Revelation 19

Revelation 19:1-21

THE OF THE LAMB Revelation 19:1-21A TRUE exposition of the 19th chapter of the Apocalypse would require some further words concerning the final overthrow of the enemies of Christ—the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, together with the multitude of their followers. But, inasmuch as we have had occasion to speak on that subject several times already, we will pass it without further comment, and give attention to the Marriage of the Lamb, which, after all, is the conspicuous theme of this study. When any event elicits the Hallelujahs of the whole heavenly host, and gives all God’s servants, small and great, an occasion to join their voices in rejoicing and gladness, it is an event of supreme importance. And John declares that such will be the language of the heavenly host, and the rejoicing of all the redeemed, when at last it can be declared in truth, “The Marriage of the Lamb has come”.In human life, perhaps no event excites the same emotions of joy, stirs to such depths the fountains of affection, and stimulates to such ardent hope, as that of matrimony. It is little wonder, then, that this symbol should have been selected to set forth the consummation of Christ’s promises to His Church, and of the Christian’s pledges to his Lord.Truly, as Dr. A. B. Simpson said, “The supreme event for which the ages are waiting, is the Marriage of the Lamb. The Bible is one long love-story; and redemption, a Divine romance.”Permit me to call attention to three of its more important suggestions, namely, The Wedding Party, The Meaning of the Marriage, The Grace of Provision for Guests.THE WEDDING PARTY This heavenly marriage will dispense with none of the fundamental events of a true wedding. As matrimony with us commonly means the calling together of certain relatives, friends, and associates of the contracting parties, so, in this marriage, the wedding party will appear, namely, the Groom, the Bride and the Guests.God’s only Son will be the Groom. Touching this statement, there is universal consent. No matter from what standpoint a man studies the Book of Revelation, when he comes to this chapter he says, “The Marriage of the Lamb”, means the Groomship of the Everlasting Son.The Lord’s relation to His people is often voiced under this figure of marriage. Hear Hosea, “I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. “I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord” (Hosea 2:19-20). In the New Testament, when certain disciples of John came to Jesus saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not”? Jesus answered, “Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them”? He there plainly assumed this office as His portion. John the Baptist admitted this to be his Lord’s peculiar prerogative, saying to questioning disciples, “I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. “He that hath the bride is the Bridegroom: but the friend of the Bridegroom, which standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled” (John 3:28-29). If there were need of further Scripture upon this point, one could appeal to Ezekiel, or remind his auditors of the parable of the ten virgins, of Paul’s words to the Corinthian’s touching the obligation of the Church to keep itself as a “chaste virgin unto Christ”; of his Letter to the Ephesians, in which he speaks of earthly marriage as a symbol of Christ’s relation to His Church, etc., etc. But let the passages quoted suffice, and join with Laurenti“Rejoice, rejoice, believers! And let your lights appear; The shades of eve are thickening, And darker night is near; The Bridegroom is arising, And soon He will draw nigh; Up! pray and watch and wrestle! At midnight comes the cry.” The Bride is the translated saints (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Jesus purposes to take to His bosom of love, the redeemed, and enfold them in an everlasting affection, as the Groom receives the virgin of his heart’s desires.But the Bride is not identical with church-membership; nor even one with the company of his friends. We would not dare to say who will be privileged that place of peculiar affection; who will enjoy that sacred nearness to their Lord. But the Bible seems to reserve it for them that have made themselves ready; for them that are arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the most righteous of His followers, for “the fine linen is the righteousness of saints”. It was Christ Himself who said, ‘Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy * * to stand before the Son of Mari”.The wedding party seems to include a multitude of other participants. In the 45th Psalm these are called “the virgins”, the “companions” of the “queen”.They are spoken of as following her, “The virgins her companions that follow her”.

In the parable of Mat 25:1-10, these virgin-friends, who enter with rejoicing, to the marriage ceremony, are in proportion to the bride as five to one. To me, at least, this is a hint of both the angelic host, and of the great company of “left ones” who shall yet be saved. Israel, of course, when she has finally repented, and many others who shall seek His face and favor in that awful day of tribulation. John here takes occasion, after having spoken of the Bride and of her peculiar apparel, to add, as if with an eye on this additional company, “Blessed are they which are called unto the Marriage supper of the Lamb”.It would be blessed to find one’s self in the company of “the caught up”. Sweet to sit as a guest at the Marriage supper of the Lamb. But why should we be satisfied with anything short of the very best He has planned for us; and why content with any position save the one open in His heart of hearts to them that love Him most and serve Him best?THE MEANING OF THE I have already suggested that the very details of earthly marriage strikingly symbolize some features of this crowning event of the ages, “The Marriage of the Lamb.”What a true marriage on earth means, this heavenly wedding means also, only in an infinitely greater degree. Permit us then to mention two or three of the fundamental features.It is a joining of hand and heart. Betrothed people sometimes say that in the act of engagement this union of hand and heart is perfected; but all those who have stood together at the marriage altar know better. Pledges taken back of that tie are sacred, and ought to be regarded, but the vows of that hour are more sacred still, and never can be abrogated or disregarded. The world is full of people who have forgotten the engagements of their youth, or else remember them as a part of the folly of inexperience, and come even to jest about them, as matters of only passing concern. But when once man and woman have stood at the marriage altar, though ten thousand courts should divorce them, there are ties that link them still, and it seems to be impossible to imagine, even, that before God they will not have to give account, eventually, of their conduct, not as separate and independent persons, but as those “whom God hath joined together.” So Christ now loves His people with a beautiful and tender affection.

Their joys rejoice His heart; their sorrows stimulate His sympathies, and in all His plans He gives them place. But when on this glorious day of prophecy, we shall be caught up to meet Him in the heavens, and looking into His own eyes, and listening to the word passing His precious lips, we shall hear Him claim us as His own, and pledge us eternal affection in the presence of the whole heavenly host, and possibly before the assembled friends who shall be privileged presence, —then, and not until then, will the marriage of this night’s text find its full significance in joining heart and hand.“Christ is the heavenly Bridegroom; To seek His Bride He came; This is the consummation, The Marriage of the Lamb.” Permit a word touching another fundamental feature of marriage.It means sharing with Him the same Home. As Isaac sent and brought Rebecca to his home to make that her habitation; and as husbands, in all ages, have been accustomed to provide room in heart and house for the coming bride, so Christ has done. Remember how, when He was about to depart this world, and His Apostles and disciples were grieving over the going, He comforted them with the words, “Let not your heart be troubled * *! “In My Father’s House are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (John 14:1-3). I prize a home. When I walk before some of the splendid houses of this city I am tempted to break the tenth commandment, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house”. Then I remember what Jesus said, and I turn over to this 21st chapter of Revelation and read that wonderful description of that incomparable city, to remember that somewhere, within its gates, my mansion awaits me. Sometimes pastoral duties call me into poverty-stricken places where the poor are huddled in a hovel; and where the necessities of life, not to speak of its comforts, are denied them. And even there I find some of the children of God; and oh, it is sweet to think that when this marriage has been consummated, these hovel-dwellers will go up to mansions in the skies, to the buildings of God, houses not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. And what is more blessed still, to share that home with Him!Again, true marriage means continuous love.

That is what Jeremiah meant when he wrote, putting these words into the Lord’s mouth, “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love”.Perhaps the only thing that seriously troubles the virgin who walks her way to the marriage altar is this question of continuous love. Knowing well from observation that the human affections are uncertain, she wonders whether he who pledges so much will find it easy to fulfil all his word. Or, whether in the vicissitudes and changes of life, he may prove fickle and transfer his affections to another. But whatever may be true of earthly marriages, this which is to be celebrated in Heaven, is the assurance of better things, namely, that of “everlasting love”.William Cullen Bryant must have been studying his Bible, and from that exercise brought his conception of the love of God as he penned it in this poem.“All things that are on earth shall wholly pass away, Except the love of God, which shall live and last for aye. The forms of men shall be as they had never been; The blasted groves shall lose their fresh and tender green; The birds of the thicket shall end their pleasant song, And the nightingale shall cease to chant the evening long. The kine of the pasture shall feel the dart that kills. And all the fair white flocks shall perish from the hills. The goat and antlered stag, the wolf and the fox, The wild-boar of the wood, and the chamois of the rocks, And the strong and fearless bear, in the trodden dust shall lie; And the dolphin of the sea, and the mighty whale, shall die. And realms shall be dissolved, and empires be no more, And they shall bow to death, who ruled from shore to shore; And the great globe itself (so the holy writings tell), With the rolling firmament, where the starry armies dwell, Shall melt with fervent heat—they shall all pass away, Except the love of God, which shall live and last for aye.” But there is another sentence in this Scripture to which I call your attention.“Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb”. It suggests to meTHE GRACE OF FOR GUESTS We have already spoken of the guests who shall be present on this occasion. I want now to call attention to the Divine grace that has been provided for them.It is arranged that the angels should be there. John heard “a voice of much people in Heaven, saying, Alleluiah; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God”. That was their song of praise, occasioned by the coming of this event. Marriage ought always to mean the presence of the members of the house, and angels belong to the abode of the heavens. There is a modern custom which would seem almost to have been born of this Scripture, and that is the one of having some member of the house, or some intimate friend sing a wedding song.In a city where I was pastor years ago, a young couple were to be married at the break of day, in a Catholic church. Out of personal friendship I attended. The sister of the bride had a beautiful voice, and just as the bride entered the church, and began her march to the marriage altar, this sister, located in the gallery, sang a sweet wedding song. ‘‘How beautiful!”But oh, one day, when the blessed Bride shall go up to meet God’s only Son, throughout the heavens, there will ring, not the music of a solitary voice, but a chorus as “the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: * * for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready”.There may be joy in the presence of the angels of God when one sinner repenteth, but who can imagine the joy on the part of the angels of God, when the whole redeemed who have made themselves ready, shall be received by Him, who has waited long for this response to His unspeakable affection?Love’s attraction will insure the presence of all true friends. Redeemed Israel and tribulation converts shall doubtless ascend to this nuptial event.

It will lift them into the same blessed heights to behold the Glorious Bride and the King in His beauty. Some of you have read, “The Prince of the House of David”, and you will remember how beautifully Ingraham makes the love of John, the favorite Apostle of Jesus, and of Mary, the beautiful, bewitching sister of Lazarus, grow apace.

At last the day of the wedding is set, and lo, the saddest event disturbs every heart. Samuel, the widow’s son, and the brave warrior, betrothed to Mary’s cousin, Ruth, sickens and dies, and a sadness sweeps over the spirits of the entire wedding company, and they know not what to do! But lo, as they bear this young man on his bier to the grave, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by; and witnessing the mother’s sorrow, He is stirred with compassion, and walking full before the procession, halts it with these words, “Weep not mother, thy son shall live again.” And whilst yet the scoff is on the faces of the faithless, He cries with a loud voice, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise”. And the next moment Samuel sat up, and answered, “Lo, here I am!”The next day, Mary and John were at the altar, and Jesus Himself was present at the wedding, and chief of the participants were the radiant Ruth and the resurrected Samuel.Do you wonder that Edina confesses her inability to make known to her father the wonder and the joy of these thrilling events? But while Ingraham’s imagination here is faithful to history, it is but the mere suggestion of the joy of that other hour, touching which Paul has written, saying, “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. “For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the Coming of the Lord shall not prevent (precede) them which are asleep. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: “Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). If any are absent it must be from choice or by neglect. If one would know how universal are the provisions of God’s grace, and how the invitation to His marriage feast goes out to the high and the low, the rich and the poor, the learned and the ignorant, the regarded and the neglected, let him read the parable of the great supper in Luke 14:15-23. There God invites men, only to be rejected, or answered with an excuse; there God urges men, that they may share the joys of this hour; there, God, with the violence of love, seeks to compel men to come in, that His House may be filled.But when He has done all this, it reminds one that those who reject Him, and those who neglect His feast, have fixed their own destinies, and will be absent when this crowning event of the centuries occurs, either because they followed the beast or else refused to respond to God’s greatest invitation.When the rich spread feasts in this world, they shut out the multitudes and shut in the select few; but when this King of Glory celebrates His own wedding, with the Church of the redeemed, the men or the women who are absent must shut themselves out, for down through the ages, the voice of His servants has been heard, crying the invitation as He commanded it, “Come, for all things are now ready”!