As you can see in your bulletins this evening, we'll be looking at Revelation chapter 19, verses 1 through 10, so you can turn in your Bibles there. When I was with you a couple of weeks ago, and I've been here for three weeks, I started out on a little series with you on marriage. So two weeks ago in Genesis 2, we remembered marriage's purpose and origin. We saw that it's a divinely instituted relationship that God has given between man and woman. where they enter into a life and death covenant with one another and develop over a lifetime an intimate trust. And we looked at how that's the way it is in our relationship with Jesus Christ as his church. He is in this life and death relationship with us as his people, and he's giving himself to us. Last week, we went to the book of Song of Songs, chapter 4, and we saw how there a wife is described as a locked garden. to be a fruitful vine, which is to be cultivated with love and care. And we looked again at how Jesus does that for his people. And so as we come to this evening, we'll come to the last book of the Bible. Remember how the story ends. of this great wedding feast of the lamb that is mentioned here in chapter 19, or actually described here in chapter 19. As I read tonight, please pay attention to the fact that in this passage there are four times the word hallelujah is used. In the first three verses, it's a hallelujah of rejoicing over the judgment of the prostitute. And the second pair of hallelujahs is over the great wedding feast of the land. And so with that in mind, hear the word of God. John writes, 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. 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. Once more they cried out, hallelujah. The smoke from her goes up forever and ever. 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 his servants, you who fear him, small and great. And 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. 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. 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. And 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. Let's bow and ask God to bless our time in his word. Our Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for this opportunity to worship you on your day. A day, O God, that you have set apart so that we could be reminded week by week of the great love that you have for us as your people. Father, we need your spirit to see that word, that love, and to, God, experience it in all of its heights and depths and lengths and widths this evening. And so, O God, May your spirit work that we might know the surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ and his love. For we pray it through his blessed name. Amen. Heaven is a place of ultimacy. There's no neutrality there, no divided loyalties, no more doubts. No hidden sins. It's a place where the perfect zealous love of the Father and the Son and the Spirit for the people of God is experienced and then reflected back to the Godhead from his people. Heaven is a marriage, a marriage of the Lamb with his Bride. It's a great place of joy and love and glory. And so as we come to worship our God, every time we come to worship, in essence, we are being prepared by the Spirit of God, his word, for that experience in one way or another. Actually, that's the duty of a pastor, to get his people heaven ready. I know your pastor loves Gregory of Nazianzus, and that's how he described pastoral ministry. is coming alongside the people of God and getting them ready to spend eternity with God the Father and Son and Spirit. Gregory said that the pastor is to preach the gospel in order to bestow heavenly bliss upon the one who belongs to the heavenly host. In another place, he says, the pastor is to provide the soul with wings so that it might fly heavenward toward God. This preparation is, in a sense, does have two wings or two parts in nature. If we're going to be heaven ready, The first part of that is we have to purge out of our hearts all the falseness and then in turn be filled with an eager love for God above all else because our relationship to God is a marriage. What do you do in marriage? You set aside all other loves and set your affections upon one. and one only, and that's what worship's to be. That's what we're to be preparing to do, is to spend eternity with hearts that are fully God's. This passage is showing just that. God is judging false belief and allegiances in one group of people that he calls the great prostitute. And on the other hand, he's making ready and bestowing eternal bliss on another group that he calls his bride. In essence, he's divorcing the one and wedding himself to the other. And in so doing, he calls us to prepare ourselves for the marriage supper of the lamb, just by following that, by shouting with joy over the judgment of the prostitute, and by making yourself ready for the marriage of the bride. So let's look at it that way. First of all, shouting with joy over the judgment of the prostitute. In verses one and two, we have that first hallelujah. And at first it sounds just positive in nature. Salvation and glory and power belong to our God. But then it begins to get a little darker in a sense. For his judgments are true and just. He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of his servants. It's not easy for God's people when they're being honest to say openly and unavowedly, I rejoice when I see God's judgments on the wicked. We need help in order to do that. First part of the help comes in understanding the wickedness of this great prostitute. Now this great prostitute shows up in Revelation earlier in chapter 17 and different people see different Realities represented by this great prostitute, those who take a more historical position, perhaps align more with the reformers, see this great prostitute as the Church of Rome. Others who treat the Book of Revelation in a more spiritual fashion see it as representative of any false church in any day and any age. Others who might take a more covenantal approach to it all see in this act God divorcing himself from his Old Testament people, Israel, even as he turns to the New Testament church, perhaps a fulfillment of Hosea, where Israel is portrayed as a prostitute and where God said, I'll take no pity on her children because they are children of infidelity. Their mother has committed prostitution. She who conceived them has acted shamefully. I will say to those who are not my people, you are my people. And they will say you are my God. And to those who were his people, they are no longer his people. But in reality, in any way you might view who this great prostitute is, one thing is certain. The church in every age, is called to rejoice and praise God for his complete and his everlasting judgments on false faith that leads to the persecution of his people. That's clear. And in that second hallelujah, again notice who's crying out. It's the great multitude. This is the church crying out And once more they cried out, hallelujah. The smoke from her goes up forever and ever. An unending punishment upon those who spurn the gospel, particularly those who spurn the gospel under the false pretense of actually being among the people of God. It's an awful reality, really. I'm not going to spend time tonight expounding on the reality of hell, but I am going to spend a little bit more time right now expounding on the believer's response to the reality of the wicked being cast into that hell. We are to have the strength of spirit that causes us to rejoice knowing that God will judge the wicked eternally. That is part of our responsibility of being a Christian, of being part of his bride, of being heaven bound. Maybe that's, again, too heavy of a truth for you, so let me give you an illustration. Perhaps this will help. Certainly, you have seen videos of the ticker tape parades that took place after the end of World War II. The joyous babblam that ensued in the streets of our nation as finally the Allies defeated the Third Reich and this awful war was brought to an end. People dancing in the streets on into the night, soldiers receiving the hero's welcome that they rightly deserved, and everybody's rejoicing over the fact that the enemy has been defeated. Can you imagine if in the midst of all of that, some self-righteous American with a smug look on his face, say, hey, wait a minute, time out. Let's have a moment of silence for Hitler and the Nazis. You would think, what in the world is this man thinking? How in the world can he ignore the reality of the battle? The reality of all the horrible wickedness that was poured out on this world through this man and his armies to say something of that nature? You should say to that man, you need to rejoice. over the great victory that has occurred. And in the same way, when there's a smug, self-righteous spirit in the modern church, ignoring the reality of the battle that we're in, forgetting that, yes, we're the bride of Christ, but we're also the church militant. We're in battle with a wicked foe. And that we have to live with an awareness of all the time being in this battle and thanking God when he does render his judgments upon apostasy and upon wickedness. Friends, we're living in a time where in any direction you can go to a church and they're hanging rainbow flags. They're embracing evil. They're demonstrating their apostasy to the gospel. And we should be praying. We should be praying. that God would stop their mouths to their false teachings and the misleading of a new generation of people that are being deceived by evil. In his book, The Art of True Worship, A.W. Tozer, there's a section in there where he's talking about thanksgiving and how important it is in worship to give thanks. It's something good for us, it's appropriate, it's expected that when we're blessed that we should give thanksgiving to God. But then he says this, as long as the worshiper is engrossed with himself and his good fortune, he is but a babe in worship. We begin to grow up when our worship passes from mere thanksgiving to admiration. For how different and how wonderful are the emotions aroused by a true and spirit incited love for Christ. Christ can never be known without a sense of awe and fear accompanying that knowledge. He is the fairest among 10,000, but he is also the Lord high and mighty. He's a friend of sinners, but he is a terror of devils. The love of Christ both wounds and heals, fascinates and frightens, kills and makes alive, draws and repulses, sobers and enraptures. God is jealous for the love of his people. And he wants us to come to him. with sincere hearts that love him above all else and are indeed enthralled with the one who would go to such lengths to deliver us from evil and bring us into his glorious kingdom. John Piper speaks much the same way in his book on missions, Let the Nations Be Glad. He reminds us that life is war and that we're praying in order to extend the kingdom of God into hostile lands. That there is so much in this world that when we assemble that we need to know that we're at war with this world. And God wants our love for Jesus Christ to be singular. We want Him to be exalted and glorified above all, and especially in places that call themselves the household of God, and they're not. We can't tolerate that. We can't tolerate His name, His glory, His majesty being defiled because we are His bride. We love Him. And you ladies here, think for a moment. When people speak evil against your husband, how you'd feel. How much more in Christ's name is muddied should we be praying that God would conquer. And when he does conquer, our hallelujahs are to ring because of his judgments. The early church shows us this in the book of Acts. When threatened by Herod, when told to quit preaching the name of Jesus Christ throughout the streets of Jerusalem, they got together and they prayed. They used the Psalms to do so. They asked God to judge their enemies, to halt their efforts against them, and to fill them with boldness so that they go right back out on the streets and do what they were doing before in preaching the gospel. And I think God heard that prayer. Because the whole house that they were praying in started to shake. And in the next chapter, they go out and do that very thing. And in this book of Revelation, when the fifth seal is broken and we see the martyred saints in heaven praying, what are they praying? We hear psalmotic echoes as they say, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. And so the church, we have to pray imprecations. We have to ask God to defeat those who stand in the way of the church. Whether it's the Islam faith in dark parts of the world, or governments in Asia that are persecuting the church. The liberalism that just continues to flow in the church in our own land. We need to learn to pray prayer strong enough to meet the challenges and humble enough to cast our full dependency on God and ask for him to be glorified in our midst. On that last great day, when our bridegroom returns, We are told that he will divide the peoples of the world, one to the right called his sheep, the other to the left called the goats. And he's going to say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And our bright and proper response will be hallelujah, hallelujah. for the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. Not because we will look across that great divide and see ones that we once loved going there, but because we love Jesus and we love him singularly. And ultimately, ultimately, those that opposed him and resisted him, and particularly spoke evil about him, have received their due. Now, make yourself ready for the marriage as his bride. For the second half of the praise in this passage is given for that very reason, that our fate is not that fate. We have not had to face the wrath of God, rather we have received his grace and his mercy. And I want to encourage you with these three following applications this evening. First of all, you must respond to the wedding invitation. Verse nine says, write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb. It's not just here mere invitation only, but kind of the idea behind it is they were invited and they received that invitation and they're there. They're there at the wedding. So we know that doesn't always happen. Jesus told a parable of that in Matthew 22 of the marriage, the parable of the wedding feast. where a king prepared a wedding for his son and sent out the gracious invitations. But how did they respond to that wedding invitation? They paid no attention. They went their separate ways, one to his farm, another to his business, and still the rest seized the slaves and treated them abusively and killed them. There are those who reject, and they're destroyed. But that doesn't stop the wedding invitation for keep going out. I don't know about you, but this is the season for weddings and you just keep getting them, right? Just wedding invitation, wedding invitation, wedding invitation. And that's really the preaching of the gospel. Just one more invitation, one more invitation. Keep asking, keep asking them to come to Christ. Have you responded? to the wedding invitation of the Lamb, the one who is eternally set apart to be crucified for his people, to die on the cross, to be buried, and to be raised in power the third day, so that anyone who believes on him, to be saved from their sins, can have life everlasting and come to this great wedding feast of the Lamb. Have you received that invitation? Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ? Children, do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? He wants you to come to Him and come to His great wedding feast. Are you going to the wedding? If you are, then another way that you would apply this is that you would praise them daily, that you're included. In verses four and five, the representatives of the church, the 24 elders, they declare hallelujah. And then notice they say there in verse five, praise our God, all his servants, you who fear him, small and great, small and great. A phrase is there to indicate that God is no respecter of persons, but he's a God of mercy who looks upon any who will turn to him, whether they're great in this world or particularly if they're small, weak, and lowly, and they can find in him life and salvation, and they are to come And every Lord's Day is to be a day of praise. A day of praise. It's kind of like a wedding rehearsal. Every week we're getting ready for the great wedding feast of the Lamb. Praising our God who has saved and redeemed us. I think I mentioned that the first time I was here that our youngest daughter was wed in June. And we're empty nesters now. And I've been reflecting on just the fact that my children are wed and rejoicing, really. I keep telling my children, you have married people that I really believe are far sweeter than you are. And I think you're pretty sweet. We have been greatly blessed. I've especially told my sons, you married like I married. You have married far above. what you deserve. You married up. Well, think of Jesus. He married down. He took the likes of us and he said, I'm going to set my love on these undeserving people. I'm going to set my love upon them. And he married down, has raised us up to be his bride. And we need to wonder all the time at that grace. It's not that the older you get in your Christian faith, the less you think about the marvel and the mystery that you're a Christian. I think it's actually the opposite. The more I understand the gospel, the more I understand what I'm really like, The more I am amazed that someone like me is in the household of God. When I was a young Christian, and Miriam and I moved as a young married couple to start graduate school at Purdue University, I came into the Reformed Church for the first time. I had not heard the doctrines of grace. And I began to learn the sovereignty of God and salvation. And that grace really means that I contributed nothing to that salvation. Matter of fact, I was so dead in my sins that I wouldn't have been Christian unless God had brought me to life by his power and his sovereignty. And those days when I was a student and Miriam was working in a hospital, she'd go off to work. And before I went to class, I'd go out in the woods and just marvel. And one of my prayers, I just said it over and over again, I still say it. You mean that if you hadn't, I wouldn't have. You mean that if you hadn't reached down in your mercy and saved me, I wouldn't be here. And I know that's true. But I still can't get over it. And I think, I think, when we're in our right minds, and we're seeing things clearly in scripture, and God's Spirit is helping us, we marvel more at that love rather than less. And if you're in a marriage, you'll think you're in love your first year. I know we have a first year anniversary right here, and I'm sure they are in love. I know they're in love. When you hit 25 and 30 and 35, and you're in Christ, the love only deepens and the marvel only grows that God has given you such a person to walk through this life with. And when we get to heaven and we see the consummation and all the cloudiness of this world and its darkness is totally removed and we're in the presence of our God, we'll marvel more And we've been there for a thousand years than when we first entered those gates. And so finally, friends, then, if you've responded to the invitation and you know that you're included and you're getting ready to go, then you got a dress for the wedding. You got a dress for the wedding. In verse eight it says, it was given to her, the bride, to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Note that the linen is given to her. We are a people who are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, but that this righteousness is not only the fact that he has justified us, but his salvation is full and complete. We have to live like the bride, not just dress externally like the bride. And so he has given us these righteous deeds by which we are clothed. There has to be this demonstrative righteousness in our lives that we are clearly, clearly the bride of Jesus Christ. As God told His people in Leviticus chapter 20, verses 7 and 8, consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God. Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the Lord who makes you holy. So if you see a church, a congregation of God's people, where they're praising God, that though they were once walking in darkness and wickedness, but now by His power they've been cleansed and transformed, then you know you're in a place where the Bride of Christ is truly in existence. And if you see this congregation, not only worship Him, but then go out and fulfill the righteous deeds of the saints, living with not a dead faith, but a living faith as they take care of one another and extend His love and mercy into their community, then you know, then you know that you're among the Bride of Jesus Christ. And that's to be our testimony. plain as the clothes that we're wearing, that we belong to Jesus by how we act and live seven days a week. You can tell where people are headed. You can tell where people are going if they are dressed as if they're going to the wedding. As we finish We need to look at what happened to John as all of this is being revealed to him. We're following this glorious revelation by the angel of God. It's interesting, isn't it? Verse 10 tells us that the apostle John got a little confused at this point because it says he fell down at the feet of the angel to worship the angel. And so the angel says to him, you do that. Don't do that. I'm just a fellow servant along with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Here's what you do, you worship. God, and it just amazes me that this happened to John, of all people. John, the beloved disciple. John, who'd been with Jesus for three years. John, who'd seen all the miracles. John, who got to see the transfiguration. John, who saw the empty tomb and the resurrected Christ before him. John, who was there beside Jerusalem watching Jesus ascend to heaven. John, who had seen all kinds of visions before we get to this one. And at this part of the story, he has to be told, don't worship an angel. I think that's even in here to encourage us. For like John, how easily we can get confused and forget the true wonder of it all. The more incredible, more incredible, than an angel showing us heaven. More incredible than that is that you are a citizen of it and that you are the beloved bride of Christ. That's what the Lord never wants you to forget. You're his bride. Don't get confused. Keep it simple. And make yourself ready. Make yourself ready. Let's pray. Father in heaven, so often it can be in the church as we've just thought upon, we can get confused. and forget the simplicity and the wonder of the gospel, that our beloved Savior, your Son, gave his all for us and delights in us. And Father, it's hard for us to believe that at times, and so again, we pray that your Spirit would make that more clear to us. Again, open our hearts and our minds to its truth and to its wonder. And God, as we go forth into this world, may it not be the positions that we have in this world, the places we go, the things that we possess, but our relationship with you that defines us and motivates us in all that we do. Hear our prayers, oh God. We pray them through your son's name. Amen.