of millions upon millions upon millions. I can't even imagine what that must have sounded like. That brings us beyond an arresting sound to number two, a glorious declaration. What was all this noise about?

What did he hear other than noise? He heard this, Alleluia for the Lord God, omnipotent reigns. Alleluia for the Lord God, omnipotent reigns.

Peter Jacob wrote about the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel's Messiah, and he says this, quote, that all the energy so far contained and all the emotions so far restrained are released in an explosion of coral splendor, end of quote. That's what this choir is singing. Alleluia, praise Jehovah, praise the Lord.

Why? For the Lord God, omnipotent reigns. Well, an arresting sound, a glorious declaration, observation number three, an appropriate response, an appropriate response. Verse seven, let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory.

Three responses. Let us be glad. Let us rejoice. Let us give him glory. And this multitude's gladness and rejoicing wasn't just the overthrow and the destruction of the ungodly that we see in chapter 18, but it is the reason behind the victory of Christ over his enemies.

What is that? The gladness, rejoicing and giving him glory is for the unimpeded, unchallenged, universal reign of Jesus Christ. That's why they are glad. That's why they are rejoicing.

That's why they are giving him glory. They are rejoicing over the sovereign, omnipotent God and his glory alone. You know, Psalm 2 tells us, yes, the nations were raging. Yes, the kings of the earth had set themselves against the Lord and against his anointed. Yet God has set his King Jesus on my holy hill of Zion.

Christ is the victorious, conquering King and he has vanquished all his foes. That's why they're singing. Folks, there's an awful lot of noise. There's an awful lot of opposition. There's an awful lot of hatred.

There's an awful lot of wickedness in this world. But mark it down, when the dust is settled and the last sentence of recorded history is noted, the kingdom of Christ and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ will be the only thing standing. Everything else will be gone. Everything that opposes the reign of Christ will be gone, will be put under his feet. How we need to rejoice in that.

Observation number four. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. Observation number four, a marriage consummated, a marriage consummated. We're helped, I think, a great deal by understanding biblical times, Jewish culture, much, much different than our wedding customs that we observe. But in the Jewish culture, a father would arrange for the marriage of his son. And after a bride has been chosen, there would be what is known as a betrothal arrangement and ceremony.

It's similar to our engagement, but it's much more binding, much more meaningful. In this betrothal arrangement, there would be a public ceremony before witnesses, where the betrothed couple would be legally married, but they would not consummate the marriage. They would not live together. It was so binding that to end a betrothal arrangement was viewed as divorce. You remember when Joseph became aware that Mary was with child, we're told that Joseph thought about privately how to put Mary away.

Well, what does that mean? He thought about how he could divorce her. They were betrothed. They were married legally, but they had not been together in intimacy. Well, this betrothal period would be followed by an interval. And this interval would be of varying lengths.

In some cases, it would last years. In fact, Jacob can tell you how long an interval could be. You remember how Laban deceived the deceiver? Jacob, that was his name, the deceiver. And he wanted to marry Rachel, entered into an arrangement, because he didn't have money to pay the dowry price.

So he satisfied the dowry price in service to Laban. And in order to secure what he thought was Rachel, he had to work seven years. And at the end of seven years, ah, he got Rachel's sister Leah. So he worked another seven years. And that's one of the reasons why he decided, you know what, there's no way I'm going to be able to provide a home. And I got to get out of here.

I got to get out of this business arrangement. And he got out of town with his wives in the middle of the night. That's another story. But during this interval time, the groom would give himself to two things. Number one, he would give himself to establishing and providing a home for his bride. And, number two, he would set about satisfying the dowry price that was customarily given to the father of the bride.

The bride returned to her home, and she busied herself in preparing herself, securing the wedding dress and adorning herself, and all to be presented to her husband. And while these two married people in this betrothal arrangement, can you imagine the anticipation of this interval period coming to an end, and them finally being able to come together and consummate the marriage and live together. Well, after these requirements are satisfied during this interval period, there would be the wedding. And it would take the form of a processional. From the house of the bride's father, as the father and the bride and her family traveled in procession to the groom's house, where she is presented to her husband, and he takes her in to live with him. After the presentation, the wedding feast would begin. A banquet would be enjoyed. The feastings and the banqueting could last as long as seven days. Well, do you see the intentional depiction of the salvation relationship of Christ and his church here?

Absolutely. What did we read in Matthew 22? The kingdom of heaven is like a king who's gone to prepare a wedding for his son. The father. God the father chose a bride for his son in eternity past. And that bride is made up of all the elect of all the ages, all who will ever call upon the Lord Jesus Christ in believing faith. They are wed to Christ. There is a covenant relationship that binds them.

There is an interval period. And bride, elect of God, we are living in that interval period. Part of the work is done.

The most important part of the work is done. The son has paid the dowry price for his bride, and he paid the dowry price with the blood of Calvary. He shed his blood to purchase his bride.

I'm not making that up. That's the word of God. He has gone to prepare a place for his church, the bride. John 14, 1-3, Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled. I go to prepare a place for you. I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. Well, the bride is full of anticipation as she waits for the return of the bridegroom, or at least that should be the posture of the bride. Those who make up the bride of Christ, we ought to be waiting, longing, anticipating the bridegroom coming.

The bride is busy adorning herself in preparation for the return of the bridegroom. Notice we read, Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. Folks, during this interval time, that is what God is about, preparing us for his son, purifying us, sanctifying us, making us a bride fit for his son. It's so helpful to know that. That's what God is doing.

That is God's big agenda. And if you can view the trials and difficulties and challenges to your faith in the light of that, it will encourage you, it will help you. It will put a smile on your face in the midst of difficulty.

There's a good purpose behind this. God is preparing me for his son. The most important event in salvation history, the entering into the full expression of this covenant relationship, where we shall know an intimacy and a joy that we have hoped for and longed for and are unable to enjoy in this world.

I read to you from Matthew 22, 1 to 14. It's only the redeemed bride of Christ that has any interest in this great banquet. That's why you talk about the great banquet that awaits the church to the man walking the street. He doesn't know what you're talking about.

He has no interest in what you're talking about. But it ought to be the delight, the great anticipation of those of us who make up the church, that parable ends. Many are called, but few are chosen. Listen to me tonight. Rejoice that you are in the company of the chosen. That's cause for rejoicing. Luke 14 verse 15 says, blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Blessed. I think at times we dishonor the Lord because we have depreciated the great benefits and blessings that we have in Christ. We're to rejoice in our privileges. We're blessed beyond measure. Yes, life is difficult.

Yes, but listen. All the trials, all the difficulties, they will come to an end. They will come to an end. And we will be ushered in to eternal bliss, free from the hindrances that have hindered us in this life, no longer the Adamic remnants that have hindered our worship, no more distractions, no more toil, nothing but everlasting joy and happiness in the presence of Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

To be with the bridegroom. To know fellowship, communion, intimacy beyond description. That's what awaits us. There's so much more in this passage, but we need to stop for this evening. We'll pick this up next week as we consider verses 8, 9, and 10 of our passage. Let us pray. Father, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for what you have done for your church, your bride that you are preparing for your son.

And knowing what we know about Him, we are absolutely astonished and amazed that we would ever be counted worthy to be a part of such a company. It does explain why there is such a long interval because there's so much work to be done to prepare us, the bride, the church, for such a bridegroom. Excites fill our hearts with joy and hope and anticipation of that glorious day that will come. According to your redemptive calendar, it's as certain as anything could possibly be. And what a day of rejoicing that will be. Thank you, thank you, in Jesus' name. Amen.