Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #10 of Revelation chapter 19 and we are continuing to look at Revelation 19:8-9:
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
I will stop reading there. This is the “bride” of Christ at the time of the marriage between the Lord Jesus Christ and all those He has saved. It is occurring in the Day of Judgment. We spent a good amount of time discussing that and now God is directing our attention to the bride herself and to the language of her attire and how God defines what she is wearing in Revelation 19:8:
And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white…
We should not overlook the word “granted.” It is a translation of the Greek word “didomi,” which is often translated as “give” in association with God’s grace – the grace He has given. That is exactly how the bride was formed as each one of those individuals that make up His bride were saved. It says in Ephesians 2:8:
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
God gives the gift of salvation, the gift of faith, granted by His mercy to those He had predestinated to receive it. And that is why it says, “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white.” It goes on to say that the fine linen is the “righteousness of saints.” It is also the garment worn by the army of God in Revelation 19:14:
And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
This means that the “bride” is comprised of every individual God has saved and they are both the “saints of God” and the “army of God.” The saints are the army that are upon the horses, “clothed in fine linen, white and clean.” They are all synonymous. We may not readily connect the “bride” with “saints” and the “army of God” in the Day of Judgment, but God is doing so through the language of the “fine linen.” The bride is clothed in fine linen. The saints of God are clothed in fine linen and the army of God is clothed in fine linen. It is just a way of saying the same thing, but painting it in different pictures.
God is declaring that it is the “marriage supper of the Lamb” and the wedding day. When we think of it in earthly terms, we normally think of it as the bride’s special day and the last thing we would expect a bride to be doing at her wedding ceremony would be taking up arms and being involved in a battle. Yet, that is exactly what God is saying here. The “marriage supper of the Lamb” has come. The bride has made herself ready. She is clothed in fine, white linen. She’s upon her white horse, doing battle along with the Lord Jesus Christ against the enemies of God in the Day of Judgment, the final battle that this world will see. It is the end time battle between God and His kingdom and Satan and his kingdom of darkness and there is the bride, dressed in white and on a white horse, along with the Jesus Christ who is also on a white horse. Christ is going to battle with “ten thousands of his saints,” and they are the bride of Christ, the body of the elect. This body was put together, individual by individual, throughout the course of history and now they are complete and they form the bride of the bridegroom, who is Christ.
If you can picture this, it is as if the Lord Jesus Christ, the bridegroom, locks arms with his beautiful bride dressed in white, but instead of walking down an aisle, they are going forth to destroy the enemies of God at the time of this ceremony; it is the “marriage supper of the Lamb,” and all the unsaved people of the earth are being offered up as a sacrifice for their own sins.
Following the destruction of the wicked over the course of this marriage supper, then the bridegroom will turn to His bride and there will be, as it were, a consummation of the marriage as the bride receives her new resurrected body. Each individual God has saved will receive that new spiritual body and they will “go off into eternity future” to live happily ever after.
It is interesting to note the language we use concerning earthly marriage ceremonies. We actually use terms like these: “We hope you live happily ever after in your marriage. Go and have a happy life together.” It is not very often the case that it happens in this world, but it is the case at the time of the end of Judgment Day, when this world is destroyed and the marriage can be consummated between the Lord Jesus Christ and all those He has saved, His elect bride. There is finally a “happy ever after” into all eternity.
Let us also look at Revelation, chapter 15. In our chapter in Revelation 19 we see that the army is clothed in pure, fine and white linen and it is also the case in Revelation 15. If you remember, there were seven “angels” or “messengers” that made an appearance. It says in Revelation 15:1:
And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.
Just to remind us, the word “angels” should be translated as “messengers” here. They are the saints. They are the bride of Christ. This chapter is going to describe the pouring out of the wrath of God in the Day of Judgment and that is why the seven messengers have the “seven last plagues; for in them is filled up the wrath of God.” It is the final end of God’s wrath. It is the completion of His judgment, as we learned that God first began to pour out His wrath upon the churches and congregations in 1988, during the 23 years of the Great Tribulation period. On May 21, 2011, it was the final transition to judgment upon the entire world and He is judging all the unsaved of the nations, so it is “filling up” the wrath of God. This is why “1,600 days” is such an excellent possibility for the end, because added to the “8,400 days” of the Great Tribulation it would form a complete 10,000 days of overall judgment.
It says in Revelation 15:6:
And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles.
They are the seven messengers (the elect) and they are not angelic spirit beings. It is impossible that these “seven angels” are angelic beings. Why is it impossible? It is because they are “clothed in pure and white linen.” And what does that mean? God defined it for us in our verse in Revelation 19:8:
…for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
I would encourage the listeners or readers to look up the word “saints” in the Bible. Forget all about what some churches say about saints – they have statues of saints and they pray to saints. That is ridiculous and has nothing to do with the Biblical definition of saints. The saints of God are not people canonized by some church authority, like the Saint of Lost Things or other saints. That is idolatry and is contrary to the commandments of God and the Bible. God is a “jealous God” and He would not have anyone pray to any saints. It is a horrible idea. Jesus, said, “When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven.” We are not to pray to some Saint Harry or any other being but God Himself. Christ informed us to pray directly to the Father and that is how true children of God pray. We do not pray to Mary or to saints or to anything or any other entity than God, through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that the “saints” are those made holy by God’s salvation program.
Do a search of the word “saint.” Anyone can do this if they have a concordance. Look at all the places in the Bible this word is found and you will find that many of the Epistles are addressed to the “saints” of this city or that city. It simply refers to God’s people – those that became righteous as they were equipped with the spiritual garment of Christ’s righteousness. That is the “fine linen” of the saints and it is the covering of their sin and the washing away of all iniquity. They are no longer defiled and polluted. They are no longer “dirty, rotten sinners” in the sight of God, but they are clean in His sight. They are holy. God does not see any of their sin. Their sins have been removed as far as the East is from the West and cast into the depths of the sea, never to be remembered against them again. God sees sinless perfection in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ, who paid for all their sins. This is the “fine linen” of the saints and angelic beings do not possess that covering. There is no “fine linen” for spirit beings. Why? It because in the case of the angels that sinned, God cast them “down to hell,” judging them. He made no provision for their salvation and, therefore, they have no covering for sin. They are the only angelic beings that need a covering because they are the only ones that sinned. The rest of the angels did not fall into sin. God kept them from falling and preserved them and they continued to be obedient and faithful to the commandments of God and they never sinned and, therefore, they never need a covering. There is no need for “fine linen, clean and white” to cover over the sins of the angels that stayed in heaven. That is how we know that when God speaks of “seven angels,” it must be “seven messengers” and those messengers must be believers. They must be God’s elect, as He says in Revelation 19:8:
…for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.
The army in heaven clothed in pure and white fine linen is the elect, the redeemed of the Lord. These seven messengers that are going forth with the seven last vials full of the wrath of God are also the elect. They are the saints that judge the world. Remember what we read in 1Corinthians 6:1-2:
Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?
Here, again, God is using the word “saints,” but not to speak of some “super holy individual” that gave his or her life as a martyr and then some corporate church concluded, “This person was a saint, above all the rest of the people of God.” Is that not just like mankind to do this? It is just incredible when we consider the degree of falsehood regarding this matter of “saints,” as far as a church’s attempt to determine who is a saint or who is not a saint. Thank God for His Word and thank God that He makes everyone He saves a saint and no one is above another and no one is more holy than anyone else; all are equally washed and equally clean. God is no respecter of persons. The entire idea of sainthood put forth by some churches really does lead to the idea that some people are more holy and righteous than others. There are all kinds of errors involved in it. No one is worthy, if God were to look at the individuals. No one is worthy of special status, but God saves His people and He makes them all saints and everyone that is saved is a saint in God’s sight. Again, God asks the question in 1Corinthians 6:2:
Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?
It is a plain statement. The saints or the elect will judge the world. Do you not know that? Do you not understand that? This is really what is being asked and for many people, they do not know it. They have some vague idea that at some distant time far off in the future God will destroy the world and we will be with Him somehow.
Yet, according to the Bible, Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011 and God has been actively judging the world ever since and He is utilizing the body of believers in certain ways:
By sharing this information, they are judging the world. Just the fact that the true believers look to the Bible and they understand that the day of salvation is over and the door to heaven has been shut is judging the world. God is judging the world by bringing these things to pass as His Word reveals them and by understanding these things, the believers are judging the world along with Him, so the question is asked in 1Corinthians 6:2:3:
Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?
And so it is. The Bible is revealing that judgment fell on Satan and the fallen angels, as well as all the unsaved people of the world on that day (May 21, 2011) and Christ has come already with “ten thousands of his saints.” The number “ten thousands” points to the completeness of His saints. Through saving the last of His elect, it enabled God to shut the door of heaven. Judgment Day has come and all the saints are now clothed with the fine linen, the “righteousness of saints.” The body of the bride of Christ has been fully formed through the completion of the salvation of all whose names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
There is a definite relationships between the bride dressed in white and the army of God on horses and the seven messengers of God that go forth to pour out the seven last vials of the wrath of God and that is why in the next chapter, Revelation 16, God details the activities of the seven messengers as they pour out the plagues and execute the judgment written.