Thank you for selecting this message by Dr. James Hoffman. Dr. Hoffman preaches verse by verse through the entire book of the Bible. From all of us at Living Water of Lapine here in Central Oregon, we hope that it will encourage you and feed you spiritually. And if you would like to leave a message after the sermon, our contact information is found on the sermon page where you found this sermon. Now may God richly bless you as you listen. Well, I had a lot of fun researching Handel and the whole process and the story behind it and putting that video together and so forth. There are so many fascinating stories behind it, some of which have been claimed to be very true and others have been thrown out and proven to be false and so forth, but it was a lot of fun. There were so many interesting tidbits. For example, Opera and classical music composers were often the subject of moral outrage in the 1700s. I had a chance when I was a senior in college to do some theater studies in England, and one of the things that really shocked me was to find out in the Victorian era just exactly how the opera was looked upon by the church as very, very worldly. very, very evil. And so in the 1700s when this came out, you might imagine some of the response that it got from the church. There were those who were saying, this is blasphemy! Even though every single word of it is scripture. And even though today we accept it and it is sung in many churches and a vital part of the Christmas celebration to so many today. Well, the story of the composition of this most famous of all Christian music works, these stories have been told differently, such as the amount of time that it took Handel to compose it. You saw in what I put on the screen there that many proclaimed that it was only two weeks but they can all agree that it was completed during the summer of 1741. An often repeated explanation about the start of the tradition of everybody standing up once they reach the Hallelujah Chorus, well, during the premiere in London, It was said that King George II rose to his feet, he was so moved, by the Hallelujah Chorus. And of course, any good Britisher, if the king stands, will not be seated in his presence. And so the whole auditorium, it is said, stood to their feet, and that is how that tradition got started. Now, there is another side to this, however. According to various experts, there is no truth at all to that story. In fact, there is no evidence anybody has found that King George was even in attendance at all. The first reference to this story was written 37 years after the fact, and it's very unlikely that newspaper writers who were in the audience that they would have overlooked the royal presence and said nothing at all of it. So it would seem that Handel's Messiah is surrounded with mystery. But you know there is an original Hallelujah Chorus that doesn't have as much mystery. We've come today in our study through the book of Revelation to the original Hallelujah Chorus. And it's more magnificent than George Friedrich Handel's rendition. Now I told you that I had a lot of fun studying the classical stories of this oratory composed in 1741, but I had great joy studying the Apostle John's original version of it. in Revelation 19. John's hallelujah chorus comes as a breath of fresh air after the depressing activities of the previous chapters. I'm ready for that, aren't you? In our study through the book of Revelation. Now there is cause to celebrate as we open the 19th chapter of this prophetic book. We've been through 12 chapters of graphic descriptions of harsh judgments, vivid descriptions of the evil that brought it to earth, and against this very dark backdrop, we come to the Apostle John's Hallelujah Chorus. And here is what our study of it should do for us. Here is my prayer for each and every one of us this morning. This passage is encouragement not to quit, not to give up, to know that whatever befalls the Christian in this life, there is ultimately a victorious payoff for those who remain faithful. You see, we are all so easily dissuaded from what is best for us. And we need to be convinced that the one who is coming for us is worth the wait. So that the seducers who would ruin our lives don't cause us to turn away and stop waiting for the Lord's return, who we all know. is about to return for his bride. Here is the main point of the study that we are going to be looking at this morning. The passage contrasts the fall of the prostitute with the beauty of the bride, so that we will live to be the bride, not the prostitute. You'll remember from last week as we studied in the previous chapter to where we are today, picking up that the prostitute is a symbol of the world's idolatry and immorality. But today we have the bride, which is the symbol of the church. Now the point of depicting Babylon as a prostitute is to get at the way she corrupts and she defiles God's good creation. She takes what God has made good and blessed and makes it immoral. She packages and sells things that should not be sold. Things that are made to be enjoyed within the confines of God's instructions. Babylon sells cheap perversions of God's free gifts. Now John wants to move us as his readers to live for the church and not the world. For righteousness, not smut. For Christ and not Satan. So we move this morning from the judgment of the prostitution to the glory of the bride. The lovers of Babylon lose everything they lived for when she falls. And we saw that at the end of chapter 18 last week. But the people of God, we see as we pick up in chapter 19, rejoice over this very same event. This is where we pick up this morning, so if you haven't turned with me to Revelation 19 yet, please do so as we open up this chapter now. Revelation chapter 19 and verse one reads this way. 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. says after this. In the Greek, the phrase is mera tauta, or after these things. We've seen this phrase before. It opened up chapter four in the book of Revelation. John wrote there, Metatauta, after these things, after the descriptions that he had been giving of the seven distinct church era periods of time through history. And just after these things, he goes on to explain what's going to happen next. And then he goes into the tribulation events. Metatauta. then comes the tribulation. And we have been metatautuing ever since in the book of Revelation. Until now. We get another metatauta. Now we move on. After these things. Now we will see what will take place after the great tribulation. And it is a great place to sing the Hallelujah Chorus. Now you may be surprised to learn that this verse makes the very first appearance of the word Hallelujah, not only in the book of Revelation, but in the entire New Testament. This is the first time that word appears. There are 24 Hallelujahs in the book of Psalms and then throughout the Older Testament, But this exhilarating shout of praise does not appear in the New Testament until its final few chapters. But at this point in Revelation, the shouts of Hallelujah become thunderous, resounding, and even deafening. Hallelujah is a transliteration of the Hebrew phrase meaning praise Yahweh. It's a word that's derived from a combination of Hebrew words, halal, Hebrew that means praise, and yah, which is short for Yahweh, praise Yahweh, praise God. The final and utter destruction of Mystery Babylon precipitates this hallelujah chorus. It comes forth bursting out of heaven, it brings the entire heavenly host to its feet in a standing ovation of praise. Gone is the adulterous institution that wrapped up God's truth in a tissue of demonic lies that set deadly snares for unwary believers. that introduced error and abomination into the world in the name of God. Keep in mind what they just witnessed. The most corrupt and evil system that ever invaded the planet. Seeking always to control mankind through politics and religion, that has been destroyed. Satan's kingdom has come to an end, making room for the kingdom of Christ. Babylon worshiped gods that could not save and killed those who would not go along with her idolatry. But salvation belongs to God. Babylon proudly took glory to herself, but glory belongs to God alone. Babylon has exercised stolen power in God's world, but power belongs to him alone. Babylon's lies were exposed and the truth will now ring loudly through eternal celebrations of God's salvation, glory, and power. Now, he will not let his people down on that last day. We experience salvation when we become Christians and we continue to experience it all through life as he sanctifies us, as he makes the believer more and more like Christ. We know that through faith, we are among those whom Christ has redeemed. but wonderful as this assurance is right now here on earth. Nothing can compare with the glory of that final day when the whole world will see that God is a saving God. No wonder they shout praise for his salvation. Look at verse two. For his judgments are true and just and he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of his servants. Praising God for his justice. God cannot be bought off by anyone. Unlike humans, he cannot be tempted to sin or to veer from his four ordained purposes. His judgments are right. They accord with what is and what ought to be. There is no lack of evidence. There is no deviation from the standard. There is no prejudice. There is no falsehood. There is no injustice. God's judgments are true and just. God's judgments are unlike the judgments of the flimsy, flip-flopping courts of this earth. They are always reflecting truth and righteousness. God's courts. They are always fair and just. God's courts. And this inspires worship. Have you seen injustice in the world? Have you seen the righteous punished and the wicked rewarded? Have you seen Christians arrested for trying to help people while those who set out to destroy life are commended? Let me encourage you to trust that God will do justice. God will set things right. He will avenge his servants and punish the wicked. We can trust him. He's worthy of our praise right now for this. The first cry of hallelujah in verse one celebrated God's truth and justice and salvation. The second one in verse three celebrates the extreme, the extremity of the harlots punishment. The smoke from her goes up forever and ever. Look at it here in verse three. Once more they cried out, hallelujah, the smoke from her goes up forever and ever. Are you ever tempted by evil? Are you ever lured by immorality? Enticed by idolatry? Look again at verse three. The smoke from her goes up forever Endeavor. Evil, injustice, immorality, and idolatry will only result in regret when we give in to it. If you've never repented and trusted in Jesus Christ, your regret will last forever. We want these images of God's justice to be sealed in our hearts so that when sin tempts us, we will see the smoke rising from Babylon. Our punishment will never end. Why? Because punishment of sin is ultimately about God's word being upheld. Hell lasts forever because God is infinitely holy and just. Verses four and five. And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne saying, amen, hallelujah. And from the throne came a voice saying, praise our God, all you servants, you who fear him, small and great. God's servants in verse five are those who fear him. The fear of God kept them from fearing Babylon and its threats. Now they're called to praise God for His triumph over Babylon. The first part of this morning's passage, Revelation 19 verses 1 through 5, focus on the praise of God for the salvation He has achieved by judging the great prostitute Babylon. Now we move into the second section. Revelation chapter 19, verses six through eight, and it will focus on the praise of God for His reign and His marriage of the Lamb. What's that? We'll get into that a little bit here. Before He returns to earth, there's going to be a wedding. You and I, as believers, will be part of it. Now, we can have a much better appreciation for this whole concept of this marriage of the lamb by understanding the background of a Jewish marriage system. And it involved four very distinct steps. First, the father, the groom, would make arrangements for the marriage. He would pay the bride price. The timing would vary. Sometimes this would occur when the children were very young. when they were very small. Other times it was much closer to the time of the marriage. But often the bride and the groom would not meet until the wedding day, first time they would ever meet. The second step was the fetching of the bride. The bridegroom would go to the home of the bride in order to bring the bride to his home. But two things had to happen before this. The father of the groom determined the timing. So he had to give the groom the command to go and fetch her. Second, prior to the groom's leaving to fetch his bride, he had to have a place ready and prepared for her. And then the father would say, go and bring her. This is Jewish marriage system. The third step was the wedding ceremony. Now only a few people would be invited to this. Prior to the ceremony, the bride would undergo a ritual immersion and a ritual cleansing. The fourth step was the marriage feast. Unlike the marriage ceremony, the feast had many invited guests. It would often last for many days, up to seven days. I want you to notice the parallels of what our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are doing for us in the marriage of the Lamb. All four of these steps are evident. First, the Father made arrangements for His Son. He paid the price. which was the life of his son, Jesus. Like the Jewish wedding, much time has elapsed since step one, when arrangements were made and the price was paid. It's been a little more than 2000 years now, but step two will come. Step two will be the rapture, when Christ comes to fetch his bride. He'll come and he'll take the church away to a home that he has been preparing for us. Now only God the Father knows the timing of this and he will give the command for him to come. We know this because of what Matthew has written in Matthew 24, 36, but concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven or the son, but the Father only. This will happen once the place of our future residence has been prepared. John 14, verses one through three. Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself that where I am, there you may be. Also, following the rapture in heaven, the third step will take place. The ritual cleansing. We read of this now in verses six, seven, and eight, revelation 19. 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 Almighty reigns. 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. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." You and I, as the bride, will be dressed in fine linen, which as our text says, is the righteousness of the saints. This means that all the wood, hay, and straw, all the stubble will be burned away. All of the gold, silver, and precious stones have been purified. The judgment seat of Christ that believers go through corresponds with the Jewish practice of the cleansing of the bride and getting her ready for the marriage ceremony. Between the time of the rapture of the church to heaven and the time of its formal union with the Lord, the marriage ceremony, the dreadful events described in the tribulation, they've been taking place here on earth, but during this very same time period, the saints of God will appear before the judgment seat of Christ and put on this fine linen. How will we do that? Well, we see glimpses of it. Romans 14 verses 10 and 12 says, why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Yes, believers, we are going to go through the judgment seat of Christ. Now, it's not to determine whether we get to live in eternity with Christ. That's already been determined once you place your faith in Jesus. But this is the putting on of our righteous robes, getting ready for the wedding. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 10 and 11 says this. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. Therefore, knowing that the fear of the Lord, we persuade others, but what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. And I'm going to skip through this next one because it should be first Corinthians instead of second Corinthians. I noticed that a little bit too late here. Believers will receive rewards for faithful service and also face the consequences of how they have lived here on earth. The question of sin and salvation is not the issue at this judgment seat, but the believer's work will be brought into view. position in the kingdom and capacity for eternity are being decided now in this life. And it will be confirmed at the judgment seat as we receive the white linen. That occasion, one of the great heart searching is presented to us in the most solemn of terms in scripture. Paul used such words as fire and terror to describe it. At the same time, the judgment seat of Christ will be private family affair. And once it is over, the people of God will be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white. The fine linen is the righteousness of the saints that we saw in verse eight of our passage here in Revelation 19. the church will be ready for the marriage supper of the lamb. When we, as the bride, when we will at the rapture arrive and go before the judgment seat of Christ, we're not going to be beautiful at all. In fact, we'll be covered with spots, wrinkles, and blemishes. As Paul writes about it in Ephesians 5, 27, But by the time we go through our cleansing, during the time the tribulation is happening here on earth, we'll be radiant in glory. We'll have made ourselves ready, as our text says here, for the public ceremony. This statement that we see here in verse 14, it was granted her, It's written in a manner that's called a divine passive. God granted her to clothe herself. Back in Revelation 7, 14, those clothed in white robes had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And that's the connotation here. The stains of misdeeds have been washed away by the blood of the Lamb on us. Righteous deeds make the fine linen shine. So what do you want? Do you want to buy unsatisfying and perverted imitations of God's gifts from the prostitute only to be punished with her forever in anguish and regret? Or do you want to be the bride? Isn't it astonishing that such a bridegroom would give himself to us? We don't deserve to have him help us cross the street. And he gave everything. He left heaven. He walked dusty roads. He endured the cross, rose from the dead, poured out his spirit, accomplished redemption for us. It's almost too good to be true, but it is true. Wonder of wonders. Trust in Jesus and he will come for you on that day as his bride. The multitude joyfully celebrates and honors the lamb because the day of his wedding has come and his bride is ready. We can hardly imagine the glory of that wedding day. Never has there been a more worthy bridegroom. Never has a man sacrificed more for his beloved. Never has a man gone to greater lengths, humbled himself more, endured more, or accomplished more in the great task of winning his bride. Never has a father more wealthy planned a bigger feast. Never has a more noble son honored his father in everything. Never has a man treated his bride-to-be more appropriately. Never has a more powerful pledge, like an engagement ring, been given than the pledge of the Holy Spirit to his bride. Never has a more glorious residence been prepared as our dwelling place Once the bridegroom is finally ready and gets the announcement from the father to take his bride, great will be the rejoicing, great will be the exultation. There'll be no limit to the glory given to the father through the son on that great day. Never has a bridegroom done more to qualify his beloved to be the bride. Never has a bride needed her bridegroom more. Never has there been a wedding more significant than this one. Never has a prince with more authority taken the bride with less standing. Never has a bride had her prince die for her, rise from the dead for her, and give her his own standing before the father. Never has a bridegroom loved his bride more. Never has a bride waited as long for her bridegroom. Never has a bride sung more songs to her beloved. Never has there been a wedding with more guests than this one will have. Never has a wedding taken place on a more momentous occasion. The end of the overlapping ages and the ushering in of the kingdom. Never has there been a marriage like this one. Verse nine. 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. Did you ever wonder? Okay, we've got the bride. We've got the bridegroom. We've got the father. Who are the guests? There are guests. They're mentioned. Who are they? In John 3.29, John the Baptist, who was the last Old Testament prophet, indicated that he was a friend of the bridegroom. Thus, part of this guest list, I believe, will be the Old Testament saints who are in heaven and have received their rewards. Remember, they don't make up the bride. The church is the bride of Christ. I believe that the Old Testament saints and those who become believers through the tribulation are going to be the guests at this wedding. And there will be many, it will include those who were saved during the tribulation. And as we've been going through this, we've seen that there are going to be all these revivals happening on earth during the tribulation. So there will be people coming to know the Lord. Who can blame the Apostle John for getting overly excited at this? John finds God's truth and the blessing of being invited to the marriage feast so moving that he just wants to worship. Look at verse 10 here. Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. John is clearly overwhelmed by the beauty and the joy of this occasion, and with that, he correctly worships, but it's strange that he should be tempted to worship someone who's not God. The angel has to remind John to look in the right direction. Only God is to be worshiped. And you know what's even more strange? We'll see later on in Revelation chapter 22, verses eight and nine, John does it again. We see John worshiping an angel. And once again, he has to rebuke John for the very same thing. There's no doubt that it's easy to be tempted to worship the messenger rather than God himself. Overwhelming spiritual experiences can draw us into this temptation. And I think this is a clear warning to all of us. I remember when I was in college, went to a retreat. I was very involved with a campus organization called Campus Crusade for Christ. It was founded by Dr. Bill Bright. And we were at the headquarters, the international headquarters for this organization, for this conference. And of course, Dr. Bright was there. He wasn't the main speaker, but it happened to be his birthday. And so they went down and they brought him up and he came and he spoke and it was marvelous and I was so enthralled. He was my hero. And I was sitting there as a young student taking it all in and was so excited and so ecstatic, couldn't wait to go tell my friends, I was in the same auditorium with Dr. Bill Bright. And wouldn't you know it, it was time for lunch after he got finished speaking. And lunch, man, I know a shortcut to go to the lunch line, so I see the side door. And I cut through the side door and there's Dr. Bright. And he was such a gracious man. And I saw him as I was approaching, and I was thinking, this is wrong of me. This is wrong of me. He's just a human. I can't believe I had this mentality. And he's so gracious, he sticks out his hand, and he has a warm smile. He says, hi, how are you? I said, fine. So I just kind of, I can't imagine what he thought. Oh, I wonder what riled him up. You know, even if the apostle John twice fell into such sin, how much more can we be tempted? We got to be careful with any kind of hero worship, especially in Christian circles of worshiping the creature rather than the creator. And especially so in our Christian circles. Can I ask you this? What would it be like? If you knew, really knew, that such a bridegroom was coming for you, is he coming for you? Are you trusting him? If not, what are you hoping for from the future? What is more to be desired than what he offers? The whole book of Revelation was probably read aloud in early Christian worship when John sent it to the seven original churches. They needed to know, and we need to know, that Jesus is enough. He is enough in the face of inconvenience. He is enough in the face of cancer. He is enough in the face of persecution. He is enough in the face of imprisonment. and even death. God, through our passage today, intends to show his people that Jesus is enough. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let's pray.