This sermon delves into the themes of waiting for the Lord's return, the significance of the marriage of the Lamb, the role of overcomers in the church, the Great Tribulation, and the ultimate victory of Christ over Satan. It emphasizes the need for believers to be prepared, faithful, and to overcome by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and by not loving their lives even unto death.

This song that we have just sung was written by Watchman Lee during the communist control of China. Under those circumstances, he wrote this song to express his innermost feeling. He was waiting for the Lord's return. He was still waiting. And he wondered how long it will be. How long the cry of the saints throughout the ages for his coming. Every time I sang this song, I could hardly complete it. I do feel that it does express the innermost feeling of our hearts. How long? Thank God it cannot be long. Now, let's turn to the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 19. We read from verse 6 to verse 10. Revelation chapter 19, verse 6. And I heard as a voice of great crowds, as the voice of many waters, as a voice of strong thunders, saying hallelujah for the Lord our God the Almighty has taken to himself kingly power. Let us rejoice and exult and give him glory for the marriage of the Lamb is come. And his wife has made herself ready. And it was given to her that she should be clothed in fine linen, bright and pure. For the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. And he says to me, Right. Blessed are they that are called to the supper of the marriage of the Lamb. And he says to me, these are the true words of God. And I fell before his feet to do his homage. And he says to me, see thou do it not. I am thy fellow born man and the fellow born man of thy brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Do homage to God for the spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus. Then Revelation chapter 21. The first three verses. And I saw new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And the sea exists no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem coming down out of the heaven from God. Prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. And he shall tabernacle with them. And they shall be his people. And God himself shall be with them, their God. And also, verse 10. And he carried me away in a spirit and set me on the great and high mountain. And show me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven from God. Having the glory of God. And there came one of the seven angels that had had the seven bowls, full of seven large plates. And spoke with me saying, come here, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, it is the longing of thy people throughout the ages, crying unto thee. Come, Lord Jesus, will you not answer our prayer and come, and come quickly? Thy people are waiting for thee. If we are not ready, prepare us, working us, do not allow us to drift along. But lay thy hands upon us, transform us, conform us to thy own image, until thou are able to come. Lord, this is the cry of our hearts, come, Lord Jesus, come, we ask in thy name, amen. Dear brothers and sisters, as we read the Bible, the word of God, we find that the Bible begins with a marriage. And it also ends with marriage. It seems as if God's purpose for man is represented by the idea of a marriage. When God created Adam, he said it is not good for man to be alone. Let me make him a helpmate, his like. In the right sense, Adam represents Christ. And it is God's purpose that his only beloved son, Christ, should have a companion, his like. And we all remember how God led all the animals of the field to Adam. And Adam named every animal and gave a name to each. But he couldn't find his like. So God put him to sleep. And out of his sight, God took out something and used that something to build a woman. Then he led that woman to Adam. Adam said, this is me. And the two were united into one. So from the very beginning of creation, God already had that thought. He does not want his son to be alone. No. He wants to give his son a helpmate, his like. And that is what the church is to be. As you read the Bible, towards the end, you will find marriage again being mentioned. The marriage of the Lamb. It happened in Revelation chapter 19. And again, it happened in Revelation chapter 21 and 22. Brothers and sisters, are those two mentionings one or two? Will there be just one marriage? Or you find from the description, it seems to tell us very clearly, there are two. One is recorded in Revelation 19. And the other in Revelation 21 and 22. Now, why do we say so? Because if you read carefully, you will find they are a thousand years apart. The first mentioning of the marriage of the Lamb occurred at the beginning of the millennium, at the closing of this age. But the second mentioning in Revelation 21, 22 happened in eternity. That is after the millennium. So time-wise, you find there are two mentionings of the marriage of the Lamb. And also, you find there is a difference between the composition of the wife, bride of the Lamb. Because as you read the whole book of Revelation, you will find it is because of the failure of the church. Therefore, in chapters two and three, we find the call to overcome. To every church, the Lord says, he that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit say to the churches. He that overcomes. In other words, you find because of the failure of the church as a whole. Man may fail, but God never fails. So he has an emergency measure, and that is through the overcomers of the church. He will eventually bring the whole church into that overcomer situation in eternity. So, Revelation chapter two and three, these two chapters occurred towards the end of the first century. We all know that the eternal apostles, only John was still alive. And because of the testimony of Jesus and the Word of God, he was exiled to the island Patmos. And there he was given a vision. A vision of the seven churches in Asia. These are the seven churches in Asia Minor that John, in his old age, served. Before he was exiled. So naturally, you'll find when he had opportunities, he will be thinking of these seven churches. Then he saw a vision. He saw seven golden lampstands and one like the Son of Man. In the midst of the seven golden lampstands. And we know that this is a picture of the heavenly ministry of our Lord Jesus. When he was on earth, he was our apostle. He was once sent by God to accomplish a certain purpose. The work of redemption, of salvation. And on the cross of Calvary, he said it is finished. He has done it. He has laid the foundation for the building of the church. After his ascension, he became the high priest. Not only to us individually. We thank God for that. Brothers and sisters, unless we knew our Lord Jesus as our personal high priest, we are not able to live our Christian life. We may struggle, we may try hard, but we always fail. But thank God we have a high priest. He is there interceding for us without ceasing. And he's able to save us to the uttermost. But thank God, he's not only our high priest individually. At the same time, he is the high priest of the church. He is there ministering to his church. He is there trying to see how much in the church is an expression of his love. Of himself. And because of the failure of the church, he calls for overcomers. Again, we will say overcomers of the church. They are not separated from the church. They are part of the church. But thank God, they are those who respond to the call of God. They are those who allow the grace of God to work in their lives. To deliver them from themselves. And to build up within them the statue of Christ. So in chapters two and three, we have the overcomers of the church. During the time of the last of the first century. Then you find in Revelation chapter seven, again in Revelation chapter seven, verse nine. And after these things, I saw a low, a great crowd, which no one could number out of every nation and tribe and people and tongues standing before the throne, before the lamb, clothes with white robes and palm branches in their heads. And they cry with a loud voice saying salvation to our God who sits upon the throne and to the lamb. And all the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures. And fell before the throne upon their faces and worship God saying amen. Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength to our God to the ages of ages. And one of the elders answered saying to me, these four clothes were quite robes. Who are they? And whence come they? And I say to him, my Lord, thou knowest. And he said to me, these are they who come out of great tribulation and wash their robes. And have made them white in the blood of the lamb. Therefore, are they being the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. And he that sits upon the throne shall spread his tabernacle over them. They shall not hunger anymore, neither shall they thirst anymore, nor shall the sun at all fall on them. But nor any burning heat because the lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall shepherd them and shall lead them to fountains of water of life. And God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes. Now, who are in the multitude? They cannot be numbered. We know they were all clothed in white. In other words, they were washed in the blood of our Lord Jesus. And in their hands, they all have palm branches. That is a symbol of victory. In other words, these are the people that came out of the great tribulation. Now the great tribulation here is not the three and a half years of great tribulation that we read of. So far as the world is concerned, God's people always live under great tribulation. Why? Because the enemy of God is out against those who are the Lord's. But through the great tribulation, they came out victoriously. Through the blood of the lamb. For the sake of the Lord, they have hungered and thirsted. Sun fell upon them under burning heat. But now the lamb is shepherding them. Now, this cannot be counted multitude. This represents the overcomers throughout the ages. Thank God, in every century, we find there were overcomers. No matter what the condition of the church might be. God has his overcomers. Those who are faithful to him. So here you find the overcomers throughout the ages. And then again, you find in chapter 12. In chapter 12, John was given a vision. He saw in the heaven and behold a great red dragon. Having seven hands and ten horns. And on his head seven diadems. And his tail draws the third part of the star of the heaven. And he cast them to the earth. Now, of course, we all know what that dragon is. That dragon is Satan. And he drew away one third of the angelic host to follow him. And they were expelled from the third heaven. But now they use the air that surrounds the earth. To be their headquarters. For their work is upon the earth. So this red dragon was there. Now, what was he doing? And the Bible tells us. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bring forth. In order that when she brought forth, he might devour her child. It is very strange. Because you find the dragon stood before the woman. Now, that woman represents the church throughout the centuries. Or put it another way, the church before the coming of the Lord. Or we may put it still another way. This is the church in our time. The church is like a woman. Gloriously closed by the grace of God. But unfortunately, she had sadly failed. The dragon should be against that woman. Because the woman is supposed to be his enemy. The woman stands with God. And therefore, she should be the target of the attack of the enemy. But strangely here you'll find the dragon stood before the woman. But his attention was not upon that woman. In other words, the woman could do him nothing. The woman was already in his hand in a sense. So his interest was no more upon that woman. But his interest was upon the womb. She was in travail. But this is not a vain travailing. This is the travailing, the suffering. Of a birth. And the woman was in travail. Going to give birth to a man-child. But this man-child became the target of the enemy. He was waiting there for that man-child to be born. And as soon as he was born, he was to swallow him. Why? Because he knew this man-child will mark the end of his life. Now, who is this man-child? You know, some people say, well, this man-child refers to Jesus Christ. But that cannot be so. Because after our Lord Jesus was born, he was on earth for 33 and a half years. He was not immediately raptured to the throne. So who is this man-child? When this child was born, immediately he was caught up to the throne of God. In other words, this man-child is a collective term. It is not just one person. It represents a group of people. Those Christians who are overcomers living at the coming of the Lord. And as soon as this man-child was born, he was caught up. He was able to get through the air, which is the headquarter of Satan. That means he has overcome Satan. And he was able to arrive at the throne. These are the overcomers at the end of this age. Brothers and sisters, if by the grace of God we be in that man-child, they became the welcoming party of the return of our Lord Jesus. In a sense, they prepared the way for the coming of the Lord. So as soon as the man-child was taken into heaven to the throne, then you know what happened. Michael and his angels fought with Satan and his followers. And there was no more place for Satan in the air. He and his followers were thrown from the air to the earth. In other words, the air was clear. Now, why was the air to be clear? We remember when our Lord Jesus returned, he will come from the throne to the air, invisible. So in other words, what we have been talking about in Matthew 24, we find that this man-child is none other than those who have been caught up to the throne. They are the overcomers at the coming of the Lord. And if by the grace of God we are in the rank, thank God for that. You know, brothers and sisters, as we say yesterday, from the throne to the air, it is invisible. Our Lord is coming like a thief, taking that which pleases his heart. And these are the overcomers at our time. In one sense, it is a joyful news, but in another sense, it is a warning. What if we are left behind? What will happen to us if we are left behind? You know, when Satan was thrown from the air to the earth, what will happen? This is where the great tribulation of three years and a half begins. There will be great tribulation upon this earth. Why? Because Satan was on earth. What can you expect other than that? But thank God, those who are faithful to the Lord, they are already gone. And during the three years and a half, you have the great tribulation on earth. You know, brothers and sisters, so far as Christians are concerned, those who are still left on this earth, they will go through great tribulation. But you know, in one sense, it is still the grace of God. Why? The Lord will give them a second chance. Give them another opportunity to be faithful to the Lord. But those who are raptured to the third heaven, they were those who overcome the enemy. How did they overcome? Not because they are personally better than anybody else. But the Bible tells us in verse 11, chapter 12, verse 11, And they have overcome him by reason of the blood of the Lamb, and by reason of the word of their testimony. And they have not loved their life even unto death. So, brothers and sisters, they overcame, overcome the enemy. How? Not by their own strength. It is by the blood of the Lamb. In other words, they treasure the blood of the Lamb. They know that they are not perfect. They know that they need cleansing. And they trust in the blood of the Lamb to cleanse them. So even as some people say, even the tears of your repentance needs to be cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. He is so holy and we are so unclean. But thank God, they believe in the blood of the Lamb. I love to tell the story of Martin Luther. We all know that he was the reformer. God used him mightily. And he dreamed a dream. He saw that Satan came to him and show him a screw. Written inside and outside. And the screw said, the sins of Martin Luther. So Satan challenged Martin Luther and said, dare you to be the reformer. Look at yourself. These are your sins. And you know what Martin Luther did? He took up a pen and wrote over it, the blood of Jesus cleansed me from all sins. And Satan disappeared. So brothers and sisters, there's nothing to be proud of. It is not because of we ourselves are any better than anybody else. We need the blood of the Lord Jesus constantly. So they overcome by the blood of the Lord Jesus. And secondly, by reason of the word of their testimony. They have a testimony. It is the testimony of Jesus. And they have the word of testimony. In other words, they speak out. They declare it. It is not hidden. It is open. You remember in the book of Acts, when Paul came to Ephesus, there were seven sons of the high priest. They were exhausted. In other words, they went around to cast out demons. Because they saw how successful was Paul in casting out demons in the name of the Lord Jesus. So they adopt the same way. And they try to cast out demons by saying, we cast you out in the name of Jesus who Paul preached. And how the demons say, Paul I know. Christ I know. But who are you? And the demons overcame two of them and they fled naked. And this was known all over Ephesus. If we want to say the word of our testimony, it has to be true. If our life is not under the testimony of Jesus, if our life is not testifying that Jesus is Lord, he is our Lord, then our word will be worthless, useless, powerless. But you find the overcomers because they put themselves under the rule of Christ, allow Christ to be the head, to be all to them. Therefore, when they say Jesus is Lord, it is powerful. So they overcome the enemy by the word of their mouth. And then thirdly, they do not love their soul life even unto death. They are willing to lay down their soul life for the sake of Christ. So you find that by these they overcome the enemy. You know in chapter 19 we already mentioned they were able to attend the wedding of the Lamb because they have been clothed with the wedding garment. In their individual lives, they allow the Holy Spirit to work in their lives to get rid of anything that is not of Christ and let Christ be woven into their lives. But here you find they overcome the enemy. We not only need to overcome ourselves, we also need to overcome the enemy. And they overcome the enemy by the word, by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of the testimony, and they love not their lives even unto death. So in chapter 12 we have the overcomers at the end of the age. And then when you come to chapter 15, you will find verse 15, and I, verse 1, And I saw another sign in the heavens, great and wonderful, seven angels having seven places, the last. For in them the fury of God is completed. And I saw as a glass sea mingle with fire, and these that had gained victory over the beast and over his image and over the number of his name, standing upon the glass sea, having harps of God, and they sing the song of Moses and of the Lamb, saying, Great and wonderful are thy works, Lord God almighty, righteous and true are thy ways, O King of nations. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name, for thou art holy, for all nations shall come and do homage before thee, for thy righteousness hath been made manifest. And these are the overcomers through the Great Tribulation. So thank God, even during the Great Tribulation, God gave his people another opportunity to be overcomers. And these are the overcomers that will reign with Christ for a thousand years. So dear brothers and sisters, we are living at the verge of a great change. It will be changed from the age of grace to the age of righteousness. Because Christ shall reign upon this earth for a thousand years. And those who are faithful to him, they will reign with Christ for a thousand years. So dear brothers and sisters, this is what we find, even before our eyes. You know, this would happen at any moment. Nobody knows when our Lord will come back. Only God knows. But when he shall come. To those who are prepared, they are ready. But those who are unprepared, it was unexpected. So, after the Lord has come to the air with the overcomers, we say that on the earth there will be the Great Tribulation. A tribulation that the world has never experienced before. Why? Because Satan was upon the earth. But at the end of the Great Tribulation, the Bible tells us our Lord Jesus will come back with his overcomers from the air to Mount Olive. At that time Israel, Jerusalem was surrounded. And he will come back to deliver them. When his feet touch Mount Olive, the mountain will be cleaved into two parts, leaving a way for those to flee from the city. And we know there will be the last wall, the wall of Armageddon. Armageddon is a war of Christ and his followers against Satan and the world. But of course, by the breath of the mouth of our Lord Jesus, the enemy will be destroyed. Satan will be bound and put in the butternut pit for a thousand years. And there will be the judgment of the nations as we find in Matthew 25. The nations will be gathered before him as the sheep nation or the goat nation. The sheep nations will go into the millennium as the people, as the nation on earth. But the goat nation will be destroyed. The Bible tells us during the thousand years righteousness will rule over the whole earth. But after the thousand years, Satan will be released temporarily and he will try to entice the nations again. And unfortunately you'll find some of the nations will still follow him. But then Satan will be thrown into the lake of fire and the new old heaven and old earth will pass away. And a new heaven and a new earth will come. And the tabernacle of God will descend upon this new earth. So dear brothers and sisters, when we are reviewing what the word tells us about what's going to happen, what should be our right reaction? Do we take this as hearsay, as nothing? Are we still able to go on as usual? Or will we repent and really turn our whole hearts towards the Lord and seek him and love him and serve him? So this whole thing is now before you dear brothers and sisters. You cannot say you haven't heard. You have heard. It is your decision now. What will you do towards the Lord? So may the Lord awake each and every one of us. And by his grace, we may be among those in the manger, raptured to the throne. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we do bow our heads in worship. We praise and thank thee that thy promise is true in what even though in what we may think thou hast delayed because thy church is not ready, but Lord thou hast a way to overcome and to fulfill all that thou hast promised. So dear Lord, we do offer ourselves to thee afresh and say Lord, work in our lives until we are prepared for thee and may be taken by thee. Oh Lord, it is the cry of our heart as we said in the beginning. Come, come quickly Lord Jesus.