Beloved congregation, one of the most memorable and joyful occasions that we ever experience in this life is the day that we get married. Some of you have never experienced that joy. Others have experienced it a long time ago. It now seems like such a distant memory, but it's a joyful occasion. And many months are spent preparing for the wedding. The dress has to be bought, the hall has to be rented, the food has to be prepared, the honeymoon has to be planned, and the invitations have to be sent out. It's a lot of work to plan a wedding. And with every passing day, your excitement and anticipation grows. You literally count down the days and then the hours. You can't wait until at long last the day arrives. It's the moment you've been waiting for, the moment you've been planning. It is your wedding day. And as exciting and joyful as that day is and was, it is nothing compared to the joy and the excitement that the people of God will experience at the ultimate wedding, the marriage of the Lamb of God. John describes that wedding in the words of our text this afternoon in Revelation 19, the verses 6 through 10. And it's only fitting that we think of a wedding ceremony after we have just celebrated the Lord's Supper because every Lord's Supper is a foreshadowing of the greater feast to come. wedding feast of the Lamb of God. So with God's help we want to look at these verses of our text under the theme the marriage of the Lamb and we'll consider first of all the feast, secondly the couple, and thirdly the joy. The feast, the couple, and the joy. Revelation 19 for which our text is taken, describes the response of heaven to the destruction of Babylon the Great. And that is described in the previous chapter, in Revelation chapter 18. And we reflected on that chapter a number of weeks ago, and we saw that Babylon's destruction was a cause for great weeping on the earth. The kings and the merchants and the captains and the sailors on the ships, they all wept and they looked from a distance and John says, and they saw the smoke of her burning and they cried, what is like this great city? And they threw dust on their heads. That was a sign of great weeping and mourning in those days. And they cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she is made desolate. So there's a lot of mourning, weeping. wailing on the earth over the destruction of Babylon. But while the inhabitants of earth are weeping and wailing and mourning, the inhabitants of heaven are singing and rejoicing And we read about that in chapter 19 verses 1 to 10, four times in these verses. In chapter 1, in verse 1 rather, verse 3, and in verse 4, and again in verse 6, we read that word, Alleluia. So the hosts of heaven, in response to the destruction of Babylon the Great, they cry four times, Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Which, as we saw the last time, means praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. All of heaven is rejoicing and praising God. Why? Partly Because Babylon is destroyed. And Babylon, you remember, was a great enemy of the people of God. And she had persecuted many of God's saints. And so, of course, they will rejoice. But they rejoice for another reason. They rejoice because the marriage supper of the Lamb had come. And we read about that in verse 7. They're this voice of a great multitude. is recorded as crying out let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory why for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready they're rejoicing because the marriage has come the marriage of the lamb what is the marriage of the lamb well that is the day when christ is the groom is united with his church which is his bride from all eternity long before God created the heavens and the earth and everything in it God betrothed a people His chosen ones, His elect ones, His church. He betrothed Christ to His church and the church to Christ. And now, at long last, their marriage is about to be consummated. The two are about to become one. And this is what heaven rejoices over. Now when's that going to happen? Well, it happens in principle the moment that a sinner comes to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. At that moment, the moment a sinner comes to trust in Christ as his Savior, at that moment he is united to Christ. He becomes, as it were, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. The Holy Spirit works faith in our hearts, and that faith unites us to Him in an unbreakable bond of love. But this will happen more fully and completely when Christ comes again, a second time in the clouds of heaven. Then Christ and His people will be united together, not just spiritually, but also physically. we stand body and soul before the throne of God to worship and to praise his name forever. And as I said we we receive something at least of a foretaste of that great feast when we come together to celebrate the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is a foreshadowing the marriage of the Lamb of God and Revelation later on in the book of Revelation speaks about how they will come from the east and the west all the people of God who have ever lived from the beginning to the end of time and they will sit Jesus says they will sit with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Christ will be there and all the saints of God will be there and they will feast figuratively on all the riches and all the blessings that are prepared for them in Christ before the foundation of the world and it will be wonderful and there will be joy there as we'll see in a moment and there will be peace and there will be communion with God yes but also with one another joy and peace and communion like we've never experienced before. And it will go on and on and on. There will be no end to it. It'll go on to an everlasting eternity. What a prospect. Can you imagine sitting at a table, not just hosted by the pastor, but by Christ himself? where not just the members of our congregation are seated, but all believers from the beginning to the end of time. What a glorious event that will be. Will you be there? You know, just because you may have been at the table of the Lord this morning doesn't necessarily mean you'll be at the marriage supper of the Lamb, I think, and I trust that you understand that. Access to that table granted only to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who love Him and serve Him with all of their heart. And when they fail in this, as they often do, then they repent and And they come before the Lord and they confess their sins and their shortcomings before God. And again, they lay hold on the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope and ground of salvation. That's what marks a true guest at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Does that describe you this afternoon, beloved? Then know that there is a place for you at this table. But if you say, no, that's not me, then the call of the gospel comes and says, repent and believe before it is too late, because the marriage supper of the lamp, it's coming. It's coming soon. And when the Lord Jesus Christ does come in the time of grace will have passed you by. And so we must seek the Lord while he may be found. And so at the marriage of the Lamb, there will be a feast, just like there is a feast at any wedding ceremony, but there will also be a couple. That's my second point. At the heart of any wedding is, of course, the couple, the bride and the bridegroom. And the marriage feast of the Lamb is no different in that respect. First of all, there is a bride. References made to the bride in verse 7. It says, the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. His wife has made herself ready. There's a bride. What is the bride? The bride, as I suggested earlier, is the Church of Jesus Christ. It's made up of people from every nation under heaven, from the four corners of the world, from the beginning to the end of time. They're the elect. They're the ones whom God has chosen from before the foundation of the world to salvation in Jesus Christ. And she's compared to a bride for several reasons. First of all, she is betrothed. Now, you may know that in ancient times and Bible times, a marriage among the Jewish people began with a betrothal. And a betrothal is more than just an engagement. People compare it to an engagement. It has some similarities, but it's more than an engagement. It's actually a legally binding contract. Marriages were usually arranged between the father of the bride and the father of the groom, sometimes years before the bride was of marriageable age. And a contract would be drawn up, a covenant. and it would be signed by both parties and it would be witnessed just like a marriage certificate is signed and witnessed in our weddings still today. Now when that contract is signed in the eyes of the law that couple is already married. Although legally they're married but they haven't yet consummated the marriage and they haven't started living together in one house. And so if at any time one of the parties wanted to break the marriage contract, then they would actually have to sue for divorce. And that's why when you read in Matthew chapter two, that's why Mary is called Joseph's wife. By the way, that's why the church is called the wife of the lamb in verse seven as well. But Mary, you remember the mother of Jesus is called Joseph's wife, even before they came together, even before the marriage was consummated. And this is also why Joseph thought about divorcing her. And that's the word that's used there in Matthew chapter two, even before they had started living together. Well, the church is, is like a bride. She's been betrothed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there are many verses in the scriptures that reflect upon this beautiful relationship. We can think, for example, of the Song of Solomon. The whole book of the Song of Solomon is a poem celebrating the love between Christ as the bridegroom and his church, the bride. So is the book of Hosea. Hosea speaks about this relationship between Hosea the prophet and the prostitute Gomer. Remember how the Lord commanded Hosea to marry a prostitute representing Israel? Because Israel was so unfaithful to the Lord, she had become like a prostitute. She was worshiping all these different idols. That's a picture. There's marriage between God and his covenant people. In chapter 2 of Hosea's prophecy, verses 19 and 20, we have these beautiful words where God comes to his adulterous people and he says, I will betroth you, that's the word, to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice and loving kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord. So three times the word betrothed is used to describe this relationship. Even in the New Testament, 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2, Paul represents himself in that verse as a father of the bride who has betrothed his daughter, which is the church at Corinth, to Christ, the bridegroom. And this is what he writes. He says, I am jealous for you. He's talking to the Corinthians. I am jealous for you with godly jealousy for I as the father of the bride have betrothed you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste version to Christ. The church is betrothed as a bride is betrothed her husband. She's legally bound to him in a covenant, the covenant of grace, a covenant that cannot and will never be annulled. Secondly, she is purchased. She is purchased. Now we don't actually purchase our brides. It's not the case where you go to the store and you just pick out a bride and you say, I want to buy that woman and she's going to become my wife. That's not the idea. But in ancient times, again in Bible times, there was a payment that was given. The groom or the groom's father would actually pay a sum of money to the bride's father as compensation for the loss of his daughter. You see evidence of this in the Bible when Abraham's servant Eliezer saw Rebekah and then was introduced to Laban. He gave Laban these wonderful gold earrings and other jewelry. Why? As a down payment, as a payment price for Rebekah to marry Isaac. We think too of Jacob who worked for 14 years. in order to take Rachel as his wife. Now the church is also purchased. She is purchased by the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the language of Scripture, Psalm 74 verse 2. The psalmist says, remember your congregation which you have purchased of old, the tribe of your inheritance which you have redeemed, this Mount Zion where you have dwelt. The language of purchase. In Acts 20 verse 28, Paul, as he's speaking to the elders at Ephesus, he says this, take heed to yourselves and to all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood. Like a bride, the church is purchased, not with gold, not with silver, not with jewelry, not with manual labor, as in the case of Jacob, but by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's another parallel between the bride and the church, and that is they are both washed Again, if you go back to the first century A.D., before a bride got married, she would take a ritual bath. They had a name for that. It was called a mikvah. And that was obviously so that she would be very clean on the day of her wedding. She wanted to appear radiant for her husband and also for the guests who would be invited to the wedding. Well, the Church of Jesus Christ is also washed Ezekiel 16 verse 9, God says to Israel, I washed you in water. Yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood and I anointed you with oil. A few chapters later, same book, Ezekiel 36 verse 25, he promises to sprinkle clean water on his church so that she might be clean. Titus 3 verse 5, the Apostle Paul uses similar language when he says that we are saved not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Hebrews 10 verse 22, the writer says, let us draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Ephesians 5 verse 26 Paul says that Christ gave himself for the church that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. The church is cleansed. She's cleansed from all of her sins by water which points to the Holy Spirit. She's cleansed by the Spirit of God from all of her sins that she may stand before God without fault. A bride is also dressed. A bride in ancient times would put on a wedding dress, a special dress for her wedding day, just like we do today. Sometimes a lot of money is spent on a wedding dress. It seems a bit of a waste sometimes, you think of it only used for a couple hours on a single day. But anyway, that's the custom. And the church is also dressed, isn't she? She's dressed by Christ. Read in Revelation 19 verse 8, our text chapter, look at verse 8, and to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen. clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous axe of the saints." Psalm 45, we hope to sing about that later after the service, verses 13 and 14, speaks of the church there. It says, the royal daughter, that's the church, is all glorious within the palace. Her clothing is woven with gold. She shall be brought to the king in robes of many colors. The virgins, her companions who follow her, shall be brought to you. Wonderful language. Ezekiel 16, verse 10. Ezekiel says, I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of badger's skin. I clothed you with fine linen and covered you with silk. Isaiah 61, verse 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he has clothed me. with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness." And I could go on. There's so many verses in Scripture that speak about the church as being clothed in this beautiful robe of salvation, which is a picture of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which we can stand before God and live. Finally, the church is adorned. Brides in ancient times would also be adorned with jewelry, precious jewelry, necklaces and earrings. gold and silver depending on your your status your social status with the church of christ is portrayed in the same way in the word of god isaiah 61 verse 10 i just quoted from that as a bridegroom decks himself with ornaments and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels Ezekiel 16 verse 11, God says, I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your wrists, and a chain on your neck, and I put a jewel in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown on your head. This is the bride. It's the Church of Christ. She is portrayed as a bride. And if you're a believer in Jesus Christ this afternoon, you are Christ's bride. You are purchased by Him. You are betrothed by Him. You are washed by Him. You are dressed by Him. You are adorned by Him. He is the source of all of your beauty. You have no beauty in yourself. I have no beauty in myself. We're filthy sinners before God, but when Christ is finished with us, then we become a beautiful bride. adorned for her husband, and he loves us. Spoke about that this morning. He loves us, and he assured us of that love at the table of the Lord this morning when we ate the bread and drank the wine. It was like Jesus was saying to us, I love you, And I want you to know for certain that I love you. And that's why I invite you to come to my table. That's why you're sitting here right now. That's why you're eating the bread and drinking that wine so that you may be absolutely assured that I love you and I always will love you. So there's the bride. But there's also a groom. And he is described here as the Lamb, verses 7 and again in verse 9. Well, who is the Lamb? Well, it is the Lord Jesus Christ. We know it's the Lord Jesus Christ because John the Baptist, when Jesus came towards him in the Jordan, as John was baptizing him in the Jordan, he said, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And John refers to Christ many times in the book of Revelation as the lamb that was slain. So the lamb is Christ. And he's compared to a lamb because a lamb is a symbol of purity and innocence. And so was Christ. He was most pure. He was most innocent. There was no sin in him at all. He's compared to a lamb because a lamb is weak and vulnerable. And so was Christ, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth, as Isaiah says in Isaiah 53. But he's compared to a lamb especially because a lamb was used as a sacrifice for sin. That's what Jesus did. went to the cross. He sacrificed himself as an atoning, as an atonement for our sins. So he is the Lamb. But at the same time he is the groom. In what way is he the groom? Well like the bride he is betrothed. He is betrothed to his bride from all eternity in the covenant of redemption. When God gave a certain number of people to the Son on the condition that He would die for their sins, He became betrothed to them. And they each one individually became betrothed to Him the moment they came to trust in Him and His atoning work as their only hope of salvation. He also pays the bride price. He paid that price when he went to the cross and he shed his precious blood. That was the price of the purchase of the bride. And he's also preparing a home. This is interesting that in, again in Bible times, upon becoming betrothed, groom would go away and he would spend the next few weeks or even months preparing a home for his bride. It could be an addition onto his father's house, it could be a room or a set of rooms within his father's house, or it could be a completely new house. Whatever the case, he would prepare a place where they could live together and raise a family together. Now Jesus also prepares a place for his people. Do you remember what he said in John 14, just hours before he was led away to be crucified? This puts a whole different perspective on what Jesus says there. He says to his disciples, in my father's house are many mansions. And the word mansions there means dwelling places. And then he says, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you as the bridegroom prepares a place for his bride so Christ will ascend up into heaven. after he's completed his atoning work, and he will prepare a place for his people. And then he says, and I will come again, and I will receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. That's exactly what happened in a marriage ceremony, in a marriage in those days. The groom would prepare a place, when it was all done and ready, he would go and fetch his bride. The bride didn't even know the day of her wedding. Or at least, she was given very short notice. When everything was ready, he would go and fetch his bride. And they together would see this place that the groom has prepared for the both of them. And that's also apparel, right? He comes for the bride, so the Lord Jesus will come for his bride when the trumpet will sound, the day appointed by the Father that is known to no man except God himself. And the heavens will be rent and Christ will come down and he will bring his people to live and reign with him forever. Oh what a Savior we have in Christ. What a bridegroom we have in Christ. He betroths us to himself. He paid the price for our redemption. He prepares a place for us and he will come again. to take us to Himself. Beloved, how can anyone not love this Savior? How could you not be madly in love with Jesus Christ? I know that seems kind of odd to say it that way, but I mean it. Who could not love Him for all that He has done for sinners like us? How can anyone not want to be betrothed to Him? How can anyone not love Him? Listen to the Shulamite as she sings of her beloved in the Song of Solomon, chapter 5, verses 10 to 16. She says, my beloved is white and ruddy, chief among 10,000. His head is like the finest gold, his locks are wavy and black as a raven. His eyes are like doves by the rivers of waters washed with milk and fitly set. His cheeks are like a bed of spices, spanks of scented herbs. His lips are lilies dripping liquid myrrh. His hands are rods of gold set with beryl. His body is carved ivory inlaid with sapphires. His legs are pillars of marble set on bases of fine gold. His countenance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. His mouth is most sweet. Yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. What a marvelous poem, celebrating her beloved, her bridegroom. Congregation, do the words of the Shulamite resonate in our own hearts? When you read that, do you say, oh, that's exactly the language. that I'm looking for to describe my Savior, my Beloved, my Friend. And having supped at His table this morning, and having been reminded of the great love of God for sinners and all that He did for us, can we not say this? Is our Beloved, is Christ our Beloved and our Friend? Well, at the wedding feast, there is a feast, there is a couple, but there's also great joy. That's my third point. What would a wedding be like if there was no joy? If everybody just sat around at the reception hall with long faces, nobody cracked a smile, nobody laughed, everybody just sat around looking glum and sad. You say, that would be a terrible wedding indeed. And it would be. Whoever heard of a wedding without joy? Well, the wedding of the Lamb is full of joy. We hear it in verse 6. John says, and I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude. Think of a stadium or an arena full of screaming people. Screaming at the tops of the lungs as they're cheering on their team. That's the kind of idea that you have here. There's a great multitude of people and it's the sound, he says, of many waters and the sound of mighty thunderings. And what are they saying? Hallelujah! Praise the Lord. Alleluia. For the Lord God omnipotent reigns. You probably recognize those words. They come from Handel's Messiah, or actually Handel's Messiah, that chorus from Handel's Messiah is based on this verse of Scripture. It's the one point in Handel's Messiah Where, still to this day, it often shocks me when I go and watch Messiah. We've done that several times at the Orpheum there in Vancouver. And there you have all these people there. And when the Hallelujah Chorus is sung, everybody stands up. It's a tradition that comes from King George III. When he heard those words for the first time, he was so moved. that he just he just stood up and of course when the king stands up everybody else stands up too and to this day that tradition remains during the singing of the hallelujah chorus everybody stands up why because they're magnificent words hallelujah for the lord god omnipotent reigns all of heaven is ascribing supreme power and glory to god who reigns over all creatures heaven erupts in joy as they praise the omnipotence of God and following that verse 7 the same voices cried 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 the point is there's joy in heaven beloved unspeakable joy unending joy at the wedding of the Lamb We're going to be rejoicing as we sit with Christ at his table. Did you experience something of that this morning? As you sat at the table of the Lord this morning, was there joy in your heart? When you thought about Christ, when you thought about The marriage supper of the Lamb that is yet to come. Is it not wonderful? Does it not make you rejoice? And there's many things in life that make us very happy. Getting a raise makes us happy. Getting a new car makes us happy. Buying a new house makes us happy. Lots of things make us happy. But does this make you happy? Does Christ make you happy? Does the prospect of sitting with Him and all of His people on the Day of Days, does that fill you with joy? If not, there's something wrong. Something wrong with you. Something wrong with your heart. Either your heart is so cold or you have no idea. the magnitude of what Christ has done for sinners. But this much is absolutely certain that what Christ has done should, must, fill his people with a sense of joy so overwhelming that all we can do is fall down at his feet and sing his praise. Isn't that what John did? Look at verse 10. We read that after John heard these things, he fell at the feet, not of Christ. This is where his mistake was. He fell at the feet of the angel to worship him. And the angel saw this and he said, don't do that, John. I'm a fellow servant just like you. Worship God. The angel did not want John to worship him. That would be a transgression of the first and the second commandments. No, the angel wasn't looking for John to worship him. He wanted John to worship God. So why did John, didn't John know that? Of course he knew that. So why did he worship the angel? There's only one explanation I could come up with. And it was, he was so overwhelmed By what he heard and what he saw, that he just felt the need to worship. Could be anything, could be anybody. He just felt the need to worship and so he gets down on his knees and he starts to worship. Now the object of his worship was incorrect of course, but this is how gripped he was. And how moved he was. the things that he heard and saw. Oh beloved, we know something of that too. Is that also our response to the things that we have heard and seen at the table of the Lord this morning? God in Christ has done so much for us and he promises to do even more And it's no wonder that John says in verse 9, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. You could preach a whole sermon just on that one verse. I don't have time to do that this afternoon. But this is a benediction. It is a pronouncement of blessing on those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And in a sense we're all called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, aren't we? Whenever the call of the gospel goes out, whenever sinners are invited to come to Christ, the call, the invitation to the wedding feast, it goes out. And the question is, how do we respond to that invitation? You know, in the parable of the great wedding feast, there were people who said, well, I don't have time to come to the wedding. I just bought a pair of oxen. I just married a wife. You know, all the excuses that they gave. But when the Lord lays hold on us through the power of his Holy Spirit, then all those excuses fall away. And all we can do is come because the call of the Lord is irresistible. And we can only respond to that call. We can only say, yes Lord, here I am. I heard your invitation. I've heard your call. I now come to thee. Oh God, receive me graciously. the power of your spirit and on the basis of the finished work of Jesus Christ. Oh how blessed they are who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb and not only invited but also accepted the invitation to the marriage because they have the forgiveness of sins. They have been given a perfect robe of righteousness. They have peace with God. They are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. They have the gift of everlasting life. And they have a place reserved for them at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Yes, they are the most blessed people on the earth. And if that is true, beloved, And if you are invited to that marriage supper and you've accepted that invitation, God himself places his benediction upon you. And what better way to express our gratitude to him than to fall down at his feet and to worship him? Is that also your response? Amen. Let us sing of the beauty of Christ's bride. In the words of Psalter 125, the verses 1 through