Simple Faith

Bill Henry: Living a life that reflects our relationship with God should be our goal every day. Here is Pastor Bill Henry.

We are to be seeking to live in Jesus Christ. Remember, beloved in Christ, we will all fail at this. Amen? But this does not mean we don't try. It doesn't mean we don't make that our aim. If you make nothing your aim, guess what? You're going to hit nothing.

As we make it our aim in the Lord, as we die unto ourselves, the Lord is going to continue to conform us into the image of his son, Jesus Christ. As we work out our salvation with fear and trembling, God is working in and through us for his good pleasure all at the same time.

Guest (Male): Someone once said that all marriages are happy. It's the living together afterwards that causes all the trouble. Welcome to Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel. That little saying is amusing and, in some cases, I guess it's accurate, but not when it comes to the marriage we're going to be looking at today.

We're in Revelation 19 as we go chapter by chapter through the last book in the Bible. Today, Pastor Bill will bring us a message concerning the marriage supper of the Lamb. The bridegroom is the Lord Jesus Christ and the bride is his church. That's you and me. This relationship and all of its ramifications is what we'll learn about today. Here is our teacher, Pastor Bill Henry. Again, we're in Revelation chapter 19.

Bill Henry: And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thundering saying, "Alleluia, for the Lord God omnipotent reigns. 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." And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Then he said to me, "Write: 'Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" And he said to me, "These are the true sayings of God." And I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, "See that you do not do that. I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

You'll remember that back in verses one through five here in chapter 19 that heaven was rejoicing because Babylon—the financial system, the city—has been destroyed. The Lord has destroyed it within an hour. It was a city that apparently all commerce went through, probably the city that helped enforce the mark of the beast for those who couldn't buy or sell without having this. All the wickedness, the adultery, and the different fornication is gone, wiped out by the Lord, and heaven's rejoicing.

Now we see here in verse six that the praises are rising even more so, but they're transitioning into more worship of celebration for the Lord God omnipotent, for he reigns. They're now celebrating the wedding feast of the Lamb. There's a huge crowd in heaven and the voice that said earlier of a great multitude.

In verse seven it starts, it says, "Let us be glad and rejoice." I love how the Amplified says it. It says, "Let us rejoice and shout for joy, exulting and triumph. Let us celebrate." This is a scene of mighty rejoicing. It's an interesting thing here in the United States. We can get really excited at certain events and other events we are so tame. You go to a football game, you go to a basketball game, you go even to concerts and people are yelling and screaming. They'll rip open their shirt and have a big letter and cheer.

But then we come to church and it's like well, prim and proper and don't raise your hands even or this and that. Well, this is a celebration. I think the closest thing is when we see the Jewish people when they celebrate and they're dancing around and just going crazy. This is a celebration. It's okay to step outside of yourselves and that's what they're doing. They're just celebrating, they're rejoicing, they're being glad.

Looking at verse seven, it says, "And give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come." This is a time now of rejoicing, all those in heaven worshipping God, being glad and rejoicing for the marriage of the Lamb has come. It's interesting as we look throughout the Old Testament—one example would be the book of Hosea—that the Lord often uses marriage to describe his relationship to his people.

In Hosea, he is speaking about Israel and how they've been committing adultery with those false gods around them. Yet in the New Testament, we see an even deeper meaning to this: the marriage to God, to Jesus. The church is now described as the bride of Jesus Christ. There is a transition; it goes deeper. I love how Paul describes those the Lord used him to bring to faith in Jesus.

In Second Corinthians chapter 11, verses one and two, he said this: "I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me, for I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband, Christ." Isn't that a beautiful picture? That's you and I to the Lord.

In Ephesians chapter five, let's turn in our Bibles please to Ephesians chapter five. We're going to be starting in verse 25. We're reading about marriage between a man and a woman, but that it actually represents our marriage, his church, the bride, to Christ. That's why marriage today is such an important thing. When people say, "Oh, you Christians are too whatever about marriage, it doesn't matter," it does matter.

When God instituted marriage way back in the Garden of Eden, it mattered because it represents something so much deeper than ourselves. Look here in Ephesians chapter five, verse 25. It says, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word."

Paul's transitioned from talking about husbands loving their wives and giving the example that Christ loved the church and gave himself for her that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water of the word. Verse 27: "That he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she should be holy and without blemish."

Husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his holy body, of his flesh and of his bone. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

We see that this is you and I. We are the bride of Jesus Christ and heaven is celebrating as the time has come. It has been celebrating for the last seven years during the great tribulation there in heaven, celebrating as the bride is now with her groom. In verse seven as it continues, notice it says, "And his wife has made herself ready."

You will remember last week when we spoke about the Galilean wedding. If you missed that, you might want to go back and re-watch that. As we learned there, in the Galilean wedding the bride and groom, once they became betrothed, are at this point legally wed, though they will not live together and consummate their marriage for roughly a year until the groom goes and prepares the room that he will build as an addition to his father's house.

Then he will come for his bride. But as the groom is doing this, the bride is preparing as well and her responsibility is twofold. Number one, to keep herself pure just as we read back in Ephesians where it says that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having a spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she should be holy and without blemish.

The bride is to keep herself pure first and secondly, to gather fine linen that is clean and bright to sew together her wedding dress for the wedding feast. That's the example that we have here. And so too, beloved in Christ, we as Christians, we as the bride of Christ are to be making ourselves ready.

In Ephesians chapter one, verse four, it says, "Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love." This is how we're to be walking as Christians, preparing ourselves for the return of our Lord and Savior. This isn't something new; it is not just in the last days that we're to do this.

We are to be doing this continually because we don't know exactly the day or the hour when our Lord will return for us, when our groom will come for his church. So we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Ephesians 5:27, as we just read, says that we should be holy and without blemish.

First Peter 1:13-16: "Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who has called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, 'Be holy for I am holy.'"

This is how we're to be seeking to live in Jesus Christ. Remember, beloved in Christ, we will all fail at this. Amen? But this doesn't mean we don't try. It doesn't mean we don't make that our aim. If you make nothing your aim, guess what? You're going to hit nothing. But as we make it our aim in the Lord, as we die unto ourselves, the Lord is going to continue to conform us into the image of his son, Jesus Christ.

As we work out our salvation with fear and trembling and God is working in and through us for his good pleasure all at the same time, remember when we do fail—and we will fail every day—we read in First John chapter one, verse nine. It says, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Even going back to that picture of the bride: cleansing us, preparing us. So too, beloved in Christ, we are to always be ready. Notice again, the bride here is making herself ready. We as Christians are to be making ourselves ready. We first keep ourselves pure and then we have work to do as we prepare ourselves for the Lord.

Maybe even some here this morning, you hear this and think, "What do you mean prepare ourselves, is that a works-based gospel?" No, it's called the gospel. It's called the word of God. You see, this goes against the lazy-minded, grace-laced, false gospel of today. Jude warns about it and in other places we have this warning that the gospel says, "Well, once I'm saved, I have nothing to do for Jesus for the rest of my life. I'm on the gravy train now. I just sit back and relax."

God's going to do everything and I'm just going to sit back. There's nothing for me to do until the end. I'm under grace after all. Now while this may be partially true, it is still just partial truth. Far too many Christians today profess to be Christians but also believe falsely that Christianity is a spectator sport.

We can sit back and we look at the pastors and ministers, those on staff and say, "Go pastor, go. Go Pastor Jay, go. Go, go, go." And the ladies come in and cheer and everyone go rah-rah-rah. We sit back and say, "You go do the ministry, you go do the work." Christianity, beloved in Christ, is not a spectator sport.

You cannot go into a war zone and expect, "Well, I'm just going to sit on the side, I'm not going to get involved here." You see, when you are born again into the kingdom of God, when you are then betrothed to Christ—remember betrothal in the Galilean wedding—you are married to Christ. Guess what? You're born into a battle.

You and I are born into a battle; we're born into a race. We have to understand that there are no spectators. We're not spectators, but we are to be those who are walking after the Spirit of God. The true Christian is aware of this scripture that we're reading and other scriptures, so they go about their lives the best they can doing what we read here, making themselves ready.

Making themselves ready for the return of Jesus. My goal every day is to be more and more dying to myself, denying myself, picking up my cross and following after Jesus, being conformed into his beautiful image. Making ourselves ready. Notice something here. They don't go about themselves to make him his bride again by doing these works.

They don't go about doing these works to stay married to the groom by doing these things. No. Those who know that they are the bride of Christ love their groom. They love Jesus. They want to now make themselves ready for his return. Remember, putting the wedding gown together doesn't marry the bride.

In other words, they're already married in the betrothal. They are married. They are not doing these things to try to get married or to get saved. They're not doing these things to keep their salvation or to keep being married. No, the wedding dress is simply to bless the groom, to look beautiful for when he comes.

So too are the righteous biblical works that we do for our groom, Jesus, just to bless him, just to love on him, just to declare our personal love for Jesus Christ. Our works of righteousness do not save us, just like a wedding dress does not make the bride. No, our works of righteousness now that we're saved by grace, they are just ever and only to adorn ourselves in the splendor of our King and his righteousness, because they're his righteous works.

It is just simply to bring a smile to his face, to bless him, and to love him. I always have to say this: we are not saved by works, we're not kept by works. But once we are saved and kept by grace, the one who loves Jesus will want to then love on Jesus through these biblical works of righteousness.

We will seek to do these works of righteousness to please him alone. We may not be doing these works of righteousness simply for our rewards, though he promises them, but may our hearts just be simply to love on him who first loved us, to clothe ourselves, to prepare ourselves in beauty for our King, our Savior, our Sovereign Lord, and our bridegroom. Can I have an amen? Amen.

Now how did they do this? Look at verse eight. It says, "And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright." Does this literally mean a real dress? No, look what it says: "For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." What? "Wait a minute, what do you mean I have to do something as a Christian? I'm under grace. I don't have to do anything."

At least you are partially correct. We don't have to do anything, but we get to do everything. We don't have to do anything to love on Jesus, oh, but we're so blessed because we get to do everything to love on him. For the bride who is helplessly in love with Jesus, doing these acts of righteousness are simply ways to prepare ourselves for our groom.

Religiosity is so silly in a way. When we come to church and we try to look good for everybody else, or when we try to do it for our family or other people, nobody's being fooled. Well, maybe we can fool some people, but Jesus isn't being fooled. He's not your groom if you're just all religiosity and you haven't been born again of the Spirit of God; you haven't entered into that relationship.

Oh, but for the bride, the one who is helplessly in love with Jesus, doing these acts of righteousness as we find in his word are simply ways to prepare ourselves in love for our groom. The one who truly loves Jesus will be taking time here while we're on the earth to be preparing for him. I guess this morning, maybe we should change our mindsets about when we look to walk in loving obedience to the Lord through his word.

Instead of like, "Okay, I have to do this and I have to do this," it's "No, I get to do this. Lord, now because I have your Holy Spirit living within me, I can love on you in this manner. And I do love you." Purposefully going out of our way to do acts of righteousness, by the way, will not save us. Purposefully going out of our way to do acts of righteousness will not keep us saved.

The only force behind doing these acts of righteousness is to bless Jesus, our love and our bridegroom. Can I ask you this morning: do you love Jesus like this? Do you love him? Are you waiting for his return? Are you dreading it? "Oh man, I hope he doesn't come too quickly. I want to see the grandkids grow up."

Hey, I love my grandbabies. We've got one due any day and a second one, and I'm telling you what, let's all go to heaven together. That's my view. I want to see my Jesus and there are some people in heaven that I miss dearly, some people very close to me that I've lost over the years. I can't wait to see them, but they're way second on my list of people to see. I want to see my bridegroom. I want to see my Jesus, him who died for me. He loved me so much and he who never leaves me nor forsakes me.

The driving force behind our doing these acts of righteousness is to bless our Jesus, to love on him. I love the biblical fact though that apart from him, our righteousness is filthy rags. Apart from the Lord, our righteousness is filthy rags. We could do nothing to please him, to bless him, to make ourselves lovely to him before we've been born again of the Spirit of God.

In other words, we can't do all these acts of righteousness. "Well, you know, I know I've done all these bad things and now if I do these good things, it'll make me look better to the Lord." Imagine a pig who comes out of the slop in the mud. Just throw some lipstick on it and put a wedding dress on there. Those are the righteous deeds that we think of as righteousness and how silly we would look.

No, we need to be born again of the Spirit of God and then our righteousness is now made complete in Jesus Christ, because he is our righteousness. In Romans 5:19, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience many will be made righteous."

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today.

If you'd like to share today's message with someone, it's available at our website to either watch or listen, and you can actually download an audio MP3. We have a large number of Pastor Bill's messages archived and you can find them all at simplefaith.org. That's simplefaith.org. Just click the media tab.

If you'd like to contact us, just click the "Contact Us" tab at our website. There's a tab at the top of the homepage where you can also send in a prayer request. You can also call us. The phone number is 833-BY-GRACE. That's 833-294-7223. And if you'd prefer the US mail, our mailing address is Post Office Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington 98604.

This month when you support Simple Faith with a donation of any amount, we have a resource we're very excited to send you. It's a wonderful 365-day devotional book by Anne Graham Lotz titled *The Joy of My Heart*. In this collection of daily devotions, Anne Graham Lotz brings some of her most thought-provoking meditations from six of her best-selling books into concise and captivating readings for each day of the year.

It's going to help you rediscover that his word is definitely the joy of my heart. It's yours for a donation of any amount this month. To donate, go to simplefaith.org and click the "Give" tab. Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, we have two services every Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:45, and a great time of studying God's word Wednesday nights at 7:00 PM.

For more information and directions, go to simplefaith.org, and you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Well, thank you so much for joining us today and be sure to join us next time as our series in Revelation continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel.