Let us turn now to our confessional reading, page 207, as we come to the last question and answer of Lord's Day 6, question and answer 19. Page 207 in the forms and prayers. Question and answer 19. I'll read the question. Let us together say the answer. How do you come to know this, namely that Jesus Christ is the only true and righteous mediator. The holy gospel tells me God himself began to reveal the gospel already in paradise. Later he proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets and foreshadowed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law. And finally he fulfilled it through his own beloved son. That is the confession we hold in common, that faithful summary of the word of God. Let's turn to scripture reading first from Hebrews chapter one, a support passage this evening. We'll read the first four verses of Hebrews chapter one. After the letters of Paul, Hebrews, James, the letters of Peter, the letters of John in Revelation, Well, and Jude in there also, those letters are small enough, working back from Revelation 1. It's usually the easiest way to find Hebrews. And we're at Hebrews chapter 1. And we'll read the first four verses before we turn to Revelation. Hebrews 1, 1 to 4. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. And he upholds the universe by the word of his power after making purification for our sins. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. Let us turn now to Revelation chapter 19, page 1,325 in most of the pew. Bibles, Revelation chapter 19, we'll be reading verses 1 through 10. Notice that there are four hallelujahs, and maybe our children can even listen for the hallelujahs. There are four hallelujahs. And each hallelujah is followed by words of song, rejoicing and praise to God. And we'll be looking especially at six to 10, but we'll consider it also in this context. So we read Revelation chapter 19, verses one through 10. 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 twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped 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 I heard what seems to be the voice of a great multitude like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty pearls peels of thunder crying out hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty reigns let us rejoice and exalt 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. 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. So far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades. The word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, oh, the pictures and the images and the characters of Revelation Sometimes they can overwhelm us and sometimes they can be very difficult to discern. Think of the 24 elders mentioned in verse 4 of chapter 19. Some say that they are angels. Some say they are New Testament saints. Some say they are Old Testament saints. Some say they are Old Testament and New Testament saints together. Some say they are angels representing the Old Testament. and New Testament Saints. And then there is one who, one Reformed commentator, he says, perhaps John himself didn't even know exactly who the 24 elders were. What do we do with all of the jewels and the clouds and the 24 elders and the four creatures? What do we do? How do we even maneuver through Revelation? Well, people of God, It is true, we should not get caught up in the jewels and the clouds of Revelation. We shouldn't be too distracted. We can consider them in an appropriate way, in cautious ways. But when we read Revelation, not getting lost in the jewels and the clouds, The focus upon Jesus Christ is really abundantly clear. That there is the Lamb and there's one of the images that is not confusing. The Lamb is Jesus Christ. There is the Lamb and He is the one who saves. He is the one who is the bridegroom. He is Jesus. He is the one we worship. He is the one who has saved us. And so Revelation 19 is another one of those times when we can think about the images without trying to get too lost in them, but come back and focus on these essential truths, such as the declaration, worship God, do not worship me, as the angel says it. And so we worship God and we do that together with all the saints and we rejoice together with all the saints who are saved by God. Rejoicing together, worshiping him together. That's our theme this evening, rejoice together with all the saints saved by Jesus. And we're gonna work through first the testimony given and then the salvation gained. and then the multitude gathered. We're basically working backwards through Revelation 19. We're kind of starting at verse 10 and working back. And so first that testimony given. John is on the island of Patmos. He's receiving his great vision, chapter 19, verses 1 through 10. that's bringing to the climax this episode within revelation of the description of the great prostitute being judged and then that's followed by the rejoicing at the marriage supper which follows that and after this vision as Many of the visions of Revelation do, it overpowers John, and then in his weakness, John, who has given many warnings against idolatry, in being overpowered by this vision, he falls into idolatry and he worships the angel who's the messenger to him here. And so he falls down before the angel, but the angel says, no, no, worship God and not me. The angel says, worship God and not me. Moses long ago told the people that another prophet would come to him. You should listen. David the king spoke long ago about his Lord who was coming after him. And so the angel, Moses, David, they all have this in common. They're all telling us, don't worship me. Don't worship us. Don't lean upon us. Look to the greater prophet, the greater king, the king of kings, the king of angels. Look to Jesus, who is God and worship God. alone. It's upon Jesus Christ that our worship must be centered and therefore that our testimony, that our words, our message concerning salvation must be centered. It must be the testimony of Jesus. We could paraphrase verse 10, in this way as the angel moves from saying, no, don't worship me. Look at the testimony of Jesus. We could paraphrase verse 10 this way. Don't worship me. I'm just one of the brothers and all of us are called to worship Jesus and to speak about Jesus. That is where our focus is. That is the center point. And that's true for The New Testament saints, it's also true for the Old Testament saints. The gospel already was being revealed. They didn't know the name. They didn't know it was Jesus of Nazareth, but they knew it was the Christ. They knew it was the Messiah who they must look toward. And so all of the scriptures are about Jesus. It's all the testimony of Jesus from Genesis to Revelation. And so Jesus says in Luke 24, 44, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you that everything written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. And we looked at that passage even in a special way that was our text a couple months ago. There are so many examples of where we then see the apostles and the New Testament church putting this into practice. Turn with me to Acts chapter 8, Acts chapter 8. And I knew someone, well, I didn't really know him. I just had one conversation with him. I saw he was reading the Old Testament. He was a student of Northern Michigan University and I encouraged him to read, if he was reading through the New Testament, I said, well, read Isaiah 53 and then read Acts 7 and 8. And it was just a way to try to encourage him to move past just looking at the New Testament as part of his studies and to hopefully have him turn to the place where The Old Testament is explained. So where Stephen preaches about how Jesus is the one that came and yet you denied him, though the prophets were speaking about him. And then from Stephen, that one deacon to Philip, another deacon who's also an evangelist, we read this in Acts 8 verses 32 to 35. Now, the passage of the scripture that he, the Ethiopian eunuch, was reading was this. Like a sheep, he was led to the slaughter. And like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opened not his mouth. In his humiliation, justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth. And the eunuch said to Philip, about whom I ask you, does the prophet say this? About himself or about someone else? And Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this scripture, he told him the good news about Jesus. Beginning with this scripture, And then moving to other scriptures. Well, what would that be? The New Testament scriptures haven't been written yet. Well, it's all of the Old Testament, all that Moses, all that the prophets, all that the Psalms spoke. It is that which must be fulfilled. It is that which Jesus fulfills and we now know his name. And so question answer 19 summarizes that How do you come to know that Jesus Christ is the mediator for our complete deliverance? And it's the Holy Gospel that tells me, and that's true from Genesis to Revelation. It's true beginning already in Paradise, Adam and Eve. knew that they were waiting for an offspring. It's true for the patriarchs and prophets as well. The patriarchs were waiting for then the covenant offspring through Abraham. The prophets spoke and prophesied about the Savior. And then at the time of the prophets and even before the time of the prophets, the sacrifices and ceremonies of the law, they're all pointing to Him. They're all part of the testimony of Jesus. Jesus is the one we worship. We worship God alone. Jesus is the one whom scripture points us to. From Genesis to Revelation, people of God rejoice. Rejoice in this testimony, the spirit of prophecy. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. We might think of that in terms of John's letter where he says to test the spirits. Test the spirits. Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. In other words, if we're not focusing first upon Jesus and then what flows out from there, then it's a false spirit. The testimony of Jesus is how we know that this is a good spirit, a right spirit of prophecy. It's how we might paraphrase the end of verse 10. And so we have this. And we're not only looking forward by faith. We now know the Messiah's name. We now know that Christ is Jesus of Nazareth. We know we are saved by his work on the cross. That is the sacrifice. We have the message. We have the message made clear. We trust in him. and we rejoice. And so let's look at that salvation gained and the salvation gained, especially as it's pictured in the marriage supper of the lamb. And the images in verses seven to nine are not the difficult images of revelation. The lamb, is repeatedly throughout Revelation. It is Jesus and so it is again here. There are so many other passages which would tell us about who the bride is. This is one of those places we're in Revelation and as we work through this point we're gonna read one support passage from Hosea. We could read a hundred support passages. This is Revelation bringing the full scriptures of God, the whole word of God to its end, to its climax. And so these are images that have been used throughout the Old and New Testament. The bride is the church, it is the people of God. Now, one thing that might be puzzling in verses seven to nine is that the bride is the people of God, the church, And also, we are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb in verse nine. And so that is one thing that might be puzzling. How can I, as a believer, as one who is part of the church, how can I be both part of the bride and one of the invited guests to the marriage feast of the Lamb? How can I be both the bride and the guest? That doesn't make sense. Well, there are two ways to answer this puzzle. First of all, it is a metaphor, it is a picture. And so pictures are flexible. Jesus Christ is both the lion and the lamb in Revelation. And the great wedding feast of the lamb is a great metaphor, it's a great picture. We can be both the bride and the guests at this wedding. There's also another Another way to answer this puzzle, they're both true, and that is it's not only the flexible imagery of great metaphors and pictures, there is some distinction throughout the Old and the New Testaments. The whole people of God together are the bride. The bride, the people of Israel are the bride, The church is the bride, that's the whole church together. Individual believers, we might say individual members of the body, individual members of the church are invited guests. And so the bride, the emphasis there is upon the whole church together as one united body. and then the call to accept the invitation to the marriage supper of the lamb in verse nine, that puts the emphasis back on the individual members of the church, the individual believers. And so, people of God, the applications then are twofold, and it's something that we see often in scripture, that we are to not think of ourselves as being too alone, individual. And at the same time, we can never put away personal responsibility. And so when we think of the whole church together as being the bride, how could we ever be too individual? How could we ever think that we could just go off on our own? How could we ever dare to divorce ourselves from the church when it's the whole church together, which is the bride of Christ? How could we divorce ourselves from the bride of Christ when Christ himself is faithful to that bride and say that we were honoring God? No, we could not do this. We must be part of the whole body. We must be part of the bride. At the same time, being part of the whole body is never an excuse to put off our personal responsibilities. We each, on our own, must accept the invitation. The church cannot repent for you. Your parents cannot repent for you. You must repent. You must accept the invitation. You must come to Jesus Christ yourself. The Bride. The whole church together is there. The members of the church are individually united. All of this together is part of the great picture of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Now what is the Bride given to wear? The bride is given fine linen, bright and pure, and here again is an image which is easy to understand because the explanation is right there at the end of verse eight, for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. Usually, I really don't know what the custom was in the times of the New Testament, but today we certainly think of of the wedding dress as being something which the bride gets. In fact, it's usually kind of a fun event. You get the ladies together and the ladies go do the dress shopping. Can you imagine a man going to get the dress? That's just not how we do things. That's not how we do things. The bride gets her dress. Now, here, the groom gets the dress. Do you see that? It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen. At the marriage supper of the Lamb, the bride is given her clothes from the perfect husband, Jesus Christ, who provides his own righteous deeds that we can be covered Though we ourselves are the adulterous bride. Though we ourselves could never go get our own white wedding dress for this day. We could never earn our own salvation. Jesus will clothe us. As those who are his, we do work to make ourself ready. We are sanctified, but finally the clothes can only be given by Jesus Christ. And here's the one support passage we will read. Again, we could read a hundred. This is a frequent image in the Old and New Testaments, but let's just turn to Hosea chapter 2. of verses 19 and 20. And it's after the lengthy description of the sinfulness of the people of God, of the people who, in verse 23, want to be not God's people, but God will change them. God will say, you are my people. And then in verse 19 and 20, we see what God does for his people, for his bride. Hosea 2, verse 19, and I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord. How can God do this when the church is the adulterous bride so quick to run off and whore after the gods of the other nations? God does this by clothing us in the righteous deeds that Christ has done first and then clothed us in. The groom has purchased the wedding dress and granted it, given it to the bride to clothe herself. People of God, we see the salvation gained in this beautiful picture of it and we rejoice and we say, thinking about how we are all part of the church together, but also about how we are all individually sinners. We say, Jesus Christ, I rejoice and give thanks that you clothe me, that you take me to yourself and you provide the white linen that I can come and be part of the spotless bride on the final day. Accept the invitation and rejoice in the salvation. Now let's continue to work backwards and let's look at the multitude gathered. The multitude gathered. And so now we're looking at verse six. I heard the voice of the great multitude and the sound like many peals of thunder. But now we're also looking at verses 1 through 10 together, because it's the multitude which is singing in verse 1, which is described first there, and if we think of the four hallelujahs, the great multitude sings the first hallelujah in verse 1, and then the second one in verse 3, and then the fourth one in verse 6, and then it's the twenty four elders and the four living creatures. They're the ones who come in and sing the third hallelujah. So they're really part of the, we might say, even greater multitude. They're all together there worshiping God, singing praise to God, alleluia, praise to God. And we first note that the great multitude was certainly include all the people of God. If we think, question and answer 19 really tells us this indirectly by telling us that it's the same gospel that was being revealed already in paradise. And then, of course, we could turn to scriptures that say this directly. But indirectly, that's reminding us that the same gospel has been going forth and It's Jesus who is the testimony of both the old and the new then, even though his name is not revealed until the new. And so what's the great multitude? Well, it's all those who have the testimony of Jesus. It's all of the saints from the days of Adam and Eve until today. The great multitude, all of the saints, all of those who worship God, all of those who have the testimony of Jesus, whether it was whether it was the gospel beginning to be revealed or the gospel fully revealed as we have it as the New Testament people of God. And so the great multitude is singing and then we're not going to think about the four creatures but we are going to say a little bit about the 24 elders. Again, we don't ever want to get lost in this. I think it is possible that John himself didn't know exactly who the 24 elders were. But the best explanation does seem to be that they are representatives of all the people of God. Because there are 12 tribes in the Old Testament and that stands for the Old Testament people of God. There are 12 apostles who form the foundation of the New Testament church. Certainly, this putting of 12 and 12 together is an appropriate way to think of all of God's people together being in the presence of God, worshiping God in the new heavens and the new earth. Revelation 21, if the picture of the 24 elders is, you know, we don't get many details, and we don't, though they're mentioned a couple of other times, Revelation 4, If that image is not clear, Revelation 21 makes this image of 12 and 12 and then another 12 clearer. Turn with me to Revelation 21, just over a page or two perhaps. And we're gonna read verses 10 to 14. And now maybe the children can kind of listen for how many times they hear the word 12 here. And we're gonna read. Revelation 21 verses 10 to 14 and he carried me away in the spirit to a great high mountain and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel like a Jasper clear as crystal. It had a great high wall with 12 gates and at the gates 12 angels And on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed. On the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. All of the angels, here represented by 12 angels on the walls. All of the Old Testament saints, the names of all 12 of the tribes is inscribed on the walls of the city. All of the 12 apostles as they represent the foundation of all the New Testament church, their names are on the foundation. We are all together, all the angels together with all the brothers, all worshiping God, people of God. Do you ever feel alone? Do you ever feel that, as we mentioned, the fall and the decline of the church in Europe this morning, do you ever feel that the church here is declining, is fading away? That even in this city, measures of faithfulness that you saw when you lived here decades ago is fading away. Do you ever feel like the powers of darkness are strong and it discourages you? We do pray. We do pray that we would sing with more. We do pray that God would revive this nation and revive Europe and that the light of the gospel would be growing brighter everywhere. And even as we give thanks that it is growing brighter in some places of the world, but we are not alone. Though you be the only believer left in the whole state of Wisconsin, you are not alone. When you rejoice, you rejoice together with all of the saints through all of the ages. And you might not have the joy of singing with many saints now. We might wish we could sing with more saints this very night. And that's a proper wish and a proper prayer. But do not be discouraged. at the wedding feast of the Lamb, you sing the hallelujahs with all of the angels, and with all of the Old Testament saints, and with all of the New Testament saints, from all of the little lampstands throughout all of the centuries, throughout all of this earth, you sing and rejoice together with the whole multitude. Your voice, true believer. When you accept the invitation, when you come, when you repent, and when you trust in that Lamb, your voice is just one small part of a mighty peel of thunder. The 12 angels, the 12 tribes, the 12 apostles, The gospel is revealed from the beginning and the gospel has been working and continues to work and brings part of God's great bride to himself always. Even in the rebellious generations, a thousand knees have not bowed to Baal. You are not alone. The powers of darkness will not prevail. We rejoice with eager expectation. Let's come to our conclusion then, a little bit of an extended conclusion, because I want to look just a little bit at the image of 19 verses 1 to 10 together. Now, it's a wedding, a feast, where we don't know the date. You have a wedding, you pick out the day, and you count the days down. You're counting the days down. You're ticking the days off the calendar. You're expecting that day, you're anticipating it. Well, the marriage feast of the Lamb, it's more like something which maybe some of our older members have some memory of. We don't really have to, we haven't had to do this in the United States for a long time, but it's a little bit more like a husband who's out fighting a great war, and the wedding date is undetermined, it's whenever he gets back. It's whenever he gets back. And that's the song, the first three hallelujahs, verses one to five, it's the victory song at the parade for the end of the war. It's the victory song for Jesus who conquers the great prostitute and the corruption of the earth and makes everything new and wins the war and prevails against the gates of hell. And what the image we're getting from 1 through 10 together is We don't know the day or the hour. We don't know when the final victory will be won, but we know Jesus is winning that victory and will win that victory. And when the war is done, the husband will come home and we'll have the wedding. The victory song at the end of the war will be immediately followed by the love song of the wedding. We are anticipating the love song.