Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Welcome to Thru the Bible. This time in our study, Dr. J. Vernon McGee concludes our examination of the four Hallelujahs in Revelation 19. Now, Dr. McGee calls these the most profound songs of praise in the entire Word of God. How's that? Well, I'm Steve Schwetz, and while I hold the doors of the Bible Bus open, why don't you go ahead and find your seat for this excellent study of Revelation 19, verses 2 to 11. And as you do, Greg and I have some great letters from the brothers and sisters sitting here alongside you on the Bible Bus in English.

Greg: Oh, we love to hear from our listening family. We often call you the home team. We know that you, those of you in the US and Canada, are listening, are praying, are supporting. It's the foundation of this worldwide ministry, and we're so grateful.

Steve Schwetz: And full disclosure, it's where most of our financial support comes from. And without your faithfulness over the decades for this ministry, we would not be able to do what we're able to do and accomplish because of your prayers. We've always said that's the first and most important thing, but then also your faithful financial support. It's just been such a blessing.

Greg: Absolutely. Let's start with our friends up north. Margeretta in Canada shares this: "I really don't know where to start. I am so excited about this teaching on the books of the Bible. Habakkuk was wonderful. As Dr. McGee puts it at the beginning, Habakkuk thought God wasn't doing anything about evil, just like today, it looks that way. Then the book of Jude focuses on warnings, telling believers to stand firm on their beliefs. These are important truths. May the Lord continue to bless the program as it goes out to those who will believe and be saved."

Steve Schwetz: Yeah. And for those of you that maybe don't read a lot of time in the minor prophets, I would encourage you to spend the time with Dr. McGee as he takes you through it. It will open those passages like you've never seen them before.

Greg: And those pages won't stick together in your Bible, as you like to say. I like that. This next one is from Gabriella. She's in the US. "I am writing to you to let you know how grateful I am that you sent me some resources in Spanish. They have helped me to understand more. For me, it's a great blessing because I am in a mental hospital. And here in reality, one does not have many privileges. I am enclosing a little money, not as payment, because I could never repay you, but without you, it would not be possible to learn. May God bless you."

Steve Schwetz: Wow. What a precious letter and what a precious gift. And you know, another thing we don't talk about this much, but Thru the Bible does not treat donors differently based on the size of the gift. We've gotten very large financial gifts and very small ones, and everybody gets the same letter, and that's the way Dr. McGee set it up because he believes only God knows the significance of that gift.

Greg: One other thing I just want to point out is most other ministries certainly of our size will have either a development person or more typically a development team, which is somebody that goes out and meets with prospective donors and does all sorts of building. And we're not saying that there's anything wrong with that. I think that's part of being stewardship. We have the microphone and the power of telling the story before the program, and that is our donor development.

Steve Schwetz: It's a big advantage. But we are grateful. And I'm grateful as president. I don't spend any time on that kind of activity. And we thank you, our listeners, and we trust you. But that gift, you just think of the widow's mite when we got that gift from Gabriella. I think we have time for one more.

Greg: Wonderful. This next one is from Collette. She emailed us: "This letter is long overdue, which is so true of so many people. They love the ministry, they never write. And if that's you, you can fix it today. No guilt, we love to hear from you. Thank you for all that you do. My husband and I are on our second trip listening to your program. I have grown in my walk with God because of your program, and we have shared you with others. Thanks for the Bible Bus passes. Way to go, Collette, when you said sharing, I was hoping you'd do that. This morning for the first time, I listened and read the passage of Zechariah via the Bluetooth capability on my hearing aid. I like being able to read the passage and hear the program at the same time. May God continue to bless you all."

Steve Schwetz: And very quickly, those Bible Bus passes are simply business card-sized cards that have a QR code that lead to a place where you can download the app. And if Collette has hearing aids and she can hand them out, you can too. Just call 1-800-65-BIBLE and we'll send you a packet of 10 for free. Greg, let me pray for us as we begin the study.

Greg: Heavenly Father, we are so thankful, so thankful for the many listeners in the US and Canada that primarily support this ministry and are the main source of the financial contributions. We're thankful, Lord, for their faithfulness, the way you have blessed their donations and for their prayer support as well. I pray that those would continue until you return for your church. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, friends, as we come to the second verse of the 19th chapter, we are in this very wonderful chapter in which we see the wedding. We're going to a wedding, by the way, the marriage of the Lamb to the church and the marriage supper. Then we're going to see the second coming of Christ to the earth.

But before we do that, we got to sing the Hallelujah Chorus. Now, we only got in one Hallelujah last time, but we're going to get in two right here now in verses 2 through 4. And I'm reading in my translation: "For true and righteous are His judgments; for He hath judged the great harlot, who formerly corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand."

And the second time they said, "Hallelujah!" and her smoke goeth up forever and ever. And the four and 20 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshipped God that sitteth on the throne, saying, "Amen! Hallelujah!" Now, we have the third Hallelujah. It's quite interesting to note here that in the midst of all these judgments now and at the conclusion of them, that those in heaven who have more perfect knowledge than you and I have, they are able to say that God's judgments are true and they're right, they're righteous judgments.

If you don't think what God is doing is right, it's because you are wrong, not God. And your thinking is incomplete, of course, as mine is. Now God is right, and He was right when He judged this great harlot. Now, that's interesting because when we read about the judgment of it, it was the kings of the earth and the Antichrist that destroyed that false apostate church that went into the great tribulation.

And yet we're told He judged it. Well, you see, God uses instruments, and He'll even use the devil to accomplish His purpose. And that's what you have here, that that church should be destroyed and it was destroyed because it was guilty of making martyrs. They had put to death a great many. On the basis of that, we find here that the 24 elders are mentioned.

This is the church now. This is before the wedding, remember? And this is the picture of the church in heaven. And the church in heaven is singing Hallelujah. Why? They did it twice here. They're singing a Hallelujah Chorus. As long as the impostor of the true church, that great harlot, is on the earth, the marriage of the Lamb will not take place in heaven.

And the anti-church is disposed of first, and that makes way for the marriage of the Lamb. And I think that the marriage of the Lamb takes place in heaven about the middle of the tribulation that's happening on earth, you see. And we find here her destruction avenges the blood of all the martyrs. You see, believers are forbidden to avenge themselves, although some of us try to take it in our own hands.

But the minute that we do, we forsake the walk of faith because He has said to us in Romans 12:19, "Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." God will take care of that department for you. If you've been injured, and many of us have, we want to hit back. That's natural. That's the old natural man.

But the interesting thing is that we turn that department over to God. He doesn't intend to let anyone get by with it. Vengeance is His, and here He brings judgment on this apostate system. Now the 24 elders for the first time here, you see, they sing Hallelujah. And this is going to be the last time the elders will appear because next time we see the church, she's no longer represented. She's there as the bride of Christ. She's to be joined to Him. We'll see that. I hope we get to it today.

Now verses 5 and 6, we'll sing our last Hallelujah. And I'm reading from my translation: "And a voice came forth from the throne saying, 'Give praise to our God, all ye His servants, ye that fear Him, the small and the great.' And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as it were the voice of many waters, and as it were the voice of mighty thunders saying, 'Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth.'" And when He reigns, it'll be time to sing Hallelujah.

Now, the call comes directly from the throne to praise God because the Lord Jesus Christ is preparing to take control of the world. And this is truly the Hallelujah Chorus. And I think this is the most profound paean of praise so far that we've had in the entire Word of God. It takes you all the way back to that covenant God made with David. I'm going to raise one upon your throne that'll rule the world. And until He comes, there'll be wars and rumors of wars and there'll be sin on earth.

But when He comes, He's going to judge. Now He's going to come. But before He comes, there's going to be a wedding. Let's go to that. We'll be part of it, by the way. Verses 7 and 8. Now we have the bride of the Lamb and the marriage supper. Will you notice this carefully: "Let us rejoice and be exceed-glad, and let us give the glory unto Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints."

Now, I think this is the most thrilling experience that the church will ever have and that believers will have. The church, the body of believers all the way from Pentecost to the Parousia, is presented now as a bride to Christ in marriage. And the marriage takes place in heaven. And this is a heavenly scene, too, by the way. And that's the reason that Paul emphasized down here that the marriage of believers.

And by the way, when Paul is talking in the fifth chapter of Ephesians about the husband and the wife and all the relationship, he's talking about those that are filled with the Spirit. In other words, he says, "Be filled with the Spirit," and these are the things that will flow from that. And you couldn't have a Christian home without a Spirit-filled husband and a Spirit-filled wife.

And frankly, I just don't believe that you can have a real Christian home and know what real love is until both of you are believers. Now, will you listen to this? Ephesians 5:25-27: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish."

Now that's the picture of the relationship of Christ and the church. Now we're living in the day of new morality, and I'll sound like a square, but I'm not going around in circles, I'll tell you that. Did you know that today we've had an avalanche of sex? And this generation knows a great deal about sex. I watched a young couple down at Palm Springs, and I felt so sorry for this boy and this girl, necking like nobody's business right in public.

And I thought, "What does that little girl and that little boy really know about love and what it really means for a man to love a woman and a woman to love a man?" I'm afraid that a great many Christians don't know about that today. And many of you, especially you husbands, you remember the first time that you looked at your wife and she was yours? You'd been joined in marriage and she's now yours.

Wasn't that a thrilling moment for you? And you remember, wife, when you looked up at that old ugly boy that you married and you thought he was so wonderful and he put his arms around you? Wasn't that a thrilling moment for you? Well, may I say here you have a picture of that day when Christ is going to draw us to Himself, cleansed and purified. And young lady and young man, that's the reason in this day of new morality that you should bring purity to the marriage altar.

Now, here is a marvelous picture of the church and of Christ be joined together in that day. And it's just the church. You remember John the Baptist? He designated himself as a friend of the bridegroom. He says, "The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. I'm just a friend." And the bride occupies a unique position to Christ. You see, He loved the church, He gave Himself for it.

And you remember what He said in that great high priestly prayer in John 17:23-26. Let me read this: "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." That is something that is so wonderful here to know Him. We're going to know Him actually for the first time.

But let's look at something else. We're told here the wedding gown of the church is the righteous acts of the saint. Now this is a difficult concept to accept, for it's impossible, you see, for us to stand before Christ in our own righteousness. Paul wrote, "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." That's in Philippians 3:9.

You see, by faith we can trust Christ, not only for forgiveness of sins but for the impartation to us of His righteousness. Then why does John say that the wedding garment is the righteous acts of the saint? Well, you see, a wedding gown is used but once. We will be clothed with the righteousness of Christ throughout eternity. We as believers will appear before the judgment seat of Christ, not to be judged about our sins in reference to salvation, but for rewards.

Now through the ages, believers have been performing righteous acts which are accumulated to adorn the wedding gown. By the way, I don't mean to be personal, but what are you doing to adorn that wedding gown? What are you doing for the Lord today? Paul said again in 1 Corinthians 3:12: "Now if any man build upon this foundation, that is of Christ, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man's work shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.

Now if any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward." You see, gold, silver, and precious stones will survive the fire; wood, hay, and stubble go up in smoke. Now the good works, therefore, are the wedding garment of the church, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10.

Now after the wedding, the wedding dress is laid aside. And we've already seen that the elders place their crowns at the feet of the Lamb, proclaiming that He alone is worthy. You see, the church will reveal His glory, not their glory. We're told again in Ephesians 2:7, "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."

We'll be on display, sinners saved from hell, if you please, in heaven now. And we'd have no right there if we didn't have His right and if we didn't belong to Him. You see, the relationship of Christ and the church, it's intimate, it's different, it's delightful. No other creature in God's universe will enjoy such sweetness as we will someday.

Now verses 9 and 10 and I'm reading: "And he saith unto me, 'Write, Blessed are they that are bidden,' invited, 'to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he saith unto me, 'These are the true words of God.' And I fell down before his feet to worship him, and he saith unto me, 'See thou do it not; I am a fellow servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God; for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'"

Now the marriage of the Lamb, will you hear me carefully now? The marriage of the Lamb takes place in heaven, but the marriage supper takes place on earth. And the picture is in Matthew 25:1-13, the parable of the ten virgins. You see, they were not the bride. He has only one bride, that's the church. And these ten virgins were waiting after the marriage. You see, the Bridegroom returns to the earth for the marriage supper.

Not only to judge the earth, but for the marriage supper. And the ten virgins were expecting to attend. And that's another picture of this scene back in Psalm 45. You see, Christ is seen coming as King, and the Queen is there. Well, you're not told who she is, but we're told, "King's daughters were among thy honorable women; upon thy right hand did stand the queen in the gold of Ophir."

I think that's a picture, a symbol, a type of the church. And guests are present. The daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift, even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor. You see, the marriage supper is here on this earth. Now, both Israel and Gentiles who enter the millennium are the invited guests. And the marriage supper is evidently the millennium. And you talk about a long supper, that's going to be a long one.

At the end of the millennium, the church is still seen as the bride. Imagine a honeymoon that lasts a thousand years. And friends, that's only the beginning. Oh, what joy, what ecstasy! The angel puts God's seal on this scene. "These things are the true words of God." And then after acting as a scribe for this scene, John feels compelled to worship the angelic messenger.

However, he's restrained from doing so. The angel is but a creature. Only God is to be worshipped. What a rebuke to Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet who wanted to be worshipped. And a lot of folk like that today. Now we come to the return of Christ to the earth. Friends, the King is coming. But not until we get to this place here.

He's going to take His church out. There'll be the great tribulation period. The marriage of the church to Christ, the church now is the bride, you see, no longer called the church, the bride of Christ. And the bride will come to the earth with the King, and they'll have a marriage supper down here upon the earth. And that, I think, is going to be the millennium.

What a supper, what a honeymoon, what a glorious day is ahead of us, if we could just only get our eyes from off the muck and mire of this earth in which we live and get it on things eternal. We have here the return of Christ now as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. What a thrilling scene this is. I'm going to read now verses 11 and 12: "And I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse; and He that sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness doth He judge and make war.

Now His eyes a flame of fire, upon His head many diadems, having a name written which none knew but Himself." May I say when I even just read this passage of scripture, it makes goose pimples come out all over me. What a thrilling scene this is. The King is coming, but He's coming at this time after these events that we've been looking at have transpired. This is the great climactic event toward which all things in this world are moving today. And the contrast to His first coming, it is remarkable. Oh, what a contrast!

Well, we're going to have to wait until next time. But we're going to see it then, if He hasn't come in the meantime for His church. Hope He does, but I don't know that. Until next time, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: What a great study. And you know there's more to come as we hear about Jesus who comes riding on a white horse to rule and reign. In the meantime, you can read ahead yourself in Revelation 19 and 20 to get the most out of our study. And for resources to help, get our app or visit ttb.org or just call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll save you a seat on the Bible Bus.

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