Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #6 of Revelation chapter 19 and we are going to be reading Revelation 19:7:
Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.
We have been going, verse by verse, through this chapter, as well as through the entire Book of Revelation. In the earlier verses we saw that the context is at the point of Judgment Day and the completion of God’s salvation program. He has saved all those that were to be saved and it is that great multitude of saints that lift up their voice in praise to God, singing “Alleluia,” along with the four living creatures. It is a time of tremendous rejoicing for the Lord Jesus Christ has been triumphant. He has won the battle that raged throughout history.
We looked at the first part of verse 7 last time, where it said, “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him.” This word “honour” is not the typical word translated as “honour.” It is Strong’s #1391 and it is normally translated as “glory.” It is the same word used back in Revelation 19:1:
And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God:
The word translated here as “glory” is the same Greek word. For instance, it is the same word found in Revelation 14:7, where God made that wonderful declaration, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment has come.” Fear God and give glory to Him. Why give God the glory? What is the reason? We are told in our verse that it is because, “the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.” Of course, Jesus Christ is the Lamb that is in view. By the way, God uses the name “Lamb” to identify Jesus in the Book of Revelation 27 different times. We have already seen it 20 times and this is the 21st time it appears in Revelation and God will do this a few more times before this Book is complete and it is at the time of being glad, rejoicing and giving glory to God “for the marriage of the Lamb is come.” It is the marriage of Christ and Christ is called the “bridegroom” in the Bible and He is also Eternal God. The Bible tells us in Isaiah, chapter 62 that God would “marry” a people for Himself. It says in Isaiah 62:5:
For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.
Here, God likens Himself to a bridegroom and those that He will rejoice over are the bride and they are all He would save. They are the “bride” of Christ. I know we are familiar with this and we are aware that this is taught in the Bible, but I was recently speaking to a man who grew up in a Muslim land and he was very surprised at the idea that God would “marry” His people. He wanted to know what verses taught that, so I pointed him to Revelation, chapter 19, where it refers to the marriage of the Lamb and the bride making herself ready. That bride is the body of believers.
God speaks of His salvation program in terms of a marriage, especially in the parable we find in Matthew, chapter 22. I am going to read this entire passage because it is a wonderful parable which gives us much information about God’s salvation program throughout history.
It says in Matthew 22:1-2:
And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,
By the way, By the way, the word “marriage” in verse 2 is Strong’s #1062 and the word “wedding” is also Strong’s #1062. We are going to find in the following verses these words are used a few more times and they are always from the same Greek word, Strong’s #1062. So, here, the marriage or the wedding of the Lamb has come. We can use the terms interchangeably.
Then it goes on to say in Matthew 22:3-7:
And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
Now at this point we can understand the previous verses spiritually point to the sending forth of the Gospel into the world. God did send out a wide call, “Come to the wedding,” which would spiritually mean to become saved and become part of the “bride.” There is also information in the Bible that pictures the invitation to a wedding and that also relates to salvation. Anyway, they were bidden to the wedding and the Bible does tell us that “For many are called, but few are chosen.” When these made light of it, the king destroys them and burns their city and that would point to the end of the church age, as God “burned” the corporate church. What followed after that? It goes on to say in Matthew 22:8-9:
Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
So God is saying, “Do not go into that city any more – that city is destroyed. But go outside the city into the highways and whoever you find, bid them to come.” This represents the time at the end of the church age when God sent forth the Latter Rain outside of the churches or outside the “city” Jerusalem. He bid the multitudes of the nations, just as He had bid those within the city to come to the marriage. It was the Gospel call a “second time,” as the Lord stretched forth His hand the “second time” to recover the remnant of His people. The Latter Rain period can be understood to be the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The first outpouring led into the evangelization of the world through the churches, which began on the Day of Pentecost in 33 AD. But that program came to a close the day before Pentecost on May 21, 1988 and God brought judgment upon the churches and spiritually burned that city. For a time, that was followed by 2,300 evening mornings in which virtually no one was being saved because God was not saving in the churches and He had not yet sent forth the Holy Spirit outside the churches. That would not happen until 1994 in the Jubilee Year, at the time of the year when the Jubilee was to be announced, September 7, 1994. Then the Holy Spirit was poured out, once again, and that is what is in view, as it says in verse 9. Again, it says, in Matthew 22:9-10:
Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
At this point it was the end of God’s program to evangelize. That second outpouring of the Holy Spirit was over and through it God had saved the last one to be saved and everyone who was to come to the wedding had received the call. Now the scene shifts in this parable and it is no longer about the sending forth of the Gospel. We saw that there were two periods when the servants went out to bid guests to the wedding and it related to the two outpourings of Holy Spirit, the season of “firstfruits” during the church age and the season of “ingathering” during the second part of the Great Tribulation period, but now the scene shifts starting in Matthew 22:11-14:
And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen.
Verse 13 uses the terms “cast into outer darkness” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth” and they identify with the time described in Luke 13, after the door is shut. It says in Luke 13:25:
When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are:
Then it says in Luke 13:28:
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.
As we have understood this, God shut the door on May 21, 2011. That is the time period that Luke 13 describes and it is when the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” begins to take place and it continues throughout the prolonged period of Judgment Day.
It is at that time that the king, a figure of God, comes in to examine the guests in Matthew 22. He is not going to accept just any attire. You cannot “wear” whatever you please, but you must have on “wedding attire.” That is another way God is saying that you must have on the “righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ” in order to be a part of this wedding and to be allowed to remain. The only proper wedding attire is the “righteousness of Christ,” which covers over sin. That was the problem when the king came in and saw “a man which had not on a wedding garment.”
From this, we can see how it fits what is happening today at this time after the Gospel has gone into all the world. Remember the days leading up to May 21, 2011? There was a worldwide proclamation of the Gospel, unprecedented in history, where a message from the Bible reached so many people across the face of the earth – that was the “second outpouring” of the Holy Spirit. It was God going into the “highways and byways” because He had already burned the city, the churches, and God was beckoning men out in the world to come to the wedding. The “day” was announced. “Come to the wedding because Judgment Day is going to be here on May 21, 2011.” It was the completion of God’s evangelization program. Then on May 21, 2011 and in these days after that Tribulation (which we are presently living in), there is no more bidding people to come to the wedding. Rather, it is a time when God is inspecting each individual. He is going from “person to person,” as He has placed us all in the spiritual fire to try each individual to see if they are “gold, silver, precious stones” or “wood, hay stubble.” Another way to put it is that He is seeing if each individual has on the proper wedding attire. Are we clothed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ? This period of inspection will tell the story and it will determine if we are a proper guest that has come to the wedding in a right manner. Of course, God would have qualified each of His elect and made sure they had the proper attire if they were truly saved. Or, is it someone that had come to the wedding without the proper clothing? They do not have the righteousness of Christ and their sins are still exposed; there is no covering for them. That would result in their destruction.
In this parable in Matthew, chapter 22, God is really laying out His salvation program and we see two periods of the sending forth of the Gospel. It is amazing that in just a few verses that describe servants going out to bid people to a wedding, God is covering a couple thousand years of history. The first period went from 33 AD until 1988 and the second period during the second part of the Great Tribulation went from 1994 until 2011. Then the third scene in this parable is the “wedding feast.” It is the place of the wedding where all have gathered together and according to Revelation, chapter 19, that is the time of Judgment Day.
Let us just scan ahead a little bit in Revelation 19. We see that in verse 7, God says the marriage or wedding of the Lamb has come. Then we read of the wrath of God, as Christ is leading His army of saints to do battle with the enemies of God. In that unmistaken context of Judgment Day, as the Lord is treading the winepress of the wrath of God, we read in Revelation 19:17-18:
And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
Remember it said in Revelation 19:9:
And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb…
So the marriage supper of the Lamb is Judgment Day, the time of the pouring out of God’s wrath and the utter destruction of the wicked, all the enemies of God. God speaks of it as a “marriage supper.” Notice what He said, “Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And here we are, just as it describes in the parable in Matthew 22; the guests have shown up because, spiritually, God moved the time along – it is no longer the time of bidding guests, but it is the time when the supper is being held. The guests, therefore, have arrived. We do not have to go to a literal “place” to be a part of this wedding feast and the marriage supper of the Lamb. We do not have to travel anywhere because it is being held all over the face of the earth. It is the time of the world’s judgment. It is the day of the wrath of God and, therefore, it is the time of the “marriage supper of the Lamb” and all the world outside of the churches was bidden to come to the supper: “For many are called, but few are chosen.” That is the Biblical principle.
So we all find ourselves as guests, in a sense, at this particular feast and this time when the Lamb is going to take His bride and forever be with “her.” Remember, the Bible wonderfully says, “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” There is not to be divorce for any reason, so God has married His bride. God has saved His people and we have eternal life. Another way to say this is that we are forever married and Christ can never put us away or divorce us or leave us for any reason. So it is the point of the eternal marriage between the Lord Jesus Christ and His people and, very shortly, they will consummate the marriage in eternity future and God’s people will forever be with the Lord, but there is the matter of conducting the marriage feast and carrying out the marriage supper. God is presently and actively doing that, as He is slaying the wicked of the world. Finally, He will annihilate them. As God at this time performs an inspection of each one that professes to be a true believer, the real question is this: “Do you have on the robe of Christ’s righteousness, the beautiful garment of salvation?”