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Marriage Made in Heaven - Revelation 19:1-10

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3/2/1997
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Marriage Made in Heaven
Revelation 19:1-10
Skip Heitzig
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66 Revelation - History's Last Chapter - 1996

The book of Revelation exalts Jesus Christ as the soon-coming Lord over the earth. Skip Heitzig explains the amazing and mysterious prophecies that form God's final word to mankind.

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We're in Revelation 19: "After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her. Again they said, "Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!" And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, "Amen! Alleluia!" Then a voice came from the throne, saying, "Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!" And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, "Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, "Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!" And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God." And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, "See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

The night I proposed to my wife I was a nervous wreck and, having never done it before, I thought I would play Joe Philosopher. And instead of just coming out and asking her the question, I said, you know, in life we all come to great crossroads of choice and you don't know if it's a green light or a red light. And I'm using all this weird metaphor and she's thinking, what is he saying? Of course, I had no idea what I was saying, I was just talking. Finally, I got it out, I asked her to marry me and I didn't hear that she said yes. And so she kind of shook me and said, Skip, I said yes. I said, yes, what? Yes, I'll marry you! And it was like a light dawned on me. I shot up from my chair and I said, now wait a minute! Hold on here. This is a big step. We gotta talk about this. We gotta think about this. We have to plan our future. And then we started planning our wedding and of course there are differences in a couple as to what they want. I wanted the elaborate wedding---just to be on the beach. I said, look, we'll wear shorts, I can wear a little tie but I'll wear shorts, thongs, we'll have a little hot dog roast after the wedding. And tears welled up in her eyes as I said this. She had a different program, a different idea, which we followed. That's step number one in a happy marriage. The day of our wedding came and I was even more nervous and scared and people who saw me said that I looked like I was in physical pain and I was because the tuxedo shop gave me shoes a size-and-a-half smaller than my feet are so my toes are curled up like a monkey. And after the wedding, we had our marriage feast---our lunch. And one of the great things about this lunch is that they not only had the wedding cake, white cake, triple-layer, but they had a carrot cake which is my favorite cake. It was kind of a special gift to the groom and we went out and took pictures after the wedding and I couldn't wait to sit down and eat and have my carrot cake. And I come back to the feast and the carrot cake was gone. The guests had eaten my cake! So I rebuked them all---now I didn't. I'm just kidding.

We come now in the Scripture to a marriage that will take place in heaven: the marriage supper of the Lamb. The great celebration that Christians of all ages have looked forward to since they said yes to Jesus Christ. The time when we'll be gathered in heaven with our Lord because, in a very real sense, we're engaged to Him. We have the promise that He will come. One day we'll be with Him face to face and let me be quick to say, that is what will make heaven, heaven. It's not the golden streets. It's not the crowns. It's not the mansions. It's not even who else will be there---but Him. He will make it heaven. Wherever heaven is, whatever heaven looks like, to be together with Him is the great culmination of history. It's the same in a marriage. What makes a home? Well it's not the house proper. It's not the dog and the cat or the furniture. It's the people inside that house. It's the husband, the wife, the children---that's what makes it home. The last few months we have been able to do prophetically what we will never have to do historically. We have gone through the great tribulation week after week ad infinitum, ad nauseam, almost. We have uncovered each little turn and phase of the day of the Lord. We have seen the scroll being taken by Christ out of the right hand of Him who sits on the throne and with each seal broken from that scroll, judgment ushered forth. Then there were seven blasts of trumpets and with each peel of the trumpet came another judgment that was even more devastating than the previous. And finally there were seven vials or bowls of judgment poured out upon the earth and we read and we saw that when final seven bowls are poured out, it's over. The tribulation, the day of the Lord, the atrocities are finished.

Now we get to the good part---the good stuff. And in marked contrast to what we have read and studied in the past, this is great celebration, great victory, the alleluia chorus is sung in heaven. We cover today the first ten verses which is a scene that takes place exclusively in heaven. You might call it a marriage made in heaven. That's really what it is. And there are three phases to this, three sections we want to look at this morning in these verses. There is first of all the celebration of the attendants. There will be a lot of people at this gathering. Twenty-four elders, four living creatures, angels, myriads, millions of them, the church. And so we'll see the celebration of the attendants. Then we'll see the culmination of the marriage itself. And finally, in verse 10, the miscalculation of John the apostle.

I want to draw your attention to the first verse that says "After these things," after all of the loud wailing over Babylon the great, which is fallen, "I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Alleluia!" This is party time in heaven. It's the party of parties. There's great joy, great enthusiasm, endless celebration. And there are several voices that we read about coming from different places. And different groups of people doing different things. Verses 1 through 3, "a loud voice of a great multitude," presumably angels joining in anthems of worship. In verse 4, twenty-four elders and four living creatures respond by bowing and worshiping. In verse 5, there's a voice coming from the throne of God, commanding people and every creature to worship and praise God. Finally in verse 6, again the voice of a great multitude. This time a little bit louder, a little more intense. It's like the voice of thunder, the voice of many waters. The volume gets louder; perhaps to John it seemed deafening as every creature in heaven breaks out in anthems of praise. So there are lots of attendants at this marriage. Lots of activity. Lots of emotion. They are excited, they are ecstatic. I've been to some weddings where you'd never know it was a wedding. Get out on the platform and look over the sea of faces and you would swear it's a funeral. Everybody looks sad. It's like, they're getting married. This is it. D-day. And you think what's wrong with this picture? This is a wedding! There should be celebration, not sadness. Some churches are even like that. As if it's a cardinal sin to be happy, to rejoice, to celebrate God's goodness. No---this is a church! We check our smiles at the door. I think some people, when they get to heaven, are going to be shocked just by the virtue of the joy that is ceaseless. It goes on and on. Celebration upon celebration.

One theologian wrote, "Should we not see that lines of laughter about the eyes are just as much marks of faith as are lines of care and seriousness? Is it only earnestness that is baptized? Is laughter pagan? We have already allowed too much that is good to be lost to the church and cast pearls before swine. A church is in a bad way when it banishes laughter from the sanctuary and leaves it to the cabaret and the nightclub and the toastmasters." We notice a word that is used four times in these verses. It's the word alleluia. That should be something that is sort of obvious to us. It's a different word. It is the first and only time the word is even mentioned in the New Testament. But this is the first and only time, and it's used four times in a row, it simply means praise the Lord. It's as if heaven has waited to use this word until now and then they use it over and over again. So heaven will be very active and it will probably be very loud. Like the sound of thunder, the sound of many waters. Why such celebration? It's obvious. It's over. The pilgrimage on earth is over. The suffering of earth is over. The persecution, the Antichrist brought on the church---it's history. They're home and that's worth singing about.

I really enjoyed my stay in India. As far as the people are concerned, they're such a blessing. They're such great sacrifice and they listen with such enthusiasm and desire to put into practice everything that God would speak to them. And as wonderful a time as that was, you know, it's hot. Interesting smells, noises, there's no really way to describe it unless you've been there. And after several days of that and five spider bites on the neck. I was ready to come home. You come home and you see your family and you see the fellowship that you love and you just think, it is great to be home! That is how we'll feel in heaven. We're not gonna go, but I never got to have more children! I never got to get married! I never got to buy that new car! We're in heaven! Alleluia will be breaking out all over the place. Now they celebrate for a few different reasons. Number one, notice in verse 1, for salvation. Alleluia! "Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!" The idea of that verse is this: we honor God because of His authority to bring to us salvation. In fact, The Living Bible says salvation is from God, honor and authority belong to Him alone. God is powerful enough to give us this kind of salvation. When you say, I'm saved, what does that mean? Usually we think of just one phase of salvation. I'm saved from sin's penalty. I will never have to go to hell. And that's a good reason to rejoice. But salvation is much more than just being saved from sin's penalty. That's what happens the moment you ask Jesus to be your Savior. You pass from death to life---immediately. You have eternal life. But you are also, secondly, being saved as a process. You are being saved from the power of sin over your life. You were saved from its penalty, you're being saved from its power, but one day, and this is the day we're reading about it, you'll be saved from the very presence of sin itself. That is the culminating, that is the ultimate effect of salvation. And they worship and praise God for it.

Do you ever stop to thank God just for salvation? Ever stop to think that if God never gave you one more blessing, that you enough? That if He didn't fulfill any other of His promises except just to save you from sin and from its effects that would be enough? Every year at Passover the Jews stop to consider their blessings. They run through a litany, a list, of all that God has done in their history. And they go through one blessing at a time and at the end of the blessing they have a word that they all sing out loud. It's called Diyanu. It means we would be satisfied if that's all that You did, that's enough. And at Passover they say this: if God had merely rescued us from Egypt but had not punished the Egyptians, Diyanu. If He had merely punished the Egyptians but not destroyed their gods, Diyanu. If He had merely destroyed their gods but had not slain their firstborn, Diyanu. If He had merely slain their firstborn but had not given us their property, Diyanu. If He had given us their property but had not split the sea for us... and they go all the way down to what they have. As a Christian, we ought to be able to say if God just sent His Son to die for me, to get me saved, and did nothing else, Diyanu! It is enough! Of course, God didn't stop there. He gives us more than that. Salvation is the first step to many other steps. Paul wrote in Romans 8:32, if God didn't spare His Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He then not with Him freely give us all things? Every blessing in Christ Jesus. I have read many books of the world religions, the great religions of the world, and what they promise and what they offer and none can hold a dim candle to the salvation that God offers us. If you're a Christian today, hell is an impossibility and heaven is the great inevitability. And so in heaven the first thing is Jesus is about to return and they sing the anthem, grateful for salvation.

Secondly, they celebrate God's retribution. This is all under the attendants celebrating God and worshiping. They celebrate God's retribution. Verse 2: "For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her. Again they said, "Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!" Some might read this and think that's as insensitive as you can get. That's as uncaring as you can get. In chapter 18, the world is lamenting, Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And at the same time heaven is rejoicing, Yeah! It's fallen! You think that's very uncaring? No it's not. If you're a Christian, you can understand this. During the tribulation we have already seen earth will have more opportunity to be saved than any other period of history. Angels fly through heaven, two witnesses are seen all over the world, on and on and on. The world will reject Jesus Christ, pretty much wholesale, persecute God's people, kill two witnesses, and when the two witnesses get killed everybody's so excited they send presents to each other because God's witnesses are dead! Get those preachers out of here---they're dead! Alright! I'll buy you a gift! Happy Dead Witnesses Day! Now it's heaven's turn to rejoice. You know whenever a crime is committed, the nation is saddened. Whenever the criminal is apprehended, the nation rejoices, whether it's a drug czar or a pornography king or serial killer. When that killer is convicted and sentenced, people sigh a sigh of relief---they rejoice. Thank God, it's over! And notice what they say: "true and righteous are His judgments".

You know for centuries people have said God isn't fair and they've challenged God's choices. Here in heaven people will say amen to God. We're not going to be up in heaven going, excuse me, God, that wasn't fair. I disagree with what You just did. No, when God uncovers each layer of judgment, all of heaven will go, right on! That's what amen means in the modern vernacular. Right on! Yes! That's true. That's righteous. Oh, to have a leader who would always do what is true and what is righteous and one day you'll have one. It will be God Himself. The service in the jungles of South India we prayed for different people that we had heard their needs. Several churches had been burned to the ground by radical Hindus so that people were displaced. There was a pastor up in Nepal who was preaching the gospel and is today in prison. All of these Christians and pastors awaiting the time when God will bring equity, righteousness, truth, and justice to bear. And here God does it and God's people agree with Him.

Then in verses 4 and 5, there is a response by the twenty-four elders. It's best to see them as we saw, as the church. "The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God". What a wedding that will be! I've been at weddings where people have fallen down. I once did a wedding where the groom fainted twice. It was a great, great procession down the aisle and we were about ready to start and we started talking and he just got white and fell backwards. So we revived him, propped him back up, she's as cool as a cucumber. We started going through the vows and he fell over again! So we had to put him in a chair. While she stood, he was sitting in the chair and he said his vows to her. Here in heaven at this great wedding they won't be fainting, but they'll be falling down. That's how you would treat royalty. You would bow before the king. The twenty-four elders and the creatures do it. I heard one of the great stories of the Victorian era when Queen Victoria herself came to the throne and she was being taught protocol, how to be a queen whenever you're in a public. And one of the public appearances was Handel's Messiah and the instructor said, Queen, it's always the custom that you remain seated during the entire performance. The Alleluia chorus, when it is sung, will cause everybody in the crowd to stand up---they get really excited. But you stay seated. She said it was the hardest thing she'd ever had to do. she wanted to get up. In fact, she couldn't restrain herself. At one point she stood to her feet and fell prostrate as if to cast her crown before the Lord. That's the response in heaven with twenty-four elders and the four living creatures.

I want to apply this personally before we go on because it says in verse 2, God "has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her." In the Bible God says vengeance is His. It's not yours. When you are mistreated, when somebody does you in, when somebody stabs you in the back, the Bible says you are to give room for wrath. You say, you know what, I'm God's servant. I'll let Him handle this. If you insist on defending yourself, I believe God will let you. But it's better to have God as your defense. On the Damascus road, you remember, Saul of Tarsus was attacking Christians and we see how God took it personally. Saul gets knocked off his horse and Jesus asks him the most interesting question. He says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? He was after Christians and Jesus said you're touching Me now. You're after them---you're bugging Me now. He is so inseparably tied to His people that no blow struck on earth towards God's people goes unfelt in heaven. God started moving. Jesus said inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. Jesus is the head of the church. I don't know if you've ever hit your hand or fingernail with a hammer or stubbed your toe, you hurt everywhere. There's an explosion that goes off in your head and it shoots through the entire nerve network. The head is touched when God's people are touched. And God will avenge. He might not do it in your lifetime. He might. But He might not. But until then, what are we to do? To sue? To defame? To get back? Jesus said pray for those who spitefully use you. Do good to those who persecute you. Let God handle that stuff. Now that's so hard to do.

There was a judge who was running for political office and his opponent running against him spread rumors about him. He was being talked about in the community. They were all lies. And so his closest advisor said, Judge, we've got to launch a counterattack. We've got to sling mud back. The judge wisely said, when the moon is shining, the dog barks at it. And so what does the moon do when the dog barks at it? Just keeps shining. Let the dogs bark, he said, I'll just keep on shining. And that's what we're to do as God's children. And here we see God taking up the vengeance that belongs to Him.

Then they are celebrating God's dominion in verse 6, His worldwide dominion. "The voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering, saying," once again, "Alleluia!" or praise the Lord, "For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!" Literally, the Lord God All-Powerful has now begun to reign. You're saying now wait a minute, has God been on vacation till now? He hasn't been reigning until now? It's now that He's begun? Well God has always been in control. However, in the tribulation He will let evil men and evil spirits have lots more freedom than they even have now. and this is the end of that day of the Lord and so He takes complete, utter charge. The scroll is taken, opened up, and He reigns in a worldwide sense as, in the next several verses we'll read next time, Jesus comes back to the earth. But I want you to notice a word. The word omnipotent. It means having all power, all rulership, being unlimited. So many times we have a problem and we carry our problem and our limitation over onto God. Oh, God! Listen, this is impossible! When God told Sarah and Abraham, he being close to 100, she being in her 90's, that she was going to get pregnant and have a child, the Bible says when Sarah heard this she started laughing. It was a good joke! Ninety-year-old gal---way past her prime. I'm gonna have a kid? She started laughing. She laughed to herself and God spoke and said, Sarah, why are you laughing? She said, I didn't laugh. God said you laughed---I heard you. And then He asked this probing question: is there anything too hard for the Lord? When you face a difficult obstacle, how hard is it? It's impossible. With God is it possible? Oh yeah, but. Difficulty must always be measured by the capacity of the agent doing the work. For you it's impossible. You factor God in---no problem! Lord, I only need $200,000. Or whatever your need might be, probably not a great need, but whatever your need is, God knows how to fill it. He's God.

In Acts chapter 4, beautiful story of the early church being hassled, being under persecution, being under fire. Their life is on the line and they come before God in a beautiful prayer. The way they start their prayer is what grabs my attention. They bow their hearts before God and they say, Lord, You are God. You have created the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in it. Why did they start their prayer that way? Because it sounds more spiritual? No. Because it adjusts their perspective. We're dealing with God, not Herod, not Caesar, all-powerful God who makes these guys seem like little pawns on a chessboard. And they adjusted their perspective so they realize, Lord, You're God. Nothing's too difficult for You. Now here's our need. Good way to approach God. I've always been convinced that if you can believe the first verse of the Bible, the rest is pretty easy for you. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. If you believe that, God can do anything for you. He's omnipotent.

So there is a celebration of these attendants. Secondly, there's a culmination of the marriage. Verse 7: "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready." And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me," this is the angel, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!" And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God." Now this is symbolism. The Lamb, who's the Bridegroom, and the bride. The bride's who? It's the church called so in Ephesians, called so in 1 Corinthians, and seen here at the end of the ages. The bride of Christ, the church, the Christians, and the Lamb, the Bridegroom. Now there are about 700 titles of Jesus Christ in the Bible. Of all of them, why is He called here, at His wedding, the Lamb? Because it's the Lamb that you fell in love with. You didn't fall in love with God as Creator. You didn't fall in love with King, as potentate. But because He shed His blood for you, His great sacrifice, endeared you to Him. Now He is seen as the Bridegroom meeting His wife, to be His bride, and this is the marriage.

All this is based upon the ancient Jewish form of marriage. Let me say that way back then, there was no dating. Dating is really an American institution. It's almost become a sport---an unsuccessful sport---where men hunt their prey and kind of stalk and come in for the close: will you marry me? In ancient Judaism, marriages were all prearranged by parents when the kids were small. So a kid grew up and parents said, oh by the way, junior, this is gonna be your wife. Whoa! It was all prearranged. Many parts of the world, it's still the same in India; most all marriages are still prearranged. You think, oh I'd hate that! Well let me put it a little bit in perspective. A friend of mine, K.P., who lives over there and now lives in Dallas, kind of both places during the year, he said, I never heard of divorce till I came to America. Because in the East, like in Judaism, commitment comes before the emotion of love and love is based upon commitment. Whereas in the West, love is seen as an emotion rather than a commitment. But nonetheless, parents chose the wives and the husbands for their children. Then there were three distinct phases to the wedding. The first was the betrothal, the formal engagement, lasted about a year. They entered into this engagement, you could not get out of it unless you formally divorced, wrote a certificate of divorce. There was no physical contact. All you did is talk, court, get to know one another, and live on that promise that within about a year, we're gonna be hitched. The second phase of that was the coming of the bridegroom on the wedding day the bridegroom would get dressed up and come to the house of the bride and get her and take her home. The problem is you never knew when he'd come. They didn't have alarm clocks. She had to get up early and get dressed and be ready because he could come at any moment and take her from her father's house, her home, to the groom's home. Then at the groom's home there was the formal ceremony and the wedding feast, which could last many days, before the bride and groom retired to their wedding chamber. Great feast, great celebration.

It is interesting to me that God chose this intimate picture to describe the relationship that He wants to have with us, His church. We are in phase one of that arrangement. We're engaged to Jesus Christ. We have no physical contact, we don't see Him, but we love Him, we're courting Him, we're getting to know Him, and we live on the promises that one day He'll come for us. Soon, and I believe very soon, will come that second phase. Until then we have promises. Now my courtship was sort of precarious. I dated my present wife for a few months and I got very, very scared of the 'c' word---that would be commitment. Many men can really relate to this, I know because I've counseled many of you, because the 'c' word could ultimately lead to the 'm' word, which is marriage for a lifetime. And I got really scared at that and so we dated and I kind of blew off the relationship and after two years, we rekindled the relationship. I asked her to move from Hawaii to the mainland, we started dating again, and I asked her to marry me and as soon as I asked her to marry me, within a couple days, I said, uh, I don't know about this. So my word was about as strong as Jell-O. But we have God's Word, God's promise. We're engaged. It's going to happen. Phase two is when He comes in the upper atmosphere and raptures the church to Himself and takes us to His home. Literally, He'll sweep us off our feet and we'll see Him as He is.

The third phase is the marriage supper. Let the feast begin! The anthems break out in heaven and this is the culmination of all of our salvation, when Jesus comes to the earth the second time, sets up His kingdom, and there's a 1,000 year honeymoon with Jesus Christ upon the earth. Now it says the bride has made herself ready. How do you do that? Well first of all by believing in Jesus Christ, following Him now. But then in the next verse it talks about that she wears a garment. Every bride needs to have a gown and it says that the garment is the righteous acts of the saints. Every Christian, every one of you who are followers of Jesus Christ, you're gonna be at that wedding. You're in it! You're part of the bride of Christ---the church. But the drabness of your garment or the lavishness of your garment is largely determined upon our obedience and service to Jesus right now on the earth. Now let me clarify that. You're not saved by works. You're saved by faith---by God's grace. But the position in the kingdom and the rewards are clearly determined by what we do with our time, talents, gifts, now on the earth. Paul the apostle, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, said every one of our works of service will be tested and will either get a reward or lose a reward for it. So he said if any one work is burned, he will suffer loss. But he himself will be saved, it is though by fire. Some of you, you're gonna get in, but it's like you'll be singed. The works will be burned up. You know Peter said when I get there, I want an abundant entrance, or a rich welcome, the NIV says, a rich welcome. I don't want to get to heaven and have all the saints go, whoa---close. In fact, we were having little bets on you. Of course if you're saved by God's grace and by an act of faith, you're as saved as it comes. But your positions in the kingdom, the rewards, are definitely according to what we do. Jesus said store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.

I would hope that every believer grows to the place of maturity where service is natural. Serving God now is natural. Jesus Christ is number one now naturally because they love Him. One man made this his anthem. He said I've been a dead weight for many years around the church's neck. I've let others carry me and always pay the check. I've had my name upon the roles for years and years gone by. I've criticized and grumbled too, nothing could satisfy. I've been a dead weight long enough upon the church's back, beginning now I'm going to take a wholly different track. I'm going to pray and pay and work and carry loads instead. And not have others carry me like people do the dead. And so there is the celebration of these attendants. There is the culmination of this marriage and now there is a miscalculation of the apostle. Notice verse 10. John said: "And I fell at his feet," that's the angel's feet, "to worship him. But he said to me," bless you, my son---no he didn't. "He said to me, "See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God!" It has sort of been the history of man throughout the ages, has it not, to worship things, people, and persons other than God? Whether it's saints or angels or Jesus' mother or their dead relatives. All devotion, all prayer, all worship is to go only to God. That's what an angel said! And the angel didn't say, well you got to talk to me and I'll talk to God for you. He said don't do it---worship God. Why? "For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Boy that's exciting. One-third of the Bible is prophecy. If you say I don't like prophecy then you've got to rip out a third of it. It's predictive. And prophecy has as its subject nations and rulers and cities. But the principal subject of prophecy is Jesus Christ.

Now if you have heard this before, and many of you have if you've attended this church very long, just be patient and bear with me for those who haven't. In the Bible, there are 330, roughly, predictions of Jesus Christ: what He would do, what He would be like, how His life would be lived, His death, His burial, His resurrection---330. One man, Peter Stoner, a mathematician from Santa Barbara University, Westmont College, actually, years ago, since he was a mathematician said what would the odds of one man in history be to fulfill those prophecies that Jesus fulfilled? 330? He took 8 prophecies of Jesus. He said mathematically, for one man to fulfill 8 prophecies, would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power. In other words, I'm going to make a prediction. I'm going to say ok, there's going to come somebody who's going to be born here, have this happen to him at this time, and then go do this, this, and that. For me to make 8 predictions and have them all come true as it happened with Jesus, it would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power. The odds of that happening would be just like if you could fill the state of Texas two-feet thick filled with silver dollars, mark one in advance, hide it, bury it, have somebody blindfold walk through the entire state of Texas, the odds that he would find the one that you picked would be 1 in 10 to the 17th power. Stoner said for one man in history to fulfill not just 8 prophecies but 16 prophecies would be 1 in 10 to the 45th power. He said now you have to use so many silver dollars that the silver dollars that you'd put together would form a ball so big that if you put the planet earth at the center of it, you could go in all directions to its periphery 30 times the distance from the earth to the sun, so 93 million miles times 30, which is the center to the edge. That's a ball full of silver dollars. Pick one, blindfold somebody, give him eons of time to pick it out, the odds of him doing it would be 1 in 10 to the 45th power. The odds of one man to fulfill 16 of what Jesus fulfilled. And Stoner goes on and on and on. He uses electrons in the next phase and I've done that before so I won't get into it. But here's the point. That's the testimony of Jesus. Buddha doesn't have that testimony. Mohammed doesn't have that testimony. Krishna, Shiva, or the 330 million gods of Hinduism don't have that testimony. Only Jesus has it. Prophecy authenticates Christ. So in Luke's Gospel, chapter 24, when Jesus is walking with His two disciples on the road to Emmaus, it says beginning at Moses and all of the prophets, Jesus explained to them all of these Scriptures that concerned Himself.

You know that's one Bible study I wish was on cassette. It's one Bible study I wish was recorded in the Scripture. Jesus talking about the Old Testament fulfillment. Must've gone through Genesis 3, Genesis 22, Exodus 12, Isaiah 53, all the prophets regarding Himself---He's the center of it. I want to close with this thought. Verse 9: "He said to me: "Write," I want you to write this down: Blessed, or oh how happy, are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!" And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God." The invitation has gone forth. Let me be the one to invite you to that wedding, the price has been paid; the ticket has been bought through the blood of Jesus Christ. You're invited to that wedding. I hope with all my heart as a Christian this morning, whoever you are, you would begin to realize how much God loves you. The fact that God chose this symbolism, this metaphor, to describe His love for us, a Bridegroom loving His bride, ought to strike joy in your heart. Whatever weird concept you might have of God. God's after you, against you, banish the thought. I'll tell you on my wedding day there's not a lot I remember. I couldn't tell you what the bridesmaids looked like unless I saw the pictures afterward or the best man. I don't even remember what the pastor said. I don't remember what color the dresses and the flowers were or what songs really were played. I didn't care about that. But I had eyes for one woman and when she appeared at the end of that aisle to walk down, I'll tell you, even though my feet were aching, I saw her and I said, wow! I remember saying that. Wow! I had eyes only for her---and I still do. She's my bride. You're the bride of Jesus Christ. He has eyes only for you. He loves you. And if you're not a part of that, the invitation goes out to you to be His bride, to experience His love.


Additional Messages in this Series

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6/9/1996
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Good News from a Bad Place
Revelation 1:1-8
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6/16/1996
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Catapulted into the Future
Revelation 1:9-20
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6/23/1996
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When Love Grows Cold
Revelation 2:1-7
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6/30/1996
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Postcard to Those in Pain
Revelation 2:8-11
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7/7/1996
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The Curse of Compromise
Revelation 2:12-17
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7/14/1996
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Corruption without Discernment
Revelation 2:18-29
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7/21/1996
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Church of the Living Dead
Revelation 3:1-6
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7/28/1996
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Body Building - God's Way
Revelation 3:7-13
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The human body has become the obsession of our modern culture. Much like the ancient Greeks, people are madly trying to fit the contemporary ideal of what is an acceptable shape and size. The church is metaphorically called the "Body of Christ" and His desire is to see it built up spiritually. The church of Philadelphia is a good model of a healthy, faithful church. Their example provides for us a template to follow in building up the Body - God's Way!
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8/19/1996
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Taking Your Spiritual Temperature
Revelation 3:14-22
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Ever since we were kids our moms stuck thermometers in our mouths whenever she suspected that we were sick. If our body temperature of 98.6 had climbed up just a few notches, it was always a good indication that an unhealthy condition was present. There is also a spiritual temperature that reveals the condition of our souls, and when the thermometer reads Lukewarm it indicates that something is wrong; it indicates the presence of danger. Let's see how Jesus, the Great Physician, treats his patient with this malady.
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8/25/1996
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Peeking into the Portals of Heaven
Revelation 4
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9/1/1996
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History's Greatest Real Estate Deal
Revelation 5:1-7
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9/8/1996
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Worship His Majesty - Part 1
Revelation 5:8-10
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In heaven there won’t be just three services in the morning and one at night with a midweek tacked on. There will be no need to be sensitive to time so we can go to lunch. Words will not have to be printed nor projected. Worship leaders will have no need prompting people to sing. It will be an all-consuming experience that will involve our total cooperation and enthusiasm.
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9/15/1996
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Worship His Majesty - Part 2
Revelation 5:11-14
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9/29/1996
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Four Riders with Bad News
Revelation 6:1-8
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10/6/1996
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The Cries of Heaven and Earth
Revelation 6:9-17
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10/13/1996
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A Blessed Interruption in a Tough Time
Revelation 7
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10/20/1996
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Trumpets of Doom
Revelation 8
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10/27/1996
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When All Hell Breaks Loose
Revelation 9:1-12
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11/3/1996
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Angels of Mass Destruction
Revelation 9:13-21
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11/10/1996
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A Big Angel with a Little Book
Revelation 10
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11/17/1996
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Two Powerful Preachers
Revelation 11:1-14
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11/24/1996
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Light at the End of the Tunnel
Revelation 11:15-19
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12/1/1996
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The Panorama of Spiritual Warfare - Part 1
Revelation 12:1-6
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12/8/1996
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The Panorama of Spiritual Warfare - Part 2
Revelation 12:7-17
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There aren't many people who like to fight. Confrontation is something most would like to avoid. But in the spiritual realm it's unavoidable. The question isn't, "Will I engage in spiritual warfare?" Rather, the question is, "How well will I fight?" As we saw last week, the war in the heavens makes its way to the theater of the earth. Let's see what else it entails.
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12/15/1996
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The Coming Global Leader
Revelation 13:1-10
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12/22/1996
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Evil's Right-Hand-Man
Revelation 13:11-18
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12/29/1996
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The Lamb Who Shepherds His People
Revelation 14:1-5
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After all that john has seen in his apocalyptic vision, seeing the docility of a lamb standing with his overcoming sheep is a welcomed sight. Although the dragon pursues god's people relentlessly, although the beasts are bent on ruling the earth, the ultimate winner will be the lamb and his followers.
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1/5/1997
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Angels Set The Record Straight
Revelation 14:6-13
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1/12/1997
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It's Harvest Time!
Revelation 14:14-20
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One of the most common ways to make a living in ancient times was to "work the land." The early rains of October/November and the soft latter rains produced the wheat and barley harvest later on. Also, when vintage season began, almost the whole village could be found in the fields harvesting the crop. Such images would also provide a poignant way of depicting the final judgment of the earth, as in this section.
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1/17/1997
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Getting Ready for the Grand Finale
Revelation 15:1-8
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1/26/1997
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What's in the Bowl? - Part 1
Revelation 16:1-11
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We now come to the "seven last plagues" of God in the Great Tribulation that is coming upon planet earth. These judgments come in the form of "bowls" being poured out swiftly and completely-the judgment will be swift and thorough. Yet through all the mercy as Well as wrath of this awesome era, people will persist in having a hardened heart. Open your heart 'right now to these truths.
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2/2/1997
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What's in the Bowl? - Part 2
Revelation 16:12-21
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What will the end of the world be like? What are the final events just before Jesus returns and takes over to set up His millennial reign? That's what this section tells us. There will be increased warfare activity in the Middle East, massive deception, and unheard of destructive cataclysms on earth. In the midst of foretelling these events, Jesus has a word of encouragement.
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2/9/1997
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The Coming World Religion
Revelation 17
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It was Karl Marx who stated, no doubt cynically, that religion was the opiate of the masses. The fact is, he was right-it is! People are driven to worship something or someone. This desire will be exploited to the hilt in the Tribulation period and will be under the umbrella of the world dictator-the Antichrist. What are its roots and how does it end?
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2/16/1997
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Get out of Babylon!
Revelation 18
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Someone once said, "Money can't buy you friends but your enemies treat you a little better." Though meant to be tongue-in­cheek, that won't happen when the entire world economy collapses. God's shakedown of the earth will include everything that the Antichrist's kingdom will embody, from the sacred to the secular.
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3/9/1997
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The Return of Jesus Christ - Part 1
Revelation 19
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Even in the dome of our capitol in Washington there is an inscription which seems to point to the return of Jesus Christ. It says: "One far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves." It is that event which we will be studying in the next two weeks. This is what all Christians of all ages have looked forward to - His return and reign of His creation.
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3/16/1997
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The Return of Jesus Christ - Part 2
Revelation 19
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Even in the dome of the capitol in Washington there is an inscription which seems to point to the return of Jesus Christ. It says: "one far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves." it is that event, that Christians of all ages have looked forward to-his return and reign of his creation. We will conclude our study of the return of Jesus Christ, today.
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4/6/1997
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Paradise Regained
Revelation 20:1-3
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4/13/1997
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The Devil's Last Stand
Revelation 20:1-10
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A typical question is, "Will evil ever get its reward?" What ever happened to ethics and justice? Well, we see here that God will not turn His back on this issue. He will deal with the source of all evil (the devil himself) and then judge those who revel in it. This section gives tremendous hope to anyone concerned about injustice in our world.
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4/20/1997
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Life, Death, and Resurrection
Revelation 20:5-6; 20:11-15
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5/4/1997
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All Things New - Part 1
Revelation 21:1-3
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5/11/1997
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All Things New - Part 2
Revelation 21:4-8
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"It's like nothing you've ever seen or experienced before." That's how John describes the emotional experience of heaven. So that we can relate, he tells us that all of the pain, sorrow, and moaning we've endured here won't be there. By the way, only those who want to go there will go there. Heaven is not a destination by default, reservations are made here and now!
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5/18/1997
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The City of the Future
Revelation 21:9-22:5
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There is no architect or builder like God himself. Even the patriarch Abraham "was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." (Heb. 11:10) he didn't find it in his lifetime. "You won't find you're "happily ever after" here either, but the New Jerusalem will be God's answer for man's longing to live in a perpetually peaceful stare.
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5/25/1997
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He's Coming - Now What!?
Revelation 22:6-21
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There are 43 additional messages in this series.
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