Introduction

Revelation 19:1-9 ESV  After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,  (2)  for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”  (3)  Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”  (4)  And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”  (5)  And from the throne came a voice saying, “Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, small and great.”  (6)  Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  (7)  Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;  (8)  it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.  (9)  And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

• Now I really want to focus this morning on verses 6-9, the Marriage Supper of the Lamb… but before I get there let me quickly go over verses 1-5.
  • In verses 1-5 we see great rejoicing in heaven over the destruction of Babylon the great.

Revelation 19:1-2 ESV  After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,  (2)  for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

• Since we have started Revelation we have preached three or four times about rejoicing in heaven, praise, and worship.
  • If you missed it, go listen to the sermon “The Song of Victory” in far March 27^th,
    • In that sermon we made two points…
    • The first is that God always wins!
      • GOD ALWAYS WINS! Y’ALL BELIEVE THAT?! GOD ALWAYS WINS!
    • The second point from that sermon is that when God wins, which is always, we should worship and praise Him.
  • So here again in Revelation 19:1-5 we see God winning. Because God always wins. We see that God wins over Babylon the Great, that great prostitute… and the response in heaven is worship and praise!
    • Great rejoicing!
    • A mighty hallelujah!
    • The sound of many waters crying out to praise God!
      • Because God wins, and when He wins, we rejoice, and we praise and we worship Him!
  • You know I used to think like a child… and I would think “Are there XBOX’s in heaven? Is there big screen TV’s? Can I eat in heaven?
    • Maybe you have had these thoughts…
    • I used to think like a child… but I have grown up… at least a little bit… “Xbox’s, TV’s, food”?! LISTEN! JESUS IS GOING TO BE THERE!
      • Who cares if there is football in heaven JESUS IS GOING TO BE THERE!
      • Who cares if you can go fishing in heaven?! JESUS IS GOING TO BE THERE!
      • Who cares if X Y or Z in heaven… JESUS IS GOING TO BE THERE!
        • And we get to walk with Him, and talk with Him… and we get to WORSHIP HIM!
        • And we get to WORSHIP THE FATHER
        • And we get to WORSHIP THE HOLY SPIRIT.
        • No longer in a church building in Cedar Rapids IA… but literally at His feet!
          • Not that Jesus isn’t here, but it is going to be something special to be with Jesus face to face!

1 Corinthians 13:11-12 ESV  When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.  (12)  For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

• So, if I were to preach a sermon on the first five verses of Revelation 19 it would be simply “We get to rejoice with Jesus Face to Face”.
  • But because I have preached that message or one like it so many times… (which should show you how prominent praise and worship are in heaven)… instead of preaching that I want to move on to the marriage supper of the Lamb…
• It’s really a continuation of this theme of praise and worship… but man the picture painted here is so beautiful… let’s just take a moment to think about this fact…
• WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!

• WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!
  • Y’all! WERE ARE GETTING MARRIED!
  • You should be excited!
  • You should be thrilled!
  • You should posting pictures on Facebook showing off your ring!
  • You should be dreaming all night of your wedding day and spending your time talking about it with your friends and family!
• WE’RE GETTING MARRIED!
  • Not you and me of course…
    • I am already married to that lady!
    • But ME AND JESUS!
    • You and Jesus!
    • The church and Jesus!
  • WE ARE GETTING MARRIED.

Ephesians 5:25-27 ESV  Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,  (26)  that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,  (27)  so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

• From these verses in Ephesians we see two things…
  • First is that husbands, you should love your wife as much as Christ loved the church…
  • Which means loving her enough to die for her!
    • But two, these verse show us that Christ considers the church… born again believers… Christ considers the church to be his Bride.
    • This is a fact echoed throughout all of scripture, in fact I believe that God gave us the institution of marriage… that He gave us marriage on earth, one man with one woman, as a way for us to understand our eternal relationship with Christ Jesus.
  • All this to say, if you are a born again believe, then you are the Bride and Jesus is the groom.
• And I am a born again believer, and I want you to know, me and my Jesus, WE ARE GETTING MARRIED!
  • WE ARE GETTING MARRIED Y’ALL!

• Now… it is a shame that this needs to be said… but in this day and age it needs to be said…
  • When I say Jesus and I are getting married, I do not in anyway mean this to mean we will have a homosexual relationship.
  • Marriage is CLEARLY between one man and one woman, on this the Bible is clear.
    • So what you will find interesting is that in Scripture the church is always described as a woman.
    • Old Testament and New.
    • Be it Israel, or the Global Church, or even a local church gathering… they are all described using female terms.
    • The nation of Israel is always a “she”, the church is always a “her” because we the church, as a whole, WE ARE THE BRIDE OF CHRIST.
• So when I say “I am getting married to Jesus”… I am just a small part of the Bride of Christ…
  • BUT I AM A PART… and if you are born again so are you!

Point One – We Are Ready!

Revelation 19:6-7 ESV  Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  (7)  Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;

• Point one this morning is this: WE ARE READY!
  • Let me read this verse again…

Revelation 19:7 ESV  Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready;

• Let me tell you what this means for you saints…
  • It means the Save the Date has been sent out…
    • Now there is still a lot of work to do before the wedding.
      • There are people to preach to.
      • Nations to reach.
      • Souls to be saved.
      • Disciples to be trained.
      • Missionaries to be sent.
      • Churches to be planted.
      • Hearts to be turned.
      • Empty bellies to be filled and empty souls to be redeemed.
      • Truth to be spoken in love.

James 2:14-17 ESV  What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?  (15)  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,  (16)  and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?  (17)  So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

James 2:26 ESV  For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Hebrews 13:16 ESV  Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

• So yeah there is work to do…
  • Hard work.
  • Good work…
  • Sometimes EXHUASTING WORK.
  • But we persevere… we push forward… we make it happen.
    • Who here has ever planned a wedding before?!
    • IT CAN BE EXHUASTING WORK CAN’T IT?!
      • Man the first big test Amanda and my relationship ever had was wedding planning.
      • It was smooth sailing before that…
      • But wedding planning…
        • It was like… MAN THIS IS A LOT OF WORK!
        • There are budgets to make…
        • Invites to send out…
        • Speeches to be prepared…
        • Seating charts to be made, revised, remade, scrapped altogether, and then made a fresh…
        • MAN THAT WEDDING PLANNING WAS A LOT OF WORK… and sometimes it was tiring…
    • Have y’all ever gotten tired while doing the work of God?
      • Not gotten tired OF the work of God… but just been exhausted after so much ministry?
      • I know I have… and it is ok to be physically exhausted… spiritually drained…
      • But don’t grow weary… in otherwords… get tired, but don’t lose hope…
      • Be exhausted, but don’t give up.

Galatians 6:9 ESV  And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.

• Don’t give up because the Save the Date has already been sent!
  • In due season we will reap!
    • The date of your death has been appointed

Hebrews 9:27-28 ESV  And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,  (28)  so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

• Your day of death has been appointed.
  • The day of Jesus coming back has been set!
  • THE SAVE THE DATE for the great wedding of Christ and His bride the church have been delivered.
  • The Venue has been booked.
  • The invites are being sent out and people are starting to RSVP.
    • And yes there are more invites to be sent out…
    • But whether or not they say yes or no, either way… THE WEDDING IS GOING TO HAPPEN!
  • So persevere!
    • When ministry get’s hard, persevere!
    • When life get’s hard, persevere!
    • When family relationships get hard, persevere!
    • When the world hates us, persevere!
    • When your flesh is weak, persevere!
    • When you are pressed, persevere!
    • When you are perplexed, persevere!
    • When you are persecuted, persevere!
    • When you are struck down, PERSEVERE!

2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NIV  We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  (9)  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

• Had to read it in the NIV because it matches the song… I am pressed but not crushed, persecuted not abandoned… struck down but not destroyed…
  • Forgive me, I am a preacher not a singer…
• But listen to me…
  • No matter what happens in life…
  • No matter how hard the challenges…
  • No matter how rough the waters…
  • Whatever you have faced, are facing, or will have to face…
    • None of that changes the fact that the DATE IS SET.
    • Whatever happens between now and then doesn’t change the fact that soon and very soon you will be walking down that aisle and there will be Jesus, ready to say “I Do!”
• WE ARE GETTING MARRIED Y’ALL!
  • Focus on that, and not the hardships… and you will make it!
    • Amanda and I did…
    • And my Jesus and I will too!
• Now that brings us to our final point… it is a white wedding!

Point Two – It’s a White Wedding

Revelation 19:8-9 ESV  it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.  (9)  And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

• “It was granted to her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”
  • You know what this means?
  • It means He said “yes” to the dress!
  • It means Jesus said “yes” to the dress!
    • Or white tux in my case…
      • You see Jesus cherishes His bride so much that HE picked out her dress.
      • There is no going down to the pink barn with your bridesmaids for this wedding church, JESUS HAS YOU COVERED…
      • (Literally, He has you covered… because we are talking about clothes…)
  • Jesus has granted to us the pure and white clothing for the wedding…
  • WE’RE GETTING MARRIED Y’ALL! And it’s a white wedding!
• And that white wedding dress represents purity, traditionally you are only allowed to wear white on your wedding day if you are a virgin.
  • And though we have committed adultery with the sins of the world… Jesus has made us pure again with His blood.

Psalms 51:7 ESV  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Isaiah 1:18 ESV  “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

• WE HAVE A WHITE WEDDING BECAUSE CHRIST HAS REDEEMED US!
  • We don’t deserve it, but Christ did it for us anyway, that is how much He loves us…
  • To buy our wedding clothes with His own blood…
• But more than that… now that we are saved there is work to do… because Revelation says these white and pure clothes, granted to us by Jesus, are in fact good works…\

Revelation 19:8 ESV  it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.

• The clothing is our good works, our righteous deeds.
  • So all that persevering…
    • Loving our enemies who hate us…
    • Evangelism
    • Missions
    • Feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, adopting the orphan, caring for the widow.
      • It sometimes seems thankless…
  • The world HATES US! They protest us… they call us bigots… they say we are the worst people in the world…
    • Yet when they are sick… they still go to SAINT LUKES.
    • When they are giving birth they still go to MERCY!
      • For all their talk there still doesn’t seem to be a Darwin’s Hospital.
      • There is not a plethora of Orphanages in the third world built by atheist missionaries…
        • YES IT IS THE CHRISTIANS WHO CONTINUE TO PERSEVERE WITH GOOD WORKS.
        • IT IS THE CHRISTIANS WHO LOVE IN ACTION AND SPEAK THE TRUTH IN LOVE.
  • And they continue to hate us…
    • And we continue to persevere…
  • And they continue to persecute us…
    • And we continue to persevere…
  • And we suffer many hardships…
    • But our righteous deeds persevere…
  • And we suffer many loses…
    • But our righteous deeds persevere…
• And as we do so we just get fresher and fresher church…
  • Preach the gospel…
    • Oh, that’s a nice white Tux jacket.
  • Love our neighbor…
    • Oh yes, let’s polish those white shoes…
  • Forgive our enemies…
    • That’s a nice flower on our lapel…
• You see the good and hard work of Christianity is not without it’s rewards… and we are going to be ROCKING those awards in style at the marriage supper!
• So point one this morning: We are Ready! The Bride is Ready!
  • Point two: It’s a white wedding…
• And I want to conclude with this… one of the best parts of the wedding feast… is that IT IS FINALLY FINISHED.

Conclusion – It is Finished

• When Amanda and I where being chauffeured to our hotel after our wedding something wonderful happened…
  • WE REALIZED WE DIDN’T HAVE TO PLAN A WEDDING ANYMORE!
• It was one of the best parts of the honeymoon… NOT planning a wedding.
  • I mean the other part was good too… BUT WE AINT TALKING ABOUT THAT THIS MORNING…
  • Just the relief we felt not having to plan a wedding…
    • No more invites to send…
    • No more money to spend…
    • No more decisions to make…
    • No more work to do…
    • ALL THAT WAS LEFT WAS TO ENJOY EACH OTHER.
  • You know what Jesus said right before He died?
    • He said “it is finished!”

John 19:30 ESV  When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

• Sin was defeated! Satan was conquered… IT IS FINISHED!
  • But there is still work to be done… isn’t there.
    • There is still A LOT of work to be done.
    • There are still A LOT of people to be saved.
  • But Jesus said it is finished.
    • So which is it… was it finished when Jesus died on the cross or is it finished at the marriage supper of the lamb?
      • The answer to the question is YES!
      • BOTH ARE CORRECT.
    • It is finished at the cross and it is finished at the marriage supper.
  • And that makes PERFECT sense when you understand that in ancient Hebrew Culture… in the times of Jesus… when you got engaged you were what was called “Betrothed” and it was FINNAL!
    • You were not married, but you were not NOT married either.
    • You were now contractually together as one forever… you didn’t get all the marriage privileges, you know… the fun stuff… until after your wedding day which would be months or even a year… but you were legally bound.
    • But once you were betrothed, it was set, it was done, there is no changing your mind, it is finished…
      • But you still have work to do and a wedding to plan.
    • Then comes the wedding day, and after that, it is finished, and there is no more work to do…

2 Corinthians 11:2 ESV  For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

• When you get saved you are betrothed to Christ… you are His and He is yours… forever… it is finished!
  • But when you die or Jesus comes back… then comes the wedding supper… and it is finished… there is no more work to do.
    • So no matter how hard life is… take hope in this… there is an end in sight… and it is a beautiful glorious end!
• Quick Gospel Call – It starts with Salvation