This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day two of our look through Revelation chapter 19.
We're looking at these events in human history at the end of human history that
put our lives, our history into perspective today. And one of those, even before
all those events, one of those occurrences in chapter 19 that puts everything
into perspective is that single word hallelujah that we looked at yesterday.

It's all for the praise of God. And then out of that word, we begin to see some
of these events. In chapter 19, we see an event known as the wedding supper of
the lamb.

Listen to what happens in verses seven to verse nine. Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory. For the wedding of the lamb has come and his bride has made
herself ready.

Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear. Fine linen stands for the
righteous acts of the saints. And then the angel said to me, right, blessed are
those who are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb.

And he added, these are the true words of God. What is happening here? What is
this wedding supper of the lamb?

Well, as we've walked through the book of Revelation, we've found again and
again that the lamb is Jesus Christ. So it is the lamb's wedding. He is the, in
essence, the groom in this wedding.

So who is the bride? Ephesians chapter five, verses 25 to 27 helps us to
understand that. Talking about marriage, but then it equates it with the
relationship that Jesus has to the church.

Listen to those verses. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church
and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with
water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church,
without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. " So when
the Bible talks about this great wedding supper of the lamb, the lamb is Jesus
and the bride that's presented to Jesus is the church.

And even beyond that, I'd say it's all the saints of all the ages, those who are
his. And in these verses, we find two things about the bride. First, the bride
is prepared.

And second, the bride is honored. In the wedding supper of the lamb, first, the
bride is prepared. The bride prepares herself, makes herself ready for this
moment.

When you think about weddings and grooms and brides, the truth is men have no
clue as to the preparation it takes for a wedding. I was looking a while back at
this and I looked up all the different brides magazines that are out there.
There's magazines called Brides and Modern Brides and Today's Bride and Elegant
Bride and Bride Again and New Jersey Bride and Cape Cod Bride and Metro St.

Louis Bride. There's a lot of brides magazines. There's not many grooms
magazines because grooms just tend to show up for the wedding.

But brides, they take time. They take time to get themselves ready. And the
Bible says that is what we are like as a church.

We are spending human history as a church, preparing for this great day when the
wedding comes of the lamb and the bride. Now let's just get practical about
this. Why is this wedding going to happen?

Well, why does any wedding happen? The right reason for a wedding to happen is
the reason that this wedding is going to happen. A wedding happens because
someone loves someone.

Because the groom loves the bride and the bride loves the groom. This wedding is
going to happen because Jesus loves the church. He loves his church more than
you and I could ever imagine.

He gave his life for the church. He wants a relationship with us as his church,
as his people, deeper and better and fuller than we could have an inkling of in
this world today. And so he gives us this picture at the end of time of what
it's going to be like.

So I can bring this into my life today. So I can understand that even though it
doesn't always look like the church is pure and spotless and without blemishes
he talks about here, it is true that that is what the church is like. It is a
bride being prepared.

It is the greatest picture that you and I could come across of the intimacy of a
relationship with one another in this wedding that's going to happen. The bride
preparing herself for this awesome moment, the wedding supper of the lamb. So I
bring the truth of what's going to happen at the end of time into my life today.

I see the church now for what it is going to be for all eternity. And I treat
the church now for what it's going to be for all eternity. And we prepare
ourselves as a church now for what we're going to be for all eternity.

The bride makes herself ready. And then in verse 8, the bride is honored. Fine
linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.

And the Bible here explains to us exactly what that means. Don't you wish this
happened with every symbol in the book of Revelation? In this symbol we have a
parenthesis.

Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. God doesn't want us to
miss this one. That's what he's talking about here.

The bride is honored. As a pastor I do weddings. It means I get to stand up by
the groom that moment in a wedding when the doors swing open and everyone stands
to honor the bride.

Everyone looks and thinks, "Isn't she beautiful? " This is reminding us that
there will be a moment when all of heaven will stand to honor the church, the
bride of Christ. Her full beauty will be revealed.

In her dress, her dress will be the righteous acts of the saints. Now we cannot
do righteous acts on our own. This isn't talking about glorifying ourselves.

These righteous acts come because of what Jesus did for us. These righteous
decisions come because of what he's doing in your heart and in my heart. As the
bride prepares herself through these righteous acts of the saints, the bride is
going to be honored in this moment at the end of time.

You see what this means? This tells you the importance of what you do because of
your faith in Christ. This means that every time that you choose to do the thing
that God is asking you to do by the power that God gives you to do it, that's a
righteous act.

Every time you choose to do that, the bride gets a little more beautiful. Every
time. Every time you choose to say no to that temptation by God's power, every
time you choose to say no, the dress of that bride gets more beautiful.

Every time you choose as a Christian parent to love your kids, even though it's
tough, even though you didn't want to listen to them in that case, even though
you didn't want to walk with them through what they're going through right now,
even though you didn't want to suffer with them, you choose instead of ignoring
them to love them through a tough time, every time you do that, the bride gets a
little more beautiful. Every time you choose to reach out to someone that's
unlovable, maybe it's somebody in your office, maybe somebody out in the street,
maybe somebody on your street, maybe it's somebody in your own family. Every
time you choose to reach out because of the motivation of God's Spirit in you,
the bride gets a little more beautiful.

And at the end of time, all of those choices that you're making every week,
every day combined together to be this dress that the bride wears that is
glorified in all eternity. So never think that the choices that you make to love
Jesus Christ and to serve Jesus Christ go unnoticed. It might be that in this
world they go unnoticed for a brief amount of time, but in eternity there's
going to be a moment when the doors swing open and all of creation stands to see
the glory of what God has done in his bride.

Let's praise him for that moment right now. Jesus, thank you for your church. It
is your church and we get to be a part of it.

Thank you for your bride. It is to your glory that the bride is going to be
honored in this wedding supper of the Lamb because it's all because of what
you've done, Jesus. Thank you for the beauty of your bride because it grows out
of the sacrifices that you have made and the love that you have for us.

Lord today, help us not to think that anything we do goes unnoticed. It's all,
it's all when we do it for you. It's all going to be reflected.

It's all going to be seen throughout all eternity. Thank you Jesus that what we
do for you lasts. In your name we pray, amen.

Tomorrow we're going to see together how worship puts everything in perspective.
Amen.