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Series Code: ICJ
Program Code: ICJ190022A
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00:01 Don't mess with a man's bride.
00:02 You might just make him mad. 00:05 Really mad. 00:30 When Babylon is overthrown, this wretched thing that is 00:34 going to bring so much sorrow and tragedy to the world, 00:38 there's a lot of rejoicing going on in heaven. 00:41 We find that opens to us in Revelation 19. 00:45 And it says, "After these things," 00:47 John sees this scene in heaven, he says, "I heard a loud voice 00:51 of a great multitude in heaven, saying, 'Alleluia!'" 00:55 So there's a lot of happy people there, 00:57 that Babylon has been overthrown. 00:59 We'll hear that. 01:00 It says, "Salvation..." They're singing in heaven now. 01:03 "Salvation and glory and honor and power 01:09 belong to the Lord our God!" 01:11 Salvation and honor and power. 01:13 It's going to be a wonderful thing someday to hear those 01:15 heavenly choirs sing. 01:18 We can only get the words here, we can't get the music. 01:21 But it's going to be a marvelous thing to see that and hear it. 01:24 And then it goes on, they're continuing to sing, 01:28 "For true and righteous are His judgments..." 01:32 God is righteous and God is true. 01:36 And then it goes on to say, 01:37 "...because He has judged the great harlot," 01:40 that's Babylon, "He has judged the great harlot 01:43 who corrupted the earth..." 01:46 In other words, that is just a quick sentence, 01:48 but I'm telling you, Babylon does a lot of damage. 01:52 Huge amounts of damage, and sorrow, and misery. 01:56 Think of the people that will be lost in the end of time. 01:59 That's a terrible thing for somebody to be lost. 02:03 We just kind of take sometimes that for granted. 02:06 Listen, to be lost is the most awful of awful things. 02:11 And think of how many people are influenced 02:13 to be lost by Babylon. 02:15 It says, "...who corrupted the earth with her fornication; 02:20 He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her." 02:26 So the martyrs who have been shed, now vengeance has come 02:31 through those seven last plagues. 02:32 And we've talked about the epic failure of Babylon. 02:37 God brings her down. 02:38 Verse 2, "For true and righteous are His judgments..." 02:42 It says it again. 02:43 Several times the Bible says, even before the 02:45 seven last plagues, "Just and true are Thy ways, 02:49 Thou King of saints." 02:50 Here, the singing in heaven says that, "Just and true 02:54 are Your ways." 02:55 They're affirming the fact, they've seen the whole thing, 02:58 and they're saying, "God is just and good in His justice." 03:02 Is justice a good thing? 03:04 Justice is a good thing. 03:06 You don't want to live in a sinful world 03:09 without good judges, otherwise chaos. 03:13 We live in a universe right now where sin has entered. 03:17 And there is going to be judgment and justice, 03:20 and all of these things. 03:21 Let's go back to the Scripture. 03:24 "...the great harlot who corrupted the earth 03:26 with her fornication; He has avenged on her 03:28 the blood of His servants shed by her. 03:30 Again they said, 'Alleluia! 03:33 Her smoke rises up forever and ever!'" 03:35 We'll talk about that smoke in one of our 03:39 future times together. 03:42 "And again they said, 'Alleluia!'" 03:45 "And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures 03:48 fell and worshiped God who sat on the throne, 03:51 saying, 'Amen!'" So be it. "Alleluia! 03:57 Then a voice from the throne came, saying, 04:01 'Praise our God, all you His servants 04:04 and those who fear Him, both small and great!'" 04:08 Now this is being done in heaven. 04:10 "And I heard, as it were," John says, 04:13 "the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters..." 04:20 I can hardly imagine what that means. 04:22 "...voice of a great multitude, the sound of many waters, 04:25 and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, 'Alleluia! 04:33 For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!'" 04:36 In other words, God is taking things into His own hands 04:40 with these seven last plagues, and He's overthrown Babylon. 04:43 In that seventh trumpet they praise God because 04:47 He's taken his power and He reigns, He rules, as it were. 04:54 Verse 7, "Let us be glad and rejoice..." 04:59 Now here's something else they're really 05:01 happy about in heaven. 05:02 They're seeing this great controversy 05:04 finally come to a close. 05:06 They're seeing human suffering finally getting ready 05:08 for its last front to the God of heaven. 05:12 They're seeing this great controversy 05:14 begin to wind down, as it were. 05:17 And they're happy. 05:18 They're happy to see it coming to an end. 05:20 It will be a wonderful day when evil is overthrown 05:25 and good and love, unselfish love, reigns in the earth. 05:30 That's going to be a wonderful day. 05:32 And then they go on, because they're still very happy. 05:35 "And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, 05:38 and of mighty waters..." 05:40 I'm sorry, let me go back down to verse 7. 05:42 "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory 05:45 for the marriage of the Lamb has come, 05:49 and His wife has made herself ready." 05:54 Now we've talked about this, "making herself ready." 05:57 I'm not going to get into a lot of that today. 05:59 But there's something that the bride has to do, 06:02 that the church has to do. 06:03 It has to get ready for Jesus to come. 06:06 And it almost sounds like that they're saying, 06:10 "Finally, finally, she's ready." 06:15 And they are so happy because the King doesn't come 06:18 to get His bride, the Lord Jesus... 06:21 This is in symbols, of course. 06:22 ...He doesn't come to get His church... 06:24 That's not a symbol. 06:26 ...until she's ready. 06:29 But you've got to remember that this bride, 06:32 this bride has been under a lot of duress. 06:36 The great red dragon has chased her, 06:39 the remnant has gone through the mark of the beast, 06:42 they've dealt with Babylon. 06:44 They're haggard almost. 06:46 But there's something that she does to get ready. 06:48 It's not talking about an outer garment. 06:50 It's talking about the beauty of her character. 06:53 And through all of this she demonstrates to the world, 06:57 the church demonstrates to the world, 06:59 the wonder and the unselfish love of the Lord Jesus. 07:04 And the world gets a glimpse. 07:05 And I think that's why so many people 07:08 in the end of time are converted. 07:10 Certainly not the majority. 07:12 Certainly a very, perhaps a small minority. 07:15 But there's seven plus billion people in this world. 07:19 And to think about the fact that even 10%, 07:23 as I've mentioned before. 07:24 But that's because the bride reflects the character, 07:29 the church reflects the character, 07:31 and she shines it out to the world 07:33 in this whole final end process. 07:36 And she makes herself ready, 07:39 by the power and the grace of the Lord Jesus, of course. 07:42 That's what it's saying here. 07:44 "And it was granted to her to be arrayed in fine linen..." 07:47 Granted to her. 07:48 This robe of righteousness is given to her. 07:51 "...clean and bright, for the fine linen 07:54 is the righteous acts of the saints." 07:57 So the saints in the end of time are going to show the universe, 08:00 they're going to show this world, 08:02 every nation, kindred, tongue, and people 08:04 are going to see operating in their midst 08:07 the church of the living God. 08:09 And they're going to see the reflection 08:11 of the power and the love of Christ in those people. 08:16 So do you think Jesus wants to come back and get her? 08:18 Don't you think He's anxious to have His church? 08:21 Just like a man looks forward to his wedding day. 08:23 He's anxious for that wedding day. 08:26 He's anxious to have that woman to be his wife. 08:30 And it's such a happy time, it's such a wonderful time. 08:34 But if you want to make that man mad, 08:37 I mean really mad, 08:40 maybe worse than mad, 08:43 mess with his bride. 08:45 Well the Lord Jesus has been very patient. 08:48 He's put up with it long enough. 08:50 And He's going to put an end to Satan messing with the church 08:55 of the living God. 08:56 He's going to put an end to it. 08:58 And that brings us to this picture of the 1000 years. 09:02 Because really, Revelation 19 09:05 sets the stage for Revelation 20. 09:08 And so when you go down to Revelation 19, 09:12 we want to look, we want to continue here, 09:14 and let's look, if you don't mind, at chapter 19:6-9. 09:19 And this is what Jesus said. 09:21 "Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory..." 09:25 Glory; Jesus gets the glory because 09:29 the wife, or the church, has made herself ready. 09:33 Now down in verse 11, it pictures Jesus 09:37 as a mighty warrior. 09:39 He comes as a mighty warrior. 09:40 Again, we don't talk about Jesus being this way. 09:43 But He comes as a mighty warrior to get His bride, 09:46 to get the church. 09:48 The church He gave His life for. 09:50 The church that He's worked tirelessly during the last 09:54 2000 years to save her and protect her. 09:58 The church that the devil told Him that He couldn't, 10:01 He wouldn't have a church to deliver. 10:03 But He's brought the church through the antichrist. 10:06 He's brought it through the cold icy fingers of delay. 10:10 He's brought His church through the terrible chaos. 10:13 Brought her through Babylon. 10:15 He's brought her through the mark of the beast. 10:17 He's brought her through all of these things. 10:20 He's brought her through. 10:22 And He's coming to get her. 10:24 And He's mad at the people that have tried to hurt her. 10:29 He's mad. 10:30 And I mean mad in a good way. 10:33 If that is such a thing. 10:34 But not mad that's off the rails in that sense, 10:37 but mad with justice. 10:40 A judicial anger. 10:43 The wrath of God is justice. 10:46 And Jesus is coming with justice. 10:49 And he goes on to say that, 10:50 "His eyes were like a flame of fire..." 10:54 Now you've got that picture in the book of 10:55 Revelation chapter 1, but there Jesus 10:58 is our Priest, but now He's come back as a warrior. 11:00 His eyes are still like a flame of fire. 11:03 "...and on His head were many crowns. 11:07 For He had a name written that no one knew but Himself. 11:10 He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood..." 11:14 Now this is not the blood of the cross, per se. 11:18 This is the blood, I believe, that's going to be a symbolic 11:22 picture of the death of the wicked. 11:24 You can find reference to that in the Old Testament. 11:27 But let me go ahead here. 11:30 "His name written that no one knew but Himself. 11:32 Clothed with a robe dipped in blood, 11:33 and His name was called, The Word of God." 11:37 The apostle John in John chapter 1 calls Jesus, 11:41 "The Word who was with God and who was God." 11:46 "The armies of heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, 11:51 followed Him on white horses." 11:53 Now that the bride has got herself ready, 11:57 she can join them. 11:58 Because her character is white and clean. 12:02 And her character matches the character of the heavenly hosts. 12:07 So they are happy to get her too. 12:10 They're thrilled to come to get the church of Jesus. 12:14 So now it comes and it says, he goes on, 12:17 "Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, 12:20 that with it He should strike the nations. 12:23 He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. 12:26 He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness 12:29 of the wrath of God. 12:31 And on His robe and on His thigh is a name written: 12:35 KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS." 12:40 Now the question is, how many of those who oppose Jesus 12:45 survive this battle? 12:47 This is another picture of the coming of Jesus. 12:49 Well, let's just let the Bible answer that. 12:51 Revelation 19:17-18 12:54 "Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; 12:57 and he cried with a loud voice to all the birds that fly 13:01 in the midst of heaven, saying, 'Come, gather 13:04 to the supper of the great God, that you may eat the 13:06 flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, 13:09 and the flesh of all people..." 13:13 So those who oppose Jesus, the people of the earth 13:18 who are angry at Jesus, how many of them survive? 13:23 And the answer to that is, none. 13:27 Those who oppose Jesus who are living on the earth, 13:31 they do not survive the coming of Jesus 13:36 as King of kings and Lord of lords. |
Revised 2019-11-06